Published continually since 1998, "NEWS YOU CAN USE" was a Blog before  "Blog" was  even a word! Its intention has been to help inform the football coach and the interested football observer on a wide variety of topics, usually - but not always - related in some way to coaching or leadership.  It contains news and views often (trigger alert!) highly opinionated but intended to be  thought-provoking.  Subjects cover but aren't limited to coaching, leadership, character, football history and current football happenings, education, parenting, citizenship and patriotism, other sports, and even, sometimes, my offense.

FRIDAY,  DECEMBER  20,  2024    "I think this man (Obama)  really does believe he can change the world, and people like that are infinitely more dangerous than mere crooked politicians.” Thomas Sowell

NOW, MORE THAN EVER - PRAY FOR OUR COUNTRY

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Goverments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

NEXT  ZOOM CLINIC - NUMBER  167 -   TUESDAY,  DECEMBER 24,    2024  at 5 PM PACIFIC TIME,  8 PM EASTERN

TO GET ON THE INVITE LIST: coachhw@mac.com 


ONE MONTH UNTIL THE INAUGURATION!


*********** Wisdom from Mike Lude: “In that first season we ran the Michigan Single Wing offense, but our tailbacks were constantly getting hurt, including a serious shoulder injury to our star, Harold Marden.   We finally decided to convert to the T-formation, with the quarterback taking a direct snap from the center on every play. We hoped this would prevent further injury to Marden, who later became an executive with one of the world’s largest chemical firms.

“Before the 1950 season Nelson sent Westerman, our backfield coach, to Notre Dame to pick the brain of Frank Leahy, the noted coach of the fighting Irish and a T-formation master.   Dave had conferred earlier with Rip Engle, then at Brown University, another pioneer in that offense.

“Then Dave did his own innovating, working his red and blue pencils to stubs; those modifications produced the Winged-T. Our offense would feature a balanced line (equal number of players on each side of the center in the offensive line) with a wingback in the backfield. We tried to keep the blocking principles of the Single Wing. Simply, instead of just shoving a defending player away as most blocking is practiced now, our goal was to have the blocker stay welded to his opponent and sustain that move.

“At 2 AM the night before the players were scheduled to report for the start of two-a-day practices we still hadn't made a final decision to make the change. Finally, Nelson said, "Let's not lose our guts; let's go with it. Let's go home and get a few hours sleep, and come back here and get ready to coach it tomorrow.”  And we did.

“That was the beginning of the famous Winged-T  offense. We used it successfully that season at the University of Maine. But the formation’s popularity didn't take off until Nelson, accompanied by me as his line coach, moved to the University of Delaware the following season (1951).”


***********   Mike Lude’s  been gone since March, and there’s still scarcely a day that goes by that I don’t think about him - so many things go on in the world of college football that remind me of him and  what he might be  saying about them.

Most of what he’d have to say, I can assure you, would be negative -  and this,  from the most positive person I’ve ever known. 

Just imagine devoting your life to the game - first as a  coach (Hillsdale, Maine, Delaware,, Colorado State), but then especially as an administrator (Kent State, Washington, Auburn), working for the common good and, above all, for order, and then seeing the  state of disorder that it’s in..  He saw the Pac-8 grow  to ten teams (he was opposed) and then to 12 teams, and then, finally, disintegrate.

i dearly miss talking with him - he’d have loved to listen to me tell about this past season at Aberdeen, and he would have been delighted at the outcome of our recent election - but I know how much it would hurt him to see  what’s happened to the college football  he worked so hard to help build.


***********   INDIANA AT NOTRE DAME (FRIDAY NIGHT) - Go Hoosiers.  Go Irish.  I don’t have a serious rooting interest here.  Part of me wants to see the underdog Hoosiers move on, part of me wants to see Notre Dame become Notre Dame again.  That latter part of me somehow has been able to forget  the Irish neighborhood I grew up in, and how obnoxious the so-called subway alumni were when Notre Dame was a national power. I think that Notre Dame has the better  chance in the next round, but on the other hand, with a big win finally in hand the Hoosiers could be tough.

SMU AT PENN STATE - The team that  was given the death penalty against the team that the NCAA wanted to give the death penalty to.   For a long time, I LOVED the Nittany Lions. Loved Joe Paterno.  But then  they told us that Joe Paterno was a bad guy. Tried to erase their history because he was a bad guy. Fired him because he was a bad guy.  Pulled down his statue because he was a bad guy. Ever since then I’ve had a hard time rooting for Penn State because I didn’t believe he was a bad guy - still don’t - and I don’t like the kind of people who think that by pulling down statues they can change history.  So I wouldn’t mind seeing SMU  win.  But regardless of my prejudices, I think that if Penn State can play the way they did against Oregon in the Big Ten title game, the Lions will win.

CLEMSON AT TEXAS - I know a lot of Clemson people and I like Dabo Swinney. I despised Sarkisian when he was at Washington and then USC but maybe he really has reformed. Still, I like the Tigers.  The two starting QBs- Clemson’s Cade Klubnik and Texas’ Quinn Ewers - have met before, in the 2021 Texas state Class 6A championship game, won by Klubnik’s Southlake Carroll High over Ewers’ Austin Westlake, 52-34.  Fans of both QBs might have to miss this game, because while Klubnik and Ewers are going at it, their two high schools will be playing for  state titles at the same time. Of course, there’s always the chance that Sarkisian will realize that he could use a little running from his  quarterback and decide to give Arch Manning more than a play or two.

TENNESSEE AT OHIO STATE - This ought to be a good game and ordinarily it wouldn’t bother me if Tennessee were to win.  In fact, it might please me to see the spoiled Ohio State fans’ Christmases ruined. But I’m not ready for the chaos  that’s going to ensue in Columbus  if the Buckeyes should lose.  A playoff loss on top of another loss to Michigan would likely be cause for  one or more public hangings, so I think you’ll find me pulling for O-HI-O.

 
*********** Hey TV announcers - unless it has a roof over it, a stadium is not a building.


*********** Years ago, I was back at Yale for a reunion, and a few of us had a chance to meet with the head coach at the time, Jack Siedlecki.

Someone asked why the Ivy League champion didn’t take part in the post-season football playoffs, and Coach Siedlecki explained to us that the league’s presidents did not want anything to impinge (he didn’t use that word) on the league’s traditional end-of-season rivalries, many of which dated to the nineteenth century - Harvard-Yale, for example.

They felt that should be enough. 

It actually made some sense to me.  Shouldn’t Harvard-Yale be enough?  Army-Navy?  Ohio State-Michigan?  UCLA-USC?  South Carolina-Clemson?  Auburn-Alabama?

Wouldn’t winning the game against your archrival be the right way to end the season?

But that was then, and this is now, and this week the high and mighty poohbahs of the Ivy League went back on themselves  - and  agreed to participate in the NCAA Division I FCS playoffs, starting next  season.

It means that now an Ivy League team can play for a national title.  Sure. And a Conference USA team can  win The Playoff.  

Ivy League Football is not bad.  It’s not a joke, as some wise  guys would like us to think.  But the  step up in FCS from Yale to North Dakota State is about the same as   the  step up in FBS from Ball State to Alabama.

One thing is worth considering.   If some of those Ivy League hedge fund guys ever decide to get serious about their NIL collectives - and who’s going to stop them? -  the current FCS powers in Montana and the Dakotas won’t know what hit them.

To me, the really interesting thing is that many of the presidents  who approved this move to add some emphasis to football are the same ones who just a few years ago cancelled an entire season.



***********   Army’s star running back Kanye Udoh has entered the Transfer Portal.

Just a few years ago, another very good Army player did the same thing but then, perhaps  finding out that the grass over on the other side wasn’t that green, he decided to stay at Army and presumably all was forgiven.

What, someone recently asked on an Army board, should happen if Udoh were to decide to return?

The first answer I saw had to have come from a career Army guy, and it represents the kind of hard-nosed thinking I grew up around, with World War II vets as my teachers and coaches:

In my opinion, regardless of his outcome, Udoh should never play Army football again.

There should be something called team loyalty.

I agree that it will be a huge loss for Army in one sense, but I disagree in another sense that he will have lost respect among his teammates which will negatively affect his play.

I ask you: would you want to go into battle with this person, or anyone like him?

You wouldn't know if he would run to save his skin and leave you hanging or not.

*********** Malik Murphy did a nice job for Duke this season after leaving Texas, and it surprised me to hear that he’d entered the Transfer Portal.  But “surprise” scarcely describes my reaction to the news that he’s going to - Oregon State.

Cool.  I do remember hearing that after leaving Texas last year he’d had a good visit to OSU before deciding on Duke.

I’ll bet that what swung the deal this time was Oregon State’s forestry program.


*********** I made a huge mistake recently when I somehow overlooked Mick Yanke’s correct identifying of Duke Slater.

Coach Yanke, from Cokato, Minnesota, is a longtime reader.

As he put it, “Your page has been a 20 year source of knowledge,  entertainment and fellowship for me and your readers.”

So first of all, an apology.

Bur second of all, I missed out - and so did all the readers - on a very significant piece of information he provided:

Duke Slater, Coach Yanke pointed out,  was also a good track man.

Results from the 1921 NCAA Track Championships

HAMMER THROW

1. Charles Redmon, Chicago
2. Blackwood, Northwestern
3. Duke Slater, Iowa
4. Skidmore, Southern Illinois

DISCUS

1. Gus Pope, Washington
2. Blackwood, Northwestern
3. Praeger, Kalamazoo
4. Duke Slater, Iowa

Many thanks to Coach Yanke for the research.



***********  Adam Wesoloski, of Pulaski, Wisconsin, passed along what I think was meant as a joke :

I am being told that Dave Clawson put his letter of resignation in the Wake Forest A.D's hand but held onto it for five additional minutes to honor the slow mesh.

But while we’re on that subject, I wonder what will happen to Warren Ruggiero, who’s been  with Dave Clawson for the last 15 years as his OC. He’s the inventor of Wake’s  slow-mesh and they’ve been very secretive about its workings.



*********** Dr. John Rothwell, from Corpus Christi, noted  when identifying Joe Carr, that another good topic for my QUIZ would be the Nesser brothers - seven brothers from Columbus, Ohio (a couple of them were born in Germany) who gained fame in the early days of pro football, such as it was.  It’s a great suggestion but I doubt that I could make it much of a  challenge, given that their  story is so unique.

Anyhow, you may want to read about them…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nesser_brothers

John also made a  significant addition to today’s QUIZ subject, Stan Hindman, with the story - still a legend at Ole Miss - of how he  ran down from behind LSU speedster Joe LaBruzzo (whom he outweighed by 60 pounds), downing him just short of a touchdown.

http://southdocs.org/the-rundown/



***********  I really like Wake Forest.  A grandson is a Wake grad. It’s a very good school with a beautiful campus in a nice southern city.  Although it’s the  smallest school in all Power 4 conferences, it has still managed to be competitive in all major sports.

But increasingly,  Dear Old Wake Forest is beginning to look like The House of Broken Dreams

First they lost Kenneth Walker to Michigan State. (Where he wound up finishing sixth in the Heisman voting.)

Then they lost Sam Hartman to Notre Dame. (Maybe he didn’t have such a great year at Notre Dame, but they’d have known how to use him at Wake Forest.)

And recently  they lost their coach, Dave Clawson, who evidently, after 11 years, came to the conclusion that he was fighting a losing battle there.

Next up?  Jake Dickert, who’s been at Washington State.  Ironically, he gave up on the WSU job the day after  his QB, John Mateer, entered the Transfer Portal.

I wish Wake well and I wish  Jake Dickert well. He’s a good man.  I just wonder if he did his due diligence and still thinks he can change  the law of gravity.

Or were things really getting that bad in Pullman, Washington?

Meanwhile, back in the Pacific Northwest, John Canzano has a list of suspects for the WSU job:

Brent Vigan (Montana State), Tim Plough (UC Davis), Ken Niumatalolo (San Jose State), Paul Chryst (ex-Wisconsin head coach)

And get this one:  “I’d interview Rick Neuheisel.”



********* Isn’t it interesting how quickly after some guys enter the Transfer Portal we hear where they’re headed? 

They - and the schools they sign with - must be incredibly quick at doing their research and negotiating, because as we all know, it’s not permissible  for other schools to talk to players in advance - before they enter the transfer portal.  They wouldn’t dare, knowing that if they did, they’d get a strongly-worded letter from the NCAA.



*********** JOHN CANZANO ON THE COUGS...

Jake Dickert is leaving Washington State to become the head football coach at Wake Forest. Nobody should be shocked, which is only to say that most of us understand that a person can only take so much.

Dickert was abandoned by the athletic director who hired him, repeatedly ditched by his coordinators, and just watched his star quarterback, John Mateer, and 19 other teammates scramble into the transfer portal, causing a bottleneck.

What?

You had Dickert down as a forever guy in Pullman?

WSU’s 41-year-old coach publicly said he wanted to work for 10 more years and then retire. I didn’t have his “dream job” penciled in as a modest address on Tobacco Road, but these are the times — and college football is broken.

NIL, the transfer portal, realignment, an invasion of street agents, an absence of guidelines, no consequence for rule breakers — the shocking thing is that Dickert didn’t throw in the keys last December when his other star quarterback, Cam Ward, announced he was leaving.

Ward head-faked like he was declaring for the NFL Draft last spring, then landed at Miami, where he cashed a seven-figure NIL check and became a Heisman finalist.

I cautioned WSU multiple times in print over the last few months that it needed to lock Dickert down with a lifetime contract. Yes, even amid his team’s late-season swoon. He was a growing flight risk, in part because he cared so much and the world around him was wobbling.

The Cougars should have thrown their best contract pitch at Dickert while they still had the chance. There were multiple discussions during the season between Dickert’s agent and WSU Athletic Director Anne McCoy, per sources. But insiders told me there were concerns about pushback from the university trustees, who had recently scolded the athletic department for overspending and slashed $11 million from the budget.

It takes money to win football games, folks.

It’s like Arizona State coach Kenny Dillingham said this season: “Pay the man his money.

ASU’s athletic department, incidentally, spent $121 million on all sports in the last fiscal year. That ranks second-to-last among the 10 public schools that made the College Football Playoff and No. 33 in the country. Give Dillingham a ‘high-five’ for beating the odds.

Ohio State spent $72 million on football alone in the same fiscal year.

Washington State’s entire annual athletic department budget is $74 million. Boise State, which spent “only” $24 million on football, is proof winning can be accomplished on the cheap with a good culture and an unusually loyal 2,000-yard running back. But we need to get real — the financial gap is widening with every season, and the playing field is tilted in a way that flies in the face of the Sherman Antitrust Act.

The SEC and Big Ten will receive a combined 58 percent of the College Football Playoff revenue. Those two conferences also have media rights contracts that pay them tens of millions more annually than peer conferences. The math only makes sense if the objective is to leave the SEC and Big Ten as the only two conferences eventually standing.

It’s an anti-competitive market. The financials create an unreasonable restraint on the competition. By definition, it’s an antitrust issue. Washington State won’t be the only school left to fight donor apathy and the sinking feeling of alienation. It’s coming eventually for others, including the Big 12 and ACC.
NIL?

The transfer portal?

They’re wonderful tools for athletes, theoretically. But those things should have been onboarded years ago by the NCAA in a methodical, thoughtful, rational manner. There should have been collective bargaining and parameters designed to protect both sides. Instead, it was a rushed and unregulated mess.

I spoke with several high-level WSU donors in the last two weeks. Boosters who fund the Cougar Collective met twice to cobble together their best NIL offer to Mateer. “Mom-and-pop” business in Pullman chipped in. Donors reached deep. They came up with a NIL package that was worth more than $1 million and presented it to Mateer along with a video from ex-Cougar greats Ryan Leaf and Jack Thompson.

The message from the two former NFL QBs to Mateer: “You could stay here and be the very best of all of us.”

The thing is, Mateer had a $1.5 million offer from an SEC school on the table. There was also a deal in the works from the collective of another school that would be worth as much as $3 million. The Cougars didn’t have a chance. Not even armed with a seven-figure package and some sincerity.

One long-time WSU donor told me: “I only have so many of these left in me. This is ridiculous. This s—t has got to change.”

Dickert sounded understandably down about things this week. He said: “I think the first step is realizing there are no rules. That’s the first step. I mean, tampering is now part of it… if you’re not recruiting other people’s rosters, it feels like in today’s world that... you’re going to fall behind.”

Then, Dickert walked into the portal himself.

John Mateer told his team that he was entering the transfer portal. (Photo: Geoff Crimmins)
Another Division I head football coach reached out to me on Tuesday with some numbers. There are 6,658 football players in the transfer portal in all divisions of football. On Monday and Tuesday, 300 new players entered the transfer portal. All other sports combined have 15,121 athletes in the system.

Two transfer windows in football? One of which opened on Dec. 9, before the football postseason even started? The other football transfer window comes in the spring? Where a starting player can theoretically leave his team in a lurch if he gets a better offer from someone with a big pile of money? It makes no sense unless the desired outcome is chaos.
I know some who are eager to see NCAA President Charlie Baker and the major conference commissioners dragged in front of a congressional committee to answer antitrust questions about college football. It would be good theater, but I’d also like to see the bigwigs at FOX and ESPN get some airtime on C-SPAN, too.

Is this what the networks had in mind when they consolidated the college football inventory and dismantled a 108-year-old conference? They “parted out” the Pac-12, snatching the LA market, Oregon’s brand, and some TV households in Phoenix, Salt Lake City, and Seattle. It’s not the job of television executives to think about the consequences on the left-behind campuses, I guess, but I wonder if they realize the role they played.

Dickert’s family is packing up and moving to Winston-Salem, N.C.

Which means Rylee, his daughter, is going, too. One of the first messages I got on Wednesday after the news broke was from Matthew McNelly, a church pastor who works down the street from WSU’s campus.

His daughter is friends with Rylee.
 
“I’m heartbroken for my kid,” the pastor wrote. “She has lost so many friends these last nine months.”

*********** Mountain West Report - from our Melbourne, Australia Bureau

UNLV lost a good football coach.

They’ve also found a good football coach.

Barry Odom, who revitalized the Rebels’ program is off to try to do the same thing at Purdue. UNLV didn’t miss a beat, luring Dan Mullen out of retirement – or should I say TV land – to continue what Odom has built.

Mullen’s pedigree is solid, a 103-61 record as a head coach at Mississippi State and Florida,a 7-3 bowl record and two BCS national championships as an offensive coordinator.
UNLV will pay Mullen a Mountain West-record $3.5 million per year on a five-year deal. That’s more than twice what Odom was paid, and close to double what Colorado State pays Jay Norvell, previously the conference’s highest-earning coach.

Dampier Gone

As predicted, it was too difficult for New Mexico to hang on to star quarterback Devon Dampier, who is headed to the University of Utah. The Lobos – who surprisingly nearly made a bowl game this season – have lost head coach Bronco Mendenhall (to Utah State) and offensive coordinator Jason Beck, who will take Dampier with him to Utah.

Actually, our Melbourne, Australia Bureau is staffed - and headed - by my son, Ed Wyatt, who finds that Australia is a great vantage point to keep an eye on Mountain West sports  (I avoid accusations of nepotism by making sure he’s the only one on staff)


***********   Hello Coach,

Well,  we wrapped up our season last week with a 12-2 record (4th round game).  Great season and great group of kids. 

I have a quick question about blocking back with the center.
 
When facing odd fronts, (which became almost weekly)  We started out the year basing the nose and allowing our TE to cut/gate/hinge block the 4i.  We ended up playing some great defensive linemen and they made us pay.  We did have a large and not that athletic sophomore TE attempting this block but regardless we had a lot of run though. 

We ended up towards the end of the season blocking back with center on the 4i and the playside guard blocked down on the nose.  It’s seemed to clean things up for us.  I wanted to hear your thoughts on this.  Our backside cut block is some old Paul Johnson 45,60, 90 3 step drive to the front knee and get them down, kind of block.  Look forward to hearing from you.

I also enjoy going back and watching the podcasts,  Thanks

Tim Grady
Head Football Coach
Athletic Director
B.A (Born Again)
James Kenan High School
Warsaw, North Carolina

Hi Coach,

Congratulations on a great season.

To answer your question:

First of all, it sounds as if we’re on the same page.

We don’t normally have problems with the TE doing his “replace and turn back” (R & T) as long as we’re very careful to make sure of the “Holy Trinity” of tight gaps, back off the ball as much as possible, and inside hand down.

I avoid any low blocks on the backside because with our tight splits I’m concerned that at some point we’ll get called for a chop block.

Against a lot of odd fronts, mostly 3-5-3 or some variation of a  5-3, when that tackle is closer to  the center than he is to the TE, I will do one of three things:

(This is all explained on page 56 of the playbook)


                                      
                                        66 Super Power Dog                                                                 66 Super-O Dog (Backside Tackle  doesn’t pull)


These  drawings aren’t shown against an odd front, but the principle is the same.

1. DOG:   Down block across the front;  TE:  R & T

2. O:  Block as usual but don’t pull the backside tackle;  TE and T:  both R & T

3. O-DOG:   Down block AND don’t pull the backside tackle

So as I say, it appears that we see eye to eye on the down blocking.  We disagree on the low blocking on the backside but that’s okay.  There's no question about its effectiveness - just so long as you don’t run into the wrong refs!

Merry Christmas!

Hugh Wyatt


***********   Most know Harold Bloom as an influential literary critic. I know him as Yale's greatest football player.

For obvious reasons I haven't wanted to discuss the A-N game. Your list is accurate. I also kept a list. It began with the out-of-bounds KO. Then the phantom tackling. KO coverage was atrocious. Worley had nothing to go to when the planned offense failed. My list says no screens, no misdirection, no changeup in splits...oh, what the heck, it was poor preparation, which I insist falls under the rubric of Leadership.Our HC, OC, and DC were defeated in detail by their Navy counterparts. I'm watching to observe what they learned. (Dr. Johnson: "Man requires not so much to be taught as to be reminded.")

I hope CFB collapses quickly so it can similarly find a new way more quickly.

John Vermillion                            
St Petersburg, Florida


***********  Hugh,

I completely agree with your assessments on this week’s edition of the “news.”

Navy-Army:  The Mids sang second, AND, get first billing, deservedly so.  They were ready, they were steady, they outplayed and outcoached the Army!  Kudos to coach Newberry.  On the other hand…

There is something else going on with Jeff Monken and the entire program.  Losing a player like Udoh to the portal is not a good sign. 

Marshall is the first school, and certainly won’t be the last school, to suffer from the pangs of what I call “AAU Transfers” as long as the Transfer Portal remains to run amok in the world of college athletics.

Combined, the portal and NIL is killing college football.  It will certainly widen the gap between the haves and have nots.  I can see schools like Wake Forest initiating a new organization of schools that place limits on Transfers and NIL money.

Frankly, at some point I truly see the demise of these super conferences reorganized into more of an NFL model. Those who are willing to pay for that model will play in that model.  I’m certain it will include player contracts of some sort, and marketing fees to the schools to pay for the rights of name usage.  AND…this won’t just apply to football.  This will become a joint venture for the NFL and the NBA.

The NCAA has lost all control of its initial purpose.  From the top down, all the way to the enforcement of its own rules.  All the way down to how players should wear their uniforms!

Have a great week!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas







***********  QUIZ ANSWER:  He played his college football in Mississippi… was a Number One draft choice of the 49ers… Wore number 80.  

But no, he wasn’t Jerry Rice.  He was Stan Hindman - and he was 19 years before Jerry Rice.

At Newton (Mississippi) High School he earned all-southern and all-state honors as a lineman, and  earned three letters in football, five in track, two in basketball and one in baseball.

Although heavily recruited by most schools in the South, he chose to go to West Point. But when he discovered quite early that cadet life was not for him, he called Ole Miss coach Johnny Vaught  to ask if there was still a scholarship available for him.

There was one, indeed, and Coach Vaught immediately summoned another freshman player, one who knew Hindman from competing against him in high school track, and informed him that he was going to be getting a new roommate.

But,  the freshman told the coach,  he already had a roommate, a friend from his  hometown.  Replied  Coach Vaught, “As I told you, I want you to room with Stab Hindman.”

They roomed together for four years and, said the roommate, “I can honestly say we never had a harsh word, not one.” 

In addition to being  a very good football player, he was a straight-A student.  “(He)wasn’t like the rest of us,” recalled his roommate.  “He studied all the time.  Stan  loved school.  He loved to learn.”

“I started out at Ole Miss thinking I'd like to become a doctor,” he recalled years later.  “But premed and football are a little tough to take together.  Besides,  I found myself hanging around the fine arts building more and more, and I became increasingly interested in what was going on. Finally I switched my major to fine arts.”

“In the back of my mind, I suppose I always had an interest in art, because as a kid I can remember always doodling. Later in high school I drew a lot. Drew pictures of almost anything. My uncle had some art books and I used to borrow them."

He was good enough as a two-way lineman to be drafted Number One by both the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers and the AFL’s Houston Oilers. He signed with San Francisco.

He signed a $350,000 contract - total - spread out over 13 years.

He was originally forecast to be an offensive lineman, but the team needed help on defense, and his unusual speed for a big man made him an outstanding defensive end.  After a serious knee injury suffered during his fourth season slowed him down, he moved inside to defensive tackle. 

He retired after the 1971 season, but came back a year later to help the 49ers after injuries nearly wiped out their defensive line.

By that time, he had become known for his art - particularly sculpture - but chose not to have any public showings because he wanted  his art to stand on its own merits, and not as something done by a well-known football player.

He had also in his final pro years begun studying architecture at the University of California, Berkeley.

Torn briefly between pure art and the more commercial architecture, he chose the latter. “I love the gathering of the information, creating the seed of what the building is going to look like,” he said. “Then getting the sense of what it can be from an architectural standpoint and achieving it.”

After working for several Bay Area architectural firms, he received his architectural license in 1989 and began to work on his own, mostly designing homes.

He had a very successful practice, and when asked years later whether he defined himself by football  or by architecture,  he  said architecture.   “It’s something I’ve been doing for a longer time.”  

But, he added, “Part of me is being an athlete. I owe football a lot.”

He  was inducted into the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame in 1988 and the Ole Miss Athletic Hall of Fame in 1992. He was chosen as an SEC Legend in 2014 and is a member of Ole Miss  “Team of the Century” (1893‑1992).

Asked in 2007 for any advice that he would give to current draftees, he said,  “You should really dedicate yourself to getting better at what you do, so that you can have pride in it later on. That means really training and working on whatever technique it takes to perfect it. In that way, it’s like art.”

Stan Hindman died in July, 2020.



CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING STAN HINDMAN

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK LOUISIANA
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
JASON MENSING - ENGLEWOOD, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOHN ROTHWELL - CORPUS CHRISTI, TEXAS
GREG KOENIG - COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FORISTIERE - MARSING, IDAHO
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY
 



*********** QUIZ:  In the 1960s the Cowboys, trying to get  the jump on the rest of the NFL, spent considerable time and effort looking for the “best athlete available,” rather than the usual “best player available.” 

They looked carefully at  guys who were  good in other sports such as baseball, basketball and track. (Since  they didn’t share the information, they didn’t have to use draft choices on them.)

The Cowboys and  their personnel director Gil Brandt, valuing raw athletic ability as almost on a par with football ability, saw one particular basketball player and his rebounding ability and  saw potential  as a defensive back.

He had never played a down of college football.  In fact, wanting to concentrate on basketball and baseball, he had played only one year of high school football.

At El Cerrito High in Richmond, California, he was a  standout basketball player, and at Utah State he was a two-time All-American.  He was Skyline Conference MVP his senior year, and left as  the Aggies’ all-time leading rebounder.  (He’s in the Utah State Hall of Fame, and his number 24 is retired.)

Offered a free agent contract by Dallas, he signed, figuring he  would go to training camp, and then, after getting cut, he’d report to the NBA team that had drafted him.

But he didn’t get cut.  Instead, he made the  team and became a starting cornerback as a rookie, and wound up playing 13 seasons with the Cowboys.

Just three years earlier, his older brother “Pumpsie” (real name Elijah) had become the first black player to play for the Boston Red Sox, the last major-league team  to integrate.

Big (6-3, 210) and fast, with great leaping ability, he gained a reputation as one of the earliest of pro football’s “cover corners.”  Said Cowboys’ coach Tom Landry, “He’s the guy who covers the Bobby Mitchells of the league,” referring to the Washington Redskins’ great wide receiver.

He also gained a reputation for toughness and durability.  Including playoffs, he started 186 games. At one point, he started  145 consecutive games, the third best in Cowboys’  history.

He was three times named first team All-Pro, and once named to the second team.

He was selected to five Pro Bowls, and is one of the few defensive backs in NFL history to earn Pro Bowl invitations as both a cornerback and a safety.

The Cowboys won 63 percent of the games that he played in, winning seven division titles, two NFC championships and one Super Bowl. He was named to the Pro Bowl in 1971, the year of that Super Bowl victory.

He was named to the Cowboys’ 25th Anniversary team, and is still considered the best Cowboy ever to wear the number 34.

After his playing days, he spent 35 years as an NFL scout,  28 of them with the Denver Broncos.






TUESDAY,  DECEMBER  17,  2024    “Everyone wants a prodigy to fail; it makes our mediocrity more bearable.”  Harold Bloom

*********** Wisdom from Mike Lude: “The offensive formation called the Wing-T had a profound, widespread influence on the game of football at all levels.   High-profile coaches at national college powers used this offensive system with enormous success. Many high school teams ran it and won state championships. Some high school programs still do.

“During the peak of the Wing-T's popularity, the system – a hybrid mix of the quarterback snap and handoff of the T-formation and the blocking schemes of the single wing formation – was referred to as the Delaware Winged-T.

“That's because the mastermind of the system, Dave Nelson, was head football coach at the University of Delaware, which was somewhat isolated from the well-known collegiate football powerhouses of that era  (Notre Dame, USC, Michigan, Alabama, etc.)

“What most of the fans and serious practitioners of the offense didn't know was that the "Delaware" Winged-T actually was launched at the University of Maine.   I was there as a member of Dave Nelson’s coaching staff when it all happened.   The birth name of Nelson's innovation was Winged-T;  as the popularity of his creation increased the name evolved and was simplified to Wing-T.

“If Nelson was the father of the Winged-T,  then Harold Westerman and I ought to be considered at least illegitimate sons.  Harold and I were on Nelson's coaching staff at Hillsdale and when Nelson was hired at Maine in 1949 he asked us to rejoin him there.” 



***********  MY QUICK DISSECTION OF THE ARMY-NAVY GAME

Army was not only upset; Army had its ass kicked.

In one afternoon Army pissed away its best season since 1958.

Army blew a rare chance at a national ranking.

Why?

* Army was not properly prepared

* Army left its best game on the field last week against Tulane - in the unwanted  championship game of a stupid conference

* It had been a tough  four-week slog, starting with the loss to Notre Dame.

* Army coach Jeff Monken had allowed his name to be associated with openings at P4 schools, almost surely a distraction from the job at hand.

* As little offensive imagination as Army showed against Notre Dame, it showed even less against Navy

* The Army offense was mostly single  wing in its most primitive  form - tailback off tackle.

* Army showed no misdirection: no counter, no bootleg, no screen

* Army’s defense played as if no one had told them that Navy’s QB could run

* Navy undoubtedly had a belly full of Army this and Army that, Bryson Daily this and Bryson Daily that, Joe Moore Award this and Joe Moore Award that.

TO SUM IT ALL UP - NAVY OUTCOACHED ARMY

I have to confess that I took some guilty pleasure at watching that Navy offense.

The scheme was beautiful and well-executed.  Wing-T  guys everywhere had to enjoy watching it. I have to admit that I did.

It’s not as if Navy had been hiding any of this.  Army’s people had to know what Navy would  do.  The Middies had four main weapons - QB Blake Horvath, Slotback Eli Heidenreich, RB Alex Tecza, Slotback Brandon Chatman.  That’s it. That’s the way it’s been all season.  But Army looked as if they’d never even watched film of the Middies. 

Navy’s overall battle plan appeared to be to score first and make Army play from behind. To let it all hang out on the first drive and put Army behind - something they hadn’t experienced  much all season -  and it worked.  On defense they planned - correctly - to make Army play left-handed: to take away Daily’s running and force them to do some things they didn’t do well. It seemed as if they knew that Army refused to run counters and traps.  The triple option?  It was a ruse.  They junked that long ago.  As Gary Danielson noted, Army didn’t run a single triple option play all game. The result was an anemic running game and a passing game that yielded three interceptions.  In fact, two of Army’s most effective plays were incomplete passes that resulted in pass interference.

Don’t even get me going on  the fake punt.

As if the loss to Navy wasn’t depressing enough to last a whole year, before the day was over Army was hit with the news that its bowl opponent, Marshall, was backing out, and its leading running back, Kanye Udoh, was entering the Transfer Portal.



*********** ESPN’s Max Olson, writing on X

Of the first 1,500 FBS scholarship players who've entered the portal, 31% are repeat transfers looking to join their 3rd or 4th school.

More than half of them do not have their degree.



*********** ESPN’s Max Olson, writing in ESPN+

In recent weeks, we've seen a bunch of Power 4 starters announce they're returning to their team in 2025, including Kevin Jennings (SMU), Garrett Nussmeier (LSU), Kyron Drones (Virginia Tech), Jalon Daniels (Kansas), Rocco Becht (Iowa State), Brendan Sorsby (Cincinnati), Luke Altmyer (Illinois) and CJ Bailey (NC State).

Sources at several Power 4 schools told ESPN that the price for re-signing a proven starter this offseason is typically exceeding $1 million.


*********** Penn State ran it up against Maryland  by letting backup QB Beau Pribula throw a touchdown pass against Maryland with :04 remaining and Maryland down, 38-7.

To show his gratitude, Pribula has entered the Transfer Portal and won’t be playing in the Lions’ playoff game. 

He blames the whole thing on the NCAA for presenting him with “an impossible decision.”

Horse puckey, writes Matt Hayes in USA Today.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2024/12/16/college-football-playoff-transfer-portal-beau-pribula-penn-state/77025982007/


*********** John Mateer, Washington State QB, spent two years backing up Cam Ward, who as we all know transferred to Miami for this season and wound up in New York at the Heisman dinner Saturday night.  The Cougs tried, but couldn’t come up with enough moolah to keep him. (How degrading is  it, anyhow,  to beg for money to give to a college kid?) Where’s he going to go?  Well, his Washington State OC this past year is now at Oklahoma, so…


*********** Dave Clawson at Wake Forest has thrown in the towel, finally frustrated at his school’s inability to keep up with the big spenders.  This is greatly disturbing to me, because I have made no secret of the fact that I admired  him more than any other coach in America. 

I am sick.  College football is sick. I don’t think it can last much longer without turning into something like the NFL, only without the leadership and marketing brains.   It  won’t break my heart if and when the bubble bursts.

Dave Clawson  is a bright guy - a Williams College grad.

He’s the only coach to have won ten or more games at four different colleges: Fordham, Richmond, Bowling Green, Wake Forest

He spent 11 years at Wake.  I know that he tuned down numerous offers in that time.

Imagine yourself in this position:

For the 2023 season, Wake Forest star quarterback Sam Hartman left to play his final season of eligibility at Notre Dame. Clawson needled Notre Dame for a video tribute to Hartman on Senior Night, saying, "Here's a guy that we recruited and we developed and they're putting a video on him saying, 'We will always love you.'"

He added: "You only dated him a couple of months. It can't be love. We're the ones that love him. We had five years with him. You rented him for a season. ... When that video played, it was like, 'Holy cow, this is where college football is.'"

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/43008306/sources-wake-forest-dave-clawson-stepping-coach



*********** Now showing:

“We Are Marshall,” the stirring, heartwarming story of a school and its entire  community and how they rallied to revive their  football program after a disastrous plane crash.


“We Were Marshall,” the dark, depressing story of college football players betraying their school and the community by deserting both in the vain hope of fame and riches someplace else.


*********** Michael Vick’s name is being mentioned as a possible coach at Sacramento State.  What the hell - why not?  He’s never coached, but he’s just as entitled to the job as some guy who’s spent the last 20 years working his way up the ladder, learning his craft.  And besides, he’s better known, which will help them with recruiting, blah, blah, blah.


*********** Jack Patera, the Seahawks’ original head coach, preferred that his players call him “Jack,” and any time a player would call him “coach,” he’d respond by calling the guy “player.”


*********** What is the effect on our economy - and on our society - of taking  money from people used to spending it on a variety of  things and instead using it to pay large sums of money to uneducated, otherwise unemployable  young males to play college football -  something that until quite recently those young males were eager to do for free? 

Is that any more productive a use of that money than gambling?  Actually, no.  It’s not.  When you gamble, there’s always an outside chance you’ll get a return on your money.


***********  When the college football bubble bursts - and I pray that I’ll live to see the day - there’ll still be  FCS and Division II and Division III, so  I’ll be okay.


*********** In the East, where there are few junior colleges playing football, it's not that uncommon for high school kids to spend a post-graduate year between high school and college at a prep school.  It’s not cheap - a year at some of these places  starts at $50,000 - but  in comparison with Jucos,  prep schools offer far superior academic preparation, and they don’t cost players any college eligibility.

But Friday night, I had to hit rewind to make sure I’d heard correctly when the announcers told us that a Montana State player named Brody Grebe - from Roundup, Montana -  had gone to Choate-Rosemary Hall.   I know Choate-Rosemary Hall.  It’s in Wallingford, Connecticut.  We lived in Wallingford briefly after I graduated from college.  A year’s tuition there is $69,700. 

But maybe it was worth it.   After all, Brody Grebe was just named Big Sky Conference Defensive Player of the Year, and - who knows? - maybe it was the year  at Choate-Rosemary Hall that made the difference.


*********** I heard the TV guys say that Montana State QB Tommy Mellott drinks two gallons of water a day. 

There.   I set you up. You provide the punch line. 


*********** Is there no getting away from it?  As they prepared for a football game I heard, in the background, “We-e ready… We-e ready… We ready…  fo-or y’all.”

In Brookings, South Dakota.


***********  Latest addition to the Football Coach’s Book of Handy Cliches… “We gotta execute.”

Also: after it was added to  the football vocabulary last year, have you noticed how common “complementary football” has become?

It basically means offense and defense working together cooperatively, helping each other out, in the way a ball-control offense helps the defense by keeping the other team’s offense off the field.

The spelling of the word is crucial.

“Complementary” (with an “e”) comes from “complete.”

“Complimentary” comes from the word “compliment”:  “Nice going offense. Way to turn the ball over.”


***********   According to Randy Moss - and I have no reason to disbelieve him - he has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.  In more than 95 per cent of cases,  this means death within five years.  He said that he had undergone a Whipple procedure - an extremely  complicated operation that requires hours in the operating room. Recovery from Whipple  surgery will be long and difficult, but if it’s successful the five-year recovery rate can jump from 5 per cent to 25 per cent.  No one in this life is immune to these things, and I’ll pray for the guy.


*********** Back in 2021, Washington State football coach NIck Rolovich refused to take the Covid shot.  In the Peoples Gulag of Washington,  that made him Public Enemy Number One, and as a state employee that meant that he had to lose his job.

Now that the whole vaccine business appears to have been exposed as something of a hoax, perhaps perpetrated for the benefit of a large pharmaceutical concern, Rolovich has been offered his head coaching job back, with back pay and generous  compensation for the damage done to his reputation.

Okay. I lied.  (Come on - liberals NEVER admit they were wrong.)  But Rolovich is coaching again, hired as an assistant by Cal.



*********** It’s easier to get a visa to visit North Korea than it is for the NFL to get a compliment out of me, but here goes -


The Seahawks-Packers game Sunday night - at least at the start - was the first example I’ve seen in years of both teams - all eleven on each team - dressed in  full uniform, stem to stern, every man alike.  Every Packer wearing the same color shoes and socks, and all stockings the same height.  Ditto every Seahawk.  Not a single man on either team with a shirt hanging out, not a single one with a white tee-shirt  flowing out below his jersey.

WTF is going on?

Oh - I did overlook the Seahawks in that ghastly green, looking like a bunch of highway flaggers who’d had chartreuse for lunch;  and the Packers, wearing white helmets to show the football world that that Lombardi guy was so 1960s.

As I said, WTF is going on?


*********** Sunday night… 8:44 left in the third quarter… Packers face 3rd and 1.

They get stuffed.

I get a text from Scott Mallien, a Green Bay guy and (duh) a Packers’ fan.

Coach you need to teach the Packers how to run the wedge in short yardage. 

I texted back:

Coach, just finished watching the recording. First thing we need to get them to do is close down those splits. (They were HUGE) Then we teach them the wedge concept. Then we show them how to block using their pads.



*********** I was eating somewhere where they were showing a No Fun League game, and noticed a new "rule" concerning onside kicks.

YOU HAVE TO NOTIFY THE OTHER TEAM THAT YOU ARE ATTEMPTING AN ONSIDE KICK!

MORONS!

(reason #4,869 why 'pro football' is unwatchable these days - ugh!)

John Rothwell, DC
Corpus Christi, Texas


*********** Before dabbling in Double Wing…

My opinion anyway

1.  Stances
2.  Splits
3.  Play calling verbiage (easier to ask questions/get feedback)
4.  Details (1st step, angles, etc)
5.  Assignments (as is because they are right and effective)
6.  Do NOT dabble in it. It IS your offense (not a part of it)
7.  REPS are what make you efficient (more reps = better production)
8.  Block the way recommended. Do not think you can switch to the grab-and-steer method.
9.  NO TURNOVERS and NO STUPID PENALTIES


As far as the box feeling loaded, I have a theory.
On offense we always hear about getting our best athletes in space.
Well defensively they want the same thing...separation.  Engage, extend, get off blocks.
SO the box being loaded and the way we block doesn't give them a chance to get the space they want on defense.  Find a running back who can "embrace" the chaos inside the box.  There is space there...a good back doesn't need much. If you don't have one of them BLUDGEON people for 3-4 yards a run.  (those are fun too)


Brad Knight
Clarinda, Iowa

The interesting thing to me is how over the past couple of years the pros have come to realize that they can create “space” by lining up tight, like us.  But to show that they’re so-o-o much smarter than us, they call them “compressed formations.”



***********  Just spitballin': so now we're in one of the portal periods. Let's say a kid who just had a very fine freshman season threw his name in the transfer hopper, and decides to leave right away. He thus does not take semester exams, which further means he's earned no academic credits. In theory, this guy could repeat the process a half-dozen times while having achieved zero credits. I'm surely incorrect for numerous reasons, but my point is CFB has turned into such a farce I'm entitled to think this way. In a similar fashion, it's not farfetched to think Army might wind up without a bowl opponent. There has been talk that the entire Marshall squad of starters might transfer to Southern Miss along with their coach. Some schools picked for bowls already have prepared their excuses: "It'll take a miracle for us to win now that our top five WRs have gone into the portal." As you said on today's page, the bowl system will die soon without major changes.

The "assigned at birth" language has torqued me from the moment I first heard it a couple years ago. The hubris of these professor wannabes is indescribable. Picture the doctor asking the new father and mother, "Now it's time for you to tell me which gender to assign the baby."

John Vermillion                          
St Petersburg, FL

Since this was written, Marshall  - the entire school - has opted out.


***********   Hugh,

Hey, did you catch that NFL “thriller” with the 49ers and Rams?

Army-Georgia Tech would have been a better bowl game!  And not inviting Army QB Bryson Daily to NYC for the Heisman ceremony is a travesty.

Since college athletics is now all about the $$ I won’t be surprised if the new PAC offers Cal and UCLA the opportunity to return for all sports in the next couple of years.  Add Gonzaga and Creighton to enhance basketball revenue and VOILA!!

Enjoy the weekend!  Go Army!  Beat Navy!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas


 


*********** (QUIZ ANSWER):In its history, the NFL has been led by three “presidents” (from 1920-1941) and five “commissioners” (1941 to the present).

Joe Carr was one of the presidents. He held the job for 19 years, from 1921 to 1939.  He has  been called “The Father of the NFL,” and “The Father of Professional Football.”  Certainly, more than any other individual, he was responsible for keeping the NFL alive in its formative years and through the Depression, and forging much of the structure that today’s NFL stands on.

Born in Columbus Ohio in 1880,  he was working as assistant sports editor of the Ohio State Journal when he organized a baseball team made up of employees of the Pennsylvania Railroad’s “Panhandle Division,” and later a football team,  both teams known as the Columbus Panhandles. 

The football Panhandles featured the six Nesser brothers,  all of them boilermakers for the railroad. Because the Panhandles’ players were all railroad employees, they had free  passes which enabled them to travel far and wide at no expense to the team. Consequently,  the Panhandles played most of their games on the road, not only in order to save on expenses, but to make scheduling games easier.

At that time it was common for players to jump from team to team,  playing for the highest bidder. In fact the Panhandles actually played against Knute Rockne six times in one season; each time,  he was playing for a different team.

It was also common for college players to play for their colleges on Saturdays and then, using assumed names,  play on Sundays for professional teams.

It was the  desire by Carr and other owners to put an end to  these practices that was a major factor in the founding of the National Football League

On September 17,  1920, a  group of team representatives met in an automobile showroom in Canton, Ohio for the purpose of forming  a league,  which they called the American Football Association.

When Carr was asked to serve as its president, he  declined, reportedly saying, “No, I’m an unknown. This league should be headed by the biggest name in football - Jim Thorpe,” whereupon Big Jim was elected president.

The following April, after one season of play, the league met again in Canton. The name of the league was changed to the National Football League.   And our guy was named president,  replacing Thorpe,  at a salary of $1,000 a year.

He wasn't on the job long before he had to come down hard on  a team for using college players under phony names. Handed proof that the Green Bay team was guilty of the practice,  he ordered the franchise vacated and returned to the league.  (A year later,  a Green Bay team reorganized under the leadership of Curly Lambeau would be readmitted to the league.)

In 1925 the new president was faced with the league’s first real crisis when the Chicago Bears signed - and played - Red Grange immediately following the end of his college season,  and then, shortly after that,  the Duluth Eskimos signed Stanford star Ernie Nevers.

There was considerable public outcry, not to mention  rage among college coaches, and at the president’s  insistence,  the owners adopted a resolution that read:

The National Football League places itself on record as unalterably opposed to any encroachment upon college football and hereby pledges its hearty support to college authorities in maintaining and advancing interest in college football and in preserving the amateur standing of all college athletes.

We believe there is a public demand for professional football… And to the end that this league may not jeopardize the amateur standing of any college player, it is the unanimous decision of this meeting that every member of the National Football League be positively prohibited from inducing or attempting to induce any college player to engage in professional football until his class at college shall have graduated, and any member violating this rule be fined not less than $1000 or loss of its franchise, or both. 

Through much of his time in the presidency, he had to deal with rival leagues, as well as the comings and goings of lesser-funded teams, most of them in smaller cities. He had had considerable experience with organized baseball and,  convinced that the NFL needed to emulate major league baseball in locating in larger cities, he sold Tim Mara a franchise in New York (the Giants), persuaded George Preston Marshall to put a team in Boston (the Redskins, which would soon be moved to Washington), and arranged for the Portsmouth, Ohio team to be relocated to Detroit.  He  sold Art Rooney a franchise in Pittsburgh (originally called the Pirates) and brought in Bert Bell in Philadelphia to take over the Frankford Yellow Jackets and rebrand them as the Eagles.

As NFL president, he oversaw the introduction of many of the rules that have helped bring about the great fan interest and the competitive parity that today’s league enjoys, including the rearrangement of the league into divisions and conferences, the resultant post-season playoffs,  the player draft,  and the waiver rule.

In all, he served from 1921 until his death in 1939.   By that time, the NFL had strengthened itself  through “addition by subtraction”: where in 1926 it had as many as 22 members,  by 1939 it was down to ten members.  But all - except for Green Bay - were now in “major league” cities.   Thanks in large part to his direction, the NFL was strong enough to survive the Depression and what was to come:  World War II, and the post-war challenge of the All-American Football Conference.

In 1963, Joe Carr was a member of the very first class inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

He did all this while also serving as president of the professional American Basketball League - a forerunner of the NBA - and running the Columbus minor league baseball team and helping organize baseball’s minor league structure.  At the time of his death, there were 37 minor leagues in America, and 26 of them owed their existence to him.

Joe Carr was once approached by baseball great Branch Rickey about a job in major league baseball.  “If you give up football,” Rickey said, “I’ll make you the biggest man in baseball.”

His answer: “If that’s the price I’d have to pay, I want no part of it.”

FAIR WARNING: If your answer includes the first name “JOSEPH” you won’t get credit.  That may have been what his mother and father called him when they were angry, but it was NEVER how he was known publicly.  Blame it on Wikipedia, and what it’s doing to sports history.




CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING JOE CARR

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOHN ROTHWELL - CORPUS CHRISTI, TEXAS
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FORISTIERE - MARSING, IDAHO
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY


 


***********  QUIZ:  He played his college football in Mississippi… was a Number One draft choice of the 49ers… Wore number 80.  

But no, he wasn’t Jerry Rice.  He was 19 years before Jerry Rice.

At Newton (Mississippi) High School he earned all-southern and all-state honors as a lineman, and  earned three letters in football, five in track, two in basketball and one in baseball.

Although heavily recruited by most schools in the South, he chose to go to West Point. But when he discovered quite early that cadet life was not for him, he called Ole Miss coach Johnny Vaught  to ask if there was still a scholarship available for him.

There was one, indeed, and Coach Vaught immediately summoned another freshman player, one who knew our guy from competing against him in high school track, and informed him that he was going to be getting a new roommate.

But,  the freshman told the coach,  he already had a roommate, a friend from his  hometown.  Replied  Coach Vaught, “As I told you, I want you to room with (our guy).”

They roomed together for four years and, said the roommate, “I can honestly say we never had a harsh word, not one.” 

In addition to being  a very good football player, he was a straight-A student.  “(He)wasn’t like the rest of us,” recalled his roommate.  “He studied all the time.  (He) loved school.  He loved to learn.”

“I started out at Ole Miss thinking I'd like to become a doctor,” he recalled years later.  “But premed and football are a little tough to take together.  Besides,  I found myself hanging around the fine arts building more and more, and I became increasingly interested in what was going on. Finally I switched my major to fine arts.”

“In the back of my mind, I suppose I always had an interest in art, because as a kid I can remember always doodling. Later in high school I drew a lot. Drew pictures of almost anything. My uncle had some art books and I used to borrow them."

He was good enough as a two-way lineman to be drafted Number One by both the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers and the AFL’s Houston Oilers. He signed with San Francisco.

He signed a $350,000 contract - total - spread out over 13 years.

He was originally forecast to be an offensive lineman, but the team needed help on defense, and his unusual speed for a big man made him an outstanding defensive end.  After a serious knee injury suffered during his fourth season slowed him down, he moved inside to defensive tackle. 

He retired after the 1971 season, but came back a year later to help the 49ers after injuries nearly wiped out their defensive line.

By that time, he had become known for his art - particularly sculpture - but chose not to have any public showings because he wanted  his art to stand on its own merits, and not as something done by a well-known football player.

He had also in his final pro years begun studying architecture at the University of California, Berkeley.

Torn briefly between pure art and the more commercial architecture, he chose the latter. “I love the gathering of the information, creating the seed of what the building is going to look like,” he said. “Then getting the sense of what it can be from an architectural standpoint and achieving it.”

After working for several Bay Area architectural firms, he received his architectural license in 1989 and began to work on his own, mostly designing homes.

He had a very successful practice, and when asked years later whether he defined himself by football  or by architecture,  he  said architecture.   “It’s something I’ve been doing for a longer time.”  

But, he added, “Part of me is being an athlete. I owe football a lot.”

He  was inducted into the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame in 1988 and the Ole Miss Athletic Hall of Fame in 1992. He was chosen as an SEC Legend in 2014 and is a member of Ole Miss  “Team of the Century” (1893‑1992).

Asked in 2007 for any advice that he would give to current draftees, he said,  “You should really dedicate yourself to getting better at what you do, so that you can have pride in it later on. That means really training and working on whatever technique it takes to perfect it. In that way, it’s like art.”

He died in July, 2020.


FRIDAY,  DECEMBER  13,  2024    “I don’t want to be surrounded by yes men. I want men who tell me the truth, even if it will cost them their jobs.” Samuel Goldwyn

GO ARMY!  BEAT NAVY!

************ Wisdom from Mike Lude: “Back to my career in baseball. I had played from the time I was the first baseman on the town team in Fulton when I was in high school, through college, and in the Marines in Maui.  But I had never coached the game.  I wasn't all that confident I understood the nuances of baseball.  I got some advice from John Williams, a Hillsdale man who had played in the New York Yankee farm system.  Another helpful source was a textbook on baseball written by former Duke coach Jack Coombs. That was my bible.

Surprisingly, we won the MIAA baseball championship that first season. My strategy moves, such as when to replace a struggling pitcher or when to use the hit and run, seemed to be working. One of our best players was shortstop Bill Young, who split time with the baseball team and the track squad, where he was an outstanding sprinter. A few other key players included Tommy McCarthy, who later signed with the Yankees; outfielder Terry Thomas, first baseman Rod Oberlin, and infielder Merv Holbeck. We repeated as conference champs in 1949, improving the team with several talented additions.

During those first two years coaching at Hillsdale, Rena and I lived in what had been her family's summer cottage at a nearby lake. Because no one had ever occupied the place in the winter, the sewer pipes and water pipes occasionally froze, and we would move into town with Rena's parents until it warmed up. Her dad, Earl Pifer, encouraged me to get my masters degree, so I spent the summer of 1949 back in the classroom at Michigan State, working  toward the advanced degree I received five years later. 

Meanwhile, Dave Nelson was ready to make another move. After one year at Harvard he was offered the head coaching job at the University of Maine. When the athletic Director, Elton (Tad) Wieman, picked Nelson, Dave called his former Hillsdale assistants, Harold Westerman and me. "I've got the job and I want you two guys to join me,” he told us over the phone. "Can you come tomorrow?”

Harold wore just as many hats at Hillsdale as I did; he was the backfield coach in football, head basketball coach,  and head track coach in the spring. But he slipped away during our spring break to help Nelson get settled in Maine, and I wasn't far behind as soon as the baseball season ended.

I was on the coaching carousel now, and I never knew when or where it might stop. I just knew I didn't want to get off.



 



*********** When the Army Cadets stormed the field at West Point on Friday night, after Army’s 35-14 win over Tulane, we knew that Dave Schorr was smiling.

Dave, who passed away last Thursday night, was as devout an Army supporter as there’s ever been.

I’ll let his obituary below serve to tell about him - wait till you read what he wrote to his future parents-in-law - and just simply say that he was a wonderful man in every respect. 

Consider this: Dave spent four years on the football team at West Point, one as a plebe - when freshmen weren’t eligible - and three as an upperclassman. For his entire upperclass career, he was on the “B Squad” - the scout team. Not once did he get into a varsity game.  In fact, not once did he even dress  for a varsity game. But he was an Army Football Player - and he remained one for life.




While a teacher at West Point, he and his wife, Patty were quartered in a faculty residence that Dave christened the “BEAT NAVY HOUSE.”  It remains so to this day.

His dogged determination as a football player carried over to his support for the Army team.  For years he and Patty, had season tickets, and they hosted a very popular pre- and post-game tailgate. He never missed an Army-Navy game, and was known for the party bus he’d provide to  take fellow Army fans to the game.

He was one of the most positive people I’ve ever met.  A dear friend, John Simar, who as a plebe at West Point had him as a math teacher, then reconnected with him years later when John was AD at the Lawrenceville School and Dave was teaching math there, said that even during the darkest  days of Army football, when people were wearing badges that said, “GO ARMY! BEAT SOMEBODY!” Dave would say, before almost every game, “You, know, I have a good feeling about this one.”

When I used to do clinics in Philly, Dave and John would make it a point to drive down from Lawrenceville to have breakfast before the clinic with my wife and me and several of the coaches. (Two regulars were Brian Mackell and Jason Clarke, from Baltimore.)

One of the many great things about Dave was his modesty.  West Pointers don’t boast, so it was only after his death that I learned that he had earned  the Silver Star, the Army’s second-highest honor.  When I asked another friend, Tom Hinger, himself a Silver Star recipient and also a friend of Dave’s, if he’d known about Dave’s Silver Star, he replied, “Of course not.”

Rest in Peace, Dave.


PS: In Dave’s photo above as an Army colonel, I don’t know the meanings of the ribbons on his chest, but three things jump right out at me:

At the Top of his left breast:
* The CIB (Combat Infantryman’s Badge) - the blue rectangle with the rifle and the silver wreath.
It’s  awarded to infantrymen and Special Forces soldiers -  colonel and below - who have fought in active ground combat.  It is one of the most prized of all military awards because there’s no other way to earn it than to be right there, on the ground,  when the bullets start flying.

At the bottom of his left breast
* The Jump Wings (Parachutist Badge) - It looks from here like an upside-down silver crescent
It states that the soldier is a trained military parachutist

Top  of his left sleeve, just below the shoulder
* The Ranger Tab - Signifies that the wearer has graduated from Ranger School
Extremely difficult to qualify for Ranger School, extremely difficult to graduate

While holding the hand of his beloved wife of 66 years, Colonel David E. Schorr (U.S. Army, Retired) passed away on December 5.   He was born on March 15, 1935 to Brigadier General David Peter and Mrs. Mary B. Schorr.  In 1957, he graduated from the United States Military Academy where he played football for the Black Knights.   After completing basic training and earning his Ranger tab and Jump Wings, he served as an active-duty Infantry Officer for 27 years.

He distinguished himself through exceptional valor and gallantry on the battlefield during two separate combat tours of duty in the Republic of Vietnam.   He was awarded the Silver Star, the Legion of Merit (2OLC), the Bronze Star with Valor, the Army Commendation Medal with Valor, the Air Medal and the Purple Heart.   Due to extraordinary service later in his career, he also received the Defense Superior Service Medal.   During his active-duty career, he earned a master’s degree in nuclear physics from Tulane University, and he had the great privilege of teaching Math to cadets at the United States Military Academy for three years.

After retiring from active-duty, he accepted a position as a Teacher and the Director of Building and Grounds at the Lawrenceville School where he worked for 16 years.   Students, faculty and school employees alike all affectionately knew him as “The Colonel”.   For many years, he coached the Mighty Big Blue Hamill House football team whose members had the special privilege of benefiting from his lifelong passion for football.  He also served as the Director of the Lawrenceville School Camp in northwest New Jersey where he and Lawrenceville students provided a free multi-week overnight outdoor summer camp experience for underprivileged youth.   Students elected him as an Honorary Member of the Lawrenceville classes of 1988, 1997 and 2002.  The School bestowed upon him the Masters Award in recognition of his excellence as a Math teacher.  The many students who he taught, coached, mentored and inspired all hold fond memories of him. 

On November 29, 1958, the date of the Army/Navy game, he attended the only event that could have ever possibly prevented him from going to the game – his marriage to Margaret Patricia Peck (Patty), the love of his life.  Shortly before his marriage, as a 23 year-old Second Lieutenant assigned to the 101st Airborne Division, he included the following sentence in a letter to his future parents-in-law: “In the course of twenty-three years, God, in his infinite kindness, has given me gifts of immeasurable value.  I include therein the gifts of my religion, my mother, my father, my sister, and now he has given me the greatest gift of all, your Patty.”  His selfless and unwavering devotion to his faith, Patty and his family was the greatest of the innumerable abundant gifts that he provided throughout the course of his life.

He is survived by his wife, Patty, their daughter and her husband,  their three sons and their wives, and  12 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

A funeral Mass offered in thanksgiving for his life was celebrated at Saint Ann’s Church, 1253 Lawrenceville Rd., at 11 AM on Thursday, December 12.  

In lieu of flowers, donations in his honor may be made to Army Football or Saint Ann’s parish in Lawrenceville.

***********  Headlines in The Athletic:

Dolphins, Bills Sell Stakes in Teams to Private Equity Firms

NFL Owners Approve 15% Sale of Raiders

NFL Owners Approve 8% Sale of Eagles to Investment Groups

Why, you ask, does anyone want, say, eight per cent of a team, when you’re not going to have any say whatsoever in the way it’s run? 

Simple.  I assume that you, like me, are not in the market for a piece of an NFL club, but for someone who can afford it, it’s almost scary what can happen to your investment.

Eagles’ owner Jeffrey Lurie paid $185 million for the Eagles in 1994 - and most people thought he’d overpaid.

But based on what two different groups paid for what amounts to eight per cent of the team, the franchise is now valued at $8.3 BILLION!

Do the math: Mr. Lurie just received eight per cent of $8.3 billion - or $664 million.  Now, after taxes and commissions and legal fees and whatnot, he’s still going to have a lot of money.

Not that he needs more money - right now - but he’s wise enough to know that the time will come when he’s going to want this children (actually, I don’t even know if he has any) to inherit the team, and he wants to prevent a situation where  they have to sell the team to pay the inheritance tax.

(At least that’s what I suspect is happening.)

One thing’s for sure - the NFL had to change its policies to allow investment groups to purchase pieces of teams because the values of the franchises have increased to the point where they’re running out of people who can afford to buy teams in their entirety.



*********** Good-bye, beach volleyball.  According to this article in The Athletic, additional spending on  employees - er, student-athletes - as a result of the recent House decision (requiring colleges to share revenues with their athletes) could mean doom for “Olympic” (once known as “minor”) sports.  Colleges, which have played a major role in development of athletes (not just USA athletes, either) in Olympic sports may no longer be able to fund them.

For years, leaders in the Olympic and Paralympic movement have lobbied colleges and universities to preserve their broad-based sports programs.

To and through its Collegiate Advisory Council, with the NCAA, in Congress and during the Games, they have shared the necessity of the collegiate pipeline in training Team USA athletes.

On Tuesday, LA28 Chairperson and President Casey Wasserman made clear the existential threat in a room of college athletics administrators at the SBJ's Intercollegiate Athletics Forum, presented by Learfield, reports SBJ's Rachel Axon.

“That fork in the road is if football leaves the system and the money leaves the system, Team USA is over,” Wasserman said. “We can pretend like that's not the case. That is unequivocally the case. You add $20 million of expense to the athletic department. What's the first thing you cut? ... Olympic sports, non-revenue sports. You cut the sports that cost money that don't generate revenue.”

That threat has hung over the movement like a Sword of Damocles for the better part of a decade as the collegiate sports system has gone through iterative, substantial changes.

Up next is the adoption of the settlement in the House v. NCAA anti-trust litigation, which is expected to be approved next year and includes, among its provisions, a revenue sharing portion that Power Four schools anticipate adding around $20 million annually’

The changes to finances at the collegiate level have spelled concerns in the Olympic sports -- and, to a far lesser degree, the Paralympic sports -- world. Many of them saw cuts to programs the last time college athletics saw a significant impact on finances in the COVID-19 pandemic.

But the system is the lifeblood not just of Team USA, but of athletes internationally -- a fact Wasserman underscored at IAF.

More than 75% of Team USA athletes competed and trained collegiately, and more than 1,000 current and former NCAA athletes competed for more than 100 countries.

Earlier Tuesday, the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee and the National Football Foundation highlighted the connection between the two, hosting the Team USA Collegiate Recognition Awards.

“A lot of schools will hang in, not just in California, but in the country, until 2028, until the games are in L.A.,” Wasserman said. “And after that, you're going to see a lot more schools have SEC number of teams than former Pac-12 numbers of teams. The days of 25 and 30 teams are over. So now you're going to have 15 to 17.”

Hmmm.  Maybe instead of pleading to Congress (aka the American taxpayer), they ought to try hitting up the NFL, which has been busy plowing money into a sport which it almost singlehandedly made into an Olympic sport - flag football.



***********  Proposed amendment to the WIAA handbook:

Participation in girls sports would be limited to students assigned female at birth.

Now, who the hell came up with this “assigned female” garbage?  Talk about woke nonsense. Unless, that is, they consider God to be the one doing the “assigning.”

(If I could find a bookie who’d take the bet, I’d wager that in Washington, a state so dominated by a fanatical liberal majority  in just one large county,  this amendment won’t pass anyhow.)


***********  With colleges now paying players upwards of a million dollars to play “college” football, with colleges (or, technically their “collectives” ) bidding against each other for players, how much longer will it be before the NFL gets in on the auction?

In 1925, when the Chicago Bears signed Red Grange to play for them just weeks after his eligibility at Illinois had come come to an end, college  coaches raised so much hell that the NFL (which was hardly strong enough then to take on  the colleges) passed a rule:

"It is the unanimous decision of this meeting that every member of the National Football League be positively prohibited from inducing or attempting to induce any college player to engage in professional football until his class at college shall have graduated..."

The penalty for a violation was harsh: a one-thousand-dollar fine!

The rule has changed slightly over the years, but the principle remains the same: only the NFL itself stands in the way of its signing any player it wishes.  Were it to decide this winter to draft and sign college underclassmen, colleges would be powerless to stop it.

Should the NFL vote to do so, it seems likely that any attempt by colleges - now de facto professionals themselves - to stand in the way would be seen as an illegal attempt to  deny a player the opportunity to sell his talents to the highest bidder.

It wouldn’t even require action by the whole league - just one renegade owner  acting on his own. (Is there another Al Davis?)  Or one college player who’s had a successful freshman season and wants to make more money than the colleges are offering. The lawsuit(s), I’m as certain as I can be, would be successful.

The colleges, besides openly paying players, have created the conditions making it possible.  They've blown their cover of amateurism. And with players hanging around for five and six years and graduate transfers making the concept of eligibility a thing of the  past, with multiple transfers all but making a mockery of degree requirements, they’ve  forfeited any claim they might have once had that players needed to stay in college for a specified period of time.


***********  So. Bill Belichick is going to be a Tar Heel.  My wife and I just finished watching the 30 for 30 “Two Bills.”

Belichick to UNC sounds interesting. At least at first.

There’s the name, a la Deion Sanders. But Sanders is a salesman and he’s very outgoing. Belichick is not. How far does a name go in giving a coach a recruiting advantage? Answer” not very.  Belichick’s name notwithstanding, UNC is still going to have to greatly increase their NIL funding because his name won’t recruit kids the way money will.

Belichick had the advantage of an owner who gave him free rein and left him alone, while at UNC there appears to be a huge and nasty power struggle going on between the athletics department and the board of trustees.

Forget the idea that “managing” college kids is going to be easier than pros.  With NIL and multiple transfers, today’s college football players are becoming even less manageable than pros.

There is not - yet - one example of a former NFL coach being greatly successful in college without prior college experience. (Saban don’t forget,  was a successful college coach before going to the Dolphins.)

Conferring “coach in waiting” stature on his son is insane. The woods are not exactly full of sons of successful coaches who have succeeded their fathers and been successful themselves.  I don’t even think it’s a good idea for a school to lock itself into an existing coach for more than five years, let alone to his son.

With all those negatives,  though, Belichick is a different guy.  He’s very smart, he really knows the game, and  he’s certainly earned his status as one of the greatest coaches of all time.  Pro coaches, that is.

But college football and pro football are not the same game, and I wonder if somehow he let himself get blinded to that fact.

And then there’s the wild card.  Elderly Coach Belichick is said to have a “close friendship” with a 23-year-old  woman. She evidently has no understanding of how  difficult the  life of a college coach’s wife can be  - when her husband’s  life is not his own.  The demands on his time and energy are endless. Belichick and his young friend haven’t been together that long, so  it seems to me there’s a good chance she has no idea how neglected a college coach’s wife can feel once football season rolls around.  Was there not one  person in North Carolina’s decision-making circle who saw this warning flag?



***********   We purchased your videos and used them to install the system.  We had more success than in previous years. At the end of the day,  the bigger,  faster teams gave us problems, but we were competitive unlike years past.

I have a question about splits.   We went zero splits.  I liked the proximity to double teams, but it also brought a lot of defenders to the power hole.   

Have you widened your splits to get those overloaded boxes spread out a bit?  And if so, how far?

Thanks in advance


Hi Coach -

Good question. It’s hard to find one I haven’t been asked, and this is one I’ve been asked often.

The short answer is that once I made the decision to close ‘em up I never went back. The longer answer is that while I may on occasion split a man slightly to gain an advantage on a particular play,  I’ve never adjusted splits in response to something the defense has done.

To me those splits are the basis of my offense, and I don’t budge on that. I don’t think I need to go into all the reasons why that is. A major reason, though,  is to make us better at protecting our inside gaps, and if that were all that zero splits did, that would be enough for me.

For sure, they are a real pain in the ass for defenses.

If things are unusually crowded between the tackles, it means they are wasting people in the box. So I will run outside. It sounds simple, and like everything else about the Double Wing, nothing is as simple as it looks, but it’s always been important to me to have the threat of a good sweep to keep people honest.

Be sure to get back to me if you’d like me to clarify anything.  I don’t mind. My interest is in helping you be successful.


*********** When Luigi  the rich kid, the (alleged) New York murderer,  got recognized - and caught - in Altoona, Pennsylvania, the first thing I thought was, “He’s never spent any time in a small town.”

Now, Altoona, with 60,000 people or so isn’t necessarily small, but there’s a world of difference between it and a city of several hundred thousand or more.

In New York City, Luigi could have painted his face blue and carried a poleaxe into a McDonalds and nobody would have paid him a bit of attention - maybe because they were afraid of angering him by staring, but more likely because in a city like New York, where people are used to seeing almost anything, NOTHING seems out of place.

Not so in a smaller  town. I’ve lived in some small cities and I’ve coached in some really tiny places.  And one thing anybody who’s lived in such places knows is that people notice. And they’re hyper alert to anomalies - things (or people) who just seem out of place.

If Luigi the (alleged) killer had only known that, he'd have known better than  to go into a small-town McDonalds wearing a hoodie and a surgical mask and then sit in the back of the store tapping away at his laptop, as if  the people behind the counter see that sort of stuff from strangers every day.

Of course, he did plenty of other stupid “arrest me” things, which really pisses me off because now here he is, a  guy who went to a private prep school where the tuition is $40,000 a year,  yet claims  that he needs a public defender.  Shouldn't he  at least have tried to hide, or wear a disguise,  or look innocent?


***********  Jimmy Conzelman, longtime coach of the Chicago Cardinals, told about his first game as the Cardinals’ coach, which happened to be against the crosstown rival Bears.

“I had a naked reverse play that worked very well. As soon as I took over the Cardinals, I put it into the offense. Right after we got that first touchdown we got the ball again and our quarterback called a reverse play. Lloyd Madden, a rookie back from the Colorado School of Mines, got the ball and broke into the clear. Lloyd, fresh out of college, didn't realize that in our game the goal posts were on the goal line. He stopped running 10 yards away from the goal post and the Bears clobbered him.”


***********  Greasy Neale, who coached the Philadelphia Eagles to NFL titles in 1949 and 1950,  gave an example, years later, of the lengths to which coaches would go to get information. 

I began thinking about installing the T formation.  I was naturally impressed with that 73 to 0 beating the Bears had pinned on the Redskins the year before (in the NFL title game - HW) and I wanted to know more about how they did it.

One day I got hold of a newsreel fellow and had him run off his reel of the game. When he finished, I said, “How is it that your cameras were shooting only when they were making the spectacular plays?”

He laughed and said, "We shot the whole game. Then we edited the footage so we could show all the big plays in a short time in the movie houses. We have the whole game on film.”

"What will it cost me?” I asked.

“I'll sell you a print for $156,”  he said.

I gave him the money and took the film. Five hours every day during the next five months, I studied that movie and I found a way to improve on the Bears’ offense.”

 

*********** After nine years as Washington State’s president, Kirk Schultz will retire this summer, and I happened to find something interesting he said in an interview in our local paper:

How would you describe the future of WSU Athletics?

It's a complicated question. So now we have a rebuilt PAC-12, and I am going to be the first to admit, I've tried to tell all of our groups, I am under no illusion that the rebuilt PAC-12 is like the old PAC-12.   And sometimes fans will go, "Oh, it's not the same.”  Well, you're right – it's not the same.

But if you look at all these other conferences out there, you look at what the SEC was eight years ago, you look at what the Big 12 was eight years ago – all these conferences have changed, and I think that's OK. 

And to be honest, the rebuilt PAC-12 has a lot more schools that look a lot more like Washington State University, land-grant universities with similar academic and research profiles, like Colorado State, Utah State and so forth.

So I actually think the future in terms of our conference affiliation looks really bright for us, and I think we're going to be very competitive athletically in that particular conference. We are going to be in the western half of the United States; that footprint feels good. We are not sending our student athletes to Chapel Hill or wherever on a regular basis to have to compete. And I just think at the end of the day, as they get their degrees, this is a far better place for them to be.  So that’s all the positives.

WSU got used to, for many years, getting a very large check annually from the Pac 12 conference. You know, $35–$36 million came in. And largely, if you say, how did we financially support our athletic program? It was off PAC-12 revenues. Our donors were modest. You know, our ticket sales were good but not great. And that was the way we kind of funded athletics programs. 

Well, now with the new PAC-12, when we get a new media deal done, there's going to be instead of $35–$36 million, maybe we get $18 million each year, or $16 million, and what you wind up having is now a  $20 million hole between what you used to get and what you have to get moving forward. So we're going to have to get creative about how we close that $20 million gap. 

So what he’s saying is that only real problem is money.  Isn’t that what it’s been all along?


***********  The great Duke Slater!!!!

Clinton was a good old fashioned railroad and river town.  Had to be tough to live there! Still do.

Brad Knight
Clarinda, Iowa



***********   That relief of Duke Slater is an outstanding work of art!

Nice video here:   https://facilities.uiowa.edu/art-on-campus/artwork/duke-slater-groundbreaker-and-champion

The video talks about how the iconic photo, of a helmetless Slater blocking 3 Notre Damers, acted as the inspiration for the relief.

The photo is about halfway down the page here:

https://ouriowaheritage.com/our-iowa-heritage-duke-slater/

John Rothwell
Corpus Christi, Texas



***********   Every person can state personal views about where we are in 'postseason' CFB, but for me it stinks. This committee has created a bigger mess than ever. And, yeah, I've read the putative reasons Army will play Marshall (and I absolutely don't intend to denigrate the Herd), but still, Army won the conference with an undefeated record, yet two other members, Tulane and Navy, play Florida and Oklahoma, respectively. Where's the reward for winning the AAC? And, btw, the Army game will kick off at 2115 (9:15). As I said, it stinks. Is Chet Gladchuck running the show?

All quiz subjects are interesting, but Duke Slater is fascinating. Great pick.

I have GEHA insurance. Never used it. Might get rid of it after finding out it has replaced Arrowhead, as good and fitting a name as any in the country.

Loved the coaching carousel commentary. In mentioning Charlotte, however, you failed to mention we'll be losing the answer to a recent Wyatt Quiz. The big fellow patrolling the sideline in his ripped T-shirts is no more.

John Vermillion                              
St Petersburg, Florida

Biff Poggi, I imagine, will soon be back in Baltimore, where he knows how to win as a high school coach. Of course, not everyone there agrees with his methods.

By the way, he was once the very successful head coach at Baltimore’s Gilman School, his alma mater and also that of Luigi the (alleged) killer.


***********   Hugh,

The current CFP won’t last.  Whether it’s seeding every team without automatic byes for conference champs, or increasing the number of teams to 16, or to a complete overhaul of the entire system I’ll bet what we see in the post-season next year will be a change from this year.

The bowl games:  Too many, and many made meaningless with the specter of the portal/NIL hanging over our heads.  Until something is done about this the bowl games will become defunct.

How about Kenny Dillingham’s approach to the portal when it comes to his players?
Declare for the portal you can still be on the team, go to meetings, practice, play in the game, and we’ll do everything we can to help you get to your destination.  Huh?

More conference games?  Nick Saban thinks so. 

Sorry, but this whole mess was created by becoming more greedy than King Midas himself.  The MEDIA, idea of these stupid super conferences, the crazy realignments, NIL, and the portal have all contributed to professionalizing the game.

Have a great week!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas

Bowl games, did you say?  Remember the days when players were excited to play in them - and get swag bags  worth as much as $300?



 


*********** QUIZ ANSWER:   Duke Slater  (his given name was Frederick, but he somehow got the nickname because that was the name of the family dog)  was born in Normal, Illinois but when he was 13, his family moved to Clinton, Iowa, when his father  became pastor of Bethel AME (African Methodist Episcopal) Church there.

Although his father refused to let him play football, considering it  a sport for “roughnecks,” he went out for the local high school team anyhow, as a sophomore.  When his Dad discovered his wife repairing a torn football jersey, he got wise to what was going on and cracked down further.  But after  the son went on a hunger strike, Dad agreed to let him play - on the condition that he not get hurt.

From then on, he made it a point never to mention any bumps and bruises. 

Another potential hurdle came when players had to furnish their own equipment.  The family didn’t have the money to buy him both shoes AND a helmet, and when his father asked him which he needed more, he chose the shoes.  Thereafter, for his entire high school career and much of his college career, he played helmetless.

After he helped lead Clinton High to two (mythical) state titles, his play came to the attention of University of Iowa alumni who persuaded him to become a Hawkeye.

Black players were rare on college rosters at that time, but Iowa was an exception, having already had some  standout black players. Our guy was big for his time (6-1, 215) and  with him on the line, Iowa enjoyed success it hadn’t known before.

He became Iowa’s first black All-American player as a sophomore and was honored again as a senior, when Iowa went unbeaten and won its first-ever Big Ten title.

Chicago’s Fritz Crisler, who would go on to become a legend as a coach, called him “the best tackle I ever played against.”

Said Notre Dame’s Knute Rockne,  “No better tackle ever trod a western gridiron.”

After his senior season he enrolled in Iowa Law School, and after holding a variety of jobs to pay his tuition, he signed to play professional football with the  Rock Island (Illinois) Independents,  in the then two-year-old National Football League, for  $1,500.  (That’s for the season.) And he became the  first Black lineman in NFL history.

He put his law school plans on hold, but in 1925 he resumed pursuit of his law degree,  taking classes in the morning in Iowa City and then practicing with Rock Island in the afternoon.

In 10 NFL seasons, he made seven all-pro teams as a member of the Independents and then the Chicago Cardinals. For a good part of his career,  he was the NFL’s only black player.

How good was he? Recalled the Chicago Bear’s George Halas years later, “They talked about Fordham's famous Seven Blocks of Granite in the mid-1930s and what a line that was. Well, (he) was a One Man Line a decade before that.”

He retired in 1931 “when I realized that football is a young man’s game,” but after moving to Chicago to practice law, he continued to play with  the Chicago Blackhawks, a team made up entirely of Black players.

He became an assistant district attorney and, in 1948,  a municipal court judge, and in 1960 he became the first black judge  on the Superior Court of Chicago.

In 1951, as a member of the College Football Hall of Fame’s  inaugural class. he became the first black man so honored.


He is in the  Iowa High School Football Hall of Fame and the Iowa Sports Hall of Fame.

In 1946,  he was one of 11 players chosen to an all-time college football All-American team and in 1969,  he was as one of 44 players chosen to an all-century team commemorating 100 years of college football.

In 1989 he was selected as a tackle on Iowa’s 100th anniversary team.

In 2020 he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.


Duke Slater Field  at Iowa’s Kinnick Stadium is named in his honor, and outside the stadium, he’s honored by a huge bronze relief showing him in action - without a helmet.


Years later,  remembering  his helmetless  days,  he joked,   “In thinking back, I’m sure Dad made a mistake. I wear size 14 shoes, and he would have saved money if he had bought the helmet.”

CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING DUKE SLATER

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
BRAD KNIGHT - CLARINDA, IOWA
JOHN ROTHWELL - CORPUS CHRISTI, TEXAS
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY
MIKE FORISTIERE - MARSING, IDAHO




*********** QUIZ):In its history, the NFL has been led by three “presidents” (from 1920-1941) and five “commissioners” (1941 to the present).

Our guy was one of the presidents. He held the job for 19 years, from 1921 to 1939.  He has  been called “The Father of the NFL,” and “The Father of Professional Football.”  Certainly, more than any other individual, he was responsible for keeping the NFL alive in its formative years and through the Depression, and forging much of the structure that today’s NFL stands on.

Born in Columbus Ohio in 1880,  he was working as assistant sports editor of the Ohio State Journal when he organized a baseball team made up of employees of the Pennsylvania Railroad’s “Panhandle Division,” and later a football team,  both teams known as the Columbus Panhandles. 

The football Panhandles featured the six Nesser brothers,  all of them boilermakers for the railroad. Because the Panhandles’ players were all railroad employees, they had free  passes which enabled them to travel far and wide at no expense to the team. Consequently,  the Panhandles played most of their games on the road, not only in order to save on expenses, but to make scheduling games easier.

At that time it was common for players to jump from team to team,  playing for the highest bidder. In fact the Panhandles actually played against Knute Rockne six times in one season; each time,  he was playing for a different team.

It was also common for college players to play for their colleges on Saturdays and then, using assumed names,  play on Sundays for professional teams.

The desire by our guy and other owners to put an end to  these practices was a major factor in the founding of the National Football League

On September 17,  1920, a  group of team representatives met in an automobile showroom in Canton, Ohio for the purpose of forming  a league,  which they called the American Football Association.

When our guy was asked to serve as its president, he  declined, reportedly saying, “No, I’m an unknown. This league should be headed by the biggest name in football - Jim Thorpe,” whereupon Big Jim was elected president.

The following April, after one season of play, the league met again in Canton. The name of the league was changed to the National Football League.   And our guy was named president,  replacing Thorpe,  at a salary of $1,000 a year.

He wasn't on the job long before he had to come down hard on  a team for using college players under phony names. Handed proof that the Green Bay team was guilty of the practice,  he ordered the franchise vacated and returned to the league.  (A year later,  a Green Bay team reorganized under the leadership of Curly Lambeau would be readmitted to the league.)

In 1925 the new president was faced with the league’s first real crisis when the Chicago Bears signed - and played - Red Grange immediately following the end of his college season,  and then, shortly after that,  the Duluth Eskimos signed Stanford star Ernie Nevers.

There was considerable public outcry, not to mention  rage among college coaches, and at the president’s  insistence,  the owners adopted a resolution that read:

The National Football League places itself on record as unalterably opposed to any encroachment upon college football and hereby pledges its hearty support to college authorities in maintaining and advancing interest in college football and in preserving the amateur standing of all college athletes.

We believe there is a public demand for professional football… And to the end that this league may not jeopardize the amateur standing of any college player, it is the unanimous decision of this meeting that every member of the National Football League be positively prohibited from inducing or attempting to induce any college player to engage in professional football until his class at college shall have graduated, and any member violating this rule be fined not less than $1000 or loss of its franchise, or both. 

Through much of his time in the presidency, he had to deal with rival leagues, as well as the comings and goings of lesser-funded teams, most of them in smaller cities. He had had considerable experience with organized baseball and,  convinced that the NFL needed to emulate major league baseball in locating in larger cities, he sold Tim Mara a franchise in New York (the Giants), persuaded George Preston Marshall to put a team in Boston (the Redskins, which would soon be moved to Washington), and arranged for the Portsmouth, Ohio team to be relocated to Detroit.  He  sold Art Rooney a franchise in Pittsburgh (originally called the Pirates) and brought in Bert Bell in Philadelphia to take over the Frankford Yellow Jackets and rebrand them as the Eagles.

As NFL president, he oversaw the introduction of many of the rules that have helped bring about the great fan interest and the competitive parity that today’s league enjoys, including the rearrangement of the league into divisions and conferences, the resultant post-season playoffs,  the player draft,  and the waiver rule.

In all, he served from 1921 until his death in 1939.   By that time, the NFL had strengthened itself  through “addition by subtraction”: where in 1926 it had as many as 22 members,  by 1939 it was down to ten members.  But all - except for Green Bay - were now in “major league” cities.   Thanks in large part to his direction, the NFL was strong enough to survive the Depression and what was to come:  World War II, and the post-war challenge of the All-American Football Conference.

In 1963, he was a member of the very first class inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

He did all this while also serving as president of the professional American Basketball League - a forerunner of the NBA - and running the Columbus minor league baseball team and helping organize baseball’s minor league structure.  At the time of his death, there were 37 minor leagues in America, and 26 of them owed their existence to him.

He was once approached by baseball great Branch Rickey about a job in major league baseball.  “If you give up football,” Rickey said, “I’ll make you the biggest man in baseball.”

His answer: “If that’s the price I’d have to pay, I want no part of it.”

FAIR WARNING: If your answer includes the first name “JOSEPH” you won’t get credit.  That may have been what his mother and father called him when they were angry, but it was NEVER how he was known publicly.  Blame it on Wikipedia, and what it’s doing to sports history.






TUESDAY,  DECEMBER  10,  2024    “Facts can be ignored, but their consequences cannot be escaped.”  Thomas Sowell


*********** Wisdom from Mike Lude: “We went through my first season as a coach undefeated, with two ties. I tried to make up in enthusiasm and dedication what I lacked in coaching experience and expertise. Coaching a bunch of linemen who just the year before were my side-by-side teammates wasn't always easy, but most of the time they at least pretended to listen. I thought I might miss the satisfaction of making a key tackle or throwing a block on a big play, but I was so fired up about getting a chance to coach that I didn't worry about being retired as a player. 

“Because I had played in Nelson's system – we used the single wing he had played in at Michigan – making the transition to coaching was relatively easy. But I soaked up everything I could from the head coach. He was the boss, and he was becoming a respected friend. 

“After my rookie season as an assistant coach, I came down with the mumps, and Dave came to visit during the Christmas break. I had been in agony when one of my testicles had swollen up about the size of a grapefruit. I couldn't even roll over in bed. Dave handed me a championship gold football and said, "Mike, I don't know what's going to happen to you, but I want you to have this gold ball because every man needs two.”

“After two successful seasons at Hillsdale, Dave Nelson was targeted by other, larger schools. That spring, while I was busy coaching the baseball team, Dave told me he was accepting the job of backfield coach at Harvard. President Turner brought in James (Gib) Holgate, another University of Michigan product, as our new coach. He asked Harold Westerman, the other assistant on Nelson’s staff, and me to stay on. We had another good season, scoring 287 points and holding opponents to 67, but we missed a third straight  MIAA championship with two losses and a tie.” 



***********   CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIPS WEEKEND

 
FRIDAY
 
CONFERENCE USA
JACKSONVILLE STATE (9-4) 52,  WESTERN KENTUCKY (8-5) 12 - JACKSONVILLE STATE WAS FAVORED BY 3 -

I didn’t watch it. My eyes were fixed on the Army game.  Is Rich Rod (Jacksonville State’s coach) on his way back to West Virginia? 

***
 
MOUNTAIN WEST
BOISE STATE (12-1) 21, UNLV (10-2) 7 -  BOISE STATE WAS FAVORED BY 4

Ditto:  I was glued to the Army game.

***
 
AMERICAN ATHLETIC
ARMY (11-1) 35, TULANE (9-4) 13 - TULANE WAS FAVORED BY 4.5 -

Army wanted to play; Tulane didn’t.  In my opinion, they folded their tents after losing to Memphis (and losing their shot at a playoff spot).

Army’s coach had his team prepared; Tulane’s coach didn’t.  There are those who think he spent too much time dickering over the North Carolina job.

Army went through the entire game without a penalty, a punt or a turnover.

They were 4/5 on first down plays.   Army put the game away with a third-and-fourth quarter drive that carried 84 yards in 16 plays and - making sure to use the maximum amount of clock on every play - consumed 10 minutes and 44 seconds.

In its first year in the AAC, Army won the  first  conference championship in its 125-year football history.

Army QB Bryan Daily is what the Heisman Trophy was designed to honor.  If Army were in a power 4 conference, he  would have the Heisman locked up.

I’ve been critical of Army coach Jeff Monken, mainly over the way he tried to sell last year’s disastrous move to a shotgun offense, but I have to salute the way he kept the Army team focused and fighting after the disheartening loss to Notre Dame and,  with it,  any shot at a playoff spot.  Granted, he is working with  a special type of person, but it still took a remarkable  job of coaching to keep that one huge disappointing loss from upsetting the entire season.
 
 
SATURDAY
 
BIG-12
ARIZONA STATE (11-2) 45, IOWA STATE (10-3) 19 - ARIZONA STATE WAS FAVORED BY 2.5

245 yards rushing - the Sun Devils’ total -  will win most games.  If the Playoff Committee was really honest about looking at every week as a blank slate, they might have ASU as their Number One team based on this one.  The way these guys are playing, they are as tough as anybody.
 
MAC
OHIO (10-3) 38,  MIAMI (8-5) 3  - MIAMI WAS FAVORED BY 2.5 -

After 56 years and five losses in conference championship games, the Ohio Bobcats finally won a MAC title. They have now had  three straight double-digit-win seasons.

Sure hope that’s enough to keep them happy,  because before the sun went down Saturday, their coach, Tim Albin, who came to Ohio with former coach Frank Solich and spent 20 seasons there, took the  Charlotte job.
 

 
SEC
GEORGIA (11-2) 22,  TEXAS (11-2) 19 OT - TEXAS WAS FAVORED BY 2.5 -

Maybe it’s just me, but I thought this game was the SEC at its best - or, really,  its worst.  With the score 10-6 and 40 seconds left in the third quarter, it was, the astute announcing crew told us, “a low-scoring game.”

Boring?  It was about as exciting as your usual run-of-the-mill NFL game.

In fact, we may have had a sneak peek at the future of big-time college football.  I guess the networks and the Super Conferences think the American public will learn to like 60 minute games consisting of two touchdowns and SIX field goals.

And more dropped passes than you’ll see in a season of high school games.

Coach Sark is about to become acquainted with alumni who fired a guy that produced results like this.  But at least that guy - Mack Brown -  won a national title.  He says ,“Welcome to my world.”

I was hoping that Georgia would win, but just barely, and with its starting  quarterback, Carson Beck, injured, the Playoff Committee would be forced to do to Georgia what it did to Florida State last year, using the same reasoning.

But no… the UGA backup, Gunner Stockton,  more than showed that he can carry the team.  And he can run, even!

Texas, meanwhile, showed us all we needed to see of Quinn Ewers, the million  dollar quarterback who can’t run and throws lollipops.   And can’t act very well on Dr. Pepper commericals, either. Arch Manning mustn’t be as good as Quinn Ewers because he only got in for a play (or was it two?).

Hey, Arch - I see that Ewers is coming back next year.  You’ve put in your time and proved you’re a team guy.  But now it’s time to do something besides ride the pines. Can I be your agent?

 
***
 
SUNBELT - 7:30 PM EASTERN
MARSHALL (9-3) AT LOUISIANA (10-2) - LOUISIANA FAVORED BY 3.5 -

I didn’t watch a down.  I suppose I should have, since Army will be playing Marshall in the Independence Bowl, but  then, after losing its coach (to Southern Miss) and losing plenty of guys to the Transfer Portal, it’s not going to be the same Marshall team that shellacked Louisiana anyhow.
 
***
 
BIG TEN
OREGON (13-0) 45 VS PENN STATE (11-2) 32 - OREGON WAS FAVORED BY 3.5

It started out like a Ducks’ blowout, but Penn State refused to fold,  and made it a  good game. 

Penn State could definitely win it all, but you don’t win big ones when you commit four personal fouls in the first half.

By the end of the first quarter, the two teams had already scored more touchdowns than Texas and Georgia are able to produce in an entire regulation game.

James Franklin sure could have used that run-it-up, last-play touchdown  he allowed  against Maryland in last week’s game.  Too bad.  Instead, his record against top-five teams is now 1-14.
 

 
ACC - 8 PM EASTERN
CLEMSON (10-3) 34,  SMU (11-2) 31 -  SMU WAS FAVORED BY 2.5

A really good game.  As it had done the last time out, Clemson  folded at the end (or, if you wish, SMU came on furiously), but then the Tigers miraculously pulled out a win with a 56-yard last-second field goal. 

Dabo Swinney (post-game):  “Thank you, Jesus.” 

Jesus (as I picture Him):  “For what, Coach?  By the way, didn’t you have a game today?  How’d it go?”

Somebody must have turned over a rock somewhere and when they saw Craig James was under it they asked him if he’d like to stand on the SMU sideline during a game and act as if he’d never done anything to earn the enmity of a nation of college football fans.  (Wonder how that kid of his wound up.)



*********** I’m tired of reading about “strength of schedule.”  To me, the most important consideration is the reflection of a team’s record on the Playoff’s credibility when it proposes to give us a “true national champion.”

It seems to me that if a team goes undefeated - or perhaps loses one or even two close games - in the regular season and then wins it all in the Playoff, the public will accept its claim to be the “national champion.”

But  if those one or two losses should be bad - the kind that no national champion would ever have had on its record back in the dark days of AP-poll-elected champions - then no matter that the team goes on to win the playoff.  The loss(es) would forever taint  the title itself.

For example: should SMU somehow emerge the Playoff winner, its close losses (to BYU early in the season and to Clemson in the ACC championship game) will not in any way diminish the title.

But another example: had Alabama been included in the playoff field and then gone on to win the playoff, its two really bad losses (40-35 to Vanderbilt, 24-3 to Oklahoma, enough in the AP-poll days, to keep it from winning a national title) would have brought its “championship” into question.

Do I hear a  cry for a 128-team playoff? 

Great idea! Let’s settle it on the playing field! Let ‘em all play! (All, that is, except  Kent State, Tulsa, Southern Miss, Middle Tennessee, Kennesaw State, New Mexico State, UMass, UTEP, Temple.  Sorry about that.)

Of course, such a playoff  would take seven weeks.  But in the eyes of the TV people and the Big Ten/SEC  cartel, that’s not so bad, because after the first two weeks, 96 teams’ seasons would be over and they could all kick back and watch what remained of The Playoff.  Isn’t that what the cartel  wants?


***********  The day may come when people will get used to college football players playing six and seven years.

But I’m shocked that anyone with any understanding of the college game could write this sentence:  “Staubach played just three seasons at Navy…”

Yeah, I thought.  “Just” three seasons.

HISTORY LESSON FOR THE WRITER:  When Staubach played,  freshmen weren’t eligible for varsity play.  And there was no such thing as a redshirt.  Or a “graduate transfer.” 

Translation:  EVERYBODY played “just three seasons.”

All of us.  No exceptions.  And then, our eligibility exhausted, those  of us not good enough to play in the 12-team NFL (40-man rosters) got on with our lives, as men had been doing  since the earliest days of college football.


*********** I’m not a big fan of Joe Tessitore and the way he tends to overdramatize things - and insisting on calling certain plays “easy” (as if anything about football is ever easy)  but in calling the Big 12 title game, he noted that last  year, a star player like Arizona State’s Cam Skattebo would undoubtedly opt out of whatever bowl game  the Sun Devils were in.

But let’s not give The Playoff too much credit for this.  The Playoff has all but killed the Bowls As We Know Them. It’s just that it’s provided a few more games that  guys won’t opt out of.  (At least until they form a union.)

Actually, Skattebo  may not have been the best example.  The way he plays the game, and the way he’s played his way up from FCS Sacramento State, it’s possible that he really does like playing enough that he wouldn’t opt out of a bowl game.



*********** One-third of the teams in the playoff field got in without having to play a 13th game:

Indiana, Notre Dame, Ohio State and Tennessee


*********** I’m more and more convinced that a lot of the “RPOs” we see are really predetermined - which makes them just plain, old-fashioned play-action passes.


*********** Interesting back story on Arizona State receiver Xavier Guillory. From Spokane, Washington, he started out at Idaho State, where he established himself as one of the best receivers in FCS.  He’s a native, a member of the Nez Perce Tribe (for those of you who know the story of Chief Joseph).


*********** The SEC championship game was the only game all weekend that had the entire TV audience all to itself.  So, when they announce the ratings, they can brag about how many millions watched the Texas-Georgia snoozer.  Of course they did -  because it just means more.


*********** Whew.  CBS extended its Army-Navy Game Television Agreement For 10 More Years, until 2038.

Thank goodness.

That one single game means so much to the two academies.  The revenue from it is enough to fund most of their athletic budgets, which at Army includes 26 intercollegiate sports. (It might surprise people to know that no federal taxpayer dollars go to support sports at any of the service academies.)



*********** Coaching carousel - North Carolina - Not that they’d have had him anyway, after the way his team played at Army on Friday, but Jon Sumrall’s out of the running after Tulane gave him an extension (!). They’ve been talking seriously with Bill Belichick, and part of the deal, it appears, would be bringing in his son, now the DC at U of Washington, as head coach-in-waiting.  I would love to see this happen.


***********  Coaching carousel - West Virginia - Rich Rodriguez  took the Mountaineers to three straight top-10 seasons (2005-6-7), took Arizona to a Pac-12 Championship Game and just took Jacksonville State (9-4) to a Conference USA title - in the program’s second season in the FBS. He’s 61 now, and perhaps wiser.  Will the Mountaineers have him back?


***********  Coaching carousel - UCF - Scott Frost is back.  He parlayed his undefeated 2017 UCF “national championship” season into his “dream job” at Nebraska, where he wound up with a 16-31 record, a firing, and all sorts of accusations of erratic behavior.  This past season he’s been working as an “analyst” with the LA Rams.  It’s sad to see the way this UCF program declined since he left.  To Frost’s  credit, he  left the Knights  on good terms.


*********** Coaching carousel - Purdue - Barry Odom, who did a great job at UNLV (and didn’t do that bad a job at Missouri) is really into the heavy lifting now, taking on the Purdue job. . Purdue finished 1-11 this year. Odom was 25-25 at Missouri, and 19-8 in his two seasons with UNLV (10-3 this year).  A big asset at UNLV was his OC, Brennan Marion, and he’d be a big asset at Purdue as well, but he’s reported to be first in line for the now-vacant UNLV job


*********** Coaching carousel - Central Michigan - Army assistant Matt Drinkall replaces Jim McElwain, who retired from coaching after his six seasons at CMU. Drinkall came to Army as TE coach when they scarcely used tight ends, and he almost certainly was part of last year’s abortive move to a shotgun offense. He’s been serving as offensive line coach this season.

Before Army, he had a 42-17 record as the head coach at Kansas Wesleyan from 2014-18, and reached  the NAIA semifinals in 2018.


*********** Coaching carousel - Southern Miss - Charles Huff finally pulled the plug at Marshall as soon as his Thundering Herd beat Louisiana in the Sun Belt championship game.


*********** Coaching carousel - Marshall - NC State DC Tony Gibson has taken the Marshall job.


*********** Coaching carousel - Charlotte - Ohio’s Tim Albin leaves after winning the Bobcats’ first-ever MAC championship.  Good luck at a place that hasn’t been easy.


*********** Coaching carousel - Temple - K.C. Keeler, who has had success at Rowan College in New Jersey, then at Delaware, and most recently at Sam Houston State, has returned to his home area (he’s a native of Emmaus, Pennsylvania) to coach the Owls.  This is a serious hire, a much better one than  I thought Temple was capable of.  It shows they mean business. HIs overall record is 271-112-1, and he’s the only coach to win FCS titles at two different schools (Delaware and Sam Houston State). He took Sam Houston State from FCS to FBS - in his first year the Bearkats were 3-9, but this year (their second) they went 9-3.  He wasn’t born yesterday, so he won’t come in expecting the same sort of support he had at Sam Houston State.  Or even Delaware.

K.C. Keeler, speaking at his introductory press conference,  on the importance of culture:

“ I believe that if you just are always taking transfers to fill every gap and hole, it’s tough to really develop a culture.

“So many times, coaches will rush in and try to just accumulate talent. Talent’s great. I love talent, but I want culture.  I do a lot of cross-pollination. I (have) a lot of defensive coaches doing stuff with the offensive guys and offensive coaches doing stuff with the defensive guys because when you’re in the hotel or you’re on the plane or, more importantly, you’re on the sideline, you need to be able to know everybody and trust each other. So again, I do some unique things, and I think those things have moved this in a direction where our culture has been the foundation.”


*********** Hey, Kansas City - What’s with  this “GEHA Field” crap?  What did you do with Arrowhead Stadium?


***********   Nebraska and Ohio State:

Most disgusting fan bases ever. Anything but a national title and/or a win over the rival is unacceptable.
Nebraska still thinking it is the days of Tom Osborne.
tOSU riding Ryan Day to death

Both need some "dark days" or several in a row (see FSU) to come back down to earth.
Nebraska has had many in a row and it still hasn't gotten them off the high horse
Rhule has them bowl eligible and that isn't good enough any more even though they went 7 years not qualifying. They still claim their "national titles make them the greatest ever" even after 20 years or more.
They make their "excuses" such as officials or crowd or whatever and yet Iowa with LESS has beaten them 9 of the last 10 years.
Nebraska is going to “Nebraska” every time we play them.

tOSU is snake bitten vs. Michigan.
BUT Day brought this one on himself. a 22 million dollar roster....22 million being paid to players should equate to a win.  SHOULD. So I do not feel sorry for him.

Let's face it...college football has "evened" up talent wise. Kids want to play sooner. They are looking for "the bag", there is no loyalty, or “help me to develop so I can play as a junior or senior.”

We reap what we sow.

Brad Knight
Clarinda, Iowa

PS: Pass along a “well done” to Tom Walls. I loved his newsletter. His comments are spot on. Football (and wrestling) prepared me for life. Life has a way of kicking you in the teeth (death/divorce/etc) and I remain standing today because I refused to stay down. While I am not currently coaching football I am trying to deliver the same "message" to the girls on my softball team. There is NO ADVERSITY ever that can keep you down if you don't let it.



***********   Glad to see my 'newspaper' was waiting at the doorstep this morning.

You mentioned Ryan Day connected with da Bears. Another coach even closer to Chitown has also: Marcus Freeman. Coach Gutilla has submitted a strong letter recommending Freeman.

Great story about John Mackey. That kind of attitude might have earned a Mackey in his younger years a Black Lion nod.

I very much hope Andrew Luck can do good things at Stanford. I want to believe his father's skill in sports administration have taken root in the son.

John Vermillion                        
St Petersburg, Florida

I do hope that Marcus Freeman stays at Notre Dame.  Thanks to him - I hope I’m not wrong about him  -  the Irish are growing on me.

And although I keep seeing Oliver Luck’s name mentioned for this big job or that, nothing seems to happen.  He sure has got the resume.



***********   Hugh

I guess there are still many young people in this country that embrace their responsibilities and obligations, instead of their rights and privileges.  I am reminded of it when I watch the military academies play football, and honor those who went before them showing their respect and reverence standing at attention for the playing of their alma maters.  Truly inspiring.

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas

Joe, I didn’t even go to West Point, but I get chills when I hear the alma mater.  It was especially impressive after Friday night’s win - with the Corps of Cadets down on the field (I guess you could say they “stormed it”) you could hear them singing it.
 



*********** QUIZ ANSWER:     As a defensive line coach, Jack Patera coached the Fearsome Foursome  when he was with the Rams, and he coached the Purple People Eaters when he was  with the Vikings.  If that wasn’t enough, he was the first coach the Seattle Seahawks ever had.

He was born in Bismarck, North Dakota, but he played his high school ball in Portland, Oregon, where he was an all-city tackle. He played his college ball at the University of Oregon under the great Len Casanova, and later recalled, “Cas probably influenced my life the most. His dedication to coaching, to the U of O,  and to life in general has certainly affected me for the better, I hope.”

A four-year letterman at Oregon, he was named All-Coast, and played in the East-West Shrine Game, the Hula Bowl, and the College All-Star Game.

He was drafted in the fourth round by the Baltimore Colts, and after starting out as a guard was moved to middle linebacker after an injury to the starter.

After three seasons at middle linebacker, he resisted when moved back to guard, and he was  cut.  Two days later he was signed by the St. Louis Cardinals, and played two seasons for them.

In 1960, he was taken by the brand-new Dallas Cowboys in their expansion draft, and became the  first middle linebacker in Cowboys’ history. But he was injured in the fourth game of the season, and never fully recovered.   He stayed with the Cowboys for two seasons before retiring.

He apparently worked well with Cowboys’ new coach Tom Landry, saying, “Landry was more like Cas (Oregon’s Len Casanova)  than other coaches I was associated with and that was probably why we got along so well. I probably learned as much in that first year with Dallas as I learned during my previous six years.”

In 1963, when Harland Svare became the head coach of the Los Angeles Rams, he was then, at 31,  the youngest head coach in NFL history. And he assembled a  staff at least as young as he was, including Jack Patera, at 30.  Part of the reason was his experience running Tom Landry’s defense; it was the same defense Svare ran when he coached under Landry in New York and then succeeded him as the Giants’ DC.

Patera coached the defensive line, and he had some pretty good ones: Rosey Grier, Deacon Jones, Lamar Lundy and Merlin Olsen - the Fearsome Foursome.  He stayed with the Rams for four years - three under Svare and one under George Allen - then moved to New York to spend two seasons under Allie Sherman.

And then he moved to Minnesota,  where he worked under the great Bud Grant and once more he had the privilege of coaching one of the NFL’s great defensive lines - the so-called Purple People Eaters: Carl Eller, Gary Larsen, Jim Marshall and Alan Page.

In his seven years in Minnesota, the Vikings played in four NFL championship games and three Super Bowls, and when he  finally left the Vikings, Grant told him, “You were really a key figure in our success.”

He left the Vikings because he was hired as the coach of the brand-new Seattle Seahawks.

Because, as with most NFL expansion teams, the Seahawks were undertalented, his approach was tough - because that was his way.  Said offensive lineman Ron August, he “was really old-school. We were probably the last team to have a strength and conditioning coach, we were probably the last team to allow water at practice. He was old-school, but he was a great coach.”

But also, his approach was to try to do all sorts of things on offense, which proved to provide entertaining football.

By his third season, the Seahawks went  9-7 and they did the same the next year.

But back-to-back bad seasons, combined with a difficult time during a players’ strike, and an increasingly hostile relationship with the Seattle media cost him his job two games into his seventh season.

He was just 50, but he never coached again.

Recalled receiver Steve Largent, who would go on to have a Hall of Fame career with the Seahawks, “Jack was a guy who was kind of a hard guy, he had a plan, he had a way he thought you should run a team. He wanted a certain kind of player and he tried to get those players. His hands were tied by the way the league allowed teams to enter in the league. It was much harder then than it is now with free agency. But even with that, Jack was fairly successful for the way you had to build a team in those days.

"It really was a fun time period for the team. We didn't have the kind of success we wanted to have, but we were more successful than anyone else had been in the same circumstances. We just had the type of guys on our team who were really quality people, who had a lot of character and who were players who knew how to win."


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING JACK PATERA

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
TOM WALLS - WINNIPEG, MANITOBA
MIKE FORISTIERE - MARSING, IDAHO
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY
 


*********** QUIZ:   He was born in Normal, Illinois but when he was 13, his family moved to Clinton, Iowa, when his father  became pastor of Bethel AME (African Methodist Episcopal) Church there.

Although his father refused to let him play football, considering it  a sport for “roughnecks,” he went out for the local high school team anyhow, as a sophomore.  When his Dad discovered his wife repairing a torn football jersey, he got wise to what was going on and cracked down further.  But after  the son went on a hunger strike, Dad agreed to let him play - on the condition that he not get hurt.

From then on, he made it a point never to mention any bumps and bruises. 

Another potential hurdle came when players had to furnish their own equipment.  The family didn’t have the money to buy him both shoes AND a helmet, and when his father asked him which he needed more, he chose the shoes.  Thereafter, for his entire high school career and much of his college career, he played helmetless.

After he helped lead Clinton High to two (mythical) state titles, his play came to the attention of University of Iowa alumni who persuaded him to become a Hawkeye.

Black players were rare on college rosters at that time, but Iowa was an exception, having already had some  standout black players. Our guy was big for his time (6-1, 215) and  with him on the line, Iowa enjoyed success it hadn’t known before.

He became Iowa’s first black All-American player as a sophomore and was honored again as a senior, when Iowa went unbeaten and won its first-ever Big Ten title.

Chicago’s Fritz Crisler, who would go on to become a legend as a coach, called him “the best tackle I ever played against.”

Said Notre Dame’s Knute Rockne,  “No better tackle ever trod a western gridiron.”

After his senior season he enrolled in Iowa Law School, and after holding a variety of jobs to pay his tuition, he signed to play professional football with the  Rock Island (Illinois) Independents,  in the then two-year-old National Football League, for  $1,500.  (That’s for the season.) And he became the  first Black lineman in NFL history.

He put his law school plans on hold, but in 1925 he resumed pursuit of his law degree,  taking classes in the morning in Iowa City and then practicing with Rock Island in the afternoon.

In 10 NFL seasons, he made seven all-pro teams as a member of the Independents and then the Chicago Cardinals. For a good part of his career,  he was the NFL’s only black player.

How good was he? Recalled the Chicago Bear’s George Halas years later, “They talked about Fordham's famous Seven Blocks of Granite in the mid-1930s and what a line that was. Well, (he) was a One Man Line a decade before that.”

He retired in 1931 “when I realized that football is a young man’s game,” but after moving to Chicago to practice law, he continued to play with  the Chicago Blackhawks, a team made up entirely of Black players.

He became an assistant district attorney and, in 1948,  a municipal court judge, and in 1960 he became the first black judge  on the Superior Court of Chicago.

In 1951, as a member of the College Football Hall of Fame’s  inaugural class. he became the  first black man so honored.

He is in the  Iowa High School Football Hall of Fame and the Iowa Sports Hall of Fame.

In 1946,  he was one of 11 players chosen to an all-time college football All-American team and in 1969,  he was as one of 44 players chosen to an all-century team commemorating 100 years of college football.

In 1989 he was selected as a tackle on Iowa’s 100th anniversary team.

In 2020 he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

The field at Iowa’s Kinnick Stadium is named in his honor, and outside the stadium, he’s honored by a huge bronze relief showing him in action - without a helmet.

Years later,  remembering  his helmetless  days,  he joked,   “In thinking back, I’m sure Dad made a mistake. I wear size 14 shoes, and he would have saved money if he had bought the helmet.”



FRIDAY,  DECEMBER  6,  2024    ““I have made life harder than it’s needed to be.”  Josh Brolin


*********** Wisdom from Mike Lude:  Rena and I had returned to Hillsdale for a weekend in late August, when the football team was getting ready to start practice. We stopped by to visit Dave and his wife, Shirley. He didn't mince any words in our conversation. "I kept telling you that at some point I'd like to have you as an assistant football coach,”  he said. Iremember him saying that before, but I hadn't thought he was serious. Now he was offering me a job on his staff as line coach.

I told him, "Dave, if you're not kidding you may have just hired an assistant football coach.”  I had hoped by the time I was 40 years old my alma mater might hire me as a coach.

There were a few obstacles, though, before I could join Nelson's staff. I had to talk to Harvey Turner, the Hillsdale president, who was concerned about the ethics of my breaking the contract I had in Port Huron. Turner's approval was contingent on getting a release from the superintendent of schools in Port Huron; the superintendent was very understanding, but Brick Fowler, his athletic Director, was not. He ripped me every bit as effectively as I had been by some senior Marine officers. But finally he said, “Well,  I can't stop you if the superintendent has given you the OK.”

So, three months out of college, I was on the Hillsdale payroll for the 1947–48 school year as offensive and defensive line coach, trainer, director of intramurals and physical education instructor.   After the end of football season Dave Nelson said being football coach and athletic  director was taking all his time so he was appointing me head baseball coach. All these responsibilities for a salary of $2,400  - that’s for a year not a month.

I had a hard time comprehending such an unbelievable, incredible, wonderful, astonishing thing had happened to me. If I looked just a little bit smug would you blame me?



***********   CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIPS WEEKEND

Before we start:  I am  rooting - bigly - for all the “NEW GUYS” - Oregon, Texas, SMU and Arizona State to come in and win  their conferences’ titles in their first years as members. (ARMY, TOO, FOR THAT MATTER.)

 
FRIDAY
 
CONFERENCE USA - 7 PM EASTERN
WESTERN KENTUCKY (8-4) AT JACKSONVILLE STATE (8-4) - JACKSONVILLE STATE FAVORED BY 3 -

I don’t know enough about either team but I do know that Rich Rod has done a really good job at Jacksonville and he might be hoping that not everybody in West Virginia (where the job is now open) still hates him for the way he jilted them
 
***
 
MOUNTAIN WEST - 8 PM EASTERN
UNLV (10-2) AT BOISE STATE (11-1) - BOISE STATE FAVORED BY 4 -

For lots of reasons. I have to go with the Broncos. I like Ashton Jeanty; the people at Boise were so gracious when we took my grandson from Australia to visit the blue field; and the Broncos are going to be Pac-12 members. PLUS - they  played Oregon tougher than anybody in the hoity-toity Big Ten.
 
***
 
AMERICAN ATHLETIC - 8 PM EASTERN
TULANE (9-3) AT ARMY (10-1) - TULANE FAVORED BY 4.5 -

Of course I’ll go with Army and Bryson Daily - and take the points. Yes, I remember the way Tulane shut down Navy not so long ago.  And I remember what Notre Dame did to Army a few weeks ago.  But Tulane, while good, is not Notre Dame. I’m hoping that Tulane will be distracted by the talk of their coach, Jon Sumrall, possibly heading to North Carolina (after ONE F—KING YEAR).  And  I’m hoping that an 8 PM game in the Hudson Valley in December will freeze  those southern boys’ asses off.
 
 
SATURDAY
 
BIG-12 - NOON EASTERN
IOWA STATE (10-2) AT ARIZONA STATE (10-2) - ARIZONA STATE FAVORED BY 2.5

Arizona State is really hot.  I like the QB, Sam Leavitt, because he’s an Oregon kid and an old coaching associate, Jon Eagle,  was his high school coach.  And I really like their running back, Cam  Skattebo, because he’s a throwback to the days when everybody had a tough dude like him at running back.
 
***
 
MAC - NOON EASTERN
OHIO (9-3) AT MIAMI (8-4) - MIAMI FAVORED BY 2.5 -

I’ll take Ohio U because, like Aberdeen, Washington - they’re the Bobcats. I know - that’s no better reason  than my wife picking a horse because it’s gray.
 
***
 
SEC - - 4 PM EASTERN
TEXAS (11-1) VS GEORGIA (10-2) AT ATLANTA - TEXAS FAVORED BY 2.5 -

Thinking back  to the Georgia Tech game, will we see “First Half Georgia” or “Second Half Georgia?” Or - what if Georgia plays less than its best for TWO halves? While waiting for answers,  I think Texas wins this one.  Texas, as they say in baseball, is due.
 
***
 
SUNBELT - 7:30 PM EASTERN
MARSHALL (9-3) AT LOUISIANA (10-2) - LOUISIANA FAVORED BY 3.5 -

Marshall did a great job of beating James Madison in OT to get to this game. But Marshall’s Charles Huff has basically been working without a contract, and there are strong rumors that he’s headed to Southern Miss.  For that reason alone, I have to go with the Cajuns.
 
***
 
BIG TEN - 8 PM EASTERN
OREGON (12-0) VS PENN STATE (11-1) AT INDIANAPOLIS - OREGON FAVORED BY 3.5

Last time they met was 1994, in the Rose Bowl.  It was Penn State’s first year in the Big Ten. (Actually, that made it the Big Eleven, but who’s counting anymore?)  The question here is - it’s not Ohio State, but is this game big enough that James Franklin freezes?  Ducks - because Oregon has  weapons, and  also a very tough defense.  And Penn State has James “Run ‘Em Up” Franklin.
 
***
 
ACC - 8 PM EASTERN
CLEMSON (9-3) VS SMU (11-1) AT CHARLOTTE - SMU FAVORED BY 2.5 -

I would ordinarily go for Clemson and I still might, but I was very disappointed in the way they pissed away the South Carolina game.  The only thing that keeps me from going for SMU is that I keep hearing what obnoxious rich bastards  they can be. 
 

 
*********** When we talk about the greatness of certain players, we sometimes can get too carried away with stats.  Unfortunately,  there’s no way of measuring - and therefore no way of letting others know - the value of a man to his team.

It’s not that the Baltimore Colts’ John Mackey didn’t have the stats to justify his being considered one of the greatest tight ends ever to play the game.  But he did so much more  for his team just by being the man he was.

In a book I was perusing - “Sundays at 2:00  With the Baltimore Colts” - former Colts’ General Manager Ernie Accorsi recalled how much Mackey meant to the team.

“John just exuded leadership qualities. He lifted everybody, although he may not be recognized so much for that. Facing a tough road game, you'd see John get on the bus and you knew things were going to be all right.”

Accorsi went on,

In 1970 we traded for wide receiver Roy Jefferson,  who had a reputation for trouble in Pittsburgh.

Coach Don McCafferty told (assistant coach) Dick Bielski, "Run him. I want to see how fast he is.”

I was in McCafferty's office when Dick came back. “What did he run?”  Don asked.

"He wouldn't run. He told me to go to hell.“

About three minutes later, John Mackey walked in and said, "Coach, room him with me. I want him to realize how we do things here. “

How did that work out?  The Colts won the Super Bowl that season.  And, noted Accorsi,  without Jefferson, “We wouldn’t have smelled the Super Bowl.”
 


*********** I was talking with a  friend who said, “Wouldn’t it be cool if the Bears hired Ryan Day?”

Yes, I said, it would be very cool.  And so richly deserved by those “fans” in Columbus.

Ohio State chews up coaches and spits them out.

And we're not talking bad coaches doing bad jobs.

Other than Luke Fickell, who had the job on an interim basis after Jim Tressel was let go, only one coach at Ohio State since 1951 has had a winning percentage less than .750 - and that was John Cooper, at .715.

Yet not one of them got to leave Columbus of his own volition.

To find the last one who did, you have to go back to 1943, when Paul Brown left to join the Navy during World War II.  When  the War ended, he did come back to Ohio -  but to Cleveland, as the first coach of the Browns.

Since Paul Brown…
Carroll Widdoes
Paul Bixler
Wes Fesler
Woody Hayes
Earle Bruce
John Cooper
Jim Tressel
Luke Fickell
Urban Meyer
Ryan Day


*********** You heard it from me, and I heard it from my son, Ed, who lives in Melbourne, Australia (and has to be the Mountain West’s most far-flung reporter): New Mexico’s Devon Dampier (remember seeing him on my last Zoom?) may be about to be snatched up by a Power 4 school.

Utah is said to be closing in on hiring Jason Beck, New Mexico’s offensive coordinator, and I can’t believe that Utah would hire the guy without the QB accompanying him.  Nor can I believe he would take a job without bringing Dampier along. (Transfer Portal opens Monday.)

Me - I hope the story’s true.  Getting a QB like Dampier would light any coach’s fire.

I like Utah’s Kyle Whittingham, and I’ve hated seeing him looking beaten down this season.


***********  The Baltimore Ravens suspended wide receiver Diontae Johnson for one game because he refused to go into the game against the Eagles.

What’s the big deal?  College players routinely refuse to even suit up for bowl games, and nothing happens to them.  No repercussions at all.  Many of them are actually allowed to  stand on the sidelines at the bowl games in street clothes, as if they were still full-fledged members of their teams.   I don’t know whether they still keep their scholarships - including room and board - but I do know that many of those bowl holdouts  are still able to take part in their schools’ pro days. So some on, Ravens - lighten up on old Diontae.


*********** For years, Oregon’s high school sports governing body listened to coaches’ complaints about the lopsided scores of first-round playoff games, especially in the largest classification, 6A.

Finally, they decided to do something about it, but as a result, they wound up with two 6A state championships:

(1) The 6A Open championship.  It’s not unlike the College Football Playoff, with the top 12 teams in the final rankings, adjusted as necessary to make  sure all six 6A league champions get in. The top four seeds get a first-round bye. The winner is the “Class 6A Open Champion.”

(2) The 6A State championship: 16 teams - seeds 13-28 - are placed in a bracket and play for the “state championship.”  The winner is the “Class 6A State champion,” and the winning team’s trophy looks identical to the ones given out to all the state champions in all the other classes.

Yeah.  But what about seeds 29 and higher?  Don’t they deserve a trophy, too?


*********** Oregon State coach Dee Andros believed in power football -  he wrote a book (a pretty good one) titled “Power T Football.”

His philosophy? “Run the ball up the gut and rely on a rugged defense.”

He once ran his fullback, Pete Pifer, 17 straight times in a  win over Syracuse in 1965.

He believed in recruiting the best athletes on their team, regardless of position, and as a result, one of his Oregon State teams had 17 starters who had played either fullback or quarterback on their high school teams.



*********** Credit Stanford for realizing they had to do something.

The last time they were mired like this, in 2006, they hired a real AD - Bob Bowslby - who hired Jim Harbaugh.

Recently, coming off a 3-9 season (their second in a row), Stanford didn’t hire an AD.  Not exactly.  But they did hire a guy who, it appears, will have the power to do exactly what Bob Bowlsby did.

The guy is Andrew Luck.  He’s been hired as “General Manager.” But the question is - will he do what Bowlsby did?

The  situation is dire:   Stanford hasn’t won more than four games in a season since 2018, when David Shaw, after a great  eight-year  run in which the Card went 82-25 (with no season worse than 8-5) and played in three Rose Bowls, saw his program take a nose dive. His last four years at Stanford were 4-8, 4-2 (Covid), 3-9 and 3-9.

His replacement, Troy Taylor, has done no better.  He’s had back-to-back 3-9 seasons. Other than an amazing comeback against Colorado in 2023 and  a shocking upset of Louisville this season, Stanford football under him has been, well, dismal.

What worries me about Andrew Luck is one of the things I heard him say about Troy Taylor:   “He’s had incredible success everywhere he’s been.”

Now, maybe Andrew Luck is including his record as a high school coach, and  I guess he was pretty good, but he’s only been a head coach at two colleges - one of them FCS Sacramento State - for a  total of five years, and his record  at Stanford is 6-18.

When they hired Troy Taylor, I remember thinking, “Is this the best you can do?  Really?”  It appeared to me that they hired on the cheap.

Think of that for a minute - this is one of the world’s great universities.  When they have an opening  in their economics department, or their physics department, or their music department, they’re able to hire from the very best applicants in the field.  And, presumably (taking DEI into account) they do.

Why shouldn’t football be the same?   Hire the best football coach in America and give him a large enough budget and then - just as Stanford’s academics lure students from all over the world - attract football players by showing them that in addition to the value of a Stanford diploma, they’ll prepare players for a potential NFL career by providing them with the very best coaching available anywhere.  Are you listening, Coach Belichick? 



*********** Pitt’s Pat Narduzzi is said to be very excited about the recruiting class that the Panthers just signed:

Pitt recruits
Name, previous school, Pos., Ht./Wt., Stars (Rivals)
Mason Alexander, Hamilton Southeastern (Ind.), DB, 6-0/180, 4
Julian Anderson, Blair Academy (N.J.), ATH, 6-4/215, 3
Jaylin Brown, Cardinal Newman (Fla.), RB, 5-11/185, 3
Torian Chester, Westover (Ga.), OL, 6-5/320, 3
Denim Cook, Bishop Hartley (Ohio), LB, 6-4/245, 3
Akram Elnagmi, UK/NFL Academy (UK), OL, 6-6/295, 3
Jordan Fields, North Shore (Texas), OL, 6-6/265, 3
Joshua Guerrier, Ocoee (Fla.), ATH, 5-11/170, 3
Mason Heintschel, Clay (Ohio), QB, 6-2/200, 3
Max Hunt, Plant (Fla.), TE, 6-5/210, 3
Tony Kinsler, Spruce Creek (Fla.), RB, 5-11/165, 3
Shawn Lee, Milford Academy (N.Y.), ATH, 6-1/180, 3
Cameron Sapp, Miami Palmetto (Fla.), WR, 5-9/165, 3
Synkwan Smith, Roswell (Ga.), 5-9/165, 3
Trevor Sommers, St. Thomas Aquinas (Fla.), DE, 6-3/255, 3
Emmanuel Taylor, Green Run (Va.), WR, 6-2/200, 3
Justin Thompson, Good Counsel (Md.), LB, 6-3/225, 3
*Shep Turk, Thomas Jefferson, OL, 6-5/275, 3
Ja'Kyrian Turner, South Sumter (Fla.), WR, 5-10/170, 3
Cole Woodson, Battlefield (Va.), DB, 6-0/190, 3
Bryce Yates, Matoaca (Va.), WR, 6-0/165, 3

Notice anything strange?

Although Pittsburgh is in the heart of Western Pennsylvania, long a recruiting hotbed, the Panthers signed just one Pennsylvanian - Shep Turk, from suburban Clairton


*********** Instead of pumping all this money into promoting a  softer  type of football (“flag”),  the NFL should get off its ass and get busy making real football safer.


*********** The Following is a reprint of Bill Battle’s obituary by the National Football Foundation.  After becoming a big-time head coach at a very young age, and then becoming an ex-head football coach at a very young age, he did a remarkable job of reinventing himself. 

Bill Battle, the 2008 NFF Outstanding Contribution to Amateur Football Award recipient who played at Alabama, coached at Tennessee and founded the Collegiate Licensing Company, passed away Nov. 28. He was 82.

After accepting the NFF OCAF Award in 2008, Battle joined the NFF Board of Trustees, serving in emeritus capacity until his passing. He also served as the athletics director at Alabama from 2013 to 2017.

"Bill Battle did it all in the world of college athletics, and he did it with class and style," said NFF President & CEO Steve Hatchell. "A player, coach, administrator, and marketing innovator, Bill Battle ranks among the most influential figures of his generation in college athletics. He knew how to motivate on the playing field and in the boardroom, and he was one of the people who understood the future of college athletics, helping lay the foundation for many of the advances which we all enjoy today. We were particularly grateful for his service on the NFF Board of Trustees, and we are deeply saddened by his loss. He was a friend to all and a wonderful man and great American."

A legend in the world of collegiate marketing, Bill Battle leveraged his experiences as a player for Bear Bryant at Alabama and as a head coach at Tennessee to build the Collegiate Licensing Company (CLC) into a major force in the multi-billion-dollar annual market for collegiate merchandise, earning hundreds of million in royalties for his clients over the years.

His passion for collegiate athletics and a strong interest in marketing led him to launch Golden Eagle Enterprises in 1981, and he landed his coach, Bear Bryant, and alma mater, Alabama, as his first licensing client.

By 1983, Battle had signed eight other schools and moved the renamed Collegiate Licensing Company to Atlanta, Georgia from Selma, Alabama. With an unrelenting focus on providing his clients with greater exposure and the broadest range of licensing services, Battle built CLC into a national leader in the multi-billion annual market for collegiate licensed merchandise. Battle sold the enterprise to IMG in 2007. At the time, his client list encompassed more than 200 colleges, universities, bowls and conferences, representing more than 75 percent of the annual market at the time of the sale.

A member of Hall of Fame Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant's first national championship team in 1961, Battle was a three-year starter from 1960-62 for the Crimson Tide, earning spots on the UA All-Decade Team for the 1960s as first-team tight end and second-team defensive end.

Battle followed his playing days by entering the coaching profession as an assistant at the University of Oklahoma under Hall of Fame Coach Bud Wilkinson. From 1964-1965, he served at the U.S. Military Academy, including work as an assistant football coach under Paul Dietzel.

He arrived at the University of Tennessee in 1966 as an assistant to Hall of Fame Coach Doug Dickey, and in 1970, when Dickey left for Florida, Battle, 28 years-old, assumed the head coaching position, becoming the youngest coach at the time, tallying a 59-22-2 record and five straight bowl appearances with three squads finishing in the top ten. His 55 wins rank fourth all-time in UT history, while his .723 winning percentage is sixth in Vol annals.

Following the sale of CLC to IMG, Battle returned to his alma mater in 2013 to serve as director of athletics for four years. During his tenure, Alabama produced three NCAA team national championships (including football in 2015), 10 SEC team championships in five different sports,15 NCAA individual champions, 43 Academic All-Americans, including six Academic All-Americans of the Year and 16 NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship awardees.

Following his tenure as AD, Battle continued on at UA as special assistant to The University of Alabama president where he assisted Dr. Stuart R. Bell in a variety of initiatives benefiting the University and the Department of Athletics.

A native of Birmingham, Ala., Battle was inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of fame in 1981 and was the first member inducted into the National Collegiate Licensing Association Hall of Fame in 2000. He was named one of Street & Smith's 20 Most Influential People in College Athletics.

He has also been inducted into the International Licensing Industry Merchandisers' Association Hall of Fame (2008), the National Association of Collegiate Marketing Administrators Hall of Fame (2010), Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame (2011), the Sporting Goods Industry Hall of Fame (2016) and the Alabama Business Hall of Fame (2017).

He served on the boards of Birmingham Southern College, the Bryant-Jordan Student-Athlete Foundation, The University of Alabama A-Club Educational & Charitable Foundation, the Crimson Tide Foundation and along with his wife, Mary,on UAB's Stem Cell Institute Board.

Battle earned a master's degree from the University of Oklahoma and a bachelor's degree from the University of Alabama. He received an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from The University of Alabama and an Honorary Doctor of Law from Birmingham Southern College.

With all his other accomplishments, let’s not forget that Bill Battle was the head coach at Tennessee who recruited a kid from Huntsville, Alabama named Condredge Holloway, and enabled him to become the first black quarterback in the SEC.



*********** Tom Walls started and  built a strong high school football program (with significant assistance from his wife, Shandy) at Springfield Collegiate Institute, in suburban Winnipeg, Canada.  A major strength of the program is the job Tom does of keeping lots of people involved and keeping them informed year-round.  One of the major ways he does it is through his newsletter, and  I thought you might enjoy his latest…


https://22.files.edl.io/2db8/12/05/24/202435-5ca38d94-1121-4fb6-adb0-10f56c0b8a6b.pdf


*********** It wasn’t that long ago that Eric Bienemy was being passed over for jobs, and woke sportswriters were climbing all over each other to find different ways of suggesting that racism had to be at play.  So what do you suppose they’ll be saying after today’s news that he was just fired by UCLA, whose head coach, DeShaun Foster, is a black man?


***********   We all see the horrible state of CFB. Four times Saturday we witnessed the stupid attempted "planting" of school flags. We saw a few cops outnumbered in some cases by 20:1. At some point those cops will need more than pepper spray. To combat the nasty stuff happening on the field, I would jack up the fine from 100,000 to one million for the school or schools responsible AND sideline the QB and head coaches for, let's say, three games. But that proposal stands near no chance of implementation because the NCAA is virtually impotent. What we've been seeing and you've been reporting for a long while  is important in prime part because the players are being trained to be good citizens and good neighbors. I contrast the way today's CFB players are handled with the way the Hillsdale faculty and family treated young Mike Lude.

John Vermillion                                  
St Petersburg, Florida



***********   Hugh,

While I believe Travis Hunter will win the Heisman (after all he IS the best ALL-AROUND football player in the country based upon the original intention of what the award was to represent).  Two-way starter, great receiver, great DB, and a great special team player.  BUT…based upon results over the last 20 years Jeanty is just as deserving.

Army-Tulane:  The Green Wave can still take home the AAC Championship with a win, and go to a bowl game.  Army can also win it.  Army still has Navy and the CIC Championship.  (I’m wondering which of the two trophies will carry the most weight?). Army will also look forward to a bowl.  The AAC championship will be held at frosty West Point.  Friday night’s high will be in the high 20’s!

The Golden Gophers brought home Paul Bunyan’s axe!  As Coach PJ Fleck says after a win… Row the boat!  Go Gophers!
Ski-U-Mah!! 

ND earned a home playoff game.  Likely a sun belt school.  No matter who it is South Bend in December??  Good luck wit dat! UNLESS… the playoff committee decides Indiana travels a short drive north to make it a money game.

Speaking of money… word has it Michigan offered LSU “commit” Bryce Underwood over 6 million to “flip” his “commitment.”  I guess those words truly don’t have the same meaning they used to.

The Ohio State-Michigan post-game brawl, along with what we saw in a few other games leads me to the following:

As Lou Holtz once stated (and I’m paraphrasing) …Used to be we were more concerned with responsibilities and obligations.  Now it’s all about rights and privileges. 

West Virginia HC candidates… my money is on Jimbo Fisher or Rich Rodriguez.

We lost another coaching legend last week with the passing of former Tennessee Vol Bill Battle.  RIP Coach.

Have a great week!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas

I would like to see Jeanty win the Heisman if only  to  help put a lid on the transfers of kids who are being told that they won’t get noticed at a Group of 5 school





*********** QUIZ ANSWER:     Charlie Caldwell was born on “the Virginia side” of Bristol Virginia-Tennessee.

He was an outstanding football player at Princeton, but he was also an outstanding baseball and basketball player, and he spent a year with the New York Yankees before deciding that he had no future in baseball. As a college player, though, he actually had a higher batting average than a player at rival Columbia - Lou Gehrig.  It may be legend, but according to some, it was his beaning of Yankee first baseman Wally Pipp that led to the headache that caused Pipp to be removed from the lineup and replaced by Gehrig.

Offered a job at Princeton by his former head coach, Bill Roper, he stayed there for three years, mostly coaching the freshmen, but also scouting, which enabled him to travel to places in the Midwest and East and observe many aspects of the game.

After three years, he was offered the head coaching job at Williams College, in Massachusetts, where for much of his time there he coached football, baseball and basketball.

He stayed at Williams for 13 years, and his football teams, running his single wing,  compiled an overall record of 76-37-6. (His three-sport overall record was 254-177-6.)

Williams had to give up football for two years during World War II, and  unable to serve in the armed forces because of nearsightedness, he  got a leave of absence from  Williams so that he could assist at Yale, and he also served as a scout for Army coach Earl Blaik.

And then, as World War II was ending, in 1945 he was hired by his alma mater as its head coach.   The program was down, but by 1950 his Tigers - and their single wing - were gaining national recognition.   From October, 1949 until November, 1952, Princeton won 30 of 31 games, and they were undefeated in both 1950 and  1951.

In 1950 he was named AFCA Coach of the Year, and his tailback, Dick Kazmaier, won the Heisman Trophy.

In 1957, while still the head coach at Princeton, he was diagnosed with terminal cancer and had to step down from his position.  He died in November of that year, at the age of 55.  (I was a sophomore at Yale at the time, and I remember hearing the news that the head coach  of our nemesis, the Princeton Tigers,  had cancer.)

In Charlie Caldwell's  book, Modern Single Wing Football, published in 1950, he told of  what - and who - inspired him to become a coach:

The longer I coach, the more I work with boys, the more clearly I understand that the seemingly small incidents – often chance happenings – are largely responsible for those decisions that shape an individual’s career. In my own case, it took a great team, and the master coach of them all, Knute Rockne, to convince me that football was for me, that coaching was a profession requiring the same kind of intense study and lifelong devotion demanded of teachers, lawyers and even of doctors. 

No, I never played for Rockne. I played against him, or against his 1924 team that included the celebrated four Horsemen, Elmer Layden, Harry Stuhldreher, Jim Crowley and Don  Miller. It happened in Palmer Stadium on a sunny October twenty-fifth, and never before in my life had I spent such a frustrating, disappointing afternoon.  We were beaten, 12-0, and the final score could've been 28-0, or possibly higher. The score didn't bother me – it was the way in which Rockne's men handled us, particularly me.

The 1924 Princeton team was a better-than-average Princeton team. We had beaten Navy, we later turned back Harvard, 34 to 0 and lost to a sound Yale team, 10-0. Yet against Notre Dame I felt as if we were being toyed with. I was backing up the line and I don't believe I made a clean tackle all afternoon.  There would come Layden, or Miller, or someone. I would get set to drop the ball carrier in his tracks and someone would give me a nudge, just enough to throw me off balance, just enough pressure to make me miss. I played the whole game that way, giving a completely lackluster performance. 

We were walking up the chute  to the dressing rooms after the game and I actually felt ready for another two hours of contact. I wasn't tired, nor was I beaten down physically as I generally was after a big game. Others walking with me agreed. As we pieced together our individual reactions to our defeat, we began to see that we had met something new, something we had never anticipated. We, and I am writing this in retrospect, had been subjected to our first lesson  in what might be called the science of football. 

These Rockne inspired thoughts stayed with me for a long,  long time.

CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING CHARLIE CALDWELL

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
MIKE FORISTIERE - MARSING, IDAHO
JOE BREMER - WEST SENECA, NEW YORK
TOM DAVIS - SAN MARCOS, CALIFORNIA - Tried to read his book, one of the most difficult books on Football I ever read. 
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY

 


*********** QUIZ:     As a defensive line coach, he coached the Fearsome Foursome  when he was with the Rams, and he coached the Purple People Eaters when he was  with the Vikings.  If that wasn’t enough, he was the first coach the Seattle Seahawks ever had.

He was born in Bismarck, North Dakota, but he played his high school ball in Portland, Oregon, where he was an all-city tackle. He played his college ball at the University of Oregon under the great Len Casanova, and later recalled, “Cas probably influenced my life the most. His dedication to coaching, to the U of O,  and to life in general has certainly affected me for the better, I hope.”

A four-year letterman at Oregon, he was named All-Coast, and played in the East-West Shrine Game, the Hula Bowl, and the College All-Star Game.

He was drafted in the fourth round by the Baltimore Colts, and after starting out as a guard was moved to middle linebacker after an injury to the starter.

After three seasons at middle linebacker, he resisted when moved back to guard, and he was  cut.  Two days later he was signed by the St. Louis Cardinals, and played two seasons for them.

In 1960, he was taken by the brand-new Dallas Cowboys in their expansion draft, and became the  first middle linebacker in Cowboys’ history. But he was injured in the fourth game of the season, and never fully recovered.   He stayed with the Cowboys for two seasons before retiring.

He apparently worked well with Cowboys’ new coach Tom Landry, saying, “Landry was more like Cas (Oregon’s Len Casanova)  than other coaches I was associated with and that was probably why we got along so well. I probably learned as much in that first year with Dallas as I learned during my previous six years.”

In 1963, when Harland Svare became the head coach of the Los Angeles Rams, he was then, at 31,  the youngest head coach in NFL history. And he assembled a  staff at least as young as he was, including our guy, at 30.  Part of the reason was his experience running Tom Landry’s defense; it was the same defense Svare ran when he coached under Landry in New York and then succeeded him as the Giants’ DC.

Our guy coached the defensive line, and he had some pretty good ones: Rosey Grier, Deacon Jones, Lamar Lundy and Merlin Olsen - the Fearsome Foursome.  He stayed with the Rams for four years - three under Svare and one under George Allen - then moved to New York to spend two seasons under Allie Sherman.

And then he moved to Minnesota,  where he worked under the great Bud Grant and once more he had the privilege of coaching one of the NFL’s great defensive lines - the so-called Purple People Eaters: Carl Eller, Gary Larsen, Jim Marshall and Alan Page.

In his seven years in Minnesota, the Vikings played in four NFL championship games and three Super Bowls, and when he  finally left the Vikings, Grant told him, “You were really a key figure in our success.”

He left the Vikings because he was hired as the coach of the brand-new Seattle Seahawks.

Because, as with most NFL expansion teams, the Seahawks were undertalented, his approach was tough - because that was his way.  Said offensive lineman Ron August, he “was really old-school. We were probably the last team to have a strength and conditioning coach, we were probably the last team to allow water at practice. He was old-school, but he was a great coach.”

But also, his approach was to try to do all sorts of things on offense, which proved to provide entertaining football.

By his third season, the Seahawks went  9-7 and they did the same the next year.

But back-to-back bad seasons, combined with a difficult time during a players’ strike, and an increasingly hostile relationship with the Seattle media cost him his job two games into his seventh season.

He was just 50, but he never coached again.

Recalled receiver Steve Largent, who would go on to have a Hall of Fame career with the Seahawks, “(He) was a guy who was kind of a hard guy, he had a plan, he had a way he thought you should run a team. He wanted a certain kind of player and he tried to get those players. His hands were tied by the way the league allowed teams to enter in the league. It was much harder then than it is now with free agency. But even with that, (he) was fairly successful for the way you had to build a team in those days.

"It really was a fun time period for the team. We didn't have the kind of success we wanted to have, but we were more successful than anyone else had been in the same circumstances. We just had the type of guys on our team who were really quality people, who had a lot of character and who were players who knew how to win."




TUESDAY,  DECEMBER  3,   2024    “If I were to be born again, I would like to be born in the United States.”  Winston Churchill

*********** Wisdom from Mike Lude:  “Dave Nelson's inaugural season as a head coach was successful. Our Hillsdale college team lost just one game, a 13-6 setback at the hands of Albion, one of the school’s longtime rivals in the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association. We were co-champions of the MIAA, and no one took more pride in that season than I did. Besides serving as team captain, I played almost every down at guard.

“Nelson commanded our respect from the start of two-a-day practices going into the 1946 season. The team was a mix of returning veterans and an assortment of talent Nelson had recruited to play the same Michigan Single Wing formation he competed in as a pre-war Wolverine.   Nelson wasn't more than a few years older than those of us who had returned from World War II, so we developed a special rapport with our new coach. Yet he could be tough and demanding, a strong leader who never lost the reins of control.

“We had two outstanding running backs, Tom Wood from  Imlay City,  Michigan, and Bill Young from the Detroit area.  Other standouts on the team included Dick Pifer, a Hillsdale product and brother of Rena; center Alex Clelland from Detroit, and Carl Sweig, a transfer who had played at Albion before the war.

“In the classroom, I was much improved. Good grades came a lot easier now that I had learned to study and prioritize my time. The biology department was proud of me. I was having a great year, with one exception. Rena Pifer, the love interest in my life, had received a scholarship to a preschool education specialty institution in Detroit, during spring semester. That was a downer, but the romance still thrived. Just a few days after our graduation ceremony we were married in Rena’s Hillsdale Presbyterian Church, on June 5, 1947.  After a short honeymoon in Chicago we headed for Port Huron, Michigan, where we had jobs in the city’s summer recreation program. In September Rena would teach kindergarten and I would become a high school assistant football and head baseball coach.

“Then Dave Nelson threw me a curveball. 

“He offered me a job.”


*********** THINK THIS DOESN’T GO OVER WELL WITH SUPERINTENDENTS AND PRINCIPALS?

For several years the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association and the Washington Officials Association (WIAA – WOA) have placed an emphasis on sportsmanship in High School sports throughout the state.

The South Sound Football Officials Association (SSFOA) took this initiative very seriously and in 1998 we created a sportsmanship/scholarship program.  Eligibility for our sportsmanship/scholarship program centers on schools in our service area, players, coaches and fans which exemplify sportsmanship in their football programs.  Since 1998 we have provided over $68,000 in scholarships to help young men and women further their education at the next level.

Our members selected Aberdeen (2A, 3A and 4A schools) and Montesano (1B, 2B and 1A schools) to receive the South Sound Football Officials Association Sportsmanship Award for 2024 season.  Each school will select two students to receive our scholarship award, each student will receive a $1,000 scholarship to help further their education at the next level.
 
Our officials donate money from their game fees to cover the cost of these scholarships along with a generous donation of $2,500.00 from Dr. Mark Simmonds of Simmonds Chiropractic  who is excited to support the program.  We as an Association believe strongly in giving back to communities and this is one way that we can have a positive impact.
 
Congratulations to all the schools this year for an outstanding season, and especially to this year's winners, Aberdeen and Montesano.

***********  Brad Knight’s and my picks - many of them emotionally based, few of them backed by hard analysis,  a couple of them downright idiotic.

THURSDAY - AS I WENT TO PRESS, SO IT WENT UNPREDICTED…

MEMPHIS 34, TULANE 24 - UH-OH.  There went any chance that Tulane had of making the Playoff as the best Group of Five team.  And there, too,  went any chance of anyone other than the Army Corps of Cadets being on hand to watch next Saturday,  when Tulane  visits West Point to play Army for the AAC championship. Until Memphis’ upset, Tulane was ranked higher than any Big-12 team, which would have given it an automatic Playoff berth.


FRIDAY
 
BOISE STATE 34, OREGON STATE 18 - Jeanty 200 and 3 scores. Or more (if they keep him in the game) If he does not win the Heisman it is a sham. He won't...but he should. Will be a nice consolation prize to see a non QB win for a change if we get so lucky. (ME) Watch out, Broncos - the Beavers played very well in beating Washington State last week.  This one is DEFINITELY a trap. But I’m pulling for Jeanty for the Heisman - imagine one from a Group of 5 school!

IN SUM: Did Jeanty lose the  Heisman?   Yes, he may have rushed for 226.  But he had  “only” one TD. And he fumbled!  Yes, it was only his second of the year, but still…   OSU, meanwhile, misses out on a bowl game.
 
COLORADO 52, OKLAHOMA STATE 0 - Will see if the Buffs can rebound after being humbled by the Jayhawks. I think Okie St is bad...I'll take the Buffs. Colorado will attempt to make a statement that their losses should not disqualify them from playoff contention. ME: Have to take the Buffs, now that the Big 12 has decided that it was okay for Shedeur to shove that ref.

IN SUM: Will Shedeur and Hunter pass on the Buffs’  bowl game?  Will “Coach Prime” be back or is he just another daddy coach?  What’s the over/under on the number of assistants Mike Gundy will have to replace?
 
MINNESOTA 24,  WISCONSIN 7 - Give me Wiscy since I hate the NOPHERS. Sorry to my friend Joe Gutilla. The feeling between Nophers and Hawkeyes is mutual hatred.  I'll pick against PJ and the Nophers unless they play Nebraska or Iowa State. Man I do kinda miss Kinnick North. And it still wasn't a fair catch. ME: Gophers all the way.  Just watched Nebraska and Wisconsin in its entirety on Tuesday night, and Fickell picked a hell of a time to let his OC go.  If the Badgers lose, Fickell won’t even collect his (very sizable) bowl bonus this year.

IN SUM:  Badgers have now lost five straight.  Who would have thought that Barry Alvarez’ legacy would be a Wisconsin football team that rushed for 36 yards against that state to the west?
 
NAVY 34,  EAST CAROLINA 20 - Give me the Midshipmen. I kinda want to pick the Pirates (since I once was a Pirate, and Coach Leach loved Pirates) but I think the MIddies are better. ME: I’ve seen the Pirates the last couple of games and - with an interim coach - they’ve played well. I’m going to take a  chance and go ECU.

IN SUM: Navy QB Blake Horvath unavailable?  No problem. Up steps Sophomore Braxton Woodson, 6-3, 215, completing 12 of 19 for 165 and a TD and carrying 15 times for 125 yards and two TDs. Sure hope Army noticed that it is possible to give a backup quarterback enough practice reps that he can run your whole offense.
 
OLE MISS 26, MISSISSIPPI STATE 14 - Give me the Rebs...BIG. All 3 loss SEC teams are going to try to make a statement that they should be in the playoff mix. Kiffin's team was embarrassed by an unrated team last week.  Maybe they choose to show up and not throw 3 INT's in 4 plays at the end of the game. ME:  There’s a lot of emotion in this one but Mississippi State just doesn’t have it.  Rebels by a lot.

IN SUM:  State, playing their best game of the year,  made it a lot closer than anyone expected.
 
COLORADO STATE 42, UTAH STATE 37 - This one has a chance to be a really decent game. I like the Aggies to win a close one, late. This is my favorite of the Aggies.  Had a buddy who coached there for a short while.  ME:  Aggies.  CSU finally  got brought down to earth last week by Fresn

IN SUM: Down 30-13 after three quarters, Rams scored 29 straight points in the fourth. Aggies finally managed a TD with :14 left to make it close.

 
SAN JOSE STATE 34, STANFORD 31- San Jose State drubs Stanford. UNLESS Stanford plays like they did against Louisville. (or be honest if San Jose plays like Lousiville did against Stanford. I'll take SJSU. And hope they can outplay Louisville who played O'Possum (dead) against Stanford. ME:  Lots of Bay Area kids on that SJSU team that would love to beat Stanford.  The game might not matter as much to the Stanford kids after their total fold last week against Cal. But  I’m gonna take a chance and say Stanford.

IN SUM:  Stanford wins this year’s Choker Award. Stanford scored twice in the fourth quarter to take a 31-27 lead, but after a very controversial interception, San Jose State went ahead at 1:55 remaining, and then Stanford’s final comeback attempt ended when the QB fumbled. 


GEORGIA 44, GEORGIA TECH 42 (8 OTS) - Georgia in the rivalry game. I really want to pick Tech because I love their QB. BUT GA has too much on the line. Once considered out of the playoff now they are back in with a chance to move up. ME: Clean, old-fashioned hate.  Since this one’s being played between the hedges, I have to go with UGA.  But give ‘em a game, Tech!

IN SUM: Absolutely amazing game - first because Georgia  didn't seem serious; then, because Georgia did; and then because the two teams went toe-to-toe..
 
IOWA 13, NEBRASKA 10 - HAWKEYES ALL DAY. Only team I dislike more than ISU is Nebraska. A steady dose of KJ against their 3-5 defense and Iowa wins. KJ should be invited to NY. He won't be....but I sure hope he sticks around for another year at Iowa. ME:  Look out, Knighter - I saw what Holgorsen did for NU  against Wisconsin -  they look like a new team. Playing offense. Moving the ball.  Scoring points, even. This is my upset pick.

IN SUM: Nebraska put on the tough guy act, refusing to shake hands, but they couldn't back it up. Huskers' fans deserve better.
 
UTAH 28,  UCF  14 - I'll take the Utes in the battle of the dumpster fires. Utah gave ISU all they wanted a week ago. Whittingham possibly leaving? Hearing rumors. Not sure I believe any of them. But this Utes team has been a disappointment for sure. ME: I HAVE to take the Utes. This could be Kyle Whittingham’s last game.  (A HUGE loss for football if it is.)

IN SUM:  It was Gus Malzahn's last game as UCF head coach.  This program is a sleeping giant.
 
 
SATURDAY
 
 
MICHIGAN 13,  OHIO STATE 10- tOSU wins again FINALLY. But I do expect Michigan to play better than they have all season long. tOSU but close. No dog in the fight, secretly hoping Michigan wins again so i can see the pain on Day's face after spending 22 million to pay this group. ME:  I happen to LIKE Ryan Day and I’d hate for him to have to go through another off-season with a loss to Michigan on his back.  So, too, would Buckeyes’ fans. who will scream for his neck.  Go Buckeyes!

IN SUM:  I don’t see how you could watch this and not believe in jinxes.  Ohio State, literally the best team that money can buy, got its ass whipped by a sub-par Michigan team. The Buckeyes scored just one touchdown and rushed for 77 yards.   Truthfully, it was a boring game.  The only thing that kept it “exciting” was the suspenseful wait to see if Ohio State could actually manage to lose this thing.
 
TENNESSEE 36 VANDERBILT 23 - Tennessee Vols win. Vandy disappointed me last week. I am off the Vandy bandwagon. I should like Tenn. more. Heupel's dad was the coach at Northern when I was in South Dakota. He was a good guy. I think his kid is as well. ME:  Vandy will NOT beat Tennessee. I think General Neyland passed a law back in the 1930s making it illegal.

IN SUM: Vandy gave them a good game - led 17-7 after one period, thanks to a 100-yard return of the opening kickoff -  but the Vols held them to one TD in the entire second half.
 
SOUTH CAROLINA 17,  CLEMSON 14 - I'll take the Cocks to shock the Dabos. RUN THE BALL. Sellers is a stud. AND Clemson deserves to be a little bit humbled. They started this DJ Ukelele mess. Or whatever this toxic qb's name is (will he transfer again? from Florida State and ruin another program) ME: Clemson is 8-1 over the last nine meetings but those days might be over. On the other hand, the Gamecocks have to go into Death Valley, where it’s hard to beat the Tigers.  My ACC blood says Clemson.

IN SUM: South Carolina scored to go ahead with 1:08 left to play.  Clemson drove - only needed a field goal to go into OT - but got impatient and threw - an interception.
 
ARMY 29, UTSA 24 - Army…if and only if they run more than "hey diddle diddle up the middle". I think they rebound. But unfortunately the ND loss keeps them from playoff consideration. Imagine a week to try to get ready to see ground and pound? ME: Army’s a 7-point favorute. But since a one-point loss to Tulsa back in October, Roadrunners have won  three in a row - including a 44-36 win over Memphis.  I think Notre Dame could wind up beating Army twice

IN SUM: Bryson Daily scored twice within two minutes of play early in the  fourth period to give Army a 12-point lead that enabled the Cadets to hang on. Daily was 10 of 17 for 190 yards and a TD passing, and he carried 27 times for 147 yards and two TDs. One thing hasn’t changed since last week’s Notre Dame shellacking: Daily either ran or passed on 59 per cent of Army’s plays.
 
ILLINOIS 38,  NORTHWESTERN 28 - Illini are way too physical for the Nerds of Northwestern. Illinois has had a very solid season. NW is a MESS. Fitz is likely happy to be gone. ME: Years ago, a smartass reporter called them the Mildcats.

IN SUM: I definitely thought this would be worse.

 
LOUISVILLE 41,  KENTUCKY 14- Louisville UNLESS they play like they did against Stanford. I don't think they will. But one never knows. ME:  It’s at Kentucky. I’ll take the Wildcats.  Besides, it’s the SEC, where IT JUST MEANS MORE.

IN SUM:  If you’re a Kentucky fan, there’s no other way to say it:  this was BAD. It was 20-0 at the half.  The Cardinals rushed for 358 yards. Kentucky turned the ball over five times - two fumbles and three interceptions.
 
DUKE 23,  WAKE FOREST 17- I'll take DUKE....I think Duke is just better than WF. They surprised me. I thought when coach bailed to A&M (who wouldn't for that money and recruiting grounds at a FB school) Duke would fall off.  They certainly have not. ME: Both schools are in the family - hard for me to root against either.  So I won’t root.  But Duke is a LOT better.

IN SUM:  With eight seconds left and the game tied, 17-17, Duke’s Maalik Murphy dropped back to pass.  It was second down and there was still time to kick the winning  field goal - if he threw it fast enough.  But no - he bounced around there in the pocket, and I’m yelling “throw the ball!”  He finally  did - too late, I thought - and it went for a 39-yard TD.
 
BAYLOR 45,  KANSAS  17 - No shock, I'll stay with the hottest team in the country to win and make a bowl game.  ROCK CHALK JAYHAWK!!! Daniels and Neal. Difference makers, and good kids. Go get that Bowl game so we can wave the wheat some more. ME: I also say ROCK CHALK JAYHAWK!!!  How about this bit of trivia: Kansas has played more ranked teams than Oregon, Ohio State and Indiana - combined!

IN SUM: A Baylor win would have been a surprise (to me).  But to do it the way they did was a shocker: 603 yards of offense, almost evenly divided between rushing and passing. The Bears put it away with a 21-7 third quarter.  How about some love for Dave Aranda:  after a 2-4  start, Baylor reeled off six straight wins.
 
TEXAS TECH 52, WEST VIRGINIA 15 - If it was at WV I'd take the Mountaineers. But at TT? Give me the Red Raiders.  Even though I hate what the administration did to Mike Leach. I'll never forgive them for that. ME: I hate ‘em  for what they did to Leach, too - except that’s what made him available when Washington State came calling on him in Key West. GO MOUNTAINEERS!

IN SUM: The Mountaineers lost a fumble and threw two interceptions.  They were down, 35-3, at the half.  They’re now looking for a head coach.
 
BOSTON COLLEGE 34, PITT 23 - The fighting O'Briens beat the Fighting Narduzzis. Pittsburgh has let me down too many times. I won't pick Pitt again this year unless we talk about best helmets...and maybe I'd consider them. ME: Hate to see Pitt on the way down, but that’s what seems to be happening, and BC is definitely on the climb.  Eagles.

IN SUM: In five weeks, Pitt went from 7-0 to 7-5.  Against BC, they had an almost unbelievable - this is Pittsburgh, remember - 23 yards rushing.  BC also finishes 7-5, but three of their last four games were wins, and the loss was to ACC leader SMU, 38-28.
 
PENN STATE 44, MARYLAND 7  - Nittany Kittens. Maryland showed a week ago they are not good at backup QB. Penn State is just too close to being playoff bound to lose to Maryland. ME: As Beano Cook once said, after picking Penn State: “Why? Because Penn State ALWAYS beats Maryland.”

IN SUM: With the score 38-7 and Penn State on the Maryland 15 with time for just one more play, what would YOU have done?  I bet that 90 per cent of you out there would say, “Take a knee.”  Not James Franklin.  38-7 wasn’t enough.  He wanted more. But when you’re on the 15 with time for just one play, you almost have to pass, right?  Well, what the hell - let’s throw it.  Actually, they’d thrown an incomplete pass the play before.  This time  - what do you know? - it’s complete for a TD.   Yay, Nittany Lions.  And wouldn’t you know it - Mike Locksley, Maryland’s coach, called it “bullsh—.” What a sorehead, huh?  Franklin? He said, “I’m good with it. Anybody that's not, that's their problem.”

MORE FRANKLIN: The main reason why I dislike James Franklin dates back to 2017, when he  called a timeout with eleven seconds left in order to ice Georgia State’s field goal kicker and get Penn State’s  field-goal-block unit on the field.  Penn State led, 56-0.  Guy’s a prick.

Said New York sports guy Mike Francesa at the time (2017)

“It’s 56-0, let him kick the ball! And then try to lie about it. What a stooge. What he hasn’t got is any class, because why would you do that to a kid up 56-0?! ‘We had our fourth team on the field, we didn’t have a fourth-team field-goal block.’ What the heck do you need to block it for?! Let the ball go through the uprights, you jerk.  So he calls timeout to get the second-team field-goal block in. What a bunch of garbage that is. He sells you that, he’ll sell you anything. The guy iced him, plain and simple, because he wanted a shutout.”

 
NOTRE DAME 49, USC 35 - ND will roll USC. ND is physically better. USC may have better athletic ability BUT ND will beat them up. And be the 5 seed. Too bad they didn't join a conference...they would likely be a higher seed. Oh that and losing to NIU? WTF? ME: It’s in the Coliseum and USC has been playing better.  This one could make the Trojans’ season. I’ll forecast a USC upset.

IN SUM: It was a pretty good game. Except for a minute or so at the end when Notre Dame scored to lead 49-28, the two teams were never separated by more than two scores.  An interesting - and  disappointing - thing to me was some examples of dirty play by the Irish. notably a punch thrown at a downed Trojan by ND’s number 88.
 
ALABAMA 28, AUBURN 14 - A wounded BAMA and J. Milroe win the rivalry game. Another 3 loss SEC team trying to prove worthy of playoff entry. Something tells me if ESPN can find a way Bama makes it in. ME: An Auburn win can’t be allowed to happen. ESPN won’t have it.   You explained why I MUST  forecast a Bama win.  Big. ESPN has willed it.   Bama will play the way they played against Georgia, not against Oklahoma.

IN SUM: Maybe it was because the two teams had ten losses between them, but this one just didn’t have the feel of your typical Iron Bowl.  It seldom commanded my attention - other than when there was a bit of a fracas on the Auburn sideline in the third period. I was rooting for Auburn simply because Alabama is ESPN’s darling and I just know they’re going to find a way into the Playoff.
 
SYRACUSE 42, MIAMI 38 - the U wins. Just better than Cuse. Maybe the U is back. This year should certainly help recruiting as they are nOT too far from being back to the Jimmy Johnson days of old. ME:  The Orange, hot off a win over mighty UConn, sends the ACC reeling with a win over the Canes.

IN SUM: Was anybody else out there rooting for Syracuse?  How’d you like to have been Syracuse QB Kyle McCord on Saturday? He was sort of dumped by Ohio State after last season, and acquired by Syracuse. Under new coach Fran Brown, the Orange has gone 9-3, and he’s been a major reason. Saturday, going against Heisman candidate Cam Ward, he not only wound up on the winning side, he had better  stats: McCord: 26/36/380 and 3 TDs; Ward: 25/36/34 and 2 TDs.  And instead of standing in The Shoe being booed by  100,000 or so angry Buckeye “faithful,” he was the  toast of 45,000 Syracuse fans.
 
SMU 38, CAL 6 - SMU wins and assures themselves a shot to be playoff bound IF they win the Conf Champ game. (this is dumb to say but I can see smaller market teams being bumped if they lose championship weekend in an effort to load SEC and B1G teams into the 12 team field) ME:   If SMU can beat Cal AND win the ACC title game, they may suddenly find themselves the darlings of a VERY big market (the way the Cowboys are playing).  They will win this one, for sure.

IN SUM: After a rough start with a one-point loss to BYU and a narrow win over Nevada, only Duke, in a one-point OT loss has come close to the Mustangs.  Now, in the ACC title game, SMU, the new member that had to buy its way into the conference , faces Clemson a team that tried to buy its way OUT.
 
ARIZONA STATE 49,  ARIZONA 7- Arizona State. Impressive season for the "baby" coach. Hope he doesn't have another tantrum. If they win out they may see playoffs in their future. ME: Strange things happen in this “Territorial Cup” game, but I don’t think the Wildcats have what it takes to pull off an upset.

IN SUM: Sun Devils are in the Big-12  championship game. Sam Leavitt completed 17 of 22 for 291 and three TDs; Cam Skattebo carried 21 times for 177 and three TDs.
 
MISSOURI 28, ARKANSAS 21- As a "pseudo" JAYHAWK I have to hate Mizzou. Give me Arkansas in an upset. ME:  Not that big a fan of Mizzou’s Eli Drinkwitz, and a BIG fan of Arkansas’ Sam Pittman.  So wo-o-o-o-o PIG.

IN SUM: Missouri scored 18 points in the fourth quarter, the last eight coming on a Brady Cook run with 1:53 left to kill the Razorbacks’ upset hopes.
 
RUTGERS 41,  MICHIGAN STATE 14 - I'll take Rutgers.  I dislike Sparty. BUT I do think they have been better than expected this year.  I'd love to see a coach who bailed on the Beavs lose again. ME: Used to like Michigan State, before the last couple of hires.  I like Greg Schiano.  Rutgers.

IN SUM: Jonathan Smith finished his first season at MSU 5-7, and very few people back in Corvallis, Oregon feel bad about it. This time last year, after a week of dickering with the Michigan State people instead of preparing Oregon State for their game with Oregon, he was off to East Lansing in the clumsiest, most ungracious way imaginable.   For the third straight year, the Spartans will stay home during bowl season.
 
UCLA 20, FRESNO STATE 13  - Love the matchup. Maybe. UCLA beats Fresno State giving Iowa a quality loss and a chance to be in the 12 team playoff. LOL Purely kidding. I'll take UCLA who possibly has some things figured out. Maybe Foster will be a better speaker at B1G media days next year. ME:  This has more meaning to the Fresno kids than to the Bruins. But UCLA should have beaten USC and they’ll win this one.

IN SUM: Believe it or not, UCLA hadn’t beaten Fresno State since 2000, but after a roller-coaster season, the Bruins found a way to win this one. They finish 5-7 under first-year coach DeShaun Foster.  The Bulldogs finished 6-6 under interim head coach Tim Skipper.
 
NC STATE 35, NORTH CAROLINA 30- Another rivalry...does Mack Brown have one more win in him? I believe he does. Does Mack Brown come back for another year? That is the even bigger question. ME: Since press time, Mack was let go. This will probably be his last game coaching the Tar Heels. NC State has won the last three games and will win this one. Go Pack!

IN SUM: At least Mack Brown managed to coach this one last time - the bastards wanted him gone last Monday - but his kids couldn’t get the win for him. The Tar Heels went ahead, 30-29, with 1:51 to play, but the Wolfpack drove for the winning score with :25 left.
 
WYOMING 15,  WASHINGTON STATE 14 - Wash. State trounces Wyoming. The Cowboys are just BAD. ME:  WSU has lost two in a row and dropped out of the rankings, but they’re still pretty good - a LOT better than the Cowboys.

IN SUM: Cougars lost their final three games - and their national ranking - dropping this one in the final seconds to one of the Mountain West’s worst teams - a team that the Pac-12 deemed unworthy of membership in their conference. 
 
INDIANA 66, PURDUE 0 - Cignetti wins. Google him. Indiana thumps Purdue. In large part because Purdue is putrid this year. Purdon't might lose a scrimmage.  To themselves. ME: Indiana is still pretty good and might have given Ohio State a better game. I think that Indiana at its worst can still beat Purdue at its best.

IN SUM: It’s hard to imagine a worse beating in such a long rivalry. Indiana had 582 yards of total offense. Purdue had just 67 yards total.  The Boilermakers finished 1-11, and that was enough to cost Ryan Walters his job - and Purdue in excess of $10 million in buyout money for Walters  and his staff.
 
FLORIDA 31, FLORIDA STATE 11- Florida. (Napier has kept his bunch together while Florida State continues to flame out). I've been impressed with Florida's continued improvement when everyone left them for dead. I also think they have gotten healthy finally. ME: Florida food its QB in DJ Lagway.  Now, I hear he may be hurt. If he plays, Florida wins big.  If he doesn’t, Florida wins.

IN SUM: Floriida has made one of the season's most amazing turnarounds.
 
LSU 37, OKLAHOMA 17 - Sooners are hungover. LSU wins a battle of teams I dislike. Can Boomer go back to the Bone? Bring Switzer back. NIL deals and triple option qb's were his specialty before NIL deals were legal. ME:  OU played their asses off and beat Bama; LSU went through the motions and beat Vanderbilt by a score. I say LSU is still in a daze and OU runs over them.

IN SUM: Tigers still have it.  A big question is whether Nussmeier (QB) is badly hurt.
 
OREGON 49, WASHINGTON 21 - DUCKS. Washington has surprised me. Didn't think they would win at all. But Oregon is way too good to lose now. The only team that can beat the Ducks is the Ducks currently. ME: This is a real, host-to-God rivalry game. Washington is not close to the team that twice took it to a (possibly) superior Oregon team last year, but Oregon is still coached by the guy that did shake-your-head stupid things and passed it off as “because we’re aggressive.”  What I’m saying is, I’m picking Oregon - bit Oregon is good at finding ways  to lose to Washington.

IN SUM: Who were those guys in the black and silver playing against the Washington Huskies?  The Oakland Raiders? No, it was the Oregon “Dress for Success” Ducks, in their 574th different uniform since August.  Seldom noted is the fact that these guys can play some defense - when all the sack yardage was subtracted (the Ducks had 16 tackles for loss)  Washington wound up with 43 yards rushing.

TEXAS 17,  TEXAS A&M 7-  I am not sold on Texas. I am inclined to take A&M because they have played a much tougher schedule. Give me the Aggies in an upset. ME:  You got here first, but that doesn’t mean I can’t take the Aggies, too.  Gig ‘em!

IN SUM: This may have been Texas’ best game of the year, and it landed them a spot in the SEC title game (in case anyone’s interested in a redo of their earlier game with Georgia).  Defensively, the Longhorns  held the Aggies to only 146 yards passing and 102 yards rushing.
 
IOWA STATE 29, KANSAS STATE 21 - WildKitties...even though I'm forbidden to pick them (rival). I can't pick ISU. I'm so torn.  Hailee will forgive me. ME: An explanation: Hailee is Brad’s daughter.  She’s a sophomore at KU. So of course she has to hate the Wildcats.  This is a tough call. Earlier in the season I’d have said K-State by a lot. I’ll root for K-State but I’d bet on the Cyclones.

IN SUM: It’s another 10-win season for the Cyclones and a spot in the Big-12  title game. K-State  finishes 8-4 after a hot start that had them leading the conference earlier in the season.
 
UNLV 38, NEVADA 14  - UNLV wins this one. And Las Vegas rejoices as if everyone hit the multiplier on the penny slot machines. ME: Oh, please. Should be easy for UNLV, then on to the MW final against  Boise State.

IN SUM: Easy, peasy.  Rebels rushed for 351 yards, totaled 519 yards in offense (8.2 yards per play).
 
VIRGINIA TECH 37, VIRGINIA 17  - Give me the Hokies. I do not think Virginia can compete yet. ME: HOKIE, HOKIE, HOKIE HY!  TECH, TECH, V-P-I!  The folks from the hills take it to the silk stocking types.

IN SUM: This was a battle for bowl eligibility and the Hokies won it, in front of the customary packed house.  Tech running back Bhayshul Tuten carried 18 times for 124 yards and two TDs.
 
BYU 30, HOUSTON 18  - BYU gets it figured out this week. Beats Houston but close. ME: BYU has had a couple of tough ones and ought to welcome Houston.

IN SUM: In a sloppy game (three fumbles lost by BYU, two fumbles and two interceptions by Houston), the Cougars beat the Cougars to finish 10-2, just out of the running for the Big 12 title game.
 
AIR FORCE 31,  SAN DIEGO STATE 20 - San Diego State because that is who Ron Burgundy would pick.  Stay classy San Diego? ME: I think San Diego State is worse than Air Force.  How can that be?

IN SUM:  AF: 276 rushing, 128 passing; SDSU: 236 passing, 120 rushing.  The Falcons didn’t have to work very hard for  their passing yards: they passed just twice. Both passes were completed, one of them for a 76-yard TD.  (How’s 64 yards per attempt sound?)  After losing seven in a row, the Falcons ended their season with four straight wins.

BIG LATE-NIGHT SHOCKER FROM THE PACIFIC: HAWAII 38, NEW MEXICO 30


*********** Stanford made a very common mistake - one made by so many coaches - in thinking that the Double Wing is just a formation and that all you have to do is line up in it and start running plays. After successfully throwing a halfback pass from “our” formation last week against Cal, this past weekend Stanford tried running good old “66 Super Power” against San Jose State.  It was a disaster.  And like most people who try to do what they did, they almost certainly don’t know why.  But they have a pretty good idea why it didn’t work. I can hear it now,  the common refrain among the many who, like Stanford,  thought they could get away with half-assing the Double Wing:  “this sh— doesn’t work.”


*********** A sure sign that something’s wrong: Not one single Stanford running back has scored a touchdown this season.


*********** I imagine that a lot of you saw that for the last 23 Michigan-Ohio State games, the team with more rushing yards has won the game.


*********** The real loser this past weekend was sportsmanship.

(1) Everybody knows about the scuffle that took place following the Ohio State-Michigan game, and I found it interesting that the Fox Network allowed a Michigan player to say, condescendingly,  "some people" should learn how to lose” without  challenging him and pointing out that  "some people should learn how to win.”

For a while it was a scary scene. Fortunately, it’s not the sort of thing that could happen when thousands of students storm the field,  because (usually) students only storm the field  when the home team wins, and when the home team wins, there’s no reason for the visitors to “plant” their flag in the middle of the home team’s logo.

What was disgusting to me was that neither of those coaching staffs, whose aggregate salaries were in the multi-millions, had done a damn thing to prepare their players in the proper post-game protocol.  It was especially disgusting because I’ve known hundreds of high school coaches whose players would never have acted like those big-timers at Ohio State and Michigan.

(2) A Colorado receiver celebrated a touchdown by getting down on all fours, then lifting a leg, simulating a dog pissing on the football.  Stay classy, Deion.

(3) Iowa players are claiming that Nebraska coach Matt Rhule walked through their area of the field as they were warming up before the game.  Now - to you casual fans who don’t understand football protocol - it is long-accepted practice for the two teams playing in the game to warm up on their respective sides of the 50-yard line. No trespassing. No exceptions. You don’t run pass patterns that cross over onto the other team’s side, and if you have receivers lining up to catch passes, their lineup does  not extend across the 50.  No exceptions.   No, it’s not a felony, so enough of the lame jokes about sending Matt Rhule to prison.  Enough of fans pooh-poohing it.  It’s a matter of mutual respect, and any willful violation of the protocol is clearly an expression of disrespect. I know that respect is becoming rarer and rarer, but that still doesn’t make the person who walks through the other team any less of a sh—head.

(4) It’s been claimed - and not denied  (and there are photos that seem to show)  that Nebraska’s captains refused to shake hands at the coin toss with their Iowa counterparts. I’m not sure WTF is wrong with a referee who would see this and not immediately hit the Nebraska coach with an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.  I do recall some other asshole  coach having his players do this a few years ago,  and the conference hitting the team with a $10,000 fine. Of course,  in  today’s game, at least in the Big 12,  it’s okay to push a referee, so I suppose there’s no sense getting all upset about a silly handshake?



***********  The Michigan-Ohio State postgame fracas is why Saban's gone. Not the fight itself, but  the reason why it took place.

The reason?   Players have the upper hand.  You operate at their pleasure.  All you have to do is look at the way teams dress nowadays - no two players on the same team dressed exactly alike -  to know who’s in charge.

Why? Simple.  Thanks to the Transfer Portal, players are in control, and  as a result coaches are afraid to do what coaches once did as a matter of routine -  to correct players and enforce team discipline - lest they  create an  atmosphere that drives their  players to the portal  and a place where they can run the show.


*********** I actually heard Kirk Herbstreit call Deion Sanders “Coach Prime.”  Do you really think that he’d say that if he wasn’t paid to?


*********** Are owls unlucky?

There are four FBS teams nicknamed “Owls”:

Florida Atlantic, Kennesaw State, Rice and Temple.

Until December 1 - when Kennesaw State announced the hiring of Jerry Mack - all four of them were looking for coaches.



***********  When Notre Dame played USC on NBC - who were all those clowns on the NBC halftime show?


*********** Amazing what one part of the wardrobe can do, but when Iowa, which to me is one of the best-dressed teams in football, came out wearing black pants instead of the usual gold, it looked like they were wearing pajamas.


*********** They’ve got to do something about the college overtime. Once the best of any sport (except maybe baseball’s extra innings), as a result of a handful of games that went overly long it’s been twisted and tweaked to the point where it’s beginning to look like a soccer shootout.

The Georgia-Georgia Tech game sure was exciting, but as it neared the end, it wasn’t football. Football is a game of strategy - of one play setting up another, of deciding whether to “go for it” or just try to keep moving the ball. The further we get from the idea of four downs (or more) to make something happen, the more we turn the game into a farce.

Where, in a country that hasn’t won a war since 1945, is it written that every contest MUST have a winner?

I once asked Mike Lude what he thought about overtime, and I wrote it down.  It’s still on a white board that I can see as I write this: “I can coach better on Sunday after a tie.”


*********** I don’t particularly like Kirby Smart, and he pissed me off when he referred at halftime to Georgia Tech’s offense “nickel-and-diming.”

Surely he has access to the stats that showed that at that point Tech had had four plays of 20 yards or more.


***********  Hi Hugh,

Not sure if you saw the Syracuse/ Miami game , it was a good one. An upset Syracuse win but the reason I am writing is because of the Syracuse goal line attack. They lined up in an I wing. They blocked everyone down, pulled a guard who kicked out and led through with the FB and Miami had no answer! I cheered at the TV, finally someone who knew how to run a short yardage power play!

Happy Holidays,

Jack Tourtillotte
Boothbay, Maine

Damned if they  didn’t run it,  exactly as Jack describes - 9:16 left in the 4th quarte


***********   Hugh,

I miss handing out the Black Lion Award. 

There’s one HS game I’d like to see but will be missing.  My part-time PE job school (Grace Classical Christian Academy) will play for their state association (TAIAO) Division 3 six-man state championship on Saturday.  They started the playoffs with a 2-7 record (every team gets in), and have won three straight to make it into the final.
Their opponent is 10-2.

Unfortunately Coach Jeff Monken may have painted himself into a corner.  No doubt he is a good coach, but in today’s big-time college football world where P4 is the be all end all, and NONE of those schools and their athletes are interested in the type of offense Monken is an expert, the chances of him getting hired by ANY of them is virtually slim and none. 

Apparently Ivy League presidents are more tolerant of sowing the BS going on at their campuses, and giving them a national black eye, than what they can reap from the game of football. 

My version of the axis of evil:
THE Suckeyes
U of Spoiled Children
Meesheegun
Bucky
Bumblebees (sorry Brad, but sometimes the refs just miss!)


Enjoy the weekend’s games!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas







***********   QUIZ ANSWER: They called him "Cactus Jack.” Some people called him "Mister Forward Pass."  Jack Curtice coached two college teams - one at Utah and one at Stanford - to national passing titles.

Born in Glasgow, Kentucky, he played football, basketball and baseball and ran track at famed Louisville Male High School.

He went on to Transylvania College and played three sports, starting at quarterback for four years.

For the next eight years he coached high schools in Kentucky. He spent two years at Elizabethtown as its football and basketball coach, and then six years as head football coach and athletic director at Owensboro High. His overall high school record was 32-22-3.

In 1938 he was hired as an assistant coach at West Texas State.  He was promoted after two years  to the head coach position and in two years as the head coach his record was 15-5.

With World War II going on, he joined the Navy, and spent most of his time coaching different sports at different Navy bases.

Following the war, he coached at Texas Western (now UTEP), and in four years there his teams went 24-13-3.

That got him the job at Utah, where in eight years his teams went 45-32-4, and won four Skyline Conference championships.

In 1957 his quarterback, Lee Grosscup, was the nation's leading passer, completing 61 per cent of his passes, then a single-season record. He made good use of a delayed shovel  pass, a sort of middle screen,  that became known at the time as the "Utah Pass."

By the time he left Utah, all the teams in the Skyline Conference had begun to emulate his pass-first style of offense, and he had begun to find himself having to face his own offense every week.

In 1958, he was hired by Stanford, where he would coach for five seasons.

His 1959 Stanford team set a new college record for passes completed in a single season. All-American end Chris Burford - who went on to an outstanding career in pro football, - led the nation in receiving with 61 catches for 756 yards, and  QB Dick Norman, who completed 152 of 263 passes for 1963 yards - huge numbers at the time -  led the nation in passing and total offense.

Unfortunately, he did not win at Stanford, actually going 0-10 in 1960, and in 1961, despite having the best passing team in the country, going 4-6.  Following the 1962 season, although Stanford had improved to 5-5 with a 30-13 season-ending victory over arch-rival Cal,  his  contract was not renewed.   In five years at The Farm, his record was 14-36.

The following season, he signed on as head coach at UC Santa Barbara, playing  in the “college division,” as FCS was called then.

In seven years there, his teams went 37-29-1.

His career record was 135-115-2, and despite his reputation as a wide-open passing guru, his teams won two national rushing titles, making him the  first college coach  to win two national rushing titles as well as two national passing titles.

 Jack Curtice served for several years as chairman of the college football rules committee, and in 1961 as  president of the American Football Coaches Association.

His 1961 book, "The Passing Game in Football," was considered a major contribution to the modern passing game.


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING CACTUS JACK CURTICE

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FORISTIERE - MARSING, IDAHO
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY



 
*********** QUIZ:     He was born on “the Virginia side” of Bristol Virginia-Tennessee.

He was an outstanding football player at Princeton, but he was also an outstanding baseball and basketball player, and he spent a year with the New York Yankees before deciding that he had no future in baseball. As a college player, though, he actually had a higher batting average than a player at rival Columbia - Lou Gehrig.  It may be legend, but according to some, it was his beaning of Yankee first baseman Wally Pipp that led to the headache that caused Pipp to be removed from the lineup and replaced by Gehrig.

Offered a job at Princeton by his former head coach, Bill Roper, he stayed there for three years, mostly coaching the freshmen, but also scouting, which enabled him to travel to places in the Midwest and East and observe many aspects of the game.

After three years, he was offered the head coaching job at Williams College, in Massachusetts, where for much of his time there he coached football, baseball and basketball.

He stayed at Williams for 13 years, and his football teams, running his single wing,  compiled an overall record of 76-37-6. (His three-sport overall record was 254-177-6.)

Williams had to give up football for two years during World War II, and  unable to serve in the armed forces because of nearsightedness, he  got a leave of absence from  Williams so that he could assist at Yale, and he also served as a scout for Army coach Earl Blaik.

And then, as World War II was ending, in 1945 he was hired by his alma mater as its head coach.   The program was down, but by 1950 his Tigers - and their single wing - were gaining national recognition.   From October, 1949 until November, 1952, Princeton won 30 of 31 games, and they were undefeated in both 1950 and  1951.

In 1950 he was named AFCA Coach of the Year, and his tailback, Dick Kazmaier, won the Heisman Trophy.

In 1957, while still the head coach at Princeton, he was diagnosed with terminal cancer and had to step down from his position.  He died in November of that year, at the age of 55.  (I was a sophomore at Yale at the time, and I remember hearing the news that the head coach  of our nemesis, the Princeton Tigers,  had cancer.)

In his book, Modern Single Wing Football, published in 1950, he told of  what - and who - inspired him to become a coach:

The longer I coach, the more I work with boys, the more clearly I understand that the seemingly small incidents – often chance happenings – are largely responsible for those decisions that shape an individual’s career. In my own case, it took a great team, and the master coach of them all, Knute Rockne, to convince me that football was for me, that coaching was a profession requiring the same kind of intense study and lifelong devotion demanded of teachers, lawyers and even of doctors. 

No, I never played for Rockne. I played against him, or against his 1924 team that included the celebrated four Horsemen, Elmer Layden, Harry Stuhldreher, Jim Crowley and Don  Miller. It happened in Palmer Stadium on a sunny October twenty-fifth, and never before in my life had I spent such a frustrating, disappointing afternoon.  We were beaten, 12-0, and the final score could've been 28-0, or possibly higher. The score didn't bother me – it was the way in which Rockne's men handled us, particularly me.

The 1924 Princeton team was a better-than-average Princeton team. We had beaten Navy, we later turned back Harvard, 34 to 0 and lost to a sound Yale team, 10-0. Yet against Notre Dame I felt as if we were being toyed with. I was backing up the line and I don't believe I made a clean tackle all afternoon.  There would come Layden, or Miller, or someone. I would get set to drop the ball carrier in his tracks and someone would give me a nudge, just enough to throw me off balance, just enough pressure to make me miss. I played the whole game that way, giving a completely lackluster performance. 

We were walking up the chute  to the dressing rooms after the game and I actually felt ready for another two hours of contact. I wasn't tired, nor was I beaten down physically as I generally was after a big game. Others walking with me agreed. As we pieced together our individual reactions to our defeat, we began to see that we had met something new, something we had never anticipated. We, and I am writing this in retrospect, had been subjected to our first lesson  in what might be called the science of football. 

These Rockne inspired thoughts stayed with me for a long,  long time.

FRIDAY,  NOVEMBER  29,  2024    "If critics could write, they'd write. But they can't, so they're critics." Tom Clancy

************  Chicago Bears’ coach Matt Eberflus may already be  their former coach by the time you read this, but  he ought to be way ahead of all contenders for the NFL’s Man of the Year Award.

His almost incomprehensible mismanagement of the clock at the end of the Bears-Lions game Thursday saved countless families all over the country by pushing aside the recent election as the topic of their Thanksgiving-dinner conversations.

A grateful nation thanks you, Coach.


*********** Wisdom from Mike Lude:  “I had returned to Hillsdale from a three-year stint in the Marine Corps in World War II in 1946 to finish my senior year and, almost as important, my final season of college football.

“When my former coach, Dwight Harwood, retired after a long career, Dave Nelson was lured to Hillsdale as his replacement. Nelson had played wingback at the University of Michigan for legendary coach Fritz Crisler during the careers of better-known teammates Tom Harmon, an All-American running back, and Forrest Evashevski, who became even more famous as a national championship coach at the University of Iowa. Nelson was named Hillsdale  athletic director as well as head football coach.

“Like most campuses after World War II, Hillsdale was crowded with returning military veterans. They were, of course, older, more confident, and more serious about doing whatever it took to collect a diploma and get on with their lives.

“I was no exception. I wanted my bachelor of science degree, majoring in biology. The next step, I hoped, would be a coaching job, probably at the high school level.

 “There was another new person in my life, a college coed named Rena Pifer who, like me, would be a Hillsdale senior in the fall. That summer I worked on a Kalamazoo County road crew, driving a tractor and mowing the sides of County roads. I had saved enough money from the Marine Corps to buy a new car, and I put on a lot of mileage between Vicksburg and Hillsdale, where the lovely Rena lived with her family.”


 
*********** We held our awards banquet at Aberdeen (Washington) High on Sunday night, and as might be expected with a team that gave out more than 70 letters - freshman, JV and Varsity - there were a lot of people on hand, first for the meal, then the awarding of the  letters (with something relevant said about every player)  and then the individual awards.  The whole deal took a little over three hours, but it’s fair to say that as important as all the conditioning, camps, practices and meetings are, this one evening of recognition might be the most important of all the expenditures of a coach’s time.

Having established the Black Lion Award in 2001 and administered it since then, I had the great honor of presenting our Black Lion Award to junior Luke Martin. 

New to Aberdeen as its quarterbacks coach, I found myself last summer with two candidates for the position.  Both were underclassmen. Both were already pretty good, with high upsides. In all my years of coaching high school kids, I’d seldom been gifted with one quarterback as good as either one of them, let alone two of their caliber at the same time.

Making a choice between them was going to be difficult, I knew, and we actually went into our first game planning on alternating series between the two.

Circumstances wound up making the choice for us.  Luke was needed at free safety.  Since having to play two ways was going to have an adverse effect on his play at quarterback, and since we already had another quarterback quite capable of taking over the job, the decision was made that Luke would start at safety and back-up at quarterback.

Without hesitation, Luke accepted the decision.  I knew how badly he wanted to be our starting quarterback, and I knew how hard he’d worked to earn that spot - but I never heard him say a word and I never saw any indication of disappointment on his part.

On defense, with a new defensive coordinator and a new scheme, Luke’s value to the team at free safety was almost immediate as he became “quarterback" of the unit.  Its leader.  In the words of Dave Tarrence, our DC, Luke “knew the defense better than anyone,”  and was  “one of the biggest reasons our defense performed so well.”

To Luke’s credit, he continued to work and compete at the quarterback position just as if he were going to be the starter on Friday night, and he celebrated our quarterback’s successes just as if they were his.

Luke’s conspicuous demonstration of putting the team  ahead of himself, without even giving it a second thought, made him the unanimous choice of our  coaching staff to be our Black Lion Award winner.




***********  Brad Knight’s and my picks - many of them emotionally based, few of them backed by hard analysis,  a couple of them downright idiotic.

BRAD SOUNDED A BIT SHEEPISH WHEN HE SENT ME THIS WEEK’S “PICKS,” CONCERNED THAT HE HAD PICKED SO MANY LOSERS LAST WEEK.  I HAD TO BREAK THE NEWS TO HIM  HIM THAT HE WAS DOING FINE - THAT HE WAS NOW IN THE ENTERTAINMENT BUSINESS, AND  THAT IF OUR READERS WANTED “EXPERT” PICKS THEY HAD ONLY TO OPEN A NEWSPAPER OR GO ONLINE.  WHAT THEY WANTED, I TOLD HIM,  WAS TO BE ENTERTAINED, AND AS LONG AS HE KEPT DOING WHAT HE WAS DOING,  HE HAD A JOB HERE. (PLUS, I CAN’T AFFORD HIS  BUYOUT.)


FRIDAY
 
OREGON STATE AT BOISE STATE- Jeanty 200 and 3 scores. Or more (if they keep him in the game) If he does not win the Heisman it is a sham. He won't...but he should. Will be a nice consolation prize to see a non QB win for a change if we get so lucky. (ME) Watch out, Broncos - the Beavers played very well in beating Washington State last week.  This one is DEFINITELY a trap. But I’m pulling for Jeanty for the Heisman - imagine one from a Group of 5 school!
 
OKLAHOMA STATE AT COLORADO- Will see if the Buffs can rebound after being humbled by the Jayhawks. I think Okie St is bad...I'll take the Buffs. Colorado will attempt to make a statement that their losses should not disqualify them from playoff contention. ME: Have to take the Buffs, now that the Big 12 has decided that it was okay for Shedeur to shove that ref.
 
MINNESOTA AT WISCONSIN- Give me Wiscy since I hate the NOPHERS. Sorry to my friend Joe Gutilla. The feeling between Nophers and Hawkeyes is mutual hatred.  I'll pick against PJ and the Nophers unless they play Nebraska or Iowa State. Man I do kinda miss Kinnick North. And it still wasn't a fair catch. ME: Gophers all the way.  Just watched Nebraska and Wisconsin in its entirety on Tuesday night, and Fickell picked a hell of a time to let his OC go.  If the Badgers lose, Fickell won’t even collect his (very sizable) bowl bonus this year.
 
NAVY AT EAST CAROLINA- Give me the Midshipmen. I kinda want to pick the Pirates (since I once was a Pirate, and Coach Leach loved Pirates) but I think the MIddies are better. ME: I’ve seen the Pirates the last couple of games and - with an interim coach - they’ve played well. I’m going to take a  chance and go ECU.
 
MISSISSIPPI STATE AT OLE MISS- Give me the Rebs...BIG. All 3 loss SEC teams are going to try to make a statement that they should be in the playoff mix. Kiffin's team was embarrassed by an unrated team last week.  Maybe they choose to show up and not throw 3 INT's in 4 plays at the end of the game. ME:  There’s a lot of emotion in this one but Mississippi State just doesn’t have it.  Rebels by a lot.
 
UTAH STATE AT COLORADO STATE- This one has a chance to be a really decent game. I like the Aggies to win a close one, late. This is my favorite of the Aggies.  Had a buddy who coached there for a short while.  ME:  Aggies.  They’re not. CSU finally  got brought down to earth last week by Fresno.
 
STANFORD AT SAN JOSE STATE- San Jose State drubs Stanford. UNLESS Stanford plays like they did against Louisville. (or be honest if San Jose plays like Lousiville did against Stanford. I'll take SJSU. And hope they can outplay Louisville who played O'Possum (dead) against Stanford. ME:  Lots of Bay Area kids on that SJSU team that would love to beat Stanford.  The game might not matter as much to the Stanford kids after their total fold last week against Cal. But  I’m gonna take a chance and say Stanford.
 
GEORGIA TECH AT GEORGIA- Georgia in the rivalry game. I really want to pick Tech because I love their QB. BUT GA has too much on the line. Once considered out of the playoff now they are back in with a chance to move up. ME: Clean, old-fashioned hate.  Since this one’s being played between the hedges, I have to go with UGA.  But give ‘em a game, Tech!
 
NEBRASKA AT IOWA- HAWKEYES ALL DAY. Only team I dislike more than ISU is Nebraska. A steady dose of KJ against their 3-5 defense and Iowa wins. KJ should be invited to NY. He won't be....but I sure hope he sticks around for another year at Iowa. ME:  Look out, Knighter - I saw what Holgorsen did for NU  against Wisconsin -  they look like a new team. Playing offense. Moving the ball.  Scoring points, even. This is my upset pick.
 
UTAH AT UCF- I'll take the Utes in the battle of the dumpster fires. Utah gave ISU all they wanted a week ago. Whittingham possibly leaving? Hearing rumors. Not sure I believe any of them. But this Utes team has been a disappointment for sure. ME: I HAVE to take the Utes. This could be Kyle Whittingham’s last game.  (A HUGE loss for football if it is.)
 
 
SATURDAY
 
 
MICHIGAN AT OHIO STATE- tOSU wins again FINALLY. But I do expect Michigan to play better than they have all season long. tOSU but close. No dog in the fight, secretly hoping Michigan wins again so i can see the pain on Day's face after spending 22 million to pay this group. ME:  I happen to LIKE Ryan Day and I’d hate for him to have to go through another off-season with a loss to Michigan on his back.  So, too, would Buckeyes’ fans, who will scream for his neck.  Go Buckeyes!
 
TENNESSEE AT VANDERBILT- Tennessee Vols win. Vandy disappointed me last week. I am off the Vandy bandwagon. I should like Tenn. more. Heupel's dad was the coach at Northern when I was in South Dakota. He was a good guy. I think his kid is as well. ME:  Vandy will NOT beat Tennessee. I think General Neyland passed a law back in the 1930s making it illegal.
 
SOUTH CAROLINA AT CLEMSON- I'll take the Cocks to shock the Dabos. RUN THE BALL. Sellers is a stud. AND Clemson deserves to be a little bit humbled. They started this DJ Ukelele mess. Or whatever this toxic qb's name is (will he transfer again? from Florida State and ruin another program) ME: Clemson is 8-1 over the last nine meetings but those days might be over. On the other hand, the Gamecocks have to go into Death Valley, where it’s hard to beat the Tigers.  My ACC blood says Clemson.
 
UTSA AT ARMY- Army...if and only if they run more than "hey diddle diddle up the middle". I think they rebound. But unfortunately the ND loss keeps them from playoff consideration. Imagine a week to try to get ready to see ground and pound? ME: Army’s a 7-point favorute. But since a one-point loss to Tulsa back in October, Roadrunners have won  three in a row - including a 44-36 win over Memphis.  I think Notre Dame could wind up beating Army twice.
 
ILLINOIS AT NORTHWESTERN- Illini are way too physical for the Nerds of Northwestern. Illinois has had a very solid season. NW is a MESS. Fitz is likely happy to be gone. ME: Years ago, a smartass reporter called them the Mildcats.
 
LOUISVILLE AT KENTUCKY- Louisville UNLESS they play like they did against Stanford. I don't think they will. But one never knows. ME:  It’s at Kentucky. I’ll take the Wildcats.  Besides, it’s the SEC, where IT JUST MEANS MORE.
 
DUKE AT WAKE FOREST- I'll take DUKE....I think Duke is just better than WF. They surprised me. I thought when coach bailed to A&M (who wouldn't for that money and recruiting grounds at a FB school) Duke would fall off.  They certainly have not. ME: Both schools are in the family - hard for me to root against either.  So I won’t root.  But Duke is a LOT better.
 
KANSAS  AT BAYLOR- No shock, I'll stay with the hottest team in the country to win and make a bowl game.  ROCK CHALK JAYHAWK!!! Daniels and Neal. Difference makers, and good kids. Go get that Bowl game so we can wave the wheat some more. ME: I also say ROCK CHALK JAYHAWK!!!  How about this bit of trivia: Kansas has played more ranked teams than Oregon, Ohio State and Indiana - combined!
 
WEST VIRGINIA AT TEXAS TECH- If it was at WV I'd take the Mountaineers. But at TT? Give me the Red Raiders.  Even though I hate what the administration did to Mike Leach. I'll never forgive them for that. ME: I hate ‘em  for what they did to Leach, too - except that’s what made him available when Washington State came calling on him in Key West. GO MOUNTAINEERS!
 
PITT AT BOSTON COLLEGE- The fighting O'Briens beat the Fighting Narduzzis. Pittsburgh has let me down too many times. I won't pick Pitt again this year unless we talk about best helmets...and maybe I'd consider them. ME: Hate to see Pitt on the way down, but that’s what seems to be happening, and BC is definitely on the climb.  Eagles.
 
MARYLAND AT PENN STATE- Nittany Kittens. Maryland showed a week ago they are not good at backup QB. Penn State is just too close to being playoff bound to lose to Maryland. ME: As Beano Cook once said, after picking Penn State: “Why? Because Penn State ALWAYS beats Maryland.”
 
NOTRE DAME AT USC- ND will roll USC. ND is physically better. USC may have better athletic ability BUT ND will beat them up. And be the 5 seed. Too bad they didn't join a conference...they would likely be a higher seed. Oh that and losing to NIU? WTF? ME: It’s in the Coliseum and USC has been playing better.  This one could make the Trojans’ season. I’ll forecast a USC upset.
 
AUBURN AT ALABAMA- A wounded BAMA and J. Milroe win the rivalry game. Another 3 loss SEC team trying to prove worthy of playoff entry. Something tells me if ESPN can find a way Bama makes it in. ME: An Auburn win can’t be allowed to happen. ESPN won’t have it.   You explained why I MUST  forecast a Bama win.  Big. ESPN has willed it.   Bama will play the way they played against Georgia, not against Oklahoma.
 
MIAMI AT SYRACUSE- the U wins. Just better than Cuse. Maybe the U is back. This year should certainly help recruiting as they are not too far from being back to the Jimmy Johnson days of old. ME:  The Orange, hot off a win over mighty UConn, sends the ACC reeling with a win over the Canes.
 
CAL AT SMU- SMU wins and assures themselves a shot to be playoff bound IF they win the Conf Champ game. (this is dumb to say but I can see smaller market teams being bumped if they lose championship weekend in an effort to load SEC and B1G teams into the 12 team field) ME:   If SMU can beat Cal AND win the ACC title game, they may suddenly find themselves the darlings of a VERY big market (the way the Cowboys are playing).  They will win this one, for sure.
 
ARIZONA STATE AT ARIZONA- Arizona State. Impressive season for the "baby" coach. Hope he doesn't have another tantrum. If they win out they may see playoffs in their future. ME: Strange things happen in this “Territorial Cup” game, but I don’t think the Wildcats have what it takes to pull off an upset.
 
ARKANSAS AT MISSOURI- As a "pseudo" JAYHAWK I have to hate Mizzou. Give me Arkansas in an upset. ME:  Not that big a fan of Mizzou’s Eli Drinkwitz, and a BIG fan of Arkansas’ Sam Pittman.  So wo-o-o-o-o PIG.
 
RUTGERS AT MICHIGAN STATE- I'll take Rutgers.  I dislike Sparty. BUT I do think they have been better than expected this year.  I'd love to see a coach who bailed on the Beavs lose again. ME: Used to like Michigan State, before the last couple of hires.  I like Greg Schiano.  Rutgers.
 
FRESNO STATE AT UCLA- Love the matchup. Maybe. UCLA beats Fresno State giving Iowa a quality loss and a chance to be in the 12 team playoff. LOL Purely kidding. I'll take UCLA who possibly has some things figured out. Maybe Foster will be a better speaker at B1G media days next year. ME:  This has more meaning to the Fresno kids than to the Bruins. But UCLA should have beaten USC and they’ll win this one.
 
NC STATE AT NORTH CAROLINA- Another rivalry...does Mack Brown have one more win in him? I believe he does. Does Mack Brown come back for another year? That is the even bigger question. ME: Since press time, Mack was let go. This will probably be his last game coaching the Tar Heels. NC State has won the last three games and will win this one. Go Pack!
 
WYOMING AT WASHINGTON STATE- Wash. State trounces Wyoming. The Cowboys are just BAD. ME:  WSU has lost two in a row and dropped out of the rankings, but they’re still pretty good - a LOT better than the Cowboys.
 
PURDUE AT INDIANA- Cignetti wins. Google him. Indiana thumps Purdue. In large part because Purdue is putrid this year. Purdon't might lose a scrimmage.  To themselves. ME: Indiana is still pretty good and might have given Ohio State a better game. I think that Indiana at its worst can still beat Purdue at its best.
 
FLORIDA AT FLORIDA STATE- Florida. (Napier has kept his bunch together while Florida State continues to flame out). I've been impressed with Florida's continued improvement when everyone left them for dead. I also think they have gotten healthy finally. ME: Florida found its QB in DJ Lagway.  Now, I hear he may be hurt. If he plays, Florida wins big.  If he doesn’t, Florida wins.
 
OKLAHOMA AT LSU- Sooners are hungover. LSU wins a battle of teams I dislike. Can Boomer go back to the Bone? Bring Switzer back. NIL deals and triple option qb's were his specialty before NIL deals were legal. ME:  OU played their asses off and beat Bama; LSU went through the motions and beat Vanderbilt by a score. I say LSU is still in a daze and OU runs over them.
 
WASHINGTON AT OREGON- DUCKS. Washington has surprised me. Didn't think they would win at all. But Oregon is way too good to lose now. The only team that can beat the Ducks is the Ducks currently. ME: This is a real, host-to-God rivalry game. Washington is not close to the team that twice took it to a (possibly) superior Oregon team last year, but Oregon is still coached by the guy that did shake-your-head stupid things and passed it off as "being aggressive.”  What I’m saying is, I’m picking Oregon - but Oregon is good at finding ways  to lose to Washington.

TEXAS AT TEXAS A&M-  I am not sold on Texas. I am inclined to take A&M because they have played a much tougher schedule. Give me the Aggies in an upset. ME:  You got here first, but that doesn’t mean I can’t take the Aggies, too.  Gig ‘em!
 
KANSAS STATE AT IOWA STATE- WildKitties...even though I'm forbidden to pick them (rival). I can't pick ISU. I'm so torn.  Hailee will forgive me. ME: An explanation: Hailee is Brad’s daughter.  She’s a sophomore at KU. So of course she has to hate the Wildcats.  This is a tough call. Earlier in the season I’d have said K-State by a lot. I’ll root for K-State but I’d bet on the Cyclones.
 
NEVADA AT UNLV- UNLV wins this one. And Las Vegas rejoices as if everyone hit the multiplier on the penny slot machines. ME: Oh, please. Should be easy for UNLV, then on to the MW final against Boise State.
 
VIRGINIA AT VIRGINIA TECH- Give me the Hokies. I do not think Virginia can compete yet. ME: HOKIE, HOKIE, HOKIE HY!  TECH, TECH, V-P-I!  The folks from the hills take it to the silk stocking types.
 
HOUSTON AT BYU- BYU gets it figured out this week. Beats Houston but close. ME: BYU has had a couple of tough ones and ought to welcome Houston.
 
AIR FORCE AT SAN DIEGO STATE- San Diego State because that is who Ron Burgundy would pick.  Stay classy San Diego? ME: I think San Diego State is worse than Air Force.  How can that be?


*********** UMass is playing UConn this Saturday.  It’s at UMass, and last I heard, it was going to be “Senior Day.” It could take a while.

 Interestingly, when the people at UMass first announced their plans, they put the word “seniors” in quotes.  That’s because, thanks to  today’s liberal transfer rules,  they have 54  guys who at least in terms of college eligibility are called “seniors. ” But in actuality, very few of them  fit the conventional definition of a senior - someone who has spent five years in the program.

Me?  With rare exceptions,  I’ve never considered a  guy - high school or college - to be a “senior,” with all the honors and privileges accorded one,  unless it was his second year in a program. 


*********** On Saturday, two teams from our league, both of whom spanked us this season, will be playing in the Washington Class 2A semifinal games. W.F. West of Chehalis, our #2 team, will play Anacortes, and Tumwater - our #1 team as well as the state’s #1 team, will play Archbishop Murphy, of Everett.  Tumwater, one of the best high school teams I’ve seen in quite some time, has given up just 15 points in its last seven games, while scoring 342. Last week, in the state quarterfinal, the Thunderbirds beat Sehome High, of Bellingham, 70-7.  They’ve scored more than 50 points eight times.


*********** Football originally was a gentleman’s game, played by college boys at a time when only the wealthy could afford to send their sons to college.

Over the years, the game became more democratic, as it spread to the west and south, to  the sons of miners and farmers and factory workers.

Now, interestingly, in many places in the country it appears to be becoming once again a game for the rich.

In many states in the country, the best teams typically represent  either private schools or public schools from an affluent suburb.

The Portland area is a great example of this.

In the Class 6A (largest classification) final this Saturday, the game pits schools from Portland's two most affluent suburbs, Lake Oswego (11-0) and West Linn (10-1).

And across the Columbia River from Portland, its most affluent suburb on the Washington side, Camas (12-0), goes into Saturday’s semifinals against Gonzaga Prep of Spokane (also 12-0) as the Number One seed in Class 4A (Washington’s largest).
An old friend, Jon Eagle, is looking for his second Oregon state title at West Linn.  He’s already won two Washington titles at Camas.  I don’t know of anyone who has won titles in both states.



*********** North Medford and South Medford will meet Saturday in the finals of an Oregon state title game.

It took them long enough.

As far as I know, they have never met in a state final.

Medford, is about four hours south of Portland, not far from the California line.  When Fred Spiegelberg arrived there in 1952 it had about 20,000 people, and one high school.

He was its head coach for the next 31 years.

During that time, the Medford Black Tornado was a force in Oregon football:
21 Southern Oregon championships
14 Oregon semi-final appearances
9 Oregon final game appearances
4 Oregon state championships

Over the years, Medford’s population exploded:
1960: 24,000
1970: 29,000
1980: 40,000

And as the  town grew, so did Medford’s football program.  Crowds of 10,000 or more at games were commonplace.

Rather than accommodate the growth and build a new high school -  potentially diluting Medford’s position as a state power -  the town fathers built a new school building that served as a “mid high,” serving ninth and tenth graders.  The eleventh and twelfth graders remained  in “Medford High School.”

It was fairly common knowledge around the state that so long as “Spieg” was  the coach, there would not be two high schools in Medford.

And then following the 1982 season, Spieg retired.

In 1986, Medford finally split into two high schools - North Medford and South Medford.

People predicted that Medford would never see another state title, and truthfully, I’m not aware of either of them winning one in the years since.

Medford now has close to 90,000 people, and the two high schools each have almost 2,000 students. They’ve had good seasons over the years, but - both of them in the final game?  What are the odds?  Yet here they are, meeting Saturday in a state final. 

I can see a return Saturday, however briefly,  to the days when Spieg was coaching there, and there were 10,000 people in the stands to watch the Black Tornado.




***********  Usually Army’s Jeff Monken waits until the season’s over to see if there’s anyone else outside of a service academy looking for a head coach whose career has been built on triple option offense.  But this year, the search started early with an article in the Athletic on the Thursday before Army’s game with Notre Dame.

Brian Hamilton
Thursday Nov 21
The Athletic

“I could argue that I’m having more of an impact on people here than I could have anywhere else,” Monken says. “But personally – personally – I want to go play for a national championship. I’m not sure that can be done at an academy. Maybe it can. Maybe we can be the top Group of 5 and get into the playoff. But I can’t control that.”

***

“I’d like to have an opportunity to have that challenge at the highest level,” Monken says. “This is a hard job. People talk about other Power 4 (schools) – ‘That’s a hard job.’ Harder than the one I’ve got? What’s harder than this job? Which one?”

***

It’s not a complaint. He enlisted in his own way, though Johnson (Paul Johnson, under whom Monken coached at Navy- HW) at the time did tell his former assistant that the Army job would afford Monken patience and a better salary.  And Monken had the blueprint from his time at Navy, to boot. “Where he is,” Johnson says, “is a really good fit for him.” The results prove that. Over time, there have been conversations and maybe even close calls with schools inquiring about his services.

***

And Jeff Monken is still the Army football coach.

“If he gets the opportunity and it’s the right one, he’ll pursue it,” Buddie (Army AD Mike Buddie - HW) says. “He’s in Year 11. He’s earned that opportunity.”

***

The part about the right one matters. Some places aren’t for Jeff Monken and Jeff Monken might not be for some places. The coach and his athletic director have discussed that very topic. Why haven’t there been any right ones, though? There’s loyalty involved – Johnson just about kicked Monken out of his office when Monken told him he might stay at Georgia Tech instead of taking the Georgia Southern job – and there are also biases and boosters and message boards afflicting the people doing the hiring.

***

I see. He’ll pursue it?  He’s earned that opportunity?

So the AD seems to be fine with his coach looking around? What kind of an AD talks like that?



***********   After the 1955 Rose Bowl game, Ohio State’s Woody Hayes, fresh off a 20-7 win over USC, decided to rub salt in the wounds by telling the world,  “Big Ten teams are better in the Rose Bowl because they are raised on tougher competition.”

Hmmm. Mind if we check that out, Woody?

So.  After  the next 25 Rose Bowls, the “less tough” Pacific 10 schools held a 15-10 edge over the “tougher” Big Ten;

And after 35 Rose Bowls, the softie Westerners’ edge had grown to 22-13.



***********   Hi Coach,

Hope you are enjoying winding down after your season. We had a rough one over at West Hempstead going 4-5, with two winnable losses costing us the playoff berth.

On a lighter note thought you'd enjoy this little anecdote from Saturday night. Coach Dom Carre and the rest of the staff were in line to get into Yankee Stadium (disaster - took over an hour), when a “lets go Army” chant broke out. We joined in and the folks next to us decked out in West Point gear ask "Where ya'll from?" We reply “Long Island, what about you? Certainly not Long Island with that twang" To which they responded "Texas"

After some talking one young girl exclaimed "My brother is the quarterback."   Yes, we were hanging with the Daily family getting into the game. What a fantastic family, and it is evident that they have raised a true leader and outstanding young man.

The story gets better, Mr. Daily then tells us he is with #87's family to which I responded "You mean #4. This grabbed attention of Mr. Reynolds and he says " How do you know my sons High School number ?"   "Well, that X -now screen your son took to the house on the first play of the ¼ finals two years ago still stings." 

Casey Reynolds the starting WR for Army was a player in our small Long Island Conference at Cold Spring Harbor High School and is now a two sport athlete for the Knights. After sharing more stories it was nothing but respect around.

As for the game, what I noticed from the nosebleeds is that Notre Dame's speed indeed was evident whenever Army attempted to bounce the ball. The true adage of "Spill to Kill" was alive and well in the Bronx. From that vantage point ND would have 2-3 defenders chasing the spill and shutting the edge.

Again hope all is well with you and the family.

Regards,
Dean Bourazeris
West Hempstead, New York

*********** Wisconsin Badgers football is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get. I'm starting to think Luke Fickell is a good recruiter but not a good coach.

Adam Wesoloski
Pulaski, Wisconsin



***********   Corch:

Today's answer is Tim Mara. Outside of actress Mara, not many in the family have much to crow about these days. The Giants have more problems than even the Jets. But we can't lay today's Giants' problems at Tim's feet. All we can say is he invested wisely.

Beautiful page, Coach. I especially refer to your personal recollections of special Thanksgiving. And many times I heard Rush with his annual Thanksgiving message. I hope for rich blessings upon you, Connie, and all your followers.

John Vermillion
St. Petersburg, Florida


***********   Hugh,

Agreed.  Thanksgiving Day has always been my favorite holiday.  Used to be even better when colleges played their rivals that day, and that weekend.  It was the day my buddies and I played our own “Turkey Bowl” in the empty lot down the street. 

Add the meal of turkey, gravy, dressing, cranberries, potatoes, pumpkin pie, pecan pie, and other goodies and WOW!

I was as dumbfounded as you watching the Army-ND game.  The “Daily” show wasn’t quite what I expected.  Yes, he’s their main guy, but in previous games Army at least showed a more diverse scheme. 

Minnesota let that Penn State game get away from them.

Fresno State must have watched the start of one of your Tuesday clinics. 
They ran the ball successfully which led to that upset of Colorado State.

I read somewhere that the Ivy League is considering allowing their schools to participate in the FCS playoffs next year.
Is that just more leftist propaganda??

Happy Thanksgiving to y’all.

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas

I rather doubt that the Ivies will ever make a move toward EMPHASIZING football. The major reason initially was that the presidents didn't want to do anything to minimize the importance of the end-of-season rivalry games. Most people would understand.
 



*********** QUIZ ANSWER:  Tim Mara was born poor on New York’s Lower East Side, the son of an Irish policeman. He would wind up owning the New York Giants - or, as it was once necessary to say, the New York FOOTBALL Giants.


At 13 he dropped out of school to help support his family.

While working as a “newsboy” (selling newspapers on street corners), he became well-acquainted with bookies, and soon began working for them as a “runner” (taking bets and paying off winners, who often tipped him). By the time he was 18,  he was a full-fledged bookie himself.


In 1925, with the five-year-old National Football League in search of someone to operate a franchise in New York City,  he put up $500 (about $7,500 in today’s money) to buy the rights.  He didn’t know much about football but he was reported to have told people that an exclusive franchise to do anything in New York was worth $500.

At first, things did not go well for him financially. New York was then a college football town, and pro football had little following.  But  when the Chicago Bears, having just signed Illinois star Red Grange, came to town, our guy rented the Polo Grounds, and the huge crowd that attended brought in $143,000 at the gate, putting the Giants in the black for the season.


The next year,  Grange and his agent, C. C. Pyle, formed a rival league, the American Football League,  and put  a franchise in New York called the Yankees.   And when Mara’s coach and  one of his standout linemen left to join the Philadelphia Quakers franchise in the new league, Mara was forced to give raises to all his remaining players and sign them to season-long contracts.

He lost a lot of money as a result, but at the end of the season he challenged the American League champion, the Philadelphia Quakers, to a post-season game, and when they accepted, the Giants wound up beating them, 31-0.  So much for the AFL.

In 1927, the Giants won their first NFL championship.  They would win three more championships during his lifetime.

He had to fight off numerous challengers to his hold on New York pro football, probably the toughest of which came after World War II with the start of the All-America Football Conference. During the AAFC’s existence, from 1946 to 1949, he had to compete with AAFC teams in both New York (the Yankees) and Brooklyn (the Dodgers), but when the leagues “merged,” the Giants were left as  the only team in New York.


He died in 1959 at the age of 71, leaving  the Giants to his two sons, Jack and Wellington. 

Jack’s grandson would ultimately sell his side of the family’s fifty per cent share in the team, but Wellington’s side of the family still owns its half of the club.  Wellington’s grandson, John, is  the current president of the Giants.

Only the Halas family of Chicago has owned an NFL team for a longer time than the Mara family.

In 1963, Tim Mara was among the first 17 members inducted into the Pro Football Hall of fame in its charter class.

CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING TIM MARA

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
MIKE FORISTIERE - MARSING, IDAHO
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY
 



***********   QUIZ: They called him "Cactus Jack.” Some people called him "Mister Forward Pass." He coached two college teams - one at Utah and one at Stanford - to national passing titles.

Born in Glasgow, Kentucky, he played football, basketball and baseball and ran track at famed Louisville Male High School.

He went on to Transylvania College and played three sports, starting at quarterback for four years.

For the next eight years he coached high schools in Kentucky. He spent two years at Elizabethtown as its football and basketball coach, and then six years as head football coach and athletic director at Owensboro High. His overall high school record was 32-22-3.

In 1938 he was hired as an assistant coach at West Texas State.  He was promoted after two years  to the head coach position and in two years as the head coach his record was 15-5.

With World War II going on, he joined the Navy, and spent most of his time coaching different sports at different Navy bases.

Following the war, he coached at Texas Western (now UTEP), and in four years there his teams went 24-13-3.

That got him the job at Utah, where in eight years his teams went 45-32-4, and won four Skyline Conference championships.

In 1957 his quarterback, Lee Grosscup, was the nation's leading passer, completing 61 per cent of his passes, then a single-season record. He made good use of a delayed shovel  pass, a sort of middle screen,  that became known at the time as the "Utah Pass."

By the time he left Utah, all the teams in the Skyline Conference had begun to emulate his pass-first style of offense, and he had begun to find himself having to face his own offense every week.

In 1958, he was hired by Stanford, where he would coach for five seasons.

His 1959 Stanford team set a new college record for passes completed in a single season. All-American end Chris Burford - who went on to an outstanding career in pro football, - led the nation in receiving with 61 catches for 756 yards, and  QB Dick Norman, who completed 152 of 263 passes for 1963 yards - huge numbers at the time -  led the nation in passing and total offense.

Unfortunately, he did not win at Stanford, actually going 0-10 in 1960, and in 1961, despite having the best passing team in the country, going 4-6.  Following the 1962 season, although Stanford had improved to 5-5 with a 30-13 season-ending victory over arch-rival Cal,  his  contract was not renewed.   In five years at The Farm, his record was 14-36.

The following season, he signed on as head coach at UC Santa Barbara, playing  in the “college division,” as FCS was called then.

In seven years there, his teams went 37-29-1.

His career record was 135-115-2, and despite his reputation as a wide-open passing guru, his teams won two national rushing titles, making him the  first college coach  to win two national rushing titles as well as two national passing titles.

He served for several years as chairman of the college football rules committee, and in 1961 as  president of the American Football Coaches Association.

His 1961 book, "The Passing Game in Football," was considered a major contribution to the modern passing game.




TUESDAY,  NOVEMBER  26,  2024    "Trust everybody, but cut the cards."  Finley Peter Dunne


*********** In their rush to sell us stuff, the merchants and the media appear to be preparing to bypass Thanksgiving. Too bad.  Thanksgiving will always be special for me.

Thanksgiving, 1945 - I saw my first football game. In Pennsylvania, as in many eastern states, it was customary in those days for high schools to play their Big Game on Thanksgiving day - usually in the morning, while back at home the turkey was in the oven. My brother was nine years older than me, and his high school, Germantown High, was playing at Norristown High. I don’t remember who won - probably Norristown, because Germantown wasn’t very good then - but I do remember how cold my feet got. Funny the things you remember.  No matter - it was the  start for me of a long tradition of football on Thanksgiving. 

Thanksgiving, 1958 -  A few weeks earlier, at the Yale-Princeton game, I had just met the girl who would become my wife. We were both from the Philly area and were  home for Thanksgiving. I met her parents and her brother and liked them - and I guess they liked me.  She met my parents and liked them, and they loved her. In keeping with a Thanksgiving tradition for many Philadelphians back then, we went to the Penn-Cornell game, where I proudly introduced her to my favorite aunt and uncle, who were huge Penn supporters. They loved her, too.  My aunt even  had a mum for her. (That’s short for chrysanthemum, a flower which in those days was almost a compulsory part of every  woman’s attire at football games in the fall.) The  next July, we were married.

Thanksgiving, 1989 - We had just moved into our home in Camas, Washington a few days before. It’s  the only  home we’ve ever owned. We’d looked all over Southwest Washington before finally finding this one, and it suited us so well that we’ve lived in it ever since. Thirty-five years in the same house!  One sad note - Jerry Foley, a transplanted New York Irishman who as our realtor was tireless in his efforts to help us find the right place, passed away last year.  God bless him.


***********  On this Thanksgiving, I’m thankful...

That I was born and grew up in the most wonderful country imaginable. I was born during the Depression, and when I started school, World War II was still going on, but because of people - relatives, neighbors, teachers, coaches - who endured the hardships of those difficult times, I was blessed to grow up in the America I remember…

For  having parents, teachers and coaches who must have seen something better in me than just a smartass,  hyperactive kid who couldn’t stay out of trouble…

That I met and married a girl who loved me for who I was and,  simply by being herself,  motivated me to try to become as good a person as she was…

For the unforgettable experience of seeing our children grow into good responsible adults, of seeing them marry wonderful people and bring them into the family, and of getting to know and love the eleven wonderful grandchildren they’ve given us - and, now, the grandchildren’s spouses and, this year,  the first of what we hope will be a score of great-grandchildren.

For the way  events worked together so that I have been able to spend more than 50 years in the job of my  dreams - football coaching -  and as a result,  to have been able to meet so many great people whom I would never have met otherwise…

Finally, I’m thankful that the same God who watched over the Pilgrims still watches over us all.



*********** This week, as it has done every Thanksgiving since 1961, the Wall Street Journal  will publish two pieces:

First, “The Desolate Wilderness,”  an account of the Pilgrims’ journey to America.

And then, “The Fair Land,” written by Vermont Royster,  who held many positions at the the WSJ, including  editor from 1959 to 1971, during which time he started the annual tradition of publishing the two pieces on Thanksgiving.

In it, he reminds us “That for all our social discord we yet remain the longest enduring society of free men governing themselves without benefit of kings or dictators.”

Mr. Royster was more than a “journalist.” During World War II, he was captain of a US Navy destroyer in the Pacific. After engaging in combat, in September 1945 he was among the first Americans to see first-hand the results of the atomic bomb that hit Nagasaki.

Back at the  WSJ in 1953, he won the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing, and in 1984, he received another Pulitzer Prize for Commentary.

A native North Carolinian, he retired from the WSJ in 1996  and  became Kenan Professor of Journalism and Public Affairs at the University of North Carolina.

Every year, a re-reading (and re-printing) of these two writings is an essential part of my Thanksgiving.  Maybe I can help make it a part of yours.


The Desolate Wilderness

Here beginneth the chronicle of those memorable circumstances of the year 1620, as recorded by Nathaniel Morton , keeper of the records of Plymouth Colony, based on the account of William Bradford , sometime governor thereof:

So they left that goodly and pleasant city of Leyden, which had been their resting-place for above eleven years, but they knew that they were pilgrims and strangers here below, and looked not much on these things, but lifted up their eyes to Heaven, their dearest country, where God hath prepared for them a city (Heb. XI, 16), and therein quieted their spirits.

When they came to Delfs-Haven they found the ship and all things ready, and such of their friends as could not come with them followed after them, and sundry came from Amsterdam to see them shipt, and to take their leaves of them. One night was spent with little sleep with the most, but with friendly entertainment and Christian discourse, and other real expressions of true Christian love.

The next day they went on board, and their friends with them, where truly doleful was the sight of that sad and mournful parting, to hear what sighs and sobs and prayers did sound amongst them; what tears did gush from every eye, and pithy speeches pierced each other’s heart, that sundry of the Dutch strangers that stood on the quay as spectators could not refrain from tears. But the tide (which stays for no man) calling them away, that were thus loath to depart, their Reverend Pastor, falling down on his knees, and they all with him, with watery cheeks commended them with the most fervent prayers unto the Lord and His blessing; and then with mutual embraces and many tears they took their leaves one of another, which proved to be the last leave to many of them.

Being now passed the vast ocean, and a sea of troubles before them in expectations, they had now no friends to welcome them, no inns to entertain or refresh them, no houses, or much less towns, to repair unto to seek for succour; and for the season it was winter, and they that know the winters of the country know them to be sharp and violent, subject to cruel and fierce storms, dangerous to travel to known places, much more to search unknown coasts.

Besides, what could they see but a hideous and desolate wilderness, full of wilde beasts and wilde men? and what multitudes of them there were, they then knew not: for which way soever they turned their eyes (save upward to Heaven) they could have but little solace or content in respect of any outward object; for summer being ended, all things stand in appearance with a weatherbeaten face, and the whole country, full of woods and thickets, represented a wild and savage hew.

If they looked behind them, there was a mighty ocean which they had passed, and was now as a main bar or gulph to separate them from all the civil parts of the world.



The Fair Land

Any one whose labors take him into the far reaches of the country, as ours lately have done, is bound to mark how the years have made the land grow fruitful.

This is indeed a big country, a rich country, in a way no array of figures can measure and so in a way past belief of those who have not seen it. Even those who journey through its Northeastern complex, into the Southern lands, across the central plains and to its Western slopes can only glimpse a measure of the bounty of America.

And a traveler cannot but be struck on his journey by the thought that this country, one day, can be even greater. America, though many know it not, is one of the great underdeveloped countries of the world; what it reaches for exceeds by far what it has grasped.

So the visitor returns thankful for much of what he has seen, and, in spite of everything, an optimist about what his country might be. Yet the visitor, if he is to make an honest report, must also note the air of unease that hangs everywhere.

For the traveler, as travelers have been always, is as much questioned as questioning. And for all the abundance he sees, he finds the questions put to him ask where men may repair for succor from the troubles that beset them.

His countrymen cannot forget the savage face of war. Too often they have been asked to fight in strange and distant places, for no clear purpose they could see and for no accomplishment they can measure. Their spirits are not quieted by the thought that the good and pleasant bounty that surrounds them can be destroyed in an instant by a single bomb. Yet they find no escape, for their survival and comfort now depend on unpredictable strangers in far-off corners of the globe.

How can they turn from melancholy when at home they see young arrayed against old, black against white, neighbor against neighbor, so that they stand in peril of social discord? Or not despair when they see that the cities and countryside are in need of repair, yet find themselves threatened by scarcities of the resources that sustain their way of life? Or when, in the face of these challenges, they turn for leadership to men in high places—only to find those men as frail as any others?

So sometimes the traveler is asked whence will come their succor. What is to preserve their abundance, or even their civility? How can they pass on to their children a nation as strong and free as the one they inherited from their forefathers? How is their country to endure these cruel storms that beset it from without and from within?

Of course the stranger cannot quiet their spirits. For it is true that everywhere men turn their eyes today much of the world has a truly wild and savage hue. No man, if he be truthful, can say that the specter of war is banished. Nor can he say that when men or communities are put upon their own resources they are sure of solace; nor be sure that men of diverse kinds and diverse views can live peaceably together in a time of troubles.

But we can all remind ourselves that the richness of this country was not born in the resources of the earth, though they be plentiful, but in the men that took its measure. For that reminder is everywhere—in the cities, towns, farms, roads, factories, homes, hospitals, schools that spread everywhere over that wilderness.

We can remind ourselves that for all our social discord we yet remain the longest enduring society of free men governing themselves without benefit of kings or dictators. Being so, we are the marvel and the mystery of the world, for that enduring liberty is no less a blessing than the abundance of the earth.

And we might remind ourselves also, that if those men setting out from Delftshaven had been daunted by the troubles they saw around them, then we could not this autumn be thankful for a fair land.



***********  I don’t remember a whole lot about my college graduation, but according to the program I still have,  those of us in attendance sang this old hymn, suggesting  that the people who came before us and helped make us what we are gave God appropriate credit.  It acknowledges that  after “our exiled fathers crossed the sea,” and “trod the wintry strand,” they worshipped God “with prayer and psalm.”


O God, beneath Thy guiding hand
Our exiled fathers crossed the sea,
And when they trod the wintry strand,
With prayer and psalm they worshiped Thee.

Thou heard'st, well pleased, the song, the prayer;
Thy blessing came, and still its pow'r
Shall onward through all ages bear
The memory of that holy hour.

Laws, freedom, truth, and faith in God
Came with those exiles o'er the waves,
And where their pilgrim feet have trod,
The God they trusted guards their graves.

(There is zero chance that today’s Yale, infected by rot like much of the rest of today’s society, would risk offending anyone by including a Christian hymn in its graduation ceremony.)



*********** Rush Limbaugh will have been gone four years this coming February, and I can’t help thinking that his absence for almost the entire Biden presidency was the main reason why the Mainstream Media and  the Party in Power were able to maintain the pretense of a sentient President as long as it did.

It’s also conceivable that it was the vacuum created by his absence that presented the opportunity for Donald Trump to return to power.

I still miss El Rushbo, and I invite you to enjoy his “The True Story of Thanksgiving”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAyvTCaoFA0



*********** Wisdom from Mike Lude:  “Dave Nelson, who won widespread fame and recognition as one of the most cerebral and creative college football coaches in history, was an untried rookie when I first met him at Hillsdale College.

“Hillsdale was Nelson's first stop in a coaching career that was eminently successful and somewhat remarkable because none of the schools where he practiced his trade and made such innovative waves were big-time programs in huge media markets. They didn't compete in the Big 10, the Pac-10 or the Southeastern Conference.

“I was the captain of Dave Nelson's first team as a head coach.

“Then, for most of the next fifteen years at Hillsdale College, the University of Maine and the University of Delaware, I had the good fortune to serve as an assistant coach with Nelson; I was a trusted strategist and disciple of the man who created and taught the Winged-T offense. We spread the Winged-T gospel at hundreds of clinics and blackboard sessions in football war rooms in universities across the country.

“But I am getting ahead of myself here. I had returned to Hillsdale from a three-year stint in the Marine Corps in World War II in 1946 to finish my senior year and, almost as important, my final season of college football.”



***********  Brad Knight’s and my picks - many of them emotionally based, few of them backed by hard analysis,  a couple of them downright idiotic.


We may even give you  a reason to be interested in a particular game.

Here are the results of the games and, in the interest of strict accountability, our “predictions."


FRIDAY
 
MICHIGAN STATE 24,  PURDUE 17 –  The Spartans...big. Purdue is TERRIBLE. ME: Could this be  the one?  Could this be the Boilermakers’ win?  What the hell - I’m going to start the weekend off with a BIG upset. (Okay, okay.  They almost pulled it off. Anybody find out who that was, dressed in black pants and black helmets and “midnight green” jerseys, claiming to be the Spartans?)
 
UNLV 27,  SAN JOSE STATE 16 –  I like San Jose State in this one.  I just think both teams are decent, and the game is on the road for the UNLV Fighting Mafia. ME: I like Ken Niumatololo and the job he’s done at SJSU, but UNLV is fighting for a spot in the MW championship game against Boise State, and they’re not going to go limp. (They  didn’t.)
 
 
SATURDAY
 
OHIO STATE 38, INDIANA 15 – I'll take the UPSET! Indiana might shock the country.  Plus I hate the Buckeyes. ME:  Maybe it’s because I root for hated Duke in basketball, but I just can’t hate the Buckeyes.  They’re good and  they consistently meet a high standard.  But I’m going to root for Indiana because I already have a book written about their miracle 14-0 season, including their last-second kickoff return touchdown to beat Texas in the National Championship game. I do insist on playing Kurt Cignetti in the movie version, but they keep telling me I’m not “Italian enough.” (Except for Michigan’s down season,  the Big Ten is pretty much back to business as usual, with the Buckeyes in control of things.)
 
MIAMI 42, WAKE FOREST 14  – Hurricanes....need this one to stay in the hunt for the playoffs. Perhaps a loss was good for them to refocus. ME: I like Wake but Miami isn’t going to fold now. Especially in front of one of their huge home “crowds.” (As usually, Wake made it a game - until it wasn’t.)
 
FLORIDA 24, OLE MISS 17 – FLA played well a week ago....but Kiff will have his guys ready. Defensively the Rebs have gotten much MUCH better. ME: Ole Miss wins.  Rebels still have hopes of a Playoff berth. (We both whiffed on this one. Ole Miss’ Jaxson Dart had a good day - 24/41 for 323 yards and two TDs - but he threw two INTs, both in the closing minutes as the Rebels fought to tie things up.)
 
SMU 33, VIRGINIA 7 – SMU is just too good. ME: Agreed. SMU can beat Miami.  Or even Clemson. (Enough said.)
 
ILLINOIS 38,  RUTGERS – I'll take the Bielema boys to beat up on the Knights. In this game anyway. Jerzee and Hailee and I could take him!  ME: Illinois is 7-3 and I think they’re better.  But  Rutgers is 6-4.  I’m going out on a limb and taking the Jersey Boys. (Heck of a game - 37 points scored in the fourth quarter. Rutgers took a one-point lead with 1:08, Illini won with a 40-yard pass with :04 left.)
 
IOWA 29,  MARYLAND 13 – Iowa...with the mystery qb. Get the ball to KJ.  Play defense.  Iowa wins this one. ME:   There’s Iowa with their classic uniform against Maryland and their “look what they’re making us wear this week” attire.  Motivation:  Loser has to wear the other team’s uniforms in their next game.  That’s why I know Iowa will win. (Maryland actually dressed like a real big-time college team, so Iowa had nothing to worry about, as it turned out.)

BOSTON COLLEGE 41, NORTH CAROLINA 21  – BC with internal issue and a QB who is disgruntled. I'll take Mack Brown and the NC Tarheels. ME: After watching UNC running back Omarion Hampton against Wake Forest last week, I hesitate to pick BC, but I think that O’Brien has the QB situation under control. So BC. (Surprised it was by this much)
 
TEXAS 31, KENTUCKY 14  – Texas gets knocked off by Stoops.  Kentucky in a shocker. ME: Just one more in the string of weak teams that Texas has feasted on this year. (Ditto.)
 
PENN STATE 26,  MINNESOTA  25 – The Nittany Kittens eat the Gophers. Still need Sanderson to coach in big games. ME:  I would call for an upset except that Franklin does pretty well in games where Penn State’s favored. (Great game. Penn State fake punt helps them control the ball and run out the clock.)
 
ARIZONA STATE 28, BYU 23 – Game of the week maybe...AzState playing well. BYU coming off a huge loss.  Give me the Sun Devils. ME: Sun Devils for sure.  Between runner Cam Skattebo - a human bowling ball - and QB Sam Leavitt (an Oregon kid), and ASU coach Kenny Dillingham’s mind, Sun Devils may have the best offense in the Big 12. (Took ‘em a while to clear the prematurely-stormed  field. Skattebo - 28/147/3 TDs.)
 
KANSAS 37, COLORADO 21 – I won't pick against the JAYHAWKS again.  Hailee will stab me if I do.  Kansas is the hottest team in the country at the moment. Bowl game is not impossible. ME: Unlike some bandwagon jumpers, I’m picking Kansas for the second straight week. (Watching the Buffs some back down to earth was fun to watch.  And Kansas is definitely on fire.)
 
MICHIGAN 50,  NORTHWESTERN 6 – Michigan...because Northwestern is just bad. ME: Northwestern thought that they’d dodged all the bullets after  they fired Pat Fitzegerald, but they haven’t seen anything yet. (Bring back Pat Fitzgerald.)
 
NEBRASKA 44, WISCONSIN 28 – Wisconsin wins this one.  The Badgers are improving and Nebraska isn't used to Holgerson's offensive philosophy yet. Plus I dislike Nebraska. ME:  Based on Holgorsen’s far greater experience at his position (two weeks) vs whoever will be calling Wisconsin’s plays (less than a week), I have to go with the Huskers.  Plus there’s something about Luke Fickell that I just don’t like and I can’t put my finger on it. (Guess maybe the Badgers pulled the trigger on offensive coordinator Phil Longo a little too soon.)
 
CAL 24,  STANFORD 21 – The winner can claim "most liberal school". Should be a battle.  But Stanford is not good. I will take the fighting democrats of CAL. ME: I like Cal’s Justin Wilcox but I’m a proud Stanford dad and this is Big Game. So go Card. And in case you haven’t been watching: Stanford had shown that it can come back; Cal has shown that it can’t hold leads. (WHO did I say couldn’t hold leads??? Aargh.)
 
TEXAS TECH 56, OKLAHOMA STATE 48b – Tech blasts Gundy. Okie State is just not good at all. ME:  Win or lose, Cowboys are headed for a losing season. With everyone jumping on Gundy, it’s only fair to point out that their last losing season was his very first one at Stillwater - 19 seasons ago. (C’mon Cowboys!)
 
WEST VIRGINIA 31, UCF 21 – The Mountaineers win a shootout. And burn some couches. ME:  Got to agree.  Throw the couches  in the blazing dumpster that is Central Florida. (Which they would have done if it were in Morgantown.)
 
UTAH STATE 41,  SAN DIEGO STATE 20   – Tough one here.  I like the other Aggies.  But I think San Diego State is better. San Diego State wins.  And we all know the meaning Ron Burgundy has for San Diego.  Stay classy! ME:  The Aggies, who can stand there  after a game  and tell stories about adversity that top anybody’s, will be smiling after this one. (Aggies actually ran a criss-cross for a TD)
 
LOUISVILLE 37, PITT 9 – Time for a physical battle from Narduzzi's bunch. P-Burg wins this one. Give me the Panthers. ME:  Pitt.  Did Louisville even practice this week?  After watching the way they played against Stanford last week, do they ever practice? They have no idea what damage they did to the ACC  with the way they played Saturday.  (It was a trick. Louisville laid down against Stanford last week just so we’d pick Pitt - Pantheritis and all.)
 
MISSOURI 39 MISSISSIPPI STATE 20 – Misery....because Mississippi State still angers me for their comments about the Hawkeyes a few years ago. ME:  Mississippi State would love right now to be back there a few years ago, when they could actually make disparaging remarks about anybody.  Not now. They’re suffering.  And so is Missouri, but  Missouri is a lot better than they are. (Surely there must be somebody Mississippi State can beat. I have it - let’s get someone from the MAC.  How about Toledo?  They’ve got an open date.)
 
ARMY AT NOTRE DAME (AT YANKEE STADIUM) – I dislike ND.  I LOVE ARMY.  Let's Go BLACK KNIGHTS!!!!! ME: More about this one below.
 
BOISE STATE 17,  WYOMING 13 – I will not pick against Boise State as long as Jeanty is healthy. Give him 200+ and 4 TD's in a route. ME:  This is one of the easier calls we’ll ever have to make. (Maybe an easy call, but not an easy game. This one was tied, 10-10 going into the fourth quarter.  Ashton Jeanty was “held” to 169 yards.)
 
OREGON STATE 41, WASHINGTON STATE 38  – Washington State.  The BEAVS are bad. ME:  Not only are the Beavers bad, but the Cougs are good.  They have some weapons,  especially their QB, John Mateer.   This is considered a Pac-12 game, but by agreement it is NOT for the Pac-12 Championship. (A shocker. A really entertaining game in front of a packed house in Corvallis. The lead changed nine times. OSU, loser of five straight, came back from 38-31 with 2:45 left, kicking the winning field goal with :20 left after a WSU receiver, failing to protect the ball, fumbled with under a minute to play.)
 
BAYLOR 20,  HOUSTON 10 – Houston in a battle of "other" Texas schools. Baylor and Houston are both having okay seasons and can be quite entertaining to watch. Houston misses Holgerson's passing game prowess. ME: While no one was looking, Baylor was beating West Virginia - earning bowl eligibility  and saving Dave Aranda’s  job. Go Bears!  (Great job of saving the season.)
 
OKLAHOMA 24,  ALABAMA 3 – BAMA! ROLL TIDE!!! Oklahoma is wishing it had stayed in the Big 12. ME:  I don’t think the OU folks ever imagined that Alabama’s  first SEC visit to Norman would look like this. Bama by 10 - at least. (Baylor is 7-4; Houston is 4-7.  Hope it was worth it to Willie Fritz to leave Tulane for Houston.) (OU outrushed Bama, 257-70.  Is Jalen Milroe  - 11/26 for 164 and THREE INTs, SEVEN yards rushing - regressing?  Wish I’d been there to hear the OU fans chanting “SEC! SEC! SEC!”) 
 
AUBURN 43, TEXAS A&M 41 (4 OTs)   – A&M because AUBURN SUCKS!!! ME:  Yes, and Hugh Freeze would make them hard to like even if they were good. But Pop Warner could be coaching them, and A & M would still be a whole lot better.  Can’t wait for the Aggies-Longhorns next week! (Since it was such an epic effort by Auburn, will the SEC promoters at ESPN call it a “quality loss” for A & M?)
 
IOWA STATE 31,  UTAH 28 – I will take the Utes in an upset.  They will manhandle ISU up front. ME:  From my distance, it looks as if the Utes are through.  I hate to be the one to tell you that the hated Cyclones aren’t ready to fold just yet. (While we were looking elsewhere, Iowa State has put together another 9-win season.)
 
LSU 24, VANDERBILT 17  – Give me Vandy.  LSU is looking for money to buy Kelly out! ME: Why am I wasting money paying a predictor who would actually think that Vanderbilt can beat LSU?  Actually, now that I think about it, after the listless way the Tigers played against Florida, an upset isn’t out of the realm of possibility. But I still don’t have the stones to pick Vandy. (Just as well I didn’t - LSU is bad, but not that bad. A friend who was at the game said he expected more of Vandy’s Diego Pavia than 186 yards passing and 43 yards rushing.  Me, too.)
 
KANSAS STATE 41, CINCINNATI 15 – K State rebounds.  In a game that could be close this one won't be. The Wildcats in a rout. ME: If the Wildcats can somehow avoid falling behind 21-0 to start the game (as they didn’t against ASU) they’ll be fine. Sure was surprised to hear some boos from the KSU faithful last week.(Wildcats rushed for 281 yards, exceeded this season only by the 283 against BCS Tennessee-Martin in the season opener.)
 
DUKE 31, VIRGINIA TECH 38   – Not sure who to pick. Tech needs a win to make a bowl game. Duke needs a win just to get another win.  But I think Duke is better.  Especially at Duke. ME: This Duke team is pretty good. The Devils are 7-3, and they’ve been in every game they’ve played, including holding a 28-25 lead over Miami until 3:08 left in the third, and having the potential winning field goal against SMU blocked with no time left on the clock. Go Devils. (Duke’s Eli Pancol caught just five passes, but they were for 188 yards -  an average 37.6 yards per catch - and three TDs. Get this - he’s been at Duke - same  school - for five years. Duke is now 8-3 in Manny Diaz’ first season.)
 
USC 19,  UCLA 13 – The "who cares" bowl. I'll take USC to beat UCLA in a game literally half the country (especially me) cares about. LA can just move to Russia. ME: This game symbolizes to me  how far, in many ways, college football has regressed.  There was a  time for me when I looked forward to this game every year. It was so exotic- there I was,  a kid sitting in front of the TV - in Philly where it was already dark outside - watching these two teams playing in bright sunshine, 100,000 people in the Coliseum, each side trying to outdo the other with clever card tricks.  Guy with cool names like Aramis Dandoy and Sam Tsagalakis.  Unlike Brad Knight, I’m going to pick a winner: USC. (UCLA had its chances.  It was a  good game with surprisingly few nasty interactions between players.  That we could see, that is.  One that we couldn’t see occurred as the teams went in at halftime and resulted in the Bruins’ kicking off from their own five to start the second half.)
 
AIR FORCE 22,  NEVADA 19 – I'll take the Zoomies. Against my better judgement. ME: I don’t like the Zoomies, but I think they’ll win. (It was a three-point game until AF scored with 1:11 remaining to make it 22-12.)
 
FRESNO STATE 28, COLORADO STATE 22  – Have to go with the boys from Fresno State. Not sure I will be right BUT Colorado and California are both leftist hellholes.  ME: I have to go with Fresno because if Colorado State wins, they’ll be in the Mountain West title game against Boise State, mainly because they had a pillow-soft schedule that didn’t include either of the conference’s two best teams  - Boise State and UNLV.  (Whew.  For a while there the prospect of Colorado State in the MW championship  game scared me.  I haven’t checked carefully, but it does appear that this Fresno win means that Boise and UNLV will meet for   the MW title.)


*********** There still isn’t a P-4 coaching vacancy yet, but I did fail to mention two others in the Group of 5:  Charlotte and Rice.


*********** YOU NEWCOMERS - SURE HOPE YOU DID WELL ON THESE:

 UMASS AT GEORGIA – Georgia 59, UMass 21
 
UTEP AT TENNESSEE – Tennessee 56, UTEP 0
 
WOFFORD AT SOUTH CAROLINA – South Carolina 56, Wofford 12



*********** First of all, this is not to suggest in any way that Notre Dame is not much, much better than Army. It’s probable that nothing that Army did could have given it a much of a chance against Notre Dame, but…

A word about the Army offense.

Legendary comedian Groucho Marx used to emcee a TV quiz show called “You Bet Your Life,” and whenever someone failed to make any money, he’d tell them he didn’t want them to go away empty handed, so for fifty bucks or so (decent money then), he’d ask,  “Who’s buried in Grant’s Tomb?”

A similar easy-to-answer question for anybody watching Army-Notre Dame Saturday night would have been (any time Army was on offense),  “ Who’s going to carry the ball on the next play?”

(No, the answer’s not “Ulysses Grant.”)

If you’d said, “Bryson Daily,” your chances of getting the answer were quite  good. About 70 percent.  Of Army’s 67 offensive plays, 39 were runs by Daily and eight were passes by Daily.

Now, Bryson Daily is one terrific football player. And, this being  consistent with Army strategy throughout  the season, it makes a lot of sense to put the ball in his hands as much as possible.

But Notre Dame wasn’t like the rest of Army’s opponents. Notre Dame was much better - faster and stronger, especially - and it seemed to me it made sense for Army to have played a little “what if?” in advance, and to have had some other weapons ready.

Misdirection?  Nowhere to be found. Traps? Ditto

Triple option?  Make me laugh. 

They did run a couple of plays that could possibly have been called triple option, because that’s what they resembled, but the plain and simple fact, made obvious a couple of weeks ago when Daily couldn’t play against Air Force and his backup didn’t run a single triple option play, is:   ARMY DOESN’T RUN TRIPLE OPTION ANY MORE.

They have been running a little  of it with Daily under center - enough to mollify the hard core grads -  but in reality,  whether under center or direct snap, the bulk of the Army offense has become a primitive,  off-tackle version of “Hey diddle  diddle, We’re comin’ up the middle.”

Primitive? Hey, Irish - here’s who’s going to carry… we’re going to snap it right to him. Where he’s going? Wait a half-step and you’ll see.  Okay?   Now, then -  stop us.

It’s important, of course,  to have a  signature play - something that opponents know that you’re going to run and that they HAVE to stop or it’s going to be a long day for them. 

But  with Army,  as with those of us who run  Double Wing:   it is possible for opponents  to stop a single play.  Then what?  What we know from experience  is that in order to stop our base play they HAVE to give us something else.  What is it?   That’s where long experience with the offense comes in handy.

In Army’s case, they didn’t have  enough experience with “Daily off-tackle” - specifically with people stopping it - to have anything else ready.



*********** NOW THIS IS HOW YOU START A RIVALRY…

Just in case anybody might have thought the the Washington State-Oregon State game was going to be a “friendly” (a sickening soccer term) between two brothers left orphaned by rest of the family, Washington State coach Jake Dickert dispelled that notion the Monday of game week by saying: “I’ve never gotten into the, like, ‘They’re our buddy.’ Oregon State’s not our buddy. They would’ve left us as fast as we would’ve left them.”


*********** Now that Indiana has a loss, watch as ESPN  tries to make a case for a three-loss SEC team to get into the playoff ahead of the Hoosiers - because, you’ll grow tired of hearing,  the SEC is so tough that many of those losses are “quality losses.”

They conveniently forget to say that back when this was happening in the Pac-12. Back then, they said it was  because the Pac-12 was a weakling conference.


*********** If you’ve watched much weeknight football, you’ve certainly encountered Matt Barrie and Dan Mullen.  Mullen’s not bad  - former coach, knows his stuff - but Barrie really ruins a broadcast.  He has a high-pitched voice and he speaks in machine-gun fashion, spewing all sorts of data and facts and tales, sometimes even touching on the play being run. When he runs out of data and facts, he calls the game, but it’s  as if we’re blind and listening to it on the radio. Fewer things are more annoying that having someone assume that you’re a child  that can’t see that a passer is dropping back, and so you need to be told.  Mainly,  he seems committed to making sure that no bit of the broadcast is wasted by silence.

Some of the nonsense he spews is laughable. An example from last week:

“Georgia Tech - a phenomenal institute of technology.”

Well, Matt, if you say so…


*********** Did I say that Matt Barrie is bad?  Gus Johnson is worse, but evidently he’s built up a big enough following at Fox headquarters that he gets to call most of the big games.

Besides his motormouth, his biggest failing is his disrespect for football.

He cut his teeth calling NBA games, and he’s never managed to get that out of his system.

But what kills me is when he inflicts soccer talk on us:

“Indiana up, seven-nil,”  he said as we went to commercial.  Grrrrr.  Drop that “nil” sh—.  And then, when we came back, he  said it again.



*********** Anybody going to be watching Texas-Texas A & M Saturday?

    1.    Texas Longhorns 6-1 SEC (10-1 overall)
    2.    Georgia Bulldogs 6-2 (9-2)
    3.    Tennessee Volunteers 5-2 (9-2)
    4.    Texas A&M Aggies 5-2 (8-3)
    5.    South Carolina Gamecocks 5-3 (8-3)
    6.    Alabama Crimson Tide 4-3 (8-3)
    7.    LSU Tigers 4-3 (7-4)
    8.    Missouri Tigers 4-3 (8-3)
    9.    Ole Miss Rebels 4-3 (8-3)
    10.    Florida Gators 4-4 (6-5)
    11.    Arkansas Razorbacks 3-4 (6-5)
    12.    Vanderbilt Commodores 3-4 (6-5)
    13.    Oklahoma Sooners 2-5 (6-5)
    14.    Auburn Tigers 2-5 (5-6)
    15.    Kentucky Wildcats 1-7 (4-7)
    16.    Mississippi State Bulldogs 0-7 (2-9)


*********** Of course I watched the Yale-Harvard game Saturday, won by -(ahem) Yale, 34-29.  And one of the things I learned - the Ivy League operating in semi-secrecy - is that there’s a three-way tie for first place, among Harvard (which stood to win outright if it could just have beaten Yale), Dartmouth, which has been strong in recent years, and….Columbia. 

Yes, Columbia, the place where anti-Israel protests seemed to become a way of life.  That Columbia. 

The last time Columbia finished in first place in the Ivy League was 1961.


*********** It probably wouldn’t have made any difference, but mishandled  snaps on punts played big roles in starting the slide to defeat  of both Indiana and Army.


*********** Arizona State’s Kenny Dillingham has done a great job.  He’s young -  34 years old - and  he looks even younger.

But the way he looked Saturday, ranting at the officials  on national TV near the end of the BYU game, you’d think he was a LOT younger - like maybe 3 or 4.


*********** Every so often Chris Vannini in The Athletic ranks all 134 FBS teams, from Number One Oregon to Number 134 Kent State (in case you wondered), the only FBS school that has yet to win a game.  Their coach, Kenni Burns, doesn’t have enough trouble - he’s also being sued by a Kent Bank that claims he owes $24,000 on his Mastercard.  Dude’s making $475,000 a year.  Soon it could be a lot less than that.

Anyhow, based on this week’s rankings, here’s how HIS 12-team playoff would look:

 

Wow. Boise State… SMU… Arizona State… Indiana… Miami.  Think any of them will win a game?  No matter.  New blood in the mix.

Thank you, twelve-team playoff.

And thank you, Oklahoma, Florida and Auburn.


***********   Good morning, Corch:

I watched a short interview (12 min?) with Army OC Cody Worley yesterday. He echoed your contention that trying out new stuff vs the Irish would be a big mistake. In fact, he said that a couple of times. Hope he and Monken mean that. Your analysis of the Army-ND game is fair. A former Army QB invited me to watch the game at his house in Tampa. We've watched together a few times, but this time I declined, honestly claiming we are too intense. On Brave Old Army Team

Still loving the weekly connection with Coach Lude, as well as the weekly BK-HW picks.

John Vermillion                            
St Petersburg, Florida



************ Hugh

Glad to hear you survived the “bomb.”

Am conflicted.  I really enjoy watching Army play football.  Our buddy Mike’s son graduated from West Point.  I’ve been a huge Notre Dame fan for years, daughter is a grad.  I’ve decided it would be fair if it was just a great game!

Will also be conflicted for Army-Navy. 
Am a big Army fan, but my niece’s daughter is in the Navy and so is Mike’s other son!  If Navy QB Horvath is healthy, and if Army QB Dailey can stay healthy after ND, UTSA, and Tulane it will be a close Army win.  Otherwise, without Dailey the Middies could pull out the win.

No offense to Knighter but as a Golden Gopher fan I can only pull for those Iowa bumblebees when they play Ohio State and Michigan.

You left one coach out.  Biff Poggi was let go at UNC Charlotte. 

Enjoy the weekend!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas
 


 

*********** QUIZ ANSWER: Woody Green remains one of the greatest high school athletes ever to come out of Portland, Oregon.

As a running back at Jefferson High School, he was first team All-City his junior and senior years, and was first team All-State and High School all-American his senior year.

In his senior year he was second team All-City on the school’s city championship basketball team, and he was state champion in the 100  and 440  in both his junior and senior years.

With size - 6 foot, 205 - and speed, he was a perfect fit at Arizona State and  Frank Kush’s run-heavy Wing-T offense.

In his second game, as a sophomore,  he ran for 214 yards and two touchdowns against Utah.  For the season, he rushed for 1,310 yards, averaging 5.5 yards per carry, and earned honorable mention All-America honors.

Playing in the very first Fiesta Bowl at the end of the season, he carried 24 times for 101 yards and three TDs as the Sun Devils defeated Florida State, 45-38.

In his junior season, he had the greatest season any ASU running back has ever had, rushing for 1,565 yards and 15 TDs on 234 carries (an average of 6.7 yards per carry).

He had games of  201 yards against San Jose State, 198 against both BYU and Wyoming, 195 against Houston and 172 against Arizona.

He earned consensus All-American honors, becoming only the second Sun Devil to be so honored.

Playing in the Fiesta Bowl again,  he rushed for 202 yards  and three touchdowns as the Sun Devils beat Missouri, 49-35.

In his senior season, he surpassed 1,300 yards for the this straight year, gaining 1,313 yards, and became the  first Sun Devil player to earn consecutive consensus All-American selections.

The Sun Devils finished the season 11-1 after a third Fiesta Bowl win, this one over Pitt, with a Number 9 ranking nationally.

He finished eighth in the Heisman balloting.

He set ASU career rushing records that still stand : 4,188 yards and 39 touchdowns.  Over the course of his three seasons, he had 21 100-yard rushing games, and during that time the Sun Devils’ record was 32-4 (Two 11-1 seasons and one 10-2).

He was the  1st round draft choice of the Kansas City Chiefs, and although he had a promising rookie season, he suffered a knee injury that slowed him down and ultimately led to his retirement part way through his third season.

The amazing thing is that he was not an I-back getting a disproportionate share of the carries.  Playing in a two- and three-man backfield, he shared the carries. In his sophomore year, Ben Malone rushed for 857 yards;  in his junior year, Brent McClanahan rushed for 988 yards;  and in his senior year, Malone rushed for 1.129 yards.

In the year that our guy was drafted first, Malone was drafted second, by the Dolphins, and went on to a  nine-year NFL career.  McClanahan was a year ahead of our guy, and after being drafted by Minnesota, he spent seven seasons with the Vikings.

The Sun Devils’ offense was not exactly as sportswriters often  described it: “run, run, run, run, run, maybe think pass, run, run, run…” The 1972 Sun Devils’ team set an NCAA regular-season scoring record with 513 points, and it wasn’t all done on the ground.

Their quarterback,  Danny White, whose three-year ASU career paralleled our guy’s,   finished with 6,717 passing yards and 64 touchdowns.   He was drafted third by the  Dallas Cowboys - the same year the Sun Devils had running backs taken in the first and second rounds - and he led them to a Super Bowl win.

Woody Green entered the ASU Hall of Fame in its inaugural class in 1975.


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING WOODY GREEN

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
MIKE FORISTIERE - MARSING, IDAHO
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY








*********** QUIZ:  He was born poor on New York’s Lower East Side, the son of an Irish policeman. He would wind up owning the New York Giants - or, as it was once necessary to say, the New York FOOTBALL Giants.

At 13 he dropped out of school to help support his family.

While working as a “newsboy” (selling newspapers on street corners), he became well-acquainted with bookies, and soon began working for them as a “runner” (taking bets and paying off winners, who often tipped him). By the time he was 18,  he was a full-fledged bookie himself.

In 1925, with the five-year-old National Football League in search of someone to operate a franchise in New York City,  he was approached to put up $500 (about $7,500 in today’s money) to buy the rights.  He didn’t know much about football but he was reported to have told people that an exclusive franchise to do anything in New York was worth $500.

At first, things did not go well for him financially. New York was then a college football town, and pro football had little following.  But  when the Chicago Bears, having just signed Illinois star Red Grange, came to town, our guy rented the Polo Grounds, and the huge crowd that attended brought in $143,000 at the gate, putting the Giants in the black for the season.

The next year,  Grange and his agent, C. C. Pyle, formed a rival league, the American Football League,  and put  a franchise in New York called the Yankees.   And when our guy’s coach and  one of his standout linemen left to join the Philadelphia Quakers franchise in the new league, our guy was forced to give raises to all his remaining players and sign them to season-long contracts.

He lost a lot of money as a result, but at the end of the season he challenged the American League champion, the Philadelphia Quakers, to a post-season game, and when they accepted, the Giants wound up beating them, 31-0.  So much for the AFL.

In 1927, the Giants won their first NFL championship.  They would win three more championships during his lifetime.

He had to fight off numerous challengers to his hold on New York pro football, probably the toughest of which came after World War II with the start of the All-America Football Conference. During the AAFC’s existence, from 1946 to 1949, he had to compete with AAFC teams in both New York (the Yankees) and Brooklyn (the Dodgers), but when the leagues “merged,” the Giants were left as  the only team in New York.

He died in 1959 at the age of 71, leaving  the Giants to his two sons, Jack and Wellington. 

Jack’s grandson would ultimately sell his side of the family’s fifty per cent share in the team, but Wellington’s side of the family still owns its half of the club.  Wellington’s grandson, John, is  the current president of the Giants.

Only the Halas family of Chicago has owned an NFL team for a longer time.

In 1963, our guy was among the first 17 members inducted into the Pro Football Hall of fame in its charter class.  In the photo above, that's his son, Wellington, next to his bust in the Hall of Fame.




FRIDAY,  NOVEMBER  22,  2024    “The past isn’t dead. It isn’t even past.” William Faulkner


***********  My wife asked me when I plan on turning the flag right-side-up.  I told her - when I hear President Trump say,  "So help me God."


*********** Thanks for all your help.  You can stop sending us money now.  We made it through the Bomb Cyclone just fine.  A little rain (it is, after all, the Northwest) and a little wind.  Even our place on the Coast is okay.

But there were places in the Northwest that had problems with downed trees and a subsequent loss of power, and the area outside Seattle, near where our daughter and son-in-law live, got hit pretty hard.

On a  somewhat associated note, the Pacific Northwest is not exactly Tornado Alley, so when the graphic below was sent to me Tuesday by a friend, my only reaction was “WTF?”  A tornado in the Northwest is about like snow in Miami. (On the map, our place is just about at the “a” in “Ocean.” )




*********** Wisdom from Mike Lude:  “We planned a party to dedicate the new club, and when Art Hass and I suggested we might even have a little female companionship at the affair, the other officers scoffed. Wagers were placed. Art and I had met a couple of local girls and were able to patch through a phone call to their home to get their parents’ OK to come to the club. I didn't do much dancing because a badly sprained injured ankle had me on crutches. But Art and I each won fifty dollars when we showed up with the local girls.

“I was also learning about the power politics of the military system. Not long after arriving in Hawaii, I was dispatched with a group of sixteen Marines to load 120 new amphibious tractors aboard LSTs and move them from Pearl Harbor to our base of operations in Maui. When we arrived at Pearl, the commanding admiral where I had been sent ordered me to send two of my Marines to kitchen duty as long as we were around. 

“I called the Pacific Theater Marine headquarters and talked to the commanding general to complain, citing the pressing time schedule. He agreed, adding: "I outrank him.”  So the two-star general told the one-star admiral we would not be furnishing any mess cooks from my detail. We loaded the tractors on the LSTs and got them back to Maui. I never saw the admiral again, but I wasn't looking for him either.

“More than six months after the Japanese surrender I arrived in San Diego and immediately requested two weeks’ leave to visit my family in Michigan. I borrowed Grandpa Lude's 1941 DeSoto coupe and drove to Hillsdale to visit friends. At one of the hangouts near the campus entrance where students would gather between classes for snacks and socializing I spotted an incredibly attractive brunette coed. Her name was Rena Pifer, and I remembered meeting her when I was a sophomore. She was the sister of a fraternity brother, Bill Pifer, a guy I had run into earlier in Honolulu, where he worked with a naval repair unit. After dating Rena the next night I decided she was a very special lady, and that I should do everything I could to recruit her to my program.

“In no time I fell in love with her, and it's been that way for a lifetime.”
 


***********  Brad Knight’s and my picks - many of them emotionally based, few of them backed by hard analysis,  a couple of them downright idiotic.

we might on occasion surprise you with a reason to be interested in a particular game.


FRIDAY
 
PURDUE AT MICHIGAN STATE –  The Spartans...big. Purdue is TERRIBLE. ME: Could this be  the one?  Could this be the Boilermaker’s win?  What the hell - I’m going to start the weekend off with a BIG upset.
 
UNLV AT SAN JOSE STATE –  I like San Jose State in this one.  I just think both teams are decent, and the game is on the road for the UNLV Fighting Mafia. ME: I like Ken Niumatololo and the job he’s done at SJSU, but UNLV is fighting for a spot in the MW championship game against Boise State, and they’re not going to go limp.
 
 
SATURDAY
 
INDIANA AT OHIO STATE – I'll take the UPSET! Indiana might shock the country.  Plus I hate the Buckeyes. ME:  Maybe it’s because I root for hated Duke in basketball, but I just can’t hate the Buckeyes.  They’re good and  they consistently meet a high standard.  But I’m going to root for Indiana because I already have a book written about their miracle 14-0 season, including their last-second kickoff return touchdown to beat Texas in the National Championship game. I do insist on playing Kurt Cignetti in the movie version, but they keep telling me I’m not “Italian enough.”
 
WAKE FOREST AT MIAMI – Hurricanes....need this one to stay in the hunt for the playoffs. Perhaps a loss was good for them to refocus. ME: I like Wake but Miami isn’t going to fold now. Especially in front of one of their huge home “crowds.”
 
OLE MISS AT FLORIDA – Fla played well a week ago....but Kiff will have his guys ready. Defensively the Rebs have gotten much MUCH better. ME: Ole Miss wins.  Rebels still have hopes of a Playoff berth.
 
SMU AT VIRGINIA – SMU is just too good. ME: Agreed. SMU can beat Miami.  Or even Clemson.
 
ILLINOIS AT RUTGERS – I'll take the Bielema boys to beat up on the Knights. In this game anyway. Jerzee and Hailee and I could take him!  ME: Illinois is 7-3 and I think they’re better.  But  Rutgers is 6-4.  I’m going out on a limb and taking the Jersey Boys.
 
IOWA AT MARYLAND – Iowa...with the mystery qb. Get the ball to KJ.  Play defense.  Iowa wins this one. ME:   There’s Iowa with their classic uniform against Maryland and their “look what they’re making us wear this week” attire.  Motivation:  Loser has to wear the other team’s uniforms in their next game.  That’s why I know Iowa will win.

NORTH CAROLINA AT BOSTON COLLEGE – BC with internal issue and a QB who is disgruntled. I'll take Mack Brown and the NC Tarheels. ME: After watching UNC running back Omarion Hampton against Wake Forest last week, I hesitate to pick BC, but I think that O’Brien has the QB situation under control. So BC.
 
KENTUCKY AT TEXAS – Texas gets knocked off by Stoops.  Kentucky in a shocker. ME: Just one more in the string of weak teams that Texas has feasted on this year.
 
PENN STATE AT MINNESOTA – The Nittany Kittens eat the Gophers. Still need Sanderson to coach in big games. ME:  I would call for an upset except that Franklin does pretty well in games where Penn State’s favored.
 
BYU AT ARIZONA STATE – Game of the week maybe...AzState playing well. BYU coming off a huge loss.  Give me the Sun Devils. ME: Sun Devils for sure.  Between runner Cam Skattebo - a human bowling ball - and QB Sam Leavitt (an Oregon kid), and ASU coach Kenny Dillingham’s mind, Sun Devils may have the best offense in the Big 12.
 
COLORADO AT KANSAS – I won't pick against the JAYHAWKS again.  Hailee will stab me if I do.  Kansas is the hottest team in the country at the moment. Bowl game is not impossible. ME: Unlike some bandwagon jumpers, I’m picking Kansas for the second straight week.
 
NORTHWESTERN AT MICHIGAN – Michigan...because Northwestern is just bad. ME: Northwestern thought that they’d dodged all the bullets after  they fired Pat Fitzegerald, but they haven’t seen anything yet.
 
WISCONSIN AT NEBRASKA – Wisconsin wins this one.  The Badgers are improving and Nebraska isn't used to Holgerson's offensive philosophy yet. Plus I dislike Nebraska. ME:  Based on Holgorsen’s far greater experience at his position (two weeks) vs whoever will be calling Wisconsin’s plays (less than a week), I have to go with the Huskers.  Plus there’s something about Luke Fickell that I just don’t like and I can’t put my finger on it.
 
STANFORD AT CAL – The winner can claim "most liberal school". Should be a battle.  But Stanford is not good. I will take the fighting democrats of CAL. ME: I like Cal’s Justin Wilcox but I’m a proud Stanford dad and this is Big Game. So go Card. And in case you haven’t been watching: Stanford had shown that it can come back; Cal has shown that it can’t hold leads.
 
TEXAS TECH AT OKLAHOMA STATE – Tech blasts Gundy. Okie State is just not good at all. ME:  Win or lose, Cowboys are headed for a losing season. With everyone jumping on Gundy, it’s only fair to point out that their last losing season was his very first one at Stillwater - 19 seasons ago.
 
UCF AT WEST VIRGINIA – The Mountaineers win a shootout. And burn some couches. ME:  Got to agree.  Throw the couches  in the blazing dumpster that is Central Florida.
 
SAN DIEGO STATE AT UTAH STATE – Tough one here.  I like the other Aggies.  But I think San Diego State is better. San Diego State wins.  And we all know the meaning Ron Burgundy has for San Diego.  Stay classy! ME:  The Aggies, who can stand there  after a game  and tell stories about adversity that top anybody’s, will be smiling after this one.
 
PITTSBURGH AT LOUISVILLE – Time for a physical battle from Narduzzi's bunch. P-Burg wins this one. Give me the Panthers. ME:  Pitt.  Did Louisville even practice this week?  After watching the way they played against Stanford last week, do they ever practice? They have no idea what damage they did to the ACC  with the way they played Saturday.
 
MISSOURI AT MISSISSIPPI STATE – Misery....because Mississippi State still angers me for their comments about the Hawkeyes a few years ago. ME:  Mississippi State would love right now to be back there a few years ago, when they could actually make disparaging remarks about anybody.  Not now. They’re suffering.  And so is Missouri, but  Missouri is a lot better than they are.
 
ARMY AT NOTRE DAME (AT YANKEE STADIUM) – I dislike ND.  I LOVE ARMY.  Let's Go BLACK KNIGHTS!!!!! ME: More about this one below.
 
BOISE STATE AT WYOMING – I will not pick against Boise State as long as Jeanty is healthy. Give him 200+ and 4 TD's in a route. ME:  This is one of the easier calls we’ll ever have to make.
 
WASHINGTON STATE AT OREGON STATE – Washington State.  The BEAVS are bad. ME:  Not only are the Beavers bad, but the Cougs are good.  They have some weapons,  especially their QB, John Mateer.   This is considered a Pac-12 game, but by agreement it is NOT for the Pac-12 Championship.
 
BAYLOR AT HOUSTON – Houston in a battle of "other" Texas schools. Baylor and Houston are both having okay seasons and can be quite entertaining to watch. Houston misses Holgerson's passing game prowess. ME: While no one was looking, Baylor was beating West Virginia - earning bowl eligibility  and saving Dave Aranda’s  job. Go Bears!
 
ALABAMA AT OKLAHOMA – BAMA! ROLL TIDE!!! Oklahoma is wishing it had stayed in the Big 12. ME:  I don’t think the OU folks ever imagined that Alabama’s  first SEC visit to Norman would look like this. Bama by 10 - at least.
 
TEXAS A&M AT AUBURN – A&M because AUBURN SUCKS!!! ME:  Yes, and Hugh Freeze would make them hard to like even if they were good. But Pop Warner could be coaching them, and A & M would still be a whole lot better.  Can’t wait for the Aggies-Longhorns next week!
 
IOWA STATE AT UTAH – I will take the Utes in an upset.  They will manhandle ISU up front. ME:  From my distance, it looks as if the Utes are through.  I hate to be the one to tell you that the hated Cyclones aren’t ready to fold just yet.
 
VANDERBILT AT LSU – Give me Vandy.  LSU is looking for money to buy Kelly out! ME: Why am I wasting money paying a predictor who would actually think that Vanderbilt can beat LSU?  Actually, now that I think about it, after the listless way the Tigers played against Florida, an upset isn’t out of the realm of possibility. But I still don’t have the stones to pick Vandy.
 
CINCINNATI AT KANSAS STATE – K State rebounds.  In a game that could be close this one won't be. The Wildcats in a rout. ME: If the Wildcats can somehow avoid falling behind 21-0 to start the game (as they didn’t against ASU) they’ll be fine. Sure was surprised to hear some boos from the KSU faithful last week.
 
VIRGINIA TECH AT DUKE – Not sure who to pick. Tech needs a win to make a bowl game. Duke needs a win just to get another win.  But I think Duke is better.  Especially at Duke. ME: This Duke team is pretty good. The Devils are 7-3, and they’ve been in every game they’ve played, including holding a 28-25 lead over Miami until 3:08 left in the third, and having the potential winning field goal against SMU blocked with no time left on the clock. Go Devils.
 
USC AT UCLA – The "who cares" bowl. I'll take USC to beat UCLA in a game literally half the country (especially me) cares about. LA can just move to Russia. ME: This game symbolizes to me  how far, in many ways, college football has regressed.  There was a  time for me when I looked forward to this game every year. It was so exotic- there I was,  a kid sitting in front of the TV - in Philly where it was already dark outside - watching these two teams playing in bright sunshine, 100,000 people in the Coliseum, each side trying to outdo the other with clever card tricks.  Guy with cool names like Aramis Dandoy and Sam Tsagalakis.  I’m going to pick a winner: USC.
 
AIR FORCE AT NEVADA – I'll take the Zoomies. Against my better judgement. ME: I don’t like the Zoomies, but I think they’ll win.
 
COLORADO STATE AT FRESNO STATE – Have to go with the boys from Fresno State. Not sure I will be right BUT Colorado and California are both leftist hellholes.  ME: I have to go with Fresno because if Colorado State wins, they’ll be in the Mountain West title game against Boise State, mainly because they had a pillow-soft schedule that didn’t include either of the conference’s two best teams (Boise State and UNLV).

 
 
BEGINNERS CATEGORY –   THANKS TO THE SEC, WE’VE BEEN PROVIDED WITH THE FOLLOWING GAMES FOR YOU TO TRY YOUR PREDICTING SKILLS.
 
UMASS AT GEORGIA –
 
UTEP AT TENNESSEE –
 
WOFFORD AT SOUTH CAROLINA –



*********** Army and Notre Dame meet for the 52nd time Saturday when they face each other in Yankee Stadium.

The games between them began in 1913 and their first game was one of the most famous of their meetings.  It was the game in which Notre Dame, then a little-known Catholic school from the Midwest, came east to West Point to play mighty Army, and stunned the football world by upsetting the Cadets, 35-13.  It wasn’t just the surprise Irish win that caught the nation’s attention, though - it was the way in which they won, using the precision passing of Gus Dorais to a receiver named Knute Rockne.

Rockne would soon enough become the Irish coach, and his teams enjoyed good success against Army.

With the exception on 1918, during World War I, the two teams met every year from 1913 through 1947.

From 1925 through 1946, the games were all played in New York City, first in the Polo Grounds and then in Yankee Stadium.

Because of the size of Army’s Yankee Stadium, the game has never been played at West Point.  Not until 1947 was it played at South Bend.

From 1932 through 1943, Notre Dame never lost in the series; they won 12 games and two were tied.

But then came World War II, and while Notre Dame’s roster, like those of most other colleges, was depleted by the war, Army won two years in a row - and won decisively, by 59-0 in 1944 and 48-0 in 1945.  Army won the national title both years.

But in 1946, Notre Dame was back to full strength again, and the two teams played to a historic 0-0 tie in a so-called “Game of the Century.”  Between the two teams, there were 11 All-Americans on the field (in a time of two-way football) and four Heisman Trophy winners - Army’s Doc Blanchard had won it in 1945 and Army’s Glenn Davis won it in 1946; Notre Dame QB Johnny Lujack would win it i 1947, and Irish end Leon Hart, who would win it in 1949, played in the game as an eligible freshman.

The 1947 game was an Irish win, 27-7, and it would be the last in the long series for ten years. It is a story for another day, but suffice to say that there were bad feelings between the schools, fed to some extent by the way some Notre Dame fans berated the Army players as draft dodgers.

Then, too, there was the reality that with the war ended and players returning to their colleges - or to those that had offered them the early version of NIL, Army and Navy (there was not yet an Air Force Academy) were the only schools to actually lose talent  through graduation.

The two teams began play again, off and on, in 1957. 

Since then, they’ve met 18 times and Army has won exactly once - in 1958, the year of the Lonesome End, Army’s last unbeaten team and famed coach Earl Blaik’s last team.

Other than that one win, the closest Army has come since 1957 was a 20-17 loss in 1998.

The last time the two teams met was in 2016, in San Antonio, a 44-6 Irish victory.

The last time they’ve met in Yankee Stadium was 2010, a 27-3 Irish win.

One of the most famous Army-Notre Dame games was the so-called “Win One for the Gipper” game, in 1928.

In December, 1920, famed Notre Dame player George Gipp died, and as Rockne would tell the story years later, his dying words were,  “I've got to go, Rock. It's all right. I'm not afraid. Some time, Rock, when the team is up against it, when things are wrong and the breaks are beating the boys, ask them to go in there with all they've got and win just one for the Gipper. I don't know where I'll be then, Rock. But I'll know about it, and I'll be happy.”

As legend has taken if from there, with Army and Notre Dame  tied 0-0 at the half - this is nearly eight years after Gipp’s death, remember - Rockne evidently chose to play the Gipper card.

“On his deathbed,” he supposedly said,  “George Gipp told me that someday, when the time came, he wanted me to ask at Notre Dame team to beat the Army for him.”

In an article ghost-written for him two years later, in Collier’s Magazine, Rockne remembered, ”the boys came out for the second half exalted, inspired, overpowering. They won. As (Jack) Chevigny smashed through for the winning touchdown he said: ‘That's one for the Gipper.’”

Interestingly, not until two days after the game was anything said about  the “Gipper” story, and not a lot of attention was paid to it.

One wise guy, told about it later, recalled the kind of rounder George Gipp had been and quipped, ”it would've been much more like him to ask Rock to put down a bet for him someday when the Irish were a sure thing.”

Interesingly, too,  according to Gipp’s teammates he "never referred to himself as the Gipper.“

In fact, it wasn’t until Hollywood included the story in “Knute Rockne – All American” came out in 1940 (20 years after Gipp’s death) did it become a part of American sports mythology. 

But it is a good story and what made it most poignant was the importance to Notre Dame of beating Army.  And in New York City, with its huge Irish population, at that.  Recalled one Notre Dame player in that 1928 game,  "As we approached Yankee Stadium there were Irish cops on every corner hollering, 'Beat Army. Beat Army.' It was terrific and really got us keyed up for the game. “

Actually, the final score was 12-6, Notre Dame, and the game ended with Army on the Notre Dame one-yard line. Any business about winning one for the Gipper took a distant second to a controversy over whether the referee (who then kept the time on his own clock) had ended the game too soon, depriving Army of a chance to score.


*********** Notre Dame is a two-touchdown favorite over Army, and obviously the oddsmakers know what they’re doing.

Given that Notre Dame is more talented and has played a tougher schedule, I suggest that Army’s only chance to win is,  as always,  to avoid losing: to eliminate turnovers and penalties, to tackle well, to eliminate big plays against them, and to avoid mistakes on special teams.

Oh - and maybe most important of all - to avoid dumbass calls.

In that category, I include “doing something different offensively because we aren’t good enough to beat them with our regular stuff.”

Raise your hand if you’ve ever done that in a big game.

Okay now - put your hands down and now raise them if that strategy has ever worked out for you.

I didn’t think so.  I’ve done it and regretted it.

My advice to Army (unsolicited, you understand) - 

Capitalize on what makes you different. Don’t change your game. Make THEM change THEIR game. play YOUR game to play you.  You have it within your power to do this.

Not good enough?    How do you KNOW that you’re not good enough, when Notre Dame hasn’t played anyone like you?

if you play your under-center, ball control game, you have a chance.  You’ll move the ball, you’ll keep the Notre Dame offense on the sideline, you’ll stay in the game - and, maybe most important,  you’ll wear Notre Dame down physically.

Just. Make. First. Downs.

It’s going to take patience and persistence.  And belief in what your guys can do.  But you’ve  done it before, in similar-type games against Oklahoma and Michigan.

But I can almost guarantee it - the more you go afield, the more you  get into something  that resembles what everybody does, the more you’re playing into Notre Dame’s hands.  And once you’re playing them at their game, we already know they’re better at that than you are.



***********  At this  time of year there are usually a considerable  number of good jobs open.  But not this year.  At this point, there are three FBS jobs open, and  none would be called primo positions:

FAU - Replacing Tom Herman, who had  good success at Houston, not so much success at Texas. Herman joins a fairly long line of well-known predecessors -  Howard Schnellenberger, who started the program, Lane Kiffin and Willie Taggart.  Ray Lewis says he wants the job. (See what you started, Deion?)  Charlie Weis, Jr., now OC at Ole Miss, who was an assistant at FAU under Kiffin, is said to be the favorite.  Gee, just think - maybe he can get his dad to help him. For that reason alone I’d suggest they at least talk with Ray Lewis.

TEMPLE -  Replacing Stan Drayton.   This is a tough job.  There are plenty of good football players within 100 miles of its campus - but very few of them want to go there.  Part of the reason is that within a half- mile of the campus - in any direction - are some of the most dangerous, crime-ridden sections in any American city.  There are also 4 or 5 million people within an easy drive of Temple games - but nobody gives a sh—.  The town belongs to the Eagles.  Who cares about AAC or MAC or whoever?  Then there’s this:  Temple plays in the Eagles’ stadium, far from campus, and with no place else to play, Temple is  force to pay near-extortionary rent to the Birds.  HOWEVER: guys in recent years have won here, and have used their success at Temple to move on to better jobs: Al Golden, Matt Rhule, Steve Addazio, Geoff Collins

UMASS - Replacing Don Brown, a New England legend who just couldn’t get it done.  This may be  the worst job in all FBS.  First of all, New England doesn’t care that much about college football. Other than UConn and Boston College, that’s it.  And they struggle.  I almost forgot UMass, probably because they’re always stuck down around #130 or so among the 134 teams in FBS.  There are  good players within 100 miles or so, and  the school is just an hour from Bradley Field (Hartford-Springfield).   The light at the end of the tunnel:  the Minutemen (or, since it’s Massachusetts, it may now the Minutepersons) are set to join the MAC in 2025, which means they’re going to escape  the ups and downs of an independent schedule that have had them playing, over the last four weeks, Missouri, Wagner, Mississippi State and Liberty. (This week, they’re at Georgia.) 


*********** Oregon is officially in the Big Ten championship game.  It used to be a whole lot easier when there are two eight-team divisions.  But now, with one giant conference, I read some article in which some genius - or maybe some robot - figured out at last a dozen possibilities for Oregon’s opponent, based on how things go the next two weeks.

And it’s not as if the SEC isn’t facing the same sort of knot.


***********  Chad Chatlos, head of Turnkey Sports, a major executive search firm, noted that this year, not one Power 4 conference coach has been fired.

He suggests that because the  imminent legal settlement that’s going to mean that schools can (or will?) share revenue with their athletes is  going to cost a LOT of money, schools are reluctant to commit large sums of money to coaches' buyouts. 



*********** I got a call on Wednesday from a former player - coached him one year, his senior year, in 1996 - and had a great talk.  He’s been successful in business and now he and his wife have been able to move with their two kids to Montana.  Among the many things he mentioned was how much he liked the Double Wing.  He said how as a guard he appreciated finally getting to do cool things like pull out and kick out, instead of “just pass blocking.”

I told him how I hear coaches say that they play a spread offense because it helps them recruit more players.  Yeah. More players. What it does is help them recruit receivers.   Want evidentce that it works?  Take a look at any spread team’s offensive practice  and I guarantee you that 1/3 of the players on the field will be receivers.   But how do those numbers help?  Sure, a great receiver is gold, but by and large, receivers are a dime a dozen.  Yet we cater to them, trying to make the game more “fun” for them.  Yeah, for them.  But what about the offensive linemen?  Five of the eleven offensive players are linemen - that’s as many “receiver” positions there are.  Aren’t the linemen supposed to have fun, too?  As hard as it is to find and develop linemen, I have yet to hear anyone saying that he runs the  offense he does because it helps him recruit linemen.



***********   Coach,
 
I wanted to let you know that Lucan Leone former Aquinas Black Lion Award recipient was named section V Class AA Defensive Player of the year!
 
Jay P. Polston ‘90
Office of Advancement
Aquinas Institute
Rochester, New York

Aquinas, Don Holleder’s high school, is now 9-2 and still alive in New York State playoffs.



***********   I’ll bet NFL GMs were thanking their lucky stars that Pac Man Jones  is no longer their problem…

Former NFL corner ball Adam “Pac Man" Jones, whose NFL career was not without its share of arrests and suspensions and whatnot,  was taken into police custody in Arlington, Texas, not long  after the conclusion of the “boxing” match between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul.

Police told The Athletic that Jones faces one count of assault on an officer, one count of public intoxication, and  charges of evading and resisting arrest.




***********   Bum Phillips, when asked by a reporter what he was going to do about Earl Campbell’s not finishing a mile run, said,  "When it's first and a mile, I won't give it to him."



***********   2024 AFCA Regional Coach of the Year Winners




***********   The Joe Moore Award has named its Semi-Finalists for 2024:

Alabama - CoachChris Kapilovic
Army - Coach Matt Drinkall
Indiana - Coach Bob Bosta
Iowa - George Barnett
Notre Dame - Joe Rudolph
Ohio State - Justin Frye
Oregon - A’lique Terry
Tennessee - Glenn Elarbee
Texas - Kyle Flood
Tulane - Dan Roushar


(I did not write this)

Joe Moore is widely regarded as one of the best offensive line coaches in college football history, most notably for his work at Notre Dame and  Pitt. Coach Moore sent 52 players on to the NFL, including Bill Fralic, Mark May, Russ Grimm, Jimbo Covert and others.

In 2014, former Notre Dame lineman Aaron Taylor had an idea to honor Joe Moore, his college coach.

The Joe Moore Award for the Most Outstanding Offensive Line Unit annually recognizes the toughest, most physical offensive line in the country, making it the only major college football award to honor a unit or group.

The voting body of 200-plus members to select the annual recipient of the Joe Moore Award. includes all of the current offensive line coaches at the Division I/FBS level, as well as former players, coaches, colleagues of Coach Moore, select media members and the Joe Moore Award voting committee.

In addition to reviewing game tape every week of the season, the Joe Moore Award voting committee will go through each of the finalists’ season-long highlight reels and multiple back-to-back quarters of game film.



***********   You’re right. Army might wind up 9-5 with a bowl TBD, but as long as I know a win is possible, I'll root for them Saturday. We know the BK can't match ND in talent or size, but as we've said repeatedly, it's a team game. I'm afraid if we lost Daily, we'd be like Navy without Horvath. It's been some time since Army played a game under lights. Go BK! and I don't mean Burger King or Brad Knight.

Little known fact: Mary Tyler Moore and Dick Van Dyke gave birth to a child, and his name's listed on today's NYCU.

I've thought more than I should about the Paul-Tyson matchup. I think I'm on the side of those who say Paul knew he could've put Mike down, but he didn't. I noticed his words after the fight. He showered Mike with every accolade he could think of. He knows MT is a Legend, and you treat them accordingly. Maybe it sounds odd, but I respect Paul's show of respect for Big Mike.

John Vermillion                                    
St Petersburg, Florida

Of course I’m rooting for Army and I think they can win - provided they make ND play their game.

My real concern is that Army, having had two weeks to prepare, will go in thinking “we’re not good enough to beat them straight-up; we’ve got to do something different if we expect to have a chance.”

In other words,  a lot of shotgun.

To me, that’s the recipe for a blow-out.

I’m familiar with the thinking. I’ve been guilty of it. And it has always turned out the same way: instead of selling ourselves short and looking for some magic trick, we would have had a much better chance doing it OUR way - the way we got there and the way our players believed in.  

In sum: If Army plays Army football - AND avoids turnovers and penalties and mistakes in the kicking game - they can win.

Agree with you on Paul’s going easy on Tyson, but I think it was less out of respect for Tyson and more out of fear of the enmity he’d have earned if he’d been seen as treating Tyson  disrespectfully - not to mention the elder-abuse aspect. He really was in a delicate spot and I agree with you that he handled it rather well.

I loved this quote from Jake Paul:  “I kept trying to show people that I’m a good person. No one was buying it. And then one day I was like, f—k it - I can go heel.  And I haven’t looked back.”


***********  Hugh,

Nostalgia buffs will appreciate the fact that at one time the Army-Notre Dame game had as much (if not more) hype than the Army-Navy game.  The term “Subway Alumni” (NYC Irish fans who weren’t necessarily grads) was coined by sportswriters in reference to the many Army-Notre Dame games played in New York City.  This year’s Army-Notre Dame game will be played in the new Yankee Stadium.  The game had been played in the “old’” Yankee Stadium 22 times.  The most memorable in 1946 when the teams battled to a 0-0 tie trying to determine a national championship.   

The question for Army is can it (and QB Bryson Dailey) even survive its next three games vs. ND, Tulane (AAC championship), and Navy?

Undefeated and 5th ranked Indiana (now there’s a term folks aren’t used to hearing) rolls into Columbus Saturday to take on the 3rd ranked Ohio State Buckeyes.  The game will likely go a long way determining which teams will play for the BIG championship.  GO HOOSIERS!!

Colorado is suddenly a favorite to make it to the Big 12 title game.  UNLESS the Kansas Jayhawks continue to play spoiler and beats the Buffs.  I expect a shootout in Kansas City’s Arrowhead Stadium on Saturday.  ROCK CHALK!!

SMU and Miami in the ACC.  Clemson has to hope SMU loses its two remaining games vs Virginia and at Cal to have a chance.  NOT happening.

In the SEC, the renewal of the Texas-Texas A&M game will go a long way in determining who plays in the SEC title game.  A Longhorns win and they’re in.
Alabama will be likely be their opponent UNLESS, Auburn pulls an Iron Bowl upset.
If that happens it could be Ole Miss.

March Madness…HA!!

Have a great week!
Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas

Joe, Don’t forget UTSA.  They’re coming to West Point next week, and they’re looking tough





*********** QUIZ ANSWER:  From the time Ernie Holmes was little they called him “Fats,’ but he grew up big and “farmer strong” on his family's forty-five-acre farm near tiny Jamestown, in East Texas not far from  the Louisiana line.   He went to high school in Burkeville.

He played college football at Texas Southern.  While there,  he married his girlfriend, and they had two children before he graduated.

He was drafted in the eighth round by the Pittsburgh Steelers, thanks to scout Bill Nunn, who had developed great knowledge of - and relationships with - black  college football programs.

At 6-3, 280, “built like a John Deere tractor” in the words of a teammate, he became a key member of Pittsburgh’s famed “Steel Curtain” defensive line.

It didn’t take him long to gain a reputation  as a rather complex  individual.

Reporter Paul Zimmerman, who wrote under the pen name “Doctor Z,” said, “There were people who were scared to death of him, others who didn't want to have anything to do with him, still others who liked him as you would a big, galloping Great Dane puppy.”

Scared to death?  "He had a look that was really scary," said safety Mike Wagner. "I think he wanted to beat people to death -- within the rules of the game."

Said teammate L.C. Greenwood, “(He) wanted to see blood.  He wanted to beat on the guy until he started bleeding, and if he did start bleeding, (He) felt he had done a good day’s work.”

Veteran Steelers offensive linemen would ask him to slow down so they didn't get hurt.    "Nobody would line up against him in practice," said Tom Keating, who joined the Steelers from the Raiders in 1973.

Tight end Randy Grossman compared him to the childlike giant Lennie, in Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men,” telling author Gary Pomerantz in “Their Life’s Work,”  (He) was just a lovable, really nice guy but when he was beaned up or fired up, it was frightening.   He would be the only guy that I would be afraid of in any combative situation.  Anybody else might beat the shit out of me but (he) would really tear me up.   He would rip off pieces of meat and throw them somewhere… or eat them.”

It did appear that to an extent paranoia drove him. He would on occasion visit with Steelers’ president Dan Rooney and say that he believed people were out to get him.

And he often made it known that he considered himself unappreciated -  not as well-known or celebrated as his line mates,  he was the only one of the famed Steel Curtain defensive line who never made the Pro Bowl. 

He actually claimed to be as talented as  Mean Joe Greene, still considered by many to be the greatest defensive lineman who ever played the game (“Joe Greene made a whole LOT of people think they were better than they were,” said Bill Nunn)  but  Woody Widenhofer, who coached the Steelers’ linebackers at the time, said there were times when he really was as good as Joe Greene.

"You want to know how good he was, how tough?" Steelers’ head coach Chuck Noll asked. "Take a look at the way the guy who had to play against him looks, coming off the field after the game -- if he was able to finish it."

Everyone, it seemed,  had a story about him.

Wrote Pomerantz, 

Most (stories about him) could be cataloged under three headlines: “Mood Swings,” “Eating To Excess,” and “Courvoisier."

The most legendary Eating to Excess story of all:  that night in 1976 when Perles (defensive line coach George Perles) brought his defensive linemen to a local restaurant for a feast of roast suckling pig. When all the eating was done, Holmes took another swig of Courvoisier and then cracked a knife handle against a pig’s skull. He dug his fingers deep inside, scooped out small pieces of the pig’s brain, and ate them with delight. "Where I come from,” Holmes gushed, brain matter splashing his cheek, "this is a delicacy!” 

Evidence of what a court-appointed psychiatrist would call his “acute paranoia psychosis” was an incident in which - explained here way too briefly - angered at being held up by a roadblock, he shot at the tires of trucks on an Ohio highway, then shot at a police helicopter searching for him  after he had crashed his car and taken off on foot.  It took a lot of effort on the part of Steelers’ management, a lot of money, a lot of testimony by teammates as to his character, and two months in the Western Pennsylvania Psychiatric Hospital before he was cleared to return to the Steelers. (Naturally,  there were those who claimed that as a professional athlete he’d received preferential treatment.)

Back with the Steelers, now  bothered by the fact that everyone on the line had a nickname but him, he shaved his head so that the remaining hair formed an arrowhead  (pointing him toward the quarterback, he said) and told Coach Perles, “George, I don’t get any publicity because I don’t have a nickname. From now on, my name is Arrowhead.”

Showing how far ahead of today’s game he was in terms of personal branding, he said, “You have to be commercial in this business to get ahead.  You need a gimmick.”

Eventually, his huge appetite got the best of him, and after the Steelers traded him to Tampa Bay, he was cut by the Buccaneers.

After football, he spent some time as a professional wrestler, and became an ordained minister and worked with young people in Texas.

In 2008 Ernie Holmes was killed in a one-car accident near Beaumont, Texas, and was buried in his native Jamestown.



CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING ERNIE HOLMES

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOHN IRION - ARGYLE, NEW YORK
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
TOM DAVIS - SAN MARCOS, CALIFORNIA
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FORISTIERE - MARSING, IDAHO
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY


 

*********** QUIZ: He remains one of the greatest high school athletes ever to come out of Portland, Oregon.

As a running back at Jefferson High School, he was first team All-City his junior and senior years, and was first team All-State and High School All-American his senior year.

In his senior year he was second team All-City on the school’s city championship basketball team, and he was state champion in the 100  and 440  in both his junior and senior years.

With size - 6 foot, 205 - and speed, he was a perfect fit at Arizona State and  Frank Kush’s run-heavy Wing-T offense.

In his second game, as a sophomore,  he ran for 214 yards and two touchdowns against Utah.  For the season, he rushed for 1,310 yards, averaging 5.5 yards per carry, and earned honorable mention All-America honors.

Playing in the very first Fiesta Bowl at the end of the season, he carried 24 times for 101 yards and three TDs as the Sun Devils defeated Florida State, 45-38.

In his junior season, he had the greatest season any ASU running back has ever had, rushing for 1,565 yards and 15 TDs on 234 carries (an average of 6.7 yards per carry).

He had games of  201 yards against San Jose State, 198 against both BYU and Wyoming, 195 against Houston and 172 against Arizona.

He earned consensus All-American honors, becoming only the second Sun Devil to be so honored.

Playing in the Fiesta Bowl again,  he rushed for 202 yards  and three touchdowns as the Sun Devils beat Missouri, 49-35.

In his senior season, he surpassed 1,300 yards for the third  straight year, gaining 1,313 yards, and  became the  first Sun Devil player to earn consecutive consensus All-American selections.

The Sun Devils finished the season 11-1 after a third Fiesta Bowl win, this one over Pitt, with a Number 9 ranking nationally.

He finished eighth in the Heisman balloting.

He set ASU career rushing records that still stand : 4,188 yards and 39 touchdowns.  Over the course of his three seasons, he had 21 100-yard rushing games, and during that time the Sun Devils’ record was 32-4 (Two 11-1 seasons and one 10-2).

He was the  1st round draft choice of the Kansas City Chiefs, and although he had a promising rookie season, he suffered a knee injury that slowed him down and ultimately led to his retirement part way through his third season.

The amazing thing is that he was not an I-back getting a disproportionate share of the carries.  Playing in a two- and three-man backfield, he shared the carries. In his sophomore year, Ben Malone rushed for 857 yards;  in his junior year, Brent McClanahan rushed for 988 yards;  and in his senior year, Malone rushed for 1.129 yards.

In the year that our guy was drafted first, Malone was drafted second, by the Dolphins, and went on to a  nine-year NFL career.  McClanahan was a year ahead of our guy, and after being drafted by Minnesota, he spent seven seasons with the Vikings.

The Sun Devils’ offense was not exactly as sportswriters often  described it: “run, run, run, run, run, maybe think pass, run, run, run…” The 1972 Sun Devils’ team set an NCAA regular-season scoring record with 513 points, and it wasn’t all done on the ground.

Their quarterback,  Danny White, whose three-year ASU career paralleled our guy’s,   finished with 6,717 passing yards and 64 touchdowns.   He was drafted third by the  Dallas Cowboys - the same year the Sun Devils had running backs taken in the first and second rounds - and he led them to a Super Bowl win.

Our guy entered the ASU Hall of Fame in its inaugural class in 1975.





TUESDAY,  NOVEMBER  19,  2024    “It’s good to have money and the things that money can buy, but it’s good, too, to check up once in a while and make sure that you haven’t lost the things that money can’t buy.” George Lorimer


*********** Hey, all you guys in the South and Midwest and East with all your blizzards and tornadoes and hurricanes and droughts and floods and  what-nots -  it’s our turn, up here in the upper-left corner, where nothing very exciting ever happens meteorologically.  (Unless you count the occasional eruption or tsunami.)

Tomorrow (Tuesday) the Pacific Northwest is due to get hit with a “Bomb Cyclone,” aka a “Category 5 Atmospheric River.”  Aieee.  We’re all gonna die.

Calm down, folks. The way these weather  guys are nowadays, I’m figuring  on a rainy day  with a little wind.  Give it a descriptive title to scare us and get us to watch TV.  Details at 11.  But they  can’t fool me - how scary  can it be if when doesn’t even have a f—king name? 


(In case you feel like sending me money, I’ll be setting up a GoFundMe account.)


*********** Wisdom from Mike Lude:   “Major Shead also assigned me the job of building an officer’s club, a retreat where we could sip our regular liquor rations in peace overlooking the ocean. I consider it one of my most creative efforts. I didn't know anything about Construction, but I knew the Seabees (Construction Battalion) had worked wonders under extremely adverse conditions during the war and there was a unit available at division headquarters.

First, I held a strategy session with a platoon sergeant who was a veteran at cutting through red tape. He said, ‘Lieutenant, here's what we've got to do. You get a truck. We have a bunch of obsolete tools down at the tractor maintenance barn. I'll load the tools into the back of the truck. You go around to all the officers and gather up as much liquor as you can from their monthly rations.’

We gathered up about two and one-half cases of hard liquor and an assortment of tools and headed for division headquarters about three o’clock the next morning.   The sergeant talked to a chief petty officer in the CB unit. The chief said it would be at least six weeks before his construction specialists could help us. Then the sergeant said, ‘Oh, Lieutenant Lude, don't we have something in the back of our truck that the Seabees might be able to use?’  After looking at the load of tools, the chief said maybe they could do the job in two weeks. 

Then my platoon sergeant said, ‘Mr. Lude, could you show the chief what you have in the cab of the truck?’ The chief petty officer took one look at the booze and said, ‘We’ll be there tomorrow morning.’

They arrived about 6 AM, and by the end of the day, using quick – hardening chemicals on the concrete, they had a nice building slapped together on a chunk of property overlooking the ocean. We opened and dedicated it that night. There was no air conditioning, but we had ocean breezes. We lacked food service; that had to come from the galley, which was a big tent. But there was a nice bar at one end of the room, which was about 30 x 70 feet. It had a thatched roof and window coverings on pulleys which could be closed in case of rain or severe wind.

The Seabees did wonders; they were terrific.  So was that platoon sergeant who made it happen and made me look good. 



***********  HOW’D WE DO THIS PAST WEEKEND?  FIRST, BRAD KNIGHT’S PICK, THEN MINE.

REMEMBER - THESE ARE BY NO MEANS COLD,  ANALYTICAL PICKS.  SOMETIMES THEY ARE, BUT AS OFTEN AS NOT, THEY REFLECT OUR HOPES.  I HAVE MY FAVORITES, AND SO DOES BRAD, AND WE DON’T GO OUT OF OUR WAY TO HIDE OUR BIASES.

BUT THERE ARE SOME TIMES WHEN WE MIGHT GIVE YOU A WAY OF LOOKING AT A GAME THAT YOU HADN’T CONSIDERED.



FRIDAY
 
COLORADO STATE  24, WYOMING 10 – I really want to pick the Cowboys of a state that identifies as what they are and actually vote that way. But I have to pick the liberal infested Rams of Colorado. Wyoming is in a big rebuild. ME: I love the Cowboys and I’m shocked by the poor season they’ve had.  I don’t think the Rams are that good, and knowing something about the intensity of the rivalry - the two schools are only about an hour apart, which in the West is like “next door” - I’m going to Cowboy up!
 
WASHINGTON 31, UCLA 10 – Can UCLA run the ball as they did against the Hawkeyes? If so UCLA wins.  I'll take UCLA in a PAC 12...errr B1G matchup. ME: Bow Down to Washington! I’ve heard rumors that Dead - sorry, Jedd - Fisch might be in demand somewhere else, and if a Husky win is what it takes to get him out of Seattle…
 
ARIZONA 27, HOUSTON 3 – Interesting matchup, two teams fighting to be relevant. I think Houston can win this one, as they have a better shot to become bowl eligible.  Give me Planet Houston. ME:  Bear Down, Arizona.
 
 
SATURDAY
 
OHIO STATE 31,  NORTHWESTERN 7 – This one will be laughable.  The Buckeyes will blast the Nerds. Northwestern should really consider making the temporary stadium home.  It certainly is beautiful, and they do not have to sell many tickets to fill it. ME:  This is my upset of the week: Ohio State, looking ahead to Indiana, won’t beat the spread (28.5)
 
TEXAS 20,  ARKANSAS 10 – The Longhorns win.  Tighter than maybe it should be. But winning games is hard. Especially in the SEC. ME:  I’d love to see the Hogs get this one, but I don’t see it.
 
CLEMSON 24,  PITT 20 – The fighting Narduzzi's vs. The fighting Dabo's. I think Narduzzi takes Dabo in a fight. I'd pay to watch that. Give me Clemson to win the actual football game. ME:  I think that Pitt has begun to “Panther it.” 
 
COLORADO 49, UTAH 24 – I'll keep taking the Buffs largely because I think Coach "Prime" has surrounded himself with some pretty decent assistants. I will not give him the name Coach Sanders until he has earned it.  Utah might just smack them in the face however. ME: Unlike certain people I know who’ve jumped on the Coach Prime bandwagon, I’ll go down swinging with Kyle Whittingham and the Utes. (But if I were betting I’d need the points.)
 
TULANE 35,  NAVY 0  – I want to pick Navy.  Really, really do. But unlike Army, I do not think Navy's defense can slow down Tulane's offense.  I will begrudgingly pick Tulane. ME: I like Navy and I saw them pass their one real test - Memphis - and I think they can upset Tulane (7-point favorite).

ILLINOIS 38, MICHIGAN STATE 16 – The fighting Bielema's have quietly had a pretty solid season. This one will be a good game I think. Michigan State, while not terrific, has continued to improve. But the Illini are too much in the end. ME: Illinois is better.  Plus I can’t pass up a chance to see Jonathan Smith get his nose bloodied.
 
SYRACUSE 33,  CAL 25 – I will have to say Syracuse is competitive. So are the Liberal Bears who do not know they are Bears.  I think Syracuse wins a close one. ME: Cal. The Bears  have got all their receivers now, including  local kid Tobias Merriweather, a Notre Dame transfer who’s now healthy.
 
PENN STATE 49, PURDUE 10 – I'll take the Nittany Kittens. Can Cael Sanderson coach the games against ranked foes? He never loses to anyone. ME:  Tough one.  Remember when Purdue was good?  I do, and it sucks to watch this.
 
NOTRE DAME 35,  VIRGINIA 14 – I'll take the Leprechauns. (is that allowed to be said again?) ND just too much for Virginia. ME: Tony Elliott has finally got the Wahoos playing well but Notre Dame is so close to making the playoff that I don't think they'll let this slip away.
 
SMU 38, BOSTON COLLEGE 28 – Give me Death Penalty Recovery Part 2. SMU has too many weapons. BC only has one shot...control the clock. And that isn't going to happen. ME: Have to agree. SMU might be the best team in the ACC, which is impressive considering that they had to buy their way in.
 
FLORIDA 27, LSU 16 – LSU angrily beats the absolute crap out of the Gators this week. Largely because Coach Kelly probably beat the crap out of them after giving up a million yards and 4 TD's to Jalen Milroe a week ago. Nussmeier played as poorly as I'd ever seen.  He's better than that. ME:  LSU really got exposed against Bama, and they’re only favored by 4, but Florida is not Alabama, and I think the Tigers have enough left to win this one.
 
STANFORD 38, LOUISVILLE 35  – I'll pick ANYONE to beat Stanford. ANYONE. Sadly, the pound the rock days are gone for the Harvard of the midwest. Louisville BIG. ME - Since when is the Bay Area “Midwest?”  Dream on, Iowa guy.  But as a Stanford dad, it’s going to take a lot more Midwest - and a lot less Far West - to turn Stanford into an FBS football program again.
 
AIR FORCE 28, OREGON STATE 0 – I picked against the Air Force a week ago. MISTAKE. I picked the Beavers a week ago as well. Give me the Zoomies in this one. ME:  It hurts to say it, but the Beavers suck.  How bad do they suck?  They won’t even beat Air Force! They’ve lost four straight, and they need to win two of their last three games to be bowl eligible - and it ain’t gonna happen.
 
USC 28, NEBRASKA 20  – Dana Holgerson in charge of the offense now...interesting. Doesn't change my pick much. I just think USC is better athletically than Nebraska.  ME:  Lincoln Riley has made USC soft.  But they’re still USC and they still have athletes. I think Holgerson is going to make a big difference at NU, and this might be the week. Go Huskers!
 
BAYLOR 49,  WEST VIRGINIA 35 – A battle for a Bowl between 2 5-4 teams. I think West Virginia at home wins a good game. ME: Let’s see… is this the week West Virginia wins or the week they lose?  I forget. So I’ll pick the Mountaineers.
 
SOUTH CAROLINA 34, MISSOURI 30 – I am going to pick the Cocks again.  They have identified who they are and are on a roll. ME: It’s the Battle of Columbia! I think the Gamecocks hav been playing so well lately  that it’s time for them to disappoint their fans. That’s what they usually do.  But they win this one.
 
RUTGERS 31,  MARYLAND 17 – Rutgers....because I like the mascot! ME: Rutgers - because I used to go to the Jersey Shore when I was a kid.  Wait - because Rutgers is better.
 
BOISE STATE 42,  SAN JOSE STATE 21 – Jeanty 200+ and 4 TD's. Bank on it. Kid is the real deal. He can carry the rock. Boise State wins. ME: Boise  wins and get closer to a Playoff berth.
 
ARIZONA STATE 24,  KANSAS STATE 14 – I'll take the Wild Kitties to win. Can their offense continue to run the ball effectively and pass when they want to? K State...in a good one until the 4th quarter.  ME:  ASU is dangerous, but I still think K-State is the best team in the Big 12.

OREGON 16,  WISCONSIN 13 – I'll take the Ducks to "JUMP AROUND" all over the Badgers. Not sure there is a BIG10 team that can compete with them this year. ME: After a dismal showing at home against Maryland last week, the Ducks need to show me that they’re really deserving of their Number One spot. They will.
 
GEORGIA 31, TENNESSEE 17 - Will the Dogs be angry? I believe so.  Will Tennessee care? Probably not. This could be a great game.  I'll take the DAWGS because my little brother is a law school alum there. ME: I’ll take Tennessee because I used to fly in and out of Knoxville. No, actually, I’ll take Georgia because Tennessee isn’t as good as Ole Miss.
 
IOWA STATE 34, CINCINNATI 17 – I think ISU is DONE. Their spirit is broken. Give me CINCY! In a "mild" upset. ME: I’ll take the Cyclones because Knighter doesn’t like them.
 
NORTH CAROLINA 31, WAKE FOREST 24 –  Neither team is relevant in their conference race. BUT both still playing for a bowl bid. So it could be a quality game.  I will take Coach Brown and UNC. ME: As long as it’s coming down to the coaches, I have to go with Dave Clawson, of Wake, who I like as much as any coach in college ball. Plus a grandson is a Wake grad. Go Deacs!
 
NEW MEXICO 38, WASHINGTON STATE 35 – Washington State is 8-1....after this they will be 9-1. ME: Lobos are getting better - read what my son Ed writes below about Devon Dampier -  but the Cougs are good and they have expectations of getting into a really nice bowl.
 
KANSAS 17,  BYU 13 – I'm on the verge of calling Kansas over BYU as my upset special.  If it was at Arrowhead I'd probably do so.  BUT since it is at BYU I will take BYU but in a very close game. The spread is only 3. The O/U is 55.5. I'd take the over.  And BYU to cover. ME: I’ll take Kansas,  They’ve been playing lights-out lately, and BYU was lucky - very, very lucky - to come away from Utah with a win.
 
UNLV 41, SAN DIEGO STATE 20  – Give me the Fighting Tark the Sharks. UNLV is a quality football team.  They are having a good season. The Vegas boys have to be happy with them. ME:  UNLV wins big.



*********** Army, which had a BYE last weekend is 9-0, and one of three remaining unbeaten FBS teams. 

Savor the moment, fellow Army fans:  we could conceivably wind up 9-5. They haven’t yet played a single team as tough as what’s coming up:

ARMY’S REMAINING SCHEDULE:

NOTRE DAME (AT YANKEE STADIUM) Irish (9-1)  are 14.5 point favorites
UTSA AT WEST POINT - In their last two games UTSA has beaten Memphis (44-36) and North Texas (48-27)
TULANE - CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME - Tulane is 9-2 with Memphis still to play
NAVY - Navy is 7-3, still has to play East Carolina. But Navy is Navy.  Enough said
BOWL GAME - Who knows?


***********  NOTABLE GAMES:

SMU 38, BOSTON COLLEGE 28 - BC’s Bill O’Brien demoted QB Thomas Castellanos, who immediately left the team. Yet with  backup starter the Eagles gave the Mustangs a game. O’Brien joins Duke’s Manny Diaz and Syracuse’s Fran Brown as my ACC Coach of the Year nominees.

ALABAMA 52, MERCER 7 - Just kidding.

NEW MEXICO 38, WASHINGTON STATE 35 - Lobos scored the winning TD with seconds to play. What a show by the two QBs - WSU’s John Mateer was 25 of 36 for 375 and four TDs, and he ran for 65 more  and a fifth TD.  NM’s Devon Dampier threw for 174 and a TD and rushed for 193 and three TDs. Lobos lost their first four, and now they’re 5-6 with one game left - at Hawaii.

STANFORD 38, LOUISVILLE 35 - Taking nothing away from a Stanford team that worked hard for the win, this has been called by several reputable writers “the worst loss in the history of the program.” To me, it had all the earmarks of a team with no focus. Imagine a game in which your team commits 13 penalties - 11 against the defense alone… a game in which you lead, 7-0, with 45 seconds to play and one a fourth-and-one you give up a 25-yard touchdown pass… when you’ve got overtime assured if you just run out the clock, and on fourth down at midfield, you take a shot - and leave 5 seconds on the clock… when  one of your defenders has to play  tough guy and commit an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty that moves the opponents 15 yards closer… and then, as the opponent lines up for a 57-yard field goal, one of your players jumps offside and makes it “only” a 52-yarder.

CLEMSON 24, PITT 20 - Clemson probably is the better team anyhow, but Pitt should have won - that is, if a team that can line up three times in a row and turn a third-and-goal from the one into third-and-16 can beat any good team.

SOUTH CAROLINA 34, MISSOURI 30 - Mizzou took a 22-21 lead with 9:21 left, but Carolina came back to take a 27-22 lead.  The Tigers scored with 1:10 and made the 2-point conversion to lead by three, 30-27, but the Gamecocks drove 80 yards for a touchdown - a 12-yard shovel pass - to win.

FLORIDA 27, LSU 16 - This was a shocker to me, and I’m not sure there’s enough money in Louisiana to pay me to go through what Brian Kelly has to be going through right now.  For a number of reasons, this LSU team is not very good.  Their QB, Garrett Nussmeier, was sacked seven times. He’d been sacked just six times in all the games prior.  Meanwhile, Billy Napier, who not very long ago was a dead man walking, has done a terrific job of keeping the Gators together and playing hard.

TULANE 35, NAVY 0 - As I watched, all I could think of was Army having to play Tulane in the AAC championship game. Navy  rushed for 100 yards and passed for - ready for this? - 13. How you gonna beat a team whose QB is so smart his name’s Mensah?

USC 28, NEBRASKA 20 - I take back what I said about a Lincoln Riley team being soft on defense.  The Trojans were especially tough on the final play when they were allowed to grab a Cornhusker’s jersey in the end zone, leading to a game-ending interception.  I swear I heard an announcer say “You don’t call pass interference on the last play.”  Really?  Shouldn’t they announce that over the P-A system, or at least let the offense know that? Credit to USC QB Jayden Maiava, a transfer from UNLV making his first start.

KANSAS 17, BYU 13 - The Cougars outgained the Jayhawks, but a lot of their yardage was the useless kind. They  put on a long drive at the end of the first half that ended when what I guess was supposed to be a fade into the end zone was intercepted, and another long one at the start of the second half ended in a field  goal - the Cougars’ only score of the half.  The go-ahead KU score came after their pooch punt hit a Cougar in the back of the helmet and, BYU not evidently having taught their players how to recover a punt, Kansas took possession deep in BYU territory and punched it in. Kansas may have suddenly become the Big 12’s best team.  We may find out next weekend when they host - COLORADO!


*********** Actually, the best team in the Big 12 might be… Arizona State.

The Sun Devils are 8-2.  Before the season the Las Vegas guys had the over/under on their total wins at 4.5


*********** Awful Announcing needs to come up with an award. My nomination this week was Gus Johnson and Joel Klatt.  They just won’t STFU.  And somebody needs to tell Johnson that he’s calling football, in which there’s no such metaphor as “putting the biscuit in the basket.”


*********** Worst-dressed team of the week - of every week, for that matter - is Maryland, which seems more preoccupied with how garishly it can dress than how well it can play.  As a former Marylander (lived there for 13 years, three of our four kids were born there, started my coaching career there) this program has been an embarrassment ever since an incompetent AD named Kevin Anderson decided he could put a notch on his gun by firing Ralph Friedgen.


*********** We finally joined the Washington State-New Mexico game six minutes into the first period, with the score Lobos already out in from, 7-0.

Sure couldn’t blame FS1 for not wanting to leave the 32-14 Rutgers-Maryland thriller.



*********** Turns out Oregon’s narrow 16-13 win over Wisconsin Saturday wasn’t because of Oregon’s great defensive play after all.

Nope.  It ought to be clear to anybody that the fault lay with Phil Longo, the Badgers’ offensive coordinator. 

That’s sarcasm, folks.  Only two teams - Ohio State and Boise State - have scored more than 18 points against the Ducks. Translation: they’re pretty good on defense.

Actually, the Badgers’ offense has sucked for most of the season, possibly - just possibly - because of the terrible knee injury early in the season that cost them the services of transfer quarterback Tyler Van Dyke.

Wisconsin head coach Luke Fickell had to know that when he decided to bring in Longo and his Air Raid offense from North Carolina, making a break with the power football that Barry Alvarez had made a Wisconsin trademark, he was putting all his chips on having a  good quarterback. One that would be healthy for the entire season.

Only last Monday, when Longo still had a job, this is how he summed things up for the news media:

“Typically things aren't pristine when you arrive and so right now these last two years Fick has a plan and a vision and he's laid it out and sometimes trying to get to where you want to get to, we all want that to happen tomorrow, but it's a process and it takes a little time.

“I said this last year and I'm going to say it again. When you are building something to sustain success, it's harder. It's more difficult to do that. You can go a certain route with regards to the upgrading or changing of your roster and get an immediate answer for that particular year or you can build something that you want to sustain some success over the long haul, which is the goal here and what Fick wants. We're grinding through that."

*********** Oregon coach Dan Lanning showed that he still has some of the G-D fool in him when  with 1:50 to go in the game he tried a fake  field goal on fourth and five.


*********** Granted, our national anthem is hard to sing, which is one reason why most can’t sing it well.  Another reason, of course, is that we allow people to “perform” it, rather than just sing it.  And, too, there’s the current obnoxious  American obsession with “Look at me.”

On the other hand, Canada’s national anthem, “O Canada” is seldom monkeyed with. It’s a beautiful tune, and easy to sing.  Maybe it’s just that Canadians are more respectful of others and of their country than we are, more reluctant to put themselves out there ahead of  their country and its anthem.

There’s also the fact that Canadians take great offense (which they spell”offence” and pronounce “OH-fence”) at any suggestion that they might be copying Americans in doing anything, including butchering their national anthem.

But not to be outdone by the bloody Yanks,   right before Sunday’s Grey Cup game  they went and showed they were able find at least one Canadian willing to go out on the field and  f—k up “O Canada.”


*********** The Toronto Argonauts won the Grey Cup, representative of the championship of the Canadian Football League, defeating the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, 41-24.

The MVP was Toronto’s quarterback, Nick Arbuckle.

Wait.  Nick Who? 

He’s 31-years old. He’s a California kid who played two years of JC ball and then two years of college ball at Georgia State, where in 2015 he was Sun Belt Conference Player of the Year.

But then, in football terms, he sort of disappeared:  became a backup QB in Canada.

In six years in the CFL - they didn’t play football in 2020 - he’s been with four different teams and started a total of 25 games.

Prior to Sunday, he had started one game for Toronto this season.

He had signed with the Argonauts last spring as a potential backup to starter Chad Kelly, and that was his job - until Kelly was severely injured in the CFL East Final.

Suddenly, Arbuckle found himself starting at quarterback.  In the Grey Cup.

How’d he do?  Not bad. He completed 26 of 37 for 252 yards and two TDs. (He did throw two interceptions.)

In truth, the Argos’ defense deserved some sort of award, because they intercepted four Winnipeg passes  and returned them a total of 164 yards and one TD.

Three of the interceptions came in the fourth quarter, when Winnipeg quarterback Zach Collaros’ passing was clearly affected by an injury to his throwing hand.

Afterwards, Arbckle admitted that last spring he was ready to give up quarterbacking and look for a coaching job in the US, when the Argos’ offer came.

"If everybody was to know everything, all the things we overcame as a family, from my whole life and football career to be here, it's God's work.   I've been so fortunate to have the support and belief in me from my wife and everybody to just keep chasing it and persevering. Look at it now.”


*********** One American who was disappointed by the Winnipeg loss was Jason Kelce.  He and his kids were rooting for “Uncle Zach” - Winnipeg QB Zach Collaros, who was Kelce’s roommate at Cincinnati.


*********** They used to call old Yale alums “Old Blues.” Blue, see, has been the school’s color - its only color - since the 1800s.  If any of Old Blues still go to Yale football games, they had to be nauseated by the drabness of the Yale uniforms, which looked as if they’d come to New Haven from UnderArmour with a stop off at some laundry in Moscow, which is where they left the blue.


*********** Did I tell you that I watched the fight?  The Tyson fight?  With the fight due to come on Netflix at 5 PM Pacific, I broke down and bought Netflix at about 4:40.

Not that I needed to hurry -  the actual Tyson fight finally came on a little over four hours later, at 9:05.

It had been a while since I’d seen a televised fight, and I have to say that in comparing it with the fights  of my youth - when boxing was very big (“The Gillette Cavalcade of Sports is On The Air!”) and the fight itself was paramount - everything nowadays is MORE. More hype, more show, more bombast, more tits.  It’s almost a parody.

And there’s less fighting.

Except for the women.

Two women I’d never heard of - Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano - put on one hell of a fight.  I have to admit that I wasn’t comfortable watching two women whale the tar out of each other, but if that had been two men, I’d have to call it one of the best fights I’ve ever seen.

As you’ve probably read, the main event was a farce.

For roughly 20 million dollars apiece, Mike Tyson and some clown named Jake Paul went through the motions of a fight for eight two-minute rounds.  For the last 5 or so rounds, Mike Tyson  did absolutely nothing with his right hand except block a punch or two.  He  didn’t throw a single punch with that hand, yet not once did the expert announcers make mention of it.  You’d think it would have been fairly noticeable to them - he only landed 18 punches in the entire “fight.”

But they got me. And millions of others as well.  Plus an announced “live” gate of 72,300 in Jerry World.

So Barnum lives.


*********** Watched the Portland State-Montana game and heard some color guy who sounded like Yosemite Sam.  Turned out it was Marty Mornhinweg, former Grizzly QB who had a nice career as an NFL assistant. with two years as head coach of the Detroit Lions.


*********** Considering the fact that most big-time college guys are now making enough to afford a car, and considering what a problem parking is on most college campuses… do you suppose that NIL deals also include special parking passes?

To think that not that many years ago it was a major scandal when UCLA football players were caught using bogus handicapped parking passes.



***********   Corch:

You and BK (same initials as my team too) have a winner with your Huntley-Brinkley picks. I've heard that the 3-4 VIP Vegas pickers have learned to cheat by stealing your choices.

The Norm Maves story is fun and memorable even if it were proved inauthentic.

Those of us who love the DW/OW and ground pounding in general have, I think, something in our psycho makeup that causes us to look askance--or maybe cautiously--at what's in vogue.  In various ways you address the issue on your pages. We're suspicious of the popular. We  don't listen to the preachers of easy routes to riches. We want to earn what we get, and to feel the satisfaction that comes with it. That's what we get with the slow, plodding, Clydesdale rushing offenses...and I love it. I'm thankful every day that my Army team is what soldiers call a bunch of 'Grunts' (infantrymen).

John Vermillion                    
St Petersburg, Florida

***********   Hugh,

The Utah AD?  I KNOW what he was feeling, but WHAT was he thinking??!

NIU found a way to beat ND in South Bend.  Could Virginia and former ND star Chris Tyree find it?

Georgia better find a run game soon or it will be running to a bowl game instead of the playoff.

Ohio State faces Northwestern in the “friendly confines” of Wrigley Field to accommodate the whiny OSU fans who couldn’t get enough tickets to NU’s temporary stadium.

5 Longest continuous rivalries in college football are:
Lehigh-Lafayette
Minnesota-Wisconsin
NC State-Wake Forest
Oklahoma-Oklahoma State
Kansas-Kansas State
There are others that were either interrupted by World Wars, Covid, or conference realignment.

I’ve been in league, conference, or district meetings that lasted more than 3 hours!

QUIZ: Gus Dorais (see the movie “Knute Rockne- All- American)

Enjoy the weekend!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas


 


*********** QUIZ ANSWER:  Gus Dorais (“dor-AY”) was  the throwing part of a famed Notre Dame passing combination - with end Knute Rockne as the catching part -  and he’s often  called “The Father of the Forward Pass.”

Although he did not invent the forward pass, he was a pioneer in popularizing it. The precision throw-and-catch techniques which he and Rockne developed in their off-hours while working in the summer of 1913 at Ohio’s Cedar Point Amusement Park would contribute a few months later to one of the first great football upsets.  When little-known Notre Dame upset national power Army 35-13 that November, it not only brought fame to the small Catholic school in the Midwest, but it also created great interest in the forward pass as more than just a gimmick.

He was born in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin to a French-Canadian father and an Irish mother.  His given first name was Charles, but he never went by that name.

Although small at 5-7, 150, he starred as a triple- threat high school quarterback, and led Chippewa Falls to the  state championship in 1909.

He had hopes of  playing college ball at Minnesota,  but  wound up instead at Notre Dame. There, two games into his freshman season,  the head coach set aside  reservations about the quarterback’s overhand spiral  throwing style and  installed him as his starter.  Good decision: in four years as Notre Dame’s starting quarterback, he didn’t lose a game.

For the record, in the now-famous win over Army, he completed 14 of 17 attempts for 243 yards and three touchdowns.

He was team captain his junior and senior years, and in 1913 became Notre Dame’s first consensus All-American.

After graduation from Notre Dame, he remained active in football for years as a  coach and player.  HIs first coaching job was at Loras College, a small Catholic school in Dubuque, Iowa, where he coached numerous sports and still managed to play professional football, still in its primitive early days, for teams in Massillon, Ohio and Fort Wayne, Indiana.

In four years as a coach, his teams were 17-9-2.

He served in the Army during World War I, spending some of his time running and playing for a service team in Texas, and after the War he spent a year at Notre Dame as an assistant to his old roommate, Rockne, who was now the Irish head coach.

Then he was hired by Gonzaga, a Jesuit college in Spokane, as athletic director and head coach of football, basketball, baseball and track - for the princely sum of $4,000.

After five years in Spokane, he was hired at the University of Detroit, another  Catholic school, where he would stay for 18 years.

From 1925 until 1942 - when Detroit dropped football for the duration of World War II - he compiled a record of 113-48-7. In those 18 seasons, he had just one losing season - his second.

In 1943, he was hired by the Detroit Lions as their head coach. In his five years there, the Lions went 20-31-2, and although he was fired, he was paid for the  four years remaining on his contract, seemingly  making him one of the first coaches to be paid a fairly generous severance package.

Then, along with his son, he ran an automobile dealership in Indiana.

To  keep a hand in the game, he spent time as a scout for the AAFC, and in 1952 he came out of retirement for a year to assist John Bach, who had been hired by the Steelers as  their head coach.  Gus Dorais’  contribution was to help Bach convert the Steelers  from the single wing attack they had been running for the previous six years to the T-formation which every other NFL team was by then running.

CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING GUS DORAIS

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
RODNEY LUNSFORD - WESTFIELD, INDIANA
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
TOM WALLS - WINNIPEG, MANITOBA
MIKE FORISTIERE - MARSING, IDAHO
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY
 




*********** QUIZ:  From the time he was little they called him “Fats,’ but he grew up big and “farmer strong” on his family's forty-five-acre farm near tiny Jamestown, in East Texas not far from  the Louisiana line.   He went to high school in Burkeville.

He played college football at Texas Southern.  While there,  he married his girlfriend, and they had two children before he graduated.

He was drafted in the eighth round by the Pittsburgh Steelers, thanks to scout Bill Nunn, who had developed great knowledge of - and relationships with - black  college football programs.

At 6-3, 280, “built like a John Deere tractor” in the words of a teammate, he became a key member of Pittsburgh’s famed “Steel Curtain” defensive line.

It didn’t take him long to gain a reputation  as a rather complex  individual.

Reporter Paul Zimmerman, who wrote under the pen name “Doctor Z,” said, “There were people who were scared to death of him, others who didn't want to have anything to do with him, still others who liked him as you would a big, galloping Great Dane puppy.”

Scared to death?  "He had a look that was really scary," said safety Mike Wagner. "I think he wanted to beat people to death -- within the rules of the game."

Said teammate L.C. Greenwood, “(He) wanted to see blood.  He wanted to beat on the guy until he started bleeding, and if he did start bleeding, (He) felt he had done a good day’s work.”

Veteran Steelers offensive linemen would ask him to slow down so they didn't get hurt.    "Nobody would line up against him in practice," said Tom Keating, who joined the Steelers from the Raiders in 1973.

Tight end Randy Grossman compared him to the childlike giant Lennie, in Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men,” telling author Gary Pomerantz in “Their Life’s Work,”  (He) was just a lovable, really nice guy but when he was beaned up or fired up, it was frightening.   He would be the only guy that I would be afraid of in any combative situation.  Anybody else might beat the shit out of me but (he) would really tear me up.   He would rip off pieces of meat and throw them somewhere… or eat them.”

It did appear that to an extent paranoia drove him. He would on occasion visit with Steelers’ president Dan Rooney and say that he believed people were out to get him.

And he often made it known that he considered himself unappreciated -  not as well-known or celebrated as his line mates,  he was the only one of the famed Steel Curtain defensive line who never made the Pro Bowl. 

He actually claimed to be as talented as  Mean Joe Greene, still considered by many to be the greatest defensive lineman who ever played the game (“Joe Greene made a whole LOT of people think they were better than they were,” said Bill Nunn)  but  Woody Widenhofer, who coached the Steelers’ linebackers at the time, said there were times when he really was as good as Joe Greene.

"You want to know how good he was, how tough?" Steelers’ head coach Chuck Noll asked. "Take a look at the way the guy who had to play against him looks, coming off the field after the game -- if he was able to finish it."

Everyone, it seemed,  had a story about him.

Wrote Pomerantz, 

Most (stories about him) could be cataloged under three headlines: “Mood Swings,” “Eating To Excess,” and “Courvoisier."

The most legendary Eating to Excess story of all:  that night in 1976 when Perles (defensive line coach George Perles) brought his defensive linemen to a local restaurant for a feast of roast suckling pig. When all the eating was done, Holmes took another swig of Courvoisier and then cracked a knife handle against a pig’s skull. He dug his fingers deep inside, scooped out small pieces of the pig’s brain, and ate them with delight. "Where I come from,” Holmes gushed, brain matter splashing his cheek, "this is a delicacy!” 

Evidence of what a court-appointed psychiatrist would call his “acute paranoia psychosis” was an incident in which - explained here way too briefly - angered at being held up by a roadblock, he shot at the tires of trucks on an Ohio highway, then shot at a police helicopter searching for him  after he had crashed his car and taken off on foot.  It took a lot of effort on the part of Steelers’ management, a lot of money, a lot of testimony by teammates as to his character, and two months in the Western Pennsylvania Psychiatric Hospital before he was cleared to return to the Steelers. (Naturally,  there were those who claimed that as a professional athlete he’d received preferential treatment.)

Back with the Steelers, now  bothered by the fact that everyone on the line had a nickname but him, he shaved his head so that the remaining hair formed an arrowhead  (pointing him toward the quarterback, he said) and told Coach Perles, “George, I don’t get any publicity because I don’t have a nickname. From now on, my name is Arrowhead.”

Showing how far ahead of today’s game he was in terms of personal branding, he said, “You have to be commercial in this business to get ahead.  You need a gimmick.”

Eventually, his huge appetite got the best of him, and after the Steelers traded him to Tampa Bay, he was cut by the Buccaneers.

After football, he spent some time as a professional wrestler, and became an ordained minister and worked with young people in Texas.

In 2008 he was killed in a one-car accident near Beaumont, Texas, and was buried in his native Jamestown.




FRIDAY,  NOVEMBER  15,   2024    “I’ve gone from believing that if you ask questions, it meant you’re fundamentally not smart, to believing that the more you ask, the more curious you are, the smarter you get.”  Tim Cook, CEO of Apple

*********** Wisdom from Mike Lude:   “But I never got that far after my orders were delayed. When my old battalion returned from the front, several of my former fellow officers told me in no uncertain terms how lucky I was. I don't recall any precise casualty numbers, but it was tough. I was very fortunate indeed. 

“When my orders finally caught up with me, they were changed and I was shuffled to Mare Island in the San Francisco area, then to Pearl Harbor and finally to the fifth Amphibious Tractor battalion in Maui. When I arrived at that then primitive Hawaiian outpost, I shared a tent with a survivor of amphibious landings at Saipan, Tinian, and Iwo Jima, each a costly victory for American forces in terms of casualties.  Art Hass had played football at Coe College in Iowa and went on to become a successful football coach in Austin, Minnesota. We became lifelong friends; I was best man at his wedding, and Rena and I named our middle daughter Janann, after his wife.

“In the summer of 1945 the dropping of nuclear bombs on two Japanese cities heralded a quick surrender and the end of hostilities. My commanding officer, Major George Shead, wanted to start a sports program for his troops and, knowing about my athletic background, decided I should be involved. We formed a baseball team, with me as the catcher, and played teams from other military groups and civilian teams on Maui. About the same time I tore up an ankle sliding into third base, Major Shead called me in and appointed me coach of his football team, the Fifth Amphibious Tractor Battalion Bulldogs. It was my first role as a football coach, and we played eight games that season on Maui.

“Major Shead wanted to give his troops a chance to have some fun in sports but this cocky, little (five-feet-eight, 155 pounds) career Marine wanted to keep their minds on something other than going home. The war was over but we were still in uniform, still living a military existence, and still a long, long way from rejoining our families and friends.  Shead was a good officer and a competent leader, and he had a sense of humor.

“One night Art Hass and I were in our tent talking rather loudly and a faraway voice hollered, ‘Hey, knock it off.’ I figured it was just some wise guy mouthing off, so I yelled back, ‘Blow it out your rear end.’  The voice, as it turned out, had been that of Major Shead. Somehow I still managed to get good fitness reports and remained as coach of the football team.”



*********** Aberdeen update: Our head coach, Todd Bridge, had to waste his Tuesday night doing what most head coaches detest - attending the end-of-year All-League meeting - a get-together where coaches boast about their kids  to the point where you start to think that they really must be shi—y coaches to have lost any games at all with talent like that.

I’ve yet to meet a coach who enjoyed these things.  Most of the ones I know would just as soon do away with All-Star teams entirely, but they’re here to stay.  The parents demand them and if we didn’t select them, the guys at the newspapers would.

Our little five-team league was  totally dominated this season by two teams. One of them, Tumwater, finished the season undefeated and ranked Number One in the state. The other, W. F. West High, of Chehalis,  lost just one game - to Tumwater.

Having gone through years of listening to guys whose teams finished oh-fer  dominate the All-Star meeting, going on and on about how great this guy was and how indispensable that guy was, our league (wisely, I think) decided to base the number of players a team could nominate on the team’s performance during the season.

These were the first team All-League spots to be filled:

Three MVPs (offense, defense, special teams) selected
Eleven Offensive players
Eleven Defensive players
One punter
One kicker.

That’s three MVPs and 24 players - 27 spots in all.

Tumwater got all three MVPs - AND 12 players.

If you’re into math, you may already have  done the work in your head: of 27 possible selections, Tumwater got 15.

W. F. West got seven players.

That means that, combined, Tumwater and W. F. West  got 22 of 27 players on the first team.

That left five spots for the other three teams. We finished in third place, so we got two  spots.

Now, it seems to me that this is where the nerds should get their revenge - where the guys who got their asses beaten  during the season to get together at the meeting and say, “Okay, big guy.  You had your fun.  You ran up the big scores.  But now, we’re at the bargaining table where we all have one vote, and there’s more of us than there are of you. Let’s vote.”

Unfortunately, there were only three of us outliers  in that position.  I suppose that this is one definite way you suffer when you have a small league:  there just aren’t enough of you to have any clout.

For those who say "to the victor belong the spoils,"  I say this:

There’s been just one team in modern NFL history to go unbeaten - the  1972 Dolphins. They went 14-0 in the regular season and 3-0 in the post-season.

And yet,  of the 50 or so players named to various All-Pro teams that year, just seven of them were Dolphins:

*Dick Anderson
*Nick Buoniconti
*Larry Csonka
*Larry Little
*Earl Morrall
*Bill Stanfill
*Paul Warfield





***********  BILL BELICHICK HAD TO CANCEL OUT ON ME AT THE LAST MINUTE, AND HE SAID TO SEND YOU ALL HIS REGRETS - SO ONCE AGAIN MY GUEST PICKER IS BRAD KNIGHT, THE PRIDE OF IOWA.

IN THIS WEEK’S RESULTS, I’VE INCLUDED OUR “PREDICTIONS,” FIRST BRAD’S AND THEN MINE.


FRIDAY
 
WYOMING AT COLORADO STATE – I really want to pick the Cowboys of a state that identifies as what they are and actually vote that way. But I have to pick the liberal infested Rams of Colorado. Wyoming is in a big rebuild. ME: I love the Cowboys and I’m shocked by the poor season they’ve had.  I don’t think the Rams are that good, and knowing something about the intensity of the rivalry - the two schools are only about an hour apart, which in the West is like “next door” - I’m going to Cowboy up!
 
UCLA AT WASHINGTON – Can UCLA run the ball as they did against the Hawkeyes? If so UCLA wins.  I'll take UCLA in a PAC 12...errr B1G matchup. ME: Bow Down to Washington! I’ve heard rumors that Dead - sorry, Jedd - Fisch might be in demand somewhere else, and if a Husky win is what it takes to get him out of Seattle…
 
HOUSTON AT ARIZONA – Interesting matchup, two teams fighting to be relevant. I think Houston can win this one, as they have a better shot to become bowl eligible.  Give me Planet Houston. ME:  Bear Down, Arizona.
 
 
SATURDAY
 
OHIO STATE AT NORTHWESTERN – This one will be laughable.  The Buckeyes will blast the Nerds. Northwestern should really consider making the temporary stadium home.  It certainly is beautiful, and they do not have to sell many tickets to fill it. ME:  This is my upset of the week: Ohio State, looking ahead to Indiana, won’t beat the spread (28.5)
 
TEXAS AT ARKANSAS – The Longhorns win.  Tighter than maybe it should be. But winning games is hard. Especially in the SEC. ME:  I’d love to see the Hogs get this one, but I don’t see it.
 
CLEMSON AT PITT – The fighting Narduzzi's vs. The fighting Dabo's. I think Narduzzi takes Dabo in a fight. I'd pay to watch that. Give me Clemson to win the actual football game. ME:  I think that Pitt has begun to “Panther it.”
 
UTAH AT COLORADO – I'll keep taking the Buffs largely because I think Coach "Prime" has surrounded himself with some pretty decent assistants. I will not give him the name Coach Sanders until he has earned it.  Utah might just smack them in the face however. ME: Unlike certain people I know who’ve jumped on the Coach Prime bandwagon, I’ll go down swinging with Kyle Whittingham and the Utes. (But if I were betting I’d need the points.)
 
TULANE AT NAVY – I want to pick Navy.  Really, really do. But unlike Army, I do not think Navy's defense can slow down Tulane's offense.  I will begrudgingly pick Tulane. ME: I like Navy and I saw them pass their one real test - Memphis - and I think they can upset Tulane (7-point favorite).

MICHIGAN STATE AT ILLINOIS – The fighting Bielema's have quietly had a pretty solid season. This one will be a good game I think. Michigan State, while not terrific, has continued to improve. But the Illini are too much in the end. ME: Illinois is better.  Plus I can’t pass up a chance to see Jonathan Smith get his nose bloodied.
 
SYRACUSE AT CAL – I will have to say Syracuse is competitive. So are the Liberal Bears who do not know they are Bears.  I think Syracuse wins a close one. ME: Cal. The Bears  have got all their receivers now, including  local kid Tobias Merriweather, a Notre Dame transfer who’s now healthy.
 
PENN STATE AT PURDUE – I'll take the Nittany Kittens. Can Cael Sanderson coach the games against ranked foes? He never loses to anyone. ME:  Tough one.  Remember when Purdue was good?  I do, and it sucks to watch this.
 
VIRGINIA AT NOTRE DAME – I'll take the Leprechauns. (is that allowed to be said again?) ND just too much for Virginia. ME: Tony Elliott has finally got the Wahoos playing well but Notre Dame is so close to making the playoff that I don't think they'll let this slip away.
 
BOSTON COLLEGE AT SMU – Give me Death Penalty Recovery Part 2. SMU has too many weapons. BC only has one shot...control the clock. And that isn't going to happen. ME: Have to agree. SMU might be the best team in the ACC, which is impressive considering that they had to buy their way in.
 
LSU AT FLORIDA – LSU angrily beats the absolute crap out of the Gators this week. Largely because Coach Kelly probably beat the crap out of them after giving up a million yards and 4 TD's to Jalen Milroe a week ago. Nussmeier played as poorly as I'd ever seen.  He's better than that. ME:  LSU really got exposed against Bama, and they’re only favored by 4, but Florida is not Alabama, and I think the Tigers have enough left to win this one.
 
LOUISVILLE AT STANFORD – I'll pick ANYONE to beat Stanford. ANYONE. Sadly, the pound the rock days are gone for the Harvard of the midwest. Louisville BIG. ME - Since when is th Bay Area “Midwest?”  Dream on, Iowa guy.  But as a Stanford dad, it’s going to take a lot more Midwest - and a lot less Far West - to turn Stanford into an FBS football program again.
 
OREGON STATE AT AIR FORCE – I picked against the Air Force a week ago. MISTAKE. I picked the Beavers a week ago as well. Give me the Zoomies in this one. ME:  It hurts to say it, but the Beaver suck.  How bad do they suck?  They won’t even beat Air Force! They’ve lost four straight, and they need to win two of their last three games to be bowl eligible - and it ain’t gonna happen.
 
NEBRASKA AT USC – Dana Holgerson in charge of the offense now...interesting. Doesn't change my pick much. I just think USC is better athletically than Nebraska.  ME:  Lincoln Riley has made USC soft.  But they’re still USC and they still have athletes. I think Holgerson is going to make a big difference at NU, and this might be the week. Go Huskers!
 
BAYLOR AT WEST VIRGINIA – A battle for a Bowl between 2 5-4 teams. I think West Virginia at home wins a good game. ME: Let’s see… is this the week West Virginia wins or the week they lose?  I forget. So I’ll pick the Mountaineers.
 
MISSOURI AT SOUTH CAROLINA – I am going to pick the Cocks again.  They have identified who they are and are on a roll. ME: It’s the Battle of Columbia! I think the Gamecocks hav been playing so well lately  that it’s time for them to disappoint their fans. That’s what they usually do.  But they win this one.
 
RUTGERS AT MARYLAND – Rutgers....because I like the mascot! ME: Rutgers - because I used to go to the Jersey Shore when I was a kid.  Wait - because Rutgers is better.
 
BOISE STATE AT SAN JOSE STATE – Jeanty 200+ and 4 TD's. Bank on it. Kid is the real deal. He can carry the rock. Boise State wins. ME: Boise  wins and gets closer to a Playoff berth.
 
ARIZONA STATE AT KANSAS STATE – I'll take the Wild Kitties to win. Can their offense continue to run the ball effectively and pass when they want to? K State...in a good one until the 4th quarter.  ME:  ASU is dangerous, but I still think K-State is the best team in the Big 12.

OREGON AT WISCONSIN – I'll take the Ducks to "JUMP AROUND" all over the Badgers. Not sure there is aBIG10 team that can compete with them this year. ME: After a dismal showing at home against Maryland last week, the Ducks need to show me that they’re really deserving of their Number One spot. They will.
 
TENNESSEE AT GEORGIA- Will the Dogs be angry? I believe so.  Will Tennessee care? Probably not. This could be a great game.  I'll take the DAWGS because my little brother is a law school alum there. ME: I’ll take Tennessee because I used to fly in and out of Knoxville. No, actually, I’ll take Georgia because Tennessee isn’t as good as Ole Miss.
 
CINCINNATI AT IOWA STATE – I think ISU is DONE. Their spirit is broken. Give me CINCY! In a "mild" upset. ME: I’ll take the Cyclones because Knighter doesn’t like them.
 
WAKE FOREST AT NORTH CAROLINA –  Neither team is relevant in their conference race. BUT both still playing for a bowl bid. So it could be a quality game.  I will take Coach Brown and UNC. ME: As long as it’s coming down to the coaches, I have to go with Dave Clawson, of Wake, who I like as much as any coach in college ball. Plus a grandson is a Wake grad. Go Deacs!
 
WASHINGTON STATE AT NEW MEXICO – Washington State is 8-1....after this they will be 9-1. ME: Lobos are getting better - read what my son Ed writes below about Devon Dampier -  but the Cougs are good and they have expectations of getting into a really nice bowl.
 
KANSAS AT BYU – I'm on the verge of calling Kansas over BYU as my upset special.  If it was at Arrowhead I'd probably do so.  BUT since it is at BYU I will take BYU but in a very close game. The spread is only 3. The O/U is 55.5. I'd take the over.  And BYU to cover. ME: I’ll take Kansas,  They’ve been playing lights-out lately, and BYU was lucky - very, very lucky - to come away from Utah with a win.
 
SAN DIEGO STATE AT UNLV – Give me the Fighting Tark the Sharks. UNLV is a quality football team.  They are having a good season. The Vegas boys have to be happy with them. ME:  UNLV wins big.


REMEMBER, IN MANY CASES - MAYBE MOST - MORE THAN INTELLIGENCE AND COLD ANALYSIS HAVE GONE INTO OUR PICKS.   SOMETIMES EMOTION HAS PLAYED AN OVERSIZE ROLE.  BUT AT LEAST I DIDN’T PICK ANY GAMES SIMPLY BECAUSE ONE OF THE TEAMS’ NICKNAMES HAPPENED TO BE MY LAST NAME.


*********** More, as promised, about the great John Robinson.

Yes, he and John Madden went to the same parochial school.

Yes, he was a great coach at USC and a near-great coach of the Los Angeles Rams.  Not many men have been able to get the job done at both levels of the game the way John Robinson did.

But what kind a guy was he?  I trust the judgment of Norm Maves, a longtime friend who’s now retired as a Portland sports writer: “John Robinson was also one of the most personable people I ran across in all those years in the biz. He was as likable as they come; he could chat up a total stranger in a heartbeat. And he could tell a funny story at the drop of a helmet.”

Norm  told this one, as best he could remember…

One year, when Robinson was an assistant coach at Oregon, he delivered a story that still cracks me up.

He was a reserve on the Ducks' 1958 Rose Bowl team, and warming the bench in the tense 10-7 loss to Ohio State. Oregon Coach Len Casanova, who inspired loyalty from generations of Oregon people, wanted to make sure all his players got into the action.

This is pretty close to the way Robbie told it:

"So Cas turns around, looks at the bench, then points to me and says 'You! Get in there for Robinson.’

"I grab my helmet, head out to the huddle, and stop halfway. I remember that I'm the only Robinson on the team.

"So I turn around and head back to tell Cas that. He greets me with a big smile, pats me on the back on the way back to the bench and says 'Nice game, Robinson.’"

I remember two things about him from clinics:


I remember him telling  of the time USC was playing somebody tough, and things were going slower than usual.  A few people started to grumble.   But Robinson, true to his philosophy, kept running the tailback off-tackle. More grumbling.  Finally, Robinson lost his patience and said, “I don’t care what we’re gaining. Just answer me this - are we beating the sh— out of them?”  Of course they were.  That was John Robinson - playing the long game.


The other thing that sticks with me - I’ve shown it at clinics - was the time he said, “This is our philosophy at USC.”  And he turned and drew up a 5—2 defense (what most people now call a 3-4), and said, “this is our opponents.”



And then, starting to draw the offense, he said, “This is US,” and he drew USC’s I-formation offense in symbols three times larger than the defense.


***********   Gerry Faust died last week.  He was a good man and a good coach - a VERY good high school coach - who landed his dream job  when he was named head coachNotre Dame.  But as he learned, the  job was far bigger, far more complex,  than he was prepared for.

Toward the end of his stay at Notre Dame, he learned that former Irish coach Ara Parseghian had said  that no one should be hired to coach at Notre Dame unless he’d had 12 or 13 years’ experience as a college head coach.

In his autobiography, “The Golden Dream,”  Faust admitted that he took offense at the time, but, with the perspective of years of coaching behind him, he came to understand:

What Ara said, in essence, is that the job is impossible. I was too naïve to hear that. What he said was that people were seldom happy with a win – unless you weren't supposed to win, which is an oxymoron, because you are always supposed to win. They expect you to win. They expect you to recruit great players. They expect a Notre Dame to have the number one recruiting class each year. You can't do anything that isn't already expected from the man in that position.

I found the  concluding words of Gerry Faust’s book, written in 1997, to be moving.

I was the right man, if not the right coach, for Notre Dame.

I seized the day and it has never been a dark one – not even in its darkest moments. I still see the sun glinting off the Golden Dome illuminating my Golden Dream.

The only shortcut I ever took in my life was to Notre Dame. How can that have been a mistake? It gave me a chance to walk the path I believe God intended me to take. I know He never once let go of my hand along the way. And one day, He will let me know how our walk went.  I can live with that.

*********** I’ll give our resident Notre Dame expert, Joe Gutilla, the last word on Gerry Faust…

A lot can be said for what Gerry Faust accomplished as a football coach.  His Moeller teams were virtually unbeatable, and was the catalyst for his surprising hire at Notre Dame.  While he didn’t achieve the same success with the Irish on the football field as his more famous predecessors, those who played for him respected and admired him for what he instilled for them in their personal lives.

Yes, the man loved ND.  He had always dreamed of being its HC.  I had the privilege to meet him years after he had been let go without a bad thing to say about the school, and his experience there.

Just a really good human being.



***********  If you can’t get your son to let you reprint his stuff, you haven’t done much a job of raising him, have you?  My son, Ed, who despite living in Australia manages to  keep a close eye on college football - and the Mountain West in general - tells about a player who’s worth our watching…

An exciting quarterback helps a downtrodden New Mexico university to an overachieving season.

Although short in stature compared to the prototypical quarterback, he’s a good runner and a good leader and is one of the more exciting players in the conference.

Are we talking about Diego Pavia?  or Devon Dampier?

In 2023, Pavia led an unheralded New Mexico State team to a 10-5 record, throwing for nearly 3,000 yards and 26 touchdowns. He also led the team in rushing, with 923 yards and 7 touchdowns.

This year, Dampier hasn’t quite reached those heights, but he’s helped New Mexico to a 4-6 record, is 4th in the conference in passing (241 ypg, 11 TD) and 5th in rushing (872 yds, 87.2 ypg)

Here’s where the intrigue starts.

If you’re a fan of college football, you probably know that Pavia transfer portalled (I think I’ve invented a new verb) to Vanderbilt, where he engineered a huge upset win over Alabama and has the Commodores bowl eligible for the first time since 2018.

Dampier has also been impressive, not just on the field, but off it, where he made the Mountain West All-Academic team in 2023. In short, he’s the ideal candidate for a bigger program looking to bring in a smart, athletic quarterback.

As a New Mexico fan or a Mountain West fan, you’d hate to see Dampier poached. But this is the reality of college football and I would be stunned if a Big 12 or ACC team doesn’t take a hard look at him.

***********   This year, so far,  NFL teams are 24 of 74 on two-point conversion attempts. 

That’s a 32.4 per cent success rate.

Last year?  It was 55.1 per cent.

Since the NFL adopted the 2-point conversion in 1995?  The overall success rate is 47.9.



*********** From another coach…

Q. Do you think misdirection is better under center or in the open wing or wildcat?

A. I think it depends as much on the number and arrangement of the backs as how the quarterback gets the ball but I think it's about equal under center and wildcat, provided the ball is snapped low.

The key to misdirection is hiding the ball, and the conventional high snap of the shotgun eliminates any doubt about where the ball is. 

Q.  I probably haven't been as good about hiding the ball as I should've been.

A. It’s a great indicator of how deep into detail a coach is willing and able to go. I could do better certainly. We all could. But most guys can't even be bothered.



*********** A friend was asking me about doing something similar to what Army’s doing offensively. I told him,

One advantage  they have that most of us don’t is that they get special guys who are smart.  They all graduated at the top of their HS classes. They’re also tough and unselfish. From the time they get to West Point they get toughness drilled into them and selfishness flushed out of them and they want to win by whatever means are available.  That means you can have an offense where everybody blocks. Even the option QB.  And, too, because the Army itself at its base is “boots on the ground” - hard men in hand-to-hand  combat -  its fan base expects the same of its football team.  Army fans don’t  shriek with excitement at long incompletions.  They get their  thrills from long, methodical  drives consisting of mostly running plays that punish the enemy.



*********** A little free, unsolicited advice to a coach who just concluded a  successful season, his second or third running the Double Wing.

You are to be congratulated for your progress.  Mostly, though, it’s for having the “stones” to stay with an unfashionable offense when there is always pressure to do what everyone else is doing.  The longer you stay with it, the better you’ll get at it, and the harder you’ll be for other teams  to stop.

Just don’t allow yourselves to get bored, because that’s the first step to losing the edge that the Double Wing gives you.



***********   The 16 Campbell Finalists get 18K each? Sounds like too many to me, some with questionable quals.

Surprisingly, the Black Knights did enter the CFP at #15. I won't argue whether that's right, because it won't matter in a month anyhow.

John Vermillion                                                
St Petersburg, Florida


***********   Hugh,

Well… two of my “unless” predictions came true.  Haynes King of Georgia Tech played against Miami, and GT upset undefeated Miami.  Minnesota, winners of four in a row, forgot how to run the rock and got beat by Rutgers that had lost four in a row.  Apparently Alabama didn’t need Nick Saban after all, LSU did!

My Fresno State Bulldogs are in jeopardy of missing out on a bowl game.  Talk about forgetting how to run the ball.  They had a total of -13 yards rushing in their loss to Air Force!!  They have lost two in a row to the two worst teams in the Mountain West.  Their remaining games with Colorado State and UCLA certainly don’t improve their chances.


Have a great week!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas





 
***********   QUIZ ANSWER:  Hugh Campbell went to high school in Saratoga, California, and at Washington State he became - and remains - one of the greatest receivers in school history.

Nicknamed “The Phantom of the Palouse,” in  his three-year career (1959-1961), when people weren’t throwing the ball the way they do today,  he set a school single-game record for receptions (11),  school single-season records for receptions (67) and touchdowns receiving (10),   and  school  career records for receptions (177), yards (2,459) and touchdowns (22).

He was named All-Pacific Coast Conference all three years of his eligibility, and was second team all-American his senior year.

He was awarded the W.J. Voit Trophy, given (from 1951 to 1978) to the outstanding football player on the Pacific Coast.

Following his senior year, he played in the Hula Bowl,  the College All-Star Game, the Coaches All-American Game, and the East-West Shrine Game.  He was named the MVP in both the Coaches All-American and the East-West Shrine Games.

Drafted in the fourth round - 50th player taken - by the 49ers, he chose instead to play in Canada for the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

He played five seasons with the Riders, then retired to take a job as an assistant at Washington State under Jim Sweeney, but came out of retirement to play one final season in Saskatchewan.

In his six seasons, he caught 321 passes for 5,425 yards and 60 touchdowns.  He played on one Grey Cup Championship team. He won Western Conference All-Star honors (oops - “honours”) four times, and was twice named a CFL All-Star.

After retirement as a player, he was hired as head coach at D-III Whitworth College, in Spokane, Washington. After seven years there, during which he was twice named conference Coach of the Year, in 1977 he became head coach of the Edmonton Eskimos.

He took the Eskimos to the Grey Cup game in Montreal in his first year but lost 41–6 to the Montreal Alouettes.  It was the only Grey Cup game he would ever lose, as his  Eskimos won the next five Grey Cup games.

After the 1982 season, he left the CFL to become head coach of the USFL's Los Angeles Express, and after one season,  he was hired by the Houston Oilers, who hoped that his hiring would help them land Warren Moon, then a free agent, who had played for him in Edmonton.

The Oilers then signed Moon, and our guy did last as head coach of the Oilers for two games shy of two seasons before being fired.

He almost immediately  returned to the Edmonton as general manager, and served in that capacity until his retirement in 2006.

As player, head coach or general manager, Hugh Campbell was a member of 10 Grey Cup championship teams.

His son,  Rick, is currently head coach of the CFL BC Lions.


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING HUGH CAMPBELL

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORDO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
MIKE FORISTIERE - MARSING, IDAHO
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON



 

*********** QUIZ:  He was  the throwing part of a famed Notre Dame passing combination - with end Knute Rockne as the catching part -  and he’s often  called “The Father of the Forward Pass.”

Although he did not invent the forward pass, he was a pioneer in popularizing it. The precision throw-and-catch techniques which he and Rockne developed in their off-hours while working in the summer of 1913 at Ohio’s Cedar Point Amusement Park would contribute a few months later to one of the first great football upsets.  When little-known Notre Dame upset national power Army 35-13 that November, it not only brought fame to the small Catholic school in the Midwest, but it also created great interest in the forward pass as more than just a gimmick.

He was born in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin to a French-Canadian father and an Irish mother.  His given first name was Charles, but he never went by that name.

Although small at 5-7, 150, he starred as a triple- threat high school quarterback, and led Chippewa Falls to the  state championship in 1909.

He had hopes of  playing college ball at Minnesota,  but  wound up instead at Notre Dame. There, two games into his freshman season,  the head coach set aside  reservations about the quarterback’s overhand spiral  throwing style and  installed him as his starter.  Good decision: in four years as Notre Dame’s starting quarterback, he didn’t lose a game.

For the record, in the now-famous win over Army, he completed 14 of 17 attempts for 243 yards and three touchdowns.

He was team captain his junior and senior years, and in 1913 became Notre Dame’s first consensus All-American.

After graduation from Notre Dame, he remained active in football for years as a  coach and player.  HIs first coaching job was at Loras College, a small Catholic school in Dubuque, Iowa, where he coached numerous sports and still managed to play professional football, still in its primitive early days, for teams in Massillon, Ohio and Fort Wayne, Indiana.

In four years as a coach, his teams were 17-9-2.

He served in the Army during World War I, spending some of his time running and playing for a service team in Texas, and after the War he spent a year at Notre Dame as an assistant to his old roommate, Rockne, who was now the Irish head coach.

Then he was hired by Gonzaga, a Jesuit college in Spokane, as athletic director and head coach of football, basketball, baseball and track - for the princely sum of $4,000.

After five years in Spokane, he was hired at the University of Detroit, another  Catholic school, where he would stay for 18 years.

From 1925 until 1942 - when Detroit dropped football for the duration of World War II - he compiled a record of 113-48-7. In those 18 seasons, he had just one losing season - his second.

In 1943, he was hired by the Detroit Lions as their head coach. In his five years there, the Lions went 20-31-2, and although he was fired, he was paid for the  four years remaining on his contract, seemingly  making him one of the first coaches to be paid a fairly generous severance package.

Then, along with his son, he ran an automobile dealership in Indiana.

To  keep a hand in the game, he spent time as a scout for the AAFC, and in 1952 he came out of retirement for a year to assist John Bach, who had been hired by the Steelers as  their head coach.  His contribution was to help Bach convert the Steelers  from the single wing attack they had been running for the previous six years to the T-formation which every other NFL team was by then running.






TUESDAY,  NOVEMBER  12,  2024    “The bad news is they are insane; the good news is they are insane and impotent.”
Mark Steyn


********** VETERANS DAY:   I think that one of the great formative influences in my life was when I first entered Germantown Academy as a 12-year-old seventh-grader, and from that point on, every single one of my teachers and coaches, all the way through to high school graduation, was a man. And, every bit as important, every single one was a veteran - most were veterans of the (fairly recent) Second World War, but some of the older ones  were World War One vets. 

For men like that, many of whom had seen action overseas (my Latin teacher, Mister Truesdale, had been gassed in World War I and my science teacher, Mister Schrepfer, had had much of his calf shot off in World War II), dealing with a wiseass punk like me was scarcely a challenge.  They pretty much kept me in line.

I have few regrets in life, but one is that I never served in the military.  I distinctly remember our headmaster, Doctor Day - himself a former paratrooper - telling me at least once that if you didn’t serve, “you weren’t part of your generation.”

That’s no longer so. But at one time, it was true, and America - and all of our institutions, certainly our politics  - were better because it was.

The lessons they imparted have stayed with me all my life.  Thank you, Veterans, for what you did for this one person.


*********** Wisdom from Mike Lude:  “At the time I was at Quantico, there was a major distraction back home in Michigan. Lightning hit our silo and started a fire that swept through the barn. Flames destroyed the farm equipment and all of the buildings except the house. Unable to farm, my father found a job with the Kalamazoo County road commission. With most of the younger men in the military, he was offered a job as a truck driver. My parents moved closer to Vicksburg, and my mother used her cooking skills to get a job at an elementary school lunch room. It was a far easier life than working the farm.

“Of the 226 would-be officers who were in my OCS class at Quantico, 182 were commissioned second lieutenant at a brief ceremony on May 3, 1944. When I was ordered to report for training with the amphibious tractor battalion on the beach at Oceanside, California, it was pretty clear this war was not going to be any picnic. Simply, our job was leading the invasion of enemy-held islands, of which there were many in the South Pacific theater.

“Our boats were called landing vehicle tractors; they were more like tanks that floated, and they were open on the top - at the same time, having the traction to move on land once they hit the beach. They were launched from larger ships offshore, and each carried about thirty Marines. The goal was to get on the beach, often under heavy fire, open the big ramp of the vehicle, and turn the Marines loose.

“A lot of people called the tractors seagoing tomato cans because they had a low profile in the water and little protection. The crew consisted of a boat driver, a gunner manning a 50-caliber machine gun on the top of the cab, and a lieutenant – that's me – in charge of several tractors. We made numerous practice runs in training on the California beaches. Later, back in our quarters, we speculated about our chances of surviving the action under fire.




*********** Aberdeen update: Last Thursday, two days after our season ended, we held our Last Practice.

A practice?  After the season’s over?  For what?

Last Practice is something that Head coach Todd Bridge and I started several years ago when we were coaching at North Beach High, in Ocean Shores, Washington.  Our season had just ended, and several of the players gathered in Coach Bridge’s room at lunch on Monday and said they wished we could still have practice that afternoon.  Done.  Practice was on.  Attendance was 100 per cent. We did a lot of fun things (everything’s more fun in the mud), and at the close, we gathered and expressed a lot of emotions.  And then we ended with a “last tackle” (of a dummy) for all the seniors.  Oh - and afterward we collected all the gear, so our “last practice” had its practical side as well.

At Aberdeen, our Thursday practice was attended by at least 90 per cent of our kids. (Most of those not in attendance were freshmen, whose season had ended Monday and who hadn’t dressed for Tuesday’s night’s game.)

We started out with Air Raid - a competition among  our squadrons to catch balls shot high in the air by our Jugs machine (PHOTO), followed by our daily warmups, then by a 7-on-7 tournament among the squadrons, then by “senior speeches,”  and finally by “last tackles.”

Yes, our season ended with a loss - but unless you’re a state champion, every halfway decent team winds up its season that way.  We  finished 4-6, and every team we lost to made the 32-team playoffs.  But our season ended on a high note - with our kids already thinking about next season - because of our last practice.


*********** Columbia River, the team we lost to, 7-6 on Tuesday, lost its Saturday playoff game to Franklin Pierce, of Tacoma, 76-14.  Franklin Pierce runs a full-house, double-tight offense.

ABERDEEN OPPONENTS WHO WON
Olympic 45, Washougal 6
Tumwater 70, Renton 8
W. F. West 56, Sequim 3

ABERDEEN OPPONENTS WHO LOST
Prosser 51, Steilacoom 35
Life Christian 36, Rochester 22



***********  COLLEGE GAME DAY HAD PAUL SKENES AND LIVVY DUNNE.  FOR THE TIME BEING, I ANSWER  WITH BRAD KNIGHT.

WE GO BACK A LONG WAY TOGETHER, TIED AT THE HIP BY THE DOUBLE WING.

BRAD’S HAD SUCCESSFUL COACHING STAYS AT GALVA-HOLSTEIN HIGH IN HOLSTEIN, IOWA AND AT CLARINDA ACADEMY, IN CLARINDA, IOWA, WHERE HE NOW LIVES.

IN RECENT YEARS, HE’S BEEN PARTLY SATISFYING  HIS COACHING APPETITE COACHING SOFTBALL AT CLARINDA HIGH.  HE IS, YOU MAY HAVE NOTICED, AN IOWA HAWKEYES’ FAN,  AND NOT THE WORLD’S BIGGEST IOWA STATE CYCLONES FAN. 

IN THIS WEEK’S RESULTS, I’VE INCLUDED OUR “PREDICTIONS,” BRAD’S FIRST AND THEN MINE.


FRIDAY

CAL 46,  WAKE FOREST  36 – I'll take the Bears. ME: I’ll take the Deacons.

UCLA 20, IOWA 17  –  I will take Iowa. Kaleb Johnson another 130 and 3 TD’s. ME: Of course I’ll take the Hawkeyes. But the Bruins are better, too.


SATURDAY


OHIO STATE 45, PURDUE 0 – The Buckeyes in a rout. ME: I’ll go out on a limb and say “Buckeyes," too.

GEORGIA TECH 28, MIAMI 23 – I'll take the U, maybe they are back? They certainly have found the right guy at QB. ME: This is my big upset pick of the day.  Go Jackets!  (GT rushed for 271 yards, Miami 88. In the immortal words of John Madden, “I know you think you can win by passing all the time… but you can’t.”)

TEXAS 49, FLORIDA 17 - I'll still take Texas by 10 ME: Make that Texas by 20

RUTGERS  26, MINNESOTA 19 – The Gophers as much as it pains me to pick them. ME: Gophers are hot. Scarlet Knights are not.

BOSTON COLLEGE 37, SYRACUSE 31 – Give me the fighting O'Briens of BC. ME: I was impressed by the Orange against VT last week. (‘Cuse is already bowl-eligible.  BC is 5-4 with three tough games remaining: SMU, North Carolina, Pitt.)

WEST VIRGINIA 31,  CINCINNATI 24  – Give me Cincy! ME: I’ll take the Mountaineers.

NAVY 28,  SOUTH FLORIDA 7 – Navy...no way USF can stop the run game. ME: Navy will NOT lose three in a row.

OLE MISS 28, GEORGIA 10 –Give me UGA but close....less than 10. ME: I’m going to take the Rebels. (Can I still call them that?)

INDIANA  20, MICHIGAN 15 – The Hoosiers coached by Gene Hackman.. ME: Indiana has suffered for years at the hands of Michigan. It’s turnabout time.

KANSAS 45, IOWA STATE 36  – Give me the JAYHAWKS in an upset. ME: I think that Cyclones will snap back after last week’s loss. (Knighter HATES Iowa State.)

ARMY 14,  NORTH TEXAS 3 – I think Army is better. ME: I’m going to guess that he (Daily)  doesn’t play - that he’s kept out to ready for Notre Dame - and North Texas wins in an upset. (He played, and Army’s ball-control offense crushed a team that had been averaging 40+ points a game)

CLEMSON 24, VIRGINIA TECH 14 – I'll take Dabo to win. ME: Oh, yes, Clemson wins.

DUKE 29,  NC STATE 19 – I'll take Duke. ME: I’ll take Duke, I think they’re the better team. (Manny Diaz has already matched Mike Elko’s 2023 regular-season win total. Devils are 7-3, with Virginia Tech and Wake Forest left to play. Elko’s Duke team finished 7-5, then won its bowl game to go 8-5.)

SAN JOSE STATE 24, OREGON STATE 13 – So give me the Beavers to win this one. ME: Go Beavs. But they HAVE lost four in a row. (Make that five in a row.)

COLORADO 41 TEXAS TECH 27 – Buffs win.  ME: No way I can root  for Colorado, and I will use they/them pronouns before I’l call that clown “Coach Prime.” (Looks like he can coach, but I still detest him.)

SOUTH CAROLINA 28,  VANDERBILT 7 – I will take the Cocks to win, but Vandy to cover. ME: Vandy is going to win. Book it.  And when they do, they’ll interview Diego Pavia after. Great interview.  And he’ll be sure to give thanks to God for giving him the opportunity. Book it. (Maybe the thrill is done.)

OREGON 39, MARYLAND 18 – The Ducks. I won't pick anyone to beat them at home. ME: Welcome to Autzen, Terps.  Place is a 60,000-seat sounding board that poses as a stadium. (Actually, I thought the Ducks sucked.)

TENNESSEE 33, MISSISSIPPI STATE 14 – Tennessee... they are better than the Bulldogs. ME: Vols are way too good for the Bulldogs.

ARIZONA STATE  35, UCF 31 – Give me Ariz. State. ME: I’ll take the Knights over the Sun Devils.

TCU 38,  OKLAHOMA STATE 13  – Give me the Horned Frogs! ME: I’m betting on Gundy to stop the slide.

NOTRE DAME 52, FLORIDA STATE 3  – Notre Dame... ME: Florida State is Indiana in reverse. (Afterward, FSU Coach Mike Norvell fired his OC and DC - and his wide receivers’ coach. Question: how you gonna hire anybody good when you’re probably on the way out yourself?)

ALABAMA 42, LSU 13 – ROLL TIDE! ME: Tigers win this one. (This was Bama’s 12th win in its last 14 games against LSU.  Can you imagine the rage in Tiger Stadium after a day of “preparation” and then having to watch this?)

MISSOURI 30, OKLAHOMA 23 – Mizzou, but close.  ME: Missouri BIG. (The way OU lost at the end was an object lesson to QBs who simply refuse to  do the old-fashioned thing and protect the ball.)

PENN STATE 35, WASHINGTON 6 – Penn State rebounds and beats Washington. ME: Huskies just aren’t good enough (This was 28-0 at the half. Now, if only some Russian could have hacked into James Franklin’s phone and informed him that Washington was ranked Number Four…)

BOISE STATE 28, NEVADA 21 – Boise State with my Heisman pick toting the rock. ME: Got to go along with that one.  (Broncos had a lot of trouble with a team that has yet to win a Mountain West game. But still, Ashton Jeanty rushed 34 times for 209 yards and three TDs.)

VIRGINIA 24, PITT 19 – Pitt rebounds.  ME: If it were anyone by UVa, I’d pick Pitt to lose its second in a row, but I don’t think  the Cavaliers can do it. (Having lived through many seasons of Washington State “Cougin’ it,” I can’t believe Pittsburghers haven’t invented a similar verb for what the Panthers have been known to do.)

AIR FORCE 36, FRESNO STATE 28 – Air Force is just not good. ME: This is the worst Air Force team I have ever seen. (WRONG: The Falcons rushed for 344 yards to win their second game of the year. The ran 86 plays to Fresno’s 38, and controlled the clock for 45:08  to the Bulldogs’ 14:52.)

BYU 22,  UTAH 21 – BYU but close... ME: I don’t think that the Utes have the offense to beat the Cougars. (Absolutely unbelievable ending - a fourth-down sack on the BYU one, nullified by a holding call, followed by a game-winning drive.  Followed by some of the harshest criticisms of officials you’ll ever hear. Welcome to the Holy War.)

WASHINGTON STATE 49, UTAH STATE 28  – I'll take Coach Leach's former school, just because I miss his press conferences.  ME:  Go Cougs.


*********** More on Friday about the great John Robinson, who died today (Monday).


***********   NCAA  2024 College Football Playoff Projection: Week 12 Top 25

These predictions are as of Sunday, November 10.
 
    1.    Oregon (10-0) LW: 1 — As long as Oregon keeps winning, the Ducks will stay at the top.
    2.    Ohio State (8-1) LW: 2 — A shutout win should put to bed any argument over who should be No. 2 in the country.
    3.    Texas (8-1) LW: 5 — Expect Texas to move into the top three after Georgia and Miami lost.
    4.    Tennessee (8-1) LW: 7 — Tennessee's win over Alabama got more juice after the Tide beat LSU. That small boost will move Tennessee into the top four for the committee.
    5.    Penn State (8-1) LW: 6 — Penn State won its whiteout game against Washington and will move into the top five.
    6.    Indiana (10-0) LW: 8 — Is a win over Michigan enough to move Indiana into the top five? I don't think so, especially not in front of a Tennessee team with a win over Alabama.
    7.    BYU (9-0) LW: 9 — BYU won a nail-biter over Utah in the Holy War, but I don't think a close win will cause the committee to drop the Cougars below a two-loss team.
    8.    Alabama (7-2) LW: 11 — Alabama should be the No. 8 team in the country after dominating LSU in Death Valley. Until someone ahead of the Tide loses, I don't think the CFP committee can overlook their two losses.
    9.    Georgia (7-2) LW: 3 — Georgia was ranked above Miami last week, and it'll stay above the Hurricanes after losing to a ranked opponent. However, the Bulldogs will fall below Alabama because of head-to-head.
    10.    Miami (9-1) LW: 4 — Miami's loss to Georgia Tech on the road is better than Notre Dame's loss to Northern Illinois at home. Luckily for the Hurricanes, Notre Dame is a floor in these rankings.
    11.    Ole Miss (7-2) LW: 16 — Ole Miss will be the last at-large team in the bracket this week after handily beating Georgia. South Carolina should be ranked too, giving the Rebels another ranked win on its resume.
    12.    Notre Dame (8-1) LW: 10 — Notre Dame falls out of the playoff field as Alabama and Ole Miss move in front of it. With only one ranked opponent remaining on the schedule, the committee could send a message about Notre Dame's stability in the bracket this week.
    13.    Boise State (8-1) LW: 12 — Boise State will stay in the playoffs as the highest projected conference champion remaining, but it won't be one of the 12 best teams after a close win over Nevada.
    14.    SMU (8-1) LW: 13 — SMU won't move in front of any teams after a bye.
    15.    Texas A&M (7-2) LW: 14 — Texas A&M won't move in front of any teams after a bye.
    16.    Kansas State (7-2) LW: 19 — Kansas State had a bye and will move up after three teams ranked ahead of it lost.
    17.    Colorado (7-2) LW: 20 — Colorado controls its destiny and could make the CFP as a conference champion. However, its path to becoming a top-12 team has a roadblock with a head-to-head loss to Kansas State.
    18.    Washington State (8-1) LW: 21 — Washington State has a long road ahead to become one of the top-12 teams, but it should move up three spots this week.
    19.    Louisville (6-3) LW: 22 — Louisville stays above Clemson after the Cardinals had a bye.
    20.    Clemson (6-2) LW: 23 — Last week's ranking told us that the committee won't put Clemson in front of Louisville after a head-to-head defeat unless the Tigers get a ranked win.
    21.    Missouri (6-2) LW: 24 — Missouri's win over Oklahoma doesn't hold as much weight as it was thought in the preseason. The Tigers likely have to win an SEC title to make the playoffs based on the committee's first rankings.
    22.    Army (9-0) LW: 25 — Army's win over North Texas wasn't groundbreaking so the Black Knights won't enter the top 20 yet.
    23.    LSU (6-3) LW: 15 — Sometimes it's about how you lose just as much as it's about who you lose to. For LSU both will drop the Tigers to the bottom of the top 25. A blowout loss at home is never a good look.
    24.    South Carolina (6-3) LW: NR — South Carolina beat a good Vanderbilt team a week after beating a ranked Texas A&M team. The Gamecocks will be ranked by the committee this week after feeling snubbed last week.
    25.    Arizona State (7-2) LW: NR — I think the committee will give Arizona State the final spot in this week's rankings. The Sun Devils should get the spot over fellow Big 12 school Iowa State, even though the Cyclones were ranked last week. Arizona State has won two straight while Iowa State has lost two straight. An argument could be made to rank Tulane, but I don't see the committee ranking two teams from the American in their second rankings.


https://www.ncaa.com/news/football/article/2024-11-10/predicting-college-football-playoff-rankings-bracket-week-12
 

*********** IRVING, Texas (Oct. 23, 2024) – The National Football Foundation (NFF) & College Hall of Fame announced today the finalists for the 2024 William V. Campbell Trophy®, college football's premier scholar-athlete award that annually recognizes an individual as the absolute best in the nation for his combined academic success, football performance and exemplary leadership. The 16 finalists will each receive an $18,000 postgraduate scholarship as a member of the 2024 NFF National Scholar-Athlete Class Presented by Fidelity Investments®:
 
    •    Tahj Brooks, RB – Texas Tech (3.55 GPA – Sport Management)
    •    Robert Coury, LB – Carnegie Mellon [PA] (3.97 GPA – Mechanical Engineering)
    •    Jaxson Dart, QB – Ole Miss (3.71 GPA – Business) TRANSFER FROM USC
    •    Beau Freyler, DB – Iowa State (3.91 GPA – Kinesiology)
    •    Dillon Gabriel, QB – Oregon (3.43 GPA – Multidisciplinary Studies) SIX YEAR STARTER - UCF, OKLAHOMA, OREGON
    •    Ashton Gillotte, DL – Louisville (3.69 GPA – Communications)
    •    Brody Grebe, DE – Montana State (3.93 GPA – Mechanical Engineering)
    •    Mark Gronowski, QB – South Dakota State (3.76 GPA – Mechanical Engineering)
    •    Terrance Hollon, LB – Howard (3.90 GPA – Health Science)
    •    Jack Kiser, LB – Notre Dame (3.82 GPA – Business Analytics)
    •    Luke Lehnen, QB – North Central [IL] (3.76 GPA – Exercise Science)
    •    Brayden Long, QB – Slippery Rock [PA] (4.00 GPA – Sport Management)
    •    Jake Majors, C – Texas (3.65 GPA – Business Management)
    •    Seth McLaughlin, C – Ohio State (4.00 GPA – Finance) ALABAMA - FIRST YEAR AT OHIO STATE
    •    Jalen Milroe, QB – Alabama (3.52 GPA – Management)
    •    Jackson Woodard, LB – UNLV (3.77 GPA – Kinesiology) ARKANSAS FOR THREE SEASONS


With good reason, you call your award the Academic Heisman.   But then you go and devalue it by including the poster child for everything bad that’s happening to college football.

Dillon Gabriel’s pursuit of a million-dollar payoff playing college football is perfectly legal, but come on, man - SIX F—KING YEARS OF COLLEGE FOOTBALL?  “MULTIDISCIPLINARY STUDIES?” 

And you’re putting him in with honest-to-God college students?   Most of the rest are legitimate students pursuing authentic majors, and not something concocted to keep academically aimless jocks eligible. And for many of them,  NIL means nothing  more than an occasional  free cheeseburger and fries at the local hangout.

MY APOLOGY (IN ADVANCE):  If anyone was offended by my disparaging of the academic achievements  of Dillon Gabriel, I humbly apologize.  I had no way that he was hot on the trail of a cancer cure, and was seriously considering giving up football because of the time it requires  - time he’d prefer to be spending in the Multidisciplinary Lab, studying ways to make petroleum from seawater, with fresh water as a byproduct.


*********** Miami Coach Mario Cristobal got my attention when he told the sideline bimbo before the start of the second quarter that Georgia Tech was “running that counter right up our nose.”

Raise your hand when you were surprised that he didn’t refer to an orifice somewhat lower on the body.


*********** The act of aiming at an opponent’s head remains  the biggest threat to the  life of our game, and the people entrusted with our game keep screwing around with all kinds of lawyerly defenses of the creeps that do it.  It reminds me of the way our society prizes the criminal over the victim, and it really angers me to see a guy, once he has been “ejected,”  standing on the sidelines accepting condolence (and sometimes congratulations) from teammates.  It’s time to punish coaches whose players hit with the helmets because I have to be honest and say that I wouldn’t want a son or a grandson playing college football the way it’s currently being allowed to be played.

*********** The Army offense is the football equivalent of running the table in straight pool - rack after rack - while all your opponent can do is sit and watch. (Full disclosure: I have never run more than one rack.) Army put on a second-half drive against North Texas that went 94 yards and consumed almost 14 minutes (13:54 to be exact).  Talk about methodical - Army ran 21 plays.  There were just two plays of more than 10 yards. There was one pass. Along the way, Army made seven first downs (eight, if you include the TD). There was one  penalty - a delay of game caused by taking a little more than the maximum anount of time between plays. 

***********   Oh, and PAT SUMMERALL'S DAUGHTER IS THE FIRST FEMALE WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF IN HISTORY!

(But Trump's still a misogynist)

J. Rothwell, DC
Corpus Christi, Texas

It’s true- newly-appointed Chief of Staff Susie Wiles is the daughter of the legendary Pat Summerall.


“Donald Trump - You never see him around strong intelligent women.”  Mark Cuban


I have maintained for years that the first female president will be a conservative -  because fewer people will question her qualifications for the job.  Affirmative action may have helped some in the short term but by calling into question their credentials (for good reason, in far too many cases) it has done great long-term harm to the very people it claims to help.



***********   Answer is Johnny Majors, who I reckon was the player I most often pretended to be while playing our backyard games in Big Stone Gap.

This guest picker thing is pretty cool. Coach/Corch Knight kept my attention. Both you and he were wrong on most of them, but I assume you were just trying to be funny.

Grady Judd is a local point of pride, and a worthy successor to Joe Arpaio as America's titular sheriff.

Slight correction: Joe Biden earned all of his 81+ million votes in 2020, not 2024.

FYKIGM. I love Grunt talk. There's a motto to live by. Lots of superior values imbedded therein.

My only election comment isn't actually political. It is that now that this one is over, the Dem party will reform itself to return to being a party that loves America. I pray for a strong loyal opposition driven by strong values.


John Vermillion                    
St Petersburg, Florida


***********   Hugh,

Sorry to hear about the result of the play-in game.  Nevertheless a strong ending to the season, and should be a solid springboard to next year.

Enjoyed Brad’s and your take on College Gameday predictions.

A few “unless” predictions:

Georgia Tech over Miami UNLESS GT QB Haynes King doesn’t see the field.

Minnesota over Rutgers UNLESS the Gophers forget to run the rock.

N Texas over Army UNLESS the Cadets decide QB Bryson Dailey needs to play.

LSU over Alabama UNLESS Nick Saban shows up on the Alabama sideline.

Cross Billy Napier’s name off the list of coaches on the hot seat.  His seat will get hotter next year if the Gators aren’t in the running for a a playoff spot.

As a HC I NEVER coached “Hawk” tackling.  I always taught Chin-up, Chest-up, Wrap and Run.  My last 3 years coaching as an assistant we were required to teach the “Hawk” method.  MY teams were always good tackling teams.  As an assistant our teams were pathetic tacklers. 


Enjoy the weekend!

Joe  Gutilla
Granbury, Texas

 



*********** QUIZ ANSWER:  Johnny Majors was one of the last of the great major college single wing tailbacks.

The son of a high school football coach and the oldest of four brothers who all played football - one of them with the Cleveland Browns, he played high school ball for his dad at Huntland, Tennessee.  In 1951 - his junior year -  they won the state championship.

He was recruited to Tennessee by the legendary General Bob Neyland, famed for his single-wing attack, but he never got to play for the General. Playing under Bowden Wyatt, he was the SEC Player of the Year in both his junior and senior years.  In his senior year, he led the Vols to a 10-1 season - and Number 2 national ranking - and was a unanimous All-American. But in possibly the greatest travesty in the history of the Heisman Trophy, he finished second in the balloting to Notre Dame’s Paul Hornung.  To this day, Hornung, whose Irish finished 2-8 on the season, remains the only Heisman winner from a losing team.

Because of Majors’ position in a then-outmoded offense, he was a poor fit  in any pro football offense, and after a year in the CFL, he embarked on a coaching career.

After stops at Tennessee and Mississippi State and four years as an assistant under the great Frank Broyles at Arkansas, he was hired as head coach at Iowa State.

Iowa State was then perhaps the toughest assignment in all of major college football, and although it took him four years to turn in a winning record, when he did so, his Cyclones’  8 wins were the most  in the school’s history.  Their bowl appearance (in the Sun Bowl against LSU) was the school’s first ever, and for his efforts, he was named Big Eight Coach of the Year.

After five years at Iowa State, he was hired by Pitt as their head coach, and there he built well: with three-time All-American Tony Dorsett as his main running back,  in four years at Pitt he built a national champion.  The Panthers won the national title in 1976, and earned him National Coach of the Year honors.

They also got him the head coaching job at his alma mater, Tennessee.  It took him four years to get the Vols to a bowl game, but they would play in one in 11 of the next 13 years.  He was 7-4 in bowl games.

In 16 years at Tennessee,  had six seasons of 9 or more wins, and six nationally-ranked teams, two of them in the top five.

Three of his teams won  SEC titles, and in 1985, after his Vols won the SEC title and finished fourth nationally, he was named SEC Coach of the Year.

In 1992, his sixteenth season as Tennessee’s head coach, he had to undergo heart surgery, and while he recovered, his assistant, Philip Fulmer, covered for him as interim head coach.  Shortly after his return, he was “asked to resign,” and was succeeded by Fulmer.  To this day, the story behind his removal remains open and a matter of great interest and controversy among longtime Volunteers’ fans.

He was immediately snapped up by Pitt, in hopes of a redo of his earlier success there, but it was not to be. In four seasons, his record was 12-32, and that was the end of his long, storied coaching career.

His overall record - Iowa State, Pitt (twice) and Tennessee - was 185-137-10.  At Tennessee, it was 116-62-8.

Johnny Majors has a very impressive coaching tree: 25  of his assistant coaches went on to become college or professional head coaches themselves.

Among them:

Dom Capers: Carolina Panthers, Houston Texans
Curt Cignetti: IUP, Elon, James Madison, Indiana
David Cutcliffe: Ole Miss,  Duke
Phillip Fulmer: Tennessee
Jon Gruden: Oakland Raiders,  Tampa Bay Buccaneers,  Oakland Raiders
Jimmy Johnson: Oklahoma State, Miami (FL), Dallas Cowboys,  Miami Dolphins
Jackie Sherrill: Washington State, Pitt,  Texas A&M, Mississippi State
Dave Wannstedt: Chicago Bears, Miami Dolphins, Pitt
Ron Zook: Florida, Illinois



CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING JOHNNY MAJORS

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOHN IRION - ARGYLE, NEW YORK
TOM DAVIS - SAN MARCOS, CALIFORNIA
MIKE FORISTIERE - MARSING, IDAHO
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON




 
***********   QUIZ:  He went to high school in Saratoga, California, and at Washington State he became - and remains - one of the greatest receivers in school history.

Nicknamed “The Phantom of the Palouse,” in  his three-year career (1959-1961), when people weren’t throwing the ball the way they do today,  he set a school single-game record for receptions (11),  school single-season records for receptions (67) and touchdowns receiving (10),   and  school  career records for receptions (177), yards (2,459) and touchdowns (22).

He was named All-Pacific Coast Conference all three years of his eligibility, and was second team all-American his senior year.

He was awarded the W.J. Voit Trophy, given (from 1951 to 1978) to the outstanding football player on the Pacific Coast.

Following his senior year, he played in the Hula Bowl,  the College All-Star Game, the Coaches All-American Game, and the East-West Shrine Game.  He was named the MVP in both the Coaches All-American and the East-West Shrine Games.

Drafted in the fourth round - 50th player taken - by the 49ers, he chose instead to play in Canada for the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

He played five seasons with the Riders, then retired to take a job as an assistant at Washington State under Jim Sweeney, but came out of retirement after one year  to play one final season in Saskatchewan.

In his six seasons, he caught 321 passes for 5,425 yards and 60 touchdowns.  He played on one Grey Cup Championship team. He won Western Conference All-Star honors (oops - “honours”) four times, and was twice named a CFL All-Star.

After retirement as a player, he was hired as head coach at D-III Whitworth College, in Spokane, Washington. After seven years there, during which he was twice named conference Coach of the Year, in 1977 he became head coach of the Edmonton Eskimos.

He took the Eskimos to the Grey Cup game in Montreal in his first year but lost 41–6 to the Montreal Alouettes.  It was the only Grey Cup game he would ever lose, as his  Eskimos won the next five Grey Cup games.

After the 1982 season, he left the CFL to become head coach of the USFL's Los Angeles Express, and after one season,  he was hired by the Houston Oilers, who hoped that his hiring would help them land Warren Moon, then a free agent, who had played for him in Edmonton.

The Oilers then signed Moon, and our guy did last as head coach of the Oilers for two games shy of two seasons before being fired.

He almost immediately  returned to the Edmonton as general manager, and served in that capacity until his retirement in 2006.

As player, head coach or general manager, he was a member of 10 Grey Cup championship teams.

His son is currently head coach of the CFL BC Lions.




FRIDAY,  NOVEMBER  8,  2024    “It is much more important to kill bad bills than to pass good ones.”  Calvin Coolidge


*********** Wisdom from Mike Lude:   “Every recruit was issued a bucket. It was your stool to sit on. It was where you washed your clothes. You used it when scrubbing the Quonset hut floors with brick and sand. I remember how we were warned to be ready to protect our bucket from someone who had lost his. I remember the old Marine response when somebody asked ‘Where's my bucket?’ The response was ‘Bleep you Jack, I got mine.’ Most guys would shorten the answer to six letters, ‘FYJIGM.’

“To toughen us up they marched us through swamps and made us run for miles at a time. If we slowed down they'd make us drop and do push-ups. There were constant rifle inspections. You had to field strip your rifle and clean it, and it was never clean enough for the DI (Drill Instructor). It was commonplace for a lieutenant walking down the line to grab your rifle, pull it up, and say, "What's that?” and you said, “Sir, that's a front sight,” and he said, ‘That's dust.’

“The next three months at Officer Candidate School in Quantico, Virginia, got considerably harder. The program was heavy on academic work, heavy on physical work, and heavy on field training. It was light on sleep. But the last thing you wanted to happen was to stumble on this final step to becoming an officer and be shipped immediately to a replacement unit in the Pacific as a private. During OCS and so many other times during my Marine career I reflect on how fortunate I was to have played football. I’d think, this is tough but it's not any tougher than two-a-day practices in the early fall when it's hot and humid. If I could handle that I can handle this.  I was confident the training received at Quantico had absolutely prepared me – mentally, physically, and strategically – to be a Marine Corps leader. I was ready to go to war.

“I felt that I was ready to live up to Grandpa Chris Lude's pep talk about ending up as a general.”






*********** Aberdeen update:  Our season’s over.  We lost, 7-6, on Tuesday night to Columbia River High of Vancouver.

A “play-in,” it was a “half-game” - two 12-minute halves.

We won the toss and chose to defer.  After stopping  them on their first drive, we then put on a 62-yard drive to score with 1:59 remaining in the “half.”  The drive ate up 8:26.

We missed the extra point, and after stopping them and getting the ball back with a minute or so left, we perhaps got a bit too conservative - a decision I happened to agree with.  Knowing that we’d get the ball to start the second half,  we chose to protect the ball and go in with a 6-0 lead.

We started the second half deep in our territory and were forced to punt.  River started at midfield, where we forced them into a fourth-and-four, but they completed a 32-yard pass for a first down, and then, faced with another fourth-and-four, they completed a touchdown pass into the right corner of the end zone.  The extra point made it 7-6.

We took the kick and drove 55 yards to their 15 where, on fourth and four,  a high snap ended our drive and, basically, our chances.

I personally think that we were the better team, and that we’d have won in a full-fledged game, but the score remains the same - 7-6 - and River moves on.

We began the season 0-3, with a combined score of 71-13 against us. From there, we went 4-2, and  the two losses came against teams ranked in the state’s top five.  I could see us getting  better every week, and the kids’ attitude and effort in practice indicated that they were seeing it, too.


In a nation whose young people are turning out soft because they’ve been shielded from hardship and protected from failure, our kids got a big dose of both.  But I know that the pain they felt from the loss of a game and the end of  season won’t scar them for life and will in fact help make them tougher.  I think very highly of them, and I’m confident they won’t be pointing fingers of blame at each other, and instead will stay close in support of one another, with a resolve to work at getting better yet.

We started one senior on offense - at guard -  and one on defense - at DB - so we’re returning almost our starting entire team.  This is a tough bunch of kids.  They work hard and they like each other, and   knowing the kind of improvement that kids make from junior to senior year, I’d have to say that there’s real  potential for Aberdeen to be a very good team next year.

That's our senior guard, Andres Arias, on the left with me and my wife. He was a stalwart on the line, and a real team leader.  A class kid in every way.




*********** I'm a dog guy.  If you are, too, you'll understand the pain that Kirk Herbstreit has to be feeling with the loss of his beloved dog, Ben. My sympathy to him.  Dogs are one of God's greatest gifts to us.


***********  IN MY BEST IMITATION OF COLLEGE GAME DAY, I FOUND MYSELF A GUEST PICKER.   HIS NAME IS BRAD KNIGHT AND HE LIVES IN THE DELIGHTFUL SOUTHWEST IOWA TOWN OF CLARINDA.  CLARINDA’S  PRETTY FAR FROM A MAJOR AIRPORT, AND I CAN’T AFFORD (YET) TO FLY HIM IN ON A PRIVATE JET, SO I SIMPLY EMAIL HIM A LIST OF GAMES AND TAKE THE RISK THAT WHAT HE EMAILS BACK TO ME WON’T OFFEND LARGE NUMBERS OF MY READERS.  (ACTUALLY, IF IT DOES, TOUGH TIDDY, AS THEY USED TO SAY.)

HIS DISCLAIMER: “Bet away....if you win send me checks. If you lose it's not MY fault.” 

My slight correction: send checks to ME!


FRIDAY

CAL AT WAKE FOREST – will far left Bears be hungover or hungry from the Election Day Massacre? Football players don't care about elections.  I'll take the Bears. ME: I’ll take the Deacons.

IOWA AT UCLA – Iowa with Sullivan at QB and the stable of RB's. And an improving defense week after week. The Hawks have hit their stride.  I will take Iowa. Kaleb Johnson another 130 and 3 TD’s. ME: Of course I’ll take the Hawkeyes. But the Bruins are better, too.  They took it to Nebraska last week.


SATURDAY


PURDUE AT OHIO STATE – The Buckeyes in a rout. ME: I’ll go out on a limb and say “Buckeyes," too.

MIAMI AT GEORGIA TECH – I'll take the U, maybe they are back? They certainly have found the right guy at QB. ME: This is my big upset pick of the day.  Go Jackets!

FLORIDA AT TEXAS - Texas is just too good for Florida. Florida did show a little fight last week.  Maybe closer than we all think, but I'll still take Texas by 10 ME: Make that Texas by 20.

MINNESOTA AT RUTGERS – The Gophers as much as it pains me to pick them. Hawkeye blood runs deep, and it still wasn't a fair catch. ME: Gophers are hot. Scarlet Knights are not.

SYRACUSE AT BOSTON COLLEGE – Which Syracuse shows up? Give me the fighting O'Briens of BC. ME: I was impressed by the Orange against VT last week.

WEST VIRGINIA AT CINCINNATI – Another head scratcher for me. West Virginia has looked both good and bad, Cincy has looked good and bad.  Think WV would love to have Dana H back at the helm. Give me Cincy! ME: I’ll take the Mountaineers.

NAVY AT SOUTH FLORIDA – Navy...no way USF can stop the run game. Can Navy keep USF in check by bleeding the clock is the question. Navy but closer than expected. ME: Navy will NOT lose three in a row.

GEORGIA AT OLE MISS – This might be a fun one.  UGA seems to have found a little defense. But UGA also seems to love making the game harder by turning the ball over.  Give me UGA but close....less than 10. ME: I’m going to take the Rebels. (Can I still call them that?)

MICHIGAN AT INDIANA – The Hoosiers coached by Gene Hackman. Get the ball to Jimmy! Indiana has been the surprise of the season in my book. ME: Indiana has suffered for years at the hands of Michigan. It’s turnabout time.

IOWA STATE AT KANSAS – Torn here. Really torn. Kansas is the best 2 win team in the country. I think ISU was exposed a little last week. Perhaps it was weather related. Give me the JAYHAWKS in an upset. ME: I think that Cyclones will snap back after last week’s loss. (Knighter HATES Iowa State.)

ARMY AT NORTH TEXAS – could be a decent game. I think Army is better. But can they contain NT? I believe they can, and I do not believe in a week NT can be ready to defend option football. ME: Since  whether Army plays option football depends on whether Bryson Daily plays, I’m going to guess that he  doesn’t play - that he’s kept out to ready for Notre Dame - and North Texas wins in an upset,

CLEMSON AT VIRGINIA TECH – Clemson will rebound possibly. Not real confident in picking them, but Va Tech has struggled to be consistent this year. So I'll take Dabo to win. ME: Oh, yes, Clemson wins. Tigers still have a shot - but not a good one - at a spot in the ACC title game.

DUKE AT NC STATE – Another game that could be very good. I'll take Duke. ME: I’ll take Duke, I think they’re the better team.

SAN JOSE STATE AT OREGON STATE – Picking this one blindly. Hate what the PAC12 did to the Beavers. So give me the Beavers to win this one. ME: Go Beavs. But they HAVE lost four in a row,

COLORADO AT TEXAS TECH – Has "Prime" become "Coach Sanders"? Too early to tell. But TT will be hungover from celebrating their win in Ames. Buffs win.  Hunter and Sanders are a great WR/QB combo, and Hunter is a very very good defender. Heisman worthy? Not the "top" in my book, but it is close. There is a back in Idaho I like better (and a back at Iowa I like better also). ME: No way I can root  for Colorado, and I will use they/them pronouns before I’l call that clown “Coach Prime.”

SOUTH CAROLINA AT VANDERBILT – I will take the Cocks to win, but Vandy to cover. ME: Vandy is going to win. Book it.  And when they do, they’ll interview Diego Pavia after. Great interview.  And he’ll be sure to give thanks to God for giving him the opportunity. Book it.

MARYLAND AT OREGON – The Ducks. I won't pick anyone to beat them at home. ME: Welcome to Autzen, Terps.  Place is a 60,000-seat sounding board that poses as a stadium.

MISSISSIPPI STATE AT TENNESSEE – Tennessee...has some issues to straighten out, but they are better than the Bulldogs. ME: Vols are way too good for the Bulldogs.

UCF AT ARIZONA STATE – Give me Ariz. State. UCF has a shot...but not sure they will capitalize on it. ME: After UCF’s performance last week, I’ll take the Knights over the Sun Devils.

OKLAHOMA STATE AT TCU – WOW. Who would have thought this. "I'm a man, I'm 40 " is going to lose to TCU who seems to have figured out their issues. Give me the Horned Frogs! ME: With his back against the wall, I’m betting on Gundy to stop the slide.

FLORIDA STATE AT NOTRE DAME – Notre Dame...Free Shoes Univ is still a train wreck waiting to happen. ME: Florida State is Indiana in reverse.

ALABAMA AT LSU – This will and should be a great game. Has Bama figured out their issues? Is Brian Kelly an as$hole? Yes to both. ROLL TIDE! ME: The answer is “NO” to both questions. Tigers win this one.

OKLAHOMA AT MISSOURI – Mizzou, but close.  ME: Missouri BIG.

WASHINGTON AT PENN STATE – Penn State rebounds and beats Washington. ME: Huskies just aren’t good enough, and James Franklin’s problem isn’t beating teams  ranked lower than his; it’s beating teams ranked higher.

NEVADA AT BOISE STATE– Boise State with my Heisman pick toting the rock. ME: Got to go along with that one.

VIRGINIA AT PITT– Pitt rebounds.  Picked Pitt last week and lost but I believe they are a high quality football team. ME: If it were anyone by UVa, I’d pick Pitt to lose its second in a row, but I don’t think  the Cavaliers can do it.

FRESNO STATE AT AIR FORCE – Give me the blue collar fellas of Fresno State. Air Force is just not good. ME: Agreed.  This is the worst Air Force team I have ever seen.

BYU AT UTAH – BYU but close...Utah being a rival and all. Can BYU hold up to the physicality Utah brings?  ME: HUGE rivalry.  Not many people outside the state of Utah understand the depth of the feelings between the two fan bases. I don’t think that the Utes have the offense to beat the Cougars.

UTAH STATE AT WASHINGTON STATE – I'll take Coach Leach's former school, just because I miss his press conferences.  ME:  Go Cougs.  Now then, speaking of a former WSU coach - can  the Couags manage to keep Jake Dickert from becoming a former WSU coach, too?





*********** Hey, ALL YOU fans of a super conference!  You’ve GOT to love the Playoff rankings!  And  I imagine those folks at Big Ten and SEC headquarters are happy as pigs in sh— with the 12-team Playoff format, seeing as how it’s enabled them  to take up eight of the twelve spots.  Oh - and in case any of the  current 12 should fall out of the rankings, three of the next four up - Texas A & M, LSU and Ole Miss - are SEC teams.  Now aren’t you happy they expanded the Playoff?  Hasn’t that made the regular season much more interesting?  Me?  I can’t wait to find out which four SEC teams get spots, and which Big ten teams do.

(Actually, Give me the old AP poll  and the bowl system - bowls the way they used to be, that is, instead of what they are now - showcases for the f—king playoff.  And let us bitch and moan for the entire offseason about how our team got screwed by the AP voters.)

College Football Playoff Rankings, Nov. 5
    1.    Oregon (9-0) | Projected No. 1 seed
    2.    Ohio State (7-1) | Projected No. 5 seed
    3.    Georgia (7-1) | Projected No. 2 seed
    4.    Miami (FL) (9-0) | Projected No. 3 seed
    5.    Texas (7-1) | Projected No. 6 seed
    6.    Penn State (7-1) | Projected No. 7 seed
    7.    Tennessee (7-1) | Projected No. 8 seed
    8.    Indiana (9-0) | Projected No. 9 seed
    9.    BYU (8-0) | Projected No. 4 seed
    10.    Notre Dame (7-1) | Projected No. 10 seed
    11.    Alabama (6-2) | Projected No. 11 seed
    12.    Boise State (7-1) | Projected No. 12 seed
    13.    SMU (8-1)
    14.    Texas A&M (7-2)
    15.    LSU (6-2)
    16.    Ole Miss (7-2)
    17.    Iowa State (7-1)
    18.    Pittsburgh (7-1)
    19.    Kansas State (7-2)
    20.    Colorado (6-2)
    21.    Washington State (7-1)
    22.    Louisville (6-3)
    23.    Clemson (6-2)
    24.    Missouri (6-2)
    25.    Army (8-0)


 

*********** Ever notice how often people do or say something that makes us go, “Yeah! Right!” and then a day or two later, they meekly apologize?

Sure enough,  just days after smashing some a$$hole’s phone when the guy insulted his brother, Travis Kelce has gone and apologized.   No doubt his agent told him to do it for the sake of his “brand.”

Makes you wonder - what’s the point of working your ass off to get your “f—k-you money” if,  once you’ve finally got it, you won’t go ahead and say "F---k You!" to people who need to hear it?



*********** You’d have to have some experience with Portland, Oregon  (Motto: “Keep Portland Weird”) to truly appreciate this “Judgmental Map,” but to someone who’s lived in the area for going on 50 years, I’d say it’s pretty spot-on.

 




*********** This is about as far as I intend to go politically - unless provoked -  but I just  can’t ignore the absolute statistical impossibility of Joe Biden’s getting 81 million votes in 2020 without even campaigning, so I had to pass along this unattributed bit of online humor:

Christian leaders have called an emergency meeting to discuss the possibility that the Rapture may have begun to occur after 15 million Democrat voters disappeared overnight without a trace.



***********  Grady Judd, sheriff of Polk County, Florida, is unapologetically tough on crime and criminals,  and he’s always ready with a quip on  the subject of lawbreakers’ intelligence (or, usually, the lack thereof).  This makes him a hero to law enforcement officers around the country, especially those hampered as they are in their duties by reimagining-the-police politicians. He’s beloved by the citizens of Polk County,  who just reeelected him by almost 84 per cent of the vote.  It’s a wonder that anyone even bothers to oppose him, but I suppose there’s always someone with an axe to grind…

From the Lakeland Ledger…

Grady Judd easily won a sixth four-year term as Polk County sheriff on Tuesday.

Judd took nearly 84% of the vote vs. 16% for Theodore Murray with 166 of 172 precincts reporting.

Murray, 46, filed to run in May against one of the country's most popular personalities in law enforcement, citing issues with the Sheriff's Office and a run-in he had with a department in Franklin County. Murray claimed the Polk agency failed to investigate his allegations that associates forged deeds to take ownership of his properties in Frostproof and in Gulf County in 2022.

He also said he was mistreated by the Franklin County Sheriff's Office in an episode that led to his commitment to a psychiatric facility, then convicted of reckless driving and resisting arrest.

(Oh, and there’s also this - talk about burying the lede) Murray had also been convicted of misdemeanor voyeurism in 2003, according to court records.


*********** If you’re one of those that fell for the “Hawk Tackling” crap that Seahawks’ former coach Pete Carroll tried so hard to foist on gullible high school and youth coaches, you’ll remember that a major part of the selling point was that it had been “proven effective” in rugby.


Maybe it would help if you understand that rugby doesn’t make the demands on the tackler that football does. In rugby, all that matters is that the runner is brought down. That’s it. The tackler gets off him, he releases the ball, and play goes on.  It doesn’t matter much where he goes down or where the ball is spotted, because there’s  no such thing as “downs,” so there’s no such thing as a “first down.”   Which means there’s no concern about yards (or meters) to gain. 

Also - and probably more significant in dictating the way they tackle in rugby - it’s illegal in  rugby for any part of the tackler  to make contact with the runner ABOVE THE BASE OF THE STERNUM.

According to the rules of rugby, the tackling shown below is NOT legal.

But it is the very sort of tackling that I’ve taught since the early 1980s.

In fact, the photos are from an article in a 1976 edition of Scholastic Coach Magazine, once THE publication that all football coaches relied on.   It was written by a coach in New York State named Brent Steuerwald, and it started me on a path to researching and developing the  tackling method that I still teach today. It starts with a good football position, as shown at left, then progresses through an upward strike - our chest against the runner’s chest - as we “lock him up,”  jerk the hips and strive to lift him off his feet. Then - still locked up - we keep our feet driving. We stay on our feet and don’t go down unless the runner is underneath us! (Please don’t write and attempt to argue, because  I won’t respond.  To use a phrase made famous during the Great Pandemic - The Science is Settled.)

Go ahead if you wish and keep teaching Hawk Tackling.  Don’t let me stop you. They tell me it’s safer, but I have yet to see the proof of that.  One thing I do know - I can see it with my own eyes,  and if you watch much football you see it, too - is that it isn’t worth a damn at stopping runners.
 






*********** I knew and respected  Don Bosseler because (1) his older brother, George, was the captain of the Penn football team (at a time when that was a very big deal in Philly); (2) As Miami’s fullback, he was a  very important cog in their belly-T offense; (3) At a time when the Washington Redskins sucked - really sucked - he was just about the only thing Redskins’ fans could count on offensively. Consider this: In his eight years as their fullback, they won just 28 games.  So I was saddened to learn of his passing.

From the National Football Federation…

Don "Bull" Bosseler, a 1990 College Football Hall of Fame inductee who was a four-year starter at fullback for the Miami Hurricianes from 1953-56, passed away Nov. 6. He was 88.
 
"Don Bosseler's talents helped the Miami football program achieve national prominence in the 1950s," said NFF Chairman Archie Manning. " An All-American, he epitomized toughness, earning the nickname 'Bull,' and you can still find his name in the records books at the "U" nearly 70 years later. We are deeply saddened to learn of his passing, and our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends."
 
Playing for College Football Hall of Fame coach Andy Gustafson, Bosseler gained 1,642 yards rushing in his UM career, which at the time ranked second all-time in school history and places him 21st in UM annals today. He led the team in rushing both in 1956 with 723 yards (4.5-yard average) and in 1955 with 435 yards (4.2-yard average).

In his senior year, 1956, he helped the team to an 8-1-1 record, was named All-America by the Associated Press, and was MVP in the Senior Bowl. Miami placed sixth nationally, its highest ranking until the 1983 national championship season. Bosseler was not only an All-American, but he was the team captain, voted the outstanding player in Florida, the Senior Bowl MVP and picked for the College All-Star game.
 
Washington drafted him in the first round in 1957, ninth overall. A 1959 Pro Bowl selection, Bosseler played all eight seasons of his professional career with the Redskins, rushing for 3,112 yards and scoring 22 touchdowns from 1957-1964. After his football days, he joined Prudential Bache in Miami and became a vice-president.

Born, Jan. 24, 1936, in Weatherfield, New York, Bosseler played at Batavia High School before being recruited to Miami by Gustafson. Bosseler was inducted into the UM Sports Hall of Fame in 1970, the College Football Hall of Fame in 1990 and the UM Ring of Honor in 1999.

 

***********   Our season is over here. We lost our playoff game to the Provincial powerhouse St. Pauls, 33-3. The game was much closer, but when you play teams that are just plain faster than you, you find yourself forcing things. Eventually,  forcing causes mistakes. We had two pick-sixes and a punt returned for a TD.

That being said we still won our conference and went 5-3 with the closest competition having a student body twice our size. Following the game a parent offered condolences on how the season ended. I was reminded of something that you wrote after an early season at North Beach. I told the dad, no need to feel sorry for me. We had a great season working with good kids. A coach can't ask for much more than that.

5-3 is not bad for a team with two guards both under 180 pounds.:)

Hope to be back to the zoom this week.

Tom Walls
Winnipeg, Manitoba

Tom, You’re right - no need for condolences.

Every season is a great season and some are better than others - and as long as that’s your attitude, you’ll never suffer burnout.

To me your season was great. My mission is to treat kids right, to hold them to high standards, to teach them more football than they ever imagined possible and to give them an experience they’ll treasure. By that measure, it seems to me you delivered.



***********   That first touchdown (Aberdeen against Tenino)  was a 58-yard run, Coach!  (not a 57-yarder. No need to be too modest, now...)

Loved the Ben Carson quote - he's one of my heroes.

John Rothwell, DC
Corpus Christi, Texas

Thanks, John!

I will pass that along to Micah Schroeder (good kid) and he’ll appreciate it!

Dr. Carson is a national treasure!



*********** Hugh

Congratulations on your win against Tenino.

I enjoyed watching it.

The opening was beautiful. Very nice run.

I  was glad to see that the officials finally gave you the ball on that take away late in the first quarter. The ball carrier was clearly not down and your player took it away from him.

In Kentucky they would have called it an inadvertent whistle and Tenino would have kept the ball.

I think that your kid would have scored had the official  not blown the whistle.

It was also a good thing that it happened on your side of the field.
 
 I am sure that coach Bridge and his staff were telling the officials that the runner was not down.


David Crump
Owensboro, Kentucky




***********   Today you begin with words from Thomas Jefferson. C'mon, Coach, quote someone reasonably bright. By the way, I believe today we could update his words by saying not just newspaper readers, but news consumers from at least 90% of sources anywhere.

Congratulations on the Bobcats win, and for what remains of your season.

Thanks for the Biff Poggi story. I've seen him on the sidelines with Charlotte maybe three times, and wondered how he got away with that strange attire. Now I get it. Remember another man whose story in one respect (the F.U. Money) mirrored Poggi's? Joe Moglia, the coach who set Coastal Carolina up for the move to FBS.

John Vermillion                        
St Petersburg, Florida


Joe Moglia’s is a very interesting story.  He paid his dues as an assistant coach in college, then left coaching to enter business, where he became so successful that when he found he still had the urge to coach, he could afford by then to do so.



***********   Hugh,

Congrats to Coach Mike Foristiere at Marsing HS ID, and to Coach Scott Mallien at Southern Door HS WI on putting together outstanding seasons!  Both quality coaches and even better men.

As much as I think Jeanty is the best RB in the country, (and his original name may be of Italian origin), Travis Hunter is the epitome of what the Heisman Trophy was originally intended. 

The Gophers pulled out a big win over Illinois!  Ski-U-Mah! 

Hawaii pulled off a late comeback to upset Fresno State, which doesn’t help interim HC Tim Skipper.

Notre Dame didn’t win, or lose, but still fell a couple of places in the AP poll.  Go figure.

I expect Oregon, Ohio State, Miami, and Georgia to get the byes in the first CFP rankings.  Followed by Texas, Indiana, Tennessee, BYU, Penn State, Notre Dame, SMU, Alabama, Boise State, and not necessarily in that order.

Have a great week, and Good Luck tonight!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas





 

*********** QUIZ ANSWER: A native Tennessean,  Roy Kramer  graduated from Maryville College in  his home town, then coached high school football in Michigan for 12 years - 11 of them as a head coach.

In one three-year span, he coached three different teams to unbeaten seasons. He spent five seasons as head coach at East Lansing High School, his last in 1964 when he was named Michigan Class A Coach of the Year after East Lansing finished 8-0 and ranked  Number  1  in the final Associated Press state poll.

That got him an assistant’s job at Central Michigan, and  in two years he became  the Chippewas’ head coach.

He stayed at Central Michigan for eleven seasons, compiling a  record of 83-32-2. In 1974, his Chippewas went 12-1 and won the NCAA Division II National Championship and he was named Coach of the Year.

As head coach, he played a major role in Central Michigan’s 1975 move to Division I.

 In 1978, he returned to his home state of Tennessee as Vanderbilt’s Director of Athletics. There,  he was responsible for the renovation of the McGugin Center, but also the construction of Vanderbilt Stadium.

In January 1990, he left Vanderbilt to become Commissioner of the Southeastern Conference.  In his first year as commissioner,  South Carolina and Arkansas were addd to the conference. He led the conference in moving to divisional play and in playing the first major college  conference football championship game.

During his time as its commissioner,  the SEC  won 81 national championships.   He negotiated multi-sport national TV packages with CBS and ESPN, and  oversaw the distribution of then-record sums of revenue to conference members.

In 1998, Roy Kramer  was presented the Distinguished American Award by the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame.

In his induction speech at the College Football Hall of Fame, he spoke of the importance of maintaining football at its grass roots:

"It's great to be at a huge stadium on a Saturday afternoon with 80,000 or 100,000 people, but we also have to realize that on that same Saturday afternoon, that same great game is being played on hundreds of campuses across the country, not in front of 80,000 people but in front of two or three thousand people and the young men playing that game have the same experience as the young men playing it at the very high level that we talk about so much."

And he praised football for the way it brings young men together with a common purpose…

"A Polish left guard and a farmer from Iowa open a hole for an African-American running back to score a touchdown," he said. "That's what life should be, that's what life should be in this country, and football sets that aside better than any other experience that I know of. And somehow, we need to be able to preserve that, not only at the big-time level, but at the high school and college level across the board.

"To be able to maintain the values, the traditions, the learning experience. There's no greater classroom … on any campus anywhere, in high school or college, than what we teach in football."



CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING ROY KRAMER

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORDO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
MIKE FORISTIERE - MARSING, IDAHO
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY








*********** If you don’t have Roy Kramer’s book on the I-formation and you want to learn the ins and outs of the offense - get it. 


If you don’t have it and you’re a collector (or an aspiring one) - get it. 


It’s the best.


 


















*********** QUIZ:  He was one of the last of the great major college single wing tailbacks.

The son of a high school football coach and the oldest of four brothers who all played football - one of them with the Cleveland Browns, he played high school ball for his dad at Huntland, Tennessee.  In 1951 - his junior year -  they won the state championship.

He was recruited to Tennessee by the legendary General Bob Neyland, famed for his single-wing attack, but he never got to play for the General. Playing under Bowden Wyatt, he was the SEC Player of the Year in both his junior and senior years.  In his senior year, he led the Vols to a 10-1 season - and Number 2 national ranking - and was a unanimous All-American. But in possibly the greatest travesty in the history of the Heisman Trophy, he finished second in the balloting to Notre Dame’s Paul Hornung.  To this day, Hornung, whose Irish finished 2-8 on the season, remains the only Heisman winner from a losing team.

Because of his position in a then-outmoded offense, he was a poor fit  in any pro football offense, and after a year in the CFL, he embarked on a coaching career.

After stops at Tennessee and Mississippi State and four years as an assistant under the great Frank Broyles at Arkansas, he was hired as head coach at Iowa State.

Iowa State was then perhaps the toughest assignment in all of major college football, and although it took him four years to turn in a winning record, when he did so, his Cyclones’  8 wins were the most  in the school’s history.  Their bowl appearance (in the Sun Bowl against LSU) was the school’s first ever, and for his efforts, he was named Big Eight Coach of the Year.

After five years at Iowa State, he was hired by Pitt as their head coach, and there he built well: with three-time All-American Tony Dorsett as his main running back,  in four years at Pitt he built a national champion.  The Panthers won the national title in 1976, and earned him National Coach of the Year honors.

They also got him the head coaching job at his alma mater, Tennessee.  It took him four years to get the Vols to a bowl game, but they would play in one in 11 of the next 13 years.  He was 7-4 in bowl games.

In 16 years at Tennessee,  had six seasons of 9 or more wins, and six nationally-ranked teams, two of them in the top five.

Three of his teams won  SEC titles, and in 1985, after his Vols won the SEC title and finished fourth nationally, he was named SEC Coach of the Year.

In 1992, his sixteenth season as Tennessee’s head coach, he had to undergo heart surgery, and while he recovered, his assistant, Philip Fulmer, covered for him as interim head coach.  Shortly after his return, he was “asked to resign,” and was succeeded by Fulmer.  To this day, the story behind his removal remains open and a matter of great interest and controversy among longtime Volunteers’ fans.

He was immediately snapped up by Pitt, in hopes of a redo of his earlier success there, but it was not to be. In four seasons, his record was 12-32, and that was the end of his long, storied coaching career.

His overall record - Iowa State, Pitt (twice) and Tennessee - was 185-137-10.  At Tennessee, it was 116-62-8.

He has a very impressive coaching tree: 25  of his assistant coaches went on to become college or professional head coaches themselves.

Among them:

Dom Capers: Carolina Panthers, Houston Texans
Curt Cignetti: IUP, Elon, James Madison, Indiana
David Cutcliffe: Ole Miss,  Duke
Phillip Fulmer: Tennessee
Jon Gruden: Oakland Raiders,  Tampa Bay Buccaneers,  Oakland Raiders
Jimmy Johnson: Oklahoma State, Miami (FL), Dallas Cowboys,  Miami Dolphins
Jackie Sherrill: Washington State, Pitt,  Texas A&M, Mississippi State
Dave Wannstedt: Chicago Bears, Miami Dolphins, Pitt
Ron Zook: Florida, Illinois



TUESDAY,  NOVEMBER  5,   2024    “The man who never looks into a newspaper is better informed than he who reads them, inasmuch as he who knows nothing is nearer to the truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors." Thomas Jefferson


*********** Wisdom from Mike Lude:  “The next step was Boot Camp in Parris Island, South Carolina, my real introduction to the Marine Corps. The only way to reach the island was aboard a barge that reminded me of a garbage scow. In fact, it was a garbage Scow. We unloaded from the bus that carried us to the waterfront, grabbed the sea bags that held all of our worldly possessions, and crowded onto the boat. At that time I felt as if I was going to prison, like Alcatraz. Only it was Parris Island and Marine boot camp.

“We were welcomed by a drill instructor, a noncom who was a corporal but who talked to us as if he thought he was a four-star general. He told us bluntly, ‘You college guys aren't half as smart as you think you are,’ making no secret of the fact that the enlisted men didn't have much use for officers-to-be and would make boot training as difficult for us as they could.

“Shock treatment was part of the psychology of the whole routine. I remember a drill instructor approaching me when we were marching in close-order drill, putting his face inches from my ear, and shouting: "Lude, square yourself away; you're bouncing; keep that head still. You look like a bubble on a pisspot.”

“The concepts of discipline – keeping focused on the objectives, physical and mental toughness, and leadership – were stressed in everything we did. I felt the camaraderie with my fellow trainees helped all of us over the rough spots; you could share frustrations and down feelings with your buddies and vice versa.”




AN OLD COACH WITH TWO OF ABERDEEN'S OUTSTANDING RUNNERS - LEGEND VESSEY ON THE LEFT, AND MICAH SCHROEDER ON THE RIGHT.

*********** Aberdeen update:

We won Friday night. Beat Tenino, 22-7. To my way of thinking, we actually won twice:  last week, Tenino beat Rochester, 38-24.  Five weeks ago, Rochester whipped us, 33-7.  So Friday’s win over Tenino at least allows me to think that we’ve improved so much we’d have beaten Rochester, too.

It was a tough game.  We scored on the first play from scrimmage - a 57-yard run by junior Micah Schroeder.  After they tied it up, we scored once more to go in at the half with a 14-7 lead.

We missed a couple of scoring opportunities presented us by our defense, but managed to punch in a score in the third quarter and after Tenino was penalized on the PAT attempt, we decided to go for two.  When we were successful it gave us a slightly more comfortable 15-point lead.

We relied on our ground game the rest of the way to run out the clock and get us win number four.  (Not too bad after starting the season 0-3.)

We rushed 36 times for 218 yards, and threw for 79 yards.

Tuesday night, we play a “half game” - two 12-minute “halves” - against Columbia River High of Vancouver. The winner will then have three days to get ready to play the state’s #1-ranked team, the Franklin Pierce Cardinals of Tacoma. If that’s us, we’ll have the dubious honor of having met the  state’s number one team twice in a four-week period, having lost earlier, 55-0,  to then-number one Tumwater.

Tuesday night’s game will be the first post-season contest played on our home  field - historic Stewart Field - since 1997.

Tenino’s recording of Friday night’s game: (check the black turf!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Q4Bv6zN0Gs



*********** Can’t get a much bigger Double Wing matchup than Friday night’s Idaho playoff game between Marsing and Ririe. 

Marsing suffered four turnovers in the first half - two at the end of long drives - and fell to Ririe, 28-15.

Noting that Marsing actually outgained favored Ririe, Marsing coach Mike Foristiere said, “the only stat that matters besides the scoreboard is turnovers: we had four and they had zero.”

Despite the loss, Mike’s 6-2 season - his first in Marsing - was an enormous success.


The one consolation for me is that another Double Wing team - Ririe - advances in the playoffs.


*********** What was a great first season as coach at Southern Door (that would be Door County, Wisconsin) High came to an end for Scott Mallien Friday night as his Eagles  lost in the second round of the state playoffs and finished 7-4.

What made it especially exciting for me was the fact that Southern Door lost its first three games, then ran off seven straight wins - including an opening-round playoff game - before finally  falling.



*********** COLLEGE FOOTBALL THIS WEEKEND

FRIDAY

BOISE STATE 56, SAN DIEGO STATE 14 - The Broncos led, 35-10 at the half.  They’re clearly the best of the Group of 5. They’re 7-1, but their only loss was to unbeaten Oregon, on a field goal at 0:00.   Don’t let the geniuses at network headquarters try to sell you the “Ashton Jeanty was  kept under control crap.  He carried 31 times for 149 yards and 2 TDs.  Meanwhile, Broncos QB Maddux Madsen completed 24 of 32 for 307 yards and 4 TDs.


SATURDAY

OHIO STATE 20, PENN STATE 13 -  Ohio State stopped Penn State four straight plays inside their five, then had the running game to run out the last 5:13 on the clock.  It’s a good thing this Penn State-Ohio State thing - this grudge match between two adjoining states, one that starts with high school all-star game competition - isn’t officially a “rivalry” - you know, like Ohio State-Michigan or Alabama-Auburn. Consider  Bill Battle.  Heck of a coach.  Coached Tennessee fro 1970 through 1976.  Record was 59-22-2.  22-18-1 in SEC play.  But he had one big problem he just couldn’t overcome - he couldn’t beat Alabama.  To make matters worse, he was an Alabama guy - played for the Bear.  He beat his old coach his first time out, in 1970. But then he lost six straight to the Tide. And he wasn’t even close to James Franklin - who’s now 1-10 against Ohio State (also1-9 against top-five teams, 1-13  against top-ten teams).  He’s lost eight in a row to the Buckeyes.  You can tell it’s getting to him, because he actually responded to a taunting fan after Saturday’s game - said to him “If you’re gonna be man enough to talk, what’s your name?”   Only a coach who knows his job is secure would be that f—king stupid, and that’s James Franklin.  A few years ago he had an AD named Sandy Barbour who WAS f—king stupid, because in 2021, afraid that USC might snatch him up,  she gave him  a ten-year contract extension. We never did find out that heckler’s name, but if he wants to buy out Franklin, he’d better have some rich friends to help him out, because at the present time it’s going to cost just shy of $57 million. Damn shame they can’t make ole Sandy Barbour - now retired - pay half of that.


MIAMI 53, DUKE 31 - The Devils held on as long as they could, but this Miami team is  good. Cam Ward is getting all the pub, but receiver Xavier Restrepo is the real deal.  His 66-yard TD reception against the Blue Devils, gave him  2,573 yards in career receptions, putting ahead of former Hurricanes’ all-time leader Santana Moss.The catch also tied Restrepo with Mike Harley’for most career receptions (182).


OLE MISS 63,  ARKANSAS 31 - Jaxson Dart was 25 of 31 for 515 yards and SIX TDs.  The Rebels averaged 9.1 yards per play.


ARMY 20, AIR FORCE 3 - Army won, and that’s all that matters.  I guess.  I haven’t been to a concert since I was in college when Fats Domino and Laverne Baker and a bunch of early rock ’n’ roll greats came to the New Haven Arena, but I think I know how I would have felt if I’d found out - AT SHOW TIME - that the Fat Man wasn’t going to perform. But there were the powers that be at West Point, in a world-class PR fumble, informing the people at CBS - whose money they were perfectly happy to take in return for letting it televise their games- that their star quarterback, Bryson Daily, would not be playing. ON THE MORNING OF THE F—KING GAME.  The reason? “Undisclosed injury or illness.”  Who the hell knows what that means? Sheesh.  It had been two weeks since their last game.  Army won handily, and it was a nice opportunity for some of its less-publicized  players - especially running back Kanye Udoh - to show their stuff. Running out of an  ultra-primitive single-wing-style shotgun offense no doubt designed to be run in Daily’s absence, Udoh carried 22 times for 158 yards and both of Army’s TDs.  For an Army fan like me, while it was a win, at the same time it was a lost opportunity to show a nation that maybe Army really did deserve to be included in playoff talk.  For casual fans who just tuned in because the game was, after all, on CBS, the 6-3 halftime score and the dullness that it represented was probably enough to send them off to another, more interesting game.  Does it sound like I’m spoiled? Damn right I am. I think that what this game reveals was that other than the little bit of triple option that Daily sometimes runs, Army isn’t running triple option any more. For shame.

MINNESOTA 25,  ILLINOIS 17 - BIG win for the Gophers. Illinois led, 17-16 when Minnesota scored with 5:14 to play, then iced it with a field goal with two minutes remaining.

NORTHWESTERN 26,  PURDUE 20 (OT): The Boilermakers rushed 23 times for 47 yards.

NC STATE 59,  STANFORD 28 - The Wolfpack handed the Cardinal their sixth straight loss. 

SYRACUSE  38, VIRGINIA TECH 31 - An amazing comeback win for the Orange - down 14-3 at the half, they fought to go ahead 24-21 less than a minute into the fourth quarter. But the Hokies pulled ahead and led, 31-24 until the Orange tied it up with a TD  with :29 remaining, then won in OT with a nine-yard  scoring run. 

VANDERBILT 17,  AUBURN  7 - Vanderbilt is now bowl eligible for the first time since 2018.  Just as significant: in beating Auburn, the Commodores now have three conference wins.   This marked the first time a Vanderbilt football team had beaten both Auburn and Alabama in the same season since 1955.

OREGON 38,  MICHIGAN 17 - A very good Oregon team met a  good - but not very good - Michigan team.  Harbaugh knew when it was time to go.

GEORGIA 34,  FLORIDA  20 -  The Gators gave it their best shot - led 13-6 at the half - but Carson Beck, who threw three interceptions, threw for two touchdowns to lead the Bulldogs to a 28-point second half.

TEXAS TECH 23,  IOWA STATE 22 -  The Red Raiders scored with :19 on the clock to deal the Cyclones their first defeat.

INDIANA 47,  MICHIGAN STATE 10  -  Those greedy bastards at NBC put this one on Peacock. This week? They’re doing it to Washington at Penn State.

HOUSTON 24, KANSAS STATE 19 - In horrible weather conditions, Houston played their best game of the season and  may have knocked the Wildcats out of contention for a spot in the Big 12 championship game.

UCLA 27,  NEBRASKA 20 - Nebraska ranks 100th in FBS in scoring and many are calling for the  scalp of offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield.  Seems to me it wasn’t the Nebraska’s offense that allowed UCLA’s heretofore anemic offense to outgain the Huskers, 358 to 322.

UCF 56, ARIZONA  12 - It was 35-6 at the half. The Knights had 602 yards in total offense and 33 first downs.  They had 308 yards rushing. Gus Malzahn fired his DC last week, and his replacement held the Wildcats to 5 (FIVE) yards rushing.

RICE 24, NAVY 10 - The game was delayed twice and probably shouldn’t have been played at all, but Rice, playing its first game under an interim coach, outplayed Navy and earned their first win over the Midshipmen since  2002.

SOUTH CAROLINA 44, TEXAS A&M 20 - The Gamecocks outscored the Aggies 24-0 in the second half.

LOUISVILLE 33,  CLEMSON 21 - Prior to this game, Clemson was 8-0  against the Cardinals all time. The loss could cost them a spot in the ACC title game.

IOWA 42,  WISCONSIN 10 - Where are all those naysayers who mocked Kirk Ferentz’s offense now?  The Hawkeyes  outgained the Badgers, 422 to 261.  They passed for only 93 yards, but they rushed for 329, and piled up 23  first downs.

WASHINGTON 26, USC 21 - The Huskies put on a great goal line stand near the end to win the game between longtime Pacific Coast rivals.

TENNESSEE 28, KENTUCKY 18 - The Wildcats jumped out in  from and held a 10-7 halftime lead. When their  starting QB, Brock Vandegriff, had to leave the game in the third quarter, Gavin Wimsatt, an Owensboro, Kentucky kid who transferred from Rutgers, came in and threw a touchdown pass and  then a two-point conversion. That cut the Tennessee lead to 21-18 with 13:31 left, but Tennessee scored with 5 minutes left to seal the win.

SMU 48,  PITT 25 - Pitt, coming in with the nation’s sixth-highest scoring offense, could rush for only 103 yards - 82 of them in the second half when defeat was assured. The Panthers came in with the nation’s ninth-ranked defense, but gave up 467 yards of total offense, and four rushing touchdowns. The Mustangs are still unbeaten in the ACC, and with BC, Virginia and Cal left to play, they have a decent shot at a spot in the conference title game.


*********** The five remaining FBS unbeatens and their remaining schedules

Indiana (Remaining): Michigan, BYE, at Ohio State, Purdue, (Possible) Conference Championship Game
INDIANA’S CHANCES OF FINISHING UNBEATEN: Under 50 per cent.  No way they get past Michigan, Ohio State and (if they make it that far) - Oregon or Ohio State (again) in the conference championship game.  I would be delighted to be proven wrong.

BYU  (Remaining): at Utah, Kansas, at Arizona State, (Possible) Conference Championship Game
BYU’s CHANCES OF FINISHING UNBEATEN: At 75 per cent - if they can win the Holy War against Utah. I am pulling for the Cougars.

Miami (Remaining): at Georgia Tech, BYE, Wake Forest, at Syracuse, (Possible) Conference Championship Game
MIAMI’S CHANCES OF FINISHING UNBEATEN: At 75 per cent. Who will they meet in the Conference championship game? Clemson?  SMU?  I don’t care.  I don’t like their coach and I’m pulling against them.

Oregon (Remaining): Maryland, at Wisconsin, BYE, Washington, (Possible) Conference Championship Game
OREGON’S CHANCES OF FINISHING UNBEATEN: Over 75 per cent. Wisconsin is not a  walkover.  Washington, as a big rival, could be a problem, but the Ducks do have two weeks to get ready. The Conference championship game? Ohio State again?  That was close the first time.  Ever try having to beat someone twice in the same season?  Go Ducks.

Army (Remaining): North Texas, BYE, Notre Dame at Yankee Stadium, UTSA, BYE, (Possible) Conference Championship Game, Navy
ARMY’S CHANCE OF FINISHING UNBEATEN: Under 25 per cent. The extent of Bryson Daily’s “undisclosed injury/illness”  is a military secret. They’re only slightly favored over North Texas.  They’re big underdogs against Notre Dame even with Daily. UTSA is not a given, and the conference championship game opponent - probably Tulane - is  tough.  And then, of course, there’s Navy. Obviously I am pulling for the Cadets.



*********** Our schools are doing a fantastic job when it comes to teaching about diversity and gender identity  and  such, but they’re not worth a damn at teaching common sense. Not based on the experience Saturday of some pencil-neck in State College, Pennsylvania who thought he could insult a former All-Pro  NFL offensive linemen and not have to deal with some unfavorable consequences.


https://www.si.com/nfl/jason-kelce-smashed-fan-phone-after-offensive-comment-travis-kelce-taylor-swift


*********** I suppose that technically  you could call what they did “postgame handshakes,”  but they sure as hell weren’t “How’s Alice and the kids?”

Jeff Monken (Army) and Troy Calhoun (Air Force)

Ryan Day (Ohio State) and James Franklin (Penn State)



*********** It’s been many. many years since a Big Ten team beat both Ohio State and Michigan in the same season, and - ahem - it took a Pacific Northwest team to do it.


***********   Penn State picked up two taunting penalties in the Ohio State game.  One was termed a bit controversial by the softies in the broadcast booth, but I thought it merited a penalty: it was one of those  disgusting  displays of disrespect  where a guy makes a tackle and then, while his opponent still lies on the ground, gets up and walks off him - the long way, making sure to pass over his face.
 


*********** I just happened to hear that a Florida QB named Aidan Warner was a “Yale transfer,” and I immediately assumed he was a graduate transfer. But, no - this guy  transferred after his freshman year - a freshman year in which he didn’t play enough - at an Ivy League school - to lose the year of eligibility.  So here he is now, a redshirt freshman at Florida, playing against Georgia.

Um, it’s been my experience that most guys who leave Yale after one year do not do so of their own volition.

For what it’s worth, he was 7 of 22 for 66 (3 yards per attempt) against Georgia, and he threw an interception.  Maybe he should have stayed for the education.


***********  The Navy-Rice game experienced numerous long delays and finally finished hours later than expected.  When the game finally got underway  there was virtually no one left  in the stands.

Worst of all for those of us who set our recorders to record the game, we wound up with absolutely zero to show for our efforts.
 

*********** Navy has now lost two in a row.  Maybe it’s because their QB’s still banged up, or maybe it’s that old football cliche about letting a team (in this case, Notre Dame) beat you twice.

Whatever it is, this is good news and bad news for Army.

First, the good news: There will not likely be an Army-Navy conference championship game a week before the “real” Army-Navy game.

The bad news: while Army is (in all likelihood) playing in the AAC championship game, Navy is licking its wounds and getting ready for Army.    NO conference championship is worth more than a win in the Army-Navy game.


*********** Watching the Colts-Vikings play on Sunday night, I watched a Colts’ defensive tackle named Grover Stewart and, since the NFL no longer bothers to let us know where players played their college ball, I had to look it up.

Albany State.  A little HBCU in South Georgia.

He’ll probably be the last guy from there to make it to the pros, because you know good and well that the next Grover Stewart to show up at Albany State and have a good season will be scooped up by any one of a dozen bigger schools, and that’s where he’ll make his name known.

And on his plaque in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, there’ll be no mention of Albany State.  Damn shame.


*********** Why I don’t watch much NFL…


The Seahawks, facing a fourth and one in overtime, decided to go for it.  They lined up in I-formation with the tailback 8 yards deep - and gave it to him. He never made it to the line of scrimmage.
The  Rams took over and drove for the winning score.



*********** Before he gets fired at Charlotte, you ought to know something about Biff Poggi, their coach.

It’s an amazing story.

https://www.freep.com/story/sports/college/university-michigan/wolverines/2019/12/17/michigan-football-recruiting-baltimore-st-frances-academy/2650516001/



*********** Heard this on a game Saturday…

Only three schools have produced a President, a Heisman Trophy winner and a Super Bowl-winning quarterback.

Navy, Michigan, Stanford.


***********  I can’t believe the amount of out-and-out pass interference that’s  being overlooked by officials -  and explained away as “maybe a little contact” by the broadcast-booth geniuses.



***********  Apropos of your son's sad story from Down Under: a couple of days ago, I heard about an (maybe it's every team, I don't care to dig to find out) NFL franchise that's establishing an outpost in Munich to answer any questions and sell any merchandise related to the team. I loathe these people who thrust their grubby, greedy fingers wherever they have a chance to rip out a few drachma. I hear you, Ed, and hope the citizens of Australia can find the will and way to ward off the predator NFL.

Nice homage to Bryson Daily.

John Vermillion                                
St Petersburg, Florida


***********   Hugh,

First, good luck tonight.  A good showing against Tenino might just be what the boys need to motivate them further for next week’s play-in “game.!”

That playoff structure reminds me of how the playoffs were set up in MN when I was coaching there.  Last regular season game was on a Wednesday night.  First round playoff game the following Tuesday night, and the second round game that Saturday.  That’s THREE football games in ELEVEN days!!  Depth, and luck won out!

Speaking of Minnesota…the Gophers will go a long way in finishing with a winning record if they can beat Illinois.  The Illini have been a real PITA for the Gophers over the last few years, especially in Champaign.

Bryson Daily of Army IS a legit Heisman contender, but the best college football player this year, by far, is Travis Hunter from Colorado. 

NFL, Democrat Party…two of a kind.

Not a fan of either Penn State or Ohio State, but I’ll cheer for the lesser of the two evils…GO BLUE!

Pitt at SMU.  Hey, I’m Italian!

Best to Mike Foristiere and the Marsing Huskies!!

QUIZ: Clyde Scott

Enjoy the weekend!  Starts tonight!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas

Joe, while Hunter may be the guy, and he’s got a lot of the media pulling for him, I wouldn’t go so far as to say it’s a “by far” decision. Would it change your thinking any if I were to tell you that I just discovered that Ashton Jeantty’s name was originally spelled “Gientti?”




 

*********** QUIZ ANSWER:  Clyde “Smackover” Scott was named Arkansas’ Athlete of the Twentieth Century  by the Arkansas Daily Gazette.

His dad was an oil field worker.  He was born in Dixie, Louisiana, the third of ten children, and grew up in Smackover, Arkansas.

He was a high school football star, and excelled in track. Despite having no hurdles at his high school  he set state records in the hurdles and in the 100-yard dash.

He was also a good baseball player, and turned down a contract offer by the St. Louis Cardinals in order to attend the US Naval Academy, where some local businessmen had helped him receive an appointment.

World War II was going on, and Navy was very good - probably second only to Army.  He played two years at running back for the Midshipmen, and in his second year, 1945, he earned second team All-America honors.

In track he set Naval Academy records in the 100-yard dash, the 110 high hurdles and 220 low hurdles and the javelin.  In both 1944 and 1945 he was the academy’s light-heavyweight boxing champion.

And then he met Miss Arkansas. Her name was Leslie Hampton.  She was on a tour of the academy on the way to the Miss America Pageant in Atlantic City, and he was asked to be her escort .

They fell in love, and by the end of the school year decided to get married, but with marriage by midshipmen prohibited, he chose to withdraw from the Academy.

Once word got out that he had withdrawn from the Naval Academy, he was heavily recruited by coaches such as Bear Bryant at Kentucky and Johnny Vaught at Ole Miss.

He was finally convinced to attend Arkansas by head coach John Barnhill, but he was no doubt influenced by the fact that  his bride-to-be was a student there.

As a running back, he was a three-time All-Southwest Conference selection, and in 1948 he became the first Razorback ever named to an All-American team.

In his two years at Arkansas, he set a new school record of 1,463 yards rushing.  In his senior year, he averaged 7 yards a carry.

At his graduation, his number 12 was retired. That was 1948, and in the years since, while Arkansas has had 21 consensus All-Americans, he remains one of only two Razorbacks to have had his number retired.  (The other was Brandon Burlsworth, a  former walk-on who earned All-American status and  then was tragically killed at age 22 in a highway accident. His jersey was retired in 1999.)

While at Arkansas, he wanted to play baseball but Coach Barnhill prohibited it. But  he was allowed to run track, where  he set school records in the 100-yard dash, the 220 low hurdles, the 110 high hurdles, the 440-yard relay, and the javelin.  


His 9.4 in the 100 yard dash in the 1948 Southwest Conference  meet tied the existing world record but could not count because the SWC did not test for wind.   He was the high-point scorer at the meet winning the 100, the high hurdles and low hurdles,  finishing third in the javelin, and running a leg on the 440 relay team (that finished third).  In all, he scored 42 points using  today's scoring rules.


In the 1948 NCAA Track Finals he tied the world record in the 110 high hurdles with a time of 13.7 seconds. That summer he made the U.S. Olympic team in the 110 high hurdles and in 1948 London Olympics he won the silver medal, taking second in a photo finish.  He was the first Arkansas athlete to win an Olympic medal.


He was drafted in the first round of the 1949 NFL draft by the NFL champion Philadelphia Eagles and, although plagued by injuries, he  spent three seasons with the Eagles and one season with the Detroit Lions before retiring  after the 1952 season.

He returned to Arkansas and enjoyed a successful career in business.

Coach  Barnhill, quoted later in a book on Arkansas football said, “Clyde Scott  meant more to the Arkansas program than any other athlete.  His coming to Arkansas convinced other Arkansas boys they should stay home.”


Besides being named Arkansas’ Athlete of the Twentieth Century  by the Arkansas Daily Gazette,  He was a member of the University of Arkansas Sports Hall of Honor, the State of Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame,  the Southwest Conference Hall of Fame and the College Football Hall of Fame.

His daughter, Marsha, told of taking him to the Naval Academy in 1993 - the first time he’d been back since resigning in 1945. 

At the time, she had a job in Washington, DC in the Clinton administration and,  she recalled…

“I had asked about setting up a private tour and he agreed.  That was 1993, almost 50 years later. He'd never said much about leaving Navy. We all knew that was very tough to do, but they frowned on married students and he was in love.

“It was difficult. We all knew he was proud of going to Navy, but he just didn't talk about it.”

The tour,  just dad and daughter. was conducted by a young navy officer.

“It started off very quiet,” she said. “Dad just wasn't saying much. We went to a couple of places and then to the athletic hall, the dorm.”

At the top of a stairway that led to the dorm rooms. there was a wall lined with Navy players  inducted into the National Football Foundation Hall of Fame.

“There were three plaques – with pictures – on the wall when we made the first turn,” Marsha said. “They were Roger Staubach’s, Joe Bellino’s and Dad's. The ensign stopped and turned to look at Dad. He said, 'That's you!' And when he did, Dad started crying. The ensign started crying. I did, too.

“From that point forward, Dad lit up. He had a great time.

“I think it was a great time of healing. I know he felt kind of embarrassed he'd left Navy. When he saw that plaque – the same one they have on display in the museum at Arkansas - it was clear that they remembered him the same way at Navy.”

Clyde Scott remained married to Leslie until he died at 93.


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING CLYDE “SMACKOVER”  SCOTT

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK LOUISIANA
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
TOM WALLS - WINNIPEG, MANITOBA
MIKE FORISTIERE - MARSING, IDAHO
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY


 

*********** QUIZ: A native Tennessean,  he graduated from Maryville College in  his home town, then coached high school football in Michigan for 12 years - 11 of them as a head coach.

In one three-year span, he coached three different teams to unbeaten seasons. He spent five seasons as head coach at East Lansing High School, his last in 1964 when he was named Michigan Class A Coach of the Year after East Lansing finished 8-0 and ranked  Number  1  in the final Associated Press state poll.

That got him an assistant’s job at Central Michigan, and  in two years he became  the Chippewas’ head coach.

He stayed at Central Michigan for eleven seasons, compiling a  record of 83-32-2. In 1974, his Chippewas went 12-1 and won the NCAA Division II National Championship and he was named Coach of the Year.

As head coach, he played a major role in Central Michigan’s 1975 move to Division I.

 In 1978, he returned to his home state of Tennessee as Vanderbilt’s Director of Athletics. There,  he was responsible for the renovation of the McGugin Center, but also the construction of Vanderbilt Stadium.

In January 1990, he left Vanderbilt to become Commissioner of the Southeastern Conference.  In his first year as commissioner,  South Carolina and Arkansas were added to the conference. He led the conference in moving to divisional play and in playing the first major college  conference football championship game.

During his time as its commissioner,  the SEC  won 81 national championships.   He negotiated multi-sport national TV packages with CBS and ESPN, and  oversaw the distribution of then-record sums of revenue to conference members.

In 1998, he was presented the Distinguished American Award by the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame.

In his induction speech at the College Football Hall of Fame, he spoke of the importance of maintaining football at its grass roots:

"It's great to be at a huge stadium on a Saturday afternoon with 80,000 or 100,000 people, but we also have to realize that on that same Saturday afternoon, that same great game is being played on hundreds of campuses across the country, not in front of 80,000 people but in front of two or three thousand people and the young men playing that game have the same experience as the young men playing it at the very high level that we talk about so much."

And he praised football for the way it brings young men together with a common purpose…

"A Polish left guard and a farmer from Iowa open a hole for an African-American running back to score a touchdown," he said. "That's what life should be, that's what life should be in this country, and football sets that aside better than any other experience that I know of. And somehow, we need to be able to preserve that, not only at the big-time level, but at the high school and college level across the board.

"To be able to maintain the values, the traditions, the learning experience. There's no greater classroom … on any campus anywhere, in high school or college, than what we teach in football."



FRIDAY,  NOVEMBER  1,  2024    “God intends to give us what we need, not what we now think we want.” C. S. Lewis


*********** Wisdom from Mike Lude:   “My career in the Marines started after I finished my junior year at Hillsdale College. When Pearl Harbor was bombed all of the men in college knew it would only be a matter of time before we were involved. Many of us had enlisted in the V-12 officers training program with the promise of being able to stay out of the war until we completed college. But as action intensified in the Pacific, we were abruptly summoned to active duty.

“The day before I got on the train, Grandpa Chris Lude took me aside for a pep talk. This hard-nosed German immigrant told me, "Mike, there's no reason why you shouldn't end up being a general before you’re through.” It was his way of telling me he respected me and thought I would do well. Growing up, I wasn't around him that much, but we had a good relationship. It wasn't a buddy-buddy, friendly thing, more ‘I am the patriarch of this family and you better pay attention to what I say.’

“Grandpa was an extremely hard worker, and he was very, very tough. A bull almost killed him when he was in the pen of the state hospital’s cattle barn, where he worked after giving up farming. When he got out of the hospital he went back into that pen and whipped the bull. If he had an ego it wasn't noticeable, other than making sure he was always neat and clean with a well-trimmed mustache. Grandpa was straightforward and honest. He was exceptionally tenacious, whatever he did. When I was a kid I was intimidated but I loved him, and his discipline, persistence, and willingness was a great example.

“I reported for indoctrination training at Denison University in Granville, Ohio, in July 1943. We were issued uniforms and learned the basics of military rules and close-order drills. We lived in dormitories. Training was more like college than boot camp. For several months we took courses in physics, mathematics, mechanical drawing, map reading, military history, and psychology.” 



*********** Aberdeen update:

We finish our regular schedule Friday against Tenino, a very tough non-league opponent. How tough?  Last week, Tenino beat Rochester, 38-24.  Five weeks ago, Rochester whipped us, 33-7.

We’re a different team - a better team -  than we were five weeks ago, but still…

We don’t dare treat this like a meaningless game, for fear we’ll lose the edge that enabled us to win our “must-win” game last Friday.   We’ve made it a point to avoid any mention of next Tuesday.

That’s when we’ll play a “half game” - two 12-minute “halves” - against Columbia River High of Vancouver.  It’s something like a wild-card game in NFL terms, with the winner advancing to the  first round of the state playoffs four days later. (And, as with a wild card game, playing a much higher-seeded opponent, and at their place.)

This, I’m told, will be the first post-season game of any kind played on Aberdeen’s Stewart Field since 1997.

It’s been years since I coached a game against “River,” which is only about a half-hour away from our home in Camas.  But for many years, one of my former schools, Hudson’s Bay High of Vancouver, was in the same school district and the same league as Columbia River, and we played the Chieftains (oops, sorry - they’re now the “Rapids”) at least once every year, sometimes twice. 

We actually had something of a nasty rivalry with them, largely  because we were fed by the same junior highs and we sometimes had to fight over kids who were supposed to come to our school but whose parents opposed it. With “River” being perceived by many as a level above us socially, we had to deal on a regular basis with parents  trying to get “boundary exceptions” so that their kids could go to River and not have to  associate with the riff-raff at “Bay.”  The reason why they wanted the boundary exception  was often some exotic class  that River offered and we didn’t that those kids were intensely interested in taking.

Ironically, Columbia River wraps up its regular season Friday night against Hudson’s Bay.



*********** Can’t get a much bigger Double Wing matchup than Friday night’s Idaho playoff game between Marsing and Ririe. 

Marsing, coached by Mike Foristiere in his first year there, is 6-2.

Ririe, which is across the state about five hours away, is also 6-2, and in a meeting earlier in the season, beat Marsing, 49-18.

They’re both Double Wing teams, but I’m only mildly conflicted, because Mike is almost family.

To hear Mike tell it, the Marsing community is really excited: “The school is paying for the team to stay in Idaho falls Thursday. Plus meals. Then last night, the  boosters called and told me they’ll pay for hotel rooms for us after the game so we don't have to travel back - plus dinner.

But - should Ririe come out on top, I do have an interest in their further success:


Coach Wyatt,

Ririe High School has made the Idaho football playoffs in the 3A classification. We started out in July at our summer camp installing the "first five" from your system, and since that time, we have been working on trying to perfect those plays. We have not reached perfection yet, but we have had a lot of fun trying. This will be the first playoff game Ririe has hosted in its school history. At the end of the regular season, we are leading the state of Idaho in scoring at the 3A level, averaging 36 points per game. Our A back finished the regular season with 1,052 rushing yards, 14 rushing TD's, averaging 131.5 rushing yards per game, and 7.79 yards per carry. Our C back finished the regular season with 1,043 rushing yards, 13 rushing TD's, averaging 130.4 rushing yards per game, and 10.13 yards per carry. Our B back chipped in another 6 rushing TD's, and we were also able to throw 6 TD's. We play a tough Marsing team in the first round of the playoffs this Friday. Coach Foristiere at Marsing is a great coach, and he has done an outstanding job at Marsing. He runs a great DW offense as you know. Thank you for all you do to help coaches.

Brandon Dahle
OC Ririe High School


***********

Remaining unbeaten FBS teams

Army - Air Force at home
BYU - BYE
Indiana at Michigan State
Iowa State - Texas Tech at home
Miami - Duke at home
Oregon at Michigan
Penn State - Ohio State at home
Pitt at SMU


*********** COLLEGE FOOTBALL THIS WEEKEND


FRIDAY

SAN DIEGO STATE AT BOISE STATE


SATURDAY

OHIO STATE AT PENN STATE

DUKE AT MIAMI

OLE MISS AT ARKANSAS

AIR FORCE AT ARMY

MINNESOTA AT ILLINOIS

NORTHWESTERN AT PURDUE

STANFORD AT NC STATE

VIRGINIA TECH AT SYRACUSE

MEMPHIS AT UTSA

VANDERBILT AT AUBURN

OREGON AT MICHIGAN

FLORIDA AT GEORGIA

TEXAS TECH AT IOWA STATE

INDIANA AT MICHIGAN STATE - PEACOCK!!!!!

KANSAS STATE AND HOUSTON

UCLA AT NEBRASKA

NORTH CAROLINA AT FLORIDA STATE

ARIZONA  AT UCF

WYOMING AT NEW MEXICO

NAVY AT RICE

TEXAS A&M AT SOUTH CAROLINA

LOUISVILLE AT CLEMSON

WISCONSIN AT IOWA

USC AT WASHINGTON

KENTUCKY AT TENNESSEE

PITT AT SMU -

TCU AT BAYLOR

COLORADO STATE AT NEVADA




*********** The word  is getting out that the NFL is done  with developing QBs,  advising them to stay in school and spend two+ years as a starter there before entering the draft.

One of the reasons for this change in approach has  to be Bryce Young’s failure - so far - at Carolina.

I like the guy and I’m pulling for him, and I found this little exchange in The Athletic to be interesting:


She: I had a long talk with one of Bryce's coaches from Alabama recently. Did we miss something? And he said: He has it. He just needs the right people around him. He's not getting the right coaching.

So that’s what I want to ask you, where would you want him to go?
 
He: Go to Kevin O’Connell. Go to Minnesota.
 
She: What about Sean McVay?
 
He: Here’s one that might sound crazy: Go to freaking Andy Reid. Go be a backup. You don't have to play if you're not ready. There's guys out there that will fix him for sure.




*********** I believe I made myself clear when Anthony Richardson was at Florida that I didn’t see in him   what the experts did.  Now that he’s pulled his version of “Take me out - I’m tired,” I’m almost ready to say, “I told you so.”



***********   Buckeye quarterback Will Howard  played his high school ball in Downingtown, a western suburb of Philadelphia, and he grew up a Penn State fan.  His  dad went to Penn State.   But Penn State wasn’t a Will Howard fan, so he went to Kansas State instead, before transferring to Ohio State.

Now, looking ahead to the Buckeyes’ game Saturday at Penn State, he says he’s “stoked.”

https://vista.today/2024/10/will-howard-ohio-state-quarterback/



***********  It took Mike Elko one year at Duke to prove to the people at Texas A & M that he could coach.


I didn’t care for the abrupt way with which he departed Duke, but never having been offered millions myself, I can’t say how I would have gone about grabbing the brass ring without pissing anybody off.


And now that he’s spent more than half a season at A & M and he’s got the Aggies on top of the SEC, I  can’t imagine anyone in Aggieland who doesn’t think they’ve got the right guy.


After beating LSU last weekend, he even allowed himself a bit of mild boasting in the post-game presser:


“We back up our actions,” he said. “We’re very honest. We’re very open. And this is a real program. It’s not fake. It’s not a politician running this program, talking fast and BS-ing everybody. This is a real program and for all the recruits out there, this is a real place and if you want to be really good at football, this is a really good place to be.”


(Hmmm.  Who’s the “politician” he referred to?)




***********    Since my dad's death, people have kept coming up to say how much they miss him, how sorely his voice is needed at this most fractious moment. We deeply appreciate the esteem with which people held him, but really there was no great secret to what was special about my dad. In a nasty business, he managed to live by the Golden Rule. If he did it, we all can. It's in our mouths and in our hearts — right now.”

The Late Senator Joe Lieberman’s daughter



*********** Said Dr. Ben Carson, “There are a lot of Christians who say, ‘Both sides are corrupt and I don’t want to be involved in a corrupt system; I don’t want to have to choose between ‘the lesser of two evils.’”

“Well,” he  went on,  “Unless Jesus Christ is on the ballot, you’re always choosing between ‘the lesser of two evils.’”



***********   Considering how today’s NFL offenses emphasize the pass and ignore the run, you probably won’t believe me if  I tell you that the NFL record for most passing yards in a single game is now 73 years old.

Believe me.  Then go out and win a few bets.

On September 28, 1951, Norm Van Brocklin, then with the Los Angeles Rams, threw for 554 yards against the New York Yankees.

Since then, Warren Moon of the Oilers threw for 527 in 1990, and in 2012 so did Matt Schaub of the Texans. In 2021 Joe Burrow of the Bengals threw for 525.

But The Dutchman’s record still stands.

You might like this video by the Eagles that includes a testimonial to Van Brocklin from a guy  who learned the quarterback trade as his backup - Sonny Jurgenson.

https://www.philadelphiaeagles.com/video/this-day-in-football-van-brocklin-s-554-passing-yards-6376289



***********   Watch the Army-Air Force game this weekend and you may get to see the last of the true single-wing tailbacks - Army’s Bryson Daily.

When I think of single wing tailbacks, I think of guys like…

Marshall Goldberg of Pitt, Nile Kinnick of Iowa, Tom Harmon, Bob Chappuis and Chuck Ortman of Michigan, Charley "Choo-Choo" Justice of North Carolina, Paul Giel of Minnesota, Frank Regan and Reds Bagnell of Penn, Les Horvath of Ohio State, Frank Sinkwich of Georgia, Elroy Hirsch of Wisconsin, Jackie Robinson and Paul Cameron of UCLA, George McAfee of Duke. At  Tennessee alone, there were Beattie Feathers, Gene McEver, George Cafego, Hank Lauricella  and Johnny Majors.

Just like  today’s quarterbacks - shotgun or under center - those guys touched the ball on every play.  (Okay, okay - except for the occasional direct snap to the fullback.)

And like today’s quarterbacks, they  threw all of their teams’ passes.

But there the resemblance ends.

Unlike  99 per cent of today’s quarterbacks, whose participation in the run game consists mostly of handing off to a “real” runner, or every so often carrying the ball themselves as a  sort of “change-up,” the single wing tailback WAS his team’s runner.

He was the passer and the workhorse runner and, in many cases, the punter, too,  hence the term “triple threat.”

Bryson Daily is a throwback to the days of the single wing tailback.

He’s big enough at 6 foot, 220, to be Army’s workhorse back - which he is.  He’s their  leading rusher.

He’s not tricky.  His trademark play, whether under center or shotgun, is power off-tackle.  Simple as that.  Try and stop us.  You Double Wingers would love it.

He’s carried 138 times for 909 yards (an average of 6.6 yards per carry) and  19 TDs.

That’s just about the same amount of yardage as Army’s next two carriers combined - fullback Kanye Udoh, with 93 carries for 633 yards (6.8 yards per carry) and speedy slotback Noah Short, with 34 carries for 398 yards (11.6 yards per carry).

Daily has a strong arm and  throws with an accuracy that shows how hard he’s worked on his passing.  Throwing mostly in play-action situations,  he’s completed 27 of 47 for 629 yards and 7 TDs.  Just as important: he has yet to throw an interception.

But Daily takes things beyond running and passing.  Well beyond.

He’s also the quarterback of an offense that at its base runs triple- and midline option. And at the three stages of a triple option -   first reading the dive key, then either keeping or pitching at the next stage - he has proved to be nearly flawless.  Amazingly, in a game earlier this season, he pitched the ball  and then sprinted downfield to get ahead of the runner and throw a block for him.

I do hope that you get to see him at his best. He’s one of a kind.

https://cityviewmag.com/neyland-and-the-last-single-wing-tailback/



***********  Read this, sent me by my son, Ed,  in Australia and then tell me if it’s wrong to pray for something bad to happen to the NFL…

A silent battle is unfolding in schools right across the country, and it’s one Australia’s biggest sporting codes may not even know they’re losing.

The NFL’s quest for global domination is full steam ahead, and Australian primary school students are firmly in the sport’s crosshairs.

Year five and six students are trying out for their school flag football sides in unprecedented droves. Why? The lure of a trip to Florida for the national champions to compete at the 2025 NFL Flag International Championship.

The byproduct of the tantalising reward that no other school sport in the country can match, is tens of thousands of kids exposed to the sport, many of who will play and support it for years to come.

The national championships are set to be contested this Friday on the Gold Coast, comprised of 10 top teams that hail from every state and territory.

“You always say with junior sport you’re not playing for sheep stations but it kind of feels like we are playing for a sheep station,” said Matthew Ross, who is the flag football coach at Melbourne’s Kew Primary School, one of the 10 schools set to compete at this week’s national championships.

“There’ll be a bit of emotion on the day for the kids because there’ll be a lot on the line. I think that is the reason why it’s becoming very popular, because there is this opportunity.”

Ross said that of his 150-strong year five and six cohort, 41 kids tried out for the flag football team.

“Parents mentioned how it was the first time their kids had been in a selection process where they missed the team, so for some of them it was confronting,” he said.

“I also coach cricket and we’re trying to pull a team together and we’re pulling teeth just to get kids to come down and play, there’s no carrot at the end.

“I think that’s what’s really powerful, a trip to the Gold Coast is a huge experience for the kids, they’ll have such a wonderful time, and the experience to get to the US for one of the teams will be unbelievable.”

Ross expects flag football to be a “big growth” sport.

“It’s different, the novelty of the belts and also the plays … my son mentioned that because there’s five kids on the field you feel like every snap you’re apart of the action,” Ross said.
“He also plays (Aussie rules) and there’s 18 on the field and you can catch a cold during a quarter where the ball comes nowhere near you.

“It’s like basketball, you’re more in the game because there’s less people on the field. Even if you’re not getting the ball you have to run a particular route and do your role, they might not have the ball but they’re helping the team succeed.

We’re pretty keen to be involved (as a school), the kids are enjoying it but there’s also these opportunities which other sports aren’t providing.”

Just as the coming of Walmart brought about the closing of Mom and Pop stores in small towns all over America, so is the NFL, through its insidious worldwide promotion of flag, threatening to kill off sports such as rugby, Gaelic football and Australian Rules football in a generation or two.

Yeah, yeah, I hear you say.  But if every kid around the world plays flag,  where, you ask, will the NFL get its players?

Silly.  While little kids everywhere are busy playing flag (and becoming lifelong NFL fans), the NFL will simply form its own developmental league.  There, select players on NFL-sponsored teams will undergo development in actual tackle football from professional coaches (not unlike the current MLS system).

High school tackle football?  Who’ll need it?    The NFL knows full well  that of the 1,000,000 or so boys now playing high school football in America, very few of them are of any value to it as potential players. It’ll have that developmental league for the players its scouts identity as talented enough.

 A high school team in every little town? That’s for those chumps like you and me who still believe that football is a great way to help turn boys into men.



*********** One of our favorite charities is Boys Town, Nebraska and I’m impressed by some of the tips they send on dealing with your own kids…
Teaching Important Social Skills
One thing parents sometimes fail to do is teach their children simple social skills they'll use later on in adolescence and adulthood. One critical basic skill is following directions. In fact, it is literally the first skill we feature in the Boys Town book Teaching Social Skills to Youth. This skill needs to be taught early and practiced often. The steps are simple:
    1.    Look at the person.
    2.    Say, "Okay."
    3.    Do what you've been asked right away.
    4.    Check back.

If you teach this skill to your children and practice it with them while they're young, then they will be conditioned to know how to respond when asked to complete a task.
(Isn’t it a lot easier to coach kids who come to you already coachable?)



***********  I actually purchased your book and dvd approximately 12 years ago. My best friend (and coach) and I started running the double wing offense at the youth level with a lot of success. We eventually introduced it to our high school in 2017 when we both were high school assistants. Our high school doesn't solely run double wing, but it's been a good package or scheme we usually hold onto until the playoffs. Because most of our youth teams grow up running double wing, it's been very easy to install it at the high school level (and the o-line loves it). We've found that it's very difficult for high school teams to prepare for this offense in one week, especially when most teams run some version of a spread offense today. I lent your playbook out and never got it back, which is why I purchased your new version. We have had a ton of success from youth through high school but essentially run 6 or 8 base plays and are 95% run. I wanted to dedicate some time to learning and implementing more passing options from your playbook. We are coming off of back to back state championships in Indiana (and won a 3rd in 2017 assisted with the DW), but lost a ton of great players. We are down compared to prior years but our head coach is on board with expanding our double wing playbook and is committed to making it more of our identity than just a change of pace........more than you wanted to know but thought I'd share. We put our own tweaks on your playbook over the years (mostly just terminology) but your book/offense has been huge for our little football community over the past decade from 1st grade to varsity. Appreciate all the support you have offered.

NAME WITHHELD BY REQUEST


***********   As usual, lots of red meat on today's page, but I especially liked the letter to Sam. He could wind up as the only F1 commentator with experience as a mover.

I don't like making excuses for Navy, but they must have zero confidence in Horvath's backup. Six turnovers, five unforced? It looked to me that his hand injury was cause enough to pull him out early on, but the coaches let him fumble the game away. If Horvath is similarly compromised the remainder of the season, the Mids could be in trouble.

One man on your list of coaches who could receive the black spot already got it...Mike Bloomgren of Rice...but his school gave him seven years, which was more than fair.

John Vermillion            
St Petersburg, Florida




***********   Hugh,

Congrats on the win over Black Hills! 

Also, congrats to Mike Foristiere’s Marsing ID Huskies on completing a successful regular season.  They travel to Ririe for a first round playoff game on Friday night.

Ririe beat Marsing in an early season game where the Huskies lost two starters in the first half.  Both teams run the DW.

Navy did not play ND the way they had played others.  Seven turnovers doomed the Mids.  It was an uncharacteristic showing for a good Navy team.  I think Blake Horvath’s injured thumb may have led to a few of those fumbles.  If it did he better get healed up fast with E. Carolina, Tulane, and Army on the horizon.

Provided Army doesn’t get the turnover bug I think they will have a much better chance against ND.  Frankly, I think Bryson Dailey poses a much greater threat than Horvath, and the Cadet run game is much more potent which will cause problems for the Irish secondary.

Coaches on the hot seat.  Dilfer for sure.
Followed by Napier, Aranda, and Freeze.

I wonder how many bowl game holdouts we’ll see this year?  I’m also wondering if there will be any playoff holdouts?

Enjoy the week!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas






 


*********** QUIZ ANSWER:  At Woodbury, New Jersey High (suburban Philadelphia) Milt Plum was  an all-state quarterback.

Although he was  also a very good catcher who drew interest from major league baseball teams, he chose  to go to Penn State and play football.

Playing quarterback in Rip Engle’s run-heavy Wing-T offense, he seldom threw.  But in those days of two-way football,  he also played defense.  And in addition, he punted and kicked extra points.

In his senior year, Penn State tied Pitt and lost narrowly to Army and Syracuse (and legendary running back Jim Brown), while upsetting Ohio State, 7-6.

After the season, knowing that Cleveland’s Paul Brown was desperately in search of a successor to the great Otto Graham, Engle recommended our guy, telling Brown, “He’s always the first one on the field.  He studies game films zealously and he never gets upset under fire.”

Brown must have listened, because in the NFL draft they took our guy with their second pick. (They’d taken  Jim Brown in the first round.)

He spent five years with the Browns, and was twice named All-Pro. During that time, the Browns were very good - just not quite good enough. Twice, the Giants beat them to the NFL championship game, and once the Eagles did.

In 1960, he completed a league-high 60.4 per cent of his passes, throwing for 21 touchdowns while  throwing only five interceptions.  The Browns finished 8-3-1, good enough for second in the East behind the Eagles, who finished 10-2. The Eagles would go on to defeat the Green Bay Packers  to win the NFL title.


For two seasons, his understudy at Cleveland was Len Dawson, who would go on to sign with the AFL and play his way to pro football immortality.


After an article was published claiming  that he had called the Browns’ offense “stereotyped,” and had criticized Brown’s rigid system of calling plays for his quarterbacks, that was enough for Paul Brown.  Despite his insistence that he had said no such things. he was traded to Detroit in a six-player deal that also included Lions’ quarterback Jim Ninowski. 

In his first year at Detroit, the Lions finished 11-3, just behind the Packers in the NFL West, but for the rest of his six years there, they went into decline, and he was off-and-on as the starting QB.

“Detroit was notorious for changing quarterbacks,” he remembered. “Whenever something went wrong,  they yanked the quarterback.  It was between Bobby Layne and Tobin Rote, Rote and Earl Morrall, Earl and I, Karl Sweetan and I.”

He wound up his career with the Rams, where he backed up Roman Gabriel, and then with the Giants,  where he backed up  Fran Tarkenton and Gary Wood before retiring after the 1969 season.


In his career, he completed 1,306 passes (2,419 attempts) for 17,536 yards and 122 TDs.  He also rushed for 531 yards.

Asked years later about career highlights,  Milt Plum said, “One of them is that I played professional football for 13  seasons.

“This may surprise you, but my ambition was to play baseball. I almost didn’t go to college. All my life was baseball, baseball, baseball. It came down to, ‘In football, you either make the NFL or you don’t.’

“When I got out of college in June 1957, it was too late to try minor league baseball. At that time pro football started in July. I got drafted number two, so I tried out with the Browns. I made it, and I hung around football for 13 years.”


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING MILT PLUM

GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
TOM DAVIS - SAN MARCOS, CALIFORNIA
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY -  (Coach Crump, a lifelong Browns' fan, swears that the photo on the left is of Bill Nelson, another Browns' QB who also wore #12.)
JOE BREMER - WEST SENECA, NEW YORK
MIKE FORISTIERE - MARSING, IDAHO
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON


 

*********** QUIZ:  He was named Arkansas’ Athlete of the Twentieth Century  by the Arkansas Daily Gazette.

His dad was an oil field worker.  He was born in Dixie, Louisiana, the third of ten children, and grew up in Smackover, Arkansas. (For much of his athletic career, the town name became his nickname.)

He was a high school football star, and excelled in track. Despite having no hurdles at his high school  he set state records in the hurdles and in the 100-yard dash.

He was also a good baseball player, and turned down a contract offer by the St. Louis Cardinals in order to attend the US Naval Academy, where some local businessmen had helped him receive an appointment.

World War II was going on, and Navy was very good - probably second only to Army.  He played two years at running back for the Midshipmen, and in his second year, 1945, he earned second team All-America honors.

In track he set Naval Academy records in the 100-yard dash, the 110 high hurdles and 220 low hurdles and the javelin.  In both 1944 and 1945 he was the academy’s light-heavyweight boxing champion.

And then he met Miss Arkansas. Her name was Leslie Hampton.  She was on a tour of the academy on the way to the Miss America Pageant in Atlantic City, and he was asked to be her escort .

They fell in love, and by the end of the school year decided to get married, but with marriage by midshipmen prohibited, he chose to withdraw from the Academy.

Once word got out that he had withdrawn from the Naval Academy, he was heavily recruited by coaches such as Bear Bryant at Kentucky and Johnny Vaught at Ole Miss.

He was finally convinced to attend Arkansas by head coach John Barnhill, but he was no doubt influenced by the fact that  his bride-to-be was a student there.

As a running back, he was a three-time All-Southwest Conference selection, and in 1948 he became the first Razorback ever named to an All-American team.

In his two years at Arkansas, he set a new school record of 1,463 yards rushing.  In his senior year, he averaged 7 yards a carry.

At his graduation, his number 12 was retired. That was 1948, and in the years since, while Arkansas has had 21 consensus All-Americans, he remains one of only two Razorbacks to have had his number retired.  (The other was Brandon Burlsworth, a  former walk-on who earned All-American status and  then was tragically killed at age 22 in a highway accident. His jersey was retired in 1999.)

While at Arkansas, he wanted to play baseball but Coach Barnhill prohibited it. But  he was allowed to run track, where  he set school records in the 100-yard dash, the 220 low hurdles, the 110 high hurdles, the 440-yard relay, and the javelin.  

His 9.4 in the 100 yard dash in the 1948 Southwest Conference  meet tied the existing world record but could not count because the SWC did not test for wind.   He was the high-point scorer at the meet winning the 100, the high hurdles and low hurdles,  finishing third in the javelin, and running a leg on the 440 relay team (that finished third).  In all, he scored 42 points using  today's scoring rules.

In the 1948 NCAA Track Finals he tied the world record in the 110 high hurdles with a time of 13.7 seconds. That summer he made the U.S. Olympic team in the 110 high hurdles and in 1948 London Olympics he won the silver medal, taking second in a photo finish.  He was the first Arkansas athlete to win an Olympic medal.

He was drafted in the first round of the 1949 NFL draft by the NFL champion Philadelphia Eagles and, although plagued by injuries, he  spent three seasons with the Eagles and one season with the Detroit Lions before retiring  after the 1952 season.

He returned to Arkansas and enjoyed a successful career in business.

Coach  Barnhill, quoted later in a book on Arkansas football said, “(He) meant more to the Arkansas program than any other athlete.  His coming to Arkansas convinced other Arkansas boys they should stay home.”

Besides being named Arkansas’ Athlete of the Twentieth Century  by the Arkansas Daily Gazette,  He was a member of the University of Arkansas Sports Hall of Honor, the State of Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame,  the Southwest Conference Hall of Fame and the College Football Hall of Fame.

His daughter, Marsha, told of taking him to the Naval Academy in 1993 - the first time he’d been back since resigning in 1945. 

At the time, she had a job in Washington, DC in the Clinton administration and,  she recalled…

“I had asked about setting up a private tour and he agreed.  That was 1993, almost 50 years later. He'd never said much about leaving Navy. We all knew that was very tough to do, but they frowned on married students and he was in love.

“It was difficult. We all knew he was proud of going to Navy, but he just didn't talk about it.”

The tour,  just dad and daughter. was conducted by a young navy officer.

“It started off very quiet,” she said. “Dad just wasn't saying much. We went to a couple of places and then to the athletic hall, the dorm.”

At the top of a stairway that led to the dorm rooms. there was a wall lined with Navy players  inducted into the National Football Foundation Hall of Fame.

“There were three plaques – with pictures – on the wall when we made the first turn,” Marsha said. “They were Roger Staubach’s, Joe Bellino’s and Dad's. The ensign stopped and turned to look at Dad. He said, 'That's you!' And when he did, Dad started crying. The ensign started crying. I did, too.

“From that point forward, Dad lit up. He had a great time.

“I think it was a great time of healing. I know he felt kind of embarrassed he'd left Navy. When he saw that plaque – the same one they have on display in the museum at Arkansas - it was clear that they remembered him the same way at Navy.”

He remained married to Leslie until he died at 93.



TUESDAY,  OCTOBER 29,  2024    “He’s tough as an old army boot. He’s got lots of enemies, different groups that are scared, and between them, they have impeached him, indicted him, raided him, railroaded him, shot him and sued him. And where is he? He’s still standing.”  “Doctor Phil” McGraw



*********** Wisdom from Mike Lude:   “My bleeping orders apparently were lost somewhere between the Bureau of Personnel in Washington, DC, and Camp Pendleton, so when my battalion shipped out I stayed behind.

“Several months later, when I had been assigned to duty with an amphibious tractor battalion in Maui, whom did I run into by chance? The unforgettable Colonel Hunt, of course.   Once again he unloaded on me.   I thought I'd heard every four-letter word that first time, but he coined new words in our second meeting. I reminded him again of my total lack of influence with anyone but he was having none of it.

“My original unit had just returned from taking part in the famous landing on Iwo Jima and had suffered heavy casualties. It was one of the deadliest battles of the Pacific war, widely remembered for the photograph of Marines raising the American flag at Mount Suribachi. Our units took part in the landing and the initial assault, and then brought in supplies once the beachhead was secure. By the time of that famous flag raising, our troops had the amphibious tractors back on the bigger ships and were ready to move out.

“The fact that my orders were lost might have saved my life.”



*********** Aberdeen update: We saved our best game of the season for when we needed it the most, defeating Black Hills High 28-14 Friday night.

We felt that our kids were ready.  They knew quite well that the result of this game would define our season and, more importantly, launch us on the path to future success.  We’re a very young team: we start just one senior on offense and one on defense.  We’d lost to some very tough non-conference teams, and we knew we weren’t a match for the top two teams in our league, but a win over Black Hills would give us third place in the league - and a preliminary-round shot at a playoff spot.
A loss, on the other hand, would set us back quite a bit on our road to respectability.

We took the opening kickoff and after a short drive, stalled out and punted.

After holding Black Hills, we found our running game - mostly power off-tackle plays - was working, but an unfortunate tip of a slant resulted in a long pick six and put us behind, 7-0.

That would be it for Black Hills for a while, as our defense shut them down and our offense began to put together some impressive drives.   The first, overlapping the end of the first period and the start of the second, went 64 yards, culminating in Micah Schroeder’s 33-yard burst off left tackle.

We drove to another score with 12 seconds left in the half to go in with a 14-7 lead. Schroeder’s 20-yard sweep was the key play.

We dominated play in the third period, putting on a long drive to take a two-touchdown lead, 20-7 (we missed the PAT).

And then, out of the blue, Black Hills completed a pass down to our one-yard line, and after they punched the ball in, cut our lead to 20-14 with most of the fourth quarter remaining.

We drove into their territory but came up short on a fourth-and-four on their 38 yard line, and they countered by driving  to our 21 before we held them on downs.

And then, on the next play, damned if Schroeder didn’t hit off right tackle and sprint 79 yards for the score that clinched it for us. With a 28-14 lead midway through the fourth quarter, the combination of our tough defense and ball-control offense was enough to seal the win.

It was a beautifully-called game, one that I'd have been proud to have called myself.

In all, we rushed for 349 yards.  Schroeder, who carried 35 times, gained 279 yards and scored three TDs. Unusual  for a spread team, we attempted just four passes without completing a single one!

Next, we finish our regular schedule Friday against Tenino, a very tough non-league opponent, and the following Tuesday we play a “half game” - two 12-minute “halves” - against Columbia River High of Vancouver.  The winner of that one advances to the  first round of the state playoffs four days later.

A few observations about our having made the transition to a running team:

1. Play calling is more straightforward.  Unlike  with a passing team, it’s no sin to repeat a successful running play. (“It’s not your job to stop your offense.”)

2. It allows you to play complementary football - a ball-control offense greatly helps  your defense by keeping the other team’s offense on the sideline.

3. It’s a great help when you need a first down or two to run out the clock.

4. It’s a great morale-builder when your players sense that they are physically dominating the opponent.

5. I think that the ability of a running game to wear out the opponent is greatly understated. Like breaking rocks or splitting wood, I’m convinced that our 79-yard  clincher came about because we had worn the opponent down.


(For what it’s worth, the battle for first place in our league was settled Friday night when Tumwater High, which two weeks ago beat us 55-0, faced off against unbeaten and fifth-ranked W.F. West High of Chehalis, which beat us 47-12 four weeks ago.  Final score: Tumwater 52, W.F. West 0.)









*********** We played our game Friday night at Tumwater High Stadium, where Sid Otton coached for 43 years.  In that time, he won 394 games - tops of any coach in Washington high school history - including five state championships.

I got to know him a little bit in the early days, since we were both  wing-T guys, and he impressed me as a really class act.

It can’t have been an easy run for him at first: his record after three years was 7-20, and people were after his ass.

In fact, it was 13 years before he won his first state title at Tumwater.

But he  got ‘er turned and the rest is history.  One thing that characterized his program was the amazing staff stability he cultivated.


https://www.elisportsnetwork.com/tumwater-winning-football-the-sid-otton-story/










***********   TOP GAMES FROM  THIS PAST WEEKEND…


SATURDAY

OHIO STATE 21, NEBRASKA  17 - If you can’t rush for 100 yards, and the other team has 18 first downs to your 11, and a time of possession advantage 35-25, maybe there IS cause for concern.
 
NOTRE DAME 51,  NAVY 14 - If the Middies had brought their best game, it still would have been a struggle.  They didn’t and it wasn’t.
 
INDIANA 31,  WASHINGTON 17 - If nothing else happens this season, it’s been great seeing the excitement in Bloomington.  Kurt Cignetti really has  performed a miracle.
 
OLE MISS 26, OKLAHOMA 14 – Not since 1998 (when the Sooners went 5-6 under John Blake) have they lost three straight games by double digits.
 
VIRGINIA TECH 21, GEORGIA TECH 6 - Were you as surprised as me that Georgia Tech (“RUN THE BALL!!!”) couldn’t  run for 100 yards, and could only manage two lousy field goals?
 
NORTH CAROLINA 41, VIRGINIA 14 – Tar Heels are now at 4-4  with games remaining against Florida State, Wake, BC and NC State.
 
ARKANSAS 58,  MISSISSIPPI STATE 25 – Arkansas is almost bowl-eligible
 
OREGON 35,  ILLINOIS 9 – Okay.  I’m convinced.  Illinois is pretty good and they’re not even close to the Ducks.  Now watch the Ducks lose.
 
BYU 37,  UCF 24 – Cougars are unbeaten; Knights have lost five in a row and Gus Malzahn is running out of good will.
 
ALABAMA 34, MISSOURI  0 – So THIS is what happens when you tell the players that they’re expected to be on time for meetings.  Why didn’t they try it sooner?
 
IOWA 40, NORTHWESTERN 14 – Hawkeyes, 5-3, have a decent chance of winning out.
 
MINNESOTA 48, MARYLAND 23 – Gophers have definitely separated themselves from the bottom of the Big Ten pack. Terps may not get to a bowl game.
 
UCONN 17, RICE 10 – Huskies are 5-3.  Owls are 2-6 and likely to lose their coach.
 
WAKE FOREST 27,  STANFORD 24 – Wake finally found a way to win one at the end.  Stanford’s marketing department had better do something about those empty seats.
 
CAL 44, OREGON STATE 7 – Beavers have lost four straight, and now have to find a couple of wins.  They might find them in San Jose State and Air Force.
 
TEXAS 27,  VANDERBILT 24 – (1) Vandy isn’t bad; (2) Texas isn’t that good.
 
WEST VIRGINIA 31,  ARIZONA 26 – Mountaineers rushed for 203 yards, held the ball 35:00 to 25:00. Wildcats have lost four straight.
 
MIAMI 36,  FLORIDA STATE 14 – The Seminoles are now 1-7. Hurricanes are still unbeaten.
 
UTAH STATE 27,  WYOMING 25 – Wyoming people are REALLY pissed at the way this season has gone, considering that Craig Bohl seemingly left things in good shape.
 
PENN STATE 28,  WISCONSIN 13 – Even without Allar, Lions were simply better
 
TEXAS A&M 38,  LSU 23  - Don’t look now, but the Aggies are on top of the SEC.
 
MICHIGAN 24, MICHIGAN STATE 17 – It seemed like a game played at a lower level than those years when one or both have been  national powerhouses.
 
AUBURN 24,  KENTUCKY 10 – Two coaches in danger.  I hope that Mike Stoops has a large enough buyout.
 
KANSAS STATE 29,  KANSAS 27 – The Sunflower Showdown is a game once again.
 
SMU 28, DUKE 27 (OT) – For some strange reason, Manny Diaz went for two (and the win) in first OT, when he didn’t have to. 
 
FRESNO STATE 33,  SAN JOSE STATE 10 – Bulldogs are now 5-3, with Hawaii, Air Force, Colorado State and UCLA left on the schedule.
 
COLORADO 34,  CINCINNATI 23 – Coach Prime and his bunch are bowl-eligible.
 
WASHINGTON STATE 29,  SAN DIEGO STATE  26 – Cougs have lost only once.
 
 

*********** Coaches Hot Seat

It seems somewhat ghoulish to try to predict which college coaches will get handed the black spot (if you’ve read “Treasure Island”) but it bothers me a lot less  when I remember that NO coaches these days walk away without a giant going-away bonus, and, further, that it was the gigantic contracts  (and commensurate buyouts) given out to college coaches that lit the fires that led to NIL and will lead, ultimately, to players as employees.

1. Trent Dilfer, UAB
2. Dave Aranda, Baylor
3. Sam Pittman, Arkansas
4. Billy Napier, Florida
5. Sonny Cumbie, Lousiana Tech
6. Joe Morehead, Akron
7. Mike Bloomgren, Rice
8. Stan Drayton, Temple
9. Neil Brown, West Virginia
10. Ryan Walters, Purdue
11. Mark Stoops, Kentucky
12. Mike MacIntyre, FIU
13. Hugh Freeze, Auburn
14. Mike Norvell, Florida state
15. Lincoln Riley, USC
16. Brent Venables, Oklahoma
17. Justin Wilcox, Cal
18. Gerad Parker, Troy
19. Ryan Day, Ohio State
20. Shawn Clark, App State


Ohio State?  Really?  To put it in  perspective: Ryan Day’s overall record as the Buckeyes’ coach is 62-9. That’s a winning percentage of   873, which is second-best in the history of the game to the legendary Knute Rockne.  Rockne’s .881 (from 1918-1930)  is the highest winning percentage of any man who ever coached at the major college level, but while several of Day’s losses have taken place in postseason games,  where he is 2-4,  Rockne never even had to coach in a bowl game.  Taking the postseason out of it, Day’s record is 60-5, which would put him at an all-time high of .923.  Perhaps a more relevant figure to evaluate Day’s performance would be his record in Big Ten games - 41-4, or .911.

https://coacheshotseat.com/


*********** My 15-year-old grandson, Sam, lives in Australia.  Recently, he helped a friend to move, and when my son told Sam that I’d worked as a furniture mover during summers while in college, Sam asked me about it.

Here’s what I  wrote:


In the summers of 1958 and 1959 I worked for Eldredge Moving and Storage in Atlantic City, New Jersey, where my parents lived at the time.

I started out as a helper and advanced to where I was often assigned to drive a truck.

Our moves took place mostly in New Jersey and adjoining states (Pennsylvania, New York, Delaware, Maryland) but I did get a trip all by myself delivering a load to Rome, New York, about 250 miles away, and a long one with another driver to Greensboro, North Carolina.

I learned an awful lot about moving: how to pack cartons… how to get big pieces of furniture in and out of tight spaces… how best to lift big things… how to load a truck (always look for big heavy things to go on the bottom, as your “base.”) And, of course, how to drive a variety of trucks.

It was very important to me to be accepted by the regular workers, so I made an effort to work hard to show them I was not some “spoiled college kid.”  I knew I was accepted when they invited me to drink beer with them. And I really knew I was accepted when I told them that I was getting married (to Grandma) and one of the regular drivers told me that if I ever needed a job he’d take me on as his full-time helper. I was very flattered by that offer and it’s still a highlight of my life.

I learned an awful lot on that job. I learned a lot from the drivers - the regulars. I learned to respect men for the jobs they did, rather than the education they had. None of them had gone to college, but they knew all the ins and outs of moving and of driving a truck.

I liked the fact that there was hard work involved, because I wanted to get in shape for football. And I liked the money. I worked a lot of overtime, for which you got paid “time and a half” (ask your dad) and as a result, after just four weeks on the job I had enough money to buy a 1952 Ford. It’s the car I was driving when I met Grandma two years later.

In all, it was a great and transformative job for me because it helped me become a man. I will always be appreciative of those working men for the way they accepted me as one of their own.



***********  I still love and respect and miss Joe Paterno, but I gritted my teeth when I read this in a report on Donald Trump’s recent visit to Penn State…

Penn State Trustee Jay Paterno (Joe’s son) stopped by and unzipped a Penn State windbreaker to show a few protesters he, too, was wearing a Harris and Walz 2024 shirt.



***********  At a volleyball match between Air Force and San Jose State, Academy officials made a fan cover a shirt that said, "Keep Women's Sports Female.”

For those who don’t follow volleyball or the latest in LGBT affairs, San Jose State’s volleyball team features a female impersonator (that’s what they used to call them on Bourbon Street) named  Blaire Fleming.

The fan said that he was allowed into the game, but was told that if he tried to take off his sweatshirt, he would be required to leave.

He said  that he was watched  throughout the game to ensure that he complied.



***********   “This was a staged event-Trump is such a fraud. He doesn’t work at McDonalds!” Whoopie Goldberg

No sh—, Sherlock…



************ The major conferences are going to have to work hard to make sure that the bowls remain relevant.

How else, other than a nice bowl trip,  are teams going to salve the pain of finishing in the bottom half of an 18-team conference?

BIG TEN

ALREADY ELIGIBLE
Indiana 8-0
Oregon 8-0
Penn State 7-0
Ohio State 6-1
Illinois 6-2

HIGHLY LIKELY
Iowa 5–3
Michigan 5– 3
Wisconsin 5– 3
Minnesota 5– 3
Nebraska 5– 3

DECENT SHOT (GAMES REMAINING IN PARENTHESES)
Michigan State 4–4 (Indiana, Illinois, Purdue, Rutgers)
Rutgers 4–4 (Minnesota, Maryland, Illinois)

OUTSIDE SHOT (BUT THEY PLAY EACH OTHER SO THEY WON’T BOTH MAKE IT)
*Washington 4–4 (USC, Penn State, UCLA, Oregon)
*USC 4–4 (Washington, Nebraska, UCLA, Notre Dame)

PRACTICALLY NO SHOT
*Maryland 4–4 (Oregon, Rutgers, Iowa)
Northwestern 3–5 (Purdue, Ohio State, Michigan, Illinois)

NO SHOT
UCLA 2-5
Purdue 1-6

It’s quite likely that at least two teams from the bottom half of the conference will go to bowl games.   It’s even conceivable - but not likely) that Northwestern can get to six wins.

SEC

ALREADY ELIGIBLE
Texas A&M 7–1
Georgia 6–1
Texas 7–1
Tennessee 6–1
LSU 6– 2
Alabama 6– 2
Missouri 6–2
Ole Miss 6–2

HIGHLY LIKELY
Arkansas 5– 3
Vanderbilt 5–3


DECENT SHOT (GAMES REMAINING IN PARENTHESES)
South Carolina 4–3 (Texas A & M, Vanderbilt, Missouri, Wofford, Clemson)

OUTSIDE SHOT
Oklahoma 4–4 (Maine (!?!?) Missouri, Alabama, LSU)

PRACTICALLY NO SHOT
Florida 4–3 (Georgia, Texas, LSU)
Auburn 3– 5 (Vanderbilt, Lousiana-Monroe, Texas A & M, Alabama)
Kentucky 3–5 (Tennessee, Murray State, Texas, Louisville)

NO SHOT
Mississippi State 1 –7



***********   An awful lot of guys I speak to and correspond with believe (as I do) that most American boys have grown soft, and that more than ever, America needs football because football is hard and football is tough and football is demanding.

I came across this great letter to the editor of the Wall Street Journal:

We love football because it’s a game about sacrifice, courage, brotherhood. It’s about putting your personal safety in the hands of your brother and risking yourself so that your brother can succeed, knowing that both of your successes lift the entire team, a family. Maybe we don’t admit this because the sport glorifies toughness and because love supposedly is soft, but there is no doubt that love for each other drives the greatest teams.  And those of us watching want so desperately to feel that same love, to be included in that same family.

There is an innate attraction to the combination of these elemental forces – risk, courage, love and family – that captivates our souls; thus the elevation of the game as our national pastime. 

David Hornberger, San Antonio

***********   In Texas, Palestine Westwood  High School head coach Richard Bishop was suspended for the remainder of the season, after a committee ruled that he had illegally videotaped opponents while scouting.

Westwood is now 7-0, and while the punishment originally recommended forfeiture of games,  the committee issuing the ruling voted unanimously against punishing the team, too.

During the meeting with the committee, the head coach said he was unaware that an assistant, who was sitting next to him at the game, was recording -  a claim that the committee chair said he found “hard to believe.”

The committee noted  inconsistencies in testimony about how long the assistant was recording and what he had recorded.  (The assistant said he had filmed a few plays to send to his girlfriend in Virginia, adding that nobody had told him to record and that it was his idea to film.)

True to his profession, the  defendants’  lawyer  argued that recording an entire game on a cell phone was "unrealistic," and noted that it is not a violation of rules to record a band performance.   Simple answer: open that damn phone and see how much of the recording was “band performance.”



************   I hope other coaches will join Tony Bennett in refusing to work through the muck and filth of NIL-XFER excesses.

I'm as fascinated by the Hoosiers as anyone, and wonder how they'll do this week without Kurtis Rourke, who leads the Big 18 in nearly every positive QB stat.  I have no idea whether they can handle the Huskies.

I'm happy to be back reading my favorite sports page, which NEVER fails to satisfy.

John Vermillion                                
St Petersburg, Florida


***********   Hugh,

I caught a glimpse of that Tumwater game (video highlights on MaxPreps).  They run as good a Wing-T as I've seen.  The last Wing-T team I saw that could run the offense THAT well was Clovis West (Fresno, CA) when Randy Blankenship (considered a Wing-T guru, was the head coach at CW from 1992-98).  Blankenship won over 300 games in his career in California and ranks up there with another 300 game winner by the name of Don Markham.

I have to take issue with the latest college football rankings.  Agree with Oregon as number one.  But Penn State should be number two, followed by Miami, Georgia, and Ohio State.

Also, under the current playoff format the major bowl games should NOT be part of the playoffs.  Those major bowls should remain bowl games.  

As of this writing, it pains me to say that regardless if Notre Dame wins out they could be on the outside looking in for the playoffs.  If they can move up to Number 11 or number 10 they'll get in.  However...if they stay at number 12 (strength of schedule) they'll get bumped by the best G5 team.  More reason for the Irish to seriously consider joining a conference in the very near future.  Likely the ACC.  This week's Navy game will go a long way in determining how the Irish will fare against Army.

There will be many more middle-aged college head coaches in football and basketball giving retirement a much more serious look.

I wonder how many BIG teams have ever swept the LA schools in the same year??  Minnesota did!  Maybe the first?

UNLV will make the move to the new PAC.  "Bank" on it.

The question remains...if Army and Navy end up first in the AAC will the traditional Army-Navy game determine the AAC champion?  IMHO it doesn't make any sense for them to play each other in back-to-back everything on the table games


Enjoy the weekend, and good luck on Friday night!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas

Joe - Army and Navy totally depend on the Army-Navy game to support their entire athletic programs. There is the revenue from CBS, which is substantial, but in addition, donors get preference for Army-Navy tickets - the higher the donation the more tickets one can buy. There is great concern at Army and Navy that a meeting of the two teams in the conference championship game could greatly detract from the "real" game just a week later.





 


*********** QUIZ ANSWER:  Tony Adamle was born in Fairmont, West Virginia to parents who were immigrants from Slovenia.

When he was a child, his family moved to Cleveland, and he attended Collinwood High School, where the sports editor of the Cleveland Press called him “without question the best high school player I have ever seen in action.”

In his words, (years later) “I went to Collinwood High School and majored in machine shop. I was voted ‘Least Likely to Succeed.’   The only thing I did was play football. The thing that changed me was, my last year in high school, I made All-Ohio. All of a sudden I'm somebody. When I got to be a senior, people are coming to look me up to go to school here and there. People I've never heard of  were coming to my house. That's when I started waking up a little bit.”

As a senior, named All-Ohio by both the Associated Press and United Press International, he was selected by the Cleveland Press to an All-Star team that played a postseason game in Florida.

After graduation, he was recruited to Ohio State by new head coach Paul Brown,  and  played linebacker on their undefeated freshman team. But with World War II going on, he served in the Army Air Corps, seeing action in the Mediterranean and Middle East,  and  didn’t return to Ohio State until 1946.

“I only spent about two months at Ohio State. I played on the freshman team, then I went into the service. I enlisted in the Air Corps because all my buddies were gone and everybody from the fraternity was gone. This was in fall. Football season was over. The war was going on. Buddies of yours were getting killed, so we all went. I had just turned 18. ‘The hell with it,’  I said. The service really changed me around.  I probably would've been in jail, otherwise. I was a heck of a thief. I could steal anything. I did everything you're not supposed to do. Three years in the service really woke me up.”

In 1946 he played his only year of college varsity football.

“I originally went to Ohio State to play for Paul Brown, but he left before I came back from the service. I had three years of eligibility left, but I was really unhappy at Ohio State. We lost a lot of games, and I was sitting on the bench. We got beat by Michigan something like 50 to 6. Dante Lavelli was my roommate and I said ‘Dante, I'm not going through this crap again.’”

A new rule permitted servicemen to sign pro contracts before graduating.   So,  after being drafted by the Chicago Bears of the NFL, our guy chose instead to sign with the Cleveland Browns in the year-old All-American Football Conference (AAFC). The Browns, who had just won the AAFC championship in  their first season,  were coached by none other than Paul Brown, who had already signed a number of former Buckeyes, including  Lou Groza, Dante Lavelli, Bill Willis, and Gene Fekete.

Interestingly, before reporting to the Browns’ training camp, our guy first played in that summer’s College All-Star Game against the NFL’s defending champions - the Chicago Bears. “We beat the hell out of the Bears,” he recalled,  “in front of the biggest crowd in history, 103,000 people."

He wound up playing six seasons with the Browns.  Very few players in the history of pro football can touch  his record of playing on five  championship teams (AAFC/NFL) in six professional football seasons.

At a solid 6 foot, 215, he originally came to the Browns as a fullback, but with an already established future Hall-of-Famer at that position in Marion Motley, he wound up spending the better part of his career on defense, as a linebacker.

He was good.  He played in the first two Pro-Bowl games  and was named an All-Pro linebacker in 1951.

In the  three seasons he played on offense, the Browns ranked either first, second, or third in  points scored and  yards passing and yards  rushing.

In the  six seasons that  he  played on defense, the Browns ranked either first, second, or third each year in fewest  points allowed and fewest  yards allowed passing and rushing.

Although no official all-time all-AAFC team has ever been named, it's generally conceded that he would've been no worse than second team as a linebacker.

He was admired by his teammates as a leader, many of them recalling that he did not hesitate to stand up to the autocratic Brown.   Brown actually came to respect his candor,  and named him team captain after Lou Saban retired.

He was admired for his intelligence.     Tony Adamle,  said Paul Brown,  was “perhaps as intelligent a player as I ever had.” 

He was admired for his toughness.  Recalled former Browns’ teammate Ara Parseghian years later, "He dressed once with an ankle as big as a balloon. I thought there was no way he'd play, but he did. There's nobody in the game today who is tougher than Tony Adamle.”  Added Paul Brown, “He gives this team its attitude. He’s a fighter all the way.”


He was the Browns’ captain in 1950, the year they entered the NFL and shocked the football world by winning  the championship of the long-established  league.

“Paul Brown made me his captain in Cleveland, and I don't know why he ever did that.  The team didn't choose captains. He made guys captains. That was probably the greatest day of my life, when he did that. I guess part of the reason he did it is because I always told him the damn truth. I didn't feel like I had any kind of special relationship with him.  He didn't want that. If he wanted to get some points across, he’d just throw them at me. I didn't pull any punches. No matter what I thought. I talked back to him, and I could get along with the guys.  That was the big thing.

“I'd get guys raises, because the guy would listen to me. When he used to come down to the final cut, he always brought somebody in from the team to see what we thought about who should be playing. One year, it came down between Don Shula and another guy. The other guy was a real flashy guy who could run like hell, and Shula was a guy who just trudged along. He wasn't a real special athlete or anything but he always got the job done. I said, ‘I think when going’s tough, we should have Shula. Shula puts out to the end.’

“He traded the other guy. We kept Shula. If he had been put on waivers, he’d be teaching down at Mentor High School now. Life is funny, the little tiny breaks that make things happen.”

He eventually  earned a bachelor’s degree from Kent State University in 1950.

Here’s how he explained that:  “I had always had it in the back of my mind that I was going to go to medical school, but I never thought it could happen. It was one of my fantasies, you might say, because I looked up to the doctors.

“Brown encouraged me, so the winter quarter and the spring quarter and half the summer I went back to school, to Kent State, because it was closer than Ohio State. On the side, I was taking all these anatomy courses, and I was doing good in them. I got my degree in phys ed, then I got my masters degree in phys ed and then I looked at the degree and I said, “What the hell do I know?”  I didn't know anything. It was just a piece of paper.  It was just a bunch of BS and I can BS with anybody. I had a minor in physiology and physics, so I had all of my pre-med work done. I said, ‘I got two kids. The hell with it. I'm gonna shoot the works.’ So I went to med school when I was 27 years old.”

He retired from football after the 1951 season, but in 1954,  after three years of retirement (and medical school studies), he was enticed to return - but only under the condition that he would have to practice just one day a week. In his absence, the Browns had lost three straight NFL championship games, but with him back in the lineup,  they beat Detroit, 56-10, to win their first NFL title since the year they’d entered the league.

With his winner’s share of $2,478, he could afford to retire from football for good.

Two years later, he was a full-fledged doctor, receiving his MD degree from Western Reserve University.

He  practiced medicine  in Kent, Ohio for the next 38 years.

He became an early specialist in the field of sports medicine and, serving as team doctor for the local high school  and for Kent State University, he became known as “the football doctor.”

After retiring at 70, he learned to play the accordion, and played in a polka band.

He and his wife had six children. One son, Mike, was an outstanding  running back at Northwestern,  then played six years in the NFL,  for the Kansas City Chiefs, the New York Jets, and the Chicago Bears.    Later,  Mike Adamle  worked as a television commentator.

Tony Adamle served as  proof that Paul Brown “always wanted his players to better themselves, and he wanted us known for being more than just football players.”

But, he added, “I came up from the mud. I owe everything I’ve got to football."


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING TONY ADAMLE

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK LOUISIANA
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY
 



   



*********** QUIZ:  At Woodbury, New Jersey High (suburban Philadelphia) he was  an all-state quarterback.

Although he was  also a very good catcher who drew interest from major league baseball teams, he chose  to go to Penn State and play football.

Playing quarterback in Rip Engle’s run-heavy Wing-T offense, he seldom threw.  But in those days of two-way football,  he also played defense.  And in addition, he punted and kicked extra points.

In his senior year, Penn State tied Pitt and lost narrowly to Army and Syracuse (and legendary running back Jim Brown), while upsetting Ohio State, 7-6.

After the season, knowing that Cleveland’s Paul Brown was desperately in search of a successor to the great Otto Graham, Engle recommended our guy, telling Brown, “He’s always the first one on the field.  He studies game films zealously and he never gets upset under fire.”

Brown must have listened, because in the NFL draft they took our guy with their second pick. (They’d taken  Jim Brown in the first round.)

He spent five years with the Browns, and was twice named All-Pro. During that time, the Browns were very good - just not quite good enough. Twice, the Giants beat them to the NFL championship game, and once the Eagles did.

In 1960, he completed a league-high 60.4 per cent of his passes, throwing for 21 touchdowns while  throwing only five interceptions.  The Browns finished 8-3-1, good enough for second in the East behind the Eagles, who finished 10-2. The Eagles would go on to defeat the Green Bay Packers  to win the NFL title.

For two seasons, his understudy at Cleveland was Len Dawson, who would go on to sign with the AFL and play his way to pro football immortality.

After an article was published claiming  that he had called the Browns’ offense “stereotyped,” and had criticized Brown’s rigid system of calling plays for his quarterbacks, that was enough for Paul Brown.  Despite his insistence that he had said no such things. he was traded to Detroit in a six-player deal that also included Lions’ quarterback Jim Ninowski. 

In his first year at Detroit, the Lions finished 11-3, just behind the Packers in the NFL West, but for the rest of his six years there, they went into decline, and he was off-and-on as the starting QB.

“Detroit was notorious for changing quarterbacks,” he remembered. “Whenever something went wrong,  they yanked the quarterback.  It was between Bobby Layne and Tobin Rote, Rote and Earl Morrall, Earl and I, Karl Sweetan and I.”

He wound up his career with the Rams, where he backed up Roman Gabriel, and then with the Giants,  where he backed up  Fran Tarkenton and Gary Wood before retiring after the 1969 season.

In his career, he completed 1,306 passes (2,419 attempts) for 17,536 yards and 122 TDs.  He also rushed for 531 yards.

Asked years later about career highlights,  he said, “One of them is that I played professional football for 13  seasons.

“This may surprise you, but my ambition was to play baseball. I almost didn’t go to college. All my life was baseball, baseball, baseball. It came down to, ‘In football, you either make the NFL or you don’t.’

“When I got out of college in June 1957, it was too late to try minor league baseball. At that time pro football started in July. I got drafted number two, so I tried out with the Browns. I made it, and I hung around football for 13 years.”





TUESDAY,  OCTOBER 22,  2024    “If you set out to be liked, you would be prepared to compromise on anything at any time, and you would achieve nothing.”  Margaret Thatcher

*********** Wisdom from Mike Lude:    “Having played football in high school and college, I was hardly a stranger to getting chewed out in words that covered a broad range in the vernacular of profanity. I thought I had heard it all.

”That was before I was confronted by Lieutenant Colonel A. T.  Hunt, commanding officer of the US Marine amphibious tractor group, the military unit with which I was training prior to being sent into battle in the Pacific theater during World War II.

“The setting was Camp Pendleton, on the coast of Southern California. The mood was edgy because we knew the job ahead would be extremely dangerous. We were going island-hopping through the South Pacific against well-entrenched Japanese defenders. The names of these remote locations were to become too familiar to most Americans and military historians because of the heavy casualties incurred by allied forces.

“My amphibious landing unit was scheduled to move out in late January 1945, but I still had not received the appropriate orders. As the date neared, I was called into the office of Colonel Hunt, a place I rarely visited. He proceeded to give me the chewing out of a lifetime, shouting and screaming obscenities, a performance that confused me as much as it intimidated me.

“The gist of the blowout was that somehow, someone in high places – like Washington, DC – had used influence to prevent me from being sent into battle. Eyes blazing in contempt, Colonel Hunt said bluntly: “Obviously,  your father is a politician or he has connections in Washington.”  He uttered a string of bleep words, describing me, my ancestors, and the bleeping shame of what has been done on my behalf.”

“When he caught his breath I tried to plead my innocence, explaining that my dad was a sharecropper on a farm in rural Michigan who didn't have a high school education and didn't even know the township commissioner in Kalamazoo County.

Waving a finger in my face and pressing close, the Marine officer said: “Well, you can’t fool me, you bleep, bleep, bleep.”




*********** Friday night, we took an expected ass-kicking, losing to Tumwater High, 55-0. They really do a masterful job of running that Wing-T.  What else can I say without making it sound like  I enjoyed watching theM run through us?

This week, we play the OTHER Tumwater school - Black Hills High.

There are two high schools in the Tumwater School District, Tumwater High and Black Hills High.

Tumwater is a city of about 25,000 that adjoins the state capital, Olympia, and it is definitely upper-middle class.

Unlike most cities of similar size that have two high schools, there is almost no rivalry whatsoever between the two schools, a condition that I call almost criminal.

Consider: this year, Tumwater High is 6-0; Black Hills is 3-4.

Over the last ten years, Black Hills’ record is 48-50; Tumwater’s is 108-15.

In that time, Black Hills has had five winning seasons; Tumwater has had seven seasons with 10 or more wins.

In the last five seasons, Black Hills has had one winning season (6-4 in 2022); in that same time, Tumwater has had two 14-win seasons and a total of 53 wins.

I could go on and on.  I don’t know the last time Black Hills has beaten Tumwater.

Now - not to demean Black Hills in any way - they’re our opponents Friday.  They need a win as badly as we do, and they’re quite capable of beating us.

But isn’t there someone in that town willing to stand up and ask why this disparity  has existed for years, and why the district isn’t making an effort to see to it that BOTH schools in the district excel?



***********   GAMES  I RECORDED THIS WEEKEND…

FRIDAY NIGHT


DUKE 23, FLORIDA STATE 16 -  From the Raleigh News-Observer: “The school that sued the ACC to get out because it's allegedly too good for the league is now 1 and 6  after losing to Duke for the first time in recorded human history.” I love it.

OREGON 35,  PURDUE 0 - Less than seven days after a massive effort against Ohio State, the Ducks played a game three time  zones away and took care of business.


BYU 38, OKLAHOMA STATE 35 - Cowboys scored to go ahead 35-31, but they left 1:13 on the clock.  All the Cougars needed was 1:03 of that, scoring on a 35 yard pass with :10 remaining to stay undefeated.


FRESNO STATE 24,  NEVADA  21 - Bulldogs were down, 21-17 at the half.



SATURDAY

MIAMI 52,  LOUISVILLE 45 - Louisville’s Jeff Brohm was a bit upset over an apparent Louisville scoop and score that was ruled an incomplete pass, adding fuel to the accusations around the ACC that Miami is getting favored treatment by officials.
 

CLEMSON 48,  VIRGINIA  31 - The Tigers are now 6-1, and that opening game loss to Georgia  doesn’t look all that bad now, does it?


INDIANA 56, NEBRASKA 7 - Wow. And Nebraska, everyone agreed, had a good defense.  Ralph Russo in The Athletic asks:  “Who is going to beat these guys?” And then he answers: “Maybe bad luck?” (QB Kurtis Rourke had to leave Saturday’s game with an injury to this throwing-hand thumb.



MISSOURI 21, AUBURN 17 - The Tigers (Missouri) had to score twice in the fourth quarter to come from behind and pick up win number 6.


ARMY 45, EAST CAROLINA 28 - It started out as a yawner, and then Army chose not to pile on. Instead of being beaten into submission,  ECU actually looked stronger at the end. Part of the reason, in my opinion: those of us who follow Army closely recognized quickly that there was more - much more - than the usual amount of shotgun offense, and a lot less of the under-center triple option.    Look, Army QB Bryson Daily is a heck of a player, and if it were up to me I’d consider him a Heisman favorite.  But Army has a lot of talented players, and it makes no sense to me for Daily to be the runner on close to 60 per cent of their running plays (31 of 54). Couple of questions come to mind: (1) is Army showcasing Daily? That’s semi-understandable, but it’s also exposing him to injury in a game that’s already won;  and (2) THIS is the one that bothers me, and it irks me to have to ask it again - is Army coach Jeff Monken showcasing Jeff Monken’s shotgun offense?


WISCONSIN 23, NORTHWESTERN  3 - Sheesh. Imagine sitting through a game like this. Northwestern passed for 82 yards and rushed for 127. They had nine first downs.


UCLA 35, RUTGERS 32 - Rutgers scored late and tried an onside kick. A Bruin fielded the kick and returned it for a score. BUT - another Bruin had signaled for a fair catch. No harm. Bruins took three knees and got out of Jersey with their first-ever league win as a Big Ten member.


WAKE FOREST 23, UCONN 20 - Wake’s running game was so ineffective that when it needed to hang into the ball at the end, it couldn’t get a first down.


CINCINNATI 24, ARIZONA STATE 14 -  Both teams are now 5-2. Sun Devils missed QB Sam Leavitt. Their kicker was 0-for-2 on field goal attempts, and afterward, said Boy Coach Kenny Dillingham, "Our kicking game’s atrocious, so if you can kick and you’re at Arizona State, email me. We're going to have kicking tryouts on Monday, so bring it on. Kicking tryouts Monday and let's go. “  What a child.


SOUTH CAROLINA 35,  OKLAHOMA 9  - OU turned the ball over on their first three possessions. They’d run nine offensive plays and South Carolina led, 21-0.

John Hoover, si.com writes -

NORMAN — Saturday revealed the painful truth: Oklahoma is out of its league.

Literally, the Sooners do not belong in the Southeastern Conference.

Not yet, at least.

South Carolina, a traditional SEC doormat and a team that nearly upset both LSU and Alabama this year but came to town for the first time ever with a 1-3 conference record, shocked the Sooners and a whited-out crowd of 83,331 on an otherwise picturesque Saturday afternoon at Owen Field. The final score was 35-9, and USC led 32-3 at halftime — OU’s biggest halftime deficit at home since 1998.

This was supposed to be the easiest SEC game on a demanding OU schedule. Instead, it was a blaring alarm for the Sooners’ proud football program: Welcome to the SEC.

Still to come: Ole Miss, Missouri, Alabama, LSU


TENNESSEE 24, ALABAMA 17 - Exciting game. Somebody had to win.  Jalen Milroe was 24 of 45 for 239 yards and a TD. BUT he did throw two interceptions and - even more concerning, considering that he’s one of the best running quarterbacks in the country,  he carried 14 times for just 11 yards.  A trademark of a DeBoer team: Tennessee outrushed Bama, 214-75.


NOTRE DAME 31,  GEORGIA TECH 13 - Is Georgia Tech without Haynes King a good team?  No?  Then we still don’t know how good Notre Dame is, do we?


ILLINOIS 12,  MICHIGAN 7 - This one exposed Michigan, but it also exposed Texas, because before Saturday, the win over Michigan was Texas’ best by far.   Texas’ best win now: 51-3 over Louisiana-Monroe (5-1)


NAVY 51,  CHARLOTTE 17 - I  wrote, “This could get bad.” It did, and in a hurry.  It was 38-0 with 10:00 left in the second quarter.

 
NC STATE 24,  CAL 23 - Ho-hum.  Cal lost another close one, once again because of a missed field goal at the end.  Cal (3-4) has lost four games by a total of nine points.


KANSAS 42, HOUSTON 14 - Jayhawks ended a five-game losing streak in a game played at Kansas City’s Arrowhead Stadium while their own stadium undergoes renovation. Considering the team’s dismal record and the fact that Arrowhead is some 50 miles from campus, I don’t consider the announced attendance of 38,000 (which only half-filled the stadium) to be all that bad.


WASHINGTON STATE 42,  HAWAII 10 - If the Pac-12 were still intact, the Cougars would be in second place,  right behind Oregon, the nation’s number one team.

MARYLAND 29,  USC 28 - The beautiful thing about a name school like USC is that even when they’re having an off-year, a win over them calls for storming the field.  A fan asked John Canzano: was it worth it to USC to blow up the Pac-12 so they could go to Minnesota and Maryland and lose?

COLORADO 34,  ARIZONA 7  - And the Wildcats were three-point favorites?  Don’t look now, but the Buffs are 5-2 - one win away from bowl-eligibility.

NEW MEXICO 50,  UTAH STATE 45 - Lobos have now won three in a row.

LSU 34,  ARKANSAS 10  - That’ll teach me to pick the Hogs.

VANDERBILT 24,  BALL STATE 14 - Bring on the Longhorns!

GEORGIA 30,  TEXAS 15 - (Ahem) I’m going with UGA. Hey, Texas - I know Georgia’s defense is really good, but 29 yards rushing?  Even if you don’t take away 34 yards lost attempting to pass, that’s still just 63 yards rushing?  And you were the Number One team in the country?

IOWA STATE 38, UCF 35  - The Cyclones trailed much of the way until, down 35-30, they scored with :30 left and made the 2-point conversion to become 7-0.

KANSAS STATE 45,  WEST VIRGINIA 18 - I could have made us all rich:  “The Wildcats are only three-point favorites?  I would take all of that that I could.” Mountaineers’ coach Neal Brown:  KSU is the best team in the Big 12.

MEMPHIS 52, NORTH TEXAS 44 - Memphis is now 6-1, with their only loss coming to Navy. I’d say they’re in contention for the Group of 5 spot in The Playoff.

FLORIDA 48,  KENTUCKY 20  - Has any team with a zombie coach played any better than these Gators are playing? They’ve won three of their last four and the loss was by six points at Tennessee.

SMU 40, STANFORD 10 -  The Mustangs had 501 yards of offense. Stanford had 33 yards rushing (-10 in sacks).  The Cardinal’s passing:  173 yards in 37 attempts, or 4.7 yards per attempt.

COLORADO STATE 21, AIR FORCE 13 - The Rams outrushed the Zoomies and outpassed them, and picked up their first win at Air Force in 22 years.  All 13 of the Air Force points came in the fourth quarter.

UNLV 33,  OREGON STATE 25 - Beavers were stopped at the end, and they now have the distinction of losing to Nevada schools two weeks in a row.

TCU 13,  UTAH  7 - Utes’ OC Andy Ludwig “resigned” after the game



*********** Ralph Russo on Notre Dame’s chances: 

Army and Navy are now a combined 13-0 overall and 10-0 in the American Athletic Conference, stacking up blowout victories. Army has yet to trail this season.

At this point, the possibility of Army and Navy playing in the AAC title game is looking fairly likely.

Remember, the academies don’t play a conference regular-season game. Their annual rivalry game is still scheduled for the week after championship games are played and the CFP field is set.

Tulane plays Navy and will still have something to say about who wins the AAC, but the biggest beneficiary of the success of Army and Navy could be Notre Dame.

The Fighting Irish have been methodically recovering from being upset by Northern Illinois and have ripped off five straight victories, smothering Georgia Tech on Saturday facing the Yellow Jackets’ backup quarterback.

Notre Dame hoped to get a strength-of-schedule boost from games against Florida State (1-6) and USC (3-4) in November. Not happening.

The Irish play Navy next week at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium, home of the Giants and Jets, then return to the New York area the weekend before Thanksgiving to play Army at Yankee Stadium in what Notre Dame calls its Shamrock Series — basically home games away from home.

Army and Navy have been great stories, but the fact is their unbeaten records don’t have much meat on them. Especially Army’s.

So while beating the service academies should give the Irish a lift, they’re not the type of opponents that Notre Dame would likely be able to use as a high-quality loss.



*********** Already fired…

East Carolina - Head Coach
Southern Miss - Head Coach
Oklahoma - Offensive Coordinator
Oh - and after 10 years, off and on, as Utah’s offensive coordinator, Andy Ludwig “resigned.”


*********** Sam Acho is a bright guy and he’s well-spoken and has a lot to say.  The problem is, he insists on saying it all every chance he gets.

And it annoys the sh— out of me to hear his broadcast partner continually call him “Acho.”


*********** The Georgia-Texas officials’ decision, well after the fact,  to change a call that everyone knew was non-reviewable, could only have been reached because spectator misconduct in the act of protesting the original decision gave them the time (as well as several views of the stadium Jumbotron) to do so.

In addition, it’s possible that fear of further mob action intimidated them

Fortunately, the ruling, coming as it did as Texas seemed in the process of making a comeback,  did not influence the outcome of the game.

Said Kirby Smart after the game, referring to official Matt Loeffler,

“Yeah, [Loeffler], uh, he just said the guy got it wrong.   The guy called it on the wrong guy, which, it took him a long time to realize that, you know. So it’s one of those things that I don’t know what I’m allowed to say and not say, so I won’t comment because I want to respect the wishes of the SEC office. But I will say that now we’ve set a precedent that if you throw a bunch of stuff on the field and endanger athletes, that you’ve got a chance to get your call reversed. And that’s unfortunate, because to me that’s dangerous. That’s not what we want. And that’s not criticizing the officials. That’s what happened.”

Said the SEC in its statement:

“The game officials gathered to discuss the play, which is permitted to ensure the proper penalty is enforced, at which time the calling official reported that he erred, and a foul should not have been called for defensive pass interference. Consequently, Texas was awarded the ball at the [Georgia] 9-yard line.”

Uh, SEC fellas:  they only “gathered to discuss the play”  because play was halted when Texas fans began  throwing sh—  onto the field. 




***********   To create the illusion of leather helmets for Illinois’ special commemoration of Red Grange’s great day 100 years ago, it was estimated that an artist spent  two hours doing so. Per helmet.  I’d bet the artist charged $100 an hour, and I’m guessing that he/she did 100 helmets.

Now, it’s their money, and they got it fair and square - by holding up gullible TV networks - and they can do with it as they please, but while they’re spending upwards of $20,000 on artwork on helmets, I’ll bet that there’s a high school somewhere in America that can’t afford to equip its football team.

They did a decent job of replicating the Illini jerseys of 1924, but they didn’t go so far as to make the players wear  black hightop shoes, and they probably fended off a mutiny when they told the players that they wouldn’t have to cover their knees.



*********** I heard Nick Saban on College Game Day  say that to his players, for whatever reason,  Tennessee was THE big game - that there might have been times when he had to get them up even for Auburn, but NEVER for Tennessee.


*********** The things you learn:  14 of the 18 Big Ten quarterbacks who started their teams’ first games were transfers.


***********  Saw lots of Kamala ads on Saturday’s games.

She’ll end price gouging! Trump wants to cut your social security!  He’ll ask if you want fries!



***********   John Canzano asks…   UNLV? Did it look worthy of being a Pac-12 member? I thought so. NFL stadium, emerging TV market, growing city, and a football program that is 6-1. I know the Rebels committed to the Mountain West and signed a memo of understanding, but when it comes to conference realignment, is anything over until it’s over?


*********** After watching Alabama try to field an onside kick against South Carolina last week and East Carolina doing the same against Army this past week…

Doesn’t anybody practice the act of recovering loose balls?



*********** Interesting how the Georgia-Texas game illustrated a theory that I’ve been tossing back and forth since the start of this season, and our team’s encounters with running quarterbacks…

If you’re running the officially certified offense (shotgun, one running back) you’d better have a QB who can run.

Without one, defenses are able to employ simple logic: uh, they’ve got only one guy in their backfield who can run.  Gee - who do you suppose is going to be running the ball?


*********** Okay, time to play their silly game…
Potential playoff teams:
Big Ten: Oregon, Ohio State, Penn State, Indiana

Big 12: Iowa State, Kansas State, BYU

ACC: Miami, Clemson, SMU

Notre Dame

SEC: Georgia, Texas, Tennessee, A&M, LSU

G5: Boise, Army, Navy, UNLV, Memphis



*********** Before Saturday’s Georgia-Texas game, I saw something crawl across the screen. It said that Georgia was 2-6 all-time against teams ranked Number One.

I’m  not sure what that was supposed to mean, because if was to suggest that the Bulldogs hadn’t done well -  is there anybody with a WINNING record against number ones?



***********   “A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.”
Robert Heinlein


Evidently, I need to brush up on my invasion planning.


*********** WTF kind of people are we becoming?

When Oregon receiver Traeshon Holden was thrown out of the Ducks’ game Ohio State for spitting on a Buckeyes player,  he became the third player ejected this season for the same disgusting act.

Earlier that same day, Memphis running back Mario Anderson, Jr. was tossed out of the Tigers’ game against South Florida for the same offense, and back in late August, SMU DB Brandon Crossley became the first known offender, in the Mustangs’ game at Nevada.

After guys do something so revolting, I wonder if their teammates and coaches stand around them and console them the way they do after an ejection for targeting, going, “There, there…that’s okay.  We got your back.”

***********  With just days left before the start of basketball season, Virginia’s Tony Bennett announced he was retiring.

By Mike Barber,  AP News


CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) — Describing himself as “a square peg in a round hole,” a tearful Tony Bennett said Friday he suddenly retired from coaching at Virginia because he wasn’t suited to navigate the current landscape of college basketball.

Bennett — dressed in his signature suit-minus-tie look — told those gathered at his exit news conference that name, image and likeness money and the transfer portal have brought elements to the job that he’s “not great at.”

“I looked at myself and I realized, I’m no longer the best coach to lead this program,” Bennett said with athletic director Carla Williams seated next to him. “If you’re going to do it, you’ve got to be all in. You’ve got to have everything. And if you do it half-hearted, it’s not fair to the university and those young men. That’s what made me step down.”

The guy’s 55 years old, and certainly seems to have plenty left in the tank.

Why aren’t  football coaches doing this?

1. Not everyone is a Tony Bennett, who knows when it’s time

2. They may hate their jobs and the climate of today’s college football, but they’re making so much f—king money that they’d consider giving their souls to the devil before they’d let those $500,000 a month electronic deposits stop.

3. They have many, many people dependent on them, and once they get out of the game, all those assistants and analysts and whatnots will have to go looking for other work.

4. They feed the  ultimate in bloodsuckers - agents, who stop making money the instant their clients stop making money.



***********  Once, when asked if he was working on a book, historian David McCullough replied, “I feel like I work IN a book. It’s like putting myself under a spell. It’s almost like hypnosis.”

He said he saw himself as “a foreign correspondent whose task was to report not from another country but from the past”.


***********   Coach 

We played the first double-wing team we've seen in quite some time on Friday.  (BTW just from your explanations in News I think the coach got his offense from a different source).  The team has a new head coach and has traditionally struggled (1-7 this year), but they have a ton of freshmen and sophomores,and a new administration who actually cares so there may be some long term hope.

One thing I noticed is that their offense did have a 7 and one 8 minute drive in a 40-0 game, which helped keep it respectable.  They for whatever reason went spread on two drives which resulted in 6 plays and 30 seconds off the clock. Seems to me getting some first downs and having some successes is way better than a 30 second possession.  Plus, we weren't trying to embarrass them, but having less chances to score helped.

My personal belief having coached or had close observation of several offenses  is that no offense has a ceiling - talent makes everything better - but some offenses have a distinct talent floor.

Army and Navy still look good!

My random .02,

Thanks,

Michael Anthony Burchett, Jr., Ed.D.
Principal, Woodlake High School
Woodlake, California


***********   Myron Rolle. I watched him accept his degree in FSU's basketball arena, but don't recall if it was a Bachelor's or Master’s.

Eleven unbeatens remain in FBS. That number will be eight on Monday.

John Vermillion                    
St Petersburg, Florida
It’s Monday night, and with Texas gone, I count 10-

Army, BYU, Indiana, Iowa State, Liberty, Miami, Navy, Oregon, Penn State, Pitt


***********   Hugh,

40-0?  Me thinks the Bobcats have finally figured out what it means to play a perfect game!  Congrats!  Keep it going tonight!

Notre Dame's game at Georgia Tech on Saturday will be a major test, but frankly, the remainder of the Irish schedule no longer looks like a cakewalk.  Army and Navy loom as upset alerts, and USC has always found a way to crash an Irish winning season.  Army and Navy are LEGIT, and USC has the athletes to match ND's best.  It's going to be season ending schedule nail biters for Irish fans.

Illinois has another good RB in its latest showdown with Michigan.  BUT...he's NOT Red Grange!  Yet this Illini team and its throw-back uniforms is better than this edition of the Wolverines.

Gotta go with Texas over Georgia at DKR stadium.  DKR holds just over 100,000.  Georgia fans might fill 5,000 of those seats.  But 95,000 screaming Longhorn fans will make the difference.

Another college in Texas will resume playing football.  Schreiner University in Kerrville (west of San Antonio) will start play in 2026 at the Division III level.  The Mountaineers last played the game between the early 1920's and the late 1950's.  They will play in the SCAC (Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference) against McMurry (TX), Austin College (TX), Texas Lutheran, Centenary (LA), Lyon (AR), and Hendrix (AR). There are currently 47 colleges (four year and two year) playing football in Texas.

Enjoy the weekend!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas

 



*********** QUIZ ANSWER:  Myron Rolle could have been a pro football player.  Instead, he chose to become  a neurosurgeon. Nothing against pro football players, you understand, but last I heard, when your child needs brain surgery, you don’t go looking for a quarterback.

He was born in Houston to Bahamian parents, who shortly after his birth returned briefly to The Bahamas before returning to the US and settling in South Jersey, in a place just west of Atlantic City called Galloway Township.

He obviously was identified  as an academically gifted youngster, because he attended two different highly-regarded New Jersey prep schools.  First was the Peddie School, where he played football, basketball and track, while also playing saxophone in the school band, singing in a school play and editing the school yearbook.

After transferring to the Hun School, about 30 minutes away, he maintained a 4.0 GPA while as a linebacker earning recognition by ESPN’s rating service as the top college prospect in the country.

He chose to play college football at Florida State, where was moved to  safety.

While earning All-ACC honors as well as being named to the AP All-American third team, he was also able to earn his bachelor’s degree in less than three years, with a 3.75 GPA at that.

He was named a  finalist for a prestigious Rhodes Scholarship, but the Rhodes committee doesn’t pay a lot of attention to football, and it scheduled his final interview for the same day, in Birmingham, that the Seminoles were to play Maryland in College Park.  Fortunately for him, the NCAA made a special allowance for him to fly by chartered plane from the interview site to the game, and he wound up winning twice that day - on the field, where the Seminoles won, and off the field, when it was announced, just before the game, that he  had won the Rhodes Scholarship.

He became only the fourth FSU student ever to win the award.

Graduating a year early, he announced that he would postpone any NFL career in order to study at Oxford University under terms of the Rhodes Scholarship.

After earning a masters degree at Oxford in medical anthropology, he returned to the states and signed to play with the Tennessee Titans.

He spent two years with the Titans without ever getting into an NFL game, and spent a third season on the Steelers’ practice squad before announcing his intention to attend medical school full-time.

In a process that takes several years, he earned his MD at Florida State College of Medicine, and then spent his residency in neurosurgery at Harvard and at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Part of his motivation to become a neurosurgeon was the death of an aunt in the Bahamas, who died from a brain injury after being hit by a car. 

“It was a preventable death,” he said, noting the deplorable lack of medical services where  she lived.   “If this injury happened in Boston with us right now, she would be alive, eating peas and rice, going to church and singing like she always used to do.”

Myron Role is a Christian.  He and his wife, a pediatric dentist, have four children - two sets of twins - and now live in the Orlando area.

His 2022 book, “The 2% Way: How a Philosophy of Small Improvements Took Me to Oxford, the NFL, and Neurosurgery," is part biographical and part motivational, and tells of many of  the lessons he learned from his coaches.


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING MYRON ROLLE

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOW GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
MIKE BURCHETT - WOODLAKE, CALIFORNIA
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
MIKE FORISTIERE - MARSING, IDAHO
JASON MENSING - ENGLEWOOD, FLORIDA
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY





*********** QUIZ:   He was born in Fairmont, West Virginia to parents who were immigrants from Slovenia.

When he was a child, his family moved to Cleveland, and he attended Collinwood High School, where the sports editor of the Cleveland Press called him “without question the best high school player I have ever seen in action.”

In his words, (years later) “I went to Collinwood High School and majored in machine shop. I was voted ‘Least Likely to Succeed.’   The only thing I did was play football. The thing that changed me was, my last year in high school, I made All-Ohio. All of a sudden I'm somebody. When I got to be a senior, people are coming to look me up to go to school here and there. People I've never heard of  were coming to my house. That's when I started waking up a little bit.”

As a senior, named All-Ohio by both the Associated Press and United Press International, he was selected by the Cleveland Press to an All-Star team that played a postseason game in Florida.

After graduation, he was recruited to Ohio State by new head coach Paul Brown,  and  played linebacker on their undefeated freshman team. But with World War II going on, he served in the Army Air Corps, seeing action in the Mediterranean and Middle East,  and  didn’t return to Ohio State until 1946.

“I only spent about two months at Ohio State. I played on the freshman team, then I went into the service. I enlisted in the Air Corps because all my buddies were gone and everybody from the fraternity was gone. This was in fall. Football season was over. The war was going on. Buddies of yours were getting killed, so we all went. I had just turned 18. ‘The hell with it,’  I said. The service really changed me around.  I probably would've been in jail, otherwise. I was a heck of a thief. I could steal anything. I did everything you're not supposed to do. Three years in the service really woke me up.”

In 1946 he played his only year of college varsity football.

“I originally went to Ohio State to play for Paul Brown, but he left before I came back from the service. I had three years of eligibility left, but I was really unhappy at Ohio State. We lost a lot of games, and I was sitting on the bench. We got beat by Michigan something like 50 to 6. Dante Lavelli was my roommate and I said ‘Dante, I'm not going through this crap again.’”

A new rule permitted servicemen to sign pro contracts before graduating.   So,  after being drafted by the Chicago Bears of the NFL, our guy chose instead to sign with the Cleveland Browns in the year-old All-American Football Conference (AAFC). The Browns, who had just won the AAFC championship in  their first season,  were coached by none other than Paul Brown, who had already signed a number of former Buckeyes, including  Lou Groza, Dante Lavelli, Bill Willis, and Gene Fekete.

Interestingly, before reporting to the Browns’ training camp, our guy first played in that summer’s College All-Star Game against the NFL’s defending champions - the Chicago Bears. “We beat the hell out of the Bears,” he recalled,  “in front of the biggest crowd in history, 103,000 people."

He wound up playing six seasons with the Browns.  Very few players in the history of pro football can touch  his record of playing on five  championship teams (AAFC/NFL) in six professional football seasons.

At a solid 6 foot, 215, he originally came to the Browns as a fullback, but with an already established future Hall-of-Famer at that position in Marion Motley, he wound up spending the better part of his career on defense, as a linebacker.

He was good.  He played in the first two Pro-Bowl games  and was named an All-Pro linebacker in 1951.

In the  three seasons he played on offense, the Browns ranked either first, second, or third in  points scored and  yards passing and yards  rushing.

In the  six seasons that  he  played on defense, the Browns ranked either first, second, or third each year in fewest  points allowed and fewest  yards allowed passing and rushing.

Although no official all-time all-AAFC team has ever been named, it's generally conceded that he would've been no worse than second team as a linebacker.

He was admired by his teammates as a leader, many of them recalling that he did not hesitate to stand up to the autocratic Brown.   Brown actually came to respect his candor,  and named him team captain after Lou Saban retired.

He was admired for his intelligence.     Said Paul Brown, he was “perhaps as intelligent a player as I ever had.” 

He was admired for his toughness.  Recalled former Browns’ teammate Ara Parseghian years later, "He dressed once with an ankle as big as a balloon. I thought there was no way he'd play, but he did. There's nobody in the game today who is tougher than (him).”  Added Paul Brown, “He gives this team its attitude. He’s a fighter all the way.”

He was the Browns’ captain in 1950, the year they entered the NFL and shocked the football world by winning  the championship of the long-established  league.

“Paul Brown made me his captain in Cleveland, and I don't know why he ever did that.  The team didn't choose captains. He made guys captains. That was probably the greatest day of my life, when he did that. I guess part of the reason he did it is because I always told him the damn truth. I didn't feel like I had any kind of special relationship with him.  He didn't want that. If he wanted to get some points across, he’d just throw them at me. I didn't pull any punches. No matter what I thought. I talked back to him, and I could get along with the guys.  That was the big thing.

“I'd get guys raises, because the guy would listen to me. When he used to come down to the final cut, he always brought somebody in from the team to see what we thought about who should be playing. One year, it came down between Don Shula and another guy. The other guy was a real flashy guy who could run like hell, and Shula was a guy who just trudged along. He wasn't a real special athlete or anything but he always got the job done. I said, ‘I think when going’s tough, we should have Shula. Shula puts out to the end.’

“He traded the other guy. We kept Shula. If he had been put on waivers, he’d be teaching down at Mentor High School now. Life is funny, the little tiny breaks that make things happen.”

He eventually  earned a bachelor’s degree from Kent State University in 1950.

Here’s how he explained that:  “I had always had it in the back of my mind that I was going to go to medical school, but I never thought it could happen. It was one of my fantasies, you might say, because I looked up to doctors.

“Brown encouraged me, so the winter quarter and the spring quarter and half the summer I went back to school, to Kent State, because it was closer than Ohio State. On the side, I was taking all these anatomy courses, and I was doing good in them. I got my degree in phys ed, then I got my masters degree in phys ed and then I looked at the degree and I said, “What the hell do I know?”  I didn't know anything. It was just a piece of paper.  It was just a bunch of BS and I can BS with anybody. I had a minor in physiology and physics, so I had all of my pre-med work done. I said, ‘I got two kids. The hell with it. I'm gonna shoot the works.’ So I went to med school when I was 27 years old.”

He retired from football after the 1951 season, but in 1954,  after three years of retirement (and medical school studies), he was enticed to return - but only under the condition that he would have to practice just one day a week. In his absence, the Browns had lost three straight NFL championship games, but with him back in the lineup,  they beat Detroit, 56-10, to win their first NFL title since the year they’d entered the league.

With his winner’s share of $2,478, he could afford to retire from football for good.

Two years later, he was a full-fledged doctor, receiving his MD degree from Western Reserve University.

He  practiced medicine  in Kent, Ohio for the next 38 years.

He became an early specialist in the field of sports medicine and, serving as team doctor for the local high school  and for Kent State University, he became known as “the football doctor.”

After retiring at 70, he learned to play the accordion, and played in a polka band.

He and his wife had six children. One son, Mike, was an outstanding  running back at Northwestern,  then played six years in the NFL,  for the Kansas City Chiefs, the New York Jets, and the Chicago Bears.    Later,  he  worked as a television commentator.

He took pride in being an example for Paul Brown, who “always wanted his players to better themselves, and he wanted us known for being more than just football players.”

But, he added, “I came up from the mud. I owe everything I’ve got to football."



FRIDAY,  OCTOBER 18,  2024    “To read our history is to say, ‘We got through that.’”  Peggy Noonan


*********** Wisdom from Mike Lude:    “College was a huge transition for me, getting away from the farm and reaffirming my resolve never to return to that lifestyle. I thought at the time that if I never saw a cow again it would be too soon and the same went for potatoes, no matter how they were prepared. I was finally getting used to indoor plumbing, electric lights, and central heating. I had no problem getting dates with coeds, and as my grades started to improve I became more and more confident.  I had a lot of friends, and I was involved in campus activities. If you were to ask my colleagues at Hillsdale what I was like in those days I think the response would be something like this: ‘He was a very friendly person, an enthusiastic guy who had a lot of energy, who is a very average student and put a premium on liking people. His athletic career was very important to him.’

“The most imposing obstacle for all of us attending college at that time was the prospect of the United States getting involved in the war that had already thrown Europe into turmoil. We had moved from the shadow of the Great Depression to the menace of a global war. We thought about the impending conflict and the threat it posed to our future.

“During my sophomore year in late 1941 I was attending a pancake supper at the Chi Omega sorority house when one of the women rushed into the room, talking about something horrible that had just happened. She said the Japanese had bombed our naval base at Pearl Harbor, in Hawaii. Everybody was in shock. Later we sat around and listened on the radio to President Franklin D Roosevelt's famous declaration-of-war speech.

“A few days later Coach Harwood called a meeting of the football team. He told us about a Marine Corps platoon leader training program that would keep us from being drafted into the military until we finished college. He said we would be able to stick together as a team and graduate and then become Marine officers.

“The proposal sounded great to me. Where do I sign, Coach? On March 4, 1942, a recruiting officer came to Hillsdale, and I enlisted in the Marines. So much for promises. We were not permitted to finish college. By May 1943, as action in the Pacific intensified, many of the men on campus received notices to report for induction. Soon those of us on the football team who had signed up for the Marines received orders to report for active duty in the V–12 program at Denison University in Granville, Ohio.

“I remember many farewells at the bus station, coeds in tears as boyfriends left to report for active duty. Some never came back.”


*********** A bit of ancient Persian wisdom will get us through Friday night’s game against an overpowering foe:  This, too, shall pass.”

And then there’s some wisdom I recently read  in an article in the Wall Street Journal by Peggy Noonan, who once was a speechwriter for Ronald Reagan.

The article was about the Johnstown Flood.  You may never have heard of it, but it remains one of the worst natural disasters ever to occur in our country’s history.  Johnstown, Pennsylvania, a coal and steel town of 15,000 people, was wiped out when a dam in the hills above it burst.   2,000 of its people were killed and hundreds more simply never were found.

Ms. Noonan went on to write about all the sh— we’ve been through as a nation - wars (including a horrible Civil War), floods, hurricanes, fires, epidemics, earthquakes, depressions - and yet somehow we’ve always made it through.

Her key quote:  “To read our history is to say, ‘We got through that.’”

It celebrates the toughness and resilience that were once American characteristics.

Not to put a high school football game on a par with natural disasters that cost people their lives, their health, their treasure and their time (we’re not being forced  to ride out a hurricane)  but  regardless of the outcome of our game, we know we’re going to look at each other afterward and  say, “We got through that.”




***********   GAMES I’LL AT LEAST RECORD THIS WEEKEND…

FRIDAY NIGHT


FLORIDA STATE AT DUKE - Not many times I can remember when  Duke has been a favorite over the Seminoles. Go Devils!

OREGON AT PURDUE -If you’re going to have a let down after a big win over Ohio State, the time to have one is when you're a 28 1/2 point favorite. 

OKLAHOMA STATE AT BYU - BYU is unexpectedly very good; Oklahoma State is unexpectedly very bad.

FRESNO STATE AT NEVADA - Fresno is favored but Nevada is coming off a big win over Oregon State.


SATURDAY

MIAMI AT LOUISVILLE - This should be a tough test for Miami.

VIRGINIA AT CLEMSON - Virginia will not beat Clemson.

NEBRASKA AT INDIANA - Is THIS the week the Hoosiers hit the wall?  Will they hit the wall?

AUBURN AT MISSOURI - Missouri is not as good as I thought they’d be, but they’re better than Auburn and they’re at home.

EAST CAROLINA AT ARMY - Army is favored by two TDs. Unless ECU can really throw the ball and somehow catch Army’s defense napping, I don’t think they have a chance, because they’re NOT going to stop the Army offense.

WISCONSIN AT NORTHWESTERN - Watch this one just to see the way Northwestern has dealt with their stadium situation.

UCLA AT RUTGERS - This was an unthinkable matchup just a couple of years ago. Now, the Bruins are playing in New Jersey (!) and they’re likely to get their asses kicked.  That’ll teach them to listen to those Trojans.

WAKE FOREST AT UCONN - It pains me to see that the Deacs are underdogs.  I’m calling for a Wake Forest win.

ARIZONA STATE AT CINCINNATI - Without QB Sam Leavitt, the Sun Devils are in trouble. I take the Bearcats.

SOUTH CAROLINA AT OKLAHOMA - The Sooners are 4-2. If they get by this one, they still have to play Ole Miss, Missouri, Alabama and LSU. Tell me when it’s over if this is what you expected, Sooner fans.

ALABAMA AT TENNESSEE - It’s the third Saturday in October.  How do you know?  If you live in the South and like 99 per cent of the people you know you follow college football, you know because that’s ALWAYS the day when Alabama and Tennessee play. Two teams that are borderline disappointing.

NOTRE DAME AT GEORGIA TECH - For me, this is the game that tells us whether Notre Dame has been inflated, or whether the Irish are really good.

MICHIGAN AT ILLINOIS - More about this below.  This is a game to watch, for sure

CHARLOTTE AT NAVY - This could get bad.  Navy has the weapons and the offensive scheme to take advantage of them.  Navy QB Blake Horvath is really good.  Receiver Eli Heidenreich is one of the best I’ve seen this year, and running back Alex Tecza is tough and fast. He and Heidenreich were high school teammates in Mount Lebanon, Pennsylvaia.

NC STATE AT CAL - In my opinion, Cal is a good football team that’s lost to some very good teams (Pitt, Miami) while State has been having trouble beating anyone.  When one of the teams has to travel 3,000 miles, bet on the home team.

HOUSTON AT KANSAS - How many of Kansas’ problems are due to the loss of their OC to Penn State?

HAWAII AT WASHINGTON STATE - Wazzu will win.

USC AT MARYLAND - There will probably be a lot of SC fans in the Baltimore-Washington area at the game. I think they’ll find a Trojans team that’s finally figured out how to finish.

COLORADO AT ARIZONA - Wildcats are three-point favorites.  Shedeur Sanders gets all the pub, but Arizona’s Noah Fifita is no slouch.

NEW MEXICO AT UTAH STATE - Lobos under new coach Bronco Mendenhall are now 2-4. They’ve won their last two games, scoring 50  in one and 52 in the other. Lobos QB Devon Dampier is a threat running or passing.

LSU AT ARKANSAS - The Battle for the Boot is a tossup.  I’m going out on a  limb and taking the Hogs.

BALL STATE AT VANDERBILT - Finally, a game in which Vanderbilt is the favorite!

GEORGIA AT TEXAS - I’m going with UGA.

UCF AT IOWA STATE - UCF has been a big disappointment to me and I’d hate to see them be the one to hand the Cyclones their first loss.  I doubt it’ll happen.

KANSAS STATE AT WEST VIRGINIA - The Wildcats are only three-point favorites?  I would take all of that that I could.

NORTH TEXAS AT MEMPHIS - Memphis is good.  They’re 5-1, with their only loss coming to Navy.

KENTUCKY AT FLORIDA - This one is a pick ‘em.  Can Billy Napier save his job?

SMU AT STANFORD - I realize nobody’s been looking, but SMU could wind up being no worse than the ACC’s second-best team.

COLORADO STATE AT AIR FORCE - The Rams are not that good, but they’re favored over a Falcons’ team that’s maybe the worst I’ve ever seen them field.

UNLV AT OREGON STATE - I think the Rebels are going to take it to the Bears.

TCU AT UTAH - Now that Utah has finally decided to stop waiting for Cam Rising, I think they’ll get back to work and play the ball they’re known for.


LATE EDITION (OR, IF YOU WISH, ADDITION)

I don’t usually do this, but long after press time, I received this from my old and good friend, Brad Knight, of Clarinda, Iowa and I felt compelled to print it, not because I felt sorry for him or anything, but because he obviously put in some time and, you must admit, does show occasional flashes of intelligence and wit…DISCLAIMER:  These are NOT the carefully-weighed official picks of coachwyatt.com and as the publisher of this site I must take great pains to disavow myself of any connection whatsoever to Coach Knight’s picks.

FLORIDA STATE AT DUKE - I will take Duke. Free Shoes University is a trainwreck

OREGON AT PURDUE -I will take the Ducks even hungover. Closer than it should be.

OKLAHOMA STATE AT BYU -  The Mormons win big. I'm a man, I'm 40 has disappointed this year.

FRESNO STATE AT NEVADA -  I'll take the blue collar California kids.


SATURDAY

MIAMI AT LOUISVILLE -  I really want to take Miami and believe they are back, but give me Louisville in an upset.

VIRGINIA AT CLEMSON - The fighting Dabo's win big.

NEBRASKA AT INDIANA - Why would I ever cheer for the bugeaters of Nebraska. No dribbles make the pass and give me the Hoosiers.

AUBURN AT MISSOURI -  The Jayhawk in me says never pick Mizzou. But I'll pick Mizzou.

EAST CAROLINA AT ARMY - Give me the Army with the punishing ground game.

WISCONSIN AT NORTHWESTERN - Detest both schools as a Hawkeye fan. I will pick Wiscy to beat the Nerds.

UCLA AT RUTGERS -  Rutgers in a rout.

WAKE FOREST AT UCONN -  Wake Forest because Hugh says so!

ARIZONA STATE AT CINCINNATI - Cincy

SOUTH CAROLINA AT OKLAHOMA -The Gamecocks have played well against 2 quality opponents. This could go either way. I think OU is a hair better on defense than they have been in recent past. Boomer Sooner by a FG.

ALABAMA AT TENNESSEE - Saban is gone. So is the defense at Bama. I won't pick against Bama even if I think it makes sense. Bama in a close one.

NOTRE DAME AT GEORGIA TECH - If the GT I sw in Ireland shows up I would take GT. BUT give me Notre Dame. And yes I think they are "inflated".

MICHIGAN AT ILLINOIS - 2 run based offenses. I will pick the fighting Bielema's to beat the fighting Ex Harbaugh's.

CHARLOTTE AT NAVY - Horvath rushes for 11,000 yards and 20 scores. Navy BIG

NC STATE AT CAL - Cal (pains me to pick the damn liberals)

HOUSTON AT KANSAS -  I'll take the Jayhawks. I think the defense has been the bigger issue. I agree the offense is far less creative and way too predictable this year as well

HAWAII AT WASHINGTON STATE - Give me State. Hawaii would be better as an FCS team.

USC AT MARYLAND - Give me the Trojans.

COLORADO AT ARIZONA - Ugh. Pains me but I'll take the Buffs to right the ship this week.

NEW MEXICO AT UTAH STATE - Mendenhall can coach. Give me the Lobos.

LSU AT ARKANSAS -  I HATE IT. But NOT SO FAST MY FRIEND . LSU has figured out maybe how to win close games. Give me LSWho

BALL STATE AT VANDERBILT - Vandy

GEORGIA AT TEXAS - Game of the week, maybe. I do not like Texas.  I do not like burnt orange. I have never liked Texas. But I do not think UGA is the UGA of old. Texas in a shootout.

UCF AT IOWA STATE - As a Hawkeye I really dislike ISU. As a UNI Panther alumni, I really dislike ISU.  As someone who grew up close to Ames, I dislike ISU. But the in-state fan in me says ISU wins again.

KANSAS STATE AT WEST VIRGINIA - give me the Wild Kitties!

NORTH TEXAS AT MEMPHIS - Memphis.

KENTUCKY AT FLORIDA - Give me the other fighting Stoops brother.

SMU AT STANFORD - Give me "back from the death penalty part 3 to beat Stanford. Can Stanford go back to the days where they just pounded the rock and ran over people? Please?

COLORADO STATE AT AIR FORCE - Sickening what AF is this year. But I'll take them to beat CSU.

UNLV AT OREGON STATE - New QB is better than the 1st. UNLV makes the mob bosses happy.

TCU AT UTAH - the Utes! TCU is not good at all. Or is at best very inconsistent.

***********

***********  I don’t know whether Chip Kelly appreciates irony, but when it came out that Ohio State’s recent loss to Oregon was in some part attributable to a  sly, clever, devious - but legal - maneuver on Oregon’s part, it made me think of him.

Chip Kelly is now Ohio State’s offensive coordinator, and his team was deprived (I can’t  say “cheated”) of a chance to tie the Ducks by a weird rule that benefitted a team committing a penalty in the closing seconds of a game by not restoring the game clock to its pre-penalty setting.

I thought of Oregon’s devious insertion of a 12th man into the Ohio State game and its willingness to incur the penalty - because whether or not Ohio State took the penalty it still ran  time off the clock - and I thought of the early days of Chip Kelly’s racehorse, no-huddle, no-speed-limit offense when he first came to Oregon as their OC.   The scheme that opposing  defenses finally agreed on as the best way to slow the Ducks down was -  a time-out for an injury.


An “injury” at the right time, like intentionally putting 12 men on the field, wasn’t EXACTLY breaking any rules.  I mean, who are we to say that that guy writhing on the ground isn’t actually hurt?  Are YOU a doctor? I didn’t think so.


Chip Kelly, twice  the victim of near-fraud.


For years, I was a big Ducks’ fan.  Not now.  Not now that they’ve gone the super-conference route.  But even if I were, I definitely don’t think that winning in the manner they did - playing football like  a Philadelphia lawyer - would be anything I’d be proud of.


*********** As you probably know, it takes a while to build a new stadium.  In the meantime, life goes on and there’s a football schedule to play. The question becomes: where to play it?

When Northwestern tore down its old stadium and found itself caught itself without one to play in, it faced a choice:  play in Soldier Field (where the Bears play), quite a distance away in Chicago, or play in a somewhat closer soccer stadium used by an MSL team. 

Neither choice seemed right because  the school did not wish to make its students and its fans leave campus for the football experience.   So they decided to stay right on campus, and build a temporary stadium, right on the shores of Lake Michigan.

Its capacity around of 12,000 makes it by far the smallest of any Power 4 conference school, but its uniqueness, its size, and its beautiful lakefront setting have created great demand for seats, to the point that Northwestern has been able to raise ticket prices to the point where they bring in nearly as much revenue as they would have in their larger (but seldom filled)  old stadium.


************* Wednesday night, as our practice at Aberdeen came to an end, the rain had stopped, and the little guys of our youth league, their practices also over, joined  their “battle buddies” - players on the Aberdeen High team for a little buddy time. 


Today (Thursday) I received this from Tom Walls, in Winnipeg, Canada.  Tom is head coach of the Springfield Collegiate Institute Sabres, now 5-2 and in third place in the Provincial (state) standings.

I wanted to share a few things with you. A few weeks back you wrote about a tradition at Aberdeen of mixing high school players and your youth team. I liked this idea so much that we replicated it last week in a brief, combined, practice. I matched players up with "Battle Buddies" and then did some common-denominator drills. Afterwards we asked the youth players to write a letter of support to their high school battle buddy for our upcoming game.

I have included a video of the matching of players, a picture of my nephew (full ride to the University of Manitoba as a LB- an OKG to boot) with his battle buddy, and finally a copy of the letter written by a youth player known as "Wild Bill". It's hilarious.

This was an easy and powerful activity. Parents are still talking about it. Thank you.


    


I wrote to Tom telling him how much I respect and admire his ability to recognize a good idea and his willingness to quickly adapt it for use in his program.

Those are not common traits among coaches, who’ll copy a play in a heartbeat, while  ignoring the importance of the infrastructure.  

The things that Tom does outside of actual football - year-round activities including community service, camps, trips and competitions, and a great newsletter that he sends out regularly to parents and supporters - have enabled him to build what I would call a 360-degree program.  To me, that makes it a program that influences in a positive way almost any and every aspect of  young man’s life, year-round. To me, it’s making the most of the rare opportunity football affords us to reach and influence boys.




***********  Not many people realize that this Saturday’s Michigan-at-Illinois game will honor the 100th anniversary of one of the most important games in the history of American football: the day (October 18, 1924) on which Illinois dedicated its stadium, and before a sellout stadium, against defending champion Michigan,   Illinois junior Red Grange scored four touchdowns against the Wolverines on runs of 96, 65, 54 and 48 yards  - in the first quarter alone!  He went on to score six touchdowns and rush for 402 yards as the Illini smashed Michigan, 39-14. 

(A year later, Grange’s signing to play with the Chicago Bears would be considered the moment that pro football began to arrive as a major American sport.)

It isn’t enough that the Illini’s opponent once again is Michigan, and that once again the Wolverines will be defending national champions.

Or that both teams are ranked.

Oh, no.  The Illini also have to jump the shark by wearing  “throwback uniforms” and “hand-painted helmets,” somewhat on the order of what Grange and his teammates wore.  Don’t want to miss out on the apparel sales, you know.  Needless to say, the helmets won’t be leather.  And the players will all have facemasks.  And - in a real blow to authenticity -  at least one Illini DB will wear pants that come at least a foot sort of covering his knees.

That's Grange in the photo belo.  Where can I buy me one of them cool jerseys?



 

*********** This was copied from the Colorado High School Association’s weekly newsletter…

 



*********** A few things you may like.

Cielo drove in for the game last Friday.

At team dinner before our game I introduced her to the team. I then asked Cielo in
front of the players is there anything she’d like to say. She said yes, and turned to the
players and said, “I want to see the wedge tonight!”

Hugh, the kids just erupted in a roar!

That night our first play was wedge. We  got 3 yards and 2 plays later I ran it and it was the best one we’ve run all year. It went well over 10 yards and even rolled up the safety. The kids started screaming on the sideline yelling “Coach I bet your wife loved that one!” 

 Too funny!

Last Friday Randy graduated from CATS class (Combat Advisory Training Class) at Fort Benning after 6 weeks.

Randy Graduated 9th out of 54. He is back at Fort Bragg and his wife Crystal flew in tonight to spend a day  as she now tests for a special forces unit. A very unique couple for sure Ha.
 
As for Rock he is somewhere (in the Navy, headed for the Middle East) , but he can't tell me.

Take care

Mike Foristiere
Marsing, Idaho

(MIke’s Marsing Huskies are now 4-2.  They’ve had just one season with more than four wins in the last ten years.)


************ Hugh

This is absolutely the easiest quiz you have ever put on your website. At least from my perspective.

The answer is a WKU all time great. His name is Romeo Crennel.

Some time I  will have to tell you a great story about him and a late friend of mine from Owensboro. The story has nothing to do with football.

See you at the next meeting.

David Crump
Western Kentucky alum
Owensboro, Kentucky

***********  Here’s hoping for a miracle versus the Thunderbirds, à la Chaminade versus Ralph Sampson's Cavaliers, an App State (before they came good) versus Michigan. You can be Tony Little and yell you can doooo it!!!

Nice little story about Chris Brown. Figure a way you can add value to any enterprise, and let it know you're available and willing.

Thanks for mentioning Army Bryson Daliy again. I like him for several reasons, but one is that he hasn't run toward the cameras. If you've  seen his high school coach dad in the stands, you instantly intuit  how well dad brought up his boy. Because Bryson's clearly a leader, I hope he receives recognition he hasn't sought. Last we forget, Dylan Gabriel's first commitment was to play at Army. Had he  come to West Point, we might've seen big shifts in the BK offense to accommodate his arm, and might not have honed the ground game we have.

Final comment concerning Army: some considered Bob Anderson (USMA ’60),  one of the best running backs ever at the Academy. He died about a week ago. The short account I read said his heart attack happened as he was preparing his home in West Melbourne,  Florida for the coming hurricanes.

John Vermillion
St. Petersburg, Florida

(I’ve been planning to write about Bob Anderson.  As John Vermillion points out, many people consider him one of Army’s “best running backs ever,” and that includes his teammate, Heisman Award-winning running back Pete Dawkins.)





***********  QUIZ ANSWER: Romeo Crennel  played high school football and baseball in Fort Knox, Kentucky and Amherst, Virginia and was a four-year starter as a defensive lineman at Western Kentucky.

After a season as a graduate assistant at Western, he was hired full-time and spent four years with the Hilltoppers.  From there, he moved to Texas Tech, where he worked under a young defensive coordinator named Bill Parcells.


He then spent two seasons at Ole Miss and a single season at Georgia Tech before being hired by the New York Giants.  After he had been there for two years, head coach Ray Perkins left to coach Alabama, and Bill Parcells was named the Giants’ new head coach.


When Parcells stepped down after winning the Super Bowl, our guy remained with the Giants for two more years before rejoining Parcells as defensive line coach of the Patriots. He spent four years in New England, then four years with the Jets and a year with the Browns before returning to the Patriots, now coached by Bill Belichick, with whom he had worked on the Jets’ staff.

This time he stayed with the Patriots for three seasons before leaving to become head coach of the Browns.

After four seasons in Cleveland he was fired, and then was hired as defensive coordinator at  Kansas City.  When Chiefs’ head coach Todd Haley was fired 13 games into the season, our guy was named interim head coach, and then was given one more full season before being let go.

A year later, he signed a three-year contract to be the Houston Texans’ defensive coordinator under Bill O’Brien.

After O’Brien was fired following an 0-4 start in 2020, Crennel was hired as the interim head coach, making him, at 73 years, 199 days,  the oldest man ever to serve as head coach of an NFL team.  (He and I share the same birthday.)

He broke the record held by the legendary George Halas, founder, owner and long-time coach of the Chicago Bears who retired 55 years earlier, in 1967, at the age of 72 years, 318 days,

And  then, he retired.

Bill Belichick paid him about as high a compliment as he’s ever paid anyone, saying, “People talk about my defensive system, but nobody has worked as closely in the system with me as Romeo has. We’ve been through an awful lot of games, workouts and practices. Of all the people I’ve worked with, I think I have the most history with him.”



CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING ROMEO CRENELL

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOE BREMER - WEST SENECA, NEW YORK
MIKE FORISTIERE - MARSING, IDAHO
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
TOM WALLS - WINNIPEG, MANITOBA
TOM DAVIS - SAN MARCOS, CALIFORNIA
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY


 



*********** QUIZ:  He could have been a pro football player.  Instead, he chose to become  a neurosurgeon. Nothing against pro football players, you understand, but last I heard, when your child needs brain surgery, you don’t go looking for a quarterback.

He was born in Houston to Bahamian parents, who shortly after his birth returned briefly to The Bahamas before returning to the US and settling in South Jersey, in a place just west of Atlantic City called Galloway Township.

He obviously was identified  as an academically gifted youngster, because he attended two different highly-regarded New Jersey prep schools.  First was the Peddie School, where he played football, basketball and track, while also playing saxophone in the school band, singing in a school play and editing the school yearbook.

After transferring to the Hun School, about 30 minutes away, he maintained a 4.0 GPA while as a linebacker earning recognition by ESPN’s rating service as the top college prospect in the country.

He chose to play college football at Florida State, where was moved to  safety.

While earning All-ACC honors as well as being named to the AP All-American third team, he was also able to earn his bachelor’s degree in less than three years, with a 3.75 GPA at that.

He was named a  finalist for a prestigious Rhodes Scholarship, but the Rhodes committee doesn’t pay a lot of attention to football, and it scheduled his final interview for the same day, in Birmingham, that the Seminoles were to play Maryland in College Park.  Fortunately for him, the NCAA made a special allowance for him to fly by chartered plane from the interview site to the game, and he wound up winning twice that day - on the field, where the Seminoles won, and off the field, when it was announced, just before the game, that he  had won the Rhodes Scholarship.

He became only the fourth FSU student ever to win the award.

Graduating a year early, he announced that he would postpone any NFL career in order to study at Oxford University under terms of the Rhodes Scholarship.

After earning a masters degree at Oxford in medical anthropology, he returned to the states and signed to play with the Tennessee Titans.

He spent two years with the Titans without ever getting into an NFL game, and spent a third season on the Steelers’ practice squad before announcing his intention to attend medical school full-time.

In a process that takes several years, he earned his MD at Florida State College of Medicine, and then spent his residency in neurosurgery at Harvard and at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Part of his motivation to become a neurosurgeon was the death of an aunt in the Bahamas, who died from a brain injury after being hit by a car. 

“It was a preventable death,” he said, noting the deplorable lack of medical services where  she lived.   “If this injury happened in Boston with us right now, she would be alive, eating peas and rice, going to church and singing like she always used to do.”

He is a Christian.  He and his wife, a pediatric dentist, have four children - two sets of twins - and now live in the Orlando area.

In his 2022 book, “The 2% Way: How a Philosophy of Small Improvements Took Me to Oxford, the NFL, and Neurosurgery," is part biographical and part motivational, and tells of many of  the lessons he learned from his coaches.





TUESDAY,  OCTOBER 15, 2024    “Diplomacy without weapons is like music without instruments.” Otto von Bismarck


*********** Wisdom from Mike Lude:  “in the 1980s Hillsdale's lawyers went to the Supreme Court to avoid following federal restrictions because some students received aid from the government. The college raised private funds to replace the federal support and still rejects about $5 million annually in U.S. taxpayer cash. In the words of Dr. Larry Arnn, the school president, "Hillsdale is famous because it refused to count its students and its employees by the color of their skin.”  The college's monthly publication Imprimis has a huge circulation and has raised millions to support Hillsdale's audacious and gutsy independent reaction to government handouts.

“The college survived other serious problems, including a devastating fire in 1874 and the threat of mortgage foreclosures during the Depression. The most recent trouble came with the unexpected departure of Dr. George Roche, Hillsdale’s president for 28 years. He left in late 1999 after rescuing the school from near bankruptcy and transforming it into a monument of the free enterprise system. 


“Dr. Roche left under the cloud of a tragedy, the death of his daughter-in-law and some unfortunate allegations, none of them confirmed. His resignation left a scar on the fantastic job he did at Hillsdale, being the right man at the right time. As president he championed the school’s independence and put Hillsdale in the forefront of private colleges providing a liberal arts education. He wrote numerous books and raised millions of dollars.

“Fortunately, Hillsdale has rebounded strongly under the leadership of Dr. Arnn, who has done a magnificent job of keeping the school on track. He has sustained the financial backing of the college’s loyal supporters and the significant budget surpluses of recent years have remained steady.”



*********** In high school football, when everything is topsy-turvy, expect the worst.

An officials’ shortage moved our game to Saturday.  At 5 PM yet.  We learned this on Sunday.

We’d had no school on Thursday or Friday because of parent-teacher conferences.

We’d held our Friday practice at mid-day so that afterwards we coaches could disperse to the four winds to scout (film)  potential future opponents who were playing on Friday night as usual.

Our pregame was abbreviated because the team buses were late arriving at the game, evidently because of having to wait for the cheerleaders, who - get this - ride with the team to away games. (Does Alabama have to do that?)

And it was hot. For us, that is.  Really hot, by our  standards.  It was in the mid-70s at kickoff, which is hot for our coastal area, where as I write this on Monday it’s a comfy 60 degrees.

Going into the game with league opponent Centralia, I’d said earlier that I thought we were the far superior team.  I’ve been wrong before, but this time I was right.

It took us less than a minute to find it out.  On the first play from scrimmage, running back Micah Schroeder burst off  right tackle for 61 yards and a touchdown.

We kept giving it to Schroeder (don’t stop your own offense, right?) and he kept responding. He carried the ball  the first six plays, by which time the score was 14-0.

By the end of the first quarter, it was 20-0.

It was 26-0 at the half, and we had 287 yards of total offense (167 rushing and 120 passing) - that despite a 95-yard Schroeder touchdown run just before the halftime that was  called back for holding.

We had a running clock shortly into the fourth quarter.

In all, we had 472 yards of  total offense, We rushed for 278 yards, and our two quarterbacks, Mason Hill and Luke Martin, were a combined 7 of 9 for 194 yards passing.   (Most of the stats were Mason’s - Luke, who starts at free safety, completed one for one for 30 yards.)  Best of all, they threw accurately, exercised good judgment, protected the ball and moved the offense flawlessly.

Schroeder carried 11 times for 153 yards and three TDs, and he caught two passes for 69 yards and another TD.  Back Riley Wixon carried nine times for 70 yards, including a 32-yard touchdown run.

Where’s all this offense been?  Well, first of all, we’ve played some tough opponents. Our four losses have come against teams that are now a combined 17-7. Second, our line has gained experience. But third - credit our head coach Todd Bridge for this - he took over coaching the offensive line and we have retooled our running game to something more like what wing-T and Double-Wing guys would recognize. And that’s all I’ll say.

I can’t ignore the shutout.  They’re rare enough in a coach’s life.  The defense played especially well, holding Centralia to 115 yards total and preserving the shutout with two great goal-line stands. (The first, coming at  the end of the half, gave us the ball on our own five. Imagine the shock it must have been to our opponents to have been  held on six downs inside their 15, and then to watch us go 95 yards on the very next play.)

It was one of those nights. We’ve all had them.  And now that we’ve had our celebration, we’re back down to earth, preparing for one of the state’s toughest teams in any classification, the Tumwater Thunderbirds. With one day less to prepare.

As if that would make a difference.

The T-birds have won six state titles, the most recent one in 2020.   

Tumwater, a suburb of the  state capital, Olympia, is currently the Number-One ranked team in our classification.    They’re 6-0, and they’ve outscored opponents 317 to 61.  They’re a wing-T team and a very good one: they’ve scored at least 49 points in all but one of their games; in that one they were “held” to 38.

Let’s just say our goals this week are realistic.



*********** My schedule this past week entailed a fair amount of driving:

Wednesday - Drive from our home in Camas to Aberdeen (2.5 hours) for evening practice.

After practice, drive 45 minutes to our place in Ocean Shores.

Thursday - Back and forth to practice in Aberdeen (45 minutes each way)

Friday - 45 minutes to practice at Aberdeen, then after practice,  2.5 hours  home to Camas.

    Friday night film game between Washougal and Hudson’s Bay at Washougal (15 minutes away)

Saturday - Leave home at 1:30 PM (I GOT TO SEE THE ARMY GAME!!!), drive to and from our 5:00 PM game at Centralia (1.5 hours each way);  arrive home at 9 PM



*********** My assignment  Friday night was to film a game in Washougal, Washington between two teams that could turn out to be post season opponents should things go well for us.   On arrival at the stadium, my wife happened to run into one of my former players, Chris Brown, and invited him to join us.    Chris has long been a teacher and coach himself (football and baseball) and he lives in Washougal and follows the Washougal Panthers because his son, Miles, is on the team. 

Actually, Miles was injured last season, and when  he expressed a desire to remain involved with the team, Chris suggested he approach the coach about being a manager.  Done. Who doesn’t need a good manager?  

Since then, Miles has specialized in video work, concentrating especially on drone  videography.

This past summer he  approached the football staffs at Washington and Oregon State - his top two schools of choice - about possibly working with them,  and as a result both of them have offered him jobs once he’s accepted.



*********** IT WAS A SATURDAY FULL OF CLOSE ONES…

OREGON 32, OHIO STATE 31 - If Oregon really did pull a fast one at the end and deliberately incur a penalty whose effect was to rob the Buckeyes of precious clock time, expect that rule to be at the top of the NCAA Rules Committee’s agenda this winter.

PENN STATE 33, USC 30 (OT) - It was 30-30 and it came down to a dance contest; Penn State had the better dancer (aka kicker).  But until then, it was a heck of a game.  Early in the third quarter, Penn State pulled a variation of the Lonesome Polecat - a double-pass  to the center (who had an eligible number and was lined up on the end. It was USC’s third loss at the buzzer:

Michigan -  Field goal with :37 (27-24)
Minnesota -  TD with  :56  (24-17)
Penn State -  FG in OT (33-30)

ALABAMA 27, SOUTH CAROLINA 25 - Get hold of a recording and watch South Carolina’s onside kick at the  end. It was a drop kick!  And it looked as if the Bama players were trying to catch a greased pig. But there’s still Crimson Privilege:  There was  Alabama, nearly beaten for the  second straight week -  its second straight poor performance against an unrated team -  and yet there they are this week, still in the Top Ten.

TENNESSEE 23, FLORIDA 17 (OT) - Had to be a heartbreaker for fans of the Gators, who outgained the Vols. Say this for Gator coach Billy Napier - he may be on the skids, but he’s going out fighting.

LSU 29, OLE MISS 26 - (OT) - LSU’s Garrett Nussmeier threw a lot of passes (51) and a lot of incompletions (29) and two interceptions to boot.  But he threw for 337 yards and three TDs, including the winner in OT.

KANSAS STATE 31, COLORADO 28 - Take nothing away from Shedeur Sanders, who threw for 388 yards and three TDs, but despite what some would have you believe, running still matters.  And there, the Wildcats’ DJ Giddens  rushed for 182 yards. The entire Colorado team “rushed” for -29.

PITT 17, CAL 15 - Pitt is still unbeaten and bowl-eligible. The last time they were 6-0, Dan Marino was their QB.  Cal keeps finding ways to lose games and this week it was 13 penalties and three missed field goals.

ILLINOIS 50, PURDUE 49 (OT) - Purdue scored two TDs in the final minute and a half to take  43-40 lead, but the Illini sent it into OT with a 38 yard field goal with 0:00 on the clock. And then, in OT, after Illinois scored first and kicked its extra point and Purdue followed with a touchdown of its own, Purdue coach, Ryan Walters, whose days as a head coach appear to be nearing an end, decided to go for two.  He explained afterward, “We were in control of the game at that point.  We clawed back in the game, something we hadn't done this season, and I wanted to give us a chance to win.” Coach, regardless of what you were thinking, what you basically did was take the weekly paycheck and gamble it on a roll of the dice.  What a great life lesson.

GEORGIA TECH 41, NORTH CAROLINA 24 - this sucker was headed into OT until Tech’s Jamal Haynes stunned the whole house by breaking  up the middle for 68 yards and the winning TD with :16 left to play.  It was the Tar Heels’ fourth straight loss.


*********** I heard Mark Richt telling about Bobby Bowden’s simple explanation of the stages of turning a program around:

1. Lose big
2. Lose small
3. Win small
4. Win big


*********** When Oklahoma kicked a first-period field goal to take a 3-0 lead over Texas Saturday, it marked the first time all season that the Longhorns had been behind. By halftime, though, it was 21-3 (Texas) and the final score was 34-3.

That leaves Indiana and Army as the only teams this season who’ve yet to be behind at any point.

The Hoosiers didn’t play Saturday.

Army, the only team in America to have scored a touchdown on every opening drive this season, kicked off to UAB to start the game, but still needed just one minute, twenty seconds to take a 7-0 lead. UAB coach Trent Dilfer,  trying to play Army’s game,  went  for it on 4th and one on the UAB 35. Tsk, tsk. The Blazers didn’t make it, and Army made them pay.  After the  Blazers spotted them a five-yard head start  with an offside penalty,  Bryson Daily, on Army’s first offensive play, scored on a 30-yard quarterback counter. The clock read 13:40.


*********** Army also became the first FBS team to officially become bowl-eligible.

So, too, did…

Iowa State
Oregon
Penn State
Pitt
Texas

Ohio State will have to wait another two weeks - the Buckeyes have next week off.


*********** Iowa State QB Rocco Becht is the son of Anthony Becht, long time NFL tight end  who for the last couple of years has been coaching the St. Louis Battlehawks in the spring. Anthony, a Philly guy originally, played at West Virginia.  I don’t know whether they made much of a deal of it Saturday, Iowa State played at West Virginia.


*********** You may never see it again.  Take a picture of your newspaper page: Army and Navy are both ranked in the Top 25


*********** A sure sign that the world is upside-down;  there are college games on TV this week on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights - and not a single one of them is a MAC game.


*********** At least four FBS quarterbacks are their team’s leading rusher:

Bryson Daily, Army: 107 carries for 738 yards and 14 TDs
Blake Horvath, Navy: 66 for 565 yards and 10 TDs
Diego Pavia, Vanderbilt: 105 for 388 and 2 TDs
Devin Dampier, New Mexico: 51 for 382 and 8 TDs

Army’s Daily actually ranks seventh among ALL rushers

Riley Leonard of Notre Dame, Jalen Milroe of Alabama and Avery Johnson of Kansas State, while not their team’s leading rusher, do rank highly among running QBs:
 
Leonard - 65 for 405 and 8 TDs
Milroe - 77 for 319 and 11 TDs
Johnson - 51 for 306 and 3 TDs


***********  ESPN’s College Game Day had a really nice feature about Jake Retzlaff, a Jewish kid who’s the starting quarterback for unbeaten BYU. He’s one of only three Jewish students at the largest religiously-affiliated school that plays big-time college. His religion  didn’t appear, from interviews with him and teammates, to make a bit of difference in the way he’s treated there. 

Not that they have much interest in college football, but the story would have broken  the hearts of all those Jew-hating Ivy-League  bastards.


*********** FRESH FROM AUSTRALIA - ED WYATT’S MOUNTAIN WEST ROUNDUP

Only someone who doesn’t know college football would ignore the fact that Air Force is 1-5, while Army and Navy are both undefeated and ranked for the first time since 1960.

Since starting last season with eight straight wins, the Falcons have gone into a tailspin, winning just two of their last 11 games. This week it was a 52-37 loss to rebuilding New Mexico.

The Falcons haven’t beaten a Mountain West team in nearly a year and this season’s only victory came against Merrimack, an FCS team with a 2-4 record.

Sitting here in Melbourne, I’m in no position to analyze why Troy Calhoun’s once powerful program has found itself in such dire straits, but I think he’s fortunate that he’s at a service academy which is unlikely to come under as much scrutiny as other major college football programs.

Pick Six Parade

Fresno State’s Mikey Keene essentially threw away the Bulldogs’ chances of an upset over Washington State when his pass was picked off by Ethan O’Connor and returned 60 yards for the winning score with less than seven minutes on the clock.

Wyoming lost its opportunity for a second win, with Evan Svoboda throwing two interceptions, including a 43-yard pick six in a 27-24 loss to San Diego State.

Jeff Choate Coach of the Year?

Okay maybe not, but after consecutive two-win seasons, Nevada has already won three after a stunning 42-37 upset of Oregon State. Savion Red (what a name!) ran for four touchdowns and quarterback Brendon Lewis ran for 151 yards in a wild game in Reno.


Warrior vs Warriors

What’s it say about Ashton Jeanty when he rushes for 217 yards and Hawaii gets praise for how well they handled him? This one was just 13-7 at the half but a relentless Jeanty (237 all purpose yards and two TD’s) and a few fortunate breaks helped the Broncos win their fourth straight.

The Rest

UNLV had no trouble with a struggling Utah State (50-34), while Jay Norvell’s Colorado State got a huge win at home over San Jose State to keep its bowl hopes alive.

Week 8 Coming Up

Fresno State at Nevada: Bulldogs have won five of the last seven meetings, but this is a fresh and confident Wolfpack team.

Hawaii at Washington State: Believe it or not, Hawaii has won three of the previous five meetings. Cougs a heavy favorite in this one.

New Mexico at Utah State: The two worst defenses in the Mountain West. New Mexico has lost seven in a row to the Aggies, but the Lobos have scored 50 points in back-to-back games for the first time since 1916.

Wyoming at San Jose State: Spartans have won five of the last six against the Cowboys. Wyoming is 1-5 and other than the 2020 COVID year, hasn’t had a losing season since 2015.

Colorado State at Air Force: Rams have lost seven straight to Air Force and the Falcons’ last conference win was this matchup nearly a year ago. Rivalry game with major implications for each team’s season.

UNLV at Oregon State: Beavers have won the last two, but they haven’t met since 2009. Rebels are red hot but beware a wounded OSU team coming off a shock loss to Nevada.


*********** Well, I threw out the challenge, and Dillon Gabriel responded.



JEANTY RUSHED FOR 217 (LAST WEEK 200)
GABRIEL HELPED THE DUCKS BEAT THE BUCKEYES (LAST WEEK 1400)
WARD DIDN'T PLAY (LAST WEEK 500)
MILROE  HAD GOOD - NOT GREAT - STATS AS BAMA STRUGGLED (LAST WEEK 1100)
HUNTER LEFT THE K-STATE GAME IN THE SECOND QUARTER AND DIDN'T RETURN (LAST WEEK 300)


 
***********  Coach:

During the hurricane, I lost my computer. I’m a one finger typist on the phone so bear with me. I’m using the microphone. Night and day are upside down for me.

I like who you are, how you treat people, what you have done for people, What you continue to do for people. I am not as knowledgeable in coaching as most of your zoom participants, but I have learned and I’m continuing to learn.

The answer to today’s quiz is Ed Marinaro, a guy I liked as both player and actor.

I have no power, still no electricity,  so my football watching was wiped out this weekend . That included the Army game, which was the first Army game. I’ve missed in years, but I have read what I can on the phone. They’re still continuing to do well.

Thanks for your kind words about me; they’re undeserved. Last I want to say for the page that I am unspeakably grateful that I and my property suffered little damage compared to many of my neighbors. Beautiful neighborhoods look like Third World tenements. Many people I know have lost all of their worldly possessions. I have no room to complain about anything.

I can’t leave without commenting on the Barry Switzer story. I’m one who always did like him and this makes me appreciate him more.

John Vermillion
St. Petersburg, Florida

I hope that God grants me that attitude if I’m ever beset by a disaster.



*********** Hugh,

Hoping to see win #2 tomorrow for the Bobcats!

Unfortunately the football team at the school where I’m doing that part-time PE gig got 45’d again.  Fourth straight week.

Texas-OU playing in the Red River Rivalry this week highlighting the Texas State Fair in Dallas.  Doesn’t matter what the conference, nor the records, this game matters ALL the time.  Best game of the weekend.  Hook ‘em!!

Second best game…Oregon v Ohio State.
Not necessarily natural rivals but always a good game.  Go Ducks!!

IMHO Army Coach Jeff Monken realized in enough time how going back to his old offense saved his program.  Navy coach Newberry apparently felt the same way.  AF coach Calhoun compounded his issues.

QUIZ: Ed Marinaro (another in a long line of “Italian Stallions”  who made their marks on this great game!). The list is LONG!

Enjoy the weekend!  Go Bobcats!!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas


I think the first Italian Stallion may have been Bama’s Johnny Musso!





 
*********** QUIZ ANSWER:  Ed Marinaro played his high school football in New Milford, New Jersey, and his college football at Cornell, an Ivy-League school.

In his three years of college eligibility, playing in all 27 games, he averaged 174.6 rushing yards per game.

In ten of those games, he rushed for 200 yards or more.

He was twice named first team All-American, and as a senior, he was a unanimous selection.

In his senior year, he led the nation in scoring and rushing. He averaged  209 yards rushing a game, an NCAA  record that would last for 10 years.

For his career, he rushed for more than 4,000 yards, the first player in college history to do so.

He won the Maxwell Trophy and was named Player of the Year by the UPI and by the Columbus, Cleveland and Washington, DC Touchdown Clubs.

He  finished second in the Heisman voting, the highest any Ivy player has finished since Dick Kazmaier of Princeton won it in 1951 (when the Ivy League was still considered a major conference).

Four of his NCAA records still stand: single-season carries per game (39.6 in 1971); career carries per game (34.0; career yards per game  (174.6, 1969–71); earliest reaching 1,000 yards rushing (5th game, 1971).

He was named to the Ivy League Silver Anniversary Team.


He was drafted in the second round by the Vikings, and  had a six-year NFL career with the Vikings, Jets and Seahawks.


He had a decent rookie season, although in the Vikings’ two-back system, he was used mostly as a blocker and a pass receiver.

And the next year, the Vikings drafted future all-star Chuck Foreman in the first round, which for our guy meant more blocking.

"Chuck was a great player and is still a good friend," our guy recalled.  “You can have a two-back system, but when it was Chuck and I, I never got a chance. Chuck was the guy, and I was blocking.   I'd run four times a game, and I think any running back will tell you that you can't get any feel when you're only carrying the ball four times a game."

After four seasons,  in the early days of NFL free agency,  he signed with the New York Jets.  hoping to become more of a featured ball carrier,

Things seemed to be working out for him.  In Week 4 he had  21 carries, 111 yards and a touchdown,  and in Week 5 he had 31 carries for 119 yards and a touchdown.   But in Week 6,  he suffered a serious Lisfranc (foot) injury that ended his season and, in reality, his career.

He spent a year with the Seahawks, but that was it for his football career.  Years later, he reflected on it:

"People talk about my football career, and it's been described as disappointing more than once. It's irrelevant now, but I never felt that my career was disappointing. I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.  As much as I loved being in Minnesota, and I've said this before, I was the leading rusher in college football history, and I come to the Vikings and they turn me into a blocker — something I never did in college — and a pass receiver. I caught 23 passes in my whole career at Cornell. I caught 11 in one game with Minnesota,  so I wonder what was going on in that draft room when they decided to draft me. They didn't know I could catch the ball. They didn't know I could block. I don't know what they were thinking when they drafted me. What did they think I was going to do?”

A look at his stats confirms his comments about the way he was used: As a runner, he carried 383 times for 1319 yards and six TDs; as a receiver, he caught 146 passes for 1176 yards and seven TDs.



Fortunately, his time with the Jets led to a friendship with quarterback Joe Namath, and that friendship  led, ultimately, to an acting career.

In his words:

"I had spent some time out in Hollywood with Joe Namath, who was a good friend of mine.  I had met some people, and they kind of encouraged me. … I guess looking back into my personality, I liked attention. I can't deny that. I liked being attracted to the glamour.

"Then I got into it and saw what you had to do. I started working at it, got in a class and worked at it.   I wanted to get good at it, but I wanted to make a living out of it. I didn't want to be a starving actor. I wasn't in love with the acting where I would do it for nothing. I wanted to make as much money as I could doing it. I had to know what I was doing a little bit."

He landed parts on Laverne & Shirley, first as Antonio DeFazio for an episode in 1980, before being cast as Sonny St. Jacques for 10 episodes.  And then came unemployment.  But then came 100 shows (and six years of work) as Officer Joe Coffey in Hill Street Blues.

“I was living the life being on a hit show, and then I was unemployed. Like any actor, I was auditioning for different roles and new things. It was kind of a difficult time when you basically get fired from a show. Every actor, once they leave one job, they think they'll never work again, so I auditioned for Hill Street Blues.

"It was the first year of the show. It did not have any, you know, it was a critically recognized show but a bit of a cult hit.   I had never seen the show, so when I auditioned and got the part, it was four episodes, and I was going to get paid for four episodes, which was really cool, and that was fine. I went and did these episodes and got along with everybody and they liked my work.

"At the time, nobody knew the show was going to go for seven years. I was kind of taking it one step at a time. My character got a reprieve, and then I did six years of it.  It was probably the biggest break of my career because there were a lot of athletes turned actors at that time, and you sort of got stereotyped, if you will, and it kind of elevated me in that regard, being on a show that was so critically acclaimed and with such talented actors. It gave me credibility that I probably didn't deserve, but I took it and it was great.

"I learned more about acting by doing that show than any acting class.   It was great and kind of led to a bunch of other things. It was a very different business back then. There were three networks, so if you weren't watching Hill Street Blues on Thursday night at 10 o'clock, you had two other options, which when you think about it is kind of absurd, so our penetration, as far as people, today if you get three million or four million people watching your show, you're a success. We weren't even in the top 10 and we'd have 25 million people watching." 

Now retired, he lives in Charleston, South Carolina.   His son and namesake is a senior wide receiver at Cornell.

CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING ED MARINARO

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
TOM DAVIS - SAN MARCOS, CALIFORNIA
JOHN IRION - ARGYLE, NEW YORK
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
MIKE FORISTIERE - MARSING, IDAHO
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY
 




***********  QUIZ:  He played high school football and baseball in Fort Knox, Kentucky and Amherst, Virginia and was a four-year starter as a defensive lineman at Western Kentucky.

After a season as a graduate assistant at Western, he was hired full-time and spent four years with the Hilltoppers.  From there, he moved to Texas Tech, where he worked under a young defensive coordinator named Bill Parcells.

He then spent two seasons at Ole Miss and a single season at Georgia Tech before being hired by the New York Giants.  After he had been there for two years, head coach Ray Perkins left to coach Alabama, and Bill Parcells was named the Giants’ new head coach.

When Parcells stepped down after winning the Super Bowl, our guy remained with the Giants for two more years before rejoining Parcells as defensive line coach of the Patriots. He spent four years in New England, then four years with the Jets and a year with the Browns before returning to the Patriots, now coached by Bill Belichick, with whom he had worked on the Jets’ staff.

This time he stayed with the Patriots for three seasons before leaving to become head coach of the Browns.

After four seasons in Cleveland he was fired, and then was hired as defensive coordinator at  Kansas City.  When Chiefs’ head coach Todd Haley was fired 13 games into the season, our guy was named interim head coach, and then was given one more full season before being let go.

A year later, he signed a three-year contract to be the Houston Texans’ defensive coordinator under Bill O’Brien.

After O’Brien was fired following an 0-4 start in 2020, our guy was hired as the interim head coach, making him, at 73 years, 199 days,  the oldest man ever to serve as head coach of an NFL team.  (He and I share the same birthday.)

He broke the record held by the legendary George Halas, founder, owner and long-time coach of the Chicago Bears who retired 55 years earlier, in 1967, at the age of 72 years, 318 days,

And  then, he retired.

Bill Belichick paid him about as high a compliment as he’s ever paid anyone, saying, “People talk about my defensive system, but nobody has worked as closely in the system with me as (he)  has. We’ve been through an awful lot of games, workouts and practices. Of all the people I’ve worked with, I think I have the most history with him.”




FRIDAY,  OCTOBER 11, 2024    "I honestly believe I got more excitement and joy in one day playing football than most people get in a lifetime.”  Frank Gifford.


*********** Wisdom from Mike Lude:  “When I arrived at Hillsdale I had no inkling about the school’s fiercely independent approach to higher education, something that has continued to the present day. Politically, it was and still is conservative. From its beginning in 1844, Hillsdale would not accept financial assistance from federal or state governments, and as a result could express those conservative opinions. The school has long sponsored an enormously popular series of seminars featuring almost every conservative leader and spokesperson, not only on the campus but at settings across the country.

“Historically, Hillsdale was a strong opponent of slavery and admitted black students prior to the Civil War. A large number of male students, estimated at about four hundred, enlisted in the ranks of the North in the Civil War, producing some imposing figures: 40 won the Congressional Medal of Honor, three became generals and 60 were killed in battle. The growing enrollment during the Civil War was due at least partially due to the many women attracted to Hillsdale by its non-discriminatory policies.

“One of the school’s best known products was Charles V.  Gridley, the commander of Admiral George Dewey's flagship in the battle of Manilla Bay during the Spanish American war. Dewey's famous order that launched the US attack on the Spanish fleet at dawn on May 1, 1898, is part of the proud history taught every American sailor: ‘You may fire when you are ready, Gridley.’

“Early in Hillsdale's athletic history, the school played the likes of Michigan, Purdue, Michigan Agricultural College (now Michigan State University), and national power Notre Dame. In 1892 Hillsdale beat the Fighting Irish 14–12, and one of three games between the schools in as many seasons. According to one report in the college archives, the Notre Dame hosts ‘gave the Hillsdale players fine accommodations, a big dinner, and cigars to smoke on the ride home.’

 “About the same time, Hillsdale oarsmen won four straight national amateur rowing championships, going unbeaten for three years before finally losing to a crew from the Thames rowing club in England.  Unknowingly, I was endowed with this Hillsdale rowing heritage even before my career took me to the University of Washington where both men's and women's rowing programs have established national reputations.”




Hillsdale Lineman Mike Lude.



*********** Five games into the season and faced with a Saturday game this week, our coach made what I consider a wise decision and gave the kids a day off.

At practice last night (we go from 5 to 7:30) I could see renewed energy and enthusiasm in our kids.

Our opponents, the Centralia Tigers, have yet to win. They’re 0-5 and we’re 1-4.  We‘ve had no common opponents yet.  They’ve given up a lot more points than we have, but on the other hand, they’ve scored more points than we have.

I believe that we’re the far superior team, but, like anyone who’s ever coached high school kids, I’ve been wrong before.  And I do know one thing:   just as our kids are looking at Centralia as a very beatable team - Centralia’s kids are looking at us the same way!

The game’s at 5:00 PM Saturday.  Oh, well.   I probably wouldn’t have watched Oregon-Ohio State (or Ole Miss-LSU or Air Force-New Mexico or Vanderbilt-Kentucky or Iowa State-West Virginia or Syracuse-NC State or Minnesota-UCLA or Kansas State-Colorado) anyway.

Wore my Vanderbilt hat (I’ve had four grandkids graduate from there) to practice Wednesday night, and I was amazed at the number of our kids who recognized it.  Just goes to show what it does for your public image when you beat Alabama on national television.





***********   This is Bowl Qualifier Weekend - the first weekend that FBS teams can reach the six-win level required by the NCAA for them to be bowl-eligible.  Which begs the question - since the NCAA has washed its hands of practically any responsibility for what’s going on in college football  today, when is somebody going to challenge it on the bowl-eligibility issue?  What’s the fangless NCAA going to do when some  5-win team defies it and plays in a bowl game anyhow - tell it to stop  paying players?

Teams that can become bowl-eligible Saturday:

Army
Iowa State
Ohio State
Oregon
Penn State
Pitt
Texas

Army could very well be the   first.  Its game against UAB - it’s heavily favored -  kicks off at noon Eastern, and since Army plays a ball-control, time-consuming offense, it could be over relatively quickly.

Ohio State and Oregon play each other.  So if the action on the field appears especially spirited, it’s not because there’s national ranking - and a playoff spot - at stake.  It’s because  the teams are playing to become bowl-eligible.

(Navy, 5-0, is off this week.)


*********** Here’s something worth watching for: There are only three FBS teams that have never been behind this season:

Army
Indiana
Texas



*********** The Big Ten in its infinite wisdom has scheduled games at USC and UCLA on the same day.  Both schools  have huge followings and the LA area is very, very big with a lot of college football fans, and there was a time - when both teams were  good - that they both could play at the same time and both sell out.

This week, USC-Penn State may pack ‘em in (lots of relocated Pennsylvanians in the stands) but I foresee a lot of empty seats in the big old Rose Bowl to watch Minnesota-UCLA.


***********   THIS WEEKEND’S GAMES

THURSDAY NIGHT

COASTAL CAROLINA AT JAMES MADISON - JMU is 4-1

UTEP AT WESTERN KENTUCKY - UTEP won’t beat WKU


FRIDAY NIGHT

NORTHWESTERN AT MARYLAND - Two teams buried somewhere in the pile that is an 18-team league with no divisions.  Who knows?  Who cares? 

UNLV AT UTAH STATE - UNLV is worth watching for what they do offensively.

UTAH AT ARIZONA STATE - Is Cam Rising ever going to play again?


SATURDAY

SOUTH CAROLINA AT ALABAMA - If Kalen DeBoer has a sense of humor, he’ll  let #13 kick off. (Actually, I doubt that he’s even broken a smile this past week.)

CLEMSON AT WAKE FOREST - Keep it close, Deacs. Please.

MISSOURI AT MASSACHUSETTS - I don’t get it.  The REAL SEC teams wait to schedule a weakie until week 10 or 11, just before the big rivalry game.

WASHINGTON AT IOWA - The pattern is becoming clearer and clearer: any time a Big Ten team has to travel at least two time zones, bet on the home team. This is basically a 10 AM game for the Huskies. Will they start taping ankles at 7 AM?  WTF?

WISCONSIN AT RUTGERS - To me, this is a huge game for  the Jerseyites.  If they lose, they’re suddenly Same Old Rutgers.  If they win, they can still be taken seriously.

GEORGIA TECH AT NORTH CAROLINA - Tech is pretty good.  I have no idea what’s going on at UNC, and I do care for Mack Brown.

UAB AT ARMY - Army is a 25-point favorite. Geez, this new conference they’re in really sucks to watch.  But at least the Army offense makes it fun.

TEXAS VS OKLAHOMA (AT DALLAS) - Got to go for OU.

PENN STATE AT USC - Penn State is favored by 4.5.  I’m going on the pattern we’re all beginning to see and going for the home team Trojans.

STANFORD AT NOTRE DAME - It’s going to be ugly.

CAL AT PITT - Pitt is a slight favorite. Cal has played tougher opponents. Toss-up.

PURDUE AT ILLINOIS - Illini are three-TD favorites. Ugh.

LOUISVILLE AT VIRGINIA - UVA has looked good lately, Louisville has not. Still, I think the Cards are better.

CINCINNATI AT UCF - I don’t see how UCF can be slightly favored and I think Cinci will win. (IF the game is played as scheduled.)

SAN JOSE STATE AT COLORADO STATE - It’s a tossup so I’ll go with Coach Ken Niumatololo  and the Spartans. So far, their only loss has been 54-52 to Washington State - in OT.

SAN DIEGO STATE AT WYOMING - Cowboy up!

MEMPHIS AT SOUTH FLORIDA  - Memphis is a good TD better than USF.  IF they play the game!

ARIZONA AT BYU - BYU  should win this one by at least a TD.

MISSISSIPPI STATE AT GEORGIA - 33.5 points?  Are you kidding me? That’s all?

FLORIDA AT TENNESSEE - Two TDs?  That’s all? I say Tennessee by three TDs.

AIR FORCE AT NEW MEXICO - Wow. How long has it been since the Lobos were favored over the Zoomies?  Go Lobos.

WASHINGTON STATE AT FRESNO STATE - Cougs are 3-point favorites.  I think they’re better than that.

OHIO STATE AT OREGON - It’s seen as a close one. I’ve seen Oregon in plenty of big games and I predict that - as he always does - Ducks’ coach Dan Lanning will find a way to lose this one.

OLE MISS AT LSU - Bet you didn’t know they call this the Magnolia Bowl.  Shades of Billy Cannon on Hallowe’en!  I’d sure love to be at this one.  Two of America’s least popular coaches go at it. (Actually, I happen to sort of like ‘em both.)

OREGON STATE AT NEVADA - Beavers should win by a TD or more but they struggled last week against Colo State.

APP STATE AT LOUISIANA - Bet on the Cajuns.

VANDERBILT AT KENTUCKY - You mean after knocking off Alabama last week that they have to play another game this week? They should get the rest of the season off.

IOWA STATE AT WEST VIRGINIA - I think the Cyclones will remain unbeaten - and become bowl-eligible.

SYRACUSE AT NC STATE - Will Grayson McCall play?  NC State is not the same without him.

MINNESOTA  AT UCLA - Long trip for the Gophers but they’re a lot better than the Bruins.  They might be shocked, though, to be playing a Big Ten game in a half-empty stadium.

KANSAS STATE AT COLORADO - There aren’t many games I really care about, but this is one. Go Wlldcats. EMAW!

BOISE STATE AT HAWAII - Hawaii is not bad, and as everyone on the mainland knows, it’s always a potential trap when you play ‘em over there.  But the Broncos are too good to let this one get away.



***********   The late Buddy Teevens has been named the 2024 recipient of the National Football Foundation’s Outstanding Contribution to Amateur Football Award

https://footballfoundation.org/news/2024/10/9/the-late-buddy-teevens-named-2024-nff-outstanding-contribution-to-amateur-football-award-recipient.aspx


Previous NFF Outstanding Contribution to Amateur Football Award Recipients


2023 – Bill Hancock, College Football Playoff Executive Director
2020 – Don McPherson, Hall of Fame QB & Advocate for Prevention of Gender-Based Violence
2018 – Murry Bowden, Atlanta Hall Management Chairman
2016 – Grant Teaff, AFCA Executive Director & Coach
2015 – Charlie and Pete Gogolak, Placekicking Revolutionaries
2014 – Jim Host, Sports Marketing Pioneer
2013 – Dennie Poppe, NCAA Administrator
2011 – Verne Lundquist, Legendary Network Broadcaster
2011 – Brent Musburger, Legendary Network Broadcaster
2010 – Dr. Joseph Kearney, Athletics Administrator
2009 – Dan Jenkins, Longtime Sportswriter & Author
2008 – Bill Battle, Athletics Administrator & Marketing Innovator
2007 – The Collegiate Bowl Games, College Football Tradition
2006 – ESPN's College GameDay, Pioneering TV Program
2005 – Prentice Gautt, College Football Pioneer
2004 – Rick Dickson, Athletics Director
2004 – Pat Harmon, Sportswriter & NFF Historian
2003 – Rudy J. Riska, Executive Director of the Heisman Trophy
2002 – Dal Shealy, Fellowship of Christian Athletes
2001 – Thomas C. Hansen, Conference Commissioner
2000 – Tom Nugent, Innovative College Football Coach
1999 – Chuck Neinas, Influential Collegiate Administrator
1998 – Marino H. Casem, Influential College Football Coach
1997 – Jack Lengyel, College Football Coach & Athletics Director
1996 – Robert M. "Scotty" Whitelaw, Conference Commissioner
1995 – Fred Jacoby, Conference Commissioner
1994 – Mike Cleary, NACDA Executive Director
1993 – John E. "Buddy" Leake, NFF Chapter Leader
1992 – Eddie Robinson, Influential College Football Coach/Legend
1991 – Don B. Canham, Michigan Athletics Director
1990 – Bill Nicholas, Tournament of Roses Chairman
1989 – Bob Woodruff, College Football Coach & Administrator
1988 – Lindsey Nelson, Legendary Network Broadcaster
1987 – Chris Schenkel, Legendary Network Broadcaster
1986 – Rex Farrior, Florida Sports Ambassador
1985 – A.F. "Bud" Dudley, Liberty Bowl Founder
1983 – Gov. William Winter, 58th Governor of Mississippi
1982 – Earnest E. Seiler, Orange Bowl Founder
1981 – Edward "Moose" Krause, Notre Dame Athletics Director
1980 – Field Scovell, Cotton Bowl Selection Chairman
1978 – Jack Farcasin, Early NFF Chapter Leader
1975 – Joseph J. Tomlin, Founder of Pop Warner Football
1974 – Lathrop King Leishman, Longtime Rose Bowl Leader



***********  The Kalen DeBoer jokes have already started, and they’re only borderline funny.

Maybe it’s because they’re being written by outsiders, because Alabamians can’t find anything at all funny about a loss to Vanderbilt. Vander-f—king-bilt!

Prior to the game,  Nick Saban had made a joke or two himself about the fact - true enough - that there would be more Alabama fans in Vanderbilt’s stadium to watch Saturday’s game. 

How about this: DeBoer’s Bama team  gave up three times as many points to Vandy in one game (40) than Saban’s teams gave up (13) in all the games he’d played Vandy from 2007-2023.

Or how about this: In their last three meetings prior to Saturday, Alabama had outscored Vanderbilt by a total of 148 to 3.




*********** While I’m on the subject of Vanderbilt, I think it’s about time I took another shot at Saint James Franklin.  He's now the head coach at Penn State, and he’s done a decent job there.  Most people agree that he got the Penn State job on the basis of  the “near miraculous” job he did at Vanderbilt, where in three years (2011-2013)  he posted a record of 24-15, with two straight 9-4 seasons.

But let’s look under the blanket:

His overall record in the SEC was 11-13.

Only once did he have a winning SEC record (5-3 in 2012).

He had to play Alabama only once. (Lost, 34-0).

Can't beat the big boys at Penn State, either.





*********** Most mornings, after we wake up and I first check for any overnight messages and emails,  I’ll find an interesting story on my phone and read it aloud so my wife can enjoy it, too.

I hit gold yesterday when I came across a great article on Barry Switzer.  He’s 87 years old.  Yes, he’s still alive.  Very much so. 

And he’s still very much Barry Switzer. That means if you liked him before, you’ll love the article. 

But even if you’ve never liked the guy, I urge you to give him a chance and give this a read…

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/41679128/barry-switzer-87-king-norman



************ Found this in the Wall Street Journal


Nicholas Dames has taught Literature Humanities (“Lit Hum”), Columbia University’s required great-books course, since 1998. He loves the job, but it has changed. Over the past decade, students have become overwhelmed by the reading. College kids have never read everything they’re assigned, of course, but this feels different. Dames’s students now seem bewildered by the thought of finishing multiple books a semester. His colleagues have noticed the same problem. Many students no longer arrive at college—even at highly selective, elite colleges—prepared to read books.

This development puzzled Dames until one day during the fall 2022 semester, when a first-year student came to his office hours to share how challenging she had found the early assignments. Lit Hum often requires students to read a book, sometimes a very long and dense one, in just a week or two. But the student told Dames that, at her public high school, she had never been required to read an entire book. She had been assigned excerpts, poetry, and news articles, but not a single book cover to cover.

“My jaw dropped,” Dames told me. The anecdote helped explain the change he was seeing in his students: It’s not that they don’t want to do the reading. It’s that they don’t know how. Middle and high schools have stopped asking them to.






***********   If you’re the kind who likes to bet on the winner of the Heisman…





I have two questions:

1. Dillon F—king Gabriel?  (Oregon)  Have they actually seen him play yet?  Couldn’t they at least have waited until he’d played Ohio State?

2. What does  Diego Pavia have to do to get on there? Beat Alabama? Uhhh... (Actually, as my coaching friend Josh Montgomery points out, after Pavia beatAuburn last year while with New Mexico State and just beat Bama, “he’s unbeaten against the state of Alabama.”  How many football players have ever been able to make that statement?)



*********** I noticed during the Navy-Air Force game that the excuse-makers were blaming the Air Force performance this year on their lack of experience.

Well, yeah.  But they failed  to explain that  the problem is one of Air Force’s own making.  Call it karma, if you will.

Back at the time of the pandemic, when it appeared that the Mountain West wasn’t going to have a season, Air Force decided to have certain players “turn back” - sending them home,  temporarily dropped out of school,  so that they might return later without any loss of eligibility. 

These, it should be noted, were good, experienced players.

When the conference later decided to play, Air Force was caught without seasoned players, and suffered a 3-3 season.

But when the turnbacks returned to Air Force, they helped the Falcons to a 29-10 record over the last three years.  The problem was that Air Force  was eating the seed corn: the experienced players dominated, keeping younger players on the bench, and the inevitable  “inexperience” is what’s  being blamed for this year’s 1-4 record. (Air Force did manage to beat Merrimack, 21-7. For what it’s worth, Merrimack is also 1-4, having lost to UConn, Maine and Dartmouth, in addition to Air Force.)

Expect zero sympathy from their two rival academies - Army and Navy.   They were well aware of the “turn back” affair and viewed it as a somewhat underhanded stunt by an opponent for whom they share less than total respect.



*********** It’s been some time since I’ve failed to receive a letter from John Vermillion, of St. Petersburg, Florida, but this is one of those times.  John is a West Point grad and retired Army colonel who has served overseas in a variety of capacities including as a military contractor.  He’s a prolific author of action novels, most of them in one way or another related to subjects and places with which he is familiar or with which he has become familiar after doing extensive research.

The last I heard from John, he had spent a hard night in “a gym,” riding out Hurricane Milton, but he was still unable in the morning to get to his home to assess the damage.  My prayers for  Colonel Vermillion - John - and my thanks to God for keeping watch over him.

PS: I did manage to text the QUIZ to him and he - of course - managed to text me the answer.

 






*********** QUIZ ANSWER:  Rodney Peete was born in Arizona and started high school in Tucson, but he finished high school in Shawnee Mission, Kansas, when his dad, Willie, became  an assistant coach with the Chiefs.

He was a high school star in football, basketball and baseball, and he made clear to football recruiters that he wanted to play both football and baseball in college. (At graduation time, he was drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays.)

Two coaches who honored his request were Ted Tollner of USC and Larry Smith of Arizona. He chose USC.

During his true freshman year there he backed up Sean Salisbury, but managed to throw for 566 yards.

Named the Trojans’ starter before his sophomore season, he threw for 2,138 yards and 10 touchdowns, and was named second team All-Pac-10.

But the Trojans finished 7-5, and Tollner was fired.  His replacement was a coach who had recruited our guy hard - Larry Smith, who had been at Arizona.

Under Smith, USC improved to 8-4, and Peete  threw for 2,709 yards and 21 touchdowns.

In his senior year, he started all 12 games and led the Trojans to a 10–2 record. He threw for 2,812 yards, and 18 touchdowns, and rushed for  five touchdowns.

He won the Johnny Unitas Award as the nation's best senior quarterback and was second to Barry Sanders  (and ahead of UCLA’s Troy Aikman) in the  Heisman Trophy voting.
He finished his college career as USC’s all-time leader in pass attempts (1,081), completions (630), passing yards (8,225), total offense (8,640) and starts (40).

In the meantime, he had continued to play baseball, as a shortstop and third baseman, and carried a .339 batting average in his years at USC.  Said his coach, Mike Gillespie, “I don’t think people realize Rodney Peete is a legitimate Major League prospect.”

He decided, however, that the demands on a quarterback were too great to allow for playing another sport, and ultimately,  he wanted to be an NFL quarterback.  It turned out to be a very good decision - he would play 16 years as an NFL quarterback.

He was drafted in the 10th round by the Lions, and he spent five years with them, starting 47 games in that time.

He then signed as a free agent with the Cowboys, but wound up backing up Troy Aikman, and after that year he signed with the Eagles.

His first year in Philadelphia turned out to be one of his best pro seasons. He started 12 games and was 9-3 in those starts. He completed 215 passes for 2326 yards and 8 TDs. 

In two playoff games the Eagles were 1-1, but his completion  percentage (67 %) plus his yards per attempt (9.9) plus his touchdowns per attempt (10%) and his interceptions per attempt (0 %) gave him an extremely positive 132.4 QB rating.

After four years, the Eagles traded him to the Redskins, where he mostly backed up Brad Johnson.

After one year of that, he went on to the Raiders, where he played behind Rich Gannon and Bobby Hoying.

And then he signed with the Panthers, and at the age of 36, he had the best year of his career. He started 14 games and went 7-7. He completed 223 of 381 for 2,630 yards and 15 TDs.

But time had begun to take its toll, and in the first game of his second season in Carolina, he was lifted in favor of newly-acquired Jake Delhomme and he never got his starting job back.

His wife was a fairly well-known actress and - possibly as a result of that but just as likely because of his fame and his on-air ability, he has since retirement made a career in radio.

In March 2010, he  wrote a book entitled “Not My Boy!: A Father, A Son and A Family’s Journey with Autism.”

You wonder how Rodney Peete stayed around the NFL so long?

First, he obviously was a good team man who accepted his role - often meant serving as backup.

But every bit as important - teams  could count on him to be ready.  In all, he had 87 starts as a QB, and he won 45 of them.  That makes him a winner.

One area in his stats jumped out at me - he had 244 career sacks.  Checking his total career attempts -  2,346 - that’s close to one sack every ten attempts.  It turns out that there’s an NFL stat called “Sacks Percentage,” and of 203  quarterbacks who had enough attempts to qualify, he is ranked 191, with a very high percentage of 9.42.

As an example, Payton Manning is the all-time Number 2, with a very low 3.13 percentage.

Lest anybody think that a high sacks percentage is necessarily an indictment of the quarterback, it should be pointed out that three Hall of Fame QBs have even higher ones than Rodney Peete: Roger Staubach (remember the way he once could scramble?), Bart Starr (who played for one of the best teams ever and passed relatively seldom) and Archie Manning (who, although he played for some of the worst teams ever, was a whole lot faster and more nimble than Peyton).

CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING RODNEY PEETE

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
TOM DAVIS - SAN MARCOS, CALIFORNIA
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
MIKE FORISTIERE - MARSING, IDAHO
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY




 
*********** QUIZ:  He played his high school football in New Milford, New Jersey, and his college football at Cornell, an Ivy-League school.

In his three years of college eligibility, playing in all 27 games, he averaged 174.6 rushing yards per game.

In ten of those games, he rushed for 200 yards or more.

He was twice named first team All-American, and as a senior, he was a unanimous selection.

In his senior year, he led the nation in scoring and rushing. He averaged  209 yards rushing a game, an NCAA  record that would last for 10 years.

For his career, he rushed for more than 4,000 yards, the first player in college history to do so.

He won the Maxwell Trophy and was named Player of the Year by the UPI and by the Columbus, Cleveland and Washington, DC Touchdown Clubs.

He  finished second in the Heisman voting, the highest any Ivy player has finished since Dick Kazmaier of Princeton won it in 1951 (when the Ivy League was still considered a major conference).

Four of his NCAA records still stand: single-season carries per game (39.6 in 1971); career carries per game (34.0; career yards per game  (174.6, 1969–71); earliest reaching 1,000 yards rushing (5th game, 1971).

He was named to the Ivy League Silver Anniversary Team.

He was drafted in the second round by the Vikings, and  had a six-year NFL career with the Vikings, Jets and Seahawks.

He had a decent rookie season, although in the Vikings’ two-back system, he was used mostly as a blocker and a pass receiver.

And the next year, the Vikings drafted future all-star Chuck Foreman in the first round, which for our guy meant more blocking.

"Chuck was a great player and is still a good friend," our guy recalled.  “You can have a two-back system, but when it was Chuck and I, I never got a chance. Chuck was the guy, and I was blocking.   I'd run four times a game, and I think any running back will tell you that you can't get any feel when you're only carrying the ball four times a game."

After four seasons,  in the early days of NFL free agency,  he signed with the New York Jets.  hoping to become more of a featured ball carrier,

Things seemed to be working out for him.  In Week 4 he had  21 carries, 111 yards and a touchdown,  and in Week 5 he had 31 carries for 119 yards and a touchdown.   But in Week 6,  he suffered a serious Lisfranc (foot) injury that ended his season and, in reality, his career.

He spent a year with the Seahawks, but that was it for his football career.  Years later, he reflected on it:

"People talk about my football career, and it's been described as disappointing more than once. It's irrelevant now, but I never felt that my career was disappointing. I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.  As much as I loved being in Minnesota, and I've said this before, I was the leading rusher in college football history, and I come to the Vikings and they turn me into a blocker — something I never did in college — and a pass receiver. I caught 23 passes in my whole career at Cornell. I caught 11 in one game with Minnesota,  so I wonder what was going on in that draft room when they decided to draft me. They didn't know I could catch the ball. They didn't know I could block. I don't know what they were thinking when they drafted me. What did they think I was going to do?”

A look at his stats confirms his comments about the way he was used: As a runner, he carried 383 times for 1319 yards and six TDs; as a receiver, he caught 146 passes for 1176 yards and seven TDs.

Fortunately, his time with the Jets led to a friendship with quarterback Joe Namath, and that friendship  led, ultimately, to an acting career.

In his words:

"I had spent some time out in Hollywood with Joe Namath, who was a good friend of mine.  I had met some people, and they kind of encouraged me. … I guess looking back into my personality, I liked attention. I can't deny that. I liked being attracted to the glamour.

"Then I got into it and saw what you had to do. I started working at it, got in a class and worked at it.   I wanted to get good at it, but I wanted to make a living out of it. I didn't want to be a starving actor. I wasn't in love with the acting where I would do it for nothing. I wanted to make as much money as I could doing it. I had to know what I was doing a little bit."

He landed parts on Laverne & Shirley, first as Antonio DeFazio for an episode in 1980, before being cast as Sonny St. Jacques for 10 episodes.  And then came unemployment.  But then came 100 shows (and six years of work) as Officer Joe Coffey in Hill Street Blues.

“I was living the life being on a hit show, and then I was unemployed. Like any actor, I was auditioning for different roles and new things. It was kind of a difficult time when you basically get fired from a show. Every actor, once they leave one job, they think they'll never work again, so I auditioned for Hill Street Blues.

"It was the first year of the show. It did not have any, you know, it was a critically recognized show but a bit of a cult hit.   I had never seen the show, so when I auditioned and got the part, it was four episodes, and I was going to get paid for four episodes, which was really cool, and that was fine. I went and did these episodes and got along with everybody and they liked my work.

"At the time, nobody knew the show was going to go for seven years. I was kind of taking it one step at a time. My character got a reprieve, and then I did six years of it.  It was probably the biggest break of my career because there were a lot of athletes turned actors at that time, and you sort of got stereotyped, if you will, and it kind of elevated me in that regard, being on a show that was so critically acclaimed and with such talented actors. It gave me credibility that I probably didn't deserve, but I took it and it was great.

"I learned more about acting by doing that show than any acting class.   It was great and kind of led to a bunch of other things. It was a very different business back then. There were three networks, so if you weren't watching Hill Street Blues on Thursday night at 10 o'clock, you had two other options, which when you think about it is kind of absurd, so our penetration, as far as people, today if you get three million or four million people watching your show, you're a success. We weren't even in the top 10 and we'd have 25 million people watching." 

Now retired, he lives in Charleston, South Carolina.   His son and namesake is a senior wide receiver at Cornell.




TUESDAY,  OCTOBER 8, 2024    "Negative experience without teaching kills morale.” Nick Saban

*********** Wisdom from Mike Lude:  “One of the courses I enjoyed and the one I got the best grade  in was freshman biology. So I said, hey, I'll make biology my major, even though it didn't have anything to do with my goal of being a football coach. Two biology professors with the same last name but unrelated, Dr. Bertram Barber and Dr. Ruth Barber, gave me significant help in my major course of scholastic work.

“One of the other professors who left a lasting impression was Dr. James Masterson of the English Department, undoubtedly the most severe critic of my writing efforts. A self-styled eccentric, he frequented the off-campus coffee shop where I worked part time; he demanded that we save and reheat day-old coffee for his marathon consumption as he chain-smoked cigarettes. He had big circles under his eyes, looking as if he seldom slept.

"When it came to the use of the written word he was a tyrant. The first paper I turned in for his class came back covered in red ink. I had to use the word unique, and around it he had put a big circle and the comment: "You don't have a clue what unique means. Never use a word if you don't know what it means. When you call something unique it means there is nothing in the world like it; that's the only one.”  I'll say this, the impression he left with those words was unforgettable, almost unique.”




Hillsdale Lineman Mike Lude.



*********** There will be those times in a career when the other guys are just plain better than you.

There’s no other way to describe our 47-13 defeat Friday night.  I suppose I could try the old “they won the first half and we won the second half”  line, because we did outscore the state’s Number 5-ranked team in the second half, 13-7.  The problem is, they outscored us in the first half, 40-0.  And that meant a running clock the rest of the way - which meant that we ran only 20 offensive plays in the second half.

It’s amazing how quickly a game goes when the clock stops only for time outs and penalties, and it’s a damn shame for the backups on the winning team, because it drastically cuts into their chances of getting playing time. And, too, the game became  a lot more fun for our kids, once they found themselves playing against number twos.

This week, we play Centralia, which has yet to win a game.  But not so fast:  because of an officials’ shortage, we have to play the game on Saturday.  At 5 PM.   (Selfishly, there goes most of a precious college football Saturday, shot to hell.)

To complicate matters,  our kids won’t have been in school since Wednesday, after having both Thursday and Friday off  to provide for parent-teacher conferences. 

And, of course, the worst thing of all about a Saturday game - there’s one day less to review and grade film of this game and then prepare for the next game - which in our case is the state’s Number Two team, the Tumwater Thunderbirds. In the span of 15 days, we’ll have played two teams ranked in  the top five.




***********   THIS WEEKEND’S GAMES

THURSDAY NIGHT

SAM HOUSTON 41 UTEP 21- The Sam Houston Bearkats are fresh off a huge 40-39 upset win over Texas State.  Since starting out 0-8 in their first season in FBS last year, they’ve gone 7-2.  The Miners have yet to win this year; this will be their first game since announcing their intention to join the Mountain West.


FRIDAY NIGHT (Point spread shown after the favorite)

HOUSTON 30 TCU 19  -  (1) Where did Houston’s offense come from? (2) What is wrong at TCU, a team that won a playoff game just two years ago?

OREGON 31 MICHIGAN STATE 10 - Ho-hum.  All set for next week, when Ohio State comes to Eugene?  Tell me that wasn’t a major factor in the deal to entice the Ducks to join the Big Ten.

SYRACUSE 44 UNLV 41 (OT) HUGE win for a Syracuse team that’s been in desperate need of such a win for quite a few years.


SATURDAY

PENN STATE 27 UCLA 11  The Bruins beat the spread, and now they’re back home on the West Coast so all is good.

TEXAS A & M 41 MISSOURI 10   After watching this I have no idea why I thought Missouri was that good.

SMU 34 LOUISVILLE 27 - Good game. Mustangs are right at the ACC top.

WISCONSIN 52 PURDUE 6 - Badgers WERE  much better.

VIRGINIA 24 BOSTON COLLEGE 14 - Thomas Castellanos actually may have tried to do a little too much, it seemed, and it cost the Eagles.

PITT 34 NORTH CAROLINA 24    Pitt remains unbeaten.

WAKE FOREST 34 NC STATE 30  - What a delightful surprise for this Wake fan.

NAVY  34 AIR FORCE 7  - This was Navy’s first win over AF in five years, and the Middies’ first win in Colorado Springs in 10 years. Navy QB Blake Horvath threw for 134 (9/15) and rushed for 115 (18 carries).

ARMY 49 TULSA 7 - Army continues to be the only FBS team to have scored on its opening drive in every game.  Army’s nine straight wins is the nation’s longest current winning streak.  Army QB Bryson Daily threw for 140 (5/5) and rushed for 110 (13 carries).

TULANE 71 UAB 20  - Tulane may be America’s best 4-2 team.

OHIO STATE 35 IOWA  7 -  Iowa just can’t score points in the big games.

GEORGIA 31 AUBURN 13  Tigers gave the Bulldogs a bit of a game.

OLE MISS 27 SOUTH CAROLINA 3 - Rebels snapped back after last week’s shocking loss to Kentucky.

INDIANA 41 NORTHWESTERN 24 - Yes, Indiana is 6-0. For the record, the Hoosiers are the first FBS team to become bowl-eligible.

UCONN 29  TEMPLE 20  - An absolute disaster on the goal line killed the Owls’ chances for their first road win in three years.

VIRGINIA TECH 31 STANFORD 7 - Hokies are pretty good. Stanford isn’t.

NEBRASKA 14 RUTGERS 7 -Dull game;   I was shocked at the difference in strength between the two teams.

WEST VIRGINIA 38 OKLAHOMA STATE 14 - I saw this as two teams in a potential death struggle, but I didn’t think WVU would come out the survivor.

VANDERBILT 40, ALABAMA 35   Allow me a little bragging - I started writing about Diego Pavia about this time last year, when he was in the next thing to the witness protection program - playing for New Mexico State.

OREGON STATE  39 COLORADO STATE 31 (2 OT) CSU gave the Beavers everything they had, and forced  them to come back to force OT.

CLEMSON 29  FLORIDA STATE 13 - At least FSU looked better after a change in QBs. In fact, after Clemson jumped out to a 17-0 first quarter lead, the two teams played even the rest of the way.

BOISE STATE 62  UTAH STATE 30 - Ashton Jeanty went over 1,000 yards for the season, rushing 13 times for 186 yards and three TDs.

ARKANSAS 19  TENNESSEE 14  Outstanding play by a Razorback team that had had trouble finishing games.

WASHINGTON 27 MICHIGAN  17 - The Huskies were (at least to me) clearly the better team.

MINNESOTA 24 USC 17  It took guts to go for a TD at the end, instead of an easy field goal, but the decision to do it paid off for the Gophers.

IOWA STATE 43 BAYLOR 21 - Cyclones rushed for 265 yards - the third straight time they rushed for at least 235 yards.  They are now 5-0 for the first time in 44 YEARS!

SAN JOSE STATE 35 NEVADA 31 - This was not a walk.  The Wolfpack made a game of it the whole way;  the Spartans didn’t pull ahead until there was less than a minute to play.

FLORIDA 24 CENTRAL FLORIDA 13 - Gators jumped out to a 24-3 halftime lead and held on.  UCF has had the lead for less than a minute - total - in its last three games.

GEORGIA TECH 24 DUKE 14  - Duke had been making a habit of closing big, but this time it was the Yellow Jackets that did the closing, outscoring the Blue Devils 14-0 in the fourth quarter to come from behind and win. Tech, led by Jamal Haynes’ 128 yards on 19 carries, rushed for 245 yards.

SAN DIEGO STATE 27 HAWAII 24 - A pair of three-point losses - to UCLA and now SDSU - are all that stand in the way of Hawaii being 4-1 instead of 2-3.

MIAMI 39  CAL 38 - Damn. Cal led almost the entire way, and was up by 25 in the third quarter. But Cam Ward led four straight scoring drives to break the Bears’ hearts.  I hurt me to see Cal lose, but I wish all the success in the world to Ward, a kid who not so very long ago was throwing them up for Incarnate Word.  ACC officials: go check that targeting call that you said wasn’t targeting.  How many weeks in a row are you going to give Miami a big break?

TEXAS TECH 28  ARIZONA 22 - The Red Raiders are now 5-1, winning by  scoring 10 points in the final 2-1/2 minutes.



*********** Back when the “Playoff” consisted of just four teams, the National Football Foundation, exploring the then-fantastic idea of an expanded playoff, began publishing a weekly “Top 16,” to give fans an idea of what a 16-team playoff might look like.

Here’s how it looked after this past weekend’s games:


 

ASSUMING WE WERE LOOKING AT A 16-TEAM PLAYOFF RIGHT NOW, THIS IS WHAT THE FIRST ROUND WOULD LOOK LIKE:

1 vs 16 - Texas vs Indiana
2 vs 15 - Ohio State vs Texas A & M
3 vs 14 - Oregon vs BYU
4 vs 13 - Georgia vs LSU
5 vs 12 - Penn State vs Iowa State
6 vs 11 - Miami vs Notre Dame
7 vs 10 - Alabama vs Clemson
8 vs   9 - Tennessee vs Ole Miss

Surprisingly, although we have only a half-season to go on, at this point most of those first-round games are fairly interesting-looking matchups.



*********** I believe I mentioned that my son, Ed, “covers” the Mountain West from Melbourne, Australia where he lives.  Here’s his wrap-up of this past weekend’s MW action:

Win or lose, MWC fans got their money’s worth in Week 6!

The first ever meeting between UNLV and Syracuse will go down as the game of the year so far in the Mountain West. Other than a questionable roughing the passer call in overtime, it was a slugfest that probably deserved to end in a tie.

There was also extra time - in fact two OT’s - in Corvallis, where Colorado State put up a good fight but fell to Oregon State 39-31.

San Jose State and San Diego State won close ones, while Boise State blew out Utah State, with Heisman hopeful Ashton Jeanty putting on another show.

The week’s only bummer was in Colorado Springs, where Air Force continued its miserable season getting blown out by Navy.

Week 6 Wrap

Syracuse 44 UNLV 41 (OT): A heartbreaking first loss for UNLV, but the Rebels had a number of chances to put the game on ice and couldn’t do it. Quarterback Hajj-Malik Williams (21/25 for 257 yds) was superb again and how about the performance from Ricky White Jr? The standout wideout had 10 catches for 135 yards and a touchdown PLUS a blocked a punt, his second of the year.

Oregon State 39 Colorado State 31 (2OT): Both teams racked up more than 430 yards of total offense, but the Beavers made two huge defensive stands and the Rams tripled their penalty average, getting flagged 13 times for 82 total yards.

San Diego State 27 Hawaii 24: San Diego State’s fifth straight win over Hawaii and the fourth straight in the series decided by seven points or less. Once again Hawaii drops a close one; this is their second loss by three points.

San Jose State 35 Nevada 31: It took a trick play in the last minute – a pass from wide receiver Nick Nash to Jabari Bates – for San Jose State to knock off pesky Nevada.

Boise State 62 Utah State 30: A statistician’s dream (or nightmare). Boise superstar Ashton Jeanty ran for 186 yards and three touchdowns (all in the first half), while QB Maddux Madsen threw for 256 yards and three touchdowns and kicker Jonah Dalman booted his 84th field goal, a Mountain West record.

Navy  34 Air Force 7: Oh Zoomies, what’s happened? They go to New Mexico next week in what, believe it or not, is a ‘must win’ game. Troy Calhoun’s men are 1-4 with Army, Fresno State and Oregon State still to come.

Coming Up:

UNLV at Utah State: Aggies lead the series 16-8, but Rebels won the last meeting in 2022.

San Diego State at Wyoming: Teams have split the 38 meetings, but Aztecs have won four of the last five. They haven’t met in Laramie since 2016.

San Jose State at Colorado State: Have played 12 times, CSU holds a 7-5 advantage.

Air Force at New Mexico: Air Force has won five straight over the Lobos.

Washington State at Fresno State: Last met in the 2022 L.A. Bowl, with Fresno winning 29-6.

Oregon State at Nevada: Haven’t played since 2018, when Nevada won 37-35 in Reno.

Boise State at Hawaii: The Broncos have won nine in a row over Hawaii. Last Warriors win was 2007, with the late Colt Brennan at QB.

*********** Rutgers has no idea how costly that loss to Nebraska could turn out to be. Such can be the random inequality of scheduling in an 18-team league that this year, the Scarlet Knights do NOT have to play:

Ohio state
Oregon
Penn State
Michigan
Iowa



*********** Killer play of the week.  The season, maybe.

With three seconds left on the clock, Temple trailed UConn, 23-20.  The Owls were on the UConn one.  Inside the one, actually. (Not that it mattered, with just three seconds left, but it was fourth down.)

A chip-shot field goal would have sent the game into overtime, but the Owls, going for their first road win in over three years, chose instead to go for the touchdown.

They didn’t make it.

From a pileup at the goal line, the ball squirted out, and UConn’s Jordan Wright alertly scooped it up and raced 97 yards to put icing on the win.

UConn won its third straight, 29-20, to go 4-2.



*********** FIELD STORMING RATINGS

CATEGORY 1. I’D A BEEN THERE WITH YA

Vanderbilt - That wasn’t so tough, was it?  Storming the field, I mean.  After the football team pulled off the near-impossible, not only beating Alabama - a 23-point favorite - but putting 40 points on them, it didn’t take that long for Vandy students to figure out how to storm a field just like the kids at all the big state schools.  Vanderbilt Student (a nuclear physics major): “Hey, this is fun.  Do you guys do this every Saturday?”

Arkansas - If ever a fan base deserved a chance to release its pent-up frustrations and celebrate a big win down on the field, this was it. The Hogs had lost a couple of tough ones, and with  Tennessee threatening at the end, tension became so great that the way the Vols’ QB simply ran out of bounds as time expired made it almost anticlimactic.  Almost.   For me, anyhow.  But not for 70,000 Razorback fans.

Minnesota - How often have Gopher fans had a chance to see their team beat a nationally ranked team at home?  How often has that team been the mighty USC Trojans?  Since the two schools first met in 1953, this was just their ninth meeting. USC had won the last five straight. They last met in the Coliseum in 2011, and they last played in Minneapolis in 2010.  The last time the Gophers beat the Trojans was 1955.  So party on!

CATEGORY 2.  OKAY, I GET IT

Washington - It was only Michigan, a relic of the team that won last year’s national title.  And this year’s Husky team is a mere shell of the team that met the Wolverines in the title game.  But still… It was the Huskies’ first-ever Big Ten game in Husky Stadium, and it was against a team that they once met only in Rose Bowls, so what the hell.  Celebrate.

CATEGORY 3.  WTF?

Texas A & M - Hey, Aggies - you just beat the formerly-unbeaten, ninth-ranked team - and you’re not even on the field?  Either (A) You’re blasé; (B) Stadium security is the best in college sports; or (C) You’d rather stand and sing the Aggie War Hymn with the other 100,000 people. I’m guessing (C).

CATEGORY 4. SOME PEOPLE DON’T NEED MUCH CAUSE TO STORM A FIELD

Oregon State - Wait - you’re celebrating a win over 2-2 Colorado State (whose losses were blowouts by Texas and Colorado, and whose wins came over winless UTEP and FCS Northern Colorado?)  And it took you two overtimes to do it?   And weren’t you guys eleven-point favorites? 



*********** I have a feeling that Toby Gearhart, great Stanford runner from the Jim Harbaugh days who finished second in the Heisman voting to Mark Ingram, would not be appreciated by many of today’s more enlightened educational administrators.

I heard him say, in an interview, that he’d sure like to see current Stanford head coach Troy Taylor bring about a return to the Harbaugh mentality: “bring some of that intellectual brutality back.”



*********** I just heard Colin Cowherd say that in the years since Terry Bradshaw retired, the Steelers have had 25 different quarterbacks, and only one of them - Ben Roethlisberger - would be considered top-rate.  This may not be on Mike Tomlin, but something is definitely wrong in Pittsburgh.


*********** When the overflow crowd in Berkeley pushed its way onto the pre-dawn scene at last Saturday’s College Game Day, the snooty Cal kids were exposed as being just as attention-seeking as the (ugh) kids at ordinary (ugh) state universities.  How embarrassing.

Being bright, they showed great inventiveness in their signs, one of which poked fun at Cal’s activitist reputation: “I THOUGHT THIS WAS A PROTEST.”

My favorite, showing that at least one Cal student could laugh at Cal’s noted wokeness, promoted Cal running back Jaydn Ott:   “OTT FOR HEISPERSON.”


***********   Coach Wyatt,

There used to be a quote at the top of your news page about why football is still taught in schools. Could you please share it with me? I have a mom that's trying to get her son out of football & I would love to share it with her. Thank you & good luck this weekend!

Tim Kuhn
St Louis, Missouri

Coach:

"Football may be the best-taught subject in American high schools because it may be the only subject that we haven't tried to make easy.”  Dorothy Farnan, longtime Chairman of the English Department,  Erasmus Hall High School, Brooklyn, New York

Dr. Farnan died in 2003.   Erasmus Hall High, which New York City Schools in their infinite wisdom have closed, has to have one of the most illustrious rosters of alumni of any American high school. Some examples:

Bob Arum (Boxing promoter)
Joseph Barbera (Hanna and Barbera cartoons)
Jeff Chandler (Actor)
Billy Cunningham (NBA star)
Al Davis (Raiders owner)
Neil Diamond (Singer-songwriter)
Norm Drucker (NBA official)
Bobby Fischer Chess Champion)
Eleanor Holm (Olympic swimmer)
Waite Hoyt (Major League pitcher/radio announcer)
Marty Ingels (Comedian)
Ned Irish (Founder of New York Knicks)
Roger Kahn (Sportswriter, author of “Boys of Summer”)
Lainey Kazan (Actress and singer)
Sid Luckman (Hall of Fame quarterback)
Bernard Malamud (Novelist)
Stephanie Mills (Singer-songwriter)
Jerry Reinsdorf (Owner, Chicago Bulls)
Sam Rutigliano (NFL coach)
Harvey Schiller (Head, USOC/President, Turner Sports)
Beverly Siłls (Opera star)
Mickey Spillane (Author)
Barbra Streisand (Singer)
Norma Talmadge (Actress)
Eli Wallach (Actor)
Sonny Werblin (Owner, NY Jets/Chairman Madison Square Garden)

There are plenty more, but who cares about scientists and mathematicians?  (I guess I'd better say I'm being sarcastic.)

Interestingly, there seem to be ZERO politicians.  Maybe that’s why they closed the place.



*********** Mike Foristiere’s Marsing (Idaho) Huskies are now 4-1 after a 39-12 win over New Plymouth.  The halftime score was 13-12.

The Huskies had 491 yards of total offense: 8 of 14 for 185 yards passing, and 46 carries for 306 yards on the ground.



***********    Love the Coach Foristiere arcticle.  Coach I saw your suggestions for that coach coaching 8 year olds. D same I ran all the time. But with the DW I learned this lesson - NEVER give up the offensive line unless you are sure that it is being taught our way  - the DW way - all the way. If not you will be a member of the heartbreak motel. And then they will blame the OC for running a complicated offense that doesn’t work for rec league. (To the guy that has put in the DW himself or helped other coaches install in biddy- junior league, Middle school, JV , Varsity.)

Had to miss the meeting Tuesday - had some church duty to attend to. I’m so sorry to hear about Coach Latham. I’m almost positive I have talked to him before in length in one of your clinics a while back. He made such a great impact on me. I loved the video you showed. I sure do miss coaching and sharing real men coaching and life stuff with men like him. I’m sure he is going to be missed by all. I will pray for his family. 

You mean a lot to me Coach. I Always Remember your dear wife Connie. Take care and way to,”Keep Coaching.”

Armando Castro
Richmond, Virgina

Coach Castro, who goes wa-a-a-ay back with me, knows his Double Wing inside and out. As he notes, he has coached it successfully at all levels, from pee-wees up through high school varsity. But he made a mistake this past season in agreeing to help a youth team with its offense, only to run into a nest of naysayers who (raise your hand if you’ve heard this before) insisted that the Double Wing is too complicated for little kids. (Raise your hand if you’ve proved that it’s not.)

He was, in the words of Jesus, casting pearls before swine.   It’s hard enough to be successful without having the rest of your staff fighting your efforts, so finally he decided to throw in the towel, a move that I strongly concurred with.

(Raise your hand if you think they then decided to line up in a spread formation and try to throw the ball.  Something we all know little kids can do.)


*********** Obviously it's Drew Bledsoe

Probably the best player to ever get "Wally Pipp"'ed in any sport.

Army and Navy are on a major collision course, and I'm impressed with both!  As a former enlisted Marine, I lean towards Navy, but it's great to see both playing great football.  The option and wing-T concepts still work, but everyone is auditioning for the next job as opposed to just winning football games.


Thanks,

Mike Burchett
Principal, Woodlake High School
Woodlake, California



***********  Your talk to the kids was, without doubt, a key reason they came so close to getting an elusive win. Now, Coach, let's use that positivity with respect to America. The A.F. Tyler words might be true, but we shouldn't want to hear them. I know we're just individuals, but we must fight Woke America until our final breath. I've followed you long enough, and believe I know you well enough, to sense your deep love of our country. Don't admit even a molecule of defeatism.

What's probably the best line on today's page [I must except the commentary about Coach Lude...which I continue to love]? That'd be the comment about UCLA, coaches included, wondering what they're doing in their shiny new conference. We spend more time on planes than on practice fields.

Go Bobcats!

John Vermillion                        
St Petersburg, FL

Answer is Drew Bledsoe. He certainly seems to be one special man who formerly was one special QB. Few guys in the NFL could have handled that 'ousting' as well as Drew.







 
***********   QUIZ ANSWER: Drew Bledsoe’s dad was a high school coach so  he moved around a bit when he was a kid, but he  spent his entire high school years in Walla Walla, Washington (“The Town So Nice They Named It Twice”).

Playing for his dad, he was the All-State quarterback.  He also lettered in basketball and track, where as a weight man he  threw the discus 148-10.

At Washington State, late in his freshman season he became the first true freshman to start a game at QB for the Cougars.

As a junior, he led the Cougs to a 9-3 record and a win over Utah in the Copper Bowl, setting school records for yards passing in a single game (476), pass completions in a season (241) and yards passing in a season (3,246). 

He was the Pac-10 Offensive Player of the Year.

When he chose to forego his final college season and declare for the NFL draft, he had started 34 games and completed 532 passes for 7,373 yards and 46 touchdowns.

He was the first player taken in the 1993 NFL draft, chosen by the  New England Patriots.

From the Patriots’ Web site;

(He) was the first overall pick in the 1993 NFL Draft and for the next eight years was considered the face of the Patriots franchise. During his nine-year Patriots career, he broke the Patriots’ career passing records for attempts (4,518), completions (2,544) and yards (29,657). (He) still holds the Patriots’ single-season passing records for attempts (691) and completions (400) and is the only player in franchise history to pass for over 400 yards multiple times (4). He still holds the NFL record for attempts in a season (691 in 1994) and both attempts (70) and completions (45) in a game against Minnesota in 1994 that sparked a seven-game win streak, propelling the Patriots to their first playoff berth in eight years. (He) led the Patriots to the playoffs four times in his first six seasons, helping the team earn back-to-back division titles and three consecutive playoff berths for the first time in franchise history. In 1996, he guided the Patriots to their second AFC Championship in franchise history and a trip to Super Bowl XXXI. (He)  is the only quarterback in NFL history with four seasons of at least 600 pass attempts, including three straight from 1994-96 with the Patriots.

But early in the 2001 season, as he scrambled out of the pocket and headed for the sideline in a game against the Jets, he was hit hard and knocked out of bounds. He was slow to get up, and he was taken to a hospital where it was discovered that he was suffering from internal bleeding that nearly proved fatal.

His replacement at quarterback was a young player named Tom Brady.

He never got his starting job back, and in the offseason he was traded to the Bills. He wound up playing five more seasons, three with the Bills and two with the Cowboys.

His career totals are impressive. He completed 3,839 of 6,717 passes for 44,611 yards and 251 touchdowns.

He still holds two NFL records: Most attempts in a game (70) and most completions in a game - also held by Jared Goff (45).

He now lives in Bend, Oregon, where he coached high school football while his boys played.  He and his wife now own the  very successful and well-respected Bledsoe Family Winery in his home town of Walla Walla, a town that has earned  a wide reputation for its many quality wineries.

CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING DREW BLEDSOE

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
TOM DAVIS - SAN CARLO
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
ARMANDO CASTRO - RICHMOND, VIRGINIA
MIKE BURCHETT - WOODLAKE, CALIFORNIA
MIKE FORISTIERE - MARSING, IDAHO
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY








*********** QUIZ:  He was born in Arizona and started high school in Tucson, but he finished high school in Shawnee Mission, Kansas, when his dad became  an assistant coach with the Chiefs.

He was a high school star in football, basketball and baseball, and he made clear to football recruiters that he wanted to play both football and baseball in college. (At graduation time, he was drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays.)

Two coaches who honored his request were Ted Tollner of USC and Larry Smith of Arizona. He chose USC.

During his true freshman year there he backed up Sean Salisbury, but managed to throw for 566 yards.

Named the Trojans’ starter before his sophomore season, he threw for 2,138 yards and 10 touchdowns, and was named second team All-Pac-10.

But the Trojans finished 7-5, and Tollner was fired.  His replacement was a coach who had recruited our guy hard - Larry Smith, who had been at Arizona.

Under Smith, USC improved to 8-4, and our guy threw for 2,709 yards and 21 touchdowns.

In his senior year, he started all 12 games and led the Trojans to a 10–2 record. He threw for 2,812 yards, and 18 touchdowns, and rushed for  five touchdowns.

He won the Johnny Unitas Award as the nation's best senior quarterback and was second to Barry Sanders  (and ahead of UCLA’s Troy Aikman) in the  Heisman Trophy voting.
He finished his college career as USC’s all-time leader in pass attempts (1,081), completions (630), passing yards (8,225), total offense (8,640) and starts (40).

In the meantime, he had continued to play baseball, as a shortstop and third baseman, and carried a .339 batting average in his years at USC.  Said his coach, Mike Gillespie, “I don’t think people realize (he) is a legitimate Major League prospect.”

He decided, however, that the demands on a quarterback were too great to allow for playing another sport, and ultimately,  he wanted to be an NFL quarterback.  It turned out to be a very good decision - he would play 16 years as an NFL quarterback.

He was drafted in the 10th round by the Lions, and he spent five years with them, starting 47 games in that time.

He then signed as a free agent with the Cowboys, but wound up backing up Troy Aikman, and after that year he signed with the Eagles.

His first year in Philadelphia turned out to be one of his best pro seasons. He started 12 games and was 9-3 in those starts. He completed 215 passes for 2326 yards and 8 TDs. 

In two playoff games the Eagles were 1-1, but his completion  percentage (67 %) plus his yards per attempt (9.9) plus his touchdowns per attempt (10%) and his interceptions per attempt (0 %) gave him an extremely positive 132.4 QB rating.

After four years, the Eagles traded him to the Redskins, where he mostly backed up Brad Johnson.

After one year of that, he went on to the Raiders, where he played behind Rich Gannon and Bobby Hoying.

And then he signed with the Panthers, and at the age of 36, he had the best year of his career. He started 14 games and went 7-7. He completed 223 of 381 for 2,630 yards and 15 TDs.

But time had begun to take its toll, and in the first game of his second season in Carolina, he was lifted in favor of newly-acquired Jake Delhomme and he never got his starting job back.

His wife was a fairly well-known actress and - possibly as a result of that but just as likely because of his fame and his on-air ability, he has since retirement made a career in radio.

In March 2010, he  wrote a book entitled “Not My Boy!: A Father, A Son and A Family’s Journey with Autism.”

You wonder how he stayed around the NFL so long?

First, he obviously was a good team man who accepted his role - often meant serving as backup.

But every bit as important - teams  could count on him to be ready.  In all, he had 87 starts as a QB, and he won 45 of them.  That makes him a winner.

One area in his stats jumped out at me - he had 244 career sacks.  Checking his total career attempts -  2,346 - that’s close to one sack every ten attempts.  It turns out that there’s an NFL stat called “Sacks Percentage,” and of 203  quarterbacks who had enough attempts to qualify, he is ranked 191, with a very high percentage of 9.42.

As an example, Payton Manning is the all-time Number 2, with a very low 3.13 percentage.

Lest anybody think that a high sacks percentage is necessarily an indictment of the quarterback, it should be pointed out that three Hall of Fame QBs have even higher ones than our guy: Roger Staubach (remember the way he once could scramble?), Bart Starr (who played for one of the best teams ever and passed relatively seldom) and Archie Manning (who, although he played for some of the worst teams ever, was a whole lot faster and more nimble than Peyton).



FRIDAY,  OCTOBER 4,  2024    "It's difficult to prove yourself reliable when people are required to wait for you." Wes Fesler



*********** Wisdom from Mike Lude:   “When I wasn't playing sports or hitting the books, I was learning some of the social graces I hadn't been exposed to on the farm. At the fraternity we were required to wear a tie and jacket for dinner. We had to stand until the house mother was seated. I learned how to say grace before a meal and took my turn giving thanks with the other fraternity pledges.

“I got a taste of fraternity hazing, like being blindfolded and dropped off out in the countryside with other pledges and having to find our way back to campus. Pledges were required to make a paddle for a fraternity ‘big brother,’  and if you didn't follow the proper procedure you had to be ready to grab your ankles while he took the paddle to your backside. Thanks to a tremendous big brother who didn't take the routine too seriously I thought it was all pretty good-natured fun.

“To help pay for my room and board at the fraternity, I made a deal to supply potatoes we raised on the farm, sacks and sacks of potatoes. I'd haul a load to school in my dad's old beat up jalopy each fall and bring a new supply when I came back from the Christmas break.

“Despite some intimidating classroom experiences, I made steady progress. My big goal was simply to keep my head above water academically. The day-to-day responsibilities took priority over a lot of deep thinking about the future, but I still wanted to get a college diploma and a coaching job.”



***********  At Aberdeen, coming off a big win over archrival Hoquiam, it would be nice if we didn’t have to face one of the two toughest tests on our schedule.

We had a rough first three games - those teams are all now 9-3 - and now,  with a win under our belt, we face W.F. West High, of Chehalis.

Currently ranked #5 in the state, they’re 4-0, with three of their wins coming over teams in a higher classification.  Last week they crushed Shelton, 62-0.

Their big weapon is their QB,  Gage Brumfield. At 6-2, 210, he can run and pass with equal effectiveness: in the Shelton win, he threw for three touchdowns and ran for a  fourth. He was our conference Player of the Year last season and, in the words of his coach, is “twice as good as last year at this point.”

But it’s apparent to me that we are getting better, week by week. Our inexperience still shows at times, but last week we played with a ferocity that I hadn’t seen before, and it was exciting to see.

 




***********  It’s always pleasing to a coach to see his teaching carried out in game action, so it pleased me greatly to see this photo in the Aberdeen Daily World from our game Friday night.  Aberdeen quarterback Mason Hill is about to take a snap.  Knees bent,  hands together and reaching out, “framing” the ball, he’s in position to handle a bad snap, either high or low. And, too -  a perfect snap hits his hands exactly at “handoff level.”





***********  On Wednesday, my good friend Joe Fagerstedt, who coaches the eighth grade team at our middle school, asked me if I’d come and talk to his kids on the eve of their big game with rival Hoquiam.  Anything for Joe, a longtime Bobcats’ coach who’s had a lot to do with my being  at Aberdeen now. Joe’s kids haven’t won a game this year - a rarity for Joe - and they were winless last year as seventh graders. Hoquiam, on the other hand, is unbeaten.

What do you tell kids in a situation like that?

I told them the story of Army-Navy in 1950.  Army was 8-0 and had been highly-ranked all season, never lower than fourth, several times number one.  They were number two in the nation coming into the game. They’d shut out five of their opponents.

Navy was 2-6. The Middies had beaten a 2-5-2 USC team, and 4-5 Columbia. They’d been outscored 174-108.

Navy hadn’t beaten Army in seven years.

Yet in a game in which no one gave them a chance - Navy won!

How can something like that happen? How is that possible?

Of course preparation is important, I told them, and I said I know that their coaches have prepared them.

But there are two other factors that have to be present, I said.

The first is belief. Call it faith.  The entire team simply has to believe that winning is attainable.

Second is a great desire to have a feeling - a feeling that only a football player experiences, when his team has won and he looks around at his teammates and realizes “We did it!” 

There’s absolutely nothing like it, I told them. I had to, because none of them has experienced it.  The best meal they’ve ever had or the best roller coaster ride they’ve ever been on?  Not even close.

Only after winning a football game with guys who sweated with you, felt pain with you, felt tired with you -  and maybe even thought about quitting with you - can you have this feeling.  People who haven’t played football will never know it, and you can’t describe it to them.

You have to crave that feeling.  Once you’ve had it, you’ll never forget it.

With a burning desire to have that feeling, combined with a belief that  you’re good enough, I told them, you have a chance to win.

UPDATE: I either spoke too long or not long enough, because in Thursday’s game, Joe’s kids led most of the way but fell, 29-28. I didn’t see the game (we had practice) but Joe said it was a “last second TD.”  To think how close I came to a lucrative career as a motivational speaker.



***********   THIS WEEKEND’S GAMES

THURSDAY NIGHT

SAM HOUSTON AT UTEP - The Sam Houston Bearkats are fresh off a huge 40-39 upset win over Texas State.  Since starting out 0-8 in their first season in FBS last year, they’ve gone 7-2.  The Miners have yet to win this year; this will be their first game since announcing their intention to join the Mountain West.


FRIDAY NIGHT (Point spread shown after the favorite)

HOUSTON AT TCU -16.5

MICHIGAN STATE AT OREGON - 24 - Corvallis, home of Oregon State, is only 30 minutes or so away, but it’s not likely many OSU Beavers will be on hand to watch their now-despised former coach Jonathan Smith and his Spartans get sent home packing.  Nevertheless, many, many of them will be rooting for the Ducks, some for the first time in their lives.

SYRACUSE AT UNLV -6.5 - I’ve liked ‘Cuse for a long time, but look out Orange - The Rebs have a super offense and new QB Tajj-Malik Williams has shown he can handle the job.


SATURDAY

UCLA AT PENN STATE -28 - Have the Bruins started to ask WTF they’re doing, flying around the country and playing tackling dummies in this new conference their AD got them into?

MISSOURI AT TEXAS A & M -2.5 - I’d go with Mizzou even without the points.

SMU AT LOUISVILLE -7 - If they’d played cleaner, Lousville could have beaten Notre Dame. I don’t know if they’re 7 points better, but they’ll win.

PURDUE AT WISCONSIN -14 - Badgers are much better.

BOSTON COLLEGE AT VIRGINIA -1 - Thomas Castellanos is expected to play for the Eagles, so for me this seems like an easy pick. BC.

PITT -3 AT NORTH CAROLINA - Tar Heels have been a huge disappointment. A win over unbeaten Pitt would help them straighten things out. I think Pitt.

WAKE FOREST AT NC STATE -5.5 - I’m very disappointed in Wake’s defense.

NAVY -10 AT AIR FORCE - It’s been a while since Navy beat the Zoomies. Either AF will finally wake up and play football or this will be a Navy runaway.

ARMY -12.5 AT TULSA - Here’s one to watch: Army is now the only FBS team to have scored on its opening drive in every game.  Army is a four-down team: they’ve punted only seven times in four games, while they’v gone for it on fourth down eight times (converting six times).

TULANE -14.5 AT UAB - Green Wave is 3-2 but the losses were to K-State and Oklahoma.  They will beat UAB by three scores.

IOWA AT OHIO STATE -20-5 - I’m betting that Iowa’s defense will keep the game closer.

AUBURN AT GEORGIA -24 - If the Bulldogs can come back from 28 points down against Alabama, they can easily put 25 on Auburn.

OLE MISS -9 AT SOUTH CAROLINA - Rebels snap back after last week’s shocking loss to Kentucky.

INDIANA -14 AT NORTHWESTERN - Indiana?  6-0? Really?   Bet on it.

TEMPLE AT UCONN -17 - UConn has been playing well. 

VIRGINIA TECH -7.5 AT STANFORD - If the Hokies play the way they played Miami, they’ll win.  But it’s their first trip west, and I think Stanford can at least cover.

RUTGERS AT NEBRASKA -7 - I don’t think Rutgers gets enough respect. I think they’ll win without the points.

WEST VIRGINIA AT OKLAHOMA STATE -3.5 - WVU is 2-2; Okla St is 3-2.  It’s been a rough road for both teams so far. I think the home field is enough for the Cowboys to cover.

ALABAMA -23 AT VANDERBILT - I want to see if Diego Pavia can play well enough against the Number One team to at least avert a blowout.

COLORADO STATE AT OREGON STATE -11 - If Colorado State sucks as bad as they did the last time I saw them play, this will be bad.

CLEMSON -14.5 AT FLORIDA STATE - Barring a change at QB for the Seminoles, Clemson will win this one by three scores.

UTAH STATE AT BOISE STATE -27 - It will take 12 men for the Aggies to contain the Broncos’ Ashton Jeanty.  He’s that good.

TENNESSEE -14 AT ARKANSAS - Two Razorback players who transferred from Tennessee will be co-captains Saturday.  It won’t make any difference. They’re going to “stripe out” the stadium, too. But that won’t make any difference, either.  Tennessee covers.

MICHIGAN -2.5 AT WASHINGTON - This is not last year’s Michigan, but it’s not last year’s Washington, either. New rosters, new coaches.  I give Michigan the slight edge, and I give the points.

USC -8 AT MINNESOTA - I think that the Trojans are just better and they’ll win by more than 8.  But they’ll have to do it without my support, the bastards.

BAYLOR AT IOWA STATE -11.5 - Don’t look now but the Cyclones are 4-0.  The Bears are 2-3 and they’ve dropped their last two.

NEVADA AT SAN JOSE STATE -2.5 - SJSU should win in a walk; last time they played they lost, 54-52 to Washington State in OT.

CENTRAL FLORIDA - 2.5 AT FLORIDA - A week or  so ago I’d have said UCF by 10.  But after the loss to Colorado, I have my doubts about this one. This is my upset call.

DUKE AT GEORGIA TECH -9 - Wow.  There’s Duke at 5-0 and they still don’t get any respect. Of course, Tech may turn out to be the toughest opponent they’ve played so far.  But I’d take the points.

HAWAII AT SAN DIEGO STATE -2.5 - I doubt that I’ll watch any of this.  How bad must SDSU be when they’ve managed to get Hawaii - a pretty bad team - away from the notorious island officiating and  they’re only favored by 2.5?

MIAMI -10.5 AT CAL - Can the home field actually help the Golden Bears? I sure hope so.

TEXAS TECH AT ARIZONA -6 - The Wildcats pulled off a big win against Utah, and now we’ll see if they’re for real.



*********** We read a lot about the Top 10, and even the Top 25, but that’s it.  And there’s a lot of good teams - with a lot of good wins - in the Second 25.




Chris Vannini in The Athletic ranks all 153 FBS teams

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5804330/2024/09/30/college-football-rankings-134-teams-week-5/?campaign=11206383&source=untilsaturday_newsletter&userId=437916



*********** With the recent addition of major basketball brand Gonzaga, the Pac-12 may have carried out an impressive act of asymmetrical warfare (warfare using unconventional tactics) in its battle to revive itself.

While not adding to the conference’s football membership, Gonzaga’s entry immediately positions the Pac-12  to be a basketball power.   And, writes Trent Wood in The Deseret News (a Utah publication), that could also put the Pac-12 back into play as an attractive location for good football schools that also have higher basketball aspirations than their current conferences can accommodate:

There is an argument to be made that Gonzaga joining the Pac-12 adds to the prestige of the conference on the whole, making the league more attractive to possible other members who sponsor football.

Attractive enough for potential additions like Memphis, Tulane or USF to reconsider their commitment to the American Athletic Conference. Or UNLV to the Mountain West. Or maybe, just maybe Cal and Stanford to the ACC.

According to Forbes, the only real potential additions from the non-Power ranks that would be especially valuable for the Pac-12 to add are Memphis, Tulane, UTSA, USF and Louisiana. Could the addition of Gonzaga be enough to bring those schools west?

 
***********  Now (Miami (Ohio), New Mexico, Wyoming and Old Dominion all won last Saturday,   UTEP, Kennesaw State and  Kent State  are the three remaining winless FBS teams.


**********   “The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through this sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; From spiritual faith to great courage; From courage to liberty; From liberty to abundance; From abundance to selfishness; From selfishness to apathy; From apathy to dependence; From dependence back into bondage.”

Alexander Fraser Tytler


***********  Most consecutive winning seasons among current FBS teams…

1.  Boise State:  26 Seasons (starting in 1998)
2.  Wisconsin:  22 seasons (starting in 2002)
3.  Oklahoma State:  18 seasons (starting in 2006)
4.  Alabama:  16 seasons (starting in 2008)
5.  Clemson:  13 seasons (starting in 2011)
5.  Georgia:  13 seasons (starting in 2011)
7.  Ohio State:  12 seasons (starting in 2012)
8.  Iowa:  11 seasons (starting in 2013)
9.  Utah:  10 seasons (starting in 2014)
9.  Memphis:  10 seasons (starting in 2014)
9.  James Madison:  10 seasons (starting in 2014)

All of Alabama’s winning seasons in their streak have been 10-wins (or more)




*********** Mike Foristiere has more than paid his coaching dues, and has earned the right to coach in a place like  Marsing, Idaho…




(1) Where this gun, built by one of the assistant coaches, is being raffled off as a fund raiser for the football team.


(2) Where, he writes, “My starting center’s mom works in our district office. I stopped in for something and she said  that her son said when I run the wedge play it makes him feel very important.”


(3) Where, he tells me, “I see a lot of teenage girls wearing shirts that say ‘Jesus is my savior and Trump is my president.’”


(I am considering  opening a travel agency to put together  tours to Marsing, Idaho for red-blooded teenage boys stuck in blue states.)



***********   Hi Coach Wyatt, my name is ----- and I coach the 8 year olds at ----- in the ------- Youth Football League.
 
I am looking to gain more knowledge and information on the best offense and defense to implement for that age group. I was wondering if you could send me anything on the double wing-t, or whatever you think would be best for that age group. I have been tasked with trying to find the best offenses and defenses to run for youth football. The league we play in is very good and we have constantly been on the losing end of most of our games for all age groups. In doing research it seems that you are the most knowledgeable in youth football and I think you could help us turn this thing around.
 
 
I am flattered that you would write me.
 
I of course am biased in favor of a Double-Wing offense, either with a QB under center or using a direct snap, similar to the old single wing.
 
To be up front, though, I make a living selling materials  showing how to run my Double-Wing, so you might want to bear that in mind in case it might sound to you as  if I’m biased.
 
There are other offensive systems that you might use, but in most cases, they put unusual stress on one position - usually  QB (in a passing or option offense), or a single running back (in an I-formation offense).
 
I do think that the important thing, no matter what you do, is that you decide on a system, and invest everything in getting better at that, rather than just running a hodgepodge of plays.

 
Defensively, you also need a system - something very, very simple yet sound. Your kids will get better by doing the same thing, over and over, in practices and games. The game results may improve if you change defenses week to week, but your kids will not.
 
For kids as young as yours, I think that penetration is good. A 5-3 or even a Gap-8 are sound.

I wouldn't rule out a "10-1". At that age, you don't have to worry very much about people beating you with the pass.



*********** Many years ago, when I was coaching back East, I heard of a high school coach in Pennsylvania who,  not having  a deep snapper, solved his problem by having his quarterback take a “side-saddle” exchange from center and then lateral the ball back to his punter.

Made perfect sense to me.  A classic case of making do.

But then I read of a coach in our local (Vancouver, Washington) area who didn’t have a punter, and came up with the brilliant idea of place-kicking (you know - field-goal style) on fourth down. 

I am not making this up.

I’m not naming names, so I’ll go ahead and say it’s one of the dumbest things I’ve ever heard of, and I can’t believe the person who wrote a story about it in our local paper was so ignorant that he would write about it as if it was a valid idea. (Well, actually, considering the quality of reporter these days, I can believe that.)

First of all - no punter on the entire roster?  Hard to believe.  I’ve gone into games with as few as 17 kids in uniform, but I’ve never coached  anyplace where we didn’t have one single kid with the ability to punt a football.  How can that be, today, in a nation where little boys are playing soccer before they’re out of diapers?

Second of all, to get any distance at all, a place kick has to come off the  ground at a much lower trajectory than a punt, making a blocked kick much more likely.

Third, the placekick, which occurs at seven yards from the ball rather than a punt, which comes off from ten yards at the least to 15 yards at the most, requires everyone other than the kicker or the holder  to block, meaning the chance of a return against you is much greater.

Fourth, even if you could release a couple of guys to cover, the place kick doesn’t have the hang time of a punt.  It comes out a lot lower and it gets to the return man well before any coverage could get downfield. (There is a reason why teams customarily punt the ball after a safety.)

Fifth, with a placekick, there is an extra moving part in the operation: the holder. Lots of things can go wrong when you have to depend on the concerted actions of a center, holder and kicker.

That’s exactly what happened in a game - right before the story appeared in the paper -  when a mishandled snap gave the ball to the opponents deep in the kicking team’s territory.  The opponent scored and went on to win, 34-0.

You’d think that would have been enough for them to spike the story, but no. It never occurred to the geniuses in the sports department that there went the whole damn story.



*********** Imagine Pete Rose as a football player.  Is there any question what position he’d play? Why, running back, of course.  It takes a certain mentality - a compulsion to dominate, to defy any effort to stop him.  A sense of “Here I come, world - stop me!”

That was Pete Rose.

Fortunately for us all, he played baseball, so we  got to see one of the greatest players in the history of the game, because otherwise,  were he to play in today’s NFL, he’d be a relatively underpaid, relatively unknown  bit player in the Great American Passing Contest, the 7-on-7 with pads  that’s  sold as football every Sunday (and Monday and Thursday).

On the subject of Pete Rose, Christopher Scalia, writing in the Wall Street Journal, makes the best argument I’ve read yet for lifting Major League Baseball’s permanent ban of Rose.  Essentially, his argument is that now that Rose is dead, the ban no longer punishes him - it punishes his fans and the great number of people who, while deploring many of his off-the-field activities, nonetheless admire his many accomplishments on the  field.


 

***********  There once was a  time when one could pretty much trust most newspapers to give us the story - to just give us who, what, when, where and, occasionally, how. To print the facts and let us figure things out for ourselves. To leave themselves and their biases on the editorial page, and out of their stories.

Not so today.  Today, with most small-to-medium-sized newspapers fighting to survive, they’ve had to cut staffs to the point where very little of their content is locally-sourced (written by their own writers).

Instead, for the other 90 per cent of their paper - just about every story other than local ones - they depend on the Associated Press (AP), which provides local papers with content for a fee and for the rights to distribute any stories they and their writers may have originated.

It’s why you can open just about any newspaper in the United States and read the exact same story about, say, Hurricane Helene.

The problem is that the AP and its stories slant heavily to the left, with its opinions deftly inserted into them,  and since it’s the source of most of the content of most of today’s small-to-medium-sized newspapers, that means that most of what those papers pass off to their readers as “news” is actually the liberal, anti-conservative garbage of the AP.

But wait -  what’s this?  Why, it’s the high-and-mighty AP,  passing the “Fund Me” hat. 

Can that mean they know that Kamala Harris must be losing?  It must, because if the Demos win, you can expect  one of their first acts to be a “Save the News” act, bailing out liberal newspapers (a redundancy) and the Associated Press as well with taxpayer dollars.

Me, I’m saving up my money for the day someone starts a “SHUT DOWN THE ASSOCIATED PRESS” fund.













***********   Thanks for my introduction to Wes Fesler. Based solely on what you wrote, he was indeed wise.

I'm still baffled by JMU. Last year's coach goes to Indiana, where his team's 5-0. This year's team also is undefeated, and after putting 70 on UNC scores 63 against Ball State. What is going on in Harrisonburg?

Congratulations to your Bobcats. Hope that 'situation' resolves quickly.

Like you, I would never question Coach Lude...but how--if Mercury simply wore another jersey--could the ref who ejected him in the first place not notice the ejectee remained in the game? He wasn't blind, was he?


John Vermillion                
St Petersburg, Florida


Unfortunately, this is not a good time to ask me about officials’ faculties.


***********   Hugh,

Congrats on the big win over Hoquiam.  Sorry to hear about what happened with Todd being suspended, but it appears either the team didn't let it bother them much, OR...they used it as motivation.  Either way nice win, and I hope Todd will get through this ok.

IMHO Army and Navy are legit.  Their QB's, Army's Bryson Dailey, and Navy's Blake Horvath are outstanding athletes.  Both do an incredible job of "managing" their respective offenses while adding their own talents to make those offenses go.  They are throwbacks, and I'm enjoying every second of watching them play!  Both will face Notre Dame this year, and frankly, the Irish will have their hands full with BOTH of them!

Speaking of Notre Dame...it was ugly, and Louisville certainly did all it could to help the Irish cause, but the win over the Cardinals was a big one for ND.  Hopefully the bye week will help them get their guys who have been banged up get healed up, but after watching that anemic offense play against more talented teams I'm not too confident the play-calling will get any better to make Riley Leonard better.
Get Riley under center more often.  Run the ball with TWO backs in the backfield with Riley regardless of being in the gun or under center.

Run a damn counter with the other backs!  He's a much better passer off play-action.  Develop the sprint-out passing game to give Riley more options to run or pass.  Otherwise I'm afraid Irish fans will see more of the same, and the doubters will increase.

Interim Fresno State head coach Tim Skipper didn't help his cause to remove the interim tag with that crushing loss to UNLV.  Yes, the Rebels have a good team regardless of who their QB is.  In fact the new guy appears to be much better!  Skipper, a former Bulldog LBer, seems to have forgotten his defensive roots.  While the Bulldogs have always had good offensive teams their defensive toughness has also been a hallmark.  Didn't see either the offense or defense display those reputations vs. UNLV.  

Texas, Alabama, Georgia, and Tennessee will make the playoffs.  Ole Miss is close behind.

 That's potentially 5 playoff spots for the SEC.

Add Ohio State, Penn State, and maybe Rutgers and Indiana to the mix and that makes 9 out of 12 spots.  Who's left?  Big 12 champ.  ACC champ.  Group of 5 champ.  Methinks the playoff debate is still not resolved.  Mark my words...an expanded playoff is on the horizon.

Have a great week!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas

PS Going on a two week vacation.  Talk to you after the 10th!



 

*********** QUIZ ANSWER: Although football fans are marveling at the unusual success  this year of Rutgers, New Jersey’s state university, the Garden State has produced more than its share of great football players who went elsewhere to play college ball.

Mike Rozier was one of them, possibly the best college running back of all time.

He played high school ball at Woodrow Wilson High in his native Camden, a tough, rundown  former industrial city just across the Delaware River from Philadelphia.

He was very good, but he was lightly recruited, and was noticed by then-Nebraska assistant coach (and former Husker running back) Frank Solich while Solich was looking at film of another player.

He spent a year at Coffeyville (Kansas) JC, leading Coffeyvile to a 9-0 record with 1157 yards rushing.

In his first year at Nebraska, now a sophomore, he pressed starting I-back Roger Craig, who was moved to fullback before the next season.

In his junior year, he set a rushing yardage record, breaking one that had lasted for 30 years, with 1,689 yards, as Nebraska finished 12-1. Its only loss was early in the season at State College, Pennsylvania, to eventual national champion Penn State.  He was named All-American.

In his senior year, he led the nation in total yardage - 2,486 - as he  rushed for 2,148 yards, averaging 7.8 yards per carry.  He scored 29 touchdowns, and rushed for more than 200 yards in each of the final four games of the regular season. Against Kansas, he rushed for 230 yards - in the first half.

He won the Heisman, the Maxwell and the Walter Camp Trophies and was named to every All-American team.

Despite averaging 52 points - and 401 yards rushing - per game, the Cornhuskers’ hopes for a national title were dashed by Miami, 31-30.  Although he’d rushed for 138 yards in he first half, he was forced by an ankle injury to watch most of the second half.

Selected first overall in the USFL Draft by  the Pittsburgh Maulers, he played two seasons in the USFL,  first with the  Maulers, then with the Jacksonville Bulls.

In 1985 he played in the spring for  Jacksonville then in the fall for the Houston Oilers, who had taken him in a special draft of USFL players.

He  played six seasons for the Oilers, and was named to the Pro Bowl twice. With the Oilers, he carried 900 times for 3171 yards, and in 1988 he rushed for 1,002 yards.

Released by the Oilers in 1990, he was signed by the Falcons, and played two years with them, carrying 249 times for 1036 yards, before retiring.

For his career, Mike Rozier carried 1159 times  for 4462 yards and 30 touchdowns.



CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING MIKE ROZIER

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JASON MENSING - ENGLEWOOD, FLORIDA
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FORISTIERE - MARSING, IDAHO
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY





***********   QUIZ: His dad was a high school coach so  he moved around a bit when he was a kid, but he  spent his entire high school years in Walla Walla, Washington (“The Town So Nice They Named It Twice”).

Playing for his dad, he was the All-State quarterback.  He also lettered in basketball and track, where as a weight man he  threw the discus 148-10.

At Washington State, late in his freshman season he became the first true freshman to start a game at QB for the Cougars.

As a junior, he led the Cougs to a 9-3 record and a win over Utah in the Copper Bowl, setting school records for yards passing in a single game (476), pass completions in a season (241) and yards passing in a season (3,246). 

He was the Pac-10 Offensive Player of the Year.

When he chose to forego his final college season and declare for the NFL draft, he had started 34 games and completed 532 passes for 7,373 yards and 46 touchdowns.

He was the first player taken in the 1993 NFL draft, chosen by the  New England Patriots.

From the Patriots’ Web site;

(He) was the first overall pick in the 1993 NFL Draft and for the next eight years was considered the face of the Patriots franchise. During his nine-year Patriots career, he broke the Patriots’ career passing records for attempts (4,518), completions (2,544) and yards (29,657). (He) still holds the Patriots’ single-season passing records for attempts (691) and completions (400) and is the only player in franchise history to pass for over 400 yards multiple times (4). He still holds the NFL record for attempts in a season (691 in 1994) and both attempts (70) and completions (45) in a game against Minnesota in 1994 that sparked a seven-game win streak, propelling the Patriots to their first playoff berth in eight years. (He) led the Patriots to the playoffs four times in his first six seasons, helping the team earn back-to-back division titles and three consecutive playoff berths for the first time in franchise history. In 1996, he guided the Patriots to their second AFC Championship in franchise history and a trip to Super Bowl XXXI. (He)  is the only quarterback in NFL history with four seasons of at least 600 pass attempts, including three straight from 1994-96 with the Patriots.

But early in the 2001 season, as he scrambled out of the pocket and headed for the sideline in a game against the Jets, he was hit hard and knocked out of bounds. He was slow to get up, and he was taken to a hospital where it was discovered that he was suffering from internal bleeding that nearly proved fatal.

His replacement at quarterback was a young player named Tom Brady.

He never got his starting job back, and in the offseason he was traded to the Bills. He wound up playing five more seasons, three with the Bills and two with the Cowboys.

His career totals are impressive. He completed 3,839 of 6,717 passes for 44,611 yards and 251 touchdowns.

He still holds two NFL records: Most attempts in a game (70) and most completions in a game - also held by Jared Goff (45).

He now lives in Bend, Oregon, where he coached high school football while his boys played.  He and his wife now own a very successful and well-respected winery in his home town of Walla Walla, a town that has earned  a wide reputation for its many quality wineries.




TUESDAY,  OCTOBER 1,  2024    “Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it.   Judge Learned Hand

*********** Wisdom from Mike Lude:  “Coach Harwood also had a big part in determining which campus jobs were assigned to athletes on work scholarships. I figured it out early that the jobs got easier as you progressed in your career, but only if you had Harwood's recommendation.

“I also realized that no job on the campus was as hard or demanding as working on the farm where I had grown up. I started out raking leaves and mowing lawns. Later I waited tables in the East Hall dining room. Then I got the job of ringing the huge bell on the fourth floor of Central Hall, which was tolled hourly to mark the change of classes. The main thing was to be on time. As a junior I filled the coal stokers to keep the heating system in the field house running through the night. Then I got the best job of all, making the rounds of three sorority houses each night to replenish the coal supply for their furnaces.

“During the summer after my freshman year I had my first experience in travel by boat. I found a vacation job waiting tables in the upscale dining room on one of the big ferries that chugged across Lake Michigan, a six-hour crossing. I got seasick only once, but there were times when the water was far too bumpy for a kid who grew up on a farm.

“In addition to football, I played catcher on the Hillsdale baseball team, using hustle and enthusiasm to make up for my inability to hit a curve ball. My best hitting, unfortunately, seemed to come when we worked out indoors before the season. I rarely hit for power. I liked baseball because, for one thing, it got me out of spring football practice.”


*********** Buried in the sands of time is a story Mike Lude told me in one of our weekly chats. It concerned the great Mercury Morris, who passed away recently.

Mike said that in 1967 or 1968, he was coaching at Colorado State and the Rams were playing West Texas State (and Morris). Morris was very, very good.

Mike’s Rams were winning at halftime, largely because Morris had been thrown out of the game for one reason or another.

But in the second half, West Texas produced a previously unknown  running back, one at least as good as Morris, who ran wild and led the Buffaloes to a come-from-behind win.

As good as Morris?  It WAS Morris, because Mike said - and I never knew him even to exaggerate, much less fib - that the West Texas coach had simply put a different jersey on Morris.

Damn, I wish I’d recorded those calls!


*********** Aberdeen beat archival Hoqiuam Friday night, 34-9.

It was a great team win.  Our kids played as hard as I could have wanted.

Our defense was sensational, and our offense began to show signs of life.

We scored our first running touchdown of the year, and then went on to score three more on the ground.  We hit on several clutch passes and a couple of long ones, one of them good for a 69-yard TD.

We also had an 80-yard kick return called back.  Hoquiam had kicked a  field  goal with two seconds left in the half to make the score 14-3, and then kicked off.  Deep. As our return man was crossing the goal line, a well-meaning teammate was 15 yards back upfield, pushing an opponent in the back. 

THE LESSON THAT WE FAILED TO TEACH: “Sometimes the best block you ever make is the block you never make.”


*********** I’ve got to be VERY careful how I say this because  saying the wrong thing could jeopardize our entire football program:  We had to play Friday night’s rivalry game without our head coach, who had been suspended  that afternoon for some things he’d said at the pep rally Thursday night.

That’s all you’ll get out of me.

In a pre-game team meeting he had to explain to the kids that he wouldn’t be there - “it is what it is,” was the way he explained it -  and that the position  of head coach would be filled by our defensive coordinator (a very able coach), and that he expected that at the end of the game, the “substitute” coach’s record would be 1-0.

I’ve been coaching and around football in one way or another since 1970, and I’d never been  through anything like it.

We won and it’s my hope that things can return to normal.

My greatest fear was that we would lose the game and  there would be a nasty community uprising as a result.



***********  In combination with our rival, Hoquiam, we set two new state records Friday night:

Most combined penalties: 44

Most combined penalty yards: nearly 400 (I don’t know the exact figure).

Other than the constant delays, it wasn’t the kind of game  you might expect after learning of those stats.

There wasn’t a single fight or near-fight.  There was no more than the usual pushing and shoving, and there wasn’t a single face-to-face confrontation.

One of our players was ejected when he drew two unsportsmanlike conduct penalties. The first was warranted - he tackled an opponent then stood over him and did a little dance.

The second came when he knocked a runner out of bounds and  then, instead of  turning and walking away, chose to back up while continuing  to stare at his opponent.  The official who threw the flag said in his official report that our player had said something “unsportsmanlike.” Funny. it was on our sideline, and I was  watching the player, hoping he’d turn around and get the hell out of there.  I was closer to the whole thing than the official, and I heard nothing.

But then, consider the official, who might himself have made the record books Friday night.  Of the 44  flags thrown, he threw 28 of them.  Do you realize what a game would be like if all five officials each threw 28 flagome

As it was, I can remember looking at my watch and saying, “We won’t get home until one in the morning.”  I was spot on.  It’s two-and-a-half hours from Aberdeen to our place in Camas, and after some time on the field and in the coaches’ room, we got home at one on the dot.

Now then, that official… he was the one on our sideline.  I have no idea what was bothering the prick, but right from the  start, I sensed we were in trouble when he told us to get “behind the line.” That’s pretty routine pre-game procedure, but when we all stepped back out of the coach’s box, he  said, “Not THAT line,” then pointed to a line 10 feet farther back from the sideline and said, “THAT line.”

There are some good people officiating games, and I believe in doing our best to cooperate with them in putting on a game.  But it bothers me the way the (supposedly) good ones refuse to intervene when a guy is clearly on a power trip.   I can’t have a lot of respect for the other members of a crew who won’t  call a time out and say to him, “Had enough for one night yet?”




 
Friday’s sportsmanship award went to the Hoquiam  coach, who eschewed the customary post-game handshake line and instead, while our kids waited, gathered his team in the end zone.  I have heard a rumor that he explained to his AD that he didn’t trust his kids to go through the handshakes without incident.  Whose fault is that?


***********   THIS PAST WEEKEND’S GAMES

THURSDAY NIGHT

ARMY 42,  TEMPLE 14 - The Owls did their best but they were no match for th Cadets. Army QB Bryson Daily rushed for 152 yards.


FRIDAY NIGHT

MIAMI 38, VIRGINIA TECH 34 - Looked like some home cooking at the end  when an apparent winning TD catch by the Hokies was ruled an incompletion.

RUTGERS  21, WASHINGTON 18 - Huskies’ coach Jedd Fisch said you can’t beat two teams - the opponents and yourself.   Scarlet Knights are 4-0, and with no Ohio State, Penn State or Michigan on the schedule, every team left is beatable.

SATURDAY

KENTUCKY 20, OLE MISS 17 - Guess that close call against Georgia last week wasn’t the fluke a lot of people thought it was.

MICHIGAN  27, MINNESOTA 24 - Michigan had to fight off a strong comeback by the Gophers, who outscored them 21-3 in the fourth quarter.

KANSAS STATE 42, OKLAHOMA STATE 14 - WTF happened to the Wildcats last week against BYU?

BYU 34,  BAYLOR 28  - Cougars are 5-0 .

INDIANA 42, MARYLAND 28 - Indiana is 5-0 for the first time since 1967, when John Pont took the Hoosiers to the Rose Bowl. 

NEBRASKA 28,  PURDUE 10 - I like Purdue and it hurts to watch them.

BOSTON COLLEGE 21, WESTERN KENTUCKY 20 - Down 13 points at the end of 3 quarters, the Eagles, playing without QB Thomas Castellanos, finally pulled ahead with 3:33 remaining and then held on for the win.

NAVY 41,  UAB 14 - Navy’s new offense may be “wing-T based,” but the Middies are doing a lot of things, and  what makes it all possible is their QB, Blake Horvath.  Navy, like Army, is 4-0.

TULANE 45, SOUTH FLORIDA 10 - Tulane’s Darian Mensah threw for 328. USF isn’t ready for the big time just yet.

USC  38, WISCONSIN 21 - Trojans covered the two-TD spread. Miller Moss was 30 of 45 for 308 and three TDs. Badger are 2-2, but their losses have been to Alabama and USC.

NOTRE DAME  31, LOUISVILLE  24 - Louisville committed two cardinal special teams sins in the first quarter, yet still managed to come close.  Irish got out rushed, 173-120.  Worse, QB Riley Leonard led them in carries  (13 of a total 29) and yards rushing (52 of 120).

OKLAHOMA 27, AUBURN 21 - I guess Oklahoma isn’t as good as I thought, and Auburn isn’t as bad.

TEXAS A & M 21, ARKANSAS 17 - Aggies have won 12 of the 13 game they’ve played since they joined the SEC.

LOUISIANA 41,  WAKE FOREST 38 - A field goal attempt at 0:00 was wide, and the Deacs are now 1-3, their worst start since Dave Clawson arrived 11 years ago.  The two teams had a combined 938 yards of offense.

TCU 38, KANSAS 27 - Kansas has to be the best FOUR loss team in America.

COLORADO 48,  UCF 21 - I’ve derided Deion and I still won’t buy into the “Coach Prime” crap, but Colorado outplayed UCF in every aspect of the game, and  the Buffs are now 4-1.  Coaching has to have something to do  with that.

UNLV 59, FRESNO STATE 14 - I’m going to let my son, Ed, who although based in Australia covers all things Mountain West, write this one: The Matthew Sluka NIL controversy was pushed to the side as new starter Hajj-Malik Williams took the QB reins at UNLV and led the Rebels to a comprehensive 59-14 win over Fresno State. Williams – who threw for 182 yds, ran for 119 yds and accounted for 4 TDs helped UNLV into the top 25 for the first time in program history. Now let’s hope the Campbell transfer doesn’t hire a new agent and ask for more money.

DUKE 21, NORTH CAROLINA 20 - The Blue Devils were dead most of the way and they were down 17-0 at the half. They were down 20-0 in the third quarter,

TEXAS 35, MISSISSIPPI STATE 13 - The Longhorns did not cover.  Booooo!  Get that bum Manning outta there!  Boooo! 

OHIO STATE 38,  MICHIGAN STATE  7 - zzzzzzzzzz.

CLEMSON 40, STANFORD 14 - Troy Taylor seems to be making some progress at Stanford, and the problem isn’t the ACC.  Clemson is just a lot better, and Stanford would have been having similar problems in an intact Pac-12.

IOWA STATE 20,  HOUSTON  0- Houston could throw for only 72 yards. Is that an FBS low for the year?

ALABAMA  41, GEORGIA 34 - Great game. It’s a great team that can take a 28-point lead, blow it, and then, while seemingly on the ropes, reach right back with a killer punch of its own.

PENN STATE 21, ILLINOIS 7 - Illinois has been looking pretty good. Can Penn State really be 19 points better?  I say no.

MEMPHIS 24, MIDDLE TENNESSEE 7 - Tigers held Middle Tennessee to 29 yards rushing.

LSU 42, SOUTH ALABAMA 10  - Tiger QB Garrett Nussmeier  threw for 409 yards and two TDs. Most encouraging for LSU had to be the 237 yards rushing, led by Caden Durham’s 128 yards on seven carries (18.3 yards per carry).

SMU 42, FLORIDA STATE 16 -  I said: “I have a feeling that the Seminoles are going to get their heads handed to them.”  (Every so often I call one correctly.)

TEXAS TECH 44, CINCINNATI 41 - The Bearcats had 555 yards of total offense; Texas Tech had “only” 482.  It came down to a missed 51-yard  field goal attempt by Cincinnati that would have sent the game into overtime.

WYOMING 31, AIR FORCE 19  - This is weird.  It used to be Air Force that wore opponents down. But  after leading 13-7 at the half, the Zoomies were outscored 24-6 in the second half.

BOISE STATE 45, WASHINGTON STATE 24 - Damn shame that Bronco running back Ashton Jeanty ("JENN-tee")  will never be seen by most of the suits who vote for the Heisman, because he is something to see.

 


ARIZONA 23,  UTAH 10 - Great game.  Not if you’re a Ute, but Brent Brennan has done an amazing job in his first year in Tucson. Wildcats, now 3-1, saw Utes pull to within a TD with 12 minutes left, but three minutes later, ‘Zona Noah Fifita iced the game with a 35-yard TD pass.  Utes rushed for only 84 yards and were stopped four times on fourth-and-short situations.

OREGON 34, UCLA 13 - zzzzzzzzz.


*********** The last time Army and Navy were both 4-0 was 1945.  The country was just emerging from World War II, a time when the service academies were stockpiling great athletes, many of whom had played for other colleges before the war.

That was the only time in  the history of their long rivalry they they entered the game ranked as Number One (Army) and Number Two (Navy).

The Middies wound up 7-1-1.  They tied Notre Dame, 6-6, and they lost to Army, 32-13.  They shut out three of their opponents and outscored opponents by 220 to 65.

Army wound up unbeaten and ranked Number One, as they had been for seven weeks.  Army shut out five opponents during the season, and going into the Navy game had shut out three straight opponents - including #2 Notre Dame (48-0) and #6 Penn (61-0).

During the season, Army outscored opponents 412-46. Including Navy, Army defeated five ranked teams during the season.

Army  fullback Don Blanchard (who had started out at North Carolina) won the Heisman Trophy.  Next year, his backfield running mate, Glenn Davis, would win it.

Four Army players were consensus first-team picks on the 1945 All-America college football team: Blanchard; Davis; tackle Tex Coulter; and guard John Green, and the Newspaper Enterprise Association (NEA) went so far as to name all eleven Army starters (two-way football) as its All-American team.


*********** Next Saturday’s GameDay will come from… get ready for this… Berkeley, California, when Miami visits Cal.

No comment.

Expect an awful lot of attention to be  paid to the  coincidence of Miami coach Mario Cristobal and Cal QB Fernando Mendoza having gone to the same high school, Miami’s Columbus High School.

Columbus is all-male, and my friend Armando Castro, a Miami guy, tells me it is “a powerhouse.”



***********   Hugh, got an e mail from the head sports writer for  the Idaho Statesman (the Boise paper) .

Believe it or not,  my QB, Jace Chaddez,  was selected as Athlete of the Week. Hugh,  we ran for over 300 yards, but Jace was 6 of 10 for 140 yards and threw 4 TD passes.

Never would I have thought my QB would be honored. But as I told the team today this was a team honor.

Mike Foristiere
Marsing, Idaho

See?  Playing Double Wing quarterback DOES prepare kids for the next level!



*********** Something is going on at Air Force.

It seems to have started last year, when they got off to an 8-0 start and then totally folded against Army. It looked like a tank job.

After that, they finished 1-3, losing to Hawaii, UNLV and Boise State before narrowly beating JMU in a bowl game.

This season they struggled to beat Merrimack (!) and since then they’ve lost to San Jose State, Baylor and now Wyoming.

Starting with last year’s Army game, they’re now 2-7 counting the bowl win.

Is this possibly a reaction to the way Coach Troy Calhoun’s name keeps popping up  whenever there’s an opening somewhere?  Or is it possible that Coach Calhoun’s been looking because of something going on behind the scenes at the Academy?  



***********  Wondering if we won't see Alabama vs. Georgia a possible 3 times this year.
Saturday was a great game
SEC championship game
playoff matchup depending on pairings

I do think the Vols may factor into the equation the way they have played.

Texas also may factor in as well.

Question being is Texas built to compete in the SEC week in and week out?

Much like can Oregon or USC compete week in week out an entire season in the Big 10?
Conference identities were earned.  Big 10 and SEC were PHYSICAL conferences and defense was a priority.  Pac 12 and Big 12 were not as physical, and offense was the priority
Are these new conference teams built in the current era to compete in the schedule.

Surprises:
Indiana and Kansas, opposite reasons.
BYU and Duke
Rutgers and UNLV
JMU
all undefeated. 

--
Brad Knight
Clarinda, Iowa


**********  Love your paragraph about the ingredients that produced Coach Lude. It’s a fine tribute to a man who, because he possessed such genuine humanity, left his mark on people far and wide.

Must disagree with one outrageous claim: rather than elevate your GPA, Yale should reduce it. I think 1.6 sounds about right. Why? Because unlike some of your heavily-applauded classmates, you stopped learning on the hour of your commencement. Am I correct? Nah, I’m getting booed from Helsinki to Houston.

John Vermillion
St Petersburg, FL



***********  Hugh,

Army wasn’t challenged.  But then again they soundly beat a team they should’ve beaten soundly.  Unlike a certain team from northern Indiana that may find itself struggling to beat BOTH academies!
 
They’re in deep this Saturday with a sneaky good Louisville team making the trip to South Bend.

Looks like the PAC 6 has turned its attention to basketball as well as football.

Won’t be surprised to see them add Utah State, UNLV, Gonzaga, and New Mexico.
If so is Creighton and St. Mary’s next?

Georgia at Alabama should be a good one to watch.  At least it will be on a network all of us have. 

Congrats to my good friend Mike Foristiere and his Marsing HS Huskies!

Mike has his DW offense cranked up and along with a stout D the Huskies are 3-1.
Marsing manhandled a larger division opponent last Friday.  Only loss was to a school that has been running the DW for years.


Enjoy the games this weekend!

Joe  Gutilla
Granbury, Texas

 





*********** QUIZ  ANSWER:   Wes Fesler was a head football coach at four colleges and a head basketball coach at three.  At one of those schools he held both jobs at the same time.

He was a four-sport star in high school in Youngstown, Ohio, and at Ohio State he was one of their greatest all-around athletes.

In football he was team captain his junior and senior years, and a three-time All-American as a two way end (although at times he was also used in the backfield).

In his senior year he was named the Big Ten’s Most Valuable Player, and would almost certainly be  a Heisman winner had he not played before the existence of the award. In 1939, famed sportswriter Grantland Rice named him on his All-Time College Football Team.

He was captain of the basketball team as well as an All-American.

He was a star on the Buckeyes’ baseball team.

In all, he earned nine varsity letters, and in addition he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, the most prestigious collegiate honor society.

Following graduation, he was hired  as an assistant at Ohio State, and after two seasons - during  which time he also played baseball in the St. Louis Cardinals’ organization, he was hired by Harvard as head basketball coach and assistant football coach.

After nine years at Harvard, he was hired as head football coach and head basketball coach at Wesleyan College in Connecticut, but after two years, with World War II going on, the school dropped football.

In 1945, following the War, he was hired by Princeton as head basketball coach and assistant football coach, but a year later he was named head coach at Pitt.

And then, in 1947, he hit it big.  He was hired as head coach at Ohio State, succeeding Paul Bixler, who had gone 4-3-2 in his one year there.

He lasted four years.  His 1949 team won the Big Ten, and defeated Cal in the Rose Bowl.

In 1950, his star running back, Vic Janowicz, won the Heisman Trophy.

But following the 1950 season, despite a 6-3 finish and a Number 14 national ranking, he resigned,  citing “excessive pressure for winning football games.”  Well, duh.

He was almost immediately hired by Minnesota to be head coach, and he stayed there for four seasons, with an overall record of 10-13-4.

His overall record as a major college (Pitt, Ohio State, Minnesota) football coach was 34–31–8.

His overall record as basketball head coach (at Harvard and Princeton) was 67–108.

He is in the College Football Hall of Fame.   As a player.

He might be best known by the quality of the coaches who succeeded him at his last two posts. 

At Ohio State, his successor was Woody Hayes, the greatest coach Ohio State has ever had.

At Minnesota it was Murray Warmath, whose record there is surpassed only by the legendary Bernie Bierman.




*********** Wes Fesler was not only a great athlete and a good coach, but also, based on his many quotes and observations about the human condition, a very wise man.

·  Hypocrisy is the audacity to preach integrity from a den of corruption.
 
·  While parents should always provide shelter from a storm, they should sometimes allow children to play in the rain.

·  When your woman gives you the silent treatment, say you're sorry, or you'll find out how truly sorry you are when her monologue resumes.
 
·  Scold your children, and they will know what is wrong; but correct them with love, and they will know what is right.

·  Resilience is the ability to attack while running away.

·  Self-mastery is the challenge of transforming yourself from own worst enemy into your greatest ally.

·  If you are willing to stir a pot, you better be willing to eat what comes out of it.

·  This world will slam doors in your face at every opportunity. Be willing to employ a foot when necessary.

·  It is difficult to prove yourself reliable when people are required to wait for you.

·  Good men are bound by conscience and liberated by accountability.

·  One can rarely achieve greatness on the path of least resistance.

·  No degree of worldly darkness can extinguish the glow of a soul's inner light.

·  Few moments in life are more gratifying than those when the arrogant are exposed as the ignorant.

·  Look for goodness in others, for beauty in the world, and for possibilities in yourself.

·  Meet every level of frustration with a greater level of character.

·  If we make every day better than the one before, today will be the best day yet, and the greatest days ever will await us in every tomorrow.

·  The only true failure is failure to try.

·  There is no future in waiting for tomorrow.

·  Never blame others for tracking in mud, until you have checked your own feet.

·  Worthy goals are consistently achieved by enduring forces of adversity and opposition until they subside.

·  If you share in a heart-felt sorrow, you can lighten the load of a friend. Sometimes facing the burden together can mend two broken hearts in the end.
 
·  When the world grinds you down, bent to tear you apart, cling to what you hold dear, and stay true to your heart. For the world has a way to dismantle your cause, to exploit what you lack and expose all your flaws. But when every layer of your being is gone, and it seems there's no point anymore to go on; just remember one thing, at the end of the day, when you have self-respect they can't take that away.

·  Add a task to a busy person's plate, and it will get done in short order. Add a task to the plate of someone with nothing to do, and it will never get done.

·  Reputation is generally proof of how little one knows about a person.

·  In every difficult situation there is a door to opportunity for which optimism is the only key.
 
 

CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING WES FESLER

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FORISTIERE - MARSING, IDAHO
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY


 



*********** QUIZ:  Although football fans are marveling at the unusual success  this year of Rutgers, New Jersey’s state university, the Garden State has produced more than its share of great football players who went elsewhere to play college ball.

Our guy was one of them, possibly the best college running back of all time.

He played high school ball at Woodrow Wilson High in his native Camden, a tough, rundown  former industrial city just across the Delaware River from Philadelphia.

He was very good, but he was lightly recruited, and was noticed by then-Nebraska assistant coach (and former Husker running back) Frank Solich while Solich was looking at film of another player.

He spent a year at Coffeyville (Kansas) JC, leading Coffeyvile to a 9-0 record with 1157 yards rushing.

In his first year at Nebraska, now a sophomore, he pressed starting I-back Roger Craig, who was moved to fullback before the next season.

In his junior year, he set a rushing yardage record, breaking one that had lasted for 30 years, with 1,689 yards, as Nebraska finished 12-1. Its only loss was early in the season at State College, Pennsylvania, to eventual national champion Penn State.  He was named All-American.

In his senior year, he led the nation in total yardage - 2,486 - as he  rushed for 2,148 yards, averaging 7.8 yards per carry.  He scored 29 touchdowns, and rushed for more than 200 yards in each of the final four games of the regular season. Against Kansas, he rushed for 230 yards - in the first half.

He won the Heisman, the Maxwell and the Walter Camp Trophies and was named to every All-American team.

Despite averaging 52 points - and 401 yards rushing - per game, the Cornhuskers’ hopes for a national title were dashed by Miami, 31-30.  Although he’d rushed for 138 yards in he first half, he was forced by an ankle injury to watch most of the second half.

Selected first overall in the USFL Draft by  the Pittsburgh Maulers, he played two seasons in the USFL,  first with the  Maulers, then with the Jacksonville Bulls.

In 1985 he played in the spring for  Jacksonville then in the fall for the Houston Oilers, who had taken him in a special draft of USFL players.

He  played six seasons for the Oilers, and was named to the Pro Bowl twice. With the Oilers, he carried 900 times for 3171 yards, and in 1988 he rushed for 1,002 yards.

Released by the Oilers in 1990, he was signed by the Falcons, and played two years with them, carrying 249 times for 1036 yards, before retiring.

For his career, he carried 1159 times  for 4462 yards and 30 touchdowns.


FRIDAY,  SEPTEMBER 27,  2024    "While parents should always provide shelter from a storm, they should sometimes allow children to play in the rain.“   Wes Fesler


*********** Wisdom from Mike Lude: “For a college lineman, my size – I played at 177 pounds – was marginal even then, long before 300-pound guards and tackles became commonplace. But I knew how to use my hands on defense, and I could block much bigger defenders effectively.   I considered myself very coachable.   Harwood told me many of the same things I had heard from my high school coaches: as long as I was aggressive and tough, put pressure on opposing passers, and blocked hard I'd have a place in his program.

“Like most linemen I derived the most satisfaction from team success. I always believed – and this never changed when I became a coach and later athletic director – that the team comes first. I do remember one specific game against Kalamazoo College, partly because I was from Kalamazoo County. I was our team captain, and we blanked a good Kalamazoo team 20 to nothing, and in the locker room after the game I was presented the game ball. But individual recognition for me was rare.

“I looked on Coach Harwood as a nice guy, a good friend, and an advisor who was sensitive to all the nuances of the Hillsdale campus. Early in my Hillsdale years, he tried to help with my classroom problems. He suggested that I enroll in a French course. I said I didn't have much interest in French until he explained that Dr. Harold Davidson, the French professor was coach of the tennis team and our faculty athletic representative. "I almost guarantee you will pass his class if you don't cut it, “ Harwood said. So I registered for French, had perfect attendance, and although I wasn't a very good student, I passed (with a D as in dog).”



***********  It’s the Aberdeen Bobcats vs the Hoquiam Grizzlies Friday night at Aberdeen’s historic Stewart Field.  Built in 1929, it’s a relic, and a treasure.  I love it. There are stands - all covered, because it does rain here - on three sides (only three, because the Wishkah River runs right behind the east end zone).  It’s all wood, as you might expect in a city that owes its existence to the  forests of the Northwest and the port that shipped it products around the world.

The game’s been played 118 times since it was first played in 1906. The Bobcats have won 72 times, the Grizzlies 41. (Five games ended in ties.)

We may be 0-3 going into the game, but our Wednesday practice was the best we’ve had since I’ve been with the team.



Wednesday night at Aberdeen is also Bobcat Buddies Night, a  relatively recent tradition in which  at the end of our practice - and the end of youth football practice on an adjoining field - our players and the little guys get together on the field.  Every one of our players has been assigned a youth player (in some cases, two youth players) to be his “buddy,” and it’s really cool to see them all get together after practice.  (It’s also a big deal for the little kids to be able to run around on Stewart Field under the lights.)

The little guys were asked to write notes to their Bobcat Buddies before the Big Game, and one of the players, junior tackle Jayden Gladson, was so moved by the one he got that he shared it with me.



I told Jayden  that it really was a wonderful and powerful thing to realize that a young guy looked up to him like that - that he could have a great effect on that boy’s life. I said he should frame it.

And then I told him about a great man  who remembered, later in life,  being a third grader in Baton Rouge, Louisiana when the local high school coach came to his school and introduced some of his players; how  that little third grader made up his mind right then and there that he was going to be a football player and - someday -  a coach.  That little  third grader was Eddie Robinson. (I did have to explain to Jayden the significance of the great Coach Rob.)



*********** Lynn Madsen stopped by our practice yesterday.  Like our head coach, Todd Bridge, he’s a former Washington Husky - a nose guard, he was  MVP of the 1983 Aloha Bowl - and like Todd Bridge (and me) he’s a great admirer of his coach, Don James.  In fact, he’s planning on doing a documentary on Coach James.

When I mentioned that Mike Lude - the Huskies’ AD during those great years - and I had been friends, he lit up and told me a Mike-Lude-the-people-person story.

He said  that after leaving Washington, he’d played a couple of years in the USFL and then a year with the Houston Oilers until, 5 years out of school, he was  playing up in Canada (“I’d just got married and I needed the money”) when the head coach came  up to him one day and said, ‘I was just talking to Mike Lude, and he asked, ‘How’s Lynn Madsen doing?’”

(Would your AD have asked about YOU five years after YOU’D graduated?)

https://www.si.com/college/washington/legends/madsen-credits-don-james-with-preparing-him-for-life



***********   COLLEGE GAMES  I’LL RECORD THIS WEEKEND

To set up my recordings each weekend, I’ve made it a habit over the years of using  ESPN’s college football schedule, which lists every FBS game for the upcoming weekend, as well as its kickoff time and who’s televising it.

This week, for the first time  (at least it was the first time I’ve noticed),  the schedule  included point spreads and over/unders.

https://www.espn.com/college-football/schedule




THURSDAY NIGHT

ARMY AT TEMPLE - If Army doesn’t screw up, it should run all over a team that’s had just three days (or maybe only two?) to prepare to face its offense.


FRIDAY NIGHT

VIRGINIA TECH AT MIAMI - Oh, dear.  This could get bad. Miami is favored by 20.

WASHINGTON AT RUTGERS - Wait - can this be true? Rutgers is favored by 2.5?  I’ll take the points.  We’ll begin to find out what happens when idiots send teams cross-country on a short week.  But remember, Huskies - you asked for this.

SATURDAY

KENTUCKY AT OLE MISS - Kentucky played Georgia tough last week, but…

MINNESOTA AT MICHIGAN - Hard to believe that the Little Brown Jug was once one of the most prized trophies in all of football

OKLAHOMA STATE AT KANSAS STATE - Cowboys coming off a tough one against Utah, Wildcats coming off an ass-kicking by BYU. KSU slightly favored.

BYU AT BAYLOR - Somehow, Baylor, which totally blew last week’s game against Colorado, is somehow favored over BYU, which took Kansas State. I’ll take the Cougars.

MARYLAND AT INDIANA - Indiana must be for real, to be favored by a touchdown.

NEBRASKA AT PURDUE - Purdue is bad. Notre Dame ran on them two weeks ago, and last week Oregon State rushed for 400 yards against them.

WESTERN KENTUCKY AT BOSTON COLLEGE - Eagles have yet to play a bad game, which is what they’ll have to do to lose to the Hilltoppers.

NAVY AT UAB - Navy’s offense is looking really good. QB Blake Horvath is exciting to watch.  Navy goes 4-0.

SOUTH FLORIDA AT TULANE - This could be a good one.  USF may be on the road back to being the power it once was.

WISCONSIN AT USC - Trojans are two touchdown favorites.

LOUISVILLE AT NOTRE DAME - Can you believe those greedy bastards have put this game on f—king Peacock?

OKLAHOMA AT AUBURN - As bad as Auburn has played, how can OU be favored by just three points.

ARKANSAS AT TEXAS A & M - A & M is favored.  Go Hogs.  Save Sam Pittman’s job.

LOUISIANA AT WAKE FOREST - Go Deacs!

TCU AT KANSAS - Kansas has to be the best three-loss team in America. I’m pickling them over a team whose coach, Sonny Dykes, can’t control  himself on the sidelines.

COLORADO AT UCF - If coaching has anything to do with it, UCF wins big. Gus Malzahn is twice the coach that whatsisname is.

FRESNO STATE AT UNLV - I have to root for Fresno now the they’re in the Pac-12 and UNLV is playing hard to get.

NORTH CAROLINA AT DUKE - It’s better known as a basketball rivalry but it really matters  to these folks and Duke is in the rare position of being a slight favorite - over a team that gave up 70 points last week. Malik Murphy, ex-Texas  starter, has been doing a good job for Duke at QB.

MISSISSIPPI STATE AT TEXAS - What’s it say about a league’s “balance” when one team - a new one at that - is  favored over another by 39.5 points - and the opponent is NOT Vanderbilt?

OHIO STATE AT MICHIGAN STATE - (YOU’VE READ THIS BEFORE) Can you believe those greedy bastards have put this game on f—king Peacock?

STANFORD AT CLEMSON - Stanford’s first trip to Death Valley, and it will be  culture shock for the Cardinal.  On top of that, Clemson looks like the Tigers of old.

IOWA STATE AT HOUSTON - Iowa State should kill Houston.

GEORGIA AT ALABAMA - I’m rooting for Alabama.  I’m over my anger at DeBoer for leaving Washington.

ILLINOIS AT PENN STATE - Illinois has been looking pretty good. Can Penn State really be 19 points better?  I say no.

MIDDLE TENNESSEE AT MEMPHIS - Memphis ran into a buzz saw against Navy last week, but their passing attack is exceptional.  Middle Tennessee made too many mistakes against Duke.  This could be bad.

SOUTH ALABAMA AT LSU - Tigers are three TD favorites, but South Alabama showed how explosive it can be in beating App State.

FLORIDA STATE AT SMU -  I have a feeling that the Seminoles are going to get their heads handed to them.

CINCINNATI AT TEXAS TECH - Texas Tech is slightly favored but I’ve watched Cinci a couple of times and I’m impressed. Cinci wins.

AIR FORCE AT WYOMING - Two of the worst teams in the Mountain West - how did it happen to two of the most consistently good programs? Wyoming is worse than Air Force.

WASHINGTON STATE AT BOISE STATE - Maybe the best game of the weekend.  Boise is a one-TD favorite but I like the Cougs.

ARIZONA AT UTAH - Utes are a solid club and very tough at home.  Arizona is good, but not in Utah’s class.

OREGON AT UCLA - This one starts at 11 PM Eastern so not many Easterners will watch it to the end.  UCLA is 1-2.  The Bruins’ only win was a 16-13 win over Hawaii at closing time, and that may be their best.   Oregon has yet to play at its best.  This could be over by halftime.



 
*********** Two former Double Wing coaches - brothers in the fraternity  - John Torres (on the left) and Dwayne Pierce  - got together recently in Arizona, where Coach Torres now lives.  Coach Torres coached teams in California’s Central Valley and then in the far northern suburbs of L.A., where he was instrumental in starting not only a team, but an entire league. He hosted several of my clinics in both areas. He also played a major role in introducing lacrosse to the area.  Coach Pierce, a Washington, DC resident, has coached youth and high school teams in the DC area;  as an example of the Double Wing brotherhood, back around 2003, he told me that he was planning on visiting  Atlanta and asked if I knew any Double Wing coaches he might be able to visit.  I steered him to Kevin Latham, who was then coaching at a middle school. Short story: Coach Latham was more than happy to meet a fellow Double-Winger; Coach Pierce was knowledgeable enough  to make some very constructive suggestions;  Coach Latham was astute  enough to implement the suggestions.  The result was more success for Coach Latham, but even more important, a life-long friendship.


Coach Torres and Coach Pierce are now both officials. I joke that they’re on the dark side, but in all seriousness, I’m pleased any time I learn of an official who’s had coaching experience, and I’m sure they’re good ones.  In truth, the longer I’m in this game and the more  that opposition to football mounts in our culture, the more I believe that coaches and officials share a common purpose in protecting our sport.



*********** By now you’ve almost certainly read about the kid at UNLV - a recent graduate transfer from FCS Holy Cross - who announced that he was going to redshirt this season, which meant playing no more games this season so that he could preserve his one remaining year of eligibility in order to play somewhere else next year. (The NCAA foolishly allows players to play as many as four games - postseason games don’t count - without actually losing a year of eligibility. This once applied to actually college freshman; it certainly never intend to apply to graduates.)

The kid says that he was promised things that are never delivered, so he’s outta here.

Somebody’s getting screwed here, and I don’t know whose side I’m on, but look…

First of all, his complaint can’t be with UNLV, the school or the football program, because as we all know,  the deals players make are not with the schools but with their associated  NIL collectives, which while dedicated to the schools’ success,are forbidden from working directly with the school.

That’s what the toothless NCAA says.

Meanwhile, most big football programs have begun hiring “General Managers” (that’s what they’re actually called) whose primary function is “roster management.” How they can do that without working with their collectives is today’s million-dollar question.

I would say one thing, and it’s this:  Supposedly the kid had agents negotiate his deal, but nothing was in writing.  WTF kind of agents would take somebody’s money to represent him - and not get everything in writing?

Actually, I’ll say another thing:  in the old days, when a certain syndicate patrolled Vegas and kept business going…

The collective would not have screwed a kid (if that’s what happened).  Stuff like that is bad for business.

The kid would not have left his team in a lurch (if that’s what happened).  Stuff like that is bad for your health.



***********   A friend of the family is a big-time agent. He is VERY ethical and above-board.  He has now begun to represent high school athletes.



*********** Following a riotous collection of “young people” at a Virginia amusement park, a Spokesman for the Hanover County Sheriff’s Department had this to say…

"We as parents, as a society, have got to do better to raise these kids to be respectful and have manners… we have got to do a better job of controlling our kids’ behavior and instilling good values in them so when they are not in our presence, they don’t behave like this."

What dream world does this clown live in? What you mean “We as parents, as a society…?”

Are people like this ever going to have the stones to point the finger at the problem?

What chance to we have to end this sh— that’s destroying  our society when people in law enforcement look the other way and try to put the blame for feral  kids - whose whereabouts are unknown to any adults - on people who actually do teach their kids to “be respectful and have manners”… who actually do control their kids and instill good values in them?




*********** To a Yale alumnus who, once I decided to get to work (marriage will do this to a guy), had to bust my ass for B’s and C’s, it pissed me off to learn that our “Trophies for Everybody” culture had made its way to the Ivy League.

This, from a Wall Street Journal article by a professor at Johns Hopkins named Yascha Mounk…

In 1950, the average GPA at Harvard was 2.6.  Today, it’s 3.8

In 2023, at Yale, 80 per cent of the grades were A or A minus.


I’m tempted to contact the registrar (through my attorney. of course) and insist that they adjust my grades for inflation. And then, with my newly-acquired 4.00 GPA, I’ll apply to medical school at Harvard.  (But just to be on the safe side, I’ll claim to be Somali.)



*********** Interestingly, in the NFL, passing stats are down

From The Athletic…

Offenses are struggling this year, especially in the passing game. Just ask any Bears fan (who must trust the process).
 
Entering Week 3, the league-wide averages of 193.6 passing yards and 1.1 touchdowns per game rank as the lowest marks in both categories in a single season since 1978, before the "Mel Blount rule" was introduced to the limit contact between corners and receivers to five yards. Back then, the highest-paid player was a running back (O.J. Simpson) making $733K.
 
Why are passing offenses reverting to the '70s?
 
For one, quarterbacks are younger than ever. Last year, Mike Sando noted that starting NFL quarterbacks were younger than they'd been in 60 years. At the time, their average age was just 27.8 years. This year, they're even younger, with Week 1's 32 starting QBs averaging 27.6. This comes with all sorts of growing pains, as Bo Nix is learning in Denver.
 
The bigger reason: After years of pass-heavy approaches, a return to the physical run game against lighter defenses (and two-high safeties) is working. Teams are averaging 4.5 yards per carry, tied with 2022 for the best mark in NFL history, and 124.9 rushing yards per game, the most since 1987. They are throwing less (just 30.3 pass attempts per game, about three fewer than last year), but not running much more (27.5 attempts compared to 26.8 last year), just running better



***********   Lee Corso may be right, but he would've been more correct if he'd added and coaches. If the head coach doesn't select able assistants, he won't succeed.

Beautiful recitation of the facts, and feelings, surrounding your relationship with Kevin Latham.

I'll never stop pointing out how much I appreciate the thoughts of Coach Lude. A friend who reads this page emailed a few days ago to say he would like to read about a connection between Coach Lude and Simon Pack.

Keep working with those Bobcats. I don't have to tell you the wins will come.

Yep, we're only a few games in, but both Army and Navy look very good. Hope some of your readers watched "The Brotherhood", a behind-the-scenes look at Army football's Fall camp. It was far too short (30 minutes), but attention-grabbing. I watched Bryson's tremendous performance, after which I thought I'd watch a little of the Navy-Memphis game. Turns out I watched more than a little. Navy's QB is as good as you claim. Happy to see both SAs hanging tough.

Re JMU: lots of institutions are trying to find the elixir somewhere in the JMU Athletic Department. They've suddenly become excellent in numerous sports.


John Vermillion                        
St Petersburg, Florida

Coach Lude’s story is the classic American fable of the kid with very little going for him in a material sense, but a lot going for him in terms of work habits and values instilled in him by  solid, hard-working parents. Unlike today’s kids, he was not overly protected. He was expected to do the right thing and got no special reward for doing to. He wa spunished when he did wrong.  He was given reponsibility, as well as the opportunity to make mistakes and learn from them.  His mentors were honest in their appraisal of his talents, and he accepted their honesty and made the most of the talents that he did have.

I join you in your  challenge of Coach Corso.  The woods are full of programs - college and pro - that have gone to hell as soon as a coordinator leaves.  I think that the constant turnover of offensive coordinators is a major reason why so many NFL offenses suck.



***********   Hugh,

So sorry to hear about the loss of Kevin Latham.  His friendship with you, his relationships with his peers and players, and his teaching abilities transcended the game.  Yes, he will be missed.

Army/Navy:  What happens if Army AND Navy both end up in the AAC championship game??

The Group of 5 rankings currently has UNLV in the top spot followed by Memphis, Boise State, and South Florida.

Louisville at Notre Dame will have a huge impact on the playoffs for both teams.  A win keeps their hopes alive.  A loss doesn’t.  A 2 loss ND team won’t get them in over a 2 or 3 loss SEC/BIG team.  Same for Louisville.

Have a great week!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas




 
*********** QUIZ ANSWER:   A native of Lake Charles, Louisiana,  Tommy Mason was a  star running back at Lake Charles High School, and chose to play college ball  at Tulane,  where he joined his older brother.

In his senior season at Tulane,  he earned All-America honors after leading  the SEC in rushing.  He also caught 28 passes for 376 yards and five touchdowns, and returned five kicks for 314 yards and 14 punts for 99 yards to set a school record for all-purpose yards (1,475) that would last for another  28 years.

In addition to the All-America honors, he was named first-team All-SEC, and  was selected to participate in four post-season all-star games: the East-West Shrine Game, the Hula Bowl, the Coaches All-American Game and the College All-Star Game.

He was the number one player taken overall in the 1961 NFL Draft, and the very first player ever taken by the expansion Minnesota Vikings (they took Fran Tarkenton in the third round). He was also the Number Two overall pick in the American Football League, chosen by the Boston Patriots,  and the CFL pursued him as well, but as he said later, “I wasn’t sure the AFL was going to last, and Canada seemed a long way away for a Louisiana boy.”

In the same interview, he recalled,  “My dad, Bill, was a watchman at a chemical plant, and my mom, Mary, was a nurse, and they couldn’t believe it … that this team from Minnesota was willing to pay their boy $12,000 to play football.”

He wound up playing 11 years in the NFL - six years with the Vikings, four with the Rams, and one with the Redskins.

He was voted to three straight Pro Bowls (1962-3-4) and in 1963 he became the first Viking ever to be named first-team All-Pro.

For his career, he rushed for 4,203 yards and 32 touchdowns on 1,040 carries, and caught 214 passes for 2,324 yards and 13 TDs. He also returned kickoffs and punts for 1,550 yards.

Most of his production - 3,252 yards and 28 touchdowns - came during his time with the Vikings.

After  retirement from  football,  he owned a Coors Beer distributorship  in San Bernardino, California.

Tommy Mason is in the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame and the Tulane Athletics Hall of Fame.

He was married four times.  His second wife was well-known gymnast Cathy Rigby.  They were married for nine years before they divorced




CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING TOMMY MASON

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FORISTIERE - MARSING, IDAHO
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY

 







*********** QUIZ:   He was a head football coach at four colleges and a head basketball coach at three.  At one of those schools he held both jobs at the same time.

He was a four-sport star in high school in Youngstown, Ohio, and at Ohio State he was one of their greatest all-around athletes.

In football he was team captain his junior and senior years, and a three-time All-American as a two way end (although at times he was also used in the backfield).

In his senior year he was named the Big Ten’s Most Valuable Player, and would almost certainly be  a Heisman winner had he not played before the existence of the award. In 1939, famed sportswriter Grantland Rice named him on his All-Time College Football Team.

He was captain of the basketball team as well as an All-American.

He was a star on the Buckeyes’ baseball team.

In all, he earned nine varsity letters, and in addition he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, the most prestigious collegiate honor society.

Following graduation, he was hired  as an assistant at Ohio State, and after two seasons - during which time he also played baseball in the St. Louis Cardinals’ organization, he was hired by Harvard as head basketball coach and assistant football coach.

After nine years at Harvard, he was hired as head football coach and head basketball coach at Wesleyan College in Connecticut, but after two years, with World War II going on, the school dropped football.

In 1945, following the War, he was hired by Princeton as head basketball coach and assistant football coach, but a year later he was named head coach at Pitt.

And then, in 1947, he hit it big.  He was hired as head coach at Ohio State, succeeding Paul Bixler, who had gone 4-3-2 in his one year there.

He lasted four years.  His 1949 team won the Big Ten, and defeated Cal in the Rose Bowl.

In 1950, his star running back, Vic Janowicz, won the Heisman Trophy.

But following the 1950 season, despite a 6-3 finish and a Number 14 national ranking, he resigned,  citing “excessive pressure for winning football games.”  Well, duh.

He was almost immediately hired by Minnesota to be head coach, and he stayed there for four seasons, with an overall record of 10-13-4.

His overall record as a major college (Pitt, Ohio State, Minnesota) football coach was 34–31–8.

His overall record as basketball head coach (at Harvard and Princeton) was 67–108.

He is in the College Football Hall of Fame.   As a player.

He might be best known by the quality of the coaches who succeeded him at his last two posts. 

At Ohio State, his successor was Woody Hayes, the greatest coach Ohio State has ever had.

At Minnesota it was Murray Warmath, whose record there is surpassed only by the legendary Bernie Bierman.


TUESDAY,  SEPTEMBER 23, 2024    "A football coach's most important job is evaluation of players." Lee Corso




*********** I woke up Sunday and checked my email, as I normally do. In an instant I wished I hadn’t.  I read the email again and shut off the phone, as if to make the news go away.


The email was from Jeff Latham, the younger brother of my friend Kevin Latham.  He said that Kevin, his “big brother and best friend,”  had passed away on July 25.

July 25. The day after my wife and I had celebrated our wedding anniversary; the very same day on which my wife’s dad had died, more than 30 years earlier.

Imagine - he’d been gone for almost two months.  But then,  he and I had been in the practice of calling  each other every two or three months - and then talking for two or three hours - so I’d had no way of knowing.

I called Jeff as soon as I could, and learned that he’d been unable to get into Kevin’s phone, and only found my contact info by searching online.

Kevin and I met at my first Atlanta clinic, which would have been around 2000, and we just hit it off from the start.

He was coaching at a middle school in suburban Atlanta at the time, and he was made to feel welcome by the other coaches there to the point that he never missed an Atlanta clinic thereafter. It became routine for a gang of coaches to get together at a place called Malone’s, near the airport, for dinner the night before, and Kevin never missed.

When he got a high school job in Decatur, Georgia, he had me come  to put on a camp for his kids and coaches, and while there he took me to visit Ebenezer Baptist Church - where Dr. King’s father preached, and to Dr. King’s nearby grave.


Kevin was 59 when he died.

For half of his life adult life he’d dealt with serious health problems. He had his first heart attack before he was 40, and he had three of them before it was determined that  his only chance of survival was a heart transplant.  He qualified, fortunately, and when a donor was found, he underwent successful  transplant surgery.

Needless to say, we talked a lot during that time.

That was twelve years ago.

And then he was diagnosed with colon cancer.  He was treated and pronounced recovered.

He’d had to retire as a teacher, but he kept busy by teaching himself to play the guitar and becoming a DJ.

And then, in the last five or so years, he returned to teaching on a part-time basis, working with kids who needed extra help in math - Kevin’s area of expertise.

He’d had enough health issues to discourage most people, but only two weeks before he died he was advising friends that the way to fend off depression was to keep active.

He was a Tennessean; his late dad was a member of the first class at the University of Tennessee to admit blacks, and he graduated there as a chemical engineer.  Kevin was also a Vol, and after several years in business he got his teaching certificate and became a teacher.  And a coach.  I saw him on the field and he was great with kids, many of whom he stayed in contact with long after he’d left coaching.

Jeff and I agreed that he’d be happy with the Vols’ success this year.

He’d played high school football at Southwest DeKalb High, and remained in close touch with his coach there, a local legend named Buck Godfrey.  Coach Godfrey was a friend of the great Eddie Robinson, and Kevin would lean on him for advice.  In recent years, when Coach Godfrey had health issues of his own, Kevin made sure to drive him to all his appointments.  Kevin missed coaching desperately, and I’m sure being in Coach Godfrey’s company more than repaid him for his efforts.

Coach Godfrey, Jeff told me, was one of the speakers at Kevin’s funeral.

Kevin left Jeff and his mother, Kay, a wonderful lady who still teaches piano, as well as his son Kevin, Junior and his daughter Skye.

Kevin was a very bright man, a man of many talents, and one of the  very best human beings I’ve ever known.  We had no problem telling each other we loved each other.  My wife loved him, too.

I believe I taught him some things. I know he taught me many things.

God bless him until we meet again.



*********** Wisdom from Mike Lude:  “We were all well aware of Coach Dwight Harwood, a short (five-feet-eight), stocky (200 pounds) man who ran the football program, and we always gave a little extra effort when we thought he might be watching.  But our daily task master was Gordie Piatt, who coached the freshmen while finishing up his four year degree.

“Our 1940 frosh team had a good season, winning three of four games. I was a starting lineman but hardly a star. Most of us played both offense and defense. I was getting used to the obscurity of playing in the line, but this experience was extremely rewarding – the friendships, the camaraderie, and the togetherness of being a team.

“Dwight Harwood was a veteran coach who had the unenviable job of keeping the Hillsdale football program functioning. Unlike my high school coach whom I tried so desperately to imitate in every detail of mannerism and dress, Harwood was not a role model; rather he was a decent coach and a decent person. He had a fine singing voice and directed the choir at Hillsdale Presbyterian Church, not something you would expect for a football coach.  He wasn't a great tactician on game day, but he got a lot out of the talent on hand.

“Harwood's most celebrated victory probably had come a decade earlier, in 1931, when he led Hillsdale against the University of Chicago team coached by the legendary Amos Alonzo Stagg. Hillsdale won 7–0, rolling up fourteen first  downs to two for the Maroons. The game came two seasons before the University of Chicago dropped football, ending Stagg's 41-year tenure as head coach.

“Coach Harwood seemed to appreciate my approach to football as a classic overachiever. I knew I had to make up for lack of ability and bulk with hustle, enthusiasm, and a willingness to pay the price.”



*********** Aberdeen’s homecoming game resulted in a disappointing 33-7 loss to Rochester. The Bobcats are now 0-3.

Rochester took the opening kickoff and drove for a score.  Then stopped us and drove for a score.  Rinse and repeat.  It was 26-7 at the half, and I do have to give credit to our defensive coaches for a great halftime adjustment that, combined with our kids’ refusal to quit, got Rochester under control in th second half.  But the damage was done, and a late score put the finishing tough on the ass-kicking.

As a Double-Wing coach, I could only watch and feel the frustration that other coaches have felt when we’d take the ball and put on a seven-minute drive. Rochester played old school football, rarely lining up in other than a double-tight full house - what we used to call a T formation,  They seldom - if ever - pulled a lineman, depending instead on the straight-ahead line surge and the lead blocking of their big backs.

Rochester’s QB was small but quick as a cat.  But the rest of the team was big.  Their three running backs averaged 195 - one of them, a kid named Ethan Rodriguez, was 6-4, 200 and he could run like a deer.  From tackle to tackle, their five offense linemen averaged 260. Their left tackle, a kid named Lucas McIntyre, was 6-7, 300.

This week is our rivalry week.  We play neighboring  town Hoquiam in what’s known as the Battle of  Myrtle Street, in recognition of the street that serves as the border between  the two towns.  It’s the oldest rivalry in the state, and it’s got quite a history.

If you’re interested in learning more about the Aberdeen-Hoquiam game (it used to be played on Thanksgiving), here’s an article from 2005 - when the 100th game was played, and the big city media made a fuss over it…

https://www.seattletimes.com/sports/high-school/hoquiam-aberdeen-kick-off-a-century-of-tradition/


And here’s a documentary from that time.  It’s long, and it might seem tedious at times, but it gives a really good insight into how the San Francisca Earthquake - and the need for lumber to rebuild the city - turned Aberdeen and Hoquiam into boom towns , and how the more recent move to “save the spotted owl” wound up shutting down the local forests and destroying the towns’ lumber-based economies…

https://youtu.be/0ysdzuQnlac?si=57oDYIqivZezR79



*********** COLLEGE GAMES  I RECORDED THIS WEEKEND (even got to watch some of them)


THURSDAY NIGHT

SOUTH ALABAMA 48,  APPALACHIAN STATE  14- To go into the hill country - Boone, North Carolina - and beat the Mountaineers, you gotta be good.  And the Jaguars ARE good.


FRIDAY NIGHT

STANFORD 26,  SYRACUSE 24 - Stanford was a 2-TD dog!

ILLINOIS 31,  NEBRASKA 24 (OT)

WASHINGTON STATE 54, SAN JOSE STATE 52 (2 OT) - Go Cougs!


SATURDAY

OHIO STATE 49, MARSHALL 14

CLEMSON 59, NC STATE 35

FLORIDA 45,  MISSISSIPPI STATE 28

INDIANA 52, CHARLOTTE 14

MARYLAND 38, VILLANOVA 20 - Wildcats are a good FCS club!

JAMES MADISON 70,  NORTH CAROLINA 50 - WOW

CINCINNATI 34, HOUSTON 0 - Bearcats are fun to watch

WEST VIRGINIA 32, KANSAS 28 - Jayhawks are 1-3.  Their three losses have ben by a total of 11 points.

TULANE 41, LOUISIANA 33

ARMY 37, RICE 14 - Army held the ball for 13:04 of the first period (to 1:56  for Rice, if  you’re doing the math).

MICHIGAN 27, USC 24 -  Michigan had 290 yards rushing and 32 yards passing. Will somebody please tell Michigan to start throwing the ball before I find myself rooting for them?

NOTRE DAME 28, MIAMI (O) 3

LOUISVILLE 31, GEORGIA TECH 19 - YOU READ IT HERE FIRST; Coach, You may not see them regularly considering your West Coast location (yet), but keep a close eye on the Louisville Cardinals.

They play Notre Dame in South Bend the following Saturday and also play Miami FL in Louisville. They are sneaky good this year.
Jim Franklin - Flora, Indiana

ARKANSAS 24, AUBURN 14

RUTGERS 26,  VIRGINIA TECH 23

TEXAS TECH 30, ARIZONA STATE 22

NAVY 56, MEMPHIS 44 - Wow.  With that new “wing-T based” offense, Navy is scary good. Navy had “only” 566 yards of total offense. They needed it - Memphis had 659.

LSU 34,  UCLA 17

UTAH 22,  OKLAHOMA STATE 19

DUKE 45,  MIDDLE TENNESSEE 17 - Sorry, but WTF is any so-called Power 4 team doing playing away at a Group of 5 team?

MISSOURI 30, VANDERBILT 27 (OT) - Vandy is for real.  But after a couple of squeakers, maybe Mizzou isn’t as good as everyone thought.

SMU 66,  TCU 42 - TCU’s Sonny Dykes became the first Power Conference coach to be ejected from a game since  the  rule was passed in 2016 providing for ejection after getting two unsportsmanlike penalties. 

MIAMI 50,  SOUTH FLORIDA 15 -

WASHINGTON  24, NORTHWESTERN 5  - 5?  5?  5?  looks like Northwestern and Purdue will be fighting it out for 16th place in the Big Ten.

UCONN 48, FLORIDA ATLANTIC 14

FLORIDA STATE 14,  CAL 9

TENNESSEE 25, OKLAHOMA  15

IOWA 31,  MINNESOTA 14 - Hawkeyes take home  Floyd of Rosedale (a large bronze pig).

OLE MISS 52, GEORGIA SOUTHERN 13

BOSTON COLLEGE 23, MICHIGAN STATE 19 - Huge come-from-behind win for BC’s Bill O’Brien.

COLORADO  38, BAYLOR 31 (OT) - I haven’t read anywhere about  Baylor’s defensive coordinator being fired for allowing a  50-yard touchdown pass with :02 left to play.  I would have had four players - very tall players - lined up along the end line.

OREGON STATE 38, PURDUE 21

BOISE STATE 56, PORTLAND STATE 14

BYU 38, KANSAS STATE 9 - Wow. Within a span of seven minutes it went from 6-3, KSU to 31-6 BYU.   Cougars - now 4-0 - held the Wildcats to three  field goals.



***********  The Heisman was first awarded in 1935; the first T-formation (under center) quarterback was Notre Dame’s Angelo Bertelli, whose skills so impressed Notre Dame coach Frank Leahy that he managed to persuade the president of Notre Dame - and thousands of alumni -   to allow him to drop the“Notre Dame box” offense that dated back to the hallowed Knute Rockne.

I can’t be bothered counting how many quarterbacks have won the Heisman since Bertelli started it all, but the last single wing tailback to win it was Princeton’s Dick Kazmaier, in 1951.

I’d like to nominate another single wing tailback - well, actually two.  Army’s Bryson Daley and Navy’s Blake Horvath.
 
Truly, they’re throwbacks to the days when the Heisman winner was a single wing tailback.

This past weekend, in Army’s 37-14 win over Rice, Daley completed 6 of 9 passes for 107 yards and two TDs, while carrying 23 times for 145 yards and three TDs.  Horvath, in Navy’s shocking 56-44 defeat of Memphis, completed 9 of 12 for 192 yards and two TDs, while carrying 12 times for 211 yards and four TDs.

They’re not exactly identical in style, but they are both the keystones of their teams’ offenses. They’re both good passers and they’re both exceptional runners - Daley perhaps stronger, Horvath perhaps faster.

They’re both extremely tough (what a surprise, at service academies) and both carry the same heavy load as old-time tailbacks.

The way they’re playing, and the way their teams are playing - both teams are 3-0 - if the Daley and Horvath could be linked as one entry they/it would be a slam-dunk Heisman winner(s).


*********** Yogi Roth, a Pittsburgh guy who made something of a name for himself on the West Coast as a talking head on the old Pac-12 Network, is a pretty knowledgeable guy, and he appears to have found a new gig, reporting on the current doings of former Pac-12 teams.

He gives out four weekly awards to West Coast guys:

“My 5-Star QB” - whether or not you were a 5-star recruit out of high school, you played like one this weekend.

“Go Go Gone” - the most explosive player of the week. Think big chunk plays,  as explosives and turnovers are the biggest predictor of wins and losses.

“That Dude!” - player who made an impact on either side of the ball. Not always about your numbers on the stat sheet.

“Headset Hero” - either a head coach or assistant coach who had their team ready and/or made the right in-game adjustments

“My 5-Star QB” - Washington State’s John Mateer
Our first repeat winner of the season of course goes to the guy who we noted in Week 2 as “coming out of high school as a 3-star recruit and the 119th ranked QB in the Class of 2022 according to the 247 Composite”. Thanks to another gutsy performance from John Mateer, Washington State is off to back-to-back 4-0 starts for the first time in more than a century.


In a 2 OT win over San Jose State, Mateer threw for a career-high 390 pass yards with 4 TDs through the air. The redshirt sophomore also ran for 111 yards, his 2nd 100+ yard game this season, with a rushing TD. In fact, Mateer is the only FBS player this season and the 1st Pac-12 player since UCLA’s Dorian Thompson-Robinson in 2020 to have 300+ pass yards and 100+ rush yards in the same game (also the 1st in school history).

While the guy he backed up last year is now the Heisman favorite in Miami, Mateer outdueled another former Wazzu QB, Emmett Brown, who threw for 375 yards and 4 scores of his own for the Spartans in the loss. Mateer now has at least 1 passing TD and 1 rushing TD in each of the 4 games this season.


“Go Go Gone” - BYU’s Parker Kingston

Parker Kingston only touched the ball once on Saturday night’s upset win over #13 Kansas State but it will likely go down as the play of the year for BYU in 2024. With the Cougars already up 24-6 in the 3rd quarter, Kingston lined up for a punt return after the BYU defense forced a 3-and-out. After initially muffing the punt reception right in front of the 20-yard line, the redshirt sophomore (whose  grandmother ran track at BYU) scooped up the ball while running back to the 10-yard line and continued back to nearly the goal line before turning up the opposite sideline and sprinting 90 yards for the score. ESPN tracked 137 total yards run by Kingston on the return.

Kingston celebrating his touchdown vs Kansas State (Photo courtesy BYUCougars.com)
The return was the first punt return for touchdown by a BYU player since 2013 and tied for the 3rd longest in school history (longest since at least 1996). After Keelan Marion ran back a kickoff 100 yards the previous week at Wyoming, this marks the first time since 2011 that BYU has a punt return and kickoff return TD in the same season.

Kingston’s return capped off a run of 31 unanswered points by BYU as the Cougars improved to 4-0 for the 3rd time under Kalani Sitake.


“That Dude!” - Utah’s Micah Bernard

In Utah’s first ever Rose Bowl appearance in January 2022, defensive coordinator Morgan Scalley needed help with an injury-depleted secondary. Micah Bernard, who had not played both sides of the ball since high school, wound starting that game at cornerback. Bernard recorded a team-high 10 tackles that day while also running the ball 3 times for 31 yards and grabbing 2 passes for 15 yards including an athletic 12-yard TD catch in the 1st quarter. The next season, after a 2nd Rose Bowl loss, Bernard hit the transfer portal before deciding to stay in Salt Lake. Following an injury-plagued 2023 where he only saw action in the first and last games of the season, that decision to return is finally starting to pay dividends.

The 6th year senior set career highs with both 25 carries and 182 yard on the ground as the Utes went into Stillwater to knock off #14 Oklahoma State 22-19 in the first ever meeting of 2 coaching legends in Kyle Whittingham & Mike Gundy. Bernard had the biggest highlight of the game with a 62-yard run in the 3rd quarter that setup a field goal and a 4-yard run on 3rd & 3 with under a minute to go to extinguish the flame of the Cowboys late comeback.

The analytics also spoke volumes in this game as according to PFF College, Bernard had 142 yards AFTER contact (the most in FBS this week) while also forcing 10 missed tackles (tied for the most). 119 of his 182 yards came in the 2nd half, giving him his 3rd straight game with 100+ yards and the 5th time in his career, completely outshining preseason Heisman candidate Ollie Gordon whom the Utes defense held to 42 yards on 11 carries.

“Headset Hero” - Stanford’s Troy Taylor

For their first ever ACC Conference game, Stanford traveled nearly 3,000 miles to the Carrier Dome where they were nearly a double-digit underdog. After a close loss at home to TCU in the season-opener and then a win over Cal Poly, the experts thought the Cardinal weren’t any better than the 3-9 team they had been each of the last 3 years. Especially not against a Syracuse team that had gotten off to a 2-0 start under new head coach Fran Brown, including an upset of then #23 Georgia Tech the previous week behind 4 TD passes by Ohio State transfer QB Kyle McCord.

Taylor on the sidelines of Stanford’s win at Syracuse (Photo by Bryan Bennett/Getty Images)

But Troy Taylor’s squad started quickly with 9-play, 78-yard drive on their 2nd possession with an unbelievable one-handed TD grab by Elic Ayomanor, reminiscent of another #13 that plays on Sundays. By early 2nd quarter, the Cardinal held a 10-0 lead. After Syracuse dominated the 3rd quarter (but not the scoreboard), a McCord TD run closed the gap to 20-17 entering the final 15 minutes. McCord then drove the ‘Cuse for a go-ahead TD with 3:13 left which seemed to foretell a long plane ride back home to the Bay Area.

Down 24-23, Troy Taylor’s squad took over at their own 25-yard line before slowly matriculating down the field with a few intermediate passes to get into Syracuse territory. But a holding penalty pushed the Cardinal back on their own side of the field, putting a chance of victory in doubt. But on 4th and 9 from the Syracuse 45-yard line, Ashton Daniels once again found Elic Ayomanor with a back-shoulder throw to set up Emmet Kenney’s GW 39-yard field goal as the clock hit :00.

***********   College Game Day pointed out an unusual fact:

The combined age of the two QBs in the Utah-Oklahoma State game (49) was greater  than the combined age of the starting QBs in the Bears-Colts game (44)

Cam Rising of Utah (25) and Alan Bowman of Oklahoa State (24) are both 7th year seniors

Caleb Williams of the Bears  is 22 and so is Anthony Richardson of the Colts.


*********** Do you get the feeling that the world has been turned upside-down?

Not to say that I’m not over the moon about the the NFL’s using its muscle to promote  flag football…

https://sports.yahoo.com/national-gay-flag-football-league-154555874.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAACFtm7XA0z6-4VvX9ObYf4hodnXDoMZozqlr5YV9BmK_5Eua9KHvsjISSJ8tgn_3pqmGx4w92qELtSFti_msgcZQCzKmhOZve0nbQUw0iLbKCem_B_eVH1TtInejKsAyVcWI8r-rO4TeiKdAkttxWqZZHxrShOe9E2OGpFpv_yGg



But then I turned on the Seahawks game and was assaulted by this...





Good Lord.  Do they really believe this horse crap they’re peddling to the public?

So there’s not a single thing left that the boys can have to themselves.  What a bunch of turds the NFL is.

It seems as if the NFL will be perfectly okay with letting our version of the sport die off, just as long as  they can use the flag version as their way of indoctrinating  fans at the grass roots level. 




*********** Okay, okay - I watched an NFL game. If you call it that. The fourth quarter had just begun, and the score was still 3-0, favor New Orleans - when someone (the Eagles) finally scored a damn touchdown.

And yet fans tolerate dreck  like this.

Has our national preoccupation  with youth soccer  begun  to turn us into Euros?



*********** The Pac-12’s offer of membership was rejected Monday by the Presidents of Memphis, South Florida and Tulane.


All I can say is, “whew.”  That was a close one.  I find I’ve become a “Western snob.”  I like the West.  When you look at the locations of football schools in the Far West, with the possible exception of Fresno, there isn’t a place where  you wouldn’t mind spending a football weekend. 

Bear in mind that it wasn’t all that long ago that the old Pac-12 was looking down its nose at Fresno - as a location, as well as an academic institution.  To show how things have changed,   today the Pac-12  came within a whisker of hooking up its schools, teams and fans with… Memphis. Memphis, for God’s sake!

Whew.


Writes John Canzano…

The Pac-12 Conference presented three American Athletic Conference schools terms for membership along with a midday deadline on Friday.


The schools examined the offer — and decided to sit tight.
Memphis, Tulane, and South Florida will stay in the AAC. That conference released a joint statement from the schools and said, “… we firmly believe that it is in our individual and collective best interests to uphold our commitment to each other.”


What went sideways? And what happens next for the Pac-12? A pivot to UNLV? How about Utah State? Gonzaga? Someone else?
Here’s what I know:


• The conference set out on Monday with what one conference insider described as “a cascading order of offers.” Memphis, Tulane, and South Florida were the priority. The next move — ‘Plan B’ — will include a westward look for the Pac-12. I expect that UNLV is now the Pac-12’s primary target.


• The Pac-12 has been in ongoing discussions with UNLV. The Rebels were a potential Pac-12 addition regardless of whether the AAC schools joined, but they have become even more important now. The Pac-12 needs to get to eight members by the summer of 2026. Keep an eye on Las Vegas.


• The Pac-12’s history with Las Vegas is well documented. The conference’s championship football and basketball games were regularly held there.


• UNLV wasn’t included with the four Mountain West schools that left for the Pac-12 earlier this month, but I’ve been told not to read too deeply into that. The Pac-12 may have believed it could always circle back to get UNLV. Now, though, it does so with MWC Commissioner Gloria Nevarez fully aware of the pursuit.


• Utah State is aggressively pursuing Pac-12 membership. It wants to be included, and key donors tell me they would help subsidize the school’s move. In the last week, the Aggies have garnered an increase in attention from the Pac-12.


• The Aggies have three 10-plus win seasons in the last 11 years and ranked No. 5 in Mountain West television viewership during that span. It falls into the ‘best available’ category very nicely given the geography.


• The Air Force Academy isn’t as attractive as an addition if it’s not also grouped with Army/Navy. I’ve wondered if the AAC would take it for that reason, but it appears it will be staying in the Mountain West. Ross Dellenger of YahooSports reported on Monday that the Air Force Academy is committed to staying put and “is expected to sign a new grant-of-rights deal with financial incentives.”


• Not getting the AAC schools was a swing-and-miss by the Pac-12. No way around it. The conference presented its vision. The three schools chose to stay.


• The Pac-12’s stealth approach helped get Boise State, San Diego State, Fresno State, and Colorado State from the Mountain West. The whole thing was treated like a top-secret mission that caught everyone off guard. The circle was kept tight. The second bite of the expansion apple, however, featured too much talking and time spent chewing on details. It gave AAC Commissioner Tim Pernetti too much time to react.

• Access to the College Football Playoff is at the center of the Pac-12’s pitch. The chance to join the conference was positioned to the AAC members (and others) as a chance to jump into an “escape chute” and improve their standing. Media dollars, like any potential negotiation, aren’t guaranteed until they’re guaranteed. The exit fees and travel costs were not insignificant, either.


• I’m not shocked that the presidents at Memphis, Tulane, and South Florida struggled with the risk involved and decided to sit tight. You don’t become a university president by rolling the dice with some entrepreneurial spirit. The world of academia is about consensus building and playing it safe. I’d have jumped onto the escape hatch and let it rip, but I’m also a guy who left the security of a newspaper newsroom to launch this independent publication.

(At press time, rumors were strong that Utah State and UNLV had been invited.)


***********   It was nice to see all those Wisconsin schools in the D3 poll. There are no D2 football programs in the state so the UW- schools are little bit bigger than the average D3 schools such as Lawrence that was mentioned in the Mark Speckman bio.

Yes about Tom Brady!

Like seeing the brighter colored uniforms by Aberdeen. Hope more go back to brighter colors (and stripes)

Adam Wesoloski
Pulaski, Wisconsin



*********** Minot State and QB Randy Hedberg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randy_Hedberg

Not the first time Minot has been seen on the US Football scene.

Charlie Wilson
Brooksville, Florida


***********   EMAW!   I can't remember ever seeing the rapidity of such a blow out!

I tuned in when it was 6 to 3 KState, and 4 minutes later?

WOW!

John Rothwell, DC
Corpuse Christi, Texas


***********   Coach,

I woke up this morning and realized I haven't followed through on my end of the bargain of all you've done for the double wing community - updating you on how your system is doing during the season. My apologies.

The Elmwood/Brimfield Trojans are currently 4-0, and our rival Farmington Farmers, also 4-0, will visit us next Friday night.

The double wing is rolling right now, and the reasons why are no secret. We have two outstanding wings - the kind of kids that run angry, but also have the ability to break the long run. It's rare to have two like that. As of last night one has rushed for 192ypg and the other 213ypg. Our fullback has also had a 100yd game, but teams have decided to put an end to the wedge, so he packs his lunch pail and kicks out DEs all night for his buddies with a smile on his face. But that's the stuff that gets in papers. It's the o-line, TE to TE, that are the engine to the machine. Anchored by a G-C-G trio that are two senior valedictorians (both in my Adv. Chemistry class), and one who will be our junior class's valedictorian. Talk about a group that analyzes, talks, problem solves. Smart football players. Our tackles are equally as good (one is a four-year starter), and our two tight ends, brothers, are good enough that they could play guard (in my opinion, the most important and telling position on the line...maybe even the entire offense). And our QB has 'game managed' his way to 9 of 9, 167, 2TD, while implementing a sugar huddle this year, handling an array of formations (stack, overloads, nasty, etc) and shifts. The result of all of this is we have scored 214 points in four games.

Consistency is key, and with four former players on staff (two are my sons), and the veterans that have been together for decades, our boys learn the system through one voice and message. It pays to 'keep punching.'

Have a great weekend.

Todd Hollis
Elmwood, Illinois


Coach,

Great to hear how your season is going and that you obviously are still enjoying coaching!

Success never gets old, does it?  Neither does the way you earn it - hard work, sound fundamentals, good kids, sound systems on both sides of the ball, all brought together with good coaching.

Best of luck against Farmington.  (I still remember having a beer in their central square’s  corner tavern with an Illinois football game on the TV more than 30 years ago! Farmington’s about halfway between Chicago and St, Louis, and one outside wall of the corner building was mostly red, painted with Cardinal designs and logos while  the other wall was dedicated to the Cubs.  Very cool. But Go Trojans!)





***********   Good Morning Hugh,

I am continually befuddled by the offensive play calling in short yardage situations. I actually yelled at the TV. Two examples; Oklahoma backed up in their own end zone goes into a shotgun tight formation and  hands the ball to a back five yard deep and he is tackled for a safety, ugh!  The Falcons with the game on the line, third and one from the eleven of Kansas  City and go to the shotgun hand the  ball off five yards deep and stopped inches short of the line to gain . Now fourth and inches they run outside zone for a two yard loss and lose the game. Double Ugh! What is wrong with these people?

I will offer my services as a short yardage offensive coordinator to any college or pro team and guarantee 90% success rate or they done have to pay me.

So frustrating watching modern day football that it seems coaching staffs seem to have forgotten how to actually run the football when they need to.

Good luck this week at Aberdeen!

Jack Tourtillotte
Rangeley, Maine




***********   That you're able to print a page at all is commendable, given your schedule. Best to your team.

I want to draw a tighter bead on all the teams in CFB, but the ones I'm most interested in this weekend are:
   Utah-OKST
    Army-Rice
    Tenn-OK
    Baylor-CO
    Memphis-Navy
    JMU-UNC
    GT-Louisville

John Vermillion                
St Petersburg, Florida

Good picks - but what did you know about JMU-UNC???



***********   Hugh,

My mistake.  Curly Lambeau was NOT an ND grad.  But he did play on Rockne's first Irish team, and earned a varsity letter.  Did some research on him and sent an article to you.  Interesting character!

Hey, sometimes you have to do whatever it takes to get those kids fired up!  At my first AD/HC job the school colors were Red/Blue.  Plain white helmets, bright red jerseys, and bubble gum blue pants.  They had won 3 games in the past four years wearing those Pop Warner looking uniforms.  Did some research and found that in the past when they had really good teams their "blue" was more like a true blue.  Well...a dad approached me before the season started to introduce himself and ask if I needed anything for the football program because his two sons were on the team.  I took him to the equipment closet (literally a closet instead of a room) and showed him what I had to work with.  He was appalled to say the least and told me he wasn't going to allow his boys or any boys to wear that crap!  He told me to write down what I would need (a wish list) and send it to him ASAP.  Next thing I knew he along with four other dads came up with the $$ to get us new equipment and uniforms.  3 doz. new shoulder pads.  3 doz. new helmets (blue helmets w/red block 'T' trimmed in white).  3 doz. new girdle/hip pads (yes in 1991 we still wore those).  3 doz. new thigh pads and knee pads.  And new uniforms home and away (red jerseys w/white numbers trimmed in blue; white jerseys w/blue numbers trimmed in red; and blue pants w/red/white/blue striping).
We looked great, won a bunch of games, made two consecutive appearances in the state semi-finals, and won our first Thanksgiving Day game in 7 years against our arch-rival.  Not sure if it had much to do with our new "look" but who's to argue it didn't?

Miami O is no slouch, and another MAC team.  They hung with Cincinnati.  Hopefully the Irish learned their lesson against NIU.  They'll need another big win and some more momentum with Louisville coming to South Bend after Miami makes its visit.  Louisville is legit. But the Cardinals game with Georgia Tech should be a good one.

Only a die-hard Texas fan would pay to watch the Longhorns play Louisiana-Monroe.  The ones who didn't get tickets to attend the game, or the ones who know it will be another blowout.  Yet...there will still likely be close to 100,000 who go to DKR stadium to watch it live!

Rice is visiting West Point.  Not sure if these types of Owls will have what it takes to bring Army down at home.  Army plays three different types of Owls in a row.  They already beat the Florida Atlantic Owls variety last week...Rice Owls this week...and Temple Owls next week!

Iowa rolls into Minneapolis to play for the "PIG" (Floyd of Rosedale trophy) vs. Minnesota.  Although I'm pulling for the Gophers I'm afraid Iowa will continue its roll.

My Fresno State Bulldogs travel to Albuquerque to face New Mexico.  Has always been a tough place to play for the Bulldogs, and the Lobos are a different team with Bronco Mendenhall at the helm.  The Dogs are favored by 13 but UNM isn't New Mexico State either.

QUIZ:  Frank Leahy (While Rockne was the master motivator/innovator and marketing genius of Notre Dame football Leahy was the master coach and taskmaster.  No one outworked Frank Leahy.  So much so it was because of his tireless work ethic which contributed to his failing health and forced him to retire at the fairly young age of 45).

Enjoy the weekend, and Go Bobcats!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas







With Frank Leahy in the photo on the right are two of the many All-Americans he coached: on the left, running back Emil “Six Yards” Sitko, and on the right, quarterback Bobby Williams.


***********   QUIZ ANSWER:  Frank Leahy was born in Nebraska and graduated from high school in (appropriately-named) Winner, South Dakota.  He attended Notre Dame, playing tackle on Knute Rockne’s last three Notre Dame teams, and  graduated in 1931.

After a year coaching at Georgetown and another at Michigan State (both jobs obtained through Rockne’s recommendation) he was hired  as line coach at Fordham by Jim Crowley, once one of Notre Dame’s famed Four Horsemen.   He coached at Fordham from 1933 through 1938, and  during a span from 1935 through 1937, during which the Rams lost just two games, he coached a line famed as the Seven Blocks of Granite. One of its members was a young man from Brooklyn named Vince Lombardi.

In 1939, he became  head coach at Boston College, and in two years he took the Eagles to a  20-2 record and a Sugar Bowl win.

That was enough to get him the Notre Dame job.

After coaching two years at Notre Dame,  he entered the Navy, and after his discharge as a lieutenant he returned to Notre Dame for the 1946 season.

He would remain the Irish coach until he resigned for health reasons in 1954.

His Notre Dame teams were national champions in 1943, 1946, 1947, and 1949.

He had a streak of 39 straight games without a loss (there was one 0-0 tie with Army)  from1946-50.

When he retired, his winning percentage, .864, was second in college  history only to Rockne's .881.

In  13 years as a head coach - at Boston College and Notre Dame - he posted  a record of 107-13-9.

Frank Leahy was only 45 at the time of his retirement, but the job had worn him down to the point where he had to be hospitalized at halftime of a home game against Georgia Tech.

(After retirement, he lived another 19 years.)

He was selected to the National Football Foundation Hall of Fame in 1970.
 

CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING FRANK LEAHY

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FORISTIERE - MARSING, IDAHO
JASON MENSING - ENGLEWOOD, FLORIDA
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY





 
*********** QUIZ:   A native of Lake Charles, Louisiana,  he was a  star running back at Lake Charles High School, and chose to play college ball  at Tulane,  where he joined his older brother.

In his senior season at Tulane,  he earned All-America honors after leading  the SEC in rushing.  He also caught 28 passes for 376 yards and five touchdowns, and returned five kicks for 314 yards and 14 punts for 99 yards to set a school record for all-purpose yards (1,475) that would last for another  28 years.

In addition to the All-America honors, he was named first-team All-SEC, and  was selected to participate in four post-season all-star games: the East-West Shrine Game, the Hula Bowl, the Coaches All-American Game and the College All-Star Game.

He was the number one player taken overall in the 1961 NFL Draft, and the very first player ever taken by the expansion Minnesota Vikings (they took Fran Tarkenton in the third round). He was also the Number Two overall pick in the American Football League, chosen by the Boston Patriots,  and the CFL pursued him as well, but as he said later, “I wasn’t sure the AFL was going to last, and Canada seemed a long way away for a Louisiana boy.”

In the same interview, he recalled,  “My dad, Bill, was a watchman at a chemical plant, and my mom, Mary, was a nurse, and they couldn’t believe it … that this team from Minnesota was willing to pay their boy $12,000 to play football.”

He wound up playing 11 years in the NFL - six years with the Vikings, four with the Rams, and one with the Redskins.

He was voted to three straight Pro Bowls (1962-3-4) and in 1963 he became the first Viking ever to be named first-team All-Pro.

For his career, he rushed for 4,203 yards and 32 touchdowns on 1,040 carries, and caught 214 passes for 2,324 yards and 13 TDs. He also returned kickoffs and punts for 1,550 yards.

Most of his production - 3,252 yards and 28 touchdowns - came during his time with the Vikings.

After  retirement from  football,  he owned a Coors Beer distributorship  in San Bernardino, California.

He is in the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame and the Tulane Athletics Hall of Fame.

He was married four times.  His second wife was well-known gymnast Cathy Rigby.  They were married for nine years before they divorced.



FRIDAY,  SEPTEMBER 20, 2024    "On the day of victory, no one is tired."  Old Arab Proverb


*********** Wisdom from Mike Lude:  “the compelling reason I went to Hillsdale, the first in my family ever to step inside a college classroom, was to play football. My high school coaches and principal were products of Hillsdale, and they convinced their former coach, Dwight Harwood, that I would help bring Glory to his program.

“Hillsdale is located in southern Michigan about 80 miles west of Detroit and twice that distance from Chicago. It reminds me a lot of the Midwestern county seats where I would travel later in life, the hub of a surrounding world of agriculture. Hillsdale College is an important part of the community but does not dominate the town the way some institutions do in smaller communities. Growth of the school – its enrollment has tripled from the 450 or so students when I first attended – has been faster than that of the city, which currently has a population of about 8,000.

“When I arrived at Hillsdale in September 1940, I had about four hundred dollars in my wallet, thanks to a summer job in construction and the sale of the hog I had raised in a Future Farmers of America project. As an athlete, I had been promised a job in the college’s building and grounds department, which would help me get through the first year.

“Like the rest of the football players, I checked in early and went through freshman orientation, including wearing a blue and white beanie and enduring some minor hazing. The frosh football players stuck together, and that good relationship helped me overcome a bad case of homesickness. This was the first time I had been away from my family for any extended time, and if it hadn't been for the friendships I made those first few weeks I probably would have quit school and gone home. A half dozen or more of us pledged the same fraternity, Alpha Tau Omega, and became immediate buddies.” 






*********** It’s Homecoming Week in Aberdeen, Washington, and head coach Todd Bridge  started  Wednesday’s practice with a “reveal” - assistant coach Macoy Gronseth dressed in the all-new uniforms that the kids will wear in the game Friday night.

They’re actually throwbacks to a day when the school’s blue was a royal blue. At some point since then the blue became Navy (how do athletic directors allow coaches to do that kind of stuff?) and in fact, the example used for these uniforms was a photo from 25 years ago of some of four Aberdeen players, one of whom is our current middle school head coach, Joe Fagerstedt.
I really like them because they remind me of  the Pitt Panthers of the Dan Marino-Tony Dorsett-Hugh Green glory days.



*********** COLLEGE GAMES  I’LL RECORD  THIS WEEKEND

It’s 8:30 on Thursday night and I just got back from practice, and - sorry to break this to you - my dinner and a cold beer and maybe even watching a little of the college game before getting a good night’s sleep - take precedence over the usual pregame commentary on each game!

THURSDAY NIGHT

SOUTH ALABAMA AT APPALACHIAN STATE


FRIDAY NIGHT

STANFORD AT SYRACUSE

ILLINOIS AT NEBRASKA

SAN JOSE STATE AT WASHINGTON STATE


SATURDAY

MARSHALL AT OHIO STATE

NC STATE AT CLEMSON

FLORIDA AT MISSISSIPPI STATE

CHARLOTTE AT INDIANA

VILLANOVA AT MARYLAND

JAMES MADISON AT NORTH CAROLINA

HOUSTON AT CINCINNATI

KANSAS AT WEST VIRGINIA

TULANE AT LOUISIANA

RICE AT ARMY

USC AT MICHIGAN

MIAMI (O) AT NOTRE DAME

GEORGIA TECH AT LOUISVILLE

ARKANSAS AT AUBURN

RUTGERS AT VIRGINIA TECH

ARIZONA STATE AT TEXAS TECH

MEMPHIS AT NAVY

UCLA AT LSU

UTAH AT OKLAHOMA STATE

DUKE AT MIDDLE TENNESSEE

VANDERBILT AT MISSOURI

TCU AT SMU

MIAMI AT SOUTH FLORIDA

NORTHWESTERN AT WASHINGTON

FLORIDA ATLANTIC AT UCONN

CAL AT FLORIDA STATE

TENNESSEE AT OKLAHOMA

IOWA AT MINNESOTA

GEORGIA SOUTHERN AT OLE MISS

MICHIGAN STATE AT BOSTON COLLEGE

BAYLOR AT COLORADO

PURDUE AT OREGON STATE

PORTLAND STATE AT BOISE STATE

KANSAS STATE AT BYU



FCS TOP 25





D-II TOP 25




D-III TOP 25





*********** ESPN did its part to dismember the Pac-12 and get on with the process of consolidating the name-brand programs into one or two mega-conferences so that  now,  if  people around the country want to watch the Number One team in the nation (Texas) this weekend, they’ll have to pay to watch it on ESPN+.


*********** Portland State doesn’t have enough problems, what with opening at Washington State (a 70-30 loss), then losing to Weber State (43-16).  This past Saturday an outbreak of a disease that we’d all but wiped out - until we began opening our doors to people from places where inoculation is unheard of - whooping cough.  That meant cancellation of their home opener against Number six-ranked South Dakota.  It doesn’t get any easier this week, as they travel to play at Boise State Saturday night.  Their coach, Bruce Barnum, is a great guy,  and I hope he can make it through this season.


***********   Tennessee has announced it’s going to add a 10 per cent surcharge to all its season tickets next year,  in order to help pay its players. (This on top of a 4.5 per cent increase in ticket prices.)

This is stupid and short-sighted because there’s nothing in it for the fans. 

How about an old-fashioned  50-50?    Imagine the size of the 50-50 pot in in a stadium that seats more than 100,000.

Imagine  the excitement at halftime when some famous country star  announces the winner!

I suppose passing the hat is out of the question.

I actually saw it done once in Frederick, Maryland, where the great Eddie Feigner and his King and His Court four-man softball team was appearing.

At some point, Feigner stood at the plate and,  microphone in hand, announced that there was going to be a hat passed around, and, he began to explain, very seriously,  “If I were to tell you about the worthy cause that your money was going for, you’d give generously…”

There was a brief pause and then, with a chuckle, he said, “Actually, we’re going to buy the beer with it afterwards.”


*********** Not advocating killing anyone, you understand.  And without any evidence that the Israelis had anything to do with the simultaneous explosions of several thousand pagers…

What would we have given, thirty or forty years ago, for a device that would have blown up several thousand boom boxes? (Without harming their owners, of course.)


***********  If you’re a fan of triple option football, keep an eye on Minot State.  That’s North Dakota, guys.  Head coach Ian Shields was a triple option QB at Oregon State, and for five years he was offensive coordinator at Army, leading the nation in rushing a couple of times.

His Minot State Beavers (what are the odds of having that nickname twice in a career?) are now 3-0.


*********** Wow. Be still my beating  heart.  Portland has landed a coveted WNBA team.  Oregon Senator Ron Wyden, who worked hard to land the franchise (isn’t that the sort of thing we send senators to Washington to do?), was ecstatic on hearing the news, and suggested that maybe the city should be called “Sportslandia.” (Uh, Senator Wyden, mightn’t it be a bit premature, seeing that the area doesn’t have a single  major sports franchise other than the Trail Blazers?)


**********Lane Kiffin raised all kinds of hell following his team’s ass-whipping of Wake Forest, assailing  Wake for backing out of their contract to play at Ole Miss next year.

Evidently this leaves Ole Miss looking for a game with a Power 4 opponent in order to comply with SEC requirements.

From Wake’s point of view (disclosure: a grandson is a Wake grad and I attended his graduation five years ago and I love the place) the move makes perfect sense.  Another ass-whipping would make Wake less attractive when the inevitable next round of realignment takes place, and Wake Forest, with the smallest student enrollment of all the Power schools, has to be concerned  about being stranded, the way Oregon State and Washington State were.

I know how it has hurt people out here in the Pacific Northwest, so if the move’s best for Wake and it  means Ole Miss has to find another opponent next year, I say to Coach Kiffin:  suck on it.

You like irony?  Almost the day after pulling out of the Ole Miss deal, Wake announced a home-and-home (for the same date) with… OREGON STATE!

I love it. Maybe our grandson and some buddies will come out and see what a cool place Corvallis, Oregon  is on game day!

And you like REAL irony?  It’s entirely possible that the money that Wake used to buy its way out of the Ole Miss game came from Oregon State, which along with Washington State retained oodles of “Pac-12” money left behind by the ten departing schools.



***********  I’m hearing discouraging - no, make that frightening - stories from coaches around the country, telling me of their experiences with today’s kids.

Essentially, it boils down to this:

The kids have been coddled and protected… They can’t handle adversity (12-year-olds cry when things go wrong)… They have no pride… They have no heart

It comes down, of course, to the fact that football is harder and more demanding than anything these little dandies have ever faced. They have never dealt with anything hard, or for that matter, anything that they’ve HAD to do.   And, since their  soft daddies have turned their raising over to their mommies, whose aim is to shield the little fellows from any of life’s hardships, they are being turned into little china dolls.

Sure hope the Chinese intelligence people aren’t reading this. (Not that they don’t already know how soft we’ve become.)

In all fairness, where I’m coaching right now, Aberdeen, Washington, I haven’t seen what those coaches are describing.  We have 80 kids out for football in a school of about 800 kids. Figure it out - that’s roughly 20 per cent of the boys in the student body.  Pretty good. And for the most part they are hard-nosed kids who work hard and are respectful.

Aberdeen, like so many other blue-collar towns across America, has been hit hard by the loss of its staple industry -  in this case forest products -  and  it’s possible that the very lack of overall prosperity has been a blessing in disguise.



***********   Why does Tom Brady seem  perfectly cast in that Tostitos commercial as a male flight attendant?


***********  A coach who was anticipating an encounter with a “chippy” opponent asked me about a drill I mentioned some time ago. 

Here's what I wrote...

The drill you’re referring to is the “Walkaway Drill.”  You first explain to your kids the importance of responding properly to an attack - simply turning around and walking away.

Then you get a couple of volunteers to play-act and show how it’s done.  And you have others do the same.

And from time to time, you arrange to have  a couple of kids act out  - and respond appropriately - during practice.

If this simple drill prevents just one case of  a kid being ejected for reacting reflexively - and in my experience it has done more than that -  it’s time well spent.



*********** Coach, You may not see them regularly considering your West Coast location (yet), but keep a loose eye on the Louisville Cardinals.

They play Notre Dame in South Bend the following Saturday and also play Miami FL in Louisville. They are sneaky good this year.

Jim Franklin

Flora, Indiana

I’m on it.  I do like Jeff Brohm.  He made Purdue competitive, and now they’re struggling.


*********** Once-powerhouse Northwest Missouri State (failing to really have any NIL at all) has grossly fallen off due to other Div. 2 schools having the money to pay players.

Pittsburgh  State and Central Missouri both have a solid amount of generous boosters and therefore have gotten better players.  Discussions at Northwest are around how they can once again figure out how to compete. They were NCAA 2 champs and in the finals many times. Now for the first time since the early 90's they have started 0-3.

Never figured when I was going with Jerzee to visit schools I'd ever have to inquire about how much they will pay her to come to school there.

BUT here we are…

Brad Knight
Clarinda, Iowa


*********** I started watching your recording and I had a great laugh at the wedge in 6 man football.


Like you said set it takes a set to run it. Awesome stuff.

Mike Foristiere
Marsing, Idaho



***********  Hi Hugh,

It’s 5am on the East Coast and I am  getting  ready to go out fishing. However wanted to check in on last night’s clinic so checked to see if the recording was up. Wow, was I glad I did as the DW stuff was so good. Sorry in my hey day I never met Greg but that  DW sure was fun to watch and brought back lots of memories. There might be something there to help Todd and Aberdeen get over the top but I know in your role as an assistant coach you will do what it takes to work with him and make the  team better! Anyway it was sure fun to see the DW!

Good luck this week!

Jack Tourtillotte
Rangeley, Maine


*********** "Coaching and roster continuity" Canzano says. I'll be watching all season hoping to see it win out over the schools making the huge NIL payouts.

As I looked at the statue of Coach Lambeau, I had the feeling that the monuments to sports figures are safe, but if you're a man or woman who gave your all for your country and have such a memorial in your honor, expect it to be defaced or destroyed.

Some of the college games had long weather delays. But when they re-started they had more delays with flags, flags, flags. I think I saw more flags last Saturday than on any gameday I can recall. I'd say to both the teams and the refs, get your shit together and play the game!

John Veermillion
St. Petersburg, Florida



***********  Hugh,

Tough to win and beat a good opponent, while beating yourself at the same time!  The timing of a homecoming game doesn’t enhance the chances of bouncing back this week.  Good luck!

Well…Marcus Freeman must have read your news!  Finally saw an ND offense run the rock!  The D looked good against a Purdue offense that had to be one of the worst I’ve seen in recent years.

Boise State, Fresno State, and San Diego State are solid choices to join the PAC.  UNLV would have been a much better choice than Colorado State.  I’m still thinking that Cal and Stanford will buy their way out of the ACC eventually, with UCLA not too far behind.  Others to consider; UTSA, Texas State, Tulane, and Memphis.

Was formally asked to consider joining the football coaching staff next season at the school where I’m teaching PE part-time. Was on the field with them last Friday during a 36-30 win.  6 man football is something else!  Gonna take some time, (and a lot of praying) to decide.


QUIZ:  Why that man is none other than Earl Louis “Curly” Lambeau.  A Notre Dame grad, who played on Knute Rockne’s first Irish team!

Have a great week!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas







***********  QUIZ ANSWER:  Curly Lambeau was there at the start,  as founder and player, then coach, of one of the NFL’s flagship franchises, a team started in his home town and named for the company that originally provided financial backing.


An outstanding player, he is member of the  NFL 1920s All-Decade Team as one of the brand-new league’s top single wing tailbacks. 


From 1920 to 1949,  he was the team’s head coach and general manager, and in that time he led the team to over 200 wins. His teams also won six NFL championships - only  the Bears’ George Halas (his archival over the years)  and Bill Belichick have won as many.

Six of his players - Cal Hubbard, Mike Michalske, Johnny “Blood” McNally, Arnie Herber,  Don Hutson and Tony Canadeo - are now in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

As a player, he wore the Number One for two seasons, and remains the only player in the history of the franchise to wear that number.

Curly Lambeau is in the Packers’  Hall of Fame and in 1965, shortly after his death, their stadium was renamed Lambeau Field in his honor.

His long tenure with the team came to an end, however,  in 1950, when he resigned after a disagreement with team ownership. After that,  he  coached briefly for two other teams, the Chicago Cardinals and Washington Redskins.

His overall coaching record after 33 years in the NFL is 229-134-22.

He was one of the inductees in the very first group inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING CURLY LAMBEAU

GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
TOM DAVIS - SAN MARCOS, CALIFORNIA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK LOUISIANA
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
MIKE FORISTIERE - MARSING, IDAHO
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY







***********   QUIZ:  He was born in Nebraska and graduated from high school in (appropriately-named) Winner, South Dakota.  He attended Notre Dame, playing tackle on Knute Rockne’s last three Notre Dame teams, and  graduated in 1931.

After a year coaching at Georgetown and another at Michigan State (both jobs obtained through Rockne’s recommendation) he was hired  as line coach at Fordham by Jim Crowley, once one of Notre Dame’s famed Four Horsemen.   He coached at Fordham from 1933 through 1938, and  during a span from 1935 through 1937, during which the Rams lost just two games, he coached a line famed as the Seven Blocks of Granite. One of its members was a young man from Brooklyn named Vince Lombardi.

In 1939, he became  head coach at Boston College, and in two years he took the Eagles to a  20-2 record and a Sugar Bowl win.

That was enough to get him the Notre Dame job.

After coaching two years at Notre Dame,  he entered the Navy, and after his discharge as a lieutenant he returned to Notre Dame for the 1946 season.

He would remain the Irish coach until he resigned for health reasons in 1954.

His Notre Dame teams were national champions in 1943, 1946, 1947, and 1949.

He had a streak of 39 straight games without a loss (there was one 0-0 tie with Army)  from1946-50.

When he retired, his winning percentage, .864, was second in college  history only to Rockne's .881.

In  13 years as a head coach - at Boston College and Notre Dame - he posted  a record of 107-13-9.

He was only 45 at the time of his retirement, but the job had worn him down to the point where he had to be hospitalized at halftime of a home game against Georgia Tech.

(After retirement, he lived another 19 years.)

He was selected to the National Football Foundation Hall of Fame in 1970.
 




TUESDAY,  SEPTEMBER 17, 2024    “There's two types of people in the world: Those who think people can be divided up into two types, and those who don't.”   Groucho MarxÍ


*********** Wisdom from Mike Lude:  “Even with the help and guidance of Dr. Roberts, I had to work extremely hard, and my academic existence for the first two years was touch and go. I was disciplined but nothing came easy. I would go to the library and study but I might take three hours to finish something that another student would get done in a half-hour.

“At that stage of my life I never in my wildest imagination thought that in my professional career as a coach and athletic director I would work closely with college presidents and other top officials at some of the largest universities in America.

“I strongly doubt any of my professors or classmates from those college days would have suspected that many years later I would return to Hillsdale College to be a convocation speaker and have conferred on me an honorary doctoral degree.

“Many times since, I have thought about Dr. Roberts and how he and some other patient and forgiving Hillsdale professors and staff members helped me survive as a student, and I am grateful.”



*********** Our Aberdeen Bobcats played one-third of a good game on Friday night.  Our defense played knockout ball, and for the second week in a row stopped an opponent on our one-yard line. 

But on offense we couldn’t make a dime.  We were missing two starters on our offensive line - one of them our only varsity center - and it showed. We ran  for minus yardage, and although we threw for a bit  over 100 yards, we also threw three interceptions.  (All part of the education of a  quarterback.)

In addition,  we fumbled twice on special teams, once deep in our own territory on the second-half kickoff, and once on a punt return after we’d stopped them deep in their territory.

The result was an 18-0 loss to Steilacoom, a well-coached club but one that we believe we could have beaten if we hadn’t given them so much help.

We’re now 0-2, and this week we play the Rochester Warriors, a close-by (one hour away) opponent.  The Rochester area happens to be the headquarters of the Chehalis Tribe, which I guess is why they haven’t had to change their nickname the way most of our  state’s Braves/Chiefs/Chieftains/Warriors. etc. have had to.

Rochester is also 0-2, but they are a problem to prepare for because they run a double-tight, full-house T-formation quite similar to the Olivet “Wing-T” that a lot of high school teams in Michigan run extremely well.

It would be great if we could just concentrate on the game, but no - this is also Homecoming Week, that dreaded  time in every coach’s season where all manner of things take place to distract kids from the very reason Homecoming occurs in the first place - the game itself.



*********** COLLEGE GAMES  RECORDED  THIS PAST WEEKEND

THURSDAY NIGHT

ARIZONA  STATE 31, TEXAS STATE 28 - Very good game. ASU running back Cam Skattebo is a stud.  And their QB, Sam Leavitt, a transfer from Michigan State, played for my friend Jon Eagle at West Linn, Oregon High, where he won a state title. (Jon Eagle, who also won a state title here in Camas, Washington, where I live, is undoubtedly the only coach to win state titles in both Oregon and Washington.)


FRIDAY NIGHT

UNLV 23, KANSAS  20 - Rebels played as if they were auditioning for a place in the reconstituted Pac-6.

KANSAS  STATE 31, ARIZONA 7 - KSU won the Battle of the Wildcats.


SATURDAY (THERE ACTUALLY WERE A COUPLE OF SURPRISINGLY CLOSE GAMES)

ALABAMA 42, WISCONSIN 10 - The Badgers lost transfer QB Tyler Van Dyke early in the game.  They have this week off, but it’s uncertain whether he’ll be ready for USC in two weeks. Meantime, in the words of Wisconsin coach Luke Fickell, it was “a good old-fashioned ass-whooping, at home, and that hurts.”

OKLAHOMA STATE 45, TULSA  10 - Cowboys are tough.

LSU 36, SOUTH CAROLINA 33 - Heck of a game.  Both teams made major mistakes. Not many times does a team have a punt blocked and still win -  but the Tigers had it when they needed it.

MICHIGAN 28, ARKANSAS STATE 18 - The score’s about right.  If Michigan is good, they haven’t shown it yet.

MEMPHIS 20,  FLORIDA STATE 12 - FSU is now 0-3. You wouldn’t mind making what Seminoles’ coach Mike Norvell’s making, but otherwise you wouldn’t want to be in his shoes. Take nothing away from Memphis - they’re good.

NC STATE 30, LOUISIANA TECH 20 - Favored by 20, the Wolfpack had to come from behind - they were down 17-6 at the half.

CINCINNATI 27 MIAMI (O)16  - Bearcats’ Blake Gabbert threw for 339, running back Corey Kiner  rushed for 139.

MISSOURI 27, BOSTON COLLEGE 21: Missouri made some mistakes and the Eagles almost made them pay. BC is for real.

COASTAL CAROLINA 28, TEMPLE 20 :  Hey - it’s a loss, but it’s the best the Owls have played all season!

TEXAS A & M 33,  FLORIDA 20: The Aggies beat the spread and then some.  And Gators’ money  guys are said to be busy raising  the $26 million needed to buy out Billy Napier.

OKLAHOMA 34, TULANE 19 -  OU QB Jackson Arnold threw for 169 and ran for 97.  It was Tulane’s first road loss after  winning ten straight away games.

OREGON 49, OREGON STATE: 14:  Not only was it an ugly game (if you wanted the Beavers to be competitive) but there’s something really dull and dumb about playing what has always been a bitter rivalry game  so early in the season.

WASHINGTON STATE 24,  WASHINGTON 19 : Karma, baby. Karma.  The Washington suits not only voted to leave WSU behind when they left for the Big Ten, but they did their damnedest to empty pockets, too.

NOTRE DAME 66,  PURDUE 7: Whew.  The Irish gave the Boilermakers the worst defeat in their program’s history. How about 578 yards total offense - 362 on the ground?  27 first downs to six?  7/12 first down conversions vs. 1/12?   They must have been listening to a certain coach in Granbury, Texas named Joe Gutilla: “RUN THE ROCK!”

PITT 38, WEST VIRGINIA 34:  Exciting but ugly, what with all the penalties - and the officials could have called a lot more.  Pitt QB Eli Holstein is a Louisiana kid who  starts out at Alabama, and he completed 21 of 30 for 301 and three TDs. That’s the good news.  The bad news? He was also the Panthers’ leading rusher,  with 59 yards.

UTAH 38,  UTAH STATE 21: It was just 17-14 at the half, but it was, after all, something of a rivalry game. Ute QB Isaac Wilson, a true freshman from Draper, Utah, was making his first start; filling in for injured Cam Rising, he was  20/33 for 239 yards and three TDs.

OLE MISS 40, WAKE FOREST 6:  Jaxson Dart, the Utah kid by way of USC, threw for 377 (26 of 23) and two TDs.  It didn’t look like a game between two power conference teams - Ole Miss is that good.

TEXAS 56, UTSA 7: Texas led 14-0 in the second quarter when starting QB Quinn Ewers left the game with an injury.  Tada!  Enter Arch Manning.  You may have heard of him. He came in and did “okay”: completed nine of twelve for 223 yards (that’s 18.6 yards per attempt - almost unreal) and four TDs. And get this - he ran 67 yards for another score.  He must have inherited his granddad Archie’s speed.

GEORGIA 13, KENTUCKY 12: I said that this could get ugly, but I didn’t have Georgia fans in mind when I said it. I call six field goals and one touchdown an ugly game, and Georgia folks have to consider a one-point loss to a team that got blown out last week by South Carolina ugly, too. But Kentucky fans have to be encouraged by their team’s showing,  almost doubling the Bulldogs’ first downs (23-12) and winning  the time of possession battle , 35-25

NEBRASKA 34, NORTHERN IOWA 3: Cornhuskers’ frosh QB Dylan Raiola completed 17 of 23  for 247 yards and two TDs.

TOLEDO 41,  MISSISSIPPI STATE 17: Whoa.  It’s not THAT unusual  for a MAC team to beat a Power Conference team, but to kick their ass? 28-3 at the half? Rockets’ QB Tucker Gleason completed 23 of 28 for 285 yards and three TDs.

INDIANA 42,  UCLA 13: Welcome to the Big Ten, Bruins.  Wait till you see the BETTER teams!

BAYLOR 31, AIR FORCE 3:  What’s the deal with the Zoomies?

COLORADO 28 COLORADO STATE 9 : Is it too late to withdraw that invitation to Colorado State to join the Pac-6?  They sucked.

UCF 35, TCU 34: I said that those two coaches would give us an interesting game, and they did.  UCF, down 31-20 after three quarters, outscored the Frogs 15-3 in the fourth quarter. KJ Jefferson’s pass to Kobe Hudson with 36 seconds left gave them their first lead of the game.  Knights’ RJ Harvey carried 29 times for 180 yards and two TDs.

TENNESSEE 71, KENT 0: There ought to be a rule against scheduling games like this.

MARYLAND 27, VIRGINIA 13: The Terps were down, 13-7 at the half, but they shut out the Cavaliers in the second half, 20-0.  Wake Forest transfer Billy Edwards completed 28 of 43 for the Terps for 263 yards and two TDs.

HOUSTON 33, RICE 7: I hope that Houston softened up Rice for Army this week.

BYU 34, WYOMING 14:  Cowboys’ fans deserve better.

CAL 31, SAN DIEGO STATE 10 :  Cal is good.

FRESNO STATE 48, NEW MEXICO STATE 0 : That’ll teach those Aggies to mess with a Pac-6 team!



***********   Indiana introduced UCLA and the entire Southland to regular-season Big Ten football, trouncing the Bruins 42-13 in front of 47,811 in the Rose Bowl.

The Hoosiers are now 2-0, and although at most places it would be way too early to get excited, this is Indiana after all, a place where mediocrity or worse has been the norm every football season, so let’s take a look at their remaining schedule:

CHARLOTTE
MARYLAND
AT NORTHWESTERN
NEBRASKA
WASHINGTON
AT MICHIGAN STATE
MICHIGAN
AT OHIO STATE
PURDUE

You know what?  They could actually  be 9-0 going into Columbus on November 23. 

I know, I know. They also could be 3-6 (a win over Charlotte next week being almost ensured.)

But there’s something about their first-year head coach, Curt Cignetti.  The guy is a winner.  He came to Indiana from James Madison, where he was 52-9 overall.  Most significantly, he took the Dukes from FCS up to FBS and scarcely missed a beat, going from 12-2 in FCS in 2021 to 8-3 and 11-1 in their first two seasons in FBS.

Counting all his wins at low levels, he has the fourth-best winning percentage among active FBS coaches, behind Ryan Day, Kirby Smart and John Sumrall (now in his first year at Tulane after moving from Troy).



*********** I knew as soon as I heard Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi tell the post-game reporter “we had to beat West Virginia and the officials” that he’d be getting a strongly-worded letter in his file.  He did.  And Pitt was fined a pittance - something like $5,000.

It may surprise you to learn, in these days when  they’re having a terrible time getting high school officials, that guys in major conferences can make as much as $3,000 a game.

(Actually, maybe it’s not that much, when you realize that there are college players now making $100,000 a game.)



*********** Random bitches about the NFL:

*** There are few uniforms in sport more consistent and more classic than the Chicago Bears’. You can look at photos of Bears’ games from the 1930s and  you’ll know - just as you would with the Yankees and their pinstripes - who you’re looking at.

So when they came out in those garish orange jerseys and helmets Sunday night, they deserved to lose.

*** On field goal attempts of 50 yards or more, NFL kickers this year are averaging almost 90 per cent made.  Talk about excitement.

*** On Sunday, the Giants scored three touchdowns while their opponents, the Team Once Known as  the Redskins,   didn’t score a one.  But the Team Once Known as  the Redskins kicked SEVEN field goals, and won the game, 21-18.  In the long history of the NFL, it was the first time that a team scored three touchdowns and still lost to a team that didn’t score any. The back story: the Giants’ kicker was injured on the opening kickoff, and they wound up missing all three PATs  - one kicking and two on two-point attempts.



*********** John Canzano’s take…

Q: Clearly, seeing that the Ducks are on a different level than the Beavers. Also, knowing they have a larger NIL budget. How much (in your opinion) will Oregon State need to “buck up” to be at a P-4 level with, say, five more top-tier players?


A: NIL funding is a huge factor in football, but let me throw another thought at you. Jonathan Smith left OSU’s program at the end of last season. A bunch of his players immediately jumped into the portal and bolted. I thought Saturday’s 49-14 win by the Ducks said more about roster continuity than NIL disparity.

The Beavers lost a ton of momentum, talent, and continuity when Smith bolted to Michigan State. Playmakers such as quarterback Aidan Chiles and receiver Silas Bolden left. Running back Damien Martinez stuck around for a while, but only because he wanted to collect the final $100,000 installment on his $400,000-a-year NIL deal.

A school’s ability to recruit and compensate players with NIL matters. Oregon does it better than most. To lure five good starters out of the portal? You’d need maybe $2 million. But the Apple Cup provided a perfect contrast to the Civil War on the roster retention front — the Cougars had coaching and roster continuity, and the Huskies didn’t. That result tipped WSU’s way.



*********** MORE JOHN CANZANO…

I reported on Saturday that the Pac-12 wants to grow to nine schools, ideally. That helps with football and basketball scheduling. I won’t be surprised if the Pac-12 explores the top AAC schools, then circles back and takes a hard look at Air Force and/or UNLV in the Mountain West. It’s a beauty pageant now.


*********** When the guys in suits started selling their teams (and their souls) to various far-flung conferences, I doubt that they gave much thought to the extra travel required of the guys who drive their teams’ equipment trucks - bigass 18-wheelers loaded with all the helmets, pads, uniforms and other equipment.  (No way they can get all that stuff on the team plane.)

As one example, in a six-game span, Washington will play four away games, with the Huskies’  truck hauling  the team’s gear from Seattle to New Brunswick, New Jersey (5,660 miles round-trip), Iowa City, Iowa (3,704 miles), Bloomington, Indiana (4,520 miles) and State College, Pennsylvania (5,230 miles). 

God knows what provisions teams make for the possibility of a wreck along the way. Or a break-in.


*********** I know it’s not feasible to have 22 officials on the field to watch every player individually, but it seems to me  there might  be an opportunity here for AI.  A great test would be to have it “watch” all five offensive linemen for holding.


*********** Joe Schmidt died last week. He was 92.  At a stage in the pro game when  fans were beginning to understand the complexities of defense, the middle linebacker became the glamour position.  Every team, it seemed, had a good one.  But some were better than others, and none was better than Joe Schmidt.

I remember a story that was going around at the time - mid-to-late 50s - after a made-for-TV special called “The Violent World of Sam Huff” introduced people to the goings-on of pro defense. In the process, it also created the impression that Huff, the middle man in a very good Giants’ defense, was the ultimate player at the position.

Huff was good, certainly.  But at a time when New York was the absolute center of the advertising business and all the major media, it was simply the fact that he was playing for New York’s team (the Jets were  still unborn) that had caused him to be cast as the star.

Other middle linebackers around the league resented the acclaim that Huff got, and when word started circulating that the TV guys were planning another special featuring Huff, this one  showing all the great plays a middle linebacker was called on to make, one of then said, “If they make it, they’re going to have to get Joe Schmidt to play Sam Huff.”


***********  46-0 win moves us to 3-0 for the 1st time since 2005.

Thanks, coach for teaching me how to teach tackling and blocking!

Scored on wedge again but not so dramatically as last week. I will send a clip or two once we get it uploaded.

Sean Berry
Chillicothe, Texas



*********** Hi Hugh,

My Monday morning football rant, this time on the NFL! Will someone please teach NFL Lineman how to run block? Will some NFL coach have the courage to put the inside and outside zone to bed and teach some DW or Wing T blocking concepts . Will some owner say enough and if you need a yard or two get under center instead if handing the ball of to back five yards deep without blocker? Finally will some coach say the prevent defense with three rushers will lose you a game more often then save it!

The NFL is so inbred its coaches no longer dare to do anything but what everybody else is doing. My fear after watching college football this weekend they are falling into the same trap.

Thanks for the opportunity to rant!

Jack Tourtillotte
Rangeley, Maine

Jack, I sat here reading your rant and I went “check” and “check” and “check” and so on after every point. Your “inbred” comment is especially on point, because it’s not as if  there aren’t a lot of bright guys coaching in the NFL, with plenty of good ideas.  But NFL jobs are scarce, and if you dare do anything that falls  outside the accepted way of doing it, you risk becoming  an outcast and never getting  another job.  Great post!



***********   Thanks for continuing to give us new perspectives on Coach Lude.

Robert Heinlein was a sci-fi writer, but his observations on the world we live in are numerous and excellent. The comment concerning the decline in rational thinking is lamentably true.

Hope you and Coach Berry will be able to praise your teams after the next one.

Still no ESPN on DIRECTV, and I'm still happy about it .

John Vermillion                
St Petersburg, Florida


 





*********** QUIZ ANSWER:  In Penn State’s long and storied football history, John Cappelletti is the only one of its players to win the Heisman Trophy.

He was born and raised in suburban Philadelphia and played football for Monsignor Bonner High School, where in his senior year he was first-team All-Catholic (for the entire Philadephia metro area) as a running back.

He attended Penn State, where he spent his first two seasons as a defensive back. Switched to running back as a junior, he rushed for 1117 yards and 12 touchdowns, as the Nittany Lions went 10-2 and finished 10th in the nation.

In his senior year, he rushed for 1,522 yards - second-best total in Penn State history) and 17 touchdowns, and was a consensus All-American. In the final month of the season he had three straight 200-yard games. Penn State finished the season 12-0, and ranked fifth in the nation (behind Alabama, Oklahoma, Ohio state and Notre Dame). He was named the outstanding player in Penn State’s Orange Bowl win over LSU.

His coach Joe Paterno,  called him “The best player I’ve ever been around. He’s strong, fast, durable, and a great leader. You know he’s going to come through for you when you need him."

His  Heisman Trophy acceptance speech was one of the most memorable in Heisman history, as he tearful dedicated the moment to his younger brother Joey, who was dying of leukemia.  Later, a made-for-television movie was made about the brothers and their relationship, titled “Something for Joey.”

He also received the Maxwell Trophy and was selected as Player-of-the-Year by ABC-TV, United Press International, the Philadelphia Sports Writers Association, the Walter Camp Foundation and the Washington Touchdown Club.

He was a first-round draft choice of the Los Angeles Rams (11th pick overall).  He was also the Number One pick of his hometown team, the Philadelphia Bell of the World Football League, but he - wisely - chose to play in the NFL.

He wound up playing 10 seasons -  six with the Rams and four with the San Diego Chargers.

Overall, he rushed 824 times for 2,951 yards and 24 touchdowns, and caught 135 passes for 1,233 yards and four touchdowns.

John Cappelletti’s number 22 has been retired at Penn State.

He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1993.

After pro football he had a successful career in the pharmaceutical industry in California, where he and his wife raised four sons. 

CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING JOHN CAPPELLETTI

GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK LOUISIANA
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
TOM DAVIS - SAN MARCOS, CALIFORNIA
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY
MIKE FORISTIERE - MARSING, IDAHO






***********  QUIZ:  He was there at the start,  as founder and player, then coach, of one of the NFL’s flagship franchises, a team started in his home town and named for the company that originally provided financial backing.


An outstanding player, he is member of the  NFL 1920s All-Decade Team as one of the brand-new league’s top single wing tailbacks. 


From 1920 to 1949,  he was the team’s head coach and general manager, and in that time he led the team to over 200 wins. His teams also won six NFL championships - only  the Bears’ George Halas (his archival over the years)  and Bill Belichick have won as many.

Six of his players - Cal Hubbard, Mike Michalske, Johnny “Blood” McNally, Arnie Herber,  Don Hutson and Tony Canadeo - are now in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

As a player, he wore the Number One for two seasons, and remains the only player in the history of the franchise to wear that number.

He is in the team’s  Hall of Fame and in 1965, shortly after his death, their stadium was renamed in his honor.

His long tenure with the team came to an end, however,  in 1950, when he resigned after a disagreement with team ownership. After that,  he  coached briefly for two other teams, the Chicago Cardinals and Washington Redskins.

His overall coaching record after 33 years in the NFL is 229-134-22.

He was one of the inductees in the very first group inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.



FRIDAY,  SEPTEMBER 13, 2024    "There are only two kinds of people: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, ‘All right, then, have it your way.’” C. S. Lewis


*********** Wisdom from Mike Lude: “I give Dr. Windsor H. Roberts credit for saving my academic life.

“Thanks to him, I was able to stay in school and pursue my goal of being a football coach – an ambition that had started to slip further and further from reality with each botched classroom assignment. 

“Part of my problem was my background. I had attended a one-room country school. Because the vast majority of my classmates never even continued on to high school, the teacher focused almost totally on the simple basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic. There was no time for anything else. The small high school I attended also had a limited curriculum.

“The other part of the problem was my approach. Studying didn't have a high priority for me. I was a happy kid who had a good relationship with the faculty at Vicksburg high school, a C-plus student who didn't have to work very hard to get by. I was more concerned with sports than academics. Going to college didn't become a goal or a possibility until I was in my senior year. I just didn't apply myself as I might have, and my lack of preparation came back to haunt me at Hillsdale - in a hurry.”



*********** It’s been a good week of practice at Aberdeen.  We made a bunch of mistakes last Friday night and I think we’re on the way to correcting them. 

We had a couple of injuries that mean we’re already missing a couple of key players, but I think we’ve got a decent scheme to cover for them and there’s a  good chance we could have the injured players back next week.

We’re not a  good team yet - not even close - but we’re going to be one.

This week, we’re playing Steilacoom, a Tacoma-area team that won its opener last week.  (Ohio State wide receiver Emeka Egbuka is a Steilacoom kid.)  Besides the on-field issues we face, a big  concern is just getting there - the Friday afternoon traffic on I-5 between Olympia and Tacoma is a bitch.

Last week’s home game  started at 7:30, a half-hour later than usual, because of the shortage of officials. (It’s  a  growing problem everywhere).  We were actually the second game our crew worked.  They’d already officiated a game  in nearby Hoquiam that kicked off at 4 PM,  then drove about ten minutes to our place to handle our game.  Not ideal, but thanks to the  arrangement, we and Hoquiam were both able to play home games on Friday, instead of on a Thursday or a Saturday.  (When I asked one of the officials at halftime how he was feeling, he confessed to being a little tired.)



*********** COLLEGE GAMES I’M RECORDING THIS WEEKEND

THURSDAY NIGHT

ARIZONA  STATE AT TEXAS STATE - WOW.  This has to to be the first time a Power 4 team has ever played in San Marcos, a sure sign that Texas State has arrived as an FBS program. It could be really close - Texas State is good.


FRIDAY NIGHT

UNLV AT KANSAS - If you like to watch inventive offenses, this ought to be a great one.

ARIZONA AT KANSAS  STATE - I like Arizona and I like Brent Brennan, but I’ve been a KSU Wildcat fan for a long time. EMAW! (Every Man A Wildcat!)



SATURDAY (DON’T BOTHER LOOKING FOR MANY CLOSE GAMES)

ALABAMA AT WISCONSIN - When was the last time Bama went north to play a game - and a game against a Big Ten team at that?

OKLAHOMA STATE AT TULSA - Cowboys are tough, as they showed against Arkansas last week.  Yes, they did give up almost 650 yards of offense against the Razorbacks, but not this week.

LSU AT SOUTH CAROLINA - LSU is favored.  But after the Gamecocks’ performance last week  in trouncing Kentucky - and Notre Dame’s upset defeat after beating LSU in their opener - I’m not so sure.

ARKANSAS STATE AGAINST MICHIGAN - Michigan - spanked and still ranked.  If a game in the big house is on your bucket list, this would be a cheap ticket: Michigan is favored by 22.

MEMPHIS AT FLORIDA STATE - FSU is favored by a score.  Maybe THIS is the day the Seminoles show why they deserve a greater share of the conference revenues than all those other piddly-ass ACC teams. Or the day when they show why they should be happy any conference will even have them.  Go Tigers!

LOUISIANA TECH AT NC STATE - Despite getting clobbered by Tennessee last week, State is favored by three scores. 

CINCINNATI AT MIAMI (O): This is a rivalry game for the right to walk tall in southwest Ohio, and it’s the reason why Cinci is favored by only 3-1/2.  The Bearcats that almost had Pitt put away last week should be favored by lots more; the ones that let Pitt come back and beat them will lose to Miami. Cincinnati does some cool stuff on offense.

BOSTON COLLEGE AT MISSOURI: Don’t let the Eagles’ surprise win over Florida State fool you. Missouri is really good, and a two-TD spread seems reasonable.

UMASS AT BUFFALO: I’ll watch, because I pull for UMass coach Don Brown, and because it’s actually on a DISH channel.

COASTAL CAROLINA AT TEMPLE:  Hey Philly people - if you still watch college football live, this may be your best chance to watch a really exciting team.  And it’s not Temple.

TEXAS A & M AT FLORIDA: For some reason, the Aggies are favored by just three points. Can they be that bad?

TULANE AT OKLAHOMA: Tulane, under new coach Willie Fritz, looked awfully tough against Kansas State last week, and Oklahoma had its hands full against Houston, so I suspect that the Sooners may not cover the 13-point spread.

OREGON AT OREGON STATE: For reasons of political correctness, they decided to do away with calling this the Civil War.  But since the Ducks went hoity-toity and left for the Big Ten, and leaving Oregon State behind in a two-team conference, the hard feelings in Beaverland could make a civil war look like a peace rally. I like underdogs, and Oregon’s Dan Lanning has been known to choke in big games, so Go Beavers!

WASHINGTON STATE VS WASHINGTON: This one’s at a somewhat-neutral site - the home of the Seahawks - but it is in Seattle, the home of the Washington Huskies.  But while WSU may be from clear on the other side of the state, there are thousands of Coug fans living in the area, and this one will be hard-fought. Typically, there are more home-state kids playing for the Cougars, and Wazzu fans are really red-assed about the Huskies going Big-Ten on them.  What a damn shame that the suits who run TV had to put this on one that f—king Peacock.

NOTRE DAME AT PURDUE: Notre Dame is a ten-point favorite, but for as long as I can remember, this game has always been a tough one for the Irish.  For that reason alone, if I were betting, I’d take the points.

WEST VIRGINIA AT PITT:  The Backyard Brawl (the two schools are only about an hour and a half apart and have traditionally battled each other for recruits) returns to the Steel City, with the Moutaineers slight favorites. I will definitely watch this one.

UTAH AT UTAH STATE: I just want to see how the Utes do if they have to play without Cam Rising.

OLE MISS AT WAKE FOREST: I like the Deacs a lot. But the Rebels are one of the country’s best offensive teams and and I always learn something from watching them.

UTSA AT TEXAS:  The match they craved is finally here, and the Roadrunners, who once thought they’d be ready for it simply aren’t.  This could be a beat-down.

GEORGIA AT KENTUCKY: This could get ugly.

NORTHERN IOWA AT NEBRASKA: UNI always plays the big guys tough, so it could be an interesting game.

TOLEDO AT MISSISSIPPI STATE: Toledo (2-0) hasn’t beaten anybody as good as Mississippi State. But Mississippi State (1-1) hasn’t beaten anybody as good as Toledo.

INDIANA AT UCLA: The first Big Ten regular season game ever played in Southern California, and they give them THIS?  UCLA is 1-0, having barely escaped with a win over Hawaii.  Indiana has played two softies and  they’re 2-0.  You asked for this, Bruins.

AIR FORCE AT BAYLOR: Baylor had an easy one, and then played Utah pretty tough.  Air Force, to be blunt, hasn’t played well. On the other hand, the Zoomies have beaten the last five Power 5 teams they’ve faced.

COLORADO AT COLORADO STATE: Oh please, Rams - beat the crap out of Colorado and make your new brothers-to-be in the Pac-6 proud of you!

UCF AT TCU: Two good offensive coaches - TCU’s Sonny Dykes and UCF’s ought to give us a good game.

KENT STATE AT TENNESSEE: Kent is 0-2 and may be the worst team in all of FCS. Tennessee is really  good. I’ll just record this looking for big plays.

MARYLAND AT VIRGINIA: Once a pretty strong rivalry when they were both in the ACC, this could be good. I’m a former Marylander and I like the Terps, but I don’t care for the Big Ten and I like the ACC, so go Cavs!

RICE AT HOUSTON: Interesting matchup of two Houston-based teams.  This would ordinarily be ugly (Rice has sucked for so long) but it could be close.

BYU AT WYOMING: The Cowboys haven’t recovered from Craig Bohl’s retirement, and the Cougars are getting better.

SAN DIEGO STATE AT CAL:  I like Cal a lot, but they are deserters and the Aztecs are  about to become Pac-whatevers, so go Aztecs.

NEW MEXICO STATE AT FRESNO STATE: I expect Fresno State to celebrate its entrance into the Pac-6 with a nice win.


*********** Prior to Thursday night’s Arizona State-Texas State game, the former Pac-12 is 21-2; the “Pac-2” (Oregon State and Washington State) is 4-0.


*********** Back in the early 70s, when I was coaching minor league football in Hagerstown, Maryland, I developed  a nice relationship with Tim Temerario, the Redskins’ Director of Player Personnel under head coach/GM George Allen.  Whenever the Skins would cut a player they wanted to keep close by (practice squads weren’t as big then as they are now, and George Allen was notorious for finding innovative  ways to storehouse players), Tim would let me know about him - and let the player know about us -  and in certain cases, the guy would play for us and the Skins would slip him a little money.  I have no idea how much it was (we were paying everybody $50 a game, which was decent money at the time), but every week I’d go to the  post office and pick up a bunch of letters from the Redskins and hand them out to the players at practice that evening.  One of those players, a punter named Duane Carrell, stuck with us and did a great job. He wound up playing with the Jacksonville Sharks of the World Football League, then  had a career in the NFL with the Cowboys, Rams, Jets and Cardinals.

I moved on to working for the WFL’s Philly franchise as its player personnel director, and when the WFL folded after its first year, Tim had me come to the Redskins’ offices in northern Virginia to meet with  Allen.  Wow. A face-to-face meeting with one of the best-known and most-respected men in the NFL!  To say I was impressed was an understatement. 

He wasted no time and got right to the point, asking me to tell him who I thought were the three best running backs, three best tight ends, three best centers, etc., etc.  You get the idea.  As he grilled me, his scouts took notes.

My main reason for remembering this is that one of the scouts was a  guy who introduced himself to me as “Bob Mitchell.”  Of course I knew who the hell he was.  He was the great Bobby Mitchell!

What especially impressed me was, first, that HE introduced himself to ME, and second, that while “Bobby” might have been the name by which he became famous, he obviously preferred to be called “Bob.”


***********  “But there seems to have been an actual decline in rational thinking. The United States had become a place where entertainers and professional athletes were mistaken for people of importance. They were idolized and treated as leaders; their opinions were sought on everything and they took themselves just as seriously—after all, if an athlete is paid a million or more a year, he knows he is important ... so his opinions of foreign affairs and domestic policies must be important, too, even though he proves himself to be ignorant and sub-literate every time he opens his mouth.”

Robert Heinlein


*********** I expect any time soon to hear that some ambitious congressman has authored   a Truth in Gambling bill, requiring anyone betting on a football game to first declare that he understands that the very word “gamble” implies that there is  risk involved, and that any losses are totally the responsibility of the bettor. 

Not that I’m big on government betting involved in anything, but at least in Alabama,   there appears to be a sizable number of people in need of the most basic understanding of gambling.

Alabama is where Auburn is located.  Auburn’s quarterback, Payton Thorne, said that after Auburn was upset by Cal last Saturday - in a game in which he was intercepted four times -  he’s been contacted by bettors asking him to send them money to cover their losses.

Seriously.

"It's funny,” he said.  “When they lose money, they want their money back. But when they win money on a parlay, no one's ever sent me any of the money.”



***********  My involvement in spreading the word about various aspects of  football and football coaching has blessed me with the opportunity to meet some great people whom I would never otherwise have met.

One such person is Sean Berry, coach of a six-man team in Chillicothe, Texas. (I knew of Chillicothe, Ohio, but this was a new one on me. It’s about one-third of the way from Wichita Falls to Amarillo, and about 30 miles south of Altus, Oklahoma.)

Coach Berry and I have corresponded, and he’s bounced a couple of ideas off me, and when he sent me a couple of film clips I mentioned that it appeared he had a pretty decent fullback.

We discussed the wedge, and he was smart enough to recognize that since I start out teaching it as a triple-team on one designated opponent, he could do the same - take his three offensive linemen (that’s all he’s got) and triple-team one opponent. Voila!  The wedge comes to six-man football!

He sent me a  clip of his kids running the play and I loved it and told him I’d love to show it on my Zoom Tuesday night.

He said, “Let me know when and I will show the kids.  They will get a huge kick out of it. It was their idea after I showed them your video on how to wedge!”


https://youtu.be/a_kziQzZ4Vo



*********** Pardon me if I seem a bit excited, but I’m a lover of underdogs, and also, although I do believe in life after death, I very much like the idea of people avoiding near-certain death.

I’m referring to the news that Oregon State and Washington State appear to have found a way to a second life for the Pac-Pick-a-Number.

It seems almost certain that Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State and San Diego State will be leaving the Mountain West and joining OSU and WSU in reconstituting what was once the proud Pac-12.

Geographically all four are a good fit, and while Boise is the only one that doesn’t bring a  good-size market with it, the Broncos more than offset any concerns about market size with a program that’s nationally known and respected.

While they’ll still need two more members in order to satisfy the NCAA requirement that they have eight members by 2026, the word on the West Coast is that two spots were deliberately left vacant in the event that something might happen to the ACC that would result in Cal and Stanford looking for a landing place.  Who knows?

As the old saying goes, sh— flows downhill, and it’s going to be tough on the Mountain West, for sure.  I have no idea how it will respond, but one thing that comes to mind is looking at schools  such as Montana, Montana State, North Dakota State and South  Dakota State.  Now FCS powers,  they might be interested in a move up.  One big negative for the Mountain West  is that they represent minuscule TV markets, none even close in size to Boise.


*********** International soccer officials now have a new signal - one to signify a penalty for racist acts.

So there's soccer, almost  certainly the world's most racially diverse sport, constantly having to deal with racism among its  fans.

Could the problem be that there's just not enough action to keep the fans occupied?


*********** Every coach has a horror story or two about homecoming, but it's hard to beat the one that a friend of mine is in the middle of. Seems that without consulting him,  someone scheduled the homecoming parade for 5:30 some evening next week and now he's catching all sorts of flak because he won't cancel practice so his kids can march in the parade.



*********** NFL offensive effectiveness:  The Jets’ running game  failed to make it on 3rd and 1.  So on 4th and one, they threw.  Didn’t make that, either.


*********** I have three sons-in-law, and I love them all.  Great guys who’ve become great members of the family and given us ten grandkids in all.

One of them, Rob Tiffany, is a native Texan who joined the Navy and met our daughter, Cathy, when he was stationed on a submarine based in Bangor, Washington. I like to brag that Rob got his college degree underwater - it’s true.

Thanks to him, my wife and I got a  tour of the ship, the USS Alaska SSBN-732. The SSBN Means “Ship Submersible Ballistic Nuclear”)

Rob  posted on Facebook recently…

Great to see the USS Alaska SSBN-732 and its crew commemorate the submarine’s 100th strategic deterrent patrol giving pause to our adversaries. She’s a beautiful boat and I loved my time onboard with great shipmates.

One commenter asked him this question: What was life aboard like?

His answer:  Living in a tube that sinks on purpose is not for everyone. You get in a routine with your job on the sub and stay in the zone.



***********   The answer is Bobby Mitchell. This is the worst trade that Paul Brown ever made.

I  was livid when this trade was announced.

The prevailing reasons for the trade were that he was a fumbler. The next reason was that Paul Brown had a bad relationship with Jim Brown and he blamed Mitchell for the problem. He also wanted another big back to replace Jim Brown. (That being Ernie Davis.)

These are the reasons that I read in the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

If my memory is correct, Mitchell got Washington to renegotiate his contract and pay him the same salary as Jim Brown (40,000 dollars I think).

You noted that Washington moved him to wide receiver. A number of people thought that he should have been playing that position in Cleveland. Critics noted that Brown was out of step with the direction of a more modern passing game starting to emerge in the NFL. Mitchell was a perfect fit for that type of passing attack.

See you Tuesday.

David Crump
Owensboro, Kentucky



************   I’m still thinking about the transfer portal. Maybe if it doesn't work out in enough cases, coaches will pause before using it as freely as they have. Riley Leonard's a possible case in point. Moreover, I don't like the idea of an upperclass newbie messing with my team's psyche. I therefore personally am rooting for Dabo and the service academies to have winning seasons. What if Army and Navy can play well with neither portal nor NIL? Let me have something to cling to.

John Vermillion
St. Petersburg, Florida

Until they outlaw the Army offense, which is quite possible, Army will have the advantage of having roster stability, which contributes to better offense, better defense, and better unit cohesion.

Until proven otherwise, it’s still a team game.



*********** Hugh,

Your ball.  Second and one.  Ball on opponent 40.  7 min left to play.  Leading 14-13.  Offense is moving the ball.  Your defense has been unable to stop opponent run game.  What’s your call?
I know what I call!  RUN THE ROCK, get a first down, and continue moving the chains!  Eventually score a TD or at least kick a short FG to go up by 8, or by 4.  AND…eat clock!

Have a great week!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas

You’re talking Notre Dame, obviously.  I read that Northern Illinois’ yards per completion was 10 or so - really good.  Notre Dame’s was something under 4 - pathetic. So, as you say, RUN THE BALL!!!








 
*********** QUIZ ANSWER: In 1962 Bobby Mitchell  integrated  the last NFL team to play black players.

A native of Hot Springs, Arkansas, he turned down a chance to play baseball with the Cardinals and instead chose to play football at Illinois.

As a sophomore running back, he replaced the starter in the third quarter of the season’s seventh game, and on his very first carry he ran 64 yards for a score. In his brief time, he gained 173 yards on 10 carries, and the Illini upset Number 3-ranked Michigan.  Playing the rest of the season, he played well enough to be named All-Big Ten.

He was hurt most of his junior season, but after his senior year he was named to play in the College All-Star Game, and he was named Co-MVP, as the All-Stars upset the NFL champion Detroit Lions.

While at Illinois, he excelled as a sprinter and hurdler in track, and in his senior year he helped Illinois win the Big Ten track and field championship.

Drafted in the seventh round by the Cleveland Browns, he played halfback and his blazing speed to the outside proved the perfect complement to the power inside running of the great Jim Brown.

In four seasons with the Browns, he rushed for 2297 yards and gained 1463 yards receiving. He returned kickoffs for 1550 yards, and in all, he scored 38 touchdowns.

He was a very good runner, and he and Brown may well have been the best pair of running backs ever to play in the same backfield.  But he undoubtedly would have spent his career in Brown’s shadow, except that,  in 1962  he was traded to Washington for the draft rights to Syracuse’s Ernie Davis.

(Ernie Davis, as most hardcore football fans know, had just won the Heisman Trophy but tragically, would die of leukemia before ever playing in an NFL game.)

In Washington, where the club had agreed to finally integrate as a condition for using brand-new DC Stadium, he became the franchise’s first black player.

He broke the team’s color barrier in spectacular fashion:  in his first game as a Redskin, he returned a kickoff 92 yards against the Cowboys. 

He was moved to wide receiver, and in his first season at a new position,  on a new team,  he led the NFL with 72 catches for 1384 yards and 11 touchdowns, and was named to the Pro Bowl.  And the once-woeful Redskins finished the season 5-7-2, their best finish in five years.

Over the next five years, his season reception totals were 69, 60, 60, 58 and 60.

In 1968, although was back to running back so that Charlie Taylor could play wide receiver,  he still caught 60 passes for 866 yards and six touchdowns.

He retired after training camp in 1969, with a fantastic set of records: his total all-purpose yardage was 14,078.  He scored 91 touchdowns - 18 rushing, 65 receiving, 3 on punt returns and 5 on kick returns. In all, he had 7,954 yards receiving (521 reception) and 2,735 yards rushing.

He played in four Pro Bowls and was a three-time first team All-Pro and two-time second team All-Pro.

He won three Super Bowl rings.

He is a member of the Redskins’ Ring of Fame and the Browns’ Ring of Honor.

He is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

After retirement as a player, he spent 35 more years with the Redskins, beginning as a scout under Vince Lombardi, and moving up in the executive ranks to assistant General Manager before retiring in 2002.

In all, he spent 41 years with the Washington organization, but although he aspired to be General Manager, he was twice passed over in favor of an outsider.

He died in 2020, and in his honor the team retired his Number 49.

He and his wife, an attorney, made the  the Washington, DC area their home, and he was active in a number of civic and charitable organizations. including the United Negro College Fund, the Howard University Cancer Research Advisory Committee, the American Lung Association of D.C., the Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Commission, the Boys Club of Washington, the National Urban League, the NAACP, the Junior Chamber of Commerce, the University of Illinois Presidents Council and the University of Illinois Foundation.

His son and namesake, Bobby Mitchell, Jr., played football at Stanford.




CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING BOBBY MITCHELL

GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK LOUISIANA
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
TOM DAVIS - SAN MARCOS, CALIFORNIA
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOE BREMER - WEST SENECA, NEW YORK
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FORISTIERE - MARSING, IDAHO
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY
TOM WALLS - WINNIPEG, MANITOBA
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON



 


*********** QUIZ:  In Penn State’s long and storied football history, he is the only one of its players to win the Heisman Trophy.

He was born and raised in suburban Philadelphia and played football for Monsignor Bonner High School, where in his senior year he was first-team All-Catholic (for the entire Philadephia metro area) as a running back.

He attended Penn State, where he spent his first two seasons as a defensive back. Switched to running back as a junior, he rushed for 1117 yards and 12 touchdowns, as the Nittany Lions went 10-2 and finished 10th in the nation.

In his senior year, he rushed for 1,522 yards - second-best total in Penn State history) and 17 touchdowns, and was a consensus All-American. In the final month of the season he had three straight 200-yard games. Penn State finished the season 12-0, and ranked fifth in the nation (behind Alabama, Oklahoma, Ohio state and Notre Dame). He was named the outstanding player in Penn State’s Orange Bowl win over LSU.

His coach Joe Paterno,  called him “The best player I’ve ever been around. He’s strong, fast, durable, and a great leader. You know he’s going to come through for you when you need him."

His  Heisman Trophy acceptance speech was one of the most memorable in Heisman history, as he tearful dedicated the moment to his younger brother Joey, who was dying of leukemia.  Later, a made-for-television movie was made about the brothers and their relationship, titled “Something for Joey.”

He also received the Maxwell Trophy and was selected as Player-of-the-Year by ABC-TV, United Press International, the Philadelphia Sports Writers Association, the Walter Camp Foundation and the Washington Touchdown Club.

He was a first-round draft choice of the Los Angeles Rams (11th pick overall).  He was also the Number One pick of his hometown team, the Philadelphia Bell of the World Football League, but he - wisely - chose to play in the NFL.

He wound up playing 10 seasons -  six with the Rams and four with the San Diego Chargers.

Overall, he rushed 824 times for 2,951 yards and 24 touchdowns, and caught 135 passes for 1,233 yards and four touchdowns.

His number 22 has been retired at Penn State.

He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1993.

After pro football he had a successful career in the pharmaceutical industry in California, where he and his wife raised four sons. 



TUESDAY,  SEPTEMBER 10, 2024    “Total liberty for wolves is death to the lambs.” Isaiah Berlin


*********** Wisdom from Mike Lude: “Less than a month into my career as an intercollegiate athlete, my situation at Hillsdale College resembled a quarterback scrambling with no blockers and a couple of huge linemen bearing down for the tackle.

“It didn't take me long to realize the difficulty of making the transition from a 250-student high school in Vicksburg, Michigan, to Hillsdale College, a highly respected liberal arts school. I only hoped nobody was paying much attention.

“Wrong. One morning, as I strolled out of his medieval history class, Dr. Windsor H.  Roberts called me aside.  His message was blunt: ‘Mike, you're in trouble academically.’

“To avoid the sack I came clean. ‘Yes sir, Dr. Roberts. I know I'm having problems,’ I said. ‘But I don't know what to do about it.’

“He threw me a lifeline.  ‘Mike, you've shown me that you're a hard worker and I know you work just as hard in your athletics. I think you're disciplined. You never miss class and you pay attention.’  He volunteered to be my tutor, not only in the history class but in other courses, such as freshman English, where I needed a lot of help.

“Dr. Roberts spent many hours with me. He taught me the basics of scholastic survival – how to organize my thoughts, take lecture notes, practice effective time management, and other good-study skills.”



*********** OLYMPIC 20, ABERDEEN 6 - On their second play from scrimmage Aberdeen’s Micah Schroeder ran 50 yards around the left side for a score, only to have the play called back for a holding penalty.  The Bobcats were forced to punt, but  shortly after, they regained possession when the snap went over the Olympic punter’s head and the Bobcats recovered inside the ten.  They were held on downs, though, and the first quarter ended 0-0.

Midway through the second quarter, the Bobcats intercepted a pass on their own ten, but on third down their quarterback was sacked on the one-yard line, and after a short punt and a return to the Aberdeen 20, it took Olympic just two running plays to score.  After their two-point conversion, it was 8-0, with 4:30 left in the half.

Olympic drove close enough for a field goal attempt with four seconds remaining, but the kick was wide and the two teams went in at halftime with Olympic leading, 8-0.

Aberdeen took the second-half kickoff and was forced to punt, but after the Bobcats recovered an Olympic fumble, sophomore QB Mason Hill threw to junior wide receiver Adonis Hammond going up the right sideline for a 53-yard touchdown that made the score 8-6.  The conversion failed.

It took Olympic just five plays to answer, scoring on a run from 30 yards out to extend the lead to 14-6. That’s how it stayed, going into the fourth quarter.

With nine minutes left in the game, Olympic drove to a first-and-goal on the Aberdeen two yard line, but after four shots at the Bobcats’ goal line, couldn’t get any close than the one!

With 6 minutes remaining, Aberdeen managed to drive - mostly through the air - from their own one to the Olympic eight - in position to tie the game - before finally running out of downs with four minutes left to play.

From there, it took Olympic just three plays - the final one a 75-yard run - to put the game away, with 2:19 to play.

Final score: Olympic 20, Aberdeen 6

We’ve got a lot to work on. We have a pact not to point fingers at each other, and I’m certainly not  going to do it here.

We also have adopted a “no excuses” policy, so no “we’re very young and inexperienced” or “we lost so many starters from last year” allowed.

Next up: Steilacoom, a very good team from a town located between Olympia and Tacoma.  A lot of its kids are from Army families stationed at nearby Fort Lewis.



*********** COLLEGE GAMES I RECORDED THIS PAST WEEKEND

FRIDAY NIGHT

BYU AT SMU - SMU is establishing itself as one of the few schools I don’t like, and I like BYU, so Go Cougars!  BYU 16, SMU 15

DUKE AT NORTHWESTERN - Go Devils. Duke has had good luck against the Wildcats in recent years. First real test for Manny Diaz. DUKE 26, NORTHWESTERN 20 (2 OT)

SATURDAY

TEXAS AT MICHIGAN - I think Michigan is going to fail this test. TEXAS 31, MICHIGAN 12. Yes, but Michigan can still make the playoffs.  Sure.  And maybe it would mean a rematch. ZZZZZZZZZ.

ARKANSAS AT OKLAHOMA STATE - Very big one for Sam Pittman and the Razorbacks  OKLAHOMA STATE 39, ARKANSAS 31 (2 OT) - Razorbacks had 648 yards of total offense, so you’d think they’d have  an old-fashioned under-center play on 4th and short on their last play. (This game went more than FOUR F—KING HOURS!)

KANSAS STATE AT TULANE - Both teams coming off wins over FCS opponents but I like the Wildcats. EMAW! (Every Man A Wildcat!)  WHEW. COMING FROM BEHIND IN THE FOURTH - KSU 34, TULANE 27

GEORGIA TECH AT SYRACUSE - Two formerly bottom-tier ACC teams that appear to be on the climb. Tech has already played two games. SYRACUSE 31, GEORGIA TECH 28 - If Orange QB Kyle McCord wasn’t good enough for Ohio State, how good must the Buckeyes be?

PITT AT CINCINNATI - Panthers may have had the tougher opponent last week  in Kent State. PITT 28, CINCINNATI 27 - I’d given up on the Panthers when they fell behind in front of  large Cincinnati crowd.

ARMY AT FLORIDA ATLANTIC - Army had an easy one against Lehigh; FAU lost narrowly to Michigan State. How will Army handle the noontime South Florida  heat and humidity? ARMY 24, FAU 7 - How did they handle the heat and humidity?  In true (real) Army fashion - they deliberately chose to wear all black, just to show that the heat  wasn’t going to bother them. They rushed for 405 yards, and controlled the ball for 38:39.

NORTHERN ILLINOIS AT NOTRE DAME - I’m expecting a close game, but I’m becoming a fan of this Notre Dame team.  NIU 16, NOTRE DAME 14 .  I didn’t expect one THIS close.  Very happy for NIU coach Thomas Hammock who understandably had some difficulty controlling his emotions after this one. It’s always great for the rest of us to have an example of what hard work and belief can accomplish.  And my sympathy to Marcus Freeman, who seems to be a good man and a good coach but bears as heavy a burden as any coach in any sport.

BAYLOR AT UTAH - Dave Aranda may be in trouble at Baylor, and he seems like a good guy, but I’m a big fan of the Utes and Kyle Whittigham . It WILL be loud in Salt Lake City UTAH 23, BAYLOR 12 - But it looked as if a late hit may have injured Utes’ QB Cam Rising. Let’s hope it’s not a season-ender or else he’ll be back next year for a 12th year.

IOWA STATE AT IOWA - This is a rivalry game that’s impossible to pick, and I like ‘em both, so… IOWA STATE 20, IOWA 19 - at the buzzer. Quoting my friend Brad Knight, a Hawkeyes’ fan “Tailback - 25 carries for 185 yards. Yet we are trying to throw the ball in the red zone. Just keep running the damn ball and when they adjust run it somewhere else. College coaches are idiots.” Poor Kirk Ferentz - after all the complaining he finally goes soft and throws the ball, and what does he get for it?

CAL AT AUBURN - What sadistic  AD would agree to send a team  from California to play a game in the Deep South in early September?  CAL 21, AUBURN 14.  Who knew?  Would the Bears have done that if they were still a Pac-12 team? Their QB, a Miami kid named Francisco Mendoza, is a year older and a lot better.  How about this: in a few weeks Cal plays Miami.  Mendoza and Miami coach Mario Cristobal went to the same high school.

SOUTH CAROLINA AT KENTUCKY - Are the SC people tiring of Shane Beamer?  Can Mark Stoops keep it going at Kentucky?  SOUTH CAROLINA 31, KENTUCKY 6.  WTF?  And this game was at Kentucky!

MICHIGAN STATE AT MARYLAND - (1) I used to live in Maryland and I love the state; (2) I deplore the way MSU’s Jonathan Smith stiffed his alma mater (Oregon State)… so GO TERPS!  MICHIGAN STATE 27, MARYLAND 24 - at the buzzer.  Damn. 

EASTERN MICHIGAN AT WASHINGTON - A slightly tougher test for the Huskies than Weber State was.  I’m not crazy about the Huskies’ coach, Jedd Fisch, but I like their QB, Will Rogers, who learned the trade under Mike Leach at Mississippi State.  WASHINGTON 30, EASTERN MICHIGAN 9. Boring.

SOUTH DAKOTA AT WISCONSIN - Meh. WISCONSIN 27, SOUTH DAKOTA 13.  Just another underwhelming performance by a Power 4 school against an FCS opponent.

TEMPLE AT NAVY - Navy’s new  wing-T-type offense gets a tougher test than Bucknell gave it. And Temple gets an easier opponent than Oklahoma. NAVY 38, TEMPLE 11.  Navy looks pretty good.  Temple ISN’T better than Bucknell.

UTSA AT TEXAS STATE - Because UTSA is a future Army opponent. TEXAS  STATE 49, UTSA 10.  WTF?

MIDDLE TENNESSEE AT OLE MISS - After what the Rebels  did to FCS power Furman (76-0), this could be bad, too.  Ole Miss’ offense is fun to watch!  OLE MISS 52, MIDDLE TENNESSEE 3.  Wow.

MARSHALL AT VIRGINIA TECH - Tech could have beaten Vanderbilt, but didn’t.  They’ve got to be better than Marshall. VIRGINIA TECH 31, MARSHALL 14 - Hokies managed to shake off that loss to Vandy.

SOUTH FLORIDA AT ALABAMA - I’m recording it, because it won’t stay on my live screen very long. BAMA 42, USF 16.  Not so fast, my friend… Alabama was ahead just 14-13 going into the fourth quarter.

KANSAS AT ILLINOIS - The game’s a sellout.  You know that Lance Leipold has about got the Kansas program turned around when the Jayhawks are 5-1/2 point favorites over any Big Ten team. ILLINOIS 23, Kansas 17. Yes, they storm the court when they beat Kansas in BASKETBALL.  But storming the field for a win over the Jayhawks in football? 

VIRGINIA AT WAKE FOREST - Both teams beat FCS opponents last week.  Deacs are a 1.5 point favorite.  Their QB, Hank Bachmeier, has played five years - four at Boise State and one at Louisiana Tech. Maybe playing in Warren Ruggiero’s unique system at Wake will help him blossom.  Go Deacs! VIRGINIA 31, WAKE FOREST 30. Cavaliers came back from 17-3.  Somebody at Wake Forest needs to remind  their players that when the ball’s loose in the waning moments of the game, bending over the try to pick it up is NOT the most effective  way to go. Put another way: FALL ON THE F—KING BALL!!!

SAN JOSE STATE AT AIR FORCE - Air Force looked lame in their opener, while San Jose opened with a good win over Sac State. SJSU’s new coach, Ken Niumatololo , had lots of success against Air Force while coaching Navy. SAN JOSE STATE 17, AIR FORCE 7.  Air Force’s offense looks pathetic.  For San Jose coach Ken Niumatololo, who spent years at Navy, it was his 34th time facing Air Force.

WESTERN MICHIGAN AT OHIO STATE - I’ll just look in to see what Chip Kelly’s up to this week.  Looks like Will Howard might be the QB the Buckeyes needed. OHIO STATE 56, WESTERN MICHIGAN 0  - Nothing against the Buckeyes, but this kind of game is hard to watch.

TENNESSEE AT NC STATE - Vols killed Chattanooga, 69-3.  Wolfpack struggled against Western Carolina.  But State QB Grayson McCall, who  spent a lifetime, it seems, at Coastal Carolina, threw for 318 in the win.   I’m going to go out on a limb and predict a State win. TENNESSEE 51, NC STATE 10.  Help.  I’m out win this limb and I need to get down.  Fast.

ALCORN STATE AT VANDERBILT - An FCS opponent provides Vanderbilt with the chance to  go 2-0.  The Commodores’ new QB, Diego Pavia, knows how to win, and I don’t think he’ll stand for any shirking. (He’s a former wrestler - how many QBs can say that?)  VANDERBILT 55, ALCORN STATE 0 - It wasn’t Vandy the offense - it was the defense. It allowed Alcorn just 1.6 yards per play, and   Alcorn didn’t run a single play on Vandy’s side of midfield.  The average starting point for a Vandy drive was its own 48, which explains  the Commodores’ rather paltry (for a team that scores 55 points)  342 yards of total offense.

COLORADO AT NEBRASKA - This will be their biggest win in years or the most devastating loss in their coach’s career.  At either place.  Go Huskers. NEBRASKA 28, COLORADO 10 - “Coach” (I don’t think he’s earned the title) Prime’s record, since opening 3-0 last season, is now 2-9.

HOUSTON AT OKLAHOMA - Hmmm. Poor Houston.  Last week they  get waxed by a Mountain West team (UNLV) and this week they face a team that’s fixin’ to play in the SEC.  Hang on, Cougars. OKLAHOMA 16, HOUSTON 12 - The Sooners went into the game 27.5 point favorites and nearly lost. They led by just 14-12 until a safety with 1:42 left “padded” their lead.

APP STATE AT CLEMSON - Talk about a pivotal game for  the Tigers. Another loss would almost put them in the Florida State category.  And if there’s a team that can provide the upset, it’s a bunch of kids from up in the hills of Boone, North Carolina who got passed over by Clemson when they were HS kids. CLEMSON 66, APP STATE 20.  So much for the upset.  Not sure if this redeems the opening-game loss to Georgia, but it shows that the Tigers are dangerous.

TEXAS TECH AT WASHINGTON STATE - WSU has lost so many players in the damned transfer portal  that I worry, but anyhow - go Cougs! WASHINGTON  STATE 37, TEXAS TECH 16 - The Cougs may not have a conference, but  they still play at the higher level of FBS.

LIBERTY AT NEW MEXICO STATE - I like to watch Liberty’s offense. LIBERTY 30, NEW MEXICO STATE 24 - Liberty paid a rare visit to Las Cruces, and needed a 21-point fourth quarter to pull out the win. Quinton Cooley’s 44-yard touchdown run with 1:05 left was the game winner.

MISSISSIPPI STATE AT ARIZONA STATE - I like the Bulldogs.  But a granddaughter just graduated from ASU, so I have to go with the Sun Devils. ARIZONA STATE 30, MISSISSIPPI STATE 23 - It was over 100 degrees in Tempe. But it was a dry heat. Maybe that’s what threw the Bulldogs off. Saw a  sideline interview with ASU coach Kenny Dillingham, and he seemed to be on something.

OREGON STATE AT SAN DIEGO STATE - Go Beavs!  OREGON STATE 21, SAN DIEGO STATE 0.  It was Oregon State’s first road-game shutout since 1983.

UTAH STATE AT USC - The Mountain West did okay last week, but the Aggies are going to run into a Trojan team that’s doing something different from most Lincoln Riley teams - playing defense. USC 48, UTAH STATE 0.  This Trojans team can play defense.


*********** So incessant has been the promotional jibber jabber about The Playoff that here it is the third weekend of the season coming up and  we’ve hardly heard a word about the Heisman.


*********** After seeing AAC members Florida Atlantic and Temple play against Army and Navy respectively, and look like dogs, and then seeing AAC member UTSA get walloped by Texas State and AAC member UAB lose to - are you ready for this? - LOUISIANA MONROE … I have to ask:  what kind of donkey conference did Army get itself into, anyhow?


*********** Alabama fumbled at the USF three-yard-line because their QB - as good as he is - couldn’t take a snap from under center.  Come to think of it, new Bama coach DeBoer’s QB at Washington (a guy named Penix - maybe you’ve heard of him) never got under center, as I recall.  Now that he’s a big shot at Alabama, making  ten  million dollars a year, you think DeBoer’s  going to waste his valuable time on something as trivial as teaching a quarterback how to take a snap?


*********** The Army-South Florida game broadcast was done on the cheap - not even a sideline reporter.  You do realize, don’t you, that that meant that not a single interview went on during the play on the field?


*********** It was not only incredibly poor timing - in view of subsequent police reports from South Florida - but it was also downright ignorant and in terrible taste for one of the announcers at the Army game to say of a very fast Army back named Noah Short, “He’s the Army version of Tyreek Hill.”  I would wager a large sum (for me) that Tyreek Hill would not make it through the first morning as a West Point cadet.


*********** Not saying those Army announcers were unprepared, but anybody who knows anything about the triple option knows that the guy who lines up behind the quarterback is called the FULLBACK. But these guys, whose  dog must have eaten  their homework, called Army’s fullback, Kanye Udoh, the “tailback.”


*********** I suppose it’s asking too much of announcers - and many, many football people - to acknowledge  the vast difference between a “chop block,” which is a valid football term, clearly defined in the rule book, and is illegal, and a “cut block,” which is simply a descriptive term (not unlike “kick in the ass”) that does NOT appear ANYWHERE in the rule book and may or may not be legal, depending on where and how and by whom it’s done.  (It’s mostly used for its shock value by people who don’t want other coaches to use it against them.)


*********** In one of the games - i think it was Oklahoma State-Arkansas - they informed us that we were about to watch “OVERTIME PRESENTED BY CHEEZ-IT”.


*********** With :17 to play, Tulane threw what appeared to be a  winning touchdown pass, but offensive pass interference was called.  The guys in the booth  - Bob Wischusen  and Brian Dawkins - went nuts, to the point where you might suspect they’d bet money on the Green Wave.  It was a close call, but  I thought that Tulane had illegally picked a Kansas State defender and that it was a good call,  I certainly wouldn’t have gone after the officials the way the announcers  did, with Wischusen ranting about it as a “questionable call.”

Close?  Yes.

Questionable? You’re out of line, Bob. 

Just call the game. 

We can see everything you can see, so don’t insinuate that you can see it better than we can and we need you to tell us what we saw.


*********** I never thought I’d see an offensive lineman called for targeting, but damned if a San Jose State lineman wasn’t ejected for it, and replays showed that, yes,  he’d targeted.


***********  It used to be that when a team had a good quarterback, it stood out from most of the other teams.

Now, though, it seems that just about everyone has a really good quarterback, and it’s the team that DOESN’T have one  that stands out. You’ve probably seen a few of them already.  Florida State is one that comes to mind.  Florida Atlantic is another.

So what’s a coach who doesn’t have one supposed to do?  He’s already gone out and recruited  players intended specifically to run the universal offense (basically the same thing that everyone else runs) ,which means that trying to do anything radically  different is out of the question.

With  more and more teams running the same stuff, there’ll be no one making radical changes, such as the famous one that Bear Bryant made in the summer of 1971.   That’s when he decided to find out about that wishbone they were running out in Texas, because  Alabama just didn’t have any more great  quarterbacks - Namaths or Stablers - in the stable.  Nowadays, instead of making a radical switch to the wishbone, a school would just go out and buy a  quarterback.  To think how different the history of college football would be without the chapter about Alabama and the wishbone.

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=alabama+wishbone#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:d08b66ca,vid:eek8OxkPC6I,st:0


************ Early in our practices this season, I had to remind a couple of kids to put their mouthpieces in.  Dumb me and my fashion sense - it turned out that they HAD their mouthpieces in.  What I had seen - that mouthpiece that was dangling from their facemasks, just like from an NFL player’s?  That was just for show.  The real mouthpiece was in their mouth, covering their teeth as it should. The kids were wearing double mouthpieces, which enabled them to comply with the rule about having to wear one,  while still being out in front of the fashion parade by letting the other one hang out.

Officials are on to the little game, and in the meeting we had with our officials’ association, they informed us that the double mouthpiece is illegal in high school football. 

Said one of the officials, “We don’t want to have to play fashion police.”

No. Of course they don’t.  Which is why it sounds as if they’re just about to give up  in the battle of the rising hemline on players’ skirts - uh, pants.  Uh, shorts.


***********   A woman's professional soccer player named Croix Bethune is out for the season after apparently suffering a torn meniscus (knee) while throwing out the first pitch at a Washington Nationals' baseball game last week.

Throwing a ball can be dangerous.   This would never have happened if she’d just stuck to playing a game that even little kids can play…


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

Love the quiz today!  As a lover of D3 Football Mark Speckman is a legend....   As a lover of contrarian offense his Fly was always fascinating!

Florida update, I get asked all kinds of questions everyday from Friends on it so I figured I'd share!   The biggest challenge to no surprise is the weather -  we have practiced in the gym 10 out of the 11 last days.
 
Makes me very worried about handling the heat and humidity when we get to our game Friday night....   Also makes me fascinated that we have a 5 day climatization period down here when you can then spend two straight weeks in air conditioning....   People ask if it is the heat...  Nope, it is the lightning.  Florida is very restrictive (rightfully so) with lightning - we have a horn and an app and if lightning is within 10 miles you’re inside.   Many times it is out over the Gulf or inland and it is a beautiful day out and we are in the gym....   As you can imagine this affects prep in many ways!   I will credit our kids as they are used to it and adjust quickly both when we can go in or go out! 

The heat, really not as bad as I thought it would be!  It feels like an August day on turf in Michigan - as a guy who has always liked the heat I like it.   I'm sure being a stone’s throw from the gulf and being on an elevated practice field we have it better then most…

Many have asked about Running the T (or DW or any other old school offense) I'm not sure it has much life down here with all the transfers and the sub culture which really reminds me of metro Detroit,  that schools will hire what appears to be almost a temp as a head coach who is well connected with the youth program or has a big name to get a load of transfers.  He is in place for a year or two and then they rinse and repeat sometimes hitting it to get more wins, sometimes creating more problems...  

NOW where I am at we are a little bit more isolated and as an old fishing town there is some pride in being tough and being different.   Our community has told me since I have gotten here we won't beat the other schools with our athletes so we must be tougher than them....   With that stated we have had a large influx of midwesterners who came down from blue states during covid.  I have determined we might be the last bastion  of old school offense in Florida.....   I believe God put me here with intent and I trust him as we go through a steep learning curve with a young team!   I'm excited to see how he uses me and our community to continue and teach selflessness and grit!

Hope you are well and having a ball coaching ball!

God Bless,

Jason Mensing  
Head Football Coach,
Lemon Bay High School
Englewood, Florida

After defeating Hardee, 22-6 on Friday night, the Lemon Bay Manta Rays are now 1-1 on the season, Coach Mensing’s first in Florida after years of success in Michigan, much of it as a Double Wing coach.


 ***********   Coach,

The Clinic last week was excellent.  I watched that game and saw those same things that you were discussing about BC.  Western plays BC in Boston on the 28th of this month. They will destroy us. Our defense has trouble with  mobile QB's and running teams. This brings me to my long point in this e-mail.


You need to get a copy of Western's game against Eastern Kentucky from last week.The third quarter is what you need to see. My fraternity brother saw some of it on Hulu, but he didn't know what network was covering it.

This will take some space to explain. I will try to be brief. I know how busy that you are coaching again.

Western was up 17-0 at half. Eastern got the ball to start the third quarter. They put in their running QB to start the third quarter. They jammed the ball down our throats for either 13 or 14 plays. Converted two fourth down plays and got to our 3 yard line. It was third and goal from the three and they lined up in shotgun. They ran the play from shotgun and got to the 2 inch line. It was 4th and goal from 2 inches!! When the referee spotted the ball we couldn't believe that he had not scored. This team ran every play from shotgun. They took 11 minutes and 52 or 53 seconds off the clock on this opening drive of the 3rd quarter. This is where it gets really strange. They lined up in shotgun and did not snap the ball. They kept looking at the side line for a play. they waited so long that they had to take a time out. We figured that they were going to bring some  bigger players to make sure that they got the 2 inches. To everyone's surprise they sent out the field goal team to kick a 17 yard 2 inch field goal!! The kick hit the left up right and no points. Western got the ball on the 20 yard line. It changed the entire game.

This is a perfect illustration of what you and we other coaches keep saying about being under center and having a short yardage offense in your spread offense.

David Crump
Owensboro, Kentucky

Unfortunately, of all the games I recorded, I did not record this one.  I can’t find it on Youtube because they mostly show highlights - and a play this stupid would definitely not make the highlights reel!



***********   Hi Hugh,

Did you see the Lions in overtime? When in doubt run the ball. Pure power football! And fun to watch!

Good luck with the season!

Jack Tourtillotte
Rangeley, Maine

Jack, I saw it and loved it.  They shoved it right down the Rams’ throat.  I like them for a lot of reasons, and I just learned I have another one: my head coach, Todd Bridge, is buddies with the Lions’ QB coach Mark Brunell, a former teammate of his at the U of Washington.



***********   Concerning the home phone commercial you modified, that thing bugs me when it gets to the part about costing nothing. From a special government program, we're told. I hope Elon has the chance to run his government efficiency study, and that every such program gets slashed out of existence. Besides, the man and woman in that ad have perfect dentition, and look not to have a money problem. If you want the readout device, buy it yourself.

We watched your ninth-year Canes player score the team's first TD last week. Nothing against him in particular, but I've wondered what these guys with years under their belts actually do at the school. If they're student-athletes, don't they have to be enrolled as full-time students? How about a 30-for-30 that follows them around for a year or two? Seeing what they do would entertain me.  Further, I wonder if the player who transfers out mid-semester--let's say he's a soph--enrolls at his new school as a soph again, although he did nothing for a full semester?

I just spoke of ESPN. Fact: I get my television programs through DIRECTV (a subsidiary of AT&T). Fact: DTV has suspended programming of all Disney/ESPN offerings. They've told Disney many DIRECTV subscribers don't want the ESPN family of channels, and hence don't like paying for it. I know these disputes are common, but this one is definitely different. I hope DIRECTV holds its ground. I feel good not getting ESPN right now. Don't miss it a bit.


Answer = Mark Speckman, of whom I'm now a fan.

John Vermillion                        
St Petersburg, Florida




 




*********** QUIZ ANSWER:   Mark Speckman was born in Belmont, California.  Without hands.

Until he was 15 he used hooks, but he hasn’t used them since.  From that point on, his entire life has been connected with football,  and,  in the process,  refuting any notion  that he is handicapped.

He was a standout linebacker in high school, then moved on to play JUCO ball at Menlo College, and college ball at Azusa Pacific.

He began his coaching career in northern California at Livingston and Gilroy High Schools, where he began developing the "Fly offense" for which he has become  known throughout football.

His greatest  success as a high school coach came in Merced, California, where in eight seasons  he won 81 games, had back-to-back 14-0 seasons, won six conference and two  Section titles. His 1990 Merced team was  ranked No. 1 in California and No. 5 in USA Today.

When a new high school opened in Merced,  he started its brand-new program from scratch, with freshmen and sophomores.

Overall, his record as a high school coach was 113-48-3, when he was offered a job as offensive coordinator and line coach at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon.  Under head coach Dan Hawkins, Willamette won  three  straight conference titles, and made it to the NAIA national championship game in 1997, after which Hawkins  left for Boise State to become offensive coordinator under Dirk Koetter.

Speckman then became head coach at Willamette, where he stayed for 14 years, running his Fly offense with great success: his Bearcats went 82-59, won eight league titles, and made three NCAA Division III appearances. His 2008 team was ranked  fourth in the nation, and he was named AFCA Division III West Region Coach of the Year.

In 2012 he took over as head coach at Menlo College, now playing at the NAIA four-year level, but in 2013 he was hired away by Dan Hawkins to coach  running backs when Hawkins was named head coach of the Montreal Allouettes.  When Hawkins was fired, our guy left to become OC at Lawrence University, in Appleton, Wisconsin. He  stayed at Lawrence for just one year before  rejoining Hawkins at UC Davis as Assistant Head Coach and running backs coach.

Since 2022 he has been offensive coordinator at Division II Clarion University in Pennsylvania.

Coach Speckman is in great demand as a motivational speaker, and he has written a book called “Figure It Out: How I Learned To Live In A Digital World Without Digits.”  


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING MARK SPECKMAN

GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK LOUISIANA
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
JASON MENSING - ENGLEWOOD, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
TOM DAVIS - SAN MARCOS, CALIFORNIA
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FORISTIERE - MARSING, IDAHO
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY




 
*********** QUIZ: In 1962 he integrated  the last NFL team to play black players.

A native of Hot Springs, Arkansas, he turned down a chance to play baseball with the Cardinals and instead chose to play football at Illinois.

As a sophomore running back, he replaced the starter in the third quarter of the season’s seventh game, and on his very first carry he ran 64 yards for a score. In his brief time, he gained 173 yards on 10 carries, and the Illini upset Number 3-ranked Michigan.  Playing the rest of the season, he played well enough to be named All-Big Ten.

He was hurt most of his junior season, but after his senior year he was named to play in the College All-Star Game, and he was named Co-MVP, as the All-Stars upset the NFL champion Detroit Lions.

While at Illinois, he excelled as a sprinter and hurdler in track, and in his senior year he helped Illinois win the Big Ten track and field championship.

Drafted in the seventh round by the Cleveland Browns, he played halfback and his blazing speed to the outside proved the perfect complement to the power inside running of the great Jim Brown.

In four seasons with the Browns, he rushed for 2297 yards and gained 1463 yards receiving. He returned kickoffs for 1550 yards, and in all, he scored 38 touchdowns.

He was a very good runner, and he and Brown may well have been the best pair of running backs ever to play in the same backfield.  But he undoubtedly would have spent his career in Brown’s shadow, except that,  in 1962  he was traded to Washington for the draft rights to Syracuse’s Ernie Davis.

(Ernie Davis, as most hardcore football fans know, had just won the Heisman Trophy but tragically, would die of leukemia before ever playing in an NFL game.)

In Washington, where the club had agreed to finally integrate as a condition for using brand-new DC Stadium, he became the franchise’s first black player.

He broke the team’s color barrier in spectacular fashion:  in his first game as a Redskin, he returned a kickoff 92 yards against the Cowboys. 

He was moved to wide receiver, and in his first season at a new position,  on a new team,  he led the NFL with 72 catches for 1384 yards and 11 touchdowns, and was named to the Pro Bowl.  And the once-woeful Redskins finished the season 5-7-2, their best finish in five years.

Over the next five years, his season reception totals were 69, 60, 60, 58 and 60.

In 1968, although he was moved back to running back so that Charlie Taylor could play wide receiver,  he still caught 60 passes for 866 yards and six touchdowns.

He retired after training camp in 1969, with a fantastic set of records: his total all-purpose yardage was 14,078.  He scored 91 touchdowns - 18 rushing, 65 receiving, 3 on punt returns and 5 on kick returns. In all, he had 7,954 yards receiving (521 reception) and 2,735 yards rushing.

He played in four Pro Bowls and was a three-time first team All-Pro and two-time second team All-Pro.

He won three Super Bowl rings.

He is a member of the Redskins’ Ring of Fame and the Browns’ Ring of Honor.

He is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

After retirement as a player, he spent 35 more years with the Redskins, beginning as a scout under Vince Lombardi, and moving up in the executive ranks to assistant General Manager before retiring in 2002.

In all, he spent 41 years with the Washington organization, but although he aspired to be General Manager, he was twice passed over in favor of an outsider.

He died in 2020, and in his honor the team retired his Number 49.

He and his wife, an attorney, made the  Washington, DC area their home, and he was active in a number of civic and charitable organizations. including the United Negro College Fund, the Howard University Cancer Research Advisory Committee, the American Lung Association of D.C., the Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Commission, the Boys Club of Washington, the National Urban League, the NAACP, the Junior Chamber of Commerce, the University of Illinois Presidents Council and the University of Illinois Foundation.

His son and namesake played football at Stanford.







FRIDAY,  SEPTEMBER 6, 2024    “There can be no real peace while one American is dying some place in the world for the rest of us." Ronald Reagan


********** Wisdom from Mike Lude:  (Mike had just been told by his coach, his former coach, and his principal that he should go to college - and play football -  but not at a Big Ten school because, they told him, he was “not big enough, fast enough, good enough.”)

“If three high school faculty members delivered that same message to a hopeful athlete now, chances are his parents wll threaten a lawsuit and have the ACLU and others raising a fuss. Fortunately for me, the advice I got was great. I was somewhat suspicious because Linton, Smith, and Rizzardi  had played at Hillsdale College. But they had already arranged for me to receive a work scholarship at Hillsdale.

“My parents backed coach Linton’s plan, and the director of admissions and the registrar came to our farm house to set things up. For the first year's tuition I would sell the hog I raised in FFA. With the help of an aunt in Kalamazoo, I was hired for a summer construction job at the princely wage of eighty-five cents an hour.

“During my high school years we had become increasingly aware of the gathering storm of war in Europe. Frequently we would listen to the radio in history class, and there was a lot of talk about whether or not we would be involved. But the war seemed so distant, and we thought it was for other people, those overseas, and that President Roosevelt would never get us drawn in. Because of our age, we students talked about the possibility of being part of the military.

“Was the war menacing? Yes, but in 1940 it still seemed so remote.

“I was much more focused on the chance I would have to keep playing football. My parents were happy for another reason: I would become the first member of our family to attend college.”
 




***********  Once a Husky, always a Husky… Before Wednesday’s practice, the Aberdeen team was introduced to Dave Hoffman, a teammate and classmate at the University of Washington of our head coach, Todd Bridge,  back in the school’s  glory days.

In their sophomore  year, the Huskies went 10-2 and finished ranked Number Five in the nation.

In their junior year they finished 12-0 and split the national title with Miami.

In their senior year, 1992, they went 9-3, and finished ranked eleventh.

They went to three straight Rose Bowls.

Dave Hoffman was co-captain and MVP of the ’92 team.

One of the hardest hitters I've ever seen, he was a two-time All-American, and in 1992 he was the Pac-10 Defensive Player of the Year.

After playing briefly in the NFL with the Steelers, he spent a career with the Secret Service.

In his brief talk with our kids, he mentioned the importance of the brotherhood  that they’d experience, and then he told them about Husky coach Don James’ “Holy Sh—!”  talk - how Coach James instilled in his Huskies the desire to hit an opposing player so hard on the opening play that he'd  walk away (if he could still walk) saying, “Holy Shi—! I’ve never been hit like that in my life!”

(We open on Friday night at home against Olympic High, of Bremerton. We faced Olympic in a scrimmage back in the spring and they got slightly the better of us.  We’re still a bit rough on the edges, perhaps because we’re so young: we start only four seniors.)


DAVE HOFFMAN - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EH8Cc5mB0S8



*********** COLLEGE GAMES I’M RECORDING THIS WEEKEND


FRIDAY NIGHT

BYU AT SMU - SMU is establishing itself as one of the few schools I don’t like, and I like BYU, so Go Cougars!

DUKE AT NORTHWESTERN - Go Devils. Duke has had good luck against the Wildcats in recent years. First real test for Manny Diaz.


SATURDAY

TEXAS AT MICHIGAN - I think Michigan is going to fail this test.

ARKANSAS AT OKLAHOMA STATE - Very big one for Sam Pittman and the Razorbacks

KANSAS STATE AT TULANE - Both teams coming off wins over FCS opponents but I like the Wildcats. EMAW! (Every Man A Wildcat!)

GEORGIA TECH AT SYRACUSE - Two formerly bottom-tier ACC teams that appear to be on the climb. Tech has already played two games.

PITT AT CINCINNATI - Panthers may have had the tougher opponent last week  in Kent State.

ARMY AT FLORIDA ATLANTIC - Army had an easy one against Lehigh; FAU lost narrowly to Michigan State. How will Army handle the noontime South Florida  heat and humidity?

NORTHERN ILLINOIS AT NOTRE DAME - I’m expecting a close game, but I’m becoming a fan of this Notre Dame team.

BAYLOR AT UTAH - Dave Aranda may be in trouble at Baylor, and he seems like a good guy, but I’m a big fan of the Utes and Kyle Whittigham . It WILL be loud in Salt Lake City

IOWA STATE AT IOWA - This is a rivalry game that’s impossible to pick, and I like ‘em both, so…

CAL AT AUBURN - What sadistic  AD would agree to send a team  from California to play a game in the Deep South in early September?

SOUTH CAROLINA AT KENTUCKY - Are the SC people tiring of Shane Beamer?  Can Mark Stoops keep it going at Kentucky?

MICHIGAN STATE AT MARYLAND - (1) I used to live in Maryland and I love the state; (2) I deplore the way MSU’s Jonathan Smith stiffed his alma mater (Oregon State)… so GO TERPS!

EASTERN MICHIGAN AT WASHINGTON - A slightly tougher test for the Huskies than Weber State was.  I’m not crazy about the Huskies’ coach, Jedd Fisch, but I like their QB, Will Rogers, who learned the trade under Mike Leach at Mississippi State

SOUTH DAKOTA AT WISCONSIN - Meh.

TEMPLE AT NAVY - Navy’s new  wing-T-type offense gets a tougher test than Bucknell gave it. And Temple gets an easier opponent than Oklahoma.

UTSA AT TEXAS STATE - Because UTSA is a future Army opponent

MIDDLE TENNESSEE AT OLE MISS - After what the Rebels  did to FCS power Furman (76-0), this could be bad, too.  Ole Miss’ offense is fun to watch!

MARSHALL AT VIRGINIA TECH - Tech could have beaten Vanderbilt, but didn’t.  They’ve got to be better than Marshall.

SOUTH FLORIDA AT ALABAMA - I’m recording it, because it won’t stay on my live screen very long.

KANSAS AT ILLINOIS - The game’s a sellout.  You know that Lance Leipold has about got the Kansas program turned around when the Jayhawks are 5-1/2 point favorites over any Big Ten team.

VIRGINIA AT WAKE FOREST - Both teams beat FCS opponents last week.  Deacs are a 1.5 point favorite.  Their QB, Hank Bachmeier, has played five years - four at Boise State and one at Louisiana Tech. Maybe playing in Warren Ruggiero’s unique system at Wake will help him blossom.  Go Deacs!

SAN JOSE STATE AT AIR FORCE - Air Force looked lame in their opener, while San Jose opened with a good win over Sac State. SJSU’s new coach, Ken Niumatololo , had lots of success against Air Force while coaching Navy.

WESTERN MICHIGAN AT OHIO STATE - I’ll just look in to see what Chip Kelly’s up to this week.  Looks like Will Howard might be the QB the Buckeyes needed.

TENNESSEE AT NC STATE - Vols killed Chattanooga, 69-3.  Wolfpack struggled against Western Carolina.  But State QB Grayson McCall, who  spent a lifetime, it seems, at Coastal Carolina, threw for 318 in the win.   I’m going to go out on a limb and predict a State win.

ALCORN STATE AT VANDERBILT - An FCS opponent provides Vanderbilt with the chance to  go 2-0.  The Commodores’ new QB, Diego Pavia, knows how to win, and I don’t think he’ll stand for any shirking. (He’s a former wrestler - how many QBs can say that?)

COLORADO AT NEBRASKA - This will be their biggest win in years or the most devastating loss in their coach’s career.  At either place.  Go Huskers.

HOUSTON AT OKLAHOMA - Hmmm. Poor Houston.  Last week they  get waxed by a Mountain West team (UNLV) and this week they face a team that’s fixin’ to play in the SEC.  Hang on, Cougars.

APP STATE AT CLEMSON - Talk about a pivotal game for  the Tigers. Another loss would almost put them in the Florida State category.  And if there’s a team that can provide the upset, it’s a bunch of kids from up in the hills of Boone, North Carolina who got passed over by Clemson when they were HS kids.

TEXAS TECH AT WASHINGTON STATE - WSU has lost so many players in the damned transfer portal  that I worry, but anyhow - go Cougs!

LIBERTY AT NEW MEXICO STATE - I like to watch Liberty’s offense.

MISSISSIPPI STATE AT ARIZONA STATE - I like the Bulldogs.  But a granddaughter just graduated from ASU, so I have to go with the Sun Devils.

OREGON STATE AT SAN DIEGO STATE - Go Beavs! 

UTAH STATE AT USC - The Mountain West did okay last week, but the Aggies are going to run into a Trojan team that’s doing something different from most Lincoln Riley teams - playing defense.



*********** As I set up my weekend’s college game recordings, a strange feeling came over me: yes, I was recording a lot of game - 33 of them - on Friday night and Saturday;   but there was an awful lot of games that I wasn’t able to record.

That’s because those games are  being streamed, most of them on ESPN+. In all, there’s a total of 31 games involving at least one FBS team that you won’t be able to watch on your TV - not without subscribing to ESPN+, or Peacock, or ACC Extra, or SEC Plus.

These are not all games of little interest nationwide, either  - Missouri State at Ball State, Gardner-Webb at James Madison, Louisiana at Kennesaw State, to name a few.

Three of these subscription-only games involve top-ten teams. One of those teams, for pete’s sake, is Number One Georgia. Yeah, maybe they’re only playing Tennessee Tech, but they ARE the number one team in the country, and with all the non-stop jabber about the Playoff, you’d think they’ve be shoving the Number One team down viewers’ throats.  (Does the NFL decide not to  show us the Kansas City Chiefs because they happen to be playing the weakling Patriots?)

For the record, the other top-ten teams whose games you won’t get on your regular cable or satellite service are Number 7 Oregon against Boise State and Number 9 Missouri against Buffalo.

(Boise State, coming off a 56-45 win over Georgia Southern thanks to Ashton Jeanty’s 267 yards and six TDs, could be a real test for the Ducks, but if you want to watch it on the screen, pay up - it’s on Peacock.)

Seven of the subscription-only games involve teams in the top 22.

Fourteen of the games involve teams from Power-4 conferences: Arizona, Boston College, Central Florida, Florida, Georgia, Louisville, LSU, Miami, Minnesota, Missouri, Oregon, Stanford, TCU, West Virginia.

There couldn’t be a clearer sign that Pay-per-View college football is inevitable.  With so much of our society being turned upside-down, why should we think that every college football game we want to see will always be available to us on our cable or satellite provider, and all we need is a remote?

America needs a presidential candidiate who will promise an end to this streaming bullshit.



***********   A coach asked me about the feasibility of making a sudden switch in offenses (I think that they realized that the spread wasn’t going to get it done).  He asked me how much offense they could install in a week, and I told, based on personal experience, about seven plays.

I told him that I had seen it done in two hours.

It was at my last in-person clinic - in my opinion, the best one of all the clinics I’ve put on.

It was in North Carolina, in the Raleigh area, and it was hosted by my old coaching friend, Dave Potter.

Coach Potter arranged to have a “team” on hand to demonstrate.  It wasn’t really a team, but a group of 11 or 12 kids who had played for him at three or four different middle schools in the past and thought so much of him that as a favor to him they volunteered to spend a morning running plays for a bunch of coaches.

Those kids had never played together as a team, and they had never run the plays we showed them that morning.

But by the end of a two-hour morning session, we had those kids running these seven plays  vs air, and doing so rather well.

Power off-tackle
Counter
Wedge
Toss Sweep
G
Sprint Out
Bootleg

They ran all those plays both to the right and to the left.

The method:

1. An offset I (actually, a training wheels formation to  make teaching easier and prepare us for the next stage - going to Double Wing by moving the tailback to the wing).

2. Flip-flopping the entire team, to avoid having to teach the same play twice when we wanted to run it to the left.

3. Giving every kid a wristband card with his assignments on it.   There was no memorization required.

4. Assigning every coach to teach a position. (We had a dozen or so coaches there, none of whom had taught these plays before.)

If you doubt me, I have the films to prove it, as well as the coaches who were on hand to help out and witness the results.

Two weeks later, at Aberdeen, Washington High School, using the exact same  process,  we installed the Double Wing in spring ball.



*********** “It seems to me that there are three stages in the evolution of a ball carrier. In high school, he learns where the play is going. In college, he learns who is blocking for him. In the pros, he learns what the defense is doing.”  Frank Gifford



*********** TV COMMERCIAL…

VOICE ON THE PHONE: “Hi Grandma - I played baseball today!”


GRANDMA:  “That’s great! What position did you play?”


VOICE ON THE PHONE: “DH”


GRANDMA: “That’s what Grandpa used to play!”


GRANDPA (Overhearing the conversation):  “Like hell it is!  DH my ass!  What kind of crap are they teaching you?  Back when I played you had to earn your at-bats by playing in the field!”



*********** Those of us who have permitted ourselves the delusion that football can be a great tool to help us achieve racial harmony were brought up short by these words from a former  Atlanta Falcon named Roddy White:


"Clemson got way to (sic) many White dudes on the field on offense this ain’t them. U mean to tell me u only got one Black dude out there making plays that’s a recruiting problem.”


He has since apologized, telling us he’s not really racist.  Whatever.


That still leaves those of us who grew up believing that the American education system - high school and college - exists to help people learn to communicate clearly and uniformly in our native language.




*********** I’ve already said how excited I was at seeing Diego Pavia playing for Vanderbilt. (Disclosure: Four of my grandkids are Vandy grads, which makes me a lifetime fan.)

He was named SEC Player of the Week for his performance against Virginia Tech Saturday. He rushed for 104 yards and passed for 190.  In all, he threw for two TDs and rushed for one, plunging in from four yards out to defeat the Hokies in OT.

He had a rather incredible two-year career at New Mexico State, leading the Aggies to two bowl games, and to a 10-win season last year - only the second in the history of the program.  He accounted for 3,896 yards in total offense, and was named Conference USA Player of the Year.

Despite taking his Albuquerque high school team to a state title game, he didn’t have a single FBS offer, so he went to New Mexico Military Institute  and played two years of  JUCO ball there.  He led NMMI to a national JUCO title, but even then, New Mexico State was his only FBS opportunity.

But he made the most of the opportunity,  now he’s in Nashville, playing in the SEC.

It wasn’t just happenstance that got him there from Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Back in January, Jerry Kill, his former head coach at New Mexico State, signed on as an offensive analyst at Vanderbilt.

And shortly after, Vandy hired Tim Beck, who’d been Pavia’s offensive coordinator at New Mexico State.

However things worked out to get him Pavia to Nashville, his presence in the lineup makes things exciting, and gives Vanderbilt a  chance.

Says Vandy head coach Clark Lea, “When the ball is in his hands, you’re never out of the fight.”


***********   Coach Wyatt,

Synopsis from what I saw

Notre Dame's win was the biggest by a rated team.
USC is a close second...but I hate LSU and Brian Kelly
BC throttled FSU (DJU is a coach killer, he has never been impressive in my eyes) and did it by being solid in all 3 aspects of the game.  BC simply outcoached FSU.
Vanderbilt...WOW!  Might they be legit? QB stays healthy they just might be.
Iowa maybe has found some semblance of an offense.  Maybe.  I don't get excited by 40 points on an FCS opponent.
Bama might be legit still.  Same as Iowa.
Georgia beats up on Dabo.  As expected. Not sure Clemson is good, but not sure they are bad either. Georgia just a different level.
Nebraska was impressive over an FCS opponent as they should be.

It's early....but Florida and FSU seats are getting hot. LSU might be as well.

Hope you are well!  Spread? LOL But hey, it is football right? At least you have a GL package that is real football still.

Love from us here in SW Iowa,

Brad Knight
Clarinda, Iowa


***********   We now have evidence galore that these college coaches don't really know what they have until they face someone else. Vandy topping VA TECH (i'm happy about that). Before I go on, I've just thought of Clark Lea, who in my book is one of the most interesting HCs around. Then we have FSU losing again, so maybe Mike Norvell didn't get enough high draft picks (portal) in the right places.

The CFB story for me thus far is how many talented QBs there are. Cam Ward, for example. And to think that not long ago he was at Incarnate Word before landing at Wash St. And that Diego Pavia is another thing to behold. And the Tennessee QB, Iamaleavea (just winged that spelling)....and Jaxson Dart...and Nebraska's freshman Dylan Raiola. These fantastic QBs are popping up in all corners of the land. Finally, in a wholly different category, I have the tough Army QB, Bryson Daily.

The IPTAY people are after Dabo. He's the only 'real' BCS portal holdout. Three service academies and Clemson. I'm afraid that before the midpoint of the season, he'll be forced to choose between his job and accepting portal players.

John Vermillion                            
St Petersburg, Florida

“IPTAY,” for those unfamiliar with Clemson football, is the name for its boosters.  The name,  dating back to when ten bucks was a significant  contribution, is an acronym for “I Pay Ten A Year.”



***********   Hugh,

One of the advantages of a jamboree is those “mini” games don’t count.  Another is getting to play against an opponent in a game type atmosphere.  The biggest advantage is knowing how to highlight your team’s strengths and not expose its weaknesses as you enter your first real game.

ND can play defense!  But Coach Freeman needs to convince his OC to get his QB under center more often, and develop a more efficient run game.

Minnesota and Fresno State both learned the hard way that if you live by the pass, you die by the pass!  Two more teams needing to get their QB’s under center more often and improve their run games.

After watching all three service academies last weekend I’ve drawn the conclusion that Army has an edge over Air Force and Navy for the CIC trophy.  The latter two are fairly even, but the competition this year will be fierce.

BC, Georgia Tech, and Miami are legitimate contenders in the ACC.  NC State and Syracuse could make some noise.  The Big 12 shapes up as the Wild West!

Have a great week!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas




 
*********** QUIZ: Bubba Smith grew up in Beaumont, Texas,  where he played  high school football for his dad, a highly successful high school coach in the Beaumont area.

He was a very good high school player, and today, he would have been highly-recruited. But those were the  days before college football in the South was completely desegregated, and so, recalled Michigan State coach Duffy Daugherty in his memoirs, “We had tried to recruit his older brother, Willie Ray, but he went to Iowa…so when Bubba was a senior in high school, Coach Smith called me and asked if we’d ‘take a chance on my boy and try to make a man out of him.’

“You’re his father and you’ve been  his coach,” I told Coach Smith. If you can’t make a man out of him, how do you expect me to?”

We agreed to try because of Coach Smith’s pleadings, not to mention Bubba’s extraordinary talents.

It took a while for him to get with the program, but he was good enough to become a two-time All-American;   in his senior year he was named United Press Lineman of the Year.

At 6-6, 260, he was extremely big  for the time, and he was extremely popular with Michigan State fans, who wore large lapel buttons that read “KILL, BUBBA, KILL!”

Years later, Daugherty would recall him as “a great, if difficult, star for us.”

In the 1967 NFL draft, he was the Number One overall selection (the only Michigan State player ever taken number one) of the Baltimore Colts, who had acquired the pick from the lowly New Orleans Saints in a trade for quarterback Gary Cuozzo.

A defensive end,  he  played nine years in the NFL, six of them  in Baltimore. He played in two Super Bowls with  the Colts,  and played in two Pro Bowls.

In  a 1972 preseason game in Tampa, he injured his leg making a tackle on the sideline  when he crashed into a first-down pole, and he was never the same afterward as a player.

He missed the entire 1972 season, and after being traded   to the Raiders after the season,  he finished his career in Oakland and then Houston.

After football, he enjoyed a nice career as an actor, appearing as an officer in the Police Academy movies and in a number of TV series, and he became famous once again, when he played himself  in  Miller Lite’s award-winning   “Tastes Great! Less Filling!” commrcials.

Bubba Smith is in the College Football Hall of Fame.  His younger brother, Tody,  started out at Michigan State but transferred to USC, then went on to play professionally for Dallas, Houston and Buffalo.




CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING BUBBA SMITH

GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK LOUISIANA
TOM DAVIS - SAN MARCOS, CALIFORNIA
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
BRAD KNIGHT - CLARINDA, IOWA (aka Moses Hightower!)
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOHN IRION - ARGYLE, NEW YORK (Shame on any football guy who doesn’t know Bubba Smith)
MIKE FORISTIERE - MARSING, IDAHO
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY


 




*********** QUIZ:   He was born in Belmont, California.  Without hands.

Until he was 15 he used hooks, but he hasn’t used them since.  From that point on, his entire life has been connected with football,  and,  in the process,  refuting any notion  that he is handicapped.

He was a standout linebacker in high school, then moved on to play JUCO ball at Menlo College, and college ball at Azusa Pacific.

He began his coaching career in northern California at Livingston and Gilroy High Schools, where he began developing the "Fly offense" for which he has become  known throughout football.

His greatest  success as a high school coach came in Merced, California, where in eight seasons  he won 81 games, had back-to-back 14-0 seasons, won six conference and two  Section titles. His 1990 Merced team was  ranked No. 1 in California and No. 5 in USA Today.

When a new high school opened in Merced,  he started its brand-new program from scratch, with freshmen and sophomores.

Overall, his record as a high school coach was 113-48-3, when he was offered a job as offensive coordinator and line coach at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon.  Under head coach Dan Hawkins, Willamette won  three  straight conference titles, and made it to the NAIA national championship game in 1997, after which Hawkins  left for Boise State to become offensive coordinator under Dirk Koetter.

Our guy then became head coach at Willamette, where he stayed for 14 years, running his Fly offense with great success: his Bearcats went 82-59, won eight league titles, and made three NCAA Division III appearances. His 2008 team was ranked  fourth in the nation, and he was named AFCA Division III West Region Coach of the Year.

In 2012 he took over as head coach at Menlo College, now playing at the NAIA four-year level, but in 2013 he was hired away by Dan Hawkins to coach  running backs when Hawkins was named head coach of the Montreal Allouettes.  When Hawkins was fired, our guy left to become OC at Lawrence University, in Appleton, Wisconsin. He  stayed at Lawrence for just one year before  rejoining Hawkins at UC Davis as Assistant Head Coach and running backs coach.

Since 2022 he has been offensive coordinator at Division II Clarion University in Pennsylvania.

He is in great demand as a motivational speaker, and he has written a book called “Figure It Out: How I Learned To Live In A Digital World Without Digits.”  






TUESDAY,  SEPTEMBER 3, 2024    “Politicians are the lowest form of life.  Democrats are the lowest form of politician.”  General George S. Patton


*********** Wisdom from Mike Lude:   “During my junior year I had a role in one of Miss Hudson's plays when Coach Linton invited me to attend a banquet honoring the undefeated football team at Hillsdale College. Miss Hudson and I had a strong disagreement over whether I could attend because the dinner conflicted with a play rehearsal. Finally, she changed the time of the rehearsal. I went to the banquet and it was sensational.

“I was disappointed to learn that Coach Linton was leaving Vicksburg to become a head coach at a larger school. His replacement for my senior season was another Hillsdale College product, Al Rizzardi, and the program remained in high gear. We lost just one game that season, and I played well enough to win All-Star recognition on the “Kalamazoo Gazette’s” All-Southwestern Michigan team.

“By this time I had convinced myself I was ready to go play in the Big Ten, one of the toughest conferences in America. I had read enough about Nile Kinnick, an All-American at Iowa, to convince me that was where I wanted to play college football. Understand that my goal at this point was not to get an education but to play more football.   Linton, Rizzardi, and Hubert Smith, a former college lineman who was the Vicksburg High principal, agreed I should go to college. But not at Iowa or any other Big Ten school.

“Why not? The words were hard for me to swallow, but as I later found out, they were accurate: not big enough, fast enough, or good enough.”




 
The Aberdeen kids (freshmen in yellow shirts) gathered for a team photo in Orting, Washington after Friday night’s jamboree  Look closely at the back middle of the photo and you’ll see 14,400-foot Mount Rainier off to the east, its snow cap colored pink by the setting sun. 



*********** Friday night, at a jamboree in Orting, Washington, the Aberdeen Bobcats saw  their first contact  since team camp in July.

We did - uh, okay.  We looked  good in spots, but not so good in others.  I hesitate to be critical, but we’re going to have to play a lot better.  Fortunately, I believe we will.

The best part of the evening was making it home by midnight - a three-hour drive  on the opening night of the Labor Day weekend - a drive that wasn’t as bad as I’d anticipated because most of the traffic had  subsided by then.  And I was able to watch the first half of the Army game (which I’d recorded) and then get up and watch the second half on Saturday morning.




*********** THIS PAST SATURDAY’S GAMES OF INTEREST TO ME:

North Carolina at Minnesota - I recorded it but didn’t watch.
North Dakota State at Colorado - Since I’m not on the list of reporters that Deion doesn’t have to talk to, I’d like to ask him what his son was doing out after curfew.  Just joking.  But when I ask him why, on third-and-eight, with 1:53 remaining and Colorado holding onto a four-point lead his quarterback son wound up throwing it far downfield,  I’d like him to come up with a better explanation than that he was just trying to spread the love around and get a touchdown to the one CU receiver who didn’t alreadyhave one.  (That’s actually how “Coach” Sanders tried to explain it.)

FRIDAY -
WOW!  Lehigh at Army - Army really HAS gone back to under center triple option!!!
EXPECTED -  Temple at Oklahoma - Only to see how long the Owls can last.
UNDERACHIEVED -  Florida Atlantic at Michigan State - 16-10 Spartans
EXPECTED -  Elon at Duke - 26-3 Blue Devils
UNDERACHIEVED -  Western Michigan at Wisconsin - 28-14 Badgers
GOOD GAME - TCU at Stanford - 34-27 Horned Frogs


SATURDAY
EXPECTED - Clemson at Georgia - 34-3 Bulldogs
EXPECTED Penn State at West Virginia - 34-12 Nittany Lions
EXPECTED -  Illinois State at Iowa - 40-0 Hawkeyes
WOW!  Virginia Tech at Vanderbilt -34-27 Commodores (OT)
EXPECTED - UConn at Maryland - 50-7 Terps
EXPECTED -  Kent State at Pitt - 55-24 Panthers
WOW!  Bucknell at Navy - 49-21 Middies
EXPECTED - Chattanooga at Tennessee - 69-3 Vols
EXPECTED - South Dakota State at Oklahoma State - 44-20 Cowboys
EXPECTED - Portland State at Washington State -70-30 Cougs
EXPECTED  - Akron at Ohio State - 52-6 Buckeyes
EXPECTED -  Colorado State at Texas - 52-0 Longhorns
MILD SURPRISE - Miami at Florida - 41-17 Hurricanes
SURPRISE! -   FIU at Indiana - 31-7 Hoosiers
EXPECTED - UTEP at Nebraska 40-7 Huskers.
DISAPPOINTED - Eastern Michigan at UMass - 28-14 EMU
UNDERACHIEVED -  North Dakota at Iowa State - 21-3 Cyclones
SURPRISE - Ohio at Syracuse - 38-22 Orange
UNDERACHIEVED - Merrimack at Air Force - 21-6 Zoomies
UNDERACHIEVED - Miami (O) at Northwestern - 13-6 Wildcats
WOW!  - Boise State at Georgia Southern - 56-45 Broncos
UNDERACHIEVED -  Old Dominion at South Carolina - 23-19 Gamecocks
SURPRISE! - UC Davis at Cal - 31-13 Cal
HAD NO IDEA - North Texas at South Alabama - 52-38 Mean Green
EXPECTED - Idaho State at Oregon State - 38-15 Beavers
EXPECTED Western Kentucky at Alabama - 63-0 Crimson Tide
EXPECTED Furman at Olę Miss - 76-0 Rebels
SURPRISE!  UNLV at Houston - 27-7 Rebels
SURPRISE!  - Sam Houston at Rice - 34-14 Bearkats
UNDERACHIEVED - Idaho at Oregon - 24-14 Ducks
GOOD GAME!  Notre Dame at Texas A & M - 23-13 Irish
UNDERACHIEVED -  Fresno State at Michigan - 30-10 Wolverines
UNDERACHIEVED -UCLA at Hawaii - 16-13 Bruins
EXPECTED - Southern Miss at Kentucky - 31-0 Wildcats
EXPECTED - Southern Illinois at BYU - 41-13 Cougars
EXPECTED - Georgia State at Georgia Tech - 35-12 Yellow Jackets
HAD NO IDEA - James Madison at Charlotte - 30-7 JMU
EXPECTED - New Mexico at Arizona - 61-39, Arizona
EXPECTED - Wyoming at Arizona State - 48-7 Sun Devils
EXPECTED  Weber State at Washington - 35-3 Huskies

SUNDAY
GOOD GAME!   USC vs LSU at Las Vegas - 27-20 USC - Those two teams are going to be okay.  Both QBs showed that they’re ready for the big time.

MONDAY
Boston College at Florida State - Really?  Out of all the games played this weekend, they chose this one to show to a national audience?  You don’t suppose the TV guys got caught up in all the FSU hysteria from last season, do you?  Anyhow, playing under new head coach Bill O’Brien - go Eagles!


*********** Maybe it’s because it was our first look at professionalized college football, but overall, after waiting an entire off-season for college football to start once again, this past weekend  was one of the worst I can remember for stupid matchups whose outcome was never in doubt. 

I enjoyed the Army and Navy games because I’m prejudiced in their favor, but no one would call their games exciting.

Of all the power 4 (damn, I hate writing that) teams, only Notre Dame-Texas A & M and LSU-USC gave us well-played, competitive games worth watching as disinterested football fans..

Vanderbilt and Virginia Tech was a very exciting game.

But otherwise?  NFL Lite.



*********** Boise State’s Ashton Jeanty rushed for 267 yards and  six TDs in the Broncos’ 56-45 win over Georgia Southern - at Georgia Southern.  Jeanty, 5-2 and 215 from Frisco, Texas was last year’s Mountain West Player of the Year.


*********** Navy came out running Wing-T.  They were often in what we would call “slot,” and they were in Double Wing from time to time.  They ran a lot of stuff with Jet motion.  They did run a few very nice plays from shotgun, but there’s no doubt about it - they’re gonna run  the ball at you. They have a nice pass package and they run their QB - Blake Horvath, 6-2, 200 from Hillard, Ohio, on their power off-tackle play. Their first touchdown came on what looked like something I’ve been wondering about myself for a long time - an outside dive using wedge blocking, which essentially makes it an outside veer, a now-nearly extinct play but once one of the toughest plays I’ve ever had to defend against.  I have no idea what their record will be, because I doubt that Bucknell, their opponent Saturday, is very good, but the way their line came off the ball.  I guarantee you that anyone playing them will be sore afterward.


*********** I saw at least two teams run into trouble when they were running Jet motion and the center snap hit the motion man.  I’ve often wondered why, on such plays where timing is crucial, nobody’s tried letting the motion man call the snap signal.


*********** Of all the transfers I’ve heard of, New Mexico State to Vanderbilt has to be one of the least likely, but the transfer in question, quarterback Diego Pavia, one of my favorite players, has instantly turned Vanderbilt into a team to take seriously. On Saturday he led Vandy to a  34-27 overtime upset of Virginia Tech.  It’s not as if he’s going to be awed by playing in the SEC - last year he led the Aggies to a 31-10 win over Auburn - at Auburn.


*********** Virginia Tech was hit with a key penalty on special teams when it had two guys with the same number on the field.  It’s a dumb enough penalty as it is, but these guys were both wearing Number Zero.


*********** Maryland’s Mike Locksley weighs 250 pounds - down 90 since last season.  If the Terps have any kind of a season, he’s going to make a fortune telling people what product or process he used to do it.



*********** Even though they had been playing the Big Dog  in company with Florida State, I was sorry to see Clemson fare so poorly against Georgia.  The mystery to me is why they’ve been so in love with their QB, Cade Klubnik, when it’s clear that he’s not in a class with Tajh Boyd, DeShaun Watson or Trevor Lawrence, the QBs  they built their program with.


*********** Chris Peterson  said that the Big 12 was his favorite conference, because “it’s got parity and it’s deep.”  I have to agree.


*********** If FSU and Clemson are so much better than the rest of the ACC schools - as their lawyers have been claiming - then Cal and Stanford are going to do  fine in their new conference.


*********** Georgia Tech had a tough assignment, coming off a big win - in Ireland - and then having to take on an opponent from just around the corner in Georgia State.  Tech won, 35-12, to open up 2-0 for the first time in eight years.


*********** A 27-7 loss in your own stadium is a bad enough opener, but Houston’s 27-7 loss to UNLV was worse than it looks - the Cougars’ only score came with 1:00 remaining  when they scored on fourth and one.


*********** ARMY FOOTBALL IS BACK!!!

Army 42, Lehigh 7

Yes, it was “only” FCS Lehigh, but last year at this time Army  got shut out offensively, losing to Louisiana Monroe.  Going into the game, ULM was the worst team in FBS.  So what did losing to them make Army?

The big difference:  Army football - under center/triple option football - is back.

Army’s new/old offense scored every time it had the ball: six drives of 80, 76, 79, 77, 80 and 56 yards each. Their time of possession was 33 minutes.

The one time Army might have stalled was on its very first drive, when faced with fourth and two in their own end of the field, Army coach Jeff Monken called for a fake punt that went for 35 yards and (obviously) a first down.

Army rushed 56 times for 375 yards, averaging 6.7 yards per carry, and completed 5 of 8 passes for 57 yards.

They fumbled once, but didn’t lose it, and had just one penalty (a false start for five yards).

On third down conversions, Army was 7 of 9; on fourth downs it was 2 for 2.

Slotback Noah Short carried 8 times for 83 yards and a TD, QB Bryson Daily (he’s a horse) carried 17 times for 78 yards and 2 TDs, and fullback Kanye Udoh carried 15 times for 75 yards and 2 TDs.

Next Saturday, Army opens AAC play at Florida Atlantic.

(Thanks for Jack Morrison for some of the stats.)



***********  In Colorado, Battle Mountain High School, a school of about 900 kids in grades 9-12 in a rather affluent resort area, had to forfeit its entire football season - varsity, JV, freshman - when just 14 kids turned out for their first practice.

The signs are unmistakable: America is getting softer, and at an astonishing rate.


https://www.vaildaily.com/sports/battle-mountain-forfeits-remaining-varsity-football-games/



*********** Things that bring you close to tears… In a South Jersey suburb of Philly, NHL star Johnny Gaudreau of the Columbus Blue Jackets, and  and his brother Matthew died after being struck by an “alleged” drunk driver while riding their bikes.  They were back in their hometown to take part in their  sister’s wedding the next day.



***********  Hi Hugh,

Just had to comment on the LSU and USC football game. The mistakes that cost LSU the game are all the ones you have been discussing on your blog! Two that stand out, failure to get under center in a short yardage situation cost LSU an important first down when their runner was tackled in the backfield after taking a deep hand off and being to complicated on the goaline cost them late in the game. Instead of lining up and going on a quick count a penalty forced the field goal.

I know we are a couple of old farts but those high paid college coaching staffs should be better. They often seem to over complicate which should be a fairly  simple. I think taking a moment and let them listen to coach Madden on your introductions to the blog would do them some good.

All the best to you, Connie and the family this Labor Day and good luck at Aberdeen!

Jack Tourtillotte
Rangeley, Maine

Hey!  Who you calling an old fart?!?!  But you are so right about the need for every college team in the country to have an under-center goal-line package!



***********   Today you gave us even more delicious dishes than normal. I guess I was like the guy at a big yard sale featuring tools and gadgets and sporting goods.

NDSU couldn't get it done last night. 504 total yards but not enough got them across the goal line. Of even more interest to me is the SDSU game vs OKST. OKST was in the news this week, beginning with the QR code story. Maybe it was Gundy deflecting attention from a game he must be at least a little concerned about.

I have no idea what Army's record will be at the end of the year, but I think they'll be improved. I'm excited to see them run tonight. I'll be dissatisfied with anything less than 400 rushing yards. He won't be the leading rusher (probably), but I think the biggest key to the team's offensive success over the full season will be B Back Jake Rendina, a big strong lad out of Montana.

3,568 graduates? How many are genuine grads?  

John Vermillion
St. Petersburg, Florida

 




*********** QUIZ ANSWER:  Pete Dawkins was the captain of Army’s last unbeaten football team. He was a consensus All-American and he won the Heisman Trophy.

At West Point,  he was Brigade Commander, Class President and a “Star Man” (meaning he graduated  in the top five per cent of his class academically).

He won a Rhodes Scholarship to study in England at Oxford University, where he won three “Blues” (letters) playing rugby.

He spent a distinguished career in the US Army, retiring as a brigadier general.

He was extremely successful as an executive of several large financial firms.

A Republican, he narrowly lost a race to become United States Senator in heavily-Democrat New Jersey.

He grew up in suburban Detroit. His parents, both Michigan graduates, were well-to-do, and he turned down both Michigan and Yale in order to attend West Point.

Famed Army coach Earl “Red” Blaik, in his book “You Have to Pay the Price,”  said that he was not initially impressed with the young man:

As a football player,  Dawkins came to West Point with average credentials. At Cranbrook, a small preparatory school near his home in Royal Oak, Michigan, he was a good left-handed and passing quarterback in the split T-formation. He applied to and was accepted by and Michigan. His father and mother both were Michigan graduates…

Dawkins’  coach sent Coach Blaik a recommendation along with a photo. The picture, wrote Coach Blaik,  “that of  a rather gangly 17 year old, did not impress me. I suspected then and for a long time after, that Dawkins  was just another "silk-stocking" preparatory school athlete. 

His first couple of seasons, wrote Coach Blaik, did nothing to indicate that he would by his senior year become one of the most celebrated college football players ever:

In his plebe season of 1955, Dawkins started most of the games at quarterback, but his passing was unimpressive and he was less than mediocre defensively. In 1956 spring practice, he was a third or fourth string quarterback, lost far back in the crowd.

It was in the spring practice of ’57 that Dawkins  began to take hold. He began to demonstrate the speed, power, elusiveness, and intelligence of a top-flight running halfback and pass receiver. He was also improving on defense and even beginning to block well at times. The poise  and confidence  which was to be such a big part of his inspiring leadership … first began to shine through that spring.

And then came his senior year.  Army went undefeated, with only a 14-14 tie at Pitt (led by an end named Mike Ditka) to mar its record.  Army beat Notre Dame, 14-2, at South Bend. It was Army’s last win over the Irish - since then, they haven’t beaten Notre Dame in 15 tries.

Army became  America’s most-publicized team that season, not only because the Cadets were good, but because of Coach Blaik’s innovative use of a very big, very fast and very athletic end named Bill Carpenter.

In a break with the tight formations employed universally  at the time, Blaik split Carpenter out wide, and after taking the advice of a former assistant who warned him that he might run Carpenter to death just going back and forth from the huddle to his “far flanker” position, he determined to leave Carpenter out wide while the rest of the team huddled. 


Army unveiled  the “far flanker” attack against a Number 18-ranked South Carolina team which came in at 1-0 after a win over Duke.  After Army trounced the Gamecocks 45-8, then shut out Penn State, 28-0, and then defeated Notre Dame, the new formation - dubbed the “Lonely End” by a New York sportswriter - was the talk of the football world. (After the season, Blaik  would reveal the way Carpenter got his signals.  In those days before Connor Stalions, no one had been able to figure it out.)

Dawkins  was really good - as a runner, a receiver, and a passer, as well as having to play on defense.  But it was not as if Army was a one-man team.  In addition to Carpenter (who to this day prefers to be remembered as the “Lonesome (not Lonely) End,” there was big, fast running back Bob Anderson, himself a two-time All-American, and  Bob Novogratz, a two-way All-American as a guard and linebacker.

With all the attention that Army football got, it wouldn’t have been unreasonable for any of those others to have been awarded the Heisman, but with Dawkins’  absolutely amazing all-round career as a student and a West Point cadet, earning him feature  articles in several major magazines, he was the one on which the star fell.

And thus he won the Heisman.  In addition to All-time greats Doc Blanchard and Glenn Davis,  Pete Dawkins is one of three Army football players ever to win it, and he is now  its oldest living recipient.

CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING PETE DAWKINS

GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK LOUISIANA
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
TOM WALLS - WINNIPEG, MANITOBA
MIKE FORISTIERE - MARSING, IDAHO
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON





 
*********** QUIZ: He grew up in Beaumont, Texas,  where he played  high school football for his dad, a highly successful high school coach in the Beaumont area.

He was a very good high school player, and today, he would have been highly-recruited. But those were the  days before college football in the South was completely desegregated, and so, recalled Michigan State coach Duffy Daugherty in his memoirs,

"We had tried to recruit his older brother, Willie Ray, but he went to Iowa…so when (our guy) was a senior in high school, (his father) called me and asked if we’d ‘take a chance on my boy and try to make a man out of him.’

“You’re his father and you’ve been  his coach,” I told (his father). If you can’t make a man out of him, how do you expect me to?”

We agreed to try because of (his father’s) pleadings, not to mention (his) extraordinary talents.

It took a while for him to get with the program, but he was good enough to become a two-time All-American;   in his senior year he was named United Press Lineman of the Year.

At 6-6, 260, he was very big  for the time, and he was extremely popular with Michigan State fans, who wore large lapel buttons that read “KILL, (Our Guy), KILL!”

Years later, Daugherty would recall him as “a great, if difficult, star for us.”

In the 1967 NFL draft, he was the Number One overall selection (the only Michigan State player ever taken number one) of the Baltimore Colts, who had acquired the pick from the lowly New Orleans Saints in a trade for quarterback Gary Cuozzo.

A defensive end,  he  played nine years in the NFL, six of them  in Baltimore. He played in two Super Bowls with  the Colts,  and played in two Pro Bowls.

In  a 1972 preseason game in Tampa, he injured his leg making a tackle on the sideline  when he crashed into a first-down pole, and he was never the same afterward as a player.

He missed the entire 1972 season, and after being traded   to the Raiders after the season,  he finished his career in Oakland and then Houston.

After football, he enjoyed a nice career as an actor, appearing as an officer in the Police Academy movies and in a number of TV series, and he became famous once again, when he played himself  in  Miller Lite’s award-winning   “Tastes Great! Less Filling!” commrcials.

He is in the College Football Hall of Fame.  His younger brother started out at Michigan State but transferred to USC, then went on to play professionally for Dallas, Houston and Buffalo.





FRIDAY,  AUGUST 30,  2024    “The biggest difference between Jimmy Carter and Joe Biden was that Carter was at least trying to do the right thing by the United States of America.” Howie Carr

*********** Wisdom from Mike Lude:   “Although I came from a tiny rural school, I never was what anyone would consider shy.  When I got to high school I discovered the drama program and decided I wanted to get involved. In grade school I had taken part in the Christmas plays and found it rather easy to memorize the lines.

“I told Miss Mabel Hudson, the drama coach, that I'd like to try out for one of the plays. She also was my English teacher, and I thought participating in drama might help me in class. Our makeshift stage was set up on sawhorses at one end of the tiny gymnasium, with a curtain rigged on a long wire. I enjoyed the theatrics, sometimes in a supporting role, occasionally as a lead. I guess I liked the attention that went with performing in front of a crowd. 

“Being in drama helped me to develop better verbal communication skills. Besides, the best-looking girls in the school were involved, and that was exciting too.

“I don't think I had a crush on Miss Hudson, but I thought she was a special teacher. She was pretty, slender, overall very attractive. She was authoritarian in the classroom but cared about her students. During my senior year I asked her for help in improving my English skills. I was going to college but was inept at diagramming sentences. During spring semester I reported to her for extra work, and she worked hard with me. She was an excellent teacher, both in fundamental English and literature. I always thought it would be fun to see Miss Hudson in a bathing suit.”


*********** Friday night, Aberdeen sees our first action - our first heavy contact, actually, since team camp in July - when we play in a jamboree at Orting, Washington. Orting is east of the state capital of Olympia. 


***********  “Both times I took over head coaching jobs, at Dartmouth and West point, I was fortunate enough to inherit low-ebb situations. A coach who comes in at the bottom of a curve has a pronounced advantage over one who succeeds to a going or even a half-going operation. In 1941 there was no place to go at West Point but up. We went up at a rate of speed that surprised a lot of people.”   Legendary Army coach Earl “Red” Blaik


*********** Not sure exactly what’g going on in our society, but one coach I know has already had to deal with a  kid telling him he wouldn’t be at practice because he had tickets to a concert, and then, on the Monday of the first game another  kid informed him he’d be going out of state to a wedding and wouldn’t be at their first game. Another coach told me of a kid who missed practice because he was getting “an HIV test.”  He is a middle-schooler.  WTF?


*********** In three tries, Bronco Mendenhall has yet to win his very first game as a school's head coach.   After last Saturday’s loss to Montana State, he’s now 0-3 in opening games at BYU, Virginia, New Mexico.
 

***********  Brent Vigen is now 33-9 as Montana State’s head coach, but the Bobcats’ win Saturday over New Mexico was his first win against an FBS opponent.



*********** THIS SATURDAY’S GAMES OF INTEREST TO ME:  Only if I especially like one or the other of the teams have I included games against FCS opponents

THURSDAY -By the time you read this, these games will have been played

North Carolina at Minnesota
North Dakota State at Colorado - I WILL WATCH THIS WHEN I GET HOME FROM PRACTICE (ABOUT 8:30) - GO BISON!!!  SEND PRIME PACKING. (CAN YOU IMAGINE A SCHOOL ALLOWING ITS COACH TO REFUSE TO ANSWER QUESTIONS FROM A MEMBER OF THE NEWS MEDIA?)

FRIDAY -
Lehigh at Army - Has Army really gone back to under center triple option?
Temple at Oklahoma - Only to see how long the Owls can last.
Florida Atlantic at Michigan State - After the way he stiffed Oregon State (his alma mater) I sure would love to see Jonathan Smith get whacked.
Elon at Duke - First game for Manny Diaz at Duke.  Hope it’s a good one.
Western Michigan at Wisconsin - How’s Tyler Van Dyke going to do at QB for the Badgers?
TCU at Stanford - How bad is Stanford?


SATURDAY
Clemson at Georgia - Is Cade Klubnik ready for the big time?
Penn State at West Virginia - There was a time when I was a passionate Lions fan, but now - Go Mountaineers.
Illinois State at Iowa - Is this the game Kirk Ferentz is suspended for?  Does it matter?
Virginia Tech at Vanderbilt - How much better is VT?  Can Vandy stay with the Hokies?
UConn at Maryland - Maryland could be good.  Will Mora have the Huskies ready.
Kent State at Pitt - Good scheduling, Pitt. After last year, Pitt needs to open with a win.
Bucknell at Navy - Navy will unveil its new (supposedly) wing-T based offense.
Chattanooga at Tennessee - Won’t watch this one for long
South Dakota State at Oklahoma State - Boo - Talk about no respect for the Jackrabbits - it’s on ESPN+
Portland State at Washington State - Too underdogs that I like. I go back a long way with Portland State coach Bruce Barnum, so Go Vikings!
Akron at Ohio State - Wow. Jim Knowles coaching the defense and Chip Kelly coaching the offense. An Quinshon Judkins running the ball. Now, if Will Howard can get the job done at QB, these Buckeyes  woful be really tough.
Colorado State at Texas - How much longer will Arch Manning sit the bench?
Miami at Florida - Two coaches in a bit of hot water.  Will Miami’s supposedly great recruiting finally pay off?
FIU at Indiana - Just to see how the Hoosiers look.
UTEP at Nebraska - BIG opener for the Huskers.
Eastern Michigan at UMass - I really like Don Brown, the UMass coach.
North Dakota at Iowa State - Tough opener for the Cyclones.  Are they on the way back?
Ohio at Syracuse - I am totally ignorant about either team but I’d love to see the Orange get it going.
Merrimack at Air Force - Really, Falcons?  Merrimack?
Miami (O) at Northwestern - Can Northwestern repeat last year’s pleasant surprise?
Boise State at Georgia Southern - Sure hope  them boys from Idaho figured out a way to prepare for that humidity.
Old Dominion at South Carolina - Old Dominion has been known to surprise P-4 schools.
UC Davis at Cal - This is a bigger rivalry than you might think, and a real trap for Cal.
North Texas at South Alabama - Only slightly interested because Army’s in the AAC
Idaho State at Oregon State - Go Beavs!
Western Kentucky at Alabama - Not the toughest of tests for Jalen DeBoer
Furman at Olę Miss - Furman is a good FCS team, but Ole Miss should be a good FBS team.
UNLV at Houston - UNLV is very good offensively.
Sam Houston at Rice - Only because I like Rice, the Duke of the Southwest.
Idaho at Oregon - Is Dillon Gabriel the second coming of Bo Nix?
Notre Dame at Texas A & M - THIS is one game I REALLY want to see. I like Rley Leonard, who’ll be facing his former coach at Duke, Mike Elko, now the A & M head coach
Fresno State at Michigan - Tough assignment for the Bulldogs.  Why can’t I like Michigan?
UCLA at Hawaii - I’m only half’s interested.
Southern Miss at Kentucky - Want to see what the Wildcats have got.
Southern Illinois at BYU - Are the Cougars going to improve enough to win in the Big 12?
Georgia State at Georgia Tech - I have GOT to watch Tech again.  They sure were fun to watch against Florida State.
James Madison at Charlotte - James Madison;s under a new coach, Bob Chesney, from Holy Cross. Charlotte coach Biff Poggi may be in trouble.
New Mexico at Arizona - Lobos blew a big fourth quarter lead against Montana State last Saturday. Arizona need last season on a high note but they’ve got a new head coach in Brent Brennan
Wyoming at Arizona State - New coach for the Cowboys.  I think ASU has made big strides under Kenny Dillingham
Weber State at Washington - I guess I should pull for the Huskies but they’ve lost a ton of good people and I’m not particularly a Jedd Fisch fan.

SUNDAY
USC at LSU - Both teams are replacing first-round quarterbacks.  My prediction is a blowout by the Tigers.

MONDAY
Boston College at Florida State - Really?  Out of all the games played this weekend, they chose this one to show to a national audience?  You don’t suppose the TV guys got caught up in all the FSU hysteria from last season, do you?  Anyhow, playing under new head coach Bill O’Brien - go Eagles!



*********** I confess to having lost some of my enthusiasm for Army football lately.

One reason:  Army head coach Jeff Monken’s decision to junk the under-center, triple option offense that had been an Army trademark and go instead to the sort of cookie-cutter offense that appears to be mandatory at most other colleges.  The experiment has been declared a failure, and it appears that Army is back to being Army.  We’ll see.

Another reason, though, has been the absence of any substantial information about the Army football program.

I used to depend on Jack Morrison.  Jack, a member of the undefeated 1958 Army team, used to send out a weekly newsletter that really went deeply into th goings-on in Army football, but two years ago, he hung ‘em up.

It’s been a tough two years, but now, based on an email I received,  it appears Jack is back:

Having recently discontinued my Army Football Reports, several Classmates and friends have requested that I begin writing them  again. Frankly, I also missed writing them.

Consequently, the link below contains my 2024 season's first report, an analysis of the up and down 2023 season and its resultant aftermath.  Due to all the twists and turns which resulted in a change of OCs and Offensive formations, it is rather long but IMO necessary as a critical background to all the changes. So I apologize.

Please feel free to forward my reports to other Class Forums, other Grads, or other Army Football Friends. I would be happy to add them to my distribution list.

My next report will preview the 2024 season as Army joins the AAC Group of 5 Conference with Navy after many years as an Independent.

Glad to be back.

Beat Navy!

Regards,

Jack

https://onedrive.live.com/edit?id=A288BF383E88DA0D!s4a79ae78da9b4e80a3ad47fd5ced7ae5&resid=A288BF383E88DA0D!s4a79ae78da9b4e80a3ad47fd5ced7ae5&cid=a288bf383e88da0d&ithint=file%2Cdocx&redeem=aHR0cHM6Ly8xZHJ2Lm1zL3cvYy9hMjg4YmYzODNlODhkYTBkL0VYaXVlVXFiMm9CT282MUhfVnp0ZXVVQjRBQ215SGNmMzJFeHg2UzR5XzduS0E_ZT00OjQ4NGQwZTlmNjc4MjRiMWQ5MzVmYjcyMzg0OThmMzE1JnNoYXJpbmd2Mj10cnVlJmZyb21TaGFyZT10cnVlJmF0PTk&migratedtospo=true&wdo=2

As you can see, Jack has invited “Army Football Friends” to get on his mailing list. 

If that describes you, write him at jackmorrison2614@gmail.com

And be sure to let him know I “sent” you!


*********** It’s 1999 (I just stepped out of my Wayback Machine) and I’m damned if I can picture a football coach helping to set up - and then serve as advisor to - his school’s “Gay-Straight Alliance."


***********IRVING, Texas (Aug. 28, 2024) – The National Football Foundation (NFF) & College Hall of Fame today released a list of 3,568 student-athletes who have already earned their undergraduate degrees and will be playing college football this fall while pursuing additional diplomas.
 
The NFF compiled the list with the help of sports information directors from all divisions of the NCAA and NAIA who identified the players on their 2024 fall rosters who have already earned their undergraduate degrees. A total of 247 schools responded.
 
Notable players include Carson Beck (Georgia), Tahj Brooks (Texas Tech), Eli Cox (Kentucky and a 2024 Campbell Trophy Nominee), Howard Cross III (Notre Dame), Emeka Egbuka (Ohio State), Dillon Gabriel (Oregon and a 2024 Campbell Trophy Nominee), Garrett Greene (West Virginia), Ashton Gillotte (Louisville), Tre Harris (Mississippi), Seth Henigan (Memphis), Will Howard (Ohio State),  Nick Jackson (Iowa), Haynes King (Georgia Tech) Phil Mafah (Clemson and a 2024 Campbell Trophy Nominee), Nick Martin (Oklahoma State), Jordan McCloud (Texas State), Jalen Milroe (Alabama and a 2024 Campbell Trophy Nominee), Malachi Moore (Alabama), Cameron Rising (Utah), Kaimon Rucker (North Carolina), Kaidon Salter (Liberty), Shilo Sanders (Colorado), DJ Uiagalelei (Florida State), Xavier Watts (Notre Dame).
 
The table below showcases the number of graduates playing college football each season since 2017. (Note: The NFF did not tally the number of graduates during the 2020 season.)
 



Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the NCAA granted an extra year of eligibility to all 2020 fall athletes. Many student-athletes have decided to take advantage of this, and they are returning to the field in 2024, leading to another high number of graduates this season.
 
The numbers include 2,239 players from 120 schools in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), 959 players from 68 schools in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), 245 players from 29 schools in Division II, 118 players from 27 schools in Division III and 7 players from three schools in the NAIA.
 
Northwestern leads all schools nationwide (as well as the FBS) with 34 players having already earned their degrees. Montana is fielding 28 players with degrees, leading the FCS. New Haven (CT) tops Division II with 27 players. North Central (IL) and Worcester Polytechnic Institute (MA) both boast 12 players, sitting atop Division III. Rocky Mountain (MT) has four graduates on its roster, the most of any NAIA school.
 
Nearly all 120 FBS school that responded reported a double-digit number of graduates, with the following schools joining Northwestern (34) with at least 20: Jacksonville State (32), Massachusetts (32), Louisville (31), Memphis (31), Duke (31), Oklahoma State (30), Mississippi (29) Texas State (29), UCF (29), James Madison (28), UCLA (28), South Carolina (28), South Florida (28), Houston (27), Kansas (27), Utah (27), Western Kentucky (27), Indiana (26), Texas Christian (26), Auburn (25), Florida State (25), Notre Dame (25), Toledo (25), New Mexico (24), UNC at Charlotte (24), Southern California (24), Connecticut (24), NC State (23), California (23), Southern Mississippi (23), Virginia (23), Bowling Green (22), Middle Tennessee State (22), Tulane (22), Appalachian State (22), Cincinnati (22), Nevada (22), Liberty (21), Washington (21), Vanderbilt (21), Wyoming (21), Arizona State (20), Miami, OH (20), Texas Tech (20), Iowa (20), North Texas (20), Pittsburgh (20), West Virginia (20) and Kent State (20).
 
Joining the FCS leader Montana (28) with at least 20 graduates on the roster this season are Maine (24), Jackson State (23), Austin Peay State (22), Albany (22), Villanova (22), Delaware (22), North Dakota State (21), Stony Brook (21), Texas A&M-Commerce (21) and Incarnate Word (20).


***********  At a minor league baseball game in Southern Maryland last week,  a gust of wind lifted an inflatable “bounce house” 15 to 20 feet into the air and several children who had been inside fell to the ground. One was killed and another injured.


*********** An old friend named John Muckian (pronounced muh-KEEN) posed a question about who was the best college football analyst ever.

My answer? Four-way tie: Frank Broyles, Paul Christman, Ara Parseghian and Bud Wilkinson.  They’re all from the black-and-white days.  They were pioneers and no one since has matched them.

All except Broyles, Parseghian and Wilkinson had all been very successful coaches.  Christman had been an All-American quarterback at Missouri and quarterbacked the Chicago Cardinals to the NFL title in 1947. He only did  two years of college ball before moving to pro ball - first the AFL, then the NFL - but I included him because he was really, really good.  Damn shame that the man was only 52 when he died of a heart attack.


*********** Interesting fact:

The states with the largest rural populations:

Texas (4,744,808)
North Carolina (3,474,661)
Pennsylvania (3,061,630)
Ohio (2,798,349)

Another  interesting fact  -  Texas also has the second-largest urban population


*********** The next time you want to illustrate  just how important that little bit of extra effort can be …

The difference between an inch of rain and ten inches of snow is ONE DEGREE.



*********** FROM THE NATIONAL FOOTBALL FOUNDATION:

Since 1978, when the NCAA began tracking attendance figures, the number of schools playing NCAA football has increased by 187, growing from 484 to 671 institutions by 2024. Including NAIA and independent schools, and accounting for upcoming programs, the total now stands at 774 colleges and universities offering football.


New Programs on the Horizon

This year, six institutions—Anderson University (SC), Calvin University (MI), Centenary College of Louisiana, New England College (NH), Simpson University (CA), and William Woods University (MO)—are set to field football teams for the first time. These new programs are poised to energize their respective campuses, offering students new opportunities for engagement and building stronger connections with alumni and local communities.

READ MORE

https://footballfoundation.org/news/2024/8/20/football-drives-campus-growth-774-colleges-offering-programs.


***********   Coach -

Being from the valley, (and with my grandmother living literally one block away from BHS), the answer to your trivia question is of course Frank Gifford.  I didn't know about his high school coach, but it was fun to look him up - looks like he had major success at BC and Santa Ana College.

Where Gifford played in high school, the Bakersfield High School Drillers, has the most wins in state history last I checked , although Long Beach Poly was close and could overtake them if BHS has a few bad years.  They were the absolute power in the valley for decades. They have 38 section titles, and won several of the few true state titles in the long ago age before WWII.  As an aside, the new state "bowl" games aren't true state championships.  It's awesome to win one, but if you ask kids a "valley" (section) title is the main goal.

The BHS stadium has been renovated but still has the feel of when it was built in *1923*. and is named Griffith Field after coach Dwight Griffith who coached until 1948.  I was fortunate enough to see their trophy room on an accreditation visit, and it rivals anyones. 


Thanks.

Mike Burchett
Woodlake, California



*********** When I think of Bakersfield and football, I think, of course, of Frank Gifford.

But I also think of Paul Briggs.  Paul Briggs was the coach at Bakersfield High from 1953 to 1985, and I heard him talk at a clinic in 1977 or so.

It was obvious that he was hard-nosed.  I do remember his talking about something he called  the “Steel-Side Six” - six steel pipes, each at least six inches in diameter, sticking up four or five feet out of the ground, which his players had to shiver every day 

It was  just as obvious that he had a handle on his kids -“One-third black, one-third Hispanic, and one-third Okies from Muskogee,” he told us - and he could motivate them.   He went into quite a bit of detail about his end-of-practice competitions and the awards that went to the winners.  He set up “games” that were extremely competitive, for prizes that I swear were called “Raspberry Roonies.” (If there are any Valley guys who can help me out on that one, I’d be grateful.)

Coach Briggs died in 2011.  He is in all sorts of Halls of Fame.

Not known by many people was that he was wounded in World War II when the ship he was serving on was attacked by Kamikazes and he was hit with shrapnel.

 
***********  Glad to have you back, Coach. The answer to this difficult question is Frank Gifford.

If Frank G. were alive, he could no longer claim to have been treated like an illegal alien.

Two things about the game in Dublin. First, at halftime the in-studio moderator (some nondescript guy whose name I don't know, but whose style I instantly disliked) got on his high horse about something I've thought most of adult life, to wit, we shouldn't allow polls until midseason. And the reasons are evident, especially since the portal came into wide use. But it also tied in to Coach Brent Key's comments on the field after the game. Key said he watched his team in practice, and secretly believed he had something good. But, he stressed, you never know what you have until you put them up against somebody else. Now, it's still too early to distinguish who's tops among a passel of of teams, but I sure liked the way Coach Key handled that team, and wouldn't be surprised if they surprise others in the ACC. The rundown you gave on Key's coordinators makes that even more likely.

Men in women's sports: lowest of the low...Paralympics...50-year-old man (who claims to be mostlly blind) runs against females with disabilities...he's done it before and walked off with gold medals. Can't even the Paralympics be free from these predators?

John Vermillion                
St Petersburg, Florida


***********   Hugh,

NC State could be the ACC powerhouse this year.  Don’t count out BC and their exciting QB!  But Georgia Tech will have a say when it’s all said and done.

Congrats to my buddy Mike Foristiere on that big opening day win!  Enjoyed the live action on NFHS, and seeing him schooling the officials on the rules!

An ugly brawl ended the game between district rivals Central HS and Justin Garza HS in Fresno, CA last Friday night.  Garza is the new school in the district, and named for highly successful former Central coach Justin Garza who died of brain cancer.  Justin played for me in high school, and we knew right away that he had a bright future in coaching.  He was special.  One of a kind.


Unfortunately big brother Central was pounding little brother Garza in the 3rd quarter 40-0 when a frustrated Garza player got into it with a Central player and caused the benches to empty.  During the melee another Garza player punched a coach.  Game called.  Suspensions looming.


It was the complete opposite of what Justin believed in, coached, and what he stood for. 

QUIZ: Frank Gifford (his Bakersfield HS Drillers continue to be a regular in the CIF Central Section playoffs).

Have a great week!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas






*********** QUIZ ANSWER: He was personable and good-looking.  He socialized with the rich and famous. He was a football and media star for so long that few people ever knew of his hard upbringing.

He played his high school ball in Bakersfield, California. The school’s nickname, the Drillers, announced to one and all that Bakersfield was an oil town.  A tough town.

But he didn’t grow up in Bakersfield.  It was the last stop in a remarkable boyhood journey.

As he wrote in his autobiography, “The Whole Ten Yards,”

My mother once figured out that by the time I started high school, we had lived in 47 different towns.

My father started working in the oil fields at the age of 16, breaking in as a “roughneck” – the lowest job in the trade. Wherever a new field opened up, that's where my dad went. The problem was that this was the Depression, and nothing was more depressed than the California oil industry. No one was pumping oil or exploring for oil because nobody was buying oil. An oil worker’s job would last anywhere from 30 to 90 days, depending on how fast the well was dug, and then he'd have to find out  where else they were drilling, assuming that there was a somewhere else.

I don't remember completing a single grade in the same grammar school. 

I've read “The Grapes of Wrath,” and I guess we were part of that scenario. We just never realized it. As a little kid, growing up in the 30s, I thought everyone lived like this. It wasn't until I was eight or nine that I started to realize there were people who lived better than we did, that there were people who stayed home. Our home was wherever the job was.

My high school in Bakersfield had more than 5000 kids, definitely the bottom of the social economic ladder. Many of them were the children of farmers and oil workers. They were tough kids – black, Spanish, poor whites, kids like me. Consequently, the school enjoyed a great football tradition. 

There, he ran into a high school coach named Homer Beatty who,  as he related,  “built his offense around me. I know I was a pretty good passer and an even better running back. In order to utilize both of those talents, Homer shifted us out of a T-formation into a single wing. As the tailback, I'd take a direct snap from center and either throw the ball or run it. I also punted, kicked conversions, and ran back kick offs. Suddenly, I was doing things I always suspected were within my capability but had never been able to bring off. Suddenly, I started to realize, I can play.

Of all the coaches I've had, from Jim Lee Howell to Vince Lombardi to Allie Sherman, I learned more about football from Homer Beatty than anyone else. All the great coaches are essentially great teachers. Lombardi taught high school mathematics. Homer taught Phys Ed.  And on the field, he taught us remarkably sophisticated stuff, things none of our peers were learning. He taught us to read defenses and change a lot of plays at the line of scrimmage. He  taught our offensive lineman intricate blocking techniques and how to really blow off the ball. 

Most important, he taught us attitude. I learned from Homer Beatty that if you invest your heart in it and work hard enough, you can accomplish pretty damn near anything. It sounds corny and old-fashioned, yet it's true. So many people, I've noticed, aren't willing to expend the necessary perspiration. Of course, with Homer in charge, there was no other option. When he asked us to do 20 wind sprints, we knew we were going to do 20 wind sprints. And if you couldn't, you were going to stay there until you could.

As the months passed, Homer became a sort of big brother to me. We began talking to each other man-to-man. We discovered we had similar backgrounds: two blue-collar children of the oil fields. He should have become a famous college coach, but, being Homer, he refused to do the necessary butt kissing. Basically, that's what a lot of college coaches have to do: trot off to alumni dinners and ass-kiss some guy into changing his will so the university gets left a lot of money. The word got around that Homer wouldn't play that game. He'd just say, in his own way, screw you people. He was a loner, a tough guy - a Bakersfield guy. Later, as an extraordinarily successful junior college coach, he enjoyed such respect that he started doing clinics all over the country. Hundreds of high school and college coaches would attend them. He also wrote how-to books and put out how-to films. It always blew my mind that my high school coach knew more football than anyone I've ever met.

To make a short story of it, he was recruited heavily by USC, but he hadn’t taken his schoolwork seriously and he didn’t have the grades, so he had to spend a year at Bakersfield Junior College.  He had a great season - he made Junior College All-American, along with a couple of other guys named Ollie Matson and Hugh McElhenny.

But he still didn’t have the grades to get into USC.  His coach, Homer Beatty, convinced the people  there that he was worth taking, which they agreed to do on the condition that he make up work in their “extension division.”

But  first, USC had to win him away from Arizona, which had offered him a car and $500 a month - an astronomical amount at that time.

Once again, Homer Beatty intervened.  “Look,” he asked. “Do you want to play for Arizona  or do you want to play in the Los Angeles Coliseum for the University of Southern California Trojans?”

USC won the day, but his early adjustment there was not easy.  As he told it,

“USC was sort of a rich kids’ playground, and I was poorer than a church mouse. When I arrived at midterm, a friend of Homer Beatty's and USC’s Director of alumni, Nick Pappas, rented me his converted garage across the street from the practice field. I lived there for two years. Since my scholarship paid only for tuition, not for room and board, the school gave me what they called an O & M job which stood for Office and maintenance. That's a fancy term for cleaning up the gym every morning and evening, mopping the locker rooms and such. It paid $75 a month.

Under Homer's compromise, I was attending night school, not having enough credits to get into the regular undergraduate division. Pacific Coast Conference bylaws forbid such students from participating in athletics until their sophomore year. That meant I couldn't go out for spring football practice, which was crucial for anyone hoping to make an impression on the coaches.  The frustration of that didn't really hit me until my first night class. I knew that USC had also recruited Hugh McElhenny, a great junior college halfback and a friend who later became a Hall of Fame running back for the 49ers, the Vikings, and the Giants. And I knew they were also making him go the night school route. On the first night of class, I'm sitting at a desk listening to my first roll call.

“McElhenny? Hugh McElhenny? No Hugh McElhenny?”

The next morning, I picked up a newspaper and learned that Hugh had pulled a last-minute switch to the University of Washington. A smart move on his part because I later heard that Washington gave him several hundred dollars a month along with a new car. (For the way McElhenny performed over the next three years, they should have given him an entire fleet.)

Meanwhile, the guys in the USC athletic department came up with a scheme to get around my spring practice problem. "Look, we've got 130 players out there,” they said. "Who's going to notice if we have one more?” So that's what we did. I worked out with the team all week, but never during scrimmages, when the press usually came around. Whenever a reporter popped up, I had to vanish. It was humiliating. I had left Bakersfield a junior college all American for a place that was treating me like an illegal alien. 

As it later turned out, USA paid a price for its little scam. A Los Angeles reporter got wind of it and wrote a big story, and the Pacific Coast Conference fined the school $2500 for letting an ineligible player work out. That was the first time my name made the papers while in college – as a guy who’d been hiding out from the Press. Now I felt like a notorious illegal alien.

Okay.  He went on to start, and play, and become an All-American at USC.

Picked in the first round of the NFL draft by the New York Giants, he played 12 years with the Giants, although he did miss one entire season as a result of an injury incurred after he was on the receiving end of one of the most vicious hits in pro football history.

The Giants of the 1950s were like gods in New York City, then the nation’s media capital. While he played for them (in the pre-Super Bowl era)  they appeared in five NFL title games.  As perhaps the Giants’ premier star,  he was a major poster boy for the NFL as it made its climb to the top of the American sports scene.

He was six times named first-team All Pro… he played in eight pro bowls… He was the NFL’s Most Valuable Player in 1956, and its Comeback Player of the Year in 1962… He was named to the NFL’s 1950s All-Decade Team… He is in the Giants’ Ring of Honor.

In addition to his athletic ability, he was blessed with movie-star good looks and a good voice.  It didn’t hurt that he had played his entire career in New York, because shortly after retirement he wound up as the play-by-play man on Monday Night Football, the highest-rated program in television, and he spent 27 years on the job. He’s perhaps best remembered for his work in the booth with Howard Cosell and Don Meredith, adroitly managing in his highly professional manner to keep those two antagonists apart, while ever ready himself with a dry, humorous observation of his own.

He also did other major sports events, including the Olympics.

He was married three times. The first time, while in college, was to the USC homecoming queen.   The third time was to a woman who was a TV star in her own right.

He is in both the College Football and Pro Football Halls of Fame.


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING FRANK GIFFORD

GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK LOUISIANA
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
TOM DAVIS - SAN MARCOS, CALIFORNIA
MIKE FORISTIERE - MARSING, IDAHO
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY





 

*********** QUIZ:  He was the captain of Army’s last unbeaten football team. He was a consensus All-American and he won the Heisman Trophy.

At West Point,  he was Brigade Commander, Class President and a “Star Man” (meaning he graduated  in the top five per cent of his class academically).

He won a Rhodes Scholarship to study in England at Oxford University, where he won three “Blues” (letters) playing rugby.

He spent a distinguished career in the US Army, retiring as a brigadier general.

He was extremely successful as an executive of several large financial firms.

A Republican, he narrowly lost a race to become United States Senator in heavily-Democratic New Jersey.

He grew up in suburban Detroit. His parents, both Michigan graduates, were well-to-do, and he turned down both Michigan and Yale in order to attend West Point.

Famed Army coach Earl “Red” Blaik, in his book “You Have to Pay the Price,”  said that he was not initially impressed with the young man:

As a football player, (he)  came to West Point with average credentials. At Cranbrook, a small preparatory school near his home in Royal Oak, Michigan, he was a good left-handed and passing quarterback in the split T-formation. He applied to and was accepted by Yale and Michigan."

The player’s coach sent Coach Blaik a recommendation along with a photo. The picture, wrote Coach Blaik,  “that of  a rather gangly 17 year old, did not impress me. I suspected then and for a long time after, that (he) was just another "silk-stocking" preparatory school athlete."

His first couple of seasons, wrote Coach Blaik, did nothing to indicate that he would by his senior year become one of the most celebrated college football players ever:

In his plebe season of 1955, (he) started most of the games at quarterback, but his passing was unimpressive and he was less than mediocre defensively. In 1956 spring practice, he was a third or fourth string quarterback, lost far back in the crowd.

It was in the spring practice of ’57 that (he)  began to take hold. He began to demonstrate the speed, power, elusiveness, and intelligence of a top-flight running halfback and pass receiver. He was also improving on defense and even beginning to block well at times. The poise  and confidence  which was to be such a big part of his inspiring leadership … first began to shine through that spring.

And then came his senior year.  Army went undefeated, with only a 14-14 tie at Pitt (led by an end named Mike Ditka) to mar its record.  Army beat Notre Dame, 14-2, at South Bend. It was Army’s last win over the Irish - since then, they haven’t beaten Notre Dame in 15 tries.

Army became  America’s most-publicized team that season, not only because the Cadets were good, but because of Coach Blaik’s innovative use of a very big, very fast and very athletic end named Bill Carpenter.

In a break with the tight formations employed universally  at the time, Blaik split Carpenter out wide, and after taking the advice of a former assistant who warned him that he might run Carpenter to death just going back and forth from the huddle to his “far flanker” position, he determined to leave Carpenter out wide while the rest of the team huddled. 

Army unveiled  the “far flanker” attack against a Number 18-ranked South Carolina team that came in at 1-0 after a win over Duke.  After Army trounced the Gamecocks 45-8, then shut out Penn State, 28-0, and then defeated Notre Dame, the new formation - dubbed the “Lonely End” by a New York sportswriter - was the talk of the football world. (After the season, Blaik  would reveal the way Carpenter got his signals.  In those days before Connor Stalions, no one had been able to figure it out.)

Our guy was really good - as a runner, a receiver, and a passer, as well as having to play on defense.  But it was not as if Army was a one-man team.  In addition to Carpenter (who to this day prefers to be remembered as the “Lonesome (not Lonely) End,” there was big, fast running back Bob Anderson, himself a two-time All-American, and  Bob Novogratz, a two-way All-American as a guard and linebacker.

With all the attention that Army football got, it wouldn’t have been at all unreasonable for any of those others to have been awarded the Heisman, but with our guy’s absolutely amazing all-round career as a student and a West Point cadet, earning him feature  articles in several major magazines, he was the one on which the star fell.

And so, in addition to All-time greats Doc Blanchard and Glenn Davis, he became the third Army football player to win the Heisman, and he is now  its oldest living recipient.



TUESDAY,  AUGUST 27,  2024    “Activism is a way for useless people to feel important.” Thomas Sowell


*********** Wisdom from Mike Lude:  “I got involved in FFA (Future Farmers of America) in high school, and the agriculture teacher convinced me I should raise a registered Berkshire hog to show at fairs. My hog’s name was Blossom, and I’d get that porker's hair shining before parading her in the ring for judging.

“But the longer I lived  away from the farm the more unlikely it was that my future would involve farming. There were too many problems, too much work, and you always had a seven-day-a-week job. That wasn't the way I wanted to lead my life.

“When I went back to the farm for Christmas of my sophomore year, I was shoveling manure to clean out the stables, and the horses in the barnyard were getting frisky. I wasn't paying close attention as I wheeled a load of manure, and one of the horses blasted me in the side with his hind hooves. Reeling in pain, I went to the doctor in Athens again. This time the damage was a couple of broken ribs, and the doctor taped up my whole side.”


*********** We’re through our first week - and two-a-days - at Aberdeen, and I’m actually beginning to understand the terminology.  This week, practice times settle in to the in-season schedule, which is basically 5  to 7:30.  There are two reasons why we start so late: first, the soccer team has the field (and there’s only one field available); but second (and more important) like so many schools, we have a lot of coaches who have other jobs, and this works best with their schedules.



*********** COLLEGE FOOTBALL THIS PAST WEEKEND!!!

Georgia Tech 24, Florida State 21 - So many observations.

First of all, Seminoles - I don’t wanna hear no excuses.  They beat your asses.  Now STFU.  And don’t expect a big win over Boston College this weekend to atone for the monster egg you laid on national TV.

Seminole “nation” (apologies to the actual tribe) whined so loud about being “left out” of last year’s Playoff that we seldom got to hear Georgia’s rather  reasonable argument about also being left out.

Then, thinking that they were USC… or Oklahoma… or Texas - they suggested that one of the two Super conferences was eager to admit them - if only  they could break free from the ACC.

Finally, suing the ACC for their freedom, they argued that they’d been screwed over by the conference and its lesser members by having to take the same share of conference revenues as Boston College or Wake Forest. (The NFL wouldn’t be the Power that it is today if The Chicago Bears and the New York Giants, major market teams, had been owned by the kind of people who run things at Florida State.)

But on Saturday, when it came time for the talking to stop, Georgia Tech (one of those lesser members) pretty much cancelled out the efforts of a battalion of lawyers working on the Seminoles’ escape by impolitely revealing to the entire world (the world of college football, at least) that in fact, Florida State really WASN’T ready for the Big Ten or SEC.


Montana State at New Mexico - Bronco Mendenhall had to know what he was doing when he took the New Mexico job, and he put a decent team on the field.  And he certainly wasn’t the one who scheduled the Bobcats, one of the best FCS teams out there. So the Bobcats scored 21 points in the fourth quarter to come from 17 points down and upset the Lobos, 35-31. Redshirt freshman Adam Jones, a Montana kid (from Missoula), rushed 17 times for 167 yards and a TD. (The TD was a 93-yarder with 4:35 left to pull the Bobcats to within 3.)

SMU at Nevada - What it is about SMU that’s so unlikeable?  Is it maybe a player who bitch-slaps an opponent?  Or is it the one who spits in an opponent’s face?  Is there something about their coach, Rhett Lashley? (Am I confusing him with  Snidely Whiplash?)  No matter. I was pulling hard for the Wolfpack from the Mountain West.  They were four-TD underdogs, and they almost pulled it off. SMU needed 16 unanswered points in the fourth quarter to win, 29-24. 



*********** It was a thing of beauty the way Georgia Tech employed counter blocking to compile a good portion of its 190 yards on the ground - 6.5 yards per play.  Asked after the game about his line’s play, Tech coach Brent Key, a former Yellow Jacket offensive lineman,  broke into a slight smile and said, very emphatically, “RUN…THE…BALL!”

Wrote Joe Gutilla, of Granbury, Texas - Obviously Coach Key learned from the John Madden school of football.  Once a lineman...always a lineman

I figured someone else had to be watching.  It was almost as good as John Madden's introduction to my Zooms!


Tech could definitely be a team to watch.  Coach Key has got himself quite a pair of coordinators in OC Buster Faulkner and DC Tyler Santucci.

Buster Faulkner (what are the chances he could be a northerner with a name like that?) is in his second year at Tech; in his first year, the Yellow Jackets led the ACC in rushing. Previously, he was OC at Murray State, Middle Tennessee, Arkansas State and Southern Miss before spending three seasons as an “offensive quality control” guy at Georgia.

Tyler Santucci is in his first year as DC. Last year he was at Duke, as DC under Mike Elko, and Duke had the ACC’s top scoring defense, giving up just 19 points per game.  I remember noticing how well Duke tackled, and I noticed the same thing about Georgia Tech Saturday - they hit high and they stayed on their feet.  Santucci came with Elko to Duke from Texas A & M, and the wonder is that he got away from Elko and wound up at Tech instead of going to A & M.



*********** Going by research done by the Wall Street Journal,  you’d have to conclude that the pernicious  combination of the NIL and the Transfer Portal has already begun to relegate the so-called “Group of Five” conferences - American Athletic, Conference USA, The MAC, The Mountain West and the Sun Belt - to minor-league status.

After first listing the first-team all-conference selections for all five conferences and then subtracting  all those who had either graduated or left for the NFL, the Journal found that 40 per cent of last year’s all-conference selectees had already transferred to another program.

The great majority of the transfers had “moved up,”  going to a team in one of the Power Four conferences.

The trend held true for second- and third-team selections as well: 36 per cent of them had transferred.



*********** What more appropriate way could there be to open the season for what many fear might be the  start of the downfall of America’s game - college football - than to play its first game in a foreign country?


***********  I heard Jesse Palmer, doing the color on the FSU-GT game, say that one of the teams had “matriculated the ball down the the field.”  This is a weird use of a word that has nothing whatsoever to do with football, and entered football talk as a result of an NFL films production from years ago in which Chiefs’ coach Hank Stram, mic’ed up on the sidelines, was heard exhorting his team to “matriculate it down the field.” 

Anyone listening who heard that and knew what the word “matriculate” really means (to enroll at a college or university) had to go “WTF?”.  Anyone else evidently just figured that was a really big word whose use marked its user as not only a football expert, but an intelligent one at that.

I have no idea which group Jesse Palmer falls into.


*********** Amid considerable hush-hush stories, a high school in a suburb south of Denver  - Littleton - suspended all practices while investigating a report of “assault” among members of the school’s football team.

Fearing the worst - a black eye for our sport - a friend, a Colorado coach,  commented, “This won't help those of us fighting the good fight.”


*********** It’s already started - the struggle between those who, because they’ve been playing flag football for some time think they own the sport, and those who play the big boys’ version of football and think it might be fun (and lucrative) to play flag and win an Olympic gold medal.

Some guy named Darrel Doucette, who’s 35 years old and evidently was the QB on the American team that won a world championship in 2022 (does anybody else in the world play the game?) told  the Guardian that the NFL guys who try  flag might be in for a surprise: We just don’t think they’re going to be able to walk on the field and make the Olympic team because of the name, right?”

Uh, Darrel, I guess somebody had to tell you, so it might as well be me - when a TV network has spent hundreds of millions for the right to televise the Olympics, it’s doing so in the expectation that lots of people will watch the games, so that it can charge advertisers large sums to advertise things to all those people.   And the people - human nature - tend to watch athletes they know and like.  So, Darrel, you should expect people to “make the Olympic team because of the name.” I do.

And - but you probably know this - if Patrick Mahomes decides he’d like a shot at a gold medal, it’s time for you to retire.  It’s been a great career.


*********** On Reddit, I read all sorts of stories about outrageous conduct on airplanes, but I still was astounded at reading that on a recent Delta flight to Boston some former NFL lineman named Gosder Cherilus whipped it out and took a whiz on some older lady.


*********** If the article below is any indication of the quality of robot writing, I  think a future full of articles written by AI is still a fair distance away.  Actually it mostly  depends on whether people are still able to read well enough to tell the difference.

Jamie Lissow age and Career: Jamie is well known and famous American Actor and a comedian. He is higher recognized for his full call Jamie Lissow. He becomes born in united nation. His exact date of birth is not known but approx. it is 191 – 1976. Jamie Lissow has American nationality. He has completed his faculty examine at Greece Olympia excessive school, Rochester, New York. Jamie Lissow has graduated from the state university of New York University, Fredonia.

***********  It was possibly the first Double Wing win of any team this season, but it was definitely Mike Foristiere’s first win in his new job, as his Marsing (Idaho) Huskies beat Cole Valley Christian, 28-16, Friday night.

We were able to watch the game on the NFHS Network, and considering his kids had had just ten practices, I was very impressed.  The stats, provided to me by Mike, show that the Huskies  rushed for 421 yards and passed for 141. (562 yards in total offense ain’t  shabby.)

Most impressive to me was that Mike’s kids came from behind twice to finally take the lead and pull away for the win.



*********** There are times when a change of coaches can make a huge and immediate difference.  Such was the case with the Dolphins, and the effect the hiring of Mike McDaniel has had on QB Tua Tagovailoa.

Evidently, he didn’t enjoy life under the previous coach, Brian Flores:

"To put it in simplest terms, if you woke up every morning and I told you [that] you suck at what you did, that you don't belong doing what you do, that you shouldn't be here, that this guy should be here, that you haven't earned this right, and then you have somebody else come in and tell you, 'Dude, you are the best fit for this,'" he said in the interview. "How would it make you feel listening to one or the other, you see what I'm saying?

"And then you hear it, no matter what it is, the good or the bad, you hear it more and more, you start to believe that. I don't care who you are. You could be the president of the United States, you have a terrible person telling you things that you don't want to hear or probably shouldn't be hearing, you're going to start believing that about yourself. And so that's what sort of ended up happening. It was, it's basically been what two years of training that out of not just me but a couple of guys as well that have been here my rookie year all the way until now.”

During his rookie season in 2020, Tagovailoa was replaced twice in the fourth quarter of games by veteran Ryan Fitzpatrick. Then, in 2021, there was speculation the Dolphins were interested in trading for quarterback Deshaun Watson.

The Dolphins fired Flores after the 2021 season, replacing him with McDaniel in 2022.

In his first season under McDaniel, Tagovailoa threw for 3,548 yards and 25 touchdowns despite missing four games due to multiple concussions. Last season, he led the NFL with 4,624 passing yards, threw for a career-best 29 touchdowns and earned his first Pro Bowl selection.

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/40918015/candid-tua-tagovailoa-calls-brian-flores-coaching-style


***********   There are 31 new head coaches in FBS football; the Mountain West has eight of them, far more than any other conference.


*********** That “two minute timeout” that’s new to college football?  The name is a bit confusing - it doesn’t mean that that’s the length of the time out (although perhaps it is).

It is the college equivalent of the NFL’s two-minute warning (which once was needed, in the days when the “official” time was kept on the field by an official, and the scoreboard clock showed  just  the approximate time remaining.  The clock may have shown 0:00 but the game wasn’t officially over until the official charged with keeping the time fired his gun.  Yes, a gun.  True, it fired blanks, but it was still a - gasp - gun.


***********   I cannot understand the so-called "business acumen" of the WNBA.

As George Halas said - the point of it all is to PUT BUTTS IN THE SEATS!

Here we have Caitlin Clark, who, hands down, is the most exiting & watchable player in WNBA history, and what do they do?

- freeze her out of the Olympics

(Did anybody watch the women's team? Especially after Caitlin and company beat them!)

Then, they've got her remaining 12 games on hard-to-find channels,
"ION"?
Or, pay channels "NBATV"

So here we have the most fun-to-watch/exciting player in the history of the league, and

I CAN'T FIND HER!

There's only ONE reason to watch the WNBA, & they hide her, ban her, and outright bully her.

What clueless assclown incompetents are running the show?

John Rothwell, DC
Corpus Christi, Texas



***********  CFB has for several seasons followed the NFL and NBA in scheduling games in Europe. Even MLB has gotten in on the act by playing in Mexico City and Havana. I don't like it. I can see some modicum of logic in Notre Dame playing in Dublin, but FSU-GT? And one of the reasons I don't like it is because the crowd doesn't react like an American audience...because it doesn't know the rules, and most in the audience probably know little about the schools. I wonder whose idea it was to put on these games in Dublin? Will it be Frankfurt next year?

The great Cutcliffe says down close the under center is preferable? Going Woke, David?

If only 38% of baseball fans are Dems, I'm happy to be a baseball fan.

John Vermillion                        
St Petersburg, Florida



***********   Hugh,

Yes, I was one of those who were "too kind."  But, it just got me fired up a little earlier is all.

Won't be long before Sam Ponders is working in sports media again, particularly football.  Aside from her own abilities and knowledge her husband still has a lot of connections in pro football.  FOX Sports maybe??

There already has been a few former NFL players indicating their interest in playing flag football for Team USA.  Thus validating your claim that the roster will be littered with them and that they will cruise to a gold medal.  Guaranteeing the NFL some games in other far off lands.

I was surprised to learn that 31% of Texas Rangers fans were Democrats.  I thought it would be much lower than that.  Maybe the poll was taken in Dallas only.  If it was taken throughout the North Texas region I'm betting the percentage would be much lower.

Been helping out with a local six-man high school football team.  After all is said and done it's still about blocking and tackling, but a LOT more running, and a LOT more scoring!  Down here they say the toughest job in high school football is being a DC for a six-man football team.  Shorter and narrower field (80x40).  4 pts. for a FG.  2 pts. for a PAT.  1 pt. for a run/pass conversion after a TD.  Must be an exchange of hands before QB can direct run with the ball.  Everyone is eligible to catch a pass.  You'll see tight formations and spread formations.  You'll see the QB under center and in shotgun.  You'll see a lot of laterals.  If at any point in a game one team is up by 45 points the game is called.  I've seen games called before halftime!  Mostly played by really small schools in rural communities, or really small private schools/home school teams.  Yet, some of the best six-man teams have rosters of 30, but others as low as 12.

Want a good laugh?  Babylon Bee has a video on YouTube called "California Fleein'".  I couldn't copy the link to the email but you should check it out.  Pretty funny, but spot on!

Have a great week!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas


 







*********** QUIZ ANSWER:  Napoleon McCallum played his high school ball in the Cincinnati area, at Milford High School.  Going both  ways, he rushed for 1,625 yards, scored 17 touchdowns, and intercepted 12 passes and was named  all-Southwest Ohio and all-city.

Although recruited by bigger schools such as NC State, Syracuse and Tennessee, he chose Navy because it alone offered him the opportunity to play on offense and run the ball.

At Navy, he was twice a consensus All-American.

In his junior year, running, receiving and returning kicks and punts, he led the nation on all-purpose yards and finished sixth in the Heisman voting.

In the second game of his senior year he broke his ankle and missed the rest of the season.  Given an extra year by both the NCAA and the Naval Academy,  he returned for another year and for a second time led the nation in all-purpose yards.    He was seventh nationally in rushing and tenth in kickoff returns, and  finished seventh in the Heisman race.

After graduating in December with a degree in computer science, he was drafted in the fourth round by the Los Angeles Raiders,  despite the fact that he was required to serve on active duty in the Navy.

It was his good fortune to be stationed in nearby Long Beach, enabling him  to play an entire rookie season while on active duty.  Sharing running duties with Marcus Allen, he rushed for 536 yards.

Possibly in reaction to criticism that he had received preferential treatment as an athlete, McCallum was reassigned to overseas duty, and as a result he missed three NFL seasons while serving out his service commitment.

After his discharge, he returned to the Raiders, but now he found himself playing mostly special teams, and used only sparingly as a running back behind Allen.

In one playoff game against the Broncos, he did run for three touchdowns.

In the opening game of his fifth NFL season, on a Monday Night Football game against the 49ers, he suffered a serious injury that cost him his career and - without going into the gruesome details - nearly cost him his leg. 

With a return to football out of the question,  he and his wife and four daughters moved to Las Vegas, where he  started a graphics fabrication business, providing signage  for casinos and conventions as well as local businesses.

For the last several years, Napoleon McCallum has worked for the The Las Vegas Sands Corporation as its Director of Community Development. He is deeply involved in the community, and with his connections he was able to play a major role in the Raiders’ move to Las Vegas.

He is in the College Football Hall of Fame.



CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING NAPOLEON MCCALLUM

GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK LOUISIANA
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
JOE BREMER - WEST SENECA, NEW YORK
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
PETE PORCELLI - WATERVLIET, NEW YORK
MIKE FORISTIERE - MARSING, IDAHO
TOM DAVIS - SAN MARCOS, CALIFORNIA
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON

 





*********** QUIZ: He was personable and good-looking.  He socialized with the rich and famous. He was a football and media star for so long that few people ever knew of his hard upbringing.

He played his high school ball in Bakersfield, California. The school’s nickname, the Drillers, announced to one and all that Bakersfield was an oil town.  A tough town.

But he didn’t grow up in Bakersfield.  It was the last stop in a remarkable boyhood journey.

As he wrote in his autobiography, “The Whole Ten Yards,”

My mother once figured out that by the time I started high school, we had lived in 47 different towns.

My father started working in the oil fields at the age of 16, breaking in as a “roughneck” – the lowest job in the trade. Wherever a new field opened up, that's where my dad went. The problem was that this was the Depression, and nothing was more depressed than the California oil industry. No one was pumping oil or exploring for oil because nobody was buying oil. An oil worker’s job would last anywhere from 30 to 90 days, depending on how fast the well was dug, and then he'd have to find out  where else they were drilling, assuming that there was a somewhere else.

I don't remember completing a single grade in the same grammar school. 

I've read “The Grapes of Wrath,” and I guess we were part of that scenario. We just never realized it. As a little kid, growing up in the 30s, I thought everyone lived like this. It wasn't until I was eight or nine that I started to realize there were people who lived better than we did, that there were people who stayed home. Our home was wherever the job was.

My high school in Bakersfield had more than 5000 kids, definitely the bottom of the social economic ladder. Many of them were the children of farmers and oil workers. They were tough kids – black, Spanish, poor whites, kids like me. Consequently, the school enjoyed a great football tradition. 

There, he ran into a high school coach named Homer Beatty who,  as he related, 

“built his offense around me. I know I was a pretty good passer and an even better running back. In order to utilize both of those talents, Homer shifted us out of a T-formation into a single wing. As the tailback, I'd take a direct snap from center and either throw the ball or run it. I also punted, kicked conversions, and ran back kick offs. Suddenly, I was doing things I always suspected were within my capability but had never been able to bring off. Suddenly, I started to realize, I can play.

Of all the coaches I've had, from Jim Lee Howell to Vince Lombardi to Allie Sherman, I learned more about football from Homer Beatty than anyone else. All the great coaches are essentially great teachers. Lombardi taught high school mathematics. Homer taught Phys Ed.  And on the field, he taught us remarkably sophisticated stuff, things none of our peers were learning. He taught us to read defenses and change a lot of plays at the line of scrimmage. He  taught our offensive lineman intricate blocking techniques and how to really blow off the ball. 

Most important, he taught us attitude. I learned from Homer Beatty that if you invest your heart in it and work hard enough, you can accomplish pretty damn near anything. It sounds corny and old-fashioned, yet it's true. So many people, I've noticed, aren't willing to expend the necessary perspiration. Of course, with Homer in charge, there was no other option. When he asked us to do 20 wind sprints, we knew we were going to do 20 wind sprints. And if you couldn't, you were going to stay there until you could.

As the months passed, Homer became a sort of big brother to me. We began talking to each other man-to-man. We discovered we had similar backgrounds: two blue-collar children of the oil fields. He should have become a famous college coach, but, being Homer, he refused to do the necessary butt kissing. Basically, that's what a lot of college coaches have to do: trot off to alumni dinners and ass-kiss some guy into changing his will so the university gets left a lot of money. The word got around that Homer wouldn't play that game. He'd just say, in his own way, screw you people. He was a loner, a tough guy - a Bakersfield guy. Later, as an extraordinarily successful junior college coach, he enjoyed such respect that he started doing clinics all over the country. Hundreds of high school and college coaches would attend them. He also wrote how-to books and put out how-to films. It always blew my mind that my high school coach knew more football than anyone I've ever met.

To make a short story of it, he was recruited heavily by USC, but he hadn’t taken his schoolwork seriously and he didn’t have the grades to get in, so he had to spend a year at Bakersfield Junior College.  He had a great season - he made Junior College All-American, along with a couple of other guys named Ollie Matson and Hugh McElhenny.

But he still didn’t have the grades to get into USC.  His coach, Homer Beatty, convinced the people  there that he was worth taking, which they agreed to do on the condition that he make up work in their “extension division.”

But  first, USC had to win him away from Arizona, which had offered him a car and $500 a month - an astronomical amount at that time.

Once again, Homer Beatty intervened.  “Look,” he asked. “Do you want to play for Arizona  or do you want to play in the Los Angeles Coliseum for the University of Southern California Trojans?”

USC won the day, but his early adjustment there was not easy.  As he told it,

“USC was sort of a rich kids’ playground, and I was poorer than a church mouse. When I arrived at midterm, a friend of Homer Beatty's and USC’s Director of alumni, Nick Pappas, rented me his converted garage across the street from the practice field. I lived there for two years. Since my scholarship paid only for tuition, not for room and board, the school gave me what they called an O & M job which stood for Office and maintenance. That's a fancy term for cleaning up the gym every morning and evening, mopping the locker rooms and such. It paid $75 a month.

Under Homer's compromise, I was attending night school, not having enough credits to get into the regular undergraduate division. Pacific Coast Conference bylaws forbid such students from participating in athletics until their sophomore year. That meant I couldn't go out for spring football practice, which was crucial for anyone hoping to make an impression on the coaches.  The frustration of that didn't really hit me until my first night class. I knew that USC had also recruited Hugh McElhenny, a great junior college halfback and a friend who later became a Hall of Fame running back for the 49ers, the Vikings, and the Giants. And I knew they were also making him go the night school route. On the first night of class, I'm sitting at a desk listening to my first roll call.

“McElhenny? Hugh McElhenny? No Hugh McElhenny?”

The next morning, I picked up a newspaper and learned that Hugh had pulled a last-minute switch to the University of Washington. A smart move on his part because I later heard that Washington gave him several hundred dollars a month along with a new car. (For the way McElhenny performed over the next three years, they should have given him an entire fleet.)

Meanwhile, the guys in the USC athletic department came up with a scheme to get around my spring practice problem. "Look, we've got 130 players out there,” they said. "Who's going to notice if we have one more?” So that's what we did. I worked out with the team all week, but never during scrimmages, when the press usually came around. Whenever a reporter popped up, I had to vanish. It was humiliating. I had left Bakersfield a junior college all American for a place that was treating me like an illegal alien. 

As it later turned out, USA paid a price for its little scam. A Los Angeles reporter got wind of it and wrote a big story, and the Pacific Coast Conference fined the school $2500 for letting an ineligible player work out. That was the first time my name made the papers while in college – as a guy who’d been hiding out from the Press. Now I felt like a notorious illegal alien.

Okay.  He went on to start, and play, and become an All-American at USC.

Picked in the first round of the NFL draft by the New York Giants, he played 12 years with the Giants, although he did miss one entire season as a result of an injury incurred after he was on the receiving end of one of the most vicious hits in pro football history.

The Giants of the 1950s were like gods in New York City, then the nation’s media capital. While he played for them (in the pre-Super Bowl era)  they appeared in five NFL title games.  As perhaps the Giants’ premier star,  he was a major poster boy for the NFL as it made its climb to the top of the American sports scene.

He was six times named first-team All Pro… he played in eight pro bowls… He was the NFL’s Most Valuable Player in 1956, and its Comeback Player of the Year in 1962… He was named to the NFL’s 1950s All-Decade Team… He is in the Giants’ Ring of Honor.

In addition to his athletic ability, he was blessed with movie-star good looks and a good voice.  It didn’t hurt that he had played his entire career in New York, because shortly after retirement he wound up as the play-by-play man on Monday Night Football, the highest-rated program in television, and he spent 27 years on the job. He’s perhaps best remembered for his work in the booth with Howard Cosell and Don Meredith, adroitly managing in his highly professional manner to keep those two antagonists apart, while ever ready himself with a dry, humorous observation of his own.

He also did other major sports events, including the Olympics.

He was married three times. The first time, while in college, was to the USC homecoming queen.   The third time was to a woman who was a TV star in her own right.

He is in both the College Football and Pro Football Halls of Fa



FRIDAY,  AUGUST 23, 2024    "You only find out who's been swimming naked when the tide goes out." Warren Buffett


I'M SORRY IT'S THIN GRUEL TODAY...It's Thursday night  at 6:30 and I have to admit I'm a bit tired.

IT'S BEEN TWO-A-DAYS THIS WEEK AT ABERDEEN, and I haven't had a minute to tend to the things that normally occupy my time.  Saturday will be the last of the twice-daily sessions, and next week the customary daily practices begin. 

At the end of next week we'll play in a jamboree at Orting, Washington, and the following Friday we open at home against Olympic High, of Bremerton.

To be honest, I am just begining to understand the offensive terminology, but quarterback play is quarterback play, and the kids I have to work with are first rate.  There isn't a dime's differnce between the two varsity contenders - they're both smart, both coachable and dependable - and both have strong arms.   We have a couple of good-looking running backs, and some receivers with very good hands. And I think our line will come along. 

Saturday, we'll put the pads on for the first time. We haven't had a lot of defensive work yet, but after what I saw at our team camp this past summer, I'm not overly concerned - I've seen the way these kids hit.

This a really great group of kids to work with.  They are respectful and coachable and  they really enjoy being together.   And, frankly, they have a bit of devilishness in them.

Coach Todd Bridge runs a tight enough ship, which I really like. But we do a lot of laughing, too.

I'm having a ball, but to be truthful, I am looking forward to a little time off. .  See you  Tuesday.




TUESDAY,  AUGUST 20, 2024    "The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.” - George Orwell, 1984

*********** Wisdom from Mike Lude:  “When I returned to the farm for Christmas vacation during my first year in high school, I developed a terrible stomach ache; I was in excruciating pain. My dad got the doctor to come the 8 miles from Athens and he poked around my belly and said, "I'll tell you, John, he's got appendicitis. We better take him to the hospital.” They hauled me to a big house in Vicksburg that had been converted into a hospital and yanked out my appendix. My dad actually scrubbed up and observed the surgery. "Wanted to keep a watch so the doctor wouldn't take anything else out,” he said seriously.

“I was beginning to emerge socially. During my sophomore year I had my first girlfriend. Her name was Pauline Klein, and she was a senior. Her sister, Cecelia, was in my class and my best pal, Bill Miller, fell in love with her. So we were dating the Klein sisters. The family owned a mint farm that was very successful. The girls always had a new Ford to drive to school, more than a fringe benefit in the romance.  But we split after Pauline graduated.  Cecilia later married Joe Semyczuk, who went from Vicksburg to play football for and graduate from Notre Dame.

“One of our favorite places was the Crystal Palace at Paw Paw Lake, where many of the touring big bands came to play. I remember when Bill Miller and I hauled coal ashes in a trailer behind grandma's Chevy to earn cash to take our girlfriends to the Crystal Palace. In my senior year I was quite smitten with a red-haired Irish girl named Molly McGuire from Kalamazoo Central. We corresponded for a couple of months after I went to Hillsdale College, but soon the college girls started looking a lot better.


*********** COLLEGE FOOTBALL THIS WEEKEND!!!

(How many of you besides my friend Tom Hinger, of Winter Haven, Florida noticed that I printed this a week early - but, unlike my  friend Tom Hinger,  were too kind to point it out to me?)

Florida State and Georgia Tech - In Dublin - Noon Eastern, ESPN

Montana State at New Mexico - 4 PM Eastern (FS1)

SMU at Nevada - 8 PM Eastern (CBSSN)

Delaware State at Hawaii - MIDNIGHT Eastern -  If you get Spectrum PPV


*********** In the Pittsburgh Tribune. columnist Mark Madden predicts that if you like watching US pros destroy amateurs from  small foreign countries, you’ll LOVE Olympic  flag football…

False and misguided patriotism duly noted, the U.S. men’s basketball team winning gold at the Olympics (as pre-ordained by a string of double-digit point spreads) was farcical to the objective eye, best exemplified by LeBron James dunking over some swizzle stick from South Sudan, then going through his flexing and roaring routine.

On a grade-school playground, that’s bullying.

On a basketball court in Paris, it fairly drips red, white and blue.

“What could be worse?” is a question to ponder, but the answer seems obvious even now: Flag football at the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

Besides the U.S., who the heck plays flag football? The U.S. will use ex-pros, preferably with name value, thus giving the NFL a tenuous link with the Olympics. Because of that connection, Olympic flag football will flood TV.

The resultant dominos falling will lead to some ex-NFL receiver — might I suggest JuJu Smith-Schuster — scoring seven touchdowns against, say, Tanzania. After each of those touchdowns, he executes a made-for-TV celebration that could be strung together, all seven of them, to script a Broadway musical. Call it “The Ugly American.”

The only nation that might hang with the U.S. is Canada. If Sidney Crosby plays.

It will be an absolute excrement show but will be drowned in endless glory, because it’s a way to kind of get the NFL into the Olympics.

It’s going to be terrible.

Even more terrible, you’re going to love it. It will again prove that our way of life is better.

U-S-A! U-S-A!

*********** Sam Ponders was fired by ESPN.

You knew her time there was short when she turned out to be the only woman on staff who dared to say that men don’t belong in women’s sports.


*********** No doubt by now you’ve seen it.

But if by chance you were on Mars over the weekend…

I happened to be watching the Chiefs-Lions game when it occurred - when Mahomes  threw a pass to Kelce for a first down.

It was a nice little play, a sort of tight end delay.

Oh - and Mahomes threw the ball behind his back.


*********** It wasn’t the best of weekends for big name QBs.

The Bears’ Caleb Williams’ first three series resulted in three-and-outs.

The Steelers’ Russell Wilson was sacked three times - in the first quarter alone.  (Two of the sacks were by Greg Rousseau, who  simply bull-rushed the man “blocking” him.) In all, Wilson averaged 1.4 yards per play.

Wrote Mark Madden in the Pittsburgh Tribune, “Russell Wilson played five series at quarterback, Justin Fields five series. If there is a competition for the starting QB job, Saturday's result was akin to a scoreless tie. Bad soccer.”


*********** One of the Steelers’ QBs was Ben DiNucci, whom you uncertainly remember from his playing in spring 2023 for the  XFL Seattle Sea Dragons.


*********** Tired of Peyton Manning yet?


*********** Well Duh Department.  Said the Steelers’ play by play guy about some rookie - “He was a championship wrestler,  and he’s really good at that …”


*********** I don’t know the source of these figures, but evidently some survey has shown that 38 percent of Major League Baseball fans identify as Democrats.  On a team-by-team basis, the New York Mets were highest, with 42 percent of their fans claiming to be Democrats, while the Texas Rangers were lowest, at 31 per cent.


*********** Headline in the Babylon Bee:  "'I Will Fix Things If You Vote Me Into Office,' Says Woman Currently In Office.”


*********** The Edmonton Elks, who less than a month ago were  the sorriest-ass team in the CFL, have now won  three in a row after defeating Hamilton, 47-22.

It’s probably just coincidental, but at the game we were introduced to the new owner of the Elks.  Actually, they were careful to introduce him as the “private owner,” since he will be the first actual person to own the team which, like some of the teams in Western Canada, was  (as I understand it) community-owned.


*********** There was a nice crowd on hand in BC Place Stadium in Vancouver to see Nathan Rourke make his first start  for the BC Lions  this weekend.   But the Winnipeg Blue Bombers had other ideas, and intercepted Rourke twice - he didn’t throw a touchdown pass - on their way to a 20-11 win.


*********** Montreal quarterback Davis Alexander, a Portland State kid from Gig Harbor, Washington, won his third straight game in relief of Cody Fajardo, as the Alouettes defeated the Saskatchewan Rough Riders, 27-24.  The winning score came when Alexander tightrope walked along the sideline from 15 yards out to score with under three minutes to play.

As a passer, he was 22 of 33 for 285 yards and a touchdown.


*********** It’s not as if I’m not waiting eagerly for the start of “our” football, but I will greatly miss the CFL when it gets pushed off American TV.  I do know that  if all the football haters in America were ever to succeed in outlawing the sport (in today’s America, anything’s possible) I could survive if there were still a CFL.


*********** I’ve said, from time to time, that football would be a better game if offensive linemen had to wear boxing gloves.

So I had to laugh when the CFL  guys began sharing remembrances of Dan Dorazio, a longtime CFL offensive line coach who’d recently passed away, and one of the guys remembered the time he got so pissed off at his guys for getting holding calls that he made  them practice with oven mitts. 


*********** A female reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle (at least I consider HER a female, although SHE does seem to expect others to use the pronouns “they” and “them” in referring to HER) wrote “I took a trip to Trump country.  It was more bleak than I had imagined.”

Needless to say, crap like that usually make its way to the conservative site Free Republic, where its devotees then take great delight in taking shots at it.

One example, from “Trump country”:

I live in Rural Alabama.
This is what I never see:
People crapping in the street.
People pushing old folks off stairs or into subway or train tracks.
Used hypodermic needles anywhere.
Guys having public sex with each other.
People selling drugs on every street corner.
Hookers plying their wares up and down the boulevard.

Now, it’s not all fun and games. I do see:
Little country churches everywhere, usually nestled in the woods with gorgeous lawns and grounds.
Deer, bobcats, turkeys, bears, racoons, possums, armadillos, gators, buzzards, hawks, eagles, doves, mockingbirds, blue birds, yellow-billed cuckoos and lots of red cardinals.
Huge stately trees. Mostly Loblolly pine, long leaf pine, black oak, post oak, pecan, sweet gum, tulip poplar, redbud, dogwood, crepe myrtle.
Too much kudzu, Chinese privet, Japanese honeysuckle, bradford pear —all invasive species.
Too many poor folks with hearts of gold that are not at all blaming others or the man for their condition.


*********** Not too long ago I was watching a film of a clinic by David Cutcliffe in which he said that at least down in close, he thinks that having the QB under center is preferable, because with the shotgun snap, an errant snap always has the potential to disrupt the timing of a run play.

So there were the Lions, down 23-21 to the Chiefs  with 2:19 to play, third and goal on the KC four yard line.  And they fumbled. Reason? The QB had to reach high for a bad snap, and  as a result he wound up “handing” the ball to the runner at his shoulder - way too high for him to grasp the ball.


***********   ”Only after I had graduated from college did my dad tell me that he and the coach had agreed that I needed to be more disciplined about my study habits and giving me a failing grade might be a way to get my attention. It worked." ~ That's incredible! Can you imagine parents doing this today?!

Adam Wesoloski
Pulaski, Wisconsin

Today, when a kid gets a failing grade,  Daddy (or Mommy) will be in the principal’s office the next day, accusing that teacher of keeping him from getting into Harvard.


***********   At last you reveal how Whitey helped young Mikey in the classroom. Those Michigander coaches sure are sneaky, ain't they? That sneakiness gets passed down to future generations.

Gotta give OKST and CU credit for taking on the FCS titans. It's not far-fetched to imagine either FBS team losing.

Great advice from Kern Tips slash Darrell Royal. Falls under the heading of Preparation, I think.

Not done listening to Rabbi Wolpe, but I've heard enough to know he has it together.


Answer = Jerry Caliborne. A quiet man, he coached in the Blanton Collier style. He was one of my favorites, because I thought he brought out the best and most in what he had.

John Vermillion                        
St Petersburg, Florida


***********   Hugh,

Florida State vs. Georgia Tech in Ireland, should be a competitive game.  But I have to pull for the Ramblin' Wreck and a son of Texas in QB Haynes King in this one.  I'm still not sold on D.J. Uiagaleilei, and I don't think he brings the same game to the table as Jordan Travis did.

The Montana State-New Mexico game will be interesting.  Bronco Mendenhall knows how to build a program and will have his Lobos prepared, but I've known MSU coach Brent Vigen since his days as an assistant and OC at North Dakota State, his Bobcats won't be intimidated in Albuquerque.

Once a Marine, ALWAYS a Marine!  Give me JD Vance ANY day!

After seeing the mileage chart you put together for UCLA it validated my prediction that the Bruins won't be long for the BIG.  Two years and they will be crying to get back to the west coast.

Enjoy the weekend!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas

I thought DJ was a HUGE disappointment at Oregon State last year. He is definitely not an upgrade from Travis, who I really liked - a guy so good that the Playoff Committee wouldn't let FSU in without him!.


 

*********** QUIZ  ANSWER: Jerry Claiborne was born in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, the eighth of nine children.  In  high school he earned  letters in football, basketball, tennis and track, then went on to Kentucky, where he played end, blocking back and defensive back for Bear Bryant.

After  earning a degree in mathematics and physical education with high distinction,  he coached football for two years at a military school, then spent nine years as a college assistant - eight of them under Bryant  at Kentucky, then Texas A&M, then Alabama. (He was on the A & M staff during the famous “Junction Boys” time.)

He  was a head coach for 28 years - 10 years at Virginia Tech,  10 years at Maryland  and 8 years at Kentucky.

At  Virginia Tech, he started the Hokies on their path to the Big Time, posting a 69-31-2 record.  

At Maryland, the school had won just nine games in five years, but he had a winner his second year. From 1973 to 1978, his teams made it to six consecutive bowl games. In 1974 he was the Sporting News Coach of the Year. His 1976 team went 11-1 and ranked eighth in the Associated Press poll. In his ten years at Maryland, his record was 77-37-3.

In 1982, he returned to his alma-mater, Kentucky.  The Wildcats had suffered  four straight losing seasons, but he took them to bowl games his second and third years.

In his final season, Kentucky won the College Football Association's Academic Achievement Award as the major college team with the highest graduation rate.

He retired  following the 1989 season,  saying his heart was no longer in it. His wife would say later that she thought Alzheimer's disease was the reason.

Jerry Claiborne’s  career record was 179-122-8.  He took 11 of his teams to postseason bowl games.

At the time,  his 179 wins ranked him  fourth in victories among active major college coaches, behind only Bo Schembechler of Michigan with 234, Joe Paterno of Penn State with 219, and Bobby Bowden of Florida State with 193.

He was noted for his hard-nosed approach to the game, for his strict adherence to rules, and for his concern for the welfare of his players, on and off the field.

Said one of his former players, “He had his morals and his goals set in stone, and he never bent for them. He had a strong faith. He didn't drink. He didn't cuss.’'

Wrote John Clay in The Lexington Herald-Leader: ''He was just an old-fashioned coach with old-fashioned values who had the one thing a lot of coaches and administrators preach, but too few actually have. He had integrity.''

''I want to be remembered as a guy who did the best he could with what he had, and that we tried to run a program that was within the rules,'' Claiborne  once said. ''Our rules were that if that rule didn't make the kid a better person, a better student and a better athlete, then we'd throw out the rule.''

CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING JERRY CLAIBORNE

GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK LOUISIANA
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY (“His brother George was my high school coach.”)
MIKE FORISTIERE - MARSING, IDAHO




*********** QUIZ:  He played his high school ball in the Cincinnati area, at Milford High School.  Going both  ways, he rushed for 1,625 yards, scored 17 touchdowns, and intercepted 12 passes and was named  all-Southwest Ohio and all-city.

Although recruited by bigger schools such as NC State, Syracuse and Tennessee, he chose Navy because it alone offered him the opportunity to play on offense and run the ball.

At Navy, he was twice a consensus All-American.

In his junior year, running, receiving and returning kicks and punts, he led the nation on all-purpose yards and finished sixth in the Heisman voting.

In the second game of his senior year he broke his ankle and missed the rest of the season.  Given an extra year by both the NCAA and the Naval Academy,  he returned for another year and for a second time led the nation in all-purpose yards.    He was seventh nationally in rushing and tenth in kickoff returns, and  finished seventh in the Heisman race.

After graduating in December with a degree in computer science, he was drafted in the fourth round by the Los Angeles Raiders,  despite the fact that he was required to serve on active duty in the Navy.

It was his good fortune to be stationed in nearby Long Beach, enabling him  to play an entire rookie season while on active duty.  Sharing running duties with Marcus Allen, he rushed for 536 yards.

Possibly in reaction to criticism that he had received preferential treatment as an athlete, he was reassigned to overseas duty, and as a result he missed three NFL seasons while serving out his service commitment.

After his discharge, he returned to the Raiders, but now he found himself playing mostly special teams, and used only sparingly as a running back behind Allen.

In one playoff game against the Broncos, he did run for three touchdowns.

In the opening game of his fifth NFL season, on a Monday Night Football game against the 49ers, he suffered a serious injury that cost him his career and - without going into the gruesome details - nearly cost him his leg. 

With a return to football out of the question,  he and his wife and four daughters moved to Las Vegas, where he  started a graphics fabrication business, providing signage  for casinos and conventions as well as local businesses.

For the last several years, he has worked for the The Las Vegas Sands Corporation as its Director of Community Development. He is deeply involved in the community, and with his connections he was able to play a major role in the Raiders’ move to Las Vegas.

He is in the College Football Hall of Fame.


FRIDAY,  AUGUST 16,  2024    “When you have been robbed, any strange sound in the house sounds like a thief.” Rabbi David Wolpe

*********** Wisdom from Mike Lude:  “The basketball gymnasium was even worse than the football field. The gym was so small that other schools refused to play in Vicksburg. It was impossible to shoot the ball on an arc from any distance without hitting the ceiling, and the free-throw circles overlapped the center circle. If both teams used a zone defense the final score would likely end up 2–0. It's no wonder we didn't have a basketball team.

“I played catcher on the baseball team in the spring, but I was certainly better at football. Baseball was fun, but our coaches had limited skills in teaching fundamentals, like hitting.

“My dad respected Whitey Linton’s tough, no-nonsense approach to football, and they became friends. Coach Hinton would come out to the farm in the fall, and we would all go hunting. My dad had a great springer spaniel named Duke, who flushed and retrieved pheasants extremely well.

“In addition to coaching football, Whitey Linton taught history, and I thought I was doing quite well in his class. I was only a so-so student, but I wanted to impress Clinton so I worked especially hard. To my absolute shock, in one grading period, he flunked me. I was humiliated and decided I needed to take my classroom work a lot more seriously. Only after I had graduated from college did my dad tell me that he and the coach had agreed that I needed to be more disciplined about my study habits and giving me a failing grade might be a way to get my attention. It worked. “



*********** The source of today’s quote, Rabbi David Wolpe, was once named America’s Most Influential Rabbi.   Back in March, when colleges were beset by “protests,” he delivered a talk entitled “Harvard, Anti-Semitism and Resilience.”  Take the time, if you can spare it, to listen.  This guy is GOOD.

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedidavid+wolpe+quotes.org%2Fwiki%2FDavid_Wolpe#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:09e818a5,vid:XpXTCIH06kc,st:0


*********** CFL Update:  Heading into this weekend (it’s week 11 already!), only two of the nine teams will be going with their original starting quarterbacks. Calgary’s Jake Maier and Winnipeg’s Zach Collaros are the lone hangers-on.

Nathan Rourke, a native Canadian who played at Ohio U, has spent the last season knocking around the NFL, and since his recent release he has been signed by the B.C. Lions to a (by Canadian standards) record-breaking three-year contract.

The Lions now have themselves a  potential quarterback controversy, since they also have an all-star in Vernon Adams,  currently sidelined with a knee injury.


*********** COLLEGE FOOTBALL THIS WEEKEND!!!

ALL ON SATURDAY

Florida State and Georgia Tech - In Dublin - Noon Eastern, ESPN

Montana State at New Mexico - 4 PM Eastern (FS1)

SMU at Nevada - 8 PM Eastern (CBSSN)

Delaware State at Hawaii - MIDNIGHT Eastern -  If you get Spectrum PPV



***********  After a congressman (Democratic) disparaged Ohio Senator (and Republican Vice-Presidential candidate) J. D. Vance’s service in Iraq as a Marine combat correspondent,  in Monday’s Wall Street Journal, a retired Marine lieutenant colonel named Paul W. Steketee came to the defense of Senator Vance - and every man who now serves or has served in the Marine Corps, regardless of his “occupational specialty.”

Colonel Steketee began by citing General Alfred M Gray’s  observation that “every Marine is at his core a rifleman,” and proceeded to say, among other things…

Combat correspondents are active participants in the fight. Each one is armed with a rifle as well as a camera and notepad. Combat correspondents were killed in the Pacific, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan. They provide security, return fire, and capture the stark and brutal reality of war.

Enlisted Marines endure the crucible of recruit training and basic infantry training before specializing. There are no shortcuts to becoming a Marine – not for Marines who specialize in food service, or electricians, or the buglers who play “Taps“ at Marine Barracks Washington. All are real Marines.

The uniform of a marine is deliberately devoid of distinctions that highlight individual roles or military occupational specialties. The prominence of the eagle, globe and anchor over the Marine’s last name is a powerful symbol of this unity. It reflects a collective identity that transcends individual roles. 

***********  Found this in the files…

Football Texas Style - by Kern Tips

Darrell Royal was a product of the University of Oklahoma and its Luster-Tatum-Wilkinson years, a lad steeped in the two-way arts of offense and defense. He probably figured he was born to coach, and chased the main chance as an assistant at North Carolina State, Tulsa, and Mississippi State - then back to Mississippi state as head coach, plus another year as head man at the University of Washington.

When Dana X. Bible, in his last spring as athletic director at the University of Texas in 1957, was asked to screen candidates for Texas’s next football coach before his retirement, young Darrell Royal was on his list of interviewees.

Says Mr. Bible: “First we thought it might be wise to examine the field for possible candidates for the dual jobs of athletic director and football coach, since both would be open in 1957. But those men we would have considered seriously were well situated, with many ‘fringe benefits’ built into their jobs. We then decided to go for a young man who was a ‘comer’; we tore up the old list and made a new one.

“On that new list was Darrell Royal, and he was invited to come to Austin for an interview with our screening committee. I met him at the airport, and he asked if we could just sit in the car for a while and chat before he went to the campus to meet the committee appointed to recommend a new coach.

“He asked me to describe each of the gentlemen he was to meet shortly – their names, positions, and connections, any mannerisms, about where they would be sitting around the table, what questions they would be likely to ask him.  I answered him as fully as I could, and then we drove to the meeting.

“Frankly, I was amazed. He had never seen these men before, but when a question was asked, Royal would answer: ‘why, yes, Mr. So-and-so, I hoped you would ask that question because I know its answer is important to you because…’ and so on around the table he ‘knew’ every member of that committee.

“Royal came to Austin to talk about the job; he left Austin with the job signed, sealed, and delivered. You know, I got my first coaching job that very same way – on my first visit and interview. As I put Royal on the plane back to Washington, I couldn’t help but think about the similarity of my first and last official acts in athletics.”

(Kern Tips was a sports writer for  the Houston Chronicle from 1924-26, and its sports editor from 1926-34. From 1935-1946 he was general manager of Houston radio station KPRC, and for 32 years he was the radio voice of Southwest Conference football.)


***********  One game does not a season make, but should Bo Nix’s opening game performance be any sign  of how well he does with the Broncos this year, it might send a message to college players:  between the money to be made with NIL and the benefits of getting as much playing experience as possible, it might make a lot of sense to stay in college one more year.  Or two.  Or three.


***********  Could UCLA’s NIL collective somehow arrange for Bruins’ players to get frequent-flier miles this season?

Based on some calculations by The Athletic, here are the trips   they’ll make:

    ▪    Aug. 31: Hawaii (5,110 miles round-trip)
    ▪    Sep. 21: LSU (3,210)
    ▪    Oct. 5: Penn State (4,500)
    ▪    Oct. 19: Rutgers (4,890)
    ▪    Nov. 2: Nebraska (2,550)
    ▪    Nov. 15: Washington (1,920)

It adds up to a bit more than 22,000 miles.

Last year, their longest trip was to Corvallis, Oregon to play Oregon State. (1,520 miles round-trip).


*********** An Internet wit, commenting on how f—ked up things have become: “At least in the old days, you could smoke.


***********   What a stroke of PR genius it was on Deion Sanders’ part, hiring  Warren Sapp to coach his defensive line.

Asked by a reporter which of his players has stood out the most, he replied, “I wouldn’t single out one guy because we’re a pack… We got bullets. You get shot with a .38 or a 9 millimeter -  you pick.”


***********   I’ve heard a lot about how today’s kids and parents are “different,” and I must be fortunate not to have experienced it yet,  because a good friend of mine had a third of his team unable to practice the first day because their parents (or they) hadn’t done all the necessary paperwork.


*********** Maybe while they’re at it, they should let them hire the coaches, too.

In California, the school districts in Berkeley and Oakland  announced that kids aged 16 and 17 can now vote to elect  members of the school board.

 
***********   Oklahoma State and Colorado open against FCS opponents - but they happen to be the very best of  FCS.  The Cowboys  open against South Dakota State, the Buffalos against North Dakota State.


The South Dakota State Jackrabbits  are ranked number one and the North Dakota State Bison are ranked number two in the FCS preseason poll.

1 South Dakota St.

2 North Dakota St.

3  Montana

4  Montana St.

5  South Dakota

6  Villanova

8  Chattanooga

9  Furman

10  Sacramento St.

11  Southern Illinois

12  Richmond

13  Central Arkansas

14  UAlbany

15  UIW  9-2

16  William & Mary

17  UC Davis

18  Lafayette

19  Western Carolina

20  Illinois St.

21  Tarleton

22  North Dakota

23  Youngstown St.

24  Nicholls

25  Florida A&M



Others receiving votes: Weber State, 66; North Carolina Central, 53; Eastern Illinois, 50; UT Martin, 38; Austin Peay, 35; Northern Iowa, 33; Harvard, 32; Yale, 31; Mercer, 27; Holy Cross, 20; Howard, 20; Alabama State, 17; Northern Arizona, 17; Elon, 16; Alcorn State, 9; Duquesne, 7; North Carolina A&T, 6; Fordham, 5; Gardner-Webb, 4; Indiana State, 3; Missouri State., 3; Butler, 2; Eastern Kentucky, 2; Southeast Missouri State, 2; Eastern Washington, 1; Murray State, 1; Samford, 1; Utah Tech, 1.


*********** Not saying the Vikings have had bad luck with QBs, but - the Vikings have had bad luck with QBs.  And now, after a very promising first game, JJ McCarthy is done for the season after knee surgery. 


***********   I guess most sports sites open by quoting C.S. Lewis, who was among the greatest Christian apologists of the last century.  Of course this is the only place remotely connected to sport you'll find the great Oxford don.

I haven't seen that Nike ad you described, but in my case it makes no difference...it's still a free country, and I've stuck to a personal pledge made years ago not to buy anything more from Nike.

To hell with the anti-Chinksters. Good for the kids.

The 'Greta Thunberg' ad is awful, but worse, in my humble opinion, isn't as deceptive or misleading as the 'He Gets Us' messages. When my team was playing the SL Cards last week, I noticed that printed on the mound in large letters was that message.

John Vermillion                        
St Petersburg, FL

I don’t suppose it qualifies as a “mural” if it’s on a pitcher’s mound.  Only if it’s on a street.


***********   Hugh,

Flag football is being introduced as a new sport competition in the 28 L.A. Olympics.
I wonder how they’ll select the teams??

Spent the week in CA.  WOW.  All political ads were about how “great” Harris is, and most of them condemned Trump.  Gas prices were almost $5.00 PG…in FRESNO!

Only positives were seeing family, and the weather!  Even though it was over 100 every day there was virtually no humidity.

Glad to be back in Texas, humidity or not!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas

Joe, You think the NFL/NFLPA won’t have something to say about the selection of the US flag team?  The fighting between agents to get their players on the US team could be an Olympic sport itself.




*********** QUIZ ANSWER:  Ralph Neely was born  in Little Rock, Arkansas but grew up in Farmington, New Mexico, where in high school he was twice named an All-State tackle in football and was a  star basketball player.

At Oklahoma, playing both ways as a sophomore,  he was  second team All-Big Eight and was the Big Eight Conference sophomore lineman of the year.  He was first team All-Big Eight both his junior and senior years, and was a consensus All-American as a senior.

He was drafted by the Baltimore Colts of the NFL and the Houston Oilers of the AFL, and although the Sooners still had to play Florida State in the Gator Bowl, he accepted a deal with the Oilers that included a signing bonus and the rights to a Houston gas station.  The deal was supposed to be kept secret, but when the news leaked that he had signed with the Oilers, he was  suspended, along with two other Sooners, from playing in the bowl game (which the Sooners lost).

It wasn’t over yet.  When the Colts learned of his having signed with Houston, they traded his draft rights  to Dallas, and when he learned of the deal, he began to talk with Dallas.  And he returned his bonus check to the Oilers.

A  lawsuit followed, of course, and it threatened to stall merger talks between the two leagues,  until the Cowboys agreed to send four draft choices to the Oilers, and to play them in an annual pre-season game, in return for his exclusive services.

It was a very good deal for the Cowboys.

He immediately became  a starter, beginning his career as a right guard.  But then he was moved to left tackle where for years he was considered one of the NFL’s  top offensive linemen.

He was twice named All-Pro and played in two Pro Bowls, and he won two Super Bowl rings.

He was named to the NFL 1960s All-Decade Team.

He retired after the Cowboys’ win in Super Bowl XII.  In 13 seasons with the Cowboys, Ralph Neely   played in 172  games and in  four Super Bowls  - more, incidentally,  than any other former Sooner.


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING RALPH NEELY

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FORISTIERE - MARSING, IDAHO
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY





*********** QUIZ: He was born in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, the eighth of nine children.  In  high school he earned  letters in football, basketball, tennis and track, then went on to Kentucky, where he played end, blocking back and defensive back for Bear Bryant.

After  earning a degree in mathematics and physical education with high distinction,  he coached football for two years at a military school, then spent nine years as a college assistant - eight of them under Bryant  at Kentucky, then Texas A&M, then Alabama. (He was on the A & M staff during the famous “Junction Boys” time.)

He  was a head coach for 28 years - 10 years at Virginia Tech,  10 years at Maryland  and 8 years at Kentucky.

At  Virginia Tech, he started the Hokies on their path to the Big Time, posting a 69-31-2 record.  

At Maryland, the school had won just nine games in five years, but he had a winner his second year. From 1973 to 1978, his teams made it to six consecutive bowl games. In 1974 he was the Sporting News Coach of the Year. His 1976 team went 11-1 and ranked eighth in the Associated Press poll. In his ten years at Maryland, his record was 77-37-3.

In 1982, he returned to his alma-mater, Kentucky.  The Wildcats had suffered  four straight losing seasons, but he took them to bowl games his second and third years.

In his final season, Kentucky won the College Football Association's Academic Achievement Award as the major college team with the highest graduation rate.

He retired  following the 1989 season,  saying his heart was no longer in it. His wife would say later that she thought Alzheimer's disease was the reason.

His career record was 179-122-8.  He took 11 of his teams to postseason bowl games.

At the time,  his 179 wins ranked him  fourth in victories among active major college coaches, behind only Bo Schembechler of Michigan with 234, Joe Paterno of Penn State with 219, and Bobby Bowden of Florida State with 193.

He was noted for his hard-nosed approach to the game, for his strict adherence to rules, and for his concern for the welfare of his players, on and off the field.

Said one of his former players, “He had his morals and his goals set in stone, and he never bent for them. He had a strong faith. He didn't drink. He didn't cuss.’'

Wrote John Clay in The Lexington Herald-Leader: ''He was just an old-fashioned coach with old-fashioned values who had the one thing a lot of coaches and administrators preach, but too few actually have. He had integrity.''

''I want to be remembered as a guy who did the best he could with what he had, and that we tried to run a program that was within the rules,'' he  once said. ''Our rules were that if that rule didn't make the kid a better person, a better student and a better athlete, then we'd throw out the rule.''



TUESDAY,  AUGUST 13,  2024    “Now is our chance to choose the right side. God is holding back to give us that chance. It won’t last forever. We must take it or leave it.” C. S. Lewis


*********** Wisdom from Mike Lude:  “For a small, Class C school, Vicksburg had a strong football tradition and a top program. There were numerous Vicksburg families of Polish extraction, attracted there by jobs in the paper mill. Their kids were leading members of the football team, and several went on to play college football. One of them, Joe Gembis, competed at the University of Michigan and later was the head coach at Wayne State for many years.

“By my sophomore season I had learned most of the basics of playing guard and tackle, offense and defense, and was one of Vicksburg's most enthusiastic but hardly most talented players. The key to my success was what I later would preach as a coach: I played extremely hard, I hit hard, I was tough, and I would do whatever the coach taught me or asked me to do. I was willing to hustle and work hard, and I was extremely dedicated. I played even when I was dinged up. No one considered me a delicate eater, and I added weight through high school and was just shy of 175 pounds by my senior season. 

“Great talent? No. Size, speed? No and no. Other than an occasional fumble recovery, I rarely touched the ball. Like most linemen, I took the greatest satisfaction from the success of the team, which was substantial, words of praise from the coach (“Mike, you use your hands really well on defense out there”), and making a tackle in the other team’s backfield.

“Our two biggest rivals were Comstock and Constantine, and we had a loyal following, even though our home field lacked spectator seating. The fans, who usually included both my parents and Charlie Davidson, the Spanish-American war veteran who lived near our farm, walked the sidelines. The boosters expected us to win, and we rarely sent them home disappointed. Throughout my high school career our teams were consistently successful.”


*********** The long drought is almost over… FOOTBALL IS ALMOST BACK!!!

No, not NFL pre-season stuff.  REAL football.  You know - Delaware State at Hawaii. Okay, okay - that was meant to be a joke.

But seriously, brace yourselves, because this coming weekend will be the last one without  college football until the end of January.

This Saturday, at Noon Eastern, college football kicks off when Florida State and Georgia Tech meet.  In Dublin (ancestral home of the Seminole Nation).

Ready for more excitement?

At 4 PM Eastern, Montana State is at New Mexico (FS1)

At 8 PM Eastern, SMU is at Nevada (CBSSN)

And, as mentioned earlier - if you’re still awake - at 11:59 (Eastern) there’s Delaware State at Hawaii.  Actually, don’t bother staying up, because it’s on something called Spectrum PPV. You folks who subscribe - aren’t you pleased you get programming like this?)


***********  Should somebody maybe tell these people that in parts of the Middle East they throw gays off of rooftops?

In the planned pro-Palestinian March on the DNC - the upcoming Democratic National Convention - among the groups marching is one called Queer Palestinian Empowerment Network.


*********** When three of the four teams (Hamilton, Montreal and BC) that played in the two games televised this past weekend started backup QBs, you’d have to say that the CFL’s got some problems with their product right now.

You thought the drop-off from starter to backup is bad in the NFL? Edmonton was the only one of the four teams going with  its starter, and  the Elks (1-7 going in) beat BC (5-3 going in), 33-16.  Actually, the Elks lost their starter, too, when in the first half Tre Ford went down. but Ford’s replacement, wasn’t exactly a backup.  McLeod Bethel-Thompson is a veteran who’s won a Grey Cup, and he’d been the Edmonton starter for the team’s first six games.


*********** How can you tell it’s the preseason in the NFL?  Because on most of the broadcasts, instead of the usual in-season format - 1/3 action on the field, 1/3 chatter, 1/3 interviews - in preseason games they simply dispense with describing the action on the field.

Unlike the regular season, in which the networks run all the broadcasts, these preseason games are local productions, with each team hiring its own local broadcast crew.

What an opportunity they’re blowing - a chance  to introduce people to the game of football and to potential stars of the future.  Instead, the local yokels tend to  treat these games as their chance to let us in on their bar-room banter.

My wife and I agreed that by far the best broadcast pair we heard this past weekend was in Indianapolis, a guy named Greg Rakestraw doing play-by-play and Rick Venturi, longtime college and NFL coach, doing color.  They  did a remarkable job of telling us about the Colts’ rookies and newcomers without neglecting the play on the field, and they even told us a bit about the Broncos.

In Boston, the McCourt twins  did a decent job on the Patriots-Panthers game.  I have to admit I didn’t even know who they were until my wife and I did some digging.

Also making an appearance on the sideline: Boston TV sports director Steve Burton.   Anybody remember his dad, Ron Burton? I wrote about him back in April:

Ron Burton was a great running back at Northwestern -  when Ara Parseghian was the Wildcats’ coach.  He was a consensus All-American, and he’s  in the College Football Hall of Fame. Before Northwestern,  he was a high school All-American and an Eagle Scout.

In 1960 he was the very first player ever drafted  by the Patriots - then the Boston Patriots - and he played six years with the Pats. 

After retiring from the Patriots, he stayed in the Boston area as an executive with John Hancock for  35 years.

In 1985, he invested his time, energy and funds in the Ron Burton Training Village, a camp whose mission was to help underprivileged kids aged 11-17, teaching them the values of “love, peace, patience and humility,” while attempting to build “self esteem, self reliance, love for God, love for others and racial harmony.”  More than 2,000 kids have benefitted from  the camp.

Steve Burton, like his dad,  played football at Northwestern. His daughter, Kayla, was a college basketball player who worked as a sideline reporter during the UFL season, and she was quite good, I thought.  His son, Austin, is a QB at Purdue.

In checking on Rick Venturi, I learned that his dad, Joe, coached at Pekin (Illinois) High. Until 1981, Pekin High had a very politically-incorrect nickname.

https://vault.si.com/vault/2015/11/23/pekin-choose


*********** It’s a new season, but in a couple of very important respects it’s the same old NFL (as if anyone thought it would  change):

They’re still unable to block WITHOUT their hands…

And they’re still unable to tackle WITH their hands.


*********** I almost puked at the pandering Vikings TV spot showing all that they’ve been doing to promote flag ball (especially among  girls, it seemed to me).

And they had the nerve to  say it was part of their (and the NFL’s) “commitment to growing the game of football.”

“The game of football” my ass.  Flag is to football as H-O-R-S-E is to basketball.


*********** If you doubt that we’re eyewitnesses to the coarsening of America, simply turn on the TV at any time, to any channel, and there you’ll  see

*** A female (a physician, I’ve been told) showing us where to apply her deodorant (“underboobs” and “butt crack”)

*** Dude wipes (no explanation needed)

*** A male of uncertain sexual orientation looking down at his “junk,” then running an electric shaver down his fuzzy abdomen, as we’re told to “respect your pubic region.” WTF?



***********  Nike’s run a lot of dumbass commercials, dating back at least to the one that  confuses  cause and corollary by having little girls telling us that if they play sports they’re less likely to go on to use drugs, get pregnant “before I want to”, drop out of school, get beaten by a boyfriend, and so forth. So, one little girl tells us,  you and I can help her prevent all those bad outcomes, “If you’ll let me play.”

And if we don’t, well, that means it’s OUR fault when she takes up with a bad crowd and all manner of bad sh— happens to her, because we didn’t let her play.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQ_XSHpIbZE

But this latest one, evidently produced for the Olympics audience, is the worst, by far.

It goes on for a minute and a half.  In advertising, that’s  an eon. It seems endless.

It starts off with a little girl giving us the Greta Thunberg “How dare you?” look, as the voice-over asks, “Am I a bad person?”

It drones on and on, and as the announcer reels off various sociopathic traits associated with winning (“I’m selfish”) and asks, “Does that make me a bad person?” you find yourself asking, “where TF is this going?”

There’s more of the same (remember, it’s a 90-second commercial) and   there’s plenty of antisocial characteristics still left to describe.  “I have no empathy… I don’t respect you… I have an obsession with power…”

This is the clincher, though… “What’s mine is mine… and what’s YOURS is mine.”  Are we extolling  entitlement here? Kleptomania even?

Whoa, Nike.  You’re WAY out of line here.  If this is your idea of sport and competition, count me out. I’ll go downstairs and shoot pool.  By myself.

If after all that you’re still wondering  if this makes  you a bad person,  I’ll break it to you like this: “Well, yes.  As a matter of fact it does.  Now take your shoes and get TF out of my life and stay out.”

Next Nike ad: If you'll let me play, I'll kill you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKErSswx5-o



*********** Things/people I most enjoyed watching in the NFL preseason games that I watched…


Kenny Pickett - Eagles- 14 of 22 for a TD - but just 89 yards
Josh Johnson, with the Ravens. He played for Jim Harbaugh and now he’s playing for John Harbaugh. He played for Jim at the University of San Diego. That’s right - from 2004 to 2007. He’s 38 years old.  Of course I’m pulling for him.
Gardner Minshew - Raiders - a Wazzu guy - 6 of 12 for 117
J.J. McCarthy - Vikings - 11 of 17 for 188 and 2 TDs
C.J. Beathard - Jaguars - 7 of 14 for 125 and 1 TD
Sam Howell - Seahawks - 16 of 27 for 131 and 1 TD
Bo Nix - Broncos - 15 of 21 for 125 and a TD
Zach Wilson - Broncos - 10 of 13 for 117


*********** The Colts played five quarterbacks - Jason Bean, Sam Ehlinger, Joe Flacco, Anthony Richardson and Kedon Slovis - and none of them looked bad.  But then  there’s the Colts’ running game: 64 yards, 29 by QBs. Good luck.


*********** Jim Harbaugh’s Justin Herbert-less debut was less than impressive as his Chargers lost to the Seahawks, 16-3.

His three QBs - Luis Perez, Max Duggan and  Easton Stick - were a combined 14 of 32 for 134.



***********   I couldn't make out what you thought of 'Georgia Beings'. You didn't think it was a typo? Not simply 'Georgia Begins'? Was the anagram deliberate or accidental? If it was deliberate, why? 'Beings' is even worse than the Washington Commanders.

Thank you, Coach Castro, for those poignant remarks about Steve Kragthorpe.

Re the Pit Bull story: I've seen him onstage on TV (I think he was a big part--maybe the feature--of a Super Bowl Halftime Show), but couldn't identify any of his songs. As I recalled The Athletic article, the Bull also has the rights to play his music over the stadium speakers from kickoff to final gun if he wants. Right there's my reason for going to FIU games.

Your "Go Chiefs" entry was enough to strengthen my bond with them. Maybe not Super Glue, but definitely Elmer's Kindergarten Mucilage.

There's so much to say about Timmy Walz, but I'll reserve it for later.

Especially enjoyed watching Coach Koenig's teams using the entire field out of compressed formations.

John Vermillion                        
St Petersburg, Florida

In a nation in which fewer and fewer things can be counted on to be done well, and incompetence is no longer sufficient reason for firing, I figure anybody who’s being paid to write a simple six-word headline and can’t spell “BEGINS” still deserves some ridicule.




 

*********** QUIZ ANSWER:  Curtis McClinton was one of the earliest stars of the American Football League, and an integral part of the Kansas City Chiefs  dynasty whose  convincing  win over the Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl IV proved - even more than the Jets’ surprising upset of the Baltimore Colts a year earlier - that the AFL had achieved parity with the more-established NFL.
 
Born in Muskogee, Oklahoma, he grew up in Wichita, Kansas.  At Wichita North High, he was an outstanding all-round athlete. At  6-2, 215 pounds, his combination of power and speed helped him win all-state honors as a running back, he was a member of the school’s state championship basketball team, and in his senior year he was the top hurdler in the state.
 
He attended Kansas, which under Jack Mitchell was becoming a Big Eight power. In his three years of eligibility, the Jayhawks lost to Oklahoma 7-6, then tied the Sooners 13-13 and finally beat them 10-0.  Against Nebraska, they won three straight, by scores of 10-0, 31-0 and 28-6.
 
In his sophomore year, the Jayhawks finished 5-5, after narrowly losing to conference champion Oklahoma. In his junior year, KU went 7-2-1, and in his senior year the Jayhawks went 7-3-1 and defeated Rice in the Bluebonnet Bowl, 33-6.  It was just the second bowl appearance in the school’s history - and the first bowl win.
 
That Kansas team was talented, with future Hall of Fame John Hadl at quarterback, and running back Bert Coan in the backfield too, but McClinton, despite being used mostly as a blocking back, was a three-time All-Big-Eight selection and in his senior year was he named to several all-America teams.
 
In his junior year, he won the  Indoor Big 8 Track and Field 60-yard high hurdles title.
 
He was drafted in the 14th round (!) by the AFL Dallas Texans, and after rushing for 604 yards and catching 29 passes for 333 yards was named AFL Rookie of the Year.  That earned him a place in the AFL All-Star game, where he earned Most Outstanding Player honors.

In all, he would play in five Pro Bowl games.
 
Especially valued as a blocker, he was used mostly as a fullback, but he still rushed for 3,124 yards and 18 touchdowns in his career.  He also had excellent hands - he caught a pass for the first score ever by an AFL player in a Super Bowl - and in his career he caught 154 passes for 1,945 yards and 14 touchdowns, no doubt a major reason why he was kept on the roster as a backup tight end for one  final season.  That season happened to be the one in which the team - now the Kansas City Chiefs - won Super Bowl IV.

After his football career, he earned a master’s degree from Central Michigan University and the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.    For a time he served as  Deputy Mayor for Economic Development of Washington, D.C. and then owned and ran a large Kansas City construction company.
 
In 1995 he was inducted into the Chiefs Hall of Fame.
 
In addition, he is in the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame and the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame.

In 1969, the  100th year of college football, Curtis McClnton was named  to the University  of Kansas’ all-time football team.  


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING CURTIS MCCLINTON

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FORISTIERE - MARSING, IDAHO
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
 



*********** QUIZ:  He was born  in Little Rock, Arkansas but grew up in Farmington, New Mexico, where in high school he was twice named an All-State tackle in football and was a  star basketball player.

At Oklahoma, playing both ways as a sophomore,  he was  second team All-Big Eight and was the Big Eight Conference sophomore lineman of the year.  He was first team All-Big Eight both his junior and senior years, and was a consensus All-American as a senior.

He was drafted by the Baltimore Colts of the NFL and the Houston Oilers of the AFL, and although the Sooners still had to play Florida State in the Gator Bowl, he accepted a deal with the Oilers that included a signing bonus and the rights to a Houston gas station.  The deal was supposed to be kept secret, but when the news leaked that he had signed with the Oilers, he was  suspended, along with two other Sooners, from playing in the bowl game (which the Sooners lost).

It wasn’t over yet.  When the Colts learned of his having signed with Houston, they traded his draft rights  to Dallas, and when he learned of the deal, he began to talk with Dallas.  And he returned his bonus check to the Oilers.

A  lawsuit followed, of course, and it threatened to stall merger talks between the two leagues,  until the Cowboys agreed to send four draft choices to the Oilers, and to play them in an annual pre-season game, in return for his exclusive services.

It was a very good deal for the Cowboys.

He immediately became  a starter, beginning his career as a right guard.  But then he was moved to left tackle where for years he was considered one of the NFL’s  top offensive linemen.

He was twice named All-Pro and played in two Pro Bowls, and he won two Super Bowl rings.

He was named to the NFL 1960s All-Decade Team.

He retired after the Cowboys’ win in Super Bowl XII.  In 13 seasons with the Cowboys, he  played in 172  games and in  four Super Bowls  - more, incidentally,  than any other former Sooner.



FRIDAY,  AUGUST 9, 2024    “When exposing a crime is treated  as committing a crime, you are being ruled by criminals!” Edward Snowden


*********** Wisdom from Mike Lude:  “On the day after Labor Day I reported for early practice and had my introduction to football and, just as important, to Whitey Linton, who got his nickname from his light-colored hair. The game was a totally new experience. I had played baseball sporadically the previous year with a Sunday team in Fulton, but I had no football experience. Just putting on the shoulder pads was a challenge. The leather helmets didn't fit too well, and the other equipment took time to figure out.

“I didn't say much, but I watched the other players and learned. I'm not sure I didn't go through a practice the first week or so wondering if maybe I had something on backward.

“One of the other players suggested that I ask for a practice jersey that was used because it might fit better, even if it needed mending. Your mom can fix that, he said, and you'll be better off. It was a good tip.

“The most serious problem was football shoes. We couldn't afford a pair of new shoes. So I sorted through a box of beat-up used cleated shoes, trying to find some that fit and would work. I found one pair that had suitable cleats, but the nails came through the insoles and when I ran they cut the bottoms of my feet.

“As a freshman, I was playing end on both offense and defense. When one of the first string ends was banged up it looked as though I might get to see some action. But my feet were killing me. I told Coach Linton, and he said, "Go in and see if there aren't any other old shoes in that box.”  By the time I got back, he’d moved another player into my spot, and I spent most of that freshman season on the bench.”


***********   Without going too deeply into politics, I can’t help noticing the way the Democrats have been playing up three things about  their Vice-Presidential candidate,  Tim  Walz: (1) He’s (supposedly) a typical Midwestern white guy; (2) He’s an Army veteran; (3) Before he got into politics, he was a teacher and a football coach.

Without getting into the validity of points (1) and (2), I’m left a bit bewildered after hearing that, while defensive coordinator of his high school’s state championship football team, he also helped start, then served as advisor to, his school’s first gay and lesbian alliance (or whatever they called it then).



*********** I have paid ZERO attention to the Olympics and about all I’ve seen so far was the antics of this American sprinter, Noah Lyles, who - since I’m not going to say anything about him unless it’s good - is very fast.



*********** A major problem facing the NFL, writes Austin Mock in The Athletic: The QB market is broken.

The easiest way to know: In a sensible economy, the best player on the best team would make the most money. So, this should be simple.

The Kansas City Chiefs are the best team in the NFL. They also employ the world’s best quarterback in Patrick Mahomes. It would seem fairly obvious then that Mahomes should be the highest-paid player in football. And yet after Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa and Green Bay Packers QB Jordan Love signed their megadeals recently, Mahomes ranks 11th in average annual salary at $45 million.

This is a problem.

Not for Mahomes, who doesn’t have an issue with his compensation, and certainly not for the Chiefs, but for the rest of the NFL and, in particular, the teams paying their lesser-talented quarterbacks more money than Mahomes — or are preparing to (ahem, Cowboys).

These teams are willfully, though understandably, putting themselves at a distinct competitive disadvantage. By paying their veteran QBs more money — and giving them a bigger slice of the salary cap pie — than the best player in the world, they are burdening themselves with the task of building rosters around their QBs that are good enough to bridge the gap between their QB and Mahomes — and doing it with less money.

That’s somewhat of an oversimplification of the situation but is largely the bet these teams are placing when they overpay their less-talented QBs. It’s not a great bet, and yet it’s completely understandable. Not paying these quarterbacks and choosing to enter QB purgatory with no guarantee of escape is terrifying. These front offices have livelihoods to protect, so choosing to move on from a quality quarterback in a QB-driven league is an extraordinarily difficult choice to make.

***********   Good afternoon Coach!

  Wanted to let you know I have started on the Mansfield University staff in Mansfield PA as D line coach.  I did two seasons as head coach at Cowanesque Valley high school in Westfield PA  and ran the double wing.  Its AAA PA ball and my first season we got smacked with an 0-9 season.  Season 2 we got it to 5-5 which was the second best record in program for the last 30 years so very happy for the kids and community for that.  Now on to "sprint" ball....there is a weight limit of 178lbs, we are a part of the CSFL (college sprint football league) and we play some great programs (Army, Navy, Cornell, Penn, etc).  I'm enjoying this because to me this is an opportunity for "normal" sized kids to continue to play the sport they love at the next level.

    If you could pass this info along to the coaches associated with this clinic (my Zooms)  I would greatly appreciate it !  We are always on the lookout for student athletes that are around 190 lbs that we could try to contact to let them know what we have to offer .  Thank you again and all the best!

Joe Leonard
Mansfield Football
Defensive Line Coach

cell : (607) 857-4195
jleonard@mansfield.edu

Glad to pass this info along. When I was in college it was called “150-pound football.”  Then, at some point (probably because not enough guys could make weight) it became “lightweight football.”  Now, it’s “sprint football.” Not a bad name, because as a result of that size limitation, EVERY guy on the team is pretty doggone fast.  (I recall Gene McIntyre, the coach at West Point at the time, telling me that he could actually assign his center to block opposing safeties.) I’ve never seen a game (we didn’t have a 150-pound team when I was in school) but I have never run into anyone who hasn’t said after seeing one that the hitting was more ferocious than “varsity” football.  Mansfield, although a  state university, is a small school, with an enrollment of under 2,000 students, and has  chosen to play sprint football rather than “varsity” football.   I’ve printed Coach Leonard’s contact info if you ever have the kind of kid who would benefit from this kind of opportunity.



*********** I’m no fan of rap or rappers, so if someone were to tell me that there’s a rapper named Kodak Black I’d say, “that’s nice,” and then if he were to tell me that Mr. Black had some advice for a youth football team, I’d say, “WTF advice would I want a rapper giving my team?”

Turns out that Mr. Black told a bunch of young players not to get started on drugs:

“Say no to drugs, they too good, Y’all gone like em & go crazy”

The reviews are, to say the least, split.  Some parents are enraged.  Some are like me - might as well give it to them straight, because a lot of evil people are going to tell them the same thing without including the “go crazy” part.

While he was at it, perhaps he should have said the same thing about loose women.

(On a side note, I suppose it’s too late to mention all  those missing  state of being verbs.)


https://www.outkick.com/sports/kodak-black-caught-giving-youth-football-team-some-wild-advice-about-drugs-parents-furious?vgo_ee=SySi%2B4Y51%2BOsZElr3ujOGN/RhBMLsYhUa0jHL9/j:jsaTrF69GC%2BR%2B0NEErLoC/ZgbAkaoi2K



***********  First the Chiefs stood by their punter, Harrison Buttker, when the woke thing to do was to accuse him of wanting to keep women barefoot and pregnant.

Then, they went and engaged exiled  coach John Gruden (is it okay for me to mention his name here?) to spend three days advising their team on sundry matters.

And to top things off,  their coach Andy Reid, despite knowing full well that Gruden is persona non grata among the muckety-mucks in the NFL office, went and endorsed Gruden’s return to the game: "Hopefully, he's able to get back in and get a head coaching job. A phenomenal football coach. He touched everybody here, both sides of the ball, special teams, he got to sit down in those meetings. Just a heck of a coach.”

Go Chiefs!


https://www.outkick.com/sports/chiefs-cast-aside-narrative-jon-gruden-racist-homophobe-sexist-show-him-love?vgo_ee=E4oXraJQ6FZFQr4iZk%2B1e4kORjHsUvFDOvEnFVf5:AeW3kjKr6Dq3KLAkIs2fOw6txQkJ7/ZW



***********   This “Power Slap” sh— that I’m seeing advertised on TV… What’s next?  Kicks in the balls?

Is it going to be an Olympic sport?



***********  "What do Zach Collaros, Macleod Bethel-Thompson, Bo Levi Mitchell, Cody Fajardo, Vernon Adams and Jake Maier have in common?"

These QBs are among the top 17 highest paid players in the CFL

Adam Wesoloski
Pulaski, Wisconsin

(Of the group, Collaros is the highest-paid at $600,000; Mitchell, surprisingly, is  only 17th-highest paid at $225,000.)




***********   The AFCA has announced that Hudl will be the “presenting sponsor” of the AFCA Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), Division II and Division III Coaches Polls.


*********** Florida International - sorry, I’ll say UCLA and LSU and USC and UT and OSU and UNLV  and KSU - and U-Dub - but “FIU”  goes to the end of the line.

Especially after selling the naming rights to  their stadium to a  rapper.  For what’s said to be $1.2 million a year (for five years), he and the school will force you  and the news media to call their stadium Pit Bull Stadium. Gee.  The old name - FIU Stadium - had such a nice ring to it.

I’m waiting for someone to  change their nickname for a mess of pottage.  Hell - FIU’s only been playing football since 2002, so it’s not as if they have that much invested in “their current nickname ("Panthers.” ) I think they should have gone all the way and committed to calling  themselves the Pit Bulls.



*********** Go ahead, NCAA.  Hit Jim Harbaugh with a “show cause” order, telling him that as punishment for his sins he can’t coach a college team for four years.  Like Harbaugh really cares.  He’s raking in millions of NFL dollars  while, just as his predecessor Pete Carroll did, looking at you- and college football -  in his rearview mirror.

Not so sure, though, about Harbaugh’s successor at Michigan, Sherrone Moore.  Seems Coach Moore maybe DID know  about Connor Stalions’ sign-stealing scheme after all.  Seems  that investigators have discovered some communications between Stalions and Moore - communications that Coach Moore  thought he’d safely erased.

We’re talking here about a scheme to gain an unfair advantage, and a subsequent coverup. 

To think that Jim Tressel lost his job at Ohio State - and Ohio State lost a really good coach -  for covering up the fact that some of his players had sold the “gold pants” trinkets  they’d gotten as rewards for beating Michigan - and then spent the money on tattoos.


https://www.mlive.com/wolverines/2024/08/report-sherrone-moore-could-face-penalty-for-michigan-sign-stealing-probe.html




 
***********  Georgia Beings?  I’ve heard of some ridiculous nicknames, especially on MLS and WNBA teams, but this beats all.  Does Kirby Smart  really think he can escape scrutiny for his  players’ misbehavior with this obvious disguise?


*********** Steve Kragthorpe died …

He was head coach at Tulsa and at Louisville, and his overall record after seven years as a college coach of 44-43 is better than it might sound.  At Tulsa, he took over a program that hadn’t had a winning season in 12 years, and in his four years there he had a 9-win season and two 8-win seasons, enough to get him a place in the Tulsa Sports Hall of Fame.

He spent a number of years as an assistant at the college and pro level, coaching quarterbacks for the  most part, and until 2011 was offensive coordinator at LSU.  He was forced after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease to give up the coordinator’s job there, but he did spend one more season as the Tigers’ quarterback coach.

He was the son of a coach, born in Missoula, Montana where his dad, Dave was an assistant at Montana, and he played high school ball in Pocatello, Idaho, where his dad was head coach at Idaho State.

He got his master’s degree at Oregon State while serving as a G.A. when  his dad was head coach of  the Beavers. (So downtrodden  were the Beavers of that era that in 1989, when  they finished with a 3-4-1 conference record, Dave Kragthorpe was voted Pac-10 Coach of the Year.)

Steve Kragthorpe’s son, Brad, is now the Cincinnati Bengals’ quarterbacks coach.

My slight connection with Steve Kragthorpe is that he was head coach at Louisville when Alan Castro, son of longtime friend and fellow coach Armando Castro, played there.

Coach Castro provided a unique peek into the character of Steve Kragthorpe, a head coach who truly cared about his players…

Well,  Coach,  received terrible news from Alan this morning that he received from an old teammate. The passing of Coach Kragthorpe. During the whole terrible ordeals that Alan had with crushed growth plates and multiple operations,  this Coach was the only D1 coach I ever met that talked to me with total fatherly compassion and honesty - and had a great follower of Christ testimony. He was God-sent.  Even after he was fired he talked to me and had nothing but good things to say about Alan both as a player and most importantly as a young man. This man alongside life’s road has made a lifelong impression on both me and Alan. May God be with his family during this time of grief.

https://nypost.com/2024/08/06/sports/steve-kragthorpe-former-college-football-coach-dead-at-59/



***********   Justice Gorsuch was unable to discuss politics directly. It was one of those, "I can't discuss the administrative state because I might be expected to rule on aspects of it" moments, but he certainly was willing to say federal laws have played big in creating and perpetuating it.

Of the Russian detainees released, I thought Paul Whelan got the least press attention, even though he'd been detained longer than most (all?) of them. The important fact, however, is that he seemed not to care. He stated he was aware of the number of days he spent in captivity, and on each he sang the American National Anthem.

If we ever go to Medicare for All, or UHC, do you think that dermatologist would've called you, ever?

John Vermillion                        
St Petersburg, Florida

I think our partial "Medicre for All" is giving us a good preview of what a full rollout will be like.



***********   Hugh,

Are the Olympic Games over yet? 

Happy for Jarious Jackson.  Go Irish!

If Fresno State has a banner season under Tim Skipper expect him to have the interim tag removed.  On the other hand if they struggle expect the Bulldogs to go hard after another Bulldog great Trent Dilfer.

QUIZ: Lawrence Phillips (probably the greatest RB in Nebraska history…from the shoulders down).

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas


 







*********** QUIZ ANSWER:  Nick Saban compared him favorably to Eric Dickerson.  Dick Vermeil said he was the best running back he ever saw. 

But so many of the stories about Lawrence Phillips started out with the word “troubled” that it began to seem as if  it was his first name.

His is a story that comes to mind whenever a football  coach goes to unusual lengths to try to save a player.   When the player  also happens to be very talented, it results in the inevitable accusation that that was the only reason the coach went out of his way to save him.

Lawrence Phillips was born in Arkansas but grew up in California. He entered the foster care system when he was 11, but during  what has been described as a “troubled” childhood, he found football - and he excelled at it.

He played two years at West Covina High, where he was a two-way starter at running back and outside linebacker, then played his last two years at Baldwin Park High where he helped lead the Braves to a CIF (think state) championship his junior year.

In his final two years, he rushed for nearly 3,000 yards and 38 touchdowns as Baldwin Park went 22-3-1.

Signing with Nebraska, he sat the bench for most of his freshman year, until he got to show his potential with a 137-yard, two-TD performance in a 14-13 win over a UCLA team that would go on to win the Pac-10 title that year.

The next year, with quarterback injuries forcing Nebraska to emphasize the running game, he rushed for more than 100 yards in 11 straight games as the Cornhuskers finished as unbeaten national champions. In all, he carried for 1,722 yards and scored 16 touchdowns - third-most in the nation - and finished eighth in Heisman balloting.

The season was barely over when he appeared in court to plead not guilty to charges of assault, vandalism and disturbing the peace, charges stemming from an  accusation months earlier of assaulting a fellow student. He had been placed in a “diversion” program but had violated the terms.

In the second game of his junior year, he had an outstanding game at Michigan State - then playing its first game under new coach Nick Saban - rushing for 206 yards and  four touchdowns on 22 carries.

But shortly  after returning  to Lincoln from the Michigan State game, he climbed up the outside of an apartment building and broke into the apartment of teammate Scott Frost, where he grabbed a young woman - his ex-girlfriend - and dragged her by the hair down three flights of stairs.

He was arrested and suspended  from the team - but not kicked off, a  decision by coach Tom Osborne that became a source of great controversy.

Said Osborne, “I felt the only thing I could put in a place that would keep him on track was football, because that was probably the only consistent organizing factor in his life."

Whatever, Coach.

After serving a six-game suspension, Phillips was reinstated in time to play in  the national championship game, where he  rushed for 165 yards and three TDs in the Cornhuskers 62-24 win over Florida.  (It was the Huskers’ second straight national championship, and their third in four years.)

Declaring for the NFL draft, he chose to leave school a year early, and despite red flags run up by a pre-draft psychological evaluation, he was chosen in the first round by the St. Louis  Rams. So confident were the Rams that he was going to be their main running back that they traded Jerome Bettis to the Steelers (where he would have a Hall-of-Fame career).

Not long after the draft,  he was pulled over for speeding and  charged with drunk driving.  The arrest violated a probation, and he  spent 23 days in jail.

In his rookie season, he  started 11  games, carrying  the ball 193 times for 632 yards and 4 touchdowns. He got off to a great start in his second year, but after 10 games - in which he’d rushed for 634 yards -  he was released from the team.  The reason given to the media was that after being told that he was being demoted because of his inability to avoid trouble, he skipped  a team meeting and that day’s practice.

Next, he was picked up by the Dolphins, but after two games he was released following his plea of no contest to assault on a woman in a local nightclub.

From there, he went to NFL Europe, where  playing with the Barcelona Dragons he earned  Offensive Player of the Year honors - and a contract with the 49ers.

In San Francisco, h managed to stay out of trouble, but on the field, things went south when his failure to pick up a blitz resulted in a sack of quarterback Steve Young - and a concussion that would end Young's  career.

He began to miss practices, which led to a three-game suspension, which eventually led to his being waived.

He managed, despite his criminal record, to get a shot in the CFL with Montreal, but despite having  a good season and helping the Alouettes win the Grey Cup, he caused troubles with his attitude, once even leaving the team.  The next season,  after he held out briefly in a salary dispute, he was released (it later was learned that he had been charged with sexual assault) and picked up by Calgary.  His stay there was short, brought to an end when he got into it on the field with the head coach.

Thus ended a once-promising football career.

And thus began a  truly downward slide, one serious offense after another.

Imprisoned finally, he was serving a 31-year sentence in Kern Valley State Prison when in April 2015 he was charged with murdering his cellmate. (There’s more to the story:  while in prison, he chose not to affiliate with either the Bloods or the Crips, and  - the story goes - the cellmate was a Crip under orders to kill him.)

Nine months later, facing the possibility of a death sentence,  Lawrence Phillips was found dead in his cell, believed to have hanged himself.  He was 40 years old.


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING LAWRENCE PHILLIPS

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOE BREMER - WEST SENECA, NEW YORK
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FORISTIERE - MARSING, IDAHO
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY

 


*********** QUIZ:  He was one of the earliest stars of the American Football League, and an integral part of the Kansas City Chiefs  dynasty whose  convincing  win over the Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl IV proved - even more than the Jets’ surprising upset of the Baltimore Colts a year earlier - that the AFL had achieved parity with the more-established NFL.
 
Born in Muskogee, Oklahoma, he grew up in Wichita, Kansas.  At Wichita North High, he was an outstanding all-round athlete. At  6-2, 215 pounds, his combination of power and speed helped him win all-state honors as a running back, he was a member of the school’s state championship basketball team, and in his senior year he was the top hurdler in the state.
 
He attended Kansas, which under Jack Mitchell was becoming a Big Eight power. In his three years of eligibility, the Jayhawks lost to Oklahoma 7-6, then tied the Sooners 13-13 and finally beat them 10-0.  Against Nebraska, they won three straight, by scores of 10-0, 31-0 and 28-6.
 
In his sophomore year, the Jayhawks finished 5-5, after narrowly losing to conference champion Oklahoma. In his junior year, KU went 7-2-1, and in his senior year the Jayhawks went 7-3-1 and defeated Rice in the Bluebonnet Bowl, 33-6.  It was just the second bowl appearance in the school’s history - and the first bowl win.
 
That Kansas team was talented, with future Hall of Fame John Hadl at quarterback, and running back Bert Coan in the backfield too, but our guy, despite being used mostly as a blocking back, was a three-time All-Big-Eight selection and in his senior year was he named to several all-America teams.
 
In his junior year, he won the  Indoor Big 8 Track and Field 60-yard high hurdles title.
 
He was drafted in the 14th round (!) by the AFL Dallas Texans, and after rushing for 604 yards and catching 29 passes for 333 yards was named AFL Rookie of the Year.  That earned him a place in the AFL All-Star game, where he earned Most Outstanding Player honors.

In all, he would play in five Pro Bowl games.
 
Especially valued as a blocker, he was used mostly as a fullback, but he still rushed for 3,124 yards and 18 touchdowns in his career.  He also had excellent hands - he caught a pass for the first score ever by an AFL player in a Super Bowl - and in his career he caught 154 passes for 1,945 yards and 14 touchdowns, no doubt a major reason why he was kept on the roster as a backup tight end for one  final season.  That season happened to be the one in which the team - now the Kansas City Chiefs - won Super Bowl IV.

After his football career, he earned a master’s degree from Central Michigan University and the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.    For a time he served as  Deputy Mayor for Economic Development of Washington, D.C. and then owned and ran a large Kansas City construction company.
 
In 1995 he was inducted into the Chiefs Hall of Fame.
 
In addition, he is in the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame and the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame.

In 1969, the  100th year of college football, he was named  to the University  of Kansas’ all-time football team.
 


TUESDAY,  AUGUST 6,  2024   "I don't have any unfulfilled ambitions left. Maybe it's because I always set my sights really low." Dave Barry

*********** Wisdom from Mike Lude:  “That was quite a culture shock, going from a one-room schoolhouse in the sticks to Vicksburg High. As high schools go, it was relatively small. The gymnasium was tiny, and a dozen or so classrooms housed about 250 students. That's still quite a contrast with my previous school: one teacher with two dozen kids from eight grade levels stuffed into one room. Looking back, I realize how fortunate I was to be one of two students from my eighth grade class who had the opportunity to move on to high school. The others dropped out to work on the farms where they lived.

“That's what had happened to my dad years before, and he was adamant that I go to high school. He realized how much he had missed, and although he didn't have much money he was a strong supporter of taxes for better schools. My mother had graduated from Vicksburg High and wanted her son to do the same.

“My introduction to football came when I was barely settled with my grandparents in Vicksburg. My dad liked the idea of me playing football and encouraged me to turn out for the team. Reflecting back, I think he considered football a tough game; it had body contact. It was a game for men and you hit people.

“Maybe he thought I might not be tough enough, that toughness and hardness were manly, and he wanted me to be a real man.  I remember when I was in the fourth  or fifth grade I got into a fight with a kid on the way home and didn't fare too well. When I told my dad about it that night he said, “Now,  tomorrow you get in another fight with him and you win.”  And I did.

“He thought if someone challenged you, you had to stand up and be counted. If there was a fight, you had to be there, whether you won or lost the fight. You couldn't be a softy. His younger brother, Bob, had played football in high school and Dad thought it had been a good experience for him.

“Nowadays one would probably say that Dad just liked the violence of football – a simplification, perhaps, but violence is part of the game.” 
 

*********** Google Sheronne Moore and then try  telling  me that Michigan didn't cheat  and Harbaugh's not a phony.   This is a BIG STORY.


***********  The Edmonton Elks are now 1-7.

Saturday, on the road, they upset the Saskatchewan Rough Riders, 42-31.

It had been sometime in September of last season - 323 days ago - when they’d last won a game.

It took him three games to do it, but interim coach Jarious Jackson got his first win as a pro coach.

It was no fluke. Edmonton was clearly the better team, and would have won by a more convincing 42-24 score were it not for a last-minute Saskatchewan touchdown.

The biggest factor in the win, I thought,  was the return to the lineup of QB Tre Ford.  From Niagara Falls, Ontario, he’s a relative rarity - a native Canadian quarterback who played his  college ball at a Canadian college (Waterloo University).

He’ s  the real deal - a  sharp passer with the kind of speed and elusiveness that makes such a difference on the wider Canadian  field.

But also making a big difference was the running of Javon Leake.  Leake played at Maryland and had stays with three different NFL teams - but played in only one NFL game - before heading north.

Against Saskatchewan, he carried 12 times for 169 yards and three TDs. Two of the TDs were on runs of 61 and 51 yards.



*********** My choice of today’s QUIZ subject, Hal Mumme, made me go back and re-read “Fourth Down and Life to Go,” by Tony Franklin.  Franklin was a high school coach in Kentucky who claims to have played a role in convincing Kentucky AD C. M. Newton to take a hard look at Hal Mumme.  After Mumme was hired, he showed his gratitude to Franklin by hiring him as an assistant.

He started out as running backs coach, but when OC Mike Leach left for Oklahoma, he replaced Leach as the OC.

The book tells of Franklin’s progressive disillusionment  with Mumme  - and with college football in general.

There is a feeling by some coaches and by most fans that the most capable and best football coaches are professional and college coaches. Many Division I coaches feel they are the best and look at a pecking order that would go from NFL to division I to IAA, II, III, and then high school coaches. This is the furthest thing from the truth. A quality coach is a quality coach no matter what level he coaches. The only difference in a Division I college coach and a high school coach is opportunity and luck. Most jobs in college are obtained by knowing the right person at the right time.

As soon as Hal  Mumme was dismissed as Kentucky's head football coach amidst a fiery scandal, many critics immediately jumped on the bandwagon belief he had failed because he was "just a Division II coach,” with limited Division I experience. That had very little to do with his downfall. Mumme just happened to be a one in 1 million lucky Division II coach who got an unusual opportunity.  Other division two coaches may have bettered Mumme’s  initial success and probably would not have blown the opportunity. It's a shame because very few division one AD’s will give another Division II coach the opportunity Mumme had.

Franklin said he didn’t go into college coaching blind, thanks to the advice of an older coach, Billy Mitchell, who’d been an assistant under Jerry Claiborne at Virginia Tech and under Fran Curci at Kentucky…

One lesson Billy taught me was invaluable.  He told me many Division I college coaches would do anything to keep their jobs. The difference of integrity levels between high school coaches and Division I college coaches would be large…. A high school coach will more readily stand for principle and fight for what is right, no matter what his coaching job risk is. A Division I college coach will more than likely break from any moral responsibility which might cost him his job because he knows if he loses the Division I opportunity, he may not ever get it again.

Mitchell's advice was right. I found out early and often numerous Division I coaches wouldn't risk their jobs for a principle. If you're going to be in a foxhole with a friend for your final fight, you have a better chance of finding a high school coach to jump in with you. Many of them fight for what's right, no matter the cost.

(Since the Mumme deal blew up at Kentucky, Tony Franklin has coached at a number of  colleges, most notably as OC at Auburn and Cal, and started something called The Tony Franklin System Seminar, which apparently made him some money.   After becoming OC at Auburn, an  SEC rule prohibiting coaches from participating in clinics not on the school’s premises  forced him to sell his business, but after leaving Auburn, he took over the business again.)



***********   “Some professors say there are now so many federal laws on the books that every American over the age of 18 commits one felony a day. That’s happened in my lifetime. 1970 to the present we’ve seen maybe a doubling the number of federal crimes on the books. And this just counts within the U.S. code passed by Congress and the tip of the iceberg because federal agencies have been busy.”

Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch



***********   “I’m a Marine.  I’m tough. I can get through this.”  A reassuring message from Paul Whelan, relayed from his Russian prison  to his family in the US.  Whelan was recently released after being imprisoned in Russia since Christmas, 2018.



*********** Cam Ward sure has come a long way.

Remember back in 2021 when the FCS schools were playing in the spring, and he was lighting them up for a school named Incarnate Word? A school most of us had never heard of before?

From there, he transferred to Washington State where he had two very good seasons.

He’s now at Miami, and recently, he was the overwhelming preseason pick to be the ACC’s  player of the year.  Good on ya, mate.



*********** BIG 12 FAMILY PHOTO




***********   My wife and I had to call our dermatologist to remind them that for the second year in a row they hadn’t notified us that it was time for our annual checkup.  Now I’m not a lawyer (I didn’t even stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night) but  I wonder…  wouldn’t  a doctor’s office be liable if it failed to notify a patient that it was time again for his/her  annual checkup -  and then the patient wound up with a serious condition that might otherwise have been detected and treated?



*********** Those US Army ads on  the UFL games, including - in an effort to show potential recruits that  going the Army was as safe as any office job - stupid half-time interviews with “soldiers” who did everything under the sun except carry a gun?

The Army says they didn’t do a thing to help recruiting.



***********   Q: Would Oregon State football fans prefer ‘Power 4’ membership at the cost of mostly late-night games vs. a rebuilt Pac-12 with mostly afternoon games?

JOHN CANZANO: Oregon State and Washington State would kick off at midnight if it meant getting to a P4 conference right now.



*********** What do Zach Collaros, Macleod Bethel-Thompson, Bo Levi Mitchell, Cody Fajardo, Vernon Adams and Jake Maier have in common?



*********** Georgia may have the worst drivers in the SEC and the lowest graduation rate of all Power 4 schools, but evidently it draws the line at cruelty to children, so a  guy named Rara Thomas (where TF do they get these names?) has been kicked off the team. 

This is not to say that they wouldn’t have recruited Javier Toviano.  An LSU cornerback, Toviano is back on  the Tiger Team after first being suspended when he was charged with “video voyeurism.”  (He “allegedly” filmed himself - and, one would assume, an unknowing partner - doing something prurient.)

Where do they FIND these people?



*********** Remember when the Hall of Fame Game was the much-awaited  start of the much-awaited NFL pre-season?

Raise your hand if you even knew it was played Thursday night.

Raise your hand if you watched any of it.

Raise your hand  if you  stayed to the final whistle. (That’s a trick.  Everybody was sent home after a lightning strike shortly into the second half.)



*********** The answer is Hal Mumme. Kentucky fans loved him. One of those years I went to KY-FL in the Swamp. That game was typical of Mumme's full tenure at Kentucky. At halftime, both teams had scored a lot and it was close. But The Old Ball Coach got his offense on track at the break, and Bobby Stoops did the same with the defense, and the final score was something like 63-38 in the Gators' favor. I've always believed Mumme took so much delight in the Xs and Os he took his eyes off his players and subordinates sometimes. A recruiting coordinator named Claude Basset did his boss in, and I don't think Mumme ever saw it coming.

As you said, he came from Copperas Cove HS, which sits just outside Fort Hood. Not many years after Mumme left UK, the Wildcats hired another coach from the same HS, but this time it was the head basketball coach...a decision that proved disastrous. At Kentucky...in basketball...you don't hire an untested basketball coach.

Thanks for another of the greatest pages on the net.

John Vermillion
St. Petersburg, Florida

As you might imagine, Tony Franklin has a LOT to say in his book about Claude Basset.  A few of the things are actually good.



***********   Hugh,

What caught my eye immediately about that picture of Bob Blanchard diving over the Princeton defense was... the CROWD!  Once upon a time, in a land far, far away...

According to that revealing academic chart 10 of the BIG schools were below 85% grad rates.  10 SEC schools were at or below 85%.  Didn't see Oregon State or Washington State on that list but it would be interesting to see where they fall compared to their counterparts in Eugene and Seattle.  

I've been friends with a number of people who have worked in all-boys schools and all girls schools, and every one of them believe single sex schools should be the norm and not the exception.

Enjoy the weekend!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas

Joe - I guess OSU and WSU weren’t included because the Pac-12 is no longer considered a Power conference.

ALSO - VERY observant of you.  I was at that Yale-Princeton game.  It was packed.  I think the announced paid attendance was 63,000-some.  (The Yale Bowl at that time seated 70,000+, but that was based on 1920s-sized people.)

Yes, those were the days when Ivy League football still mattered (at least at some of the schools), and - just as important - the NCAA permitted only ONE game to be televised on Saturday.


 


 


***********   QUIZ ANSWER:  Hal Mumme is a native of San Antonio.  He played high school football in Dallas, then two years of JC ball at New Mexico Military Academy and two years of college ball at Tarleton State.
 
His first job was as offensive coordinator at a high school in Corpus Christi.  After three years there, he got his first high  school  head coaching job at Aransas Pass, Texas. He was just 27.
 
His stay there lasted only one year,  when he left for a job coaching QBs and receivers at West Texas State.  After two years there, when the head coach was hired at UTEP, he went along, and served as offensive coordinator for three seasons.
 
He left UTEP to become head coach at Copperas Cove, Texas High, and after three years there, he was hired as head coach at Iowa Wesleyan, a small private college in Mount Pleasant, Iowa. (Iowa Wesleyan was forced to close its doors at the end of the 2022-2023 school year.)
 
At Iowa Wesleyan, Mumme  and an assistant named Mike Leach teamed up to  develop an offense he had been working on which came to be called the Air Raid System. It would gain a wide following among offensive coaches, and sprout an impressive roster of disciples.
 
He spent three years at Iowa Wesleyan. In his first season they finished 7-4. In his second season they went 7-5, but led the nation in passing. In his third season, Iowa Wesleyan finished second in the nation in passing,  going 10-2 and making it to the NAIA playoffs for the first time in school history.  Overall, his record there was 25-10.
 
It was enough to get him the head job at Division II Valdosta State.  There, in five seasons, his teams went 40-17-1.  Two of his teams made it as far as the D-II quarterfinals, and in 1994 his quarterback, Chris Hatcher, won the Harlon Hill Award – the D-II equivalent of the Heisman.
 
And then Kentucky AD C. M. Newton  came calling. Kentucky had gone 9-24 over the three previous seasons, and Newton was looking for a coach who could win, but just as important, could do it in exciting fashion.  And whoever got the job would inherit Tim Couch, one of the nation’s top quarterback recruits and a Kentucky kid.
 
Mumme got the job and he got Tim Couch, and together they took off.
 
Year One was  5-6, but it did include the Wildcats’ first win over Alabama since 1922.     And Couch set several team records.
 
Year Two started out with a 68-34 trouncing of archrival Louisville and finished 7-5, with an appearance in the Outback Bowl.  Just  the second bowl game in 15 years for Kentucky, it ended in a loss to Penn State.  And then Couch decided to leave a year early for the NFL.
 
Year three wound up 6-6 after a loss to Syracuse in the Music City Bowl, and year four wound up 2-9.
 
Worse, there were reports circulating about recruiting violations, and early in the new year Mumme was forced to resign.  Kentucky was hit by the NCAA with a one-year bowl ban and the loss of 19 scholarships over three seasons. His recruiting coordinator was effectively banned from college coaching for eight years.
 
He had arrived in glory, but his departure left Kentucky in worse shape than it was when he arrived. And for all the hoopla, his overall record was just 20-26.
 
From there, his career went down the gurgler.
 
He was back into coaching two years later, at Southeast Louisiana, where in two years he went 5-7 and 7-4, good enough to get him the job at New Mexico State.
 
In his first year at NMSU, he went 0-12. In his second season, the Aggies went 3-9.  For much of the season, they led the nation in total offense.  So?  Big deal.
 
In his third year, NMSU went 3-9 and he was fired.
 
Four months later, he was hired by D-III McMurry.  In four years there, he went 27-16, and in his fourth year, after making the move to D-II, he went 8-3.
 
After a year out of football, he wound up next at Belhaven.  Have you heard of it?  It’s a D-III school in Jackson, Mississippi. In four years there, he was 8-33.  A marvel of consistency, he won two games a season all four seasons.
 
And that was it for Hal Mumme as a college head coach.
 
He spent a couple of months as OC at Jackson State, and he knocked around a couple of the spring leagues.
 
Just recently, he was hired as an “offensive analyst” at a high school in Bluff City, Tennessee.
 
As an innovator, Hal Mumme was impressive. His air raid has made a major impact on our game. As a head coach?  The overall college head coaching record of the man who invented the air raid offense is a rather unspectacular 142-152-1.
 


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING HAL MUMME

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOHN BOTHE - OREON, ILLINOIS
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
TOM WALLS - WINNIPEG, MANITOBA
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FORISTIERE - MARSING, IDAHO
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY





*********** QUIZ:  Nick Saban compared him favorably to Eric Dickerson.  Dick Vermeil said he was the best running back he ever saw. 

But so many of the stories about him started out with the word “troubled” that it began to seem as if  it was his first name.

His is a story that comes to mind whenever a football  coach goes to unusual lengths to try to save a player.   When the player  also happens to be very talented, it results in the inevitable suspicion  that that was the main reason the coach went out of his way to save him.

He was born in Arkansas but grew up in California. He entered the foster care system when he was 11, but during  what has been described as a “troubled” childhood, he found football - and he excelled at it.

He played two years at West Covina High, where he was a two-way starter at running back and outside linebacker, then played his last two years at Baldwin Park High where he helped lead the Braves to a CIF (think state) championship his junior year.

In his final two years, he rushed for nearly 3,000 yards and 38 touchdowns as Baldwin Park went 22-3-1.

Signing with Nebraska, he sat the bench for most of his freshman year, until he got to show his potential with a 137-yard, two-TD performance in a 14-13 win over a UCLA team that would go on to win the Pac-10 title that year.

The next year, with quarterback injuries forcing Nebraska to emphasize the running game, he rushed for more than 100 yards in 11 straight games as the Cornhuskers finished as unbeaten national champions. In all, he carried for 1,722 yards and scored 16 touchdowns - third-most in the nation - and finished eighth in Heisman balloting.

The season was barely over when he appeared in court to plead not guilty to charges of assault, vandalism and disturbing the peace, charges stemming from an  accusation months earlier of assaulting a fellow student. He had been placed in a “diversion” program but had violated the terms.

In the second game of his junior year, he had an outstanding game at Michigan State - then playing its first game under new coach Nick Saban - rushing for 206 yards and  four touchdowns on 22 carries.

But shortly  after returning  to Lincoln from the Michigan State game, he climbed up the outside of an apartment building and broke into the apartment of teammate Scott Frost, where he grabbed a young woman - his ex-girlfriend - and dragged her by the hair down three flights of stairs.

He was arrested and suspended  from the team - but not kicked off, a  decision by coach Tom Osborne that became a source of great controversy.

Said Osborne, “I felt the only thing I could put in a place that would keep him on track was football, because that was probably the only consistent organizing factor in his life."

Whatever, Coach.

After serving a six-game suspension, he was reinstated in time to play in  the national championship game, where he  rushed for 165 yards and three TDs in the Cornhuskers 62-24 win over Florida.  (It was the Huskers’ second straight national championship, and their third in four years.)

Declaring for the NFL draft, he chose to leave school a year early, and despite red flags run up by a pre-draft psychological evaluation, he was chosen in the first round by the St. Louis  Rams. So confident were the Rams that he was going to be their main running back that they traded Jerome Bettis to the Steelers (where he would have a Hall-of-Fame career).

Not long after the draft,  he was pulled over for speeding and  charged with drunk driving.  The arrest violated a probation, and he  spent 23 days in jail.

In his rookie season, he  started 11  games, carrying  the ball 193 times for 632 yards and 4 touchdowns. He got off to a great start in his second year, but after 10 games - in which he’d rushed for 634 yards -  he was released from the team.  The reason given to the media was that after being told that he was being demoted because of his inability to avoid trouble, he skipped  a team meeting and that day’s practice.

Next, he was picked up by the Dolphins, but after two games he was released following his plea of no contest to assault on a woman in a local nightclub.

From there, he went to NFL Europe, where  playing with the Barcelona Dragons he earned  Offensive Player of the Year honors - and a contract with the 49ers.

In San Francisco, h managed to stay out of trouble, but on the field, things went south when his failure to pick up a blitz resulted in a sack of quarterback Steve Young - and a concussion that would end Young's  career.

He began to miss practices, which led to a three-game suspension, which eventually led to his being waived.

He managed, despite his criminal record, to get a shot in the CFL with Montreal, but despite having  a good season and helping the Alouettes win the Grey Cup, he caused troubles with his attitude, once even leaving the team.  The next season,  after he held out briefly in a salary dispute, he was released (it later was learned that he had been charged with sexual assault) and picked up by Calgary.  His stay there was short, brought to an end when he got into it on the field with the head coach.

Thus ended a once-promising football career.

And thus began a  truly downward slide, one serious offense after another.

Imprisoned finally, he was serving a 31-year sentence in Kern Valley State Prison when in April 2015 he was charged with murdering his cellmate. (There’s more to the story:  while in prison, he chose not to affiliate with either the Bloods or the Crips, and  - the story goes - the cellmate was a Crip under orders to kill him.)

Nine months later, facing the possibility of a death sentence,  he was found dead in his cell, believed to have hanged himself.  He was 40 years old.






FRIDAY,  AUGUST 2, 2024   "If you have people on your staff pulling in different directions, you can bet you are going to have it on your football team." Bill Battle, Tennessee coach


*********** Wisdom from Mike Lude:  “None of this would've been possible if it weren't for a determined, take-charge woman who was years ahead of her time. That would be my grandmother,  Minnie Henderson.  Without Grandma Henderson and her 1928 Chevrolet, I would have faced huge obstacles even getting to high school, much less graduating and going on to college.

“Every Sunday night my loving grandmother drove to the farm and picked me up in the Chevrolet and took me to the house where she lived with Grandpa Loren Henderson.  Every Friday after school – sometimes it was after a football game or baseball game – she would drive me back to the farm and my family.

“Grandma Minnie’s influence on me was considerable. This five-feet-nine, big-boned woman was the boss of the family. She had everything organized. She was straightlaced and stern and didn't smile without a reason. Grandma was a big lady but not fat.  She wore her hair very straight and used little make up. Her appearance was very plain.  Grandpa Loren was totally deferential to her; he was more like my mother, compliant and sensitive. My grandparents never had much money.  Grandpa Loren worked at the local paper mill and was not well paid. When I lived in Vicksburg while going to high school he got laid off. The situation turned out to be permanent. 

“But Grandma Minnie made the most of what they had, and she had a great impact on me.  She taught me to drive that Chevrolet when I was a mere twelve.  She cooked to please my taste and insisted that I come home from school for lunch.”



***********   Coach Wyatt,

  Good morning and greetings from the tropical state of New York, where there used to be mild weather.

I have a question about something in the playbook, and if I am incorrect, my apologies.  On pg. 186, I was reviewing the blocking details for the trap plays, specifically the center.  Both 3 trap @2 and 2 trap @ 3 tell the center to aggressively block a lineman to your right.  I believe the center should go left on 3 T @ 2.

The wristband description has the center going left on 3 T @2 and Right on 2 T @ 3.

If you could clarify this for me, I would greatly appreciate it.  I want to make sure that I have all these items correct as I, being the new Head Coach, am coaching up the coaches first before coaching the players.

We have had a good first summer with the team and have installed Super Power, XX - C, G, Wedge, Old school 88 Red Red, 99 Blue Blue (We have a mobile QB who can get outside quickly), Black/Brown.

We will be running that tight slot formation this season.  I will keep you posted on how it works.

Thank you for all of your help, and here we go with another season.

Best wishes,
Russ Meyers
Head Football Coach
Oneida High School
Oneida, New York


Coach Meyers, who retired as head coach at Southern HS in Harwood, Maryland, is back in the saddle as head coach in Oneida, New York.  New York State may seem to some a strange place to retire to, but I have always loved New York State - its cities, its towns, its farms, lakes, mountains and forests - and I think it’s a damn  shame that so many people in the rest of the country think unfavorably of it because they think “New York City” (boo) and “New York State” (yay) are one and the same.


Coach Meyers has made a CATCH.

 

On Page 186 of the Playbook -

While the center’s assignment on the card for 3 Trap 2  is correct, the explanation below it is NOT.

It should read “block a lineman to your LEFT” (NOT “to your RIGHT”, as it reads!)

While I can’t change this in any of the books that are out there, I can at least do my best to make coaches aware. 

I appreciate Coach Meyers’  pointing this out.

To be  honest, I’m amazed it’s taken so long for anyone to spot this stupid error!

PS. If it matters, “aggressively” is misspelled.    How come nobody caught THAT?






***********John Canzano  showed a photo of new UCLA coach DeShaun Foster at Big Ten Media Days wearing a tee-shirt with a  clever  tongue-in-cheek message.

Included in the photo was reporter Ben Bolch of The Los Angeles Times, wearing another clever tee shirt. “Punting Is Winning” is the brainchild of Iowa punter Tory Taylor.  An Aussie (hence the map on the tee), Taylor is an international student, and therefore is unable to benefit from NIL deals. So he’s selling the shirts and donating the  proceeds to a non-profit known as “Count the Kicks.”


***********  WTF?

Some of the Olympic medals being won by former Pac-12 athletes are being claimed as “theirs” by conferences in which those athletes have never competed - and never will.

There’s the ACC, claiming that swimmer Katie Ledecky’s medals won in Paris were won by “an ACC athlete.”

Uh… Katie Ledecky graduated from Stanford in 2021.

What’s next, asks  John Canzano - “Will the Big Ten claim Jackie Robinson as an alumnus?”



*********** In case you might sometimes wonder why you coach…

Got this from a friend…

…wanted to share with you a conversation with one of my players who is a  receiver/ RB.

Great kid, great hands/ great speed and   tough. Not big, but I have 4 or 5 kids like that.

Got a call from his step-dad who talked to me about some issues he and his mom were having with him. So last night we were out at (——)  for 7 on 7  and  during some down time I struck up a conversation with the kid. Found out his real father was in prison, - hard core drug addict. The point I am getting at is that we just talked about things in general.

But here comes the kicker.  After we were done and I was walking to my car the kid came up to me and said, “Coach,  thanks for talking to me like a person.   I have never had a teacher or coach just talk to me and I’m so grateful you’re here to coach us.”

Hugh, like you and so many others,  we are people coaches. Hard to understand why some never understand that building a  relationship with kids brings huge benefits. Thought I would share that with you. At least I think I’m making progress.

*********** A coach who just took over the offense - the Double-Wing, of course - at a new program wrote to ask me about how soon he should be able to turn the line over - to an  inexperienced offensive line coach.

Here was my response…


Coach, the line is SO important that I would consider going an entire season coaching the entire team together before I would let the line spend five minutes with a guy who doesn’t know what he’s doing. Let a guy shadow you,  and first put him in charge of stance, splits and alignment. Have him check them on every play. Just that. When he’s good at that, and understands the importance of this things, move on - now, when you run a play, assign him just one player to watch. Over and over. If he tells you he saw something that needs correction, tell him how to correct it. See how he does.  Do this position by position, play by play. It’s a slow process. But there’s no way you can microwave a line coach.




************  Coach Wyatt,

Do you sell copies of your original Dynamics of the Double Wing on DVD? My vcr copy is about 25 years old and going bad.

Thanks

Chris Hicks
Colmesneil HS, Texas


Coach-

I offer it for sale along with an “update” - a DVD showing changes since  the first DVD came out. For $49.95.

http://www.coachwyatt.com/DYNAMICSVIDEO.html

(I’d be surprised to hear that any VHS tape is any  good at all after all that time!)



*********** Before you write a kid off because he's too "stupid" to do things the way you'd like him to,  first  consider the possibility that your methods or terminology, which may be perfectly understandable to you, and maybe to most of your  kids, don't necessarily mean the same thing - if anything at all - to that kid.

Unwittingly, you may be putting a roadblock in the way of the kid's - and your team's - success.

I thought of  a reunion I attended in Las Vegas many years ago. The Yale team of 1960 had gathered,  and after dinner several of the team members got up and told stories.

Bob Blanchard, the fullback - the guy in the photo, scoring against Princeton in 1960 - told a story that became a public confession.

Bob was an outstanding football player, a very good runner and blocker, and he got quite a reaction when he said, "For 40 years, I've kept this a secret - our entire senior year, we ran all our plays 'On Two.' The reason we always went “On Two" was because I just couldn't go on any other number - and Ollie (coach Jordan Olivar) was kind enough not to tell anyone."

Now think about this, the next you want to vary your snap count and your "stupid" kids keep jumping offside - Bob Blanchard was intelligent enough to get into an Ivy League college and graduate, and then enjoyed a successful career as a stockbroker.  But there was a sticking point back there on the football field, one that could have prevented him from being the player that he turned out to be, and one that could have prevented that team from being the great team that it went on to be (Yale’s last unbeaten, untied team).

Fortunately for Bob Blanchard and his team, he had a coach who was wise enough to accommodate him - and gracious enough to keep it a secret.  Perhaps Coach Olivar remembered his own college coach, Clipper Smith of Villanova, who (in those days when coaches couldn’t send in plays) entrusted his play-calling to the smartest player on the team. Even though he was a tackle - named Jordan Olivar.



 
***********   Uhhhh, Coach Smart…  Do you mind?  We’re trying to run a university here…


***********   “They tell us they want to believe but not belong; that they want Faith, but not religion; that they prefer spirituality, whatever that might mean, to communal worship. They seem to want God as a father, but to remain an only child; Jesus as a good Shepherd, if they’re the only Lamb in the flock.” Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York



***********   Q. On a power /counter the PSG rule is Gap-on-angle late. If he is uncovered doesn’t he double team with center on NG ?

A. Probably.  But not immediately.   Yes, he  probably will wind up doubling with the center, but that’s where the “LATE” comes in.   He can’t fire out and leave a gap in the play side  without making sure nothing’s coming, so first he delays - very slightly - to make sure that no one - slanting lineman or blitzing backer - is likely to attack his area.  I’d rather have him leave too late than leave too soon.  If he leaves too late -  no big harm.  If he leaves too soon he leaves a gap in the line and allows possible penetration. “Penetration kills offenses.”   If he takes a jab step with his up foot - his outside foot - that’s usually enough time to decide that it’s okay to go inside (“Angle”).



***********   Tom Batty, of Windsor, England, is executive director of the International Boys' Schools Coalition.

The IBSC includes 260 boys schools across the world -- in places such as North America, South Africa, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Asia.


Batty has spent 32 of his 36 years in education in all-boys schools. For 14 years he ran an all-boys’ school in Australia.


One advantage of  all-boys schools, he says, is that they don't have to tailor their curriculum to account for the fact that girls develop earlier than boys.


Also, says Batty,  "We believe that boys are highly relational in their learning -- you've got to reach them before you can teach them.”




***********   Much appreciated the longer-than-usual Quiz bio, but understand, in that you had a rare chance to learn more than most about Jordan Olivar. Interesting man who proudly made the most of his opportunities in America.

You imbedded a fantastic idea in today's Page: Army should opt out of the AAC and instead help reconstitute the old PAC-12. It makes much better sense geographically than their current conference alignment.

You hammered a third baseman I like, Isaac Paredes, for his BA. Please consider, though, that the recent MLB-wide batting average was .241. Also consider that Paredes is statistically the most extreme pull hitter in all of MLB (every one of his ML home runs has been to left field).

Don't leave me in the dark...there must be a lesson for the broader public...what did Coach Linton and Milo's father do to get his attention on study habits?*

Now I gotta go. I just made $25 with my Upside app, and have to think how I'm gonna spend all that extry cash.

John Vermillion                            
St Petersburg, Florida

* IT'S COMING!


***********   Hugh,

If I may add to Coach Whittington’s response.  Not only has the college football landscape changed, and will continue to evolve, I truly believe there will be THREE college football governing bodies.  NFL College Football.  NCAA College Football.  NAIA College Football.
(See my separate email)

There’s no way a reconfigured PAC 12 will include Army, Navy, Memphis, South Florida, or North Texas.  If the PAC 12 has any intention of “national” rebirth they will wait to see what happens with the ACC.  Should the ACC implode Stanford and Cal will run back home, and SMU will come with them.  UTSA will be attractive.  The ACC will reach out to Memphis, raid the Big 12 of UCF and WVU, and maybe talk with UAB to stabilize. 

Everything about the Paris Olympics is bad.  Have watched maybe 10 minutes of it. 

Flying on Southwest next week.  I’ll let you know how it went with the new seating arrangements.

QUIZ:  Jordan Olivar (two of his only losses at Loyola wERE to San Francisco in 1950 and 1951.  That ‘51 USF team was legendary .  His Lions beat the Dons in 1949.)

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas







 
***********  QUIZ ANSWER:  For much of the following, I’m indebted to the subject’s son, Harry, a now-deceased college  teammate and classmate of mine.

Jordan Olivar was born Giordano Aurelio Olivari in 1915, in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Italian immigrants. His father had jumped ship in New York - later, our guy would enjoy telling people that his father was an early illegal alien.   His father waited on tables and picked up a little money on the side as a boxer.

Italian was the language spoken in the  home; during Prohibition, he helped his father make wine, recalling later how he hated having to stomp the grapes in his bare feet.

From Brooklyn, his family moved to Staten Island, where he attended Curtis High School, graduating in 1930. He played high school soccer and baseball, but was ineligible to play high school football - there was a minimum age requirement, and he was never old enough.

Although he graduated first in his class, college was never an option. It was 1930 and America had been hit by the Depression. Through friends, he managed to find a job cleaning up a men's gym, sweeping floors and picking up towels, and occasionally earning tips by playing handball against members when no other opponents were available.  In time, members began to request him as an opponent, and, on occasion playing as many as 30 games a day, he became quite good.

So good did he become, in fact, that as his son once told me, "He would sometimes bet on the games, giving his opponent as much as 18 points to start (game is 21), as long as he could serve first. To score a point you had to be serving, so his opponent would have to win two serves - first breaking Dad's serve, then making a point on his own serve. Sometimes, if an opponent was not very good, Dad would just offer to play with his feet - which the opponent would take him up on, not knowing he was a soccer player."

One day, a wrestler showed up at the gym in search of a workout opponent, and saw him at work. Our guy was big, 6-4 and beginning to fill out. "Hey, kid!" the wrestler called out. "Let's go a few rounds!"

Things went as one might expect, until our guy grew tired of being tossed around, and suggested a game of handball instead.

Things went differently on the handball court, and the wrestler, run ragged and badly beaten, said, "Hey, kid - you're a pretty good athlete. How'd you like to play football? I know some people - I can get you a scholarship at either Notre Dame, or Fordham, or Villanova."

After giving it a little thought, he said "Villanova!" (Later in life, he would explain his logic: Notre Dame was the number one team  in the country, and he might not be able to play there;  Fordham was close by, in New York, where they would have known that he'd never played high school football.)

As he would later tell it,  for a kid from the streets of New York, going to Villanova, with its green, leafy campus - where you ate three meals every day and all you had to do was go to classes and play sports - was like going to heaven.

Although he had never played in a game of football until he arrived at Villanova (on a football scholarship)  he wound up starring on some of the Wildcats' greatest teams, playing first for Harry Stuhldreher, one of Notre Dame’s  legendary Four Horsemen, and then for Maurice "Clipper" Smith, another former Knute Rockne player.   It was Smith who, for one reason or another, dropped the “i” from the end of his name, doing the same for teammate Alex Belli.

In his senior year, Villanova was 8-0-1, outscoring opponents 185-7, and he was named co-MVP. The only blemish on the Wildcats' record was a 0-0 tie with Auburn.  He  played tackle on a defensive unit that yielded just one touchdown and shut out eight opponents, and as an indication of his football intelligence (and Clipper Smith's resourcefulness) he was entrusted with calling the offensive plays - from his position at right tackle.

He graduated second in his class, a smart player on a smart team, four of whose members (he, Alex Bell, Art Raimo and John McKenna) would go on to coach at the major college level.    Playing right next to him at right guard was a Philadelphian named Dave DiFilippo, who years later would achieve a certain measure of fame as the head coach of a legendary minor league team known as the Pottstown Firebirds, and as the focal figure in an NFL Films production entitled "Pro Football, Pottstown, PA."

In his final college game, Villanova ended the season by traveling to Los Angeles to play Loyola in the Los Angeles Coliseum.  While there, he and some teammates took a bus ride from the downtown hotel where they were staying, out to Santa Monica. The bus stopped on the Pacific Palisades, and looking out over the Pacific to Catalina Island in the distance, he was blown away by the sight. Then and there, in the words of his son,  "he fell in love with California."

Following graduation from Villanova, already married and with his wife, Stella, expecting twins, he got a job teaching and coaching at Radnor High School, not far from the Villanova campus. He left Radnor after a year to coach at Paulsboro, New Jersey, and after two years at Paulsboro, he moved to Philadelphia's Roman Catholic High.

Exempt from the World War II draft because he had  a wife and two young children, he also worked  in a Philadelphia shipyard.

And then, a year later, Villanova called. He was just 28.

He was the first of three members from his Villanova squad to coach the Wildcats (Art Raimo and Alex Bell were the two others). When he took over, it was 1943, not a good time to be coaching a college team, especially one that had to play Army's Blanchard-and-Davis teams. He took his lumps for a while, once absorbing an 83-0 defeat at the hands of mighty Army, but he built well and managed to compile a 33-20 record in his five seasons at Villanova.

Two of his teams went to bowl games: in 1947, Villanova lost to Kentucky - coached by Bear Bryant - in the Great Lakes Bowl, 24-14; his 1948 team finished 8-2-1, including victories over Texas A & M, Miami and North Carolina State, and a 13-13 tie with  Bryant and Kentucky, and the Wildcats capped the season with a 27-7 win over Nevada in the Harbor Bowl in San Diego.

It was on the way back from San Diego, during a change of trains in Los Angeles, that he learned that Loyola, the small Catholic school  he'd once played against, was looking for a football coach.    Remembering  his first view of the Pacific from the Palisades, and how much he'd been taken with California, he  got off the train to call Loyola and inquire about the job.

As his son told me, it was January 19, 1949, and as Olivar  got off the train in L.A.'s Union Station to make the phone call, it was snowing! "In California?" he asked himself. "Who needs this? We have snow in Pennsylvania."

But he made the call anyhow.  He got through to a receptionist, who told him there was no one in the athletic department. "It's Sunday," she reminded him.

He was tempted to say, "That's too bad," and get back on the train,  but for some reason, he persisted. He asked, "Isn't there someone I can speak to about the football position?"

"You could probably talk to Father Connelly," she said. "The priests live on campus. He's the Athletic Director."

He managed to get hold of Father Connelly and explain who he was and why he was calling, but the priest cut him off short, telling him, "I think we've already filled the job."

Our guy  asked, "Who do you have in mind?"

Father Connelly replied, "Joe Sheeketski, of the University of Nevada."

"Would it make any difference," he asked, "If I told you my team just beat his team 27-7?"

Said Father Connelly, "Maybe we should talk."

So while the Villanova team's train pulled out of Union Station without him, he  took a taxi to the Loyola campus to meet with Father Connelly.

Later that same day, he called his wife back in Pennsylvania, and said, "Pack your bags. We're moving to California."

In his three years at Loyola, he built a powerhouse, at one point posting a 13-game winning streak. His 1950 Lions' team, quarterbacked by Don Klosterman, was ranked 22nd in the nation and led the nation in passing.    Six members of the team went on to play professional football, the best-known among them Gene Brito, who would become an all-pro defensive end, and Klosterman, who would go on to greater renown as a pro football executive.

Ironically, the 1950 Loyola team defeated Nevada, 34-7, as Klosterman completed eight of the 11 first-half passes he threw, three for touchdowns, and the Lions  outgained Nevada 423 yards to 98.

But small Catholic schools around the country were being forced to take  a hard look at the rising costs of playing big-time football, with most deciding they could not longer keep up the struggle.   Loyola was one of them, and when Loyola dropped football after the 1951 season, he was out of a coaching job.

Reluctant to leave the West Coast, where he and his family loved the life and where he had begun to build a thriving life insurance business in the off-season, he hired on as a part-time assistant to Herman Hickman at Yale.  But before he had even had a chance to meet the players,  Hickman left to take a job in television. It was already August, and Yale was in a spot, but fortunately for them, our guy had successful head coaching experience, and in desperation, they offered him the job. After hesitating - not because he didn't think he was up to the job, but because he just didn't want to have to move  back East -  he took the job with the understanding that he could continue to live in California in the off-season.

The decision proved to be a fortunate one for Yale.  He was a godsend, turning potential disaster into triumph by coaching the 1952 team to a 7-2 record. When he left Yale 11 years later, in 1962, he had built a record of 61-32-6, making him the winningest coach in the Ivy League. Only the great Walter Camp, who retired 70 years before, had won more games as a Yale coach. His 1956 team won the first-ever Ivy League title, His 1960 team finished 9-0, the first undefeated Yale team in 37 years, and he was an American Football Coaches Association Coach of the Year. (He first became a member of the AFCA the same year as another young coach named Paul "Bear" Bryant.)

(The 1960 Yale team finished 14th in the AP poll. It was the last Ivy team to finish that high, just ahead of number 15 Michigan State and number 16 Penn State.)

His greatest thrill in coaching came in 1955, when Yale upset Don Holleder-led Army 14-12, in front of 70,000 people in a sold-out Yale Bowl. (Army and its Coach, Earl "Red" Blaik had once poured it on  his  undermanned World War II-era Villanova team, 83-0.)

He was an extremely loyal man, and inspired loyalty in those who worked for him. He kept the same four assistants through his entire tenure at Yale. Two of them, Art Raimo and Jerry Neri, were former teammates from Villanova, and remained lifelong friends.

His style of football would be considered conservative by today's standards, but at a time when many teams were still running the old-fashioned single wing, he was an offensive innovator.

He helped pioneer the Belly-T, or Belly Series (some people at the time called it the Drive Series or the Ride Series, but the name "Belly" won out), which one can see at first glance contained the seeds of the Wishbone T (the name that eventually won out over "Y" formation) to come along a generation later.

The Belly-T is still a highly effective offense, and his book, "Offensive Football - The Belly Series", written in 1958, is still the best I've seen on the subject, one I'd recommend to anyone interested in the offense - if you can find a copy. Perhaps remembering how he himself had called the plays while playing tackle at Villanova, his system placed a great deal of responsibility on the offensive tackles' ability to recognize defenses and adjust to them by making the appropriate blocking calls.

Now that I know more (a lot more) than I did when I was in college, I recognize Coach’s genius at never attempting things that were beyond his players' capabilities. When he had the players to do so, he did more with them. And he never did anything stupid, nor did his teams. That may sound like a "well, duh!" sort of statement at an Ivy League school, but if you believe in multiple intelligences, you will trust me when I say that an Ivy League intellect is not necessarily a guarantee of football intelligence.

Without being a whipcracker, without ever raising his voice, he had great team discipline.  I recall the first team meeting I attended as a varsity player my sophomore year.  As he began  talking, one or two latecomers walked in.  He stopped what he had been saying and said, “Those who can’t make it to meetings on time will soon be known as the late members of the team.”

I especially  remember a special teams lesson he gave me that has stuck with me through the years. We had plenty of good place kickers at Yale, yet they never kicked off. Instead, I'd watch, chuckling, while our big linemen practiced kicking off. They were lousy at it, I thought, and it seemed to me that the more they practiced, the lousier they got. In fact, if I didn't know better, I'd have sworn they were trying to be lousy!

After graduation, I got a job that kept me in Connecticut, and one night, my boss invited me to a banquet at which Coach  was to be the featured speaker.

On arrival, I discovered that I had been seated next to him. Now, you have to understand something. We didn't really know each other all that well. He was not a cold individual by any means, but he was a man of enormous dignity and aplomb, and as was the case with most head coaches of that time, he tended to be remote with his players. And because he delegated extensively, our interaction for the most part was with our position coaches and rarely with the head coach. Couple that with the fact that I had been something of a screw-off, an underachiever who undoubtedly was a source of some frustration to the coaches during my years there, and you can understand that I didn't know what to expect.

But Coach  couldn't have been more cordial and more enjoyable. I had never done a damn thing for him, but from the moment he arrived that night, he was my coach, and I was one of his former players, and he made me feel like I’d been an All-American.

He told me all sorts of stories, as if I were an old friend (I was reminded of this when I heard a former Texas player say of Darrell Royal, "Coach Royal was my coach - and then he became a friend.")

At length, I got up the courage to ask him something that had been on my mind for quite some time: why did we kick off like that?

He threw his head back and laughed. I guess he'd been asked the same question a few times before.

He told me that there was a time once when he was like everyone else - when he instructed his kickers to tee it up and kick it deep. And then one time, after an opponent had run a kickoff back for a touchdown, he had applied his intelligence to the problem, and had come up with the solution - don't kick it to the return man!

Let the opponents spend all the time they wanted to, working on their kick return, he said.  They wouldn't get a chance to use it against his team.

Years later, when I first became a coach (and I knew all the answers without having to bother learning them yet), I had kickers who could boom them deep.   Shoot - when I was coaching minor league ball back East, I had a guy who would go on to kick in the NFL. But coaching in high school, I began to get tired of spending all that time on kick coverage, and still having to worry every time the ball landed in a return man's arms. Once in a while - not often, but once is too often - we would have one returned on us.

So I went back to that night I sat next to him. And from that point on - some time around 1980, it was - I made the decision never again to kick it deep. I saw exactly one kick returned against one of my teams from then on. It was 1996, and the kicker got a little carried away - and kicked it deep! And less than 20 seconds into the game, we were down, 7-0.

(I did, though, do one thing that he didn't do. I  carefully explained to all my players why I did it the way I did, and I explained to them why I was telling them: so they’d know what to say when Dad or Uncle Charlie complained about why we didn't kick it high and deep.)

To show how the times have changed since he coached at Yale, Coach Olivar was able to take advantage of the Ivy League's ban on spring practice and its restrictions on recruiting, continuing to coach in the summer and fall and then returning to Los Angeles - and his insurance business - after the season. Finally, though, he began to feel pressure from alumni and administration to move to New Haven full-time, even to the point of offering to arrange a transfer of his business to New Haven or nearby Hartford. He declined, however, and finally resigned following the 1962 season. He was only 47 years old, but he returned to  his beloved Southern California to devote full-time to his life insurance business, and never coached again.

Never officially, that is. He was, however, instrumental in helping UCLA, one of the last of the major single-wing teams, convert to the more modern T-formation.

According to his son, he looked back on his coaching career with no regrets. He derived great satisfaction from it, and considered it a fulfilling career. And then he moved on.

He didn't need football coaching to define him. He had his business and his family, and he was a man of wide interests. He liked playing tennis, he collected Italian stamps and art objects, and he enjoyed opera. He was well-read, given to biographies, history and historical novels, and poetry. And he was a great lover of Shakespeare.
 
Jordan Olivar died on October 17, 1990 at the age of 75. He was survived by his wife of 54 years, Stella, his children, Harry and Harriet, and nine grandchildren. The cause of death was mesothelioma, a form of lung cancer attributed to his exposure to asbestos years earlier in the shipyards.

At his request, his ashes were scattered at the top of the Palisades, the place where he first saw the Pacific.

He is a member of the Villanova and Loyola-Marymount Halls of Fame, and was elected to the Helms Athletic Foundation Hall of Fame. (Yale has no Hall of Fame, but if it did, he would surely be in it.)

In his honor, an award is given annually to a Yale senior other than the captain who, through his devotion to Yale football, has earned the highest respect of his teammates.
A scholarship in the name of Jordan and Stella Olivar  is awarded annually by Loyola-Marymount to a financially-deserving student-athlete.

Through the years, in the many inspirational speeches he gave to students and businesspeople alike, Coach Olivar would tell the story of his hiring by Loyola, and ask his audience to consider -
 
What if he hadn't gotten off the train in Los Angeles? What if, after seeing the snow, he'd gotten back on? What if he'd accepted the receptionist's explanation that it was Sunday, and everything was closed? What if he'd accepted the Athletic Director's explanation that he'd already filled the head coaching position?

He asked those questions to make two important points - so often, the direction of a person's life is determined by little things. And so often, success comes from pressing on.

CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING JORDAN OLIVAR

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FORISTIERE - MARSING, IDAHO
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON

 




***********   QUIZ:  He’s a native of San Antonio.  He played high school football in Dallas, then two years of JC ball at New Mexico Military Academy and two years of college ball at Tarleton State.
 
His first job was as offensive coordinator at a high school in Corpus Christi.  After three years there, he got his first high  school  head coaching job at Aransas Pass, Texas. He was just 27.
 
His stay there lasted only one year,  when he left for a job coaching QBs and receivers at West Texas State.  After two years there, when the head coach was hired at UTEP, he went along, and served as offensive coordinator for three seasons.
 
He left UTEP to become head coach at Copperas Cove, Texas High, and after three years there, he was hired as head coach at Iowa Wesleyan, a small private college in Mount Pleasant, Iowa. (Iowa Wesleyan was forced to close its doors at the end of the 2022-2023 school year.)
 
At Iowa Wesleyan, he and an assistant named Mike Leach teamed up to  develop an offense he had been working on which came to be called the Air Raid System. It would gain a wide following among offensive coaches, and sprout an impressive roster of disciples.
 
He spent three years at Iowa Wesleyan. In his first season they finished 7-4. In his second season they went 7-5, but led the nation in passing. In his third season, Iowa Wesleyan finished second in the nation in passing,  going 10-2 and making it to the NAIA playoffs for the first time in school history.  Overall, his record there was 25-10.
 
It was enough to get him the head job at Division II Valdosta State.  There, in five seasons, his teams went 40-17-1.  Two of his teams made it as far as the D-II quarterfinals, and in 1994 his quarterback, Chris Hatcher, won the Harlon Hill Award – the D-II equivalent of the Heisman.
 
And then Kentucky AD C. M. Newton  came calling. Kentucky had gone 9-24 over the three previous seasons, and Newton was looking for a coach who could win, but just as important, could do it in exciting fashion.  And whoever got the job would inherit Tim Couch, one of the nation’s top quarterback recruits and a Kentucky kid.
 
Our guy got the job and he got Tim Couch, and together they took off.
 
Year One was  5-6, but it did include the Wildcats’ first win over Alabama since 1922.     And Couch set several team records.
 
Year Two started out with a 68-34 trouncing of archrival Louisville and finished 7-5, with an appearance in the Outback Bowl.  Just  the second bowl game in 15 years for Kentucky, it ended in a loss to Penn State.  And then Couch decided to leave a year early for the NFL.
 
Year three wound up 6-6 after a loss to Syracuse in the Music City Bowl, and year four wound up 2-9.
 
Worse, there were reports circulating about recruiting violations, and early in the new year he was forced to resign.  Kentucky was hit by the NCAA with a one-year bowl ban and the loss of 19 scholarships over three seasons. His recruiting coordinator was effectively banned from college coaching for eight years.
 
He had arrived in glory, but his departure left Kentucky in worse shape than it was when he arrived. And for all the hoopla, his overall record was just 20-26.
 
From there, his career went down the gurgler.
 
He was back into coaching two years later, at Southeast Louisiana, where in two years he went 5-7 and 7-4, good enough to get him the job at New Mexico State.
 
In his first year at NMSU, he went 0-12. In his second season, the Aggies went 3-9.  For much of the season, they led the nation in total offense.  So?  Big deal.
 
In his third year, NMSU went 3-9 and he was fired.
 
Four months later, he was hired by D-III McMurry.  In four years there, he went 27-16, and in his fourth year, after making the move to D-II, he went 8-3.
 
After a year out of football, he wound up next at Belhaven.  Have you heard of it?  It’s a D-III school in Jackson, Mississippi. In four years there, he was 8-33.  A marvel of consistency, he won two games a season all four seasons.
 
And that was it for him as a college head coach.
 
He spent a couple of months as OC at Jackson State, and he knocked around a couple of the spring leagues.
 
Just recently, he was hired as an “offensive analyst” at a high school in Bluff City, Tennessee.
 
As an innovator, he was impressive. His air raid has made a major impact on our game. As a head coach?  The overall college head coaching record of the man who invented the air raid offense is a rather unspectacular 142-152-1.
 






TUESDAY,  JULY 30, 2024   "The secret of managing is to keep the ones that hate you away from the ones that haven't decided yet." Casey Stengel



*********** Wisdom from Mike Lude: “It was Whitey Linton who inspired me to make coaching football a lifetime career, a decision that I still take immense pride in more than six decades later. Coach Linton also had the tact to tell me plain and simple that I wasn't big enough, fast enough, or talented enough to play college football at the Big Ten level and steered me to his alma mater, Hillsdale College. He delivered the message without crushing my less-than-fragile ego. It was a critical turning point in my life.

“He also conspired with my father to get my attention about complacent study habits and undisciplined effort in the classroom. What they did came as a total shock but it worked, although I never learned all the details of their ploy until years later.

“Vicksburg High School was only about nine miles from my family’s farm. That's no more than a fifteen-minute drive on today's roads in modern automobiles. But when you can't afford a car and there's no school bus, distance complicates the pursuit of education.

“That's why my parents, insistent that I stay in school and get my high school diploma, agreed to let me live with my mother’s parents in Vicksburg through the week and return to the farm on weekends.”



*********** It  was a busy weekend for one of our Aberdeen quarterbacks, Luke Martin:

On Thursday night, from 7 to 9, he took part in a  quarterback-receiver camp that I put on at our field.

On Friday morning, from 9 to 11, he took part in another such camp.

On Friday evening, after a three+ hour drive, he took part in a QB camp at Camas High School (the town I live in) from 6  to 8.  (It would have been 5 to 8 but he and his mom got caught in the Mother of All Traffic Delays.)

On Saturday morning, after a quick breakfast at our place, he arrived at the camp at 8:15 (an optional early start) and then went till noon.

After lunch, he went to camp from 1 to 4.

Head coach Todd Bridge figured that in less than 48 hours, Luke  had put in more than 12 hours of structured practice at getting better.



*********** In Canada, you get only three downs to make ten yards. But on third-and-one, the CFL guys are far more likely to go for it than the Yanks are on fourth-and-one.

That’s because in Canada, the neutral zone is one yard wide: the defense must line up one yard off the ball.  And that means that  with a decent line charge, the offense (in Canada, that would be the “OH-fence”) has a decent chance of gaining that yard.

So every team uses the quarterback sneak in those situations, linemen bunched tightly in four-point stances. Several teams use backup quarterbacks as their designated sneakers.

Winnipeg has a guy named Chris Streveler, who played college ball at Minnesota and then South Dakota and has had several cups of coffee in the NFL (Miami, Arizona, NY Jets) who is about as good as there is in those short-yardage situations.

In 41 games for the Blue Bombers,  his stats as a passer are okay - 269 completions in 420 attempts, for 20 TD and 20 interceptions.

But they’re nothing spectacular.

On the other hand, as a runner he’s carried 259 times and scored 28 touchdowns.  (I have no idea how many first downs he’s made.) He’s not just a short yardage threat, either - he’s gained 1369 yards, for a pretty impressive average of 5.3 yards per carry.



*********** Remember back before the drag queens took over, back when the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics consisted of the teams of all the participating nations marching into the Olympic stadium?

What do you suppose it’s going to look like in 2028 if, as the Babylon Bee suggests, Sodom and Gomorrah play host to the Olympics?


https://babylonbee.com/news/sodom-and-gomorrah-set-to-host-2032-olympics



*********** The French, hoping to show how important saving the planet is, may have taken it a bit too far  in the way they’re hosting the Olympics.

First of all, there’s the small matter of air-conditioning (or the lack of it) in the Olympic Village.

Then there’s the food.  The French are  world-famous for the quality of their cuisine.  But in a bow to the save-the-earth folks, they’ve evidently overdone the idea of plant-based imitation meats.

It’s become such a problem with the Brits that they’ve actually sent for extra chefs, to come over and prepare foods more to their liking.

When I first heard this, I said “Yeah!  Rule Brittania!”

And then I read that one of the foods the  British athletes were yearning for was something called - you’ll probably think I’m making this up - Spotted Dick.

Uh, on second thought, I’ll have a veggie burger, please.


https://www.google.com/search?q=spotted+dick&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-us&client=safari



***********  Many, many years ago, back in the prehistoric days before the designated hitter, the great Ted Williams (last hitter to bat .400 in a season) was quoted as saying there really shouldn’t be any place in the major leagues for anyone who can’t bat at least .250.

It’s a damn shame that he died in 2002, because he could be a sardonic son of a gun, and I’d love to hear his reaction to the news that the Chicago Cubs just traded for a third baseman named Isaac Paredes.  The guy’s batting .247 with16 home runs -  and he was described as the “top hitter on the market.”



*********** Yogi Roth, a former Pitt wide receiver, lost his job with the Pac-12 Network when it went dark a few months ago, but managed to land another job with the Big Ten Network.

In the interim, while working at the Big-12’s media days, he caught up with Utah’s Kyle Whittingham and asked him what he thought the future of college football looked like…

Who knows where it's headed?  I can tell you the transition and the changes are far from over with. My guess is there are going to be two super leagues, within the next 20 months to 4 or 5 years and you better be on the right side of that line in the sand when that is drawn because everyone else is going to be left behind.  So, I think that’s where things are headed, I think it's going to be a minor league NFL model and I don’t believe the NCAA will be involved at all.  They’ll have a commissioner that will do things their way.  You’ll see private equity continue to come to the party and be factors in the collegiate game. So, I think the experience so far is just the tip of the iceberg as far as what’s going to be here.

*********** Southwest Airlines has just announced that it plans to do away with its unique, open-seating policy and join the other major air lines in selling fixed, reserved seats.

On Reddit, I’ve seen all sorts of complaints about people increasingly taking unfair advantage of their current system, and Southwest doing nothing about it.

Although Southwest's boarding order is based on a pre-assigned number on one's boarding pass,  its policy has been to offer  “preboarding” to people  with disabilities or those who just “need extra help.”  But recently there seem to be more and more  stories of  the miracles performed by “Jetway Jesus” and on phonies  who show up in wheelchairs as invalids and get priority boarding, then - mirabile dictu! - show miraculous recovery  on arrival at the destination.

And then there are those whose  boarding passes permit them to board ahead of others in their party whose passes require them to wait their turn.  They board and then, even though all seats are theoretically open to anyone, they spread out personal items on seats next to them and brazenly inform others wanting to sit there  that  they’re “saved.”

Needless to say, such arrogance has led to quite a few nasty disagreements - as the flight attendants  stand and watch with arms folded.

Which leads me to believe that Southwest has  self-sabotaged their own open-seating policy,  deliberately looking the other way as some fraudsters exploit their “preboarding” system, while others have the gall to “save” seats for others in their party whose boarding passes  don’t permit them to board yet.

Why would Southwest do this? Why would they piss off their loyal following - people who (1) don’t like paying extra for a better seat or  (2) would rather wait to select their seat - and their seat-mate - until they’re inside the plane?

Seems pretty simple to me. Going to the reserved-seat system allows Southwest to  begin charging extra for  seats with extra leg room.  Or seats toward the front of the plane. Or exit rows.  Or even - are you ready for this? - first class.



*********** John Canzano asked Patrick Chun, AD at the University of Washington, who, besides Oregon State and Washington State, would have sufficient “TV value” to make them potential members of a reconstituted Pac-12.  Chun was recently the AD at Washington State.

Chun didn’t say. So I turned to a couple of TV-world sources for some input. Their short list included: San Diego State, Colorado State, Memphis, South Florida, University of Texas-San Antonio, North Texas State, and the service academies (Air Force, Army, Navy). They may also include Boise State, Fresno State, and UNLV because of brand and geography. It’s worth chewing on this ‘best of the rest” idea because it appears the world of college athletics is.

***********   It’s every coach’s nightmare - you take a team to an overnight camp and something goes wrong there: a kid gets drunk; older kids haze younger kids.

Discipline, I once heard Woody Hayes say, is ninety per cent anticipation.

But who anticipates this?

Court paperwork submitted this week claims that a former Westview football coach, who is also a Hillsboro police officer, had been drinking in the hours before he allegedly slapped and shook student-athletes at a camp.

Jamal Jones, 32, is currently facing 12 counts of harassment in Yamhill County after allegedly waking up players around 1 a.m. while the team was at Linfield University on June 25. Athletes and coaches both claimed that Jones was crawling over students, slapping and shaking them awake. Students gave police video to back up their accounts.

The probable cause affidavit, filed in court on Wednesday, also says Jones told officers that he drank four Coors tallboys between 9 p.m. and 11 p.m. on the night of the incident. Tallboys are 16 oz., which is 4 oz. more than a standard can of beer. And students reported smelling what they thought was alcohol when Jones was around, according to the affidavit.

https://www.oregonlive.com/highschoolsports/2024/07/court-papers-allege-former-football-coach-had-been-drinking-before-slapping-shaking-students.html



*********** Years ago, while back in New Haven, I met a young Yale student named Kurt Schmoke.  He was from Baltimore, and having lived in Baltimore, I knew his name. I was quite impressed with him.

Kurt Schmoke would become the first black man to serve as mayor of Baltimore. He was an outstanding football player in high school, and after graduation from Yale - where he played both football and lacrosse - he won a Rhodes Scholarship for study at Oxford.

After graduating from Harvard Law School, he served as assistant U.S. Attorney in Baltimore until being elected state's attorney (Baltimore's version of the DA).

In 1987, he was elected mayor of Baltimore.

Since leaving office he served as dean of the Howard University School of Law and, since 2014 he has been president of the University of Baltimore.

Writing in the Yale Alumni Magazine, he recalled his time as state’s attorney, and made this startling observation: "I was struck by the fact that we never prosecuted a college graduate for a violent crime.”



*********** Last June, when Harvard women’s ice hockey coach Katey Stone retired, all seemed nice and refined, as you’d expect at an Ivy League school.

But, according to a lawsuit she filed recently, suing the university for sex discrimination, her “retirement”  was actually forced by the university after receiving reports of misconduct, including an annual “naked skate” ritual in which among other things, younger skaters were required to do a diving slide along the ice.
 
The “misconduct” that got my attention was her alleged use of a supposedly  “racially insensitive” phrase.  She said something that I  figure I’ve heard maybe two or three hundred times - maybe even used it myself once or twice - that “there are too many chiefs … not enough Indians.”

I’ve since read somewhere that when she made that comment, it was directed at a player who actually was an American Indian.



***********   Apologies if I've noted this before. For a decade I had Tampa Bay Rays season tickets. Across the way from my seats I often saw the long, lean Monte (Kiffin) sitting alone, his feet stretched over two rows in front of him. He was gregarious, funny, raspy-voiced, a bigger hit on TV than his head coaches ever were. The public loved him. Yet there he always sat, alone. And he was sufficiently respected as an NFL DC that at one time he was the highest-paid assistant in the league.

Thanks for adding to Coach Lude's comments about Coach Whitey Linton. I think, however, that many who read this page won't be surprised, because they have similar lasting memories of their own high school coaches.

Re Pro-Hamas crap: it admittedly doesn't take much to heat me up, but it happened in a flash, and on the high setting, when I saw that riot at Washington Union Station this week. Climbing up to steal the American flag from the pole above the station, then torching it, dancing around the flames in a circle, then parading the Hamas flag. And simultaneously on the statue they spray paint, Hamas is Coming!. Did anyone see anyone, police or not, try to stop these cretins?

John Vermillion            
St Petersburg, Florida






***********  QUIZ ANSWER:    Paul Robeson was one of the most accomplished Americans of the twentieth century, yet today he is largely unknown. Perhaps because he became a figure of enormous controversy, it’s almost as if his story has been deliberately erased,  much in the way the Soviet Union  would make unpopular figures disappear from its history books,
 
He was born April 9, 1898 in a then-segregated Princeton, New Jersey, the son of a black Presbyterian minister who had escaped slavery when he was 15. His mother died in a fire when he was six. His father, accused of "causing unrest" in the community, was relieved of his congregation, and  the family then moved to Westfield, New Jersey.  There,  he would later recall, he first "came to know more white people" and developed his ability to "move between the races."
 
As one of only 12 blacks in a high school of 200 students, Robeson excelled academically and athletically, and began to realize that while his talents would give him a certain acceptance in the white world, they would not earn him full acceptance.
 
At 17, he won a statewide competition for a four-year scholarship to Rutgers, becoming  the only black student on campus and just  the third black person to enroll there in the school’s history. Robeson was very big by the standards of that time - 6-2, 190 - and after surviving  the trials of proving himself on the football field, he became the star of the Rutgers squad.
 
He became  only the second black player in football history to make All-America (making it twice, in 1917 and 1918). Walter Camp of Yale, who selected the All-America teams then, called him "a veritable superman."
 
Although he earned the respect of his teammates and most opponents, his football career was not without racial incident.   Caving in to pressure from school administrators, Rutgers’ coach held him out of a game his sophomore year when Washington and Lee refused to play against a black man.  But later, when West Virginia would make  a similar demand, the coach would stand  by his star and refuse to bench him. The game went on as scheduled.
 
However great he was as a football player and an all-round athlete (overall, he won 15 letters at Rutgers in four different sports), Paul Robeson was much more than that.
 
He also won his college's oratory prize all four years. He was named to Phi Beta Kappa (the nation's most prestigious academic honor society) as a junior, and as a senior, he was one of only four men chosen for admission to the Cap and Skull Honor Society, for best representing the ideals of Rutgers.
 
He was class valedictorian, and in the commencement address, urged those in attendance to strive for a government in which "character shall be the standard of excellence," and "black and white shall clasp friendly hands in the consciousness of the fact that we are brethren and that God is the father of us all." (Surely, at some point in his education, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. became aware of this speech.)
 
Following graduation, he studied law at Columbia, paying his tuition by playing professional football and helping to coach at Rutgers. Once, after being taken to a hospital with a football injury,  he met Essie Goode, the woman who would become his wife. Learning of his musical talent, she urged him to appear in a musical at the Harlem YMCA, launching what would be a long and renowned musical career.
 
Upon graduation from law school, he accepted an offer from a wealthy, influential Rutgers alumnus to join his New York law firm, as its first black lawyer.  But his legal career did not last long -  after a white secretary refused to take dictation from him, he resigned, and never practiced law again.
 
Meanwhile,  his show business career progressed.  Robeson became a sensation with his singing of "Ole Man River" in Jerome Kern's musical "Show Boat."  And his portrayal of Othello, Shakespeare's dark-skinned general who is married to a white woman and tormented by his suspicion that she is unfaithful to him, was so powerful and defining that no man has ever been able to play the role since without being compared  to him.
 
But controversy began to dog him.  In some cases it was due to his being a black man playing the lead opposite white women; in others it was due to his outspokenness on the matter of America's racial inequality. And, as things progressed,   to his widely-expressed belief that people of other races lived better in the Soviet Union than in the United States.
 
In New York, when he starred in Eugene O'Neill's “All God's Chillun Got Wings,” in which a white actress  played his wife, there were threats of riots and bombing.
 
But in London, at the opening night of The Emperor Jones,  he was called back for 12 ovations. And Essie would write that in London, unlike New York, they could, "as respectable human beings, dine at any public place," quite a contrast to concert tours in the United States, when he would frequently be denied hotel accommodations.
 
Once, in the middle of a concert in Kansas City he  stopped, made a comment about the racial segregation of the audience, and announced that he was continuing under protest.  At that,  hundreds of whites  walked out.
 
Robeson’s world travels made it clear to him that he was treated better in many foreign countries than he was in America, but unfortunately for him and his cause, the country and the system he chose as his ideal was one which most Americans viewed with great distrust - the Soviet Union.
 
His open support of the Soviet Union - and Communism - came to overshadow everything else about  him, and despite his renown, he spent much of his adult life under investigation by the FBI.
 
His concerts were boycotted, and often shut down by rioters. On at least two occasions, he escaped death after a wheel on his car had been tampered with.
 
As a highly visible American, he made great propaganda for the Soviet Union and its ruler, Josef Stalin. What made Robeson  susceptible to the Soviet line was that in his eyes, while blacks were treated as equals in the Soviet Union, they were far less than that in the United States.
 
Realizing  that his great talent and fame uniquely positioned him as a point man for black people everywhere, he criticized,  he complained and  he had the courage to  tell people in power things that they didn't want to hear.

In 1943, four years before Jackie Robinson broke baseball’s color barrier,  Robeson  openly appealed to baseball commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis to lift the major leagues' ban against black players. (With World War II going on and baseball having a hard time  finding enough fit men to fill its rosters, baseball nonetheless held fast to its color line.)

But never did he advocate the overthrow of the United States government, violent or otherwise, and he never called for racial separation or race warfare. He talked, instead, of racial equality.
 
It was most unfortunate that he came to be associated with  Stalin - causing   him  to be labelled a "Kremlin stooge" by white and black leaders alike. Like most people in the world, he was unaware of what a true monster Stalin was, and it came as such a shock to him when Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev in 1956 revealed to the world the full extent of Stalin's butchery that he reportedly suffered an emotional collapse upon hearing the news.
 
(Ironically,  the same United States government that hounded him, cancelled his passport and subjected him to constant FBI surveillance because of his association with the Soviet Union was itself willing to ally with Stalin in the fight against  Hitler.)
 
Once one of the best-known Americans of his time,  having achieved greatness in his field of choice, Paul Robeson wound up living  a life in disgrace in the eyes of much of the America of his day.  Today, far too few Americans have even heard of him.

 
In 1973, at the celebration of his 75th birthday, Mrs. Coretta Scott King told a capacity crowd at Carnegie Hall in New York that, decades before her husband,  Paul Robeson had been "buried alive" for fighting for the causes of civil rights and human dignity.  

Paul Robeson was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1995.


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING PAUL ROBESON

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
MIKE FORISTIERE - MARSING, IDAHO
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY


***********   What a history lesson for me.
This guy was talented beyond all belief in so many ways, not just
athletically. This one I will remember.

Mike Foristiere
Marsing, Idaho


***********   I  didn't like his politics, but I really enjoyed his singing.

When he sang "Old Man River" in the play Showboat it resonated with every cell in your body. It was so powerful.

David Crump
Owensboro, Kentucky


 



***********  QUIZ:  For much of the following, I’m indebted to the subject’s son, a now-deceased college  teammate and classmate of mine.

He was born Giordano Aurelio Olivari in 1915, in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Italian immigrants. His father had jumped ship in New York - later, our guy would enjoy telling people that his father was an early illegal alien.   His father waited on tables and picked up a little money on the side as a boxer.

Italian was the language spoken in the  home; during Prohibition, he helped his father make wine, recalling later how he hated having to stomp the grapes in his bare feet.

From Brooklyn, his family moved to Staten Island, where he attended Curtis High School, graduating in 1930. He played high school soccer and baseball, but was ineligible to play high school football - there was a minimum age requirement, and he was never old enough.

Although he graduated first in his class, college was never an option. It was 1930 and America had been hit by the Depression. Through friends, he managed to find a job cleaning up a men's gym, sweeping floors and picking up towels, and occasionally earning tips by playing handball against members when no other opponents were available.  In time, members began to request him as an opponent, and, on occasion playing as many as 30 games a day, he became quite good.

So good did he become, in fact, that as his son once told me, "He would sometimes bet on the games, giving his opponent as much as 18 points to start (game is 21), as long as he could serve first. To score a point you had to be serving, so his opponent would have to win two serves - first breaking Dad's serve, then making a point on his own serve. Sometimes, if an opponent was not very good, Dad would just offer to play with his feet - which the opponent would take him up on, not knowing he was a soccer player."

One day, a wrestler showed up at the gym in search of a workout opponent, and saw him at work. Our guy was big, 6-4 and beginning to fill out. "Hey, kid!" the wrestler called out. "Let's go a few rounds!"

Things went as one might expect, until our guy grew tired of being tossed around, and suggested a game of handball instead.

Things went differently on the handball court, and the wrestler, run ragged and badly beaten, said, "Hey, kid - you're a pretty good athlete. How'd you like to play football? I know some people - I can get you a scholarship at either Notre Dame, or Fordham, or Villanova."

After giving it a little thought, he said "Villanova!" (Later in life, he would explain his logic: Notre Dame was the number one team  in the country, and he might not be able to play there;  Fordham was close by, in New York, where they would have known that he'd never played high school football.)

As he would later tell it,  for a kid from the streets of New York, going to Villanova, with its green, leafy campus - where you ate three meals every day and all you had to do was go to classes and play sports - was like going to heaven.

Although he had never played in a game of football until he arrived at Villanova (on a football scholarship)  he wound up starring on some of the Wildcats' greatest teams, playing first for Harry Stuhldreher, one of Notre Dame’s  legendary Four Horsemen, and then for Maurice "Clipper" Smith, another former Knute Rockne player.  

In his senior year, Villanova was 8-0-1, outscoring opponents 185-7, and he was named co-MVP. The only blemish on the Wildcats' record was a 0-0 tie with Auburn.  He  played tackle on a defensive unit that yielded just one touchdown and shut out eight opponents, and as an indication of his football intelligence (and Clipper Smith's resourcefulness) he was entrusted with calling the offensive plays - from his position at right tackle.

He graduated second in his class, a smart player on a smart team, four of whose members (he, Alex Bell, Art Raimo and John McKenna) would go on to coach at the major college level.    Playing right next to him at right guard was a Philadelphian named Dave DiFilippo, who years later would achieve a certain measure of fame as the head coach of a legendary minor league team known as the Pottstown Firebirds, and as the focal figure in an NFL Films production entitled "Pro Football, Pottstown, PA."

In his final college game, Villanova ended the season by traveling to Los Angeles to play Loyola in the Los Angeles Coliseum.  While there, he and some teammates took a bus ride from the downtown hotel where they were staying, out to Santa Monica. The bus stopped on the Pacific Palisades, and looking out over the Pacific to Catalina Island in the distance, he was blown away by the sight. Then and there, in the words of his son,  "he fell in love with California."

Following graduation from Villanova, already married and with his wife, Stella, expecting twins, he got a job teaching and coaching at Radnor High School, not far from the Villanova campus. He left Radnor after a year to coach at Paulsboro, New Jersey, and after two years at Paulsboro, he moved to Philadelphia's Roman Catholic High.

Exempt from the World War II draft because he had  a wife and two young children, he also worked  in a Philadelphia shipyard.

And then, a year later, Villanova called. He was just 28.

He was the first of three members from his Villanova squad to coach the Wildcats (Art Raimo and Alex Bell were the two others). When he took over, it was 1943, not a good time to be coaching a college team, especially one that had to play Army's Blanchard-and-Davis teams. He took his lumps for a while, once absorbing an 83-0 defeat at the hands of mighty Army, but he built well and managed to compile a 33-20 record in his five seasons at Villanova.

Two of his teams went to bowl games: in 1947, Villanova lost to Kentucky - coached by Bear Bryant - in the Great Lakes Bowl, 24-14; his 1948 team finished 8-2-1, including victories over Texas A & M, Miami and North Carolina State, and a 13-13 tie with  Bryant and Kentucky, and the Wildcats capped the season with a 27-7 win over Nevada in the Harbor Bowl in San Diego.

It was on the way back from San Diego, during a change of trains in Los Angeles, that he learned that Loyola, the small Catholic school  he'd once played against, was looking for a football coach.    Remembering  his first view of the Pacific from the Palisades, and how much he'd been taken with California, he  got off the train to call Loyola and inquire about the job.

As his son told me, it was January 19, 1949, and as his dad got off the train in L.A.'s Union Station to make the phone call, it was snowing! "In California?" he asked himself. "Who needs this? We have snow in Pennsylvania."

But he made the call anyhow.  He got through to a receptionist, who told him there was no one in the athletic department. "It's Sunday," she reminded him.

He was tempted to say, "That's too bad," and get back on the train,  but for some reason, he persisted. He asked, "Isn't there someone I can speak to about the football position?"

"You could probably talk to Father Connelly," she said. "The priests live on campus. He's the Athletic Director."

He managed to get hold of Father Connelly and explain who he was and why he was calling, but the priest cut him off short, telling him, "I think we've already filled the job."

Our guy  asked, "Who do you have in mind?"

Father Connelly replied, "Joe Sheeketski, of the University of Nevada."

"Would it make any difference," he asked, "If I told you my team just beat his team 27-7?"

Said Father Connelly, "Maybe we should talk."

So while the Villanova team's train pulled out of Union Station without him, he  took a taxi to the Loyola campus to meet with Father Connelly.

Later that same day, he called his wife back in Pennsylvania, and said, "Pack your bags. We're moving to California."

In his three years at Loyola, he built a powerhouse, at one point posting a 13-game winning streak. His 1950 Lions' team, quarterbacked by Don Klosterman, was ranked 22nd in the nation and led the nation in passing.    Six members of the team went on to play professional football, the best-known among them Gene Brito, who would become an all-pro defensive end, and Klosterman, who would go on to greater renown as a pro football executive.

Ironically, the 1950 Loyola team defeated Nevada, 34-7, as Klosterman completed eight of the 11 first-half passes he threw, three for touchdowns, and the Lions  outgained Nevada 423 yards to 98.

But small Catholic schools around the country were being forced to take  a hard look at the rising costs of playing big-time football, with most deciding they could not longer keep up the struggle.   Loyola was one of them, and when Loyola dropped football after the 1951 season, he was out of a coaching job.

Reluctant to leave the West Coast, where he and his family loved the life and where he had begun to build a thriving life insurance business in the off-season, he hired on as a part-time assistant to Herman Hickman at Yale.  But before he had even had a chance to meet the players,  Hickman left to take a job in television. It was already August, and Yale was in a spot, but fortunately for them, our guy had successful head coaching experience, and in desperation, they offered him the job. After hesitating - not because he didn't think he was up to the job, but because he just didn't want to have to move  back East -  he took the job with the understanding that he could continue to live in California in the off-season.

The decision proved to be a fortunate one for Yale.  He was a godsend, turning potential disaster into triumph by coaching the 1952 team to a 7-2 record. When he left Yale 11 years later, in 1962, he had built a record of 61-32-6, making him the winningest coach in the Ivy League. Only the great Walter Camp, who retired 70 years before, had won more games as a Yale coach. His 1956 team won the first-ever Ivy League title, His 1960 team finished 9-0, the first undefeated Yale team in 37 years, and he was an American Football Coaches Association Coach of the Year. (He first became a member of the AFCA the same year as another young coach named Paul "Bear" Bryant.)

(The 1960 Yale team finished 14th in the AP poll. It was the last Ivy team to finish that high, just ahead of number 15 Michigan State and number 16 Penn State.)

His greatest thrill in coaching came in 1955, when Yale upset Don Holleder-led Army 14-12, in front of 70,000 people in a sold-out Yale Bowl. (Army and its Coach, Earl "Red" Blaik had once poured it on  his  undermanned World War II-era Villanova team, 83-0.)

He was an extremely loyal man, and inspired loyalty in those who worked for him. He kept the same four assistants through his entire tenure at Yale. Two of them, Art Raimo and Jerry Neri, were former teammates from Villanova, and remained lifelong friends.

His style of football would be considered conservative by today's standards, but at a time when many teams were still running the old-fashioned single wing, he was an offensive innovator.

He helped pioneer the Belly-T, or Belly Series (some people at the time called it the Drive Series or the Ride Series, but the name "Belly" won out), which one can see at first glance contained the seeds of the Wishbone T (the name that eventually won out over "Y" formation) to come along a generation later.

The Belly-T is still a highly effective offense, and his book, "Offensive Football - The Belly Series", written in 1958, is still the best I've seen on the subject, one I'd recommend to anyone interested in the offense - if you can find a copy. Perhaps remembering how he himself had called the plays while playing tackle at Villanova, his system placed a great deal of responsibility on the offensive tackles' ability to recognize defenses and adjust to them by making the appropriate blocking calls.

Now that I know more (a lot more) than I did when I was in college, I recognize Coach’s genius at never attempting things that were beyond his players' capabilities. When he had the players to do so, he did more with them. And he never did anything stupid, nor did his teams. That may sound like a "well, duh!" sort of statement at an Ivy League school, but if you believe in multiple intelligences, you will trust me when I say that an Ivy League intellect is not necessarily a guarantee of football intelligence.

Without being a whipcracker, without ever raising his voice, he had great team discipline.  I recall the first team meeting I attended as a varsity player my sophomore year.  As he began  talking, one or two latecomers walked in.  He stopped what he had been saying and said, “Those who can’t make it to meetings on time will soon be known as the late members of the team.”

I especially  remember a special teams lesson he gave me that has stuck with me through the years. We had plenty of good place kickers at Yale, yet they never kicked off. Instead, I'd watch, chuckling, while our big linemen practiced kicking off. They were lousy at it, I thought, and it seemed to me that the more they practiced, the lousier they got. In fact, if I didn't know better, I'd have sworn they were trying to be lousy!

After graduation, I got a job that kept me in Connecticut, and one night, my boss invited me to a banquet at which Coach  was to be the featured speaker.

On arrival, I discovered that I had been seated next to him. Now, you have to understand something. We didn't really know each other all that well. He was not a cold individual by any means, but he was a man of enormous dignity and aplomb, and as was the case with most head coaches of that time, he tended to be remote with his players. And because he delegated extensively, our interaction for the most part was with our position coaches and rarely with the head coach. Couple that with the fact that I had been something of a screw-off, an underachiever who undoubtedly was a source of some frustration to the coaches during my years there, and you can understand that I didn't know what to expect.

But Coach  couldn't have been more cordial and more enjoyable. I had never done a damn thing for him, but from the moment he arrived that night, he was my coach, and I was one of his former players, and he made me feel like I’d been an All-American.

He told me all sorts of stories, as if I were an old friend (I was reminded of this when I heard a former Texas player say of Darrell Royal, "Coach Royal was my coach - and then he became a friend.")

At length, I got up the courage to ask him something that had been on my mind for quite some time: why did we kick off like that?

He threw his head back and laughed. I guess he'd been asked the same question a few times before.

He told me that there was a time once when he was like everyone else - when he instructed his kickers to tee it up and kick it deep. And then one time, after an opponent had run a kickoff back for a touchdown, he had applied his intelligence to the problem, and had come up with the solution - don't kick it to the return man!

Let the opponents spend all the time they wanted to, working on their kick return, he said.  They wouldn't get a chance to use it against his team.

Years later, when I first became a coach (and I knew all the answers without having to bother learning them yet), I had kickers who could boom them deep.   Shoot - when I was coaching minor league ball back East, I had a guy who would go on to kick in the NFL. But coaching in high school, I began to get tired of spending all that time on kick coverage, and still having to worry every time the ball landed in a return man's arms. Once in a while - not often, but once is too often - we would have one returned on us.

So I went back to that night I sat next to him. And from that point on - some time around 1980, it was - I made the decision never again to kick it deep. I saw exactly one kick returned against one of my teams from then on. It was 1996, and the kicker got a little carried away - and kicked it deep! And less than 20 seconds into the game, we were down, 7-0.

(I did, though, do one thing that he didn't do. I  carefully explained to all my players why I did it the way I did, and I explained to them why I was telling them: so they’d know what to say when Dad or Uncle Charlie complained about why we didn't kick it high and deep.)

To show how the times have changed since he coached at Yale, Coach was able to take advantage of the Ivy League's ban on spring practice and its restrictions on recruiting, continuing to coach in the summer and fall and then returning to Los Angeles - and his insurance business - after the season. Finally, though, he began to feel pressure from alumni and administration to move to New Haven full-time, even to the point of offering to arrange a transfer of his business to New Haven or nearby Hartford. He declined, however, and finally resigned following the 1962 season. He was only 47 years old, but he returned to  his beloved Southern California to devote full-time to his life insurance business, and never coached again.

Never officially, that is. He was, however, instrumental in helping UCLA, one of the last of the major single-wing teams, convert to the more modern T-formation.

According to his son, he looked back on his coaching career with no regrets. He derived great satisfaction from it, and considered it a fulfilling career. And then he moved on.

He didn't need football coaching to define him. He had his business and his family, and he was a man of wide interests. He liked playing tennis, he collected Italian stamps and art objects, and he enjoyed opera. He was well-read, given to biographies, history and historical novels, and poetry. And he was a great lover of Shakespeare.
 
He died on October 17, 1990 at the age of 75. He was survived by his wife of 54 years, Stella, his children, Harry and Harriet, and nine grandchildren. The cause of death was mesothelioma, a form of lung cancer attributed to his exposure to asbestos years earlier in the shipyards.

At his request, his ashes were scattered at the top of the Palisades, the place where he first saw the Pacific.

He is a member of the Villanova and Loyola-Marymount Halls of Fame, and was elected to the Helms Athletic Foundation Hall of Fame. (Yale has no Hall of Fame, but if it did, he would surely be in it.)

In his honor, an award is given annually to a Yale senior other than the captain who, through his devotion to Yale football, has earned the highest respect of his teammates.

A scholarship in the name of him and his wife  is awarded annually by Loyola-Marymount to a financially-deserving student-athlete.

Through the years, in the many inspirational speeches he gave to students and businesspeople alike, Coach would tell the story of his hiring by Loyola, and ask his audience to consider -

What if he hadn't gotten off the train in Los Angeles? What if, after seeing the snow, he'd gotten back on? What if he'd accepted the receptionist's explanation that it was Sunday, and everything was closed? What if he'd accepted the Athletic Director's explanation that he'd already filled the head coaching position?

He asked those questions to make two important points - so often, the direction of a person's life is determined by little things. And so often, success comes from pressing on.
 



FRIDAY,  JULY 26,  2024   “Men are basically smart or dumb and lazy or ambitious. The dumb and ambitious ones are dangerous and I get rid of them. The dumb and lazy ones I give mundane duties. The smart ambitious ones I put on my staff."  German General Erwin Rommel.


*********** Wisdom from Mike Lude: “Whitey Linton was the first and probably the only person I ever idolized. He became the most important and significant person in my total personal development.

“Certainly, my father was my role model for truth, honesty, hard work, determination, and love.  He had raised me on our family farm, where we labored so hard and so long just to survive in the Great Depression. He taught me the values that have remained with me all my life.

“But Whitey Linton was a role model in a different way. He was handsome; he was articulate; he was an excellent coach; he was a fun person to go pheasant hunting with; he could get me to do just about anything.”



*********** Former Oregon State coach Mike Riley lost his wife, Dee, recently. She was a great  coach’s wife, and the Rileys’ story was a very touching one.  It’s well told here by Kerry Eggers, longtime Oregon sports writer whose roots at Oregon State run deep - his dad was once the Beavers’ Sports Information Director.

https://www.kerryeggers.com/stories/mike-and-dee-riley-it-was-a-true-love-story?mc_cid=47ed0633ec&mc_eid=6f7fbc8761




************  Seeing the magazine ad from years past showing  Packers’ star Paul Hornung about to take a drag on a Marlboro reminded me of a great word-picture from “When Pride Still Mattered," Davis Maraniss' biography of Vince Lombardi.

"Cartons of Marlboros were stacked on the floor at Hornung's house, freebies that he received from the tobacco company for advertising them. The boys often took little give-away four packs downtown to hand out to young women in the bars. They smoked the rest themselves. Before every game Hornung sat alone on his stool, puffing away, gathering his thoughts. There would be time for two cigarettes during halftime, when the clubhouse was dense with smoke: Marlboros passed around (none for Starr, who never smoked), Lombardi dragging on his Salem, Henry Jordan bumming a Camel from Phil Bengston, Jimmy Taylor pulling out a cigar."

“When Pride Still Mattered,” very well researched and very well written, is on my “must reading” list for any football coach or anyone with a serious interest in football history.


 
***********   After Tampa Bay Rays’ shortstop Taylor Walls hit a double against the Yankees this past weekend, he celebrated  by pumping his fist and appearing to shout  “fight, fight”  - and he caught so much flak afterward (surprise - most sports writers are flaming liberals)  that he had to explain  that it was all “a joke” and not intended in any way as an  endorsement.

Now, if he’d said he was actually ridiculing Donald Trump, he’d be a sure  first-ballot entrant  to the Hall of Fame, .149 batting average and all.



***********  They haven’t even held the opening ceremonies yet, but the Paris Olympics are off to a great start. On Wednesday, Israel's national anthem was greeted  with loud boos before its soccer match against Mali. And many people could be seen  waving the Palestinian flag throughout the playing of the anthem.

Hey!  There’s my time machine!  Whaddaya say we take it for a spin, back to…

September 5, 1972. 4:30 AM. Eight Palestinian militants scaled a fence surrounding the Olympic Village.  Disguised as athletes,  they broke into the quarters of the Israeli Olympic team where they killed two members of the team and took nine others hostage. The hostages were later killed in an unsuccessful rescue attempt.

Wait - you mean those rascal Palestinians aren’t peace loving after all?



*********** Speaking of the Olympics… we sure had a close call.   In Paris, a last-minute settlement between Olympic organizers and a dancers’ union helped prevent the almost unspeakable horror of  an opening ceremony taking place without hundreds of striking dancers.

I knew you’d be happy to read this.



***********  The CFL is now six games into its season, and Chris Jones has already been fired as head coach and GM of the Edmonton Elks.

An 0-5 start, after back-to-back 4-14 seasons will do that to a  guy.

It was his second stint at Edmonton. In two earlier seasons (2014 and 2015), he was 26-10, and won the Grey Cup.  Then he left for Saskatchewan.  I can’t tell you why.

Jarious Jackson, a former Notre Dame QB, has replaced Jones on an interim basis.  Jackson  played nine years in the CFL, and he’s now in his twelfth year coaching up north. 






***********  Oregon wasn’t exactly meek in announcing its arrival at the Big Ten meetings in Indianapolis.


*********** If you needed any further evidence that today’s kids are, well… different,  check this out.

I’ve been reading a book by a guy named Jeff Riley called   “Big Time  - The People, the Places and the Game of Oregon 8-Man Football.”

The title is pretty self-explanatory.  The author spent the entire 2017 season traveling around the state of Oregon digging into  the world of Oregon 8-man football.  He goes to  tiny communities in the mountains, in the desert, in the farmlands, in the forests and on the coast to talk to the people who make it go.

It’s not unlike America in miniature, in that the old-timers are almost unbelievably hard-nosed, while the youngsters are, in many cases,  a good bit less so.

From the text…

The Alsea Wolverines rolled the dice when only 12 players showed up for the first day of practice in August, and those dice  officially came up snake eyes in the sixth week of the season.

Injuries and academic woes left the Wolverines with only eight eligible players heading into their special district 3 contest this week against McKenzie. That meant every Alsea player would have to play both offense and defense the entire game. Fearing injury in those playing conditions, a wolverine player quit the team.

And just like that, Alsea’s season was over.

(Get this:  the game in question was their homecoming game.)


*********** I was remiss in not noting the death of Monte Kiffin.  Some people might only know him now as “Lane’s dad,” but Monte Kiffin was renowned as a defensive coach, in great demand everywhere in the business.  He was a Nebraska guy who was already in Lincoln when Bob Devaney arrived as the Cornhuskers’ coach and turned the Huskers into a national power.  After playing under Devaney, he returned, after a couple of years trying his hand as a player in the pros, to coach under him. He spent 57 years as a coach (30 of them in the NFL), but just three seasons as a head coach - at NC State, where he went 16-17 from 1980-1982.   I think that Lane Kiffin has now established himself as a very good coach, but there are plenty of people (like me) who believe that back when Tennessee hired him, their real motive was to get Monte as part of the deal.


*********** The next time you pick up a newspaper, I bet you won’t get past the front page before seeing at least one reason why, according to Gerard Baker in the Wall Street Journal, Gallup found in 1979 that 51% of Americans had a great deal of confidence in newspapers, while  this year the number was 18%.


*********** Things you can - and should - teach every quarterback:

Q: What’s the quarterback’s Number One job?
A: PROTECT THE FOOTBALL!

FOUR MUSTS
1. Unless you’re in the act of handing off or throwing, always have two hands on the ball
2. Always carry the ball above the elbows
3. Always keep the eyes up - and (most of the time) upfield
4. Always keep the feet moving - never have both feet on the ground or in the air at the same time


***********   Hugh,

Coach Lude's recollection of the influence that his high school football coach had on him is a powerful reminder of the importance of what we do.

Regarding Army's offense, zone blocking with triple option seems like a strange combination, but I hope they can make it work.

Both sets of my grandparents were farmers on the plains of North Dakota, and they both had outhouses until probably the mid 1970s. I can still recall the smell.

Greg Koenig
Bennett, Colorado



***********   We can be thankful for Whitey Linton. And thank you for introducing me to the man behind the name on the Campbell Trophy. I wonder what he actually told the Silicon people that was so important to them. Was it the kind of information many football coaches are familiar with?

(Hard to imagine 13 years have passed since Army's Andrew Rodriguez won it).


College football's almost here, and I tell myself to avoid passing strong judgments until at least the halfway point of the season. I expect tumult and ugliness.

John Vermillion
St. Petersburg, Florida


I don’t know what Andrew Rodriguez is doing now, but he graduated third in his class (2012) at West Point.  His dad, General David M. Rodriguez, is Commanding General of the US Army Africa Command (AFRICOM)

 

*********** QUIZ ANSWER:  They called Bill Campbell “The Coach of Silicon Valley.” 

At places like Intuit, Apple, Google and Amazon, billionaires such as Steve Jobs and Jeff Bezos - men famous for not listening to others - valued Bill Campbell’s wisdom and advice. 

But unlike so many so-called “career coaches,” Bill Campbell really was a coach.  An honest-to-God football coach.

He grew up in the Pittsburgh area, in a steel town called Homestead, where his first coach was his dad, a high school PE teacher.

Undersized as a lineman and linebacker in the two-way football of the time, he  was smart enough to get into  Columbia, where he played football for four years under Buff Donelli. At less than 170 pounds, he played both ways - lineman and linebacker - and captained Columbia’s 1961 team - the only Columbia team in school history to win the Ivy League championship.

While at Columbia, he and several football and rugby players founded the Old Blue Rugby Club, now one of the top rugby clubs in America.

After getting his master’s degree in education, he was an assistant coach at Boston College before returning to Columbia in 1974 as head coach.

In six years, his overall record was 12-41-1.  He never won more than three games in a season. But to put things in perspective: Columbia had won more than three games only  twice in the 10 seasons before he arrived, and after he left the Lions would go 13 more seasons (and four different coaches) before even winning as many as three games in a season.

So after six seasons, it was time to move on. To the world of business.

He started with giant advertising firm J. Walter Thompson, and made it to vice president before moving to Kodak as Director of Consumer Products in Europe.

From Kodak, he moved to Apple Computer in 1983, rising to become executive vice-president, then in 1990 founding and leading Claris Corporation, a “spin-off” software company owned by Apple.

His next stop was Intuit, the maker of Quicken and TurboTax, where he served as its CEO from 1998 to 2000.

At some point, because of the reputation he had acquired at so many places, and the trust he had engendered among so many prominent people, he began to serve as a confidante of the  rich and powerful - Sergei Brin, Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos - and to be called “The Coach of Silicon Valley.”

He owned a bar in Palo Alto for a time, and enjoyed coaching middle school football.

At Columbia, he joined the Board of Trustees in 2003, and two years later was named its chairman.

In 2009, in recognition of his love of football and his many achievements, the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame renamed  its highest award,  given to the American college football player with the best combination of academics, community service, and on-field performance (sometimes referred to as the “academic Heisman”),  The William V. Campbell Trophy.

At Columbia, in 2013 the University dedicated a new state-of-the-art athletics facility in his name.

In 2014, the University retired his old football number - 67 - for all  sports.

In 2015, the University introduced a new “William Campbell Performer of the Year” award, to be given to  the top male and female athlete each year.

Following his death in April, 2016, two thousand mourners gathered on the high-school football field in Atherton, California (where he  had  coached middle-schoolers) to honor Coach Bill Campbell.


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING BILL CAMPBELL

GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY



 

***********  QUIZ:    He was one of the most accomplished Americans of the twentieth century, yet today he is largely unknown. Perhaps because he became a figure of enormous controversy, it’s almost as if his story has been deliberately erased,  much in the way the Soviet Union  would make unpopular figures disappear from its history books,
 
He was born April 9, 1898 in a then-segregated Princeton, New Jersey, the son of a black Presbyterian minister who had escaped slavery when he was 15. His mother died in a fire when he was six. His father, accused of "causing unrest" in the community, was relieved of his congregation, and  the family then moved to Westfield, New Jersey.  There,  he would later recall, he first "came to know more white people" and developed his ability to "move between the races."
 
As one of only 12 blacks in a high school of 200 students, he excelled academically and athletically, and began to realize that while his talents would give him a certain acceptance in the white world, they would not earn him full acceptance.
 
At 17, he won a statewide competition for a four-year scholarship to Rutgers, becoming  the only black student on campus and just  the third black person to enroll there in the school’s history. He was very big by the standards of that time - 6-2, 190 - and after surviving  the trials of proving himself on the football field, he became the star of the Rutgers squad.
 
He became  only the second black player in football history to make All-America (making it twice, in 1917 and 1918). Walter Camp of Yale, who selected the All-America teams then, called him "a veritable superman."
 
Although he earned the respect of his teammates and most opponents, his football career was not without racial incident.   Caving in to pressure from school administrators, Rutgers’ coach held him out of a game his sophomore year when Washington and Lee refused to play against a black man.  But later, when West Virginia would make  a similar demand, the coach would stand  by his star and refuse to bench him. The game went on as scheduled.
 
However great he was as a football player and an all-round athlete (overall, he won 15 letters at Rutgers in four different sports), he was much more than that.
 
He also won his college's oratory prize all four years. He was named to Phi Beta Kappa (the nation's most prestigious academic honor society) as a junior, and as a senior, he was one of only four men chosen for admission to the Cap and Skull Honor Society, for best representing the ideals of Rutgers.
 
He was class valedictorian, and in the commencement address, urged those in attendance to strive for a government in which "character shall be the standard of excellence," and "black and white shall clasp friendly hands in the consciousness of the fact that we are brethren and that God is the father of us all." (Surely, at some point in his education, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. became aware of this speech.)
 
Following graduation, he studied law at Columbia, paying his tuition by playing professional football and helping to coach at Rutgers. Once, after being taken to a hospital with a football injury,  he met Essie Goode, the woman who would become his wife. Learning of his musical talent, she urged him to appear in a musical at the Harlem YMCA, launching what would be a long and renowned musical career.
 
Upon graduation from law school, he accepted an offer from a wealthy, influential Rutgers alumnus to join his New York law firm, as its first black lawyer.  But his legal career did not last long -  after a white secretary refused to take dictation from him, he resigned, and never practiced law again.
 
Meanwhile,  his show business career progressed.  He became a sensation with his singing of "Ole Man River" in Jerome Kern's musical "Show Boat."  And his portrayal of Othello, Shakespeare's dark-skinned general who is married to a white woman and tormented by his suspicion that she is unfaithful to him, was so powerful and defining that no man has ever been able to play the role since without being compared  to him.
 
But controversy began to dog him.  In some cases it was due to his being a black man playing the lead opposite white women; in others it was due to his outspokenness on the matter of America's racial inequality. And, as things progressed,   to his widely-expressed belief that people of other races lived better in the Soviet Union than in the United States.
 
In New York, when he starred in Eugene O'Neill's “All God's Chillun Got Wings,” in which a white actress  played his wife, there were threats of riots and bombing.
 
But in London, at the opening night of The Emperor Jones,  he was called back for 12 ovations. And Essie would write that in London, unlike New York, they could, "as respectable human beings, dine at any public place," quite a contrast to concert tours in the United States, when he would frequently be denied hotel accommodations.
 
Once, in the middle of a concert in Kansas City he  stopped, made a comment about the racial segregation of the audience, and announced that he was continuing under protest.  At that,  hundreds of whites  walked out.
 
His world travels made it clear to him that he was treated better in many foreign countries than he was in America, but unfortunately for him and his cause, the country and the system he chose as his ideal was one which most Americans viewed with great distrust - the Soviet Union.
 
His open support of the Soviet Union - and Communism - came to overshadow everything else about  him, and despite his renown, he spent much of his adult life under investigation by the FBI.
 
His concerts were boycotted, and often shut down by rioters. On at least two occasions, he escaped death after a wheel on his car had been tampered with.
 
As a highly visible American, he made great propaganda for the Soviet Union and its ruler, Josef Stalin. What made him  susceptible to the Soviet line was that in his eyes, while blacks were treated as equals in the Soviet Union, they were far less than that in the United States.
 
Realizing  that his great talent and fame uniquely positioned him as a point man for black people everywhere, he criticized,  he complained and  he had the courage to  tell people in power things that they didn't want to hear.

In 1943, four years before Jackie Robinson broke baseball’s color barrier, he  openly appealed to baseball commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis to lift the major leagues' ban against black players. (With World War II going on and baseball having a hard time  finding enough fit men to fill its rosters, baseball nonetheless held fast to its color line.)

But never did he advocate the overthrow of the United States government, violent or otherwise, and he never called for racial separation or race warfare. He talked, instead, of racial equality.
 
It was most unfortunate that he came to be associated with  Stalin - causing   him  to be labelled a "Kremlin stooge" by white and black leaders alike. Like most people in the world, he was unaware of what a true monster Stalin was, and it came as such a shock to him when Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev in 1956 revealed to the world the full extent of Stalin's butchery that he reportedly suffered an emotional collapse upon hearing the news.
 
(Ironically,  the same United States government that hounded him, cancelled his passport and subjected him to constant FBI surveillance because of his association with the Soviet Union was itself willing to ally with Stalin in the fight against  Hitler.)
 
Once one of the best-known Americans of his time,  having achieved greatness in his field of choice, he wound up living  a life in disgrace in the eyes of much of the America of his day.  Today, far too few Americans have even heard of him.
 
In 1973, at the celebration of his 75th birthday, Mrs. Coretta Scott King told a capacity crowd at Carnegie Hall in New York that, decades before her husband,  he had been "buried alive" for fighting for the causes of civil rights and human dignity.  

He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1995.



TUESDAY,  JULY 23,  2024   “We are becoming addicted to wanting particular outcomes, not living with the outcomes we don't like." Justice Clarence Thomas


********** Wisdom from Mike Lude: “I will never forget my first pair of good dress shoes. They were brown wing tips with crêpe soles. They came from Thom McAn, a chain retail store, and as I recall I got them when I was a sophomore attending high school in Vicksburg, Michigan. Considering the muddy, grubby work shoes I wore on the farm, those shoes meant just as much to me as a glass slipper ever meant to another high school-aged kid named Cinderella.

“I can't remember how much the shoes cost, but my guess would be no more than two or three bucks, which was a lot of money for someone who spent his childhood in poverty on a farm in rural Michigan and attended a one-room grade school.

“What made these shoes so important was that they were the same style and color worn by Clayton F. (Whitey) Linton. In a matter of weeks from the time I met Whitey Linton he had become the most important person in my life.

“Because of Whitey Linton, who was my first football coach, I wanted to be a football coach. I wanted to emulate Whitey Linton. I wanted to look like him and talk like him and walk like him.”


*********** The statue of the great Don James outside Washington’s Husky Stadium  cost $150,000.  My friend, the late Mike Lude, who as AD at Kent State gave James his first head coaching job and then became James’ boss at Washington, told me they had no difficulty at all raising the money.

Mike himself donated $5,000.  325  former players donated.

So did two former Kent Staters, teammates there under Coach James.  One was Nick Saban, who after his playing days began  his coaching career under James as a graduate assistant there. The other was Gary Pinkel, who assisted James at Washington before going on to become head coach at Toledo and then Missouri.

Mike said that when they called Saban for a  donation, he asked just one question: “How much did Pinkel give?”

He was  told $5,000.

Saban said, “Put me down for $6,000.”



***********   Show me the football coach who could get away with what the head of the Secret Service tried to get away with in front of Congress Monday.

“Coach, what happened out there? What went wrong?”

“This is an ongoing investigation.  It’s only been nine days since the game.”

The difference, of course,  is that football coaches are accountable for their failures.



***********   ARMY:  The NEW Old Offense

July 17, 2024 Posted by Danno E. Cabeza Bugle Notes

Army Football returns to the under center triple-option this year after a year in the Shotgun-Option that did not exactly go as planned. We all saw how successful this new version of the old offense could be in the game against Coastal Carolina at the end of last season, but still it’s worth spending a few moments considering how we got here.
The coaching staff insists that this isn’t just a return to The Way Things Were. We therefore need to understand what happened last year in order to develop some sense of realistic expectations about what we might see in 2024.

The Shotgun Option

Former Offensive Coordinator Drew Thatcher installed a system that attempted to make three major changes to Army’s previous offense.

1. Zone blocking scheme
2. Crackback blocking scheme with the wide receivers
3. Shotgun snap and meshpoint

Zone Blocking Scheme

Friends, this is the part of last year’s scheme that worked.

Coaches Matt Drinkall and Mike Viti developed a new zone blocking scheme for Army’s offensive line, and though there were some undoubted growing pains — especially in the opener against ULM — the team made this work with increasing power and precision as the season progressed. We saw glimpses of what this scheme could accomplish as early as the UTSA game, but the O-Line didn’t reach its full fighting form until Air Force.

From that game forward, Army won four straight.

The new scheme created a few major impacts. First, the O-Line cut down massively on blocking penalties from 2021, mostly by eliminating called chop blocks. Second, Army rediscovered its ability to run up the middle after a 2021 season in which they struggled mightily to run the Fullback Dive. Finally, since O-Linemen kept their feet, they were often able to get down field and continue blocks, leading to lots of extra yardage plays, including RB Kanye Udoh’s massive “rugby scrum” style runs last year against Troy.

This scheme proved so successful that the staff’s offseason reorganization doubled-down on it. Drinkall is now the Offensive Line Coach. Viti is now Assistant Head Coach for Offense / Offensive Line. In terms of recruiting, Army is now expliciting targeting taller, longer offensive linemen to fit this scheme.

All of this is good. More importantly, the team could not have gotten to this point without 2023’s offensive experiments.

Crackback Blocking Scheme With The Wide Receivers

Though this was by far the most interesting part of Thatcher’s scheme, alas, this is the part that did not work. James went into detail on it before the season last summer, but briefly, the idea was to bring a wide receiver off the edge on most snaps to crackback against a linebacker or safety. This would spring an outside runner to the edge against a cornerback one-on-one, allowing for a big gain if that runner could either elude or just run right over that cornerback. Alternatively, the receiver could release across the middle to catch a quick pass and move the chains. There was lots more, but this was the basic idea.

This didn’t work for two reasons. First and foremost, Army couldn’t complete those quick passes, both over the middle and to the sidelines, often enough to reliably move the chains in the second halves of games. The Black Knights usually ran hard in the first half, causing opposing defenses to bring their safeties down into the box. At that point, those quick passes should have opened up, but either pass protection or a simple inability to create completions kept everything from coming together.

The other issue was that Army flat couldn’t get outside from the shotgun often enough against better teams. They just couldn’t find enough team speed or make enough plays in other areas — again, mostly in the passing game — to force the issue and open things up.

What can you do?

We saw this scheme work more-or-less as designed against UTSA and Boston College, but it never became truly reliable, and by midseason, Army had abandoned most of it in favor of straight-up power running between the tackles. Thankfully, that did work. However, that simplified scheme put huge physical pressure on QB Bryson Daily to carry the load, and it also became entirely too predictable.

Shotgun Snap and Meshpoint

By moving the meshpoint back, you give your quarterback more time to make reads in the option, and at least theoretically, you give your O-Line an advantage in pass blocking. As noted, James covered this in detail last year.

BUT.

If you can’t pass reliably, and you’re not really getting to the outside very often, those advantages don’t mean a whole lot. At that point, you may as well go back between the tackles, and run the Hell out of the Midline Option. Indeed, this is exactly what happened last season. However, if that’s the way you’re gonna run the offense, then you might as well come back under center, hit the hole as hard and as fast as you possibly can, and just POUND THE ROCK. And hey, if you pound the rock up the middle often enough, you might also open up those outside running lanes via the triple-option pitch.

This is exactly where the team found itself against Coastal Carolina.

So Wait. This Is All REALLY About the New Blocking Scheme?

Yes. Absolutely. It’s 1000% about the new blocking scheme.

The more Army ran between the tackles last season, the more they started to really specialize in two or even three tight end sets. They’d mostly just mash folks, but they also occasionally released a tight end down the field or out to the flat for a pass, and now, if we look at who they recruited this year, it’s freaking eight tight ends. For a team that’s mostly going to run between the tackles, that ought to give them a truly surprising amount of flexibility in the way they execute this offense.

Moving to a zone blocking scheme allows the fullbacks a little more freedom to choose their holes and read what’s working and what isn’t on any given play. This may or may not be an improvement over the way Army ran the Dive when they cut-blocked, but with the rule changes, it’s become a necessary evolution. Moreover, while we tend to call every play a “Midline Option,” that’s only because it’s often some option variant that starts up the middle. As a matter of reality, there’s a world of football that exists here, and the AFF Crew thinks you’re gonna see a lot more of it in its many of its variations now that the team is running a zone blocking scheme instead of cut-blocking.

The good news is that the Black Knights have the fullbacks to make this work, and they have an experienced option quarterback returning in Daily. We’ve seen what FB Kanye Udoh can do, and based on what we saw from the Spring Game, there are several more guys waiting in the wings who can execute the Fullback Dive. In particular, we’re excited to see FB Jake Rendina hit the field, but he was hardly the only guy who looked good during the Spring Game.


Final Thoughts

This is an exciting time to be an Army Football fan. The offense may not look exactly like it did before, and the execution should change quite a bit in the details. However, this team has everything it needs to be successful on the offensive side of the football, and we’ve already seen on the field that they can make the specific elements of this offense work. We have yet to see exactly how they’ll bring it all together, but whatever else happens, we ought to be in for a fascinating season.

https://www.asforfootball.com/2024/07/17/army-football-preview-the-new-old-offense/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR3buQK2AiY9paaL4kkq6hmS5KtS3qmhH_KKQsqL1iuI5tXaRnyqhBoK6hc_aem_StYgTD5jLbZ9EKyQkC-huw

My answer:  I think this missed the situation entirely. I thought the blocking was THE problem.  At least as unrecognizable as the shotgun snap was the lack of aggressiveness by the Army offensive  line.  Instead of firing straight out and OWNING the line of scrimmage, Army’s linemen took those stupid 45-degree zone steps and wound up yielding the line of scrimmage to more aggressive defenders.  Instead of being the aggressors in every scrimmage play, they became the victims. 


*********** Now,  it’s Delta Air Lines.  Before that it was the power grid in Houston (maybe still is). In between, it was the assassination attempt on Donald Trump,  and then withdrawal from the presidential campaign of a “President” who did so in a letter and for all we know could be dead.

WTF is going on in this country?

Maybe we should ask the Russians what's going on. Or the Chinese. THEY know.



***********   Coach- In your opinion, where would you put your linemen? Which position would be your best athlete, smartest, fastest?

Coach, In my thinking, my right guard is my best lineman. That’s partly because I’m right-handed, and so my offensive thinking tends to be right-handed. If we just  ran plays in one direction, he would drive block by himself on a power play, kick out on our “G” play, kick out backside on our counter play, pull backside and protect on our bootleg, circle around end on our reach sweep, and form the apex of our wedge. The left guard is second best. Then, of  the two tackles, the right tackle is more crucial because he’s at the point of attack at most power plays. Then comes the center.  I’d like my center to be BIG , so he can't be driven back,  and RESPONSIBLE, because everything starts with his snap. We almost never expect him to block a man who’s very far from him, so his quickness is seldom an issue.

Going back to my play-calling being affected by my being right-handed, I think I have taken a major step toward a cure -  by flip-flopping my linemen.  Now, we can run plays equally well to right or left.  So perhaps to answer the question in a more up-to-date fashion, my best lineman is my strong side guard.




************  CAN I HOLD MY BREATH UNTIL THEN???

AP top 25 voters will reveal their preseason rankings at around 12 p.m. Eastern time on Monday, August 12.



***********   One possible explanation for why we were tough enough to win World War II:

According to Amanda Foreman, writing in the Wall Street Journal, as recently as 1940  nearly half of all the homes in the US - about 45 per cent - still had outhouses.



*********** JOHN CANZANO FIELDS QUESTIONS

Q: What number of wins keeps Oregon State and Washington State relevant? Predictions on W-L for both?

A: The athletic departments need to go all-in with branding. I know the universities have their marketing firms, but the athletic departments themselves need to sign on for a campaign that is more focused, forward-thinking, and ambitious. That said, you’re right. There’s nothing that will assist the Pac-12 teams more than a quality football season.

I have Washington State down for 8-plus wins. Jake Dickert retained more of his roster than I expected and the schedule got easier. Oregon State is in transition right now. New head coach, who happens to be in his first season. A lot of turnover in the transfer portal. None of this is OSU’s fault, but I think the Beavers need to win six and play in a bowl game to stay on the radar.


Q: The transfer portal has made me less interested in college athletics than ever. Am I the only one?

A: No. You’re not alone. The portal needs some regulation or it’s going to be no fun for anyone but the top handful of teams.


Q: With Division I Baseball expected to allow schools to offer full scholarships to every player on the roster do you think smaller schools will be forced to drop the sport? Will Oregon State be able to find the funding for ~25 extra scholarships?

A: Oregon State baseball is going to be fine. I was not surprised that the roster held together at the end of the season and they’ll find the funding to operate. I’m told the Beavers are finalizing their “independent” schedule for next season and that opponents include: Oregon, Washington, and the top WCC and Big West baseball teams.

I’m also told that at least two “other” Big Ten programs are finalizing deals to play OSU next season. Sources at Stanford and Cal tell me that those two schools won’t play the Beavers next season. They shot down a proposal. The Cardinal and Bears say they are traveling enough already with the new ACC schedule and don’t want to leave the home state for non-conference games.


Q: Any outward indication of Calford (aka Cal-Stanford) having buyer’s remorse for bolting to the ACC? I’m sure privately they’re kicking themselves, but are they secretly hoping for the ACC to implode so they can reassess the situation more rationally?

A: Nothing outward at this point, but this ACC thing isn’t sustainable for those schools. Everyone can see it. Meanwhile, Stanford spent the last six months building a production studio adjacent to Maples Pavilion. Cal is working on a similar studio investment. It’s an ACC Network requirement. All this is going on while the schools are watching Clemson and Florida State try to pry their way out.

Cal and Stanford grabbed the first life raft that was available. I get it. But I ultimately see them in a West Coast-based conference. The ACC partnership will eventually unwind and there will be further realignment. Does that happen in six months? Or six years? That’s the question.


Q: How long will it take before schools like Vanderbilt, Arkansas, Northwestern, etc. are informed that they won’t receive full shares of media rights? And schools like Ohio St., Alabama, and Texas receive disproportionate payments? What are things that could be catalysts?

A: The catalyst for that kind of consolidation will be the next media-rights deal. The Big Ten’s new deal expires in 2029-30. The SEC’s deal runs through 2033-34. I would expect the tentpole universities won’t want to share equally in the next round.


*********** Hugh

 The answer is Howard Mudd.  We really liked him when he was in Cleveland.

I  was sad to learn of Bob Newhart's passing.

Your reference to his passing, made me go dig out his album from my collection of LP'S. Lincoln is the first selection on the album titled "The Button-Down Mind Of Bob Newhart".
 I  bought the album when I was in high school. I always thought that he was a brilliant comic.

It was great to listen to it again after many years of it sitting on a shelf.

See you Tuesday.

David Crump
Owensboro, Kentucky



***********   Coach,

Love the fact that you are out on the field leading kids!  That's how it should be and I find it very inspiring!   

I know it is teaching spread football but teaching that stuff is still  better then not teaching IMO...  I have also come to the point where I realize that likely at some point in my career as the world continues to evolve that I will be teaching it as well.   Of course that will likely be the day when I'm not in charge!   As I value the values of team ball that old school football provide as well as the fact at my current spot we are gonna have to be REALLY GOOD at doing things DIFFERENTLY to win at the level we hope too...   

With that said Quiz answer is another Michigan Man!  Howard Mudd growing up I heard many stories about him!   All professed him as a tough guy who was a loyal and admiral man!   It makes sense him and another Michigan guy Tony Dungy fit so well together.   Dungy from Jackson is only about a 1/2 hour from Hillsdale College.


God Bless,

Jason Mensing  
Lemon Bay, Florida



***********   Good to have you back, Coach. Take away the heat, and you had a great experience.

You probably read The Athletic's questions to readers about all-star games, and--no surprise at all--most people are fed up with all of them. They're worse than boring to me; they're unwatchable.

Tucker Carlson's speech at the RNC spoke for millions, I believe, when he said ordinary people are noticing something different in the air. The way Tucker worded it was, "God is among us". It might not be too late.

Secret Service? The arrogance of Kimmie Cheatle drives me batty.  I promise we could take 11 HS football players, issue them a few minutes' guidance, and they would have secured that fairground in Butler. The President would have been safe. But nobody in the the Administration will answer for their mistakes. What took place in Butler was as disturbing as what happened to President Kennedy in Dallas.

John Vermillion                
St. Petersburg, Florida

Guaranteed if anything were to go wrong with those football players protecting the President, we'd have known why. And who.  Immediately. And asses would be kicked.


***********   Hugh,

Envious of your recent coaching gig. It brought back a flood of memories.  Especially of the summer I took my team to South Dakota State for their team camp.  HOT!!  And NO AC in the dorm!  Yet, our boys showed well in all their scrimmage games, came away feeling like winners, and set the stage for a very successful season!

60 years from now Americans won’t know the truth about the assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump.  Like
we still haven’t heard the truth about the JFK assassination 60 years ago! 

Fresno State Head Coach Jeff Tedford has stepped down, again, due to health reasons, and this time it appears to be final.  Coach Tedford has been the dean of west coast football over the past 15 years.  Successful OC at Oregon, and HC at Cal and Fresno State.  Former Bulldog Tim Skipper takes the reins.  Best wishes Coach Tedford, and good luck Coach Skipper!  And YES!!  Bulldog Stadium IS a tough place to play for ANY team!

Coach Skipper’s first test will be HUGE as the Bulldogs travel to Ann Arbor in their opener against defending  national champion Michigan.  Anyone, anywhere, anytime!

Enjoy your weekend!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas






*********** QUIZ ANSWER:  Howard Mudd was never a head coach, but if ever an assistant coach is to enter the Pro Football  the Hall of Fame, he would have to be right there near  the top of the list of candidates.

He grew up in Midland, Michigan, and although he started out at Michigan State, he wound up transferring to Hillsdale College, where he played four years and was team captain his senior year.  His play  earned him induction into the NAIA Hall of Fame.

He was drafted by the 49ers in the ninth round of the 1964 draft, and managed to make the club and stay with the 49ers for five seasons and a portion of another.

As a guard, he made the Pro Bowl three straight years - 1966-67-68. He played all 14 games in five seasons with the 49ers, then split another season with the 49ers and Bears. He finished his career with the Bears before a knee injury forced him to retire, and he was honored by selection on the NFL’s 1960s All-Decade team.

And then he embarked on a legendary career as an offensive line coach.

His  first stop was at Cal, where he was hired by Mike White (who’d just been hired there). He spent two seasons at Cal before being hired by Tommy Prothro, who had just been hired as San Diego’s head coach.

He spent three years in San Diego, then one with the 49ers before being hired by Jack Patera with the Seahawks. He spent five years in Seattle, and after Patera and his staff were fired, he landed in Cleveland, where he spent six years. He left Cleveland when head coach Marty Schottenheimer and staff were fired, but within a month he moved to Kansas City when Schottenheimeer was hired there.

Next came a return to the Seahawks, where he spent five years working first  under Tom Flores and then under Dennis Erickson.

And in 1998 he was hired by the Indianapolis Colts.

Howard Mudd was now 56 years old, and he’d been an NFL offensive lineman for eight years, and an NFL offensive line coach for 24 years.

The story goes that on the day the Colts drafted Peyton Manning, Colts’ owner Jim Irsay left a note on Mudd’s  desk that said, “Your job is to keep No. 18 (Manning)  protected. To keep No. 18 clean.”

That he did.  Taking  what was considered an old-school approach to pass protection, he advocated an aggressive style that attacked defensive linemen, rather than the more conventional, passive, drop-back style, arguing that his style kept defenders from penetrating the pocket.

In 12 years in Indianapolis, his lines led the NFL in fewest sacks allowed six times.

What head coach Tony Dungy appreciated was that he  did it without costing the Colts draft choices.

Only one of his linemen - tackle Tarik Glenn -  was a high draft choice;  the rest of them were players that he’d developed.

Said Dungy, “I’ll take Jeff Saturday off the street and make him a Pro Bowler. We can use that No. 1 draft choice to get Reggie Wayne or Joseph Addai. That’s what I loved, what I appreciated and what made him great.”

With his help, the Colts made it to two Super Bowls, and won one of them.

He retired after his stint with the Colts, but was persuaded to return to spend two more years coaching the Eagles’ offensive line.

After finally retiring for good, he died in 2020 as a result of a motorcycle accident.  He was 78.

Said Peyton Manning at the time,  “In my opinion, Howard Mudd was the best offensive line coach in NFL history. I would put him on that pedestal any day of the week. I know all the guys that played for him would feel the same way, and a lot of the guys that coached with him would feel the same.”



CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING HOWARD MUDD

GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JASON MENSING - LEMON BAY, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
TOM DAVIS - SAN MARCOS, CALIFORNIA
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON

 

*********** QUIZ:  They called him “The Coach of Silicon Valley.” 

At places like Intuit, Apple, Google and Amazon, billionaires such as Steve Jobs and Jeff Bezos - men well-known for being wary of advisors  - valued his wisdom and advice. 

But unlike so many so-called “career coaches,” he really was a coach.  An honest-to-God football coach.

He grew up in the Pittsburgh area, in a steel town called Homestead, where his first coach was his dad, a high school PE teacher.

Undersized as a lineman and linebacker in the two-way football of the time, he  was smart enough to get into  Columbia, where he played football for four years under Buff Donelli. At less than 170 pounds, he played both ways - lineman and linebacker - and captained Columbia’s 1961 team - the only Columbia team in school history to win the Ivy League championship.

While at Columbia, he and several football and rugby players founded the Old Blue Rugby Club, now one of the top rugby clubs in America.

After getting his master’s degree in education, he was an assistant coach at Boston College before returning to Columbia in 1974 as head coach.

In six years, his overall record was 12-41-1.  He never won more than three games in a season. But to put things in perspective: Columbia had won more than three games only  twice in the 10 seasons before he arrived, and after he left the Lions would go 13 more seasons (and four different coaches) before even winning as many as three games in a season.

So after six seasons, it was time to move on. To the world of business.

He started with giant advertising firm J. Walter Thompson, and made it to vice president before moving to Kodak as Director of Consumer Products in Europe.

From Kodak, he moved to Apple Computer in 1983, rising to become executive vice-president, then in 1990 founding and leading Claris Corporation, a “spin-off” software company owned by Apple.

His next stop was Intuit, the maker of Quicken and TurboTax, where he served as its CEO from 1998 to 2000.

At some point, because of the reputation he had acquired at so many places, and the trust he had engendered among so many prominent people, he began to serve as a confidante of the  rich and powerful - Sergei Brin, Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos - and to be called “The Coach of Silicon Valley.”

He owned a bar in Palo Alto for a time, and enjoyed coaching middle school football.

At Columbia, he joined the Board of Trustees in 2003, and two years later was named its chairman.

In 2009, in recognition of his love of football and his many achievements, the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame renamed  its highest award,  sometimes referred to as the “academic Heisman,”  in his honor.

At Columbia, in 2013 the University dedicated a new state-of-the-art athletics facility in his honor.

In 2014, the University retired his old football number - 67 - for all  sports.

In 2015, the University introduced a new “Performer of the Year” award in his name, to be given to  the top male and female athlete each year.

Following his death in April, 2016, two thousand mourners gathered on the high-school football field in Atherton, California where he  had  coached middle-schoolers.


FRIDAY,  JULY 19, 2024       “The course of war cannot be foreseen, and its attacks are generally dictated by the impulse of the moment.”  Thucydides


*********** Wisdom from Mike Lude: “Despite our family’s modest circumstances, I was happy most of the time in those early years. Helping my dad work the farm he didn't even own was limiting, especially when I wanted to play baseball. I had to work extremely hard. That went with the territory. I had a little bit of the dickens in me, but most of the time I did what I was told. With my father I knew the alternative wouldn't be a happy one.
 
“I finished eighth grade in  May 1936 and attended a county-wide commencement exercise at Central High School auditorium in Kalamazoo. Until then my uniform, at school or working, was bib overalls. When dad and I went to town we wore “good” bib overalls, or newer ones. Now I had dress slacks, and I was getting ready to start high school in new surroundings. 

“And if I never lived on a farm again I somehow would be able to survive.”



***********  How can I write today  without writing  something about the parlous state of a nation that trusts the safety and security of a President (or a President-to-be) to an organization that exemplifies the sort of incompetence that we’ve come to associate with anything our government is involved in.

As several of my friends have noted, it’s clear that the Secret Service is incompetent.  What’s not clear - but not at all out of the realm of possibility - is that someone in charge of that once-respected organization might have been acting with nefarious intent.

But if the latter were true, the  charge of incompetence would still hold up, because like “The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight,” if their intent was to do evil, those clowns couldn't even carry out the job. 

When Donald Trump takes over as President (assuming that such things as fair elections still exist),  his  first order of business should be an executive order cleaning out the Secret Service and every alphabet agency, from top to bottom.  Unions be damned - we’re talking national emergency.  If we can’t trust the agencies charged with protecting us and our leaders, WTF good are they?  Screw them before they screw us any more.

But Donald Trump’s not President yet.  So until then, he should contract out his security to Dan Bongino or somesuch - someone he trusts - because this sh— isn't over yet. Not by a long shot.



*********** Bob Newhart died.  He was 93.  Holy sh—.  I had no idea.  Unless you’re as old as I am, you aren’t likely to have known how really funny the man was.

Most of us first heard his act on records (remember them?), where he would pretend to be talking to someone on the phone, and then he’d  go silent as if listening to what the person on the other end of the line was saying in reply.  That, of course, was when the audience would laugh at what he’d said. An example was a phone call to Abraham Lincoln, as if he were a modern-day political advisor giving Honest Abe tips on campaigning: Definitely keep the beard and the stovepipe hat, he told Lincoln.  And that speech he was going to be giving at Gettysburg?  He told Lincoln to stick with that “four score and seven years ago” line instead of simply saying,  “87 years ago."



***********  In Pennsylvania, a small high school called Southern Columbia, in the small (1,550) town of Catawissa, has won seven straight state football championships.

Earlier, they had a five-year state championship streak.

Overall, in the 34 years that the state has held championships, the Southern Columbia Tigers have played in 22 of them, and they’ve won the title game 14 times.

Their current coach, Jim Roth, has been there for 40 years, and his teams have won 10 or more games in 37 of those seasons. His overall record, including post-season play, is 499-68-2.

https://www.scatigerfootball.com/

This may be among the most impressive coaching achievements I’m aware of because there is practically no way I can see that Coach Roth and his staff could have “augmented” their roster with kids from outside the district.  It’s a largely rural area, with few towns of any size within commuting distance, and even if the coaches were into recruiting, it’s highly unlikely that a kid from a larger  urban area (the closest one of which is more than an hour away) would be excited about going there. There aren’t that many jobs to entice a kid’s parents to move there anyhow, and it would be  especially tough to attract a minority kid to a town that’s 97 per cent white - and “.69 per cent” black.

In the western part of the state, little Aliquippa, whose success almost parallels that of Southern Columbia, has been rewarded for its success by twice being involuntarily moved to a higher classification.

Aliquippa is largely minority, and in my opinion, it’s hard to escape the conclusion that  the state was taking aim at a minority school that had overachieved,

Now, perhaps to show that Pennsylvania will punish excellence whether it’s achieved by black or white kids, a proposal called the “Southern Columbia Rule” is in front of the state association, the PIAA, stipulating that any school that wins two consecutive state championships will be automatically moved up to the next higher class.

Pennsylvania, where envy rules and  success is  suspect.  So let’s punish the successful.


https://tribhssn.triblive.com/the-southern-columbia-rule-teams-winning-consecutive-state-titles-would-be-moved-into-higher-class-under-piaa-proposal/


*********** For the past three weeks, it’s been my great honor and pleasure to have been able to assist coach Todd Bridge at Aberdeen, Washington High School. I’ve coached with Todd at North Beach as well as Aberdeen, back in 2019, and when he told me that he was going to have to spend July without his OC, I offered to help.  He took me up on my offer, and since  then I’ve been coaching his quarterbacks and helping in any other way I could.

It’s just been a great experience. The kids have been great and so have the other coaches, and I do believe I’ve been helpful.

The summer practices culminated in a three-day camp this week in Wenatchee, a city of about 35,000 in Central Washington, where for the past several years coach Scott Devereaux has run a very successful team camp.

Taking 40+ kids to camp is a huge undertaking for Todd, starting with raising the money to pay for the kids’ camp fees, for their meals and lodging - and for their transportation. (I’m not going to get him in trouble by explaining the latter item.)  So in addition to a bus, several coaches drove vans full of kids  while  Todd drove his truck  with a trailer full of equipment four-and-a-half hours across the mountains to Wenatchee.  There, Todd had arranged to rent the facilities of a church, whose gym had plenty of room for the kids to bunk, baracks-style.  There was a full kitchen for the five moms who volunteered to come and cook for the kids, and a nice-sized meeting room where the kids could eat and watch films projected into a huge screen. 

It was within an easy walk of the camp fields, and - best of all - it was air-conditioned!

Did I say it was hot?

The first day, it hit 101º.  Yes, it was a dry heat and all that, but when the sun’s beating down on you and you’re standing on an artificial-turf field - and you’ve come from a place where it seldom gets over 80º, it can be tough to take.  And that’s the kids.  It’s even tougher when you’re an old fart.  It seemed as if my feet were on fire.

I think I did some good coaching, but I’m not sure. Mainly, I survived, thanks to a very cold hotel room afterward, and a couple of Big-Gulp-size cups of Coke from the Circle-K.

The second day went  a lot better, probably because we were on a grass field. When I  noticed another coach going barefoot, I thought “what the hell” and went the rest of the way in stocking feet. BIG difference.

The morning and afternoon 7-on-7 went very well.  The kids had been exposed  to the basic run-and-shoot “Choice” pattern - and nothing else - for maybe an hour last week back in Aberdeen, but  that was enough.  There are some good receivers, and the two QBs have been quick to pick things up, and they ran the “offense” (one play, that is) extremely well.  In the afternoon, we added another pattern and they picked that up without any prior exposure.

In the contact aspect of the camp, the kids did great on both sides of the ball.  It was exciting to see how well they played defensively because I’d worked with the new DC, Dave Tarrance, five years ago and liked him from the start.  He’s an Aberdeen guy and an Aberdeen cop, and I was really pleased to see what a good job he’s done.

On offense, mixing the  spread - mostly zone and RPO - with some under-center stuff and the short-yardage package that we  started working on last week, we went “full-field” during one session and, starting out on our 20, put on an 80-yard scoring drive that was about as clean as a drive could be.

That evening, at 8 PM, eight teams met in a  goal-line competition, consisting of mini-games in which the two teams were given four plays from the ten-yard line. Teams  could possibly score four times (once on each play), and the team with the higher score after each had run four plays was the winner.  In the event of a tie, the ball was placed on the three-yard-line,  with  each team given one play.

It was truly a balls-out competition.  The hitting was ferocious.

And to make a long story short, we won the damn thing.  One of our games went to overtime  and two games went down to the final play.

The final game matched us against a much bigger school, Mount Spokane, which last year won the Greater Spokane League and finished 9-2.

We shut them out  when on their final play - from the one - they ran a jet sweep and three of our kids knocked the runner out of bounds  inside the one.  And then on offense, after incurring a false start penalty, we called a pass play that was beautifully executed by our QB and receiver.

And the kids went wild.  They’re young, and not  that many of them have had much varsity experience.  From Aberdeen’s standpoint, it may have been just a camp competition, but it was probably the Bobcats’ most significant accomplishment in years.

The next day was - the day after. Despite the coaches’ best efforts, human nature won out.  The excitement of the night before gave way to the inevitable let-down. The kids played well and they went hard, but kids are kids, and during the season they have  a whole weekend to come back to normal after a big win (or a big loss).

I had to leave at noon on Wednesday.  It’s a five-hour trip from Wenatchee to Camas, and even though my AC went out on me while I was up there, I found that if you’re going 70 with all four windows open it can even be comfortable when it’s in the high 90s outside.  (But the road noise will leave you a bit deaf for a while.)

As with every trip I take in Washington, I’m always left with a sense of wonder and awe.  The scenery ranges from beautiful to awesome.  There are rivers, lakes, hills, mountains (the snow-capped kind), cliffs, gorges, forests and deserts.  There are farmlands where just about anything that we eat is grown.  And  around  Yakima they grow more hops than anywhere else in the world.  One stretch of US 97 runs though the Yakama Indian Reservation  for about 50 beautiful winding, hilly, wooded miles with little trace of human habitation and not a single restaurant or service station of any kind.

I made it home safely to rejoin my wife, who had encouraged me to go.  God bless her.   And God bless all women who support their coach-husbands the way mine does me.
 




***********   The Aberdeen Bobcats, after winning the Wenatchee Football Camp championship.





*********** The two Aberdeen varsity QBs whom I’ve had the pleasure of coaching the past three weeks. On the left is Luke Martin and on the right Mason Hill.  They’re both juniors.  They’re really good kids  and they’re talented. They’re smart, and they’re tough.  I have rarely had one quarterback as good as either one, and here Aberdeen is with two. It will be tough to have to choose a starter between the two of them ( I really could see going through the season with both of them sharing the job).  As for their coachability -  excellent.  I especially appreciate their  receptiveness to my coaching,   knowing that it was on a temporary basis.
 



*********** The moms - and a sister - who out of love for the Aberdeen boys spent three days away from home cooking meals for them at camp.  I interrupted them just as they were preparing to serve banana splits for desert.


********** While I slave away in front of the keyboard, my wife’s been watching the Republican Convention, and  she had to call me to come watch a speaker she’d just heard.  Said I had to hear him. So I came.  And she replayed it. And  I watched. And listened. And that was my introduction  to Pastor Lorenzo Sewell, of Detroit.

Wow, I thought.  This guy is GOOD.  I was MOVED. 

If I lived within an hour’s drive of his church, I’d be there every Sunday when the doors opened.

If we’re ever going to have a revival in America, this man is my choice to lead it. 


***********   It’s astounding how little regard some people have for dignity and decorum  when the moment demands them.  It’s astonishing how little respect they have for the grieving family members left behind when a young person’s life has been brought to a sudden and tragic end.

So damned if there weren’t two people shot - one of them killed - at the Khyree Jackson memorial service.


*********** Oregon State may have been dumped by the Big Dogs in college football, but there aren’t  any of the Big Dogs that can say that in the last five years they’ve had two baseball players taken Number One in the Major League draft. In 2019, the Beavers had catcher Adley Rutschman taken first, and  this year, it was infielder Travis Bazzana (who happens to be an Australian.)


*********** Except for the seven summers I was coaching in Finland, this is the first summer in my life that I didn’t even know they’d played the (baseball) All-Star game. Back when there was a real rivalry between the leagues, unlike the NFL sort of conferences we have today, the game really meant something. Now?  Ho hum.


***********   John Canzano, reporting from the recent Pac-12 (OSU and WSU own the name and they might as well use it) meetings:

I found it very interesting that Oregon State and Washington State coaches and players went to great lengths to give the MWC members respect. It was a notable shift in tone.Washington State coach Jake Dickert pointed out that Boise State was not an easier place to play than at Stanford or Cal.

“I’ve been to Fresno,” Dickert said. “It’s tough to play there. I’ve been to Boise on a Saturday night, tough to play there, too."



***********   I know Coach Wyatt is running out of Zoom topics (just messin' around), so maybe--even though we love the run as much as you--you could show real players running the "Routes on Air" drills.

Maybe I'm in the deep minority, but I don't want to see women's basketball at any level morph into a replica of the NBA with its shoving and trash-talking. It certainly seems headed in that direction, though, and if it continues one person won't be watching much longer.

I've given up wondering what constitutes acceptable speech on television. Thirty years or more ago I thought Europe's SKY-TV had set a standard of crudeness I hadn't yet seen in America. There were frequent commercials for a product called "Wind-EZ"....figure out what is was/is for.

Coach, you need to re-think your reply to Josh Montgomery. All CFB HC jobs are equal. A 6-6 record at Vanderbilt is no more impressive than 6-6 at Alabama. Aren't I correct?

John Vermillion               
St Petersburg, Florida

As a matter of fact, I did reconsider my reply to Josh Montgomery.  And after I read that coach Elijah Drinkwitz of Missouri had written the National Football Foundation (which administers the College Football Hall of Fame) and the best argument he could come up with was that they should simply “relax” their rules, I said, “Hell, my argument’s better than that!” and I sent it off to Steve Hatchell, Executive Director of the NFF, of which I’ve been a member for many years.  (And to think that you read it here first.)





*********** QUIZ ANSWER: Don McCafferty is possibly the least-known of all the coaches who have won Super Bowls.

A Cleveland native, he played at Ohio State under Paul Brown.

Because of a wartime shortage of eligible players, he was one of a very few players to play in two College All-Star games.

After service in the War, he played one year in the NFL with the New York Giants, and then embarked on a coaching career.

He spent 11 years as an assistant at  Kent State before making the jump to the NFL when he was hired by Weeb Ewbank in Baltimore.

He was an assistant in Baltimore for 11 years,  first under Ewbank then under Don Shula.   Known by the players as the “Easy Rider” because of the way his personality contrasted with that of the hot-tempered Shula,  he was Shula’s offensive coordinator for seven years, and served as a buffer between Shula and quarterback John Unitas. Unitas,  who detested Shula, said of McCafferty,  "He doesn't shout and scream. He's able to look at football objectively without getting carried away emotionally."

When Shula left for Miami, he succeeded Shula as head coach  and had immediate success.  The Colts finished 11-2-1, an he became the only  rookie coach ever to win  the Super Bowl when the Colts beat the Cowboys, 16-13, on rookie  Jim O’Brien’s  last-second field  goal.

In his second season, the Colts went 10-4, losing to the Dolphins (and Shula) in the AFC championship game.

After two seasons, as an NFL head coach, his record was  21-6-1, with a Super Bowl win to his credit. 

But a new owner, Robert Irsay, and a new GM, Joe Thomas, came on the scene,  and  in his third season, when his team got off to a 1-4 start, he was ordered by Thomas to bench Unitas.   McCafferty refused to do so and was fired.

He was hired the next season by the Detroit Lions, and took them to a 6-7-1 season, good enough for second place in the NFL Central.

His record, after 2 (and a piece) seasons was 28-17-2, and he was 4-1 in post-season play. Not bad.

But then, the following July, shortly after  the  Lions rookies had reported to camp, he suffered a heart attack while mowing his lawn and died three days later.  Don McCafferty, the Easy Rider,  was just 53.



CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING DON MCCAFFERTY

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOE BREMER - WEST SENECA, NEW YORK
TOM WALLS - WINNIPEG, MANITOBA
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
 



*********** QUIZ:  He was never a head coach, but if ever an assistant coach is to enter the Pro Football  the Hall of Fame, he would have to be right there near  the top of the list of candidates.

He grew up in Midland, Michigan, and although he started out at Michigan State, he wound up transferring to Hillsdale College, where he played four years and was team captain his senior year.  His play  earned him induction into the NAIA Hall of Fame.

He was drafted by the 49ers in the ninth round of the 1964 draft, and managed to make the club and stay with the 49ers for five seasons and a portion of another.

As a guard, he made the Pro Bowl three straight years - 1966-67-68. He played all 14 games in five seasons with the 49ers, then split another season with the 49ers and Bears. He finished his career with the Bears before a knee injury forced him to retire, and he was honored by selection on the NFL’s 1960s All-Decade team.

And then he embarked on a legendary career as an offensive line coach.
u
His  first stop was at Cal, where he was hired by Mike White (who’d just been hired there). He spent two seasons at Cal before being hired by Tommy Prothro, who had just been hired as San Diego’s head coach.

He spent three years in San Diego, then one with the 49ers before being hired by Jack Patera with the Seahawks. He spent five years in Seattle, and after Patera and his staff were fired, he landed in Cleveland, where he spent six years. He left Cleveland when head coach Marty Schottenheimer and staff were fired, but within a month he moved to Kansas City when Schottenheimeer was hired there.

Next came a return to the Seahawks, where he spent five years working first  under Tom Flores and then under Dennis Erickson.

And in 1998 he was hired by the Indianapolis Colts.

Our guy was now 56 years old, and he’d been an NFL offensive lineman for eight years, and an NFL offensive line coach for 24 years.

The story goes that on the day the Colts drafted Peyton Manning, Colts’ owner Jim Irsay left a note on our guy’s desk that said, “Your job is to keep No. 18 (Manning)  protected. To keep No. 18 clean.”

That he did.  Taking  what was considered an old-school approach to pass protection, he advocated an aggressive style that attacked defensive linemen, rather than the more conventional, passive, drop-back style, arguing that his style kept defenders from penetrating the pocket.

In 12 years in Indianapolis, his lines led the NFL in fewest sacks allowed six times.

What head coach Tony Dungy appreciated was that he  did it without costing the Colts draft choices.

Only one of his linemen - tackle Tarik Glenn -  was a high draft choice;  the rest of them were players that he’d developed.

Said Dungy, “I’ll take Jeff Saturday off the street and make him a Pro Bowler. We can use that No. 1 draft choice to get Reggie Wayne or Joseph Addai. That’s what I loved, what I appreciated and what made him great.”

With his help, the Colts made it to two Super Bowls, and won one of them.

He retired after his stint with the Colts, but was persuaded to return to spend two more years coaching the Eagles’ offensive line.

After finally retiring for good, he died in 2020 as a result of a motorcycle accident.  He was 78.

Said Peyton Manning at the time,  “In my opinion,(He) was the best offensive line coach in NFL history. I would put him on that pedestal any day of the week. I know all the guys that played for him would feel the same way, and a lot of the guys that coached with him would feel the same.”




FRIDAY,  JULY 12,  2024       “The first lesson of economics is scarcity: there is never enough of anything to fully satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics."  Thomas Sowell

I'M GOING TO BE  AT FOOTBALL CAMP FOR THE NEXT FEW DAYS AND I WON'T BE ABLE TO PUBLISH UNTIL NEXT FRIDAY!   SEE YOU THEN!

*********** Wisdom from Mike Lude: “When we weren't busy on the farm (we worked most of the time) we tried to have fun (rarely). We usually went to the Centerville County fair, a gathering place for farmers every August. Occasionally we made it to the fair in Hillsdale, a big, big, big event. But we had to sandwich our morning and evening chores around the fair visit, limiting the time spent on rides, throwing baseballs at milk bottles, and watching horse-pulling contests.

“We socialized with the Harrison family who lived on a farm about a mile and a half away. We played card games, and we went to Fulton in the summertime on Saturday night to watch free outdoor movies. Without a nearby library we swapped books with our neighbors. We went on picnics in the summer, and for a special treat we would go to the old ice house in Fulton to get enough ice for home-made ice cream. That was a big, big deal.

“When I was thirteen, I had a chance to earn money at a real job with Fred Unrath’s  traveling threshing operation. I was a bundle pitcher and made a dollar a day, starting at 6 AM and wrapping up about 7 PM. The first time I jumped up on the threshing machine an old-timer offered some advice: "Hey, kid, when you're up here with all this dust you gotta chew tobacco."He gave me a plug and I put it in my mouth. I chewed it and got deathly sick. I upchucked and everybody had a good laugh, except me.

“It was my first and last time chewing tobacco."


*********** One of several  great tips I got from an old video put out by Hal Mumme and his crew when he was at Kentucky was the "Routes on Air "drill - a drill in which several quarterbacks and receivers simultaneously practice every one of the individual routes of a pass play.

It works really well as a way of practicing all the routes in our “Sprint Brown (or Black)” play.

To the playside, the quarterback normally reads  the corner to determine whether  to throw - on the run - to the C-back on his arrow, or  to the Y end on his corner.

To the backside, when we tag the play with “Throwback,” the QB pulls up and throws either to the X end running a seam, or the A-Back running a wheel.

Here’s how we set up the drill:





*********** I doubt that you could say anything crude, vulgar or gross that I haven’t heard, and in my lifetime I may very well have uttered a vulgarity or two that you haven’t heard yet. 

But like most guys my age, I learned really fast that  there were places where you said such things, and places where you didn’t.

A locker-room was once one of the places where you could say almost anything, because first of all, it was all guys (with no adults present)  and second of all, all athletes lived by an athletic omertà (the code of silence that’s part of Sicilian culture): “What you see here, hear here, say here - when you leave here, let it stay here.”

Well, those days are gone.  Now, cell phone cameras have become the stock in trade of the locker room rat. 

On the other side, TV was one of those places where  coarseness was forbidden. Ordinary profanity was never heard, not to mention locker-room ugliness.

Not no more.  Now, people are routinely “pissed off.”  I’d be drunk if I had a drink of beer every time someone in some commercial says, “poop.”

And we’ve circled back to that time in the 70s when women were led to believe they had to buy “feminine hygiene spray.”  Now, what they need is some new deodorant that works on “pits and privates.”  One of them works on the "butt crack.”

I even got a laugh out of one commercial for underwear made by some outfit called Shinesty.  The product wasn’t just a supporter for the family jewels.  This company was selling “ball hammocks.”
 


***********  Women’s basketball seems to be doing its very best to blow its big chance to finally get the public to pay  it some attention.  Unfortunately, what that public seems to be seeing, once they pay their way into a game, is a bunch of grown women  acting like they’re still in middle school. Instead of the Caitlin Clark drama of the early season subsiding by now, it seems as if every day there’s some new outrage, and it’s impossible to avoid the racial implications.  Maybe what the WNBA needs right now is a few 7-foot trans players to come in and take some of the focus off of hating that other kid - that kid that all the fans have been paying to see.


***********   It was in a 1927 New York Evening Telegram column that  Joe Williams, their sports editor, told of having heard once famed coach Percy Haughton say that “the stands surrounding the football fields held several hundred times as many quarterbacks as ever got into uniform.”  To Williams, ever after, these types became  “grandstand quarterbacks.”



***********   I have a tech savvy coach who purchased communication headsets. We want to use them this season (rare in Canadian high school). I want to be the "eye in the sky." Have you called plays from the box? If so, can you give any advice so that we can avoid miscommunications?

For the last eight years of my formal coaching career I was in the booth.

There’s no question that it is a better place to be from the standpoint of effectiveness. The one thing I really missed was the ability to talk with the QB, man to man.

I felt what made it work best for  me was the simplified play-calling made possible by the wrist cards. It didn’t require a lot of words to pass between me, the head coach on the sideline, and the QB to whom he gave the call..

You have to make sure that what the coach on the sideline tells the QB is exactly what you just told him, and then, as a double-check, we always made sure the QB repeated what he’d just heard.


***********   Coach Gutilla's comments about the youth tacking videos are accurate. The reactions of the coaches are hard to watch. It has also become a trend that players will imitate while watching tackling drills in practice. Social media has influenced more than just eating disorders in females.

Tom Walls
Winnipeg, Manitoba

I think that guys who get their jollies by putting little kids in vicious, head-to-head tacking drills are even lower than people who train dogs to fight, and they should be treated similarly.


*********** One of the things that makes coaching at Aberdeen very enjoyable for me is  the fact that head coach Todd Bridge has carried on a practice we started at North Beach back in 2011 - after practice, every kid shakes every coach’s hand.

Which brings me to this:  It’s been almost 20 years since the Army ran a recruiting ad in which a dad told  his soldier son  that he’d already noticed something different in him in the short time he’d been in the Army: "You just did something you've never done before - you shook my hand and you looked me in the eye - at the same time."


***********   How long before race fans are treated to the “swish” of electric stock cars circling the track at Daytona?

It’s not a joke.  Possibly in an attempt to lure  the woke wealthy off their polo ponies and into the stands at Charlotte, Nascar, once the domain of he good old boys who used to run moonshine down out of the hills and hollers in their hopped-up “stock” cars, has unveiled what it calls an “EV stock car.”

Can the death of NASCAR be far off?  They might as well stop selling beer and barbecue while they’re at it.

The day will come that NASCAR will be dead, and the internal combustion engine as well.  But with EVs rejected by the public (and power companies unable to provide enough electricity for them anyhow), there will come a day when some old guy will remember how to build an internal combustion engine and - in secret, because by then the government will have outlawed them, he’ll produce one.  The government will confiscate it, of course, but instead of destroying it, top government officials will enjoy driving it, and will order that it be reverse-engineered.  And then, seeking the help of other old-timers who once worked in automobile factories, they’ll try to make more of them to meet the demand from  other high-ranking politicians, who soon will be racing each other.  And soon after that, the proles will be paying to watch them race.
 

*********** Josh Montgomery writes…

I notice the “Mike Leach Hall of Fame” question has reached The Athletic.

I liked Leach’s personality. Didn’t care for his offense, but he did manage to win at traditionally non-power schools.  But the criteria is the criteria, is it not?  Are we even having this discussion if he doesn’t die suddenly, and if he retired a decade from now with a 59% career win percentage?

What say you?

Ah, the damned criteria.  The National Football Foundation has a very inflexible bar that a coach must clear in order to be eligible for the College Football Hall of Fame: it stipulates that he must have a career winning percentage of .600. (Actually, that’s not really a “percentage,” but that’s not the point.) And there stands Mike Leach at .596.

My answer?  Having been a guy who only twice  inherited a high school team with a winning record the year before, I believe that a guy such as Leach who won consistently at a place where winning has been generally tough - Texas Tech, WSU, Mississippi State - and he should be valued as much as a guy who wins where winning is expected. I think it would be reasonable to drop any guy’s first two seasons at a place from his record, and then see what his percentage is. In Leach’s first two years at TT he was 14-12; at WSU 12-16; at Miss State 11-13. That’s 37-41 at those three places. Subtract that from his overall record (158-107) and it’s now 121-66. That’s a percentage of .647 - which means he’s in.

If  they must have the absolute criterion of .600, there has to be something to separate the guy who takes Indiana to respectability from the guy who keeps things going at Alabama or Ohio State.  They face different challenges and oughtn’t to be measured by the same yardstick.  Why should a guy who takes the job at Indiana and  after a couple of seasons to get things where he needs them to be winds up winning a Big Ten  title  and taking the Hoosiers to the Rose Bowl (oops - I meant  the CFP) not be given the courtesy of having those first two years dropped from his record?


*********** It’s not my business to be advising Spread coaches, but I’ll bet there isn’t a single Spread coach out there who hasn’t had to deal with shotgun QBs wanting to stand upright with their  hands up about throat-high, as if they’re already setup in the pocket.

If you’ve watched my Zooms, you’ve seen what I mean.  I’ve shown screen shots of at least a dozen representative QBs at the college and the pro level. Only one is actually prepared to handle a low snap.  He’s in a crouch, almost like an infielder, ready to handle any ball that comes to him - high, low, right or left. (It’s Jaylen Hurts, of the Eagles.  Actually, with a center like Kelce, a bad snap to him was a rare occurrence.)

No matter the sport or the position, all athletes find it harder as they get tired to keep their knees flexed, and if you don’t stay on their asses, they’ll begin to stand up.  And then suddenly, out of nowhere, comes that low snap that they just can’t handle.


*********** Hey Coach.

I watched the recording of your last clinic and the Ram formation looks like something that would be a great change-up.  This will allow us to give the defense a different look but run all our base plays.  But I have one question - what is the depth of the fullback?

As always, thank you for the help because the double wing saved my program.

Dan Chery
Worcester, Massachusetts

We line him up back of the B gap, with his heels at 4 yards.  Glad to have been of help!


***********   Hi Coach,

I wanted to know your thoughts on the power play where the qb just hands off and does not toss and  hockey stick. I always liked the way it helped negate the backside running down the ball carrier from behind, plus, we never let go of a perfectly good football like the toss. I do see where the edge containment has to honor the hockey stick, however, the bootleg benefit sure is attractive to me! I was fortunate to have stud qb's and we ran it old school with him leading through.

Mike Norlock
Atascadero, California


I think there’s a lot to be said for the handoff. It just doesn’t  fit into my purposes. I see just one negative and that is that  with an outside handoff the  runner  is not headed quickly enough at the off-tackle hole.  In addition, because I tie the “hockey stick” path of the QB into so many other plays, I think it’s important to be a part of my Power Off-Tackle play.  That’s me.  I would not try to discourage you if it’s working for you!


*********** The wedge is awesome! Loved running it out of the single wing and double wing!

Mike Framke
Green Bay, Wisconsin


***********   John Canzano reports from Pac-12 Media Day…

LAS VEGAS — The Pac-12 Conference served alcoholic beverages in a meeting room on Wednesday night at Bellagio. As the presentation started, Commissioner Teresa Gould took the microphone and cracked the first joke, announcing that “if anyone has earned the right to drink… it’s the Pac-12.”

There was no media poll.

No preseason all-conference team.

Just a football and two helmets on the stage.

The evening’s festivities consisted of two head football coaches, four players, a panel of notable alumni, and Gould under the lights. Drinks were served. Food was served. In a variety of ways, the Pac-12’s annual Football Media Event was unlike anything else ever seen in the run-up to a football season.

Some takeaways:

— Organizers positioned the event on Wednesday evening, directly between the Big 12 and Mountain West Football Media Days in Las Vegas. I’d lobbied for the event to take place in downtown Portland, where the conference got its start 109 years ago. I’d been told the Pac-12 was aiming for a ‘cocktail hour’ vibe. I was skeptical it would work. But I surveyed the room as the main presentation started after 6 p.m. and saw media members from a variety of national publications that cover major college football.

Representatives from the College Football Playoff and a few other college sports organizations also showed up. They only attended because the Pac-12 made being there very easy for them. It was a win.

— The two head coaches, Jake Dickert at WSU and Trent Bray at OSU, informally worked the room before the event. They were accessible, and that part worked well, too. Another win.

— Former WSU quarterbacks Ryan Leaf and Jack Thompson took the stage as part of the “Past” pitch. Ex-OSU running back Steven Jackson joined them. The trio spoke candidly about watching the conference they loved come under attack last summer. It was easily my favorite segment of the event

— Leaf said he got irked watching the crew on ESPN’s College GameDay make jokes about the “Pac-2” last season. And he predicted some of the 10 departing schools would eventually have regrets.

Said Leaf: “You’ve kept the Pac-12 brand and they’re going to come scrambling back.”

— Thompson said he viewed the events of last August as “an assault on the West Coast.” He added: “College football needs us to succeed.”

— Jackson, who played 12 NFL seasons, told the story of his college recruitment by Dennis Erickson. “This is a program you can leave your fingerprints on,” he said, “like wet cement.” And he wondered where he’d be without the Pac-12.


— There were only a handful of questions from the media in attendance during the “on-stage” portion of the event. I didn’t ask a question in that setting. I much prefer to talk with people 1-on-1 so I walked the room and spoke with Dickert, Bray, two players, Washington State athletic director Anne McCoy, Michael Molinari (head of Pac-12 Enterprises), and some others before the event kicked off.

— Teresa Gould, the commissioner, was solid talking about her vision and the complicated path that stands before the Pac-12. There was no news here. Just Gould, saying that she’s into the fight.

— Gould was asked whether the Pac-12 had locked in broadcast teams for the games that will be carried on The CW. I’m told they’re close to finalizing the broadcast teams but Gould said: “We’re not there yet.” It sounded to me like she wanted the network to make that announcement.

— Here’s a bit of news — The CW will produce a studio show for the ACC and Pac-12 games that will originate in the Bay Area, per a source in the room. Pac-12 Enterprises is handling the production of that and I’m told we should expect a “familiar face” on the set. The show aims to help drive more audience to The CW games.

— The Pac-12 Network signal went dark on June 30, but the conference’s “FAST” channel (aka: Free-Ad-Supported TV) won’t turn out the lights. There had been some speculation that the Pac-12’s ad-supported streaming platform would also go dark. It won’t. Gould said the conference and Pac-12 Enterprises are focused on running it and building it out. More on this side hustle as it develops.

— There was a distinct “We’re still here” vibe that echoed throughout the event. That phrase came up a couple of times. I’ve implored Oregon State and Washington State to do a better job of marketing themselves and boosting the branding. Wednesday was a start, but I need to see that messaging continue in loud and consistent ways. I wonder if the Pac-12 schools will invest in it.

— The Pac-12 is an easy target for jokes. There are only two schools left. They’ve been squeezed out of the ‘Power 4’ by no fault of their own. Gould’s strongest remarks came when she pointed out that Oregon State and Washington State had never in their history competed at anything but the highest levels of college athletics and still belong there.

“Why is that even a question?” she said.

***********   I understand why you like Mark Madden. And his surname doesn't hurt either. There are too many bloody sports for me, but not for the one point five million people in America who make a living speaking authoritatively about sports they've never actually played. Not sure I could live without ESPN's cornhole coverage.

Among Canzano's mention of college QBs, I didn't see Arch Manning. Time is burning, yet he's not slotted to start for the Longhorns.

Thank you for Robert Service. He was a true poet, as was Wystan Hugh [Wyatt] Auden. Rhyme, meter, meaty words.

Gwon n raise the voting age, high as you want.

I enjoyed the word picture of those boys after running the Wedge.

John Vermillion                                
St Petersburg, Florida


***********   Hugh,

While coaching in the Bay Area on two separate occasions I got to know who the local legends were (see Quiz).  Frankie Albert (of Stanford and 49er fame).  The 1951 USF Dons football team consisting of 7 future HOFers (Ollie Matson, Gino Marchetti, Bob St. Clair among them).  Oh, yeah...Buck Shaw and Y.A. Tittle.  Pop Warner.  Lynn "Pappy" Waldorf.  Bill Russell.  K.C. Jones.  Joe DiMaggio. Willie Mays, and many, many more.

The Wedge was the favorite play of my linemen no matter what school.  They wanted to run it on first downs!  And so we did!

Poets today rhyme.  Witch ryhmes with B****.  Luck rhymes with F***.  You get the picture.

Yes, even a few NY Democrats have been able to come up with some words of wisdom.

I'd support raising the voting age!  Better than lowering the drinking age.

Agree with John V.  Way too many sports, seasons way too long.  In a word...GREED!

And to think, once, a long time ago I wanted to be a college head football coach.  No thanks!  See Blake Anderson - Utah State



Have a great week!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas

Shame on you  for not mentioning the great Leo Nomellini!!!





*********** QUIZ ANSWER: When we talk about graduate transfers and grants of extra years of eligibility as things that have harmed today’s game,  it might help to know Les Horvath’s story.

Les Horvath  was born in South Bend, Indiana, the son of Hungarian immigrants who moved to Parma, Ohio (outside Cleveland) when he was a boy.  He attended Parma High School for two years, but then transferred to Hughes High School in Cleveland because he felt his teammates at Parma did not take sports seriously enough.

As a single wing tailback, he led his team to within one game of the city championship, but at less than 160 pounds, he was considered too small by Notre Dame, the school of his dreams.

Instead, he enrolled at Ohio State as what we would call a “walk-on,” but he was quick and hard-hitting enough to earn a spot on the team his sophomore year.  He played sparingly as the Buckeyes went  4-4 - their worst record since 1927, ending with a 40-0 loss to Michigan,  and after the head coach’s resignation,  Ohio State hired Paul Brown, who had built a powerhouse program at Massillon High School.

Brown took the Buckeyes to a 6-1 record, and Horvath saw more action, mostly as a backup wingback in Brown’s single wing attack.  One of the players he shared playing time with was Tommy James, who had played for Brown at Massillon High School, and was the older brother of Don James, who would go on to greatness as a college coach at Washington.

One of the starting backs was Gene Fekete, who bonded  with Horvath, because “We both spoke fluent Hungarian. So whenever we were talking on the field and didn’t want anyone else to know, we spoke Hungarian. It used to drive our coaches and teammates nuts. Sometimes we would even yell at the refs in Hungarian.”

In his senior year, the Buckeyes won the national title.  By now, Horvath  was a starter, and in a Michigan game, a 21-7 Buckeye win, he  threw for a touchdown and caught a pass for a touchdown.

The next year was expected to be a big year for the Buckeyes, but World War II intervened and Ohio State finished 3-6.   Following the season, Brown left for service in the Navy, leaving his assistant, Carroll Widdoes, as “acting coach.”

Les Horvath could only watch the goings-on.  He had graduated, and was enrolled in dental School at Ohio State.

But  with healthy young men in short supply at colleges, the NCAA passed a special rule  that allowed graduate students to come back and play an extra year if they had not exhausted 4 years of eligibility.

And Widdoes, swift to act,  asked our guy, now in dental school, to return and play halfback for the team. He noted that of his 44 players, 31 were freshmen, and  he would need Horvath’s leadership if he was going to turn them into winners.

For his part, Widdoes promised that Horvath  could play the tailback spot (he had played wingback  under Brown) and would have a lot of say in the direction of the offense.

“At first I wasn’t sure I wanted to play,” Horvath said later. “Dental school was quite taxing. But coach Widdoes said I wouldn’t have to practice all the time and agreed to fly me to the games, both of which gave me more time to study.”

So Horvath  guy agreed, and the rest is history.

He had a dream season. He gained 905 yards rushing and 345 passing as he led OSU to a 9-0 season and a Big Ten Championship. The Buckeyes were invited to play in the Rose Bowl, but the Big Ten at that time had a rule against post-season play and would not make an exception for Ohio State. The Buckeyes  finished ranked nationally behind only Army, and consequently called themselves the  "National Civilian Champions.”

Les Horvath was named MVP of the Big Ten and first  Team All-American, and he won the Heisman Trophy, becoming the first Ohio State player ever to do so.

In doing so, he beat out Army's famed “Mister Inside" (Doc Blanchard) and "Mister Outside" (Glenn Davis), who would each go on to win the Heisman over the next two years.

Acting head coach Widdoes was named "Coach of the Year" and OSU had three other players chosen as All-Americans.

After graduating from dental school,  Horvath joined the Navy, and after the war he played three years professionally, first for the Los Angeles Rams (newly moved from Cleveland) and the Cleveland Browns.

After injuries  forced him to give up football, he opened a dental practice in  Glendale, California, where he worked   until he retired.

And he coached.  Youth football. 

“Not very many people know that he loved coaching kids  also,” recalled his wife at the time Ohio State retired his number posthumously. “That is one thing he loved to do. He took a lot of pride in coaching and was an inspiration to those young kids.”

CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING LES HORVATH

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
TOM WALLS - WINNIPEG, MANITOBA
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS



*********** I mentioned to John Vermillion that in Hungary, the fairly-common last name “Horvath” means “Croatian,” and he wrote back,

When I worked in Croatia, one of the men on my team was George Horvath (wonder why they selected him?), the former Command Sergeant Major of US Army Europe. Republika Hrvatska is, of course, the Republic of Croatia.


***********   Although I'm no Buckeye fan,  when you live in Columbus for 7 years you get to know right away who the Buckeye legends are.

Joe Gutilla


 

*********** QUIZ: He is possibly the least-known of all the coaches who have won Super Bowls.

A Cleveland native, he played at Ohio State under Paul Brown.

Because of a wartime shortage of eligible players, he was one of a very few players to play in two College All-Star games.

After service in the War, he played one year in the NFL with the New York Giants, and then embarked on a coaching career.

He spent 11 years as an assistant at  Kent State before making the jump to the NFL when he was hired by Weeb Ewbank in Baltimore.

He was an assistant in Baltimore for 11 years,  first under Ewbank then under Don Shula.   Known by the players as the “Easy Rider” because of the way his personality contrasted with that of the hot-tempered Shula,  he was Shula’s offensive coordinator for seven years, and served as a buffer between Shula and quarterback John Unitas. Unitas,  who detested Shula, said of our guy,  "He doesn't shout and scream. He's able to look at football objectively without getting carried away emotionally."

When Shula left for Miami, he succeeded Shula as head coach  and had immediate success.  The Colts finished 11-2-1, an he became the only  rookie coach ever to win  the Super Bowl when the Colts beat the Cowboys, 16-13, on rookie  Jim O’Brien’s  last-second field  goal.

In his second season, the Colts went 10-4, losing to the Dolphins (and Shula) in the AFC championship game.

After two seasons, as an NFL head coach, his record was  21-6-1, with a Super Bowl win to his credit. 

But a new owner, Robert Irsay, and a new GM, Joe Thomas, came on the scene,  and  in his third season, when his team got off to a 1-4 start, he was ordered by Thomas to bench Unitas.   He refused to do so and was fired.

He was hired the next season by the Detroit Lions, and took them to a 6-7-1 season, good enough for second place in the NFL Central.

His record, after 2 (and a piece) seasons was 28-17-2, and he was 4-1 in post-season play. Not bad.

But then, the following July, shortly after  the  Lions rookies had reported to camp, he suffered a heart attack while mowing his lawn and died three days later.  He was just 53.





TUESDAY,  JULY 9,  2024       “Those who once claimed speech is violence now claim violence is speech.” Wall Street Journal


*********** Wisdom from Mike Lude: "It didn't take being around Grandpa Chris Lude long to figure out where my dad got his toughness and his respect for discipline. I had a great relationship with Grandpa Lude but he scared me to death. I thought he was a tough, ornery son of a gun and a hard one to please.

“For my eighth birthday he gave me a registered Holstein calf. He thought I could raise the calf, breed it to a registered bull, and start a strain of registered cattle. The calf was about a yearling when I went to a horse sale with my dad and saw this hackney pony, a small thoroughbred horse, and fell in love with it. Dad said he couldn't afford to buy it but suggested trading my yearling calf for the horse, which I wanted for riding to round up cattle.

“When  Grandpa heard about the deal he was furious; he thought the horse was ugly; it had been half-gelded and had a nasty disposition. To me.  the pony was fast and good looking, and I soon became a good rider.

 
***********  The 1952 San Francisco 49ers, in their third season in the NFL after coming over from the All-America Football Conference (AAFC), got off to a 5-0 start. (12-0, if you consider that they won all SEVEN of their “preseason” games.) Two of the five wins were over the Detroit Lions, who would go on to win the NFL championship.

And   then one play - a rash decision by veteran QB Frankie Albert to fake rather than punt from deep in their own territory - led to a narrow 20-17 loss to the Chicago Bears, their first loss of the year. The whole season went downhill from there. The 49ers went 2-5 the rest of the way,  taking a 35-9 whipping at Los Angeles, and finished 7-5.

Needless to say, the incident led to strained relations between Albert and Coach Buck Shaw.  During the downturn, Albert, a great favorite with 49ers fans, wound up losing his starting job to Y.A. Tittle and never got it back. He retired from the 49ers at the end of the season, although he did go on to play one more season with Calgary of the CFL. Tittle spent seven more years in San Francisco and the four years with the New York Giants, and is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.


*********** In practicing at Aberdeen High last Wednesday, I experienced a great thrill last week when I taught the Wedge  to a group of offensive linemen whose entire high school experience has been running the  spread offense.

We went into the weight room (taking our shoes off first, of course) and the line coach asked me how many hand shields we’d need.

Those of you who’ve coached the offense knew the answer: ONE

That’s all the offensive linemen we’re going to block.  We’re going to triple-team one defender, and from that point, our only contact with other defenders comes from their trying to penetrate - trying to “infiltrate” our wedge (as legendary single  wing coach Charlie Caldwell of Princeton would say).

I was able to get them to cut out their splits, move back of the ball, and put their inside hands down.  How did I do it?  By promising them that with what I was going to teach them, they would be able to do some serious ass-kicking.

After they went out on the field and worked on it a bit, it was team time, and after this one play I saw the linemen jumping around, excited, as the nose man lay on his back.  They’d run their first actual line wedge!

Think THAT wasn’t  thrilling to this old fart?

“Enjoy it now,” I told one of them, “Because  you can see why we’re not able to practice it live very much against our own guys!”



*********** This one has stuck with me a long time.  After winning a game in the closing minutes, Joe Paterno was asked by a reporter  why he decided on the particular play call that led to the winning score, and instead of wasting the reporters’ time with “I saw their free safety cheating up” or a similar story, he said, simply

"I'm afraid I can't tell you why. After spending over 20 years on the sideline, you go with a certain call you know is right."


***********   I watched a Canadian game in which a defensive player returned a  2-point conversion and almost scored.  But he didn’t, and, so much for that - his team   go zero points and wound up having to receive a kickoff.

IDEA - When you return a PAT for any distance, you get your of choice of possession of the ball sport you returned it to, or receiving the kickoff as normal.


***********   How self-serving is the political class in Washington, DC?  Says one of Washington’s wittiest people, Senator John Kennedy of Lousiana,   “Washington will shut off your life support just to charge their cell phones.”



*********** After all the crap that’s passed off as “poetry” these  days, I thought I’d give you a treat.  Welcome to a world we once knew - a world of meter and rhyme.

The Men That Don't Fit In

BY ROBERT W. SERVICE

There's a race of men that don't fit in,
    A race that can't stay still;
So they break the hearts of kith and kin,
    And they roam the world at will.
They range the field and they rove the flood,
    And they climb the mountain's crest;
Theirs is the curse of the gypsy blood,
    And they don't know how to rest.

If they just went straight they might go far;
    They are strong and brave and true;
But they're always tired of the things that are,
    And they want the strange and new.
They say: "Could I find my proper groove,
    What a deep mark I would make!"
So they chop and change, and each fresh move
    Is only a fresh mistake.

And each forgets, as he strips and runs
    With a brilliant, fitful pace,
It's the steady, quiet, plodding ones
    Who win in the lifelong race.
And each forgets that his youth has fled,
    Forgets that his prime is past,
Till he stands one day, with a hope that's dead,
    In the glare of the truth at last.

He has failed, he has failed; he has missed his chance;
    He has just done things by half.
Life's been a jolly good joke on him,
    And now is the time to laugh.
Ha, ha! He is one of the Legion Lost;
    He was never meant to win;
He's a rolling stone, and it's bred in the bone;
    He's a man who won't fit in.


***********  Some people are unerring in predicting the future.

In 1965, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, assistant secretary of Labor to President Lyndon B. Johnson, wrote: "A community that allows a large number of young men to grow up in broken homes, dominated by women, never acquiring any stable relationship to male authority, never acquiring any rational expectations about the future - that community asks for and gets chaos. Crime, violence, unrest, unrestrained lashing out at the whole social structure - that is not only to be expected, it is very near to inevitable.”



*********** Not so long ago, I read a letter  someone had written to some editor suggesting we RAISE the voting age.   Why not, this person asked,  make it the same age as that required for that office? 

That would make it 35 for president, 30 for the senate, and 25 for the house.

Imagine, the writer asked, what a different country it would be if only those 35 and older could vote for president. 

If you don't have teenagers or young 20-somethings voting for the boards of companies, he asked, why should they be voting for president and congress?

He’s for taking the vote from 18-year-olds.    The original rationale - the draft and the Vietnam War - no longer exists.   And if 18 year olds aren’t mature enough to drink,  how are they mature enough to vote?


***********   “If Trump wins in November, I'll feel as long as I gave it my all and did the goodest job I know I could do.”

Somehow I can’t see Ryan Day telling a Buckeye alumni luncheon, “If Michigan  wins in November, I'll feel as long as I gave it my all and did the goodest job I know I could do.”


*********** In three weeks Khyree Jackson was to report to Minnesota Vikings’ camp. But at 4:30 AM Sunday, in suburban Washington, DC, Jackson, a fourth-round draft pick out of Oregon (by way of Alabama)  and two high school teammates were killed when another driver hit their car and flipped it off the road.  Just like that.  Three young lives snuffed out.  What a horrible thing for those kids, their families, their teammates, their coaches.  God rest their souls.


*********** From John Canzano’s mailbag…

Q: How do you see the QB position going forward in the new world of NIL/portal? Do you see the big schools ever starting a freshman again? Is a five-star guy better off going to a G5 to start and build up his NIL value? Are donors going to be willing to pay for the backup QB?

A: I asked Jonathan Smith and Kyle Whittingham this question last season. Both coaches told me they thought some of the top programs might lean heavily on the experience of transfers. Why rely on a true freshman when you can get a more refined, older, wiser, talented, player in the portal? Schools won’t stop trying to recruit high school seniors, but I think Bo Nix, Michael Penix Jr., Cam Ward, Caleb Williams, Jayden Daniels, Dillon Gabriel, etc. have demonstrated that top programs can shop for quarterbacks in the portal every offseason and fill their need.

Deagan Rose, a highly regarded class of 2026 quarterback, committed last week to Oregon State. I visited with Rose in late May on his high school campus, talked about his mindset, and wrote a column about it. Rose has an aunt and uncle who live in Corvallis. More significantly, he told me he’d like to play right away. OSU offers him that opportunity. The job for the Beavers isn’t just to develop Rose, but to retain him.

Q: Why can’t universities via their NIL collectives sign players to multi-year contracts? It seems ridiculous that college players are free agents every year. This model would never work in professional sports, why is it this way in “amateur” sports? —


A: That kind of multi-year agreement would need to be negotiated by a player’s union that doesn’t yet exist in college sports. The way most of the NIL collectives currently protect themselves is by paying the players in quarterly installments that act as retention bonuses.

Oregon State’s Damien Martinez, for example, had a $400,000-a-year deal with the school’s collective. Martinez was paid a $100,000 quarterly payment on March 19. A couple of weeks later, the running back announced he was leaving Corvallis. He’s now set to play for Miami.



*********** Starts an article in The Athletic…

Only four times in the last 25 years has a quarterback not won league MVP. There have been 33 Super Bowl MVPs at quarterback, with the next closest position group being the wide receivers at eight.



*********** Mark Madden, in the Pittsburgh Tribune, is becoming one of my favorite columnists.  He definitely has a set of stones, and he isn’t afraid to  take a contrarian position.  If you can remember the days when you could not only name every team on the major leagues, but also every teams starting lineup, you’ll understand this…


We are saturated with sports: too many sports,  leagues, teams and games. Demand (or lack thereof) doesn't matter. All we ever get is more. Not better. More.

How many times does spring football have to fail before it never gets resuscitated again? But as long as there's somebody to sponsor it, televise it and bet on it, it will return.

The WNBA has been around since 1997 and still isn't self-sufficient. It's subsidized by the NBA. Its attendance (pre-Caitlin Clark) is on par with the American Hockey League, a Class AAA operation that doesn't have many big cities or modern buildings and isn't televised nationally. Beyond games involving Clark, that attendance hasn't increased this season. But there's a perceived obligation.

Same goes with women's hockey. Yet another attempt at a pro leapgue launched in 2023-24. The average crowd was 5,448. (Yawn.) It's reported that players will need to take pay cuts next season.

Two golf leagues aren't needed. There aren't enough good golfers to go around. The elite don't compete against each other enough anymore. (The situation has made the four major tournaments mean more. They should play those and eliminate everything else.)

Examples abound. Too much is never enough.

Every schedule is too long, too cluttered.

Every pro sport has too many teams. The talent is spread too thin. But expansion fees are free money.

Athletes, especially the best, don't get enough time off. Their performance suffers. Or load management robs some crowd of a rare chance to see a visiting megastar. (That happens frequently in the NBA.)

John Vermillion                
St Petersburg, Florida



***********   Just another fantastic sports page, so thanks. I still don't understand how Phil Steele and Canzano can make their analyses and forecasts without perfect knowledge of who'll make up the teams. But what he says about most teams is so general lots of people could have written it. I have absolutely no idea whether he'll be found mostly right or wrong.

Pat Tillman himself would've been a worthy recipient of the BL Award, in my opinion.

Joe Namath to me has always had a high creep quotient. I have to mute the volume on each of his commercials these past five years or so. Who the heck would want him to hawk their product nowadays?

I can imagine the fun you're having helping Todd. Perfect for all involved, especially those kids. Wishing Aberdeen a great season.

John Vermillion
St. Petersburg, Florida



***********   Hugh,

Pat Tillman Award, Heisman Trophy, both are now meaningless.  If I was Pat Tillman’s dad I’d pull the plug on the award.

Was surprised to hear Coach Bridge no longer runs the DW, or at least moved toward the Open Wing concept.  What’s that about?

I give all of college football a 0.  Not a lot of positives, but not all negatives.

Baseball has home run derby, but it’s NOT baseball.  Basketball has H.O.R.S.E., but it’s NOT basketball.  Football has flag, but it’s NOT football. 

My wife showed me a YouTube video on her FB page of a youth football tackling drill.  Kids looked to be 8 and under.  One on one, 15 yards apart, on a full sprint at a 45 degree angle.  Both crashing into one another with their heads down!  The coaches whoopin’ and hollerin’ about the contact while the two boys wobbled back to their feet.  Not one of the coaches pulling the two aside to coach them how to properly make a tackle!  Is it little wonder why (when parents see these asinine drills and moronic coaches’ reactions) that they prohibit their boys from playing football. 

Enjoy the weekend!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas










******* QUIZ  ANSWER: Pete Retzlaff is almost certainly  the greatest athlete ever produced by both of “The Dakotas” - combined. 

The  best athlete ever to come out of North Dakota is probably  Roger Maris, a very good high school football player who turned down a  football scholarship at Oklahoma in order to pursue a baseball career - a decision that turned out pretty well.

But our guy ranks near the top in North Dakota, and in any list of athletes from South Dakota, he’s at or near the top there, too.

He is also one of the greatest examples ever of a good natural athlete without great skills who made himself great at football by working hard at self-improvement.

He was an outstanding high school athlete  in the little  town of Ellendale, North Dakota, and at South Dakota State,  he was a football and track star.

In football,  he was an outstanding running back, rushing for a school record 1,016 yards his senior season. And in track and field,  he  twice won NAIA championships - setting NAIA records - in both the shot and discus.  In all, he set 16 school records in the two sports.

He was drafted in the 22nd round in 1953 by the Lions, but  couldn’t make it as a fullback and was cut. After serving two years in the Army, he returned to the Lions, but was put on waivers and claimed by the Eagles.

After bring tried at several different positions - including one exhibition game where he played defensive back -  he wound up at wide receiver, a strange position considering he hadn’t caught so much as one pass in college.

Recalled Eagles’ teammate Dick Bielski, “When Pete  got to Philadelphia he was just a body beautiful guy - big and strong with a great physique - but he wasn’t loaded with natural football talent.  He didn’t know how to catch a football.  I told him, ‘If you’re going to make it in this league, you’ve got to be able to catch the ball.’ I wish I hadn’t said it.  He wore my ass out.  He made me throw passes to him for hours.  Everybody else would be long gone and the two of us would still be out on the practice field, throwing and catching.  You could see Pete’s  determination, though. I spent 30 years in football, 21 of them as a coach for the Colts and Redskins, and (he) was the most successful self-made player I ever saw.”

Still, in his first two years in Philadelphia, he caught a total of just 22 passes.  

But then Buck Shaw arrived as head coach and Norm Van Brocklin arrived as quarterback,  and his  career took off.   Moving inside from wide receiver, he became one of the very first of what came to be called tight ends.  And Van Brocklin, perhaps because he himself had been born in South Dakota, took a liking to him.

“There’s no question that Van Brocklin started me down the road to success,” he would recall later. “Dutch thought I had potential, and just knowing that he felt that way made me start to believe in myself. The first time Van Brocklin saw me at Hershey (Hershey, Pennsylvania, where the Eagles trained), he said, ‘That guy runs patterns like Crazy Legs Hirsch.’

“‘Crazy Legs Hirsch!’ I thought. ‘That’s great!’  Hirsch was one of my idols at the time, and I gained confidence just hearing the comparison. 

“Van Brocklin also said, ‘Watch that guy.  He’s going to lead this league in pass catching.’  Turns out, I did. I tied Ray Berry that year for most catches.  I owe a lot to Dutch.”

Indeed, in 1958,  their first year working together, Retzlaff tied  the legendary Berry  in receptions with 56. And two years later, when the Eagles won the NFL championship in 1960, he was their leading receiver. 

In 1965 he caught 66 passes for 10 touchdowns, and won the Bert Bell Award as NFL Player of the Year.

He was twice named first team All-Pro and twice second team.  He went to the Pro Bowl five times, and when he retired after 11 years with the Eagles, he held the team career records with 452 receptions and 7412 yards receiving and 47 touchdown catches.

He averaged 16.4 yards per catch, and - extremely impressive - lost only four fumbles.

Said former teammate Maxie Baughan,  “He was one of the first tight ends with enough versatility to be a receiver as well as a blocker. He changed the game because defenses had to alter their coverages to guard him.”  

In my opinion, the fact that he was a contemporary of much better-known tight ends Mike Ditka and John Mackey kept him from being inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, because his stats are comparable to theirs.

Partly because of his marksmanship developed  growing up and in the Army, and partly because of his impressive bearing, he was give the nickname “The Baron” by teammate Tom Brookshier.

He was one of the founders of the the NFL Players Association and served as the Eagles’ Player Representative and for two years as President of the NFLPA.

After he retired, he spent four years as the Eagles’ General Manager.

A member of the Eagles’ Hall of Fame, Pete Retzlaff’s number 44 is one of just nine that has been retired by the team.



CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING PETE RETZLAFF

GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
RODNEY LUNSFORD - WESTFIELD, INDIANA
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
TOM DAVIS - SAN MARCOS, CALIFORNIA
JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY


 


*********** QUIZ: When we talk about graduate transfers and grants of extra years of eligibility as things that have harmed today’s game,  it might help to know this guy’s story.

He was born in South Bend, Indiana, the son of Hungarian immigrants who moved to Parma, Ohio (outside Cleveland) when he was a boy.  He attended Parma High School for two years, but then transferred to Hughes High School in Cleveland because he felt his teammates at Parma did not take sports seriously enough.

As a single wing tailback, he led his team to within one game of the city championship, but at less than 160 pounds, he was considered too small by Notre Dame, the school of his dreams.

Instead, he enrolled at Ohio State as what we would call a “walk-on,” but he was quick and hard-hitting enough to earn a spot on the team his sophomore year.  He played sparingly as the Buckeyes went  4-4 - their worst record since 1927, ending with a 40-0 loss to Michigan,  and after the head coach’s resignation,  Ohio State hired Paul Brown, who had built a powerhouse program at Massillon High School.

Brown took the Buckeyes to a 6-1 record, and our guy saw more action, mostly as a backup wingback in Brown’s single wing attack.  One of the players he shared playing time with was Tommy James, who had played for Brown at Massillon High School, and was the older brother of Don James, who would go on to greatness as a college coach at Washington.

One of the starting backs was Gene Fekete, who bonded  with our guy, because “We both spoke fluent Hungarian. So whenever we were talking on the field and didn’t want anyone else to know, we spoke Hungarian. It used to drive our coaches and teammates nuts. Sometimes we would even yell at the refs in Hungarian.”

In his senior year, the Buckeyes won the national title.  By now, our guy was a starter, and in a Michigan game, a 21-7 Buckeye win, he  threw for a touchdown and caught a pass for a touchdown.

The next year was expected to be a big year for the Buckeyes, but World War II intervened and Ohio State finished 3-6.   Following the season, Brown left for service in the Navy, leaving his assistant, Carroll Widdoes, as “acting coach.”

Our guy could only watch the goings-on.  He had graduated, and was enrolled in dental School at Ohio State.

But  with healthy young men in short supply at colleges, the NCAA passed a special rule  that allowed graduate students to come back and play an extra year if they had not exhausted 4 years of eligibility.

And Widdoes, swift to act,  asked our guy, now in dental school, to return and play halfback for the team. He noted that of his 44 players, 31 were freshmen, and  he would need our guy’s leadership if he was going to turn them into winners.

For his part, Widdoes promised that our guy could play the tailback spot (he had played wingback  under Brown) and would have a lot of say in the direction of the offense.

“At first I wasn’t sure I wanted to play,” our guy said later. “Dental school was quite taxing. But coach Widdoes said I wouldn’t have to practice all the time and agreed to fly me to the games, both of which gave me more time to study.”

So our guy agreed, and the rest is history.

He had a dream season. He gained 905 yards rushing and 345 passing as he led OSU to a 9-0 season and a Big Ten Championship. The Buckeyes were invited to play in the Rose Bowl, but the Big Ten at that time had a rule against post-season play and would not make an exception for Ohio State. The Buckeyes  finished ranked nationally behind only Army, and consequently called themselves the  "National Civilian Champions.”

Our guy was named MVP of the Big Ten and first  Team All-American, and he won the Heisman Trophy, becoming the first Ohio State player ever to do so.

In doing so, he beat out Army's famed “Mister Inside" (Doc Blanchard) and "Mister Outside" (Glenn Davis), who would each go on to win the Heisman over the next two years.

Acting head coach Widdoes was named "Coach of the Year" and OSU had three other players chosen as All-Americans.

After graduating from dental school,  our guy joined the Navy, and after the war he played three years professionally, first for the Los Angeles Rams (newly moved from Cleveland) and the Cleveland Browns.

After injuries  forced him to give up football, he opened a dental practice in  Glendale, California, where he worked   until he retired.

And he coached.  Youth football. 

“Not very many people know that he loved coaching kids  also,” recalled his wife at the time Ohio State retired his number posthumously. “That is one thing he loved to do. He took a lot of pride in coaching and was an inspiration to those young kids.”



FRIDAY,  JULY 5,  2024       “Quarterback’s probably the worst-coached position in football because they have so many guys coaching it who never stood back there themselves,”  Sonny Jurgensen

  
*********** Wisdom from Mike Lude: "At school we put together a team, both boys and girls, and played games against other country schools when we could find someone to provide the transportation. I grew to be fairly proficient, and when I got to the eighth grade I was asked to play with the Sunday team in Fulton, the nearby town. I was the first baseman and did quite well.“

"Getting permission from my dad to skip work on the farm was the hard part. I'd ask Dad, "May I play baseball on Sunday?’  He would answer, "Well, if it rains you can.” I said, "Dad, they don't play baseball if it rains.’ He said, "We don't farm if it rains. “

"But he did make some concessions, and I did get a chance to play. That was my first exposure to athletics. I liked it.”


***********  For the past three days  I’ve had the pleasure of working  at Aberdeen, Washington High, where the head coach, Todd Bridge, with whom I’ve worked at two different places for a total of eight years, is in the middle of a transition: although it’s his fifth year at Aberdeen, he’s having to start over with new offensive and defensive coordinators. 

He had to make a last-minute decision on offense to remain with what they’ve been running - a spread, RPO-based scheme - but unfortunately, the coach assigned the OC job had already made another commitment  that tied him up for the whole month of July.  So I offered to help Todd to the extent that I could, and he took me up on it and asked me to cover for the OC, and to coach the quarterbacks in his absence.

Aberdeen is  2-1/2 hours away from where  we live in Camas, but what enables me to do this is that we still have our place in Ocean Shores, which is only 45 minutes away from Aberdeen - and not a bad place to hang out.

It’s really a nice gig for me.  I have none of the responsibilities of a head coach or a coordinator, and because Todd and I have worked so closely together, I know the kind of operation he runs:  the kids are treated well and respectfully, while at the same time  they’re held totally accountable.  It’s a well-run operation.

The team is young - of the 60 kids out, I doubt that 10 of them are seniors - and  the kids are very enthusiastic and eager to learn.  That’s the good news.

The bad news is that I don’t know a lot about their offense - especially the terminology  that it requires.  It’s not what I would run,  but that’s not my call, and it would be hypocritical of me to have spent years preaching the importance of having loyal assistants  and then stand around making critical remarks about anything.  So while I do the best I can to learn the scheme, I am able to work on the QBs with the basics, and I’m also authorized also to deal with little things that I might see that could help  receivers, running backs or linemen (without, of course, stepping on another coach’s toes).

I’ve been helped greatly by having last year’s QB on hand.  He’s graduated now.  He’s a great kid - he was their Black Lion Award winner last year.  He’s mature  and he has a good understanding of the offense.  In addition, I’ve had the help of another former player,  a running back  when I coached at Aberdeen back in 2019 who’s playing D-III ball Cornell College in Iowa.  Those two guys are really smart and  eager to learn and it’s great having them there.

In addition, although in the three days I’ve been there we have yet to have all four of our potential QBs on hand (plus two incoming freshmen),  one of them has been there every day, and he’s impressed me with his knowledge and leadership to the point where I’ve already been able to ask him to work with the freshmen on a few things. He also appears to have the makings of a good quarterback.

We aren’t running any Double Wing yet, but you never know.  It’s only been three days, and  I still have at least a week to go.  (Just joking.  I know my place.)


***********   Pat Tillman’s mom is understandably upset with ESPN  and their plan to present the Pat Tillman Award to “Prince” Harry.  Although Harry - technically a former prince, since he’s sort of been kicked out of  the British royal family - is a foreigner, ESPN has justified the award by explaining that Harry did serve in combat, and he did help found the Invictus Games.  The rebuttal to that is that while he may have served in combat, there was no way that the British Army was going to allow anything bad to happen to an heir to the throne.  And as for the Invictus Games, it does appear that Harry and his wife - who now live in America - are drawing nice salaries from  the games.

My humble suggestion - give the Pat Tillman award to an American, who has done good for American soldiers.

And to get ESPN off the hook, I am hereby offering to present Harry with a special Black Lion Award.  For a price, of course.


*********** How did I manage to reach old age without forcing myself on a woman?

What is it about some other old farts who think they can?

In Philly, Howard Eskin, who  since radio station WIP went all-sports in the mid-80s has been a highly controversial radio guy, has been banned from Phillies and 76ers games and practice facilities after it was  confirmed that he had forced a kiss on a woman - evidently a worker at one of the sports venues.

Anybody remember when a very creepy - and very drunk - Joe Namath made a pass at Suzy Kolber, in the middle of an in-game sideline interview?


***********   There is a high school in the United States that has produced two presidents.  It’s the only one that has.

Technically, it’s not what most of us would call a high school.  It is perhaps the most prestigious private preparatory school in America. It’s Phillips Academy, in Andover, Massachusetts. 

Most commonly known simply as “Andover,” it’s not unusual for as many as half of every class to be admitted to Harvard, Yale or Princeton.  At Yale, in my freshman class of 1,000 guys, 54  were from Andover.

The two presidents are George H. W. Bush (Class of 1942) and George W. Bush (Class of 1964).  The younger Bush was one of “only” 36 admitted from Andover  in his class.



***********The Columbia River provides much of the border between  Oregon and Washington.

Portland, Oregon is on the Columbia,  and across from it is Vancouver, Washington.

There’s quite a bit of traffic between the two cities - much of it commuters living in Washington and working in Portland - but only two bridges to handle all that traffic.

One of the bridges, which carries Interstate 5, the main artery of the Pacific Coast, is an old fellow.  It’s actually two parallel spans, and they’re drawbridges.  and river traffic - usually a barge - can cause one hellish traffic jam.

That’s one reason why a new bridge is needed.  The other is  that this old geezer probably won’t withstand  the next earthquake.  (We seldom get earthquakes out here, but based on the scientific principle of “you never know,” EVERYTHING out here has to be earthquake-proofed.

So there you are.  Every one agrees a new bridge is needed.

And that’s about all they can agree on.  I won’t even get into all the things people are fighting over, but a few weeks ago another issue raised its ugly head: bridge equity.

Bet you never heard of it.   I hadn’t.

It seems that 89 per cent of the current bridge’s width is devoted to carrying cars and trucks.

Well, duh.

But wait. The new bridge, as designed by the kind of people we place in charge of these things, will reduce that 89 per cent to 55 per cent - to accommodate public transit, pedestrians, bikes  and “rollers” (which I believe refers to people in wheelchairs).  Evidently, that’s bridge equity.

In defense of this somewhat questionable use of the public money  that’s supposed to be used (I thought) to get the greatest number of people to and from places, some  character named Anna Zivarts, who represents an organization called Disability Rights Washington, chimed in with this:

“So much of our active transportation design unfortunately still assumes that cars are the most important thing to move. Are we designing a system where the pedestrian and bike elements are add-ons? Or are we actually trying to design a system that’s going to reduce the number of vehicles, reduce our car dependency, reduce our climate emissions and improve our public   health?”



***********   In a piece in The Athletic, writer Stewart Mandel took a new approach to “how are they going to do this year?” in college football, by assessing how all the realignment that’s taken place in the Power 5 - oops, 4 - conferences will affect individual teams: are they better off  or worse off than they were before?

Here’s his scoring:

I’ve given all 67 power-conference schools a score between minus-5 and positive-5.
The score is solely about a team’s ability to win, and does not take into account the team’s current coaching staff or roster.
Scoring a 0 means the school is neither better nor worse off. A score from 1 to 5 ranges from mildly better to far better, and -1 to -5 ranges from mildly worse to … uh oh.

Like me, you will likely disagree strongly on several of his picks.  Some are easy  - Alabama, Georgia and Ohio State to do better.  Some are borderline nuts - Oklahoma, Utah, Iowa to do worse?

Oh, well - at least we’re talking football.  It would be even better if it were still college football.


ACC

SMU: +5
Has there been a bigger realignment winner in the last 30 years? SMU had not finished in the Top 25 in four decades at the time it got the call up to the big leagues last September. Now it comes in with momentum after finishing last season No. 22.
Clemson: +3
Dabo Swinney’s 2015-2020 teams had to be near-perfect to reach the four-team CFP; his 11-2 ACC title squad in 2022 would have earned a top-4 seed. His aloof portal approach doesn’t help his cause, but it doesn’t factor into this score.
Florida State: +3
The irony of FSU trying to sue its way out of the ACC is that the new system works in its favor. Would it rather be the best team in the ACC and earn a top-4 seed and a first-round bye, or the fourth-best team in the SEC and live on the bubble?
Louisville: +2
Louisville has upside. The school has the resources and recruiting footprint to be a regular ACC and CFP contender, and it helps that Louisville is no longer trapped in a division with Florida State (which it does not play this season) and Clemson.
Miami: +2
The U has been stuck in the mud for two decades, but it began flexing its muscle as soon as NIL went into effect in 2021. The program has most of the elements needed to be a 12-team CFP regular, provided the right coach is in place.
Virginia Tech: +2
The Hokies would have made a 12-team CFP nine times in a 16-year span (1995-2010) under Frank Beamer. They may never replicate that level of consistency, but there’s no reason they can’t become a semi-regular contender again.
NC State: +1
The Wolfpack have not won a conference title since 1979. That might be a tad more attainable now that they’re no longer in the same division as Florida State and Clemson. (At least elsewhere, Wolfpack vibes are high.)
Georgia Tech: 0
Recruiting has always been challenging for the Yellow Jackets, made even more so now by NIL. But based on its history, Georgia Tech could make an occasional CFP appearance. It would have gone in 1990, 1998 and 2009, and would have been the first team out in 2014.
North Carolina: 0
This unquestioned basketball school has been long considered a sleeping giant in football but has yet to wake up. If it finally does, it will more likely be due to an inspired head-coaching hire than the various changes to the sport.
Pittsburgh: -2
Pitt is nearly 50 years removed from its national heyday, but it did win the ACC in 2021, which would have garnered a 12-team berth. But star receiver Jordan Addison’s jump to USC the following spring was a window into new NIL reality.
Syracuse: -2
It’s early, but new coach Fran Brown has discovered there’s money in the banana stand. Landing Ohio State QB Kyle McCord raised eyebrows. More broadly, though, it’s hard to argue the new landscape does much to benefit the Orange.
Virginia: -2
Arguably the one thing UVA had going for it was the mediocrity of the ACC Coastal Division, which it won in 2019 while going 9-3. Now, the Cavaliers — who last finished in the Top 25 back two decades ago — risk falling into deep irrelevance moving forward.
Wake Forest: -2
The tiniest school in Power 4 has more donor support than one might assume, and it’s not a championship-or-bust fan base. But reaching a 12-team CFP could be largely unattainable. Will programs like this be able to sustain interest?
Boston College: -3
BC is the type of school that suffers in a world of roster-poaching and NIL deals. Success will also be increasingly defined by Playoff appearances, and the Eagles have finished in the top 12 only twice since World War II.
Duke: -3
Duke just lived through the downside of its new reality. It lost coach Mike Elko to an SEC school after just two seasons and quarterback Riley Leonard went to Notre Dame, likely for a seven-figure NIL deal.
Stanford: -4
The Cardinal will always attract recruits that covet that degree. But the school’s admissions process limits it to taking only a few transfers a year, which creates a big disadvantage in the new landscape. And like Cal, the ACC is not ideal.
Cal: -5
Serious question: Would Cal have been better off getting Washington State/Oregon State’d? An already lagging program must now compete in a far-away Power 4 conference while receiving 30 percent of its money (and without SMU’s boosters).

Big Ten

Ohio State: +4
Only once in the past 19 seasons have the Buckeyes lost more than two regular-season games. That means they would have made a 12-team Playoff all but once in the past 19 seasons. And probably pulled off an extra national title or two.
Michigan: +3
For the most part, Michigan will still be Michigan. The Big House will still pack in 110,000. The season will still be defined by whether it beats Ohio State. But a 12-team Playoff field certainly doesn’t hurt.
Penn State: +3
Had the 12-team Playoff been in place all along, James Franklin would have made five appearances in his first 10 seasons. The format is ideal for programs like PSU: not quite “elite,” but has the resources to compete nationally.
Michigan State: +2
While the Spartans only made the four-team CFP once, they could have made a 12-team field as many as five times from 2011-21. They also get Ohio State off the books in 2025 and 2026 after having played the Buckeyes in 14 consecutive seasons.
Oregon: +2
The Ducks are the best-positioned of the four West Coast schools joining the Big Ten. They recruit nationally and have Phil Knight’s war chest. While national titles have remained elusive, regular CFP appearances are realistic.
Maryland: +1
The Terps are free! They are no longer stuck in the Big Ten East, where their ceiling would forever be 7-5 and fourth place out of seven. But the upside may be limited until the school’s donors make a bigger splash in the NIL world.
Rutgers: +1
Like “rival” Maryland, Rutgers is finally out from under the Big Ten East. It’s also doing surprisingly well in NIL. The program’s ceiling may still be limited to 8-4 or so, but that would still be much better than its first decade in the conference.
Nebraska: 0
It may be tougher for the Cornhuskers to contend for Big Ten championships in a bigger league. But right now, that’s not even the target, given they haven’t even reached a bowl game in eight years. How much worse can it get?
Wisconsin: -1
The program has long churned out double-digit wins by “holding serve” against most of the conference while occasionally punching up against Ohio State or Michigan. That could become harder with the arrival of USC, Oregon and Washington.
Illinois: -2
This program has struggled to find its footing for more than two decades, and nothing about this new world helps it. If anything, it will be tougher. Right out of the gate, the Illini face Penn State, Michigan and Oregon this season.
Indiana: -2
The good news: no more getting clobbered by Ohio State, Michigan and Penn State in the Big Ten East. The bad news: Indiana, long known for apathy in football, is not likely to be as flush in NIL money as most of its competitors.
USC: -2
While it didn’t play like one for most of the past 15 years, USC was the most prestigious program in its former conference. In the Big Ten, it will be, at best, the third banana to Ohio State and Michigan, and possibly fifth behind Penn State and Oregon.
Washington: -2
The Huskies were the class of the Pac-12 the last two seasons, but it helped not to have an Ohio State or Michigan in their league. Now they have both, plus USC, Oregon and Penn State. Will the brief Kalen DeBoer era go down as an outlier?
Minnesota: -3
It’s unfortunate for the Golden Gophers that they have yet to reach the Big Ten Championship Game, because now it may never happen. A Playoff berth is not impossible, but Minnesota has had one top-10 season in the past 60 years.
Northwestern: -3
The new world may not be kind to overachiever programs like Northwestern. While it regularly makes bowl games and posts occasional Top 25 seasons, it has not finished high enough to make a 12-team CFP since 1996.
Purdue: -3
Not likely to contend for Playoff berths whether the field is four or 12. Purdue’s goal is to get to bowl games, and reaching six wins becomes harder without the benefit of a Big Ten West schedule.
Iowa: -4
The Hawkeyes have made a living out of grinding out mediocre Big Ten West foes while losing 42-3 to Michigan or 54-10 to Ohio State. In an 18-team league with no more unbalanced divisions and three incoming Top-25 recruiting schools, Iowa could be in for a reckoning.
UCLA: -4
Almost nothing about the new world does the Bruins any favors. UCLA is a basketball school whose donors have done little to support football’s NIL efforts. It is joining a conference full of big brands and football-first fan bases. Not a recipe for success.

Big 12

BYU: +5
The Cougars have finally climbed the mountaintop after spending their entire history either in a non-power conference or as an independent. They now have direct access to the CFP, and won’t finish ranked 16th with just one loss, as happened in 2020.
Cincinnati: +4
The Bearcats’ dream season in 2021 does not have to be an aberration going forward, as they won’t have to go undefeated to make the Playoff. And power-conference status should help them land more recruits in their fertile city and state.
Houston: +4
After nearly 30 years in the post-Southwest Conference wilderness, the Cougars are back in a major conference alongside old rivals Baylor, Texas Tech and TCU. But achieving consistent success in the Big 12 is hardly a given after up-and-downs in the AAC.
UCF: +4
Like BYU, Cincinnati and Houston, UCF got its Power 4 life raft, and it’s not like the Knights were struggling beforehand. They’ve reached three BCS/CFP bowl games since 2013. The only question is how they’ll fare as a geographic outlier in the new Big 12.
Baylor: +2
Since 2013, the Bears have won three Big 12 titles and reached four BCS bowls but have fallen short of reaching the CFP. In a 12-team field, all of those teams would make it. And that was with Texas and Oklahoma in the conference.
Kansas State: +2
K-State could thrive in the new world. It would have made the 12-team CFP four times since 2011. It has sneaky-good NIL support. The biggest challenge will be revenue-sharing. Only three public Power 5 schools made less in 2022.
Oklahoma State: +2
Mike Gundy has fielded eight double-digit win teams, all of which would have been 12-team CFP contenders. Most of those teams lost to Oklahoma, against which Gundy is 4-15. The Cowboys no longer have to deal with the Sooners.
TCU: +2
The Frogs would have made a 12-team field three times since 2014, and, thanks to the Metroplex, they have the highest recruiting ceiling among the holdovers.
Colorado: +1
Anything would be better than the Buffs’ abysmal 13-year tenure in the Pac-12. The Buffs get back into the Texas footprint, which they benefitted from in the old Big 12. But the school still faces an uphill climb in the NIL world, with or without Deion Sanders.
Texas Tech: +1
The Red Raiders have largely flailed since the late Mike Leach’s 2009 ouster, but it’s not for lack of resources and fan support. Getting out from under Texas could help, and while CFP berths might be infrequent, they’re attainable.
Iowa State: 0
The Cyclones, who have not won a conference championship since 1912, will still have all the same evergreen challenges. They could benefit from a more level version of the Big 12, but they’ll still have to perpetually overachieve.
Kansas: 0
The same Iowa State blurb can be applied to Kansas, which has finished ranked roughly once per decade. An expanded Playoff gives the Jayhawks slightly more hope for glory, but 2007 seasons may remain incredibly rare.
Utah: -1
Utah enters its new league as strong as any of its programs, but man, did the Utes have a good thing going in the Pac-12. Not only did they reach four league title games in five years, but they could lord their Power 5 membership over rival BYU. No more.
West Virginia: -1
The Mountaineers have lost a great deal of their identity since leaving the old Big East for the Big 12 in 2012, and the further dilution of the conference won’t help. But they did at least gain their first geographic partner when Cincinnati joined.
Arizona: -2
Joining the Big 12 was great for Arizona basketball. Probably not so much for football, where it has little in common with schools in football-crazed Texas. History suggests the Wildcats will rarely contend for a spot in the Playoff.
Arizona State: -3
ASU president Michael Crow had to be dragged kicking and screaming into the Big 12. The pro-market school has little in common with the likes of Texas Tech and Oklahoma State, which, unlike the Sun Devils, have rabid fan bases.

SEC

Alabama: +4
I don’t expect post-Nick Saban Alabama to make a 12-team CFP nearly every single year, like I do Ohio State, simply because of the depth of the SEC. But it’s still one of a small handful of programs built to succeed in any era.
Georgia: +4
Now, even Georgia’s “down” seasons might still end in CFP berths. Kirby Smart would currently have seven straight, up from three in eight seasons. Between Smart and Mark Richt, the Bulldogs would have 13 since 2001.
LSU: +3
The Tigers have won three national championships this century, but they might have played for even more were there a 12-team field. They would have made nine by now. Of course, they may also fire coaches more frequently for missing the Playoff.
Texas: +3
Unlike rival Oklahoma, Texas has won just three conference titles this century, so that shouldn’t be the measuring stick. But Mack Brown showed what the ceiling can be. He would have reached eight 12-team CFPs in a decade.
Florida: +2
Florida must play Georgia every year while mixing in Texas and Oklahoma. But a 12-team Playoff could prove a godsend; the Gators would have made the postseason three consecutive times under Dan Mullen and 10 times since 2000.
Ole Miss: +2
Ole Miss has not won the SEC since 1963. Oklahoma and Texas won’t make it any easier. But the program can make the 12-team CFP, and its NIL collective has become one of the models in the sport.
Tennessee: 0
The Vols are still playing rivals Alabama, Florida and Georgia for the next two seasons while adding Oklahoma. That’s rough. But Tennessee’s collective is strong, and it has the resources and recruiting cachet to reach occasional CFPs.
Auburn: -1
A drawing of the history of Auburn football arcs like a roller coaster, with brief spurs of national supremacy mixed in between long stretches of middle-of-the-pack. And the league just added two more above-the-middle historical programs.
Missouri: -1
Missouri would have reached 12-team fields in 2007, 2013 and 2023. That development is good. But the Tigers have benefitted at times from being in the SEC’s easier division, which is now gone, and they are .250 all-time against Oklahoma and Texas.
Arkansas: -2
On the bright side, Arkansas gets old rival Texas back. On the downside, the Razorbacks have yet to win the SEC in its 32 years of membership, and it’s not getting easier. They would have reached a 12-team CFP three times in those 32 years.
Texas A&M: -2
The best thing the Aggies had going for them in the SEC was that Texas wasn’t in it. Alas. The return of annual matchups with the Longhorns should be fantastic for entertainment purposes but could make for a tougher schedule.
Kentucky: -3
Mark Stoops is on track to have a statue sculpted for taking the Wildcats to eight straight bowl games, but those Gator and Music City bowls might not feel as significant in the new world. They also may become harder to reach with no SEC East.
Mississippi State: -3
The Bulldogs have finished above .500 in SEC play this century just once, in 2014 with Dak Prescott. The SEC getting bigger, and possibly moving to nine conference games, is likely to be unkind for State.
Oklahoma: -3
From 1938-2021, the Sooners claimed a Big 8/Big 12 championship in 47 of those 83 seasons. No major program in the country has more league titles. Realistically, OU will not come close to enjoying that level of dominance in the SEC.
South Carolina: -3
Save for that one three-year peak under Steve Spurrier from 2011-13, the Gamecocks have rarely lived in the top half of the SEC. Now they’re losing the SEC East. It will become even more difficult to maintain relevance.
Vanderbilt: -4
Vanderbilt was already stuck playing the worst cards in the SEC deck. Now there’s a whole new set of challenges stacked against their deck: the bigger SEC, the importance of NIL and roster poaching from the portal.

The rest

Notre Dame: +2
Some might fixate on the fact that the independent Fighting Irish can never get a first-round bye in the new system, but that misses the larger point: They could reach many more CFPs. They would have made five in Brian Kelly’s 12 seasons.

Oregon State and Washington State: -5
There’s no sugarcoating it: Two historic Power 5 programs have been relegated to de facto Group of 5 status, playing de facto Mountain West schedules. And unlike actual G5 schools, they have no guaranteed access to the Playoff.


*********** John Canzano says he was at a wedding rehearsal dinner recently and…

I overheard a conversation from the other end of the table. It was fans of Minnesota and Iowa football lamenting that they didn’t like the idea of four Pacific Time Zone schools joining an already top-heavy conference.

They were particularly miffed about Oregon, Washington, and USC entering the fray because it meant that the mid-tier schools in the Big Ten now had to not only deal with Ohio State and Michigan, but also the Ducks, Huskies, and Trojans.

“In a good year,” an Iowa fan said, “what are we now, fifth or sixth, best-case?”

I hadn’t thought much about the plight of Iowa, Minnesota, Purdue, Wisconsin, and the other Big Ten schools now faced with having to climb over the new West Coast programs that are joining.



*********** Speaking of sports we invented… Baseball…Basketball… and, now, with our elimination from the U2 World Championships, Football…

We’ve been getting whipped at our own games.

And now, this -  our Men’s soccer team’s elimination from the Copa Something-or-Other, in  a European sport that millions of American parents thought would  enable their little boys to win college scholarships and pro riches, without the pain and discomfort of football.

This, as politicians like today,  is what I call an “existential crisis” (whatever that means). Why aren’t any of our presidential candidates talking about it?

I’m for plowing billions of federal dollars into paying NFL  stars to play on our Olympic Flag Football team.  Our national pride and prestige are riding on our winning the gold.



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

I hope you’re well.  I'm catching up on your news as last week I flew back to Michigan where I had the honor to Coach the East All Star team for the state of Michigan.   Selected prior to retiring and taking the job here in Florida,  I thought about backing out but after chatting with the gentleman who ran the event and being grateful for the selection I thought it might be a nice final game if I don't coach again in Michigan...  I coached the East team which is comprised of Metro Detroit and most of the very rural thumb.   I was grateful they assigned the Head Coach of Detroit Cass Tech, Marvin Rushing,  who is a wonderful guy and Coach as the DC.  He did so much to help organize us while I was down here in Florida.  Additional Steve Verburg from my staff and Josh Lindeman,  who has long run the T at Addison (just took Manchester position),  helped with the offense.  Aren Cooper (Brown City) ran the special teams and helped with the D.   

We ran the T but were asked to run some spread and other looks to show off the skills of the kids. (We were 0-3 with a pick in the spread).  We were allowed 4 practices and then played on Saturday.  Overall, it was a good experience despite our 13-12 defeat - we went for two and the win with 30 seconds to play which unfortunately didn't work in our favor.   Of the 40 kids on our "East" Roster the vast majority were exactly what you would expect an "all star" to be -  high character, good person, team mindset, and hard workers.   Those few that didn't possess those attributes we gave a minimum amount of reps to, regardless of their abilities....   

The flag football growth is interesting to me....   Flag Football and Tackle Football are not the same sport. My comparable is Volleyball and Beach Volleyball or Nascar and Drag Racing.   Both can be interesting but very different in approach and nature.   With that stated I have long wondered how,  with 50% of our population (women) not truly having opportunity to participate,  that would would be good for the game over the next 100 years.  Flag being a growing opportunity to allow more participation and future mothers being more inclined to be fans and allowing their children to participate is a good thing in my opinion.   Additionally, my father,  a college Coach at the time,  wouldn't allow me to play tackle until 7th grade.  I played flag until then and although I enjoyed it,  my hunger to hit and play "real football" grew each year.  In my mind it was a lot more fun then the other alternative playing soccer.  Down here in Englewood we have a major winter flag league, kids have fun with it...   That is cool!  I'm good with it but we will continue to remind them that being a good tackle football player requires a lot different skills than being a good flag player and those who don't buy into that likely won't EVER be good tackle players.

Soccer, USMNT gets eliminated by Uruguay....   WOW, 30 years ago there was an all out effort behind the development in youth soccer to ensure we became a national power....   Until we focus on developing (through practice) vs. playing it won't happen!   It is the why TACKLE Football is the last bastion of teaching these essential values to our youth!

God Bless,

J. Mensing  
Head Football Coach,
Lemon Bay High School

Right on.  There is no other team sport  that teaches the values football (tackle football, that is) does,  precisely because football  contains an  element that so many well-meaning people keep trying to eliminate - danger.  It’s that danger that makes football unique:  learning how to deal with fear,   and the need to learn how to protect yourself and to depend on your teammates, and to assure them  that they can depend on you).



***********  I can't help myself from commenting each week how much I delight in the Coach Lude Wisdom. He described many of us in throwing his old baseball against the homemade strike zone on the barn.

You mentioned Jamarcus Russell, so I expected something on the two Antonios, Pierce and Brown. Personal finance is pretty simple, I think: don't invest in what you don't understand, and don't spend more than you earn. Sad to see bankruptcy strike men who've received so much in salary. At least Brown was simple, direct, and accepted his fate: "I'm f....ked." The most puzzling one to me, though, is Shedeur Sanders. How can that case be true?

Yeah, that Schlossnagle is one fine man. (I'm pausing to get my terms straight--it's called manager in pro baseball, but coach in amateur baseball, right?)

I like Al Michaels, but am disappointed he approved the AI Al.

Next week you're going to tell us how many hours a week of pickleball ESPN will provide.

Most serious story of the week: Pat Tillman's mother upset at ESPN for presenting the Pat Tillman Award (the 10th anniversary award) to Prince Harry. As you know, I have boundless admiration for Tillman.

John Vermillion                                
St Petersburg, Florida



***********  Hugh,

Never felt Jamarcus Russell was a great QB.  A great athlete...yes...a great QB...no.  Would likely have made himself a good living in the NFL as a big WR.

IMHO I believe UCLA, Cal, and Stanford will find their way back to the West Coast.  UCLA won't find life in the BIG as rosy as they thought, and Cal and Stanford will likely become casualties of a possible ACC implosion, and financial difficulties.  As far as the rest of the old PAC 12 schools are concerned Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and Arizona State will make good additions to the Big 12.  USC, Oregon, and Washington can all go to hell.  

AI Al Michaels or not I doubt I will watch more than a few hours of the Summer Olympics unless big news forces me to.  

The Schlossnagle episode catapulted the Texas-Texas A&M rivalry to new heights.

Flag football will become the new national sport of the U.S.!!  And we'll have low inflation, the country will be energy independent, and gas prices will get lower, and the border will be secured and closed, and we'll be able to afford groceries again, and the world will be at peace.  Well...at least everything but the flag football thing if Trump is the President again.


Enjoy the weekend!  Remember to teach those QB's to bend those knees, hands in front at the ready, and hide that ball.

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas





*********** QUIZ ANSWER:  Fred Gehrke grew up in Salt Lake City and realized his childhood dream when he wound up as a running back and kickoff and punt returner for the hometown Utah Utes.

At the same time, he majored in art.

In 1940 he  signed as a free agent with the NFL Cleveland Rams,  and made the team -  with a salary of $135 a game.

With World War II looming, he tried to enlist in a service but was declared 4-F (unfit physically) because of a bad knee, so, wanting to do his part, he landed a job in California with Northrup Aircraft, designing and illustrating planes.

While working at Northrup, he played football for some L.A. area teams, and  when the war ended, he rejoined the Rams.

In 1945, he was named to at least one All-Pro team.

The Rams were good, but unfortunately for them, Clevelanders were more excited about the arrival of a new team in town.  Set to play in the all-new All-American Football Conference, it was named the Browns in honor of their coach Paul Brown, who four years earlier had coached Ohio State to a national title.

Seeing the writing on the wall, Rams’ owner Dan Reeves asked for - and got - permission to move his Rams to Los Angeles.  It worked out great for our guy, who was able to continue to work for Northrup while taking three months off to play football.

It wasn’t long before he put  his illustrator’s talent to work on the football team. After showing his coach a drawing of a helmet decorated with Rams’ horns, he got  the coach’s  approval to  paint his design  on an actual helmet.

Owner Reeves liked it, but first had to ask for permission from the NFL office (actually, commissioner Bert Bell) and was told, “You’re the owner - do what you want.”

With that, he paid Gehrke $1 a helmet to paint gold Rams’ horns on 75 helmets (which first had to be painted blue).  It took him the entire summer of 1948.

The grand unveiling took place in the Rams’ first home game, an exhibition against the Washington Redskins before 105,000 people in the Coliseum.

The Rams came out and went through warmups without helmets on and then went back inside. Then, with the stadium lights turned off - it was a night game - they returned to the field as the lights went back on - and the crowd went nuts,  and wound up giving the team (and their new helmet design) a five-minute standing ovation. 

This was not all Fred Gehrke did.

Working with engineers at Northrup, he designed a face mask intended originally for his own use after having his nose broken.

Later, he designed the first sideline kicker’s net, which he patented.

After retirement, he was asked by his old Rams’ roommate, Tom Harmon, who by then was broadcasting the Rams’ games, for help spotting.  Putting his artistic talents to work again, he drew up elaborate offensive and defensive charts on which he could point out players, enabling Harmon to call out the correct names.  He and Harmon worked together for 13 seasons.

He later served as a scout,  then personnel director,  and then general manager of the Denver Broncos, a job he had until new ownership took over and brought in their own people.

In his final job Fred Gehrke served as general manager of the Denver Gold of the USFL.


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING FRED GEHRKE

GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY




 


******* QUIZ - He is almost certainly  the greatest athlete ever produced by both of “The Dakotas” - combined. 

The  best athlete ever to come out of North Dakota is probably  Roger Maris, a very good high school football player who turned down a  football scholarship at Oklahoma in order to pursue a baseball career - a decision that turned out pretty well.

But our guy ranks near the top in North Dakota, and in any list of athletes from South Dakota, he’s at or near the top there, too.

He is also one of the greatest examples ever of a good natural athlete without great skills who made himself great at football by working hard at self-improvement.

He was an outstanding high school athlete  in the little  town of Ellendale, North Dakota, and at South Dakota State,  he was a football and track star.

In football,  he was an outstanding running back, rushing for a school record 1,016 yards his senior season. And in track and field,  he  twice won NAIA championships - setting NAIA records - in both the shot and discus.  In all, he set 16 school records in the two sports.

He was drafted in the 22nd round in 1953 by the Lions, but  couldn’t make it as a fullback and was cut. After serving two years in the Army, he returned to the Lions, but was put on waivers and claimed by the Eagles.

After bring tried at several different positions - including one exhibition game where he played defensive back -  he wound up at wide receiver, a strange position considering he hadn’t caught so much as one pass in college.

Recalled Eagles’ teammate Dick Bielski, “When (he)  got to Philadelphia he was just a body beautiful guy - big and strong with a great physique - but he wasn’t loaded with natural football talent.  He didn’t know how to catch a football.  I told him, ‘If you’re going to make it in this league, you’ve got to be able to catch the ball.’ I wish I hadn’t said it.  He wore my ass out.  He made me throw passes to him for hours.  Everybody else would be long gone and the two of us would still be out on the practice field, throwing and catching.  You could see (his) determination, though. I spent 30 years in football, 21 of them as a coach for the Colts and Redskins, and (he) was the most successful self-made player I ever saw.”

Still, in his first two years in Philadelphia, he caught a total of just 22 passes.  

But then Buck Shaw arrived as head coach and Norm Van Brocklin arrived as quarterback,  and his  career took off.   Moving inside from wide receiver, he became one of the very first of what came to be called tight ends.  And Van Brocklin, perhaps because he himself had been born in South Dakota, took a liking to him.

“There’s no question that Van Brocklin started me down the road to success,” he would recall later. “Dutch thought I had potential, and just knowing that he felt that way made me start to believe in myself. The first time Van Brocklin saw me at Hershey (Hershey, Pennsylvania, where the Eagles trained), he said, ‘That guy runs patterns like Crazy Legs Hirsch.’

“‘Crazy Legs Hirsch!’ I thought. ‘That’s great!’  Hirsch was one of my idols at the time, and I gained confidence just hearing the comparison. 

“Van Brocklin also said, ‘Watch that guy.  He’s going to lead this league in pass catching.’  Turns out, I did. I tied Ray Berry that year for most catches.  I owe a lot to Dutch.”

Indeed, in 1958,  their first year working together, our guy tied  the legendary Berry  in receptions with 56. And two years later, when the Eagles won the NFL championship in 1960, he was their leading receiver. 

In 1965 he caught 66 passes for 10 touchdowns, and won the Bert Bell Award as NFL Player of the Year.

He was twice named first team All-Pro and twice second team.  He went to the Pro Bowl five times, and when he retired after 11 years with the Eagles, he held the team career records with 452 receptions and 7412 yards receiving and 47 touchdown catches.

He averaged 16.4 yards per catch, and - extremely impressive - lost only four fumbles.

Said former teammate Maxie Baughan,  “He was one of the first tight ends with enough versatility to be a receiver as well as a blocker. He changed the game because defenses had to alter their coverages to guard him.”  

In my opinion, the fact that he was a contemporary of much better-known tight ends Mike Ditka and John Mackey kept him from being inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, because his stats are comparable to theirs.

Partly because of his marksmanship developed  growing up and in the Army, and partly because of his impressive bearing, he was give the nickname “The Baron” by teammate Tom Brookshier.

He was one of the founders of the the NFL Players Association and served as the Eagles’ Player Representative and for two years as President of the NFLPA.

After he retired, he spent four years as the Eagles’ General Manager.

A member of the Eagles’ Hall of Fame, his number 44 is one of just nine that has been retired by the team.



TUESDAY,  JULY 2, 2024       “A complacent satisfaction with present knowledge is the chief bar to the pursuit of knowledge.”   Basil Liddell Hart


*********** Wisdom from Mike Lude: "We played baseball every day at recess, or when there was snow and ice on the ground, we would go sledding on a nearby hill. I was becoming increasingly hooked on baseball, as a player and a fan. I loved playing catch when we got together with grandpa Lauren Henderson, a left-hander who was an avid fan. He showed me how he threw his drop and curve ball.

“When I was about 10, my dad brought home a radio. It had a big horn for a speaker and was powered by what looked like an automobile battery. The radio had several dials  and it squeaked and squawked before you could tune in a station and finally hear something.

“I remember listening to WSM from Nashville, which carried the Grand Ole Opry, and WLS from Chicago, which had all the crop prices and other information for farmers. Later on we listened to Tigers and Cubs baseball games, but usually we had to work in the fields. We also listened to “The Shadow” and “The Lone Ranger,”  two of the most popular radio programs at the time.

"As my interest in baseball grew, I painted a strike zone on the barn, and I got an old baseball and started throwing at it. I was no Bob Feller, but my pitches were banging up the boards on the barn and my dad made me stop.“


*********** NHL coach Paul Maurice, whose Florida Panthers just won the Stanley Cup, had to do some uncharacteristic (for him) ass-chewing earlier in the season.

Ask about it by a reporter, he said it was no big deal: “I just thought they needed some profanity in their life.”


*********** JaMarcus Russell, standout LSU quarterback, turned out to be one of the all-time greatest busts in the history of the NFL draft.

Drafted first overall in 2007 by the Raiders, he had a disappointing career and had problems with drugs - specifically codeine, based as the base of a “recreational drug” called by a variety of names such as “purple drank,” and “sizzurp.”

Nevertheless, he earned - if you can call it that - more than $35 million during his NFL stay.

It apparently wasn’t enough.  While coaching a high school in his native Mobile, Alabama, he (allegedly) persuaded a lock businessman to donate $74,000 to the football program for its weight room, but then (allegedly) withdrew $55,000 of the money for his own use. (Allegedly.)


*********** Today, July 1, Texas and Oklahoma officially joined the SEC.

And SMU officially joined the ACC.

On August 2,  UCLA, USC, Oregon and Washington will officially join the Big Ten, and Cal and Stanford will officially join the ACC.

The only date I could  find for the so-called Four Corners schools - Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah - joining the Big 12 was “the beginning of the academic year.”  That’s probably their way of reminding the Big-12 teams that there’s something else going on at that place they call a “campus.”


*********** This upcoming Paris Olympics could be comical.

There is always the chance that France’s large, uh, “immigrant community” could decide to, uh, “demonstrate.”  (That’s actually not going to be comical.)

Sex in the Olympic Village, which is evidently so commonplace that officials keep score by the hundred (thousands, maybe?)  of condoms they have to hand out, might not be so pleasant, in view of the decision not to air-condition the dorms.  “Hey, madamoiselle… I have a fan in my room…”

The River Seine, for which Paris is famous, is grossly polluted, and it appears that some of the aquatic events that were optimistically scheduled to take place in it may have to be relocated.


***********  I can’t think of anything much lower than  what Jim Schlossnagle, (former) Texas A & M baseball coach pulled on the school he’d coached to  the College World Series Finals - twisting the knife in the wound caused by their loss to Tennessee by almost immediately jumping to another job - as head coach of  their hated rivals, the Texas Longhorns.

Less than 24 hours earlier he’d jumped on a reporter for asking him about the Texas job, saying “I think it’s pretty selfish of you to ask me that question, to be honest with you,” Schlossnagle responded. “I left my family to be the coach at Texas A&M. I took the job at Texas A&M to never take another job again. That hasn’t changed in my mind. That’s unfair to talk about something like that…I gave up a big part of my life to come take this job and I poured every ounce of my soul in this job and I gave this job every ounce I could possibly give it. So write that.”

Building character, eh?


*********** For the next few weeks, I’ve got a  gig as a substitute QB coach while the school’s real QB  coach honors a prior commitment.   It’s a lot of fun working with the kids and I’m able to help a bit.  But  in all fairness - it’s a spread team and I had to give  my word that I wouldn’t bring the ends in tight… and narrow down the splits… and put the quarterbacks under center.


***********  The NFL’s  loss of a lawsuit brought against it for - I think - charging too much for its “Sunday Ticket” package has to be really shaking the league.

It seems to have something to do with people who seem to think they’re to live anywhere they want (say, Dallas) and still watch the games of their favorite team  (say, Kansas City) - at a price that they  consider fair.  And to get their favorite team’s “out-of-market” games, they shouldn’t have to pay for the entire package, which delivers a lot of games they don’t want.

I can’t say I understand why they won, but the result is that the award of $4.7 BILLION, when tripled because of antitrust law, could amount to almost $14 BILLION if it’s upheld on appeal.  Bear in mind that the cost, spread among the  teams in the league, would amount to more than $430 million per team.

I’m not fan of the NFL, but this seems ridiculous.



*********** Al Michaels will be reporting live from the Olympics.

Well, not exactly live.  It’ll be an “AI-generated” Al Michaels, looking and sounding for all the world like the Al Michaels who’s  done all sorts of big events, including the World Series game in San Francisco  when an earthquake struck, and the “Do you believe in miracles?” Olympic ice hockey win over the Soviet Union.

The Paris “Al Michaels” has been created using old NBC broadcasts to make “him” look and sound just like the other one - the real one - we came to know and love.

At least “our” Al Michaels is still alive to collect royalties for the use of his “Name, Image and Likeness.”

What about  the other great ones -  Vin Scully, John Madden, Chris Schenkel, Lindsay Nelson, Keith Jackson?  There are lots more, great ones who are not longer with us?

Would we rather listen to one of them - beloved and knowledgable - of listen to some live but immature and overly talkative kid fresh out of  college?

I’ve got a great idea for some conference - get their tech people to create AI versions of all their football coaches so they can stand in for the real guys at halftime interviews: “We’ve got a few things we need to clean up but we’re still in this thing…”



*********** Step aside, tackle football, and make way for FLAG…

According to USA Football, the number of 6-to-12-year-old girls playing flag football has increased by more than 200% since 2014, crossing 100,000.

“What we’ve seen across all levels, from youth all the way up, is that girls and women want to play the game,” USA Football high performance and national teams managing director Eric Mayes said.

Next month, the NFL and ESPN are teaming up to air a new NFL Flag Championship competition in Canton, Ohio. It will feature more than 280 teams with players ranging from 9 to 18 years old, somewhat like football’s version of the Little League World Series. ESPN says it plans to air girls’ play as frequently as the boys on its networks.

“I’m really excited for the opportunity for people across the nation and people in other countries to see what flag football looks like and to see how competitive and elite these players are,” new NFL VP and head of flag football Stephanie Kwok said.

More than 25 states have made girls’ flag football a sanctioned high school sport, or are running pilot programs before doing so, with efforts ongoing to achieve NCAA recognition as well. The number of girls playing on high school teams jumped 86% from 2019 to 2023. At the participation level, the sport has already broken out. And at the pro level, the American Flag Football League has plans to launch a women’s competition in 2025.

“For young girls, it increases participation when they see that clear pathway,” DAZN co-CEO for women’s sports Esmeralda Negron said. “They’re like, ‘Oh, I can go to college, I can play in high school.’ It fosters that passion and development and commitment to the game.”

https://www.sportico.com/business/sports/2024/nfl-espn-women-flag-football-wnfc-participation-1234785597/




***********   Re the NBA draft: As you point out, the first two selected came from France, as did last year's number one pick. And the third overall pick was not a five-star recruit, and indeed he started only one game at Kentucky. And Zach Edey, who some of our 'experts' said wouldn't go in the first round, went number nine in round one.

I like lean staffs--which doesn't make me great--but it's a fact that historically great leaders have preferred them. I therefore lament these behemoth staffs. Maybe the objective is to have more coaches than players on the sidelines.

Guess I'll have to read up on how these U20 players are selected, and by whom. And who selected the coaches.

John Vermillion                                
St Petersburg, Florida



***********  Hugh,

I would think after watching that debacle at CNN the Taiwanese must be getting pretty nervous about their immediate future.

After living in Minneapolis for 7 years I've always wondered what prompts folks in places like Edmonton, or Saskatchewan, or Calgary to stay there for an entire lifetime!  Minnesota was a good place to raise our daughter, but after 7 years of 6 month long frigid winters we were relieved to move to Ohio and experience four actual seasons!  

Do you realize that in the last 6 years the winners of the Stanley Cup have been from the deep south or the west (Colorado, St. Louis, and Las Vegas)?  Two of them from Florida? (Tampa Bay twice and now Florida).

Apparently the Japanese youth football program coaches do a helluva lot better job of teaching the fundamentals of American football than the American coaches do.  Apparently the French do the same in basketball.  It's called practice.

I'm convinced the NCAA doesn't want anything to do with big-time college football so they're just going to sabotage it, and only sponsor Division 3 football.


QUIZ:  Aubrey Lewis (While Lewis had productive years in '55 and '56 for Irish coach Terry Brennan, his totals fell way off in '57 with Dick Lynch and Nick Pietrosante carrying most of the load.   The Irish broke Oklahoma's winning streak and finished the season with a 7-3 record and a number 10 national ranking).

Enjoy the weekend!  

P.S. The AC is working

Joe  Gutilla
Granbury, Texas

PS: How ‘bout those U20 Yanks representing American Tackle Football at the International Tournament!?

Lost to Japan, and lost to Austria!  No medal in the sport we invented!’  In both games it appeared our guys never practiced tackling.  Actually it appeared we didn’t practice much at all.  Typical.

We invented basketball, too, and now there’s a  chance we could lose the Olympic basketball gold to Argentina, Brazil, Croatia, France, Latvia, Spain… did I miss anybody?

At least we’re safe in football until we start seeing Austrians and Japanese playing on our college teams.

But you’re right about practice.  While our kids are playing AAU games, foreign kids are running drills.  And while our are playing 7-on-7, Japanese kids are no doubt working on their blocking and tackling.







***********   QUIZ ANSWER: Aubrey Lewis had a heart murmur from the time he was very young, and when he went out for the high   school football team in Montclair, New Jersey,  the doctor doing the physicals noticed that his heart was beating too quickly, and gave him a strange look.  Years later, he recalled saying, “‘Oh, I ran here all the way from my house.' He said, `O.K.' "

At  Montclair High he  was an All-American running back, scoring 49 touchdowns and running for nearly 4500 yards in leading Montclair to two state titles.  He starred on two undefeated basketball teams, and set state records in the 100-  and 220-yard dashes and the discus.

He chose Notre Dame over 20 other schools offering scholarships, and when he got to South Bend, the same trick that he’d used earlier  got him past the physical.   "When I got to Notre Dame, they checked me," he  said. "The doctor looked at me strangely and I said, `I ran here from the dorm.' "

At Notre Dame, he played football from 1955-1957,  playing in the historic 1957 game in which the Irish  broke Oklahoma's 47-game winning streak. As captain of the Notre Dame track team, he set several school records, and won the 1956 NCAA 400-meter hurdles championship, narrowly missing  a spot on the Olympic team when he tripped over the final hurdle in the Olympic trials.

Although drafted by the Chicago Bears in the tenth round of the NFL draft, a persistent  ankle injury ruled out any  chances of an NFL career.

He returned to his native New Jersey to teach and coach, but in 1962 he joined the FBI as one of the first two blacks to go through its training academy.

In 1967,  he was hired by Woolworth as an executive trainee. Just seven years earlier,  a segregated lunch counter at a Woolworth store in Greensboro, North Carolina had been the site of a historic sit-in.

He retired from Woolworth in 1995 as a senior vice president.

"I wanted to do a lot of things, to challenge life," he once said. "I came along at a time when there were many doors to be opened by the black man, and that was a challenge to me."

He was the  first black man to be captain of any team at Notre Dame.

He was the first black person to be named to Notre Dame’s Board of Trustees.

He was named New Jersey Offensive Football Player of the Century by the Newark Star-Ledger.

In 2018, the Sports Complex - stadium and field house - at Montclair High School was dedicated in his honor.

After his death, his son, who had played quarterback at Montclair High, paid tribute to him as a father.

''We lived in the south end of town and Dad had a lot of property behind the house. He built a tennis court and a basketball court, put out water jugs and that's where the neighborhood kids spent a lot of time.

''It's funny, but looking back, I can close my eyes and still hear his voice above the crowd noise , yelling at me, 'Get going, son. Get going.' But the big thing I will always remember is this:

"We lost a game at Cedar Grove. It was a game we just played so badly at the start, got better but couldn't catch them. I rode home on my bike afterward and he was waiting for me,

''How do you feel?' he asked.

''Terrible.”

''Don't. I'm really proud of you.''

''Why? We lost.''

''No, you didn't. I think of the way you didn't quit. I think of how hard you kept on playing, You didn't lose.''

And then  the father in Aubrey Lewis paused before saying:

''Sometimes the winning and losing isn't measured by the numbers. That's a life lesson.''


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING AUBREY LEWIS

GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
TOM WALLS - WINNIPEG, MANITOBA
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY






*********** QUIZ:  He grew up in Salt Lake City and realized his childhood dream when he wound up as a running back and kickoff and punt returner for the hometown Utah Utes.

At the same time, he majored in art.

In 1940 he  signed as a free agent with the NFL Cleveland Rams,  and made the team -  with a salary of $135 a game.

With World War II looming, he tried to enlist in a service but was declared 4-F (unfit physically) because of a bad knee, so, wanting to do his part, he landed a job in California with Northrup Aircraft, designing and illustrating planes.

While working at Northrup, he played football for some L.A. area teams, and  when the war ended, he rejoined the Rams.

In 1945, he was named to at least one All-Pro team.

The Rams were good, but unfortunately for them, Clevelanders were more excited about the arrival of a new team in town.  Set to play in the all-new All-American Football Conference, it was named the Browns in honor of their coach Paul Brown, who four years earlier had coached Ohio State to a national title.

Seeing the writing on the wall, Rams’ owner Dan Reeves asked for - and got - permission to move his Rams to Los Angeles.  It worked out great for our guy, who was able to continue to work for Northrup while taking three months off to play football.

It wasn’t long before he put  his illustrator’s talent to work on the football team. After showing his coach a drawing of a helmet decorated with Rams’ horns, he got  the coach’s  approval to  paint his design  on an actual helmet.

Owner Reeves liked it, but first had to ask for permission from the NFL office (actually, commissioner Bert Bell) and was told, “You’re the owner - do what you want.”

With that, he paid our guy $1 a helmet to paint gold Rams’ horns on 75 helmets.  It took the entire summer of 1948.

The grand unveiling took place in the Rams’ first home game, an exhibition against the Washington Redskins before 105,000 people in the Coliseum.

The Rams came out and went through warmups without helmets on and then went back inside. Then, with the stadium lights turned off - it was a night game - they returned to the field as the lights went back on - and the crowd went nuts,  and wound up giving the team (and their new helmet design) a five-minute standing ovation. 

This was not all our guy did.

Working with engineers at Northrup, he designed a face mask intended originally for his own use after having his nose broken.

Later, he designed the first sideline kicker’s net, which he patented.

After retirement, he was asked by his old Rams’ roommate, Tom Harmon, who by then was broadcasting the Rams’ games, for help spotting.  Putting his artistic talents to work again, he drew up elaborate offensive and defensive charts on which he could point out players, enabling Harmon to call out the correct names.  He and Harmon worked together for 13 seasons.

He later served as a scout,  then personnel director,  and then general manager of the Denver Broncos, a job he had until new ownership took over and brought in their own people.

In his final job he served as general manager of the Denver Gold of the USFL.




FRIDAY,  JUNE 28,  2024       “There are only two kinds of people: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, ‘All right, then, have it your way.’” C. S. Lewis

*********** Writing this after watching the debacle - er, debate… Who’s going to be the one to walk  out to the mound and ask Joe Biden for the ball?


*********** Wisdom from Mike Lude: "Mrs.. Herman was strict about discipline. She wasn't reluctant to take on those big eighth graders if they did something wrong. I didn't dare go home and say I got in trouble. Here was a little lady teaching all subjects to eight grades. Sometimes there were only two students in a grade. I had great admiration and respect for her, and I thought I'd love to have a sweetheart like Mrs. Harmon.

“Every year we had a Christmas program and sang Christmas carols. A couple of sheets served as a curtain, hung on a wire strung across the room behind the recitation bench. The teacher played an organ, one she pumped with her feet to provide the air. That was the extent of our music.

“I liked history and geography, and I enjoyed reading a lot. I was an average student, but my parents made sure I paid attention. Their goal was for me to be a C+ student and get a few Bs, and that would be OK. I certainly wasn't a nerd.

“Unfortunately, it was a rarity for any of the kids at this school to continue past the eighth grade. From my class only two of us went on to high school, and I was the only one who went to college, as far as I know. There were few eager learners. Many students dropped out in the spring to work on the farm, and others were late returning to school because of farming. The girls seemed to be the smart ones, and the boys were more eager to get outside to play ball or just horse around.”


***********  On Monday night, the Florida Panthers defeated the Edmonton Oilers, 2-1, to  win  the seventh game of the NHL playoff finals, and win the Stanley Cup, probably  the best-known of all team sports trophies.

It was quite a series, because the Panthers won the first three games, but then the Oilers came back to win the next three, tieing the best-of-seven series.

I personally was pulling for the Oilers. I’ve spent time in Edmonton and I liked the place and the people.  And, too, I do think 31 years is way too long for any team from Canada - the country which gave us the great game of ice hockey - to win a Stanley Cup.

But I can’t say I feel  that bad, after learning that my relatives in Florida cared very deeply about the Panthers, and after learning more about the Panthers’ coach, Paul Maurice.

He’s 57 years old.  He got his first NHL head coaching job at 28, and he’d gone all that time - 1684 games, coaching numerous teams - without winning a Stanley Cup.  In fact, his 803 coaching losses are the most in NHL history.

He’s paid his dues - he’s coached minor league teams called the Windsor Spitfires and the Toronto Marlies, and he’s coached in Magnitogorsk (that’s Russia, damn near in Siberia).

I liked his interview after the game.  He gave credit to everybody possible. He especially praised his players, saying, “they treat each other right.”

Jason Gay in the Wall Street Journal said something very telling about Maurice  when he  wrote about Maurice’s talking with a couple of rookies about to play their  first NHL game:

“You only get one first game in the NHL,” he told them.  “And that’s not your game actually.  It’s Mom and Dad‘s game, and all the volunteer coaches that helped, the teachers, everybody.”

“So when they come to the rink, I tell them I really don’t care how you play tonight. I want you to be nervous for the national anthem. Be overwhelmed. Take it all in, but do it with a smile on your face and have some fun because you only ever get one of these days.”



***********   On Tuesday I showed a pass - Sprint Brown (or Black) - that I might go to on a 2-point play. But I failed to stress  the word “might.”   Then, of all times, you do not want to be predictable. Then is when you want to have a special play (and/or formation) or two that opponents have never seen before.

But I was asked if there was one play I really liked, and the one I chose would certainly be at the top of my list, for a number or reasons. 

One reason, brought up by Coach Josh Montgomery, of Berwick, Louisiana, is its flexibility.  He suggested running the play out of “Slot Cat” formation, using what we would call “Lazer Return” motion,  in much the same way as we’ve seen the Kansas City Chiefs do.  Looks good to me.
 



***********  I was talking recently  with my old friend Ossie Osmundson, whom I assisted for six years at Ridgefield, Washington.  We had some great times in those early days of my Double Wing, and in 1993 Ossie put together one of the best seasons my Double Wing has ever had.  Ridgefield went 12-0 and won the  state Class 1A title. The Spudders (that’s right) never had a close game, and not until the state playoffs did Ossie  play his starters in the second half of a game.

Ridgefield - the area - is now experiencing explosive development that makes it  the fastest-growing city in Washington.  The most recent population is estimated at over 14,000;   when I was coaching and teaching there, it  was about 1,500.  Ridgefield was definitely rural.  For several years in those days, Ossie was an assistant to head coach Chris Thompson, whom he would succeed when Chris became the school principal.  (Those were the good old days when people still thought that high school football coaches made good principals.)

Ossie told about one Friday night when they’d returned to the school after an away game.  It was especially late - finding other small schools to play often required considerable travel - and as was the custom, the two coaches, Ossie and Chris, stayed around until the last kid had been picked up by his parents.

At that point, Chris said to Ossie, “I need a favor.”  Asked what it was, Chris said, “I need a ride home.”  To which Ossie replied, “I was just going to ask you for a ride!”

And that’s how the coaching staff at Ridgefield High School wound up trudging 2-1/2 miles down a narrow country road in pitch darkness at 1 in the morning.



***********  Is this what they mean when they say we need to Make America Great Again?


(1) The first two players taken in the NBA draft - and three of the first six - were from France.  F—king France!  (Despite all the NIL money blown on American college players.)


(2) In something called the U20 American Football World Championship, taking place now in Edmonton, Canada, the USA lost to Japan, 41-20 (Japan!!!) Hey USA coaches: where did you get the idea that being  on your own one-yard line and handing it to a  tailback who’s seven yards deep in your own end zone is smart?  Hey USA coaches: ever tried teaching tackling? It sorta keeps you from losing.  (Remember a line like that in The Last Picture Show?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjCLAUZCKJg



***********    “It is time to deflate the hot-air balloon known as remote work. We have lurched, in an almost lemming-like way , from a view that work is done five days a week in an office to the fantasy that it is perfectly acceptable to stay home too, three or even five days a week.

“One learns how to manage and lead principally by watching others demonstrate how – or not – to do so.

“Time management may be the most underrated capacity of great managers. Controlling your own time well and not permitting others to dictate how you spend it is one of the determinants of successful leadership. Watching others is really the only way to develop a command of this essential practice.”

America desperately needs leadership today. Those who aspire to be part of the solution and tackle some of the great challenges we face should get their butts into the office and learn how to manage and lead others.”

Louis V Gerstner, Jr. - Retired CEO of IBM



*********** If you weren’t on Tuesday night’s Zoom and you  didn’t get a link to the recording, you missed a great presentation by Brian Flinn, wide receivers coach and passing game coordinator at Princeton.  Coach Flinn really knows the passing game, and he provided us Double-Wing and Open-Wing guys with some things in his comprehensive attack that we might be able to incorporate into our offenses.

Take a look.  He talks fast, so take a second or third look.  There are a lot of gems in his presentation.

https://vimeo.com/user174754949/154?share=copy

I mentioned the work I’ve been doing in preparing slot formation materials for those coaches who've been selected to pioneer it this season, and a lot of what Coach Flinn presented can tie in with it.



*********** Les Miles should be on this ballot.  NOW do you see why he's suing those slimeballs at LSU?




************  The NCAA approved a rule change that will now allow all football staff members - including so-called “analysts” - to coach during practice and games. Until now, schools were limited to a maximum of 11 "countable" coaches who could do actual on-field coaching.

However, as is current policy,  only 10 “real” assistants and the head coach may recruit off-campus.

Whoopee - those dozen or so former head coaches that Alabama and the like have been keeping around as “analysts?”  Now, they can actually go out on the field and coach.
 
Now, an  Alabama or a Georgia will  have just about enough coaching talent on staff that, between actual coaches and  these newly-certified analysts,  it can assign an  assistant to watch every single position, 1-on-1, throughout the game.

And while they’re not allowed to do “off-campus” recruiting - yet - you can be sure  they’ll be working the phones talking to guys in (or soon to be in) the portal.

It’s just a further widening of the gap between the haves – the ones who can afford to pay all those extra coaches - and the have-nots – the ones who’ll keep losing coaches (and players) to the haves.



*********** 1965 was a great year for Princeton football.  Running their single wing to near-perfection, the Tigers finished 8-1, outscoring opponents 281 to 100.   Their only loss came to Dartmouth, also unbeaten, in the last game of the season, 28-14, in front of 45,725. 

It was also a great year for immigration.

Two Princeton players  were named to All-American teams:
 
Place kicker Charlie Gogolak  was born in Hungary.

Guard Stas Maliszewski was born in Poland.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1965_College_Football_All-America_Team



*********** “I wake up every morning with two thoughts: number one,  how do I make my bosses more money? And number two, how do I get some of it?” Stephen A. Smith



*********** Funny how the  same Libs who think it’s perfectly all right to suspend a kid from school for chewing a pop tart into the shape of a gun, go all defund-the-police when a cop shoots a guy who pointed a gun - a very realistic-looking airsoft gun with its day-glo orange muzzle broken off - at him.



***********   Best part of today's page is the Pride (I'm careful to capitalize it) poster. You say there's only a week left. Unh-unh...this is one of those year-long celebrations.

Great story about Seiki Murono. We really do have giants among us.

It's been a long while since I saw Homer Rice's name. When I was a kid, though, he was well known in my part of the country. Who was más macho...Homer Smith or Homer Rice or Homer Simpson?

I've followed Davey Martinez since his playing days, and thought when the Nats hired him he deserved the job. But those comments after a walk-off pitch count violation just might have been enough for me to fire him.

John Vermillion                
St Petersburg, Florida


***********   Hugh,

Not sure what your temps are up there but ours are oven-like.  Especially when you lose AC.  Hopefully ours gets fixed this afternoon!

Used your goal line play a number of times (very successfully).  I also added a little wrinkle.  I called it "Rocket Reach Delay"  PSWB ran the arrow.  PSTE would show reach block (delay) and run a backside Drag.  BSWB would run Rocket motion.  BSTE would show down block and run to the post to pull the corner out. QB would reverse out on the snap (timing of the snap with the WB motion was critical) and show a short sprint-out to PS, set his feet and throwback to the PSTE running that BS-Drag.  No one home on the backside for the defense so the TE typically was all alone.

Would you consider Homer Rice to be a pioneer in today's modern spread option offense?

Found out there already is a Pac-West Conference.  New name...Pacific-Mountain Conference.  OSU, WSU, Boise State, California, Stanford, San Jose State, Fresno State, San Diego State, Hawaii, UNLV, Nevada, Utah State, Wyoming, Air Force, Colorado State, New Mexico, UTSA, and SMU?  (Assuming the ACC falls apart with FSU and Clemson eventually gone, and North Carolina and Virginia being swallowed up by the BIG, and Cal, Stanford, SMU having no where else to go).

Only one school can save the ACC.  Should they decide to join a conference to enhance football playoff prospects... FSU, Clemson, North Carolina, and Virginia stay and the ACC becomes a major player in conference realignment.

Imagine football with a penalty box and power play.

QUIZ:  Why those fellas are the Gogolak brothers!  Pete (Cornell), and Charlie (Princeton).  Both are staunch supporters of the former President, (and soon to be new President), Donald J. Trump.

Have a great week!

Joe  Gutilla
Granbury, Texas

Joe- quick reply -

It’s Tuesday - 10:30 AM and  here in Camas, Washington it’s a sunny 75 degrees.

Due to get up to 85 by 4 o’clock. Whew.

But not to worry - going to hit a high of 72 tomorrow and won’t hit 80 until the 4th.

For this, we put up with left wing politics.

 


AT THE BOTTOM OF THE MIDDLE PHOTO - CHECK THE DARTMOUTH PLAYER ON HIS HANDS AND KNEES!

*********** QUIZ  ANSWER: In 1956, just days after the Hungarian revolution had been put down by the Communist government, the Gogolak family, two young brothers and their parents, made it safely across the border into Austria. The train from Budapest had left them 20 miles from the border, and they had had to walk that distance in freezing temperatures.  One of the brothers, Pete, was 14, the other, Charlie, 12. In the US, they would lead a revolution of another sort - in American football.

Once in the US, the family was interned at an Army camp in New Jersey, then relocated when the father, a dentist, landed a job at a hospital in upstate New York - really, really upstate New York.  It was in a town called Ogdensburg, on the St. Lawrence River about two hours north of Syracuse - and one hour south  of Ottawa, Ontario.

The two boys had grown up playing soccer in their native Hungary, but with no soccer team at the local high school, they attempted to kick for the local high school football team.

It did not go well at first.  Recalled Pete, years later, "With my instep, I hit the ball, and it was a low drive about three feet off the ground. Basically a big joke. Everybody thought it was ridiculous. But I knew it was something I could do. The next year and that first kickoff, the ball went about 60 yards into the air. So, suddenly, that's basically how the soccer-style kick started.”

They both wound up doing well enough as high school kickers that  Pete, the older brother,  went to Cornell and Charlie, the younger one, to Princeton. (It helped that they were smart.)

They were both highly successful in college -  so successful, in fact, that unusual attempts to deal with  Charlie  resulted  in the passing of three different NCAA rules.

The first came after Cornell had two defensive backs stand on the shoulders of two linemen to block his kicks. By the following Monday, the NCAA had passed a rule saying that all men had to have “two limbs” on the ground at the start of a play.

The second came after Charlie was called for being offside on the opening kickoff against Yale.  Yale’s head coach John Pont had informed the officials before the game that because of the fact that the kicker’s plant foot was several inches in front of the 40-yard-line, he was technically offside.

The third came after Dartmouth’s Bob Blackman tried what he called the  “Human Steps” stunt (Photo above) :   Two linemen would crouch, and a teammate in their defensive  backfield would get a running start and step up on their backs and leap into the air.  Said Dartmouth assistant Jack Musick, whose idea it was, “He can’t be the type who’ll worry about how hard he comes down.”  They put foam rubber padding on the backs of the two linemen, and outfitted the designated leaper with ripple-soled shoes.     A Dartmouth mathematician figured out the proper launch angle.  And then, the first time Princeton lined up to kick a field goal, sensing something was going on, they held up the snap count. The Dartmouth leaper, unfortunately, was in mid-air when the ball was snapped.  There was a five-yard penalty, but the scheme couldn’t be considered a  total failure, because on the next play, kicking from five yards closer, Charlie missed.

It happened in the last game of the year, so the rules change - that you couldn’t vault - took place in the off-season.

Charlie  started out his senior year against Rutgers, kicking six field goals - one of them a 52-yarder - as the Tigers won, 24-0.  Asked after the game to comment, all Rutgers coach John Bateman could say was, “we got beat by a frigging Hungarian refugee.”

Charlie  was an All-American at Princeton, and became the first kicker ever chosen in the first round of the NFL draft, when the Redskins chose him with the sixth pick overall. He wound up playing three years with the Redskins and three years with the Patriots.

Pete, undrafted by the NFL, signed instead with the AFL Buffalo Bills, and became the first soccer-style kicker in professional football.  After two years with the Bills - helping them win an AFL championship, he signed with the NFL New York Giants, setting off a war between the two leagues that saw AFL commissioner Al Davis making offers to NFL quarterbacks and  ultimately drove NFL owners to agree to peace between the leagues.

In 2010, the Giants added Pete Gogolak to their  new Ring of Honor.  He still  remains the Giants' all-time leading scorer with 646 points.

In October, 2016, in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Hungarian Revolution,. the Washington Redskins honored the Gogolak brothers in a halftime ceremony attended by the Hungarian ambassador and numerous other dignitaries.

In 1917 a monument in their honor was dedicated at a park in Ogdensburg, the self-proclaimed “birthplace of soccer-style kicking.”

“Before them,”  wrote Larry Felser in the Buffalo News of the Gogolak brothers, “Kicking had been an inexact science for the pros to say the least. Full-time players (for the Bills) such as Cookie Gilchrist and Mac Yoho did the kicking off and field goal attempts. They wore a flat-toed shoe on their kicking foot so that they could slip into their added role. A kicker who was successful half the time on field goals was considered a major asset… In the 1966 NFL draft the Washington Redskins took Charlie in the first round. Straight-ahead kicking was on a path to doom. Everyone, it seemed, had to have a sidewinder. It wasn't just the length of field goals. It was the accuracy and the longer kickoffs which produced inferior field position for the opposition.”


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING PETE  AND CHARLIE GOGOLAK

GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
TOM DAVIS - SAN MARCOS, CALIFORNIA
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY




***********   QUIZ: He had a heart murmur from the time he was very young, and when he went out for the high   school football team in Montclair, New Jersey,  the doctor doing the physicals noticed that his heart was beating too quickly, and gave him a strange look.  Years later, he recalled saying, “‘Oh, I ran here all the way from my house.' He said, `O.K.' "

At  Montclair High he  was an All-American running back, scoring 49 touchdowns and running for nearly 4500 yards in leading Montclair to two state titles.  He starred on two undefeated basketball teams, and set state records in the 100-  and 220-yard dashes and the discus.

He chose Notre Dame over 20 other schools offering scholarships, and when he got to South Bend, the same trick that he’d used earlier  got him past the physical.   "When I got to Notre Dame, they checked me," he  said. "The doctor looked at me strangely and I said, `I ran here from the dorm.' "

At Notre Dame, he played football from 1955-1957,  playing in the historic 1957 game in which the Irish  broke Oklahoma's 47-game winning streak. As captain of the Notre Dame track team, he set several school records, and won the 1956 NCAA 400-meter hurdles championship, narrowly missing  a spot on the Olympic team when he tripped over the final hurdle in the Olympic trials.

Although drafted by the Chicago Bears in the tenth round of the NFL draft, a persistent  ankle injury ruled out any  chances of an NFL career.

He returned to his native New Jersey to teach and coach, but in 1962 he joined the FBI as one of the first two blacks to go through its training academy.

In 1967,  he was hired by Woolworth as an executive trainee. Just seven years earlier,  a segregated lunch counter at a Woolworth store in Greensboro, North Carolina had been the site of a historic sit-in.

He retired from Woolworth in 1995 as a senior vice president.

"I wanted to do a lot of things, to challenge life," he once said. "I came along at a time when there were many doors to be opened by the black man, and that was a challenge to me."

He was the  first black man to be captain of any team at Notre Dame.

He was the first black person to be named to Notre Dame’s Board of Trustees.

He was named New Jersey Offensive Football Player of the Century by the Newark Star-Ledger.

In 2018, the Sports Complex - stadium and field house - at Montclair High School was dedicated in his honor.

After his death, his son, who had played quarterback at Montclair High, paid tribute to him as a father.

''We lived in the south end of town and Dad had a lot of property behind the house. He built a tennis court and a basketball court, put out water jugs and that's where the neighborhood kids spent a lot of time.

''It's funny, but looking back, I can close my eyes and still hear his voice above the crowd noise , yelling at me, 'Get going, son. Get going.' But the big thing I will always remember is this:

"We lost a game at Cedar Grove. It was a game we just played so badly at the start, got better but couldn't catch them. I rode home on my bike afterward and he was waiting for me,

''How do you feel?' he asked.

''Terrible.”

''Don't. I'm really proud of you.''

''Why? We lost.''

''No, you didn't. I think of the way you didn't quit. I think of how hard you kept on playing, You didn't lose.''

And then  the father in him paused before saying:

''Sometimes the winning and losing isn't measured by the numbers. That's a life lesson.''








TUESDAY,  JUNE 25,  2024       “Any great power that spends more on debt service than on defense will not stay great for very long.” Historian Niall  Ferguson (Is anybody in Washington listening?)



 
*********** Wisdom from Mike Lude: "Cold and snow didn't keep me from walking a mile and a half each way to school, but when the spring thaw came and the ruts turned to mud the road was almost impossible to navigate. The rural mail carriers had a hard time getting through. When I was about eight years old, I got a pair of high-top shoes. They came up about three or four inches from the knee. I wore  undersocks plus long wool socks, and the leather repelled the moisture.

"The school, named for a Civil War officer, was about as primitive as our house: no running water, no electricity, no indoor plumbing. It had a big cast-iron stove for heating, but it was still cold inside. I would put my lunchbox on a shelf, and often my food would be frozen by lunchtime. 

"The teacher – there were two in the eight years I attended Holcome school - sat in a big chair at a desk in front. Immediately opposite and facing the teacher was the recitation bench. Because there were so many different grades, classes were called separately for individual lessons. For example, grade one might be called for reading or grade seven for history. 

"There were four rows of desks across. The smaller desks for the lower grades were in front, and the desks got larger toward the back. Each row was six deep for a capacity of twenty-four students in eight grades. In all the years I went to that school, I can't remember all the desks ever being occupied. We had a huge dictionary but not a lot of books.

"My first teacher, Walter Nidy, had also been my father's teacher. He was a big man, a very stern man. Shortly after I started school, he was replaced by Ruth Harmon, who lived in Fulton with her husband, a stone mason. Mrs. Harmon was bright and diminutive, just over five  feet tall. She cared about the students and worked extremely hard at an extremely difficult job.  She was still around when my brother, Ron, who is thirteen years younger than I, attended the same school."


***********   A coach wrote and asked me about a favorite pass play in a 2-point  situation, and I immediately told him,  “Sprint Brown.”  It’s the goal-line adaptation of a base play, which is itself an adaptation of a play I saw  in an old clinic talk by a very successful Baltimore high school coach named George Young (who would end up as the very successful GM of the New York Giants).

In the 2-point situation we don’t have the whole field to work with, but the defense does have to figure on the strong possibility of our running the ball. 

I’m going to make one very big assumption: they will have four guys in man-for-man coverage.

Because we’re so close to the goal line and we can get four people out quick - and get it to them quick - they HAVE TO commit four people, man for man, to the pass;

At the same time,  they CAN’T commit MORE than four to the pass, because  then they’ll really weaken themselves against the greater likelihood of a run.

That really limits the things they can do with the seven guys who don't have coverage responsibility, so I’ve just drawn up a very aggressive defense with seven men coming.



On playside the QB reads #1 (numbering defenders from the sideline-in, not counting linemen, not counting safeties.)

Our wingback runs a quick arrow and gets his eyes around fast.  If the QB sees that #1 doesn’t jump the arrow, he throws it NOW.   On the other hand, if #1 does jumps the arrow - and (this is very important) the tight end breaks behind #1 and looks quick - there’s a window for the QB to hit the tight end… UNLESS

If we suspect that #2 will be overplaying the TE on the corner, we will have the  wingback take three (very quick) steps of the arrow  then break to the post.

There is, of course, always the possibility that the QB might keep and run.

We normally only throw to the backside when we’ve pre-called it.  When we call  “throwback,” the QB pulls up on his third step and re-sets his feet to look backside. He doesn’t  throw blindly - he takes a quick look at #2. The TE normally runs a seam, but  now he runs a quick choice based on how #2 is playing him.  The wing runs a fade, and if there’s any question about the TE,  we’re throwing to the corner of the end zone.  We might sub or switch a player here if we have a tall kid to run the fade.




***********  Homer Rice, noted as a player, coach and athletics administrator,  died  June 10 at the age of 97.

A native of Kentucky, he was an All-American football player at Centre College there.

For 11 years he coached high school football in Tennessee and Kentucky, including eight years at Fort Thomas, Kentucky, Highlands High where he won state championships in 1960 and 1961 - the first of many Highlands would win over the years.  In one five-year stretch at Highlands, his teams won 50 straight games. In all his high school coaching record was an astounding 101–9–7.

In 1962, he was hired as offensive coordinator at Kentucky.  After four years there, he was hired as offensive coordinator at Oklahoma.  He was there just one year when OU head coach Jim Mackenzie died suddenly, and the people at OU wanted Rice to succeed him.  But Rice had already accepted the head job at Cincinnati and had already hired his staff, and he chose to remain at Cincinnati.  Instead, OU hired 33-year old assistant Chuck Fairbanks.

At Cincinnati, with Greg Cook as his QB, his offense set all sorts of records, ranked number one in passing with a then-unbelievable  335.8 yards per game. Cook threw for 554 yards in a single game, and wound up as the number one draft pick of the Cincinnati Bengals.

From 1969 to 1975,  Rice served as AD at North Carolina, and from 1976 to 1977, he was AD and head coach at Rice (do you suppose there were recruits who thought that he owned the place?).

For two years he coached the Cincinnati Bengals before leaving to become  AD at Georgia Tech, where he spent the final 18 years of his career.   During his tenure, Tech teams won 14 ACC championships, won a national football title in 1990, and made it to the College World Series in baseball in 1994 and the basketball Final Four in 2004.

In 2021, a statue of Rice was dedicated outside of Bobby Dodd Stadium. He is one of only three athletics figures to be commemorated with a statue at Georgia Tech, joining John Heisman and Bobby Dodd.
 
In his honor, the Homer Rice Award is presented annually to an NCAA Division I FBS athletics director who has made significant and meaningful contributions to intercollegiate athletics.

Homer Rice and Mike Lude, I heard Mike say many times,  were great friends.


https://footballfoundation.org/news/2024/6/12/football-seminal-college-athletics-leader-homer-rice-passes-away.aspx
 


***********   Of all my books, I consider Homer Rice’s, shown here,  to be one of the most intriguing.  I  got really interested, many years ago,  in the way he showed how he successfully married a triple option running game with a nation-leading passing game at Cincinnati, where his teams broke 58 school records and seven NCAA records. (It didn’t hurt a bit that he had Greg Cook at QB and a receiver  named Jim O’Brien, who would go on to play for the Baltimore Colts and kick the winning field goal in Super Bowl V.)



*********** Nice action in the CFL over the weekend - Toronto over Edmonton 39-36 snd not a single damn field goal even attempted until the winner at :21. A pair of great QB performances by Toronto’s Cameron Dukes and Edmonton’s McLeod Bethel-Thompson. 

And Saskatchewan really taking it to Hamilton after just barely squeaking by them only a week ago.

Best sighting of the weekend: Edmonton has a player named Kurleigh Gittens.  Is this some hoity-toity way of spelling “Curly?”

Might he have an overweight brother named Phatzeau?



*********** A coach called me to ask if I had  any Double Wing plays where the QB runs the ball.  It’s obvious that he doesn’t have the latest playbook, which provides “tags” to every running play we have  that enable the QB to be the runner, but I did send him a copy of Page 61, which illustrates three different ways that our QB can run “Super Power” without having to  change the assignments of anyone other than the QB and the guy originally assigned to carry the ball.




*********** This week’s Best of John Canzano’s Mail…


Q: I’ve heard you call the Pac-12 settlement for WSU/OSU a ‘war chest’ to rebuild the P12, possibly Mountain West exit fees. Given WSU/OSU budget struggles, isn’t it more likely they’ll use the money to support athletic budgets? When would it make sense to blow $30M-plus on exit fees?


A: The two schools got a combined $255 million in that settlement. But to keep the entire settlement pot they have to rebuild. If they simply disband the Pac-12, some of the settlement money would revert to schools that left for other conferences.

I’m told that $65 million has been earmarked to help with the Pac-12 rebuild to eight members. That leaves approximately $190 million (or $95 million each) for OSU and WSU to subsidize their athletic department programs in the next few years. It’s why the two schools keep publicly insisting they’ll continue to fund and operate like they’re ‘Power 5’ members.

They have the resources to help do that for at least two or three years. It drives me nuts when people write “Oregon State and Washington State should just give up and join the Mountain West.” That would be a dumb move. It would not only mean accepting relegation, but also, giving settlement money back.



Q: UCLA is a great example of using scholarships for veteran college players, not incoming freshmen. With that said, are these highly touted youngsters ending up at G5 schools? And so a hotshot ends up at Saint Mary’s, for example, so that a power school can buy him in two years? Crazy, isn’t it?


A: There’s a trickle-down impact from the transfer portal here. I talked with Portland State football coach Bruce Barnum about this topic a few times. The Big Sky Conference is recruiting from a pool of more talented high school players than ever because the FBS level is hyper-focused on getting good, older, more experienced, players through the portal.

Portland State and others are signing better recruits than ever out of high school. They may play a couple of years in the Big Sky, pile up stats, and decide to jump in the portal anyway. But that’s what is happening as the major college programs are dedicating more of their scholarships to the portal. There’s even a trickle-down impact that reaches into community college football and Division II and Division III. They’re all enjoying an upgrade of talent.

It’s partly why setting roster limits is a topic for the Big Ten and SEC, in particular. The G5 schools are concerned that those two conferences will simply warehouse a line of promising young players, sit them on the bench, give them NIL deals, and try to keep them around in case they’re needed. But as your question points out, those players probably end up back in the portal in a couple of years anyway.



Q: MLB, WNBA, NHL, Olympics... there is no shortage of options for sports fans in the summer... and yet, I find myself counting the days until football season. Football (the kind with the pointy ball) is the most popular sport in the USA. My question for you is why do you think that is? What is it about American football that enthralls us more than any other sport?


A: It’s our game. We invented it, understand it, and have watched it for generations. The violence involved in football probably appeals to some. But one huge part of the success has to be how easy it is to watch on television. It’s a fast-moving, easy-to-follow game made for TV. The action is superb. The commercial breaks mostly fit into the rhythm of the game and create a good flow. If you look at the rise in popularity of the sport it coincides with the advances in TV production, cameras, equipment, and infrastructure. I think Pete Rozelle’s product in the 1970s and 1980s was in the right place at the right time.



***********   Friday, I received this: 

Hello Hugh. I thought you might be interested in this interview I gave in NYC as part of an oral history project conducted by the Japanese American Citizens League. You know some of the story, but some parts might be new to you. It's a bit long so I apologize for that.  All the best.

Seiki

Yes, you might say I was “interested” - I immediately started to watch and got five minutes in and was hooked.  At that point I called my wife - who knows Seiki Murono and his story - and told her I thought she would enjoy it.  She came in and we both dropped whatever it was we had been doing and watched it in its entirely, enrapt.

It was through Seiki Murono and my knowledge of him as  the only American college football player born in a wartime internment camp that I learned so much about the experience of Japanese-Americans during World War II.

Actually,  his parents weren’t Japanese-Americans at all.  They were Japanese-Peruvians.  After the outbreak of World War II, his father, a successful businessman in Peru, was arrested, shipped to the United States, and sent to an internment camp in Texas. Only after several months’ of separation during which time he didn’t know if he’d ever see his wife and two little children again, was the Murono family reunited.

Even given the US government’s rationalization for interning American citizens of Japanese descent, what business, one is prompted to ask, did the United States have interning  Japanese-Peruvians?  Now, many years later, Seiki Murono can only speculate that they were taken as hostages - potential “trade bait” to be used in prisoner-of-war exchanges.

During the War, his parents were virtual slaves.   Not American citizens, their Peruvian passports had been seized, leaving them effectively stateless.  

Making the best of a bad situation, they traded life in an internment camp  for life in a factory town, Seabrook, New Jersey, where the parents worked for frozen food giant Seabrook Farms, and where Seiki grew up.  He would be an outstanding player on state championship high school teams in football and baseball, and  would go on to an outstanding college football career at little Franklin and Marshall College in Pennsylvania.

And from there, he would go on to a long career in international banking.

It’s a long story, and without going into great detail, one can only marvel at the way Seiki Murono’s parents endured.  Seiki frequently makes reference to a Japanese word - gaman - an aspect of the Japanese culture that means enduring great difficulties with patience and dignity; persevering  in tough times.

He talks about that, and he talks about the sacrifices his parents made so that he and his older brother and sister could get good educations and realize the “American Dream.”

He talks about how driven he was to “not be different,” but instead to be like every other American, and he tells how sports played such a big role in his success.

He never whines or bitches about being kept down. He  has nothing but good things to say about the teachers and coaches who helped him along the way and, now retired after a long career with Chase-Manhattan Bank, he offers himself as an example of how, with a good education and hard work, you can be successful in America. (Ironically, many people in education and government insist  that to say that very thing is to be guilty of a - gasp - “microaggression.”)

I  wish today’s young football players  (and their parents!) could hear Seiki Murono tell about the impact sports (and his coaches) had on his life and how much he learned from sports.  After watching and listening to his story, you might want to copy segments and play them for kids and parents.

https://vimeo.com/821054300/60e8bda286



***********   In football, a penalty for stupidity or carelessness can  wind up costing you a score, but at least it can’t give the other team any points.

No matter how many times you’re penalized when a team’s down on your  goal line, a penalty will never put them in the end zone. The penalty will be half the distance, and the next one will be half of that, and so forth, ad infinitum.

In basketball, they still have to make free  throws.

In hockey, the other team might be awarded a penalty shot, but they still have to make the damn thing.

But in baseball, now that  there’s a shot clock - oops, make that “pitch clock” - the penalty can result in a run for the other team.

And so it was, on Saturday night, that with the game tied, 7-7,  the bases loaded, and a full count on the batter, Washington Nationals’ pitcher Kyle Finnegan committed a pitch clock violation.  The penalty is an automatic ball awarded to the hitter, and in this case it walked in the winning run.

Ahem.  Might it be time for the coaches/managers to earn their pay?

Listen to the Washington manager and tell me if he you’ve ever known any football coach who sounds like this: "Kyle has had some trouble lately with the clock," Washington manager Dave Martinez said. "It hadn't really cost him to that point, but it's something that we've kind of felt like might come back to haunt him at some point. He could have stepped off, but it's a tough situation.  That's something that he has to be mindful of. He's just slow. So it burned him today. Typically it hasn't burned him.”

Yeah, mindful. It so happens that Finnegan leads the National League  with nine such violations this season.  In football, Martinez would keep giving  the ball to a guy who can't stop fumbling.


https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/40412756/rockies-win-walk-bases-loaded-pitch-clock-violation


 

***********   Still not entirely sure what this might have to do with sports, but what the hell - there’s less than a week to go…


********** Wrote Mike Foristiere about Willie Totten,  “Amazing he never got a real shot in the NFL.”

There was the racial aspect, of course.  At that time, the stereotype of the “black quarterback” (who “wouldn’t stay in the pocket”)  was still a big obstacle to overcome.

Also, though, I think the NFL may have  figured he was a “system QB,” whose stats reflected the system he played in more than his ability.

And, too, there weren’t a lot of examples of successful QBs coming out of HBCUs.

Give Warren Moon a lot of  credit for helping break the stereotype.  He had to fight it, too.  He had a great career  at Washington under Don James, but still he was undrafted by the NFL.   And even though he had played six years in the CFL, earning the Most Outstanding Player Award his last year there,   he was still an  unknown in the NFL.  In fact, at the same time Willie Totten was starting his pro career, Moon was just starting his third year in the NFL,  with Houston. And although he had put up some big numbers, the Oilers were just 7-23 in his first two years there, and the jury was still out on him.



***********   Today’s Page was another chapter from the Garden of Earthly Delights, a smorgasbord of interesting topics, which began, of course, with the unintended homage to Coach Lude. I've never worn a cap when reading that introduction, but if I were, I would remove it before reading.

Will any college sport remain after these criminals are done? Just a couple of years ago the dissension between college and pro mostly had to do with the colleges putatively overworkiing the pitcher destined for MLB. This might be the last relatively pure CWS we see.

I'd only read the other side of the Les Miles story. Hope he prevails.

Red Grange. Thanks for explaining the vast extent of his influence.

Finally, Johannus: Just another excuse for sales. Fisker Motors closeout sale, for example. No, just messing around. That sounds like a real secular holiday a country can get into.


John Vermillion                
St Petersburg, Florida



***********   Hugh,

Willie Mays, one of my first early heroes as a young boy,  lived a long enduring life that impacted many of us.  RIP Willie.

Watched some old highlight videos of Red Grange (old and grainy).  Not only was he big and fast he had an uncanny knack of breaking tackles which indicated how strong a runner he was.  What was also interesting is how his coach Robert Zuppke had incorporated a similar pre-snap shift like Knute Rockne used at Notre Dame.  Yet, those two football powerhouses (Illinois and Notre Dame), and those two coaching icons (Zuppke and Rockne) never faced one another in a game during that time period.  After Rockne's death Zuppke's Illinois teams did play Notre Dame a number of times, but he never beat the Irish.

Are you aware there are a number of state high school associations that now recognize NIL?  Florida being one.  Can only imagine where that will lead.  I wonder if NY is one of those states, and if those boys on the poster received what's due to them?

With those two pools built for the Olympic Trials in Lucas Oil Stadium does that mean they would be considered the largest above ground pools in the U.S.?  We had one of those growing up, but not quite as big.

Coach Casey must be one busy guy.  Not sure if he's with a public school, or a private school, but I do know if he's at a public school he's employed by the district (no off-campus coaches in public schools in Texas).  Private schools do allow off-campus coaches.  Either way he obviously stays very busy.


Enjoy the "Juhannus"!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas







(DID YOU RECOGNIZE JERRY RICE WITH THE FLAT-TOP?)

*********** QUIZ ANSWER:   Willie Totten  played his high school football in North Carrollton, Mississippi. and his college football at Mississippi Valley State.

Valley coach Archie Cooley (nicknamed “The Gunslinger”) was way ahead of his time, devising a spread offense  with four receivers on one side and one on the other. His quarterback  would call his own plays, without huddling. He called  it “fast break football.”

He had the receivers to make his idea work, but he didn’t have a quarterback. Totten had gone to Valley as a punter, but  Cooley  said, years later,  he knew Totten was going to be his quarterback “when I shook his hands and he swallowed up my hand.”

In Totten’s  first game as quarterback in  the new offense, the Mississippi Valley State Delta Devils won, 86-0. They could only manage 77 points in their second game, and really fell off to 63 in their third.  Not exactly cause to panic.

After a radio guy said, “The ball looks like it’s floating in air like a satellite,” Willie Tottten acquired a nickname - The Satellite - that stayed with him through his career.

In the 1984 season, he threw for 58 touchdowns (his favorite receiver - the one on the lone receiver side - set three NCAA records,  with 103 passes for 1,682 yards and 27 touchdowns)  as the Delta Devils, averaging 59 points per game, made the NCAA D-IAA playoffs (a great accomplishment for an HBCU team).

Along the way, he threw for 500 yards and four touchdowns in a 48-36 win over Grambling.

When he left college, he held 56 NCAA Division I-AA (FCS) passing records.

His career stats: 952 completions in 1629 attempts… 13,170 yards… 141 TDs

He wasn’t drafted by the NFL, and although he did play a few seasons in Canada, his only action in the NFL was as a replacement player during a strike, and he played three seasons of Arena Football.

On the other hand, his favorite receiver  was a first round draft pick of the 49ers, and went on to become one of the greatest receivers in NFL history.

Deciding to get into coaching,  Totten served as a graduate assistant at Grambling under the legendary Eddie Robinson, and spent two years as a high school coach and ten years as an assistant at his alma mater before serving as its head coach for eight seasons.

When he became the head coach there, the stadium  had already been named for him and his favorite receiver, giving   Willie Totten   the distinction  of being one of the few college head coaches to coach in a stadium named for him.  (And, of course, for that receiver - Jerry Rice.)

Willie Totten is in the College Football Hall of Fame.

At the present time, he coaches quarterbacks at Southern U.


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING WILLIE TOTTEN

GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY


 


*********** QUIZ: In 1956, just days after the Hungarian revolution had been put down by the Communist government, two young brothers and their parents made it safely across the border into Austria. The train from Budapest had left them 20 miles from the border, and they had had to walk that distance in freezing temperatures.  One of the brothers was 14, the other 12. In the US, they would lead a revolution of another sort - in American football.

Once in the US, the family was interned at an Army camp in New Jersey, then relocated when the father, a dentist, landed a job at a hospital in upstate New York - really, really upstate New York.  It was in a town called Ogdensburg, on the St. Lawrence River about two hours north of Syracuse - and one hour south  of Ottawa, Ontario.

The two boys had grown up playing soccer in their native Hungary, but with no soccer team at the local high school, they attempted to kick for the local high school football team.

It did not go well at first.  Recalled the older brother, years later, "With my instep, I hit the ball, and it was a low drive about three feet off the ground. Basically a big joke. Everybody thought it was ridiculous. But I knew it was something I could do. The next year and that first kickoff, the ball went about 60 yards into the air. So, suddenly, that's basically how the soccer-style kick started.”

They both wound up doing well enough as high school kickers that the older brother  went to Cornell and the younger one to Princeton. (It helped that they were smart.)

They were both highly successful in college -  so successful, in fact, that unusual attempts to deal with  the Princeton brother resulted  in the passing of three different NCAA rules.

The first came after Cornell had two defensive backs stand on the shoulders of two linemen to block his kicks. By the following Monday, the NCAA had passed a rule saying that all men had to have “two limbs” on the ground at the start of a play.

The second came after he was called for being offside on the opening kickoff against Yale.  Yale’s head coach John Pont had informed the officials before the game that because of the fact that the kickers plant foot was several inches on front of the 40-yard-line, he was technically offside.

The third came after Dartmouth’s Bob Blackman tried what he called the  “Human Steps” stunt (Photo above) :   Two linemen would crouch, and a teammate in their defensive  backfield would get a running start and step up on their backs and leap into the air.  Said Dartmouth assistant Jack Musick, whose idea it was, “He can’t be the type who’ll worry about how hard he comes down.”  They put foam rubber padding on the backs of the two linemen, and outfitted the designated leaper with ripple-soled shoes.     A Dartmouth mathematician figured out the proper launch angle.  And then, the first time Princeton lined up to kick a field goal, sensing something was going on, they held up the snap count. The Dartmouth leaper, unfortunately, was in mid-air when the ball was snapped.  There was a five-yard penalty, but the scheme couldn’t be considered a  total failure, because on the next play, kicking from five yards closer, Princeton missed.

It happened in the last game of the year, so the rules change - that you couldn’t vault - took place in the off-season.

The Princeton kicker started out his senior year against Rutgers, kicking six field goals - one of them a 52-yarder - as the Tigers won, 24-0.  Asked after the game to comment, all Rutgers coach John Bateman could say was, “we got beat by a frigging Hungarian refugee.”

The younger  brother was an All-American at Princeton, and became the first kicker ever chosen in the first round of the NFL draft, when the Redskins chose him with the sixth pick overall. He wound up playing three years with the Redskins and three years with the Patriots.

The older brother, undrafted by the NFL, signed instead with the AFL Buffalo Bills, and became the first soccer-style kicker in professional football.  After two years with the Bills - helping them win an AFL championship, he signed with the NFL New York Giants, setting off a war between the two leagues that saw AFL commissioner Al Davis making offers to NFL quarterbacks and  ultimately drove NFL owners to agree to peace between the leagues.

In 2010, the Giants added the older brother to their  new Ring of Honor.  He still  remains the Giants' all-time leading scorer with 646 points.

In October, 2016, in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Hungarian Revolution,. the Washington Redskins honored the two brothers in a halftime ceremony attended by the Hungarian ambassador and numerous other dignitaries.

In 1917 a monument in their honor was dedicated at a park in Ogdensburg, the self-proclaimed “birthplace of soccer-style kicking.”

“Before them,”  wrote Larry Felser in the Buffalo News of the brothers, “Kicking had been an inexact science for the pros to say the least. Full-time players (for the Bills) such as Cookie Gilchrist and Mac Yoho did the kicking off and field goal attempts. They wore a flat-toed shoe on their kicking foot so that they could slip into their added role. A kicker who was successful half the time on field goals was considered a major asset… In the 1966 NFL draft the Washington Redskins took (— —) in the first round. Straight-ahead kicking was on a path to doom. Everyone, it seemed, had to have a sidewinder. It wasn't just the length of field goals. It was the accuracy and the longer kickoffs which produced inferior field position for the opposition.”

Who were they?



FRIDAY,  JUNE 21,  2024       “Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.”Eric Hoffer


*********** Wisdom from Mike Lude:  “One of the memorable occasions of my youth was the weekly bath. It was a family ritual. In the summer we used a washtub that held about ten gallons of water. Mother would fill the tub in the morning, and the sun would hit the water. When we returned from working in the fields, extremely dirty, we would take our turn with a washrag and a bar of soap, first me, then Mother, and then Dad. There was enough water so the third person didn't have to bathe in dirty water.  As for privacy, we put the tub behind the big lilac bushes in the yard. But traffic was almost nonexistent on the dirt road.

“Winter baths were in a large receptacle that held about 5 gallons of hot water, taken from the Reservoir on the cookstove. We would huddle around the dining room heating stove and go through a similar routine with the tub, pressing close to the stove while toweling off. I was glad I was the first in the water.

Michigan had winters that were severely cold. Did we sleep in our socks? Didn't everybody? We also wore flannel nightgowns that reached the floor. Our sheets also were flannel; linen and cotton were much too cold. Before we went to bed Dad would throw pieces of wood in the stove; chunks with big knots had the best chance to burn until morning although I can't remember the fire ever lasting through the night unless Dad got up and threw on more wood.

Each night we would stand by the stove to warm our backsides, and then Mom and Dad would say, “OK, time to go to bed, "and we would race up the stairs and jump in bed to try to stay warm. Then in the morning we had to build a fire before going out to the barn to milk the cows. During the winter, when we got up the windows would be frozen with ice, and the "slop jar” would be frozen too.”


***********   Whenever I would think of Willie Mays, the words grace, dignity, elegance and class would come to mind.  And even though he’s gone now, they always will.

Mr.  Mays truly was an inspirational baseball player - great in every aspect of the game, and great fun to watch.  It was obvious that he played for the sheer joy of it, and I still remember newsreel shots of him when he was a young player, playing stickball in his spare time with adoring kids in the streets of New York.  Maybe they were staged publicity shots, but  knowing what we already knew about Willie Mays,  they were believable.

Perhaps most important of all - he was a great representative of the game of baseball, a great model for American kids.  On the field he was a sportsman - a word seldom used today - and off the field he was a gentleman whose character was beyond reproach.

God bless Willie Mays. 


*********** This upcoming weekend is THE big holiday in Finland (and, I suppose, other Nordic countries). It celebrates midsummer - Juhannus, in Finnish - a  celebration of the longest day of the year.  Finns head to the country (it’s every Finn’s aim to own a kesämoki - a summer cottage - on a lake) for the weekend, where on the special night they’ll stay up all “night.” (Depending on how far north you are, there may not even be a sunrise/sunset, but nowhere in the country will it get really dark.) They’ll take part in a number of pleasurable activities,  including going back and forth between sauna and lake.  Food can vary but a lot of it will be grilled makkara - a Finnish sausage. There will be plenty of alcoholic drink, much of it olut (beer) and much of it koskenkorva, the vodka-like national spirit.  I must confess to having consumed to excess myself at more than one midsummer.  It may just be legend but it’s said that of the many drownings that occur in Finnish lakes over Juhannus, the victim is found n most cases withs an unzipped fly.



*********** Back in the 1920s, long before Caitlyn Clark hit the WNBA, the NFL, in its struggle to stay alive,  had its own Caitlin Clark experience -  when the Chicago Bears signed  the biggest gate attraction the game of football had ever known, Red Grange of Illinois.

Grange finished his  college  career against Ohio State on November 21, 1925, in front of 82,500 people - largest crowd ever to witness an American sporting event.  The next day, he signed with the Chicago Bears,  and four days after that - on Thanksgiving Day - he played for the Bears against their intra-city rivals, the Chicago Cardinals. The game drew 40,000 people to Wrigley Field.

(That would lead to a long-observed NFL rule preventing the signing of a college player until his class had graduated.)

After playing another game in Chicago, the Bears hit the road, playing  eight games in twelve days. Five of the games were regularly-scheduled league games, and three were hastily-scheduled exhibitions.  In Philadelphia, against the Frankford Yellow Jackets (forerunners of today’s Eagles), they drew a  capacity crowd of 35,000 despite pouring rain.  The next day, wearing the same wet and muddy uniforms they’d worn the day before, they drew 73,000 to the Polo Grounds in New York.

That game not only bailed the Giants’  owner Tim Mara out of a financial hole, but even more important,  it earned professional football a new credibility among New York’s influential sports reporters.

After returning to Chicago for a brief rest, the Bears - striking while the iron was hot - set out on a 10-game barnstorming tour of the West.  One game,  in Los Angeles,  drew 75,000. 

In less than three months, the Bears played 18 games, and Grange earned more than $125,000 - a fortune at that time.

I came across a story about Grange’s impact on the pro game when reading about the great Jimmy Conzelman, who prior  to the  1925 season had been persuaded to buy an NFL franchise in Detroit.  It only cost him $50, but even so he still had to deliberate long and hard before going ahead, and although his team was a success on the field, he was losing  money.  And then he lined up a game against the Bears…

When I heard about the crowds he was pulling in, I booked the Bears for a game in Detroit. The fans around Detroit were eager to see Grange because of that famous game in which he scored four touchdowns against Michigan in 11 minutes while he was at Illinois.

Once we broke the news the tickets began to move like mad. I figured we would make about $20,000 clear on the game. That meant we could wipe out all our debts and have a few dollars left for the beginning of the next season.

On the Wednesday before the game George Halas (owner/coach of the Bears) phoned and told me that Grange had been  hurt and might not be able to play. I thought it only fair that I tell the newspapers,  and I did. A few hours before the game was about to start, I looked out the window and saw a long line at the box office. I remember thinking to myself, "What a great sports town. Grange isn't going to play but they're still lining up to buy tickets.” Then I got the news from the ticket man. They were lining up to get refunds.

*********** West Virginia-born  coaches have won their share of football titles.  Nick Saban, of course, and Fielding Yost, and Jimbo Fisher, and Ben Schwartzwalder, and Jon McKay and Lou Holtz all won  collegiate national titles,  and Greasy Neale won two NFL titles as coach of the Eagles.

But here’s one  that I found interesting…

“Mazzulla (Joe Mazzulla, coach of the NBA Champion Celtics) becomes just the second West Virginia University alum to have won a professional sports championship as a coach, joining Joe Stydahar, who did it in the NFL with the Los Angeles Rams in 1951.”


*********** Insanity isn’t limited to college football.  The NBA Detroit Pistons just fired their head coach, Monty Williams, after one  season of a  6-year contract worth a total of $78.5 million.  They owe him $65 million. 


*********** The things you hear when you listen closely to what usually is broadcasters’ drivel… At the College World Series, the announcers talked about what had gone into the Florida State coach’s decision as to whether to use a pitcher who had last pitched just four  days ago.  He had to, we were  told, “talk to the player… his parents… his agent…”





*********** Even when it’s just one yard to go in the US, the NFL guys are liable to throw the damn ball.  But when it’s one yard to go in Canada, you’re almost certain to see a QB sneak.  One reason is that in Canadian football, the defense must  line up a yard back off  the ball, providing an incentive to the offense (the “OH-fense” up north) to fire off the ball, and at the same time making it more difficult for defensive linemen to burrow  under the charge of the offensive line.  As a result, it does appear to me that Canadian offenses are far more consistently successful on short yardage plays than their American counterparts.

But this past weekend I happened to notice that Hamilton (the Tiger-Cats)  were making extra sure they’d get the yardage needed by running their quarterback sneaks with a non-quarterback under center - a 6-foot, 229-pound fullback named Ante Litre.

It worked.  Not that the haughty NFL might try to  learn anything from those guys in Canada, but you never know…



*********** Pete Porcelli, of Watervliet, New York, sent me an ad, with a very simple comment: “WTF?”


Now, I’m not about to suggest  that this is a racket, but in today’s risk-averse climate, it’s amazing what can be peddled by throwing in the phrase “prioritizing athlete safety,” implying that anyone who doesn’t buy the product  is one of those win-at-all-cost  guys who couldn’t care less about  the safety of his  players.

(Anybody remember guilt trip they put us on in promoting  “Heads-up Tackling?”  Or “Hawk Tackling?” )


***********   Part of the reason why LSU fans  got down on Les Miles was  that while he’d won them a national title, he didn’t win  enough of the Big Ones.  Now,  years removed from his LSU days, he’s liable to win a  VERY  Big One - and the loser could be LSU.

Essentially,  charged with violating NCAA rules at the time that Miles was their head coach, LSU  copped a guilty plea to the NCAA, in hopes of getting a lighter penalty.  Part of their offer was to vacate 37 football wins that took place while Les Miles was their football coach.  The whole deal was settled just a year ago -  eight years after Miles had left LSU, they screwed him.

The consequence of  the removal of the 37 wins from Miles’ official record is that he’s no longer eligible for election to the College Football Hall of Fame.

Here’s why: The Hall of Fame requires a coach to have a career .600 win-loss percentage.  With the 37 wins on his record, Miles’  percentage is .665.  That, along with the fact that he won a national title  (and also had a good record at Oklahoma State) ought to be enough to get him into the Hall.   But without  the  37  wins, his percentage falls to .597, keeping him out of the Hall.

In addition to LSU he’s also suing the NCAA and  the College Football Hall of Fame.

Interestingly, the violation involved a booster’s  paying a player’s father for a “no-show” job. But  while  the NCAA holds coaches responsible for anyone who reports to them, the booster in question was not a “staff member of LSU or its football program.”  As a result,  the NCAA itself did not hold  Miles, as head coach, responsible for the violation - “the sole violation that occurred during his time with the LSU football program.”

Thanks a lot, Tigers.   Go Les.  Beat all those slimy bastards in suits who sold you down the river.


https://apnews.com/article/les-miles-lsu-lawsuit-2770d69274cafa039a7f8afb54c7a0d4


***********  The US Olympic swim team trials are being  held in Indianapolis.  In Lucas Oil Stadium.  Wait - a swimming pool?  Where the Indianapolis Colts play football?

Yes, they built a swimming pool - two swimming pools actually, one for competition and one for practice  on the floor of the stadium -  in the expectation of  finally being able to hold the event in a place capable of  accommodating all the people who wanted to attend.

The setup can accommodate a crowd of 30,000,  and on  Wednesday, a crowd of 22,209 attended - the largest crowd ever to attend a swim meet.  The previous largest was 16,000, at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Within the swimming community - and the sports facilities industry - the accomplishment is without precedent, taking more than two years of planning, and then three weeks of actual installation work.

To fill the two pools - their decks are nine feet above the stadium floor - took 13 hours, at 1200 gallons of water a minute (from city fire hydrants).

Reflecting on the scope and difficulty of the job, the  chief technical officer of the Italian company that designs and engineers competition pools said, “If I can be perfectly honest, it scared the sh— out of me.”



***********   If Coach Dan Casey is a HS assistant somewhere in Texas, I'm sure your other readers have questions, such as, Does he do this with the support of his school and HC? How would you describe the offense?

 I watched Coach Lude's character develop and harden a little more through today's entry.

Cameron Dukes is further evidence there are lots of fine football players overlooked for reasons we all know.

John Vermillion
St. Petersburg, Florida

Although it’s hard to imagine a  guy who teaches and coaches and still has the time to do all the stuff “Coach Dan Casey” does, it is possible that the school and his head coach support his outside work because he’s a really good coach.



***********   Hugh,

Whew!  Grateful to still be on board!

Skip Holtz, like his dad, can coach the game of football.  He, like his dad, also has a way of finding ways to motivate his players.  Agree or disagree with the method, Adrian Martinez could have folded like a bedsheet when benched and getting an earful from Holtz last week.  But instead he responded with a championship performance in the championship game.  Oh, BTW, Martinez hails from my old stomping grounds in Fresno, CA and played high school ball at Clovis West.  

I was right about the "crowd" in St. Louis.  Notice how FOX didn't provide many panoramas of the stadium during the broadcast?  Probably a decision that will come back to haunt the UFL's pocketbook.  Playing in a smaller venue would have been a better idea.

Recent US Open champ Bryson DeChambeau played high school golf at Clovis East!  One of his personal coaches (he has two) is a close friend of my youngest brother.  They both played on the same Clovis High golf team that won a CIF title back in the '90's.

More old stomping grounds trivia.  Oregon State University AD Scott Barnes is also a Fresno State alum, and Bulldog basketball player.  If Fresno State has an ace up its sleeve to get into a conference with OSU it would be Scott Barnes.

I can see it now...the TOSTITOS SALSA BOWL live from Monterrey, Mexico!  Security provided by????

Additional Non-Summer Olympic Sports (yet):

Cornhole
Slam Ball
Skimboarding

Have a great week!  (Oh, I pulled my application from Wal-Mart to be a greeter since finding out I'm still on board).

Joe  Gutilla
Granbury, Texas

We don’t lose many of our contributors to Wal-Mart, but I I sometimes wonder what happened to  all the old Double Wing coaches!




***********   QUIZ ANSWER:  Wally Lemm had a varied career, coaching  in high school and college, and in the AFL and NFL.

He was a pro head coach for 10 years - a year as interim coach of the Houston Oilers, five as head coach of the (St. Louis) Cardinals and the four more as head coach of the Oilers. 

He won the AFL championship in his first season as a head coach - then walked away from it to take another head coaching jobjob.

He stayed at that new job for five years, then returned to his original team.

And then, at  the age of 51,  he retired again - this time for good -  and started another business.

He was born and raised in Chicago, and played football at Carroll College, in Waukesha, Wisconsin.

He  graduated in 1942 and served three years in the Navy during World War II. Toward the end of the war he was assigned to teach navigation to Navy trainees at Notre Dame, and while there, head coach Hugh Devore offered him a chance to help coach the Irish jayvees.

Now hooked on coaching, he  returned to Carroll College as an assistant, and after two years there, became head coach at Waukesha High School.

But after one year,  John Breen, his former head coach at Carroll,  was hired as head coach at Lake Forest, north of Chicago, and he hired our guy as an assistant.

He assisted Breen for two seasons, and then was named Lake Forest’s head coach.  In his first season as  head coach he won the conference title, and after two seasons there, with a record of 11-4-1,  he left to take a job as an assistant at Montana State.

After one season as an assistant, he was named head coach, and in his first year the Bobcats won the Rocky Mountain Conference title with an 8-1 record.

And then he was hired as a defensive assistant by the Chicago Cardinals.  In his first season there,  the Cardinals had their  first winning season in seven years, largely because of a defense that  intercepted 33 passes and allowed just  nine touchdowns.

But pro football didn’t pay what it does today, and after that one season he  returned to Lake Forest as its head coach.  His team went  6-2 and tied for the conference title.

He spent a season out of football but in 1959 he returned to the Cardinals, and then, in 1960 , was hired by the Houston Oilers in the brand-new American Football League as an assistant to Lou Rymkus.

Houston won the title that year, but following the season our guy resigned in order to start a sporting goods business.

When the Oilers got off to a 1-3-1 start the next year,  and  Rymkus clashed with owner Bud Adams and appeared in danger of losing the club,  Adams fired Rymkus and hired our guy. (Part of the reason might have been that the Oilers’ Player Personnel Director was John Breen.)

Leaving  the sporting goods business in the hands of his wife,  he went to work and immediately made a difference. A major reason was his low-key, football-should-be-fun approach.

Of Rymkus,  said Oilers’ QB Jacky Lee, “If you smiled it was like you had committed a crime. If a guy laughed, Lou would stop practice and lecture us on being hard-nosed… As far as I'm concerned, I think better and learn things quicker when I'm relaxed. I think most players do."

Our guy?   He said,  on taking the job, “Pro football players, like anybody else, do their jobs better when they like their work."

His  approach was conservative and understated.  He reinstated George Blanda as his quarterback, and in order to reduce the chance of errors, he simplified the offense.  “Football is supposed to be fun,” he said,  “and if you treat the players like adults they will usually respond like adults. The game is not really simple any more because the defenses change so much, but we try to keep it as clear, straightforward and pleasurable as we can.”

In that one season, he did a remarkable job.   The Oilers went 10-0  and repeated as AFL champions, beating  San Diego in the title game, and he was named AFL Coach of the Year.

And then, the following February,  saying that he wanted to be closer his  home in suburban Chicago, he  quit to become head coach of the NFL Cardinals (who were now in St. Louis,  having just moved there in 1960).

You want irony?     In St. Louis he succeeded  Pop Ivy, who had resigned with two games left in the season.   The guy that the Oilers hired to replace him in Houston?  None other than Pop Ivy.

How different was the NFL in those days?  How  cheap were the Bidwills, owners of the Cardinals?   They gave their head coach a one-year contract.

Despite internal strife in the organization,   he got the  Cardinals within a whisker of  the NFL title game, finishing the 1964 season with a 9-3-2 record,  just a half-game behind the division-winning (and eventual NFL Champion) Cleveland Browns.

A lot went into his departure from St. Louis, including organizational problems and the club’s insistence that he move to St. Louis (he still lived in the Chicago area in the off-season), and after the 1966 season he resigned  and returned to Houston as Oilers’ head coach.

In the time since he had left the Oilers in 1962, they had gone through three head coaches.   In his second year there, Houston won the AFL Eastern Division,  but got wiped out in the AFL Championship game by Oakland (which would go on to meet Green Bay in the second Super Bowl).  Following the 1970 season, citing health reasons,  he resigned and never coached again.

Wally Lemm  had a career record as a pro coach of 64-64-7.

And then, just 51,  he went into the home construction business in the Houston area.


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING  WALLY LEMM

GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY


 
*********** QUIZ:  He  played his high school football in North Carrollton, Mississippi. and his college football at Mississippi Valley State.

Valley coach Archie Cooley (nicknamed “The Gunslinger”) was way ahead of his time, devising a spread offense  with four receivers on one side and one on the other. His quarterback  would call his own plays, without huddling. He called  it “fast break football.”

He had the receivers to make his idea work, but he didn’t have a quarterback. Our guy had gone to Valley as a punter, but  Cooley  said, years later,  he knew our guy was going to be his quarterback “when I shook his hands and he swallowed up my hand.”

In our guy’s  first game as quarterback in  the new offense, the Mississippi Valley State Delta Devils won, 86-0. They could only manage 77 points in their second game, and really fell off to 63 in their third.  Not exactly cause to panic.

After a radio guy said, “The ball looks like it’s floating in air like a satellite,” our guy acquired a nickname that stayed with him through his career.

In the 1984 season, he threw for 58 touchdowns (his favorite receiver - the one on the lone receiver side - set three NCAA records,  with 103 passes for 1,682 yards and 27 touchdowns)  as the Delta Devils, averaging 59 points per game, made the NCAA D-IAA playoffs (a great accomplishment for an HBCU team).

Along the way, he threw for 500 yards and four touchdowns in a 48-36 win over Grambling.

When he left college, he held 56 NCAA Division I-AA (FCS) passing records.

His career stats: 952 completions in 1629 attempts… 13,170 yards… 141 TDs

He wasn’t drafted by the NFL, and although he did play a few seasons in Canada, his only action in the NFL was as a replacement player during a strike, and he played three seasons of Arena Football.

On the other hand, his favorite receiver  was a first round draft pick of the 49ers, and went on to become one of the greatest receivers in NFL history.

Deciding to get into coaching,  he served as a graduate assistant at Grambling under the legendary Eddie Robinson, and spent two years as a high school coach and ten years as an assistant at his alma mater before serving as its head coach for eight seasons.

When he became the head coach there, the stadium  had already been named for him and his favorite receiver, giving   him  the distinction  of being one of the few college head coaches to coach in a stadium named for him.  (And, of course, for that receiver - Jerry Rice.)

He is in the College Football Hall of Fame.

At the present time, he coaches quarterbacks at Southern U.



TUESDAY, JUNE 18,  2024       “There’s nothing that does so much harm as good intentions.” Milton Friedman


*********** Wisdom from Mike Lude:  “Something we always had was plenty of food. We never, ever, went hungry. At times the menu lacked the variety of what we now find every day at the local supermarket. I can still go for months and not miss potatoes. We had potatoes boiled, mashed, fried, hash brown and scalloped. We rarely had baked potatoes because we lacked the proper means of baking them. We had so many potatoes, at every meal, that I didn't appreciate them.

“We ate so much chicken, that I thought I was going to start clucking. Mother could fix it in a dozen different ways. We raised chickens, and I still remember my mild-mannered, self-effacing mother going out to the coop, grabbing a bird, taking a hatchet, and chopping its head off.

“Mother canned everything – vegetables, fruit, beef, pork, chicken – and stashed it away in a dirt cellar down a rickety set of stairs. In the summer we grew vegetables and we picked berries, peaches, and cherries. My dad butchered one head of beef and one or two hogs every winter. We’d grind up the throwaway parts for sausage and to stuff the sausage, we’d use the hog intestines. The carcasses would hang frozen in the woodshed, and Dad would cut off meat in pieces until spring when it started to thaw. Then Mother would can what was left of the beef and pork.

“I tasted possum at a neighbor's house, but I didn't like it. I was offered raccoon meat but said no thanks. When I was about nine, I got my first shotgun, a 410 – gauge single barrel that I used to hunt pheasants, ducks, rabbits, and squirrel. I still own the gun.

“About the only meat we didn't eat was lamb. My dad called it mutton and said flatly that mutton was not good to eat. That went for the entire family. When I was in the Marine Corps years later, an Italian girl I met invited me to a family dinner, and a leg of lamb was the main course. It was great,  and to this day I love lamb chops, rack of lamb and leg of lamb.”



*********** UFL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME


BIRMINGHAM STALLIONS 25,  SAN ANTONIO BRAHMAS 0


Birmingham and their  coach Skip Holtz will now go into the record book - If there actually are books that keep such records - as winners of three consecutive professional championships.

When the teams met three weeks ago and San Antonio won, 18-9.  it was Birmingham’s only loss in the last two seasons.

Let’s see how I stacked up in my pre-game analysis…

Both teams have good defenses.  True dat.  The game was scoreless until just 40 seconds remained in the first half.   Maybe Birmingham’s defense took umbrage at San Antonio’s defense being touted by so many as the league’s best, but they wound up delivering the ONLY SHUTOUT IN THE UFL’S ENTIRE SEASON.

After pulling his starting QB, Adrian Martinez, and replacing him with Matt Corral in last week’s semi-final win over Michigan, Birmingham’s Skip Holtz may have a  quarterback problem on his hands.  Martinez started and accounted for 150 yards of total offense, running for two TDs and  throwing for a third and winning game MVP honors.

(San Antonio’s Wade) Philips has no such problem.  He’s been getting good play from Chase Garbers, who just returned a week ago after missing  most of the season with a wrist injury.  Garbers did not have a very good game.  He did complete 18 of 26 passes, but all those 26 passes were good for was 115 yards - an anemic 4.4 yards per attempt.

San Antonio’s Anthony McFarland may be the difference. He is a strong runner with breakaway speed.   Birmingham held him to 32 yards on  nine carries  His mouth may have been faster than his feet, as he was seen on the sidelines late in the game rather animatedly berating his QB.

For much of the season, Martinez was Birmingham’s best runner; but if he’s not their starting  quarterback, who is their best runner? It was Ricky Person, who carried 13 times for 102 yards. Martinez, though,  did carry 11 times for 52 yards and two TDs.

Birmingham’s best receiver is tight end Jace Sternberger; San Antonio’s is Jontre Kirklin.   Neither one was much of a factor.  Sternberger caught 4 passes for 19 yards. Kirklin caught five passes, but for just 23 yards.  Actually, no receiver for either team caught more than six passes or gained more thn 50 yards.

I like the way San Antonio’s been playing and if I had to bet, I’d go with the Brahmas. That’s why I  sit at my computer in Camas, Washington while smarter guys than me sit in front of computers in Las Vegas.



*********** My apologies for making it sound like a question when I wrote this…

    Saw Warren Moon at a CFL game - he was in Edmonton to celebrate something or     other (he starred at QB for the Eskimos - now the Elks) and he looked pretty good.

    Here’s a good one for you: he’s the only person who’s in both the CFL and the Pro Football Hall of Fame as a player.

I didn’t intend it to be a question, so I should simply have written, “Warren Moon is the only person who’s in both the CFL and the Pro Football Hall of Fame as a player.”



***********  There were 53,788 people in BC Place, the large indoor stadium in Vancouver (Canada) to watch the BC Lions play the Calgary Stampeders.

The attendance broke a 40-year-old record for attendance at a home opener.

Okay - it’s not as if as if there’s been a sudden outbreak of Lions Fever or anything like that - they had some sort of concert earlier.



*********** One thing about the Canadian game - between the three-downs-to-make-ten and the fact that in the last two minutes the clock stops after EVERY play - it’s hard to hold onto a tiny lead.  The ball can change hands several times in those last two minutes.



*********** From John Canzano’s mailbag…

Q: What schools are most responsible for Pac-12 downfall? I’ve got USC No. 1 and Ducks (a close) No. 2.


A: If the Los Angeles schools stay — even one of them — the Pac-12 would have held onto that market’s 5.7 million television households and likely survived. USC and UCLA were both unhappy over having to share revenue equally with the other members of the conference.

Let’s go back to June 30, 2022, the day USC and UCLA announced they were leaving for the Big Ten Conference. I spoke to a high-ranking official in the USC athletic department that day who did not hold back. The LA schools were unhappy with sharing revenue equally with 10 other conference members who weren’t located in a top media market. The source told me the plan to defect to the Big Ten was set in motion more than a year earlier.

“No one ever had a conversation with us about how we felt about the revenue share,” the source said. “Nobody asked, ‘Are you OK with it? Would we like to see something different next contract?’ Not one conversation with LA schools, that was a mistake. We could’ve ended up leaving for the Big Ten regardless, but you have to have the conversation when we have a higher cost of living in LA, higher tax, and 60-70 percent of the Pac-12’s TV market.”

I have some theories on why Commissioners Larry Scott and George Kliavkoff weren’t more tuned into the discontent in Southern California. Their leadership styles were on opposite ends of the spectrum, but they ended up in the same place — in the dark. For that, both deserve blame. Keeping USC engaged and in the fold should have been priority No. 1 for the Pac-12.

Remember, Scott brought a $1 billion private equity offering to the Pac-12 CEO Group in the fall of 2019, per sources. The firm wanted a 15 percent stake in the conference’s media rights deal. The Pac-12 presidents were split but opted not to go for it. I was told by some of the presidents that the most vocal opposition came from USC President Carolyn Folt. She’s the same campus leader who shut down the Pac-12 expansion discussions (i.e. Texas, Oklahoma, and other Big 12 members) in the summer of 2021.

As one source told me: “Folt threw a bucket of water on those talks, too.” I have no other choice but to think USC’s president was either being advised to sit tight or believed that her leverage would only increase as the conference found itself in deeper trouble. Beyond that, though, UCLA still could have balked at following the Trojans to the Big Ten. If we’re performing a Pac-12 post-mortem, don’t let the Bruins off the hook.

Oregon and Washington? Those schools have blood on their hands, sure. But so does Fox and the Big Ten. Once the LA schools were gone, the Ducks and Huskies became flight risks.

I remember reaching out to UO minutes after the announcement. Rob Mullens, the athletic director, closed ranks and instructed his staff to not make public comments. Oregon President Michael Schill was in close contact with Kliavkoff and the rest of the CEO Group that day. Everyone was blindsided by the USC/UCLA move and trying to make sense of it. As one long-time UO administrator told me: “It’s not what Phil Knight had in mind 20 years ago — to end up in the minor leagues.”



Q: What do you think was the beginning of the end of the Pac-12? Mine is Feb 6, 2018, when Lynn Swann extended USC head coach Clay Helton’s contract through 2023.

A: Mine is when Commissioner Larry Scott moved the Pac-12 headquarters to downtown San Francisco. That lease cost conference members more than $92 million in rent to Kilroy Realty over 11 years. The Pac-12 got a couple of floors of office space. It could have bought the building for less.



Q: Do you foresee college programs playing one bowl or game internationally? Do you think a group such as the Public Investment Fund would sponsor a college football program or bowl game?

A: Remember the Pac-12’s China Initiative? I do. The conference made an aggressive foray into China, trying to cultivate business partnerships, and playing sporting events while also attempting to lure airplanes filled with Chinese citizens to attend college on the Pac-12 campuses.

The Big 12 has “Big 12 Mexico” — which will put men’s and women’s basketball, women’s soccer, and baseball games held in Mexico. Plans for a football bowl game that would potentially be played following the 2026 regular season have been targeted for Monterrey. As Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark said at the time: “Mexico is a natural extension to the Big 12 footprint.”

The investors you mention will come along for the ride, I’m sure. Private equity started kicking the tires on college athletics a while ago. I’d tread carefully given that those firms typically enter amid desperation with an exit strategy already in hand. But that’s the reality of where we are today.



Q: Maybe this isn't a “mailbag question” and deserves a longer piece. But I’m super curious about the general profile of all these rich people who are donating to Alabama, Penn State, Clemson, Auburn, Miami, LSU, etc., and why these people don’t exist in the West.

A: I reached out to an SEC athletic director for some guidance on this question. What is the profile of the typical donor? Who are these rich people giving to those schools? What’s different about donors on the West Coast vs. South and other places? The AD told me not to overthink it.

The AD offered: “SEC tag line — ‘It just means more.’ Multi-generational, grew up with it out of the womb. Not necessarily wealthier just more part of the culture.”

If you study the zip codes of the richest people in the country, you won’t find a disproportionate number of them living in proximity to the football programs you mentioned. Nor did most of them attend any of those schools. A large number of the 735 billionaires currently living in the United States (i.e. Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Jensen Huang, Sergey Brin, Phil Knight, etc.) reside in the Pacific Time Zone.

Knight is an outlier. His willingness to enthusiastically fund Oregon is more like wealthy donors in the SEC and Big Ten, isn’t it? That Knight has the means to do it at a $1 billion clip without blinking makes it especially notable. But Knight’s sports-fueled motivation feels more like the stuff we see in those other conferences.

College football has a different culture in other regions of the country. Remember the Pac-12 Network’s failure to get distribution on DirecTV for all those years? Commissioner Larry Scott lost a lengthy staring contest with the distributor. During that time, I had an SEC source tell me it never would have happened in their conference.

“SEC fans would have gone into DirecTV with Molotov cocktails,” the source told me.



Q: Some of my Oregon State donor friends tell me the school has no choice but to cut some sports programs soon. Which ones are likely to be on the chopping block? Will doing so help football to be competitive again?

A: I recently asked OSU athletic director Scott Barnes about this. He said: “We have no plans to cut sports.”



Q: The remaining Pac-2 schools have a two-year grace period to bring the number to a minimum of eight schools to have a legitimate conference. What is the latest on that effort?

A: You’re thinking like I’m thinking. The two schools will run out every ground ball with other conferences (i.e. Big 12, ACC) before turning to their rebuild. But at some point, Oregon State and Washington State will need to roll up their sleeves and get busy adding schools. I’ll have more on this front later this week.



Q: I wonder if we have all gotten it wrong. It’s not jealousy coming at Caitlin Clark, it’s playing the Taylor Swift game. My daughter is convinced Taylor Swift’s relationships are all fabricated to boost her in the media, once the relationship is highly publicized, breaks up and this helps lead to another sell-out album to give the inner workings of the faux relationship. It keeps Swift relevant. It’s all marketing.

Maybe these other WNBA players realize Clark is a camera/media magnet and if they are to get seen notoriety is better than being ignored. So it is nothing personal, it is simply trying to be seen, hopefully, that can be sustained and they rise along with Clark?

A: I would love to hear Caitlin Clark get in the studio with Taylor Swift and come up with a song (or five) about her rookie year. I’d listen to it. But you’re hitting on something I’ve been talking about a lot lately. It may be possible that there’s some “Linsanity” or “Tebowism” at play here. ESPN is all-in, isn’t it? Her peers may simply be annoyed and eager to prove that the Clark coverage being shoveled like coal doesn’t match the performance on the court.

*********** Wow.  Life is hard.  Who knew?

It never occurred to me that that might be the case until I heard it said in a truly inspirational speech by Mister Hard Luck Story himself,  Tom Brady.

Meantime, do you suppose the reason we’re seeing so much of him lately - he presented the MVP award at the UFL title game - is that they’re promoting his regular appearances, starting  this fall,  as a TV “analyst?”

FEARLESS PREDICTION:  He’s going to set a new speed record for growing tiresome.

Having said all that, if it gets more soft kids to do hard things...



***********   In “An Ordinary Man,” Richard Norton Smith’s biography of President Gerald R. Ford, the author tells of the advice Mr. Ford gave to his son, Steve,  on how to make the high-school football team:

Success was more likely, he said,  "if you can do one thing that nobody else can do.”

“There’s nobody who can snap for punts,” he said,  “and I'm going to show you how.”

Just as  that formula had worked for Mr. Ford himself decades earlier, when he had played center in his school and  at the University of Michigan, it also worked for young Steve,




*********** I’m going to recommend a football book to anyone who loves the game, coach or fan.

It’s entitled “Trends in Offensive Football,” by Coach Dan Casey.  Coach Casey, who appears to be a high school assistant in Texas,  has rather quickly become a  respected  guy among offensive coaches at all levels because he seems to know his stuff, he has impressive access to coaching materials,  and he has the ability to present and explain them clearly.

I’m greatly impressed by his ability to continue emailing his  “One Play a Day” to coaches, the number of whom must now be in the thousands.

What’s cool about the “Trends in Offensive Football” book is that by scanning a QR  code (one of those weird-looking squares) on a page describing a play, you can see a film clip of the play that’s being described. 

(The term “film clip,” for just about any coach under the age of 60, is an anachronism, going back to the time when we used actual 16-millimeter film to actually  “film” games. Filming was expensive - there was the film itself and the cost of processing it, plus the projector - the Kodak Analyst was the universally-used 16-millimeter projector and those suckers were expensive even then.  Once we had our game film (very, very few schools had the money or the need to shoot more than one copy of any game),  if we then wanted to make a special film of a  particular group of plays to show to a particular audience, we would have to actually cut (“clip”)  those plays out of the game film - and then splice the clips together  (using a special machine and either cement or a  type of scotch tape)  to assemble our special film.  One problem, of course, was that doing all that cutting and splicing was painstaking, and not every coach was as careful as he ought to be. (Yes, coaches mostly did their own cutting and splicing.) That led to the second problem:  even after we had reassembled our original game film - first cutting apart that  special film that we’d made and then splicing  all those clips  back into their original places in the master game film - we’d have a less-than-intact original game film.  There was always the danger that an original film with a lot of splices in it might not make it cleanly through a complete showing without a break in the film.  (I can still hear the “snap-slap-slap” of a broken-off end of the film whacking against the projector, and the coach asking someone to turn on the lights.)



***********  Is it just me or is there something wrong with a guy that a team invests millions in… a quarterback who then gets hurt early in his first season with them…  who misses the entire season (for which he’s paid, just as if he’d been healthy)… and  now refuses to show up for Organized Team Activity?

You ain’t in Green Bay any more, Aaron.  Those fans in New York can get pretty nasty.


***********   “I remember the freshman football coach at Williams College, who, as our first game approached, appointed me captain of his team.    After an undefeated season, I realized my experience on that team was my first, albeit small, leadership success.

“I never expressed my thanks to Coach Frank Navarro for his confidence in me, though I often thanked him for his skillful guidance of our little team. The significance of his encouragement has become clear as I look back. He widened my ambitions by affording me success.”

Fay Vincent, who went on to become CEO of Columbia Pictures and Commissioner of Baseball



*********** Your job: name three sports (other than those considered “winter sports”) that will NOT be represented in this summer’s Olympic games.

Here are my three:

Pool
Horseshoes
Water skiing



***********   Maybe Deion Sanders (no f—king way am I calling that four-flusher “Coach Prime”) didn’t require his players to attend a Lil Wayne (rap) concert back in April.  You know - the one following the Colorado spring game at which his son,  legendary  quarterback Shedeur Sanders, would be making his debut as a rapper.

Maybe there’s no truth to the story in Athlon that quoted a former player as saying, "The Wayne concert was the final straw for a few players who hit the transfer portal.  When Coach Prime told us we all had to be there to support Shedeur as a rapper, they were not happy at all. To be honest, it was nothing but a huge distraction and Daddy Ball was being played.”

Deion denies it ever happening.

Now, he may be right, and it may just be the word of some disaffected players against that of their head coach (who for all his boastful self-promotion, does not seem to be a habitual liar).

And  perhaps he can  plausibly deny having told players they had to be there since what he said was, “I can’t make you go,” without adding, “but I can make you wish you had.”

Or maybe - just maybe - it happened exactly as the former player described it.



***********   My privately-delivered advice for you to get out of your truck-driving occupation fell on deaf ears, so I am sorry to have to deliver it in this public manner. And before you say you no longer need to work, I checked, and there are a number of high-paying equity department positions available in your area.

Because I'm from that part of the country, I've known about Lindsey Wilson all my life. But there's no way I would've known about Cameron Dukes. Fascinating story. Until I look it up, I'll guess he got no major school offers out of high school.

John Vermillion                
St Petersburg, Florida

While Cameron Dukes may not have been playing at a big-time school, I just read that he was a finalist for the Campbell Award, the REAL best college football player award, because it recognizes scholarship and character!   So give the CFL people credit for having done their homework.


***********  Despite appearances, Coach Joe Gutilla has not been laid off.   I have lost his original email.  We believe in fair treatment of our contributors so he will not receive a reduction in pay as a result of my error.





*********** QUIZ ANSWER:  Robert Brazile was born in Mobile, Alabama, and went to Vigor High School in Prichard, just outside Mobile.  Following a standout high school career he was named defensive MVP in the annual Alabama High School All-Star Game, and signed to play at Jackson State.

At Jackson State, he was switched from tight end to linebacker in his sophomore year. In his senior year, he led the SWAC in interceptions , and made the All-SWAC first team and Black College All-American first team.  Jackson State,  loaded with talent (including running back Walter Payton), won the SWAC championship in both his junior and senior seasons.  He wound up setting a school record for tackles.

Following graduation, he was named to play in the annual College All-Star Game in Chicago, an honor seldom accorded HBCU players.  And that’s where he acquired the nickname “Doctor Doom.”  USC linebacker Richard Wood first suggested it, and it was seconded by broadcaster Howard Cosell, who  said it was an acronym for “Death on Offensive Men.”  He loved the nickname and would prove himself worthy of it.

He was  chosen  by the Houston Oilers in the first round of the NFL draft, the sixth player taken. His teammate, Payton, had been the fourth player taken, and together, they became the highest-drafted pair of teammates in Mississippi college history.

He arrived at Houston at the same time as new head coach/GM Bum Philips (whose idea it had been to draft him) and he  fit perfectly into Philip’s 3-4 defensive scheme as a pass-rushing outside linebacker.

He pretty much defined the position.  He was 6-4, 240, with 4.6 speed, and with the ability to rush or cover, he was so successful at the spot that Philips would later refer to him as “Lawrence Taylor before Lawrence Taylor.”

He was the defensive rookie of the year, and in ten years with the Oilers, he would start every game - a team-record  147 straight games.

By the time he was  finished…

He would be selected to the Pro Bowl for seven consecutive seasons.

He would be named to  six consecutive All-Pro teams - first team for five years in a row, and second team in year number six.

He would get 48 sacks. Sacks were only counted officially by the NFL for  his final three seasons,  during which he was credited with 11.  But unofficially, his career total was 48.

He  would intercept 13 passes, and recover  14 fumbles.

Robert Brazile’s  honors have been many:

He is a member of the Houston Oilers All-Time Team,  the Black College Football 100-Year Team, and the NFL’s 1970s All-Decade Team.

He is in the Mobile Sports Hall of Fame, the SWAC Hall of Fame, the Jackson State University Sports Hall of Fame, the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame, the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame, the Texas Sports Hall of Fame and - most significant - the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

He survived quadruple heart bypass surgery in 2001, and spent more than 20 years teaching special-needs middle-school kids in his native Mobile.   Reflecting  on that, he said, ”I always knew what to expect on the football field.  You never know what's coming next in the classroom."


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING  ROBERT BRAZILE


GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
PETE PORCELLI - WATERVLIET, NEW YORK
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON






***********   QUIZ:  He had a varied career, coaching  in high school and college, and in the AFL and NFL.

He was a pro head coach for 10 years - a year as interim coach of the Houston Oilers, five as head coach of the (St. Louis) Cardinals and the four more as head coach of the Oilers. 

He won the AFL championship in his first season as a head coach - then walked away from it to take another head coaching jobjob.

He stayed at that new job for five years, then returned to his original team.

And then, at  the age of 51,  he retired again - this time for good -  and started another business.

He was born and raised in Chicago, and played football at Carroll College, in Waukesha, Wisconsin.

He  graduated in 1942 and served three years in the Navy during World War II. Toward the end of the war he was assigned to teach navigation to Navy trainees at Notre Dame, and while there, head coach Hugh Devore offered him a chance to help coach the Irish jayvees.

Now hooked on coaching, he  returned to Carroll College as an assistant, and after two years there, became head coach at Waukesha High School.

But after one year,  John Breen, his former head coach at Carroll,  was hired as head coach at Lake Forest, north of Chicago, and he hired our guy as an assistant.

He assisted Breen for two seasons, and then was named Lake Forest’s head coach.  In his first season as  head coach he won the conference title, and after two seasons there, with a record of 11-4-1,  he left to take a job as an assistant at Montana State.

After one season as an assistant, he was named head coach, and in his first year the Bobcats won the Rocky Mountain Conference title with an 8-1 record.

And then he was hired as a defensive assistant by the Chicago Cardinals.  In his first season there,  the Cardinals had their  first winning season in seven years, largely because of a defense that  intercepted 33 passes and allowed just  nine touchdowns.

But pro football didn’t pay what it does today, and after that one season he  returned to Lake Forest as its head coach.  His team went  6-2 and tied for the conference title.

He spent a season out of football but in 1959 he returned to the Cardinals, and then, in 1960 , was hired by the Houston Oilers in the brand-new American Football League as an assistant to Lou Rymkus.

Houston won the title that year, but following the season our guy resigned in order to start a sporting goods business.

When the Oilers got off to a 1-3-1 start the next year,  and  Rymkus clashed with owner Bud Adams and appeared in danger of losing the club,  Adams fired Rymkus and hired our guy. (Part of the reason might have been that the Oilers’ Player Personnel Director was John Breen.)

Leaving  the sporting goods business in the hands of his wife,  he went to work and immediately made a difference. A major reason was his low-key, football-should-be-fun approach.

Of Rymkus,  said Oilers’ QB Jacky Lee, “If you smiled it was like you had committed a crime. If a guy laughed, Lou would stop practice and lecture us on being hard-nosed… As far as I'm concerned, I think better and learn things quicker when I'm relaxed. I think most players do."

Our guy?   He said,  on taking the job, “Pro football players, like anybody else, do their jobs better when they like their work."

His  approach was conservative and understated.  He reinstated George Blanda as his quarterback, and in order to reduce the chance of errors, he simplified the offense.  “Football is supposed to be fun,” he said,  “and if you treat the players like adults they will usually respond like adults. The game is not really simple any more because the defenses change so much, but we try to keep it as clear, straightforward and pleasurable as we can.”

In that one season, he did a remarkable job.   The Oilers went 10-0  and repeated as AFL champions, beating  San Diego in the title game, and he was named AFL Coach of the Year.

And then, the following February,  saying that he wanted to be closer his  home in suburban Chicago, he  quit to become head coach of the NFL Cardinals (who were now in St. Louis,  having just moved there in 1960).

You want irony?     In St. Louis he succeeded  Pop Ivy, who had resigned with two games left in the season.   The guy that the Oilers hired to replace him in Houston?  None other than Pop Ivy.

How different was the NFL in those days?  How  cheap were the Bidwills, owners of the Cardinals?   They gave their head coach a one-year contract.

Despite internal strife in the organization,   he got the  Cardinals within a whisker of  the NFL title game, finishing the 1964 season with a 9-3-2 record,  just a half-game behind the division-winning (and eventual NFL Champion) Cleveland Browns.

A lot went into his departure from St. Louis, including organizational problems and the club’s insistence that he move to St. Louis (he still lived in the Chicago area in the off-season), and after the 1966 season he resigned  and returned to Houston as Oilers’ head coach.

In the time since he had left the Oilers in 1962, they had gone through three head coaches.   In his second year there, Houston won the AFL Eastern Division,  but got wiped out in the AFL Championship game by Oakland (which would go on to meet Green Bay in the second Super Bowl).  Following the 1970 season, citing health reasons,  he resigned and never coached again.

When the dust finally settled, he had a career record as a pro coach of 64-64-7.

And then, just 51,  he went into the home construction business in the Houston area.






FRIDAY, JUNE 14, 2024       “Easy street leads to a dead end. The hardest roads lead to the best destinations.” Pierre Poilievre, leader of the Conservative Party of Canada



*********** HAPPY  FLAG DAY! HAPPY ARMY  DAY!

Long lost among all the “this” day and “that” day garbage (don’t even get me started on the “this” month and “that” month crap) are two days that I consider worth noting.

Since 1916 - before World War I - June 14 has been officially recognized as Flag Day, commemorating the day on which our  flag was adopted -  June 14, 1777.

It is also recognized as the birthday of the United State Army.

But  - lest we forget -  it’s also

National Cucumber Day
National New Mexico Day
National Bourbon Day
National Strawberry Shortcake Day
National Pop Goes the Weasel Day
National Wear Blue Day
and - in the evening - National Movie Night


*********** Happy Father’s Day.  It has been perhaps the greatest  experience of my life to have been a father.  I truly do believe that when all’s said and done, our greatest purpose for being on earth is to produce and raise people worthy to carry on our lives - by the way they live theirs.


*********** Wisdom from Mike Lude:  “My dad was equally candid in expressing his opinions about a wide range of subjects, even those aimed at helping the country escape the Depression and helping farmers. When Franklin D Roosevelt took office, my father felt some of the programs he put in were just not right. People were getting paid to do very little work or not work hard, and that went against all of his principles. He thought you should work hard for very little. He didn't like entitlements, such as the program called soil banks.  He felt it was ridiculous to get paid if you didn't till a field, if you didn't raise anything in it. You should not be paid for doing nothing. He refused any involvement.

“In contrast, my mom rarely expressed herself or asserted her opinions. Doris Henderson Lude had grown up in Vicksburg, Michigan, and finished high school, which made her a well-educated person for her generation. She was a strong believer in education and helped me  with homework in reading, writing, history, and geography.   Dad's strength was mathematics, a necessity in calculating the market value of farm products, even though he dropped out of eighth grade to work in the fields.

“Mother was a very loving person who never said anything unkind about anyone. Her feelings were easily wounded. Yet her determination could be unbendable. She was not raised on a farm, but when she and my dad moved from her parents’ home, she wanted to become a good farm wife, regardless of the hardships involved. 

Grandpa  Lude thought Dad had married a city girl who was weak and not tough enough to be a farmer's wife, and he was less than supportive of my mom. Her determination helped her reach her goal. She took a lot of pride in her cooking, and her somewhat chubby appearance was a testimonial to how much she appreciated the fruits of her rather crude kitchen equipment and difficult culinary conditions. She put on great dinners for the relatives from Kalamazoo, and invitations to the farm  for a Sunday feast rarely were declined.”


*********** NEWS FLASH… I was ready to go to press when this story broke on TV…

A few miles to the west of us, in Vancouver, Washington, is Mountain View High School.  When it opened in 1981, it adopted as its nickname The Thunder.  That had been the name of the WFL football team I’d worked for, the one that hired me and brought me to the Northwest.  Mountain View also chose our colors - blue and green, very appropriate to the Northwest, and our logo - a “T” (for thunder) in the shape of a lightning strike going right though a football. 

I’m about to tell you something that very few people in this world know:  I designed that logo.  I’m not without artistic talent - spent a year of college pursuing an architecture major - and we didn’t have the money or the time to pay an ad agency to do it, so…

The Portland Thunder hasn’t been around since 1975, but ever since Mountain View High started fielding a football team, the logo’s been on their helmets.  Cool. I’m glad they liked it that much, They owe me nothing.

But now  - you’ll be hearing more about this, I’m sure.  Mountain View opened in a brand-new building this past fall, and the student body thought it would be a nice idea to cover one of the bare walls with a gift - an AI-generated mural depicting their (unofficial) mascot, the Norse god Thor.

It’s getting late and I’ve got to wrap this up, but to be short, the school district’s equity department,  insidious creatures deposited like louse eggs in practically every institution in America, moved in and said, “Oh,no, children…” and proceeded to tell them that the mural was a no-go because (being Norse) Thor was - get ready for this - WHITE. 

And, ipso facto, that made the mural “white supremacist.”  Furthermore, bringing Title IX into it, they said that the mural was not  gender-inclusive, and - using all the big words they know - it was “colonialist,” with undertones of “allusions”  to southern racism.

Equity departments.  Grrrr.  It's impossible for me to describe the contempt I feel for these leeches on society.

https://mynorthwest.com/3962341/rantz-school-district-mascot-thor-mural-racist-white-supremacist/



*********** UFL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME THIS WEEKEND


SATURDAY

BIRMINGHAM STALLIONS (10-1) VS SAN ANTONIO BRAHMAS (8-3)

AT ST. LOUIS

5 PM EASTERN TIME - FOX

The teams met just once during the regular season - three weeks ago, when San Antonio won, 18-9. 

Both teams have good defenses.  Wade Philips, San Antonio head coach, had a good career in the NFL as a defensive coach.

After pulling his starting QB, Adrian Martinez,  and replacing him with Matt Corral in last week’s semi-final win over Michigan, Birmingham’s Skip Holtz may have a  quarterback problem on his hands.

Philips has no such problem.  He’s been getting good play from Chase Garbers, who just returned a week ago after missing  most of the season with a wrist injury.  Starting in Garbers’ place while he was injured, Quinten Dormady  did a great job.

San Antonio’s Anthony McFarland may be the difference. He is a strong runner with breakaway speed.   For much of the season, Martinez was Birmingham’s best runner; but if he’s not their starting  quarterback, who is their best runner?

Birmingham’s best receiver is tight end Jace Sternberger; San Antonio’s is Jontre Kirklin.

I like the way San Antonio’s been playing and if I had to bet, I’d go with the Brahmas.



*********** Saw Warren Moon at a CFL game - he was in Edmonton to celebrate something or other (he starred at QB for the Eskimos - now the Elks) and he looked pretty good.

Here’s a good one for you: he’s the only person who’s in both the CFL and the Pro Football Hall of Fame as a player.

Bud Grant’s in both, but as a coach.



*********** You learn something new every day.  Until this past weekend, I’d never heard of Lindsey Wilson.

No, Lindsey Wilson is not a woman.  Not a guy, either.

Lindsey Wilson is a college.  In Columbia, Kentucky.  It has about 2000 students.  It’s going to become known as the place where Cameron Dukes played his college ball.

Cameron Dukes is 25 years old and - by default - he’s the starting  quarterback of the CFL Toronto Argonauts.

He’s a native of Shepherdsville, Kentucky and before he went to Lindsey Wilson he played ball at Bullitt County High School.

In his four years at Lindsey Wilson, he  threw for 10,439 yards and 114 touchdowns

In 2020, he led the Lindsey Wilson Blue Raiders to the NAIA national title

He’s just a couple of years out of college - played a year of Arena Ball and spent last year with Toronto as Chad Kelly’s back-up.

But with Kelly now  serving a nine-game suspension given him as a result of the club’s investigation into a lawsuit filed by a former strength and conditioning coach - a female, as it turns out - Cameron Dukes is the Argos’ starter.

How’s he doing?  Well, in the Argos’ opener, he led them to a 35-27 defeat of British Columbia, completing 21 of 27 for 254 yards (9.4 yards per attempt) and 3 TDs.  He didn’t throw an interception.  He was also the Argos’ second-leading rusher, carrying  five times for 37 yards, and scoring a fourth TD on a sneak..


LIndsey Wilson  plays its home games in Parnell Family Stadium (capacity 1,500).

Its 2024 schedule

Texas Wesleyan University
Point University
Bluefield University (Virginia)
St. Andrews University
Faulkner University
University of the Cumberlands
Campbellsville University
Cumberland University
Bethel University
Georgetown College


Other than the fact that most of these are schools not well known to even ardent fans of college football, I find it interesting how routinely and casually even the smallest of colleges find it necessary to call themselves “universities.” 

In this case, Georgetown couldn’t do it because there’s already a much better-known Georgetown University in Washington, DC.

But wait - this gives me an idea.   If a small school in Kentucky can get away with calling itself “Georgetown” and perhaps confuse an applicant or two…

Could I maybe get a post office box and start a college in Princeton, Indiana?  Or Harvard, Illinois?  Or Yale, Michigan?  (At a bargain rate of  $30,000 a year,  my “Yale College” could offer a “Yale diploma” at half the price of the one in New Haven, and still make me money.)


The 2020 NAIA championship game highlights:    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kQKHUxbLh4



*********** I like the Canadian Football League  rule that requires the defensive line to be one yard back off the line of scrimmage.


*********** The death of Jerry West reminded me of the time in Baltimore that my boss and I were out to lunch at some tavern in Highlandtown (pronounced “Hollandtown” in Baltimorese) and some guy at the bar was sounding the praises of Jerry West. 

You could tell from his accent that the guy, like Jerry West, was a West Virginian (often disparagingly called “hillbillies,” there were a lot of Mountaineers in that section of town, attracted to Baltimore by work in the steel mills and automobile factories). 

When the guy left, my boss, who wasn’t a big sports fan, and obviously hadn’t had much practice deciphering mountain twang, turned to me and said, “Who the hell is this Jerry Wish?”


*********** I bet you don’t have any truck drivers in your town as dumb as this one in our neighboring town…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozqCEhIu8F8

 

*********** It is possible that colleges will eventually have  to treat athletes as employees.

And that means that even those athletes who aren’t stars and don’t have NIL deals will still have to be paid minimum wage.

It’s  $7.25 in many states where college football is big: Alabama , Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Wisconsin.

But in several other  states, it’s more than that, in some a lot more.  In Washington ($16.28),  California ($16.00), New Jersey ($15.13)  and Maryland ($15.00) it’s more than twice $7.25.

That’s already going to put schools in those states at a disadvantage,

And then, depending on the state, “employers” may be required to pay time-and-a-half for  overtime - work in excess of eight hours a day, or 40 hours a week.  Surely, for football, travel to and from a Saturday game at the end of a week would almost certainly become “overtime."

Assume Stanford playing a football game at Miami:   hours spent in travel (assuming a charter flight) would be one hour to San Francisco airport, then six hours in flight, then one hour from the Miami airport.

Stanford, being in California, would be required to pay every “employee” $16.00 an hour.

That’s a minimum of eight hours @ $16.00/hour, or $128 per player.  The  total for a traveling squad of 70 players: $8,960.

But at time-and-a-half, that’s eight hours @ $24.00/hour, or $192 per player.  The total for the 70-man squad:  $13,400.

Colleges will likely reach deeper into their pockets for that kind of money, if it’s to pay  “employees” of football, a sport that brings in money.  But they’re also going to have to pay the softball players and the volleyball players the minimum wage, and the they only way they’re going to avoid having to do it  for softball and volleyball - and all the other non-revenue sports - is to eliminate those sports altogether.



******** Spring practice update.

Watched a school with very few kids and very little apparent talent working at the usual  spread offense (what a surprise), with four wide outs and one running back, and not  a single offensive lineman with a hand on the ground.

What’s sad is that they’re going to get killed.   And the head coach has played enough ball and coached at enough places that he has to realize this.  You might think that he’d be trying something - anything - that might give his kids half a chance.  But no, despite all the warnings that the bridge has been washed out, it’s full speed ahead.

The “quarterbacks coach” stood and watched as the three quarterbacks threw the ball back and  forth.  All of them had glaring fundamental flaws in their throwing techniques, but there was no teaching - no attempt to correct.  All he did was watch them throw and catch.  Well, not always “catch.”  One of the kids missed more of the passes thrown to him than he caught, and yet the coach just stood and watched. No comment.

It would have taken only one drop before I walked over very close to him and reminded him of something that every quarterback I’ve coached in the last 20 years has heard me say (because I heard great quarterback coaches say it), starting on Day One: “The quarterback’s number one job is to protect the ball.”

And then I’d ask him a simple question:  How can you expect receivers to catch your passes if you don’t care enough to catch the ball yourself? 

And then I’d give him a drill to do on his own time - throw a tennis ball against a wall and catch it.  Two hands.  100 catches.  Every day. 

If we’re going to develop a respect for ball security on our team it has to start with our quarterbacks.



*********** Is the day far off when a major league baseball player, one who never went to college, hangs ‘em up as a major leaguer and then decides to go play a couple of years college ball?



***********   John Canzano - Bill Walton’s reading list

Father’s Day is coming. It typically sparks a flurry of book buying. But I wonder if we might also pick one of Walton’s favorite titles for ourselves. I plan to read a lot of them. Not just because they look like wonderful, smart, interesting books, but because in some small way, it feels like a continuation of the journey Walton took us on over the years as a player and broadcaster.

The Hall of Fame basketball player did not include his book: “Back from the Dead” on the list. It wasn’t his style. But I’m adding Walton’s memoir and publishing the complete list here.

As Walton told me after his book was published: “Who would have ever thought little Billy from San Diego with his red hair, his big nose, his freckles, his goofy, nerdy-looking face, his inability to speak, little Billy — now a best-selling New York Times author.”

Bill Walton’s Favorite Books:

Studs Terkel, “Hope Dies Last”
David Halberstam, “The Children”
Irving Stone, “The Origin”
Tom Wolfe, “The Bonfire of the Vanities”
William H. Dana, “Two Years Before the Mast”
Bill Russell, “Go Up for Glory”
Robert Hughes, “The Fatal Shore”
T. Harry Williams, “Huey Long”
Robert Caro, “The Power Broker”
John Wooden, “My Personal Best”
David Halberstam, “The Coldest Winter”
Gerda Weissman Klein, “All But My Life”
Edward Dolnick, “Down the Great Unknown”
Stephen Ambrose, “Undaunted Courage”
Walter Isaacson, “Steve Jobs”
David Axelrod, “Believer”
Ashley Vance, “Elon Musk”
Phil Knight, “Shoe Dog”
Jane Mayer, “Dark Money”
John Fogerty, “Fortunate Son”
Bill Graham, “Bill Graham Presents”
Shep Gordon, “Supermensch”
Peter Cozzens, “The Earth is Weeping”
Eric Weiner, “The Geography of Genius”
Eric Weiner, “The Geography of Bliss"
Rinker Buck, “The Oregon Trail”
Kareem Abdul Jabbar, “Coach Wooden and Me”
Aili and Andres McConnon, “Road to Valor”
William George Jordan, “The Majesty of Calmness”
Sinclair Lewis, “It Can’t Happen Here”
Viet Thanh Nguten, “The Sympathizer”
Yuval Noah Harari, “Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind”
Al Franken, “Giant of the Senate”
Jonathan Fenby, “Tiger Head Snake Tails: China Today, How it Got There, and Where it is Heading”
Brad Stone, “The Everything Store, The Age of Amazon”
Timothy Egan, “Summary of The Immortal Irishman”
Timothy Egan, “The Good Rain”
Timothy Egan, “Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher”
Timothy Egan, “A Pilgrimage To Eternity”
Coleman Whitehead, “The Underground Railroad”
Christopher Lochhead, “Play Bigger”
Kenneth Brower, “The Wildness Within”
Salmon Rushdie, “The Golden House”
Matt Young, “Eat The Apple”
Ernest Callenbach, “Ecotopia”
David Talbot, “Season of the Witch”
Stephen Harrigan, “The Gates of the Alamo”
John Perry Barlow, and Robert Greenfield, “Mother American Night”
Peter Frankopan, “The Silk Roads, A New History of the World”
Robbie Robertson, “Testimony”
Joe Hagan, “Sticky Fingers: The Jann Wenner Story”
Michael Pollan, “How to Change Your Mind”
Daniel James Brown, “The Boys in the Boat”
Steve Martin, “Born Standing Up”
Roger McNamee, “Zucked”
Trevor Noah, “Born a Crime”
Jean Case, “Be Fearless”
Dick Fosbury, “The Wizard of Foz”
Jack Sheehan, “Quiet Kingmaker of Las Vegas”
Eric Schmidt, “Trillion Dollar Coach”
Alan Weisman, “The World Without Us”
Jonathan Bloom, “American Wasteland”
Peter Sagan, “My World”
Robert Iger, “The Ride of a Lifetime”
Hampton Sides, “Blood and Thunder”
Jack Nisbet, “The Collector”
Nick Neely, “Alta California”
Tim Marshall, “Prisoners of Geography”
Robert Dallek, “FDR, A Political Life”
Bill Walton, “Back from the Dead”


*********** A Double-Wing Question:

Q: Hey coach on 88 reach where do we want the a or c back on the snap to time it up right? Thanks.


A: My instruction to the QB is to (1) start RIP/LIZ motion by picking up his foot - and (2) say “GO” when his foot hits the ground.

The motion man starts on the lifting of the foot and goes full speed.

Whatever you do, don’t slow down your motion man.   Make any necessary adjustments with the timing of your QB’s foot.

Ideally, the handoff will take place about behind where the playside guard lined up, so it’s important that thaeQB take the correct hockey stick steps (see pages 168 and 169).

Let me know how it goes!


***********   I am grateful the Coach Lude vignettes keep coming. Have to smile thinking of little Milo, the convicted watermelon thief. That crime hurt him profoundly in later life.

The rather long story says Ron Rogerson left a deep imprint. And the author absolutely supports that position. And I noticed mention of, and a photo of, Dean Cain, future Superman (and brother of Will).

Re the Stallions-Panthers game: The camera caught Skip H. shortly before lifting him for Corrall. "Throw the ball to the effin' hash mark. Can you do that, son? Just throw the damned ball to that hash mark right there!" Poor Adrian replied to that televised ass-chewing with yes-sirs and no-sirs. Then Matt bailed them out. The good news is that Skippy has two good QBs.

John Vermillion
St. Petersburg, Florida

As you heard me say on the Zoom, I think that Skip Holtz, who’d done a masterful job  all season of maintaining his composure even in stressful times, lost it  against Michigan, and as a  result he publicly - on TV - chewed his QB’s ass, something no coach should ever do.


***********   Hugh,

At least the two best teams in the UFL will play for the title.  But I’m thinking there won’t be a whole lotta folks from Birmingham and San Antonio making that trek to St. Louis to cheer their teams on.  May be the first pro championship game of any kind played in front of a dismal crowd.

Dan Hurley:  probably figured out his east Coast personality and family wasn’t going to be a good fit in LaLa Land no matter how much dinero they were willing to pay him.

PAC12:  The majority of MWC schools will leave to join OSU and WSU.  A $$ move for the remaining PAC 2.  The MWC Commissioner will be named the new PAC-West commish.  She’s smart and highly thought of, will negotiate a great media deal, and look to add other schools that bring a good revenue stream.  My bet is she tries to keep a geographical balance pared with lucrative media markets.  UTSA will be one to watch.

Stanford and Cal will stay ACC for a couple years until either that conference blows up, or both schools finally realize cross-country budget constraints aren’t sustainable.  They’ll be welcomed back by the new PAC-West with open arms.


Have a great week!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas







*********** QUIZ ANSWER:  Mike Singletary was the youngest of ten children and grew up in Houston.  From the time he was a freshman, he was a  standout  at all-black Worthing High School, which also produced NFL greats Otis Taylor and Cliff Branch.

He starred at linebacker at Baylor,  earning all-Southwest Conference honors his sophomore, junior and senior years, and All-America honors his junior and senior years.   He also won  the Davey O’Brien Award, given at the time to the outstanding football player in the Southwest, in each of his last two seasons.    In his senior year, Baylor won 10 games for the first time in school history.

Drafted in the second round by the Chicago Bears, he earned the start at middle linebacker by the seventh game of his rookie season, and wound up winning Rookie of the Year honors.  From that point,  he went on to a career that would place him  with all-time greats Bill George and Dick Butkus in the pantheon of Bears’ middle linebackers.

He played 12 years - all  with the Bears - and started 172 games for them,  second  among all Bears’ players  only  to Walter Payton’s 184.

In his entire career, he missed just two games.

He was selected to 10 Pro Bowls, a Bears’ team record.

He was named All-Pro eight times, and All-NFC nine straight years.

For 11 straight seasons, he was either first or second among Bears’ defenders in tackles.

For his career, he was credited with making 1,488 tackles - 885 of them unassisted.

In both 1985 and 1988 he was named the AP NFL Defensive Player of the Year.

In 1985, as a key part of Buddy Ryan’s “Bear Defense,”  he led one of the greatest defenses in NFL history to a Super Bowl win over the Patriots.

In 1991, he was named the Bart Starr Award winner, given annually to the NFL player   who "best exemplifies outstanding character and leadership in the home, on the field, and in the community.”

He was named to both the College Football and Pro Football Halls of Fame, and in 1999 he was named to The Sporting News’ list of the 100 Greatest Football Players of all time.

Following his playing career, he  started out as an assistant with the Baltimore Ravens,  but when fellow Ravens’ assistant Mike Nolan was hired as the 49ers’ head  coach, he went with Nolan as assistant head coach and linebackers’ coach.

When Nolan was fired partway though their fourth season, our guy was named interim head coach, and after going 5-4 the rest of the way, he was officially named head coach.

He went 8-8 in his first full season, but after going 5-10 in his second season, he was fired.

He coached briefly as an assistant with the Vikings and then the Rams, and most recently coached in spring leagues.

Mike Singletary is an ordained minister.   In addition to being a motivational speaker, he has written or co-authored several books.

CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING  MIKE SINGLETARY

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JASON MENSING - ENGLEWOOD, FLORIDA
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY

*********** Always knew he came from Baylor, but hadn't noticed he was essentially a Bear for life.)

John Vermillion


*********** One of my favorite players, even for a Green Bay native!

Scott Mallien


***********  That picture of Mike Singletary standing across the line of scrimmage looking like a crazed pit bull still makes me shudder.

David Crump

 


*********** QUIZ:  He was born in Mobile, Alabama, and went to Vigor High School in Prichard, just outside Mobile.  Following a standout high school career he was named defensive MVP in the annual Alabama High School All-Star Game, and signed to play at Jackson State.

At Jackson State, he was switched from tight end to linebacker in his sophomore year. In his senior year, he led the SWAC in interceptions , and made the All-SWAC first team and Black College All-American first team.  Jackson State,  loaded with talent (including running back Walter Payton), won the SWAC championship in both his junior and senior seasons.  He wound up setting a school record for tackles.

Following graduation, he was named to play in the annual College All-Star Game in Chicago, an honor seldom accorded HBCU players.  And that’s where he acquired the nickname “Doctor Doom.”  USC linebacker Richard Wood first suggested it, and it was seconded by broadcaster Howard Cosell, who  said it was an acronym for “Death on Offensive Men.”  He loved the nickname and would prove himself worthy of it.

He was  chosen  by the Houston Oilers in the first round of the NFL draft, the sixth player taken. His teammate, Payton, had been the fourth player taken, and together, they became the highest-drafted pair of teammates in Mississippi college history.

He arrived at Houston at the same time as new head coach/GM Bum Philips (whose idea it had been to draft him) and he  fit perfectly into Philip’s 3-4 defensive scheme as a pass-rushing outside linebacker.

He pretty much defined the position.  He was 6-4, 240, with 4.6 speed, and with the ability to rush or cover, he was so successful at the spot that Philips would later refer to him as “Lawrence Taylor before Lawrence Taylor.”

He was the defensive rookie of the year, and in ten years with the Oilers, he would start every game - a team-record  147 straight games.

By the time he was  finished…

He would be selected to the Pro Bowl for seven consecutive seasons.

He would be named to  six consecutive All-Pro teams - first team for five years in a row, and second team in year number six.

He would get 48 sacks. Sacks were only counted officially by the NFL for  his final three seasons,  during which he was credited with 11.  But unofficially, his career total was 48.

He  would intercept 13 passes, and recover  14 fumbles.

His honors have been many:

He is a member of the Houston Oilers All-Time Team,  the Black College Football 100-Year Team, and the NFL’s 1970s All-Decade Team.

He is in the Mobile Sports Hall of Fame, the SWAC Hall of Fame, the Jackson State University Sports Hall of Fame, the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame, the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame, the Texas Sports Hall of Fame and - most significant - the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

He survived quadruple heart bypass surgery in 2001, and spent more than 20 years teaching special-needs middle-school kids in his native Mobile.   Reflecting  on that, he said, ”I always knew what to expect on the football field.  You never know what's coming next in the classroom."





TUESDAY, JUNE 11, 2024       “There is nothing so stupid as an educated man, if you get him off the thing he was educated in.”  Will Rogers

 
********** Wisdom from Mike Lude:  “One of my boyhood heroes was a man named Charlie Davidson, a Spanish-American War veteran, who lived a quarter-mile down the road.  Uncle Charlie would sit me on his knee and stir my imagination with story after story about the war. What a wonderful man.

“Charlie also had a watermelon patch. One of the rare childhood transgressions my dad ever admitted to was sneaking into the gardens of neighboring farms and swiping watermelons, so I guess I thought it was OK for me to do the same thing. The day after my criminal venture into Uncle Charlie's garden, he told my father that some of his watermelons were missing and there were footprints leading up the hill to our place.

“Confronted, I lied. Who me? I didn't do that. Privileges were taken away and punishment meted out with a stern tongue lashing:  Dad said it was important in our family to always tell the truth, regardless of what sort of anguish the truth might create.  You'll always be punished when you don't tell the truth, and the punishment will be more severe if you lie and we find out later you were dishonest. Dishonesty is not tolerated in this family.”



*********** UFL SEMI-FINAL GAMES THIS WEEKEND

The two games were, if I must say, rather ugly.  Michigan played a bit over  their heads, while Birmingham looked sluggish.  St. Louis looked as if the game of football was new to them. Only San Antonio looked like a championship caliber team. 

SATURDAY

BIRMINGHAM STALLIONS (10-1) 31, MICHIGAN PANTHERS (7-4)  18 

This was not the blowout that the score might make it seem. Birmingham didn’t take the lead until 13:42 remained in the  fourth quarter. 

It was a sloppy, listless game for the most part - there were six turnovers in the third quarter.

This was the second straight sub-par game for Adrian Martinez, named the UFL’s All-Star QB, and Birmingham coach Skip Holtz saved the day with his decision to pull Martinez in favor of Matt Corall.  Corall, who early in the season was sharing time with Martinez, had been relegated to a backup role as Martinez led Birmingham to a 7-1 record.  But to his great credit, he stayed sharp, and when his time came Saturday, he came through: he was 9 of 11 for 120 yards and two touchdowns.

Now, in next week’s UFL title game, Birmingham meets San Antonio, the only team to have beaten them this season, and Holtz is faced with a real quarterback controversy.


SUNDAY

SAN ANTONIO BRAHMAS (8-3) 25,  ST. LOUIS BATTLEHAWKS (7-4) 15

Shocking.  It may have been because last week’s meeting between the two teams went St, Louis’ way, but the difference in the way the two teams approached this week’s game was absolutely shocking.  If it weren’t for the fact that nobody could have cared enough to bet that much on this game, you’d swear St. Louis had gone in the tank.  Not to disparage San Antonio’s performance in any way - they rushed 35 times for 210 yards (115 of them by Anthony McFarland, who had a 69-yard TD run) and Chase Garbers completed 15 of 21 for 198 and two TDs, to go with a terrific defensive performance.  But St. Louis made several mistakes of the sort that characterize poor JV games, and offensively they were a joke.  They went into the game with a quarterback whose ankle was so bad that when he was asked about it before the game he answered, quite honestly, “It’s as good as it’s going to get.”  But if they made any allowances for the fact that he was at less than his best, there was little evidence of it: they didn’t make any effort to come up with a running game (20 carries for 28 yards) and they didn’t make any special effort to protect the quarterback, who was sacked four times. By halftime, his ankle was reinjured.

They made some crazy-ass calls - a sort of double-reverse pass, and a play they called “Chaos” (we know that because we heard the OC call it). Chaos was aptly named. It involved   a three-man bunch wide to the right, another  three-man bunch wide to the left, and a center over the ball, with a guard on each side. That left the QB and a running back, and the QB wound up being forced to run when none of the hoped-for brilliant options appeared. On short-yardage plays, they looked as if someone had told them they had five downs to get 10 yards, so they could go ahead and throw the damn thing on third-and-two, or fourth-and-one.  (Might as well throw, after looking at those running stats.) The idea of putting on a drive never seemed to have crossed their minds. Say what you will about AI -  AI is based on learning from mistakes and making corrections.  There was no evidence of that in the humans up in the St. Louis press box Sunday.


Now, here’s the best:

For almost 50 years, the NFL never played a league championship game in any place but the city of one of the two teams playing.    When the NFL  finally  did play the big game at a neutral site, it wasn’t actually the NFL championship - it  was the first of the yet-to-be-named Super Bowls,  a game against the champion of a rival league.

But the UFL knew better.  So next week’s championship game, between San Antonio and Birmingham,  will be played in - ST. LOUIS.


*********** THE RON ROGERSON STORY - PART TWO

The “Delaware” Wing T was not invented In Delaware.  It got its start at the University of Maine.  The head coach there was Dave Nelson, and his two assistants were Mike Lude and Harold Westerman.  When Nelson was offered the job at Delaware, Mike Lude went with him, but Westerman chose to remain at Maine and succeed Nelson as head coach.

Years later, when Mike Lude was head coach at Colorado State, he brought in a young graduate assistant named Ron Rogerson, who had played for Westerman at Maine and had come highly recommended.

After two years at Colorado State, Rogerson  spent a year at Lebanon Valley (in Pennsylvania) and then spent ten seasons at Delaware before returning to Maine as head coach.

After four years at Maine, he was hired as head coach at Princeton, and there began a 2-part story…

Part one told of his unlikely climb to become head coach at one of America’s most prestigious universities.  Here, in part two,  is the rest of an amazing story.


https://www.princetontigersfootball.com/2018/08/for-having-just-two-years-rogersons-impact-is-ceaseless/



*********** Dan Hurley, who’s won two straight NCAA basketball tournaments, has turned down a multi-million  dollar offer  to coach the Lakers. Instead, he’s  staying at UConn. 

Coupla reactions:

1. He’ll have a lifetime job at UConn if that’s what he wants.

2. I like Connecticut - went to school there, made our first home  as a couple there, and had our son  there - and I have some coaching friends there.  As for UConn - ever since Randy Edsall jilted them after the Fiesta Bowl and flew straight to Maryland - didn’t even fly back with the team - football’s been an uphill fight. Maybe basketball’s enough for them.

3. He joins a very exclusive club of great college coaches who have publicly turned down offers to coach professional teams.  Offhand, I can think only of Joe Paterno and Mike Krzyzewski

4. Even for $10 million a year, could YOU make it through even one year dealing with all those monster egos? (I would first make sure that all the checks had cleared and I’d have enough in the bank for a couple of million after taxes - and then I’d walk into the GM’s office and say, “F—k it.  I’m outta here.”

5. Maybe college sports aren’t irreparably broken.  Yet.



******** It’s spring practice time in Washington. My wife and I have been out to watch four or five schools’ practices, and one thing is apparent.   They’ve all got decent numbers  out - 60 or so, which don’t include next year’s freshmen.  But there’s another thing that’s apparent:  that body count can be deceptive, because they  were all spread teams, and at every one of them, at least 20 of the players were receivers!

Moral:  While it seems to be conventional wisdom that going to a sexier offense will help you boost your numbers,  if all it really does is get more receiver types out for football, isn’t it just fool’s gold?


*********** John Canzano on the final gasping breaths of the Pac-12…

The Pac-12 Conference as we knew it ended on a called third strike at 12:33 a.m. ET on Monday in Kentucky.

Oregon State’s baseball team outlasted its Pac-12 peers. The final breath of the 108-year-old conference was taken in the blasted Eastern Time Zone by a university now faced with the climb of its life. In a twist of irony, the Beavers played beyond every other Pac-12 team competing in every other sport.

What were your first thoughts after the final out?

Mine included Pac-12 greats such as Jackie Robinson, Bill Walton, John Elway, Jim Plunkett, Reggie Bush, Ronnie Lott, Marcus Mariota, Dan Fouts, Steven Jackson, Terry Baker, Sabrina Ionescu, Sonny Sixkiller, Napoleon Kaufman, Cam Rising, John Olerud, Drew Bledsoe, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, and a host of others.

I also thought about lousy leadership, rotten governance, the nauseating influence of media companies, greed, gluttony, arrogance, a gaggle of inept university presidents, and bumbling commissioners Larry Scott and George Kliavkoff.

I also thought about geographical bias, population density in the United States, and what that has to do with conference consolidation. Let’s face it, when it came to shuttering one of the Power Five conferences — five shrinking to four — it should be no surprise that the Pacific Time Zone got the shaft. That’s not new.

Never mind that the Pac-12 has more NCAA titles than any other conference. Never mind that it produced more Olympians. Never mind that it had attractive TV markets (see: LA, Bay Area, Seattle, Phoenix, Denver, Salt Lake City, etc.). The forces working behind the scenes sniffed out the vulnerability in the ecosystem and systematically went to work.

An athletic director at one of the “Four Corners” schools messaged me in August, just 48 hours before the conference’s implosion: “Peers from other conferences are trying to take the league along with TV executives trying to own it all.

The Big Ten had already snatched the Los Angeles TV market and, in the eleventh hour of the Pac-12’s overcooked negotiation, Fox added the two brands it coveted in the Pacific Northwest. The Big 12 and ACC picked over what was left, or at least what their media partners agreed to pay for.

Still, here was Oregon State baseball on Sunday night, a three-time national champion, fighting for one more inning of life. That called third strike slammed the door, not just on the OSU baseball season, but on what was at its core, a beautiful conference with some problematic leadership issues.

I’ve written several columns in recent months about the “lasts” in the Pac-12. The last football season. The last championship game. The last baseball tournament and final Pac-12 Network broadcast. Sunday marked another last.
The last… last?

Because now, we’ll get some firsts. First Big Ten and Big 12 football games for some schools. First ACC games for Stanford and Cal. And the first official day of a new quest for WSU and OSU.

*********** JOHN CANZANO AGAIN

Q: Suppose Oregon State and WSU were going to add eight G5 teams to their conference. Who would be the top choices? For me: SDSU, Boise State, Memphis, Tulane, USF, UConn, Colorado State, and UNLV.


A: I’m only adding six unless you put a gun to my head. I prefer to wait and see what happens in the ACC and the rest of the landscape. But San Diego State would be at the top of my “want” list. The geography works and you’ve got a toe back in Southern California.

After that, I’ll take Boise State, Colorado State, UNLV, Fresno State, and Air Force.
That maintains geographical integrity and gets the Pac-12 to the NCAA’s minimum of eight conference members. If Stanford and Cal are eventually available and interested, I’d want some room to add them, but I wonder if the Bay Area schools would be caught dead alongside the members I’ve noted.

For those who think that OSU and WSU should just accept relegation and join the MWC, I’d offer that they’d be surrendering more than $200 million in assets by doing so. That would be dumb. Under the circumstances, you’re either rebuilding or accepting a no-brainer invitation to a P4 conference.

I CAN’T FOR THE LIFE OF ME FIGURE OUT WHY WYOMING IS CONSISTENTLY LEFT OUT OF ANY  SUCH SPECULATION.


***********   Harvard  finished tied for 16th place in the NCAA Men’s Track and Field Championships. Before you pooh-pooh it, bear this in mind:  It was the highest finish of any non-Power 4 conference school.


*********** If a  football player is paid to do good works, is it really “good works?”

AS A MANAGER OF AN NIL COLLECTIVE TOLD THE ATHLETIC: For the traditional nonprofit, we have a deal where you get paid a certain amount a month and you have to make a charitable appearance for the work that month. It’s one appearance for a payment. If there are bonuses, he does more for that. We work out with local charities where five players will come to you this week. Some guys will help coach flag football games for local fatherless boys who want to see the players. That’s an appearance. It’s typically two to four hours in exchange for a payment from the nonprofit.

Remember when college athletes would actually  spend time with fatherless boys just because it was a great thing for the fatherless boys - and, as it would often turn out,  for the college athletes as well?




***********   Hi Coach Wyatt! Hope this finds you well. I am so enjoying the zoom recordings still, and hope to get in on a live one soon. As you may know, the school I coach at plays our home games at Cal Poly. I was there today for a 7on7 and saw this and thought you might like it. I will send more pics as the construction continues... As always please give my best to Mrs Wyatt.

 Kurt Heinke
Atascadero,  California


***********   I hope you’re well, family finally got moved to Sunny Florida!  Lemon Bay Football is off and running old school (we are running Michigan Power T as our base but there is ample DW concepts that is part of the package and I'm hoping at some point we will be able to get competent enough at our core package that we will be able to run the core DW as well there are plenty of commonalities).   I'm excited about our staff as I have a crew of good men and guys who are going to be outstanding Coaches.   We have had 4 (including myself) added to the faculty which is of course huge as well.   It is almost an entire staff turnover and roster turnover as only 2 kids on the roster started a game last year both on defense.  We did "win" the quarter we played in the spring game with St. John Nuemann 14-0 and I feel our kids and staff are buying into the old school, tough minded, no diva (WR) Football that we are going to play.   We won't be more athletic then most of our opponents so we are going to strive on being tougher and more disciplined.   Additionally, our Youth program seems to be jumping on board and installing our schemes as well..

God Bless,

Jason  Mensing  
Head Football Coach,
Lemon Bay High School
Englewood, Florida


 


***********   Seeing Joe Gutilla's mention of Cossacks, it reminds me of my idea that I have for our Pulaski high school — I always thought it might be fun to put Oregon wings on our helmets to reference the Polish Winged Hussars. I figured it would be a perfect blend of our Polish heritage and our offense.

Adam Wesoloski
Pulaski, Wisconsin


OUTSTANDING idea!   GO for it!!!



***********   I shouldn't have been on edge about June rolling around, but the waving on the LBGTIA+ flag is everywhere in the sports world, nearly impossible to avoid. Hurrah for the football coach who tells his administration he's there to coach football...he won't be speaking out on behalf of the social issues the media favors. And someone in authority in the military tells  the world he's preparing the American Armed Forces to fight and win America's wars, preferably through deterrence, and if you have another issue you're pushing, take it somewhere else.

From the moment I first read Butker's speech, I liked it. It was clean, clear, thoughtful. It did not diminish females in any way. Only a fool, in my modest opinion, could read it as an attack on women. Thanks for showing more than the cherry-picked 10-second clips ESPN will show you.

John Vermillion                                
St Petersburg, Florida



***********   Hugh,

On the 40th anniversary of D-Day President Ronald Reagan delivered one of his most famous speeches.  On the 80th anniversary of D-Day the current President used similar words without the same effect!

Joel Klatt recently commented on why USC should drop Notre Dame from their future schedules.  Well Joel, if they do, it won’t be for anything else but the fact that ND has beaten them like a drum over the past 10 years.

Never thought in my lifetime a kicker would become the standard bearer for nuclear families all over this country.  I am still not a fan of the NFL, but I am a fan of Harrison Butker.

At one time the Wing-T had a formidable place in college football.  Even Ara Parseghian of Notre Dame employed a very successful version of it in the late 60’s/early 70’s.  Football is cyclical, and “compressed” formations are making a comeback in helping to return the game to it’s more physical roots.

Enjoy the weekend, and those playoffs!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas

Joe,

Ironic that now that USC is joining the Big Ten and Stanford is joining the ACC, and coast-to-coast trips will become routine, Joel Klatt suggests doing away with what  may be the oldest intersectional rivalry in college football, one dating back to the days when USC and Notre Dame took multi-day train trips to play their game.

To me, it’s as big a game nationally as there is, going all the way back to Rockne, and Joel Klatt, a relative newcomer to the game, has no standing to suggest ending  something as sacred as Notre Dame-USC.

Not only are “compressed formations" a return to the past, but so, too, is the shotgun.  Today’s “quarterback” is a glorified single-wing tailback.
 



***********  QUIZ ANSWER:  Ralph Friedgen’s father was his high school coach in Harrison, New York.  As a senior, calling all the plays himself, he quarterbacked his  team to an undefeated season. 

Recruited by Maryland, he wound up having  three head coaches in his first three years,  playing a  different position under each one.  He arrived as a  quarterback, was moved to fullback in his sophomore season, and moved to the offensive line as a junior.   Discouraged, he  considered transferring until his father told him that if he did he wouldn’t be welcomed at home: “Quitters,” Dad said,  “don't live here."

He stayed,  earning   All-ACC academic honors,  and twice winning the team’s award for having the  highest academic average.

After graduation he served as a graduate assistant at Maryland, then began a long association with Bobby Ross when Ross hired him to coach the defensive line at The Citadel.

He spent seven seasons there, the last three as offensive coordinator, before moving to William and Mary as its offensive coordinator. He spent one season there, and one  season as assistant head coach at Murray State, and in 1982 he rejoined Ross at Maryland as offensive coordinator and offensive line coach.

In five years at Maryland,  the Terps went 39-15-1 and won three straight ACC championships (1983-85).  While at Maryland,  he was instrumental in developing three quarterbacks - Boomer Esiason, Frank Reich and Stan Gelbaugh - who all went on to NFL careers of ten years or more.

In 1987, when Ross moved to Georgia Tech,  our guy went along as  offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, and in 1990, although Tech was unranked prior to the season,  the Jackets won the national title.

After five seasons, Ross  was named head coach of the San Diego Chargers, and named Friedgen as his running game coordinator. In his third season, Friedgen  was named  offensive coordinator,  and  when the Chargers made it to the Super Bowl - for the first time in their  history - he became one of the very few coaches to have served as offensive coordinator for a  national college champion  and for a Super Bowl team.

In 1997,  he  returned to Georgia Tech as offensive coordinator under George O’Leary, and in his second season there ,  Yellow Jackets were co-champions of the ACC, defeated Notre Dame in the Gator Bowl, and ended the season ranked in the Top Ten.   In 1999, he was named the winner of the Frank Broyles Award as the top assistant coach in the country

In 2000, after being an assistant for 32 years (and an offensive coordinator for 21 of them),  he finally landed his first head coaching job. It was at his alma mater, Maryland, where he’d coached twice before,  as a graduate assistant, and then as offensive coordinator.

The Terps had been  through five straight losing seasons, and  worse yet,  a span of  14 years during which the best that three different coaches could produce was two 6-win seasons.

In his first year, Maryland started out winning its first seven games. The Terps finished 10-2 with a top-ten national ranking, winning the school’s first ACC title in 16 years.  For this feat, he was named national coach of the year by every single organization (there are many) presenting such an award.

By the time he was  fired 10 years later - despite going 9-4 that year, ranking 23rd nationally  and being named ACC Coach of the Year - he had a record of 75-50.  He’d taken the Terps to seven bowl games (winning five of them), finished first in the ACC once and  second four times, with four national rankings.

Ralph Friedgen’s  75 wins are the third most by a coach in school history, behind only  Curly Byrd (119),  and Jerry Claiborne (77).  (Jim Tatum, who won a national championship at Maryland in 1953, finished with 73 wins.)

His firing by new AD Kevin Anderson was not well received.  Anderson had initially retained him,  although  refusing to give him the contact extension he wanted.   Then,  when Maryland offensive coordinator James Franklin left to take the head coaching job at Vanderbilt, Anderson decided to fire our guy, reasoning that no  quality offensive coordinator would take the job, knowing that our guy was on shaky ground.

How monumental was our guy’s run of success?  In the first ten years run after his firing, Maryland  went 43-70 under four different coaches.  Current coach Mike Locksley, who was on our guy’s staff as running backs coach in 2001 and 2002, has put together a current run  of 7, 8 and 8 win seasons, each ending with a bowl win, so there’s hope for Terps fans.

To his credit, Locksley had Ralph Friedgen - his former mentor - serve as an honorary captain at a Maryland-Penn State game, saying at the time,  “He’s a guy that I have the utmost respect for, that I’ve always looked up to as a guy that loves and has passion for this place like I do. We’re going to bring him back and honor him the right way.”


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING  RALPH FRIEDGEN

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JASON MENSING - ENGLEWOOD, FLORIDA
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY


***********   Ralph Friedgen may have had the worse ending of a Head Coaching Career ever!  Kevin Anderson demonstrating the horrible leader he was by not supporting him after being the ACC Coach of the year and having a great run is one of the worst decisions an AD has ever made.   Ranks up there with the Frank Solich firing….

Jason Mensing
Englewood, Florida


**********   I will never forgive the old Army AD, Kevin Anderson, for letting Coach Friedgen go. Disgraceful.

John Vermillion
St. Petersburg, Florida

When Kevin Anderson got to Army, he had come from Oregon State where his title, everyone was told, was deputy assistant executive AD or some such. His claimed responsibilities there were, at the least, “embellished.”  His biog at Army claimed among other things that he was instrumental in recruiting Mike Riley to OSU as its head coach, and, further, that he was responsible for “overseeing” the football program. First of all, before Anderson even got to Oregon State, Riley was the head coach there.  Then  Riley left to coach the Chargers, and was replaced by Dennis Erickson. And when Erickson left to coach the Seahawks, Riley was available and eager to return.  No one needed to recruit him. The “oversight” business is nonsense, because a friend of a friend who was very close to the OSU athletic program told me that at the time Anderson was hired by Army, he’d already been given the word by OSU AD Bob De Carolis that it was time for him to start looking for another job.  So Army, not aware that he was on his way out at Oregon State, in their infinite wisdom bailed his ass out by hiring him.  And he parlayed the Army job into the Maryland job, where he screwed up the football program big time, before leaving under VERY strange circumstances (unless there are people who don’t think there’s anything strange about an AD taking a six-month “sabbatical” - in the middle of football season).  Of course, most people on sabbaticals return to their jobs.  Kevin Anderson didn’t.

https://dbknews.com/0999/12/31/arc-2s4qevchnnf33ii2rujmx2qwum/






*********** QUIZ:  He was the youngest of ten children and grew up in Houston.  From the time he was a freshman, he was a  standout  at all-black Worthing High School, which also produced NFL greats Otis Taylor and Cliff Branch.

He starred at linebacker at Baylor,  earning all-Southwest Conference honors his sophomore, junior and senior years, and All-America honors his junior and senior years.   He also won  the Davey O’Brien Award, given at the time to the outstanding football player in the Southwest, in each of his last two seasons.    In his senior year, Baylor won 10 games for the first time in school history.

Drafted in the second round by the Chicago Bears, he earned the start at middle linebacker by the seventh game of his rookie season, and wound up winning Rookie of the Year honors.  From that point,  he went on to a career that would place him  with all-time greats Bill George and Dick Butkus in the pantheon of Bears’ middle linebackers.

He played 12 years - all  with the Bears - and started 172 games for them,  second  among all Bears’ players  only  to Walter Payton’s 184.

In his entire career, he missed just two games.

He was selected to 10 Pro Bowls, a Bears’ team record.

He was named All-Pro eight times, and All-NFC nine straight years.

For 11 straight seasons, he was either first or second among Bears’ defenders in tackles.

For his career, he was credited with making 1,488 tackles - 885 of them unassisted.

In both 1985 and 1988 he was named the AP NFL Defensive Player of the Year.

In 1985, as a key part of Buddy Ryan’s “Bear Defense,”  he led one of the greatest defenses in NFL history to a Super Bowl win over the Patriots.

In 1991, he was named the Bart Starr Award winner, given annually to the NFL player   who "best exemplifies outstanding character and leadership in the home, on the field, and in the community.”

He was named to both the College Football and Pro Football Halls of Fame, and in 1999 he was named to The Sporting News’ list of the 100 Greatest Football Players of all time.

Following his playing career, he  started out as an assistant with the Baltimore Ravens,  but when fellow Ravens’ assistant Mike Nolan was hired as the 49ers’ head  coach, he went with Nolan as assistant head coach and linebackers’ coach.

When Nolan was fired partway though their fourth season, our guy was named interim head coach, and after going 5-4 the rest of the way, he was officially named head coach.

He went 8-8 in his first full season, but after going 5-10 in his second season, he was fired.

He coached briefly as an assistant with the Vikings and then the Rams, and most recently coached in spring leagues.

He is an ordained minister.   In addition to being a motivational speaker, he has written or co-authored several books.

.


FRIDAY, JUNE 7, 2024       “If you think tough men are dangerous, wait until you see what weak men are capable of.” Jordan Peterson

 
************ Wisdom from Mike Lude:  “While the horses rested my father designated me to pick up stones – they came in all sizes – and throw them in piles at the end of the rows. I would say to him, "Dad, what about Mike resting?”  The response was always the same. "Mike, those horses are important and we need those stones picked up.”

“As hard as he worked and as hard as he worked me, my father occasionally showed he had a sense of humor and, in his own way, attempted to motivate me. One of my jobs was cleaning out the stables, and again there was a routine: as the cow dung piled up, I filled the wheelbarrow and hauled it out to the barnyard and dumped the contents on the manure pile. In the early spring we hauled the manure out on the manure spreader and fertilized the fields.

“Cleaning the stables one morning, I discovered what appeared to be a sign hanging over the barn door. I put down my scoop and moved close to read the words: "You'll become what you do.”  My father's message was clear if slightly stinky."


 
***********   “Democracy often works beautifully at first. But once a state extends the franchise to every warm body, be he producer or parasite, that day marks the beginning of the end of the state. For when the plebs discover that they can vote themselves bread and circuses without limit and that the productive members of the body politic cannot stop them, they will do so, until the state bleeds to death, or in its weakened condition the state succumbs to an invader—the barbarians enter Rome.”

― Robert A. Heinlein, "To Sail Beyond the Sunset "

 

*********** UFL SEMI-FINAL GAMES THIS WEEKEND


SATURDAY 3 PM Eastern - ABC

MICHIGAN PANTHERS (7-3) at  BIRMINGHAM STALLIONS (9-1)
Last weekend, Michigan missed a field goal at the end and lost, 20-19
This one could be just as close

Birmingham’s Adrian Martinez has been named All-UFL QB  and Jace Sternberger All-UFL TE

Michigan edge Rusher Breeland Speaks is possibly the UFL’s top defensive player



SUNDAY 7 PM Eastern - FOX

SAN ANTONIO BRAHMAS (7-3) at ST. LOUIS BATTLEHAWKS (7-3)
Last week, San Antonio lost, 13-12.

St Louis WR Hakeem Butler is  6-6 and fast. He’s probably the best in the UFL; Their running back, Jacob Saylors, was named All-League.  Their QB, A.J. McCarron, may be the league’s best, but he’s coming back from an injury




STANDINGS

XFL CONFERENCE

ST LOUIS                 7-3

SAN ANTONIO        7-3

DC                    4-6

ARLINGTON             3-7


USFL CONFERENCE

BIRMINGHAM        9-1

MICHIGAN            7-3

MEMPHIS            2-8

HOUSTON             1-9



***********   MICHIGAN’S MIKE NOLAN HAS BEEN NAMED UFL COACH OF THE YEAR. 


*********** As I write this, it’s still June 6.  It’s still the 80th anniversary of D-Day, and the start of the Allied invasion on northern Europe.  But it’s also the 80th birthday of Seiki Murono, born (on D-Day) in a Japanese internment camp deep in southwest Texas. Seiki Murono would grow up in South Jersey and go on to attend a Division-III college in Pennsylvania where he became the only college football player born in a Japanese internment camp.  I managed to get to know him and with his permission and assistance I wrote a brief biography - a short story of his impressive life.

What I found amazing in getting to know him and hear his story was the total lack of bitterness or hard feelings, the absolute refusal to think of himself or his family as victims of one of the most horrendous actions our country ever took against its own citizens.

I defy you to read it and not have enormous respect for his parents and people like them, people who endured almost unthinkable hardship and indignity in order to  help  their children realize the American Dream.


http://www.coachwyatt.com/SEIKI%20MURONO.html



*********** I found this, while digging through my archives from October, 2002 -

A ringing endorsement of our system... USC came out against Cal in what we would call "Slot formation," and sent four receivers out. The color analyst, whose name I didn't catch, said, "You think this isn't hard to cover?" He explained how, with everybody in tight like that, the four receivers could all spray out.

So here we are, 22 years later, and the pros have gotten around to figuring that out. Gosh - you mean you can actually keep your players in tight - and have a real running game - and STILL “attack the whole field,” just like all those spread-it-out guys whose running games are a joke?



***********   Back in my pre-coaching days, when I was selling corrugated packaging, part of my territory was the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.  It’s a beautiful part of the country, and it’s absolutely steeped in history.  It seemed as if you couldn’t  go five miles without seeing a roadside marker telling of this or that event that had taken place during the Civil War.  One name that caught my attention - and my imagination - was John Singleton Mosby (pronounced MOZE-bee).  He led a group of cavalrymen known as Mosby’s Rangers - independent of the regular Confederate Army - that was so able to bedevil Union forces up and down the Valley, seeming to appear and disappear so quickly, that he was nicknamed the “Gray Ghost.” His Rangers’ favorite saying was,

“Do unto the other fellow as he would do unto you – and do it first. “

https://www.nps.gov/people/john-singleton-mosby.htm


***********  Burr, Nebraska is the hometown of Dean Steinkuhler, Nebraska All-American lineman who played eight years in the NFL with the Houston Oilers.  With  a population in 2020 of 66 people, it’s believed to be the smallest  town ever to produce an All-American football player.


*********** This is the part of Harrison Butker’s commencement address at small and  unapologetically conservative, Catholic Benedictine College  that offended so many easily-offended feminists (is there any other kind?)

For the ladies present today, congratulations on an amazing accomplishment. You should be proud of all that you have achieved to this point in your young lives. I want to speak directly to you briefly because I think it is you, the women, who have had the most diabolical lies told to you. How many of you are sitting here now about to cross this stage and are thinking about all the promotions and titles you are going to get in your career? Some of you may go on to lead successful careers in the world, but I would venture to guess that the majority of you are most excited about your marriage and the children you will bring into this world.

I can tell you that my beautiful wife, Isabelle, would be the first to say that her life truly started when she began living her vocation as a wife and as a mother. I'm on the stage today and able to be the man I am because I have a wife who leans into her vocation. I'm beyond blessed with the many talents God has given me, but it cannot be overstated that all of my success is made possible because a girl I met in band class back in middle school would convert to the faith, become my wife, and embrace one of the most important titles of all: homemaker.

[Applause lasting 18 seconds]

She is a primary educator to our children. She is the one who ensures I never let football or my business become a distraction from that of a husband and father. She is the person that knows me best at my core, and it is through our marriage that, Lord willing, we will both attain salvation.

I say all of this to you because I have seen it firsthand how much happier someone can be when they disregard the outside noise and move closer and closer to God's will in their life. Isabelle's dream of having a career might not have come true, but if you asked her today if she has any regrets on her decision, she would laugh out loud, without hesitation, and say, “Heck, No.”

After all the caterwauling that followed Butker’s address,  it was great to read the following, by a young woman named May Mailman.  She is - I hope this doesn’t offend her - quite nice to look at, but far more important, she’s quite intelligent and well-spoken, with a lot to say on the same basic subject as Butker…

I’ll admit it, I find Women’s History Month slightly obnoxious. In my defense, for a year I was in charge of editing all the proclamations from the White House trumpeting the named months, dampening my celebratory attitude. But before I earn an anti-feminist label, hear me out.
 
For one, the way we celebrate seems to accomplish little, or worse. SoulCycle wants to sell me the tiniest $52 WHM tank top. Will this small piece of cloth launch women into a new era of greatness? And when we do try to accomplish something, every event, email or donation drive promoting women assumes we love the equity agenda, open borders, and expensive and unreliable energy, as if women are monolithic in our views.
 
And I dislike minimizing people to their genitals. If someone has done something great, why not celebrate that achievement rather than genetic facts? As in, if we’d like to celebrate Kamala Harris, is there some accomplishment (and no, titles are not accomplishments) we can celebrate rather than just pointing out skin color and sex, like the White House did?
 
But, I’ll be a feminist yet. Why? Because I want to celebrate womanhood. There’s just so much to appreciate.
 
Unfortunately, when our society finally does get around to celebrating the accomplishments of women, it’s only their most male-sounding achievements. Being rich. Being powerful. Being athletic.
 
To be sure, there’s nothing wrong with being a Girl Boss. I myself collected three degrees and rose the ranks at the White House, certainly worthwhile experiences, paved by Girl Bosses before me. But, is there nothing about femininity and womanhood itself to celebrate? It may not make the history books, but what about the women who raised Condoleezza Rice or Ruth Bader Ginsburg? We don’t need to know their names to be thankful for their work. And make no mistake — it is work.
 
By celebrating only career moves and finances, our society adopts the stance that men’s priorities must be the right ones. How misogynistic. The societal acceptance of these priorities is so invasive we barely recognize it. Netflix has a Girl Boss series right now, “Inventing Anna.” (It’s not worth watching.) The main character is a journalist who abandons her newborn so she can write a frivolous follow-up story about a criminal. I suppose this is supposed to be admirable. She is, after all, taking the steps a man would probably take. But why is the male norm the model? Is there nothing to applaud about drawing lines at work?

And in our obsession to recognize male-centric accomplishments, we’ve predictably started recognizing men. Like the first female four-star officer in the Department of Health and Human Services, who is a man. Or a female weightlifting recordholder, who is also a man.
 
This has gone too far. There’s more to life than the male norm. It’s OK to celebrate the innumerable facets of being a woman. Be proud if you’ve given life. Be proud if you show emotion. Be proud if your home is spotless, if only for a minute. Be proud if you’re an amazing cook. Be proud if someone likes your smile. Be proud if the kids were picked up on time. Be proud if you found the perfect heels. Be proud if you make other people happy, successful or fulfilled. Be proud of being a woman.
 
If we’re going to do a lady month, let’s do it right. Let’s celebrate the beauty and the joy of being a woman.
 
 
May Mailman is a Senior Fellow at the Independent Women’s Forum. She is a former legal advisor to President Donald Trump, where she advised on a wide range of policies including healthcare, immigration, and social issues. She wrote this for InsideSources.com.

 
By the way… if you haven’t read Harrison Butker’s speech in its entirely, you should.  It is really good.

https://www.ncregister.com/news/harrison-butker-speech-at-benedictine


*********** The “Delaware” Wing T was not invented In Delware.  It got its start at the University of Maine.  The head coach there was Dave Nelson, and his two assistants were Mike Lude and Harold Westerman.  When Nelson was offered the job at Delaware, Mike Lude went with him, but Westerman chose to remain at Maine and succeed Nelson as head coach.

Years later, when Mike Lude was head coach at Colorado State, he brought in a young graduate assistant named Ron Rogerson, who had played for Westerman at Maine and had come highly recommended.

After two years at Colorado State, Rogerson  spent a year at Lebanon Valley (in Pennsylvania) and then spent ten seasons at Delaware before returning to Maine as head coach.

After four years at Maine, he was hired as head coach at Princeton, and there begins this 2-part story…


https://www.princetontigersfootball.com/2018/08/rogersons-personality-could-turn-on-a-dime-so-did-the-program/


*********** Just in case you’re looking around for an NFL team to root for…

At the time of my writing this, 10 of the 32 NFL Teams had not yet chosen to acknowledge Pride Month.

Atlanta Falcons
Cincinnati Bengals
Cleveland Browns
Dallas Cowboys
Denver Broncos
Green Bay Packers
Kansas City Chiefs
New Orleans Saints
Pittsburgh Steelers
Tennessee Titans



***********  Doug Porter, who served as head coach at Mississippi Valley State, Howard, and Fort Valley State (GA), died June 5.  At 94 he was the the oldest living member of the College Football Hall of Fame.
 


*********** There is inflation in every aspect of our society (the average grade at Harvard is now an A-) so why should All-America teams be any different?  In the case of just one All-America team selector, the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA), what was one team in 1945 is now FIVE teams. And what was 11 players on each team is now 25.

The AFCA has selected an All-America team since 1945 and currently selects teams in all five of its divisions. What makes these teams so special is that they are the only ones chosen exclusively by the men who know the players the best — the coaches themselves.

The five teams now chosen for each AFCA division evolved from a single 11-player squad in 1945.

From 1945 until 1967, only one team was chosen.

From 1967 through 1971, two teams – University Division and College Division – were selected.

In 1972, the College Division was split into College I and College II.

In 1979, the University Division was split into two teams — FBS and FCS.

In 1996, the College I and College II teams were renamed Division II and Division III, respectively.

In 2006, the AFCA started selecting an NAIA-only team.

From 1965-81, a 22-player (11 offensive, 11 defensive) team was chosen.

In 1982, a punter and placekicker were added to the team.

In 1997, a return specialist was added, giving us the current 25-player team. The return specialist position was replaced by an all-purpose player in 2006.

In 2016, the AFCA added a second team All-America.

***********  "If you're a great college player like Caitlin was, the delusional fan base that follows her disrespected the WNBA players by saying that she's gonna go in that league and tear it apart. ... These people are so disrespectful and so unknowledgeable and so stupid that it gives women's basketball a bad name.  So the kid was set up for failure right from the beginning.”  Geno Auriemma,  on "The Dan Patrick Show"



***********  Real stumper today. Following more research than required for the Manhattan Project, I surmise the answer = Jon Gruden.

Among the jewels found in today's page, Wallace Wade was the standout for me. The extent of my knowledge was that he was a great HC at Bama and Duke. He was much more special than that. Thanks for opening my eyes to who he was.

All the details I've read on the saloon in Eagle, Idaho, tell me some smart guys run that place. it's not gimmicky; it's an intelligent, carefully conceived reaction to the start of "Pride" Month/Year. If I frequented bars, I would happily go there. I can't believe how quickly most of the country rolled over and became Pride acolytes. As I always ask, pride in what? What gives these people the right to have a special day?

Ah, Coach Lude, ye lived a fine life.

John Vermillion                                
St Petersburg, Florida



***********  Hugh,

After watching those UFL “preview” semi-final games last weekend I’m looking forward to the real deals this weekend.

Spent a couple of years coaching at Sonoma State (85-86).  They were known as the Cossacks back then (historical reference to that part of California’s Russian influence).  Dropped that mascot (too violent) for the “Seawolves”.  Apparently a wolf not nearly as violent!  At that time they drew more fans for ultimate frisbee tournaments than they did for football games earning the school its reputation for being called “granola u”.

No surprise to me they dropped football even after winning one conference title, and sharing another.

Of all the schools in that non-scholarship Division II conference (Sonoma State, Chico State, San Francisco State, Hayward State, Humboldt State, and UC Davis) only UC Davis continues to play football, in the Big Sky.  The others blamed Title IX for their decisions to drop football so they could start to offer scholarships for the other sports.

On a similar subject, Birmingham Southern closed in May, yet its baseball team qualified for the DIII Championship tournament.  Question is do they still represent the school that no longer exists?

The Texas- Texas A&M rivalry is already heating up.  Can’t wait to see that one renewed no matter what conference they are members of!

Have a great week!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas






*********** QUIZ ANSWER:  Jon Gruden went to high school in South Bend, Indiana, where his father was an assistant to Dan Devine at Notre Dame. He started college at D-III Muskingum College, in Ohio, but transferred to Dayton after one year.  At Dayton, he was a backup quarterback, but he played enough to earn three letters.

He spent two years as a graduate assistant at Tennessee, then spent a year at Southeast Missouri and a year at Pacific, before landing his first NFL job. It was with the 49ers, as an assistant working under offensive coordinator Mike Holmgren.  He was 26, just five years out of college.

His career was on a fast track.

After a year at Pitt as wide receivers coach, he rejoined Holmgren when the latter was hired as head coach at Green Bay.

He spent three years at Green Bay before moving to Philadelphia as Ray Rhodes’ offense coordinator. He was only 32.

He was just 35 when the Raiders hired him to be their head coach three years later.

He’d been in Oakland for four years when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, desperate to make a big-name hire to quell the furor caused by their firing of Tony Dungy, arranged a trade to acquire him.

In his  first season, the Buccaneers won the Super Bowl.  Yes, there’s no doubt that  a lot of his success was  due to what Dungy had left him, but he still won the Super Bowl, and at the time, just 39, he was the youngest man ever to win one.

After eight seasons at Tampa Bay, although going 9-7 in the 2009 regular season, he was fired following a disappointing loss in the wild-card game. He was just 45.

He spent the next nine years away from the NFL, working in broadcasting, consulting and personal coaching, until in 2018 the Raiders lured him back with what was then one of the largest contracts ever given a coach.

During that time, the Raiders relocated to Las Vegas.

In October 2021,  five games into the NFL season,  he was forced to resign after emails between him and an NFL executive - emails written during the time he was out of coaching - were revealed, their contents described as “racist, misogynistic, and homophobic.”

He was out of broadcasting, too.

Most recently, he was hired as an “advisor” - whatever that  entails - by a team in Milan, Italy.

Jon Gruden is no longer a young whiz.  He’s 60 years old now, and although he’s got an overall NFL record of 117-112, including a Super Bowl win, he hasn’t been mentioned for an NFL head coaching job, and he hasn’t been seen on a TV show in years.

Could it possibly be because of what he wrote in some of those emails that were “uncovered?” 

Ya think?  Among other things,  he referred to openly-gay draft pick Michael Sam as a “queer,” mocked  the size of the NFLPA leader’s lips, and said  that players who knelt for the national anthem should be fired.   Oh - and he called Commissioner Roger Goodell  a “faggot,” and then-Vice-President Joe Biden a “pussy.”





CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING  JON GRUDEN

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOHN IRION - ARGYLE, NEW YORK
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY


*********** Thanks to Adam Wesoloski for this interview with Mike Holmgren, talking about Job Gruden.

https://youtu.be/FSqswCpXqvs?si=81gFIpXblqNnR_RS



 



***********  QUIZ:  His father was his high school coach in Harrison, New York.  As a senior, calling all the plays himself, he quarterbacked his  team to an undefeated season. 

Recruited by Maryland, he wound up having  three head coaches in his first three years,  playing a  different position under each one.  He arrived as a  quarterback, was moved to fullback in his sophomore season, and moved to the offensive line as a junior.   Discouraged, he  considered transferring until his father told him that if he did he wouldn’t be welcomed at home: “Quitters,” Dad said,  “don't live here."

He stayed,  earning   All-ACC academic honors,  and twice winning the team’s award for having the  highest academic average.

After graduation he served as a graduate assistant at Maryland, then began a long association with Bobby Ross when Ross hired him to coach the defensive line at The Citadel.

He spent seven seasons there, the last three as offensive coordinator, before moving to William and Mary as its offensive coordinator. He spent one season there, and one  season as assistant head coach at Murray State, and in 1982 he rejoined Ross at Maryland as offensive coordinator and offensive line coach.

In five years at Maryland,  the Terps went 39-15-1 and won three straight ACC championships (1983-85).  While at Maryland,  he was instrumental in developing three quarterbacks - Boomer Esiason, Frank Reich and Stan Gelbaugh - who all went on to NFL careers of ten years or more.

In 1987, when Ross moved to Georgia Tech,  our guy went along as  offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, and in 1990, although Tech was unranked prior to the season,  the Jackets won the national title.

After five seasons, Ross  was named head coach of the San Diego Chargers, and named our guy  as his running game coordinator. In his third season our guy was named  offensive coordinator,  and  when the Chargers made it to the Super Bowl - for the first time in their  history, - it made him one of the very few coaches who have served as offensive coordinator for a  national college champion  and for a Super Bowl team.

In 1997,  he  returned to Georgia Tech as offensive coordinator under George O’Leary, and in his second season there ,  Yellow Jackets were co-champions of the ACC, defeated Notre Dame in the Gator Bowl, and ended the season ranked in the Top Ten.   In 1999, he was named the winner of the Frank Broyles Award as the top assistant coach in the country

In 2000, after being an assistant for 32 years (and an offensive coordinator for 21 of them),  he finally landed his first head coaching job. It was at his alma mater, Maryland, where he’d coached twice before,  as a graduate assistant, and then as offensive coordinator.

The Terps had been  through five straight losing seasons, and  worse yet,  a span of  14 years during which the best that three different coaches could produce was two 6-win seasons.

In his first year, Maryland started out winning its first seven games. The Terps finished 10-2 with a top-ten national ranking, winning the school’s first ACC title in 16 years.  For this feat, he was named national coach of the year by every single organization (there are many) presenting such an award.

By the time he was  fired 10 years later - despite going 9-4 that year, ranking 23rd nationally  and being named ACC Coach of the Year - he had a record of 75-50.  He’d taken the Terps to seven bowl games (winning five of them), finished first in the ACC once and  second four times, with four national rankings.

His 75 wins are the third most by a coach in school history, behind only  Curly Byrd (119),  and Jerry Claiborne (77).  (Jim Tatum, who won a national championship at Maryland in 1953, finished with 73 wins.)

His firing by new AD Kevin Anderson was not well received.  Anderson had initially retained him,  although  refusing to give him the contact extension he wanted.   Then,  when Maryland offensive coordinator James Franklin left to take the head coaching job at Vanderbilt, Anderson decided to fire our guy, reasoning that no  quality offensive coordinator would take the job, knowing that our guy was on shaky ground.

How monumental was our guy’s run of success?  In the first ten years run after his firing, Maryland  went 43-70 under four different coaches.  Current coach Mike Locksley, who was on our guy’s staff as running backs coach in 2001 and 2002, has put together a current run  of 7, 8 and 8 win seasons, each ending with a bowl win, so there’s hope for Terps fans.

To his credit, Locksley had our guy - his former mentor - serve as an honorary captain at a Maryland-Penn State game, saying at the time,  “He’s a guy that I have the utmost respect for, that I’ve always looked up to as a guy that loves and has passion for this place like I do. We’re going to bring him back and honor him the right way.”





TUESDAY, JUNE 4, 2024       “Freedom is a fragile thing and it’s never more than one generation away from extinction.” California Governor Ronald Reagan, 1967

 
***********  Thursday marks  the 80th Anniversary of D-Day - June 6, 1944, the day on which American and Allied forces crossed the English Channel and landed on the European continent, a massive invasion that marked the first stage of the campaign to ultimately defeat Nazi Germany.

Wallace Wade was there.

That same Wallace Wade who  has to be considered one of the greatest college coaches of all time. 

He essentially built the Alabama football dynasty, taking the Tide to three Rose Bowls and four SEC titles in his seven years in Tuscaloosa.

But after going 10-0 in 1930 - and winning the Rose Bowl - he stunned the football world by leaving Alabama to become head coach at Duke. (Actually, he stunned the football world before the season, which is when he announced that he had already accepted the Duke position and would stay on to coach one more season at Bama.)

At Duke, he was as successful as he was at Alabama, coaching from 1931 through 1950 - with four years  off for wartime service - and compiling a record of 110-36-7.  He took the Blue Devils to two Rose Bowls and three top-ten finishes.

In early 1942, not long after Pearl Harbor, he reenlisted in the Army.   He’d already served in World War I as a captain in the infantry.  He was now 50 years old.

At that point, his record at Duke was 85-19-3.

The last game he’d coached before rejoining the service was the Rose Bowl, which because of fears of a possible Japanese attack on the West Coast had been moved to Durham, North Carolina (Duke’s home).

Commissioned as an Army Major in field artillery - and later promoted to Lieutenant Colonel - he assembled a battalion at Fort Bragg, then commanded it overseas. He took part in the D-Day invasion of Normandy, the Battle of the Bulge, and the Crossing of the Rhine, serving the entire time without a  day of leave. For his actions he was awarded the Bronze Star (the Army’s third highest award) and the Croix de Guerre (“Cross of War” - awarded by France to “individuals who distinguish themselves by acts of heroism involving combat with enemy forces”).

But back at Duke, ,  his record wasn’t even close to what it had been before the War: in five seasons, it was just  25-17-4.  His first three seasons back were losing seasons - the first in his entire career.

Was it the War?

Years later, his friend Jack Horner, sports editor of the Durham Herald, told of a conversation he’d had during that time with coach Wade, with the coach telling him  that, after the War,   “I’m just not tough enough.”

"The truth,” Horner wrote, "was that Wade mellowed after seeing 135-pounders die for their country as gloriously as 200-pounders.”


https://exhibits.library.duke.edu/exhibits/show/fromcampustocockpit/wade



********** Wisdom from Mike Lude:  “I was aware of the Depression and how poor we were on the farm, compared to relatives who lived in Kalamazoo, whom I looked at as being very wealthy people.  One uncle worked in a fishing equipment plant, and his wife worked as a beauty operator. Another aunt was a secretary, and her husband sold auto parts.  I always thought, man, they really have it made.  And they don't have to milk cows or clean stables or dig potatoes. They really must be rich.

“Yet I can't say I felt deprived. There was always plenty of food and an abundance of love – discipline and love – for me. We didn't have Nike sneakers or the latest fashion wear from Nordstrom. Mom sewed her own dresses; the material came from the sacks that had contained the feed supplement Dad bought for the cattle. The sacks were printed with flower designs similar to the bolts of cloth available in the general store but out of our price range.

“So were tractors, something that appeared only in our dreams and the Sears, Roebuck catalog. When we worked the fields, the heavy muscle was provided by draft horses, and there was a prescribed routine. You would go down to the end of the field, make the turn and return to the starting point. After doing a round, down and back, the horses would be allowed a brief rest.”



*********** UFL GAMES THIS PAST WEEKEND

The UFL delivered.  From the point of view of someone with no real rooting interest, every game was interesting - even the Houston-Memphis game between two otherwise-sorry teams.

Best of all, the Saturday games, both previews of next weeks’ UFL semifinal matchups between the same teams, left plenty of reason to watch the rematches. 


SATURDAY (both games ended with missed  field goals)

BIRMINGHAM STALLIONS (9-1) 20, MICHIGAN PANTHERS (7-3) 19

ST. LOUIS BATTLEHAWKS (7-3) 13, SAN ANTONIO BRAHMAS (7-3) 12



SUNDAY (both games went down to the last minute)

ARLINGTON RENEGADES (3-7) 32,  DC DEFENDERS (4-6) 31

MEMPHIS  SHOWBOATS (2-8) 19 HOUSTON ROUGHNECKS (1-9) 12




STANDINGS

XFL CONFERENCE

ST LOUIS                 7-3

SAN ANTONIO        7-3

DC                    4-6

ARLINGTON             3-7


USFL CONFERENCE

BIRMINGHAM        9-1

MICHIGAN            7-3

MEMPHIS            2-8

HOUSTON             1-9


***********  Both Memphis and Houston went into Sunday’s game  with 1-8 records and hopes of getting first pick in next year’s draft.  Memphis wound up getting it - by WINNING!

It was the UFL’s rather clever way of combatting tanking - the practice, common in most sports,  of deliberately losing in order to improve a team’s draft status.



*********** If you have any former players  with the potential to make a UFL roster, you might want to inform them of  the league’s “Summer Series” tryouts.  (Okay, “showcases.”)

From the UFL office…

These showcases provide players a chance to exhibit their skills in front of UFL coaches and personnel directors. Players will be evaluated based on performance for inclusion in the UFL Draft player pool for the 2025 season.

Dates and Locations:

UFL SUMMER SERIES SHOWCASE LOCATIONS AND DATES

UFL St. Louis Showcase
Friday, July 12, 2024

UFL Washington D.C. Showcase
Sunday, July 14, 2024

UFL Houston Showcase
Friday, July 26, 2024

UFL Atlanta Showcase
Sunday, July 28, 2024

UFL Orlando Showcase
Sunday, September 29, 2024

UFL San Diego Showcase
Sunday, October 20, 2024

Registration is now open at www.showcases.theufl.com


*********** If I were an advance scout for China or Iran or North Korea, sent to assess the American ability to defend itself, and I happened to catch any of the UFL games and their halftime interviews with Army members…

I would give the all-systems-go sign.  All clear to invade.

I sure haven’t seen too many of the “soldiers”  they’ve interviewed who look as if they’d hold up in a fist fight.

Most of the jobs they say they do don’t sound as if they involve anything that remotely involves fighting.  I suspect the purpose of selecting these people is to entice recruits by suggesting that they can get all the benefits of joining  the Army without ever getting dirty, much less bloody.


***********  First of all, “Miller Time” belonged to Miller High Life.  Real beer.  Not Miller Light.

Second of all, they can’t even produce a decent “Tastes Great! Less Filling!” commercial without having some weenie peacemaker saying, “It’s both!”


*********** I’ll give the UFL credit for doing something the NFL simply can’t - every UFL team uniformly wore the same color stockings, without any variation or exception.  The NFL used to care about the way its players looked, even employing former players to enforce uniform standards on game days, but  they finally caved.


*********** Two guys in the UFL that I’d like to see get shots in the NFL, both of them small but very fast and very exciting.

Chris Rowland, of DC - 5-8, 170 from Tennessee State.  26 years old. Good receiver and return  man. On Sunday, on the last day of the regular season, he produced the UFL’s first kickoff return touchdown all season. 

Justin Hall of Houston - 5-9.  185 from Ball State.  25 years old. Good receiver and return man.  Very good hands and speed.


***********  Next time you see a pro team in a short yardage situation and it’s lined up in its usual shotgun, watch the linemen’s first steps. Those side-steps that pro linemen usually take when zone blocking  aren’t worth a crap against hard-charging defensive linemen,  but it’s all they know, so it’s what they do. Combine  the passive blocking that produces with   the aggressive charge of the defense, then snap the ball back to a QB five yards in the backfield who’ll then hand the ball to a back, and I’ll bet the chance  of success of a running play is no better than 25 per cent.

And as you watch the offensive line starting out sideways and getting its butt whipped, remember these immortal words of the great General Bob Neyland:

“If the line goes forward, the team wins.  If it comes backward, the team loses.”



*********** In the UFL,  holding by  the offensive line is so flagrant and so common that I’d like to see them add another umpire.  I think. 

Actually, that just means more penalties, and I don’t want to see that. So maybe it’s time to just say the hell with it and let them use their hands and arms unrestrained, because it really gets old watching nice plays being called back for holding.  (Is there any other sport in which really good plays are disallowed to the extent they are in  football?)

For years I’ve advocated making offensive linemen wear thumbless boxing gloves, but in the UFL, the way some of those guys use their arms to wrap up pass rushers,  it probably wouldn’t make that much difference.



***********   John Canzano writes…

Last Thursday, the NCAA settled a lawsuit with several states that challenged it in court. Under the agreement, the NCAA will grant an additional year of eligibility to Division I athletes previously deemed ineligible under the transfer eligibility rule since the 2019-20 academic year. That means Utah quarterback Cam Rising — who transferred from Texas — will get an eighth year of college eligibility if he wants it. Is Rising coming back in 2025? The door is open. Can’t wait to ask Kyle Whittingham.

Q: Oregon State will kick off a football game at 9 a.m. PT (10 a.m. local) on a Friday at Boise St. I suppose the positive is they will have little competition for viewers (it’s on FOX). But is that really the route they want to go?

A: That early kickoff may be a bummer, but it happens on Black Friday against a good opponent and should generate a healthy audience. The window helps OSU stay visible and that’s one of the prime objectives this season. That said, scrambled eggs at the tailgate?

The Oregon Ducks play two Friday night games as part of the Fox Friday Football calendar this season. They’ll have to deal with that. The first five kickoffs revealed for Washington included two Friday nights, two Big Ten Network games, and a game on Peacock. Husky fans weren’t thrilled. The Apple Cup is a 12:30 p.m. kickoff on Peacock. Blame TV. But also blame the Mariners, who play a night game that evening. Once you sell your media rights, television executives own them, strategize, and do as they please.

Q: Do you think Caitlin Clark should be a second-round NBA draft prospect?? 3-point range and an ability to sell tickets. Seems like a lot of upside to me.

A: Caitlin Clark is fine where she is. She wouldn’t make an NBA roster. Now, has anyone else noticed that the WNBA officials call Clark’s games differently? They allow a lot of unnecessary contact as she brings the ball upcourt. Almost as if the officials are letting her take her lumps as an introduction to pro basketball.

Q: Is there a bounty on Caitlin Clark?

A: Not a bounty. The opposing players are simply responding to what the officials (and Clark’s bystander teammates) are allowing to happen. For that reason, I wonder if the recent flagrant foul that got so much attention is a good thing for Clark in the big picture. The scrutiny and spotlight on it will keep everyone on their best behavior.

*********** A nice article in The Athletic about Dillon Gabriel makes him sound like just the kind of guy Oregon needed to replace Bo Nix at QB.

He’s a Hawaiian kid who’s already had successful stops at Central Florida and Oklahoma.

Now, as he makes the move from OU to UO, he sure seems to be doing his best to show that he’s a team guy - even to  the point of driving a minivan.

When he first showed it to his mom, she said she thought it was a rental, but he explained:  he makes  his new ride - a Chrysler Pacifica - available to teammates whenever they need rides to the Eugene regional airport because “it gets the best gas mileage on the team.”
Said his Mom,  “Anybody who knows him would think, ‘Yeah, he would get a minivan.”


*********** Larry Allen, 11 times a Pro Bowl selection as a Cowboy and a Hall-of-Fame guard, died in Mexico while on vacation with his family.  He was 52.  A son, Larry Allen III, played guard at Harvard.  Interestingly, in light of our discussion of schools that no longer play football, he played at Sonoma (Cal.) State, which discontinued the sport following the 1996 season.



***********   At Old State Saloon in Eagle, Idaho -  just outside Boise - Mondays from here on will be known as  “Hetero Male Monday.”

Any man who comes in on Monday dressed 'like a heterosexual male' will be greeted with a free beer.

Probably as part of the gag, the bar said it’s looking for judges to determine if  the clothing is “straight enough.”  Judges will be paid $15 an hour plus free beer. (Or did I read “a” free beer?)

“Straight enough?”

They haven’t left  the ladies out  - any straight couple that comes in on Wednesdays will get 15 percent off their tab.


https://oldstatesaloon.com/


**********  I’ve seen comparisons attempted between Caitlin Clark and Jackie Robinson and in my opinion it’s time for them to stop.

Jackie Robinson’s ordeal was much tougher than anything Caitlin Clark can be put through.

When Jackie Robinson entered the Major Leagues, there was definitely anti-black prejudice in much of the country, and in many locales discrimination by race was still legally sanctioned. The prejudice - anti-white, anti-heterosexual - that appears to be generating  the anti-Clark movement is an entirely  new phenomenon in our culture.

From a strictly business standpoint, baseball didn’t NEED Jackie Robinson.  Baseball was far and away the national’s number one sport, and in no danger of folding. Jackie Robinson certainly helped business, but baseball was not like today’s WNBA - a  sport on life support.   Like it or not, folks, Caitlin Clark has the potential to save this league.

And it wasn’t likely  Major Leaguers of those times could be convinced that allowing  black players to play - even one - might  be in their interest.  But it shouldn’t be difficult  at all to explain to today’s female basketball players  (at least those of ordinary intelligence) how Caitlin Clark’s gate appeal can benefit all of them.

Finally  - whose bright idea was it (1) to just go along with allowing the draft, a device designed to help bad teams rebuild, to consign an attraction like Caitlin Clark to a bad team in a small market? and (2) to allow this great attraction to come into the league without having carefully explained to all players and officials -  in sufficient detail that they could understand - the importance of Caitlin Clark  to all of them?


***********  How long before the Saudis make their move on college football?  Do they buy SEC football?  Big Ten football?  Big  12  football?  ACC football?  Group of 5 Football?  All of College Football?

Remember what they did to professional golf,  and then tell me it’s not possible.


***********   Coach Lude saw great numbers of momentous events in his lifetime. I am gratified he didn't have to see what happened yesterday. Your comments about the event are appropriate.

Today you serve us standard five-star fare. You discuss issues that matter, as well as about football from every angle. Sorry to say, though, that that corrupt kangaroo court decision has made it hard for me to get beyond the damage being done to our once-luminous Republic. At least for this morning. I have to fight my way out of this ambush.


John Vermillion                   
St Petersburg, Florida


***********   Hugh,

The Democrats succeeded.  They have just about guaranteed that Donald J. Trump will become the 47th President of the United States, and succeeded in bringing about the age old adage "what goes around comes around."

In response to your list of four year colleges/universities that no longer play football in the state of California:

Humboldt State
Chico State
Sonoma State
Hayward State
St. Mary's
San Francisco State
USF
Santa Clara
Menlo
Pacific
UC Santa Barbara
California Baptist
Pepperdine
Loyola Marymount
Cal State Northridge
Cal State Los Angeles
Azusa Pacific
Cal Tech
Occidental
Whittier
Long Beach State
Fullerton State
Cal Poly Pomona
UC Riverside
Vanguard
UC San Diego
Cal Western (United States International University)

But on the other hand...there are 18 four-year colleges/universities in the state of California still playing football, and SIXTY-SEVEN two-year JC's playing football throughout the state.

Unlike in Texas.  Houston, Houston Christian, Rice, North American, Sam Houston, Prairie View, Texas Southern, Stephen F. Austin, East Texas Baptist, Wayland Baptist, UTSA, UIW, Trinity, Schreiner (new program), Texas State, Texas A&M Kingsville, Texas Lutheran, Texas A&M, Texas, Southwestern, Mary Hardin-Baylor, Baylor, SW Assemblies of God, SMU, Texas A&M-Commerce, Midwestern State, Texas College, Austin College, TCU, North Texas, Texas Wesleyan, Howard Payne, Hardin Simmons, McMurry, Abilene Christian, Angelo State, West Texas A&M,UT Permian Basin, UT Rio Grande Valley, UTEP.  FORTY four-year colleges/universities playing FOOTBALL!!  

Add to that number the 8 JC's playing football.  


QUIZ:  Frank Thomas

Enjoy the weekend!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas


Hahaha. That’s why I said I wasn’t ready to list all the California schools that had dropped football, so thanks for doing it for me!    And there, third on the list, is Sonoma State, whose most illustrious football alumnus, Larry Allen, just died.
 




*********** QUIZ ANSWER:   When the College Football Hall of Fame was opened in 1951, 22 coaches were inducted.  Only two of them were Notre Dame men. One, of course,  was Knute Rockne.   The other was Frank Thomas.

 Frank Thomas was born in Muncie, Indiana to parents who were recent immigrants from Wales.  Cardiff, Wales.  Just 5-8, he was a star athlete in high school in East Chicago.

After two years at Western State (now Western Michigan), he transferred to Notre Dame, where he played both baseball and football.

His roommate and best friend was the storied George Gipp, and  for two seasons - 1921 and 1922, he was Knute Rockne’s starting quarterback.  Rockne called him  "the smartest player I ever coached."

After graduation, with a law degree, he tuned down an offer to play baseball with the Detroit Tigers, and instead, thanks to Rockne’s recommendation, he was hired by Georgia coach George Woodruff  to be his backfield coach and introduce Rockne’s Notre Dame box to the South.

"I took the job to pay off my debts," he said at the time. "Besides, I wanted to try coaching for a year. If I didn't like it, I could always quit and practice law."

He spent just two years at Georgia before taking the head coaching job at Chattanooga.

There,  taking over a squad that had won just one game the year before, he led them to a 4-4 record in his first year. In his second year his team  tied for the conference championship, and in both his third and fourth years, he won the conference championship.  In those two years, Chattanooga lost just three games, two of them to Vanderbilt (at that time a powerhouse).

After four years at Chattanooga, his record was 26-9-2,  but he was persuaded to return to Georgia as an assistant, this time under a former Notre Dame teammate, Harry Mehre, who argued that it would improve his chances at getting a better job.

Sure enough, after one year at Georgia, the offer came.  Before the 1930 season, Alabama’s Wallace Wade announced  that he had accepted the job at Duke  and that it would be his last season.  And he personally  recommended our guy as his successor.

Talk about a tough act to follow.  Wade had taken Alabama to the Rose Bowl and a national title - its first - four years earlier. And in 1930,  Alabama went undefeated, returned to the Rose Bowl where it defeated Washington State, and won another  national championship.  Nine days after the Rose Bowl game,  our guy became  head coach of the Crimson Tide.

In his  first meeting with Alabama President  Mike Denny, Denny told him,  “Now that you have accepted our proposition, I will give you the benefit of my views, based on my years of observation. It is my conviction that material is 90 per cent and coaching is 10 per cent.   I desire further to say that you will be provided with the 90 per cent, and that you will be held to strict accounting for the 10 per cent.”

Inheriting a national championship team, he went 9-1 in his first season. There followed seasons of 8-2, 7-1-1 and 10-0.

In his third season at Alabama, the Tide won the very first championship of the SEC.

On his 1934 team,  at opposite  ends were Don Hutson and Bear Bryant.  Hutson was an All-American and went on the a Hall of Fame career at Green Bay.  Bryant, of course, would become one of the greatest of all college coaches at Kentucky, Texas A & M and Alabama.

He coached through 1946, but he did most his coaching that season from a wheelchair,  and at the end of the season,  faced with his own failing health and concern for his mentally-ill daughter,  he had to give up coaching.   He  was just 47.  He died in 1954 at the age of 55.

In his 15 years as Alabama’s head coach, he  posted an overall record of 115-24-7 with two national championships, (1934 and 1941)  four SEC titles, two Rose Bowl wins (in three appearances), and additional appearances in the Cotton, Orange and Sugar Bowls. In all, he took Alabama to six bowl games, at a time when  there were only four bowls.

He had seven seasons of  one loss or less, and only twice  did his teams lose as many as three games in a season.

His teams allowed an average of just 6.3 points per game, and among Alabama coaches, only Bryant has a better winning percentage.

One of his greatest accomplishments was starting  the first free coaching clinic in the South in his second year at Alabama.

Frank Thomas' is one of the five statues outside Bryant-Denny Stadium honoring Alabama coaches who have won national titles there; of the five, he is the only one who never had a losing season anywhere.




CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING  FRANK THOMAS

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY

 


*********** QUIZ:  He went to high school in South Bend, Indiana, where his father was an assistant to Dan Devine at Notre Dame. He started college at D-III Muskingum College, in Ohio, but transferred to Dayton after one year.  At Dayton, he was a backup quarterback, but he played enough to earn three letters.

He spent two years as a graduate assistant at Tennessee, then spent a year at Southeast Missouri and a year at Pacific, before landing his first NFL job. It was with the 49ers, as an assistant working under offensive coordinator Mike Holmgren.  He was 26, just five years out of college.

His career was on a fast track.

After a year at Pitt as wide receivers coach, he rejoined Holmgren when the latter was hired as head coach at Green Bay.

He spent three years at Green Bay before moving to Philadelphia as Ray Rhodes’ offense coordinator. He was only 32.

He was just 35 when the Raiders hired him to be their head coach three years later.

He’d been in Oakland for four years when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, desperate to make a big-name hire to quell the furor caused by their firing of Tony Dungy, arranged a trade to acquire him.

In his  first season, the Buccaneers won the Super Bowl.  Yes, there’s no doubt that  a lot of his success was  due to what Dungy had left him, but he still won the Super Bowl, and at the time, just 39, he was the youngest man ever to win one.

After eight seasons at Tampa Bay, although going 9-7 in the 2009 regular season, he was fired following a disappointing loss in the wild-card game. He was just 45.

He spent the next nine years away from the NFL, working in broadcasting, consulting and personal coaching, until in 2018 the Raiders lured him back with what was then one of the largest contracts ever given a coach.

During that time, the Raiders relocated to Las Vegas.

In October 2021,  five games into the NFL season,  he was forced to resign after emails between him and an NFL executive - emails written during the time he was out of coaching - were revealed, their contents described as “racist, misogynistic, and homophobic.”

He was out of broadcasting, too.

Most recently, he was hired as an “advisor” - whatever that  entails - by a team in Milan, Italy.

He’s no longer a young whiz.  He’s 60 years old now, and although he’s got an overall NFL record of 117-112, including a Super Bowl win, he hasn’t been mentioned for an NFL head coaching job, and he hasn’t been seen on a TV show in years.

Could it possibly be because of what he wrote in some of those emails that were “uncovered?” 

Ya think?  Among other things,  he referred to openly-gay draft pick Michael Sam as a “queer,” mocked  the size of the NFLPA leader’s lips, and said  that players who knelt for the national anthem should be fired.   Oh - and he called Commissioner Roger Goodell  a “faggot,” and then-Vice-President Joe Biden a “pussy.”





FRIDAY, MAY 31, 2024       “This Pride Month, we honor the service, commitment, and sacrifice of the LGBTQ+ Service members and personnel who volunteer to defend our country. Their proud service adds to America’s strength.”  Lloyd Austin,  Secretary of Defense (June, 2023)


************ Wisdom from Mike Lude:  “The owner of the property and essentially my dad's partner was a tough, tough guy.  He was an immigrant from Germany who moved to the United States when he was about 15. He went to Montana and became a cowboy, then moved to Michigan, acquired some farmland in Wakashama Township, and settled down.

“The German immigrant  – cowboy – farmer was my grandfather. More about him later.

“As the only offspring, I became a significant part of the labor force at a young age. I was assigned just about every menial chore that could be turned over to a kid growing up on the farm – mucking out the stalls of the animals, milking cows, planting and digging potatoes, working the horses in the fields. The hours were long, and there was not a lot of time for daydreaming or playing baseball.”

 
*********** "Show me the man and I will find you the crime." Lavrentiy Beria,  chief of Joseph Stalin’s secret police.

“Show me the crime and I’ll kiss your ass in Macy’s window.” Hugh Wyatt, ordinary American.

We’ve just seen the vipers that infest  New York City  treat the American public to a trial the likes of which I hadn’t seen since the days of the Soviet Union.  I watched in amazement and  shock as a person whose major crime appears to be that he is disliked by many and happens to be a rival of the current President was railroaded in a manner seldom seen before.  At least in this country.

Thanks a lot, Bill of Rights.  You can go now.  You had a great run.

The thought of being exposed to that sort of “justice” is chilling.   I vow that I will never set foot in New York City - or any of its airports - so long as I live.  (I’m old enough that I can easily make that pledge and carry it out.)

You?  Your nose may be clean as a whistle, but in that den of evil,  a city where career  criminals are arrested and then routinely released, if somebody wants your ass bad enough, they’ll find something - anything.   And as  they’ve demonstrated, when you’ve got the prosecutor, judge and jury lined up against you - ex-president or ordinary  American - you're gone.  Off to the gulag.  



*********** UFL GAMES THIS FINAL REGULAR-SEASON WEEKEND

(ALL TIMES EASTERN)

SATURDAY

MICHIGAN PANTHERS (7-2) at BIRMINGHAM STALLIONS (8-1) - 2 PM ESPN
Birmingham is coming off its first loss last week, after winning 15 straight.

SAN ANTONIO BRAHMAS (7-2) at ST. LOUIS BATTLEHAWKS (6-3) - 4 PM  FOX
These two teams will play two weeks in a row.  Next week it’s to get to the UFL final game; this week isn’t at all meaningless -  it’s for the right to be the host team for next week’s game.


SUNDAY

ARLINGTON RENEGADES (2-7) at DC DEFENDERS (4-5) - NOON ABC
Nothing much going on except that if you like to watch slot (aka “compressed”) formation, DC’s OC Fred Kaiss does some interesting things.

HOUSTON ROUGHNECKS (1-8) at MEMPHIS  SHOWBOATS (1-8) - 7 PM FOX
I honestly can’t think of a single reason to watch this game unless you’re into football as much as I am.


STANDINGS

XFL CONFERENCE

SAN ANTONIO        7-2

ST LOUIS                 6-3

DC                    4-5

ARLINGTON             2-7


USFL CONFERENCE

BIRMINGHAM        8-1

MICHIGAN            7-2

HOUSTON            1-8

HOUSTON             1-8




***********  John Canzano on Shilo Sanders…

Q: If Shilo Sanders was in high school when he assaulted the security guard and wrecked the guy’s life, why isn’t Deion liable? Parents are liable for their children until after 18. So why weren’t Deion’s assets considered, or their personal liability insurance policies? How about the school's liability policies since this sounds to have occurred on campus? — Brian McMorris

A: I pored through the court documents and news reports. The original lawsuit was filed in 2016 against Shilo Sanders, Deion Sanders, and Shilo’s mother, Pilar Sanders. John Darjean — the victim of the alleged attack — had significant injuries.

Utica Mutual Insurance Company, Darjean’s insurer, filed a petition seeking to recover funds from the Sanders family. It alleged that Pilar and Deion Sanders failed to “control their son from engaging in foreseeable tortious conduct.”

Shilo was a no-show in court. He apparently even dropped his attorney. As a result, the court didn’t have Shilo’s forwarding address and struggled to get him notice. As we all know, closing your eyes and hoping legal troubles go away isn’t a sound strategy. Deion sat down for a deposition, but according to an attorney involved the coach eventually walked out because he didn’t like the questions.

The charter school is closed and gone. Triple A Academy was the high school branch of the since-shuttered Focus Academies charter school. Focus was shut down by the state of Texas after posting low academic performance scores. It inherited 80 students from Prime Prep Academy, a charter school that was co-founded by Deion. Prime Prep closed in January 2015 amid financial and academic woes. Deion wasn’t just a parent of a student at Focus. He was the school CEO, football coach, and marketing person.

The 160th Judicial District of Dallas County District Court rendered a judgment in the spring of 2022, ordering Shilo to pay $11.9 million in damages to Darjean, and another $215,000 to Utica Mutual. Darjean petitioned the Court to appoint a receiver to collect the outstanding funds in the summer of 2023. In October, Sanders filed for bankruptcy. This mess is just beginning.

What are the odds that “Coach Prime” will be on the Colorado sidelines against North Dakota State on August 29?  Either way - Go Bison!



*********** It wasn’t an Ivy League requirement, but Yale went ahead anyhow and hired a woman as President.

Evidently Yale’s lordly  Board of Trustees looked around at the great jobs being done by female presidents at Brown, Columbia, Dartmouth, Harvard and Penn and said, “just what we want here."



*********** With the recent settlement of the House vs. NCAA case, pretty much opening the door to payment of college athletes, all sorts of dire consequences have been predicted.  Included among the possible effects of having to pay football players  are the  loss of “minor” sports at some colleges, and even, at some,  the shutting  down of football programs entirely.

The latter is not without precedent.  It’s happened a lot over the years.

Resorting to my trusty 1949 NCAA Football Official Guide - the oldest one I have -  I set out to identify schools that were playing football 75 years ago but for various reasons are no longer playing the game.

A lot of the schools were Catholic schools - relatively strong and playing major schedules - that gave up the game in the early 50s, leaving Notre Dame and Boston College as the only remaining Catholic teams in FBS.

In some cases, schools such as Drake  and Fordham that in 1949 played as relatively “major” colleges chose over the years to play at a lower level.

In some cases, schools such as Arnold, Milton and Tarkio no longer exist. Other schools such as Case Tech and Western Reserve have merged (Case Western Reserve).

I haven’t had the time to get into all the various California (UC and State) schools that have given up football.

Here’s a fairly complete list of schools that were playing football in 1949 and  are no longer fielding football teams.  Read ‘em and weep:

Adelphia
Arnold
Boston U.
Bradley
Bridgeport
Brooklyn
Butler
Canisius
CCNY
Colorado College
Davis & Elkins
Dayton
Denver
Detroit
Evansville
George Washington
Haverford
High Point
Hofstra
Iowa Wesleyan
John Carroll
Long Beach State
Loyola (Cal)
Marquette
Milligan
Milton
Niagara
Northeastern
NYU
Occidental
Oklahoma City
Omaha
Pacific
Panzer
Parsons
Pepperdine
Potomac State
Rider
Rollins
St. Bonaventure
Sr. Francis
St. Louis
St. Mary’s
Salem
San Francisco
Santa Clara
Scranton
Southwestern (TN)
Swarthmore
Tampa
Tarkio
Upsala
Vermont
Washington College (MD)
Waynesburg
West Virginia Tech
Western Washington
Whitman
Wichita
Xavier
Yankton

Of course, this list is subject to error.  Please be sure to let me know if I’ve included any school that doesn’t belong on the list, or if I’ve failed to list a school that does.

In fairness, in recent years,  prompted in many cases by the need to attract more male applicants, there has been a significant number of smaller schools that added football programs.  And in the years since 1949 there have been several additions to the “major” powers:  Air Force, Central Florida, Coastal Carolina, James Madison, Liberty, South Florida, Texas-San Antonio, UAB and UNLV among them.



***********   Somebody ought to let Ilhan Omar, a US Representative from Minnesota,  know what Memorial Day is all about. 

Here’s what she said  on the day we  honor those who gave their lives in service to our country:

On memorial day (no capitals- HW), we honor the heroic men and women who served our country.

We owe them more than our gratitude – they have more than earned access to quality mental health services, job opportunities, housing assistance, and the benefits they were promised.

Like so many Americans, we’ve done such a crappy job of teaching even the basics of our history that she has it confused with Veterans Day.

Sadly, for the people we  honor on Memorial Day, mental health services (quality o not), job opportunities, housing assistance and “the benefits they were promised” won’t do them any good.


***********   Here’s something interesting:  it’s how much EA Sports has decided to pay colleges for the  right to include them in EA’s 2025 video game.

I don’t know what went into the formula they used - I’m told that appearances in the Top 25 polls in the last 10 years was a factor - but it’s resulted into four “tiers” into which all 130+ FBS schools fall.

The tiers, and the amounts paid by EA Sports to each school in the  tier:

Tier 1: $99,875.16
Tier 2: $59,925.09
Tier 3: $39,950.06
Tier 4: $9,987.52

What?  USC and Texas not in Tier 1


 

Assuming that there’s merit to the rankings, there’s something rotten in the Big Ten:  Counting Oregon, there are FIVE Big Ten teams in the Top Tier. But there are also five Big Ten teams in Tier  4: Maryland, Purdue, Rutgers, Nebraska and Illinois.  Now, will someone please try to explain to me why Indiana is up in Tier 3?

Again, not sure what’s going on here, but I have to admit being pleasantly surprised at the high ranking of Utah and Iowa.



*********** The College Football Hall of Fame, in preparation for the voting for next year’s class, has begun collecting nominations to go on the ballot.  For your info, here’s  how the nominating process works:

College Football Hall of Fame Criteria:

FIRST AND FOREMOST, A PLAYER MUST HAVE RECEIVED FIRST-TEAM ALL-AMERICA RECOGNITION BY A SELECTOR RECOGNIZED BY THE NCAA AND UTILIZED TO COMPRISE THEIR CONSENSUS ALL-AMERICA TEAMS.

A player becomes eligible for consideration by the NFF's Honors Courts 10 full seasons after his last year of intercollegiate football played.

While each nominee's football achievements in college are of prime consideration, his post-football record as a citizen is also weighed. He must have proven himself worthy as a citizen, carrying the ideals of football forward into his relations with his community and fellow man. Consideration may also be given for academic honors and whether or not the candidate earned a college degree.

Players must have played their last year of intercollegiate football within the last 50 years.  For example, to be eligible for the 2025 ballot, the player must have played his last year in 1975 or thereafter. In addition, players who are playing professionally and coaches who are coaching on the professional level are not eligible until after they retire.

A coach becomes eligible three full seasons after retirement or immediately following retirement provided he is at least 70 years old. Active coaches become eligible at 75 years of age. He must have been a head football coach for a minimum of 10 years and coached at least 100 games with a .600 winning percentage.

 

***********   I have to confess that my dislike of Bill Walton - after the way he bailed on the Trail Blazers and the Portland Community - clouded my opinion of him  the rest of his life, and kept me from realizing that he was something special.   In the eyes of those who knew him best - his teammates and, later his co-workers on broadcasts - he was intelligent, witty, and an all-around good person.

I’m going to leave the plaudits to my son, Ed and a long time friend, Kerry Eggers.

Ed, who lives and works and writes in Australia, said he heard the news of Walton’s death while riding to work on the train, and immediately began to write - freehand, lest he lose his initial thoughts :

Farewell Bill, You Were One Of A Kind

Going home, going home, By the waterside I will rest my bones
Listen to the river sing sweet songs, To rock my soul
—Brokedown Palace, Grateful Dead

Bandana-wearing hippie. Hall of Fame center. Grateful Dead acolyte. Eloquent, but out there basketball commentator. Bill Walton’s obituary could be written 10 different ways by 10 different people. He was as unique an individual as you’d find anywhere, but especially unique in the world of sports.

He dominated high school and college basketball, winning two California high school titles at Helix in San Diego and two national championships at UCLA, before being drafted with the overall #1 pick by Portland in 1974.

For longtime (read: ‘older’) NBA fans, Walton’s death will spark nostalgia-fuelled memories of the Jack Ramsay-coached Blazers, who moved the ball as well as any team in NBA history. Walton could score, play defense and when healthy, run the floor. He was as good a passing big man as the league has seen, an unselfish superstar with a team-first attitude.

In Portland, however, many fans couldn’t come to terms with the mercurial star. Yes, he helped bring the city its only NBA title in 1977 and yes, his free-spirited, outdoorsy ways fit in with the Oregon lifestyle.

But a seven-foot, red-headed mountain man was always going to stand out, his flaws – perceived or otherwise – magnified in one of the NBA’s smallest cities. Walton could be surly and incommunicative, he had a friendship with controversial activist Jack Scott and his debilitating (albeit misdiagnosed) injuries seemed vague in the eyes of fans, bringing his toughness and desire into question.

A year after the 1977 title, the Blazers were 50-10 when Walton injured his foot again. He would eventually leave Portland and embark on an up-and-down career that would pay off with a 1986 title in Boston and an NBA Sixth Man of the Year award.

What made Walton special in his post-playing years was his transformation from mumbling athlete to eloquent TV commentator. He became an entertainer, a character (critics would say caricature) who brought life to a broadcast, whether you bought his act or not.

On air, Walton rambled about the Grateful Dead, spoke lovingly of his relationship with the legendary John Wooden and religiously pumped up his beloved Pac 12, which he constantly referred to as the ‘conference of champions.’

As Portland writer John Canzano wrote in his column, “The Pac 12’s final event ended on Saturday night. Walton died on Monday. Nobody who understood the man will miss the significance of that.”

And then there’s Kerry Eggers.  We go back a long ways,  to the days when I was fresh off the folding of the World Football League and  just starting out as a high school coach,  and he was a rookie sportswriter with the now-gone Oregon Journal.  Now retired, he’s the “Dean of Portland Sports writers.”

He comes by his sports journalism honestly - his dad was the longtime sports information director at Oregon State - and because he spent his entire career in this area, he’s as capable as any man alive of commenting on things that happened here.

His article on Bill Walton, whose stay in Portland he remembers as well as I do, is a tour de force.

Kerry Eggers - “Big Red is Gone.”

Big Red is gone. Bill Walton died Monday. He was 71, the victim of cancer.

Ironically, Walton’s death came two days after the final breath of his beloved “Conference of Champions,” with Saturday’s finals of the Pac-12 Baseball Tournament in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Walton was arguably the greatest college basketball player in history. During his three years at UCLA, the Bruins won their first 73 games — the bulk of their Division I-record 88 consecutive victories — and two national championships. His final record at UCLA: 86-4.

In the NBA, Walton led the Trail Blazers to their only NBA championship in 1977, earning Finals Most Valuable Player honors and, the next season was named MVP for the NBA’s regular season. In 1986, he was honored as Sixth Man of the Year in helping the Boston Celtics to an NBA crown. Walton was inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame in 1993 and into the College Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006.

In latter years, Walton was gregarious and outgoing, but also private when it came to health matters. Perhaps only immediate family knew he was failing. Bill’s death came as a shock even to those close to him. 

“Bill is like family, but everyone is surprised,” said David Lucas, son of Maurice Lucas, Walton’s closest friend during his playing days in Portland. “Nobody knew he was battling cancer.”

It goes on.  It’s a long read, but it’s well worth your time…

https://www.kerryeggers.com/stories/big-red-is-gone-no-one-did-it-like-he-did-it



*********** Coach THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!

That video (Zoom Clinic 151) answered so many questions I've had for a few years now....probably the best DW video & explanations I've ever watched.

Thanks again!!

Seth Wilkerson
Head Coach
Buckingham County HS
Buckingham, Virginia



***********  Thanks for clarifying the President's remarks. I would've believed it in full absent your explanation. At one time I thought his stories were funny.

Money for a stadium? Just git 'er done, Pritzker. Taxpayers, I'm pretty sure, have money for everything. I mean, by one calculation, the student loans 'forgiven' this year amount to $172 billion. Don't think for a second we ain't got a few billion for a new stadium, mister. If you want it, you got it, babe.

I hope you have material sufficient to give us Coach Lude thoughts for a long time. I like that you're keeping his memory prominent.

John Vermillion                    
St Petersburg, Florida



***********   Hugh,

I knew you would catch that latest whopper from the current President.  The same guy who "starred" at Archmere Academy (I bet THAT was also an embellishment).  Nothing comes out of that guy's mouth but dust.  

Great turnout on Memorial Day where I live.  Hundreds gathered to honor the fallen.  American flags were in great abundance.

Bring back the Generals and the Maulers!!

Fox's Friday night schedule highlights absurdity of where college football is today

Nothing like biting the hand that feeds you!  Do they really think fans of high school football are going to stay home to watch a meaningless college game at 11pm??

Have a great week!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas




 
In the photo at right, Bill Murray is the man on the left.  How many of you recognized two Arkansas legends in the photo? Third from left, holding the Cotton Bowl trophy, is Lance Alworth, and on the far right is legendary Arkansas coach Frank Broyles.

BEWARE OF WIKIPEDIA.  Showing either a disdain for or an ignorance of history - or simple laziness - Wikipedia does  researchers like you and me a disservice  by frequently   referring to notable people from the past by their given birth names, rather than the names by which they achieved fame.  All it would have taken was a mere glimpse at just one single reference from the days when he coached to know that BILL Murray was never known to anyone other than perhaps his   mother as “William D. Murray.” (Nor, for that matter, was Dave Nelson known as “David Nelson” or Bill Alexander as “William Alexander.”) The fact is that in the 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s men named  David, or Joseph, or James, or Michael or William (any common anglo-saxon name) NEVER went by the formal form in an informal setting.  NEVER. And football coaching was an informal setting. Wikipedia is not  completely ignorant - thankfully, Babe Ruth is not “George Herman Ruth” to them, nor is Red Grange “Harold Grange.”  I have permission to edit on Wikipedia, and I’ve tried to straighten them out on Murray, Nelson and Alexander - among others - but my edits have been rejected.   Oh, well.  Soon enough, AI will make Wikipedia obsolete anyhow.


***********   QUIZ ANSWER:  Bill Murray was born in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, one of eight children. In his senior year at Rocky Mount High School he was an all-state running back.

As a single-wing  tailback at Duke, he starred on the freshman team, and then for three years on the varsity. In his senior season, he rushed for 1,030 yards, was voted the team MVP, and was named to the All-Southern team, the first Blue Devil ever to be so honored.

He also ran track, and in the winter of his senior year he helped coach the freshman basketball team. As a senior he was president of the Student Government Association, and at graduation he received the Robert E. Lee Award as the school’s outstanding senior.

Following graduation from Duke,  he was hired as principal and “coach of all sports” at the Methodist Children's Home in Winston-Salem.  In addition,  he taught history and geography. In ten years as the football coach at the home, he compiled a record of 69 wins against only 9 losses and 3 ties, including one unbeaten stretch of 36 games.

In 1940, ten years out of college, he was hired as head coach by the University of Delaware.

Delaware at the time was not good.  Delaware had had five straight losing seasons, but his first team there went 5-3.

Delaware had been playing football since 1889 and had never had an unbeaten season.  His second team there went 7-0-1.  His third team went 8-0.  His fourth team - after a three-year hiatus during World War II when Delaware didn’t field a team - went 10-0 and won the National Small-College Championship.   During that span, Delaware went 32 games without a loss.

When he left Delaware after the 1950 season to take the job at Duke, his record was 49 wins, 16 losses, and 2 ties, with undefeated seasons in 1941, 1942, and 1946.  He had  also served as athletic director from 1940 to 1945, as director of the Division of Student Health, Physical Education, and Athletics,  and as president of the faculty club.

At Duke, he replaced the legendary Wallace Wade (for whom Duke’s stadium is now named) who had resigned to become commissioner of the Southern Conference. He proceeded to post seven straight winning seasons. Starting with his second season, he had six straight nationally-ranked teams.

Recalled one of his former linemen, Dwight Bumgarner,  "He liked to bring in players who had brains and talent but not a lot of money. We were a bunch of country boys but we were hungry."

He was hard-nosed, and in the words of lineman Dick Havens, “very organized, very disciplined. We joked that there was Eastern Time, Greenwich time, and (his) time. (His) time was five minutes early. The doors closed on time and the bus left on time. He left people in the parking lot. He was calm and collected but you knew there were consequences if you messed up."

Remembered quarterback Walt Rappold, "every second of every practice, you knew where you were and what you were supposed to be doing. We maintained that we played three games every week, two in practice and the third on Saturday."

He was a pound-it-out guy. 

In  1956, his top receiver caught just nine passes for the entire season.   One of his quarterbacks, Sonny Jurgensen, would go on to throw 4,203 passes in a Hall-of-Fame  NFL career.  But at Duke, he threw only 59 passes his entire senior season.

But then came some warning signs.

Duke’s 1958 team finished 5-5 - and had to win the last three games to do it. In 1959, the Blue Devils went 4-6,  the most losses for any Duke team in 30 years.

He realized he had to do something, and the answer came in a loss to Army,  coached by his friend Red Blaik. Army’s offense featured an innovative formation nicknamed the Lonesome End, in which split end Bill Carpenter never entered the huddle, instead receiving his play call from the quarterback by hand and body signals.

It convinced him to give the passing game a try,  and he introduced  it the next spring.  It worked.  His version of Army’s Carpenter,   Tee Moorman,  ended the 1960 season with 54 catches, second nationally only to Hugh Campbell of Washington State, and Duke went 8-3, winning the ACC, and beating Arkansas and its star running back Lance Alworth in the Cotton Bowl, 7-6. 

For the next two years, the Blue Devils won the ACC and achieved national rankings.

He coached at Duke for fifteen seasons, only two of which were losing seasons. His teams won the Southern Conference championship in 1952 and ACC championships in 1954, 1960, 1961, and 1962. In 1953 and 1955 Duke was co-champion of the ACC.  He was voted Southern Conference coach of the year in 1952 and ACC coach of the year in 1954, 1960, and 1962.  Eight of his Duke teams were ranked in the final wire services' top twenty. His teams played in three bowl games: a 34–7 victory over Nebraska in the Orange Bowl after the 1954 season, a 48–21 loss to Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl after the 1957 season, and a 7–6 Cotton Bowl victory over Arkansas following the 1960 season. He had twelve  All-Americans included Mike McGee, winner of the 1959 Outland Trophy as the nation's best lineman.

While at Duke his teams had wins over top teams: Tennessee, Ohio State, Navy, Notre Dame and Florida.  Duke defeated Ohio State in 1955, the year the Buckeyes’ Hopalong Cassady won the Heisman,  and defeated Navy in 1960, the year the Middies’ Joe Bellino won it.

In all, at Duke he won 93 games, lost 51, and tied 9. Overall - Delaware and Duke combined - his record was 142-67-11.

In 1962 he served as the president of the American Football Coaches Association, and following the 1965 season, he left coaching to become its executive director,  a position he held until his retirement in 1982.  He also served on the board of directors of the College Football Hall of Fame.

He was a member of  the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and in the late 1960s he was president of the national FCA.

He is in the College Football Hall of Fame, the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame, the Duke Sports Hall of Fame, the University of Delaware Hall of Fame, and the Helms Athletic Foundation Hall of Fame.

For his many contributions to college football Bill Murray won  the prestigious Amos Alonzo Stagg Award from the American Football Coaches Association in 1972.

CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING  BILL MURRAY

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS




*********** QUIZ:   When the College Football Hall of Fame was opened in 1951, 22 coaches were inducted.  Only two of them were Notre Dame men. One, of course,  was Knute Rockne.   The other was our guy.

He was born in Muncie, Indiana to parents who were recent immigrants from Wales.  Cardiff, Wales.  Just 5-8, he was a star athlete in high school in East Chicago.

After two years at Western State (now Western Michigan), he transferred to Notre Dame, where he played both baseball and football.

His roommate and best friend was the storied George Gipp, and  for two seasons - 1921 and 1922, he was Knute Rockne’s starting quarterback.  Rockne called him  "the smartest player I ever coached."

After graduation, with a law degree, he tuned down an offer to play baseball with the Detroit Tigers, and instead, thanks to Rockne’s recommendation, he was hired by Georgia coach George Woodruff  to be his backfield coach and introduce Rockne’s Notre Dame box to the South.

"I took the job to pay off my debts," he said at the time. "Besides, I wanted to try coaching for a year. If I didn't like it, I could always quit and practice law."

He spent just two years at Georgia before taking the head coaching job at Chattanooga.

There,  taking over a squad that had won just one game the year before, he led them to a 4-4 record in his first year. In his second year his team  tied for the conference championship, and in both his third and fourth years, he won the conference championship.  In those two years, Chattanooga lost just three games, two of them to Vanderbilt (at that time a powerhouse).

After four years at Chattanooga, his record was 26-9-2,  but he was persuaded to return to Georgia as an assistant, this time under a former Notre Dame teammate, Harry Mehre, who argued that it would improve his chances at getting a better job.

Sure enough, after one year at Georgia, the offer came.  Before the 1930 season, Alabama’s Wallace Wade announced  that he had accepted the job at Duke  and that it would be his last season.  And he personally  recommended our guy as his successor.

Talk about a tough act to follow.  Wade had taken Alabama to the Rose Bowl and a national title - its first - four years earlier. And in 1930,  Alabama went undefeated, returned to the Rose Bowl where it defeated Washington State, and won another  national championship.  Nine days after the Rose Bowl game,  our guy became  head coach of the Crimson Tide.

In his  first meeting with Alabama President  Mike Denny, Denny told him,  “Now that you have accepted our proposition, I will give you the benefit of my views, based on my years of observation. It is my conviction that material is 90 per cent and coaching is 10 per cent.   I desire further to say that you will be provided with the 90 per cent, and that you will be held to strict accounting for the 10 per cent.”

Inheriting a national championship team, he went 9-1 in his first season. There followed seasons of 8-2, 7-1-1 and 10-0.

In his third season at Alabama, the Tide won the very first championship of the SEC.

On his 1934 team,  at opposite  ends were Don Hutson and Bear Bryant.  Hutson was an All-American and went on the a Hall of Fame career at Green Bay.  Bryant, of course, would become one of the greatest of all college coaches at Kentucky, Texas A & M and Alabama.

He coached through 1946, but he did most his coaching that season from a wheelchair,  and at the end of the season,  faced with his own failing health and concern for his mentally-ill daughter,  he had to give up coaching.   He  was just 47.  He died in 1954 at the age of 55.

In his 15 years as Alabama’s head coach, he  posted an overall record of 115-24-7 with two national championships, (1934 and 1941)  four SEC titles, two Rose Bowl wins (in three appearances), and additional appearances in the Cotton, Orange and Sugar Bowls. In all, he took Alabama to six bowl games, at a time when  there were only four bowls.

He had seven seasons of  one loss or less, and only twice  did his teams lose as many as three games in a season.

His teams allowed an average of just 6.3 points per game, and among Alabama coaches, only Bryant has a better winning percentage.

One of his greatest accomplishments was starting  the first free coaching clinic in the South in his second year at Alabama.

His is one of the five statues outside Bryant-Denny Stadium honoring Alabama coaches who have won national titles there; of the five, he is the only one who never had a losing season anywhere.



TUESDAY, MAY 28, 2024       “Why do they put an expiration date on sour cream? Does it turn good?” Gallagher


************ Wisdom from Mike Lude:   “The route to the farm where I grew up starts on what is now Highway 131, the paved road south from Kalamazoo. When I was a kid the road turned to gravel as it bent east to Vicksburg, a town of roughly two thousand. Another half-dozen miles the road became dirt - dust or mud, depending on the season – and two miles farther you would reach our farm.

“The farm consisted of 220 acres of rocks and Hills. My father was considered a tenant farmer, or share cropper. He provided everything it took to farm the land: seed, equipment, animals, and, of course, labor. The proceeds of everything he sold, crops or animals, he split fifty-fifty with the owner of the land.

“Our farm produced marginal amounts of wheat, oats, and corn, and a little bit of rye, barley, and clover. We milked by hand as many as 10 cows, twice a day. We also raised hogs, sheep, and chickens. I remember when  hogs sold for three cents a pound, so if one weighed two hundred pounds we’d get six dollars for him.  Wheat normally brought less than one dollar a bushel.”


***********   My Memorial Day story… On Sunday I spoke   with a retired Army officer I know. He told me he’d just finished reading an email from people in Holland who have adopted - and tend - his father’s grave at Margraten American Cemetery. His father was drafted - at age 35 - and was killed in 1944, shortly before the end of WW II.  It was very touching  to learn  that there are Europeans who are still appreciative of our men and their sacrifice.





*********** As they do every Memorial Day, local Boy Scouts come to our town cemetery and place flags on the graves of veterans.  After doing so, they pause at each grave for a salute.


*********** UFL GAMES THIS PAST WEEKEND

SATURDAY

ARLINGTON RENEGADES (2-7) 36,  ST. LOUIS BATTLEHAWKS (6-3) 22
Big shocker! Now, St. Louis hosts San Antonio next Saturday  to determine who will be the home team when they meet - again - a week later in the semi-finals.

SAN ANTONIO BRAHMAS (7-2) 18, BIRMINGHAM STALLIONS (8-1) 9
This was no fluke. Birmingham had nothing to lose - other than a 15-game win streak and so chose to hold QB AJ McCarron out of action. San Antonio, on the other hand, welcomed back QB Chase Garbers, who back in April was thought to be out for the season.


SUNDAY (THE GENIUSES AT FOX - OR THE UFL - WHO SCHEDULED  THESE TWO GAMES AT THE SAME TIME SHOWED US THE DC-MEMPHIS GAME ON TAPE DELAY)

MICHIGAN PANTHERS (7-2) 26,  HOUSTON ROUGHNECKS (1-8) 22
This was actually a pretty good game.  Maybe if Houston’s secondary could tackle, instead of going for knockouts…

DC DEFENDERS (4-5) 36,  MEMPHIS  SHOWBOATS (1-8) 21
Memphis won its opening game and now has lost eight straight.  DC’s Jordan Ta’Amu was 20 of 24 (83 per cent) for 237 yards (almost 10 yards per attempt) and  2 TDs


STANDINGS

XFL CONFERENCE

SAN ANTONIO        7-2

ST LOUIS                 6-3

DC                    4-5

ARLINGTON             2-7


USFL CONFERENCE

BIRMINGHAM        8-1

MICHIGAN            7-2

HOUSTON            1-8

HOUSTON             1-8



*********** I read someplace that the UFL was considering adding as many as four teams in 2025 - “if things go well this year.”  Four MORE teams?  At the present time, things are going so “well” that there are at most five current  teams - and their five cities - worth keeping.

I know it’s football, and I should be grateful, but It’s really depressing to see  the empty stands at games in Arlington, Houston and Memphis.  DC is only slightly better because they play in a smaller, MLS-type stadium that at least creates the illusion that there are more people watching.

I got my start coaching minor league ball back in Maryland, and I certainly pull for guys who love the game and still harbor hopes of getting a shot at the NFL.  But my experience came back in the early 1970s, when the NFL had fewer teams and much smaller rosters (and  much smaller practice squads),  which meant there were quite a few talented players that the NFL simply didn’t have room for.   Reluctantly, I have to admit that based on what I’ve seen on the UFL fields this season, there’s not enough quality talent to stock a decent minor league of even eight teams.


*********** When’s the last time you saw an NFL team run the same play twice in a row?  Against Memphis on Sunday DC Defenders’ offensive coordinator Fred Kaiss did it, but with a twist.  He ran the same play - a jet sweep - twice in a row, first to the left and then to the right. (They were both successful.)


*********** The largest stadium in the CFL is Edmonton’s Commonwealth Stadium, with a capacity of 56,302.


*********** Bob Grant died recently.  Good man.

Bob was one of the first black men to play at Wake Forest.  He played three years with the Baltimore Colts (where I first remember him ) and one year with the Redskins, then after a layoff of a year or so, he came out of retirement to play in the WFL.  With us - the Philadelphia Bell.

IN 1974, at Bell training camp in Glassboro, New Jersey, a young sportswriter named Marty Twersky thought it would be great idea to pull a George Plimpton (remember “Paper Lion?”). He wanted to play someplace on defense, but our head coach, who had something of a sadistic side to him, said, “No, no. Running back.”  I remember the look on the kid’s face.  He knew what was coming.  His first play was right at Bob Grant, who  hit him as hard as I’ve ever seen anyone hit a guy. Asked about it afterward, Bob Grant, the consummate pro, expressed no remorse. He said he considered Twersky’s stunt an insult to career professionals.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Grant_(American_football)


***********   Maybe you’ll get some ideas for your team’s workouts after a look at this Special Forces obstacle course.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6siGD-_e24

The course is named “Nasty Nick,” in honor of a rather amazing soldier named Nick Rowe.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_N._Rowe



***********  That beautiful new lakefront stadium that the Bears would love the taxpayers to build for them?

The Illinois House Speaker told the press, "If we were to put this issue on the board for a vote right now it would fail miserably."

The President of the Illinois Senate said,  “There’s next to no appetite to fund a new stadium with taxpayer dollars.”

And Governor JB Pritzker sounded as if he’s wise to the Bears’ scheme:  "They’re asking to keep all of the revenue from other events that might take place at the stadium.  If there’s a Beyoncé concert, they want all of that revenue, too, and everything else that might happen there. There are aspects of this that are probably nonstarters."

TRANSLATION:  This is Illinois and the big guys, who know where the money really is,  are no-so-subtly letting people know that they’re waiting for the billionaires of the NFL to  start crossing their palms with silver. 

The billionaires may commit to putting up some of money, but ultimately, the taxpayers of Chicago will be the losers.  The Bears can lever leave the Chicago area, but there’s a chance that they could leave the city itself, and that’s  enough to scare the city pols, none of whom wants to be blamed for losing the Bears to some suburb.



***********  Johnny Radcliffe,  a longtime neighbor and good friend of our daughter and son-in-law in North Carolina,  can’t eat red meat - beef, pork, lamb.  Were he to do so, he would experience an anaphylactic reaction, not unlike what happens to people who experience serious reactions to bee stings.

He’s had this condition for several years.  It was purely by chance that the people at the University of North Carolina  traced it to the bite of a tick,  the so-called Lone Star tick, whose bite transfers something called alpha-gal into the body of its victim.

His was one of the first cases they had seen, but evidently it’s occurring more frequently.

The Lone Star tick is found mainly in the Southeast, so naturally that’s where most cases of what’s called alpha-gal syndrome have been been reported, but the range of cases reported appears to be spreading northward and westward, most likely by deer carrying the tick.

There’s no known treatment for alpha-gal syndrome other than completely avoiding red meat.


*********** When old friend Dwayne Pierce visited recently, we were looking at some Washington high school film from last season when we noticed  that the umpire - the position Dwayne  works as an official - was nowhere to be seen. 

After spotting the ball, the umpire customarily stands on the defensive side of the ball,  five yards or so downfield from the center, looking for false starts and then, once the ball’s  snapped, for holding on the offensive line. But in the film we were watching, after spotting the ball,  he took a position in the offensive backfield, about ten yards back of where a tight end would line up if there were one. (These measurements are not intended to be precise.)

Since Coach Pierce left, I’ve had a chance to talk with a couple of officials, and this is what I’ve been told, off the record, some of it perhaps mere opinion:

1. Washington adopted this positioning last season.

2. Washington is one of maybe a half-dozen states that have done so.

3. It was done for insurance purposes (the new position being considerably safer than being in the middle of the defense).

4. It sucks.  A lot of holding is being missed.

Great.  Just what football needs. Less disincentive to hold.


*********** Not saying that flying is getting  worse, but a friend whose son is a veteran airline pilot told me that his son preferred being a co-pilot  to being a pilot, despite a significant difference in the pay.  His reasoning?  “I just wanted to fly.  I don’t want to deal with all the other sh—.  If there’s a problem back there (in the main cabin) the pilot can handle it.”  (The pilot is literally the captain of the ship.)


*********** The Army is a major sponsor of the UFL, so at some point in every game it’s customary for the sideline reporter to interview a “soldier” or two (you’ll see in a minute why I put “soldier” in quotes), asking them why they “chose to serve,” and what their job is.

I honestly have yet to hear anyone say they do anything more than remotely connected with defending our way of life.

This Saturday, at one of the games, they interviewed some burly sergeant who said he’d been in the Army for 15 years or so.  Ah ha, I thought.  Finally someone who kicks ass.

But when he was asked what his job was, he said,  “I’m an equal opportunity advisor.”



*********** Biden’s still at it - still trying to hoodwink gullible Americans  into thinking he was once one hell of a football player.  Somewhere.

He actually told the graduating class at West Point Saturday that they almost had to deal with him playing for their archrival:

(1) He was “appointed” to the Naval Academy by his Senator.

(2) He thought twice about going to Annapolis after finding out, “they had a quarterback named Roger Staubach and a halfback named Joe Bellino… “

His reaction to that discovery? “I said, oh, I’m not going there. I went to Delaware, heh-heh-heh-heh (that’s not a joke).”

After sprinkling some brightly-colored  truth serum powder onto his ice cream, then waiting for the drug to take effect, I asked him about those statements, and I got him to say this…

(1) “Actually, while I was nominated, I was never appointed. BIG difference.”

(2) “Let’s see… That would have been spring, 1961 - my senior year.  Joe Bellino’s Navy football career was over by that time. In fact, he  was getting ready to graduate from the Naval Academy.  Oh, and Roger Staubach? Actually, I’d never heard of him at that time.  Who had? Very few people had.  He wasn’t even enrolled at the Naval Academy yet because he was just finishing up his post-graduate year at New Mexico Military Academy.”

The drug wore off before I could get him to admit that he never played a down of even freshman football at Delaware, so I guess we’ll have to hear that some more.


***********   Every year since joining your page, I've looked forward to your Memorial Day entry. I read it slowly. I think about the people described, and the situations they faced. I cannot call to mind the name of Justice OWH without mentally taking a knee in respect. How can a conscientious American read this page and afterward be unwilling to fight the forces trying to tear down this nation today?

Your Memorial Day page is peerless, and should be the model for publications that reach millions of people.

I have more to say on lighter subjects, but today is not the day. Thanks, Coach Wyatt.

John Vermillion                
St Petersburg, Florida


***********   Hugh,

Thanks again for sharing all those meaningful Memorial Day items with all of us.  One of them, regarding touching the names etched on monuments, is one my wife and I will take up as there are a number of those types of monuments scattered throughout Granbury commemorating those who fought and died to secure our freedoms.  In fact, during the entire year as you walk around the town square here you will see signs with pictures of vets from Granbury and surrounding towns placed outside of the businesses honoring their service.

The NCAA covered their a**.  They succumbed to their own greed, and the greed of ESPN and the media, rather than go bankrupt and lose whatever influence and power they had left.  If I was running the NCAA I would cut the Power Five schools loose and let them fend for themselves.  

Mike Lude's prophetic words may turn out to be a saving grace for a number of Group of Five and FCS schools.  The NCAA would be wise to heed those words.  Otherwise those schools will be faced with two very serious considerations.  A). Drop football (and watch the endowments shrink); or B). Drop the non-revenue Olympic type sports (and watch the lawsuits pile up!).

Blessings,

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas




*********** QUIZ ANSWER:  Joe Foss was a World War II Marine flying ace… a winner of the Medal of Honor (seen around his neck in the photo at far left). And he was one of the few men in the history of sports who was able to successfully oversee the start of a professional league.

He grew up on a farm in South Dakota, near Sioux Falls, and his lifelong love of flying started when he saw Charles Lindbergh on a visit to his area.  He was 18 when his father was killed in an accident and - in the middle of the Depression - he managed by hard work to keep the farm solvent, and while his younger brother ran the farm he worked at a service station to pay for flying lessons and for his education at the University of South Dakota.

At USD, he was on the boxing team and played guard on the football team, and was instrumental in persuading the university to start a flying course.

Just before the start of World War II, he joined the Marines, and although at 27 he was originally conquered too old to be a fighter pilot, he managed to talk his way into qualifying.

In 1942 he was sent to Guadalcanal, and although he was twice shot down, he was such a skilled fighter that in one  three-month period he was credited with 26 kills, equalling the record set in World War I by the US’ top ace, Eddie Rickenbacker.

He was presented the Medal of Honor at the White House by President Roosevelt, and appeared on the cover of Life Magazine.

Following the war,  he served as Governor of South Dakota for two terms, and as President of the NRA (National Rifle Association).

He was active in numerous charities, and with Campus Crusade for Christ.

Joe Foss was the first Commissioner of the American Football League, serving from 1959 to 1966, just before the AFL’s merger with the NFL.

From 1964 to 1967 he hosted ABC’s “American Sportsman.”

He’d be a lot better known if in 1956, he hadn’t refused to authorize a film based on his life when he learned  the producers insisted on adding a made-up love story.   He was going to be played by an old friend - John Wayne.



CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING JOE FOSS

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
TOM DAVIS - SAN MARCOS, CALIFORNIA - Easy for us retired Marines!
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA - Joe Foss, who assuredly qualifies as a distinguished American, and who therefore is a fitting choice for today.
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
TIM BROWN - FLORENCE, ALABAMA
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
TOM WALLS - WINNIPEG, MANITOBA
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY




***********   QUIZ:  He was born in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, one of eight children. In his senior year at Rocky Mount High School he was an all-state running back.

As a single-wing  tailback at Duke, he starred on the freshman team, and then for three years on the varsity. In his senior season, he rushed for 1,030 yards, was voted the team MVP, and was named to the All-Southern team, the first Blue Devil ever to be so honored.

He also ran track, and in the winter of his senior year he helped coach the freshman basketball team. As a senior he was president of the Student Government Association, and at graduation he received the Robert E. Lee Award as the school’s outstanding senior.

Following graduation from Duke,  he was hired as principal and “coach of all sports” at the Methodist Children's Home in Winston-Salem.  In addition,  he taught history and geography. In ten years as the football coach at the home, he compiled a record of 69 wins against only 9 losses and 3 ties, including one unbeaten stretch of 36 games.

In 1940, ten years out of college, he was hired as head coach by the University of Delaware.

Delaware at the time was not good.  Delaware had had five straight losing seasons, but his first team there went 5-3.

Delaware had been playing football since 1889 and had never had an unbeaten season.  His second team there went 7-0-1.  His third team went 8-0.  His fourth team - after a three-year hiatus during World War II when Delaware didn’t field a team - went 10-0 and won the National Small-College Championship.   During that span, Delaware went 32 games without a loss.

When he left Delaware after the 1950 season to take the job at Duke, his record was 49 wins, 16 losses, and 2 ties, with undefeated seasons in 1941, 1942, and 1946.  He had  also served as athletic director from 1940 to 1945, as director of the Division of Student Health, Physical Education, and Athletics,  and as president of the faculty club.

At Duke, he replaced the legendary Wallace Wade (for whom Duke’s stadium is now named) who had resigned to become commissioner of the Southern Conference. He proceeded to post seven straight winning seasons. Starting with his second season, he had six straight nationally-ranked teams.

Recalled one of his former linemen, Dwight Bumgarner,  "He liked to bring in players who had brains and talent but not a lot of money. We were a bunch of country boys but we were hungry."

He was hard-nosed, and in the words of lineman Dick Havens, “very organized, very disciplined. We joked that there was Eastern Time, Greenwich time, and (his) time. (His) time was five minutes early. The doors closed on time and the bus left on time. He left people in the parking lot. He was calm and collected but you knew there were consequences if you messed up."

Remembered quarterback Walt Rappold, "every second of every practice, you knew where you were and what you were supposed to be doing. We maintained that we played three games every week, two in practice and the third on Saturday."

He was a pound-it-out guy. 

In  1956, his top receiver caught just nine passes for the entire season.   One of his quarterbacks, Sonny Jurgensen, would go on to throw 4,203 passes in a Hall-of-Fame  NFL career.  But at Duke, he threw only 59 passes his entire senior season.

But then came some warning signs.

Duke’s 1958 team finished 5-5 - and had to win the last three games to do it. In 1959, the Blue Devils went 4-6,  the most losses for any Duke team in 30 years.

He realized he had to do something, and the answer came in a loss to Army,  coached by his friend Red Blaik. Army’s offense featured an innovative formation nicknamed the Lonesome End, in which split end Bill Carpenter never entered the huddle, instead receiving his play call from the quarterback by hand and body signals.

It convinced him to give the passing game a try,  and he introduced  it the next spring.  It worked.  His version of Army’s Carpenter,   Tee Moorman,  ended the 1960 season with 54 catches, second nationally only to Hugh Campbell of Washington State, and Duke went 8-3, winning the ACC, and beating Arkansas and its star running back Lance Alworth in the Cotton Bowl, 7-6. 

For the next two years, the Blue Devils won the ACC and achieved national rankings.

He coached at Duke for fifteen seasons, only two of which were losing seasons. His teams won the Southern Conference championship in 1952 and ACC championships in 1954, 1960, 1961, and 1962. In 1953 and 1955 Duke was co-champion of the ACC.  He was voted Southern Conference coach of the year in 1952 and ACC coach of the year in 1954, 1960, and 1962.  Eight of his Duke teams were ranked in the final wire services' top twenty. His teams played in three bowl games: a 34–7 victory over Nebraska in the Orange Bowl after the 1954 season, a 48–21 loss to Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl after the 1957 season, and a 7–6 Cotton Bowl victory over Arkansas following the 1960 season. He had twelve  All-Americans included Mike McGee, winner of the 1959 Outland Trophy as the nation's best lineman.

While at Duke his teams had wins over top teams: Tennessee, Ohio State, Navy, Notre Dame and Florida.  Duke defeated Ohio State in 1955, the year the Buckeyes’ Hopalong Cassady won the Heisman,  and defeated Navy in 1960, the year the Middies’ Joe Bellino won it.

In all, at Duke he won 93 games, lost 51, and tied 9. Overall - Delaware and Duke combined - his record was 142-67-11.

In 1962 he served as the president of the American Football Coaches Association, and following the 1965 season, he left coaching to become its executive director,  a position he held until his retirement in 1982.  He also served on the board of directors of the College Football Hall of Fame.

He was a member of  the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and in the late 1960s he was president of the national FCA.

He is in the College Football Hall of Fame, the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame, the Duke Sports Hall of Fame, the University of Delaware Hall of Fame, and the Helms Athletic Foundation Hall of Fame.

For his many contributions to college football he won  the prestigious Amos Alonzo Stagg Award from the American Football Coaches Association in 1972.




FRIDAY, MAY 24,  2024       "Those who lived have to represent those who didn't make it.” Joe Foss, World War II flying ace


MEMORIAL DAY, 2024 -  More than football

FOR YEARS, IT’S BEEN MY HONOR TO OBSERVE MEMORIAL DAY WITH A COLLECTION OF WRITINGS, POEMS AND OBSERVATIONS.  I HOPE YOU’LL TAKE THE TIME TO READ THEM…


*********** Memorial Day was originally known as "Decoration Day,” set aside to honor the men who died in the Civil War. (For a long time, certain southern states chose not observe it,   instead observing their own state’s Memorial Days to honor their Confederate war dead.)


*********** On Memorial Day, we honor those who died fighting for our country. But it's also important to honor those who didn't die - who survived the conflict itself, then spent the rest of their lives trying to suppress memories of the horrors of war, tormented by the thought that comrades died, and  they were spared.


*********** For seven summers, I coached football in Finland. On one occasion, I attended the high school graduation of one of my players.  Other than the language, it wasn't all that different from those that I'd attended in the US, except that at the end, instead of some raucous celebrating, the graduates marched solemnly to the nearby town churchyard and laid flowers on the graves of soldiers - some of them young men from their town who less than 50 years before  had given their lives to defend their country against the Russians, some of them young men who had died years earlier, in a civil war to decide whether the communism unleashed in neighboring Russia might also engulf their country.

I marvelled at the graduates’ devotion to their country, and at the way they unashamedly  honored their fallen soldiers, and I realize how blessed we were never to have had our very country threatened.  But I also realized how special our dead servicemen were, because so many of them died on foreign shores, their deaths all the more tragic because they were only remotely connected to the actual defense of their country.


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

VIETNAM WALL... K I A ... Adkins, Donald W.... Allen, Terry... Anderson, Larry M.... Barker, Gary L.... Blackwell, James L., Jr.... Bolen, Jackie Jr. ... Booker, Joseph O. ... Breeden, Clifford L. Jr ... Camero, Santos... Carrasco, Ralph ... Chaney, Elwood D. Jr... Cook, Melvin B.... Crites, Richard L.... Crutcher, Joe A. ...... Dodson, Wesley E.... Dowling, Francis E.... Durham, Harold B. Jr ... Dye, Edward P. ... East, Leon N.... Ellis, Maurice S.... Familiare, Anthony ... Farrell, Michael J. ...Fuqua, Robert L. Jr. ...Gallagher, Michael J. ...Garcia, Arturo ...Garcia, Melesso ...Gilbert, Stanley D. ...Gilbertson, Verland ...Gribble, Ray N. ...Holleder, Donald W. ...Jagielo, Allen D. ...Johnson, Willie C. Jr ...Jones, Richard W. ...Krischie, John D. ...Lancaster, James E. ...Larson, James E. ...Lincoln, Gary G. ...Lovato, Joe Jr. ...Luberta, Andrew P. ...Megiveron, Emil G. ...Miller, Michael M. ...Moultrie, Joe D. ...Nagy, Robert J. ...Ostroff, Steven L. ...Platosz, Walter ...Plier, Eugene J. ...Porter, Archie ...Randall, Garland J. ...Reece, Ronney D. ...Reilly, Allan V. ...Sarsfield, Harry C. ...Schroder, Jack W. ...Shubert, Jackie E. ...Sikorski, Daniel ...Smith, Luther ...Thomas, Theodore D. Jr. ...Tizzio, Pasquale T. ...Wilson, Kenneth P. .... M I A ... Fitzgerald, Paul ...Hargrove, Olin Jr



*********** The Civil War soldiers called it "seeing the elephant."  It meant experiencing combat. They may have started out cocky, but they soon enough learned how  horrible - how unforgiving and inescapable - combat could be.   By the end of the Civil War 620,000 of them on both sides lay dead.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

After the war's conclusion, Holmes returned to Harvard to study law. Admitted to the bar in 1866, he went into private practice in Boston. In 1882, he became both a professor at Harvard Law School and a justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts. In 1899, he was appointed Chief Justice of the court, and in 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt named him to the United States Supreme Court, where he served for more than 30 years, until January 1932.

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

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

Accidents may call up the events of the war. You see a battery of guns go by at a trot, and for a moment you are back at White Oak Swamp, or Antietam, or on the Jerusalem Road.

You hear a few shots fired in the distance, and for an instant your heart stops as you say to yourself, The skirmishers are at it, and listen for the long roll of fire from the main line.
 
You meet an old comrade after many years of absence, he recalls the moment that you were nearly surrounded by the enemy, and again there comes up to you that swift and cunning thinking on which once hung life and freedom -- Shall I stand the best chance if I try the pistol or the sabre on that man who means to stop me? Will he get his carbine free before I reach him, or can I kill him first? These and the thousand other events we have known are called up, I say, by accident, and, apart from accident, they lie forgotten.
 
But as surely as this day comes round we are in the presence of the dead. For one hour, twice a year at least--at the regimental dinner, where the ghosts sit at table more numerous than the living, and on this day when we decorate their graves  -- the dead come back and live with us.
 
I see them now, more than I can number, as once I saw them on this earth. They are the same bright figures, or their counterparts, that come also before your eyes; and when I speak of those who were my brothers, the same words describe yours.

This, from Justice Holmes' address to the graduating class of Harvard University on Memorial Day, 1895…

I have heard the question asked whether our war was worth fighting, after all. There are many, poor and rich, who think that love of country is an old wife's tale, to be replaced by interest in a labor union, or, under the name of cosmopolitanism, by a rootless self-seeking search for a place where the most enjoyment may be had at the least cost.

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

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

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

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

Justice Holmes died on March 6, 1935, two days short of his 94th birthday, and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. So spry and alert was he, right up to the end, that it's said that one day, when he was in his nineties, he saw an attractive young woman and said, "Oh, to be seventy again!" A 1951 Hollywood motion picture, The Magnificent Yankee, was based on his life.


*********** Roughly 10 million men were killed in World War I.  So effective  had the weapons of war become by then that for about half of them - five million men - there are no known graves.


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

If you are able
Save a place for them inside of you,
And save one backward glance
When you are leaving for places
They can no longer go.
  
Be not ashamed to say you loved them,
Though you may or may not always have.
Take what they have left
And what they have taught you with their dying,
And keep it with your own.
  
And in that time when men feel safe
To call the war insane,
Take one moment to embrace these gentle heroes
You left behind.
  
by Major Michael D. O'Donnell... shortly before being killed in action in Vietnam, 1970



***********After graduation from Harvard in 1910, Alan Seeger lived the life of a bohemian/beatnik/ hippie poet in New York City's Greenwich Village.

In 1914, he moved to Paris, and when war with Germany broke out, like a number of other young Americans,  he joined the French Foreign Legion to fight on the side of the Allies. On July 4, 1916, nine months  before America joined the war,  he was killed in the Battle of the Somme.  He was 28.

 A year after his death, his poems were published.  The best known of them was "I Have a Rendezvous With Death," which according to the JFK Library, "was one of President Kennedy's favorite poems."
 

I Have a Rendezvous with Death
By Alan Seeger
 
I have a rendezvous with Death    
At some disputed barricade,    
When Spring comes back with rustling shade    
And apple-blossoms fill the air—    
I have a rendezvous with Death         
When Spring brings back blue days and fair.    
 
It may be he shall take my hand    
And lead me into his dark land    
And close my eyes and quench my breath—    
It may be I shall pass him still.
  
I have a rendezvous with Death    
On some scarred slope of battered hill,    
When Spring comes round again this year    
And the first meadow-flowers appear.    
 
God knows 'twere better to be deep    
Pillowed in silk and scented down,    
Where love throbs out in blissful sleep,    
Pulse nigh to pulse, and breath to breath,    
Where hushed awakenings are dear... 
 
But I've a rendezvous with Death    
At midnight in some flaming town,    
When Spring trips north again this year,    
And I to my pledged word am true,    
I shall not fail that rendezvous.


*********** Poppies once symbolized the Great War.  The World War.  Or, if you prefer,  "The War to End All Wars" (so-called because, in the conceit that seems to follow every war, people  just knew in their hearts  that after the horror of that conflict, mankind would do anything in its power to avoid ever going to war again.)

We now call it “World War I.”

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

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

In the spring of 1915, after having spent seventeen days hearing the screams and dealing with the suffering of men wounded in the bloody battle at Ypres, in Flanders (a part of Belgium), Major McCrae wrote, "I wish I could embody on paper some of the varied sensations of that seventeen days... Seventeen days of Hades! At the end of the first day if anyone had told us we had to spend seventeen days there, we would have folded our hands and said it could not have been done."

Major McCrae was especially affected by the death of a close friend and former student. Following his burial - at which, in the absence of a chaplain, Major McCrae himself had had to preside - the Major sat in the back of an ambulance and, gazing out at the wild poppies growing in a nearby cemetery, composed a poem, scribbling the words in a notebook.  When he was done, though, he discarded it, and only through the efforts of a fellow officer, who rescued it and sent it to newspapers in England, was it ever published.

Now, that poem, "In Flanders Fields", is considered perhaps the greatest of all wartime poems. The special significance of the poppies is that poppy seeds might lie dormant in the ground for years, flowering only when the soil has been turned over. The soil of northern Belgium had been so churned up by the violence of war that at the time Major McCrae wrote his poem, the poppies were said to be blossoming in such a profusion that no one could  remember ever having seen before.


In Flanders Fields... by John McCrae       

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

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

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


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


"Young Fellow My Lad"

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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


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

    "Like many other phenomena in life, history has a tendency to be fickle. In 2001, some thirty-four years after the Battle of Ông Thanh, and the subsequent withdrawal of U.S. forces from Vietnam in 1973, which was followed by the "honorable peace" that saw the North Vietnamese army conquer South Vietnam in 1975 in violation of the Paris Peace Accords, most historians, as well as a large majority of the American people, may consider the U.S. involvement in Vietnam a disastrous and tragic waste and a time of shame in U.S. history. Consider, however, the fact that since the late 1940s, the Soviet Union was the greatest single threat to U.S. security. Yet for forty years, war between the Soviet Union and the United States was averted. Each time a Soviet threat surfaced during that time (Greece, Turkey, Korea, Berlin, Cuba, Vietnam, and Afghanistan), although it may have been in the form of a "war of national liberation," as the Vietnam war was characterized, the United States gave the Soviet Union the distinct message that each successive threat would not be a Soviet walkover. In fact, the Soviets were stunned by the U.S. reactions in both Korea and Vietnam. They shook their heads, wondering what interest a great power like the United States could have in those two godforsaken countries. They thought: 'These Americans are crazy. They have nothing to gain; and yet they fight and lose thousands of men over nothing. They are irrational.’


     "'Perhaps history in the long-term--two hundred or three hundred years from now--will say that the western democracies, led by the United States, survived in the world, and their philosophy of government of the people, by the people, for the people continues to survive today (in 2301) in some measure due to resolute sacrifices made in the mid-twentieth century by men like those listed in the last chapter of this book. Then the words of Lord Byron, as quoted in this book's preface, will not ring hollow, but instead they will inspire other men and women of honor in the years to come. "

The late General Jim Shelton was a former Delaware football player (a wing-T guard) who served in Korea and Vietnam and as a combat infantryman rose to the rank of General. He was in Viet Nam on that fateful day in October, 1967 when Don Holleder was killed. Ironically, he had competed against Don Holleder in college. General Shelton  served as Colonel of the Black Lions and was instrumental in helping me  establish the Black Lion Award for young American football players. The  title of his book was taken from Captain Jim Kasik's description of the enemy: "the beast was out there, and the beast was hungry."


*********** The late George Jones could be a rogue, but he was a heck of a singer, and his "50,000 NAMES CARVED IN THE WALL" - a tribute to the 58,000 Americans who died in Vietnam - may be THE American Memorial Day song.

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



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

If you doubt the axiom, 'An aggressive leader is priceless,' ...if you prefer the air arm to the infantry in football, if you are not convinced we recruited cadet-athletes of superior leadership potential, then you must hear the story of Donald Walter Holleder. The saga of Holleder stands unique in Army and, perhaps, all college gridiron lore.

Hence begins the chapter, "You are my quarterback", in Coach Red Blaik's 1960 book, You Have to Pay the Price. Every cadet in the classes of 1956, 57, 58 and 59, and everyone who was part of the Army family at West Point and throughout the world will remember, even 50 years after the fact, the "Great Experiment".

But there is much more to the Holleder story. . Holly was born and brought up in a tight knit Catholic family in upstate New York. He was an only child whose father died when Don was quite young. Doc Blanchard recruited high school All American Holleder who entered the Point just a few days after he graduated from Aquinas Institute in Rochester.

Twice turned out for academic difficulties, he struggled mightily to stay in the Corps. However as a cadet leader he excelled, serving as a cadet captain and company commander of M-2 his senior year.

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

Three football defeats in 1955 after Holly's conversion to quarterback brought criticism of Coach Blaik and Don from many quarters but the dramatic Army victory over Navy, 14 to 6 brought redemption. Shortly thereafter, Holly received the Swede Nelson award for sportsmanship.

The fact that he had given up all chances of becoming a two time all-American and a candidate for the Heisman trophy and he did so without protest or complaint played heavily in the decision by the Nelson committee to select him for this prestigious award.

Holly's eleven year career in the Army included the normal schools at Benning and Leavenworth, company command in Korea, coaching and recruiting at West Point and serving as the commanding general's aide at Fortress Monroe.

After graduating from Command and General Staff College, he was off to Vietnam. Arriving in July, 1967, Holly was assigned to the Big Red One--the First Infantry Division-- and had considerable combat experience before that tragic day in the fall--October 17.

Lieutenant Colonel Terry Allen's battalion was ambushed and overrun--the troops on the ground were in desperate shape. Holleder was serving as the operations officer of the 28th Brigade--famous Black Lions. Hearing the anguished radio calls for help from the soldiers on the ground, Holly convinced his brigade commander that he had to get on the ground to help. Jumping out of his helicopter, Holly rallied some troops and raced toward the spot where the wounded soldiers were fighting.

The Newsweek article a few days after his death tells what happened next. "With the Viet Cong firing from two sides, the U. S. troops now began retreating pell-mell back to their base camp, carrying as many of their wounded as they could, The medic Tom "Doc" Hinger was among those who staggered out of the bush and headed across an open marshy plain toward the base, 200 meters away. But on the way he ran into big, forceful Major Donald W. Holleder, 33, an All-American football player at West Point..., going the other way--toward the scene of the battle. Holleder, operations officer for the brigade, had not been in the fight until now. ' Come on Doc,' he shouted to Hinger, 'There are still wounded in there. I need your help.' "

Hinger said later: 'I was exhausted. But having never seen such a commander, I ran after him. What an officer! He went on ahead of us--literally running to the point position'. Then a burst of fire from the trees caught Holleder. 'He was hit in the shoulder recalled Hinger. 'I started to patch him up, but he died in my arms.'

The medic added he had been with Holleder for only three minutes, but would remember the Major's gallantry for the rest of his life."

Holly died as he lived: the willingness to make great sacrifices prevailed to the minute of his death.  Caroline was left a young widow. She later married our West Point classmate, Ernie Ruffner, who became a loving husband and father to the four Holleder daughters. All the daughters are happily married and there are eight wonderful and loving grandchildren.

The legacy of Donald Walter Holleder will remain an important part of the West Point story forever. The Holleder Army Reserve Center in Webster, New York, the Holleder Parkway in Rochester and the Holleder Athletic Center at West Point all help further Don's legacy. In 1985, Holly was inducted into College Football Hall of Fame.

A 2003 best selling book, "They Marched into Sunlight", by David Maraniss,  tells the story of Holleder and the Black Lions. Tom Hanks has purchased the film rights to the book. An innovative high school coach, Hugh Wyatt, decided to further memorialize Don's legacy by establishing the Black Lion Award. Each year at hundreds of high schools, middle schools and youth football programs across the country, a single football player on each team is selected "who best exemplifies the character of Don Holleder: leadership, courage, devotion to duty, self-sacrifice, and--above all--an unselfish concern for his team ahead of himself."

Starting in 2005, this award is presented to a member of the Army football team each year.  Anyone who wishes to extend Holleder's legacy can do so by approaching their local football coaches and encouraging them to make the Black Lion Award a part of their tradition.

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

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



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



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

In 1954-55 I lived at West Point N.Y. where my father was stationed as a member of the staff at the United States Military Academy. Don Holleder was an All American end on the Red Blaik coached Army football team which was a perennial eastern gridiron power in 40s and 50s.

On Fall days I would run home from the post school, drop off my books, and head directly to the Army varsity practice field which overlooked the Hudson River and was only a short sprint from my house. Army had a number of outstanding players on the roster back then, but my focus was on Don Holleder, our All-America end turned quarterback in a controversial position change that had sportswriters and Army fans buzzing throughout the college football community that year. Don looked like a hero, tall, square jawed, almost stately in his appearance. He practiced like he played, full out all the time. He was the obvious leader of the team in addition to being its best athlete and player. In 1955 it was common for star players to play both sides of the ball and Don was no exception delivering the most punishing tackles in practice as well as game situations.

At the end of practice the Army players would walk past the parade ground (The Plain), then past my house and into the Arvin Gymnasium where the team's locker room was located. Very often I would take that walk stride for stride with Don and the team and best of all, Don would sometimes let me carry his helmet. It was gold with a black stripe down the middle and had the most wonderful smell of sweat and leather. Inside the helmet suspension was taped a sweaty number 16, Don's jersey number.

While Don's teammates would talk and laugh among themselves in typical locker room banter, Don would ask me about school, show me how to grip the ball and occasionally chide his buddies if the joking ever got bawdy in front of "the little guy".

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

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

There was one major drawback to all of Don's football-gained notoriety - he wanted no part of it. He wanted to be a soldier and an infantry leader. But division recreational football was a big deal in the Army back then and for someone with Don's college credentials not to play was unheard of. In the first place players got a lot of perks for representing their Regiment, not to mention hero status with the chain of command. Nevertheless, Don wanted to trade his football helmet for a steel pot and finally, with the help of my Dad, he succeeded in retiring from competitive football and getting on with his military profession.

It came as no surprise to anyone who knew Don that he was a natural leader of men in arms, demanding yet compassionate, dedicated to his men and above all fearless. Sure enough after a couple of TO&E infantry tours his reputation as a soldier matched his former prowess as an athlete.It was this reputation that won him the favor of the Army brass and he soon found himself as an Aide-de-camp to the four star commander of the Continental Army Command in beautiful Ft Monroe, Virginia.

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

Once again, Don wanted no part of this safe harbor and respectfully lobbied his boss, General Hugh P. Harris to get him to Troops in Viet Nam. Don got his wish but not very long after arriving at the First Division he was killed attempting to lead a relief column to wounded comrades caught in a Viet Cong ambush.

I remember the day I found out about Don's death. I was in the barber's chair at The Citadel my sophomore year when General Harris (Don's old boss at Ft Monroe, now President of The Citadel) walked over to me and motioned me outside. He knew Don was a friend of mine and sought me out to tell me that he was KIA. It was one of the most defining moments of my life. As I stood there in front of the General the tears welled up in my eyes and I said "No, please, sir. Don't say that."

General Harris showed no emotion and I realized that he had experienced this kind of hurt too many times to let it show. "Biff", he said, "Don died doing his duty and serving his country. He had alternatives but wouldn't have it any other way. We will always be proud of him, Biff." With that, he turned and walked away.

As I watched him go I didn't know the truth of his parting words. I shed tears of both pride and sorrow that day in 1967, just as I am doing now, 34 years later, as I write this remembrance.

In my mind's eye I see Don walking with his teammates after practice back at West Point, their football cleats making that signature metallic clicking on concrete as they pass my house at the edge of the parade ground; he was a leader among leaders.

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

Biff Messinger, Mountainville, New York, 2001

***********  A retired Navy captain wrote in the Wall Street Journal about the strict criteria for awarding the Medal of Honor (frequently called the "Congressional" Medal of Honor)...

    "Remember the Marine Corps requirement: Fall on a hand grenade to save your fellow Marines and the grenade fails to explode, you get a Navy Cross; if the grenade explodes, you might get the Medal of Honor."


The Medal of Honor was meant to be awarded sparingly,  Of the hundreds of thousands of men who fought in our Twentieth Century wars, here are the numbers of Medals of Honor Awarded: WW I - 124;  WW II - 464; Korea  - 135;  Vietnam -  246. There were 1522 Medals of Honor awarded as a result of the Civil War. (Actually, there were more than that,  but  over 900 were later rescinded.) One reason for the late number was that in the Civil War, the Medal of Honor was the only medal awarded for valor. Another reason, though,  was the enormous number of casualties suffered by Americans in that war.

http://www.homeofheroes.com/moh/corrections/purge_army.html



*********** Other nations lost men in the same wars we did, of course, and they, too, honor, in poem and song, their men who gave all.

What can be sadder than the loss of a young man, one of his country's finest,  in a distant war? One such song is known by some as "No Man's Land" and by others as "The Green Fields of France" - but either way  it's a sad lament about a young soldier named Willie McBride, killed in battle in 1916 while still a teenager.

Fair  warning: This is VERY sad.      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_mBJgsaxlY


Another very sad ballad, "The Band Played Waltzing Matilda," is the story of a young Australian sent off to fight in World War I.  He was shipped off to Gallipoli (Turkey) where thousands of "Anzacs" (Australians and New Zealanders) were slaughtered by enemy machine-gun fire. (I highly recommend the movie, "Gallipoli") Although he escaped death, his legs were blown off, and his story in the song  is told from the perspective of an embittered, now-old man.

Fair  warning: So is this.     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VktJNNKm3B0



*********** Trophies for everybody. There really was a time when most Americans knew why we put aside one day a year called Memorial Day:   to honor - to memorialize - those who lost their lives in service of their country.

Not -  as people who buy ads in our local paper seem to think -  to remember a loved one who, no matter how sorely missed,  never died in battle - never even served in the Armed Forces, in many cases - but simply did what we’re all destined to do one day.  They died.  I hate to be the one to spoil their grieving by telling them that Memorial Day is not about them, or about dear, departed Uncle Charlie.

But somebody's got to tell them, and it might as well be me.

There are other days for that -  364 others, if you’re really sincere.  And there's a special one, called Veterans’ Day, when our nation honors and thanks all the people who served.

Actually, come to think of it: is there even one holiday - one single holiday - that hasn’t been given another meaning, one whose new meaning often obscures the original one?

Think of it:

New Year's Day?   Bowl Games

Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday? Come on - how many people really take the time to honor the man?

Presidents’ Day?   Sale! Sale! Sale! (Used to be two separate holidays. Now, few school kids could even tell you which two presidents it refers to.)

St. Patrick's Day? Although it’s scarcely observed in Ireland,  in much of the US it’s a time-honored  excuse to get drunk

Easter?  (Wherever it's still allowed to be called "Easter") It's about Bunnies and Easter eggs.  Mostly, though, it's part of Spring Break.

Mother's Day?  This is the one holiday that remains as designed.  If anything, it's grown stronger.  Traditionally, this was the day when the phone company’s circuits failed. Warning: Do NOT schedule anything else on this day.   And definitely - do NOT get drunk.

Cinco de Mayo?  A holiday that means next to nothing in Mexico, it's been turned into a Hispanic-themed St. Patrick's Day

Memorial Day?  The end of the school year.  The start of summer.  The Indy 500.

July 4?  Fireworks and beer and hot dogs. (Once - you may be old enough to remember - patriotic parades and baseball double headers)

Labor Day?  The end of summer; and,  now, the end of  the first week of college football

Veterans Day?  It used to be called Armistice Day,  way  back, several wars ago,  when  we commemorated the end of a horrible world war

Hallowe'en?  Used to be for kids to go trick-or-treating. But now that that's no longer safe,  adult partiers have taken it over and turned it into the second-biggest beer-sales day of the year

Thanksgiving?  Don't you mean “Turkey Day?”  You know - the day before Black Friday?

Christmas - aka "Winter Holiday." For those who don't know,  it's the “holiday” when people refer to when they wish you “Happy Holidays.”



*********** In a Wall Street Journal article back in 2015, a writer named Jerry Ciancolo urged  us, the next time we pass a War Memorial with the names of dead Americans on it, to stop - and  “Touch the names of those who never came home.”

He asked that we dispense with  “hollow abstractions” such as “ultimate sacrifices,” and to think in everyday terms.

Many of those young guys, he noted...

… never set foot on campus.  They never straightened a tie and headed to a first real job. They never slipped a ring on a sweetheart’s finger. They never swelled with hope turning the key to a starter home.  They never nestled an infant against a bare chest.  They never roughhoused in the living room with an exasperated wife looking on. They never tiptoed to lay out Santa’s toys.  They never dabbed a tear while walking their princess down the aisle. They never toasted their son’s promotion.  They never rekindled their love as empty nesters.  They never heard a new generation cry out, “I love you, Grandpa!”

A lifetime of big and little moments never happened because of a bullet to the body one day in a far-off land.  For those who crumpled to the ground, the tapestry of life was left unknit.

A moment’s reflection is all it takes to realize that every name on your town’s monument was a real person.  One who bicycled the same streets as you, who sleepily delivered the morning Gazette, who was kept after school for cutting up, who sneaked a smoke out back, who cannon-balled into the local pond in the dog days of summer.

On Memorial Day - with your smartphone turned off - pay a visit to your local monument. Quietly stand before the honor roll of the dead, whisper a word of thanks, and gently run your finger across their names. The touch will be comforting.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/touch-the-names-of-those-who-never-came-home-1432332593

**********  Memorial Day also happens to coincide with the anniversary of the World War I Battle of Cantigny, in which  Americans of the 28th Infantry Regiment earned the nickname “Black Lions of Cantigny.”

Cantigny, in France, was the first battle fought and won by American forces in World War I.  It began on May 28, 1918.  Under the command of Colonel Hanson Ely - a former Army football player - some 4,000 men of the 28th Infantry Regiment, US First Division, American Expeditionary Forces, seized and then defended the town of Cantigny against German opposition. In the four-day battle, nearly 900 members of the regiment were killed or wounded. For their efforts the regiment earned the French Croix de Guerre  as well as the designation “The Lions of Cantigny.” 

Although it was not a major battle, Cantigny was of great significance  in demonstrating  the worth of the American soldier, as well as establishing the principle that American troops would serve only under American leadership.  Until Cantigny, there had been great pressure from our Allies to employ the newly-arrived American troops merely as fill-ins - replacements for Allied soldiers who’d been lost in battle.  But once the “doughboys” proved their worth in combat, the debate was settled - American men would remain - and fight - under American command.

http://www.uswarmemorials.org/html/monument_details.php?SiteID=27&MemID=75




*********** Wisdom from Mike Lude:  “We had no electricity, no central heating, no indoor plumbing. A car was out of the question. So was a telephone. I remember my mother telling me she couldn't write a note to her mother because we couldn't afford three cents for a stamp.

“The nearest village of Fulton didn't even have a stoplight. It had four corners and consisted of a general store, a creamery, a hardware store and a filling station. That was pretty much it – not exactly the bright lights of, say, Kalamazoo. 

“At the school I attended, a few skips longer than a mile down the dirt road, all eight grades were jammed into one room with one teacher. My wardrobe consisted of bib overalls and sturdy work shoes, standard for all my classmates. The other thing we had in common was working hard and long on the farms where our families we're trying to eke out a living.

“We were all poor. We were like millions of other Americans attempting to survive as the country went tumbling into the abyss of the worst economic depression in United States history.”


***********  There are plenty of reasons why I wish Mike Lude was still with us, one of which is the sense that we’re very close to the realization of what I’d heard him say many, many times:  that the only way to save college football was to adopt the Ivy Model - no scholarships - and go to 2-way football, with smaller rosters and smaller staffs.

Check that.  Mike didn’t foretell the professionalization of the college game (he couldn’t imagine it happening) and it would kill him, after all the work he’s done on behalf of college football as we once knew it - to see it.

But for the rest of college football  - FCS, D-II, and all the FBS left-behinds who won’t make the cut when the SEC and the Big Ten finally open the store as AAA pro football - the option is going to be to (1) try to emulate the big guys, throwing good money after bad and going broke in the process; or (2) adopt the Ivy Model - no scholarships - and go to 2-way football, with smaller rosters and smaller staffs.  




*********** UFL GAMES THIS WEEKEND - ALL TIMES EASTERN

SATURDAY

ST. LOUIS BATTLEHAWKS (6-2) at ARLINGTON RENEGADES (1-7) - NOON - ABC

BIRMINGHAM STALLIONS (8-0)  at SAN ANTONIO BRAHMAS (6-2) - 3 PM - ABC


SUNDAY (UNLESS FOX IS GOING WITH SOME SORT OF SPLIT SCREEN, IT LOOKS LIKE WE WON’T BE WATCHING BOTH OF THESE GAMES)

MICHIGAN PANTHERS (6-2) at HOUSTON ROUGHNECKS (1-7) - 2:30 PM - FOX

DC DEFENDERS (3-5) at MEMPHIS  SHOWBOATS (1-7) - 2:30 PM - FOX


STANDINGS

XFL CONFERENCE

ST LOUIS            6-2

SAN ANTONIO        6-2

DC                    3-5

ARLINGTON             1-7


USFL CONFERENCE

BIRMINGHAM        8-0

MICHIGAN            6-2

MEMPHIS            1-7

HOUSTON             1-7



*********** (THIS IS FROM NEWS YOU CAN USE - OCTOBER, 2002)

A Florida State receiver caught a pass for a first down and, not trusting the officials to give us the sign, jumped to his feet and very dramatically gave the sign himself. He was right in front of the official. Bingo. Unsportsmanlike conduct.

While FSU coach Bobby Bowden brought the young man to the sideline and administered a little "coaching," play-by-play announcer Brad Nessler said, "I don't know why he'd do that."

Answered his partner, Bob Griese,"You know why they do it? Because they see it on Sunday afternoon and Monday night."

Oh, thank you, Bob Griese.

And thank you so much, ESPN, ESPN2, ABC, CBS, and FOX for always following up a play with a closeup of the antics of the guy who just made that play, so that our younger players can study and perfect their celebrations and dance moves.

UPDATE:  I must have missed it, but evidently  the rules now specify that a runner or receiver MUST signal that he’s made a first down before it’s official.



*********** Thanks to Josh Montgomery, of Berwick, Louisiana, for this article on longtime coach Terry Bowden, and  its  moral:   (1) you should be ready at all times to re-invent yourself and (2) it’s never too late to do so.

https://geauxpreps.com/home/terry-bowden-still-rooted-in-northeast-louisiana-but-turns-interests-to-outside-of-coaching/


***********   There must be many Danny Harmons, so I can't say if I know the one you refer to or not. When I was researching hobo life a few years ago, I started a "Railroad" Folder, and the trainspotting Mister Harmon is in it.

In my mind, regardless of the House vs NCAA ruling, problems remain unsolved. If, as Coach Lude averred, big college coaches don't deserve their fat salaries, I think the same is true for most players. I still question whether this will be the proper way to start them on life's journey.

Sorry, my mind's not on 7-on-7 today. Must get back to work deciding whether to accept entry into GWU or Columbia.

John Vermillion                        
St Petersburg, Florida

Damn.  This guy knows everything.  I’m a train fan, and railfan Danny Harmon is the host of “Distant Signal,” my favorite “trainspotting” show on Youtube.


***********  Hugh,

00-Jim Otto.  Another HOF player they could make a football movie about.  A GOOD movie!

Those of us peons in the know can see the impending disaster coming to college athletics.  Yet those in charge,  who SHOULD see it, are complicit in its demise.

I had the privilege to coach a number of Polynesian and Hawaiian kids during my career.  They would fall all over themselves to please their coaches, and always respectful.  I really enjoyed my relationships with them.

As much of an Army fan I have been over the years may change a little, as my niece just enlisted in the Navy. 


Have a great week!

Joe  Gutilla
Granbury, Texas




***********  QUIZ ANSWER: Tim Brown didn’t play high school football until his sophomore year (his mother didn’t want him playing football).

His high school (Woodrow Wilson High, in San Antonio) was only 4-25-1 in his  three years as a player.  Nevertheless, he was heavily recruited, and he chose Notre Dame over Nebraska, Oklahoma, Iowa and SMU.

In his first three years at Notre Dame, despite his outstanding play as a receiver and a returner, the Irish were just 17-17. 

In his junior year - Lou Holtz’s first as the Irish coach - he  broke out, with  910 yards receiving, 254 yards rushing and 773 yards on returns.  He set  a school record with 1973 all-purpose yards, and he was named to most All-America teams.

In his senior year, the Irish record  improved to 8-4,  and his role in the  turnaround (he caught 34 passes for 846 yards, returned 34 punts for 401 yards, rushed for 144 yards, returned 23 kickoffs for  456 yards, and scored eight touchdowns) helped earn him the Heisman Trophy and the Walter Camp Award as well as consensus All-America honors. 

He was the first receiver ever  to win the Heisman. 

(His win  - along with that of fellow alumnus Davey O’Brien in 1938 -  made San Antonio’s Woodrow Wilson the only high school to have produced two Heisman winners. )

He was taken by the Los Angeles Raiders in  the  first round of the 1988 NFL draft - the sixth player taken overall.

In his rookie season, he led the NFL in kickoff returns,   yards returned, and average yards per return.

By his fifth year, he had established himself as one of the NFL’s top receivers, and from 1993  through 2001, he had nine straight 1,000-yard seasons.

He was named to nine Pro Bowls.

He is the Raiders’ all-time leader in games played - 224 - and he was  the last of the former Los Angeles Raiders to play in Oakland.

He holds the Raider franchise records  for receptions, receiving yards, and punt return yards.

After being released by the Raiders, he ended his career with Tampa Bay - coached by former Raiders’ coach Jon Gruden.  But after being released by the Buccaneers, he signed a one-day contract with Oakland so he could retire as a Raider.  Nevertheless, there were hard feelings between him and Raiders’ owner Al Davis that never were resolved.

His career  14,934 receiving yards are the second-highest total in NFL history, and his 1,094 receptions are third.

His 3,220 punt return yards are  fifth  in NFL history

His 19,682 all-purpose yards were 5th all-time.

He is the only player who at retirement was in the NFL’s all-time top five in both receiving yards and return yards.

He scored a total of 105  touchdowns - 100 receiving, three on punt returns, and one on a kickoff return.

When he scored on an 88-yard punt return against the Chiefs in 2001 he became the oldest NFL player ever to return a punt for a touchdown.

Tim Brown is a member of both the College  Football and Pro Football Halls of Fame,  and in 2012 he received the NCAA Silver Anniversary Award in recognition of his accomplishments in the 25 years since his college class graduated.


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING TIM BROWN

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
TOM DAVIS - SAN MARCOS, CALIFORNIA
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS QUIZ:  One of Notre Dame’s greatest, and likely one who will never be duplicated.
TIM BROWN - FLORENCE, ALABAMA (Who not only shares the name, but also the school - this Tim Brown is an alum of Wilson High in Florence)
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY 



*********** QUIZ:  He was a World War II Marine flying ace… a winner of the Medal of Honor (seen around his neck in the photo at far left). And he was one of the few men in the history of sports who was able to successfully oversee the start of a professional league.

He grew up on a farm in South Dakota, near Sioux Falls, and his lifelong love of flying started when he saw Charles Lindbergh on a visit to his area.  He was 18 when his father was killed in an accident and - in the middle of the Depression - he managed by hard work to keep the farm solvent, and while his younger brother ran the farm he worked at a service station to pay for flying lessons and for his education at the University of South Dakota.

At USD, he was on the boxing team and played guard on the football team, and was instrumental in persuading the university to start a flying course.

Just before the start of World War II, he joined the Marines, and although at 27 he was originally considered too old to be a fighter pilot, he managed to talk his way into qualifying.      

In 1942 he was sent to Guadalcanal, and although he was twice shot down, he was such a skilled fighter that in one  three-month period he was credited with 26 kills, equalling the record set in World War I by the US’ top ace, Eddie Rickenbacker.

He was presented the Medal of Honor at the White House by President Roosevelt, and appeared on the cover of Life Magazine.

Following the war,  he served as Governor of South Dakota for two terms, and as President of the NRA (National Rifle Association).

He was active in numerous charities, and with Campus Crusade for Christ.

He was the first Commissioner of the American Football League, serving from 1959 to 1966, just before the AFL’s merger with the NFL.

From 1964 to 1967 he hosted ABC’s “American Sportsman.”

He’d be a lot better known if in 1956 he hadn’t refused to authorize a film based on his life when he learned  the producers insisted on adding a made-up love story.   He was going to be played by an old friend - John Wayne.





TUESDAY, MAY 21,  2024       “Remember that foreign service officers get to the top by not getting into trouble. They are therefore more interested in covering their asses than in protecting yours.” Richard Nixon, in a 1994 letter to Bill Clinton


*********** Wisdom from Mike Lude:  “Since we didn't have a choice,  living without most of the things taken for granted now by many Americans was more of an inconvenience than a hardship. By present standards (heating and air conditioning, indoor plumbing, electric lights) and the myriad of appliances (stoves, dishwashers, clothes washers and dryers, television sets and stereo equipment), life was extremely primitive.

“From the back door of our house it was about three first downs - 30 yards - to the backyard privy. The toilet tissue was an out-of-date Sears, Roebuck catalog or any other kind of available paper. If you had a bathroom call at night we had what was called a slop jar inside the house.”

“Our drinking water came from a well powered by a windmill next to the house, which pumped water into a storage tank. An overflow pipe ran underground to a pair of open tanks, one inside and one outside the barn, where the animals could drink.

“The house was heated by two wood-burning stoves, one in the dining area and one in the living room, and the cooking was done on a third wood stove in the kitchen. To conserve wood we didn't fire up the living room stove in the winter. All winter we cut wood and stacked it in a shed next to the house, a never ending chore."


***********  Read today's quote and ask yourself if that  doesn't apply to a lot of today's school administrators.


*********** JIM OTTO - The Ultimate Raider.  RIP

He was a Wisconsinite, almost certainly recruited to The U over the years by longtime Hurricanes’ coach Walt Kichefski, a native of Rhinelander, Wisconsin.

His number - OO - was actually his name:  “Aught-OH.”

He was the All-AFL Center for  the entire 10 years (1960-1969) that the league was in operation.

He played in 223 games - including playoffs - and never missed a game.

He was one of only three players (George Blanda and Gino Cappelletti were the others) to play in all 140 regular-season games of the AFL’s existence.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c37n4Ib_aJI&t=396s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTNxHfZxYuQ



*********** UFL GAMES THIS PAST WEEKEND -

There actually were some good games this weekend - the greatest margin of victory in any of the four games was seven points - and that was between the league’s best team - Birmingham - and one of its worst - Houston.

Still, the league, now going into its ninth week, was pretty much sorted into good, bad and so-so by the  third week, and by the seventh week  there were four “haves”and four “have-nots.”

The problem with this sort of imbalance is that when a good team plays a bad team, the result is predictqble. When a bad team plays a bad team, the game might  be close, but the football is bad. Only when a good team plays a good team is there the likelihood of a good game.   But unfortunately, when there are only four good teams...



SATURDAY

MICHIGAN PANTHERS (6-2) 24, MEMPHIS  SHOWBOATS (1-7) 18


BIRMINGHAM STALLIONS (8-0) 35, HOUSTON ROUGHNECKS (1-7) 28


SUNDAY

ST. LOUIS BATTLEHAWKS (6-2) 26, DC DEFENDERS (3-5)  21

SAN ANTONIO BRAHMAS (6-2) 20, ARLINGTON RENEGADES (1-7) 15 


STANDINGS

XFL CONFERENCE

ST LOUIS                 6-2

SAN ANTONIO        6-2

DC                             3-5

ARLINGTON             1-7


USFL CONFERENCE

BIRMINGHAM        8-0

MICHIGAN             6-2

MEMPHIS             1-7

HOUSTON             1-7



*********** It’s a bit confusing to try to decipher  the goings-on and the potential results of a current lawsuit that goes by the name House vs. NCAA (House being the last name of one of the persons suing the NCAA) but it sure seems to have the potential to blow college sports to smithereens.

Whatever happens, it’s almost certain that the losers will be the college football that we’ve known and loved,  and the non-revenue college sports currently being supported by football revenues that'll have to be cut once football players become paid employees.

The winners will be a handful of highly talented “college” athletes, who would eventually have made their big money anyway as professionals.  

And, of course, the lawyers for both sides. Win or lose, they’re  paid by the hour.

https://www.espn.com/college-sports/story/_/id/40182310/looking-ahead-week-house-v-ncaa-settlement-votes



***********   If anybody can keep things in perspective, it's a farmer.

From the Spokane Spokesman-Review:

When the fuel pump on Nathan Wood’s truck started making strange noises last week, he pulled in to the nearest gas station, Arnie‘s Payless Gas on Highway 200 in Kootenai, Idaho, to see what the trouble might be. Because he was already there, Wood purchased a few lottery tickets.

A few days later, the farmer from Sandpoint found out he had won $2 million when his wife told him one of the Powerball tickets matched the five white balls. “I couldn’t believe it,” he said.  “And then, I went back to planting  onions.”

*********** Going through  some old programs, I found the names of a couple guys - TuiTamaha Hala’ufia, Tuufuli Uperesa - obviously of Polynesian ancestry, who were playing football stateside - Halaufia at Utah State and Uperesa at Montana - well before players from the islands were so well-represented in our game.

And that got me to doing some research into the Polynesian  pioneers - the guys from the islands who blazed the trails that so many other young men would follow.  Here, in chronological order, were the most prominent ones I could find:

1. Al Lolotai - generally believed to be the first Samaon to play pro football.  Played college ball at Weber JC (now Weber State), then played in 1945 with the Washington Redskins, and 1946-1949 with the Los Angeles Dons of the AAFC. (Interestingly, Redskins’ owner George Preston Marshall, the last NFL owner to sign a black player, seemed to have no objection to signing Lolotai, despite his  dark skin.)

2.  Herman (“Squirmin’ Herman”) Wedemeyer -  played at St. Mary’s (Moraga, California) and in 1945 finished fourth in the Heisman voting (behind Doc Blanchard and Glenn Davis of Army and Bob Fenimore of Oklahoma A & M). He played briefly in the AAFC. (And later  starred in Hawaii Five-O.)

3. Charlie Ane (AH-nay) - After high school in Hawaii, played at Compton JC, then starred at guard for two years at USC (1951-1952) -  All-Pacific Coast Conference in 1952.  Fourth round pick of Detroit Lions.  Played with Lions (1953-1959),  on their last two NFL championship teams  (1953 and 1957).

4. Ray Schoenke (SHONG-key) - Mother was Hawaiian and married a serviceman from Minnesota.  Went to HS in Hawaii and - for his senior year - in Texas.  Played at SMU (1960-61-62). Played 13 years in NFL - Cowboys-Packers- Browns - Redskins (1963-1975)

5. Rocky Freitas - Oregon State (1965-67) Played 10 years with the Detroit Lions - First native Hawaiian to be named All Pro.


Next one - I think - would be Bob Apisa, two-time All-American running back at Michigan State.



*********** Just as it was inevitable that the College Football Playoff would expand, it was also inevitable that there would be a conflict between early-round playoff games and NFL games, which customarily begin to be televised on Saturdays once the regular college season has ended.
Stewart Mandel, in The Athletic, was asked how much of a problem the conflict will be for the CFL, and he responded…

It’s not great!

Last year, 93 of the 100 most-watched television broadcasts were NFL games. College football does better ratings than almost anything that’s not the NFL, yet even its most-watched game of the year, Ohio State vs. Michigan(19.1 million viewers), came in 58th on that list. I’d venture to guess NBC and Fox could put even the crappiest regular-season game in one of those windows and it will still siphon viewers away from those early CFP games, which ESPN valued at $25 million per game in its new deal — around a fourth of what Amazon paid to show one Black Friday NFL game last season.

Now … it’s unclear whether any of this really matters.

People who care about college football are going to tune in for those CFP games regardless — especially given the novelty of them being the first-ever on-campus tourney games at the FBS level. The concern for the CFP and ESPN will be whether they can draw in more casual fans — the people I refer to as diehard New York Jets or Philadelphia Eagles fans who might turn on college football on a Saturday if they see Texas is playing Michigan. The CFP would want to suck in as many of those people as they can in the early rounds to drive interest in the later ones.

However, there is one other possibility at play here. The CFP’s extension with ESPN announced earlier this year allows ESPN to sublicense a few games to other networks. If by chance NBC or Fox ends up being one of the networks that lands one of those games and then airs it either going into or coming out of their NFL game that day, it might actually help boost viewership rather than detract from it.

***********   According to the Federal Reserve, more than half of all the coins in the US are out of circulation,  sitting in peoples homes.


*********** Dick Cavett told about the time he and Groucho Marx were walking along a street in New York City when a couple recognized them,  and the man asked Marx, well known for his ability to cut anyone to the quick,  to say something insulting about his wife.

Marx paused briefly, then said,  “Well, with a wife like that, you should be able to think of your own insults.”


*********** Anybody else out there a fan of Danny Harmon?  (If you know who he is.)


*********** Okay, okay - I’m a glutton for punishment.  I just had to find out how our local middle school could possibly be 3-0, so my wife and I took in their game on Friday evening.

1. It’s not that much different from 7-on-7 in that it’s mostly passing.   As a result, there are lots of incompletions and quite a few sacks and interceptions. But the pass defense is bad enough that they complete just enough long passes to keep them throwing.

2. Tackling was horrendous.

3. Ball handling was sloppy.

4. Blocking was non-existent.

5. A couple of shotgun snaps almost hit the moon.

6. Talk about the pro influence - a team facing third and goal from the two  threw a fade. And completed it. (See bad pass defense above)

7. The officiating was pretty good and - the pro influence again - they sent a kid off the field  to get some knee pads - and pull his pants down over this knees.  If only college officials had the guts to do it.

There was a decent crowd on hand, which made me think that maybe high schools should consider  playing spring football - not as an alternative to fall football, but in addition to it.  Why not?  Most football players  in most large high schools don’t  play another sport anyhow, and in fact when they do play any sport other than football they’re likely  playing it year-round.   Go ahead - make me change my mind.



***********   Hi Coach!

Mike Lude's story about growing up on the farm reminded me of the time when my grandpa shared one of his experiences of growing up on a farm.  He got beat up by 3 kids at school.  When he got home, his father asked what happened.  After my grandpa explained how he got roughed up, his dad grabbed a horsewhip and told my grandpa to hitch the wagon.  He then told my grandpa that he had two choices-find the boys that roughed him up and beat them or get lashed with the horsewhip.  Long story-short-My grandpa found the guys and beat them soundly as his father watched while sitting on the wagon.  At first, I didn't believe my grandpa about getting horse whipped until he showed me the scars on his legs.  Talk about motivation through fear!

Mike Framke
Green Bay, Wisconsin


***********   Your "Wisdom' from Coach Lude is just that. The words you chose for today stir me. I read them three, four, five times. I ache because I doubt they would produce such an effect on millions of Americans. Powerful stuff, you ask me.

Mike Freeman...my favorite sportswriter of all time? Don't think so. And the NFL? Well, they quickly divorced themseves from Butker's views. Let's remember, however, the NFL did no such thing when Kaepernick took a knee. Sorry, but to me Roger Goodell's no higher than Freeman.

Here's Coach Wyatt's next money-making venture: he makes matrices (exactly replicating the playcards worn on the wrist) to show fans where they can find every game on a given day. You'll also want to include the price of the streaming subscription. The complications are just beginning. Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Peacock, etc.


John Vermillion                            
St Petersburg, FL

Answer = Terry Robiskie, whose Boston-accented words I can hear now. No, we talkin' some good south Louisiana speech even Coach Steve Jones can't keep up with.


***********   Hugh,

That MS team you’ve been watching is likely 3-0 because the other schools could likely be a combined 3-6, or 2-7, or 1-9.   Yep!  They must be pretty bad!

Gotta give Dabo credit for his loyalty to his HS recruits.  Can’t say the same for a few of them who bailed on him.

Many parents today get too caught up in the latest fad sports, and how cool it would be to watch little Joey or Jenny playing that “new” game without taking into serious consideration the necessary “basics” it takes to make it even work!

The woke NFL is alive and “kicking!”

Paraphrasing Lou Holtz:  Today people think about their rights and privileges.  Years ago people thought about their responsibilities and obligations. 


Enjoy your weekend!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas


 




*********** QUIZ ANSWER:  In 39 years as a coach in the NFL, Terry Robiskie  worked for eight different teams.

In all that time, he was never out of work.

He served as offensive coordinator for three different teams, one of which won a Super Bowl, and he served as interim head coach for two  different clubs, after their head coach was fired.  

It’s not as if he jumped from pillar to post, either. He spent 12 years with one team, and eight, seven and six years with three other teams - 33 years (an average of eight years) with just four teams.  Only at the end of his career was he a short-timer.

But he never got a shot at being a head coach.

He came out of Edgard, Louisiana, a small town on the Mississippi between New Orleans and Baton Rouge.

There, he quarterbacked his small, all-black high school to 33 straight wins and two state titles.  In his high school career, he accounted for 6,470 yards in total offense, and 90 touchdowns running and passing.

At LSU, he was  converted to running back as a freshman, and for three years he was the  staple of the LSU offense, the first in a long string of great LSU running backs, the likes of Charles Alexander, Dalton Hilliard, Kevin Faulk and Leonard Fournette.

In 1976, his senior season,  he rushed for 1,117 yards, and became the first Tiger to  rush for more than 1,000 yards in a season since 1943, breaking All-Timer Steve Van Buren’s record of 1,007 yards.

An eighth-round pick by the Raiders,  he played three seasons in Oakland and  two seasons with the Miami Dolphins  before being forced by injuries to retire.

He immediately embarked on a coaching career when he was hired by Raiders’ owner Al Davis to coach special teams. He spent 12 years with the Raiders, the last five as their offensive coordinator, and his offense was a major factor in the Raiders’ 38–9 victory over the Washington Redskins in Super Bowl XVIII.

The next season,  he joined Norv Turner, who’s just been hired as coach of the Redskins.  In his seventh season in Washington, Turner was  fired  with three games left in  the season, and our guy was appointed interim coach . He went 1-2.   He did not get the full-time job, which went to Marty Schottenheimer, and he moved on to Cleveland.

He spent six seasons in Cleveland. In his fourth season, while our guy was serving as offensive coordinator, head coach Butch Davis was fired, and once again our guy was called on to be interim coach. This time,  he went 1-4.  He was interviewed for the head job, and when Romeo Crennel was hired instead, he stayed on for two more seasons as wide receivers’ coach.

And then he moved on again.  He was 53 years old.    He had spent 25 years as an assistant, six of them as a coordinator.  He had twice served as an interim head coach.  It had to be apparent that he wasn’t going to be a head coach.

He spent a year with the Dolphins, then in 2008 he moved to Atlanta when Mike Smith was hired there. It was Matt Ryan’s rookie season, and the Falcons had a decent run for a while, but then Smith and his staff were fired after eight seasons.

Next came short stays in Tennessee (two years), Buffalo (one year) and Jacksonville (two years), and then retirement.

Terry Robiskie.  39 years an  NFL coach.  Eight different teams.  A Super Bowl ring.  But never a head coach.


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING TERRY ROBISKIE

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
TOM DAVIS - SAN MARCOS, CALIFORNIA
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY

 




***********  QUIZ: He didn’t play high school football until his sophomore year (his mother didn’t want him playing football).

His high school (Woodrow Wilson High, in San Antonio) was only 4-25-1 in his  three years as a player.  Nevertheless, he was heavily recruited, and he chose Notre Dame over Nebraska, Oklahoma, Iowa and SMU.

In his first three years at Notre Dame, despite his outstanding play as a receiver and a returner, the Irish were just 17-17. 

In his junior year - Lou Holtz’s first as the Irish coach - he  broke out, with  910 yards receiving, 254 yards rushing and 773 yards on returns.  He set  a school record with 1973 all-purpose yards, and he was named to most All-America teams.

In his senior year, the Irish record  improved to 8-4,  and his role in the  turnaround (he caught 34 passes for 846 yards, returned 34 punts for 401 yards, rushed for 144 yards, returned 23 kickoffs for  456 yards, and scored eight touchdowns) helped earn him the Heisman Trophy and the Walter Camp Award as well as consensus All-America honors. 

He was the first receiver ever  to win the Heisman. 

(His win  - along with that of fellow alumnus Davey O’Brien in 1938 -  made San Antonio’s Woodrow Wilson the only high school to have produced two Heisman winners. )

He was taken by the Los Angeles Raiders in  the  first round of the 1988 NFL draft - the sixth player taken overall.

In his rookie season, he led the NFL in kickoff returns,   yards returned, and average yards per return.

By his fifth year, he had established himself as one of the NFL’s top receivers, and from 1993  through 2001, he had nine straight 1,000-yard seasons.

He was named to nine Pro Bowls.

He is the Raiders’ all-time leader in games played - 224 - and he was  the last of the former Los Angeles Raiders to play in Oakland.

He holds the Raider franchise records  for receptions, receiving yards, and punt return yards.

After being released by the Raiders, he ended his career with Tampa Bay - coached by former Raiders’ coach Jon Gruden.  But after being released by the Buccaneers, he signed a one-day contract with Oakland so he could retire as a Raider.  Nevertheless, there were hard feelings between him and Raiders’ owner Al Davis that never were resolved.

His career  14,934 receiving yards are the second-highest total in NFL history, and his 1,094 receptions are third.

His 3,220 punt return yards are  fifth  in NFL history

His 19,682 all-purpose yards were 5th all-time.

He is the only player who at retirement was in the NFL’s all-time top five in both receiving yards and return yards.

He scored a total of 105  touchdowns - 100 receiving, three on punt returns, and one on a kickoff return.

When he scored on an 88-yard punt return against the Chiefs in 2001 he became the oldest NFL player ever to return a punt for a touchdown.

He is a member of both the College  Football and Pro Football Halls of Fame,  and in 2012 he received the NCAA Silver Anniversary Award in recognition of his accomplishments in the 25 years since his college class graduated.


FRIDAY, MAY 17,  2024       “Leadership involves getting people to do things they otherwise wouldn’t.”  Louis Gerstner, Jr. retired CEO of IBM

*********** Wisdom from Mike Lude:  “To be very frank, I was frightened of my dad. I always refer to him as being very tough. I thought he was the toughest guy around, and I didn't want to cross him.

“John E. Lude stood a half inch under 6 feet. He was husky, about 200 pounds, and very strong. He had sandy hair and bright blue eyes. He rarely made jokes. He was quite serious because of the times, the Depression and having to work seven days  a week, every week of the year. He worked hard and he worked with his hands. Our neighbors and the people in Fulton he did business with would say, ‘John Lude is a damn good farmer. He works hard and takes good care of his animals and his farm machinery.’

“My dad's unbending insistence on honesty, truthfulness, and hard work left an indelible mark on his older son. He told me time and again, supported by my mother, that honesty was absolutely essential; a man's word was the most important thing, and it had to be a truthful word.”


*********** UFL GAMES THIS WEEKEND - ALL TIMES EASTERN

SATURDAY

MEMPHIS  SHOWBOATS (1-6) AT MICHIGAN PANTHERS (5-2) - 4 PM FOX
Michigan has a playoff spot locked up.  Memphis is out of it.

HOUSTON ROUGHNECKS (1-6) AT BIRMINGHAM STALLIONS (7-0) - 8 PM ESPN2
Houston has no shot at a playoff spot; Birmingham has won 14 in a row over the last two years

SUNDAY

DC DEFENDERS (3-4) AT  ST. LOUIS BATTLEHAWKS (5-2) - NOON  ABC
DC may be without QB Jordan Ta’Amu; St. Louis is in a  fight for first place in the XFL Conference.

ARLINGTON RENEGADES (1-6) AT  SAN ANTONIO BRAHMAS (5-2) - 4 PM  FOX
Arlington is coming off its first win; San Antonio is tied for the conference lead with St. Louis after coming off a last-second win over 1-6 Houston.


STANDINGS

XFL CONFERENCE

ST LOUIS            5-2

SAN ANTONIO        5-2

DC                    3-3

ARLINGTON             1-6


USFL CONFERENCE

BIRMINGHAM        7-0

MICHIGAN            5-2

MEMPHIS            1-6

HOUSTON             1-6



***********   Everyone starts learning somewhere.

"I got hurt in my rookie year with the Philadelphia Eagles - a knee injury - and I couldn't play. While I was rehabbing, Norm Van Brocklin (Eagles’ QB) would be watching films and would explain what was happening.”    John Madden


*********** I wrote last time about the farce of a middle school practice  that Coach Dwayne Pierce and I had watched. 

On Wednesday, my wife and I dropped by to watch (it’s just up the street from us) and nothing had changed.  Still a lot of standing around.  Still a lot of mistakes going uncorrected (probably because they were unnoticed by the coaches.)

Wondering how long this had been going on, I asked a guy standing nearby - probably a parent - how long they’d been practicing.  (Since Dwayne and I had watched them last week, I figured that meant they’d been going for maybe two weeks.)  “About six weeks,” the guy said.

Concealing my shock, I asked if they’d played any games. (They play middle school football in the spring.) “They’re three-and-oh,” he said.

“Wow,” was all I could say.

Now, I’ve seen plenty of middle-school and junior-high practices and games, and I’ve seen some pretty doggone good coaching,  so if this bunch is 3-0, how bad must the coaching must be at those other places?

What’s worse, those 3-0 coaches are probably so pleased with themselves that they’ll never see any need to get better.

(It’s the Dunning-Kruger Effect:   Incompetence doesn’t recognize itself.)


*********** A poster on Reddit, commenting on the pro-Palestinian campers:  “I’m not saying bullying should make a return, but Jesus Christ - some of these people needed to be a little more challenged to join actual society when they were younger instead of surrounding themselves with a bunch of other nobodies and deciding their group is actually important.”


***********  Clemson has been catching crap for  what some consider its stubborn refusal to use the transfer portal,  and  when asked about it, Dabo Swinney said, “Every player is technically a transfer. We just signed a whole class of guys transferring from high school.”


***********  The new president of Argentina, Javier Milei,  said that getting the country out of the economic mess was going to be painful for a lot of people. But, he said, although people may be experiencing some temporary pain as a result of measures designed  to combat inflation, the country’s economy is “going to go up like a scuba diver’s fart.“


*********** Bob Greene, a writer and a Chicago guy, wrote an article in the Wall Street Journal about the kind of brotherhood that - done right - playing football can instill in young men.

In the early morning hours of April 21, just days before his 31st birthday, a Chicago Police officer named Luis Huesca was murdered,  shot ten times as he got out of his car in his driveway.

The guy who shot him stole his car and, of course, his gun.

It took them ten days to find the bastard, but when they did - he was hiding under a sink - they cuffed him,  using Officer Huesca’s department-issued handcuffs.

Wrote Greene, “It was his last official act at the end of his police career, courtesy of grateful officers, proud to have served with him.”



 

*********** Lives there a native Philadelphian who doesn’t remember,  as a kid, riding down the Parkway and laughing at the sight, off in the distance,  of William Penn,  standing high atop City Hall and  letting it all hang out?


*********** A guy wrote to The Athletic’s Stewart Mandel noting that nine of FSU’s 10 NFL draft picks were transfers, and wondering whether that was a sign of the future.

Mandel pointed out that FSU Coach Mike Norvell had faced an unusually daunting rebuild, and as a result had been quite aggressive in using the portal.

At the same time, though, he noted that of Michigan’s 13 draft picks, 12 had been at Michigan since high school.

Similarly,  with both Alabama and Washington eight of ten were long-timers, and  with Texas it was eight of 11.



*********** Christmas is no longer going to belong solely to the NBA.   This coming December 25,  the NFL is going to play two games.

If that’s good news - if you’re a big NFL fan - then here comes the bad news: Netflix has lined up the exclusive rights to stream both games.  You wanna watch?  Pay up.

They’re not working any harder on the cancer cure than the NFL is, trying to figure out ways to squeeze every last dime out of us for things we’d always assumed were free. Silly us.

I’m sure that somewhere in Vegas they’re taking bets on who will be the first congressman to propose free streaming for underserved/marginalized communities.


*********** Girls’ flag football will not be a  state-sanctioned sport in Washington next year.

There were  a couple of issues  that the people voting - school administrators - very wisely took into consideration.  One was the additional costs another sport would entail, at a time when most schools in the state are having to make budget cuts. 

The other was the proposal to play it as a winter sport. Fall would be tough because there are already two main girls’ sports - soccer and volleyball - and fields are already in use by football and girls’ soccer; spring is tough because there’s softball and track and field and the fields are used by boys’ soccer and track.

That left winter, where there’s only girls’ basketball and - recently - girls’ wrestling.  But, um, while  the temperatures on the west (or “wet”) side of the Cascades might permit an outdoor sport in January, to the east of the Cascades there’s winter - real winter, with snow ’n’ ice ’n’ all that - and an outdoor sport other than skiing is out of the question.

While I’m sorry for  girls who wanted to play flag football, I have to wonder - if they want to play it so badly - if there isn’t some way they can play without it being a school-sponsored sport.  After all, they played community-sponsored soccer around here for years before the schools  officially adopted it.  At present, lacrosse exists as a club sport, played where kids want it badly enough (and can afford it).  Flag football, with almost no equipment requirements would be easy to get going as a club sport.  Hey - let’s find out if they really want to play!



***********  Until the other day, if you’d asked me the name of the kicker for the Super Bowl champions, I’d have given you a blank look.

But now I know, because he’s the guy who had the stones to stand up and - without  a mask on his face, either - deliver a commencement speech at a Catholic College calling for a more conservative Catholicism, and suggesting that certain  events taking place during “Pride Month” (that’s June) promote “deadly sins.”

His name’s Harrison Butker, and although the Chiefs probably already have orders from Headquarters to cut him, they won’t won’t be able to do it until camp opens in July, so when you see his name all next  month on signs and banners at Pride Parades, you’ll know why.

Butker also said a few things  about - gasp - a woman’s “vocation” having something to do with making the home and raising children. Imagine!

You might want to read what a guy named Mike Freeman had to say about Butler’s speech. Or you might not.  Read it at your risk.  Freeman is the “Race and Inequality Editor - Sports” of USA Today. At least with a title like that, you can’t say you weren’t forewarned.


https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/columnist/mike-freeman/2024/05/15/harrison-butker-commencement-speech/73682471007/



***********   I had a longer to-do list today than normal, no time to spare. Then I watched the Coach Lude video, and didn't regret a second of the 49 minutes or so. You're right, Coach, about it feeling like a personal conversation with him. So, so good, and so valuable for any coach or administrator. Thanks for letting us see that podcast.

Silly nostalgia, I guess, is how many would write off your days of following sports in Philly. It's harder to do today, but a determined person can create his own little world similar to that. I still prefer listening to MLB games on radio. I shun Little League games on ESPN, well, just because I think it's too early for kids that age to be on TV. I enjoy a radio announcer painting a picture of a football stadium on Saturday night--almost anywhere, but say, Autzen or at the Bayou Bengals, places where it's loud and the fans early in the season are steaming.

Dwayne Pierce sounds like a great fellow. Glad you had a good time. I would've had the same request--show me some of the places you coached.

I notice you were silent on Seinfeld. I understand your reason. That said, I'd like to know what corrective measures the Duke president instituted. Were I in charge, I would let them know you don't demean and debase our university and walk away unpunished.

John Vermillion
St. Petersburg, Florida

Interestingly, because of the reach of powerful AM stations, radio broadcasts of LSU home games - traditionally played on Saturday nights -  were long the favorite listening of over-the-road truckers all over the South, Midwest and Southwest.

I didn’t write anything about Seinfeld because you don’t survive as a professional comedian without a well-developed ability to deal with assholes in the audience determined to make their bones at your expense.  (If they  were to start an “encampment” at Duke, the administration would just think it was Krzyzewskiville getting off to an earlier-than-usual start.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krzyzewskiville

ALERT:  Just received my copy of John Vermillion’s latest thriller, entitled, simply, “47.” Unfortunately, I won’t be reading it for a few days, because my wife always gets to John’s books before I do.


***********   Hugh,

Yes, we have to get a new roof.  Three hailstorms with baseball-sized hail will force you to get that done.

Sorry to hear you couldn’t make it to Mike Lude’s services.  Losing a good friend is tough, and being unable to be there to say your good-byes makes the loss even harder.  Though inclusion of his anecdotes on your page certainly helps to soften the blow, and I for one really appreciate reading them!

Everything you mentioned regarding how things were for us growing up validates my point about how the things that surround kids is what changes, and it is/are those things that effects changes in kids. 

Regarding your question about punts:  If after scouting our opponent’s punter, if he wasn’t any good we wouldn’t bother with attempting to field the punts.  If he was good we would always call for a fair catch and let it go.  When we punted I always instructed my punter to punt to the sidelines.

I’m still holding on to hope that WSU and OSU will bring the MWC schools (and a couple others) into a new PAC-West Conference. 

Have a great week!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas



 



*********** QUIZ ANSWER:  Reggie Williams played college football for an Ivy-League school and then played 14 seasons for the Cincinnati Bengals.

He never made it to a Pro Bowl, but…

He was on  the 1976 All-Rookie team

He won the NFL’s Whizzer White Award for Humanitarian Service in 1985.

He won the NFL Man of the Year Award 1986

He was Sports Illustrated’s Sportsperson of the Year in 1987

He was named to the Bengals’ 50th Anniversary Team.

A native of Flint, Michigan, he attended   Dartmouth on an academic scholarship.  He was a three-time All-Ivy League linebacker in football and the 1975 Ivy League heavyweight wrestling champion, and he  graduated in 1976 with a BA in psychology. 

In 1976, he was taken in the third round by the Bengals (whose owner, Mike Brown, by coincidence was a former Dartmouth quarterback).

He wore number 57, although he had requested the number he had worn at Dartmouth - number 63 - in honor of his idol, Willie Lanier.  (The number 63 was given, instead, to another Bengals’ rookie, Greg Fairchild, who was taken in the fourth round of the draft.)

In 14 years with the Bengals, he played in 206 games.  He played in two Super Bowls, and his 16 interceptions and 23 fumble recoveries are still franchise records.  His 62.5 career sacks are second most among all Bengals. 

After retiring from the NFL,  he served as Vice President/General Manager of the New Jersey Knights of the World League of American Football,  then returned to the NFL  where he  opened the league’s first Youth Education Town (YET) in Los Angeles.

In April 1993, he  became the Director of Sports Development for Walt Disney World.  He oversaw the creation of Disney's Wide World of Sports Complex, and spearheaded  Disney's involvement in sports, and  in 1998, he was named Vice President of Disney Sports Attractions. 

In May, 2003, Sports Illustrated ranked him Number 88 on its  list of the "101 Most Influential Minorities in Sports.” In 2005, he was named by Black Enterprise Magazine as one of the 50 Most Powerful Blacks in Sports.

After incurring   a number of leg injuries while playing, he has suffered since  from a long series of problems after retirement, and nearly lost  one leg to amputation.  In 2007, although only 53, he retired from Disney to concentrate on rehabbing his legs. 

He has long been active in his communities.  While still a player,  he was appointed to an open seat on the Cincinnati City Council,  and he was elected to serve a second term,

Taking  proceeds from various  awards, he established a scholarship fund in his name which    helps  students from Cincinnati's  public high schools.  He has also done work for the National Association of Speech and Hearing, Big Brothers and Big Sisters, United Way, the Cerebral Palsy Foundation, Teen Challenge, and Athletes in Action.

In 1990 he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Dartmouth, and in 2007 he was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame.


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING REGGIE WILLIAMS


GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY






*********** QUIZ:  In 39 years as a coach in the NFL, he worked for eight different teams.

In all that time, he was never out of work.

He served as offensive coordinator for three different teams, one of which won a Super Bowl, and he served as interim head coach for two  different clubs, after their head coach was fired.  

It’s not as if he jumped from pillar to post, either. He spent 12 years with one team, and eight, seven and six years with three other teams - 33 years (an average of eight years) with just four teams.  Only at the end of his career was he a short-timer.

But he never got a shot at being a head coach.

He came out of Edgard, Louisiana, a small town on the Mississippi between New Orleans and Baton Rouge.

There, he quarterbacked his small, all-black high school to 33 straight wins and two state titles.  In his high school career, he accounted for 6,470 yards in total offense, and 90 touchdowns running and passing.

At LSU, he was  converted to running back as a freshman, and for three years he was the  staple of the LSU offense, the first in a long string of great LSU running backs, the likes of Charles Alexander, Dalton Hilliard, Kevin Faulk and Leonard Fournette.

In 1976, his senior season,  he rushed for 1,117 yards, and became the first Tiger to  rush for more than 1,000 yards in a season since 1943, breaking All-Timer Steve Van Buren’s record of 1,007 yards.

An eighth-round pick by the Raiders,  he played three seasons in Oakland and  two seasons with the Miami Dolphins  before being forced by injuries to retire.

He immediately embarked on a coaching career when he was hired by Raiders’ owner Al Davis to coach special teams. He spent 12 years with the Raiders, the last five as their offensive coordinator, and his offense was a major factor in the Raiders’ 38–9 victory over the Washington Redskins in Super Bowl XVIII.

The next season,  he joined Norv Turner, who’s just been hired as coach of the Redskins.  In his seventh season in Washington, Turner was  fired  with three games left in  the season, and our guy was appointed interim coach . He went 1-2.   He did not get the full-time job, which went to Marty Schottenheimer, and he moved on to Cleveland.

He spent six seasons in Cleveland. In his fourth season, while our guy was serving as offensive coordinator, head coach Butch Davis was fired, and once again our guy was called on to be interim coach. This time,  he went 1-4.  He was interviewed for the head job, and when Romeo Crennel was hired instead, he stayed on for two more seasons as wide receivers’ coach.

And then he moved on again.  He was 53 years old.    He had spent 25 years as an assistant, six of them as a coordinator.  He had twice served as an interim head coach.  It had to be apparent that he wasn’t going to be a head coach.

He spent a year with the Dolphins, then in 2008 he moved to Atlanta when Mike Smith was hired there. It was Matt Ryan’s rookie season, and the Falcons had a decent run for a while, but then Smith and his staff were fired after eight seasons.

Next came short stays in Tennessee (two years), Buffalo (one year) and Jacksonville (two years), and then retirement.

39 years.  Eight different teams.  A Super Bowl ring.  But never a head coach.





TUESDAY, MAY 14,  2024       “All of it began the first time some of you who know better and are old enough to know better let young people think that they had the right to choose the laws they would obey as long as they were doing it in the name of social protest.”  Ronald Reagan


*********** Wisdom from Mike Lude:  “Living on a farm developed a serious personal philosophy in me. I learned that hard work was not wrong, that hard work was not made up of two dirty, four-letter words. My dad was strong on discipline and gave no quarter when it came to truth and honesty.

“I well remember the first time I tested his resolve. I was probably eight or nine. He told me to fetch the milk pails down by the hog pens. I told him, no, I didn't feel like doing it. That was a mistake. Dad came running after me with his strop, the piece of leather he used to sharpen his straight-edge razor.  I knew when he caught me I'd get what for – my first lesson in the discipline of following orders.”


*********** Last Thursday, Mike Lude’s Memorial Service was held in Tucson. I wasn’t able to attend, which causes me great pain and regret.

I did, however,  come across  something absolutely beautiful, something that almost brought him back. It was an interview he did back in May, 2021  with a former Washington Husky football player named Jimmy Rodgers.  Rodgers was captain of Washington’s 1984 Rose Bowl team, and he now hosts a podcast called “Downtown Dawgs.” (“Dawgs” being a long-used nickname for the Huskies.)

In the interview, Mike’s sitting in his apartment in Tucson, and it’s the Mike  I remember, from the nearly 20 years in which we spoke weekly.  In it, he expresses many of the same opinions I use to hear from him, almost word-for-word in fact, a sure sign that Mike’s opinions were well thought-out and strongly held.

I watched and listened in amazement.  It was as if he’d just stepped outside the room for a few minutes and would be right back, as he’d sometimes do on our Zooms, when he’d say, “Well, I’m going to turn off my mic now…” And then, no amount of persuasion on my part could get him to address the guys on the Zoom.  It wasn’t that he felt he was too good to talk to the other coaches.  It was that Mike didn’t want to be seen as upstaging me.

When he and I would talk, as we were talking I was the most important person in his life, and nothing was more important than our conversation.  But here’s the amazing thing about Mike - he was that same way with hundreds of people, and it wasn’t the slightest bit phony.  Making others feel important is a gift that great people have, and it’s why Mike was able to make and keep so many warm friendships over the years.

I strongly urge you to click on the link and enjoy the interview!  Hang on all the way to the end because there are some bonus interviews afterward.


https://www.google.com/search?q=mike+lude&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-us&client=safari#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:6cb33855,vid:fQ7WS5IjuYw,st:0



*********** UFL GAMES THIS PAST WEEKEND -


The theme that I heard from some announcers this weekend was that this year’s league - the UFL - is SO much better than the two leagues of last year, the XFL and USFL.  Sorry, I just don’t see it that way.

Look - I doubt that many people other than players and coaches want this operation to succeed any more than I do, but I think the UFL has been a downer. The year, we’re getting half the number of games we got last year with the two leagues.  The quality of football isn’t a damn bit better, and the interesting games have been few.

With three weeks left, the only issue left to settle is whether St. Louis or San Antonio will finish first in the XFL conference. (Hint: try hard to finish first. Second place means you have to play Birmingham.)




SATURDAY

ARLINGTON RENEGADES (1-6)  47,  MEMPHIS  SHOWBOATS (1-6) 23
Arlington finally got the win, and it was convincing.  Memphis is really sad.


BIRMINGHAM STALLIONS (7-0) 30,  ST. LOUIS BATTLEHAWKS (5-2) 26
It was a good game and could have gone either way, and as I said, it probably was a good preview of the championship game. Birmingham has now won 14 games in a row.


SUNDAY

MICHIGAN PANTHERS (5-2) 22,   DC DEFENDERS (3-4)  9
Panthers won this with two guys alternating at QB.  Only a week ago, neither one was on any team’s roster. DC may have lost QB Jordan Ta’Amu, which is really bad news. While we’re on the subject of bad news - DC has converted just one fourth down all season.


SAN ANTONIO BRAHMAS (5-2) 15,  HOUSTON ROUGHNECKS (1-6) 12
Down by nine late in the game, the Brahmas pulled it out with a little help from Houston. The Brahmas tied it at 2:24  with the first TD of the game, then Houston cooperated by fumbling the following kickoff at their own 43. San Antonio finally won it with a 51-yard field goal at the gun.


STANDINGS

XFL CONFERENCE

ST LOUIS            5-2

SAN ANTONIO        5-2

DC                    3-3

ARLINGTON             1-6


USFL CONFERENCE

BIRMINGHAM        7-0

MICHIGAN            5-2

MEMPHIS            1-6

HOUSTON             1-6


*********** In introducing  us to the rules unique to the UFL, they must have just forgotten to tell us about the one that outlaws  the use of arms by defensive backs  trying to make a tackle.


*********** The interviewer at the DC-Michigan game, in talking with the Defenders’ defensive coordinator Gregg Williams, mentioned that he’d just run the “Bear” defense (so-named for the Chicago Bears, who won a Super Bowl with it back in 1985-86).  Williams, whose defense had really been playing  poorly,  saw a chance to be funny - on national TV -   and said, “A few more missed tackles and I’m gonna put my ‘bare” foot up somebody’s ass.”



*********** I’ve known Dwayne Pierce since 2000,  when he first showed up at my Philadelphia clinic.   Based in Washington, D.C., he got on board with the Double Wing, and as he progressed he’d share with me his experiences - common to many Double-Wingers - of first being scoffed at for even thinking about running an offense that “had no chance of working,” then to beating the asses off the some of the same people who’d ridiculed him, and finally to earning the eternal enmity we all get when we prove someone wrong. 

We soon became friends, and Coach Pierce began to attend my Durham, North Carolina clinics as well.  And when he did, he’d bring his family along, too. (His wife, Darlene, a Wake Forest grad, was happy to go.)  Afterward, when my daughter, Julia, who lives in Durham, would host the coaches who’d attended the clinic and hadn’t gone home yet, Dwayne and Darlene and their three kids, Xavier, Kharan and Apollo, would come, too.  They all got along great with our grandkids and our daughter and son-in-law, Rob Love, and as the years went on we all became more family than friends. 

Dwayne’s coaching career advanced from youth football to coaching Coolidge High in D.C., to  his present situation where he oversees several area stores and, for the last three years, has gotten his football fix as an official.

 A month or so ago Dwayne told me  he would be accompanying Darlene to a convention in Los Angeles (she’s a physician) and - in response to our long-time invitation to come visit us - would like to do so.  If it was possible.  If it was possible?  Was there any way it wouldn’t be?  I cleared the decks of everything I needed to do so we could spend three days together and we had a blast. 

One of the things he wanted to do was visit some of the places I’d coached - especially the ones shown in some of the old videotapes!   In all, we visited five schools in the Portland-Vancouver area. We watched the local middle school practice (they play in the spring), and on Saturday morning we watched a 7-on-7 competition in which the son of one of his  former high school buddies was playing.  After having lunch with his buddy in Portland, he did get to spend a little time (and money) in Powell’s, the legendary Portland bookstore where you could easily spend a day. 

Dwayne and Darlene have a couple of dogs themselves, so he and our dog, Rhodey, got along great, and Dwayne  accompanied Rhodey and me on our morning walks.  We customarily wind up at the local alternative high school, where every day Rhodey and I join the principal in greeting the kids as they enter the building.   (Needless to say, Rhodey gets plenty of attention.) Dwayne was so impressed by the effect it all  had on the kids that it only took him a minute or so before he was joining us in greeting them. 

All in all, we had a wonderful time with Dwayne,  and when we dropped him off at the airport we had the same  sort of let-down feeling we have when our own kids leave.

 



********** Congratulations to our granddaughter, Caroline Tiffany,  who last week  graduated (ahem - with honors) from Arizona State.   I guess that's some kind of "forks" sign.


*********** On Saturday, along with old friend Dwayne Pierce, who was visiting us for a few days, I drove to Canby, Oregon to watch a 7-on-7 tournament.

It was a pretty big deal, with what appeared to be  10 or 12 teams participating.

Overall observation: it is AAU football

1. There’s money being made because they are filling a need.

2. It was pretty well organized.

3. There is ZERO coaching taking place. For the “coaches” it is all about  running plays, and if kids have any bad habits, they are getting deeper ingrained with every play.

4. Fundamentals are seldom seen.

A. With receivers, the concept of protecting the ball after a catch appears not to be of any concern,  so the ball-handling is often street-ball careless.

B. With quarterbacks there’s no sense of urgency, and they handle  the ball way too casually.

There’s no acknowledging the reality that there will be linemen in front of the QB, and as a result, there was a surprising number of short passes completed with the so-called “tackle box” that in the real world would have hit an offensive lineman in the ass.

They are definitely filling a need.  The state of Oregon - like many states - forbids high school coaches from working with their kids out-of-season.   And  with the demand from kids and parents for someone to help their kids make it to the NFL (or at least a Power 4 school), somebody’s going to do it.   For a price.

I thought it was great the way Dwayne - who’s been officiating for three years now - approached the young guys who had been “officiating”  and afterward, very professionally, counseled them to stay in control of the  situation and ignore the coaches. (One of the young guys had earlier engaged in a nasty exchange with a coach who had been baiting him.)


*********** More than three years after the so-called insurrection on January 6, 2021, the Biden administration  is still locating, arresting and locking up people who may have been within 50 miles of the US Capitol on that date.  Talk about a great manhunt.

Then there’s Canary Mission.   Canary Mission may not have the resources of the US Government, but that hasn’t prevented it from performing a public service almost as useful as “protecting our democracy,” by identifying and exposing “individuals and organizations that promote hatred of the USA, Israel and Jews on North American college campuses and beyond.”

In its own words:

“Canary Mission believes that we all have the right to know if an individual has been affiliated with movements that routinely engage in anti-Semitic rhetoric and actions, promote hatred of Jews and seek the destruction of Israel."

http://canarymission.org

***********  Billionaire Nelson Peltz gave Fox Business’ Lawrence Richard the reasons why he is backing Donald Trump for President

* the ongoing migrant crisis: Biden’s mishandling of the U.S.-Mexico border; “We can’t go on letting everyone into this country. We have an immigration problem. I want some boundaries put on it so we know at least who we’re bringing in.”

* Biden’s  mental condition is “really scary.  I don’t know what he knows and I don’t know what he doesn’t know.  I don’t know who’s speaking for him and that’s troubling.”

* The criminal charges against Trump are a “miscarriage of justice.”


*********** Today’s sporting public sure is a lot more fickle than it was when I was a kid.  Even allowing for the decline of boxing and horse racing, there are so many more sports to follow, so many more teams in each sport, and  so many more ways to stay tuned in.

When I was a kid, I could name the starting players on every major league (baseball) team. This was despite having seen only a few of them in person, and fewer still on TV.  Nowadays, though, despite all the media at my command, I can't even name a single  player on some teams.

In fairness,  though,… when I was a kid, there really was only one truly major professional team sport - baseball.   Pro football definitely played second fiddle to college football, and pro basketball was in its infancy.  And in all of Major League Baseball there were just 16 teams. Rosters were smaller (far fewer pitchers) and with free agency nowhere in anyone’s vision, they seldom changed.

There was almost no movement of players between leagues.

And fans now are nowhere near as parochial as we were then.  I followed only Philadelphia teams because that's what everyone did.  I never knew anyone who rooted for, say, the Yankees or the Dodgers (except at World Series time, when none of our teams were ever in it, and we had to pull for somebody).

Even if you were willing to do something as traitorous as root for a team in another city - how could you?  There was no cable, no satellite, no SportsCenter, no USA Today, no Sports Illustrated, no Internet.

Instead, we had newspapers, as parochial a medium as you can find.  Every major city had at least two daily newspapers, and their sports pages were full of stories about the  local team, with maybe an occasional feature on a star player from the opposing team that was in town for a series.

We read our newspapers faithfully - which means in Philadelphia we read about the A's and the Phillies.   And we listened to their games on the radio.

Every game was on the radio, and on a summer night, in the days before air conditioning when people left their windows open to try to cool off, you couldn't walk anywhere in the neighborhood without hearing a baseball game on somebody’s radio.

If you were fortunate enough to own a television, and your team was on TV, of course you watched.  And you liked it, good game or not.  No hitting the remote and surfing until you found a better game.   (Remote? What’s that?  If you wanted to change the channel, you had to get up and walk over to the TV and turn the dial.)

Not that there would have been a better game on, anyhow - there were only three channels available (the local affiliates of ABC, NBC and CBS).  If you lived in a really big city, there might be a fourth, an independent station.  The only sports on TV were local sports - there was no way yet to televise faraway sports events.

So there was no such thing yet as a “sports bar” with dozens of TVs,  tuned to every type of sports event imaginable.

There was  the local tavern - a friendly home-away-from-home place where people who lived in crowded homes in crowded neighborhoods, homes without air conditioning or TV, would gather to cool off,   to drink and socialize,  and watch the games on the TV.   It had just one TV set - (small and black-and-white) mounted high enough for everyone in the place to see.  And of course, when the home team was playing,  its game was on.

Nowadays, it's easy to root for a team other than your home town’s.  Back then, it was unthinkable.   Philadelphia was all the world we ever knew or cared about - and while we knew all we could about opposing teams, Philadelphia’s teams were all we cared about.

Those days built strong ties to the local teams that lasted for generations, surviving bad times and bad teams, because no matter what, they were our teams.  What option did we have, anyhow?

Those ties -  and that fan loyalty - have been crassly capitalized on by greedy owners, greedy agents, and - now - greedy players, and in my gut I fear that we are nearing the point where one day the fans will wake up, and those ties won't mean a thing.



*********** I tend to be conservative in my daily life and in my politics, and that conservatism extends to my coaching philosophies.

My approach to coaching has become one of first considering the potential downside before taking any action, whether it be hiring an assistant (what if he doesn’t work out?), adopting an offense or defense (what if we don’t have the player or players to make it work?), giving a responsibility to a player (what if he can’t do it?), calling a play (what could go wrong?).

It means playing a lot of “What if?"

Overarching everything is my dedication to this principle: “First eliminate the ways you can lose - then try to win.”

There are those who would call it negativity - I call it conservatism.

This brings me to the astonishing number of  bobbled punts I’ve seen  in the UFL - the  spring pro football league.

Most of the bobbles have resulted in recoveries by the kicking team, and most of those recoveries have resulted in scores.

Think of it:  in an instant, a team has gone from making a defensive stop to having to go right back onto the field again to defend its own goal, and  to eventually giving up a score - a score that it thought it had just prevented.

In tennis terms, you’ve given up your serve.  In baseball terms, you’ve just had three of your  batters take nine straight strikes.

Unless I had absolute faith in a return man, I have very seldom had a kid field a punt unless he had a clear field in front of him.   Yes, it’s  ultra-conservative,  but every stop in a game is precious, and so is every offensive series - they’re too precious to piss away simply because you don’t want a punt to roll another ten yards. Me, I don’t care if it rolls to the one - it’s  still OUR BALL.

So here’s a special teams question to help  tell whether you and I might share the same overall philosophy:

Do you believe that the chance of having a great punt return - or at least keeping the ball from bouncing another 10 yards or so - is worth the risk of a fumble deep in your own territory?



*********** The best of John Canzano’s Monday newsletter…

Q: Do you think Oregon/WSU and Oregon State/Washington will schedule non-conference games against each other in football?

A: The Beavers and Ducks will play the Civil War football game on Sept. 14 at Reser Stadium. The Cougars and Huskies will play the Apple Cup on the same day at Lumen Field (in Seattle).

Officials at OSU and Oregon tell me they’d like to continue to play the rivalry series. The Ducks bought their way out of two games and traded a game (See: Hawaii, Texas Tech, Boise State) to make that happen in the next two seasons.

It makes sense for both schools to keep playing the Civil War. Oregon avoids having to get on a plane next season for a non-conference road game. The Ducks get to host the game in 2025, avoiding having to travel by plane for a non-conference game.

Meanwhile, OSU gets a premium home game for the season-ticket package every other season.

The Apple Cup is guaranteed to continue for the next five years. This season’s game is at a neutral site. After that, it will alternate between the schools: 2025 (Pullman), 2026 (Seattle), 2027 (Pullman), and 2028 (Seattle).


Q: Any chance Washington State and Oregon State end up getting compensation like Cal did with their sister schools going to the Big 10?

A: Cal stands to collect as much as $10 million a year from UCLA over the next six years. The UC Regents are expected to vote and approve that “Calimony” figure this week. The regents determined in December that UCLA’s decision to leave the Pac-12 negatively impacted Cal.

WSU and OSU may be public schools in the same state as Washington and Oregon, but they operate independently. The UC system is comprised of 10 campuses and while each campus has a chancellor, the schools operate under the same umbrella.

Oregon State and Oregon were never in such a position. However, for years the rival schools were governed by the same board of trustees. In 2011, Senate Bill 242 was passed by a 29-1 vote. It decentralized the state’s higher education system. Each public school in Oregon got its own board vs. a single board that oversaw all the state-funded schools. Legislators believed that doing so would help the larger public universities save time and money. Nobody thought the move would open the door for Oregon’s trustees to vote on a matter (i.e. leaving for the Big Ten) that would harm OSU in such a consequential way.

“The discussion didn’t include athletics,” one lawmaker who worked on that bill told me.

I found it interesting that the Oregon Legislature appropriated an extra $10 million to OSU at the very end of the last legislative session in March. The funds are earmarked for “athletic scholarships” and this was the first time the state did such a thing.


Q: Is it possible that the Big 12 only offers an invite to one of the “Pac-2” schools?

A: Sure, if we’ve learned anything in the last year it’s this — anything is possible. That said, I’m told both schools have kept in communication with the Big 12 and ACC since last August. Lots of people expect more change. Oregon State and Washington State are focused on a two-year rebuild of their conference (if that’s what they have to do) while also trying to keep their options open.

The ACC and Big 12 could both be in play. I could see a scenario where one or both conferences develop an appetite for creating a “Pacific Division” that might include Stanford, Cal, and others. For now, OSU and WSU are trying to build strategic alliances and stay associated.

The Beavers scheduled Houston (2025/2026) and Kansas State (2030/2031) in football. I asked Athletic Director Scott Barnes about that. He said: “We want to do that. We want to continue to foster relationships there. That is certainly part of the strategy.”

Look for more tentacles of the relationship to develop in the coming months.



*********** Our local middle schools play their football season in the spring.  It started back in the scamdemic when even the high schools played a spring schedule, and it’s carried over.  The high school coaches like it because - theoretically - they can go coach those younger kids, and get to know them before they start practice with  the high school three months from now.

At a practice I saw at one of our two middle schools, though, I doubt that any of the coaches were from the high school, because we have a very good program there. What I saw were  four guys who only appeared to be coaches because  they were bigger than the kids.  Two of them did absolutely nothing.  I’m guessing they were the defensive coaches, because the team was practicing offense and except when they ran a play - every two minutes or so - the kids on defense also did absolutely nothing.

There wasn’t a lick of coaching taking place.  One kid went through an entire practice with his mouthpiece dangling out.  Not a frigging word from a coach the entire time.

On offense - what can I say? - they were running (“trying to run” is more accurate) the universal spread, but when they finally did agree on what to run and, they had a hell of a time with high center snaps. Clearly , no one knew a thing about snapping the ball.

Overall, I’ve never seen so much  standing around by so many kids in my life.

It was a good thing that I wasn’t a parent, because I’m afraid that what I saw would have tuned me into one of “them.”

I am thinking of contacting the head high school coach to suggest, as a friend of the program, that he stop over and  take a look at what’s being done in the name of football.



***********   The Joe Biden story is good, but not quite as good as Corn Pop.

Thanks for the analysis on Hornung's Heisman. I thought Majors was a lock, but I was looking through the eyes of a little kid who was a big Vols fan.

'Scouting America': Just another way the Marxists are ripping us apart, although their retort is that they're making the Scout experience more inclusive.

Answer = Billy Wilson. Here's the 100% accurate answer to your question why he isn't in the NFL HOF: unless you're Jim Brown, you're typically at a disadvantage with your too-common name. Or unless you have a nickname, like Billy "White Shoes" Johnson. But look at Hugh 'Wyatt' McIlhenny, Yelverton A. Tittle, Bob St. Clair (future mayor of what, Santa Clara?). No Bill Wilson for those guys. Even Willie Wilson would've been more memorable.

John Vermillion                   
St Petersburg, Florida


Whizzer White may have been a good name for a football player but it just didn't sound right  for  a supreme court justice.



**********   Bring the Stars and Maulers back!!

The story I heard was that Joey told Sidney he took those boys behind the gymnasium and beat the snot out of them.  Then Sidney found out he lied.

An impeachment would only accelerate the crowning of the other clown in the line of succession.  But understand that her position is to be understanding, and it is understood she would accept her new position, and that America would understand that!

Twenty years ago?  I disagree.  This country started going over to the soft side about 30+ years ago.  Youngsters haven’t really changed, their surroundings have.

Like many of us OG’s we were coached by veterans.  Tough guys who drilled us in the same manner they only knew.

Enjoy the weekend!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas

Coach Gutilla is right .  Maybe even 40 years ago.  Most of my high school teachers and coaches had fought in World War II.  They were the young guys.  The ones who hadn’t were  the older guys - they’d fought in World War I.

He also sent along a photo of a hailstone that was about the size of a baseball. I hope he was kidding when he said they may need a new roof!








*********** QUIZ ANSWER: Billy Wilson  was born near Sayre, Oklahoma in 1927, and when he was three, his parents, like so many people from   the  Dust Bowl, moved to California.  They settled in Campbell, at that time a tiny town near San Jose, and he grew up to play football and basketball for the local high school.

In 1945 he entered San Jose State (then San Jose State College) and was a standout in both football and basketball.  After time off to serve in the Navy, he returned to San Jose State  to help lead the football team to a  span in which they won two conference titles and met Texas Tech in the 1949 Raisin Bowl. In basketball - at 6-3, he played center - the 1950 and 1951 Spartans were the first San Jose team to play in the postseason, and the first to play in Madison Square Garden.

He was drafted by the local team - the  49ers - in the 22nd round of the 1950 NFL draft.  He was the 283rd player taken - and the sixth receiver  taken by the 49ers.

Against all odds, he made the team - rosters then were limited to 35 players - and went on to become  the 49ers’ top receiver.

The  49ers were  good.  They finished second in the NFL West three times - 1951, 1953 and 1960.  Their offense was tops in the NFL in scoring in 1953.  In 1957 they tied Detroit for first in the Western Conference,  but lost,  31-27, to the Lions in the playoff game.   The next week, the Lions would beat the Browns, 59-14, to win the NFL  championship - the last NFL championship Detroit has ever won.

He was not only the 49ers’ top receiver - he was one of the top receivers in the entire NFL for the decade of the 50s.

He led the NFL in receptions three  times - with 60 catches in 1954, 60 in 1956 and 52 in 1957.

His 407 receptions were the most of any receiver for the decade of the 50s.  He was second in TD receptions with 48 (to Elroy Hirsch’s 49).

During his career, he was in the top 10 in the NFL in …

Receptions - seven times (1953, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958 & 1959)
Receiving Yards - six times - (1953, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957 & 1958)
Receiving Touchdowns - four  times - (1953, 1955, 1956 & 1957)
Receiving Yards per Game - six times -  (1953, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957 & 1958)
Touchdown receptions - three times  -  (1953, 1955 & 1957)
Points Scored - one time -  (1953)

His career statistics - 407 receptions, 5,902 yards, 49 touchdowns - are  especially  impressive in view of the fact that:

the NFL during  his  time played  12-game seasons… 

rules changes advancing the passing game had yet to be passed…

despite having Hall-of-Fame passer Y.A. Tittle at QB, the 49ers, with their "Million-Dollar Backfield" of Tittle and running backs Hugh McElhenny, John Henry Johnson and Joe Perry, were a  run-first team.

He was named first team All-Pro in 1957.

He was second team All-Pro in 1954,  1955 and 1956.

He was named to the Pro Bowl (when it still meant something) six straight times (1954-1959) and he was  MVP of the 1955 Pro Bowl.

Only three 49ers - Jerry Rice, Terrell Owens  and Gene Washington   have caught more touchdown passes than his career total of 49.
 
After spending  his entire 10 year playing career with the 49ers, he spent another 30 years with the organization as an assistant and then as a scout.  For two years - 1974 and 1975 - he coached receivers for The Hawaiians in the World Football League.

“He’s probably one of the most underrated players in NFL history,” said former teammate, Hall of Fame tackle Bob St. Clair.

Bill Walsh, the late 49ers’ Hall of Fame coach,  called him “the top pass receiver of his time and one of the finest blockers.”

Said his quarterback, Y. A. Tittle,   "He was one of the fiercest competitors I ever played with.   He was our number one receiver. Whenever we needed a big catch, I went to him, because I knew he would make the play."

Hall of Fame Coach Tom Landry, then a New York Giants’ DB,  recalled him as “almost impossible to cover.  He was a great receiver who had a great mind and understanding of the game."

Coaching great Don Shula, who  as a defensive back knew him well,  said at the time of his death in 2009, “He's one of the few players of another era that would  excel today.”

Why isn’t Billy Wilson  in the Hall of Fame?



CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING BILLY WILSON

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY



 

*********** QUIZ:  He played college football for an Ivy-League school and then played 14 seasons for the Cincinnati Bengals.

He never made it to a Pro Bowl, but…

He was on  the 1976 All-Rookie team

He won the NFL’s Whizzer White Award for Humanitarian Service in 1985.

He won the NFL Man of the Year Award 1986

He was Sports Illustrated’s Sportsperson of the Year in 1987

He was named to the Bengals’ 50th Anniversary Team.

A native of Flint, Michigan, he attended   Dartmouth on an academic scholarship.  He was a three-time All-Ivy League linebacker in football and the 1975 Ivy League heavyweight wrestling champion, and he  graduated in 1976 with a BA in psychology. 

In 1976, he was taken in the third round by the Bengals (whose owner, Mike Brown, by coincidence was a former Dartmouth quarterback).

He wore number 57, although he had requested the number he had worn at Dartmouth - number 63 - in honor of his idol, Willie Lanier.  (The number 63 was given, instead, to another Bengals’ rookie, Greg Fairchild, who was taken in the fourth round of the draft.)

In 14 years with the Bengals, he played in 206 games.  He played in two Super Bowls, and his 16 interceptions and 23 fumble recoveries are still franchise records.  His 62.5 career sacks are second most among all Bengals. 

After retiring from the NFL,  he served as Vice President/General Manager of the New Jersey Knights of the World League of American Football,  then returned to the NFL  where he  opened the league’s first Youth Education Town (YET) in Los Angeles.

In April 1993, he  became the Director of Sports Development for Walt Disney World.  He oversaw the creation of Disney's Wide World of Sports Complex, and spearheaded  Disney's involvement in sports, and  in 1998, he was named Vice President of Disney Sports Attractions. 

In May, 2003, Sports Illustrated ranked him Number 88 on its  list of the "101 Most Influential Minorities in Sports.” In 2005, he was named by Black Enterprise Magazine as one of the 50 Most Powerful Blacks in Sports.

After incurring   a number of leg injuries while playing, he has suffered since  from a long series of problems after retirement, and nearly lost  one leg to amputation.  In 2007, although only 53, he retired from Disney to concentrate on rehabbing his legs. 

He has long been active in his communities.  While still a player,  he was appointed to an open seat on the Cincinnati City Council,  and he was elected to serve a second term,

Taking  proceeds from various  awards, he established a scholarship fund in his name which    helps  students from Cincinnati's  public high schools.  He has also done work for the National Association of Speech and Hearing, Big Brothers and Big Sisters, United Way, the Cerebral Palsy Foundation, Teen Challenge, and Athletes in Action.

In 1990 he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Dartmouth, and in 2007 he was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame.






FRIDAY, MAY 10, 2024       “God intends to give us what we need, not what we now think we want.” C. S. Lewis


*********** Wisdom from Mike Lude:  “(Introduction to football - Vicksburg, Michigan, 1936)  On the day after Labor Day I reported for early practice and had my introduction to football and, just as important, to Whitey Linton (the coach), who got his nickname from his light-colored hair. The game was a totally new experience. I had played baseball sporadically the previous year with a Sunday team in  Fulton, but I had no football experience. Just putting on the shoulder pads was a challenge. The leather helmets didn't fit too well, and the other equipment took time to figure out.    I didn't say much, but I watched the other players and learned. I'm not sure I didn't go through a practice the first week or so wondering if maybe I had something on backwards.   One of the other players suggested that I ask for a practice jersey that was used because it might fit better, even if it needed mending. Your mom can fix that, he said, and you'll be better off. It was a good tip.”

***********  I’M BEGINNING TO GET THE SENSE THAT WE’RE WATCHING THE DEATH OF SPRING FOOTBALL.

THEY’VE DONE SUCH A BAD JOB OF BUILDING  A COMPETITIVE LEAGUE THAT GOING INTO THE SEVENTH WEEK OF THE SEASON THERE ARE THREE TEAMS WITH ONLY TWO WINS AMONG THEM.  THEIR COMBINED RECORD IS 2-16.

A LOOK AT THE STANDINGS SHOWS THAT THE ONLY THING RESEMBLING A RACE IS THE CONTEST BETWEEN 4-2 SAN ANTONIO AND 3-3 DC  FOR SECOND PLACE IN THE XFL CONFERENCE.

WITH EXCITEMENT ALMOST  TOTALLY ABSENT, NO MORE THAN FOUR TEAMS ARE ABLE TO DRAW A CROWD LARGE ENOUGH TO MAKE BACKGROUND NOISE.

DO YOU SUPPOSE IT'S  TOO LATE TO RESURRECT SOME OF THE TEAMS FROM THE NOW-DEFUNCT USFL AND XFL?  GIVEN A WEEK TO GET READY, A TEAM BROUGHT BACK FROM THE DEAD COULDN’T  BE  MUCH WORSE THAN  ARLINGTON, HOUSTON OR MEMPHIS.


UFL GAMES THIS WEEKEND - ALL TIMES EASTERN


SATURDAY

MEMPHIS  SHOWBOATS (1-5) AT ARLINGTON RENEGADES (0-6) 1 PM - ESPN
I am picking Arlington to win this one.  But I might sleep through it.

ST. LOUIS BATTLEHAWKS (5-1) AT  BIRMINGHAM STALLIONS (6-0) 4 PM FOX
This one is likely a preview of the UFL championship game.

SUNDAY

MICHIGAN PANTHERS (4-2) AT  DC DEFENDERS (3-3)  NOON  ESPN
Michigan has been better since Danny Etling took over at QB and has a playoff spot just about locked up.  DC is not the team that it was last year and it needs San Antonio to lose if it’s going to have any hope of  landing  a playoff spot.

SAN ANTONIO BRAHMAS (4-2) AT HOUSTON ROUGHNECKS (1-5) 3 PM
San Antonio played poorly last week against DC, but they can play poorly and beat Houston.


STANDINGS

XFL CONFERENCE

ST LOUIS            5-1

SAN ANTONIO        4-2

DC                    3-3

ARLINGTON             0-6


USFL CONFERENCE

BIRMINGHAM        6-0

MICHIGAN            4-2

MEMPHIS            1-5

HOUSTON             1-5


***********   “My fellow Americans - There’s no room in America for antisemitism.  Listen - I know all about anti-semitism. My first experience with it was back in high school when the Weiss family moved into our neighborhood in Wilmington.  This is the truth. They were Jews. Jewish people.

One day I was out on my daily half-marathon and I saw a bunch of teenage guys  standing around a little kid, shouting at him.  I didn’t recognize the guys - they weren’t from our neighborhood - but when I got closer I could see that the little kid was one of our new neighbors - Sidney Weiss.  I guess he was about ten. I didn’t know him, but I knew who he was.    And as I stopped to listen I could hear the guys calling the kid  all kinds of ugly names, most  of them ending with  the word “Jew.”

Of course I had to step in - it’s what a Biden does - so I forced myself right into the middle of the group,  and I stood right next to Sidney and shouted as loud as I could, “Stop! Right now! C’mon,  Man!”

The leader -  the biggest one of the bunch -  came and  got right up in my face  and said, “Who the f—k are you?”

But before I could even answer, one of the other guys shouted, “It’s Biden! From Archmere! Let’s get the hell out of here!”

The leader looked at me quizzically and said, “You Biden? Really?”

“Yeah,” I told him.  “Thats me.  Joe Biden. From Scranton. Ever heard of it?  Scranton, Pennsy;vania.  Coal mining town.  Tough people, those coal miners. And listen, pal -  there’s no room here in Scranton - uh, Wilmington -  for antisemitism.”

“For what?” the guy asked.

“Antisemitism,” I repeated. “Hatred of Jews.   And there won’t be any of that in this neighborhood as long as I’m living here.”

I could tell the guy wasn’t listening to me because he kept turning his head, looking over one shoulder and then the other, watching  see his buddies taking off without him.

Suddenly, he did a quick  about-face and dashed  off  in their direction.  This is no lie.

With the bigots  gone, I turned  to Sidney, who was  pretty shaken up by the whole thing.  I extended my hand, I said, “Sidney, I’m Joe Biden.”

“Yes, I know,” he said.  “Everybody knows who you are.  You’re the big star running back at Archmere.   Gosh - the way you chased off those antisemites - this sure would be a better country if maybe someday you could be President.”

“Well, Sidney, ” I said,   “That’s my dream.  To someday become President.  To fight for the litle people.  And when I'm President, you have my word as a Biden - Jewish people will never have a better friend than Joe Biden.”

And that’s the truth.


 
***********   I remember hearing the great Bud Wilkinson speak at a clinic many years ago.

He said that he rarely talked to his players about the opponent,  no matter who it was - that his players' real opponent was themselves, and as long as they worked to be the best they could be, they wouldn't have to worry about opponents.
 
He said that our opponent was just out there to help us see how good we can be.
 
I really took that to heart, and beyond explaining what a particular opponent was likely to do on offense and defense, and what players we should  watch for, I have rarely talked about the upcoming team, and I never got into how good they were or bad they were.
 
It was just understood on any of my teams that no matter who it was, anybody could beat us - if we gave them enough help. On the other hand, we could beat anybody - if we didn't give them any help.
 
Coach Wilkinson said he never talked about winning, just about getting better. I bought into that completely  - the idea that if you just worried about yourselves, making yourselves mistake-free by taking care of all the little things, the winning would take care of itself.


*********** Living as we do in a grove of trees, we get plenty of visits from woodpeckers. All kinds.  Big and small. It’s amazing to watch those suckers climb up and around trees and  then hammer away. How do they do it and not knock themselves out?  As hard as they hit - and as repetitively - why in the hell don’t they even get woozy?  Why isn’t the NFL funding research into this???


***********  At just about this time 20 years ago I noted that around the country there were eight Double-Wing coaches who had taken new jobs: Greg Meyers, Lake Region HS, Eagle Lake, Florida;  Larry Harrison, Nathanael Greene Academy, Siloam, Georgia;  Kevin Latham, Columbia HS, Decatur, Georgia; Jon McLaughlin, Crystal Lake Central HS, Crystal Lake, Illinois; Steve Cozad, Washington HS, Washington, Kansas;  Greg Koenig, Colby HS, Colby, Kansas;   Chris Davidson, LaPlata HS, LaPlata, Maryland; Mike Schlosser, Miller HS, Corning, Ohio.


***********    An organization in Denver is working to get migrants off the streets and into homes of host families across Colorado, and a new partnership is making that task easier than ever before.

Since late 2023, a Denver organization called Hope Has No Borders has been pairing migrant workers and their families with host families.  Now, they say, “with help from the United Way,”  paired up with migrants in need of shelter is just a matter of calling  211.

What could possibly go wrong?

https://kdvr.com/news/local/hosting-a-migrant-family-in-your-home-is-now-as-simple-as-a-phone-call/


*********** Who hasn’t heard a power sweep led by a host of blockers referred to as "Student Body Right," a clever word picture that implied that a school’s  entire student body seems to be leading the runner.

Some of us are old enough to remember the phrase being used to describe John McKay's I-formation power sweep at USC back in the 1960s. To the strongside he called it "28 pitch," and to the weakside he called it "39 Toss", and either way, he pulled both guards and the strongside tackle. (And yes, he led with the fullback -  and his QB tossed and led also.) That was a lot of beef out in front of the runner, and some sportswriter, most likely  from the LA Times, came up with a name for it:  "Student Body Right” (at least when it was run to the right.)

But  was the  sportswriter as clever as people thought?  In "Great College Football Coaches of the Twenties and Thirties," (1973) Tim Cohane wrote about Dartmouth’s wingback reverse, when Red Blaik was coaching the Big Green (actually, at the time, they were still the “Indians”).    It was 1937, and Dartmouth's Bob McLeod was driving opponents crazy running  a deep reverse with the tailback and three linemen leading him. Yale assistant coach Greasy Neale (who would later win back-to-back NFL titles as coach of the Philadelphia Eagles) referred to it as "that play in which the student body comes down out of the stands and gets into the interference."


*********** In 1956, Paul Hornung won the Heisman Trophy, narrowly edging out Tennessee's Johnny Majors and Oklahoma's Tommy McDonald. A fellow from Syracuse named Jimmy Brown came in fifth. Hornung did go on  to be a very good pro - maybe even a great one - but  there has never been a less deserving Heisman winner.

First of all, he’s still  the only winner to have played on a losing team. “Losing" team? How about going 2-8 at Notre Dame! Even Navy beat them.  Didn’t just beat them - waxed them - 33-7.  The Irish gave up 40 or more points in three different games, and they were outscored by their opponents, 289 to 130!

So surely, to win the Heisman Trophy while quarterbacking a team that bad - one of the worst in Notre Dame's history - he must have put up some amazing numbers, wouldn’t you think?  Impossible - The Irish never scored more than 21 points in any game, and they managed to score as many as three touchdowns in only three of their games.

Maybe he had a “Heisman moment?” -  a huge game on national television, with all the Heisman voters watching?  Like Doug Flutie’s Hail Mary against Miami?

Never happened.   For months prior to Oklahoma’s visit to Notre Dame, their nationally-televised meeting (these were the days before there were dozens of games on TV every Saturday)  had been hyped  as the "TV Game of the Year.”  But Oklahoma humiliated the Irish, 40-0, and the Heisman winner-to-be "rushed" 13 times for seven yards (sacks were deducted from rushing totals). He fumbled three times, and threw four interceptions, two of which were returned for touchdowns.

One possible explanation for Hornung’s cheesy win was the fact that two Sooners - third-place McDonald (who actually received more first-place votes than Hornung) and fourth-place center/linebacker Jerry Tubbs - cannibalized each other’s voting. They had more than enough votes between them to trounce Hornung.

But by far the most plausible explanation for Hornung's selection was  the marketing genius of Notre Dame publicist Charlie Callahan, well-known and well-liked by influential newspapermen all over the country.


***********  Boy Scouts of America is now “Scouting America.”

In other news, the Roman Catholic Church has announced that in the interest of inclusivity, the priesthood will now be open to women, and the Church will no longer require its priests to believe in the Holy Trinity.  “Two out of three is plenty,” said Pope Nancy.


*********** A friend of mine who lives in another part of the country has been officiating football for three years now.  Recently, he reffed a girls’ flag game (they play in the spring where he lives).  He said that skills were sorely missing, and when he talked to a few people about it,  he was told that they didn’t practice.  They played two games a week - bus transportation, school uniforms, paid officials and all the rest  - but they didn’t practice!


*********** If you, like me, are up to here with the progressives who insist that - aside from plumbing - there’s no difference between men and women, you'll like this story I came across a while ago.

It seems some guy had gone over Niagara Falls - without a barrel - and survived.    While visiting  his parents in Oregon, he told the Portland Oregonian that as a result of his feat he’d learned a very interesting thing about people:

"Ninety per cent of the women ask me why I did it, and 90 per cent of the guys want to know what it was like.”



*********** I just ordered a book from Amazon entitled “Hard America, Soft America: Competition vs. Coddling” by Michael Barone.  It’s 20 years old and it helps explain the predicament we find ourselves in.


A synopsis:

A peculiar feature of our country today is that we seem to produce incompetent eighteen-year-olds but remarkably competent thirty-year-olds. Indeed, American students lag behind their peers in other nations, but America remains on the leading edge economically, scientifically, technologically, and militarily.

The reason for this paradox, explains Barone in this brilliant essay, is that “from ages six to eighteen Americans live mostly in what I call Soft America—the parts of our country where there is little competition and accountability. But from ages eighteen to thirty Americans live mostly in Hard America—the parts of American life subject to competition and accountability.” While Soft America coddles, Hard America plays for keeps.

Educators, for example, protect children from the rigors of testing, ban dodgeball, and promote just about any student who shows up. But most adults quickly figure out that how they do depends on what they produce.

Barone sweeps readers along, showing how we came to the current divide—for things weren’t always this way. In fact, no part of our society is all Hard or all Soft, and the boundary between Hard America and Soft America often moves back and forth. Barone also shows where America is headed—or should be headed. We don’t want to subject kindergartners to the rigors of the Marine Corps or leave old people uncared for. But Soft America lives off the productivity, creativity, and competence of Hard America, and we have the luxury of keeping part of our society Soft only if we keep most of it Hard.

Hmmm.  In today's America,  don’t see all those “remarkably competent thirty-year-olds” he described.  He may have nailed it 20 years ago, when “the boundary between Hard America and Soft America” may have been moving back and forth, but it sure seems to me that the recent movement has been in one direction:  “Soft America” has been creeping  upward, as the softies  grow older.   Answer me this:  since he wrote the book,  have we made kindergarten harder?  Or have we made the Marine Corps softer?



***********   I’m still crying after reading the 'tear-jerker' story. If you have 17 kids, I think you ought to be able to commit any crime you like.

All these stories hailing girls' flag football appear on the same day a male (claiming, of course, to be a female) wins the 200- and 400-meter races against girls. As was pointed out, that male would've finished last by more than two seconds if he'd competed in the boys' events. The stories I love most are those including the words 'empowerment' and 'breaking barriers'. Nothing's worth doing if it doesn't conduce to empowerment, and if it doesn't permit me to say I've broken a barrier.

Appreciate your thoughts on Drew Cronic's hybrid Wing-T. I don't see him bringing an offense similar to his namesake Drew Thatcher.

John Vermillion
St. Petersburg, Florida

(Drew Thatcher is  the young coach who was given the mission of trying to  convert Army’s under-center triple option to a shotgun option type attack.)

 




***********   QUIZ ANSWER:   Lucious Selmon grew up on a farm near Eufaula, Oklahoma, one of nine children - six boys and three girls.

He played high school ball at Eufaula,  and as an Oklahoma Sooner he was so dominant at nose guard that in his senior season he was a consensus All-American. 

In addition,  he was the Chevrolet/ABC National Defensive Player of the Year, and the Big 8 Conference Defensive Player of the Year.

He finished second in the voting for the Outland Trophy and seventh in the voting for the Heisman Trophy.

In his career at OU, he made 255 tackles (31  for losses).

Two of his younger brothers, Lee Roy and Dewey,  followed him to OU, and during his senior year  there were times when all three  brothers played on the Sooners’ defensive line.

Drafted in the 16th round of the 1974 NFL Draft by the New England Patriots, he chose instead to sign with the Memphis Southmen of the World Football League.

He played two years  for the Southmen (1974–75), and after the WFL folded,   he returned to Oklahoma in 1976 as an assistant.

He stayed at Oklahoma  coaching various defensive positions for 19 years, 13 under Barry Switzer and  six under Gary Gibbs.

In 1995, after having taken part in the NFL’s Minority Coaching Fellowship Program, he was hired by the Jacksonville Jaguars’ Tom Coughlin, and he spent eight years there coaching first outside linebackers and then defensive linemen.

For a number of years he worked camps around the US, and in 2005 he  coached the defensive line at Michigan State.

His two younger brothers both were named All-American and Oklahoma and both went on to highly successful pro careers.

In 2022, the Selmon brothers - Lucious, Lee Roy and Dewey - were honored with a statue near the OU stadium.

CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING LUCIOUS SELMON

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
PETE PORCELLI - WATERVLIET, NEW YORK
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY

 


*********** QUIZ: He was born near Sayre, Oklahoma in 1927, and when he was three, his parents, like so many people from   the  Dust Bowl, moved to California.  They settled in Campbell, at that time a tiny town near San Jose, and he grew up to play football and basketball for the local high school.

In 1945 he entered San Jose State (then San Jose State College) and was a standout in both football and basketball.  After time off to serve in the Navy, he returned to San Jose State  to help lead the football team to a  span in which they won two conference titles and met Texas Tech in the 1949 Raisin Bowl. In basketball - at 6-3, he played center - the 1950 and 1951 Spartans were the first San Jose team to play in the postseason, and the first to play in Madison Square Garden.

He was drafted by the local team - the  49ers - in the 22nd round of the 1950 NFL draft.  He was the 283rd player taken - and the sixth receiver  taken by the 49ers.

Against all odds, he made the team - rosters then were limited to 35 players - and went on to become  the 49ers’ top receiver.

The  49ers were  good.  They finished second in the NFL West three times - 1951, 1953 and 1960.  Their offense was tops in the NFL in scoring in 1953.  In 1957 they tied Detroit for first in the Western Conference,  but lost,  31-27, to the Lions in the playoff game.   The next week, the Lions would beat the Browns, 59-14, to win the NFL  championship - the last NFL championship Detroit has ever won.

He was not only the 49ers’ top receiver - he was one of the top receivers in the entire NFL for the decade of the 50s.

He led the NFL in receptions three  times - with 60 catches in 1954, 60 in 1956 and 52 in 1957.

His 407 receptions were the most of any receiver for the decade of the 50s.  He was second in TD receptions with 48 (to Elroy Hirsch’s 49).

During his career, he was in the top 10 in the NFL in …

Receptions - seven times (1953, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958 & 1959)
Receiving Yards - six times - (1953, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957 & 1958)
Receiving Touchdowns - four  times - (1953, 1955, 1956 & 1957)
Receiving Yards per Game - six times -  (1953, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957 & 1958)
Touchdown receptions - three times  -  (1953, 1955 & 1957)
Points Scored - one time -  (1953)

His career statistics - 407 receptions, 5,902 yards, 49 touchdowns - are  especially  impressive in view of the fact that:

the NFL during  his  time played  12-game seasons… 

rules changes advancing the passing game had yet to be passed…

despite having Hall-of-Fame passer Y.A. Tittle at QB, the 49ers, with their "Million-Dollar Backfield" of Tittle and running backs Hugh McElhenny, John Henry Johnson and Joe Perry, were a  run-first team.

He was named first team All-Pro in 1957.

He was second team All-Pro in 1954,  1955 and 1956.

He was named to the Pro Bowl (when it still meant something) six straight times (1954-1959) and he was  MVP of the 1955 Pro Bowl.

Only three 49ers - Jerry Rice, Terrell Owens  and Gene Washington   have caught more touchdown passes than his career total of 49.
 
After spending  his entire 10 year playing career with the 49ers, he spent another 30 years with the organization as an assistant and then as a scout.  For two years - 1974 and 1975 - he coached receivers for The Hawaiians in the World Football League.

“He’s probably one of the most underrated players in NFL history,” said former teammate, Hall of Fame tackle Bob St. Clair.

Bill Walsh, the late 49ers’ Hall of Fame coach,  called him “the top pass receiver of his time and one of the finest blockers.”

Said his quarterback, Y. A. Tittle,   "He was one of the fiercest competitors I ever played with.   He was our number one receiver. Whenever we needed a big catch, I went to him, because I knew he would make the play."

Hall of Fame Coach Tom Landry, then a New York Giants’ DB,  recalled him as “almost impossible to cover.  He was a great receiver who had a great mind and understanding of the game."

Coaching great Don Shula, who  as a defensive back knew him well,  said at the time of his death in 2009, “He's one of the few players of another era that would  excel today.”

Why isn’t he in the Hall of Fame?








TUESDAY, MAY 7, 2024      “Take a strong horse and give him one weak and clueless rider after another, and pretty soon the horse is no longer strong.” Mark Helprin, novelist and journalist


************ Wisdom from Mike Lude:  “My introduction to football came when I was barely settled with my grandparents in Vicksburg. My dad liked the idea of me playing football and encouraged me to turn out for the team. Reflecting back, I think he considered football a tough game; it had body contact. It was a game for men and you hit people.

Maybe he thought I might not be tough enough, that toughness and hardness were manly, and he wanted me to be a real man. I remember when I was in the fourth or fifth grade I got into a fight with a kid on the way home and didn't fare too well. When I told my dad about it that night he said, "Now, tomorrow you get in another fight with him and you win."  And I did.

He thought if someone challenged you, you had to stand up and be counted. If there was a fight, you had to be there, whether you won or lost the fight. You couldn't be a softy. His younger brother, Bob, had played football in high school and dad thought it had been a good experience for him. "
 

*********** UFL GAMES THIS WEEKEND -


SATURDAY

BIRMINGHAM STALLIONS (6-0) 39,  MEMPHIS  SHOWBOATS (1-5) 20
B’ham QB  Adrian Martinez (23/36/348, 4 TDS) looks really, really good. Memphis QB Case Cookus just can’t seem to get rid of the ball fast enough - their line is that bad. 115 yards on 23 attempts is sorry.

ST. LOUIS BATTLEHAWKS (5-1) 22,  HOUSTON ROUGHNECKS (1-5) 8
STL QB A.J. McCarron (24/37/255, 3 TDs) is the best in the UFL, and 6-6 receiver Hakeem Butler is probably the best receiver. For Houston, 135 yards is pitiful production when you throw 34 passes.

SUNDAY

MICHIGAN PANTHERS (4-2)  28,  ARLINGTON RENEGADES (0-6) 27
The Renegades were :54 away from their first win when they kicked a 48-yard field goal, but they gave up a long kick return and added 15 yards to it with a face mask penalty, and Michigan kicked the winning  field goal with no time remaining.


DC DEFENDERS (3-3) 18,  SAN ANTONIO BRAHMAS (4-2) 12
San Antonio could throw for only 79 yards (on 26 attempts: 3.0 yards per attempt!). But John Lovett ran 23 times for 153 yards, tops in the league this weekend.   DC’s Jordan Ta’amu completed 14 of 22 for 179 yards and a TD.

STANDINGS


XFL CONFERENCE

ST LOUIS            5-1

SAN ANTONIO        4-2

DC                    3-3

ARLINGTON             0-6


USFL CONFERENCE

BIRMINGHAM        6-0

MICHIGAN            4-2

MEMPHIS            1-5

HOUSTON             1-5



***********   “Universities must say what they mean and then do what they say. Empty threats make everything worse. Any parent who has endured a two-year-old tantrum gets this. You can’t say, “don’t make me come up there” if you aren’t willing to walk up the stairs and enforce the rules. You don’t make a threat until you’ve decided to follow through if necessary. In the same way, universities make things worse with half–hearted appeals to abide by existing policies and then immediately negotiating with 20-year-old toddlers.”

“Actions have consequences. At the University of Florida, we have repeatedly, patiently explained two things to protesters: we will always defend your rights to free speech and free assembly – but if you cross the line on clearly prohibited activities, you will be thrown off campus and suspended. In Gainesville, that means a three–year prohibition from campus. That’s serious. We said it. We meant it. We enforced it. We wish we didn’t have to, but the students weighed the costs, made their decisions, and will own the consequences as adults.  We’re a university, not a daycare. We don’t coddle emotions, we wrestle with ideas.”

Ben Sasse, president of the University of Florida


***********   Coach Wyatt,

Recently I was inducted into the Maryland Football  Coaches Association Hall of Fame. It was a great honor and the ceremony was held at the University of Maryland this past week. I had to reach out to you and thank you for sharing your knowledge of the DW offense.  My success as a head football coach is directly attributed to the Double Wing offense along with your clinics and tapes!

In 1997, I was named head football coach at Archbishop Curley HS in Baltimore. After doing some research, I found out that the school hadn’t had a winning football season since 1978.  They also went through a dozen coaches during that time frame. Anyway, like most young coaches, I thought for some reason, I had all the answers and would change the course of the program immediately.  I was wrong!  When I took the job, I installed the spread offense. I ran the offense for four years with some success in 2000. My first three years running the spread we won just 10 games.  After the 2000 season (7 wins), we graduated most of the offense including our QB and top receivers. As a result, I began looking at several different offenses that I thought could match the ability of what we had returning. My Jv coach at the time, Mike Dison came across your tape and playbook and encouraged me to consider. After attending your clinic in Philadelphia, I was committed. I ran the Double Wing from 2001 to 2016 at Archbishop Curley with success. Our record from 2001-2016 was (110 -61) with 5 championships and 13 winning seasons. In addition, we were able to place 60 plus players on the collegiate level with success.

I am still running the DW while coaching at John Paul II in Greenville, NC. We are a small Catholic HS that play a combo of 8 man and 11 man football games. The program started in 2019 and we have run the DW out of the I with tremendous success. We are 35-18 during those 5 years and have competed in the NC 8 man state championship game 3 times in just 5 years. None of this would have been possible had I not been introduced to you and this offense. Thanks for sharing your experiences, knowledge and all that you do for high school football.

Sean Murphy
Athletic Director/Head Football Coach
John Paul II Catholic High School
Greenville, North Carolina

With Coach Murphy’s permission I printed that.  But first, I wrote him back…

Coach,

Thank YOU for taking the time to write.

First of all, congratulations on the great honor.  Maryland is a really good football state and it’s had lots of really good coaches. One of them that I remember from my early days in Baltimore, George Young, went on from City College to become GM of the Giants.   And a great Maryland high school coach, Adam Craven of Frederick High, was a tremendous help to me, a mentor  when I found myself coaching a minor league team in Hagerstown without any real coaching experience.

Second of all, you have my respect for  staying and building at Curley,  where kids needed  good strong men and the stability and leadership that they could provide, and where parents have made significant investments to get their kids a good education.

And third, you have my great respect for having shown the wisdom to recognize the need to do what you believed was best for the kids’ success, and not what you felt most comfortable doing.  That decision means having to leave your comfort zone and take a leap of faith, something few coaches at any level are willing to do.

I’m grateful for any part that I played in your success. But all I did was provide a tool.  A tool only works when it’s in the hands of someone willing to make the effort to learn how to use it properly.

I’m certainly glad that you made the decision you did, but it’s quite possible that you might have achieved the very same success with some other system, given your willingness to put the kids’ success first, and given the staff and team buy-in that you achieved.

I’m also grateful for having had the chance to meet you, and the chance to meet your staff, and especially for the opportunity to work with Brian Mackell, who has become a lifelong friend.

I wish you all the best at John Paul II, and if there’s ever any way I can ever be of help you know I’m willing to do my best.

Again, thanks for taking the time to write.

It’s understandable that Coach Murphy would have started out his career as head coach running the spread offense.  That was what he knew

In 1997, the same year he took over as head coach at Archbishop Curley High, he was inducted into the Hall of Fame at Towson University.

A two-time All-American wide receiver, he caught 154 passes for 2524 yards and 23 touchdowns, and helped lead the Tigers to two Division II playoff appearances and two Lambert Awards as the top Division II team in the East.

After graduation and prior to taking the Archbishop Curley job, he assisted at Towson and and McDaniel College in Westminster, Maryland.

It’s to his credit that he was willing to “leave his comfort zone” for the sake of his program’s success.

It’s a major reason why so many football teams look identical  - it’s all that their coaches know, and they’re either unwilling or unable to learn anything else.

I recently quoted Jon Bon Jovi: “Be smart enough to know what you don’t know.”



***********  A coach whom I worked with a few years ago has been coaching his  town’s middle school team for the past couple of seasons - very successfully, I should add - and he wrote me…

I was thinking as a I drove to work today how we start each junior high practice with correct stance and starts.   And then we go into blocking.  It is something I took from you. 

As the season progresses you can see the muscle memory of practice within the game. 

I think we spend maybe 10-15 minutes at beginning of practice doing the bench drill and correct stances.   It seems like a simple thing but I believe that's what football is.  Simple things done correctly by the whole team. 

You will hear me yell the phrase all season: “everyone on this team blocks!”

I wrote him back…

I’m pleased that you were astute enough to pick up on that. Just like in the classroom, you start them out with the basics and as they get better they get more confident and from that point it’s amazing what you can accomplish.

But you’ve got to build that foundation. A former assistant who painted houses in the summer told me he loved painting but he hated all the prep work. But he knew that if he didn’t do the prep work right, he couldn’t do a good job of painting.



***********   Girls flag football will become the 33rd sport sanctioned by CHSAA and the 18th sanctioned sport for girls in Colorado. It will join the fall sports lineup, with the first state champion being crowned in the fall of 2024.

“Thrilled doesn’t even begin to cover it,” CHSAA Commissioner Mike Krueger said about the council voting to sanction girls’ flag football. “This isn’t just about the game; it’s about empowerment, teamwork, and breaking barriers. By embracing this sport, we’re not only fostering athleticism, but we’re remaining among the nation’s leaders in providing opportunities for female athletes to participate.”

“Thrilled?”  Do you, like me, find it a sign of the “fundamental change” that a certain president promised us that tackle football comes under attack as part of an overall campaign to neuter our boys, while society wets  its collective pants with excitement over girls playing flag football?



***********   I haven’t had the chance to be in the Tuesday night clinics but I’ve watched everyone of them on the link you send us. Just wanted to say hi and thank you for all you do. I will be in my 51st consecutive season coaching football in Illinois this season. I’m very proud of that. Thanks again.

Paul Parpet
Lisle, Illinois

Football needs old-timers!   Yes, it’s “a young man’s game,” and it needs a  constant supply of eager young men to provide the energy and enthusiasm so important to coaching kids - but the game also needs wisdom  and perspective, and those things, as the  popular saying goes,  can’t be microwaved.



***********   Navy has a new offensive coordinator, and while he isn’t going to be running the usual triple option that was once synonymous with Navy football, it appears that Navy is definitely not going the cookie-cutter route offensively.

The new OC is Drew Cronic, and he  runs what he  calls a “hybrid wing-T” offense.

He most recently was head coach at Mercer (FCS) where in four years he had a record of 28-17, including an 8-3 record and an appearance in the FCS post-season playoff. Prior to that, he was head coach at Division II Lenoir-Rhyne, where he was 25-3 in two seasons, and in 2018 was national D-II Coach of the Year. His previous experience as a head coach was at NAIA school Reinhart, in Georgia, where in two seasons he was 22-3.

That’s an overall career record of  75-23 as a head coach. Not too shabby.

He credits the origination of his scheme to the Wing-T run by his father, a Georgia high school coach, but notes that his version includes “a lot of shifting, motions, movement and formations.”

Mercer played Alabama in 2021, and Nick Saban explained the Mercer offense this way:

“There are a lot of bunch formations, and there’s a lot of motions and adjustments that players have to make. So this is totally unique to anything that we’ve played against and will play against the rest of the season.”

For what it’s worth, the last guy to run the Wing-T at Navy was George Welsh.  He coached there from 1973 through 1981, and went 55-46-1.   In his last four years at Annapolis, te Middies went 9-3, 7-4, 8-4 and 7-4-1. In that span, he took them to their first bowl in 15 years - and then to two more.

A look at Mercer film shows that some of  the stuff Cronic was doing there - including shifting the entire line to one side or another once it’s up on the ball - is a very inventive spin on the traditional wing-T.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CChF1tasZv8



***********   From the Pittsburgh Tribune comes this hard-luck story…

A Hempfield man was ordered to serve up to six years in prison for a series of crimes that included an assault against a police officer, two high-speed chases and possession of cocaine in his cell at the Westmoreland County Prison.

As Antjuan Dewayne Smith, 41, pleaded guilty Thursday, his lawyer, Milton Raiford, asked for leniency, suggesting that, as a father of 17 children, Smith’s responsibilities merited consideration for a lesser sentence. Raiford also noted the bulk of his client’s prior criminal record dates to his teen years.

“I am a big comic book fan, and I was always afraid Spider-Man and Thor would die at the end, so I would start at the end and know everything would be OK. My client’s life is like that, a real tear-jerker,” Raiford said.

Smith faced 20 charges in four separate incidents dating to April 2022 that culminated as part of an investigation at the county jail last year.

A real tear-jerker, all right. Poor guy can’t buy a break.  And  I can just see those 17 kids sitting at the dining room table, sobbing because Daddy won’t  be home for dinner for “up to six years.”



*********** Cal isn’t in the Pac-12 any more, and as a Stanford dad I’m supposed to see the Golden Bears as the arch rival anyhow, but John Canzano wrote a nice article about a couple of Cal football players putting on a  football camp for a bunch of special-need kids in the Bay Area, and you gotta like that…

https://youtu.be/M64tPBLytBs?si=hNJMgLJyA65MfYja



***********  Coach,

A friend of mine makes a different helmet protection product and we just ordered his product and we were talking about the Guardian and NFL.  He brought up the point the owners may not be as on board with this as people may think.

He isn't sure that the owners will willingly cover up their logos.

Tom Davis
San Marcos, California


Makes sense to me.  Those waffle caps are butt-ugly.

In their spring game, Pitt players were wearing a completely different scrimmage cap from the waffle-type Guardian caps.  They looked like actual football players.  If these caps are  anywhere close to being as effective as the gooney hats (assuming that  the waffle hats are  actually effective), I’m all for them:







An article on the development of the Guardian Cap…

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/32140546/guardian-caps-soft-shelled-football-helmet-covers-effective-limiting-head-injuries



*********** The Washington Huskies’ “Dawgs After Dark”  spring game was… okay.

The crowd was - what? - maybe 20,000?   Hard to say.  The announcers all called it “great,” but it didn’t come close to completely filling the lower bowl.

The play-by-play announcer was a female named Elise Woodward, and she lost me  right at the start when she talked about the Huskies playing Michigan in the “Natty.”   Grrrr.

The Huskies’ coordinators are interesting.  In this corner is a  guy  with a Santa-Claus beard.  He’s the offensive coordinator.  His name’s Brennan Carroll, and he’s Pete’s son.

The defensive coordinator has a man-bun. His name’s Steve Belichick, and yes…

Will Rodgers, formerly of Mississippi State, looked decent at QB.  I like the guy.  I hope he has a great year.  But is Washington  a good Big Ten team?  I doubt it.  Hey - considering all the guys they lost to the NFL draft, I’m not sure this is even a good Pac-12 team.

 

***********   Coach (actually Corch):

The sack totals stopped me in my tracks. Yes, it  isn't easy to know for sure what the numbers mean, but if you say each of the QBs teams averaged 27 games total those two seasons, that means NIX got sacked only about once every three games, and even Maye 2 1/2 times a game.

Re Toxic Masculinity: You might have seen one male protestor being arrested by a young, strong cop. The guy being arrested walked a few steps, then dropped to the ground. The cop picked him up and carried the guy in an awkward, uncomfortable one-legged cradle for quite a distance until the cop fell out of camera view. OOh, mister cop, i'm gonna sue you to the sky, mister! I think you strained my groin!!!

I didn't know Northwestern had agreed to those demands. Honest, can supposedly well-schooled people get any dumber?

John Vermillion                    
St Petersburg, Florida

 





***********  QUIZ ANSWER:  A native of Pocatello, Idaho,  Merril Hoge  played his college ball at nearby Idaho State, where he was a three-time All Big Sky running back. In his junior year, his 2,113 all-purpose yards set a new NCAA record.  In his career, he had 5,453 all-purpose yards and scored 31 touchdowns.

He was taken by the Steelers in the 10th round of the 1987 NFL draft, the 261st player taken.   He   made the team and played seven seasons with them.

Signed by the Bears in 1994, he suffered two concussions within weeks of each other, the second one resulting in his requiring  resuscitation.

The brain injury he suffered caused memory loss and headaches, and he had to learn to read all over again.

In his career, he gained 3,139 rushing yards and 2,133 receiving yards, scoring 34 touchdowns.   In one season, 1990, he scored 10 touchdowns, an amazing total for a fullback.

Unable to return to football, he landed a job with ESPN as an analyst, and he worked for the network for 21 years.

He has been active  in research into concussions and the prevention and treatment of brain injuries, and has testified at a congressional hearing on football head injuries.

He is chairman of the board of the Highmark Caring Foundation and on the board of the Chuck Noll Foundation for Brain Injury Research.

 Merril Hoge is an author/co-author of two books, whose descriptions I’ve printed word-for-word.

He is author of  “Find a Way - Three Words That Changed My Life” -

When (he) talked about his dream of playing in the NFL all he heard was, that will be too hard, you can't beat those odds, it's impossible, and son don't put all your eggs in one basket! That inspired him to write Find a Way and put it on the top of the wall above all his goals. Find a Way would become a life-long philosophy that helped him achieve his dream of playing in the NFL, but also has helped him deal with the near loss of his hand as a young boy, the loss of his mother at a young age, overcome severe head trauma and battle and beat cancer. It has also become a parenting tool and helped him realize the magic that exists in all of us!

He is also co-author of Brainwashed: The Bad Science Behind CTE and the Plot to Destroy Football.

When post-concussion syndrome forced star NFL running back Merril Hoge  into early retirement in 1994, research on football-related head injuries wasn’t a priority. At the time, football was heavily influenced by a tough guy culture, and little was known about concussions and their potentially dangerous effects.

Then the tragic death of his ex-teammate Mike Webster in 2002 launched a wave of fear after an autopsy determined he suffered from an obscure brain disease—chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). The media pounced. Concern over player safety soon became a war on football at every level, with one scientist even declaring youth football “child abuse.”
 
In an effort to set the record straight, (— —)  and board-certified forensic neuropathologist Dr. Peter Cummings explore the hidden agendas and misinformation fueling the CTE hysteria machine. Armed with extensive research, critical insight, and expert interviews, they address some of the common myths surrounding the disease, examining significant flaws in the often-cited studies and exposing the sensationalistic reporting that dominates today’s CTE dialogue.
 
Compelling, accessible, and ultimately revelatory, Brainwashed exposes the biases and unsubstantiated claims crippling true scientific advancement in the area of CTE research. This is a must-read for anyone who cares about the future of youth sports and the survival of our nation’s most beloved game.

CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING MERRIL HOGE

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
TOM DAVIS - SAN MARCOS, CALIFORNIA
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
PETE PORCELLI - WATERVLIET, NEW YORK
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY





***********   QUIZ:   He grew up on a farm near Eufaula, Oklahoma, one of nine children - six boys and three girls.

He played high school ball at Eufaula,  and as an Oklahoma Sooner he was so dominant at nose guard that in his senior season he was a consensus All-American. 

In addition,  he was the Chevrolet/ABC National Defensive Player of the Year, and the Big 8 Conference Defensive Player of the Year.

He finished second in the voting for the Outland Trophy and seventh in the voting for the Heisman Trophy.

In his career at OU, he made 255 tackles (31  for losses).

Two of his younger brothers followed him to OU, and during his senior year  there were times when all three  brothers played on the Sooners’ defensive line.

Drafted in the 16th round of the 1974 NFL Draft by the New England Patriots, he chose instead to sign with the Memphis Southmen of the World Football League.

He played two years  for the Southmen (1974–75), and after the WFL folded,   he returned to Oklahoma in 1976 as an assistant.

He stayed at Oklahoma  coaching various defensive positions for 19 years, 13 under Barry Switzer and  six under Gary Gibbs.

In 1995, after having taken part in the NFL’s Minority Coaching Fellowship Program, he was hired by the Jacksonville Jaguars’ Tom Coughlin, and he spent eight years there coaching first outside linebackers and then defensive linemen.

For a number of years he worked camps around the US, and in 2005 he  coached the defensive line at Michigan State.

His two younger brothers both were named All-American and Oklahoma and both went on to highly successful pro careers.

In 2022, the three brothers were honored with a statue near the OU stadium.   BE SURE THAT YOU NAME THE CORRECT ONE AS YOUR ANSWER!




FRIDAY, MAY 3,  2024      “No king was more blatantly endowed with the right to rule without the fitness for it than these puffed up and well-connected children.” Daniel Greenfield


*********** Wisdom from Mike Lude:  “ For a college lineman, my size – I played at 177 pounds – was marginal even then, long before 300-pound guards and tackles became commonplace. But I knew how to use my hands on defense, and I could block much bigger defenders effectively.  I considered myself very coachable. Coach Harwood told me many of the same things I had heard from my high school coaches: as long as I was aggressive and tough, put pressure on opposing passers, and blocked hard I'd have a place in his program.  Like most linemen I derived the most satisfaction from team success. I always believed – and this never changed when I became a coach and later athletic director - that the team comes first.”

 

*********** UFL GAMES THIS WEEKEND - ALL TIMES EASTERN

SATURDAY

BIRMINGHAM STALLIONS (5-0) AT MEMPHIS  SHOWBOATS (1-4) -  NOON - ABC

HOUSTON ROUGHNECKS (1-4) AT ST. LOUIS BATTLEHAWKS (4-1) - 3 PM - FOX

SUNDAY

ARLINGTON RENEGADES (0-5) AT MICHIGAN PANTHERS (3-2)  - 1 PM - FOX

SAN ANTONIO BRAHMAS (4-1) AT   DC DEFENDERS (2-3) - 4 PM - FOX



STANDINGS

XFL CONFERENCE

ST LOUIS               4-1

SAN ANTONIO        4-1

DC                            2-3

ARLINGTON           0-5


USFL CONFERENCE

BIRMINGHAM        5-0

MICHIGAN            3-2

MEMPHIS            1-4

HOUSTON             1-4








BEER SNAKE OR NO BEER SNAKE,  WHEN PEOPLE PAY TO WATCH A MINOR LEAGUE FOOTBALL GAME, THEY SHOULDN'T HAVE TO PAY $12 FOR A F--KING BEER!


*********** The Canadian Football League held a draft of some sort Tuesday night, and the first player taken was an Aberdeen, Washington kid.  He’s former Cincinnati linebacker Joel Dublanko, who was taken with the first pick overall by the Edmonton Elks.

The CFL’s first preseason game is Monday, May 20 when Winnipeg plays at Saskatchewan.



***********  When you hear both sides of  the protest  chanting “F—k Joe Biden!” you have to admit  that he has delivered on his promise to unite America.


*********** These are the sack totals from the last two seasons for the top QB prospects in the recent draft:

Drake Maye 69
Jayden Daniels 65
Caleb Williams 63
J. J. McCarthy  31
Michael Penix 19
Bo Nix - 10

I’m not sure what you can deduce from  this other than the fact that Drake Maye isn’t that mobile, and Bo Nix had the benefit of playing on a team smart enough to build their offense around his skills, with a strong running game to go with him.  Caleb Williams' totals are a surprise, given his amazing athleticism, as is Michael Penix's, indicating, in my opinion,  his exceptional decisiveness and quick release.



*********** One interesting division in our already highly-divided society is on display in the widespread college tantrums that occupy the news these days:  the predominance of females over males in the groups of protesters.

One explanation is quite logical:  the ratio of female-to-male enrollment in most colleges is approaching 60-40. (The need to attract male applicants is a major reason why many small colleges that had never had football programs have decided to field teams.)

Another explanation is polls that show a deep and growing political division  between the sexes: increasingly large numbers of younger women strongly devoted to progressive causes, with younger men increasingly losing interest.

(Maybe this helps to explain the declining birth rate among American whites.  Writes Mark Steyn, "We have made a world of men that women don't want and women that men don't want, and that doesn't seem likely to end well.”  He’s at least half right:   if I were young and single, I can’t imagine  going into one of those tents with any of those gruesome women I’ve been seeing in the protests.)

A further explanation is the war that the progressive cause has declared on “toxic masculinity” (at least insofar as white men are concerned - black and Hispanic men, it appears,  are still permitted to be traditionally masculine).

So with traditional males either uninterested or excluded from protests,  there a relative lack of males among the protestors,  and  those males who are on hand tend to be - shall we say - somewhat  other than traditionally masculine. 

From an entertainment standpoint, we’re getting to see some  rather hilarious scenes when those  weeny guys encounter the police,  and experience physical contact for the first time in their lives.

Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk.


*********** They used to talk about people who were so casual about money they’d light their cigars with $100 bills.

Now, the way to show how much money they can afford to waste is to toss it at high school football players.

At the Arizona State spring game, I saw a lot of a redshirt freshman QB.  A transfer from Michigan State,  I happened to know a little about him because he played high school ball in the Portland area.

I don’t know anything more than what I heard, but what I heard is that once he committed to Michigan State, the kid was assured of making $15,000 a month in NIL money - base, with incentives to come - before he ever took a snap at MSU.

Again, strictly hearsay.

He originally committed to Washington State, but MSU managed to change his mind.    He got into four games for the Spartans last season, and he looked pretty good,  but it was decided to curtail his play in order to preserve his red shirt.

But then, Michigan State fired Mel Tucker, and replaced him with Jonathan Smith, whom they hired  away from Oregon State.

Uh-oh.  The kid apparently resented the fact that Smith hadn’t recruited him back in Oregon, so he hit the transfer portal and wound up at Arizona State, whose head coach, Kenny Dillingham, had previously been offensive coordinator at Oregon - and had recruited him.

Anyhow, the kid’s at Arizona State and some money guy (or a “collective” of  money guys) at Michigan State is out somewhere around quite a bit of NIL money, with nothing to show for it.

Now, I don’t know what they teach in the business courses at Michigan State, but I’m still thinking a race horse is a much better investment than a high school kid.



***********  Remember “Pac-12 After Dark?” Washington’s spring game will be held at 6:30 (Pacific Time)  on Friday and it’s being billed as  “Dawgs After Dark.”



*********** Found this in an interview with Jon Bon Jovi in the Wall Street Journal…

Q. What’s a piece of advice you’ve gotten that’s guided you?

A. Be true to who you are. And be smart enough to know what you don’t know.



*********** Why do tornadoes pick on red states?  Damn shame, because tornadoes  would do a great job of breaking up all those “student” protest” encampments - that are  mostly taking place in blue states.


*********** Might  there any be connection between the actions of Colin Kaepernick  and what we’re now seeing on college campuses?  Just asking.


*********** It’s looking more and more as if the masks are coming off at Colorado, and (1) Deion Sanders is proving that without the considerable edge in talent that he enjoyed at Jackson State he simply can’t coach.  (2) He runs on chaos,  not order.  He continues to run players in and out of Boulder; (3) He is in it primarily to promote his own son, Shedeur, whom he has already anointed as the number one QB in next year’s draft; (4) Shedeur, who has never played for a coach other than Daddy, has said some highly disrespectful things about teammates, never a good thing  when you depend on them to block for you, or when you need to convince NFL General Managers that they can entrust you with their offense.



*********** Northwestern University, an Ivy-type school in the Big Ten, has the answer to dealing with student takeovers - give in to all their demands. 

In return for students agreeing to  leave their “encampment,” Northwestern has agreed to build a house for Muslim student activities and to provide scholarships for  Palestinian students.  Student protests may continue through June 1.

It’s not as if the students aren’t giving up anything.  Oh, no.  All tents must be gone except for one for “aid supplies.”  Only people with ties to Northwestern may participate in on-campus protests,  and loudspeakers may not be used without school permission.

Giving in to an aggressor like this is called appeasement.

It worked out really well for England back in the fall of 1938, when its prime minister, Neville Chamberlain, agreed to allow Hitler’s Germany to keep a portion of what would become Czechoslovakia.  In exchange, he got Hitler’s promise to be good.  Chamberlain was quite proud of the deal he’d struck, and his action was popular among  the English because, as he’d told them,  he’d negotiated  “Peace for our time.” 

Six months later, Hitler’s forces invaded the rest of Czechoslovakia, and six months after that, England and Germany were at war.

But this will work out better at Northwestern, I’m sure, because the protestors will be completely satisfied with what they’ve been offered and will give up the encampment and return  to their studies.

Uh-oh.  Maybe I spoke too soon.  According to one of the leaders of the Northwestern protest, “We have much work ahead of us and we will not stop now.”

Good luck, Wildcats.


https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/how-britain-hoped-to-avoid-war-with-germany-in-the-1930s



***********   In 13 seasons at Oklahoma, from 1947 through 1959, Bud Wilkinson’s record as head coach was 114-11-2.   Think of that - an average of less than one loss a season!

In that time, during a   five-season span from 1953 through 1957,  his Sooners won 47 straight games.  Since then, only two major college teams, Miami and USC, have come any closer than 34 straight - an entire undefeated season less!

And before that, from 1948 through 1951, Oklahoma ran off a 31-game winning streak.

They won national titles in 1950, 1955 and 1956.

But his greatest coaching achievement may have been going 5-5 in 1961.

In 1960,  he had experienced his first losing season as a player or a coach. His Sooners lost four of their last five games, and finished the season 3-6-1.

And then, in 1961 they lost their first five games.

In his book, “Dear Jay, Love Dad,”  Bud Wilkinson’s son, Jay, who at the time was on his way to earning All-American honors at Duke, tells about it…

Despite my father's optimism, the Sooners lost at home to Colorado 22-14 to go winless through the first half of the year. As a head coach, he had had his teams go undefeated during four seasons and had lost no more than one game in 10 of his first 12 seasons. Now Dad had dropped nine out of 10 games dating to the second half of the 1960 season. This was indeed uncharted territory for him, and not only as a head coach. In his three years of varsity football at the University of Minnesota, the Golden Gophers won three national championships, going 8–0, 8–0, and 7-1 under legendary coach Bernie Bierman. 

And then, at perhaps the lowest point of his coaching career, Dad did something that surprised everyone. On his weekly Sunday afternoon television show he told viewers that his team would win the remainder of its games! He stated this to viewers as matter-of-factly as any other evaluation he had made through the years. His prediction may have seemed foolhardy to many, considering that the second half of the Sooners’ schedule included the likes of Missouri, Army, and Nebraska. And no team has ever lost five straight games and then won its next five.

They  did it. Won five straight.

Kansas State 17-6
Missouri 7-0
Army (at Yankee Stadium) 14-8
Nebraska 21-14
Oklahoma State 21-13

They finished 5-5.

He had righted the ship.  In 1962 the Sooners went 8-3, ranked 7th in the nation, and in 1963 they went 8-2, ranked 8th nationally.

And then he retired.


***********  When we saw that Detroit had 270,00 people at the draft on Thursday, my wife and I asked each other where is Green Bay going to put that many people when we host the draft next spring?

Good question. As I recall, there’s that extremely large parking lot/plaza outside Lambeau that would contain an awful lot of people. But the stage would take up a lot of that space. And then there’s the problem of access and parking. Parking? The homes in the area will easily get $100 a day and up for use of their driveways. And $1000+ a day to rent the house. (3 days minimum.)



They've built up the area on the west side of the stadium. The NFL runs the operation so who knows. What we've heard for the draft is that it could be on the east of the stadium which faces the practice facility and that area. Stage would be near the Johnsonville Tailgate Village area. Armed Forces Dr is a popular area and they've held events in the past that faced that direction. People in the surrounding communities are definitely planning to rent their homes. My wife's school is a few blocks from Lambeau and they are planning to not have school those days. The weather held up nicely for Detroit. NE WI in late April is still a crapshoot. It will interesting to see how it comes together.

Adam Wesoloski
Pulaski, Wisconsin



***********   Thanks for the "How to Speak Virginian" guide. That's one I might've passed.

Today's page is filled with great stuff, greater than normal, for me. My favorite entry has to be John Silber's (imo, he was the first incarnation of Larry Arnn) commentary on how to handle protestors. I'll remember his questions to ask the students. Pair your "what happens in a world without adults" with Silber's challenge to the students, and you could deliver a great film about what's actually happening on campuses.

I'm sure you saw this new NFL draftee who played two years at Mich St and two at Florida St. If he's a good guy, I don't much care if he can't construct a sentence. But he's had four years of college? If we have near-illiteracy on display now, do we think it'll get better when the NCAA starts paying them even more money?

I doubt many NFL players will voluntarily wear the Guardian Caps. Too uncool. So maybe they'll ship their unused helmets down to high schools.

John Vermillion                       
St Petersburg, Florida



***********   Hugh,

NFL draft observations:

The ABC crew (College Game Day w/Nick Saban) did a good job with interesting stories of a number of draftees.

Enjoyed listening to Saban’s commentary.

A few of the first-rounders no doubt had already cashed in on their NIL deals.

Kool-Aid??  His actual first name is more in line with today’s first names.

There were A LOT of “strange” fans in attendance.  Makes you wonder.

7 ND players drafted.  Most in one year for a very long time.  Joe Alt’s fiancée’s facial expression said a lot.  Ugh!  Oh great!  We’ll be living in LA.  Wonderful.

Regarding Stanford football:  I seriously doubt David Shaw’s departure had anything to do with football.

Those Guardian Caps helped in practices.
Helped the fear factor.  The school didn’t purchase them (budget limitations), the parents did.  Not all players wore them.

Governor Abbott and the University of Texas president got together and decided UT Austin protesters should get a chance to meet the campus police, APD, and state troopers up close and personal.

Have a great week!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas


 



*********** QUIZ  ANSWER -  Roman Gabriel grew up in Wilmington, North Carolina, where he went New Hanover High School, the same school as the great Sonny Jurgenson.  He was all-state in football basketball and baseball, and actually turned down an offer from the Yankees in order to go to N.C. State, where he hoped to play three sports.

He played all three as a freshman, and considered basketball to be his best sport, but before his sophomore year, much to the consternation of State’s famed basketball coach Everett Case, he decided to play just football and baseball.

Playing both ways, he was twice named ACC Player of the Year, and was a two-time All-American as well as an academic All-American. 

With the AFL and NFL at war, he was the first player drafted by Raiders - and the first overall by the AFL.   He was the  first player drafted by the Rams and the number two overall choice in the NFL draft.  He chose the Rams and played 11 seasons for them before being traded to the Eagles, where he played another five years.

He was big - 6-5, 235 - and one of the first of the really big pocket-style quarterbacks favored for so long in pro football. Vince Lombardi once called him  “a big telephone pole.”

He started only 23 games in his first four seasons.  Interestingly, his record was 11-11-1;  in the 33 games  started by other quarterbacks, the Rams went 4-27-2.  Hmm.

But before his fifth season,  1966, George Allen was hired as Rams’ coach, and named him the starting quarterback, and his career took off.

In 1969, he was the NFL’s MVP.  He played in four Pro Bowls and twice led the NFL in passing touchdowns.

Similarly, when Allen left to become coach of the (trigger alert) Redskins, Chuck Knox replaced him.  Knox traded with the  San Diego Chargers to get quarterback John Hadl, and sent our guy to Philadelphia.

The Eagles were really bad, but In his first two seasons as their starting quarterback, he helped  and in 1973 he led the league in completions, yards passing and touchdowns, and was named NFL Comeback Player of the Year.

In his 16-year career, he completed 2366 of 4498 attempts for 29,444 yards,  and 201 touchdowns (with just 149 interceptions).  and had a record as a starter of 86-64-7. 

More than 50 years after he last played for them, he still holds Rams’ team records for a starting quarterback:  passes thrown (3,313), touchdown passes (154); and wins (74).

The son of a Filipino-immigrant father, he was the first Filipino-American to play in the NFL.

His mother was a woman of Irish ancestry.  Her maiden name was Wyatt (which undoubtedly explains where her son got his athletic ability).

After his playing career, he had a number of parts in movies such as “The Undefeated,” and  “Skidoo, ” and he had roles in TV shows “Gilligan’s Island,” “Ironside” and “Wonder Woman.”

He also was the last head coach at Cal Poly-Pomona before the school gave up football.

Roman Gabriel died just over a week ago.


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING ROMAN GABRIEL

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
JOHN IRION - ARGYLE, NEW YORK
JOHN ZELLER - TUSTIN, MICHIGAN
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
PETE PORCELLI - WATERVLIET, NEW YORK




***********  QUIZ:  A native of Pocatello, Idaho, he played his college ball at nearby Idaho State, where he was a three-time All Big Sky running back. In his junior year, his 2,113 all-purpose yards set a new NCAA record.  In his career, he had 5,453 all-purpose yards and scored 31 touchdowns.

He was taken by the Steelers in the 10th round of the 1987 NFL draft, the 261st player taken.   He   made the team and played seven seasons with them.

Signed by the Bears in 1994, he suffered two concussions within weeks of each other, the second one resulting in his requiring  resuscitation.

The brain injury he suffered caused memory loss and headaches, and he had to learn to read all over again.

In his career, he gained 3,139 rushing yards and 2,133 receiving yards, scoring 34 touchdowns.   In one season, 1990, he scored 10 touchdowns, an amazing total for a fullback.

Unable to return to football, he landed a job with ESPN as an analyst, and he worked for the network for 21 years.

He has been active  in research into concussions and the prevention and treatment of brain injuries, and has testified at a congressional hearing on football head injuries.

He is chairman of the board of the Highmark Caring Foundation and on the board of the Chuck Noll Foundation for Brain Injury Research.

He is an author/co-author of two books, whose descriptions I’ve printed word-for-word.

He is author of  “Find a Way - Three Words That Changed My Life” -

When (he) talked about his dream of playing in the NFL all he heard was, that will be too hard, you can't beat those odds, it's impossible, and son don't put all your eggs in one basket! That inspired him to write Find a Way and put it on the top of the wall above all his goals. Find a Way would become a life-long philosophy that helped him achieve his dream of playing in the NFL, but also has helped him deal with the near loss of his hand as a young boy, the loss of his mother at a young age, overcome severe head trauma and battle and beat cancer. It has also become a parenting tool and helped him realize the magic that exists in all of us!

He is also co-author of Brainwashed: The Bad Science Behind CTE and the Plot to Destroy Football.

When post-concussion syndrome forced star NFL running back (— —)  into early retirement in 1994, research on football-related head injuries wasn’t a priority. At the time, football was heavily influenced by a tough guy culture, and little was known about concussions and their potentially dangerous effects.

Then the tragic death of his ex-teammate Mike Webster in 2002 launched a wave of fear after an autopsy determined he suffered from an obscure brain disease—chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). The media pounced. Concern over player safety soon became a war on football at every level, with one scientist even declaring youth football “child abuse.”
 
In an effort to set the record straight, (— —)  and board-certified forensic neuropathologist Dr. Peter Cummings explore the hidden agendas and misinformation fueling the CTE hysteria machine. Armed with extensive research, critical insight, and expert interviews, they address some of the common myths surrounding the disease, examining significant flaws in the often-cited studies and exposing the sensationalistic reporting that dominates today’s CTE dialogue.
 
Compelling, accessible, and ultimately revelatory, Brainwashed exposes the biases and unsubstantiated claims crippling true scientific advancement in the area of CTE research. This is a must-read for anyone who cares about the future of youth sports and the survival of our nation’s most beloved game.

TUESDAY, APRIL  30,  2024      ““My concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side.”      Abraham Lincoln


*********** Wisdom from Mike Lude:  “When a head coach starts getting attention as Dave Nelson did at Delaware, his assistants normally become targets of athletic directors looking for would-be head coaches. It was an exhilarating experience. At one point I was offered the Bucknell job, but Nelson pointed out that I'd be facing Delaware every year. I wasn't sure I wanted that.”
 

*********** UFL GAME RESULTS THIS  PAST WEEKEND


SATURDAY

SAN ANTONIO BRAHMAS (4-1) 25,  ARLINGTON RENEGADES (0-5) 15

BIRMINGHAM STALLIONS (5-0) 32, HOUSTON ROUGHNECKS (1-4)  9

SUNDAY

ST. LOUIS BATTLEHAWKS (4-1) 45,  DC DEFENDERS (2-3)  12

MICHIGAN PANTHERS (3-2) 35,   MEMPHIS  SHOWBOATS (1-4)  18


Every  single home team lost this past weekend

The games were not exactly nail biters: the narrowest margin of victory was 10 points

The teams have clearly separated themselves in three categories:

Good teams:  Birmingham, San Antonio, St. Louis

Bad teams: Arlington, Houston, Memphis

So-so teams: DC, Michigan*


* Michigan, with a new QB - Danny Etling - at the controls, looked much better on offense than I’d seen them look this year.  But, of course, they were playing Memphis.





STANDINGS

XFL CONFERENCE

ST LOUIS            4-1

SAN ANTONIO        4-1

DC                    2-3

ARLINGTON             0-5


USFL CONFERENCE

BIRMINGHAM        5-0

MICHIGAN            3-2

MEMPHIS            1-4

HOUSTON             1-4



*********** I remember Detroit during better times. In fact, I spent a fair amount of  time in Detroit just before it began its plummet to the bottom.  My company, the National Brewing Company in Baltimore,  had purchased the Altes Brewery in Detroit, and with other  breweries in Miami and Phoenix, we had a company jet that was constantly  on its way between Baltimore and one of the other locations. 

That was in the mid-60s, and Detroit was still a big, vibrant city.  Often, we’d fly out and back in one day, but whenever we stayed over,  we’d normally stay at the Fontainebleu, a new, luxurious hotel right on the river.  Two of the restaurants I remember best were the Rooster Tail (so named because of the wakes thrown up by the unlimited hydroplanes that used to race on the river that you could see right out the windows) and the London Chop House. They were first-rate.  (It was the company’s money, not mine, so what the hell?)

I do remember the riots that took place in 1967 - there were national guardsmen with machine guns on the roof of our brewery.

We all know how hard Detroit has been hit since those riots. From that time - the mid-60’s - until now, the city has lost A MILLION PEOPLE! 

So it was kind of amazing - encouraging, almost - to see that the NFL draft,  something that wasn’t even an event back in the days when Detroit was among the top ten US cities, was able to attract such an enormous crowd to downtown Detroit to join in the festivities.

For a fascinating read about Detroit just before the fall (the Detroit of  Motown), I highly recommend David Maraniss’ “Once in a Great City.”


*********** Still on the draft…  Somebody did the work here.  All I did was cut and paste. 

Think talent doesn’t matter?  Take a look at the correlation between top half dozen  teams in terms of players taken and the composition of the playoff.

To me, the two biggest surprises were two OSUs: Ohio State, with only four players drafted;  and Oklahoma State,  completely whiffing.

What’s that say about the coaching of Ohio State’s Ryan Day (11-2) and Oklahoma State’s Mike Gundy (10-4)?

Michigan Wolverines – 13
Texas Longhorns – 11
Alabama Crimson Tide – 10
Florida State Seminoles – 10
Washington Huskies – 10
Georgia Bulldogs – 8
Oregon Ducks – 8
Penn State Nittany Lions – 8
Notre Dame Fighting Irish – 7
USC Trojans – 7
Clemson Tigers – 6
LSU Tigers – 6
Missouri Tigers – 6
Auburn Tigers – 5
Utah Utes – 5
Illinois Fighting Illini – 4
Iowa Hawkeyes – 4
Kentucky Wildcats – 4
Louisville Cardinals – 4
Miami (FL) Hurricanes – 4
Ohio State Buckeyes – 4
South Carolina Gamecocks – 4
Texas A&M Aggies – 4
Arizona Wildcats – 3
Duke Blue Devils – 3
Kansas State Wildcats – 3
Mississippi State Bulldogs – 3
North Carolina Tar Heels – 3
Oklahoma Sooners – 3
Ole Miss Rebels – 3
Oregon State Beavers – 3
Pittsburgh Panthers – 3
TCU Horned Frogs – 3
Tennessee Volunteers – 3
Wake Forest Demon Deacons – 3
Washington State Cougars – 3
Arkansas Razorbacks – 2
Boston College Eagles – 2
Kansas Jayhawks – 2
Marshall Thundering Herd – 2
Maryland Terrapins – 2
NC State Wolfpack – 2
Purdue Boilermakers – 2
South Dakota State Jackrabbits – 2
Texas Tech Red Raiders – 2
Troy Trojans – 2
Tulane Green Wave – 2
UCF Knights – 2
UCLA Bruins – 2
UTEP Miners – 2
Wisconsin Badgers – 2
Air Force Falcons – 1
British Columbia, U of – 1
BYU Cougars – 1
Cal Golden Bears – 1
Cincinnati Bearcats – 1
Colorado State Rams – 1
Eastern Kentucky Colonels – 1
Findlay Oilers – 1
Florida Gators – 1
Georgia State Panthers – 1
Holy Cross Crusaders – 1
Houston Christian Huskies – 1
Houston Cougars – 1
International – 1
Iowa State Cyclones – 1
Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns – 1
Michigan State Spartans – 1
Minnesota Golden Gophers – 1
New Hampshire Wildcats – 1
Northern Iowa Panthers – 1
Rice Owls – 1
Rutgers Scarlet Knights – 1
SE Missouri State Redhawks – 1
South Dakota Coyotes – 1
Stanford Cardinal – 1
Temple Owls – 1
Texas A&M-Commerce Lions – 1
Toledo Rockets – 1
Toronto Argonauts (CFL) – 1
UAB Blazers – 1
UConn Huskies – 1
Virginia Cavaliers – 1
West Virginia Mountaineers – 1
Western Kentucky Hilltoppers – 1
Western Michigan Broncos – 1
Yale Bulldogs – 1


*********** You know how I feel about tradition, and to me, few things represent a school’s football tradition more  than its helmets.

You see the likes of Michigan, Alabama, LSU, Texas, USC, Nebraska, Penn State, Clemson, Georgia, Auburn, Texas A & M, Washington, Iowa - and you know who you’re watching.

Even Cal, which struggles to be mediocre on the field, has a distinctive helmet.

Kansas State, which once had absolutely zero football tradition, is now widely recognizable by the “Power Cat” on the silver helmets.

Stanford has a long a storied tradition.  It used to have distinctive helmet, too. In fact, as a kid growing up on the East Coast, one of the first things I remember about West Coast football was Stanford in its all-white helmets. Bill McColl, Gary Kerkorian, Harry Hugasian.  Chuck Taylor was the coach.

Down through the ages, there was a certain consistency to the Stanford logo.  John Brodie, John Elway, Andrew Luck - all wore the white helmet  with a red stripe  down the middle and red “S” logos on each side.  Over the years, a green tree - a redwood - has grown up through the “S”.



And yet  out for their spring game came a Stanford team looking for all the world like the Hoosiers of the West - red helmets, white stripes down the middle, and some sort of generic script “Stanford” on the sides that might look okay -  on the front of a baseball jersey.

Nothing wrong with the red hats on the Indiana Hoosiers. But  they’re simply not Stanford.

Evidently  Stanford wore them against Notre Dame in the season finale last year (I wasn’t interested enough to watch)  but evidently they said at the time that it was a one-off.  Sure hope so:  Notre Dame 56, Stanford 23.

If for some reason they’re planning  to stick with the red hats, I’d almost rather  they wear white Guardian caps over them.



***********   My son Ed, as big a Pac-12 fan as I was (I hate writing that in the past tense), wrote

Dad, Not like we needed another punch in the gut, but watching Pac 12 players get drafted right and left was so depressing.

A terrible gut punch.  Six of the first 15 players taken were from the Pac-12.
If nothing else, though, it’s a last laugh for all of us who had grown tired of listening to the no-offense  Big Ten  and  their derisive comments about the Pac-12’s lack of defense, blah, blah, blah.


***********   My son passed along a tweet (is it now a “Twix?”) by a broadcaster named Jimmy Dykes, who wrote “In the short era of NIL...lotta big S$$ boosters have gotten an AWFUL rate of return on their investment. Awful... as in embarrassing awful.”

Dykes is right. What could be a dumber use of a rich guy’s money than basically renting a college athlete for a year?  I could understand if it meant investing in the athlete in return for a piece of his or her future earnings, like investing in a boxer. Or  owning a piece of a race horse.

At least when you own a piece of a race horse, when it wins it makes you proud - and maybe makes you a little money.  It doesn’t go win a race and then jump the fence and go someplace else where it thinks the life will be better.

Also, when it “covers” a mare, YOU get paid your share of the stud fee.



*********** On display at these college “protests” are not just spoiled, entitled, narcissistic children.  We’re also seeing that what happens in a world without adults.

Parents want to be  their children’s “best friends”

Rules (if there are any) are rarely  and unevenly enforced

Children are defended when they ignore other peoples’ rules

Parents don’t have the guts to say “No” to their kids and make it stick

Children make major family decisions (where to go on vacation)

Children - however poorly behaved they may be - are taken to places where adults gather

Children call all adults by their first names

Children on airplanes kick the backs of the seats in front of them

Children throw tantrums in super markets

Children are told they can “make a difference” - including changing the world

Children are taught they have a right to “be heard”

Children are taught to be activists

Children learn that they can make demands and get results


MORAL:  Where children are given all the rights, privileges and powers of adults, there are no real adults.



*********** The late John Silber, who as president of Boston University, told how he broke up the “shanty village” that protestors of South African apartheid had built on university property:

Then they put up the shacks. I told the police, “Go ask them three questions:

Do you have a title to the property? (They built them on our property, not theirs.)

Do you have a building permit? We have to have building permits.

Have you got a clearance with the historical commission, because this is a historical district?

If the answer is no to those three questions, then you tell them, ‘We’ll give you about 15 minutes to remove your shanty. And if you don’t, you’ll be arrested.’ ”

I said, “Now, none of them are going to remove their shanty, so you’re going to have to arrest them. . . .”

Because one point I want to get across to these students is, I do not take them seriously.

This is not some very deeply felt, high moral cause on their part; this is showboating of a very insincere kind by most of these students, and I want them to understand that I see through their pretensions.

*********** Spring Ball:  At Nebraska, Matt Rhule  spent the better part of a  quarter in the press box  answering questions and making observations.  It was a whole lot better than the drivel we’re used to hearing at other spring games from the professional bullshitters.


*********** More Spring Ball: Oregon is going to be GOOD.  QB Dillon Gabriel - formerly of UCF and Oklahoma - looked sharp, and he has a bunch of  good receivers to throw to.  Also looking  good at QB was Dante Moore, a UCLA transfer and before that a highly-recruited HS kid out of Detroit.


***********  With  the US Army  a major  sponsor of the UFL, it’s customary at breaks in the action for the sideline reporters to do boring, trite interviews with an assortment of Army National Guard members. 

At halftime of one of the games this weekend, they interviewed some guy who said it was the  first football game he’d ever been to.

The guy was an American, I was pretty sure - he spoke unaccented English.

And he was  a staff sergeant which means he’s probably been in the Army for three years or so.

So please tell me - how can this be?  Where has this guy been that until this past weekend he’d NEVER been to a football game?



*********** It wasn’t exactly Ivy League football players teaming up with Jewish schoolmates, but it was a nice gesture by fraternity kids (referred to in the pussy lib media, of course, as “white frat boys”) at Arizona State to help clear the area of the encampment.

Which brings me to wondering how come those punks who take over common areas for their own use  don’t clean up after themselves once they disperse.

 


***********   If anything is going to kill our sport in a hurry, it’s a field full of players looking as if they just stepped out of a space ship from a faraway galaxy.

The NFL has just announced that it is going to permit players to wear the gooney caps (aka Guardian caps) in actual games this season. (It already requires all players except QBs and kickers to wear them in any practice situation that involves contact.)

Famed tycoon J. P. Morgan once said  “A man always has two reasons for doing anything: a good reason and the real reason.”

That would apply to the NFL in this case.

The good reason is to show how concerned it is about the long-term health of its players. You might say that virtue signaling has come to the NFL.

The real reason, though,  is to try to fend off the hundreds of future lawsuits, real and spurious, that have yet to be filed.

But as a  consequence,   this is going to do collateral damage to  high school football.  State high school associations will outdo each other to be the first to show that they share the NFL’s concern about concussions,  scrambling to require their states’ high schools to equip every player with these cranium cushions.

If I were a cynic I would  accuse the NFL of being in cahoots with the makers of the damn caps - “you provide them to us free of charge  and we’ll make it a rule that our players have to wear them in practices and are free to wear them in games…”

Can’t beat that for advertising.

With roughly a million kids playing high school football across the country, one cap per kid is a large order of scrimmage caps.

At about $75 apiece, that’s an added cost to US high schools - few of which are swimming in money - of some $75 million.

It won’t be a one-time purchase, either.  Soon enough, just as with  helmets, they’ll  have to be replaced or recertified every year. 

(I find it extremely interesting to see whether certain players,  stylists that they are, take to wearing the lollypop hats.)



***********   The Seattle Seahawks have proudly announced that they’ve committed $250,000 to funding girls’ flag football. All 32 NFL teams are similarly on board in their areas of influence.

As someone who’s coached at a Washington high school whose entire outdoor athletic facilities consisted of just one turf field that had to accommodate boys’ football and girls’ soccer - practices and games…

Thanks a lot, NFL.   Sure was nice of you to throw another sport in there.



***********  I was sorry to hear of the death of Bob Casciola, who served as the president of the National Football Foundation (NFF) and College Hall of Fame from 1995 to January 2005 and as executive director of the NFF from 1991 to 1995.

Before joining the NFF he was Executive Vice President of the New Jersey Nets, and before that he was a successful bank executive in New Jersey.

But even before that, he was a college football coach.

He was an All-Ivy League tackle at Princeton, where he played for Hall of Fame coaches Charlie Caldwell and Dick Colman.  He  then spent  20 years as a college coach, first as an assistant at Princeton and at Dartmouth, under Hall of Fame head coach Bob Blackman, and then at UConn.  After two years as an assistant at UConn,  he became head coach there in 1971.  In 1973 he returned to Princeton, this time as head coach, and led the Tigers for five years.

While as head coach at Princeton, he was involved in one very unusual ending.

From “Ivy League Football Since 1972,” by John McCallum…

Princeton's game with Rutgers ended in a 6-6 tie because the Tigers failed to complete a two point conversion pass after tying the game with 22 seconds left. Why was Princeton going for two? It seems that the visiting Rutgers fans were so certain of victory that they tore down the goal posts with two minutes left.    After the referee refused to wait for an extra set to be erected, Princeton had no other choice. The Tigers coach Bob Casciola said he would not protest, but even Rutgers coach Frank Burns admitted that Princeton should have been allowed to kick for the extra point. The tie was the first in the history of the nation’s oldest collegiate rivalry.

Along with co-author Jon Land,  Coach Casciola  wrote “1st and Forever: Making the Case for the Future of Football.” (“Part memoir and part homage to the game he loves, former National Football Foundation president Bob Casciola mounts a persuasive case in support of football’s relevance to life.”)


***********   I’m disappointed Coach W. didn't stay up late to give us an analysis of NFL Draft Round 1. You might be the only person who writes about sports who hasn't talked incessantly about the draft since the Super Bowl ended.

Since Dave Pecker appeared in the news, I'm like most males, I guess, in wondering why any guy with that name wouldn't spend a few bucks to change it to something better, like maybe Peckerhead.

I would expect to see Pete Carroll next leading a Free Palestine rally somewhere, maybe back there on his beloved USC campus.

In broad outline, I understand the three levels of AI the experts anticipate. Also understand we're in the foundational level at present. But I'm concerned. About a month ago Amazon said they were going to convert all 15 previous books to Audio. I would need to fill out several forms to authorize the action. I did it, then was told to stand by for 24-72 hours. Within a half-hour, they informed me job complete, about 1.4 million words converted via AI to Audio. I only listened to a few paragraphs, but the following blew me away: Botetourt County was pronounced correctly--and the locals pronounce it unlike you might expect.

John Vermillion                                
St Petersburg, Florida

To help with the pronunciation of “Botetourt” and other Virginia places…

http://cohp.org/va/notes/placenames_pronunciation.html



*********** Hugh,

Seen any Hamas/Palestinian protests at Hillsdale College lately??

You may be onto something regarding Ivy football players. 

When I coached in NH many HS football players chose to play lacrosse in the spring instead of playing baseball.  Even a number of football coaches coached lacrosse as their “spring” sport.  But…attendance was not the same.

Enjoy your weekend!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas

When there are anti-American protests at Hillsdale, it’s time for all of us to bend over and kiss our asses good-bye.






*********** QUIZ ANSWER:  Gail Cogdill was born in Worland, Wyoming, in 1937. but when he was young  his family moved to Spokane, Washington,   where he attended Lewis and Clark High School.   He didn’t play football until his junior year,  and the team  wound up losing every game,  but in an amazing turnaround, the very next year, Lewis and Clark won the state championship.  That same year, he was all-state in football, basketball and track.

At Washington State, playing  end in those days of two-way football, he was named second-team All-Coast, and played in the East-West Shrine Game, the Senior Bowl, and the College All-Star Game.  He was also an outstanding hurdler on the WSU track team.

He was taken by the  Detroit Lions in the sixth round of the NFL draft. (With only 13 teams in the NFL at the time, that would be the equivalent of a third-round selection today.)

In his rookie season (the NFL played 12 games  then), he had 43 receptions for 642 yards, one touchdown and a 14.9-yard average per catch. He was named NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year and was named to the Pro Bowl, the first of his three appearances in his career as a Lion. 

He was big -  6-3, 200 pounds - with  great speed and hands, an unusual combination in that era, and after eight years  with the Lions he left as the team’s all-time leader in receptions and receiving yards.

His  best season was 1962, when he had career highs of 53 catches and 991 yards, along with 7 touchdowns and an average of 18.7 yards per catch. He was named the MVP of a Lions’ team that included future Hall of Famers Joe Schmidt, Dick “Night Train” Lane, Yale Lary and Dick LeBeau.

His next season was just about as good:  48 receptions for 945 yards and 10 TDs - a career high - and 19.7 yards per catch, also a career high.

In all, he played 11 NFL seasons. After eight full seasons in Detroit, he was released by the Lions during the 1968 season and finished that season with Baltimore.  He played his last two seasons with the Atlanta Falcons and retired after the 1970 season.

His career stats, including his time with Baltimore and Atlanta, were 356 catches, 5,696 yards, 34 TDs and 16.0 yards per catch.

In addition to his three Pro Bowl appearances,  he was named first team All-Pro once and second-team twice.

At the time of our guy’s death, the Detroit Free Press quoted several teammates.

“Gail  was simply a great football player, an outstanding receiver and teammate," said Hall of Fame teammate and former Lions coach  coach Joe Schmidt. "Frankly, we didn’t take advantage of his ability.”

“It was an honor to have played with Gail Cogdill and I learned a lot from him," said former Lions receiver and punter Pat Studstill. "I used to watch him like a hawk, how he came off the line of scrimmage, the way he ran his out patterns, everything. He had such great hands and was strong as an ox and I don’t believe there was a better athlete on the team. He was so good that he often was double covered and I was the beneficiary of that. Gail was nice to everyone, his teammates, and the fans and I will miss him.”

And former Lions defensive tackle Roger Brown told about their time as teammates…

“Gail and I became close friends when we arrived together in Detroit as rookies," Brown said. "We wanted to be roommates on the road, but back then they wouldn't allow a black person and white person to room together, so I ended up with Night Train Lane.

"One time when we played in Miami for the Runner-Up Bowl, Night Train, Danny Lewis, Willie McClung and I had to stay in a black hotel in the black section of Miami. When the team bus came to pick us up, (he) and Nick Pietrosante asked 'What are you guys doing out here?' (He)  said, 'We came as a team, we play as a team and we'll leave as a team.' That night we all stayed together in the same hotel.

“Gail was a helluva receiver and just a beautiful person. He was such a good friend, and I am lost by his passing."

In 2008,  Gail Cogdill  was named, along with Herman Moore, as one of the two wide receivers on the Lions’ 75th Anniversary All-Time team.



CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING GAIL COGDILL

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS - My dad loved the guy and was always heard saying “The Bears need to trade for him!”
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON - Lewis and Clark high school in Spokane is my alma mater. Go Tigers!
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY

 


*********** QUIZ - He grew up in Wilmington, North Carolina, where he went New Hanover High School, the same school as the great Sonny Jurgenson.  He was all-state in football basketball and baseball, and actually turned down an offer from the Yankees in order to go to N.C. State, where he hoped to play three sports.

He played all three as a freshman, and considered basketball to be his best sport, but before his sophomore year, much to the consternation of State’s famed basketball coach Everett Case, he decided to play just football and baseball.

Playing both ways, he was twice named ACC Player of the Year, and was a two-time All-American as well as an academic All-American. 

With the AFL and NFL at war, he was the first player drafted by Raiders - and the first overall by the AFL.   He was the  first player drafted by the Rams and the number two overall choice in the NFL draft.  He chose the Rams and played 11 seasons for them before being traded to the Eagles, where he played another five years.

He was big - 6-5, 235 - and one of the first of the really big pocket-style quarterbacks favored for so long in pro football. Vince Lombardi once called him  “a big telephone pole.”

He started only 23 games in his first four seasons.  Interestingly, his record was 11-11-1;  in the 33 games  started by other quarterbacks, the Rams went 4-27-2.  Hmm.

But before his fifth season,  1966, George Allen was hired as Rams’ coach, and named him the starting quarterback, and his career took off.

In 1969, he was the NFL’s MVP.  He played in four Pro Bowls and twice led the NFL in passing touchdowns.

Similarly, when Allen left to become coach of the (trigger alert) Redskins, Chuck Knox replaced him.  Knox traded with the  San Diego Chargers to get quarterback John Hadl, and sent our guy to Philadelphia.

The Eagles were really bad, but In his first two seasons as their starting quarterback, he helped  and in 1973 he led the league in completions, yards passing and touchdowns, and was named NFL Comeback Player of the Year.

In his 16-year career, he completed 2366 of 4498 attempts for 29,444 yards,  and 201 touchdowns (with just 149 interceptions).  and had a record as a starter of 86-64-7. 

More than 50 years after he last played for them, he still holds Rams’ team records for a starting quarterback:  passes thrown (3,313), touchdown passes (154); and wins (74).

The son of a Filipino-immigrant father, he was the first Filipino-American to play in the NFL.

His mother was a woman of Irish ancestry.  Her maiden name was Wyatt (which undoubtedly explains where her son got his athletic ability).

After his playing career, he had a number of parts in movies such as “The Undefeated,” and  “Skidoo, ” and he had roles in TV shows “Gilligan’s Island,” “Ironside” and “Wonder Woman.”

He also was the last head coach at Cal Poly-Pomona before the school gave up football.

He died just over a week ago.




FRIDAY, APRIL  26,  2024      “Democracy never lasts long.  It soon wastes, exhausts and murders itself.”  John Adams


*********** Wisdom from Mike Lude:  “How can athletics be part of the educational system when a coach is getting paid millions of dollars a year and at the same time the athletic budget is operating in the red?”


*********** UFL GAMES THIS  WEEKEND


ALL TIMES EASTERN

SATURDAY

SAN ANTONIO BRAHMAS (3-1) at ARLINGTON RENEGADES (0-4) - 7 PM - FOX*

BIRMINGHAM STALLIONS (4-0) at HOUSTON ROUGHNECKS (1-3) - 7 PM - FOX*

* One of these games will be on Fox and the other will be on FS1.  Kudos to the marketing genius who was presented with four games to be played on a  weekend and arranged to have two of them played at the same time.

SUNDAY

ST. LOUIS BATTLEHAWKS (3-1) at DC DEFENDERS (2-2) - 12 NOON - ESPN

MICHIGAN PANTHERS (2-2) at MEMPHIS  SHOWBOATS (1-3) - 3 PM  - ESPN


STANDINGS

XFL CONFERENCE

ST LOUIS            3-1

SAN ANTONIO        3-3

DC                    2-2

ARLINGTON             0-4


USFL CONFERENCE

BIRMINGHAM        4-0

MICHIGAN            2-2

MEMPHIS            1-3

HOUSTON             1-3




***********   Please raise your hand if, like me, you find TV is being flooded with ads that leave you wondering what, exactly, they’re trying to say - what it is that they’re selling and/or what they want you to do.


*********** The former publisher of the National Enquirer has been in the news lately.

Guy’s name is David Pecker. 

There. I set you up.  You furnish the punch lines.

That shouldn’t be too hard.



*********** So the long arm of amnesty reaches back to fetch Reggie Bush’s Heisman. What he did may have been wrong when he did it but it’s cool now (like drug possession), so we should expect to see  a  Heisman House  commercial where he rolls up in his Lamborghini as the fellas all shout “Where ya bin?”

As a history major, I’m not much for revisionism - going back in time to try to right  wrongs that most definitely were  “wrongs” at the time they were committed.

So now,  what about all those coaches who were fired for cheating,  then  blackballed for life?  We can’t give them their jobs back, but should we at least expunge their records? 

Does this mean that Pete Carroll’s no longer blacklisted by the NCAA?  How long before he’s back in the hunt for a college coaching job?

While we’re at it - what about the old-time quarterbacks?  What about all those sacks they took,  back in the days before linemen were allowed to hold and passers were given the liberty of throwing the ball away without an intentional grounding penalty?  Can they - or their heirs -  at least sue for all the broken bones and concussions they endured?



*********** We throw out books and pare the curriculum  to make sure that not a single student in a single American school is made to feel “uncomfortable.” We put out the welcome mat for people who illegally enter our country.  But college after college allows an entire group of Americans to be treated like outcasts in their own country and our “President” says not a word.   This wouldn't be happening if Joe Biden were still alive.


*********** What do you suppose the football players at Ivy League colleges think about all this “Free Palestine” shit that’s going on?

I can’t believe that the vast majority of them - guys who are good athletes  who had the desire and ability  to go to a good school yet still take  football seriously - aren’t embarrassed as hell by the goings-on.

If I were the head coach at, say, Yale, it would probably cost me my job, but I’d go down swinging, by “strongly suggesting” that my players each “adopt” Jewish schoolmates as “honorary teammates,” and accompany  them to and from classes and meals - running the gauntlet, so to speak,  through the protestors.

Oooooh, I can hear the AD telling me as I sit in his/her office afterward. “Your actions  just alienated the student body.”

Yeah, I’d say - the tiny  part of the student body that you've allowed to paralyze the entire university - not to mention disgracing it.

Ooooooh, I can hear him/her saying.  “And now they won’t come to any games.” 

To which I’d respond, "Uh… it’s not as if they’ve been coming anyhow.  Last season, the average attendance at our home games was  11,581 - that's 18th place in FCS.  And that includes a home game against Harvard, which is always good for about 40,000 (most of whom, I should point out, are alumni, and not overly fond of the protests).”

Ooooooh.  I hear.  “What if they come and picket outside our home  games this fall?”

After stifling laughter and an urge to say, “Get real,”  I’d simply point out that  the Yale Bowl is out on the edge of town, about three miles from campus, and none of them would have the slightest idea how to find it.



***********  The day before the NFL draft, in which they’ll have the first selection, the Chicago  Bears unveiled a proposal for an enclosed stadium next door to their current home at Soldier Field.

Naturally, they’re asking for “public funding.” The whole deal is estimated to cost around $5 billion.   The team says it’s prepared to come up with more than $2 billion toward building the   stadium.  The rest - of course - would come from “the public.” But in return, the taxpayers would get to own a nifty new stadium.

The building would be expected to host concerts,  Super Bowls, Final Fours and Big Ten championship games.  Did you catch that last one, Indianapolis?

According to the architects’ rendering above, the “Stadium” (if you have the money, we can name it for you!) will have a translucent roof, with “massive glass panels that would bring in sunlight and allow for views of Chicago's famed skyline.”




That big yellow circle  in the photo?  That’s where Soldier Field has sat, since 1926.  Oh, yes.  Soldier Field.  Poof.  Gone.

Although Soldier Field's famed colonnades would be preserved, the spaceship-like stadium that was installed in the renovation two decades ago would be torn out and replaced by playing fields and park space. The plan calls for a pedestrian mall, food and beverage options, a promenade and a plaza.

Chicago’s mayor is all for it, saying that the project will not entail "any new taxes on the residents of the city of Chicago.”  And when a Chicago politician says something like that, you can take it to the bank.

Actually, he’s not necessarily lying.  It’s the people who fly to Chicago, rent cars in Chicago, stay in hotels in Chicago and eat in restaurants in Chicago who’ll be picking up a major portion of the tab.

The governor says he’s not for it.   At least not just yet.  “I remain skeptical about this proposal,” he said,  “and I wonder whether it's a good deal for the taxpayers.”

The Illinois house speaker’s not for it either, saying, ”If we were to put this issue on the board for a vote right now, it would fail, and it would fail miserably.” Right now.

Reading between the lines, then, the Bears are going to get their new stadium, once certain politicians  learn  more - like how much of that $5 billion is for them.




***********    Beginning next school year, six high schools in the Hagerstown, Maryland area - which I consider a sort of hometown - will field girls’ flag football teams this fall.

The announcement was made by the Baltimore Ravens, who have partnered with Under Armour to provide funding and uniforms to 51 high schools in Maryland for their girls flag football programs.

Along with the six schools, all 25 public high schools in Montgomery County (a Washington, DC suburb) and 10 public high schools in Baltimore City will be starting girls’ flag programs this year.

Unlike other Hagerstown-area high school sports, girls flag football won't be a state-sanctioned sport, putting it under the jurisdiction of the Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association.

There was some concern expressed that the addition of girls flag football might adversely affect other falls sports programs, such as soccer.  (Make me laugh.  If you can harm soccer, you could cure cancer.)

Actually,  the experience in adjoining  Frederick County, which inaugurated girls’ flag football in its ten high schools last fall, was that 70 per cent of the girls participating had never played another sport.



*********** I know that lacrosse is one of our  fastest-growing sports, but based on average attendance at “Big Ten” lacrosse games last season, it’s  got a long, long way to go before it ever approaches revenue-sport status.  (Only five actual Big Ten schools field teams. Lacrosse power Johns Hopkins -  yes, there is an “s” at the end of both names -  is a member for lacrosse only.)



IN 2023, the average attendance of all six lacrosse-playing Big Ten schools was just 2029. Only two schools exceeded that average - and both of them were from the state of Maryland, long a lacrosse hotbed.

Ohio State, Michigan and Penn State all have football stadiums seating more than 100,000 and  all are consistently among the leaders in college football attendance.  But in lacrosse, none of them averages even 2,000 people per game. 
 


*********** Not to say that  the New York Jets’ best days are way in the far distant past, but in doing some research, I discovered that an awful lot of their most significant individual records have quite a bit of age on them…


Career yards passing - Joe Namath - 27,057 - 1965-1976 - 48 years old
Single-season yards passing - Joe Namath - 4,007 - 1967 - 57 years
Career TDs passing - Joe Namath - 170 - 1965-1976 - 48 years
Career yards receiving - Don Maynard - 11,732 - 1960-1972 - 52 years
Career TDs Receiving - Don Maynard - 88 - 1960-1972 - 52 years
Single-Season Yards Rushing - Curtis Martin - 1997-2004 - 20 years
Career interceptions - Bill Baird - 34 - 1963-1969 - 55 years
Single-Season interceptions - Dainard Paulson - 12 - 1964 - 60 years
Career Sacks - Mark Gastineau - 74 - 1988 - 36 years
Single-Season Sacks - Mark Gastineau - 22 - 1984 - 40 years
Career Points Scored - 1,470 - Pat Leahy - 1974-1981 - 43 years
Single-Season Points Scored - Jim Turner - 145 - 1968 - 56 years



***********  Evidently, one of the uses of AI will be saving us time.

For example,  AI can watch a video on YouTube and summarize it for you.

Or - wouldn’t this have come in handy in college? - it can “listen” to a lecture and “take notes.”

As for the accuracy/thoroughness  of the notes, well, ya pays yer money and ya takes yer chances. I’m reminded of Woody Allen, saying, “I took a speed-reading course and read “War and Peace” in twenty minutes. It involves  Russia.”


 
*********** Nice to know there are still people with a sense of humor…




*********** The NHL finally found a home for the Phoenix Coyotes.  It’s Salt Lake City, and when the team arrived in SLC Wednesday, more than 12,000 people were on hand in the Delta Center to greet them at a special “launch event.”

The team doesn’t even have a name yet - although a group of 1,000 or so youth hockey players on hand to greet their plane at the airport seemed to have settled on “Yetis.”

The new team owners said that they have already received deposits from more than 29,000 people for season tickets for next year.

Uhhh - not sure whether that was such a great idea, seeing as how there’s going to be an awful lot of disappointed people when the tickets are mailed out.


***********   Re Quotation: HST lived in a day in which individual crises were more clearly delineated. "That ole Estes Kefauver about to bring down the guvmint, Paul." Then in a few months we saw we had survived. Now, however, one crisis connects to another, and to another, leaving us feeling that we're always dealing with a mega-crisis, We're always dealing with a hurricane, it seems, one that loses strength occasionally, but never ceases to carry high, potentially lethal, winds.

Re Trent Bray comment: Making that statement is his backhanded way of saying he himself is one smart cookie. Not cool, Trent.

Re college protests: I woke up today thinking I've lost patience with two things--my favorite MLB team and college students in general. Little dimwits who couldn't draw anything resembling a map of the Middle East. Expel them or arrest them, or both. The president of Coumbia, the last Ivy president to testify before Congress, knows only platitudes. Fire her too. I've lost patience because so many of these people seem to have forgotten they're in a results business. Not results-oriented, but results.

John Vermillion                   
St Petersburg, FL

Good point on the serial interconnectedness of crises.  And then there’s the theory held by a friend of mine  that almost every so-called crisis is actually contrived, with the intention of distracting us from something REALLY bad going on in the background.


***********   Hugh,

The anti-Semitic protesters we’re witnessing on a number of college and university campuses is disgusting, disgraceful, and appalling.  I applaud Robert Kraft for his decision to withdraw all his support for Columbia.  I applaud ALL Ivy League alums who choose to do the same, and ALL alums from the other schools being held hostage by these idiots!

On the topic of college spring football games…Texas has Quinn Ewers and Arch Manning.  Nuff said.  Notre Dame has Riley Leonard (who didn’t suit up b/c of an ankle injury), but freshman C.J. Carr (grandson of former Michigan HC Lloyd Carr) was impressive in his debut.

The concept of meshing the DW with the Open Wing is something that I think will make the offense even more formidable.

That latest “list” of a super league would never fly in ANY discussion.

Have a great week!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas




*********** QUIZ ANSWER:   Not only  did Jerome Barkum  spend 12 years in the NFL as a receiver/tight end - but he spent his entire 12-year career with one team.

A native of Gulfport, Mississippi, he played four years at Jackson State,  and in his senior season he was first team wide receiver on both the Little All-American team and the  Pittsburgh Courier Black College All-American Team.

He was taken in the first round of the 1972 NFL draft by the New York Jets, the ninth pick overall.

He was tall (6-3) and fast, and in his rookie season he showed big-play potential, averaging 19 yards per catch.

In his second season he established himself  as a  genuine deep threat, with 44 catches for 810 yards and six TDs, earning him a Pro Bowl appearance.

In the latter stages of his career, he was able, because of his size,  to transition  to tight end,  where he continued to be an important part of the Jets’ offense.

He was durable.  When he was finally waived after the 1982 season, he had played in 158 games - an average of 13 games a season -  and started 137 of them. 

His 40 career touchdown receptions are fourth-highest among all Jets’ receivers, behind  only Don Maynard, Wayne Chrebet and Wesley Walker.

His 4,789  yards receiving is eighth among all Jets’ receivers, and his 326 receptions are ninth.  Among Jets’s tight ends, only Mickey Shuler has more career yards receiving.

After being  waived by the Jets, he was signed by the Giants, but after just one seemingly positive morning workout, he met with head coach Bill Parcells, then left camp before the afternoon session.

Said Parcells at the afternoon practice, ''He's not here.  We talked about a few things, and he left.'' Asked whether he might return, Parcells said, ''I'm not sure.''

''We're very surprised,'' said quarterback Jeff Rutledge. ‘’He seemed to be happy to be here. No one saw a problem.''

His father, contacted at his home in Mississippi, had no idea what was going on, saying, “I really don't have a guess.”

Said Giants’  GM George Young, “There were no indications, and even his agent couldn't enlighten us.''

The  agent, Gary Wichard, was as surprised as anybody. ''He was happy with the contract,'' said Wichard. ''He was looking forward to the Giants.''

Years later, in 2011, Jerome Barkum and two other players, Harry Jacobs and Tommy Mason, sued the NFL, claiming that they suffered from brain injuries resulting from repeated blows to the head during their NFL careers.


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING JEROME BARKUM

GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON


 


*********** QUIZ:  He was born in Worland, Wyoming, in 1937. but when he was young  his family moved to Spokane, Washington,   where he attended Lewis and Clark High School.   He didn’t play football until his junior year,  and the team  wound up losing every game,  but in an amazing turnaround, the very next year, Lewis and Clark won the state championship.  That same year, he was all-state in football, basketball and track.

At Washington State, playing  end in those days of two-way football, he was named second-team All-Coast, and played in the East-West Shrine Game, the Senior Bowl, and the College All-Star Game.  He was also an outstanding hurdler on the WSU track team.

He was taken by the  Detroit Lions in the sixth round of the NFL draft. (With only 13 teams in the NFL at the time, that would be the equivalent of a third-round selection today.)

In his rookie season (the NFL played 12 games  then), he had 43 receptions for 642 yards, one touchdown and a 14.9-yard average per catch. He was named NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year and was named to the Pro Bowl, the first of his three appearances in his career as a Lion. 

He was big -  6-3, 200 pounds - with  great speed and hands, an unusual combination in that era, and after eight years  with the Lions he left as the team’s all-time leader in receptions and receiving yards.

His  best season was 1962, when he had career highs of 53 catches and 991 yards, along with 7 touchdowns and an average of 18.7 yards per catch. He was named the MVP of a Lions’ team that included future Hall of Famers Joe Schmidt, Dick “Night Train” Lane, Yale Lary and Dick LeBeau.

His next season was just about as good:  48 receptions for 945 yards and 10 TDs - a career high - and 19.7 yards per catch, also a career high.

In all, he played 11 NFL seasons. After eight full seasons in Detroit, he was released by the Lions during the 1968 season and finished that season with Baltimore.  He played his last two seasons with the Atlanta Falcons and retired after the 1970 season.

His career stats, including his time with Baltimore and Atlanta, were 356 catches, 5,696 yards, 34 TDs and 16.0 yards per catch.

In addition to his three Pro Bowl appearances,  he was named first team All-Pro once and second-team twice.

At the time of our guy’s death, the Detroit Free Press quoted several teammates.

“(He) was simply a great football player, an outstanding receiver and teammate," said Hall of Fame teammate and former Lions coach  coach Joe Schmidt. "Frankly, we didn’t take advantage of his ability.”

“It was an honor to have played with (him) and I learned a lot from him," said former Lions receiver and punter Pat Studstill. "I used to watch him like a hawk, how he came off the line of scrimmage, the way he ran his out patterns, everything. He had such great hands and was strong as an ox and I don’t believe there was a better athlete on the team. He was so good that he often was double covered and I was the beneficiary of that. (He)  was nice to everyone, his teammates, and the fans and I will miss him.”

And former Lions defensive tackle Roger Brown told about their time as teammates…

“(He)  and I became close friends when we arrived together in Detroit as rookies," Brown said. "We wanted to be roommates on the road, but back then they wouldn't allow a black person and white person to room together, so I ended up with Night Train Lane.

"One time when we played in Miami for the Runner-Up Bowl, Night Train, Danny Lewis, Willie McClung and I had to stay in a black hotel in the black section of Miami. When the team bus came to pick us up, (he) and Nick Pietrosante asked 'What are you guys doing out here?' (He)  said, 'We came as a team, we play as a team and we'll leave as a team.' That night we all stayed together in the same hotel.

“(He) was a helluva receiver and just a beautiful person. He was such a good friend, and I am lost by his passing."

In 2008,  he was named, along with Herman Moore, as one of the two wide receivers on the Lions’ 75th Anniversary All-Time team.



TUESDAY, APRIL  23, 2024      “Nearly every crisis seems to be the worst one, but after it’s over, it isn’t so bad.”  Harry S. Truman


*********** Wisdom from Mike Lude:  “Athletic directors, anxious to wrap up the services of a successful coach, are extending the length of contracts beyond reason, sometimes for 10 or 12 years, resulting in commitments of millions of dollars.”


*********** UFL GAMES THIS PAST WEEKEND

SATURDAY

ST. LOUIS BATTLEHAWKS (3-1) 32, MEMPHIS  SHOWBOATS (1-3) 17 - St. Louis had another good crowd - at least 30,000. A.J. McCarron continues to play well.  I don’t know what’s happened to Memphis QB Case Cookus - maybe it’s Memphis’ horrible defensive line - but he’s not half the passer he was in Philly last season.

SAN ANTONIO BRAHMAS (3-1) 19, MICHIGAN PANTHERS (2-2) 9 - It’s official.  Michigan is a bad team.  I do want their QB E. J. Perry to play well - he’s from Brown - but I just don’t think he’s a professional-caliber passer. And they had a guy at left tackle who might as well have not suited up - he was that bad. The Brahmas lost starting QB Chase Garbers for the season, but in stepped Quinten Dormady, a Texas kid who played at Tennessee, Houston and Central Michigan -  he was 23 of 37 for 269 yards and a TD.

BIRMINGHAM STALLIONS (4-0) 20, DC DEFENDERS (2-2) 18 - DC was driving for the winning field goal but on a third-and-two they got cute and tried a hard count and it backfired.  They didn’t make the resulting third-and-seven, which meant that when they kicked the go-ahead field goal, they left enough time on the clock for Matt Corral - this week’s  star Birmingham QB - to drive the Stallions into position for the winning field goal.

SUNDAY

HOUSTON ROUGHNECKS (1-3) 17, ARLINGTON RENEGADES (0-4) 9 - When you lose to the worst team in all of professional football, what does that make you?  Lord, what an awful game. To think that with all the choices we had on Saturday - three UFL games plus countless college spring games - this was the one lone game we could watch on Sunday.


STANDINGS

XFL CONFERENCE

ST LOUIS                 3-1

SAN ANTONIO        3-3

DC                             2-2

ARLINGTON             0-4


USFL CONFERENCE

BIRMINGHAM        4-0

MICHIGAN            2-2

MEMPHIS            1-3

HOUSTON             1-3


*********** Mike Pereira, one of the officials at headquarters of some UFL games, has the power to overrule calls made on the field.  But he as good as admitted that he’s going to allow “a little” pass interference - so evidently defensive backs are going to have to undress receivers before he’ll ever call it pass interference.  And he said that he has to look at things “in real time,” to see what the official on the field saw.  Excuse me if I’m wrong, Mike, but it seems to me that the reason there’s replay is so that you can slow things down to maybe see something that happened so fast that the officials on the field DIDN’T see it.


*********** Spring game stuff - Sorry, Michigan.  Charles Woodson may be a Heisman Trophy winner, but he is really hard to listen to.  He’s not a great spokesman for a Michigan education.

*********** Spring game stuff - As vain as today’s players are, I’m amazed that they can get them to wear those gooney-looking scrimmage helmets.

*********** Spring game stuff - bare white legs  along with “football pants” that are really shorts halfway up the thighs  is a really bad look.

*********** Spring game stuff - Cal has a backup QB named Chandler Rogers who has already been to Southern Miss, Blinn JC, Lousiana-Monroe and North Texas.  Cal makes stop number FIVE.

*********** Spring game stuff - A new wide receiver at Cal is Notre Dame transfer Tobias Meriweather.  He was highly recruited as a high schooler.  In fact, Brian Kelly was in his house, recruiting him for Notre Dame, when it was announced that he, Kelly, was off to LSU.  How do I know this? Meriweather is from Camas, Washington - the town where I live.

Now, if somebody will just tell those fools at the Pac-12 Network  that it isn’t pronounced “KAY-miss.”   It’s “CAM (as in “camera”) -iss.”

Oh, well - they’ve got about three or four more weeks before they’re out of work anyhow.

*********** Spring game stuff - I heard someone say that Oregon State’s new head coach, Trent Bray, was into “hiring people smarter than he is.”

That’s a lot easier to do if you just hire a stupid head coach.


***********  "It was through the full academic scholarship Columbia gave me that I was able to attend college and get my start in life and for that I have been tremendously grateful.  However, the school I love so much – the one that welcomed me and provided me with so much opportunity – is no longer an institution I recognize.”

That was a statement issued by Mr. Robert Kraft, best known as the owner of the New England Patriots.

Change “Columbia” to “Yale” and it could have been written by me, with a few additional  corrections…

(1) While ALL Ivy League scholarships are “academic scholarships,” mine was not a “full” scholarship.  Like all Yale financial aid at the time, part of the aid was a “gift,” part was payment  for a university job, and part was loan. At graduation, I had a couple  thousand bucks of loan to repay.  (a) None of the loan money had been spent on spring breaks - it never passed though my hands -  and it all went to tuition;  (b) In those days, it never occurred to most Americans to hold off on repaying loans in the hope that the American taxpayers (in the form of a pandering politician) would come along and bail us out.

(2) Where’s Mr. Kraft been?  I may not be able to match net worth with him, but I was years ahead of him in “no longer recognizing” the school I went to.   I gave up on Yale long before any of this crap that’s going on right now.  It was a long, sad, process, and I still have my moments of feeling ungrateful after the school’s generosity to me and my parents, but at what point am I still obligated to support things which my very Yale education taught me are subversive of our country and our Western culture?


*********** Just in case you wondered who’s really calling the shots at a place like Yale - it’s  the incoming first-year (they don’t say “freshman” at Yale) counselors - mostly recent or soon-to-be recent graduates who haven’t even started their jobs yet.  They may not be calling the shots - yet - but  like so many narcissists of their generation, they truly believe that all they have to do is make their wishes known and the people in power will comply. Tragically, they might be right.

This is from today’s Yale Daily News -  6:22 p.m.:

The incoming first-year counselors of all 14 residential colleges have released a “Letter of Support” for student protesters. The letter is addressed to Dean Lewis, Dean Lafargue, Dean Peck and Dean Boyd and demands that the Yale administration “fully and immediately disclose its investments and divest from any and all weapons manufacturing.”

In it, the writers “fully and unequivocally condemn the University administration’s decision to authorize the arrest of at least 47 peaceful student protesters on the morning of April 22, 2024.”

The protesters were charged with Class A Misdemeanors, which is the highest class of misdemeanors in Connecticut — the same degree applies to third-degree assault.

The letter cites the given responsibilities of first-year counselors by Yale College. FroCos wrote that they object to the arrests of protesters and found “this action fundamentally incompatible with what it means to be a student at Yale.”

The letter also cited the Guidance Regarding Free Expression and Peaceable Assembly at Yale, writing that the arrests go against the University’s commitment to free expression.

The incoming first-year counselors demanded “that Yale drop any and all misdemeanor or criminal charges and refrain from disciplinary action against peaceful student protesters and that the University substantively and sincerely engage with student protesters’ demands.”

While you were reading that, did the thought even occur to you of “incoming graduate assistants” at Alabama “condemning” Nick Saban for disciplining players for breaking team rules, and “demanding” that he “refrain from disciplinary action” against them?


*********** At an Oregon invitational track meet, a high school boy, posing as a  girl,  beat a field of girls by five seconds  in a 200 meter race.

No, I will not fall for the sham and refer to HIM as a “transgender female.”

You have to see the race to see how farcical the whole thing was.  And afterward, as the guy  walked around, you’d swear you could see facial hair on him.

The Oregon School Activities Association (OSAA) seems to think that’s just fine, stating that it “endeavors to allow students to participate for the athletic or activity program of their consistently asserted gender identity while providing a fair and safe environment for all students.”

Yeah, right - “fair” except for the real girls whose competition the OSAA allows poseurs like this one to pervert for their own gratification.

The boy whom  the OSAA is accommodating represents McDaniel, a Portland High School where I once coached.   When I coached there, it was still Madison High School, named for that James Madison, once revered as the Father of the Constitution.  But - James Madison being a dead, white male who had helped establish our racist country  - Portland has since made amends  by renaming the school for a Portland “educator” (“of color,” of course) named Leodis V. McDaniel.

https://nypost.com/2024/04/15/us-news/trans-runner-sparks-outrage-at-high-school-competition/



***********   Mike MacDonald, new head coach of the Seattle Seahawks, evidently sides with those who would tear down statues and rewrite history.

Look - it’s not as if the Seahawks have the illustrious history of an  original NFL team.  But they did win a Super Bowl and, were it not for the coaching malpractice of one P. Carroll, would have won another.

But Henry Ford once said, “History is bunk,” and evidently MacDonald has this idea that none of that stuff from the past matters.

So he got this bright idea of removing wallpaper showing big moments from the Seahawks’ past - Marshawn Lynch running, Richard Sherman’s interception against the 49ers, Russell Wilson holding up the George Halas trophy, coach Pete Carroll, GM John Schneider, and owner Paul Allen accepting the Lombardi Trophy. (I don’t think he’s ready to trash the “12th Man” business just yet.)

See, history is bunk.  We’re going to make our own tradition.

I would say to him, Mac - I know this is going to surprise you, but  this isn’t your team.  First comes the owner, of course.  But then come the fans.  When you trash the past, you’re disparaging  things that are very dear to them.  (Things they’ve paid good money to watch.) The chances are that in four or five years, you’ll be looking for another job anyhow, and those fans will be looking back fondly at those good times before you arrived.

And former players have a  stake in this, too.

Look, we all know of  college coaches who’ve pulled this crap - who’ve come into a program and given the cold shoulder to players from the school’s past.   And we also know of coaches at those same  places who’ve come in a few years later and, discovering  that  their predecessors had been treating players from the past like dirt, have made extra special efforts to bring them back into the fold.

I know that that’s college, and the pros are different,  but I’ve also heard many former New York Giants people say,  “once a Giant, always a Giant.”  I don’t know how that attitude influences the performance of the Giants at any given time, but in a time and a profession where it seems that everything is for sale, it has to mean something in the bigger picture.

And if the past doesn’t matter, how come the Irsays took all the Baltimore Colts’ records with them when they absconded to Indianapolis?



*********** Doing research into Jay Wilkinson prompted me to start reading his  book, “Dear Jay, Love Dad,” published in 2012 and based on letters that his dad, coaching great Bud Wilkinson, wrote to him while he was in college.   It provides a great insight into  the private man who at the time he wrote these letters was perhaps the best-known football coach in America.

One of Dad’s letters - and Jay’s comments after reading it  - seemed especially appropriate after reading  that the Seattle Seahawks’ new head coach had seen fit to erase the accomplishments of past Seahawks’ teams.

On May 5, 1961, Bud Wilkinson wrote…

Our team is pretty well set for the Alumni game. We have more alumni back than ever before. I guess they all want to be on TV! They do have quite a lineup. Their defensive backfield is Harris, Baker, Boyd and Thomas – not a bad group. On offense they have those men plus McDonald, Pricer, Gautt, etc. Tubbs, Harrison, Ed Gray,  Ross Coyle, etc. are here too. I'm sure we'll cut them to ribbons!

Wrote Jay, years later…

One of OU's greatest football traditions in Dad’s era was the annual varsity – alumni football game that brought an end to the program’s rite of spring drills.   Just as the name suggestions, the game pitted the Sooners’  current varsity squad against a team of alumni, many of whom were by then playing professional football, either in the National Football League or in Canada. Football fans of the time readily  recognized the names in my father's letter,  former Sooner greats Jerry Tubbs, Tommy McDonald, Clendon Thomas,  Bob Harrison and Prentice Gautt, to name just a few.

Today the NFL prohibits its players from participating in such games due to the possibility of injury. But in the 1950s and 1960s varsity–alumni games were almost as important to football fans as a school’s regular-season schedule.  The annual game in Norman enabled OU partisans not only to measure the progress made by the Sooner varsity squad during spring workouts but also to thrill at the return of past greats, the alumni players who had earlier brought Sooner fans so much enjoyment and pride.

My father felt there was another important benefit to the contest. The game helped foster a connection between past and present. In a real sense the program’s tradition of excellence was forged, and a symbolic torch was passed, during the skirmishes that took place in these exhibition games pitting season professionals against young men striving to live up to the legacy their predecessors had helped to create.

*********** The  day after Michigan beat Washington in the title game, John Canzano asked Chip Kelly what to make of the fact that Michigan outrushed Washington 303-46.

Replied Kelly,  “Big people beat up little people.”



***********  Three new  rules will apply to NCAA game conduct this season:


(1) Teams will be allowed to have one player on the field at a  time with helmet communication technology.  The player in question will be identified by a green dot on his helmet, the same as the NFL.

Communication between the sidelines and the player will be cut off  with 15 seconds left on the play clock, or at the snap, whichever is first.

The NCAA was careful to point out that the rule’s addition had noting to do with Michigan’s sign-stealing scandal.

Many coaches wanted the helmet technology to be expanded to more players, but the rules committee chose not to go beyond the current one-player limits employed by the NFL.

(2) The  rules panel also caught up with high schools in many states, which allow the use of tablets to view in-game video only. Get this - teams can use up to 18 tablets!!!

(3) As with the pros, there will now be  a two-minute warning at the end of each half.  A key point here is that it will provide a clear point of separation for the application of certain rules, such as  the running clock after  first downs.  It will also make it slightly more difficult for teams wanting to run out the clock.



*********** In case you needed something to talk about - how about another “Super League” proposal?


 
This one doesn’t stand a chance…

*** “BIG TEN?”  - Iowa, Maryland, Minnesota, Nebraska, Penn State, Rutgers out - Cincinnati, Louisville, Missouri in

*** “SEC?” - Arkansas, Florida, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas out - Georgia Tech in (Bobby Dodd would rise from the dead to vote against it)

*** “ACC?” - BC, Pitt, Syracuse, Virginia, Virginia Tech out - Central Florida, Florida, South Carolina in

*** Pac-10 is re-formed

*** South Bend, Indiana is now in the “Northeast”

*** Great eastern rivalries are rekindled

*** The old SWC is back, plus Oklahoma and Oklahoma State



***********  In Michigan, 30% of students were chronically absent at the end of the last school year, a big increase from just under 20% just before the pandemic.

(“Chronically absent” means they missed 18 or more days in the school year  - or 10 per cent of the school days scheduled.)

In the Detroit public schools the chronic absenteeism rate was 66% last year. 

(Just in case you might have thought that the answer is more taxpayer funded “pre-schooling” - for kindergartners it was was more than 70 per cent.)



***********   From Don Holleder’s high school,  Aquinas Institute in Rochester, New York, Jay Polston of the school’s office of advancement sent this photo from the school’s Black Lion Award assembly.



Aquinas’ Black Lion Award winner, senior Trent Hill, is accompanied by three of Don Holleder’s high school teammates: (from left to right) Joe Miller, Ron Mack, and Charlie Schiano

An excerpt from head coach Mo Jackson’s letter nominating Trent Hill:

Trent has been the epitome of what an Aquinas student athlete should be. He has maintained a grade point average in the 90s throughout his academic career, and possesses a leadership quality that one can only be born with. Trent uses this strength every day whether on or off the field and is the kind of young man that makes those around him better. He is a leader who leads by example first.

For the past three years, Trent has been a very important part of the Aquinas Varsity Football Team. He understands that leadership comes in many forms. Starring in many different roles, Trent was often asked to play positions that he wasn’t familiar with because of the level of trust we all had in him. He made sure to prepare himself in whichever role was needed and excelled because it was for the greater good of the team. As a first-year head coach, Trent added a level of comfort and trust that was needed for our success. He always respected the decisions I made as a coach and motivated his teammates whether at practice or during a game. That kind of leadership was vital, and ultimately led to our successful season.

Trent was more than deserving and was named Varsity Captain in his junior and senior years. He never missed practice or lifting sessions and he participated in film study, always asking questions to make sure other players understood their responsibilities and assignments. Trent has shown and spoken to younger players about the importance of having a team-first mentality. His message has always been “we before me” and he’s lived up to that message each day he enters the building.

***********   It’s no secret that the US Army has been falling short of its recruiting goals.

Now, I’m for the Army meeting its  goals, and I love football.



But I’m having a hard time trying to figure out how  spending taxpayer dollars to sponsor  some bogus “National Youth All-Star Championships” for kids ranging in age from eight to 13 years old is going to help meet today’s goals.

 

***********   Hi Hugh,
I did enjoy this weeks clinic and looking back on it now can see how combining the Open Wing with the Dw would have made our base DW so much more effective. For one thing the Open Wing would have neutralized  those defenses who ran  four down lineman in a“crabbing technique” trying to cut offensive line. They could not afford to do that losing pass rushers against  the Open Wing but would allow us to jump back into a base package of DW concepts. For another it would have put those who said the DW was old fashioned and we needed to be more open to rest. Looking back on it now with the Open Wing,  DW , combination I believe we would have one at least one more state championship, a game we lost by less than a TD .

Thanks Again,

Jack Tourtillotte
Rangeley, Maine



***********   I had the same thoughts as you when the Jontay Porter story emerged. You listed the biggest names, but I think Silver and company wouldn't have banned for life the vast majority of players in the league. Similar to the way the NCAA basketball people have handled the likes of UNC and Kansas versus Coe College.

Bravo for your comments on the Heisman. Not that long ago it was a big deal, something guys could argue about for weeks. Now, my care factor isn't much above zero. I go to the gym the next day, and no one mentions who won, in part because the question now is which QB won?

Thanks for showing the 2023 College Football HOF inductees. I looked at that list in light of the recent Heisman trends. Could be the HOF is heading in the same direction. Hope not.

That story about the Burton family was the kind of thing we always say we need more of. Thanks for giving us that uplifting story, and I wish much more good for every contributing member of that family.

John Vermillion                            
St Petersburg, Florida

***********   Hugh,

A Fox News host who served in Iraq, and also is a graduate of Harvard, returned his diploma to the university.  

Still on the topic of Ivy League universities...you couldn't pay me enough money to live in NYC, or attend Columbia.  Matter of fact I wouldn't choose to attend ANY of the Ivy League schools no matter what city they are located in.  Too blue for my blood.

I imagine New Haven used to be a lot like MANY small U.S. cities in CT, NY, CA, and WA back in the day.

Even Austin, TX was...a long time ago.

NIL will become the "legitimate" stepping stone for many young athletes to succumb to the lure of money, and not know how to handle it. (See below).  And we won't have to look far to find those responsible for it.  Unfortunately, like most everything these days, accountability for it will be blamed on others.

Most people I meet who find out I was a football coach ask me what my opinion is regarding NIL and the transfer portal.  My answer...I'm retired, and glad I am.  They say, "No,No, really...what is your opinion?  Good, bad?"  My response is, "Nick Saban also retired."

QUIZ:  "Jefferson Street" Joe Gilliam (one of the casualties the lure of money and drugs has on young athletes.  Bad mix).

Enjoy the weekend!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas


When I was in school, New Haven was a tough, blue-collar  city  with  lot of good manufacturing  jobs.  The biggest employer was Winchester (the firearms company).  Now, most of the good working-class jobs are gone, and a lot of the workers have been replaced by “newcomers.”  At that time, New Haven had the highest percentage of Italian-born of any city in America, and it still stakes a legitimate claim to making the best, most authentic pizza in America.  Frank Pepe’s, on Wooster Street,  is world-famous.

Frank Pepe was the quintessential American immigrant with a quintessential American story. He immigrated to America as a teenager in 1909. After returning to Italy for a few years to fight in World War I, he returned to New Haven to work in a pasta factory and then in a bakery on Wooster Street. While working at the bakery, Pepe started making his version of the classic "apizza" (pronounced A-beets), a style of pizza from his hometown of Naples. Frank Pepe began selling his "tomato pies" off a special headdress, walking through the Wooster Square market with several pies perched atop his head. He eventually saved enough money to buy a wagon and continued selling the increasingly popular "apizza." In June of 1925, Frank Pepe took over the bakery's operation and established "Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana" on Wooster Street. The rest, as they say, was history.

https://pepespizzeria.com/about-us

*********** QUIZ ANSWER:  Joe Gilliam died on Christmas Day, 2000, just four days shy of his 50th birthday.  For almost half his life he had been in a downward spiral of alcohol, drugs and homelessness.

But for one brief spell he was the starting quarterback of the Pittsburgh Steelers, at the very dawn of  what would become one of the great dynasties in NFL history.

Not only that, but - after Marlin Briscoe of the Broncos and James Harris of the Los Angeles Rams - he was just the third black man to start at quarterback for any NFL team.

He grew up in Nashville, where his dad, Joe Gilliam Sr.,  was defensive coordinator at Tennessee State, and as a high schooler he served as a ballboy at Tigers’ games.

As a quarterback at Tennessee State, he led the Tigers  to a  20-1 record his last two seasons  there. They were Black College National Champions both years, and he was named first team quarterback on the Pittsburgh Courier’s Black College All-American team.

He was taken by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 11th round of the 1972 draft - the 273rd overall pick - and made the team as their number three quarterback, behind Terry Bradshaw and Terry Hanratty. He didn’t see action until November of his rookie season when Hanratty was injured and he entered the game in relief of Bradshaw near the end of  a blowout win.

His first start came toward the end of his second season, and it did not go well.

But in his third season, 1974, he earned the starting job, and opened the season on Monday Night Football by leading the Steelers to a 30-0 win over the Baltimore Colts.  He was 17 of 31 for 257 yards and two TDs.  One of the touchdown passes, to Lynn Swann, went 60 yards in the air.

After six games, the Steelers were 4-1-1, but his performance in that time had been in steady decline.
 
Steelers’ coach Chuck Noll was unhappy with his insistence on throwing when he should have been running (and throwing deep when he should have been throwing short), and with his lateness to team meetings.  He had, it would turn out, been introduced  to heroin.

That was enough for Noll.  In game seven, Bradshaw was reinstated as the  starter.

Said Dick Haley, the Steelers’ personnel director, "We could've put anybody at quarterback and won some games. We didn't even have to throw it. You could've just run the ball and play defense. But there was nobody in the league that should've played ahead of Terry Bradshaw. "

With Bradshaw as their quarterback, the Steelers made it to the Super Bowl - and won.

Gilliam  suggested that race had played a part in coach Chuck Noll’s decision to bench him, but his argument was weak. Steelers to a man declared that Noll was not racist in any way.  Our man clearly had substance abuse problems, he had performance issues (perhaps related to drug use), he disregarded game plans, and he missed meetings.

Recalled Art Rooney, Jr. one of the owner’s sons, “Bradshaw, when he had his tough times, he’d read his Bible and let his beard grow. Gilliam would have a problem, he'd go out and find a good strong drug."

He lasted one more season with the Steelers, but it became obvious that drugs had taken control of him, and after a drug-addled debacle in the final game of the regular season he became the only player on the roster not to play in the Super Bowl.  The following June, after he’d missed several more team meetings,  he was finally cut. Although he was signed by the Saints he never made their roster and never played in another NFL game.

He made several attempts at playing for various semi-pro teams, but he could not overcome drug addiction and he was arrested on numerous occasions for an assortment of crimes.

And then, while watching football on TV with some friends, he died.

His dad had finally resigned himself to being unable to help his son, and told him that until he was ready to go straight, he couldn’t come home.

"I learned early on," Dad told the New York Times’ William Rhoden, "that the one thing you cannot do is be an enabler for an addict.

"Everybody makes mistakes,” he went on.   “It behooves those of us who make fewer mistakes to be tolerant of those who make more mistakes. Maybe we have better judgment. Maybe we have better discipline. That does not make us better people. That makes us luckier people."


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING JOE GILLIAM

GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY



*********** QUIZ:   Not only  did he  spend 12 years in the NFL as a receiver/tight end - but he spent his entire 12-year career with one team.

A native of Gulfport, Mississippi, he played four years at Jackson State,  and in his senior season he was first team wide receiver on both the Little All-American team and the  Pittsburgh Courier Black College All-American Team.

He was taken in the first round of the 1972 NFL draft by the New York Jets, the ninth pick overall.

He was tall (6-3) and fast, and in his rookie season he showed big-play potential, averaging 19 yards per catch.

In his second season he established himself  as a  genuine deep threat, with 44 catches for 810 yards and six TDs, earning him a Pro Bowl appearance.

In the latter stages of his career, he was able, because of his size,  to transition  to tight end,  where he continued to be an important part of the Jets’ offense.

He was durable.  When he was finally waived after the 1982 season, he had played in 158 games - an average of 13 games a season -  and started 137 of them. 

His 40 career touchdown receptions are fourth-highest among all Jets’ receivers, behind  only Don Maynard, Wayne Chrebet and Wesley Walker.

His 4,789  yards receiving is eighth among all Jets’ receivers, and his 326 receptions are ninth.  Among Jets’s tight ends, only Mickey Shuler has more career yards receiving.

After being  waived by the Jets, he was signed by the Giants, but after just one seemingly positive morning workout, he met with head coach Bill Parcells, then left camp before the afternoon session.

Said Parcells at the afternoon practice, ''He's not here.  We talked about a few things, and he left.'' Asked whether he might return, Parcells said, ''I'm not sure.''

''We're very surprised,'' said quarterback Jeff Rutledge. ‘’He seemed to be happy to be here. No one saw a problem.''

His father, contacted at his home in Mississippi, had no idea what was going on, saying, “I really don't have a guess.”

Said Giants’  GM George Young, “There were no indications, and even his agent couldn't enlighten us.''

The  agent, Gary Wichard, was as surprised as anybody. ''He was happy with the contract,'' said Wichard. ''He was looking forward to the Giants.''

Years later, in 2011, he and two other players, Harry Jacobs and Tommy Mason, sued the NFL, claiming that they suffered from brain injuries resulting from repeated blows to the head during their NFL careers.







FRIDAY, APRIL  19, 2024      “Before O.J., American blacks lacked confidence in the legal system. After O.J., everyone lacked confidence in the legal system.” Peggy Noonan.


*********** Wisdom from Mike Lude:  “Want to know the most shameful and disgraceful trend of intercollegiate athletics in the last decade or so?   It's the so-called arms race. I called it immoral. That's the most precise word I can think of to describe the mammoth salaries that are being paid to head coaches by universities and colleges across America.”


*********** UFL GAMES THIS WEEKEND (TV schedules apply everywhere but Portland, where football games are always subject to preemption by women’s soccer games.)

THERE SEEMS TO BE A  CONFLICT ON THE SATURDAY EVENING GAMES - BE SURE TO CHECK YOUR LOCAL PAPER (UNLESS YOURS IS AS BAD AS MINE)

(ALL TIMES EASTERN)

SATURDAY

MEMPHIS  SHOWBOATS (1-2) AT ST. LOUIS BATTLEHAWKS (2-1) - 12:30 PM ABC

MICHIGAN PANTHERS (2-1)  AT SAN ANTONIO BRAHMAS (2-1) - 7 PM FOX

DC DEFENDERS (2-1) AT BIRMINGHAM STALLIONS (3-0) - 11 PM FS1


SUNDAY

ARLINGTON RENEGADES (0-3) AT HOUSTON ROUGHNECKS (0-3) 2 PM FOX


*********** One reason to watch the UFL - Kayla Burton is a fox.

But she’s more - she’s a sideline reporter on the ESPN broadcasts and she’s not only very pretty, she also has a nice manner in interviewing,  putting at ease guys who in many cases have never before been on camera.

Interestingly, it took some digging to find that she has quite a background.

She went to Lehigh (a  good school, which means she’s got brains) and she played basketball there (so she’s an athlete). She comes from an athletic family:  her dad played football and her mother swam - both at Northwestern - and a  sister played basketball at Northwestern (and now plays in the WNBA).  Her brother played QB at Purdue.

Her dad played football, and he's now an executive with the Red Sox.

But here’s the best: her grandfather was Ron Burton, whom I’m old enough to remember.  Ron Burton was a great running back at Northwestern -  when Ara Parseghian was the Wildcats’ coach.  He was a consensus All-American, and he’s  in the College Football Hall of Fame. Before Northwestern,  he was a high school All-American and an Eagle Scout.

In 1960 he was the very first player ever drafted  by the Patriots - then the Boston Patriots - and he played six years with the Pats. 

After retiring from the Patriots, he stayed in the Boston area as an executive with John Hancock for  35 years.

In 1985, he invested his time, energy and funds in the Ron Burton Training Village, a camp whose mission was to help underprivileged kids aged 11-17, teaching them the values of “love, peace, patience and humility,” while attempting to build “self esteem, self reliance, love for God, love for others and racial harmony.”  More than 2,000 kids have benefitted from  the camp.

The things you learn.


https://espnpressroom.com/us/bios/kayla-burton/

https://www.ronburtontrainingvillage.org/who-we-are/


*********** Always look for the bright side…

In August, 2022, as author Salmon Rushdie lay near death in his hospital bed, recovering from a stabbing by an Islamic radical that left him with wounds in the neck, chest, face, eye and hand, a doctor found something good to say:  “You’re lucky that the man who attacked you had no idea how to kill a man with a knife.”


*********** Dear HR Department:

I’m an elite Ivy Leaguer and  I have the diploma (if not the grades) to prove it,   I may not have had the best of grades, but that’s because I was so busy having fun, so partly for that reason, I never once took part in a BLM, Antifa or Pro-Palestine protest.  I never blocked a highway or bridge or burned the American flag or chanted “Death to America.” 

Now, then.  I promise that if you give me one of the big-money jobs that you were planning on giving  to all those Ivy Leaguers that I see demonstrating, I’ll never tell you who to hire or fire, or how to invest the company’s money, and I’ll never sit on the floor of your  main office (unless you ask me to).

(Not to take too much credit for my relatively good behavior at college -  in those days, no matter how strongly  one might  have felt about this cause or that,  no semi-intelligent Yalie would have messed with the New Haven cops.)


*********** Anyone else notice how many of these pro-Palestine protestors are females?


*********** NEWS RELEASE FROM THE NATIONAL FOOTBALL FOUNDATION…

The ARIA Resort & Casino played host to an all-star cast of history's greatest football legends and the sport's most promising student-athletes during the 65th National Football Foundation (NFF) Annual Awards Dinner Presented by Las Vegas on Dec. 5, 2023.

More than 1,800 people in attendance and countless more watching on ESPN+ saw the induction of the star-studded 2023 College Football Hall of Fame Class, which took center stage as its members received college football's ultimate honor. The NFF also honored 16 of the game's current-leading student-athletes, who collected $295,000 in postgraduate scholarships as members of the 2023 NFF National Scholar-Athlete Class Presented by Fidelity Investments®.
 
The festivities began with Oregon quarterback Bo Nix being declared the recipient of the 34th William V. Campbell Trophy® as college football's top scholar-athlete and receiving a $25,000 postgraduate scholarship. The evening culminated with the 2023 College Football Hall of Fame induction.

The 65th edition marked the third consecutive year the NFF Annual Awards Dinner was held in Las Vegas. Renowned broadcaster Charles Davis, a member of the NFL ON CBS broadcast team, entertained the crowd as the emcee for the annual celebration, which lived up to its historic role of bringing the college football community together at the end of the regular season to pay tribute to the game and its greatest legends.

The 2023 College Football Hall of Fame Class featured Eric Berry (Tennessee), Michael Bishop (Kansas State), Reggie Bush (Southern California), Dwight Freeney (Syracuse), Robert Gallery (Iowa), LaMichael James (Oregon), Derrick Johnson (Texas), Bill Kollar (Montana State), Luke Kuechly (Boston College), Jeremy Maclin (Missouri), Terance Mathis (New Mexico), Bryant McKinnie (Miami [FL]), Corey Moore (Virginia Tech), Michael Stonebreaker (Notre Dame), Tim Tebow (Florida), Troy Vincent (Wisconsin), Brian Westbrook (Villanova), DeAngelo Williams (Memphis), and coaches Monte Cater (Lakeland [WI], Shepherd [WV]), Paul Johnson (Georgia Southern, Navy, Georgia Tech), Roy Kramer (Central Michigan) and Mark Richt (Georgia, Miami [FL]).

***********   I was corresponding with old coaching friend Armando Castro.  He started in youth coaching in Roanoke, Virginia and moved up to high school coaching, and he told me about the time the coach at Northside High, who would go on to coach at Ferrum College,  was quoted in the local newspaper after a game as saying that Coach Castro’s Double Wing reminded him of “a  Volkswagen with the doors open going downhill.”


*********** My friend Mike Foristiere, who recently was hired as head coach at Marsing, Idaho, said he was talking with one of his former players,  now a Marine  stationed in the Philippines,  who’s looking to return to his home town of Mattawa, Washington and  coach at the local high school.  Mike says that whenever he talks to his former players  they all say that there’s one play they wish they could run just one more time (if you’ve read this far, you know what it is) - WEDGE.


***********   Wow. Jontay Porter of the Toronto Raptors - banned from the NBA for life. 

First he gave out info about his physical condition to a guy who then made  a parlay bet of $80,000 that included a bet on something involving his performance - and then  he took  himself out of the damn game using  some health excuse or another (leaving little doubt that he was working with the gambler).

Gee - ya think an $80,000 bet like that might have drawn some attention?

He evidently has been betting regularly on NBA games - a no-no.  He’s said to have bet around $54,000  - and won some $76,000.  Wow. He won $22,000. 

But wait - yes, that may be a lot of money to you and me. But even though this guy was working on a sort of temporary contract, he was still making  $400,000 or so.  And with any kind of decent season, he’d probably make  have made three times that next season.  So what the hell was $22,000 to him?

A few questions:

1. If  it had been LeBron James who’d tried to fix things, or Joel Embiid, or Giannis Antetokounmpo -  would the NBA have banned him for life?

2. Why doesn’t the NBA do something about the current practice of star players’ being held out of games for the purposes of resting their bodies?  Shouldn’t the league give refunds to disappointed fans who’d  bought tickets in expectation of seeing a visiting team’s star players?

3. What about losing teams’  annual race to the bottom in hopes of getting the top lottery pick?

4. Should the NBA try to control proposition bets the way the NCAA has?

5. Do sports leagues really believe they can lie in bed with “gaming” companies without more such incidents?

6. Does the  guy have a gambling problem?

We know Jontay out here in the Northwest.  He was a heck of a high school player.  After winning a  state title in Columbia, Missouri, he came out here along with his older brother, Michael,  after  their dad was hired as an assistant coach at Washington.

Surprise - the brothers committed to Washington. Coincidence?

Jontay averaged 14.3 points and 13.6 rebounds per game, and the brothers helped Seattle’s Nathan Hale High, coached by former Portland Trail Blazer Brandon Roy, to a 29-0 record and the state 3A  title.

But then,  their dad  got offered an assistant coaching job back at Missouri, and the brothers headed back to Columbia with him. Surprise - no longer committed to Washington. 

That’s where I lost track of him. Until recently.



*********** Honk if you think the Heisman Trophy has become a farce.

In 1955, FIVE of the top ten vote getters in the Heisman balloting were linemen.  Half of them!  Yes, two  - Ron Beagle of Navy and Ron Kramer of Michigan - were ends, but there was no such thing as a “receiver” then. All ends were “tight,” and all of them played both ways, so they could legitimately be called “lineman.”

Until 1970, at least one lineman made it into the top ten every single year.

But from 1970 through 1999 - 30 years - there were eight years in which not one single  lineman made the top ten.

And in the 24 years since then, there have been 11 years in which no lineman made the top ten.

In this century, just three linemen have finished in the top five:

in 2009 Ndamakong Suh  of Nebraska  finished fourth;
in 2019 Chase Young of Ohio State finished fourth;
in 2021 Aidan Hutchinson of Michigan finished second.

Think  the game’s become too much about one position?   In 2022 - EIGHT of the top ten Heisman vote-getters were quarterbacks.


*********** Josh Montgomery, of Berwick, Louisiana, noting that I’d mentioned playing the single wing in high school, asked me what sort of single wing it was, and whether my coach was  “Princeton-influenced.”

Good question.  My answer:

My high school coach, Ed Lawless,  played QB (blocking back) for George Munger at Penn. Although Penn and Princeton were rivals and played each other every year, Munger and Princeton’s Charlie Caldwell were good friends and shared information,  and their systems were virtually identical - both unbalanced. 

Ken Keuffel, who became a famous high school and college single wing coach, played at Princeton under Caldwell, and then after graduation, while doing graduate work at Penn, he coached the Penn frosh for George Munger.

Today, Princeton’s single wing is better known because of Caldwell’s book (“Modern Single Wing Football”), but Penn was the  bigger, stronger program at the time. Penn played a big-time schedule and was second only to Ohio State in attendance every year. In the East, Army was the only program stronger than Penn. That includes Penn State.

We were very basic.  Straight stuff. Off tackle, wedge, counter, run-pass option. As JVs we screwed around - but that’s all - with Buck lateral. Our arch rival was coached by a Penn teammate of our coach.  The Penn influence was strong.  There were a lot of former Munger guys coaching around the Phila area at the time.



*********** Anybody who remembers all the great “Tastes Great! Less Filling!” Miller Light commercials of the 1970s has to think it a little weird to see Reggie Miller in one of the recent renditions.

Nice guy and all that. Damn good basketball player, too.  He’s definitely no Dylan Mulvaney. But he’s also not what you think of when you think “beer drinker.”   In fact, to look at him, I suspect the next beer he has will be his first one.



************   There’s really something to these coaches whose sons do well. If you're a Hurley, you can diagram basketball plays, but your dad also taught you about knowing people, and what qualities you need to assemble a high-performing team. Because Dan learned well at his father's feet, I'm afraid UCONN will be strong for many years.

I thought today you might mention the female to male person who got knocked out in 21 seconds. But, who cares?

That UW running back facing charges? He just had a few issues to work through off the field. A little counseling ought to square that away.

Regarding that local sports writer, aka journalist. I heard a Hillsdale teacher give me another reason to love his school. There is no possibility to major in journalism. See, they do have a J-school, but it teaches primarily the mechanics of the business. Hillsdale wants the student to have actual knowledge about many subjects before writing about them.

John Vermillion                    
St Petersburg, Florida



***********   Hugh,

Arlington lost their game to D.C.  They gave it away.  Give D.C. credit for hanging around though.  They were more than grateful to accept that gift.

Some of the great female golfers playing in the LPGA are from South Korea.  They dress well.

Met Craig Bohl some years ago when coaching in Minnesota.  Brought my team to the NDSU football team camp when he was the HC there.  One of those evenings camp coaches were invited to a cookout hosted by his staff (some of the absolutely best steak I've had).  Soon after we sat down to eat here comes this bald guy wearing his leathers riding a big ol' hog.  It was Coach Bohl.  Quite a character.

At one time sports scribes wrote about relevant topics to those of us who looked forward to their insights.  Today they write about topics irrelevant to most of us who view their words as drivel.

I bet someone could still find a really nice house for a reasonable price in places like Stillwater, Ames, Lincoln, Abilene, etc. etc. 8 million in California will get you 2,000 square feet with an above ground pool, and close enough to your neighbor to share a cup of coffee through your kitchen window.

Apparently the photo of the Navy officer shooting a rifle - with a backwards mounted scope with the lens still on it - was photoshopped.  Hmmm.  I wonder if Princess Kate had anything to do with it?

Loved those additional nicknames!    


QUIZ:  Jay Wilkinson (doing some research on him I found that scribes "knowledgeable" of Duke football don't rate him as one of the Duke's 10 best football players.  Hmmm.  I guess the term "knowledge" is nebulous when it comes to sports journalism).

Have a great week!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas

Joe, I’d want to check the credentials of anyone claiming to be “knowledgeable” about Duke football, especially Duke football since the days when Jay Wilkinson played. Since World War II,  that was as close as Duke has had  to a golden age of football.   Since 1960, Duke has had exactly one streak of four straight winning seasons - and Jay Wilkinson played on three of those teams.   Since Jay Wilkinson left,  they’ve had only one streak of three straight winning seasons - 2013-2015 under David Cutcliffe.  That’s another way of  saying that in all that time since he played there, Duke has had a lot of bad teams - which, I’m sorry to say, equates to a dearth of really good football players. In the years since 1963, when Jay Wilkinson was named ACC Player of the Year, seven other Blue Devils have been so honored. But only two of those seven were, like Jay Wilkinson,  first-team All-Americans.  So if they’re better than Jay Wilkinson, they probably played before his time.  And I rather doubt that very many of today’s experts are “knowledgeable” enough about those days to  rate those players.

 




*********** QUIZ ANSWER:  Jay Wilkinson grew up the son of one of the most famous football coaches in America.

He was five years old when his dad, Bud Wlkinson, just 31, became head coach of the Oklahoma Sooners. He was eight when OU won their first national title. He was 11 when the Sooners began what would become a 47-game winning streak - a streak that didn’t end until he was 15.

Growing up around football and coaching, he got to know the likes of Bear Bryant, Darrell Royal - who’d  played for his dad - Frank Leahy and Woody Hayes, all of whom visited with his dad from time to time.

He was an outstanding athlete himself, earning high school All-American honors in football, and leading his Norman High School  team to the state finals in both football and basketball.

His father, not wanting him or his older brother to experience the pressures of playing for him,  felt it was best for them to go elsewhere to school.  His older brother chose Stanford, and our guy narrowed his list down to Stanford, UCLA, Ole Miss, Illinois and Army.  But late in the recruiting game he was contacted by Duke, who convinced him that while coming east to visit West Point, he should swing by Durham, North Carolina.

He was impressed by Duke athletically - he had seen them, as ACC champions, play Oklahoma  in the 1958 Orange Bowl - but even more so because, as he would later write, “Duke was the only college to recruit me academically.”

He chose Duke, and  in his sophomore year, his first year of eligibility, he scored on a 63-yard punt return the first time he touched the ball in a varsity game.

Prior to his junior season, he was on the cover of Street and Smith’s magazine - a huge national honor.  In the season opener against USC in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, he scored Duke’s only touchdown on a 25-yard pass reception as  the Trojans upset the Blue Devils, 14-7. (Yes, that’s correct.  Duke was favored.)

In his senior season, he led the ACC in total yards - rushing and receiving - and in total touchdowns from scrimmage.

During his three years of eligibility at Duke, the Blue Devils went 20-9-1, and they won ACC titles in 1961 and 1962 - his sophomore and junior years. (They remain the last two ACC titles  that Duke has ever won outright.  In 1989, under Steve Spurrier, they tied for first.)

During his senior season in 1963, he earned All-American honors, was named the Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Year, and finished eighth in the voting for the Heisman Trophy.

All told - runs, receptions and returns -  he averaged an amazing 8.5 yards every time he touched the football.   At graduation, he held every significant Duke kick return record.

After graduation from Duke he chose to pass up  the NFL, instead going on to earn a divinity degree from the Episcopal Theological School in 1967.

Then, after  serving as an executive assistant to the governor of Oklahoma, and as a White House aide during Richard Nixon’s first term, in 1970, just 28, years old,  he  returned to Oklahoma to run for Congress.  Running as a Republican in a heavily-Democrat  district, he faced an experienced  incumbent who’d held the seat for 22 years.  When an out-of-state marketing company hired to help run his campaign produced a commercial showing him  walking through a cow pasture, his  opponent slyly noted that while he might not be as smart as Jay Wilkinson,  he at least knew that when you walk through a cow pasture, you need to be looking down. (Wilkinson didn’t win.  Reflecting on lessons he’d learned from his dad, he said, “We hadn’t prepared well enough.”)

Entering the business world, he spent more than 30 years as a partner in a multi-billion-dollar investment management firm, as executive vice president for one of the nation’s leading life insurance companies and as president of a leading company  in designing deferred compensation plans.

In 1989,  he received the NCAA’s Silver Anniversary award recognizing   distinguished former student-athletes on  the  25th anniversary of their college graduation.

He is a member of the Duke University Sports Hall of Fame.

Jay Wilkinson lives in Norman. He is a nationally-known motivational speaker and  is the author of two books about his father.



CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING JAY WILKINSON

GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
JOHN IRION - ARGYLE, NEW YORK
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY

 


*********** QUIZ:  He died on Christmas Day, 2000, just four days shy of his 50th birthday.  For almost half his life he had been in a downward spiral of alcohol, drugs and homelessness.

But for one brief spell he was the starting quarterback of the Pittsburgh Steelers, at the very dawn of  what would become one of the great dynasties in NFL history.

Not only that, but - after Marlin Briscoe of the Broncos and James Harris of the Los Angeles Rams - he was just the third black man to start at quarterback for any NFL team.

He grew up in Nashville, where his dad, for whom he was named, was defensive coordinator at Tennessee State, and as a high schooler he served as a ballboy at Tigers’ games.

As a quarterback at Tennessee State, he led the Tigers  to a  20-1 record his last two seasons  there. They were Black College National Champions both years, and he was named first team quarterback on the Pittsburgh Courier’s Black College All-American team.

He was taken by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 11th round of the 1972 draft - the 273rd overall pick - and made the team as their number three quarterback, behind Terry Bradshaw and Terry Hanratty. He didn’t see action until November of his rookie season when Hanratty was injured and he entered the game in relief of Bradshaw near the end of  a blowout win.

His first start came toward the end of his second season, and it did not go well.

But in his third season, 1974, he earned the starting job, and opened the season on Monday Night Football by leading the Steelers to a 30-0 win over the Baltimore Colts.  He was 17 of 31 for 257 yards and two TDs.  One of the touchdown passes, to Lynn Swann, went 60 yards in the air.

After six games, the Steelers were 4-1-1, but his performance in that time had been in steady decline.
 
Steelers’ coach Chuck Noll was unhappy with his insistence on throwing when he should have been running (and throwing deep when he should have been throwing short), and with his lateness to team meetings.  He had, it would turn out, been introduced  to heroin.

That was enough for Noll.  In game seven, Bradshaw was reinstated as the  starter.

Said Dick Haley, the Steelers’ personnel director, "We could've put anybody at quarterback and won some games. We didn't even have to throw it. You could've just run the ball and play defense. But there was nobody in the league that should've played ahead of Terry Bradshaw. "

With Bradshaw as their quarterback, the Steelers made it to the Super Bowl - and won.

Our guy  suggested that race had played a part in coach Chuck Noll’s decision to bench him, but his argument was weak. Steelers to a man declared that Noll was not racist in any way.  Our man clearly had substance abuse problems, he had performance issues (perhaps related to drug use), he disregarded game plans, and he missed meetings.

Recalled Art Rooney, Jr. one of the owner’s sons, “Bradshaw, when he had his tough times, he’d read his Bible and let his beard grow. (——)  would have a problem, he'd go out and find a good strong drug."

He lasted one more season with the Steelers, but it became obvious that drugs had taken control of him, and after a drug-addled debacle in the final game of the regular season he became the only player on the roster not to play in the Super Bowl.  The following June, after he’d missed several more team meetings,  he was finally cut. Although he was signed by the Saints he never made their roster and never played in another NFL game.

He made several attempts at playing for various semi-pro teams, but he could not overcome drug addiction and he was arrested on numerous occasions for an assortment of crimes.

And then, while watching football on TV with some friends, he died.

His dad had finally resigned himself to being unable to help his son, and told him that until he was ready to go straight, he couldn’t come home.

"I learned early on," Dad told the New York Times’ William Rhoden, "that the one thing you cannot do is be an enabler for an addict.

"Everybody makes mistakes,” he went on.   “It behooves those of us who make fewer mistakes to be tolerant of those who make more mistakes. Maybe we have better judgment. Maybe we have better discipline. That does not make us better people. That makes us luckier people."






TUESDAY, APRIL  16, 2024      “I have certain rules I live by.  My first rule - I don’t believe anything the government tells me.”  George Carlin



*********** Wisdom from Mike Lude:  “Because football makes a lot of money doesn't mean every player is a shareholder and should be getting part of the revenue.” 


*********** UFL RESULTS THIS PAST WEEKEND

SATURDAY

DC DEFENDERS (2-1) 29,   ARLINGTON RENEGADES (0-3)  28
Arlington isn’t as bad as their record.  Two of the losses were tough ones. The third was to Birmingham, clearly the league’s best team.

BIRMINGHAM STALLIONS (3-0) 33,  MEMPHIS  SHOWBOATS  (1-2) 14
Adrian Martinez threw for 334 and rushed for 44 more; threw for two TDs and  ran for a third.
I’m too old to move, but… the dirty bastards at the local Fox affiliate in Portland pre-empted this game so that we could have the thrill of watching our beloved  Portland Thorns play the “Carolina Courage”  in - I guess - women’s soccer.  I was displeased.

SUNDAY

MICHIGAN PANTHERS (2-1)  34,  HOUSTON ROUGHNECKS (0-3)  20

Panthers are looking a lot better offensively.  Of course, Houston had something to do with it.  Houston is really, really bad.  On one long MichiganTD run there were at least five Houston “tacklers” left lying pathetically on the ground. Michigan QB E. J. Perry now leads the league in running touchdowns.

ST. LOUIS BATTLEHAWKS (2-1) 31,  SAN ANTONIO BRAHMAS (2-1) 24
Brahmas’ QB Chase Garbers threw 41  times for 143 yards - an unbelievable puny 3.5 yard per attempt.  (Good spotting award to Tom Walls, who texted me from Winnipeg to say “St. Louis Battlehawks just lined up in West and ran bubble!”)


*********** Interesting fact from the Wall Street Journal…

The  world’s largest market for golf apparel is…

South Korea.  And not the largest per capita, either.  The absolute largest.

The nation of 52 million people has fewer golf courses than Florida (22 million) but that doesn’t matter.  Whether on golf courses or at simulators or driving ranges, Koreans are into dressing well, and  for many of them, that “dressing well” means golfing attire.



*********** Bet you didn’t know that  the new Executive Director of the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) is Craig Bohl, who recently retired as head coach at Wyoming.

Coach Bohl is just the sixth executive director in more than 60 years:

Tuss McLaughry (1960-1965)
Bill Murray (1966-1981)
Charlie McClendon (1982-1993)
Grant Teaff (1994-2015)
Todd Berry (2016-2023)
Craig Bohl (2024 - )


*********** I’m not sure if there are any more woke people nowadays than sports writers, who can’t pass up a chance to send us virtue signals.

In our local fish wrapper, we were treated to a story about a  girl who happens to be playing on a local high school’s JV baseball team.  Basically, the kid said she couldn’t even bear the thought of playing - ugh - softball.

Forget for a minute that in our county’s 13 high schools, there are at least 500 boys playing varsity or JV baseball.  I’ll bet there’s a few interesting stories there.  But wait - there’s  one girl who’s playing! Let’s write a story about her! 

Noting that some members of the community - even some members of her own team - oppose her playing on a boys’ team, the  reporter refers to baseball as  “a traditionally male-dominated sport.”

Well, yeah.  I guess it still is.  No thanks to jerks like you.


*********** Just in case you might be a humble high school football coach, teaching five or six classes a day, painting houses in the summer  and taking classes yourself in order to earn a graduate degree and move up on the salary scale - it’s important that you know that not everyone has  to take a vow of poverty before getting into coaching.

In Stillwater, Oklahoma (home of Oklahoma State University), Mike Gundy, coach of the local  college team, has put his house up for sale.

For EIGHT MILLION DOLLARS. 

Just in case you’re wondering why it’s up for sale, well, now that his two sons are grown,  Gundy told a reporter from The Oklahoman, “It’s too big of a house for two people. It needs to be for a young family that has a lot of energy and wants to be on a ranch and goof around, have a swimming pool and all that stuff. That’s kind of past my time.”

Just in case you might have wondered what eight million dollars will buy you in Stillwater, Oklahoma  -  the house is 13,853 square feet on  80-acres and includes a backyard pool, a theater room and stocked ponds.

Have a look…

https://www.oklahoman.com/picture-gallery/lifestyle/features/2024/04/10/mike-gundy-house-for-sale-stillwater-ok-photos/73274736007/?itm_medium=recirc&itm_source=taboola&itm_campaign=internal&itm_content=ExploreMore?itm_medium=recirc&itm_source=taboola&itm_campaign=internal&itm_content=ExploreMore



*********** I read a cool article about a guy named Steve Preece, who was a  good college quarterback at Oregon State back in the 1960s, when the Beavers upset OJ and the Trojans (good name for a band, as Dave Barry would say), 3-0.

Although he had only played quarterback in college and wasn’t generally considered good enough to play quarterback in the NFL, he was a very good athlete, and on that basis New Orleans signed him as a free agent.

In the 10 days of rookie camp they then were allowed, he spent two days each at quarterback, running back, receiver, safety and cornerback, and  although he hadn’t played defense since his sophomore year in high school, in Boise, he  was invited to training camp as a corner.

When he asked Saints’ defensive coordinator Jack Faulkner how much his inexperience at the position  would hurt him, Faulkner said,  “It’s the best thing that could have happened. You don’t have any bad habits.”

He wound up playing nine seasons in the NFL.



*********** Maybe “diversity is our strength” wouldn’t be such a f—king joke if diversity looked like this…

After knocking out his opponent on Saturday, MMA star Renato Moicano told  the fans in Las Vegas, "I love America. I love the Constitution. I love the  First Amendment .  I want to carry and own f---ing guns. I love private property.”

He’s a Brazilian. So what?  Send him to the front of the citizenship  line.



***********  It’s not just the Army…

The Navy’s official Instagram page showed a photo of an officer shooting a rifle - with a backwards-mounted scope. And with the lens cap still on, at that.

Obviously, the kind of marketing geniuses who do this stuff can’t be expected to know which end of a gun to shoot with,  but what’s scary is that you’d think that a Navy commander would have said, “Uh, guys…”

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/news/2024/04/11/us-navy-mocked-image-captain-firing-gun-back-to-front-scope/



***********  It appears that at least SOMEBODY at the University of Washington was fully aware that it had a potential double rapist on its roster - a guy with two recent rape accusations against him.

No matter-  he  played in the national championship game.

But hey -  how was the Huskies’ then-head coach, Kalen DeBoer, supposed to know that?

Besides, he’s innocent until proven guilty, isn’t he?  So how could they deprive him of his chance to become a pro?

Oh - and he’s a running back.  And he was needed because the starter, you might remember,  got hurt at the end of the semifinal win over Texas, so…


https://apnews.com/article/uw-football-player-rape-charges-rogers-2ed3783f1285f2dc37cee918736bb09b



*********** You had to admire UConn’s performance  throughout the recent NCAA tournament.  They were well-coached.  They had lots of good players, but they played unselfishly.   They played as a team.

It didn’t just happen.  It all started, as it always does, with recruiting. But in this case, it was recruiting parents as well as players.

Said UConn coach Dan Hurley, after winning his second NCAA title in a row, “Are they going to be fans of their son or are they going to be parents? Are they going to hold them accountable, have an expectation that when something goes wrong that it’s not the coach’s fault? That their son’s got to work harder, he’s got to do more, he’s got to earn his role.

“We’ve got a real old-school culture here of accountability. I’m an old-school coach in terms of the tone that I take with my players in practice. The expectations I take with effort, the focus on winning and ‘we’ over ‘me.'

“Have they played on seven different travel teams? Have they transferred to four or five different high schools? When you talk to the parents in the recruiting process, are they constantly complaining about the coaches after a bad game or are you having a conversation where their son has got to do more, got to play harder, he’s got to work on his skills.

“They tell on themselves. They drop hints. [If] you’ve got the wrong type of people around the inner circle of your players, they’ll sink your program.”

https://nypost.com/2024/04/12/sports/dan-hurley-reveals-how-he-scouts-uconn-recruits-parents/



************   SPRING BALL

Ohio State opened its spring game by shifting from single wing into a full-house T formation, and running off-tackle.  No doubt new OSU offense coordinator Chip Kelly paying tribute to the great Woody Hayes, who called it his “Robust” formation.

The Buckeyes had a HUGE crowd  in the Shoe.

Assuming he doesn’t enter the portal, BC’s Thomas Castellanos will be one of the nation’s top QBs.



The guy with the most pressure on him in Tuscaloosa may be Kalen DeBoer, but  close behind, I’d say, is the groundskeeper - the guy who’s  got a little more than four months to have this  field ready for big-time college football.

 

*********** Homer Smith's History...




***********   Interesting, but not odd, that you connected the Thunder's travel to what will soon be for select members of the former Big Ten. As an aside, does the school get all those air miles?

Why have you, like LinkedIn and numerous other sites, insisted that coaches be unable to view your posts only after disclosing their preferred pronouns? You have let us down.

"We're monitoring the situation very carefully. I assure you I'm in close contact with all relevant parties." That's government speak, of course. We hear it almost every day. How long until it becomes coach speak? Words that mean nothing.

Great quiz subject today. Love those men who coached two and three sports.

John Vermillion                                                            
St Petersburg, Florida


***********  Hugh,

Not sure if O.J. will even find the road to the Pearly Gates!

The Stoops brothers aren't the only football guys to come out of Youngstown, OH.  Add Bo Pelini, Carl Pelini, Jim Tressel, Mark Mangino, Mark Dantonio, Mark Snyder, and Tim Beck among others.

Speaking of travel...USC and UCLA.  Washington and Oregon.  Cal and Stanford.  They all better get comfortable with each other as travel mates, and then face off as rivals in competition with each other.  I wonder how it will work for ALL teams (men's AND women's) having to share long plane trips with one another?  Fun times ahead!

A list of some classic nicknames starting with your suggestions:
Woody
Bo
Greasy
Bear
Lone Star
Then there's:
Lefty
Skip
Shorty
Bull
Squints
Blackie
Peanut

I'm sure there are more!  Feel free to add!

Enjoy the weekend!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas


Red, Reds (in Philly), Whitey, Beans, Dumbo, Whip, Pee Wee, Specs, Muggsy, Sarge, Scrap Iron, Cap, Pop, Tug, Pepper, Tex, Dutch, Buddy, Squeaky, Fats, Pooch, Jumbo, Baldy, Rowdy, Footsie, Windy, Skeeter, Bingo, Dodo, Smiley, Slats, Dude, Blazer, Flea, Bush, Bo, Rope, Gibby, Gabby, Rabbit, Goober, Duke, Chops, Turkeyfoot, Moose, Brownie, Downtown, Buckshot, Happy, Black Jack, Buck, Slug, Possum, Bullet, Babe, Kid, Skippy, Slim, Chico, Scoops, Dizzy, Daffy, Doc, Rough, Wheels, Shotgun, Dynamo, Cy, Noisy, Cat, Schoolboy, Cocky, Buck, Bash, Jocko, Irish, Hooks, Runt, Crabby, Flit, Cactus, Shorty, Squack, Crunchy, Workhorse, Roxy, Dingle, Chick, Tomato Face, Tacks, Junior, Dim Dom, Divvy, Stinky, Scat, Hummer, Pudgie, Oats, Thumper, Deep, Skeets, Jiggs, Dummy, Scroggy,

That’s mostly taken from the Baseball Encyclopedia - and I  only got through the D’s.

In “The Great American Novel,” by Philip Roth, a young baseball player who feels out of it because he doesn’t have a nickname tries all kinds of stunts designed to  get himself one until finally the team calls him -  “Nickname.”




 


*********** QUIZ  ANSWER: Hugo Bezdek was born in Czechoslovakia (then known as Bohemia), and came at the age of five to the US.  His family first settled in Cleveland, but when he was 12, they moved to Chicago where they lived on the South Side and his father found work as a butcher.

His high school did not have a football team, so he played for a neighborhood team that in time would become the forerunner of the NFL Chicago Cardinals;  to the extent that winning teams would  customarily share in a pool of prize money afterwards, he may technically have been a professional.

It’s good that his coach at the University of Chicago, who was staunchly opposed to professionalism,  didn’t know about that.  The coach was the great Amos Alonzo Stagg, and Bezdek, short and stocky, turned out to be a great fullback for him.

He played five years at Chicago, and in his senior year, 1905,  Chicago went 11-0.  In the season finale, it defeated Michigan, 2-0, to end the Wolverines’ 56-game unbeaten streak.  He was named third-team All-American.

After college, he embarked on a career that would take him to Oregon, then Arkansas, then back to Oregon, and then to Penn State.  His overall record was 127-58-16.

And he also had a very unique involvement in professional sports.

As for uniqueness:

He is the only man to coach three different teams in the Rose Bowl. (Oregon, 1917; Mare Island Marines, 1918; Penn State, 1923)

For 95 years - until 2012 - he was the only coach in Oregon  football history to win a Rose Bowl game.

The 1923 Rose Bowl game - Penn State vs USC - was the first game played in the “new” Rose Bowl Stadium.

The Penn State buses were caught in a huge traffic jam and despite hiring a fleet of taxis and getting police permission to drive on sidewalks and on residents’ lawns, they arrived 15 minutes late to the game, and the USC coach accused him of doing it deliberately.  The two coaches nearly came to blows on the floor of the stadium. It was just as well for the USC coach that they didn’t - our guy had  been a boxer in college and was believed  by some to have  fought professionally.

His Penn State football teams went unbeaten (with three ties) in 30 straight games from 1919-1922.  He was also State’s  head baseball coach, and his guys won 29 straight from in 1920 and 1921.

In  1922, he was the Penn State head coach when the Nittany Lion mascot made its first appearance - at the Polo Grounds in New York when Penn State faced Syracuse.

After Penn State’s appearance in 1923, the Lions wouldn’t play in a bowl game for another 25 years.

Hugo Bezdek gave Arkansas its nickname, one of the most colorful in all of college athletics.  In 1909, according to  University of Arkansas history, he  stepped  down off the train after returning from a 16-0 upset win over LSU, and  told the crowd of students that had gathered at the station that the Arkansas team had played "like a wild band of razorback hogs." (The nickname caught on, and in 2009,  as part of the celebration of “100 Years of the Razorback” they staged a reenactment of the train’s arrival in Fayetteville,  culminating with his address to the students, given  by a local actor.)

He is the only man to have served as manager of a major league baseball team and also as head coach of an NFL team.   While coaching football in Oregon he had also served as a scout for the Pittsburgh Pirates, and when the great Honus Wagner, deciding that he preferred to play and not manage, resigned as manager, our guy was named to replace him.

Taking over a losing Pirates team in mid-season 1917, he took the team to a 50-99 record. But by applying football principles - aggressive play and better conditioning through tougher practices and fitness drills - his Pirates finished above .500 in both 1918 and 1919.

Out of  work in 1937,  he signed on with the Cleveland Rams, who had just joined the NFL,  as their first head coach. (His record was 1-13.)

He’s credited with inventing the screen pass, the spinner series, and the roving center (think “middle linebacker”).

In 1954, Hugo Bezdek was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING HUGO BEZDEK


GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY

 




*********** QUIZ:  He grew up the son of one of the most famous football coaches in America.

He was five years old when his dad, just 31, became head coach of the Oklahoma Sooners. He was eight when OU won their first national title. He was 11 when the Sooners began what would become a 47-game winning streak - a streak that didn’t end until he was 15.

Growing up around football and coaching, he got to know the likes of Bear Bryant, Darrell Royal - who’d  played for his dad - Frank Leahy and Woody Hayes, all of whom visited with his dad from time to time.

He was an outstanding athlete himself, earning high school All-American honors in football, and leading his Norman High School  team to the state finals in both football and basketball.

His father, not wanting him or his older brother to experience the pressures of playing for him,  felt it was best for them to go elsewhere to school.  His older brother chose Stanford, and our guy narrowed his list down to Stanford, UCLA, Ole Miss, Illinois and Army.  But late in the recruiting game he was contacted by Duke, who convinced him that while coming east to visit West Point, he should swing by Durham, North Carolina.

He was impressed by Duke athletically - he had seen them, as ACC champions, play Oklahoma  in the 1958 Orange Bowl - but even more so because, as he would later write, “Duke was the only college to recruit me academically.”

He chose Duke, and  in his sophomore year, his first year of eligibility, he scored on a 63-yard punt return the first time he touched the ball in a varsity game.

Prior to his junior season, he was on the cover of Street and Smith’s magazine - a huge national honor.  In the season opener against USC in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, he scored Duke’s only touchdown on a 25-yard pass reception as  the Trojans upset the Blue Devils, 14-7. (Yes, that’s correct.  Duke was favored.)

In his senior season, he led the ACC in total yards - rushing and receiving - and in total touchdowns from scrimmage.

During his three years of eligibility at Duke, the Blue Devils went 20-9-1, and they won ACC titles in 1961 and 1962 - his sophomore and junior years. (They remain the last two ACC titles  that Duke has ever won outright.  In 1989, under Steve Spurrier, they tied for first.)

During his senior season in 1963, he earned All-American honors, was named the Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Year, and finished eighth in the voting for the Heisman Trophy.

All told - runs, receptions and returns -  he averaged an amazing 8.5 yards every time he touched the football.   At graduation, he held every significant Duke kick return record.

After graduation from Duke he chose to pass up  the NFL, instead going on to earn a divinity degree from the Episcopal Theological School in 1967.

Then, after  serving as an executive assistant to the governor of Oklahoma, and as a White House aide during Richard Nixon’s first term, in 1970, just 28, years old,  he  returned to Oklahoma to run for Congress.  Running as a Republican in a heavily-Democrat  district, he faced an experienced  incumbent who’d held the seat for 22 years.  When an out-of-state marketing company hired to help run his campaign produced a commercial showing him  walking through a cow pasture, his  opponent slyly noted that while he might not be as smart as our guy,  he at least knew that when you walk through a cow pasture, you need to be looking down. (Our guy didn’t win.  Reflecting on lessons he’d learned from his dad, he said, “We hadn’t prepared well enough.”)

Entering the business world, he spent more than 30 years as a partner in a multi-billion-dollar investment management firm, as executive vice president for one of the nation’s leading life insurance companies and as president of a leading company  in designing deferred compensation plans.

In 1989,  he received the NCAA’s Silver Anniversary award recognizing   distinguished former student-athletes on  the  25th anniversary of their college graduation.

He is a member of the Duke University Sports Hall of Fame.

He lives in Norman. He is a nationally-known motivational speaker and  is the author of two books about his father.





FRIDAY, APRIL  12,  2024      “God has infinite attention to spare for each one of us. You are as much alone with Him as if you were the only being He had ever created.” C. S. Lewis

*********** Wisdom from Mike Lude.  (Before the Pac-12 blew up) “Oregon State, Washington State - and probably Cal - can’t keep up with the big spenders in NIL.”


*********** UFL SCHEDULE THIS WEEKEND


SATURDAY - APRIL 13

DC DEFENDERS (1-1) at ARLINGTON RENEGADES (0-2) - 1 PM EASTERN - ESPN

MEMPHIS  SHOWBOATS  (1-1) at BIRMINGHAM STALLIONS (2-0) - 7 PM EASTERN - FOX

SUNDAY - APRIL 14

HOUSTON ROUGHNECKS (0-2)  at MICHIGAN PANTHERS (1-1) - 12 NOON EASTERN - ABC

ST. LOUIS BATTLEHAWKS (1-1) at  SAN ANTONIO BRAHMAS (2-0) - 3 PM EASTERN- ABC



***********  A coach whose expertise and interest cause us to go back and forth on a number of subjects asked me a  few questions recently that I thought might be of interest and or help to others…


Q: Do you find yourself using the true "head in front" down block in your system a lot?  Like for the G play?

A. Yes. First a “gap step” (inside foot) to make sure we get into the intersection first, then hitting with a combination of backside step and high backside arm and shoulder, aiming to pin the defender between the blocker’s shoulder/upper arm and helmet. Notice that we are NOT blocking with our hands. We are using PADS.

Notice also how in photo 5 below the blocker hasn’t simply “blocked” the defender  - merely obstructed him by getting in the way.  He has continued  after contact to drive his feet, and has MOVED the defender out of the way.



Q. Is your gap step pretty flat down the LOS?

A. It’s a short  side step, turning  the foot in the direction we want the body to turn. Actually, it’s more of a turn than a step.  The toe winds up  pointed  between 45 degrees and flat down the line, but the  foot has not moved forward at all.  It is back  there because that’s where we draw the line on penetration. Defenders will not get any deeper than that.  Also, from this point, I feel like we can deal with a guy who tries to come over the top instead of penetrating.

Remember, when we block down, we are blocking in the direction of our down hand, which means  that the foot we are stepping with is already back somewhat.

We definitely do not take  a step back, as  you see in a lot of zone blocking.


Q.  Do you end up having to use it a lot when you run power and counter?  Or do those end up being double teams.

A. On powers and counters I prefer a double-team at the point of attack, but that’s not always possible, so we’re always prepared to use down blocking.

We use it  a lot.    A major emphasis in everything we do up front - splits/alignment/stance -  is gap protection, and down blocking is a major part of making sure we can protect our inside gaps.

If we’re running into a lot of  blitzing or gap defenses, we may just use “Down” all the time on the frontside of powers and counters.

Combined with  our zero splits, we often wind up with something not unlike wedge blocking on the frontside.

In fact, down blocking is almost  the  technique we use at the  start of wedges, in order to eliminate “infiltration” (penetration).



*********** O.J. is dead.  God will deal with him as He sees  fit.

O.J.  was definitely one of the greatest runners football has ever seen -  capable of changing a game in a heartbeat. 

Was he a murderer?  Now, only God knows. If he was, perhaps he was one of the millions of men who since time began were driven to kill by a passion-induced rage. 


It’s more likely, though, that his legacy will be the bumper crop of  pampered, entitled, sociopaths - and  their almost total lack of accountability for their actions - born out of our worship of false gods masquerading as athletes.



*********** In 1975 - God, was it that long ago? - I was the Assistant GM and PR director of the Portland Thunder in the World Football League, and one of my first projects was putting together the media guide.  It was a lot tougher then, before computers  and data bases and cut-and-paste.  One of the things that struck me as being unique about us was that while we weren’t isolated the way the Hawaii franchise was, we had an awful lot of flying ahead of us. (Making the travel arrangements was another one of my responsibilities.) What I couldn’t have foreseen at the time was that this sort of travel was almost precisely what USC/UCLA, Oregon/Washington and Cal/Stanford have brought on themselves.





*********** The great Jim Brown once said that the ideal NFL running back would have
1. Earl Campbell’s power
2. Walter Payton’s heart
3. O.J. Simpson’s speed
4. Gale Sayers’ moves



*********** Hmmmm.  Who would have thought?

According to a paper written by some Canadian social scientist, “job applicants who include “non-binary pronouns” (they/them) on their resumes get fewer call-backs.”



*********** There’s one thing I really hate about Wikipedia, and that’s its habit of ignoring important nicknames in some of its biographies.

As one example, Lone Star Dietz, a famous coach who may or may not have been an American Indian, is listed as “William Henry Dietz.”

Now here’s a man who was known by millions of sports fans as “Lone Star”, being represented to fans of another era by a named by which he was seldom, if ever, known.

It’s almost like rewriting history, and we see enough of that being done as it is.

In the meantime, I’m still  trying to decide who was the best coach:   Wayne Woodrow Hayes, Glenn Schembechler, Alfred Earle Neale or  Paul W. Bryant.

Come to think of it, whatever happened to nicknames?


*********** Ron Stoops was a long-time high school football coach in Youngstown, Ohio.

He’s best known outside Youngstown as the father of four sons who became coaches, three of them at major colleges - Bob at Oklahoma, Mike at Arizona, and Mark at Kentucky.

All three of them played college football at Iowa, and all three wore the same number there - 41.

When Ron died at the  young age of 54, his boys saw to it that  a number 41 Iowa jersey was placed in his casket next to him.

And Bob, the oldest, included his Rose Bowl ring.




*********** Homer Smith’s description of the evolution of our game since World War II…





***********   If transgenders make up fewer than 1% of Americans, how do they become a subject in a postgame press conference by the winning coach? Which leads me to MTV, where a commercial tells us the network is where you can find the future of drag. I wonder what that means.

That "willing and able" has been going on for a while, and each time I hear it, I want to...well, you can guess. Selfish, selfish people who've probably never sacrificed on behalf of their neighbors.

Did you hear Dan Hurley will replace Calipari? I didn't either.

Concerning the WPIAL coach's comment about size, we saw it in the SC-Iowa game. From memory, I think SC had a 51-29 rebounding advantage, including 18 offensive boards, which meant a lot of extra shots. And, as then usually happens, the team that's trailing thinks it must take chances, mostly in the form of wild shots, to get back in the game. Iowa fought valiantly, but couldn't offset SC's interior size, especially Cardoso’s.

John Vermillion                        
St Petersburg, Florida


You nailed it on the rebounding disparity.  Iowa got just one shot at the basket.  SC got  three or four.  You don’t have to shoot nearly so well when you can rebound the way they did.  A great Washington basketball coach (yes, the Huskies were once decent in basketball) named Marv Harshman once said, “Fast players get tired; big players don’t get smaller.”



***********   Hugh,

That last play sack of Michigan QB EJ Perry was comical.  LT #77 completely blew his assignment!  Even at the HS level we had a pass pro call when a Tackle had a wide rusher that told the Tackle to take him, the Guard would block the B Gap, the Center would block the A gap, and the back would block the opposite A gap.  It would at least slow the rush down especially when the QB would be rolling out to the opposite side.

Vanderbilt has become a school I can cheer for.  Kudos to their Chancellor for having a set.

Nothing, absolutely nothing, surprises me about what goes on in California.  My brothers still live there and are about done with it.  All of them are about to retire, and all all of them are strongly considering taking their conservative values to other locales.

Speaking of the NCAA and its woke agendas... The NAIA's recent overwhelming vote to not allow transgender athletes to compete was certainly not based upon a woke agenda.  Kudos to the NAIA!

The failure of government schools in the cities is a direct result of the growing interest in private/parochial/charter schools.  Charter schools in particular because they don't require tuition like the others.  Good charter school systems are popping up everywhere.  Hillsdale College sponsors one such charter school system.  There are others, and most of them are fostering good athletic programs.

Calipari and his ilk could sell ice to eskimos. (Oh, wait, my bad.  Indigenous Alaskans).

I did watch the men's and women's championship games.  South Carolina wore down Iowa with a deeper bench and more physical players inside.  Same with Connecticut's win over Purdue.  Deeper bench, and more athletic.

Have a great week!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas
 



*********** QUIZ ANSWER - His given first and middle names were William Henry, but he went his entire life by his “Indian name,” Lone Star Dietz.

He may indeed have been an American Indian. Although there is strong evidence that he was not,  he nevertheless  “identified” as a native and sure did a convincing job of presenting himself as one.

Claiming to be one-quarter Sioux, he enrolled at Carlisle Indian School at the age of 23, and  was a teammate of Jim Thorpe.  For his entire adult life - and throughout his long career as a coach - he went by an Indian name that he was accused of taking from someone else in a case of stolen identity.

After graduating from Carlisle,  he assisted Carlisle coach Pop Warner for three years, and in 1915, when Warner left to coach Pitt, he could have had the Carlisle job. But, largely on Warner’s strong recommendation,  he was hired instead as head coach at Washington State.

There, claiming (perhaps rightly) to know more about Warner’s offense than any man alive, he installed Warner’s still-new Single and Double-Wing attack.   In his first season there,  the Cougars went unbeaten. At the end of the season,  with the Rose Bowl game started up again after a 14-year hiatus, Washington State was chosen to represent  the West Coast against Brown and its star running back, Fritz Pollard.  The Cougars’ 14-0 Rose Bowl win remains,  to this day, the only Rose Bowl win in their history.

While in California, he managed to get bit parts in a movie for his entire team, earning each player a then-very-generous $100.

After three years, his record was 17-2-1, but when Washington State had to give up football during the war/pandemic, he found himself out of a job.

Meanwhile, in a sensational trial that made national headlines,  he was tried on charges of having posed as a “non-citizen Indian” in order to avoid the draft.  As a result of a hung jury, his claim to American Indian ancestry was left in question - and remains so to this day.

In 1919, he coached the Mare Island Marines to 10-0 record and a spot in the Rose Bowl  (service teams, made up of former college stars,  were drawing bigger crowds than college teams).  Mare Island lost, 17-0 to Great Lakes Naval Training Base.  The player of the game was Great Lakes’ George Halas, who scored on a 75-yard interception return.

Following the War, he was hired as head coach at Purdue, but was fired after one year for recruiting irregularities.

He went on to be head coach at Louisiana Tech, Wyoming, and Haskell Indian Nations University (which evidently was convinced of his legitimacy) and in 1933 he was hired as head coach of the NFL’s Boston Braves.  When Braves’ team owner George Preston Marshall moved the team from Braves Field to Fenway Park, he decided to change the team name, and although the story is in dispute, there is some evidence that their new name - Redskins - was a tribute to their new coach.

He lasted just two years as coach there, then moved to Ole Miss as an assistant for one season, and finished his career as head coach at Albright College, in Reading, Pennsylvania.

His overall record in 15 years as a college head coach was 103-59-7.   His two-year record as coach of the Boston Redskins was 11-11-2.

Many years after our guy coached them,  Dan Snyder,  then the owner of the Washington Redskins, attempted to rebut charges that the team’s name defamed Native Americans by resurrecting the claim that the team had been named in his honor.

A little known story is the role he played in saving Washington State as an educational institution.  

Prior to his being hired as the coach their, the state legislature had assigned a “duplicity committee” to determine whether the state of Washington really needed two public colleges.  Only a year earlier, Washington coach Gil Dobie had dropped Washington State from his schedule, saying that playing them was “too much like kindergarten.” So if only one of the colleges were to remain, it would surely have  been the bigger, better-funded and better-situated (in Seattle) University of Washington.

But  the Cougars’ surprising unbeaten season and their shocking win  in the Rose Bowl brought them national attention, and put an end to any thoughts of closing down the school. (Their selection to play in the Rose Bowl instead of Washington, since it was Washington’s decision that they not play each other,  came down to their comparative scores against a common foe, Gonzaga. Washington had won earlier in the season 21-7, but with a Rose Bowl berth on the line, the Cougars piled it on in their regular season finale, winning 48-0.)

At the height of the renaming-the-Redskins controversy, Tom Benjey, author of a biography of Dietz,  said, “He is still probably the most controversial coach the game has ever had. He’s been dead since 1964 and he’s still controversial.”



CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING LONE STAR  DIETZ

GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY




*********** QUIZ: He was born in Czechoslovakia (then known as Bohemia), and came at the age of five to the US.  His family first settled in Cleveland, but when he was 12, they moved to Chicago where they lived on the South Side and his father found work as a butcher.

His high school did not have a football team, so he played for a neighborhood team that in time would become the forerunner of the NFL Chicago Cardinals;  to the extent that winning teams would  customarily share in a pool of prize money afterwards, he may technically have been a professional.

It’s good that his coach at the University of Chicago, who was staunchly opposed to professionalism,  didn’t know about that.  The coach was the great Amos Alonzo Stagg, and our guy, short and stocky, turned out to be a great fullback for him.

He played five years at Chicago, and in his senior year, 1905,  Chicago went 11-0.  In the season finale, it defeated Michigan, 2-0, to end the Wolverines’ 56-game unbeaten streak.  He was named third-team All-American.

After college, he embarked on a career that would take him to Oregon, then Arkansas, then back to Oregon, and then to Penn State.  His overall record was 127-58-16.

And he also had a very unique involvement in professional sports.

As for uniqueness:

He is the only man to coach three different teams in the Rose Bowl. (Oregon, 1917; Mare Island Marines, 1918; Penn State, 1923)

For 95 years - until 2012 - he was the only coach in Oregon  football history to win a Rose Bowl game.

The 1923 Rose Bowl game - Penn State vs USC - was the first game played in the “new” Rose Bowl Stadium.

The Penn State buses were caught in a huge traffic jam and despite hiring a fleet of taxis and getting police permission to drive on sidewalks and on residents’ lawns, they arrived 15 minutes late to the game, and the USC coach accused him of doing it deliberately.  The two coaches nearly came to blows on the floor of the stadium. It was just as well for the USC coach that they didn’t - our guy had  been a boxer in college and was believed  by some to have  fought professionally.

His Penn State football teams went unbeaten (with three ties) in 30 straight games from 1919-1922.  He was also State’s  head baseball coach, and his guys won 29 straight from in 1920 and 1921.

In  1922, he was the Penn State head coach when the Nittany Lion mascot made its first appearance - at the Polo Grounds in New York when Penn State faced Syracuse.

After Penn State’s appearance in 1923, the Lions wouldn’t play in a bowl game for another 25 years.

He is  the one who gave Arkansas its nickname, one of the most colorful in all of college athletics.  In 1909, according to  University of Arkansas history, he  stepped  down off the train after returning from a 16-0 upset win over LSU, and  told the crowd of students that had gathered at the station that the Arkansas team had played "like a wild band of razorback hogs." (The nickname caught on, and in 2009,  as part of the celebration of “100 Years of the Razorback” they staged a reenactment of the train’s arrival in Fayetteville,  culminating with his address to the students, given  by a local actor.)

He is the only man to have served as manager of a major league baseball team and also as head coach of an NFL team.   While coaching football in Oregon he had also served as a scout for the Pittsburgh Pirates, and when the great Honus Wagner, deciding that he preferred to play and not manage, resigned as manager, our guy was named to replace him.

Taking over a losing Pirates team in mid-season 1917, he took the team to a 50-99 record. But by applying football principles - aggressive play and better conditioning through tougher practices and fitness drills - his Pirates finished above .500 in both 1918 and 1919.

Out of  work in 1937,  he signed on with the Cleveland Rams, who had just joined the NFL,  as their first head coach. (His record was 1-13.)

He’s credited with inventing the screen pass, the spinner series, and the roving center (think “middle linebacker”).

In 1954, he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.






TUESDAY, APRIL 9,  2024      "If you consider yourself a woman and you want to play sports or vice versa, you should be able to play.”  Dawn Staley, coach of South Carolina’s NCAA champion WOMEN’S team


*********** Wisdom from Mike Lude.  (Back in March 2022) What he told me he would have said if he’d been the AD at Washington and the Seahawks  had asked to use UW’s facilities for a tryout for Colin Kaepernick (as happened) : “You can’t work out here.”


*********** UFL SCHEDULE THIS WEEKEND

I loved this one, from a  commentator describing the league’s teams: “They’re scattered across this great country of ours…” 

Uhhh… you realize how much of this great country is  west of San Antonio, right?


SATURDAY

SAN ANTONIO BRAHMAS (2-0) 20 MEMPHIS SHOWBOATS (1-1) 19
San Antonio, shut out for three quarters, scored 20 points in the fourth quarter, with a  final TD on 4th and 12  with :03 to play. Brahmas’ QB Chase Garbers ,who played college ball at Cal,  was 29 of 40 for 287 yards and 3 TDs.  San Antonio’s all-yellow away uniforms are clownish.

ST. LOUIS BATTLEHAWKS (1-1) 27  ARLINGTON RENEGADES (0-2) 24
St. Louis had a crowd of 40,317 - a Spring football record.  St. Louis’ Andre Szmyt kicked a 22-yard FG to win as time ran out.

SUNDAY

BIRMINGHAM STALLIONS (2-0) 20  MICHIGAN PANTHERS (1-1) 13
Birmingham has a nice pair of QBs in Matt Corral and Adrian Martinez. The game ended  with Michigan  deep in Birmingham territory but on the final play their left tackle  totally failed to block his man, and, unmolested, the guy sacked Michigan QB EJ Perry.


DC DEFENDERS (1-1) 23  HOUSTON ROUGHNECKS (0-2) 18
DC has won 10 straight at home over the past two seasons.  Best news: the beer snake is back!


***********  Can you imagine that DEI president of Harvard saying something like this?

The University remains one of the last places in society where people with diverse viewpoints can engage in the kind of civil dialogue that allows them to explore complex topics – and find innovative solutions to difficult problems – together. To this end, university students should debate one another respectfully. They should challenge each other’s ideas, as well as their own. If part of that process involves protest, then they should engage in that, too.

Vanderbilt supports, teaches and defends free expression – but to do so, we must safeguard the environment for it. Students can advocate BDS. That is freedom of expression. But they can’t disrupt university operations during classes, in libraries, or on construction sites.

In these difficult times, each university will be tested. And each university will follow its own path. Our approach is clear: we clearly state the principles and rules that support our mission as a University. Then we enforce them.

Daniel Diermeier
Chancellor
Vanderbilt University

From “Free Speech is Alive and Well at Vanderbilt University” Wall Street Journal, April 3



*********** In California, where  fast-food places now have to pay people $20 an hour to ask customers if  they’d like fries with their order,  the legislature has in front of it a bill calling for a “right to disconnect” - that is, a legal right for employees to ignore communications from the boss after working hours.

Only calls, emails or texts for emergencies or work scheduling purposes would be permitted without the worker’s approval.

If you’re a head football coach, you have a hard time even immediate  comprehending such an attititude, because you’re on constant call -  there’s scarcely a minute in the work week that you might not be called on for some matter or other that needs tending to.  And if you’re an assistant coach, you’re not going to keep your job very long once the head guy learns that he can’t get hold of you when he needs something done or needs to talk to you about something.

In California, where cluelessness is a prerequisite for holding office, lawmakers obviously haven’t given a lot of thought to the fact that these days an awful lot of people are working flexible schedules  and doing work remotely, but there you go.

Assuming that the California legislature hasn’t already put you out of business with its ridiculous laws, shame on you for hiring people that are going to pull that kind of work-to-rule sh—.



*********** Not saying that the NCAA is a bunch of pussies, afraid of their own shadow, but when it comes time for the national anthem,  and the P.A. announcer says…

“At this time we ask those willing and able to please rise…”

“I think, "Willing?” WTF exactly is the supposed to mean?

How about, “Unless you’re physically unable to do so, get up off your lazy ass and for a minute and a half or so at least pretend you’re a f—king American.”

Okay - two and a half minutes -  if it’s being “performed” by some “grammy-award-winning artist.”



*********** I doubt that Pennsylvania is all that different from a lot of bigger states.

In basketball, of the 12  state titles won last month, only three were won by “traditional” public schools - some call them “boundary” schools, because their student body is limited to kids who live within certain geographic boundaries.  The other nine were won  by either private of  charter schools.  One such charter school, Imhotep of Philadelphia, won its  10th state title in the last 15 years.

Only twice this century have traditional public schools won a majority of the state  championships in a season.
The head of the state association, the PIAA, didn’t make many friends among public school coaches when he called their criticism “sour grapes.”

Jesse Reed, whose Franklin Regional High made it to the state final before losing,  took exception.

“I disagree with how some people’s arguments are like, ‘Well, develop your program better. Work harder in the offseason,’” he said. “I can promise you, every high school coach in the WPIAL (Western Pennsylvania) is working their butt off all summer with their guys. No matter how hard you work or how good your players are, if they’re 6-foot and you’re going against 6-8, there’s a disadvantage.”

(One of the three  public school winners this year was Aliquippa in 2A boys’ basketball.  I’ve already noted that The Quips are so good in football that they play three levels above what their size dictates - and they still dominate.)



*********** A sign that we’re in the End Times?

The Kentucky basketball coach leaving - on his own - for another college? 

But wait.  Try to follow this:

SMU fires its coach, then hires USC’s coach.

USC then hires Arkansas’ coach.

Arkansas  then hires Kentucky’s coach.

Logically, then:  SMU is a better basketball coaching job than Kentucky???



*********** No doubt you’ve noticed the “please drink responsibly” messages somewhere in a beer commercial, or the warnings about side effects at the bottom of the screen on the pharmaceutical ads.

Now, it’s hit football.

After giving us every indication that a major reason for televising the preceding  game is to satisfy the lust of the gambling public, the UFL concludes its post-broadcast credits with this little disclaimer:


All forms of gambling and sports betting involve risk. Please only use funds you are prepared to lose. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, please call 1–800 – GAMBLER


***********  I dislike watching  basketball because there’s almost never a play that takes place without multiple rules being flagrantly ignored - by both players and officials. Traveling and palming are constant, yet so  completely  tolerated, that  I think for the integrity of the game they should be formally legalized in the rule book.

Another area is physicality, and the discretion officials seem to have in the amount that they allow.    I sort of enjoyed watching the women’s basketball games over the weekend, but I do think their game  is being  infected to the point that contact is being considered normal, which in effect makes it  subject to the whims of the officials - the basketball equivalent of each baseball umpire having his own strike zone.

So it was quite a relief to turn on the UFL football games and realize how much actual football “game” we get to see without officials intruding.   Of course, that’s because they simply ignore the  interference on almost every pass play and the offensive holding on literally every play.  Sort of like traveling and palming.



***********   So you bought a ticket to San Francisco and you landed in… Oakland?

It could happen.

It’s being suggested that  Metropolitan Oakland International Airport be renamed the “San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport.”

Hey, all a man has to do is say he’s a woman and we’re expected  to buy it, right?

I don’t know how the operators of the Oakland airport managed to say it without breaking up in hysterical laughter, but according to them the proposed name change is simply “to make it clear how close Oakland is to San Francisco.”   I see.

Needless to say, they’re getting pushback from the REAL San Francisco International  Airport.

Wait - come to think of it, there’s precedent for it.  Baltimore’s airport is officially named  in honor of the late Justice Thurgood Marshall, but everybody calls it by its initials: BWI - for Baltimore-Washington International. (And, truthfully, Baltimore is actually pretty close to Washington.)

To really make their scheme work, the Oakland people are going to need enforcement.  That means going to the state legislature and getting them to make it a hate speech crime to say anything disparaging about Oakland (especially   openly stating a preference for flying into San Francisco International rather than San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport.)

In the meantime, if this goes through - be sure to read that ticket to San Francisco very carefully.



************* What if some 60 years ago we’d been able to look ahead and see that if we hadn’t committed troops to keep communists from taking over all of Vietnam…

It wouldn’t have made a damn bit of difference in Vietnam or in our relations with the country today?

The Chinese would be just as big a problem today?

We’d have had the benefit of having 60,000 young men live their lives here in America - instead of being killed in action?

How much would those young men -  and the children and grandchildren they’d have sired - have contributed to our country in the years since they gave their lives?

How many from among their number might have served us better  in our government than the worthless poltroons we elect?




***********   Hi Coach

Sorry it’s taken me so long to send my condolences.

I always enjoyed telling people about Coach Lude’s UMaine connection and his role in the Delaware Wing-T, and how fortunate we were to have him on our zoom calls.
 
Unfortunately, I also recently had some sad news…one of my first Black Lions died at the end of March. He was only 29. It happened at the end of my time in NZ, so I wasn’t able to attend his services unfortunately. By any measure, he was successful, a traveling nurse, just accepted to Nurse Practitioner school, recently married, etc. Beth and I reached out to his parents and his mom told Beth that “Sam loved to make me proud”. It really hit home how important our roles as football coaches are and how even seemingly little things that we do can be important for the kids that we coach. Sam was one of my favorite kids of all time, and it was really sad to hear from his parents that he had struggled with mental health issues, and reading between the lines, Sam took his own life. Still hard to process it. I’ve attached Sam’s Black Lion photo, he’s on the left nearest me. His parents told me that his Black Lion plaque was displayed prominently at his memorial service.
 
Beth and I are settling back into life back home and I’ve been meeting with my new head coach. This coming Thursday, we’ll spend 2+ hours just on power, his adjustments, etc. I can tell that he’s pleased to have someone on his staff who is so into coaching the DW, and I certainly have you to thank for all the knowledge and advice that you’ve passed on to me over the years. I’m just hoping that I can meaningfully contribute to the team’s success this season, and will work hard towards that goal.
 
Hi to Connie.
 
Rick Davis
Duxbury, Massachusetts


***********Hi Hugh,

Here it is another April and Maine is having an early spring Nor’easter. It reminded me of one nearly thirty years ago when you arrived in Boothbay Harbor to put on a DW clinic for us and changed the course of SeaHawk football forever and began an association with you that has stood the test of time.

Your presentation on short yardage offense was, in my opinion, one of the the best things you have done. I always thought we should have approached a college or pro team with an offer to coach short yardage situations and our pay based on how successful we were. Heck, we would have been rich especially after seeing how college teams today approach this situation.

Thanks again and it’s not  overstated to say that April Nor’easter nearly 30 years ago changed the course of my coaching career.

Jack Tourtillotte
Plymouth, Maine

As he notes, Jack and I go way back. That sure was a memorable trip to snowy springtime Maine!  And it sure did launch a long and rich and mutually productive relationship!




***********  Coach,

Saturday was the day. It was surreal to see my name and that subtitle. The group picture sums up how the whole deal happened - family, players (turned coaches), and coaches. For those of us who can sustain this career for a long time it has to be a family affair, and my family has become very large over the years.

Again, thank you for everything. Had I not seen "Dynamics" in a box, and then found "News," and then gone to a clinic in Chicago and one in Kansas City, my path would not have been the same.

Todd Hollis
Elmwood, Illinois


Coach Hollis was inducted into the Illinois High School Football Coaches Hall of Fame recently, and he sent me the photo.  It’s awfully gracious of him to  thank me, but all I did was provide the tool.  It still takes a master craftsman to build something  with it.


***********  Connor Sports courts are made at their manufacturing facility in Amasa, MI which is in the U.P. I'm sure the mistake was made at their company offices in Illinois.

Adam Wesoloski
Pulaski, Wisconsin

I didn’t want to be too tough on them, considering how many people they must employ. Just goes to show the importance of checking and double-checking and double-double-checking. And even then defects get out the door.



***********   A few (7-8?) years ago I was as familiar with Gilbert, AZ, as most non-residents could be. Was there to attend an Independence Day event, which felt small-town patriotic even though its population was more than 200,000. The mayor was a West Point guy. In short, I liked almost eveything about the city. Attended HS football games there. So, reading the account of the Goons beating the kid to death is another story that both angers and depresses me. I'm thinking more and more these days about favoring purely retributive justice, meaning, in most cases, killing the offender by the same means he killed his victim. Beat those bastard Goons to death.

I might slightly part ways with Coach HW once in a million times. This Altimore list makes a little sense to me. But who cares, because it doesn't sound as if it's being used anyway.

More reasons to like Rutschman.

John Vermillion                            
St Petersburg, Florida


***********  Hugh,

Short yardage for us IS what WE do ALL the time!  Long gains are just the icing on the cake!  At times I would run our stuff with a few different looks (Open Wing comes to mind), and wrinkles (unbalanced, no motion), but in essence we were still who we always were.  Short yardage?  Heck, in one game we ran Power 6 times in a row on one drive to the SAME SIDE.  On the 7th play of the drive we ran Power to the other side and scored.

In another game we ran G very well on a few plays in one drive.  Scored on a G Keep!

Yet, in another game, we had been running Power and Counter so well we ended up scoring on a Counter Pass from the 20 and NO ONE was even close to the TE.

Football is not rocket science.  My advice to young coaches out there...KISS!!

That "draft list" of college football teams gets more ridiculous the more I look at it.

Me thinks all this "retrofitting" of WWII battleships is just another way of our "government" to take our eyes off the ball.  Recently it was reported that the building of two brand-new state of the art aircraft carriers has been put on hold.  In the meantime China continues to build its navy.  While those old battlewagons helped us win a war, carriers and submarines are likely to win the next one.  I pray to God for our kids and grandkids it never comes to that.

But I have to admit it was fun watching the "resurrection" of the battleship Missouri take out the aliens in the movie "Battleship!"  

The story about that "white gang banger" doesn't surprise me.  Frankly, NOTHING surprises me anymore.

Enjoy the weekend!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas





*********** QUIZ ANSWER:   Benny Friedman  is credited with being the first player in college football and then in pro football to popularize the forward pass.
 
No less an authority than George Halas said that he “revolutionized football.”

He remains the only person in the history of the NFL to lead the league in  touchdowns passing and touchdowns rushing in the same season.

He was born in Cleveland, the son of Jewish immigrants from Russia.

When he was told by his high school coach that he was too small for football, he transferred schools.  At his new school he played baseball, basketball  and football. And in his senior year he led that school’s football team  to the city  championship.

At the University of Michigan, after a year of playing on the freshman team, he earned a starting position midway through his sophomore season, and immediately drew notice because of his ability to pass. (The ball used then was rounder and fatter than  today’s ball and considerably more difficult to hold and throw with one hand.)

In his junior year, Michigan coach Fielding Yost moved him to quarterback, and he led the Wolverines to a 7-1 record and the Big Ten championship.  Michigan outscored opponents 227-3, and Coach Yost called this team “the greatest football team I ever coached.” (The single loss was by 3-2 to Northwestern on a muddy field in a downpour.)

In a 63-0 defeat of Indiana, Friedman accounted for 50 points, throwing five touchdown passes, running for a sixth, and kicking eight PATs and a field goal.

For the season, he threw for a total of 14 passes, and he and his main receiver - end Benny Oosterbaan - were both named first-team All-Americans.

Elected captain by his teammates, as a senior he led the Wolverines to their second straight Big Ten title and a 7-1 record, the only loss coming to number one-ranked Navy.  He was a consensus All-American, and was honored by the Chicago Tribune as  the Big Ten’s Most Valuable Player.

He signed to play pro football with his hometown Cleveland Bulldogs, and in his rookie season he led the NFL in passing yardage and passing touchdowns, and was named first team All-NFL.

Despite having gone 8-4-1, the Bulldogs moved to Detroit after the season and (for some reason) renamed themselves the Wolverines.  They went 7-2-1, and he again led the NFL in both yards passing and touchdown passes. He also led the league in touchdowns rushing. (The year was 1928 and no man since has led the NFL in both touchdown passes and touchdowns rushing in the same season.) Again, he was first team All NFL.

In 1929 he played for the New York Giants.  Giants’ owner Tim Mara had purchased the Wolverines, partly at least - with New York’s large Jewish population in mind - to acquire their quarterback.

He didn’t disappoint. For the third straight season he led the NFL in passing yards and passing touchdowns and was named first team All NFL. The Giants went 13-1-1, finishing second to Green Bay (12-0-1) who had given them their only loss.  They scored what was then an astounding 300 points, and our guy threw 20 touchdown  passes - a season record that would last for 13 years.

The following season, 1930, the Giants went 13-4, and again  he led the NFL in passing yards and passing touchdowns and was named first team All NFL. That was four straight years.

In 1931 he agreed to assist at Yale, but he still managed to play nine games with the Giants.  At the end of that season he asked Giants’ owner Tim Mara for a piece of the club, and when Mara said, “No, I’m keeping it all for my sons,” he decided, in his own words, “I felt I should move along.”

He was approached by the owner of the new  Brooklyn Dodgers (another original name), and agreed to become player-coach.

He spent all of 1932 and 1933 with the Dodgers but after one game in 1934 he retired.

His NFL career stats, as best as they could be determined, given the lack of care sometimes taken with  the record-keeping at the time:

5326 yards passing (and NFL career record at the time), 66 passing TDs (also a record), plus 18 rushing TDs, 1000+ yards rushing and 400+ yards in punt returns (he also played safety on defense).

He was head coach at CCNY from 1934 to 1942, when he joined the Navy.

He coached one season at Great Lakes Naval Training Station, and after the war he owned a car dealership in Detroit until in 1949 he became AD at Brandeis.  He  started their football program, and was their head coach until the school discontinued football in 1960.

For the rest of his life he ran a very successful  summer camp for young aspiring quarterbacks, and ran a series of on-location camps around the country.

In 1951, he was among the first group of inductees into the College Football Hall of Fame.

He is in the University of Michigan Athletics Hall of Honor - the first quarterback inducted - and he is in the National Jewish Hall of Fame.

But he was not inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame until 2005 - 23 years after his death.

Why did it take so long? 

It wasn’t for a lack of effort on his part.  He was, by most estimates, a relentless self-promoter.

But  he was considered opinionated and arrogant.

It certainly didn’t help his cause any when in 1953 he wrote an article for Sport magazine (then a very popular publication), entitled "I Could Play Pro Football – And I'm 48."

He didn’t earn himself any friends in The League with statements like this:  "I have been out of the National Football League for 20 years, but I’m confident I could do the job as well as, if not better than the present-day big-league quarterbacks, most of whom are half my age.”

As a player,  he was aloof. He didn’t socialize with teammates and left little doubt that he preferred the company of people higher up on the social ladder than mere professional football players..

How unpopular was he?  In 1932, when he was with the Dodgers and playing safety on defense, a former Giants’ teammate, in the clear and on his way to a touchdown, instead  changed course just to take a shot at him.

In his later years, he endured numerous health problems, including bouts with cancer, diabetes and heart disease, and 1979, his left leg had to be amputated below the knee.

In November, 1982, Benny Friedman was found dead in his room as a result of a “self-inflicted gunshot wound.”

He left a note saying that he was “severely depressed.”

The note went on to state that he didn’t want to become “the old man on a park bench.”


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING BENNY FRIEDMAN


GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOE BREMER - WEST SENECA, NEW YORK
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
TOM WALLS - WINNIPEG, MANITOBA
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON





*********** QUIZ - His given first and middle names were William Henry, but he went his entire life by his “Indian name,” and that’s the only one I’ll accept.

He may indeed have been an American Indian. Although there is strong evidence that he was not,  he nevertheless  “identified” as a native and sure did a convincing job of presenting himself as one.

Claiming to be one-quarter Sioux, he enrolled at Carlisle Indian School at the age of 23, and  was a teammate of Jim Thorpe.  For his entire adult life - and throughout his long career as a coach - he went by an Indian name that he was accused of taking from someone else in a case of stolen identity.

After graduating from Carlisle,  he assisted Carlisle coach Pop Warner for three years, and in 1915, when Warner left to coach Pitt, he could have had the Carlisle job. But, largely on Warner’s strong recommendation,  he was hired instead as head coach at Washington State.

There, claiming (perhaps rightly) to know more about Warner’s offense than any man alive, he installed Warner’s still-new Single and Double-Wing attack.   In his first season there,  the Cougars went unbeaten. At the end of the season,  with the Rose Bowl game started up again after a 14-year hiatus, Washington State was chosen to represent  the West Coast against Brown and its star running back, Fritz Pollard.  The Cougars’ 14-0 Rose Bowl win remains,  to this day, the only Rose Bowl win in their history.

While in California, he managed to get bit parts in a movie for his entire team, earning each player a then-very-generous $100.

After three years, his record was 17-2-1, but when Washington State had to give up football during the war/pandemic, he found himself out of a job.

Meanwhile, in a sensational trial that made national headlines,  he was tried on charges of having posed as a “non-citizen Indian” in order to avoid the draft.  As a result of a hung jury, his claim to American Indian ancestry was left in question - and remains so to this day.

In 1919, he coached the Mare Island Marines to 10-0 record and a spot in the Rose Bowl  (service teams, made up of former college stars,  were drawing bigger crowds than college teams).  Mare Island lost, 17-0 to Great Lakes Naval Training Base.  The player of the game was Great Lakes’ George Halas, who scored on a 75-yard interception return.

Following the War, he was hired as head coach at Purdue, but was fired after one year for recruiting irregularities.

He went on to be head coach at Louisiana Tech, Wyoming, and Haskell Indian Nations University (which evidently was convinced of his legitimacy) and in 1933 he was hired as head coach of the NFL’s Boston Braves.  When Braves’ team owner George Preston Marshall moved the team from Braves Field to Fenway Park, he decided to change the team name, and although the story is in dispute, there is some evidence that their new name - Redskins - was a tribute to their new coach.

He lasted just two years as coach there, then moved to Ole Miss as an assistant for one season, and finished his career as head coach at Albright College, in Reading, Pennsylvania.

His overall record in 15 years as a college head coach was 103-59-7.   His two-year record as coach of the Boston Redskins was 11-11-2.

Many years after our guy coached them,  Dan Snyder,  then the owner of the Washington Redskins, attempted to rebut charges that the team’s name defamed Native Americans by resurrecting the claim that the team had been named in his honor.

A little known story is the role he played in saving Washington State as an educational institution.  

Prior to his being hired as the coach their, the state legislature had assigned a “duplicity committee” to determine whether the state of Washington really needed two public colleges.  Only a year earlier, Washington coach Gil Dobie had dropped Washington State from his schedule, saying that playing them was “too much like kindergarten.” So if only one of the colleges were to remain, it would surely have  been the bigger, better-funded and better-situated (in Seattle) University of Washington.

But  the Cougars’ surprising unbeaten season and their shocking win  in the Rose Bowl brought them national attention, and put an end to any thoughts of closing down the school. (Their selection to play in the Rose Bowl instead of Washington, since it was Washington’s decision that they not play each other,  came down to their comparative scores against a common foe, Gonzaga. Washington had won earlier in the season 21-7, but with a Rose Bowl berth on the line, the Cougars piled it on in their regular season finale, winning 48-0.)

At the height of the renaming-the-Redskins controversy, Tom Benjey, author of a biography of our man,  said, “He is still probably the most controversial coach the game has ever had. He’s been dead since 1964 and he’s still controversial.”








FRIDAY, APRIL 5,  2024      ““One of my Democratic colleague’s witnesses testified that there are three biological sexes and an infinite number of genders. I’ve heard better answers on The Dating Game.” Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana


*********** Wisdom from Mike Lude.  Mike was such a positive person and so   warm and friendly that once, I just happened to ask him, “Mike, do you even have any enemies?”  He was 101, and he answered, “Not now.”


***********   FOUND THIS IN THE ATHLETIC…

17 of the 32 NFL teams used motion on at least 50 percent of their offensive snaps in 2023, ESPN analytics found. And some of the league’s top offenses — the Dolphins, Rams, 49ers, Chiefs, Green Bay Packers and Detroit Lions — used motion the most.



*********** UFL SCHEDULE THIS WEEKEND

Last week’s  four losers play each other, which means last week’s winners do the same.

And that means that after Sunday, there will be two unbeaten teams, and two winless teams.

SATURDAY

12 NOON EASTERN - ESPN

SAN ANTONIO BRAHMAS (1-0) AT MEMPHIS (1-0) SHOWBOATS

8 PM EASTERN - ABC

ARLINGTON RENEGADES (0-1) AT ST. LOUIS BATTLEHAWKS (0-1)

SUNDAY

12 NOON EASTERN - ESPN

BIRMINGHAM STALLIONS (1-0) AT MICHIGAN PANTHERS (1-0)


4 PM EASTERN - FOX

HOUSTON ROUGHNECKS (0-1) AT DC DEFENDERS (0-1)



***********  I’m getting tired of hearing about this guy or that  who played on a Super Bowl team and now he’s  being called a “Super Bowl Champion.”  Ditto “NBA Champion.”

He is NOT  a “champion.”

Those are TEAM sports, where the  TEAMS are the champions. (Of their league, conference, sport, etc.)

Championship trophies are awarded to TEAMS.


*********** The social-science types in our country haven’t discovered it yet, but get ready for it:  “Pasifika.”   No, it’s not a misspelling of the Mexican beer.   It’s a created word - yes, it comes from “Pacific” - and it’s been in use in New Zealand and Australia since the 1980s. 


It’s a term created by government types to refer to communities of peoples from such places around the Pacific as Fiji, Samoa, Tonga and Vanuatu.



*********** A World War II battleship has to be one of the largest moveable things ever created by man, and I’ve really become absorbed by the latest story involving the Battleship USS New Jersey.  It’s our most decorated war ship, and it’s been serving as a museum in Paulsboro, New Jersey - on the Delaware River, across from Philadelphia, where it was built. 

What brought it to my attention was the news that it was going to be transported  upriver to a dry dock at the former Philadelphia Navy Yard, where among other things, its hull was going to be painted.

Obviously, it’s not  matter of firing up the engines and steaming across the Delaware.

That’s when I found its story on Youtube, and I’ve been following it ever since.

It’s in dry-dock  now, and the steps they’ve had to take to get to this point are absolutely mind-boggling.

Be careful, though - watching this stuff can be addictive.

https://www.youtube.com/@BattleshipNewJersey



*********** As if Boeing wasn’t the perfect example of nobody ever being so good at what they do that they can afford to let their guards down, along comes a Michigan company named Connor Sports.

Connor  Sports makes  the hardwood courts (hey- a rhyme)  used by the NCAA in its various tournaments, and it proudly announces that on its web site.

So after all the good work it’s done, it had to be extremely embarrassing for it to learn that one of its courts - the one used in the recent Portland regional of the women’s NCAA tournament - was improperly marked.  The three-point shot lines were not identically distant from the baseline.

Fortunately, all’s well that ends well.

Meanwhile, John Canzano did a great job of getting  the story from  the guy who first noticed the error…

I tracked down Michael McGrath at work on Tuesday. He’s a family law attorney who has had a very busy couple of days in the office.
McGrath ends up an important figure in the women’s NCAA Tournament Regional held in Portland. He’s the fan who noticed the 3-point-line discrepancy from his seat at Moda Center.

“It’s a nice 15 seconds of fame,” he said.

McGrath rode his bicycle to the arena on Sunday. He had a ticket in the 300-level and was surprised at what he observed shortly after he settled into his seat to watch warm-ups. He looked and noted that the 3-point-lines weren’t identical.

“My first thought was ‘This can’t be. I can’t be the one who sees this first,’” he told me. “I looked at it. I took two pictures comparing the left side and right side and posted it on Reddit and sent it to my wife and said ‘Am I crazy?’”

Turns out, he’s not.

The apex of the three-point line at one end of the court was, in fact, nine inches closer to the basket than the other end. A fan seated directly in front of McGrath happened to know an arena employee working on the floor, who then got the attention of the game officials.

A few minutes later, coaches from both teams walked off the distances using the length of their shoes to measure. Then, someone produced a measuring tape and NCAA officials huddled around. At this point, McGrath called his wife and two sons and told them to turn on the television.

“The start of the game is delayed,” his wife told him.

“I think that might be my fault,” McGrath said.

McGrath’s job as an attorney has him trained to examine details and take nothing for granted. Maybe he was the right person, perfectly positioned to see the error. Or maybe it’s just one of these quirky things — that eight basketball teams, a line of game officials, scorekeepers, tens of thousands of fans, and droves of media never noticed the problem until McGrath pointed it out.

“We were all laughing up there (as they were measuring),” McGrath told me. “I was explaining to people what they were doing and nobody believed it. Everyone kept asking me: ‘How did you see that?!?’ But my question was, how did you guys not see it?”

The coaches of both teams agreed to play the game on Sunday, as is. North Carolina State beat Texas, advancing to the Final Four. And McGrath came away with a story to tell his friends and co-workers.

Connor Sports, the court manufacturer, apologized for the error and accepted responsibility. The 3-point-line was fixed for Monday’s Regional final in Portland. Still, the issue goes down as one of the most embarassing moments in NCAA Tournament history.

“I think the NCAA should make me undercover boss and fly me around to inspect football fields and basketball courts and things like that,” McGrath told me. “That would be a great gig.”

*********** Kerry Eggers, who was a young writer when I first got to Portland (come to think of it, I wasn’t such an old fart then myself), is now retired, and now, as the “dean of Portland sports writers, he puts out a really nice newsletter.

In his latest, he was a “fly on the wall” as four former Linfield College coaches got together recently for a two-hour lunch in McMinnville, Oregon.

Linfield, a small liberal arts school, is well-known in the Pacific Northwest for its long tradition of winning football.  Long, did I say?  The Linfield Wildcats have a string of winning seasons that started in  1957.  That’s 67 straight winning seasons. And in all that time, they’ve had just 5 coaches.

The longest-tenured of them was Ad Rutschman (yes, the grandfather of Orioles’ catcher Adley Rutschman), who in 24 years as the Wildcats’ head coach won 183 games (including three national titles) while losing just 48 and tieing four.  For 13 of those years, he was also Linfield’s head baseball coach, and he won a national  title there, too.

After he retired, three of his former assistants would serve as Linfield’s head coach themselves - Mike Riley, Ed Langsdorf and Jay Locey. None of them had played under him - Riley had played at Alabama, Langsdorf at Concordia (Minnesota) and Locey at Oregon State - and he talked about the process of hiring them:

With those three guys, I knew before they showed up for an interview that’s who I wanted to hire. I had done my research. The only way that could change is if they screwed up bad in the interview. I had a rule that I would talk to a minimum of three but hopefully five or six people who knew them well. I wanted to find out what kind of people they are. My belief is, you hire people, you don’t hire paper. I’m not necessarily interested in their high school or college grades, their SAT scores or whatever. I want to find out if I can trust them, if they have a work ethic. Once they got on campus, it confirmed they were the people I wanted to hire.

*********** A friend who just took a new job told me about his recent interviews of potential assistants.  Said he had a couple of guys in their 20s who asked him, as their interviews were winding down, what position they would coach.

He said he would decide and let them know the next time they met.

At that, he said that they both told him, in so many words, “If I’m  not a coordinator, I don't want to coach.”

He said he told them, “Well,  you just made  my decision easier.”



*********** In a time when our world seems upside down - when the most unimaginably awful things are happening -   it has to take something really ugly  to stand out the way this story does.

It’s  a story of gang violence.  But not inner-city gang violence.  Not illegal immigrant violence.

No, not what you usually think of when you hear “gang violence.”  Not this time.

This is the story of a gang (excuse me - a “consortium”) of well-to-do white kids - with maybe a token hispanic or black kid, I don’t know - in Gilbert, Arizona (median household income: $115,179). They call themselves the Gilbert Goons.  Several of them are  alleged to have beaten another kid to death at a Hallowe’en party  - pummeling him, kicking him in the head, mockingly “humping” his lifeless body as it lay on the ground.

And then - of course - they had to boast about it online.

It gets worse still - the father of the kid alleged to be the killer appears to have  hidden the  kid until the bruises and cuts on his hands - the signs that he’d beaten the other kid -were less evident.

And then - ready for this? - the “alleged” murderer continued to play on the school’s football team.

An opposing coach said his player’s parents were aware of what was going on - so why not the Gilbert Goons’ coaches?  And principal?

But even if they did know, who cares about a dead kid anyway, when there’s a football game to play?  Besides, innocent until proven guilty, right?

And wouldn’t you know - three weeks after the killing, taking advantage of the opportunity to play the game he loves, the accused killer was named player of the game. 

What - you think he should miss an important game, and all the future NIL opportunties a good performance could mean?



https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13268535/amp/gilbert-goons-victim-preston-lord-family-breaks-silence-talan-renner-arizona.html



*********** Joe Gutilla sent me this bit of lunacy from the Football Scoop and I had to tie into it…

As the article went…

Tony Altimore, a strategy consultant, attempted to rank every FBS program along roughly 50 factors that a television executive and/or university president would find important.
"It takes about 50 factors (broken down in the groups described in the summary), balances into points, and then weights them (based on input from experts) to create a broad-based look at overall attractiveness," Altimore told me.

In short, Altimore found long-term football success and television viewership to be highly correlated (turns out TV executives might know what they're doing.)

Setting aside the statistical mumbo jumbo, if every FBS program were put into a pot for ESPN and Fox to draft, who gets taken first and who gets taken last?

(I have no idea what the numbers mean.)

1. Ohio State -- 356
2. Michigan -- 337.4
3. Alabama -- 301.4
4. USC -- 296.4
5. Texas -- 282.2
6. Notre Dame -- 279.7
7. Georgia -- 269.9
8. Penn State -- 263.1
9. Florida -- 261.9
10. UCLA -- 260.4
11. Oklahoma -- 254.2
12. LSU -- 243.5
13. Texas A&M -- 242
14. Wisconsin -- 241.9
15. Stanford -- 225.7
16. Washington -- 224.5
17. Michigan State -- 223.9
18. Tennessee -- 220.6
19. Florida State -- 216.6
20. Clemson -- 211.1
21. Iowa -- 208.9
22. Cal -- 202.8
23. Nebraska -- 200.3
23. North Carolina -- 200.3
25. Minnesota -- 199.7
26. Miami -- 198.3
27. Oregon -- 197.1
28. Pitt -- 181.9
29. Maryland -- 180.6
30. Arkansas -- 180.5
31. Auburn -- 179.5
32. Utah -- 178
33. Kentucky -- 172.7
34. Illinois -- 176.1
35. Arizona State -- 172
35. TCU -- 172
37. Oklahoma State -- 171
38. Indiana -- 166.5
39. Purdue -- 165
40. Duke -- 164
41. Colorado -- 162
42. NC State -- 159.7
43. Ole Miss -- 159.5
44. Virginia -- 158.4
45. Northwestern -- 158
46. Virginia Tech -- 157.9
47. Missouri -- 157.6
48. Arizona -- 156.6
49. Rutgers -- 155.5
50. South Carolina -- 153.1
51. West Virginia -- 150.5
52. Georgia Tech -- 150.1
53. Louisville -- 144.2
54. Syracuse -- 143.1
55. Iowa State -- 137.1
56. Kansas -- 137
57. Texas Tech -- 136.2
58. Mississippi State -- 130.5
59. Kansas State -- 128.1
60. Boston College -- 127.7
61. Army -- 124.2
62. Houston -- 123.5
63. Washington State -- 123.2
64. Vanderbilt -- 118.4
65. Baylor -- 116.7
66. Cincinnati -- 116.4
67. Navy -- 116.2
68. Oregon State -- 115.5
69. UCF -- 114.4
70. Wake Forest -- 113.9
71. BYU -- 111.8
72. South Florida -- 104.7
73. SMU -- 102
74. UConn -- 99.8
75. Temple -- 93.8
76. San Diego State -- 93.2
77. Boise State -- 90.6
78. Memphis -- 88.8
79. Tulane -- 88.7
80. Air Force -- 86.8
81. Colorado State -- 83.6
82. Fresno State -- 79.8
83. Buffalo -- 73.5
84. Hawai'i -- 72.7
85. Wyoming -- 72.4
86. Tulsa -- 72.2
87. UAB -- 70.1
88. Rice -- 70
89. Nevada -- 69
90. Utah State -- 67.2
91. Appalachian State -- 64.6
92. UMass -- 63.6
93. Toledo -- 62.3
94. New Mexico -- 62
95. Miami (Ohio) -- 60
96. San Jose State -- 58.9
97. James Madison -- 57.7
98. Marshall -- 56.2
99. East Carolina -- 55.9
100. UNLV -- 54.9
101. Ohio -- 54.2
102. North Texas -- 53.8
103. Florida Atlantic -- 50.7
104. Western Kentucky -- 49.8
105. Georgia State -- 48.4
106. Troy -- 46.5
107. Louisiana -- 46.1
108. UTSA -- 45.4
109. Louisiana Tech -- 44.9
109. FIU -- 44.9
111. Western Michigan -- 44.5
112. Southern Miss -- 44.3
113. Northern Illinois -- 44.1
114. Coastal Carolina -- 43.8
114. Georgia Southern -- 43.8
116. Central Michigan -- 42.1
117. UTEP -- 41
118. Old Dominion -- 40.9
119. Ball State -- 39.7
120. Bowling Green -- 38.7
121. Middle Tennessee -- 38.6
122. Texas State -- 38.1
123. Kent State -- 37.7
124. New Mexico State -- 37
125. Charlotte -- 35.4
126. Arkansas State -- 33.6
127. South Alabama -- 32.8
128. Jacksonville State -- 31.5
129. Eastern Michigan -- 31.1
130. Liberty -- 29.1
131. Akron -- 24.9
132. Sam Houston -- 19.1
133. ULM -- 14


What a crock.

Just a few examples of the sheer idiocy this list represents:

UCLA in the top 10? Seriously? A program that last won a Pac-12 championship in 1998?   That one?

Stanford at #15?  Ahead of Washington at #16?

Cal at #22?  WTF? Have you been following them? They haven’t played in  the Rose Bowl since 1959. (Oregon State was last there in 1965. They're ranked 68th)

Is there an  ACC bias?  I mean,  Duke at 40? Virginia - Virginia, for God’s sake - at 44. Syracuse at 54?  BC at  60?   Really?  You put all those schools ahead of Wake Forest, at 70?

Army at 61?   Give me a break.  There are at least a dozen programs ranked lower that outdraw Army at the gate and could have - or have - beaten them  recently it in football.
Seriously - if you were drafting teams for your league, would you really take Army ahead of Houston, Washington State, Baylor, Cincinnati, Oregon State, UCF, Wake Forest, BYU -- 111.8

Likewise Vanderbilt at 64. Ahead of Oregon State? Wake Forest?

Air Force 17 spots below Army? Come on, man.

The low ranking for BYU and the unbelievably low ranking for Liberty (ahead of only Akron, Sam Houston and ULM) is a joke, and almost certainly a reaction to their religious affiliations.

If this isn’t just a rough draft that accidentally got published before he could run it by people who really know their college football - if he’s really serious about this whole thing - then as the late great William F. Buckley once said, “there’s no lunacy of which he’s incapable.”


https://footballscoop.com/news/every-fbs-school-ranked-by-how-attractive-theyd-be-in-conference-realignment



*********** One of the things that  Homer Smith shared with me was a photocopy of what he titled  “HISTORY OF FOOTBALL CONCEPTS.”   I don’t think it has ever been published.

I wrote his daughter, Kim Smith Hall, whom I’d dealt with in the past, to ask for her permission to reprint it here, and she very graciously gave it.  She did say that while she no longer “actively” sells her dad’s manuals, she would be glad to put together a set for anyone interested in purchasing.
If  anyone is interested,  her email address is kimhall@mindspring.com

In the meantime, below are the next four pages of Coach Homer Smith’s work. 






***********   I always thought the move "Everybody's All-American" was somewhat based on Bill Cannon. However Frank Deford said it was not:

Despite the fact that the novel was written about the University of North Carolina (which refused to allow filming because they suspected the story defamed campus legend Charlie "Choo Choo" Justice), when it was filmed at LSU, rumors started that Gavin Grey was based on the former LSU All-American Billy Cannon. He won the Heisman Trophy in 1959 and played eleven seasons for three professional teams, but served two and a half years in federal prison in the mid-1980s for his role in a counterfeiting ring. Deford himself denies this, saying: "Never met Cannon and knew nothing about him personally," he says. "Gavin was strictly a composite of many athletes from several sports that I had covered.”

Adam Wesoloski
Pulaski, Wisconsin


Good story. I’m a big DeFord fan and I knew it was Choo-Choo. (Well, sort of.) And by reading it I did learn the words to Carolina’s fight song, which at the time happened to be the fight song at the school where I coached.



***********   Some days.... I don't recall ever being pandered to, but there's no doubt how I would react to it. I hope the tens of millions of Americans being pandered to today will detect the pandering and instantly reject it. If we don't reject the pandering, well...within a few years the NIL and the Portal will be so far down on our list of concerns we won't worry about them.

Thanks for recognizing your responsibility to us bettors. My bumper sticker (I designed it) says "I'm a better man for being a bettor!!!"). I just left this page for a minute for a brief test. I went to the home page of a sports site I frequent to see if it contained any references to wagering. Honest, I was stupefied, in that I found the site littered with betting information.

For good reason, how we'll meet near-term energy demands is moving, as you say in the Great Northwest, "top of mind". No AI without more energy. There's hope for coal once again.

Thanks for the finest sports bundle in America.

John Vermillion                            
St Petersburg, Florida

Not to pander, but your free subscription to this site has been extended for as long as you continue to write complimentary things.



***********  Hugh,

IMHO there is a quiet storm building in this country.  With all the foolish decisions being made by this president EVERY DAY is April Fools Day!  The silent majority grows larger and larger with every mumbled gaffe, stumbled walk, and asinine edict.

Watched the Birmingham game, and the first half of the St. Louis game.  That was all I needed to see.  Enjoyed a relaxing Easter day, and grilled a Tri-Tip at dinnertime for friends.

Like you I don't have a dog in the fight in the men's Final Four but I also like that Nelson kid!

Was glad to see Iowa's women beat LSU.  

I'm still pulling for a PAC-West conference that will return Cal and Stanford to the Pacific coast, and keep the conference divided into two divisions with a conference championship game.  WEST: WSU, OSU, Cal, Stanford, San Jose State, Fresno State, Hawaii, San Diego State.  MOUNTAIN: Boise State, Utah State, Nevada, UNLV, Wyoming, Air Force, Colorado State, New Mexico.

Have a great week!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas

Joe, I think only a storm like the one you describe can save us.  I really fear that we are screwed.  Knowing that I won’t see the worst of it is one of the benefits of being old.  That and being able to get away with  certain sh— because of my age.








***********   QUIZ ANSWER:  Billy Cannon was a Baton Rouge high school star in football and track.  He was evidently no angel, and according to legend he wound up at LSU at the “suggestion” of a juvenile judge.

He was one of the very first premier football players to lift weights seriously.  By the time he was a sophomore and eligible to play varsity ball, he was 6-foot-1, 200 and he could bench press 270 pounds - just 10 pounds off the Olympic record at the time.  He ran a 9.4 100-yard dash, and put the 16-pound shot 55 feet.

Called alternately  "The World's Strongest Sprinter" and "The World's Fastest Shot-putter, “ as  halfback in Coach Paul Dietzel’s Delaware Wing-T offense,  he led LSU to its first national title.

One of the most famous plays in college football history was his long, electrifying fourth-quarter punt return that gave LSU a 7-3 win over  arch-rival Ole Miss on Hallowe'en night.

He is still considered by many to be best football player ever to play for LSU, and was their  first Heisman Trophy winner ( until Joe Burrow won in in 2019, he was the only Tiger to win it).  He was just the second player from the SEC to win the Heisman.  (Georgia’s Frank Sinkwich was the first.)

He was at the the center of a contentious bidding war between the AFL and the NFL, and his signing with the Houston Oilers - after first seeming to have signed with the Los Angeles Rams - was a major coup for the new league.  He enjoyed a successful pro career, first as a runner, then as a tight end.

As a rookie, he was named MVP of the AFL’s first championship game, won by the Oilers.  In all, he played on three AFL championship teams, and was twice named MVP of the title game.

He was twice named First Team All-AFL and twice named Second Team.

He was a running back for four years with the Oilers and one year with the Raiders after being traded to Oakland, but in 1965 Al Davis converted him to the relatively new position of tight end, and he became one of the best in the business.

In his career, he rushed for 2,455 yards and 17 touchdowns, and he caught 236 passes for 3,656 yards and 47 touchdowns.

He had studied dentistry on the off-season, and practiced dentistry  after retiring from pro football.

He had some ups and downs in later life, including a serious scrape with the law that resulted in his two and a half years in prison.

In the eyes of most LSU people, he more than redeemed himself by serving for years after that as a dentist at the State Penitentiary.

Billy Cannon is a member of the  LSU Athletic Hall of Fame, the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame, and the College Football Hall of Fame, and his number 20 was retired by LSU.

Ironically, the other two running backs on LSU’s national championship team  -  fullback  Jim Taylor and  wingback Johnny Robinson - are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and Billy Cannon’s  not.)


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING BILLY CANNON


GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
TOM DAVIS - SAN MARCOS, CALIFORNIA
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY
 






*********** QUIZ: He is credited with being the first player in college football and then in pro football to popularize the forward pass.
 
No less an authority than George Halas said that he “revolutionized football.”

He remains the only person in the history of the NFL to lead the league in  touchdowns passing and touchdowns rushing in the same season.

He was born in Cleveland, the son of Jewish immigrants from Russia.

When he was told by his high school coach that he was too small for football, he transferred schools.  At his new school he played baseball, basketball  and football. And in his senior year he led that school’s football team  to the city  championship.

At the University of Michigan, after a year of playing on the freshman team, he earned a starting position midway through his sophomore season, and immediately drew notice because of his ability to pass. (The ball used then was rounder and fatter than  today’s ball and considerably more difficult to hold and throw with one hand.)

In his junior year, Michigan coach Fielding Yost moved him to quarterback, and he led the Wolverines to a 7-1 record and the Big Ten championship.  Michigan outscored opponents 227-3, and Coach Yost called this team “the greatest football team I ever coached.” (The single loss was by 3-2 to Northwestern on a muddy field in a downpour.)

In a 63-0 defeat of Indiana, our guy accounted for 50 points, throwing five touchdown passes, running for a sixth, and kicking eight PATs and a field goal.

For the season, he threw for a total of 14 passes, and he and his main receiver - end Benny Oosterbaan - were both named first-team All-Americans.

Elected captain by his teammates, as a senior he led the Wolverines to their second straight Big Ten title and a 7-1 record, the only loss coming to number one-ranked Navy.  He was a consensus All-American, and was honored by the Chicago Tribune as  the Big Ten’s Most Valuable Player.

He signed to play pro football with his hometown Cleveland Bulldogs, and in his rookie season he led the NFL in passing yardage and passing touchdowns, and was named first team All-NFL.

Despite having gone 8-4-1, the Bulldogs moved to Detroit after the season and (for some reason) renamed themselves the Wolverines.  They went 7-2-1, and he again led the NFL in both yards passing and touchdown passes. He also led the league in touchdowns rushing. (The year was 1928 and no man since has led the NFL in both touchdown passes and touchdowns rushing in the same season.) Again, he was first team All NFL.

In 1929 he played for the New York Giants.  Giants’ owner Tim Mara had purchased the Wolverines, partly at least - with New York’s large Jewish population in mind - to acquire their quarterback.

He didn’t disappoint. For the third straight season he led the NFL in passing yards and passing touchdowns and was named first team All NFL. The Giants went 13-1-1, finishing second to Green Bay (12-0-1) who had given them their only loss.  They scored what was then an astounding 300 points, and our guy threw 20 touchdown  passes - a season record that would last for 13 years.

The following season, 1930, the Giants went 13-4, and again  he led the NFL in passing yards and passing touchdowns and was named first team All NFL. That was four straight years.

In 1931 he agreed to assist at Yale, but he still managed to play nine games with the Giants.  At the end of that season he asked Giants’ owner Tim Mara for a piece of the club, and when Mara said, “No, I’m keeping it all for my sons,” he decided, in his own words, “I felt I should move along.”

He was approached by the owner of the new  Brooklyn Dodgers (another original name), and agreed to become player-coach.

He spent all of 1932 and 1933 with the Dodgers but after one game in 1934 he retired.

His NFL career stats, as best as they could be determined, given the lack of care sometimes taken with  the record-keeping at the time:

5326 yards passing (and NFL career record at the time), 66 passing TDs (also a record), plus 18 rushing TDs, 1000+ yards rushing and 400+ yards in punt returns (he also played safety on defense).

He was head coach at CCNY from 1934 to 1942, when he joined the Navy.

He coached one season at Great Lakes Naval Training Station, and after the war he owned a car dealership in Detroit until in 1949 he became AD at Brandeis.  He  started their football program, and was their head coach until the school discontinued football in 1960.

For the rest of his life he ran a very successful  summer camp for young aspiring quarterbacks, and ran a series of on-location camps around the country.

In 1951, he was among the first group of inductees into the College Football Hall of Fame.

He is in the University of Michigan Athletics Hall of Honor - the first quarterback inducted - and he is in the National Jewish Hall of Fame.

But he was not inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame until 2005 - 23 years after his death.

Why did it take so long? 

It wasn’t for a lack of effort on his part.  He was, by most estimates, a relentless self-promoter.

And he was considered opinionated and arrogant.

It certainly didn’t help his cause any when in 1953 he wrote an article for Sport magazine (then a very popular publication), entitled "I Could Play Pro Football – And I'm 48."

He didn’t earn himself any friends in The League with statements like this:  "I have been out of the National Football League for 20 years, but I’m confident I could do the job as well as, if not better than the present-day big-league quarterbacks, most of whom are half my age.”

As a player,  he was aloof. He didn’t socialize with teammates and left little doubt that he preferred the company of people higher up on the social ladder than mere professional football players..

How unpopular was he?  In 1932, when he was with the Dodgers and playing safety on defense, a former Giants’ teammate, in the clear and on his way to a touchdown, instead  changed course just to take a shot at him.

In his later years, he endured numerous health problems, including bouts with cancer, diabetes and heart disease, and 1979, his left leg had to be amputated below the knee.

In November, 1982, he was found dead in his room as a result of a “self-inflicted gunshot wound.”

He left a note saying that he was “severely depressed.”

The note went on to state that he didn’t want to become “the old man on a park bench.”






TUESDAY, APRIL 2,  2024      “The strong do what they will and the weak suffer what they must.” Thucydides



*********** Wisdom from Mike Lude.  “I like Bob Bowlsby. He’s a good guy.  I was quite surprised when he left the AD business and took a job as commissioner (of the Big-12).  As an AD you have one boss.”


***********    The sh— that’s actually gone on in sports this past year puts to shame anything I could make up as an April Fool's spoof.

So… How about this, seen on a walk around town this morning?  At least the guy said it was an April Fools’ joke.




***********   “Today, on Transgender Day of Visibility, I have a simple message to all trans Americans: I see you. You are made in the image of God, and you’re worthy of respect and dignity.”   Joseph R. Biden

Actually, I think what Mr. Biden meant to say was, “You were BORN in the image of God. But what you decided to do after that is on you.”

Meanwhile, leave it to The Babylon Bee to put this sh— in proper perspective:

“Biden Grants Day Of Visibility To Segment Of Population With Most Visibility In All Of Human History”

And

“Biden Condemns Jesus For Rising Again On Trans Day Of Visibility”



*********** UFL OPENING WEEKEND…. Hahaha.  Silly me.  Just a couple of weeks ago I wrote about how “pure” it would be, after watching the slow death of a  conference I’d become attached to, along with the crass professionalism of college  football, and a full  season of NFL excess,  to watch the UFL.

Boy, was I wrong.   Yes, it’s football.  I guess.  And I shouldn’t be looking a gift horse in the mouth.   But…

(1) Same old empty stadiums. You mean to tell me that in the nation that gave us P.T. Barnum, in the football-mad state of Texas, in an area the size of the Dallas-Fort Worth “Metroplex,” they couldn’t find a way to persuade 30,000-some people to sit in all those empty seats and watch a football game?  Yes, yes, I know - it’s all about the eyeballs watching the tube.  But the optics are horrible, and their meaning is unavoidable: if the people in that area don’t care, what makes  it important enough for me to watch on my television?

(2) Same tasteless, goony-looking  home uniforms that looked like they were designed by people with no sense of color (Michigan still wearing jerseys the color of red wine stain and pants the color of pus), who’d never seen real football teams play a real football game.  (Maybe because they were made in China?)  And Houston’s silly helmets haven’t changed - they look like the team owner’s three kids gave up   fighting over whether to paint them red, white or blue and just decided to compromise with a section all their own.

(3) No more FSN or CBSSN or ESPNNews.  You know you’re in the big-time when you’re on ESPN and Fox, which everybody knows by now means that their double-header scheduling always allows the first game to go too long and cut into the start of the second game.

(4) Did I say “pure?”  Now, instead of boring  us with heartwarming stories about this guy’s home life or giving us updates on that guy’s injury,  they bore us with the up-to-the-moment odds of either team winning, and how the over/under’s looking.

(5) With the US Army a main sponsor, we see plenty of in-game interviews with currently-serving Army personnel, always saying good-bye to them  with the mandatory “thank you for your service.”

(6) Although there were no kickoffs into the end zone,  the kickoffs   were still boring.

(7) Not that we have any reason to expect top-of-the-line broadcast talent on spring football games, but one color guy, Devin Gardner, must have thought he was being paid by the word.  Wouldn’t think of  taking  just a few words   to explain something simple when several  sentences would do.

(8) Sorry, but The Rock doesn’t do a damn thing for me. Neither does that ex-wife of his.  If their involvement is so special, why can’t they  figure out a way to sell their damn product?

(9) The League (The UFL) has an app, but I defy you to go on there and find the scores of the weekend’s games.

(10) I did see one thing I hadn’t seen before: with :08 remaining in the Michigan-St. Louis game, Michigan’s kicker, a guy named Jake Bates, who hadn’t kicked in a game since  he was in high school - in 2016, made a 64-yard field goal to win the game.  But wait - St. Louis had called one of those bogus timeouts just before the ball was snapped, so the kick didn’t count. Oh, well.  After the time out, he  simply kicked a second 64-yarder, and this one counted.

Random observations:  almost every team seems to have a decent  quarterback.   I was most impressed with Matt Corral, of Birmingham.  The former Ole Miss QB looked really sharp.   E.J. Perry, of Michigan, can run pretty well, but his passing is suspect.

The teams all seem to have good head coaches.

There is some really unseemly behavior that they’d better jump on fast.  A San Antonio defensive back was called for taunting after seeming to go quite a bit overboard in celebrating an injury to the DC quarterback as he lay on the ground motionless; and on another play,  an offensive lineman from D.C. was ejected for spitting.  To add insult to injury, replay revealed  that he was also guilty of a false start on the same play.

The announcers didn’t elaborate at the time, but it appeared that a penalty that occurred inside the 15 was marched off to the two-yard-line, and not just half the distance. If this is so, it pleases me, because I’ve long felt that penalties shouldn’t be mitigated simply because they occur close to the  goal line.  If it’s a major penalty and it occurs to the defense on, say, the nine-yard-line, put that sumbitch on the one.

SATURDAY

BIRMINGHAM STALLIONS 27, ARLINGTON RENEGADES 14

MICHIGAN PANTHERS 18, ST. LOUIS BATTLEHAWKS  16

SUNDAY

SAN ANTONIO BRAHMAS 27, D.C. DEFENDERS 12

MEMPHIS SHOWBOATS 18, HOUSTON ROUGHNECKS 12

Not to be a hypocrite, but I do have to cater to  the hard-core gamblers on this site:

The “OVER” bettors lost on all of the games.  The Birmingham-Arlington game was the only one that was even close.

And St. Louis was the only favorite that failed to cover.


*********** I can’t say I have a serious rooting interest in any of the teams in the Final Four, so I’m not going to be disappointed no matter who wins it.

I like NC State - I REALLY like DJ Burns. And I appreciate the loyalty of the Wolfpack fans, who spend most of their lives in the shadow of nearby UNC and Duke.

I like Purdue because they’re not glamorous, and - at least in football -  they’re often seen as one of the Big Ten’s have-nots. (But I sure do wish that Zach Edey would keep his mouth shut  about settling scores with all the people who didn’t recruit him.)

I like Alabama because it’s their first time in the Final Four and they play a fast, up-tempo game. And I like that skinny white kid, Grant Nelson,  from Devils Lake, North Dakota.

I like UConn.  First of all, I went to college in Connecticut,  and our son was born there. A cousin of mine was a professor at UConn. I like the fact that they are very good at both men’s and women’s basketball.  I like Danny Hurley.  And I like their big guy, Donovan Clingan, a local kid from Bristol, Connecticut.


*********** Can the people running our country really be so f—king stupid that they haven’t realized  that to handle the demands of electric cars - and on top of that, AI - they’re going to need to generate, and then transmit, an awfully lot of electricity?

From The Wall Street Journal, March 25

Former US energy secretary Ernest Moniz said the size of new and proposed data centers to power AI has some utilities stumped as to how they are going to bring enough generation capacity online at a time when wind and solar farms are becoming more challenging to build.

He said that utilities will have to lean more heavily on natural gas, coal and nuclear plants, and perhaps support the construction of new gas plants to help meet spikes in demand.

***********   And you thought all trainers had to do was tape ankles.

ALBANY, N.Y. -- Anticipation bubbled over inside MVP Arena as the first NCAA Women's Sweet 16 game tipped off between No. 3 Oregon State and No. 2 Notre Dame. However, there was a stoppage 32 seconds into the game to fix a shot clock issue. Another clock review in the dying seconds of the first quarter came when Notre Dame freshman Hannah Hidalgo committed an undisciplined body foul with less than a second left.

Hidalgo wouldn't been seen on the court again until the 5:51 mark of the second quarter. That was because her training staff was using what appeared to be pliers to remove her nose ring. Before the start of the second quarter, Hidalgo had a small piece of tape covering her nose ring.

Apparently the young woman had been allowed to wear the jewelry all season. If so, shame on the lazy refs.

After the game, the NCAA explained  why Hidalgo was required to leave the game:

"Head decorations, head wear, helmets, and jewelry are illegal," the statement read. " ... At the first dead ball, [the player] shall be required to remove the jewelry immediately or be required to leave the game and not return until after removing the jewelry. [The player] cannot 'buy' the right to wear the jewelry by being charged with a technical foul."

Ms. Hidalgo was unrepentant.  ”Next season,” she said,  “I'm going to play with it still until they tell me to take it out.”

As the trainers stand by, pliers in hand…

https://www.cbssports.com/womens-college-basketball/news/hannah-hidalgo-nose-ring-controversy-notre-dame-coach-freshman-speak-out-after-forced-removal-of-jewelry/



***********   I’m seeing stuff in Facebook advertising organized flag football in our area - leagues for grades 1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8, all  being promoted not by any of the local Pop Warner people, but by something called Next Level Sports.

I couldn’t  find out anything about them locally, so I did some searching.  Turns out they’re out of California, and damned if they’re not  starting several leagues in the Portland area.

Further investigation shows that they’re doing this EVERYWHERE.

Okay - who’s behind them?

Who’s funding an operation of this size?

Why isn’t the NFL in on it?

(Or is it?)



***********   Women’s college basketball, driven not only by the enormous popularity of Caitlin Clark  but also by a number of slightly lesser-known (but no less able) stars is growing in fan interest.

The question in my mind is, will this eventually translate into increased interest in the WNBA?

Or - will the WNBA’s reputation for lesbianism put a damper on it?
 





***********   Found this on the WFL Facebook page, posted there by longtime WFL fan Richie Franklin. Quite a collection of guys, all with impressive resumes.


*********** On the 20th anniversary of Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ,” Mark Steyn writes…

In this environment, if Jesus came back today he'd most likely be a gay Anglican bishop in a committed relationship driving around in a hybrid with an "Arms Are For Hugging" sticker on the way to an interfaith dialogue with a Wiccan and a couple of Wahhabi imams. If that's your boy, Mel Gibson's movie is not for you.

Instead of Jesus the wimp, Mel gives us Jesus the Redeemer. He died for our sins – ie, the "violent end" is the critical bit, not just an unfortunate misunderstanding cruelly cutting short a promising career in gentle teaching. The followers of Wimp Jesus seem to believe He died to license our sins – Jesus loves us for who we are so whatever's your bag is cool with Him.

Strictly as a commercial proposition, Wimp Jesus is a loser: the churches who go down that path are emptying out and dying. Those who believe in Christ the Redeemer are, comparatively, booming, and in 2004 Mel Gibson made a movie for them. If Hollywood was as savvy as it thinks it is, it would have beaten him to it. But it isn't so it didn't. And as most studio execs had never seen an evangelical Christian except in films where they turn out to be pedophiles or serial killers, it's no wonder they were baffled by The Passion's success.

https://www.steynonline.com/14170/the-passion-of-the-christ

***********   Michael Penix (sorry - until his father does something to make him famous, I refuse to pretend that “Junior” is part of his last name) answered a couple of questions at Washington’s pro day:

(1) Speed? He ran a 40 somewhere “between 4.46 and 4.53”

(2) Arm strength? HIs last pass went 75 yards in the air and on the money

His accuracy and judgement have never been in question

The only thing that remains is his durability.  Negative?:  Never completed a season at Indiana.  Positive?: Finished the last two seasons at Washington without serious injury.


***********   From John Canzano:

Q: The ACC seems to be on the verge of collapse, even as Cal and Stanford have yet to play a conference game. Does this revive hope of a Pac-4 reconstituting the conference? A merger with the Mountain West? Or would Cal and Stanford be more appealing to the Big 12 or even the SEC, leaving OSU and WSU out in the cold again?


A: Oregon State and Washington State would welcome Stanford and Cal back with open arms if they had the chance. The Big Ten might be into adding Stanford and Cal, but its appetite for expansion may be tapped out.

There are some huge systemic issues that surface should the Grant of Rights of the ACC be broken. It would essentially mean that none of the contracts between the conferences, schools, and television partners would hold up. As one commissioner told me last week: “If the lawsuits prevail, it hurts all leagues as it may make our bylaws moot.”



***********  It’s hard to believe that Jimmy Johnson hasn’t coached since 1999.

At the time, he  told USA Today's Gordon Forbes why he was hanging ‘em up: free agency, he said, and what it had done to players’ attitudes.

”One thing free agency has done is dilute the loyalty of fans and players. I had players that played for me in college that (in the pros) held out and missed games. And all the injury grievances when you knew the players were not hurt. It's just a shame.   There were real quality people who came up as free agents. All of a sudden, they sign huge contracts, and just go to crap. You don't see the same effort. You don't see the same hunger, even with borderline players.”

He was talking about pros.  How could any know then that soon enough the day would come when college players would “opt out” of their teams’  games?



*********** One of the things that  Homer Smith shared with me was a photocopy of what he titled  “HISTORY OF FOOTBALL CONCEPTS.”   I don’t think it has ever been published.

I wrote his daughter, Kim Smith Hall, whom I’d dealt with in the past, to ask for her permission to reprint it here, and she very graciously gave it.  She did say that while she no longer “actively” sells her dad’s manuals, she would be glad to put together a set for anyone interested in purchasing.
If  anyone is interested,  her email address is kimhall@mindspring.com

In the meantime, below are the next four pages of Coach Homer Smith’s work.





*********** I  winced at the video of the tackling drills in the wrestling room. It also got my attention that some of those boys didn’t  have shirts on. No wrestling coach worth his salt would allow that. Impetigo can shut down an entire team. We also rarely tackle without a pad between us and never to the ground.

Your quote from the Ohio St. wrestling coach was similar to something  I wrote about last week on parent criticism. If you have a few moments to take a look, I would love to hear what you think.

Tom Walls
Winnipeg, Manitoba


https://open.substack.com/pub/thomaswalls/p/criticisms?r=34ncxk&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web


***********   I love any page where you figure a way to mention the Bootlegger's Boy. Another great page, beginning with the Great Lion, Sir Winston. The fight he described as necessary in his time is no less called for today. There will be no substitute for victory...well, that's untrue, there will be, and it will be indescribably ugly for our descendants.

Francis Scott Key, the bridge, and more. The drive has already begun to abolish our National Anthem. This is the chance they've been looking for. And the City of Baltimore is already counting its windfall from the 'bridge replacement costs'. All the shenanigans about to occur might prompt another five seasons of The Wire.

During 7 1/2 years in the Balkans, I got introduced to the works of Croatia's Nobel laureate novelist, Ivo Andric. I found a passage I had marked in one of his books. It concerns bridges:

From everything that man erects and builds in his urge for living, nothing in my eyes is better and more valuable than bridges. They are more important than houses, more sacred than shrines. Belonging to everyone and being equal to everyone, useful, always built with a sense, on the spot where most human needs are crossing, they are more durable than other buildings and they do not serve for anything secret or bad. -Ivo Andric, novelist, Nobel laureate (9 Oct 1892-1975)


John Vermillion                        
St Petersburg, Florida



***********   Hugh,

It’s guys like Mark Smith who lead folks to believe that football coaches are Neanderthals, and have given our sport a permanent black eye.  No wonder our participation numbers are dwindling.

Thanks for nothing Mr. Smith!

I used your Safer and Surer Tackling DVD for years.  My players were better tacklers for it, and always looked forward to the pancake drill.

Re: The FSK Bridge.  There have been efforts in some small rural Texas towns to rename buildings or remove statues, or even change the names of the towns.  To no avail.  The buildings still have the same names, and the statues still stand, and the towns are still called what they’ve been called for years.  What has changed is the folks who called for those changes no longer live in those towns.  They now live Austin.

Re: Homer Smith’s Concepts.  A number of schools still employ the single wing offense, or derivatives of it (shotgun DW for example), and very successfully!  Don’t see the old ND Box anymore, BUT…what if?

Enjoy the UFL opening weekend!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury,  Texas





 
***********  QUIZ: Jack Mitchell grew up in Arkansas City, Kansas, where he played football, basketball and tennis in high school.

He started out at Texas, recruited there by legendary Longhorns coach Dana X. Bible, but he entered the military during  World War II, and after the war he was lured to Oklahoma by then-coach Jim Tatum, who suggested that he at least turn out for spring practice.

Thinking that he’d try spring practice at both OU and Texas before deciding where to go, he agreed.

Although more than 300 players showed up for OU spring ball, he made the team after being switched from halfback to quarterback by backfield coach Bud Wilkinson - who told him that in OU’s split-T offense, the  quarterback did more of the running. It sounded good to him. “I never made it back to Texas,” he said later.

When Tatum left for Maryland after one year, Wilkinson succeeded him as head coach.

Mitchell  became the first of a long string of great Oklahoma split-T quarterbacks.  In his senior year he was Oklahoma’s first All-American quarterback, on what   Wilkinson called "the first good team we had here."

In his final game, a 14-6 Sugar Bowl win over North Carolina, he was named the Player of the Game.

(His successor at QB for the Sooners was a young fellow from Hollis, Oklahoma named Darrell Royal.)

After a year as head coach at Blackwell, Oklahoma High School, he served as an assistant at Tulsa and then at Texas Tech before being hired as head coach at Wichita State.

In two years there he went 4-4-1 and then 9-1, and that was enough to interest the people at Arkansas when Bowden Wyatt left there for Tennessee.

One of the players he recruited to Arkansas was Barry Switzer.

I hadn't signed with Arkansas when Bowden (Wyatt) left, so I didn't know if I really had a scholarship. But Jack Mitchell,  a flamboyant kind of guy, took Bowden's place and sent George Cole down to Crossett  to see me. George, a great player and assistant coach who later became athletic Director at Arkansas, took me out to the Wagon Wheel café. After we ate our chicken-fried steak, he gave me his recruiting speech: "I'll tell you what, son. I'm going to give you a bed to sleep in and a plate to eat off of, and as long as you make your bed and behave yourself, I won't break your plate. "

He did a decent job at Arkansas - going 17-12-1 in three years - and wound up being hired by Kansas. (He was succeeded at Arkansas by Frank Broyles.)

Kansas isn’t an easy place to win at now, and it wasn’t then, but he managed to recruit some outstanding players - John Hadl, Bert Coan, Curtis McClinton, Gayle Sayers - and from 1960 through 1961 Kansas had a nice run in which the Jayhawks were 20-8-3.

His 1961 team defeated Rice in the Bluebonnet Bowl. It would turn out to be Kansas’ last bowl win until 1992.

A pair of two-win seasons in 1965 and 1966 cost him the Kansas job,

Overall, he was 44-42-5 in nine seasons at Kansas.

In Big Eight conference play  he was 29-28-4. Only one other Kansas coach since World War I has left Kansas with a winning conference record - and that was famed basketball coach Phog Allen, who was  3-2 in 1920, his only season as a football coach.

He never coached again. For 20 years he was publisher of the Daily News of Wellington, Kansas.

In  Dave Camerer's "Winning Football Plays" (1962), the author writes that when  Mitchell was an assistant at Texas Tech,  he had promised scholarships to 12 kids in his recruiting area, then  learned that  because of budget considerations Tech had  to cut his scholarships back to six.  Mitchell  got on the phone to deliver the bad news - but  then continued to work the phone until he'd managed to place those six disappointed kids in good programs. "Sure, it took him days," Camerer wrote, "but he stuck with that phone until that twelfth boy was taken care of."

CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING JACK MITCHELL


GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
TOM WALLS - WINNIPEG, MANITOBA
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY



 

***********   QUIZ:  He was a Baton Rouge high school star in football and track.  He was highly recruited, but he was evidently no angel, and according to legend he wound up at LSU at the “urging” of a juvenile judge.

He was one of the very first premier football players to lift weights seriously.  By the time he was a sophomore and eligible to play varsity ball, he was 6-foot-1, 200 and he could bench press 270 pounds - just 10 pounds off the Olympic record at the time.  He ran a 9.4 100-yard dash, and put the 16-pound shot 55 feet.

Called alternately  "The World's Strongest Sprinter" and "The World's Fastest Shot-putter, “ as  halfback in Coach Paul Dietzel’s Delaware Wing-T offense,  he led LSU to its first national title.

One of the most famous plays in college football history was his long, electrifying fourth-quarter punt return that gave LSU a 7-3 win over  arch-rival Ole Miss on Hallowe'en night.

He is still considered by many the top be best football player ever to play for LSU, and was their  first Heisman Trophy winner ( until Joe Burrow won in in 2019, he was the only Tiger to win it).  He was just the second player from the SEC to win the Heisman.  (Georgia’s Frank Sinkwich was the first.)

He was at the the center of a contentious bidding war between the AFL and the NFL, and his signing with the Houston Oilers - after first seeming to have signed with the Los Angeles Rams - was a major coup for the new league.  He enjoyed a successful pro career, first as a runner, then as a tight end.

As a rookie, he was named MVP of the AFL’s first championship game, won by the Oilers.  In all, he played on three AFL championship teams, and was twice named MVP of the title game.

He was twice named First Team All-AFL and twice named Second Team.

He was a running back for four years with the Oilers and one year with the Raiders after being traded to Oakland, but in 1965 Al Davis converted him to the relatively new position of tight end, and he became one of the best in the business.

In his career, he rushed for 2,455 yards and 17 touchdowns, and he caught 236 passes for 3,656 yards and 47 touchdowns.

He had studied dentistry on the off-season, and practiced dentistry  after retiring from pro football.

He had some ups and downs in later life, including a serious scrape with the law that resulted in his two and a half years in prison.

In the eyes of most LSU people, he more than redeemed himself by serving for years after that as a dentist at the State Penitentiary.

He is a member of the  LSU Athletic Hall of Fame, the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame, and the College Football Hall of Fame, and his number 20 was retired by LSU.

(Ironically, the other two running backs on LSU’s national championship team  -  fullback  Jim Taylor and  wingback Johnny Robinson - are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and he’s not.)




FRIDAY, MARCH  29, 2024      “You ask what is our aim. I can answer in one word. Victory. Victory at all costs. Victory in spite of all terror. Victory no matter how long and hard the road may be. For without victory there is no survival.”  Winston Churchill, 1940


HAPPY EASTER:   “And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain”  1ST CORINTHIANS 15:17


*********** Wisdom from Mike Lude.  Mike said that in the words of his boss Dave Nelson (credited with inventing the Delaware Wing-T), “This offense represents 80 per cent single wing and 20 per cent T.”



*********** FOOTBALL!   THIS WEEKEND! 


(QBS IN PARENTHESES)


SATURDAY, 1 PM ET (FOX)

BIRMINGHAM STALLIONS (MATT CORRAL, ADRIAN MARTINEZ)  AT ARLINGTON RENEGADES (LUIS PEREZ)


SATURDAY, 4 PM ET (FOX)

ST LOUIS BATTLEHAWKS (AJ MCCARRON, BRANDON SILVERS)  AT MICHIGAN PANTHERS (DANNY ETLING, BRIAN LEWERKE)


SUNDAY 12 NOON ET (ESPN)

D.C. DEFENDERS (DEONDRE FRANCOIS, JORDAN TA’AMU)  AT SAN ANTONIO BRAHMAS (TOM FLACCO, CHASE GARBERS)


SUNDAY 3 PM ET (ESPN)

MEMPHIS SHOWBOATS (CASE COOKUS, JOSH LOVE)  AT HOUSTON ROUGHNECKS (JARRETT GUARANTANO)



************ Shelton, Washington, about two hours to the north of where I live, is looking for a new head coach.  Seems that  the former head coach, a local guy who’d won a state title in Arizona  then returned to his home town, conducted what  appear to be tackling drills in a PE class. 

The state of Washington is pretty strict about what forms of out-of-season practice are permissible, and God only knows what would prompt an experienced head coach to think that he could get away with “practicing tackling” in a PE class.

But as if cheating  wasn’t bad enough - evidently some kids were injured as a result.

SHELTON, Wash. — The Shelton School District accepted the resignation of high school head football coach Mark Smith during Tuesday’s regularly scheduled school board meeting.

Coach Smith is one of the people at the center of controversary after he supervised a tackling drill during PE back in January and none of the students were wearing pads. Several students sustained some pretty significant injuries, including concussions and dislocated fingers.

https://www.kiro7.com/news/local/shelton-high-head-football-coach-out-job-after-tackling-drill-injures-several-students/A7VLDSZJFVHD5PX2HMDLIOLSXU/

SHELTON, Wash. — The Shelton School Board has accepted the resignation of the Shelton High head football coach months after an unsanctioned drill left several students with serious injuries.

Shelton High School parents and an attorney said in a span of 30 minutes during a surprise drill on Jan. 31,  at least five students were injured.

They said football coaches came into a weightlifting class and took the students to a wrestling room to practice a new tackling drill without pads or helmets.

"I was trusting my coach and as it kept going it got worse and worse and more aggressive and I thought it was unsafe," said Masyn Gard, a player at Shelton High School.

"I saw someone get their head slammed into a wall and then after that my finger got dislocated. The doctor told me the bones were shaved together and it could not work the same for rest of my life," said Marshall Gard, who also plays football at Shelton High School.

Some players suffered serious head injuries like 15-year-old Jackson Leth, who said he's recovering from a concussion.

"Coach told the other players no one was tackling me and they needed to do better. I was running to the other wall and got off a tackle from another kid and another kid grabbed from the back and picked me over his head and slammed me on my head," said Jackson Leth.

https://www.king5.com/article/news/education/shelton-high-school-football-coach-resigns/281-0511f9b9-7ed1-4e32-990c-953641e73c32

I saw the  video and I couldn’t believe my eyes - there were kids,  in shorts and tee-shirts.  in a wrestling room, practicing what looked like full-speed tackling - with the apparent object of taking a “runner” to the ground.

I’m going to go on record right now:  even in season, even with pads - it’s dangerous and unproductive and unnecessary  to take players to the ground when practicing tackling.  If you’ve been doing  it - it’s time to stop. 

Not since the 1980s have I run any tackling drill in which the object was to take the runner to the ground, and I bet I can teach how to tackle at least as well as anyone who’s still doing that.  And if anyone doubts that that’s the way I’ve taught tackling, It wouldn’t take me long to round up a couple of  dozen former players - some of them now in their 50s - who will attest to having heard Old Coach Wyatt chew some serious ass after someone took a runner to the ground in a drill.

(1) It’s dangerous; (2) It’s not necessary.

In my “Safer and Surer Tackling” DVD, which I introduced in 1999 (and which is currently undergoing an update), I’ve shown how players can be taught sound  tackling without even wearing pads.  Also,  how they can be taught safely.  Experience with my own players and with those at various camps have proven the worth of the method.

Amazingly, after being taught - and practicing - the basics of our form tackle, without having incurred the risk of practice injuries that come from taking a man down,   our players are absolutely effective, hard tacklers in game condition



(Okay. True confession. There is ONE drill I like - the “pancake drill” - in which the tackler drives the runner to the “ground,” which in this one case is a port-a-pit,  or a number of large dummies arranged  to provide a soft landing.   As with most high-speed collisions in our drills, the “runner” holds a hand-held shield so that players can hit at full speed, holding nothing back, and still minimize the chance of injury.  Actually, this drill’s main purpose is not to teach tackling, but mostly  to let the experienced kids have some good clean fun, and to help the less experienced kids overcome fear of contact.)



*********** Joe Lieberman was  four years behind me at Yale.  The son of a Jewish liquor store owner,  he was the first in his family to graduate from college.  He graduated from law school, went on to be elected US Senator from Connecticut, and ran for Vice-President with Al (gag me) Gore as President.

Now that he’s gone, I can’t think offhand of any Democratic politicians  that I’d call 9-1-1 for if I noticed they were on fire.  But I really did respect Joe Lieberman as a man of intelligence and  good manners who seemed actually to put his country ahead of his tribe - er, party.

Rest in Peace, Joe.



*********** Sent me by Greg Koenig (story originally attributed to someone online called “The Green Bay Guy”)

During a practice in 1960, a steel coaching tower, weighing around 1000 pounds, blew over and fell on top of Ray Nitschke. The tower had a bolt sticking out that pierced Ray’s helmet.

Coach Lombardi rushed over to see what happened. Upon realizing that it fell on Nitschke, he proclaimed, "He'll be fine. Get back to work!”

*********** Bridgegate?

From Business Insider: In an emailed statement to BI, a Danish engineering and architecture consultancy called COWI said that bridges are not usually designed to withstand a direct impact from a ship.

Instead, engineers would create structures near the bridge supports that a ship would hit first, absorbing the impact.

They’re talking about fenders, or bundles of pilings driven into the sea  floor, called breasting dolphins.



*********** Now that we’ve seen the real cost of foregoing  the use of tugs to get ships out of the Baltimore Harbor and  past the Francis Scott Key Bridge… was it worth the savings?


*********** Apart from the tragic loss of life, the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge is going to have three  major effects, two of them long-lasting.


First is the effect on the local economy   Baltimore  is a major port city and until the harbor entrance can be cleared of all the wreckage, the local economy is really going to suffer.

Then there is the effect on road transportation.  There are two tunnels under the Baltimore Harbor that allow north-south travelers to avoid  city traffic.   But hazmat cargoes aren't permitted  through them, so now with the bridge gone, in order to bypass Baltimore traffic,  hazmat trucks will have to swing  north around the city on the beltway, meaning an additional 30 or so miles of travel, while contributing to huge traffic congestion.  With  the prospects of a replacement bridge maybe ten years away, life in the Baltimore area is going to become very difficult for a very long time.

And, finally, there is the loss of confidence in… everything.  The loss of a bridge seems of a piece with a growing lack of overall governmental competence.



*********** One thing we know for sure… The “Francis Scott Key” Bridge is gone forever. 

Maybe its replacement will be the  Frederick Douglass Bridge.  Or the Harriet Tubman Bridge.  (They were both Marylanders.) Or the Beau Biden Bridge (didn’t he die in a bridge collapse?). Or even, since it’ll take years to complete - the Joseph Biden Bridge, in honor of a president who said he used to  ride trains over the old one (which, someone should have told him, was so steep  no locomotive in the world could have climbed it).

But since it’s no longer possible to see any good in anyone who ever owned slaves - er. “enslaved people” - there’s no chance that any  replacement bridge will be named for Francis Scott Key.


*********** Who to believe?

The Biden who tells us,  shortly after  the demolition of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, that it was not an act of terrorism?

Or the Biden who tells us that he’d been over the FSK Bridge many times  - on a train?



*********** While browsing through Barry Switzer’s autobiography, “Bootlegger’s Boy,”  I came across this description of Earl Campbell...

In high school at Tyler, Texas, Earl was just totally unfair to the opposition. He was a man playing against children. In high school Earl was 220 pounds and ran a 4.5 40. He would take the football and move the whole pile of players down the field with him. It was awesome. It was close to murder. Nobody could tackle him. I think Earl is the only player I have ever seen who could've gone straight from High school into the NFL and become a starter and a star immediately.


*********** We hear a lot about draft busts, and how often the pro scouts miss, but when you see this stat, you have to respect them a little.

Of the current 32 projected NFL starting QBs…

21 were taken in the 1st round of the draft
4  were taken in the  2nd round
2 were taken in the  3rd round
4 were taken in the  4th round
And 1 (drum roll, please) was taken in the 7th round



*********** Ohio State wrestling coach Tom Ryan says that when looking for wrestlers at Ohio State, “I want kids whose mom says ‘it’s always my kid’s fault’ as compared to the one who says ‘It’s never my kid’s fault.’”



*********** The NFL may or may not have managed to minimize the sheer boredom of touchbacks on kickoffs.  We’ll see.

But in making the surprise onside kick a relic of the past, it has removed a  very rare but extremely exciting bit of strategy.



*********** Back in December the NFL said that it would only play on Christmas if Christmas happened to fall on  “an NFL day.”

This year, Christmas falls on a Wednesday.

But in a world in which men can identify as women, Wednesday now identifies as an NFL day, so the NFL will play two games on Christmas.

I think I know why.

This past Christmas’ Chiefs-Raiders game drew 29.2 million viewers.

The NBA, which used to own Christmas Day, could draw no better than 5.1 million viewers to its top-rated Christmas Day game (Lakers-Celtics).

 

*********** One of the things that  Homer Smith shared with me was a photocopy of what he titled  “HISTORY OF FOOTBALL CONCEPTS.”   I don’t think it has ever been published.

I wrote his daughter, Kim Smith Hall, whom I’d dealt with in the past, to ask for her permission to reprint it here, and she very graciously gave it.  She did say that while she no longer “actively” sells her dad’s manuals, she would be glad to put together a set for anyone interested in purchasing. She said I should feel free to say that if any of you were to email her, she would “certainly respond.”

If  anyone is interested,  her email address is kimhall@mindspring.com

In the meantime, below are the first four pages of Coach Homer Smith’s work.  I guarantee you that there’s stuff in here that you didn’t know, and stuff that will make you look at things you thought you knew - in a different light.





***********   As you pointed out, you've shown the Walter Camp stat at least twice. You're clearly trying to use it to cover your own eight years at Yale. Don't be embarrassed. Think of it as your having had time to learn twice as much.

Many years ago I was near Philly and watched the Mummers Parade on tv. I don't recall anything controversial. If the Wikipedia is correct, though, a lot of what went on was objectionable.

Warren Buffet's offer of one billion dollars to the person who produced a perfect NCAA BB bracket still stands. I'm making plans now to fly to Omaha to pick up my money. At the same time, there's been so much about this year's tourney to dislike, including the worst officiating imaginable. And most of those obvious officiating errors were never corrected.

John Vermillion
St. Petersburg, Florida


No way they would have kept me around for eight years.

In June, 1960 (“ANNO DOMINI MDCCCCLX”) - in return for my pledge to  leave and never return -   I received a Yale diploma.  I was disappointed that it took me all of  FOUR YEARS to convince them it was a good deal for them.



***********   Hugh,

Auburn’s a football school.  San Diego State is a basketball school.  Yale is…well…Yale.

Greg Sankey is the commissioner of the SEC…frankly…after the performances of their men’s “basketball” schools the SEC women’s basketball teams fill that void.

Otherwise Sankey is the commissioner of a football conference, with the possible exception of Vanderbilt.

In football broadcasting Beth Mowins drives me crazy.  Especially since she seems to do almost every Minnesota game.

At least the Iggles still have their own song!  What happened to “Hail to the Redskins??” Hello??

What will they call law students in the state of Washington who practice law??
“Lawyers??”  What will they call obese people in Nashville wearing a badge??  “Cops??”  What will they call passengers flying on Southwest Airlines flights?? (What passengers??).

Me thinks the powers that be in college football are sending Notre Dame a very loud message. 

The “hip-drop” tackle.  Is that the result of the NFL’s “hawk tackling” approach to “safer” football that has now lost its luster due to the atrocious tackling found at all levels of the game??

QUIZ: Otto Graham (now there’s a boy’s first name you don’t see much anymore).

Have a great week!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas

Actually, the bit about Southwest was made up. It was the only one.  The worst part is that considering what’s happening in this country, it’s so believable!


 



*********** QUIZ ANSWER:  Otto Graham  first began playing pro football in 1946, following World War II, and was one of the first of what could be called “modern-day” quarterbacks.  He retired in 1955,  but  he is still considered  one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time.

In five of his ten seasons as a pro football player, he was his league’s MVP - twice in the AAFC, three times in the NFL.

For ten straight years -  every one of his ten pro football seasons - he took the Cleveland Browns to their league’s championship game, and won seven of them (four in the AAFC, three in the NFL).

He grew up in Waukegan, Illinois.  His parents were both music teachers, and he grew up playing four instruments.    He went to  Northwestern  on a basketball scholarship. and he played on the varsity basketball team as a freshman.

He didn’t play football until his sophomore year when  coach Pappy Waldorf saw him playing intramural football and invited him to try out for the team.  He looked good in the tryout and Waldorf was able to convince him to play football.

In his first game,  a 51-3 win over Kansas State, he returned a punt 90 yards for a touchdown and, playing tailback in the single wing, he passed and ran for two more touchdowns.

A few weeks later, he threw for two touchdowns against Ohio State, giving the Buckeyes their only loss of the season and leaving a permanent impression on Ohio State coach Paul Brown.

With World War II under way and Northwestern’s roster depleted, his junior season was unspectacular.  But in his senior year, with a roster fortified with service members assigned to train there, Northwestern was good. And so was he. The Wildcats finished 8-2 and ranked ninth in the national rankings.   He was named the Big Ten’s Most Valuable Player, was an All-American, and finished third in the Heisman voting. 

He also played baseball and basketball. As a junior he was named to The Sporting News  All-America  basketball team, and as a senior he was a consensus All-America pick.

Having enlisted in the Coast Guard, he was assigned  to North Carolina Pre-Flight, where he was approached by Paul Brown, now coaching another service team, with an offer he couldn’t refuse.  Brown was contracted to coach a new professional team in a new professional league (the All-American Football Conference)  in Cleveland,  and he offered our guy a contract calling for $7500 (good money at the time).  But since he wouldn’t receive any pay until the team started playing, Brown agreed to pay him $250 a month for the duration of the war.  That was an amazing amount of money then, and he remembered saying, at the time,  “Where do I sign?”

With the war over, while waiting for the  AAFC's first season to start, he played professional basketball for the  Rochester Royals of the National Basketball League , and in his one season with them, the Royals won the NBL title.

He had an amazing pro football career.

With  him as their quarterback, the Browns  won 105 games and lost just 17, with 4 ties.  In the post-season, their record was  9–3. His 81 per cent   career winning percentage  remains a record for  NFL starting QBs.

He holds the NFL record for career average yards per  attempt (8.63).

He attempted 2626 passes and competed 1464 (55.8 per cent) for 23,584 yards and 174 touchdowns.

He threw 135 interceptions.

In addition, he rushed for 882 yards and 44 touchdowns.

In the 1953 season, he took a forearm to the face that required 15 stitches, and Brown, ever the innovator, devised a clear plastic bar that attached to the helmet and protected his quarterback's face.

Paul Brown’s  passing attack was really advanced in comparison to what most other football coaches were doing, and he was derided by some for playing what they suggested was a sissified type of offense.  After the Browns, in their first game in the NFL,  beat the defending NFL champion Philadelphia Eagles, 35-10, Eagles’ coach Greasy Neale said “all he (Brown) does is put the ball in the air.”  When the two teams met again, 11 weeks later, the Browns won, 13-7, without throwing a pass.  Granted, it was rainy and field was muddy, but Brown was just the sort to do something like this to prove a point.

At a time when most quarterbacks called their plays, he did not,  Brown choosing instead to send in plays with his guards - “messenger guards” as they came to be called.   In  the eyes of some experts, this made him less of a quarterback, but today, with coaches able to communicate  with quarterbacks by in-helmet radio (something Brown experimented with in the 1950s), no NFL quarterback calls his own plays.

For all but the last  four seasons of his pro career, he wore number 60.  In 1952, the NFL required offensive linemen to wear numbers from 50 through 79 to make it easier for officials to identify eligible receivers, and from that point on he wore number 14.

After he retired from playing football in 1955, he coached in the College All-Star Game and became head football coach at the US  Coast Guard Academy.

After seven years there, he was hired as head coach of the Washington Redskins in 1966. (He had been elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame a year earlier.)

Following three unsuccessful years in Washington, he was let go to make room for Vince Lombardi.  He had two years left on a $50,000 a year contract.   (Just to put things in perspective.)

He returned to the Coast Guard Academy, and  served as athletic director there until his retirement in 1984.

He was the first of only two people to have played on championship teams in two of our four major professional sports. (Gene Conley was the second.)

He is on the NFL’s 1950s All-Decade Team.

He is on the NFL’s 75th Anniversary All-Time Team and its  100th Anniversary All-Time Team.

He is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame and the College Football Hall of Fame.

In 2013, Northwestern created an organization in his honor to promote financial support of its athletics programs.

How important was Otto Graham to the Browns? They  won  back-to-back NFL championships his last two seasons as a player (1954, 1955).  They’ve played 68 seasons since then, and in all that time they have only  one NFL  title (1964) to show for their efforts.


 CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING OTTO GRAHAM


GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO - One of the greats - a giant in our game.  Did you know that he didn’t want a new jersey when he had to change from 60 to 14?
https://www.si.com/nfl/2014/06/17/nfl-history-in-95-objects-otto-graham-jersey
JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS - Now there’s a boy’s name you don’t see much any more!
TOM DAVIS - SAN MARCOS, CALIFORNIA -
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
JOHN ZELLER - TUSTIN, MICHIGAN - 10 championship games in 10 years - Take that, Aaron Rodgers!
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY - Your quiz choice was my favorite Cleveland Brown player as a boy.
If I was home I would send you some of framed pictures of him and other Brown favorites that I collected.  I have one picture that has six Cleveland hall of famers in one picture.
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS



*********** Talk about football innovators…

There was Art Michalic - the guy whose hit on Otto Graham resulted in his wearing a facemask…

https://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profootballtalk/rumor-mill/news/art-michalik-whose-hit-led-otto-graham-to-wear-a-facemask-dies-at-91




 
***********  QUIZ: He grew up in Arkansas City, Kansas, where he played football, basketball and tennis in high school.

He started out at Texas, recruited there by legendary Longhorns coach Dana X. Bible, but he entered the military during  World War II, and after the war he was lured to Oklahoma by then-coach Jim Tatum, who suggested that he at least turn out for spring practice.

Thinking that he’d try spring practice at both OU and Texas before deciding where to go, he agreed.

Although more than 300 players showed up for OU spring ball, he made the team after being switched from halfback to quarterback by backfield coach Bud Wilkinson - who told him that in OU’s split-T offense, the  quarterback did more of the running. It sounded good to him. “I never made it back to Texas,” he said later.

When Tatum left for Maryland after one year, Wilkinson succeeded him as head coach.

He became the first of a long string of great Oklahoma split-T quarterbacks.  In his senior year he was Oklahoma’s first All-American quarterback, on what   Wilkinson called "the first good team we had here."

In his final game, a 14-6 Sugar Bowl win over North Carolina, he was named the Player of the Game.

(His successor at QB for the Sooners was a young fellow from Hollis, Oklahoma named Darrell Royal.)

After a year as head coach at Blackwell, Oklahoma High School, he served as an assistant at Tulsa and then at Texas Tech before being hired as head coach at Wichita State.

In two years there he went 4-4-1 and then 9-1, and that was enough to interest the people at Arkansas when Bowden Wyatt left there for Tennessee.

One of the players he recruited to Arkansas was Barry Switzer.

I hadn't signed with Arkansas when Bowden (Wyatt) left, so I didn't know if I really had a scholarship. But (———)  a flamboyant kind of guy, took Bowden's place and sent George Cole down to Crossett  to see me. George, a great player and assistant coach who later became athletic Director at Arkansas, took me out to the Wagon Wheel café. After we ate our chicken-fried steak, he gave me his recruiting speech: "I'll tell you what, son. I'm going to give you a bed to sleep in and a plate to eat off of, and as long as you make your bed and behave yourself, I won't break your plate. "

He did a decent job at Arkansas - going 17-12-1 in three years - and wound up being hired by Kansas. (He was succeeded at Arkansas by Frank Broyles.)

Kansas isn’t an easy place to win at now, and it wasn’t then, but he managed to recruit some outstanding players - John Hadl, Bert Coan, Curtis McClinton, Gayle Sayers - and from 1960 through 1961 Kansas had a nice run in which the Jayhawks were 20-8-3.

His 1961 team defeated Rice in the Bluebonnet Bowl. It would turn out to be Kansas’ last bowl win until 1992.

A pair of two-win seasons in 1965 and 1966 cost him the Kansas job,

Overall, he was 44-42-5 in nine seasons at Kansas.

In Big Eight conference play  he was 29-28-4. Only one other Kansas coach since World War I has left Kansas with a winning conference record - and that was famed basketball coach Phog Allen, who was  3-2 in 1920, his only season as a football coach.

He never coached again. For 20 years he was publisher of the Daily News of Wellington, Kansas.

In  Dave Camerer's "Winning Football Plays" (1962), the author writes that when  our guy was an assistant at Texas Tech,  he had promised scholarships to 12 kids in his recruiting area, then  learned that  because of budget considerations Tech had  to cut his scholarships back to six.  Our guy got on the phone to deliver the bad news - but  then continued to work the phone until he'd managed to place those six disappointed kids in good programs. "Sure, it took him days," Camerer wrote, "but he stuck with that phone until that twelfth boy was taken care of."



TUESDAY, MARCH  26, 2024      “We see no Hitlers or Stalins on the horizon, forgetting that our forebears did not see them either.” Robert Kagan, Wall Street Journal


*********** Wisdom from Mike Lude.  (Talking about his days as a Wing-T coach) “We never drew our plays up with a defense in it.  Our rules took care of it.”


***********  I don’t ordinarily bet on sports, but when I got up last Friday  something told me to bet everything I had on Yale to beat Auburn.  I had to trick my wife  into coming with me to the bank to take out a second mortgage (I told her it was to buy a ranch in Montana,  and she was cool with that) but as soon as I dropped her off at home I went for a little ride so I could call Vinny the barber and  tell him I wanted to make a large bet on the Yale game.  He said, “Football season’s over.” But when I told him that  this was basketball, he said, “Who they playin’ - Columbia? Harvard?”  When I told him it was Auburn, he said, “Okay. Auburn to beat Yale, right?  Money line?”  He almost choked when I told him, “No - on Yale.  To win.  Money line. 200 large.”

And then I woke up.

But it was cool - really cool - to watch those Yalies upset Auburn Friday night.  For a brief time it made me forget how Yale (the university) has turned into a leftwing cesspool, and in my mind I drifted back to an earlier, better time.

I really laughed at the fun the guys in the studio - Clark Kellogg, Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley - were having with Yale’s unexpected success.  Smith really acted as if he wanted Yale to win.

Barkley, an Auburn guy, took the loss pretty well, although he did admit that he’d told a former teammate - Yale alum Chris Dudley - ““No way we losin’ to the smart kids!”

Since then, I’ve heard at least one ex-Yalie say: “It just meant more.”



*********** Maybe Greg Sankey should stick to football. 

He’s the SEC Commissioner, and he sort of made a fool of himself before the basketball tournament by suggesting that the NCAA cut back on the automatic bids to champions of smaller conferences.

Oh - and give those spots instead to members of his conference, which “only” got eight spots this year.

And then Oakland (a 14 seed) went out and beat blue blood Kentucky.

And Oregon beat South Carolina.

And Michigan State beat Mississippi State.

And Colorado beat Florida.

And Yale - Yale, for God’s sake - beat Auburn, the SEC tournament champion.

What was that you were saying, Commissioner Sankey?


*********** Women’s basketball has progressed well past the point where it was just UConn and Tennessee and everyone else.  Now, there’s more talent, and the  talent’s better spread out, so there are lots more  good teams.

But there still isn’t enough talent for the sort of parity the men’s tournament enjoys, and in my opinion it’s going to be quite a while before the women’s tournament has anything comparable to a Duquesne over BYU, an Oakland over Kentucky, a Yale over Auburn.



*********** It was painful enough watching San Diego State beat Yale as badly as they did, but what made it even more painful was having to listen to one Lisa Byington do the “play-by-play” or whatever they call that non-stop chatter.


*********** Listening to Tracy Wolfson is like listening to fingernails scraping down a blackboard. (Uh-oh  Does anyone remember blackboards?)


*********** AHEM.  ANYBODY NOTICE THAT I JUMPED THE GUN ON THE UFL’S OPENING WEEKEND BY A WEEK? 

MY WIFE DID.  SHE GOT TIRED OF HEARING ME RANT ABOUT THE GAMES NOT BEING ON TV AS PROMISED, AND DECIDED TO DO SOME RESEARCH. (IT WAS SO HELPFUL THAT I’M EVEN CONSIDERING TRYING IT MYSELF.)


ANYHOW… TUNE IN THE UFL THIS WEEKEND. YES, THIS WEEKEND!


(QBS IN PARANTHESES)


SATURDAY, 1 PM ET (FOX)

BIRMINGHAM STALLIONS (MATT CORRAL, ADRIAN MARTINEZ)  AT ARLINGTON RENEGADES (LUIS PEREZ)


SATURDAY, 4 PM ET (FOX)

ST LOUIS BATTLEHAWKS (AJ MCCARRON, BRANDON SILVERS)  AT MICHIGAN PANTHERS (DANNY ETLING, BRIAN LEWERKE)


SUNDAY 12 NOON ET (ESPN)

D.C. DEFENDERS (DEONDRE FRANCOIS, JORDAN TA’AMU)  AT SAN ANTONIO BRAHMAS (TOM FLACCO, CHASE GARBERS)


SUNDAY 3 PM ET (ESPN)

MEMPHIS SHOWBOATS (CASE COOKUS, JOSH LOVE)  AT HOUSTON ROUGHNECKS (JARRETT GUARANTANO)



***********  The story behind the “Fly Eagles Fly” song…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXKEzGgOiXs

On the night before the 2018 Super Bowl, the Philadelphia Orchestra played it…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFClAV6JaF8

A bunch of old guys sing it in Pennsylvania Dutch (“Flieg Adler Flieg”)

https://www.youtufly eagles flybe.com/watch?v=TFClAV6JaF8

Two long, truly Philly traditions come together as only they can when “Fly Eagles Fly” is played by Philly string bands.

Nothing is more Philly than the New Year’s Day Mummers’ Parade, and at the heart of the festivities are the uniquely-Philly string bands, often representing neighborhoods and in some cases, ethnicities.  I should mention that the Mummer’s Parade from its start was very white, and as the city  changed demographically, it lost some of its popularity.  It’s still big - as many as a dozen string bands will participate -  but it’s nowhere near as big as it once was.

String bands and their distinctive sound are  authentically “Philly,” and they’re often seen year-round at area parades and festivals.  (And, of course, on the way to Eagles’ games  and at pre-game tailgates.)

Notice that when marching, the leader of the band - the captain - will often break into the  “Mummers’ strut,” a sort of march-and-dance that’s typical of all string bands.

“Fly Eagles Fly”, Played by the Pennsport String Band

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8eNhDp-e3Y

By the Uptown String Band

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPqc8CZZ6wM

By the South Philly String Band

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouaObGOBlmI

By the Ferko String Band

https://youtu.be/4B_Fmn7OH7s?si=r-NrAsTTNWLpDMHZ


Philly string bands, made up of real,  down-to-earth, born-and bred Philly  guys (with all that that entails), have never been noted for their political correctness or sensitivity, and as a result the Mummers Parade has been at the center of a fair amount of civic controversy over the years. 

This, from Wikipedia:

The parade has been accused of including hate speech, racist, sexist, anti-LGBT, and culturally insensitive costumes, makeup, and images.

The wearing of blackface carried over from minstrel shows in the early 20th century.  Growing dissent from civil-rights groups and the objections of the black community led to most clubs phasing out blackface in the early 1960s.

In 1963, one week before the parade, concerned about their image for a nationwide broadcast, the Mummers banned blackface for the parade. Angry Mummers picketed the parade magistrate's home, leading to a reversal of the decision. Concerned about a possible riot, the city called in extra police for the parade.  A 1964 city policy officially banned blackface, but some groups have continued to wear blackface into the 21st century over growing protests.  However, as of 2017, the use of blackface is extremely uncommon amongst the parade.

In 1985, the South Philadelphia String Band petitioned to use blackface and was denied.

In 1987, Philadelphia mayor Wilson Goode had Mummers photos removed from City Hall because the Mummers appeared to be wearing blackface. Saying the Mummers were not in blackface, a petition resulted in the photos being restored, though not near the mayor's office.

In 1996, half of the string bands reported having female members. The bands' captains, though, made it clear to reporters that they did not want to let women in the bands, but felt they had to, due to declining membership.

In 2003, word spread that Slick Duck Comic Brigade was working on a skit involving priests chasing altar boys. Protests from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, the Diocese of Camden and the Catholic League, and WPHL-TV announcing they would not air the skit led to the group's cancelling of the skit and claiming it was just a prank.

Goodtimers Comic Brigade's 2003 entry highlighted the Mummers' continued use of blackface, skirting of the rules with brown, red, purple and blue makeup and strong references to minstrel shows. Mummers have declared the alternate color choices as a direct protest of the longstanding and frequently flouted ban. The Goodtimers' stand-in for Al Jolson wore dark blue makeup with kinky hair, backed by "a minstrel in blackface on a large poster with 'Gone Yes — Forgotten Never'"

In 2009, B. Love Strutters Brigade referenced the charges of discrimination filed against Joey Vento of Geno's Steaks in the city's Commission on Human Relations. In the skit, "Aliens of an Illegal Kind", Arabs had long beards and turbans, Mexicans wore sombreros, and Asian women were depicted as geishas", The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
In 2013, The Ferko String Band offered "Ferko's Bringing Back the Minstrel Days".

In 2013, Venetian NYA club presented "Indi-sourcing", showing a call center with members dressed as Indians being raided by members dressed as Native Americans and moving the call center to New Jersey.

The 2015 parade again featured blackface, along with a satire of the Black Lives Matter titled "Wench Lives Matter".

In 2016, a group presented a Mexican-themed skit, with all of the performers wearing brownface. Parodies of Black Lives Matter continued.

The same year, Finnegan New Years Brigade performed a Caitlyn Jenner skit showing her pre-transition on the cover of Wheaties box and after transitioning on the cover of a Froot Loops box. A male Mummer, dressed as Jenner, appeared, mocking her Vanity Fair cover announcing she was transgender. News reports showed a Mummer with the Wheaties/Froot Loops sign screaming “f- - k the gays!" Social media posts led to two of the Mummers being fired from their day-to-day jobs and ousted from the club.

In 2020, two Mummers were banned from future parades after wearing blackface. In response, mayor Jim Kenney said the city would end the parade "if Mummers leadership does not make immediate changes to better control the parade". City Councilmember Cindy Bass introduced a bill that Mummers who wore blackface risk a $75 fine and a five-year banishment.

*********** On St. Patrick’s Day, a Philly string band marches down Broad Street playing the Notre Dame Victory March. (Philly is a BIG Notre Dame town.)

https://youtu.be/Y1bAAGBMyLg?si=amrEll-Zs7J4qlBa




***********  I mentioned this before, but just in case someone starts getting obnoxious about some “six-year guy”  still playing college ball, it’s only fair to point out that Walter Camp, generally acknowledged as the father of American Football, was a  six-year guy - and then some.

I recently came across a list of all the men who’ve ever won a letter at Yale,   including the years that they won the letter(s).

Yale’s played football since 1872, so it’s a long, long list,  but there it is: Walter Camp, Class of 1880.


 

I’ll save you the counting.  He won SEVEN  letters.



************ Which of the following is NOT  true:

1. In order to  attract more lawyers from “marginalized groups” the Washington State Supreme Court has ordered the state bar association to no longer require passing the bar exam.

2. To enable more females to qualify for the police force, Nashville has proposed doing away with physical testing.

3. To meet the current shortage of airline pilots, Southwest Airlines is considering waiving vision testing.



***********  Lest we get so wrapped up in football that we ignore great accomplishments in other sports…

Penn State just won the Nittany Lions’ third consecutive  NCAA wrestling title.

It was their  12th wrestling title ever, and - get this - their 11th since Cael Sanderson became their head coach in 2009. (Their first one came in 1953 - 56 years before Sanderson arrived.)

The Lions had an entrant in every one of the 10 weight classes, and six of those wrestlers  made it to the championship round.  Penn State finished with an NCAA record 172.5 points (the old record was 170), a full 100 points ahead of the second-place team (Cornell). 

Four Nittany Lions wrestlers won individual titles, and two of them - Carter Starocci  and Aaron Brooks - became four-time national champions.  They joined  only  five other wrestlers in the history of the college sport (including Coach Cael Sanderson) to have done so.

Brooks, from - ahem - my old hometown of Hagerstown, Maryland, was named the most outstanding wrestler of the tournament.


https://gopsusports.com/sports/wrestling/roster/aaron-brooks/15256



***********   One thing overlooked in the story about the Pac-12’s demise is the power that its departure  gave the SEC and Big Ten,  the (now) so-called Power  2.

So long as there were five “power” conferences, each with one vote, the SEC and Big Ten couldn’t bully the other three, and as a result, the revenues from the CFP were shared equally among the Power 5.

But with the new contract, the SEC and Big Ten will now receive  58% (29% each) of the revenue that comes into the CFP.  The ACC will receive 17.25%, the Big 12 will receive 14.75%, the entire  Group of Five will receive 9%, and independent Notre Dame will receive 1%.


***********   I have no comment on this…

Salaries for Alabama’s 2024 football coaching staff.

HC Kalen DeBoer - $10M
DC Kane Wommack - $1.55M
OC Nick Sheridan - $1.35M
WR JaMarcus Shephard - $1.1M
DL Freddie Roach - $1M
DB Maurice Linguist - $875K
OL Chris Kapilovic - $875K
RB Robert Gillespie - $850K
OLB Christian Robinson - $650K
DB Colin Hitschler - $625K
TE Bryan Ellis - $550K
S&C David Ballou - $950K
STC Jay Nunez - $250K


Well, actually, I do have  a comment. It looks to me as if they might not be taking special teams as seriously as they should.



*********** Our local newspaper did a review of a recently-opened craft brewery, and based on what I read, I don’t think it’ll be around long.

The owner evidently was a Midwesterner, and, he told the interviewer,  “I grew up on Miller Light.   There’s something special to me about a fizzy, yellow beer.”

His “signature brew,” according to the reviewer, “gives that classic clear, smooth Miller Light crispness with craft brewery refinement.”

Wow. Yellow and fizzy.  Clear, smooth Miller Light crispness.  Just what everybody’s looking for in a craft beer.



*********** In the NFL, just 22 percent of kickoffs were returned last season. (For the mathematically  challenged, that’s about one in five).  And as you read this, the NFL rules guys are  dithering on whether to tamper  with something  rather just do away with it entirely.

But if there’s one thing the rules guys are really good at, it’s making rules that nobody can explain (what, exactly, is a catch?) and this time they’ve come up with a doozy.

You’ve probably never heard of a “swivel hip-drop tackle” before today, but you’re going to hear it a lot from now on.    It’s just been outlawed, and it’s going to take up a lot of announcers’ time explaining what exactly it is and why it was called,  and it’s going to create a lot of down time at stadiums while it’s reviewed (If, God help us, it’s reviewable.)

Perhaps it really will mean removing one more dangerous tactic from the game, but  if that were the real intent, they’d have done something long ago about leading with the head, launching, and hitting defenseless players.

Personally, I suspect the  rules interpretation guys back at league headquarters - the ones who always come on whenever  the announcers need help with the rules -   went out and formed a union, which immediately lobbied to get this rule passed so there’d always be plenty of work for their members.



***********   Jonathan  Winters may have said it best:

"Somebody tell the world to stop - or just slow down"

1. This is late.  When the "Charley Pell Quiz " came up on the Wyatt Quiz a few weeks ago, , I was in Tampa International Airport waiting to get to Wifey in Michigan.  I snagged a ride through a friend who could only get me to TIA by 11:30 the previous night.

Now, there's an entire industry devoted to designing Low-Back Seats that prevent people from sleeping in them and it's now about 5:30 AM-IN THE MORNING and I'm getting grumpy.

Suddenly, a Text comes through from the Nameless Airline through which I booked the flight  (Hint: "Frontier").  "All flights cancelled".  Massive Blizzard.  I managed to  get an old family friend to get me.  Believe me, there's more to this but no Certificate of Participation this time for Charlie for this week's Wyatt Quiz.

Here is Charley Pell and, as you can see, he is set tighter than a snare drum in a rain storm.  Virtually every sentence he utters is spoken with pain and tension.  "We want our players to get ahead on their studies..."  Sure, Coach.  Special Guest appearance: Chris Collinsworth.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBc9O3xjc0Q


I was at this game.  "Ooohh, My", as a Gator Announcer might say.   This was at the Height of the Alabama Wishbone.  Florida was in collapse after Doug Dickey and Ken Hatfield left. Soon, Mike Shanahan would come on board.

2.  Unbalanced Line: There was a question recently concerning how to best use Unbalanced Formations.  There are many smart and sturdy Coaches who are quite happy to march the  Split End over to the Tight End Side and be done with it. I do not denigrate these Coaches at all.

All I ask is that you consider moving the Tackle over next to the other Tackle.  Doodle ALL PLAYS on paper - especially the Power Plays - and COUNT Defensive Players.  Then, consider what hath God wrought:

A. Your Split End (Your Best Receiver) forces their best Defender to cover the field.  If the DC uses the Safety (# 2, Outside Inside Count) to help, you are facing a Maximum of 4 Defenders Off-Tackle.  With No-Splits and Power Pulls, you "Get there Fustest with the Mostest."

B. The Defensive Shifts to counter the Outnumbered Attack puts 4 Defenders on the Short Side and you need to scheme your Bucks 'n Such to that side.  The Half Roll by the QB into the Power Side provides a nice pocket for a Quick Attack against one or two Defenders into open space.

I could go on and on - and have.  Let me just say that the Tackle Over Unbalanced is a thing of Beauty.

Thanx, HW,

Charlie Wilson
Brooksville, Florida



***********   I wish every university were headed by a replica of Ana Mari Cauce. Her wife admires her as much as I do. The more I read about this woman, the less I like her. Seems that not far in the future, every college and university in America will have a female head...just because.

John Vermillion                            
St Petersburg, Florida



***********   Hugh,

Looking forward to the new UFL and the opening weekend.

I really hope OSU and Wazzu can breathe life into a PAC-West affiliation, and come up with a lucrative TV rights contract.

Enjoy the weekend!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas




***********  I knew Homer Smith.  Not well, but he and I exchanged correspondence in his later years, and I clearly recall the day he stopped in on one of my clinics.  He was living in Tuscaloosa at the time, and I had off-handedly told him that I was going to be doing a clinic in Birmingham and he was more than welcome to attend.  (I didn’t have the courage to ask a coach of his stature if he would care to say a few words.) It was midway through the afternoon session when I saw a man come in and take  seat in the back, and I knew him immediately.   I’d seen  him speak at clinics. I also knew of him from when I was a kid and he was the fullback on those great Princeton teams, and I’d followed him over the years.

I have a wealth of materials that he sent me, as well as materials that he’d shared with a former player whom I’d become friends with who then shared them with me.  One of the things I find  most valuable is a photocopied “HISTORY OF FOOTBALL CONCEPTS.”   I don’t think it has ever been published.

I wrote his daughter, Kim Smith Hall, whom I’d dealt with in the past, to ask for her permission to reprint it here, and she very graciously gave it.  She did say that while she no longer “actively” sells her dad’s manuals, she would be glad to put together a set for anyone interested in purchasing. She said I should feel free to say that if any of you were to email her, she would “certainly respond.”

So if  anyone is interested,  her email address is kimhall@mindspring.com

In the meantime, here is the table of contents of the “HISTORY OF FOOTBALL CONCEPTS.”  It’s really a good read and it covers stuff that I don’t believe you could find anyplace else.   I’m willing to make the effort to scan and print a couple of pages at a time - provided enough people show interest. 










 

***********   QUIZ ANSWER: Homer Smith was born in Independence, Missouri and grew up in Omaha, where his father was a car dealer. At Princeton, he was a single  wing fullback who was twice named All-East.  His 273 yards rushing against Harvard was a school record that lasted for nearly 40 years.

After service in the Army, he  entered Stanford Business School and while there coached the freshman football team. He wound up spending four years at Stanford,

From 1961-1964 he coached running backs at Air Force, and in 1965 he became head coach at Davidson. After five years there, he moved to University of the Pacific, and after two years at Pacific he went to UCLA as an assistant to Pepper Rodgers.

With him coaching  the offensive backfield, the 1973 Bruins, running the wishbone, led the nation in rushing, averaging 400.3 yards a game.

The book on the Wishbone that he and Rodgers co-authored is still considered the ultimate guide to coaching the offense.

That got him the head coaching job at Army.  The Vietnam War was still going on, and although his teams showed some improvement - his 1977 team won seven games, including wins over Air force and Navy - he was fired after losing to Navy in 1978.

One good thing came from the time at West Point - his star quarterback, Leamon Hall, would meet and marry his daughter.

From there, he entered Harvard Divinity School,  but after finishing the two-year program there, he returned to UCLA, this time as offensive coordinator under Terry Donahue.  In his seven seasons there, the Bruins would go 59-12-4.

He spent just one year in the NFL - a season as offensive coordinator for the Kansas City Chiefs, then returned to coach college football at Alabama under Bill Curry, then UCLA again (under Donahue),  then Alabama again (under Gene Stallings) until finally going to Arizona (under Dick Tomey) where he retired after the 1997 season.

Homer Smith was considered a brilliant offensive mind, and a great quarterbacks coach.  At UCLA he coached several QBs who played in the NFL, including  Steve Bono, Tommy Maddox, Jay Schroeder and Rick Neuheisel,

And he was a perfectionist.  Recalled Leamon Hall, his son-in-law, in a New York Times interview, “He wouldn’t just tell a running back, ‘Go off the butt of the guard’; he’d get down on the ground and point to a blade of grass, and he’d say, ‘Straddle that!’ ”

CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING HOMER SMITH


JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO - What an impact he had on offensive thinking in our game
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS - Has there ever been a more knowledgeable offensive coach in football than Homer Smith?
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS - A former teammate of mine in JC (Ed Kezirian) later played OT for UCLA, and later on became the OL coach under Coach Smith at UCLA when Smith was the OC.
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE BURCHETT - WOODLAKE, CALIFORNIA - His handbook on clock management should be required reading for aspiring football coaches!
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS - When I got into coaching in the early 80’s he was already a legend among many of the older coaches

 



*********** QUIZ:  He  first began playing pro football in 1946, following World War II, and was one of the first of what could be called “modern-day” quarterbacks.  He retired in 1955,  but  he is still considered  one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time.

In five of his ten seasons as a pro football player, he was his league’s MVP - twice in the AAFC, three times in the NFL.

For ten straight years -  every one of his ten pro football seasons - he took the Cleveland Browns to their league’s championship game, and won seven of them (four in the AAFC, three in the NFL).

He grew up in Waukegan, Illinois.  His parents were both music teachers, and he grew up playing four instruments.    He went to  Northwestern  on a basketball scholarship. and he played on the varsity basketball team as a freshman.

He didn’t play football until his sophomore year when  coach Pappy Waldorf saw him playing intramural football and invited him to try out for the team.  He looked good in the tryout and Waldorf was able to convince him to play football.

In his first game,  a 51-3 win over Kansas State, he returned a punt 90 yards for a touchdown and, playing tailback in the single wing, he passed and ran for two more touchdowns.

A few weeks later, he threw for two touchdowns against Ohio State, giving the Buckeyes their only loss of the season and leaving a permanent impression on Ohio State coach Paul Brown.

With World War II under way and Northwestern’s roster depleted, his junior season was unspectacular.  But in his senior year, with a roster fortified with service members assigned to train there, Northwestern was good. And so was he. The Wildcats finished 8-2 and ranked ninth in the national rankings.   He was named the Big Ten’s Most Valuable Player, was an All-American, and finished third in the Heisman voting. 

He also played baseball and basketball. As a junior he was named to The Sporting News  All-America  basketball team, and as a senior he was a consensus All-America pick.

Having enlisted in the Coast Guard, he was assigned  to North Carolina Pre-Flight, where he was approached by Paul Brown, now coaching another service team, with an offer he couldn’t refuse.  Brown was contracted to coach a new professional team in a new professional league (the All-American Football Conference)  in Cleveland,  and he offered our guy a contract calling for $7500 (good money at the time).  But since he wouldn’t receive any pay until the team started playing, Brown agreed to pay him $250 a month for the duration of the war.  That was an amazing amount of money then, and he remembered saying, at the time,  “Where do I sign?”

With the war over, while waiting for the  AAFC's first season to start, he played professional basketball for the  Rochester Royals of the National Basketball League , and in his one season with them, the Royals won the NBL title.

He had an amazing pro football career.

With  him as their quarterback, the Browns  won 105 games and lost just 17, with 4 ties.  In the post-season, their record was  9–3. His 81 per cent   career winning percentage  remains a record for  NFL starting QBs.

He holds the NFL record for career average yards per  attempt (8.63).

He attempted 2626 passes and competed 1464 (55.8 per cent) for 23,584 yards and 174 touchdowns.

He threw 135 interceptions.

In addition, he rushed for 882 yards and 44 touchdowns.

In the 1953 season, he took a forearm to the face that required 15 stitches, and Brown, ever the innovator, devised a clear plastic bar that attached to the helmet and protected his quarterback's face.

Paul Brown’s  passing attack was really advanced in comparison to what most other football coaches were doing, and he was derided by some for playing what they suggested was a sissified type of offense.  After the Browns, in their first game in the NFL,  beat the defending NFL champion Philadelphia Eagles, 35-10, Eagles’ coach Greasy Neale said “all he (Brown) does is put the ball in the air.”  When the two teams met again, 11 weeks later, the Browns won, 13-7, without throwing a pass.  Granted, it was rainy and field was muddy, but Brown was just the sort to do something like this to prove a point.

At a time when most quarterbacks called their plays, he did not,  Brown choosing instead to send in plays with his guards - “messenger guards” as they came to be called.   In  the eyes of some experts, this made him less of a quarterback, but today, with coaches able to communicate  with quarterbacks by in-helmet radio (something Brown experimented with in the 1950s), no NFL quarterback calls his own plays.

For all but the last  four seasons of his pro career, he wore number 60.  In 1952, the NFL required offensive linemen to wear numbers from 50 through 79 to make it easier for officials to identify eligible receivers, and from that point he wore number 14.

After he retired from playing football in 1955, he coached in the College All-Star Game and became head football coach at the US  Coast Guard Academy.

After seven years there, he was hired as head coach of the Washington Redskins in 1966. (He had been elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame a year earlier.)

Following three unsuccessful years in Washington, he was let go to make room for Vince Lombardi.  He had two years left on a $50,000 a year contract.   (Just to put things in perspective.)

He returned to the Coast Guard Academy, and  served as athletic director there until his retirement in 1984.

He was the first of only two people to have played on championship teams in two of our four major professional sports. (Gene Conley was the second.)

He is on the NFL’s 1950s All-Decade Team.

He is on the NFL’s 75th Anniversary All-Time Team and its  100th Anniversary All-Time Team.

He is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame and the College Football Hall of Fame.

In 2013, Northwestern created an organization in his honor to promote financial support of its athletics programs.

How important was he to the Browns? They  won  back-to-back NFL championships his last two seasons as a player (1954, 1955).  They’ve played 68 seasons since then, and in all that time they have only  one NFL  title (1964) to show for their efforts.

 



FRIDAY, MARCH  22, 2024      “Crows cluster where scarecrows fail." Walter Russell Mead, Wall Street Journal

*********** Wisdom from Mike Lude.  Although Mike made it to the top of college sports,  he always remained a football coach at heart.  He said that after he’d retired as an AD he’d conduct sessions for young sport administrators who had ambitions to become ADs themselves, and he’d tell them that the best thing they could  do to prepare themselves to be ADs was “first be a head football coach.”  He thought the job of head football coach at a college gave a person more of the real-life experience of being an AD than any other position in an athletic department.


***********   In less than eight  months the University of Washington has…

Cut a backroom deal enabling it to join the Big Ten, essentially dooming the Pac-12 conference…

Lost its athletic director, Jennifer Cohen, to USC…

Hired another athletic director, Troy Dannen, from Tulane…

Lost its football coach, Kalen DeBoer,  (after two seasons) to Alabama…

Hired another  football coach, Jed Fisch, who has worked at 12 different places since 2000…

Lost its athletic director, Troy Dannen, to Nebraska, after  five months on the job…

In short, it’s a time of chaos for a great university that deserved better. 

Forget all the nonsense about a lack of commitment and all that old-fogey baloney.

The fish rots from the head down.

The head of the fish is the university president, Ana Mari Cauce.   She, more than anyone else, started this mess by bringing down the hatchet on the neck of the Pac-12. 

According to the Seattle Times, “Cauce, as chair of the Pac-12’s board for the 2022 academic year, helped lead the search for a deal. But she was, of course, wearing two hats: leader of the Pac-12 and leader of UW.”

And ultimately, while outwardly going through the motions of trying to save the Pac-12, she was covertly selling out the remaining  members of the conference by negotiating a deal with the Big Ten.

There are those of us who would call that “double-dealing.”

Should Karma come a'calling..  It’s impossible for me, knowing the role she played in the undoing of the Pac-12, to feel a lot of sympathy for this  in-over-her-head former professor of “gender studies.”


https://www.seattletimes.com/sports/college/inside-the-frantic-final-days-of-the-pac-12/



***********   My wife and I spent seven football seasons in Finland.  (Their “seasons” went basically from Mid-May to Mid-August.)

Finland is quite far north - we played a couple of games north of the Arctic Circle - so it seldom got really  hot during the daytime.

But when it did… whew!  Very few buildings were air-conditioned, and because of the severe winters they experience there, windows were few and small.  For a few days, it would get rough, reminding me of growing up in Philly before air conditioning.

And then I read that in France, someone had made the decision that this summer, there would be no air conditioning in the Olympic Village.  (To save the planet, if you  didn’t know.)

I don’t suppose that anyone brought up the matter of the Olympics bigwigs and their private jets.

I have a hard time believing that the athletes, as pampered and spoiled as they are, won’t bitch loudly.

Now, If I were a  young guy (and good enough to make it to the Paris Olympics) I would find a way to smuggle a portable air conditioner in my equipment bag, and then I’d plug it in and let the word get out to the ladies that it was a cool  70 degrees in my room.  (I would probably have to change that to “20 degrees Celsius” to avoid being misunderstood by most of the women in the village.)


***********   Late in the 2022 season, before any of its teams had yet fired their head coach, the NFL informed its teams that altogether they’d spent $800 million over the past five years just to pay off coaches that they’d fired.


***********   Clemson, like Florida State, would love to get out of the ACC.  But they’re locked into  the conference by a contract  (which we all know they were forced at gunpoint to sign) that requires them to  stay  in the conference or pay a rather large sum of money (which apparently they weren’t aware of because they didn’t read the large print, much less the fine print)  back when they  signed (under duress, as mentioned).

If it weren’t for the damage that their leaving would do to the ACC, I’d almost like to see them  get their freedom, because I have my doubts that either one of them has a landing spot awaiting it in either the Big Ten or the SEC.

The snooty Big Ten is said to have its  eyes on North Carolina and Virginia, two schools that get it into new markets, and bring with them a fair amount of academic prestige (if you can forget for a moment that Carolina once invented imaginary classes designed to keep athletes eligible).

The SEC isn’t at all concerned about academics, but there is the matter of whether it would gain anything by bringing in Clemson, when it’s already got South Carolina, and whether Florida would have the necessary allies to keep out rival FSU.

But here’s the great irony in their  trying to break a contract that they both freely entered into: should  they succeed in breaking free, will they then turn around and try to put an end to the transfer insanity - by requiring players to sign binding contracts?



***********   And you wondered why most NFL offenses  suck?

Not a single NFL offensive coordinator from the 2021 season is in the same position  with the same team as he was then.

Which means that on average, every year  half of  the NFL’s teams are learning a new offense.


***********  Scott Mallien, old friend and longtime reader, has accepted the head coaching position at  Southern Door High in Brussels, Wisconsin.  (The “Door” refers to Door County, which occupies the Door Peninsula. You’ve probably seen 100 times on maps without knowing you were looking at it. It’s outlined in red here. )  Coach Mallien is not new to the assignment.  He teaches at Southern Door and last season he coached  the defense.  His  challenge is the opposite of what most new coaches face:  this past season,  the Southern Door Eagles were 9-2.



*********** Sick of watching $10 million-a-year NFL players?   Getting more disgusted with each new bit of evidence that the people in charge of big-time college football - and the people who coach it and play it - are obsessed with making money to the point where for the right price they’ll sacrifice all the traditions that make our game unique?

F—k ‘em all.

Tune in the UFL this weekend.

UFL players are professionals.  They are getting paid for their efforts.  But not that much.

Their pay?  During training camp, they were paid $850 a week.  During the season, active players will get paid $5,500 a week, plus   $400 a week for housing and $150 a week 401K contribution.  When they go on the road, they’ll receive $55 per diem.

So they’re not getting stinking rich.

Why are they playing, then?  Well,  just like a lot of college players, some of them think that they have a shot at an NFL roster.   But  that’s a delusion.

Unless they’re totally delusional, their real reason for playing  is the same as once motivated NFL players.  And the same one that not so long ago we thought  motivated college players:  because they love the game.

Me, I can settle for that.


THIS WEEKEND’S SCHEDULES (QBS IN PARENTHESES)


SATURDAY, 1 PM ET (FOX)

BIRMINGHAM STALLIONS (MATT CORRAL, ADRIAN MARTINEZ)  AT ARLINGTON RENEGADES (LUIS PEREZ)


SATURDAY, 4 PM ET (FOX)

ST LOUIS BATTLEHAWKS (AJ MCCARRON, BRANDON SILVERS)  AT MICHIGAN PANTHERS (DANNY ETLING, BRIAN LEWERKE)


SUNDAY 12 NOON ET (ESPN)

D.C. DEFENDERS (DEONDRE FRANCOIS, JORDAN TA’AMU)  AT SAN ANTONIO BRAHMAS (TOM FLACCO, CHASE GARBERS)


SUNDAY 3 PM ET (ESPN)

MEMPHIS SHOWBOATS (CASE COOKUS, JOSH LOVE)  AT HOUSTON ROUGHNECKS (JARRETT GUARANTANO)



***********  Among the NFL rules changes being proposed in the league’s winter meetings, the most radical - by far - is a  change in the kickoff itself.  Here’s a link to a decent explanation by  Pat McAfee.


https://www.espn.com/video/clip/_/id/39771964



*********** You still thinking about being a college coach?

Any time you get the urge, say the name “Kadyn Proctor.”  Keep saying it until the urge goes away

Kayden Proctor  is an Iowa kid,  from outside Des Moines.

Back in 2022, he committed to Iowa, but at the last moment he flipped and  signed with Alabama.

After starting at left tackle for the Tide this past season,  he entered the transfer portal right after the Rose Bowl, and enrolled at Iowa.

But a  short time ago, just before the start of spring practice at Iowa, he re-entered the transfer portal, and all indications are that he is returning to Alabama.

My guess is that he  wasn’t happy with his advanced calculus course at Iowa  and  only entered the transfer portal when he was assured that there would be room for him in the course at Alabama.

What’s that I hear you saying, over and over?  It sounds like “Kayden Proctor.”


https://www.si.com/college/2024/03/20/kadyn-proctor-transfer-back-alabama-joining-iowa-via-portal-report


***********   “Once you lower standards for hiring administrators or admitting students, you are forced to lower standards for evaluating their conduct and performance. For purposes of window dressing, people who have no business running elite institutions such as Harvard have been put in charge of people who have no business teaching or matriculating there. What could go wrong?” Jason Riley, Wall Street Journal


***********   Hi Coach -

The answer to your quiz is Ted Marchibroda……the brains behind the Buffalo BIlls K-Gun Offense which propelled them to 4 straight Super Bowls (although they lost all 4) in the 90’s.

Thanks, Coach!!

Joe Bremer
West Seneca, New York



***********   For the last three Christmases, I have gotten cards from Coach Lude, and I feel sure one or two might've come from a family member. Nonetheless, I do have a couple of other handwritten letters from him I treasure. Six or eight weeks ago, I had a few minutes to chat with Larry Arnn, President of Hillsdale. My only regret is that I didn't fully apprise him of the event that cemented my deep respect for Hillsdale...the moment I learned Coach Milo Lude was a graduate and after WW II coached there. I wrote to the Coach, at the risk of being trite, that God granted him additional years because he had more life coaching to do down here. My association with him was shallow and quite short, but I can say he made an impression. He was a Patriot in the truest and most profound sense. God doesn't need me to tell him how to handle Coach Milo Lude.

You mentioned another person I can recall hearing about for the first time, too. I wanted to know all I could about Terry Baker. For a kid, TB (the original, not Bradshaw or Brady) was a doggoned good example.

Answer = Ted Marchibroda. I'd never noted his physical likeness to John Wooden until now.

John Vermillion                    
St. Petersburg, Florida


*********** Hugh,

After reading more articles on the life of Mike Lude it became more obvious to me with each article I read the impact Mike had on so many lives, and institutions.  A truly remarkable man.

Will there be a replay of that Summit you spoke in available to us?

McFarland HS is also the same school featured in the movie “McFarland, USA” about its cross-country team and coach Jim White.

Rick Stewart is credited with coming up with the Shotgun Wing-T.  Or, was he inspired to??

For us DW coaches the entire field is our “red zone.”

Have a good week!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas


There was a replay of one of my two talks on Tuesday night.  You should have received it in the mail today


 



*********** QUIZ ANSWER: Ted Marchibroda came out of Western Pennsylvania and starred at quarterback for St. Bonaventure, a small Catholic school in Western New York State.

He was the first draft pick of the Pittsburgh Steelers, even though they knew he had two years of compulsory military service in front of him, and  played in Pittsburgh for one year, before leaving to serve in the Army. He returned to the Steelers in 1955 and played two years for them and then one year  with the Chicago Cardinals before retiring.

And then he embarked on a 28-year career as an NFL coach, 12 as an offensive coordinator and 12 as a head coach.

He was head coach of the Baltimore Colts from 1975 through 1979.  Inheriting a 2-12 team, his first  teams went 10-4 and earned him  NFL Coach of the Year honors. His next two teams went 11-3 and 10-4,  but working for possibly the worst owner in then history of the game - Bob Irsay - and one of the worst general managers - Joe Thomas - he was fired after five seasons,  and it would be 12 years before he got another NFL head coaching job.

His successful stretch in Buffalo as quarterbacks coach and then offensive coordinator got him another shot with the Colts - this time in Indianapolis.

He went 30-34 in four years and when he was refused a contract extension, he left.  For Baltimore again.

This time it was coach of the brand-new Ravens, formerly the Cleveland Browns. He went 16-31 in three years there.

He sure built a heck of a coaching tree: he gave Bill Belichick his first NFL job.

CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING TED MARCHIBRODA


JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
JOE BREMER - WEST SENECA, NEW YORK
PETE PORCELLI - WATERVLIET, NEW YORK
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY


 

***********   QUIZ: He was born in Independence, Missouri and grew up in Omaha, where his father was a car dealer. At Princeton, he was a single  wing fullback who was twice named All-East.  His 273 yards rushing against Harvard was a school record that lasted for nearly 40 years.

After service in the Army, he  entered Stanford Business School and while there coached the freshman football team. He wound up spending four years at Stanford,

From 1961-1964 he coached running backs at Air Force, and in 1965 he became head coach at Davidson. After five years there, he moved to University of the Pacific, and after two years at Pacific he went to UCLA as an assistant to Pepper Rodgers.

With him coaching  the offensive backfield, the 1973 Bruins, running the wishbone, led the nation in rushing, averaging 400.3 yards a game.

The book on the Wishbone that he and Rodgers co-authored is still considered the ultimate guide to coaching the offense.

That got him the head coaching job at Army.  The Vietnam War was still going on, and although his teams showed some improvement - his 1977 team won seven games, including wins over Air force and Navy - he was fired after losing to Navy in 1978.

One good thing came from the time at West Point - his star quarterback, Leamon Hall, would meet and marry his daughter.

From there, he entered Harvard Divinity School,  but after finishing the two-year program there, he returned to UCLA, this time as offensive coordinator under Terry Donahue.  In his seven seasons there, the Bruins would go 59-12-4.

He spent just one year in the NFL - a season as offensive coordinator for the Kansas City Chiefs, then returned to coach college football at Alabama under Bill Curry, then UCLA again (under Donahue),  then Alabama again (under Gene Stallings) until finally going to Arizona (under Dick Tomey) where he retired after the 1997 season.

He was considered a brilliant offensive mind, and a great quarterbacks coach.  At UCLA he coached several QBs who played in the NFL, including  Steve Bono, Tommy Maddox, Jay Schroeder and Rick Neuheisel,

And he was a perfectionist.  Recalled Leamon Hall, his son-in-law, in a New York Times interview, “He wouldn’t just tell a running back, ‘Go off the butt of the guard’; he’d get down on the ground and point to a blade of grass, and he’d say, ‘Straddle that!’ ”



TUESDAY, MARCH 19, 2024    “It's easier to fool people than to convince them that they've been fooled." Mark Twain

 ***********   College football lost a giant last week  when Mike Lude passed away. He was 101 (and a half). That photo is of Mike, as an assistant coach at the University of Maine. It was 1949.

What a career he had:

WW II Marine… Captain of the Hillsdale College football and baseball teams… Head baseball coach -  Hillsdale College and U of Maine… Assistant Football Coach - Hillsdale, Maine and U of Delaware… Line Coach and co-inventor of the Delaware Wing-T… Head Coach, Colorado State… Athletics Director, Kent State (gave Don James his first head coaching job, gave Nick Saban his first college coaching job), U of Washington, Auburn University…President of the National Collegiate Athletic Directors Association… Recipient of the National Football Foundation’s John L. Toner Award (outstanding Athletic Director – 2001)… Chairman of NCAA Football Rules Committee (1989-1995)
 
Mike astounded me with his ability – which he kept to the end -  to recall details from years past about many of the  men who shaped our game –  men  whom he’d known personally.
 
Mike was a dear friend who no matter what lofty position he held remained  at heart a football coach.
 
In sum, Mike was the greatest man I’ve ever known – a man of wisdom, integrity and intelligence, with a great sense of humor.  And a man so positive in his outlook that even in his final days,  when I asked him how he was doing, he answered, “I’ve felt better.”
 
He was a blessing to our game, and we were  blessed to have known him.



*********** Mike Lude’s Book, “Walking the Line,” was published in 2004.  It’s a must read for any coach.

I’ve included a couple of paragraphs from the end, when he’s wrapping things up…

On my Christian faith and ethics – I am very sincere about my religious faith. I don't wear it on my sleeve and pretend to be evangelical and push my faith on others. But it's been important in my marriage to Rena and the way we raised our three wonderful daughters. I’m not ashamed to say I pray about decisions, and I've benefited so much from the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and from the pastors at churches I attended wherever I worked. I remember talking with an assistant pastor when I was coaching at Delaware. He was a graduate of Wheaton College and Princeton Theological Seminary. I told him I wasn't sure I was a true Christian because I'd heard others talk about having a mountaintop experience with cymbals or drums or something like that, and I hadn't. He told me that not everybody has to – and he hadn’t, either.


Having a great day, every day – in my personal and professional life I have adopted an approach most eloquently expressed by Norman Vincent Peale in his book, Have a Great Day Every Day:  “A sure way to a great day is to have enthusiasm. It contains a tremendous power to produce vitality, vigor, joyousness. So great is enthusiasm as a positive motivational force that it surmounts adversity and difficulty and, moreover, if cultivated, does not run down. It keeps one going strong, even when the going is tough. It may even slow down the aging process for, as Henry Thoreau said, ‘None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.’”

I've lived a full and wonderful life. I still have a lot of enthusiasm. I've had the privilege of experiencing a world of intercollegiate sports that many can only read about or participate in as spectators. I've been blessed in so many ways, the best of which is Rena, my beautiful wife and three beautiful daughters. The many friends I've made along the way have made it a rich experience. If I've been able to give back a small portion of the abundance I have received then I have accomplished more than anything I could have hoped for when I left that family farm in rural Michigan.

***********   Hugh…… thanks for sending out the information on Mike Lude passing away. I met him once and he was so influential. I couldn’t believe it. It was like he knew me all my life. it was at the high school and you did a clinic and he was there and I got a book and he signed it - came all the way out to the parking lot to my car to sign it and talk to me about Michigan and  Bo Schembechler. I was so impressed. I would’ve loved to know him better thanks for the info - you have a good week.

Ossie Osmundson
Woodland, Washington



************ I had a really interesting time presenting at the “2024 Option-SW-DW Summit” this past Saturday.

Probably the most interesting part of it was learning that Rick Stewart, the organizer of the event, and I go back  to 1998, in McFarland, California…

This is from my Web site back then…

MCFARLAND, CALIFORNIA - COACH JIM BELTRAN has the great privilege of coaching at his alma mater - also the great challenge of building a winning tradition at a school that has had 23 "OH-fer" seasons in its history (last year, McFarland was the chosen opponent at five different homecomings!).  And I had the great privilege of working with his staff and kids for two days recently. Among the people sponsoring the two-day camp were his local Pop Warner coach, Mike Hernandez,  who also brought his kids to the camp.  You can imagine my delight on discovering that Jim's offensive coordinator, Ernie Cabrera, was as knowledgable and enthusiastic about the offense as if he had been running it for years.He claims he's seen my videos dozens of times - and you know what?  I believe him. Enrique Perez and Tony Medina make up the rest of Jim's varsity staff.  Talk about an easy teaching assignment - Coach Beltran is a Spanish teacher in a school that is 90 per cent Hispanic!  (Not so fast -  it's not as easy as it sounds! "Hispanic" doesn't necessarily mean "Spanish-speaking," and Jim often finds himself teaching Spanish  to youngsters who don't  speak the language of their ancestors.)  Coach Beltran finds time to be a lot of things to the kids at McFarland High, and his "Ivy League Project" - an annual spring tour of Ivy League colleges for high school students from the San Joaquin Valley, will produce its first Ivy League graduates this spring - two from Yale and one from Brown! With a large group of sophs who were 7-3 last year as jayvees, the McFarland COUGARS could surprise a lot of people in the Valley this year!   AS A FOLLOW-UP...COACH BELTRAN HAS E-MAILED ME TO SAY THAT THE KIDS LEARNED SO MUCH FROM OUR TWO-DAY CAMP THAT NOW THEY SOMETIMES CORRECT THE COACHES!

Coach Stewart had just been hired at McFarland, fresh out of the Marines, and that was his first coaching job.  He recounted how McFarland went 2-8 that first year, but went 8-2 the second year!

From there, Rick Stewart has gone on to quite a career himself.  Check him out online.


*********** Kerry Eggers, whom I first met when  he was a rookie reporter for the Portland “Oregon Journal” - and who’s now regarded as the Dean of Oregon Sportswriters -  wrote a really nice piece recently on Jimmy Anderson, longtime Oregon State basketball coach who died recently.

In doing his research, one of the people Kerry spoke to was former Beaver Terry Baker, whom some may recognize as a Heisman Trophy winner.  But  few know that he was the first Heisman winner from west of Texas, and fewer still know that he is the ONLY athlete ever to play in a Rose Bowl and a Final Four.  It’s almost a lock that nobody knows that he wasn’t even recruited to Oregon State for football, but for basketball.

Wrote Kerry Eggers…

It was a different era of recruiting. There were no NCAA regulations. Baker was recruited by Oregon State for basketball first, not football. Gill (OSU head coach Slats Gill) got help from a benefactor named Ken Crookham. Terry was the product of a broken home, living with his mother. An older brother, Gary, was already at Oregon State.

“I saw virtually all the home games of Oregon State my senior year in high school,” Baker recalls. “Slats had Ken take care of me. He was an older gentleman. He would pick me up from practice at Jeff and drive us down to watch the basketball games. He became like family. He would take my mother and me out to dinner now and then.

“When I got the Heisman, I didn’t own a suit. Ken told me to go into Phil Small’s and get a suit. First time I’d ever worn one.”

*********** I have to admit that I’m not nearly as familiar  with AI as I might be, but from what I do know, it does seem to me that if it can already replace certain workers  at the bottom of the skills chain - say, sports writers - it’s probably just a matter of time before AI gets more and more proficient  at doing ever more complex human tasks.

How long, then, until life-size, pass-for-real-human automatons are playing football?

How long before those life-like figures in Madden are actually playing games on “real” fields, in front of “real” crowds? 

Considering that real NFL teams are worth billions now, my prediction is that the next rival to the NFL will be virtual. Anybody wanna buy a franchise?
 



*********** Lou Orlando, of Rye, New Hampshire,  wrote, “Hugh, I’m reminded of you every day on my way to work.” And he sent me the photo above.

WTF is a boat on the East Coast doing with that name?

Our football team at North Beach High, in Ocean Shores, Washington, was  the Hyaks. The word means “Fast” or “Quick” in Chinook Jargon.

Chinook jargon was a  “pidgin” language (a common tongue  that enables people who speak different languages to converse with each other)  developed in the Pacific Northwest to allow “bostons” (Americans), “pasiooks” (French) and  “king chautsh” (English) to trade with and among the area’s many native tribes.  It consisted of words taken variously from native languages such as Chinook and Chehalis in addition to  English and - because of the many French fur trappers and traders in the area - French.)

Many geographic and place names in today’s Northwest, especially in Washington, originated in Chinook Jargon.

Sample Chinook Jargon vocabulary…

Apple: le pome
Bag:  le sak
Cat: puss’-puss
Chicken: la pool
Chief: ty-ee’
Fast (quick):  hy-ak’
Head:  la tet
Heart: tum’-tum
How are you: kla-how’-ya
If:  spose
Large: hy-as’
Looking-glass:  she-lok’-um
Man: man
Mast:  ship stick
Moccasins:  skin-shoes
My, mine:  ni’-ka
Nuts:  tuk’-wil-la
Paper:  péh-pah
Peas: le pwau
People: til’-i-kums
Potato:  wap’-pa-too
Pull: haul
Quick: hy-ak’
River: chuck
Sailor: ship’-man
Salmon: salmon
Salt: salt
Scissors: le see’-zo
Sheep: le moo’-to
Strong:  skoo’-kum
Sturgeon: stutch’-un
Table:  la tahb
Vomit, to: wagh
Water: chuck
Waterfall: tum’-water
Win: to, to’-lo
Woman: klootsh’-man
Worthless: cul’-tus
Yes: áh-ha; e-éh

https://www.washington.edu/uwired/outreach/cspn/Website/Classroom%20Materials/Curriculum%20Packets/Treaties%20&%20Reservations/Documents/Chinook_Dictionary_Abridged.pdf


*********** I watched Brown lose the Ivy League basketball championship game to Yale in the final seconds, largely because they missed three of their last four field goal attempts.

They’d held the lead most of the way, and the way they lost reminded me of all the football teams we see that move the ball up and down the field,  until they get inside the 10.   And then, pffft.

Just like free throw shooting,  short-yardage football is a game inside the game, a fact that teams seem not to understand.

They won’t acknowledge that it’s a different game down close from the one they’ve been playing out on the other side of the 10,  so  they still play with  wide splits, they still line up in the same shotgun they ran back upfield, and they’ve still got the same linemen in the game, the ones who are great at pass protection but can’t fire out worth a crap.

After all these years, I’m still not sure what the significance of all this  “Red Zone” crap, but I sure know that for some teams it makes sense to call the area inside the 10 the “Brown Zone.” (For the university, of course; not for the quality of the strategy.)


***********  When asked, do you say, “I coach football?”

Or do you say, “I’m a football coach?”


*********** Maybe if Boeing paid just a little more attention to making airplanes…

https://www.boeing.com/sustainability/diversity-and-inclusion



*********** I did not type the following paragraph, written four years ago during the early stages of the Democratic primary.  I simply cut-and-pasted.

If I’d been typing, you’d have found me, face planted in the keyboard, dead of a stroke before I finished that last sentence.

Gillibrand (New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand) is married to Jonathan Gillibrand. The United States has never had a first gentleman in the White House, but Jonathan is one of several male spouses who might earn that title, including Kamala Harris's husband Douglas Emhoff, Elizabeth Warren's husband Bruce Mann, and Pete Buttigieg's husband Chasten.



*********** I hope that new Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore realizes where he is.  Where he is, is at a fork in the road.  (Yogi Berra would say, “Take it.”).   It’s his first real test as a head coach, and I hope he passes it.

It’s been about a week since Michigan football announced the hiring of former Wisconsin defensive line coach Greg Scruggs to oversee the same position in Ann Arbor. And he’s already put that job in peril.

According to The Detroit News’ Angelique Chengelis, Scruggs was arrested in Ann Arbor for operating a vehicle while impaired on Saturday morning.

Michigan defensive line coach Greg Scruggs was arrested for allegedly operating a vehicle while intoxicated early Saturday morning in Ann Arbor.
Scruggs, 33, recently joined first-year Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore’s staff.

“I can confirm he was arrested for OWI by our department just before 3 a.m.,” Chris Page, strategic communications manager for the Ann Arbor Police Department, sent in a text to The Detroit News on Saturday.

A police report is not yet available, but has been requested by The News. Michigan has not immediately provided comment.

According to Chengelis’ report, Scruggs was kicked off the Louisville team during his playing days for a similar incident.

It’s unclear what the University of Michigan brass will do and whether Scruggs will retain his new position given he’s had this issue in the past — even if it was long ago.

As Alabama legend Nick Saban often used to say, nothing good happens after midnight. As a leader of young men, one would hope a position coach would heed that warning.

Update:

Michigan football head coach Sherrone Moore announced Scruggs has been suspended indefinitely while the program investigates.

“Greg made an unfortunate mistake and was arrested for operating a vehicle while intoxicated,” Moore said. “He made no excuses and has taken accountability for his actions. The football program and athletic department have suspended Greg indefinitely while we review details of the incident.”

Fork #1 - The  “forgiveness” fork.  He gives the guy a second chance (or in this case, a third?).  Hey, everybody deserves a chance to redeem himself.   (Realizing, of course,  that this will come up the first time he has to discipline a player for a similar incident.) 

Fork #2 -  The “thankfulness” fork.  He cuts  ties and moves on,  thanking his lucky stars that it happened when it did, and not later, like in mid-season.

Gee.  Really tough call.  But I have a suspicion  that Coach Moore might be leaning toward Fork #1  with his comment about “No excuses,” as if there were any.  About  taking  “accountability for his actions.”  WTF does that mean?   Were you expecting him to blame someone else?  What “Details” do you have to review?  Was he or wasn’t he?

Come on, Coach Moore.  Make the right decision.   For the program.  And your job.


https://wolverineswire.usatoday.com/2024/03/16/new-michigan-football-dl-coach-greg-scruggs-arrested-for-owi/



***********   Money in sports: I want Kansas to lose every basketball game they play, but Bill Self's a great coach, and I don't like them in the way every fan thinks of his favorite's school's biggest rival. So now KS has lost its top two players, and has suffered bad defeats back to back. Okay, let's say that 7'2" center, who's putatively injured,  lets the people who dish out the money know he's not really hurt that bad, and if you'll just sweeten my NIL package, I'll be back in time for the Big Tournament. Point is, as time passes, these players and their advisers will come up with hundreds of ways we haven't even thought about yet to extort more money from these 'collectives'. Come to think of it, these NCAA collectives aren't staying true to their communist model at all, are they?

Changing the USMA mission statement angers me. Would that General MacArthur were here to impart some wise advice in a friendly fashion.


John Vermillion                    
St Petersburg, Florida

Without a contract  to hold him to a standard of performance, what’s to keep that 7-footer from resting his sore hamstring unless they get somethng to ease the pain? The thought is sickening.


*********** Hugh,

Duty, Honor, Country! 

UNC has a duty as a founding member of the ACC to honor its commitment to the conference!

My heart goes out to you and Connie and the many others in Washington like you who have to put up with the nonsense of the political climate in that state.

Used to be prep stars would have to prove their merit in high school to earn a valued athletic scholarship and be grateful for it.  College stars would have to prove their merit for three or four or even five years to earn a valued professional contract and be grateful for it. Professionals would have to prove their merit for a number of years to earn a substantial salary increase and be grateful for it.  Not anymore!  Those days of simple gratitude are gone forever.

Enjoy the weekend!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas

 



*********** QUIZ ANSWER: Mel Renfro was born in Houston, but he grew up in Portland, Oregon and starred in football and track at Jefferson High.

With him at running back on the same team as future Heisman Trophy winner Terry Baker,  Jefferson High won back-to-back state championships in 1957 and ’58, and in his senior year, with Baker having graduated and gone on to Oregon State, “Jeff” missed a third straight state title by a single point, losing 7-6.

His senior spring, he won the state low hurdles, high hurdles and long jump to help Jefferson win the state track title.

At  Oregon, playing both running back and defensive back, he  led the Webfoots in scoring all three seasons (no freshman eligibility).  As a senior, he won the Maxwell Award as the nation’s top running back and helped the Webfoots to an  8-3 record and a Sun Bowl appearance. (Oregon  football would embark on a dry spell that  wouldn’t see them in a bowl game again for 26 years.)

(Not until 1978 did Oregon officially replace  the Webfoots with the Ducks.  The term “Webfoots” was originally given to Oregonians in the 1800s by Californians who’d been exposed to Oregon’s wet and muddy winters. It became a matter of pride for native-born Oregonians to boast that they’d lived there so long they “had webbed feet.”)

In track, in his junior year he  helped Oregon win the NCAA track and field championship.  He  finished second in the high hurdles and third in the long jump and ran a leg on their 440-yard relay team that set a world record (40.0 seconds).

Selected by the Dallas Cowboys in the second round of the 1964 NFL Draft, he played 14 seasons for them, mostly as a cornerback. He stood out as a kick returner in his early days, and as a defensive back he established  a franchise record of 52 career interceptions.

Mel Renfro was named All-Pro five times and was named to ten Pro Bowls.

He played in four Super Bowls and won two rings. 

He was the fifth Cowboy inducted into the team’s Ring of Honor at Cowboys Stadium.

He is in the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame and the University of Oregon Sports Hall of Fame.

In 1996 he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.



CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING MEL RENFRO


JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY






*********** QUIZ: He came out of Western Pennsylvania and starred at quarterback for St. Bonaventure, a small Catholic school in Western New York State.

He was the first draft pick of the Pittsburgh Steelers, even though they knew he had two years of compulsory military service in front of him, and  played in Pittsburgh for one year, before leaving to serve in the Army. He returned to the Steelers in 1955 and played two years for them and then one year  with the Chicago Cardinals before retiring.

And then he embarked on a 28-year career as an NFL coach, 12 as an offensive coordinator and 12 as a head coach.

He was head coach of the Baltimore Colts from 1975 through 1979.  Inheriting a 2-12 team, his first  teams went 10-4 and earned him  NFL Coach of the Year honors. His next two teams went 11-3 and 10-4,  but working for possibly the worst owner in then history of the game - Bob Irsay - and one of the worst general managers - Joe Thomas - he was fired after five seasons,  and it would be 12 years before he got another NFL head coaching job.

His successful stretch in Buffalo as quarterbacks coach and then offensive coordinator got him another shot with the Colts - this time in Indianapolis.

He went 30-34 in four years and when he was refused a contract extension, he left.  For Baltimore again.

This time it was coach of the brand-new Ravens, formerly the Cleveland Browns. He went 16-31 in three years there.

He sure built a heck of a coaching tree: he gave Bill Belichick his first NFL job.




FRIDAY, MARCH 15, 2024    “I was chairman of the rules committee for six years. If I were still chairman we wouldn't be blocking with the hands." Mike Lude


*********** As I mentioned earlier, I’m going to be making a couple of presentations at the "2024 Option-SW-DW Summit."

It takes place over several days, with a couple dozen coaches presenting.

I’ll be presenting on Saturday, March 16

The first talk,  at 10:35 AM (Pacific) is for all coaches -  a condensed package  they could use in short-yardage or  goal-line situations.

The second, at 11:50 AM (Pacific) is aimed at Double-Wingers - a direct-snap spread Double-Wing. No, not the Open Wing.  Think Wildcat.


https://2024optionsummit.coachesclinic.com/




*********** These words are as close to being immortal as any spoken by an American...

"Duty, Honor, Country" — those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be. They are your rallying point to build courage when courage seems to fail, to regain faith when there seems to be little cause for faith, to create hope when hope becomes forlorn.

Unhappily, I possess neither that eloquence of diction, that poetry of imagination, nor that brilliance of metaphor to tell you all that they mean.

The unbelievers will say they are but words, but a slogan, but a flamboyant phrase. Every pedant, every demagogue, every cynic, every hypocrite, every troublemaker, and, I am sorry to say, some others of an entirely different character, will try to downgrade them even to the extent of mockery and ridicule.

But these are some of the things they do. They build your basic character. They mold you for your future roles as the custodians of the nation's defense. They make you strong enough to know when you are weak, and brave enough to face yourself when you are afraid.

They teach you to be proud and unbending in honest failure, but humble and gentle in success; not to substitute words for action; not to seek the path of comfort, but to face the stress and spur of difficulty and challenge; to learn to stand up in the storm, but to have compassion on those who fall; to master yourself before you seek to master others; to have a heart that is clean, a goal that is high; to learn to laugh, yet never forget how to weep; to reach into the future, yet never neglect the past; to be serious, yet never take yourself too seriously; to be modest so that you will remember the simplicity of true greatness, the open mind of true wisdom, the meekness of true strength.

They give you a temper of the will,º a quality of theº imagination, a vigor of the emotions, a freshness of the deep springs of life, a temperamental predominance of courage over timidity, an appetite for adventure over love of ease.

They create in your heart the sense of wonder, the unfailing hope of what next, and the joy and inspiration of life. They teach you in this way to be an officer and a gentleman.

*****

And through all this welter of change and development your mission remains fixed, determined, inviolable. It is to win our wars. Everything else in your professional career is but corollary to this vital dedication. All other public purposes,º all other public projects, all other public needs, great or small, will find others for their accomplishment;º but you are the ones who are trained to fight. Yours is the profession of arms, the will to win, the sure knowledge that in war there is no substitute for victory, that if you lose, the Nation will be destroyed, that the very obsession of your public service must be Duty, Honor, Country.

*****

The Long Gray Line has never failed us. Were you to do so, a million ghosts in olive drab, in brown khaki, in blue and gray, would rise from their white crosses, thundering those magic words: Duty, Honor, Country.

*****

The shadows are lengthening for me. The twilight is here. My days of old have vanished — tone and tint. They have gone glimmering through the dreams of things that were. Their memory is one of wondrous beauty, watered by tears and coaxed and caressed by the smiles of yesterday. I listen then, but with thirsty ear, for the witching melody of faint bugles blowing reveille, of far drums beating the long roll. In my dreams I hear again the crash of guns, the rattle of musketry, the strange, mournful mutter of the battlefield. But in the evening of my memory alwaysº I come back to West Point. Always there echoes and re-echoes: Duty, Honor, Country.

Today marks my final roll call with you. But I want you to know that when I cross the river, my last conscious thoughts will be of the Corps, and the Corps, and the Corps.

I bid you farewell.

Those words are General Douglas MacArthur’s - delivered to the Corps of Cadets at the United States Military Academy  at West Point, New York on May 12, 1962. 

The General’s words are especially poignant now  that -  without getting into the hows and whys and wherefores,  the United States Military Academy has just removed its motto - Duty, Honor, Country - from its mission statement.

It may not mean what many people suspect it does.   I haven't heard a good reason why. As with everything that comes from government (and the military) these days, we’ve been given long-winded explanations, full of big words, that in the end said nothing.

But considering the  state of our military right now - struggling to get the budget it needs, facing the possibility of war on two fronts, its arsenal depleted by  our sending weapons to Ukraine, not meeting recruiting quotas, and  facing (well-founded) accusations of its prioritizing wokeness over preparedness -  you’d hardly think that it would do anything  (even trivial, as its defenders suggest this  is)  to antagonize those who still believe MacArthur’s words.

And  in an election year yet.

But there we are.

Anybody think that this bright idea actually started with the Superintendent at West Point? Nah.

Or some with general in the Pentagon? Nah.

Or with some genius in the White House? Nah.

Or - you don’t suppose - with someone beyond that?


https://nypost.com/2024/03/14/us-news/west-point-military-academy-drops-duty-honor-country-from-mission-statement/


*********** North Carolina AD Bubba Cunningham is caught between two worlds.  He of course has to do what’s best for North Carolina.  But  with Carolina as a charter member of the ACC, he does have an interest in doing what’s best for the conference.

Cunningham, who is in his 13th year as UNC’s athletic director, offered his opinion on alternative options. The first being for the ACC to stay at 15 teams. The second being even more expansion to 21 teams, which would allow for three seven-team regional divisions that would reduce travel requirements during the regular season before bringing the entire conference together for postseason play.

“That's what I was hopeful of,” Cunningham said. “Either stay where we were, stay regional, or expand so big that you could create regionality within a bigger league."

One thing, he says, is certain: “I don't know what’s going to be the tipping point, but there's going to be something that will trigger significant change in college athletics."


https://247sports.com/college/north-carolina/article/unc-athletic-director-bubba-cunningham-taking-measured-approach-as-national-landscape-shifts-tar-heels--228513295/




*********** Not to get too deep into basketball, but when Oakland takes the floor in the NCAA Tournament, it’ll be their fourth time in the Big Dance.

And it means that Oakland coach Greg Kampe, now in his 40th year as the school’s coach, will  become just the fifth coach to coach 40 years at one school and take it to the NCAA Tournament four or more times.  He joins:

Mike Kyzyzewski - Duke
Jim Boeheim - Syracuse
Adolph Rupp - Kentucky
Ray Meyer - Depaul

https://www.cbssports.com/college-basketball/news/forty-years-in-beloved-oakland-coach-greg-kampe-is-back-in-the-ncaa-tournament-after-a-one-of-a-kind-career/



*********** I love Washington for its natural beauty, but living here in the Massachusetts of the West comes at a price.  As if $5 a gallon gas (to save the planet, don’t you know?) weren’t enough, now there’s talk about a “hate speech hotline,” allowing any asshole who doesn’t like something you say to call and  report you to the Stasi. And then there’s a proposal  to REQUIRE those of us who heat our homes  with gas  to convert to electric heat - at our expense, of course.    I could go on, but right now, I’m relishing  just about the only sort of success a Republican can enjoy in a one-party state:

IT WAS WASHINGTON THAT GAVE  TRUMP  THE VOTES HE NEEDED TO LOCK UP THE REPUBLICAN  NOMINATION

Suck on that one, Washington Dems.



*********** Yeah, sure - Vice-President Aaron Rodgers.

With Rodgers’ name being mentioned as a possible running-mate for Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Chris Branch in The Athletic brings up  the matter of a minor conflict.

Considering, he notes,  that  the campaigning begins to pick up in July, just about the time that NFL teams open training camps, and considering that running-mates do spend a lot of time campaigning, the Jets might have some concern about  their   starting quarterback not being available for any practice reps today because he’s off making a speech in Paducah.



*********** When  Notre Dame played Tennessee State this past season, it left USC as the only remaining FBS school that has never played an FCS opponent.



*********** Straight from the pages of The Athletic…

Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott filed a civil lawsuit Monday in which he accuses a woman and her attorneys of attempting to extort $100 million from him by making false allegations of sexual assault.

Prescott is seeking monetary relief in excess of $1 million, according to the suit, which was filed in Collin County, Texas, and obtained by The Athletic.

According to the suit, Bethel and Yoel Zehaie, the woman’s representatives, sent a letter to Prescott’s attorneys on Jan. 16 detailing an alleged encounter between Prescott and the woman that took place on Feb. 2, 2017, in Plano, Texas, after the end of Prescott’s rookie season in the NFL. Per the suit, the woman said she was willing to forgo pursuing criminal charges against Prescott and disclosing that information to the public in exchange for $100 million.

There is no way that I’m coming in on anyone’s side here.   Let the lawyers earn their money.  But since  we’re told so often that the woman never lies, I wonder why  this woman’s name is never mentioned in the article.  I also wonder if Dak Prescott realizes, no matter how right he is,  the amount of dirty laundry that could come out once her lawyers get started on him.



***********   Nick Saban had a few interesting things to say to a Congressional committee looking into NIL…

“All these things that I believed in, for all these years, 50 years of coaching, no longer exist in college athletics. It was always about developing players, it was always about helping people be more successful in life.”

He told about his wife, Terry, saying to him  (before he retired): “All they care about is how much you’re going to pay them. They don’t care about how you’re going to develop them, which is what we’ve always done, so why are we doing this?”





 
***********  Talk about being born on third base…   Talk about legacy admissions at elite colleges...

Still think sports is a pure meritocracy?

Three of the athletes on the list - James, Sanders  and Manning - came from well-to-do, well-known  families.  Surely all the politicians who argued for  sharing the sports revenues with the players had other players than these  in mind.

Actually, Arch Manning  would have been better served by his advisers if they’d told him to very politely decline any participation in NIL until he’s actually accomplished something.



*********** How’d you like to be Matt Rhule?  As most of you know, he’s the coach  at Nebraska. 

Right now, it’s hard to say  whether he’s got the administration’s backing.

Primarily, that’s because there IS no administration.

Not really.

Not after AD Trev Alberts - himself a former Husker player - gave notice Wednesday that he’s off to Texas A & M to be their AD.

For seven months now - since August, when the president announced he was leaving  for Ohio State and the University Board of Regents launched their search for a replacement  - Alberts has been reporting to an interim president.

So now, the only person in charge of the athletic department is an interim president - and it wouldn’t really make sense not to leave  the hiring of the new AD to the new president.  If they ever get around to hiring one.

Nebraskans can’t be happy with the current non-state of affairs.



*********** I am NOT going to attempt to tell someone how to vote, but I’m not above pointing out some things that people who love our country ought to be aware of.

This is from Gerard Baker, in The Wall Street Journal

“People voted for Mr. Trump in 2016 (and again in 2020) because he was the most plausible champion of those of us no longer prepared to tolerate the trashing of our culture and nation by an elite that despises us.”



*********** I DID have fun reading up on the Oorang Indians. (I spent a good portion of my childhood near LaRue/Marion. It was a great place to grow up).

Turns out, they were rather hard partiers.

This from: http://www.daytontriangles.com/oorang2.htm

They partied so hard on one particular occasion, that when a Chicago bartender at a place called "Everyman's Saloon" took it upon himself to stop serving drinks since Illinois law prohibited the sale of alcohol after 2 a.m., they stuffed him in a telephone booth and turned it upside down. The Indians were trounced by the Bears a few hours later on game day.

And don't forget the afternoon in St. Louis when several of the Indians who were out raising havoc, decided it was time to return to their hotel. Unfortunately for them, the trolley was headed in the opposite direction. Not to worry. The Indians soon rectified the situation. They picked up the trolley, turned it around on the tracks, and told the conductor where they wanted to go. Instant express.

"White people had this misconception about Indians," said the late Leon Boutwell, a Chippewa who quarterbacked the Oorangs for a short time. "They thought we were all wild men, even though almost all of us had been to college and were generally more civilized than they were. Well, it was a dandy excuse to raise hell and get away with it when the mood struck us. Since we were Indians, we could get away with things the white men couldn't. Don't think we didn't take advantage of it." 

LOL! To be alive in those days!

John Rothwell, DC
Corpus Christi, Texas


***********    For more than five years I watched cricket matches every now and then, and despite listening closely to the announcers, I never figured out what was going on. I'm not so good with games that can sometimes go on for days.  But that's okay, because if .09% of people in the areas you mentioned want it, go ahead...you can't build a much-needed school, and you're in debt $14 Billion, but by all means, build that freakin' cricket pitch.

The proposed Oregon practice facility is handsome indeed, but I've long wondered whether it's good to coddle young guys with such fixtures. It's a never-ending arms race, with the new coach saying we can't recruit without improved facilities. That could be true, but if so, it's a shame.

Best wishes for a great Zoom summit.

John Vermillion                    
St Petersburg, Florida


***********   Hugh,

If I was still coaching I would be all over your playcards idea.  Simple is beautiful.

Drew Pyne transfers to Missouri.  Hopefully Eli Drinkwitz can get him to be a better QB in his system.

I guess you could call the ND Box formation the Double Wing of its time!  Sounded like Neyland didn’t want much to do with it anymore!

Watched about 10 minutes of a cricket match once.  Was like watching paint dry.

I give Cal and Stanford two years before crawling back to the PAC-West.

As long as Oregon has Phil Knight the Ducks will weather the NIL/Transfer Portal nightmare that has changed the college football landscape and build even more elaborate facilities.

Old Soldier Field once held the largest crowd to ever watch a HIGH SCHOOL football game in 1937.  The Prep Bowl pitted the Chicago Public School Champ against the Chicago Catholic School champ.  Austin (my dad’s school) beat Leo 26-0 in front of 85,000, but the crowd was estimated to be closer to 100,000.

In today’s America NOTHING is not about politics!


Have a great week!

Joe  Gutilla
Granbury, Texas





***********   QUIZ ANSWER:   Joe Guyon was born in 1892  on the White Earth Indian Reservation in Minnesota. His father was a French Canadian, and his mother was Chippewa.

He  spent three years at Haskell Institute, an off-reservation school  in Lawrence, Kansas for young Indians, and at 19 he entered the Carlisle Indian School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

He played two years of football at Carlisle under the legendary Glenn “Pop” Warner.   His first year there was his first year ever playing organized football, but because he was good-sized - about 5-10, 200 - and because he was very athletic and very tough, Warner put him at tackle, and  he stood out.

In his first season, led by the great Jim Thorpe, the Carlisle Indians went 12-1-1, beating such schools as Syracuse, Pitt and Army, and losing only to Penn, 34-26.  They led the nation in scoring, outscoring opponents 454-120.

And then Thorpe graduated.  But Warner, recognizing hidden talent, moved Guyon from tackle to Thorpe’s vacated halfback position.  That year,  losing only to Pitt and tying Penn, the Indians went 10-1-1.  They finished second in the East only to unbeaten Harvard,  and Guyon  was named by Walter Camp as a second-team All-American halfback.

Although normally expected to stay at Carlisle for five years, he left and returned to Minnesota, and then,  although having already played two years of college ball at Carlisle, he enrolled in Keewatin Academy in Wisconsin - essentially a high school - in order to earn enough credits to play college football.

Years later,  he explained the situation to Myron Cope in “The Game That Was:  “The funny thing, Carlisle wasn't nothing but an eighth grade school, but they called us a college.  Of course, some of us were pretty old by the time we got there, because those reservation schools weren't always real good, but anyhow, those Carlisle schools used to beat Harvard, Pittsburgh, Army, Pennsylvania, and a lot of those big universities. They didn't want to have to say, ‘well some damn grammar school beat us,’  so they just called us a college.”

He next wound up at Georgia Tech, where his older brother was an assistant to head coach John Heisman.

In his first year at Tech, they went 9-0 and  won the national  championship, and he was named All-South at halfback.

In his second year, Tech went 6-1.  He played some on the line, enough to be named as a tackle on at least one All-American team.

At the time, Ralph McGill, longtime publisher of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution who was  then a sports writer,  wrote, "There is really no argument about the identity of the greatest football player who ever performed in Dixie.   There is a grand argument about second place, but for first place there is Joe Guyon, the Chippewa brave. "

In 1919, at the age of 27, he was talked into playing for the newly-organized Canton Bulldogs, the coached by his old Carlisle teammate, Jim Thorpe.  And the next year, 1920, the year  the National Football League began play, he got off a 95-yard punt that stood as a league record for more than 50 years.

In an eight year NFL career he played for eight different teams, only one of which is still in existence today. (He ended his career in 1927 with the New York Giants.)

His most unusual time had to be the 1922 and 1923 seasons when he played for a team originally called Jim Thorpe’s Indians. Coached by Thorpe, its  roster was 100 per cent Indian.  When a Marion, Ohio kennel owner - who raised airedales (and sold them for $150 each, a fortune at that time) - bought an NFL franchise, he named the team  the Oorang Indians,  after  his Oorang Kennel.

The team was purely a medium for advertising and selling the owner’s prize dogs.  The players earned money working  in the kennels,  training the dogs and building crates for shipping them.  For the purpose of showing them, the dogs traveled with the team whoever it went.  (Which was almost everywhere, because the team played most of its games on the road - the better to show the dogs.)  Halftimes of games often consisted of exhibitions including  the Indians and the dogs.

The biggest problem with the Oorang Indians, apparently, was that the players knew that winning wasn’t uppermost on the owner’s mind, and as a result they paid little mind to training rules.  Between  that and the strain of travel, they wound up 1-10 their second year, and that was that.

(Marion, Ohio, remains the smallest  town ever to have an NFL franchise.)

He shared one great story with Cope,  a story  that George Halas, Chicago Bears’ owner and coach,  also enjoyed telling  in later years:

 "Halas knew that I was the key man. He knew that getting me out of there would make a difference. I was playing defense one time and I saw him coming after me from a long ways off. I was always alert. But I pretended I didn't see him. When he got close, I wheeled around and kicked him, goddamn. I brought my knee right up into him. Broke three of his ribs. And as they carried him off, I said to him, ‘What the hell, Halas.  Don't you know you can't sneak up on an Indian?’”

Joe Guyon is in both the College Football and Pro Football Halls of Fame.

He was best man at Jim Thorpe’s wedding, and he was a pallbearer at his funeral.

His son and namesake, Joe Guyon, Jr.  became a doctor, after playing football at Catholic University in DC, and after World War II service as the first Native American to become a Navy pilot.




CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING JOE GUYON


JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
JOHN ROTHWELL - CORPUS  CHRISTI, TEXAS
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON





*********** QUIZ: He was born in Houston, but he grew up in Portland, Oregon and starred in football and track at Jefferson High.

With him at running back on the same team as future Heisman Trophy winner Terry Baker,  Jefferson High won back-to-back state championships in 1957 and ’58, and in his senior year, with Baker having graduated and gone on to Oregon State, “Jeff” missed a third straight state title by a single point, losing 7-6.

His senior spring, he won the state low hurdles, high hurdles and long jump to help Jefferson win the state track title.

At  Oregon, playing both running back and defensive back, he  led the Webfoots in scoring all three seasons (no freshman eligibility).  As a senior, he won the Maxwell Award as the nation’s top running back and helped the Webfoots to an  8-3 record and a Sun Bowl appearance. (Oregon  football would embark on a dry spell that  wouldn’t see them in a bowl game again for 26 years.)

(Not until 1978 did Oregon officially replace  the Webfoots with the Ducks.  The term “Webfoots” was originally given to Oregonians in the 1800s by Californians who’d been exposed to Oregon’s wet and muddy winters. It became a matter of pride for native-born Oregonians to boast that they’d lived there so long they “had webbed feet.”)

In track, in his junior year he  helped Oregon win the NCAA track and field championship.  He  finished second in the high hurdles and third in the long jump and ran a leg on their 440-yard relay team that set a world record (40.0 seconds).

Selected by the Dallas Cowboys in the second round of the 1964 NFL Draft, he played 14 seasons for them, mostly as a cornerback. He stood out as a kick returner in his early days, and as a defensive back he established  a franchise record of 52 career interceptions.

He was named All-Pro five times and was named to ten Pro Bowls.

He played in four Super Bowls and won two rings. 

He was the fifth Cowboy inducted into the team’s Ring of Honor at Cowboys Stadium.

He is in the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame and the University of Oregon Sports Hall of Fame.

In 1996 he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.




TUESDAY, MARCH 12, 2024    “In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.”   Desiderius Erasmus

*********** As I mentioned earlier, I’m going to be making a couple of presentations at the "2024 Option-SW-DW Summit."

It takes place over several days, with a couple dozen coaches presenting.

I’ll be presenting on Saturday, March 16

The first talk,  at 10:35 AM (Pacific) is for all coaches -  a condensed package  they could use in short-yardage or  goal-line situations.

The second, at 11:50 AM (Pacific) is aimed at Double-Wingers - a direct-snap spread Double-Wing. No, not the Open Wing.  Think Wildcat.


https://2024optionsummit.coachesclinic.com/



***********   Coach,   A question about flipping linemen out of double wing: obviously "tight is right." What is your call to denote flipping the strong/quick sides? Is it something as simple as "Flip 77 Super Power?"


Actually, Coach, it’s even simpler than that.   It’s all taken care of by the playcards.  

For all I know, the kids  may not even know what formation we’re in and what we call the play.

The main thing is that they know where to line up and what to do, and that’s on the cards.

You’’ll notice that the play names and assignments are mostly printed in RED or BLUE



If the lettering on their card is RED, they line up on the RIGHT side.

If it’s BLUE, they’re on the LEFT.

EXAMPLE:

(10-1) is in BLUE - Tight Tackle’s on the left - and we’re running 77-POWER

(10-5) is in RED - Tight Tackle’s on the right - and we’re running 66-POWER

Hope that makes sense.  It’s very simple for the kids, which is the most important thing.





*********** Former Notre Dame quarterback Drew Pyne has just transferred to Missouri.  Mizzou will be his third school (after Notre Dame and Arizona State).  And get this - he still has three years of eligibility left!

But before anyone screams “WTF has happened to college football?” -  I think it’s fair to mention that the great Walter Camp, who is rightly  called the Father of American Football for his efforts in creating our game from rugby, played varsity football at Yale  from 1877  through 1882.  That’s six years, guys.  (There went college football. Right down the drain.)

In those  days, before there were coaches, the team captain performed most of the duties of a coach, and Camp was captain of the 1878, 1879 and 1881 Yale teams.  While he was a player, Yale’s record was 25-1-6.

(Camp would return to Yale in 1888 as its formal coach, and in five years as coach of the Bulldogs, his record was 67-2, with three undefeated seasons.)



***********   Famed Tennessee coach General Bob Neyland  was a very powerful and influential person in southern football.  He and A. C. “Scrappy”  Moore were longtime friends, going back to  the early 1920s when Moore was an assistant to head coach Frank Thomas at  Chattanooga.

Thomas had played for Knute Rockne at Notre Dame so  naturally, he ran Rockne's Notre Dame box formation at Chattanooga.  When Thomas left Chattanooga to take the Alabama job, his  successor  at Chattanooga, Red Drew, continued to run the Notre Dame box.   And so, too, when he eventually succeeded Drew, did Scrappy Moore.

For 15 straight years, from 1939 through 1957, Tennessee had arranged to play  Chattanooga the week before playing  Alabama (on the traditional third Saturday in October).   Neyland was no fool - he deliberately scheduled  Chattanooga, which ran the Notre Dame box, a week before playing Alabama, which also ran the Notre Dame box.
 
But when Thomas retired at Alabama after the 1946 season, Red Drew,  who succeeded him,  decided to  go to  the more in-vogue T formation.
 
Years later, famed sportscaster Lindsay Nelson, a Tennessee guy,  told of a phone call that General Neyland made to Scrappy Moore at Chattanooga after learning that Drew had installed the T.
 
“Scrappy,” Neyland asked,  “do you like playing us the second Saturday in October?”
 
“Hell, yes,” Moore replied. “It makes our budget.”
 
After a pause, Neyland spoke again: “Scrappy, did you ever consider switching to the  T  formation?”
 
The next season, Scrappy Moore’s Chattanooga Moccasins ran the T-offense against Tennessee,  the week before Tennessee faced it against Alabama. 




*********** Are you old enough to remember when soccer was new on the scene and soccer people were demanding that communities provide them and their kids with places to play?

At the time, did you scoff at the absurdity of soccer ever amounting to anything? 

If so, you’ll get a big laugh from the news that groups in Northern Virginia (near DC), the New York City area, the Chicago suburbs and Sacramento are pressing local governments  to build cricket fields. CRICKET.

Don’t bet against those groups.  Cricket, you may not know, is one of the world’s most popular sports.  Yes, yes, I know - for years we’ve been hearing that that’s the reason why we’re all supposed to stop watching football/baseball/basketball/hockey and get in step with the rest of the world and worship soccer.

But it is THE sport in India and Pakistan, and there are in the US at least 5.5 million people from those two Asian countries alone.   Not to mention all the others from Commonwealth countries. 

On the other hand, a cricket field - or ground, or whatever it's called -  is HUGE.  It’s roughly round in shape, and with a  diameter of 160 yards or so, its  area is about  that of four football fields.




***********   A QUESTION PUT TO JOHN CANZANO: I still can’t wrap my head around Cal/Stanford choosing the ACC over a reformed Pac-12. The complaints from Olympic athletes and their well-connected parents will be loud when the reality of midweek cross-country trips sets in.

A: Cal and Stanford are smart institutions. But they acted out of desperation on this one and grabbed the only available life raft offering a media deal. None of the sources at those schools are thrilled with what is happening or believe it’s a long-term solution.

Stanford and Cal joined the ACC with an agreement that entitles them to 30 percent of media revenue through the first seven years.

They don’t get a full share until the 10th year of membership. They’ll get full shares of postseason revenue and distributions from the ACC Network. That helps. But Cal and Stanford have to pay Oregon State and Washington State a total of $6.5 million each as part of the settlement reached last December. I have to wonder if the Bay Area schools are already having regrets and wondering how sustainable the ACC affiliation is.

Former football coach David Shaw told me before he left Stanford that he thought geography would eventually win and the conferences would return to more regional affiliations someday. I think he’s right when it comes to the Olympic sports. But I also think the next 12-24 months are going to stink for those two schools and their athletes.

***********  ANOTHER QUESTION PUT TO CANZANO - Since the College Football Playoff is just an event created by the media companies why doesn’t Apple just create their own 12-team invitational for non-SEC/Big Ten teams? Money talks.

What do you think?  I think it’s a hell of an idea.  You could probably make money just by promoting the idea to the point where ESPN (and whoever else holds broadcast  rights to the f—king playoff) would come to you offering wheelbarrows  full of money to get you to call it off.



*********** Say this about Oregon: when they set out to do something, they don’t half-ass it.  EXHIBIT A: Their new (they already have a nice one) indoor practice facility.  From  the story: “Current plans call for an exterior shell made from Northwest timber, in a curved form inspired by the Oregon “O.”




https://around.uoregon.edu/content/university-releases-plans-future-indoor-practice-facility



*********** Just a little over a year ago, the Chicago Bears paid close to $200 million to buy a 326-acre property in suburban Arlington Heights  where they expressed intentions to build a new  domed stadium. But this being the NFL, where backup quarterbacks earn millions,  it shouldn’t surprise anyone to learn that the Bears have  changed directions.

They’ve  done a complete about-face, now saying that they actually like the idea of playing in a stadium - a new, domed  stadium - on the lakefront.  Right next to where Soldier Field is now.

It’s hard to believe that Soldier Field, which in an earlier phase was once the largest stadium in the US - capable of playing football games in front of crowds well in excess of 100,000 - is now the smallest stadium in the NFL.

The big hangup some 20 years ago when the current Soldier Field was build, overtop of the original one, was (1) the Bears’ plan to sell naming rights, and (2) retaining the colonnade that stood atop the stands on both sides.

They settled the uproar by not selling the name (it was going to be something like “Bud Light Stadium at Soldier Field”)  and by incorporating the colonnade into the design.

Now, the plans call for tearing down old Soldier Field, but keeping the Colonnade. (?)  I’ve read nothing about what they’re going to call it.

The Old Stadium’s got a big birthday coming up.  In two years, it’ll be 100.  To dedicate the field  as a monument to Americans  who had fought in World War I,  the  1926 Army–Navy Game was played  there. (PHOTO BELOW)



Before a crowd of more than 100,000 - largest crowd up to that point ever to watch a sporting event - the two teams played to a 21-21 tie.


https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/39704677/source-bears-planning-new-stadium-south-soldier-field



*********** If you haven’t heard about the Oklahoma  high school that thought toe-sucking would be an appropriate way to raise funds, it’s because you depend for your news on the New York Times, Washington Post, or Associated Press (which writes the stories for 90 per cent of the nation’s other papers), and they don’t think there’s anything wrong with most of what goes in our public schools.

Video of the “event” shows kids “going down” (yes, the comparison is unavoidable) on one another, heads bobbing up and down in actions that closely  resemble something a good deal more sexual in nature, as they (we’re  told) lick peanut butter off schoolmates’ big toes.

Good God.  Are there any adults in charge any more?  Anywhere?

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13147747/Oklahoma-high-school-students-toe-licking-challenge-video.html



*********** I don’t know where you’re going to be on July 20, but I know where I’ll be  - right smack in front of the old TV.  Watching a boxing match.

In this  corner, wearing black trunks with a  white stripe, Jake Paul.

And in this corner, wearing white trunks with a black stripe - Mike Tyson?

You heard that right.

July 20, in AT&T Stadium (Jerry World) in Arlington, Texas, 27-year-old Jake Paul will fight a man more than twice his age.

But Mike Tyson isn’t exactly your ordinary 58-year-old.

He’s still close to his fighting weight at 220 (he’s 5-10) and never forget - in his career as a heavyweight fighter, he knocked out 44 men.  He hasn't lost everything. (In all, his record as a pro is 50-6).

Paul is 6-1, 200.  And, yes, he’s younger.  But he’s had only 10 fights.  (He’s 9-1.)  There was a time when throwing a guy with just ten fights into the ring with a seasoned pro - even one 58 years old - would be unthinkable.

For example, Rocky Marciano had had 43 fights as a professional   before  he finally got his shot at the heavyweight title.

The fight isn’t sanctioned, and as a result betting on it is disallowed in many states. 

It’s a brutal sport, of course, and hard on the body of even strong young men, so it seems  to me that if Tyson can’t take him out fast - if Paul can somehow avoid Tyson’s blockbusters  for a round or two - Tyson’s arms are going to get weary and he’s going to lower his guard and start to take a beating.

But I’ll be watching.  I suppose that makes me no better than people who watch bullfights or people who go to a hockey game hoping to see a  fight  or to a stock car race hoping to see a wreck.


***********   "This is not about politics.”


The NAACP asked Black student-athletes to reconsider their decisions to attend public colleges and universities in the state of Florida, in response to the University of Florida and other state schools recently eliminating their diversity, equity and inclusion programs.


But, wrote NAACP president and CEO Derrick Johnson, "This is not about politics.”

https://www.espn.com/college-sports/story/_/id/39710283/naacp-asks-black-student-athletes-reconsider-florida-colleges



***********   I am seriously considering speaking with the appropriate ruling bodies--all of which recognize me as probably their most influential member--to argue that each team's opening offensive possession be executed with the original center snap.

Coach Wyatt has expended stupendous resources to give us the Zooms at no cost. HW is our shepherd, a man to whom we give thanks, but Coach Flinn did a job even Coach Wyatt appreciates. Of course, (joking now) the only thing I learned was: I'm F-1, I sprint out on my route, find I'm capped, so I return toward the passer following my route stem.

Fascinating that Army will play Owls in three consecutive outings, with a distant possibility of four in a row. Only on NYCU.

John Vermillion                    
St Petersburg, Florida



***********   Hugh,

Took time to watch the Rugby League Vegas opener on FOX.  After a tackle (I think that’s what it’s called) the guy tackled snaps the ball back with his foot to a team mate who starts another play.

I really enjoyed watching both games!

Rugby League (Aussie based) is different than Rugby Union which is what is played by the famous NZ All Blacks.

Think I mentioned before that I have a football history book of sorts written by Fielding Yost in 1918 presenting how the game of football was played back then.  Photos and diagrams of drills, plays, and original college game venues.  Harvard, Penn, Chicago, Princeton, Drake, Illinois, Michigan.

One look at the left side of the aisle during the SOTU (if that’s what it was called) told me all I needed to know why the numbers of youth abandoning tackle football is what it is!

My wife has always mocked me when I take out my college fight songs CD and start listening.

Enjoy the weekend!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas

I also watched the Rugby League doubleheader (four Aussie teams). It appeared to be a very good crowd - I think I heard 40,000.  I’m sure it drew a lot of the Aussies who live in Southern California, and my son said a lot of Aussies flew over for the  dual chance to watch rugby - and watch it in Las Vegas.  As you pointed out, “League” is different from “Union,” and there isn’t a lot of back-and-forth among players or fans.  “League” is much closer to our game in that there is something like “downs,” to assure that a team can’t remain indefinitely on offense.  (Fortunately, my wife likes college fight songs, too.)


 

*********** QUIZ ANSWER:  Dennis Erickson grew up in Everett, Washington, the son of a high school coach.  (But he wound up playing quarterback for his dad’s crosstown rival.)

At Montana State, playing under Jim Sweeney, he was an All-Big Sky Conference QB.

After four  jobs as an assistant coach - first Montana State (under  Sweeney), then Idaho, Fresno State (under Sweeney again),  and San Jose State (under Jack Elway) he got his first head coaching job at Idaho at the age of 35.

Over the next 34 years, he would be a head coach at six different colleges and two NFL teams.

At Idaho,  he took a job at a place that had had only four winning seasons in more than 40 years, and had not had back-to-back winning seasons in that time. 

He went 9-4 his first year and in his four years there he became the winningest coach in Idaho history.  And - he was 4-0 against Boise State.

From there, he went to Wyoming - going 6-6 - but  after one season left to take the head job at  Washington State.

He  spent just two years at WSU,  and then, after going 9-3 his second season, was hired by Miami to succeed Jimmy Johnson.  It seemed  like a strange hire - a guy from the far corner of the country - but Miami AD Sam Jankovich was a Butte, Montana guy who had coached under Jim Sweeney at Montana State and Washington State and had been AD at WSU before coming to Miami - so he knew his man and he knew what he was getting.

In six years at The U,  his man won two national championships and  went 63-9.  

Among Miami coaches, only Andy Gustafson has won more games, and no Hurricanes’ coach can match his winning percentage (.875) or his two national titles.

He left Miami for the Seattle Seahawks, but after going 31-33 in four years,  he was fired.

He immediately reappeared on the college scene, at Oregon State, where the Beavers had gone 28 years without a winning season.  He won in his first season - the Beavers went 7-5 - and in is second season they finished 11-1.  Their 41-9 defeat of Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl shocked the football world, and  their #4 ranking remains the highest finish in OSU history.

He stayed four years at Corvallis,   and went 31-17 - extraordinary  for Oregon State - but left to try the NFL again.

This time it was San Francisco, but he stayed just two years, and was let go with three years remaining on his contract.

He returned to coaching a few years later, taking a second turn at Idaho, but after a year there, he was off to Arizona State.    He started out with a 11-2 first season, but  he left after five seasons in Tempe with a record of 31-31.

Since then, he served four years as co-offensive coordinator at Utah, and  spent a short time with an ill-fated  spring football league.

His overall record as a college coach is 179–96–1.

Dennis Erickson has been named a Conference Coach of the Year on seven different occasions and was twice named National Coach of the Year - once at Miami and once at Oregon State.  He is in the College Football Hall of Fame.


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING DENNIS ERICKSON

GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
TOM DAVIS - SAN MARCOS, CALIFORNIA
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY
 



***********   QUIZ:   He was born in 1892  on the White Earth Indian Reservation in Minnesota. His father was a French Canadian, and his mother was Chippewa.

He  spent three years at Haskell Institute, an off-reservation school  in Lawrence, Kansas for young Indians, and at 19 he entered the Carlisle Indian School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

He played two years of football at Carlisle under the legendary Glenn “Pop” Warner.   His first year there was his first year ever playing organized football, but because he was good-sized - about 5-10, 200 - and because he was very athletic and very tough, Warner put him at tackle, and  he stood out.

In his first season, led by the great Jim Thorpe, the Carlisle Indians went 12-1-1, beating such schools as Syracuse, Pitt and Army, and losing only to Penn, 34-26.  They led the nation in scoring, outscoring opponents 454-120.

And then Thorpe graduated.  But Warner, recognizing hidden talent, moved our guy from tackle to Thorpe’s vacated halfback position.  That year,  losing only to Pitt and tying Penn, the Indians went 10-1-1.  They finished second in the East only to unbeaten Harvard,  and our guy was named by Walter Camp as a second-team All-American halfback.

Although normally expected to stay at Carlisle for five years, he left and returned to Minnesota, and then,  although having already played two years of college ball at Carlisle, he enrolled in Keewatin Academy in Wisconsin - essentially a high school - in order to earn enough credits to play college football.

Years later,  he explained the situation to Myron Cope in “The Game That Was:  “The funny thing, Carlisle wasn't nothing but an eighth grade school, but they called us a college.  Of course, some of us were pretty old by the time we got there, because those reservation schools weren't always real good, but anyhow, those Carlisle schools used to beat Harvard, Pittsburgh, Army, Pennsylvania, and a lot of those big universities. They didn't want to have to say, ‘well some damn grammar school beat us,’  so they just called us a college.”

He next wound up at Georgia Tech, where his older brother was an assistant to head coach John Heisman.

In his first year at Tech, they went 9-0 and  won the national  championship, and he was named All-South at halfback.

In his second year, Tech went 6-1.  He played some on the line, enough to be named as a tackle on at least one All-American team.

At the time, Ralph McGill, longtime publisher of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution who was  then a sports writer,  wrote, "There is really no argument about the identity of the greatest football player who ever performed in Dixie.   There is a grand argument about second place, but for first place there is (————), the Chippewa brave. "

In 1919, at the age of 27, he was talked into playing for the newly-organized Canton Bulldogs, the coached by his old Carlisle teammate, Jim Thorpe.  And the next year, 1920, the year  the National Football League began play, he got off a 95-yard punt that stood as a league record for more than 50 years.

In an eight year NFL career he played for eight different teams, only one of which is still in existence today. (He ended his career in 1927 with the New York Giants.)

His most unusual time had to be the 1922 and 1923 seasons when he played for a team originally called Jim Thorpe’s Indians. Coached by Thorpe, its  roster was 100 per cent Indian.  When a Marion, Ohio kennel owner - who raised airedales (and sold them for $150 each, a fortune at that time) - bought an NFL franchise, he named the team  the Oorang Indians,  after  his Oorang Kennel.

The team was purely a medium for advertising and selling the owner’s prize dogs.  The players earned money working  in the kennels,  training the dogs and building crates for shipping them.  For the purpose of showing them, the dogs traveled with the team whoever it went.  (Which was almost everywhere, because the team played most of its games on the road - the better to show the dogs.)  Halftimes of games often consisted of exhibitions including  the Indians and the dogs.

The biggest problem with the Oorang Indians, apparently, was that the players knew that winning wasn’t uppermost on the owner’s mind, and as a result they paid little mind to training rules.  Between  that and the strain of travel, they wound up 1-10 their second year, and that was that.

(Marion, Ohio, remains the smallest  town ever to have an NFL franchise.)

He shared one great story with Cope,  one that George Halas, Chicago Bears’ owner and coach,  also relished telling  in later years:

 "Halas knew that I was the key man. He knew that getting me out of there would make a difference. I was playing defense one time and I saw him coming after me from a long ways off. I was always alert. But I pretended I didn't see him. When he got close, I wheeled around and kicked him, goddamn. I brought my knee right up into him. Broke three of his ribs. And as they carried him off, I said to him, ‘What the hell, Halas.  Don't you know you can't sneak up on an Indian?’”

He is in the College Football and Pro Football Halls of Fame.

He was best man at Jim Thorpe’s wedding, and he was a pallbearer at his funeral.

His son and namesake became a doctor.  He played football at Catholic University in DC, and during World War II he was the first Native American to become a Navy pilot.




FRIDAY, MARCH 8, 2024    “The only known cure for presidential ambition is embalming fluid.“ John McCain


 *********** I  wrote earlier that there aren’t many people that I’d turn a clinic over to, but Brian Flinn - receivers coach and passing game coordinator at Princeton -  is one for sure.

I sure made the right call on Tuesday night.

Coach Flinn’s topic was the “four verticals passing game,” and he put on a presentation that in a little under one hour gave coaches the “what” (as everybody does) but also the “why” and the “how,” (which is what we really want) of a topic that might ordinarily be of little interest to Double Wingers, but in this case was.

A couple of quotes that I found especially memorable:

“One deep ball will change your life.”

“If you’re wrong, you’d better be right.” (If you swing away  when you’ve been given the “take” sign, you’d better hit a home run.)

“If you miss something early in the game - go back to it.” (Don’t give up on a play just because it didn’t work the first time.)

(I hope to be able to send out a link to the recording by Friday.)



*********** As I mentioned earlier, I’m going to be making a couple of presentations at the "2024 Option Summit."

It takes place over several days, with a couple dozen coaches presenting.

I’ll be presenting on Saturday, March 16, and no, I’m not going to be talking much about options.

The first talk,  at 10:35 AM (Pacific) is for all coaches -  a condensed package  they could use in short-yardage or  goal-line situations.

The second, at 11:50 AM (Pacific) is aimed at Double-Wingers - a direct-snap spread Double-Wing. No, not the Open Wing.  Think Wildcat.


https://2024optionsummit.coachesclinic.com/



*********** In doing a little research on the history of the center snap, you'll find that  the ball originally was “snapped” by the center’s foot.An original rule:

A scrimmage takes place when the holder of the ball, being in the field of play, puts it down on the ground in front of him, and puts it in play while onside, first, by kicking the ball; second, by snapping it back with his foot. The man who first receives the ball from the snap-back shall be called the quarterback, and shall not then rush forward with the ball under penalty of foul.

Got that?  In this case, a "scrimmage" is what we now call a "play."  (The concept of "downs" had yet to be introduced.) The  "holder of the ball" -  the “center”  (as he came to be called because he was in the middle of everything), “snapped” the ball with his foot, and the quarterback - the man he snapped it to - then had to hand  the ball or toss it laterally to one of the other backs.)


From “Football Through the Years” by Dean Hill (1940)

In the early days, play was started by putting the ball on the ground, all players closing around it, and then kicking at it until it rolled out into the open. This method of putting the ball in the play had its disadvantage, for it  also gave the opponent a chance to secure the ball. Someone suggested that a player be stationed a short distance behind the scrimmage and that the ball be kicked back to him whenever possible. This was tried and proved so successful that the man behind the scrimmage many times was able to secure the ball and run around the mass of men before they realized that the ball had come into the open. From this time on the player stationed behind the scrimmage was called the quarterback.

Soon an inventive genius discovered that he could so place his foot upon the ball that by pressing suddenly downward and backward with the toe of his shoe, he could roll the ball back to the quarterback along the ground. This was the second step in the evolution of putting the ball in play. Until the style of play began to call for a lower charging linemen, the ball was put in place by this means of rolling back with the foot.

However, when lower line play called for the center to be down over the ball, he found it impossible to use his foot for snapping the ball back to the quarterback. This resulted in the third step in the evolution of putting the ball in the play, namely, the center using his hand to roll the ball back to the quarterback, end over end along the ground. By this time the backfield had developed, and it took great skill on the part of the quarterback to pick the bounding ball up from the ground and hand it to one of the backs.

The fourth step in the evolution of putting the ball into play came when the center discovered that greater speed and accuracy could be secured by passing the ball between his legs with both hands to the quarterback, not allowing the ball to touch the ground. This method of putting the ball into play speed it up the game and fumbles were eliminated to a great extent.

The last stage of putting the ball into play came with the “direct snap,”  the passing of the ball by the center directly to the man who was to run with the ball.

From “The History of American Football” by Allison Danzig (1956) - Notice the references to “Stagg” (Amos Alonzo Stagg)

In the seventies, under the Rugby rules, then in force, the ball was thrown in between the two opposing packs or rush lines, and they endeavored to pass the ball back with their feet to their half-tends, who then picked it up and tossed it backward or laterally to other backs for a kick or run. In 1880 the Rugby scrummage gave way to the scrimmage, and possession of the ball now took on importance as the quarterback made his appearance. Instead of the ball’s being heeled out in a mass of scuffling feet, it was now passed back by the center. He snapped it back not with his hands but with his foot. The backs were stationed well back, and were spread out, ready to receive a backward pass from the quarterback, after he got the snapback from the center’s foot.

In 1889 came a change. Burt Hanson, the Yale center, “bent over and bounced the ball back between his legs with his hand,” said Stagg. In 1894, as coach at Chicago, Stagg had his quarterback in a standing position behind center to receive a lift-up pass from center. It saved the time of rising from the stoop position, said Stagg, and reduced the chance of fumbling the snapback. So the ball was now passed back with the hand, instead of the foot, and it was handed up directly, instead of bounced on the ground, to the quarterback, who took the standing position, comparable to that of the present-day T quarterback, instead of crouching back of the center.

In 1899 the Chicago Post said, “in the East the ball is put to the ground and rolled over to the quarterback, who is kneeling directly behind the center. Western coaches abandoned the roll, because it gave away the direction the play would go. They followed the example of Stagg, who instructed the center to snap the ball to the outstretched hands of the quarterback, who gave the signal by either the foot or leg. The pass from center to the fullback direct for a punt or goal from field, was not known to the East until Stagg Introduced this play in 1896.

All passes from Center, except on a punt, had to be indirect, that is, passed from Center to the quarterback, and then given to the ball carrier, by a handoff or a lateral.

The punter, in order to receive a direct pass from center, had to be at least 5 yards back of the scrimmage line. Usually he was from 8 to 10 yards back.”

THIS, from “Anatomy of a Game” ((1994) - a history of the rules of the game published posthumously by David Nelson (inventor of the Delaware Wing-T and longtime chairman of the NCAA Football Rules Committee):

The designation of players other than the snapper and quarterback were not in the rules until 1909; however, students named the players next to the snapper “guards.” These players were called guards because they allowed the snapper to release the ball without being molested. The snapper did not have the protection of the rules has provided in later years. The ends were so called for the obvious reason that they were on the end of the line…The lineman were known as “forwards” or “rushers” and the “next-to-ends” became “tackles” because most of the tackles were made by players in that position.

*********** American football can trace its source to Rugby School, in Rugby, England  where in 1823 a schoolboy soccer player named William Webb Ellis, instead of catching a kick in the air and then, as the rules permitted, attempting a free kick, caught the ball on the dead run - and kept running.  He didn’t get away with it, of course, but the idea of running with the ball - and tackling the runner - caught on at Rugby School, and it spread, as "Rugby Football.".

It spread to American colleges as well. But in 1880, a Yale player-coach named Walter Camp dramatically changed the game by doing away with the “scrummage,” or “scrum,” the mass of men pushing against one another in an attempt to “heel” the ball out into the open where a teammate could pick it up and start a new play.  Camp’s objection was that no matter how great a gain a runner might have made, once he was “down,” his team now had to roll the ball into the “scrum” and take its chances that when it rolled out of the scrum they could get the ball once again. This seemed to him too much a matter of chance. 

Camp’s innovation - the “scrimmage” - meant  that the runner who was “down” could start another play by getting up and, dispensing with the “scrum,” merely kicking the ball back to a teammate.  Camp had introduced the modern-day concept of “possession.”

A little too much possession, as it turned out.  Soon enough,  teams realized that so long as they didn’t fumble or kick the ball away, they could play “not to lose” and possess the ball for an entire half of play.  Unfortunately, when their opponents would employ the same strategy in the second half, scoreless ties would result. Ugh.

Camp’s solution  was to require a team to gain 5 yards in three “downs,” or give up possession. (Which would lead to the 10 yards in four downs that we think it’s always been.)



***********   In his book “The Yale Football Story” (1951), Tim Cohane  tells of the initial reaction to Camp’s “three  downs” proposal at the rules committee’s 1882 meeting in Springfield, Massachusetts. (Why Springfield?  Because - no joke - it was equidistant from Yale and Harvard.)

How, asked the representative from Harvard, “Do you propose to tell when 5 yards have been made?”

Replied Camp,  “We’ll have to rule off the field with horizontal chalked lines every 5 yards.”

“Why,” said the representative  from Princeton, “The field will look like a gridiron!“

“Precisely,” said Camp.



***********   STILL ON MY HISTORY KICK… This is also from “Anatomy of a Game,” by David Nelson…

As college football waited for the deluge of talent (coming back from serving in World War II)  to hit the campuses, the United States Military Academy was crushing opponents in a men-against-the-boys scenario. The wartime West Point team was part of a football rules historical footnote. On October 13, 1945 the University of Michigan came to Yankee Stadium with a team manned by a number of seventeen-year-old freshmen with everything to win and nothing to lose. In keeping with the time honored axiom, that “necessity is the mother of invention,” platoon football came to football for the first time on that October afternoon.

It had been four and a half seasons since the unlimited substitution rule took effect, and no coach had seen fit to utilize what now appears to have been obvious. Even Army coach Earl Blaik, with the best player personnel in the country and probably the finest coaching staff ever assembled, failed to see the possibilities of the 1941 substitution rule.

Michigan had won three games and lost to Indiana when they traveled to New York to play the cadets. The Wolverine staff, including Benny Oosterbaan and Biggie Munn, knew that they were in for a long afternoon. Head coach Fritz Crisler decided to play eight players offensively and another eight defensively to keep the score as low as possible. The game was tied 7-7 going into the fourth quarter; football has never been the same since Crisler’s innovation. Michigan ultimately lost the game, but managed to hold the score to a respectable 28-7. Blaik was so impressed by the separate offensive and defensive contingents that he later moved to the same operation and called his units, what else, “platoons.”

*********** Of the 130-some FBS teams, only four are nicknamed Owls.

Next fall, Army will play  three of them - and in a row!

Sept 7  - at  Florida Atlantic Owls
Sept 14 - Open 
Sept 21 - Rice Owls (HOME)
Sept 26 - at Temple Owls

The lone outlier - the Kennesaw State Owls - have a date at San Jose State on September 14 that I bet they could get out of. (In case Army’s AD, Mike Buddie, gives a hoot.)



***********   John Canzano notes…  Chris Petersen left Washington. David Shaw threw in the towel at Stanford. Nick Saban announced he had enough at Alabama. Boston College head coach Jeff Hafley left to be a defensive coordinator in the NFL.

And to that I add Chip Kelly, who at last report is delighted to be done with the headaches of head coaching in these chaotic  days and VERY happy to be “back coaching again.”  Really coaching.



*********** In case you’ve been wondering why you’re seeing  and hearing so much about flag football, this is  from a recent article in the Washington Post…

The NFL, which is among the most influential cultural institutions in the United States, has long viewed the slow decline in high school participation rates — beginning in 2006 and accelerating amid the avalanche of negative storylines in the 2010s regarding traumatic brain injuries — as an existential threat. The league has targeted it with a series of responses, most notably an embrace of flag football as an alternate pathway, geared toward coaxing families back into the game.

“Where we were fighting the negative health and safety narratives seven, eight years ago, we were saying, ‘Okay, well, let’s evolve,’ ” said Roman Oben, an offensive tackle for 12 seasons in the NFL, who now serves as the league’s vice president for football development. “... It’s okay to admit that we had to evolve.”

The league’s efforts have helped: More kids ages 6 to 12 now play flag football than tackle, and flag participation has remained stable. But the introduction of a safer alternative also has sown divisions, with flag football more frequently being adopted in wealthier communities, according to interviews with football organizers and experts around the country. It is a dynamic the NFL and USA Football have tried to address by focusing efforts to expand access to flag in underserved areas.

But the divide between specific demographic groups changed far more dramatically. This year, for example, 75 percent of Americans who identified as conservatives said they wuld recommend football to kids, but a much smaller 44 percent of liberals did. That gap represented a striking change from the 2012 poll, when the margin was only 70 percent to 63 percent. The gap between White conservatives (72 percent) and White liberals (36 percent) in 2023 was even wider, much larger than a 67 percent-57 percent gap in 2012.

Just 7.5 percent of White boys ages 6 to 17 played tackle football last year, the lowest rate since at least 2014, according to data from USA Football, the sport’s governing body, which is funded in part by the NFL. It’s a trend that has prompted headlines about “White flight” from football.

In fact, though Black males still play at higher rates (11 percent), their participation rates have fallen in recent years, too. Meanwhile, another historically marginalized group appears to be filling the vacuum: Participation by Hispanic boys nearly matched that of White males last year.

***********   In 1983, in  a much-publicized report entitled “A Nation at Risk,”  the US National Commission on Excellence in Education stated
 
“If an unfriendly power had attempted to impose on America, the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might have viewed it as an active war.“

To show how seriously Americans took the warning, fast-forward to 2024…

In Seattle Public Schools, teachers are not allowed to give a grade lower than 50 (out of 100) - even if an assignment hasn’t been turned in.



***********  Not many people know that I am a HUGE fan of college fight songs.  One  guy who does know how much I like them is Norm Maves, a longtime Portland sportswriter, now retired.  Just before I travelled to Finland for the first time, Norm gave me a cassette (remember them?) of college fight songs.  I knew most of them, and  I listened to them all the way over on the plane (10 hours).  And  while I was away, listening to them, they were a constant reminder of home.  And of college football, which after all is the reason why they exist.

I couldn’t possibly pick a favorite.  I couldn’t pick a Top Ten. Or even a Top 25. There are so many that I really like, and so few that I don’t care that much for.

One of the many that I like is the very first of all  college fight songs: Boston College’s “For Boston.” It was written and composed in 1885.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBwkc-x8dYs

And  the Dropkick Murphys version

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ArP3D_LX5w



***********   Great stories all around today. It's important, most will agree, to take time out to show respect to (in this case, former football associates) people we once depended upon and cared about. You've had more than your share of football friends.

I don't have a way to confirm or deny, but several pubs reported last week that C. Clark has taken zero collective money. On the other hand, she brought in more money to Iowa athletic coffers than any athlete this season. Although I agree about Pistol Pete's unassailable stats, here's one not often mentioned in relation to Caitlin: Pete took twice as many field goal attempts per game as Caitlin, roughly 38 to 19.

Love the way Connie looks at the Combine (Caterpiller or John Deere?). And I was thinking the same thing about the 40 time. Wow, he broke the previous record by .01 second, which...means what exactly? But the writers scream out that his performance has vaulted him into a first round top ten pick.

John Vermillion                        
St Petersburg, Florida

Caitln Clark  has not taken any collective money, but she certainly hasn’t needed to.  She is said to be making millions in endorsement money - from legitimate endorsements - which is exactly the way NIL was sold to the courts, and not as inducements to high school kids to commit or rivals’ players to transfer, regardless of any actual value they might have as endorsers.



***********   Hugh,

Great news about Trish!  A number of his former Manchester Bears played for me at Trinity in the mid-90’s, and contributed greatly in our huge upset of Manchester Central in the Turkey Bowl. 

Caitlin Clark is a GREAT female basketball player.  Female being the operative word. I’ve enjoyed following her college career. She might even become one of the greatest women to play in the WNBA. Period.  End of story.

Austin, TX is quickly becoming Portland. In fact they are “sister” cities in many ways.  Bad ways.  Only difference is Portland is in Oregon.  Austin is in Texas.
And THAT is a BIG difference!

Have a great week!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas

 





*********** QUIZ ANSWER:   Until Juaun Jennings’ TD pass to Christian McCaffrey in this year’s Super Bowl, Antwaan Randle El  was the only wide receiver ever to throw a  touchdown pass in a Super Bowl.

As a high school senior, he was selected in the 14th round of the MLB draft by the Chicago Cubs.

At Indiana, he was the Big Ten Freshman of the Year.

In his senior year he was named Big Ten Most Valuable Player and Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year.

He was the first player in D-I history to run  for 40 touchdowns and throw for 40 touchdowns in a season.

He was the first player in D-I history to post four seasons of more than 2,500 yards total offense.

He finished sixth in the Heisman Trophy voting his senior year.

He played on the Indiana basketball team (under Bob Knight) following his freshman season, and on the Indiana baseball team during his junior year.

Drafted as a wide receiver in the second round (62nd pick) by the Pittsburgh Steelers,  he had 47 receptions for 489 receiving yards and two TDs and was named to the NFL All-Rookie Team.

In four seasons with the Steelers he was also used as a return man, and in his fourth season, he was named first-team All-Pro and won a Super Bowl ring.  In the Super Bowl, he  threw a 51-yard touchdown pass to Hines Ward.

And then,  a free agent, he signed  with the Washington Team Whose Name Shall Not be Spoken, and had three consecutive seasons with 50 or more receptions.

After four seasons with Washington, he returned to Pittsburgh for one season, and after playing in the Steelers’ Super Bowl loss to Green Bay, he retired.

Following retirement he did some TV work, then got into coaching, and at the present time he is wide receivers’ coach of the Detroit Lions.

Although his last name might have some Islamic connotations, Antwaan Randle El is actually a devout Christian.

In a 2016 interview with a Pittsburgh newspaper, he referred to some memory problems he was having and expressed regret at not having chosen to play baseball instead of football: “If I could go back, I wouldn’t (play football). I would play baseball. I got drafted by the Cubs in the 14th round, but I didn’t play baseball because of my parents… Don’t get me wrong, I love the game of football. But right now (at 36), I could still be playing baseball.”



CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING ANTWAAN RANDLE EL

GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
TOM DAVIS - SAN MARCOS, CALIFORNIA
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
RODNEY LUNSFORD - WESTFIELD, INDIANA
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY


***********   Played basketball at Thornton HS in Illinois for an outstanding team, 

On the court for a state quarterfinal game in 1995 were the following future professional athletes.  1995 Thornton vs Farragut

Farragut:

Kevin Garnett  NBA
Ronnie Fields   CBA and overseas

Thornton:

Melvin Ely  NBA
Antwaan Randle-El NFL
Napoleon Harris NFL
Tai Street Michigan and NFL

https://www.chicagomag.com/city-life/march-2015/the-best-of-illinoiss-high-school-basketball-archives/

John Bothe
Oregon, Illinois


 

*********** QUIZ: He grew up in Everett, Washington, the son of a high school coach.  (But he wound up playing quarterback for his dad’s crosstown rival.)

At Montana State, playing under Jim Sweeney, he was an All-Big Sky Conference QB.

After four  jobs as an assistant coach - first Montana State (under  Sweeney), then Idaho, Fresno State (under Sweeney again),  and San Jose State (under Jack Elway) he got his first head coaching job at Idaho at the age of 35.

Over the next 34 years, he would be a head coach at six different colleges and two NFL teams.

At Idaho,  he took a job at a place that had had only four winning seasons in more than 40 years, and had not had back-to-back winning seasons in that time. 

He went 9-4 his first year and in his four years there he became the winningest coach in Idaho history.  And - he was 4-0 against Boise State.

From there, he went to Wyoming - going 6-6 - but  after one season left to take the head job at  Washington State.

He  spent just two years at WSU,  and then, after going 9-3 his second season, was hired by Miami to succeed Jimmy Johnson.  It seemed  like a strange hire - a guy from the far corner of the country - but Miami AD Sam Jankovich was a Butte, Montana guy who had coached under Jim Sweeney at Montana State and Washington State and had been AD at WSU before coming to Miami - so he knew his man and he knew what he was getting.

In six years at The U,  his man won two national championships and  went 63-9.  

Among Miami coaches, only Andy Gustafson has won more games, and no Hurricanes’ coach can match his winning percentage (.875) or his two national titles.

He left Miami for the Seattle Seahawks, but after going 31-33 in four years,  he was fired.

He immediately reappeared on the college scene, at Oregon State, where the Beavers had gone 28 years without a winning season.  He won in his first season - the Beavers went 7-5 - and in is second season they finished 11-1.  Their 41-9 defeat of Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl shocked the football world, and  their #4 ranking remains the highest finish in OSU history.

He stayed four years at Corvallis,   and went 31-17 - extraordinary  for Oregon State - but left to try the NFL again.

This time it was San Francisco, but he stayed just two years, and was let go with three years remaining on his contract.

He returned to coaching a few years later, taking a second turn at Idaho, but after a year there, he was off to Arizona State.    He started out with a 11-2 first season, but  he left after five seasons in Tempe with a record of 31-31.

Since then, he served four years as co-offensive coordinator at Utah, and  spent a short time with an ill-fated  spring football league.

His overall record as a college coach is 179–96–1.

He has been named a Conference Coach of the Year on seven different occasions and was twice named National Coach of the Year - once at Miami and once at Oregon State.  He is in the College Football Hall of Fame.





TUESDAY, MARCH 5, 2024   “Making no mistakes is what establishes the certainty of victory, for it means conquering an enemy that is already defeated.” Sun Tzu, '"The Art of War"


*********** There aren’t many people that I’d turn a clinic over to, but Brian Flinn is one for sure.

He’ll be the featured presenter at my Zoom Clinic (#146) tonight (Tuesday).

Many of you will remember my interview with him back in November.

Coach Flinn is the wide receivers coach and now,  in addition, newly-named as  passing game coordinator at Princeton University.

He’ll be talking about the “four verticals passing game,” and  to allow him as much clinic time as possible, I’m dealing with the introductions now:

Coach Flinn is a native of Youngstown, Ohio - a real coaching hotbed - where he attended Ursuline High School.

At D-III power Mount Union, he played on two national championship teams (1993 and 1996), and captained the 1996 team.

He has coached at Mt. Union, Drake, Maryland (under Ralph Friedgen, when the Terps were really good), and Eastern Illinois, then moved east to Villanova.  He coached the Wildcats’ receivers for 14 years, and in 2009, they  won the FCS National Championship.

In 2020, he moved to Ivy League power Princeton, where he has coached wide receivers. In his time there he has coached five All-Ivy receivers - five wide receivers, including AJ Barber (Tiki Barber’s son) and  Andrei Iosivas, who played this past season as a rookie with the Cincinnati Bengals.  As I’ve already mentioned, Coach Flinn recently given the additional responsibilities of passing game coordinator.

He  has presented  at  my Philadelphia clinics, and he was  very  helpful to me in developing the Open Wing,  especially when it came to  teaching wide receivers  how to block!


*********** Several guys have asked me about it, so I guess I might as well answer here:

Yes, I’m going to be presenting at a massive Zoom clinic.

It takes place over several days, and it’s called the 2024 Option Summit, but to be honest, I’m not going to be talking much about option(s).


I’ll be presenting on Saturday, March 16.

I’ve been asked by the organizer, Rick Stewart ,to make two presentations:

One, at 10:35 AM (Pacific) Saturday - is for all coaches -  a condensed package  they could use in short-yardage or  goal-line situations.

And a  second, at 11:50 AM (Pacific) Saturday - is aimed at Double-Wingers - a direct-snap spread Double-Wing. No, not the Open Wing.  Think Wildcat.


https://2024optionsummit.coachesclinic.com/



*********** What a great message to find on my phone on a recent morning - John Trisciani’s back as a head coach!

“Coach Trish” and I became early friends, back in the late 1990s when I started my Web site.  He was an early-adopter of my system, and began killing people in the youth leagues around his home in Manchester, New Hampshire.

He never missed one of my Providence, Rhode Island clinics, and we’d often have dinner afterwards.

His coaching career took him to high school assistant jobs, then to a successful head coaching stint at Trinity High School in Manchester and finally - where we began to lose touch - to an assistant coaching job at St. Anselm’s College.

He spent last season as an assistant at Manchester Central High, but he had the urge to be a head coach again and he recently landed the head job at Hollis-Brookline High.

“I was just looking for a head job, and this was open,” he said. “This will be my 45th year coaching, and I still have a passion for it.”

I can’t be sure, but I have an idea what Coach Trish will be running offensively.


https://nhfootballreport.com/2024/02/19/hollis-brookline-hires-trisciani/


*********** Greg Koenig, at Bennett, Colorado High, outside Denver, is looking for a DC and/or  an offensive line coach.  Experience in those spots is preferred, but I suspect that Greg would consider a guy  with less experience but with a great work ethic and a great desire to learn.

In addition, Bennett Schools have several openings for teachers:
    •    Elementary Paraprofessional
    •    Elementary (K-5th) Teacher
    •    MS ELA Teacher
    •    MS Art Teacher
    •    MS PE Teacher
    •    HS Business Teacher
    •    HS ELA Teacher

I don’t need to tell you how much respect I have for Greg Koenig as a man and as a coach, so I have no reservations whatsoever about urging you to contact me for Greg’s contact info - coachhw@mac.com


*********** Tom Walls is an American,  teaching in Winnipeg, Manitoba (Canada), and the founder and head coach of the Springfield Collegiate Institute (High School) Sabers. He and his wife, Shandy,  have two children,  Aiden and Tommy. Tommy is a quarterback at Eastern University outside Philadelphia. They also have a dog named Tubby – (Tom’s dad played for both Tubby Raymond and Dave Nelson at the University of Delaware).  Together, Tom and Shandy have founded two football clubs in Canada.


I’ve known Tom for more than 10 years.   Back in May of 2013  I paid him a visit in Winnipeg, and  then in the spring of 2015 he came and observed our practices  in Ocean Shores, Washington.
 

I just finished reading his story, written for a magazine called “Headsets,” about learning under fire in Canada.  I enjoyed it,  and I think you will, too.

 
“THAT WON’T WORK HERE” - EXPERIENCES OF AN AMERICAN WING-T COACH IN  CANADA

By Tom Walls
 
Three Wing-T coaches walk into a bar. The bartender looks at them and asks, “What’s your go-to on 3rd and medium?” The Traditional Wing-T’er says, “Buck Sweep, maybe Waggle.” The Gun Wing T’er says, “Jet, maybe Smash.” The Canadian Wing T’er looks into his beer and mutters, “Punt.”
 
That last coach is me. I’m an American Wing T coach who moved up to Canada thirteen years ago.  and if I had a dollar for every time someone told me “that won’t work up here,” I would be ready to retire. My experience in bringing the offense that originated in my native Delaware to the Great White North has been anything but smooth. Although we have found consistent success in our unique system, the process of getting there was one that caused me to question and really test my ability to coach. Through this experience I learned to have the courage to be different, but to also have the common sense not to be obstinate.
 
When my wife (a Canadian) announced that she “wanted to go home” I had to remind her that I was an American history teacher and a football coach. I was sure that Canadian schools didn’t teach American history and I wasn’t sure if they played football.  They do.  Just with one too many players and too much moving around. After summoning the courage to jump without a net, we moved to her hometown of Winnipeg, Canada, population 900,000.
  
Besides being considered one of the coldest cities in the world, Winnipeg has a vibrant high school football league with over 30 teams.   I was hired as a teacher for “at risk youth” and as the Head Football Coach at Churchill High School.
 
Now, it would probably be helpful to know a few things about coaching in Canada. First, there’s no money in it. We’re all volunteers. Let that sink in for a moment.  Second, players pay a fee to play. Football is an expensive endeavor, even with free health care. Any deficit from player fees has to be made up in fundraising.
 
Finally, league alignment follows the model of English professional soccer. You get promoted or relegated based on performance. School population doesn’t matter. When I came to Churchill they had just finished a semi- final appearance in the premier division and although the cupboard was bare, this school of 500 students was scheduled to play schools of over 2000 the next season.
 
Things did not go well. I installed a double wing offense, and although I was taught it by one of the best (Hugh Wyatt), we failed miserably.  Maybe it was the kids, maybe it was the staff, maybe it was me. Regardless, it was a very difficult three years with lots of questioning and soul searching.   Finally, after going 0-8 in 2013, I resigned.
 
It wasn’t particularly unexpected or unwelcome. The program was ready to go back to what was familiar and I was ready to stop banging my head against the wall. (My wife was also tired of taking my belt and shoelaces away following each game.)
 
Then, as it often does, fate intervened. My wife decided that we were not finished with football.

My son had become of age to play and she decided that we were going to start a youth football club in our town. “How hard can it be?” she reasoned. Turns out that it was pretty hard. Besides the herculean logistics in running five teams, I also had to revisit coaching with a team of 35, twelve to thirteen year-olds, most of whom had never put on a helmet.
 
 
No way was I going to repeat my past mistake. I was going to do what everyone else in Canada was doing: run a one back offense and throw the ball on
every other down.
 
It sucked. We won only two games that first year, and one was a forfeit. I was unhappy, the kids were unhappy, and the parents were unhappy. I began to feel that I was a failure no matter what offense I ran.
 
Then fate stepped in yet again. I found myself looking through Hugh Wyatt’s website and noticed that he had a new take on the Double Wing: the Open Wing.

In this system you move a TE and Wing out as a wideout and slot. It gives you the ability to both run power and a spread game. He calls it a “Mullet Offense” – business up front and party in the back. It was exactly what I had been looking for.
 
After adding the 12th  player as a jet back (inspired by Rick Stewart) and incorporating some Canadian adjustments (receivers running forward before the ball is snapped) I had something very different -  but not so different that it couldn’t be used in the land of three downs. Hence, the Canadian Wing was born.
 
It worked. The first year we went 4-4,  and in the six years since we have lost only six games. In that time, we started a high school team (Springfield Collegiate Institute), won two championships, and have had countless Canadian linemen learn what G.O.D. stands for.
 
I learned a lot as well.  I learned that certain football fundamentals  stand up to both the test of time and borders. I  also learned that some concepts will only work if you have superior athletes, and no amount of  study or great halftime speeches will change  that.
 
Moving to Canada has been very good for me  as a coach and person. I initially failed,  and that failure turned from a setback into a setup. As we move into the 2024 season the lessons from these past years are still echoing. We are not  fooling defenses as much as we used to with our old fashioned offense. It’s time for us to recognize what isn’t working, while still keeping our unique identity.
 
Now, if I can just remember to stop going for it on third down!
 
 

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5e19517e2fe45c7fdf0ef64d/t/65e50089b38aae363aedbade/1709506698202/Volume+4-Issue+2.pdf
 
 


 
*********** This photo was taken in the fall of 1968, after practice in Frederick, Maryland. It’s three Frederick Falcons’ teammates.   Yes, that’s a younger me on the right.  On the left is Clarence “Motts” Thomas, with whom I would become lifelong friends. Motts had roomed with Willie Lanier at Morgan State, and after a couple of high school coaching jobs, he served as head coach at Bowie (Maryland) State then went on to Williams College in Massachusetts as an assistant, and then returned to Morgan State as head coach (and  once coached in Yankee Stadium against Eddie Robinson).  Finally, he moved west to Pomona-Pitzer College in California, where he served until retirement. Sadly, he scarcely got to enjoy retirement, dying of cancer in 2011.  In the middle is Gene Snowden, a very strong, very tough offensive lineman.  (Somehow I remember him as bigger.) Gene was a  rock-solid guy, a  fount of wisdom and good sense, who always kept his head about him, no matter how tough things got.  He had a great sense of humor and was fun to be around, but he also had a serious, dignified side, and in the years after football he became a pillar in Frederick’s black community.  It hurt a great deal to learn from Don Shipley, son of the late Falcons’ coach, Dick Shipley, that after a long illness, Gene passed away last week.  Losing a teammate is always a blow.



*********** My high school classmate and teammate, Stan Stevenson, died last week at his home in Lansdale, Pennsylvania. 

This is from his obituary: Stan was a long-time season-ticket holder of the Philadelphia Eagles and a passionate Philadelphia sports fan, a passion that he both inherited from his parents and passed on to his children.  He would often recount the stories of his beloved 1960 NFL Championship Eagles and his personal favorite, Tommy McDonald. 

Stan was a great guy. This says it all:  on our high school  team (we were pretty good) he was a 150-pound  single-wing fullback.



*********** It’s official:  Jason Kelce has announced his retirement.  It’s fair to say that he’s an honorary Philly guy, like other out-of-towners who  had life-long love affairs with the Philly fans -  guys like  Richie Ashburn… Tommy McDonald…Tom Brookshier… Pete Retzlaff… Vai Sikahema.  Guys who came and stayed.  And then there’s the one who got away - Reggie White. That broke peoples’ hearts.


*********** Look - Caitlin Clark is great.  No denying it. 

But …please…  enough of this “breaking Pete Maravich’s record” business

It didn’t happen.  It  can’t happen.

It’s been more than 50 years since Pistol Pete Maravich played his last college game - yet many of his records have withstood the best efforts of the countless great male players who’ve played the game since then.  And these have been men  playing aginst men. Would Caitlin Clark - any woman - average double figures playing an entire season against men?

Pete Maravich’s records are carved in stone.  They were set under conditions that will never even be approximated, let alone duplicated.  They will never be broken, by a woman or a man.

From Wikipedia (which  is often wrong but in this case is right)…

In only three years playing on the varsity team (and under his father's coaching) at LSU, Maravich scored 3,667 points—1,138 of those in 1967–68, 1,148 in 1968–69, and 1,381 in 1969–70—while averaging 43.8, 44.2, and 44.5 points per game, respectively. For his collegiate career, the 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) guard averaged 44.2 points per game in 83 contests and led the NCAA in scoring for each of his three seasons.

Maravich's long-standing collegiate scoring record is particularly notable when three factors are taken into account:

    •    First, because of the NCAA rules that prohibited him from taking part in varsity competition during his first year as a student, Maravich was prevented from adding to his career record for a full quarter of his time at LSU. During this first year, Maravich scored 741 points in freshman competition.

    •    Second, Maravich played before the advent of the three-point line. This significant difference has raised speculation regarding just how much higher his records would be, given his long-range shooting ability and how such a component might have altered his play. Writing for ESPN.com, Bob Carter stated, "Though Maravich played before [...] the 3-point shot was established, he loved gunning from long range.”   It has been reported that former LSU coach Dale Brown charted every shot Maravich scored and concluded that, if his shots from three-point range had been counted as three points, Maravich's average would have totaled 57 points per game and 12 three-pointers per game.

    •    Third, the shot clock had also not yet been instituted in NCAA play during Maravich's college career. (A time limit on ball possession speeds up play, mandates an additional number of field goal attempts, eliminates stalling, and increases the number of possessions throughout the game, all resulting in higher overall scoring.)

*********** PORTLAND CITY OFFICIALS RESPONDED PREDICTABLY TO POLLS SHOWING THAT 2 OF 3 PORTLAND VOTERS SAY GRAFFITI IS A BIG PROBLEM IN THEIR  CITY…

Portland officials will now have an easier time slapping fines on people who don’t clean up graffiti on their property.

An ordinance the Portland City Council unanimously approved this month lets city officials skip the lengthy process they used to follow to prod property owners to paint over unsightly tags. Under the new rule — another effort in the city’s uphill battle with graffiti — officials can go straight to the city’s Code Hearings Office to open a case and seek penalties for property owners who don’t comply with the city’s 10-day deadline.

As graffiti has spread in Portland, police and prosecutors have not kept pace with taggers, but representatives of the Police Bureau have said that cleaning up existing graffiti is one of the best deterrents. Many property owners in Portland, though, find themselves caught in an endless cycle of cleaning their buildings only to see them tagged again overnight.

AND TO SHOW HOW ASS-BACKWARDS THINGS ARE IN THE ROSE CITY…

The 22-year-old man accused of causing at least $20,000 worth of damage by tagging property in Portland and Vancouver took a plea deal Wednesday.

Emile Laurent, who allegedly left the tag “TENDO” across multiple Portland buildings, pleaded guilty to one felony count and three misdemeanor counts of criminal mischief. In exchange, Multnomah County prosecutors dropped 21 additional charges, according to court records.

A county circuit court judge sentenced Laurent to three years of probation, 100 hours of community service and $6,815 in restitution distributed amongst four victims.

Laurent, a high-profile skateboarder who has been featured in Thrasher magazine, turned himself in to police Aug. 22. Officials announced the day before that they were searching for the “prolific graffiti vandal.”

He was accused of damaging various locations owned by the city of Portland and the Oregon Department of Transportation, as well as several private businesses and properties in Portland and Vancouver.

(There's no truth to the rumors that the City Council  has voted to give women who have been raped 10 days to apologize to the rapist for being female, wearing women’s clothing, and walking unescorted on city streets.)



*********** After a teaser of a headline,  here’s how the story read…

The Canadian Football League is investigating allegations made by a former Toronto Argonauts strength and conditioning coach, who alleges to have been wrongfully dismissed after being harassed by quarterback, Chad Kelly, the league announced Wednesday.

The coach filed a statement of claim with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice last week alleging a pattern of harassment by Kelly that began with unwanted, romantic advances, and escalated into instances of threatening language.

Now, if you’re like me - and if you know anything about Chad Kelly’s background - you’re thinking, “Damn.  I knew the guy had some issues in his past… but making romantic passes - at a strength coach?”  Sheesh.

But I read on.  Turns out, way down in the story, it mentioned that the “strength coach” was, unlike 99.9  per cent of all strength  coaches, a “she,” who had been  an assistant strength and conditioning coach.

Okay.  Now that we have a better idea of what happened, a coupla questions:

1. Given that professional football players are in general very strong men who hold weaklings in contempt, who in the world  thought there was any upside to having a female strength coach? 

2. Not to condone any harassment that might have happened… but who in the world couldn’t see the potential downside?



***********   I keep hearing people deploring the fact that their legislatures “aren’t getting anything done,” and I say, “Lucky you.”

Watch out for the ones who do get things done.  They’re the ones that'll  give you cashless bail, ranked-choice voting, legalized drug possession and penalties for using the wrong pronouns.

Also year-round daylight saving (or standard) time.

In Oregon, they’ve proposed a bill to adopt year-round standard time.

Forget the fact that if that were to occur - if clocks were no longer “sprung forward” every spring, the  sun would rise as early as 4:21 in June, and there would be 97  days of sunrises before 5 AM.  (At present, there are none.)

Fortunately, the bill, even if it were to pass, would only go into effect if both Washington and Oregon were to pass similar laws.  (And we all know that we can count on those two states to act rationally, don’t we?)



*********** Chris Mortenson has died, and he’ll be missed.  He was a real pro, one of the few non-shouters among the pro football “experts.”  For some reason - I have no idea why - I always thought of him as a former player (which he was not).



*********** I was watching the NFL combine when the kid from Texas ran a 4.21 40,  and to listen to the yahoos on TV, you’d think he had just been the first human to run the 4-minute mile, high jump seven feet, pole-vault 15 feet, run the 100 meters in 10 flat and put the  shot 60 feet - all at the same time.  And at the summit of Mount Everest.

Meanwhile, many of the experts are actually beginning to question the relevance of the 40 yard dash in evaluating players.   My wife, who’s not an expert but is brighter than most of them, asked me why offensive linemen have to run it, and I couldn’t tell her why.   Aren’t there other tests and drills far more important than having somebody do something that he’ll never - not one time - have to do in a game in an entire NFL career?



**********   Coach:

The answer is Jim Halpert of "The Office". Actual name is John Krasinski. He's the true "Big Tuna", right?

No, context matters, so I'll go way out there and guess Bill Parcells. I might have mentioned before that his on-post quarters (at West Point) was a duplex, the other half occupied by Bob Knight.

Some on the Army FB MB have said Monken's choice was to make Cody Worley OC or lose him to Navy.

Please excuse me for taking up too much of your page's space, but your mention of MacArthur's 1962 speech moves me to show an excerpt from my next book, tentatively titled 47: High-Living Lowlifes. It's about Simon Pack's run for the presidency. The following is Pack speaking (unedited words I wrote 2-3 weeks ago) to a gathering on the campaign trail:

“This speech means nothing. That’s what I think most of the time. But saying that it means nothing is an obvious exaggeration, else why speak to the public at all? Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address was important, Eisenhower’s ‘military-industrial complex’ speech was important, President Kennedy’s calling Americans to individual action was important, General MacArthur’s ‘Duty-Honor-Country’ speech has influenced West Pointers since the early Sixties, and so on. But most speeches are, in a word, silly. Nearly all college commencement addresses are forgotten before the students have made off with their diplomas. Actions count far more than words. We’ve been told that since the age we could talk. Turn on television any day and listen to these politicians. I hear some fine speeches, dripping from honey-coated tongues, but I check back in a month and they’ve taken no action. You have do-nothing Senators who appear on C-Span grilling someone they’ve hauled in. Keep in mind these people have no executive duties at all. They sit high up in their seats like Roman proconsuls about to pass judgment on their inferiors. Just one problem, namely, that they don’t get much done for their working citizen taxpayers. They’re too busy throwing our money away, seemingly to anyone anywhere in the world who has his hand out."

Coach, we see how easily the public at large has become one big trained seal. Not me. Words matter, and if you've come into the country unlawfully, you're an illegal alien. I will not say migrant unless someone meets the definition.

Concerning the combine: I read this morning that Andy Reid took himself and his staff back home early. Are we heading to a time when the event will be held mainly for the talking heads?

Coach Wesoloski turned up a gem of a video capture.

John Vermillion                        
St Petersburg, Florida



***********   Hugh,

Thanks for that link to General MacArthur’s farewell speech to the Corps at West Point.  Awesome!

F Nike and the horse they rode in on!

If only Johnny Cash knew when he wrote the song “My name is Sue!”

Those UMass basketball folks should be cheering the move to the MAC.  They’re currently 9-7, fifth in the A-10, and MAYBE looking at an NIT bid.  At least now they’ll be playing in a REAL athletic conference.

Last I heard the “newcomers” were space aliens.


Enjoy the weekend!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas



*********** QUIZ ANSWER:   His college - Wichita State - doesn’t even play football anymore.

He was taken in the seventh round of the NFL draft by the Lions but was released before ever playing in a game.

He spent 14 years as an assistant at six different colleges before finally getting a college head coaching job.

When he finally got one (Air Force) he lasted one season,  after posting a  3-8 record.  His .273 record is by far the worst of any coach in Air Force football history.

He was hired by the Giants to coach linebackers, and after two years was promoted to defensive coordinator. After two years in that position,  he  was hired as the Giants’  head coach.

And then… in his fourth season in New York, Bill Parcells won a  Super Bowl. And four years later, he won another one.

He took his next team to a third Super Bowl, but after losing it, he left following a disagreement with the owner.

He coached   two more teams, taking both to the playoffs.

In all, with a couple of “retirements” along the line, he was head coach of four different teams for  a total of 19 seasons, and took teams to the playoffs ten times.

He is the only coach in NFL history to have taken four different teams to the playoffs.

His overall career record as an NFL head coach is 183–138–1 (.570).  In the postseason, his record is 11-8.

Following his final retirement from coaching, he served as a TV analyst, and has worked as a consultant or executive for a number of NFL teams.

Seventeen of his former assistants have gone on to become head coaches at the college or NFL level.  Three of them - Bill Belichick, Sean Payton and Tom Coughlin - have won Super Bowls themselves.

Lions’ coach Dan Campbell played for him with the Giants and the Cowboys.

Bill Parcells  is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Perhaps you’ll remember him by his nickname: The Big Tuna.




CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING BILL PARCELLS

GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
RODNEY LUNSFORD - WESTFIELD, INDIANA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
BRAD KNIGHT - CLARINDA, IOWA
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
TOM DAVIS - SAN MARCOS, CALIFORNIA
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
TOM WALLS - WINNIPEG, MANITOBA
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY



***********   The REAL “Big Tuna” was Tony “Tough Tony” Accardo, once the Capo di tutti capi (boss of all the bosses) of the Chicago Mob.  For all you sports fans out there:  if he were alive today,  you would know him better as the great-grandfather of the Bosa boys. Maybe he’d have been  their agent.  (“Nice stadium you got here.  Be a damn shame if something were to happen to it.”)



***********  In the spring of 1978 I attended a football clinic at Lewis and Clark College (just outside Portland)  and sat in on a presentation by the recently-hired coach at the Air Force Academy. The session was lightly attended, so when he was finished talking I stayed around and got to speak for an hour or so, one on one, with Bill Parcells. After that first year at AFA, he was off to the NFL, where he would go on to win two Super Bowls and earn election  to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.  Based on that meeting, I thought he was a great guy.

But years later, a friend who’d been a longtime coach in the NFL and was, like Parcells, a “Jersey guy,” said that Parcells’ success in the NFL had gone to his head to the point that he no longer had time  for all the “little guys” he’d passed on his way to the top.  If so, it’s a damn shame.  But I still have my  good memories of the guy.



 

*********** QUIZ:   Until Juaun Jennings’ TD pass to Christian McCaffrey in this year’s Super Bowl, he was the only wide receiver ever to throw a  touchdown pass in a Super Bowl.

As a high school senior, he was selected in the 14th round of the MLB draft by the Chicago Cubs.

At Indiana, he was the Big Ten Freshman of the Year.

In his senior year he was named Big Ten Most Valuable Player and Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year.

He was the first player in D-I history to run  for 40 touchdowns and throw for 40 touchdowns in a season.

He was the first player in D-I history to post four seasons of more than 2,500 yards total offense.

He finished sixth in the Heisman Trophy voting his senior year.

He played on the Indiana basketball team (under Bob Knight) following his freshman season, and on the Indiana baseball team during his junior year.

Drafted as a wide receiver in the second round (62nd pick) by the Pittsburgh Steelers,  he had 47 receptions for 489 receiving yards and two TDs and was named to the NFL All-Rookie Team.

In four seasons with the Steelers he was also used as a return man, and in his fourth season, he was named first-team All-Pro and won a Super Bowl ring.  In the Super Bowl, he  threw a 51-yard touchdown pass to Hines Ward.

And then,  a free agent, he signed  with the Washington Team Whose Name Shall Not be Spoken, and had three consecutive seasons with 50 or more receptions.

After four seasons with Washington, he returned to Pittsburgh for one season, and after playing in the Steelers’ Super Bowl loss to Green Bay, he retired.

Following retirement he did some TV work, then got into coaching, and at the present time he is wide receivers’ coach of the Detroit Lions.

Although his last name might have some Islamic connotations, he is actually a devout Christian.

In a 2016 interview with a Pittsburgh newspaper, he referred to some memory problems he was having and expressed regret at not having chosen to play baseball instead of football: “If I could go back, I wouldn’t (play football). I would play baseball. I got drafted by the Cubs in the 14th round, but I didn’t play baseball because of my parents… Don’t get me wrong, I love the game of football. But right now (at 36), I could still be playing baseball.”





FRIDAY, MARCH 1,  2024   “We know only too well that war comes not when the forces of freedom are strong, but when they are weak. It is then that tyrants are tempted.”  Ronald Reagan


***********  In preparing myself to address the congregation at my grandson’s wedding,  I went for inspiration to a speech I’ve heard many times - possibly the finest speech I’ve ever heard - and I listened to it again.  It’s masterful.

It was General Douglas MacArthur’s final address to the Corps of Cadets at West Point, the United States Military Academy, where he’d once been a student, and then its Superintendent.  It was given May 12, 1962, and the entire Corps - more than 4,000 strong - assembled in the Academy’s giant dining hall to hear one of its most distinguished graduates.

The  title and theme of the address was the Academy’s motto: “Duty, Honor, Country.” It was delivered  without any notes. 

His closing words are especially  powerful, as he frankly admits that his time here is short:

“The  shadows are lengthening for me… the twilight is here…” 

And he confesses to a certain nostalgia for long-ago battles:

“In my dreams I hear again the crash of guns… the rattle of musketry… the strange mournful mutter of the battlefield…”

And finally, he concludes:

“Today marks my final roll call with you… but I want you to know… that when I cross the river… my last conscious thought… will be… of the Corps… and the Corps… and the Corps.

I bid you… farewell.”



It’s just under 14 minutes, and it’s worth your time to listen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lafPwwmRvf0



***********   HOT OFF THE PRESS FROM BLACK KNIGHTS NATION


Sal Interdonato discloses the latest news from Army football, and offers an excellent summary of what happened in the last 12 months…

 
Drew Thatcher, Army’s 2023 offensive coordinator, has left the program.

Black Knight Nation has confirmed Thatcher’s departure after one season. No word on whether Thatcher has landed another coaching position.

“We did offer coach Thatcher an opportunity to stay on the staff and be a position coach,” Army coach Jeff Monken said during his Thursday Zoom call. “He chose not to do that. He’s left the staff. We wish him well.”

Thatcher brought his gun option from Division II Nebraska-Kearney as Army sought a new look after running the under-center flexbone as its base offense in Jeff Monken’s first nine seasons. The offense was viewed as an alternative to newer cut-blocking rules and a hopeful scoreboard spark in service-academy games against Navy and Air Force.

The gun offense started to fizzle after three games of 2023 season. Army went 159 minutes without scoring including back-to-back shutout losses to Troy and LSU.

Monken moved to quarterbacks coach Cody Worley as the play caller in a win over Coastal Carolina in late November. Thatcher returned to calling plays against Navy as the Black Knights captured the Commander in Chief’s trophy. Ironically, Army defeated both Navy and Air Force predominantly operating out of the shotgun but only scored a total of three offensive touchdowns.

But, Monken permanently made the move to Worley as full-time offensive coordinator in January with an aim of bringing back the under-center option on a more regular basis. Thatcher was demoted to H-backs, a position that was used in the gun option.

Thatcher was given one season, essentially 11 games, to make the gun option work without some key offensive talents (Isaiah Alston, Tyrell Robinson) for part of 2023. Unfortunately, the production wasn’t what expected.

http://blackknightnation.com/drew-thatcher-leaves-army-football-coaching-staff/


A WHOLE SENIOR CLASS'  SEASON RUINED, AND A YOUNG COACH OUT AFTER JUST ONE SEASON.
TO THINK HOW EASILY THIS ALL COULD HAVE BEEN AVOIDED



***********   On the subject of even the most obscure teams having  three or more combinations of uniforms, John Canzano asked, “should we blame the University of Oregon for any of this?”

Sportswriter Ethan Strauss thinks so. Strauss told me in an interview on Monday that he believes the Ducks pioneered a cool uniform trend that is now off the rails across sports.

“They made their thing constantly changing uniforms and maybe we’re looking at why this started to become so widespread in sports,” Strauss said. “People wanted to be like Oregon with the Nike backing and they thought they would be regarded as just as cool, but I think we only have room for one Oregon.”

*********** As a teacher I always made it a point to learn kids’ names - what they preferred to go by, and the proper  pronunciation - as soon in the school year as possible.

But names were once much more conventional than today’s designer names, and it was normally just a matter of asking the kid if he preferred that I call him  “JAMES” (as  shown on the roster print-out I was given),  or “Jim,” or maybe “Jimmy.”

Pretty soon, though, if you’re a teacher in Colorado and you ask the kid named “JAMES” (as it’s shown on your roster)  for the preferred name and the kid says, “Lucy” - Lucy is what it had better be from then on, or you could be out of a job.

(Actually, if the kid wants to go by “Lucy” and the roster still says “JAMES,” somebody in the office in charge of printing rosters  is going to catch hell, too.)

To slightly paraphrase Patrick Henry: Kill me.

The Colorado state legislature advanced a bill on Friday aimed at mandating K-12 schools statewide to implement policies requiring educators to address transgender students by their preferred name in all school settings – including in records and documents – independent of parental approval or a formal legal name change.

The bill will need one more round of voting before advancing to the Senate floor.
House Bill 1039 — a bill largely backed by the progressive group Colorado Youth Advisory Council — would also impact charter schools and mandates that educators use students' non-legal names in all school-related functions, including extracurricular activities, rosters, attendance lists, yearbooks and student ID cards.

In its proposal to lawmakers, the youth council said many "school administrative systems cause humiliation for transgender Colorado youth when schools use the students’ deadnames (birth names that do not align with their gender identities)."

"When schools keep a student’s former name and gender marker on school transcripts and records, it outs transgender students to their peers, thereby violating their privacy," the group wrote prior to the legislature's vote.

One Colorado, a progressive LGBTQ+ advocacy organization, also supports the bill, alongside the Colorado School Counselors Association.

The bill would also deem that "intentional use of a name other than a student's chosen name is discriminatory.”

State Rep. Anthony Hartsook, a Republican, called the bill "open-ended and ill-defined" that could lead to "many, many paths.”

"We open up Pandora's Box for discernment on what is discriminatory and what is not, what is intentional and what is not," Hatsook said on the House floor. "Who starts deciding that when and where do we start deciding that? When and where do we bring the parents into that discussion?"

Republican State Rep. Brandi Bradley agreed with Hartsook and urged colleagues to vote "no" on the legislation.

"And now we have told the teachers that they're being discriminatory," Bradley said of the bill. "I have four teenagers. They are awesome kids, but sometimes they like to play games. So tell me how codifying or putting this bill in is not going to go against teachers and their rights in a field where we already have so much shortage?”

Republican State Rep. Rose Pugliese added she does not want schools to know more about her kids than she does.

"Parents have the right to know," said Pugliese.

Other Republican lawmakers argued students would be allowed to change their names more than once, furthering burdening teachers to remember their new names.

Meanwhile, State Rep. Stephanie Vigil, a Colorado Springs Democrat co-sponsoring the bill, contended that some transgender kids who may not have come out to their parents yet would be in danger if the legislation is not approved. On the other hand, parents who support their transgender children would also have their parental rights usurped if they approve of the name change.

(Colorado House Bill 1039 has one more round of voting before moving to the Senate floor.)

"And so I would just suggest to you all as we talk through this bill today that we bear in mind that there is such a thing as a kid who's not safe with their own parents," said Vigil. "Certainly, kids belong with their parents – that relationship is precious. But I do not accept the premise that a child is anyone's property or that their safety isn't to be prioritized, even when the person who is a danger to them is their own parents.”

The bill was also sponsored by Democratic State Sens. Faith Winter, of Westminster, and Janice Marchman, of Loveland. State Rep. Brianna Titone, an Arvada Democrat and the legislature's only transgender member, is also a co-sponsor.

If cleared by the Senate and signed by the governor, the bill would go into effect in July 2025.

Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Montana, North Dakota, Tennessee and Utah are several states that have passed laws restricting pronoun use in schools.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/colorado-house-advances-trans-bill-mandating-schools-use-a-students-preferred-pronouns-name









***********  I find it distressingly typical that all the co-sponsors of Colorado’s “You VILL use zese names und zese pronouns!” bill are women. Well, three of the four are.  The fourth is named Brianna Titone.  You decide.









*********** Good morning Coach - Thank you for reaching out - I am a past customer of yours from 2004 - I coached a youth team from 5th grade, then 6th, then 7, then 8th - I got your playbook and VHS on the system and became a DW expert haha - My teams played in a travel league against other towns in mid Missouri. We went 45 wins to just 5 losses winning 4 championships - running the DW we avg 300 yards of offence in some games A,B, and C would have 100 yard games each.  The other teams were very good teams, but between the athletes I had and the DW system executed on every detail from small as making sure the wing stays engaged at the wall built on 88 and 99 to as big as putting in the mind set of the OL to work hard to give the backs the first 5 yards. Thank you for putting this out there so long ago -

I was asked to  help coach our HS team this past year in which I was just an assistant so had very little say on things, RB coach and DE Coach plus Down and Distance in Booth on Friday nights ,  it was a great experience by some great coaches although the team has struggled  on both sides of the ball to even get one win  , I realized that things in our youth level has gone downhill over the past 8 years or so. My grandsons are going to be coming up in the years to come so I have decided to get back involved with the youth program and start coaching at that level again. Over the years I have lost my materials all though I can still draw them out ha ha.  So I will be running the DW to its full potential once again at the youth level and hope it will change some mind sets in our Town football as a whole - Thank you for your help coach. I look forward to your zoom clinic

Doug Matchell
Cuba, Missouri



*********** There was an interesting article in our paper about the upcoming NFL combine.  Now, you might ask, what could possibly be interesting about a bunch of guys running 40-yard dashes?

Well, it seems that the Seahawks’ new coaching staff won’t be attending.  The reason we were given was that they’ll be so busy learning their new system that they won’t have the time.

“They're just focused on implementing their system, so they're not going to be down to the combine next week,” explained Seahawks president of football operations John Schneider.

What appears to be happening with the Seahawks is a transfer of power to Schneider, who will continue with the personnel department under him, but without the restrictions of the veto power that Pete Carroll had.

But, the article went on, the head coaches of the 49ers, Jets, Packers and Cowboys won’t be in attendance, either.
 
I  continue to find it strange that head coaches don’t have the final say in personnel matters.

On an awful lot of the cooking shows I watch on TV, the cooks go out personally and find and buy the ingredients - at least the most crucial ones - for the meal they’re about to prepare.

I can only surmise that the  clear line of demarcation that often exists  between personnel  and coaching is intentionally drawn  by GMs who are afraid of a coach gaining too much power.  Allowing him too much leeway to build a team to his specifications means that it will be that much more difficult to replace him - and to avoid a painful rebuild -  when the time comes.  As it always does.



*********** Air Force Academy has had just three coaches in the last 55 years of football - Ken Hatfield (15 years), Fisher DeBerry (23 years), and Troy Calhoun (17 years).

And here’s an amazing fact about the last  two coaches, DeBerry and Calhoun:

DeBerry’s record: 169-109-1 - .608

Calhoun’s record: 121-78 - .608



*********** Not so long ago, Shep  Clarke, a transplanted Northwesterner now living in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee, sent me the great article about a former Washington State  football captain named  Chris Rumburg, who in World War II, as Lieutenant Colonel Ira “Chris” Rumburg, gave his life saving others in a remarkable display of valor.

https://news.wsu.edu/news/2007/05/25/the-epitome-of-courage/

Now, attempting to go  “2-for-2”  (in his words), he has sent me another inspiring story about another former WSU football captain, this one named Jerry Sage, the captain immediately following Chris Rumburg:
 
Jerry Sage, a two-way end, was the captain of the 1938 Cougar football team (after having fulfilled the same role at North Central in Spokane). 

After having developed a personal antipathy for Adolph Hitler, he was recruited to join the OSS even before that organization was officially established.  After a personal meeting with “Wild Bill” Donovan, Sage went through the legendary OSS training course and was so adept at William Fairbairn’s “silent killing” techniques that he was given the code name “Dagger”.
 
Sage conducted several behind-the-lines sabotage missions in North Africa before being wounded by artillery fire and captured by the (German) Afrika Korps. For his repeated attempts to escape various Stalags, he was put in solitary so often that other POWs called him “The Cooler King”. 

He worked for 15 months on a huge three-tunnel escape plan, and thus served as the inspiration for the Steve McQueen character in “The Great Escape”.  On his final try, Sage evaded the Germans and walked across half of Poland to get to Allied lines.
 
These experiences made Sage a natural fit for Army Special Forces when that organization was established in 1952. And he rose to command the 10th Special Forces Group in Bad Tolz, Germany.  The unique and stressful culminating exercise of the Green Beret qualification course was named in his honor.
 
Later in life, Sage visited the WSU campus and spoke to the team at the behest of coach Jim Walden.  He demonstrated some “silent killing” moves for the team, and Walden recalled: “What an impressive man and a real hero.  He’d have been a great coach if he’d wanted. I told our coaches: I wish we could get this guy to talk to the team every week.”


 
The unique and stressful culminating exercise of the Green Beret qualification course was named in his honor:

 https://www.businessinsider.com/robin-sage-is-final-test-for-army-special-forces-hopefuls-2021-1

 

*********** If you run the Double Wing and pull  your linemen, it’s not at all unusual to face defensive linemen who’ve been ordered to bear crawl.

One of the purposes is to have the crawlers grab the legs of your pulling linemen - so the   first solution is to make sure that your linemen are lined up as deep as legal (“head or foot breaking an imaginary plane drawn parallel to the line of scrimmage through the  waist of the snapper when the ball is snapped” is how the rule reads.   This also very helpful in allowing your pullers to get past your center).

The other goal of the tactic - penetration - is answered by

(1) Our zero-splits (hard to get through)

(2) Our inside hand down, inside foot back stance (enabling us to “get into the intersection first” - to step into the defender’s path quicker).

(3) Down-blocking.  A man who’s crawling isn’t as able to fight against the pressure of a block coming from the side.  He’s a one-trick pony - his power is one-directional.  He’s not much of a threat as a pass-rusher either , and he’s unable to pursue. He’s also likely to be very trappable, because the main reason he’s employing this tactic is so he can  penetrate.



*********** UMass is back in the MAC.  This time, all the way.

In 2012, after upgrading to FBS status, UMass joined the MAC. But, largely because its men’s and women’s basketball teams were already contact with competing in the Atlantic 10,  it joined the MAC as a football-only member.

Its football-only status was tied to that of another non-Midwest member, Temple, which was also admitted  for football-only, and when Temple left the MAC in 2015 to join the AAC, the MAC gave UMass a choice:

Remain in the MAC, but as a full-time member in all sports, or withdraw.

UMass, in deference to its basketball programs, chose to remain in the Atlantic 10 - a much stronger basketball conference - and play football as an independent.

But its independent status in football has made  for difficulties - in scheduling and in on-field success.  And after the most recent round of realignment, it was one of just three remaining independents (Notre Dame and UConn being the others).

So after getting out of (“reworking”) existing contracts - UMass football was fully scheduled  through 2025 -   the Minutemen will play a full MAC football schedule this season.

Its hockey team will still play in Hockey East,  and it will still need to find conferences for men’s lacrosse and women’s rowing, two sports not offered by the MAC.

The move to the MAC is not completely welcome. As the nearby Greenfield, Mass. Recorder put it,

“At the crux of the issue, the response is pretty simple: if you’re a UMass football fan, you’re probably happy. If you’re a die-hard basketball fan, you probably aren’t.”

Football fans realize that without  conference  tie-in, with its guaranteed schedule, its TV revenue and its bowl tie-ins, UMass football will be increasingly in peril.

On the other hand, basketball fans can’t be happy about moving from what’s considered the eighth best basketball conference in the country to the 24th best.



*********** WORD MECHANIC WANTED!   WORK IN THE WHITE HOUSE!   MUST BE SKILLFUL IN INVENTING NEW AND MORE ACCEPTABLE WAYS OF DESCRIBING OTHERWISE REPUGNANT THINGS, PERSONS AND ACTS.

We've converted the public  from saying ILLEGAL ALIENS
To saying   UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANTS
And then to saying MIGRANTS

YOUR ASSIGNMENT?
NOW we're going to teach the public to say (are you ready for this?) NEWCOMERS


https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13142249/biden-fury-politically-correct-newcomers-illegal-migrants.html



*********** In reference to  the article about Paul Johnson’s response to the things that Geoff Collins, his successor at Georgia Tech had to say about him,   Adam Wesoloski, of Pulaski, Wisconsin, writes…

"I had another coach who called me late on Saturday night who just beaten them and he said I even lined up in your formation at the end just to stick it in." 

When I read this in your piece about Paul Johnson, I wondered if this is what he was referring to (see attachment).
 




Coach Wesoloski sent me a  video clip of a play that Duke ran late in the third  quarter. Duke led, 38-17, when the Devils came out in what under Paul Johnson had been GT’s trademark formation (the left split end is out of the picture) and ran a  (very well executed)  toss sweep to the  right for about 10 yards.  It was unquestionably the work of Duke Coach David Cutcliffe, and unquestionably a dig at Geoff Collins.

It’s especially ironic because I once spent a very delightful five minutes or so talking with Coach Cut down at Duke - great person - and I can assure you that in that short time he made it quite clear that he was no fan of Paul Johnson’s offense.  Yet there he was, sticking up for PJ. 

Just goes to show what he and other coaches thought of Geoff Collins!



***********  Morning, Coach, or should I now say "Your Excellency, the Right Reverend"?:

Today's answer is Earl Faison. Used to love hearing announcers say his name. Still like the sound of FAZE-ahn. Give me some more of those 1960s names like Merlin Olsen, Babe Parilli, Rosey Grier. Today, the announcers try to turn most players' names into initials, with the general exception of the very best...I don't hear Mahomes being called PM much (in fact, don't think ever heard it). Occasionally, TB,  but mostly just 'number 12'. Point is, each to his own, but I prefer names.

Always liked Paul Johnson. Sure, he had competent assistants like other good coaches, but when I looked at the sideline of a Paul Johnson squad, I knew who the head coach was. He was an intense, in-charge man who made average players into good players. I approve his poke-back at Gentleman Geoff.

To Nick and Molly, congratulations. Except for the overnight disturbance, it sounded wonderful.

My hope is to die still fighting against the corrupters coming at us from all directions. Your de-construction of the 7-on-7 event is a brilliant description of the de-constructors at work.


John Vermillion
St. Petersburg, Florida


Bless you, my son.  Peace be unto you.


***********  Hugh,

You are truly a Renaissance Man!

Court storming:  I remember years ago when students stormed a court/field it was to celebrate a massive upset over a highly ranked team, or a rival they had not beaten in awhile, and share in the team’s accomplishment and glory.  Today it has more to do with the narcissistic capture of one’s mug on instagram damned if anyone gets in my way!

At some point in a coach’s life his true feelings surface.  Usually after his career is over, and after his achievements have been validated by those who didn’t pay attention.

No surprise that 7 on 7 (basketball on grass) would eventually become the gateway for a higher level of “AAU” club football, run by the self-proclaimed “experts” who pimp young men to the “big-time” to make themselves more money, and feed the egos of those youngsters.

I’m a proud “OG” who enjoyed watching the exploits of guys like Chamberlain, Russell, Jabbar, Jordan, Bird, etc. because it was a privilege to watch them play.  Sorry, I can’t give you the names of those playing today.


Have a great week!

Joe  Gutilla
Granbury, Texas





 

*********** QUIZ ANSWER:  At  all-black Huntington High School, in Newport News, Virginia,  Earl Faison (FAZE-ahn) starred in football, basketball and track. He played on State Football Championship teams in 1955 and 1957, was an all-state basketball player, and as a weight man in track  he helped his team win state championships.

At Indiana, as a 6-5, 265 pound two-way lineman,  he earned All-Big-10 honors and second-team All-America recognition  in 1960.

Chosen  in the seventh round by the Lions and in the first round  by the Los Angeles Chargers, he chose Los Angeles - which that very season would move to San Diego.

As defensive  tackle, he combined with teammate Ernie Ladd and a succession of others to form the first (of many) “Fearsome Foursome” defensive line units, and had such a  good season that he  was the  AFL Rookie of the Year and was named All-AFL.

His height and his amazing ability to knock down passes earned the nickname “Tree” among his teammates.  Said his offensive line coach, Joe Madro, “He must have tipped or batted down 25 passes during the season.   I’ve never seen a rusher get his hands on the ball as often. If he didn’t touch it, he made the passer lob it over his rush and ruined a lot of patterns that way.”

But in that rookie season he  suffered a  knee injury that slowed him down the rest of his career, so instead of being a Hall-of-Famer, he was a very good football player.  How good? He was a five-time  AFL all-star.

After his pro football career ended in 1966, he spent nearly 40 years as an teacher/coach/principal. From 1970-1975 he served as head coach at San Diego‘s Lincoln High School, where his best-known player was future NFL Hall of Famer Marcus Allen.

He also found some side work as an actor, appearing in two episodes of the Beverly Hillbillies and  one episode of the Six Million Dollar Man.

A product of the segregated South,  he took pride in having played a role in desegregation. The Chargers were then owned by Barron Hilton, heir to the Hilton hotel fortune, and he recalled, years later, was a contributor to the civil rights movement during the turbulent, racially-charged 1960s,  “The Chargers used to stay at those Hilton hotels and we were the first blacks to ever stay in many of them in the South.”

He is a member of the Chargers Hall of Fame and the Chargers’  50th Anniversary Team, and he is a member of the Indiana University Hall of Fame and   the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame.


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING EARL FAISON

GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
TOM WALLS - WINNIPEG, MANITOBA
RODNEY LUNSFORD - WESTFIELD, INDIANA
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY



SORRY - NO PHOTOS OF THIS GUY!  IF I GAVE YOU PHOTOS YOU WOULDN’T EVEN BOTHER TO READ THE CLUES!


*********** QUIZ: His college - Wichita State - doesn’t even play football anymore.

He was taken in the seventh round of the NFL draft by the Lions but was released before ever playing in a game.

He spent 14 years as an assistant at six different colleges before finally getting a college head coaching job.

When he finally got one (Air Force) he lasted one season,  after posting a  3-8 record.  His .273 record is by far the worst of any coach in Air Force football history.

He was hired by the Giants to coach linebackers, and after two years was promoted to defensive coordinator. After two years in that position,  he  was hired as the Giants’  head coach.

And then… in his fourth season in New York, he won a  Super Bowl. And four years later, he won another one.

He took his next team to a third Super Bowl, but after losing it, he left following a disagreement with the owner.

He coached   two more teams, taking both to the playoffs.

In all, with a couple of “retirements” along the line, he was head coach of four different teams for  a total of 19 seasons, and took teams to the playoffs ten times.

He is the only coach in NFL history to have taken four different teams to the playoffs.

His overall career record as an NFL head coach is 183–138–1 (.570).  In the postseason, his record is 11-8.

Following his final retirement from coaching, he served as a TV analyst, and has worked as a consultant or executive for a number of NFL teams.

Seventeen of his former assistants have gone on to become head coaches at the college or NFL level.  Three of them - Bill Belichick, Sean Payton and Tom Coughlin - have won Super Bowls themselves.

Lions’ coach Dan Campbell played for him with the Giants and the Cowboys.

He is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Perhaps you’ll remember him by his nickname: The Big Tuna.





TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2024   "The primary challenge of coaching in the National Football League can be boiled down to a one-sentence job description: to get people to do what they don't want to do in order to achieve what they want to achieve." Tom Landry




**********   It was one of the great honors of my life to have served this past Saturday as the officiant at the wedding of my grandson, Nick Tiffany, and his bride, the former Mollie McDonald, in beautiful old St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in the beautiful little coastal town of Port Gamble, Washington. (It’s the church where Mollie’s parents were married.)

It’s not that I haven’t had a lot of experience speaking in front of an audience, but when it’s your own grandson, and your granddaughter-to-be… well, let’s just say that there’s no room for error.

But as all coaches know, Proper Preparation Prevents Piss-Poor Performance, and we (the bride and groom and I) were properly prepared.  We’d planned.  And practiced.  And repped.

Thanks to several Zoom sessions (we live 150 miles apart) we were able first to agree on the general  format of the ceremony, and then to add and delete and rearrange until things were just as the couple wanted. And then after several run-throughs at the rehearsal, we had it down.  (Nothing like reps.)

The church was  just about full by kickoff time, when I started things off by strolling up the aisle to take my place in front of the altar.  I kept my eyes straight ahead the whole time, making sure not to look to the  “groom’s side,” where my kids and grandkids and  their spouses sat.  None of them had been let in on the secret that Old Coach was going to be playing parson, and I could just picture one of them staring at me as if to say, “WTF???”

The ceremony went as smoothly as would a game where everybody knows the plan and you’ve repped it to perfection - and there’s no opposition.  Nick and Mollie, although understandably nervous, handled their parts beautifully.

I did spend a fair amount of time preparing my talk - whose emphasis was  that marriage is a team -  and after I’d finished, and we prepared for the exchange of vows, I remember thinking, just as coaches will  do on those occasions when we realize there’s no way we’re going to lose -  “we’ve got this sucker!”

It was an awesome experience.

It really was a beautiful thing to watch happen from the inside, and it really made me feel fulfilled to watch those two happy kids kiss out in front of the church afterward.

The whole weekend was a fantastic time for my wife and me, serving as it did for a reunion of our entire family, other than the Aussies, who couldn’t make it.  The bridal party and members of both the bride’s and the groom’s families  stayed at the same location - the resort/casino of the Suquamish tribe, and Friday night, after a great rehearsal dinner in the nearby town of Poulsbo, we all gathered in the casino.  That was a new experience for several of the “East-coasters,” many of whom had never been in a casino before.

The reception following the wedding ceremony was held in Kiana Lodge, a beautiful, tribal-owned facility located - as are so many places around Puget Sound - on the water.  It’s a magnificent example of the architecture and workmanship of a people who from the earliest times were able to make creative use of the giant trees so abundant  in the area.

At the reception, we sat next to two young high school boys from Texas, the sons of our son-in-law’s sister.  They live in Waco and go to a small Christian school there, and they were very excited about playing tackle football for the first time, as their school  launches a football program.  They seemed proud and pleased that they’d convinced their mom to let them play, and I did my best to assure her that the benefits of playing football - the fraternity and camaraderie, the teamwork and discipline - would more than offset any risks, especially when you consider all the other risky things young boys do.

After dinner, my wife and I won a dance contest to determine which couple had been married the longest.  But when we learned that the “prize” was just a bunch of good wishes, we left in disgust.  (Just kidding. Actually, if we had, no one would have noticed - they were having such a good time partying.)  But instead, we said our good-byes (or good-nights), which took us maybe an hour, and went back to the hotel.

We slept well.  We hadn’t slept so well the night before, after being awakened at 4:20 (that time is burned in my brain) by loud voices in the hall, followed by an atomic door-slamming, followed by what likely were bodies being slammed against walls and loud, extremely profane shouts, mostly “Get the F—k off me!”, and more slamming noises (bodies? furniture?) and more shouts.  The  guy who seemed to be getting the worst of it was doing most of the shouting.  I figured the guy on top of him must have been a 300-pounder because we kept hearing “Get the F—k off me!”

I couldn’t persuade my wife to stick her head outside the door and ask them to be quiet, so I called the front desk.  Twice.  The first time they told me that security was on its way, and when I called the second time - 20 minutes later - to tell them that evidently security hadn’t arrived yet because the guy was now shouting that he was being strangled, they said that an ambulance was outside.  I said that if they took much longer they’d need a hearse.

Finally - it was 5:15 - things quieted down. I don’t know how.  But it had a happy ending.  When we came downstairs and I expressed my displeasure with the episode  and the way it was allowed to drag on, they asked me if a $20 credit toward breakfast would help any and when I agreed, that was that.

Our final “party” was at breakfast Sunday, when 17 family members gathered for one final meet before we dispersed and headed on our separate ways home.  We decided to pick up the tab.  (We got $20 off.)






To give you an idea of the Puget Sound area… On the east (right) side of the water is Seattle, and circled are Bothell, the Seattle suburb where Nick and Mollie will live,  and SeaTac, the location of the Seattle-Tacoma Airport.


But it was on the left side of the water where all the activity took place. (Assuming that you’ve flown into SeaTac, your options were to drive to Seattle and take a ferry to Bainbridge Island and drive the rest of the way to  the lodging sites, or to drive around the Sound.  The ferries are run by the state, and they’re actually designed more to serve commuters and provide essential transportation among waterfront communities  than to serve tourists. But they aren’t cheap and they aren’t quick, and at the present time a couple of them are in dry dock, which has meant some unpredictable  schedules, so the best bet for most people going from SeaTac to, say, Suquamish is by car, south to Tacoma, then across the water (in the twin suspension bridges at the famous spot where  in 1940 a giant suspension bridge nicknamed “Galloping Gertie” collapsed in high winds) and north to the beautiful little  town of Poulsbo.  Circled are the various locations - Port Gamble, Suquamish, and Kiana Lodge.  I also circled Bangor, which is significant because it’s the location of the Trident Submarine Base for the US Pacific Fleet, and it was while he was stationed there on a sub that my son-in-law Rob Tiffany (father of the groom) and my daughter, Cathy, met.


*********** The next Zoom Clinic - next Tuesday (March 5) ought to be as good as any I’ve ever done.  Actually, I’m not going to be doing it.

I’ve managed to arrange for a repeat performance by Coach Brian Flinn, wide receivers coach at Princeton University, who spoke to us earlier on the general topic of football in the Ivy League.  Now, we’re getting into the nuts and bolts.  He’s agreed to talk about  an aspect of  the passing game as it can apply to us:  the “Four Vertical Pass Game,” with emphasis on doing it from these formations that most of us are familiar with…



Just one caveat (that’s Latin for “warning” if you didn’t know that): You might want to make sure that you tune in “live” because there might be issues with my making a recording available.



*********** Sorry I haven’t been on top of much that’s been going on, but a few things do need mentioning:

THE STORMING OF THE COURT AT WAKE FOREST.  Poor Wake Forest.  Their basketball’s been down, and they win one against Duke, but  in storming the court some  Wake kid unknowingly and unthinkingly injures  Duke’s 7-foot Kyle Filipowski. And now Wake is the poster child for the insanity of ordinary college students coming into overly close contact with large, strong, angry  athletes.


Writes John Canzano…

I didn’t like that a Duke player got hurt on Saturday. Wake Forest’s fans shouldn’t have sprinted onto the court before time expired. But I love the idea of people being allowed to celebrate. The reasonable solution is to keep fans off the court (or field) until players have been allowed to safely exit.

Once, as Oregon fans jumped the rails at Autzen Stadium, I stood beside 85-plus-year-old Phil Knight on the field. Fans were sprinting past him. I wondered if someone accidentally knocked Knight off his feet how long it would be before that practice was banned. It was dicey.

Also, after a Civil War football game a couple of seasons ago an Oregon player exiting the field threw a punch at an opposing fan. Linebacker DJ Johnson was caught on camera clocking someone. You don’t want that dynamic, either.

I’m all for letting “college kids be college kids” in that setting. But there has to be a more thoughtful approach from the home security team for high-profile games. It probably means additional staffing, using ropes, and warning the crowd in the final five minutes that violators will be banned from future events. But if you can delay the celebration by even 30 seconds you can probably avoid a serious injury.

***********   I appreciate Paul Johnson’s  role in advancing the cause of option football - the real, under-center kind.  I have heard that he can be abrasive and caustic and hard to deal with and work with, but there’s no question that he was a great coach at every stop, and certainly at his last stop - Georgia Tech.

At the same time, I think that his successor at Tech, Geoff Collins, was one of the worst major college coaches I’ve seen come down the pike.

He got virtually nothing out of his players at Tech, winning ten games in his four years there. Sure, one of those seasons was a short one - he was fired after four games, with the Yellow Jackets’s record 1-3 - so he might have won a couple more, but come on - compare that with Paul Johnson, who went 82-61 in 11 seasons and took the Jackets to bowl games in nine of those seasons.

I took a quick dislike to Collins back in December 2020 when he  got the redass after losing to Pitt, and walked right through the postgame handshake with Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi, without so much as looking Narduzzi in the  eye.  What a prick, I thought.  He’d better be an awfully good coach to get away with a stunt  like that at a classy place like Georgia Tech.  Turns out he wasn’t, and he didn’t.

THE HANDSHAKE THAT WASN'T :     https://vimeo.com/916893321?share=copy

It seems that on arrival at Tech, Collins evidently  took some uncalled-for (as they say in the South)  shots at the departed Johnson, and now the latter, evidently having stewed over it long enough, decided it was his turn at bat.  Here’s the story:

Georgia Tech had one of its most successful runs in program history under Paul Johnson, who coached in Atlanta from 2008-2018. He led the Jackets to nine bowl appearances and three Atlantic Coast Conference Championship Games and was named ACC Coach of the Year three times (2008, 2009, and 2014) during his 11 seasons at Tech. He was selected as National Coach of the Year by CBS Sportsline in 2008, marking the second time in his career that he received National Coach of the Year honors (Bobby Dodd National Coach of the Year – 2004, Navy).

The coach that followed him had one of the worst runs in program history.

Geoff Collins finished with a record of 10-28 as the head coach of the Yellow Jackets and 0-2 against Georgia, losing by a combined score of 97-7 in two meetings.

In a recent interview on the Bill Shanks Radio Show, Johnson did not hold back on his feelings about Collins:

"Well, he wanted to reinvent history a little bit and he kept going back to when Georgia Tech was relevant, this, that, and the other, and I was trying to think back to when they were better than when we were there, I gues maybe the 50s, but if you went back and looked, I kept looking for all the championships they had won and it was like... you know he just distorted everything when he got there, I will just call a spade a spade, I don't care, I got no respect for the gu, I can say what I want. He went in and distorted everything that was there and acted like we had not won a game and lied about who he inherited, lied about the offensive line, lied about us not going to the high schools in Georgia. He went and told a bunch of whoppers and it came back to get him because there was not much substance there."

Johnson did not stop there though.

"You know what was really amazing... I probably should not say this, but I will, I have never been one to hold much back, but the opposing coaches in the league would call me and they were laughing. I had one particular coach who called me who had really pounded them at home in Atlanta and he told me, Paul it is a circus and he goes I told my kids after the game in the locker room, he said congratulations, you just beat a team that physically had kicked our ass for the last three years and he goes, I am just not saying that to you. When we got through with those games, he said it was hard for us to play the next week because of the physicality and the way you played. I had another coach who called me late on Saturday night who just beaten them and he said I even lined up in your formation at the end just to stick it in. I think the people who knew, knew.

Not only did it frustrate... I know I got frustrated with it, he frustrated a lot of the former players who played there. There were kids who had played and won double-digit games and played in Orange Bowls and played in ACC Championship Games and just totally disrespected what they had done and the tradition and the history. I told somebody that the team he inherited had won seven games and finished second in the Coastal, had four of the five offensive lineman coming back... Now I could go into the story that one of their dads told me, one of the ones who left, and that sort of things but to say those kids averaged 250 LBS, it was backhanded at them and I don't know why you would do that.

I followed a lot of coaches who have been in the profession and knows that when you go in, if you don't have anything good to say, just don't say anything. But, when I went into Georgia Tech, I was very appreciative of what Chan (Gailey) had done. We had some really good players in the program, and we had holes like you do, there were some positions where we needed more guys or whatever but it would not have done me any good to go in there and bash Coach Gailey, plus I had a lot of respect for him, I thought he did a good job. So it was like... I had never done that. I inherited a program at Navy that had gone 3-30 the three years before I got there and I did not go in and bash the coaches or the players who were there and I think the year before I went to Georgia Southern, they had won four games so I think you are just making a lot of excuses when you do that and you are trying to alibi... I was more disappointed in the administration for letting it go on.”

Johnson was asked about his current relationship with Georgia Tech and he spoke about that:

"It's good. I went back for the North Carolina game and was honored for the College Football Hall of Fame. You can't stay at a school for 11 years and not... I pull for them, I hope Brent (Key) can do a good job, he is on the right track and hopefully, I think they are coming with some support and those are guys are getting a lot of stuff that we did not get and hopefully they will be successful. I want nothing but success for Georgia Tech. I don't have any ill will towards the school. I was just disappointed... I had image of what would happen when I retired or what I thought I am leaving this thing the right way and I will be in a position where if we stay in Atlanta, I will drive over to practice or hangout or whatever. "

https://www.si.com/college/georgiatech/football/former-georgia-tech-head-coach-paul-johnson-tears-into-geoff-collins-in-recent-interview-i-got-no-respect-for-the-guy


*********** Hard to believe that Dallas Cowboys’ defensive tackle Mazi Smith, a 2023 first round pick out of Michigan,  couldn’t come up with the rent on a storage unit, but when he didn’t do so enough times, the contents were sold at auction.

They went for under $2,000, but seem to be worth a lot more…

https://www.si.com/nfl/cowboys/news/finders-keepers-dallas-cowboys-mazi-smith-storage-unit-sold-viral-video-claim


*********** Has anybody else seen the “Ice Football” video from Germany? I’m in.

ttps://www.essentiallysports.com/nfl-active-news-american-ice-football-rules-teams-championships-popular-players-more-on-the-new-sport-taking-nfl-world-by-storm/


***********  Coming soon to a city near you (if it isn’t there already).

It’s  what they’re doing to our game - and our kids - in the off-season.

Perhaps you’ve read about Cam Newton getting into a fight at a “youth football event” this past weekend.

Now, I have nothing but contempt for Newton, and I really don’t care about the fight.   But there are a couple of issues,  beside the fight itself, that came up in the story.

First of all:  “Youth football event” did they say?   There were Under-15 teams and Under-18 teams competing in 7-on-7.  Youth football my ass.  Those are high school-age kids.  Sound a little like a football version of AAU (aka “Who Needs High School Coaches”) basketball, does it?

Naturally, it’s “for the kids.”  Yeah. And also for the organizer, a self-described “apparel and sports media company” named We Ball Sports.

And for organizations such as one named TopShelf Performance, a “wide receiver training facility in Atlanta.”  It had teams playing in the event.

And for Newton’s organization, something called C1N.

Evidently there was quite a bit of “trash-talking’ (God, I hate that very word) going on between players of the two organizations and between their coaches as well.  (Just in case you actually believed anything they might have said about being dedicated to improving the whole person, and not just the football player.)

And then there was this, quoted verbatim from The Athletic:

"There were 16 teams in each division, with the top under-18 team earning a $5,000 prize and the top under-15 team receiving $1,500. Over 1,500 people attended the event."

Question 1.  How’d you like to be a high school offensive coordinator with a couple of their “graduates” on your team?

Question 2. How’d you like to be a high school head coach and learn that  two of your best kids have been playing on one of those teams - and they’ve decided they’ll have a better chance of getting a Power 4 offer if they go to another school?  (And their 7 on 7 coach knows just the right school.)

Question 3.   What do you suppose happens to the prize money?

https://theathletic.com/5299018/2024/02/25/cam-newton-physical-scuffle-atlanta/


***********   C’mon, Coachman. Are you seer-ee-uhs? Rilly? Tradition? Onliest ones think tradition's real is them ole dudes at the bar, the ones with the tears drippin' inta beer steins the size of 10-gallon buckets. 'Tradition' have went the way uv history....Back to being serious again. Today, this morning, I was talking with a know-it-all (like me) guy at the gym who claimed one of the current NBA players is the greatest of all time. I asked if he'd ever seen Wilt Chamberlain play? That dude's been dead forever, right? That's right, he has, but you can still find videos of him playing. Can you give me any of his stats? Stats don't matter in his case. Weren't many good players back then....I used to think more people believed if it didn't happen in their lifetimes it doesn't matter. Nowadays, it's more like if it didn't happen in the past five years,

Mick Scanlan's letter to his son's coach is priceless, more valuable than bars of gold.

Any young coach willing to make the effort (which should be every manjack one of them) can mine a dozen nuggets of coaching wisdom from this 'encore' production. Thanks, Coach.

John Vermillion                    
St Petersburg, Florida

“Recency” bias is the byproduct of the devaluation of all aspects of history as if nothing of importance  happened until WE came on the scene. God must be having a  good laugh.

Wilt Chamberlain would still kill them today.  He was an amazing athlete.  In high school, with no training,  he was Philadelphia public league champion in the high jump, shot put and 440 (now the 400 meters).



*********** Hugh,

After your note to Stephen A. Smith I’m convinced you could qualify as an ND fan!

On that topic, do you think the powers that be in college football just ratcheted up the pressure on ND to reconsider their Independent status after altering the 12 team CFP format?  My prediction of ND joining the ACC is becoming more clear.


Enjoy the wedding!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas

 



***********   QUIZ ANSWER:  Fred Dean was born in Arcadia,  Lousiana, and grew up in nearby Ruston.  He   started out attending an all-black high school there, but  following school integration, he spent his last two years at newly-integrated Ruston High School.

Passing up nearby Grambling, which in pre-integration times had established a pipeline to the NFL, he went instead to Lousiana Tech, right in Ruston.  He was four times named All-Southland Conference linebacker and was named Southland Conference  Defensive Player of the Year his final two seasons. During his time at Louisiana Tech, the Bulldogs were 44-4.

The San Diego Chargers selected him in the second round, 33rd player overall, of the 1975 NFL Draft, and despite his relatively small size - 6-2, 227 - moved him to defensive end.

As a rookie for the Chargers in 1975, he recorded seven sacks, 93 tackles (and four fumble recoveries.  In 1978, he recorded 15.5 sacks as the Chargers posted a winning record.  He added nine sacks in 1979 and 10.5 in 1980,  as San Diego won two straight AFC Western Division titles.

And then,  early in the 1981 season,  he was traded to the 49ers, and in the first half of this first game with them - against the Dallas Cowboys -  he seemed to turn the entire team around.

Wrote the 49ers in a statement at the time of his death,  "From the minute he joined the 49ers, (he)  immediately helped to change the team's fortunes.  In just his first game with the team, he put in an all-time performance against the Dallas Cowboys that not only helped defeat a nemesis but propelled the 49ers to our first Super Bowl Championship later that year.”

In the first half of that game he drove Cowboys’ QB Danny White nuts.  But what may have really flipped the season for the 49ers was when, at halftime, he pulled out a pack of Kools and lit one up.  According to future Hall-of-Famer Ronnie Lott, the whole team  just stared at him, as if to say, “who IS this guy?”

The 49ers wound up trouncing the Cowboys, winning, 45-14.  In all,  he contributed 12 sacks in 11 games, earning the nickname “The Closer” from his teammates,  on the way to the 49ers’  first Super Bowl victory.

Said 49ers’ coach Bill Walsh, “he gave us the single greatness we have to have.”

He spent his final five seasons with San Francisco.  His best year was 1983, when he recorded 17.5 sacks. The following year,  he won his second Super Bowl with 49ers, and then played one final season  in 1985.

He played on five division winners and in three NFC championship games,  and he played San Francisco’s first two Super Bowl victories. 

He earned all-conference honors four times – twice with the Chargers and twice with the 49ers, and was  named to four Pro Bowls.

He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2008, and into the College Hall of Fame in 2009.

After his football career, he became a minister in his hometown, Ruston.

He died at 68 from Covid while being airlifted from a hospital in West Monroe, Louisiana, to Jackson, Mississippi,  in October, 2020.

He is one of more than 345 former  NFL players to be diagnosed after death with (CTE).

The 49ers won  five Super Bowls in 14 years,  but  according to former 49ers owner Edward J. DeBartolo, Jr.,  “We wouldn’t have won five if we hadn’t won the first two. And we would not have won the first two if it weren’t for Fred Dean.”


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING FRED DEAN

GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
TOM DAVIS - SAN MARCOS, CALIFORNIA
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS


***********   Fred Dean (met him while working a football camp in NorCal.  Watching him demonstrate DLine techniques to the youngsters was amazing).  Joe Gutilla




*********** QUIZ:  At  all-black Huntington High School, in Newport News, Virginia,  he starred in football, basketball and track. He played on State Football Championship teams in 1955 and 1957, was an all-state basketball player, and as a weight man in track  he helped his team win state championships.

At Indiana, as a 6-5, 265 pound two-way lineman,  he earned All-Big-10 honors and second-team All-America recognition  in 1960.

Chosen  in the seventh round by the Lions and in the first round  by the Los Angeles Chargers, he chose Los Angeles - which that very season would move to San Diego.

As defensive  tackle, he combined with teammate Ernie Ladd and a succession of others to form the first (of many) “Fearsome Foursome” defensive line units, and had such a  good season that he  was the  AFL Rookie of the Year and was named All-AFL.

His height and his amazing ability to knock down passes earned the nickname “Tree” among his teammates.  Said his offensive line coach, Joe Madro, “He must have tipped or batted down 25 passes during the season.   I’ve never seen a rusher get his hands on the ball as often. If he didn’t touch it, he made the passer lob it over his rush and ruined a lot of patterns that way.”

But in that rookie season he  suffered a  knee injury that slowed him down the rest of his career, so instead of being a Hall-of-Famer, he was a very good football player.  How good? He was a five-time  AFL all-star.

After his pro football career ended in 1966, he spent nearly 40 years as an teacher/coach/principal. From 1970-1975 he served as head coach at San Diego‘s Lincoln High School, where his best-known player was future NFL Hall of Famer Marcus Allen.

He also found some side work as an actor, appearing in two episodes of the Beverly Hillbillies and  one episode of the Six Million Dollar Man.

A product of the segregated South,  he took pride in having played a role in desegregation. The Chargers were then owned by Barron Hilton, heir to the Hilton hotel fortune, and he recalled, years later, was a contributor to the civil rights movement during the turbulent, racially-charged 1960s,  “The Chargers used to stay at those Hilton hotels and we were the first blacks to ever stay in many of them in the South.”

He is a member of the Chargers Hall of Fame and the Chargers’  50th Anniversary Team, and he is a member of the Indiana University Hall of Fame and   the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame.
 



FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 23,  2024   "Asking 'who ought to be the boss?' is like asking 'who ought to be the tenor in the quartet?' Obviously, the man who can sing tenor." Henry Ford


We have a big family wedding  coming up this weekend, and I’m more involved than usual, so I find myself doing what the great Rush Limbaugh and others have done when they just don’t have the time to produce fresh material - provide an “encore  show.” 



***********   BUT BEFORE I START… Stephen A. Smith could make a Notre Dame fan out of me.

I usually ignore him, but when he steps into an area he knows nothing about - college football - and  starts mouthing off, I can’t help listening.

And when he gets headlines because he’s opened his yap and attacked Notre Dame, asking “Why are they even relevant?” I actually  take the time to hear what he’s saying.

Which isn’t much.  His problem seems to be his failure to understand why they occupy so much of our attention when they “haven’t won a national championship since 1988.”

Well. 

Stephen A., old buddy, you obviously have a lot to learn about college football.  It happens to be our second-oldest sport (baseball being first) and, along with baseball, it’s one of only two sports that have any tradition. It has history and tradition, which the current promoters of the game seem to be ignoring.  They do so at heir peril, because this, Mister Smith, is why Notre Dame is “still relevant.”

Notre Dame has history and tradition, and more important than that, Notre Dame plays an important role in the history and tradition of college football itself.

Notre Dame has won more national championships than any other school.

Notre Dame has  won national titles under five different coaches.

Notre Dame has produced more All-Americans than any other school.

Notre Dame has produced seven Heisman Trophy winners - tied for most with Ohio State, Oklahoma and USC.

Notre Dame was the first team in ANY sport to be truly “national.”  The Irish started playing Army in 1913, and  first played USC in 1926.

Partly because they   didn’t belong to a conference, partly because of some anti-Catholic bias, and partly because of the smaller size of their Cartier Field, Notre Dame played so many games at considerable distances from South Bend that some writers nicknamed them the “Ramblers.”

This was their AWAY schedule in 1928 - AT Wisconsin; Navy AT Soldier Field (Chicago); AT Georgia Tech; Penn State AT Philadelphia; Army AT Yankee Stadium; AT USC. (They played just three games on their home field.)

Southern schools - with the sole exception of Georgia Tech making reciprocal visits to Notre Dame - never left the South.

Mr. Smith, Notre Dame was getting out and “building the brand” long before it occurred to other schools to do such a thing.

Knute Rockne at the time of his death was one of the most famous sports  figures in America.

Notre Dame has been popularized by at least two famous movies - “Rudy,” and “Knute Rockne, All-American” (in which future president Ronald Reagan played Irish legend George Gipp.)

I could go on, but  why?  Suffice it to say that Notre Dame may not have won a “national title” since 1988, but  it’s not as if they’ve actually sucked since then.  Yes, they had some down years between Lou Holtz and Brian Kelly, but in  the 36 years since 1988, they’ve finished in the Top Ten nine times.  I’ll bet most of you reading this would be happy if your favorite team were to finish in the Top Ten 25 per cent of the time.

But the main thing, Mr. Smith, is that college football was being played, building history,  for a long time before 1988, and there’s a great portion of the American public that still understands that, and appreciates Notre Dame’s place in it.

As a result, there are to this day passionate Notre Dame fans in every part of the country.  And no matter where the Irish play, they pack the house.

Other colleges would love to be able to be as  “relevant” as Notre Dame, but they can’t go back and remake history.

So, please, Mr. Smith, since you don’t understand and can’t appreciate the importance of history - go back to pro basketball.

https://www.espn.com/video/clip/_/id/39569029


TIME CANNOT DIM THE WORDS…  I went back to February, 2024 - 20 years ago - to find a few items that I thought you might enjoy.  See you Monday!


*********** "It has been said that fight fans would not spend 20 cents to watch Van Gogh paint sunflowers but they would fill the Melbourne Cricket Ground (capacity 100,000) to see him slice off an ear." Roy Masters, in the Melbourne Age 


*********** I am beginning to feel a bit uncomfortable with how much credit one or two of my assistants is taking for our winning year.  We are all proud of our year, and I want them to feel proud about their contribution...but I don't want it leading down the wrong road to disloyalty.  Any thoughts on this? Thanks

I think that at your banquet, you need to make a point of recognizing everyone, stressing that it was a total team effort - mention the Moms and dads, and managers and everybody else. Keep stressing the fact that no one person made the team successful - that it was a true joint effort by the players and assistants.

And when you get to the assistants, stress the specific area each guy worked in (so that people don't get the idea that he was more important than he really was) and mention that the job he did with the defense - or the linebackers - or the running backs, or whatever, was a very important part of the overall success of the team.

Keep dwelling on the fact that teams are successful only when people forget about who gets the credit, and all work together - players and coaches - for the common good. As Blanton Collier, championship coach of the Cleveland Browns once said, "you can accomplish anything if you don't care who gets the credit."

You get the idea.


*********** Just had to comment about the guy worried about his assistants taking too much credit for the good season. I loved your response, but think you might have left out a pointed comment to the writer. The remark from Coach Collier is right on. Who cares who gets the credit. I've learned through the years that it's a whole lot more about making other people feel good than worrying who gets the credit... I'm not talking about PC feel good, but real, "you've worked hard and you deserve it" feel good. (of course the flip side of that is feeling bad when you don't do well) I really think as a Head Coach it's part of my job to let people think they were a huge part of our success. Lack of loyalty is a huge problem, and one that should be addressed swiftly and seriously. But what difference does it really make if an assistant takes credit for success...sounds to me like a head coach who is insecure in his abilities and is trying to take the credit himself...Mike Waters, Phoenix, Arizona (I am distrustful of anyone who takes credit for a team's success. HW)


*********** Hello Hugh, Looking forward to the clinic in Atlanta and hope all is going great. I have accepted a head coaching position at a small private school and am totally excited about getting started. The school has struggled in football for 30 years and I love the challenge of making a dramatic change happen there. It reminds me of your LaCenter Team from a few years ago.

I wanted to respond to your News column when you were talking about a thoroughbred offense that gets weakened by delusions of mixing non- related pieces of other things (you referred to like a Dog Show). You remember my strange experience from last year and the constant berating I had to endure, while I was racking up yards and wins with the pure DW. By the way, My offense led our county last year in rushing and turned a dismal program around to a real force in the league.

 I have mentioned keeping the DW pure and sound before, and I just think that you can do different things from time to time according to your talent, but you best make sure that the offense is has its vitals. When one starts experimenting with the splitting of ends and wings and even line splits etc., you lose the integrity of the offense and the reason for running the thing in the first place. My thinking is: if you don't want to stay tight and get down in the double wing completely, You are best to do Something Else, because you probably won't be very successful with your new concoction. You could call it the Broken Wing. Any way, I'm looking forward to the clinic and seeing the local wingers again. I'm going to have a small web page soon that will be a little something to play with. I am learning, ever so slowly about web pages and it will be something, mainly for my kids and whoever is related to check in on our football team, and various NGA football related things. I'm not going to make it a double wing page so much, but I'm sure it will be mentioned quite frequently,

I'm sure. I hope you will allow me to put your picture on there. Have a great trip to the "Big A" and we'll see you there.

Larry Harrison, Head Football Coach, Nathanael Greene Academy, Siloam, Georgia



*********** Heading into the final round of last year's British Open, Mark Roe was two strokes off the lead. He'd be playing the final round paired off with Tiger Woods. And then, as will sometimes happen in golf, it developed that he'd committed some stupid scorecard infraction (no, he didn't change his score) which, the rules of golf being what they are, called for his disqualification. And that was that. No agent standing in front of a forest of microphones, no players' union automatically appealling. And, most significant of all, no Mark Roe bitching about the tough break. He understood the rules, he violated one of them, and he accepted the consequences without complaint.

And that's what makes golf a special game.

Roe said a youngster came up to him later and said, "You made me proud to be a golfer the way you handled it."

Now, looking back, I can see a kid saying that to Roger Staubach. But how many of today's NFL football players will ever have a kid come up to him and say, "you made me proud to be a football player?”


*********** It seems as if we can not "close" the deal when we get in the second half. Conditioning may be one factor that I can address.   Any suggestions on how I can approach this for the team from a mental stand point?  If this were you what "theme" would you use for the week?  Any psychological advantages?  Anything you can suggest would be appreciated. NAME WITHHELD

We all fear the emotional let-down that comes from getting a big early lead. I feel that if we get a quick early score, it usually means that we will have a hell of a battle on our hands because the kids will get the idea that it's going to be easy and it's not going to require much effort.

One thing that I have found is somewhat effective is to equate it to a boxing match. We are going 15 rounds for the championship of the world. This is why we train - so we can be just as tough in the late rounds as in the early rounds. A fighter can't get out to an early lead and then expect to coast, because he could find himself on his back. And you don't want to leave it up to the judges, either.

We want a knockout or a unanimous decision. No matter what the score, no matter what the round, we have to "keep punchin'."

When we score an early touchdown, our approach is, "Okay - we just won round one... Now the bell's getting ready to ring for round two, and you'd better come out swinging.”


*********** I want to run unbalanced. So do I run "Tackle Over" by moving the left Tackle over and leaving the tight end in place so I am not called for being "uncovered" on the left side? An official called me for that last year as we shifted a TE and did not have an eligible guy left there.

That official was totally wrong about having to have an "end" on the line. You and I may call a guy a tackle, and he may wear an ineligible number, but if he is on the end of the line, he is referred to in the rule books as "the end man on the line." The guy you referred to must have wanted to sound brilliant by using that "uncovered" business. There is no rule that stipulates that the end man on your line must have an "eligible" number. The rules merely stipulate that you must have at least seven men on the line and at least five of them must have ineligible numbers; only the end men on the line are eligible to catch a pass, and then only if they are wearing eligible numbers. (Except in the NFL, of course, which for some reason refuses to do away with the farcical "tackle eligible" play.) In other words, all seven of your linemen can wear ineligible numbers - even both ends. In fact,
everybody on your entire team can wear ineligible numbers. You just can't send any of them out on a pass play.


*********** Suppose your daughter is away at college, and you learn that she's dating a running back for the school's nationally ranked football team. You know nothing more about the fellow. Do his athletic credentials make you worry more or less?

I'm a huge sports fan, but the sad fact is I'd worry more, a lot more. Despite the great character-building potential of sports, far too many modern day athletes develop a "can't touch me" entitlement attitude about life that is more likely to stunt than stimulate the development of virtues like self-restraint, unselfishness and fidelity.

We are doing horrible things to our fine young athletes. As early as elementary school exceptional youngsters are pegged and then preened for their role as stars. The expectations and demands on their lives outside of sports become lower and lower. Parents, coaches and boosters often make excuses for them, get them out of trouble and otherwise run interference for their journey through life. So we can't really be surprised when an uncomfortably high percentage of them become instinctively self-indulgent and egocentric. What's really amazing is how many quality youngsters emerge from this process.

We promote overconfidence and the delusion that wealth and fame are inevitable. Consequently, many young athletes shortchange their education and ignore the development of other critical life skills. And when injuries or the sheer crush of competition eliminate all but a select few from the race, most of them have to rebuild a self-concept without athletics and fight the fear that their futures are behind them.

We owe youngsters much more than that. That's why the national Pursuing Victory With Honor campaign is so important. It makes it clear that coaches are first and foremost teachers, and that responsible sports programs go well beyond teaching techniques and strategies of enhanced athletic performance. Youth sports should, above all, foster the development of character and enhance the mental, social and moral development of athletes to help them become personally successful and socially responsible. Michael Josephson, Character Counts (Mr. Josephson wrote that two years ago. Things certainly haven't gotten any better since then. HW)


*********** Why we coach...

John Lambert, of La Center, Washington, a former student, former player, former assistant of mine and now an excellent head coach in his own right, took his team to the state Class 2A semifinals this year. Only one team from our section of the state - Ridgefield High School in 1993, another Double-Wing team - has ever gone further. On top of that, one of John's players was awarded one of two scholarships given every year by the local chapter of the National Football Foundation. The young man's dad cared enough to write John a great letter, which John was kind enough to share with me. (John writes. "He is the type of guy you love to have as a parent. It certainly helps reinforce one of the reasons we coach." After reading it, I would have to say, "No kidding." The letter starts off dealing with some "inside" matters, but it concludes:

As you continue your coaching and teaching career....You will have many ups and downs.  When you are winning, it will be easy and when you're losing you will have to put up with the "comments", and such, from the parents!

I KNOW you didn't enter this profession for the money.  It is definitely a labor of love.  However, I just want you to know this....

Some year, when the team is losing, and the twins are wondering why Daddy is at work soooo long, and he comes home in a bad mood.  You can show them this email.

You made a difference in a student's life.  You made a difference in a young man's life.  You MADE a difference!

I work for Delta airlines.  It is a good job. I work in Operations at the airport at PDX.  I enjoy it.  However, when I retire ...I won't be able to look back on it with the same pride that you will be able to look upon your job.  For that , I envy you.  And if nothing else as exciting as going to the Tacoma Dome in 2003!...  Or winning the sportsmanship award in 2001/2003!...or anything that comes close to your accomplishments in the future.  Know this...

There will be a  man,  who WILL remember the impact you had on his life. He was the kid... who was not the strongest, not the fastest, and not the most gifted athlete you will have ever coached.  But, he will be the man who will look back at this time of his life and smile.  And be forever grateful for what you did for him.

Thanks John, Thanks again for everything!  And good luck next year! Mick Scanlan
 

*********** A coach wrote me about his frustration at seeing teams not executing as well as his, but nonetheless doing very well - because they had "the horses." I see this all the time, watching tape of inner-city schools whose execution isn't always sharp, but who have the talent to break a big one at any time. The only solution, I tell the guys who coach the farm kids and small-town boys, is that they're just going to have to "score slower."

The disadvantage to that, of course, is that they're going to have to execute the offense quite well, hang onto the football, and not commit stupid penalties. The advantage to scoring slower is that they'll remain on offense - and keep the ball away from those talented guys on the other side - a lot longer.


*********** I am the O-line coach at ----- High in --------- . I often read your web page and am impressed with the tips that you give and I would like your opinion about my o-line for next year.

I have a pretty good group on the o-line, but I have two kids that are above and beyond the others in size speed and just raw power. I was wondering if you would recommend putting one at each tackle, or putting them both on the right side.

I am leaning towards putting them side by side, because if teams overload our right then they will both be pulling leading our toss left. I am also sure that the kids that would end up on the other side would do a pretty good job.

I would really appreciate your opinion on the subject.

I'm asked this a lot, and my answer is always - "put them at the guards."

For one reason, it has been my experience that we can get by with less talent, speed and strength at the tackles, but we will only be as good as our guards. Our system depends heavily on the Wedge and the fullback G-play, which both depend on good guard play, not to mention the rest of the offense. There is much more technique required of the guards than of the tackles.

For another reason, I believe that the major asset of a Double-Wing system is its balance - its ability to threaten the defense with the same thing to the right as to the left. I think that a good defense, once its scouting reports show that you are one-handed, will take that into account and will present you with overloads that can cause problems (remember that if you put your best linemen on one side, so as to make them the playside on a power play, your weakest linemen would be on the playside when you wanted to run the power  the opposite way.



************ I read an old Darrell Royal book in which he drew on his CFL experience and said that it makes no sense to him to give the opponents the ball on the 20 if a kick goes into the end zone. He argues that that is giving the defense too much of an edge, when it is the offense that should receive a bonus of some sort for moving the ball as far as it did.

That's where Canadian rules come in, of course, with the single. (Canadian football still has the 'return kick" rule, so a guy can field a punt in his end zone and punt it back out again.)

Royal argued that at the very least, the ball should be brought out no farther than the five.

I might like the idea of awarding one point any time the defense can't run it out, even with the smaller American end zone. Even if the ball is punted out of the end zone. Maybe two points if it's punted through the uprights. Think of the way it would change strategy - will they pass up the sure one, the possible two, to go for a field goal?


*********** Good morning coach: We are the number one sports city in Michigan, voted as such by Sports Illustrated. A magazine, in my opinion that hasn't been worth a s--- for at least ten years now. When we were awarded said honor last week, Mooch was there, Lem Barney, ALL the local politicians, and the heads of each organization. All mugging for tv and feeling so good about themselves. No coaches of course. So what does the number one sports city in Michigan do? Build soccer field after soccer field, that's what. We have dozens of the cursed things. The biggest waste of real estate, that's what I tell our kids every year. Don't call it a soccer field, a spade is a spade, it's a "waste." "Coach, why do they do that?" I say, "I don't know Jimmy. Sometimes life just isn't fair."

Our practice field doubles as our game field. Our game field is so bad we only schedule three home games per season (11 game season). We are the Gypsies of the league. Our field is so bad, when we hosted the playoffs in 2001, we rented the damn Silverdome and hosted the playoffs there. Our field is so bad, we rented another cities High School field for the Super Bowl in 2002, which we were the host of. Most of the two high schools starting backfields, and captains, are our ex-guys. You see coach, the number one sports city in Michigan as voted on by SI has two major high schools in the city that charge us $3000.00 per day to use their football fields! If we were females and played with that little black and white ball, the fields would be free. Our practice/game field is situated to where we look at three empty soccer fields six days per week. In my eights years coaching the Troy Cowboys, the best organization, year after year in our league, I have never seen a soccer game on those three fields. The only time they are used is when a bunch of guys are out there playing a pick up game of football.

Why am I venting to you coach? Because, the number one sports town in Michigan is building a CRICKET field in our park! Where we practice and play our games! You see our city counsel recognizes CRICKET as the number two sport in the world, behind soccer, and GOD DAMN IT, we need to get these guys a field. We have been waiting for our "new field" since 1979. Well, enough is enough. We showed up in force at the last city counsel meeting. Not to fight the Crickets, as we know call them, but to point out that football is still the number one sport in America, yes? We are not saying, not in our backyard, but just get us a damn field. Make one of the many empty soccer fields a football field. The mayor did point out to us that Cricket was, in fact here before football in this city, and country. Please help on that one coach so we can make a proper reply. All I thought of while hearing this nonsense was I wish I had Wyatt's historical mind here to counter that one. We thought surely Rod Serling is going to pop out at anytime, because we must be in the Twilight Zone. Anyway, more to come on this little fight in our neck of the woods. Take care coach. David Livingstone. Troy, Michigan (Do you realize how big a cricket field is? Maybe four acres - four football fields? As for cricket being the number two sport in the world - based on what? Attendance? And what, exactly, does the world have to do with how you spend money on parks designed for the people of Troy Michigan? The American Indians were playing lacrosse long before the Europeans arrived - so tell the city you want them to build a lacrosse field - and you can use it in the fall. HW)


*********** LSU just signed Nick Saban to a seven-year contract that makes him the highest-paid college football coach.

He is guaranteed at least $2.3 million this year, with a chance to earn an extra $400,000 based on bowl bonuses and team graduation rates. He could make as much as $3.4 million in 2010, the final year of the contract.

This is what coaches get when they win. When they lose, they wind up selling insurance. The difference often comes down to "skill" in recruiting. (Just in case you wondered why there is a sex-and-booze scandal just waiting to be exposed at the your favorite college.)


*********** One of the reasons why Penn State is Penn State is its long tradition of stability. Not enough of the credit for it belongs to Rip Engle, who arranged with the president of the university for brash, cocky (mouthy?) young Joe Paterno to succeed him. That way, all Rip had to do once he decided to retire (he didn't have to) was to step aside and let Joe, his long-time assistant, step in. You couldn't have asked for a smoother transition.

Paterno himself certainly deserves a great deal of credit for maintaining that stability. For years, his staff rarely turned over, and, consisting as it did of mostly Penn Staters, it was assumed that at some point the torch would be passed to one of them, and the winning would continue forever. There was defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky, a former PSU end, producer of so many great linebackers that Penn State was (once) called "Linebacker U." And there was offensive coordinator Fran Ganter, former running back. Sandusky turned down the Maryland job in order to stay at State College, partly, it must be pointed out, because of his involvement in a project to help troubled youngsters. He finally retired, apparently convinced that Coach Paterno was going to outlast him.

And now Ganter has been relieved of his coordinator position, and "reassigned" within the athletic department.

The new offensive coordinator is apparently going to be Galen Hall, also a former Penn Stater and once offensive coordinator for Barry Switzer at Oklahoma and then a successful head coach at Florida. (Successful on the field, that is. There were some NCAA problems, as I recall, but the guy can coach.)


But Galen Hall is as old as I am, and he's not going to be Coach Paterno's successor, so any hope for another smooth transition appears to be gone. Penn State is staring at a changeover that could be as traumatic as the one Nebraska's undergoing.

But there's Joe, the Old Lion, his hands lashed to the wheel to weather the storm, telling recruits that he'll be there until they graduate. If that's true, he'll be 82.

How'd you like to be the AD at Penn State - the one who has to walk out to the mound and ask JoePa for the ball?



*********** Some sound advice from a veteran coach...

I'm 90% sure going to be back at at my present school next year, but a few openings have caught my eye of late.  I guess I'll always have the itch to take on new challenges...  either that or I'm a complete moron. I've applied for a three or four head coach vacancies and the interview process has begun...  so I'm hitting the road every so often.  I just got back from one that had me smacking my forehead with a Homer Simpson "DOH!"

Three hours to get there and just a 30 minute interview (yes, I brushed my teeth before the interview and, yes, my fly was zipped when I walked in the room!).  They had a sheet of 15 questions candidates were to address, but at the beginning of the interview the principal informed me that for the sake of brevity I should pick 7 of the 15 out to answer since he wanted to keep the interview under 30 minutes.
 
There was a definite lack of follow-up questions from the get-go,  so I don't think I managed to blow the interview. I got the distinct impression the principal had pretty much made up his mind earlier, but just wanted to finish the interview process.  (!)  It sure would have been nice to know that ahead of time...  sigh. 

I told this yesterday to the basketball coach, who chuckled and told me something he used to ask A.D.'s before heading out for an interview.  Feel free to pass it on!

FYI, If you're called in for an interview which involves traveling more than a couple of hours, do yourself a favor and ask the A.D. the following question first:  "I'm a professional and you're a professional, so I'm going to ask you flat-out - is this more than just a token interview?  I'm interested in the job but if you honestly think someone else has it sewn-up, please let me know before I spend the time traveling back and forth."  You would think that the question shouldn't need to be asked, but I've recently been reminded that, yes, it does need to be asked at times!  Sheesh.....

Have a great week, NAME WITHHELD


*********** A coach responded to my suggestion that, since some interviewers might hold your offensive system against you, there’s no harm in calling it by another name. He pretty much took the tack that "this is what I run, and if you don't like it..." Having an edge of maybe 30 or so years of hard knocks on him, I felt I had to write him back. You see, I was once a "this is what I run, and if you don't like it..." kind of guy myself...

Ideally, you show enough success in your background and people will be so hungry for a change that they won't care what you're running.

But the reality is that nowadays people feel they have to ask those questions. But who's kidding who? Very few of them have any idea what it's really all about, and if you can't have their heads spinning within 30 seconds or so, you're not much of a coach.

However - the reality also is that when you don't have a job and you're in the running for one, you shouldn't go out of your way to alienate anybody.  Not when it only takes one red-ass on the interview panel to veto you. Never forget - you can have six votes for you and one against and still not get the job. If there is just one guy on the panel who is dead set against hiring you, you won't get the job. It has happened to me.

Back in 1988 I interviewed for what I thought would be a decent job. It happened to be in the town I now live in. In the interview I talked about my offensive philosophy - running the ball with my wing-T offense, etc. I had something of a reputation locally, having had some success with it at a bigger school in a nearby town. The group seemed interested enough, but I did notice that one guy kept asking me questions about passing the ball and I kept answering that passing was part of the plan but it wasn't our main objective.

I thought I had nailed the interview, which even included having to teach a mini-classroom lesson right there in front of the interview committee.  And I knew I had better credentials than anyone else who'd applied. But when I talked to a friend who lived in the town, and I described the guy who'd asked me about passing, he laughed and said, "Oh, sh--. That's --- -------. He's the president of the school board, and his son's the quarterback."

I didn't get the job. And damned if the guy who did get the job didn't come in and run -  the wing-T!  Same as I would have done. (Except, if I may say so, not as well.) And apparently he never came under a great deal of pressure to change, because he was there eight years - and had only one winning season.

The main thing is, he got the job.  And I didn't. In retrospect, I didn't get it because in explaining and defending my offense, I got sidetracked, and lost sight of my main objective - which was getting the job.  It simply wasn't necessary to get that deeply into my philosophy.  I could have said that my offense was multiple (which is true), and versatile enough to accomModate the talents of any gifted player (which is true) and let it go at that.

The immediate objective is not to defend yourself or your offense, or explain it in great detail. It’s to get the job.



***********   I’ve kept up with Oregon football for a long time, including knowing Autzen well. But now I'll think of them differently, in a more positive way, after hearing Coming Home. Traditions are valuable. Hope they will survive the destruction of CFB.

Appreciate your remarks about Coach Aurich. I suppose I had taken the side of those saying Harvard itself had several 30-somethings with coaching experience, but who had also performed well as players at Harvard. Why take a Princeton, they were saying, when you could have one of your own?

I'd have to guess Georgia State was sorry to lose Shawn Elliott. Seemed to me he did a fine job there. He was instrumental in getting the school its own stadium, an Atlanta Braves discard the school bought and modified.

Glad it's you and not me reporting on that female soccer player. I swore never to type her name again.

Great to witness all those people at the wrestling tournament.

John Vermillion                
St Petersburg, Florida


***********   Hugh,

I’m jazzed to watch the UFL this spring.  In the meantime I’m filling the void with hockey.

Megan Rapinoe is (among other things) a bimbo.

Credit to the MWC Commish for having the foresight (and financial smarts) in creating that agreement with OSU and WSU.  Eventually the MWC and PAC 12 will no longer exist, and the PAC-West will emerge from their ashes with Ms. Nevarez the commissioner.

Apparently this year’s NBA “All-Star” game had lower ratings than last year.
Watch for a combined NBA-WNBA game to boost the ratings.

Met Tim Murphy years ago when I was in MN.  Harvard was interested in my QB, and so was Penn.  Both schools had him rated in their 2nd tier.  Murphy was an honest broker and said if they could land the tier 1 RB they wanted my guy would drop to 3rd tier.  Penn jerked my kid around which prompted him to sign with Holy Cross.

Have a great week!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas


 


*********** QUIZ ANSWER:  I almost threw in the towel on this one because Bill McCartney’s story is quite complicated and I simply don’t have the time to do more than just a meager biography, leaving out some very interesting parts.

He was born and raised in Detroit, the son of an automobile worker whom he described as “Irish, Catholic, Democrat, Marine and blue collar.”

He was a good linebacker at Missouri, where he met and married his wife, and after graduation he spent time as a graduate assistant at Missouri and a high school coach in Missouri,  before  returning to Detroit.  There, he  first assisted his older brother at a Catholic High School, then moved to another area Catholic High School - Dearborn Divine Child - where after two years he became head coach of both football and basketball as well as serving as AD.  In the same school year, he coached both  football and basketball teams to state titles.

And then he was hired by Bo Schembechler at Michigan.

As Schembechler tells it, in “Bo’s Lasting Lessons,” by John U. Bacon,

When I arrived in Ann Arbor, he was the head football and basketball coach at Dearborn Divine Child, a Catholic high school about 30 minutes from Ann Arbor. I'd recruited his players, we talked a lot, and I had watched him win state titles in football and basketball. Now,  you just knew, this was a guy who could coach!

But because I was around a lot – talking to his players, talking to other coaches, and sometimes just watching him – I knew what was going on. After games, (he) would head for the bar, have a few beers, light up a smoke, and the first guy who said something he didn't like, he’d take him out back! Obviously, That wasn't something I needed at Michigan.

So one day in 1974 I went down to see him. I sat across from him and laid it on the line. “(——), you're obviously one hell of a coach, and I'd like to hire you at Michigan. But I'm going to tell you something right now:  you're going to quit smoking and going to bars – and without an ironclad guarantee from you about all of that, I'm not going to take you on."

He looked me in the eye, he gave me his word, and because I knew him, I felt I could trust him. I also knew his wife, and she was rock-solid. So I hired him on the spot. Well, (——) came up here to Ann Arbor and not only did he quit smoking and drinking, before you knew it, he was born again. He started coaching the outside linebackers, then I promoted him to defensive coordinator, and I wasn't surprised when Colorado came calling for him in 1982. I encouraged him to take the job, and he had the best run of any football coach in Colorado history.

It’s true. By his own admission, and that of his wife, he had been a hell-raiser, one who frequently drank  to excess.  But while at Michigan, through Campus Crusade, he was born again.

As head coach at Colorado, he succeeded Chuck Fairbanks, who had been lured away from the New England Patriots - where he was coming off a three-year run of 11-3, 9-5, 11-4 seasons -   by big-money CU alums, only to go 3-8, 1-10 and 3-8 at Boulder.

Our guy’s  own stay at CU  didn’t get off to a promising start, either. In his first three seasons he went 2-8-1, 4-7 and 1-10.

But Colorado AD Eddie Crowder, himself  a former Colorado head coach (and a very successful one), gave him a contract extension, and it proved to be a great decision.

Starting with a  7-5 record in his fourth season,   Colorado would go 86-30-4 in his remaining time there. And after a nine-year CU bowl drought, he would  take  his Buffs to nine bowl games.

His final six years at CU were especially impressive: the Buffs went 58-11-4, with three first-place Big-8 finishes and three second-place finishes.

They were nationally-ranked every one of those six seasons, with three finishes in the top four.

His 1990 Buffs went 11-1-1 and shared the national title by winning the AP vote (Georgia Tech won the Coaches’ Poll).

And then, in November 1994  - before wrapping up an 11-1 season (including a Fiesta Bowl win and a Number 3 national ranking)  he called a news conference and announced he was quitting coaching - with  10 years remaining on his contract - to spend more time with his family.

The “career idolatry” - the time he’d devoted to football - had come at the expense of his family.

''Even though he knew to say God was first, family is second and football is third, the truth is that football came first,'' said his pastor, who also served as team chaplain for the Buffaloes.

He had plenty to keep him busy after retiring from coaching. In 1990, while still head football coach at Colorado,  he had  founded Promise Keepers, a Christian group calling for  “courageous, bold, leadership” from men, and he remained active in it after coaching. Needless to say, its opposition to same-sex marriage made it controversial in many areas, and its advocacy of the man being the head of the household found opposition from other areas.  He resigned as president of Promise Keepers in 2003.

Bill McCartney won three different national Coach of the Year Awards, and was three times named Big Eight Coach of the Year.  He is in the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame and the College Football Hall of Fame.

In  2016 his family announced that he was suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease.


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING BILL MCCARTNEY

GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
BRAD KNIGHT - CLARINDA, IOWA
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
TOM DAVIS - SAN MARCOS, CALIFORNIA
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY

*** We remember the split title in 1990, the one his Buffs had to share with the Yellow Jackets.  John Vermillion

*** Bill McCartney (I still have the CU offensive playbook that his OC Gary Barnett sent me in 1990.  The power I wishbone look that the Buffs used to run roughshod over their opponents). Joe Gutilla  (Shame on you, a good Italian boy, for not mentioning Gerry DiNardo, who was McCartney’s OC the year they split the title.)

*** His 30/30 was outstanding.   Arguably one of the best coaches who figured out to get the ball in the hands of playmakers often, realized a strong run game was good if you could play defense and for sure lived by his principles learned after being a tad wild. (didn't realize any of this)
Also did not know he had Alzheimers.  How he handled the situation between his QBand his daughter.   How he handled the "racism" issues on campus.  And how he sold recruits to come to Colorado. (I mean Colorado should sell itself with the mountain views...but I guess some may not enjoy it as much as I do.) Brad Knight
 





***********   QUIZ:  He was born in Arcadia,  Lousiana, and grew up in nearby Ruston.  He   started out attending an all-black high school there, but  following school integration, he spent his last two years at newly-integrated Ruston High School.

Passing up nearby Grambling, which in pre-integration times had established a pipeline to the NFL, he went instead to Lousiana Tech, right in Ruston.  He was four times named All-Southland Conference linebacker and was named Southland Conference  Defensive Player of the Year his final two seasons. During his time at Louisiana Tech, the Bulldogs were 44-4.

The San Diego Chargers selected him in the second round, 33rd player overall, of the 1975 NFL Draft, and despite his relatively small size - 6-2, 227 - moved him to defensive end.

As a rookie for the Chargers in 1975, he recorded seven sacks, 93 tackles (and four fumble recoveries.  In 1978, he recorded 15.5 sacks as the Chargers posted a winning record. He added nine sacks in 1979 and 10.5 in 1980,  as San Diego won two straight AFC Western Division titles.

And then,  early in the 1981 season,  he was traded to the 49ers, and in the first half of this first game with them - against the Dallas Cowboys -  he seemed to turn the entire team around.

Wrote the 49ers in a statement at the time of his death,  "From the minute he joined the 49ers, (he)  immediately helped to change the team's fortunes.  In just his first game with the team, he put in an all-time performance against the Dallas Cowboys that not only helped defeat a nemesis but propelled the 49ers to our first Super Bowl Championship later that year.”

In the first half of that game he drove Cowboys’ QB Danny White nuts.  But what may have really flipped the season for the 49ers was when, at halftime, he pulled out a pack of Kools and lit one up.  According to future Hall-of-Famer Ronnie Lott, the whole team  just stared at him, as if to say, “who IS this guy?”

The 49ers wound up trouncing the Cowboys, winning, 45-14.  In all,  he contributed 12 sacks in 11 games, earning the nickname “The Closer” from his teammates,  on the way to the 49ers’  first Super Bowl victory.

Said 49ers’ coach Bill Walsh, “he gave us the single greatness we have to have.”

He spent his final five seasons with San Francisco.  His best year was 1983, when he recorded 17.5 sacks. The following year,  he won his second Super Bowl with 49ers, and then played one final season  in 1985.

He played on five division winners and in three NFC championship games,  and he played San Francisco’s first two Super Bowl victories. 

He earned all-conference honors four times – twice with the Chargers and twice with the 49ers, and was  named to four Pro Bowls.

He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2008, and into the College Hall of Fame in 2009.

After his football career, he became a minister in his hometown, Ruston.

He died at 68 from Covid while being airlifted from a hospital in West Monroe, Louisiana, to Jackson, Mississippi,  in October, 2020.

He is one of more than 345 former  NFL players to be diagnosed after death with (CTE).

The 49ers won  five Super Bowls in 14 years,  but  according to former 49ers owner Edward J. DeBartolo, Jr.,  “We wouldn’t have won five if we hadn’t won the first two. And we would not have won the first two if it weren’t for (him).”



TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 20,   2024   "Politics is the art of achieving power and prestige without merit.”  P. J.  O’Rourke

*********** Congratulations to Mike Foristiere, who has accepted the job of head coach at Marsing, Idaho High School.  Mike has been coaching the line at Santa Fe Trail High outside Topeka, Kansas, and before that was head coach at Wahluke High in Mattawa, Washington. He’s a native of  Fresno, California and played college ball at Oregon.   Although he’s been around a bit, he calls Boise, Idaho home, and Marsing is just 40 minutes away.


*********** From the start of the CFL season in early June to the final play of Super Bowl overtime,  it had been almost nine months - an entire pregnancy - since I went a whole weekend without any football at all. 

The fast will last just about as long as Lent - 40 days and 40 nights - until March 30.

Guess I’ll give up football until then:

March 30: Birmingham Stallions at Arlington Renegades at Choctaw Stadium (1:00 PM ET, FOX)
March 30: St. Louis Battlehawks at Michigan Panthers at Ford Field (4:00 PM ET, FOX);
March 31: D.C. Defenders at San Antonio Brahmas at the Alamodome (12:00 PM ET, ESPN);
March 31: Memphis Showboats at Houston Roughnecks at Rice Stadium (3:00 PM ET, ESPN)

The United Football League schedule -   Key details:
    •    43 UFL games (40 regular season games, two Conference Championship games, one Championship game)

    •    The League is divided into two conferences: USFL (Birmingham Stallions, Houston Roughnecks, Memphis Showboats, Michigan Panthers) and XFL (Arlington Renegades, D.C. Defenders, San Antonio Brahmas, St. Louis Battlehawks)

    •    Each team will play six in-conference games and four inter-conference matchups

    •    The Conference Championships will pit the top two teams with the best records in their respective conferences against each other

    •    UFL games will be broadcast on ABC, FOX, ESPN, FS1 and ESPN2. Games on ESPN and ABC will be streamed on ESPN+ and FOX games will stream on the FOX Sports App. All games will be streamed via TV Everywhere

    •    72% of all UFL games will air on broadcast television (ABC or FOX)



***********   Back in November, when she tore an Achilles tendon in her final game, Megan Rapinoe, always one to push the envelope, had to bring God into her postgame press conference.

“I mean, I’m not a religious person or anything, and if there was a God, this is proof there isn’t,” she said. “This is (expletive) up. So, yeah, this is (expletive) up.”

Well.  Who would have guessed she wasn’t “a religious person”  from   the way she said that the existence of God  depended on whether or not she tore her Achiles - and at the time she did?

Anyhow, she got pissed because believers called her on her blasphemy.

“Somebody needs to check on the Christians,” she said. “They’re not OK. They also missed the whole joke.”

Evidently - maybe because she’s simply one of those people who just can’t tell a joke.

Her reaction to it?  “I’m like, ‘Wow, you guys are in a special place in hell that you’re celebrating this.’”

Strange that she’s as least given some thought, even if it’s hell,  to the idea that there might be an afterlife.


https://www.pennlive.com/sports/2024/02/megan-rapinoes-somebody-needs-to-check-on-the-christians-comment-has-social-media-fired-up.html


***********   Marv Levy and Bud Grant each lost four Super Bowls.  But they were men, and they were consummate professionals.

And then there’s Kyle Shanahan. He’s lost three Super Bowls, and - not to take anything from the fact that it’s quite an achievement even to get to three Super Bowls - he didn’t exactly show professionalism by throwing his DC overboard almost immediately following the game. (Well, at least he waited until Wednesday to do it.)

Deadspin nails him:

There are two ways for a head coach to navigate a crushing Super Bowl loss: Take accountability for what went wrong, galvanize the unit and return with vengeance, or engage in friendly fire and burn the walls down. The San Francisco 49ers have opted for finger-pointing and scapegoating each other.


https://deadspin.com/kyle-shanahan-49ers-steve-wilks-super-bowl-nfl-1851260340



***********    Gloria Narvaez, commissioner of the Mountain West, sounds like one sharp negotiator.

In return for a decent sum - $14 million - Mountain West teams will provide the Pac-2 (Oregon State and Washington State) with six games each - three home and three away.

Now, that sounds to me like $14 million for four home games, or $2.333 million per game.

Sounds a bit steep - Michigan State just cancelled a game with Lousiana that it had agreed to pay $1.1 million for.

But lest you think the deal's totally lopsided, it’s not.  There’s more.

In addition, the Pac-2 agrees to “negotiate in good faith” a way in which “all MWC Member Institutions join as Pac-12 member institutions with no MWC exit fee…”

Should the Pac-2 invite  some but not all Mountain West schools, the Pac-2 would pay withdrawal fees on a  sliding scale: adding one school would cost $10 million; adding six would cost $67.5 million; and adding 11  would cost $137.5 million.

BUT: Adding ALL TWELVE Mountain West teams would cost  ZERO.

Said Commissioner Nevarez,  ”We wanted to make sure what happened to the Pac-12 didn’t happen to us.”

There is, as The Athletic points out, “one wild-card scenario”: If nine or more MWC schools were to agree to bolt, they have enough votes to dissolve the conference, in which case there would be no exit fees.

https://theathletic.com/5257005/2024/02/08/mountain-west-oregon-state-wazzu-pac-12/

 


***********  This shot of Washington’s state high school wrestling championships - called Mat Classic XXXIV - is courtesy of Steve Bridge, from Elma, Washington.  Steve, a longtime AD is dad of Todd Bridge, with whom I coached for several years.  It’s in the TacomaDome, which is big enough to accommodate a football field, and as you can see, there are 16 wrestling mats on the floor.

Six  separate WIAA state wrestling tournaments took place (five boys, one girls).

Looking over the previews of each class, I couldn’t help noticing that in every single class - girls, too -  the defending champion is going for at least a three-peat:

4A  - Is this the year four-time defending state champion Chiawana goes down?

3A - Greater Spokane League powerhouse Mead is on track for its third consecutive state title.
 
2A - The Orting locomotive to a third consecutive Mat Classic championship is full speed ahead.
 
1A - Toppenish is on a historic run of four consecutive Mat Classic titles (two in 2A; past two in 1A)

B - Tonasket has won the 2B/1B tournament in five of the past six seasons - and is the front-runner against this weekend.

GIRLS - Last winter, Toppenish became the fifth school in state history to repeat as Mat Classic team champions on the girls side. And the Wildcats are clear 2A/1A/B favorites this week

What does this tell you?  It tells you,  “They have a coach!”

I can’t think of a sport that’s as coach-dependent as wrestling.



*********** Unlike “Country Roads’ - written by people who’d never actually been to West Virginia before they wrote it, and sung by a guy who’d never been there before he sang it - “Coming Home” was actually written by an Oregon guy,  and it’s sung (by him) during the break between the first and second quarters at all Oregon home games…

Notice how a native pronounces it:  “I Left My Heart in OR-e-gun”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5K3w7CKkeOQ

https://eugeneweekly.com/2023/02/02/singing-a-song-of-eugene/

https://www.songfacts.com/facts/john-denver/take-me-home-country-roads



***********  There have been eight new head coaches hired in the NFL.


Brian Callahan - Titans - 39 - 4 yrs NFL OC (Bengals)

Dave Canales - Panthers - 42 - 1 yr NFL OC (Buccaneers)

Jim Harbaugh - Chargers - Nuff Said

Mike Macdonald - Seahawks - 36 - 2 yrs NFL DC (Ravens) 1 yr U of Michigan DC

Jerod Mayo - Patriots - 37 - 0 yrs as HC or Coordinator; 5 yrs total coaching experience

Raheem Morris - Falcons - 47 - 3 yrs NFL HC (Buccaneers)  1 yr DC (Falcons); 3 yrs DC (Rams)

Antonio Pierce - Raiders - 45 - 1 yr NFL HC (Raiders interim)

Dan Quinn - Redskins - 53 - 5 yrs NFL DC (Seahawks, Cowboys); 6 yrs NFL HC (Falcons)


For the most part, they’re young - three are in their 30s

Four - counting Antonio Pierce, who was the Raiders’ interim head coach - have been head coaches

Two hires scare me:

The Patriots’ Jerod Mayo, a former player ,  has only been a coach for five years, has never been a head coach or a coordinator.

The Panthers’ Dave Canales  spent 13 years with the Seahawks, eight of them coaching wide receivers. He’s spent just one year as a coordinator. And he’s going to be working  for perhaps the most unhinged owner in the NFL.



*********** I wrote a few weeks ago about Packers’ CEO Mark Murphy, and to follow up, Adam Wesoloski, of Pulaski, Wisconsin, passed along something that he’d found online.  It shows that Murphy has a very sly sense of humor as well as the patience to deal with some off-the-wall things.

Here’s what a guy wrote:

My cousin BIll applied for the Green Bay Packers defensive coordinator opening. He received a handwritten letter back from president and CEO Mark Murphy. It reads:

BIll,
Thanks so much for your cover letter and résumé regarding our defensive coordinator position. While your fantasy football experience is impressive, I regret to inform you that we have decided to go in a different direction. I hear the Bears have an opening – you look  to be a perfect fit for them.

Thanks again.

Sincerely,

Mark







*********** RIP Lefty Driesell.  We were living in Maryland when Lefty arrived and brashly announced that he’d turn Maryland into the “UCLA of the East.”  Knowing  how dominant UCLA was then  and how irrelevant Maryland basketball was in the ACC, I read that in the Washington Post and  said, “this guys’ crazy as hell.”

But he almost did it, and in the process, he put Maryland basketball on the map, and made Maryland games in Cole Field House THE place to be.

He just passed away at the age of 92.

He was a heck of a coach who happened to be going up against the likes of Coach K, Dean Smith and Norm Sloan.  He's also one of a very few coaches who won 100 games at four different schools: Davidson, Maryland, James Madison and Georgia State.

He was quite the character - very colorful, very quotable - and his Hall of Fame Induction speech, when he was 86, showed that while his body was failing, he still had his wits (and his wit) about him.

https://youtu.be/qTSZxE73aHQ?si=eaywjFYSsqJYJsMW



***********   When a dog bites a man - that’s not news.

And when an assistant coach at an FBS school leaves to take a head coaching job at an FCS school, that’s not news, either.

But when a man bites a dog… When a head coach leaves his job to take an assistant’s job  - that’s news.

When the news broke that Shawn Elliott, the head coach at Georgia State, had left to take a job coaching tight ends at South Carolina, the speculation was that it was for money… or out of frustration with a lack of facilities or resources… or out of disgust with NIL and the Transfer Portal.

The answer sounds like “None of the Above.”  While those things may all have played a part in his decision, it sounds as if for once a coach is actually making a move “to spend more time with my family.”

A South Carolina native, he had been on the staff at South Carolina for seven years when he took the Georgia State job, and he and his family decided that when he went to Atlanta, they would stay behind in Columbia.

"This was not a professional move, but a personal move," he  told ESPN. "We've made it work for seven years with my family still living in Columbia, and I even thought about not coaching this year. I had promised my daughter that I would be there for her senior year of high school and when this opportunity came up to go back to South Carolina and coach again, it was something I couldn't pass up. I've always loved South Carolina.”


***********  To show you how Ivy League  football has declined in importance - I follow football as closely as anyone I know, and I just learned that Tim Murphy had retired.  A month ago!

Tim Murphy had been the head coach at Harvard since 1996.  The winningest head coach in Ivy League history,  his record in 30 years there was 232–134–1.

He won 10 Ivy League championships, and, while at Maine, a Yankee Conference title.

His  success, while impressive, should not have been surprising.  He had a solid coaching background when Harvard hired him.

Before coming to Harvard, he’d been head coach at Maine for two years and  at Cincinnati for five years.  And before becoming head coach at Maine, he’d spent eight years as an assistant at Brown, Lafayette, Boston U. and Maine.

"Harvard University has been a very special place for my family and me," Murphy said. "I am graduating from a profession that has not only been my job, but other than my family and close friends, it has been my passion and my life for the past 45 years.
 
"It has been an incredible honor to be the football coach at Harvard, and I am forever grateful to have been blessed to work with so many amazing people starting with the 1,000 student-athletes and 80-plus assistant coaches during our tenure here," Murphy added. "Sometimes, at the end of your career someone will ask, 'Do you have any regrets?' And my simple answer is no, because in any endeavor, any relationship, if you give it absolutely everything you have, there can be no regrets."

I didn’t learn that Tim Murphy had retired until I read that Harvard had just hired a head coach.  WTF???

Tim Murphy’s successor, Andrew Aurich, 39 years old, is a native of St. Paul, Minnesota and played his college ball at Princeton. Most recently, he’s been tight ends coach at Rutgers, where he’s coached since 2020.  For seven years prior to that, he was an assistant coach at Princeton, where at first he coached  the offensive line, but for his last few years was associate head coach and offensive coordinator.

Prior to that he was a defensive assistant with the Buccaneers.

Many Harvard people - especially former Harvard football players - are up in arms over the recent hiring of  Andrew Aurich, much of the  discontent seemingly the result of what they feel was a lack of the transparency they’d been promised in the selection process.

While I would agree with the Harvard guys that Aurich’s  credentials, since he’s never been a head coach,  are not nearly as strong as Murphy’s were when he was hired, I have it on authority that I trust that he is a “great guy and coach.”



***********  Remember when the NBA’s Slam Dunk Contest was a big deal?  Dr. J?  Michael?  Kobe?

Now, like the rest of the NBA All-Star Weekend - which last year posted its lowest ratings in more then 20 years -  it’s a  dud.

Part of the problem with the contest has to be the lack of stars.  Until this year, when the Celtics’ Jaylen Brown  took part, it had gone  five years without a single All-Star participating.

Why is that?

For one thing, concern about getting injured and jeopardizing a multimillion-dollar career.

For another,  fear of looking bad: “I think social media ruined it,” said three-time slam dunk champion Nate Robinson. “Guys don’t want to be on the sh——y end of the stick when it comes to the memes and all the posts if you mess up. I don’t blame them, but you got to take the good with the bad.”

And finally, there’s the almost-ludicrously low payoff: $105,000 to the winner.  Big money to you and me, but couch-cushion change to guys making $30 million a year (or more).

$105,000 just doesn’t go as far as it used to.   I bet if they’d up the ante to maybe $2 million they could convince a couple more All-Stars to join in.


https://www.sportico.com/leagues/basketball/2024/nba-slam-dunk-contest-stars-say-risk-not-worth-reward-1234766946/?cx_testId=9&cx_testVariant=cx_1&cx_artPos=3&cx_experienceId=EXAKGDTXOYL0#cxrecs_s



***********   Re Alex Volkanovski: Watched a "UFC Down Under" the other day and discovered just how good he is. Announcers were lauding him as they once did Roberto Duran and a few others: "The Greatest Pound for Pound Mixed Martial Artist in the World.”


On the positive side, Kelce (actually both of them) seems exceptionally good to his parents, Ed and Donna, neither of whom appears to have come from the upper crust of society. But I certainly disapprove his behavior toward Reid. Wonder if Ed had any words for Travis about that after the game?

A decades long fan of Wilford Brimley, I'm happy the man finally got his Super Bowl win.

Loved the brief interview on the porch of the man who tackled a KC shooter. Hispanic surname, ashamed I can't recall it at the moment. Looked like he could deliver a good hit. All it takes is one man to do the right thing….

John Vermillion                            
St Petersburg, Florida


There’s definitely a Wilford Brimley-Andy Reid connection.

As for Volk - fate was not kind to him.  He lost his title on Saturday on a second-round TKO to Ilia Topuria, a Georgian (as  in Asian Georgia, not Southern Georgia).  As for Volk’s age - maybe there’s something to it:  the sad truth is that from the lightweight class and lower, the record in title fights of  fighters 35 and over is now something like 2-29.



***********   Hugh,

ESPN owns college football, and the media rights that go with it.  The NFL is very aware of this and in time will strike a deal with them to have the NFL’s hands in the “new” college football pie.

I’m not Andy Reid.  If I was I would have handled Travis Kelce very differently.  Very, Very differently!

The shooting perps at the KC Chiefs SB celebration have ties to a Venezuelan gang.  As Gomer Pyle used to say, “Surprise, Surprise, Surprise.”

You can bet the NY Yankees will have Yankee Stadium’s turf in tip-top shape for the Irish-Army football game on November 23rd.


Enjoy the weekend!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas

PS: And congratulations to our good friend  Mike Foristiere on his new job




 
 ***********  QUIZ ANSWER:  Bobby Bell  was one of the  stars of the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl win.  The one over the Vikings.  55 years ago.   In Super Bowl IV (actually, long before they started getting hoity-toity and adding Roman numeral suffixes to them).

In fact, as a linebacker, he was named NFL Defensive Player of the Year that season (1969). And that was while backing up the Chiefs’ line  along with  Jim Lynch and future Hall-of-Famer Willie Lanier.

Before that, he had been  five times named All-AFL;  once the Chiefs became part of the NFL, he was named to the Pro Bowl three straight years. In 1970, he was named All-Pro.

A native of Shelby, North Carolina, he was an all-state quarterback at his all-black high school there.

Recruited to Minnesota by Murray Warmath, he was among the first wave of southern black players to play in the Big Ten.

Warmath, in his biography, “The Autumn Warrior,” recalled how he first heard of the player.

"We got wind of Bell  through my old friend Jim Tatum, who was at North Carolina at the time,” Warmath recounted. "Jim called me one day and said there was a black kid playing in a small town in western North Carolina who was the talk of the state. In those days, of course, southern schools still were segregated, so Jim was alerting his friends in the north about Bobby Bell. I remember Jim saying, ‘if you’re looking for films, there ain’t any, and if you’re looking for scouting reports, there ain’t any, but take my word for it, this kid is something, and if you aren’t interested I’ll call Forrest Evashevski at Iowa.'

“No, God, don’t do that, I shot back,” Warmath said.  “We’ll get somebody on this kid right away.”

His recruiting visit to Minnesota was his first time on an airplane.

"I fell in love with the Twin Cities and the U of M, “ he said,  “And called my dad back in Shelby and said I wasn't coming back. I wanted to stay.”

He was big and strong and very fast.  He’d played quarterback in high school, and at a time when the freshmen weren’t eligible to play varsity ball, he played quarterback, halfback and end on the Minnesota freshman squad.

And then he found out he was going to be a lineman.

"I remember when Warmath called me into his office to tell me about the change," Bell said. "It was just before spring practice of 1960. As a freshman, I was concerned with just holding my own on the team and staying ahead in my studies. I was in awe of Warmath.

“He asked me to sit down and started telling me that he and the coaches needed to shore up the line, especially at tackle with the graduation of Wright. He said the decision was made to move me to tackle. I was shocked, but didn't dare say anything.

“While he was telling me this, he reached into a drawer of his desk and pulled out a rolled up tube sock. In the sock was a pearl-handled revolver and he started twirling it around his finger as he was telling me about moving me to tackle. I was listening, but I was distracted by that gun. I couldn't imagine being a tackle but in no way was I going to argue. I just said ‘yes, sir’ and promised to do my best and left the meeting.”

His best was plenty good.  And so were the Gophers.  In his sophomore  year they were national champions, and in 1961 and 1962  they went to back-to-back Rose Bowls. (They haven’t been back since.)  He was twice named All-American, and in his senior year he won the Outland Trophy as the nation’s top interior lineman and  finished third in the Heisman balloting.

When he was taken in the second round of the NFL draft by the Minnesota Vikings,  AFL teams  figured that there was no sense wasting a draft pick on him, so he wasn’t taken until the seventh round of their draft, when the Kansas City Chiefs took him.

Surprisingly, though, he signed with the Chiefs - and he played with them for his entire 12-year NFL career.

Tall (6-4) and fast, he made the Chiefs as a defensive end, and because of his athletic ability,  Coach Hank Stram stood him up and used him as an  outside linebacker in his innovative “Stack” defense.  After three years, he was moved to the outside linebacker position full-time.  There, for seven straight seasons he was named All-AFL and then ALL-NFL.

When he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1983, he was the first Kansas City Chief ever inducted, and just the second former AFL player to be inducted (Lance Alworth was the first).

He was also the 15th black player to be inducted - and  the first outside linebacker (all linebackers to that time -  Joe Schmidt, Bill George and Ray Nitschke - had been middle linebackers.  Chuck Bednarik, who had played some at outside linebacker, was primarily a center).

He is in the Pro Football and College Football Halls of Fame.

He is in the Kansas City Chiefs Hall of Fame, and in the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame.

He was named to the AFL All-Time Team, and to the NFL’s 100th Anniversary All-Time Team.

In May, 2015, at the age of 74, having  completing all his course work, Bobby Bell graduated from the University of Minnesota, almost 50 years after he’d left school to embark on a pro football career.


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING BOBBY BELL

GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
TOM DAVIS - SAN MARCOS, CALIFORNIA
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON

 


*********** QUIZ:  I almost threw in the towel on this one because this man’s story is quite complicated and I simply don’t have the time to do more than just a meager biography, leaving out some very interesting parts.

He was born and raised in Detroit, the son of an automobile worker whom he described as “Irish, Catholic, Democrat, Marine and blue collar.”

He was a good linebacker at Missouri, where he met and married his wife, and after graduation he spent time as a graduate assistant at Missouri and a high school coach in Missouri,  before  returning to Detroit.  There, he  first assisted his older brother at a Catholic High School, then moved to another area Catholic High School - Dearborn Divine Child - where after two years he became head coach of both football and basketball as well as serving as AD.  In the same school year, he coached both  football and basketball teams to state titles.

And then he was hired by Bo Schembechler at Michigan.

As Schembechler tells it, in “Bo’s Lasting Lessons,” by John U. Bacon,

When I arrived in Ann Arbor, he was the head football and basketball coach at Dearborn Divine Child, a Catholic high school about 30 minutes from Ann Arbor. I'd recruited his players, we talked a lot, and I had watched him win state titles in football and basketball. Now,  you just knew, this was a guy who could coach!

But because I was around a lot – talking to his players, talking to other coaches, and sometimes just watching him – I knew what was going on. After games, (he) would head for the bar, have a few beers, light up a smoke, and the first guy who said something he didn't like, he’d take him out back! Obviously, That wasn't something I needed at Michigan.

So one day in 1974 I went down to see him. I sat across from him and laid it on the line. “(——), you're obviously one hell of a coach, and I'd like to hire you at Michigan. But I'm going to tell you something right now:  you're going to quit smoking and going to bars – and without an ironclad guarantee from you about all of that, I'm not going to take you on."

He looked me in the eye, he gave me his word, and because I knew him, I felt I could trust him. I also knew his wife, and she was rock-solid. So I hired him on the spot. Well, (——) came up here to Ann Arbor and not only did he quit smoking and drinking, before you knew it, he was born again. He started coaching the outside linebackers, then I promoted him to defensive coordinator, and I wasn't surprised when Colorado came calling for him in 1982. I encouraged him to take the job, and he had the best run of any football coach in Colorado history.

It’s true. By his own admission, and that of his wife, he had been a hell-raiser, one who frequently drank  to excess.  But while at Michigan, through Campus Crusade, he was born again.

As head coach at Colorado, he succeeded Chuck Fairbanks, who had been lured away from the New England Patriots - where he was coming off a three-year run of 11-3, 9-5, 11-4 seasons -   by big-money CU alums, only to go 3-8, 1-10 and 3-8 at Boulder.

Our guy’s  own stay at CU  didn’t get off to a promising start, either. In his first three seasons he went 2-8-1, 4-7 and 1-10.

But Colorado AD Eddie Crowder, himself  a former Colorado head coach (and a very successful one), gave him a contract extension, and it proved to be a great decision.

Starting with a  7-5 record in his fourth season,   Colorado would go 86-30-4 in his remaining time there. And after a nine-year CU bowl drought, he would  take  his Buffs to nine bowl games.

His final six years at CU were especially impressive: the Buffs went 58-11-4, with three first-place Big-8 finishes and three second-place finishes.

They were nationally-ranked every one of those six seasons, with three finishes in the top four.

His 1990 Buffs went 11-1-1 and shared the national title by winning the AP vote (Georgia Tech won the Coaches’ Poll).

And then, in November 1994  - before wrapping up an 11-1 season (including a Fiesta Bowl win and a Number 3 national ranking)  he called a news conference and announced he was quitting coaching - with  10 years remaining on his contract - to spend more time with his family.

The “career idolatry” - the time he’d devoted to football - had come at the expense of his family.

''Even though he knew to say God was first, family is second and football is third, the truth is that football came first,'' said his pastor, who also served as team chaplain for the Buffaloes.

He had plenty to keep him busy after retiring from coaching. In 1990, while still head football coach at Colorado,  he had  founded Promise Keepers, a Christian group calling for  “courageous, bold, leadership” from men, and he remained active in it after coaching. Needless to say, its opposition to same-sex marriage made it controversial in many areas, and its advocacy of the man being the head of the household found opposition from other areas.  He resigned as president of Promise Keepers in 2003.

He won three different national Coach of the Year Awards, and was three times named Big Eight Coach of the Year.  He is in the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame and the College Football Hall of Fame.

In  2016 his family announced that he was suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease.






FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 16,  2024   “Governments don’t like to govern, but they like to control.” Andy Kessler,  Wall Street Journal


*********** I hope you enjoyed the video that my son, Ed, sent me. (The company he works for partners with an Australian UFC fighter named Alex “Volk” Volkanovski, and after his next opponent called him “old,” the company put together the video in which he plays an old man and invokes all kinds of “old man” stereotypes.)  Here’s a photo Ed sent me of “Volk” showing up at the pre-fight press conference dressed as the old man.
 


PS- If you missed the video… (You may have to watch it a couple of times to understand some of what he says, but it's worth it. And he really is a good actor!)
 
https://vimeo.com/912347194?share=copy



***********   ESPN and the College Football Playoff are said to be close to a deal on a six-year, $7.8 billion extension  of their rights contract,  making  ESPN  the home of the 12-team tournament through 2031-32.

All that remains now is for the CFP leadership to decide how the next edition of the Playoff will work. 

The six-year extension,  which works out to $1.3 billion per year,  will pay out  more than twice the $608 million currently being paid   for  the semifinals and the championship game,  plus the other four New Year’s Six bowl games.

ESPN has two years remaining on the current deal,  and with  the 12-team format set to begin next year, it has yet to be determined what additional fees  it  will pay for the rights to broadcast additional games: first-round games, played at on-campus stadiums, and  quarterfinal games at New Year’s Six bowl game sites.

ESPN will have the  right to “sublicense” games - to sell the  rights to televise them - to another network or streamer.

The total value of the contract - $7.8 billion - would be enough to buy any professional sports team in the world with one exception - the Dallas Cowboys.



********* I’ve tried to like Travis Kelce.  I really have.

For quite some time I thought he acted like a jerk on the field, but I changed when I saw him with Taylor Swift.

Okay. I lied. I didn’t even know who the hell Taylor Swift was when they started to be a thing.

I  started giving him the benefit of the doubt when I read some article about him in The Athletic.   Yeah, it said - maybe he was coarse and boorish and all that, and maybe he did like the weed a little too much and get thrown off the team at Cincinnati - but he’s a great teammate. The guys all love him.

All of them?  I doubt that.

Not the one he insulted on the most-watched television show of all time,  by angrily chewing out his coach on the sidelines for having that teammate on the field, and not him?

Look - he’s a great receiver.  No, he’s not the greatest tight end of all time - not unless they’ve eliminated blocking as a criterion. Ever seen him block?  As a writer named Dakota Randall of NESN put it, he’s “a receiver who moonlights as a tight end.”

Yet there he was,  so proud of his blocking that he was in Andy Reid’s face (after bumping him) and berating the coach   for not having him in the game.  See,  if he had been in the game, instead of that other guy, he’d have blocked the man who wound up causing Isiah Pacheco to fumble.

What kind of teammate insults a teammate while boasting of his own superior prowess?

What kind of player other than a selfish, undisciplined lout thinks he’s so important that he can angrily accost  the head coach on the sideline, in the middle of a game?

To Andy Reid’s credit, he took the incident  in stride at the time.  I don’t know how he  did it, but he did. He had a game to play, and like a ship’s captain, he had to keep his hands on the wheel.  I like him and admire him, and I can understand why he didn’t react at the time.  And afterward, in the post-game, he seemed to  dismiss the whole thing, which was understandable.

But since then - nothing.   Maybe he doesn’t get it. Or maybe thinks he’s dealt with it. But by not doing so publicly - by not letting he public know that this sh- simply can’t be allowed to go on -   he’s going to show that he’s morphed into a modern-era, feel-good  coach.  Not so very long ago, no coach would have tolerated conduct like Kelce’s.  (Not that it was ever necessary for any coach to do so, because no player would have dared to be so insubordinate  - and in public yet.)

Kelce, by his conduct, and Andy Reid,  by his acceptance of it, have done  coaches everywhere a great disservice.   By letting this seem simply a player getting too carried away by his emotions, they’re  condoning and encouraging similar conduct by kids - and parents - at all levels of football.

Good luck with this, Ms. Swift.



***********   Joe Biden was pushed out into the public eye at Super Bowl  time to do a TV rant about “shrinkflation” (putting less  food in the bag  while  keeping the price the same).

Probably because it was Super Bowl time, bags of familiar snack foods were used as props.    Off he went...

"While you were Super Bowl shopping, did you notice smaller-than-usual products where the price stays the same? Folks are calling it Shrinkflation and it means companies are giving you less for every dollar you spend."

We know that he’s just mouthing the words supplied him by his “advisors,” but can they really be so stupid that don’t realize that putting fewer Skittles in the bag so they can keep charging the same price - rather than leaving the contents the same and increasing the price -  is actually helping to keep the prices of goods down, and making inflation seem lower than it actually is?
 

***********   From your last Zoom clinic, you mentioned hurdling. I think this may be why you see more TEs hurdle than most football players -- low hits by DBs.

https://www.si.com/fannation/bringmethesports/vikings/lions-safety-who-injured-vikings-hockenson-hits-rams-higbee-in-knee

Adam Wesoloski
Pulaski, Wisconsin


You make a good point.  In fact, in the Super Bowl, The 49ers’ Kyle Juszczyk successfully hurdled a Chiefs’ defender whose helmet  was headed toward his knee.  (I find i funny that there’s all the talk about targeting rules being “as much for the protection of the hitter as the player being hit” but - college or pro - I have yet to see a man penalized for taking a shot with his helmet at any place on an opponent other than his head. So much or concerns for the tackler’s safety.)


***********   With all the post-Super Bowl hubbub about the 49ers’ OT decision… Mahomes’ elevation to All-Timer status… The official designation of the Chiefs as a dynasty… the number of times Taylor Swift’s privacy was invaded so that teenage girls could get a glimpse of her…  and Travis Kelce’s  boorish sideline exchange with Andy Reid…

Have we become so jaded that  we've  already forgotten the thrill of seeing a Super Bowl-record 57-yard field goal?


*********** I confess to not watching much NFL during the season, so I have to be careful  not to go off half-cocked here, but after the wild-ass way the 49ers' defense played against the Chiefs - holding them to one touchdown  in regulation time,  I'm not able to understand the  seemingly precipitous firing of defensive coordinator Steve Wilks after just one season.


***********  I’m not a fan of Kyle Shanahan, but  that doesn’t mean he isn’t a good coach, and it doesn’t mean that he’s to blame for  the 49ers’ loss to the Chiefs.

And I understand and agree with his decision to receive at the start of overtime.

First of all, if you disagree, make sure that you understand the difference between college and pro overtime.  Essentially, in the college overtime, if you are tied after both teams have had a possession (considered one period), you go into a second overtime period and repeat the process, with each team getting a possession.

In pro ball, it doesn’t work that way. If the game is tied after each team has had a possession, it becomes sudden death: the first team to score wins.

Here was Shanahan's thinking, which wasn’t  spur-of-the-moment, but had been developed in game planning:

1. If San Francisco  scores first and KC doesn't score, Game over.  San Francisco wins.

2. If on its first possession San Francisco  kicks  a Field goal,  but then KC scores a TD, Game over. San Francisco loses.

3. If neither team scores on its first possession - or if San Francisco scores (field goal or TD) and KC ties it up - they’ve both had a possession.   And  with the game now tied, it’s now old-fashioned sudden-death,  and the  first team to score wins.  And at that point, it would be San Francisco’s ball, needing only to kick a field goal to win.

#2 is what actually happened.  But the way the 49ers defense had been playing - KC had scored just one offense TD in 60 minutes of regulation - it didn’t seem that likely.

There was one oddball possibility:  that San Francisco would score a TD on its opening possession and  then kick the extra point, but then KC would answer with a TD of its own - and then go for two

But overall, based on the percentages going in, I’d have made the same call that Shanahan did.



*********** I’m glad that 49ers’ fullback Kyle Juszczyk said it  so I didn’t have to spend much time on it, but really - WTF difference did it make  whether the 49ers’ players were informed about the rules for over time, or not? 

Said Juszczyk, “That changes nothing for me as a player, whatsoever. If I know the rule or don't know the rule, I'm trying to do the exact same thing on the field.”


https://www.si.com/nfl/2024/02/13/kyle-juszczyk-passionately-defends-kyle-shanahan-over-49ers-misunderstanding



***********    You might call this “picking at  the scab.”

A Group of Penn State trustees met school administrators, possibly in violation of open meetings regulations, to bring up  the possibility of naming the football field (at Beaver Stadium) after Joe Paterno.

(The answer to the lack of transparency is that these weren’t actually “meetings” of the board, and nothing was actually “discussed.)

I love Joe Paterno, and I miss him.  I can remember  when he started to show his age  and I began to dread the day when we’d lose him.  I just never imagined that his end would be so unseemly and tragic in so many ways.

And I deplore the way his memory was so quickly trashed, almost as a form of virtue signaling.

And I worry that  the people most supportive of restoring Coach Paterno’s good name and reputation get older by the day, and when they go, their cause dies with them.

But it’s impossible to sway the thinking of the people who remain completely convinced that in some way Joe Paterno was complicit in a coverup of former assistant Jerry Sandusky’s sexual abuse of young boys.

Talk about a hot-button issue.  This one  has the potential  to reopen  wounds that sill haven’t healed - and maybe never will.

(By the way, Beaver Stadium  is not named for a rodent. It’s named for James Beaver, a long-ago governor of Pennsylvania who for a time served as president of the school’s board of trustees.)


https://triblive.com/news/pennsylvania/group-of-penn-state-trustees-push-to-name-football-field-after-joe-paterno-in-private-meetings/



***********  Since it doesn’t appear that the Kansas City shooter(s) are straight, white, Christian, Euro-American, males,  we may never learn any more about them or their motives.

But we can be pretty sure, since they have two young sons that they brought to the Chiefs’ celebration,  that the guy who tackled one of the (alleged, of course) shooters,   and his wife,  who took the (alleged) shooter’s gun while he was otherwise occupied with her husband, are heterosexual. 

“I was just yelling, ‘F your gun!’ and I was just hitting him in his ribs,” the guy said afterward.   “It was great. You know, America stuff.”

Did you get that? They were doing “America stuff.”  And fortunately, there are still places in “America” where people still do  “America stuff,” like taking down bad guys without first calling 911. And then being  charged afterward with fighting crime without a license.

(In New York,  a sure way to ruin your life is to try to stop  some demented guy who says he intends to kill the people in a subway car.)

https://nypost.com/2024/02/14/us-news/kansas-city-chief-fan-and-wife-stopped-gunman-in-viral-video/



*********** I bet the shooters in Kansas City got their guns legally. (For those who are sarcastically challenged, no, I DON’T think they did, and I DON’T think that a law making it difficult for them to buy guns legally would have made a damn bit of difference.)

What they really needed there in KC - what really would have prevented that ugly occurrence - was a law against shooting other people.  Oh, wait - that’s sarcasm, too.  So if there are any liberals reading this:  I KNOW that there are already laws against shooting people, and what I’m getting at is  the shooters simply ignored them - the same way they’d ignore gun laws that would only disarm us law-abiders.



*********** IT”S OFFICIAL:

WEST POINT, N.Y. – The Army West Point football team and the University of Notre Dame football team will square off this upcoming season on November 23, 2024, at Yankee Stadium, in what is considered a home game for Notre Dame.
 
The game will be broadcast nationally on NBC and Peacock with kickoff time to be announced at a later date.
 
Army's full American Athletic Conference (AAC) schedule will be announced in the coming weeks.
 
Army and Notre Dame have met at the home of the Yankees 23 times, including 22 times at the original Yankee Stadium (1925-29, '31-46, '69) and once at the current Yankee Stadium. The most recent contest in 2010 also marked the first college football game played at the current Stadium, which opened its doors in 2009.
 
Army and Notre Dame last met in 2016, a 44-6 Irish win at the Alamodome.
 
Army and Notre Dame have also played at the famed Polo Grounds, which was located across the Harlem River from where Yankee Stadium is, Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, Shea Stadium in Queens and Giants Stadium in New Jersey.
 
The announcement of the game is a part of the return of Notre Dame's Shamrock Series which began in 2009, to "take a home game on the road' as the Irish celebrate the 100th anniversary of the fabled Four Horsemen backfield of Jim Crowley, Elmer Layden, Don Miller and Harry Stuhldreher.

Army will be meeting Notre Dame for the 52nd time overall (The Irish lead the all-time series 39-8-4).
 
The game marks the third Shamrock Series game to be played at Yankee Stadium. Notre Dame is 11-0 all-time in the Shamrock Series.

***********   Hey Coach Wyatt,

Thought this might interest you, not sure if any other states are on board with the NFL trying to make flag football more popular.

Mike Benton
Colfax, Illinois


TO  SPARE YOU WHAT SCHOOL COACHES AND AD’S HAVE TO UNDERGO WHEN THEY GET COMMUNICATIONS FROM MUCKETY-MUCKS,  I’VE DONE SOME EDITING…

IHSA Member School Administrators & Coaches,

I am excited to inform you that the IHSA Board of Directors recently approved the formation of an IHSA State Series in the sport of Girls Flag Football, beginning in the fall of 2024!

The IHSA was proud to partner with the Chicago Bears today in making a formal announcement at a press event at Halas Hall. It is also worth noting that you can now add a Girls Flag Football Coach to your school directory in the IHSA Schools Center. Adding that information will be very helpful, as it will help us provide direct communication/seek feedback from the coaches when needed. We will have much more to come on Girls Flag Football in the coming weeks and months, but for now, I simply wanted to share the news and press release with all of you…

The Illinois High School Association (IHSA) is proud to announce that Girls Flag Football will be the latest sport to debut an IHSA State Series, as the IHSA will conduct its inaugural postseason, culminating with an IHSA Girls Flag Football State Champion being crowned, in the fall of 2024.
 
 Girls Flag Football joins a growing list of sports and activities that have recently conducted their inaugural IHSA State Series, including Girls Wrestling (2022), Esports (2022), Boys and Girls Lacrosse (2018), and Competitive Dance (2013).
 
 The IHSA has commitments from over 100 schools to participate in the inaugural State Series in 2024, while nearly 40 other schools have expressed that they anticipate fielding a team in 2025.
 
 “The official sanctioning of girls’ flag football in the State of Illinois is exciting news. Next year, we will witness a state championship in the sport. By providing opportunities for talented girls and women, we will be able to follow some of the world’s best athletes competing on local, national and international platforms, leading to the 2028 Summer Olympics,” said Chicago Bears President & CEO Kevin Warren. “The Chicago Bears remain committed to aggressively championing the growth of girls’ flag football.  This is the beginning, but access and equity begin with these historical first moments that make the Chicago Bears, and me personally, inspired for the future of girls’ flag football for generations to come."
 
 “There is a lot of work to done before we crown the first IHSA Girls Flag Football State Champion,” said IHSA Assistant Executive Director Tracie Henry, who will serve as the IHSA Girls Flag Football administrator.  “We have a group of people who are dedicated to seeing the sport flourish and putting on a first-class state tournament. One area where we know we will need help is with officiating. We hope we can recruit some new officials to the sport, while also having current IHSA officials in other sports, including 11-player and 8-player football, add licenses to referee girls flag football as well.”
 
 Individuals interested in becoming IHSA Girls Flag Football officials can begin licensing on May 1, 2024.
 
 The inaugural IHSA Girls Flag Football State Finals will take place on Friday and Saturday, October 11-12, 2024.

Coach-

Great to hear from you!

Yes, other states are getting on board. It’s one more way for the NFL to get its tentacles deeper into other areas of football, and the NFL admits it.

Several other states are on board with this. New Jersey already has close to 100 schools playing girls’ flag. It was a going thing in Florida well before the NFL saw its opportunity and moved in.

I imagine one reason behind the NFL’s thinking is to lock in young females as fans of pro football. (Last year, 47% of the Super Bowl TV audience was female, and this year, with Taylor Swift following the Chiefs around, it’s likely to be close to 50%.}

It’s also likely part of the NFL’s move to take over boys’ youth football, given recent moves to eliminate tackle football until age 12 or even older. The idea there is that they’ll start out playing flag ball but once they’re old enough, they’ll just transition over to tackle. Maybe so, maybe not. But what about all the big, overweight kids who aren’t fast enough to play flag? What are they supposed to do until they’re old enough?

I’m not in any way opposed to girls flag ball. I think it’s great they they get some chance to play a form of football - even if it’s totally passing.

And maybe it will prevent girls from playing on boys’ high school teams, which I’m totally opposed to, but it might have the completely opposite effect.

We may eventually see flag ball begin to replace tackle football for boys in high schools. I think the NFL believes that can happen.  I also predict that the day is not far off when boys and girls are playing on the same flag teams.

One thing is for sure: in Illinois, with flag ball starting in the fall, between football (real football), soccer, and now flag, high school ADs are going to be scrambling to find fields. And officials.

And football (real football) coaches are going to find themselves having to move practice around to accommodate the girls flag teams. (Title IX, don’t you know?)

Thanks  for the article. Appreciate your thinking of me.



***********   Just wanted to let you know that I laffed my ass off at your "realignment map"...

...where you had the state of Ohio covered with the initials "TOSU" -

That was - all at the same time - 1. subtle, 2. "in your face", and 3. HILARIOUS!

What a great Dig! KUDOS!

John Rothwell, DC
Corpus Christi, Texas

Bless you for noticing.  That was my little prize that I hid inside the king cake.



***********   Hugh,

SB:  49ers gave it away.  How does a few professional football players NOT know the OT rules?  No, Brady may be in the rear view mirror but Mahomes needs a few more years to be better than the GOAT. 

Travis Kelce:  Threw a much better fit than my four year old grandson!  What a turd.

Kudos to your son Ed!  That Volk video was too funny, and likely more appreciated by us “OG’s”.

Regarding your QB list:  Not the first time MaxPreps screwed up.  My apologies.

Although I’m no longer coaching I can’t wait to see your forthcoming playbook!

Have a great week!

Joe  Gutilla
Granbury, Texas
 




*********** QUIZ ANSWER:  Richard Dent  remains  one of the greatest pass rushers in the history of the game.

A native of Atlanta, he played his college ball at Tennessee State, after being recruited there by the great Big John Merritt.

At Tennessee State, he lettered for four years and was twice named All-American.

He set school records for sacks in a single game and sacks in a career, and was drafted in the eighth round in 1983 by the Chicago Bears.

Bill Tobin, director of the Chicago Bears’ personnel department at the time, might have said it best while expressing astonishment that he  wasn't taken until the eighth round.

“I don’t know why teams stayed away from him so long. I had a very high grade on him,” Tobin said. “We thought he was the best pass rusher in the draft that year.”

He was the 203rd player taken in the draft, and by coincidence, he would up playing in 203 games in his career.

During his rookie season, he saw action in every game, and started three of them as defensive end. 

In his second season, he nailed down a  starting position, and wound up leading the NFC with 17.5 sacks, then a team record.  In seven of the next nine seasons, he would record at least 10 sacks.

He was a major factor in the Bears’ famed “4-6” (or simply “Bear”) defense, that in the 1985 regular season allowed just 198 points - 12.4 points per game.

In three postseason contests that year, the Bears allowed just one touchdown - and 10 points overall.  They shut out the Giants (21-0) and the Rams (24-0) and defeated the Patriots, 46-10 in the Super Bowl.

In that Super Bowl, he had three tackles, 1.5 sacks and two fumble forces, and was named  game MVP.

He was also a soloist in the hugely popular Bears’ “Super Bowl Shuffle” music video.

He played with the Bears though the 1993 season, then spent a season with the 49ers - and won another Super Bowl ring, even though he saw no action at all due to injuries.

He returned to Chicago for a year, then spent a year each in Indianapolis and Philadelphia before retiring.

At the time he retired, he ranked third in career sacks, behind only Reggie White and Bruce Smith.

In all,  he was named to the Pro Bowl four times. He was first team All-Pro in 1985, and second team All-Pro on three other occasions.

He was the twelfth man named to the  list of the 100 Greatest Chicago Bears ever, named to observe the team’s 100 anniversary. (For the record: 1. Walter Payton; 2. Dick Butkus; 3. Bronco Nagurski; 4. Sid Luckman; 5. Gale Sayers; 6. Mike Ditka; 7. Bill George; 8. Bulldog Turner; 9. Doug Atkins; 10. Danny Fortmann; 11. Dan Hampton)

Richard Dent is one of the two defensive ends (Doug Atkins is the other) on the Bears’ All-Time team.

He was elected to the Pro Football Hall of fame in 2011, and caused a bit of a stir when he neglected to mention  former Bears’  head coach  Mike Ditka  and former Bears’ defensive coordinator Buddy Ryan in his acceptance speech.


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING RICHARD DENT

GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
TOM DAVIS - SAN MARCOS, CALIFORNIA
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
JOE BREMER - WEST SENECA, NEW YORK
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
PETE PORCELLI - WATERVLIET, NEW YORK
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS


 

 ***********  QUIZ:  He was one of the  stars of the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl win.  The one over the Vikings.  55 years ago.   In Super Bowl IV (actually, long before they started getting hoity-toity and adding Roman numeral suffixes to them).

In fact, as a linebacker, he was named NFL Defensive Player of the Year that season (1969). And that was while backing up the Chiefs’ line  along with  Jim Lynch and future Hall-of-Famer Willie Lanier.

Before that, he had been  five times named All-AFL;  once the Chiefs became part of the NFL, he was named to the Pro Bowl three straight years. In 1970, he was named All-Pro.

A native of Shelby, North Carolina, he was an all-state quarterback at his all-black high school there.

Recruited to Minnesota by Murray Warmath, he was among the first wave of southern black players to play in the Big Ten.

Warmath, in his biography, “The Autumn Warrior,” recalled how he first heard of the player.

"We got wind of (him)  through my old friend Jim Tatum, who was at North Carolina at the time,” Warmath recounted. "Jim called me one day and said there was a black kid playing in a small town in western North Carolina who was the talk of the state. In those days, of course, southern schools still were segregated, so Jim was alerting his friends in the north about (him). I remember Jim saying, ‘if you’re looking for films, there ain’t any, and if you’re looking for scouting reports, there ain’t any, but take my word for it, this kid is something, and if you aren’t interested I’ll call Forrst Evashevski at Iowa.'

“No, God, don’t do that, I shot back,” Warmath said.  “We’ll get somebody on this kid right away.”

His recruiting visit to Minnesota was his first time on an airplane.

"I fell in love with the Twin Cities and the U of M, “ he said,  “And called my dad back in Shelby and said I wasn't coming back. I wanted to stay.”

He was big and strong and very fast.  He’d played quarterback in high school, and at a time when the freshmen weren’t eligible to play varsity ball, he played quarterback, halfback and end on the Minnesota freshman squad.

And then he found out he was going to be a lineman.

"I remember when Warmath called me into his office to tell me about the change," (he) said. "It was just before spring practice of 1960. As a freshman, I was concerned with just holding my own on the team and staying ahead in my studies. I was in awe of Warmath.

“He asked me to sit down and started telling me that he and the coaches needed to shore up the line, especially at tackle with the graduation of Wright. He said the decision was made to move me to tackle. I was shocked, but didn't dare say anything.

“While he was telling me this, he reached into a drawer of his desk and pulled out a rolled up tube sock. In the sock was a pearl-handled revolver and he started twirling it around his finger as he was telling me about moving me to tackle. I was listening, but I was distracted by that gun. I couldn't imagine being a tackle but in no way was I going to argue. I just said ‘yes, sir’ and promised to do my best and left the meeting.”

His best was plenty good.  And so were the Gophers.  In his sophomore  year they were national champions, and in 1961 and 1962  they went to back-to-back Rose Bowls. (They haven’t been back since.)  He was twice named All-American, and in his senior year he won the Outland Trophy as the nation’s top interior lineman and  finished third in the Heisman balloting.

When he was taken in the second round of the NFL draft by the Minnesota Vikings,  AFL teams  figured that there was no sense wasting a draft pick on him, so he wasn’t taken until the seventh round of their draft, when the Kansas City Chiefs took him.

Surprisingly, though, he signed with the Chiefs - and he played with them for his entire 12-year NFL career.

Tall (6-4) and fast, he made the Chiefs as a defensive end, and because of his athletic ability,  Coach Hank Stram stood him up and used him as an  outside linebacker in his innovative “Stack” defense.  After three years, he was moved to the outside linebacker position full-time.  There, for seven straight seasons he was named All-AFL and then ALL-NFL.

When he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1983, he was the first Kansas City Chief ever inducted, and just the second former AFL player to be inducted (Lance Alworth was the first).

He was also the 15th black player to be inducted - and  the first outside linebacker (all linebackers to that time -  Joe Schmidt, Bill George and Ray Nitschke - had been middle linebackers.  Chuck Bednarik, who had played some at outside linebacker, was primarily a center).

He is in the Pro Football and College Football Halls of Fame.

He is in the Kansas City Chiefs Hall of Fame, and in the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame.

He was named to the AFL All-Time Team, and to the NFL’s 100th Anniversary All-Time Team.

In May, 2015, at the age of 74, having  completing all his course work, he graduated from the University of Minnesota, almost 50 years after he’d left school to embark on a pro football career.




TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2024   “Never say die until you’ve done it.” Malcolm Forbes


*********** As I write this, it’s February 12, which just happens to be Abraham Lincoln’s birthday.   You’ve probably heard of him.  Our 16th President.  I think that most people who know a scintilla of American history would agree that he is among our top three Presidents, which gives me a great idea  that I bet no one has ever thought of:  why not make his birthday a national holiday, just as we did with George Washington’s?


***********   I suppose this makes me the world’s biggest freeloader.  Like I care.

CBS spent hundreds of millions for the rights to televise the Super Bowl, and  then spent a small fortune on televising the game itself.

And I watched it all for free.

There were all those advertisers, who’d paid millions to produce commercials and then buy the on-air time to show them so that people would buy their products…

And there I was, either not interested in the slightest in what they had to sell or, literally, not even knowing  what it was they were selling.


*********** While I enjoyed the Super Bowl, and found it somewhat entertaining, I didn’t think it was particularly exciting.  Nor,  other than Patrick Mahomes - who in my estimation has put Tom Brady in his rear view mirror as the so-called Greatest - did it do much to showcase the great offensive talent on both sides.  For that, credit has to go to great play by both defenses. 

But still -  three offensive TDs?  Versus seven field goals?  How long can they keep up the pretense that this is  the best they have to offer?  Is the NFL competition committee going to have to start searching for new rules changes to help goose the offenses?  My suggestion: put boxing gloves on everyone except QBs, running backs and eligible receivers. Oh (I’ve been saying this for maybe 20 years) - and widen the  field  to Canadian size. Their  field is 65 yards wide, or 195 feet.  Ours is 160 feet. That’s almost 12 yards difference - 6 yards on each side of the field. Think that wouldn’t open things up?

What this Super Bowl  really did, for me, was to highlight the things that I’ve obsessed over as a coach: the ways  that good teams beat themselves.

1. ELIMINATE TURNOVERS - EDGE TO KC - There was one 49ers’ turnover at the  wrong time: I think McCaffrey’s first-quarter fumble to kill a drive set a tone for the game. And there was one at the wrong place: the bobbled punt return deep in 49ers territory that set up the Chiefs’ first TD.
          
2. ELIMINATE MISSED ASSIGNMENTS - BIG EDGE TO KC - In OT,  on 3rd and 4, SF had Purdy back in shotgun.  There was a cursory fake of a jet sweep to McCaffrey, but the entire SF offensive line showed “pass.” For no apparent reason, the RG blocked to his left , while the RT blocked to his right, completely ignoring  Chiefs’ DT Chris Jones, who’d been lined up between them (either  in the B gap - or maybe in a “4-eye”) and giving him a direct line to the QB. Purdy, under duress, threw incomplete. Replay showed that had he been able to hold the ball a split second longer the receiver would have been open in the end zone.  In a post-game interview, Jones alluded to what he assumed had to be a “missed assignment.” He was right.  And as Vince Lombardi was fond of saying, there are maybe five or six plays in a game that make the difference, but you never know which ones.
 
3. ELIMINATE STUPID PENALTIES - EVEN.  KC had one stupid big one.  SF had several small but costly ones.
 
4. ELIMINATE THE BIG PLAY  - EDGE TO KC - They completed a long pass in the second quarter,  and Mahomes got loose a couple of times, and there was McCaffrey’s TD pass, but that was only 21 yards. 
 
5. TACKLE WELL - EVEN.  There were far less than the usual number of missed tackles, especially those when tacklers shoot for the ankles.
 
6. BE TOUGH ON THE GOAL LINE - SLIGHT EDGE TO SFO
        
7. HAVE A SOLID KICKING GAME - BIG EDGE TO KC.  Well, there was the punt that hit a 49ers’ blocker - no one told him to get out of the way - and after it hit him, the returner kept trying to scoop the ball up, instead of falling on it.  If he wasn’t told to fall on it, that’s on coaching. And then there was the blocked extra point. Classic example of the tall man in the middle getting his hand in the air at the precise time to block it.  Was the kick’s trajectory that low?

8. AVOID STUPID CALLS - SLIGHT EDGE TO KC. I can’t say there were any truly stupid individual calls - although the 49ers’ double pass to McCaffrey  for a TD could very well have fallen into that category if it had failed.  But in the 49ers’ drive in OT, I did get the sense that they might  finally have gotten around to their I-formation attack, and that this might be it  - that the Chiefs’ defense was getting tired and it was time to pound.  But no.  Back to the passing game.  I guess the “pound-it”  mindset is gone forever, or at least until some time in the future when some 25-year-old prodigy gets hired as an offensive coordinator and brings back  power-I and full-house formations  and  runs all over teams that have no idea how to defend against him, and he’s hailed as the “Future of Football.”

The moral to all this? First avoid losing.  Then work on winning.
    


*********** An Oregon high school basketball game resulted in a double forfeit when it was learned both teams  had used Ineligble players.

https://www.oregonlive.com/highschoolsports/2024/02/ineligible-players-from-both-teams-results-in-rare-double-forfeit-between-north-bend-and-the-dalles-boys-basketball-teams.html



*********** I paid for ESPN+ in order to see FCS college games, so as long as I have it, my wife and I watch some of the ESPN special programs. One series is called “Eli’s Places,” and it features Eli Manning at various places of some historical importance to the game of college football.

In one of the segments, “The Granddaddy of Them All,” Eli goes to the Rose Bowl  to do a feature on Jackie Robinson.

I have to admit I was a little taken aback  to see a statue of Jackie Robinson in a football uniform outside the Rose Bowl.  Now wait, I thought - Jackie was a very good player at UCLA, but in his time there, UCLA never played a game in the Rose Bowl. Not one.  The  statue appeared to be wearing a plastic helmet like the ones that UCLA didn't begin to wear until  long after Jackie Robinson had left.  And he was wearing a number - 55 - that was definitely not the number he wore at UCLA.

So I had to dig.  The statue was at the Rose Bowl, I learned, because he had played four games there as a high schooler, and nine games there while playing for Pasadena Junior College.  Okay, I guess.  But in his two years at UCLA, he played SIXTEEN games  in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, and that’s where he began to gain national acclaim.

The helmet?  Evidently it was also from his high school-JC days, but it doesn’t look like any leather helmet of the time (plastic helmets were a by-product of wartime protective equipment, and didn’t appear on  football teams until Army started wearing suspension helmets during the war).

The number 55? It was his number  at Pasadena JC.

Okay, okay. I get it. I could think of better places for the statue, but I get it.

But there was one thing I had to get Eli on: he referred to Jackie Robinson’s being “denied a chance to play in the NFL.” Yes, while true to the extent that had he actually wanted to play pro football they certainly would have denied him the chance, it was a  total  crock otherwise.  At that time, professional baseball was far and away the National Pastime, while professional football was held in such low repute, and paid so poorly, that no athlete capable of playing baseball professionally would have given a second thought to playing pro football.  And Jackie Robinson, as the world would learn, was definitely capable of playing professional baseball.



*********** Count me among those who think that Chip Kelly is a smart coach.  That he’s a  very, very  good offensive mind.  And that he marches to his own drummer.

His teams at Oregon merged his warp speed offense with seemingly limitless flashy uniform combinations to put the Ducks on the minds of high school players around the country, and helped build a national brand.

He didn’t get it done in the NFL at Philadelphia and San Francisco - I don’t know why - and he never did get UCLA into contention in the Pac-12.

Most people attribute the shortcomings at UCLA to  his disdain for recruiting, but I sure did like some of the still-innovative stuff he was doing offensively.


And now he’s out from under UCLA - a situation he wanted out of and they wanted him out of  - and he’s the new OC/quarterbacks coach at Ohio State. (The OSU position came open on very short notice when recently-hired Bill O’Brien left to take the head coaching job at Boston College.)

With Ryan Day’s announcement that he would no longer  be calling  the offensive plays at Ohio State, the hiring of Kelly gives him not only a highly-qualified OC, but one he ought to be able to trust with the position:  they are both from Manchester, New Hampshire, Day  played at the University of New Hampshire when Kelly was the OC there, and Day was Kelly’s QB coach at both Philadelphia and San Francisco.

It’s been 15 years, though,  since Kelly was last an assistant coach, and the one question in my mind about what otherwise looks like a great hire is whether the flipping of their roles, with Day now the boss, might lead to some problems. 



*********** My son, Ed, lives in Australia  and works in marketing for Sportsbet, a large international concern whose business, as its name suggests, is sports betting (which, unlike in the US, has been legal in Oz for decades).

He sent me a great video clip with this description:

Thought you’d get a kick out of this video we did – it’s gone viral thanks to the UFC community. Alex “Volk” Volkanovski is a world champion Australian UFC fighter and we have a partnership with him. His next opponent called him “old” so our guys whipped up a script and shot this last week. He’s playing an old ethnic guy – lots of Aussie cliches around this – but you’ll get the gist of it. He does a heck of a job of acting.

Ed’s  right.  This is hilarious.  You may have to watch it a couple of times to understand some of what he says, but it's worth it.
 
https://vimeo.com/912347194?share=copy



*********** “The Epitome of Courage” is a tragic but inspirational story of the bravery that once won wars and built our great nation…

It’s the story of the captain of the 1937 Washington State football team - who was also president of the student body - who went on, as Lieutenant Colonel Ira “Chris” Rumburg, to fight, and die, in World War II.

Many thanks to Shep Clarke, of Mt. Juliet, Tennessee for sending me the story.

https://news.wsu.edu/news/2007/05/25/the-epitome-of-courage/

  

***********    I suppose it’s possible that he simply liked Seattle more than Tuscaloosa, or maybe he just thought that the Seahawks had more talent to work with than Alabama, but Ryan Grubb evidently decided he’d rather be the offensive coordinator of the Seahawks than  of the Crimson Tide.

This leaves new Bama coach Kalen DeBoer in a bit of a spot, since Grubb, acknowledged to be one of the nation’s best college OC’s - Saban had tried to hire him to Alabama before this past season - had been his right-hand man most of their careers.

I liked DeBoer when he was at UW - small town Midwest guy makes good and all that, and he is a very good coach,  but in terms of UW’s roster strength his emphasis on transfers at the expense of recruits left the place in worse shape than when he found it, so f—k him.



*********** It’s not all that unusual for a guy who’s coached more than 25 years - 21 at the same place - to hang ‘em up.  Even  if his team just won its state championship.

But it is a bit unusual for the guy to leave and  take another head coaching job at another big-time high school in the same area, especially when he’d built a program so solid that the  state title it just won was his fifth.

So it was    rather big news in the Portland area when Portland Central Catholic coach Steve Pyne announced he was resigning to go across the Columbia River and become head coach at Union High School in Vancouver, Washington.

The Central Catholic head coach since 2003, Pyne had a record of 196-54. In all, his Rams won 14 conference championships, made eight  state semifinal appearances and six Class 6A (largest) final appearances, and won five state  tities. He was named Oregon Athletic Coaches Association Coach of the Year four times.

He moves to Union, a large high school in a rapidly-growing area in East Vancouver, which has experienced two consecutive losing seasons.  But as recently as  2018, Union went 14-0 and won the  state Class 4A  (largest class) title, paced by QB Lincoln Victor (now at Washington State) who averaged 229 all-purpose yards per game and was named AP State Player of the Year.

Most recently, Union produced highly-recruited wide receiver Tobias Merriweather, whose signing with Notre Dame became famous because then-Irish coach Brian Kelly was in the Merriweather home, eating barbecue with the kid and his family, when news broke that he was going to LSU.



*********** Maybe it’s the feminization of our society, but it would be nice we could put our sentimental feelings aside once in a while and actually apply sound judgment.    Even if it means  disappointing people.

Mark Madden, in the Pittsburgh Tribune, who strikes me as an old-time, hard-nosed sports writer,  writes that he’s heard from a number of people who didn’t think that Cleveland QB Joe Flacco  should have been named the NFL’s Comeback Player of the Year.

You’ll  remember that Flacco, 38 years old, joined the Browns late in the season when they were desperate for a quarterback - any quarterback - and won four of five starts to get them into the playoffs. Not bad for a guy who was out of work and, the writers like to say, “came off the couch” to play again.

Why were people upset?  Well, they thought Damar Hamlin of the Bills, and not Joe Flacco, should have won the award.

Hamlin, as everyone knows, suffered cardiac arrest in a game in Cincinnati early last year, and not only survived, but came back to play in five games this year, and make two tackles.

But Comeback of the Year? Put your feelings aside and get serious.  As Mark Madden writes, “Hamlin is alive, thank heaven. But he barely got on the field in 2023. Buffalo might have cut Hamlin if not for his circumstance.”



*********** John Bothe, of Oregon, Illinois, wrote to ask, “How helpful were formation shifts in your career?  Did you use them consistently?”

My Answer:    Coach,

Maybe it’s my background as a Delaware Wing-T  coach, but I would to say that I have probably used  changes in formation to a greater extent than any Double Wing coach I know of.

It’s always been a major part of my offensive thinking. I’ve always gone into a game with at least a couple of  alternate formations, if only to “unclog” things.

I’d like to go into a game  prepared to run a basic package of plays from Double Wing, Double Slot,  Wing-I, and Stack-I -  with  the possibility of an offset fullback and/or a tackle-over with each.  And then,  where possible,  I might add a  formation I haven’t shown before, which after I ran it I’d put away for several  weeks before bringing it back again.

That way, although I might run just three or four formations in any game, over the course of a season I might run as many as a couple dozen.

As a matter of fact, I’ve been working on a playbook covering all the different ways - and reasons why - I’ve attempted to use a change in formation without any radical  change in the plays themselves.


*********** PEW RESEARCH: Football is “America’s Sport”

By John Gramlich, Anna Jackson and Michael Rotolo

Baseball is known as “America’s favorite pastime.” But for the largest share of the U.S. public, football is “America’s sport,” according to a recent Pew Research Center survey.

In August 2023, we asked nearly 12,000 U.S. adults the following question: “If you had to choose one sport as being ‘America’s sport,’ even if you don’t personally follow it, which sport would it be?” The question was part of a broader survey about sports fandom in the United States.

More than half of Americans (53%) say America’s sport is football – about twice the share who say it’s baseball (27%). Much smaller shares choose one of the other four sports we asked about: basketball (8%), soccer (3%), auto racing (3%) or hockey (1%).

We also included the option for Americans to write in another sport. The most common answers volunteered were golf, boxing, rodeo and ice skating. Other respondents used the opportunity to have some fun: Among the more creative answers we received were “competitive eating,” “grievance politics,” “reality TV” and “cow tipping.”


https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/02/05/by-a-wide-margin-americans-say-football-not-baseball-is-americas-sport/

***********   Your Modest Proposal is fascinating. You could count on a lot of squawking about the fairness of out of division schedules, but that's unpreventable. And the loudest squawking would concern the ins vs outs, haves vs have-nots. So, this is a great thought piece, very sensible, and generally appealing, probably better than any of the current guys can produce....BUT it's shameful you, we, anyone has to flatten the CFB world so many of us have thought was a sport as near perfect as any could be. Vandy's been an SEC loser for many decades, but so the hell what? If you were a Vandy fan during even the dimmest years, you could get excited the week before the Saturday game, and maybe you took a little kid to his first game, and you'd both watch a 62-0 loss to Bama, but it was by gosh your team, and your team had put some valiant players on the field to represent the university. In fact, given their probable disadvantages in size and talent, your team was much more valiant. Damned right you could cheer for your 'Dores. And a damned shame CFB's so screwed up its putative governing body can't figure out a way to repair it.

MaxPreps has already been called on the carpet for one major error in its lists. KJP bellowed from her podium yesterday that the greatest SB QB of them all, the one she speaks for, hails from Delaware (not Scranton for HS).


John Vermillion                        
St Petersburg, FL

John, I agree with you 100 per cent on the Vandy business (as the granddad of four ‘Dores. Actually, after having put that “Modest Proposal” together, if anything like that were to come to pass, I would ignore it to the extent that I ignore the NFL, and throw my allegiance to the “left-outs,” whose players  might - might - still be playing football for the love of the game.  As for KJP’s favorite QB, many Americans probably think that FJB actually played football at Delaware, as he has sometimes claimed.  There is no truth to it.  At Mike Lude’s 100th birthday party, when a group of his former Delaware players (from the 50s) presented him with a Number 100 Delaware football jersey, you should have seen the looks I got when I (jokingly) asked them if they got it at “the same place where they got Biden’s.”


***********   Hugh,

Eight of those SB QB’s on your list came out of Catholic high schools.  You left one of the Texas boys out…Jalen Hurts.

Overall there are 16 NFL QB’s out of the state of Texas.

The National Collegiate Football League (co-sponsored by the NFL and ESPN) will make its debut in 2025.  The league will pay an annual usage fee to the colleges for naming rights whose football teams opt to play in the league.  Players in the league will receive a minimum NIL amount, and must be enrolled in the college in at least 6 credit hours with a declared major.  Each team will field a player roster of 60.  More information TBA.

Go Niners!  I like the way Shanahan operates in this “every man for himself” world of professional football.  And - like Alabama in college football - I’d like to see another team sitting on the throne.

Bill O’Brien is a natural for BC.  He’s a tough, no-nonsense guy whose teams will no doubt reflect his ways, and will also reflect his compassionate family side.

Ryan Day and Chip Kelly.  Two NH guys working together again in a role reversal.
Day was the UNH QB when Kelly was the UNH OC.  Should be interesting to see how those two handle it!

Enjoy the weekend!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas

Joe - Not guilty!  I didn’t leave Jalen Hurts off my list - because it wasn’t my list.  It was MaxPrep’s and I made sure to credit them, for two reasons: one, it’s a mortal sin to claim someone else’s work as your own, and two, I can always deflect the blame for any mistake. If it had been my list, I probably would have missed more than one!

Good catch, by the way!






*********** QUIZ ANSWER: Marvin Lewis  was born and raised in little McDonald, Pennsylvania, west of Pittsburgh, and started playing football when he was nine.  At Fort Cherry High School in McDonald, he was an all-conference quarterback and safety, and lettered in  wrestling and baseball as well.

Without any scholarship offers, he was planning on walking on at Purdue until Idaho State came through with an offer.  He played linebacker there, and earned All-Big Sky Conference honors three  straight years, while also seeing occasional action at quarterback and free safety.  He was inducted into Idaho State’s Hall of Fame in 2001.

He began his coaching career coaching the  Idaho State linebackers, and in his first season there ISU went 12-1  and won the NCAA D I-AA  national championship.  After five years he moved on to Long Beach State, then to New Mexico, and then to Pitt.

In 1992, 11 years after graduating from college, he got his first NFL job as linebackers coach with the Steelers.  After five years with the Steelers - during which time they made it to a Super Bowl - he was hired as defensive coordinator by the Baltimore Ravens, the newly-relocated former Cleveland Browns.

With him as their defensive coordinator,  the Ravens won Super Bowl XXXV over the New York Giants, 34-7  in large part because of the play of his defense. Now  considered one of the best NFL defenses ever, it set a record for fewest rushing yards (970) and fewest points allowed (165) in a 16-game season.

After six seasons with the Ravens he was in consideration for a number of NFL head coaching positions, but after none of them panned out, he moved to the Washington Redskins as defensive coordinator and assistant head coach to Steve Spurrier.

And then, after the one season with the Redskins - and several more head  coaching interviews -  he was hired in January 2003 by the Cincinnati Bengals as their head coach.

They were down. They hadn’t played in the post-season since 1990, and they had just finished a 2-14 season, the worst in club history.

After two 8-8 seasons, the Bengals  finally broke through in his third season. . Led by Carson Palmer, T.J. Houshmandzadeh, and Chad (Ochocinco) Johnson, they went 11-5,  and won  their division title, making it to the playoffs for the first time in 15 years.

In all, he would coach the Bengals for 16 years, the longest tenure of any coach in their history, until 2018, when he and the Bengals announced their mutual agreement to end his tenure there.  His record of 131-122-3 made him the first coach to leave Cincinnati with a winning record since Bill Johnson in 1978 - 40 years earlier.

Sixteen years was an exceptionally long stay with any one NFL club, and he won 131 games for the Bengals -  the most in team history.  He also took them to four division titles and seven playoff appearances (five in a row from 2011-2015).  In 2009, he was named NFL Coach of the Year - the only Bengals’ coach to be so honored other than team founder Paul Brown in 1970.

But the playoffs.  Oh, the playoffs.  Despite  the 131  wins, he had to deal with the stigma of being  0-7 in playoff games, making him the winningest NFL head coach never to win a playoff game.

He had a respectable  coaching tree: Five of his former assistants:  Jay Gruden (Washington Redskins), Hue Jackson (Cleveland Browns),  Leslie Frazier (Minnesota Vikings). Mike Zimmer (Minnesota Vikings since 2014), and Vance Joseph (Denver Broncos) became NFL head coaches.

Not missing a beat, by the next season after his leaving Cincinnati, he had  signed on with Herm Edwards at Arizona State as a “special advisor,” and a year later was named co-defensive coordinator working with a young assistant named Antonio Pierce.

And just recently, he rejoined Antonio  Pierce in Las Vegas. With Pierce officially named the Raiders’ head coach, Marvin Lewis became his assistant head coach, having served as his informal advisor  this past season.


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING MARV LEWIS

GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOHN IRION - ARGYLE, NEW YORK
TOM DAVIS - SAN MARCOS, CALIFORNIA
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY


 

*********** QUIZ:  He remains  one of the greatest pass rushers in the history of the game.

A native of Atlanta, he played his college ball at Tennessee State, after being recruited there by the great Big John Merritt.

At Tennessee State, he lettered for four years and was twice named All-American.

He set school records for sacks in a single game and sacks in a career, and was drafted in the eighth round in 1983 by the Chicago Bears.

Bill Tobin, director of the Chicago Bears’ personnel department at the time, might have said it best while expressing astonishment that he  wasn't taken until the eighth round.

“I don’t know why teams stayed away from him so long. I had a very high grade on him,” Tobin said. “We thought he was the best pass rusher in the draft that year.”

He was the 203rd player taken in the draft, and by coincidence, he would up playing in 203 games in his career.

During his rookie season, he saw action in every game, and started three of them as defensive end. 

In his second season, he nailed down a  starting position, and wound up leading the NFC with 17.5 sacks, then a team record.  In seven of the next nine seasons, he would record at least 10 sacks.

He was a major factor in the Bears’ famed “4-6” (or simply “Bear”) defense, that in the 1985 regular season allowed just 198 points - 12.4 points per game.

In three postseason contests that year, the Bears allowed just one touchdown - and 10 points overall.  They shut out the Giants (21-0) and the Rams (24-0) and defeated the Patriots, 46-10 in the Super Bowl.

In that Super Bowl, he had three tackles, 1.5 sacks and two fumble forces, and was named  game MVP.

He was also a soloist in the hugely popular Bears’ “Super Bowl Shuffle” music video.

He played with the Bears though the 1993 season, then spent a season with the 49ers - and won another Super Bowl ring, even though he saw no action at all due to injuries.

He returned to Chicago for a year, then spent a year each in Indianapolis and Philadelphia before retiring.

At the time he retired, he ranked third in career sacks, behind only Reggie White and Bruce Smith.

In all,  he was named to the Pro Bowl four times. He was first team All-Pro in 1985, and second team All-Pro on three other occasions.

He was the twelfth man named to the  list of the 100 Greatest Chicago Bears ever, named to observe the team’s 100 anniversary. (For the record: 1. Walter Payton; 2. Dick Butkus; 3. Bronco Nagurski; 4. Sid Luckman; 5. Gale Sayers; 6. Mike Ditka; 7. Bill George; 8. Bulldog Turner; 9. Doug Atkins; 10. Danny Fortmann; 11. Dan Hampton)

He is one of the two defensive ends (Doug Atkins is the other) on the Bears’ All-Time team.

He was elected to the Pro Football Hall of fame in 2011, and caused a bit of a stir when he neglected to mention  former Bears’  head coach  Mike Ditka  and former Bears’ defensive coordinator Buddy Ryan in his acceptance speech.




FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2024   “Just as a sword has cut deep and has carved many an arm in two, dear son, just so a tongue can cut a  friendship.”
Geoffrey Chaucer, The Manciple’s Tale


*********** If anyone's offended by anything I've written,  please bear in mind that I'm an old man and I'm not responsible for my actions.  And I don't remember writing it anyhow. In other words, tough tiddy.


*********** Considering its importance to our country, couldn’t they send Air Force One to Japan to make sure Taylor Swift makes it to Las Vegas in time for the Super Bowl kickoff?

Or, failing that, couldn’t the NFL hold up the kickoff while we all watched a live TV feed from inside her plane?



***********   “I pledge allegiance to…  ONE NATION… INDIVISIBLE”

Shame on any so-called American whose actual allegiance is to any “nation” other than ours, and shame on any so-called American who would actually expect  other Americans to honor any “national anthem” other than ours.



*********** Interesting facts from MaxPreps…

When Super Bowl LVIII takes place Sunday at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas it will feature a starting quarterback from Arizona for the first time ever. San Francisco's Brock Purdy graduated from Perry (Gilbert, Ariz.) in 2018.

Kansas City's Patrick Mahomes is one of four quarterbacks from Texas to start a Super Bowl. The former Whitehouse standout is the only one from the Lone Star State to start multiple Super Bowls. Terry Bradshaw, Tom Brady, John Elway, Jim Kelly, Peyton Manning, Joe Montana and Roger Staubach are the only other quarterbacks to start at least four Super Bowls.

California has produced the most starting signal callers in Super Bowl history with 13. Some notable names include Brady, Elway, Jim Plunkett and Aaron Rodgers. Brady holds the record with 10 starts.

Pennsylvania has the second-most with nine headlined by five Pro Football Hall of Fame members in Kelly, Dan Marino, Montana, Joe Namath and Johnny Unitas.

Louisiana was the only other state with more than five. Terry Bradshaw, Eli Manning and Peyton Manning are among the seven from the Pelican State. 

Ohio and Texas tied for the fourth-most with four each. Joe Burrow, Len Dawson, Ben Roethlisberger and Staubach represent the Buckeye State. Drew Brees, Nick Foles and Matthew Stafford join Mahomes from Texas.

Only two high schools have had more than one quarterback start a Super Bowl. Brees and Foles both graduated from Westlake (Austin, Texas) while the Manning brothers both went to Newman (New Orleans).

In total, 22 different states have produced at least one quarterback. Thirty states along with Washington, D.C. have not had a quarterback start a Super Bowl and some notable ones include Florida, Maryland, South Carolina and Tennessee.

Alabama (2)
Ken Stabler, Foley: Super Bowl XI
Bart Starr, Lanier (Montgomery): I, II


California (13)
Tom Brady, Serra (San Mateo): XXXVI, XXXVIII, XXXIX, XLII, XLVI, XLIX, LI, LII, LIII, LV
Trent Dilfer, Aptos: XXXV
Tony Eason, Delta (Clarksburg): XX
John Elway, Granada Hills Charter (Granada Hills): XXI, XXII, XIV, XXXII, XXXIII
Vince Ferragamo, Banning (Wilmington): XIV
Jared Goff, Marin Catholic (Kentfield): LIII
Colin Kaepernick, Pitman (Turlock): XLVII
Joe Kapp, Hart (Newhall): IV
Billy Kilmer, Citrus Union (Azusa): VII
Daryle Lamonica, Clovis: II
Craig Morton, Campbell: V, XII
Jim Plunkett, James Lick (San Jose): XV, XVIII
Aaron Rodgers, Pleasant Valley (Chico): XLV

Connecticut (1)
Steve Young, Greenwich (Greenwich): XXIX

Georgia (2)
Cam Newton, Westlake (Atlanta): 50
Fran Tarkenton, Athens: VIII, IX, XI

Illinois (3)
Ken Anderson, Batavia: XVI
Jimmy Garoppolo, Rolling Meadows: LIV
Donovan McNabb, Mount Carmel (Chicago): XXXIX

Indiana (2)
Bob Griese, Rex Mundi (Evansville): VI, VII, VIII
Rex Grossman, Bloomington South (Bloomington): XLI

Iowa (1)
Kurt Warner, Regis (Cedar Rapids): XXXIV, XXXVI, XLIII

Kentucky (1)
Phil Simms, Southern (Louisville): XXI

Louisiana (7)
Terry Bradshaw, Woodlawn (Baton Rouge): IX, X, XIII, XIV
Jake Delhomme, Teurlings Catholic (Lafayette): XXXVIII
Stan Humphries, Southwood (Shreveport): XXIX
Eli Manning, Newman (New Orleans): XLII, XLVI
Peyton Manning, Newman: XLI, XLIV, XLVIII, 50
Doug Williams, Chaneyville (Zachary): XXII
David Woodley, Byrd (Shreveport): XVII

Massachusetts (1)
Matt Hasselbeck, Xaverian Brothers (Westwood): XL

Michigan (1)
Earl Morrall, Muskegon: III

Mississippi (2)
Brett Favre, Hancock (Kiln): XXXI, XXXII
Steve McNair, Mount Olive: XXXIV

New Jersey (3)
Joe Flacco, Audubon: XLVII
Neil O'Donnell, Madison: XXX
Joe Theismann, South River: XVII, XVIII

New York (2)
Boomer Esiason, East Islip (Islip Terrace): XXIII
Ron Jaworski, Lackawanna: XV

North Carolina (1)
Brad Johnson, Owen (Black Mountain): XXXVII

Ohio (4)
Joe Burrow, Athens (The Plains): LVI
Len Dawson, Alliance: I, IV
Ben Roethlisberger, Findlay: XL, XLIII, XLV
Roger Staubach, Purcell Marian (Cincinnati): VI, X, XII, XIII

Oklahoma (1)
Troy Aikman, Henryetta: XXVII, XXVIII, XXX

Pennsylvania (9)
Kerry Collins, Wilson (West Lawn): XXXV
Rich Gannon, St. Joseph's Prep (Philadelphia): XXXVII
Jeff Hostetler, Conemaugh Township (Davidsville): XXV
Jim Kelly, East Brady: XXV, XXVI, XXVII, XXVIII
Dan Marino, Central Catholic (Pittsburgh): XIX
Joe Montana, Ringgold (Monongahela): XVI, XIX, XXIII, XXIV
Joe Namath, Beaver Falls (Beaver Falls): III
Matt Ryan, William Penn Charter (Philadelphia): LI
Johnny Unitas, St. Justin's (Pittsburgh): V

Texas (4)
Drew Brees, Westlake (Austin): XLIV
Nick Foles, Westlake: LII
Patrick Mahomes, Whitehouse: LIV, LV, LVII
Matthew Stafford, Highland Park (Dallas): LVI

Utah (1)
Jim McMahon, Roy: XX

Virginia (1)
Russell Wilson, Collegiate (Richmond): XLVIII, XLIX

Washington (3)
Drew Bledsoe, Walla Walla: XXXI
Chris Chandler, Everett: XXXIII
Mark Rypien, Shadle Park (Spokane): XXVI




*********** Last summer, well before any of the news came out about their recent “advisory” meeting I was asked by the commissioners of the SEC and Big Ten if I’d consider setting up a “super conference” that they were planning to set up,  and before I had a chance to decline, they made me any offer I couldn’t refuse.

I’m not at liberty to disclose the amount of their offer, but let’s just say that I’ll never again have to worry about writing this page twice a week, or preparing for a Zoom clinic every two weeks.   And my children and grandchildren, should they choose, will be able to live lives of indolence.

Of course, I was sworn to secrecy, with is why none of your know about it.  Not even  my wife knows what I’ve been doing, (She thinks I’ve been working on a new playbook.)

But now that the word’s out that the two commissioners have met for “advisory" talks,” I figured  the cat’s out of the bag, and I might as well let you, my faithful readers, know what I’ve been working on.

The first thing I had to do - and it wasn’t easy - was to convince the commissioners that the idea of a simple merger of their two  conferences was not the way to go.  Why?  Because, I told them bluntly, it made no sense to create a “super conference” and include teams  such as Vanderbilt and Indiana.  And yet, as charter members of their conferences, there would almost certainly be legal - not to mention public relations - difficulties involved in jettisoning those schools.

My suggestion was that they instead create an entirely new conference., and  simply not invite the poorer teams. They would begin by incorporating as a brand-new entity, and eventually the members of the corporate board would elect a President  to run the new conference.

They thought it was a great idea, and moved on to the nuts and bolts of building their new league.  That’s here I came in.  They charged me with putting together a coast-to-coast league, including as many major TV markets as possible, making sure to include as many teams from their current conferences as feasible.  And then, one the word approved the plan, they’d issue the invitations.

Using the structure of the NFL as my guide, and working with 32 teams as the ideal number, I broke the new conference into eight four-team “divisions.”   The commissioners  thought it was a brilliant idea, but in fairness I had to point out to them that the NFL had come up with it way before me. The brilliance,   I pointed out, was that in breaking a large 32-team league into eight divisions of four teams each, the NFL had created a scheme that tricked the public into thinking that,  even well into the season,  virtually every team had at  least an outside  chance to get to the Super Bowl.  And even a bad team could finish no worse than fourth place in its division.

And  then, with their approval of the 32-team  format,  I went to work.  Consulting constantly with the commissioners (and those of their underlings who could be trusted to keep the project a secret), I began to evaluate every current “power 4” conference team  on the basis of several criteria:

Resources:  Can they/will they spend what’s necessary to be competitive long-term?

Fan Base: Do they have a large following that can immediately factor into our TV ratings?

Market Size: Are they in a large enough TV market, and do they matter to the viewers in that market?

Recent Performance: Have they, in the past 5 years, shown consistent ability to be competitive?

Tradition: Do they have a history of excellence in the not-too-distant past?

Brand Recognition: Are they known and admired outside their own market and fan base?

Potential (if they’re not now up to standards): Is there strong reason to believe that  this team can quickly become competitive?

Feeding this info into my giant IBM 360 Super Computer,  the map below is  what I submitted to the commissioners for their consideration.  (I have to stress that it’s not final.)

As you can see, by following the color codes, there are eight “divisions” of schools. The most important consideration in putting the divisions together was proximity. In some cases, it was impossible to keep certain   long-time rivals (Alabama-Tennessee, Georgia-Auburn for example) in the same divisions, but  the conference can still schedule  those schools to play each other annually.  Oklahoma-Oklahoma State is another pair of rivals that I had to put in different divisions, mainly because I had to find division partners for Utah and BYU.




In stressing that it’s not final,  there are some schools that for various reasons might yet wind up in the picture.

CALL THEM MAYBES:
Arizona State (for the Phoenix market, potential)
Central Florida (for the Orlando market, plus some recent success, plus potential)
Houston (for the market, potential)
Kansas State (for strong recent performance)
Minnesota (for the market)
Missouri (for the KC-St Louis market, recent performance)

And, yes, there are a few schools whose presence in the current configuration might be questioned.

CALL THEM MAYBE NOTS:
Arkansas (good fan base, good resources, small market, poor recent performance)
BYU (good fan base, good resources, good brand- strong national following, poor recent performance)
Miami (good market, good brand, poor recent performance, small, apathetic fan base)
Michigan State (good brand, good tradition, good resources, poor recent performance)
North Carolina (decent recent performance, fair fan base, medium market)
Oklahoma State (good recent performance, good fan base, small market)
Virginia Tech (good brand, good resources, good fan base, small market, poor recent performance)

I must point out to anyone there who’s disappointed by the plan that I feel your pain.  Ordinarily,  I wouldn’t be a party to anything that would cut out my kids and grandkids’ schools - Stanford, Duke, Vanderbilt, Wake Forest - but this was a career opportunity I just couldn’t pass up, and the money was good.  So I trust you understand.

I’ve shown you this in confidence.  Please respect my position by not calling or writing to the commissioners in protest.

To indicate that it’s a combination of colleges that play American football (as opposed to soccer) I suggested it be called the University Federation of Football Distinctly  American - so it could be called, in short,    UFF DA

 

*********** Because 1956 was the first year of Ivy League play, I was looking up some things in the  NCAA Official Collegiate Football Record book for that year, and found that this past year’s so-called Power 5 looked a lot different then:

There was no Pac-12 (what’s new?).  There was, instead, a Pacific Coast Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. There was no Arizona or Arizona State to be found. But there were nine teams, because Idaho was still a member. And according to the guide, the Vandals  had a couple of  good players coming back - one named Jerry Kramer. (Yes, the Packer. He was pretty good, as it turned out.)

The Big 8 (now the Big 12) had  - duh - eight teams.  Wise guy  sportswriters liked to call it “Oklahoma and the Seven Dwarves.”

The Big Ten - I am not making this up - had exactly TEN teams.

The ACC didn’t yet have Florida State or Miami (they were independents) or any of the northern schools, but it did still have South Carolina.  And Maryland.

The SEC?  It still had Georgia Tech and Tulane.

The Eastern schools - Army, Boston College, Navy, Penn State, Pitt, Syracuse, West Virginia - were all independent.

And then there was the Southwest Conference.  The SWC, made up of Arkansas, plus all the bigger Texas schools except Houston and Texas Tech, lasted another thirty years or so before widespread cheating brought it down.  It would have been funny as hell to watch the goings-on among those schools  with today’s absence of rules.


*********** I had a reason to look at the NCAA Official Collegiate Football Record Book for 1956, and I happened to look at Miami’s schedule.

The Hurricanes, like every other major college team then,  played ten games.

Eight of them were at home,  and seven of those home games were on Friday nights.

I’m assuming that heat was a major reason for the night  starts.  Not sure why Friday, though.

The only “day” game was the final game of the season - against Pitt,  on December 8.

Florida was away, and TCU was away, which meant that the ‘Canes played just one game outside the state of Florida.



*********** John Canzano  talked recently with Washington State head coach Jake Dickert, and  the impressive success he’s had retaining players…

When the first college football transfer portal window opened on Dec. 4, most expected Dickert’s roster would be raided. Why not? WSU will play in the “Pac-2” next season and the schedule features seven games against Mountain West Conference opponents.

Dickert’s pitch to his roster?

    •    Stick around.
    •    Control of your environment.
    •    Don’t forget why you started playing football in the first place.


Said Dickert: “To me, there are two buckets: There are people who play for the love, passion, the camaraderie, and the life lessons you get. That’s one bucket. There’s another bucket that is transactional. The transactional deal takes away the joy.”

His starting quarterback, Cam Ward, left for Miami. That aside, WSU did a remarkable job holding the rest of the roster together. Partly, Dickert said, because fans responded, opened their checkbooks, and helped the Cougar Collective boost the war chest. But also because Dickert said all 10 of his full-time assistants are coming back. The staff stayed focused on cultivating 1-on-1 relationships with players.

Said Dickert: “I told the staff not to take it lightly. The players are sending us a big message that we’re doing things right.”

On December’s National Signing Day, the Cougars signed 23 high school seniors. It was a strategic play. With so many Division I football programs camping in the portal looking for experienced upperclassmen, there are fewer scholarships available to high school athletes. Dickert hopes to capitalize on that deep pool of high school talent.

“We want to put people in the slow cooker,” Dickert told me. “We live in a microwave society. They want instant access. Instant success. Instant opportunity. Life doesn’t work that way. We’ve to got to find specific traits we love and then help players work on their deficiencies.”

***********   In an article in The Athletic, Kalyn Kahler tells how Kyle Shanahan makes sure that things are done the way he wants them done - by watching position meetings remotely, in his office.  It’s something that he got from his dad, Mike, a former NFL head coach.

From the  tone of  a lot of the letters commenting on the article, there are plenty who deride this as “Big Brother” stuff, right out of 1984.

They don’t seem to understand what a head coach has to deal with.  It’s the head coach who’s ultimately to blame for anything and everything that goes wrong.  I can’t imagine any NFL head coach, with  the technology  readily available, not taking advantage of every opportunity to ensure that mistakes are being corrected, and that the things he wants are not only being taught  that they’re being taught the way he wants them taught…

In spring 2010, Washington’s new offensive coaching staff met for the first time. Coordinator Kyle Shanahan was leading a conversation about blocking the back side of a run play when tight ends coach Jon Embree offered up a suggestion.

Embree had worked for head coach Mike Shanahan, Kyle’s father, with the Denver Broncos 10 years earlier. Kyle liked Embree’s approach. He agreed with the suggestion, and the group moved on to the next play. Not 30 seconds later, the door to the room flew open. “No, no, no, no, no — nuh-uh,” Mike Shanahan said, according to Embree. “I don’t want to do it that way. And here’s why …”

“All the coaches were like, ‘Where did he come from?” Embree said.

Mike came from his office. He knew he didn’t like the blocking variation, intervening at the moment to fix the error before the staff wasted any more time, because he’d watched and listened to the entire discussion on a live feed from the meeting room that was playing out on screens in his office.

The elder Shanahan set up his facilities this way since his head coaching tenure with the Broncos, which included two Super Bowl victories. Kyle has taken a lot from his dad’s career and applied it to his own, including watching over his players and coaches from a perch high atop the organization. As Kyle prepares to coach his San Francisco 49ers in their second Super Bowl in five years, the surveillance state is just as much a part of the Shanahan tree as the outside zone run game.

It might not seem like an ideal workplace setup, but the majority of players and coaches interviewed for this story didn’t find the cameras intrusive. For current Niners and former Shanahan guys, this is just part of the job. Many said they assume they are being recorded and listened to at all times.

“I mean, you already know (Kyle) watches,” San Francisco left tackle Trent Williams said, laughing. “It’s like being on ‘Big Brother.'” Williams started his career under Mike Shanahan in Washington in 2010, so he’s used to this level of oversight. “I did some dumb rookie mistake and (Mike) busted in the room as soon as that play came on the screen afterward,” he said.

In 2020, COVID protocols forced teams to update their video technology and make every meeting virtually accessible. When players and coaches were allowed to meet in person again, Kyle kept using the Zoom feature. Now, he can speak in a meeting room from his own office simply by unmuting himself. If he’s not physically in the room, he can be listening in — and he pays close attention to the quarterbacks.

“We always call that screen in our room the voice of God,” said third-string quarterback Brandon Allen.

“His voice just comes in from heaven,” said run game coordinator and offensive line coach Chris Foerster.

“We’d be talking about something, and he’d unmute and say, ‘Actually, you read it this way,’ and then he would mute again,” said quarterback Nate Sudfeld, who played for San Francisco in 2021. “So you gotta be careful what you say.”

The roots of the Shanahans’ video system took hold in another era of 49ers football.

When Mike Shanahan was hired as San Francisco’s offensive coordinator in 1992, he spent several weeks cramming. Bill Walsh had left to coach Stanford, and he left behind an enormous video library of teachings to help new coaches and players catch up quickly to his West Coast offense.

Shanahan saw the value in having material to refer back to, and when he got his second chance at a head coaching gig (in Denver in 1995 after a short-lived stint in charge of the L.A. Raiders from 1988-89) he made one important upgrade to Walsh’s method. The cameras in the Broncos’ meeting rooms didn’t just record for posterity; Shanahan created a live feed. He outfitted each position room with a CCTV-style camera aimed at the screen that showed the film players watched every day. Each of those cameras fed into his office, where he could toggle the audio from room to room.

“Mike was totally committed to it and took it to another level,” said Gary Kubiak, a longtime Shanahan assistant before taking over in Houston and Denver himself. “As a head coach, you can’t be everywhere. But if you’re sitting in your office and you want to know what’s going on in the receiver meeting or what’s going on at the linebacker meeting, you can flip on and just watch your coach teach or watch him handle his players.”

*********** What plays in Vegas doesn’t stay there…

The game might be in Vegas, but the 49ers and Chiefs have been staying in a place called Lake Las Vegas - 25 miles (and 45 minutes) from The Strip.

Obviously, they want to keep the player away from “distractions.”

But as NFL executive vice president Jeff Miller says, it’s not all that different from the way they’ve always done things:  “We traditionally have teams stay a distance from the stadium and from a city where there’s room enough for the club and family.”



***********   Jeff Hafley said a major reason why he “stepped down” from being head coach at Boston College to being defensive coordinator of the Green Bay Packers is that he missed the actual coaching, telling reporters that at Green Bay, “I get to coach again.”

He said that as a college coach he had found himself spending too much of his time worrying about the transfer portal and trying to raise NIL dollars.

Comparing the job of a college coach  to that of an NFL GM, he said, “I’m the ‘general manager’ and you’re trying to manage the cap and you don’t really know what the cap is.”



*********** Hot on the agenda of the WIAA, the Washington state high school sports administrative body, is an amendment to allow any and all high school players one free transfer - for any reason - without having to sit out a year, as is the case now if a kid doesn’t move with his parents.



***********   Coach:

Elvis's old manager, Colonel Parker, used to counsel his young charge to avoid overexposure. I think that's happening with the Mannings. I'd like them better if they went away for a while. I saw a few minutes of Payton on the McAfee show last week, and remember feeling I couldn't wait for his time to be up.

We've observed--and you've commented from the start--on the cumulative decline in CFB occasioned by NIL (a meaningless expression now) and the Portal. Now, in a matter of a few years, we're well beyond the direct fallout. We see the indirect fallout in what those guys did at the Senior Bowl, and it's uglier even than the direct. How can anyone in authority not understand the damage being done?

Although I don't know all the details, I tend to think the Athletic Department at Tennessee has a point. How can you accuse us of an NIL violation when you cannot cite a rule we've broken, because you haven't established such rules? The NCAA continues to look weak and pathetic.

Apologies for being unable to see the original ZOOM tonight, but look forward to seeing it in a few days. Thanks for all you do.

John Vermillion                    
St Petersburg, Florida




 

*********** QUIZ ANSWER : Henry "Hank" Gremminger  was a holdover from the sorry Green Bay Packers team that Vince Lombardi inherited, but he met  Lombardi’s  high standards, and he wound up playing playing with him  for seven years, and playing on three Packers NFL  championship teams.

He grew up in Weatherford, Texas, and played his college ball at Baylor.    As a two-way player for the Bears, he was an end on offense and a safety on defense, and  was an All-Southwest Conference selection in both his junior and senior years.  As a senior, he was a  co-captain of the team.

He was drafted in the seventh round - the 80th player taken - by the Green Bay Packers, as an offensive end, but he earned the job as the Packers' starting left cornerback as a rookie,  and held the spot  until his third season, when he broke his leg and missed the final two games. The next year, Lombardi's first season,  he had to win his job back, but he did, and  played there until 1962, when Herb Adderley moved in at corner, and he moved to safety.

There, his good size (6 foot, 205) served him well, as he played on the left side and usually found himself up against a new breed of player - the tight end.  That meant  covering athletes like Mike Ditka of the Bears and John Mackey of the Baltimore Colts, but it also meant coming up to meet pulling linemen as the force man on power sweeps.

"In coach Lombardi's defense,” said former teammate Gary Knafelc, “You had to come up hard on the outside to make tackles, so you had to be versatile to play for coach Lombardi and (he)  was as good as any of them. He could run. He was a very aggressive guy. All his teammates liked him. He was very much a team player." In 1964 he was named the captain of the Packers’ defense.

He played in 121 games in his 10 seasons with the Packers, and on three NFL championship teams. He intercepted 28 passes and recovered seven fumbles.  Following the 1965 season, after losing his starting position to Tom Brown, he asked to be traded,  and Lombardi traded him to Dallas for a future draft choice.

After a salary despite with Dallas, he left camp and was traded to Atlanta, an expansion team whose head coach, Norb Hecker, had been his defense backfield coach in Green Bay. He retired before the start of the season, but later came out of retirement to play eight games with the Los Angeles Rams before retiring for good.

After football he became a building contractor in his native Weatherford and became active in the Republican Party and at the time of his death he was a county commissioner.

Hank Gremminger is in both the Baylor Football Hall of Fame and the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame.

On his headstone is  a quote from Vince Lombardi: "The greatest accomplishment is not in and never failing, but in rising again after you fail.”

CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING HANK GREMMINGER

GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY

 


*********** QUIZ: He was born and raised in little McDonald, Pennsylvania, west of Pittsburgh, and started playing football when he was nine.  At Fort Cherry High School in McDonald, he was an all-conference quarterback and safety, and lettered in  wrestling and baseball as well.

Without any scholarship offers, he was planning on walking on at Purdue until Idaho State came through with an offer.  He played linebacker there, and earned All-Big Sky Conference honors three  straight years, while also seeing occasional action at quarterback and free safety.  He was inducted into Idaho State’s Hall of Fame in 2001.

He began his coaching career coaching the  Idaho State linebackers, and in his first season there ISU went 12-1  and won the NCAA D I-AA  national championship.  After five years he moved on to Long Beach State, then to New Mexico, and then to Pitt.

In 1992, 11 years after graduating from college, he got his first NFL job as linebackers coach with the Steelers.  After five years with the Steelers - during which time they made it to a Super Bowl - he was hired as defensive coordinator by the Baltimore Ravens, the newly-relocated former Cleveland Browns.

With him as their defensive coordinator,  the Ravens won Super Bowl XXXV over the New York Giants, 34-7  in large part because of the play of his defense. Now  considered one of the best NFL defenses ever, it set a record for fewest rushing yards (970) and fewest points allowed (165) in a 16-game season.

After six seasons with the Ravens he was in consideration for a number of NFL head coaching positions, but after none of them panned out, he moved to the Washington Redskins as defensive coordinator and assistant head coach to Steve Spurrier.

And then, after the one season with the Redskins - and several more head  coaching interviews -  he was hired in January 2003 by the Cincinnati Bengals as their head coach.

They were down. They hadn’t played in the post-season since 1990, and they had just finished a 2-14 season, the worst in club history.

After two 8-8 seasons, the Bengals  finally broke through in his third season. . Led by Carson Palmer, T.J. Houshmandzadeh, and Chad (Ochocinco) Johnson, they went 11-5,  and won  their division title, making it to the playoffs for the first time in 15 years.

In all, he would coach the Bengals for 16 years, the longest tenure of any coach in their history, until 2018, when he and the Bengals announced their mutual agreement to end his tenure there.  His record of 131-122-3 made him the first coach to leave Cincinnati with a winning record since Bill Johnson in 1978 - 40 years earlier.

Sixteen years was an exceptionally long stay with any one NFL club, and he won 131 games for the Bengals -  the most in team history.  He also took them to four division titles and seven playoff appearances (five in a row from 2011-2015).  In 2009, he was named NFL Coach of the Year - the only Bengals’ coach to be so honored other than team founder Paul Brown in 1970.

But the playoffs.  Oh, the playoffs.  Despite  the 131  wins, he had to deal with the stigma of being  0-7 in playoff games, making him the winningest NFL head coach never to win a playoff game.

He had a respectable  coaching tree: Five of his former assistants:  Jay Gruden (Washington Redskins), Hue Jackson (Cleveland Browns),  Leslie Frazier (Minnesota Vikings). Mike Zimmer (Minnesota Vikings since 2014), and Vance Joseph (Denver Broncos) became NFL head coaches.

Not missing a beat, by the next season after his leaving Cincinnati, he had  signed on with Herm Edwards at Arizona State as a “special advisor,” and a year later was named co-defensive coordinator working with a young assistant named Antonio Pierce.

And just recently, he rejoined Antonio  Pierce in Las Vegas. With Pierce officially named the Raiders’ head coach, our guy became his assistant head coach, having served as his informal advisor  this past season.




TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2024   “Big opportunities come infrequently. When it’s raining gold, reach for a bucket, not a thimble.” Warren Buffett

************   Back in the 60s, when we lived in Baltimore, I really got to watch and admire Raymond Berry, and in all the years since I have yet to know or hear of  anyone more dedicated to constant self-improvement. I remember one time watching a very popular weekly TV show called “Corallin’ the Colts,” where they’d show highlights (you couldn’t televise home games in those days) and interview different players and on this particular night Raymond Berry  was one of the players. At one point, the host appeared to be taken aback  by something he noticed, and he said, “Raymond, what are you doing with your hands?”   Berry had been sitting at a table,  and when he lifted up his hands to show them to the camera, there was a pinkish substance in one of them. He explained that it was therapeutic putty that he’d been the squeezing to strengthen his hands. Never passing up an opportunity  to get better!


*********** THE RUMOR MILL -

CHIP KELLY is said to be as anxious to get outta UCLA as the AD is to see him go.  Problem is, he’s got time left on his contract.  They can’t pay him off and he isn’t going to walk away from  the money.  Evidently, the AD was planning to  fire him before the USC game, but then UCLA went and upset USC, which saved his bacon temporarily.  But then the Bruins  went out the next week and lost to Cal. So now the AD is  waiting, hatchet nice and sharp.  Consider for a moment - with your head on the block, would YOU like to be  taking UCLA into the Big Ten?   Where’s he going to go?  BC? It’s possible. He’s a New Englander - from Manchester, New Hampshire.)


BILL O’BRIEN would be a natural for BC.  He’s a Boston-area guy, went to a Boston Catholic HS, went to college in New England (Brown), has a lot of experience with the Patriots, did a great job of pulling Penn State out of the mire of the Jerry Sandusky scandal, and was a winner as head coach of the Houston Texans. Only one problem - he just hired on as OC at Ohio State.


JEFF MONKEN of Army is said to be in the running for the BC job.  Maybe this time my wish will come true and he’ll get the job -  and  instead of messing with a new offense at Army he’ll take his shotgun-spread guys with him to some other place where  he can run that godawful offense to his heart’s content. And then meanwhile - I can have two wishes, can’t I? - Army will hire the head coach at Harding (D-II  champ, running flexbone)  and get back to playing Army football. (Other candidates for BC - Jason Candle, now HC at Toledo.  Good coach, good experience. Also,  Al Golden, former HC at Temple and Miami.  Good coach. Except BC’s AD was the guy who fired him at Miami. Also,  Brian Flores, former Dolphins HC. But he’s never coached college ball. And BC might be leery of the fact that he’s got a racial discrimination suit going against the NFL.  In his favor - he’s a BC guy.)



*********** What are the chances of our ever seeing something like this?

BAYLOR 13, WASHINGTON 7

Oct. 15, 1955, at Seattle

Baylor snapped UW’s four-game winning streak in front of 42,000 at Husky Stadium. The crowd included UW quarterback Sandy Lederman, suspended by head coach John Cherberg one hour before kickoff for his “uncooperative attitude.”



*********** I’ve met Mark Murphy, President and CEO of the Green Bay Packers.  Former NFL player (safety, Redskins) and very smart.  Of the many good things you could say about him, one is that he is a stand-up  guy.

He writes a monthly column for packers.com, and he does his best to answer mail, even mail like this…

Justin M. from Tucson, AZ

I am emailing today to express my disappointment and dissatisfaction with the franchise and its direction during your tenure as CEO. I believe it is long overdue for you to retire and give control of the organization to someone else who is more properly prepared to take the team into the future.
Your leadership has been inept. You do not deserve to lead such a storied franchise. Please disappear into retirement ether. Nobody likes you. You have never been a good executive. I wish you the worst in your twilight years.

Thanks for sharing your opinion, Justin. I also appreciate the 11 other emails you've recently sent with similar suggestions. I get your point. You will be pleased to know that I am required to retire in July 2025 under our by-laws.

***********  When I read the local paper I’m left wondering how in the hell those people doing the writing could have spent four years majoring in “journalism” without first learning how to write.  I’ve seen AI samples that read better.

I’ve read better writing by robots, but until the newspapers turn the writing itself over to AI, maybe they could at least hire some robots to proofread,  something that most newspapers discontinued long ago.



***********  In one play, the East-West Shrine game brought together a confluence of two of  the things that peeve me the most about college football today.

A tight end caught a screen pass and headed upfield,  and then, as he was about to be tackled, he attempted to hurdle a defender  (hurdling - one of the peeves). 

The defender he attempted to hurdle was standing up, and he drilled the tight end and dumped him to the ground.

The  tight end  then lay on the ground for a little while before being administered to and helped off the field, obviously in discomfort.

He had obviously hurt one of his legs, and - not to be cruel or anything - I was hoping that he’d  suffered a painful bruise (painful,  but not serious) to his knee.  His bare, unpadded knee. (Peeve number two.)



*********** When did this “miles per hour” crap start, and what’s its purpose?  In a nation where we routinely go 10 miles an hour faster than the posted 70 mph speed limit, are we really  supposed to get excited at learning that a player is running upfield at the breathtaking  speed of 22.4 miles per hour?


*********** If 7-on-7 flag as we saw it played during the “Pro Bowl Games” is the future of our sport, we are doomed as a culture.  It’s just a matter of time before some doctor at Johns Hopkins notices an outbreak of arthritis among teenagers and traces it to repetitive grabbing of flags, and America’s mothers take a stand against  youth  flag football.

Actually, we may live to see the day  when youth tackle football becomes like cockfighting,  its games played covertly, late at night in out-of-the-way locations, with local law enforcement paid off if necessary.


***********  I think the Manning guys  seem to be good folks, and they come from good parents, and they were very good  football players, but jeez - they’re still young with plenty of years in front of them and I’m already getting tired of seeing them. Am I the only one?



***********  One nice thing about the two alleged “all-star” games over the weekend - the East-West Shrine Game and the Senior Bowl - was that there was no swapping of helmet decals.  It used to make me wonder what schools thought about having players “represent” them - and then stick two or three other schools’ decals on their helmets.

Which also makes me wonder about liability.  When schools allow players to wear their helmets in All-Star games  - over which they have no control - what exposure do they have?



*********** Are you old enough to remember when alumni - former players at a school - would come back to play in the school’s spring game?  Some of them were actually NFL players at the time.  But those were the days when players still played football for reasons other than money.  It was a great time to get together with their old pals, play a little football again the kids, and toss down some cold ones afterward, accompanied by a liberal amount of BS-ing.
(Good thing the NFL guys weren’t playing for the money, because they weren’t making that much anyhow.)

But now?  The pursuit of the buck has become so dominant that not only are college players almost expected to “opt out” of bowl games, it’s just a matter of time before the important ones - the ones who know that they’re needed - decide to opt out of spring games.

We saw it this weekend in the Senior Bowl.  Once, it was billed as the seniors’ “first game as a pro.”  The winners would make a little money, the losers a little less.  But the main thing was, it was a  chance to be seen on the field by pro scouts.  And to play some more of the game they loved.

This year?  Michael Penix (“JUNIOR”), Washington’s big star, was what the racing crowd calls a “late scratch.”  He practiced all week and was set to start - until he announced just before game time that he wasn’t playing.Classy, Michael.

He’d  used the entire week as a glorified combine, getting coached, being observed under near-game conditions - and then he bailed.

Not that he was the only player pulling that stunt:



    •    QB Michael Penix Jr.
    •    WR Roman Wilson
    •    WR Jacob Cowing
    •    DB Quinton Mitchell
    •    DB Khyree Jackson
    •    WR Ricky Pearsall
    •    LB Payton Wilson
    •    WR Brenden Rice
    •    DL Laiatu Latu
    •    DL Braiden McGregor
    •    RB Rasheen Ali
    •    DB Johnny Dixon
    •    DB Sione Vaki
    •    OL Trevor Keegan
    •    DL Michael Hall
    •    OL Jackson Powers-Johnson
    •    OL Zach Frazier
    •    DL Brennan Jackson
    •    DL Tyler Davis
    •    RB Marshawn Lloyd
    •    DB Max Melton
    •    OL Ladarius Henderson
    •    OL Taliese Fuaga
    •    WR Malachi Corley
    •    DL Brandon Dorlus


I don’t know most of the names, but I did see and hear one Payton Wilson, a linebacker from North Carolina State, being interviewed during the week after a practice, telling the interviewers about what a great opportunity this was to “showcase my talents.”  He must have meant the practices, because he blew off the game.  Big surprise.  He also opted out of NC State’s bowl game.

It’s dirty dealing by those players, and a real slap in the face to the promoters of the game and the fans who bought  tickets - not to mention  the charity that the game’s proceeds go to.

Money is killing the game at the pro and college level. Is high school next?



***********   I can understand celebrating a touchdown.  I can even understand kids going a bit overboard in the celebration - until it’s obvious that it was orchestrated.

And then there’s  the player who intercepts or recovers a fumble  and then,  not content with getting a gold turnover chain when he reaches the sideline, he has to assemble a posse to ride with him to the end zone to  celebrate. If I were king, his team would be docked a timeout.

If coaches don’t have the balls to deal with it, put it on me.



***********   Dartmouth College, the  small but prestigious Ivy League school in Hanover, New Hampshire, has announced that it is bringing back the SAT for the Class of 2029 (next year’s high school seniors).

The decision goes against a trend by many well-known colleges in their attempts to get around  the Supreme Court’s ruling against affirmative action.

A Dartmouth  faculty research group determined  that “standardized test scores are an important predictor of a student’s success in Dartmouth’s curriculum” no matter what  the applicant’s background or family income might be.

A Dartmouth administrator noted that contrary to the belief that standardized test scores discriminate against minority applicants, they’re actually a way for Dartmouth’s admissions people  to identify such students,  especially those “at a high school where admissions has … less information about the high school and therefore less information about the transcript.”

In other words, without the SAT, they wouldn’t otherwise know about kids stuck in schools that don’t have much of a record for turning out  college prospects.



***********   As the coaching carousel went around, my wife asked a very good question: why would a coach leave a place like, say, Seattle, to take another job someplace not so nice?  Doesn’t quality of life enter in somewhere?

I had to laugh.  Not disrespectfully, you understand.  But she was talking about guys who  are used to working 12 hours a day, seven days a week.  For long stretches, the only time they’re “out” is when they’re going to and from their cars.  Otherwise, they could be anywhere in the United States.  In the world, for that matter.

But my wife’s question made sense.  She was thinking like a  wife, not like a coach.  The coaches don’t care where they live.  Their wives do.  They probably bought the house and handled all the details of the move.  But I’m willing to bet that without having to take a few moments to think it over, most college coaches  couldn’t even tell you where they live.



*********** I remember when it was announced that  Oklahoma and Texas were off to the SEC, and my friend Mike Lude, who as a college AD - Kent State, Washington, Auburn - had plenty of experience with the inner workings of college athletics, wondered how  such a blockbuster of a move, which had to take months to work out, could possibly have been done in secret.

And then later, once the Pac-12 began  coming apart, the speed with which Washington and Oregon were  adopted by the Big 10 (which had publicly announced that it had no intention of any further expansion)  showed that plenty of work had already been done behind the scenes - also, obviously, in secret.

You had to wonder - how were they able to prevent leaks, when our government can’t do it?

At a time when the ability to slip inside information to the news media is a means of gaining status - and sometimes material things - it was shocking  that such information could be kept a secret.

So now, when the SEC and the Big 10 (or whatever) do something totally open - when their commissioners meet  and they actually announce it - and then they say that they’ve decided to form an “advisory committee” - you have to wonder WTF they HAVEN’T told us?



***********   LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – Nebraska is facing a shortage of sports officials, and experts say the turnover rate has gotten higher.

The Nebraska Schools Activities Association found that about 80% of sports officials quit within their first three years due to poor sportsmanship, according to a 2022 survey.

Nate Neuhaus, the NSAA’s supervisor of officials, said the scarcity of referees means they don’t have the luxury of getting much practice before being thrust into varsity games.

“Harsh reality is they’re not very good yet; they’re learning,” he said. “And they get run off because of a negative experience or something of that nature. Or they get put in a game that was overwhelming to them.”

Ray Manske, an officiate for baseball and basketball games, said he’s been doing the job since he was 15 years old.

He said he enjoys training younger officials, but it’s not for the faint of heart.

“They’re just not battle-tested enough, and you have to develop some very tough skin,” he said. “Learn what to address, what not to, what to ignore.”

Manske said the last thing he wants to do is eject spectators, coaches or players from the game, but the environment around sporting events can get emotional.

He said judging close plays puts a lot of pressure on an official to make the right call.

“Out of the 100% of people that are there, you’re going to make 50% of them happy,” he said.

Neuhaus said the NSAA is trying to incentivize and retain officials, but the lack of help has started to have an effect.

“If you don’t have enough officials, you lose contests,” he said. “You don’t play the games. Or like in football, instead of playing on Friday night, you play on Thursday night. That’s not ideal. If we had more officials, we could play all our games on Friday nights.”

Neuhaus said it takes everyone working together to make the game enjoyable.

Manske added that adults should be a positive role model for the kids by showing respect no matter the outcome of the game.

“To me, the ultimate compliment is when you get a compliment from the losing team,” he said.

https://www.klkntv.com/a-majority-of-nebraska-sports-officials-quit-due-to-poor-sportsmanship-survey-finds/

If it's true that players aren't as tough as they once were, why wouldn't this apply to officials, too?



***********   You’ll recall another well-known athlete from Georgia who also founded a home for youth in his native state. Big Paul Anderson from Toccoa. Interestingly, Anderson died where Mel Blount grew up, in Vidalia.

Re Hafley leaving BC: Implicit in the 'No Transfer Portal' is, as you said in another place, keeping your players. With the lightning-velocity changes in CFB, the big group who aren't in the P-3 (ACC could be out of that club soon) will be the farm teams for the Major Leaguers. Now the question is, how much peril is Clawson in from that standpoint? We already saw it with his QB. And who, right now, is more impervious to snipiing, BC or WF? Probably Wake, but only by an eyelash. If his players get ripped off in big lots, how long will even Dave Clawson stay there? What I most dislike about all this is that excellent coaching becomes less of a factor. It is indeed becoming which school's collective has the most money to buy the best players.

Re T. Swift: During the past week some pup on the DNCC--already making plans to use her or them--says he thinks a late-campaign Swift endorsement, coupled with a trashing of DJT, can result in a 15% shift Biden's way. Some said 5% months ago, but who the heck knows, 15% might be more accurate.

Jimmy Johnson sounded awfully wise.

John Vermillion
St. Petersburg, Florida

I actually saw Paul Anderson (The World’s Strongest Man)  lift when I was in HS.  I was mildly interested in weight training and a schoolmate who was really into it talked me into going downtown (two busses, a subway and a trolley)  to Convention Hall to see a  show that turned out to be mostly  body building and one small part lifting.  The lifting part was totally Paul Anderson.  He was definitely not a body builder (he was a bit paunchy)  but I remember seeing him press (the military press was a big lift then) some outrageous weight, and the place went  wild.  And yes, the Toccoa part stayed with me all these years.



***********   Hugh,

Have you caught any of the Senior Bowl practices?  Pathetic.

As a youngster growing up in CA in the late 60’s/early 70’s I had the privilege of attending a couple of East/West Shrine football games.  Saw some of the greatest college football players of that time play in front of a packed house in Stanford’s old stadium.  Watched about 10 minutes of this latest edition in Frisco.  So sad to see such a historic event for such a great charity be reduced to what it is now.

I will watch the Super Bowl.  Pulling for the 49ers and Brock Purdy.  Will skip all the pre-game hype, and the woke NFL version of halftime.

Jeff Hafley must have had an epiphany when he weighed the pros and cons of either coaching college football or pro football.  Can’t say I blame him, BUT…dealing with high paid entitled pros is a whole other battle.

Apparently there are a number of college football coaches down here in Texas who have left for high school jobs here or in Oklahoma.  Young guys to boot!  Maybe you could consider them for membership in the Old Farts Club!


Enjoy the weekend!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas






 
*********** QUIZ ANSWER:  Mel Blount may be the best  cornerback ever to play the position. (Sorry, Deion.) He was big and fast and so tough and aggressive in playing  against receivers that the NFL changed its coverage rules to prevent defensive backs from playing bump-and-run coverage down the  field. Said Pittsburgh Steelers’ president Dan Rooney in introducing him at his Hall of Fame induction, “Scouts say they don't even look for corners like him anymore because you don't get corners with his size or his speed or who can jump like him.”

As he put it in his Hall of Fame induction speech, he came from  “the cotton fields and tobacco fields of Vidalia, Georgia.”

He played high school football in Lyons, Georgia, and played his college  football at Southern University in Baton Rouge. In his senior year at Southern he was named to the Pittsburgh Courier Black College All-American Team. (The Pittsburgh Courier began naming its All-American team since 1927, and this one, the 1969 team, included, along with our guy, future pros Ken Burrough,  Doug Wilkerson,  Hubert Ginn,  Joe “Turkey” Jones and  Bivian Lee.)

On the recommendation of Bill Nunn, Jr., a sportswriter for the Pittsburgh Courier who had become a part-time scout for the Steelers, he was taken by Pittsburgh in the third round of the 1970 draft.   That also happened to be the draft in which the Steelers took Terry Bradshaw as their Number One pick.

Very big for a  corner at 6-3, 210, he was also quite fast, and he played a very physical style of coverage unlike anything the NFL had seen before.

In fact, after several years of dealing with his play, the NFL passed a rule (nicknamed for him) which restricted the amount of defender-to-receiver contact permitted downfield.  It didn’t greatly hamper his play, and it had the unintended consequence of  helping the Steelers’ passing game.

In his 14-year career with the Steelers,  he earned four Super Bowl  rings.

He was a four-time  All-Pro and he played in five Pro Bowls.

In 1975 he was the AP’s NFL Defensive Player of the Year.

He had 57  career interceptions, returned for 736 yards and two touchdowns.  In 1975 he led he NFL with 11 interceptions.
.
In his entire 219-game career, he missed only two games.

After retiring as a player,  he served eight years as Director of Player Relations for the NFL, and in his native Georgia, he founded a Christian mission dedicated to serving victims of child abuse.

Mel Blount  is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, inducted in  the same class as teammate Terry Bradshaw.

He is also a member of the  Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame, the  Georgia Sports Hall of Fame  and the  Black College Football Hall of Fame.  In  2011, he was named to the NFL's 75th anniversary All-Time team.

In his acceptance speech at the Pro Football Hall of Fame, he acknowledged the role his parents played, saying, “If the odds were against anybody, they were against me. Being the youngest of 11 kids, brought up on a farm in Georgia, a family who lived and prayed and hoped that they would feed 11 kids off the land and out of 11 kids, seven of us were able to go to college because we had the kind of parents that America is thirsty for today, parents who are committed, parents who will instill in their kids that they strive to be the best.”



CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING MEL BLOUNT

GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
TOM DAVIS - SAN MARCOS, CALIFORNIA
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOHN ROTHWELL - CORPUS CHRISTI, TEXAS
JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY



 

*********** QUIZ: He was a holdover from the sorry Green Bay Packers team that Vince Lombardi inherited, but he met  Lombardi’s  high standards, and he wound up playing  for him  for seven years, and playing on three Packers NFL  championship teams.

He grew up in Weatherford, Texas, and played his college ball at Baylor.    As a two-way player for the Bears, he was an end on offense and a safety on defense, and  was an All-Southwest Conference selection in both his junior and senior years.  As a senior, he was a  co-captain of the team.

He was drafted in the seventh round - the 80th player taken - by the Green Bay Packers, as an offensive end, but he earned the job as the Packers' starting left cornerback as a rookie,  and held the spot  until his third season, when he broke his leg and missed the final two games. The next year, Lombardi's first season,  he had to win his job back, but he did, and  played there until 1962, when Herb Adderley moved in at corner, and he moved to safety.

There, his good size (6 foot, 205) served him well, as he played on the left side and usually found himself up against a new breed of player - the tight end.  That meant  covering athletes like Mike Ditka of the Bears and John Mackey of the Baltimore Colts, but it also meant coming up to meet pulling linemen as the force man on power sweeps

"In coach Lombardi's defense,” said former teammate Gary Knafelc, “You had to come up hard on the outside to make tackles, so you had to be versatile to play for coach Lombardi and (he)  was as good as any of them. He could run. He was a very aggressive guy. All his teammates liked him. He was very much a team player." In 1964 he was named the captain of the Packers’ defense.

He played in 121 games in his 10 seasons with the Packers, and on three NFL championship teams. He intercepted 28 passes and recovered seven fumbles.  Following the 1965 season, after losing his starting position to Tom Brown, he asked to be traded,  and Lombardi traded him to Dallas for a future draft choice.

After a salary despite with Dallas, he left camp and was traded to Atlanta, an expansion team whose head coach, Norb Hecker, had been his defense backfield coach in Green Bay. He retired before the start of the season, but later came out of retirement to play eight games with the Los Angeles Rams before retiring for good.

After football he became a building contractor in his native Weatherford and became active in the Republican Party and at the time of his death he was a county commissioner.

He is in both the Baylor Football Hall of Fame and the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame.

On his headstone is  a quote from Vince Lombardi: "The greatest accomplishment is not in never failing, but in rising again after you fail.”




FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2024   “If a younger generation emerges in America that supports the headchoppers, it is a problem for civilization.” Benjamin Netanyahu


*********** Watched a half-hour or so of the so-called “Pro Bowl Games.”   Whew.   What a f**king joke.

There was a hole-in-one contest  between a bunch of “NFL Stars,” few of whom I’d even heard of.  You’d think that an organization that tries to sell excellence in athletic performance would have been able to find a dozen or so guys out of the 2000 players on its rosters who golf seriously.  Naaah.

Then there was the “snap shot” - centers and long-snappers competing to see who could score the most points by snapping balls at various-sized holes in a big billboard, with scores based on the size of the hole.  They were given a certain amount of time, and away they went. 

They were awful. I’m going to say they each snapped 25 or more  times, and only one of them snapped it though the smallest (and most valuable) hole.

In fairness to the players, the target board was 10 yards away, farther than centers are accustomed to snapping, but 3-5 yards closer than the long snappers snap.

But still, they were awful. Note to NFL - next time your marketing geniuses come up with a stunt like “snap shot” - have them be like  the football teams that make your money:  try it out first before you go live with it in a game.



***********   Only in New Orleans.  My  daughter, who’s in New Orleans busily helping get a float ready for some Mardi Gras parade or another, sent these photos


 
On the left, candles celebrating the canonization of Saints Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce; And on the right, , a signboard outside the store, expressing the the owners’  displeasure  with the city's other Saints - specifically the coaching  …


***********  It was in 1925, in San Francisco, that  a retired Navy Captain named Jack Spaulding came up with  the idea of  the nation’s first real All Star football game, one that came to be known as the East-West Shrine game. 

According to the official history of the game, “Football’s Finest Hour,” by Maxwell Stiles…

In 1925, remember, American football had been resumed for only a few years in California, although those years had produced the California Wonder Teams and Stanford’s great team that was led by Ernie Nevers. At that time there were little or no intersectional rivalries between California and Stanford and colleges from other sectors. The great players of the East, Midwest, South and Southwest were merely names and legends to Californians.

Spaulding's second proposal was that Islam Shrine sponsor a game between squads of collegians representing the East and West. He was in fact asking that Walter Camp's All America stars be transported from the pages of a magazine and set down for competition on a San Francisco gridiron.

Noble Sam Goodman immediately proposed that all profits from the game be given to the San Francisco Unit of the Shriners Hospitals for Crippled Children. Thus the purpose of the game in which "Strong Legs Run that Weak Legs May Walk” was established.

And thus started the East-West Shrine Game. First played in December, 1925, it came to be called “Football’s Finest Hour.”

It’s  fair to say that the game has declined - on Thursday, as I write, they’re getting ready to play the East-West Shrine Game.  Not in San Francisco, though.  The game hasn’t been played in the Bay Area since 2005. In the years since, it’s been an itinerant. This year’s game will be played at a place called Ford Center at the Star, in Frisco, Texas.  It’s  where the Cowboys train, and it seats 12,000.

Find me one All-American on either team’s roster. (What  star would want to risk injury with the NFL combine just around the corner?)

Find me one head coach on either staff.  (The coaching  staffs, by the way, are massive -  16 each - so large that each  staff even had to include a female assistant, because as we all know there is a dire shortage of qualified male assistant coaches.)

All-star games, as we know, are so last-century.



*********** Jimmy Johnson on Analytics

"In some ways, coaches use analytics as a crutch," Jimmy Johnson told USA TODAY Sports. "There's more that goes into it than analytics give you.”

"I love the job that Dan Campbell did this year," he went on. "But if you kick the field goal on that second fourth-down try, now San Francisco's mentality is going to be different if it's a tied game, rather than being ahead. There's a lot of factors going in.”

Yes, Campbell had success during the season going for it on fourth down.  That’s what we keep hearing.  But how successful was he?  How successful would you call 21 of 40?  Did the analytics tell Campbell that that works out to 52.5 per cent? 

Did they tell him what the  downside was?  Did they tell him about all the guys who’ve played in The League and never made it to a Super Bowl, before he went and bet the house on something with a 52.5 per cent chance of success?

Analytics is not foolproof, Johnson pointed out.    "It doesn't tell you the strength of your offense, the strength of the opponent.   It doesn't give you the weather. It doesn't give you a lot of factors. It doesn't give you momentum. It doesn't give you the risk and the reward. And that's what I always said. Yeah, it's a 70% positive to go for it on fourth down. But the risk is that you lose the game if you don't make it.”

Johnson also said analytics don't figure in the ups and downs  - “the potential psychological lift and psychological letdown” -  that result from decisions.

"You're going for it on fourth down,” he says,  “and if you don't make it, that opponent now has a tremendous psychological lift.   And the percentage of a team scoring after a turnover (on downs) is higher than getting the ball at the same spot through a kick, because of the psychological lift."

Johnson also took exception to the  way the 49ers  ended the game with Detroit.  Apparently unaware of the way Kalen DeBoer almost pissed away Washington’s win over Texas by running plays rather than just taking a knee, the 49ers ran two plays, then finally took a knee to end the game.

"I see so many screw-ups on time management," Johnson said. "Rather than run it when you're trying to kill the clock, then running it again and then taking a knee, you're better off to take a knee, let them get a timeout, take another knee, let them run out of timeouts, then run it.  Because if they fumble on the third run, they're out of time.   I see this time after time.  I don't understand it. So many times, coaches get caught up in the emotions and they really aren't thinking straight.”

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/columnist/bell/2024/02/01/nfl-coaches-overuse-analytics-risky-dan-campbell-jimmy-johnson/72432740007/



*********** It’s unavoidable.  It’s as certain as old age.  If you’ve been a fan of a sport from the time you were young, there will come a time when you begin to notice  changes in the game; changes that you don’t like.  Changes that make you miss the game you grew up loving.  And you join the Legion Of Old Farts that you remember from when you were a kid - old codgers who turned every conversation about the game into harangues about how much better the game was “back in my day.”

Now, on behalf of my fellow members of the Legion of Old Farts, it’s with mixed emotions  that I induct a very special group into the Society’s Class of 2024:  every young American male college football fan between the ages of 18 and 29.

While it’s a first for us to induct members so young, things are changing so rapidly and radically - what with the effects on college football of realignment and the NIL and the Transfer Portal - that many of them have already  begun to exhibit signs of early-onset old-fartism.  The  first signs are usually complaints about the way the game has changed.  Younger men with little experience yet with college football are usually the first to notice, as these inductees begin to bore them with stories about how much better college football was back before 2020.


***********   Jeff Hafley, who until today was the head coach of Boston College, is  walking away from the head coaching job that presumably he once craved, and taking the job of defensive coordinator for the Packers.

He’d been making $3 million a year at BC.  I doubt that Green Bay will pay a DC that much, so you have to figure  there’s  something other than money luring him away:

1. No more NIL

2. Nor more Transfer Portal

3. No more recruiting, period

4. No more coaching under the pressure of having to win this year

5. A year or two at Green Bay puts him in a better position for the next job than a year or two more at BC


All I'm reading about in the Internet is how this affects the Packers.

But hey - what about BC?

Is there a coach on-staff, ready and able to take over?

If  they have to go outside for  the new head coach, could this start another coaching carousel?

Yes,  the portal’s now open to BC players for the next 30 days, but it’s possible at this point that there may not be too many landing spots for transferees on other rosters.

There will be a spot somewhere, though,  for their QB, Thomas Castellanos, if he wants to bolt.  He is really good.



***********   If the late NFL Commissioner Bert Bell were to  come back to life, the NFL people would have to explain to him what the Super Bowl is.  He died in 1959, and he’d be delighted to see how successful his beloved NFL had become.  But out of concern  for the fact that he would be 128 years old and probably not in the best of health, they’d have to be very careful how they break the news to him that the game’s being played in Las Vegas.

Having had a little experience with gambling himself, and knowing that at least two other founding fathers of the NFL - Art Rooney of the Steelers and Tim Mara of the Giants  - were well-known gamblers, he was aware of the large number of sharpies even then who were eager for a chance to fix football games.  He even hired retired FBI agents to spy (there’s no other way too put it) on NFL players suspected of getting too close to known gamblers.

Bell’s successor, Pete Rozelle, was every bit as careful to keep a wall between the NFL and gamblers, to the point where he once suspended two stars of the game - Paul Hornung and Alex Karras - for an entire season for betting on NFL games.

Yet here the NFL is, in bed with legalized betting operations, with a franchise in Las Vegas, and getting ready to play its biggest game in Sin City.

There hasn’t been much talk about the subject, certainly not by NFL people, but they are at the absolute pinnacle of success, and they know that if there’s anything  that can bring it all to an end, it’s anything that can make the public suspect that its games are not on the up-and-up.



*********** On the subject of NFL conspiracies…


First of all, full disclosure:  While an inveterate  skeptic, I admit to being taken in by the appearance that Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift are in some semblance of love  and not faking it.

But here’s the way the rumor works:

The Chiefs win the Super Bowl.

Kelce is the MVP.

When they ask him where he’s going, he says, “I’m going to Walt Disney World,”  and, going to a knee and looking up at Taylor Swift (who has been escorted down to the field from her luxury box), he takes her hands in his and says “with my bride - if she'll have me!”

She falls into his arms, leaving  no question what her answer is.

And then, both turning to the camera, they say, “AND THEN WE’RE GONNA VOTE FOR BIDEN!  HOW ‘BOUT YOU?”

Now, look - I already said that I’ve bought in to the whole “Taylor’s in love” deal, so I’m not the one suggesting that this is going to happen.  But  it is America, and it’s 2024, and anything’s possible.   We all know that the NFL is a devilish bunch that’s not above  such a scheme, and since we all know where they stand politically…



***********  Hi coach,

Have you ever used any form of scripting plays?

Thanks,
John Bothe
Oregon, Illinois

Hi Coach,

The short answer is no.

To me, running a play from a script that’s basically intended as exploratory  is at odds with my focus on controlling the ball. To me, it’s like wasting plays.

I understand the reasoning behind scripting, and maybe if our games were  60 minutes long it would make some sense to me.  But when the intent  is to control the ball, to me that  means getting the first  score.  And that means receiving, if possible, and taking the opening kickoff and going right into our first offensive drive, without any thought other than getting first downs.

I’m not inclined to run a play - or  a formation - just to see how an opponent defends it.   If a play’s successful, I’m as likely as not to repeat it. 

I once answered your question at a clinic by asking another question: “What if I’m running off of a script and I run Play Number One and  it gains nine yards?  Do I have to run Play Number Two?”

A  guy called out, “Run One-A!”



*********** At a recent Zoom clinic, I spent some time showing Wake Forest coach Dave Clawson  talking to the press after signing day.

I have a lot of respect for Coach Clawson and the job  he does at the smallest Power 5 school (bet you didn’t know that), a private school with strong academics.

He is a rarity - a graduate of highly selective, academically rigorous Williams College  who chose to enter the hurly-burly  world of college football coaching. 

He’s paid his dues. He’s been an assistant at Albany, Buffalo, Lehigh and Villanova.

He’s been a head coach at Fordham, Richmond, Bowling Green and, now, at Wake. He has had at least one 10-win season at all of those places, making him the only coach ever to have won 10 or more games at four different D-I schools.

And I like the way he thinks and talks.


Coming off a down season…

When you’re a 4-8 team - we’re all four and eight. Right now, I’m a four and eight head football coach, and our two coordinators are four and eight coordinators, and our players are four and eight players, and so we all have to own that, and we have to make everything competitive…

We had a great run of seven straight bowl games, but it’s over, and when you have a year like that it makes you look back and evaluate what you’re doing, and sometimes that’s a very healthy exercise that allows you to get better and improve.


The NIL at  Wake Forest

The priority with the collective is keeping our own players.

We’re going to have more success recruiting high school players and developing them and keeping them than getting into an open bidding war in the Portal…

We’re better off with guys that know our program and like our program and want to stay here.


***********  Do you really think that the people who made that weight-loss ad - and now run it on TV -  had no idea how a lot of us would react to the woman who acts  amazed, after taking an injection,  at “How a little tiny prick can be so powerful?”

Or maybe she had just come from seeing “Napoleon.”


***********  I’ve heard about fighting for one’s country, or  for freedom, or for one’s hometown, but here’s one I never considered.   A young woman named Karine Jean-Pierre, who speaks for the President on occasion and sometimes has a strange way of saying things, came out after the deaths of the three American soldiers in Jordan and expressed condolences to "three folks who are military folks who are brave who are always fighting, who were fighting on behalf of this administration…”

“military folks?”  What’s the matter, Karine? Can’t bring yourself to say “soldiers?”

“fighting on behalf of this administration?”   Only in a civil war would “military folks” fight for (or against)  an administration.


*********** From “The Thursday Speeches,” by Peter Tormey.

The great Don James believed that the intense focus for a game began 48 hours before, and a major part of his preparation was the “Thursday Speech” that he gave his teams.  Author Tormey, a former Washington Huskies player, assembled the best of Coach James’ many Thursday speeches.

One of the things I found in the book was his description of what can only be called football plagiarism.  We all  know that coaching is an open book, and as fast as someone can come up with something new and useful, a dozen other coaches will “appropriate” it and incorporate it into their  systems.  But as common as the practice of  “theft” is, so also is the practice of giving credit where it’s  due, and it’s a serious breach of ethics not to  steal an idea but to do so and claim it as one’s own.

James developed another key innovation, the 5 under, 2 deep defensive coverage. In it, two players covered the deep half zones of the field while five other players covered the underneath zones, aggressively hitting the receivers as rules allowed.

Toward the end of his tenure at FSU, James asked LSU defensive coordinator Bill Beals if he had any ideas about defending Baylor, which spread the field well and threw the ball. James took the basic idea from Beals, refined it, and deployed it to help beat Baylor.

As the defensive coordinator at Michigan, James kept his little-known defensive scheme close to the vest until he needed it most: to stop passing phenomenon and future NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Bob Griese of Purdue, who was racking up massive passing yardage against his befuddled opponents.

“We held him to 63 yards and shut him down," James said. His secret was out.

That year, Purdue won the (Big Ten) championship and went to the Rose Bowl and John McKay called (Michigan head coach) Bump Elliott and said, "I see this coverage. I've never seen it before.” My office was right outside and he says, “Well,  I’ll  get Don in here.” So I spent 30 -40 minutes giving it to John McKay to use in the Rose Bowl, 5-under, 2-deep.

And in John McKay’s book he says, “Yeah, we were preparing for Purdue in the Rose Bowl and as I was walking through campus it was like a bolt of lightning had struck me and hit me in the head and I thought of the 5-under coverage with 2-deep.” He took the credit for it. I got the original idea from LSU. But that was funny.

***********   Berry’s comments about his dad by themselves make today's page worth reading.

Zay Flowers got the spotlight on himself with his taunt, but holy moly, I think even the most casual viewer saw instantly the strategic (in the context of the game) blunder he'd committed. What happened to players, especially all not a lineman, running scenarios through his mind before the play? And that would include keeping emotions in check. It's hard to imagine a well-paid player could be so tuned out to the game situation.

Dan Campbell: Detroit fans wanted more, Dan Campbell wanted more. Victory was there to take. But the Lions lost. I'm going with what Berry's dad, and Ray himself, said about learning from losing. Everything Campbell said postgame leads me to believe he learned major lessons the hard way, and won't be inclined to repeat them.

John Vermillion                    
St Petersburg, Florida

Answer = Raymond Berry. 'Raymond' because memory says he was so called at least half the time and probably more.

Spot-on.  I followed the Colts from our arrival in Baltimore in 1961 and I was following them when he retired after 1967 and I never heard ANYONE in Baltimore - including his teammates - ever call him anything but RAYMOND.  (Just as no one ever said “Johnny” Unitas - that was his name outside Bawlmer.)  It seemed strange at first, in a time and a town where everybody had a nickname - but not those two.

As for Campbell - It’s my belief that by the time a man is hired to coach an NFL team he should already have learned those lessons.  I’m reminded of General Braddock’s last words (supposedly) after his disastrous defeat in the French and Indian War: “Next time we shall better know how to deal with them.”  Too late, General Braddock. Will there be a “next time” for Campbell?  Who knows? I don’t think he realized how rare it is to have an  opportunity even to play in a Super Bowl.


***********  Hugh,

In the shoulda woulda coulda department the Ravens shoulda beat KC.  The Lions woulda beat SF.  Taylor Swift coulda found a soccer player.  But…if wishes were fishes we’d all have a fry.

Think I’m gonna stop buying Gronk shoes.

Yep, those PIAA optics sure aren’t good!

I’m all in on ND playing Army again. Especially if Army continues running their old offense.  Would be a great test for the Irish.  And play the game in NY!

Wishing Coach Mensing the very best at his new gig in Florida!  Big adjustment, but if anyone can adapt it’s Jason.

Have a great week!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury Texas

I’ve heard that an Army-ND game would likely take place in San Antonio. Please - no more football games in Yankee Stadium!








********** QUIZ ANSWER: Imagine any of today’s sportswriters calling any of today’s professional football players “the finest man to have walked the earth since Jesus Christ.”  That’s what a Baltimore sportswriter once said about Raymond Berry.

Although it’s been nearly 60 years since he last caught a pass in the NFL, Raymond Berry remains one of the greatest receivers in the history of the game.

He was born in Corpus Christi, Texas, where his dad was the high school football coach, but after his dad was fired, the family moved to Paris, Texas, where he grew up - and where his dad coached for 25 years until he retired.

Tall and very skinny and not particularly fast, he didn’t start until his senior year. Playing both ways - offensive and defensive end - in his dad’s single wing attack, he was named All-District, and Paris won their  district championship for the first time in school history.

“Believe it or not,” he said years later, “I rank the thrill of winning that game as highly as winning my first championship in the NFL.”

He spent one year at a junior college, then transferred to SMU on the promise of a chance to earn a scholarship. SMU was coached by Rusty Russell, who unlike most coaches of the time believed in a pass-first offense.

Because he transferred after just one season of JC ball he was ineligible at SMU, but after a season in the scout team, he earned a scholarship and a starting position. But after his sophomore season, Rusty Russell was fired. The  new coach, Woody Woodard, scarcely threw the ball at all, and as a result, our guy caught just 33 passes in his entire college career.

In his autobiography, he reflected on the positive side: "I was a good blocker in the NFL because I learned that skill in college well in that T-formation. I had to block defensive ends and linebackers who were head up on me or inside of me." 

And because of the rules at the time, he also played on defense in college.   As he recalled, “If you weren't a good defensive player, you didn't get to play much. They picked players based on defensive ability. They couldn't have a hotshot offensive guy who gave up more points than he scored. The coaches learned that having some great offensive talent on the field who couldn't play defense meant getting your butt beat. That was the nature of the game.”

He was drafted by the Baltimore Colts in the 20th round as a “future” (he still had a year of eligibility left, but because of his year at JC his original class was graduating so he was eligible for the draft).

Although he had just average speed, he developed, by his own count, 88 different moves to get open, and he ran patterns as precisely as they were diagramed.  Together he and Johnny Unitas gave the Baltimore Colts one of the greatest passing-and-catching teams of all time.

In the Colts’ 1958 overtime win over the Giants in the NFL title game he caught a record 12 catches for 178 yards and a touchdown.

He was selected to play in six Pro Bowl games.

He led the NFL in receptions three straight years, and at his retirement after 13 years he held records for 631 passes caught, 9,275 yards receiving, and 68 touchdowns.

He fumbled just once in his 13 years.

After retirement, he coached receivers for the Cowboys under Tom Landry, the University of Arkansas under Frank Broyles, the Detroit Lions under Don McCafferty, the Cleveland Browns under Forrest Gregg, and the New England Patriots under Chuck Fairbanks and Ron Ehrhardt.  Then, when Ron Meyer was fired as head coach of the Pats, he took over.

How’d he do?  I’d say pretty good. Taking over midway through a season (which he finished 4-4) he had an overall record of 48-39.

In his second season he  took the Patriots to their first-ever Super Bowl, where they lost to the Bears.   Except for a guy named Belichick, he got his team to more playoff games - and had more playoff wins - than any other Patriots’ coach (which includes Bill Parcells and Pete Carroll).

And he’s the only coach - other than Belichick - to take the Patriots to four straight winning seasons.

He is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He was named to the NFL’s 1950s All-Decade Team, its 75th Anniversary All-Time Team, and - 25 years later - to its 100th Anniversary All-Time Team.

Former teammate Alex Hawkins, who played the same position, told of his intensity:

*** Raymond wasn't much to look at, but what he didn't know about catching passes wasn't worth talking about. He was the most detailed, precise person I had ever known. He was a perfectionist. With Raymond Berry, football was a full-time profession. He spent 11 months a year at it. During the month of January he put football aside, answered his mail, and rested. The rest of the year was all football.

I listened to everything Raymond Berry had to say. He was meticulous and organized. He washed his own practice pants, and on the road he carried his own scales with him to monitor his weight. He had a drill for every conceivable type of pass. He was busy during every minute of the practice sessions. He would practice catching low balls, high balls, balls thrown behind him, and deflected balls. To any other receiver in football a dropped pass was one that he could not get both hands on. To (———) a dropped ball was one that could be touched with one hand only. Anytime that Raymond dropped the ball in practice, he would catch that same ball for 20 times without a miss before he left the field.

In a preseason game Raymond had gotten one hand on a deflected pass that was thrown behind him. He was running one way and dove headlong backwards, but couldn't hold onto it. It was an impossible pass to catch, but I laughingly told Jimmy Orr that I was willing to bet that Raymond would have us practicing that catch on Monday.

That Monday when we reached the practice field Raymond had already dug a pit, and at his own expense had ordered a truckload of sawdust. All week we practiced diving catches of deflected passes, with the sawdust coming out of our ears. I never managed to catch one, but as I recall, Raymond hung on to two or three.

He was one of the first players to study game films on his own:

*** I even studied other receivers – tried to learn what they were doing to get open, how they caught the football, the moves they had, and what they did in general to be successful. If I saw them do something that really bothered a defensive back, then I got that in my head to try to duplicate it.”


On being a coach’s son:

*** My father was a very successful football coach in Texas. He was coaching in Corpus Christi when I was born, five years before we moved to Paris, Texas. As is the case with all football coaches, the move was not voluntary, but you get fired every four, five years, so you move. He defied the odds – he coached in Paris for 25 years, then retired from coaching. In all he coached 35 years and only got fired once.  He also taught math and physical education.  After my dad retired, a building at the Paris High School was named after him.


*** The significance of the Texas playoff system in my day was that at the end of the football season there would be only a few undefeated teams in the entire state. My dad said that meant you learned most of your football from getting beat. That stuck with me. He stressed that the lessons you really soak in are the ones that come from defeat. I applied all of the lessons that I absorbed from my dad throughout my career.


***   The most important lesson I absorbed from my dad was his unshakable conviction that he never met an opponent he couldn't beat.

I’ve never understood exactly where this came from; I puzzled over it for years. But one of the biggest parts of my dad's makeup – which obviously I absorbed without realizing it – was that he never felt inferior to anybody. He could've sat down with Franklin Roosevelt or Winston Churchill – the great men of his day – and been perfectly at ease. He could have had a conversation with them and he wouldn't think they were any better than he was – or any smarter. That was the way he was, and he wasn't even aware of it, wasn't even conscious of it..

As I got older, I began to realize that he didn't even understand that part of his makeup. But when that lesson was communicated to a football team, it was the most powerful thing he brought to the job. When you played for my dad – and I didn't realize this until I played for other coaches who didn't feel like this - you never thought you were going to lose a game. That confidence absolutely became a part of my makeup. There was always a way to get it done, one way or another. My dad didn't always get it done, but he knew there was a way to do it.

That way of thinking was the greatest asset I had later as a head coach, one of the greatest things I inherited from my father. I spread that message to my players because I believed it, and you can't fool the boys – they know what you believe and what you don't.

My dad was the greatest influence in my life, and as I grew into maturity and went through life, I realized that having him for my father was one of the biggest breaks I ever got. His values and his discipline that he passed on to me meant that I couldn't have had a better home to grow up in.



CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING RAYMOND BERRY

GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOHN ROTHWELL - CORPUS CHRISTI, TEXAS
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
TOM DAVIS - SAN MARCOS, CALIFORNIA
JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS


 
*********** QUIZ:  He may be the best  cornerback ever to play the position. (Sorry, Deion.) He was big and fast and so tough and aggressive in playing  against receivers that the NFL changed its coverage rules to prevent defensive backs from playing bump-and-run coverage down the  field. Said Pittsburgh Steelers’ president Dan Rooney in introducing him at his Hall of Fame induction, “Scouts say they don't even look for corners like him anymore because you don't get corners with his size or his speed or who can jump like him.”

As he put it in his Hall of Fame induction speech, he came from  “the cotton fields and tobacco fields of Vidalia, Georgia.”

He played high school football in Lyons, Georgia, and played his college  football at Southern University in Baton Rouge. In his senior year at Southern he was named to the Pittsburgh Courier Black College All-American Team. (The Pittsburgh Courier began naming its All-American team since 1927, and this one, the 1969 team, included, along with our guy, future pros Ken Burrough,  Doug Wilkerson,  Hubert Ginn,  Joe “Turkey” Jones and  Bivian Lee.

On the recommendation of Bill Nunn, Jr., a sportswriter for the Pittsburgh Courier who had become a part-time scout for the Steelers, he was taken by Pittsburgh in the third round of the 1970 draft.   That also happened to be the draft in which the Steelers took Terry Bradshaw as their Number One pick.

Very big for a  corner at 6-3, 210, he was also quite fast, and he played a very physical style of coverage unlike anything the NFL had seen before.

In fact, after several years of dealing with his play, the NFL passed a rule (nicknamed for him) which restricted the amount of defender-to-receiver contact permitted downfield.  It didn’t greatly hamper his play, and it had the unintended consequence of  helping the Steelers’ passing game.

In his 14-year career with the Steelers,  he earned four Super Bowl  rings.

He was a four-time  All-Pro and he played in five Pro Bowls.

In 1975 he was the AP’s NFL Defensive Player of the Year.

He had 57  career interceptions, returned for 736 yards and two touchdowns.  In 1975 he led he NFL with 11 interceptions.
.
In his entire 219-game career, he missed only two games.

After retiring as a player,  he served eight years as Director of Player Relations for the NFL, and in his native Georgia, he founded a Christian mission dedicated to serving victims of child abuse.

He is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, inducted in  the same class as teammate Terry Bradshaw.

 He is also a member of the  Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame, the  Georgia Sports Hall of Fame  and the  Black College Football Hall of Fame.  In  2011, he was named to the NFL's 75th anniversary All-Time team.

In his acceptance speech at the Pro Football Hall of Fame, he acknowledged the role his parents played, saying, “If the odds were against anybody, they were against me. Being the youngest of 11 kids, brought up on a farm in Georgia, a family who lived and prayed and hoped that they would feed 11 kids off the land and out of 11 kids, seven of us were able to go to college because we had the kind of parents that America is thirsty for today, parents who are committed, parents who will instill in their kids that they strive to be the best.”





TUESDAY, JANUARY  30,  2024   “There's always some kid who may be seeing me for the first and last time. I owe him my best.” Joe DiMaggio


***********   THE  SUPER BOWL IS SET

AFC

CHIEFS 17,  RAVENS 10

I hadn’t watched much NFL for some time, and last week was the first I’d watched the Ravens.  I was impressed by Lamar Jackson and by their defense.  But I must have caught them on a  good-behavior day last week, because on Sunday, between the pre-game antagonism, the  repetitive pushing, the gross taunting (that arguably cost them the game), they were a hard team to like.  It was almost as if it was pro wrestling and they were the designated heels.  (What happened to Ravens’ receiver Zay Flowers - fumbling at the goal line shortly after screwing his team over with a juvenile taunting penalty - is almost the definition of karma. There was a time,  when rosters were smaller and jobs were scarcer,  that he’d have been shopping around for another team before they turned off the showers in the locker room.  But today’s NFL is run by the players, and a coach doesn’t dare to even consider disciplining a player.)


NFC

49ERS 34, Lions 31

You got to know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em…

It’s easy to pinpoint exactly when the game was won and lost: at the point, midway through the third quarter, when Detroit, leading 24-10, faced a fourth-and-two,  in 49ers’ territory and within field goal range.

A successful kick would have put the 49ers three scores behind. Instead, either because “I’m aggressive,” or because a little analytics guy whispered “Go For It!” in Detroit coach Dan Campbell’s ear, Detroit went for it.  They’d been running the ball pretty effectively, but  the decision was to pass - and the pass was dropped.

Within five plays, the score was 24-17.

On the very first play after the kickoff, Detroit fumbled the ball away, and this time it  took San Francisco just four plays to score - and tie the game, 24-24.  And then go on to put the game away.

Final score, 34-31.  Hmmm.  Wonder where we could have come up with three more points.



***********   Artificial Intelligence comes to pro football.

It’s fourth-and-two, and Analytics (notice how the word starts with “anal?”) says you have a 90.3 per cent chance of winning if you try a field goal (you’re in range), vs a 90.5 chance if you go for the first down.

Well, why didn’t you say so?  You mean to tell me, without knowing who we’re playing against, or what our strengths are,  it’s that clear cut?  Well, hell then - let’s go for it. 

And while we’re at it - let’s throw the damn ball! 

Personally,  other than Tom Brady in his prime, I’ve never had that much faith in anyone’s passing game.



***********   Dan Campbell

would take a hit when he’s holding a face card and an eight.

would  break open the rack when others would play safe…

would  call for the squeeze bunt when there’s two out…

Okay, okay - it’s not that bad.

But I’ll be surprised if he's not on the  comp list of every Vegas casino…



*********** Gronk, as I’ve said, is pretty good when he’s playing the big, lovable, punchy ex-jock in commercials.

But as I’ve also said, he’s really a fish out of water when it’s time to talk football.

But even so,  with  the slightest amount of preparation he'd learn  that the Kansas City quarterback’s name is not “McHomes.”


*********** Anybody here paid their $45 for a  ticket to watch the Flag Football at the Pro Bowl Games?  (How much you gonna bet they pack the damn place?)


*********** You’ve more than likely read what I’ve written before about the Quips - the kids from Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, a former steel  town whose economy has cratered, but whose  football teams just keep on winning state titles, no matter how many hurdles the state association throws in their path.  Hurdles, did I say?  Aliquippa, a small school, won the PIAA state  title this past season playing three classes up - in Class 4A.  The PIAA’s reaction? Move ‘em up again.  To class 5A.  Let’s see how they like that.

Before I print Mark Madden’s column on the subject (from the Pittsburgh Tribune), I should preface it by saying that whenever I see or hear the race card played, my skepticism automatically kicks in. But  look - It’s a fact that Aliquippa’s teams are mostly black, and the way they’re being treated by the people at the PIAA makes you begin to wonder if  there might actually be something going on.

I can’t imagine anything much dumber than bullying a bunch of kids who have been beating the odds -  excelling, and seeming to do it the right way, but Madden makes you wonder it it’s even occurred to the PIAA how it looks.  as he writes, “The racial optics are terrible.”

A major question he asks: Has any member of the PIAA executive board ever been to Aliquippa?

I think he already knows the answer.

By Mark Madden
 

There are usually two sides to every story.
But not in the case of Aliquippa High School football being forced to play at the 5A level despite having 2A enrollment. The Quips are getting railroaded by the PIAA.

Consider Southern Columbia, a school in Central Pennsylvania that has won the last seven state football championships in 2A.

Southern Columbia’s success dictates being bumped up as per the PIAA’s classification method. But the team hasn’t absorbed enough transfers to trigger promotion. The formula requires three transfers over two years.

Southern Columbia is a predominantly white school district.

Aliquippa, which won 4A state titles in 2023 and ’21, is a predominantly Black school district. It had five transfers over the past two seasons. So the PIAA is moving them up to 5A.

But these transfers weren’t star players. There wasn’t athletic intent.

“Most of the students being labeled as transfers were born and raised in Aliquippa,” said Tina Miller, an attorney representing Aliquippa. “None of these students came to Aliquippa with athletic intent, nor did they contribute to competitive balance.

“Under the competition formula, a school is penalized for having transfer students who never get one minute of active play.”

Aliquippa’s five transfers combined for one touchdown, 136 passing yards and 4 rushing yards over the past two seasons.

Aliquippa is a transient, low-income community. It’s not like a rich family moving into Upper St. Clair because dad got an executive position. Aliquippa is very different. People come and go. Family situations dictate. So does employment, but not like in white suburbia.

Aliquippa is good people, but a tougher life. It’s no storybook. It’s often just about finding a place to live.

The PIAA decision ignores all that. It’s not cognizant of problems specific to a community like Aliquippa. One size doesn’t fit all.

Has any member of the PIAA executive board ever been to Aliquippa?

Aliquippa currently has 156 boys in grades 9-11. Class 5A schools have hundreds more. Upper St. Clair has 504. Peters Township has 497. The enrollment disparity is enormous.

The talent disparity isn’t.

Aliquippa is an old-fashioned WPIAL football powerhouse. Has been for decades. Aliquippa’s best 11 will be able to compete with any school in 5A’s best 11. The Quips will battle like wolverines and win their share.

But, in the context of 5A, Aliquippa will lack depth.

When injury and happenstance dictate that depth gets utilized, Aliquippa will face physical mismatches. Aliquippa’s second-string linemen figure to be primarily underclassmen and might weigh 30 to 40 pounds less than, say, Peters Township’s backups at those positions.

That could (and will) lead to kids getting hurt. The PIAA isn’t taking safety into account.

Then there’s funding. How much does Aliquippa have to spend on football compared to 5A schools?

One report says that Aliquippa spends $97,981 on athletics.

Upper St. Clair spends $774,337. South Fayette spends $676,738. Peters Township spends $547,481.

The implications of this are ugly, especially given the comparison with Southern Columbia.

The white school gets to win at the same low level forever. The Black school keeps getting bigger obstacles put in its path.

The PIAA can cite its “formula” ad nauseam. But that formula was devised by an organization clearly insensitive and unknowing when it comes to the harsh reality a community like Aliquippa faces.

The formula isn’t carved into stone tablets. It can be flawed and is.

Aliquippa will challenge the decision in court. It’s regrettable when the legal system gets mixed up in sports, but it’s a last resort.

This situation stinks. It’s not remotely fair. The racial optics are terrible.

https://triblive.com/sports/mark-madden-piaa-officials-are-clearly-insensitive-to-aliquippas-reality/

 Knowing what TV can do wirh a race-based story like this one, expect to see something on Netflix by summer.




*********** Heard the rumors that Harbaugh is planning to hire Colin Kaepernick as an assistant?  Sure.  Hire a guy who’s never coached at any level.  Makes a lot of sense.  Look - call Harbaugh what you want (I admit that I sometimes have) but there’s one thing he’s not, and that’s a bad coach who hires weak assistants.


***********  From the very depths of my  WTF file comes the International Football Alliance.

International what???

If it’s true that nature abhors a vacuum so, too, it seems, do wannabe pro football leagues.

They seem to pop up like mushrooms, with about the same life expectancy.

This league (the IFL, they seem to call it) appears to be based in Mexico, and it  claims that  when it  starts play (in 2025) it will have nine or 10 teams, with at least three of them in Mexico.

Mexican:
Cancun Sharks
Chihuahua Rebellion (playing in Ciudad Juarez - next to El Paso)
Tequileros de Jalisco (playing in Juarez)

North American:
Alabama Beavers
Dallas Pioneers
Gulf Coast Tarpons
Las Vegas Kings
Tampa Bay Tornadoes
Portland Whatchamacallits (No name yet.  It looks as if Alabama and Dallas already grabbed off two of the more appropriate names for a Portland franchise. “Alabama Beavers?” Really?)

I bet you didn’t know about it. I didn’t, either, and yet  they claim to be planning on having a team right across the river from me in Portland.

I don’t want to be a Negative Nancy, but Portland is sort of lacking in one major respect -  the only decent-sized stadium in the entire area is monopolized by a f—king soccer team, which won’t even let Portland State, located just a couple of blocks away, use it for football.

As for travel…  why do I envision busloads of cartel members crossing the border, masquerading as  football players?

According to its web site, the “IFA” will be holding a “Global Draft” on January 13, 2024.

Wait - not to be an asshat, but wasn’t that two weeks ago?
 
If they intended to create the impression that they’re just another fly-by-night operation, they couldn’t get off to a better start.

https://www.ifa.football/



***********  With all the newspapers closing shop all over the US, you’d think the ones still in business would have an easy time finding people who could rite  good.  But you’d be rong.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that anyone who has had Covid – 19, even if the illness was mild or if the person had no symptoms, can suffer long-term effects, including children.

Do you or someone you know suffer from children?  With your generous donation of just $19.95 a month we can stamp out children in our lifetime.



***********   Notre Dame has one  spot to fill on next year’s schedule  and so, on the same date, does Army.     And so the rumor is hot that a once-storied rivalry might be restored, if only for one game.

The teams haven’t met since 2016 - a 44-6 Irish win in San Antonio - and they’ve played just three times in this century.

They first met in 2013, and with the exception of one year (1918, during World War I) they met every year from 1913 through 1947.  From 1923 on, most of their games were played in Yankee Stadium, where rabid Notre Dame rooters - few of whom had any idea where Notre Dame was even located - earned the nickname “subway alumni.”

The series has produced three of college football’s greatest stories…

*** The 1946 game in Yankee Stadium between two undefeated teams may still be one of the most-hyped  college football games ever played. The final score - 0-0 - left no one satisfied, and the fact that they both finished their seasons unbeaten,  but Notre Dame at 8-0-1 was ranked First by the AP over Army at 9-0-1  did not settle the question. (Georgia, at 11-0, was ranked third.)


*** The very first game, at West Point in 1913,  between mighty Army and the team from the little Catholic school in the Midwest, is the stuff of legend. It’s the game in which the Notre Dame passing attack that quarterback Gus Dorais and end Knute Rockne had developed during their summer vacations at Cedar Point, Ohio blew out the heavily favored Cadets, 35-13.  Dorais completed 14 of 17 pass attempts for 243 yards and three touchdowns and brought national attention to the forward pass as a weapon.


*** It was a halftime of the 1928 game, with the score tied, 0-0, when Notre Dame coach Knute Rockne chose to play a card he’d been saving for nearly eight years: George Gipp’s dying wish.   Back in 1920, Rockne had been at the bedside of the great George Gipp when he died, and now, in the locker room at Yankee Stadium,  he told his players of  “The Gipper’s” last words:

“Before he died,” Rockne said, speaking much slower and lower than normal,  “Gipp said to me,  ‘I've got to go, Rock. It's all right. I'm not afraid. Sometime, when things are going wrong and the breaks are beating the boys, tell them to go out and win one for the Gipper. I don't know where I'll be then, Rock,  but I’ll know about it. and I'll be happy.’”

And then Rockne is believed to have said (there were no recorders then, no iPhones) something like “and this is the time, and you are the team.”

Tears streaming down their faces, the Irish went out and built a 12-6 lead, then held on at the end, stopping Army inches from the goal line to upset the favored Cadets.

Although the two schools jointly announced that they had agreed to break off the rivalry after 1947, it’s generally believed that it was Army’s doing.  There were “good” reasons given - the ticket demand had gotten out of hand, there was too much gambling on the game, there was too much emphasis on the game - but Tim Cohane, in his book “Gridiron Grenadiers,” seemed to hit the nail on the head:

In normal peacetime, West Point does not and cannot assemble football material comparable to Notre Dame's, which is, year after year, the best in the country.   As a result, a continuance of the series promised nothing more for Army than a series of defeats. When the element of competition is removed from a contest, there can no longer exist any reason for the contest.

Even more to the point, though, especially during  the war years when Army twice pounded Notre Dame, a certain ugliness had overtaken some of the subway alumni.  Among Notre Dame fans, estimated by Army coach Earl Blaik to make up 90 per cent of the Yankee Stadium crowds, many had resorted to  calling Army football players “slackers” and “draft-dodgers.”

The series was resumed, off-and-on, in 1957, but Cohane’s prediction of  the lack of competition has proved spot-on. The teams have met 17 times since then, and Army has won just once - in 1958. Since then, Notre Dame has won 15 straight.



***********  For years, hockey players - one per team - wore the prized “C” - for Captain - on the fronts of their jerseys.

And then football started to copy the idea.  Syracuse was the first team that I noticed doing it.

And since then the NFL has not only adopted the idea, but seems to have turned it into something about as significant as  a good conduct medal.

In 2007, the league established a policy regarding captains:

1. A captain may wear a “C”  patch on his jersey. (It’s not required. Some teams - the Patriots and the Steelers - have voted not to wear the “C”.)

2. If you see  little  stars under the “C,” they designate the number of years a player has been a captain.

3. When a player has been captain for five years, he gets to wear a GOLD “C.”

4. If a player  changes teams, he takes his “captain’s years” with him. This includes the right to wear the gold “C” (unless his new team is the Patriots  or the Steelers.)

5. Teams can have as many captains as they  wish,  and they may choose them as they wish.

6. Teams may have only six captains per game.

7. Captains’ game-time duties are not exactly excessive
    A. One captain from the visiting team calls the toss of the coin
    B. One captain from the team winning the toss declares  their option
    C. One captain may declare his team’s penalty option



***********   Coach,

I wanted to let you know that I have taken the Head Coaching Position at Lemon Bay High School in Englewood, Florida.  

I am at a point in my career in which I can retire and collect my pension, plus the reality that Englewood is where my parents winter and we have been down there many times through the years made it a no brainer.

It will be a challenging opportunity despite them being 10-2 last year and their prior HC doing a great job they are graduating 26 Seniors...   This is the first position since my first position that I have taken over coming off a winning season, my hope is this will be my last stop...

If you can put out to any coaches in that area that are looking to get back in I am in the process of putting together a staff wmensing@yahoo.com

God Bless,

Jason Mensing 
Head Football Coach
Lemon Bay High School
Englewood, Florida

Coach Mensing is a longtime Double Winger.  His 2017 team at Ottawa Lake Whiteford HS went 14-0 and won a state title, and this past season, his second at Westland (Michigan) Glenn High, his team went 7-3 - the school’s first winning season in 10 years.


***********   Good Morning Hugh,

I really enjoyed this weeks clinic Zoom and especially the comments from Paul Johnson and the Wake Forest coach. It’s hard to argue the success of a man who won 60% of his games and did so essentially running wedge 40% of the time or what  flexbone coaches call  the “zone dive”.


Two observations on the NFl playoffs. One has to wonder if they are teaching tackling at that level anymore given how fundamentally unsound they are at this skill. There have been so many missed tackles during the playoffs , and players leading with their heads it begs the question if they are spending anytime on this fundamental. Second, offense lineman  spend so much time pass blocking they don’t know how to drive block, or in our terminology “ the 12 step cure” . Even the double teams on inside and outside zones are often so poor they get split by defensive tackles and ends. Many NFL coaches could benefit from the advice Coach Madden gives at the beginning of each blog!

All the best,

Jack Tourtillotte
Rangeley, Maine

Jack,   You’re absolutely right.  On the very basics of the game - blocking and tackling - they are very weak.  All you have to do is look at the tiny, flimsy shoulder pads they wear to realize that they have no intentions of hitting with their shoulders.



***********   Coach: This page is once more competitive in the battle for best sports section in Ocean Shores. Or, we may safely add, America.

I also did not get the last Zoom invitation, but I waited, calmly confident it would come in time. HW doesn't fumble in the big moments.

On one hand, I'm happy Niumatololo gets another chance. I always thought he was far better than most at imposing his will on his team. On the other hand, I regret that he has apparently agreed to the conditions SJSU demanded.

From the moment I heard Jim Harbaugh had signed with San Diego, I predicted that in a little more than a year from now we'll be seeing lots of commercials featuring Justin Herbert.


John Vermillion                
St Petersburg, Florida







*********** QUIZ ANSWER: Jim Kiick was born on Aug. 9, 1946, in Lincoln Park, New Jersey. . His father had played football at Bucknell,  then played fullback for the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1940 before leaving to fight in World War II;  after the war he played one more year with the Steelers,  then became  a high school coach.

Jim played football, basketball and baseball at Boonton (NJ) High School before going to Wyoming to play college ball.

For three straight years he was the Cowboys’ leading rusher. He was the only player ever to lead the WAC in rushing for three straight years, and was the first ever to earn first team All-WAC honors three straight years.  In his junior year, he was named MVP of the Sun Bowl after rushing for 135 yards and two TDs in their 28-20 win over Florida State.

In his senior year, as team captain, he led the Cowboys to an undefeated regular season and a fifth-place finish nationally, and to a Sugar Bowl appearance against LSU (where the Cowboys lost, 20-13).

He was taken by the Miami Dolphins, then in the AFL, in the fifth round of the NFL-AFL common draft, then in its second year.

He made the club and, as halfback  in the two-man backfield then employed by pro football teams,  he teamed with another rookie, fullback Larry Csonka, whom he’d met at  the previous summer’s College All-Star game.  (Later, they would be joined by another runner, Mercury Morris.

He was extremely versatile.  Not only was he a tough runner  with a nose for the end zone, but he was a good receiver and a very good blocker.  And he was extremely tough, often playing with  injuries that would have sidelined most players.

In his first two seasons he led the team in rushing, and he played in the AFL All-Star game both seasons.

In his second year he led the AFL in rising touchdowns, and in his third season he led  the AFC (the leagues had merged) in rushing yards, and led the Dolphins in receiving.

In his fourth season - 1971 - he was  the only player in the NFL to be in the top 15 in rushing and pass receptions.

Following the 1972 and 1973 seasons, the Dolphins won back-to-back Super Bowls , and he scored six touchdowns in post-season play.   One of those touchdowns came in the Dolphins’ 14-7 win over the Washington Redskins’ in Super Bowl VII that wrapped up the only perfect season in NFL history.

He and Csonka were not only running mates in the backfield, but they were close friends.  Their friendship started when they were teammates on the College All-Star team before their rookie year, and they became roommates and drinking buddies.  Their off-the-field  capers earned him the nickname Butch Cassidy and Csonka the nickname Sundance Kid, after the characters in the popular movie at the time, and they were on the cover of Sports Illustrated.

In 1974, he,  Csonka, and  star receiver Paul Warfield, played out their options. (The rule at the time required a player whose contract had  expired to play one final year - an “option year” - for his current team before becoming a free agent.)

This was not a common practice at the time, but in their case they had an unusual incentive to do so. They were paid extremely large bonuses to sign “future” contracts, calling for them to play, after they’d played out their options in the NFL, for a new league being formed - the World Football League. The news of their signing made front-page headlines all over the country, and spurred interest in the WFL among  fans, players - and  investors.

They played for Memphis in the WFL for as long as the league lasted - which was less than a full season - and in  1976 they all returned to the NFL.

Jim Kiick played two seasons in Denver and Washington and then hung them up.

In later life he suffered from Alzheimer’s disease for several years and died in August, 2020  in Florida in an assisted living center.   

Because of the coronavirus, his daughter had been unable to enter his room.

“It’s pretty hard when you’re sitting on the outside of the glass and can’t do anything to cheer him up,” she wrote on  Twitter shortly before he died. “He’s lost the spark in his eyes, as anyone would in this situation.”

A former Wyoming teammate remembered him fondly. "I believe Jim Kiick was one of the toughest Cowboys ever to play," he said.  "He was double tough, period.  I remember him playing games with broken ribs when it killed him to even breathe.  But he had Jack (trainer Jack Aggers) rig up a make-shift girdle and tape it to those ribs so he could play.

"I can tell you whoever got in the way of that toss sweep was going to get punished.  He had the mentality of a defensive player.  He attacked.  He was the ultimate competitor.  He was just a very special football player.”


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING JIM KIICK

GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
TOM DAVIS - SAN MARCOS, CALIFORNIA
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY





 


*********** QUIZ: Imagine any of today’s sportswriters calling any of today’s professional football players “the finest man to have walked the earth since Jesus Christ.”  That’s what a Baltimore sportswriter once said about him.

Although it’s been nearly 60 years since he last caught a pass in the NFL, he remains one of the greatest receivers in the history of the game.

He was born in Corpus Christi, Texas, where his dad was the high school football coach, but after his dad was fired, the family moved to Paris, Texas, where he grew up - and where his dad coached for 25 years until he retired.

Tall and very skinny and not particularly fast, he didn’t start until his senior year. Playing both ways - offensive and defensive end - in his dad’s single wing attack, he was named All-District, and Paris won their  district championship for the first time in school history.

“Believe it or not,” he said years later, “I rank the thrill of winning that game as highly as winning my first championship in the NFL.”

He spent one year at a junior college, then transferred to SMU on the promise of a chance to earn a scholarship. SMU was coached by Rusty Russell, who unlike most coaches of the time believed in a pass-first offense.

Because he transferred after just one season of JC ball he was ineligible at SMU, but after a season in the scout team, he earned a scholarship and a starting position. But after his sophomore season, Rusty Russell was fired. The  new coach, Woody Woodard, scarcely threw the ball at all, and as a result, our guy caught just 33 passes in his entire college career.

In his autobiography, he reflected on the positive side: "I was a good blocker in the NFL because I learned that skill in college well in that T-formation. I had to block defensive ends and linebackers who were head up on me or inside of me." 

And because of the rules at the time, he also played on defense in college.   As he recalled, “If you weren't a good defensive player, you didn't get to play much. They picked players based on defensive ability. They couldn't have a hotshot offensive guy who gave up more points than he scored. The coaches learned that having some great offensive talent on the field who couldn't play defense meant getting your butt beat. That was the nature of the game.”

He was drafted by the Baltimore Colts in the 20th round as a “future” (he still had a year of eligibility left, but because of his year at JC his original class was graduating so he was eligible for the draft).

Although he had just average speed, he developed, by his own count, 88 different moves to get open, and he ran patterns as precisely as they were diagramed.  Together he and Johnny Unitas gave the Baltimore Colts one of the greatest passing-and-catching teams of all time.

In the Colts’ 1958 overtime win over the Giants in the NFL title game he caught a record 12 catches for 178 yards and a touchdown.

He was selected to play in six Pro Bowl games.

He led the NFL in receptions three straight years, and at his retirement after 13 years he held records for 631 passes caught, 9,275 yards receiving, and 68 touchdowns.

He fumbled just once in his 13 years.

After retirement, he coached receivers for the Cowboys under Tom Landry, the University of Arkansas under Frank Broyles, the Detroit Lions under Don McCafferty, the Cleveland Browns under Forrest Gregg, and the New England Patriots under Chuck Fairbanks and Ron Ehrhardt.  Then, when Ron Meyer was fired as head coach of the Pats, he took over.

How’d he do?  I’d say pretty good. Taking over midway through a season (which he finished 4-4) he had an overall record of 48-39.

In his second season he  took the Patriots to their first-ever Super Bowl, where they lost to the Bears.   Except for a guy named Belichick, he got his team to more playoff games - and had more playoff wins - than any other Patriots’ coach (which includes Bill Parcells and Pete Carroll).

And he’s the only coach - other than Belichick - to take the Patriots to four straight winning seasons.

He is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He was named to the NFL’s 1950s All-Decade Team, its 75th Anniversary All-Time Team, and - 25 years later - to its 100th Anniversary All-Time Team.

Former teammate Alex Hawkins, who played the same position, told of his intensity:

*** (———)  wasn't much to look at, but what he didn't know about catching passes wasn't worth talking about. He was the most detailed, precise person I had ever known. He was a perfectionist. With (———), football was a full-time profession. He spent 11 months a year at it. During the month of January he put football aside, answered his mail, and rested. The rest of the year was all football.

I listened to everything (———) had to say. He was meticulous and organized. He washed his own practice pants, and on the road he carried his own scales with him to monitor his weight. He had a drill for every conceivable type of pass. He was busy during every minute of the practice sessions. He would practice catching low balls, high balls, balls thrown behind him, and deflected balls. To any other receiver in football a dropped pass was one that he could not get both hands on. To (———) a dropped ball was one that could be touched with one hand only. Anytime that (———) dropped the ball in practice, he would catch that same ball for 20 times without a miss before he left the field.

In a preseason game (———) had gotten one hand on a deflected pass that was thrown behind him. He was running one way and dove headlong backwards, but couldn't hold onto it. It was an impossible pass to catch, but I laughingly told Jimmy Orr that I was willing to bet that (———) would have us practicing that catch on Monday.

That Monday when we reached the practice field (———) had already dug a pit, and at his own expense had ordered a truckload of sawdust. All week we practiced diving catches of deflected passes, with the sawdust coming out of our ears. I never managed to catch one, but as I recall, (———) hung on to two or three.


He was one of the first players to study game films on his own:

*** I even studied other receivers – tried to learn what they were doing to get open, how they caught the football, the moves they had, and what they did in general to be successful. If I saw them do something that really bothered a defensive back, then I got that in my head to try to duplicate it.”


On being a coach’s son:

*** My father was a very successful football coach in Texas. He was coaching in Corpus Christi when I was born, five years before we moved to Paris, Texas. As is the case with all football coaches, the move was not voluntary, but you get fired every four, five years, so you move. He defied the odds – he coached in Paris for 25 years, then retired from coaching. In all he coached 35 years and only got fired once.  He also taught math and physical education.  After my dad retired, a building at the Paris High School was named after him.


*** The significance of the Texas playoff system in my day was that at the end of the football season there would be only a few undefeated teams in the entire state. My dad said that meant you learned most of your football from getting beat. That stuck with me. He stressed that the lessons you really soak in are the ones that come from defeat. I applied all of the lessons that I absorbed from my dad throughout my career.


***   The most important lesson I absorbed from my dad was his unshakable conviction that he never met an opponent he couldn't beat.

I’ve never understood exactly where this came from; I puzzled over it for years. But one of the biggest parts of my dad's makeup – which obviously I absorbed without realizing it – was that he never felt inferior to anybody. He could've sat down with Franklin Roosevelt or Winston Churchill – the great men of his day – and been perfectly at ease. He could have had a conversation with them and he wouldn't think they were any better than he was – or any smarter. That was the way he was, and he wasn't even aware of it, wasn't even conscious of it..

As I got older, I began to realize that he didn't even understand that part of his makeup. But when that lesson was communicated to a football team, it was the most powerful thing he brought to the job. When you played for my dad – and I didn't realize this until I played for other coaches who didn't feel like this - you never thought you were going to lose a game. That confidence absolutely became a part of my makeup. There was always a way to get it done, one way or another. My dad didn't always get it done, but he knew there was a way to do it.

That way of thinking was the greatest asset I had later as a head coach, one of the greatest things I inherited from my father. I spread that message to my players because I believed it, and you can't fool the boys – they know what you believe and what you don't.

My dad was the greatest influence in my life, and as I grew into maturity and went through life, I realized that having him for my father was one of the biggest breaks I ever got. His values and his discipline that he passed on to me meant that I couldn't have had a better home to grow up in.







FRIDAY, JANUARY  26, 2024   “That (Wonderlic) test says he's dumb as a fence post, but when he hits he looks like Einstein to me.” Bum Phillips


***********   THE GAMES THAT DECIDE WHO GOES TO THE SUPER BOWL (OR WHATEVER THE NFL CALLS THEM)

AFC

CHIEFS AT RAVENS

If it were the Baltimore Colts, there’d be no problem. We lived in Baltimore for five years - during the height of Colts Fever - and we lived in Western Maryland (Frederick and Hagerstown)  for nine years, and there’s a part of me that still misses  the place. I like the Ravens, and it’s great to see the people so excited about their team.  It does remind me a bit of those great times.

But I also admire the Chiefs. I like Mahomes and I like Andy Reid, from his days with the Iggles.  And when I first started coaching, I really fell for the Chiefs and Hank Stram’s operation.  I started coaching in 1970, right after they won the Super Bowl, shocking the Vikings. I copied everything I could, from  their shifting from a Stack-I, to their triple-stack defense (definitely the forerunner of today’s 3-5-5), to their stockings, to their team photo (Stram sat the team  in numerical order).

Both quarterbacks are about as dangerous to a defense as they can get.  I think that the edge might go to the Ravens and that defense.


NFC

LIONS AT 49ERS

I like Brock Purdy, and I’ve almost forgiven McCaffrey for being the one who killed the bowls by being the first star to opt out.   He really is good.  And I like the fact that they have a real fullback, with a great Polish name  -   Kyle  Juszczyk. Kristin Juszczyk, his wife, is very creative. She has made the Chiefs’ jackets that Taylor Swift and Mrs. Mahomes have been wearing. She also offers a great way to spell their last name:  “J-U-S Zebra-Cat, Zebra-Yellow-Kitten.”  Where was she when I was struggling to spell Krzyzewski?

https://people.com/who-is-kristin-juszczyk-kyle-juszczyk-wife-8426959

So I like the 49ers, but unless you live in their part of the Bay Area, I don’t see how you can root against the Lions, a team that hasn’t played for the NFL championship since 1957 - ten years before there was a Super Bowl! 

It would disappoint me but it wouldn’t surprise me if the Niners were to win by a couple of scores.



*********** A couple of examples of near fumbles from last weekend as a result of the NFL’s inattention to details… 



At left, a nearly-bobbled exchange caused by Stroud’s pulling his hands apart just before the snap.  Failure to keep the hands  together until the ball is secured is a common problem with younger QB’s that even pros can be guilty of if they’re not watched constantly.  At right, the runner is grabbing the ball instead of letting the QB “insert” it into a “pocket.”  A major cause of fumbled exchanges is ball carriers trying to grab the ball immediately, instead of “opening wide” and then, as the ball  hits the belly, “folding” over it and grasping the opposite points.


*********** I learned a long time ago - back in the days of direct mail advertising - to be sure to  send myself a copy of whatever it is I’m mailing.  For the nearly  four years that I’ve been doing Zoom clnics, I’ve done that religiously whenever I’ve mailed the invites.
 
So that’s what I did on Monday night, and when I received my own invitation I knew everything was going the way it should.

And then, at 6 AM Tuesday, I received an email from a coach who hadn’t received his invite.  I quickly sent him one.

A couple of hours later, I got a similar email from another coach, and I sent him one.

But when the third  such email arrived, I figured that just to be safe, I’d better re-send an invite to everyone on the list.  At that point, it was 3 PM Pacific Time (6 PM Eastern), just two hours before kickoff.

I think I’ve figured it out.  I mailed out the link to the recording, and the feedback I get is that they’ve been delivered.

Whew.



***********  I admit to not having paid much attention to the NFL until the end of the college football season.  So I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised by anything I've seen the last two weekends.  But I was shocked by the great use of “tight” (or “compressed,” if you prefer) formations that I’ve seen most teams using.  

It’s definitely ironic because for years we Double Wingers have been the object of disrespect of  what’s been dismissively called our  “football-in-a-phone-booth” approach to formationing.  Disrespect from people boasting that their spread offense  "attacks the whole field.”  Yet  here I’ve seen the pros,  lining up in anything but spread.  Quite often, they're in what we call “slot” formation and, you know what?  They’re actually  able to attack the whole  field!

Over the past two weekends, I’ve assembled a compilation of clips from every one of the teams,   in which they’ve employed some variation  of these three basic formations:
 


They make extensive use of a tight slot,  a lot of it  in one of these three forms:  (1) a double slot;   (2) a bunch  formation to the left, created by aligning, shifting or motioning the right slot back to the left;   (3) a bunch formation to the right,  created by aligning, shifting or motioning the left slot back (our A Back) to the right.

My diagrams here show a QB under center, but they’re just as likely to run from shotgun.

Look for this stuff in this weekend’s games. The team, in  order of their use of these formations:   Detroit, Kansas City, San Francisco, Baltimore.

More about slot in the next Zoom clinic.

Here’s the link to the recording -

https://vimeo.com/user174754949/143?share=copy

(You’ll miss the exchanges between us coaches that take place before and after we get started.  Actually, some of them are so much fun that I’ve often thought what an interesting video they’d make!)

NEXT ZOOM CLINIC (#144) - TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 6 - 5 PM PACIFIC


*********** John Canzano’s take on Jim Harbaugh’s hiring by the Chargers…

Justin Herbert scored a victory this week when Jim Harbaugh became coach of the Los Angeles Chargers.

They’ll win together.

In four seasons of college football at Oregon, Herbert played for Mark Helfrich, Willie Taggart, and Mario Cristobal. Let’s face it, the quarterback made them all look better than they were.

In the run-up to the 2020 NFL Draft, all the questions from scouts were about Herbert’s ability to lead and be more vocal. Could he command respect in the huddle? Would the soft-spoken kid from Oregon raise his voice in a pro setting?

I don’t think nearly enough was made about Herbert’s proof of performance under less-than-ideal circumstances. He demonstrated an ability to succeed in college despite utter chaos, volatility, and turnover going on around him.

Helfrich got fired.

Taggart bailed after one season.

Then, Cristobal put the offense in a strait-jacket.

None of it mattered. Herbert thrived. When he was healthy, he made everything look passable, effective, and pretty. When he left for the NFL I wondered if what he’d endured in Eugene was lost on scouts. I’ve covered the NFL. It’s a league of mercenaries. Colleges love to say they’re in the business of preparing young people for the real world. Well, Oregon did exactly that by cycling through coordinators and head coaches in Herbert’s four years.

Herbert is now on his third full-time NFL head coach and sixth coach since enrolling at Oregon in 2016. Harbaugh is easily the most qualified of the bunch. Part of what made the Chargers’ job more attractive than the other vacancies was the proven commodity at quarterback. And therein lies the beauty in what finally happened for Herbert — he got an ally who will stick around.

Not one clinging to his job like Helfrich was when he started the true freshman out of desperation. Not one looking for a ticket out of town, like Taggart was. Not one who wanted to run the ball on first and second down, and ask Herbert to bail the operation out on third down and 8, as Cristobal often did.

Harbaugh is going to be great for Herbert because he knows how to build around a proven commodity, not just lean on it.

*********** Think of all the successful  coaches you’ve heard about over the years  who seemed to be biding their time where they were, passing up other job opportunities while they waited for Harbaugh to jump to the pros and the Michigan job to come open.

And now, with Harbaugh on his way to the Coast, the job probably isn’t going to  come open.  Not if Michigan’s smart.

If they’re smart, the job will go to offensive coordinator  Sheronne Moore or defensive coordinator Jesse Minter, if for no other reason than to keep that damn portal from opening up.

They’ve both already had auditions,  as fill-ins for Harbaugh, and presumably hiring  either one would help to keep the staff and - more importantly - the roster together.



*********** Shakespeare (a dead white European male writer, for those who attend American public schools in the Twenty-first Century  and get to enjoy more “diverse” literature) wrote, in “Much Ado About Nothing” - “An two men ride of a horse, one must ride behind.”

And so it goes.  One of them’s got hind  tit.  And when there are two professional sports team in a city,  one team  is nearly always favored over the other.

Chicago Bears > Chicago Cardinals

Chicago Cubs > Chicago White Sox

Boston Red Sox > Boston Braves

St. Louis Cardinals > St. Louis Browns

And then there’s Los Angeles

Lakers >  Clippers

Dodgers > Angels

Might the Chargers, now that they’ve hired Jim Harbaugh, be the exception?



*********** Texas’ Governor Abbott has very cleverly put the Biden administration in a position where any action it takes  to cut through the razor wire is sure to be seen by most people as directly aiding and abetting an invasion of a state.



***********   Ken Niumatalolo has been named head coach at San Jose State, succeeding Bryan Brennan, who left to take the Arizona head coaching job.

Most recently, he  has been at UCLA as Director of Leadership.

At Navy, he won 109 games - most of any coach in Navy history - led Navy to 10 bowl games over 15 seasons and was a three-time American Athletic Conference (AAC) Coach of the Year.

His 10 wins over Army are the most of any coach in the history of the rivalry. His 2019 team was the first Navy team in 60 years to finish in the top 25.

Under him, Navy won the Lambert Trophy in 2015, awarded to the best team in the East, for the first time since 1963 (when Roger Staubach was their quarterback). He is the only coach in Navy history to win three consecutive bowl games. His six bowl wins and six Commander-In-Chief trophies are the most in Navy history.

In 2015, he  was a finalist for the Dodd Trophy and the Paul “Bear” Bryant National Coach of the Year Award. In 2016, he was a Dodd Trophy finalist again and in 2019, he was a Paul “Bear” Bryant National Coach of the Year Award finalist for the second time.

He’s a native of Hawaii and played quarterback at the University of Hawai’i.  After graduation, he joined coach Paul Johnson’s staff at Hawai‘i as a graduate assistant and then as a full-time assistant.

In 1995, he went with Johnson to Navy as the running backs coach and then after two years was named offensive coordinator. He left briefly to go to UNLV but returned to Navy in 2002 as assistant head coach under Johnson, and became head coach when Johnson left for Georgia Tech.

Okay. And now  the question we’d all like to have answered: what’s he going to be doing on offense?

Based on this, from a press release, I  don’t expect to see any flexbone.

He is expected to tailor his staff around youthful energy and West Coast ties. San Jose State officials prioritized a wide-open system to take advantage of the Bay Area's recruiting resources of strong quarterbacks and skill position players.

Wide-open  system?  Strong quarterbacks?  Skill position players?  Aaargh.


*********** The ACC master schedule…




New rivalries in the making? Or ho-hum?

Cal has never played NC State, Florida State or Wake Forest.

Stanford has never played Syracuse, NC State or Louisville.



*********** Gun control is the answer!  According to Sacramento County Sheriff Jim Cooper, most homicides in Sacramento County involving a firearm are committed by people who are not legally allowed to have a gun.


***********  Bud Light’s struggle to return to where it was before going tranny has been heavily  dependent on advertising  during NFL games (Peyton Manning buying a round for the house),  and  they’re planning a  60-second spot  for the Super Bowl. (That’s twice the length of the usual commercial, so it had better be good.  Maybe they’ll bring back Spuds McKenzie.)

Bud Light brewer Anheuser-Busch also plans to run a 30-second spot featuring Clydesdales (remember them?)  in a Budweiser commercial as it continues to pose as an American company (it’s not).

And in what has to be the dumbest expenditure ever of endorsement dollars,  it’s going to treat the American football public to 60 seconds of a Michelob Ultra ad featuring a  soccer star.  (I bet no more than 10 per cent of the people that are even watching will say, in astonishment, “Look!  It’s Lionel Messi!”) 



*********** NIL is taking some funny twists and turns…

During testimony in a trial over college athlete employment on Wednesday, a high-ranking USC athletic department employee claimed ignorance over one of the most well-known concepts in Division I college sports: shoe deals.

Ryan Cohan, assistant AD for women’s basketball operations, testified that he was unsure whether women’s basketball players were permitted to wear Adidas shoes during games, given that USC has an apparel contract with Nike. He was asked in the context of whether USC forces athletes to wear certain apparel—and, after a long pause and a request for “clarification,” he determined that he did not know the answer.

The National Labor Relations Board case, brought by an advocacy group called the National College Players Association, is examining whether USC football and basketball players should be deemed employees of the school, the school’s conference, and the NCAA. Rules about minute details of athletes’ lives—including what shoes they can wear—could speak to whether USC exercises enough control over players to constitute an employee-employer relationship. Cohan, as well as other USC witnesses, evaded direct answers to other questions that relate to the control issue.

Cohan’s testimony was particularly shocking coming from a longtime college athletics administrator and current USC athletics employee, given that rules surrounding apparel contracts are common knowledge in college sports. Across D-I basketball, players cannot wear a shoe brand that directly competes with their school’s apparel contract during games. Often, players can’t wear these brands in other official capacities, such as when engaging in team activities. In some cases, they’re prohibited from inking name, image, and likeness deals with competing shoe companies, even if they vow not to wear these brands in competition.

https://frontofficesports.com/at-trial-over-college-athlete-employment-ins-and-outs-of-shoe-deals-take-center-stage/



*********** DOES THIS EVEN PASS THE SMELL TEST?  You will NOT believe the results, published at the start of this past season,  of a survey attempting to rank college football schools according to the size of their fan base:

1. Ohio State - OK
2. Michigan - OK
3. Penn State - OK
4. Duke - Are you sure you didn’t mean basketball?
5. Florida State - Hmmm.  Of course, this was before they sued their own conference and  flopped in the bowl game.
6. Alabama - This low?
7. Georgia - Really?
8. UCLA - Hmmm. Then where’s the “fan base” hiding when the Bruins are playing at home?
9. Notre Dame - I thought a team that can sell out the place no matter where they play would be ranked even higher.
10. Wisconsin - Okay, I guess.

But no Tennessee? No LSU?  No Clemson? No Texas? No USC?  No Oklahoma? No Oregon?


I checked it and double-checked it.    And no one else seems to be the slightest bit skeptical. I mean, come on - Duke ahead of Alabama?  UCLA ahead of Notre Dame?

https://www.foxsports.com/stories/college-football/ohio-state-michigan-ranked-most-popular-college-football-teams-per-study



*********** Travis Kelce sponsored a football camp for an organization that works with some of Kansas City’s poorest kids.

Afterward, the organization’s CEO asked the kids to tell him  what their highlight was.

Said one, “He remembered my name.”



***********   Management advice from the ages…

”People should either be caressed or crushed. If you do them minor damage they will get their revenge; but if you cripple them there is nothing they can do. If you need to injure someone, do it in such a way that you do not have to fear their vengeance.”

Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527)



***********   Will Rogers, former Mississippi State QB who transferred to Washington just before the Huskies played in the championship game,  then entered the portal as soon as Kalen DeBoer slipped out of town, has announced that he’s going to stay at Washington after all. 

It probably came about when new UW coach Jedd Fisch found out that Noah Fifita, his QB at Arizona, wouldn’t be coming along with him to Washington;  and UW probably had to sweeten the deal a little, too.

Either way, I’m glad.  I liked the kid when he was at Mississippi State, and Mike Leach’s death had to hit him as hard as it did anyone.



*********** Might it be actionable if…

Oregon State were able to prove that Jonathan Smith was dickering with Michigan State when he should have been devoting all his efforts to preparing for the Civil War game with Oregon?

Washington were able to prove that Jalen DeBoer was already committed to Alabama when he was preparing for Michigan?



*********** Until recently, Dave Heeke was the AD at the University of Arizona. My friend Mike Lude, who lives in Tucson, always spoke highly of him. I trust Mike’s judgment.

But because of some sort of fiscal mismanagement  (a “budget miscalculation,” they call it) the University of Arizona is short $240 million.

So they fired Dave Heeke, their AD.

The missing $240 million caused the U of A president to suggest, back in November, that it might be necessary to cut some of the school’s 23 sports, which threw things into a tizzy.  Cut sports?  Omigod.

So they fired Dave Heeke.

Back during the pandemic, when no one was attending  sports events, the university lent the athletic department $55 million to keep things going.  Yes, lent.  You’d think it would have been a grant, but it wasn’t, and since the U of A athletic department hasn’t been able to repay the loan yet, that’s evidently Heeke’s fault.

So they fired Dave Heeke.

It’s not as if Heeke was a spendthrift. According to public data from the Knight-Newhouse College Athletics Database, the U of A athletic department’s total expenses in 2022 were $124.94 million, and it brought in $124.35 million in revenue in 2022.  The department lost a rather minuscule $600,000.

So they fired Dave Heeke.

$240 million is a lot of money. It’s almost twice the athletics department’s annual budget.  If they were simply to dissolve the athletic department and drop all sports and use the savings to pay it off, they’d save just $124.94 million a year.  They’d still be missing almost $120 million a year - after  enraging powerful alumni, athletes and the Tucson community - and almost certainly cutting off alumni  donations.

So they fired Dave Heeke.

In the sports that count, Dave Heeke has made great hires.  He hired basketball coach Tommy Lloyd, whose Wildcats are a national power, and he hired football coach Jedd Fisch, who in three years built the Wildcats into a Pac-12  title contender.  But Fisch, who had been making $2.1 million a year at Arizona, just left for Washington and a reported $7 million a year.  No way Arizona, in the condition they’re in, could have matched that.  But Arizona fans blamed Dave Heeke for not “trying.”

So they fired Dave Heeke.

Arizona, it appears, has an administration that would like the public to believe that Dave Heeke is the reason why the university’s so deeply in the hole.  But at the same time, he’s also to blame for losing their football coach to Washington and more money. A lot more money.

So they fired Dave Heeke.

It all seemed  to come down to fiscal misfeasance/nonfeasance/malfeasance  someplace else in the university, but  they needed a scapegoat.

So they fired Dave Heeke.

You sure you still want to be an athletics director?



***********   Hot off the Quinnipiac polling press: 91% of Americans are highly pleased with the state of college football. So your diatribe against our college student-athletes is unfounded. In the words of (former) Harvard President Claudine Gay, "Never has there been a stronger nexus between university football players and academic excellence."

No, you summed it up in two words, "Selfish decadence".

In most of the weekend NFL games, there wasn't much difference in total yards rushing. Still, I believe that in all cases the higher-yardage rushing team won. And, to add to your notes about Josh Allen being too near to a one-man show, he was the Bills' leading rusher.

Great page, Coach.

John Vermillion
St. Petersburg, Florida



***********   Hugh,

Your sentiments regarding the state of Division 1 college football is spot on!  No need to expand since you pointed out everything wrong with it so eloquently.  Thank you! 

Frankly, I can’t think of anything right about it!

Like you I forced myself to watch the 4 NFL “Divisional” games.  Still feel the same about the NFL overall but since it’s time for championship games here goes:

SF needs Purdy to bring his “A” game in order to beat the Lions.  If he plays like he did last week the Lions play in their first Super Bowl.  KC must play great defense against the Ravens.  If it becomes a QB duel the team that has the ball last goes to the SB.

Speaking of the Super Bowl the NFL is going to highlight the TWO “anthems” in their pre-game ceremonies.  You know…the new racial one… and the old racist one written by Francis Scott Key. 

Sports Illustrated was always a favorite of mine as a kid, especially in the Spring!  Then they went woke and got CNN involved and that was it for me!  The other print magazine I still look forward to is Street and Smith’s Football edition in the Fall, and Dave Campbell’s Texas Football.


Have a great week!

Joe Gutilla
Austin, Texas

Dave Campbell’s is really good!  

It would only be fair if black people had to listen to a bunch of no-talent “grammy-award-winning” types f**king with their “Black National Anthem” the way they’ve all but ruined  that  one  that  everyone used to stand for.






He’s the guy on the far left (with Alan Ameche, Johnny Unitas and Lenny Moore)

*********** QUIZ ANSWER:   As Alex Hawkins  told it…

"In football I was what is known as an overachiever. I wasn't big, I wasn't fast. But for 10 years I had managed to stay in the national football league. Hell, I would've played for nothing. More than that, I would've paid the Colts for allowing me to play."

His dad was named Catfish, and in the coalfields of McDowell County, in southwest West Virginia, at the age of 33, he met and married a local girl 17 years younger than he was. She was also taller.  He was 5-6 and she was 5-11. Everyone called her Big Lou.

They  started raising their family in a coal patch called Stringtown.

I’ll let Hawkins himself describe it:

There was one road into and one road out of the valley. The mountains went straight up both sides at a 90° angle. A small creek run alongside the road. On the western side of the road there were small shacks and honky-tonks. The houses were built on the backs of the creeks with the front doors opening onto the road.  The backs of these shanty' were supported by poles driven down into the creek bed. Just a few feet beyond the creek was the base of the mountain.

Saturday nights we would sit on the upstairs porch and watch and listen to the miners in the honky-tonks across the road taking out their frustrations on each other. Fights and shootings were routine on paydays. Law, if enforced at all, was by whim. By Monday, after the bills were paid and the whiskey consumed, the miner's were broke again. You didn't just die of old age in the coal fields, you simply wore out.

All was fine, until one Saturday night in 1938 some of the local miners started shooting up the town. Several of the stray bullets went through our house, and Big Lou stated flatly that this was no place to raise a family.  In less than a month, Catfish had moved his family of four to South Charleston, 145 miles north.

By the time he was high school age, he wanted to play football, but at 16, he was 5-3 and weighed 115 pounds. He was missing a front tooth, and in his own words, had “no public hair.” And then, the following spring, he grew seven inches taller and added 50 pounds.

He developed into a great athlete, and in his senior year, he was all-state in football, basketball and baseball.  After lettering in track as well, he became the first athlete in his school ever to letter in four sports in the same year.

Despite the near-stranglehold that West Virginia coach Pappy Lewis had on in-state talent, South Carolina managed to steal him away, and  his decision to go south was not well-received by the home folks.

My leaving the state bordered on treason. People passing by in cars would  roll down their windows and curse me. How could I do such a thing? Who did I think I was, anyway? Wasn't West Virginia good enough for me? Huh? Overnight, friends and fans of mine had turned violently against me. I was hurt and disillusioned that friends woutd change their attitudes so quickly.

In South Carolina’s run-heavy split-T offense and 5-4 defense, at one point or another he played every non-line position on both offense and defense  and in his senior season was named the conference (South Carolina was then in the ACC) player of the year. For three seasons he led the Gamecocks in scoring. For his junior season he led the team in both receiving yardage and interceptions,  for his senior season he led the team in passing yardage, and for both his junior and senior seasons he was their leading punt returner.

With it all, he was a wild colt, and not at all easy for the head coach to deal with.

After his senior season came the Senior Bowl, in Mobile. He played for the South team, whose coach was (in his words) “a little man named Paul Brown.”

The North team was coached by Joe Kuharich, then head coach of the Redskins.

“When we studied under Paul Brown, we did just that. He was brilliant. This was the first classroom that I ever paid attention in. There were no plays handed out. We took notes at every position, offense and defense. His meeting room was his classroom, and Paul Brown was the professor of football.

We had only 25 players on each team, so everyone was expected to learn every play from every position. I was scheduled to start at defensive cornerback, but I was told I would also play offensive halfback.

One day Paul Brown was going over the ofensive guards’ assignments when he noticed I wasn't taking notes. "Why aren't you taking this down?”  He inquired. "Because I don't play offensive guard,” I shot back. "If I have to play offensive guard, we might as well forfeit,” I said.

Brown studied me silently for a moment, then softly he said, “Hawkins, you're a dog, and you'll never make it in the NFL.” I’ve admired him ever since for being the first person to realize that.

He was drafted  by Green Bay, the first player in the second round of the NFL draft - which meant, in a time when the NFL had only 12 teams, that he was the 13th player drafted.   He didn’t know where Green Bay was. He didn’t even know where Wisconsin was.

It was Vince Lombardi’s first year in Green Bay, and camp was tough.  But he survived until the final cut, following which he went from the worst team in the NFL to the best - the defending champion Baltimore Colts.

He stuck, and for a brief time, following an injury to starter L.G. Dupree, became a member of a backfield that included Johnny Unitas, Alan Ameche and Lenny Moore.  But he was injured himself, and was done for the season , including their second straight  NFL championship game win over the Giants.

He  spent time as a running back but also - in a time of smaller roster sizes - as a defensive back, but it was as a balls-out special teams players that he excelled, and won the hearts of Baltimore fans.

He was almost certainly the first NFL player specifically designated as a special teams captain, a role he relished,  according to former teammate Bill Curry:

“He was a great special-teams player, a great locker room guy, great for morale,” Curry said. “Every week, he’d give out the Cutty Sark special-teams award, a bottle of Cutty Sark scotch.    He would stand up and make a long speech about all these plays people made ... but for the 35th time in a row he’d win the award.”

And then came the nickname.  As he himself told it over the years - it came about when Colts’ Coach Don Shula thought it would be a good idea to have a third captain - one to represent the special teams - to accompany Johnny Unitas (offense) and Gino Marchetti (defense) for the coin toss. 

“Well,” he told it,  “the officials came over to the sidelines and met us and said hello to Unitas and Marchetti.  Shula said, ‘Here’s our special-teams captain,  Hawkins.’ and the referee said, ‘Captain Who?’”

Captain Who.  If you ever meet someone who claims he was a Baltimore Colts fan and he can’t tell you who Captain Who was, he’s a fraud. 

Our guy was well known around town as a rogue - he liked to drink and gamble and keep late hours - which vexed his coaches but even further endeared him to Baltimore fans, who came to refer to him as “Captain Who.”

For seven seasons he was a valued member of the Colts, but in 1966 he was taken in the expansion draft by the Atlanta Falcons.  It was said that coach Norb Hecker was hoping he’d provide leadership.  Hecker clearly didn’t do his due diligence.

He didn’t last long with the Falcons.  Three games into the second season he was traded back to the Colts.  Most insiders believe it was because Hecker was tired of his antics.

“I knew this was not going to work at one of our early team meetings,” he said in a 2007 magazine interview. “Norb threatened to take away my BB gun. He opened the team meeting with a question, ‘Who shot out the big light in front of the dorm?’ Since I was the only one with a Red Ryder,  all eyes turned on me.”

He returned to the Colts’ lineup for the remainder of that season, and all of the following season, and his last NFL game was the Colts’ upset loss to the Jets in Super Bowl III.

In his ten-year NFL career, he carried  208 times for 787 yards and 10 touchdowns, caught 129 passes for 1,751 yards and 12 touchdowns, returned 52 punts for 358 yards, and six kickoffs for 86 yards.

After retirement he spent several years as a broadcaster (I met him in Jacksonville in 1974 when he was doing WFL games), and he could always be counted on to say some totally off-the-wall thing at any time.  After one particular inane comment, his broadcast partner, the legendary Vin Scully,  asked him on-air if he’d worn a helmet when he played. 

Finally, the network suits had enough.

He never lost his boyish irreverence, as he showed years later, at a 2004 Colts’ reunion.

“We had a reception at one nice place,” Bill Curry recalled,  “and we were going to get on a bus and go to another nice place.  The head coach always sits in the front seat,  as if there was a big sign there.

“Shula comes to get on the bus, and Hawk is sitting there. Everybody just cracked up, and Shula just says, ‘Some things never change.’

Hawkins' memoir - “My Story (And I’m Sticking To It)" - is a classic.




CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING ALEX HAWKINS

GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY









*********** QUIZ: He was born on Aug. 9, 1946, in Lincoln Park, New Jersey. . His father had played football at Bucknell,  then played fullback for the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1940 before leaving to fight in World War II;  after the war he played one more year with the Steelers,  then became  a high school coach.

The son played football, basketball and baseball at Boonton (NJ) High School before going to Wyoming to play college ball.

For three straight years he was the Cowboys’ leading rusher. He was the only player ever to lead the WAC in rushing for three straight years, and was the first ever to earn first team All-WAC honors three straight years.  In his junior year, he was named MVP of the Sun Bowl after rushing for 135 yards and two TDs in their 28-20 win over Florida State.

In his senior year, as team captain, he led the Cowboys to an undefeated regular season and a fifth-place finish nationally, and to a Sugar Bowl appearance against LSU (where the Cowboys lost, 20-13).

He was taken by the Miami Dolphins, then in the AFL, in the fifth round of the NFL-AFL common draft, then in its second year.

He made the club and, as halfback  in the two-man backfield then employed by pro football teams,  he teamed with another rookie, fullback Larry Csonka, whom he’d met at  the previous summer’s College All-Star game.  (Later, they would be joined by another runner, Mercury Morris.

He was extremely versatile.  Not only was he a tough runner  with a nose for the end zone, but he was a good receiver and a very good blocker.  And he ws extremely tough, often playing with  injuries that would have sidelined most players.

In his first two seasons he led the team in rushing, and he played in the AFL All-Star game both seasons.

In his second year he led the AFL in rising touchdowns, and in his third season he led  the AFC (the leagues had merged) in rushing yards, and led the Dolphins in receiving.

In his fourth season - 1971 - he was  the only player in the NFL to be in the top 15 in rushing and pass receptions.

Following the 1972 and 1973 seasons, the Dolphins won back-to-back Super Bowls , and he scored six touchdowns in post-season play.   One of those touchdowns came in the Dolphins’ 14-7 win over the Washington Redskins’ in Super Bowl VII that wrapped up the only perfect season in NFL history.

He and Csonka were not only running mates in the backfield, but they were close friends.  Their friendship started when they were teammates on the College All-Star team before their rookie year, and they became roommates and drinking buddies.  Their off-the-field  capers earned him the nickname Butch Cassidy and Csonka the nickname Sundance Kid, after the characters in the popular movie at the time, and they were on the cover of Sports Illustrated.

In 1974, he,  Csonka, and  star receiver Paul Warfield, played out their options. (The rule at the time required a player whose contract had  expired to play one final year - an “option year” - for his current team before becoming a free agent.)

This was not a common practice at the time, but in their case they had an unusual incentive to do so. They were paid extremely large bonuses to sign “future” contracts, calling for them to play, after they’d played out their options in the NFL, for a new league being formed - the World Football League. The news of their signing made front-page headlines all over the country, and spurred interest in the WFL among  fans, players - and  investors.

They played for Memphis in the WFL for as long as the league lasted - which was less than a full season - and in  1976 they all returned to the NFL.

Our guy played two seasons in Denver and Washington and then hung them up.

In later life he suffered from Alzheimer’s disease for several years and died in August, 2020  in Florida in an assisted living center.   

Because of the coronavirus, his daughter had been unable to enter his room.

“It’s pretty hard when you’re sitting on the outside of the glass and can’t do anything to cheer him up,” she wrote on  Twitter shortly before he died. “He’s lost the spark in his eyes, as anyone would in this situation.”

A former Wyoming teammate remembered him fondly. "I believe (he) was one of the toughest Cowboys ever to play," he said.  "He was double tough, period.  I remember him playing games with broken ribs when it killed him to even breathe.  But he had Jack (trainer Aggers) rig up a make-shift girdle and tape it to those ribs so he could play.

"I can tell you whoever got in the way of that toss sweep was going to get punished.  He had the mentality of a defensive player.  He attacked.  He was the ultimate competitor.  He was just a very special football player.”




TUESDAY, JANUARY  23, 2024   “Credulity and falsehood copulate, and give birth to opinion.” Paul Valéry


***********   Today - Monday - it was finally safe for us to walk up the hill to the street, and to drive our car on the streets.  It wasn't so bad.   We had a warm house, plenty of food (and beer and wine), books to read and football on TV. And we had each other.  Actually, it was kind of fun.


*********** I never thought I would say this after the frequency and fervor with which  I’ve expressed my  dislike of the NFL and its workings, but my disgust with college football and the f**king joke it’s becoming may be driving me into the arms of the devil:  this past weekend I watched every single NFL game, all four of the conference semi-finals, in their entirety.

“College” football?  College?  Give me a break.

The  fairy tale that we lived in not so very long ago, the one in which college kids in the  stands cheered, praised and hailed a team made up of other college kids from their school - extolling it to fight on,  march down the field, hit harder, defend our honor, bear down, conquer, etc. has become a joke.  And we’re the butt of it.  We fell for it, because we so desperately wanted to believe what we thought we were seeing.

What we’re seeing now is the removal of the mask:  the elimination of any pretense of players’ playing out of loyalty, respect, commitment, devotion, whatever - and becoming venal mercenaries.

In the process, the great masses are being sucked into believing that unless they contribute large enough sums of money to pay those college kids to play those college games, why - horrors - their team will no longer dominate, conquer, rule, etc.

It is an absolute fact that  certain outstanding football and basketball players are being paid seven figure sums, and the joke is that it’s for the use of their “Name, Image and/or Likeness.”  Yeah, right.  It’s so dishonest.  At least when you watch an NFL game, you know that those players you’re watching are being paid to play football.  Period. And when you see them tout State Farm or USAA on commercials you know they’re  being paid for the use of their Name/Image/Likeness. At least it’s an honest business transaction.

(Has any college athlete other than Bryce Young or Caleb Williams actually made a bona fide national commercial?)

I wish I could say this to the big money people whose conscience doesn’t bother them when they make a millionaire out of a  college kid simply for playing football or basketball: unless you also give the same amount to such as St. Jude’s, or Shriners’ Hospitals, or Boys Town, or Hillsdale College, or your local no-kill pet shelter, I think it’s the epitome of selfish decadence to hand exorbitant sums of money to a college kid for nothing more than the expectation that  he (or she) will play well enough to win games for your team.



***********   THE NFL QUARTERFINALS (OR WHATEVER THEY’RE CALLED)

AFC

RAVENS 34,  TEXANS 10 - Texans’ QB C. J. Stroud came back down to earth - 175 yards on 33 attempts. The Texans’ “running” game?  38 yards.  Baltimore’s defense is really tough, and unless I see something spectacular in the next few weeks, Lamar Jackson is the league MVP. I will be a (Baltimore) Colts fan until I die, but it’s gratifying to me to see a great team in Baltimore and to see Baltimore people excited about it.
 

CHIEFS 27,  BILLS 24 - I feel terrible for the fans of Buffalo.  I like the town and I like the Bills and I like Josh Allen, but sheesh, guys - Allen can’t be the whole offense. They ran 78 offensive plays - 39 running and 39 passing - and Allen was either the runner or passer on 51 of them. You’d think that a team that fired its offensive coordinator during the season would have found one that could develop a running game that involves more than the QB, and a passing game that got them more than a pathetic 4.8 yards per pass attempt. The Chiefs are just better, and even though I’m sick of Mahomes on those State Farm commercials, I think he’s a better QB than Allen.

NFC

LIONS 31,  BUCCANEERS 23 - Another nice QB story - the QB the Rams didn’t want (Jared Goff) against the QB nobody wanted (Baker Mayfield), and both acquitted themselves well. Goff completed 30 of 43 for 287 and two TDs. Mayfield completed 26 of 41  for 349 and three TDs. The Bucs’ running game was anemic, while the Lions’ Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery accounted for 107 yards between them. Add in receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown and tight end Sam LaPorta and the Lions have the people to give the 49ers a game next week.  I like both coaches - Dab Campbell who looks like he came out of Central Casting when they asked for a “tough guy,” and Todd Bowles, who exudes calm. 


49ERS 24, PACKERS 21 - It was a good game and the better team won.  Both young QBs are impressive, and both teams have good running attacks. (The Packers’ Aaron Jones rushed for 108, the 49ers’ Christian McCaffrey for 98.) The  49ers had the better defense, and they showed they can come from behind. It will be interesting to see how quickly and how well Niner’s WR Deebo Samuels recovers.


I think that either of the AFC teams - Ravens or Chiefs - will win the Super Bowl because they’ve got those super-mobile QBs.


*********** The big news from overseas is that a Welsh rugby player named Louis Rees-Zammit has decided to walk away from professional rugby to try his hand at American  football.

Why would he do it?  Why did the college football player cross the road? Money.

If he makes an NFL roster as a backup, he’ll still make a lot more money.

It’s a consequence of something the NFL calls its International Player Pathway Program, designed to help a  foreign athlete transition to football. And in preparation for the draft, he’s  coming to the States to spend 10 weeks preparing for the American game.

He’s got decent size - he’s 6-3, 215 - and he’s very fast - apparently on the order of Tyreek Hill fast.

Here’s a YouTube compilation of every try (touchdown, in rugbyspeak) he’s ever scored. He’s  scored a bunch, so it goes for 15 minutes, but I only had to watch 5 minutes of it to say that Louis is in for the shock of his life.
 
He hasn’t taken a hit.  Not a  football hit.  (Tough as rugby is, don’t you believe for one minute that they hit as hard.) Nor did I see him break a tackle.  He’s never had to block - blocking’s illegal in rugby. So that rules out running back. 

And since the only “passes” that rugby players ever catch are laterals, and there’s no such thing in rugby as “running a route,” or “getting open," he’s got a lot to learn there as well.  And then there’s all that football jargon to learn.

So much for offense.  On defense, he may be able to tackle, but he’s never had to  cover a receiver or try to intercept a pass.

I’ve seen so many great athletes with zero football experience get chewed up and spit out by the NFL that while this is big news on the rugby scene, it deserves a big ho-hum over here.



*********** Only one thing wrong with seeing Jason Kelce, bare-chested up in the box at the Bills-Chiefs game - it looked like that was a can of Bud Light in his hand.


*********** I’m getting pissed at the NFL’s promotion of flag football, with the guy in the audio saying, “there’s a position for everybody.”

Look, fool, I want to say  - I’m wise to your game.  I know that you want to replace tackle football with flag.

But one of the beauties of football - tackle football, that is - is it’s the ONE team sport that the  big, heavy kids who haven’t yet grown into their bodies can play.

But, despite what the guy in the ad says, there isn’t a position in flag football for them.


*********** My wife loves to watch what goes on down on the field after the game - who’s talking to whom, what guys seem to be friends, the lasting friendships that playing the game has forged  - and I agree.  I think it would be great promotion for the game itself and the benefits it provides if parents (especially mothers) could see more of that.


*********** Erin Andrews, prefacing her post-game interview with 49ers’ QB Brock Purdy: “It wasn’t pretty…”

Hey Erin, I’m pretty sure they won. Nobody’s interested in your style points.


*********** Is anybody else tired of this Mayhem a**hole?


*********** It’s great for the NFL and great for the people of the Detroit area to see the Lions just one win away from the Super Bowl.  They’re the only NFC team never to have played in the game. (In the AFC, Cleveland, Houston and Jacksonville have yet to play in it.)


***********  I’m old enough to remember the last time the Lions won the NFL title (1957).  And in front of me I have a copy of the November 15, 1954 issue of Sports Illustrated (back when it was a real sports magazine), in which there’s a feature article on the Lions.

Opening paragraph:

“Buddy Parker is tall, taciturn and Texan. His Detroit Lions have won the national professional football championship two years in a row and have a good chance of winning again this year.” 

(But they didn’t. They did win again - in 1957 - but when this was written no one could possibly have foreseen that they would win just once more in the next 70 years.)


*********** A  Bridgeport, Texas high school soccer coach was arrested Friday for “felony theft.” He’s charged with using the school district credit card at a strip club, specifically - charging $5,455.81 worth of something (?) at “The Men’s Club of Houston” back in July, while in the city for a coaching clinic.

 Actually, he’s been the former soccer coach since back in September when the district “found evidence” that he’d used the card.  

Wouldn’t you like to have been a fly on the wall when the superintendent called the guy in and said, “This item for $5,455.81 at the Men’s Club of Houston - could we see what you purchased?”


*********** There was a post circulating on social media by some guy in Tucson claiming to be an Arizona booster, informing former Arizona coach Jedd Fisch, who’d bolted for Washington, that he wouldn’t be getting any more Arizona players - that he, the booster, would see to that.  See, right after Fisch left, Arizona’s QB and their leading receiver entered the portal together, saying that they were for sale as a team (actually, they didn’t say they were for sale - they said they were for rent.  No, they didn’t say that, either. Just joking.  Sort of.)  It was assumed that they would wind up in Seattle, with Fisch.  Now, maybe it was just BS, but right after our booster made his claim, shazam! - the QB and receiver announced (as a team) that they were removing themselves from  the portal, and staying at Arizona.

 
*********** Very few people knew the ins and outs of college football the way the late Beano Cook did.  He also knew the ins and outs of betting on sports, and while he insisted that he seldom bet himself, he openly admitted that he knew - and liked, and socialized with - bookies.

He loved  football, but he   didn’t allow himself to be kidded into thinking that betting didn’t play a huge role in TV viewership.

I found this in his biography, “Haven’t They Suffered Enough?”

If it weren’t for betting, the ratings for TV sports would be 30, maybe even 40 per cent lower. I firmly believe that of all the teams and all the sports, only Notre Dame and Southeastern Conference football could survive on sheer fandom alone.”

*********** The prestigious New Orleans private school that’s produced two generations of Manning football players has been hit hard by the Louisiana High School Athletic Association for basketball recruiting violations.

The Isadore Newman School has been placed on “restrictive probation” and will be ineligible to play in postseason tournaments this season; The school will forfeit all basketball games during the past three seasons; the head coach will be suspended from “all coaching related duties”  for one calendar year.


*********** Sports Illustrated - What a treasure it once as. What a POS it became.

It started out covering all sports - not just those that catered to mass audiences but those that would appeal to the upscale readership that advertisers craved.  It spent  a lot of money on photographers and the best of sports journalists, sometimes going outside the world of sports journalism. 

It became the standard by which the importance of sporting events and  sports figures were measured.   To be on the cover of Sports Illustrated was to have arrived - you were BIG.

My sister-in-law-to-be gave me a  subscription to Sports Illustrated in 1954, when it first came out.  Until recent years, I looked forward to every issue.

I’ve kept most of them over the years, and my wife, bless her, put a lot of time into cataloging them.  It’s really fun to go back and grab an old copy and browse through it.  But at the same time, it’s sad to see what we once were, compared to what we are now.

Talk about shrinkflation  - today’s Sports Illustrated has been greatly thinned down, and it’s gone from weekly  to monthly publication. Its content has definitely become “inclusive.”  From publishing an annual swimsuit issue once eagerly awaited by teenage boys because of the semi-nudity of its glamorous models (this was before online porn), it’s taken to showing photos of males (who “identify as female”)  in bikinis.

Anyhow, having just informed its  staff that it’s time for them to look elsewhere for work, it’s as good as gone now.

I feel sorry for the workers, but I won’t miss Sports Illustrated.  I got over it long ago. It’s been dead for years.



***********  Good Morning Coach!
I hope this message finds you doing well! What a shame college football has become. I  share many of your sentiments about it.

I’m reaching out to you as I’m looking for my old DW playbook and can’t seem to come across it, but what it had in it that the dynamics 3.0 doesn’t have is a page with all of your formations and how you would label them like the old book had. Wondering if something like that exists still for the double wing and also if you’ve finished work on or have anything more to add to the open wing since I purchased that a few years back.


We’re looking at tweaking a few things this season within the system. We’ve ran primarily out of tight formation but would like to utilize other formations within your trusted system.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your time,

Josh Cole
Schuyler County Storm Football
Watkins Glen, New York

Hi Coach,

You bring up a good point and one that I’ve heard several times.

There simply wasn’t space in the 3.0 Playbook to cover formations other than the base, and because multiple formations are a VERY important part of my personal system, I have been working on an entire additional playbook that covers the subject.

In fact, I’m going to touch on that on my Zoom  tomorrow night.   Let me know if you’d like an invite.

Here’s a shot of one of the pages from the new book, dealing with just one change in formation. 



Also, as you inquired, I’m trying to work on an addition to the Open Wing digital playbook.

Please be patient with me if you would because it seems as if I’m always pressed for time to devote to these projects.  




***********   A guy asked me whether NFL players still kneel during the Anthem. That stumped me. I don't think they are, but we typically don't see what happens before kickoff. And I disappoint myself when I note how casually I drifted back to watching it. The very sight of Roger Goodell (did you know we're having games in Antarctica--what's the capital of that place again?--and Nepal next season in our neverending quest to carry football to the outer boundaries of the world) causes me to turn away. I know my problem's personal, but as I bemoan having succumbed again to NFL and Big Media titans, you remind us they've devised even more ways of making money. Within five years, the rookie minimum salary will be $50 million. And perhaps worse, they'll be taking over CFB in short order. On days like this, I wish football had never been invented. Morons are leading me by the nose. But after scoring a 3 on my fourth try at the Wunderlic, I am a certified Omega-Minus myself.

John Vermillion                        
St Petersburg, Florida





***********   QUIZ ANSWER: After moving around a good bit while he was growing up, Steve Spurrier’s family located in Johnson City, Tennessee when he was 12. At Johnson City’s  Science Hill High School, he was all-state in football, basketball and baseball.  As a pitcher, he was undefeated in three seasons; as a quarterback, he was a high school All-American.

He was heavily recruited by most major southern schools - with the exception of Tennessee, which was still running the single wing and had no use for a passing T-formation  quarterback.  He chose Florida, whose coach, Ray Graves, was a former Tennessee  football great. (Ironically, after our guy’s freshman year at Florida, Tennessee fired its coach, and the new coach, Doug Dickey, junked the single wing and installed his T-formation offense.)

At Florida, our guy was an All-American quarterback  and won the Heisman Trophy in his senior year.

He was a first-round draft pick of the 49ers, and played ten years in the NFL, mostly as a backup.

After retirement as a player, he  spent five years as a college assistant, then three years as head coach of the Tampa Bay Bandits in the USFL, until that league folded.

In 1987 he became head coach at Duke, which had had only two winning seasons (both of them 6-5) in the previous12 years.  The Blue Devils went 5-6 in his first season, then, with his  wide-open passing game,   broke through with a 7-3-1 season, followed by an 8-4 season in 1989. They finished 6-1 and tied for first in the ACC, making it to their first bowl game in 24 years. (They lost the bowl game, incidentally, in no small part because instead of  preparing his team for the game, he was on the road recruiting for his next job, which he’d already accepted, at Florida.)

He spent 12 seasons in Florida.  Placing a then-unconventional emphasis on the passing game,  he had one of the greatest tenures of any coach in college football history.

Although ineligible to play in a bowl game his first season because of NCAA violations by the previous coach,  the Gators  finished  9-2, good for first place in the SEC.

Once the Gators were bowl eligible the following year, he took them to a bowl game every season thereafter. They won ten or more games nine times, and the other three times they finished with nine wins. They finished in the top 15 every one of his seasons, and eight times in the Top Ten. He won six SEC championships, and was named SEC Coach of the Year five times.   In 1996, the Gators won the national title.

His six straight years winning ten games of more (1993-1998) are second only to Nick Saban’s 16 straight 10+ win seasons.

After 12 seasons, with a record of 122-27-1, he took his “fun and gun” offense to the NFL, as head coach of the Washington Those Who Must Not Be Named.

It didn’t go well. After 7-9 and 9-11 seasons,  working with notoriously meddlesome owner Dan Snyder, he stepped down.

His biggest mistake, he told Paul Finebaum: "I went to the team that offered the most money instead of the best situation.”

Later, in an interview with The Washington Post, he said, “I did a lousy job. The GM did a lousy job. He happened to be the owner, so who needed to go?"

He was out of work for exactly one year, until he succeeded Lou Holtz at South Carolina.

In his first season there (2005) he took the Gamecocks to an unexpected 7-5 season, earning SEC Coach of the Year honors.  One of the wins was over Tennessee in Knoxville for the first time ever, and over Florida for the first time since 1939.

In 11 years at South Carolina, he was 86-49 (44-40 in the SEC). Nine of his teams went to bowl games. In 2011-12-13   he had three straight 11-2  seasons - and  three Top Ten finishes.

Perhaps of most importance to South Carolina people, he was 6-5 against Clemson, and from 2009 through 2013, Carolina defeated Clemson five years in a row - something that hadn’t been done before in the history of the rivalry.

In 2014 South Carolina went 7-6, and in 2015, with a 2-4 mark, he resigned in mid-season.

His overall record was 228–89-2.  In 26 years as a college head coach, he had only two losing seasons: his first one (at Duke) and his last one (at South Carolina).

Steve Spurrier is one of only four people to have been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as both a player and a coach. (The others: Amos Alonzo Stagg, Bobby Dodd, Bowden Wyatt).


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING STEVE SPURRIER

GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
TOM DAVIS - SAN MARCOS, CALIFORNIA
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
RODNEY LUNSFORD - WESTFIELD, INDIANA
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
BRAD KNIGHT - CLARINDA, IOWA
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
TOM WALLS - WINNIPEG, MANITOBA
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY




He’s the guy on the far left (with Alan Ameche, Johnny Unitas and Lenny Moore)

*********** QUIZ:   As he told it…

"In football I was what is known as an overachiever. I wasn't big, I wasn't fast. But for 10 years I had managed to stay in the national football league. Hell, I would've played for nothing. More than that, I would've paid the Colts for allowing me to play."

His dad was named Catfish, and in the coalfields of McDowell County, in southwest West Virginia, at the age of 33, he met and married a local girl 17 years younger than he was. She was also taller.  He was 5-6 and she was 5-11. Everyone called her Big Lou.

They  started raising their family in a coal patch called Stringtown.

I’ll let our guy describe it:

There was one road into and one road out of the valley. The mountains went straight up both sides at a 90° angle. A small creek run alongside the road. On the western side of the road there were small shacks and honky-tonks. The houses were built on the backs of the creeks with the front doors opening onto the road.  The backs of these shanty' were supported by poles driven down into the creek bed. Just a few feet beyond the creek was the base of the mountain.

Saturday nights we would sit on the upstairs porch and watch and listen to the miners in the honky-tonks across the road taking out their frustrations on each other. Fights and shootings were routine on paydays. Law, if enforced at all, was by whim. By Monday, after the bills were paid and the whiskey consumed, the miner's were broke again. You didn't just die of old age in the coal fields, you simply wore out.

All was fine, until one Saturday night in 1938 some of the local miners started shooting up the town. Several of the stray bullets went through our house, and Big Lou stated flatly that this was no place to raise a family.  In less than a month, Catfish had moved his family of four to South Charleston, 145 miles north.

By the time he was high school age, he wanted to play football, but at 16, he was 5-3 and weighed 115 pounds. He was missing a front tooth, and in his own words, had “no public hair.” And then, the following spring, he grew seven inches taller and added 50 pounds.

He developed into a great athlete, and in his senior year, he was all-state in football, basketball and baseball.  After lettering in track as well, he became the first athlete in his school ever to letter in four sports in the same year.

Despite the near-stranglehold that West Virginia coach Pappy Lewis had on in-state talent, South Carolina managed to steal him away, and  his decision to go south was not well-received by the home folks.

My leaving the state bordered on treason. People passing by in cars would  roll down their windows and curse me. How could I do such a thing? Who did I think I was, anyway? Wasn't West Virginia good enough for me? Huh? Overnight, friends and fans of mine had turned violently against me. I was hurt and disillusioned that friends woutd change their attitudes so quickly.

In South Carolina’s run-heavy split-T offense and 5-4 defense, at one point or another he played every non-line position on both offense and defense  and in his senior season was named the conference (South Carolina was then in the ACC) player of the year. For three seasons he led the Gamecocks in scoring. For his junior season he led the team in both receiving yardage and interceptions,  for his senior season he led the team in passing yardage, and for both his junior and senior seasons he was their leading punt returner.

With it all, he was a wild colt, and not at all easy for the head coach to deal with.

After his senior season came the Senior Bowl, in Mobile. He played for the South team, whose coach was (in his words) “a little man named Paul Brown.”

The North team was coached by Joe Kuharich, then head coach of the Redskins.

“When we studied under Paul Brown, we did just that. He was brilliant. This was the first classroom that I ever paid attention in. There were no plays handed out. We took notes at every position, offense and defense. His meeting room was his classroom, and Paul Brown was the professor of football.

We had only 25 players on each team, so everyone was expected to learn every play from every position. I was scheduled to start at defensive cornerback, but I was told I would also play offensive halfback.

One day Paul Brown was going over the ofensive guards’ assignments when he noticed I wasn't taking notes. "Why aren't you taking this down?”  He inquired. "Because I don't play offensive guard,” I shot back. "If I have to play offensive guard, we might as well forfeit,” I said.

Brown studied me silently for a moment, then softly he said, “(——), you're a dog, and you'll never make it in the NFL.” I’ve admired him ever since for being the first person to realize that.

He was drafted  by Green Bay, the first player in the second round of the NFL draft - which meant, in a time when the NFL had only 12 teams, that he was the 13th player drafted.   He didn’t know where Green Bay was. He didn’t even know where Wisconsin was.

It was Vince Lombardi’s first year in Green Bay, and camp was tough.  But he survived until the final cut, following which he went from the worst team in the NFL to the best - the defending champion Baltimore Colts.

He stuck, and for a brief time, following an injury to starter L.G. Dupree, became a member of a backfield that included Johnny Unitas, Alan Ameche and Lenny Moore.  But he was injured himself, and was done for the season , including their second straight  NFL championship game win over the Giants.

He  spent time as a running back but also - in a time of smaller roster sizes - as a defensive back, but it was as a balls-out special teams players that he excelled, and won the hearts of Baltimore fans.

He was almost certainly the first NFL player specifically designated as a special teams captain, a role he relished,  according to former teammate Bill Curry:

“He was a great special-teams player, a great locker room guy, great for morale,” Curry said. “Every week, he’d give out the Cutty Sark special-teams award, a bottle of Cutty Sark scotch.    He would stand up and make a long speech about all these plays people made ... but for the 35th time in a row he’d win the award.”

And then came the nickname.  As he himself told it over the years - it came about when Colts’ Coach Don Shula thought it would be a good idea to have a third captain - one to represent the special teams - to accompany Johnny Unitas (offense) and Gino Marchetti (defense) for the coin toss. 

“Well,” he told it,  “the officials came over to the sidelines and met us and said hello to Unitas and Marchetti.  Shula said, ‘Here’s our special-teams captain,  (——).’ and the referee said, ‘Captain Who?’”

Captain Who.  If you ever meet someone who claims he was a Baltimore Colts fan and he can’t tell you who Captain Who was, he’s a fraud. 

Our guy was well known around town as a rogue - he liked to drink and gamble and keep late hours - which vexed his coaches but even further endeared him to Baltimore fans, who came to refer to him as “Captain Who.”

For seven seasons he was a valued member of the Colts, but in 1966 he was taken in the expansion draft by the Atlanta Falcons.  It was said that coach Norb Hecker was hoping he’d provide leadership.  Hecker clearly didn’t do his due diligence.

He didn’t last long with the Falcons.  Three games into the second season he was traded back to the Colts.  Most insiders believe it was because Hecker was tired of his antics.

“I knew this was not going to work at one of our early team meetings,” he said in a 2007 magazine interview. “Norb threatened to take away my BB gun. He opened the team meeting with a question, ‘Who shot out the big light in front of the dorm?’ Since I was the only one with a Red Ryder,  all eyes turned on me.”

He returned to the Colts’ lineup for the remainder of that season, and all of the following season, and his last NFL game was the Colts’ upset loss to the Jets in Super Bowl III.

In his ten-year NFL career, he carried  208 times for 787 yards and 10 touchdowns, caught 129 passes for 1,751 yards and 12 touchdowns, returned 52 punts for 358 yards, and six kickoffs for 86 yards.

After retirement he spent several years as a broadcaster (I met him in Jacksonville in 1974 when he was doing WFL games), and he could always be counted on to say some totally off-the-wall thing at any time.  After one particular inane comment, his broadcast partner, the legendary Vin Scully,  asked him on-air if he’d worn a helmet when he played.  Finally, the network suits had enough.

He never lost his boyish irreverence, as he showed years later, at a 2004 Colts’ reunion.

“We had a reception at one nice place,” Bill Curry recalled,  “and we were going to get on a bus and go to another nice place.  The head coach always sits in the front seat,  as if there was a big sign there.

“Shula comes to get on the bus, and (our guy) is sitting there. Everybody just cracked up, and Shula just says, ‘Some things never change.’

His memoir - “My Story (And I’m Sticking To It) - is a classic.




FRIDAY, JANUARY  19, 2024   “If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll end up someplace else.”  Yogi Berra

***********   It’s now Thursday night and we haven’t been out of the house since Monday. Last  Saturday we got hammered with a combination of snow/wind/cold - took out a  lot of big trees in the Portland area  - but at least we were able to get of the house a couple of times a day for short  walks with the dog.  But then   the freezing rain came on Monday, and since then, with the temperatures staying below freezing, we haven’t been out of the house at all.  Haven’t been able to go anywhere. I’m just not in favor of falling on my ass, and  now, with the temperature at 34  and a light drizzle falling, I can’t imagine  anything more slippery than a thin coat of water,  on top of a thick crust of ice, on top of snow.  Yeah.  Global climate change.


*********** Okay. I confess. I pungled up the money to pay Peacock so they’d let me watch the Chiefs play the Dolphins on Saturday night. And so, according to Nielsen, the rating service, did another 23 million or so viewers.

By comparison, the three college football playoff games averaged 23.6 million viewers. And they were free.  (Okay, you actually paid for ESPN, but it doesn’t feel like pay TV.)

What’s scary is that now that the NFL  and various streaming services have seen that great  numbers of the American public will pay to watch individual  games,  we’ve seen the future of pro football on TV.



***********   A little background in The Athletic on Arizona’s new coach, Brent Brennan, who’d been head coach at San Jose State for the past seven seasons…

Brennan’s 34-48 career record isn’t impressive but that requires some serious context. San Jose State is one of the toughest places to coach in the country. Brennan has to fundraise to ensure his players can have breakfast in the football facility every day because the school can’t afford it — players receive swipe cards to eat lunch and dinner on campus. The Spartans practice on a field with broken field goal posts. In the 26 seasons before Brennan took over in 2017, San Jose State made just three bowl games. He’s led the Spartans to three bowls in the past four seasons with little-to-no resources — position coaches have to set up their own drills — competing against programs with much bigger budgets like Boise State, Fresno State and San Diego State."

Brent Brennan’s wife is a graduate of Arizona, and he’s coached in the past with Arizona favorite Dick Tomey.  I’m not the biggest Washington fan in the world, but I do care about the Huskies, and personally, I’d have preferred they hire Brennan instead of the guy he’s replacing at Arizona, Jedd Fisch. I don’t know what it is, exactly, but there’s something about Jedd Fisch  that I just don’t like.

Meanwhile, the butterfly continues to flap its wings and  San Jose State is now in the market for a  coach.


***********   Sports Business Journal asked sports business executives and others what changes they would make in the industry if they were in charge. One of those who responded was Maggy Carlyle, Senior V-P of Legal Affairs and General Counsel of the Detroit Lions…

With college football on the cusp of moving to an employment model, and conference realignment further consolidating media broadcast rights, there is no better time for the NFL to take an ownership stake in its primary development league.  Acquiring the CFP, the NFL will be best positioned to launch a College Football League, inviting the current top-tier FBS schools who have the resources and make the investment to compete nationally. The NFL can use the CFP and CFL to directly develop coaches, refs and players; test out new rules; improve scheduling for the NFL and CFL; extend its international reach; and grow the game of football.

It may sound wacky at first, and there would  probably be antitrust hurdles to overcome, but this is actually the most sensible response I’ve yet seen to the anguished  pleas for “somebody” to “do something” to stop the runaway college football train before it gets to the washed-out bridge.

It sure isn’t going to be the feckless NCAA.  And it sure isn’t going to be anyone from among the current “Power 4” schools, obsessed as they are with destroying each other in order to enrich themselves.

Not that money would be a problem, but the NFL wouldn’t have to acquire teams - only the Playoff itself. I have no idea who actually “owns” it, but let the NFL start talking money and we’d soon find  out.

And once it did that, controlling access to the playoff would enable it to decide which teams to admit to its new college league - which teams were best prepared, based on their resources, recent on-field and financial success and, perhaps, market size.

It would seem to me that the NFL might use its current 32-team, 8-division setup as its template, which would leave 100 or so FBS teams out in the cold.  (More on that later.)



***********   After all the things that the environerds have done to try to save the planet, you’d think Mother Earth would be more grateful.

But  there are all those wonderful people who’d bought EVs -  who’d done their part to “make a difference” as they say - and what did Mother Earth do?

Why, she sent them bitter cold weather, rendering  their batteries, their  charging stations, and - yes - their cars useless.

That ungrateful bitch.



*********** Jason Kelce may or may not be retiring.  I hope he doesn’t, but he’s had a heck of a career and could wind up in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

So, too, could his brother, Travis.

If so, they would make great additions to my list of guys who played a different position in high school from the one that earned them lasting fame in the NFL.

Jason played linebacker in high school.  Travis played quarterback.  Both changed positions at Cincinnati.

Two guys that I know of who are in the Hall of Fame but played quarterback in high school:

Russ Grimm, who made it as an offensive lineman.

Jack Lambert, who made it as a linebacker.

Two others who have an excellent chance of making it into the Hall of Fame:

Kam Chancellor, who played QB in HS and safety  with the Seahawks

Julian Edelman, who played QB at Kent State and WR with the Patriots

In this age of players and their parents obsessing over “preparing for the next level,” this list might come in handy the next time you ask a kid to change positions.


***********  From the sports pages of The Babylon Bee

PIERRE, SD — According to reports, young Martin Durfling had his dream of being an NFL referee completely crushed after learning he was born with a genetic condition that would prevent him from ever reaching the big leagues. After multiple visits, doctors confirmed that Durfling was born with 20/20 vision.


"Martin's taking it well, but we're in a daze as a family," said Martin's father while his wife wiped away tears with one of Martin's toy yellow flags. "How do you adjust to a new life that is suddenly void of your child's lifelong dream, simply because he was born with the unfortunate gift of sight?”


The Durfling family Optometrist said the family should have seen the warning signs in Martin early on, including his ability to make out large objects like trucks and houses. "The fact that he could watch a football game on television and know what was happening - we should have known," cried his mother, Donna. "If only he had suffered some terrible accident, like acid being splashed into his eyes, his dream would be alive. Why, Lord?”


At publishing time, Martin Durfling had embraced a new dream of becoming an NBA referee after learning to accept bribes.

 


***********  Do titles mean anything?  You decide.

From our nation’s founding until 1947, we had a Secretary of War.  It was a cabinet-level position, fifth in line (after the Vice-President, Speaker of the House, President pro tem of the Senate and Secretary of State) to succeed the President. 

In 1947, that position was split into the Secretary of the Army and Secretary of the Air Force, and replaced by the newly-titled Secretary of Defense.

Wars won under a Secretary of War (Before 1947):

Revolution
1812
Mexico
Civil War
Spanish-American War
World War I
World War II

Wars won under a Secretary of Defense (After 1947):



***********  “DUH”  Department

I found these gems in an article about avalanches, written by one Rebecca Boone, AP

       Last winter, 30 people died in avalanches in the US. They all were skiers, snowboarders, snowmobilers, snowshoers, climbers, or hikers.

Hmmm. No surfers or tennis players?

       Where do most avalanches occur? The vast majority occurred in the wilderness.

Hmmm. Not  downtown Chicago?


*********** Governor Gavin Newsom, of California, who has aspirations of running for higher office, evidently figured out that trying to ban youth football (for kids under 12) is a losing issue in a lot of places, so he has announced that even if such a bill were to reach his desk, he wouldn’t sign it into law.


***********  Many liberals disgust me with their attitude that because they are so assured that they’re in the right, that their opinions  are accepted as gospel  by any intelligent person, they can say the most outrageous things, even among  strangers, without concern for the consequences.

One such individual is a gross female named Joy Reid, who somehow has convinced someone in power at a TV network that they should pay her large sums of money for saying those outrageous things on the air.

And that’s how I came to hear Ms. Reid, a black woman,  dismiss the recent election results in Iowa by  saying, “This is a state that’s over-represented with white Christians.”

Wow. Having nothing against white Christians - in fact, I confess to being one myself -  and having had a lot of good experiences in Iowa, I  take offense at Ms. Reid’s insinuation that that means there’s something wrong with the state.

She obviously is ignorant of the fact that Iowa, that state that’s so full of white Christians, has two state universities that have been in the forefront of integrating college football and honoring black football players.
 
In his book, “Footsteps of a Giant,” Emlen Tunnell, New York Giants’ great who was the first black man (and the first defensive player) inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, tells of getting out of the service after World War II and trying out for the football team at the University of Iowa.

“I had never seen so many Negro guys in one place in my life. This was on the University of Iowa practice field in the autumn of 1946. There were 325 candidates for the football team. Many of them were veterans, and 58 were Negroes…

“Most of those Negro boys had come to Iowa for the same reason I had. They knew they would be given a chance to play. Great Negro players were part of the tradition at Iowa, going way back to the days around World War I. Fred (Duke) Slater, who is a judge now in Chicago, was an all American tackle at Iowa right after the first war.”

Duke Slater?  The playing field at the University of Iowa’s Kinnick Stadium is named in his honor.

And at Iowa State University, the football team plays its home games in Jack Trice Stadium, the only  major college stadium in America named for a black man.

Iowa has been doing its part in making America the kind of country most of us would like it to be, and  it  displays  ignorance of Iowa and its people - not to mention racist bigotry - to disparage it because it is happens to be largely white and its people predominantly Christian.



*********** This is what I call a bare cupboard…   It’s the Washington Huskies’ 2023 two-deep.




Those names crossed out in RED are GONE - transferred, out of eligibility, declared for the NFL draft; those crossed out in BLUE are IN THE PORTAL (and theoretically capable of being saved)…

Good luck in the Big Ten next year, Coach Fisch.
 


*********** More and more nowadays, we hear the question, “What’s the value of a college education?”

In a recent letter to the editor of the Wall Street Journal, a writer named Louis DeLeon, from Saint Joseph, Missouri, provided one of the best answers I’ve ever read…

In over three decades of recruiting at universities, I found three significant reasons that college graduates, as a group, out-earn non-college graduates. Graduates had the ambition or initiative to go to college in the first place; the intelligence or mental horsepower to gain admittance; and, most important, by graduating, they proved they could finish what they had started.

The population with those traits inevitably will outperform the population missing one or more of them. What they study in the process is of little relevance.

*********** Based on its GDP, the Portland, Oregon/Vancouver, Washington metro area is ranked 25th in the nation.   By that measure, it has a stronger economy than 1/3 of the areas  that have NFL franchises.  

(in order)
26 - Cincinnati
27 - Pittsburgh
29 - Nashville
30 - Indianapolis
33 - Kansas City
34 - Cleveland
42 - Jacksonville
49 - New Orleans
50 - Buffalo
?? - Green Bay

(But it’s also the largest metro area in America without a stadium large enough for either an NFL team or a Major League baseball team.)


*********** I recently published the obituary of Bill Gunlock, who coached at a number if places and then  went on to a very successful career in business. Jack Morrison, a member of Army’s unbeaten 1958 team (of which Bill Gunlock was an assistant coach) was at Bill Gunlock’s funeral, and shared this with friends…

The highlight of the Service was a rousing, passionate, and animated eulogy by one of Bill's best friends, Jack Harbaugh, the ex-Western Kentucky Head Coach. Bill had recruited Jack to Bowling Green Univ. in 1957 when Bill was the BGSU line coach. Jack is the Father of this season's National Champ Michigan Wolverines HC Jim and the NFL's Baltimore Ravens HC John, who won a Super Bowl against his brother when Jim coached the San Francisco 49ers.

***********   I really liked the Jerry Carle clips on your last Zoom clinic. I had been thinking of trying a half spin series with our open wing stuff. Got my wheels spinning. I have a playbook of his in my stuff.

Adam Wesoloski
Pulaski, Wisconsin

Coach Carle, longtime single wing coach at Colorado College, had some very inventive  ways of moving the ball.


***********   Sonny Lubick  followed Earle Bruce

Earle Bruce (not a good name at my alma mater UNI)

People in Cedar Falls still dislike Coach Bruce. He bailed after just one season and he will never be liked for it....even though he seemed to be a pretty damn good football coach.

Hope you are well.  Polar Vortex 4.0 here in Iowa. Why do I live where the air hurts my skin?

Brad Knight
Clarinda, Iowa



***********   Good find on Press Maravich, Coach. When I see a name ending in 'ch', I know odds are it was formerly ć. Among the legions from the former Yugoslavia who've starred in the US are Tony Kukoć, Luka Dončić, and the one who gets my vote as the greatest basketball player on the court today, Nikola Jokić. Maybe Sonny Lubick's family came from the Balkans, too.

I didn't watch him much in college, but Houston's CJ Stroud is phenomenol. Seeing some of these guys (Lamar Jackson, Joe Burrow, Mahomes) play so well as rookies leads me to believe there's nothing to playing QB in the NFL. That's opposite-talk. I watch in awe of their talent, which is much more than physical.

Like many around the nation, I'm sure, I was pulling hard for Joe Flacco. Near the top of the best football stories of the year. And you're so right, Coach: I felt sorrry for him as he threw those awful interceptions.

Favorite FB commercial: Dr Pepper's hurricane/tornado, with the Boz chiming in on "the transfer portal's out of control. It's taking all our players. There goes our D-Line.”

John Vermillion                        
St Petersburg, Florida

Great commercial - and to think that the rescuer might have kept their QB from being swept away  if he’d just given him his other  hand to hold onto  - but he couldn’t, because,  “THAT'S MY DOCTOR PEPPER HAND!!!”



***********   Hugh,

Like you I was hoping for a better ending for Joe Flacco and the Cleveland Browns.  At the same time I was happy for Jared Goff and the Detroit Lions, Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills, and Baker Mayfield and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.  

I watched Jordan Love when he played at Utah State.  He was good, but it took a few years of being an understudy to Aaron Rogers (what used to be the norm in football at ANY level) to hone his talent and take him to where he is today.  He and his Packers will give the 49ers all they can handle.

Actually, the REAL "threat" to "our" democracy currently occupies the WH.  He and his ilk have cultivated the lack of consequences for breaking rules...PERIOD!

Will be interesting to see how that Alabama line of coaching changes works out for those involved, and I hope and pray that 8 man HS team in Wyoming finds a coach.  BTW...it was announced today that Brent Brennan of San Jose State will be the new HC at Arizona.  Barry Odom is staying put at UNLV.  Former UNLV HC Tony Sanchez takes over at New Mexico State for Jerry Kill.

Speaking of coaching changes.  Fresno State HC Jeff Tedford stepped away from the Bulldogs again due to another health issue.  Sources close to me say it is heart related...again.  Rumor has it Tim Skipper who served as HC during the Bulldogs New Mexico Bowl victory is the favorite to replace Tedford. Not saying anything negative about former Bulldog great and NFL player Skipper, but IMHO former Bulldog great and Super Bowl champ QB with the Ravens Trent Dilfer who is currently the HC at UAB would be a slam dunk pick.


Have a great week!

Joe  Gutilla
Granbury, Texas

 




*********** QUIZ ANSWER:  Sonny Lubick was born and raised in a mining town -  Butte, Montana - where growing up he was a close friend of daredevil Evel Knievel.

After graduating from Christian Brothers High in Butte, he  attended Montana Western, a small NAIA school in nearby (65 miles away, which in Montana is “nearby”) Dillon, Montana.

Right out of college, he taught and coached for two years at Beatty, Nevada, another mining town with a population of 400  and a school  with 39 students in grades 7-12. They played flag football.   He also helped  coach the boys’ and girls’ basketball teams. And taught a full class load. But it was a job, and it paid $5,000 a year.

From there, he returned to Butte  and coached at Butte High for eight years, six as an assistant and  two as the head coach. In 1968 he took his team to a 10-1 record, winning the state Class AA title and AA Coach of the Year honors.

He was hired at Montana State, where from 1970 through 1977 he was defensive coordinator. Under head coach Sonny Holland, the Bobcats won the National Title (then known as Division II) in 1976.

After Holland’s retirement following the 1977 season, our guy took over, and in his very first season as head coach, Montana State finished 8-2 and took second place in the Big Sky Conference.  In his second year, they went 6-1 and won the conference title, but in years three and four the record tailed off, and he was fired. His record in four years was 21-19.

For three years, he served as offensive coordinator at Colorado State, then spent four years assisting Jack Elway at Stanford.

In 1989, he  caught a big break when Dennis Erickson hired him to coach the defense at Miami. (Erickson had been an offensive assistant at Montana State while our guy was the DC, and Erickson had assisted Jack Elway at San Jose State.)

In his four years as Miami’s DC, the Hurricanes went 44-4, twice ranked  Number One and twice ranked  Number Three.

And then he left to return to Colorado State, this time as head coach.

The program was as bad as it could get.  It had been almost 40 years since it had won a conference title.  Since 1960, it had had seven winning seasons, and three winless seasons. In its entire history, it had played in just two bowl games.  Among major colleges, it was in the bottom 10 in all-time winning percentage.

“I thought that if we were lucky, every third or fourth year we could win seven games and get to a bowl game,” he said later. “I was just hoping to keep my job for a few years.”

He kept it for 15 years.  In that time, his teams won 108 games and lost 74. They won or  shared six conference championships, played in nine bowl games, and won 10 or more games four times.

His 1992 went 11-2 - still the best record in school history - and after beating Missouri in the Holiday Bowl, they wound up ranked 16th nationally.

Only one coach in CSU history, Harry Hughes, won more games (125), and it took him from 1911 through 1941 - 31 seasons - to do it.

Thanks to him, the annual game with  Colorado became a major event, played in Denver’s packed Mile High stadium.  He went  4-4 in the rivalry.

In 1994, he was named by Sports Illustrated as its Coach of the Year.

In he 2005 joined Joe Paterno, Bobby Bowden and Frank Beamer as the only four active Division FBS coaches with 100 or more career wins at their current schools.

The field at CSU’s stadium is named in his honor.

Since stepping down as coach following the 2007 season, he has remained in Fort Collins and stayed active in university affairs.

For the past 15 years, he has owned and operated a popular Fort Collins Steakhouse that bears his name.

Sonny Lubick has been inducted into the Montana and Colorado Sports Halls of Fame.

In  an interview at the time of his induction into the Montana Sports Hall of Fame, he summed up his career - “Some of us are just born to be coaches.”



CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING SONNY LUBICK

GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
BRAD KNIGHT - CLARINDA, IOWA
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY






***********   QUIZ: After moving around a bit while he was growing up, his family located in Johnson City, Tennessee when he was 12. At Johnson City’s  Science Hill High School, he was all-state in football, basketball and baseball.  As a pitcher, he was undefeated in three seasons; as a quarterback, he was a high school All-American.

He was heavily recruited by most major southern schools - with the exception of Tennessee, which was still running the single wing and had no use for a passing T-formation  quarterback.  He chose Florida, whose coach, Ray Graves, was a former Tennessee  football great. (Ironically, after our guy’s freshman year at Florida, Tennessee fired its coach, and the new coach, Doug Dickey, junked the single wing and installed his T-formation offense.)

At Florida, our guy was an All-American quarterback  and won the Heisman Trophy in his senior year.

He was a first-round draft pick of the 49ers, and played ten years in the NFL, mostly as a backup.

After retirement as a player, he  spent five years as a college assistant, then three years as head coach of the Tampa Bay Bandits in the USFL, until that league folded.

In 1987 he became head coach at Duke, which had had only two winning seasons (both of them 6-5) in the previous12 years.  The Blue Devils went 5-6 in his first season, then, with his  wide-open passing game,   broke through with a 7-3-1 season, followed by an 8-4 season in 1989. They finished 6-1 and tied for first in the ACC, making it to their first bowl game in 24 years. (They lost the bowl game, incidentally, in no small part because instead of  preparing his team for the game, he was on the road recruiting for his next job, which he’d already accepted, at Florida.)

He spent 12 seasons in Florida.  Placing a then-unconventional emphasis on the passing game,  he had one of the greatest tenures of any coach in college football history.

Although ineligible to play in a bowl game his first season because of NCAA violations by the previous coach,  the Gators  finished  9-2, good for first place in the SEC.

Once the Gators were bowl eligible the following year, he took them to a bowl game every season thereafter. They won ten or more games nine times, and the other three times they finished with nine wins. They finished in the top 15 every one of his seasons, and eight times in the Top Ten. He won six SEC championships, and was named SEC Coach of the Year five times.   In 1996, the Gators won the national title.

His six straight years winning ten games of more (1993-1998) are second only to Nick Saban’s 16 straight 10+ win seasons.

After 12 seasons, with a record of 122-27-1, he took his “fun and gun” offense to the NFL, as head coach of the Washington Those Who Must Not Be Named.

It didn’t go well. After 7-9 and 9-11 seasons,  working with notoriously meddlesome owner Dan Snyder, he stepped down.

His biggest mistake, he told Paul Finebaum: "I went to the team that offered the most money instead of the best situation.”

Later, in an interview with The Washington Post, he said, “I did a lousy job. The GM did a lousy job. He happened to be the owner, so who needed to go?"

He was out of work for exactly one year, until he succeeded Lou Holtz at South Carolina.

In his first season there (2005) he took the Gamecocks to an unexpected 7-5 season, earning SEC Coach of the Year honors.  One of the wins was over Tennessee in Knoxville for the first time ever, and over Florida for the first time since 1939.

In 11 years at South Carolina, he was 86-49 (44-40 in the SEC). Nine of his teams went to bowl games. In 2011-12-13   he had three straight 11-2  seasons - and  three Top Ten finishes.

Perhaps of most importance to South Carolina people, he was 6-5 against Clemson, and from 2009 through 2013, Carolina defeated Clemson five years in a row - something that hadn’t been done before in the history of the rivalry.

In 2014 South Carolina went 7-6, and in 2015, with a 2-4 mark, he resigned in mid-season.

His overall record was 228–89-2.  In 26 years as a college head coach, he had only two losing seasons: his first one (at Duke) and his last one (at South Carolina).

He is one of only four people to have been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as both a player and a coach. (The others: Amos Alonzo Stagg, Bobby Dodd, Bowden Wyatt).



TUESDAY, JANUARY  16,   2024   "I constantly see people rise in life who are not the smartest, sometimes not even the most diligent, but they are learning machines. They go to bed every night a little wiser than they were when they got up.“   Charlie Munger, billionaire partner of Warren Buffett


********** REMEMBER THIS?

In 2018, Coach Mark Richt told ESPN that he felt  that it was unethical for a coach, having  made  a long-term commitment to his players,  to pursue other jobs, 

"I never once have tried to leverage another job for more money. I don't think that's right. The day we took the job, my mentality has always been, 'If you're the head coach, too many lives depend on you.' If I just say on a whim, 'You know, I think I'd rather go here,' well, all these recruits you said something to, all these coaches you said something to, what about them? Every time you hire a coach, you're taking the coach, his wife and his kids on an adventure. They're trusting you and believing in you enough to become a staff member. I don't want to just walk into a room and say, 'Hey, guys, thanks for helping me get to where I really want to be.' It's the same thing with these kids. They've had enough disappointment, enough men leave their lives. You're trying to build trust, and then you bolt on them because of money or because of whatever? I've just never been able to get past that part of it.”

Coaches are always going to bolt.  That’s a given.  And now, so, too, are players.

Below the level of pros and colleges - and increasingly at larger high schools - whatever justification there may once have been for football as a “character builder”  is gone.   What we are witnessing is the death of idealism  and the birth of cynicism.

Time to take down all those corny locker-room signs about loyalty, family, commitment, teamwork, dedication (“I will give my all for Tennessee today”)  and put up realistic ones…

My suggestion (With apologies to Michigan):  THOSE WHO  STAY WILL BE CHUMPS



*********** Not that football coaches are going to be needing the money anyhow, but I don’t see a lot of continued  demand for them as motivational speakers, as if they had secrets they could share with automobile dealers, or beer distributors, or realtors to get their sales forces to be more effective (without, the idea is, having to pay ‘em more).

No, instead of the business people learning from the coaches, the coaches are about to learn what the business people have known for years: you want performance - you’ve got to be prepared to pay for it.


*********** I also think we’ve heard the last of the “he taught me about life” garbage when players describe a big-time coach.  Yeah.  A guy who never had to spend a dime on his college education, who never had a summer job while he was in school, a guy who became a graduate assistant  right out of college and from then on never worked at anything other than football.  A guy who, if he was lucky enough to find the right woman, has been able to rely on her to do anything and everything regarding the house, the kids and the family budget.  A guy who  could send all his kids to an Ivy League college and pay full tuition and never miss the money.  That guy.  He’s a great one to be telling  young guys about life.


*********** No,  I’m not working on the sly as the PR Director of the City of Aliquippa, Pennsylvania… but after writing about some of the football greats who came from there - Mike Ditka, Tony Dorsett, Darelle Revis, etc. -  and the many state football titles the Aliquippa High “Quips” have won, I  happened to be reading a book in which another son of Aliquippa was mentioned.

It was Press Maravich.  Press Maravich, who was once the head basketball coach at Clemson, NC State, LSU and App State. 

He was born and raised in Aliquippa.  For three seasons early in his career he was the head basketball coach at Aliquippa High, and he is buried in Aliquippa.
.  
And Aliquippa is also the birthplace of his son, Pete.  Pete Maravich, though, didn’t go to Aliquippa High because  Press’ jobs took him elsewhere.  Pete went to high school in North Carolina, while Press was coaching at NC State, and he played his college basketball at LSU. (How great was Pete Maravich?  He averaged 44.2 points per game in his college career, and had there been a  3-point shot when he played college basketball, he would undoubtedly have set scoring records that would never be broken.)


***********   I keep hearing that a certain Republican ex-President is a threat to “Our democracy,” and other than wondering why Democrats insist on calling it “our” democracy, as if each party has its own “democracy,” I question how much that frightens people in a nation where an election turnout  of 66 per cent is considered exceptional and 35 per cent is routine.


*********** I’ve heard people bellyaching about all the Taylor Swift sightings at Kansas City Chiefs games, and while I have to admit that at first I found them a bit annoying, I now have a very different take on it.  Surveys show that her presence at Chiefs’ games has attracted a large new audience of young females, and while  the NFL already enjoys a reasonably large female following, I  think that anything that can get more young women watching football games - possibly  leading to  an interest in the game that would give them and young men a common  interest - is a net gain for our society.


*********** I believe that the pros no longer have to wear mouthpieces, although some guys still let them dangle from their face masks, like a piece of plastic jewelry.

In  college football, though, the rules stipulate that a player whose mouthpiece is not in during a play must leave the  field for one play or, in order to allow him to stay in the game, his team must take a time out.  It seems, however, that officials have interpreted the rule as stipulating that  a player must have a mouthpiece in his possession.

Oh, well.  In a country where you and a hundred or so of your best friends can get together and block an interstate highway without  any consequences, it seems sort of silly to be enforcing sports rules.


***********  I was listening to an old coaching friend, Emory Latta, being interviewed on a podcast.   Emory is now the head of school  at Providence Chrstian High School in Dothan, Alabama - in the southeast part of the state - and I heard him say that when he was in college, there were several other guys there, like him,  from “the Wiregrass.”

That was a new one on me - was this a region, a part of the country, like The Palouse, the Eastern Shore, the U-P, the Low Country, the Delta, the County?

Sure enough:  “The Wiregrass region, also known as the Wiregrass plains or Wiregrass country, is an area of the Southern United States encompassing parts of southern Georgia, southeastern Alabama, and the Florida Panhandle.”



***********   Boy, talk about conflicted…

How am I supposed to react when the anti-semitic scum protesting outside the White House on behalf of  Palestinians start to chant “F**k Joe Biden?”



***********  A butterfly flaps its wings, and football starts to die…

In Tuscaloosa, Alabama’s long-time coach retires.

So Alabama hires its new coach - the coach at Washington

In Seattle, Washington hires the coach at Arizona

In Tucson, Arizona hires the coach at UNLV

In Las Vegas, UNLV hires the coach at South Dakota State

In Brookings, South Dakota State hires the coach at Harding

In Searcy, Arkansas, Harding hires the coach at Cortland

In Cortland, New York, Cortland hires the coach at Iowa Western Community College

In  Council Bluffs, Iowa Western  hires the coach at IMG Academy

In Bradenton, Florida, IMG Academy hires the coach from St. Thomas Aquinas

And so on, down the chain, until a tiny school playing 8-man football in rural Wyoming
loses its football coach to a bigger school, and when it can’t find another coach it offers the job to its soccer coach…

And when he refuses, the school has to cancel its season


***********  Gronk is pretty good on all those self-effacing commercials he does, but as a studio analyst, he is a total stiff.


***********   Don’t know how many snow shovelers the Bills had to hire at $20 an hour, but given the conditions and the time constraints they were working under, they sure did an amazing job of getting that stadium ready for a playoff game.


***********   When  two football players’ heads collide and a chunk of plastic from one of their helmets goes flying, it seems to me it’s time to  change helmet manufacturers.   And it’s probably too cold to be playing football.


*********** It’s been too damn cold around here to do much of anything other than watch NFL football, so that’s what we’ve  been doing in our house.

I felt sorry for Joe Flacco.  He had a heck of a run and it would have been a great story.

You have to be VERY impressed by Packers’ QB Jordan Love.

Rams’ rookie wide receiver Puca Nacua put on one really great display of receiving (9 catches, 181 yards, 1 TD)

I know he’s making millions, and I know he can get another job at the drop of a hat, but didn’t you feel just a tiny bit sorry for Mike McCarthy, as the Packers manhandled his Cowboys and the cameras kept cutting to Jerry Jones up in his box?

Did you think, as I did, that something was wrong with Cowboys’ receiver CeeDee Lamb?

Lions-Rams - Pretty good game. Two teams going at it as if it actually mattered. Two  quarterbacks who’d switched teams

WTF is wrong with the Iggles???

Much of the tackling in the playoff games has been as horrible as ever.  Good runners  like the Texans’ Devin Singletary and the Packers’ Aaron Jones  broke a lot of half-hearted tackles.  Defensive backs, especially, appear either unwilling to sacrifice their bodies or unfamiliar with the basics of tackling - or both.

I’m seeing a lot (I refuse to say “a ton”) of what we call “slot” formation - essentially a Double Wing with the wings moving in next to the tackles and the ends moving out a couple of yards. In the pros’  case, their B-Back (their running back) is much deeper than ours, but it’s nice to see them confirming that what we do isn’t so obsolete after all. I’ve run it off and on over the years, and I really am getting to like it more and more all the time.

Down on the goal line (and maybe elsewhere, but I haven’t checked) the Lions’ splits were a foot or less.


***********  There is so much holding in the NFL - on both offense and defense - that  it’s ruining the game. It interferes with the way the game was designed to be played, and it’s so prevalent - and - blatant that the officials seem reduced to penalizing it at random, much like the way state cops pull over one poor schlub and write him up while dozens of vehicles speed by.

Penalties, if their intent was to eliminate the fouling,  are clearly not working.  In most cases, teams and players seem to treat them as mere traffic tickets.

And penalties punish the TEAM. I don't think you’re  going to make guys stop doing this crap - correct what they’ve been doing - until you punish THEM.

I can fix it all in a heartbeat: in addition to the usual yardage penalty, anyone caught holding - offense or defense - has to wear boxing gloves for the rest of the game.  PINK boxing gloves.


************* John Canzano nails it…

Concerning Kalen DeBoer’s bailing for Bama…

The true indicator probably came months earlier, halfway through the regular season when DeBoer hired Jimmy Sexton as his agent. Sexton is the co-head of the Creative Arts Agency’s football division. He’s one of the most influential people in sports. He not only has DeBoer as a client, Sexton represents Oregon’s Dan Lanning, Georgia’s Kirby Smart, Texas’ Steve Sarkisian, Florida State’s Mike Norvell, and Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin, among dozens of others.

Think carefully about what happened this week. Saban, also repped by Sexton, announced his retirement on Wednesday. In the next 12 hours, Lanning used the Alabama opening to gain leverage at UO. Then, Sarkisian’s name surfaced as a possible candidate, leading to a four-year contract extension at Texas. And Norvell’s name also surfaced as a replacement, right up until he got an eight-year extension at FSU. His salary is now north of $10 million a year.

DeBoer was just the next chess piece.

https://open.substack.com/pub/johncanzano/p/canzano-no-business-like-college?r=1diaj2&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email



**************** I know you didn't intend your list of coaches to be comprehensive, but another one of Croatian extraction is Brian Billick. I admire three of the four.

My money, if I had any, would be on Lane Kiffin for Alabama. He might've maxed out at Ole Miss. And speaking of father-sons, there's another pretty good one. Monte was once recognized as the top DC in the NFL, and he'd also had a head job in college. Lane was absorbing it all.

Almost forgotten is that dad Jack Harbaugh, although he retired in 2006, has come out of retirement several times to become an assistant to Jim. He was running backs coach at Stanford, and this season was assistant head coach at Michigan. But at first the situation was flipped. During his off seasons from the Bears, Jim asked his head coach dad to be an unpaid assistant on his staff.

John Vermillion                
St Petersburg, Florida



***********   Hugh,

While many of us may have tired seeing an Alabama team in the national playoffs/championship I don’t think many of us can deny its coach, Nick Saban, is likely the GOAT in college football.

Won’t surprise me to see Belichick back on an NFL sideline next year.  Seattle?

No comment on Pete Carroll.  Never liked him, never will.

Happy to see Army making those moves.  Especially moving Viti back to coaching the “B” backs, where he set the standard as a player.

Hopefully the merger between the old XFL and USFL (the new United Football League) will give us football junkies an exciting product to watch in the spring.

My advice to young guys seeking a HS HC job- - NEVER agree to accepting a job with built-in assistants before meeting with them.  Then, after meeting with them, demand you bring your own people on. 


Enjoy the weekend!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas

Shrinkflation comes to football!   The problem with the new UFL is that instead of last year -   two leagues with 8 teams each, with each league playing its own separate season -  we’ll get one league with eight teams, playing just one season. And here’s what pisses me off: an amount of money equal to the salaries of a half dozen or so  Power 4  coaches would have been enough to keep both of those leagues in operation.


THE LEGACY OF CHARLIE PELL - I strongly recommend watching

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=charlie+pell#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:3ed7715b,vid:xTHOex94tew,st:0


*********** QUIZ  ANSWER:   Charlie Pell was born in 1940 in Albertville, Alabama in what could best be called a hard environment.   He was the fifth of eight children.  His father never went past fourth grade, and his mother dropped out after fifth grade.  He never saw a television until he was 15.
 
He didn’t play high school football until his senior year, but he played well enough  as a fullback that his coach brought him  to the attention of  Bear Bryant.  When he was recruited by Bryant he had to admit  that he had never heard of the Alabama  coach.

At Alabama, at 187 pounds, he played guard and defensive tackle, and was an All-SEC guard.

After graduating in 1964, at the suggestion of coach Bryant, he set out to be a  coach,  starting out as a graduate assistant at Alabama.
 
Then, after four years coaching the defensive line at Kentucky under former Bryant assistant Charlie Bradshaw, he was hired as head coach at Jacksonville State

From 1969 to 1973,  he went  33-13-1 there.

There followed  two years as defensive coordinator at Virginia Tech (under former Bryant assistant Jerry Claiborne)  and one at Clemson, then he was promoted to become head coach at Clemson.
 
In his first year there, he took the Tigers to their first bowl game in 18 years, and in his second year, he took them to their first ACC title in 11 years, and a Number 7 ranking nationally.   He was named ACC Coach of the Year both of those years. And then, after going 18-4-1 over two years, he left Clemson for Florida.
 
He  fired up the Gator booster clubs around  the state, staying in touch with them and letting the head of every club know that  he was expected  to help recruit the best high school players in their area.

He wasn’t bashful about asking boosters to help, and he got Dave Thomas, founder of Wendy’s,  to donate enough  money for a new, state-of-the-art weight room for the football team.
 
He went 0-10-1 in his first season, but then the Gators caught fire. The next year, they finished 8-4 and played in a bowl game.  In 1983, the Gators went 9-2-1,  their sixth-place finish in the AP rankings the school’s highest ranking ever.
 
But the year before, the NCAA had begun to look into rules violations in the Florida program, and early in the 1984 season it charged the Gators  with more than 100 infractions, including spying on the practices of at least seven opponents, making cash payments to players, and permitting  walk-ons to live  in the athletic dormitory.
 
The university president immediately fired our guy and replaced him with his offensive coordinator, Galen Hall, as the Gators’ interim coach.   Under Hall, the Gators would win the school’s  first-ever  SEC football title, but because of the infractions, the Gators were banned by the conference from playing in the Sugar Bowl.
 
His record as Florida was 33-26-3.  He was only 43, but he never coached college football again.

In the meantime, Florida was placed on  two years' probation and banned from playing in bowl games and appearing on television for two years.  In addition, the  Gators lost 20 scholarships over  three years, and the SEC vacated the Gators’ SEC  title.  
 
 In addition,  the NCAA found violations that occurred during his tenure at Clemson, and as a result it put the Tigers and new coach Danny Ford on two years probation.
 
Unable to get another coaching job, Pell tried a number of business ventures,  without success. Ten years after leaving Florida, he attempted suicide.
 
He was saved by a friend who had found the suicide note he left, then rushed to the remote scene and pulled him, half-conscious,  from the car where he’d run a hose from the exhaust pipe through a barely-open rear winsow.
 
He recovered and was determined to be clinically depressed.
 
As a business associate and  former swimming coach at Florida said, "Coaching was his life. He had found the one thing he loved to do, and he wasn't able to do it anymore, and that was very difficult for him to deal with."
 
He learned to deal with his depression, and in 1995 he actually spent a season coaching at a newly-opened high school near Lakeland, Florida.   With  undersized and inexperienced players, the team finished 1-9.
 
That year, appearing on NBC’s "Dateline," he said, "Did I violate some rules? Yes. Does that make me a  cheater? If it does, yes I am. There wasn't room for anything but winning. Nothing. Winning was the sole obsession, to a fault."
 
Charlie Pell died of lung cancer in 2001. He was 60 years old.
 
In 2012 he was inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame.



 CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING CHARLIE PELL

GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS



 

*********** QUIZ:  He was born and raised in a mining town -  Butte, Montana - where growing up he was a close friend of daredevil Evel Knievel.

After graduating from Christian Brothers High in Butte, he  attended Montana Western, a small NAIA school in nearby (65 miles away, which in Montana is “nearby”) Dillon, Montana.

Right out of college, he taught and coached for two years at Beatty, Nevada, another mining town with a population of 400  and a school  with 39 students in grades 7-12. They played flag football.   He also helped  coach the boys’ and girls’ basketball teams. And taught a full class load. But it was a job, and it paid $5,000 a year.

From there, he returned to Butte  and coached at Butte High for eight years, six as an assistant and  two as the head coach. In 1968 he took his team to a 10-1 record, winning the state Class AA title and AA Coach of the Year honors.

He was hired at Montana State, where from 1970 through 1977 he was defensive coordinator. Under head coach Sonny Holland, the Bobcats won the National Title (then known as Division II) in 1976.

After Holland’s retirement following the 1977 season, our guy took over, and in his very first season as head coach, Montana State finished 8-2 and took second place in the Big Sky Conference.  In his second year, they went 6-1 and won the conference title, but in years three and four the record tailed off, and he was fired. His record in four years was 21-19.

For three years, he served as offensive coordinator at Colorado State, then spent four years assisting Jack Elway at Stanford.

In 1989, he  caught a big break when Dennis Erickson hired him to coach the defense at Miami. (Erickson had been an offensive assistant at Montana State while our guy was the DC, and Erickson had assisted Jack Elway at San Jose State.)

In his four years as Miami’s DC, the Hurricanes went 44-4, twice ranked  Number One and twice ranked  Number Three.

And then he left to return to Colorado State, this time as head coach.

The program was as bad as it could get.  It had been almost 40 years since it had won a conference title.  Since 1960, it had had seven winning seasons, and three winless seasons. In its entire history, it had played in just two bowl games.  Among major colleges, it was in the bottom 10 in all-time winning percentage.

“I thought that if we were lucky, every third or fourth year we could win seven games and get to a bowl game,” he said later. “I was just hoping to keep my job for a few years.”

He kept it for 15 years.  In that time, his teams won 108 games and lost 74. They won or  shared six conference championships, played in nine bowl games, and won 10 or more games four times.

His 1992 team went 11-2 - still the best record in school history - and after beating Missouri in the Holiday Bowl, they wound up ranked 16th nationally.

Only one coach in CSU history, Harry Hughes, won more games (125), and it took him from 1911 through 1941 - 31 seasons - to do it.

Thanks to him, the annual game with  Colorado became a major event, played in Denver’s packed Mile High stadium.  He went  4-4 in the rivalry.

In 1994, he was named by Sports Illustrated as its Coach of the Year.

In  2005 he joined Joe Paterno, Bobby Bowden and Frank Beamer as the only four active Division FBS coaches with 100 or more career wins at their current schools.

The field at CSU’s stadium is named in his honor.

Since stepping down as coach following the 2007 season, he has remained in Fort Collins and stayed active in university affairs.

For the past 15 years, he has owned and operated a popular Fort Collins Steakhouse that bears his name.

He has been inducted into the Montana and Colorado Sports Halls of Fame.

In  an interview at the time of his induction into the Montana Sports Hall of Fame, he summed up his career - “Some of us are just born to be coaches.”



FRIDAY, JANUARY  12,    2024-   "If the enemy leaves a door open, you must rush in.” Sun Tzu, The Art of War


*********** Take pity on me. This job’s not easy. See, twice a week I need to have  a bunch of things to write about, and sometimes they’re not easy to find.  During football season, of course, there’s always plenty to write about.  But once the season’s over,  it really drops off.

There’s not much going on worth writing about now, other than the usual coach here and there getting the axe or deciding to hang ‘em up.   Nothing much going on…

Okay, okay…I lied.  For many Americans, Wednesday, January 11, 2024  was one of those “I remember exactly where I was” days.

It wasn’t quite the attack on Pearl Harbor, or the assassination of President Kennedy, or the  attack on the World Trade Center, but it was one of those days that you’ll remember, the day that - in order of occurrence - Pete Carroll’s job “evolved” into something other than being head coach of the Seahawks… Nick Saban announced his retirement  at Alabama… and Bill Belichick and the Patriots broke up after 24 years together.


***********   Brain Droppings (credit for the term to the late, great George Carlin)…

CARROLL: First of all, I don’t give a sh— about the Seahawks, so there’s that.

Second of all, I thought his ass should have been fired after he  cost the Seahawks a Super Bowl  ring. Remember  when they were down on the goal line in the closing moments, and instead of giving the ball to Marshawn Lynch he called - or allowed to be called - a pass? Remember what happened? (An interception.)

Third of all, I was disgusted that he had the gall to try to foist his “Hawk Tackling” on the rest of us, as if someone from the NFL - the place where football fundamentals go to die - had any standing to lecture us on how to teach the basics to our players.

Successor?  I don’t give a sh—. Maybe Harbaugh?  Seattle has a bit of an ownership problem in that the franchise is being run by Jody Allen, the sister of the late Paul Allen who’s administering his estate.  Just as with his other property, the Portland Trail Blazers, she’s supposed to be looking for a buyer, but just as with the Blazers, she seems to enjoy things the way they are, and is in no hurry to sell. In addition, I’m told she’s being well compensated for her “efforts.”

***

SABAN:  I feel bad for Alabama fans.  Assuming that a youngster might be precocious enough to begin to follow  football at the age of six, there’s not a Bama fan under the age of 23 who’s known anything other than success in football. They don’t know about the long, mostly dry  run between Bear Bryant’s last year (1982) and Saban’s first year (2007).  They don’t know  that in that 24-year span, Alabama went through  six coaches (seven if you count  Mike Price, who was hired but never got to coach a game there), and during that time the Tide won exactly one national title.  In that same time, they had SEVEN losing  seasons.  To put things in proper perspective, in Saban’s 28 years as a college head coach at four different schools, he never had a losing season. (Technically, because Alabama was forced to vacate several wins owing to NCAA violations under his predecessor, his first season’s record at Alabama is shown as 2-6. But on the playing field it was 7-6).

Why would Saban retire?

(1) He’s a notoriously hard worker and that’s the only way he knows how to do it. And at 72 he could be running out of gas.

(2) The combination of instant-transfer and NIL,  and the resultant need to re-recruit every player on the roster - every year - has made every  head coach’s job a whole lot  tougher.  (And a lot less  fun - if he was ever in it for fun.)

(3) He just went through a tough year - successful, yes, in the win-loss column, but an uphill climb all the way -  and in my opinion he doesn’t have great talent coming back.



Who succeeds him?   This is a tough one. Certainly the people in Alabama will demand the very best.  But those few coaches who fall into that “very best” category may very well weigh the benefits of staying right where they are against the perils of trying to follow in the steps of The Greatest There Ever Was - and decide it just ain’t worth it.

For sure, boosters  who  yearn for influence but were kept at a distance by Saban will  try to take advantage of the vacuum created by his leaving, and it will be a major job for his successor to try to get them under control.

One thing the  incoming coach must deal with immediately: with Saban’s retirement, a 30-day window has just opened - for Alabama players only - to enter the transfer portal.


Possible replacements (alphabetical):


Kalen DeBoer, Washington - He’s  done a great job at Washington, but is a small-town guy from South Dakota  up to dealing with the big-money boosters at Alabama who will be hard for any new guy to keep at arm’s length?  At least if they hire him, he’ll be able to afford keep his OC, Ryan Grubb, who’s in great demand.


Marcus Freeman, Notre Dame - I’ve heard his name mentioned and I didn’t  give it a  second thought. I think he’s got the makings of a very good coach, but he’s only been a head coach - anywhere - for two years, and any Alabama AD who hired a guy with such scanty credentials would have a hell of problem defending his choice.


James Franklin, Penn State - Is he good enough?  He did  do a good job at Vanderbilt. Not a great job, but a good one. Likewise at Penn State. He’s not under any pressure at Penn State and he’s  got at least seven years left on his contract, and with the Big Ten dropping its divisions, he’s finally got Michigan off his 2024 schedule.  But he has  picked up Washington.


Jim Harbaugh, Michigan - In Michigan, he walks on water now. Why would he trade that  for  the pressure of having to prove himself all over again - with recruiting, NIL and the transfer portal  thrown into the mix?  If he’s going anywhere, it’s to the NFL.


Brian Kelly, LSU - He’s been a winner everywhere he’s gone.  And he’s proven, as head coach at Notre Dame and LSU, that he’s thick-skinned enough.  I also think he’s driven to win a  title.  Yes, he’s 62. But  Nick Saban took Alabama to the national  title game six times and won it three times - after he turned 62.


Lane Kiffin, Ole Miss - He’s no longer the brash, obnoxious brat he once was. He’s outgrown that.   He’s shown that he can coach - that he can do so at different places and at the highest level. He’s been doing it with a great emphasis on transfer talent - which may be the future of big-time football.  How far can he take Ole Miss if he stays?  How much better can he do with Bama’s resources?  Those are the big questions.  He’s got Bama connections. Would he have Saban’s blessing? (And is that important?)


Dan Lanning, Oregon - He could be a good choice.  But it would be a risky hire.  Yeah, he’s been a GA at Bama, and he was a very good DC at Georgia, and he’s done a  good job at Oregon.  But he’s only been a head coach for three years, and he’s still got a lot to learn before he’s ready for such a big stage. Besides, in games that really matter, his Ducks are 0-3 against Kalen DeBoer’s Washington Huskies -  and in my opinion, his coaching has been the reason why. Eugene, Oregon is a relatively low-pressure place.  Is he going to be able to say “No” to the big money guys, and keep the howling masses at bay so he can focus on football?  (At press time, he made a big deal about announcing that he wasn’t going anywhere, which is coachtalk for “I haven’t been offered the job yet.”)


Mike Norvell, Florida State - He’s shown he can coach. He was quite successful in four years as head coach at Memphis and he  took a Florida State team from the dregs to playoff contention in a short time.  But if he’s interested in winning a national title, he’s probably hit the ceiling at FSU.  He’s  making $8 million, which Bama can easily top, and he’s got a $4 million buyout, which in today’s college football is pocket change.


Bill O’Brien, Currently unemployed - He’s got Bama connections, and good pro experience. His stay at Penn State was short, but he helped pull the program out from under  the shadow of the Sandusky scandal. In six years as coach of the Houston Texans he went 52-44, and made the playoffs four times. But he  started out 0-4 in his seventh year and he was fired. He has most recently been offensive coordinator of the Patriots.


Steve Sarkisian - He’s got the Bama connection and all that, but he’s got things going at Texas, and I doubt that Bama can offer him anything that Texas can’t.


Kirby Smart - Not a chance that he leaves Georgia. Would you?


Dabo Swinney - I know he’s a Bama guy originally, and I think he’d be a great hire for Alabama. He’s hit some speed bumps in the last few seasons - partly, some think, because of his resistance to using the Transfer Portal.  But he’s been at Clemson for 21 years - 16 as head coach - and unless there are some problems between him and his bosses, I can’t see him picking up and moving assistants (and their wives and families) who’ve also been at Clemson for years.


HERE’S MY DARK HORSE CANDIDATE -


Ryan Day, Ohio State - He has five seasons under his belt at one of the most demanding jobs in college football. He’s 58-8 in that time.  In his five seasons, he’s won fewer than 11 games just once - and that was 2020, when the Buckeyes played just eight games.  Anybody who can coach at a place that calls for the head coach’s firing after they make it to the playoffs and then lose is certainly thick-skinned. He’s a very good recruiter. He has had to deal with the critics who  say that all he did was step into the successful situation that Urban Meyer built, so there’s the possibility that he might be driven to prove himself elsewhere.  His buyout is a “relatively” low $4.5 million.

***

BELICHICK:  Is he done?  Is that it?  I hope not. On the other hand, he’s enjoyed an enormous amount of control in New England, and things might not work out so well, now that he’s out there among the great mass of stupid, egotistical owners who think whatever made them billions makes them smart about football.  I admire what he’s accomplished, but I do have to admit that like many others I wonder how good a coach he is without Tom Brady.


*********** Betcha didn’t know that Carroll, Saban and Belichick are all of  Croatian extraction.


*********** How quickly they forget.  Michigan wins a national title on Monday night and on Wednesday Saban retires -  and just like that, the Wolverines are yesterday’s news.


*********** At the news of Saban’s retiring, the Auburn people t-p’d the trees at Toomer’s Corner.



*********** Tough times lately  for Seattle.

The Washington Huskies’ loss to Michigan was bummer enough.

But maybe you also read about the  door blowing out of the side of the Alaska Air Lines plane.  Alaska is based in Seattle.

And the plane was built by Boeing  in Renton, Washington, just outside Seattle.


*********** On the ESPN GameDay preceding the title game (will somebody please come up with a name for the sucker?) there was a nice feature on the Harbaughs, father and sons.

What struck me was  their saying that dad Jack Harbaugh, who was a college coach for 40 years (he won the NCAA I-AA title at Western Kentucky) is such a valuable resource for them, John  with the Baltimore Ravens and Jim at Michigan.  Think about what an advantage it is for any coach - and the Harbaugh brothers are at the top of their profession - to have someone they can turn to for help, advice or even criticism.  Someone they can trust.  Someone who knows his football.  Someone who doesn’t have any ambitions, or  any agenda other than wanting to help.



***********   On a Facebook page devoted to the WFL I read something by a former WFL player named Paul Johnson, one of three brothers from Cleveland, TN who played center for Tennessee.

I recognized the name and  I thought I’d seen him in one of my old media guides (they called ‘em "press guides" back then) , and sure enough, I found this,
 

I showed him, and told him that based on who he shared the page with, he’d kept very good company in that media guide.

He wrote back…  "whole year he had his hands behind me reaching for that ball. He was a leader and a wonderful player, my junior year and his senior year”

And now I can tell people I met a guy who snapped the ball to Condredge Holloway.


*********** The dominos fall…

Army joined the AAC and had to cancel its game at Wake Forest, originally scheduled for September 28.

Wake Forest, looking for a home game on that date, managed to get one with Louisiana.

But to make it work, Louisiana had to get out of its game at Michigan State.

It did, but that left Michigan State looking for an opponent.

It so happens that Oregon State is scheduled to play at Cal on that date, but if I were  the Oregon State AD, I would move mountains - hang the cost! - to get the Spartans to come to Corvallis.

That’s because, when former Oregon State coach Jonathan Smith - an Oregon State alum -  left to take the Michigan State job almost immediately following the Beavers’ last game, it left a very bad taste in the  mouths of Oregon Staters. Now,  he’s viewed by many of  the Beavers’ faithful as a traitor, and I’d wager that if Oregon State could arrange to play Michigan State in Corvallis, they could charge $1,000 a ticket and the place would sell out an hour after they went on sale.


*********** Jeff Lamy, originally from Evanston, Illinois, was a roommate of mine in college, and a teammate on the football team.  In 1982 he got involved  in the development of the Oregon wine industry, and grew professionally along with it, to the point where he was involved as a consultant with at least 400 vineyards and wineries. But for  the last several years of his life, he had to deal with Guillain-Barre Syndrome, a relatively rare autoimmune disorder that attacks the nerves and can cause paralysis. Jeff passed away in 2014.

Recently, I posted something on Facebook to  which his wife, Judy, responded, and I found it very moving.

“My husband Jeff spent 18 years in a wheelchair getting up every day to play a new game, largely because of his training in football. He loved the game, played and watched it his whole life. Thanks for teaching young people how to play the game of life and sometimes win. He was honored to play the game with you.”

***********  Claiming it was out of concern for the safety of young people, a California legislator has introduced a bill that would outlaw tackle football for children under 12.

There wasn’t any mention of outlawing surgery on children under 12 who’ve been convinced they need to transition to another “gender.”


*********** The Saints were close to the Falcons’ goal line, and Saints’ backup QB Jameis Winston was told by his coach  to take a knee and run out the clock.

The Saints lined up in the take-a-knee formation, but Jameis Winston, instead of taking knee, handed the ball to a back, who ran in for a run-it-up score.

In spite of his insubordination, Jameis Winston, the last I heard, still had a job.

His stupid action  could end up injuring a lot of players in the future, if defensive coaches decide that “take a knee” formation no longer means that, and instruct their players to disregard the formation and go hard.

Ironically, several years ago, when Greg Schiano was coaching the Buccaneers, several opposing teams took umbrage at his telling his defenses to go hard at “kneel-down” time.

As for the insubordination - actions like Winston’s were absolutely  unheard of when there were only 26 teams and teams had only 40 players on their rosters, when there was no union, and even stars worried about keeping their jobs.


*********** Here’s a good one for ya:   Only one college head coach has won 10-games in a  season at four different NCAA Division I schools. (Hint 1: He is currently coaching. Hint 2: “Division I” can also include FCS)

Answer: Dave Clawson, of Wake Forest.  Getting it correctly was  Adam Wesoloski, of Pulaski, Wisconsin. Here are Coach Clawson’s records:

Fordham - 10-3  in 2003 (29-29 in 5 yrs)
Richmond -  11-3 in 2007  (29-20 in 4 yrs)
Bowling Green - 10-3 in 2013 (32-31in 5 yrs)
Wake Forest - 11-3 in 2021 (63-61 in 10 yrs)
Overall record:  153-141 in 24 years

Josh Montgomery of Berwick, Louisiana gets 1/2 credit because, being a devoted LSU fan, he first guessed Brian Kelly before getting Dave Clawson.

Brian Kelly was a good guess.  He won 10 games or more at Cincinnati, Notre Dame and LSU.  But he came up one win short at Central Michigan, where he went 9-4 in 2006.)


*********** One of the bits of advice I always give a young coach who’s applying for a job is to make sure  that he has the right - with the approval of the AD, of course - to hire and fire his assistants. 

How in the world are you going to be successful unless the assistants all believe that  their success depends on your success?

So I found this bit of information in an article on our local paper announcing the resignation of the coach at Camas High.  He has been successful in the short time he’s been at the job, and by all accounts he’s a good  coach.

Jack Hathaway, who led the Camas Papermakers to three consecutive football league championships, has resigned as head coach but is expected to remain on staff as an assistant.

And then there was this quote by the AD:   “We are grateful that Coach Hathaway will continue to coach as part of our varsity staff, and continue to impact our student-athletes.”

And I thought, hmmmm.  Good coach or not, unless you’ve already got your next coach lined up and you’ve cleared it with him, it’s a hell of a thing to tell  the new guy, “Oh, by the way, we’ve already got one assistant for you - the former head coach.”


***********   Hi Coach -

I wouldn't have known this otherwise, but because of you,

I believe Don James truly watered and nurtured the Nick Saban seedling. That's worth remembering.

God bless you coach!

John Rothwell, DC
Corpus Christi, Texas

It’s true and it’s worth remembering.  And  without Mike Lude, the AD at Kent State who gave Don James his first head coaching job, there might not have been a Don James!


***********   That Michigan OL opened such broad holes most of the game I would've liked to have seen somebody line them up for an interview--just a minute or so of recognition. No doubt about how well Coram, McCarthy, and Edwards played, but let's give those hole-openers just a little credit, please. It's a T-E-A-M, more than just the fleet-footed 'skill players'. Anyway, I had hoped the Huskies would win, but the better team won last night.

So, the shuffle in coaches at Army apparently has begun, and the list just presented is as baffling as the former one. Former OC Drew Thatcher is now the 'H Backs' coach. Huh? And Viti hasn't been moved back to his B Back role. Hope it works out. I've never understood the mumbo-jumbo regarding coaching assignments. Just tell us the guy's primary area of responsibility. When I read 'Assistant Head Coach and co-Offensive Line coach' I wonder what the HC really expects him to do.

I cannot disagree with your bowl summaries. But I think we also saw the beginning of the end for many lesser bowls. We didn't know until game time which players had opted out. And in some of the bowls the opt-outs, I believe, made the difference in deciding the winner.

Yeah, SDSU was the better team, but anyone watching noticed the talent difference between the Montana and SDSU quarterbacks.


John Vermillion                                    
St Petersburg, Florida



***********  Hugh,

At one point during the National Championship game (second quarter and early third) I felt Michigan got away from their run game which riddled the Husky defense in the first quarter.  I also noticed how Washington stacked the front in order to make it difficult for Michigan to run their zone scheme.  Finally, Michigan went to more of a gap scheme in their run game later in the second half and POOF, it was over for Washington.

Yes, Jim Harbaugh is a quirky enigma.  But no one can deny his football genetics.  Jack Harbaugh was a helluva successful championship coach whose two competitive sons have also become championship coaches.  Like father, like sons.  Would love to see THAT movie!

Michigan's defense did a great job of keeping Michael Penix on his back foot all night.  He was throwing off balance most of the time, and hurrying those throws.  Dillon Johnson was not at full speed, and when Penix started playing hurt it obviously affected the Husky game plan.  DeBoer should have watched your Zoom Clinic intros with John Madden.

Despite all the negativity surrounding the venue I thought Houston's NRG stadium turned out to be a viable location for the national championship game.

Speaking of game locations...South Dakota State and Montana filled Toyota Stadium in Frisco, TX for the FCS championship.  Nice venue, but could we find a FOOTBALL stadium somewhere that could be better?

Army's 2024 schedule:
Lehigh H
at UNLV
Air Force H
Wake Forest H
Navy @ Landover, MD
UAB H
East Carolina H
Rice H
UTSA H
at Florida Atlantic
at North Texas
at Temple
at Tulsa

7 of their first 9 games are at home.  4 straight road games to end the regular season, then a possible conference championship game, before the Army-Navy game.  Wait a minute...didn't they already play Navy earlier in the year??  That should NEVER happen.  What happens if Army and Navy play for a conference championship?  Fill that 5th game with another opponent...PLEASE!!

In my first head coaching stop our school (300 students) played football in Division 1.  Our opponents included schools with enrollments over 2000.  Because our school had been an all boys school for many years before (600 boys) the state association forced them to play up.  Problem was when the school's enrollment went from 600 boys to 300 coed the school's administration and influential boosters chose to remain in Division 1.  Well...while the other sports programs remained fairly competitive the football program wasn't.  When I got there we spent two years in Division 1.  After going 5-15 for those two years and seeing our participation continue to decline the new Principal and I made the decision to drop down to Division 2 in football.  The old-timers weren't happy about it at first but after making two straight appearances in the Division 2 state semi-finals we put a lot of smiles back on those faces.

Have a great week!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas

For what it’s worth - Army had to cancel the Wake Forest game.  And the “real” Army-Navy game (last game of the year) is a conference non-counter.  I hope the fact that they played earlier in the season doesn’t take away any of the game’s luster.











*********** QUIZ ANSWER:  Levi Jackson was the first black man to play football at Yale, and the first to become captain of any Yale varsity sport.    He nearly became the first black player in the modern NFL.
 
His father worked as a chef at the university, and  he was born not far from New Haven in Branford, Connecticut. The first football game he ever saw was in the Yale Bowl in 1937, watching a Yale team whose star tailback  Clint Frank, would win that year's Heisman Trophy.

After playing two years of high school ball at Branford High,  he moved with his family to New Haven, where he finished his schooling at  Hillhouse High. (Years later, Hillhouse would produce another football great in Floyd Little). His coach at Hillhouse, a former Yale player and coach named Reggie Root,  encouraged him to apply to Yale, but with World War II going on, he instead joined the Army following graduation.
 
While in the Army, he played service football, and after his  team beat the New York Giants, the Giants were so impressed that they offered him a sum said to be $10,000 to sign with them.

It would have made him the first black man to play in the modern NFL (post-1933), but his parents insisted that he go to college after the Army,  and he rejected the Giants' offer.  Instead, with the GI Bill paying $500 of the $600 tuition, he entered Yale in the fall of 1946,   one of only three black men in an undergraduate student body of 8,500.
 
Eligible to play as a freshman, he started at fullback and punted, as Yale finished 7-1-1 and ranked 12th in the nation. His 806 yards rushing ranked fifth in the nation, and he was named third team All-American in addition to being named the outstanding football player in New England.
 
He was injured most of his sophomore year,  but in his junior year a highlight of his career was scoring a touchdown in Yale’s 17-7 upset of Wisconsin.

Following the season,  he was named to the All-East team.
 
But it was his election  as captain of the next year’s Yale team  that made national headlines. A black man even playing on a previously all-white Ivy team was news in itself,  but for him  be voted captain?  By his teammates? The story was on the  front page of the New York Times. Racial integration in sports was still new - Jackie Robinson had broken baseball’s color barrier less than two years earlier.
 
In a tradition dating back to 1880,  Yale has never had co-captains.  The football captaincy is a position of no little prestige, and his election was a sign of the great esteem in which he was held by his teammates.

Years later, he recalled the moment he learned of his election. “Bill Conway, who was the captain in 1948, raised a glass of champagne and said, 'Here's to the 1949 captain.’   When he mentioned my name, I almost fell out of my seat.''
 
So loved and respected  was he by his fellow students that on the night before the opening  game of his senior year, 3,000 of them took part in a torchlight parade in his honor. And in his farewell game, the traditional season-ender against Harvard, he ran 34 yards for the first touchdown and caught a pass for the second as Yale won, 29-6.
 
When his Yale football career came to an end, he held 13 different school records. He also lettered twice in basketball, playing as a reserve on Yale's 1948-49 team that made it to the NCAA tournament.
 
He majored in engineering and excelled academically, and one of his classmates, William Clay Ford,  an heir to automobile fortune, persuaded him to sign on  with the Ford Motor Company after graduation.  Thus  began a 32-year career with Ford, during which he would become the company’s first black executive, and finally retire as a vice-president.
 
Specializing in the area of personnel and labor relations,  he  spent nearly a year after  the Detroit riots in 1967 "on loan" to a special committee of business and government people dedicated to helping the city recover; as a result of his proposals to improve the hiring and training of minorities, Ford hired 10,000 new people. In 1969, in recognition of his efforts, Ford named him its Citizen of the Year.
 
Among his other noteworthy accomplishments was his role in spearheading Ford's minority dealership program.

"We were classmates," William Clay Ford told the Detroit News. "He was extremely competent and talented. He did an outstanding job at Ford."

He served under two different presidents - Johnson and Nixon - on the Presidential Commission on White House Fellows, and the Selective Service Appeals Board.
 
In 1987, he received the Walter Camp Man of the Year Award for outstanding accomplishment in football and in citizenship.
   
He remained close to Yale by serving as a member of an alumni advisory group, and was active in interviewing prospective Yale students from Michigan, one of whom, it turns out,  would go on to gain national fame as Dr. Benjamin Carson.

Wrote William N. Wallace, a Yale classmate who would go on to a long and respected career as a writer…

“I went on to become a sportswriter in New York and in future years dealt with countless stories that involved race, not all of them pleasant. There were more 'firsts', then numbers, percentages, countless counting of blacks and whites, along with the inevitable playing of various race cards.


“My finest racial moment had been back at Yale the time that no one gave white or black consideration when it came to Levi Jackson sitting on the Yale fence for the routine captain's photograph, the white Y on the blue jersey over his human body.”


 CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING LEVI JACKSON

GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS

 





*********** QUIZ:   He was born in 1940 in Albertville, Alabama in what could best be called a hard environment.   He was the fifth of eight children.  His father never went past fourth grade, and his mother dropped out after fifth grade.  He never saw a television until he was 15.
 
He didn’t play high school football until his senior year, but he played well enough  as a fullback that his coach brought him  to the attention of  Bear Bryant.  When he was recruited by Bryant he had to admit  that he had never heard of the Alabama  coach.

At Alabama, at 187 pounds, he played guard and defensive tackle, and was an All-SEC guard.

After graduating in 1964, at the suggestion of coach Bryant, he set out to be a  coach,  starting out as a graduate assistant at Alabama.
 
Then, after four years coaching the defensive line at Kentucky under former Bryant assistant Charlie Bradshaw, he was hired as head coach at Jacksonville State

From 1969 to 1973,  he went  33-13-1 there.

There followed  two years as defensive coordinator at Virginia Tech (under former Bryant assistant Jerry Claiborne)  and one at Clemson, then he was promoted to become head coach at Clemson.
  
In his first year there, he took the Tigers to their first bowl game in 18 years, and in his second year, he took them to their first ACC title in 11 years, and a Number 7 ranking nationally.   He was named ACC Coach of the Year both of those years. And then, after going 18-4-1 over two years, he left Clemson for Florida.
 
He  fired up the Gator booster clubs around  the state, staying in touch with them and letting threhead of every club know that  he was expected  to help recruit the best high school players in their area.

He wasn’t bashful about asking boosters to help, and he got Dave Thomas, founder of Wendy’s,  to donate enough  money for a new, state-of-the-art weight room for the football team.
 
He went 0-10-1 in his first season, but then the Gators caught fire. The next year, they finished 8-4 and played in a bowl game.  In 1983, the Gators went 9-2-1,  their sixth-place finish in the AP rankings the school’s highest ranking ever.
 
But the year before, the NCAA had begun to look into rules violations in the Florida program, and early in the 1984 season it charged the Gators  with more than 100 infractions, including spying on the practices of at least seven opponents, making cash payments to players, and permitting  walk-ons to live  in the athletic dormitory.
 
The university president immediately fired our guy and replaced him with his offensive coordinator, Galen Hall, as the Gators’ interim coach.   Under Hall, the Gators would win the school’s  first-ever  SEC football title, but because of the infractions, the Gators were banned by the conference from playing in the Sugar Bowl.
 
His record as Florida was 33-26-3.  He was only 43, but he never coached college football again.

In the meantime, Florida was placed on  two years' probation and banned from playing in bowl games and appearing on television for two years.  In addition, the  Gators lost 20 scholarships over  three years, and the SEC vacated the Gators’ SEC  title.  
 
 In addition,  the NCAA found violations that occurred during his tenure at Clemson, and as a result it put the Tigers and new coach Danny Ford on two years probation.
 
Unable to get another coaching job, our guy tried a number of business ventures,  without success. Ten years after leaving Florida, he attempted suicide.
 
He was saved by a friend who had found the suicide note he left, then rushed to the remote scene and pulled him, half-conscious,  from the car where he’d run a hose from the exhaust pipe through a barely-open rear winbow.
 
He recovered and was determined to be clinically depressed.
 
As a business associate and  former swimming coach at Florida said, "Coaching was his life. He had found the one thing he loved to do, and he wasn't able to do it anymore, and that was very difficult for him to deal with."
 
He learned to deal with his depression, and in 1995 he actually spent a season coaching at a newly-opened high school near Lakeland, Florida.   With  undersized and inexperienced players, the team finished 1-9.
  
That year, appearing on NBC’s "Dateline," he said, "Did I violate some rules? Yes. Does that make me a  cheater? If it does, yes I am. There wasn't room for anything but winning. Nothing. Winning was the sole obsession, to a fault."
  
He died of lung cancer in 2001. He was 60 years old. 
 
In 2012 he was inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame.








TUESDAY, JANUARY  9,    2024-   “ The trouble with experience is that by the time you have it, you’re too old to take advantage of it.” Jimmy Connors


*********** Congratulations to Michigan. They are true  national  champions.

But I've never seen  Michael Penix play so poorly. But he had  a great career and it's been fun watching him.

And give Michigan's defense credit.

But something was wrong with that guy.

I  have no idea what it might have been, but I do know that  that performance is going to cost him a lot of money.

I think that Oregon might have beaten Michigan.  And I think Georgia probably would have.

And as for Washigton - I feel terrible for them,   but to sum it up - as John Madden says on my Zoom every time -

"I know you think you can win by passing all the time... BUT YOU CAN'T!"


*********** You KNOW it was  a big game when Rece Davis makes the trophy presentation instead of the usual  shrill female sideline reporter.


*********** I can’t be bothered with minor matters like the whereabouts of the Secretary of Defense, or the tsunami of illegals crossing our border.  I’m way too busy dealing  with a matter of much more import - the news that (apparently) Army is going back to  the triple option.

It appears they’ve conceded what we’ve been saying here for almost a year: the formula for failure at a service academy is trying to do what everybody else is doing, when you have to do it with guys willing to go to class, willing to put up with rigid regulations, and willing to serve in the military for five years  when they’re done college.

The answer, of course, is to do something that few others care to do - run the ball - and do it in a way that no one else dares to do - with an under-center, triple option offense. That way, you can be the best at what you do.  And you can be so different from other teams - so radical in your approach - that for opposing teams, as Army coach Jeff Monken himself has said, it’s almost like playing another sport!

Here’s the way the report came out, in Black Knight Nation, written by long-time Army reporter San Interdonato…

Cody Worley new OC?

The clock for Army’s 2024 football season may have started ticking during Jeff Monken’s postgame press conference following a win over Navy almost a month ago.

Monken was asked about Army’s transition from the under-center flexbone to a shotgun option this past season. The results (a 6-6 season) and scoring weren’t what Monken wanted and hoped in the new scheme. Monken indicated then that “there’s probably a need to have some of (under-center) elements in our offense.”

It appears Army will be making that move. Monken told ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg that Army is “switching to an offense that incorporates both traditional under-center option and some shotgun.” He also confirmed an earlier report by Matt Zenitz of 247 Sports of quarterback coach and run game coordinator Cody Worley’s promotion to offensive coordinator.

Worley was masterful in play-calling when Army switched to an under-center offense for one game against Coastal Carolina, a 28-21 win in November.

Drew Thatcher, Army’s offensive coordinator in his first season at West Point, is still on staff. There is likely to be some shuffling of position assignments among the coaching staff with the use of fullbacks and potentially slotbacks with more under-center option plays.
Both Rittenberg and Zenitz reported that running backs coach Darren Paige will not return after one season.

The decision to bring back more under-center option isn’t shocking. Army scored two offensive touchdowns or less in seven of its nine 2023 games against FBS teams when operating the gun option. The Black Knights went 159 minutes without scoring a point in the middle of the season.

And with the success of the under-center option and a season-high 365 rushing yards) in Coastal Carolina win, it seems logical to go back. Worley has the most experienced on Army’s offensive coaching staff in the under-center option.

Much of Army’s roster was recruited to play in the offense. Quarterback Bryson Daily didn’t miss a beat running the scheme against Coastal Carolina. Kanye Udoh, Hayden Reed, Markel Johnson and Jake Rendina can certainly fill the fullback (B-back) role. Tyrell Robinson and Miles Stewart should be equally as effective or more effective as slotbacks.

Have to wait and see what impact the offense move has on recruiting. Army has commitments from some accomplished throwing quarterbacks.

http://blackknightnation.com/reports-worley-promoted-to-oc-offense-bringing-back-under-center-option/



***********  A  typical reaction to the Army news from hard-core Army fans, this one a former Army player who for years has written a very informative newsletter sent out to fellow hard-cores…

Guys: 

Good news! (No, GREAT news!)

Black Knight Nation just posted that Army 2023 QB Coach and Run Game Coordinator Worley has been promoted to OC for 2024, based primarily on the sterling job he did guiding the old under-center Triple Option vs Coastal Carolina after just one week's prep.

Following that game I said it was the best game plan I had seen in several years.  Worley called all the plays vs CC since new OC Thatcher did not know the under-Center Triple Option playbook or terminology.  Worley adeptly called mis-direction, jet sweeps, play-action rollouts, quick bubble screens/slants, all things that old OC Davis did not call for the past several years, which IMO contributed greatly to his being let go more so than the weak claim that the new cut block rules killed the Triple Option.  (New blocking rules didn't seem to impact AF's Triple Option run game.)

Kudos to HC Monken for quickly admitting that the Shotgun Offense new OC Thatcher brought with him from Division II Nebraska-Keaney simply did not work in Div. I.  The new Shotgun Offense scored just 2 TDs in 7 of 9 games. It went for 159 straight minutes without a score.

IMO, the Army D  played well enough in 2023 that with a better Offense we could easily have been 8-4, 9-3, or, (with a little bit of luck) even 10-2. Woulda/Coulda!

Can't wait to see what new OC Worley will bring to the Army Offense in 2024 against several new CUSA foes, many who have not faced the old Triple Option.

Hopefully over the off-season OC Worley can improve QB Daily's throwing mechanics over the off season/Spring Drills and design some easier throws to help him with his accuracy. Worley also needs to come up with some better designed OL pass protections to cut down on too numerous QB sacks/pressures.

In addition, IMO the under-Center Triple Option better utilizes the current personnel, as the Black Knight Nation suggests.

Beat Navy!


I wrote him…

Very well written.

The new blocking rules also didn’t prevent Harding from running the Triple Option and winning the Divison II championship and setting an all-time All-Level NCAA rushing record (6000+ yards).

My only concern is that Monken MUST get rid of the shotgun gurus on staff. He simply must have everyone on board.

One item in favor of the return to the “Army offense” is that to a certain extent it makes Army’s offense transfer-portal-proof because no other college (except other academies) has any interest in your triple option QBs, linemen or fullbacks.

Beat Navy!



*********** Is South Dakota State the new North Dakota State?  The Jackrabbits won their second-straight NCAA FCS title with a 23-3 win over Montana. 23-3 doesn’t sound like much of a beat-down, but it was.    Montana was never in the game.

The Jackrabbits controlled the game as they won their second straight NCAA FCS title, and extended their winning streak to 29 games.

And next year, if they have to play that game in a f—king soccer stadium, can they at least cover that “SOCCER HALL OF FAME” sign behind one of the end zones???


*********** You think, do you,  that things are purer down there in FCS?

Writes Montana sports reporter Bill Speltz in The Missoulian, Montana’s future is bright, because being in the title game and getting national exposure means…

“boosters and businesses pony up more money for name, image and likeness. Money that bolsters a program, attracting recruits and preventing proven players like South Dakota State running back Isaiah Davis, an NFL prospect, from bolting to an FBS team.”


*********** The conniving continues with the College Football Playoff (CFP) expected to  change its 12-team format from 6 + 6 (six conference champions + six at-large entries) to 5 + 7, effectively declaring the Pac-12 dead, and giving its once-automatic berth to an additional at-large team (undoubtedly one from either the SEC or the Big Ten).

It requires a unanimous vote by all conferences, which would give the Pac-2 a veto, but evidently  they’re going to use the fact that the Pac-2 has fewer than eight members to remove it as a conference.   And there go any hopes the Pac-2 might have had of reconstituting.

Truthfully, the idea of five conference champions - which will mean including  one from the Group of 5 - seems ridiculous,  considering the vastness of the gap between Power 5  and Group of 5 that was made abundantly clear this past bowl season…


OREGON 45, LIBERTY 6 - Liberty was Conference USA Champion and the highest-ranked Group of 5 team.  Oregon could have scored more.

BOSTON COLLEGE 23, SMU 14 - SMU was American Athletic champion. BC was barely bowl-eligible.

UCLA  35, BOISE STATE 22 - Boise was Mountain West Champion.  UCLA was the Pac-12’s seventh-place team.

DUKE 17, TROY 0 - Troy was Sun Belt Champion. Duke started out 4-0, then lost starting QB Riley Leonard and finished the regular season 7-5.

KANSAS 49, UNLV 36 - UNLV was Mountain West runner-up. Kansas tied for seventh in the Big 12.

VIRGINIA TECH 41, TULANE  20 - Tulane was American Athletic runner-up. Tech was barely bowl-eligible at 6-6.

MINNESOTA 30, BOWLING GREEN 24 - Bowling Green was 7-5.  Minnesota, at 5-7, wasn’t even bowl-eligible



ONLY TWO GROUP OF FIVE TEAMS DEFEATED POWER 5 OPPONENTS

SOUTH FLORIDA 45, SYRACUSE 0 - USF finished 5th in American Athletic.  Syracuse was the worst team in all the bowlss

MEMPHIS 36, IOWA STATE 14 - Memphis finished 4th in American Athletic.  Memphis won this one, fair and square.


Meanwhile, a Group of 5 AD has seen the light, and realizing that there’s almost zero chance of a Group of 5 team ever winning so much as one playoff game, he’s suggested that maybe it’s time for a playoff for Group of 5 teams only. 

Great idea.   The first step in breaking up FBS football into two clear divisions - pro and semi-pro.


*********** Without getting into it at great length, I had to laugh at the kerfuffle over the Lions’ being penalized for an offensive lineman’s “failure to report” as an “eligible receiver” for a 2-point play.

Is there any really good reason why the NFL continues to ignore the very simple rules of eligibility that apply to the high school and college game?

(1) You must wear an eligible number.  No exceptions.

(2) You must line up off the line (in the backfield)  or on the end of the line.

I fail to understand why, with 53-man rosters and plenty of  tight-end types around, teams see a need to insert players with ineligible numbers into eligible spots - after first announcing to the world what they’re doing.


*********** It’s hard for me to watch Michael Penix throw for 430 yards against Texas in a playoff game or Bo Nix  going 28 of 35 for 5 TDs against unbeaten Liberty without getting angry at the Heisman’s having been awarded weeks ago to some guy who, having won it,  couldn’t   even be bothered  to play in his team’s bowl game.

The obvious way to prevent  a repetition of this farce is to hold the Heisman voting after the championship game.

Nice try, Wyatt.

Diplomatically but firmly, ESPN replied to the suggestion that it had the rights to the Heisman Award Show, and it was scheduled - for all eternity, evidently - for the last Saturday of the  college season, when the only other major college football going on was the Army-Navy game, and there was no chance  of its being moved.

Anybody else see the opening I see?

Time to create an award for  what happens after the Heisman’s been forgotten - in the playoffs. Time to recognize the MVP of the Playoff,  just as the NHL does with its Conn Smythe Trophy for the MVP of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. 

My prediction?  As big as The Playoff is going to be, within ten years the Heisman will be a poor second to the (this space for sale) Trophy.


*********** When did they decide to replace “before” with “ahead of?”


*********** Before (sorry - “ahead of”) the West Virginia-North Carolina game (sorry - no plugs for your stupid sandwich spread) we were treated to a demo of the helmet/headset that is supposed to put an end to sign-stealing.  Dan Mullen stood on a sideline and babbled “instructions” while another announcer held a microphone next to the speaker inside the helmet.   I couldn’t understand a damn thing I heard.


*********** During bowl season - as during the regular season - I saw counter blocking  being used effectively in a lot of ways.  Even as a screen.  On Tuesday night’s Zoom I’ll show a sampling of the different uses for counter blocking that  I saw during the bowls.  The counter play itself is one of the main reasons  why I went to the run and shoot offense - 40+ years ago  - and soon transitioned to the Wing-T.


***********   Lots of Las Vegas Raiders players have come out publicly saying that they’d like interim head coach Antonio Pierce to become their head coach.  But not so fast, fellas.  We don’t operate like that around here.  Even if they do simply want to promote Pierce to their head coaching job, the Raiders will still have to go through the NFL’s hiring process which, because of the so-called Rooney rule, includes interviewing a “minority.”  Wait - you mean you can’t simply remove the “interim” from the title of the  “minority” (Antonio Pierce) who’s been your interim head coach for the last nine games of the season?  No. You can’t.  Here in the NFL we have a process, you see, and you must go through it.  So, yes, this really does mean that even if the Raiders already know that they want him as their head coach, they still have to make Antonio Pierce go through the whole damn interview process.

(Watch - after my little rant here, they’ll go ahead and interview Antonio Pierce.  And then hire Jim Harbaugh.)


***********   Back in November, the Quips of Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, playing up three classes,  took home the PIAA Class 4A state title.  It was the fifth state championship in the school’s history.

Back in 2019, although its boys’ enrollment should have placed it in Class 1A, the school voluntarily agreed to move up two classes, to 3A.

But in 2021, despite their already playing against schools two classes higher, the state association, the PIAA, using a formula intended to use factors other than just enrollment to equalize competition, moved them up another class - to 4A. This meant that with an enrollment of 117 boys, they were playing schools three times their size.

So what happened? The Quips won the 2021 4A State Championship.  Ever quick to recognize and reward excellence, the PIAA moved them up another class - to Class 5A.  But this time Aliquippa appealed.

“We were not comfortable playing 4A, that was not something we wanted to do, and expressed our frustration with the 4A cycle,” said the Aliquippa superintendent at the time. “Then we get a letter now saying we have to play 5A, which is even more ridiculous than playing 4A.”

In their appeal, Aliquippa argued that the safety of their players would be at risk if they had to play against 5A schools with much larger enrollments and  more resources.

They won their appeal, and stayed in 4A.

But then they went and screwed up.  They won the 4A state championship again this year, and as you might expect, the PIAA was waiting for them again: welcome to 5A, Quips.

Said the PIAA:

“Aliquippa has the opportunity to appeal that determination pursuant to the policy. The school has until January 10, 2024 to submit an initial appeal.”
Aliquippa said it plans to appeal this decision.


*********** Just in case you had any question about what a behemoth the NFL is…






*********** In a recent Wall Street Journal article about Travis Kelce, writer J. R.  Moehringer told of a moment in Kelce’s career that had a major impact on him.

When Travis Kelce was a young man, his college football coach pulled him aside one day, and told him the secret of life: everybody you meet in this world is either a fountain or a drain.

“I need fountains,” the coach growled at Kelce.  “I don’t need f——king drains. Travis, you’re f——king draining me! “

(I’m guessing that the “college football coach” was Brian Kelly, then at Cincinnati.)



*********** Here’s a good one for ya:   Only one college head coach has won 10-games in a  season at four different NCAA Division I schools. (Hint 1: He is currently coaching. Hint 2: “Division I” can also include FCS)


*********** Two awards that deserve a lot more respect than the phony-ass Heisman are the Joe Moore Award and the Burlsworth  Trophy.

The Joe Moore Award, named for the late, great offensive line coach at Pitt and Notre Dame, goes to the “Most Outstanding Offensive Line Unit in College Football,” and the selection committee consists mostly of guys who’ve played on the offensive line themselves.  (This year’s award winner: The Washington Huskies’ offensive line.)

The Burlsworth Trophy is awarded to “the most outstanding FBS college football player who began his career as a walk-on,” and it’s named for Brandon Burlsworth, who walked on at Arkansas, eventually became an All-American,  then tragically was killed in an automobile accident shortly after being drafted by the Colts. This year’s winner was Missouri running back Cody Schrader. 



***********  Don Read, former coach at Portland State, Oregon, Oregon Tech and Montana, died this past weekend at 90.  He was very well respected anyplace he coached, and was a pass-first coach at a time when everyone else was running the ball.

By Ryan Clarke | The Oregonian/OregonLive

Don Read, the former football coach at Portland State and University of Oregon who went on to win a national championship with the University of Montana, died Wednesday at 90.

Read’s son, Bruce, confirmed his father’s passing to The Oregonian/OregonLive. Memories of his father as a coach, mentor and grandfather stand out as tributes to Read are sprouting up across social media, particularly in Montana circles as the Grizzlies prepare to play for the FCS national championship on Sunday.

“We met at 7:30 every morning as a football staff and he would tell each coach what he was supposed to do that day,” said Bruce Read, who was the special teams coach for his father at Montana prior to stints at Oregon State and in the NFL. “He was very organized and motivated, and did a great job of coaching the coaches.

“He was a great person who touched many hearts and lives in a positive way. I can’t tell you how many people have reached out.”

Don Read is a member of the Portland State athletics hall of fame class of 1999, having coached the Vikings for two stints, from 1968-71 and 1981-85. He was the first winning football coach in Portland State history, and in his second stint was among five finalists for national coach of the year after leading the Vikings to what was then the school’s best-ever record (8-3) in football.

“I was a student when he was first there, but I was working in the athletic department,” former Vikings softball coach and fellow PSU hall of fame inductee Teri Mariani said. “The football coach at a university is often held in such high esteem, and for me, he was one of the friendliest coaches in our athletic department. He was so friendly, always had a smile on his face. I just loved how kind he was, because people I knew at other schools never even saw their football coach, let alone talked to them.”

In between his stints with PSU, Read was an assistant coach with the Oregon Ducks for two seasons before serving as head coach from 1974-76. He then spent four seasons at Oregon Tech before returning to Portland State.

“When he came back the second time, I was already coaching, so he was kind of like a peer,” Mariani said. “But I could never look at him that way. I just held him in such high regard because he helped me as a young coach. He was always willing to talk, and always made time for me, and that’s the thing that really stood out. Here I was, just a little peon softball coach, and if I had a question or I needed a moment of his time, it was always, ‘you bet.’ He was a mentor to me.

“It made me realize how important that was, to help other coaches. Any time we had new coaches, especially young head coaches where it was their first job, I always tried to make sure to be there for them. I would sometimes even be the one to reach out, ask how their games were this weekend, whether they had any issues. I knew how important (Read’s) role was for me, and I tried to follow that model.”

Read took the Montana job in 1986, eventually leading the Grizzlies to three consecutive seasons of 10-plus wins — capped off by a 13-2 record and the program’s first national title in Read’s final year of coaching in 1995. He is credited for establishing something of a dynasty in Missoula, with the program achieving 25 consecutive winning seasons from 1986 to 2011 and winning another national title in 2001 after Read’s departure.

“It wasn’t a surprise at all that he had the success he did at Montana,” Mariani said. “There are some people who you root for to have that opportunity because of the person they are, the coach they are, how they treat their coaches and athletes. You were always going to root for Don Read. That guy could warm your heart the moment he said hello.”

https://www.oregonlive.com/sports/2024/01/former-portland-state-oregon-football-coach-don-read-dies-at-90.html


*********** Every so often I come across an obituary of a man who lived such an amazing life that I just have to share it.  This one was sent  to me by a member of the 1958 West Point (Army) football team, of which this man, Bill Gunlock, was a coach…

William L. (Bill) Gunlock, age 95, of Kettering, Ohio, went to be with the Lord on January 2, 2024. Bill was a strong-willed, passionate, patriotic, and generous man who loved life, believed in the value of hard work, and cherished his family above all else. Bill had a quiet but strong belief in God, and in recent years he had commented often on being content and satisfied with his life.
 
Bill was born in Chillicothe, Ohio on September 20, 1928 to Walter and Ethel Gunlock. He graduated from Chillicothe High School in 1948 where he was named an All-Ohio Lineman in football and was selected to play in the 1947 Ohio All- Star game in Canton, Ohio. This is where he met his lifelong friend, future teammate, and coaching associate, Glenn "Bo" Schembechler. Bill received a full football scholarship to attend Miami University in Oxford, Ohio and was a three-year letterman as an offensive guard. Bill was a member of the 1948 and 1950 Mid-American Conference championship teams, the latter of which won the 1951 Salad Bowl (now known as the Fiesta Bowl). This victory propelled Miami’s head coach Woody Hayes to The Ohio State University's head coaching job beginning in 1951. Bill graduated from Miami University in 1951 with a BS degree in Education and dreamed of a career in teaching and coaching high school football.
 
Following college, the Army came calling. After completing basic training at Fort Knox, Kentucky, Bill served a two-year stint at Brook Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas where he was assigned to special services and played football for the military team. Following discharge, Bill began his football coaching career as an assistant coach at Heidelberg University in Tiffin, Ohio under Coach Paul Hoernemann. In the ensuing decade, Bill quickly ascended the college football coaching ranks. He coached the offensive line at Bowling Green State University in 1955-57 under Coach Doyt Perry where Bill was recognized as an outstanding recruiter and credited with bringing in Jack Harbaugh (father of John, head coach of the Baltimore Ravens, and Jim, head coach at the University of Michigan) and Ron Blackledge (father of Todd, a star at Penn State). Dayton-based team members Ed Phillips, Bob Colburn, and Bob Zimpher, and all other players on the 1959 Championship Team were all inducted into the Bowling Green Hall of Fame.
 
Bill moved on to the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York as the offensive line coach and coordinator under the famous Coach Earl "Red" Blaik. Bill was instrumental in developing Army's "Lonesome End Offense" and helped lead the 1958 team to an undefeated season and third place national ranking. Some of the outstanding players on the 1958 team were Pete Dawkins (Heisman Trophy winner and Rhodes Scholar), Bob Anderson (All-American halfback), Bill Carpenter (the "Lonesome End" All-American), and Bob Novogratz (hailed the nation's outstanding lineman and All-American).
 
Following his three years at West Point, Bill became the defensive coordinator at The Ohio State University under Coach Woody Hayes and alongside a lifelong friend, fellow Miami University lineman, and future University of Michigan head football coach Bo Schembechler. As Hayes's first defensive coordinator during his tenure at Ohio State, Bill played a pivotal role in the Buckeyes 8-0-1 1961 national championship winning team by installing the formidable Army defensive formation "The Offset 5-4".  He coached great players including Daryl Sanders and Bob Vogel (first round draft choices), Paul Warfield (All-American), Bob Ferguson, Gary Moeller, Dave Tingley, Billy Joe Armstrong, Bill Mrukowski, John Mumme, and many others. Bill claimed that Billy Joe Armstrong was the best two-way football player he ever coached. After returning to Ohio State for the 1962 season, Bill decided to leave coaching in February 1963. He often reminisced fondly about his days on the gridiron, the lives he touched, and the wonderful group of friends that he had the good fortune to meet as a player and a coach. He was particularly proud of having the privilege of coaching three undefeated teams and working with four coaches who ultimately were inducted into the National College Football Hall of Fame.
 
In March of 1963, Bill embarked on a career in real estate appraisal, which began at the Cole-Layer-Trumble Company (CLT) in Dayton, Ohio. After several years learning the appraisal business from his mentor John Cole, in 1970 Bill became CLT's president. Following CLT's merger with American Appraisal Company, the combined company went public. Bill departed the combined company to start his own full-service appraisal services and data processing company, Sabre Systems and Service, Inc. Through Bill’s leadership, Sabre pioneered the development of a computer assisted appraisal program called Sabre Market Data Analysis (SMDA), as well as many other software programs that were used by local governments. Sabre grew rapidly to become a leader in the appraisal industry and was acquired in 1989 by a New York Stock Exchange-listed company. Bill noted often that his time as a business owner was the most exciting and rewarding period of his professional career. He thrived on competition, whether it came on the football field or in the boardroom.
 
Beginning in 1985 and continuing until 2000, Bill returned to his rural roots, where he owned  and managed a 5000-acre farming operation near his childhood home in Chillicothe, Ohio. The farm grew grain and raised registered Polled Hereford beef cattle and registered American Quarter Horses for cutting events. Bill enjoyed plowing his fields on his prized John Deere tractors and hauling grain to market with his semi-trailer truck. He also took time for long contemplative horseback rides with his son Brad along the scenic banks of the Scioto River.
 
In 2000, Bill sold his farm in Chillicothe and replaced it with a 700-acre ranch in Jacksboro, Texas where he and Sandy continued their horse breeding operation with the highly successful breeding stallion SR Instant Choice. While in Texas, Bill helped Sandy restore their home, a historic 1860s Victorian home in Jacksboro, and he became quite adept at trapping wild boar, clearing mesquite trees, and building ponds (called “tanks” in Texas) on his property with his Caterpillar D6R bulldozer, a machine that was very much near to·his heart. Bill's affinity for his bulldozer was no surprise to those who knew him. He once summed-up his interest in all things mechanical with the statement, "If it has an engine, I like it".
 
True to his maxim, Bill also enjoyed riding motorcycles and snowmobiles with his boys at the northern Michigan cottage "Pine Stump", driving speed boats, sports cars, and flying airplanes. Bill held a multi-engine instrument rated pilot's license for over 30 years and clocked over 5,000 hours in his own Beechcraft King Air.
 
Bill's professional successes cultivated a deep commitment to giving back to the institutions that had helped to shape him throughout his life. At Miami University, Bill formerly served as a member of the Board of Trustees, was a member of the Prodesse Society, and was inducted into Miami University's Athletic Hall of Fame. He was also a member of The Ohio State University's President's Club and the Canfield Society, a life member of the National College Football Foundation and Hall of Fame, trustee emeritus of the National Aviation Hall of Fame, a member of the Foundation Board for the Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright Patterson Air Force Base, a life member of the American Quarter Horse Association and the National Cutting Horse Association, the Former Texas Rangers Foundation, and the National Rifle Association, and a member of the association of Ohio Commodores, Moraine Country Club, the Dayton Agonis Club, and a former member of the Dayton Bicycle Club.
 
Throughout his life, Bill was a generous supporter of his churches, Far Hills Baptist Church under Dr. Kenneth Mahanes and Fairhaven Church under Dr. David Smith. He also supported the Dayton arts community, including the Victoria Theatre, the Dayton Art Institute, the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra, The Schuster Performing Arts Center, and the Dayton History Museum and Carillon Historic Park. Just recently, Bill was inducted into the Chillicothe High School Hall of Fame. Bill's enthusiasm for life and his vibrant spirit will be forever in the hearts of his family and friends. He will be a Miami "Redskin" "as long as the wind blows". He will be greatly missed. God Bless and Rest in Peace.
 
A memorial service and celebration of life officiated by Pastor Dr. David Smith will be at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, January 13, 2024 at Fairhaven Church, Centerville, Ohio and will be followed by a burial service at David's Cemetery. Family and friends are invited to attend the burial service or may choose to go directly to the reception at the Moraine County Club immediately following the memorial service. Funeral preparations will be handled by Routsong Funeral Home, Kettering. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to Fairhaven Church or Miami University's Athletic Red and White Club.

Damn.  The man sounded like a protagonist from one of John Vermillion’s adventure novels.  A “Most Interesting Man in the World” kind of guy.  Personally, I’d like to see a TV series based on the him at various stages in his life.  I’ve even got a name for the show: “GUNLOCK”


***********  Coach:

I had a wager (in my head only) that Frank Ryan would be today's quiz subject. Couple of things to add to your writeup: after sitting the bench in LA for four seasons and doing mostly the same in his first two seasons with the Browns, Blanton Collier replaced Paul Brown. It's said that Ryan found his math Muse in Collier, who had taught Algebra in HS. Ryan loved Collier's calm, patient way of explaining things (as did Jim Brown, who said exactly that). Second, the cause of death sadly was Alzheimer's, which, as we know, is no respecter of mental capacity.  Third, throughout his 10 years as Yale AD, he continued to teach. While playing for the Browns, he spent offseasons teaching at Case Western Reserve. So, in all, he taught at Rice, Case, and Yale. Fourth, in the job working on behalf of Congress, he had 200 people in his employ. Fifth, in his final season or two, he was getting two or three cortisone injections a week--one on Wednesday, so he could practice and one on Sunday so he could play. The injections themselves did considerable damage; for example, a needle struck a bone in his arm, doing permanent damage to it. Quite a man.

Names of Bowl Games: How many viewers were thinking what I was when they first read "TransPerfect'? And why no mention of SoFi, whose CEO is former great Army LB Anthony Noto? If you haven't looked into his background, it's rich.

John Vermillion                       
St Petersburg, Florida


***********   Hugh,

Montana’s offense must have forgotten how to get the ball to that Bergen kid.  QB is having a rough day. 

SDSU has an outstanding football team, and a Governor to boot!

Have to disagree with you on your Top 10.

Michigan, Washington, Georgia, Texas, Oregon, Alabama, Ohio State, Florida State, Ole Miss, and Penn State would have been my picks.

Analytics, maybe.  I’d still go with my gut.

Clock management.  Ever attend a clinic where THAT was a presentation topic?

Gotta admit, South Dakota State and North Dakota State DO have the chops to play with the big boys.

Speaking of big boys… I give it two years before Oregon State and Wazzu officially hook up with some of the MWC and call it the PAC-WEST. 

Have a great week!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas







*********** QUIZ ANSWER:  Frank Ryan may well be the most brilliant man ever to play in the National Football League.

Famed sportswriter Red Smith once wrote that his team’s offense was made up of “a quarterback who understood Einstein’s Theory of Relativity - and ten guys who didn’t even know there was one. “

He played high school ball at Paschal High School in Fort Worth, and although he was admitted to Yale, he became the first in his family not to go there, choosing instead to go to Rice. There, he majored in physics while sharing play-calling duties with another future NFL quarterback, King Hill.

Drafted by the Rams, he played a backup role for four seasons while continuing with his graduate studies, earning his Ph.D from Rice in mathematics.  (His dissertation was entitled "Characterization of the Set of Asymptotic Values of a Function Holomorphic in the Unit Disc.”

Eager to play more, he threatened to quit unless he was traded, and got his wish and was sent to the Cleveland Browns.  There, he became the starter when Jim Ninowski was injured.

In 1964, his third year with the Browns, he established himself as one of the NFL’s top quarterbacks.. He threw for 2,404 yards, and led the NFL with 25 touchdown passes. The Browns went 10-3-1, and  in the NFL championship game against the Baltimore Colts, he  threw  three touchdown passes  to Gary Collins to upset the heavily favored Colts, 27–0.

While quarterbacking the Browns, he taught mathematics classes in the morning at Case Western Reserve University.

He was way ahead of anyone else in seeing the value of what are today called “analytics.”   Having learned  how to program a computer, he tried to persuade his coaches of the potential advantage of  using computers to dig more deeply into statistics, but found no interest. Only after being acquired at the end of his career by the Redskins was he able to make headway with their new coach, Vince Lombardi, who agreed to fund a project.  But when Lombardi succumbed to cancer, the idea died with him.

After retirement from football, he was hired by the US House of Representatives as its Director of Information Services, and played a major role in installing the electronic voting system that is still in use today.

He finally managed to make it to Yale when in 1977 he was named its athletic director, a position he held for 10 years.  The school got its money’s worth - he also taught math classes.

In 1990, he returned to Rice as Vice-President for External Affairs (essentially, fund-raising) while also serving as professor of computational and applied mathematics.

After retirement he moved  to  rural Vermont with his wife, Joan, whom he met while they were undergraduates at Rice.  She became one of the first female sportswriters, writing a weekly column for a Cleveland newspaper before  joining the staff of the Washington Post.

In the days when NFL quarterbacks had to be as tough as any man on the field, he was knocked cold in the first half of a game by Bears’ linebacker Dick Butkus, but returned in the second half to throw three touchdown passes to lead the Browns to victory.

In his career, he completed 1,090 passes in 2,133 attempts, for 16,042 yards and 149 touchdowns.  He made it to the Pro Bowl three straight years.

Frank Ryan was the last quarterback to take the Cleveland Browns to an NFL championship.

He died on New Year’s Day (2024) at the age of 87


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING FRANK RYAN

GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
TOM DAVIS - SAN MARCOS, CALIFORNIA
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY


***********   Hugh

I  appreciate you making the first quiz of the new year a Cleveland Brown.

He is definitely the smartest man to play for my Browns. Maybe ever in the NFL.

Doctor Frank Ryan was his name and a player that has never  received  his proper due as quarterback of the Browns. He and Gary Collins certainly destroyed the Colts in the 1964 championship game.

We are still waiting for a quarterback to get us another championship. Maybe his name is Flacco!

See you Tuesday.

David Crump
Owensboro, Kentucky



 

*********** QUIZ:  He was the first black man to play football at Yale, and the first to become captain of any Yale varsity sport.    He nearly became the first black player in the modern NFL.
 
His father worked as a chef at the university, and  he was born not far from New Haven in Branford, Connecticut. The first football game he ever saw was in the Yale Bowl in 1937, watching a Yale team whose star tailback  Clint Frank, would win that year's Heisman Trophy.

After playing two years of high school ball at Branford High,  he moved with his family to New Haven, where he finished his schooling at  Hillhouse High. (Years later, Hillhouse would produce another football great in Floyd Little). His coach at Hillhouse a former Yale player and coach named Reggie Root,  encouraged him to apply to Yale, but with World War II going on, he instead joined the Army following graduation.
 
While in the Army, he played service football, and after his  team beat the New York Giants, the Giants were so impressed that they offered him a sum said to be $10,000 to sign with them.

It would have made him the first black man to play in the modern NFL (post-1933), but his parents insisted that he go to college after the Army,  and he rejected the Giants' offer.  Instead, with the GI Bill paying $500 of the $600 tuition, he entered Yale in the fall of 1946,   one of only three black men in an undergraduate student body of 8,500.
 
Eligible to play as a freshman, he started at fullback and punted, as Yale finished 7-1-1 and ranked 12th in the nation. His 806 yards rushing ranked fifth in the nation, and he was named third team All-American in addition to being named the outstanding football player in New England.
 
He was injured most of his sophomore year,  but in his junior year a highlight of his career was scoring a touchdown in Yale’s 17-7 upset of Wisconsin.

Following the season,  he was named to the All-East team.
 
But it was his election  as captain of the next year’s Yale team  that made national headlines. A black man even playing on a previously all-white Ivy team was news in itself,  but for him  be voted captain?  By his teammates? The story was on the  front page of the New York Times. Racial integration in sports was still new - Jackie Robinson had broken baseball’s color barrier less than two years earlier.
 
In a tradition dating back to 1880,  Yale has never had co-captains.  The football captaincy is a position of no little prestige, and his election was a sign of the great esteem in which he was held by his teammates.

Years later, he recalled the moment he learned of his election. “Bill Conway, who was the captain in 1948, raised a glass of champagne and said, 'Here's to the 1949 captain.   When he mentioned my name, I almost fell out of my seat.''
 
So loved and respected  was he by his fellow students that on the night before the opening  game of his senior year, 3,000 of them took part in a torchlight parade in his honor. And in his farewell game, the traditional season-ender against Harvard, he ran 34 yards for the first touchdown and caught a pass for the second as Yale won, 29-6.
 
When his Yale football career came to an end, he held 13 different school records. He also lettered twice in basketball, playing as a reserve on Yale's 1948-49 team that made it to the NCAA tournament.
 
He majored in engineering and excelled academically, and one of his classmates, William Clay Ford,  an heir to automobile fortune, persuaded him to sign on  with the Ford Motor Company after graduation.  Thus  began a 32-year career with Ford, during which he would become the company’s first black executive, and finally retire as a vice-president.
 
Specializing in the area of personnel and labor relations,  he  spent nearly a year following  the Detroit riots in 1967 "on loan" to a special committee of business and government people dedicated to helping the city recover; as a result of his proposals to improve the hiring and training of minorities, Ford hired 10,000 new people. In 1969, in recognition of his efforts, Ford named him its Citizen of the Year.
 
Among his other noteworthy accomplishments was his role in spearheading Ford's minority dealership program.

"We were classmates," William Clay Ford told the Detroit News. "He was extremely competent and talented. He did an outstanding job at Ford."

He served under two different presidents - Johnson and Nixon - on the Presidential Commission on White House Fellows, and the Selective Service Appeals Board.
 
In 1987, he received the Walter Camp Man of the Year Award for outstanding accomplishment in football and in citizenship.
   
He remained close to Yale by serving as a member of an alumni advisory group, and was active in interviewing prospective Yale students from Michigan, one of whom, it turns out,  would go on to gain national fame as Dr. Benjamin Carson.

Wrote William N. Wallace, a Yale classmate who would go on to a long and respected career as a writer…

“I went on to become a sportswriter in New York and in future years dealt with countless stories that involved race, not all of them pleasant. There were more 'firsts', then numbers, percentages, countless counting of blacks and whites, along with the inevitable playing of various race cards.


“My finest racial moment had been back at Yale the time that no one gave white or black consideration when it came to (—— ——)  sitting on the Yale fence for the routine captain's photograph, the white Y on the blue jersey over his human body.”




FRIDAY, JANUARY  5,   2024-   “ I grew up in a completely different time. I go in the other room to brush my teeth, I come back and the world’s changed.” David Mamet, playwright and author


*********** I want to thank all y’all  for sticking with me while I opted out of Tuesday’s News You Can Use.  I had entered the Transfer Portal, but after considering all the offers  for my services, I have decided to remain here  with NEWS YOU CAN USE nation for another season.


***********   CONFERENCE BOWL RECORDS

    •    Pac-12: 5-3 (.63%) AHEM
    •    Big 12: 5-4 (.55%) 
    •    SEC: 5-4 (.55%) 
    •    Big Ten: 5-4 (.55%)
    •    AAC: 3-3 (.50%)
    •    Conference USA: 2-2 (.50%) 
    •    ACC: 5-6 (.45%)
    •    Mountain West: 3-4 (.43%)
    •    Sun Belt: 5-7 (.42%)
    •    MAC: 2-4 (.33%)


*********** To think that not so long ago, people back east were making fun of the quality of football being played in the Pac-12.  Well, the laugh’s on them.  They won’t have the Pac-12 to kick around any more. (Watch out, ACC.)


***********  The Big Ten sure has a lot of nerve, pretending  that this upcoming final game is between “two Big Ten teams.”  That’s what a conference top-heavy with losers has to resort to when four of its top five teams - Ohio State, Penn State, Iowa, Wisconsin - lose their bowl games.  The mighty Big Ten had to depend on the middle of the pack - Maryland, Minnesota, Northwestern and Rutgers - to combine with Michigan to give them a 5-4 record. (Imagine - Minnesota, which wasn’t even bowl eligible, covering for the conference powers!)


*********** The Sun Belt has to be the best conference. Why do I say that?  It’s  because 12 of its 14 teams played in bowl games:

Winners: App State, Coastal Carolina, Georgia State, South Alabama, Texas State

Losers: Arkansas State, Georgia Southern, James Madison, Lousiana, Marshall, Old Dominion, Troy

Left Out:  Lousiana-Monroe (2-10), Southern  Miss (3-9)


***********   We all know about the two Obnoxious Bowls - Dukes Mayo and Pop Tarts  - the broadcasters of which spent the better part of the games as shills for the sponsors.   But what about all those bowls  sponsored by - and named for - concerns that most of us knew nothing about before the game, and  didn’t know a whole lot more afterwards?  I decided to go to the Internet and find out for myself about some of them.


Starco Brands - Starco Brands only invents consumer products with behavior-changing technologies that spark excitement in the everyday. If it’s not truly new, if it doesn’t change behaviors, and if it doesn’t spark enjoyment, then we won’t make it. (Does that help any?)

RoofClaim - RoofClaim.com is more than a roofing company. We coordinate your project needs from inspection through warranty. Our Mission is to provide a simple and painless solution for all your roofing needs.

Union Home Mortgage (At least I have an idea of what they do) Since our inception in 1970, Union Home Mortgage has guided hundreds of thousands of aspiring homebuyers through the process of achieving homeownership. Driven by the belief that homeownership should be accessible for everyone, we go the extra mile for every customer, while providing a personalized experience unmatched in the industry.

68 Ventures - 68 Ventures is a change agent for growth along the Northern Gulf Coast and adjacent markets. As one of the largest developers and investors in the area, we have generated tens of thousands of jobs and facilitated billions of dollars in capital improvements.

SRS Distribution - SRS Distribution is the fastest-growing network of independent roofing and building supply distributors serving the United States.

Easy Post - EasyPost's industry-leading reliability means your worries about downtime are over. Our best-in-class multi-carrier shipping API removes the technical complexities of logistics while making shipping more reliable, efficient, and affordable.

Quick Lane - Quick Lane offers routine vehicle auto services including oil and filter changes, light repair services such as brake repairs and tire replacement.

Guaranteed Rate - Guaranteed Rate, founded in 2000 and based in Chicago, offers mortgage options including conventional loans, FHA loans, jumbo loans and interest-only loans to customers in all 50 states and Washington, D.C.

TaxAct - TaxAct offers tax preparation software for individuals, small businesses, and tax professionals.

Taxslayer - TaxSlayer helps you easily file your federal and state taxes online. Learn about our tax preparation services and get started for free today!

TransPerfect - We enable our clients to reach new markets globally by connecting with their audiences and providing the best possible customer experience—in any language.

ReliaQuest - We are a force-multiplier for your security team that helps increase visibility, decrease complexity, and manage risk.

Cricket - Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a 22-yard (20-metre) pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. Oh,  wait - just kidding.  I think it’s a wireless provider.




FRIDAY’S GAMES.

NOTRE DAME 40, OREGON STATE 8  - What I said: "I’m calling for an upset." What I got: Maybe the ugliest bowl game I’ve ever seen.  No - that would have been South Florida against Syracuse.  But this was bad. Question: why wasn’t Oregon State’s new head coach - a guy who was already on the staff - not coaching?  Haha.  (A) He knew how bad this was going to be, and he didn’t want to start off with a beat-down; (B) He knew how bad the Transfer Portal had left them and he was busy recruiting; (C) Both (A) and (B)

Also, considering the job ND QB Steve Angeli did - 15 of 19 for 232 and 3 TDs - after Sam Hartman pussed out, they gave the offensive  MVP award to a ND receiver who caught five passes.  WTF?


MEMPHIS 36 IOWA  STATE  26 - What I said: “Can’t go against Matt Campbell in a bowl game.” What I got: A lesson in not playing a bowl game against a team that’ll be playing in its own home stadium. The Cyclones gave up two long TD passes - and 19 points - in the first quarter, and this one was over fast.


CLEMSON 38,  KENTUCKY 35 - What I said:  “I’m afraid that Kentucky will take this one.” What I got: I was not a Cade Klubnik fan going in, but after the final, game-winning drive, I’m becoming one.


MISSOURI  14, OHIO STATE 3 - What I said:  “I really think that Mizzou has a good chance.  Who knows what the Buckeyes will do offensively, with their (former) starting QB already off to Syracuse?”  What I got: An unbelievably ugly game.   It’s sad to think that in the interests of promoting the excitement of  the forward pass, the people who make the football rules have transformed our game into total dependence on one position.  And it’s hard to believe that weakness at that one position could  so affect a program as solid, top to bottom, as Ohio State.  Did I hear Matt Rhule say that you could get a QB for as little as $2 million?  Sign that sumbitch.



SATURDAY

OLE MISS 38, PENN STATE 25  - What I said: “From a guy who once lived and died with Penn State football - Hotty Toddy!” What I got: Ole Miss, putting 540 yards of offense on a Penn State team that had one of the nation’s best defenses.  Hey, Big Ten - this was your third best team.   They looked like they’d never seen a passing attack before. (Come to think of it, maybe they hadn’t.)


MARYLAND 31, AUBURN 13 - What I said: An SEC team that lost to New Mexico State - at home - is in a bowl game?  Really?  I’m pulling for the Terps.  What I got:  There Maryland was, playing without star QB Taulia Tagovailoa, and they had the Tigers down, 21-0 after one quarter.  Wait - wasn’t this the Auburn team that only three weeks  ago had Alabama on the ropes? Too bad the playoff committee was at the movies instead of watching that one.


GEORGIA 63,  FLORIDA STATE 3 - What I said: “still think that overall, Georgia is the best team in the country.” What I got: Confirmation


WYOMING 16, TOLEDO 15 - What I said: “America needs more Cowboys.” What I got: A great Cowboy comeback and a last second win  to send Craig Bohl out with a .500 record at Laramie. His  final speech: “Cowboy up!  Ride for the brand!”


MONDAY


LSU 35, WISCONSIN 31  - What I said:  I sure hope that LSU doesn’t let a guy who  wins the Heisman and then opts out of  the bowl game  stand around on the sideline building his brand.  What I got: They let him stand around and watch.  And with his backup, Garrett Nussmeier,  doing a very good job (31 of 45 for 395 yards and 4 TDs) , LSU won what was a  good, competitive game. The Tigers twice came back from 14-point deficits.


OREGON 45, LIBERTY 6  - What I  said:  “I hope more people in the rest of  the country get to see how good this guy (Bo Nix)  is.” What I got: Oregon gave up an opening-drive score then scored 45 straight points. Bo Nix?  He didn’t have to play, but instead of going the opt-out  route, he completed 28 of 35 for 363 yards and 5 TDs.  For the season: 364 of 470 (77.45%) for 4,508 yards with 45 touchdowns and just three interceptions, plus  54 carries for 234 yards and six scores.The guy has been around so long that he has set some career records that no one is likely to ever break. 


TENNESSEE 35, IOWA 0 - What I said: “If Iowa had any offense at all - say, a few Double Wing plays - it would beat the Vols.”  What I got: An absolutely disgraceful offensive performance by Iowa.   I like the Hawkeyes and I like Kirk Ferentz, but that was really awful.  A Big Ten QB completing 7 of 18 for 56 yards and two interceptions?  113 yards rushing?  11 first downs?  2 of 15  on third down conversions?  And, unfortunately, a lot of the offense’s ineptness carried over to the defense.


MICHIGAN 27, ALABAMA 20 - What I said: “I’m not the world’s biggest Bama fan, but I respect Saban and  the fact that Bama seems clean.  No way I  can root for anything that Jim Harbaugh has anything to do with.”  What I got: Respect for the job Harbaugh and his staff did.  Michigan  was far better prepared, on both sides of the ball.  (Okay, maybe not special teams.) Alabama played as if they didn’t respect a non-SEC team.  It was the worst I’ve ever seen Alabama play in a big game, and the spin that’s now being put on it is that this was a not-very-good Alabama team that the coaches got the absolute most out of.  Maybe so.  But if this was true, how come none of the experts on the Playoff Committee dug deep enough to find that out? (I already know the answer.  Just asking rhetorically.)


WASHINGTON 37, TEXAS 31 - What I said: “I doubt that Texas has seen a group of receivers anywhere close to Washington’s. For sure, Sarkisian (remember, he coached at Washington, and we know him) will not outcoach DeBoer.”  What I got: Proof of the first part . The receivers were great.  (And so was Michael Penix.) The second part?  Washington’s insane clock management almost cost them a game that was 99 per cent won, calling into question for the first time Jalen DeBoer’s  up-to-now impeccable  game management savvy.





*********** Alabama’s final play was not, as most armchair experts were quick to declare, a “quarterback draw,” nor, in my opinion, was it a stupid call.  It was, I believe, a  good  call - but one poorly executed.

Essentially, the Alabama QB, Milroe, was to run off-tackle to the left, with the line blocking down and the right guard pulling left to lead him.  But the success of the play depended on Milroe’s not starting immediately for the off-tackle  spot, but instead running forward for a step or two and then breaking off-tackle.

(1) With twins set to the left and a split end to the right, Bama sends the running back in motion to the left, making him the fourth receiver (including the tight end) to that side.

(2) A Michigan safety goes with the motioning back.  The outside backer, rather than aiming directly  for Milroe, comes straight across and getting initial depth (probably to contain QB Milroe in the pocket).  The play side of the Alabama line blocks down, and the right guard pulls to the left. The right tackle(#65) hinges to block any chase from the backside.

(3) The line blocking appears to be holding up, as the left guard (#77) begins to wrap around the pack.  Milroe has  now gone  forward  about a yard, at which point he should begin to veer  off-tackle. If he does so - right now - he has a chance to score. The unblocked outside linebacker, who came across deep,  may have a shot at him, but he’s a little wide, and as deep as he is,  he will likely have a difficult time  tackling Milroe as he passes by.

(4) But no-o-o-o.  Milroe is now four yards closer to the line than he was at the snap, but  he’s only now begun to head off-tackle. The left guard (#77) has not “scraped paint” as he rounded the pack, and he may be too wide to block the edge man, but the bigger  problem is  Milroe’s failure to make his break sooner - it’s going to trip him up. Literally.  That’s because Alabama’s right tackle - the guy who was hinging - has been blown back by the Michigan lineman, to where he’s now a full four yards to the inside of where he lined up.  That means, because Milroe has run too far straight ahead, the tackle’s legs are now right in Milroe’s path, and he trips over one of them.  I look at what appears to be sufficient running room to the left of the pile, and I say that’s a good call.

Definitely a game ball should  go to Michigan’s #5,  edge rusher Josiah Stewart, a junior from Everett, Massachusetts, for a spectacular effort in driving that tackle back into Milroe’s path.


*********** CLOCK MANAGEMENT, THE WASHINGTON HUSKIES’ WAY

TIME REMAINING 2:50

WASHINGTON 34, TEXAS 28

WASHINGTON 3 TIMEOUTS, TEXAS 2


(2:50)  THIRD AND GOAL, WASHINGTON THROWS INCOMPLETE  (IF WASHINGTON  RUNS INSTEAD, TEXAS HAS TO USE A TIMEOUT.  INSTEAD, THE CLOCK STOPS AT 2:44

WASHINGTON HAS ALLOWED TEXAS TO SAVE A TIME OUT

(2:44) WASHINGTON KICKS A FIELD GOAL - SCORE NOW 37-28, WASHINGTON

TEXAS DRIVES TO WASHINGTON 8 YARDS LINE, KICKS FIELD GOAL, SCORE NOW 37-31

TEXAS ONSIDE KICK FAILS

(1:09) WASHINGTON HANDS OFF, GAINS 2 - TEXAS CALLS TIME OUT  AT 1:06

(1:06) WASHINGTON HANDS OFF, GAINS 3 - TEXAS CALLS LAST TIME OUT AT 1:02
THIS IS A TIMEOUT THAT TEXAS WOULD HAVE HAD TO USE EARLIER, AT 2:44

(1:02) WASHINGTON HANDS OFF, GAINS THREE. BUT AT :50 CLOCK IS STOPPED FOR INJURED WASHINGTON PLAYER

(:50) WASHINGTON PUNTS. FAIR CATCH INTERFERENCE MOVES BALL AHEAD 15 YARDS

(:45) AFTER TWO INCOMPLETIONS, TEXAS COMPLETES A THID-DOWN PASS TO WASHINGTON 28 AND THE RECEIVER GOES OUT OF BOUNDS

(:27) AFTER ONE INCOMPLETION, TEXAS THROWS COMPLETE ONE SECOND DOWN TO 12-YARD LINE WHERE RECEIVER GOES OUT OF BOUNDS

(:15) AFTER A COMPLETION LOSES ONE YARD - BUT THE RECEIVER GOES OUT OF BOUNDS -

(:10) TEXAS  THROWS THREE STRAIGHT INCOMPLETIONS, THE LAST ONE  WITH :01 ON THE CLOCK.

GAME OVER - WASHINGTON 37, TEXAS 31

SOME SERIOUS CONCERNS:

(1) 2:50 REMAINING, YOU’RE LEADING BY SIX - AND, LIKELY,  SOON TO BE NINE - WHY WOULD YOU PASS?
(2) NEEDING TO KILL THE CLOCK…

(A) WHY WOULD YOU BE TAKING CHANCES WITH A HAND OFF TO A BACK? YOUR QB SHOULD BE THE ONLY ONE HANDLING THE BALL AT ALL

(B) WHY RUN THE BALL AT ALL?  A RUN BY THE BACK WILL TAKE 4-5 SECONDS OFF THE CLOCK.  SIMPLY TAKING A KNEE WILL TAKE 2-3 SECONDS OFF THE CLOCK.   IS RUNNING OFF TWO EXTRA SECONDS WORTH THE RISK OF INJURY OR A FUMBLE??

(C) WHAT’S SO TOUGH ABOUT TEACHING YOUR PLAYERS  AN UNDER-CENTER SNAP?





*********** Looking back:  Considering the cold-hearted way the Playoff Committee took the loss of Florida State QB Jordan Travis  into account in leaving the Seminoles out,  shouldn’t it also have considered the possibility that the real Alabama team might not be the one that upset Georgia in the SEC title game but instead  the one that barely beat a poor Auburn team, and only because of  a last-second prayer?  Based on what I’ve seen - conference championship game be damned - Georgia should not have been left out. 


*********** Considering the insular nature of the SEC itself and the impression an outsider gets that its fans don’t pay a lot of attention to football anywhere else in the country, I would imagine that without an SEC team in the final game, the TV ratings will be  the lowest since 2015, when Ohio State played Oregon.


*********** It is rather fitting, now that Florida State and Liberty have both been obliterated in their bowl games, that Monday night’s final game should be between the last two remaining unbeaten teams in FBS.  No  chance of anyone whining that they were deprived of a shot.


*********** And isn’t it interesting that if we didn’t have this stupid playoff, the teams meeting in the Rose Bowl (the real one) would have been unbeaten Michigan and unbeaten Washington.


*********** Back in  the days of the polls and bowls,  Florida State and its unbeaten record and conference championship would have been recognized - injured QB or not - and the Seminoles would quite  probably have been in the Top 4, following the  conference championship games and  going into the  bowl season. 

Here’s what would have been my Top 10 if there were no playoff:

1. Michigan

2. Washington

3. Florida State

4. Ohio State

5. Texas

6. Alabama

7. Georgia

8. Oregon

9. Ole Miss

10. Penn State



*********** I don’t feel any sympathy for the SEC and its absence from this year’s finals - they  blew all their capital lobbying for the Heisman for a  guy who in my opinion couldn’t carry his team the way Michael Penix and Bo Nix carried theirs.  Both Penix and Nix put on Heisman-winner performances in  their teams’ bowl games, while the Heisman winner, Jayden Daniels,  stood on the sidelines and watched his understudy lead LSU to victory.
 

*********** Except possibly in the case of Jason Kelce, playing center is one of the most thankless and anonymous jobs in all of sports.

But it’s one of the  toughest.  And one of the most  important.

Quarterbacks  can throw 35 or 40 passes a game, and people will marvel  at 70 per cent accuracy.

But today’s centers  throw 60 or more passes a game - between their legs, without even looking - and if  they happen to miss their target just once a game  they’re the object of scorn and derision.

Once a quarterback  throws a pass  he immediately joins a protected class.  Let a defender so much as look at him cockeyed and there’s hell to pay.

But a center  has two jobs.  He throws his pass - that’s his first job -  and then his second job begins. After he’s thrown his pass,  he’s not  shielded from contact the way the  quarterback is.  In fact, as often as not,  he instantly becomes the personal target of the biggest, strongest man on  the opponent’s defense.  The opposing nose guard.  And in the cases when he’s not, he has to go find someone to block.  Maybe, if he’s as athletic as Kelce, he’ll even pull out and lead a runner.

Most coaches understand how difficult a center’s job is.

Most fans don’t, as in the aftermath of the Alabama-Michigan game so many of them seem to be blaming  Bama’s loss on its  center.

Granted, Bama’s snaps weren’t perfect, but they weren’t as bad as  the amateur experts have been claiming. Yes, there was an   errant snap  that cost the Tide 13 yards.  It was slightly off center, but it would have been catchable had it not been snapped before the QB - and the rest of the team - was ready.  Ever snapped a ball with 100,000 fans screaming?  Me neither. So  I can’t  say how tough it is to snap the ball at the proper time under those conditions. But from what I’ve been reading - one mistake out of 66 snaps?  String him up!

I undertook to look at every one of Alabama’s snaps - all 66 of them -  in slow motion, side view and top view,  and I’m here to say that  in my judgement Alabama’s center, Seth McLaughlin, is getting WAY too much blame for Alabama’s poor performance.

Yes, there was the one  snap that was uncatchable.  And he was guilty of one false  start when he moved the ball slightly.

But at most I saw three other  snaps that the QB, Milroe, had to make any extra effort to catch.  But - none of the TV guys mentioned this -  there were several decent snaps that Milroe mishandled,    chiefly because of his highly unorthodox manner of catching them.
 


Hey,  Alabama - if that’s the best way to be catching snaps  (hands apart, one hand over the other, trying to clamp the ball between them as it arrives)  how come you’re not teaching that technique to your receivers? 

Maybe you’re on to something, but  now that I’ve printed the photos, your secret’s out. And who knows - maybe next year every quarterback will be catching snaps this way.  But I doubt it.

Check out next Tuesday’s Zoom and see what I mean.



*********** Very simply, here’s what I believe about the so-called national championship:

Michigan, top to bottom, may be a better team than Washington.   Probably on defense, definitely in the running game.

But Michigan has yet to see a team with a passing attack remotely close to Washington’s.  Maryland may be the closest anyone came, and Michigan only beat the Terps 31-24.  So if the old adage is true - that there’s no defense against the perfect pass - then I think that Washington has a slight edge.

Anyhow -  Go Huskies!



*********** Whose bright idea was it to schedule the FCS Championship game on a Sunday?

Info from Sioux Falls (SD) Live
 

MONTANA (13-1) VS SOUTH DAKOTA STATE (14-0)

WHEN/WHERE: 2 p.m. (Eastern) Sunday at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Tex.

TV: ABC

LINE: SDSU by 13.5

RECORD LAST YEAR: SDSU 14-1 (FCS champions); UM 8-5

SERIES: Montana leads 8-0

LAST TIME: Montana won 24-17 in 2015, in the first round of the FCS playoffs in Missoula

HOW THEY GOT HERE: SDSU beat Mercer 41-0, Villanova 23-12 and Albany 59-0; Montana beat Delaware 49-19, Furman 35-28 in overtime and North Dakota State 31-29 in double-overtime

RANKINGS: SDSU is ranked No. 1 in FCS, Montana is No. 2

COACHES: SDSU - Jimmy Rogers (1st year, 14-0); UM - Bobby Hauck (13th year, 129-35)

NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS CLAIMED: Montana 2, SDSU 1

ALL-TIME RECORD: Montana 637-514-26; SDSU 656-477-35

CONFERENCE AFFILIATION: Montana - Big Sky; SDSU - Missouri Valley Football Conference

LOCATION: Montana - Missoula, Mont.; SDSU - Brookings, S.D.

ENROLLMENT: Montana - 11,000; SDSU 11,500
 


INDIVIDUAL LEADERS

South Dakota State
Passing: Mark Gronowski - 2,883 yards, 28 TD
Rushing: Isaiah Davis - 1,491 yards, 17 TD
Receiving: Jadon Janke - 52 rec., 891 yards, 9 TD
Tackles: Jason Freeman - 96
Sacks: Cade Terveer - 6
INT: Tucker Large & Dalys Beanum - 4


Montana
Passing: Clifton McDowell - 1,861 yards, 13 TD
Rushing: Eli Gilman, 951 yards, 12 TD
Receiving: Junior Bergen - 55 rec., 766 yards, 5 TD
Tackles: Braxton Hill - 116
Sacks: Riley Wilson - 8.5
INT: Trevin Gradney - 5


TEAM STATS

South Dakota State
Points per game: 38.4
Points against: 9.7
Total offense: 456.1
Total defense: 257.1
Rushing offense: 230.5
Rushing defense: 92.6
Passing offense: 225.6
Passing defense: 164.4
3rd downs: 54.8
4th downs: 81.8
Special teams touchdowns: 2
Defensive touchdowns: 3
Turnovers: 11
Takeaways:26
Sacks: 24
Sacks allowed: 10
Red zone scoring: 96.3
Penalties: 91 for 880 yards
Field goals: 17-23
Punting average: 43.7
Blocked kicks: 4
Blocked kicks against: 2

Montana
Points per game: 32.2
Points against: 16.8
Total offense: 382.9
Total defense: 311.4
Rushing offense: 186.1
Rushing defense: 102.9
Passing offense: 196.8
Passing defense: 208.4
3rd downs: 42.9
4th downs: 50.0
Special teams touchdowns: 4
Defensive touchdowns: 3
Turnovers: 12
Takeaways: 22
Sacks: 34
Sacks allowed: 36
Red zone scoring: 82.7
Penalties: 90 for 892 yards
Field goals: 17-26
Punting average: 39.7
Blocked kicks: 1
Blocked kicks against: 4

 https://www.siouxfallslive.com/sports/college/what-to-know-about-the-fcs-national-championship-between-montana-and-south-dakota-state







***********   See, the people at the Washington Post are better than you,  and so whatever you might believe, if they disagree with you, it must be a “falsehood.” And since you still don’t know that it’s a “falsehood,” they consider it essential  that they include that “fact” in their story.

It really, really bothers our betters at the Washington Post that despite their best efforts to convince people that Joe Biden, who never left his basement to campaign for President, actually got 81 million votes, there are still some people who don’t believe them.

I'm not saying that the FBI instigated the (so-called) riot, or that Joe Biden wasn't fairly elected. But the skeptic in me refuses to accept "because we said so" as proof of anything.


***********   Happy New Year Coach Wyatt! I sure am enjoying the zoom clinics, though I haven't been on live yet, I turn it on the next day at work. I always enjoy your perspective on so many things. I watched a couple of Harding games, Holy Smokes they're good! We ran a similar play to the one you discussed but we ran it like the old 5X Lead. I wonder what the advantage of having the wingback go before the guard is? Since you brought up the fact that basically players are wearing shorts these days, have you noticed that the "skill players" are not using their mouthpieces? They let them dangle like a fashion statement. You would think with that college education they would know that those mouth guards are for more than just protecting their teeth. Just my thoughts. And Go Blue! Please give my best to Mrs Wyatt.

                 
Kurt Heinke,
             
Atascadero, California


Hi Coach-

Happy New Year to you!


Good question.  Below, I've shown 4-X Lead


Good question regarding Harding, and (Upper Drawing) if we had the kind of splits that their offense requires, it would make sense, because if, say, the end were to pinch and the inside linebacker to scrape into the C gap, the wingback would get the end and the guard would see  that had happened and he’d be able to kick out the scraping backer.

With our zero splits, (Lower Drawing) our wingback couldn’t possibly go   first without colliding with the guard, so we have to have him take a counter  step first.
 
I have noticed the use of mouthpieces as forms of adornment and I don’t understand.  I also see guys playing with their mouthpieces (always brightly colored ones) sticking out of the vents in their helmets.

I would say that the inmates are definitely taking over the asylum except some parent would be offended by my calling her little baby boy an inmate.  But I  stand by my use of “asylum.”

GO HUSKIES!

Hugh



***********   Good morning, Coach Wyatt!
 
I have a Black Lion recipient.  What would be the best way for me to submit the letter? I have it as a google doc, wasn’t sure if that works on your end. I can convert to a word document or PDF if needed.  
 
Also, I appreciate the recorded zooms.  Unfortunately I’m not able to tune in live, but I always watch the recordings.  The recent zoom highlighting the Cortland game was special.  I’m less than an hour from Cortland so to see them win was a thrill.  I watched them play vs. Ithaca a few weeks prior and wow, that QB is talented.
 
All the best,
 
Matt Ford
Bath, New York


It’s nice to hear from you.   I hope that you had a good season and a nice Christmas.

Please send the letter via Word.  That would be best for us.

You’ve been though this before so you know what we expect as a nomination.

Glad you like the Zooms.  Cortland was very impressive and I wish more people were aware of the quality of football played at the “lesser” levels!



***********   Good day!

Regarding the tighter splits for Air Force; could they be attempting to not have to run Inside Veer but always Outside Veer?


Dennis Metzger
Richmond, Indiana


Coach,

From what I can see - the TV people  don’t give us many end-zone views - they will  run 1-foot  center-guard splits and 2-foot guard tackle splits.

Not exactly what the true veer people recommend, so maybe you’re right.

The fullback seems to have three basic paths - midline (or trap option), B gap (inside veer) and C gap (outside veer).

They seldom run a true triple but when they do they  run it as well as if it were an every-down play. They run the trap as phase one of trap option, and from the faking it’s obvious that  they have the ability to run trap option.

And they do run  what we would call outside veer.  It’s not necessarily as we’ve known it, but there’s a down block to the inside of the C gap.

I have seen them line up in a Double-Wing set and  run a wedge, which indicates that at least in that case they may have tightened their splits even more.

I’d love to have a sit-down with their offensive coordinator, who’s been at this a while.


***********   Happy New Year Hugh,

John Madden’s introduction to your Zooms was never truer than this Bowl season. Teams that could run the ball did well from Harding and Air Force to Michigan. And another of the principles you always preached, ball security and how to carry the ball, was sure on display from QBs not holding the ball with two hands to Texas that lost to Washington when their star running back could not hold on to the ball. It reminded me of the time you pulled our all state running back when he fumbled twice in the same game. The second time he finished the game on the bench with the game still very much in question.

As a football junkie I don’t mind all the meaningless bowl games but it would be nice to see if something could be done around the Transfer Portal, players opting out, and head coaches jumping teams. I am not smart enough to know what the solution is but after Georgia’s beating of FSU I would like to see something done.

Hope the new year brings you, Connie, and the family much happiness and of course lots of football!

Jack Tourtillotte
Rangeley, Maine

Jack,

You are so right.  The running stats from most of the games are pathetic.   And some of the most successful running plays - the jet sweeps - go down in the books as passes because they ball is flipped forward two feet.

The opt-outs drive me nuts, but  it’s either that or guys  faking injuries after a down or two, because all the money at stake outweighs such trivial things as loyalty.

As for coaches, I sure wish we could go back to the days when there were no buyouts.  A coach served out the length of his contract AT THE SCHOOL. Maybe in fund-raising, maybe as a PE teacher, maybe as the director of intramurals.  And then, once his contract was fulfilled, he was free to go.

As it is right now, they’re in can’t-lose  situations.  If they want to leave for a better job, their new school will pay their buyout.  If they get fired, they’re owed a considerable sum simply for going away.

Happy New Year to you and Susan.


***********  Mebbe Under Center isn't so bad, ehhh?  As soon as the low snap happened, reality for Milroe shrank to a 1 ' radius centered on the ball.  We've had quite a bit of motions with the ball going opposite but Alabama pulled the Right Guard and if Milroe takes one step forward and then runs left, he runs in untouched.

After the snap, there appeared only one thing that Milroe could see to do - Run straight into the pile.
 
Michigan had a "Misdirection" game with their Offense.  They also had Corum.  You can run a QB in a "Standard" Offense at times but which would you rather run, Milroe into a Pile or Corum around the corner when he's free to run?

Michigan out coached  Alabama this day.

Charlie Wilson
Brooksville, Florida

Coach, As you’ll see, I saw the same thing you did and we’re in agreement.  Except on  the low snap. I don’t see how that in any way should have affected his course.  But then, he’d probably only repped the play two or three times in practice.



***********   I’ve always recalled those LaVell Edwards ideas you've posted before. And because I believe he was right, I'm troubled by every post on the Army FB Message Board urging the BKs to go with a hybrid of the Option Gun and triple under center. I don't think you can just turn those offenses (and the detailed coaching each requires) on and off--you can only become excellent at one, and most of us know they don't have the talent to run one of them.

You posted a note from someone without attribution. I think I know who it is, and if I'm right, I welcome him to your site. Hope to see him on a Zoom.

That Eastern Michigan sucker puncher should not see a college football field again. And speaking of the college 'leaders' without spines, I'll flip back to Professor Sowell and say if I were the EMU president, I'd tell the EMU coach "Because I rhave eservations about allowing you to think you'll suffer no consequences for your actions," you, sir, are on probation yourself.

Unless a great deal changes, many will lose interest in the bowl games. When I said to someone at the gym that Heisman winner or not, I wouldn't let him preen around on my sideline, the reply I got was that he's only testing the portal, see, he's not actually in it. If he doesn't like the NFL team that drafts him, he'll hang around LA for another season. I see something new and crazy almost every game. Some will recognize the team, but one was coached by the DC when the head coach packed up to go elsewhere. Then, right after that game the DC himself was boarding a plane to become the DC at Syracuse.

Answer, of course, is Mark Richt.  I was unaware he'd contracted Parkinson's. I've seen too many people disgnosed with that recently.

Sincere best wishes to our beloved Coach Mike Lude.

John Vermillion               
St Petersburg, Florida


***********   Hugh,

For the first time in many years I have not watched many of the bowl games.  Used to try and watch as many as I could, but nowadays I'm discovering I enjoy doing other things.  So much so that even watching a depleted Notre Dame team play in a bowl game against a depleted Oregon State will take a back seat to a round of golf.

Kudos to the guys who have declared for the NFL draft that opt IN to their teams' bowl games.

If I was playing football today as a grad student I would choose to play in my team's bowl game because that's just how I was raised.  My dad always taught me that whatever I started I should finish.  Once, later in my life, I chose not to adhere to his advice and have regretted that decision ever since.  If I could be given another chance I wouldn't make that mistake again.

We often hear from progressives, "You must adapt to the changes, or else you'll be left behind."  I say, "I'll adapt to the good changes, but learn to stay in front of the bad ones."

Did you notice the conspicuous absence of the University of Mary Hardin Baylor from the Division III rankings??  UMHB has made a number of national championship appearances in the last few years.  Legendary UMHB coach Pete Friedenburg retired after last year.  Without him UMBH finished 6-4 this year.  Lost to #17 Hardin Simmons in the conference championship game, lost to #11 Trinity (TX), #7 Wisconsin Whitewater, and unranked UW River Falls in the opener.

Enjoy the weekend, and Happy New Year!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas





 

*********** QUIZ ANSWER: Mark Richt was born in Omaha, but moved with his family to Florida and played his high school ball in Boca Raton.

Highly recruited as a quarterback, he chose to play at Miami under head coach Howard Schnellenberger and  quarterbacks coach,  former NFL QB Earl Morrall.

Although he spent his  college career backing up an all-time great - future  Pro Football Hall of Fame Jim Kelly -  he did manage to see some action (most of it his senior season) and in his career he threw 229 times  for 1431 yards and 9 touchdowns.

In 1985  he was offered a position as graduate assistant by Florida State coach Bobby Bowden,  who had recruited him when he was in high school.

After  four years at FSU, he was hired by East Carolina as  their offensive coordinator.  He was 29.

But after just one year at East Carolina, Coach Bowden hired him to be his quarterbacks coach, and four years later he was promoted to be the Seminoles’ offensive coordinator.

In five of his seven years as their offensive coordinator, the Seminoles ranked in the nation's top five scoring offenses,  and in the  top twelve in total offense and  in passing offense.

In his eleven years at FSU, the Seminoles won seven straight ACC titles and two national championships.

He coached two Heisman Trophy winning quarterbacks -  Charlie Ward and Chris Weinke -  and six quarterbacks who went on to play in the  NFL.

In 2001 he was hired as head coach at Georgia, replacing Jim Donnan.

In 15 years as the Bulldogs’ coach, he posted a record of 145-51 (83-37 in SEC play).  His 145 wins are second only to the legendary Vince Dooley’s 201 among all Georgia coaches, and his winning percentage (73.98) is actually better than Dooley’s.

Two SEC championships
Six SEC Eastern Division championships
Nine bowl games
Seven Top Ten finishes

But following the 1998 season - the day after the Bulldogs defeated Georgia Tech to finish the season 9-3 - he was fired.

He was immediately snapped up by his alma mater, Miami.  His hiring generated great enthusiasm in the Miami community and in three seasons there, his teams went 9-4, 10-3 and 7-6 before he stepped down.

The following season, he began work as an analyst on the ACC network, work he continues to do to this  day.

In October of that season, he suffered a heart attack, from which he fully recovered.

He is a devout Christian, and he and his wife, whom he met when he was a GA at Florida State and she was a cheerleader, have been involved in missionary work.

His sister married one of his FSU QBs, Brad Johnson, and their son, Max, has played QB at LSU and at Texas Tech and has just transferred to North Carolina.

In July, 2021 he announced that he had Parkinson’s disease.

Mark Richt was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in the Class of 2023.

In 2018, Coach Richt told ESPN that he feels that it’s unethical for a coach to pursue other jobs,  since he  has made  a long-term commitment to his players: "I never once have tried to leverage another job for more money. I don't think that's right. The day we took the job, my mentality has always been, 'If you're the head coach, too many lives depend on you.' If I just say on a whim, 'You know, I think I'd rather go here,' well, all these recruits you said something to, all these coaches you said something to, what about them? Every time you hire a coach, you're taking the coach, his wife and his kids on an adventure. They're trusting you and believing in you enough to become a staff member. I don't want to just walk into a room and say, 'Hey, guys, thanks for helping me get to where I really want to be.' It's the same thing with these kids. They've had enough disappointment, enough men leave their lives. You're trying to build trust, and then you bolt on them because of money or because of whatever? I've just never been able to get past that part of it."



CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING MARK  RICHT

GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
TOM DAVIS - SAN MARCOS, CALIFORNIA
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
TOM WALLS - WINNIPEG, MANITOBA
JOE BREMER - WEST SENECA, NEW YORK
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY


 



*********** QUIZ:  He may well be the most brilliant man ever to play in the National Football League.

Famed sportswriter Red Smith once wrote that his team’s offense was made up of “a quarterback who understood Einstein’s Theory of Relativity - and ten guys who didn’t even know there was one. “

He played high school ball at Paschal High School in Fort Worth, and although he was admitted to Yale, he became the first in his family not to go there, choosing instead to go to Rice. There, he majored in physics while sharing play-calling duties with another future NFL quarterback, King Hill.

Drafted by the Rams, he played a backup role for four seasons while continuing with his graduate studies, earning his Ph.D from Rice in mathematics.  (His dissertation was entitled "Characterization of the Set of Asymptotic Values of a Function Holomorphic in the Unit Disc.”

Eager to play more, he threatened to quit unless he was traded, and got his wish and was sent to the Cleveland Browns.  There, he became the starter when Jim Ninowski was injured.

In 1964, his third year with the Browns, he established himself as one of the NFL’s top quarterbacks.. He threw for 2,404 yards, and led the NFL with 25 touchdown passes. The Browns went 10-3-1, and  in the NFL championship game against the Baltimore Colts, he  threw  three touchdown passes  to Gary Collins to upset the heavily favored Colts, 27–0.

While quarterbacking the Browns, he taught mathematics classes in the morning at Case Western Reserve University.

He was way ahead of anyone else in seeing the value of what are today called “analytics.”   Having learned  how to program a computer, he tried to persuade his coaches of the potential advantage of  using computers to dig more deeply into statistics, but found no interest. Only after being acquired at the end of his career by the Redskins was he able to make headway with their new coach, Vince Lombardi, who agreed to fund a project.  But when Lombardi succumbed to cancer, the idea died with him.

After retirement from football, he was hired by the US House of Representatives as its Director of Information Services, and played a major role in installing the electronic voting system that is still in use today.

He finally managed to make it to Yale when in 1977 he was named its athletic director, a position he held for 10 years.  The school got its money’s worth - he also taught math classes.

In 1990, he returned to Rice as Vice-President for External Affairs (essentially, fund-raising) while also serving as professor of computational and applied mathematics.

After retirement he moved  to  rural Vermont with his wife, Joan, whom he met while they were undergraduates at Rice.  She became one of the first female sportswriters, writing a weekly column for a Cleveland newspaper before  joining the staff of the Washington Post.

In the days when NFL quarterbacks had to be as tough as any man on the field, he was knocked cold in the first half of a game by Bears’ linebacker Dick Butkus, but returned in the second half to throw three touchdown passes to lead the Browns to victory.

In his career, he completed 1,090 passes in 2,133 attempts, for 16,042 yards and 149 touchdowns.  He made it to the Pro Bowl three straight years.

He was the last quarterback to take the Cleveland Browns to an NFL championship.

He died on New Year’s Day (2024) at the age of 87



TUESDAY, JANUARY  2,  2024- HAPPY NEW YEAR!   SEE YOU FRIDAY!

FRIDAY, DECEMBER  29, 2023 - "It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong.” Thomas Sowell


*********** AND THE BOWLS PLAY ON…

LAST FRIDAY NIGHT:

GEORGIA TECH 30, UCF 17    What is it about UCF?  They so often seem to start out strong (eight minutes into the game they were up 14-0 over Tech), then sit back and watch the game (they managed just one field goal the rest of the way).


SATURDAY (EVERY UNDERDOG EXCEPT EASTERN MICHIGAN WON)


DUKE 17, TROY 10 -  At least six of Duke’s players were already in the Transfer Portal.  Does that mean they “opted in?”

NORTHERN ILLINOIS 21, Arkansas State 19 - If this was a meaningless bowl game, they forgot to tell Butch Jones.  The Arkansas State coach argued a late call so vehemently that it looked as though he would explode at any moment.

AIR FORCE 31,  JAMES MADISON 21 - Running an offense that we were told by the Army coach couldn’t be run (because of rules changes, we were told), Air Force rushed for 351 yards against a JMU defense that had given up an average of 61.5 yards per game. Two-thirds of AF plays were fullback runs between the tackles.

GEORGIA STATE  45, UTAH STATE 22  - When your QB has thrown for 257 and your best running back  has rushed for 276 and your team has put up 643 yards of total offense - you’ve kicked ass.

SOUTH ALABAMA 59,  EASTERN MICHIGAN 10 - I know losing’s tough and all that, and nobody likes to be beaten badly, but what kind of a fool thinks it’s a good idea to sneak up on an opponent and sucker-punch him while he’s  standing with his teammates during the playing of their alma mater?  What kind of a fool thinks it’s a good idea to do it to a guy who’s standing on his home  field, in front of a  home crowd?

NORTHWESTERN 14, UTAH 7  - This was one dull-ass game, with a  crowd of 21,000 looking on. Northwestern QB Ben Bryant threw for a  fourth-quarter score to break a 7-7 tie.  Bryant was that rarity, a guy with the academics to transfer to Northwestern. In his first year, Northwestern coach David Braun took a team that was  1-11 in 2022 to an 8-5 finish this year.

COASTAL CAROLINA 24, SAN JOSE STATE 14 - You’d think the  Hawaii Bowl would be one of the highlights of the sports year in the Islands, so maybe someone can explain why this game could only draw 7,100 fans.  Granted, the stadium seats just twice that, but still… I  said I would take CC and the points, but I didn’t need to.


TUESDAY

MINNESOTA 30, BOWLING GREEN 24 - At least the Gophers didn't waste the opportunity to play in a bowl game as a 5-7 team.

TEXAS STATE 45, RICE 21 - Geez - I can remember when Rice was a power in the Southwest Confernce and there was no such school as Texas State.

KANSAS 49, UNLV 36 - The Jayhawks were the better team and they deserved the win, but Kansas coach Lance Leipold should have spent less time bitching about the officiating  and more time tending to his own team's lack of discipline.  When your team gets more than 200 yards in penalties, it can't all be the officials' fault.



WEDNESDAY


VIRGINIA TECH 41, TULANE 20 - It sure looked like two programs going in opposite directions.  In a  torrential downpour, Tech QB Kyron Drones (6-2, 235) carried 20  times for 176 yards and  2 TDs, throwing for 91 yards and 2 TDs (13 of 21).  Tech’s Bhayshul Tuten (a transfer from HBCU North Carolina A & T) carried 18 times for 136 yards and 2 TDs.

WEST VIRGINIA 30, NORTH CAROLINA 10 - Mayonnaise (excuse me - “Mayo”)  is great on sandwiches and it can serve as the basis of a lot of tasty sauces and dips, but as a conversational topic during  an entire  football game it gets old fast, and leads to thoughts of  strangling the broadcast bozos.  If you  tried listening to this mayo-sales-pitch-disguised-as-a-football-game you’ll know what I mean.  UNC, without QB Drake Maye, was nearly helpless offensively, and the West Virginia defense made things even worse for the Tar Heels.

USC 42, LOUISVILLE 28 - Did the Trojans miss  their diva QB,  Caleb Williams, an opt-out who stood on the sideline with his game jersey draped around his neck?  Not hardly.  In his stead, we watched a kid named Miller Moss, making his first career start, complete 23 of 33  for 372 yards - and SIX touchdowns. Caleb who?  On the other side of the ball, the Trojans’ tackling was so improved that their defense was almost unrecognizable. I saw a lot of USC this past season, and I have to say that this was by far their best overall effort.

MEANTIME… is anyone’s still pushing Florida State For The Playoff… the number  six team in the Pac-12 just  went and beat the ACC  runner-up by two touchdowns.

OKLAHOMA STATE 31, TEXAS A & M 23 - I never know what Oklahoma State team I’m going to see, but this time it was Good Cowboys.  QB Alan Bowman completed 34 of 49 for 402 yards and 2 TDs, and Ollie Gordon carried 27 times for 118 yards and a TD.  One of the Cowboys’ TDs was scored by a redshirt sophomore QB named Gunnar Gundy. A walk on from Stillwater, he  entered the Transfer Portal because he wants playing time. His dad is Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy.  Can’t accuse him of nepotism.


THURSDAY

BOSTON COLLEGE    23,  SMU 14 - Thomas Castellanos threw for 102 and rushed for 156 and two TDs. Kye Robichaux  carried  13 times for 89 yards as BC outrushed the Mustangs 262-118 in a game played in a constant downpour in a baseball stadium (Fenway Park).

RUTGERS 31, MIAMI 17 - Miami failed on a 4th and 2 with just under 10 minutes to play in the game, and then Rutgers proceeded to run, run, run, run, run, etc., etc, for more than seven minutes before finally kicking a  field  goal to take a 14-point lead.

NC STATE VS KANSAS STATE - Go Wildcats. K-State QB Avery Johnson looks like the real deal. Meantime, enough of those Pop Tarts commercials during the game itself.  We saw the same thing with Duke Mayo yesterday. This bullsh— of the announcing crew doing commercials in the booth when they should be doing play-by-play appears to be the start of something new and obnoxious.

ARIZONA VS OKLAHOMA - If Arizona were still a Pac-12 school, this would be an easy call. But now… I don’t give a sh—.


FRIDAY

OREGON STATE VS NOTRE DAME - ND is favored by 6-1/2.  What a bummer it must be for the Irish to have to go to El Paso.  I have news for them - everyone I’ve spoken to says this is a great bowl experience!  The Beavers have lost their top two QBs but their number 3 guy - Ben Gulbranson - started eight games in 2022 (his record was 7-1) and was the MVP in last year’s Las Vegas Bowl - and then they  they screwed him over by bringing in DJ Uiagalelei. I’m calling for an upset.

MEMPHIS VS IOWA  STATE - Got to go with the Cyclones. Can't go against Matt Campbell in a bowl game.

CLEMSON VS KENTUCKY - The ACC has been taking it in the shorts this bowl season and desperately needs a Clemson win, but after what Kentucky did to Louisville -  the ACC’s second-place team - I have to figure that Kentucky will take this one.

OHIO STATE VS MISSOURI - Missouri is an exciting team to watch and I’ve seen a lot more of the Tigers  than I have of Ohio State.  I really think that Mizzou has a good chance.  Who knows what the Buckeyes will do offensively, with their (former) starting QB already off to Syracuse?


SATURDAY


OLE MISS VS PENN STATE - I’m not a James Franklin man and I’m getting to like Lane Kiffin - and Ole Miss - more and more.  From a guy who once lived and died with Penn State football - Hotty Toddy!

AUBURN VS MARYLAND - An SEC team that lost to New Mexico State - at home - is in a bowl game?  Really?  I’d bet on  the Terps.

GEORGIA VS FLORIDA STATE - I still think that overall, Georgia is the best team in the country.

TOLEDO VS WYOMING - America needs more Cowboys.


MONDAY


WISCONSIN VS LSU - I sure hope that LSU doesn’t let a guy who  wins the Heisman and then opts out of  the bowl game  stand around on the sideline building his brand. 

LIBERTY VS OREGON - I like to watch the stuff Liberty does, but I think they’re seriously outmatched here, especially with the news that Bo Nix is going to play. I hope more people in the rest of  the country get to see how good this guy is.

IOWA VS TENNESSEE - Tennessee is heavily favored.  If Iowa had any offense at all - say, a few Double Wing plays - it would beat the Vols.

ALABAMA VS MICHIGAN - I’m not the world’s biggest Bama fan, but I respect Saban and  the fact that Bama seems clean.  No way can I root for anything that Jim Harbaugh's involved in.  Roll Tide.

TEXAS VS WASHINGTON - All I keep hearing is how great Texas’ defensive tackles are. And it’s true that Michael Penix is better when he’s comfortable in the pocket. But I trust Kalen DeBoer and his OC,  Ryan Grubb, to figure something out. I doubt that Texas has seen a group of receivers anywhere close to Washington’s. For sure, Sarkisian (remember, he coached at Washington, and we know him) will not outcoach DeBoer.


*********** Football games in baseball stadiums suck, from the point of view of nearly everyone.

1. There are no good seats.

2. The  field itself is usually grass, and not ready for the wear and tear of a  football game.

3. Baseball’s “clubhouses” (locker rooms) are not nearly large enough for  a football team.

4. The baseball press box is located in one corner of the football field.

5. With both players on the same side of the field…
   
    teams often cross paths when going onto or leaving the field

    it can be a problem when a player has to leave the field in a hurry and he’s on the wrong side of the 50

    When  your team’s at the other end of the field from you, it can be impossible to signal or communicate with them


***********  DIVISION II  FINAL RANKINGS



************ DIVISION III FINAL RANKINGS



*********** The Heartbreak Bowl… No fewer than 18 of the top 20 D-III teams ended their seasons with a loss.  For ten of the Top 20, their loss in the playoff brought an end to a previously undefeated  season.


*********** RAISE YOUR HAND IF YOU STILL FEEL SORRY FOR FLORIDA STATE…
Remember when  Florida State was the undefeated conference champion that was screwed out of a place in the Playoff?  Remember  when half the nation sympathized with  those  spunky underdogs from Tallahassee that got steamrollered by the almighty SEC?

Then came the lawsuit.


************ Some of the sh— taking place in and around the bowls  is pure ugliness.

We’ve seen game-ending brawls (Eastern Michigan-South Alabama)…. 

We’ve seen a Power 5 team (Kansas) charged with 18 penalties for 216 yards… 

We’ve seen a Miami player attack a Rutgers player from behind,  far from the action - just as if it was an elderly person walking down a city street…

WTF is wrong with these millionaire college coaches, anyhow?  Where are their spines?

Where’s all this character that they claim to be teaching?

We know that most parents don’t have the guts to say no to their kids, but do  football coaches have to be spineless, too?  Are they so gutless that they don’t have  rules? Or are they so gutless that they have rules but won’t enforce them?

Time to start ejecting coaches who can’t put a civilized team on the field.

How to do it?  Five unsportsmanlike conduct penalties and you’re gone?  Five personal fouls? Any combination of five?  120 yards in penalties?



***********  What can you  say  when a  guy on your team designates himself a team captain and takes it upon himself to go out for the  coin toss and, after winning the toss, makes a call that could have cost your team the game?

It happened to the Packers Sunday.

Or I should say, the Packers allowed it to happen.

Allowed a guy named Jaire Alexander to crash the coin-toss party at midfield and blurt out something like “we want to play defense” before the ref smelled a rat.

Did I say they allowed it?  Well, hell - take a look at all those staffers on the sideline.  You telling me they’re all busy? Some of them have nothing better to do than squirt water into the mouths of thirsty players. You mean to  tell me there wasn’t a single person who noticed what was going on? That didn’t think, “Hey, what the f—k is Alexander doing out there?”

Sounds like management is taking it really seriously, though.  First, they suspended him for a game.  And then, as any modern  parent does nowadays when a child misbehaves, they had a “good conversation” with him.

This, from the Packers’ GM:

“We had a  good conversation with Jaire this morning and  fully expect him to learn from this as we move forward together. We look forward to welcoming him back next week as he is a valued member of this team and will continue to be in the future.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dhpw8XO8_4E



*********** If you can believe anything you read in the Washington Post…

High-schoolers in states that voted for former president Donald Trump in 2020 played football last year at a rate roughly 1.5 times as high as those in states that went for President Biden, The Post found — a significant divide that also existed a decade ago. But poll results revealed that liberals are increasingly more likely to discourage children from playing football, while conservatives are just about as likely to recommend the sport now as in 2012.



*********** Tired of all the professionally-worded   “I’m entering the transfer portal and I want to thank everybody” statements being put out by guys who’ve decided to leave their current programs?  

Get ready for all the announcements from guys who ARE coming back - and want to make sure you remember THEM at NIL time…

Dear Iguana Nation - I’m pleased to inform y’all that Robert McGarrity isn’t going anywhere!

Iguana for life. Blessed to have the opportunity I’ve been given at Ignatius U, and I want y’all to know  that  I’ll see y’all next year!

Go Iguanas!

*********** I was exchanging Christmas wishes with Dwayne Pierce, an old coaching friend in Washington, DC,  and he filled me in on his experiences as an official.

Yes, an official.

He’s one of at least three former Double-Wing coaches  - John Torres in Phoenix, and Dave Kemmick in Central Pennsylvania are the two others - who for various reasons were unable to spare the time that coaching requires but wanted to  stay active in the game,  and when they first told me what they intended to do, they sounded almost apologetic about “going over to the dark side.”

I told them all the same thing -  that if it’s good for our game,  it’s good.  So God bless ‘em.   We’ll never have enough good officials, and I’ve long believed that having first been a football coach would help a guy become a better official.

Some of Coach Pierce’s observations…

He still gets to do a fair amount of “coaching” - tuck your shirt in, watch that stuff, you can’t be doing that, etc.

He said that, yes,  the parents can be bad - and the moms are the worst (“their mouths are vicious”).

He sees a lot of bad coaching. (I’ve heard this from other coaches who’ve become officials.)

And he says that in view of all the bad tackling and bad blocking and poor pad level he sees, “It’s ripe for a return of the Double Wing.”



***********   Lavell Edwards died on December 29, 2016. He’s been gone seven years but he had a lasting impact on our game.

Some clinic notes that I got from him, many years ago, are timeless:


 The key to success in coaching is execution
 
    * Too many of us try to do too much
 
    * You can’t be all things - great option, great drop-back, great misdirection
 
    * It takes a lot of time and effort to be good at anything
 
    * Decide what you want to do and be good at it
 
    * In order to get good at passing, you have to have protection -  That’s why we’re not a great running team
 
    * People are now coming to visit us and the first question they ask is: How do you throw the ball so well?   

      Our answer: for the same reason Oklahoma and Alabama run the wishbone so well.



***********   Portrait of a victory…
 



*********** I have to laugh  at people who deride anything that’s old school - including  the Double Wing and the way we teaching blocking - then sit right down  to write something, and thinking that they’re being really, really cool, use words like “amongst,” and “whilst.”  Yeah, really cool - straight out of the 19th Century.

What’s next? Ye Ohio State University?


***********   A “conversation” I had via text…

Did you say the other night after the zoom, that if you were coaching again you’d look at some option yourself, or did I imagine that?

 I have always had an option in any offense I’ve ever run, and I’ve always been aware of ways and times to use it, but all I’ve ever done with it is tinker. I’ve run a little option, but I despise the idea of doing anything half-assed, and I’m smart enough to know that without giving over an enormous amount of time to practicing option, I’d just be half-assing it.  As a wise old Texas coach said at one of my Houston clinics back in the 1990’s said, “If you’re gonna run option - run option.”

I don’t know it enough to really coach it right myself.

Yes and knowing it well enough to teach it is one thing but actually teaching it to a kid so that he’s your alter ego on the field is quite another. I said I’ve run it. But it’s always been after I’d gotten to know a QB well to know if I could trust him. And even then it was just simple options.

I like double options more than triple.

I hate the idea of having the success or failure of a team determined by a series of snap decisions made under extreme conditions by a 17-year-old kid.




***********   Good morning Hugh,

                   I had a problem clicking thru to this video (Zoom Clinic 141). I never had a problem before. Is it me?
                   
There is a slim chance I will coach High School football next year

I found if you have two wideouts and can throw a slant and other quick passes they have to get out of the box and you can beat them with just 3 plays
                 
Wedge , Power and Criss Cross reverse
                              
Best Regards and all the best for the New Year

Ron Singer
Toronto, Ontario

PS I remember buying all your stuff and talking to you over the phone 20 years ago - this led to many successful seasons and 2 City Championships


***********   Coach

Thank you for the invite to the zoom meeting and I’m sorry I couldn’t make it.  Came down with COVID on Christmas and been recovering the last few days.  However, I was able to watch the replay on Vimeo.  Great job!  I always enjoy these and the insights you provide. 

Amazing to me how at every level of the game the same principles apply!  I had heard about Harding and hadn’t seen them.  Wow!   And I loved the GA Tech / UCF QB fake toss.  Imagine Bryson Daily running that?  Please keep me on the invite list if you don’t mind.  Always enjoy learning from an expert!!


*********** From one of “our” coaches…

We were watching the Air Force/JMU game today. I have not been as transfixed watching a bowl game since Paul Johnson left GT. My son’s impressions, “Dad this is boring.”

He needs to be the coach at a place that never gets great talent and his team has to get its ass spanked - hard - several times in order for him to understand that for a coach, entertaining spectators is way, way down the list of his priorities - way behind giving his players the best chance to win.



***********  Happy New Year, Hugh!

I really enjoyed the replay of the “Zoom” and the background wall was great.

A couple of quick observations. First it sure seemed as if Air Force adjusted their line splits some getting away from the three and three and a half foot splits depending on the situation and especially on the goal line. It might have been the camera angle but it seemed like they shortened those splits. The concept it is not possible to run the option today because of the cut rule change has sure been debunked.

You folks have a happy new year. We will winter in Calabash North Carolina, typical snow birds flying away from the snow and cold.

All the best,

Jack Tourtillotte
Rangeley, Maine



This is not a  goal-line situation shown here and  I can’t say what they do  down close. In this case I wouldn’t say that  there’s any chance of their getting to our zero splits just yet, but they are noticeably compressed compared to the enormous splits we’ve seen Army and Navy use in the past.



***********   Coach:

It was gratifying to note, that just a few days before Christmas, several great coaches expressed appreciation for all you've done for them in particular, and for the sport in general. Congratulations for giving another year of insights. By the way, you're only the second person I know who reads TakiMag, as I have faithfully for years.

Jonathan Swift you ain't. The Big-18 proposal is far from modest. Whoever the commissioner is or will be should take this good idea and save some committee a lot of time and expense.

Coach Riley is undeserving of further success. The Trojan Walk at home is another strike against him.

John Vermillion
St. Petersburg, Florida



***********   Hugh,

First, I hope you and Connie had a Blessed Christmas, and are looking forward to a Joyous and Happy New Year!  Also, enjoy your Christmas wish list every year.

Not only would I blow up the Big 18 (10), I would blow up the entire college football landscape!  And I have an idea I’ll share at a later date.

Think our Quiz coach would’ve put up with that Eastern Michigan moron?

Not even Kyle Whittingham could withstand the roster changes his Utah team suffered at the hands of a fired up bunch of Northwestern Wildcats.

Maybe Capital One Bowl Week would be better off being played in the pre-season.

Betcha you wouldn’t see many (if any) opt outs!  Also might provide better pre-season rankings afterwards.

Just watched Minnesota beat Bowling Green in the Quick Lane Bowl.   The Gophers have another good looking RB in freshman Darius Taylor.  Hopefully they can hang onto him and keep him out of the portal.

Happy New Year!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas
 



***********   QUIZ ANSWER - Jim Wacker was born and raised in Detroit,  the son of a Lutheran minister, and he played tackle at Valparaiso University.

Starting out as a high school coach at tiny Concordia Lutheran High School in Portland, Oregon, he spent four years there as an assistant, then spent the next seven years as an assistant at small colleges in the Midwest before getting his first head coaching job at NAIA Texas Lutheran.

In five years at Texas Lutheran his teams went 37-17, and in his final two seasons  there, his teams went 11-0 and 11-1  and won two NAIA Division II  Championships.

From there, he moved to North Dakota State, where in three years his teams went 24-9-1, with two appearances in the NCAA Division II semifinal games,

His next stop was another Division II school Southwest Texas State (now Texas State) and in four years there, he posted a record of 42-8. In years three and four, his teams went  13-1 and  14-0 and won back-to-back D-II national titles.

He had a 12-year record as a head coach of 103-34-1 - all in smaller schools - and he was ready for the big time.

The “big time”school was TCU, which hadn’t had a winning season, and hadn’t  finished higher than seventh in the Southwest Conference in that time.

Right away, well aware of the SWC’s reputation for dirty recruiting and paying of players,  he sent out a letter to his fellow SWC coaches imploring them to help clean up the conference, telling them among other things that  if they didn’t, “we will self-destruct before it is all over.”

It wasn’t well received.   Who was this Holy Joe? they asked.  Who is this small-timer,  lecturing us?

His first year, the Frogs went 1-8-2 - his first losing season in 11 years - but in 1984 they snapped back and went 8-4, tieing for third in the SWC and earning TCU its first bowl berth in 19 years.

Big things were expected in 1985. His star running back, Kenneth Davis, had rushed for 1611 yards as a junior and finished fifth in the Heisman voting.

But just prior to the second game of the season, he learned that six of his top players, one of them Kenneth Davis, had been receiving illegal payments from TCU boosters. He dismissed the players on the spot, and without his best players, the Horned Frogs struggled to finish 3-8.

Despite his immediate actions, the NCAA hammered TCU:  three years’ probation;  loss of 35 scholarships over two years; forfeiture of the previous  two years’  television revenues; and a one-year bowl ban.

The once-promising 1985 season ended 3-8, and it would be the first of a six-year run of losing seasons.

In the final game of the 1985 season, Texas A & M coach Jackie Sherrill, evidently miffed by the letter that Wacker had sent out a year earlier, called for an onside kick in the fourth quarter of a game won by the Aggies 53-6.

And, not content with that,  the next season  Sherrill went for two late in a game that ended 74-10 in the Aggies’ favor.

In 1990 TCU came agonizingly close to having a winning season, starting out 5-1, but after they lost their starting quarterback, they finished 5-6, and it wasn’t until 1991, after six straight losing seasons, that they finally won,   going 7-4.    And then, after the school administration voted not to go to a bowl game, he left, to take the head coaching job at Minnesota.

In five years at Minnesota he didn’t have a winning season, and that was it for him as a coach.  After 26 years as a head coach, his overall record was 159-131-3.

After spending two years as a radio announcer, he returned to Southwest Texas State as AD.

He died in 2003 of cancer and shortly after, the  field (at what had just been renamed Texas State) was named in his honor.

The NCAA sanctions against TCU were followed up shortly after by SMU receiving the so-called death penalty.  The actions against TCU and SMU  began a cascade of events that led to the demise of the Southwest Conference. (Does “we will self-destruct before it is all over” ring a bell?)

Said Wacker’s QB Coach Bob DeBesse,   "We always said that SMU got the death penalty, but that we got life because we had to keep playing through impossible sanctions."

Thus began an odyssey that took TCU from conference to conference - from SWC to WAC to Conference USA to Mountain West to Big East to Big 12.

The irony of the NIL money now being paid to players was not lost on Kenneth Davis. “Yep, the same thing that's legal now," he told ESPN. "It was devastating. I just cried and couldn't quit crying. I think today that I'm still not over it because there was so much we could have done and would have done. They just brushed us out of there for what everybody else was doing in the Southwest Conference back then. And I mean everybody, a lot of it much worse at other schools.”

Nevertheless, talking about Jim Wacker  to  the Dallas Times, Davis said, “He made me understand that there was more to life than football, that there are values that you carry with you in life.”


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING JIM WACKER

GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
JASON MENSING - CANTON, MICHIGAN
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
TOM WALLS - WINNIPEG, MANITOBA
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY


 

*********** QUIZ: He was born in Omaha, but moved with his family to Florida and played his high school ball in Boca Raton.

Highly recruited as a quarterback, he chose to play at Miami under head coach Howard Schnellenberger and  quarterbacks coach,  former NFL QB Earl Morrall.

Although he spent his  college career backing up an all-time great - future  Pro Football Hall of Fame Jim Kelly -  he did manage to see some action (most of it his senior season) and in his career he threw 229 times  for 1431 yards and 9 touchdowns.

In 1985  he was offered a position as graduate assistant by Florida State coach Bobby Bowden,  who had recruited him when he was in high school.

After  four years at FSU, he was hired by East Carolina as  their offensive coordinator.  He was 29.

But after just one year at East Carolina, Coach Bowden hired him to be his quarterbacks coach, and four years later he was promoted to be the Seminoles’ offensive coordinator.

In five of his seven years as their offensive coordinator, the Seminoles ranked in the nation's top five scoring offenses,  and in the  top twelve in total offense and  in passing offense.

In his eleven years at FSU, the Seminoles won seven straight ACC titles and two national championships.

He coached two Heisman Trophy winning quarterbacks -  Charlie Ward and Chris Weinke -  and six quarterbacks who went on to play in the  NFL.

In 2001 he was hired as head coach at Georgia, replacing Jim Donnan.

In 15 years as the Bulldogs’ coach, he posted a record of 145-51 (83-37 in SEC play).  His 145 wins are second only to the legendary Vince Dooley’s 201 among all Georgia coaches, and his winning percentage (73.98) is actually better than Dooley’s.

Two SEC championships
Six SEC Eastern Division championships
Nine bowl games
Seven Top Ten finishes

But following the 1998 season - the day after the Bulldogs defeated Georgia Tech to finish the season 9-3 - he was fired.

He was immediately snapped up by his alma mater, Miami.  His hiring generated great enthusiasm in the Miami community and in three seasons there, his teams went 9-4, 10-3 and 7-6 before he stepped down.

The following season, he began work as an analyst on the ACC network, work he continues to do to this  day.

In October of that season, he suffered a heart attack, from which he fully recovered.

He is a devout Christian, and he and his wife, whom he met when he was a GA at Florida State and she was a cheerleader, have been involved in missionary work.

His sister married one of his FSU QBs, Brad Johnson, and their son, Max, has played QB at LSU and at Texas Tech and has just transferred to North Carolina.

In July, 2021 he announced that he had Parkinson’s disease.

He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in the Class of 2023.

In 2018, he told ESPN that he feels that it is unethical for a coach to pursue other jobs,  since he  has made  a long-term commitment to his players: "I never once have tried to leverage another job for more money. I don't think that's right. The day we took the job, my mentality has always been, 'If you're the head coach, too many lives depend on you.' If I just say on a whim, 'You know, I think I'd rather go here,' well, all these recruits you said something to, all these coaches you said something to, what about them? Every time you hire a coach, you're taking the coach, his wife and his kids on an adventure. They're trusting you and believing in you enough to become a staff member. I don't want to just walk into a room and say, 'Hey, guys, thanks for helping me get to where I really want to be.' It's the same thing with these kids. They've had enough disappointment, enough men leave their lives. You're trying to build trust, and then you bolt on them because of money or because of whatever? I've just never been able to get past that part of it."




FRIDAY, DECEMBER  22, 2023 -  “The best time to solve a problem is the minute you know you have one.” Mary Barra, CEO, General Motors.

ENOUGH  OF THE "HAPPY HOLIDAYS" CRAP  - I SAY, MERRY CHRISTMAS!

MY ANNUAL CHRISTMAS WISH FOR FOOTBALL COACHES EVERYWHERE (First printed in 2000, and  every Christmas since, with annual revisions as needed):

May you have.... Players' Parents who recognize that you are the football expert; who stand back and let you coach their kids; who know their kids' limitations and don't expect them to start unless in your opinion they're better than the other kids; who don't sit in the stands and openly criticize their kids' teammates; who don't think it's your job to get their kid an athletic scholarship; who schedule their vacations so their kids won't miss any practices; who know that your rules apply to everybody, and are not designed just to pick on their kid...

A community that can recognize a year when even Vince Lombardi himself would have trouble getting those kids to line up straight... Opponents who are fun to play against; who love and respect the game and its rules as much as you do, and refuse to let their kids act like jerks... Students who want to be in your class and want to learn; who laugh at your jokes and turn their work in on time... who listen carefully, hear everything you say and understand all instructions the first time...Officials who will address you and your kids respectfully; who know and respect the rulebook; who will have as little effect on the game as possible; who will let you step a yard onto the playing field without snarling at you... Newspaper reporters who understand the game, always quote you accurately, and know when not to quote you at all...

A school district that provides you with a budget sufficient to run a competitive program... A superintendent (or principal)  who schedules teachers' workdays so that coaches don't have to miss any practices... An athletic director who has been a coach himself (or herself!) and knows what you need to be successful and knows that one of those things is not another head coach in the AD's office; who can say "No" to the bigger schools that want you on their schedules; who understands deep down that despite Title IX, all sports are not equal... Assistants who love the game as much as you do, buy completely into your philosophy, put in the time in the off-season, and are eager to learn everything they can about what you're doing. And why! And if they disagree with you, will tell you - and nobody else...  A booster club that puts its money back into the sports that earn it, and doesn't demand a voice in your team's operation... A principal who believes that when there's a teachers' position open, the applicant who is qualified to be an assistant coach deserves extra consideration; who doesn't come in to evaluate you on game day; who gives you weight training classes, and makes those  weight-training classes available to football players first, before opening them up to the general student body; who knows that during the season you are very busy, and heads off parent complaints so that you don't have to waste your time dealing with them; who can tell you in the morning in five minutes what took place in yesterday afternoon's two-hour-long faculty meeting that you missed because you had practice... A faculty that will notify you as soon as a player starts screwing off or causing problems in class, and will trust you to handle it without having to notify the administration... A baseball coach who encourages kids to play football and doesn't have them involved in tournaments that are still going on into late August...  A basketball coach who encourages kids to play football and doesn't discourage them from lifting, and doesn't hold "open gym" every night after late-season football practices ... A wrestling coach who encourages kids to play football and doesn't ask your promising 215-pound sophomore guard to wrestle at 178...

A class schedule that gives you and at least your top assistant the same prep period... Doctors that don't automatically tell kids with little aches and pains to stay out of football for two weeks, even when they know  there's nothing seriously wrong with them... Cheerleaders who occasionally turn their backs to the crowd and actually watch the game; who understand the game - and like it... A couple of transfers - move-ins to your district - who play just the positions where you need help... A country that appreciates football and football coaches - and realizes what good it can do for its young men... A chance, like the one I've had, to get to know coaches and friends of football all over the country and find out what great people they are... The wisdom to "Make the Big Time Where You Are" - to stop worrying about the next job and appreciate the one you have ... Children of your own who love, respect and try to bring honor to their family in everything they do... A wife (like mine), who understands how much football means to you... Motivated, disciplined, coachable players who love the game of football and love being around other guys who do, too - players like the ones I've been blessed with....

For all assistants - A head coach whose values and philosophy you can support

They're the things I've been blessed with  - may you be blessed with them, too.

And one special wish for those coaching brothers who find themselves "between positions" at this time of year - May your Christmas joy not be dimmed by the fact that you're temporarily without a team, and instead may it be brightened by faith that your next job is just around the corner. (If my experience is any indicator, it will be a far better one than the last one, anyhow!)

FINALLY...

A nation at peace - a peace that exists thanks to a strong and dedicated military that defends us while we sleep.

A nation whose people love it and what it represents, and respect the people who came before us and made it all possible

A nation whose leaders  love it more than they love power and personal enrichment.


*********** A Christmas thought...

    I have only one firm belief about the American political system, and that is this: God is a Republican and Santa Claus is a Democrat.

    God is an elderly or, at any rate, middle aged male, a stern fellow, patriarchal rather than paternal and a great believer in rules and regulations. He holds men accountable for their actions. He has little apparent concern for the material well being of the disadvantaged. He is politically connected, socially powerful and holds the mortgage on literally everything in the world. God is difficult. God is unsentimental. It is very hard to get into God's heavenly country club.

    Santa Claus is another matter. He's cute. He's nonthreatening. He's always cheerful. And he loves animals. He may know who's been naughty and who's been nice, but he never does anything about it. He gives everyone everything they want without the thought of quid pro quo. He works hard for charities, and he's famously generous to the poor. Santa Claus is preferable to God in every way but one: There is no such thing as Santa Claus.

From "A Parliament of Whores - A Lone Humorist Attempts To Explain The Entire U. S. Government ,"  by PJ O'Rourke, 1991


**********   WHAT DO I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS? There's nothing material that I need or want.  My request of God - not Santa Claus - is  that I'll wake up on Christmas morning and be back  in America  again.



MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS



*********** ANY GOOD BOWL GAMES  THIS WEEKEND?

FRIDAY NIGHT:

UCF VS GEORGIA TECH +5-1/2 -     UCF because… because… because they, um, they’re better. I think.

SATURDAY

TROY VS DUKE +7-1/2 - Both teams lost their coaches. Duke lost their QB, too, as well as some other players.

ARKANSAS STATE VS NORTHERN ILLINOIS +3 - Don’t know a thing.

JAMES MADISON VS AIR FORCE + 2-1/2 - Well, one thing we do know - Air Force won’t have a whole of opt-outs.  On the other hand, after all the noise they (and the state government) made about being denied a chance to play in a bowl game, they’d better make a good showing. Even with their head coach gone bye-bye.

UTAH STATE VS GEORGIA STATE  + 2-1/2  - Don’t know a thing about Georgia State. Utah State is a Mountain West team so  Go Aggies.

SOUTH ALABAMA VS EASTERN MICHIGAN +16-1/2 - Eastern Michigan has overcome plenty of obstacles, so if there’s going to be  big upset, this’ll be the one

UTAH VS NORTHWESTERN + 6-1/2  -Northwestern had a nice season,  but I’ll go with Utah just because Kyle Whittingham is their coach.

SAN JOSE STATE VS COASTAL CAROLINA +9-1/2 - This one shocks me.  I know that San Jose State  finished strong, and I know that CC lost to Army, but still… I would take CC and the points.



*********** A MODEST PROPOSAL…

The people who assembled the Collection of Powerful Football Teams (Northern Branch) still insist on calling themselves the Big Ten, even though the dimmest bulb in the room can see that  it now has 18 members. 

But the name isn’t the most glaring evidence of their stupidity.

Did I say “stupidity?”  That’s a compliment for any moron  who would put together a sports league in which there is the possibility of a team finishing in EIGHTEENTH PLACE!

This is America, where Bud Grant and Marv Levy could  take  their NFL team to four Super Bowls each - but because they never won a Super Bowl, people still  diminish their accomplishments by saying  that they “couldn’t win the Big One.”

So how, then,  do you think Big Ten fans are going to react to their team’s  finishing 18th?  Or 15th?  Or  fighting it out for 9th place (the “upper division”)?

Back in the 1930s, Washington Redskins’ owner George Preston Marshall, who was way behind the times in his views on integration, was way ahead of the times in convincing the other NFL owners to divide the league into two divisions.  His idea worked better than anyone imagined.

Today’s 32-team NFL is divided into two 16-team “conferences,” each of which is divided into four “divisions”  of four teams each.  Among other benefits to the league, fans are deluded into thinking that their team, although it may have finished 0-16 - putting it in 32nd place - still was no worse than fourth in its division! Why - (extending the delusion a little further) with any luck, next year they could even finish third or (miracles can happen) even as high as second in their division!

To try to help the Big 18 along some, I’ve proposed a divisional setup, but one that overcomes a major objection to  the one they’ve had in the past, whose problem was that there was a great power imbalance between their two divisions.

This proposal incorporates elements of the European-style relegation system, so that a team that sucks in its  division could find itself in a lower division next year, while conversely, a team that runs all over its competition may have to prove itself against tougher teams next year.

The incentive to play in a higher division would be (1) a bigger share of league revenues, (2) better exposure in better TV windows, (3) better bowl games  (not to mention better bragging rights).

Relegation to a lower division would at least give a team an easier schedule and its fans a chance to see more wins.

If I were suddenly to be named Commissioner of the Big Ten, the first thing I would do would be to try to send USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington back to the West Coast.  Just kidding.  Actually,  I’d blow the whole damn thing up.  But let’s get serious, Wyatt. After finding out those ideas weren’t going to pass, I’d establish three six-team divisions, based on their conference records from this past season. (The tie-breaker would be overall record, then head-to-head play.)

(I’ve named the divisions RED, WHITE and BLUE.  I’d like to name them for distinguished Double Wing coaches I’ve known,  but I know that there are highly-paid drones in the Big Ten office who would love to hold meeting after meeting discussing much more Diverse, Equitable and Inclusive names for  the divisions.)



SCHEDULING:

Every team will play 9 Conference Games: 5 games against every team in its division and 2 games in each of the other two divisions

At the end of the season, relegation will occur, based on  (1) Conference record, then,  in the event of a  tie,  head-to-head.

IMMEDIATE RELEGATION:

WHITE #1 AND BLUE #1 MOVE UP

RED #6 AND WHITE #6 MOVE DOWN


“PLAY TO STAY” - This is optional, but it has been used successfully in various European sports. 

RED #5 PLAYS WHITE #2 - WINNER TO RED, LOSER TO WHITE

WHITE #5 PLAYS BLUE #2 - WINNER TO WHITE, LOSER TO BLUE

(It’s probably not feasible to send Indiana to the MAC and bring in Miami.)


I have to confess that there is very little chance of my becoming Big Ten commissioner, so the most I can do is offer my plan free of charge.


*********** Hey ESPN!  Hey Heisman people!  Isn’t there some way that you can hold up your balloting - and your stupid awards program - until after the bowls, so we  don’t have to put up with a guy winning it and then giving us the finger by not playing in his team’s bowl game?


*********** I doubt that many people who read this ever heard of Sonny Liston, much less saw him fight, but let’s just say he may be the toughest, baddest son of a gun I’ve ever seen in a boxing ring. Realistically, he should have killed Cassisus Clay (in their first fight) and Muhammad Ali (in their second) but  for some unexplained reason he  failed even to finish their two heavyweight championship fights.

Liston did have some underworld  affiliations, so there’s always the “slight” possibility that both fights were fixed.


One thing that came out of those fights was  the now-accepted tradition of trash talking, with Clay (and later as Ali) hurling outrageous insults at his bigger and certainly tougher opponent, while Liston simply glowered angrily.

It was only learned, years later, that Clay wasn’t manic, and his pre-fight antics were all part of a plan, one devised by a  guy named Drew  “Bundini” Brown, Clay/Ali’s longtime  cornerman.  The plan was to convince Liston that his younger opponent was nuts.

Reasoned Bundini,   “The only thing that scares a tough guy is a crazy guy.”



*********** Writes Steve Sailer in Taki’s Mag…

According to data scientist Seth Stephens-Davidowitz’s new mini-book “Who Makes the NBA? Data Driven Answers to Basketball’s Biggest Questions,” black NBA players are only about half as likely as the general black male populace to have those bizarre black-only first names that sociologist Andrew Hacker noted tend to be the product of schoolgirl whimsy as teen mothers try to outcompete all their pregnant friends in creative naming.

That’s because the players who make it to the NBA and stay for a solid career tend to come from above-average family backgrounds:

Black NBA players are 32 percent less likely to be born to unmarried mothers and 36 percent less likely to be born to a teenage mother.

How about this further attempt at explaining?

I suspect that the growth in emphasis on long-distance three-point shooting in recent years has further suburbanized the NBA as the best shooters now tend to grow up with their own driveways in which to practice their outside shot.

*********** I was reading an article in The Athletic in which a number of opposing head coaches were asked about what went wrong at USC this year, and I came across this:

The Trojan Walk was also something that came up often in discussions about USC. The players don’t wear team apparel when they get off the bus and walk into the Coliseum. Riley allows the players to dress how they want for home games (they wear team apparel for road games).

“It’s like they think they’re NBA stars walking into an arena,” one of the head coaches said. “They’re wearing designer shorts with dress shoes. Another guy is in tie-dyed sneakers. This team looks like they’re an AAU team.”

Added another staffer: “That promotes individuality. You don’t let Hollywood take over your program. Then you attract the kind of kids where football is not important to them.”

*********** Larry Brown (Larry Brown sports)  writes

The finalists for the Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year award were revealed on Tuesday, and fans cannot believe one coach was left off the list.

The following 12 coaches are the finalists for the honor (listed in alphabetical order):

David Braun, Northwestern
Jamey Chadwell, Liberty
Kalen DeBoer, Washington
Eli Drinkwitz, Missouri
Jedd Fisch, Arizona
Rhett Lashlee, SMU
Chuck Martin, Miami (Ohio)
Mike Norvell, Florida State
Barry Odom, UNLV
Nick Saban Alabama
Steve Sarkisian, Texas
Jon Sumrall, Troy

Those are all coaches who led their teams to excellent seasons. They’re worthy of plenty of recognition. But do you know who else is worthy of some recognition for that honor? Jerry Kill

Numerous fans pointed out that Kill was a massive snub for the award.

Kill took over a New Mexico State program that had consistently been among the worst teams in college football. They were 2-10 in 2021 and 2019 and only had one winning season since 2003. But Kill led them to a 7-6 season last year and 10-4 season this year.

The Aggies reached their conference championship game this season, beat Auburn, and had their first 10-win season since 1960. When you look at how bad the program has been until now, that puts into context just how big of an accomplishment Kill has had.

Perhaps those awarding these honors need to take all that into mind and give Kill some deserving consideration.

https://larrybrownsports.com/category/college-football

***********  A few weeks ago, NC State beat rival North Carolina 39-20 to end their regular season 9-3.

After the game, the ACC Network caught NC State coach Dave Doeren talking to his team in the locker room and  referring to the Tar Heels as “pieces of s–t.”

While talking to the media this week, Carolina coach Mack Brown  called Doeren out on it,  saying, “I’ve never heard something like that before, and I’m disappointed. I thought it was classless.”

Doeren then "apologized,"  but  about as lamely as a human possibly could.

He  told the media that he had called Brown and apologized to him for the comment 's being on TV. (Not for saying it - simply for  its being on TV.)

And he said  that he wouldn’t have said what he said in the locker room if he knew he was being recorded. So I guess, if he had it to do over,  he would have first made sure  the cameras were off.  Then said it.

Next year’s game ought to be a doozy.


https://footballscoop.com/news/mack-brown-calls-out-dave-doeren-for-pieces-of-shit-comment



*********** If anyone asks you what DEI means, tell them I told you it means “lower the bar.”

For years, Vancouver, Washington’s public schools have  operated the Vancouver School of Arts and Academics.  It’s a magnet school, designed to draw kids from all over the five-high-school district, and judging from the fact that there is quite a bit of demand to get in, I’d say it's been  successful.  Kids must apply, then go through some  sort of process demonstrating aptitude and interest in order to be accepted.

But as it has elsewhere in the country,  DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) has reared its ugly head. There’s a problem, it seems,  with the Vancouver School of Arts and Academics - not enough  children of certain racial groups.

The proposed solution: admission by lottery.

As most people know, the  National Football League’s  rosters contain a  disproportionately low number of white players.  How about we hold a lottery and give   everybody who’d like to be a professional football player a chance at a spot on a roster?



*********** I recently read the obituary of a man named  Charles Feeney who after graduating from Cornell -  which he attended on the GI Bill - went on to make billions as the founder of the Duty-Free Shops, familiar in airports to world travelers.

Saying he was “not really into money,” he gave away about $8 billion, nearly a billion of it to Cornell, and kept just enough money to pay for his retirement.

After graduating from Cornell in 1956, not sure what wander to do, he sailed to Europe and took courses at universities in France.

While traveling around on the cheap, he found he was having a hard time  hitching  rides in southern Europe, until he began holding up a sign that read,  "English conversations offered.”

Cars began to stop for him.


***********   The capacity of our football players to absorb the shock and pain of violent physical contact without wincing, and to rally strongly and courageously in the face of misfortune and adversity is familiar to all who know the game.  The football player accepts blows from Fate and his adversary as part and parcel of the game and stays in there swinging.  He combines fortitude and strength with bodily skill and agility, and these facts with split-second thinking and reactions.  These are the same qualities that make our fighting men the toughest and best in the world.

Admiral Jonas Ingram, 1943

That is SO mid-Twentieth Century.  As everyone knows, we humans have moved to a better state - beyond war -  thereby making football obsolete.


*********** Upset at not being selected to the Playoff, Florida State’s honchos are said to be exploring their options.  My  suspicion is strong that there isn’t room for them in  the SEC or the Big Ten,  so other than staying with the ACC, which owns FSU’s media rights  through 2036, I can’t imagine what options they’re talking about.


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

I am writing because I always enjoy your "News You Can Use" but this week was even better than usual. My wife and two sons are Harding graduates and even though my sons didn't play football there I have adopted the Bisons as my team and have been following them for the last several years. Their Head Coach Paul Simmons is an impressive guy. I don't know if you watched any of his post game interviews but listening to him makes me glad my kids went to a school that employs a man like him. He was able to mention God and quote scripture before they could switch to something else.

A couple of weeks ago I heard him answer a question about his offense and how some may not like it. His response: "All it does is win."

Thank you for all you do

I hope you and your Family have a Merry Christmas!

Scott Whaley
Oskaloosa, Kansas


Coach,

I appreciate the note and I’m glad you enjoy my page.

I was alerted to Harding and the offense and I watched in amazement at how well they played.

From that point, I was motivated to learn more about the school, and I must say that I am impressed by the school’s mission and its high standards.

To be frank, I’m also impressed that despite their strict rules and regulations they can recruit and retain good athletes.

Congratulations to you for choosing  a wife from Harding and to you and your wife for sending your kids there.

Merry Christmas!


***********  Dear Coach Wyatt,

Hello!  Happy Holidays!  I love to watch old Army Cadets football from the 1940's!  Great football teams!  Army liked to block their Power/Counter play with the OT and BSG pulling!  TE blocks down.  OT kicks out the DE.  BSG pulls and leads through the hole.  On Power, both backs double lead for the HB.  On Counter, only the Fullback leads for the HB.

Why did Vince Lombardi go with his famous two guards pulling when he left Army?

Sincerely,

Bill Statz
Winnsboro, South Carolina

Lombardi had to make some adjustments  when he moved from coaching the offense at Army to coaching the offense for the New York Giants. For one thing, once in the NFL he began working with the two-back backfield (the so-called Pro Set) which he would retain through his stay at Green Bay and beyond. Also,  the fact that in the NFL he had to incorporate pass blocking schemes into the offensive line’s repertoire meant the requirements of the different line positions changed greatly.

As David Maraniss recounts it in “When Pride Still Mattered,” things  didn’t do especially smoothly for Lombardi  when he first arrived and tried coaching pros the same way he’d coached West Point Cadets:  

“He installed another play from Army's split T-formation designed to have Conerly (Giants’ veteran quarterback Charlie Conerly), on 33-year-old knees, fake a handoff and a pass and run around end. Conerly had no desire to run and changed the play whenever Lombardi sent it in.”



***********   I owe you one - OK, another one - for alerting me to the Harding Colorado Mines game.

I can go to the Home now, it'll be OK.

If you get a chance - not like you're busy or anything - go back and look at the Variations in Blocking.

***
This is as satisfying as can be to me:

BASE SERIES:
Base
Zone
Scoop

TRAP SERIES:
Trap/Trap Option
X/Fold
G-Around

VEER SERIES
Veer
Combo
Double

You don't have to carry all of each Series but you don't have to try and force the Option Offense into Veer and Base only..  You can displace any Key by Read, Block or Trap.  Option the Best and take care of the Rest.  'N so on...

40+ years, HW.

I owe a lot to you, Hugh Wyatt.  I thank you for all you have done.
Thank you,

Charlie Wilson
Brooksville, Florida



***********   Maybe I occasionally gush too much over the quality of NYCU, but I can't apologize and mean it every time I applaud it. You spoke for many of us in your preamble to today's page, as you described the greed and corruption of Big College football. More days than not, I wonder how coaches can stay connected to the game. It can't be all about the money, I think, before telling myself it must be. The other day I copied an X entry by a player who's transferring for more money. This is it, verbatim, punctuated exactly as it appeared: I aint thinking big enough I think the crib need elevators        I skipped several spaces to indicate no period at the end of the 'sentence'. Isn't the purpose of a university to educate? I didn't include the X entry simply to point a finger at the player, but at the entire university structure, especially including the coaches, who countenance such ignorance and seem to have no problem with the sentiment expressed. And if he was disloyal to his last school, why should the receiving coach expect any different?

I watched most of the Jackrabbits' romp over Albany (or UAlbany, as the announcers said, which sounded like New Albany, as in Indiana), and they are good. I believe they could whip at least 1/3 of the FBS. But I felt most like I was watching the college football of 40 years ago as I looked at the fans in Missoula cheer on their Griz. I don't expect the Griz to beat SDSU, but I'll be watching, because it just feels more real.

The Tim Polasek story, though written three years ago, warmed my heart. Hope Tim stays clear of the filth and corruption.

John Vermillion                            
St. Petersburg, Florida


***********   Hugh,

Been having trouble with my computer.  Takes forever to load.  I have Norton protection that doesn’t indicate any issues, and nada problems.  I’m thinking it may be time to replace my 20 year old Mac!  Anyway, I‘ve managed reading your news through my phone but a week long visit with my grandsons has kept me busy.

You so eloquently described how I’ve been feeling about the state of major college football.  It is getting harder and harder for me to retain my passion for it.  The more I try to continue watching the more I feel the way I did when I gave up watching pro football.  It feels like I would be giving up a piece of who I have been. 

I still truly believe Coach Monken caved to save his job.  TWICE!

The hiring of Coach Polasek at NDSU gives me a glimmer of hope that some colleges will hire a head coach based on the merits of hard work, sacrifice, and loyalty.  Not necessarily media hype.

I’ve lived all over this great country.

East Coast, West Coast, North, Midwest, and South.  Enjoyed each of them despite drawbacks in each.  But I have to say I enjoyed the East Coast and Midwest the most since they provided four distinct seasons. The North was too cold too long, the South too hot too long, but the West Coast??  Well let’s just say the weather had nothing to do with why we left!

Have a good week!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas

I LOVE the  climate of the Pacific Northwest. I’m not a hot weather guy, especially where there’s humidity involved. When I first visited Portland  with a WFL team and it was 95 degrees and it didn’t even feel hot, I knew I had to find a way to get back permanently.  Our Northwest summers are great.  And the winters, although gray and a bit rainy, are fairly mlld.  It seldom rains hard.  And it rarely snows and seldom freezes.  Overall, we don’t have extremes of anything.









DON’T LET THE NUMBER FOOL YOU - IT’S NOT EMMITT SMITH


*********** QUIZ  ANSWER:  Bob Hayes  remains the only athlete to win a Super Bowl ring and an Olympic gold medal. 

His rare combination of world-class speed and football-catching ability  changed the way NFL pass defense was played.

With him as a backup running back, his high school team in Jacksonville won the 1958 Florida black  state championship.

He enrolled at Florida A & M (FAMU) where he excelled as a  split end in football and a sprinter in track

But his college career almost came to a sudden stop shortly after it began.   While still a freshman - before he’d played a down of varsity football -  he was arrested and jailed after one of his teammates robbed a FAMU student.  Without benefit of counsel or advice he had  signed a confession, and he had already spent a week in jail when the head varsity coach, the legendary Jake Gaither,  learned of the incident. 

He told  Coach Gaither that he was innocent, and Gaither, after some investigating on his own, concluded that his player was being truthful.   There was no taking back the confession,  but using his own personal funds, Coach Gaither  hired a lawyer,  and at sentencing  he asked the judge for leniency.  "If you give me this boy for four years," Coach Gaither said, "I guarantee you he won’t get in trouble, and he’ll make you proud of him." 

Instead of prison, the judge gave him 10 years’ probation.

Although at FAMU on a  football scholarship, he quickly became a track sensation  and never lost a 100-yard or 100-meter race during his time in college. 

He would acquire a number of nicknames in his life, most of them related to his speed, but in his college days he was known as “Crow,” believed to be given him by his track coach - “because he was dark and he could fly.”

In  1962, the University of Miami broke racial barriers by inviting him to run in their formerly all-white invitational meet, where he  tied the  world record then held by Frank Budd of Villanova,  winning the 100-yard dash in 9.2 seconds.

On his return to FAMU, Coach Gaither, known for his tough-love motivation,  chided him by telling him they hadn’t sent him down to Miami to tie a record - they’d sent him to break a record.

In the  1964 NFL draft, the Cowboys took him  in the seventh round as a “future.” (In the days when no player was eligible to play in the NFL until his class had graduated, teams would occasionally draft a  junior in the hope that a year later their pick would pan out.)  He was the 88th player taken. (TRIVIA: The next player taken - number 89 - the choice of the Detroit Lions,  was a tackle from Wichita State named Bill Parcells).

But even before his final football season, there was another matter - the Olympics.  As America’s fastest runner,  our guy was expected to be on the team, but his football coach wasn’t so sure.

But Jake Gaither was a football coach first, and his concern his football team, not the Olympics. He was concerned that his  star receiver’s  time away from football would hurt the  football team’s shot at a national championship, and as a result he was hesitant to let him  go.

In an interview before his death in 2002, our guy said that finally, it took a phone call from President Lyndon Johnson to Coach Gaither.

The coach gave in, but not before  telling our guy,  “You’ll have to earn your spot back when you finish with the Olympics. We don’t hold positions for anybody.”

He won gold in the 100, and as anchor man on the 4 x 100 relay, he took the baton in fifth place, and passed runners from Jamaica, Russia, Poland and France to win the gold.   His unofficial time was  8.6

"The most astonishing sprint of all time," it was called later by the Los Angeles Times.

And then he came back to FAMU and played his final season of football.

Coach Gaither was able to persuade the Governor to grant him a pardon from his earlier sentence.

But from many of his teammates, he received a cool reception.  Sensing that they resented his new-found fame, Coach Gaither told them,  "You boys should be proud to have Bob Hayes as a member of the team. I heard some of you call him ‘Hollywood’ because he gets so much exposure. If you guys are jealous of Bob Hayes,  I know how every one of you can get as much publicity as he does."

All they had to do, said Gaither, was “outrun him."

The 1964 FAMU Rattlers  finished 9-1, claiming the black national championship with a win over Grambling in the Orange Blossom Classic.  Followng that,  he became the first black player to play in the Senior Bowl. There,  he caught a touchdown pass from Alabama’s Joe Namath and was named the South team’s MVP.

With the Cowboys, he very quickly answered any  questions about whether he was a track star   trying to play football or a  football player with blazing speed. In his first season, he caught 46 passes for 1,003 yards and 12 TDs.  He also returned 12 punts for 153 yards, and 17 kickoffs for 450 yards.

In both of his first two seasons, he led the NFL in touchdowns receiving.

At the time, man coverage had been common around the league, but it was impossible for any one man to cover him,  and I remember at the time the near-panic among NFL defenses about how to stop him.  

"I know one thing, and I played with him," said  Mike Ditka, “He changed the game. He made defenses and defensive coordinators work hard to figure out what you had to do to stop him."

In 10 years with the Cowboys he was named to the Pro Bowl three times,  and he was a  four time All-Pro:  First-team  twice and Second-team  twice.  While he was with Dallas the Cowboys won five Eastern Conference titles, two NFC titles, and one Super Bowl.

After ten years in Dallas, he spent one final season with the 49ers before retiring.

In his career, he caught 371 passes for 7,414 yards and 71 touchdowns.

He unknowingly played an important role in the outcome of the famous “Ice Bowl,” the 1967 NFL championship game played in sub-zero temperatures in Green Bay.

From  “When Pride Still Mattered,” David Maraniss’ prize-winning biography of Vince Lombardi, there comes  this bit of football lore concerning the way his attempt to deal with the cold alerted the Packers to  the Cowboys’ plays:

Their (the Cowboys’) main receiving threat, Bob Hayes,  known as the world’s fastest human, also seemed to be the world's coldest, and unwittingly gave away every offensive play. If it was a run, he tucked his frigid hands into his pants as he lined up; if Cowboys quarterback Don Meredith called a pass play, Bob Hayes pulled out his hands. "You can't catch a pass with your hands in your pants,” said Tom Brown the Packers strong safety. "We played 11 guys against 10 whenever he did that. He was just stone cold.”

The Packers won the game and went on to play in Super Bowl II.

After retirement following the 1975 season, much of his life was difficult.  In March 1979, he was sentenced to five years in prison for selling cocaine to an undercover agent. During the trial, he said, “I’m guilty. I was wrong. I’ve paid the price in my image and my respect. People see me as Bob Hayes  [the] dope dealer, not Bob Hayes the citizen. It hurts.”

At his sentencing, former Cowboy teammate  Roger Staubach spoke in his support, saying, “I see the potential in Bob Hayes as a human being.  It is difficult for me to come down here on a case like this. This tears my guts out.”

That experience  “destroyed my life,” he  wrote later in his autobiography, “Run, Bullet, Run.”

It almost certainly kept him  out of the Pro Football Hall of Fame during his lifetime.

After suffering from numerous health problems he died in Jacksonville in  2002 from  complications from prostate cancer and heart and kidney ailments. He was just 59.

In January of 2009 he was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and  the next day, a  woman who claims to be his sister released a letter allegedly written by him to be read if he weren’t alive when he was inducted.  The letter was determined  to be fraudulent, in part because in it Roger Staubach’s name was spelled “Stauback.”

In August, 2009, he was inducted posthumously into the Hall of Fame.  His son and namesake, Robert Hayes, Junior,  accepted on his behalf.



CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING BOB HAYES


GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
TOM DAVIS - SAN MARCOS, CALIFORNIA
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOHN IRION - ARGYLE, NEW YORK
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY
JOE BREMER - WEST SENECA, NEW YORK
 



***********   QUIZ - He was born and raised in Detroit,  the son of a Lutheran minister, and he played tackle at Valparaiso University.

Starting out as a high school coach at tiny Concordia Lutheran High School in Portland, Oregon, he spent four years there as an assistant, then spent the next seven years as an assistant at small colleges in the Midwest before getting his first head coaching job at NAIA Texas Lutheran.

In five years at Texas Lutheran his teams went 37-17, and in his final two seasons  there, his teams went 11-0 and 11-1  and won two NAIA Division II  Championships.

From there, he moved to North Dakota State, where in three years his teams went 24-9-1, with two appearances in the NCAA Division II semifinal games,

His next stop was another Division II school Southwest Texas State (now Texas State) and in four years there, he posted a record of 42-8. In years three and four, his teams went  13-1 and  14-0 and won back-to-back D-II national titles.

He had a 12-year record as a head coach of 103-34-1 - all in smaller schools - and he was ready for the big time.

The “big time”school was TCU, which hadn’t had a winning season, and hadn’t  finished higher than seventh in the Southwest Conference in that time.

Right away, well aware of the SWC’s reputation for dirty recruiting and paying of players,  he sent out a letter to his fellow SWC coaches imploring them to help clean up the conference, telling them among other things that  if they didn’t, “we will self-destruct before it is all over.”

It wasn’t well received.   Who was this Holy Joe? they asked.  Who is this small-timer,  lecturing us?

His first year, the Frogs went 1-8-2 - his first losing season in 11 years - but in 1984 they snapped back and went 8-4, tieing for third in the SWC and earning TCU its first bowl berth in 19 years.

Big things were expected in 1985. His star running back, Kenneth Davis, had rushed for 1611 yards as a junior and finished fifth in the Heisman voting.

But just prior to the second game of the season, he learned that six of his top players, one of them Kenneth Davis, had been receiving illegal payments from TCU boosters. He dismissed the players on the spot, and without his best players, the Horned Frogs struggled to finish 3-8.

Despite his immediate actions, the NCAA hammered TCU:  three years’ probation;  loss of 35 scholarships over two years; forfeiture of the previous  two years’  television revenues; and a one-year bowl ban.

The once-promising 1985 season ended 3-8, and it would be the first of a six-year run of losing seasons.

In the final game of the 1985 season, Texas A & M coach Jackie Sherrill, evidently miffed by the letter that our guy had sent out a year earlier, called for an onside kick in the fourth quarter of a game won by the Aggies 53-6.

And, not content with that,  the next season  Sherrill went for two late in a game that ended 74-10 in the Aggies’ favor.

In 1990 TCU came agonizingly close to having a winning season, starting out 5-1, but after they lost their starting quarterback, they finished 5-6, and it wasn’t until 1991, after six straight losing seasons, that they finally won,   going 7-4.    And then, after the school administration voted not to go to a bowl game, he left, to take the head coaching job at Minnesota.

In five years at Minnesota he didn’t have a winning season, and that was it for him as a coach.  After 26 years as a head coach, his overall record was 159-131-3.

After spending two years as a radio announcer, he returned to Southwest Texas State as AD.

He died in 2003 of cancer and shortly after, the  field (at what had just been renamed Texas State) was named in his honor.

The NCAA sanctions against TCU were followed up shortly after by SMU receiving the so-called death penalty.  The actions against TCU and SMU  began a cascade of events that led to the demise of the Southwest Conference. (Does “we will self-destruct before it is all over” ring a bell?)

Said our guy’s QB Coach Bob DeBesse,   "We always said that SMU got the death penalty, but that we got life because we had to keep playing through impossible sanctions."

Thus began an odyssey that took TCU from conference to conference - from SWC to WAC to Conference USA to Mountain West to Big East to Big 12.

The irony of the NIL money now being paid to players was not lost on Kenneth Davis. “Yep, the same thing that's legal now," he told ESPN. "It was devastating. I just cried and couldn't quit crying. I think today that I'm still not over it because there was so much we could have done and would have done. They just brushed us out of there for what everybody else was doing in the Southwest Conference back then. And I mean everybody, a lot of it much worse at other schools.”

Nevertheless, talking about his coach to  the Dallas Times, Davis said, “He made me understand that there was more to life than football, that there are values that you carry with you in life."





TUESDAY, DECEMBER  19, 2023 -  “Courage, like most other qualities, is never assured until it is tested. No man knows precisely how he will behave in battle until he has been under fire.” Horace Porter, Civil War general and Medal of Honor Awardee

*********** People like me and my wife, living as we do  in  a liberal paradise with no  chance of ever overthrowing  our rulers, take some comfort in knowing that there’s still a refuge out there - an Idaho… a Montana… a Wyoming… a North or South Dakota… a Kansas… an Iowa… an Oklahoma. (Sorry - anywhere farther south and it’s too hot for us.)

But you get the idea - a place where sanity still prevails and people still think like us.

After  watching FCS, D-II and D-III football this past weekend, I feel the same way about college football.

After watching the greed and  corruption  that’s overtaken  college football, it’s comforting to know, after last weekend’s “lower level” playoffs,  that football, the game itself, is so good that it will survive - flourish even - in the hands of the coaches and the kids who gave us those games.

I no longer  give a sh— about Alabama or Texas of Washington or Georgia or Michigan or Oregon or Ohio State or the whores who play for them or coach them.  I may pretend to at times, but I can’t fool myself any longer.  Why should I give a sh— about coaches who’re being paid millions, or spoiled-rotten players who have little connection with the colleges they pretend to represent,  only caring about the game to the extent that it will enrich them?  F—k ‘em all.

I can’t imagine  coaching  guys whose professed love of their teammates and the game itself is such a lie that they’ll skip out at bowl time.  F—k those guys, too.  All of ‘em.

But then I remember… not so long ago, there were  the dark times   when Killer Covid roamed  the planet and all we had to watch was FCS football.  In the spring, yet.  But  you know what?  It was pretty good.  It was pretty good football, and we didn’t have to pretend that it was  being played by players who loved the game and wanted to play it, and coached by men who weren’t  being paid millions -  because it was.

If I sound cynical, I’m not faking it.  And as more and more people grow cynical like me, they’ll come to realize how badly they’re being hustled by Big College and its love of money.

But then, like me, they’ll be able to take comfort in knowing that God’s in His heaven.  And somewhere, the game’s still being played - and played pretty well - by people who still love it.



*********** BEST COLLEGE GAMES  THIS PAST WEEKEND

1. D-II CHAMPIONSHIP - Harding 38, Colorado Mines 7 - I would imagine that the Army staff was out on the road recruiting players to run its exciting new “shotgun option” offense and missed their chance to watch Harding, a D-II school from Searcy, Arkansas, run the old, outmoded triple option - the offense that Army’s coach said couldn’t be run any more - down Colorado Mines’ throat.

Harding had 548 yards total offense - 502 on the ground.  B-Back Blake Delacruz rushed for 208 yards, slot back  Braden Jay added 161 yards and three touchdowns on the ground.

Harding this year became the first  NCAA team at any level to rush for 6,000 yards in a single season.

Can’t run it?  Rules won’t let you?  Pure bullsh—. The more I see, the more convinced I am that Army first made the decision to junk the bone, and then fabricated  the reason why.


2. D-III CHAMPIONSHIP - Cortland 38, North Central 37 - This one went 29 minutes without a score, before the teams went off at the half, 7-3.  And then, in the second half, all hell broke loose, with the lead going back and forth until finally, with 1:20 to play, North Central, the defending champion, scored and passed up a chance to tie, instead going for two.  For one of he few times all day, they were stuffed. A failed onside kick attempt and a Cortland  first down and the New Yorkers had their first title ever.  Cortland QB Zach Boys accounted for 472 of his team’s 505 yards, but the real heroes were the members of the Cortland defense, who, when they had to, stopped a North Central team that had been averaging 60 points a game.


3. FCS SEMI-FINAL - Montana 31, North Dakota State 29 - It wasn’t a one-man show, but in the fourth quarter Montana’s Junior Bergen scored on a 47-yard punt return and set up a TD  on a long pass reception, then in second OT he threw  for the winning 2-point conversion.  Last week, against Furman, Bergen returned the opening kickoff for a TD, then in the fourth quarter returned a punt 59 yards for a TD.


4. FCS SEMI-FINAL - South Dakota 59, Albany 0 - It wasn’t close, but if you like watching a really good team execute its offense beautifully, this was a game for you. The Jackrabbits were that  good.  They threw just 19 passes, but QB Mark Gronowski completed 15 for 265 yards and three TDs. That’s 13.9 yards per attempt.  To catch the ball, they had the 6-3 Janke (YON-kee) twins, Jadon and Jaxon, and a  6-7 tight end named Zach Heins.  Isaiah Davis, their main running back, carried just 15 times for 107 yards and two TDs.  And Gronowski himself carried five times for 50 yards.  The Jackrabbits  are going to be very hard for Montana to beat in the finals.


5. THERE IS NO NUMBER 5.  IT'S A  SIX-WAY  TIE FOR LAST.    THE FBS BOWL GAMES ALL SUCKED.


*********** SPEAKING OF BOWL GAMES…

SATURDAY

MYRTLE BEACH BOWL
OHIO 41,  GEORGIA SOUTHERN 21 - Even playing without their deserter QB, Ohio  won and finished with back-to-back 10-win seasons for the first time ever.  Freshman running back Ricky Hunt scored five TDs. Geez,   I saw Georgia Southern players deliver a  couple of hits that were totally uncalled for,  with  very little apparent “corrective coaching” afterward.

NEW ORLEANS BOWL
JACKSONVILLE  STATE 34  LOUISIANA  31 (OT)   The Jacksonville Gamecocks made the most of the bowl opportunity they got only because there weren’t enough teams qualifying. They more than doubled the Cajuns’ total offense - 526-247 - but they still almost blew it because they turned the ball over four times, and three of the turnovers were returned for Cajun touchdowns.

CURE BOWL 
APPALACHIAN STATE 13, MIAMI (OH) 9 -  Come to Orlando for the weather… er, check that.  The game was played in a nonstop downpour, so bad that the TV camera lenses had droplets on them much of the time, and the result was three turnovers for each team and a game that was hard to watch. 

NEW MEXICO BOWL 
FRESNO STATE 37, NEW MEXICO STATE 10 - The Bulldogs found what they’d been missing - mainly their QB, Mikey Keene. Back in action after a series of injuries, he completed 31 of 39 for 3 TDs, and the Bulldogs scored 17 points in the fourth quarter.  The Aggies’ Diego Pavia, banged up against Liberty in the conference title game, had on off-day in front of the hometown folks, throwing for 58 yards and running for 72.

The game itself was a success, drawing more that 30,000 fans for the first time in its history.

For the Aggies, it was their first 10-win season in 60-years, and their  first time going to back-to-back bowls in 60 years. Said Aggies’ coach Jerry Kill afterward, “They didn’t have anything left in ‘em.  They’ve accomplished things that haven’t been accomplished in over 60-some odd years here in this football program … what these kids have done is flat remarkable. In just only the second year, they’ve been outstanding.”

LA BOWL
UCLA 35,  BOISE STATE 22 - UCLA actually looked pretty  good once they brought QB Ethan Garbers off the bench to start the second half.  On the other hand, Boise,  their starting QB having deserted, asked too much of the kid who had to fill in, and as a result they wound up going scoreless in the second half.

INDEPENDENCE BOWL -
TEXAS TECH 34, CAL 14 - Sophomore QB Behren Morton was 27 of 43 for 256 yards and 4 TDs, and running back Tahj Brooks was a beast, carrying 21 times for 99 yards and a TD.  Cal’s Fernando Mendoza threw a TD pass on the first play from scrimmage - after recovering a Tech fumble on the opening kickoff, but although he completed 22 of 33 for 284 yards, he threw three costly interceptions.


*********** After all the weeping and wailing about poor Tez Walker being deprived of his basic rights by not being allowed a second transfer (he’d already transferred from NC Central to Kent State) he finally got the waiver and was able to play  for North Carolina.  Now, to show his gratitude to the kind folks at Carolina for all their efforts to overcome that cruel NCAA,  he’s opted out of their bowl game.

When you see the kind of people you’re going to be getting, are you really sure you want to be an NFL coach?


*********** After watching a whole season of FBS football - at least 12 games per Saturday - and just one weekend of FCS, D-II and D-III, I’ve come to the conclusion that considering what they’ve accomplished with the limits on their talent, facilities and resources, any one of the FCS, D-II and D-III  coaches I saw this past weekend could take their staffs to all but a couple of FBS schools and do at least as well as the  present staff. For a  third the payroll.


***********  My appreciation for the Steelers and their fans goes back to the Super Steelers of the 1970s. Now, from  everything I read about the Steelers, the loyalty of their fans - some of the most loyal you’ll ever find, at least in an NFL city - is being sorely tested.  No longer do they accept the mediocrity that has been theirs for years, and unquestioningly accept that Mike Tomlin is anything more than a mediocre coach. And they have grown especially weary of team president Art Rooney II’s seeming lack of concern for the terrible  place their team is in.

Mark Madden in the Pittsburgh Tribune sees nothing but bleak skies in the future:

"This is just a bad football team. It's a rotten organization from top to bottom. From Art II to the ball boy, it stinks. And to act like you could isolate some little thing, and if you fix that, it would all be better? This team is not going to win a playoff game for another five to 10 years. That's how deep the hole has been dug."


*********** If you’re like me and you’re disgusted by the non-stop  chatter of the Bozos in the Booth, understand this:

NBC has just taken the mic away from Al Michaels, one of the best there ever was.

Why?

Supposedly, he  and his co-broadcaster, Tony Dungy, were criticized by fans for their lack of enthusiasm


*********** Grant Chestnut spent nine years as offensive coordinator at Georgia’s Kennesaw State before being hired by Navy last spring.  Now, after one season at Navy, he’s been fired.

Navy has announced that a national search for an offensive coordinator will begin immediately.  Could I interest them  in the guys who just installed  the offense Army ran this past season?  I’ll write them a fantastic letter of recommendation.


*********** Gerad Parker, Notre Dame’s OC - for just this past season - is off to become the new head coach at Troy, whose former coach, Jon Sumrall, left to take the Tulane job, left vacant after Willie Fritz left to take the Houston job, left vacant after Dana Holgorsen was fired.  Whew.

I find it interesting that head coaches get locked into long-term contracts, while the people they’re so heavily dependent on, the coordinators, seem to come and go like  mayflies.

If you’re a veteran offensive player at Notre Dame, you’ll be playing for your third offensive coordinator in  three years.

And if you’re newly-acquired Irish QB Riley Leonard, the OC  that  you planned on playing for can now be reached in Troy, Alabama.  (Is “acquired” the proper word to use  now?)



*********** In the Wall Street Journal, I found myself reading the obituary - a biography, really - of a man named George Cohon.

Mr. Cohon, who died back in November at 86, parlayed a law degree at Northwestern, a chance meeting with McDonald’s founder Ray Kroc, and a legendary salesman’s drive into becoming the founder and senior chairman of  McDonald's Canada and McDonald's Russia.

According to the obituary, back in 1993  Russian president Boris Yeltsin visited a McDonald’s and asked Cohon how much the Russian manager of the restaurant earned.

When Yeltsin expressed  shock at learning that the manager made more than he did, Cohon explained:  “She’s got a very tough job.”



*********** This article is from The Athletic.  It’s three years old, but it’s timeless.  If you’re a head coach, you might want to print it out to show to any young guys on your staff who think that you should just turn the offense (or the defense) over to them their first day on the job, and don’t have the slightest idea of  the  price a real coach has to pay paid to get where he is.  It's a story about a guy with a burning desire to become a coach and who'll do anything that's needed.

By Chris Vannini

May 5, 2020

When Tim Polasek got the call, the thermometer read 15 degrees. That was considered a warm day, but Polasek wanted to get in his truck and turn the heat on.

The yellow Nokia phone rang. Polasek didn’t recognize the number, but he answered it. The person on the other end of the line asked how he was doing, so Polasek explained that he’d just finished a good day of logging in central Wisconsin. The other person was confused.

“This is Craig Bohl, football coach at North Dakota State,” he said. “Is this Tim Polasek the football coach?”

It was. Polasek explained to Bohl that although he was a part-time assistant at Division III Wisconsin-Stevens Point, he was also a logger on the side because he needed to make money.

“I’m not gonna lie to ya, I just cracked open a Miller Lite,” Polasek told Bohl.

Bohl wanted to interview Polasek for a graduate assistant job at NDSU. The call revealed there was a lot more to this candidate than just fotball, and he figured out what all that noise was in the background.

“Typically, coaches are in a weight room or something,” Bohl says now. “I could tell for dang sure he wasn’t in a weight room or on a football field.”

Fourteen years later, Polasek is now the offensive line coach at Iowa. He just watched offensive tackle Tristan Wirfs get selected No. 13 overall in the NFL Draft. But no matter how far he’s moved up in coaching, he’s never forgotten the labor he used to do, all so he could have a chance to do what he’s doing now.

“It’s one of those stories that encompasses what a hungry football coach he is,” Bohl said.

In school, Polasek was actually a quarterback. He’s still the all-time leading passer at Division III Concordia (Wis.) and in the hall of fame at the school, where he graduated in 2002. He began teaching after graduation and coaching high school ball, but he realized he wanted to be in college football.

He didn’t have any résumé to speak of, so he drove over to UW-Stevens Point, 20 minutes from his hometown, and walked into head coach John Miech’s office. He told Miech about his successful playing career and that he wanted to coach. Miech said they’d take a look at his stuff.

“I said, ‘Coach, you gotta hear me on this. I’m right down the road, I’ll do anything,” Polasek told him. “He called back and said all we’ve got is a volunteer quarterbacks job for the spring. So I got going with a recruiting area. But I was on a volunteer basis.”

That meant he needed to make money somehow. A family friend was willing to help, offering Polasek a bartending job with a friend. That wasn’t a fit. Polasek wanted to do physical work. He’d worked in a steel mill in college. So the friend offered him seasonal work with Kielblock Logging.

Polasek had no idea what he was doing, but he quickly learned on the job. He spent two winters and one summer making $12 an hour as a lumberjack. He was free from coaching in the summer other than camps. He spent two or three days a week in the winter recruiting, so the rest of the week would be spent in the woods. His main job was driving the skidder, a tractor meant to pull the trees that have been cut down.

“I would basically stack the trees to be cut into the log lengths,” he said. “I’d get off the skidder and cut eight- to 10-foot lengths for the logs. Then you go back, get four or five more trees and you keep doing it. … So you’re on and off, pulling heavy things, hard terrains, big hills.”

The trees they’d clear would be dying or not seeding. The role of the logging was in large part to help promote more growth while putting the wood to use.

He learned how dangerous the work was, too. Like when his skidder rolled over.

“I was pulling up trees with the winch, and they got hung up on another big tree and I was trying to scoop the skinner to un-wedge them,” he said. “I was on a side hill, and when the tree gave, the skidder tipped over on the hill. I jumped out of the skidder. My boss saw me. He grabbed me by the throat and said, ‘Don’t ever, ever leave that skidder again. That cage is there for a reason.’ That was another hard lesson I learned. If you tip over, you’re in the cage and you’re OK.”

He also hated wearing his hard hat in the field, especially in the summer heat. An older worker named Jimmy constantly yelled at Polasek to wear the helmet, often cussing him out over it.

One day, Polasek’s life was saved when he wore his helmet. A large branch fell out of a tree and landed on his head. It was a loose branch that had been caught up in another tree. Those kinds of branches are called “widowmakers” in the logging community. The name is self-explanatory.

“This branch was 8 inches thick and probably 14 feet long,” Polasek said. “It hit me straight on top of the hard hat. The hard hat split right open, knocked me to one knee, and I was shook up for about an hour. Probably had concussion symptoms. You learn real fast to pay attention to details.”

The winters could feel as cold minus-20 degrees. The summers could be as hot as 100 degrees. But he wanted to coach football, and if he wasn’t getting paid, he’d do whatever he could to keep coaching. Growing up in a small town in a single-parent household with his mom, he learned you only get what you work for.

"I  have such an appreciation for all those small-town people where it’s a big deal to play softball on a Wednesday night,” Polasek said. “You try to not let down anybody that helped me in my hometown. It was a driving factor for a long time and still is.”

When that call from Bohl came, Polasek offered to immediately drive eight hours up to Fargo for the interview. Bohl said he could take a few days. But there was a problem: Polasek didn’t have enough money for the drive there and back.

To get the gas money for the trip, Polasek sold a golf club driver to his high school superintendent for $200.

“I found out later he was just trying to help me do what I wanted to do,” Polasek said. “He never even used it. Then I bought the driver back a few years after.”

Polasek got the NDSU job, and Bohl says Polasek initially slept in the basement of the Fargodome upon his arrival. Coaches gave him the nickname “Lumber.” He worked his way up, spending 10 of the next 11 years at NDSU, including the five as offensive coordinator, before landing a job at Iowa.

His first game with Iowa was against Bohl’s Wyoming team, and the two hugged on the field before the game, reflecting on the early days.

“The burning desire to continue to learn has been evident,” Bohl said. “It’s been neat to see him grow. The sky’s the limit for him. I’m convinced he’s going to be a great head coach.”

Polasek sees plenty from his logging days or steel mill days that translates to football: the need for teamwork, the physicality, the respect for authority. More than anything, it’s a reminder of how far he’s come.

“There’s not a day I don’t wake up and feel fortunate to do what I’m doing, especially what I’m doing now,” he said. “At the same time, I just maintain a respect for all the workers in this country that work every week for 40 years. Seeing those guys at 55 doing what was hard to do as a 19-year-old kid was a game-changer for me. Coaching ball’s a hell of a lot easier than doing that.”

Tim Polasek was just named head coach at North Dakota State



***********  What a pleasant surprise to see clips from my team in your latest clinic. Thanks for the kind words too.

Adam Wesoloski
Pulaski, Wisconsin

Coach Wesoloski was kind enough to share some clips of his freshmen running some Open Wing plays and I thought they were good enough to share with the coaches on the Zoom.


***********   Get your agent on the next pony express to Bristol to pitch the BBB, and we ain't talkin' Better Bidness Bureau. Seriously, if the audience was made aware of the game's special rules, rewards, and penalties, I believe more would prefer the BBB format to a bunch of lifeless competitors.

Frankie Deford could hopscotch from rap to rock to CW to a Gregorian chant to a madrigal from one day to the next, but by gosh he done put on his Danny Jenkins hat for this 'un. Right, Corch? They's no better explanation than 'is story about why Amurica's great, the land of fat lighter wood and pu'pwood.

Great point about the Texas QB situation, which makes the same argument used against FSU. How far in the upcoming game will they go before using Arch Manning (and possibly burning a redshirt year?).

Regarding your dining section/selection: Git on down to New Braunfels, Texas, home of the New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung, and you'll find, like many of their German brethren in eastern PA, they have sauerkraut and pork to introduce every new year. I guess it's kind of a good-luck thing.

Finally, thanks for all the buildup of coming CFB games, especially those of the lower divisions. That's where more of the fun is these days.

John Vermillion                        
St Petersburg, Florida





***********   QUIZ ANSWER:   Eddie George grew up in Abington, Pennsylvania, where he started out attending Abington High School (my wife’s alma mater - ahem).  In his sophomore year his mother, whose job as a flight attendant kept her away from home quite a bit,  sent him to Fork Union Military Academy, a boarding school in Virginia.

Big and strong and fast, he was an outstanding running back there.  Rather than resisting the military life, he actually chose to remain for a post-graduate year, during which he  rushed for more than 1,300 yards and came to the notice of colleges nationwide.

He chose Ohio State, where he immediately got playing time. But in a Big Ten game against Illinois his freshman year, he fumbled twice  on the Illinois goal line, with both fumbles leading to Illinois scores in the Illini’s upset win.   (He carried the ball just 12 times the remainder of the season.)

In his sophomore season he carried just 42  times.  He did gain 223 yards and score three touchdowns.

In his junior year, he established himself as a standout runner,  rushing for 1,442 yards and 12 touchdowns, and as a senior he rushed for 1,826 yards and scored 23 touchdowns.  After carrying for 99 yards in the season opener against Boston College, he went on to run for more than 100 yards in every one of the remaining  11 games.

He was a unanimous All-American and won the Heisman Trophy over a field that included Nebraska quarterback Tommie Frazier and Florida quarterback (and future Heisman winner) Danny Wuerffel.

He also won the Walter Camp Award and the Maxwell Award, and he was the Big Ten Player of the Year.

Despite really playing just the two seasons, when he left Ohio State he was second in Buckeye history (behind Archie Griffin) in career rushing yards (3,768) and third in rushing touchdowns (44).

He is now in the College Football Hall of Fame.

He was selected by the Houston Oilers in the first round of the 1996 NFL Draft with the 14th overall pick.

He was the NFL Rookie of the Year, and for eight straight seasons he was  the Oilers/Tennessee Titans’ tailback.    He ran for more than 1,000 in seven of those eight seasons, and from 1997 through 2000 he went to four straight Pro Bowls.

Extremely durable, he never carried fewer than 312 times in any of his seasons with the Titans.  In 2000, he led the NFL with 403 carries. Even in his ninth and final season as a backup in Dallas, he still carried 132 times for 432 yards.

In his eight seasons with the Oilers/Titans, he never missed a start, joining  the immortal Jim Brown as one of the two backs in NFL history to gain 10,000 yards and never miss a start.

He finished his career with 10,441 yards rushing and 268 receptions for 2,227 yards receiving. In all, he scored 78 touchdowns - 68 rushing and 10 receiving.

After retirement he returned to Ohio State to earn  his bachelor's degree in landscape architecture, and he went on to earn a Master’s in Business Administration from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management.

He has appeared as an actor in a Broadway play.

For the past three seasons, Eddie George has been head football coach at Tennessee State.


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING EDDIE GEORGE

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
TOM DAVIS - SAN MARCOS, CALIFORNIA
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY

 


DON’T LET THE NUMBER FOOL YOU - IT’S NOT EMMITT SMITH


*********** QUIZ:  He remains the only athlete to win a Super Bowl ring and an Olympic gold medal. 

His rare combination of world-class speed and football-catching ability  changed the way NFL pass defense was played.

With him as a backup running back, his high school team in Jacksonville won the 1958 Florida black  state championship.

He enrolled at Florida A & M (FAMU) where he excelled as a  split end in football and a sprinter in track

But his college career almost came to a sudden stop shortly after it began.   While still a freshman - before he’d played a down of varsity football -  he was arrested and jailed after one of his teammates robbed a FAMU student.  Without benefit of counsel or advice he had  signed a confession, and he had already spent a week in jail when the head varsity coach, the legendary Jake Gaither,  learned of the incident. 

He told  Coach Gaither that he was innocent, and Gaither, after some investigating on his own, concluded that his player was being truthful.   There was no taking back the confession,  but using his own personal funds, Coach Gaither  hired a lawyer,  and at sentencing  he asked the judge for leniency.  "If you give me this boy for four years," Coach Gaither said, "I guarantee you he won’t get in trouble, and he’ll make you proud of him." 

Instead of prison, the judge gave him 10 years’ probation.

Although at FAMU on a  football scholarship, he quickly became a track sensation  and never lost a 100-yard or 100-meter race during his time in college. 

He would acquire a number of nicknames in his life, most of them related to his speed, but in his college days he was known as “Crow,” believed to be given him by his track coach - “because he was dark and he could fly.”

In  1962, the University of Miami broke racial barriers by inviting him to run in their formerly all-white invitational meet, where he  tied the  world record then held by Frank Budd of Villanova,  winning the 100-yard dash in 9.2 seconds.

On his return to FAMU, Coach Gaither, known for his tough-love motivation,  chided him by telling him they hadn’t sent him down to Miami to tie a record - they’d sent him to break a record.

In the  1964 NFL draft, the Cowboys took him  in the seventh round as a “future.” (In the days when no player was eligible to play in the NFL until his class had graduated, teams would occasionally draft a  junior in the hope that a year later their pick would pan out.)  He was the 88th player taken. (TRIVIA: The next player taken - number 89 - the choice of the Detroit Lions,  was a tackle from Wichita State named Bill Parcells).

But even before his final football season, there was another matter - the Olympics.  As America’s fastest runner,  our guy was expected to be on the team, but his football coach wasn’t so sure.

But Jake Gaither was a football coach first, and his concern his football team, not the Olympics. He was concerned that his  star receiver’s  time away from football would hurt the  football team’s shot at a national championship, and as a result he was hesitant to let him  go.

In an interview before his death in 2002, our guy said that finally, it took a phone call from President Lyndon Johnson to Coach Gaither.

The coach gave in, but not before  telling our guy,  “You’ll have to earn your spot back when you finish with the Olympics. We don’t hold positions for anybody.”

He won gold in the 100, and as anchor man on the 4 x 100 relay, he took the baton in fifth place, and passed runners from Jamaica, Russia, Poland and France to win the gold.   His unofficial time was  8.6

"The most astonishing sprint of all time," it was called later by the Los Angeles Times.

And then he came back to FAMU and played his final season of football.

Coach Gaither was able to persuade the Governor to grant him a pardon from his earlier sentence.

But from many of his teammates, he received a cool reception.  Sensing that they resented his new-found fame, Coach Gaither told them,  "You boys should be proud to have (——)  as a member of the team. I heard some of you call him ‘Hollywood’ because he gets so much exposure. If you guys are jealous of (——),  I know how every one of you can get as much publicity as he does."

All they had to do, said Gaither, was “outrun him."

The 1964 FAMU Rattlers  finished 9-1, claiming the black national championship with a win over Grambling in the Orange Blossom Classic.  Followng that,  he became the first black player to play in the Senior Bowl. There,  he caught a touchdown pass from Alabama’s Joe Namath and was named the South team’s MVP.

With the Cowboys, he very quickly answered any  questions about whether he was a track star   trying to play football or a  football player with blazing speed. In his first season, he caught 46 passes for 1,003 yards and 12 TDs.  He also returned 12 punts for 153 yards, and 17 kickoffs for 450 yards.

In both of his first two seasons, he led the NFL in touchdowns receiving.

At the time, man coverage had been common around the league, but it was impossible for any one man to cover him,  and I remember at the time the near-panic among NFL defenses about how to stop him.  

"I know one thing, and I played with him," said  Mike Ditka, “He changed the game. He made defenses and defensive coordinators work hard to figure out what you had to do to stop him."

In 10 years with the Cowboys he was named to the Pro Bowl three times,  and he was a  four time All-Pro:  First-team  twice and Second-team  twice.  While he was with Dallas the Cowboys won five Eastern Conference titles, two NFC titles, and one Super Bowl.

After ten years in Dallas, he spent one final season with the 49ers before retiring.

In his career, he caught 371 passes for 7,414 yards and 71 touchdowns.

He unknowingly played an important role in the outcome of the famous “Ice Bowl,” the 1967 NFL championship game played in sub-zero temperatures in Green Bay.

From  “When Pride Still Mattered,” David Maraniss’ prize-winning biography of Vince Lombardi, there comes  this bit of football lore concerning the way his attempt to deal with the cold alerted the Packers to  the Cowboys’ plays:

Their (the Cowboys’) main receiving threat, (——),  known as the world’s fastest human, also seemed to be the world's coldest, and unwittingly gave away every offensive play. If it was a run, he tucked his frigid hands into his pants as he lined up; if Cowboys quarterback Don Meredith called a pass play, (——)  pulled out his hands. "You can't catch a pass with your hands in your pants,” said Tom Brown the Packers strong safety. "We played 11 guys against 10 whenever he did that. He was just stone cold.”

The Packers won the game and went on to play in Super Bowl II.

After retirement following the 1975 season, much of his life was difficult.  In March 1979, he was sentenced to five years in prison for selling cocaine to an undercover agent. During the trial, he said, “I’m guilty. I was wrong. I’ve paid the price in my image and my respect. People see me as (——)  [the] dope dealer, not (——) the citizen. It hurts.”

At his sentencing, former Cowboy teammate  Roger Staubach spoke in his support, saying, “I see the potential in (——)  as a human being.  It is difficult for me to come down here on a case like this. This tears my guts out.”

That experience  “destroyed my life,” he  wrote later in his autobiography, “Run, Bullet, Run.”

It almost certainly kept him  out of the Pro Football Hall of Fame during his lifetime.

After suffering from numerous health problems he died in Jacksonville in  2002 from  complications from prostate cancer and heart and kidney ailments. He was just 59.

In January of 2009 he was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and  the next day, a  woman who claims to be his sister released a letter allegedly written by him to be read if he weren’t alive when he was inducted.  The letter was determined  to be fraudulent, in part because in it Roger Staubach’s name was spelled “Stauback.”

In August, 2009, he was inducted posthumously into the Hall of Fame.  His son and namesake accepted on his behalf.





FRIDAY, DECEMBER  15,  2023 -  “A boy becomes a man when a man is needed.” John Steinbeck


***********   FCS  SEMIFINAL

FRIDAY - 7 PM EASTERN - ALBANY AT SOUTH DAKOTA STATE
This could be bad.  The SD State Jackrabbits are favored by 21.5.  I’m pulling for the Albany Great Danes, but I fear they’re  overmatched.


SATURDAY -4:30 PM EASTERN - NORTH DAKOTA STATE AT MONTANA
The Griz (Montana) are 1.5 point favorites over the Bison.  Go Griz!


*********** BOWL GAMES (ALL TIMES EASTERN)

You don’t realize the depth of ESPN’s involvement in  the Bowl Season until you look at the TV schedules:

There will be 41 bowl games televised, including the Playoff Final, and 38 of them will be on either ESPN, ESPN2 or ESPN’s  sister network (also owned by Disney) ABC.

30 will be televised on ESPN

1 (LSU-Wisconsin, on New Year’s Day) will be on ESPN2

7 will be televised on ABC

That leaves just three bowl games that won't be on either ESPN, ESPN2 or ABC

1 (Toledo vs Wyoming in the Arizona Bowl) will be on CW

1 (Oregon State vs Notre Dame in the Sun Bowl) will be on CBS

1 (Louisville vs USC in the Holiday Bowl)  will be  on FOX



SATURDAY'S GAMES

MYRTLE BEACH BOWL  - 11 AM  - ESPN
GEORGIA SOUTHERN VS OHIO +3  (I know nothing about Georgia Southern and next to nothing about Ohio.  I wish those people at ESPN would realize that for those of us on the West Coast, this is an 8 AM start.)

NEW ORLEANS BOWL - 2:15 PM - ESPN
JACKSONVILLE  STATE VS LOUISIANA  +2 (I’ve seen Jaxville State a few times.  They’re coached by Rich Rodriguez and they’re  good.  They were given a second life: they lost their final regular season game and they thought they were done, because they’re new to FBS and weren’t even supposed to be eligible to play in a bowl, but here we are.)

CURE BOWL - 3:30 PM - ABC
MIAMI (OH) +5.5 VS APPALACHIAN STATE (Miami can run the ball. But I think App State is a lot better.)

NEW MEXICO BOWL - 5:45 PM - ESPN
NEW MEXICO STATE VS FRESNO STATE +3.5 (New Mexico State is hot, and they’re playing in New Mexico - although on the field of their archival, the New Mexico Lobos.  I have enjoyed watching the Aggies and their QB Diego Pavia. And I like their coach, Jerry Kill.  The Fresno State Bulldogs pretty much folded the last few games, and they’ll be playing without their coach, Jeff Tedford, who’s  taken a medical leave.)

LA BOWL - 7:30 PM - ABC
UCLA VS BOISE STATE + 3.5 (If the game were anyplace other than Los Angeles, I’d say it was no better than even money that the Bruins would even show up.  Remember when they pulled out of the 2021 Holiday Bowl at the last minute - after NC State had already arrived in San Diego?  Bush league all the way.  Go Broncos!)

INDEPENDENCE BOWL - 9:15 PM - ESPN
CAL +2.5 VS TEXAS TECH (Don’t know a thing about Texas Tech.  Cal has a great runner in Jaydn - that's the correct spelling - Ott.)


MONDAY'S GAME

WESTERN KENTUCKY +2.5 VS OLD DOMINION (Old Dominion has played a tougher schedule, and that’s all I have to go on.)


*********** My wife and I watched the National Junior College (NJIAA) Championship Wednesday night, as Iowa Western took it to East Mississippi, 61-14.

We were taken by surprise by the number of mentions of players on the two teams who were “transfers” from this or that FBS school. I mean, wasn’t that a bit ass-backward?  Wasn’t the idea that guys would play a year or two at a JC and then transfer TO an FBS school?

And then it occurred  to me - these were guys who had lost out in the game of musical chairs. They had entered the transfer portal, and when  there was no FBS chair left for them to sit on, they wound up at a JC.


*********** When I saw East Mississippi JC playing Tuesday night, the first thing that came to mind was “Bull Cyclone.”

Bob Sullivan,  once  the head coach at East Mississippi JC in Scooba, Mississippi, was the subject of a great Frank DeFord article in Sports Illustrated entitled “The Toughest Coach There Ever Was.”

He was, in the words of the great DeFord (maybe the best sports writer there ever was) “so tough he had to have two tough nicknames, Bull and Cyclone, and his name was usually recorded this way: coach Bob "Bull" "Cyclone" Sullivan or coach Bob (Bull) (Cyclone) Sullivan.”

It’s a great read if you can find the time.  (And if you can’t - find the time.)

https://vault.si.com/vault/1984/04/30/the-toughest-coach-there-ever-was


*********** FINE DINING SECTION: It used to be one of my father’s favorite meals, and  although it’s also one of mine, we hadn’t had it in maybe a year - sauerkraut and pork.  It’s  about the easiest  dish imaginable - put a lot  of sauerkraut in a large pot along with a bunch of pork spareribs, cover with water (and maybe some beer) and let ‘er boil until well after the meat comes right off the bones.  Serve with mashed potatoes.  Get some mashed potatoes on the fork, add some sauerkraut and a bite of pork, and I’ve got a  mouthful of heaven.  Cook enough of it and you’ve got several nights of meals.  (When I was a little kid and still learning to appreciate  the dish, my mom would throw a couple of hot dogs in the pot for me.  That’s still good, too.)



*********** At no charge, I’m submitting to ESPN, which now owns most of the bowl games, a refreshing new idea for a game:  The Bear Bryant Bowl.

It’s based on a tribute a fellow coach once paid the Bear when he said,  “He can take his’n and beat yours and he can take yours and  beat his’n.”

The idea is to see which of two coaching staffs could do just that - take his’n and  beat yours.Take the other guy's kids and win with them.

We’d take one of those “meaningless” bowl games, named for some sponsor no one has ever heard of, between two relatively unknown teams, evenly matched in that they both barely qualified for the bowl with 6-6 records.

And we’d swap coaching staffs.  For the  entire bowl-preparation period - let’s say  three weeks.

During that time the two staffs would have to decide what offenses and defenses to run - their own or the ones the kids have been used to playing - and whether or not to move players around.   They wouldn’t know much about their new players - but they’d know an awful lot about  their new opponents.

Anyhow, come game time, here’s where the fun would start:  they’d play for bowl bonuses.

See, college coaches typically have in their contracts that they’ll receive a bonus, usually amounting to something like one month’s pay, for playing in a bowl game.

That’s right.  Just for playing in a bowl game.  Yes, playing in a bowl once meant you’d accomplished something meaningful, but now, staffs of teams that finish  6-6  still get “bowl bonuses” just for being mediocre.   They don’t even have to win the damn bowl game.

Hahaha.   Unless they go to the Bear Bryant Bowl.

In the Bear Bryant Bowl,  the winning staff earns and gets to keep those bowl bonuses.

The losing staff? They don’t get theirs. What the  hell - we should pay them for losing?

Instead, the bowl bonus money they would have received will be shared by the players on the winning team.

Details?  I have nothing to do with the  details.  I’m the idea guy. 

Don't tell me why it won't work.  Find a way to make it work.



*********** Maalik Murphy, Texas’ #2 QB, won two games for them this past season when starter Quinn Ewerts was hurt.

But now, with the Longhorns ready to participate in THE PLAYOFF (using upper case makes it seem really important, doesn’t it?) he’s announced that he’s entering the transfer portal.

Without Murphy’s contribution, Texas likely wouldn’t have made it into the playoff.

So here’s something to consider:  since the Playoff Committee appeared to have justified  its leaving unbeaten Florida State out of the playoff because its  starting QB, Jordan Travis, wasn’t going to be able to play - might they also have taken Murphy’s bolting into account had they known about it in advance of the selections?



*********** I continue to have a tough time figuring out  the  thinking behind putting  a  trivial five-yard penalty such as a false  start  on an equal plane with a 15-yard penalty for either jeopardizing the safety of an opponent or giving one’s team a decided and unfair advantage. There is no way a  five-yarder  and a fifteen-yarder should offset each other. The CFL has the right idea, giving more weight to the more severe penalty.


*********** The Oilers - er, Titans - have been suffering long enough in that old stadium of theirs.  Time for a new one.

The city hired an independent group, Venue Solutions Group (VSG), to conduct a thorough assessment of the current stadium’s conditin and the cost of maintaining it for the remainder of the lease, which ends in 2039.

The 1996 lease stipulates the city provides a “first-class” stadium for another 17 years.

In a memo sent to the city government, VSG outlined a preliminary report showing it would cost the city between $1.75 and 1.95 billion to renovate Nissan Stadium as a “first class condition” facility.

A brand-new stadium  will only cost $2 billion,  so what the hell.

https://www.wkrn.com/news/local-news/new-renderings-of-proposed-tennessee-titans-stadium/



***********  I have yet to hear anyone else mention this but it’s my ultimate argument in favor of Army running the triple option:

At a  time when everybody is justifiably worried about losing players, running an offense that nobody else runs  would make Army’s players almost tamper-proof.

Who else is going to  want a triple option quarterback?  A  fullback?  Running backs who never catch passes and wide receivers who seldom do?    Linemen who seldom pass block?

And the better that Army’s players get at doing what Army needs them to do, the farther they get from having any value to potential poachers.

But that won’t be the case if Army insists trying to run the kind of offense everyone else is running.  Occasionally, Army will wind up with a player or two so good that the big money guys will come after them, and before their two years are up and they have to make the commitment to stay and serve in the Army for five years, they’ll be off, lured away by NIL money.

Running the same stuff as everyone else may make Army’s recruiting easier now, in the short run, but part of that will be because a lot of kids will be looking at West Point as their ticket to something bigger:  West Point JC. 

Since none of the service academies   can use the transfer portal to their advantage - every transfer to a service academy has to start all over as a Plebe (freshman) -  they  should as least do what they can to minimize the damage of transfers out, by running an offense that nobody on the outside  wants to run.



*********** RIP basketball Hall of Fame George McGinnis.  He was one of the greats (along with Julius Erving) on the 76ers’ team  that our Portland Trail Blazers defeated back in 1977.  It was just two years after we’d arrived in the Northwest,  and it’s still the biggest moment in local sports history.



***********   Great zoom tonight.   We have a player from Glens Falls near us that is a running back for Albany.   Woodell.     I think he starts but is a freshman.      We also have a kid from Greenwich, another neighboring school named Burgess who plays for Cortland State who plays on Friday in the Div 3  Stagg Bowl.   on ESPN U.    He had  a lot of receiving yards and had 3 TD's in this last game.

I played 2 years at Utah State and finished at Cortland.    Some local flavor makes it exciting to watch.

John Irion
Argyle, New York


*********** Hi Hugh,

A quick thanks for putting the clinic stuff on line the next day. It is when I usually get a chance to watch it and suspect there are others like me who appreciate the chance to see the replay.

I really liked the wedge reverse clips and the wedge reverse was a staple in our offense. We called 48/59 Wedge Reverse and it never lost a yard for us in the ten years we ran it. I do believe there were clips of it on the first DW VHS tape you put out.

I always cheer for Army and have had a lot of respect for their head coach but that exhibition of football on Saturday was so disappointing on so many levels. I  only hope another year finds them moving back toward their past under center flexbone offense but it probably is a fleeting hope at best. And can you possibly understand what the Army Defensive Coordinator was thinking? I despise prevent defenses but the one Army ran on Saturday is the worst I have ever seen.

Merry Christmas to you Connie and the family and all the best in the new year!

Jack Tourtillotte
Rangeley, Maine

For those whom I may not have told, Jack was an outstanding offensive coordinator at Boothbay Region High in Maine where he helped the Seahawks to two state titles - running our Double Wing, of course.  So closely did we mesh in our thinking that after Jack retired at Boothbay (as principal as well as assistant coach), I was able to persuade him to join me out in the Northwest, where I’d just been hired to coach at North Beach High, in Ocean Shores, Washington. With some help from a  holdover coach from the previous staff - and a generous helping of the Double Wing - we were able to take a group of 19 kids who had gone 1-9 the year before to a 7-3 season, with only 11 points separating us from an unbeaten season. Translation: Jack knows his sh—.


***********   Hugh

It was nice to see in the comments that coach  Tourtillotte agreed with me about the Army coaching staff and the way they coached that game. I  am glad that I was not the only older coach yelling at my tv.  I also said a few bad words about the Army coaching staff not fit to print.

Another great clinic. See you in two weeks.

David Crump
Owensboro, Kentucky



***********   That was the least satisfying Army win over Navy in my lifetime. I think of it as a tactical victory, but strategic defeat (if they continue to pursue this shotgun option crap). Judging from Sal's writeups, the players they're recruiting are intended to be fits for the Thatcher offense. Still hoping Monken will straighten the mess out.

Peyton has fallen many rungs on the ladder of athletes I admire. Mahomes fell several rungs too.

The 'War' Department sounds too rough for delicate ears, but I'm in favor of returning this name, chiefly because it should serve as a constant reminder of its mission.

Coach Bridge did a fine job of painting the word picture of Grady Springer. Pop up your chest, Grady.

I'll assume you're familiar with the Montana Griz's stadium. It's my kind of place, and you bet I'll be watching the Griz-Bison game

John Vermillion                    
St Petersburg, Florida


*********** Hugh,
With Matt Entz leaving the rolling farmlands of North Dakota for the concrete jungle of Southern California I would have to go with the Grizz of Montana in their playoff game. 

Give me South Dakota State in the other. 


Have a great week!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas




IN DOING RESEARCH FOR THIS QUIZ SUBJECT, I CAME ACROSS A  WORD-PORTRAIT OF THE MAN THAT I COULDN’T POSSIBLY MATCH.   IT’S 20+ YEARS OLD, WRITTEN WHEN HE WAS AT THE TOP OF HIS GAME AS A BROADCASTER, AND I LIKED IT SO MUCH THAT I DECIDED TO GO WITH IT.  I HOPE YOU ENJOY IT.


*********** QUIZ ANSWER:  As it does to most who play it for a living, football has left Pat Summerall with assorted souvenirs, reminders of the violence that is meted out and that is absorbed.

He is 6 feet, 4 inches tall but when he walks he is shorter than that because he tilts forward slightly.  His body having its revenge against him for a career of physical indignities.

He has a slight crouch and a slight limp.  When he sits, he takes his time unfolding.  When he stands, he does so deliberately and slowly, as though he is carrying eggs in his pockets.

Let us take the inventory:

*Six surgeries on the left knee.  “One when I was playing, five clean-outs since.”

*Nose broken eleven times; what is left is flattened.  “I try to convince myself that it gives character to my face.”

*A long, jagged scar on the front of his left forearm, an even longer one on the back.  The arm was laid completely open to repair a compound fracture he sustained during a game.  “The compensation is that it blocks out the hook in my golf swing.”

On May 10, 1998, he turned 67.  His hair is a mane of snow, distinctive and distinguished.  Most of the whiskey glow is gone now from his nose.  And the spider webbing of broken capillaries has faded.  His liver is on speaking terms with him.  All things considered...

“...all things considered, I got off lucky.  I see guys a lot worse off than me.  Guys in wheelchairs.  Guys hooked up to machines.”
He was a natural.  Strong and supple, sleek as a cheetah, he was good at any sport he tried.  Not just good, All-State good.  Tennis.  Football.  Basketball.  Boxing.

He was born and grew up in Lake City, Florida.  He is a true Son of the South.  His grandmother was named Augusta Georgia Summerall, his grand daddy Thomas Jefferson Summerall, and that Confederate heritage is evident in his courtliness and his gentlemanly manner.

His parents separated when he was young.  They wanted to send him to an orphanage, but his aunt and uncle intervened and took him in. 
They lived a block from the Columbia High School football field, where he would later star.  Hour upon hour he kicked footballs there.

He kicked with a right foot that he came to regard as charmed.  It was backward at birth, so deformed that a doctor broke it and reset it in the correct position.  During a 10-season career in the NFL, that charmed foot kicked for 561 points, including 101 field goals and 258 extra points, 129 of those in a row.

He played before specialization came to the sport, before two-platoon football, before nickel packages and dime packages, in the era of the 60-minute men.  He was an end on offense and an end on defense, and he place kicked as a sideline.  He played before the advent of soccer-style kickers and used a squared-off shoe, kicking straight ahead, with a high chorus line follow-through.

In 1958, playing for the Giants in a blinding snowstorm at Yankee Stadium, he was sent in to try a 49-yard field goal against the Cleveland Browns.  The score was 10-10.

The offensive coordinator of the Giants argued furiously against the attempt.

“You can’t kick it that far, not even on a calm day,” Vince Lombardi shouted at Summerall.

So much for the pep talk.

He kicked and the ball tumbled end over end through the howling wind and the swirling snow and the bone-deep cold...and fell just over the crossbar.

The 13-10 win enabled the Giants to tie the Browns for the Eastern Division title and forced a one-game playoff between the two the following week.  The Giants won that, too, and then played the Baltimore Colts in the overtime epic--Alan Ameche tromping through a gaping hole, falling into the end zone---that did more to raise the public’s awareness of professional football than probably any other game ever played.

And when Summerall   jogged off the field at Yankee Stadium after kicking the field goal that made that game possible, Vince Lombardi was waiting for him, his lips pulled back over his teeth in what might have been a smile or a baring of fangs.

“I thought he was going to hug me,” Summerall   remembers.  “Instead, he was screaming at me:  ‘C’mon, you son of a kangaroo, c’mon, you know you can’t kick it that far.’ ”

He ended up doing a lot of things that surprised people.  He won a scholarship to Arkansas.  For basketball.  He not only got his degree from there, he earned a Master’s degree.

In Russian history.

He also taught junior high English and History.

“I fully intended to be a teacher,” he says.  “Football kind of got in the way.”

Kind of.

He was signed, in 1952, by the Cardinals, when they were in Chicago.  His signing bonus was two hundred and fifty dollars, which just so happened to equal the bar tab he owed.  He played five seasons for them and then five more with the Giants, and early in the 1960’s when his career was winding down as a player, he began working for CBS, first in radio, doing brief commentaries, then in television.  That would enable him to make the transition from player to ex-player almost seamlessly, with none of the usual sense of separation and loss.

“I’d like to tell you that it was hard giving up football,” he says, “but it wasn’t.  Not really.  But only because I already had something lined up and because that something was the closest thing to actually playing the game.  Plus, you don’t get hit.  And you don’t have to have help getting out of bed the next morning.”

“But if I hadn’t been able to stay close to the game, I don’t know what I would have done.  I’ve never been in combat, but I guess football is as close to it as you can get.  You develop a lot of foxhole friendships.  That’s the part you miss the most, I guess.”

He was privileged to spend his broadcasting apprenticeship in the company of some of the profession’s most luminous talents.  From Chris Schenkel he learned the value of meticulous preparation.  From Jack Buck he learned that the booth wasn’t church, that it was permissible, sometimes even preferable, to laugh.  And from Ray Scott he learned the precious gift of understatement and restraint.

“In six and a half years with Ray, I never heard him make a mistake,” he says.  “That was because he wanted to make sure he was right before he spoke.  He wasn’t in a hurry.  And he felt that often the pictures spoke for themselves, and all we did was get in the way, clutter things up, speaking inanities.”

That has become Pat Summerall’s signature, the absence of speaking the obvious, the absence of the shrill and of the shill.  Over the year--33 of them with CBS, then four and counting with Fox--he has been variously described as Perry Como and Gary Cooper.  He has won the public’s trust and confidence.  He has become to sports what Walter Cronkite was to news, a symbol of comfort and credibility and assurance.

In the words of Beano Cook of ESPN:  “If I ever got cancer, I’d want Pat Summerall to be the one to tell me.”

When this is repeated to him, Summerall  winces.  And also blushes.  He recognizes the intense compliment that is meant.

“I was blessed with a voice that doesn’t offend too many people.  And I’ve always thought I was a pretty good listener.  That comes in handy when you’re sharing a booth with someone else for three hours at a time.”

Tom Brookshier was his first on-air partner.  Their’s was an easy, natural fit.

“But I never would have guessed we’d end up together,” Summerall says.  “Brookie was a very good defensive back with Philadelphia, and of course the Giants and Eagles played each other frequently.  I remember one game, it was all over but the shouting, everyone kind of relaxed, just playing it out, and Brookie laid a lick on me so hard that he split my helmet.  I was lying there, and I looked up at him and snarled:  ‘What’s wrong with you, you blankety-blank?  What’d you do that for?’ ”

“And he looked down at me, almost out of pity, and he sneered:  ‘Why, you’re pathetic.  You shouldn’t even be out here.  You’re gonna get yourself hurt.’ ”

After Brookshier, he was partnered with John Madden.  For almost two decades they have been sports television’s most famous and most effective couple.  Madden is the rumpled, unmade bed, a shambling Saint Bernard wildly gesturing, splotching his sentences with his own sound effects.  Pat  is the ideal antidote, serene and controlled, elegant and eloquent, cleaning up his excitable mate’s verbal clutter, the terse two-sentence counterpoint.  Madden will aim his telestrator at a tailgate pig roast and Pat Summerall will remind you of down, distance and score.

“He’s the least affected broadcaster I’ve ever known,” says Madden.  “No ego at all.  I’m very outgoing and disorganized.  Pat is very controlled and organized and that really helps me.  His strength in tying things together makes up for my weaknesses.  He knows what everyone has gone through, or is going through, because he went through it himself.”

“He’s what we mean when we say less-is-more.  He makes me comfortable and I know he makes viewers feel that way, too.”

They meshed from the start.

“We never worked at it, never planned anything,” Summerall says.

Which, of course, is precisely why they work so well together.  Nothing is forced.  Rehearsals or scripts would spoil their chemistry.

“Our first game together was at Tampa Bay and John had a suit and tie on, which of course looked like a straitjacket on him.  He was sweating something awful,  and I thought, ‘Oh boy, if his nerves are this bad and we haven’t even gone on the air, this is never going to work out.’  Well, it wasn’t nerves.  It was height.  John doesn’t like heights and he’s claustrophobic.  That’s why he doesn’t fly.  But when the game started he put all his phobias aside and by the end of the first quarter of our first game, I knew this was right.”

It was so right that when CBS lost its NFL broadcasting rights, Pat Summerall and John Madden sat together in the empty stands of the Silverdome after their last game and pondered work without each other.

“I told John, ‘I don’t believe I can work with anyone else.’ ”  And he said, “I don’t think I can , either.  Fortunately, we didn’t have to.”

Madden:  “Tell you all you need to know about Pat Summerall .  My two sons were in college and they were going to play against each other in football--Mike at Harvard, Joe at Brown--and I wanted to go to their game.  The problem was, Pat and I watch film on Saturday for our Sunday game.  For me to get away for their game, Pat would have to come up early so we could watch film on Friday.  Well, not only did he come in on Friday,  he came in on Wednesday, so he could be at a dinner where they gave me an award.”

“Do you know what was so special about that?  The best gift any of us can give to each other is the precious gift of time.  Our time.  He gave me that, and what’s even more amazing, he didn’t bitch about having to do it.  Me, yeah, I would have done it, but believe me I’d have bitched and moaned and complained the whole time, made sure everyone realized what a favor I was doing.  But Pat never mentioned it.  Not a word.  Never held it over me.  He just came in, did it, never made it seem like an imposition.”


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING PAT SUMMERALL

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
TOM DAVIS - SAN MARCOS, CALIFORNIA
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY
 



***********   QUIZ):   He grew up in Abington, Pennsylvania, where he started out attending Abington High School (my wife’s alma mater - ahem).  In his sophomore year his mother, whose job as a flight attendant kept her away from home quite a bit,  sent him to Fork Union Military Academy, a boarding school in Virginia.

Big and strong and fast, he was an outstanding running back there.  Rather than resisting the military life, he actually chose to remain for a post-graduate year, during which he  rushed for more than 1,300 yards and came to the notice of colleges nationwide.

He chose Ohio State, where he immediately got playing time. But in a Big Ten game against Illinois his freshman year, he fumbled twice  on the Illinois goal line, with both fumbles leading to Illinois scores in the Illini’s upset win.   (He carried the ball just 12 times the remainder of the season.)

In his sophomore season he carried just 42  times.  He did gain 223 yards and score three touchdowns.

In his junior year, he established himself as a standout runner,  rushing for 1,442 yards and 12 touchdowns, and as a senior he rushed for 1,826 yards and scored 23 touchdowns.  After carrying for 99 yards in the season opener against Boston College, he went on to run for more than 100 yards in every one of the remaining  11 games.

He was a unanimous All-American and won the Heisman Trophy over a field that included Nebraska quarterback Tommie Frazier and Florida quarterback (and future Heisman winner) Danny Wuerffel.

He also won the Walter Camp Award and the Maxwell Award, and he was the Big Ten Player of the Year.

Despite really playing just the two seasons, when he left Ohio State he was second in Buckeye history (behind Archie Griffin) in career rushing yards (3,768) and third in rushing touchdowns (44).

He is now in the College Football Hall of Fame.

He was selected by the Houston Oilers in the first round of the 1996 NFL Draft with the 14th overall pick.

He was the NFL Rookie of the Year, and for eight straight seasons he was  the Oilers/Tennessee Titans’ tailback.    He ran for more than 1,000 in seven of those eight seasons, and from 1997 through 2000 he went to four straight Pro Bowls.

Extremely durable, he never carried fewer than 312 times in any of his seasons with the Titans.  In 2000, he led the NFL with 403 carries. Even in his ninth and final season as a backup in Dallas, he still carried 132 times for 432 yards.

In his eight seasons with the Oilers/Titans, he never missed a start, joining  the immortal Jim Brown as one of the two backs in NFL history to gain 10,000 yards and never miss a start.

He finished his career with 10,441 yards rushing and 268 receptions for 2,227 yards receiving. In all, he scored 78 touchdowns - 68 rushing and 10 receiving.

After retirement he returned to Ohio State to earn  his bachelor's degree in landscape architecture, and he went on to earn a Master’s in Business Administration from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management.

He has appeared as an actor in a Broadway play.

For the past three seasons, he has been head football coach at Tennessee State.




TUESDAY, DECEMBER  12,    2023 -  “I’ve personally been beaten so many times that death looks like a pussy to me.” Barry Hannah


*********** I WROTE THIS ON FRIDAY…

THIS MAY BE YOUR LAST CHANCE TO SEE REAL, HONEST-TO-GOD, DIVISION I FOOTBALL PLAYED BY TEAMS WHOSE ENTIRE NIL LOOT WILL BE LESS THAN 1/10 THAT OF ANY ONE OF THE STARTING QBS IN THE PLAYOFF.

IT’S ALSO A  GREAT CHANCE TO SEE WHICH OF THESE GUYS WILL BE SCARFED UP AS SOON AS THEIR SEASONS ARE OVER  BY AN ASSORTMENT OF FBS TEAMS

When I wrote that sentence,  I wasn’t referring to coaches, but here we are…

USC hired  North Dakota State head coach Matt Entz to be its linebackers coach and “assistant head coach for defense.” (Not sure what that latter title means, since USC CEO Lincoln Riley just hired another guy and gave him the more conventional title of “Defensive Coordinator.”)

Entz has won two national titles as the head coach at NDSU and before that, four titles as the Bison’s  defensive coordinator. He has been named both FCS Coach of the Year and Coordinator of the Year.

Although Entz’ move might not appear to be a move up - like previous NDSU coaches Craig Bohl and Chris Kliemann going to Wyoming and  Kansas State, respectively, as head coaches - he will definitely be getting a raise in pay.

His pay at North Dakota State was around $400,000.  But  when you consider that Alex Grinch, who was recently fired as USC defensive coordinator, just put his LA-area home on sale for $4.45 million…

https://www.tmz.com/2023/11/25/ex-usc-defensive-coordinator-alex-grinch-lists-million-home-weeks-firing/?adid=social-tws



***********   FCS  PLAYOFFS


SEMI-FINAL GAME SATURDAY, 4:30 EASTERN - NORTH DAKOTA STATE AT MONTANA

North Dakota State 45,  #3 South Dakota 17

#2 Montana 35, #7 Furman 28 (OT)

One of the better games of this entire past season. The Furman Palladins, seemingly beaten, sent the game into OT with a fourth-and-long  touchdown pass, but couldn’t score in their half of first OT.


SEMI-FINAL GAME SATURDAY, 7 PM EASTERN - ALBANY AT SOUTH DAKOTA STATE

#1 South Dakota State 23, #8 Villanova 12

#5 Albany 30,   #4 Idaho 22

At first,  I was rooting for Idaho, hoping to have  a Final Four from the north and west, but after finding out that Albany’s QB, Reece Poffenbarger, was from Middletown, Maryland - not far from where we  once lived - I had to swing over to Albany.  It didn’t hurt any that the kid is good.  And I love Albany’s coach, former Penn State defensive tackle Greg Gattuso.


*********** ARMY-NAVY

I know, I know… the game is steeped in tradition… the young men you’re watching on this field are being prepared to serve their country… and blah, blah, blah…

And. yes, the game was close, and at the end there was drama.

But the American public isn’t stupid…

And when you’ve got a monopoly on the sport - when you’re the only FBS game on the tube all day - you’ve just got to put a better product on the field than Army and Navy did.

Call it great defense if you want, but there’s another reason why this past Saturday’s Army-Navy game produced just two offensive touchdowns: offensive incompetence.

Navy was just bad, and had been all season.  They lacked talent and the coaching staff struggled to find something - anything - that worked.  They had three quarterbacks get significant playing time during the season.  Army made a conscious decision to be bad offensively.  Junking its trademark triple option for a new “shotgun option” offense, Army had been ineffective offensively except for three games:

1. (RUNNING THE NEW OFFENSE) UTSA -  in the third game of the season, Army ran and passed for 442 yards and won, 37-29. Everyone was amazed and we still don’t why/how it happened.

2. (RUNNING THE NEW OFFENSE) Air Force - Army took advantage of SIX Air Force turnovers and won, 23-3, but even so could only manage two offensive touchdowns - both in the first quarter - and didn’t score a point in the second half. In terms of offensive performance, Army wasn’t impressive: 253 total yards (213 yards rushing, with 70 of them on one play) and just 11 first downs, with 4 of 14 third down efficiency.

3. (RUNNING THE OLD OFFENSE) Coastal Carolina - Surprising Coastal by running  the under-center flexbone,  Army beat the Chanticleers, 28-20.  Army put on several long, time-consuming drives and rushed for 365 yards - 5.7 yards per play - and three touchdowns. (They were 0-for 2 passing.) They had 22 first downs, and converted  8 of 11  third downs. They punted only once.  They scored offensive touchdowns in three of the four quarters.  And - get this -  this was after just one week of practice.  Those of us who’d followed Army closely over the years said, “Whew. Enough of that shotgun sh—.  Back to real Army football.”

“That’s what you think,” I can hear the offensive geniuses at West Point saying.  Rather than learn from the Coastal Carolina experience,  it was business as usual, and in three weeks, against Navy, they showed themselves more determined than ever to force a doomed offense down the throats of its followers.

Yes, they won.  And as the old saying goes, “Winning conceals… losing reveals,” so perhaps they remain deluded into thinking that their offense was more help than hindrance.

Army’s mascot is the mule, after all, and as a result of the coaching staff’s stubbornness Americans got a poorly played game - one  that didn’t have to be as close as it was. And lest someone who hadn’t seen Army play prior to Saturday think that something might have been amiss offensively,  the offensive play against  Navy was quite typical of most of the Army season.  That’s why the game went down to the wire.

A COMPARISON OF THE ARMY OFFENSE IN THE TWO MOST RECENT GAMES



Two  stats  show a key vulnerability of the “New Shotgun.” (1) The “QB CARRIES”  stat reflects the dependence of the “new” shotgun on runs by the QB; (2) the  “QB PCT OF TOTAL CARRIES” indicates the extent to which other backs are involved in the running game.  In the win over Air Force, for example, the QB carried the ball on 36 of 49 running plays (73%) - not exactly  the way you’d prefer  to expose your most important player to injury.


***********  The Army-Navy game overall was not a thing of beauty, but with 11 seconds to play and everything on the line, with Army up by eight and Navy facing  fourth and goal on the Army two-yard line, it was football the way it’s been played since its very beginnings - the way we played it as kids before we learned any of the finer points of the game.


*********** I can’t prove it, but I think that if Army had been under center in its final drive, it would have had a better chance of avoiding two consecutive false-start penalties and consequently failing to get a first down in three plays.

But even if it had not converted on third down,  I also think that if he had been running his “old” offense, Army Coach Jeff Monken would have had more faith in the offense and would have gone for a first down, rather than choosing to punt, on fourth and three. (The resulting punt went only 11 yards.)


*********** In Navy’s  final drive, it was almost as if Army’s corners were conspiring to make the game close by giving the Navy  wideouts ten-yard cushions.  Navy obligingly took advantage of  Army’s charity, and nearly pulled the game out.


*********** A wedge is a great play, but any play in football can be stopped if a defense is willing to take chances to do so.   In reinforcing itself against a  quarterback sneak, a defense has to weaken itself somewhere else, and a  good offensive team has answers for that.  You simply have to be able to come to the line with the ability to attack more than one place, which is something that the so-called “tush push” prevents you from doing.

There were a couple of occasions during the game when Navy would have benefitted from knowing how to wedge block better, but also how to take advantage of a team that is selling out to stop a wedge. 

One of those occasions was Navy’s final goal-line play.   Even blocked well, that play had little chance of succeeding.   The problem for Navy was that two yards is a long way to go with a “tush push,” and  knowing EXACTLY where the point of attack was going to be, Army defended the play accordingly:

1. The Army nose man aimed low - right at the ball - and went  through the center’s legs, going underneath him and making him collapse after he’d gone maybe a yard (they needed two)
2. With the center collapsed, two inside linebackers went over him and met the QB, shoulder-to-shoulder, double-teaming him and stopping him in his tracks
3. Two defensive tackles knifed in, aiming for the two linebackers.
4. Two defensive ends knifed in, aiming for the tackles.

In effect, Army turned the tables. Army’s defense  ran a wedge, too. It ran it  against the Navy offense, with the Navy QB at its apex. Basically, it came down to him against the combined force of  two Army inside linebackers,  reinforced by the defensive tackles. No match. Brilliant.


*********** One thing that hasn’t been covered in write-ups of the final, heroic goal line play in the Army-Navy game is that had Navy been successful and scored a touchdown on the play, the Middies would still have had to make a  two-point conversion just to tie the score.

It needn’t have been that way.

Navy scored with 2:47 remaining in the game to make the score 17-9.

They chose to go for two and failed, leaving them eight points down.  That meant they needed a touchdown and a two-point conversion, just to  go to overtime.  Not the best arrangement after you’ve already come up short once.

I have a hard time understanding the roll-the-dice mentality here.  Maybe it was dictated by the analytics geeks, but I would prefer to think that kicking an extra point now - making the score 17-10 - would allow me to postpone a possible decision to go for two until after we scored another touchdown.

At that point we could choose whether to kick and go to overtime or - should we decide to go for two - go for the win or loss.  But I’d prefer to have the choice at that point rather than to have going for two forced on me because of a choice I’d made earlier.


*********** Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, playing three classes up, won the state 4A championship, beating Dallas, 60-14. (The state’s 35-point Mercy Rule kicked in midway through the third quarter.) Aliquippa is a storied football program, turning out such players as Mike Ditka, Ty Law and Darrelle Revis and winning five state championships, but this was its first undefeated state championship team.


*********** Southern Columbia, a small school in Central Pennsylvania, won the  state Class 2A title - its 14th state  title and  its seventh in a row.  The Tigers (15-1)  drove  99 yards in 12 plays to tie the score with 42 seconds remaining,   then kicked the extra point to defeat Pittsburgh Westinghouse, 21-20.   I’m at a loss to explain  the consistent success of Southern Columbia, a school located ten miles from the nearest town of any size (Catawissa, population 1500) and drawing its kids from a large agricultural area.  Come to think of it, maybe I just answered my question.  Farm kids, running a  wing-T offense.

https://www.scasd.us/o/hs


***********  Riverheads, Virginia, going for its ninth straight state title - its first after moving up in class - scored less than two minutes into the  state championship game against Radford.  But they stalled a couple of times, and on defense they had a terrible time containing Radford QB Landen Clark, and lost, 39-21.  Clark’s good. He threw for 260 yards and 4 touchdowns and he ran for 99 yards and a touchdown.  He’s committed to play at FCS Elon.

https://www.wdbj7.com/2023/10/07/ffe-week-6-player-week-landen-clark-radford/


*********** An indicator of where the college game is headed…

 John Canzano notes that the top six QBs in the Pac-12 were transfers:
MICHAEL PENIX, BO NIX, CAM WARD, CALEB WILLIAMS, SHEDEUR SANDERS, D.J. UIAGALELEI

The other six were HS recruits:
NOAH FIFITA (ARIZONA), ASHTON DANIELS (STANFORD), DANTE MOORE (UCLA), BRYSON BARNES (UTAH), TENTON BOURGUET (ASU), FERNANDO MENDOZA (CAL)

(It would have been seven transfers if Utah’s Cam Rising hadn’t missed the season with injuries.)



*********** Peyton Manning has been lovable, likable Peyton on a lot of commercials.  He’s been enjoyable and easy to watch, and I’ve worried - for his sake - that he might get to the point of overexposure, the way John Madden did.

But - guess the poor guy needs the money - I never thought he’d sell out to where he’d be pimping for Bud Light.


*********** Congratulations to another guy from the SEC winning the Heisman Trophy.  During football season, my wife and I watched the SEC network every morning,  and it began obvious to us about midseason when the  on-air guys started turning it into the Jaylen Daniels for Heisman Network. Disgusting.


*********** Hey Oregon - now that you’re going to be getting all that Big Ten money… How about some scholarships for the Beach Volleyball team?

32 Oregon female athletes, 26 of them from the beach volleyball team and six from a club rowing team, have filed a suit against the university, alleging Title IX violations. (I’ll bet nobody in Congress had any idea that Title IX would turn into this.)

Of the 20 varsity sports at Oregon, only beach volleyball does not provide scholarships, although NCAA rules allow the school to give the equivalent of six full athletic scholarships to the team. Players say they wear hand-me-down uniforms and are not provided with any name, image and likeness support.

“Based on the way the beach volleyball team has been treated, female athletes at Oregon do not need much food or water, good or clean clothes or uniforms, scholarships, medical treatment or mental health services, their own facilities, a locker room, proper transportation, or other basic necessities. Male athletes are treated incredibly better in almost every respect,” team captain and lead plaintiff Ashley Schroeder said in a statement.

The rowers say the university fails to provide equal opportunities for athletic participation by not having a varsity women’s rowing team.

The lawsuit, which sprang from an investigation published in July by The Oregonian newspaper, cites Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act statistics which show that 49% of the student-athletes at Oregon are women, but only 25% of athletics dollars and 15% of its recruiting dollars are spent on them.

(I already know the answer, but I suppose it would be misogynistic of me to ask what percentage of those “athletics  dollars” and “recruiting dollars” are being brought in  by Oregon’s female athletes.)


https://apnews.com/article/oregon-beach-volleyball-title-ix-lawsuit-6d3476cd7a86b5d8f8d0571f131713b3



*********** For an organization that has never won a war, our Department of Defense sure talks big and  spends a lot of money.

From the earliest days of our republic until 1947, there existed a Department of War and a Department of the Navy, whose secretaries reported directly to the President as cabinet-level advisors.

Not until after World War II had been fought and won by those departments did President Truman sign the National Security Act of 1947, which among other things created the CIA, the National Security Council and the US Air Force, as well as bringing our entire military establishment under one Secretary of Defense. 

Not until 1949 was the Department of Defense so-named.

It has yet to win a war.

The Department of War never lost one.

Coincidence?



*********** I don’t watch that much NFL, but I did watch the Chiefs lose to Buffalo Sunday.  With two minutes to play, the Chiefs scored an apparent touchdown when Travis Kelce, about to be tackled after catching a pass, threw a cross field lateral to a wide receiver named Kadarius Toney, who caught the ball and waltzed across the goal line.

But wait - the score was disallowed and the Chiefs penalized because Toney had lined up in the neutral zone.  Replays showed him clearly offside.

You might expect, in the World That Once Was, that the Chiefs would have been all over Toney, who is paid rather well to do a job that doesn’t require an enormous amount of diligence, but no….. this is the world where when my child is punished for misbehavior it has to be the teacher’s fault. You’re picking on my kid.

So instead of turning to Kadarious and asking him what he was thinking, the Chiefs’ leaders, quarterback Patrick Mahomes and coach Andy Reid, attacked the officials.  It was the usual “you shouldn’t be making  calls like that in big games like this,” and  in addition there was this: “you didn’t even give him a warning.”  (You know, like when you’ve been pulled over for doing 100 in a 55 and you ask the state trooper if he realizes that you play for the Chiefs.)

Good Lord, guys - save your attacks on the officials for when they’re really wrong (which is often enough).

Patrick?  Andy? And oh, yes - Kafarious (if you’re listening)?  It’s a f—king RULE!

It gets better… Kadarious Toney  also “performs as a rapper named Yung Joka.” (Bet you didn’t know that.  I didn’t.  I had to look it up.)



*********** When I was a kid I used to read about the “Shaughnessy playoffs” getting under way, and for some reason I looked it up recently.  It’s essentially the format of year’s four-team  college football playoff.

FROM WIKIPEDIA

The Shaughnessy playoff system is a method of determining the champion of a sports league that is not in a divisional alignment. . It involves the participation of the top four teams in the league standings in a single elimination tournament.[1][2] While the first round of the playoffs involve the pairing of the first- and fourth-place teams in one contest (whether it be a single game or a series of games) and the second- and third-place teams in the other,[3] a variant of the Shaughnessy playoffs would pair the first- and third-place teams in one semifinal round and the second- and fourth-place teams in the other. In either variant, the winners of the first two games would then compete for the league championship. Some lower-level leagues use a Shaughnessy playoff for purposes of promotion to the next-higher league.

Another variant of the Shaughnessy system exempts a certain number of top teams from the playoffs (usually one to three teams) and instead involves the next four teams in the league standings. This variation is almost always used by a lower-level league for promotion purposes.Typically, the exempted top finishers earn automatic promotion and the playoffs determine the final promotion place.

The Shaughnessy playoff system was implemented in 1933 by Frank Shaughnessy, the general manager of the Montreal Royals minor league baseball team of the International League.

In the 1940s, the Shaughnessy system spread to other sports. The All-America Football Conference, which used the Shaughnessy playoff system in 1949, the last season of the league's existence.

In the Original Six era of the National Hockey League (1942–1967), the circuit adopted a Shaughnessy playoff system (first place vs. third place and second place vs. fourth place) in which the paired teams played in a best-four-of-seven-games series with the winners advancing to the Stanley Cup championship round.

In NCAA college basketball, one Division I conference uses a Shaughnessy playoff for its postseason tournaments for men and women. The Ivy League launched postseason tournaments for both sexes in the 2016–17 season; the top four teams in the regular-season conference standings advance to a Shaughnessy tournament (also using 1–4 and 2–3 semifinal pairings) at a predetermined site. The winners receive the Ivies' automatic berths in the NCAA men's and women's tournaments.[10]

*********** There is incompetence in Congress, there is incompetence in the NCAA, and just in case you may not be aware, there is still more than enough left  over to infect state sports associations. Coach Josh Montgomery, from Berwick, Louisiana, sent me this…

A certain dominant tight end from Zachary (Louisiana) who played at another school last school year (2022–2023), showed up on the summer league basketball circuit wearing Zachary basketball shorts. Long story short, LHSAA (the  state association)  starts investigating and finds obvious evidence of illegal recruiting to come play basketball at Zachary.  Kid is ruled ineligible to play basketball at Zachary in 2023 2024, but IS allowed to play football at Zachary because,  ”No evidence was found that he was recruited to play football.”

(Added  Coach Montgomery, “The kid in question is Trey’Dez Green, recruited from East Feliciana High to Zachary High and is an LSU commit at receiver.”)

Talk about a loophole. If I’m coaching football in Louisiana and I want to recruit a kid from another school, I’m going to let my fencing coach do all the recruiting, even though it’s probably going to mean the kid won’t be eligible for the fencing team.



***********   I LIKED THIS SO MUCH HAD TO PRINT IT …

I wish to nominate Grady Springer for the 2023 Black Lion Award for the Aberdeen Bobcats. I have worked closely with Grady both on the field and in the weight room for these past 4 years and he exemplifies all 5 of the character qualities for a Black Lion: Leadership, Courage, Devotion, Self-Sacrifice and Unselfishness.

Grady did not start out his playing career as a quarterback, much like the Honoree Don Holleder. This class of seniors had much success in the youth ranks as well as undefeated middle school years, but their quarterback for all those years moved with his family, which left this class of players without their helmsman as they entered high school. A physically frail Grady Springer came into the picture as he took on the responsibilities of handing the ball off in a run-dominated offense until he broke his collar bone about halfway through the 7-week COVID season.

As a sophomore, the Bobcats could not field a JV team,  so Grady received little valuable experience. At the onset of last season as a Junior, Grady was technically the back-up quarterback to the returning senior starter, but in all practicality, one of the starting slotbacks was REALLY the true back-up and Grady knew that. Then the improbable happened as the Slotback received a season-ending injury and then a couple weeks later so did the starting quarterback. Grady was thrust into a starting role he was nowhere prepared for, but he did all that was asked of him and the Bobcats continued to win.

During the off-season leading into his senior year, Grady exemplified leadership. For seven weeks during the spring season, the Bobcats had open field from 7:30-9:00pm. Following WIAA regulations, this was a player-led event with a coach simply sitting in the stands in a supervisory role. The coaches provided designed workouts for the players but Grady was the one who made it happen. He was always there and always bringing a positive attitude even though there were few other impact players attending. Although he was likely discouraged, he continued to not show it and just work with the guys who were there.

Grady’s unselfish nature carries over into everything he does. His self-sacrifice during the summer leading to his senior year of the season was continuous every day the weight room or field was open. There was a lot of talk about somebody else playing quarterback, but player after player, they fizzled out. They may have had a stronger arm and may have been just a little bit faster, but they were flashes in the pan. Grady was constant, reliable and undaunted by the skeptics and naysayers.

Finally, Grady’s courage was something only some of us coaches saw on Friday night for the past 2 years. You could tell there were times he was scared, but he would tuck the ball and run hard regardless of the size and ability of some of the opponents we were facing.

Grady found a way to dig inside and keep positive as well as productive and we coaches were always impressed with his courage, devotion, dedication and leadership. He’s just naturally unselfish and self-sacrificing, so that wasn’t a surprise.

Please accept this letter of application for Grady Springer as the 2023 Black Lion winner for the Aberdeen Bobcats. He is a 5-star in Courage, Devotion, self-sacrifice, leadership and unselfishness.

Thank you

Todd Bridge
Head Football Coach
Aberdeen High School
Aberdeen, Washington

*********** If you get a chance to watch the Montana Grizzlies on Saturday, #10 Eli Gillman R-FR running back, is a Dassel-Cokato Charger graduate, 2022.

As a senior he concluded an outstanding senior season, 40 TD and 2,000 yards rushing, part of a 14-0 team that culminated with our school's 1st state title. Just a fantastic player and person.

He just picked up the Jerry Rice award for FCS freshman of the year.

Take care,

Mick Yanke
Cokato, Minnesota

The Griz are in the semifinals this Saturday, against North Dakota State!


***********   Hugh,

I am sitting here absolutely screaming at my TV. Prevent defenses, lousy offense, poor discipline, poor play calling. The coaching staff at Army should be ashamed of the game plan they put together, game management, and other than defense - before going prevent - the whole thing was dog sh….t show.

Jack Tourtillotte
Rangeley, Maine

PS they did win but it was painful to watch!

(To be honest, I thought Coach Monken was giving us the finger the entire game.  IThe game didn’t have to be that close.)



*********** Coach:

So this week the head of the NCAA (since March) proposed new changes in the way intercollegiate athletes will be paid. It's all pretty confusing to me, but as I understand it, the big schools must pay half of the total number of the school's athletes a minimum of 30K each from a school-established trust fund. Different amounts can be paid. I have a number of questions I won't bother with mentioning. But here's a basic question I haven't seen answered, including for players getting seven figures from current collectives: why should taxpayers pay their tuition?

I think the WFL version of Coach Wyatt should've either been summarily executed or still be serving a jail sentence for that heinous prep-school prank.

Thanks for calling attention to the Campbell Trophy. I too would've passed the Heisman House on the way to the Campbell House (which was once a very nice hotel in Lexington, KY).

John Vermillion                            
St Petersburg, Florida


*********** Hugh,

Watching the Montana-Furman playoff game.  How refreshing to watch those guys play the game!

Army-Navy tomorrow.  Doesn’t get much better.  Unless Army decides to revive that initial offense they employed at the start of the year.

They say Jeff Tedford’s bowl absence for “health” reasons is temporary.  Not holding my breath.  It won’t surprise me to see a new coach on the sidelines for the Bulldogs next season when they open in ANN ARBOR!

The way things are going for Oregon State and Notre Dame trying to hang on to their rosters the Sun Bowl may call the game off! 

I think Joe Paterno had it right.  But…too late in the game to fix it.

Enjoy the weekend, Go Army!  Beat Navy!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas





***********  QUIZ ANSWER: Buck Nystrom was never a head coach, but it’s  fair to call him one of the greatest offensive line coaches ever.

Buck Nystrom was a YOOPER - a native of the U-P, Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

He played high school ball in Marquette, Michigan, and walked on at Michigan State.  He was captain of his freshman team, but  after falling prey to homesickness, he returned home and enrolled at Northern Michigan.

He was lured back to MSU by an offer of a scholarship, but that meant that as a transfer he had to spend a year on the scout team.

By his senior year, 1955,  playing guard on offense and  middle guard (nose man) on defense, he was captain of a team that finished 9-1, won the Rose Bowl, and claimed a share of the National Championship.  He was named MVP  by his teammates, and called “the greatest guard I’ve ever coached” by his head coach Duffy Daugherty, a former line coach. In the Spartans’ 21-7 win over then Number 4-ranked Notre Dame, he played all 60 minutes.  He was first team All-Big Ten, and earned the Big Ten Conference Medal of Honor.  He became  the first Spartan to be named both All-American and Academic All-American.

He played in the Senior Bowl, and although drafted (in the 30th round) by the Redskins, he realized that at 5-10, 195 he was too small to play professionally, so he became a coach - and started out on a career that would last 58 years. He would coach the offensive lines on national championship teams at North Dakota State, Oklahoma and Northern Michigan.

He  coached at Michigan State right out of college, and on two other occasions.

He coached at North Dakota State for four years, during which time the  Bison won a D-II National title.

He coached at Oklahoma under Chuck Fairbanks - a former MSU teammate - and under an offensive coordinator named Barry Switzer. “He made those kids tougher than hell," Switzer said year later, telling about two-a-days when all the other players were in cooling off and eating lunch, but Buck “would still have them out there pushing the blocking dummies. Everyone else was happy they weren't an offensive lineman."

Not by any stretch of the imagination could he be called an passive coach. "I can still see him out there, screaming, hollering, spitting," Switzer said. "He had lost his front teeth, so he'd take that plate out and just get after it. The cameras should have been on him the whole time.  (He)  would have been great theater – but he was not a performer. That was him. What he did was real, totally real."

Said Fairbanks, years later, “He's the greatest line coach who ever coached in high school or college football, without question or exception. He's just so special. There's no one better in his ability to teach young players how to play.”

He coached at Colorado, first under Fairbanks, but then under Bill McCartney, on a staff that included no fewer than six future FBS head coaches:  Lou Tepper (Illinois); Gerry DiNardo (Vanderbilt, LSU and Indiana); Ron Dickerson (Temple), Les Miles  (Oklahoma State, LSU and Kansas); Gary Barnett (Northwestern and later Colorado). And Jim Caldwell, who coached at Wake Forest and in the NFL, who called him “perhaps the greatest collegiate offensive line coach the world has ever known.”  
 
He came back to Michigan State. and coached for four years under George Perles.  There he  worked closely with a young assistant named Nick Saban.

He  coached at Northern Michigan, where the Wildcats won a national title with a quarterback named Steve Mariucci.  He almost managed to get a lightning-quick basketball player named Tom Izzo to play running back. The basketball coach, afraid that his star point  guard would get injured, would have none of it, but when Buck said, “How about if he just kicks?” he relented.  But it wasn’t long before our guy had him running the ball, and the basketball coach put  a stop to it

He became well known to high school coaches in the Upper Midwest through clinics and camps where he continued to coach youngsters - and coaches.

At the age of 84 he was back at Northern  Michigan to assist his son, then the head coach of the Wildcats.

He was tough and he never apologized  for it. "I believe in a style that is unpopular today: Demand and confront,” he said.   “You can’t allow a player to lie to himself. You gotta be tough on a guy. I was always really tough and demanding, but I got the best out of my players.”

It  was through his emphasis on toughness that he deserves  credit for the “four finger” hand sign that’s now almost universally flashed at the start of every fourth quarter everywhere - but that’s for another time.

In addition to toughness, he was  a stickler for fundamentals, taught and practiced correctly.

"You know,” he said, “you can talk about having a thousand  plays in your playbook, and all those things are necessary, but when it really comes down to nut-cracking, it doesn't matter what system you're running.

"Have you got good fundamentals? Good mechanics? It still really comes down to, can you block and tackle? Those are the things we really learned well during my time at Michigan State. If you can block and tackle you'll make a lot of systems go.”

In all his years, Buck Nystrom never aspired to do anything but coach the offensive line.

"I said to myself, 'I enjoy coaching too much,'" he said. "It gets to the point as a head coach, you're a director, you're in charge, but you actually get away from the game."



CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING BUCK NYSTROM

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
TOM DAVIS - SAN MARCOS, CALIFORNIA
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
MICK YANKE - COKATO, MINNESOTA
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
JOE BREMER - WEST SENECA, NEW YORK
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON


I KNEW I’D GET SOME LETTERS FROM COACHES WHO’D SEEN THE LEGENDARY BUCK NYSTROM IN ACTION…


***********   Had one of his vhs tapes in the day wish I had it now.

Tom Davis



*********** Easy one for us Yoopers — Buck Nystrom. Rule of thumb when he spoke at clinics : do not sit in the front row! His influence is still felt in the area.

Adam Wesoloski
Pulaski, Wisconsin


***********   Good Morning Coach Wyatt,

My college line coach, at the U of MN - Morris (D2 at the time, now D3) was Doug Reese from Escanaba Michigan and a NMU grad. His O-Line coach in college was Buck Nystrom.

Back in the early 1990's, he was . . . 'tough on us' to put it gently . . . but he would remind us that we didn't know what tough was, having gone through the Coach Nystrom experience.

Mick Yanke
Cokato, Minnesota



***********   I was privileged to work a couple of his linemen camps, not sit and get camp -  you worked!  He was a great stickler oN the fundamentals of offensive line play. One other note:  when attending his clinic presentations beware if you sat up front, he was ageless and you got bruises. I still have his OL manual and his 4th quarter conditioning manual, great stuff.

Scott Mallien
Green Bay, Wisconsin



***********  Learned a hard lesson from Coach Nystrom.  Never, ever, sit in the front row when you are attending one of his clinic presentations!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas (Once of Minneapolis)


*********** I heard him speak at a clinic in Green Bay about 8 years ago. He was telling us about one of his offensive linemen who wasn’t doing so well…Buck said “I can pee harder than he hits!”

Mike Framke
Green Bay, Wisconsin



***********  I saw him speak at one of Duffy Daugherty Clinics in LA in the 80s. I was just starting my coaching career.

Very good speaker and detail oriented. I remember the immortal line, ( YOU HAVE TO DEVELOP OFFENSIVE LINEMAN, BECAUSE SANTA CLAUS ISN'T GOING TO SH- - ONE OUT OF THE SKY FOR YOU.) I believe  that 's true for all your high school players.

Mike Foristiere
Topeka, Kansas





IN DOING RESEARCH FOR THIS QUIZ SUBJECT, I CAME ACROSS A  WORD-PORTRAIT OF THE MAN THAT I COULDN’T POSSIBLY MATCH.   IT’S 20+ YEARS OLD, WRITTEN WHEN HE WAS AT THE TOP OF HIS GAME AS A BROADCASTER, AND I LIKED IT SO MUCH THAT I DECIDED TO GO WITH IT.  I HOPE YOU ENJOY IT.


*********** QUIZ:  As it does to most who play it for a living, football has left (----) with assorted souvenirs, reminders of the violence that is meted out and that is absorbed.

He is 6 feet, 4 inches tall but when he walks he is shorter than that because he tilts forward slightly.  His body having its revenge against him for a career of physical indignities.

He has a slight crouch and a slight limp.  When he sits, he takes his time unfolding.  When he stands, he does so deliberately and slowly, as though he is carrying eggs in his pockets.

Let us take the inventory:

*Six surgeries on the left knee.  “One when I was playing, five clean-outs since.”

*Nose broken eleven times; what is left is flattened.  “I try to convince myself that it gives character to my face.”

*A long, jagged scar on the front of his left forearm, an even longer one on the back.  The arm was laid completely open to repair a compound fracture he sustained during a game.  “The compensation is that it blocks out the hook in my golf swing.”

On May 10, 1998, he turned 67.  His hair is a mane of snow, distinctive and distinguished.  Most of the whiskey glow is gone now from his nose.  And the spider webbing of broken capillaries has faded.  His liver is on speaking terms with him.  All things considered...

“...all things considered, I got off lucky.  I see guys a lot worse off than me.  Guys in wheelchairs.  Guys hooked up to machines.”
He was a natural.  Strong and supple, sleek as a cheetah, he was good at any sport he tried.  Not just good, All-State good.  Tennis.  Football.  Basketball.  Boxing.

He was born and grew up in Lake City, Florida.  He is a true Son of the South.  His grandmother was named Augusta Georgia (----), his grand daddy Thomas Jefferson (----), and that Confederate heritage is evident in his courtliness and his gentlemanly manner.

His parents separated when he was young.  They wanted to send him to an orphanage, but his aunt and uncle intervened and took him in. 
They lived a block from the Columbia High School football field, where he would later star.  Hour upon hour he kicked footballs there.

He kicked with a right foot that he came to regard as charmed.  It was backward at birth, so deformed that a doctor broke it and reset it in the correct position.  During a 10-season career in the NFL, that charmed foot kicked for 561 points, including 101 field goals and 258 extra points, 129 of those in a row.

He played before specialization came to the sport, before two-platoon football, before nickel packages and dime packages, in the era of the 60-minute men.  He was an end on offense and an end on defense, and he place kicked as a sideline.  He played before the advent of soccer-style kickers and used a squared-off shoe, kicking straight ahead, with a high chorus line follow-through.

In 1958, playing for the Giants in a blinding snowstorm at Yankee Stadium, he was sent in to try a 49-yard field goal against the Cleveland Browns.  The score was 10-10.

The offensive coordinator of the Giants argued furiously against the attempt.

“You can’t kick it that far, not even on a calm day,” Vince Lombardi shouted at (----).

So much for the pep talk.

He kicked and the ball tumbled end over end through the howling wind and the swirling snow and the bone-deep cold...and fell just over the crossbar.

The 13-10 win enabled the Giants to tie the Browns for the Eastern Division title and forced a one-game playoff between the two the following week.  The Giants won that, too, and then played the Baltimore Colts in the overtime epic--Alan Ameche tromping through a gaping hole, falling into the end zone---that did more to raise the public’s awareness of professional football than probably any other game ever played.
And when (----) jogged off the field at Yankee Stadium after kicking the field goal that made that game possible, Vince Lombardi was waiting for him, his lips pulled back over his teeth in what might have been a smile or a baring of fangs.

“I thought he was going to hug me,” (----) remembers.  “Instead, he was screaming at me:  ‘C’mon, you son of a kangaroo, c’mon, you know you can’t kick it that far.’ ”

He ended up doing a lot of things that surprised people.  He won a scholarship to Arkansas.  For basketball.  He not only got his degree from there, he earned a Master’s degree.

In Russian history.

He also taught junior high English and History.

“I fully intended to be a teacher,” he says.  “Football kind of got in the way.”

Kind of.

He was signed, in 1952, by the Cardinals, when they were in Chicago.  His signing bonus was two hundred and fifty dollars, which just so happened to equal the bar tab he owed.  He played five seasons for them and then five more with the Giants, and early in the 1960’s when his career was winding down as a player, he began working for CBS, first in radio, doing brief commentaries, then in television.  That would enable him to make the transition from player to ex-player almost seamlessly, with none of the usual sense of separation and loss.

“I’d like to tell you that it was hard giving up football,” he says, “but it wasn’t.  Not really.  But only because I already had something lined up and because that something was the closest thing to actually playing the game.  Plus, you don’t get hit.  And you don’t have to have help getting out of bed the next morning.”

“But if I hadn’t been able to stay close to the game, I don’t know what I would have done.  I’ve never been in combat, but I guess football is as close to it as you can get.  You develop a lot of foxhole friendships.  That’s the part you miss the most, I guess.”

He was privileged to spend his broadcasting apprenticeship in the company of some of the profession’s most luminous talents.  From Chris Schenkel he learned the value of meticulous preparation.  From Jack Buck he learned that the booth wasn’t church, that it was permissible, sometimes even preferable, to laugh.  And from Ray Scott he learned the precious gift of understatement and restraint.

“In six and a half years with Ray, I never heard him make a mistake,” he says.  “That was because he wanted to make sure he was right before he spoke.  He wasn’t in a hurry.  And he felt that often the pictures spoke for themselves, and all we did was get in the way, clutter things up, speaking inanities.”

That has become (----)’s signature, the absence of speaking the obvious, the absence of the shrill and of the shill.  Over the year--33 of them with CBS, then four and counting with Fox--he has been variously described as Perry Como and Gary Cooper.  He has won the public’s trust and confidence.  He has become to sports what Walter Cronkite was to news, a symbol of comfort and credibility and assurance.

In the words of Beano Cook of ESPN:  “If I ever got cancer, I’d want (----) to be the one to tell me.”

When this is repeated to him, (----) winces.  And also blushes.  He recognizes the intense compliment that is meant.

“I was blessed with a voice that doesn’t offend too many people.  And I’ve always thought I was a pretty good listener.  That comes in handy when you’re sharing a booth with someone else for three hours at a time.”

Tom Brookshier was his first on-air partner.  Their’s was an easy, natural fit.

“But I never would have guessed we’d end up together,” (----) says.  “Brookie was a very good defensive back with Philadelphia, and of course the Giants and Eagles played each other frequently.  I remember one game, it was all over but the shouting, everyone kind of relaxed, just playing it out, and Brookie laid a lick on me so hard that he split my helmet.  I was lying there, and I looked up at him and snarled:  ‘What’s wrong with you, you blankety-blank?  What’d you do that for?’ ”

“And he looked down at me, almost out of pity, and he sneered:  ‘Why, you’re pathetic.  You shouldn’t even be out here.  You’re gonna get yourself hurt.’ ”

After Brookshier, he was partnered with John Madden.  For almost two decades they have been sports television’s most famous and most effective couple.  Madden is the rumpled, unmade bed, a shambling Saint Bernard wildly gesturing, splotching his sentences with his own sound effects.  (----) is the ideal antidote, serene and controlled, elegant and eloquent, cleaning up his excitable mate’s verbal clutter, the terse two-sentence counterpoint.  Madden will aim his telestrator at a tailgate pig roast and (----) will remind you of down, distance and score.
“He’s the least affected broadcaster I’ve ever known,” says Madden.  “No ego at all.  I’m very outgoing and disorganized.  (----)is very controlled and organized and that really helps me.  His strength in tying things together makes up for my weaknesses.  He knows what everyone has gone through, or is going through, because he went through it himself.”

“He’s what we mean when we say less-is-more.  He makes me comfortable and I know he makes viewers feel that way, too.”

They meshed from the start.

“We never worked at it, never planned anything,” (----) says.

Which, of course, is precisely why they work so well together.  Nothing is forced.  Rehearsals or scripts would spoil their chemistry.
“Our first game together was at Tampa Bay and John had a suit and tie on, which of course looked like a straitjacket on him.  He was sweating something awful,  and I thought, ‘Oh boy, if his nerves are this bad and we haven’t even gone on the air, this is never going to work out.’  Well, it wasn’t nerves.  It was height.  John doesn’t like heights and he’s claustrophobic.  That’s why he doesn’t fly.  But when the game started he put all his phobias aside and by the end of the first quarter of our first game, I knew this was right.”

It was so right that when CBS lost its NFL broadcasting rights, (----) and John Madden sat together in the empty stands of the Silverdome after their last game and pondered work without each other.

“I told John, ‘I don’t believe I can work with anyone else.’ ”  And he said, “I don’t think I can , either.  Fortunately, we didn’t have to.”

Madden:  “Tell you all you need to know about (——) .  My two sons were in college and they were going to play against each other in football--Mike at Harvard, Joe at Brown--and I wanted to go to their game.  The problem was, (----)and I watch film on Saturday for our Sunday game.  For me to get away for their game, (----)would have to come up early so we could watch film on Friday.  Well, not only did he come in on Friday,  he came in on Wednesday, so he could be at a dinner where they gave me an award.”

“Do you know what was so special about that?  The best gift any of us can give to each other is the precious gift of time.  Our time.  He gave me that, and what’s even more amazing, he didn’t bitch about having to do it.  Me, yeah, I would have done it, but believe me I’d have bitched and moaned and complained the whole time, made sure everyone realized what a favor I was doing.  But (----)never mentioned it.  Not a word.  Never held it over me.  He just came in, did it, never made it seem like an imposition.”


FRIDAY, DECEMBER 8,   2023 - “The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.”   Winston Churchill


************ ARMY-NAVY GAME - SATURDAY  3 PM - EST - CBS

COUPLE OF THINGS:

It’s being played at Gillette Stadium, in Foxborough, Massachusetts, the eleventh different site to host the game. The most common site over the years has been Philadelphia, to a great extent because of its being located  roughly between the two academies - an important consideration given the need to get the entire Corps of Cadets and Brigade of Midshipmen to the game. (In 1926, the game was held in Chicago as part of the  dedication of Soldier Field, and  in 1983, it was played in Pasadena, California, in the Rose Bowl.)

If you’re going to the game, be sure to watch the “March On,” as the entire student bodies from the two academies march onto the field in varying degrees of military precision. (Like all  Army supporters, I firmly believe that Army could teach Navy a thing or two about precision marching.)

What’s at  stake:

NOT A  BOWL GAME:  Neither team will go to a bowl game this year, which, given the state of today’s college game is a damn shame, because there certainly wouldn’t have been any opt-outs.

THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF’S TROPHY, awarded to the winner of round-robin play by the three service academies.  Army has already beaten Air Force,  and Navy has lost to Air Force, so an Army win will earn Army the Trophy.  Should Navy win, the three academies will all have 1-1 records, so by long tradition, the three-way tie means it will remains in the care and possession of Air Force, which won it last year.

THE RIGHT TO SING SECOND: Following the game, it’s long tradition that the teams will gather in from of their schoolmates and sing their respective alma maters while the other team stands and watches.  It’s also long-standing tradition that the winning team’s alma mater is sung last, so everyone from  Army and Navy understands what “Sing Second!” means.

Why it's going to be especially interesting

For die-hard Army fans, the big question is where Army’s quartrrback will be: will he be in shotgun, the ugly, unimaginative, ineffective shotgun that was forced on Army fans in much the same way as EVs are being forced on the rest of us:  we’re given a reason why it’s necessary, but never solid evidence.  In the case of Army, it was supposedly provoked by a rules change in 2022 that outlawed blocking below the waist by Army’s running backs, thereby making it impossible to run its customary triple option offense with the quarterback under center.

As I've written here numerous times, the shotgun offense that was to be the solution to the rules change has been an utter disaster. Employing it, Army lost to two of the worst teams  in FBS - Louisiana Monroe and UMass.

But, lo - in Army’s most recent game,  the Black Knights came out against a favored Coastal Carolina team, and running  their old, tried and true flexbone  triple option - with the QB under center - they beat the Chanticleers, 28-20.  To Army fans, it was a sight for sore eyes.
To be sure, Coastal was caught by surprise, and given advance warning and time to prepare, they would almost certainly have done a better job of defense.  On the other hand, it’s safe to say that despite how well Army ran an offense that  they hadn’t run in almost a year, they’d  run it even better with more time.

So,  going into the Army-Navy  game - which offense will Army run?

It's certainly good strategy not to tip one's hand. - to keep Navy guessing.

It would seem to be a no-brainer, but Army coach Jeff Monken has a lot invested in the success of his shotgun, and for all any of us knows,  Army coaches might be out recruiting kids to play in the shotgun.

Frankly, I liked the old days, when everybody knew what Army was going to run, but they still had a hell of a time stopping it.

As one who’s  somewhat aware of the prevailing sentiment among Army followers - a group of people who know a little bit about military strategy and tactics  - I’m going to go out on a limb and say that IF Army acts as if the Coastal Carolina game never even happened, and returns to business as normal (offense ineptness) and IF Army  should then wind up losing to Navy… there will be hell to pay.


*********** FCS QUARTERFINAL GAMES THIS WEEKEND…

THIS MAY BE YOUR LAST CHANCE TO SEE REAL, HONEST-TO-GOD, DIVISION I FOOTBALL PLAYED BY TEAMS WHOSE ENTIRE NIL LOOT WILL BE LESS THAN 1/10 THAT OF ANY ONE OF THE STARTING QBS IN THE PLAYOFF.

IT’S ALSO A  GREAT CHANCE TO SEE WHICH OF THESE GUYS WILL BE SCARFED UP AS SOON AS THEIR SEASONS ARE OVER  BY AN ASSORTMENT OF FBS TEAMS

WARNING - CHECK YOUR LOCAL PAPER (IF YOU HAVE ONE) FOR TIMES!

SATURDAY NOON EST - ESPN at Dykhouse Stadium
#8 Villanova (Beat Youngstown State 45-28)
at
#1 South Dakota State (Beat Mercer, 41-0)

Winner plays the winner of...

SATURDAY  10 PM EST - ESPN+ at the Kibbie Dome
#5 Albany (Beat Richmond, 41-13)
at
#4 Idaho (Beat Southern Illinois 20-17)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

SATURDAY   2:30 PM  EST - ABC at the DakotaDome
North Dakota State (Beat Montana State 35-34)
at
#3 South Dakota (Beat Sacramento State 34-24)

Winner plays the winner of...

FRIDAY 9 PM EST - ESPN2 - at Washington-Grizzly Stadium
#7 Furman (Beat Chattanooga 28-7)
vs
#2 Montana (Beat Delaware 49-19)


***********  When they said that the Playoff was going to end all the arguments over who the real national champion was, they didn’t tell us that instead we’d have to listen to arguments about  who the fourth-best team was.


***********  What’s Florida State bitching about, anyhow?

Isn’t it enough that their women’s soccer team just won the NCAA championship?

You can’t have everything, Seminoles.


*********** Just in case you’re not yet convinced that college football is totally off the tracks, consider this quote, from Florida State coach Mike Norvell…

“What’s the point of playing games?”

Why, Coach, it’s pretty simple:  how else could you legally make more than $8 million a year?


*********** Remember my writing a few weeks back about the ‘Quips?  The kids from Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, a town that’s half the size that it was 50 years ago? A  team that plays  three classes higher than its enrollment would dictate?  As I’m writing this, they just won the  state Class 4A  championship, they’re beating Dallas - which last week beat the defending state champion in the semi-finals - 60-14.


*********** With 1974 marking the 50th Anniversary of the first year of the World Football League, some guys have been putting a bit of effort into a Facebook Page devoted to memories and memorabilia from that bygone league.

I’ve contributed a few items, but I wasn’t prepared for today, when Rich Pollak, who worked in sales and promotions for the Philadelphia Bell back then, ratted me out on the page.  Just kidding.  Actually, he told of a prank that  another guy and I played back when things were looking really bleak for the WFL,  and we figured people could use some cheering up.

Here’s what he wrote (unedited) CARL CHERKIN BELL PR AND HUGH WYATT BELL DIR OF PLAYER PERSONNEL DRESSUP AS OUR NEW ARAB INVESTORS WHEN BOARDING THE PLANE TO FLORIDA BLAZERS.

True. It had become common knowledge that our league was in dire financial straits, and when rumors started flying  that there was a chance we might all be saved by “Arab Oil Money,” Carl Cherkin (who was Jewish) and I got the bright idea to pose as “Arab oil millionaires.”

DISCLAIMER: BY TODAY’S STANDARDS THIS WOULD BE SEEN AS INTOLERABLY RACIST, AND I’M REALLY, REALLY SORRY I DID IT  AND BLAH, BLAH. BLAH. 

Anyhow, at a downtown Philly novelty store, we bought Groucho Marx glasses (big noses, bushy eyebrows, mustaches) and silk scarves, which we put on our heads, holding them in place with black headbands.  Very cheap.  Nothing fancy.  And when we got on the team charter, it was to  raucous laughter from everybody on the plane.  Even the team owners.  Did I say everybody?  Well, not exactly everybody. Not my boss, the head coach/GM Ron Waller. He was pissed. He didn’t think it was funny.  Poor Ron Waller.  He’s dead now, and  it can’t have been fun going  through life devoid of any detectable sense of humor. (DE MORTUIS NIL NISI BONUM)


***********    SCREW THE HEISMAN.  HYPE WON’T WIN THE CAMPBELL TROPHY…

LAS VEGAS (Dec. 5, 2023) – University of Oregon quarterback Bo Nix has been named the 34th recipient of the William V. Campbell Trophy during tonight's 65th National Football Foundation Annual Awards Dinner Presented by Las Vegas.
 
The Campbell Trophy ranks as one of college football's most sought after and competitive awards, recognizing an individual as the absolute best in the country for his combined academic success, football performance and exemplary leadership. Awarded since 1990, the 24-inch, 25-pound bronze trophy comes with a $25,000 postgraduate scholarship.

"Bo Nix is one of the best quarterbacks in the nation, and his competitive drive on the field extends to the classroom where he has already graduated magna cum laude and is currently working on a master's degree," said NFF Chairman Archie Manning, whose sons, Peyton (Campbell Trophy recipient) and Eli, were NFF National Scholar-Athletes in 1997 and 2003, respectively. "He embodies everything the Campbell Trophy represents, and we are extremely pleased to add his name to our history books."
 
Nix was selected from the impressive list of 16 members of the NFF National Scholar-Athlete Class Presented by Fidelity Investments, who comprised the list of finalists for the Campbell Trophy. Each member of the class (listed below) claimed an $18,000 scholarship for their postgraduate educations.

"Bo and his fellow members of the 2023 NFF National Scholar-Athlete Class represent more than just their standout athletic ability seen on the field," said NFF President & CEO Steve Hatchell. "Their academic achievements and their contributions as leaders off the field send a powerful message about the young men who play our sport. They have taken full advantage of the educational opportunities provided by college football, and they have created a compelling legacy for others to follow."
 
Graduating magna cum laude from Auburn in 2021 (where he was the three-year starting quarterback from 2019-21) with a 3.62 GPA, Nix is currently pursuing a master's in Communications at Oregon, holding a 3.91 GPA. The 2023 Pac-12 Football Scholar-Athlete of the Year, Nix was a Pac-12 Academic Honor Roll member in 2022 and a three-time SEC Academic Honor Roll honoree while playing at Auburn.
 
A three-year captain (two years at Oregon and one at Auburn) and a four-letterman, Nix led the Ducks (11-2) to an appearance in the Pac-12 Championship Game this season, and he will now lead the No. 8 Ducks as they face No. 23 Liberty (13-0) in the Vrbo Fiesta Bowl on Jan. 1 in Glendale, Arizona.
 
The most experienced quarterback in NCAA history with 60 career starts, Nix leads the nation in completion percentage (77.2) and is tied for No.1 for passing touchdowns (40). He ranks second in passing efficiency (186.25), passing yards (4,145), passing yards per game (318.85), and total touchdowns (46). He ranks third in total yards per game (336.4).
 
Nix's incredible 77.2 completion percentage (336-of-435) places him in a position to break the NCAA single-season record of 77.4 set by Mac Jones (Alabama, 2020) when Oregon faces Liberty on Jan. 1. Nix's 336 completions also lead the nation and are the most in UO single-season history.
 
Nix has etched his name in multiple categories in the NCAA record books. He ranks fourth all-time in total yards (16,596), tied for sixth in total touchdowns (147), seventh in completions (1,258), seventh in passing yards (14,989) and 21st in passing touchdowns (108). He is the first player in FBS history to account for at least 55 total touchdowns at two different schools, recording 39 touchdowns passing and 18 rushing over three seasons at Auburn before coming to Oregon.
 
In addition to winning the William V. Campbell Trophy, Nix is a finalist for the Heisman Trophy, Maxwell Award, and the Dave O'Brien National Quarterback Award. Earlier today, Nix was named Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Year.
 
In his first season with the Ducks, Nix led Oregon to a 10-3 record, a victory in the Holiday Bowl and a No. 15 final ranking in 2022. At Auburn, he quarterbacked the Tigers to three-consecutive bowl appearances, including the 2002 Outback Bowl and a No. 14 final ranking, the 2021 Citrus Bowl and the 2021 Birmingham Bowl. He was the first true freshman quarterback to start a season opener for Auburn since 1946.
 
Active in the community, Nix participated in the first-ever Cleat Crew program to raise support for PeaceHealth Sacred Heart in Eugene, and he has also teamed up with the ALS Association of Oregon and Southwest Washington to pledge money for every touchdown he scores to support programs and services for individuals and families affected by ALS. Nix has hosted a football camp for kids, participated in multiple reading nights and other activities at local elementary schools; and assisted with the Food for Lane County outreach event.
 
The Pinson, Alabama, native now becomes the Ducks' second Campbell Trophy winner, joining 2019 recipient Justin Herbert. He is the school's fourth NFF National Scholar-Athlete, including Herbert, William Musgrave (1990) and Dennis Dixon (2007). He also becomes the fourth winner of the Campbell Trophy from a team currently in the Pac-12.
 
Following tonight's NFF Annual Awards Dinner Presented by Las Vegas, Nix will be recognized as the 2023 Campbell Trophy recipient at several other prestigious events. On Friday, Dec. 8, he will be interviewed live during the "The Home Depot College Football Awards" on ESPN. Then on Monday, Dec. 11, a reception will be held in his honor at the New York Athletic Club (NYAC), the official home of the trophy since 2013.
 
Launched in 1959 and celebrating its 65th year in 2023, the NFF National Scholar-Athlete program became the first initiative in history to award postgraduate scholarships based on a player's combined academic, athletic and leadership accomplishments, and the program has awarded $12.6 million to 922 top athletes since its inception. Candidates must be either a senior player who will complete his final year of eligibility this season OR a graduated player enrolled at least three years (even if he has remaining eligibility); have a grade point average of at least 3.2 on a 4.0 scale; have outstanding football ability as a first team player or significant contributor; and have demonstrated strong leadership and citizenship.

The centerpiece to the NFF's scholar-athlete program, the William V. Campbell Trophy was first awarded in 1990. It is named in honor of the late Bill Campbell, the former chairman of Intuit, former player and head coach at Columbia University and the 2004 recipient of the NFF's Gold Medal.
 
An All-Ivy League player and the captain of Columbia's 1961 Ivy League championship team, Bill Campbell found his true calling after an unlikely career change at age 39 from Columbia football coach to advertising executive. Known as the "Coach of Silicon Valley," his ability to recruit, develop and manage talented executives – all lessons learned on the gridiron – proved to be a critical component of his ability to inspire his business teams to the highest levels of success.
 
Bill Campbell joined the NFF Board in 1978 while he was still a coach at Columbia, and he continued to serve with distinction until his passing in 2016. In 2004, the NFF recognized his contributions and accomplishments by presenting him with the NFF Gold Medal, the organization's highest honor. In 2009, the NFF renamed college football's premier scholar-athlete award as the William V. Campbell Trophy in his honor.

 
 
Past Recipients of The William V. Campbell Trophy
 
    •    Chris Howard (Air Force, 1990 - University Executive)
    •    Brad Culpepper (Florida, 1991 - Attorney)
    •    Jim Hansen (Colorado, 1992 - Climatologist)
    •    Thomas Burns (Virginia, 1993 - Engineering Executive)
    •    Robert Zatechka (Nebraska, 1994 - Physician)
    •    Bobby Hoying (Ohio State, 1995 - Real Estate Executive)
    •    Danny Wuerffel (Florida, 1996 - Non-Profit Executive Director)
    •    Peyton Manning (Tennessee, 1997 - TV Personality & Philanthropist)
    •    Matt Stinchcomb (Georgia, 1998 - Insurance Executive & TV Broadcaster)
    •    Chad Pennington (Marshall, 1999 - High School Football Coach)
    •    Kyle Vanden Bosch (Nebraska, 2000 - Youth Football Coach & Broadcaster)
    •    Joaquin Gonzalez (Miami [FL], 2001 - Corporate Executive)
    •    Brandon Roberts (Washington University in St. Louis [MO], 2002 - Physician)
    •    Craig Krenzel (Ohio State, 2003 - Insurance Executive)
    •    Michael Munoz (Tennessee, 2004 - Sports & Entertainment Executive)
    •    Rudy Niswanger (LSU, 2005 - Corporate Executive)
    •    Brian Leonard (Rutgers, 2006 - Real Estate Executive)
    •    Dallas Griffin (Texas, 2007 - Corporate Executive)
    •    Alex Mack (California, 2008 - Retired NFL Player)
    •    Tim Tebow (Florida, 2009 - Non-Profit Chairman & TV Broadcaster)
    •    Sam Acho (Texas, 2010 - Humanitarian & TV Broadcaster)
    •    Andrew Rodriguez (Army West Point, 2011 - U.S. Army Captain & Instructor)
    •    Barrett Jones (Alabama, 2012 - Financial Advisor and TV Broadcaster)
    •    John Urschel (Penn State, 2013 - Professor)
    •    David Helton (Duke, 2014 - MBA Candidate)
    •    Ty Darlington (Oklahoma, 2015 - College Football Assistant Coach)
    •    Zach Terrell (Western Michigan, 2016 – General Manager)
    •    Micah Kiser (Virginia, 2017 - NFL Free Agent)
    •    Christian Wilkins (Clemson, 2018 - NFL Player)
    •    Justin Herbert (Oregon, 2019 - NFL Player)
    •    Brady White (Memphis, 2020 - College Football Quality Control Coach)
    •    Charlie Kolar (Iowa State, 2021 - NFL Player)
    •    Jack Campbell (Iowa, 2022 – NFL Player)


IF I WANTED TO HAVE AN INTELLIGENT CONVERSATION WITH A FORMER ATHLETE, I’D DRIVE MY NISSAN  RIGHT PAST THE HEISMAN HOUSE ON MY WAY TO  “CAMPBELL COTTAGE.”

 

*********** Long before there was the Internet, there were magazines, paper things that you could hold in your hands and read , and then store them away somewhere,  out of the sight of people whose greatest joy is throwing away old magazines.   It’s been my great good fortune to be married to a woman who has actually abetted my packrat-ism, even going so far as to catalog a collection of Sports Illustrated that goes back to the 1950s.

There was a time when Scholastic Coach Magazine was the coach’s bible. It came out monthly, and although in order to expand its readership it began to carry articles about other sports, even in football’s “off-season” there was always at least one football-related article.  The magazine’s long-time editor, Herman Masin, whom I got to know when I first released my “Dynamics of the Double Wing” video in 1996, told me that in his experience, we football coaches were a breed apart in our interest in learning and he  wouldn’t dare put out an issue  that  didn’t include something about football.

In an August, 1983 issue, I found an interview with Penn State coach Joe Paterno  that’s extremely interesting, especially when viewed in the light of today’s college game…

SC: how about returning to the old rule that would make freshman ineligible for varsity competition?

PATERNO:  I’d favor that.

SC: Would you also favor a freshman schedule?

PATERNO: I think it would be good – a four or five game schedule, with two games away and two or three at home – as long as it wasn't pressureful. It would give the kids a chance to develop class loyalty and to adjust to the college scene.  A good, solid freshman coach could talk to them about table manners and behavior on trips, teach values, etc. In short, the freshman year could be used to orient the kids to college life.

SC:  If you're going to have a freshman schedule, you may as well put the kids into the varsity program. The pressures might be a little greater, but the program would require about the same time.

PATERNO:  That's hard to believe. The freshman program at Penn State had the kids working some against the varsity, certainly, and it helped develop their skills and what have you. But we really controlled the practice time and the number of classes they had to take.

Our freshman coach, Earl Bruce, would talk all the time about studying and behavior. The freshmen were separate from the varsity, uninvolved. They were regular students who sat in the stands with the other freshmen on Saturdays. We thought of the situation as a transition period from high school to college.  And it worked well for us.

Barring active kids from athletics during their freshman year can be tough; it could create a vacuum for them. One thing is certain, however:  the number one priority for kids coming in with a bad background has to be to catch up academically so that they can eventually play. I feel strongly about this.

SC: are you concerned about the trend that has colleges play one, two, even three games before school opens in the fall and the freshman players have even had a chance to attend the class?

PATERNO:  I am concerned about that. People are going to say, "Why is Penn State playing Nebraska on August 29?”  I voted against it – Penn State voted against it.  But I thought in all fairness that my squad should have a voice in the decision. They voted to play the game, even though it meant  giving up one week of summer.

SC: We know that you favor a championship playoff for Division I-A teams. But if the only feasible way to do this would be by dropping the Bowl games, would you go along with that?

PATERNO:  No, I would not eliminate  the bowl games. The only playoff I'd vote for  would be held at the end of the Bowl season. We would pick the best four teams and then play semifinals and a final. That would mean you'd have two teams that would have to play 14 games – the same as you now have in Division II and Division III.

I like the idea of semifinals and finals because they would put us into a couple of Saturdays during the pro season, and we wouldn't have to concede all that exposure to the pros.

SC: What kind of impact would a championship playoff have for the NCAA in general?

PATERNO:  We could generate a lot of needed income for the NCAA, help it underwrite  a lot of other sports and championship events. The NCAA could also choose to bank some of the money for catastrophic situations, loans (or matching loans)  to financially embarrassed schools, enabling them to continue intercollegiate football, or even early-age pensions for coaches, such as they're doing in the NFL.   Coaches who are let out at 40 or 50 after 15, 18 or 20 years of coaching would have something to fall back on.

We could eliminate a lot of inequities and keep some of the people in coaching who belong in coaching. I hate to see all that money out there that we're not getting.  We could use it not to aggrandize one school but to improve the whole scene: add stability to the coaching profession, help people and colleges through some lean years, and that sort of thing.

My thoughts…

1. Freshman ineligibility?  You really think that high school kids who are now being lured with NIL deals that not so long ago would be considered extravagant by NFL standards are going to go back to the days when they’re not eligible to compete at the varsity level?  You think there wouldn’t be lawyers lined up to take their cases?

2. Is  there any school nowadays that WON’T have played at least one game before September 1?

3. Imagine  the uproar  on January 2  after  someone - or some committee - announced the four teams it had chosen to play in that Playoff.  (At least there would be a LOT fewer opt-outs of bowl games.)

4. How many years would it be before that Playoff was expanded to six teams? Eight teams? Twelve teams?

5. Silly man.  He thought that the NCAA would control the Playoff - and the money it would make.

6. Would Jimbo Fisher be eligible for one of those pensions?


*********** FROM BACK IN AUGUST - PRE-SEASON POWER 5 PREDICTED ORDERS OF FINISH

ACC (For some reason, the geniuses must have thought that the ACC would still play in divisions)

Atlantic
    •    Clemson
    •    Florida State
    •    Louisville
    •    North Carolina State
    •    Syracuse
    •    Wake Forest
    •    Boston College

Coastal
    •    North Carolina
    •    Duke
    •    Miami
    •    Pitt
    •    Georgia Tech
    •    Virginia Tech
    •    Virginia




Big Ten

East
    •    Michigan
    •    Ohio State
    •    Penn State
    •    Maryland
    •    Michigan State
    •    Rutgers
    •    Indiana

West
    •    Wisconsin
    •    Iowa
    •    Illinois
    •    Minnesota
    •    Nebraska
    •    Purdue
    •    Northwestern


Big 12

    •    Texas
    •    Oklahoma
    •    TCU
    •    Texas Tech
    •    Kansas State
    •    Kansas
    •    Baylor
    •    Oklahoma State
    •    BYU
    •    UCF
    •    Cincinnati
    •    Houston
    •    Iowa State
    •    West Virginia


Pac 12

    •    USC
    •    Washington
    •    Utah
    •    Oregon
    •    Oregon State
    •    UCLA
    •    Washington State
    •    Arizona
    •    Colorado
    •    Arizona State
    •    Cal
    •    Stanford


SEC

East
    •    Georgia
    •    Tennessee
    •    South Carolina
    •    Kentucky
    •    Florida
    •    Missouri
    •    Vanderbilt

West
    •    LSU
    •    Alabama
    •    Texas A&M
    •    Ole Miss
    •    Arkansas
    •    Auburn
    •    Mississippi State

 


*********** Good man.  Solid coach.

Craig Bohl was 104-32 in 11 years at North Dakota State, and led them from Division II to Division I (FCS).  The Bison won three consecutive FCS national titles in his last three years there.

He was 60-60 in ten years at Wyoming, and took the Cowboys to five bowl games, including this year’s Arizona Bowl.

Hard  worker?  Two years ago we stopped in Laramie in mid-summer to visit the stadium. It was a Sunday.  There was one vehicle in the parking lot - Coach Bohl's pickup.


*********** A guy on Twitter (Okay, X) summed up Oregon State’s season…

Seriously though, has any CFB fanbase had it worse in one year than OSU in 2023?

End in top 25 but…

•Lose conference
•Expectations of NY6 bowl ends in 4th best record in Pac12 = Sun Bowl
•Lose coach
•Lose once in a generation QB to portal + half the roster
•Screwed by GameDay

He forgot to mention the fact that we still don’t know if they’ll have enough players to field a team in the Sun Bowl.

One mild correction: DJ Uiagalelei is a good  QB, but “once in a generation?” If Beavers’ fans are going to have to wait another generation for his like, I’d suggest that they just throw in the towel and go play FCS.


*********** The big money that the really big-money colleges are throwing around has enormous trickle-down effects on lesser-funded rivals.  The big guys will kill the not-so-big guys, killing the game in the process,  by sucking up all their good assistants

Latest example? Kansas State lost offensive coordinator Collin Klein to Texas A & M.  I don’t doubt for a minute that Kansas State was paying him well, but Texas A & M will make him a millionaire.

All this  sh—— almost makes me wish for a depression.


*********** Fresno State coach Jeff Tedford has had to take a break from football because of “health issues,” and won’t coach the Bulldogs in their bowl game. In 2019 he was forced by a heart problem  to step aside as thr Bulldogs’ coach, but after his successor, Kalen DeBoer, left for Washington after the 2021 season, he returned.

When you take a look at what appeared to be an end-of-season collapse by the Bulldogs, who on November 4 were 8-1 and tied for first in the Mountain West, you  can’t help wondering if Coach Tedford’s health had an effect on the record. Or whether the collapse had an effect on his health.

NOV 4 - 8-1
NOV 11 - LOSS SAN JOSE STATE 42-18
NOV 18 - LOSS NEW MEXICO 25-17
NOV 25 - LOSS  SAN DIEGO  STATE  33-18
FINAL RECORD 8-4


*********** I’ll never have the kind of money that would enable me to make a large contribution to my college.  (That’s okay, in my case, because over the years my alma mater has stood for so many things that I can’t support that I don’t love her any more.)

But I do envy people who do love their alma maters.  I admire some of the things they do out of love for their schools, and I think it would be wonderful to be in their positions.

It would be the realization of a dream if I were to be in a position as a football coach to help my school when it needed me.

Which brings me to Jonathan Smith, new head coach of Michigan State and formerly of Oregon State. A Beaver as an undergraduate, and then as their coach.

Nearly everyone who follows college football understands that Oregon State is in a bad spot right now, and at a time when his alma mater needed him the most, Jonathan Smith made things worse by his leaving.

It’s not as if he was being asked to sell all his worldly goods  and take a vow of poverty. He was making $4.85 million a year at Oregon State on a multi-year contract, and he probably could have stayed there forever, so admired and respected was he.  It just turned out that he wasn’t interested in the heavy lifting that saving his school’s program was going to require.

I wish him well at Michigan State - I suppose - but  I think a measure of a man is what he does for those who turn to him in their time of greatest need, and what Jonathan Smith did to them was  display a cold disloyalty to one’s school that’s unparalleled in all my years of following football.

I  couldn’t help thinking of Bear Bryant, when he left a very good job at Texas A & M to take the job at his alma mater, Alabama. “Momma called,” he said.  “And when Momma calls, you just have to come runnin’."


*********** Glad to see him back: Bronco Mendenhall is the new guy at New Mexico.  Good man, I think (you never know about these  guys) and a good coach.  What you see now at Virginia makes you appreciate how good a coach he is.  Also - damn few coaches make the kind of cross-country move he made, from BYU to UVa.


*********** WTF is going on at AFA?  John Canzano reported that Air Force’s Troy Calhoun was interviewed for the Oregon State job (he’s a native of Roseburg, Oregon) and now comes word that he’s interviewed at Tulane.


***********   Coach:   So Si's Person is Deion Sanders. You might also have noticed that last week Peggy Noonan casually challenged herself to identify whom Time will soon pick as its person of the year. Putting aside the fact that I doubt few care anymore what Time says about anything, Peggy said she's highly confident it'll be Taylor Swift. Her reasons make sense, but if these choices are their way of calling attention to the monstrous problems we're facing, I'm mostly missing the point. I can't help but think there are a relatively few one-dimensionally smart guys behind a veil, for example, who are moving us toward the third level of artificial intelligence (the so-called 'Super AI') at breakneck speed...those guys could be committing genocide while we revel in the contributions of Coach Prime and Taylor Swift (whose name can't be printed now without adding 'and Travis Kelce'.

You probably heard Coach Rhule be the latest to say action's needed now to combat the excesses of NIL and the Portal. A good QB, says he, now comes with a price tag of 1-2 million dollars, and Nebraska ain't A&M. As I told a Minnesota friend, I'm hoping there'll be a big school somewhere who will save some money by building a Switzer-like running powerhouse. For that matter, maybe Coach Rhule should be looking back at Tom Osborne's old offenses.

Thanks for the notes from John McPhee. I've read him with delight for decades. His connection with sport becomes him.

I watched the playoff show by accident. I caught it from the beginning. I think during the hour ESPN called on comments from two panels once the six teams were set. It was hard to disagree with most of their comments, but what struck me most was how thoroughly they kicked Georgia to the curb. I was thinking it was almost as if Georgia no longer exists. We all know Georgia's record across the past three seasons. I know, I know, but to me these really aren't the four best teams in the playoffs without the Bulldogs. Off the cuff, I think GA will destroy FSU, until it occurs to me that we don't know how many, if any, of the players for both teams might opt out.

John Vermillion                        
St Petersburg, Florida




 


*********** QUIZ ANSWER: You can thank Tad Wieman  for all the face mask calls  that seem to come  right after you thought your team had just made a big stop.

Tad Wieman  was born in 1896 in the Central Valley of California and raised in Los Angeles.  The seventh in his family of eight children,  he was a standout athlete,  just like his four older brothers, but unlike them, who had all gone to Occidental College, he chose to go to Michigan.  In a fit of hyperbole, the Los Angeles Times called his decision to end the family tradition and leave the West Coast “a calamity of almost national importance.”

At the time, rugby, not football, was played in much of California, and he had no experience at  the gridiron game.  Nevertheless, he made the Michigan freshman team and stood out in scrimmages against the varsity.

He was big and athletic, and Michigan coach Fielding Yost played him at a number of positions. In his junior year, he was moved from tackle to fullback, almost certainly costing him a spot as tackle on Walter Camp’s All-America team, but the move definitely helped the team: the Wolverines finished 8-2, losing only to Northwestern and Eastern power Penn. In addition to running the ball, he was the team’s kicker, and he accounted for 125 of the 304 points Michigan scored that season.

Following the season, he was a unanimous selection to be captain of the next year’s team, but in December following the season, with  World War I going on,  he enlisted in the “Aviation Corps.”

While he was in the service, the Michigan team went undefeated and won the national championship, and despite the fact that he didn’t play a down, his teammates still recognized him as their  captain.

After his discharge from two years in the service, with one year of eligibility remaining, he returned to Michigan as a 24-year-old senior and played despite nagging injuries.  He was graduated a member of  Phi Beta Kappa (the college world’s most prestigious honor society) and he won the Western Conference Medal (now known as the Big Ten Medal of Honor), given for combined excellence in academics and athletics.

From 1921 to 1926 he was an assistant at Michigan, coaching the line under the legendary Yost, and in 1927, with Yost now also serving as AD, he was Yost’s choice to succeed him as head coach.

It’s never easy to succeed a legend and it didn’t go well for Tad Wieman.  His first year, he finished 6-2,  but the second year was a very disappointing 3-4-1, and it became apparent in news stories that the AD - now the  former head coach - was displeased  with him.   Before the start of his third season, he was gone. To work out the remainder of his three-year contract (coaches weren’t “bought out” in those days) he was kept around and given “other duties.”

As soon as he came on the market, though, he was hired by Fritz Crisler, who had just taken the head coaching job at Minnesota after  eight years assisting Amos Alonzo Stagg at the University of Chicago.  He  coached the line for Crisler, and when Crisler left after two years at Minnesota to take the head job at Princeton, he went along as Crisler’s line coach.

In five years at Princeton, Crisler’s teams went 35-9-5, and when he left to take  the head coaching job at Michigan, Wieman remained at Princeton as head coach of the Tigers.

In five years as Princeton’s head coach, his record was an unspectacular 20-18-3, but he won the games that mattered to Princeton: he beat Yale four out of five times, and became the first Princeton head coach ever to beat Yale four straight years.

In 1942, he was given a leave of absence to take a wartime position as chief of the US Army’s college physical training program, a post he remained in until his discharge.

In 1944 and 1945, he was given temporary leaves of absence by the Army to assist Columbia coach Lou Little with his offensive line,  and at his discharge in 1946, rather than return to coaching,  he accepted position as the University of Maine’s AD - in addition to also being dean of men and director of physical education.

In 1949 he hired another Michigan alum, Dave Nelson, who after serving as head coach at Hillsdale College had just spent a season as an assistant coach at Harvard.  Nelson, and his assistants, Mike Lude and Harold Westerman, would make Maine famous in  football lore as the true birthplace of  the Wing-T.  When Nelson left after two years to go to Delaware, taking Mike Lude with him, one of our guy’s last acts as Maine AD was to persuade Westerman  to   take Nelson’s place as head coach of the Black Bears.  Westerman accepted his offer, and would stay at Maine for 16 years, retiring  with a record of 80-38-7.

Our guy left Maine in August 1951, before Westerman’s first season,  to become the AD at the University of Denver.    While at Denver, he served on the NCAA football rules committee,  and  in 1957, as more players began wearing face masks - and more players began grabbing them - he led the effort to make grabbing the face mask a 15-yard penalty.  He had the sad task of having to close down  the Denver football program following the 1960 season. The Pioneers’ final game, played on Thankgiving Day, 1960, was a 21-12 win over Colorado State. 

In 1962, he retired after more than 40 years in college athletics.

His retirement didn’t last long. In 1962, he became the first full-time West Coast director of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, establishing the  the FCA's West Coast headquarters in Portland, Oregon.  In a 1963 interview with the Los Angeles Times,  he said the FCA’s aim was  to "harness hero worship" and use it to advance the cause of Christianity.

In 1947 he served as President of the American Football Coaches Association. In 1956, he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. In 1962,  he received the American Football Coaches Association’s Amos Alonzo Stagg Award presented annually to to the "individual, group or institution whose services have been outstanding in the advancement of the best interests of football.”  Recipients of the award are a “Who’s-Who” of the greats in our sport.


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING TAD WIEMAN

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
JOE BREMER - WEST SENECA, NEW YORK
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY

  



***********  He was never a head coach, but it’s  fair to call him one of the greatest offensive line coaches ever.

He was a YOOPER - a native of the U-P, Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

He played high school ball in Marquette, Michigan, and walked on at Michigan State.  He was captain of his freshman team, but  after falling prey to homesickness, he returned home and enrolled at Northern Michigan.

He was lured back to MSU by an offer of a scholarship, but that meant that as a transfer he had to spend a year on the scout team.

By his senior year, 1955,  playing guard on offense and  middle guard (nose man) on defense, he was captain of a team that finished 9-1, won the Rose Bowl, and claimed a share of the National Championship.  He was named MVP  by his teammates, and called “the greatest guard I’ve ever coached” by his head coach Duffy Daugherty, a former line coach. In the Spartans’ 21-7 win over then Number 4-ranked Notre Dame, he played all 60 minutes.  He was first team All-Big Ten, and earned the Big Ten Conference Medal of Honor.  He became  the first Spartan to be named both All-American and Academic All-American.

He played in the Senior Bowl, and although drafted (in the 30th round) by the Redskins, he realized that at 5-10, 195 he was too small to play professionally, so he became a coach - and started out on a career that would last 58 years. He would coach the offensive lines on national championship teams at North Dakota State, Oklahoma and Northern Michigan.

He  coached at Michigan State right out of college, and on two other occasions.

He coached at North Dakota State for four years, during which time the  Bison won a D-II National title.

He coached at Oklahoma under Chuck Fairbanks - a former MSU teammate - and under an offensive coordinator named Barry Switzer. “He made those kids tougher than hell," Switzer said year later, telling about two-a-days when all the other players were in cooling off and eating lunch, but our guy “would still have them out there pushing the blocking dummies. Everyone else was happy they weren't an offensive lineman."

Not by any stretch of the imagination could he be called an passive coach. "I can still see him out there, screaming, hollering, spitting," Switzer said. "He had lost his front teeth, so he'd take that plate out and just get after it. The cameras should have been on him the whole time.  (He)  would have been great theater – but he was not a performer. That was him. What he did was real, totally real."

Said Fairbanks, years later, “He's the greatest line coach who ever coached in high school or college football, without question or exception. He's just so special. There's no one better in his ability to teach young players how to play.”

He coached at Colorado, first under Fairbanks, but then under Bill McCartney, on a staff that included no fewer than six future FBS head coaches:  Lou Tepper (Illinois); Gerry DiNardo (Vanderbilt, LSU and Indiana); Ron Dickerson (Temple), Les Miles  (Oklahoma State, LSU and Kansas); Gary Barnett (Northwestern and later Colorado). And Jim Caldwell, who coached at Wake Forest and in the NFL, who called him “perhaps the greatest collegiate offensive line coach the world has ever known.”  
 
He came back to Michigan State. and coached for four years under George Perles.  There he  worked closely with a young assistant named Nick Saban.

He  coached at Northern Michigan, where the Wildcats won a national title with a quarterback named Steve Mariucci.  He almost managed to get a lightning-quick basketball player named Tom Izzo to play running back. The basketball coach, afraid that his star point  guard would get injured, would have none of it, but when our guy said, “How about if he just kicks?” he relented.  But it wasn’t long before our guy had him running the ball, and the basketball coach put  a stop to it

He became well known to high school coaches in the Upper Midwest through clinics and camps where he continued to coach youngsters - and coaches.

At the age of 84 he was back at Northern  Michigan to assist his son, then the head coach of the Wildcats.

He was tough and he never apologized  for it. "I believe in a style that is unpopular today: Demand and confront,” he said.   “You can’t allow a player to lie to himself. You gotta be tough on a guy. I was always really tough and demanding, but I got the best out of my players.”

It  was through his emphasis on toughness that he deserves  credit for the “four finger” hand sign that’s now almost universally flashed at the start of every fourth quarter everywhere - but that’s for another time.

In addition to toughness, he was  a stickler for fundamentals, taught and practiced correctly.

"You know,” he said, “you can talk about having a thousand  plays in your playbook, and all those things are necessary, but when it really comes down to nut-cracking, it doesn't matter what system you're running.

"Have you got good fundamentals? Good mechanics? It still really comes down to, can you block and tackle? Those are the things we really learned well during my time at Michigan State. If you can block and tackle you'll make a lot of systems go.”

In all his years, he never aspired to do anything but coach the offensive line.

"I said to myself, 'I enjoy coaching too much,'" he said. "It gets to the point as a head coach, you're a director, you're in charge, but you actually get away from the game."



TUESDAY, DECEMBER 5,  2023 - “Knowing what you don’t know is more useful than being brilliant.” Charlie Munger, noted investor

*********** Don't forget Pearl Harbor Day - December 7 - one of the few days in our recent history when we were totally united.  Actually, even then there were holdouts.  One member of Congress - Jeannette Rankin, from Montana, voted against declaring war on Japan. (As Casey Stengel would say, "you could look it up.")


***********  Teams were left out of the Playoff. There’s weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. Thank God the Palestinians in our midst don’t follow college football.

Don’t blame me.  I hated the idea of a Playoff.  Still do. 

I saw this coming for years and I made  plenty of noise about it, but in the end, who TF was I?  I certainly couldn’t match the networks’ money, and I couldn’t match the media’s noise - and to hear them, the American public demanded that we have a “true national champion,” one “decided on the field.” 

So here we are. A four-team playoff. It sure settled all those arguments, didn’t it?  I hope those of you who “demanded” this are delighted.

Next year, with 12 teams, it’ll be much better.  Sure it will. Basketball lets 68 teams in now, and the left-outs still bitch.

Me?  I hate all playoffs.

Not that anybody gives a sh—, but I hate them at any level other than the NFL, which I don’t care about anyhow. I would prefer bowl games in college and Thanksgiving Day rivalries in high school, but that’s in the dead past.

I despise the idea that all but one of the best teams ends its season with a loss. For what? So one team can win a lousy plaque?

I’m an old fart that believes that games are meant to be games.  The object is to win them. Not to” advance.”  They don’t have to “mean” a damn thing  more than trying to beat the other guy. (Okay- they do mean more when they’re against an  old  rival.)

At least at the high school level, why are we playing these extra games, anyhow?  For the good of the kids who play them?  Or for the benefit of the handful of kids on the last team standing? Or (as I suspect)   for all the yahoos who insist on “knowing” who the “real champion” is -  before they move on to watching basketball?

How do you suppose  high school football managed to last as long as it did - 100 years or more in many cases -  without playoffs?


*********** I feel very bad for the Florida State people.

But the playoff committee’s assignment - to determine a national champion - meant picking the four teams with the best chances of winning a national championship.  And FSU’s chances of beating any of the other four teams - plus Georgia - with their QB done for the season  were zero.


***********  Two suggestions, both of which mean doing away with that bunch of stuffed shirts on the Playoff Committee. (Wouldn’t you love to know how much the gig paid?) 

(1) The guys in Vegas could have done it easily, and done it better.  Far more than any of the people on the committee, the wise guys on The Strip are in it to win it.

(2) If they can’t decide between two - or three - teams, do what high schools do routinely: have the principals  flip a coin.

Just kidding. Actually,  have the contending teams meet in an overtime-type playoff.  With all the time  there is before the semi-finals, the teams could easily have met somewhere next Friday.  No pity for them, either - high school teams in Washington, for example, may play their last regular-season game on a Friday night, then a  tie-breaking playoff on a Monday night, then a first-round play-in game the following Saturday. 

So suck it up, millionaires. If high school kids and coaches can do it, so can you. 


***********   One thing that sucks about the Playoff is that Michigan, the champion  of the league that destroyed the Rose Bowl and all of its glorious tradition, is the Number One seed, so it  gets to choose  where it wants to play. It has chosen Pasadena, thereby preventing Washington, the last-ever Pac-12 champion, from playing in the last-ever Rose Bowl.


*********** There’s no chance that conferences, addicted as they are to money, will ever give up their conference championship games. Those games bring in a lot of money.  But they have  their risks.   The SEC’s game, for instance,  cost Georgia, possibly one of the great college teams of all time, a spot in the Playoff. Yes, Georgia’s loss did open up a spot for Texas, but that’s not the SEC’s job. For that matter, a loss in the Big-12 championship would have cost Texas a spot. And for sure, a loss in the Pac-12 championship game would have kept Washington out.


***********   Other than letting Michigan choose to play in the Rose Bowl (after the Big Ten basically killed the game itself), the Playoff is pretty much the way I’d have done it.  The really sad point that the pundits alluded to a few times on the playoff show is that football is no longer a team game.

No, it has become “passball,”  and what it means is that regardless of the overall strength of your team, you’re actually no better than one single man - your quarterback.   What happened to Florida State could just as easily have happened to Washington if it had lost Penix, to Alabama if it had lost Milroe, and so forth. The notion that football is  the ultimate team game has become a joke by the way the rules have been tailored to make it QB-centric and, because of that,  to protect the QB,  at great detriment to the game that used to be.

Jordan Travis happens to personify the problem, and despite the Florida State people saying “We’re more than the just the quarterback,” the fact is, they’re not.  With him they were a championship contender.  Without him, they’re only a bit better than Florida and Louisville - and that’s about it.  Duke, after the loss of Riley Leonard, is a great example. The game has become this way by design.  It’s been distorted by the lobbying efforts of the passing game proponents - abetted as they were by the NFL’s influence - to the point where the QB has become by far the  single most influential player in any major team sport.


*********** CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP WEEKEND…

FRIDAY NIGHT

CONFERENCE USA

LIBERTY 49,  NEW MEXICO STATE 35
One of the few good games of the weekend. The teams went back and forth for a while, but  after QB Diego Pavia  had to leave the game with what appeared to be an elbow or shoulder injury, the Aggies couldn’t keep up. Liberty is fun to watch - QB Kaidon Salter threw for 319, rushed for 165 -  and as the Group of Five’s New year’s Six representative, they’ll play the Oregon Ducks. My money says Oregon will have so many opt-outs  that Liberty will beat them.

PAC-WHATEVER

WASHINGTON 34, OREGON 31
It was a study in team preparedness.  Perhaps Washington was fired up by being 9-1/2 point underdogs. Perhaps Oregon was sedated by the odds. In the first quarter, as Washington was putting10 points on the board, Mighty Oregon could do no better than a pair or three-and-outs… a total of nine yards or, as John Canzano put it, TWENTY-SEVEN FEET of offense.  Once again, Captain Aggressive decided not to trust his  defense at the end. Scoring to come within  three with 2:14 left, Oregon Coach Dan Lanning chose to try an onside kick.  Fat chance. Actually, he was probably right in not trusting his defense. They had three time outs but they exhausted them quickly, and Washington, making two first downs, ran out the clock.  The real killer was when the Ducks  had Washington second and 17 after a holding penalty, and couldn’t stop them.  Oregon had 124 yards rushing; their leading rusher was Bo Nix, their QB, with  69 yards. Washington’s Dillon Johnson had 152 yards on 28 carries. His best carry of the night came in the last minute when the Huskies faced a third-and-nine and he picks up 15 yards. Game over.


SATURDAY - IN ORDER OF INTEREST AND EXCITEMENT
(ACTUALLY, IT WAS A SORRY BUNCH OF GAMES AND THERE WAS AN EIGHT-WAY TIE FOR LAST PLACE, SO I’LL JUST TAKE THEM IN ORDER)


TEXAS 49,  OKLAHOMA STATE  21
We all saw what happens when Good Texas plays Bad Oklahoma State.  The Longhorns are good. Quinn Ewers took the Cowboys apart with 452 yards passing for four TDs. Oklahoma State - 39 yards rushing?  Seriously?  15 running plays?  Kill me.


MIAMI, OHIO 23, TOLEDO 14
Miami, seven-point underdogs, took it to the Rockets.  And when they needed to, toward the end, they strapped ‘em on and ran it down the Rockets’ throats. Miami QB Aveon Smith  threw for 109 and rushed for 99 of the team’s 199.  Toledo’s DeQuan Finn  threw for 273, but the Rockets rushed for just 90 yards overall.


BOISE STATE 44, UNLV 20 
After a season marked by the firing of its coach partway through, the Boise State Broncos got it all together and proved they’re the best team in the Mountain West. The Broncos’ Ashton Jeanty carried 21 times for 153 yards and QB Taylor Green threw for 226 yards and 2 TD, while carrying 8 times for 90 yards. The Broncos rushed for 299 overall. They’ll face UCLA in the LA Bowl and fortunately for the Bruins they can take a bus to the game because otherwise they’d be a no-show.


ALABAMA 27,  GEORGIA 24
The Bama win wasn’t exactly unexpected, but to Georgia fans it was the unthinkable - their team rudely bounced from its accustomed Number One spot  - and threatening to win three straight national titles - to a  spot out of reach of the Playoff.  The playoff system sucks, but if the Florida State people think the system is unfair, what about the Georgia people? I thought the game itself sucked and I’d never pay to see a  replay. Georgia 78 yards rushing? Two teams that can’t rush for 200 yards between them? Ugh.


SMU  26,  TULANE 14
SMU  showed itself to be the superior team. Backup QB Kevin Jennings threw for 203 and 2 TDs. Playing their last game in the AAC, the  Mustangs outgained the Green Wave 387-269.


TROY 49, APPALACHIAN STATE 23
Troy  showed that it was favored for a reason. Troy’s Kimani Vidal, a fireplug (5-7, 200) carried 26 times for 233 yards and 5 TDs.  Three of his TDs came in the Trojans’ 28-point fourth quarter.


MICHIGAN 26, IOWA  0
Thanks, Big Ten, for the great matchup.  Sure was a lot of fun to watch. This one could match any NFL game for thrills. I don’t want to hammer a  college guy - actually I don’t know why not, since they’re all making more than your average school teacher - but that guy that Iowa had under center?  As big as he is, there’s got to be another position on the team where he’d be better. Bad?  How can you  throw 32 passes and only gain 120 yards? That’s LESS THAN FOUR YARDS PER ATTEMPT. Mighty Michigan “rushed” for 59 yards. But they did throw for all of 147 yards, so they slipped over 200 yards total offense. But just barely. Iowa “rushed”  for 35. The two teams combined for 361 yards of offense between them.  Ugh. What a horrible game.


FLORIDA STATE  16,  LOUISVILLE  6
FSU was favored by 2-1/2. FSU won, meaning it finished its season a 13-0 conference champion.  Once, that would be reason enough to celebrate. But now?  Hey man, we have a Playoff.  Who cares about a lousy conference championship? Who gives a sh— what bowl game we’re in?  But  come on, Seminoles fans - with a QB who’s 8 of 21 for 55 yards - against Louisville -  what chances would you have of avoiding another fiasco like TCU-Georgia in last year’s final?  That’s the very thing the Playoff committee has to avoid if they’re going to keep their  cushy jobs.


*********** For what it’s worth… in every one of the ten conference  championship games played this past weekend, the winning team outrushed the losing team.


***********  For the third week in a row I watched Riverheads, a small high school near Staunton (pronounced “STAN-ton”) Virginia, represent Double Wingers everywhere.


Riverheads  made it 13-1 Saturday with a 37-7 state semifinal win over Poquoson, advancing to this week’s final game in Salem, Virginia against Radford (14-0).

They’ve got a running back/linebacker named Cayden Cook-Cash who has impressed me - and no doubt many others.  He’s 6-3, 215  with decent speed.  A senior, he was the state offensive Player of the Year as a Sophomore and as a Junior.  In last year’s state championship game, he carried for 282 yards and score five touchdowns.  I’m not entirely sure  that I heard correctly, but it sounded like they said he’d scored 102 TDs in three years.

Ordinarily, he gets 2/3 of the teams’ carries, but for some reason he was used sparingly as a runner on Saturday.  He  did make a couple of nice plays on defense, and he ran 80-some yards for a scoop-and-score TD.


*********** Lousville coach Jeff Brohm is the son of Oscar Brohm, himself a longtime coach.

Oscar told a reporter that right after Jeff took theLouisville  job, he turned to his dad and said, "You know there will be a lot of pressure."

Dad said he told Jeff, “Tell me where you've been where there wasn't pressure.”


***********   I came across this in a September, 2014 article in The New Yorker by John McPhee…

The younger of my father’s two brothers had the same names I have, first and last. He was my Uncle Jack. He was executive secretary of the Youngstown Y and later sold industrial lubricants to the steel industry, but on weekends he was a football official.

It was Uncle Jack who threw the first flag in big-time football.

Ordinarily a field judge or head linesman, he was in this instance refereeing a game at Ohio State. Officials used to carry wee horns strapped to their wrists. On observing an infraction—anywhere on the scale from offside to unnecessary roughness—they blew the horns, and that was their penalty signal for more than fifty years.

Uncle Jack had been there, blown that, and in Ohio Stadium he had experienced louder, more continuous dins than he ever would in any steel plant. Much of the time, no one on the field could hear the wee horns.

At the suggestion of his friend Dwight Beede, the coach of Youngstown College, Uncle Jack took a red-and-white bandanna to Columbus and, instead of blowing the horn, whipped the bandanna out of his pocket and dropped it on the ground.

The idea had arisen here and there across the years, but now its time had come. John Griffith, the conference commissioner, instructed all Big Ten officials to show up at all Big Ten games with flags in their pockets the following week

***********   You wouldn’t believe me if I wrote it, so I’ll let  Tim Benz of  the Pittsburgh Tribune break the news…

Sports Illustrated named its Sportsperson of the Year . It's Colorado football coach Deion Sanders.

Either voting for this award stopped in mid-September or all of SI's bots wrote this story. I mean, Colorado finished in last place in the Pac-12.

This was some of the rationale advanced by Pat Forde.

"There are numbers that define the Prime Effect upon the University of Colorado in Boulder, a place that hasn't always had a chummy relationship with football. First-year applications are up 26.4% year over year; Black or African American applications are up 80.6%; nonresident applications are up 29.8%; and international applications are up 38.4% from 97 countries, including 16 that didn't have any applications last year. While those numbers cannot be definitively linked to Sanders, others can be: September sales at the school's online team store were up 2,544% over the same month in 2022. Every home game in 50,183-seat Folsom Field was sold out for the first time in school history.”

OK. They also went 4-8 and closed on a six-game losing streak. Plus, Sanders ran off a bunch of players who were on the roster when he got there, and his recruiting momentum appears to have stalled .

All SI is doing by handing Sanders this award is underscoring the belief that in the year 2023 results in sports (or life) don't matter. And all that does matter is hype and social media traction.

Actually, now that I type that out, maybe Sports Illustrated is onto something.

*********** How can you miss them if they were never there…

Now that the merger of the XFL and USFL has been approved, we can look forward to a combined league, evidently to be called the USL.

But where there were 16 teams before, now there will be eight.

And where they played a  total of 86 games, they’ll now play 43.

It’s said that the markets being retained will be Arlington, Houston, San Antonio, St. Louis, DC, Birmingham, Michigan and Memphis.  (Hmmm.  Doesn’t look a whole lot different from the early NFL, except now they have teams in the South.  But even in 1950 - before the  days of jet travel - the NFL had teams on the West Coast.)

Of course, there’s no saying just yet whether all the teams will actually play home games in their home markets.

Play will start on March 30.

Only if it was necessary to keep spring football alive at all can this merger be considered a  good thing.

First off all, there’ll be fewer games to watch.

But even more, as one who twice endured the trauma of being out of work when a league folded, I know  that there are going to be a lot of people cut loose by the elimination of  eight teams, and that sucks.



*********** Oregon State and Washington State - the Pac Twosome - have worked out a scheduling agreement with the Mountain West, for  2024 only.

All 12 Mountain West teams will play seven conference games, plus one game  against either OSU or WSU (that won’t count in MW Conference standings).

That means that both OSU and WSU, in addition to five FBS games they’ve already scheduled, will play six games against Mountain West opponents, and one game each against an FCS team.

One hurdle surmounted.

https://themw.com/news/2023/12/01/mountain-west-announces-football-scheduling-agreement-with-oregon-state-and-washington-state/?utm_campaign=later-linkinbio-mountainwestconference&utm_content=later-39587288&utm_medium=social&utm_source=linkin.bio



*********** Hey, Duke - forget what I said about hiring Tulane’s Willie Fritz.  He's off the market. No sooner had the Green Wave lost the AAC title game to SMU than Houston, which had just let Dana Holgorsen go, snapped him up.

He’s good,  and for a football coach, you’d have to say that Houston does have a much higher upside than Duke.


***********   Hugh, I was reading the news again and I reread the part on Jimmy Carter.

I like you even though I was a college kid at the time was not a fan of Jimmy Carter as a politician. With that aside over the years I did read about his undying devotion  to his wife, children and faith. I even respect he was a Naval Academy Graduate, but  you know...Ha. Anyway you mentioned that his relationship with his wife was the same type of  relationship football coaches are blessed to have with their wives.

That struck a chord with Cielo and me. We have been married 36 years and I know to you and Connie and others I am still a rookie. It made me think way back to when Cielo and I met in the fall of 85. Of all things,  I was coaching her brother when  we met and the rest is history. So football in a sense is what brought us together.

Through the ups and downs of  marriage and a family Cielo has been there. Even remembered in 1999 when I was at Borah when we were in a playoff game and  she was pregnant with Rock and she  threw Ross and Randy in the car and drove over 2 hours to Twin Falls to be at the game.

She has been my support throughout  my career and I am blessed for that. At times my toughest critic and best support. I am blessed because through this profession I have seen a lot of marriages fail between coaches because they were not on the same team. I believe I won the lottery because even today she is my biggest support. Of course she does make me show her at times when we run the wedge. She gets a kick out of that.

Take care say hi to Connie.

Mike Foristiere
Topeka, Kansas


***********   Interesting contrast between Smith and Bray at OSU. I knew nothing about Bray, and who knows how he might turn out as a HC, but now all I can think of is looking forward to watching him bray like a mistreated mule.

Agree fully with your comments about the present state of Army football. Monken himself used the "two masters" expression, but until he proves he won't try to serve two masters, I'll claim to be from Missouri.

Coach Flynn (or is it Flinn?) got strong endorsements from your viewers and readers. I too liked hearing from him. But I'm sure you noticed he mentioned "our room". I'd like to know his views about whether these "rooms" are balkanizing influences.

John Vermillion
St. Petersburg, Florida

That will be a great question to ask him the next time I can get him on!


***********   Hugh,

I’m thinking we’ve seen the best days of big time college football, and those days are behind us.  Thanks to the free-for-all that is the transfer portal, the out-of-control financial enticements of the NIL, the conference realignment money grab, the willingness of schools paying coaches exorbitant salaries, and the increasing social/political climate infesting the media that now dictates the way the sport is presented to the public, the NCAA has descended into the same feckless governing body similar to what we experience on a daily basis with our country’s current government.  Major college football has truly become the NFL’s farm system. 

Used to be we could escape the pressures of every day life on a Saturday.  Used to be if our team(s) had a great season we could watch them be rewarded with a bowl game, and see the SAME guys playing in that game.  Not anymore. 

Guess we still have Division III and small town high schools for those of us who long for the good old days.

QUIZ:  George Atkinson (Don’t think there was a better S combo than Atkinson and Jack Tatum).

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas

I try to be positive about  football in the way I write about it, but I, too, despise what I’m seeing and I despair at the thought of how much worse things are going to get. As long as everything was under the table, I was able to delude myself into thinking I was really watching college “kids.” Now that it’s out in the open, it’s obviously a total  sham, and I just can’t go along with sham.  I’m finding the breakup of the Pac-12 is hitting me hard.  When we moved west from an area (Maryland) where college sports wasn’t a big deal, it was beyond exciting to arrive in a bed of Ducks/Beavers/Huskies/Cougars. We ate it up. The  four Northwest schools became “our” schools. Three of our kids wound up going to Pac-12 schools.  And now, just like that - poof.  Gone forever. 




*********** QUIZ ANSWER:  They called George Atkinson the Hit Man.  In his 10-year career as a defensive back with the Oakland Raiders, from 1968 to 1977, he was twice named All-AFL.

In the first game of his career he returned a punt 86 yards for a touchdown against the Buffalo Bills. In that same game, he would return a total of five punts for 205 yards.

In his career,  he intercepted 30 passes and returned them 448 yards.

And playing safety alongside Jack Tatum, he was  part of one of the most intimidating secondaries ever  to play in the NFL.

But in terms of fame, he was just one of many  tough, aggressive NFL defensive backs until a lawsuit he brought made him, for a brief time,  one of the best-known players in the NFL

In the 1975 AFC Championship game against the Steelers,  he knocked Pittsburgh receiver Lynn Swann out of the game with a concussion.  The next time the two teams met,  in the 1976 opening game, he hit Swann in the head with a forearm that knocked Swann out and gave him another  concussion. After the second incident, Steelers Coach Chuck Noll referred to him as part of a “criminal element in football.”

Author Gary Pomerantz, in his book, “Their Life’s Work,” described how it came about…

Noll, through gritted teeth, had done what he almost never did – lose control – and  it happened at a press conference one day after the Raiders’ 31-28 win over the Steelers in Oakland in the 1976 season opener. He had time to study the film of Atkinson slamming his forearm into the back of the head of the unsuspecting Lynn Swann, the two players in open space, no other player near them on the field. As the play unfolded, Bradshaw had scrambled and completed a pass to Franco Harris, who ran for a 35 yard gain. Just  as Harris caught the ball, about 15 yards away, Swann moved laterally across the middle and then slowed down, when suddenly Atkinson, measuring his man, accelerated and swung his right arm, striking Swann at the base of his helmet. Swann crumpled to the ground with a concussion, and he would miss the next two games.  No official saw Atkinson’s blow, so no penalty was called. The game was nationally televised, though, and viewers  inundated the NFL office with complaints about Atkiknson’s hit. Only eight months earlier, in the 1975 AFC title game, Atkinson had knocked Swann unconscious with another brutal strike. Noll had time to consider his words carefully this time and, in a press luncheon in Pittsburgh, expressed his outrage by saying, “You have a criminal element in every society and apparently we have it here in the NFL, too. Atkinson’s hit on Lynn Swann was with intent  to maim and not with football in mind. I'd like to see those guys thrown out of the league.”

For those words,  Atkinson sued for slander, filing a $2 million defamation lawsuit against Noll and the Steelers.

The trial, in the summer of 1977,  made  national headlines.

Despite his being represented by the future mayor of San Francisco, a guy named Willie Brown who would also be, um, “close” with a woman named Kamala Harris, a jury of four women and two men -  few of whom knew anything at all about football -  deliberated for four hours before finding that Noll had not slandered him.

The Steelers’ insurance company had urged the Rooneys, owners of the Steelers, to settle with Atkinson for $50,000 and avoid a trial, but Steelers’ President Dan Rooney refused. "We felt we had to go to court to save the game,” he said, because in his view, settling would mean that every time an NFL player was criticized he would file a lawsuit.. 

He played that one season more  and after retirement he worked as a broadcaster on Raiders’ games.

His life has been beset with tragedy.   He had twin sons with a  woman who later developed serious mental problems. The sons both played football at Notre Dame and one of them played briefly in the NFL. On Christmas day, 2018, shortly after the death of their mother from Crohn’s disease, one of the twins committed suicide.  Nearly a year later, the other  twin took his own life.



CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING GEORGE ATKINSON

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
TOM DAVIS - SAN MARCOS, CALIFORNIA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY

 


*********** QUIZ: You can thank this guy for all the face mask calls  that seem to come  right after you thought your team had just made a big stop.

He was born in 1896 in the Central Valley of California and raised in Los Angeles.  The seventh in his family of eight children,  he was a standout athlete,  just like his four older brothers, but unlike them, who had all gone to Occidental College, he chose to go to Michigan.  In a fit of hyperbole, the Los Angeles Times called his decision to end the family tradition and leave the West Coast “a calamity of almost national importance.”

At the time, rugby, not football, was played in much of California, and he had no experience at  the gridiron game.  Nevertheless, he made the Michigan freshman team and stood out in scrimmages against the varsity.

He was big and athletic, and Michigan coach Fielding Yost played him at a number of positions. In his junior year, he was moved from tackle to fullback, almost certainly costing him a spot as tackle on Walter Camp’s All-America team, but the move definitely helped the team: the Wolverines finished 8-2, losing only to Northwestern and Eastern power Penn. In addition to running the ball, he was the team’s kicker, and he accounted for 125 of the 304 points Michigan scored that season.

Following the season, he was a unanimous selection to be captain of the next year’s team, but in December following the season, with  World War I going on,  he enlisted in the “Aviation Corps.”

While he was in the service, the Michigan team went undefeated and won the national championship, and despite the fact that he didn’t play a down, his teammates still recognized him as their  captain.

After his discharge from two years in the service, with one year of eligibility remaining, he returned to Michigan as a 24-year-old senior and played despite nagging injuries.  He was graduated a member of  Phi Beta Kappa (the college world’s most prestigious honor society) and he won the Western Conference Medal (now known as the Big Ten Medal of Honor), given for combined excellence in academics and athletics.

From 1921 to 1926 he was an assistant at Michigan, coaching the line under the legendary Yost, and in 1927, with Yost now also serving as AD, he was Yost’s choice to succeed him as head coach.

It’s never easy to succeed a legend and it didn’t go well for our guy.  His first year, he finished 6-2,  but the second year was a very disappointing 3-4-1, and it became apparent in news stories that the AD - now the  former head coach - was displeased  with him.   Before the start of his third season, he was gone. To work out the remainder of his three-year contract (coaches weren’t “bought out” in those days) he was kept around and given “other duties.”

As soon as he came on the market, though, he was hired by Fritz Crisler, who had just taken the head coaching job at Minnesota after  eight years assisting Amos Alonzo Stagg at the University of Chicago.  He  coached the line for Crisler, and when Crisler left after two years at Minnesota to take the head job at Princeton, he went along as Crisler’s line coach.

In five years at Princeton, Crisler’s teams went 35-9-5, and when he left to take  the head coaching job at Michigan, our guy remained at Princeton as head coach of the Tigers.

In five years as Princeton’s head coach, his record was an unspectacular 20-18-3, but he won the games that mattered to Princeton: he beat Yale four out of five times, and became the first Princeton head coach ever to beat Yale four straight years.

In 1942, he was given a leave of absence to take a wartime position as chief of the US Army’s college physical training program, a post he remained in until his discharge.

In 1944 and 1945, he was given temporary leaves of absence by the Army to assist Columbia coach Lou Little with his offensive line,  and at his discharge in 1946, rather than return to coaching,  he accepted position as the University of Maine’s AD - in addition to also being dean of men and director of physical education.

In 1949 he hired another Michigan alum, Dave Nelson, who after serving as head coach at Hillsdale College had just spent a season as an assistant coach at Harvard.  Nelson, and his assistants, Mike Lude and Harold Westerman, would make Maine famous in  football lore as the true birthplace of  the Wing-T.  When Nelson left after two years to go to Delaware, taking Mike Lude with him, one of our guy’s last acts as Maine AD was to persuade Westerman  to   take Nelson’s place as head coach of the Black Bears.  Westerman accepted his offer, and would stay at Maine for 16 years, retiring  with a record of 80-38-7.

Our guy left Maine in August 1951, before Westerman’s first season,  to become the AD at the University of Denver.    While at Denver, he served on the NCAA football rules committee,  and  in 1957, as more players began wearing face masks - and more players began grabbing them - he led the effort to make grabbing the face mask a 15-yard penalty.  He had the sad task of having to close down  the Denver football program following the 1960 season. The Pioneers’ final game, played on Thankgiving Day, 1960, was a 21-12 win over Colorado State. 

In 1962, he retired after more than 40 years in college athletics.

His retirement didn’t last long. In 1962, he became the first full-time West Coast director of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, establishing the  the FCA's West Coast headquarters in Portland, Oregon.  In a 1963 interview with the Los Angeles Times,  he said the FCA’s aim was  to "harness hero worship" and use it to advance the cause of Christianity.

In 1947 he served as President of the American Football Coaches Association. In 1956, he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. In 1962, he received the American Football Coaches Association’s Amos Alonzo Stagg Award presented annually to to the "individual, group or institution whose services have been outstanding in the advancement of the best interests of football.”  Recipients of the award are a “Who’s-Who” of the greats in our sport.





FRIDAY, DECEMBER 1,    2023 - "The whole gospel of Karl Marx can be summed up in a single sentence: hate the man who is better off than you are.” Henry Hazlitt


*********** CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP WEEKEND…

FRIDAY NIGHT

CONFERENCE USA

NEW MEXICO STATE (10-3)  AT LIBERTY (12-0) AT LYNCHBURG, VIRGINIA -  7 PM EST
The NMSU Aggies have won eight in a row.  Watch their QB, Diego Pavia.  He looks like a fullback and he runs like one, but he can throw - he was 23 of 34 for 269 last week against Jacksonville State.   Liberty is really fun to watch - it’s the offense that put Coastal Carolina on the map -  and they can run the ball.  They ran four 441 yards and 5 TDs against UTEP last week. Liberty is favored by 10-1/2, but don’t forget that just two weeks ago the Aggies went into Auburn and beat the Tigers (who a week later were seconds away from beating Alabama.


PAC-WHATEVER

OREGON (11-1) VS WASHINGTON (12-0) AT LAS VEGAS -  8 PM EST -
In the fantasy world of people who attempt to rank teams on beauty, unbeaten Washington is ranked #4, while one-loss Oregon is ranked #6.  After all, when they met during the regular season, Washington did beat Oregon, 36-33.  But in the real world where your opinion can cost you money,  the smart guys in Vegas seem to agree with me that only Oregon coach Dan Lanning’s muleheaded insistence on twice passing up field goals cost them that game, because they’ve got Oregon favored by 9-1/2 points.  I do think that Oregon is the better-rounded team, and since the last meeting they’ve played much better ball than Washington, but I’d take the points. For sure, the pressure is on Oregon not just to win, but to leave no doubt, because otherwise there are plenty of other one-loss teams with convincing arguments to be in the Playoff. If Washington wins, the Huskies are in.

SATURDAY - IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE

BIG 12

OKLAHOMA STATE  (9-3) VS TEXAS (11-1)  AT ARLINGTON, TEXAS - NOON EST
Texas  has lost only to Oklahoma - at the end of the game - and has a BIG win over Alabama  on its record.  Should one of the other currently unbeaten teams lose this weekend - and Texas win this one convincingly -  the Longhorns will have a strong claim to a spot in the Playoff.  How do you figure Oklahoma State?  They beat the Sooners, but a few weeks ago they got killed by UCF, 45-3, and way back in September they lost 33-7 to - get ready for this - South Alabama.

MAC

MIAMI, OHIO (10-2) VS TOLEDO (11-1) AT DETROIT - NOON EST
The Toledo Rockets are 7-1/2 point favorites. Without that loss to Illinois by a last-second  field goal in the opening game, Toledo would be unbeaten. Toledo has sent some  good coaches to bigger programs, and  current head coach Jason Candle has been mentioned as a candidate for several jobs.  When they met back in October, Toledo won, 21-17.

MOUNTAIN WEST

BOISE STATE (7-5) VS UNLV (9-3)  AT LAS VEGAS - 3 PM EST 
The two teams finished in a three-way tie for first place and the third team - San Jose State - was eliminated by some sort of “algorithm.” (I have no idea what that means.) They did not meet in the regular season.  Boise State is favored by 2-1/2.  Common foe: In the last two weeks, they’ve taken  turns beating Air Force. First it was UNLV winning, 31-17, then Boise winning, 27-19.

SEC

GEORGIA (12-0) VS ALABAMA (11-1) AT ATLANTA - 4 PM EST
Georgia is favored by 6-1/2.  Can Alabama, a one-loss team that was mere seconds away from losing to Auburn actually wind up in  the Playoff?  You could get to see it.  I’ll admit to not having watched much of Georgia, but I have seen a fair amount of Alabama, and I like their QB, Jalen Milroe. Georgia hasn’t been pressed - unless you call trailing  South Carolina at the half, 14-3 or being tied at halftime with Missouri, 7-7, being pressed.

AAC

SMU  (10-2) VS TULANE (11-1)  AT NEW ORLEANS     4 PM EST
Tulane is favored by 3-1/2.   It’s possible that the winner of this game gets the Group of 5 spor in the New Year’s six games.  SMU QB Preston Stone had to leave last week’s Navy game after being sacked and breaking his leg (he had 271 yards passing - in the first quarter). He’ll be replaced by redshirt freshman Kevin Jennings.  The Green Wave’s Makhi Hughes ought to be good for 100 yards rushing.

SUN BELT

APPALACHIAN STATE (8-4) VS TROY (10-2) AT TROY, ALABAMA -  4 PM EST
Troy is favored by 5-1/2.  I haven’t seen App State since they lost to North Carolina (in 2 OTs), and I haven’t seen Troy since they beat Army, 19-0.  That North Carolina team was  good at that time; the Army team wasn’t.  Troy has lost only to Kansas State and James Madison (by two points)

BIG TEN

MICHIGAN (12-0)  VS IOWA  (10-2)  AT INDIANAPOLIS  8 PM EST
Michigan is favored by 22-1/2.  Can Michigan even score that many points? How many points will they need?  One of Iowa’s losses was a 31-0 drubbing by Penn State, back in September,  but the other was a 12-10 loss to Minnesota (when the Hawkeyes had a  last-minute touchdown called back on a very controversial penalty for an illegal fair catch signal.) Other than Penn State, 16 points is the most they've given up in any game. Michigan, on the other hand,  has scored less than 30 points just once, when they beat Penn State 24-15.

ACC

LOUISVILLE (10-2) VS FLORIDA STATE (12-0) AT    CHARLOTTE       8 PM EST
FSU is favored by 2-1/2.  Louisville is definitely good enough to win this, but when the Kentucky Wildcats - only 3-5 in SEC competition - came from behind to beat Louisville last week, it meant that Louisville now has no  chance at the Playoff.   It also means that just a narrow win by Florida State could keep the Seminoles out. They can't can’t afford to slip by the Cardinals.



***********   THIS IS A REPEAT

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Perris Jones, the University of Virginia running back who was injured during the Nov. 9 game at L&N Federal Credit Union Stadium is now out of the University of Louisville hospital, but will stay in Louisville for rehab.

Jones was carted off the field after taking a hit from multiple Cardinals that knocked the ball loose. That play resulted in a touchdown for Jones’ team as his teammate Malik Washington recovered the fumble and sprinted into the end zone to give the Cavaliers the lead.

The celebration was short-lived, however, as Jones didn’t get up.
The sixth-year back was taken to the University of Louisville Hospital where he has remained. That is, until Friday when he left the hospital and now heads to Frazier Rehab, the UVA football team posted on social media.

He will be there several weeks for rehab.

Hey, guys - this kid is facing a long rehab and he could use some encouragement.  Let him know you’re thinking of him with a note or a card:

Perris Williams
C/O UVA Football
290 Massie Rd
Charlottesville VA 22903



***********  For the second Friday night in a row I watched Riverheads, a small high school near Staunton (pronounced “STAN-ton”) Virginia, represent Double Wingers everywhere.

As I mentioned last week, Riverheads has won ten state titles and - get this - the last SEVEN STRAIGHT  (2016-2022).   Since the 2009, they’ve failed to win 10 games or more in a season just once. (They were 8-2 in 2012.)  They’re going for their eighth in a row.

They went into  Friday night’s game against Central Woodstock with an 11-1 record.  (Their only loss was in their opening game which they lost 8-7 - to the same Central Woodstock.)

This game was no contest.  Riverheads jumped out to a  20-6 halftime lead and won going away, 41-14.

Their next game - a state semifinal game - is at home against Poquoson  at 2 PM (EST) Saturday. 


*********** On Tuesday night’s Zoom clinic, I was able to get Brian Flinn, wide receivers coach at Princeton, to come on and talk a bit about coaching in the Ivy League in general, at Princeton in particular, and receivers specifically. Since then, I’ve received a lot of nice feedback from coaches.

Coach Flinn and I have known each other for some time, going back in the days of in-person clinics, when he was wide receivers coach at Villanova, and he presented at a couple of my Philly clinics.

When I got the crazy idea of incorporating some of my old run-and-shoot stuff  with the line play of the Double Wing (which resulted in the Open Wing), he was a tremendous help to me. Where he was of most help was with the blocking of the wide receivers, because when I last employed wide receivers, it was in the days before they could use their hands.

As anyone who  works with receivers knows:

1. They want to catch passes and they don’t all enjoy blocking so you really have to work at it.
2. If your receivers can’t block, you won’t have nearly as good a running game as you could.
3. If you don’t teach them properly, you’ll have a lot of long plays called back because a receiver was holding.

To hear Coach Flinn: 
https://vimeo.com/user174754949/139?share=copy


*********** The water’s already gone under the bridge - Mike Elko’s left Duke for Texas A & M. And, sadly, he left without exhibiting even the slightest bit of courtesy to his former players, who entrusted him with a couple years of their lives,  or to his employer, who  took a chance on him, a guy who’d never been a head coach before.

So  for Coach Elko - or any other coach who has to pull up stakes and move on - I submit this form letter for future use.

Fellas,

One thing I’ve stressed from Day One is that whatever we do that’s worth doing,  we should reach for the stars.

We should do that in every aspect of our lives. We should try to be the very best at whatever we’re doing. We should set goals for our lives, and we should aspire to do great things, whether we’re doctors, lawyers, teachers, clergymen.  Or coaches.

One of my goals when I decided to become a coach was to one day be recognized as one of the best in my profession.  I’ve been blessed to be able to coach here at Duke, but I now find myself in the position where if I’m to reach the goals I’ve set for myself, to be considered the best in my profession, I’m going to have to coach a national championship team.

When you look at how few teams have actually won a national title in the last 10 or 20 years, you know that there are only a few places where a coach can achieve that goal.

It just so happens that  an opportunity at such a place has been offered me, and I’ve accepted the offer.

There’s no easy way to tell you this, but there is a right way.  And that’s why I'm here.  The right way is to tell you - face to face, man to man -  before anyone else, including the news media.

One of the toughest responsibilities of being a coach is having to be honest with people at all times, even if it means  sometimes having to tell them something that’s unpleasant for them.

It doesn’t mean that I never loved you and cared about you.  You’ve been like family to me  and I appreciate the trust you put in me. My leaving you doesn’t mean I don’t love you guys and that I won’t continue to love you.

You’re great people and you have the makings of greatness in your lives.

I’m going to  Texas A & M.  I worked there before I came here.  I know you’ve heard about how much money they’re going to have to pay their last coach, and I’ll be frank with you - I’m going to be paid well.

But I was paid well here at Duke, too. The truth is, though, I’d have coached you guys for minimum wage.

I’m going because, as I told you, for me it’s about the chance to pursue my dream.

I know that sounds selfish, but I didn’t accomplish  this by myself.  It was all made possible through the efforts of the men in this room, and for the part that you’ve played in the opportunity I’ve received, I will forever be grateful.

I’ll never forget you, and no matter where I go, no matter where you go, I hope you’ll always think of me as your coach, and when you’re married  and you have kids of your own, I hope you’ll bring them  to meet your old coach.

*********** I’ve heard a number of names posed as potential Duke hires, but I think that the people at Duke are nuts if they’re not making a run at Tulane’s Willie Fritz. Don’t get me wrong - if he wants to stay at Tulane, that’s great, because those folks deserve to enjoy some good football. But I’m a Duke dad, and if he goes anywhere other than Tulane, I want it to be Duke.

Why would he be great?

1. He’s won everywhere he’s been, including Tulane, where winning’s not easy.

2. Tulane is very much like Duke - private school, good academics, kids actually have to go to class.

3. He is 63 years old.  He’ll stay.  He’s not going to leave for another job.

4. The AD who hired him is now at Washington.  I’ve heard that  the person Coach Fritz preferred to replace him was not the one they hired.

One thing that might stand in the way is his well-known reluctance to make any decision until after a bowl game.  But he’s worth waiting for.



*********** Marshall, which finished 87th in overall offense, has almost completely cleaned house on that side of the ball.  On Sunday morning, they fired their offensive coordinator , their wide receivers coach and their offensive line coach. (I guess the running backs coach must be the head coach’s brother-in-law.)


***********  How cool is this???

Coach,

Some great T/WingT/DBL wing football was found in the small school finals in Michigan this week!   Fun to watch!  My old school Whiteford got beat in the finals but had a great run over last two years.  Coach Todd Thieken and the rest of the staff have done a brilliant job with a great group of young people!  Very exciting to cheer on for me...

God Bless,

Jason Mensing  
Head Football Coach
John Glenn High School
Westland, Michigan


Hi Coach,

I'm watching UBLY vs Whiteford play for a Michigan State Title. One running the wing while the other in a full T backfield. I must be in Heaven!

Only 6  total passes in the 1st half combined!

Best,

Mike Norlock
Atascadero, California



*********** Oregon State, with the transfer portal opening in a couple of days, very hastily named defensive coordinator Trent Bray to be  the Beavers’ head coach, replacing Jonathan Smith, who left - hastily - for Michigan State.

Evidently it was an easy call.  Bray is an Oregon State guy and his hiring as DC made a huge difference in the Beavers’ performance the last couple of years.

Unlike Smith, whose game demeanor is absolutely expressionless, Bray is a bit more emotional.

John Canzano told how the difference in the coaches’ game conduct fooled photgraphers who didn’t know them:

During the 2023 football season, I asked the photographers if they could get more photos of Jonathan Smith, Oregon State’s head football coach. I figured I might need them this offseason. The photographers who worked in the Pacific Northwest sent a stream of photos of Smith throughout the season. But the ones who worked in Colorado, Arizona and Utah did something else.

It was peculiar.

I’d asked them to photograph OSU’s head coach.

A couple of them sent photos of Trent Bray.

They didn’t know what Smith looked like. They showed up to games, observed Bray’s demeanor on the sideline, his pacing during games, his stern expression, and the way players responded to him. More than one of them mistakenly believed Bray — not Smith — was the OSU head coach.

*********** In a story about people who’d been interviewed for the Oregon State job, John Canzano wrote about the short list that OSU AD Scott Barnes was working with…

He added Air Force coach Troy Calhoun and Maryland offensive coordinator Josh Gattis into the mix.

Calhoun has Oregon roots, but runs the triple-option offense.

Triple-option offense? Omigod. Next they’ll tell us he kills puppies.


*********** Could it really be true that Air Force’s Troy Calhoun put his name in for the Oregon State job?  After starting out 8-0 and then (starting with a 23-3 shellacking by Army) losing four straight, could he be getting some heat from higher-ups?


*********** One of the more interesting recent hires has been Bobby Petrino as offensive coordinator at Arkansas.  Arkansas, did you say?  Bobby Petrino?  Wasn’t he fired from there a few years ago for dilly-dallying with someone on the  staff - someone he himself hired - and then lying about the whole deal to his  superiors?

Well, yes.

But we’re taking football here.

And if anybody knows what it takes to win at Arkansas, it’s Bobby Petrino.

Arkansas has won 10 or more games just three times since 1989 - and he was responsible for two of those times. In his last two years on the job there, 2010 and 2011, he took the Hogs to 10-2 and 11-3 seasons. His very last game was a 29-16 Cotton Bowl win over Kansas State.

The Number 5 ranking of that 2011 team was the highest for any Arkansas team in 34 years - since Lou Holtz’ 1977 Razorbacks finished third in the country.

Adding him might save Sam Pittman’s job - he’s been given one year to win -  but on the other hand, there is sure  to be  a contingent of people in Fayetteville that will see him as Sam’s instant  replacement.

I have no idea what kind of person Bobby Petrino is,  other than this:  he once met in secret with Auburn boosters  while he was the head coach at Louisville and Auburn still had a coach - Tommy Tuberville - who hadn’t the slightest idea that such chicanery was taking place. Actually, come to think of it, I do know what kind of person Bobby Petrino is.

Watch your back, Sam.


***********  Josh Montgomery, whose town of Berwick  is deep in the heart of South Louisiana’s Cajun Country, commented on my mention of the P-A announcer in Colorado who decided to make himself part of the game

That place sounds like Erath, Louisiana.  P-A guy when they were in our district was a cheerleader and would not STFU.  So imagine everything you mentioned in a coonass voice.


***********   San Diego State needed a new coach,  so they went out and hired a guy who’d just been fired as offensive coordinator at his current school. 

That’s not entirely correct.  Sean Lewis, whom they hired, wasn’t exactly fired. He had been the OC at Colorado, working under the legendary Deion Prime, until being relieved of his play-calling duties three games ago.

Out-of-work  coaches  who had been flocking to Alabama to restore  their careers  working with Nick Saban might find the process even quicker at Colorado.  A year ago, Sean Lewis was head coach at Kent State, and now he’s the head at San Diego State, a definite step up in anyone’s book.  If just nine games working under Deion can get you a head job at a San Diego State, imagine what a whole season could do.


*********** Imagine what life was like for Sean Lewis as  offensive coordinator for Deion Prime -  constantly being handed notes from the head coach between plays, all saying the same thing: PASS THE BALL!



*********** The latest FCS team to make the move up to FBS is Delaware, which will begin play in Conference USA in 2025.  (Kennesaw State  will begin play in C-USA next year.)

At the present time, Delaware is 9-3 on the season, having finished the regular season 8-3 and defeated Patriot League  champion Lafayette in the first round of the FCS Playoffs. This Saturday, they play at Montana, the overall second seed.

The move up is going to be costly.  Partly to discourage teams from moving up until they’re financially ready, the NCAA increased the cost of applying, from $5,000 to $5 million.

Costs for Delaware to exit their current conference and also to enter C-USA will add another $1 million.

Nevertheless, they’re excited and ready to go.

First of all, being a small state, they look forward to increased exposure.

They also look forward to receiving some TV revenue. More, certainly, than they now receive as an FCS school.

With an athletics department budget that’s already $48 million, they estimate that the move up will only result in a  10 per cent increase.

They’ll continue to compete in the Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) through 2024-25, and  all sports except football will compete for conference championships and NCAA postseason play.

Beginning in 2025, they’ll compete in Conference USA in baseball, men’s and women’s basketball, cross country, football, men’s and women’s golf, women’s soccer, softball, men’s and women’s tennis, track and field, and volleyball.

For basketball, C-USA will be  a definite upgrade.

In football, because FBS membership will permit them to have 85 scholarship players (compared to 63 for FCS)  when they play FCS opponents, they will agree to have only 63 scholarship players dressed.

Recruiting should be no problem at all.  A very short distance to the East is the Philadelphia area and just beyond is North Jersey;  to the north is Central Pennsylvania and the Lehigh Valley;  to the southwest is the Baltimore area, and just a little bit beyond is the huge Maryland-DC-Northern Virginia area.

Delaware  has a nice-size  stadium and good facilities and it draws well - for FCS. In 2022 it finished sixth among FCS schools with an average attendance of 16,902.  But 16,902 is a long way from solvency when you’re traveling to places like  Las Cruces, New Mexico and El Paso.

They did their homework, talking with people at schools  that have made the move already, especially James Madison, once a big FCS rival of the Blue Hens.

The biggest negative? C-USA plays weeknight football games in October.  They get the schools national TV exposure, but they’re not  universally popular with fans.


*********** Coach Tom Walls, from Winnipeg, sent me a copy of his team’s “highlight” video, which to be honest was anything but the usual assemblage of clips of great plays, accompanied by music that only a teenager could love. Instead, it was, as Tom says, more like a photo album, showing clips shot during the winter, spring and summer as well as during the season - on and off the field, and often behind the scenes - of things that the kids experienced as part of the team. 

I told him that I thought that it was great - something that kids would long remember. I also thought it would be a great recruitment tool, to show parents - moms especially - with no idea of the many ways that football can benefit their sons.

I also told him how much I appreciated clips from his team’s post-season “bowl” game.  Which gives more meaning to playing football for fun -  playing a post-season game matched up against an opponent of comparable strength and ability,  or the insane, winner-takes-all, loser-goes-home mentality of playoffs?

Tom wrote back…

Thanks Coach,

Your opinion is valuable to me.

The video is a long but enjoyable process. It's similar to putting together a photo album (remember those?) and yes, parents are my target audience.

A mid-level bowl game has been a great idea for our league. The kids don't remember that they were playing for 7/8 out of 32. They just think they are "champions" . Way better for morale.

Delaware has been eye balling that move for years. The old justification was that they didn't have a stadium that met capacity minimums. They expanded Tubby Raymond three years ago. Seems to me that they need to figure out how to keep a quality head coach first.

I also meant to mention that I was listening to a podcast the other day about a man who was suffering from terminal dementia and both he and his wife were looking for legal euthanasia. The reason I bring this up, is because he was an elite player at Yale who had Heisman winners in his family. He mentions almost quitting the team because he didn't get much playing time. They quoted Carm Cozza as saying, "You will get more playing time when you have earned it and not a moment sooner."

Any idea who this was?

I have no idea who that might be.  I can’t be sure how the man felt about Coach Cozza, but while it It does sound a bit short on the coach’s part, he did have a reputation for being completely frank and honest, so it does make some sense.  Overall, though, he was a warm and caring person, and much loved by his players.  No coach, of course, can be successful, as Coach Cozza was,  for a long stretch of time  without having somebody think that he was an SOB but I can say that those who might say that about Coach Cozza are few and far between.


***********   I still do not understand what Army was doing with their offense this year. Seemed weird to me that they brought in two "modern offense" coaches to basically run SW plays with the QB. They advertised that they would run RPOs, the modern triple option, but did they, really? They wanted to get away from the Flexbone which turns out was actually more creative and flexible than what they tried to do. If they went the way of Jamey Chadwell's shotgun option attack (or something similar such as what New Mexico ran with Bob Davie) then that would've made more sense I think. In both cases it made the QB take a lot of hits. I could see this being the reason to move away from option football -- the academies often go through a lot QBs due to injury. In recent years Army seemed to run more Wing-T than option which could've been a way to reduce QB hits which I could understand. The whole thing seems strange, doesn't it?

Adam Wesoloski
Pulaski, Wisconsin

It is very weird and it runs counter to anything I’ve been exposed to.  Typically, a  coach is reluctant to drop what’s made him successful - at least not without making every effort to make things work.  Find a way or make one, right? But for Coach Monken - a very good coach -  to appear to  just throw his hands up and cave - “well,  that’s that - can’t run option anymore” - defies belief.

For sure, there is absolutely no way that Army would ever be able to run the stuff that Chadwell runs, or New Mexico (actually a guy named Bob DeBesse) ran. Forget it.

I have theorized that  the AD, having trouble scheduling and wanting badly to get into a conference, knew that coaches in any conference would fight hard against adding a triple option team, so he made a deal with the coach: agree to change your offense (so I can get us into a conference) and I’ll get you a contract extension.

Fact: The coach changed the offense, using the excuse that rules changes made staying with the under center/triple option “not sustainable.” (I’m bothered by the inescapable conclusion that this was government-grade spin on the level of dishonesty.)

Fact: Army got into the AAC

Fact: The coach got his extension

The last game out, Army, running the under center/triple option, looked like Army again.

Q. Will Army now stay with  the Triple option? I hope so.  It’s part of the brand.

Q. Will Army go back to the super-duper-shotgun that laid such an egg? I doubt it.

Q. Will Army try to go back and forth between the two, serving two masters? Lord, I hope not.


********** Hi Coach! Hope all is well with you and your loved ones.

I am thankful for YOU!...and the many years of wisdom you have shared, and of your insights. It has been a great "book" you have written so far, and I just want to thank you!

I like Gus Johnson. His call on a completed pass play @ the quarterback cracked me up! (OSU/UM) Of the completed pass, he said of the quarterback; "He put the BIScuit in the BASKet"!

Now, who says that stuff? LOL!

Tracy Ham is the quiz answer this week, but I can't find the reference to his name for Paul Johnson's offense.... was it the "Tracy Triple Option"?

Best wishes and kindest regards, coach!

John Rothwell, DC
Corpus Christi, Texas



***********   Great clinic Coach. Thank you so much for reposting it for us class skippers. But I do have a pass and a letter from parents. As always great presentation. I did enjoy the guest coach and I believe if memory serves me right I’ve heard him before in a Philly clinic. I used to love those. Specially leaving the hotel and seeing you and Connie in the rear view mirror going out for your walk.

Great times. Thanks again.

Hello to both and GO HUSKIES !!

Armando Castro
Richmond, Virginia


***********  Coach Wyatt,

Great to be on the zoom meeting last night. Wonderful group of men. Really appreciated Coach Flynn taking the time to provide insight on Ivy League Football, thank you for inviting him.

Scott Mallien
Green Bay, Wisconsin


*********** Hugh,

Please have coach Flinn back again. I  enjoyed everything that he had to say.

I thought that you did a fantastic job of asking insightful questions about Princeton football and the Ivy League way on doing things.

Well done by you both. The hour went by so fast.

Take care and I will see you at the next meeting.

David Crump
Owensboro, Kentucky

Thanks, David - I appreciate and value your opinion.


***********   Thor Griffin, he of the wimpy name. Just because his name is Thor, I'm pulling for him.

How belittling it is to listen to CFB coaches begging their collectives for more NIL money. In fact, I couldn't suck up to some high schooler who's barely hiding his sneer. Some days I think they deserve respect for swimming in the cesspool of big-time collage sports, but other days I ask myself whether there are any unwilling to debase themselves to rope in a recruit they might have for a season.

Glad someone finally brought up "the rooms." I've had your thought that the reason for the huge building costs is to construct 48 rooms for 80 players. Wouldn't surprise me to find out quite a few guys can't name some fellow players. That fragmentation is not good.

John Vermillion            
St. Petersburg, Florida


***********   Hugh,

Good Things; Bad Things

Iowa's defense - Good Thing.  Iowa's  Offense - Bad Thing.  Iowa facing Michigan in Big 10 Championship -  Really Bad Thing.
Minnesota QB Athan Kaliakmanis goes in the portal - Good Thing.  Gophers 5-7 record gets them a bowl game vs former Gopher HC Jerry Kill's New Mexico State Aggies - Bad Thing.
Jerry Kill's New Mexico State Aggies bowl eligible - Good Thing.  No Bad Things.
Notre Dame likely landing place for Duke QB Riley Leonard - Good Thing.  Duke QB Riley Leonard in the portal - Bad Thing.
Army gets its old offense back - Good Thing.  Army gets its offense back in time for the Army-Navy game - Bad Thing for Navy.
Fresno State qualifies for some bowl game - Good Thing.  Fresno State loses 3 straight MWC games - Bad Thing.
Alabama survives Auburn - Good Thing.  Auburn loss to Alabama - Bad Thing for Tiger recruiting.
Oregon State coach Jonathan Smith gets a future and lots of money - Good Thing.  Oregon State loses coach Jonathan Smith and its future with little money - Bad Thing.
Duke football coach Mike Elko gets a future at Texas A&M and more money than we give to Iran - Good Thing for him.  Duke football loses coach Mike Elko - Bad Thing all around.
Cal beats Stanford in the Big Game to be bowl eligible - Good Thing.  Cal students could care less - Bad Thing.
Michigan storms past Ohio State for third straight year - Good Thing.  Meanwhile Michigan students storm the administration building in support of the Hamas terrorists - Bad Thing.  VERY BAD Thing.


Have a great week!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texa


 

***********   QUIZ ANSWER:  At the start of his freshman year, before he’d even played a down of high school football,  Tracy Ham’s  coach told him he was going to be playing quarterback.  But, he told the coach,  he didn’t want to play quarterback - he wanted to play corner and wide receiver.  Then, as he recounted later, the coach said,  “Okay, then,  let me have your gear. You don't want to do what's best for the team, so we can't use you. You're not a team player.”  And that’s when he decided he was a quarterback.

It was a good move.  He was an outstanding quarterback at Santa Fe High - outside Gainesville, Florida.  He grew up a Florida Gator fan, but because of his lack of size (he was 5-10)  and the fact that he wasn’t a drop back  quarterback, Florida, like other big schools, wasn’t interested in him as a  quarterback.  Florida instead offered him a chance to walk on as a corner, but by now,  he recalled later, “I was a  quarterback.” 

So he signed to play quarterback - with a small school that barely had a football team. 

It was Division I-AA (now FCS) Georgia Southern, which had just finished its first season of football in 41 years, after dropping it at the outbreak of World War II.

Once Georgia Southern head coach Erk Russell realized what kind of talent our guy had, he decided to promote his defensive line coach - a guy named Paul Johnson - to  offensive coordinator so that he could run his innovative spread/triple option offense with our guy at the controls.  And in our guy’s two years of running it, the Georgia Southern Eagles  would win back-to-back national championships.

In 1985 - Johnson’s (and our guy’s) first year running Johnson’s “flexbone” offense - Georgia Southern went 13-2 and won  the NCAA D-IAA national championship.  Our guy rushed for 1001 yards and 11 touchdowns, and passed for 2194 yards and 15 touchdowns.  In the title game, he accounted for 509 yards in total offense (419 yards and  four TDs passing) and led a Georgia Southern comeback  from 22 points down to beat Furman, 44-42.

The next year (his senior season) the Eagles would win another national championship, again  going 13-2.   Our  guy rushed for 1709 yards and 26 touchdowns, and threw for 2495 yards and 13 touchdowns.  In the title game against Arkansas State,  he  rushed  for 180 yards and three touchdowns,  and passed for 306 yards and one touchdown.

He was an All-American his senior year.

In his career at Georgia Southern , he  threw for 7,585 yards and ran for 4622 yards and  accounted for 102 touchdowns.

He became the  first player in college football history with more than 3,000 yards rushing and  5,000 yards passing in a career.

He  was drafted by the Los Angeles Rams in the ninth round (240th pick overall), and  when the Rams made it known they intended to convert him to  running back,  he headed north to the CFL, for the same reason he went to Georgia Southern -  to play quarterback.

Joining Edmonton in 1987,  he took over as over as their starter in 1988.  In all, he played 13 seasons in the CFL, with the Edmonton Eskimos, Toronto Argonauts, Baltimore Stallions and Montreal Alouettes.

In 1989 he won the league’s Most Outstanding Player Award, and in 1995 he was the Grey Cup MVP.  He played on two Grey Cup championship teams (Edmonton in 1987 and Baltimore in 1995).
 
When he retired, he was in the top ten among CFL  quarterbacks in both passing yards (40,534) and rushing yards (8043). 

In 2007 he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame, and in 2010 into the CFL Hall of Fame.

And while he may have been running Paul Johnson’s offense at Georgia Southern,  he did it with such excellence and flair that while he was running it, it was named for him - the HAMBONE.

CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING TRACY HAM

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
BRAD KNIGHT - CLARINDA, IOWA
JOHN ROTHWELL - CORPUS CHRISTI, TEXAS
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
DENNIS METZGER - RICHMOND, INDIANA
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY

 


*********** QUIZ:  They called him the Hit Man.  In his 10-year career as a defensive back with the Oakland Raiders, from 1968 to 1977, he was twice named All-AFL.

In the first game of his career he returned a punt 86 yards for a touchdown against the Buffalo Bills. In that same game, he would return a total of five punts for 205 yards.

In his career,  he intercepted 30 passes and returned them 448 yards.

And playing safety alongside Jack Tatum, he was  part of one of the most intimidating secondaries ever  to play in the NFL.

But in terms of fame, he was just one of many  tough, aggressive NFL defensive backs until a lawsuit he brought made him, for a brief time,  one of the best-known splayers in the NFL

In the 1975 AFC Championship game against the Steelers,  he knocked Pittsburgh receiver Lynn Swann out of the game with a concussion.  The next time the two teams met,  in the 1976 opening game, he hit Swann in the head with a forearm that knocked Swann out and gave him another  concussion. After the second incident, Steelers Coach Chuck Noll referred to him as part of a “criminal element in football.”

Author Gary Pomerantz, in his book, “Their Life’s Work,” described how it came about…

Noll, through gritted teeth, had done what he almost never did – lose control – and  it happened at a press conference one day after the Raiders’ 31-28 win over the Steelers in Oakland in the 1976 season opener. He had time to study the film of (——) slamming his forearm into the back of the head of the unsuspecting Lynn Swann, the two players in open space, no other player near them on the field. As the play unfolded, Bradshaw had scrambled and completed a pass to Franco Harris, who ran for a 35 yard gain. Just  as Harris caught the ball, about 15 yards away, Swann moved laterally across the middle and then slowed down, when suddenly (——), measuring his man, accelerated and swung his right arm, striking Swann at the base of his helmet. Swann crumpled to the ground with a concussion, and he would miss the next two games.  No official saw (——)’s blow, so no penalty was called. The game was nationally televised, though, and viewers  inundated the NFL office with complaints about (——)’s hit. Only eight months earlier, in the 1975 AFC title game, (——) had knocked Swann unconscious with another brutal strike. Noll had time to consider his words carefully this time and, in a press luncheon in Pittsburgh, expressed his outrage by saying, “You have a criminal element in every society and apparently we have it here in the NFL, too. (——)’s hit on Lynn Swann was with intent  to maim and not with football in mind. I'd like to see those guys thrown out of the league.”

For those words,  (——) sued for slander, filing a $2 million defamation lawsuit against Noll and the Steelers.

The trial, in the summer of 1977,  made  national headlines.

Despite his being represented by the future mayor of San Francisco, a guy named Willie Brown who would also be, um, “close” with a woman named Kamala Harris, a jury of four women and two men -  few of whom knew anything at all about football -  deliberated for four hours before finding that Noll had not slandered him.

The Steelers’ insurance company had urged the Rooneys, owners of the Steelers, to settle with (——) for $50,000 and avoid a trial, but Steelers’ President Dan Rooney refused. "We felt we had to go to court to save the game,” he said, because in his view, settling would mean that every time an NFL player was criticized he would file a lawsuit.. 

He played that one season more  and after retirement he worked as a broadcaster on Raiders’ games.

His life has been beset with tragedy.   He had twin sons with a  woman who later developed serious mental problems. The sons both played football at Notre Dame and one of them played briefly in the NFL. On Christmas day, 2018, shortly after the death of their mother from Crohn’s disease, one of the twins committed suicide.  Nearly a year later, the other  twin took his own life.






TUESDAY, NOVEMBER  28,    2023 - "The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him." -G. K. Chesterton


*********** I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  I suppose I should feel sorry for those who choose not to celebrate it,  but it’s their choice.  Of course,  it was also their choice to come to this awful country with its stupid traditions like Thanksgiving, and I have to ask - why?



*********** QUICK TAKES ON (SOME OF) THE GAMES…

THURSDAY

OLE MISS 17, MISSISSIPPI STATE 7 - About as expected

FRIDAY

IOWA 13, NEBRASKA 10   - Talk about weird endings. Within seconds, the two teams, headed for overtime,  took turns throwing interceptions. Nebraska threw last, which meant that  Iowa got to kick the winning field goal at 0:00.  Nebraska - I find this hard to believe but I swear I heard it - has gone longer without going to a bowl game than any other Power 5 school.

BOISE STATE 27, AIR FORCE 19 - With a spot in the Mountain West title game on the line, Air Force started a sophomore, John Busha, at QB against Boise State.  It was Busha’s first start, and while he didn’t do a terrible job passing the ball (by Air Force standards at least) - 8 of 17 for 131 yards - he added nothing to their running game, and as a result, the Falcons managed just 206 yards on the ground and lost to the Broncos.

MISSOURI 48, ARKANSAS 14 - Mizzou, with RB Cody Schrader, QB Brady Cook and WR Luther Burden, is a lot of fun to watch.

OREGON 31, OREGON STATE 7 - This was the ass-kicking that I predicted it would be. Before they even realized the game was under way, the Beavers were down two scores, and they had to turn the offense over to DJ Uiagalelei, who just wasn’t up to the job.  Bo Nix, for those  of you in the East who didn't stay up to watch, and for those of you who give a sh-- about the Heisman (I don't) put on a Heisman performance.

SATURDAY

MICHIGAN 30, OHIO STATE 24 - It was a good game but not a great game.  In a great game, the lead changes hands a few times.  Hey, Ohio State people who want Ryan Day fired: (1) Do you think whoever replaces him will go 40-0 against all Big Ten teams other than Michigan? (2) Do you realize that Harbaugh lost FIVE STRAIGHT to you guys and Michigan didn’t fire him?  Grow up.  Appreciate what you have. That’s from me, a fan of Army  with kids and grandkids who went to Duke, Elon, Stanford, Vanderbilt, Villanova, Wake Forest  and Washington State.

LSU 42, TEXAS A & M 30 - Pretty good game.  Daniels is good, that’s for sure.  But three losses?

KENTUCKY 38, LOUSVILLE 31 - Louisville still had an outside shot at a playoff spot. Kentucky had lost some tough ones and had to deal with rumors that its coach might be leaving. And when the Cards pulled ahead 24-14 with 2:48 left in the third they seemed in control. But UK’s Ray Davis - as exciting a runner as you’ll see -  scored three TDs in the time remaining, including a 37-yard run for the winner with 1:02 on the clock.

DUKE 30, PITT 19 - Good season, good job of coaching.  It would have been nice if Mike Elko could have shown some class in his departure, but he’s going to be paid a king’s ransom, and he’s going to earn every nickel of it.

SMU 59, NAVY 14 - I know that Navy will bring everything it has to the Army-Navy game next week, but they really looked awful against SMU.  The Mustangs had 300 yards of offense in the FIRST QUARTER.

SYRACUSE 35, WAKE FOREST 31 - So Wake stays home at bowl time, and Syracuse, under an interim coach, goes bowling.

UTAH 23, COLORADO 17 - An unbelievably  banged-up Utah team playing its number three QB was still able to beat Colorado, playing without Shedeur Sanders. NOW we’ll see if there’s anything of coaching  substance in  this self-styled “Coach” Prime.

SAN JOSE STATE 37, UNLV 31 - Just when UNLV was starting to look like the clear class of the Mountain  West, the Spartans have to go and upset the Rebels and create a three-way tie for first place that had to be resolved by computer.

ARIZONA 59, ARIZONA STATE 23 - Arizona’s redshirt freshman QB, Noah Fifita, was 30 of 41 for 527 yards and 4 TDs. The Wildcats (9-3) lost three games - to Mississippi State in OT, to Washington by 7 and to USC by 3.  They were actually really good the whole time and I kept thinking they were sneaking up on people.

OKLAHOMA STATE 40, BYU 34 (2 OTS) - The Cowboys, with a spot in the conference title game at stake, nearly blew it.  The Cougars, meanwhile, for the second week in a  row gave an Oklahoma team more than it wanted.

TENNESSEE 48, VANDERBILT 24 - Ahead 45-24  with under a minute to play, Tennessee took a shot at the end zone before settling for a  field  goal.  Classy, Vols.

WISCONSIN 28, MINNESOTA 14 - The Badgers win Paul Bunyan’s axe.  The Gophers miss out on a bowl.

VIRGINIA TECH 55, VIRGINIA 17 - Tech looked like the Virginia Tech of old.  Virginia looked like the Virginia of most years.

WASHINGTON 24, WASHINGTON  STATE 21 - The Huskies keep getting tested - and they keep escaping.  If you didn’t see the play they ran  on  4th and one with a little over a minute to play, tune in to my ZOOM  this week.  Really creative.

FLORIDA STATE 24, FLORIDA 15 - The Gators jumped out to an early lead, but they found ways to piss it away, including a player ejection for spitting on an opponent. (Where do they FIND people like that?) The last time Florida had three straight losing seasons was right after World War II (1947).

NOTRE DAME 56, STANFORD 23 -  Stanford people are so sophisticated that not even Notre Dame can draw a decent crowd to a football game there. Attendance was 30,901. Capacity is 50,424. Wait till some of those ACC powerhouses come to visit next year.

CLEMSON 16, SOUTH CAROLINA 7 - What a terrible game. Clemson passed for just 100 yards; Carolina rushed for only 47 yards,  Clemson couldn’t even score an offensive touchdown. There can’t be many fan bases as loyal as South Carolina’s who get so little in return from their football program.  (Which finishes 5-7.)

ALABAMA 27, AUBURN 24 - I know that there will be arguments in favor of putting a one-loss Alabama team in The Playoff, but after the way Auburn blew this, it’s hard to count it as a Bama win.  I also can’t believe that you can’t zone a field with seven defenders against a pass that has to travel  roughly 45 yards.  It’s a damn sight better than expecting people to maintain man coverage for  more than ten seconds.

IOWA STATE 42, KANSAS STATE 35 - For a game played in a snowstorm, there was a lot of offense.  The Cyclones had four scoring plays of more than 70 yards. Running back Abu Sama, an Iowa kid from Des Moines, had two of them, rushing for 276 yards, with touchdown runs of  77, 71 and 60 yards.

NORTH CAROLINA STATE  39, NORTH CAROLINA 20 - The Wolfpack lost early to Notre Dame and lost narrowly to Lousville and I forgot about them. But since then their only loss was to Duke and they’re now 9-3. The Tar Heels finish 8-4, but with Drake Maye more was expected of them. In this game, the Pack’s Brennan Armstrong, a Virginia transfer, outdid Maye, throwing for 334 yards and three TDs  against Maye’s 254 yards, two TDs - and two interceptions.

SAN DIEGO  STATE 33, FRESNO STATE 18 - SDSU’s Brady Hoke goes out with a big win. Fresno has lost three straight: In just three weeks in November, the Bulldogs have gone  from 8-1 to 8-4.

CAL 33, UCLA 7 - The official last game of the Pac-12 was a shocker. Cal kicked two field goals to lead 6-0, but the Bruins scored early in the second quarter to take a 7-6 lead. And then… Cal running back Jaydn Ott, returning a kick for the first time ever, took the UCLA kick back 100 yards, and seemed to break the Bruins’ back. The Bruins moved the ball, but they were hurt by two interceptions and two fumbles and they didn’t score again.  Cal, 6-6, got bowl eligible.  But UCLA?  Can you imagine taking that bunch to a bowl game, much less to the Big Ten next year?



*********** The Wall Street Journal’s Jason Gay on the NFL…

This is a season of mysteries:  The sport still doesn't have a strong opinion of what a catch is supposed to be, nor how to properly call a roughing penalty. The latter used to require harsh contact; these days, a defender might get flagged for a terse look, or a snarky comment about the quarterbacks shoes.



*********** Frank Reich was just 11 games into his first season as head coach of the Carolina Panthers and he’s already gone. Poof.

His replacement will be the SIXTH coach that Carolina will have hired in the five years since a rich guy named David Tepper bought the franchise.

They’re 30-63 since he bought the team.

Writes Shalice Manza Young in Yahoo Sports…

Tepper's tantrums are unlikely to attract head coaches of the highest caliber. Yes, there are only 32 of these jobs on the planet, but after seeing how Tepper operates, is he really going to attract someone like Bill Belichick if he becomes available? At this rate, only a man desperate to become a head coach and kowtow to Tepper's every whim would agree to work for him.

When he was approved as Panthers owner in May 2018 and introduced to media, Tepper said, "The first thing I care about is winning. The second thing I care about is winning. The third thing I care about is winning — on and off the field."

Right now, the only thing Tempest Tepper is winning is the race to take the crown as the NFL's worst owner now that Dan Snyder has vacated the title.

************* The rules already give the passing game many advantages not accorded the running game, but two things that have really begun to give the passing team way too much of an advantage - pass interference and roughing the passer - are endangering the game itself. 

The quarterback position has grown way too much in importance anyway, and between  the overly protective roughing-the-passer calls, and now, allowing the QB to bait defensive players  into targeting them by last-second sliding, football, once the ultimate team sport,  has become much more of a one-man show than any other major team sport.


*********** I’ve grown  weary of hearing announcers talk about a football stadium as a “building.”

Maybe it’s because they’re used to calling basketball games, or maybe they think they’re in Minneapolis or Detroit or New Orleans, but no matter - they’re f—king wrong.

Not that any of those fools would read this (if they could) but no matter what dictionary you use, it’s pretty simple.  A building is…

a structure with a roof and walls…
a roofed and walled structure…
a structure with walls and a roof…

Hmmm. Wherever I look, that damn word “roof” keeps popping up.


*********** If you had only one TV set and you were watching  Michigan-Ohio State and you switched away whenever it went to commercial, you got to watch a lot of other games.



***********   REPEAT

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Perris Jones, the University of Virginia running back who was injured during the Nov. 9 game at L&N Federal Credit Union Stadium is now out of the University of Louisville hospital, but will stay in Louisville for rehab.

Jones was carted off the field after taking a hit from multiple Cardinals that knocked the ball loose. That play resulted in a touchdown for Jones’ team as his teammate Malik Washington recovered the fumble and sprinted into the end zone to give the Cavaliers the lead.

The celebration was short-lived, however, as Jones didn’t get up.
The sixth-year back was taken to the University of Louisville Hospital where he has remained. That is, until Friday when he left the hospital and now heads to Frazier Rehab, the UVA football team posted on social media.

He will be there several weeks for rehab.

Hey, guys - this kid is facing a long rehab and he could use some encouragement.  Let him know you’re thinking of him with a note or a card:

Perris Williams
C/O UVA Football
290 Massie Rd
Charlottesville VA 22903




***********  For the second Friday night in a row I watched Riverheads, a small high school near Staunton (pronounced “STAN-ton”) Virginia, represent Double Wingers everywhere.

As I mentioned last week, Riverheads has won ten state titles and - get this - the last SEVEN STRAIGHT  (2016-2022).   Since the 2009, they’ve failed to win 10 games or more in a season just once. (They were 8-2 in 2012.)  They’re going for their eighth in a row.

They went into  Friday night’s game against Central Woodstock with an 11-1 record.  (Their only loss was in their opening game which they lost 8-7 - to the same Central Woodstock.)


This game was no contest.  Riverheads jumped out to a  20-6 halftime lead and won going away, 41-14.


Their next game - a state semifinal game - is at home against Poquoson  at 2 PM (EST) Saturday. 


***********   I often wonder if all the talk about this “room” or that (“the running back room,” etc) is fostering  a  collection of little cliques  that work counter to efforts to build a team.


*********** Does it annoy you as much as it annoys me to hear some running back, in a postgame interview, give credit to “MY offensive line?”


***********   The shotgun has its good points, and for coaches who work at two jobs - winning where they are right now and marketing themselves for where they might be in the future - it helps them to appear fashionable and with the times.  But the stubbornness of coaches in refusing to get under center,  even when a game/season/job could depend on getting just one yard,  is baffling.


*********** So much for cinderellas…

It’s politically pleasing to allow a lot of teams into the post-season high school playoffs, but the weaker ones that struggled in the regular season and don’t really belong in the playoffs get weeded out pretty quickly.

In Washington, there are five classes that play 11-man football, and of the 20 semi-finalists who faced off this past weekend:

10 were unbeaten
5 had just one loss
5 had two losses



*********** So… It appears that NIL now stands for “NICKname-Image-Likeness."

An Alabama player nicknamed Kool-Aid McKinistry has been able to cash in on  the moniker by making  a deal with - duh - the actual Kool-Aid folks.

I’m a step ahead of you guys that are reading this.  I’ve already made exclusive deals with companies eager to pay Power 5 stars  who’ll legally change their first names to the names of the companies’  products.  A partial list…

Beats
Cap’n Crunch
Charmin
Crush
Handi Wipe
Handi Wrap
K-Y
Preparation H
Reddi Wip
Trojans



***********  Michigan State came out in its funereal “midnight” green. Ugh. The Seattle Seahawks came out in their Official State Highway Department day-glo green. Aargh 

But then, sanity reigns - the Philadelphia Eagles faced the Bills Sunday night in real green - the Kelly green jerseys and helmets (with silver pants) that I grew up  loving.  (Don’t laugh, kiddies, when I tell you this - There actually was a time when all football teams, pro and  college,  wore these things called “uniforms” - everybody on the team looked alike - and they were all made in  the teams’ “colors.” And - you won’t believe this - they NEVER CHANGED colors or designs.)


*********** Before the Michigan-Ohio State game broadcast, in a break with their usual policy, the TV people were kind enough to let us see a lot of the pre-game - the stuff that the people in the stadium see but we’re not usually allowed to.  Finally, though - because it must be in the  stars’ contract - they dragged us into the broadcast booth for the mandatory scene where the network stars tell us everything we already knew about the game.


*********** I’m not a fan of RG III as it is, and he  can really be annoying when he’s using air time to lobby for a player on the broadcast (LSU’s Jayden Daniels) for the Heisman Trophy.


*********** Prick Number One:   On Friday night, Jonathan Smith’s Oregon State Beavers got blown out by the rival Oregon Ducks.  The  NEXT MORNING, it was announced that Smith was going to Michigan State. Okay. I understand  - better job (maybe) for more pay (definitely) and with a more certain future (definitely).  But - the NEXT MORNING?  Are you going to try to make me believe that he did all his negotiating with Michigan State between the end of the game Friday night and his announcement on Saturday morning?  You know damn well that  he’d been serving two masters - dealing with his agent and Michigan State, while fitting in time to do what Oregon State had been paying him to do, which is get ready for the Civil War - possibly the last big game many of their fans will ever get to see.  If he really was the coach of Michigan State’s dreams, they’d have waited to talk to him until after the game was over.   Or, at the very least -  to make Smith seem like less of a prick -  they could have waited until Sunday to make their  announcement.


Prick Number 2:  Duke’s former coach, Mike Elko, is off to Texas A & M.  It was understandable that he’d wind up going someplace, and the Duke people pretty much understood that they were just renting him. But geez - after all the talk about how happy he was, what a culture he was building,  all the baloney about “teaching kids about life” - he suddenly flies  off to Texas A & M in the early morning hours, and then when those kids wake up Monday morning, they learn that he’s in Texas,  and that he would be meeting with them Monday morning - VIA ZOOM.   He taught them all a life lesson that they’ll never forget: at heart, all college coaches are f-king liars.  And, when it comes to dealing face-to-face with people they’re walking out on, cowards.


My unexpurgated opinion:  Most big-time college coaches have lived sheltered lives, knowing nothing after college other than the world inside football, and next to nothing about the so-called “real world.” They’re the absolute last people in the world who ought to be given a captive audience of impressionable young men at whom they can direct their self-proclaimed “life lessons.”


https://brobible.com/sports/article/mike-elko-player-meeting-duke-texas-am-reaction/



*********** Before you make fun of peewee soccer and its Trophies for Everybody mentality, our great game is becoming infected, too…

Recently, a Southwest Washington high school league announced its football all-star team, and damned if there weren’t eight  offensive linemen on the first team.  

Sound a little excessive?   How about if I tell you that there are only FOUR TEAMS in the whole damn league?  That means that of the 20 offensive linemen in the league, eight of them made First-Team All League.

How about this?  They had co-Coaches of the Year. Two of the league’s four coaches were Coach of the Year.

I’m about ready to contact Oregon State and Washington State.  Their coaches are out there recruiting as best they can right now, and I thought it might make their job a little easier if they could tell a kid that if he comes to their place and just makes the starting lineup there’s a very good chance he’ll make  All-Pac-2.

And what’s to prevent them  from naming two Pac-2 Coaches of the Year?  That might help Oregon State in its search to replace Jonathan Smith.



*********** He may be an Ivy Leaguer and all that, but Harvard’s Thor Griffith, a  6-2, 320 pound defensive lineman, is the real deal, and to prove it, he’s announced he’s entering the transfer portal.

Wait - transfer from Harvard?

Before you react like me and  ask WTF a guy like him is doing, transferring out of one of the most difficult colleges in the US to get into - he’s not going to pass up a chance at a Harvard diploma.  He’ll be graduating next spring.  The Ivy League does not permit graduates to play, and between the Ivies not playing in 2020 and the extra year  given everyone because of Killer Kovid, he’s still got two years of eligibility left.



***********   Jimmy Carter was not my favorite President. But he was a good man and an honest man, and I never for a minute doubted his love for his country, or that he believed he was doing what was best for the American people.

So it’s sad to see this good man in decline, and it’s sad to think that he’ll spend the rest of his days without his beloved wife, Rosalynn, who  died the Sunday before Thanksgiving.

I was touched by his words on his loss:   “Rosalynn was my equal partner in everything I ever accomplished.  She gave me wise guidance and encouragement when I needed it. As long as Rosalynn was in the world, I always knew somebody loved and supported me.”

Coaches blessed with good marriages will understand.



***********   Every Thanksgiving I look forward to reading the two accounts you give us. The strength and beauty found in those expressions contrasts with the coarse language we hear, see, read, and have sung at us today. Contrast also the gratitude they express with the awful ignorance and blatant ingratitude, especially among today's youth, but also among older people who've grown too comfortable. Comfort kills.

You and a few other readers captured my feelings about the Army football we witnessed last Saturday. I don't want a hybrid. The real thing, the true triple, the offense that eats--no, devours--the clock, is the only path that will afford  Army the chance to win consistently. I was happy to see the longsuffering B backs, Riley and Buchanan, return to punish defenders. Parenthetically, I note that last week, Army's first recruit from Montana, Jake Rendina — champion wrestler and powerlifter and a Plebe — had a few snaps at B back. He's listed on the Army site as 5'11", 264 pounds, so perhaps he will succeed Riley and Buchanan as a blunderbuss of a runner. Christmas did indeed come early for me.

All your acolytes wish you and Constance a joyous Thanksgiving.

John Vermillion
St. Petersburg, Florida






*********** QUIZ  ANSWER:  This past weekend, the news of the accomplishment somewhat obscured by the growing scandal surrounding the illegal and unethical signal-stealing of which it’s been accused,  Michigan became the first college football program to  win 1,000 games. 

Along the  way, the Wolverines have won eleven national  titles.

Six of them were won by the legendary Fielding H. Yost, who retired following  the 1926 season to become Michigan’s Athletics Director.

But in the 96 seasons since Yost’s retirement, Michigan has won just five national  titles.  Harry Kipke won two of them - two more than the legendary Bo Schembechler -  yet when they discuss Michigan coaches,  Kipke’s name is seldom mentioned.

The son of German immigrants,  Harry Kipke grew up in Lansing, Michigan, and at Lansing High School he was captain of the school’s undefeated football team, setting a school season scoring record of  175 points (28 touchdowns, 2 field goals, 1 extra point).

At Michigan, under the great Yost,  he played on  teams that compiled a  three-year record of 19-1-2, and as a senior he was captain of the 1923 team that went 8-0 and won a national title.

A great runner and passer, he is still regarded as one of the school’s all-time great punters, famed for his ability to kick the ball out of bounds inside the ten-yard line.  None other than the great Walter Camp, after seeing him score all Michigan’s points and punt 10 times in a 19-0 win over Ohio State in the just-opened Ohio Stadium - named him to his 1922 All-America team.

He was also outstanding in basketball and baseball, and he holds the honor of being Michigan's first nine-letter man.

After graduation, he served as an assistant football coach - and head baseball coach - at Missouri for four years, then returned to his home state as head coach at Michigan Agricultural College (now Michigan State).

He had signed a three-year contract, but after one year he was released from his contract to become the head coach at Michigan.

In nine years as the Wolverines’ head coach, they would win four straight conference titles and back-to-back national titles (1932 and 1933).

His winning four consecutive conference titles places him with Yost and Bo  Schembechler, as the only Michigan coaches  to do so.

The Depression was having its effect on Michigan football and its revenues.  Michigan Stadium was three-quarters empty for many games, partly as a result of the team’s mediocre play:  in the years from 1934 and 1937, Michigan’s record was a dismal  10–22.  It didn’t help that during that time Michigan lost four straight to both Michigan State and Ohio State.

He was let go after the 1937 season and was replaced by Fritz Crisler, then coaching at Princeton.  He appeared surprised by the move, and said that  he had been looking forward eagerly to  the  1938 season,  when a great group of freshmen that he had recruited would be eligible to play on the varsity team. 

His overall record at Michigan was 46-26-4.

It’s impossible to say what might have happened had he been retained, but the 1938 Michigan team, under Crisler, would go 6-1-1,  its only defeat a 7-6 loss to Big Ten champion Minnesota.  Two of Kipke’s highly-anticipated  “great freshmen” - a halfback named Tom Harmon and a single wing blocking back named Forest Evashevski - would be named All-America team as sophomores.  When they were seniors, Michigan would finish 7-1 and ranked Number three in the nation, and Harmon would win the Heisman Trophy.

Despite his firing, he was quite popular around Michigan, and in 1940 he ws elected to the University’s Board of Regents, serving for eight years.

In 1942, at the age of 43, he joined the Navy and served in World War II.

Until his retirement he served as President of the Coca-Cola Company of Chicago.

He is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame and the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame.

President Gerald Ford, who played for him and captained the Michigan team his senior year, credited Kipke with persuading him to attend  Michigan, after the principal of Ford’s high school wrote Kipke   and invited him to come to Grand Rapids to meet young Ford and his family.  In a time before football scholarships, Kipke  found Ford a job at the University Hospital, waiting on tables in the interns’ dining room and washing dishes in the nurses’ cafeteria.

Kipke also found Ford a job after  graduation. “In the spring of my senior year,” Ford recalled,  “Kipke  got me an assistant football coaching job at Yale University under head coach Ducky Pond. As assistant line coach, head Junior Varsity coach, and the man in charge of scouting our opponents from 1935 through 1940, I was able to attend and graduate from Yale University Law School.”


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING HARRY KIPKE

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON







***********   QUIZ:  At the start of his freshman year, before he’d even played a down of high school football, his  coach told him he was going to be playing quarterback.  But, he told the coach,  he didn’t want to play quarterback - he wanted to play corner and wide receiver.  Then, as he recounted later, the coach said,  “Okay, then,  let me have your gear. You don't want to do what's best for the team, so we can't use you. You're not a team player.”  And that’s when he decided he was a quarterback.

It was a good move.  He was an outstanding quarterback at Santa Fe High - outside Gainesville, Florida.  He grew up a Florida Gator fan, but because of his lack of size (he was 5-10)  and the fact that he wasn’t a drop back  quarterback, Florida, like other big schools, wasn’t interested in him as a  quarterback.  Florida instead offered him a chance to walk on as a corner, but by now,  he recalled later, “I was a  quarterback.” 

So he signed to play quarterback - with a small school that barely had a football team. 

It was Division I-AA (now FCS) Georgia Southern, which had just finished its first season of football in 41 years, after dropping it at the outbreak of World War II.

Once Georgia Southern head coach Erk Russell realized what kind of talent our guy had, he decided to promote his defensive line coach - a guy named Paul Johnson - to  offensive coordinator so that he could run his innovative spread/triple option offense with our guy at the controls.  And in our guy’s two years of running it, the Georgia Southern Eagles  would win back-to-back national championships.

In 1985 - Johnson’s (and our guy’s) first year running Johnson’s “flexbone” offense - Georgia Southern went 13-2 and won  the NCAA D-IAA national championship.  Our guy rushed for 1001 yards and 11 touchdowns, and passed for 2194 yards and 15 touchdowns.  In the title game, he accounted for 509 yards in total offense (419 yards and  four TDs passing) and led a Georgia Southern comeback  from 22 points down to beat Furman, 44-42.

The next year (his senior season) the Eagles would win another national championship, again  going 13-2.   Our  guy rushed for 1709 yards and 26 touchdowns, and threw for 2495 yards and 13 touchdowns.  In the title game against Arkansas State,  he  rushed  for 180 yards and three touchdowns,  and passed for 306 yards and one touchdown.

He was an All-American his senior year.

In his career at Georgia Southern , he  threw for 7,585 yards and ran for 4622 yards and  accounted for 102 touchdowns.

He became the  first player in college football history with more than 3,000 yards rushing and  5,000 yards passing in a career

He  was drafted by the Los Angeles Rams in the ninth round (240th pick overall), and  when the Rams made it known they intended to convert him to  running back,  he headed north to the CFL, for the same reason he went to Georgia Southern -  to play quarterback.

Joining Edmonton in 1987,  he took over as over as their starter in 1988.  In all, he played 13 seasons in the CFL, with the Edmonton Eskimos, Toronto Argonauts, Baltimore Stallions and Montreal Alouettes.

In 1989 he won the league’s Most Outstanding Player Award, and in 1995 he was the Grey Cup MVP.  He played on two Grey Cup championship teams (Edmonton in 1987 and Baltimore in 1995).
 
When he retired, he was in the top ten among CFL  quarterbacks in both passing yards (40,534) and rushing yards (8043). 

In 2007 he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame, and in 2010 into the CFL Hall of Fame.

And while he may have been running Paul Johnson’s offense at Georgia Southern,  he did it with such excellence and flair that when he was the guy running it, it was named for him.





TUESDAY, NOVEMBER  21,    2023 - “Everyone is ignorant, only on different subjects.”   Will Rogers

I WILL PROBABLY NOT PUBLISH ON FRIDAY.  YOU’RE WELCOME TO CHECK, OF COURSE, BUT COUNT ON VISITING NEXT TUESDAY!  IN THE MEANTIME, HAVE A HAPPY THANKSGIVING!


*********** Thanksgiving is extra-special for me.

Thanksgiving, 1945 - I saw my first football game. Long before the Dallas Cowboys even came into existence, in Pennsylvania, as in many eastern states, it was customary then for high schools to play their Big Game on Thanksgiving day - usually in the morning, while back at home the turkey was still in the oven. My brother was nine years older than me, and his high school, Germantown High, played at Norristown High. I don’t remember who won - probably Norristown, because Germantown wasn’t very good - but I do remember that it was cold as hell. No matter - it was the  start for me of a long tradition of football on Thanksgiving. 


Thanksgiving, 1958 -  A few weeks earlier, at the Yale-Princeton game, I had just met the girl who would become my wife. We were both from the Philly area and were  home for Thanksgiving. I met her parents and her brother and liked them - and I guess they liked me.  She met my parents and liked them, and they loved her. As was traditional for many Philadelphians back then, we went to the Penn-Cornell game that day, where I proudly introduced her to my favorite aunt and uncle, who were huge Penn supporters. They loved her, too.  My aunt even  had a mum for her. (That’s short for chrysanthemum, a flower which in those days was almost a compulsory part of every  woman’s attire at football games in the fall.) That next July, we were married.


Thanksgiving, 1989 - We had just moved into our home in Camas, Washington a few days before. It’s  the only  home we’ve ever owned. We’d looked all over Southwest Washington before finally finding this one, and it suited us so well that we’ve lived in it ever since. A sad note - Jerry Foley, a transplanted New York Irishman who as our realtor was tireless in his efforts to help us find the right place, just passed away recently.  God bless that great man.



***********  On this Thanksgiving, I’m thankful...

That I was born and grew up in the most wonderful country imaginable. I was born during the Depression, and when I started school, World War II was still going on, but because of people - relatives, neighbors, teachers, coaches - who endured the hardships of those difficult times, I was blessed to grow up in the America I remember…

For  having parents, teachers and coaches who must have seen something better in me than just a smartass,  hyperactive kid who couldn’t stay out of trouble…

That I met and married a girl who loved me for who I was and,  simply by being herself,  motivated me to try to become as good a person as she was…

For the unforgettable experience of seeing our children grow into good responsible adults, of seeing them marry wonderful people and bring them into the family, and of getting to know and love the eleven wonderful grandchildren they’ve given us (and, now, the grandchildren’s spouses)…

For the way  events worked together in a way that I have been able to spend more than 50 years in the job of my  dreams - football coaching -  and as a result,  to meet so many great people whom I would never have met otherwise…

Finally, I’m thankful that the same God who watched over the Pilgrims still watches over us all.


*********** This week, as it has done every Thanksgiving since 1961, the Wall Street Journal  will publish two pieces:

First, “The Desolate Wilderness,”  an account of the Pilgrims’ journey to America

Then, “And the Fair Land,” written by Vermont Royster,  who held many positions at the the WSJ including  editor from 1959 to 1971, during which time he started the annual tradition of publishing the two pieces on Thanksgiving.

Mr. Royster was more than a “journalist.” During World War II, he was captain of a US Navy destroyer in the Pacific. After engaging in combat, in September 1945 he was among the first Americans to see first-hand the results of the atomic bomb that hit Nagasaki.

Back at the  WSJ in 1953, he won the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing, and in 1984, he received another Pulitzer Prize for Commentary.

A native North Carolinian, he retired from the WSJ in 1996  and  became Kenan Professor of Journalism and Public Affairs at the University of North Carolina.

Every year, a re-reading (and re-printing) of these two writings is an essential part of my Thanksgiving.


The Desolate Wilderness

Here beginneth the chronicle of those memorable circumstances of the year 1620, as recorded by Nathaniel Morton , keeper of the records of Plymouth Colony, based on the account of William Bradford , sometime governor thereof:

So they left that goodly and pleasant city of Leyden, which had been their resting-place for above eleven years, but they knew that they were pilgrims and strangers here below, and looked not much on these things, but lifted up their eyes to Heaven, their dearest country, where God hath prepared for them a city (Heb. XI, 16), and therein quieted their spirits.

When they came to Delfs-Haven they found the ship and all things ready, and such of their friends as could not come with them followed after them, and sundry came from Amsterdam to see them shipt, and to take their leaves of them. One night was spent with little sleep with the most, but with friendly entertainment and Christian discourse, and other real expressions of true Christian love.

The next day they went on board, and their friends with them, where truly doleful was the sight of that sad and mournful parting, to hear what sighs and sobs and prayers did sound amongst them; what tears did gush from every eye, and pithy speeches pierced each other’s heart, that sundry of the Dutch strangers that stood on the quay as spectators could not refrain from tears. But the tide (which stays for no man) calling them away, that were thus loath to depart, their Reverend Pastor, falling down on his knees, and they all with him, with watery cheeks commended them with the most fervent prayers unto the Lord and His blessing; and then with mutual embraces and many tears they took their leaves one of another, which proved to be the last leave to many of them.

Being now passed the vast ocean, and a sea of troubles before them in expectations, they had now no friends to welcome them, no inns to entertain or refresh them, no houses, or much less towns, to repair unto to seek for succour; and for the season it was winter, and they that know the winters of the country know them to be sharp and violent, subject to cruel and fierce storms, dangerous to travel to known places, much more to search unknown coasts.

Besides, what could they see but a hideous and desolate wilderness, full of wilde beasts and wilde men? and what multitudes of them there were, they then knew not: for which way soever they turned their eyes (save upward to Heaven) they could have but little solace or content in respect of any outward object; for summer being ended, all things stand in appearance with a weatherbeaten face, and the whole country, full of woods and thickets, represented a wild and savage hew.

If they looked behind them, there was a mighty ocean which they had passed, and was now as a main bar or gulph to separate them from all the civil parts of the world.



The Fair Land

Any one whose labors take him into the far reaches of the country, as ours lately have done, is bound to mark how the years have made the land grow fruitful.

This is indeed a big country, a rich country, in a way no array of figures can measure and so in a way past belief of those who have not seen it. Even those who journey through its Northeastern complex, into the Southern lands, across the central plains and to its Western slopes can only glimpse a measure of the bounty of America.

And a traveler cannot but be struck on his journey by the thought that this country, one day, can be even greater. America, though many know it not, is one of the great underdeveloped countries of the world; what it reaches for exceeds by far what it has grasped.

So the visitor returns thankful for much of what he has seen, and, in spite of everything, an optimist about what his country might be. Yet the visitor, if he is to make an honest report, must also note the air of unease that hangs everywhere.

For the traveler, as travelers have been always, is as much questioned as questioning. And for all the abundance he sees, he finds the questions put to him ask where men may repair for succor from the troubles that beset them.

His countrymen cannot forget the savage face of war. Too often they have been asked to fight in strange and distant places, for no clear purpose they could see and for no accomplishment they can measure. Their spirits are not quieted by the thought that the good and pleasant bounty that surrounds them can be destroyed in an instant by a single bomb. Yet they find no escape, for their survival and comfort now depend on unpredictable strangers in far-off corners of the globe.

How can they turn from melancholy when at home they see young arrayed against old, black against white, neighbor against neighbor, so that they stand in peril of social discord? Or not despair when they see that the cities and countryside are in need of repair, yet find themselves threatened by scarcities of the resources that sustain their way of life? Or when, in the face of these challenges, they turn for leadership to men in high places—only to find those men as frail as any others?

So sometimes the traveler is asked whence will come their succor. What is to preserve their abundance, or even their civility? How can they pass on to their children a nation as strong and free as the one they inherited from their forefathers? How is their country to endure these cruel storms that beset it from without and from within?

Of course the stranger cannot quiet their spirits. For it is true that everywhere men turn their eyes today much of the world has a truly wild and savage hue. No man, if he be truthful, can say that the specter of war is banished. Nor can he say that when men or communities are put upon their own resources they are sure of solace; nor be sure that men of diverse kinds and diverse views can live peaceably together in a time of troubles.

But we can all remind ourselves that the richness of this country was not born in the resources of the earth, though they be plentiful, but in the men that took its measure. For that reminder is everywhere—in the cities, towns, farms, roads, factories, homes, hospitals, schools that spread everywhere over that wilderness.

We can remind ourselves that for all our social discord we yet remain the longest enduring society of free men governing themselves without benefit of kings or dictators. Being so, we are the marvel and the mystery of the world, for that enduring liberty is no less a blessing than the abundance of the earth.

And we might remind ourselves also, that if those men setting out from Delftshaven had been daunted by the troubles they saw around them, then we could not this autumn be thankful for a fair land.



***********  I don’t remember a whole lot about my college graduation, but according to the program I still have,  those in attendance evidently sang this hymn, one that suggests that the people who came before us and helped make us what we are gave God a lot of the credit.  It acknowledges that  after “our exiled fathers crossed the sea,” they worshipped God “with prayer and psalm” - and God, having heard “the  song, the prayer,” sent His blessings.


O God, beneath Thy guiding hand
Our exiled fathers crossed the sea,
And when they trod the wintry strand,
With prayer and psalm they worshiped Thee.

Thou heard'st, well pleased, the song, the prayer;
Thy blessing came, and still its pow'r
Shall onward through all ages bear
The memory of that holy hour.

Laws, freedom, truth, and faith in God
Came with those exiles o'er the waves,
And where their pilgrim feet have trod,
The God they trusted guards their graves.

(There is zero chance that today’s Yale, infected by rot like much of the rest of today’s society, would risk offending anyone by including a Christian hymn in its graduation ceremony.)



*********** If you miss Rush Limbaugh as much as I do, you will probably enjoy his “The True Story of Thanksgiving”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAyvTCaoFA0



***********   GREY CUP FINAL…

MONTREAL ALOUETTES 28, WINNIPEG  BLUE BOMBERS 23

Here’s my brief wrap-up.  (I was in a hurry to meet a deadline, so please excuse any errors in spelling or grammar.)

Les Alouettes de Montréal ont créé une autre surprise, battant les Blue Bombers de Winnipeg 28-24 pour remporter la 110e Coupe Grey, leur première depuis 2010.


*********** I SAID I CAN’T REMEMBER WHEN I’D SEEN SO MANY SORRY-ASS MATCHUPS, AND THERE WERE A LOT OF THEM (THANKS, SEC) BUT IT TURNS OUT  THAT, AS ALWAYS, THERE WERE A LOT OF GOOD GAMES, WITH A LOT OF SURPRISES. YOU JUST HAD TO LOOK FOR THEM.


MOST SATISFYING OF ALL TO ME…

***********  ARMY  28, COASTAL CAROLINA 20 - Watching Army’s QB go under center on their first offensive play,  I felt like a kid at the top of  the stairs, looking down into the living room at all those presents under the tree.  And then, as I watched, the  quarterback opened the first present: it was a fullback dive and it gained nine yards.

Oh, Santa!  That was exactly what I wanted!  How did you know?  Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!   Did I dare ask for more?

And then Army broke the huddle and the QB went under center - AGAIN! - and ran a keeper to the left side for a first down.

It kept up. I wanted to rush downstairs and open the presents myself, but  the Army QB kept doing it for me:

A  triple option… with  a pitch!  Good God - just what the Army coach had been telling us he wasn’t going to be able to do any more, thanks to  a change in the rules!

Another fullback dive,  and it was third-and-one.

I watched as the QB unwrapped a follow -  and picked up another  first down!

I looked around the base of the tree and I could see still more packages:

Here came another option, and another pitch.  Left-handed, yet!  We’d been led to believe in the past they they didn’t trust their QBs to make this pitch, but I’ll be damned if he didn’t  do it as if he’d been practicing it all season!

And then - holy sh— - a QB counter!  With a guard and tackle pulling,  even!  And another first down!

Another dive, and then a fullback cutback - and another first down.  When was I going to run out of presents?

A QB follow… Then a Triple Option with the QB keeping… Another  third and one.

Just as I expected -  a fullback dive got the first down - and it was goal to go.

Only one more present to open. I guessed correctly -  a fullback dive and it’s an Army touchdown!  Just what I wanted! 

75 yards in 13 plays. Eight minutes taken off the clock.

Christmas came early this year.


***********   NAVY  10, EAST CAROLINA 0 - It wasn’t the greatest game in the world, but Navy’s defense is VERY tough, and Navy will be ready in two weeks for Army.


PAC-12


***********   (FRIDAY NIGHT) WASHINGTON STATE 56, COLORADO 14 -

If you’re Washington State and you’re mired in a six-game losing streak, here’s your answer:  play Colorado.  How bad a beating was this?  The Cougars (4-6) were ahead 42-7 at the half, and it wasn’t that close.

“Coach Prime” my ass.  Like Napoleon, this guy crowned himself.  The other ninety-nine  per cent of us have paid our dues and earned the title “coach,” but this clown, with little real experience, just went and  conferred it on himself -  and the public has bought it.  Not me.   I’ll call Deion “Coach” when he’s earned the title.  (What are the chances he’ll have found himself another gig before that happens?)


UTAH 42 ARIZONA +18  - Absolutely shocking.  The Wildcats led 21-0 after one, and 28-7 at the half.  Utah went out of character and had Bryson Barnes throw 53 times. He threw for 320 yards and two TDs, A bit of a question about the wisdom of being ahead, 35-18, and letting Jayden DeLaura, who’d lost his QB job to Noah Fifita earlier in the season, come in and throw a  52- yard TD pass with :52 left in the game. It appeared to some Utah fans that the Utes’ DC was pissed and refused to shake the hand of Arizona’s Jedd Fisch, but he responded by tweeting (or should be it X-ing?) “Our job is to play great defense, and we failed to do that today. On me!”


UCLA 38,  USC  20  - UCLA handled the Trojans. The nicest thing was that unlike most recent years when USC wins and there is ugly taunting in the aftermath, the Bruins just went about their business and  when they were done they left the job site. The Trojans have lost five of their last six, and Caleb Williams, in one of the planet’s biggest media markets, pulled a Cam Newton and had the school announce that he had “elected not to speak to the media.” Somebody’s giving that kid bad advice, because next year, assuming he’s in the NFL, he’s not going to have that luxury.  Maybe if they’d told him it was a Dr. Pepper commercial…


CAL  27,  STANFORD 15 - There was nothing at stake except pride in the Bay Area, but it was still Cal-Stanford (“Big Game”) and the Cal students stormed the  field afterward.


OREGON 49 ARIZONA STATE 13 - Bo Nix threw  six touchdown passes - IN THE FIRST HALF. In all, he completed 24 of 29 for  404 yards. The Ducks (10-1) need to beat Oregon State to assure another shot at Washington in the Pac-12 title game. A loss - and an Arizona win over Arizona State - would mean Arizona faces Washington.

WASHINGTON 22, OREGON STATE 20 - It rained to beat hell, even by Northwest standards, and the main thing  the rain affected, it seemed me, was  Michael Penix’s chances at a Heisman. Too many of his passes were dropped, but he still  was effective, and receiver Rome Odunze - maybe the best in the country - came through when needed. As usual, the Beavers, with one of the best running games in he country,  put too much on DJ Uiagaleile’s plate - and he’s just not that good a passer (15 of 31 for 164 and 2 INTS). Huskies, 11-0, are in the Pac-12  title game.



ACC


NOTRE DAME  45-, WAKE FOREST 7 -  Wake’s Dave Clawson  said it best in his postgame: “They’re just better than we are.”


GEORGIA TECH 31, SYRACUSE 22 - The saddest thing to come out of this is that Dino Babers has been fired after 8 seasons in which the Orange went 41-55, with only two winning seasons.  He went 10-3 in 2018, but that remains Syracuse’s only 10-win season since 2002.  They can still become bowl eligible with a win over Wake Forest next Saturday. And Tech… good luck next week against Georgia.


(THURSDAY NIGHT) PITT 24, BC 16  Just an ugly, ugly game, in front of a depressingly small crowd in a nearly-empty NFL stadium.


LOUISVILLE 38, MIAMI 31 - The Cardinals are 10-1, their first 10-win season in ten years. An amazing job by Jeff Brohm, whose Cards were picked in the pre-season to finish eighth.  In one respect, The U is back - Miami had its chances at the end, but a couple of thuggish penalties cost it precious yardage and made the job next to impossible.


NORTH CAROLINA STATE  35,  VIRGINIA TECH 28 - The Pack have  now won four straight, and this makes the fourth year in a row they’ve won at least eight games. UVA transfer Brennan Armstrong at QB passed for 203 and ran for another 89 to lead the Pack.


CLEMSON 31, NORTH CAROLINA 20  - I  pawned our silverware and went out and bought Clemson stock, just like Dabo  told me to do.   And now, with all that’s riding on Saturday’s HUGE rivalry game at South Carolina,  I’m buying more.


VIRGINIA 30, DUKE 27  - Riley Leonard’s backup, Grayson Loftis, has been doing a great job, but in my opinion having him throw 45 times is putting too much on his shoulders.


NORTH ALABAMA AT FLORIDA STATE (NO LINE) - I didn’t watch any of it except to catch the awful part where the Seminoles’ QB, Jordan Travis, had to be taken off the field.  What can you say about the injury? What a great kid.  What a good football player.  What a sad  thing.



BIG 12

OKLAHOMA  31, BYU 24- Best effort in weeks from the Cougars.


OKLAHOMA STATE 43, HOUSTON 30- The Cougars are 4-7 and out of the bowl picture. The Cowboys are tied for second in the Big 12 with Oklahoma and Kansas State but they have the tiebreaker over both of those teams, and a win next week against BYU will put them in the title game against Texas.


KANSAS STATE 31, KANSAS 27 - This was a great game. The lead changed hands five times. The Jayhawks had a fourth-and-five at the K-State 11 with 5:35 to play, but their pass was intercepted in the end zone.


MOUNTAIN WEST


UNLV 31, AIR FORCE 27- UNLV’S first win over Air Force in ten years puts the Rebels in first place in the Mountain West. The Rebels, now 9-2,  came back from 27-14 at the half, and then at the end held on for four downs inside the 10  with :23 to play.  Without starting QB Zak Larrier, Air Force (1/6/35 in the air) was helpless when it needed to pass. The Zoomies will play Boise State on Saturday for a spot in the Mountain West title game against UNLV.


NEW MEXICO 25, FRESNO STATE 17 - I didn’t think I’d have to watch this one.  The Bulldogs were 23 point favorites, with a decent shot at the Mountain West title game.  All they had to do was win.  When was the last time BOTH New Mexico football teams won on the same day?  What do you suppose THAT parlay would have paid?


HAWAII 9  WYOMING 42  - Cowboys are  death at home.  They finished 7-0 in Laramie, and their seven-game  attendance total of 162,144, broke the  old record of 149, 625,  set in 1990.


COLORADO STATE  30,  NEVADA 20  - Rams are now 5-6 and the play at Hawaii Saturday with a chance to become bowl-eligible.


BOISE STATE 45 UTAH STATE 10 - At the start of the second quarter, the Broncos scored two long touchdowns within 13 seconds of each other and wound up scoring 31 points in the quarter. Game over. Saturday: Air Force comes to Boise with a spot in the  title game on the line.


SAN JOSE STATE 24,  SAN DIEGO STATE 13 -  The Spartans are now tied  for second with Air Force and Boise State , but they’ve lost to both of them so they have no shot at the title game. On the other hand, they play UNLV Saturday, and a win would  give them a virtual place in the title game.



THE BIG TEN THAT I CARE ABOUT (THE ONES WHO WILL BE DUMPED WHEN THEY SET UP THEIR PREMIER LEAGUE)


 NORTHWESTERN 23, PURDUE 15 - Wildcats are bowl-eligible.  Is that a great job of coaching, or what?


IOWA 15, ILLINOIS 13  - Win or lose against Nebraska next Saturday, the Hawkeyes are in the Big Ten title game. Bring on the Buckeyes.


WISCONSIN  24, NEBRASKA 17 (OT) - Third one-score loss in a row for the Huskers. They’re now 5-6 and they play Iowa next week.


MICHIGAN STATE 24, INDIANA 21 -  Two weeks ago, Indiana beat Wisconsin, but last week a 48-45 overtime loss to Illinois, engineered by a quarterback shoved into action in the last two minutes when the Illini starter  got hurt, eliminated the Hoosiers from bowl eligibility.

And Saturday, they missed a field goal with 2 seconds left and lost.

But it was a little more complicated than that. First came a shot into the end zone that appeared to me to be pass interference.

Then, on 4th and one,  they lined up for a 45-yard field goal with seconds left. First, though, MSU called a time out.  Then Indiana  did the same, but when they returned to the field, it was to line up and go for it.  They made it, and on the next down, the QB threw deep. Unfortunately, his receiver had broken off this route, and the officials called intentional grounding.

The rules guru, Dean Blandino, said that the officials have no leeway as to deciding what the QB’s intentions are - they must call intentional grounding.

Now, with the loss of down and the penalty, Indiana had time for just the field goal, this time a 49-yarder. 

It was wide.



SEC - IT JUST MEANS MORE

MISSOURI 33 , FLORIDA 31 - This one went right down to a  field goal at the end of the game, but what made this game special was the play of Mizzou’s Terrific Trio - QB Brady Cook, RB Cody  Schrader, and WR Luther Burden. Cook: 20/34/331/1TD; Schrader: 23 carries/148/1TD; Burden: 9 rec, 158 yards. The Tigers are  one win away from their first 10-win season sinxce 2014.

SOUTH CAROLINA 17, KENTUCKY 14 - Kentucky has lost five of its last six games and faces Louisville on Saturday. SC hosts archival Clemson with bowl eligibility on the line.

MISSISSIPPI  STATE 41, SOUTHERN MISS 20 - Bulldogs need a win Saturday in the Egg Bowl (vs Ole Miss) to be bowl-eligible


*********** NEW MEXICO STATE 31, AUBURN 10 - Mainly because I like their coach, Jerry Kill, I  started liking the Aggies last year, and followed them to their bowl game win.  On one of my Zooms I played a clip of them singing their fight song, which contained the lines, “And when we win this game, we’ll buy a keg of booze/And we’ll drink to the Aggies, till we wobble in our shoes…”

I loved it earlier this season when we got a few Conference USA games and the Aggies were on.
 
This one, the Aggies’ first win ever over an SEC team, was an ass-kicking:

213 yards rushing to 65; 201 yards passing to 148; 23 first downs to 12; 39 minutes TOP to 21.


I love their QB, Diego Pavia.  A former state champion wrestler,  he is one tough dude.  Take a look at the way he body-slammed  an Auburn defender who dared to intercept one of his passes!

https://www.si.com/college/2023/11/19/auburn-new-mexico-state-scuffle-diego-pavia-bodyslams-nehemiah-pritche



***********   My list of potential Coaches of the Year (Alphabetical):

Jeff Brohm, Louisville - Cards were picked to finish eighth in ACC; they’re  10-1 and in the title game

Dave Braun, Northwestern  - inherited a near-hopeless situation, and now Wildcats are bowl eligible

Kalen DeBoer, Washington - Took over a team that was 4-8, and in two years in Seattle he’s 22-2; he is 8-0 against ranked teams

Elijah Drinkwitz, Missouri - now 9-2. With Arkansas up next, Mizzou could have first 10-win season since 2014

Jedd Fisch, Arizona - Took a near-dead program to  8-3 in his third season, with an outside shot at the Pac-12 title game

Jerry Kill, New Mexico State - His Aggies, once the worst team in all of Division I, are now 9-3 after a win over Auburn

Barry Odom, UNLV - His Rebels are now 9-2 - the program’s most wins since 1984








***********   Hi   Coach,
 
I wanted to give you an update on how my first season coaching 8-man football went. We ran an adaptation of your Double Wing System utilizing Wild Cat and One Wing but all the same numbering and terms. We scored 49 points per game while only allowing 17.5 points per game finishing with a 7-1 record and the Championship.
 
I am very pleased the kids were able to pick the system and execute it fairly well. This is especially impressive, for a group of kids that almost entirely were playing football for either their first or second year ever. To be able to that at the Varsity Level against teams composed of kids that have been playing competitive tackle football since the 3rd grade is truly a testament to them. Moreover, we only had 3 Seniors on the team and were undersized vs the team we faced in the Championship.
 
Super proud of the kids and wanted to send you this note to thank you for your assistance with the adaptation of the Double Wing for 8 Man. Hope all is well with you and I am glad to be able to get my life back now that football is over…lol  This season was particularly long with the 2 hours daily driving I needed to do for every practice.
 
Have a blessed day!
 
Sincerely,
Ian Pratt
Calais, Maine
WASHINGTON ACADEMY RAIDERS

Hi Ian -

I enjoyed reading  your update and hearing of your  success.

I’m especially pleased that you were able to take a group of kids with little or no experience and help them experience the success that can come - in business or in sports - when a group of individuals can achieve success by working together to carry out a plan.

It’s great preparation for the real world.  I really don’t know of any other team sport that can give kids that experience.

It takes leadership, and I’m grateful that there are men who will invest their time, talent (and treasure) to show kids the way.

Thanks  for sharing  this with me!

Happy Thanksgiving.



***********   LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Perris Jones, the University of Virginia running back who was injured during the Nov. 9 game at L&N Federal Credit Union Stadium is now out of the University of Louisville hospital, but will stay in Louisville for rehab.

Jones was carted off the field after taking a hit from multiple Cardinals that knocked the ball loose. That play resulted in a touchdown for Jones’ team as his teammate Malik Washington recovered the fumble and sprinted into the end zone to give the Cavaliers the lead.

The celebration was short-lived, however, as Jones didn’t get up.

The sixth-year back was taken to the University of Louisville Hospital where he has remained. That is, until Friday when he left the hospital and now heads to Frazier Rehab, the UVA football team posted on social media.

He will be there several weeks for rehab.

Hey, guys - this kid is facing a long rehab and he could use some encouragement.  Let him know you’re thinking of him with a note or a card:

Perris Williams
C/O UVA Football
290 Massie Rd
Charlottesville VA 22903



*********** I have a lot of respect for Mark Richt, as a coach and as a man…

https://www.onlineathens.com/story/sports/college/bulldogs-extra/2023/11/20/mark-richt-parkinsons-disease-college-football-hall-of-fame-georgia-football/71434720007/



***********   Credit to Adam Wesoloski, of Pulaski, Wisconsin, for being the only reader to know  that the only FBS college whose colors are brown and orange is … (drum roll)

BOWLING GREEN


***********  Friday night i watched a little more than half of a Virginia State Class 2 playoff game between Clarke County High (of Berryville) and Riveheads High, from near Staunton.

Why did I watch?  I had been informed that Riverheads was still running the Double Wing. 

Still?  Well I guess.  Riverheads has won ten state titles and - get this - the last SEVEN STRAIGHT  (2016-2022).

Since the 2009, they’ve failed to win 10 games or more in a season just once. (They were 8-2 in 2012.)

They’re going for their eighth in a row, and on Friday night they beat Clarke County, 27-13 to go 11-1 on the season. (They lost their opening game, 8-7, to Central Woodstock.)

They’re a small school from a mostly rural area.  I tuned in just before halftime and unfortunately I didn’t get to see a whole lot of their offense because Clarke County actually controlled the ball much of the second half.  But I did get to see enough.  They ran maybe 80 per cent Super Power.  They still run it the old way (with motion) but it works for them. They have a big  wingback who’s a very strong runner, and it appears that they flip him, so he gets most of the carries.  Smart move.

They ran a few criss-cross counters, and attempted just two passes. They didn’t run their B-Back much at all, but then, what they were running was working.  I only saw them score one TD  against Clarke County, but the week previous they’d put 69 points on somebody.

I’ll be watching Friday night for sure on NFHS Network.  Their opponent?  Central Woodstock.  Now 12-0, Central is the team that beat them, 8-7, in their opening game.


***********   Time to move on?

I’m sorry for James Madison and its fans and all those folks in Harrisonburg, but after all the fuss - and Game Day being held there and all that, you could almost see the App State players seething.  The resulting James Madison OT loss to App State ought to at least free up Virginia’s Attorney General to do more important things than petitioning the NCAA to let the Dukes play in the post-season.  (My state’s AG is way too busy suing Donald Trump to worry about football.)


***********   Pinch me.  Am I dreaming?  Or is Army back to playing Army football on offense?
Did the no cut rule get eliminated?  Hmm.
Joe Gutilla



***********   Follow me on this:  Army spent all last spring and all this past pre-season working on a “new” offense, and ten games into the season, it still sucked.

So this past Saturday, in one week’s time, it reverted to its old, under-center option offense, and  upset Coastal Carolina, 28-21.  in the process, it rushed for 365 yards (almost double its usual output, picked up 22 first downs, converted 8 of 11  first downs, and possessed the ball  40 minutes to 20. 

Granted, it had some players who were still familiar with the old offense and didn’t require quite so much learning time, and granted, Coastal was caught unprepared, but still…

It was  THE ARMY OFFENSE - the one that got Jeff Monken the Army job in the first place. And what do you know - even though the Army slotbacks weren’t able to “cut” block (new rules, don’t you know?) they could still RUN THE TRIPLE!

That has to be one of the greatest coaching jobs I’ve ever seen, and I have to give coach Monken credit.  In one game, Army ran more offense - and ran it better - than I’d seen in any entire recent season.

The main thing it required was for Monken to do something  that’s very hard for people in positions of power to do - admit that he was wrong. 

Actually, he wouldn’t admit as much publicly in his post-game presser, but it’s obvious that  that’s what it took.

He did reveal  in the presser that the plays in this game were called by a member of the staff with triple option experience, and not by the  guys who normally do it - the ones whose supposedly brilliant,  innovative ideas had put the  Army offense on its disastrous path in the first place.

Now, does he have the stones to tell the spread/shotgun guys he brought in, the people behind the disastrous switch,  who bear responsibility for the farcical results,  to go find other jobs?  He’d better.


The TV cameras, unaware that the spread/shotgun guys weren’t actually calling the plays, kept cutting away to shots of them up in the booth, and in looking at the replay, they don’t look particularly happy about watching the old offense moving the ball. For sure, no coach should go through the soap opera of having two contingents - one in favor of spread/shotgun, one in favor of under-center/triple option - on the same staff, with the palace intrigue that’s sure to result.


While waiting the apology that’ll never come - the “I was entrusted with the health of the Army football program and I made a terrible mistake and I’m sorry” - I’d like to use the FOIA to find out the real reason why the switch was made in the first place.

(Now that we know that not being able to run triple option because of a change in the rules was total bullsh—.)




*********** The FCS Playoffs get under way this week…
 

Not to offend anyone (although I know I will) but the difference in quality and power between the lowest-rated teams in those first round games and  those teams given first-round byes is astounding.  I really think (not naming names) you could easily leave out half the teams in those first round games, and wind up eliminating  the first round entirely.



***********   Coach,

I watch your video during my free periods.  This past week was really good.  I love the view using the drone and what a great teaching tool for kids.  I would love to see an entire DW clinic using the drone video.  Wow!!

Also, I too am a huge Army fan and was excited to see them knock off  Air Force. They need two more wins to be bowl eligible.  GO ARMY!!!

Hope you are well and love the weekly videos.

Sean Murphy
Athletic Director
Head Football Coach
John Paul II Catholic High School
Greenville, North Carolina


************   The Athletic should move to a staff of one, Coach Hugh Wyatt. There's more information of true value, and more insight, in today's page than a week's worth of pages anywhere else. The columnists you highlighted filled in gaping holes in my understanding. I knew nothing of the backstory, for example, of why ESPN chose Harrisonburg for College Game Day, as opposed to Corvallis. Likewise, I doubt the bigger sports sites will cover the details of Judge Gary Libey's ruling (Libey doesn't sound like a Lib), which is stunning. It's amazing to consider (pending appeals, of course) that for now the two schools left behind control the purse of the former Pac-12 in total. Retributive justice indeed.

Now the short piece from Greg Woods: Coach Dickert was stating what we know, and many schools in WSU's class know, to wit, they can't compete on the NIL front. I often remind myself what this portends for the Service Academies. Which leads me back to my bandwagon refrain about the NCAA dealing with Ferris State's cigars while failing to address the big issues. I hope the MWC will absorb the Pac-2 and not the other way around. And while the Pac-2 is at it, share some of the spoils of the old Pac-12 with the  new MWC (sort of akin to a doctor or lawyer buying his way into a new practice).

Thanks for an all-time great page, Coach. And condolences to all the affected families at Bennett High.

John Vermillion                    
St Petersburg, Florida



***********   Hugh,    

Army's surprise offense, and Navy's win on Saturday sets up another classic Army-Navy game for the CIC trophy.

On the subject of Army football...their QB was MADE for their "old" offense, and it appears Jeff Monken finally figured that out by unveiling his new "old" offense against Coastal Carolina.  Cut blocks?  We don't need no stinking cut blocks!

Good day for the state of New Mexico!  Jerry Kill's NMSU Aggies embarrassed Auburn, and a 3-7 New Mexico team (I'm embarrassed to say) rolled Fresno State out of MWC championship game contention upsetting the Bulldogs at home 25-17.  Losing QB Mikey Keene hurt the Bulldogs, and their tired defense kept getting gashed by New Mexico's rushing attack.

On the MWC...It's looking more and more like UNLV is the class of the conference now.  But San Jose State is on a roll and the two meet next week in Las Vegas.  Looks like at least 6 MWC teams will get bowl invites.  UNLV, Air Force, San Jose State, Fresno State, Boise State, and Wyoming.  Two others (Utah State with a win over New Mexico, and Colorado State with a win over Hawaii) could also end up with 6 wins to be bowl eligible.

Washington State and Oregon State (the PAC 2) will play most of the MWC schools in football next year.  Won't surprise me to see them absorb the entire MWC in a couple of years, and go after a few other schools.  A wise decision financially for both of them.

As expected Notre Dame won the Sam Hartman Bowl.  At the same time NBC re-upped their TV contract with the Fighting Irish for another 6 years quashing any rumors of the Irish giving up their Independent status.

Minnesota is in very real danger of missing out on bowl season.  A loss to Wisconsin next Saturday in the battle for Paul Bunyan's Axe could shut the Gophers out of the post-season with a 5-7 record overall.  Probably a good thing since they don't have anything that resembles an offense, and a tired defense because of it.

Florida State's chances at the CFP fizzled when QB Jordan Travis broke his ankle.  It's what happens when a team's success is carried by one player.  Look for Michigan, Georgia, Texas, and Washington to fill the CFP slots.


Hope you enjoyed your weekend!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas






***********   QUIZ ANSWER: Chris Hanburger was an Army brat. He was born in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and grew up on and around military bases in North Carolina, South Dakota, Alabama, Panama and Pennsylvania.

When the Army sent his father to Fort Monroe, Virginia, young Chris enrolled in Hampton High School the summer before his junior year.  The Hampton Crabbers, under coach Suey Eason, were a powerhouse, and Chris  had never played organized football.  After four days of practice, he had had enough.

"I was done," he remembered, years later. "I was so sore I could hardly move."

That’s when two teammates, fellow Army brats John and Geoff Ellerson, intervened. Recalled John Ellerson, years later, "We were all Army brats, and anytime you came into a new community or football team, you had to work your way into the organization and win acceptance. It wasn't like he was welcomed with open arms.”

Chris, though,  showed something that everyone recognized. “He was such a natural,” recalled Ellerson.  He was so far above the rest of us. As much as you didn't want him to be good, he was."

So the Ellersons told him that day to get in their car - he  was going to practice with them. 

"I told them, 'Look, I've had it. I ain't going,' " he recalled. "Well, they talked me into going. I think it was that day,  if it was your first year with the Hampton football team, they shaved your head and left a big H on the top.   After they did it, I thought, 'Well goddangit, I can't quit now. I can't walk around here with that sucker and not be on the team.' So I stuck it out.".

Ellerson, who would go to West Point and captain the 1962 Army team,   jokingly recalled,  “I’m sure the reason we went after him is Coach Eason told us to bring him back or not come back ourselves.”

After high school,  Chris had no designs to continue playing football, and when  his father was sent to Alaska, he chose not to go along;  instead, less than two weeks after graduation,  he enlisted in the Army himself.

He spent two years in the Army and, hoping to follow the Ellerson brothers to West Point, he earned an appointment to the Military Academy prep school,  where select enlisted personnel may qualify for admission to the Academy.  There, an accidental collision in a  training exercise resulted in  multiple fractures of the bone around his right eye socket, and  he wound up spending a long time rehabbing at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.,  as  the vision in the eye came and went.

His vision returned but he wound up missing so much class time at school that admission to West Point was out of the question, and once he was discharged,  his former high school coach, Suey Eason, called one of his former players who was then on the  staff at North Carolina, and set things in motion for him to go to Chapel Hill.

He earned a scholarship and, although never much more than 200 pounds, he was a two-time All-ACC center for the Tar Heels, who  in 1963 went 9-2 and won their first-ever ACC title.

(Also a berth in the Gator Bowl - which served as his honeymoon.  "I thought, 'Heck I'll get married and won't have to spend any money on a honeymoon because I don't have any money,' " he recalled.)

After his senior season at North Carolina,  he got a job with  a swimming pool company.

“I didn’t know anything about pro football,” he said. “I didn’t follow it. I was making good money. The pool company was very busy.”

And then one day a North Carolina teammate told him, “Hey, Chris, the Redskins picked you.”

He was taken  in the 18th round, the number  245 overall pick.

He signed for  $2,000 up front and a $7,500 salary for 1965 if he made the team. “The money I got that first year didn’t compare to what I was making with the pool company,” he recalled.

Putting it mildly, the Redskins at that time sucked.  They hadn’t had a winning season since 1955.

He was a rookie third-string right outside linebacker. But then, as he said,  “One guy got hurt, and the other guy complained about never getting any playing time,” and he not only made the team, but he became a starter by game six.

He wound up playing 14 NFL seasons.  At one point,  he started 135 consecutive games. He intercepted 19 passes for 347 yards and two TDs, and he recovered three fumbles for  TDs, a record at he time he retired.

He would start a season weighing maybe 210 pounds, usually ending the season around 200, and his lack of size dictated a style of high-tackling that earned him the nickname “The Hangman.”  He didn’t like that nickname. He preferred another one - “The General” - given him because of his Army service.

In his first six seasons, he played for four different head coaches: Bill McPeak, Otto Graham, Vince Lombardi and Bill Austin.

But then he wound up playing seven seasons for George Allen.

Coming from the Rams, Allen brought in as  many of his former defensive players as he could, earning the team the nickname “Ramskins,” but even though three of those players were linebackers, Chris became one of Allen’s favorites.

As the Redskins got better under Allen, Chris’ reputation grew.  In a five-season span from 1972 to 1976, he was named first-team All-Pro four times.  He was named All-NFC  six times, and was voted to nine Pro Bowls.

In 1972, the Redskins finished 11-3 and made it to the Super Bowl for the first time, and he was named NFL Defensive Player of the Year. (That was the year of the Miami Dolphins’ perfect season.)

When “Ramskin” Jack Pardee retired following the   Super Bowl, Chris became the “quarterback” of Allen’s defense.

Said George Alen’s son, Bruce, who later became Redskins’ GM, “Today’s media applauds Peyton Manning and Tom Brady for being able to run the offense and audible and check.  Well, Chris Hanburger did that in the ’70s. He not only called defenses on his own, he had over 100 audibles each game that he had to manage.”

Hall of Fame guard John Hannah called him “the smartest player in the league at the time.”

Asked to recall a favorite moment from his playing days, he simply said, “My favorite moment was when the games were over.  I wasn’t a big guy and didn’t like getting all beat up out there.”

He retired after the 1978 season and for years he owned a Ford Dealership bearing his name in the DC area until he sold it and retired to South Carolina.

There, he prefers to live a life of semi-seclusion.

Chris Hanburger was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2011 and although pleased by the honor, he expressed reluctance to attend the festivities.

“I’m a loner,” he said.  “Always have been. You could give me a shack 20 miles off a paved road, send me supplies two or three times a year, and I'm a happy guy."

His Hall of Fame acceptance speech was exceptional.  “I don’t consider myself a true Hall of Famer,” he said.  “I say that because to me,  I’m an Army brat.  I spent two years in the Army right out of high school before I went to college - to me the real Hall of Fame people are all the men and women of our armed forces, all the men and women in law enforcement, and all the firefighters, men and women.”



CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING CHRIS HANBURGER


JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
TOM DAVIS - SAN MARCOS, CALIFORNIA
TOM WALLS - WINNIPEG, MANITOBA
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY








*********** QUIZ:  This past weekend, the news of the accomplishment somewhat obscured by the growing scandal surrounding the illegal and unethical signal-stealing of which it’s been accused,  Michigan became the first college football program to  win 1,000 games. 

Along the  way, the Wolverines have won eleven national  titles.

Six of them were won by the legendary Fielding H. Yost, who retired following  the 1926 season to become Michigan’s Athletics Director.

But in the 96 seasons since Yost’s retirement, Michigan has won just five national  titles.  Today’s quiz subject won two of them - two more than the legendary Bo Schembechler -  yet when they discuss Michigan coaches, his name is seldom mentioned.

The son of German immigrants, he grew up in Lansing, Michigan, and at Lansing High School he was captain of the school’s undefeated football team, setting a school season scoring record of  175 points (28 touchdowns, 2 field goals, 1 extra point).

At Michigan, under the great Yost,  he played on  teams that compiled a  three-year record of 19-1-2, and as a senior he was captain of the 1923 team that went 8-0 and won a national title.

A great runner and passer, he is still regarded as one of the school’s all-time great punters, famed for his ability to kick the ball out of bounds inside the ten-yard line.  None other than the great Walter Camp, after seeing him score all Michigan’s points and punt 10 times in a 19-0 win over Ohio State in the just-opened Ohio Stadium - named him to his 1922 All-America team.

He was also outstanding in basketball and baseball, and he holds the honor of being Michigan's first nine-letter man.

After graduation, he served as an assistant football coach - and head baseball coach - at Missouri for four years, then returned to his home state as head coach at Michigan Agricultural College (now Michigan State).

He had signed a three-year contract, but after one year he was released from his contract to become the head coach at Michigan.

In nine years as the Wolverines’ head coach, they would win four straight conference titles and back-to-back national titles (1932 and 1933).

His winning four consecutive conference titles places him with Yost and Bo  Schembechler, as the only Michigan coaches  to do so.

The Depression was having its effect on Michigan football and its revenues.  Michigan Stadium was three-quarters empty for many games, partly as a result of the team’s mediocre play:  in the years from 1934 and 1937, Michigan’s record was a dismal  10–22.  It didn’t help that during that time Michigan lost four straight to both Michigan State and Ohio State.

He was let go after the 1937 season and was replaced by Fritz Crisler, then coaching at Princeton.  He appeared surprised by the move, and said that  he had been looking forward eagerly to  the  1938 season,  when a great group of freshmen that he had recruited would be eligible to play on the varsity team. 

His overall record at Michigan was 46-26-4.

It’s impossible to say what might have happened had he been retained, but the 1938 Michigan team, under Crisler, would go 6-1-1,  its only defeat a 7-6 loss to Big Ten champion Minnesota.  Two of our guy’s highly-anticipated  “great freshmen” - a halfback named Tom Harmon and a single wing blocking back named Forest Evashevski - would be named All-America team as sophomores.  When they were seniors, Michigan would finish 7-1 and ranked Number three in the nation, and Harmon would win the Heisman Trophy.

Despite his firing, he was quite popular around Michigan, and in 1940 he ws elected to the University’s Board of Regents, serving for eight years.

In 1942, at the age of 43, he joined the Navy and served in World War II.

Until his retirement he served as President of the Coca-Cola Company of Chicago.

He is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame and the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame.

President Gerald Ford, who played for him and captained the Michigan team his senior year, credited the coach with persuading him to attend  Michigan, after the principal of Ford’s high school wrote the coach  and invited him to come to Grand Rapids to meet young Ford and his family.  In a time before football scholarships, the coach found Ford a job at the University Hospital, waiting on tables in the interns’ dining room and washing dishes in the nurses’ cafeteria.

The coach also found Ford a job after  graduation. “In the spring of my senior year,” Ford recalled,  “(He) got me an assistant football coaching job at Yale University under head coach Ducky Pond. As assistant line coach, head Junior Varsity coach, and the man in charge of scouting our opponents from 1935 through 1940, I was able to attend and graduate from Yale University Law School.”





FRIDAY, NOVEMBER  17,   2023 - “A good plan executed today is better than a perfect plan executed at some indefinite point in the future.”   General George S. Patton, Jr


***********  FINAL WEEKEND FOR THE CFL

GREY CUP FINAL SUNDAY - 6 PM EST

MONTREAL VS WINNIPEG

AT HAMILTON, ONTARIO


*********** THIS WEEKEND’S LINEUP - I CAN’T REMEMBER WHEN I’VE SEEN SO MANY SORRY-ASS MATCHUPS.


COASTAL CAROLINA AT ARMY +5.5 - Unless CCU  does like Army’s last two opponents - Air Force and Holy Cross - and becomes a turnover machine, this could get bad. One bright spot - reports are that Army coach Jeff Monken is considering looking at more under-center work and a possible revisit of  at least aspects of his former offense during the off-season.


EAST CAROLINA + 2.5 AT NAVY - Watch out, Middies. ECU is only 2-8, but they won their second game last week, and two weeks ago they lost to Tulane by just three points.


PAC-12

COLORADO + 4.5  AT WASHINGTON STATE - FRIDAY NIGHT GAME - Loser owns the cellar. WSU has lost six straight and Colorado has lost four straight.  Both teams go in with 1-6 conference records.  It’s probably the last chance for either one to win a conference game: WSU plays at Washington next week, and Colorado plays at Utah.


UTAH AT ARIZONA + 1.5 - This is a battle for fourth place in the Pac-12. Arizona is easily the most improved team in the conference. In a conference loaded with good quarterbacks, ‘Zona’s Noah Fifita already looks like he belongs with them.


UCLA +6.5 AT USC - It wasn’t so long ago that when these teams met, one or the other was in the running for the national title, or at least the Rose Bowl. USC was beaten last week by Oregon, but UCLA was totally embarrassed by Arizona State. There’s been noise about Chip Kelly’s being on the hot seat, but he’s  got a buyout of some $24 million, and if memory serves me correctly, the need for revenue was what drove UCLA to abandon the Pac-12  and join USC in  fleeing to the Big Easy. You telling me that somebody who not so long ago was crying poverty has $24 million to burn?


CAL AT STANFORD + 7 - This was once simply referred to as the “Big Game.”  Cal impressed me by nearly upsetting USC.  Stanford is just not very good.  Maybe David Shaw saw this coming.


OREGON AT ARIZONA STATE + 23.5 - This would be worth watching just to see Oregon play. If it weren’t for a couple of knucklehead calls in the Washington game by the head coach, they’d be unbeaten, and probably ranked ahead of Florida State in the playoff standings.  The Ducks’ offense is really creative, and they’ve got the QB in Bo Nix,  and speed at every position. And maybe the best  running back in the conference in Bucky Irving.


WASHINGTON +1  AT OREGON STATE - An indication of the respect in which Oregon State is held (especially at home):   the twice-beaten Beavers (ranked #10) are a one-point favorite over the unbeaten Huskies (ranked #5). I do think that the Beavers have a strong enough defense and a strong enough running game that  they can keep the game close. To me, the trick for OSU is to use DJ Uiagalelei’s strengths, but not to put the entire offense on his shoulders.  But UW’s Penix is so damned accurate, and he has possibly the best set of receivers in the country.


ACC

WAKE FOREST + 24.5  AT NOTRE DAME - Can we have Sam Hartman back for rest of the season?  Wake OC Warren Ruggiero knows how to use him.

SYRACUSE +6 AT GEORGIA TECH - The only Tech football I’ve seen so far was  the end of the Miami game. With both teams 5-5, there’s a lot on the line here. Syracuse will get a second chance next week against Wake Forest, but Tech had better win this one because the Jackets sure aren’t going to beat Georgia next week.

BC +3  AT PITT (THURSDAY NIGHT) - This one could be loser-leaves-town match: both coaches are on the hot seat, but at least BC  is bowl eligible - whoever thought that Pitt would be 2-8 at this point?

NORTH CAROLINA STATE +2.5 AT VIRGINIA TECH - Tech is 5-5; The Pack is 7-3.  Tech is maybe the most improved team in the ACC.

NORTH CAROLINA + 6.5 AT CLEMSON - I  pawned our silverware and went out and bought Clemson stock, just like Dabo  told me to do.

DUKE AT VIRGINIA + 3.5 - The Duke that took North Carolina into OT last week will kill UVa. But the UVa that lost to Louisville by just a touchdown is good enough to beat Duke.  Ah, the hell with it - Go Devils!

NORTH ALABAMA AT FLORIDA STATE (NO LINE) - Hmmm.  Could scheduling a weak the week before they play the Gators just like the SEC Big Boys be the Seminoles way of signaling the SEC that they’re ready to join?



BIG 12

TEXAS AT IOWA STATE +7.5 - Come on, Cyclones! (Do you suppose if Iowa State upsets the Longhorns it’ll help Matt Campbell get the Texas A & M job?)

OKLAHOMA  AT BYU +24 - No Interest

CINCINNATI + 6.5 AT WEST VIRGINIA - No Interest

BAYLOR + 2.5 AT TCU - No interest

UCF + 1-1/2 AT TEXAS TECH - Might watch

OKLAHOMA STATE AT HOUSTON + 7.5 - Should be worth watching, especially after the Cowboys’ big loss last week to UCF.

KANSAS STATE AT KANSAS +9.5 - Definitely will watch.  Hard to figure  the size of the spread. I think K-State will win but the Jayhawks will cover.
 


MOUNTAIN WEST

UNLV + 3.5  AT AIR FORCE - I’ve really been waiting for this game. UNLV is HOT, and - injuries or not - AF has gone in the tank the last two times out. If Falcons are healthy - and they’ve got their heads back on straight -  they’ll probably win. If not, UNLV has the horses  and the scheme to whip ‘em.

NEW MEXICO + 23.5 AT FRESNO STATE - Fresno needs to win to stay in contention for the championship game. No problem.


HAWAII + 13.5 AT WYOMING - Rainbows have a 2-game win streak.  The return home will help the Cowboys who have sucked on the road.


NEVADA + 11.5 AT COLORADO STATE - Ignore the spread, because with former Nevada coach Jay Norvell now the HC at CSU, this has become a grudge match for the Wolfpack.


BOISE STATE AT UTAH STATE + 3.5 - Both teams 5-5. Boise just fired their HC,  and I go with the age-old interim coach effect and pick the Broncos.

SAN DIEGO STATE + 14.5 AT SAN JOSE STATE - The Spartans are on a four-game win streak and are now 5-5.




BIG PHONY   (CAN YOU SENSE A NORTHWESTERNER’S CONTEMPT FOR THE BIG TEN AND WHAT IT’S DONE TO OUR FOOTBALL?)

FIND ME AN INTERESTING FOOTBALL GAME IN HERE

MICHIGAN AT MARYLAND + 19.5 - No interest

RUTGERS + 20.5  AT PENN STATE - No interest

MINNESOTA + 27.5 AT OHIO STATE - No interest

MICHIGAN STATE +4.5 AT INDIANA - No interest

PURDUE +1.5 AT NORTHWESTERN - Maybe

ILLINOIS +3.5 AT IOWA  - I may actually watch

NEBRASKA +6.5 AT WISCONSIN - I might watch it




NOT  WORTH MY  TIME

SHAME ON YOU SEC (“IT JUST MEANS LESS”)


TENNESSEE CHATTANOOGA +45.5 AT ALABAMA* - No interest

LOUISIANA MONROE +37.5  AT OLE MISS - No interest

ABILENE CHRISTIAN (NO LINE) AT TEXAS A & M* - No interest

NEW MEXICO STATE + 23.5 AT AUBURN - I’ll watch because I like NMSU’s Diego Pavia

GEORGIA STATE + 30.5  AT LSU - No interest

VANDERBILT  AT BYE 

*  THESE GAMES ARE EVEN CONSIDERED DOGS BY  ESPN - THEY’RE ONLY ON ESPN+


SEC GAMES MAYBE WORTH WATCHING

GEORGIA AT TENNESSEE + 10.5

FLORIDA + 15.5 AT MISSOURI

KENTUCKY AT SOUTH CAROLINA +1.5

SOUTHERN MISS + 14 AT MISSISSIPPI  STATE*



***********   THE JOB BOARD ———

TEXAS A & M -  One thing we know about A & M is that they have a lot of rich bastards to whom money means nothing, so if you’re even close to being on their list, you might as well put them to them work for you, without your having to go to work for them. That means you (your agent, actually) has  a chat with your AD and tells him that while he’s spoken to the people at A & M, he knows that you’re very happy right here, and he’s sure  that some sort of sign that you’re appreciated - say, a nice raise and a five-year extension - would go a long way toward keeping you here.  I figure that  anyone they talk to seriously will already be an established coach, already making at least $2.5 million a year.  How much more money does a guy need, especially when it’s going to mean working for people with A & M’s values? In the words of Roy Williams, “How many golf balls does one man need?”


MISSISSIPPI STATE - It’s a tough job, but people have been successful here.

Jackie Sherrill left in 2003  with a 75-75 record;

Silvester Croom succeeded him and left after the 2008 season with a 21-38 record. 

But since then, the Bulldogs have had ten winning seasons and four losing seasons. That's not the sign of a chronic loser. They’ve been to a bowl game 13 straight years (thanks to a couple of 6-7 seasons) and with two games remaining in the season, they’re one win away from bowl eligibility.

Dan Mullen 69-46

Joe Moorhead 14-12

Mike Leach 19-17

Zach Arnett  5-6


BOISE STATE - Take it from Houston Nutt, Dirk Koetter, Dan Hawkins, Chris Peterson, Bryan Harsin - It’s a great place to position yourself for the next job (if you want to leave). They’ve never had to fire a coach. Yes, in 1996, after Tom Mason  coached the team on an interim basis when  head coach Pokey Allen fell fatally ill with cancer, he was not retained after a 1-9 season.  But  technically,  they’ve never had to fire a coach. Great place to live, good facilities, a national reputation, a  good conference. 


SAN DIEGO  STATE - How can this NOT be a great job? 

They’ve had two really great runs, first under Don Coryell, from 1961  to 1972, and then, more recently, under Rocky Long, from 2011 to 2019. In his nine years there, Long went 81-38. In the Mountain West Conference West Division, his  Aztecs finished in first place twice, tied for first three  times, and in second place twice.  And he  took them to nine straight bowls.

More recently, Brady Hoke’s Aztecs went 12-2 in 2021. But they slipped to 7-6 in 2022, and this year has been a disaster: they’re tied with New Mexico for dead last in the conference at 1-5, and 3-7 overall.

They’ve got a nice, new on-campus stadium, they’re in a good conference, and they’re in one of the country’s most fertile recruiting areas.  Other than the fact that it is a California state school, with all the political problems that might entail - How can this NOT be a great job? 


 

*********** More than ever, America needs good men who serve others:   in the military… as husbands and fathers… as coaches.
Bennett, Colorado, where my long-time friend Greg Koenig coaches, lost such a man this week with the sudden and unexpected death of Coach Leland Driggs.

My deepest sympathies to his family - two of his boys play on the Bennett team - to the Bennett football team, and to the Bennett Community and  the people of America on the loss of a good man.


***********  Mark Madden, in the Pittsburgh Tribune,  on Harbaugh

Whether it's recruiting violations or stealing signs, Harbaugh has carte blanche to cheat as he pleases.

Meantime, Harbaugh martyrs himself. He declares that Michigan is "America's Team." That might be true. Harbaugh got caught cheating but plays the victim. There's something sadly American about that.

Michigan isn't "a team that beats the odds, beats the adversity," as Harbaugh says. They're a team that sweeps excrement under the rug.

The situation is loudly debated during ESPN's six-hour block of nonstop yelling and mugging weekdays from 8 a.m.-2 p.m.

Meatheads like ex-NFL lineman Jeff Saturday bray for Harbaugh to get "due process." It's not a criminal proceeding, Matlock. It's only college football.

Desmond Howard openly stooges for his alma mater on ESPN because that's what the Worldwide Leader has sadly become: A forum for cheerleading.

Former Notre Dame coach Lou Holtz says that suspending Harbaugh isn't fair to Michigan's players. But aren't they beneficiaries from stealing signs?

College football analyst Paul Finebaum got it right: "(Michigan) isn't America's team. This isn't what America's about. This team is not representative of anything other than a program accused of cheating. Cheating."

Finebaum, as a voice of reason, sounds out of place on ESPN.

Harbaugh should shut up and serve his suspension quietly, grateful that it isn't really a suspension at all. But it's more fun to climb up on the cross.

*********** The Birth of the Pac-2

Jon Wilner , who writes for the San Jose Mercury News, has followed the Pac-12 saga as closely as Portland's Jon Canzano has. In fact, they’ve often collaborated.

Here, Wilner explains how, for one brief moment, in a courtroom in a small town in Eastern Washington, common sense prevailed…

Washington State and Oregon State on Tuesday grabbed control of the Pac-12’s governing board and power of the purse that comes with it, at least for now.

After a two-and-a-half-hour hearing, Whitman County (Wash.) Superior Court Judge Gary Libey granted the schools’ request for a preliminary injunction that confirms they are the only remaining voting members of the shattered conference.

The Pac-12 “will be governed by the two universities that have not submitted their notices of intent to withdraw,” Libey said.

However, Libey stayed his ruling until the end of the week as the defendant, Washington (acting on behalf of all 10 departing members), seeks an appeal from the Washington Supreme Court in Olympia.

But the ruling Tuesday evening begins to clear the way for WSU and OSU to control more than $400 million in revenue for the current fiscal year and whatever long-term assets the conference maintains following the departure of 10 schools next summer.

“We are pleased with the court’s common-sense decision today,” WSU president Kirk Schulz and athletic director Pat Chun said in a statement. “It has always been our view that the future of the Pac-12 should be determined by the remaining members, not by those schools that are leaving the conference.

“This position is consistent with the action the Pac-12 Board of Directors took when the first two schools (USC and UCLA) announced their departure from the conference more than a year ago.”

While ruling in favor of the Cougars and Beavers, Libey attempted to make sure the contentious situation is dealt with equitably, perhaps signaling that some of the 2023-24 revenue should be distributed to the outbound schools.

“This is not a shutout” in favor of WSU and OSU, Libey added. “The (preliminary injunction) is going to be modified to make sure the other 10 are still treated in a fair manner … Nobody’s going to take advantage of somebody else.”

Libey included a stipulation that the 10 outbound schools must be notified of board meetings and allowed to participate — but they are forbidden from voting.

The 10 departing schools released the following statement:

“We are disappointed with the decision and are immediately seeking review in the Washington Supreme Court and requesting to put on hold implementation of this decision. As members of the Pac-12, participating in ongoing and scheduled competitions, we are members of the board under the Pac-12 bylaws.

“We have the right to the revenue earned by our schools during the 2023-2024 academic year, which is necessary in order to operate our athletics programs and to provide mental and physical health services, academic support, and other support programs for our student-athletes.”

Exactly how the Cougars and Beavers plan to distribute the revenue and manage the assets, which could include more than $100 million in revenue from the NCAA tournament and Rose Bowl, remains unclear. After all, the two schools left behind in the realignment game were not able to plan for their future while waiting for the ruling on their motion for the injunction.

One option is to compete as a two-team conference in 2024-25. The cash could be used to piece together schedules and dangle in front of expansion candidates from the Mountain West Conference.

“Our intentions are to make reasonable business decisions going forward while continuing to seek collaboration and consultation with the departing universities,” OSU president Jayathi Murthy and athletic director Scott Barnes said in a statement.

Libey’s ruling was hardly a surprise, for the preponderance of real-world evidence favored the plaintiffs.

Attorneys for WSU and OSU argued that the 10 outbound schools relinquished their board positions when they agreed to join other conferences and cited the “notice of withdrawal” section in the Pac-12 bylaws.

As evidence, they pointed to the Pac-12’s treatment of USC and UCLA starting last summer, after the schools announced their pending departures to the Big Ten: USC’s president and UCLA’s chancellor were promptly removed from the Pac-12’s governing board — and commissioner George Kliavkoff said as much in multiple subsequent court declarations.

Washington’s attorneys argued the departing schools had not given notice of withdrawal and should remain on the board. Their case was based on an interpretation of language in the bylaws about the “delivery of notice” provision.
Libey didn’t buy it.

“I grew up where conduct spoke louder than words,” he said, alluding to the L.A. schools losing their board seats.

Libey included in his ruling that the conference shall be able to operate in the normal course of business until the stay is lifted.

***********  Based on this except from an article by Greg Woods in the Spokane Spokesman-Review, it sure sounds as if Washington State maybe belongs in the Mountain West after all…

Greg Woods
The Spokesman-Review

PULLMAN – Jake Dickert spent some 20 minutes chatting with media during his weekly news conference on Monday. He used nearly a quarter of that time to address Washington State’s place in the name, image and likeness ecosystem.

The Cougars are “not even competitive in some aspects of the NIL,” Dickert said, explaining that college football is no longer dictated by “passion and spirit.” It’s about the dollars.

“The facts are, Washington State, we’re way behind. Not even competitive in some aspects of the NIL,” Dickert said. “In recruiting, these kids tell you what they’re getting. Oregon State probably has us by 10x. Arizona has us by 20x. USC, Washington, Oregon – who even knows. It’s a whole ‘nother planet.

“I’m very supportive of the players getting a piece of the puzzle and profiting off their name image, likeness. I’ve said that many times up here. But to think as a university and a program to be where we want to be – and we know we should be – it’s gonna be a huge part of it. It has to be, especially at the forefront of the football program.”

*********** Kerry Eggers, longtime Portland sports writer, now  writes his own column for subscribers, and in this one he nails ESPN…

ESPN had a role in the ill-fated judgment that kicked Oregon State and Washington State to the curb in the conference realignments that left the Pac-12 with two schools for 2024-25.

Now the network is adding a solar plexus shot.

Analyst Kirk Herbstreit had apparently let the cat out of the bag last Tuesday when he said on a Seattle radio show, “I think our crew will be at Oregon State next week.”

The reference was to this Saturday’s titanic between the Beavers and Washington at Reser Stadium. The implication was, should OSU and U-Dub win their games on Saturday, the ensuing matchup would be the site of ESPN College GameDay on Nov. 18.
 
It made perfect sense. After the Beavers drubbed Stanford and Washington got by Utah, it makes even more sense. The Huskies are ranked fifth and the Beavers 10th in this week’s college football polls.

Beaver Nation was excited. College GameDay had visited Corvallis only once — for the Civil War game in 2010. The one would have been a memorable experience for a football program and fan base that deserve something good to happen.

Then during the second half of the OSU-Stanford game came official word that the GameDay crew would be instead heading to the campus of James Madison in Harrisburg, Va.

Oh, and by the way — for the third time.

The Dukes, 10-0 and now ranked 18th and 21st in the AP and Coaches polls, respectively, will play host to 6-4 Appalachian State in a Sun Belt Conference matchup.

James Madison football is a nice story. The program transitioned from FCS to Group of Five FBS status by joining the Sun Belt in 2022. The NCAA has a ridiculous rule stipulating that during a two-year “reclassifying” period a school cannot participate in a bowl — or even in their conference title game. James Madison has appealed for a waiver, but so far the NCAA is holding firm.

But let’s get real. Which matchup would more appeal to the majority of ESPN’s audience on Saturday — Appalachian State-James Madison or Washington-Oregon State?

And of course, Oregon State football is a good story, too. But not to ESPN, which in cahoots with Fox is culpable in the deplorable realignment snafu that has left the Pac-12’s two smallest markets holding the bag in the conference.

Why would ESPN choose James Madison over a matchup of top-10 teams? 

“They’re afraid,” OSU athletic director Scott Barnes said on the sidelines at Reser as the Beavers were putting the finishing touches on their win over Stanford. “They don’t want to tell our story. I’m so mad. I can’t wrap my head around it.”

https://www.kerryeggers.com/stories/no-espn-crew-in-corvallis-so-beavers-aim-for-their-own-game-day-vs-huskies?mc_cid=abb31348e4&mc_eid=6f7fbc8761



***********   Game Day is going to be a joke. Instead of being in Corvallis, Oregon, where ESPN would get just a little of the enmity that it has coming to it, for its role in the breakup of the Pac-12, the show will be in Harrisonburg, Virginia, where the villain can  be the evil NCAA and its insistence on adhering to its rule that prevents unbeaten James Madison from playing in the post-season - unless  there aren’t enough teams with bowl-qualifying records, in which case James Madison will be given a dispensation.

As a sign of ESPN’s hypocrisy - College GameDay will be held at the site of a game that won’t even be broadcast on a network, cable or otherwise.  Not even on one of ESPN’s many  channels.  James Madison-Appalachian State will be streamed (for a fee, of course) on ESPN+.



***********   I reached I’ve reached the  stage where everybody was much tougher when I was younger, blah, blah, blah -  and as one way of backing up mu argument,  I can  show  all the rules football has devised to protect its precious quarterbacks.

But football’s not the only sport that’s getting softer.

Consider baseball’s Cy Young Award - supposedly to the best pitcher in each league. In the National League, Blake Snell of the San Diego Padres won it.  (He had a won-lost record of 14-9.)  Toughness?  In his career so far, he’s started 191 games and has yet to finish one.

Cy Young  started 815 games and completed 749 of them.

As for the wins and losses - Cy Young won 511 games in his career. 

At Snell’s pace (get the pun?) of 14 wins a year, it would take him more than 36 years to hit 511.


*********** I don’t pay that much attention to the NFL so you’ll have to forgive me for not understanding why, after Buffalo lost to the Broncos when a too-many-men-on-the-field penalty gave Denver a second (and this time successful)  shot at the game-winning field goal,  the Bills’ reaction was to fire their offensive coordinator.


*********** Here's one fer ya:  There are more than 130  colleges playing FBS football, but only one whose colors are brown and orange.



 
*********  Coach Wyatt,

Thank you for all you do for this Black Lion Award.  I have attached our nominee letter of recommendation.  He is a great one.  I am very excited for his future in whatever he chooses to do.

Also, thanks for including me in the zoom meeting.  I rarely have time to watch it live but I always watch the video.  You do a great job of simplifying football.  I love it.

Robbie Gunter
Head Coach
Box Elder High School
Brigham City, Utah

***********   Hi Coach - hope all is well with you!

John Mclaughry is this week's trivia answer.

A little side story about Mr. Bissinger, author of "Mosquito Bowl"...I read "Friday Night Lights" back when my son was attending LD Bell High School in Bedford, Texas (remember Tommy Maddox?)...

Anyway, I was struck by how Mr. Bissinger, a Northeast liberal, was so condescending to all the characters in the book. Every character was drawn in a negative light, and I subsequently read that the Odessa/Permian community held him as 'persona non grata' for a time (I think they've 'made up' since then, though)...

...all the characters except one, that is. The one positive, sympathetic character in the whole book was one, Nate Hearne, who happened to be an assistant principal at Bell at the time, and whom also became a good friend of mine at the time (I introduced him to your 'blog', in fact).

I remember his humble, sheepish look when I brought the book in to his office, and asked; "Nate, why didn't you tell me you're famous?" and his embarrassed reply was a shrug of the shoulders, a shy smile, and upraised palms as if to say; "What was I supposed to say?" We laughed at each other.

Nate Hearne is a towering figure of a man, honorable, upstanding, and I am honored to have known him as a friend.

Nate's book is about the untold stories from FNL:

https://www.amazon.com/Friday-Night-Lights-Untold-Stories/dp/0991151119

and his 'ministry' is very much in keeping with the Black Lion values you have espoused and honorably represented:

https://www.drnatehearne.com/dr-nate-hearne/#:~:text=In%20the%20late%201980s%2C%20Dr,hired%20in%20the%20football%20program.


We know one of the traditions of ESPN's 'College Game Day' is the plethora of hand-held signs. Well, one caught my eye. It said; "HARBAUGH STOLE MY OTHER SIGN!"

God Bless you, Coach!

J. Rothwell, DC
Corpus Christi, Texas


Hi John,

Like you, I am no particular fan of H. G. “Buzz” Bissinger.

I remember seeing him on TV, on the sidelines  at a Texas HS championship game.  It’s possible that Permian was playing.  His book was about to come out and he was being interviewed, and as he described it, it was just going to be a warm, folksy look at a typical town in Texas where football was king. Telling less than the truth is not better than telling a lie, and it really pissed me off to read the book and see the ugly way he had portrayed much of the  town  and its people - how he had betrayed the people who had opened their homes, their town, and their lives to him in the spirit of small town hospitality.

Thanks for sharing Nate Hearne’s  story!



***********   Coach,

We had a group that, on paper, was a 6-7 win team. However, with only two returning on offense, and four on defense, it took us a while to get the consistency at a high level that is needed to win tough games. But, much to their credit, our boys trusted us and the process, and got better every week. We played our best football at the end of the year. We just needed one more game to get in the playoffs - we would have been a dangerous 5-4 team, I think.

I cannot tell you how many times I told our guys this year about "a coaching mentor of mine that talks about why a boxer keeps jabbing." Once we got our feet under us those jabs started to find their openings and wear opponents down.

Coach - this was my twenty-fifth year as a head coach (thirty-first overall). One of my assistants has been with me the entire time. Our final game this year got us our 150th win. All but eight of those came as a double wing team. I've told you this before, and as I reflect back, I know it to be even more true - I owe so much of my success, my program's success, to you and your mentorship. Not just the offense. The whole package. I don't know if I would have lasted as a young head coach had I not seen Dynamics in a box in the office I took over, and then all of the guidance you've poured into me over the years. Thank you.

Todd Hollis
Elmwood, Illinois


Pride may be a deadly sin, but you have no idea how proud this make me feel…


***********   Hugh,

I  enjoyed Tuesday nights clinic as usual.

I  liked the drone video from coach Koenig from Colorado.

I called Dan Crume  at Apollo High School to see if it was legal to use in Kentucky.

Dan said that it was illegal in Kentucky.

He further stated that if a drone is sighted during the game the game is stopped until it gone. That is the KHSAA official rule on drones.

See you in two weeks.

David Crump
Owensboro, Kentucky


********** David Braun is another Wisconsinite

Adam Wesoloski
Pulaski, Wisconsin




***********   America owes an enduring debt to the tough people in Western PA. Tell me again...why are you playing three levels up? Thanks for the photo of the field. The "Chief", however, doesn't look real excited, and the sad "pony" doesn't look capable of a gallop, even for the length of the field. But, doggone it, the Quips are investing much time and energy into the proud steed and his brilliantly-attired rider.

I don't know who first spoke the words in the quotation, but my first candidate would've been Cormac McCarthy, or maybe Wallace Stegner.

No matter the sports website, almost every day I see M. Rapinoe's name. I thought she retired two months ago at least. Then, I read a headline about 'Megan's final game'. She's had more last games than anyone ever. They treat her as if she's the greatest female athlete of all time (but only bc she's woke and gay). And I'm sure we've noticed the push to mainstream professional women's soccer. Multiple networks throwing what, 450 million over four years, to give us more Rapinoes?

John Vermillion                    
St Petersburg, Florida



***********   Hugh,

Michigan showed America that running the football is what MADE the game of football, and what makes teams contenders.  "We're going to run the ball and there ain't a damn thing they can do about it."  And Penn State, as good as their defense is, couldn't stop them.  Running the ball like that takes the fight out of an opponent.  It demoralizes their defense.  It keeps their offense on the sidelines, and creates panic for the opposing coaches.

I knew the San Jose State game was a trap game for Fresno State.  The Bulldogs will bounce back vs. New Mexico and San Diego State, but they'll need some help now from UNLV to get into the MWC championship game.  Can't count on Boise to help out since they lost their HC Andy Avalos.

Speaking of losing coaches...Texas A&M's loss of Jimbo Fisher could be Duke's loss as well.  Blue Devils HC Mike Elko would be a no brainer hire for the Aggies.

Also...Mississippi State can't go wrong with naming either Willie Fritz of Tulane, or Jayme Chadwell of Liberty as their new boss.

Don't like making predictions but Georgia should end up as No. 1.  But I won't be surprised if Alabama sneaks into the playoffs
I think Oregon State has as good a shot as anyone to knock off Washington this week.  

Will be interesting to see which Sam Hartman shows up this week for Notre Dame vs. Wake Forest.  The one who has played down to his expectations for the Fighting Irish, or the one who set records at Wake Forest and led the Deacs to a banner season last year.



Have a great week!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas




  
IN THE PHOTO  AT LEFT, THAT'S HIS DAD ON THE LEFT. IN THE MIDDLE IS ANDY KERR, HALL OF FAME COACH WHOSE 1932 COLGATE TEAM WAS "UNDEFEATED, UNTIED, UNSCORED ON, AND UNINVITED" (TO THE ROSE BOWL)



***********   QUIZ ANSWER:  Buzz Bissinger, famed as the author of Friday Night Lights, made John McLaughry one of the main characters in his book, “The Mosquito Bowl,” about the bloody World War II fight  for Okinawa, and a football game played  on Christmas Eve, 1944, on Guadalcanal, between  Marines  from  two different regiments.

Before joining the Marines, he played at Brown, and had played a year with the New York Giants.

After the War, he became a football coach, just like his dad.

He was born into a life of football, in New Wilmington, Pennsylvania, where his father, Tuss McLaughry,  was the head coach at Westminster College. The family moved to Amherst, Massachusetts  when he was just 5 and his dad took the job at Amherst College, and  they moved four years later to Providence, Rhode Island when his dad was hired as head coach at Brown. 

After graduation from high school he enrolled at Brown,  where he captained an unbeaten freshman team.  At the varsity level, he was a  standout  blocking back/fullback  for three years, calling all the plays on both offense and defense, and was team captain his senior year.

He was named an All-East football player, but he also was  an All-American in track his senior year  with  the fifth longest hammer throw ever by an American (at that time).

He majored in art at Brown, and was president of his senior class.

He played in the East-West Shrine game in the post season, and the following summer he was captain of the College All-Stars. 

He played in the 1940 season for the New York Giants, but then enlisted in the Marines.   He saw action in World War II on numerous  Pacific islands, including Guadalcanal, Bougainville, Guam and Okinawa, and was among the first of the American forces to arrive in Japan following the end of the war.  At war’s end, he retired as a major, and embarked on a coaching career.

After one year as an assistant at Connecticut, he became the head coach at Union College in Schenectady, New York. 1947. In three seasons there, he posted a record of 17-6-1. HIs  1948 team finished 7-1, and his 1949 team went 7-0-1, only the third undefeated season in school history  The 1948 squad finished 7-1.

In 1950 he was hired at Amherst, and coached there through the 1958 season, when he accepted the job at Brown.  HIs record at Amherst was 44-23-4  with  three Little Three (Amherst, Wesleyan, Williams) wins. 

In eight years at Brown (1959-1966),  he struggled to win.  Succeeding Alva Kelley, who had put together three straight winning seasons, he went 2-6-1, 3-6, 0-9, 1-6-2 and 3-5 before finally posting  a winning season (5-4)  in his sixth year.  But  when that was followed by records of 2-7 and 1-8, he was “reassigned” as Director of Summer and Special Projects until his retirement in 1979.  HIs overall record at Brown was 17-51-3.

After retirement, he devoted much of his time to his art.  An active painter for much of his life, his work was shown several times at the Providence Art Club, of which he was a longtime member.

A year after he graduated from Brown, his father had  moved on to coach at Dartmouth, and they never coached together.

Years  after McLaughry’s death, as Bissinger was doing research for his book,  McLaughry’s  children gave the author   access  to their father’s records, which included  letters he’d written during the war.  “I was enormously lucky,” Bissinger told a newspaper.  “The family had kept everything.”




CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING JOHN MCLAUGHRY


JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOHN IRION - ARGYLE, NEW YORK
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOHN ROCKWELL - CORPUS CHRISTI, TEXAS
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON




(NEVER DID SETTLE ON A HELMET DESIGN, DID THEY?)

***********   QUIZ: He was an Army brat. He was born in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and grew up on and around military bases in North Carolina, South Dakota, Alabama, Panama and Pennsylvania.

When the Army sent his father to Fort Monroe, Virginia, the son enrolled in Hampton High School the summer before his junior year.  The Hampton Crabbers, under coach Suey Eason, were a powerhouse, and our guy had never played organized football.  After four days of practice, he had had enough.

"I was done," he remembered, years later. "I was so sore I could hardly move."

That’s when two teammates, fellow Army brats John and Geoff Ellerson, intervened. Recalled John Ellerson, years later, "We were all Army brats, and anytime you came into a new community or football team, you had to work your way into the organization and win acceptance. It wasn't like he was welcomed with open arms.”

Our guy, though,  showed something that everyone recognized. “He was such a natural,” recalled Ellerson.  He was so far above the rest of us. As much as you didn't want him to be good, he was."

So the Ellersons told him that day to get in their car - he  was going to practice with them. 

"I told them, 'Look, I've had it. I ain't going,' " he recalled. "Well, they talked me into going. I think it was that day,  if it was your first year with the Hampton football team, they shaved your head and left a big H on the top.   After they did it, I thought, 'Well goddangit, I can't quit now. I can't walk around here with that sucker and not be on the team.' So I stuck it out.".

Ellerson, who would go to West Point and captain the 1962 Army team,   jokingly recalled,  “I’m sure the reason we went after him is Coach Eason told us to bring him back or not come back ourselves.”

After high school,  he had no designs to continue playing football, and when  his father was sent to Alaska, he chose not to go along;  instead, less than two weeks after graduation,  he enlisted in the Army himself.

He spent two years in the Army and, hoping to follow the Ellerson brothers to West Point, he earned an appointment to the Military Academy prep school,  where select enlisted personnel may qualify for admission to the Academy.  There, an accidental collision in a  training exercise resulted in  multiple fractures of the bone around his right eye socket, and  he wound up spending a long time rehabbing at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.,  as  the vision in the eye came and went.

His vision returned but he wound up missing so much class time at school that admission to West Point was out of the question, and once he was discharged,  his former high school coach, Suey Eason, called one of his former players who was then on the  staff at North Carolina, and set things in motion for him to go to Chapel Hill.

He earned a scholarship and, although never much more than 200 pounds, he was a two-time All-ACC center for the Tar Heels, who  in 1963 went 9-2 and won their first-ever ACC title.

(Also a berth in the Gator Bowl - which served as his honeymoon.  "I thought, 'Heck I'll get married and won't have to spend any money on a honeymoon because I don't have any money,' " he recalled.)

After his senior season at North Carolina,  he got a job with  a swimming pool company.

“I didn’t know anything about pro football,” he said. “I didn’t follow it. I was making good money. The pool company was very busy.”

And then one day a North Carolina teammate told him, “Hey, (——), the Redskins picked you.”

He was taken  in the 18th round, the number  245 overall pick.

He signed for  $2,000 up front and a $7,500 salary for 1965 if he made the team. “The money I got that first year didn’t compare to what I was making with the pool company,” he recalled.

Putting it mildly, the Redskins at that time sucked.  They hadn’t had a winning season since 1955.

He was a rookie third-string right outside linebacker. But then, as he said,  “One guy got hurt, and the other guy complained about never getting any playing time,” and he not only made the team, but he became a starter by game six.

He wound up playing 14 NFL seasons.  At one point,  he started 135 consecutive games. He intercepted 19 passes for 347 yards and two TDs, and he recovered three fumbles for  TDs, a record at he time he retired.

He would start a season weighing maybe 210 pounds, usually ending the season around 200, and his lack of size dictated a style of high-tackling that earned him the nickname “The Hangman.”  He didn’t like that nickname. He preferred another one - “The General” - given him because of his Army service.

In his first six seasons, he played for four different head coaches: Bill McPeak, Otto Graham, Vince Lombardi and Bill Austin.

But then he wound up playing seven seasons for George Allen.

Coming from the Rams, Allen brought in as  many of his former defensive players as he could, earning the team the nickname “Ramskins,” but even though three of those players were linebackers, our guy became one of Allen’s favorites.

As the Redskins got better under Allen, our guy’s reputation grew.  In a five-season span from 1972 to 1976, he was named first-team All-Pro four times.  He was named All-NFC  six times, and was voted to nine Pro Bowls.

In 1972, the Redskins finished 11-3 and made it to the Super Bowl for the first time, and he was named NFL Defensive Player of the Year. (That was the year of the Miami Dolphins’ perfect season.)

When “Ramskin” Jack Pardee retired following the   Super Bowl, our guy became the quarterback of Allen’s defense.

Said George Alen’s son, Bruce, who later became Redskins’ GM, “Today’s media applauds Peyton Manning and Tom Brady for being able to run the offense and audible and check.  Well, (he) did that in the ’70s. He not only called defenses on his own, he had over 100 audibles each game that he had to manage.”

Hall of Fame guard John Hannah called him “the smartest player in the league at the time.”

Asked to recall a favorite moment from his playing days, he simply said, “My favorite moment was when the games were over.  I wasn’t a big guy and didn’t like getting all beat up out there.”

He retired after the 1978 season and for years he owned a Ford Dealership bearing his name in the DC area until he sold it and retired to South Carolina.

There, he prefers to live a life of semi-seclusion.

He was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2011 and although pleased by the honor, he expressed reluctance to attend the festivities.

“I’m a loner,” he said.  “Always have been. You could give me a shack 20 miles off a paved road, send me supplies two or three times a year, and I'm a happy guy."

His Hall of Fame acceptance speech was exceptional.  “I don’t consider myself a true Hall of Famer,” he said.  “I say that because to me,  I’m an Army brat.  I spent two years in the Army right out of high school before I went to college - to me the real Hall of Fame people are all the men and women of our armed forces, all the men and women in law enforcement, and all the firefighters, men and women.”





TUESDAY, NOVEMBER  14,  2023 - “If ignorance is a disease, Harvard Yard is the Wuhan wet market” Bill Maher


***********  DIVISION FINALS SATURDAY  IN THE CFL


EASTERN DIVISION FINAL

MONTREAL 38,  TORONTO 17



WESTERN DIVISION FINAL

WINNIPEG 24, BC 13



GREY CUP FINAL -  NEXT SUNDAY

MONTREAL VS WINNIPEG

AT HAMILTON, ONTARIO




*********** THIS PAST WEEKEND’S GAMES 


SATURDAY

FIRST FLIGHT

MICHIGAN 24 PENN STATE 15  — Who needs Harbaugh?  While he was  someplace in State College eating popcorn, the Wolverines were kicking ass. Who needs McCarthy? At one stretch they ran 30-some straight running plays. (Michigan needed only 52 plays - 44 runs, 8 passes). Don’t let the score fool you - it was 24-9 and well under control when State scored with 1:59  to make it 24-15. Maybe Penn State should try leaving James Franklin back at the hotel next time they play a big game: his record against top ten teams is now 3-17.  He’s 3-7 against Michigan and 4-16 against Michigan and Ohio State combined.


ALABAMA  49  KENTUCKY 21  -  Alabama QB Jalen Milroe (where do they keep getting these guys?) threw for three TDs and ran for three.


TEXAS TECH  16,  KANSAS  13 - Kansas had this one ready to go to overtime with :43 seconds left, but TT drove into field goal range with a couple of long passes and won it with a field goal.


ARMY 17, HOLY CROSS 14 - I picked  Army to win by 7.

Holy Cross outgained Army,  395-269
Holy Cross ourushed Army, 239-190
Holy Cross outpassed Army, 126-79
Holy Cross had more than double the first downs, 26-11
Holy Cross  held the ball for 32.2 minutes to Army’s 27
BUT: Holy Cross had two turnovers and had a kick blocked  for an Army TD

Before the start of his Great Offensive Redesign, Army coach Jeff Monken said his team is “still gonna run it 50 times a game."

So they only ran it 39 times against Holy Cross.  Only missed the goal by 11. That’s probably because of their new air attack: they threw the ball six times.  Screw  the sarcasm. I’ll say it straight:  this offense really sucks.

Army did actually have the QB under center - the first time they’ve done it since the switch to the sexy new offense. I believe I counted  four times that they did it, but the fourth time  was at the end of the game when they took a knee.


ILLINOIS 48 INDIANA  45 (OT)  - Indiana scored a TD on a 26-yard pass and made a 2-point conversion with :28 left to take the game into OT, but could manage just a  field goal in the top half of OT. Illinois won with a 21-yard pass in the bottom half. Illinois is 5-5. Indiana falls to 3-7. Four of their losses have been by a TD or less.


MARYLAND 13 NEBRASKA 10  - Terps won it with a  field goal with 0:00 remaining.  Good Lord- Nebraska threw for 86 yards (10 of 21) with FOUR interceptions! Add a fumble, and we’re talking FIVE TURNOVERS.  Despite Tua Tagovailoa’s 283 yards passing (27/40) this was a field goal fest, with the teams scoring just one touchdown each.


SOUTH CAROLINA 47, VANDERBILT 6 -  Gamecocks’ Spencer Rattler was 28/36 for 351 yards and 3 TDs.


NORTHWESTERN 24, WISCONSIN 10 -  David Braun,  NW’s interim coach,  was not dealt a  good hand - the Wildcats were 1-11 last year, and head coach Pat Fitzgerald was fired as result of  a hazing scandal. But with this win, he became the first Northwestern coach in over 100 years to win five games in his first season.  They’re one win away from a bowl game. That’s a hell of an audition,  isn’t it? The Badgers, now 5-5, have lost 4 of their last 5.


VIRGINIA TECH 48 BOSTON COLLEGE 22  - Boy, was I wrong. Tech is maybe the most improved team in the ACC. Tech is 5-5, with games remaining against NC State and UVa.


CLEMSON  42,  GEORGIA TECH 21  - When Dabo talks… People listen. 


AFTERNOON

ARIZONA  34  COLORADO  31- Got ‘em with a  field goal at the end. Here’s CU’s big problem:  Shedeur Sanders was their leading passer,  completing 22 of 35 for 262 yards and 2 TDs, but unfortunately, he was also  the Buffs’ leading rusher, “carrying” 13 times for 29 yards. All told, Colorado  rushed for 77 yards. Arizona, led by Jonah Coleman’s 179 yards on 11 carries (16.3 yards per carry), rushed for 210.  No matter.  Writes Sean Keeler in the Denver Post, Colorado might not make it to a bowl, but… “Everybody knows what Buffs football is now, warts and all. It’s Coach Prime. It’s shades. It’s cowboy hats. It’s sellouts. It’s Lil Wayne. It’s The Rock. It’s games that last ’til 1 in the morning. It’s Shedeur Sanders, the coach’s son, making something outta nothing. It’s Travis Hunter, Boulder’s present and future millionaire, somehow covering two guys in the end zone at the same time.” 

In his post-game conference, Deion sounded less like a braggart and more like a coach, his tune changing from “We Comin’” to “We Gettin’ Close”


NC STATE 26 WAKE FOREST 6  - Wake is 4-6 and it looks as if its school-record streak of seven straight bowl games is about to come to an end - next Saturday they’re at Notre Dame.

I have a great deal of admiration - call it a coach crush - for Wake coach Dave Clawson and it bothered me to read how the loss had affected him:

“We’re broken,” said Wake coach Dave Clawson afterward. “This isn’t anything like the offense we’ve put out there the last six years. I should have had us in a better spot with some of the personnel losses we had. We’re not getting the most out of these guys. I think we have good players, but they’re not playing well. And that always boils down to coaching.”

https://www.bloggersodear.com/2023/11/11/23957166/dave-clawson-in-nc-state-loss-and-2023-season-wake-forest-has-lost-its-way

FLORIDA STATE 27, MIAMI 20 - If you get a chance, look at the "non-safety" call  that went against Miami.  Why have review  if it’s going to be no better than human judgement, either?


WASHINGTON 35, UTAH 28 - The Huskies outpassed and outrushed the Utes, and after being down, 28-24 at the half, stepped up the defense and shut out Utah in the second half. Huskies missed a TD in the third  quarter  when a defender was running an interception in for a score - but showed off by dropping the ball one yard short of the goal line. Utah recovered, and Washington wound up settling for a safety a play or two later.


MISSOURI 37, TENNESSEE 7 - Mizzou’s Cory Shrader, who played four years at D-II Truman State, rushed 35 times for 205 yards and a TD. He also caught five passes for 116 yards.   Their QB, Brady Cook, was 18 of 24 for 275 yards and a TD, and he rushed for another 55 and a TD.  Tennesse rushed for an NFL-like 83 yards.


IOWA 22, RUTGERS  - The over-under was 28, the lowest of any college game in this century. It was 3-0 at the half, and Iowa  didn’t score a touchdown until they were almost two minutes into the fourth quarter.  The most encouraging  thing to come out of the game: They are on fire - they scored 16 of their 22 points in the fourth quarter.   With the win, Kirk Ferentz tied Bo Schembechler for Big Ten wins.


PURDUE 49, MINNESOTA 30 -  The Boilermakers rushed for 353 yards and passed for 251, averaging 8.8 yards per play!  The Gophers have now lost two straight.  They’re  5-5 and their chances for bowl eligibility require winning one of their last two games. It’s going to have to happen the last week of the season - against Wisconsin -  because next Saturday  they travel to Ohio State.


SYRACUSE 28, PITT 13 - In a game played, for no good reason I can think of, in Yankee Stadium, Syracuse absolutely demolished Pitt. The Orange had only 17 yards passing (4 of 8) which must be a record this season, but they  rushed  for  382 yards. They were  led by QB Dan Villari’s 154 yards on 17 carries. LeQuint Allen ran for 102 yards, and  their other QB, Garrett Shrader, ran for 96. Syracuse is now 5-5.  Pitt is 2-8, and the natives (can I say that, or is that racist?) are getting restless.


NAVY 31, UAB 6  - This was easily Navy’s best performance of the year, a game in which its offense matched its defense. Xavier Arline was the fourth different player to start at QB for the Mids this year, and they may have finally found their answer.    He was 7 of 10 for 94 through the air, but he was 19 for 109 on the ground. Navy was 6 of 12 on third down efficiency, owing in part to their use of full-house T formation in tight situations.   Although Navy is now 4-5, a bowl is doubtful: they need a win over Army to reach 6 wins, and the bowl selections are made before then.


AUBURN 48  ARKANSAS 10 - This was 27-3 at the half, and Arkansas didn’t score a TD until the fourth quarter. Auburn had twice as many yards (517 to 255). 


CAL 42,  WASHINGTON STATE 39  - Cougars scored 15 points in the  final 7:33 but it wasn’t enough. They’ve now  lost six straight since opening the season 4-0.  WSU had 32 first downs - twice as many as Cal, but they turned the ball over four times. If I had watched the game, this, according to Spokane sports writer Vince Grippi, is what I would have seen:

The Cougars, trailing by three, hit a 14-yard pass to get deep into Cal territory – all the while catching the Bears with an extra man on the field.

But that Bears player, as WSU was snapping the ball, took a knee a couple of yards from the sideline – at the orders, it looked, of a Cal coach.

“The player was running off and was told to go down,” Morrison (analyst Kirk Morrison) said, something Mowins (the great Beth Mowins, the announcer) agreed with. According to Morrison, after the play, the Bears player walked off.

WSU head coach Jake Dickert certainly didn’t agree with the result – no play – and had an animated conversation with Duddy. The result stood and WSU had lost 14 yards. That came up big as Dean Janikowski ended up missing the tying field goal from 48 yards a minute later.

OREGON STATE 62, STANFORD 17 - This was a total beating.  The Beavers called it off after three quarters with a 55-17 lead. They rushed for 277 yards, 146 of it - and 4 TDs - coming from Damien Martinez.  And they threw for 321 yards, 240 of which came from DJ Uiagalelei. The OSU defense held Stanford to 82 yards  rushing - 58 of which came from their two QBs -  and they intercepted 4 passes.


EARLY EVENING


GEORGIA 52, OLE MISS 17 - It’s a  shame that the Dogs are so good that  they’re seldom in a game that can hold the attention of anyone other than hardcore Georgia fans.


OKLAHOMA 59, WEST VIRGINIA 20  -  It wasn’t worth watching - 31-14 by halftime - but Dillon Gabriel’s final stats were impressive. The OU QB was 23 of 36 for 423 yards and 5 TDs.


OHIO STATE 38, MICHIGAN STATE 3 - Wasn’t worth my time  watching.


TEXAS 29 TCU 26  - I stopped watching too soon. Down 26-6 at the half, the Frogs outscored the Longhorns 20-3 in the fourth  quarter.  It was another close call for UT and  it was a costly one - their star running back Johnathon Brooks left the game in the fourth quarter with what Texas confirmed on Sunday was a torn ACL.


LSU 52, FLORIDA  35 - Are you ready for this?  Tigers’ QB Jayden Daniels threw for 372 (17/26) and 3 TDs, and rushed for 234 (12 carries) and 2 TDs. He touched the ball 38 times and produced 606 yards  and 5 TDs. Florida is 5-5 with games remaining against Missouri and Florida State.  Uh-oh.


TEXAS A & M 51, MISSISSIPPI STATE 10 - The Aggies celebrated by giving every single one of the 100,000 fans a charge card with $760 on it, to spend as they wish.  It amounted to $76,000,000 but it was money well spent.  Everyone went home happy. It’s not as if they took the money and paid it to somebody to go sit on his ass and do nothing.(That's a joke, see. Actually, they decided instead to pay a guy  $76,000,000  to stop coaching their team.)


NORTH CAROLINA  47, DUKE 45 (OT)    The lead changed hands three times in the last five-plus minutes of regulation. Carolina went ahead, 33-29 with just under two minutes to play, and we had decided to accept the loss  and  be grateful for the way the Blue Devils had played when  Grayson Loftis hit Jordan Moore for a 30-yard touchdown with 41 seconds left, and they went ahead, 36-33. But NC’s Drake Maye drove them downfield and they sent the game into OT  with a 43-yard field goal as time expired. They matched field goals in first OT, but in the second OT Duke’s 2-point conversion pass was incomplete. Maye was 28 of 43 for 342 yards and ran for two touchdowns.


NIGHT


ARIZONA STATE 17, UCLA 7  - Maybe the upset of the day.   UCLA was awful, and the fans who were still on hand at the end let them know it. Arizona State’s Kenny Dillingham put together an innovative game plan, including extensive use of Lonesome Polecat-style formations and inventive uses of Sacramento State transfer Cam Skattebo  to frustrate the Bruins.  Skattebo, sometimes playing in the QB spot, threw a TD pass, ran for a TD, and got off a decent punt. It bothers the hell out of me to think that Chip Kelly could be on the hot seat, but this is not the sort of team that anyone would want to take into the Big Ten next year.


IOWA STATE 45,  BYU 13  - The Cyclones are hot.  They’ve won four of their last five and are now 6-4, with two tough games remaining against Texas and Kansas State.  This game was 31-7 at halftime. The Cougars threw 2 interceptions and lost a fumble. And they were 1/11 on third downs. In  the last three games they’ve been outscored 117-26. In the words of a local sports writer, “They’ve become the slump-buster of the Big 12.” How about this? “After more than 60,000 people had packed the stadium at kickoff, the final 30 minutes of regulation held a crowd comparable to 2020’s COVID year turnouts.” Or this, on the subject of bowl eligibility:  “Do any of these players even want to extend their season? They’ve been playing as if another trip to Shreveport is on the line…”


OREGON 36, USC 27  - Only the respect  I have for Caleb Williams and his heroic effort to keep his team in the game prevents me from completely relishing the sight of a USC team walking off the  field with its third loss in the last four weeks. (And the only thing standing in the way of that fourth loss was Cal’s decision to go for two - and failing - when a last-second touchdown had made the score 50-49.)  Bo Nix  was his usual great self, throwing for 412 and 4 TDs.  His first TD pass was a 77-yarder to Tez Johnson, who happens to be his adoptive brother. (Great story.)  His second was an 84-yarder to Troy Franklin.  You talk about speed!  Buck up,  Trojan fans: The new defensive guys are definitely getting it done. Only  Washington (33) and Utah (35) have held the Ducks to fewer points, so there’s that.


HAWAII 27,   AIR FORCE 13 - THIS IS NOT A MISPRINT - Air Force lost QB Zak Larrier in the second quarter, and running back Emmanuel Michel and receiver Dan Kinnamon didn’t play at all, but still… It was Hawaii that kept drives going. Hawaii converted 8 of 13 first downs.  Hawaii had 18 first downs to Air Force’s 17. Hawaii outgained Air Force, 397 to 314. Hawaii won Time of Possession, 30.3 to  29.3.   Most telling was the fact that on three occasions inside the (so-called) Red Zone, Air Force had to settle for field goal attempts. (They made two of them.)  This means that in its last two games, Air Force has scored just 16 points - and one  touchdown.



*********** Don’t look away when  the Mountain West is playing…

Air Force was barreling along last week, undefeated, until it laid an egg  against Army and lost, 23-3. And then, looking as if they let Army beat them twice, they went out to Hawaii and lost - badly - 27-13 on Saturday night.

That leaves them tied in conference (5-1) with UNLV, which blew out Wyoming on Friday night, 34-14.

UNLV, like Air Force, is 5-1 in conference, 8-2 overall. 

Air Force and UNLV meet on Saturday, so this time next week,  one of them will be sitting pretty, and the other will have two losses.  Air Force will  finish at Boise State, and UNLV at home against San Jose State. 

Fresno State 4-2 (8-2) - The Bulldogs were riding high until being shocked by San Jose State, 42-18. I made the mistake  of writing off SJSU early because they were pretty awful in early games. The Bulldogs  now  face the bottom two teams, New Mexico at home and San Diego State on the road

Boise State 4-2 (5-5) - the Broncos play at Utah State and home against Air Force.

(Did I mention that Boise State just fired head coach Dave Aranda?)

San Jose State 4-2 (5-5) plays San Diego State at home, and at UNLV

Wyoming 3-3  (6-4) plays Hawaii at home, and at Nevada.

Utah State 3-3 (5-5) plays Boise State at home, and at New Mexico

Colorado State 2-4 (4-6) plays Nevada at home, and at Hawaii

Hawaii 2-4 (4-7) plays at Wyoming and Colorado State at home

There is a decent  chance of the conference getting eight teams into bowls.

Only Nevada, New Mexico and San Diego State have no shot at a bowl game.  (Anyone remember back when  the Aztecs were considered almost sure bets to be admitted to the Pac-12?)

As for Air Force vs UNLV?  It appeared  to me that QB Zak Larrier was not close to 100 per cent against Army, and he left the Hawaii game in the first quarter.  But still, with the talent they have, Air Force should not have had trouble with Hawaii, even on the road. I think,  based on  the way they responded to falling behind against Army, and now losing to Hawaii, they may have been found  lacking in  mental toughness, which didn’t reveal itself until they encountered adversity. In boxing terms, maybe they can’t take a punch.

UNLV?  Barry Odom, former Missouri coach,  has the Rebels’ first winning season in ten years locked up. One more win and they’ll hit nine wins for the first time since 1984. The Rebels are VERY exciting to watch, a credit to their “Go-Go Offense” - resembling in many ways the Coastal Carolina/Liberty offense of Jamey Chadwell - that offensive coordinator Brennan Marion brought from Howard and William & Mary. (Marion was hired after the original OC, Bobby Petrino, left for Texas A & M and the big bucks.)



*********** The latest cliche for you to  throw out there when the guys  start trying to impress you with their  football jargon:

Impress  the crowd with COMPLEMENTARY FOOTBALL  (spelled with an “e,” not an “i.”)

It’s an  impressive way of describing a situation where a team’s offense complements its defense by controlling the ball, and its defense complements the offense by getting it the ball, and in good field position.


*********** Don’t know if it’s karma, but last week Louisiana Tech’s Sonny Cumbie called out a local media guy in front of his whole team and told him he was no longer welcome on the premises.

“He told me I wasn’t supportive enough to be given further access to the program, kicked me out and told me that I was no longer welcome at practice except for the open media portions (which hasn’t occurred since fall camp).”

On Saturday,  Louisiana Tech lost to Sam Houston, 42-27, giving the Bearkats their first win as an FBS team (after 8 losses).


***********  From a WSJ article on Matthew McConaughey comes some excellent career advice from the actor’s  father:

McConaughey planned to become a lawyer. As the son of a former gas station manager turned oil-pipe salesman, he worried that film school was too “artsy“ and impractical. When he realized at the University of Texas that he did, indeed want to “tell stories“ for a living, his father surprised him by offering a gruff kind of blessing: “don’t half-ass it.”


*********** Noted theologian Megan Rapinoe  said that her injury in her final soccer game is “proof there’s no God.”

I could turn that one on her and tell her that  for those of us who’ve had our fill of her and her all-around ugliness, her injury is proof that God DOES exist.  But God, with an entire world to watch over,  is plenty busy,  and like me, He probably doesn’t watch a lot of women’s soccer.


*********** In the  26 years since the  BCS/CFP (playoff) era began, this is the first time there have been five power conference teams (Florida State, Georgia, Michigan, Ohio State and Washington) undefeated ten games into the season.


*********** It wasn’t bad enough that two  of Ferris State’s (that’s Michigan) players lit up cigars  following their D-II Championship win last year (gasp), but on top of it all, some of the Ferris State “student-athletes” tried to take Ferris State decals off the locker room walls as souvenirs.

Omigod.

The game was played in one of those big Texas high school stadiums, a facility where there is a no-tobacco policy.  And we  don't care if you just won a national title! And the decals?  Sounds like grand larceny to me. 

This calls for punishment.  For the NCAA, it must have seemed like old times, when it actually had some power, so it suspended Ferris State head coach Tony Annese for a game.

But not, as with the big school guys, suspension for a meaningless regular season game or two at the start of a season.

Oh, no - for the Ferris State’s FIRST FUTURE PLAYOFF GAME, coming up in a week or two, as Ferris State  goes for its third straight national title.

Meanwhile,  as NIL and instant transfers turn  big time college football into a professional minor league, the NCAA washes its hands.

Thanks to Joe Gutilla for the news tip:

https://footballscoop.com/news/jim-harbaugh-tony-annese-ferris-state-not-coach-this-weekend




*********** I’m a big Kirk Ferentz fan, and I liked the way he attributed his offense’s slow progress to the fact that his backup quarterback lacked exprerience, and “You can’t microwave that stuff.”


*********** Recently, I’ve seen this quote attributed to the great author John Steinbeck:

“Don't pick a fight with an old man. If he’s too old to fight, he'll just kill you.”

Great quote, but I question the attribution because (1) I haven’t been able to chase it down,  and (2)  if a writer of Steinbeck’s  stature  had written (or said) it, I’m sure I’d have heard it before now.

(Actually, one  could easily get  away with attributing it to Mark Twain or Will Rogers, both great quote catch-alls.)




*********** If you like high scores, 8-man football is for you. (From Washington first-round playoff games):


Notice that there are a couple of three-name teams - Almira-Coulee-Hartline and Wilbur-Creston-Keller.  In the vast, wide-open country  of Eastern Washington some  towns are so small that they have to combine with others to field 8-man football teams.





***********   Based on the, um, Indigenous Person I saw on TV before a game Friday night, I’d have to say that the forces of Wokeness haven’t made it to Aliquippa, Pennsylvania just yet.  The Chief (I have no idea what they call him) wore a war bonnet and carried a flaming torch (gas lit) while mounted on an “Indian”  pony.  The “Quip,” in far western Pennsylvania, is a river town - on the Ohio River not that far from the Ohio line. Like so much of that part of the state, it’s seen better times - 50 years ago, its population was more than 20,000, but then the steel mills started closing, and now, its population is less than 9,000.  But its pride lives on.  In an area passionate about high school football, The Quip continues to  thrive on the  playing field.  It has won more WPIAL (Western Pennsylvania) titles  than any other school, and even though its population has declined to where it could compete against “A” schools if it wanted, it chooses to compete three classes up - in “4A.” Because it can.  Well-known football players who’ve come out of Aliquippa include  MIke Ditka, Tony Dorsett, Ty Law, Paul Posluszny, Darrelle Reavis.  I have a feeling that if you’d like to do away with The Chief (or whatever they call him), you’d best do it remotely, because you probably won’t be welcome in The Quip.



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

Just got done reading today's section.  The part about the USC QB crying and the coach wannabe saying he isn't man enough. 

As a coach if we lose a tough one and it means something as far as playoffs etc and players aren't crying,  I start to wonder.  A player who cries cares.  We lost title game last year and multiple players were heartbroken.   

Has to be a guy who 1.  Never played, 2. Never coached.

A player who cried after losing.  Can't cry as a coach.  Marines made me too hard and I have to put up a strong front for the players who look to me for leadership.

Tom Davis
San Marcos, California



***********   First, nice quiz subject. Bobby Grier's story serves as a fine model for any high schooler of any race at any time.

Coach Wyatt typically keeps himself out of the picture. Not so today, and I appreciate that. You could have added several other of your coaching friends to the short list of those who could have enabled Iowa or Northwestern to put up more points, and you could have done it facing the constraint of a single practice week.

You're probably right that UNC wins, but Duke might have caught them on their late-season swoon....I watched as Dabo made the comment "If Clemson's a stock," and I believed him. I still wonder if he'll give in to the allure of the Portal.

I'm with you on Kiffin. I once loathed him (see Tennessee and USC), but he really does seem to have matured, both as person and coach. I wouldn't be surprised if they knock off Georgia, and yeah buddy, that would throw the committee for a big loop.

I think of the NCAA power structure as a mini-federal government. It has lost its way since its creation in 1906. A bloated staff of deep-state bureacrats who don't have the balls to deal with the big stuff. What they do love is putting the man in motion with no purpose other than to be eye candy.

John Vermillion                          
 St Petersburg, Florida

Man, you nailed it on the failure to deal with the big stuff.  But let a couple of kids from Ferris State light up the cigars after winning a national title…






TOP: HE PREPARES TO BLOCK A GEORGIA TECH DEFENDER IN THE 1956 SUGAR BOWL;
BOTTOM: FOUR OF HIS TEAMMATES SHOW HIM WHAT THEY THINK OF THE GOVERNOR OF GEORGIA



***********   QUIZ ANSWER:  Bobby Grier played his high school ball in Massillon, Ohio.  Massillon gained fame as a football foundry in the late 1930’s, when its high school coach was the great Paul Brown, who went on to win a national title at Ohio State, and to found and coach both the Cleveland Browns and Cincinnati Bengals.  And Massillon was a power when our guy played there.  In his three years at Massillon Washington High School, the Tigers won three straight state championships, including a mythical national title in 1951.

He was an outstanding player and his grades were good, but no Big Ten school recruited more than a small handful of black athletes then, so he went to the University of Pittsburgh - Pitt.

At Pitt, in those days of two-way ball,  he played fullback and linebacker.

Pitt, then an Eastern independent, finished the 1955 regular season at 7-3, and was considered the top team in the East. The Panthers had beaten Cal, Syracuse, Nebraska, Duke, Virginia, West Virginia and Penn State. Their losses were to Oklahoma (ranked 5th), Navy (ranked 12th) and Miami.

As the top team in the East, the Panthers were offered an invitation to play in the Sugar Bowl against Georgia Tech and,  especially in those days where there were only a handful of bowl games, of course they accepted. 

With conditions:  those were the days of segregation throughout the South, where laws prohibited Blacks from participating in  college athletics alongside whites, or even from sitting together at large events.

And when Sugar Bowl officials agreed to allow  our guy to play as well as to Pittsburgh’s demand that its 10,000-seat section in the  stadium be integrated,  it set off the governor of Georgia.

On  learning that Pitt had a black player, and that Pitt intended to play him in the game,  the  governor  “recommended” to the Georgia Tech Board of Trustees that Tech forfeit the game.

When  the word of this got back to Pittsburgh,  our guy,  who  had grown up in  an integrated Massillon and played with and against whites  in on its teams,  said,  “I never ran into this kind of thing before, either at home or on the team.  I’m awfully sorry it has happened.”  And, he admitted years later, he offered to  stay back in Pittsburgh - to go along with some made-up story about an “injury” - rather than deprive his teammates of the once-in a lifetime opportunity.

But his teammates  would hear  none of it.  At the very suggestion of  his not going with them, they rallied around him. “We’re a team,” said one of them. “We don’t play without one man.”

Said the University of Pittsburgh in a statement,  “Bobby Grier  will travel, eat, live, practice and play with the team.”

And the entire Pitt student body rallied as well, chanting, “No Grier, No Game!”

Soon enough, Georgia Tech’s then all-white student body took up the cause as well.  Some  2,000  Tech students, many of them carrying torches,  marched the two miles from the Tech campus to the governor’s mansion, where they burned effigies of the  governor , uprooted parking meters, and entered  the State Capitol , where they overturned furniture.    Even rival University of Georgia students lent their support,   carrying  signs that read: “This time we’re for Tech.”

Ultimately, our guy was in uniform  for the game, and on January  2, 1956, he made sports history by becoming the first black man to play in the Sugar Bowl.

There’s no storybook ending.  Tech won.

Pitt was twice stopped short of the goal line, once at the one yard line at the end of the first half, the other time at the five as time ran out in the game.

Pitt outgained Tech, and our guy, with 51 yards on six carries, was the game’s leading ground gainer.

Tech  threw just three passes - none was completed and one was intercepted.

But it was a Tech pass that didn’t count that resulted in a great irony: a long Tech pass to the end zone resulted in interference being called against our guy.  It will forever remain a controversial call, but under the rules of the time, it moved the ball from the 32 to the one, and after a penalty moved the ball half the distance closer, Tech scored on a sneak from the one-half yard line to win the game, 7-0.

There were no racial incidents - no racial slurs heard - during the game. Of the Tech players, our guy  said afterward, "They were good sportsmen, perhaps the best I've played against all season. They played hard, but clean. It was a good game. But believe me. I didn't push that man." 

That evening  our guy attended the post-game awards banquet at the St. Charles Hotel, despite the fact that  it was segregated. (Its  manager had said, “If he shows up, I won’t block his way to the dinner. But you know he would never come.”)

Come he  did,  and he was welcomed.   Invited by a group of Georgia Tech players to join him at their table for dinner,  he accepted.  (I call that a storybook ending.)

After earning a business degree from Pitt,  he served in the Air Force, retiring as a captain,  and after  working  as a foreman in a Pittsburgh area steel mill, he worked and retired as an administrator at Pittsburgh’s Allegheny Community College.

He was well known and respected among  other black athletes for the part he played in integrating sports - and America.  Said his son, Rob Grier, Jr., years later, “I realized Dad was someone special when I saw Satchel Paige come up to him and excitedly start a conversation.”



CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING BOBBY GRIER


JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOE BREMER - WEST SENECA, NEW YORK
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY






***********   QUIZ:  Buzz Bissinger, famed as the author of Friday Night Lights, made him one of the main characters in his book, “The Mosquito Bowl,” about the bloody World War II fight  for Okinawa, and a football game played  on Christmas Eve, 1944, on Guadalcanal, between  Marines  from  two different regiments.

Before joining the Marines, he played at Brown, and had played a year with the New York Giants.

After the War, he became a football coach, just like his dad.

He was born into a life of football, in New Wilmington, Pennsylvania, where his father was the head coach at Westminster College. The family moved to Amherst, Massachusetts  when he was just 5 and his dad took the job at Amherst College, and  they moved four years later to Providence, Rhode Island when his dad was hired as head coach at Brown. 

After graduation from high school he enrolled at Brown,  where he captained an unbeaten freshman team.  At the varsity level, he was a  standout  blocking back/fullback  for three years, calling all the plays on both offense and defense, and was team captain his senior year.

He was named an All-East football player, but he also was  an All-American in track his senior year  with  the fifth longest hammer throw ever by an American (at that time).

He majored in art at Brown, and was president of his senior class.

He played in the East-West Shrine game in the post season, and the following summer he was captain of the College All-Stars. 

He played in the 1940 season for the New York Giants, but then enlisted in the Marines.   He saw action in World War II on numerous  Pacific islands, including Guadalcanal, Bougainville, Guam and Okinawa, and was among the first of the American forces to arrive in Japan following the end of the war.  At war’s end, he retired as a major, and embarked on a coaching career.

After one year as an assistant at Connecticut, he became the head coach at Union College in Schenectady, New York.  In three seasons there, he posted a record of 17-6-1. HIs  1948 team finished 7-1, and his 1949 team went 7-0-1, only the third undefeated season in school history  The 1948 squad finished 7-1.

In 1950 he was hired at Amherst, and coached there through the 1958 season, when he accepted the job at Brown.  HIs record at Amherst was 44-23-4  with  three Little Three (Amherst, Wesleyan, Williams) wins. 

In eight years at Brown (1959-1966),  he struggled to win.  Succeeding Alva Kelley, who had put together three straight winning seasons, he went 2-6-1, 3-6, 0-9, 1-6-2 and 3-5 before finally posting  a winning season (5-4)  in his sixth year.  But  when that was followed by records of 2-7 and 1-8, he was “reassigned” as Director of Summer and Special Projects until his retirement in 1979.  HIs overall record at Brown was 17-51-3.

After retirement, he devoted much of his time to his art.  An active painter for much of his life, his work was shown several times at the Providence Art Club, of which he was a longtime member.

A year after he graduated from Brown, his father had  moved on to coach at Dartmouth, and they never coached together.

Years  after his death, as Bissinger was doing research for his book,  our subject’s  children gave the author   access  to their father’s records, which included  letters he’d written during the war.  “I was enormously lucky,” Bissinger told a newspaper.  “The family had kept everything.”







FRIDAY,  NOVEMBER  10,  2023 - “If McCarthyism means seeing that there are bad people in positions of power in our culture, society, and government, and that they must be driven from it, count me in.”    Kurt Schlichter

*********** Honor veterans on Veterans Day. 

From the time I entered seventh grade, every single one of my teachers and coaches had served in a World War.  (World War II had only been over five years, and these guys were still young and virile. Some of the older guys were World War I vets.)

They were strong men. They were courageous.  They were honest.  They believed in hard work.  They also believed in rules and they didn’t take any sh— off any kid (occasionally, me) who  thought he didn’t have to obey them.

They believed in their country and they did their best to make sure we honored it and its flag.

I can’t thank them enough for the privilege and blessing it was to have had them as teachers and coaches.

Now, then…

You wonder why our country’s so f—ked up?  Take a good look at our Congress (which has never been held in lower esteem by Americans):

In 1971 - 50 years ago - 73 per cent of the members of Congress were veterans. 

Now,  it’s less than 20 per cent.

A coincidence?  Hardly.  Just in case you wondered why they're such pussies.

Veterans are not held in the high regard they shoulod be , and as a matter of fact, I may not live to see it, but you might:

Congress will propose keeping November 11 as a holiday (or else government workers would riot) but will rename it.

Suggestions:

Diversity-Equity-Inclusion Day
Public Servants Day
Gender Awareness Day
Turn in Your Guns Day
End Male Dominance Day
Legalize Drug Use Day
People Experiencing Homelessness Day
Demonstrators, Activists and Advocates Day
Reproductive Health Day
Peace Corps Day
Open Borders Day
Affordable Housing Day
BIPOC Day
Green Energy Day
15-Minute Cities Day
Undocumented Immigrants Day

You get the idea…

But until then - honor our veterans!



***********  DIVISION FINALS SATURDAY  IN THE CFL

SATURDAY, 11/11

EASTERN DIVISION FINAL - 3 PM EST

MONTREAL VS TORONTO



WESTERN DIVISION FINAL - 6:30 PM EST

BC VS WINNIPEG 




*********** TUESDAY/WEDNESDAY/THURSDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL.  I doubt that I’ve watched an entire MAC game yet.   I think they’ve just got too many mediocre-to-bad teams.  It’s understandable that teams’ overall records might be poor, because early in the season they’re playing paycheck games against bigger schools, but even in conference play, only four of their 12 teams have winning records. That means that your odds of seeing a game between two decent teams are very slim.


FRIDAY NIGHT

WYOMING + 3.5 AT UNLV - I don’t understand the spread.  I’m going with the Cowboys.



SATURDAY

FIRST FLIGHT

MICHIGAN AT PENN STATE + 4.5 - I  don’t particularly care for James Franklin, but Jim Harbaugh has created for himself a special category of disfavor.  When I was a sophomore in high school, I did  what any smart sophomore does in the locker room - I kept my mouth shut. All these many years later, one of the things I clearly remember was a discussion on cheating.  Our school was fairly tough, and many of the guys, coming from tougher sections of the city, unashamedly admitted to skirting the rules, in order to stay in school. For them, it was a matter of survival.  Not so, though, for another one of the guys on the team,  whom they described with sneering contempt: “He cheats to get A’s!”  That's Harbaugh to a “T.”

ALABAMA  + 10.5 AT KENTUCKY - Look out. Bama is making a playoff run.

TEXAS TECH + 3.5 AT KANSAS - I’d bet on the Jayhawks

HOLY CROSS AT ARMY - No spread because of the FCS opponent. Holy Cross, a good FCS club,  lost by only three to BC, but that was way back in early September when BC sucked. BC’s now on a five-game win streak, including a three-point win at Army.  I think the BC that Army played was much better than the BC that Holy Cross did, and coming off the win over Air Force, I’d pick Army to win by 7.

INDIANA AT ILLINOIS +6.5  - They’re both coming off wins. I’d give the edge to the home team.

MARYLAND AT NEBRASKA + 2.5 - Somehow Nebraska let Michigan State take a win from them, but I think they’ll win this one at home.

VANDERBILT +13.5 AT SOUTH CAROLINA - Poor Vandy.  This is their best chance for an SEC win but they’re not going to get one.

VIRGINIA TECH AT BOSTON COLLEGE + 1.5  - I’m going with the Eagles.  They’ve got that streak going.

GEORGIA TECH AT CLEMSON   - Dabo Swinney may not be E. F. Hutton (remember him? “When E. F. Hutton talks… people listen.") but  he says, “If Clemson’s a stock, you better buy all you freakin’ can right now!”



AFTERNOON

ARIZONA AT COLORADO + 10.5 - Deion is about to get more of the kind of coaching experience that helps any coach smart enough to learn from it - a loss.  He’s going up against an Arizona team whose coach - Jedd Fisch - could very well be the Coach of the Year, and a QB in Noah Fifita who may be - are you sitting down? - better than Shedeur Sanders.  Talk about consistent : Arizona has won three straight - over Washington State, Oregon State and UCLA - after losing by just three to USC and seven to Washington. The Wildcats are favored by 10.5  and unless Deion did a hell of a job this week, it could be a lot worse for the Buffaloes.


NC STATE AT WAKE FOREST + 2.5 - Wake is 4-5, and running out of time to become bowl eligible. They go to Notre Dame next week and then finish at Syracuse.


MIAMI + 13.5 AT FLORIDA STATE - As ugly as Miami has played at times, it’s hard to believe that they’re still 7-3, but it’s deceptive: they started out 4-0, but, starting with  that disastrous and totally avoidable loss to Georgia Tech, they’ve been 3-3.  This could be bad.


UTAH + 9.5 AT WASHINGTON - Washington showed a great runner to go with its great passing game.  Now if the Huskies can just  play a little defense.  Fortunately, offense has not been the Utes’ strong suit.


TENNESSEE AT MISSOURI +1.5 - Could be one of the best games of the day.  Both teams come in with 7-2 records.  I’ll take a chance and go with Mizzou.  I like their QB, Brady Cook.  And I plead guilty to overlooking Elijah Drinkwitz in my Coach of the Year suggestions.


RUTGERS +1.5  AT IOWA - The over-under on this game is 28 -  the lowest for any college game in this century.


MINNESOTA + 1.5 AT PURDUE - Yes, Minnesota pissed away their game against Illinois last week, but they’re still better than Purdue.


PITT AT SYRACUSE +3 - There was a time when this was a big game in the East. But it’s really hard to get excited about either of these teams. I guess Pitt has the less bad offense.


UAB AT NAVY +2.5 - It hurts me to say this, but this is a bad Navy team.  Seems to me this wouldn’t have happened without bad academy leadership. (Remember the Covid year when they were instructed not to have contact in pre-season camp?)


AUBURN + 2.5 AT ARKANSAS - Geez- Arkansas upsets Florida and now they’re FAVORED?  Great. Go Hogs.


WASHINGTON STATE + 1.5 AT CAL - I hate to  say I’ve lost interest in a Pac-12  game


STANFORD AT OREGON STATE +20.5 - If  the  Beavers’ OC should just happen to break his  finger - the one that keeps pressing  the “Pass” button on the video game that he seems to think he’s playing  - Oregon State will win big.



EARLY EVENING


OLE MISS + 10.5 AT GEORGIA - THIS IS THE ONE WHERE KIFFIN FINALLY GETS HIS BIG WIN - AND CAUSES CHAOS IN  THE PLAYOFF COMMITTEE


WEST VIRGINIA + 13.5 AT OKLAHOMA - - WON’T WATCH UNLESS  IT’S A POSSIBLE UPSET


MICHIGAN STATE + 31.5 AT OHIO STATE - WON’T WATCH UNLESS  IT’S A POSSIBLE UPSET


TEXAS AT TCU +10.5 - WON’T WATCH UNLESS  IT’S A POSSIBLE UPSET


FLORIDA +13.5  AT LSU - I’LL WATCH UNTIL IT GETS OUT OF HAND


MISSISSIPPI STATE +19.5  AT TEXAS A & M - WON’T WATCH IT AT ALL


RICE + 14.5 AT UTSA - I like to check in on Rice because I like their “Hippo” short yardage package


DUKE + 14.5 AT NORTH CAROLINA - Duke still has a good defense but without Riley Leonard they have no offense. This being a rivalry, it could get bad.


NIGHT


ARIZONA STATE + 18.5 AT UCLA - I think the Bruins will kill the Sun Devils.  In front of maybe 20,000. 


IOWA STATE AT BYU +7.5 - Both teams are 5-4 overall. But Iowa State is 4-2 in conference play, in a tie  for third place with four other teams, all waiting for either Texas or Oklahoma State to stumble,


USC + 14.5  AT OREGON - Are the Vegas guys serious?  USC a 14-point underdog?  Could be. Last week the Trojans scored 42 but gave up 52 to Washington. Oregon is just as capable as Washington to score the points, and the Ducks have a better defense than Washington. After canning his longtime defensive coordinator, it’s hard to say  what Lincoln Ruley,  who’s never seemed to care much about defense anyhow, will do differently in preparing for one of the nation’s best offenses.




***********  Dear Black Lion Award Committee,
 

I am proud to nominate senior football player — — — for consideration for the Black Lion Award.  — — — has consistently demonstrated the traits that Major Don Holleder exhibited in his life.
 
— — — was a three-year starter for (us) at offensive tackle. He earned first-team all-conference honors this year, and second-team honors last year. In my opinion he is one of the finest offensive tackles our program has had. However, it is what — — — meant to this team beyond his quality of play that makes him our Black Lion nominee.
 
The Black Lion specifically, ‘above all else,’ should be a player who unselfishly places the needs of the team above his own. We talk often with our boys about agape, love for their fellow man demonstrated through service. Of all of the fine men on our team this year, — — — lived out that unselfishness more than any other. Often the last to leave the facility, he made sure the locker room was swept, any stray equipment found its way back to the right locker, and sat with younger players waiting for parents to pick them up. — — — actively taught young players, invited them to sit with him at meals, talked to them while walking to practice, and generally made them feel welcome. — — — gave his teammates the most valuable commodity any person has - his time. I cannot think of a better indicator that a young man has developed into an outstanding leader and person.
 
I firmly believe that — — — lives up to the ideals that Major Don Holleder lived his life by. In my opinion he is worthy of being recognized as a Black Lion.

Sincerely,

(Head Coach)

Dear Coaches:  I got this recently  and as a result a  young man will be receiving a Black Lion Award soon.  Can you write a letter like that about one of your players? Of course you can.  So why wouldn’t you take advantage of the opportunity to recognize the kind of player you wish you had twenty more of? 


*********** Expanding on my comment about Iowa and Northwestern - that they’d probably have done a better job on offense if the coaches had simply stepped aside and let the players prepare themselves - veteran Iowa coach Brad Knight came out and said what I was tempted to say: that there were  four of us Double-Wing guys who  damn sure could have better-prepared one of those two teams’ offenses.

Just you, Greg, Gabe, and I could have installed

wedge
power/super power
trap
G
Reach
Counter and Criss Cross
and 3 or 4 pass plays

AND in 5 days of practice (you know like a camp, where we’ve done it) our offense would have generated more than Iowa or NWern.  It isn't rocket science.

I mean COME ON man! You have elite athletes (athletes good enough to be playing Div. 1 football).

I’m going to say he’s right.   The four of us - myself, Brad Knight, Greg Koenig from Colorado and Gabe McCown from Oklahoma - could have done a better job than this:

Iowa: Passing: 10/15 for 65 yards and 1 TD.  Rushing: 40 carries for 104 yards.

Northwestern: Passing: 12/19 for 81 and 1 TD. Rushing: 40 carries for 89 yards

The four of us are veterans of several years of working together in summer camps in Kansas and Iowa, installing the basics of a Double Wing offense, including the all-important stance-splits-alignment up front, and the much-derided (but devastatingly effective) shoulder blocking that goes with the offense.  We worked on individual techniques such as the center-QB exchange and the QB’s “hockey stick” path as well as the proper way to hand off the ball. We worked on all the line blocks - base, double-team, wedge, down, reach, kickout, hinge - and the proper way to slide instead of turning the shoulders to pull. We worked on base passes - receivers’ releases off the line and counting steps in the routes, and the  quarterbacks’ setups and footwork.  Along the way, we added, subtracted and refined things.  Found better ways to teach.  And we repped and repped and repped our handful of plays until by the end of three days those kids were pretty damn good.

My claim is that we could have applied that same approach with either Iowa or Northwestern and had better success than either of those colleges’ offensive staffs.  We’d have had our issues, of course, because in that short a time we probably wouldn’t have been able to convert the linemen to our way of doing things, and we’d just have to settle for second best. (At least at first.) But we could have installed all the plays that Coach Knight lists, and we’d have run them pretty well - certainly   a whole lot better than our opponent would have been able to prepare for. (Remember, not knowing even close to what we know about the offense and how it’s taught, they’d have had to try to put together a scout team to run our plays.  Good luck with that.)  In fact, I’d give anything to see and hear them on the phones to all their coaching friends,  in sheer panic once the word got out that a bunch of high school coaches were installing some Pop Warner offense!

There’s no way now to prove it, but I’d put some serious money on our being able to score more points - and gain more yards -  than  the experts did.


*********** The  Big Ten’s poaching of  the four best teams on the West Coast showed remarkable foresight. That’s because without the addition next season of Oregon, UCLA, USC and Washington the Big Ten would be a Power 5 conference in name only. They couldn’t afford another year like this one. This year, other than Ohio State, Michigan and Penn State, the Big Ten resembles the MAC - a collection of mostly mediocre teams that beat on each other so that none of them stands out - only in bigger stadiums with better bands.   I could even include Iowa in that bunch, because four of the Hawkeyes’  seven wins have come over lower-level Big Ten foes: Michigan State, Northwestern, Purdue, Wisconsin. I can’t say how the West Coast Four would have done in the Big Ten East this year, but every damn one of them is at least two touchdowns better than any current Big Ten West team, and if any one of them was in the Big Ten West this year, they’d be in the conference championship game. Bet the farm on it.


*********** It was one of those things where you’re half-watching a game, and you ask yourself , “Did I really just hear what I think I heard?”
I was watching a MAC game and I swore I heard, “Eighth year of college ball.”
Naturally, I had to go back and find out for sure.

Sure enough:  Austin Hence, Western Michigan Tight End

Started out at Mercyhurst
Redshirt year 2016
2017 played six games
2018 played 11 games
2019 played four games
2020 - Covid - school did not play
Graduate Transfer to Western
2021 - missed season due to injury
2022 - missed season due to injury
2023 - 8th year of college ball (one redshirt year, two missed seasons)



*********** WTF is this “Super Bowl Champion” sh— anyhow?  I’m beginning to  hear any guy who may have  played on a Super Bowl  championship team being referred to as a “Super Bowl Champion.”     I thought the TEAM was the Super Bowl champion.   You mean to tell me everybody on the f-king roster - all 53 guys - is a Super Bowl Champion???



*********** Army’s colors - black, gray, gold -  have great significance, and for that reason I deplore the idea of their wearing uniforms that don’t show all three colors.

The colors? They represent the three ingredients of gunpowder:

Black = charcoal
Gray = saltpeter
Gold =  sulfur



***********   The president of the University of Michigan sounds like one clever dude, imploring the commissioner of the Big Ten to wait until the NCAA completes its investigation of the sign-stealing scandal before exacting any punishment.  He’s bright enough to know that by the time the NCAA wraps things up, Jim Harbaugh will be well into  his third season as coach of the Chicago Bears.


*********** The Big 12 standings  illustrate one  VERY nice thing about having divisions. There’s the whole list of its teams, from best to worst, and there’s poor Cincinnati - just a couple of seasons removed from a berth in  The Playoff - IN SIXTEENTH PLACE!!!

These people probably think they’re clever, but they’re not even close to the NFL, the most successful sports operation   the world has ever seen, in intellect.  And the NFL’s  set things up so that no matter how bad your team might be, it still can’t finish any worse than fourth.


*********** After USC lost to Washington Saturday night - in one of the greatest games I’ve ever seen  - the camera  showed USC QB Caleb Williams sobbing uncontrollably as he hugged his mother. And then continued to show them. And show them. And show them. Until anybody watching had to be saying, “For God’s sake - leave them alone.”

And then the next day some keyboard genius said  that that was proof that Williams (who’s been seen by most people as a sure first-round NFL draft pick, maybe  the very first choice)  ought to  stay in college another year because he’s not ready for the pros.

Not ready apparently, because he cried in his mother’s arms - and then said he was going to go home and cuddle with his dog  while watching TV.

See, he’s not tough enough.

I say bullsh—, fella.  Then how about you go and take the tough guy, the one  that punches a hole in a locker and then goes out and gets drunk with his posse and shoots up a “gentleman’s club.”  That tough enough fer ya?

And I’ll take the guy who was so upset that he cried in his mom’s arms - after just throwing 27 completions in 35 attempts, for 312 yards and 3 TDs, keeping plays alive (and his team in the contest) by doing things few quarterbacks even in the NFL can do.  That’s tough enough for me  and also, I believe,  for a lot of people who saw the same thing I did on national TV.



***********  I grew up loving the Sooners. Bud Wilkinson, Bob Stoops, Tommy MacDonald, the son of a moonshiner, and all the other memorable players. But when the current administration deserted its conference and destroyed Bedlam, one of the greatest of all CFB rivalries, I wanted the Pokes to walk away with the win, most especially after they suffered two ugly losses in the first month of the season. And I got the deuce with L Riley losing later in the day.

Good that Kentucky's bowl eligible. Their final three opponents are Bama, South Carolina, and Louisville. The Gators' schedule is much easier: LSU, Mizzou, and the Noles.

Enjoyed your recap of last weekend's games.

John Vermillion                            
St Petersburg, Florida



***********   Hugh,

It was BC's tight O Line splits (relatively tight for big time colleges) I noticed first, and then happened to see the same splits being used by Fresno State.  Coincidentally? both teams ran the ball well.  Hmmm.

Fresno State's march to the MWC championship game lies in their own hands.  With San Jose State up next, then New Mexico, and ending with San Diego State the Bulldogs control their own destiny.  Those three teams are a combined 10-17 so to the casual viewer it would appear the schedule favors the Bulldogs.  But as Lee Corso would say..."Not so fast my friend."  Both San Jose and San Diego are traditional Bulldog rivals, and with a new OC the Lobos could play spoiler.

IF the Bulldogs should run the table, and Tulane loses another game, Fresno State would be in a position to play in a New Year's Six bowl.

However James Madison should get consideration first since they are undefeated and ranked 21st, BUT...the NCAA says they are not eligible to play in a post-season game.  JMU is making an appeal.  Your thoughts?

Regarding Minnesota's loss to Illinois.  Like many other teams have done before them the Gophers went to that 2 deep "prevent" defense at the end of the game.  From what I've seen the only thing that coverage has done is PREVENTED teams leading at game's end from winning the game!

Have a great week!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas

My thoughts?  I like James Madison.  I like its town, Harrisonburg, Virginia.  Years ago, when I was selling packaging, the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia was in my territory, and I often stayed in Harrisonburg.  Back then, the school was known as Madison College, and it was all female.  That’s a long way of saying, Hey NCAA - you stiffs -  you’ll let 6-6 teams in because you’re desperate to fill bowl slots, but now you’ve got a team that’s on top of its conference, and you’re going to let some stupid rule whose purpose no one can explain keep  them out of a bowl?  Shouldn’t you be busy investigating Harbaugh?






*********** QUIZ  ANSWER -  Bob Blackman was born in DeSoto, Iowa, but he grew up in Long Beach, California and was a star football player at storied Long Beach Poly High.  As a freshman football player at USC, he was a running back and co-captain of the Trojans’ freshman team, but in mid-year he was stricken with polio, which left him paralyzed on his right side.  Given little chance to walk again, he left school for a year and through hard work he was able to return to football two seasons later. Seeing him limp through drills, USC head coach Howard Jones offered him a position as assistant coach of the freshman team, and a career was launched.

After graduation he spent a year as a high school coach, then entered the Navy (World War II going on) and was assigned to coach service football teams, first  at the  San Diego Naval Training Station. then  at  Moffat Naval Air Station.

After  the War, he was hired as football coach at Monrovia (California) High School, where he spent three years. Before his arrival, the team hadn’t won in two years, and attendance was in the hundreds. In three years he took Monrovia to a  10-1 season,  and a  final game turnout of 15,000.

That got him a junior college job, at Pasadena City College, and there, employing his “V-System,” in four seasons he had a record of 34-6-3. In 1951 and 1952, Pasadena played for the national JC championship.

That got him  the job at Denver University.  The Pioneers had had only two winning seasons in the last 11 years, and in his first season there they finished 3-5-2.  But in his second season, Denver went 9-1, winning the Skyline Conference title for the first time in 37 years. 

And then the Dartmouth College position came open. Dartmouth, a member of the then-informal Ivy League, had suffered through five straight losing seasons, and when Tuss McLaughry retired after 12 years (with a 44-58-3 record) they enlisted the help of  their quarterback’s dad.

Their returning quarterback was Mike Brown, who happened to be the son of the great Paul Brown, then coach of the Cleveland Browns.

Dartmouth AD, former Yankees’ pitcher Red Ruffing,   turned to Paul Brown for help in evaluating the candidates for their coaching position.  With his own son’s junior season coming up, Brown had a personal  interest in helping Dartmouth make the right selection, and after Dartmouth sent game films of their three leading candidates to Cleveland, Brown and his coaching staff recommended our guy.

Mike Brown, who would go on to succeed his dad as President of the Cincinnati Bengals, played for two years under our guy, and remembered his coach as extremely detail-oruented:  ''He knew exactly what he wanted each player to do on every play,'' Brown remembered,  ''And he could coach every position.''

His first year at Dartmouth was 1955; the Ivy League itself officially began as an eight-team conference in 1956.  It didn’t take him long to shake up the staid, old, set-in-its-ways Ivy League.  Why, he actually recruited!  Between his contacts in the West and the national reach of Dartmouth alumni, he built a national network of  unofficial talent scouts.

He brought in talented players, and he was innovative.  In addition to his “V” formation, which can best be described as a Veer backfield with a fourth back - a blocking back - in front of one of the halfbacks, he is considered one of the inventors - if not the sole inventor - of the  4-4  stack defense, which gave other Ivy coaches fits.

He was an “early adopter” of computers - then in their infant stages - as a means of identifying opponents' offensive tendencies.

And he gave his teams a new, stylish look, starting with unique helmet striping and a large “D” in the front, a look that was revived by one of his best-known successors, Buddy Teevens, who died recently.

By his second season Dartmouth had a winning record (5-3-1),  by his third season the Big Green (actually, they were still the Indians then) were 7-1-1, and by his fourth season, they won the Ivy championship, the first of seven titles that his teams would either win outright  or share.

Three of his Dartmouth teams would finish their seasons unbeaten, including his final team in 1970.  That  Dartmouth team shut out six of its nine opponents, and finished the season ranked 14th in both national polls (AP and UPI).  Dartmouth was also awarded  the Lambert Trophy as the best team in the East, which rankled Penn State’s Joe Paterno, prompting him to suggest a post-season game (there were few bowl games then) between the two teams. Retorted our guy, “If we were allowed to play a postseason game, I'd prefer to play a team with a better record.” (Penn State was 7-3).

He won the Walter Camp Coach of the Year Award  that year.

His overall record in 16 years at Dartmouth was 104-37-3, and his Ivy League record was 79-24-2.

He was hired by Illinois, which had won a total of just 12 games in the previous five seasons. 

In his first season, he won five games - first time that had been done in six years - and in Big Ten play Illinois won  five games for only the second time in 18 years.

But, alas, Illinois has long been a graveyard of coaches,  and after six years, with only one winning season, he was fired.

He  chose at that point to return to the Ivy League, hired at Cornell to replace George Seifert (who years later would coach the 49ers to two Super Bowl wins). But he  did not achieve anywhere near the level of success that he had at Dartmouth, and after six seasons, he was through.

His record for 30 years was 168-92-7, a .671 percentage. He also was 34-6-3 at the junior college level.

He served as President of the American Football Coaches Association, and he is in the College Football Hall of Fame.

Although he did not succeed at Cornell as he had at Dartmouth, he said he was glad he had returned to the Ivy League, calling it “the only conference where the coaches are paid more  than  the players.”

That may have been true before they graduated, but it was decidedly not so  once the players got on with their careers after college.   One of his former players, Hank Paulson,  an All-Ivy and All-East Tackle on Dartmouth’s 1967 team, went on to become CEO of Goldman Sachs and served as Secretary of the Treasury under President George Bush.  In 2000, Paulson donated $2 million to endow  Dartmouth’s head coaching position in honor of his former coach, Bob Blackman.




CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING BOB BLACKMAN


JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY
  




***********   Bob Blackman was the first coach I was ever aware of who came into a place that hadn’t been very good  for some time, and immediately began a complete makeover, including - a word that wasn’t used in that  context back then - the culture.

He redid the uniforms. He recruited nationally. He worked year-round (believe it or not, our coaches at Yale all went back to their year-round homes as soon as the season was over, and didn’t return until the start of fall practice), and he installed  what was considered to be very new and unusual stuff on both offense and defense.

Above are a few sheets from the quite detailed 10-page scouting report we got at before the 1959 Dartmouth game.   While we were using maybe  six formations, you can see that he was all over the place with formations and plays, and for the time, the stuff was very advanced.

I suppose you could say that I was “recruited” by Dartmouth in the sense that along with a bunch of other guys in the Philadelphia area I was a guest at the home of some wealthy alum where we met one of the coaches, and then I spent a weekend on a visit.  What I mostly remember from the visit was my roommate - a kid from New London, Connecticut who wound up going there - going to a basketball game against Holy Cross, then coming out to find it snowing, and then getting absolutely smashed at a fraternity party. (In terms of drinking, Dartmouth was a Power 5 school.)

Not exactly high-pressure, but it was big time compared to Yale, where nobody knew who the hell you were unless you were from Chicago - where the alumni were extremely active in recruiting.




TOP: HE PREPARES TO BLOCK A GEORGIA TECH DEFENDER IN THE 1956 SUGAR BOWL;
BOTTOM: FOUR OF HIS TEAMMATES SHOW HIM WHAT THEY THINK OF THE GOVERNOR OF GEORGIA

***********   QUIZ:  He played his high school ball in Massillon, Ohio.  Massillon gained fame as a football foundry in the late 1930’s, when its high school coach was the great Paul Brown, who went on to win a national title at Ohio State, and to found and coach both the Cleveland Browns and Cincinnati Bengals.  And Massillon was a power when our guy played there.  In his three years at Massillon Washington High School, the Tigers won three straight state championships, including a mythical national title in 1951.

He was an outstanding player and his grades were good, but no Big Ten school recruited more than a small handful of black athletes then, so he went to the University of Pittsburgh - Pitt.

At Pitt, in those days of two-way ball,  he played fullback and linebacker.

Pitt, then an Eastern independent, finished the 1955 regular season at 7-3, and was considered the top team in the East. The Panthers had beaten Cal, Syracuse, Nebraska, Duke, Virginia, West Virginia and Penn State. Their losses were to Oklahoma (ranked 5th), Navy (ranked 12th) and Miami.

As the top team in the East, the Panthers were offered an invitation to play in the Sugar Bowl against Georgia Tech and,  especially in those days where there were only a handful of bowl games, of course they accepted. 

With conditions:  those were the days of segregation throughout the South, where laws prohibited Blacks from participating in  college athletics alongside whites, or even from sitting together at large events.

And when Sugar Bowl officials agreed to allow  our guy to play as well as to Pittsburgh’s demand that its 10,000-seat section in the  stadium be integrated,  it set off the governor of Georgia.

On  learning that Pitt had a black player, and that Pitt intended to play him in the game,  the  governor  “recommended” to the Georgia Tech Board of Trustees that Tech forfeit the game.

When  the word of this got back to Pittsburgh,  our guy,  who  had grown up in  an integrated Massillon and played with and against whites  in on its teams,  said,  “I never ran into this kind of thing before, either at home or on the team.  I’m awfully sorry it has happened.”  And, he admitted years later, he offered to  stay back in Pittsburgh - to go along with some made-up story about an “injury” - rather than deprive his teammates of the once-in a lifetime opportunity.

But his teammates  would hear  none of it.  At the very suggestion of  his not going with them, they rallied around him. “We’re a team,” said one of them. “We don’t play without one man.”

Said the University of Pittsburgh in a statement,  “(He)  will travel, eat, live, practice and play with the team.”

And the entire Pitt student body rallied as well, chanting, “No (Our Guy), No Game!”

Soon enough, Georgia Tech’s then all-white student body took up the cause as well.  Some  2,000  Tech students, many of them carrying torches,  marched the two miles from the Tech campus to the governor’s mansion, where they burned effigies of the  governor , uprooted parking meters, and entered  the State Capitol , where they overturned furniture.    Even rival University of Georgia students lent their support,   carrying  signs that read: “This time we’re for Tech.”

Ultimately, our guy was in uniform  for the game, and on January  2, 1956, he made sports history by becoming the first black man to play in the Sugar Bowl.

There’s no storybook ending.  Tech won.

Pitt was twice stopped short of the goal line, once at the one yard line at the end of the first half, the other time at the five as time ran out in the game.

Pitt outgained Tech, and our guy, with 51 yards on six carries, was the game’s leading ground gainer.

Tech  threw just three passes - none was completed and one was intercepted.

But it was a Tech pass that didn’t count that resulted in a great irony: a long Tech pass to the end zone resulted in interference being called against our guy.  It will forever remain a controversial call, but under the rules of the time, it moved the ball from the 32 to the one, and after a penalty moved the ball half the distance closer, Tech scored on a sneak from the one-half yard line to win the game, 7-0.

There were no racial incidents - no racial slurs heard - during the game. Of the Tech players, our guy  said afterward, "They were good sportsmen, perhaps the best I've played against all season. They played hard, but clean. It was a good game. But believe me. I didn't push that man." 

That evening  our guy attended the post-game awards banquet at the St. Charles Hotel, despite the fact that  it was segregated. (Its  manager had said, “If he shows up, I won’t block his way to the dinner. But you know he would never come.”)

Come he  did,  and he was welcomed.   Invited by a group of Georgia Tech players to join him at their table for dinner,  he accepted.  (I call that a storybook ending.)

After earning a business degree from Pitt,  he served in the Air Force, retiring as a captain,  and after  working  as a foreman in a Pittsburgh area steel mill, he worked and retired as an administrator at Pittsburgh’s Allegheny Community College.

He was well known and respected among  other black athletes for the part he played in integrating sports - and America.  Said his son, years later, “I realized Dad was someone special when I saw Satchel Paige come up to him and excitedly start a conversation.”




TUESDAY,  NOVEMBER  7,  2023 - “If we live long enough, we become caricatures of ourselves.” John Irving


***********  SEMI-FINAL SATURDAY  IN THE CFL

EASTERN DIVISION SEMI-FINAL

MONTREAL 27, HAMILTON 12

(MONTREAL PLAYS TORONTO ON SATURDAY 11/11 IN EASTERN DIVISION FINAL)


6:30 PM EASTERN

WESTERN DIVISION SEMI-FINAL

BC 34,  CALGARY 26 (OT)

(BC PLAYS WINNIPEG ON SATURDAY 11/11 IN WESTERN DIVISION FINAL)




*********** TUESDAY/WEDNESDAY/THURSDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL.  I still miss Conference USA.  I’m having a hell of a time warming up to the MAC.  Maybe it’s all the empty seats getting to me.  They look like XFL games, which may be okay in the spring, when there’s nothing else on, but.…


FRIDAY NIGHT

BC 17, SYRACUSE 10 - Without Garrett Shrader, Syracuse had no offense. 37 yards passing?  Really?  Meantime, BC ran twice as many plays as Syracuse - 94 to 47 - as Thomas Castellanos outgained the entire Syracuse team, 252 to 246. (He threw for 165 and ran for another 87, with one TD passing and one running.)  A transfer from UCF who hails from Waycross, Georgia, he is really exciting.

WYOMING 24,  COLORADO  STATE 15 - Wyoming led 10-7  at the half but scored twice in the third quarter to bury the Rams.


SATURDAY

FIRST FLIGHT

CLEMSON 3, NOTRE DAME 23 - The way it started out, I thought Estime would kill Clemson. As it turned out, Clemson had a beast of their own named Phil Mafah. Mafah carried 36 times for 186 yards and two TDs. Estime, on the other hand, wound up with fewer than half the carries (17) for less than half that yardage (87) and one TD. Were you watching, Tyler in Spartanburg?

AN IRISH FAN’S TAKE (By Joe Gutilla)  Hugh,

Even though Clemson gave Notre Dame a late chance to tie the game the Irish refused to take advantage.  Clemson's fumble giving Notre Dame the ball with just over 2 and a half minutes remaining, with two time-outs, on ND's own 35 in my eyes went like this...  First.  It was obvious that Irish OC Parker must not have a 2 minute drill as I saw them waste at least 20 seconds trying to huddle.  Second.  With the Tiger defense playing to stop the pass did Notre Dame even try to mix things up and run the ball a couple/three times and maybe break a long one?  Why did their best RB only rush for 5 yards in the second half after going for over 80 yards in the first half?  Why is it that the Irish coaching staff cannot recognize  their QB's strengths?  He is a much more accurate passer utilizing play-action and bootlegs.  They should be under center more to highlight his strengths instead of exposing his weaknesses.  Also, turnovers, and failure to score TD's inside the 15 yard line 3 times didn't help the cause.

Not all of my frustrations can be limited to the offense.  The defense, the same one that played lights out for the last couple of weeks, looked flat.  Where were the constant pressures?  Especially against a QB like Klubnik who hasn't handled pressure well at all this year.  When ND runs DL mixes and stunts they make plays and give LB's and DB's opportunities to make plays.  Not today.  Very little.  And the lack of tackling today was evident throughout the course of the game.

Bottom line.  Regardless of their 4-4 record coming into the game Clemson is Clemson, and the real Clemson came to play today.  Notre Dame didn't.  I said from the start this was a trap game (I hate when I'm right).  If this coaching staff doesn't get things figured out soon it won't surprise me to see Notre Dame struggle to win their last two games against Wake Forest and Stanford.  And THAT would be a Notre Shame.  


TEXAS 33, KANSAS STATE 30 (OT) - K-State was down, 20-7  with 4 minutes left in the third period, and then in the space of 6-1/2 minutes, they tied it up. Then fell behind, 30-27. Then after failing to make a third-and-one, they tried a FG with 1:45 - and missed.  But then they forced Texas to punt and drove close enough to try another FG - a 45-yarder with :01 o the clock - and made it. Texas kicked a FG in OT, and K-State, faced with a chance to kick a FG and tie it, went for the win and came up short. Hmmm.  The guy just sent you into OT with a 45-yarder, but now, on fourth and  goal, you prefer your chances of making a touchdown from the four - after making a total of two yards on the previous three plays?

OLE MISS 38, TEXAS A & M 35 - Aggies scored twice in the fourth to take a 35-31 lead, but Quinshon Judkins’ TD with 1:40 gave the Rebels the win.  A & M’s Max Johnson (Brad Johnson’s son, if you didn’t know) was 31 of 42 for 305  and a TD, while Ole Miss’ Jaxson Dart was 24 of 33 for 387 and 2 TDs.

MICHIGAN STATE 20, NEBRASKA 17 - A devastating defeat for a Nebraska team that had won  five of its last six games.  They’re still in a three-way tie for second in the Big Ten West , but a win would have left them tied for first with Iowa, whom they play in three weeks.

SOUTH CAROLINA 38, JACKSONVILLE STATE 28 -  This sucker was tied, 28-28 after three. Jaxville trailed by just three points with two minutes left when  an 88-yard interception return put them away.  Get this- JAXville rushed for 225 yards.  The Gamecocks from the mighty SEC rushed for 89.  SC was led by Xavier Legette, who caught nine passes for 217 yards and two TDs.


OHIO STATE 35,  RUTGERS 16  (+ 18.5) - Rutgers pulled off a 4th-and-one play that I would probably describe as a double-snap - it went for 46 yards, the longest play from scrimmage against the Buckeyes so far this year.

ARKANSAS 39,   FLORIDA 36 (OT) - So this is what you get with a new offensive coordinator’s first game:  the Razorbacks ended their six-game losing streak, as well as Florida’s five-game home winning streak; and  Arkansas QB  KJ Jefferson completed 20 of 31 for 255 yards and 2 TDs, and carried   17 times for 92 yards and a TD. Florida QB Graham Mertz (remember him, Wisconsin?) completed  26 of 42 for 282 yards and 3 TDs.



MID AFTERNOON


ARMY + 18.5 AT AIR FORCE (IN DENVER) - Who saw this one coming?  Not yet two minutes into the game, Army QB Bryson Daily broke through the Air Force line and raced 62 yards to make the score 7-0.

it was accompanied by an EMP - an Electromagnetic Pulse - that screwed up all Air Force communications.

Not yet four minutes into the game, Air Force  faced a fourth and short at their own 34 - and they went for it.  And Army held. Up in the press box, the Air Force offensive coordinator was livid. “Damnit!” he shouted as he pounded the desk with his fist. “I said Punt!”

“That’s not what I heard on my headset,” replied the sideline assistant responsible for signaling in plays.  By the time they realized their communications were distorted, Army had kicked a field goal and extended the team to 10-0.

Less than two minutes later (8:10 on the clock) Air Force QB Zak Larrier fumbled - his first turnover of the year - and Army recovered.  He felt he should have questioned the sideline signaler when he read “Fumble. Now.”  But having been taught not to question authority, he did as ordered, and fumbled.

And that’s how, with 1:53 remaining, Daily ran in for another score, this one from five yards out.

The game wasn’t 15 minutes old, and Army, an 18-point underdog, now had a 17-point lead.

And another Air Force fumble just before the end of the first quarter led to an Army drive that ended with a field goal not two minutes into the second quarter.  Army now led, 20-0 and Air Force had had the ball for three series and a total of 10 plays.

Truthfully, it appeared that  the blows, one right after the other, seemed completely to disorient the Falcons - the players,  who looked to coaches for leadership that didn’t come, and the coaching staff, which, departing from its usual patient game, began to press -  to take random shots through the air.  Perfectly good strategy when you’re in control of the game as Air Force usually is, but not so effective when you’re scrambling in desperation mode.

It was 20-3 at the half, and that’s how it stayed - a result that could only be explained by EMP.

For Army fans, it was a welcome return to hard-nosed football.  The Army offense was simple and conservative - run the ball, mainly with Daily:  Army ran a total of 58 offensive plays, and Daily ran (36 carries) or passed (nine attempts) on 25 of them, accounting for 210 of their 253 yards of total offense.  Army didn’t have a turnover.

Air Force actually outgained Army - 259 yards to 253 -  but couldn’t overcome six turnovers - four fumbles lost and two interceptions.

(For those of you who actually believe the tired, old cliche that they’re all on the same team when this is over… the  coaches’ post-game handshake took place at warp speed, without even a chance for a quick “f—k you” as they passed.)



UTAH 55, ARIZONA STATE 3  - You’ve got some defense when you can hold a Power 5 team to 83 yards of total offense.  And seven first downs. That’s what the Utes did to the Sun Devils. ASU had a balanced offensive attack - 43 yards rushing and 40 yards passing. Utah, meanwhile, rushed for 352 yards.  Sure is nice to play QB for a team that can run like that: Utes’ QB Bryson Barnes  completed 19 of 26  for 161 yards and four TDs.

TEMPLE 32, NAVY 18 - And Navy was favored!  This was a beat-down.   Temple ran for just 46 yards, but they only ran the ball 24 times. So?  Their QB,  E. J. Warner - Kurt’s boy - was 27 of 33 for 402 and 4 TDs.



AFTERNOON

OKLAHOMA STATE 27,  OKLAHOMA  24 - I’m happy  for the Cowboys. A grandson went to OSU. I feel bad for the OU fans who’ve now lost two in a row and will now have to live for years with the sting of defeat in the very last Bedlam game. My advice to them is to take it up with their athletic department. Meanwhile, to take some of the sting out of the loss - they could go home and watch Lincoln Riley go down to defeat number three.


GEORGIA  30, MISSOURI 21 - 10-10  at the half.  Missouri is that good. So, of course, is Georgia. Mizzou coach Eliah Drinkwitz  could be SEC Coach of the Year.


PENN STATE 51,  MARYLAND 15  - The late, great Beano Cook called it, as always: “Penn State will beat Maryland… because Penn State ALWAYS beats Maryland.”


LOUISVILLE 34, VIRGINIA TECH 3 - The Cards are now 8-1, in a solid position to play in the ACC title game. They doubled Tech’s yardage (382 to 140) and - get this - held the Hokies to under 72 yards passing and 68 yards rushing


ILLINOIS +1.5 AT MINNESOTA - Absolutely amazing storybook  finish. Illini, trailing 26-21 and deep in their own territory, lose their starting QB Luke Altmyer to hard hit after  throwing the ball.  His sub, John Padock, a transfer from Ball State, takes over on the Illinois 15. Two completions get the Illini to the Minnesota 46, and then, shockingly, he hits a receiver who has split the two Minnesota safeties, and poof! - Illinois leads, 27-26.  There’s a little time left, but that’s the ball game/


IOWA 10,  NORTHWESTERN 7 - Lord, what an awful game this must have been.

PASSING: Iowa 65 yards, Northwestern 81
RUSHING: Iowa 104 yards, Northwestern 89
FIRST DOWNS: Iowa 14, Northwestern 12
YARDS PER PLAY: Iowa 3.0, Northwestern 2.8

Were they playing in eight inches of snow? Zero degree temperatures? Hurricane force winds? No?

Then how in the hell  Big Ten athletes, NIL and all that, coached by men paid hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, could produce results like those?

I’d bet that  if those kids had spent a week practicing   on their own, without coaches, they’d have given fans a better game than this.



EARLY EVENING

OREGON 63, CAL 19 - Oregon’s Bo Nix threw an interception on the game’s first play.  Hiccup. He wound up throwing for 386 and 4 TDs, on 29 of 38. The Ducks had 597 yards total offense.


ALABAMA 42, LSU 28  - I can still see Bama sneaking into the Playoff  with one loss.  If they ever were away, Bama is back. It was a great offensive display by both QBs, but at the same time a clear  statement of what our game has become - a matter of total dominance by one player:
LSU  total offense: 478   LSU QB Jayden Daniels: yards passing 219, yards rushing 163=  382 
Bama  total offense: 507  Bama QB Jalen Milroe”   yards passing 219, yards rushing 155=  364  


KANSAS 28, AT IOWA STATE  21 - I told you there was no way the Cyclones should have been favored.

WEST VIRGINIA 37,  BYU 7  - The Mountaineers rushed for 336 yards, the Cougars for 67. Jaheim White carried 16 times for 146 yards (9.1 per carry).  The Cougars  have been outscored 72-13 the last two weeks, both games on the road. The only consolation in the butt-kicking was the performance of backup QB Jake Retzlaff, in relief of injured Kedon Slovis.  BYU is unique in having a national following and a large contingent of BYU fans from all over the East Coast was on hand for one of the Cougars rare visits east.

MICHIGAN 41, PURDUE 13  - Purdue covered the spread.  Michigan players were probably worried about how long a suspension their coach might  receive that they forget to look at the signs.


WASHINGTON 52 USC 42 - This was an absolutely riveting game. I hope you guys on the East Coast  stayed up to watch. There was a bit of offense: 1087 total yards, 51 combined first downs. Mississippi State transfer Dillon Johnson answered the question about whether the Huskies have a running game; do they ever! He carried 26 times for 256 yards and four TDs. Michael Penix was 22 of 30, also for 256 yards, and two TDs. USC’s Caleb Williams was his usual self, completing 27 of 35  for 312 and 3 TDs. If you wanted punts, this was not the game for you: Washington punted once, USC twice.  Following the game, USC’s Lincoln Riley fired his defensive coordinator.


KENTUCKY 24 MISSISSIPPI STATE 3  - Wildcats are bowl eligible.


NC STATE 20, MIAMI 6  - Two field goals?  Tyler Van Dyke throws 38 times and all you can manage is six lousy points?  Maybe three interceptions help explain it. Anyhow, State in now bowl-eligible. Miami, they’ve got Florida State and Louisville coming up next.


NIGHT


STANFORD 10,  WASHINGTON STATE 7  - Here was a game between two teams I normally like, and I didn’t watch a damn bit of it. Sheesh. Stanford “rushed” for 75 yards, WSU for 4.


OREGON STATE 26 COLORADO  19 - Here was a story from Colorado...

BOULDER — A new play caller couldn't change the fortunes for Colorado on Saturday as the Buffaloes dropped a 26-19 decision to No. 16 Oregon State at Folsom Field.  Deion "Coach Prime" Sanders' Buffs staged a furious rally late but still fell short as CU lost its third in a row and fifth in its last six to drop to 4-5 overall and 1-5 in Pac-12 play.

Colorado finished with 238 yards total offense — the Buffs' second-lowest total of the season — with 160 coming in the fourth quarter. CU's total included a minus-7 yards rushing, thanks in part to four Oregon State sacks that produced 41 yards in losses.

“Furious rally” my ass.  If you were a robot writing this story from the  stat sheets, you might write that. But trust me - if you watched the game, Colorado had no shot. But  the Oregon State OC should be sent to his room without supper for the idiotic play calls that allowed the robot to write that story.


Here’s what happened:

At the start of the fourth period, the Beavers had driven 62 yards to the Colorado 8, where it was first and goal.
STUPID PLAY CALL TIME, PART I
1st & 10: Incomplete pass
2nd & 10: 4 yd run to the 4
3rd & 4: Incomplete pass
4th & 4: FIELD GOAL   - SCORE 23-5

Colorado, which had done nothing offensively all day, takes the kick and drives and scores with 10:41 left - SCORE: 23-12

Eating up clock, Oregon State drives 45 yards from its own 25 to the Colorado 30, 1st and 10
STUPID PLAY CALL TIME, PART II
1st & 10: Incomplete pass
2nd& 10: SEVEN YARD RUN
3rd and 3: Incomplete pass
4th and 3: FIELD GOAL - SCORE 26-12  TIME: 4:47

Colorado takes the kick and drives and scores with 10:41 left - SCORE: 23-19  TIME: 1:42

NOW - Colorado, evidently thinking that it can kick off and hold Oregon State on downs, foregoes an onside kick.  WTF?

The problem with this thinking: Oregon State has just put on two drives - one of 66 yards, the other of 49 yards, and they stopped themselves by foolishly passing, when they had been steadily. moving the ball on the ground.

So Colorado kicks off and Oregon State holds onto the ball and runs the clock out.

Some furious comeback.  The only thing “furious” was me - at the idiot who would twice bypass their very strong running game and recklessly put the game in the hands of a  quarterback who has proven to be inconsistent.


FRESNO STATE 37, BOISE STATE 30 - Heck of a game. 

Joe Gutilla, a Fresno State guy, wrote me recently to ask if I’d noticed a school's  splits.  I hadn’t, and for some reason I thought he meant Fresno - he hadn't, it turns out -  so I made it a point to watch  their Boise State game closely. It wasn’t easy getting a good shot - it’s probably just that they don’t have as many cameras as they’d have at an SEC game - but I finally got one.  It happened to be on the replay of a touchdown  run by Fresno’s Malik Sherrod.

Fresno’s splits, while not as tight as ours, are definitely tighter than just about any major college football team.  And yet, they don’t appear to hamper the Bulldogs. Malim Sherrod’s TD came on  a 52-yard burst through the left side of the line.


 
Sherrod, who after Boise had scored a touchdown with :07 remaining in the first half, answered with a 95-yard kickoff return,  carried 21 times for 132 yards.  Fresno QB Mikey Keense is really tough - he took some awful shots.

So,  maybe wrong school, but enlightening nonetheless.



***********   What are Dino Babers’ chances at Syracuse?

Writes Rachel Culver,  CNY Central

It certainly seems like he is a coach respected by his players. They continue to defend their coach, take accountability, and show that they are bought into the system, whether it is working or not. He is so likable as a person. He embodies the best of what Syracuse is, but the 2018 season felt like the top of the mountain. If the program wants to establish itself as a true force in the ACC, I think it may require a change. I sympathize with Babers. When you are facing so much criticism, filtering through outside noise on top of doing your job at a high rate, can't be an easy task. But fan expectations are to compete, so how much larger does the sample size need to get before the conclusion is reached that the program before isn't doing that?


*********** Louisville’s Brian Brohm might be my Coach of the Year.  If not, it will probably be Arizona’s Jedd Fisch. It will DEFINITELY not be Oregon’s Dan (“Mister Aggressive”)  Lanning.


*********** ADVICE FROM AN OLD GUY WHO’S MADE IT:

“I think I learn a little something from everything I’ve read. I think that one of the reasons I was as economically successful as I was in life is because I read so damn much all my life, starting when I was about six years old. I don’t know how to get smart without reading a lot.”

That’s from a Wall Street Journal interview with Charlie Munger.  The 99-year-old Munger,  along with his business partner, the legendary Warren Buffett,  is considered to be one of the best investors of all time.


***********  Jon Wilner of the San Jose Mercury noted that after their first nine games at Colorado, the vaunted Coach Prime is now 4-5. On the other hand, his predecessor, the much-discredited Karl Dorrell was… 5-4.

I checked it out. Wilner is right.

KARL DORRELL (5-4)
2020
W UCLA
W STANFORD
W SDSU
W ARIZONA
L UTAH
L TEXAS (BOWL)

2021
W NO COLO
L  TEXAS A & M
L  MINNESOTA

Dorrell was 4-1 in 2020 before losing to Texas in the Alamo Bowl. That means he was 4-2 going into 2021, which opened with a win over Northern Colorado. Suck on that, Coach Prime.


*********** Maybe it’s the influence of that “music” called rap/hip hop.

Maybe it’s just  that they were  screwing around back in grade school vocal music class.

But has anybody listened carefully to a college football team seemingly singing its school’s fight song after a game?

Somebody,  somewhere must have told the guys that it’s a cheer - something meant to be shouted -  and not a song, with, you know,  a tune and all.  Either that or, I fear there’s not a damn football player in America who can carry a f—king tune.


***********   I’m sure you'll have it on your zoom but they could have beaten Texas if they were under center on 3rd and 1.   It's what you continue saying and I couldn't agree more.     Can't believe what Air force is doing right now. (halftime)

John Irion
Argyle, New York

Couldn’t agree with you more. And, yes, I’ll have it on my next Zoom.


***********   Tasty morsels for everyone in today's page. Speaking of Minnesota's Gophers, it seems there's a strong belief in the Twin Cities that they'll lose PJ Fleck at season's end. Several members of their Governing Board (Trustees?) claim they have reason to think he'll replace Harbaugh. If there's a P-5 school more interested in winning than whatever offense the coach installs, Minnesota's a strong candidate. With that in mind, may I suggest hiring Jeff Monken? That's a string of 'if's' I know, but that move would solve a lot of problems. Monken could get himself a professionally competent staff, and Army could return to their triple under-center of five years ago.

Re Shepherd College (pretty little campus, by the way): I think it was in the SI "Faces in the Crowd" in the early 90s. It went something like this: "The nation's leading rusher, Johnny Shepherd of Shepherdstown, West Virginia, plays for tiny Shepherd College and his position coach is ___ Shepherd (no relation)."

Before this season, you said good things about Matt Rhule. He did get off to a rough start, but Nebraska's 5-3 now and will pick up another win on Saturday. Looks like you called that one right. He could wind up 8-4 or even 9-3, which would probably be enough to reinvigorate the Big Red fan base.

I have lots of Bob Knight stories from my time at USMA. Just one now, though. A classmate and close friend who played for Knight looked a great deal like Clint Walker as Cheyenne Bodie. During a Sunday afternoon practice, Knight hit a player in the face. This player was the biggest in Army history. Although the height restriction was six-six, this guy had grown to six-seven. He weighed 250. This player left the team immediately after the incident. My Clint Walker-clone friend stopped Knight after practice and promised him that if the coach ever hit him, he would kill him. I've seen my classmate in action: he did tell Knight that, and he did mean it. Years later, in the final episode of his ESPN show, Knight Time, Bobby Knight had a trophy for the player he most liked from any school he coached. He awarded it to my aforementioned classmate.

Although I accept that Harbaugh sure seems to have violated the rules, I'm galled that the NCAA keeps that story front and center while shying away from the likes of NIL, the portal, Enes Kanter Freedom, and 'student-athletes' who leave with degrees from departments that never existed.

Answer = Glen Mason, the coach best known for his dentition. His only loss in head-to-head competition was to Pepsodent Paul Dietzel.

John Vermillion                        
St Petersburg, Florida


Hahaha. I met Glen Mason once, in the Twin Cities Airport.  And the thing that immediately grabbed my attention was his teeth.  I remember thinking that they couldn't be his, because NOBODY had teeth that straight and white and perfect.

Paul Dietzel got the Pepsodent Paul nickname for his smile.  When he left Army to  take the South Carolina job, Clemson’s Frank Howard dismissingly referred to him as “Colgate Paul.”  When a reporter corrected him - surely he meant “Pepsodent Paul” - he said, “Hell no - he lost to Colgate last year, didn’’t he?”

Old Frank was no dummy.  Sure enough, Dietzel’s last team at Army - 1965 - lost to Tennessee, Notre Dame, Stanford, Air Force - and Colgate (29-28).


***********   Hugh,

Bob Knight, like Donald Trump, was the southbound end of a northbound horse.  But man...could that first guy coach basketball, and man...could the latter guy run a country!

It occurs to me that a number of former pro coaches trying to make it in college football just have never quite figured out that the only commonality between the two entities is the game itself.  Outside of the game pro football and college football are two different animals.  (Well...maybe not so much anymore??)

I liked your analogies of "Don't punish the kids."  

QUIZ:  Glen Mason (With my youngest daughter a cheerleader at Minnesota I got close to the football program.  Coach Mason made sure MN HS coaches were always welcome to practices and games.  I especially liked how he placed an emphasis on the run game.  Maroney and Barber were fun to watch, and taking the Axe from Wisconsin and the Lil' Brown Jug from Michigan were definitely highlights of my stay in the frozen tundra).

Enjoy the games, and the weekend!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas



      


*********** QUIZ ANSWER:  Glen Mason  played high school ball at Colonia, New Jersey, and spent two years at Ohio State as a linebacker, playing behind the likes of future NFLers Stan White and Randy Gradishar.

After a year as GA at Ball State, he worked up the coaching ladder from Allegheny College, then back to Ball State, then to Iowa State and Illinois before returning to Ohio State as an assistant to Earle Bruce.  He was 28 at the time, and two years later, at 30, he was named the Buckeyes’ offensive coordinator. 

He served in that position for six years, every one of which was a 9-3 season, with six finishes in the top 15 nationally.  In 1986 he was hired as head coach at Kent State, where he would begin a remarkable career of winning games at places where winning hasn’t come easily.

He was 5-6 his first season there, but in his second season the Golden Flashes went 7-4 - their first winning season in ten years. He left after two years with a record of 12-10;  since then, Kent State has had nine different coaches, and only one of them has had a winning record.

He left Kent State for Kansas, another school that hadn’t experienced much winning.  It took him four years to produce a winner there  - Kansas’ first winning season in ten years - and in 1995,  he led the Jayhawks to 10 wins, the first any Kansas coach had won since 1905.  (It’s only been done once since then - by Mark Mangino,  who won 12 games in 2007.)

On the strength of that season he was offered - and accepted - the Georgia job, and was even introduced as the Bulldogs’ coach, while Kansas was preparing for a bowl game. For whatever reason,  he changed his mind and withdrew from the Georgia job and returned to Kansas.  Regrettably,  the Jayhawks had a down year  (4-7), and this time he really did leave - for Minnesota.

Overall, he was 47-54-1 at Kansas, but he  took  them to two bowl games and earned two national rankings.  And in the games that counted most to Kansas fans - Kansas State and Missouri - he was 9-9.

After his  departure, it would be nine more years before Kansas again had a winning season.

Before his arrival, Minnesota had gone six years without a winning season. The Gophers hadn’t won more than four games in any of those seasons, and they’d had only one Big Ten conference win in each of the last three seasons.

By his third year in Minneapolis, though, the Gophers had an 8-win season, and their first bowl appearance in 13 years.

In his ten years at Minnesota, he  would take them to six more bowl games, but  the last one would be the last game he ever coached.

It was the 2006 Insight Bowl,  against Texas Tech, and the Gophers, after leading 38-7 in the third quarter, wound up losing 44-41 in overtime. 

The loss dropped Minnesota’s record to 6-7, and following the game, he was fired.

In ten years, his record was 64-57, which gave him a winning percentage of .535 - not spectacular, but pretty good at Minnesota, where even the legendary Murray Warmath, who coached the Gophers to two Rose Bowl appearances and a national championship, had a winning percentage of just .526.

(Here’s one for you: I bet you didn’t know that in his two years at Minnesota - before leaving for Notre Dame - the great Lou Holtz was no better than 10-12.)

His 2003 Gophers won 10 games - the first time that had been done at Minnesota in 98 years. (It’s only been done once since, by PJ Fleck in 2019.)

Minnesota wins over Michigan in the Little Brown Jug game are extremely rare, but in  2005, his Gophers got one, beating Michigan for the first time in 20 years.

After leaving Minnesota, he has remained in the Twin Cities area,  and spent some time as an analyst on the Big Ten Network.

Wrote Chip Scoggins of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, wrote in August, 2022 of his impact on the university, especially in its decision to build an on-campus stadium…

Glen Mason  took over a program coming off six consecutive losing seasons with three Big Ten wins combined in three seasons before his arrival from Kansas.

The Gophers didn't have their own stadium. The football facility was dilapidated, including an inadequate weight room, no meeting rooms and a locker room so small that freshmen had to dress in a different room. Coaches had to shovel snow that blew inside the entrance whenever the door opened.

(He)  invited a group of top in-state recruits to the facility a few weeks after he was hired to hear their feedback about the program. He heard nothing but complaints about the Metrodome and the facilities.

"I got my eyes opened," Mason  said. "I said we need to do something and do something now."

He challenged the status quo and didn't worry about winning a popularity contest. He demanded more commitment in all areas — facilities, salaries, staffing, budget, etc. — to make football a priority in line with Big Ten rivals. He didn't always get a yes answer, but he refused to settle.  Sometimes that bothered university leaders.

Looking back now, Minnesota needed (his)  vision and persistence at that moment in the program's history because a losing culture was baked into the operation and change would not happen without someone demanding it.

"You have to keep pushing and fighting for things that you think are really important," (he) says now. "I wasn't being unreasonable. I wasn't asking for the moon.”

No, just a new on-campus stadium, for starters. He famously got blocked from showing a group of recruits the Metrodome one weekend because it was booked for a tractor pull.

Stadium conflicts with Twins postseason games accelerated Mason's urgency to get shovels in the dirt on what is now Huntington Bank Stadium.

"Are we a Big Ten school or not?" he told people. "Isn't it apparent that this doesn't work?"

Gophers football went from disrepair to successful, credible program under (him) despite lagging in important areas that left the U chasing rivals.

In summary, he said,     "You don't take quality out of a program overnight and you don't put it in overnight.  But once you have it, you've got to constantly fight to keep it."



CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING GLEN MASON


GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
TOM WALLS - WINNIPEG, MANITOBA
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY


 

*********** QUIZ -  He was born in DeSoto, Iowa, but he grew up in Long Beach, California and was a star football player at storied Long Beach Poly High.  As a freshman football player at USC, he was a running back and co-captain of the Trojans’ freshman team, but in mid-year he was stricken with polio, which left him paralyzed on his right side.  Given little chance to walk again, he left school for a year and through hard work he was able to return to football two seasons later. Seeing him limp through drills, USC head coach Howard Jones offered him a position as assistant coach of the freshman team, and a career was launched.

After graduation he spent a year as a high school coach, then entered the Navy (World War II going on) and was assigned to coach service football teams, first  at the  San Diego Naval Training Station. then  at  Moffat Naval Air Station.

After  the War, he was hired as football coach at Monrovia (California) High School, where he spent three years. Before his arrival, the team hadn’t won in two years, and attendance was in the hundreds. In three years he took Monrovia to a  10-1 season,  and a  final game turnout of 15,000.

That got him a junior college job, at Pasadena City College, and there, employing his “V-System,” in four seasons he had a record of 34-6-3. In 1951 and 1952, Pasadena played for the national JC championship.

That got him  the job at Denver University.  The Pioneers had had only two winning seasons in the last 11 years, and in his first season there they finished 3-5-2.  But in his second season, Denver went 9-1, winning the Skyline Conference title for the first time in 37 years. 

And then the Dartmouth College position came open. Dartmouth, a member of the then-informal Ivy League, had suffered through five straight losing seasons, and when Tuss McLaughry retired after 12 years (with a 44-58-3 record) they enlisted the help of  their quarterback’s dad.

Their returning quarterback was Mike Brown, who happened to be the son of the great Paul Brown, then coach of the Cleveland Browns.

Dartmouth AD, former Yankees’ pitcher Red Ruffing,   turned to Paul Brown for help in evaluating the candidates for their coaching position.  With his own son’s junior season coming up, Brown had a personal  interest in helping Dartmouth make the right selection, and after Dartmouth sent game films of their three leading candidates to Cleveland, Brown and his coaching staff recommended our guy.

Mike Brown, who would go on to succeed his dad as President of the Cincinnati Bengals, played for two years under our guy, and remembered his coach as extremely detail-oruented:  ''He knew exactly what he wanted each player to do on every play,'' Brown remembered,  ''And he could coach every position.''

His first year at Dartmouth was 1955; the Ivy League itself officially began as an eight-team conference in 1956.  It didn’t take him long to shake up the staid, old, set-in-its-ways Ivy League.  Why, he actually recruited!  Between his contacts in the West and the national reach of Dartmouth alumni, he built a national network of  unofficial talent scouts.

He brought in talented players, and he was innovative.  In addition to his “V” formation, which can best be described as a Veer backfield with a fourth back - a blocking back - in front of one of the halfbacks, he is considered one of the inventors - if not the sole inventor - of the  4-4  stack defense, which gave other Ivy coaches fits.

He was an “early adopter” of computers - then in their infant stages - as a means of identifying opponents' offensive tendencies.

And he gave his teams a new, stylish look, starting with unique helmet striping and a large “D” in the front, a look that was revived by one of his best-known successors, Buddy Teevens, who died recently.

By his second season Dartmouth had a winning record (5-3-1),  by his third season the Big Green (actually, they were still the Indians then) were 7-1-1, and by his fourth season, they won the Ivy championship, the first of seven titles that his teams would either win outright  or share.

Three of his Dartmouth teams would finish their seasons unbeaten, including his final team in 1970.  That  Dartmouth team shut out six of its nine opponents, and finished the season ranked 14th in both national polls (AP and UPI).  Dartmouth was also awarded  the Lambert Trophy as the best team in the East, which rankled Penn State’s Joe Paterno, prompting him to suggest a post-season game (there were few bowl games then) between the two teams. Retorted our guy, “If we were allowed to play a postseason game, I'd prefer to play a team with a better record.” (Penn State was 7-3).

He won the Walter Camp Coach of the Year Award  that year.

His overall record in 16 years at Dartmouth was 104-37-3, and his Ivy League record was 79-24-2.

He was hired by Illinois, which had won a total of just 12 games in the previous five seasons. 

In his first season, he won five games - first time that had been done in six years - and in Big Ten play Illinois won  five games for only the second time in 18 years.

But, alas, Illinois has long been a graveyard of coaches,  and after six years, with only one winning season, he was fired.

He  chose at that point to return to the Ivy League, hired at Cornell to replace George Seifert (who years later would coach the 49ers to two Super Bowl wins). But he  did not achieve anywhere near the level of success that he had at Dartmouth, and after six seasons, he was through.

His record for 30 years was 168-92-7, a .671 percentage. He also was 34-6-3 at the junior college level.

He served as President of the American Football Coaches Association, and he is in the College Football Hall of Fame.

Although he did not succeed at Cornell as he had at Dartmouth, he said he was glad he had returned to the Ivy League, calling it “the only conference where the coaches are paid more  than  the players.”

That may have been true before they graduated, but it was decidedly not so  once the players got on with their careers after college.   One of his former players, Hank Paulson,  an All-Ivy and All-East Tackle on Dartmouth’s 1967 team, went on to become CEO of Goldman Sachs and served as Secretary of the Treasury under President George Bush.  In 2000, Paulson donated $2 million to endow  Dartmouth’s head coaching position in honor of his former coach.





FRIDAY,  NOVEMBER  3,  2023 - “The secret to managing is to keep the five guys who hate you away from the five guys who haven’t made up their minds.”  Casey Stengel


***********  IT'S SEMI-FINAL SATURDAY  IN THE CFL

3 PM EASTERN

EASTERN DIVISION SEMI-FINAL

HAMILTON AT MONTREAL

(WINNER PLAYS TORONTO ON SATURDAY 11/11)


6:30 PM EASTERN

WESTERN DIVISION SEMI-FINAL

CALGARY AT BC

(WINNER PLAYS WINNIPEG ON SATURDAY 11/11)




*********** TUESDAY/WEDNESDAY/THURSDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL.  I’m working with an awfully small sample, but it does appear to me after a few weeks of Group of 5 football on weeknights,  that there’s something of a decline in that quality of football from Conference USA to the MAC.

FRIDAY NIGHT

BC + 2.5 AT SYRACUSE - Based on how the teams are trending, I’d go with BC

COLORADO  STATE  + 7 AT WYOMING - Big rivalry game. The two schools aren’t that far apart.  CSU played Air Force pretty tough, but  I like Wyoming.


SATURDAY

FIRST FLIGHT

NOTRE DAME AT CLEMSON +3 - Clemson has offense problems. I wouldn’t be surprised by a big Irish win

KANSAS STATE + 4.5 AT TEXAS - If it comes down to coaching, K-State will win. Go Wildcats. EMAW!

TEXAS A & M + 3 AT OLE MISS - I shouldn’t tell anybody this, but I’ve gotten to like Lane Kiffin

NEBRASKA AT MICHIGAN STATE +3 - Nebraska is bowl eligible with a win. But wait- there’s more. A win keeps them tied for first in the Big Ten West!

JACKSONVILLE STATE + 15.5 AT SOUTH CAROLINA - I’ve seen Rich Rod’s JAX State team, and they’re good.  But we are talking about an SEC team. What the hell - I’d bet on Jacksonville to beat the spread.

OHIO STATE AT RUTGERS + 18.5 - Every week a big guy falls.  Could it be Ohio State this week?

ARKANSAS AT FLORIDA + 6.5 - What has happened to the Hogs?  Can they save Sam Pittman’s job?



MID AFTERNOON


ARMY + 18.5 AT AIR FORCE (IN DENVER) - This could be a blowout but service games for some reason are usually closer than predicted.  One interesting point that never gets mentioned because of the myth that “they’re all on the same team” - the two coaches don’t particularly care for each other.

ARIZONA STATE + 11.5 AT UTAH - Arizona State  has been playing over  their heads.  Utah is a lot better but did that ass-kicking by Oregon last week take anything out of them?

NAVY AT TEMPLE + 6.5 - Navy isn’t that good, so Temple must be really bad.



AFTERNOON

OKLAHOMA AT OKLAHOMA STATE + 5.5 - Damn shame the Sooners lost to Kansas last week because now  they’ll be ready.  Sure would like to see the Cowboys end the Bedlam series by seeing the Sooners off to the SEC with a loss.

MISSOURI + 15.5 AT GEORGIA - If Georgia can beat this Missouri bunch by that much, then give them the national championship. Georgia will win, but Missouri is good.

PENN STATE AT MARYLAND + 9.5 - In the words of the late, great Beano Cook: “Penn State will beat Maryland… because Penn State ALWAYS beats Maryland.”

VIRGINIA TECH + 9.5 AT LOUISVILLE - Hard to believe that Tech - 4-4 overall - is playing Lousville - 7-1 overall - for second place in the conference, but there you are.

ILLINOIS +1.5 AT MINNESOTA - Gophers need to win to stay tied for first in the Big Ten West.

IOWA AT NORTHWESTERN + 4.5 - How many points will the Hawkeyes score? Could they install an Air Raid offense in one week?


EARLY EVENING

CAL + 23.5 AT OREGON - Oregon is probably the best team in the West, and they have the weapons to score at will. 

LSU +3 AT ALABAMA - I can still see Bama sneaking into the Playoff  with one loss.

KANSAS + 2.5 AT IOWA STATE  - Seriously? The Cyclones are favored? Maybe the money guys figure Kansas will have a letdown. If KU QB Jalon Daniels plays, KU wins big.

BYU +10 AT WEST VIRGINIA - The Cougars learned late Thursday that they’ll have to play without QB Kedon Slovis.  Both teams are 5-3 and become bowl eligible with a win.  Sure would like to see/hear the reactions of those westerners when they visit Morgantown for the first time.

PURDUE + 32.5  AT MICHIGAN - The only way Michigan could lose would be if they swapped uniforms.

WASHINGTON AT USC + 3.5 - Both teams have been a bit sluggish lately. Washington has the great passing game, but USC with Caleb Williams isn’t bad, and their running back Marshawn Lloyd, a transfer from South Carolina, is really good.  I see USC upsetting the apple cart - and the Huskies.

KENTUCKY AT MISSISSIPPI STATE + 3.5 - I’ll go with the Wildcats because of the way they played against Tennessee

MIAMI AT NC STATE + 4.5 - What do these teams have in common? In the last two weeks, they’ve both beaten Clemson by a touchdown.  Since it’s in Raleigh, I’d go with State.


NIGHT

STANFORD + 13.5 AT WASHINGTON STATE - Once you start Cougin’ it, how do you stop?  Cougars have now lost four in a row and I wouldn’t be surprised if Stanford makes it five.

OREGON STATE AT COLORADO  +13.5 - With Oregon State’s offensive line and its two stud running backs, Martinez and Fenwick (sounds like a law firm)  they could pound Colorado into submission,  But they won’t.  Instead, they’l get cute, and if they’re not careful, this could be a game.

BOISE STATE +3 AT FRESNO STATE - Fresno can be a tough place to win when the Bulldogs’ fans pack the place, and this one is a sellout.  Fresno wins a close one and makes it 8-1.

From the (Boise) Idaho Statesman: It’s a little more than 950 feet from the visiting locker room, and the path is lined on each side by rowdy Fresno State fans who aren’t shy about letting the opposition know exactly how they feel. Small, portable barriers are the only thing separating players from those fans, which has left more than one Bronco feeling queasy. “I remember those days of going down that hill and never really knowing who’s a security guard and who isn’t,” said Boise State offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan, a quarterback from 2005-08. “It’s one of those places where coaches say, ‘Hey, be smart and make sure you’ve got guys with you if you go somewhere.’”



***********  I was watching a MAC game and I heard them mention “Rocky Lombardi.”

What? I asked. Is he still playing?

Sure enough, there he was at quarterback for Northern Illinois. Playing his seventh year of college football.



*********** Now that Colorado is 4-4 and less than even money to become bowl eligible, most Americans have moved on to the next big sports story.

That left Deion Sanders  scrambling to find his way back onto the  front page, and he may have found one.

It seems that after losing to UCLA at the Rose Bowl last week, his players were (“allegedly”) robbed of items including jewelry and cash left in their locker room while they were out on the  field being beaten.

"Our kids got robbed during the game last week. I think that's a travesty," Sanders told reporters. "I would expect the NCAA to do something about that.”

Sure, Deion. They just might.  Simply have your AD submit file a report to them and if they think action is necessary, they’ll get back to you, telling you there’ll be a thorough investigation.  And by the time the investigation’s concluded, if they decide  there’s any reimbursement coming, your players will probably have it in time for your team’s twentieth reunion.

Sanders didn’t specify what  was taken from the locker room, but he said that few of the players had insurance, and that the Rose Bowl should reimburse them.  After all, he said - apparently  confusing the stadium with the bowl game of the same name played in the stadium - they have enough  money to do so: "This is the Rose Bowl. They said the granddaddy of 'em all, right? I'm sure granddaddy had some money. Grandpa should have some money to give these kids.”

Put aside any thought that those kids might embellish the list of things they’d had stolen:  "I'm going to have a list made out from these young men, and I know they're going to be truthful about what they lost, so we can try and get it back for them," he said. "They may not be able to get the items back, but they should be able to reimburse them. That was unbelievable.”

Actually, Deion, it’s not unbelievable at all.  There’s probably not a coach reading this who hasn’t had at least one incidence of theft from a locker room - and learned from the experience.  Years ago, while playing a game in Portsmouth, Virginia, my team’s locker room was broken into.  The thieves were slick: they just grabbed all the clothing they could find and took it elsewhere, under the grandstands, where they emptied all the pockets and left the clothes for us to find, after a short search. Funny thing was, they never touched my stuff.  (Tells you what they thought of my taste in clothes.)

What is unbelievable, Deion, is that  you’re the head coach of a football team, and you didn’t have enough sense as a coach to know that the LAST place to leave valuables - whether you’re at the Rose Bowl or just going out to practice at your home field - is in the damn locker room.  Any experienced coach knows to designate a coach or manager to take care of the valuables until afterwards, and to make sure that the players are reminded frequently to check any valuables before leaving the locker room.  But you’re a bright guy, and you’ll learn. Nothing like real coaching to learn those things.


*********** Bobby Knight  hated to be called Bobby, preferring “Bob.” But you can’t fight the media, which long ago decided he would be “Bobby.”

He was a very bright man, a man of great courage and drive, and a man of such contradictions  that in the course of a few minutes he could have you ready to go to war - either beside him or against him. 

If all that mattered in life were sports accomplishments, he had more than enough for any man’s lifetime.

On the other hand, if all that mattered were a person’s manners and behavior, he left a lot to be desired.

In many ways, he represents a major reason why we can no longer have great leaders:  In our search for perfection in our leaders,  we can no longer overlook things about them that we’d rather weren’t so, and we settle instead for bland people of little accomplishment whose behavior and personalities we find pleasing. Derisively, we call them “bureaucrats,” or “politicians.”

Donald Trump, for example,  can be boorish and obnoxious.  Even his supporters acknowledge that.  And that’s enough for many people to overlook whatever  good qualities he may have - qualities that might be useful to our nation.

George Patton? He was a great fighter, but he had faults that in today’s world would likely send him off to an early retirement from the Army.

John F. Kennedy? He was a womanizer. So was Martin Luther King, Jr.  Could they still be leaders in today’s world, or would they be disqualified  by their imperfections?

No sense even getting into Washington, and Jefferson. They’re dead and can’t answer whether they would still own slaves today, knowing what  we all now know. But no matter. Forget what they contributed to our nation. They owned slaves 200+ years ago, so we get to deny their accomplishments. And pull down those statues.

In evaluating a person,  we should look at his or her accomplishments first,  and so long as he or she hasn’t broken laws or done damage to society or maliciously harmed another living being, we should make allowances for human imperfection.

Applying that standard I have to say that Bob Knight may have had his imperfections, but he was a great basketball coach.

May he rest in peace.



*********** Many years ago I was told a story by a West Pointer who had played basketball at Army for Bobby Knight.

It seems that one particular player had had enough of Coach Knight and  announced that he was quitting the team.  (I don’t remember being told of any of the particulars of his quitting.)

And that was that, until several days later, the faculty liaison to the basketball program - I don’t know the official title, but it’s protocol for an Army officer who’s a member of the West Point faculty to help assist a coach in areas he can’t possibly be familiar with - approached Coach Knight and said that the young man had reconsidered and would like to be able return to the team. And he asked what Coach Knight thought.

“Colonel,” Coach Knight asked the officer.  “Do you know this young man?’

Yes, the officer said, he did.

“Well,” said Bobby Knight, “Tell him to go f——k himself.”


   
***********   COLLEGE RED ZONE?

It was only a matter of time…

If you’re like me, you’ve probably checked out NFL RedZone and wondered why there isn’t something like it for college football.

Wonder no longer.

This Saturday night, at 7:30 Eastern, ESPN2 will be introduce - as an experiment - College Football Frenzy, a quick visit to games going on at that time:

Iowa State vs. No. 22 Kansas
No. 24 USC vs. No. 5 Washington
Rice vs. SMU
Mississippi State vs. Kentucky
North Carolina State vs. Miami
UTEP vs. Western Kentucky

The co-hosts will be Pat McAfee and Reese Davis.

Wait, you say.  What about Michigan-Purdue?  LSU-Alabama? BYU-West Virginia?  Aren’t they also going to be on at that time?

Well.  There’s this - the games being checked in on are all part of the Disney family - ABC, ESPN and ESPNU and ESPN+, and the SEC and ACC networks.

If you’re looking for games on NBC, CBS, CBSSN, FOX, FS1 or FS2 - you’re SOL.  But it could be interesting.  I’ll have it on one of my screens.


*********** Apparently Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz is able to deal with the ouster of his son, Brian, as his offensive coordinator.  (The choice was out of his hands because in order to comply with Iowa’s anti-nepotism law, son Brian had to report to the AD, who happens to be the person who fired him.)

This is good, I believe, because for every good hire that helps boost a program, there’s one that brings to an end years of success and winds up rolling the program  down to the bottom of the hill.

Just a few places that have yet to recover from that  one bad hire:

TENNESSEE - Lane Kiffin replaced Philip Fullmer in 2009. Since then, counting Kiffin (who left for USC after one year), they are on their seventh head coach. It’s Josh Heupel and he’s off to a decent start. But it’s been 14 years.

TEXAS - Charlie Strong replaced Mack Brown in 2014.  Mack Brown was 158-48 in 16 years; Charlie Strong was 16-21. Steve Sarkisian may be the one, but his previous record doesn’t suggest it.  It’s been nine years.

USC - Lane Kiffin replaced Pete Carroll in 2010. Carroll was 97-19 in nine years there. Counting Kiffin, they’re now on their sixth coach, including interims, and  the jury is still out on Lincoln Riley. Its been 13 years.

WASHINGTON - In 1999, Jim Lambright was fired after going 6-6, and was replaced by Rick Neuheisel, who was paid a then-record some of money by an athletic director who panicked when the Seahawks hired Mike Holmgren from the Packers. Neuheisel won, but he had roving eye and was caught sneaking an interview with the 49ers, and then he got into trouble with the NCAA over a minor gambling issue (a March Madness pool). The Huskies went through three coaches before finally hiring Chris Peterson in 2014.  That was 15 years.  (Peterson had a very good run, but his successor, Jimmy Lake, undid most of the good he did, and lasted just two years.)

NEBRASKA - Aargh.  This is the story athletic directors seem to be unaware of when they  consider going out and making the Big Splash Hire.  In 2004, Frank Solich was fired, and replaced by veteran NFL coach Bill Callahan. Callahan left Lincoln a loser, and he was followed by five  coaches, including one interim coach and the current coach, Matt Rhule.  Only one of Callahan’s successors - Bo Pelini - had a  winning record, and he was rejected by the Nebraska people as not personable enough for their tastes.   At the time of Callahan’s hiring, Nebraska was still considered a national brand.  It’s been 19 years  since then, and Nebraska faces relegation to being just another Midwestern state university that plays  football.   One that puts 100,000 people in its stands for home games, true, but for how much longer?


*********** Can The  Playoff really include a team that a preponderance of evidence says is a cheat?

The Playoff Committee washes its hands: “It’s the NCAA’s decision.”

Sure.   Leave it to the NCAA.  A decision on Michigan might come down sometime in the 2030s.

That leaves the Big Ten.   Evidently, the commissioner had a telephone call this week with all the conference head football coaches except Harbaugh, and the word appears to be that they were heavily in favor of the Conference  taking action against Harbaugh and Michigan.

If the evidence is what it appears to be, it ought to be simple - rule Michigan out of the conference championship game; prohibit Michigan from representing the conference in any post-season play;  void the results of any defeats to Michigan over the last two seasons; require Michigan to share its game plans with opponents 48 hours before every game; Michigan is required to run the defense specified in advance by each opponent; a combination of two or more of them.

It ought to be simple, but it’s not, because there is the real possibility right now of the Big Ten getting two teams into the Playoff.  You realize what that’s worth to the conference?

What if Michigan is ruled out, and then Michigan - without the benefit of knowing what plays Ohio State calls - beats the Buckeyes?   Beats ‘em bad?  Bad enough that the Buckeyes drop out of playoff consideration?

Myself, I don’t care.  I care only about the game, and I fear that in our society, where elections are stolen, children of White House executives get rich by selling influence to America’s enemies, cash bail is eliminated, and it’s okay to shoplift as long as  the value of the loot isn’t more than $990, Harbaugh and Michigan are going to skate.

I’m already hearing, “Don’t punish the kids.”

Yeah, the kids. You know, the Michigan “kids” who benefitted from  the (alleged) cheating of their coach.

Don’t punish the kids?  No, it wasn’t their fault.  It wasn’t the little kids’ fault when daddy goes off to prison, either. Unfortunately, they’re collateral damage. But sparing them the pain of the parent’s punishment is not society’s concern.

Nor should the effect of a judgment against Harbaugh on Michigan’s “kids” be of the concern of anyone  except Harbaugh.  He’s the one who’s responsible for any harm to them.   He should have been thinking of them when - if -  he made a conscious decision either to cheat  or to choose to be ignorant of things he is responsible for.

Don’t punish the kids?  Did the NCAA worry about “the kids” when it gave SMU the death penalty? Seems to me that in the case of Michigan, they at least got bragging rights - perhaps also enhanced NIL payments - as a result of all the winning they’ve been doing since the “scouting” began.

The kids we ought to be concerned about are the other kids, on other teams, who’ve already been punished by busting their asses to beat Michigan, and then being beaten by a Michigan team that cheated.

Of course, I’m old school.  I can remember when we trusted the results of games and elections.  I’m from a time when we trusted opponents to play fairly, and people still went to the polls to cast their votes.

But this is not old school.  This is the new school, where courts decide everything.  If Michigan should take part in the playoffs and there is a preponderance of evidence that Michigan cheated - as there seems to be -  expect a civil suit, the Mother of All Law Suits,  to be brought by several of the teams that they aced out.

Defendants?  Let’s see… Michigan, of course… Harbaugh, the Michigan coach… Stalions, the spy believed to be behind it all… The Big Ten Conference… The NCAA.. and, of course, the Playoff Committee.

The damages?  Well, apart from the monetary value of a place in the playoff, surely colleges can put a value on the donations, ads and ticket sales that would result from a spot in the Playoff, not to mention the goose it would give to recruiting.  

Come to think of it, all those Michigan “kids” could sue Harbaugh for what it’s going to cost them in NIL money.

Oh, wait - then there’s all those kids from Indiana, and Minnesota, and Purdue whose NIL values were reduced by the losses to Michigan.

Lawyer up, everybody.

I love it.



***********   Have the ugly tentacles of Harbaugh, Inc. made their way to the Big Sky?  John Canzano  writes…

You think Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh is in hot water over the sign-stealing scandal that is unfolding? Consider the heat UC Davis coach Dan Hawkins is going to feel after he reads this.

A couple of weeks ago, Portland State was playing a home football game against Idaho State. The (Idaho State) Bengals are coached by Hawkins’ son, Cody. UC Davis happened to be on a bye that week.

Portland State coach Bruce Barnum was on his sideline during the game when he glanced up at the stands and saw something that floored him - the older Hawkins, sitting in the stands, watching the game.

“How about that?” Barnum said. “He sat back there the entire game watching my entire operation. I’m thinking, ‘Your kid’s not playing. He’s coaching.’ If he were playing, maybe I’d say OK. But he’s coaching.”

PSU lost to Idaho State, 38-24. This Saturday, the Vikings travel to UC Davis to play a team coached by the older Hawkins.

“(Dan and I) are friends,” Barnum said. “He was watching his son coach on the other sideline. I dunno. We could make it a thing, he Harbaugh’d me.  Come on, at least call me, Hawk, and say ‘Hey Barney, I’m going to be there.’ It hurt me a little bit.”

*********** I’m waiting another week before I write anything about Bears’ QB Tyson Bagent, who’s from Martinsburg, West Virginia, about a half-hour from where I got my coaching start (Hagerstown, Maryland) and went to nearby Shepherd College, where a number of my players came from.


*********** Cappy Cappon was a great athlete at Michigan, and was a longtime football assistant at Princeton, as well as its basketball coach. He appears to be the coach who laid the groundwork for deliberate, team-oriented basketball for which Princeton has become famous.  I came across this…

At Princeton, Cappon became known for two trademarks. The first was the "Iron Five," his practice of picking the five best players and playing them without substitution in every game.   Cappon once joked about the Iron Five tradition, saying, "If you start five men, they should be your best men, and if they're in shape, and play the way they should, there should be no need to substitute."

After a pause, Cappon then added, "but more important than all that, I haven't got anybody worth a damn on the bench."


***********   I hope Jeff Monken comes to his senses and returns to his roots…..the “offense” that they are currently running is a joke….Air Force will dominate them this week…..

Joe Bremer
West Seneca, New York


*********** When you coined " Beavin’ it" I thought you were going to say "Leave it to Beaver!”

Adam Wesoloski
Pulaski, Wisconsin


***********   Some good news would be welcomed, not the news about the Joe Roth game. Does every administrator in every blooming school have his or her head up his butt? I don't believe they can offer any believable reason for failing to call attention to Joe Roth's example. It's more needed now than ever. If USC had a problem with it, then I wish ill tidings on the school, especially including Lincoln Riley.

Article III, Para 5, Rules of the Game: Hawk tackling fits nicely, doesn't it? I saw an awful lot of that stuff last weekend...but it does give the player a moment to flex for the camera, so I guess it's not all bad.


John Vermillion
St. Petersburg, Florida



***********   Hugh,

Yes, Joe Iacono was spot-on regarding his assessment of Army's performance against UMass.  Frankly, I'm certain there are a LOT of Army fans and alums who agree.

Coach Lieb found a great way to get the students and his players fired up at a school rally with that form tackle drill.  Wish I would have come up with that!  It would have saved on the wear and tear of my body doing flips at our rallies!  But the kids went nuts for it!

With all that's going on in the Middle East I have to give the Israelis a lot of credit for their toughness.  A large part of it has everything to do with ALL young people 18 years of age having to serve in the military for two years, how most look forward to their service, and being proud and grateful for that experience when its over.

Talk about tough:

https://footballscoop.com/news/gundy-shares-how-bedlam-rivalry-has-gone-from-spitting-in-faces-to-lovefes

Run the Wedge!


Have a great week!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas

 




Back row (left to right): Milt Plum (Browns), BOBBY LAYNE (Steelers), Sam Etcheverry (Cardinals), Bill Wade (Bears), Bart Starr (Packers), Johnny Unitas (Colts), Norm Snead (Redskins), Zeke Bratkowski (Rams). Front row: Jim Ninowski (Lions), Fran Tarkenton (Vikings), Don Meredith (Cowboys), John Brodie (49ers), Sonny Jurgensen (Eagles), Y.A. Tittle (Giants). Photo by Ralph Morse. First published in Life magazine, November 17, 1961.


*********** QUIZ ANSWER:  Sports Illustrated once called Bobby Layne “The toughest quarterback who ever lived.” 

Playing in a time long before today’s protect-the-quarterback rules were passed, that means VERY tough.
 
He was  a Hall-of-Fame quarterback who in the pre-Super Bowl days led his team to three NFL titles.  But he was almost as well known  for his off-the-field  partying.  (He once said, "The secret to a happy life is to run out of cash and air at the same time.”)
 
He was a native of Dallas, and played at Highland Park High School with a teammate who would also go on to become an NFL Hall-of-Famer - a guy named Doak Walker.
 
He went to the University of Texas, where he was an All-American quarterback and an All-Southwest Conference baseball player who once threw a no-hitter against archival Texas A & M.
 
Drafted #1 by the Chicago Bears, he spent a year in Chicago before being traded to the New York Bulldogs. After a year with the Bulldogs, he was traded to Detroit, where he was the right man at the right time, leading the Lions to four divisional titles and three NFL championships (1952-53-57).
 
After eight years in Detroit, he was traded to Pittsburgh, then the very depths of the NFL, and he supposedly  said that the Lions wouldn’t win again for 50 years (a case that still holds).

He finished his career in Pittsburgh, where he spent five seasons.

His stats were not flashy.  He completed just 49 per cent of his passes, and he threw more  interceptions than touchdown passes. But he was a great leader of men and, long before quarterbacks had radio receivers in their helmets, he called every game he ever played in.  He engineered so many  late come-from-behind wins that he is often credited with giving birth to the two-minute drill.
 
He was an inspirational leader who continued to play without a face mask after most other players had made the switch. He never hesitated to get in the face of an offensive lineman who failed to protect him, but his teammates loved him because he was the consummate team man.
 
He lived fast, and is credited with saying, “If I knew I’d live this long I’d have taken better care of myself.” He  died at the age of 59 in 1986.
 
Detroit News columnist Jerry Green wrote of him: “(He)  and television made Sundays bearable in this factory town. On Sundays some of us would rush to church and rush back home in plenty of time to flick on the old black and white gizmo. When the Lions were on the coast,  dinner would be permitted to turn cold until (he) coaxed the Lions to their victory in the final minute. He was the symbol of this city, the toughest and the best. He played without a face mask and he was at his finest against the clock. When a touchdown drive was necessary, he could make the last two minutes seem an eternity."

CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING BOBBY LAYNE


GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
TOM DAVIS - SAN MARCOS, CALIFORNIA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
CHARLIE WILSON - BROOKSVILLE, FLORIDA
JASON MENSING - WESTLAND, MICHIGAN
JOE BREMER - WEST SENECA, NEW YORK
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY


***********   Go Lions!  Even though I'm pissed for the curse which has proven real, I'm grateful for the championships!  Jason Mensing  Westland, Michigan


      


*********** QUIZ:   He played high school ball at Colonia, New Jersey, and spent two years at Ohio State as a linebacker, playing behind the likes of future NFLers Stan White and Randy Gradishar.

After a year as GA at Ball State, he worked up the coaching ladder from Allegheny College, then back to Ball State, then to Iowa State and Illinois before returning to Ohio State as an assistant to Earle Bruce.  He was 28 at the time, and two years later, at 30, he was named the Buckeyes’ offensive coordinator. 

He served in that position for six years, every one of which was a 9-3 season, with six finishes in the top 15 nationally.  In 1986 he was hired as head coach at Kent State, where he would begin a remarkable career of winning games at places where winning hasn’t come easily.

He was 5-6 his first season there, but in his second season the Golden Flashes went 7-4 - their first winning season in ten years. He left after two years with a record of 12-10;  since then, Kent State has had nine different coaches, and only one of them has had a winning record.

He left Kent State for Kansas, another school that hadn’t experienced much winning.  It took him four years to produce a winner there  - Kansas’ first winning season in ten years - and in 1995,  he led the Jayhawks to 10 wins, the first any Kansas coach had won since 1905.  (It’s only been done once since then - by Mark Mangino,  who won 12 games in 2007.)

On the strength of that season he was offered - and accepted - the Georgia job, and was even introduced as the Bulldogs’ coach, while Kansas was preparing for a bowl game. For whatever reason,  he changed his mind and withdrew from the Georgia job and returned to Kansas.  Regrettably,  the Jayhawks had a down year  (4-7), and this time he really did leave - for Minnesota.

Overall, he was 47-54-1 at Kansas, but he  took  them to two bowl games and earned two national rankings.  And in the games that counted most to Kansas fans - Kansas State and Missouri - he was 9-9.

After his  departure, it would be nine more years before Kansas again had a winning season.

Before his arrival, Minnesota had gone six years without a winning season. The Gophers hadn’t won more than four games in any of those seasons, and they’d had only one Big Ten conference win in each of the last three seasons.

By his third year in Minneapolis, though, the Gophers had an 8-win season, and their first bowl appearance in 13 years.

In his ten years at Minnesota, he  would take them to six more bowl games, but  the last one would be the last game he ever coached.

It was the 2006 Insight Bowl,  against Texas Tech, and the Gophers, after leading 38-7 in the third quarter, wound up losing 44-41 in overtime. 

The loss dropped Minnesota’s record to 6-7, and following the game, he was fired.

In ten years, his record was 64-57, which gave him a winning percentage of .535 - not spectacular, but pretty good at Minnesota, where even the legendary Murray Warmath, who coached the Gophers to two Rose Bowl appearances and a national championship, had a winning percentage of just .526.

(Here’s one for you: I bet you didn’t know that in his two years at Minnesota - before leaving for Notre Dame - the great Lou Holtz was no better than 10-12.)

His 2003 Gophers won 10 games - the first time that had been done at Minnesota in 98 years. (It’s only been done once since, by PJ Fleck in 2019.)

Minnesota wins over Michigan in the Little Brown Jug game are extremely rare, but in  2005, his Gophers got one, beating Michigan for the first time in 20 years.

After leaving Minnesota, he has remained in the Twin Cities area,  and spent some time as an analyst on the Big Ten Network.

Wrote Chip Scoggins of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, wrote in August, 2022 of his impact on the university, especially in its decision to build an on-campus stadium…

(He)  took over a program coming off six consecutive losing seasons with three Big Ten wins combined in three seasons before his arrival from Kansas.

The Gophers didn't have their own stadium. The football facility was dilapidated, including an inadequate weight room, no meeting rooms and a locker room so small that freshmen had to dress in a different room. Coaches had to shovel snow that blew inside the entrance whenever the door opened.

(He)  invited a group of top in-state recruits to the facility a few weeks after he was hired to hear their feedback about the program. He heard nothing but complaints about the Metrodome and the facilities.

"I got my eyes opened," (He) said. "I said we need to do something and do something now."

He challenged the status quo and didn't worry about winning a popularity contest. He demanded more commitment in all areas — facilities, salaries, staffing, budget, etc. — to make football a priority in line with Big Ten rivals. He didn't always get a yes answer, but he refused to settle.  Sometimes that bothered university leaders.

Looking back now, Minnesota needed (his)  vision and persistence at that moment in the program's history because a losing culture was baked into the operation and change would not happen without someone demanding it.

"You have to keep pushing and fighting for things that you think are really important," (he) says now. "I wasn't being unreasonable. I wasn't asking for the moon.”

No, just a new on-campus stadium, for starters. He famously got blocked from showing a group of recruits the Metrodome one weekend because it was booked for a tractor pull.

Stadium conflicts with Twins postseason games accelerated (his)  urgency to get shovels in the dirt on what is now Huntington Bank Stadium.

"Are we a Big Ten school or not?" he told people. "Isn't it apparent that this doesn't work?"

Gophers football went from disrepair to successful, credible program under (him) despite lagging in important areas that left the U chasing rivals.

In summary, he said,     "You don't take quality out of a program overnight and you don't put it in overnight.  But once you have it, you've got to constantly fight to keep it."




TUESDAY,  OCTOBER  31, 2023 - “We want to be respected but no longer think we need to be respectable.” Peggy Noonan


***********  IT'S SEMI-FINAL SATURDAY  IN THE CFL

3 PM EASTERN

EASTERN DIVISION SEMI-FINAL

HAMILTON AT MONTREAL

(WINNER PLAYS TORONTO ON SATURDAY 11/11)


6:30 PM EASTERN

WESTERN DIVISION SEMI-FINAL

CALGARY AT BC

(WINNER PLAYS WINNIPEG ON SATURDAY 11/11)



*********** TUESDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL.   Bye-bye, Conference USA.  It’s been fun.

Now, we return to MAC-tion on weeknights.  That’s cool.

But I’m going to miss New Mexico State and Diego Pavia.



***********   SATURDAY’S COLLEGE GAMES


FIRST FLIGHT (9 AM PACIFIC) - IN ORDER OF MY INTEREST



UMASS 21, ARMY 14:   When  you’ve just lost to the worst team in all of FBS, what does that make you?   Sagarin rates all D-1 teams together, combining both FBS and FCS, and last week it had UMass at 190, making it the lowest of all FBS teams - even lower than 50 FCS teams.   Army came in at 105.  But UMass, 1-6 coming in and winner of only two games in the last two seasons,  took it to Army in every way possible. Everyone who’d watched Army play knew the offense would suck, and the “new, improved offense” did just that.  After a 6-yard run took them to the UMass 12  for a fourth-and-two, a spot (“just a stinking two yards?”) where the old, outmoded Army offense would have run for it, the exciting new Army offense passed.  The pass was intercepted.  Army leads all of FBS with 20 turnovers in eight games. This week the defense joined in as well.  UMass running back Kay’Ron Lynch-Adams carried for 234 yards and three TDs.  That’s  good, of course, but the amazing thing is that he did it while Army knew that he’d be carrying - UMass  ran the ball 37 times in all, and he carried on 34 of those times.  It is almost impossible to remember a worse Army performance, even including the 0-13 season of 2003. I refrain from being overly negative out of respect for the young guys on this team who are being misused.  For what it’s worth, UMass moved up seven places in the Sagarin ratings to 183.  Army dropped from 105  to 124.  Here’s why you should take Sagarin with a grain of salt: they  should  have simply flipped  positions.

A guy named Joe Iacono seems to feel at least as strongly about Army football as I do…

https://army.rivals.com/news/icymi-gbk-analyst-joe-iacono-s-army-umass-game-recap

Check UMass coach Don Brown’s post-game interview.  He’s a great guy and a career coach - and a New Englandah to the core.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PG6IlTrI4b


FLORIDA STATE 41, WAKE FOREST 16  - I left this one quickly. FSU is back, and Jordan Travis is really good.  I  truly hope that the great Wake run of recent years isn’t at an end and that they’re just rebuilding.


KANSAS 38, OKLAHOMA 33 - Holy crap - what a game.  Even after the Jayhawks scored with seconds to play, Oklahoma had one last shot from the KU 23 with three seconds to play, and the TV camera caught KU’s Lance Leipold - no doubt remembering West Virginia’s bonehead loss to Houston - gesturing to his defenders to “bat it DOWN!”  It was the Jayhawks’ first win over Oklahoma since 1997.


WEST VIRGINIA 41,  UCF 28 -  The Mountaineers are now 5-3. It wasn’t that close - WVU led, 41-21 with five minutes to play, and UCF scored once more with just under two minute to play. Mountaineers’ Garrett Greene completed 14 of 23 for 145 yards, but he rushed 11 times for 55 yards and three TDs. Big CJ Donaldson rushed 17 times for 121 yards and a TD. For the Knights, John Rhys Plumlee completed 25 of 36 for 271 yards and three TDs, and he rushed for 45 yards and a TD, but he also threw three interceptions.


NC STATE 24, CLEMSON 17 - Clemson is now 4-4, with Notre Dame coming in next week. It’s obvious Dabo Swinney has been hearing all the whining and wailing: "If you don't go undefeated, people say you're losers, that you're terrible.  It’s such a terrible mindset. And honestly, maybe we need to lose a few games and lighten up the bandwagon. Sometimes the bandwagon can get a little too full. That's the one good thing about going through a little so-called adversity. You really find out who's with you and who's not."



OREGON 35,  UTAH 6 - Utah’s Rice Eccles Stadium is considered one of the toughest places in the West to play in and, despite Utah’s patched-up offense, the Utes are always in the fight. Almost always. This time, the Ducks looked like the best team in the Pac-12 - be far - as they trounced the Utes. And Bo Nix looked the conference’s best QB, completing 24 of 31 for 248 yards and two TDs. By design - to preserve and protect - he ran only four times on planned plays.


TEXAS 35, BYU 6  - It was 21-3 at the half. But Arch Manning never did get it.


NOTRE DAME 58,  PITT 7 - I lost interest in this one pretty fast.

Afterward, Pitr coach Bill Narduzzi did something that never goes over well, however truthful it might be - he blamed his players.  They’re just not good enough.

“We lost a lot of good players last year,” Narduzzi said. “We thought we’d replace them and we obviously didn’t do a good job with that.”

(That’s our fault, of course, for not getting  good enough players, but…)




LOUISVILLE 23,  DUKE 0 - As that opening game win over Clemson fades in significance, Duke appears to have started to slide. Riley Leonard was 9/23 for 121 (less than six yards per attempt) , and other than the times Leonard had to carry, the Devils ran only 11 times for 38 yards.


USC 50,  CAL 49 - This was right up there with Kansas-Oklahoma as  the most exciting  game of the day.  It went  right down to the wire, with Cal leading 28-17 and half-time, then USC coming from behind to appear to be in control, and finally Cal scoring a TD to pull to within one point with :58 to play. And then -  a decision I will nearly always disagree with - Cal decided to go for two and the win, and failed.  Cal has a QB. He’s Francisco Mendoza, and he’s from Miami where his dad, the son of people who escaped from Cuba, is a pediatrician. He was all set to go to Yale until be got an offer from Cal. Cal actually outgained USC, 527 to 497.  Jaydn (no “e”) Ott carried 21 times for 153 yards and three TDs for Cal. USC’s Marshawn Lloyd, who is a hell of a player, carried 17 times for 115 yards and two TDs, and he caught three passes for 72 yards. It’s hard to say anything negative about Caleb Williams, who was very, very good  - 23/40 for 369 and two TDs -  but I will. He isn’t Superman that he once was. He simply  isn’t the show-stopper that he was last season.

Going to different conferences means the end of the annual Joe Roth game, which has gone on since 1977 between Cal and either USC or UCLA, whichever game is played in Berkeley. But they could have played it this year, and for some reason they didn’t.

I’ve written about the Joe Roth game before, but…

https://www.si.com/college/cal/news/no-joe-roth-game-2023




BOISE STATE 32, WYOMING 7 -  This one got out of control so fast that I had to bail to watch better games.




AIR FORCE 30 COLORADO STATE 13 - The game was played in blizzard conditions, and CSU was actually penalized 15 yards when its student section, after having been warned, continued throwing snowballs at the Air Force bench.  Tied 13-13 at the half, the Falcons  came out in the second half and went 75 yards in 10 plays, and then - talk about “complementary” - they shut down the Rams with a great combination of ball control and stout defense.  In he second half, Air Force scored 17 points while shutting out the Rams. CSU  actually outgained the Falcons, but it was mostly by passing; Air Force outrushed CSU 261-42, and possessed the ball 12 minutes longer.



UCLA 28,  COLORADO 16 - Things didn’t go well for the Sanders family.  Shilo (he’s the defensive back)  got thrown out for what I considered a chicken-sh— hit on a defenseless receiver, following which he had to pose as if he were a Greek god; Shedeur (he’s the QB) got manhandled by the UCLA defensive line, and was 27 of 43 for just 217 yards (an anemic 5 yards per attempt); Deion (the self-styled “Coach Prime”) afterward ingratiated himself to his offensive linemen by telling reporters that the solution was to replace them (“The big picture, you go get new linemen”).  No reporter had the stones to ask “Coach Prime” why, as he was bringing in all those transfers, he didn’t do a better job of enticing offensive linemen to come to Boulder.


The Buffaloes are 4-4 and this is their remaining schedule: Oregon State, Arizona, Washington State, Utah.




ARIZONA STATE  38, WASHINGTON STATE 27 - WSU  started the season 4-0.  They’re now 4-4 and looking like a flag team.  Cam Ward is doing his  share  to win - he was 35 of 50 for 315 yards and a TD.  And he was the leading “rusher,”  carrying 12 times for 35 yards and 2 TDs. But the rest of the Cougs’ “runners” carried a  combined nine times for 53 yards. ASU, meanwhile, rushed for 235 yards.  Cam Skattebo, a transfer from Sacramento State, led the Sun Devils with 121 yards on 11 carries.


OREGON STATE AT ARIZONA + 3.5 - This was the let-down of the day for me. With a whole season at stake, they  totally blew it.

I like OSU coach Jonathan Smith. He’s a former Beaver QB, and he’s done a great job of building the program, but holy sh— - I doubt that he’s stupid, which means that he’s one of these modern head coaches who stands on the sidelines, detatched and emotionless, while his coordinators, unrestrained,  appear to do as they damn please.

The Beavers took the opening kickoff and as expected , mixing up plays nicely, scored  on a nice drive.

The second drive, however, started out with a sack  resulting from either the running back not knowing he was supposed to block a rusher or the QB not knowing that the running back wasn’t going to block the rusher.  But that made it second and 18 - which almost automatically dictated that they’d be passing until they got a first down or punted.  They passed.  They punted.

On third series, although they were now down, 10-7, they inserted their backup QB, a true freshman, because “that’s what they do.”  He does seem to have some promise, and he did complete a nice long pass.  But the Beavers had to settle for a field  goal, and

And then came one of those “WTW were they thinking?” calls. With three seconds left in the half, third and 10 on the Arizona 16 yard line, they lined up for a field goal - and faked it. The holder flipped the ball to the kickers, who ran off left tackle.  Nice play, actually - they used G blocking -  you could say that it worked, because it did gain eight yards, which ordinarily makes it a nice play.  In this case, though,  they needed eight more.

After watching them do this two years in a row, it’s time for a new word: “Beavin’ it.”


FRESNO STATE  31, UNLV 24 - Mikey Keene was 27 of 41 for 256 yards and FOUR TDs - three of them in Fresno's 24-point  third quarter.


WASHINGTON 42, STANFORD 33 - Yes, Michael Penix (“Junior” is NOT part of his last name!) threw for four TDs (21 of 38 for 369) , but  for the last two weeks - since the  win over Oregon - they’ve underperformed.

John Canzano suggests a possible reason for Oregon’s improvement and Washington’s malaise since then…


“Oregon is playing with urgency. Washington hasn’t looked quite right since beating the Ducks at home. There were tears after that game in Seattle. It makes me wonder about the psychology of the rivalry. Is it possible that beating Oregon — and not making the playoff — was the Huskies’ primary goal this season?”


*********** One of the best drills I’ve ever introduced on my videos has been the pancake drill. It introduces kids to contact, and helps teach them blocking, tackling and aggressive ball-carrying.

Some time ago, and coach in northern Virginia  named Gordon Leib found another use for it.

He  told  the coaches at one of my clinics that it had become a fixture at his school’s pep rallies:

Using dummies, they made a landing pad on the gym floor.  Then, to build up the tension, they introduced two of their hardest hitters.  They both had pads on, and after they both exchanged a little but of WWE smack, they went at it, each taking a turn.

Invariably, Coach Leib said, the students would go  wild.


*********** At one time  our military considered football to be great training for war.  That was back when we used to fight to win.

I wonder what they’d think about encouraging players to surrender.

I’m taking about the sliding quarterback, an element of cowardice that’s been introduced into our game to enable quarterbacks to act just like every other player on the field - right up until they decide it’s time to put on skirts.

It leads to some brainless plays by  quarterbacks - last week it was Pitt’s QB, starting to slide before he got the first down, and this past Saturday, it was Kansas’ QB going in for a  sure score, but starting his slide before the goal line.

But apart from  the foolishness,  it’s also become an unfair means of baiting defenders into tackles that often wind up being called targeting.


Allowing the  QB to slide? Okay. Player safety and all that.  But not  without a price. When I am king, the sliding quarterback will be protected - but  the ball will be spotted back at the original line of scrimmage.


 


*********** This is Alex Strother, an offensive lineman at Santa Fe Trail High, in Carbondale, Kansas.  Check out the hat: RUN THE WEDGE

His position coach is longtime Double Winger Mike Foristiere, and although Santa Fe Trail does not run the Double Wing,  Mike has persuaded the offensive coordinator to add Wedge blocking to the system.

I don’t know how much they’re running the Wedge, but Mike says that the linemen love it (duh!), and he said that in Santa Fe Trail’s 56-40 playoff win over Royal Valley, it was good for three TDs.


*********** According to an article in the Wall Street Journal by Andrew Beaton and Rachel Bachman.  Michigan has rescinded a new contract offer it made to him, giving him a significant raise in pay in recognition of this year’s success.
It’s reasonable to suspect that this could mean the university is preparing for news that might require it to take stronger action to protect its reputation.

Granted, there is a world of difference between sexual misconduct and  stealing  signs, but  in both cases - Mel Tucker’s at Michigan State  and Jim Harbaugh’s at Big Brother - the net effect of bringing shame and discredit to the university is just about the same, especially in the case of Michigan, which over the years has taken such pride in being… better.

Whatever you might think about rules against personally scouting opponents, or videotaping games that your team’s not involved in, the fact remains that anyone violating the rules prohibiting such actions is a cheat, and if our sport and the people responsible for its protection won’t take strong action against cheaters, then there’s not a lot of reason for those of us who believe otherwise to continue to support it.

Hey, Jim… FYI, from the American Football Coaches Association’s Code of Ethics…

ARTICLE III Rules of the Game

    1.    The Football Code which appears in the Official Football Rule Book shall be considered an integral part of this Code of Ethics and should be carefully read and observed.

    2.    Each coach should be acquainted thoroughly with the rules of the game. He is responsible for having the rules taught to, interpreted for, and executed by his players.

    3.    Both the letter and the spirit of the rules must be adhered to by the coaches and their players.

    4.    Coaches who seek to gain any advantage by circumvention, disregard, or unwillingness to learn the rules of the game, are unfit for this association. A coach is responsible for the adherence of the rules by all parties directly involved with the team. The integrity of the game rests mainly on the shoulders of the coach; there can be no compromise.

    5.    A coach must remember always that it is not the purpose of football to hurt or injure an opponent by legal or illegal methods. Good Sportsmanship: Habit formation is developed on the practice field. Where coaches permit, encourage or condone performance, which is dangerous to an opponent, they are derelict in their responsibility to teach fair play and good sportsmanship. This aspect of coaching must be attacked just as vigorously as the teaching of offense and defense, and to the players it is far more important than all the technical aspects of the game combined. Any coach who fails to stress this point, or who permits, encourages or defends the use of unsportsmanlike tactics shall be considered guilty of the most serious breach of football coaching ethics.

https://www.afca.com/code-of-ethics/

*********** I was reading the memoirs of Mike Pyle, who was a year behind me at Yale, and easily the best football player I ever played with. He went on to a nice career with the Chicago Bears, and was co-captain of their 1963 NFL championship team.

In the memoir,  explained how he became the co-captain (you’d have to know how feared  Doug Atkins was to really appreciate the story):

I was drafted by the Chicago Bears and joined the team after graduation. I was elected co-captain in 1963. All-pro defensive end, Doug Atkins (6’8”, 285 lbs.) said “I nominate Mike Pyle because he went to Yale, and I move the nominations be closed.”


*********** Last Friday night, I was watching a game on the NFHS network.  One of the teams was Bennett, Colorado, coached by my longtime friend, Greg Koenig.  It’s been a rough season for Greg and his kids.  The injury bug hit them hard, and at a small school, with there are often no varsity backups, it can result in having to play kid who really ought to be playing on the JV squad.

Bennett was playing Friday night at Wellington.  Wellington was undefeated and ranked second in the state, and I soon saw why. Good club, well coached.

But once Greg’s team got the ball, it became one of the worst situations I’ve ever observed.

There was the increasingly common “Another Eagles (I forget Wellington’s  nickname)…..FIRST DOWN!”

That’s cheerleading, which is inappropriate, but it worse was every time Bennett faced a third down:

the volume was cranked up loud and the jackass on the P-A would shout (literally)  “THIRD DOWN! LET’S HEAR IT!”

Fourth down was even worse, but one of the high points for me came when the clown started his screaming act and Greg’s QB  threw for a 40-yard score.
 
State associations, as a little bit of research by my wife and me have found,  are quite clear about what they consider the role of the PA announcer to be.  A representative sample:

GEORGIA - The GHSA believes the announcer’s role does NOT include “cheering the home team on” or otherwise inciting the crowd. Do so may be common at other levels of athletic events, but high school events should be different because they are educationally-based…The GHSA does not receive many complaints of unprofessional behavior by P.A. announcers, but any such actions will NOT be tolerated and may result in the banning from GHSA contests of the guilty party.

TEXAS - The primary function of a school public address system is to convey pertinent information about the game. Announcers are not part of the cheering section. They should never incite the emotions of the spectators. Information should be given with the same tone concerning both the home team and the visiting team whether they have made a touchdown or scored the winning basket. The announcer should remember at all times that the sole justification for his function is conveying simple, straightforward, unemotional information. When there is nothing significant to announce, silence is golden.

IOWA: Quite simply, the announcer’s job is to provide information that is timely and pertinent and to do it professionally. They ARE EXPECTED to refrain from trying to entertain or incite the crowd, lead cheers, make
remarks about the officiating or players, second-guess coaches, or editorialize in any way. Their job should never be confused with play-by-play announcing which is inappropriate for the public address.

KANSAS: Do not attempt to be bigger than the game/event.   Announcers who draw attention to
themselves do a disservice to the event.

(Nowhere, however, could I find any provision for stuffing a sock in an announcer’s mouth.)


***********  Hugh,


NEWS ALERT!!  REALIGNMENT CAUSES CACA TO HIT THE FAN!!


Trifecta!!  Notre Dame, Minnesota, and Fresno State all winners!  Trap game coming up for the Irish vs. Clemson?  Minnesota's D is carrying the weight.  Will they ever find an offense?  Will Fresno State's luck keep them alive for the MWC championship game?

Stayed up late for the Fresno State-UNLV game.  Thank God that UNLV receiver suddenly had stone hands at the end of the game!  Otherwise it would have been a much longer night than it already was!

Golden Gopher D is for real.  As much time as they spend on the field they are a resilient bunch!

When will the ND OC and HC finally realize that QB Sam Hartman is much more effective when they establish the run game (especially the gap scheme off-tackle play), which makes him much more efficient because of it?  Play-action, bootlegs, and quick game is what made Sam who he is when he was at WF.  This ND D with Al Golden calling the shots may be the best one the Irish have had in a long time.

Army.  Will get their asses handed to them against Air Force.  You know...that same Air Force team that still runs the option despite not being able to cut-block on the perimeter anymore?  Fast forward to December.  Army-Navy.  Who will be favored?  Or will it be a toss-up?

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas

TRIFECTA IS RIGHT.

I imagine you saw the dirty shot that the MSU took at the MN QB on the interception.

You’re right on Hartman.  I don’t think it’s in ND’s interest to try to make him into a pocket passer.  He isn’t exactly what you’d call a pocket passer because that slow-ride stuff they did at Wake was actually a sort of play-action/RPO deal.

Al Golden took a lot of heat earlier in the season but I think he’s proving himself to be a very good DC.  That’s good because I like the guy.

Army-Navy could wind up in OT like last year, which means there might not be anybody still watching by then.

Damn, Air Force is fun to watch.  Not even a blizzard could stop them.

 


 



***********  QUIZ:  They called him "The Gunslinger," a nickname he loved.  On the sidelines, his trademark was a cowboy hat.

He grew up poor in Laurel, Mississippi, and played his college football at Jackson State under the legendary "Big John" Merritt.

After college, he spent seven years as a high school coach, but he really learned his trade from two greats - first spending three years at Alcorn State as an assistant to Marino “The Godfather” Casem, then spending six years back at Tennessee State under Merritt.

Don't like the empty sets, the four-receivers-to-a-side, the 50+ passes a game, the hurry-up/no-huddle offenses that so much of football has become? Blame some of it on him.

When he became a coach at Mississippi Valley State in 1980, he ran what most other people ran as their two-minute offense - five receivers, no huddle - but he ran it for the whole game. It came to be called the “Satellite Express.”

“Other teams would run it for two minutes,” he said. “We’d run it all game. We’d score 60 points a half and do what we wanted to do. In the first game we used it, we beat Kentucky State 86-0.”

His 1984 team set all sorts of NCAA records - 640 yards total offense per game, 497 yards passing per game, 55.8 passes per game, and 60.9 points per game.

"No one was doing that at the time," he remembered. "They called it playground ball and said it wouldn't work, that if (I) succeeded, he's a genius, if he fails, they'll run him out. But I never heard a reply when we were successful."

His “Satellite" formation had four receivers stacked to one side. He said his inspiration for it came from watching a basketball inbounds play.  (I bet if he could come back and run it today, he’d have his QB  back in shotgun.)

 

Unfortunately, when he moved on to other places - Arkansas-Pine Bluff, Norfolk State, Paul Quinn College -  he didn't have the same level of success, perhaps because of the talent he had at Mississippi Valley State, where his quarterback  was a guy named Willie Totten, and Totten's favorite receiver was a guy named Jerry Rice.

CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING ARCHIE COOLEY


GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY




NFL STARTING QBS - 1961 - Back row (left to right): Milt Plum (Browns), OUR GUY (Steelers), Sam Etcheverry (Cardinals), Bill Wade (Bears), Bart Starr (Packers), Johnny Unitas (Colts), Norm Snead (Redskins), Zeke Bratkowski (Rams). Front row: Jim Ninowski (Lions), Fran Tarkenton (Vikings), Don Meredith (Cowboys), John Brodie (49ers), Sonny Jurgensen (Eagles), Y.A. Tittle (Giants). Photo by Ralph Morse. First published in Life magazine, November 17, 1961.

*********** QUIZ:  Sports Illustrated once called him “The toughest quarterback who ever lived.” 

Playing in a time long before today’s protect-the-quarterback rules were passed, that means VERY tough.
 
He was  a Hall-of-Fame quarterback who in the pre-Super Bowl days led his team to three NFL titles.  But he was almost as well down  for his off-the-field  partying.  (He once said, "The secret to a happy life is to run out of cash and air at the same time.”)
 
He was a native of Dallas, and played at Highland Park High School with a teammate who would also go on to become an NFL Hall-of-Famer - a guy named Doak Walker.
 
He went to the University of Texas, where he was an All-American quarterback and an All-Southwest Conference baseball player who once threw a no-hitter against archival Texas A & M.
 
Drafted #1 by the Chicago Bears, he spent a year in Chicago vieing for playing time with Johnny Lujack and George Blanda before being traded to the New York Bulldogs. After a year with the Bulldogs, he was traded to Detroit, where he was the right man at the right time, leading the Lions to four divisional titles and three NFL championships (1952-53-57).
 
After eight years in Detroit, he was traded to Pittsburgh, then the very depths of the NFL, and he supposedly  said that the Lions wouldn’t win again for 50 years (a case that still holds).

He finished his career in Pittsburgh, where he spent five seasons.

His stats were not flashy.  He completed just 49 per cent of his passes, and he threw more  interceptions than touchdown passes. But he was a great leader of men and, long before quarterbacks had radio receivers in their helmets, he called every game he ever played in.  He engineered so many  late come-from-behind wins that he is often credited with giving birth to the two-minute drill.
 
He  continued to play without a face mask long after most other players had made the switch. He never hesitated to get in the face of an offensive lineman who failed to protect him, but his teammates loved him because he was the consummate team man.
 
He lived fast, and is credited with saying, “If I knew I’d live this long I’d have taken better care of myself.” He  died at the age of 59 in 1986.
 
Detroit News columnist Jerry Green wrote of him: “(He)  and television made Sundays bearable in this factory town. On Sundays some of us would rush to church and rush back home in plenty of time to flick on the old black and white gizmo. When the Lions were on the coast,  dinner would be permitted to turn cold until (he) coaxed the Lions to their victory in the final minute. He was the symbol of this city, the toughest and the best. He played without a face mask and he was at his finest against the clock. When a touchdown drive was necessary, he could make the last two minutes seem an eternity."






FRIDAY,  OCTOBER  27,  2023 - “I missed 100% of the shots I didn't take.” Wayne Gretzky



***********  THIS COMING WEEKEND - (WEEK TWENTY-ONE OF TWENTY-ONE) - IN THE CFL

FRIDAY

WINNIPEG (13-4) AT CALGARY (5-11)  9 PM EDT


SATURDAY

HAMILTON (8-9)  AT MONTREAL (10-7) 4 PM EDT

TORONTO  (15-2)     OTTAWA (4-13)  7 PM EDT


PLAYOFFS BEGIN NEXT WEEKEND!



*********** COLLEGE WEEKNIGHT GAMES

TUESDAY

NEW MEXICO STATE 27, LOUISIANA TECH 24 - Aggies  came from behind

LIBERTY 42, WESTERN KENTUCKY 29 - Liberty is still undefeated.  After the game, Liberty  coach Jamey Chadwell couldn’t resist a Michigan “scouting” joke when he saw some fans in Michigan attire seated in the stands behind  his team.


WEDNESDAY

JACKSONVILLE STATE 41,  FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL 16 - Rich Rod’s now 7-2.

UTEP 37 SAM HOUSTON  34 - Sam Houston, now 0-8,  keeps finding new ways to lose tough games.  UTEP outscored them, 17-7 in the fourth quarter, and won with a field goal with :03 remaining.


THURSDAY

SYRACUSE AT VIRGINIA TECH - Two teams that appear headed in opposite directions

GEORGIA SOUTHERN 44, GEORGIA STATE  27


FRIDAY

FLORIDA ATLANTIC AT CHARLOTTE - Whose idea was it to put this one on Friday night?



***********   SATURDAY’S COLLEGE GAMES


FIRST FLIGHT (9 AM PACIFIC) - IN ORDER OF MY INTEREST



UMASS +10 AT ARMY - TRIVIA:  HAS THERE EVER BEEN A GAME IN WHICH THE TWO TEAMS WERE COMING OFF GAMES THAT THEY’D LOST BY A COMBINED SCORE OF 125-0? (PENN STATE 63, UMASS 0, LSU 62, ARMY 0)   Will Army score a touchdown? Will Army convert on a fourth down? Undoubtedly, Army (2-5) is counting on the win. But UMass (1-6) has to be looking at its schedule, too -  and seeing one of its best  chances for a win.


FLORIDA STATE AT WAKE FOREST + 20 - I know that Florida State is good and I really like their QB, Jordan Travis.  I fear that they could beat Wake this badly.


OKLAHOMA AT KANSAS +10 - The way the Sooners struggled with UCF, I think KU is good enough to beat them. (It's their last chance.)


WEST VIRGINIA +7 AT UCF - Two weeks ago, the Mountaineers were 4-1, and just seconds away from being 5-1 when they let Houston  catch them at the wire with a Hail Mary.  Last week, they go their asses kicked by Oklahoma State.  And now they face a Central Florida team that came within a  two-point conversion on taking Oklahoma into OT.  I like the Mountaineers and I want them to win and I don’t want them to have to go through a coaching change, but I think UCF is going to win.


(at 11 PACIFIC) CLEMSON AT NC STATE +10 - I’ll watch only because I like Clemson.  But this team  isn’t the Clemson I grew used to watching. For the second year in a row  they’re very ordinary at QB.  Last year it was DJ Uiagalelei, who’s now at Oregon State and having a good year.  This year it’s Cade Klubnik who’s struggling. Could it be the coaching?  I have serous  questions about the play calling at the end of losses to Florida State and Miami.


SECOND  FLIGHT (12:30 AM) - IN ORDER OF MY INTEREST


OREGON AT UTAH + 6.5 - Man, I know better than to bet against the Utes.  Oregon is  more talented.  But they’re not tougher.   Kyle Whittingham recruits toughness, and he does what he has to do to get the most out of the players he has.   And he doesn’t  do stupid things just to show the world how “aggressive” he is.


BYU + 17.5  AT TEXAS - Texas QB Quinn Ewers has suffered a sprained  throwing shoulder and may not play.    Does this mean we could see Arch Manning?


PITT + 20.5 AT NOTRE DAME - Seems like a lot of points, but coming off a week’s rest after an eight-game stretch that ended with four straight night games, the Irish could be tough. Pitt is coming off a brutal last-second loss to Wake Forest.


DUKE +4.5 AT LOUISVILLE - Duke ain’t the same without a healthy Riley Leonard, and I have a hard time believing he’ll be healthy on Saturday.


USC AT CAL + 10.5 - This is my upset pick.  This may be Cal’s last shot at the Trojans for years. Of course, there’s this, too:   Lincoln Riley missed two practices this week, which means that the Trojans may not be as soft as they’ve been.


(2:30)  WYOMING + 5.5 AT  BOISE STATE -  I don’t see how Boise State can be favored over the Cowboys.  Wyoming is 5-2, with losses to Texas and Air Force.  They’ve also got wins over Texas Tech, App State and Fresno State.  Boise State (3-4) doesn’t have a good win.  The smart money guys must know something, because otherwise this looks like a lock if ever there were one.


LATE AFTERNOON - 4:30 PACIFIC


AIR FORCE AT COLORADO STATE +11.5 - Falcons had a poor outing offensively against Navy but on defense they came within seconds of a shutout. It appeared to me that AF QB Zak Larrier was favoring his injured knee - he carried 15 times for just 24 yards.  The entire Falcon team rushed for just 137 yards, but Larrier’s 94-yard TD pass to Dane Cinnamon was enough to beat Navy.

A nice article about the CSU walk-on who’s been playing “Air Force” QB on the scout team all week -

https://www.coloradoan.com/story/sports/csu/football/2023/10/26/colorado-state-football-quarterback-brig-hartson-leads-scout-team/71306047007/


COLORADO AT UCLA + 17.5 - Shedeur Sanders is going to spend some time on his back.  UCLA’s defensive line is that good. But look - down on the sidelines - it’s COACH PRIME!  Omigod.


TENNESSEE AT KENTUCKY + 3.5 - This is one of those Penn State always beats Maryland, Ohio State always beats Penn State deals.   In the last 50 years, Kentucky has beaten Tennessee SEVEN  times.  In the last 25 years? THREE times. To Mark Stoops’ credit, he’s faced the Vols ten times and beaten them twice, which is pretty good, but if I were just betting knowing nothing else, I’d have to go with Tennessee, with or without the points.


(5 PM) WASHINGTON STATE AT ARIZONA STATE + 6.5 - It’s gonna be hot at that hour.  WTF?  Cougars played well against Oregon for a good part of the game.  But ASU had favored Washington totally buffaloed - until they made a  dumbass call - but an “aggressive” one -  that cost them the game.  I think the Cougs are good enough.



LATE GAMES (7:30 PACIFIC)

OREGON STATE AT ARIZONA + 3.5 - I think that the Beavers should win by more, but U of A is tough on Saturday night in the desert.  And then there’s the QB they  discovered Noah Fifita.  Writes longtime Oregon writer Kerry Eggers,  he’s “listed at 5-11 but appears closer to 5-8.”   Since he came in in relief of starter Jayden DeLaura and helped beat Stanford, writes Eggers, “he has been something like Russell Wilson, Eddie LeBaron and Doug Flutie rolled into one. In that time, Fifita has completed 94 of 125 passes (75 percent) for 946 yards and eight touchdowns with two interceptions. Fifita, who has won back-to-back Pac-12 Freshman Player of the Week awards, can run, makes good decisions and has left a now-healthy de Laura on the bench.”


UNLV +7.5  AT FRESNO STATE - They’re both 6-1.  UNLV is bowl-eligible for the first time in forever.  Fresno State has beaten better teams, and has only a late, five-point loss to Wyoming. And Fresno State is Joe Gutilla’s school, so I’m going for Fresno State.


NEW MEXICO +1.5  AT NEVADA - It’s no longer the Loser Bowl.  Not after last week:  New Mexico broke a 14-game conference losing streak with a 42-21 win at Hawaii, and Nevada broke a 16-game losing streak (longest in school history) with a 6-0 win over San Diego State.  New Mexico hasn’t won two games in a row since 2020. Nevada managed the feat just last year when it won its first two games - and then lost 16 straight.



*********** It used to be that, other than a traditional rivalry game or two, there was one extra-special football game every year - Homecoming.

But then, in recent years, came Senior Night.  It’s a pretty big deal out here in the Northwest.  It’s a nice touch, honoring the seniors who’ve put in four years of work, and their parents, who’ve supported them through  good times and bad.  Typically, in our neck of the woods, the players are introduced (“his favorite food is pizza”) as they walk over to their moms and present them  with  flowers.  When they’re done with the intros, moms, dads and players stand on the track as the crowd pays tribute.

(I once coached at a school in Portland where we had ten seniors  and on Senior Night, not one of them had  two parents there; several had no one - coaches had to fill in.  The next week, we played at a school in an affluent section of the city.  They introduced 24 seniors - and every damn one had two parents.)

Last Friday night I was watching a high school game  from Pennsylvania - Latrobe at McKeesport - and it was Senior Night.  For the cheerleaders and the band, that is.  I guess Senior Night for the players had already been held.

So halftime came, and with it the intros.  They were long.  They had to be, because in addition to the cheerleaders or band members themselves, there were the entourages - parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts, brothers and sisters, boyfriends and girlfriends - and we met them all, as they walked across the field.   One kid was accompanied by 15 people (I counted).

Whatever works for them.




AFCA FCS COACHES POLL

1. South Dakota State
2. Montana State
3. Furman
4. Incarnate World
5. Montana
6. Delaware
7. Sacramento State
8. Idaho
9. South Dakota
10. North Carolina Central
11. North Dakota State
12. Southern Illinois
13. UT Martin
14. Florida A & M
15. Chattanooga
16. Western Carolina
17. North Dakota
18. Central Arkansas
19. Lafayette
20. (tie) Austin Peay
20. (tie) New Hampshire
22. Holy Cross
23. Harvard
24. William & Mary
25. UC Davis


AFCA DII COACHES POLL

1. Colorado Mines
2. Pittsburg State (KS)
3. Grand Valley State (MI)
4. Harding (AR)
5. Benedict (SC)
6. Slippery Rock (PA)
7. Lenoir-Rhyne (NC)
8. Ferris State (MI)
9. Western Colorado
10. Indianapolis
11. Davenport (MI)
12. Augustana (SD)
13. Minnesota State
14. Ouachita Baptist (AR)
15. Central Missouri
16. (Tie) Bemidji State (MN)
16. (Tie) Delta State (MS)
18. West Florida
19. Tiffin (OH)
20. Shepherd (WV)
21. Truman State (MO)
22. Texas-Permian Basin
23. Virginia Union
24. Valdosta State (GA)
25. Minnesota-Duluth




AFCA DIII COACHES POLL

1. North Central (IL)
2. Mount Union (OH)
3. Wartburg (IA)
4. Linfield (OR)
5. Trinity (TX.)
6. Wisconsin-Whitewater (DUH)
7. Johns Hopkins (MD)
8. Wisconsin-LaCrosse
9. Randolph-Macon (VA)
10. Wisconsin-River Falls
11. Aurora (IL)
12. Susquehanna (PA)
13. Wheaton (IL)
14. Alma (MI)
15. John Carroll (OH)
16. Muhlenberg (PA)
17. Ithaca (NY)
18. Cortland State (NY)
19. Endicott (MA)
20. St. Johns (MN)
21. Grove City (PA)
22. Hardin-Simmons (TX)
23. DePauw (IN)
24. Delaware Valley (PA)
25. Mary Hardin-Baylor (TX)


*********** BACK IN 2023 -  JOINING A CONFERENCE


Back in the 2020s, there was quite a bit of “realignment” in college football, with colleges jumping from conference to conference

As a result, some of the lower-ranked conferences found themselves short of members, and looking to add teams.

When one of the  few remaining independent teams at that time - call it Hudson Tech - found itself faced with the difficulty of scheduling games and of finding bowl berths, it  began to investigate membership in a conference, and it was able to find one that seemed to suit its needs. 

But there was  one major sticking point:  Hudson Tech’s  old-fashioned triple-option offense.  When the coaches of the conference’s member schools learned that Hudson Tech was being considered for membership, they raised hell with their ADs.  They didn’t want to have to drop everything they normally did  to prepare for an opponent, they said, and have to devote an entire week just to prepare for Hudson Tech’s one-of-a-kind offense.  Besides, they said, there was the player safety issue: their players could get hurt  by the dangerous blocking techniques employed by triple option teams.  And as if that weren’t enough, the ADs themselves worried about gate revenues, fearing that their fans wouldn’t pay to watch a team that played a boring offense heavy on  running.

So the Hudson Tech AD, desperate to join a conference, sat down with his head coach and asked, “What’s so tough about changing your offense, anyhow?”

The coach, shocked by the question, pointed out that it was  the only offense he knew -  that he believed in it, that his success with it at his previous school was what  got him the Hudson Tech job in the first place, and that it had helped him put together one of the best winning records of any coach in Hudson Tech history.  Besides, he added, his offense didn’t require the kind of skilled athletes needed to do what everybody else was running - a very important consideration given Hudson Tech’s high academic standards.

“I see, “ said the AD.  “But for the good of the school and our entire athletic program, we’re going to make a change anyhow.  With you or without you.  I’ve already cleared this with the President.  So now,  since we’d prefer that you stay, what would it take  to get you to change your offense?”

What they agreed on, in exchange for the coach’s agreement to run an offense more in keeping with the times, was a significant extension of his current contract, including a relatively cheap buyout clause for  him in case he might want to  leave  for another job (where presumably he could run the offense of his choice).    And then the AD  filed the agreement away until an appropriate time to announce it.

To signal their intentions to the conference, the AD arranged for a press conference at which the coach declared  he had decided to change his offense.  But rather than disclose the real reason for it - that it was simply a ploy, a business decision to make Hudson Tech more acceptable to conferences -  it was explained,  in coaching terms,  that the decision was made because of recent  rules changes prohibiting  the sort of blocking required to run the triple-option offense.

And then the coach and his staff went ahead with the changes. Spring practice came and went, with everyone  interviewed expressing enthusiasm for the new offense.

But then came the opening game.  Although the opponent was one of the weakest teams in all of FBS, the result was a humiliating loss for Hudson Tech.  Alumni and fans were furious. This was not the team they were used to seeing.

The results of the second game were much better, but since the opponent was even weaker than  the first one, it was impossible  to conclude that there had been improvement.

The third game, on the road against a respected opponent, resulted in an impressive Hudson Tech win,  encouraging  enough for the AD to  announce the coach’s contract extension.

Unfortunately, there followed four straight losses, each worse than  the one before. The last two, admittedly against strong opponents, were shutouts.

Fans began to express doubt about the stated reason for the change, and concluded that the new offense was a total failure.

As for the “failure” part, they were partly right. Yes, in terms of on-field performance, the change had been a total failure. Hudson Tech was now 2-5, with a four-game losing streak, and little  chance of becoming bowl-eligible.  

But in terms of accomplishing  the AD’s mission of joining a conference, it was a smashing success: on Wednesday, October 25, 2023, it was announced that Hudson Tech had been accepted as a member of the Confederated Association of Collegiate Athletics (CACA).

That very afternoon, with Hudson Tech now officially installed as a member in good standing, the Coach proceeded  to re-install his original triple option offense.  And with only three days’ practice, Hudson Tech went out on Saturday and upset the Number 9-ranked team in the country.


(It’s my story and I can give it a happy ending if I want to.)



***********  When Arizona State coach (2012 to 2017) Todd Graham won his first two rivalry games against Arizona, he thought he understood the game’s importance - and then longtime former Sun Devil coach Frank Kush brought him  down to earth, telling him, “Just wait ‘til you lose one.’’


***********  As head coach at Oregon State, Tommy Prothro took the Beavers to the 1965 Rose Bowl.

Ten days later, he took the head coaching job at UCLA,  and in his first year there, took the   Bruins to the 1966 Rose Bowl.

I think it’s fair to say no one will ever again coach back-to-back Rose Bowls with two different teams.



************* “Ah, the Vietnam War! The days of pot and poses. What a godsend to infantilizing irresponsibility that era was. Dodge the draft, and you are making a 'moral statement.' Join a protest march, and you are striking a blow against 'U.S. imperialism.' Sign a petition and you are 'showing solidarity with the oppressed.' What rubbish." Roger Kimball, managing editor, the New Criterion, in 2003

Those were the days.  If you were a bored  college student, wasting  your parents’ money on a useless major  and sucking up the commie teaching, the Vietnam War meant your life finally had purpose.

It hasn’t been easy since then. Sure, there was climate change and police brutality, but when it  comes to protest, nothing compares to a war, and  one that lets you combine hatred of your country with hatred of Jews means you’ve hit the jackpot.

Finally!  America’s Spoiled Students (aka ASS) have a war to protest, even if it isn’t one we’re in - yet.



*********** The City of Spokane, Washington has just dedicated a new stadium intended  for use by area high school football teams. (And I suppose, soccer as well.)

https://onespokanestadium.com/


*********** The scary part of the Great Michigan Sign Stealing Scandal is that 11 Big Ten schools have evidence that a Michigan staff member bought tickets to their games ostensibly to film their teams’ sideline signals and then -  THEIR STADIUM SECURITY CAMERAS SHOW THE PERSONS IN THOSE SEATS RECORDING WITH THEIR CAMERAS FOR ENTIRE GAMES.
 

You realize, I’m sure, that that means that when you run for Congress, the opposition will be able to find and publish shots of you at football games picking your nose.


*********** Best of luck in the Michigan state playoffs to Coach Jason Mensing  and  the John Glenn High Rockets.

In just his second year at John Glenn (Westland, Michigan), Coach Mensing has taken his Rockets  to their first winning record since 2014  with a 7-2 finish.

Glenn's only losses were to 9-0 Belleville and 7-2 Novi, and on Friday night in the  first round of the playoffs they meet the Detroit city champion, perennial power Cass Tech.



***********   Coach I just had to email you and let you know something. I wanted to let our Black Lion Award winners parents know that their son had won the award. I wanted a veteran family member of his to award it to him at banquet. Well,  was I not blown away. His mother served in the Black Lion unit for 4 years!!!! What better veteran to award him this?!?! Absolutely AMAZING!!

Thank you again for all you do!!

Kris Haskins
Theresa, New York

HEY YOU COACHES OUT THERE - IF YOU HAVEN’T ALREADY DONE SO, GET OFF YOUR ARSE AND DO SOMETHING TO RECOGNIZE A GREAT KID ON YOUR TEAM!!! EMAIL ME AND SIGN UP YOUR TEAM FOR THE BLACK LION AWARD!!!  blacklionaward@mac.com


***********   Hugh,

George Perles certainly made life miserable for my Browns when he was the line coach for the Steelers.

I  loved Jason Whitlock’s article about  the sorry state of pro football. Every point he stated was dead on target.

See you Tuesday.

David Crump
Owensboro, Kentucky


***********     George must have had a good time,  When Jimmy Johnson and his staff would go on scouting trips they would stay an extra day or two at MSU.  Dave Wannstedt is on Chicago sports radio quite often and talks about George a lot.

John Bothe
Oregon Illinois


***********  Was happy for Virginia to beat UNC. The DC is a local guy that my wife taught in grade school, John Rudziniski.

https://virginiasports.com/coach/john-rudzinski/

Rudzinski is a 2001 high school graduate from Notre Dame Academy in Green Bay, Wisconsin. A three-year letterman at the Air Force Academy, he led the team in tackles over this span. A two-time captain, Rudzinski was named the team’s most valuable player and was honored with Air Force’s Brian Bullard Award, which is the program’s highest honor. An honorable mention all-Mountain West selection as a senior, Rudzinski was selected to play in the East-West Shrine Game.

Adam Wesoloski
Pulaski, Wisconsin


***********   Thanks for dredging up the particulars of Coach Franklin's records at Vandy and PSU. What was most upsetting, however, was this: "But you’d better learn to like him, Penn Staters.  He’s only in the second year of a 10-year, $85 million contract, given  him by an AD who knew she was on the way out." Seems every blasted university in the country has no real leaders. Surely there is at PSU a presiding officer somewhere who would've seen that a lame duck AD should not possess the authority to saddle the school with such financial risk. She waltzes away without a care for whatever may eventuate concerning Coach Franklin's contract.

John Vermillion                                
St Petersburg, Florida



***********   Hugh,

I am slowly getting to the point where I can only watch three college football games on Saturdays (sometimes Fridays) that include my three "related" teams.  Related.  Notre Dame (my eldest daughter is a St. Mary's/Notre Dame grad who served as a football manager for Coach Lou Holtz).  Minnesota (my youngest daughter graduated a Golden Gopher).  Fresno State (my alma mater).  It's tough enough on me watching those three play.  I'll continue to watch the big rivalry games for their traditions, and the bowl games/playoffs, but with just about everyone now lined up in a shotgun spread it out offense the college game is becoming as boring as watching an NFL game.

As always Jason Whitlock is spot-on regarding his assessment of the NFL, and college football.

Actually, in a few cases, I caught myself watching the ALCS instead of football (two Texas teams playing helped).

This week:   Notre Dame vs Pittsburgh        Irish SHOULD win (only Clemson remains as a potential roadblock to a Jan. 1 bowl)

                    Minnesota vs Michigan State   Minnesota at home SHOULD win (but that offense…)

                    Fresno State vs UNLV              Fresno State at home SHOULD win (starting QB Mikey Keene is back, still a close game)

Have a great week!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas
   




*********** QUIZ ANSWER:   George Perles played football at Michigan State… He was a graduate assistant there… After  success as a Detroit high school coach and two years as an assistant coach at Dayton, he was an MSU assistant under Duffy Daugherty… He spent ten years in professional football, until becoming Michigan State’s head coach in 1983… He was the Spartans’ head coach for 12 years, and also served as MSU’s AD  during part of that time… After retirement he served for 11 years on the University’s Board of Trustees.

At the time of his death,  Michigan State basketball coach Tom Izzo called him, “the truest Spartan I have ever met."

He grew up in Detroit, the son of  parents, of Lithuanian extraction.  With the Korean War going on at the time, he entered  the Army right out of high school.  After the service, he enrolled at Michigan State and as a tackle he earned a varsity letter his sophomore year,  but suffered an injury that ended his playing career.

He stayed at MSU to get his degree, then earned his Master’s Degree while helping coach the Spartans’ freshman team.

From there, he spent one year as an assistant at St. Rita’s High in Chicago, then became head coach at Detroit’s St. Ambrose High, where in three years he had two undefeated  city championship teams.

That got him a job at Dayton as an assistant to John McVay, and after two years he returned to MSU as an assistant to Duffy Daugherty.

He spent five  years at Michigan State - three as the defensive backfield coach and two as the defensive line coach - before being hired in 1972 by Chuck Noll to coach the Pittsburgh Steelers’ defensive line.  (Noll had interviewed dozens of candidates for the job before hiring him.)

There, he had the great privilege of coaching one of pro football’s greatest defensive lines.  That line -  Joe Greene, L.C. Greenwood, Dwight White, and Ernie Holmes - was  the core of the “Steel Curtain,” the great defense that was a major factor in the Steelers’ dynasty of the 1970s.

He is credited with  developing in 1974 what he came to call the “Stunt 4-3,” characterized by lining up Joe Greene in the gap between guard and center but - here’s what made it unique - angled in at the center. It almost forced the center and guard to try to double-team Greene, thereby preventing either of them from blocking middle linebacker Jack Lambert.

In 1978 he was named Steelers’ defensive coordinator, and when he left in 1982 to become head coach of the Philadelphia Stars in the then-forming  US Football League, he had four Super Bowl rings.

He spent  a year getting the Stars ready for play, but he never got to coach the team, because he left when the Michigan State job came open and he broke his contract with Philadelphia to become the Spartans’ coach.

From 1983 to 1994 he took Michigan State to two Big Ten titles and seven bowl appearances. Three of his teams finished in the nation's Top 25, including the 1987 Big Ten Championship team that ranked No. 8 in the final polls.

That 1987 team took the Spartans to the Rose Bowl for the first time since 1966, and with the Rose Bowl win over USC, it gave them their first 9-win season since 1966.  MSU’s 7-0-1 record in Big Ten play was one of only four unbeaten Big Ten seasons in Spartan history.

That  season earned him Football News' National Coach of the Year and Big Ten Coach of the Year honors.   It also earned him a job offer from the Green Bay Packers, but he turned it down, presumably using the offer as leverage at Michigan State.

Two years later, he turned down a similar offer to coach the New York Jets.

His time at MSU was not without its rough spots. He was named athletic director in 1990,  but after  two years marked by considerable controversy over his serving as AD while also coaching the football team, he resigned the  AD position.

In 1994, following an investigation of alleged minor NCAA infractions, he was fired by the university president. (The NCAA would later clear him.)

The next year, he co-founded the Motor City Bowl, and served as its executive director.

In 2006, George Perles was elected to an eight-year term on the MSU Board of Trustees, and in 2014 he was re-elected, although he was unable to serve out his term because of ill health.




CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING GEORGE PERLES


GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
JASON MENSING - WESTLAND, MICHIGAN
CHARLIE WILSON - BROOKSVILLE, FLORIDA
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY

 





***********  QUIZ:  They called him "The Gunslinger," a nickname he loved.  On the sidelines, his trademark was a cowboy hat.

He grew up poor in Laurel, Mississippi, and played his college football at Jackson State under the legendary "Big John" Merritt.

After college, he spent seven years as a high school coach, but he really learned his trade from two greats - first spending three years at Alcorn State as an assistant to Marino “The Godfather” Casem, then spending six years back at Tennessee State under Merritt.

Don't like the empty sets, the four-receivers-to-a-side, the 50+ passes a game, the hurry-up/no-huddle offenses that so much of football has become? Blame some of it on him.

When he became a coach at Mississippi Valley State in 1980, he ran what most other people ran as their two-minute offense - five receivers, no huddle - but he ran it for the whole game. It came to be called the “Satellite Express.”

“Other teams would run it for two minutes,” he said. “We’d run it all game. We’d score 60 points a half and do what we wanted to do. In the first game we used it, we beat Kentucky State 86-0.”

His 1984 team set all sorts of NCAA records - 640 yards total offense per game, 497 yards passing per game, 55.8 passes per game, and 60.9 points per game.

"No one was doing that at the time," he remembered. "They called it playground ball and said it wouldn't work, that if (I) succeeded, he's a genius, if he fails, they'll run him out. But I never heard a reply when we were successful."

His “Satellite" formation had four receivers stacked to one side. He said his inspiration for it came from watching a basketball inbounds play.  (I bet if he could come back and run it today, he’d have his QB  back in shotgun.)


 

Unfortunately, when he moved on to other places - Arkansas-Pine Bluff, Norfolk State, Paul Quinn College -  he didn't have the same level of success, perhaps because of the talent he had at Mississippi Valley State, where his quarterback  was a guy named Willie Totten, and Totten's favorite receiver was a guy named Jerry Rice.




TUESDAY,  OCTOBER  24,  2023 - "What one generation tolerates, the next generation will embrace.”   John Wesley, Founder of the Methodist Church


***********  THIS COMING WEEKEND - (WEEK TWENTY-ONE OF TWENTY-ONE) - IN THE CFL

FRIDAY

WINNIPEG (13-4) AT CALGARY (5-11)  9 PM EDT


SATURDAY

HAMILTON (8-9)  AT MONTREAL (10-7) 4 PM EDT

TORONTO  (15-2)     OTTAWA (4-13)  7 PM EDT



*********** COLLEGE WEEKNIGHT GAMES

TUESDAY

NEW MEXICO STATE AT LOUISIANA TECH - Don’t miss NMSU QB Diego Pavia

LIBERTY AT WESTERN KENTUCKY - Liberty is one of 9 remaining unbeaten FBS teams


WEDNESDAY

JACKSONVILLE STATE AT FIU

UTEP AT SAM HOUSTON - Sam Houston has come agonizingly close but has yet to win


THURSDAY

SYRACUSE AT VIRGINIA TECH - Two teams that appear headed in opposite directions

GEORGIA STATE AT GEORGIA SOUTHERN


FRIDAY

FLORIDA ATLANTIC AT CHARLOTTE - Whose idea was it to put this one on Friday night?




***********   SATURDAY’S COLLEGE GAMES

BUT FIRST, A BRIEF EDITORIAL...
IN TERMS OF ENTERTAINMENT VALUE,  THE BIG TEN HAS BECOME  THE BIGGEST RIPOFF IN SPORTS. TO THINK THAT  THAT SCHLOCKY FOOTBALL OPERATION, WITH THE GARBAGE ACTS IT'S BEEN  PUTITNG ON THE FIELD, WAS THE WEDGE THAT SPLIT UP THE PAC-12.


FIRST FLIGHT (9 AM) - IN ORDER OF MY INTEREST


AIR FORCE 17 NAVY 6 (NAVY +10.5) 
Air Force’s defense is good;  Navy’s offense is almost nonexistent.  So there’s that.  Then add Air Force offensive mistakes and a strong Navy defense and this was a hard-to-watch game. Air Force’s powerful running game was mostly stymied - they rushed 46 times for a mere 137 yards, and their two TDs came on a 94-yard pass and an 18-yard interception return.  Navy? Their TD, coming with :50 remaining, concluded a  78-yard drive, at the beginning  of which Navy had gained only 46 yards - total - in the entire game.


OHIO STATE 20, PENN STATE 12 (PENN STATE + 4.5) -
Is the vaunted Big Ten capable of giving us a game between two teams  that combines exciting offense and an element of suspense?

Once two of the toughest running teams in the nation, the two teams proved to be  cupcakes:  Ohio State   rushed for  79 yards while Penn State could manage just 49 yards on the ground.

Penn State was held to just 240 yards of total offense, and didn’t score a touchdown until :29 seconds remained.

At least Penn State fans can look forward to next year when the Big Ten does away with divisions.  The Lions will still finish third, as usual, but at least it’ll be third in the entire Big Ten, and not just the Big Ten East.

Penn State coach James Franklin is repeatedly hailed as the guy who performed miracles at Vanderbilt but the record is deceiving. Yes, he was 24-15 in his thee years there, which is no small achievement.  But in SEC play, he was just 11-13, and he never finished better than fourth in the SEC West.

At Penn State? He’s 1-9 against Ohio State… 4-15 against Ohio State and Michigan… 3-16 against Top Ten opponents… 1-11 against Top Five opponents.

But you’d better learn to like him, Penn Staters.  He’s only in the second year of a 10-year, $85 million contract, give him by an AD who knew she was on the way out.


MISSISSIPPI STATE 7, ARKANSAS 3 (MISSISSIPPI STATE + 5.5).  The SEC, in a classic understatement, called it “a low-scoring affair.”  All you jackasses chanting “SEC! SEC! SEC!” as if everybody else is in the minor leagues?  How about these big-league QB stats: 
Mike Wright (Miss St): 8/12/85 (1 TD, 1 INT)
KJ Jefferson (Ark): 19/31/97 (0 TD, 1 INT)


RUTGERS 31, INDIANA 14 (INDIANA +5.5) - Rutgers QB Gavin Wimsatt, a sophomore from Owensboro, Kentucky, completed 5 of 12 for 39 yards.  But  in the running category, he carried 16 times for 143 yards and three TDs as Rutgers rushed for  276 yards as a team.  The Scarlet Knights are now bowl-eligible at 6-2.  They have next week off and then Ohio State comes to Jersey. But after that, they go to Iowa and Penn State, then finish at home against Maryland. Not the easiest of schedules, but 8-4 is  doable.

The last time Rutgers was bowl-eligible was 2014, but they actually played in the Gator Bowl in December 2021 as a last-minute replacement after Texas A & M cancelled, claiming it didn’t have enough healthy players. Somebody should have reminded the Aggies about that Twelfth Man legend they’re so proud of.


BOSTON COLLEGE 48, GEORGIA TECH 23 (BOSTON COLLEGE + 4.5) - Not so very long ago they were possibly the worst of all Power 5 teams, but BC has now won three in a row to push their record to 4-3. .  Thomas Castellanos completed 17 of 29 for 255 yards, and he added 128 yards rushing. Kye Robichaux  rushed for 165 yards on 21 carries, and the Eagles had 308 yards rushing overall.


OKLAHOMA 31, UCF 29 (UCF +18.5) - I caught the finish.  UCF led a good bit of the way, then after falling  behind, 31-23, put on a nice drive to score on fourth-and-goal with a little over a minute to play.  Unfortunately, they were oh-for-three on two-point conversions coming into the game, and they’re now oh-for-four.  The two point play call — a bubble to a man in return-motion, who was then expected to pass - was questionable to begin with, but on top of it Oklahoma must have borrowed Harbaugh’s sign-stealer, because they were all over the play.




SECOND FLIGHT (12-1 PM) IN ORDER OF MY INTEREST


OREGON 38, WASHINGTON STATE 24 (WASHINGTON STATE + 18.5) - Between them, the teams combined for over 1,000 yards of offense.  (Did you hear that, Iowa?  Minnesota?) After two bad games the Cougars did show some signs of life - they had only 216 yards in losing to UCLA, and just 234 in being upset last week by Arizona.  Against the Ducks, they had 275 yards in the first half.  Cameron Ward threw for 438 yards, but the Cougs, lacking a college-level running game, rushed for only 57 yards.  The Ducks, on the other hand, led by Bucky Irving’s 129 yards and Jordan James’ 103, rushed for 248 yards.  Bo Nix was 18 of 25 for 293 yards and two TDs as the Ducks put up 541 yards of offense. 

It was Nix’s  54th  start  as an FBS quarterback - a record.


ALABAMA 34, TENNESSEE 20 (TENNESSEE + 8.5)   -  The Beano Cook formula:  Because Alabama ALWAYS beats Tennessee. Unlike last year,  when Tennessee snatched the win in the last seconds, this year Bama shut out the Vols in the second half.


MINNESOTA 12, IOWA 10 (MINNESOTA +3.5) - Lord, what an ugly game. Take all your defense-and-special-teams-wins-games BS and flush it.  This Iowa offense is beginning to look as if they’re stubbornly TRYING to suck.  I have the greatest of admiration for Kirk Ferentz, and it puzzles me how you can recruit athletes and give them all the bennies kids get nowadays, and pay guys extremely well to coach them, and then go out on a Saturday and go 10 of 28 in the air for 116 yards, and then rush - if you can call it that - for 11 (ELEVEN) yards. Oh - and nine first downs.  Worst of all, even with such an anemic performance offensively, the team is so  good in other aspects of the game that  it almost beat Minnesota and even with the loss it’s 6-2. Granted, Minnesota wasn’t much better than Iowa - 65 yards total offense in the first half. It was very disappointing to see  one of the greatest punt returns I’ve ever seen - one that would have given the Hawkeyes the win - called back because evidently the return man, Cooper DeJean, gave an “invalid fair catch signal.”  It didn’t appear that way to me, but there didn’t seem to be any objection by people who know that stuff better than I do.


WAKE FOREST 21, PITT 17 (PITT + 1.5) - Pitt led, 17-14, and had only to get a first down  to put the game away.  When  their QB left the pocket to run for the sideline, he clearly had the necessary yardage. But he  had to do the things that all QBs do.  He had to  slide.  And I’ll be damned if he didn’t  start the slide before the yard-to-gain.  Remember, all you young fellas - they mark the ball  where he BEGINS his slide. Anyhow, Pitt had to punt and after a short punt, Wake’s number three  QB - a freshman named Santino Marucci who was making his first start, drove the Deacs  to the Pitt 15 with 12 seconds to play. And with 7 seconds to play, he threw a perfect pass to his tight end  for the winning score. When he woke up Saturday morning he was just another freshman football player.  That evening, when the scoreboard clock read 0:00, he was a Wake Forest legend.


OKLAHOMA STATE 48,  AT WEST VIRGINIA 34 (OKLAHOMA STATE +3.5) - Oklahoma State is hot. They’re now 5-2. The Cowboys scored 28 points in the fourth quarter, and they’ve now won three straight.  This year’s “Bedlam” game against OU - which may be the last one ever - will be  in Stillwater.  And West Virginia, which less than two weeks ago was 4-1, is struggling.


MISSOURI 34, SOUTH CAROLINA 12 (SOUTH CAROLINA +7)  - It was 14-0 after one, and 24-3 at the half. Mizzou’s Cody Shrader carried 26 times for 159 yards and two TDs.  South Carolina as a team could manage just 69 yards rushing.    Mizzou is now 7-1, and at 3-1, they’re just a game behind Georgia in the SEC East. They’re off next week, and then they go to Athens to play UGA.


WISCONSIN 25, ILLINOIS 21 (ILLINOIS  +2.5) - Wisconsin, down 21-7 after three, scored 18 points in the fourth quarter,  pulling  it out with 27 seconds left on a third-and-goal  pass. The receiver  was a man who must have been ignored by Illinois because he appeared to be  a lineman, but in reality - after a  quick shift - he met the requirements for eligibility on the line: he wore an eligible number (93) and he was on the end of the line.



THIRD FLIGHT (4-5 PM) IN ORDER OF MY INTEREST

LSU 62, ARMY 0  (ARMY + 30.5) - Yes, the Army kids played hard.  That’s who they are.  But they were sent into battle hopelessly outmanned and unarmed. LSU was at its very best offensively, and against their speed, there was no way that Army was  going to stay close - not unless they could somehow keep the Tigers’ offense on the sidelines.  Anybody know how they might have done that?  Me, too.  Will somebody please tell the Army coaching staff? 

Army’s new, much-touted “shotgun option” offense was able to “control” the ball for just 32 minutes to LSU’s 28.  (For reference: back in 2018, when Army took Oklahoma - Kyler Murray, CeeDee Lamb and that bunch - into 2 OTs before finally falling, they controlled the ball for 45:41 minutes to the Sooners’ 15:19)

In the time it possessed the ball, Army could manage only 193 yards total, and just 12 first downs. If upgrading the  passing game was one of Army’s reasons for junking the old offense, how does six of 15  for 42 yards  and three interceptions sound?  In an area where Army once led the nation in efficiency, Army was just 4 of 11 on third downs, and 0 for three on fourth downs.  (Can you believe that Army - Army, for God’s sake - went for it on fourth down three times by PASSING?)  This makes two straight shutouts - two straight games in which the Army offense didn’t even sniff the opponents’ end zone.


FLORIDA STATE 38, DUKE 20 (DUKE + 14.5)  - Riley Leonard played, and so long as he was healthy, Duke was the equal of the Seminoles.  But when he had to go off in the third quarter with another injured ankle (or was it the same one?), this one was all over.

Happened to notice: Florida State brings to three - along with LSU and Washington State - the number of  colleges permitted to use the old-fashioned “H”   shape  goal posts.


TEXAS 31,  HOUSTON 24 (HOUSTON +22.5) - Good thing I wasn’t watching at the time, or I might have had a conniption, as the old-timers used to say.  It might not have affected the outcome of the game, but late in the game, with the Cougars on the Longhorns’ ten,  on a third-and-one, they appeared to have the first  down easily, only to have the ball spotted way short of  what their runner had gained.  It’s absolutely appalling how in our day of GPS and satellite photography and review-upon-review to determine whether or not a player was across the line (or inbounds) they’ll turn something as critical as this over to the judgement of a human who,  even if he possesses the necessary good judgement, may not have been in the best position to make the call. (For what it’s worth, on fourth-and-a-foot, Houston, being a modern-day football team, had no better play than a sprint-out pass, which fell incomplete. Quarterback sneaks are so old school.)


UTAH 34, USC 32 (UTAH +7) -  How do I say this?  Utah is a well-coached team emphasis on “team” -  solid in every aspect of the game, and - like their coach - tough as nails.  USC is a  collection of stars and -   like their coach - they’re talented but they’re soft.  Utah’s Kyle Whittingham gets my vote for Coach of the Year.  He’s played all season now without his starting QB, but he gets what he needs from his backup, and surrounds him with good players playing sound football.  After the game, he said,  "They've got a Heisman Trophy winner at quarterback… But we've got ourselves a pig farmer at quarterback, so we're proud of that guy, too.” The “pig-farmer,” Utah QB Bryson Barnes, was 14 of 23 for 235 and three TDs, with one INT. (He really did grow up on a pig farm in Milford, Utah.)  Needing help on offense, Whittingham called on safety Sione Vaki - the Utes’ leading tackler - to play a little on the other side of the ball.  Against the Trojans, Vaki rushed nine times for 68 yards and caught five passes for 149 yards and two TDs.

*** Here’s something  to think about, compliments of Brett McMurphy:

THRU 22 GAMES AT USC:
Clay Helton     17-5
Lincoln Riley   17-5



KANSAS STATE 41, TCU 3  (TCU +6.5)  - Wildcats’ two-QB system is really working. Passing? Will Howard was 10 of 16 for 154 and three TDs. Avery Johnson was 5 of 10 for 90.  Rushing? Johnson carried 16 times for 73 yards, Howard four times for 62. K-State had 587 yards  total  offense, 343 of it on the ground. Treshaun Ward carried 17 times for 89 yards and DJ Giddens carried 9 times for 85.


MIAMI 28, CLEMSON 20 (2 OTS)  (MIAMI +3) - This time it was Clemson’s turn to f—k up at the end, starting out first-and-goal  on the two and going 0-for-four.  Somehow, after the Hurricanes had stopped them on three straight plays, they expected Miami to fall asleep and let their (very slow) QB keep it and win a race to the corner on fourth down.  It was Clemson’s third ACC loss.  The last time that happened was 2010.  Miami backup QB Emory Williams was  14 of 17 for 120 in the second half in  relief of Tyler Van Dyke. Until this game, Miami coach Mario Cristobal was 0-6 in Hard Rock Stadium.


BYU 27, TEXAS TECH 14  (BYU +4.5)  - Wish I’d watched this


VIRGINIA 31, NORTH CAROLINA 27 (VIRGINIA + 23.5) - That the Cavaliers led14-7 after one period was a mild surprise. When the teams went off the  field aft halftime with the Tarheels ahead, 17-14, it seemed as though things were returning to normal. When they were tied, 24-24 after three, the game began to draw the attention of people like me who were watching other games. And when Virginia pulled ahead on a pass with just under nine minutes to play - and played hellacious defense to keep the Tarheels at bay…



LATE GAMES


WASHINGTON 15, ARIZONA  STATE 7 (ARIZONA STATE +  27.5)-   ASU led, 7-6 with 8:15 left in the game when on a fourth-and-three on the Washington 14, they passed up a field goal and went for it.  Maybe  the ASU coach (who last year was at Oregon, where as OC he was involved in two such hare-brained decisions) could be defended for not going for the field goal - he explained afterward that he was low on offensive linemen and wasn’t confident they could protect for the field goal attempt.  That’s better than saying it’s because “we’re an aggressive team.” But the play chosen - a pass from a hash  to the opposite flat - almost to the numbers - resulted in an interception,  returned 89 yards for a Husky touchdown. Just like that.  (It was the Huskies’ only TD of the game - they  didn’t score one offensively.) They missed the PAT but added another field goal to  win and stay unbeaten. (They also missed a chance to be Number One this week.)


*********** UNIFORMITY

Pitt in all-white?  Must be an advanced case of Penn State envy.

West Virginia looked like West Virginia again. That's good. The “Flying WV was back on the helmets. That's good. Too had it’s just the ‘traditional” look that they wear one or two games a year.

Oregon, in those throwback uniforms from 1994,  looked like they were actually wearing football uniforms instead of costumes.

No team that plays as ugly as Iowa does should ever come out looking like that.  (Indescribably ugly yellow jerseys.)

Washington nearly got upset and it was probably because they were wearing purple helmets.


*********** It’s got to be the gloves.  I saw a high school kid making one of those one-handed catches.  I think it’s time to check out the gloves because if that’s what’s going on, it’s giving an unfair advantage to passing teams solely because of equipment.


***********   Jason Whitlock on Fox Sports Radio

"The NFL reminds me of ‘The Smartest Guys in The Room’, the documentary that chronicled the collapse of Enron. Roger Goodell is Jeffrey Skilling, the CEO who appeared to save Enron with a devious accounting scheme that allowed the company to claim projected earnings as immediate profit. Corporate media and market analysts ignored the obvious fraud for years, celebrating Enron and Enron founder Kenneth Lay as ‘visionary geniuses.’ Eventually Enron filed bankruptcy and federal prosecutors convicted Skilling and Lay of securities fraud. The ‘smartest guys in the room’ proved to be not-so-smart.


“A similar comeuppance awaits Roger Goodell as the man who oversaw the fall of professional football. Nothing is more over-valued than the NFL. This year’s product is the worst the game has ever produced. The league’s most ‘interesting’ story-line is a manufactured love story between America’s top pop star, Taylor Swift, and a vaccinated tight end, Travis Kelce.


“The on-field product is sloppy and uninteresting. This week produced just two teams who could score more than 26 points. Two weeks ago, six NFL teams failed to score a single touchdown. The Titans have scored fewer than 30 points in 24 straight games. NFL teams are averaging just 2.32 touchdowns per game, the lowest average in 18 years. Individual teams are kicking 2.12 field goal per game, the highest average since the 1970s. The average of 1.84 field goals made is the highest in league history.


“Over the past four decades the league has implemented rule after rule to increase scoring and touchdowns. Bump-and-run coverage has basically been outlawed, you can’t blow up a receiver running across the middle, can’t blindside block a defender, you almost have to ask permission to sack a quarterback, receivers now wear gloves that make catching a pass far easier than at any time in football history, referees love calling pass interference and illegal contact, quarterbacks routinely complete 70% of their passes.

“For all the rules changes and alleged ‘quarterback wizardry', all we’re getting is more field goals and 16-14 snoozefests? Swift is the biggest star in the NFL. Swift and Deion Sanders replaced Tom Brady as the game’s top ambassadors. This is Enron 2.0. It’s a bad product camouflaged by the social media matrix and corporate media influencers more concerned with maintaining access than objectively evaluating the game. The NFL moved ‘Thursday Night Football’ and the Sunday Ticket to Amazon and YouTube because ownership realizes it’s far easier to manipulate and control viewership with internet algorithms.


“Why is the product tanking? Because high level football requires practice. Teams no longer practice. Under the pretense of protecting players from head injuries, teams no longer practice. They ‘train’, they condition, they conduct walk-throughs. They do not practice, not in pads, and not in a real way. Players are doing far less and getting paid way more. They're stockbrokers pitching penny stocks as blue-chip.


“This reminds me of Jordan Belfort, the ‘Wolf of Wall Street.’ NBC, Fox, ESPN, CBS, Amazon, and YouTube are the guys hanging on Belfort’s every word. The NFL is pitching this bad product to everybody, and they’ve got their salesmen out there selling you penny stocks and pretending like it’s blue chip. They want football fans to believe Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, Joe Burrow, Jalen Hurts, Lamar Jackson, and all the rest are the second-coming of Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Aaron Rodgers, Dan Marino, and John Elway. It’s not true.


“You have to actually practice at the level of the all-time greats. You can’t build a cohesive offensive line if you don’t practice. You can’t establish a consistent and reliable running game if you don’t practice. The players don’t care about the product, they care about their brands and their money. They’re entitled, they feel sorry for themselves. I don’t blame them. They watch and listen to sports talk shows and podcasts that paint them as victims and treat them as idols above criticism.


“The people analyzing the game are liars. They won’t tell you what they see, what’s obvious. The game is in rapid decline. Most of the quarterbacks simply cannot read a defense. You learn to read a defense in practice. Teams no longer practice. You don’t need to read a defense or firmly grasp the playbook in order to excel or get paid in the modern NFL. The coaches tape the plays to the wrist of the quarterback and then tell the quarterback what to do in an earpiece installed in his helmet. You don’t have to win in the postseason to secure a major contract, every starting quarterback in the NFL eventually gets paid.


“The problem is only going to get worse. College quarterbacks are now earning millions of dollars through name, image, and likeness deals. The entitlement and brattiness of the players are major turnoffs. Athletes are as unlikeable and as difficult to relate to as Hollywood actors. Football is trending in the wrong direction. The product is awful. Referees influence outcomes more than anyone on the field. Fantasy sports and gambling will only mask the uninspiring play for so long. The smartest guys in football are just as stupid as the smartest guys at Enron.

"The NFL is in free-fall and nobody is willing to talk about it.

*********** I suppose it’s  time I said something nice about the NFL, so here goes:
It was nice to see the Eagles out of those ghastly “midnight green” (that’s actually what they call it) uniforms and into the kelly green that I grew up loving as a little kid.

***********   No use trying to express how much I liked reading this page today. But I'll simply say it was a walk through a large leafy park one perfect Fall morning. Mostly it was smiles and sincere greetings to fellow strollers, but a few times we passed people on the benches who heckled us. And then we walked through a dense bower and out into a grove I felt--not smelled or tasted--was Eden. I stopped there a long spell, listening to a speaker standing on a stump telling the small gathering moving stories about a man named Marv Levy.

John Vermillion                
St Petersburg, Florida

How many other football-related  sites can you visit and  find writing like that???


***********   Hugh,

My mistake.  Penn State is playing at Ohio State.  Actually, I don't care where they play I'm still pulling for Penn State to beat the poison nuts, torment their obnoxious fans, and spoil their playoff chances.

I think Duke has a decent shot of hanging with Florida State with or without Riley Leonard.  Better shot at winning with Riley though.

If Army was still running their former offense they would give the LSU defense fits.  Unfortunately they aren't, and LSU will score at will because of it.

Minnesota always struggles against Iowa, especially at Iowa.

This week:  UNLV at Fresno State.  Both teams with one loss each.  Fresno should have starting QB Mikey Keene back, and the Bulldog defense at home should get the Bulldogs by the Rebels.  But it will be close.  

Bowl or no bowl I'd watch JMU play Jax State.  One of the ESPN channels could pick it up, play the game for charity to help Maui rebuild,  and I bet the teams and their fans wouldn't mind that nice little trip to the islands.


QUIZ:  Marv Levy

Enjoy the games, and the weekend!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas

Accurate call on Army-LSU.



NO PHOTOS — THIS ONE WAS EASY ENOUGH WITHOUT  THEM


*********** MARV LEVY is today’s QUIZ subject - He delivered this commencement address on May 26, 1991 at his alma mater, Coe College, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.  I came across it while researching the man’s background  (he is a well-educated, literate man - rare among coaches)  and I  found in it a great dose of the wisdom that helped make him such a great coach. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did discovering it.


Forty-one years ago on a humid, late spring Iowa afternoon, I sat here in Eby Gymnasium along with the fellow members of my Coe College graduating class of 1950. At the podium, appropriately garbed, peering through a pair of Benjamin Franklin - like half spectacles, some gray haired gentleman was dutifully delivering the obligatory commencement address. I have a confession to make. I don't remember one word he said. I can't remember his name or his pedigree.

If that's the case, why do I consent now to join that legion of the soon-to-be-forgotten. Well, there are four simple and somewhat selfish reasons that I have.

First of all --curiosity. Curiosity about the scenes of my youth. William Cullen Bryant once noted that men who long for the scenes of their boyhood, in reality, are really longing merely for their boyhood. Well, be that as it may, I am still curious about big things and little things. do the professors still wear bow ties and baggy tweeds and leather patches on their elbows? I can't tell-- they're wearing those gowns right now, so I'll have to delay that. Do the coeds still have to be back at Voorhess Hall at 9:00 p.m. on week nights and 11 :30 p.m. on weekends? I doubt that one. Does the Cosmos still get letters of complaints from the students about the food in the dining hall? Probably. Do they still play football here with students rather than hired hands? I fervently hope so! And do the hearts of those football players still beat as fast as mine did just before the kickoff of the Cornell games? I bet they do. One reason, then, is curiosity.

The second is best expressed by the words of a country school teacher who, upon retiring, was asked why she had devoted her life to that work. She thought for a moment and responded. Where else could I find such splendid company? So that's my second reason for being here.

And my third is because of sentiments that are reawakened in me; some of which I experienced and then expressed to the members of our Buffalo Bills football team when we gathered at the sideline just before another kickoff --a kickoff to the Super Bowl game last January. When I looked into their faces and I saw the pride they had in themselves and in their teammates--when I saw how they hungered for the competition against the best there was to compete against in just a few moments--a feeling overwhelmed me and I turned to them and said, "Where else would you rather be than right here, right now?" And that's the same feeling I have at this moment--there is no where else that I would rather be.

And finally--my fourth reason--I have come here because of a special kinship which I have with those of you in this graduating class because by the time the sun sets tonight, we will all be Coe alumni. That we are the same. We differ somewhat, too. I have a lot more yesterdays-­you have a lot more tomorrows and I am confident that it is in those tomorrows that you are most interested.

When I assumed the responsibility as head coach of the Buffalo Bills on a Monday in mid-season of 1986, my first words to the team were those which I address to you now. What it takes to succeed is simple, but it isn't easy. What does it take if you are overweight and you want to lose weight? It's pretty simple. I bet you can tell me. Study good nutrition. Don't go on those crazy diets. Exercise more. Burn more calories. Simple, but it isn't easy. What does it take to win a football game? Condition yourself the year around because no matter how big your heart is, fatigue makes cowards of us all. Learn your assignments. Practice hard. Show up for work every day and make the other team fumble and throw more interceptions than you do. Simple--that's all it takes---that's all it takes. Don't tell me about yards and all that. That's all it takes. You know the hard game against the New York Giants, whom we played this year? Neither team turned the ball over. That's the only statistic that counts. But it is simple. What does it take to win? What does it take to succeed? Its simple, but it isn't easy...

What about success in its more broad and varied aspects? It's still simple and direct.

According to my dictionary, one definition for success is a favorable or desired outcome. That's not sufficient and I don't like it.

I don't want to criticize Webster, Merrian or anybody, but I really don't like that definition well enough. It implies success as a destination....

You're going to have to formulate some of your own definitions. Your way of doing things is effected primarily by your attitude...what are you made of? What do you believe in? What do you stand for? What do you know yourself to be most important? What do you do? I'll tell you something else I often tell our players. What you do speaks so loudly, no one can hear what you are saying. What you do is a reflection of your character ethic so far as attitude.

My father once told me that attitude is even more important than aptitude. When I became a football coach I really understood what he meant. Staying simple.

What are the character qualities that reflect a person's attitude? Those that help breed success as I have defined it. First of all-- good PR… lf you think PR means public relations, I am not communicating correctly…the bedrock PR qualities to my mind are PERSISTENCE and REJECTION or, more specifically, how you handle rejection, because believe me--you are going to have a lot of rejection in your lifetime, and how do you handle it? You're going to apply for jobs and not get them. You're going to ask a gal to marry you and she's gonna say no. You're going to have lots of rejection along the way, and how you handle it is going to be very important....

We had an undefeated football team at Coe when I coached here, and when our head coach left to go to New Mexico I walked into the President's Office and said, "I want to be the head coach." They picked someone else…

I was one of the last two candidates for the Harvard head coaching job. They picked someone else…

The first time I was interviewed for the Buffalo Bills job, I didn't get it…

Or for the Seattle Seahawks job, I didn't get it....

You are all optimistic right now and you should be. Don't ever lose that. But you will have some disappointments. How tough are you?  How do you come back from disappointment? You can always have an excuse for not winning--for not succeeding. The wind­ — had to stay up too late — the long trip…I remember playing here as a sophomore and looking at a film of the game after we played. We could always have an excuse. The film was on and we ran a play and I got tackled for a two-yard loss and our coach Dick Clausen said, "Marv, you have to hit that hole quicker. " Well, I had slipped just before I got ready to take off or I might have hit quickly enough. There was a good hole there. "Dick, I fell down." The projector went off. A light went on. I turned around and Dick said, "Don't fall down!"

What else does it take? When I graduated form Coe and that fall entered Harvard University, I came into Harvard Square and there across the street was the arch tunnel… an inscription above it  said "John Harvard lived here. Enter and grow in wisdom."

At Christmas time I was home on vacation. Our doorbell rang. I answered it and a man from the phone company was there. In those days--does that say how old I am?--every home phone was a pay phone. You put a nickel in every time you made a call and one every six weeks the telephone company representative came and picked them up. Well, the man that picked them up was Phil Johnson, a high school basketball teammate of mine, whom I hadn't seen in about eight years, and he and my dad and I visited. It was great to see him. He collected the money and left. I then said to my dad, "Man, can you imagine a guy (I made a very stupid remark), can you imagine a guy doing that for a living all his life?" Well... about ten minutes passed, and all of a sudden I heard the newspaper go down on the floor--it's a sound I could recognize--I looked up and my dad's face was livid and he said, "Who in the hell do you think you are? That man is doing an honest day's work which is more than you've had to do yet in your life." I looked at the old Marine over there who had gotten up at 3 :00 every morning to work in a produce market and I was just washed over with shame.

When he left I had 24 hours to think about it and the next night when he came home I had a sign on the door of our apartment. It read, "Sam Levy lives here. Enter and grow in wisdom."

I learned more than I learned the rest of the year at Harvard during that one time. What I did learn was that you have to put in an honest day's work. You have to do the ordinary things in an extraordinary manner and sometimes you have to dig deep for motivation.

So far I have talked about persistence, rejection, hard work. The old set jaw and gimlet eyes stare formula. Pretty dismal journey so far, isn't it? I've talked about the journey--it's pretty dismal.

Well, it's very important that you enjoy the trip. Do what you like to do.   If you're in it first for what money is there, your priorities are wrong. Let me give you a little advice on the money aspect.  In anything you do, Make sure you're underpaid.   In other words, people that employ you - make sure they say, "We aren't paying this person enough." Love your work enough so that you can work that hard.

I remember when I was coaching in high school and I got a call to return to Coe as an assistant coach. I was ecstatic - I was jubilant in coming back to Coe to coach in college. I hung up the phone and after a little discussion with my wife she asked me, "How much are they going to pay you?" I looked at her like she was crazy and I said, "I didn't ask him that..."

You have to take chances. If security is a top priority for you - in my opinion, your priorities aren't anything I would admire.

Take a few chances along the way or your larger risk will be that you could become, in the words of Theodore Roosevelt, "one of those timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat…”

You know what I like most about my job?  Every Sunday, 200 times I have to make a decision in front of 80,000 people. Don Shula across the field - his jaw sticking out at you while you're making a decision - 80,000 people in the stands, a huge television audience, and I have 30 seconds to make every one of those decisions. Is it uncomfortable? You bet it is. Is it fun? You better believe it. It is fun and it keeps you alive and it keeps you going and it helps make what you are doing - helps you love what you are doing. Welcome the uncomfortable moments. Believe in yourself.

Here is my wish list. I wish you an idealism that lasts a lifetime. For the day you become a cynic is the day you are going to lose your youth. I wish for you the capacity to laugh often and frequently at yourself. I wish you friends who have earned your trust and a trust-worthiness that earns you friends. I wish you just the right amount of impatience and I wish you some - not too many, but some - difficulties. The opportunity once in a while to be a seven-point underdog… I wish that for you. I wish you compassion - for all people and all of God's living creatures. I wish tolerance, given and received. I wish for you to be able to say often, with a touch of wonderment in your voice, WHERE ELSE WOULD I RATHER BE THAN RIGHT HERE RIGHT NOW. And, finally, I wish you certain mechanical skills. That requires a very brief story to let you know what I mean.

Come back with me to that night in Tampa earlier this year when we played the Super Bowl in a hotly-contested game with the score 20 to 19 -- one minute and a half left to play. We were able to stop the Giants. They punted to us. We took over and between us and the Super Bowl championship were 85 yards that we had to negotiate in one minute and a half, and 11 awfully ugly New York Giant players. So we begin the drive that our whole season had hung on. Jim Kelly completed a pass or two; Thurman Thomas ran a draw play or two; Keith McKeller caught a pass or two. About 20 seconds later we're at mid-field. We moved the ball down. With eight seconds to play, we used our final time out at the opponent's 30 yard line. We're losing 20 to 19. We send our field goal team on the field.  If our kicker made the kick, we were Super Bowl champions. We lined up and Scott Norwood struck the ball pretty true; it flew off his foot into that balmy Florida night sky and up there it hung for what seemed like an inordinate amount of time--22 players on the field all turned to look and the ball fluttered (just an arm's length) to the right of the goal post. The New York Giants won the Super Bowl fair and square. Well, you can imagine the jubilation they experienced and the despair that we experienced. It stayed with me that night -- I couldn't sleep. When we got on the plane and as we were flying back I thought of a volume of English poetry that my mother had given me many years ago, and the one poem that I dredged up from deep in my subconscious is a quatrain by a long forgotten writer, unknown, about an old Scottish warrior in the 14th century and the lines were:

Fight on, my men Sir Andrew said,
A little I'm hurt, but not yet slain;
I'll just lie down and bleed awhile,
and then I'll rise and fight again.

We had our final team meeting the next day and I had that posted on our bulletin board. Our players looked at it. Some of them asked for a copy of it, and got it. I wish for you my final wish -- mechanical skills and the tools that it takes to rebuild whenever and as often as you need to repair broken dreams. I wish for you those tools and I wish for you then to be able to say, whether you are 21 or 65, the best is yet to come.


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING MARV LEVY AS THE GRADUATION SPEAKER

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
BRAD KNIGHT - CLARINDA, ACADEMY
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
TOM DAVIS - SAN MARCOS, CALIFORNIA
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY


*********** Comments on Marv Levy…

Wow. I had no idea how classy and positive and resilient he was.  Makes me want to do more research…I can see why his players loved playing for him. His thoughts on life-long lessons are incredible… His wishes for college grads are spot on.  All I can say is WOW.
Brad Knight

I remember when he was asked by a reporter before a Super Bowl “Is this a must win?” He answered, “World War II was a must win…”
Mike Foristiere

I like him because he tried to run the Wing-T his first year in Kansas City. I have often wished he could have won one of his four Super Bowl trips.
David Crump





*********** QUIZ:   He played football at Michigan State… He was a graduate assistant there… After  success as a Detroit high school coach and two years as an assistant coach at Dayton, he was an MSU assistant under Duffy Daugherty… He spent ten years in professional football, until becoming Michigan State’s head coach in 1983… He was the Spartans’ head coach for 12 years, and also served as MSU’s AD  during part of that time… After retirement he served for 11 years on the University’s Board of Trustees.

At the time of his death,  Michigan State basketball coach Tom Izzo called him, “the truest Spartan I have ever met."

He grew up in Detroit, the son of  parents, of Lithuanian extraction.  With the Korean War going on at the time, he entered  the Army right out of high school.  After the service, he enrolled at Michigan State and as a tackle he earned a varsity letter his sophomore year,  but suffered an injury that ended his playing career.

He stayed at MSU to get his degree, then earned his Master’s Degree while helping coach the Spartans’ freshman team.

From there, he spent one year as an assistant at St. Rita’s High in Chicago, then became head coach at Detroit’s St. Ambrose High, where in three years he had two undefeated  city championship teams.

That got him a job at Dayton as an assistant to John McVay, and after two years he returned to MSU as an assistant to Duffy Daugherty.

He spent five  years at Michigan State - three as the defensive backfield coach and two as the defensive line coach - before being hired in 1972 by Chuck Noll to coach the Pittsburgh Steelers’ defensive line.  (Noll had interviewed dozens of candidates for the job before hiring him.)

There, he had the great privilege of coaching one of pro football’s greatest defensive lines.  That line -  Joe Greene, L.C. Greenwood, Dwight White, and Ernie Holmes - was  the core of the “Steel Curtain,” the great defense that was a major factor in the Steelers’ dynasty of the 1970s.

He is credited with  developing in 1974 what he came to call the “Stunt 4-3,” characterized by lining up Joe Greene in the gap between guard and center but - here’s what made it unique - angled in at the center. It almost forced the center and guard to try to double-team Greene, thereby preventing either of them from blocking middle linebacker Jack Lambert.

In 1978 he was named Steelers’ defensive coordinator, and when he left in 1982 to become head coach of the Philadelphia Stars in the then-forming  US Football League, he had four Super Bowl rings.

He spent  a year getting the Stars ready for play, but he never got to coach the team, because he left when the Michigan State job came open and he broke his contract with Philadelphia to become the Spartans’ coach.

From 1983 to 1994 he took Michigan State to two Big Ten titles and seven bowl appearances. Three of his teams finished in the nation's Top 25, including the 1987 Big Ten Championship team that ranked No. 8 in the final polls.

That 1987 team took the Spartans to the Rose Bowl for the first time since 1966, and with the Rose Bowl win over USC, it gave them their first 9-win season since 1966.  MSU’s 7-0-1 record in Big Ten play was one of only four unbeaten Big Ten seasons in Spartan history.

That  season earned him Football News' National Coach of the Year and Big Ten Coach of the Year honors.   It also earned him a job offer from the Green Bay Packers, but he turned it down, presumably using the offer as leverage at Michigan State.

Two years later, he turned down a similar offer to coach the New York Jets.

His time at MSU was not without its rough spots. He was named athletic director in 1990,  but after  two years marked by considerable controversy over his serving as AD while also coaching the football team, he resigned the  AD position.

In 1994, following an investigation of alleged minor NCAA infractions, he was fired by the university president. (The NCAA would later clear him.)

The next year, he co-founded the Motor City Bowl, and served as its executive director.

In 2006, he was elected to an eight-year term on the MSU Board of Trustees, and in 2014 he was re-elected, although he was unable to serve out his term because of ill health.



FRIDAY,  OCTOBER  20,  2023 - “I don’t believe in bet-the-company bets. That’s when you’re desperate. That’s the last thing you can do.”  Jeff Bezos

***********   SATURDAY’S COLLEGE GAMES


FIRST FLIGHT (9 AM) - IN ORDER OF MY INTEREST


AIR FORCE AT NAVY +10.5 -  If AFA QB Zak Larrier were healthy, this would be a LOCK. But he isn’t, and without him, they lose his rushing (20 carries for 111 vs Wyoming) and his dependable passing (20 of 28 for 468 yards and four TDs - and ZERO interceptions). But most of all, they’ll miss his exceptional ability at running the offense.  Nevertheless, AFA has better talent and they’ve played much better competition (Navy-Notre Dame was so long ago it scarcely counts) and they should win by at least 14.


PENN STATE + 4.5 AT OHIO STATE - The late, great Beano Cook would pick Penn State over Maryland year after year, and when asked why, he’d say, “Because Penn State ALWAYS beats Maryland.” So I pick Penn State over Ohio State for the same reason. By 4.5?  I don’t know. Who gives a sh—about the point spread anyhow?


MISSISSIPPI STATE + 5.5 AT ARKANSAS - I hate to say this, but both coaches are in a bit of trouble.  I don’t  know the State guy, but I sure do like Sam Pittman.


RUTGERS AT INDIANA +5.5 - Rutgers put on a heck of a fourth quarter comeback last week to beat Michigan State.


BOSTON COLLEGE + 4.5 AT GEORGIA TECH - BC has had a week off.  Their QB, Thomas Castellanos, is exciting.  But Tech will win.

UCF +18.5 AT OKLAHOMA - I probably won’t watch this unless one of the others gets out of hand.




SECOND FLIGHT (12-1 PM) IN ORDER OF MY INTEREST


WASHINGTON STATE + 18.5  AT OREGON - The Cougs have gone in the dumpster the last two weeks.  Oregon?  Who knows?  I’m just watching on the outside chance the Cougs can give Dan Lanning some more  experience coaching in tight games.


TENNESSEE + 8.5  AT ALABAMA -  The Beano Cook formula:  Because Alabama ALWAYS beats Tennessee.


MINNESOTA  +3.5 AT IOWA - THIS one ought to be fun to watch. This is a rivalry that not many outsiders are aware of. They are playing, if you didn’t know, for the Floyd of Rosedale Trophy, a sculpture of a pig.  A Minnesota win could complicate things in the Big Ten West.


PITT + 1.5 AT WAKE FOREST - How in the hell did Pitt beat Lousville last week?  I have to go for the Deacs, who aren’t  what they’ve been the last few years. (Gee, I wonder why.)


OKLAHOMA STATE +3.5 AT WEST VIRGINIA - Both teams are 4-2. Mountaineers were :03 away from being 5-1.  WVU QB Garrett Green is coming off a 20/38/392/2TD performance - plus 47 yards rushing - against Houston.


SOUTH CAROLINA +7  AT MISSOURI - Missouri’s Brady Cook is seldom mentioned when they talk about QBs, but he is GOOD.  Besides, Shane Beamer won’t be at full speed after breaking a bone in his foot “kicking something.”


WISCONSIN AT ILLINOIS +2.5 - Whatever Illinois did against Maryland last week - it’s enough to beat Wisconsin.  (What is it about Luke Fickell that I just can’t seem to like?)




THIRD FLIGHT (4-5 PM) IN ORDER OF MY INTEREST

ARMY + 30.5 AT LSU…Army has the distinction of being the biggest underdog of the day.  LSU’s defense is not its strong point, but against Army’s offense it doesn’t have to be.  Gone are the  days when Army could take the opening kickoff and put on a drive that consumed ten minutes. Gone are the days when a big Army fullback and a strong offensive line meant  that a fourth-and-short was as  good as an automatic first down. And if Army starting QB Bryson Daley is unable to play, I doubt that Army will be able to get his backup, true freshman Champ Harris, ready for a test like this one.  After what I’ve seen of Army games this year, I’d certainly  bet on LSU to beat the spread. By halftime.   At least Army fans making the trip to Baton Rouge will be treated well by the locals, who take great pride in sharing the bounty of their tailgates.


DUKE + 14.5 AT FLORIDA STATE - Don’t know whether Riley Leonard is ready to play for Duke.  If he is, I think they can play Seminoles even.  If not, if could be worse than 14.5


TEXAS AT HOUSTON +22.5 - This one will be on one of the screens to start, just on the chance that the hard feelings between the two schools and their fans could result in a whale of a game.


UTAH +7  AT USC - The team with no defense (USC) plays the team with no offense (UTAH). On coaching alone, I’d take Utah, but I’m afraid USC wins this one.


TCU +6.5   AT KANSAS STATE - I will always go with the Wildcats.


CLEMSON AT MIAMI +3 - This game is the next one up if/when Texas-Houston goes sour.


OLE MISS AT AUBURN +6.5 - Ole Miss is fun to watch.


TEXAS TECH AT BYU +4.5 - Probably won’t make my cut


MICHIGAN AT MICHIGAN STATE +24.5 - Not much chance I’ll watch any of this.


VIRGINIA + 23.5 AT NORTH CAROLINA - Or this.



LATE GAMES


ARIZONA STATE +  27.5 AT WASHINGTON - That’s a lot of points. But Washington has the quick-strike ability and Michael Penix is on a Heisman run.


UCLA AT STANFORD + 17 - Sorry Cards  - this isn’t Colorado.  UCLA will probably have somebody who can cover Elic Ayomayor.  But if they don’t, look out, Bruins… this kid is something to see.



*********** ELEVEN UNBEATEN FBS TEAMS REMAIN

(ALPHABETICALLY)
Air Force - at Navy +10
at Florida State - Duke +14.5
Georgia - BYE
James Madison (Plays tonight against Marshall)
Liberty - Beat Middle Tennessee on Tuesday, 42-35
Michigan - at Michigan State +24.5
at North Carolina - Virginia +23.5
at Ohio State -  Penn State +4.5
at Oklahoma - UCF +18.5
Penn State +4.5  - at Ohio State
at Washington - Arizona State + 27.5


*********** Thanks to a volleyball match that ran  late, the New Mexico State-UTEP game came on the air 36 minutes late. When we joined the action, there was 1:18 left in the first quarter.


***********  I’ve been following New Mexico State. The Aggies, in years past a hopeless case, are now 5-3, in third place in Conference USA standings.

I like their coach, Jerry Kill.

But I REALLY like their, QB, a junior from Albuquerque named  Diego Pavia.

The kid is strong and fast, with a good arm.  And he’s tough.

He’s listed as 6 foot, 200 but he looks a lot stockier than that.

So far this year, he’s completed 117 of 189 passes for 1,801 yards.  He’s thrown for 16 TDs and just five interceptions.

He is a strong runner. He has had four games of over 90 yards rushing, and four plays of over 40 yards.  He’s carried 63 times for 450 yards and four touchdowns.

Did I say tough?  He was a three-time state wrestling champion in high school.  Tell that to your fancy-pants QB  who isn’t big on weight lifting.

I can’t say I’m a big fan of everything he’s done - earlier this season, he was video’d “appearing to urinate”  on the logo at midfield of rival New Mexico’s indoor practice facility.  Classless act.  I assume that if he was guilty as charged, Coach Kill has taken care of it.


*********** I’m hoping he was joking, but I doubt it.

One of the two trophies that New Mexico State and UTEP were playing for Wednesday night was a polished brass spittoon, mounted in a wooden pedestal.

After the trophy was shown in the screen, play-by-play guy John Schriffen, the sort who can’t allow a moment of silence to go unfilled by something he has to say, asked his broadcast partner,

“What were spittoons used for?”


*********** Former Notre Dame QB Malik Zaire, doing the color of the FIU-Sam Houston game, showed an unwillingness  to say in a short sentence or two what can be said in seven or eight compound sentences.


*********** Perhaps this can explain what’s happened to Washington State the last couple of weeks (a tough loss at UCLA and a shocking pounding by Arizona).

John Canzano writes…

I asked Cougars football coach Jake Dickert whether he had contact with Michigan State or any other school in recent weeks. One of the prevailing theories is that the Spartans are sniffing around Dickert and that players in the WSU locker room caught wind of it and are distracted.

Did Dickert meet with or talk with Michigan State? Or have contact with any other school? Is that the problem?

Dickert told me: “I have not talked to a single person, not just in the bye week, but any week, John. I love being here. I don’t need to defend my position here at Washington State. This is a job that I’m here to do and move our program forward and into the future. We’re excited about that, that’s been our only focus the whole time.”

I asked again.

Not part of the distraction? Not happening right now?

“I haven’t talked to any schools, ever John,” Dickert said. “I’m excited about this opportunity this week against a really good Oregon team.”

I posted the audio of my interview. It was greeted with two main responses: A) wild skepticism and a belief that Dickert is gone; and B) criticism that I didn’t follow up with a third question on the subject and ask if Dickert’s agent had contact with other schools.

*********** Ari Wasserman, in The Athletic, wrote an article in defense of Oregon coach Dan Lanning, whose imprudent play calling against Washington did as much to  cost his team a win as any action by a coach in a big game that I’ve ever seen.

Unfortunately, Wasserman devoted the entire article to a defense of just one of Lanning’s three bad decisions - the one to go for it on a fourth-and-short at midfield with two minutes remaining and Oregon ahead by four.

Wasserman seems not even to be aware that he spent an entire article  defending a coach for a rash decision he wouldn’t even have had to make had he not already made two earlier, similarly rash decisions.

He completely skipped over two earlier, similarly  unsuccessful fourth-down go-for-brokes,  when a decision to kick a  field goal instead of going for it might  have resulted in Oregon’s being ahead by seven (or even ten) in that  final punt-or-go-for-it situation that Wasserman wrote about.

Here’s a sample of what he's trying to palm off as “wisdom”...

The prevailing thought from the game should have been clear the second Lanning kept his offense on the field. Oregon has its man. That’s not often the takeaway after a soul-crushing loss, but it’s appropriate now. Lanning showed us who he is on national television. He is a man who gets it, who coaches with conviction and who trusts the people around him. This is a man who doesn’t consider failure before attempting to be great. This is a man who doesn’t approach his job — or the game of football  — scared. This is a man who is going to win big when the breaks start falling Oregon’s way.

***

Don’t be results-oriented. Don’t wait to see how the game played out as proof of whether Lanning did the right thing. He unquestionably made the right call based on the information available to him at the time.

***

“If I  knew that none of them were going to work, you’d change every situation, right?” Lanning said. “That’s not the way those decisions work. When you sit in this seat, I’m a big boy, I can handle criticism. And that’s going to come, and it’s deserved. In this position, that’s the way it works. I trust our players. I trust our coaches, and when we have opportunities to win games, I’m going to be aggressive to win games.”

***

If I’m an athletic director hiring a coach, I want that guy on the sidelines.

If I’m a five-star recruit, that’s the coach I want to play for. I want the coach who puts the ball in my hands with the game on the line, not the one wimping out and playing not to lose.

***

As Oregon continues to find itself in these big moments, odds are the ball is going to start bouncing in the Ducks’ direction. There will be fourth-and-short opportunities later this year that could have Oregon fighting to get into the College Football Playoff. Maybe next time Oregon will convert. Maybe it’ll come in Las Vegas with Washington on defense again.

***

But questioning how he calls the game now? That’s soft.

***
“What’s tough is when I make those decisions, it doesn’t just affect me, it affects everybody in our program, it affects everybody who cares about Oregon football and I understand that,” Lanning said. “But it’s not like those decisions are made on Saturday in that moment, you know. Those decisions were made earlier in the week. We knew it’s gonna be a high-scoring game where touchdowns over field goals mattered. In that scenario, like I said before, at the half I think you could certainly say that could go the other direction. A lot of the other scenarios, I don’t know that you play it any other way other than if you already knew what the result in play was going to be.

“Three opportunities on a fourth down, the chances of us not getting one of those three is really unique.”

***

This is Oregon’s personality as a program.

It’s going to lead to winning big — maybe even in a few months.

***

Ari Wasserman is a senior writer for The Athletic covering college football and recruiting nationally. He previously spent 10 years covering Ohio State for The Athletic and Cleveland.com, starting on the Buckeyes beat in 2009.

Now,  look -  Given that resume and what he  must know about Ohio State and its fans… If that had been Oregon State against Michigan Saturday and Ryan Day (for the second year in a row) had made the decisions Dan Lanning made - and the Buckeyes (for the second year in a  row) had lost by three … Would Wasserman   really have had the nerve to write an article like this one, praising Day for the “aggressive” decisions he made, calling the questioning of those decisions “soft,” and offering the faint hope that “maybe next time” one of his wild-ass calls will pay off?

I think it’s just a question of which one - Wasserman or Ryan Day - the Buckeyes’ fans would have run out of Columbus first.

The fact that he’s  defending the guy and not encountering a lot of adverse reaction  says  more about Oregon fans than anything else.  It tells us that if you can keep getting away with the Mister Aggressive act, as apparently Lanning can,  then he’s found Coaches Heaven, and he’d be wise to stay there as long they let him.

In the aftermath of last Saturday’s game, someone dredged up the tired old “Riverboat Gambler” cliche in referring to Lanning.

Ken Goe, longtime writer for the Portland Oregonian,  replied, “It’s guys like him who kept the riverboats in business.”


*********** Connellsville High, in southwestern Pennsylvania, may not be the best-coached high school team in America, but it might be the MOST-coached.

Connellsville HIGH has THREE (3) head coaches.

Connellsville has a long and storied football history.

Once, it had a semi-pro team called the Connellsvile Cokers. (A little lesson here:  There was coal in the Connellsville area - a large seam of it - and of  quality perfect for making coke.  At  very high temperatures, the  coal was baked into coke, which was used as fuel in the blast furnaces of Pittsburgh to smelt iron ore into molten pig iron, the raw material for steel.  In the early part of the last century,  the Connellsville area  produced more than half the country’s supply of coke.)

The great Johnny Lujack, All-Everything at Notre Dame,  was a Connellsville kid. 

So was Bo Scott, a big, strong running back who went to  Ohio State,  played four years for the Ottawa Rough Riders - where he was twice named All-CFL -  then returned to the US to play six years with the Cleveland Browns.

As with so many Pennsylvania towns once heavily dependent on mining and manufacturing, Connellsville is not what it once was. From a population of 13,000 in 1950, it’s shrunken to 7,000 today.

Its high school football program isn’t what it once was, either, and after going 0-7 in 2020 and 0-10 in 2021, someone came up with the idea of putting three coaches in charge of the football team.

Before you scoff… the  trio of coaches showed some improvement last season - their first - managing to win two games to finish  2-8.

This season, Connellsville is 4-4.


*********** Sounds like nice work if you can get it - find a college that will pay you to do this sort of stuff -  but anyway, back in 2018 a professor at the University of Memphis polled a bunch of college fans on who their school’s biggest rival was and it wasn’t close: Texas was the “winner” at 11 different schools.


*********** Both James Madison (JMU) and Jacksonville (Jax) State are already  bowl-eligible.
But neither will be going to a bowl.

Unfortunately for them,  they’re both new to FBS - JMU is in its second year,  Jacksonville State in its first - and NCAA bylaws require a two-year wait before a team that’s moved up to FBS can play in a bowl game.

HOWEVER… there IS a clever work-around, courtesy of something called Reddit/r/CFB…

They call it the  “NCAA CAN’T SAY NO BOWL”

WHO: JMU VS JACKSONVILLE STATE

WHEN: SUNDAY, DECEMBER 10 - the day after the Army-Navy game, which is the last day a “regular season” game is permitted by the NCAA.

WHERE: HAWAII - Any FBS team playing a game in Alaska, Hawaii or Puerto Rico is permitted to play an extra “regular season” game without a special waiver from the NCAA

WHY: Both teams have qualified for a bowl, but aren’t permitted to play in one.  This,  although it looks like a bowl game and acts like a bowl game, is not a bowl game.  It is a regular-season game and the two teams can play one without any waiver or permission by the NCAA.

(The authors added: “We have talked to neither school about this and don’t know if they are interested.”)

 



***********   Coach:

I wanted to officially enroll my team for the 2023 Black Lion Award.  I am coaching the Palatine Panthers 9U Gold Division 1 team.  It has been a fun but incredibly busy season.  The team is doing well and if we win Saturday we will be the #3 seed in the Bill George League playoffs.  We have run the core offense and sprinkled in some Gun as well.  My 9 year old, Luke, is a striper so he plays Center and Nose for us.....he is having a blast.  On top of that I am President of the Palatine youth program which is 20 tackle teams and 10 flag feeder teams of Kindergarten-2nd Grade.  Never a dull moment. I was just talking to my wife about the double wing and doing the math and my first double wing clinic I ever went to was just over 25 years ago in the Spring of 1998 in Elk Grove, IL.  Time flies.......... I hope all is well in the Pacific Northwest and your family is doing great!  (The photo is my team after winning at Downers Grove last Sunday 30-0.)

Bill Lawlor
Palatine, Illinois


*********** One of the things I dislike about all the transfers is that we seldom hear what a player’s hometown is, which is something that’s always fascinated me.  Now, it takes too much time to tell us where everybody’s transferred from to be able to bother with their hometowns.


***********  Hi Hugh,

Just finished watching the replay of Tuesday’s clinic and as usual so much enjoyed your observations. A couple of things I thought were interesting. First, Air Force - although a flexbone team, their philosophy is so Double Wing. As an example if they pick up four yards on their Zone Wedge they keep running it over and over and don’t stop until they make less than the four yards. Against Wyoming, at one stage, they ran it eight or ten times in a row - not sexy but winning football. Second, although they run multiple formations their play foundation is very simple; the Zone Wedge, Mid Triple, Trap, G, and Toss. Again not unlike what we did with the Double Wing, a very small group of foundation plays built on execution and doing the little things well.

Say hi to Connie, somewhere I came across a quote where you said she would have made a heck of football coach, couldn’t agree more! The woman has probably forgotten more football then some of the so called head coaches today know.

Stay the course!

Jack Tourtillotte
Rangeley, Maine


*********** Hi Coach!

Ernie Barnes! - His paintings are unique and wonderful! Thank you so much for leading me to this outstanding artist.

J. Rothwell, DC
Corpus Christi, Texas


*********** Extraneous notes first: (1) I wouldn't be likely to speak at any time on your Zooms, but I can't even if I wanted to. It's a technical matter I can't resolve. If I turn on my mic, I lose the connection altogether and must sign in again. Been this way since the first Zoom. It isn't the computer, in that this is the second I've used that has the same problem. Actually, it's not a problem--just want you to understand why I can't flip on to say hi or bye. (2) Almost always I enjoy seeing the printed name of the author of the opening quotation. Example is today's Sir Joshua Reynolds, a man whose art and writings I once knew well, but less so today. Sometime today I'll pull out a dusty text to read a few sentences from him.

I didn't like reading your notes on the state of Army football, but they were true, and in this instance the truth hurts. You have made a point before about Troy Calhoun himself being a former Falcon, and that half a dozen or so of his assistants are also former Falcons. I don't know how significant a difference that makes. Army, on the other hand, has one, the formerly perfectly-placed and now badly-placed Mike Viti. In my mind, the best OL Army has had in the past 50 years is Bryce Holland. Someone said he's available. What I wouldn't give to see him running the OLine in the true triple option. Every day I wonder whether Monken has the guts to pull the plug on this ugly experiment once the season ends. Not holding my breath.

Stanford-Colorado. Too little has been made of the fact that Stanford scored 46 points in one half. Astonishing, especially given Stanford's assumed status as a weak sister this season.

Fine page again, Coach.

John Vermillion               
St Petersburg, Florida


*********** Hugh,

Could it be that Army coach Jeff Monken agreed to "change things up" offensively may have had something to do with being enticed by a contract extension to save his job?  After watching Air Force play with virtually the same offense Monken successfully employed over the years Monken's reasoning for making the change (no cut rule) is just more government BS.  Go ahead, call me a conspiracy theorist.

Not sure who that team was in Blue and Gold that took down USC.  Where were they against Louisville?  The Irish get a much needed BYE this week before taking on Pitt.  Hopefully they won't play down to Pitt's level next week.  Unfortunately that has been the pattern. 

Have to say Oregon and Washington are about as even as it gets.  I believe if those two teams played each other three times all three games would look the same as this last one.  Close.

Penn State and Ohio State should be a good one.  Pulling for the Nittany Lions at home of course.  No way I'm pulling for the poison nuts (unless they're playing USC which would still be painful).

On the subject of the Big 10...Michigan is hands-down the best team, if not the best in the country.  Better than Georgia IMHO.

UNC has quietly moved up in the rankings even if Drake Maye hasn't been his overwhelming self, but now with Tez Walker in the fold watch out!

I'm thinking when Iowa plays Minnesota both teams will combine for 25 total points, or less.

Wyoming beat Fresno State.  Air Force beat Wyoming.  Fresno and Air Force don't play each other.  Based upon remaining schedules Air Force has the tougher schedule.  Could be an interesting finish in the MWC.  UNLV and Boise State could end up being spoilers for both FSU and AFA.

Have a great week!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas



 

***********   QUIZ ANSWER:  Ernie Barnes was born and raised in Durham, North Carolina and went to high school and college there.   His father  worked for a large tobacco company and his mother “oversaw  the household staff” of a prominent Durham lawyer.

When he was a little boy, there were occasions when he would accompany his mother to work, and the attorney would encourage the boy to look through  his art books and listen to classical music. By the  time the boy entered first grade, he was  familiar with the art of well-known masters.

He later described himself as “chubby and unathletic,” and to escape the taunts of bullies at school, he would find hiding places where he could go off by himself and sketch.

One day a teacher came upon him while he was  in one of his secluded  places and, fascinated by the youngster’s interest in art, told him that he himself was a body builder and  said  that it had not only made him stronger, but had improved his entire attitude toward life.  That chance meeting had an impact on our guy that would inspire him and affect the rest of his life.   By his senior year in high school, he was the captain of the football team and the state shot put champion. 

But his interest in art never dwindled.   With nearby Duke University and the University of North Carolina both closed to him by segregation, he chose to attend  North Carolina College (now North Carolina Central) in Durham on a full athletic scholarship, and major in art.

At UNCC, he was influenced by  an art instructor named Ed Wilson,  a sculptor who instructed Barnes to paint from his own life experiences. “He made me conscious of the fact that the artist who is useful to America is one who studies his own life and records it through the medium of art, manners and customs of his own experiences.”

Many of his experiences were related to sports.

He had an outstanding career at Central as an offensive lineman, and was taken in the 10th round in the 1960 NFL draft by the champion Baltimore Colts.  He was the last player  cut by the Colts, and was picked up immediately by the New York Titans of the brand-new American Football League. 

Unhappy in New York and  disillusioned by the death of a teammate, Howard Glenn,  under controversial circumstances, he asked for - and got - his release.   He signed  soon after with the Los Angeles Chargers as a member of their taxi squad, and moved with the team the next year to San Diego.

After injuries sidelined him in his second season in San  Diego, he was cut, then picked up by the Denver Broncos.

While with the Broncos, his teammates recognized his artistic talent by his practice of sketching things he saw on the field: “During a timeout you’ve got nothing to do – you’re not talking – you’re just trying to breathe, mostly. Nothing to take out that little pencil and write down what you saw. What I see when you pull.  The reaction of the defense to your movement.  The awareness of the lines within the movement.  The shape of the linemen. The body language a defensive lineman would occupy… his posture.  The awareness of the lines within the movement, the pattern within the lines, the rhythm of movement. A couple of notes to me would denote an action… an image that I could instantly recreate in my mind. Some of those notes have been made into paintings. Quite a few, really.”

From what he saw, he would create sketches.

As a result, he acquired the nickname “Big Rembrandt.”

But he also earned the ire of head coach Jack Faulkner,  who objected to his sketching during team meetings. (It had to be with a great sense of irony that years after our guy had been fined $100 for sketching during a meeting,  that sketch sold for $1,000.

He played two seasons with the Broncos, then signed with Saskatchewan in the CFL, but a fractured foot in an exhibition game ended his football career and he turned to his real love, art.

Shortly after his last game, he met New York Jets (formerly Titans) owner Sonny Werblin, who was impressed by him and his art, and paid for him to bring his paintings to New York where he would have some art critics evaluate the work.

The critics praised his work, and as a result, Werblin hired him - but  to paint, not to play -  telling him “you have more value to the country as an artist than as a football player.”

In 1966, his solo exhibition at the Grand Central Art Galleries was hosted by Werblin, and all of his paintings sold.

As black Americans gained more and more stature in American culture - sports, music and entertainment - so, too, did his fame as an artist grow.

In artistic terms, his work has been called neo-mannerist. It’s characterized by “elongated human figures,” “serpentine lines,” “clarity of line,” and distinctive color palettes” among others, and his style has been widely copied. 

His painting “The Sugar Shack” was used on the “Good Times” television series and on a 1976 Marvin Gaye album.
 
His 1987 work, “Fastbreak,” is  a painting of the World Champion Los Angeles Lakers basketball team that included Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, James Worthy, Kurt Rambis and Michael Cooper.

In 1996,  Carolina Panthers football team owners Jerry Richardson (a former Colts teammate) and his  wife commissioned him to create the large (7 feet by 14 feet) painting called “Victory in Overtime, ” which hangs in the owner’s suite in the Panthers’ stadium.
 
To commemorate its 50th anniversary in 1996, the NBA commissioned him to create a painting based on the theme, “Where we were, where we are, and where we are going.” The painting, “The Dream Unfolds” now hangs in the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts.  The first 50 prints  of a limited edition of lithographs went to members of the NBA’s 50th Anniversary All-Time Team.

In 2004 he was named America’s Best Painter of Sports by the American Sport Art Museum & Archives.

In 1961, he was 18 and on a field trip with a college art class to the recently-desegregated North Carolina Museum, and  he asked where there were “paintings by negro artists.”   He was told by the docent (guide), “Your people don’t express themselves that way.”

In 1979, he returned to that museum, but this time as a solo exhibitor.  The Governor of North Carolina was in attendance.


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING ERNIE BARNES

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOHN ROTHWELL - CORPUS CHRISTI, TEXAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON



NO PHOTOS — THIS ONE IS EASY ENOUGH AS IT IS…


*********** Today’s QUIZ subject delivered this commencement address on May 26, 1991 at his alma mater, Coe College, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.  I came across it while researching the man’s background  (he is a well-educated, literate man - rare among coaches)  and I  found in it a great dose of the wisdom that helped make him such a great coach. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did discovering it.


Forty-one years ago on a humid, late spring Iowa afternoon, I sat here in Eby Gymnasium along with the fellow members of my Coe College graduating class of 1950. At the podium, appropriately garbed, peering through a pair of Benjamin Franklin - like half spectacles, some gray haired gentleman was dutifully delivering the obligatory commencement address. I have a confession to make. I don't remember one word he said. I can't remember his name or his pedigree.

If that's the case, why do I consent now to join that legion of the soon-to-be-forgotten. Well, there are four simple and somewhat selfish reasons that I have.

First of all --curiosity. Curiosity about the scenes of my youth. William Cullen Bryant once noted that men who long for the scenes of their boyhood, in reality, are really longing merely for their boyhood. Well, be that as it may, I am still curious about big things and little things. do the professors still wear bow ties and baggy tweeds and leather patches on their elbows? I can't tell-- they're wearing those gowns right now, so I'll have to delay that. Do the coeds still have to be back at Voorhess Hall at 9:00 p.m. on week nights and 11 :30 p.m. on weekends? I doubt that one. Does the Cosmos still get letters of complaints from the students about the food in the dining hall? Probably. Do they still play football here with students rather than hired hands? I fervently hope so! And do the hearts of those football players still beat as fast as mine did just before the kickoff of the Cornell games? I bet they do. One reason, then, is curiosity.

The second is best expressed by the words of a country school teacher who, upon retiring, was asked why she had devoted her life to that work. She thought for a moment and responded. Where else could I find such splendid company? So that's my second reason for being here.

And my third is because of sentiments that are reawakened in me; some of which I experienced and then expressed to the members of our Buffalo Bills football team when we gathered at the sideline just before another kickoff --a kickoff to the Super Bowl game last January. When I looked into their faces and I saw the pride they had in themselves and in their teammates--when I saw how they hungered for the competition against the best there was to compete against in just a few moments--a feeling overwhelmed me and I turned to them and said, "Where else would you rather be than right here, right now?" And that's the same feeling I have at this moment--there is no where else that I would rather be.

And finally--my fourth reason--I have come here because of a special kinship which I have with those of you in this graduating class because by the time the sun sets tonight, we will all be Coe alumni. That we are the same. We differ somewhat, too. I have a lot more yesterdays-­you have a lot more tomorrows and I am confident that it is in those tomorrows that you are most interested.

When I assumed the responsibility as head coach of the Buffalo Bills on a Monday in mid-season of 1986, my first words to the team were those which I address to you now. What it takes to succeed is simple, but it isn't easy. What does it take if you are overweight and you want to lose weight? It's pretty simple. I bet you can tell me. Study good nutrition. Don't go on those crazy diets. Exercise more. Burn more calories. Simple, but it isn't easy. What does it take to win a football game? Condition yourself the year around because no matter how big your heart is, fatigue makes cowards of us all. Learn your assignments. Practice hard. Show up for work every day and make the other team fumble and throw more interceptions than you do. Simple--that's all it takes---that's all it takes. Don't tell me about yards and all that. That's all it takes. You know the hard game against the New York Giants, whom we played this year? Neither team turned the ball over. That's the only statistic that counts. But it is simple. What does it take to win? What does it take to succeed? Its simple, but it isn't easy...

What about success in its more broad and varied aspects? It's still simple and direct.

According to my dictionary, one definition for success is a favorable or desired outcome. That's not sufficient and I don't like it.

I don't want to criticize Webster, Merriam or anybody, but I really don't like that definition well enough. It implies success as a destination....

You're going to have to formulate some of your own definitions. Your way of doing things is effected primarily by your attitude...what are you made of? What do you believe in? What do you stand for? What do you know yourself to be most important? What do you do? I'll tell you something else I often tell our players. What you do speaks so loudly, no one can hear what you are saying. What you do is a reflection of your character ethic so far as attitude.

My father once told me that attitude is even more important than aptitude. When I became a football coach I really understood what he meant. Staying simple.

What are the character qualities that reflect a person's attitude? Those that help breed success as I have defined it. First of all-- good PR… lf you think PR means public relations, I am not communicating correctly…the bedrock PR qualities to my mind are PERSISTENCE and REJECTION or, more specifically, how you handle rejection, because believe me--you are going to have a lot of rejection in your lifetime, and how do you handle it? You're going to apply for jobs and not get them. You're going to ask a gal to marry you and she's gonna say no. You're going to have lots of rejection along the way, and how you handle it is going to be very important....

We had an undefeated football team at Coe when I coached here, and when our head coach left to go to New Mexico I walked into the President's Office and said, "I want to be the head coach." They picked someone else…

I was one of the last two candidates for the Harvard head coaching job. They picked someone else…

The first time I was interviewed for the Buffalo Bills job, I didn't get it…

Or for the Seattle Seahawks job, I didn't get it....

You are all optimistic right now and you should be. Don't ever lose that. But you will have some disappointments. How tough are you?  How do you come back from disappointment? You can always have an excuse for not winning--for not succeeding. The wind­ — had to stay up too late — the long trip…I remember playing here as a sophomore and looking at a film of the game after we played. We could always have an excuse. The film was on and we ran a play and I got tackled for a two-yard loss and our coach Dick Clausen said, "Marv, you have to hit that hole quicker. " Well, I had slipped just before I got ready to take off or I might have hit quickly enough. There was a good hole there. "Dick, I fell down." The projector went off. A light went on. I turned around and Dick said, "Don't fall down!"

What else does it take? When I graduated form Coe and that fall entered Harvard University, I came into Harvard Square and there across the street was the arch tunnel… an inscription above it  said "John Harvard lived here. Enter and grow in wisdom."

At Christmas time I was home on vacation. Our doorbell rang. I answered it and a man from the phone company was there. In those days--does that say how old I am?--every home phone was a pay phone. You put a nickel in every time you made a call and one every six weeks the telephone company representative came and picked them up. Well, the man that picked them up was Phil Johnson, a high school basketball teammate of mine, whom I hadn't seen in about eight years, and he and my dad and I visited. It was great to see him. He collected the money and left. I then said to my dad, "Man, can you imagine a guy (I made a very stupid remark), can you imagine a guy doing that for a living all his life?" Well... about ten minutes passed, and all of a sudden I heard the newspaper go down on the floor--it's a sound I could recognize--I looked up and my dad's face was livid and he said, "Who in the hell do you think you are? That man is doing an honest day's work which is more than you've had to do yet in your life." I looked at the old Marine over there who had gotten up at 3 :00 every morning to work in a produce market and I was just washed over with shame.

When he left I had 24 hours to think about it and the next night when he came home I had a sign on the door of our apartment. It read, "Sam Levy lives here. Enter and grow in wisdom."

I learned more than I learned the rest of the year at Harvard during that one time. What I did learn was that you have to put in an honest day's work. You have to do the ordinary things in an extraordinary manner and sometimes you have to dig deep for motivation.

So far I have talked about persistence, rejection, hard work. The old set jaw and gimlet eyes stare formula. Pretty dismal journey so far, isn't it? I've talked about the journey--it's pretty dismal.

Well, it's very important that you enjoy the trip. Do what you like to do.   If you're in it first for what money is there, your priorities are wrong. Let me give you a little advice on the money aspect.  In anything you do, Make sure you're underpaid.   In other words, people that employ you - make sure they say, "We aren't paying this person enough." Love your work enough so that you can work that hard.

I remember when I was coaching in high school and I got a call to return to Coe as an assistant coach. I was ecstatic - I was jubilant in coming back to Coe to coach in college. I hung up the phone and after a little discussion with my wife she asked me, "How much are they going to pay you?" I looked at her like she was crazy and I said, "I didn't ask him that..."

You have to take chances. If security is a top priority for you - in my opinion, your priorities aren't anything I would admire.

Take a few chances along the way or your larger risk will be that you could become, in the words of Theodore Roosevelt, "one of those timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat…”

You know what I like most about my job?  Every Sunday, 200 times I have to make a decision in front of 80,000 people. Don Shula across the field - his jaw sticking out at you while you're making a decision - 80,000 people in the stands, a huge television audience, and I have 30 seconds to make every one of those decisions. Is it uncomfortable? You bet it is. Is it fun? You better believe it. It is fun and it keeps you alive and it keeps you going and it helps make what you are doing - helps you love what you are doing. Welcome the uncomfortable moments. Believe in yourself.

Here is my wish list. I wish you an idealism that lasts a lifetime. For the day you become a cynic is the day you are going to lose your youth. I wish for you the capacity to laugh often and frequently at yourself. I wish you friends who have earned your trust and a trust-worthiness that earns you friends. I wish you just the right amount of impatience and I wish you some - not too many, but some - difficulties. The opportunity once in a while to be a seven-point underdog… I wish that for you. I wish you compassion - for all people and all of God's living creatures. I wish tolerance, given and received. I wish for you to be able to say often, with a touch of wonderment in your voice, WHERE ELSE WOULD I RATHER BE THAN RIGHT HERE RIGHT NOW. And, finally, I wish you certain mechanical skills. That requires a very brief story to let you know what I mean.

Come back with me to that night in Tampa earlier this year when we played the Super Bowl in a hotly-contested game with the score 20 to 19 -- one minute and a half left to play. We were able to stop the Giants. They punted to us. We took over and between us and the Super Bowl championship were 85 yards that we had to negotiate in one minute and a half, and 11 awfully ugly New York Giant players. So we begin the drive that our whole season had hung on. Jim Kelly completed a pass or two; Thurman Thomas ran a draw play or two; Keith McKeller caught a pass or two. About 20 seconds later we're at mid-field. We moved the ball down. With eight seconds to play, we used our final time out at the opponent's 30 yard line. We're losing 20 to 19. We send our field goal team on the field.  If our kicker made the kick, we were Super Bowl champions. We lined up and Scott Norwood struck the ball pretty true; it flew off his foot into that balmy Florida night sky and up there it hung for what seemed like an inordinate amount of time--22 players on the field all turned to look and the ball fluttered (just an arm's length) to the right of the goal post. The New York Giants won the Super Bowl fair and square. Well, you can imagine the jubilation they experienced and the despair that we experienced. It stayed with me that night -- I couldn't sleep. When we got on the plane and as we were flying back I thought of a volume of English poetry that my mother had given me many years ago, and the one poem that I dredged up from deep in my subconscious is a quatrain by a long forgotten writer, unknown, about an old Scottish warrior in the 14th century and the lines were:

Fight on, my men Sir Andrew said,
A little I'm hurt, but not yet slain;
I'll just lie down and bleed awhile,
and then I'll rise and fight again.

We had our final team meeting the next day and I had that posted on our bulletin board. Our players looked at it. Some of them asked for a copy of it, and got it. I wish for you my final wish -- mechanical skills and the tools that it takes to rebuild whenever and as often as you need to repair broken dreams. I wish for you those tools and I wish for you then to be able to say, whether you are 21 or 65, the best is yet to come.



TUESDAY,  OCTOBER 17,  2023 - “There is no expedient to which men will not resort to avoid the real labor of thinking."  Sir Joshua Reynolds

***********  THIS PAST WEEKEND - WEEK TWENTY  (OF TWENTY-ONE) - IN THE CFL

FRIDAY

BC (12-5) 33  HAMILTON (8-9)  30

SASKATCHEWAN (7-10) 26 CALGARY (4-12) 19

SATURDAY

MONTREAL (10-7)  35 EDMONTON (4-13)  21

TORONTO  (14-2) 40     OTTAWA (4-13)  27 



*********** MY MUST-WATCH LIST  FROM THE PAST WEEKEND

THURSDAY NIGHT

WEST VIRGINIA AT HOUSTON - Wow.  WVU had the game wrapped up, with an out-of-nowhere 50-yard TD pass with 12 seconds left, to take a 39-35 lead.  But the Mountaineers were called for unsportsmanlike conduct - their QB, who’d had a hell of a night, committed the cardinal sin of taking his helmet off - and they wound up kicking off from their own 20. And that’s how, with the ball at midfield and three seconds left, the Cougar QB was able to launch one into the end zone that landed in the hands of one of his receivers, Houston 42, West Virginia 39.

Said WVU Coach Neal Brown afterwards:

“The celebration penalty after the last touchdown is kind of a microcosm to me of the game, we don’t get that celebration penalty, which is completely asinine for us to take our helmets off, I don’t understand it. They are going to give you the benefit of the doubt, they don’t really want to call that but if you take your helmet off its pretty clear and I don’t understand that and that gave them an opportunity to get into scoring position.”



FRIDAY NIGHT:

STANFORD AT COLORADO - With the score 29-0 at the half, we said the hell with it and went to bed. Stanford was sick. Dormant. Dead.  It was 11 or so (we’d watched some high school games, then started watching this one on DVR.  But as I  got ready to turn the light out, I happened to look at our family sports chat.  I knew people would be watching, and since they watch it live, and we’re a couple of hours behind, I try not to look at my phone. But this time, I did look, and one of my daughters had just texted “OT!!!!”  “Wait,” I said to myself. “She’s still watching it live.”  I turned on the TV, and damned if they weren’t  tossing the coin for overtime.  I woke my wife up, and we watched the finish, in amazement.

And then, the next day, we watched the second half.  By now you probably know that a Stanford receiver named Elic Ayomanor  had one hell of a second half at the expense of the Colorado  secondary.  They had no answer for him - not even the already-sainted Travis Hunter. For the night, he caught 13 passes for 295 yards and three TDs. One of the TDs was for 97 yards after faking a Colorado defender out of his shoes on a slant; another came in overtime when he seemed to play magician and pull the ball out from Hunter’s  shoulder pads. He’s a Canadian kid, from Medicine Hat, Alberta who went to prep school at Deerfield Academy, in Massachusetts.

Maybe you don’t know yet that Stanford’s QB, a kid named Ashton Daniels, from Buford, Georgia, went toe-to-toe with  the much-publicized Shedeur Sanders.  Daniels threw for 396 yards to Sanders’ 400, and “only”  four TDs to Sanders’ five.  But Daniels didn’t throw a single interception (in 45 attempts), while Sanders did throw one - an absolute killer.  It came  on third down, in the top of second OT, and instead of throwing the ball away so that Colorado could at  least settle for a field goal on fourth down, he  threw blindly to the backside, then had to  sit and watch as Stanford set up - and made - the winning  field goal.

One thing my wife and I couldn’t help noticing as we watched the comeback was the way the penalties on Colorado kept accumulating, until they  finished with 17 for 127.

Yeah, it was 29-0, Colorado,  at the half.  But it was 46-14, Stanford, in the second half.  The flip side of very great comeback is a monumental fold.

I actually heard that asswipe Mark Jones call  Deion Sanders “America’s coach.”



*********** SATURDAY EARLY:

NOT MANY INTERESTING GAMES IN THE FIRST ROUND

Georgia at Vanderbilt - BAD GAME
Indiana at Michigan - BAD GAME
Ohio State at Purdue  - BAD GAME
Syracuse at Florida State - BAD GAME

Arkansas at Alabama - CLOSER THAN BAMA EXPECTED (A 24-21 BAMA WIN) BAMA SCORED JUST 3 POINTS IN THE SECOND HALF, AND ARKANSAS MADE IT CLOSE

Michigan State at Rutgers - IN POURING RAIN, RUTGERS HAD TO SCORE THREE TDS IN THE FOURTH QUARTER TO PULL OUT THE WIN. THE ASBURY PARK PRESS CALLED IT “A comeback win that loyal fans who stayed will never forget”

Iowa State at Cincinnati - BAD GAME
Temple at North Texas - BAD GAME
Georgia Southern at James Madison - BAD GAME (JMU STILL UNBEATEN)
Kent State at Eastern Michigan - BAD GAME

SATURDAY MID-AFTERNOON - THINGS GET BETTER

Cal at Utah - BAD GAME

Oregon at Washington - I TOOK THE DUCKS AND THE 2.5 POINTS - THE HUSKIES WON BY THREE (MORE BELOW)

Texas A & M at Tennessee - 20-13, Tennessee.  Vols threw for only 100 yards, and they had 12 penalties for 115 yards, but  they’re now 5-1

Troy at Army - Troy 19, Army 0 - I really hate to use the word “sucked,” so I won’t, but… Gone is the quarterback under center. Gone is the big, powerful fullback and the ball control offense that opponents feared. In its place is a sluggish “offense” that against Troy averaged 3.7 yards per play, went 2 for 13 on third downs, and 1 for 5 on fourth downs. Army lost three fumbles.

Wake Forest at Virginia Tech - 30-13, Tech.  Deacs rushed for only 35 yards, could manage just three points in the second half

BYU at TCU - TCU wins a 44-11 stunner.

Iowa at Wisconsin - Iowa, 15-6, in a shocker.  As my friend (and loyal Hawkeyes fan) Brad Knight  wrote: “The Hawkeyes once again prove - you run the ball, you control the clock, you play good defense, you play good on special teams… you win games.”


SATURDAY LATE GAMES (THEY’RE ONLY 4- 4:30 ON THE WEST COAST)

A LOG JAM OF INTERESTING GAMES

Arizona at Washington State - Arizona, 44-6.  Wildcats’ QB Noah Fifita was 34/43 for 342 AND they rushed for 171.  Never saw this coming. Cougin’ it to the extreme. Washington State rushed for 35 yards. And they only passed for 199.

Auburn at LSU - 48-18, Tigers. LSU, that is.  “Good LSU” showed up.

Kansas State at Texas Tech - K-State, 38-21. Tech was favored.

Wyoming at Air Force - 34-27 Air Force. Zoomies are  really good - but so is Wyoming. The winning score came on a 58-yard run - a pitch at the end of a classic triple option play.  Quick- someone tell Army coach Jeff Monken  that you CAN still run the triple option. All you have to do is hire people who can coach  it. Oh, wait - it’s too late now.

USC at Notre Dame - 48-20, Irish.  This is the one game every year when I am sure  to root for Notre Dame.  ND showed the benefits of having played the tougher schedule and exposed the Trojans. Caleb Williams is plenty good, but he’s not good enough to carry this team, especially when he throws three interceptions. The Irish played a clean overall game - no interceptions, no fumbles lost, just 5 penalties for 54 yards. USC? The Trojans committed nine penalties and turned it over five times.

Miami at North Carolina - 41-31, Tar Heels. With UNC down, 17-14 at the half, Drake Maye threw three touchdown passes in the third quarter.

Missouri at Kentucky - Kentucky may have been killed (38-21) or may have committed suicide (14 penalties for 122 yards, two interceptions, on fumble lost, 14 of 27 passing). Hell of a way to convince  fans to donate money for NIL.

UCLA at Oregon State - Beavers, 36-24. The stats were fairly even, except for the three interceptions   thrown by UCLA QB Donte Moore. The Bruins gave up season highs in points and yards (415) and sacked the Beavers’ DU Uiagalelei just twice.

NC State at Duke - Duke, 24-3.  Playing without Riley Leonard, Duke gave up a field goal just two minutes into the game, then shut out the Wolfpack the rest of the way. And Henry Belin, in place of Riley,  threw only 12 times, and completed just four passes - but two of them were for touchdowns. Jordan Waters carried 13 times for 123 yards.


*********** At Army, Jeff Monken  appeared to have the program he wanted. 

In 2016, his third year at Army, he posted his first  winning record (8-5) and since then, he’s  gone 58-31.

Since 2016 he’s had just one losing season, going 5-8 in 2019.  He was 6-6 last year.

Since 2016,  Army teams have been competitive against anybody.   Once, they gave up 70 points to Wake Forest and Sam Hartman - but they scored 56 themselves.

Along the way, they’ve played some big-time teams and acquitted themselves well: Oklahoma (a 20-18 loss in 2 OT in 2018), Michigan (a 24-21 loss in 2 OT in 2019) and Wisconsin (a 20-14 loss in 2021).

The reason for their competitiveness?  Their offense - a  triple option that Monken learned when he assisted Paul Johnson, and then ran when he was head coach at Georgia Southern.

But somehow, for some reason, Monken  decided that it was time to change offenses. Why?  Publicly, he said it was because of recent rules changes prohibiting “cut blocking” (I hate the term) outside the free blocking zone.  He kept repeating it  to every member of the media who asked, and they lapped it up.  He said he was going to  go to a “shotgun option” attack. And they lapped it up.  Said it was still going to be option football - somewhat on the order of what Coastal Carolina has been running.  And they lapped it up.

Surely he knew he didn't have the personnel on hand to run that sort of offense.

Surely he knew that a shotgun attack wasn’t going to make recruiting easier. If anything, it would be tougher, because now, instead of recruiting the type of players who could thrive in Army’s triple option attack, players who in many cases were lightly recruited,  Army would have to go  after the same players that every other school in FBS (except Navy and Air Force) was recruiting.

Here would certainly come to the fore a BIG Army disadvantage: the five-year military service commitment required of every military academy graduate.  What kid nowadays, with  visions of an NFL career dancing in his head - the very sort  of kid Army would need for this new offense -  wants to deal with that?

Worse still - in this day of NIL and immediate transfer - the Army door swings just one way. NIL payments are forbidden.  But even if they were, to transfer IN to West Point, a student must start all over again, as a lowly plebe.  What kid would do that?  On the other hand, a cadet may transfer OUT of West Point before the start of his junior year without owing the American taxpayers anything , and it’s not hard to envision a case where Army manages to find, recruit and develop a very good player  who comes to the attention of other colleges with the NIL money to lure him away.

It’s too late to do anything now. The fat’s in the fire. The line is now being coached differently, and it shows.   I watch Air Force’s line, and then I watch Army’s, and the difference in speed, in toughness, in precision, is astonishing. Air Force’s offensive line pierces.  Army’s absorbs.

I started following Army closely some 25 years ago, when they really sucked,  and it angers me to see that it could be headed there once again.   To think that a coach - one entrusted with the welfare of the Army football program -  could be given free rein to proceed on a poorly thought-out and poorly executed scheme to “modernize” the offense that could end up destroying all the good things he’s done.

Imagine a general being given carte blanche to design and train his army as he wishes.



***********  A week ago, it was former Oregon coach Mario Cristobal.  With his Miami Hurricanes needing only to take a knee three times  to secure a win over Georgia Tech, he stood and  watched as they instead ran the ball - and fumbled.  And Tech recovered. And scored the winning touchdown.  It should be noted that no one in Oregon cried when he bailed for Miami, so poor was his game management here.

Thank God our coach isn’t that stupid, thought people all over the country.

Haha.  They've never  been to Oregon.

This past weekend, it was current Oregon coach Dan Lanning, Cristobal’s replacement if not his separated-at-birth twin brother, who had Oregon people wondering if there was something in the water out here.  If only Lanning  had been rushed to the nearest hospital at the first sign of a recurrence of his Fourth Down Fever.

If only. The Ducks might have beaten Washington, instead of losing to the Huskies by three points -  THREE POINTS! - for the second year in a row.

The first sign that the guy might need treatment came in last year’s  Washington game. Tied 34-34 and faced with a 4th and one with 1:31 left to play, Lanning WENT FOR IT!!! Wait - I deliberately withheld this - it was on Oregon’s OWN 34!!!

They didn’t make it.  And Washington - surprise! - went on to kick the field goal, and won, 37-34.

In Alabama they’d have killed him. Or in Columbus, Ohio.

But this was Eugene, Oregon.  Oregonians are generally kind, forgiving people.

“He’s young,” people  said. “He’s still learning.” “He’s learned his lesson.” “He’ll never make that mistake again.”   And so forth.

Of course he wouldn’t.  Not until two weeks later, against Oregon State.

This time, the Ducks led, 34-31.  There was 9:45 left on the game and  they faced a fourth-and-one, this time on their own 29.

Again, they failed.  The Beavers took over, drove 29 yards in a little over a minute, and took a 38-34 lead that they were able to hang onto the rest of the way.

“Hang his ass,” they’d have said in Tuscaloosa. “From a Buckeye tree,” they’d have said in Columbus.

But not in Eugene.

“He’s young,” people said. “He’s still learning.” “He’s learned his lesson.” “He’ll never make that mistake again.”   And so forth.

Nope, not until this year.  Not until Saturday, in Seattle.

Behind Washington 22-18, the Ducks had fourth and  goal from the three with six seconds left in the half.

Kick the field goal, right?  Take the points?

Wrong. Go for it.  And fail, and go off at the half, still down 22-18.

At halftime, when asked about it on the sideline, he said, almost boastfully,  “We’re an aggressive team.”  Yeah, I’m aggressive, too.  Watch me do this front  two-and-a-half off the Golden Gate Bridge.

One of the loons on the halftime studio show agreed with his thinking.  With the kind of offenses these two teams had, he said,  “this game isn’t going to be won by field goals.”

What a stupid thing to say.   It wasn’t going to be won by touchdowns, either. It was going to be won by POINTS, however you got them, and that coach’s mindless “aggressiveness” just left three  of those points out on the field.

Young? Still learning? Learned his lesson? Never make that mistake again?

Hah. Watch him.

Fast forward to 3:35 left in the third quarter.  Now, Oregon’s down, 29-18. It’s fourth and three, on the Washington eight-yard line.  Field goal?  Nah.  We’re an aggressive team.

They throw, incomplete.

But wait. That’s not all.

There’s 2:16 left in the game. Oregon now leads, 33-29.  It’s fourth-and-three on the Washington 47. Does anyone have to ask  whether Oregon will go for it?  Of course not. 

(“We’re an aggressive team,” remember?)

They do the aggressive thing and throw incomplete.

Starting at midfield, instead of 30 or forty yards farther away,  the Huskies need just two plays to score a touchdown, and after the extra point, they  lead, 36-33.   THREE POINTS.  (Anybody know where they  might  have come up with THREE POINTS along the way?)

The Ducks then drive until they get into reasonable  field goal range, but the kick is just wide, and  there you go - Bob’s your uncle. Washington wins by three for the second year in a row.

And when they enter the final score in the record book, Washington 37, Oregon 34, they’ll be sure to add,  after it, “Oregon was an aggressive team.”



*********** Was there a single college game on Saturday that could match that Giants-Bills game on Sunday night for sheer dullness and incompetence?


*********** Mosts and  firsts from this past weekend…

Stanford’s 29-point comeback against Colorado was  the biggest comeback in the school’s football history.  Stanford started playing football in 1891.

Army was shut out (by Troy, 19-0) for the first time since 2003.  That was the year every Army fan would like to consign to the memory pit - they year when the Todd Berry was fired midway through what turned out to be college football’s first (and still only) 0-13 season.



*********** TIMELESS ADVICE FROM WOODY HAYES

From his book, “FOOTBALL AT OHIO STATE” - By Woody Hayes,  1957

OFFENSIVE DRILLS

In the last war observers were impressed by the ability of the American youth to adapt himself to military life. However, there was one phase of the military life which that same youth disliked intensely  – over-emphasis on drills. The lack of regimentation in his home life, school life and everyday living conditioned him against excessive drilling. We mention this as a caution, for some of us coaches tend to over-formalize our practices for the sake of efficiency at the expense of the players’ initiative and spontaneity.   We have heard of some teams who were so drill-happy that the players mockingly soaped one another's back in the showers by “the numbers.“

However, we feel that considerable drilling of a team is an absolute necessity.  In order to achieve the desired ends without over-drilling we analyze our drills on the basis of the following criteria:

    1.    Does it simulate game conditions? We are not interested in merely developing stamina and the "body beautiful.” We want our players learning the techniques they'll need to know on Saturday afternoon

    2.    Does it fit into our plans of learning progression? We believe strongly in stressing "the first things first "– then go on from there.

    3.    Does it have a low injury expectancy? Any drill that has a high injury rate does not belong in the practice plan. Even with good equipment and the stressing of protective fundamentals we know that we will still have injuries, but with a controlled type of practice these can be kept to a minimum. A high injury rate in practice, except for the usual bumps and bruises, infers poor coaching.

    4.    Does it save time? This question is fundamental in the planning of practice for we are always "fighting the clock."

    5.    Does it stress the competitive side of football?  We must never lose sight of the competitive element in football for no youngster who is not competitive can play good football. Also, to the typical football player,  competition is insurance against boredom.

    6.    Does it "stack the deck" in favor of either the offense or the defense? In a controlled drill this is almost a necessity.

    7.    Does it overlap with other drills? To a degree this is good, but too much overlap means we are using too many drills.

    8.    Does the drill meet with the approval of the players? This isn't the whole answer but it is a strong indication of the worth of the drill.



*********** From Kerry Eggers’ interviews of former Oregon State  athletes on their views of the current state of OSU athletics.

CRAIG HANNEMAN, OSU football, 1968-70 (retired and living in Salem). He played four years in the NFL, two with the Steelers and twi with the Patriots, then had a long career in business and government, serving as President of the Oregon Forest Industries Council.  An avid outdoorsman, he is believed to be the only former NFL, NBA or MLB player ever to climb to the summit of Mt. Everest. In 2016, he was diagnosed with ALS, but three years later, at the age of 70, he completed the “Seven Summits,” climbing to the summits of the highest peaks in all seven continents

“It didn’t have to be this way. The Pac-12 poohbahs were asleep at the switch. Now it’s a free-for-all, with every man for itself. The realignment really stings. The Beavers and Cougars have been sentenced to oblivion as a result.

“Anyone who saw the Oregon State-Utah game will tell you the game, the crowd, the entire atmosphere was nothing short of electric — as much as any college game I played in or have attended. It’s unfathomable to think this is our last hurrah. I’m certified old-school. It’s hard to take when your alma mater is taking it in the shorts more than virtually any school in the country.

“There is blame to go around everywhere. It started with the NCAA hierarchy. The Pac-12 commissioner (Larry Scott) had a chance to salvage something from the wreckage a few years ago. His replacement (George Kliavkoff) was a failure. Lots of people didn’t do their jobs.

“What has made college football special from the beginning of time are the rivalries, the game-day activities, and all the excitement and enthusiasm that comes from that. To make that all subsidiary to TV dollars being dangled — that’s just short-sighted. Oregon playing Rutgers and Maryland — how does that make sense? We’ve given up all that made intercollegiate athletics great to be something else. Be careful what you wish for.

“As for the transfer portal, on some level it makes sense. If a kid isn’t getting playing time, I don’t blame him changing programs. But changing three or four times is not logical. Likewise with NIL. It’s overdue to give the kids some money. I just don’t know where you draw the line, and I don’t think it should be used for recruiting high school kids.”


***********   That quiz easy? Took me hours of research, sad to say. Never saw that man before.

If the Eggers interview with Terry Baker leaked one psi out of the tire, Rich Brooks let another two psi bleed out. Most of those who come to this site each week bemoan the state of college sports, but honestly, what's going on in football is particularly pernicious. How long before the tire's flat?

Every real man wants to wave the conductor's baton, pretend he's Bernstein. Jake there just had the courage to act on his passion. In fact, I heard he asked the band director about switching positions.

The star of today's page--for me--was "Ride for the Brand". It's applicable to football and every other job. I had to cut and paste.


John Vermillion                        
St Petersburg, Florida


*********** Hugh,

From a guy who knows first-hand how high school coaches should be paid after spending a few years in Texas:

Tom Herman shines a light on low pay for Florida high school coaches

https://footballscoop.com/news/tom-herman-shines-a-light-on-low-pay-for-florida-high-school-coaches

He better be careful what he wishes for.  If he sticks around at FAU and lands some of those coaches (with their really good players) his program will become a stopover for the greener pastures of the SEC, ACC, etc. and NIL pastures through the transfer portal.

ESPN and College Game Day will be in Seattle Saturday for the Washington-Oregon game. Hopefully they have a Plan B should those foreign policy know-it-alls on campus start trouble.  While I'm not thrilled cheering for either team I have to give the edge to the Huskies because I liked Kalen DeBoer when he was the HC at Fresno State prior to leaving for UW.

Some names for the Michigan State job:  Mike Elko, Kyle Whittingham, Dave Clawson, Lance Leipold, Bill O'Brien, Tom Herman, and of course Urban Meyer.

UCLA may have finally figured out how to play hard-nosed football.  They'll find out just how hard-nosed they are on Saturday.

Surprised SC is favored over the Irish.  The Trojan defense struggles, but then again, so does the Irish offense.  If THAT offense shows up again the ND defense will be on the field for most of the game and Caleb Williams will have a field day.


QUIZ:  Uh...what the hell is that guy's name??  Oh yeah...he's none other than Wayne Woodrow "Woody" Hayes the iconic and legendary former football coach of "the" Ohio State University.  "Woody" (as most called him) was likely the guy that whose picture you would find next to the word "Old School" regarding those of us coaches who still believe in running the football.

Enjoy the games and the weekend!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas

Joe,

I have to say that I really don’t think that at a time  when football’s very existence is being questioned by large numbers of people, they’re going to have a lot of success in Florida trying to get a lot more money for high school coaches by using the argument that coaches are leaving to go to Alabama, Georgia, Texas, etc.

Washington is a  rather  prosperous state, but our communities and their schools do not have the sort of resources that  could justify paying a high school coach a stipend on the order of what Herman is suggesting, say, $100,000.

Nor, I might add, are there many taxpayers in any state, no matter how much they love high school football,  that would support such stipends.

Outside of a few anomalous places where coaches are paid very, very well (with, I might add, the accompanying pressure),  I don’t know of any states where paying that kind of money to a high school football coach (certainly without equal raises for all other coaches) would pass muster.

In fact, I’m going to go out on a limb and say that for every coach that's threatening to leave Florida for more money in a handful of places in Alabama and Georgia  (not that many) there are dozens in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Connecticut, etc., etc. - just to pick some  rust belt states - who would love to  move to Florida, a state with nice weather, affordable housing, and NO INCOME TAX.

Herman should stick to coaching.  (1) He has no idea about the state of American education and its funding or its priorities;  (2) He is purely and simply pandering to high school coaches for his own selfish reasons;  (3) He has spent too much time in Texas.

PS - Mike Elko, Kyle Whittingham, Dave Clawson, Lance Leipold?  All very good coaches and very classy guys who already have good jobs and are appreciated where they are and - my opinion - wouldn’t  leave where they are to get involved in the mess at Michigan State (or Northwestern).




***********   QUIZ ANSWER  Although I’ve tried to make this one a bit less than obvious, I doubt that I’ve succeeded.  But just because Woody Hayes is one of the  most famous coaches of all time and that makes this quiz “too easy,”  that’s no reason not to include him among my hundreds of QUIZ subjects.

He was born Wayne Woodrow Hayes in Ohio and he was raised in Ohio. He played high school football in Newcomerstown, a  small town about 80 miles east of Columbus (and the same distance south of Akron) where his father was the school superintendent.

At Denison College, he played tackle, and following graduation he  got into high school coaching. After three years assisting  at two different high schools, he was named head coach at New Philadlephia, Ohio.  He coached there for three years and then, in July 1941, with World War II on the horizon, he enlisted in the Navy. He served for five years, and rose to the rank of Lieutenant Commander before his discharge.

In the meantime, his  college, Denison, setting about to restart its football program following the war, offered the head coaching job to its former coach. But he declined the school’s offer, and instead recommended our guy.  The problem was that Hayes  was still in the Navy, on board a ship, and Denison’s letter inviting him to interview  for the job took a month to reach him.  Somehow they kept the job open until he was able to interview (no Zoom then), and on his discharge, at the age of 33,  he had his first college head coaching job.

He went 2-6 in his first season at Denison, a result that convinced him then and there to make  that his teams were as hard and tough as he could make them. The approach - one  that would be his trademark for the rest of his career - worked, and over his next two seasons, Denison went 8-0 and 9-0, leading to his being offered the head coaching job at Miami of Ohio.

He spent two years at Miami, first going 5-4, and then going 9-1, including a bowl game win (the “Salad Bowl”) over Arizona State.  Miami has earned the name “Cradle of Coaches” for good reason: from that team alone, nine members went on to become college head coaches.

He would later become nationally-famous for his temper.  One example of it from his early days came after  the news that Miami (then the Redskins) had been invited to  play in the Salad Bowl.  A small group of coaches had gathered  in the tiny football office to celebrate. In the group was a  young first-year member of the staff named Ara Parseghian, a former Miami player who has played briefly  with the Cleveland Browns and had been hired by Miami to coach its freshman football and basketball teams. When our guy asked  if Parseghian would be included in the official bowl party, the AD (who also happened to be an assistant football coach) said  that wasn’t possible - that with football’s regular season over,  Parseghian’s duty now was to coach the freshman basketball team.

Pissed by the answer he got,  Hayes stormed out of the room - but not before delivering a vicious kick to a large cardboard box that had been sitting on the floor.

After a while, Hayes cooled off, returned to the office and apologized to the AD - his boss, but at the same time his assistant - but the damage had been done: inside the box was the Most Valuable Player trophy,  ready to be presented the next evening at the team’s post-season banquet. It had been shattered by the kick.

The next night, at the presentation, the audience was informed that the trophy, “hasn’t arrived yet.”

At that same time, one of the most prestigious - and pressure-packed - head coaching jobs in all of college football had come open, and after considerable speculation about who might get the job, he was hired. It was not a universally popular choice - there were several better-known and more experienced coaches in the running - but it proved to be a great hire.

In his 28 years as head coach  there, he won 205 games - second only to Amos Alonzo Stagg’s 232 (in 37 years) among all Big Ten coaches.  His teams won five national championships and 13 Big Ten championships.

He won seven different Coach of the Year awards, presented by different organizations.

He coached 58 All-Americans, including the only two-time Heisman Trophy winner.

Among his assistants who went on to coaching careers of their own were  Bill Arnsparger, Earl Bruce,  Lou Holtz,  Dick LeBeau, Bill Mallory, Glen Mason, John McVay, Gary Moeller,  Ara Parseghian,  Doyt Perry, John Pont and Bo Schembechler.

He valued education,  and for years taught classes at the school.  He was respected by members of the faculty,  both for the emphasis he placed on education among his players,  and for the respect he showed for them and for the school.  He was well-read, and was considered something of an expert on military history.

Woody Hayes’ coaching career came to a sad and abrupt end when he was fired after striking an opposing player during the 1978 Gator Bowl.
 


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING WOODY HAYES

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
BRAD KNIGHT - CLARINDA, IOWA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
JOE BREMER - WEST SENECA, NEW YORK
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS


 

***********   QUIZ:  He was born and raised in Durham, North Carolina and went to high school and college there.   His father  worked for a large tobacco company and his mother “oversaw  the household staff” of a prominent Durham lawyer.

When he was a little boy, there were occasions when he would accompany his mother to work, and the attorney would encourage the boy to look through  his art books and listen to classical music. By the  time the boy entered first grade, he was  familiar with the art of well-known masters.

He later described himself as “chubby and unathletic,” and to escape the taunts of bullies at school, he would find hiding places where he could go off by himself and sketch.

One day a teacher came upon him while he was  in one of his secluded  places and, fascinated by the youngster’s interest in art, told him that he himself was a body builder and  said  that it had not only made him stronger, but had improved his entire attitude toward life.  That chance meeting had an impact on our guy that would inspire him and affect the rest of his life.   By his senior year in high school, he was the captain of the football team and the state shot put champion. 

But his interest in art never dwindled.   With nearby Duke University and the University of North Carolina both closed to him by segregation, he chose to attend  North Carolina College (now North Carolina Central) in Durham on a full athletic scholarship, and major in art.

At UNCC, he was influenced by  an art instructor named Ed Wilson,  a sculptor who instructed Barnes to paint from his own life experiences. “He made me conscious of the fact that the artist who is useful to America is one who studies his own life and records it through the medium of art, manners and customs of his own experiences.”

Many of his experiences were related to sports.

He had an outstanding career at Central as an offensive lineman, and was taken in the 10th round in the 1960 NFL draft by the champion Baltimore Colts.  He was the last player  cut by the Colts, and was picked up immediately by the New York Titans of the brand-new American Football League. 

Unhappy in New York and  disillusioned by the death of a teammate, Howard Glenn,  under controversial circumstances, he asked for - and got - his release.   He signed  soon after with the Los Angeles Chargers as a member of their taxi squad, and moved with the team the next year to San Diego.

After injuries sidelined him in his second season in San  Diego, he was cut, then picked up by the Denver Broncos.

While with the Broncos, his teammates recognized his artistic talent by his practice of sketching things he saw on the field: “During a timeout you’ve got nothing to do – you’re not talking – you’re just trying to breathe, mostly. Nothing to take out that little pencil and write down what you saw. What I see when you pull.  The reaction of the defense to your movement.  The awareness of the lines within the movement.  The shape of the linemen. The body language a defensive lineman would occupy… his posture.  The awareness of the lines within the movement, the pattern within the lines, the rhythm of movement. A couple of notes to me would denote an action… an image that I could instantly recreate in my mind. Some of those notes have been made into paintings. Quite a few, really.”

From what he saw, he would create sketches.

As a result, he acquired the nickname “Big Rembrandt.”

But he also earned the ire of head coach Jack Faulkner,  who objected to his sketching during team meetings. (It had to be with a great sense of irony that years after our guy had been fined $100 for sketching during a meeting,  that sketch sold for $1,000.

He played two seasons with the Broncos, then signed with Saskatchewan in the CFL, but a fractured foot in an exhibition game ended his football career and he turned to his real love, art.

Shortly after his last game, he met New York Jets (formerly Titans) owner Sonny Werblin, who was impressed by him and his art, and paid for him to bring his paintings to New York where he would have some art critics evaluate the work.

The critics praised his work, and as a result, Werblin hired him - but  to paint, not to play -  telling him “you have more value to the country as an artist than as a football player.”

In 1966, his solo exhibition at the Grand Central Art Galleries was hosted by Werblin, and all of his paintings sold.

As black Americans gained more and more stature in American culture - sports, music and entertainment - so, too, did his fame as an artist grow.

In artistic terms, his work has been called neo-mannerist. It’s characterized by “elongated human figures,” “serpentine lines,” “clarity of line,” and distinctive color palettes” among others, and his style has been widely copied. 

His painting “The Sugar Shack” was used on the “Good Times” television series and on a 1976 Marvin Gaye album.
 
His 1987 work, “Fastbreak,” is  a painting of the World Champion Los Angeles Lakers basketball team that included Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, James Worthy, Kurt Rambis and Michael Cooper.

In 1996,  Carolina Panthers football team owners Jerry Richardson (a former Colts teammate) and his  wife commissioned him to create the large (7 feet by 14 feet) painting called “Victory in Overtime, ” which hangs in the owner’s suite in .
 
To commemorate its 50th anniversary in 1996, the NBA commissioned him to create a painting based on the theme, “Where we were, where we are, and where we are going.” The painting, “The Dream Unfolds” now hangs in the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts.  The first 50 prints  of a limited edition of lithographs went to members of the NBA’s 50th Anniversary All-Time Team.

In 2004 he was named America’s Best Painter of Sports by the American Sport Art Museum & Archives.

In 1961, he was 18 and on a field trip with a college art class to the recently-desegregated North Carolina Museum, and  he asked where there were “paintings by negro artists.”   He was told by the docent (guide), “Your people don’t express themselves that way.”

In 1979, he returned to that museum, but this time as a solo exhibitor.  The Governor oF North Carolina was in attendance.



FRIDAY,  OCTOBER 13,   2023 - “Good Intentions Never Override the Law.” Justice Rebecca Bradley, Wisconsin Supreme Court

***********  THIS COMING WEEKEND - WEEK TWENTY  (OF TWENTY-ONE) - IN THE CFL

FRIDAY

BC (11-5) AT  HAMILTON (8-8) 7 PM EASTERN

SASKATCHEWAN (6-10) AT CALGARY (4-11) 9:30 PM EASTERN

SATURDAY

MONTREAL (9-7)  AT  EDMONTON (4-12)  4 PM EASTERN

OTTAWA (4-12) AT   TORONTO  (13-2)



*********** IT COULDN’T HAVE BEEN  "MACTION" - I SAW FANS IN THE STANDS AT THESE MID-WEEK GAMES!

TUESDAY NIGHT:

LIBERTY HANDED JACKSONVILLE  STATE ITS FIRST LOSS - BIG CROWD

COASTAL CAROLINA FINALLY BEAT APPALACHIAN STATE AT APP STATE - EVEN BIGGER CROWD

WEDNESDAY NIGHT

NEW MEXICO STATE BEAT SAM HOUSTON - SAM HOUSTON HAS YET TO WIN IN FBS - FAIR CROWD

UTEP BEAT FIU ENDING ITS 6-FBS-GAME  LOSING STREAK AND WINNING ITS FIRST GAME EVER IN THE STATE OF FLORIDA (IT LOOKED AS IF SOMEBODY STOLE MIAMI’S HIDEOUS BLACK-WITH-GLOW-IN-THE-DARK-TRIM UNIFORMS AND GAVE FIU A GOOD DEAL) - FAIR CROWD


*********** MY MUST-WATCH LIST  FOR THE COMING WEEKEND

TONIGHT:

WEST VIRGINIA AT HOUSTON - West Virginia may well be the only Power 5 school whose coach (Dana Holgorsen) left it for a Group of 5 school (Houston).  Mountaineers are 6.5 point favorites.  Sure hope they beat ‘em a lot worse than that.

FRIDAY NIGHT:

STANFORD AT COLORADO - Buffs are 11.5 point favorites, and it could be a real blowout. Stanford’s really gonna love it next year in the ACC, when they’ll be playing Friday night games in Boston. or Blacksburg.  Or Durham.

SATURDAY EARLY:

We all know that TV controls college football (and its scheduling), so you’ll pardon my suspicion that some executive at ESPN or Fox must be marrying off his daughter at noon (Eastern) this Saturday, and he arranged with his buddies at other networks not to schedule any exciting games during that three-hour period so  guests wouldn’t be looking  at their phones during the festivities.  Don’t believe me?  Tell me which one of these is going to be a thriller:

Georgia at Vanderbilt
Indiana at Michigan
Ohio State at Purdue
Syracuse at Florida State
Arkansas at Alabama  (I have to watch to see if Bama QB Jalen Milroe continues to improve)
Michigan State at Rutgers
Iowa State at Cincinnati
Temple at North Texas
Georgia Southern at James Madison
Kent State at Eastern Michigan

SATURDAY MID-AFTERNOON - THINGS GET BETTER

Cal at Utah - Utah by 11-1/2.  Is Fernando Mendoza - a kid from Miami - Cal’s answer at QB? He was 21/32 for 207 and 2 TDs against Oregon State.
Oregon at Washington - This is OUR Texas-Oklahoma… OUR Georgia-Florida (well, most years)… OUR Ohio State-Michigan.  Washington is favored by 2.5.  I’ll take the Ducks and the points.
Texas A & M at Tennessee - Tennessee is favored by 3
Troy at Army - Can Army play two halves of a football game? Troy is favored by 4.5.  Army is 2-3 now, and of its  seven remaining games, will be favored in maybe two of them (UMass and maybe Holy Cross).
Wake Forest at Virginia Tech - The Deacons missed their chance to beat Clemson on Saturday
BYU at TCU - Surprise - the Cougars are 4-1!
Iowa at Wisconsin - Go Hawks! (Badgers are 10 point favorites.)

SATURDAY LATE GAMES (THEY’RE ONLY 4- 4:30 ON THE WEST COAST)

I’M NOT COMPLAINING, BUT -  A LOG JAM OF POTENTIALLY  INTERESTING GAMES

Arizona at Washington State - Cougars are 8.5 point favorites, but I’d like to see a running game.
Auburn at LSU - LSU is favored by 11.5. If they had a better defense I’d support that.
Kansas State at Texas Tech - Red Raiders are favored by 1.5.  I’m all in for K-State.
Wyoming at Air Force - Zoomies are 10.5 point favorites. They’re really good - but are they that good???
USC at Notre Dame - Irish are 2.5 point favorites.  I think they should be. They’re better than the  teams - Arizona State, Colorado, Arizona - that have been playing the Trojans even.
Miami at North Carolina - Tar Heels should be 3.5 point favorites on coaching alone.
Missouri at Kentucky - Both teams lost for the first time last week
UCLA at Oregon State - This will be a battle. UCLA really shut down Washington State last week.
NC State at Duke - Playing without Riley Leonard, and Duke’s favored by 3.5?  Really?



SATURDAY’S  TOP 16
No. 1 Georgia at Vanderbilt
Indiana at No. 2 Michigan
No. 3 Ohio State at Purdue
Syracuse at No. 4 Florida State
No. 5 Oklahoma is idle.
No. 8 Oregon at No. 6 Washington
Massachusetts at No. 7 Penn State
No. 9 Texas is idle.
No. 10 USC at Notre Dame
Arkansas at No. 11 Alabama
Miami (FL) at No. 12 North Carolina
No. 13 Louisville at Pittsburgh
No. 14 Ole Miss is idle.
UCLA at No. 15 Oregon State
Texas A&M at No. 16 Tennessee


*********** Is it possible that starting its season a week early - and in Ireland at that - could have had something to do with some of the weird stuff that’s happened at Notre Dame?  Let’s not kid ourselves - there’s no good football reason for doing that.


*********** The list of coaches who would NOT do this after a game is lo-o-o-o-ong.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6AN6gCv2kk



*********** Saw a hat at the Wyoming game  Saturday night that read “RIDE FOR THE BRAND.”  Got to get me one.

If you’re not aware of the expression, it’s from a poem by the same title, by Red Steagall.

I came across it in a book called “Cowboy Ethics,” by James P. Owen.  It was recommended to me by a friend, a retired Army general, as the sort of book young boys should read.
 
The poem’s in the words of an old cowboy named Jake, breaking in a new guy by letting him know about the cowboy’s unwritten code of ethics - “how things are done out here.”

“Son, a man's brand is his own special mark,
It says “This is mine, leave it alone.”
You hire out to a man, ride for his brand
And protect it like it was your own.”

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=red+steagall+rode+fro+the+brand#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:3805ab7d,vid:GhkjWiasByA,st:0

“Ride for the brand,” as author Owen writes, means “once a cowboy tossed his bedroll into an outfit’s wagon, he was obliged to put its needs ahead of his own. Any personal hardships or complaints were to be swallowed the same way he swallowed his coffee. His loyalty came through in his unstinting hard work, his cheerfulness, and his fervent defense of the outfit against any harm or slur.”

There’s a lot that football coaches - and players - can take  from the concept of “riding for the brand”: it’s a  total commitment to the outfit you work for, to do whatever has to be done. It’s a commitment to defend the outfit’s interests, and it’s a commitment to get along with and work with all the other ranch hands, regardless of any personal differences you might have.”

Here’s another version:

Ride for the Brand

by Paul Harwitz
 
The dismounted young cowboy asked the old hand,
“What does it mean when they say ‘Ride for the brand’?”
The grizzled old-timer’s age seemed to drop years,
And he sat straight up in the saddle as he surveyed the steers.

“It means a lot of different things, son.
It has a lot to do with what’s lost and what’s won.
I ain’t talking about gambling, but earning a living,
Hard work, trust, respect, taking, and giving.

“It means you don’t never foul up the land,
And you don’t take unfair advantage or rob.
You work hard, even when the work’s rough as a cob.
That’s part of what it means to ride for the brand.

“It means you help your neighbors and your friends,
And you help even strangers just passing through.
It means you hire on a hungry saddle-tramp
Who needs a place to winter past the cold and damp.

“It means you don’t let the poor folks go hungry
Just ’cause they’re down and short on grub and luck.
And it means that you don’t work just for a buck,
But ’cause you need work like water’s needed by a tree.

“It means you can be trusted, and that you trust each pard,
To do the chores that are needed, no matter how hard,
‘Cause you’re all riding for the same outfit,
And you’re all striving together to benefit it.

“It means you keep searching for that one last stray,
Even though it’s the end of the day,
Even though you’d rather stop and go to town.
It means you don’t lay your responsibility down.”

“It means you give an honest day’s work for an honest day’s wage,
Whether you’re in the corral or out riding the range.
Every job’s important, and there ain’t none that ain’t.
It’s not the cowboy way to quit though it’d be easier to say ‘I cain’t.’

“It means you’ll not complain when you help dig a well,
Nor even have to be asked to spell a tired cowpoke who’s stove-up.
It means you’ll work with others as well as you’ll work alone,
And that even when you’re tired to the bone, you’ll cowboy-up.

“That’s what it means, that, and a whole lot more.
It means that you’ve got pride in yourself, your job, and the land.
So saddle-up. Toughen-up. Cowboy-up. Be a man.
Ride for the brand."

*********** Bob Wagner died recently. 

In 1987, he succeeded Dick Tomey as head coach at Hawaii.

He didn’t do too bad, all things considered - in nine years, from 1987 through 1995, he was 58-49-3.

But beyond what he did at Hawaii, he made a great contribution  to our game.

When he arrived in Hawaii in 1987, he brought with him two guys as coordinators.

To run his defense, he brought in Rich Ellerson. Ellerson left after five years  to run the defense for Tomey, his college coach, who was now at Arizona.  There, given the name “Desert Swarm,” it became one of the nation’s best defenses against the rush.

To run his offense, Wagner hired a  southerner named Paul Johnson, whose unique version of the triple option - helped by a QB named Tracy Ham - had helped Georgia Southern win back-to-back Division I-AA (now FCS) national championships.

After the 1994 season, Johnson left to join Charlie Weatherbie’s staff at Navy as offensive coordinantor, and after two years at Annapolis, he was back at Georgia Southern, this time as its head coach.


*********** Mark Stoops was certainly right when he acknowledged after Saturday’s game (a 51-13 loss to Georgia) that Georgia had better players.

And he was probably right when he attributed that to the fact that Georgia paid their players more.

But  then he had to  go and blame the loss on the fans - see, they weren’t contributing enough  to the NIL collective, so how was he supposed to buy better players?  Time to “pony up,” he told the fan base.

Now, if I had been there, and he’d told me what he was about  to say, I’d have said, “Coach - Hold off.  Don’t throw the fans under the bus.  You’ve got to understand - this is Kentucky.  They’re not cheap. They’ve been buying basketball players for years.  They just don’t understand that now they’re expected to do it for football, too.”

But I didn’t get to him in time, and so he went ahead and spoke, and afterwards  Blake Toppmeyer of the Lousville Courier-Journal  got on his ass good:

College football coaches know no shame when asking fans for more money.

Coaches, and to a greater extent athletics directors, have long doubled as glorified panhandlers. They’d convince donors that State U’s poor team couldn’t possibly compete with the fellas from Rival U unless the fat cats ponied up to fund facilities that challenged the Taj Mahal as a wonder of the world.


Now, at least, the panhandling extends to milking donors to bankroll the players behind this lucrative enterprise.

“No excuses,” Stoops said repeatedly during his radio show.

Then, Stoops played the pauper and held out his hand.

https://www.courier-journal.com/story/sports/college/kentucky/2023/10/11/mark-stoops-kentucky-football-score-georgia-bulldogs-nil-collective/71110254007/



*********** Tsk, tsk.  NHL players will not be permitted to use rainbow  (you know - “Pride”) tape on their sticks.


*********** Here’s how I knew he was lying…

“You have my word as a Biden.”


***********  If there’s one good thing about the Hamas attack on Israel, it’s that an awful lot of rocks have been turned over and a lot of the “enemies within” are  crawling out from under. They’re not all “migrants,” either - no, sir.   A great many of them are Americans born and raised,  living privileged existences in this nation that they seem hell-bent on  destroying.  (And is it just me, or are most of them white females?)



*********** From  the National Football Federation…

Four College Football Programs Launched in 2023

Arkansas Baptist College (Little Rock, AR): NAIA, Sooner Athletic Conference (2023)

Eastern University (St. Davids, PA): NCAA Division III, Middle Atlantic Conference (2023)

John Melvin University (Crowley, LA):  Gulf-Atlantic Christian Athletic Alliance (2023)

Thomas University (Thomasville, GA): NAIA, Sun Conference (2023)


Six College Football Programs Launching in 2024

 Anderson University (Anderson, SC): NCAA Division II, South Atlantic Conference (2024)

Calvin University (Grand Rapids, MI): NCAA Division III, Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (2024)

Centenary College of Louisiana (Shreveport, LA): NCAA Division III, Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (2024)

New England College (Henniker, NH): NCAA Division III, Great Northeast Athletic Conference (2024)

Simpson University (Redding, CA): NAIA, California Pacific Conference (2024)

William Woods University (Fulton, MO): NAIA, Heart of America Athletic Conference (2024)

 
Five College Football Programs Launching in Future Seasons


Maine Maritime Academy (Castine, ME): NCAA Division III, Commonwealth Coast Conference (2025)

Roanoke College (Salem, VA): NCAA Division III, Old Dominion Athletic Conference (2024 Club, 2025 Varsity)

Schreiner University (Kerrville, TX): NCAA Division III, Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (2025)

University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (Rio Grande Valley, TX): NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision, United Athletic Football Conference (2025)

West Virginia University Institute of Technology (Beckley, WV): NAIA, Conference TBD (Date TBD)



************ Kerry Eggers was a young reporter when I first arrived in the Northwest, and over the years we’ve crossed paths. To show how many years we’ve known each other, when he retired a few years ago he had become the dean of Oregon sportswriters. His dad was long the sports information director at Oregon State, so it’s fair to say he is a Beaver born, and he has strong feelings about  what’s been happening to them.  Now writing a very interesting blog (subscription), he was able to reach a nice cross-section of former Oregon State - and also Oregon - athletes to get their reactions to what’s going on. Alphabetically, the very first one was Terry Baker, who played baseball, basketball and football at OSU, and has the distinction of being the first Heisman Trophy winner from the West Coast, and also of being the only man to play in a Final Four and also in a Rose Bowl.

Another interviewee was Rich Brooks, who played football at Oregon State (1961-1963), coached there  on Tommy Prothro’s staff (1965-1969), then served as head coach at rival Oregon from 1977 through 1994. (For what it’s worth, at Oregon he was 14-3-1 in Civil War games against his old school.)

“USC and UCLA probably did what was best for them, but it definitely wasn’t in the best interest of West Coast football. And eventually, Oregon and Washington were in lockstep on that deal. Do I like it? No. We’re talking 100 years of a conference going away. I don’t like that at all.

“When I played at Oregon State, we were not in a league. We were an independent. They had kicked us out (of the Pacific Coast Conference) along with Oregon and Washington State. The finances didn’t work for the California schools and the Huskies. When we got back in, they put a $75,000 (payout) limit on a visiting team. Sometimes that wasn’t even the gate. It was about money that time, and it’s about money this time.

“I don’t believe travel (in the Big Ten) will be a problem for Oregon in football, but it certainly is for every other sport. Multiple connections, cancelled flights, more missed class time — I don’t think it’s been thought through very well. Quite honestly, how could the Pac-12 leadership -- the presidents and commissioners — allow this to happen? It makes no sense. It was arrogance, or lack of understanding, or lack of commitment to studying the problems. It’s inexcusable that it came to this.

“I was surprised when Stanford and Cal left. But remember, Cal is getting (state of California) money from UCLA for splitting to the Big Ten. But their move to the ACC, it was panic. 

“College athletics is a different animal than when I was coaching. It’s unlike anything I would have envisioned. It’s probably not very far off before the IRS starts taxing college scholarships, because let’s face it, they are no longer amateur athletes. They’re getting paid. The whole can of worms has been opened. I don’t know how they put the lid on it or regulate it.

“And it’s different in every state. The NCAA has no control over NIL money. You can imagine all the shady deals going on. Unless there is some enforcement, you’re going to see a lot of poaching players from Oregon State and Washington State. The rich will get richer; the poor will get poorer.

“I would think there will be everything done humanly possible to continue Oregon-Oregon State and Washington-Washington State games. But financially, the new world is not great for (the Beavers and Cougars). Hopefully, they will stick together. But I think it’s going to be very hard to maintain the level of athletic excellence and the number of sports that those two schools have. They will be dealing with less revenue. I don’t know if there is a way out of this.” 

***********   From POWER T FOOTBALL, by Dee Andros and Red Smith

DEVELOPING A STRONG POWER-T RUNNING GAME

In the establishment of any type of offense, there are many basic principles that must be considered. At Oregon State, we feel that any type of running game must take into consideration the available personnel. It should be simple, as it is not what the coaches know but rather what the personnel is capable of doing on Saturday afternoon that is important. The running game must also have balance, be flexible, and remain consistent.

The personnel factor is somewhat easier for us than for high school coaches, as we can recruit personnel to fit into our general offensive thinking.

The matter of simplicity is not always easily handled, since all of us tend to forget that what is elementary to us as a staff with a number of years’ experience in the game is not always simple to the young men we coach. So, we are constantly on our guard against putting in more offense than our players can adequately handle. We would prefer to eliminate plays from our offense rather than add them, if by adding a play we would create confusion.

The next consideration in establishing our running attack is that of consistency. In actuality, proper evaluation of our personnel and keeping to the KISS principle (keep it simple, stupid), does much toward establishing our consistency.  We feel that with these principles and the elimination of penalties, broken plays, and mental mistakes, we are on the road to a consistent running game

While defense in general is the act of hit and react, offense must be the aggressor, forcing the defense to make mistakes and taking advantage of these errors. To accomplish this, our offense must have consistency and flexibility. Our basic offense is geared to a hard-hitting fullback attack which will hit from tackle to tackle, forcing the defense to stop our inside running game. Our fullback attack gives our offense its consistency with its belly and power series. Once we have forced the defense to adjust and stop our inside fullback attack, we can then get outside, trap, and pass effectively, giving us a measure of flexibility. This flexibility is enhanced by the use of several offensive sets. We feel the use of multiple sets, with selected plays from each set, will help keep our opponents somewhat off-balance. If each set forces an adjustment from the defense, no matter how small, the opportunity for creating confusion is present.  How many times have you spent valuable practice time working against several of your opponents’ sets and corresponding plays only to have them concentrate on one or two sets in your game? We feel that our use of multiple sets forces opponents to divide their practice time too thin.

We also feel that to maintain momentum and consistency, the element of surprise cannot be overlooked. With present-day defenses being so well prepared, it is almost impossible to use the same approach every week without one or two wrinkles to throw opponents off-balance. This is not meant to suggest that you add several plays each week; rather it may be a simple blocking adjustment, one or two specific plays designed to exploit a defensive weakness or to give a new look to something you have been doing. We feel this puts pressure on opponents’ defensive planning and strategy, to take into consideration what you might do as well as what you have actually done in your previous games.

In setting up our offensive battle plan for opponents, we stress balance by planning to throw our offensive strength against our opponents weaknesses, forcing them to play our game. We do not intend to be forced to play their game. We wish to establish our momentum early and keep it going – this requires balance. This balance is not only in terms of runs versus passes, but also in terms of inside and outside plays, power, and running.

***********   Mike Curtis died here in St Pete three years ago. I'm sure your family liked him for having played at Duke. I would like to have seen the smiling # 21 being driven to the turf. In many jurisdictions today, Mike Curtis would be standing trial for using excessive force. Or, in legal language, he had no standing to bring 21 down because he wasn't being directly threatened by the drunkard. Good for Mikey.

Terry Baker, a man to admire and listen to, sums up the plight of college sports. Where are the leaders? Maybe OSU's new AD should broaden his appeal for you.

Anyone succeeded in removing "Indigenous People's Day" from whatever calendar comes with an iPhone? I've tried.

John Vermillion                
St Petersburg, Florida



***********   Hugh,

Still Columbus Day in this household, AND Italian Heritage Month as far as I'm concerned.

Trifecta again!  Only this trifecta had all three of my teams on the losing end.

First, last Saturday Notre Dame maintained its image of being a contender to that of a pretender in the last few years.  Not sure what team that was in Louisville but it certainly wasn't the same team that went toe-to-toe with Ohio State.  Actually...it was the same team that gave the game to Ohio State in the last few minutes.  Only this time it was for almost an entire game.  Kudos to Louisville.  They outplayed the Irish, and outcoached them.  For Notre Dame they still have a couple of chances to redeem themselves.  This week vs. USC, and Clemson in a couple of weeks.  Winning out would get them to a decent bowl game.

I did say that Wyoming would be a real test for Fresno State in Laramie.  It was, and the Bulldogs failed the test.  Fresno still has a shot at the MWC championship though.

Finally...Minnesota...they better replace the oars and find an engine for that boat.

Coach Madden was correct!

Have a good week!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas

 
 



*********** QUIZ ANSWER:   The son of a Greek immigrant,  Dee Andros grew up in Oklahoma City.  His given first name was Demosthenes - although he never went by that name - and his family name was Andrecopoulos, which came to be shortened. 

He saw combat with the Marines in World War II and was on the scene at Iwo Jima when the flag was raised there. He was awarded the Bronze Star.

Following the War,  he played guard at Oklahoma for the legendary Bud Wilkinson. His older brother, Plato, was a teammate at Oklahoma for one year, and went on to play four years in the NFL.

He passed up pro football to get into coaching. After graduating from Oklahoma, he worked as an assistant first at Oklahoma, then at Kansas, Texas Tech, Nebraska, California and Illinois.

His first head coaching job was at Idaho, where in 1963 he led the Vandals to their first winning season in 25 years.

In 1965, he succeeded Tommy Prothro as head coach at Oregon State. Prothro had taken the Beavers to the Rose Bowl, then left to take the UCLA job.

His best team was his 1967 squad, which went 7-2-1 and earned the nickname “Giant Killers”  after beating #2 Purdue, tying the next #2 UCLA, and beating #1 USC and O.J. Simpson.  They wound up ranked #7 nationally.  The next season, they were 7-3 and ranked 16th nationally, but because of conference rules at the time, they didn’t go to a bowl game either year,

He never did get to coach in a bowl game.  The conference (then the Pac-8) permitted only one team - the champion - to go to a bowl game - the Rose Bowl.

Rather stout,  he often wore an orange jacket at games, which earned him one of sports’ great nicknames.  In1966, after Oregon State defeated Washington State on Hallowe’en night,  a Spokane sportswriter dubbed him “The Great Pumpkin,” a nickname that stayed with him for the rest of his career.

In 11 years at Oregon State,  he was 51-64-1.  But in the Good Old Days, back  when rivalries still mattered, he was 9-2 against the Oregon Ducks in the Civil War (and it was still okay to call it that).

Dee Andros’ book, “Power T Football,” goes into great detail in explaining his offense, which depended on a powerful running game built around big, tough kids from the farms and forests of the Northwest. 

After retirement as a coach, he served as athletic director  for ten years, until his retirement in 1985, and even after that he worked at raising money for the Oregon State athletic department.



CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING DEE ANDROS

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
BRAD KNIGHT - CLARINDA, IOWA
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY
 




***********   QUIZ:  Although I’ve tried to make this one a bit less than obvious, I doubt that I’ve succeeded.  But just because he’s one of the  most famous coaches of all time and that makes this quiz “too easy,”  that’s no reason not to include him among my hundreds of QUIZ subjects.

He was born and raised in Ohio. He played high school football in Newcomerstown, a  small town about 80 miles east of Columbus (and the same distance south of Akron) where his father was the school superintendent.

At Denison College, he played tackle, and following graduation he  got into high school coaching. After three years assisting  at two different high schools, he was named head coach at New Philadlephia, Ohio.  He coached there for three years and then, in July 1941, with World War II on the horizon, he enlisted in the Navy. He served for five years, and rose to the rank of Lieutenant Commander before his discharge.

In the meantime, his  college, Denison, setting about to restart its football program following the war, offered the head coaching job to its former coach. But he declined the school’s offer, and instead recommended our guy.  The problem was that our guy was still in the Navy, on board a ship, and Denison’s letter inviting him to interview  for the job took a month to reach him.  Somehow they kept the job open until he was able to interview (no Zoom then), and on his discharge, at the age of 33,  he had his first college head coaching job.

He went 2-6 in his first season at Denison, a result that convinced him then and there to make  that his teams were as hard and tough as he could make them. The approach - one  that would be his trademark for the rest of his career - worked, and over his next two seasons, Denison went 8-0 and 9-0, leading to his being offered the head coaching job at Miami of Ohio.

He spent two years at Miami, first going 5-4, and then going 9-1, including a bowl game win (the “Salad Bowl”) over Arizona State.  Miami has earned the name “Cradle of Coaches” for good reason: from that team alone, nine members went on to become college head coaches.

He would later become nationally-famous for his temper.  One example of it from his early days came after  the news that Miami (then the Redskins) had been invited to  play in the Salad Bowl.  A small group of coaches had gathered  in the tiny football office to celebrate. In the group was a  young first-year member of the staff named Ara Parseghian, a former Miami player who has played briefly  with the Cleveland Browns and had been hired by Miami to coach its freshman football and basketball teams. When our guy asked  if Parseghian would be included in the official bowl party, the AD (who also happened to be an assistant football coach) said  that wasn’t possible - that with football’s regular season over,  Parseghian’s duty now was to coach the freshman basketball team.

Pissed by the answer he got,  our guy stormed out of the room - but not before delivering a vicious kick to a large cardboard box that had been sitting on the floor.

After a while, our guy cooled off, returned to the office and apologized to the AD - his boss, but at the same time his assistant - but the damage had been done: inside the box was the Most Valuable Player trophy,  ready to be presented the next evening at the team’s post-season banquet. It had been shattered by the kick.

The next night, at the presentation, the audience was informed that the trophy, “hasn’t arrived yet.”

At that same time, one of the most prestigious - and pressure-packed - head coaching jobs in all of college football had come open, and after considerable speculation about who might get the job, he was hired. It was not a universally popular choice - there were several better-known and more experienced coaches in the running - but it proved to be a great hire.

In his 28 years as head coach  there, he won 205 games - second only to Amos Alonzo Stagg’s 232 (in 37 years) among all Big Ten coaches.  His teams won five national championships and 13 Big Ten championships.

He won seven different Coach of the Year awards, presented by different organizations.

He coached 58 All-Americans, including the only two-time Heisman Trophy winner.

Among his assistants who went on to coaching careers of their own were  Bill Arnsparger, Earl Bruce,  Lou Holtz,  Dick LeBeau, Bill Mallory, Glen Mason, John McVay, Gary Moeller,  Ara Parseghian,  Doyt Perry, John Pont and Bo Schembechler.

He valued education,  and for years taught classes at the school.  He was respected by members of the faculty,  both for the emphasis he placed on education among his players,  and for the respect he showed for them and for the school.  He was well-read, and was considered something of an expert on military history.

His coaching career came to a sad and abrupt end when he was fired after striking an opposing player during the 1978 Gator Bowl.
 





TUESDAY,  OCTOBER 10,  2023 - “The most insidious power the press has is the power to ignore.” Chris Plante


***********  My wife went by our Credit Union today and saw a sign on the door saying that it was closed because it was “Indigenous Peoples Day.”

So I guess it's Good-bye, Columbus.    500 years was a pretty good run.

There goes a damn good limerick:  "In fourteen ninety-two, indigenous people sailed the blue" just doesn't get it.


***********  THIS PAST WEEKEND - WEEK NINETEEN  (OF TWENTY-ONE) - IN THE CFL

FRIDAY

TORONTO  (13-2)  35, EDMONTON (4-12)  12

WINNIPEG (12-4)  34,   BC (11-5)  26


SATURDAY

HAMILTON (8-8) 38   SASKATCHEWAN (6-10) 13


MONDAY

MONTREAL (9-7)  29, OTTAWA (4-12) 3 



***********
5 PM Saturday in the Wyatt house





*********** IN MEMORIAM

Eight FBS Teams lost for the first time this season

Fresno State (Lost 24-19 to Wyoming)
Kentucky (Lost 51-13 to Georgia)
Marshall (Lost 48-41 to NC State)
Maryland (Lost 37-17 to Ohio State)
Miami (Lost 23-20 to Georgia Tech)
Missouri (Lost 49-39 to LSU)
Texas (Lost 34-30 to Oklahoma)
Washington State (Lost 25-17 to UCLA)

It was unusual for that many previously unbeaten teams to lose this far into the season, but that’s mainly because it was unusual for there to be that many unbeaten teams at this point


***********   This past Saturday’s Best games (my opinion only)

OU 34, Texas 30
USC 43, Arizona 41
Louisville 33, Notre Dame 20 - Mainly for the shock effect
Alabama 26, Texas A & M 20
UCLA 25, Washington State 17
Oregon State 52, Cal 40 - Hey - It’s the Beavers
Ole Miss 27, Arkansas 20
Georgia Tech 23, Miami 20
LSU 49, Missouri 39 - It was closer than the score
Wyoming 24, Fresno State 19
BC 27, Army 24 - Army is 2-3; they’d be 4-1  with that old-fashioned flexbone
Colorado 27, Arizona State 24 - Buffs are now 3-2
Navy 27, North Texas 24 - Mids keep improving
Clemson 17, Wake Forest 12
Northwestern 23, Howard 20 - A Big Ten team beat an FCS team by three points!




*********** NEXT SATURDAY’S  TOP 16

No. 1 Georgia at Vanderbilt
Indiana at No. 2 Michigan
No. 3 Ohio State at Purdue
Syracuse at No. 4 Florida State
No. 5 Oklahoma is idle.
No. 8 Oregon at No. 6 Washington
Massachusetts at No. 7 Penn State
No. 9 Texas is idle.
No. 10 USC at Notre Dame
Arkansas at No. 11 Alabama
Miami (FL) at No. 12 North Carolina
No. 13 Louisville at Pittsburgh
No. 14 Ole Miss is idle.
UCLA at No. 15 Oregon State
Texas A&M at No. 16 Tennessee


*********** Iowa beat Purdue, 20-14. Can’t say the Hawkeyes really opened it up. They competed six of 21 passes for 110 yards.  They were  3/13 on third downs.

Brian Ferentz is now 19 points off the 25-points-per-game pace needed to renew his contrast.  In six games, the Hawkeyes have scored 131 points.  He should be at 150.  He does have a few weakies coming up in Northwestern and Illinois, but Rutgers isn’t that easy, and the border rivals - Wisconsin, Minnesota and Nebraska - will be tough. 

If I were a betting man, I’d say hell be  coaching someplace else this time next year.

See what a stupid distraction you guys have created with that stupid contract? People  like me shouldn’t be writing stuff like this poking  fun at your program!


*********** The  rules people and the officials blew their chance to do something about the climbing  kneepads.  They identified it as a problem several years ago, but they  did nothing to enforce the rules, and now it’s too late.

Now, shorter and shorter football pants have become accepted game attire, and young kids who’ve seen them long enough that they consider them normal and want to wear them are going to resist anything they see as forcing them to revert to “old school.”

As a result, coaches, reluctant to become known as hardasses, will have little choice but to give in - to accede to players’ sartorial preferences.

Not that this will be the end of it. It never is.  Once you give in, they always want more.  The old French expression is, “Appetite  comes from eating.”

Next?  Speedos.  TV will love it.


*********** There’s way too much interference with our right to speech these days, but there are times and places  for speech police, and Saturday’s College Football Game Day was one of them.

Saturday’s featured game was Oklahoma-Texas, and the site of Game Day was Dallas.

So who the hell let that  cretin with a crudely lettered sign reading  “NEBRASKA IS A VOLLEYBALL SCHOOL” stay up front for the entire show?


*********** Too many QB slides are resulting in penalties, many of them highly questionable,  against defenders.  Quarterbacks  have enough protection  when they’re behind the line.

Once they cross that line of scrimmage, though, they are simply  runners, without  any special protection or escape hatches.  From that point, they must  become FOOTBALL players and be treated as such, and any slide or attempt at one should result in the ball being returned to the original line of scrimmage.


*********** Colorado at Arizona State was a good game - by both teams - and if Deion isn’t that great a coach (who knows?), his son Shedeur is a pretty  doggone good quarterback.  Heck of an ending - ASU ties it up with a 15-yard pass with 50 seconds to go, and the Buffaloes come right back and win on a 43-yard field goal with :12 on the  clock.


***********  Does Marcus Freeman have a death wish?

Look, I like the guy, but  two weeks ago, they lost to Ohio State on the famous “ten man” play, and on Saturday night, against Louisville,  he topped that.

Down 24-13  with 9:49  to play and on Notre Dame’s own 35, he elected to go for it on 4th and 11. Let me provide some homemade analytics, at no charge:

    FIRST DOWN: Tunnel screen is complete but receiver slips. Loss of a yard
    SECOND DOWN: Irish QB pressured, throws ball away, narrowly avoids intentional grounding penalty
    THIRD DOWN: The TE, ND’s most reliable receiver, is tightly covered and pass is broken up
    WHAT MY ANALYTICS SAID ABOUT GOING FOR IT:  What are you, f—king crazy?  

    (But as you know, he doesn’t listen to me, so he went ahead and went for it.)

    FOURTH DOWN: Chased back from the pocket, QB throws off balance, pass  is incomplete, ball almost intercepted.

Notre Dame people have long memories.  I don’t think Coach Freeman will live this one down.

Look - maybe you do that with four or five minutes to go.  Maybe.

But with nearly ten minutes left, and no indication that the offense was capable of making 11 yards at that point?  It was abject surrender.   How do you explain that?

Wrote Pete Sampson in The Athletic,  “the talent gap between Freeman and Louisville coach Jeff Brohm became a canyon seen on national television.”

Actually I don’t call it a talent gap.  I have no doubt that Marcus Freeman is talented. And bright. Very simply, it’s an experience gap. Jeff Brohm is a highly experienced head coach, and Marcus Freeman is a  coach-in-training.  There’s only one way a coach gets that invaluable experience - as a head coach.  I hope that somehow Marcus Freeman can weather what’s ahead - a win over USC next week wouldn’t hurt - but the next time Notre Dame considers a coach, however likable he may be,  however  good a man he may be, he’d better be someone who’s already been a head coach someplace.


***********  The more they pay  college head coaches, the less responsibility, it seems, they’re willing to take.

See, they’re big shots now - they’re CEOs  - and they have other people (“coordinators,” they call them) who are  paid well  to take responsibility.

More and more, it seems to have  become almost an unwritten rule among many major college head coaches that  they’re not, under any circumstances, to interfere with their coordinators.

Tell them what to do? Make suggestions?  Second guess them? Not a chance. Head coaches  don’t seem to think they have that right. 

Wait - don’t the coordinators work for the head coaches?  Am I missing something?

This is not  at all the same as an  Athletics Director calling his head coach into his office and saying “I want to see more passing.”

This is a matter of a leader failing to lead.

Exhibit A: 

Miami is leading Georgia Tech, 20-17.  Miami has the ball, 1st and 10  with 1:55 remaining to play.  Georgia Tech has called a timeout and has one timeout left.  Miami could take a knee now, but doesn’t, and runs a play and loses  two yards.  Now, at 1:18, it’s second and 12, and Georgia Tech calls its last timeout.  Again, Miami could take a knee, but what the hell - let’s hand off again. This time they pick up about four yards, and with Georgia Tech out of timeouts, the clock’s running - it’s at 1:13  when the play clock starts. It’s third and eight.

Got that?  Miami has 40 seconds to snap the ball, following which, so long as they don’t exceed 40 seconds, there will be 33 seconds left to play and the clock will run - game over.

But no…  they ran the damn ball and the runner fumbled. 

Georgia Tech recovered, and with only 26  seconds to play, managed to go 75 yards in four plays (counting a spike) to  score a touchdown and win.  (I’m not even going to touch the question of how and why a GT receiver got behind “prevent” coverage.)

There were those who suggested afterward that the brain-dead decision to run the ball was made to get the runner to 100 yards for the game - unofficially, he was right around 99.

Miami head coach Mario Cristobal - who had a well-earned reputation at Oregon for not being college football’s best game coach - said that wasn’t the case.

But he did seem to imply that the decision to run was the offensive coordinator’s when he said, when asked about it,  “I should have just stepped in.”

Excuse me?  JUST stepped in?  You’re the f—king CEO of a corporation that’s in danger of going bankrupt.  You’re the captain of a ship that’s headed for the rocks. You’re the HEAD COACH of a football team and you’re being paid eight million dollars a year, and if one of your assistants f—ks up - IT’S ON YOU.

So, yeah, you should have “just” stepped in.

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=miami+last+minute+decison+vs+gt#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:8705e995,vid:XraPQwBPBb0,st:0


EXHIBIT B:

At Pitt, they’ve had QB problems this year.  Their transfer quarterback, Phil Jurkovec, just hasn’t been getting it done, and with a bye week, word got out that he had not only been relieved of his starting quarterback position, but that he was now working out at tight end.

Today - Monday - however, Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi said that despite reports to the contrary, Jurkovec was still at quarterback and there were no plans to move him to tight end.

And, with a memory about as good as Hillary Clinton’s, he  said that he “didn’t recall” whether Jurkovec had taken snaps at tight end last week.

No, of course not. How would he know that?  He’s only the head coach.  What head coach gets involved in a decision to relieve his team’s quarterback? 

Why, everybody knows that any head coach leaves a decision like that totally up to the offensive coordinator.  In fact, that’s actually what Narduzzi said: it was the offensive coordinator’s decision to bench Jurkovec.

I have trouble believing that, just as I shake my head at the thought that Mario Cristobal entrusted a decision of that magnitude to an inferior officer without having it run by him.

But at the same time, I’m hearing of more and more instances like those. And  I’ve heard more than one high school head coach speak as if he felt he had no right to tell a coordinator  what he wanted done.

There are two important military principles involved here that evidently many head coaches aren’t aware of.

One is “rocks and shoals” - that it is in all cases the responsibility of the ship’s captain to ensure that the ship is steered clear of rocks and shoals.

Hey!  Does that mean that if one of my coordinators makes a dumb mistake that costs us a game, it’s on me?   Why, yes, Coach.  It does.  No matter who’s steering the ship, if it runs aground, it’s the captain’s ass.

The other principle comes under the title “exercise of authority.” It gives the officer the right to exercise authority over everyone subordinate to him (or her) and,  furthermore,  requires all subordinates to obey their superiors.

Hey!  You mean I actually have the right as head coach to tell an assistant what I want him to do?  Why, yes, Coach.  You do.  And with the concept of “rocks and shoals” ever in your mind, I suggest you exercise that right whenever  necessary.

Put another way, as the mother of England’s King George III is said to have admonished  her timid son:  “George, be a king!”


***********   And then there’s the case of preparing a kid  for an “automatic” - except…

Alabama led Texas A & M, 24-20 and had just gotten a  first down.  A & M was out of time outs. There was just 1:40 left when the clock started running,  but damned if the Bama QB didn’t throw the ball to his split end. 

Well, of course he did.  There was no defender out there covering his receiver, and he was undoubtedly under instructions  that any time he looks out there and sees a guy uncovered, he should throw to him.

Except - he probably wasn’t told this - for when we’re trying to get the hell out of here.

The pass was incomplete, stopping  the clock at 1:36.

Bama took a timeout, and Saban can be seen on the sidelines expressing his “concern” to the quarterback.  But really - whose fault was it?

Back on the  field,  Bama handed the ball off to a running back.  Twice.  Fortunately, unlike Miami, there was no fumble.

That left them with fourth and seven, and they did manage to snap the ball and kill the seven seconds and get the win.

BUT… If they’d just started out on first down taking a knee,  they’d have to take just three of them and the game would have been over.


*********** Chip Kelly, ever resourceful, has found a new way to win - with a powerful running game and a smothering defense.

The UCLA ground game against Washington State came from an Indiana kid named Carson Steele, a transfer  from Ball State.  At 6-1, 225, he’s a  beast. He carried   30 times for 140 yards.

The defense?  Granted, the Cougars are not a running team, but 12 yards  rushing?  For an entire game?  True, there were sacks amounting to -12 yards, so it was actually 24 yards rushing.  (Oh.  That’s a lot better.)

(By the way, why should sacks, which are the result of pass plays gone awry, be deduced from rushing yardage, and not passing yardage?)

The WSU passing game wasn’t particularly impressive, either.   They attempted just 39 passes, for only  197 yards.

The killer came with 1:39 to play, when faced with fourth and one at the UCLA 40, the best the Cougars could do was snap it back to their QB, Cam Ward who, already five yards deep,  tried to run off tackle. He was thrown for a one-yard loss.

With an unbeaten season on the line, that was the best they could come up with.   Isn’t there a better way for your  quarterback - whose “rushing” yardage up to that point was -11 yards - to get a yard?  (Hint, hint: quarterback under center?)

What price stubbornness? 

Wrote Christopher Anderson, an American in Munich, Germany who still manages to get his  college football fix every Saturday:

Coach Madden’s invocation (at your Zooms) would seem to explain WSU‘s loss - “you think you can win games by passing all the time - but you can’t.”



***********  USC 43, Arizona 41 (three OTs)

I didn’t think this one would keep me up past halftime, but it did - kept me riveted to the set.  Kept me up to about 11:30 (that’s a lot of football, considering the early games start at 9 AM).

First takeaway: Yes, USC’s Caleb Williams is very good. He  completed a  so-so 14 of 25 for a  so-so 219 yards and a touchdown, but he  rushed 12 times for 41 yards and three TDs.  

Second takeaway: No, Caleb Williams can’t keep carrying the team. The rest of the team contributed just 105 yards on 21 plays.

Third takeaway: When the Trojans’ offense isn’t operating in high gear, their defense can’t take up the slack.  The Wildcats outgained them, 506 yards to 365, and had the ball  for 35:39 to USC’s 24:21

Fourth takeaway: The Wildcats committed 12 penalties for 99 yards, and it certainly seemed as if most of them were roughing the passer penalties that kept USC drives alive.

Fifth takeaway: Arizona’s Noah Fifita, a 5-11 redshirt freshman QB from Servite High in southern California, is the real deal. He completed 25 of 35  for 303 yards and FIVE touchdowns, and was named Pac-12 Freshman of the Week. (I had no idea they even gave out such an award, but there you go.)

Sixth takeaway: Arizona running back Jonah Coleman carried 22 times for 143 yards.

Seventh takeaway: This is the third week in a row - first against Arizona State, then against Colorado, and now against  Arizona - that the great Lincoln Riley has come into a game with superior personnel and been outcoached.  It will be a pleasure watching him get his ass handed to him in the Big Ten.  Oklahoma’s 34-30 win over Texas Saturday may have washed away some of the bad taste he left behind in Norman.  But not all of it.





 
*********** I’m surprised that more readers didn’t mention that famous day in 1971  when Baltimore Colts’ middle linebacker Mike Curtis (1970 AFC Defensive Player of the Year) leveled a drunk who had run onto the  field between plays and tried to make off with the game ball. When asked about it afterward he said  to him it was the same as if somebody had come into an office and tried to steal a typewriter. (That was a different America, one in which the general reaction was that the damnfool had it coming - if you don’t want that to happen to you, stay the hell off the field.  In today’s America, Mike Curtis would be the villain.) Other Colts in the photo (L to R) Ted Hendricks (83), Ray May (56), Billy Newsome (81), Bill Laskey (51)


*********** Pat McAfee did sound on Saturday as if he wanted to make nice with Washington State people, whom he’d told last week to F-off.  For the most part, Cougs are pretty nice folks, but I would imagine that there’s a few of them who could have, um, helped him see the error of his ways.


***********   NIL  will be the death of football. 

No, not Name, Image and Likeness. Not that NIL.

“Nil,” as in British soccer speech for  “zero” or “nothing.”

I’m hearing it more and more, and I actually heard Reese Davis use it Saturday on College Football Game Day.

Look, Reese - if we wanted to become like  Europeans we’d have had our little kids out playing soccer as their first sport.

Oh, wait -


*********** Washington’s new AD is Troy Dannen, who’s been at Tulane and before that was AD at Northern Iowa.

The two things that I like most about the guy are (1) his hiring of Willie Fritz as Tulane’s football coach, and (2) his ability to retain Willie Fritz when  lots of other schools wanted him.


************ Kerry Eggers was a young reporter when I first arrived in the Northwest, and over the years we’ve crossed paths. To show how many years we’ve known each other, when he retired a few years ago he had become the dean of Oregon sportswriters. His dad was long the sports information director at Oregon State, so it’s fair to say he is a Beaver born, and he has strong feelings about  what’s been happening to them.  Now writing a very interesting blog (subscription), he was able to reach a nice cross-section of former Oregon State - and also Oregon - athletes to get their reactions to what’s going on. Alphabetically, the very first one was Terry Baker, who played baseball, basketball and football at OSU, and has the distinction of being the first Heisman Trophy winner from the West Coast, and also of being the only man to play in a Final Four and also in a Rose Bowl.

TERRY BAKER, Oregon State football, 1960-62 (retired, after a successful career as a Portland lawyer, with homes in Portland and Indian Wells, Calif.):

“I feel a lot of disappointment, but my feelings come from a subject a lot broader than just the Pac-12. The whole de-amateurism of college football has created a real mess now for the universities. The losers are the fans. What they should be doing is thinking about that a little bit rather than just about making money. 

“I have expressed this to Oregon State, that there is something about losing your desire to financially support a football program that is in actuality supporting another professional team. A university should be about educating students. It should be run by the president of the university and the faculty and should not be run by a football team. 

“Tommy Prothro told me a war story years ago. Bear Bryant was being pursued to be the coach at Texas A&M. At Kentucky. He went down there, they showed him around, and when they asked if he was interested in taking the job, he said no. They asked him why. He said, ‘I never want to coach at a school where the president of the university isn’t behind the football team 100 percent.’ So he leaves. A couple of weeks went by and they got ahold of Mr. Bryant again. They asked, ‘What president do you think would be behind the team 100 percent?’ He gave them some names. A couple of weeks later, they called him and said, ‘We just hired one of those names; would you now be interested?’ And he took the job. 

“The point is, who is running the university now? Getting a scholarship to me was gravy enough. It was an honor just to play for the school. Now you recruit high school kids and you have to deal with their agent. They come in and are getting paid to play, and if they are successful, with the portal they can transfer, so they’re moving around. That doesn’t exist even in pro sports. 

“The Supreme Court has created this thing. Congress is going to have to roll up its sleeves and deal with this situation and bring it back to normality. There has to be an equilibrium. If (college athletes) are being treated as professionals, they should sign a contract and say they’ll stay for four years. 

“I’m a little disgusted. I’ve given up my (OSU football) season tickets, but I’m gone (to a winter home in Indian Wells, Calif.) for most of the season, anyway. I almost throw up when I hear the term ‘student-athlete.’ In college football and basketball, a lot of the athletes are African American kids, especially in this day and age. The answer to most of our problems with the underprivileged and minorities is education. You move up the economic ladder in this country by being educated. That’s what college football and basketball used to do through four years. Those kids got a degree and could lead a good successful life.”

***********   What did Napoleon know about endurance anyway? Actually, a lot. David Chandler, the best interpreter of the Napoleonic Era, wrote in his epic biography that Bonaparte was simply "the most competent human who ever strode the earth." He got a prodigious amount of work done while on fast-moving military campaigns. And remember, he was also responsible for the entire Empire.

Sure seems a lot of the newest members of FBS are having great success. Teams like Jax St and James Madison and their slightly older sibling Liberty. Then there's TXST and UTSA. Pardon me for not looking it up, but I'm curious at how much of that success they owe to the portal. (I am aware TXST took in a huge number of transfers, I think second only to CO.) Regardless, a coach still has to blend them and get them prepared.

Iowa scores 50 tomorrow. Mayyyybe.

When I first read that a travel agency informed 70 roomholders their reservations for Army-Navy were cancelled, I was angry. Too late now to change the venue, but I would tell them never again. Kraft and Belichick have Navy ties, so the Army side already had concerns. I hope Army AD Buddie has a plan that is more than tacit acceptance.

John Vermillion                                
St Petersburg, Florida



***********   Hugh,

Growing up as a lad in Chicago I had the good fortune to meet Dick Butkus.  He was a good friend of my older cousin who would work out with Butkus at a local YMCA in the off-season.  I was wide-eyed and speechless when I met him.  I vowed at that time I would do everything I could to  be like Dick Butkus.  Although I tried I never ever could play football like he did.  No one could.  RIP.

Watching some college football games it has become very apparent to me that clock management has somehow been forgotten.

Who of us can't remember that Mike Curtis hit on that idiotic fan?  Think something like that would happen in today's world of pro football?  None of us would ever see it because they would likely cut to a commercial, and then not show it on any replay for being too violent.

The Texas-OU Red River Rivalry should be the best college football game of the weekend.

Now you know why those in government from MA are called Massholes.

Play the Army-Navy game in TEXAS where it would be appreciated!

Not a fan of Pat McAfee.  Bring back David Pollock!

Enjoy the games this weekend!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas


 


*********** QUIZ ANSWER:  Clemon “Clem” Daniels went to high school in McKinney, Texas and in a time of segregation in Texas and the South, he attended Prairie View A & M, an  SBC (Small Black Colleges, as today’s HBCUs were often called at  the time).

Big - 6-1, 220 - he was a powerful running back at Prairie View, and like so many players from SBCs, he was signed to a free agent contract by the Dallas Texans in the first year of the American Football League.

He made the team, but spent his entire rookie season backing up the Texans’ star running back, Abner Haynes.

After the season, he was traded to the Oakland Raiders, where he would spend seven seasons (1961-1967), in all of which he was their leading rusher.  

He was a four-time AFL All-Star,  and in 1963 he became the first player in team history to rush for more than 1,000 yards, with a league-leading 1099 yards.

In that same year he rushed for 200 yards in one game against the New York Jets; in the Raiders’ long history, only Bo Jackson's 221 yards against Seattle in 1987 is better.

A broken leg suffered during the 1967 season brought an end to his career, but by the time he retired, he was the AFL’s all-time leading  rusher.
His 5103 career rushing yards is third all-time among the club’s rushers (behind Marcus Allen and Mark van Eeghen).

Clem Daniels is on the All-Time AFL team.

Named in 1965 to play in the AFL All-Star game in New Orleans, he was one of a number of black players who found themselves on the receiving end of racist treatment by taxicabs, hotels, restaurants and night clubs, and responded by calling for a boycott of the game.  The game was already a sellout (60,000 tickets sold) and New Orleans officials pleaded with the players to reconsider, but in the end they held firm and voted to boycott, and the game was moved to Houston.

Clem Daniels had taken a leadership role in the boycott, which he attributed to an incident that took place at the time of his high school graduation.

As he told a Bay Area organization in 2016, his mother had been working as a domestic for a wealthy resident of McKinney, and he was invited to  the house to be congratulated.

Afterward, he noticed that something seemed to be bothering his mother, and after some coaxing, he finally got her to tell him that the homeowner had told her, “next time you come to the house, you make sure you come through the back door.”

As a result, Daniels told the group, “I learned pretty early that if you want things to change, you have to ask for it.  Or demand it.”

CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING CLEM DANIELS

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
BRAD KNIGHT - CLARINDS, IOWA
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY





*********** QUIZ:   The son of a Greek immigrant, he grew up in Oklahoma City.  His given first name was Demosthenes - although he never went by that name - and his family name was Andrecopoulos, which came to be shortened. 

He saw combat with the Marines in World War II and was on the scene at Iwo Jima when the flag was raised there. He was awarded the Bronze Star.

Following the War,  he played guard at Oklahoma for the legendary Bud Wilkinson. His older brother, Plato, was a teammate at Oklahoma for one year, and went on to play four years in the NFL.

He passed up pro football to get into coaching. After graduating from Oklahoma, he worked as an assistant first at Oklahoma, then at Kansas, Texas Tech, Nebraska, California and Illinois.

His first head coaching job was at Idaho, where in 1963 he led the Vandals to their first winning season in 25 years.

In 1965, he succeeded Tommy Prothro as head coach at Oregon State. Prothro had taken the Beavers to the Rose Bowl, then left to take the UCLA job.

His best team was his 1967 squad, which went 7-2-1 and earned the nickname “Giant Killers”  after beating #2 Purdue, tying the next #2 UCLA, and beating #1 USC and O.J. Simpson.  They wound up ranked #7 nationally.  The next season, they were 7-3 and ranked 16th nationally, but because of conference rules at the time, they didn’t go to a bowl game either year,

He never did get to coach in a bowl game.  The conference (then the Pac-8) permitted only one team - the champion - to go to a bowl game - the Rose Bowl.

Rather stout,  he often wore an orange jacket at games, which earned him one of sports’ great nicknames.  In1966, after Oregon State defeated Washington State on Hallowe’en night,  a Spokane sportswriter dubbed him “The Great Pumpkin,” a nickname that stayed with him for the rest of his career.

In 11 years at Oregon State,  he was 51-64-1.  But in the Good Old Days, back  when rivalries still mattered, he was 9-2 against the Oregon Ducks in the Civil War (and it was still okay to call it that).

His book, “Power T Football,” goes into great detail in explaining his offense, which depended on a powerful running game built around big, tough kids from the farms and forests of the Northwest. 

After retirement as a coach, he served as athletic director  for ten years, until his retirement in 1985, and even after that he worked at raising money for the Oregon State athletic department.




FRIDAY,  OCTOBER 6,  2023 - “The most important attribute in a soldier is endurance.” Napoleon Bonaparte

*********** RIP Dick Butkus.  He personified toughness. His very name sounded tough, didn’t it?  He was the toughest of the tough - the epitome of the hard-hitting middle linebacker, a position now all but obsolete.  Now, with a different set of specialists playing on every down, he’d be about  as needed as a fullback, replaced by a “nickel” or “dime” back on “passing situations” - meaning, in today’s NFL,   first, second, third and fourth downs.


***********  THIS  WEEKEND - WEEK NINETEEN  (OF TWENTY-ONE) - IN THE CFL


FRIDAY

EDMONTON (4-11) AT  TORONTO  (12-2)  - 7 PM EASTERN

WINNIPEG (11-4)  AT  BC (11-4)  - 10 PM EASTERN


SATURDAY

HAMILTON (7-8) AT   SASKATCHEWAN (6-9) 7 PM EASTERN


MONDAY

OTTAWA (4-11) AT  MONTREAL (8-7)  1 PM EASTERN



*********** WEDNESDAY NIGHT COLLEGE FOOTBALL (I  found myself writing that as if “Wednesday Night College Football” were nothing special.)

*** WARNING:  If you’re ever watching Jacksonville State and they’re  way behind at halftime - Do NOT turn off your set or change the channel.

Last week, behind Sam Houston at the half, , 21-7, they scored 28 points in the second half to win, 35-28.

Last night, trailing  Middle Tennessee at halftime, 23-7,  they came out and scored 38 points in the second half, and won, 45-30. It didn’t hurt their cause any that they intercepted Middle Tennessee  twice and recovered two fumbles, returning one of them for a score.

TRUE CONFESSION: My wife and I gave up on them and went to bed.  Then, after we woke up in the morning and saw the final score, we watched  the  replay. 

It’s Jax State’s first year in FBS, and they’re now 5-1.  Rich Rodriguez is their coach, and yes, he’s still got it.

The next two weeks they play Liberty  and then Western Kentucky.  They’re both TUESDAY night games.  (Set the DVR, just in case you  give up on them at halftime, like we did.)

*** NEW MEXICO STATE 34, FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL 14 - It was tied 14-14 at the half, and 20-20 after three periods, but Aggies’ QB Diego Pavia broke the deadlock with a 43-yard touchdown run to start the fourth quarter. Overall, in addition to the TD run, Pavia completed 20 of 31 for 256 yards and two TDs. Both teams are now 3-3.


*********** THIS WEEKEND’S COLLEGE FOOTBALL GAMES (THAT I HAVE SOME INTEREST IN)

TONIGHT
SAM HOUSTON AT LIBERTY
WESTERN KENTUCKY AT LOUSIANA TECH

FRIDAY NIGHT
KANSAS  STATE AT OKLAHOMA STATE - EMAW!
NEBRASKA AT ILLINOIS - Nebraska upsets  the Illini

SATURDAY
TEXAS vs OKLAHOMA (at Dallas)
BOSTON COLLEGE at ARMY - BC is not that bad.
LSU  at MISSOURI - LSU is ripe for an upset
RUTGERS at WISCONSIN - Go Jersey Boys
MARYLAND at OHIO STATE - Sorry - Part of me is a Marylander
MARSHALL AT N.C. STATE - Marshall shocks the Wolfpack
WASHINGTON STATE AT UCLA - Time to put an end to “Cougin’ it”
WAKE FOREST AT CLEMSON - I like Wake, but Clemson’s better
SYRACUSE AT NORTH CAROLINA - Tar Heels are just better
PURDUE AT IOWA - If you like low scoring games, this one’s for you
NORTH TEXAS AT NAVY - Mids are favored. Hope they can play two halves.
ALABAMA AT TEXAS A & M - For both teams, this is huge. Bama.
VANDERBILT AT FLORIDA - Only  to see which Florida shows up.
UCF AT KANSAS - Jayhawks will be ready. UCF blew it last week.
COLORADO AT ARIZONA STATE - Toss up.
KENTUCKY AT GEORGIA - Come on, Wildcats!
NOTRE DAME AT LOUISVILLE - Prediction - breakout game for the Irish
MICHIGAN AT MINNESOTA - Minnesota hasn’t won this since 2015
COLORADO STATE AT UTAH STATE - Just because I like ‘em both
TEXAS TECH AT BAYLOR - Baylor had a big  win last week over UCF
FRESNO STATE AT WYOMING - I’m going out on a limb and picking the Cowboys
OREGON STATE AT CAL - Beavers! Not an easy win, but an easy call
ARIZONA  AT USC - Could this be the game that USC finally blows it?


*********** THIS WEEK’S AP TOP TEN IN ACTION

1. GEORGIA -14.5 OVER KENTUCKY
2. MICHIGAN - 19.5 OVER MINNESOTA
3. TEXAS - 6.5 OVER OKLAHOMA
4. OHIO STATE - 19.5 OVER MARYLAND
5. FLORIDA STATE - 23.5 OVER VIRGINIA TECH
6. PENN STATE - BYE (RESTING UP FOR UMASS ON 10-14)
7. WASHINGTON - BYE (GETTING READY FOR OREGON)
8. OREGON - BYE (GETTING READY FOR WASHINGTON)
9. USC - 21.5 OVER ARIZONA
10 NOTRE DAME - 6.5 OVER LOUISVILLE


***********  UNBEATEN NON-TOP-TEN TEAMS IN ACTION

KENTUCKY (AT GEORGIA) - Georgia is a 14.5 point favorite, even though th Bulldogs haven’t been terribly impressive.  I’d actually take the points. Now watch Georgia kill the Wildcats.

LOUISVILLE (NOTRE DAME HOME) - How much did the last games take out of the Irish? Are they 6.5 points better than Louisville? Could this be the game that they finally put it all together?

OKLAHOMA (VS  TEXAS, IN DALLAS) This year’s Red River Rivalry could be a hell of a game.

MIAMI (GEORGIA TECH HOME) - MIAMI BY 20.5. You think maybe Tech lost to Bowling Green (38-27) because  they were looking ahead to Miami?  Nah.

FRESNO STATE (AT WYOMING) - FRESNO STATE BY 5.5
Fresno and Air Force look like the cream of the Mountain West crop. They’re both unbeaten, and they don’t meet in the regular season.  But right now - the Cowboys are tough, especially in Laramie!

MARYLAND (AT OHIO STATE) - Terps are 5-0.  Mike Locksley is off to a great start. Taulia Tagavailoa is one of the country’s best QBs. Still, the Buckeyes are favored by 19 to 21 (depending).  Me, I’d take the Terps and the points. (Full disclosure - I lived in Maryland for 13 years, three of our kids were born there, and I got my start in coaching there, so…)

MARSHALL (AT NC STATE) - The Herd is 4-0.  They always play tough against Power 5 teams.

AIR FORCE - Damn. The Falcons  are off this week. I’ll miss my running game fix.

WASHINGTON STATE (AT UCLA) -  Cougars have the smallest stadium in the Pac-12 and UCLA has the largest - but  so what?  WSU they still draws bigger home crowds, so UCLA has no home field advantage here.

LIBERTY (SAM HOUSTON HOME) - Under new coach Jamey Chadwell, the Flames have yet to lose.  I'm watching this game as I write.



 
*********** If  you’re of a certain age, you know these are BALTIMORE Colts. You also know what just happened - and what’s about to happen.


*********** Let this be a lesson to anyone considering doing business in a blue  state (and yes, I live in Washington, one of the bluest of blue states).

In this case, the state is Massachusetts,  possibly even bluer than Washington, and the “business” is the Army-Navy game.

The Army-Navy game, if you weren’t aware, is one of those bucket-list events that just about every sports fan longs to attend at least once. This year, for no good reason I can think of than dollars, it’s going to be played in Gillette Stadium, in the far-distant  suburbs of Boston.

That’s Massachusetts.  The Bay State is a sanctuary state, something it once took boastful pride in, back  when it only required  hot air, and didn’t come with a cost.   And Massachusetts even put a cherry on top of the sanctuary by assuring any newcomer of shelter.

And then, suddenly and unexpectedly, the newcomers arrived in Massachusetts.

And, now that it’s being overrun with “migrants” (calling them “invaders” is so harsh), it’s having to provide shelter.  To do this, it’s pay hotels - using taxpayer money, of course - to provide it.

Ah, but the hotels, it seems, had for some time been taking reservations from people who had been planning to attend the Army-Navy game.  And now, it appears, some of those hotels are notifying  those football fans that there is No Room at the Inn.  That their reservations have been cancelled in order to proved shelter for the invaders.

Said a woman representing a group of the hotels, their commitment is  "providing shelter and support to refugees at our hotels… As a gesture of solidarity and humanitarian responsibility, we are opening our doors to those seeking refuge in our community.”

Yeah. Solidarity and humanitarian responsibility. Also government contracts that could last months. Years,even.

People are making a big issue, as they should,  of the likelihood that many of the displaced Army-Navy fans will be veterans. But really, no person who reserved a room in good faith should be turned away because some bleeding hearts think they can make it our responsibility to provide hospitality to the Third World.

https://www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/army-navy-hotel-rooms-migrants-massachusetts-foxboro/


*********** “Pride Month” wasn’t enough.  Oh, no.  Now, California will recognize another month as “Transgender History Month.”

No doubt, West Coast polly-parrots Washington and Oregon will soon follow.

Said Democratic Assemblyman (or woman?) Matt Haney, author of the bill,  “I couldn’t be more proud to have introduced legislation that will designate August as the first statewide Transgender History month in the nation.

“I believe that as Californians our strongest defense against the anti-trans agenda is just to tell the truth. Let’s tell the truth about transgender people’s lives, and let’s lift up the history of the transgender Californians who left their mark on our great state,” he added.

I have already begun work on  a new history textbook telling all about the transgenders who built the Erie Canal and the Transcontinental Railroad, who fought to defeat slavery and to defeat  the Nazis, who cured Polio and fought for Civil Rights.  I’m going to make big bucks with this one.  Screw the truth.  If the White House can get away with its lies about the border and inflation, I can make up anything I want.

Actually, the joke's on you. Remember all those (fill in the nationality) War Heroes books?  The ones full of blank pages?


*********** For quite some time it’s disturbed me to watch the way certain defensive players will “get off” a man they’ve just taken down: instead of simply swinging one leg back and over the fallen opponent and walking away,  they have to make a show of exiting from the front - walking the length of the man’s  body until they pass over his head.   It’s a thug thing all the way, and officials aren’t nearly as on top of it as they should be.

Last Friday night, a Lousiana Tech player named Brevin Randle took it a step further, He not only exited  over the head of his opponent from UTEP, but - just for good measure - he also had to stomp  on the guy’s head before casually strolling  away.

Officials should always be alert to how tacklers “dismount,” but they completely missed this one.  The TV guys didn’t, though, and neither did viewers, who stirred up a sh—storm.

Realizing he had to do something,  the Louisiana Tech athletic director issued a statement (ever notice that it’s always a “statement” - that nobody has the stones to face the cameras at times like this?):

“In speaking with Brevin, he acknowledges that his action was wrong and understands the consequence of that action. Our University, athletic department, and football program believe in culture, class, and competitive excellence and in no way was that displayed in that moment.”

And just to show how serious the school really is about this “culture, class, and competitive excellence” stuff, it kicked Randle off the team, revoked his scholarship, and expelled him from the school.

Just kidding.  He was suspended. Indefinitely, they say, whatever that means.  I didn’t see or hear anything about double-secret probation.

Then, the athletic department released a statement allegedly “from” if not exactly “by” Mr. Randle, one of those “that was not me” apologies (his actual words were “one play does not define me as a person or a player”):

"I want to apologize and take full accountability for my actions towards Stephen Hubbard and the UTEP football program. I am aware that my action was unacceptable, and does not align with what Louisiana Tech or I stand for. Although one play does not define me as a person or a player, blah, blah, blah.
 
Overall, a nice enough apology.  I’m sorry I shot your dog and it’s not me and hopefully others will learn from me that it’s not right. 

Just one minor quibble:  I hope it’s not too late for you to learn that actually, you live in  a world where, like it or not,  one play such as the one you made WILL define you as a person or a player.  And if you don’t believe me,  Google “Brevin Randle” and see what comes up.


https://www.al.com/sports/2023/10/watch-la-tech-player-stomp-opponents-head-suspended-indefinitely.html


*********** We’ve all known somebody like Pat McAfee.  Has to be the focus of attention.  "Jackass " comes  to sport.  Somewhat knowledgable. Funny as hell sometimes.  Especially to the audience ESPN craves - the frat boys.  But don’t question him or  ignore him - or turn your back on him.  Because beneath it all, he can be a snake.

John Canzano rather expertly calls him out for his supercilious and vulgar dismissal of Washington State.

The desertion of Washington State and Oregon State is a topic that I’m quite passionate about, and any fool that has the pulpit he does and purports to be a sports guy and then uses that pulpit  to kick them  when they’re down is an asshole for life.

 Take it away, John…

Turns out I’m the fool. When ESPN made a bet on Pat McAfee I celebrated the move. I thought he would bring good opinions, fun energy, and make the network better. Instead he’s turned into a low-grade school-yard bully.

McAfee went after the kid who was picked last on the playground again this week. On ESPN’s College GameDay he said: “Shut up, Washington State. I’m about sick of you wasting time on this show.”

Then a couple of days later he laid into the Cougars on his own show, insisting WSU should be grateful for the exposure it gets, as if ESPN were a philanthropist.

“You guys just start getting petty and attacking? F**k off,” McAfee said.

The irony is that McAfee is more like Washington State than he’d ever admit. The story goes that he borrowed $100 from a friend in high school, lied to his parents, entered a poker tournament and won enough money to fund a trip to Miami for a punting showcase. Once there, he did enough to get an offer from West Virginia University, which might as well be WSU for the purpose of this discussion.

McAfee was a seventh-round NFL Draft pick. He had a solid pro career and has transitioned into a media personality. When you dig into his story he likes to portray himself as the underdog kid who dreamed of living in a home with a staircase and now resides in the biggest mansion in the best neighborhood on television.

Washington State and Oregon State were left behind when the Pac-12 Conference members scattered in August. It’s no fault of their own. The two football programs draw healthy TV audience, are ranked in the Top 25, and have put a pile of players in the NFL. Yet, both wake up drowning in anxiety and uncertainty these days.

Their biggest sin?

Unfavorable geography.

The Morrill Land Grant College Act of 1862 set aside federal lands and funding to create colleges in every state. It’s how schools such as Wisconsin, Georgia, Iowa State, Florida, Clemson and Missouri got their origins.

The same federal act jump-started WSU and OSU. I suppose if we could rent a time machine, we might be tempted to urge university founders in the late 1800s to think less about their mission and more about potential media-rights implications in 2023. The land-grant schools were intentionally placed in rural areas. That was the bleeping point.

I’ve visited a lot of college towns. Pullman and Corvallis aren’t that different from Madison, Wisc. or West Lafayette, Ind. or Tallahassee, Fla. The community rallies around the university. The local businesses rely on students. Hotels, restaurants and shops come alive when there’s a home football game.

On the day the Pac-12 broke up in August, I wrote a column about Pullman Presbyterian Church. It has the good fortune of being located three blocks from WSU’s football stadium. The church youth group funds its year-long activities by selling parking spots for home games.

For typical games, the kids charge $25 for a parking spot. But when WSU plays against premium opponents such as Washington, Oregon and USC they get $40 or $50. When the conference splintered and left WSU behind, Matthew McNelly, the pastor at the church, told me: “All that goes away now.”

So what’s with Pat McAfee’s sad act?

Why is he punching down so furiously? What’s with the venom for Washington State? And what’s next? Making fun of little kids who are good at math?

McAfee has every right to his opinion. It’s a free country. But I wonder if he’s thought for a moment about what it’s like to be in WSU’s shoes. He’d understand why so many people are disappointed. I wonder if he realizes how bad it looks to throw haymakers at a school that is in the fight of its life.

The ESPN GameDay producers slipped a bad joke in front of Lee Corso a couple of weeks ago. The 88-year-old former coach stumbled through the delivery, making fun of the WSU vs. OSU game, calling it the “Nobody Wants Us Bowl.” It might be true, but I didn’t blame Cougars’ coach Jake Dickert or anyone else for being upset about it.

The guy getting hit in the face is allowed to punch back, isn’t he?
The schools that feel attacked are permitted to raise their fists, too, aren’t they?

I don’t blame Washington State and Oregon State fans for being upset at ESPN and GameDay or Corso and Kirk Herbstreit, either. Herbie, by the way, should know better. He played quarterback at Ohio State — a land-grant school founded in 1870.

“I am just talking sh*t in the middle of that,” McAfee said on his show. “Bullsh*t that you attack Kirk Herbstreit in the way you did.”
I suspect McAfee just didn’t like that he was being left out of the fray. Nobody was talking about him or thinking about him. Anyone who has spent any time watching McAfee knows that he’s an upstager. He doesn’t like to stand in the shadows. It’s why ESPN hired him. But it’s a slippery slope when the talent is maniacally focused on nothing more than being in the spotlight.

Early in his acting career Marlon Brando was notorious for upstaging. Once, during a theater production where another character was giving a drawn out and extended monologue Brando got bored. He unzipped his fly, turned his back to the audience, and urinated on stage. It got him removed from the production. I’m not saying McAfee needs to go. He doesn’t. But he may want to visit Pullman and probably Corvallis, too, and get to know them before he pisses all over the places.

I’m the fool, though.

I believed that Pat McAfee was going to be a great addition to the ESPN family. I viewed him as fresh and forward thinking. Given that he’d played in the NFL, I figured he’d bring some new perspective. I liked his rags-to-riches story. I didn’t take him for a school-yard bully. But that’s the role he’s playing these days.

***********   Re the message from the bank commercial: that caught my negative attention the first time I saw it. Yeah, it's a good thing a bank protects you when you buy things you can't afford. Here's another one. NewTeethNow has  many pitchmen, some of which aren't bad, when we realize some people, despite practicing good dental hygiene, lose their teeth. But a few are perfect symbols of this Narcissistic Age. One features a woman telling us--as one of the haircolor manufacturers used to say--that you're absolutley worth it. I want the Hollywood smile, because getting out there looking good is what it's all about. What it's all about! Not accomplishing worthwhile objectives or being an informed citizen or behaving morally, but looking good. This is our country today.

Kentucky usually folds about this point in the season, chiefly from lack of depth. But what I saw last Saturday against Florida makes me believe, with you, that they might give Georgia a rough fight. Vandy must've been sick after watching their former player, Ray Davis, put on that memorable rushing performance.

Re Sparky McGrew: good for him...I guess. Four years I attended a neighbor's funeral. He was a good age-group player. His was an open-casket service. He was dressed in tennis attire, and held a racquet across his chest. Too much for me. The people who follow your page and watch your Zooms love football, but I suspect there's more to their lives than sport.

John Vermillion                
St Petersburg, Florida



***********   Hugh,

Texas is legit.  They should be the CURRENT number one team in the country.  Followed by Michigan, Georgia, Washington, Florida State, Penn State, Oregon, Ohio State, USC, and Notre Dame.  Close behind would be Alabama, Oklahoma, and Kentucky.

Somewhere in the fourth quarter I was thinking Notre Dame would be on the short end of the stick again, and have to watch in horror as the Wade Wackos rushed the field to end the Irish NC hopes.  But Sam Hartmann reached back into his WF past and found a way to get his team in position to win the game as Audric Estime found his way into the end zone to cement a 98 yard drive and seal the ND victory.
But...like last week they have to put this one behind them and focus on another undefeated team in Louisville this week, AT Louisville.

Minnesota has found another gem in freshman RB Darius Taylor.  The Gophers rode Taylor's 198 yards rushing to pull out a win over Louisiana.  Unfortunately they still need a QB who can at least throw a beach ball into the ocean.  Without that the Gophers have no shot this week in beating a really good Michigan team.

It appears Fresno State may be the best Group of Five team this year.  They DO have a QB in UCF transfer Mikey Keene, and as usual have found a couple of game breakers at WR, and a RB to keep things balanced.  Defensively they have a talented secondary to go with a relentless defensive front.  They're fast.  Very fast.  And...they haven't lost.  Traveling to Laramie on Saturday will be a huge test.

Thought Colorado showed some true grit against USC.  They didn't give up when they easily could have.  Props to Coach Prime and his staff, although they could do a lot better managing the clock.

Frankly, I can't wait to see the Civil War.  Go Beavs!


QUIZ:  Dutch Meyer (could Meyer's version of the "spread" offense have been culled from the "grandfather" of the spread offense - Rusty Russell - who was the head coach at the Fort Worth Masonic Home of Twelve Mighty Orphans fame?)

Have a great week!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas

It’s quite likely that Coaches Meyer and Russell knew each other.  I don’t know about when he was at the Masonic Home, but  at SUMU, with a QB name Freddie Benners, Coach Russell  threw and threw and threw.   Don’t be surprised if Rusty Russell shows up one of these days as a QUIZ  subject!

 

 


*********** QUIZ: When  he was a boy in Waco, Texas, Dutch Meyer  volunteered as the mascot and water boy for one of the local colleges, ambitiously called, since 1902, Texas Christian University. It w answers 1909, and he was just 11 years old.

But, according to TCU’s own history…

A fire destroyed the Waco campus in 1910, forcing the school to move. While many Texas towns courted the trustees, no one desired a university more than the city leaders of Fort Worth, who felt a college might help soften their reputation as a rowdy “cow town.” The offer of 50 acres, $200,000 and the promise of streetcar service sealed the deal on our permanent home.

He went on to play high school sports in Waco, but when it was time to go to college, his old loyalties took him to Texas Christian, in Fort Worth. 

In his four years at TCU (1916-17, then 1921-1922, with World War I in between), he earned  11 letters in three sports - football, basketball and baseball.

He graduated in 1922 - with a degree in geology -  and after one year coaching high school football in Fort Worth, he was hired by TCU to coach all freshman sports.

He served in that position under head coaches Matty Bell and Francis Schmidt, until being named head coach in 1934, when Schmidt left to take the head job at Ohio State.

In his 12 years as head coach of TCU’s freshman football team - they called them the Pollywogs -  he became well-known in his own right.

Once, when injuries left him with only ten healthy players and the officials told him  he had to have eleven men on the field or they would forfeit the game, he had one of his injured players carried onto the field on a stretcher, where the player lay for the remainder of the game.  (Which  TCU won.)

In 1926 he became TCU’s varsity baseball coach, which is how, in  a tournament in the summer of 1933, he  first saw Sammy Baugh.  Baugh, who would become a legendary passer at TCU and an all-time NFL All-Star with the Redskins, was playing third base for a sandlot team.  Meyer marveled at Baugh’s quickness and his arm,  and wanted him to come to TCU to play baseball - but he didn’t have any baseball scholarships left to give him one. Baugh wasn’t highly recruited as a football player because he was the blocking back on the high school team, but Meyer was able  to talk Francis Schmidt into giving him a football scholarship.

Schmidt left for Ohio State after Baugh’s sophomore year, just in time for Meyer  to take advantage of Baugh’s arm, and revolutionize the game of football with his  wide-open passing attack.

He operated much of the time from  what came to be called a “spread” formation.  It acquired a lot of names,   including Southwest Spread, and he later wrote a book  entitled “Spread Formation Football,” but by  today’s standards it wasn’t really very “wide open.”  By the standards of a time when everyone else’s formation included two tight ends, though, it was definitely radical.

But  it was anything but “bombs away.”  As Baugh told The Washington Post years later, his intent was not to score quickly, but to control the ball against better teams:

"All the coaches I had in the pros, I didn't learn a damn thing from any of `em compared with what Dutch Meyer taught me. He taught the short pass. The first day we go into a room and he has three S's up on a blackboard; nobody knew what that meant. Then he gives us a little talk and he says, `This is our passing game.' He goes up to the blackboard and he writes three words that complete the S's: `Short, Sure and Safe.' That was his philosophy — the short pass."Everybody loved to throw the long pass. But the point Dutch Meyer  made was, `Look at what the short pass can do for you.' You could throw it for seven yards on first down, then run a play or two for a first down, do it all over again and control the ball. That way you could beat a better team."

He had two great passers back-to-back  in Baugh and then little Davey O’Brien, and he took full advantage of their talents, but in no way could he be called soft.  In fact, his toughness earned him the nickname “Old Iron Pants.”

A favorite saying of his is now on a wall that TCU football players pass on their way to the field:  "Fight 'em until hell freezes over. Then fight 'em on the ice!”

Interestingly, despite his toughness and devotion to the game,  he  did not believe in working on Sundays.  Not for religious reasons, though - “To keep from going stale – to have time to think it over."

He took TCU to a national championship in 1938, and to Southwest Conference  titles in 1938, 1944, and 1951.

At a time when bowl games were few and only strong teams merited invitations, he took TCU to  seven bowl games, including the very first Cotton Bowl, in 1937.

When  he retired to become athletic director after the 1952 season, his overall record as football coach was 109-79-13.

In 1956, he returned briefly as baseball coach, and led TCU to the Southwest Conference championship. (He was 111–83–1 as baseball  coach.)

He served a year as president of the American Football Coaches Association, and he is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame.

Dutch Meyer  died in 1982, and as he requested in his will,  members of the Lettermen's Club of TCU served as honorary pallbearers at his funeral service.


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING DUTCH MEYER

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
TOM DAVIS - SAN MARCOS, CALIFORIA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY


 


*********** QUIZ:  He went to high school in McKinney, Texas and in a time of segregation in Texas and the South, he attended Prairie View A & M, an  SBC (Small Black Colleges, as today’s HBCUs were often called at  the time).

Big - 6-1, 220 - he was a powerful running back at Prairie View, and like so many players from SBCs, he was signed to a free agent contract by the Dallas Texans in the first year of the American Football League.

He made the team, but spent his entire rookie season backing up the Texans’ star running back, Abner Haynes.

After the season, he was traded to the Oakland Raiders, where he would spend seven seasons (1961-1967), in all of which he was their leading rusher.  

He was a four-time AFL All-Star,  and in 1963 he became the first player in team history to rush for more than 1,000 yards, with a league-leading 1099 yards.

In that same year he rushed for 200 yards in one game against the New York Jets; in the Raiders’ long history, only Bo Jackson's 221 yards against Seattle in 1987 is better.

A broken leg suffered during the 1967 season brought an end to his career, but by the time he retired, he was the AFL’s all-time leading  rusher.
His 5103 career rushing yards is third all-time among the club’s rushers (behind Marcus Allen and Mark van Eeghen).

He is on the All-Time AFL team.

Named in 1965 to play in the AFL All-Star game in New Orleans, he was one of a number of black players who found themselves on the receiving end of racist treatment by taxicabs, hotels, restaurants and night clubs, and responded by calling for a boycott of the game.  The game was already a sellout (60,000 tickets sold) and New Orleans officials pleaded with the players to reconsider, but in the end they held firm and voted to boycott, and the game was moved to Houston.

He had taken a leadership role in the boycott, which he attributed to an incident that took place at the time of his high school graduation.

As he told a Bay Area organization in 2016, his mother had been working as a domestic for a wealthy resident of McKinney, and he was invited to  the house to be congratulated.

Afterward, he noticed that something seemed to be bothering his mother, and after some coaxing, he finally got her to tell him that the homeowner had told her, “next time you come to the house, you make sure you come through the back door.”

As a result, he told the group, “I learned pretty early that if you want things to change, you have to ask for it.  Or demand it.”
 


TUESDAY,  OCTOBER 3, 2023 - “Reading will teach you that there’s very little you’ll live through that someone else hasn’t experienced already.” Crispin Burke

***********  THIS PAST WEEKEND - WEEK EIGHTEEN  (OF TWENTY-ONE) - IN THE CFL


FRIDAY

WINNIPEG (11-4)  31 TORONTO  (12-2) 21

BC (11-4) 33   SASKATCHEWAN (6-9) 26 

SATURDAY

MONTREAL (8-7) 32  OTTAWA (4-11)  15 

HAMILTON (7-8)  22   CALGARY  (4-11) 15


*********** THERE IS COLLEGE FOOTBALL ON WEDNESDAY NIGHT THIS WEEK!

JACKSONVILLE STATE AT MIDDLE TENNESSEE - 8 PM EASTERN - ESPNU

FIU AT NEW MEXICO STATE - 9 PM EASTERN - CBSSN


*********** COLLEGE FOOTBALL HIGHLIGHTS (GAMES I TOOK AN INTEREST IN)

USC 48, COLORADO 41 - More on this below
CLEMSON 31 SYRACUSE 14 - The Orange hung in there until the fourth quarter
UTAH STATE 34, UCONN 33 - It took a blocked extra point with seconds to play
KENTUCKY 33 FLORIDA 14 - Kentucky could - maybe - give Georgia a game this week
TEXAS A & M 34 ARKANSAS 22 - A & M’s Max Johnson, in relief, was 17/28 for 210 and 2 TDs.
BOSTON COLLEGE 27, VIRGINIA 24  - Thomas Castellanos  threw for 183 and two TDs and ran for 87 yards and one TD but it took a 4-yard  BC field  goal with 2:11 to win it.
CAL 24 ARIZONA STATE 21 - Sun Devils’ Trenton Bourguet threw for 344 yards but it wasn’t enough
PURDUE 44  ILLINOIS 19 - Shocking.  From an Illinois Web site:

How on earth did we get here?

Coming off an 8-win season and the most program momentum in over a decade, nobody could’ve imagined that things would’ve gotten this bad. This was supposed to be a Big Ten West contender. Somehow, even with the division’s putrid current state, it looks likely to be a bottom feeder.

The simple fact is that this group is undisciplined and sloppy. Week in and week out, we’re talking about drive-killing penalties, bone-crushing turnovers and just an ugly brand of football overall.

TEXAS 40 KANSAS 14 - This was my upset pick. Shame on me.  The Longhorns are good.
SOUTH FLORIDA 44 NAVY 30 - Middies were favored by  3.5.  They  got off to a good start but then went flat offensively. Overall, they were 3/14 on third down plays.
MEMPHIS 35 BOISE STATE 32  - 967 yards of total offense
OLE MISS 55 LSU 49 - Absolutely amazing game. It was 31-28, Ole Miss, at the half! Ole Miss: 706  yards of offense, LSU: 637. Ole Miss was down, 49-40, with 5:06 to play.
OREGON 42 STANFORD 6 - Stanford went ahead 6-0 and Oregon  didn’t get a first down until 9 minutes were left in the second quarter.  It was 14-6 at the half. Ducks’ Bo Nix was 27 of 32 for 290 and four TDs and the Ducks  rushed for another 208.  Stanford could manage just 222 yards.
IOWA 26 MICHIGAN STATE 16 - Ugly game. Iowa got the win but nearly lost.  Brian Ferentz picked up only 26 points toward  contract renewal.  Fortunately, the remaining schedule is not what you’d call a killer: Purdue, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Northwestern, Rutgers, Illinois, Nebraska.  If only they had an offense.  Wait - isn’t he the offensive coordinator?
NOTRE DAME 21 DUKE 14 - Somewhere in the second quarter I texted my family on our group text, “Will somebody please tell the director to do something about this snoozer?” and damned if they didn’t tell him, because from that moment the game picked up.  It was a really interesting game. Not boring. Not a thing of beauty.  Just two good teams going at it with everything they had. Lots of things to chew on afterwards:  officiating, play calling (both teams, both sides of the ball), special teams mistakes, excessive pre-snap penalties by Notre Dame, quarterback play by both teams. I was bummed that Duke lost, but happy that people elsewhere in the nation might possibly begin to realize how much little old Wake Forest, and the job it did in developing Sam Hartman,  will have had to do with any success Notre Dame has.  On a side note, it was especially distressing to Duke fans to see Riley Leonard have to be helped off after the last damn play.  It was diagnosed as a high ankle sprain, and while the Devils have this weekend off, it’s highly unlikely that he’ll be back to play NC State in two weeks.
AIR FORCE 49 SAN DIEGO STATE 10 -  I am not almost addicted to watching this Air Force team.  I AM addicted. The Zoomies had to punt at the end of their first series of downs.  But from there, it was six straight scoring drives. Actually, a couple of them weren’t exactly classic Air Force drives - they were scoring passes of 54 and 53 yards. Throw in a pick six, and there you go - 49 points. 287 yards rushing, 189 yards passing.
VIRGINIA TECH 38 PITT 21- Hokies had lost five straight to Power 5 opponents.   Pitt has had just one losing season in Pat Narduzzi’s time as  the Panthers' head coach, but they’ve now lost four straight. Tech QB Kyron Drones, a 6-2, 234 sophomore transfer from Baylor,  accounted for five TDs - three passing and two rushing.
WASHINGTON 31 ARIZONA 24-  It looks closer than it was. Arizona scored a touchdown with 1:06.  UW QB Michael Penix was 30 of 40 for 363 yards. Huskies had 12 penalties for 125 yards.


*********** Unbeaten Oregon’s next game is Washington. Unbeaten Washington’s next game is Oregon.  They’re both off this coming weekend, which means that in the Northwest (and maybe a few other places in the country where they realize that we’re still playing ball out here) there’s two whole weeks to hype the big game.


*********** LAST WEEK’S TOP TEN

1. Georgia 27  Auburn 20 (Georgia was favored by 14.5)
2. Michigan 45 Nebraska 7(Michigan was favored by 17.5)
3. Texas 40 Kansas 14 (Texas was favored by 16.5)
4. Ohio State - BYE
5. Florida State - BYE
6. Penn State 41 Northwestern 13 (This sucker was 10-10 at the half.  Penn State was favored by 27.5)
7. Washington 31, Arizona 24 (It was 31-17 until Arizona scored with 1:08.  Washington was favored by 17.5)
8. USC 48 vs Colorado 41 (USC was favored by 21.5)
9. Oregon 42 Stanford 6 (Oregon was favored by 27.5)
10. Oregon State 21, Utah 7 (Oregon state was favored by 3.5)

MEA CULPA...

(I wrote) I might have expected the money guys to think more highly of Kansas.  That’s my pick for an upset. TEXAS KILLED ‘EM

And as I said elsewhere, I’m baffled at Oregon State being favored over Utah. OREGON STATE BEAT THE SPREAD.
It’s absolutely amazing that Utah stayed undefeated as long as it did with no  help from its quarterbacks. The Utes are very tough and very well coached but they can’t pass, and their running game isn’t strong enough to compensate. It’s really sad that what we like to think of as a team game has been tinkered with so much by the rules makers that it’s to the point where teams are almost totally dependent for success on the quarterback position.


***********  UNBEATEN TEAMS TO WATCH THIS WEEK:

KENTUCKY (AT GEORGIA)
LOUISVILLE (NOTRE DAME HOME)
The two sides of a rivalry that’s much nastier than most people realize - Kentucky and Lousville - are both 5-0.

OKLAHOMA (VS  TEXAS, IN DALLAS) This year’s Red River Rivalry could be a hell of a game

FRESNO STATE (AT WYOMING)
Right now, Fresno and Air Force look like the cream of the Mountain West crop. They’re both unbeaten, and they don’t meet in the regular season.  But right now - the Cowboys are tough, especially in Laramie!


*********** I watched  the video that the Oregon people put together,  showing  many of the Colorado players acting like total jackasses last weekend, and  I went into Saturday’s Colorado-USC game relishing the idea of the Trojans buttoning some lips and teaching Colorado some manners.

It wasn’t easy for me to root for USC, though, and as the game went on and the Buffaloes refused to roll over and die, I found myself pulling for  them.

They showed a lot of resilience, and they did a nice job, I thought, of maintaining their composure and not losing their focus even when a blowout seemed possible.

They did a great job, and as a result, this week  it was their opponents’ turn to be exposed.  USC’s Caleb Williams is perhaps  the best QB, in a country full of them, but until the Trojans show they can play defense, they’re really overrated.


*********** On a goal-line play against USC, Colorado came  out in a 5-1 alignment. (An unbalanced line with a 5-man surface on one side of center and a  one-man surface on the other.) It’s seldom seen nowadays, but it was relatively common in the heyday of the single wing - Bud Wilkinson, who played blocking back in Bernie Bierman’s single wing at Minnesota in the 1930s, once remembered going almost an entire season in a 5-1.


*********** Not to be outdone by Notre Dame and its 10 men on the field against Ohio State, Florida had 13 men on the field  against Kentucky.  THIRTEEN MEN!!!

And Kentucky scored on the play anyway.


*********** Damn, good runners are fun to watch.  Kentucky’s Ray Davis carried 26 times  for 280 yards and three TDs.


*********** Nick Daschel, a local sportswriter whom I’ve known since at least the 1980s, has been the Oregon State beat reporter for the Portland Oregonian for the last couple of years, and he came across this gem:

Has college football's new first down clock rules helped speed up Oregon State games? Obviously, this is a small sample, since the season is 5 games old. But here is the length of games during the past five years:

2023: 3:13
2022: 3:19
2021: 3:19
2020: 3:27
2019: 3:18

A stupid  rules change, just to save 5 minutes?  Nick doesn’t say whether the game time itself may actually be a lot shorter, but  the overall length of the broadcast hasn’t changed that much because the TV guys went and filled in most of the time savings with extra  commercials.


*********** If you turn on a game and Matt Barrie is the play-by-play guy, get  a leather strap to gnaw on, because otherwise you’ll grind your teeth into stumps listening to a guy who won’t call the game - but won’t shut up, either.


*********** You know our country’s headed down the gurgler when some young woman comes on TV touting the virtues of a bank that lets her “overdraw” by $200.  (It’s called math, sweetie.)

(There’s little  doubt in my mind she's  got the money, because  she’s  likely gone months without  having to pay rent or make payments on her college loan.)



*********** When I wrote about Penn State’s Wally Triplett, I mentioned that I had once worked with his cousin, John.  And then, as these things  so often do, it happened that in my wife’s high school alumni bulletin (Abington, Pennsylvania) I saw this:

John Triplett, ‘47, has been elected to the Pennsylvania High School Track and Field Hall of Fame. John was an outstanding sprinter, whose accomplishments include: three-time PIAA Class A 100-yard dash champion (1945, 1946, 1947);  The first-ever winner of three PIAA 100-yard titles;  PIAA Class A 200-yard dash bronze medalist (1946);  PIAA Class A  200-yard dash champion (1947); PIAA Class A leading point scorer (1947).

(For what it’s worth - At that time, Class A was the class with state’s largest schools.)



***********   Sparky McGrew died recently . He was well-known in our area of Washington, and so well thought-of that I thought I’d share some of his obituary with you. (Unless it's  because he's a pyromaniac, how could a guy named Sparky not be a great guy?)

He graduated from Evergreen high school in 1968. While attending Evergreen, he participated in football, wrestling, and baseball. After high school, he attended Olympic Junior, College in Bremerton, Washington, where he played football as a place kicker and offensive lineman. After Olympic College, he attended Oregon State University for two years and played football as a place kicker for Coach Dee Andros. Following his football career, he embarked on a long career in underground utilities construction.

He had a deep passion for Oregon State athletics,  was a season-ticket holder for football games for 48 years and missed only a handful of games. His fandom took him to the Fiesta Bowl in Tempe, Arizona, the baseball College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska, and countless trip to Arizona for early season baseball games. He enjoyed coaching his sons, Ben and Bryce, in football, basketball and baseball (never soccer!)

Sparky’s celebration of life will be Sunday, October 22, at 3 PM at Columbia Presbyterian Church. Please wear orange and black in celebration of his love for the Oregon State Beavers.



*********** Our local paper, like so many of today’s dopey little rags, thinks of itself as a sort of circus side show, passing up everyday-type stories in favor of the freaky one.  So this past week it chose to write about two women who were working as assistant coaches at local high schools.

I have no issue with the idea of a woman coaching.  I know for a fact that my wife  would have been a great assistant: she knows the game, she is  great with kids (having been a mother of four and a teacher for  30 years), she is dependable, her work ethic is great, and - most important of all - she’s loyal.

Several years ago I worked with a high school team in Virginia Beach whose head coach, Steve Allosso, had no qualms about hiring a woman named Nancy Fowlkes to coach his running backs.  Of course, Nancy was aready a coach: at that point, she’d been named Virginia Field Hockey Coach of the Year five times.  I saw Nancy at work.  She was good.

So I read about these local women with an open mind.

The first one is in her second year as an assistant. Prior to that, she’d been head coach of an area Pop Warner team  for 10 years.  In six of those years her team went undefeated.

The second one didn’t seem to have any formal coaching experience in any sport, only having coached sixth and seventh grade flag ball at a Vancouver middle school

I did have some reservations about things they had to say.

The first one sounded as if she understood the job:

“This is a man’s sport. As a woman, you just have to come in ready to make an impact. You just have to come in balls to the wall, go straight in head first and know what you were talking about.”

Pardon me - Balls to the wall?  Sounds like she may be a good coach -but are they sure she really IS a female?

The other one bothered me because she didn’t say anything about love of the game, or coaching,  or kids, but instead sounded as if her purpose was to break down barriers:

“For me, I was taking back that power, but my goal has always been to just take up more space for women in sports, so that when girls come around, and they see me, they know this is an opportunity that they can have. Breaking a glass ceiling really hurts, but then it just makes you stronger.”

Grrrr.


***********   Brooks profoundly affected baseball with his wizardry at third. I was among millions of young boys, I'm sure, who aspired to field as well as he. Sure, that wasn't possible, but at least we tried to improve our defense. And it was widely known Brooks Robinson was a good, decent man.

Is that the best video the Ducks SID can produce? Yeah? I agree. I'm ready to strap on some pads.

May I suggest Joe Namath have a confab with Mark Gastineau, another former Jet, about the possibility of signing on for a Balance of Nature commercial?

A reader mentioned Coach Liepold. Both KU and KSU made smart hires at about the same time. It hasn't taken either coach long to get his team on track.

John Vermillion                  
St Petersburg, Florida


***********  Hugh,

Well...I've recovered.  Attended a niece's wedding in California last Saturday.  Yes, THAT Saturday.  The Saturday Notre Dame gave the game away to Ohio State.  There I was.  The Allstate Mayhem guy watching the entire game on my cell phone (no TV's at the wedding venue) screaming at my phone as it was dying.  Fortunately my daughter had her phone and now BOTH of us were screaming!  IMHO Ohio State didn't win the game.  ND lost it.  It's in the past.  But they better learn from it in a hurry.  Duke is good.

Never have been a USC fan.  EVER.  But the chances of Colorado beating them aren't very good.  Regardless, GO BUFFS!

Have to adjust my MWC predictions.  It's gonna be a Dogfight.  Fresno State, Air Force, Boise State, Colorado State, and UNLV all have a legit shot at the MWC championship.  Fresno plays Boise and UNLV (both at home) but does not play Air Force or Colorado State.  Air Force plays UNLV at home, but is on the road at Colorado State and Boise.  The Zoomies have the tougher schedule having to face academy rivals Army and Navy.  

Minnesota's lack of a pass offense reared its ugly head again in the loss to Northwestern.  Stick a fork in the Gophers if they can't find a QB.  RB Darius Taylor is the second leading rusher in the country, but he COULD be number one if the QB was effective.  Hate to say it but in this day of NIL I would hate see Taylor leave for mo' money.

Enjoy the weekend!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas

Great to have you back.  I bet if your niece lived in Texas (or anywhere  in the South) she wouldn’t have had a wedding in football season!  Sheesh!
 





*********** QUIZ ANSWER:  They called him Stout Steve. Steve Owen (no “s” at the end) was a big man when he played pro football; as a coach, he “grew” even  bigger, to where he weighed  somewhere in the neighborhood of 300 pounds.

He was born in a tiny town called Cleo Springs, Indian Territory - before it became  Oklahoma.

Life was tough there.  He was a big kid - he weighed 220 by the time he was 16 -  and he would later tell of the times his father would wake him up in the middle of the night to wrestle some stranger he’d brought home. “I wasn’t allowed to go back to bed until I whipped the fellow Pop brought home,” he recalled.

He  spent his high school summers working in the Texas oil fields - 12-hour days, $3 a day - and went to little Phillips College, where he played football and made some money on the side wrestling professionally as “Jack O’Brien.”

After service in World War I, he spent a year coaching at Phillips, then worked for a couple of years in the oil fields before signing  to play  football for $50 a game for a “traveling team” based in Kansas City. He was 26. He played a second year for a team in Cleveland, and then was sold to the New York Giants for $500.

He came to the Giants in 1926, and he would remain with them - as a player, then a player-coach, then  their  head coach - for 28 years.

In 1927, he led the Giants to an NFL title, and was named All-Pro.  “Football was a different game then,” he would recall. “The ball was bigger and harder to pass, you couldn’t pass from closer than five yards behind the line of scrimmage, and, in 1927, they moved the goal posts back ten yards from the goal line. But the big difference was the way we played the game. We were pretty much a smash-and-shove gang. We were bone crushers, not fancy Dans.”

In 1930, he served as player-coach, and  in 1931, he became the Giants’ head coach. 

He would hold  the job through 1953, and he never had a contract - 23 years “on a handshake.”

He was known for solid, fundamental  football.  “Football is a game played down in the dirt and it always will be,” he once said.  “There’s no use getting fancy about it.”

He especially believed in a sound defense.  His philosophy was “If they can’t score against you, they can’t beat you.”

Offensively, he was known for his “A formation,” a not very cleverly-named direct-snap variation of the single wing (he called it his “B formation”).

Essentially, the A formation had an unbalanced line to one side and an unbalanced backfield to the other. What made it tough to defend was the fact that the ball could be snapped to any one of three backs.  It worked for the Giants but no one else used it successfully because it required a great center,  which the Giants’ had, in all-time great Mel Hein.

Most of all, he deserves fame as the inventor of what became  the standard defense throughout the NFL - what came to be called called the “Pro 4-3”.

It was 1950, the first year of the merger of the AAFC and NFL.  The Cleveland Browns, champions of the AAFC in all four seasons of its existence, had sent shock waves though the NFL when in the opening game, they had defeated the Philadelphia Eagles,  two-time defending NFL  champions, 35-10.

The next week, they beat the Baltimore Colts, 31-0.

There was near-panic around the NFL. The Browns seemed unstoppable. Their  wide-open (for the time) offense was terrorizing the league - and now,  in week three, it was the New York Giants’ turn in the barrel.

But Steve Owen had a revolutionary scheme to stop for the Browns.  As told by Giants’ Hall-of-Fame defensive back Emlen Tunnell in his memoirs, “Footsteps of a Giant”…

The Cleveland quarterback, Otto Graham, often sent out four potential receivers against the opposition’s three deep backs. When Cleveland's great ends, MacSpeedie and Dante Lavelli, ran hook patterns that took them toward the middle of the secondary,  the Browns’ halfbacks,  Dub Jones and Rex Bumgardner or Ken Carpenter, would  double flare - a maneuver that took them outside and deep.  As an alternate to this, Speedie or Lavelli, or both, would run down and out to the sideline.  The sideline pass was Graham’s bread-and-butter play.

Stout Steve came up with an idea to congest the traffic along both sidelines.  When he put it on the blackboard, we knew we were looking at something new.  Our defensive ends, Ray Poole  and Jim Duncan, would drop off the scrimmage line to play in the secondary. Right there was the birth of the four-man line which is the pros’ basic defensive component today.  But there was more to come. To further clog up the airways for Graham  and his receivers,   Steve said, we would not use the usual three deep three defensive backs, but four.  He put that on the board, too, and although the deep defense was essentially the same that all pro clubs are using today, our four deep backs were not in a straight line across the field, as the backs usually are now. Our halfbacks, or cornerbacks as they have come to be called,  played slightly closer to the line of scrimmage than the two safety men did.

When we looked at the diagram we did not see what an anonymous sportswriter saw a few weeks later.  After watching our defensive setup for a few plays, this writer took a good hard look at it again and in a moment of inspiration called it the "umbrella defense." If you draw four linemen straight across,  a middle guard behind the line (who would come to be called a Middle Linebacker)  two  ends behind the line (who would come to be called outside linebackers), two halfbacks (corners)  behind and outside the end, and two deep backs (safeties) in the middle, you'll have the umbrella on paper.

The result was a stunning 6-0 upset win by the Giants.  And when they met a second time, in New York, the Giants won again, this time 17-13.

Those were the Browns’ only two losses that season, as they finished 12-2 and won the NFL title. (They did beat the Giants in their conference playoff, but it was no fault of the New York defense - the score was 8-3.)

Alone among NFL teams, the  Giants seemed to have the Browns’ number - in their  first three years in the NFL, the Browns lost just nine games. Four of them were to the Giants. 

Football coaches are no dummies, and when they see something  good, they’re likely to adopt it themselves, and add their touches to it. Tom Landry was a defensive back in Stout Steve’s  original umbrella defense, along with Hall of Fame defensive back Emlen Tunnell,  and a few years later,  as the Giants’ defensive coordinator, Landry would add his own refinements to  the modern 4-3.

Stout Steve’s  career record with the Giants was 155-108-17.  His 155 wins remain the most in Giants’ franchise history.

He won two NFL titles, one of them the famous 1934  “sneakers” game in which,  when the Giants trailed 10-3 at halftime with neither team able to get much traction  on the frozen field, the Giants  were able to secure  sneakers to wear in the second half, and their better footing enabled them to win, 30-13.

He is on the NFL’s 1920s All-Decade Team.

Steve Owen is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame and the Giants’ Ring of Honor.

Although not everyone would consider it a badge of honor, at the time of our guy’s “retirement” in 1953, Chicago Bears’ legendary George Halas hailed him as an NFL pioneer, saying, “Steve Owen was the first to stress the importance of defense and the advantage of settling for field goals instead of touchdowns.”



CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING STEVE OWEN (NO “S” AT THE END)

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
TOM DAVIS - SAN MARCOS, CALIFORIA
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY


 


*********** QUIZ: When  he was a boy in Waco, Texas, he volunteered as the mascot and water boy for one of the local colleges, ambitiously called, since 1902, Texas Christian University. It was 1909, and he was just 11 years old.

But, according to TCU’s own history…

A fire destroyed the Waco campus in 1910, forcing the school to move. While many Texas towns courted the trustees, no one desired a university more than the city leaders of Fort Worth, who felt a college might help soften their reputation as a rowdy “cow town.” The offer of 50 acres, $200,000 and the promise of streetcar service sealed the deal on our permanent home.

He went on to play high school sports in Waco, but when it was time to go to college, his old loyalties took him to Texas Christian, in Fort Worth. 

In his four years at TCU (1916-17, then 1921-1922, with World War I in between), he earned  11 letters in three sports - football, basketball and baseball.

He graduated in 1922 - with a degree in geology -  and after one year coaching high school football in Fort Worth, he was hired by TCU to coach all freshman sports.

He served in that position under head coaches Matty Bell and Francis Schmidt, until being named head coach in 1934, when Schmidt left to take the head job at Ohio State.

In his 12 years as head coach of TCU’s freshman football team - they called them the Pollywogs -  he became well-known in his own right.

Once, when injuries left him with only ten healthy players and the officials told him  he had to have eleven men on the field or they would forfeit the game, he had one of his injured players carried onto the field on a stretcher, where the player lay for the remainder of the game.  (Which  TCU won.)

In 1926 he became TCU’s varsity baseball coach, which is how, in  a tournament in the summer of 1933, he  first saw Sammy Baugh.  Baugh, who would become a legendary passer at TCU and an all-time NFL All-Star with the Redskins, was playing third base for a sandlot team.  Our guy marveled at Baugh’s quickness and his arm,  and wanted him to come to TCU to play baseball - but he didn’t have any baseball scholarships left to give him one. Baugh wasn’t highly recruited as a football player because he was the blocking back on the high school team, but our guy made to talk Francis Schmidt into giving him a football scholarship.

Schmidt left for Ohio State after Baugh’s sophomore year, just in time for our guy to take advantage of Baugh’s arm, and revolutionize the game of football with his  wide-open passing attack.

He operated much of the time from  what came to be called a “spread” formation.  It acquired a lot of names,   including Southwest Spread, and he later wrote a book  entitled “Spread Formation Football,” but by  today’s standards it wasn’t really very “wide open.”  By the standards of a time when everyone else’s formation included two tight ends, though, it was definitely radical.

But  it was anything but “bombs away.”  As Baugh told The Washington Post years later, his intent was not to score quickly, but to control the ball against better teams:

"All the coaches I had in the pros, I didn't learn a damn thing from any of `em compared with what (— ——) taught me. He taught the short pass. The first day we go into a room and he has three S's up on a blackboard; nobody knew what that meant. Then he gives us a little talk and he says, `This is our passing game.' He goes up to the blackboard and he writes three words that complete the S's: `Short, Sure and Safe.' That was his philosophy — the short pass."Everybody loved to throw the long pass. But the point (— — —) made was, `Look at what the short pass can do for you.' You could throw it for seven yards on first down, then run a play or two for a first down, do it all over again and control the ball. That way you could beat a better team."

He had two great passers back-to-back  in Baugh and then little Davey O’Brien, and he took full advantage of their talents, but in no way could he be called soft.  In fact, his toughness earned him the nickname “Old Iron Pants.”

A favorite saying of his is now on a wall that TCU football players pass on their way to the field:  "Fight 'em until hell freezes over. Then fight 'em on the ice!”

Interestingly, despite his toughness and devotion to the game,  he  did not believe in working on Sundays.  Not for religious reasons, though - “To keep from going stale – to have time to think it over."

He took TCU to a national championship in 1938, and to Southwest Conference  titles in 1938, 1944, and 1951.

At a time when bowl games were few and only strong teams merited invitations, he took TCU to  seven bowl games, including the very first Cotton Bowl, in 1937.

When  he retired to become athletic director after the 1952 season, his overall record as football coach was 109-79-13.

In 1956, he returned briefly as baseball coach, and led TCU to the Southwest Conference championship. (He was 111–83–1 as baseball  coach.)

He served a year as president of the American Football Coaches Association, and he is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame.

He died in 1982, and as he requested in his will,  members of the Lettermen's Club of TCU served as honorary pallbearers at his funeral service.


FRIDAY,  SEPTEMBER  29, 2023 - “Choose the line of least expectation. Put yourself in your opposition’s shoes and try to see what course of action he will see as least probable.”   Basil Liddell Hart, Military Theorist


***********  THIS WEEKEND - WEEK EIGHTEEN  (OF TWENTY-ONE) - IN THE CFL


FRIDAY

TORONTO  (12-1) at WINNIPEG (10-4)  8 PM EDT

SASKATCHEWAN (6-8) at BC (10-4) 10:30 PM EDT

SATURDAY

MONTREAL (7-7) at OTTAWA (4-10)    4 PM EDT

CALGARY  (4-10) at HAMILTON (6-8)  7 PM EDT


*********** THERE REALLY AREN’T  MANY COMPELLING COLLEGE GAMES THIS WEEKEND  

COLORADO AT USC - My new favorite team is whoever’s playing the Woofalos
CLEMSON AT SYRACUSE - This is the Orange’s first  test. Clemson’s coming off an OT loss - one that they should have won - to FSU. Clemson should be - and is - favored by 6.5
UTAH STATE AT UCONN - I’ll watch for a while.
FLORIDA AT KENTUCKY - This one could be a fistfight
TEXAS A & M AT ARKANSAS - A & M’s favored by a TD. Woooo Pig
VIRGINIA AT BOSTON COLLEGE - Someone’s got to win. I say UVa.
ARIZONA STATE AT CAL - Cal will win, but not by 12.5
ILLINOIS AT PURDUE - Based on their records, this ought to be a game. Purdue’s picked by 1.5
KANSAS AT TEXAS - Longhorns are big favorites.  This is my upset pick.
SOUTH FLORIDA AT NAVY - Middies are favored by 3.5.  I’m thinking they’ve been getting better every week and  they could win big.
BOISE  STATE AT MEMPHIS - Memphis favored by 3.5
LSU AT OLE MISS - One of Saturday’s few really attractive games. Tigers are favored by 2.5
OREGON AT STANFORD - I hate to see what’s likely to happen to Stanford, but I like to watch the Ducks
MICHIGAN STATE AT IOWA - I’m  still somewhat interested in the Brian Ferentz story.  He needs a lot of points and this  is a chance to get some.
NOTRE DAME AT DUKE - The dream come true of every Duke season ticket holder, who never imagined a day when a 4-0 Duke team  (I don’t care who the “4” were) would host Notre Dame - and be only a 6.5 point underdog.
SAN DIEGO STATE AT AIR FORCE -  I am almost addicted to watching the Air Force offense, as it shows that you CAN still run the triple option.   Poor SDSU.  They’re going to lose again, I’m afraid.
PITT AT VIRGINIA TECH - A disappointing Pitt team is slightly favored over a program whose performance over the last couple of years has to be killing its  fan base.
WASHINGTON AT ARIZONA - Hey - it kicks off at 7 PM Pacific. What else is there to watch?  Nevada at Fresno? 



***********  THE PAC 12 THIS WEEKEND

IT’S A LAME SATURDAY EVERYWHERE, AND THE PAC-12 IS NO EXCEPTION - Only one Pac-12 game (Utah at Oregon State) is expected to be close - and it’s on Friday night!

FRIDAY NIGHT:  #10 Utah is a 3.5 point underdog at #19 Oregon State - Am I missing something? A #19 team, coming off a rather disappointing loss, is favored over the undefeated defending conference champion that just knocked off another ranked team. WTF?

#7 Washington at Arizona + 17.5 - Huskies have yet to be tested.  Are they really that good?  Beware of Saturday night games in Tucson.

#8 - USC  is a 21.5 point favorite over Colorado.  Hey, Colorado - I’ve got a great idea. Go out before the game and wipe your feet on the logo at midfield.  This week, your home, and it’s your own logo, so maybe it’ll get you so pissed you’ll take it out on USC.  Worth a try. Actually, if USC’s defense is as soft as it’s looked at times, this could be a game for a while.

#9 Oregon is a 27.5 point favorite over Stanford.  That’s all?

Cal is favored by 12.5 over Arizona State. I can’t see that big a win over the ASU that  gave USC a game.

UCLA - BYE

#16 WASHINGTON STATE - BYE


*********** Top Ten?

1. Georgia at Auburn +14.5
2. Michigan at Nebraska + 17.5
3. Texas (home) vs Kansas +16.5
4. Ohio State - BYE
5. Florida State - BYE
6. Penn State at Northwestern +27.5
7. Washington at Arizona +17.5
8. USC (home) vs Colorado +21.5
9. Oregon at Stanford +27.5
10. Utah + 3.5 at Oregon State

I might have expected the money guys to think more highly of Kansas.  That’s my pick for an upset. And as I said elsewhere, I’m baffled at Oregon State being favored over Utah.


*********** I look at the speed and precise execution  of the Air Force triple option and I’m more inclined than ever to think that the reason that Army isn’t running it any longer has nothing to do with  rules changes outlawing “cut” blocking outside the free blocking zone.

But  it may be for a different reason than I’ve suggested.

I’m beginning to  think, after watching Army all but get away from running triple option the last couple of years anyhow - when they were still under center - that the reason is that  they don’t have anybody who can teach it.  And so they’ve thrown in the towel.

Army’s fans are a sharp bunch, and over the last few years they’ve commented on Army’s deserting the triple.  I doubt that in the last three seasons, they ran even a dozen triple option plays that got as far as the pitch man and worked as successfully as several that  Air Force ran in one game last Saturday night. Navy, too - with a new head coach and a new OC, the Mids broke one for 75 yards against Memphis.

It’s a whole lot easier to teach the slower moving, slower developing and slower hitting option out of shotgun.  It doesn’t demand anywhere near the precision that the wishbone and its derivatives do.  Actually, though, here we are,  four games into the season,  and so far they don’t even seem to have taught  that.


***********  Deion is paying dividends. And especially  when you consider what Oregon State-Washington State was  up against in the same time period - Ohio State-Notre Dame, Iowa-Penn State, Texas-Baylor and Arkansas-LSU - the Pac-2 showed they can draw Power 5 ratings.



*********** Before leaving Bobby Dodd's book "Dodd's Luck," I wanted to include this, just to show how far ahead of the pack Coach Dodd was, in so many respects.

"He was the first coach to be chairman of the board,” Frank Broyles said. "All other head coaches had been active in the on-field coaching and the assistant coaches just kind of helped out. But Coach Dodd was the first one who saw the advantages of being chairman of the board and delegating the responsibility. So he delegated to me the offensive part of the game, and to Ray Graves the defensive. "

"I coached the coaches, "Dodd said, "and then they coached the players."

Dodd’s decision to become the chairman of the board was a shrewd, timely maneuver. The two-platoon system had gradually been accepted (1950 was the first year players chosen for the all American team were separated into offensive and defensive categories).    No longer did the 11 best athletes have to play both offense and defense. No longer did players have to perform all 60 Minutes. The age of specialization had dawned in college football, and Dodd was awake well before dawn.

“We started playing a boy for what he could do, and nothing else,” Dodd said. "If he could cover a punt, we'd let him cover a punt. If he could cover a kickoff, he'd cover a kickoff. If he could play defense, we'd play him on defense. We just played him on what he could do.

"And we carried 55 players, whatever was necessary. We'd keep them all, and we kept them all happy because they were all getting in the game, and we were winning with it. We were very specialized, very specialized.”

Naturally,  the coaches had to be as specialized as the players.    "One thing that helped us a great deal is that that was the year I organized my coaching staff into offense and defense,” Dodd said.  "Three offensive coaches, three defensive coaches. They had their group meetings. I had a B team coach and a freshman coach. We had a good organization, real good. And we had more coaches than most people had at that time.”

All of that is now standard coaching and organizational procedure in college football. It was an innovation in 1951, however, and Bobby Dodd was one of the original innovators.

 

*********** Brooks Robinson is gone and I’m poorer. We’re all poorer.   Brooks - that’s all anybody in Maryland ever called him, because everybody knew who you meant - was a treasure, a great baseball player and a great guy. We were blessed to have lived in Baltimore and to have had him and John Unitas at the same time.  And it’s not as if we  looked back, years later, and realized how blessed we were at the time.  We knew it even then. God bless Brooks Robinson.
 

***********   Don’t know if you saw this but a coach in Cleveland resigned after using Nazi signals  during a game against a school in a neighborhood that is 90 percent Jewish. Who thought this was a good idea? You just can't make this crap up.

Mike Foristiere
Topeka, Kansas

Evidently the coach  (now the  former coach)  said he’d used “Nazi” as some sort of defensive call for years. Maybe so, but I really would have thought  that in preparing to play a team that might have even one Jewish kid on it - not to mention one from  a town that’s heavily Jewish -  someone  would have been intelligent enough, educated enough, to consider the  wisdom  of using a term connected with the murder of millions of Jews. 

Do you suppose they use  “Klan” when they play an inner-city school?  (I rather doubt it.)


https://www.news5cleveland.com/news/local-news/we-follow-through/parents-and-leaders-demand-accountability-brooklyn-pledges-change-after-controversial-nazi-play-call


*********** I take back all the nice things I’ve said about Coach Sanders - well, maybe not all of them.  But certainly some of them.  Definitely anything nice I might have said about the way his players (including at least one of his sons) conduct themselves.

From now on, my favorite team is whoever’s playing these loudmouth “student-athletes.”

So, Go Trojans! (Do you know how much  it hurts to say that?)

Meantime, check out this production of the Oregon video people -    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7mSdhxb7Mo


*********** If, like me, you think America is f—ked up and it’s getting worse, you’re  not mistaken, and here’s a major reason why:

Writes Jason Riley in the Wall Street Journal this week…. “In 1960 only 5% of babies were born to unwed mothers in the US. In 2019 it was almost 50%. US children are the most likely in the world to live with only one parent.”


***********  Wine may get better with age , but beer doesn’t.  Neither does Joe Namath.

I didn’t like him when he was a player and my dislike for him has grown over the years, and  with all the problems the Jets have right now - few of them of their own making - the last thing they need is this playboy-past-his-prime  trying to get attention again by publicly criticizing his former team.


***********   A few weeks ago, I printed the email of a coach whose  QB quit, weeks into the season,  because he (and Daddy) didn't like the Open Wing.  Here's an update.

We won yesterday 36-12 with a sophomore at QB. The score should have been wider. Honest to God, we were flagged for not having a receiver on the LOS to the Strong side on a play that went for a TD. I nearly had an aneurysm pointing out the TE after the fact. To no avail.

We are pretty limited in what we can run. We didn’t go much past GO, Criss Cross, Wedge and Reach. Next week we play a nationally ranked team, but for now we are going to enjoy beating a school with three times our population using “that predictable offense.”


First of all, congratulations. Things are rarely as bad as we anticipate.

Second of all, be sure to read (on my page) Darrell Royal’s tale of going a whole season with basically five plays.

Third, what’s it say about opposing coaches if what you’re doing is so predictable - and yet you’re still beating them?


***********  Very happy for coaches Jake Dickert and Lance Leipold and all their success -- need to support the coaches connected to the state of Wisconsin. Dickert (Washington State) grew up in state including time up here in nearby Oconto. Then he graduated from UW-Stevens Point, the school my son graduated from. Liepold grew up in state and became a legend at UW-Whitewater.

Adam Wesoloski
Pulaski, Wisconsin

Both excellent coaches! I'm sure that beating Wisconsn meant a lot to Coach Dickert.


***********  A longtime highly successful Double Wing youth coach I know was persuaded to come back and “help out.” I hear this same basic story a lot… (Needless to say, I need to withhold his name.)

As a humorous (sad?) side story, the new OC (he admits he has only coached flag football before this season) "installed" 24 new plays using wristbands and diagrams for the backs and ends last week.  The results in our game were predictable, to say the least.  8 total turnovers, 6 interceptions.  A pick 6 on the second play of the game which was the only score (we lost 0 - 7).

So much for opening up the offense.

He told me, "well I guess we cannot throw the ball so much with this group".  I tried to inform him of the "less is more" approach.  "Coach, in the past our teams have won conference championships using the same basic 6 plays the entire season".  He doesn't seem to want to hear it.

Not sure I am getting through, but will keep trying.  I am hanging in there mainly for the boys at this point.

After leaving practice, all I can think about is how much more I could do with this group using our Open Wing/Double Wing concepts.  Hopefully, I will get that chance again in the future.


***********  You are correct to indict college presidents. If I were hiring, I'd draw a bead on the candidate's character before his academic provenance. Taken as a whole, they are a pathetic lot. They'll wax poetic about their precious 'student-athletes' (of all sports), immediately after which they'll break an arm to sign a contract that will earn the school five dollars more, but requiring the athletes to miss more class time in travel across the continent for a Duke-Washington field hockey match.


I could well be wrong, but in the past weeks I've noticed what I think of as the 'Deion Effect' in CFB. You pointed out the Day and Lanning comments, but there has been more of that coach grandstanding since Deion appeared. I'm not condemning Deion, either. He is a great speaker, and he was a great player. He has many coaches wondering how they'll be able to recruit against him. Some have decided the solution is to become more like Deion. I think in the end mimicking Deion will prove to have been a mistake.


The Oregon Ducks are good. Very good. They look like a complete team.

John Vermillion                            
St Petersburg, Florida







QUIZ ANSWER: His last name didn't indicate it, but Tony Mason was pure Italian. He loved people, he loved to laugh, and he loved to tell stories. He had few peers as a motivational speaker.

He also was a good football coach whose coaching career - and life - had tragic endings.

He was a native of Sharon, Pennsylvania, son of a tavern owner,  and played his college football at Clarion State (now Clarion University) as an offensive and defensive tackle.

During service in the Korean War, he got to know members of the Oklahoma National Guard, many of whom were OU football players, and through them, he got to know  legendary coach Bud Wilkinson.

After his discharge, he began as a high school coach in Ohio, and in his early years he would leave immediately after a Friday night game and drive to Oklahoma in time to catch a Sooners’ game and  visit with Wilkinson.

In 1953, at the age of 25, he became head coach at Brookfield, Ohio, just across the state line from his home in Sharon. In his five years there, he had a record of 40-6-1, including three straight undefeated seasons and  a 28-game winning streak.

From there, he moved 15 miles west to Niles, Ohio, where in six years as coach of  McKinley High, he compiled a 47-3-6 mark that included  four undefeated seasons and two Ohio state championships.

Now an Ohio coaching legend, he accepted a position on Bump Elliott’s  staff at Michigan, where he stayed for five years until Elliott was fired. From there, he moved to Purdue, where he coached the defensive line for four years until he landed the head coaching job at Cincinnati.

Taking over a team that had gone 2-9 in 1972, he took the Bearcats to a  7-4 mark in 1974.  He followed up with a 6-5 season in 1975 and an 8-3 season in 1976.  It was the first time since the great Sid Gillman had left in 1954 that Cincinnati had had three straight winning seasons.

That was  enough to interest the people at Arizona, who hired him after Jim Young left to take the Purdue job.

In his first year in Tucson the Wildcats went 5-7, playing in the old Western Athletic Conference, and in his second year, they entered play in the Pac-10 for the first time, finishing 5-6 with a 3-4 conference  record.

In his third year, the Wildcats finished 6-5-1 and earned a berth in the Fiesta Bowl, their  first bowl appearance in 11 years.

But he was forced to resign when an NCAA investigation discovered  a slush fund being used to make illegal payments to players, and Arizona was placed on probation and banned from bowl games and TV broadcasts for two years.

He was accused of having submitted false airline tickets to the university for reimbursement, claiming under oath that it was necessary to receive payment for money he had spent out of pocket on university business.

He faced criminal charges of theft, conspiracy, fraud and tampering with public documents, and the possibility of 30 years in prison if convicted on all charges, but a jury found him not guilty of any of the charges.

Nonetheless, he was out of work and his marriage was at an end. He never coached again, bit he did find some work as a broadcaster, and he began to make a very good living as a speaker.

He was really good.  I heard him speak once and he could get you wound up.

He seemed to be especially well liked in Texas, and he was on his way  to speak to a coaches’ clinic in Texas when he suffered a heart attack in the Cleveland airport and died. He was 66.

Tony Mason is a member of the Ohio High School Hall of Fame, and, he is believed to have been the first non-Texan ever inducted into the Texas High School Coaches Association.

I SAID TONY MASON WAS A GOOD SPEAKER - IF YOU WANT SOME REALLY GOOD ADVICE ON BEING A COACH, KEEP THIS LINK, AND WHEN YOU’VE GOT THE TIME, LISTEN TO HIM!

https://youtu.be/Pl64iVMCVAU?si=YN2dyYV8tDXUrC8v



CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING TONY MASON

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
CHARLIE WILSON - BROOKSVILLE, FLORIDA
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS





*********** QUIZ:  They called him Stout Steve. He was a big man when he played pro football, and as a coach, he “grew” to where he weighed  somewhere in the neighborhood of 300 pounds.

He was born in a tiny town called Cleo Springs, Indian Territory - before it became  Oklahoma.

Life was tough there and he was a big kid - he weighed 220 by the time he was 16 -  and he would later tell of the times his father would wake him up in the middle of the night to wrestle some stranger he’d brought home. “I wasn’t allowed to go back to bed until I whipped the fellow Pop brought home,” he recalled.

He  spent his high school summers working in the Texas oil fields - 12-hour days, $3 a day - and went to little Phillips College, where he played football and made some money on the side wrestling professionally as “Jack O’Brien.”

After service in World War I, he spent a year coaching at Phillips, then worked for a couple of years in the oil fields before signing  to play  football for $50 a game for a “traveling team” based in Kansas City. He was 26. He played a second year for a team in Cleveland, and then was sold to the New York Giants for $500.

He came to the Giants in 1926, and he would remain with them - as a player, then a player-coach, then  their  head coach - for 28 years.

In 1927, he led the Giants to an NFL title, and was named All-Pro.  “Football was a different game then,” he would recall. “The ball was bigger and harder to pass, you couldn’t pass from closer than five yards behind the line of scrimmage, and, in 1927, they moved the goal posts back ten yards from the goal line. But the big difference was the way we played the game. We were pretty much a smash-and-shove gang. We were bone crushers, not fancy Dans.”

In 1930, he served as player-coach, and  in 1931, he became the Giants’ head coach. 

He would hold  the job through 1953, and he never had a contract - 23 years “on a handshake.”

He was known for solid, fundamental  football.  “Football is a game played down in the dirt and it always will be,” he once said.  “There’s no use getting fancy about it.”

He especially believed in a sound defense.  His philosophy was “If they can’t score against you, they can’t beat you.”

Offensively, he was known for his “A formation,” a not very cleverly-named direct-snap variation of the single wing (he called it his “B formation”).

Essentially, the A formation had an unbalanced line to one side and an unbalanced backfield to the other. What made it tough to defend was the fact that the ball could be snapped to any one of three backs.  It worked for the Giants but no one else used it successfully because it required a great center,  which the Giants’ had, in all-time great Mel Hein.

Most of all, he deserves fame as the inventor of what became  the standard defense throughout the NFL - what came to be called called the “Pro 4-3”.

It was 1950, the first year of the merger of the AAFC and NFL.  The Cleveland Browns, champions of the AAFC in all four seasons of its existence, had sent shock waves though the NFL when in the opening game, they had defeated the Philadelphia Eagles,  two-time defending NFL  champions, 35-10.

The next week, they beat the Baltimore Colts, 31-0.

There was near-panic around the NFL. The Browns seemed unstoppable. Their  wide-open (for the time) offense was terrorizing the league - and now,  in week three, it was the New York Giants’ turn in the barrel.

But Stout Steve had a revolutionary scheme to stop for the Browns.  As told by Giants’ Hall-of-Fame defensive back Emlen Tunnell in his memoirs, “Footsteps of a Giant”…

The Cleveland quarterback, Otto Graham, often sent out four potential receivers against the opposition’s three deep backs. When Cleveland's great ends, MacSpeedie and Dante Lavelli, ran hook patterns that took them toward the middle of the secondary,  the Browns’ halfbacks,  Dub Jones and Rex Bumgardner or Ken Carpenter, would  double flare - a maneuver that took them outside and deep.  As an alternate to this, Speedie or Lavelli, or both, would run down and out to the sideline.  The sideline pass was Graham’s bread-and-butter play.

Stout Steve came up with an idea to congest the traffic along both sidelines.  When he put it on the blackboard, we knew we were looking at something new.  Our defensive ends, Ray Poole  and Jim Duncan, would drop off the scrimmage line to play in the secondary. Right there was the birth of the four-man line which is the pros’ basic defensive component today.  But there was more to come. To further clog up the airways for Graham  and his receivers,   Steve said, we would not use the usual three deep three defensive backs, but four.  He put that on the board, too, and although the deep defense was essentially the same that all pro clubs are using today, our four deep backs were not in a straight line across the field, as the backs usually are now. Our halfbacks, or cornerbacks as they have come to be called,  played slightly closer to the line of scrimmage than the two safety men did.

When we looked at the diagram we did not see what an anonymous sportswriter saw a few weeks later.  After watching our defensive setup for a few plays, this writer took a good hard look at it again and in a moment of inspiration called it the "umbrella defense." If you draw four linemen straight across,  a middle guard behind the line (who would come to be called a Middle Linebacker)  two  ends behind the line (who would come to be called outside linebackers), two halfbacks (corners)  behind and outside the end, and two deep backs (safeties) in the middle, you'll have the umbrella on paper.

The result was a stunning 6-0 upset win by the Giants.  And when they met a second time, in New York, the Giants won again, this time 17-13.

Those were the Browns’ only two losses that season, as they finished 12-2 and won the NFL title. (They did beat the Giants in their conference playoff, but it was no fault of the New York defense - the score was 8-3.)

Alone among NFL teams, the  Giants seemed to have the Browns’ number - in their  first three years in the NFL, the Browns lost just nine games. Four of them were to the Giants. 

Football coaches are no dummies, and when they see something  good, they’re likely to adopt it themselves, and add their touches to it. Tom Landry was a defensive back in Stout Steve’s  original umbrella defense, along with Hall of Fame defensive back Emlen Tunnell,  and a few years later,  as the Giants’ defensive coordinator, Landry would add his own refinements to  the modern 4-3.

Stout Steve’s  career record with the Giants was 155-108-17.  His 155 wins remain the most in Giants’ franchise history.

He won two NFL titles, one of them the famous 1934  “sneakers” game in which,  when the Giants trailed 10-3 at halftime with neither team able to get much traction  on the frozen field, the Giants  were able to secure  sneakers to wear in the second half, and their better footing enabled them to win, 30-13.

He is on the NFL’s 1920s All-Decade Team.

He is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame and the Giants’ Ring of Honor.

Although not everyone would consider it a badge of honor, at the time of our guy’s “retirement” in 1953, Chicago Bears’ legendary George Halas hailed him as an NFL pioneer, saying, “(He)  was the first to stress the importance of defense and the advantage of settling for field goals instead of touchdowns.”







TUESDAY,  SEPTEMBER  26,  2023 - “When you ask less of people, they don’t give you less; they give you much, much less.” Peggy Noonan


*********** I shouldn’t have been so busy that I neglected to mention the sad passing of Dartmouth coach Buddy Teevens, a Dartmouth guy who went out and climbed the coaching ladder  to Tulane and then Stanford, but finally found success back home - at Dartmouth.  He was their  coach for 18 years, with a record of 117-101-2.  In one four year stretch - 2017-2021 (with no season in 2020) the Big Green’s record was 35-5.

His death came months after a biking accident - he was hit by a pickup truck while riding his bike in Florida - left him with spinal cord injuries and required amputation of a leg.

It has to be a terrible blow to Dartmouth where,  as he recovered from his injuries, the football team has managed under an interim coach.

Dartmouth is a special place, whose relative  isolation from the urban East created a strong school spirit, and I’ve always admired the special feelings that Dartmouth people have for their school.  It was my second choice as a college, and I have no doubt that if I’d gone there I’d have come to love it the way its alumni do.


https://home.dartmouth.edu/news/2023/09/dartmouth-community-gathers-remember-buddy-teevens-79

https://dartmouthalumnimagazine.com/buddy-teevens-in-memoriam



*********** It all started when Colorado hired Deion before they had the money to pay him…

Colorado, you remember, was the first  to desert the Pac-10.  Wanted to rejoin its old mates in the old Big Eight, the story went.

Nice try, Buffs.  You’re as dirty as they come and  the predatory Big 12 and its filthy commissioner deserve you.

It was reported Friday by USA Today that there was a little greasing of the wheels  that took place behind the scenes to “facilitate” the Buffaloes’ departure.  A divorce lawyer might call it alienation of affection.

Through an open-records request, USA Today learned that Colorado received a $2.5 million “signing bonus” from the Big 12.  All it had to do to collect was leave the Pac-12.

Now, you don’t suppose that the fact that CU’s vulnerability because it had written a check that it couldn’t cover had anything to do with the Big 12’s “offer” do you?

Can you believe that there might actually be Big 12 university presidents who are aware of the ugliness going on on their behalf -  and some who might even  have  signed off on it?


https://www.yardbarker.com/college_football/articles/amp/big_12_reportedly_paid_impressive_signing_bonus_to_colorado/s1_127_39294896



***********  THIS PAST WEEKEND IN THE CFL

FRIDAY

OTTAWA (4-10) 36  SASKATCHEWAN (6-8) 28

BC (10-4) 37 EDMONTON (4-11) 29


SATURDAY

MONTREAL (7-7) 28   CALGARY  (4-10)  11

TORONTO  (12-1) 29  HAMILTON (6-8) 14 


***********  THE PAC 12 THIS WEEKEND

There are still six Pac-12 teams in the Top 25.

Conference play took its toll this past weekend, with last weeks’ #22, UCLA, losing by seven to Utah and dropping out, and Colorado, #18 last week, dropping out after being trounced by Oregon.

In this week’s AP Top 25 poll, there are four Pac-12 teams bunched together in places 7-10.

#7 Washington (20.5 point favorite) beat Cal 59-32 and moved up a place.

The score makes it seem closer than it really was: it was 45-12 at the half.  Huskies had 529 total yards - 389 passing - but Cal actually had 502 yards (363 passing, 139 rushing).

#8 - USC (35.5 point favorite) struggled to put Arizona State away, 42-28 - dropped three places. The score was 21-13, USC at the half.  It was 27-19 after three.  Get this:  ASU’s Drew Pyne, a transfer (reject, actually) from Notre Dame,  was 21/36 for 221 yards and two TDs.  Compare that with ND’s Sam Hartman, who against Ohio State was 17/25 for 175 yards and one TD. Hmmm. ASU’s  running back, Cameron Skattebo, a transfer from Sacramento State, carried 20 times for 111 yards and a TD.

#9 Oregon (21 point favorite) beat Colorado 42-6. Oregon moved up a place. Colorado, #18 last week,  dropped out.

Ducks’ QB Bo Nix completed 28 of 33 passes for 276 yards and three touchdowns, and ran for another score. Oregon outgained Colorado 522-199. The Ducks ran 73 offensive plays and averaged more than seven yards a play.

UO’s defense sacked quarterback Shedeur Sanders seven times and held Colorado’s run game to 1.6 yards per carry.

#10 Utah (4.5 point favorite) beat UCLA 14-7.  Utah moved up a place.  UCLA, #22 last week, dropped out. Utah is 4-0 in four games without its starting quarterback and its stats reflect that fact: the Utes are ranked near the bottom in FCS passing yardage.

#16 Washington State (2.5 point underdog) beat #19 Oregon State, 38-35. Washington State moved up five places. Oregon State, #14 last week, dropped five places.  Talk about blowing an opportunity:  Oregon State sleepwalked through most of the first three quarters before it decided to play football. The Cougars know how to jump on your butts - they did the same thing against Wisconsin.

Arizona  beat Stanford, 21-20.

With announcer after announcer conceding that right now that the Pac-12 is the nation’s best conference, shouldn’t what’s left of the conference - Oregon State and Washington State - be able to  fire a commissioner so incompetent he couldn’t get the conference a TV deal?


*********** Top Ten?

Is there anybody other than Texas (over Alabama) and Penn State (over Iowa) that can claim a really convincing win yet?
 
No, Ohio State’s was NOT convincing. And neither was Florida State’s win in OT over Clemson.


*********** SERVICE ACADEMIES

ARMY:

If your team sucks in the first half and comes out in the second half playing as if its hair’s on fire, you go home with hope.

If, on the other hand, as Army did this past Saturday, it comes out with guns blazing  and goes in at halftime leading unbeaten Syracuse, then comes back out and can barely make a first down - you’re left  wondering.  Did they figure us out? Are they just that much better? Is our new offensive scheme at fault?

It was 10-3 Army at the half. It was 29-16 Syracuse, final.  (Army’s last six points came on an 80-yard pass with 2:30 to play and the game already decided.)

Army started the game with the sort of drive for which, as a triple option team,  it had become famous, gobbling up yardage and clock.  In the first half, Army dominated the running game, with 129 yards to Syracuse’s 18.

But in the second half, the tables were turned, with Syracuse rushing for 140 while holding Army to -4. 

I suspect that inexperience on the part of Army’s offensive coaches caused them to abandon their game plan.

And I know they take pride in aggressiveness, the warrior spirit and all that, but there’s such as thing as charging across no man’s land into machine gun fire.  So with 10:25 left in the game, on their own  27 yard line, WTF were they thinking, going for it on FOURTH AND EIGHT???

For the game, Army actually gained more in the air than on the ground. That’s not exactly good, when you pass for  only 145 and  80 of the passing yards come on one long scoring play with the game out of reach. Two of Army’s 21 passes (nine completions) were intercepted.

I want those Army football people put in charge of guarding our nuclear secrets, because it evidently takes an FOIA request  to get any information out of them.  With Army’s offense  completely stalled and in danger of going into reverse, there was never a sign - not one - of Hayden Reed, who last week carried 20 times for 107 yards and a TD against UTSA.  The word from Army football: crickets. For all we know, he's in the Witness Protection Program.

Give the Orange credit: it’s the first time they’ve opened a season 4-0 since 1991, and the first time they’ve done it two seasons in a row since 1959 (when they went 11-0 and won the national title) and 1960 (when they went 7-2; one of the losses was to Army, before 66,000 in Yankee Stadium.)


AIR FORCE:  The best thing an Army fan can hope for is that their coach, Jeff Monken, will manage to slip the news to Air Force coach Troy Calhoun that because of the new rules, you just can’t run under-center triple-option any more.  That may be the only way to stop Air Force. 

Otherwise, since Calhoun obviously hasn’t been told yet that he can’t run his offense,  Air Force just keeps running it… and running it… and running it.

Air Force trailed San Jose State 20-17 at the half.  Final score: Air Force 45, SJSU 20.

Air Force has now held 11 straight opponents to 21 points or less.

Actually, the Falcons were down 20-10 with just minutes remaining in the half, but they put on a 75-yard march and scored just before intermission.

The  Falcons received the second half kickoff and drove 75 yards in 15 plays.  (The fullback carried on 13 of them.)

San Jose State then had a three-and-out, and Air Force answered with another long drive that ended the third period - three straight drives of 10 plays or more by Air Force, three plays by San Jose State.

Air Force had five scoring drives of 10 or more plays.

The Falcons  rushed for 400 yards and passed for 28. 

The Air Force fullbacks carried 44  times for 211 yards, and the quarterback, Zachary Larrier, carried 11 times for 39 yards.

The halfbacks  carried 17 times for 150 yards;  one of them, John Eldridge, carried 10 times for 102 yards and two TDs.  Some of that yardage came on sweeps but most of it  came on the pitch end of triple options. 

So, yes, they’re still running it.  Even though the rules, we’re told, forced Army to give up on its triple option attack.


NAVY:  The Midshipmen were off this past weekend.


*********** COACHES…


*** Army’s Jeff Monken claims he had to change offenses because rules changes outlawing “cut blocking” made his triple option “unsustainable.”

Meanwhile…

Air Force rushed for 400 yards Friday night. At least 1/2 of that total was triple option plays, and 1/4 of it was triple option plays that resulted in pitches. The Falcons lead the nation in rushing.

Navy, playing Memphis, scored  on a classic 75-yard triple option pitch to a halfback.

MORAL:   "Nothing is so embarrassing as watching someone do something that you said couldn’t be done.” Sam Ewing


*** I wish I’d been there when Oregon’s Dan Lanning chose to let the TV people film his pre-game talk to his kids - the one where he took aim at Deion and Colorado, saying “they’re fighting for clicks, we’re fighting for wins.”

I’d have said that while undoubtedly  many other career coaches - guys who’d scratched and clawed their way  through season after season as assistants in order to get where they are today - joined him in resenting the undue attention being given to Deion Sanders, a mere tyro in the coaching game, he had to understand that his large salary was made possible by “clicks.”

Like it or not, media attention is what attracts viewers to the TV, and TV money is what drives coaches’ salaries as high as they are. Without TV, Coach Lanning  and  the rest of the power 5 coaches wouldn’t have the pay and the perks that they do, and if Deion Sanders can bring viewers to watch Colorado, then all other coaches should be happy to call him one of them.

But no-o-o-o-o.

He knew his team was a lot better than Deion’s, and the final score (42-6) reflected it.  But instead of leaving it at that - of letting his pads do the talking, as we so often tell our players to do -  he had to stage it as pro wrestling. On national TV. 

And  just as they say that you should never get into it with people who buy ink by the barrel, it wasn’t wise to make disparaging remarks about a guy who’s better known for his AFLAC commercials than you are as a Power 5 football coach.


*** Deion Sanders was the model of composure and grace post-game, as he took responsibility for the big loss at Oregon.  He pointed no fingers. And although he  didn’t mention the things that Oregon appeared to have done to run up the score, he did suggest that it people were planning on beating Colorado this might be the best year to do it. (We know, because he told us, that he “keeps receipts.”)


*** There had to be a half-dozen or so Notre Dame coaches and analysts in the press box, and you’d have thought that one of them - or maybe even just the student assistant charged with bringing them snacks and drinks - would have been assigned to count the number of players on the field.  I know, I know - it’s always eleven.  Yeah, until it isn’t.

Wouldn’t you just know that Saturday, on the biggest play of this season’s biggest game, Ohio State, with time for just one play, scored from a yard out to defeat a Notre Dame team that had just ten men on the field.

How could that happen?  We see plenty of cases where the defense has too many men on the field, but too few?

Chalk it up to today’s overcoaching, where there’s a different “personnel group” - a different 11 players - for every down, distance and field position.

So Notre Dame was a player short - and NOBODY KNEW!

Now, I can’t help thinking that somebody on the field would have noticed that the guy who usually lines up next to him wasn’t there.  And,  knowing that his team was out of timeouts, as a  true Golden Domer, he might have invoked the memory of Frank Varrichione…

(From my QUIZ profile on him, in July 2018)

At Notre Dame, he quickly earned a starting position at offensive tackle, and earned notoriety - and a nickname - his junior year when, just before halftime against Iowa, with time running out and Notre Dame out of timeouts, he faked an injury. The clock was stopped, the Irish managed to score a touchdown, the game ended in a 14-14 tie, and Notre Dame went on to finish the season - (Coach) Leahy’s last - with a 9-0-1 record and a piece of the national championship.

He received flowers from sarcastic Iowa fans; he received an “Academy Award” for Best Actor from his teammates; on a television show, he explained, “If you were on the ground and looked at the scoreboard and saw you were trailing and running out of time,  wouldn’t you feel hurt?”

And he received a nickname - “Faintin’ Frank” - one that would stick with him through an 11-year career in the NFL.

I bring up Frank Varrichione because in the Notre Dame I grew up knowing, in the win-one-for-the-Gipper tradition, someone  on the Irish defense would have noticed that there was a player missing, and, in the spirit of Faintin’ Frank, would have keeled over, an apparent victim of cardiac arrest.  And after the EMTs worked on him and tens of thousands said prayers for his immortal soul, play would resume - with 11 men on the Irish side of the ball.

I guarantee you that before midnight Saturday, at colleges all over the nation, head coaches had already called  their ADs asking  for more money for another assistant - assigned to count the players on the field on every play.

(Actually, what many people seem to have overlooked is that, going up against only ten men, Ohio State still barely managed to score.)


*** I  sort of like Ohio State’s Ryan Day, maybe more than anything because he’s a New Hampshire guy, and I have fond memories of boyhood summers in the Granite State, but  when he used his post-game interview as a soap box, I found myself saying, “WTF’s the matter with this guy?”

He’d just pulled off the hairiest of hairy wins over an unbeaten opponent - at the opponent’s place, yet - and despite all the chestnuts that every college coach has at his disposal - “this group of kids really showed what they’re made of…” “we couldn’t have done it without the support of Buckeye nation…” “We still have a lot of work to do but we’re going to enjoy this one tonight…” “Our kids refused to quit…” “We just beat a very good team…” Blah, blah, blah…

He had to go off on how tough his team was, how Lou Holtz (remember him?) had dared to  suggest they were “soft,” and blah, blah, blah and  it was “Ohio against the world” or some such nonsense.  (Nothing against Ohio, very nice state with very nice people, but if that’s what’s coming up, I’m taking the world and giving points.)

But to address his point:

Ohio State?  Soft?  Where would anyone get that idea?  Why, softness was the last word that entered  mind back there with a little over four minutes to play when you trailed by four and you were on the Notre Dame 10-yard line.  On fourth and inches, and you ran a - jet sweep.  (And lost a yard.)

I suppose that’s what a team that takes pride in its toughness does.

Later, though, on the goal line with time for one last play - and Notre Dame missing a man on its defensive front - the Buckeyes did manage to run the ball between the tackles - and scored by a whisker.

But soft?  You won’t get that out of me.  I heard what Coach Day said about Lou Holtz, who has 249 college wins and a national championship (exactly 200 wins and one national championship more than Ryan Day) so he’d really tear me a new one.


*** Oklahoma State’s Mike Gundy, one of the longest-tenured coaches in college football is now 2-2, with Kansas State and Kansas coming up. The Cowboys were beaten by Iowa State, 34-27.  The Cyclones’ Matt Campbell is also 2-2 and has a chance to  right the ship, but he’s got Oklahoma and TCU coming up.


*** I respect Lane Kiffin, and I’ve actually come to like him as a person, but does Nick Saban have his number, or what?  And Saban, back to his original starting QB?  The Tide has Mississippi State this week, but the week after that they go to Texas A & M.


*** Down by a score in OT, Clemson’s Dabo Swinney is faced with a 3rd and 1. So he calls a smoke  screen - and it loses two yards.  Now, on a less-makeable  fourth and three, they throw incomplete. Game over.


*********** In writing about Eddie LeBaron, I mentioned the  role he played in introducing the Belly Series to Georgia Tech’s Bobby Dodd:

The story, as told in the book “Dodd’s Luck,” about Georgia Tech’s legendary coach, Bobby Dodd:

In the summer of 1950, Dodd returned to Chicago to serve as an assistant coach for the college All-Star team. This time, one of dodge quarterbacks was a half pint Houdini named Eddie LeBaron. One day during practice, Dodd recalled, “Eddie and I were out there, fooling around, which we’d  do every once in a while. Hiding the ball, talking about different things. And he told me they had this play at Pacific, which they got a lot out of, called the Belly Series. I said, ‘Show it to me.’”

LeBaron demonstrated the Belly Series. Dodd was captivated. “He was clever, as could be,” Dodd said. “Just a great quarterback. Anyway, he showed me the Belly Series and I immediately knew it was good.”

But just as the Delaware Wing-T might never have had the influence it did if it hadn’t been adopted by Iowa, and introduced to a national TV audience by the Hawkeyes’ convincing Rose Bowl win, the Belly series might  never have taken off without the exposure a succession of great Georgia Tech teams gave it.  The story goes on…

It was the kind of offensive attack in which Bobby Dodd would have thrived as a quarterback, relying on ball handling, deception, and quick thinking. “The secret of it,” Dodd said, as he jumped to his feet to demonstrate, putting his hands together as if taking the snap from center, then pivoting to hand off, “was that the quarterback had the option at the line of scrimmage, either to hand off to the fullback coming up the middle, or to pull it back and go wide. Sometimes, of course, he’d give him the ball, but the fullback’s covered up by the line blocking, and the linebackers over there can’t see if he’s got the ball. And we blocked just exactly the same whether we’re going to give him the ball or not.

“And then, if we don’t give it to him, the quarterback takes the ball, and he pitches it back to the halfback, who’s going to run wide. We would freeze the linebackers with the fullback fake and then pitch the ball.   And we’d outrun them. I had speed galore. So we used the belly series, and we got a lot out of it. “

A lot more out of it than Pacific had, even with Eddie LeBaron. For Dodd didn’t just run the belly, he fattened it, expanded it.   Pacific ran the basic belly play, Dodd recalled. “But we added other plays.  We added what we called the inside belly. We rode the fullback, and then we handed the ball right behind him to the halfback, hitting off tackle, right off of his butt. Instead of going wide, we went off tackle.

“Then we got to where we put men in motion. We found out whether they’d go with the man in motion; if they did, we’d go back the other way. We did a lot with the belly series.”

Especially Frank Broyles, who may have done too much with the belly series for Dodd’s liking. It was Broyles, a staunch believer in the belly who extolled its virtues at coaching clinics, who also wrote the chapter on the belly series in Bobby Dodd on Football.

“Told everybody everything we were doing,” Dodd said, smiling. “I didn’t like that. I didn’t want everybody to know everything we knew about the belly series. But he and Graves (Ray Graves, the Tech defensive coordinator), they wanted to make money. But we got a lot out of it before other people started copying us. And we did more with it and stayed ahead of them a little bit. By the time they catch up with us this year, we’d do something different next year“

The belly series was a forerunner of the triple option, the wishbone offense that would dominate college football in the late 1960s and 1970s. There was one fundamental difference. “We didn’t want our quarterback running with the ball,” said Dodd, who had run only when absolutely necessary while playing at Tennessee. “In the split-T and the triple option, the quarterback runs with the ball some. We didn’t want our quarterback running the ball because our quarterbacks couldn’t run, to start with. And we were afraid they’d  get hurt.

“People like Broyles, he was not a runner, so we didn’t believe much in the quarterback running the ball. Later, we had Bill Brigman and Pepper Rodgers, but Pepper couldn’t run as fast as I could.“

*********** One good thing that came out of the Ohio State-Notre Dame game is that it won’t be long before those hideous green uniforms are burned - or some kids in some third world country are wearing them.


*********** I read that a female actually played a position in a college football game, between Division III Shenandoah and Juniata, but I really don’t think it’s such a great idea, especially after  I heard what can happen out there on the field. I heard an announcer on Saturday say about a guy being administered to, “He got a little knocked up on the play.”


*********** What’s going on with all the one-handed catches we’re seeing?  This is not reasonable.  Have we been raising  a  super race of people with enormous hands?  Is it  the gloves???


*********** Predicted TV audiences for this past weekend’s biggest college games (the actual ratings aren’t in yet):

Colorado at Oregon:  12.56 million
Ohio State at Notre Dame: 10.26 million
Florida State at Clemson: 5.92 million
Ole Miss at Alabama: 4.48 million
Iowa at Penn State: 3.45 million

Highest-rated games so far
Colorado State at Colorado: 9.3 million
Florida State vs LSU at Orlando: 9.17 million
Texas at Alabama: 8.76 million
Nebraska at Colorado: 8.73 million


*********** Brian Ferentz Meter…

Iowa points scored versus:

Utah State: 24
Iowa State: 20
Western Michigan: 41
Penn State: 0

Total points:  85

Coach Ferentz is now 15 points off pace to attain the average score of 25 points per game required to retain his job as offensive coordinator.

Fortunately, the Hawkeyes have Michigan State coming up this weekend.

Geez - is this really the stuff you want people writing about when they cover your team?

Do you suppose, when they drew up this contract, that not a single soul in the athletic department at Iowa realized its potential to submit their program to ridicule?


*********** Hey, former football players now making an easy buck as color guys: enough with the “hold your water.”

It’s okay in the locker room and it’s okay on the sidelines.

But it’s coarse and inappropriate in the mixed company that is a telecast.



***********  76 yards of total offense and 366 yards of punts.  There it is the Iowa way. UGH

Brad Knight
Clarinda, Iowa

Can’t say Coach Knight’s daughter, Hailee, doesn’t know how to pick ‘em.  She’s a sophomore at Kansas. The Jayhawks won a  total of nine games in the five years before she arrived;  they’re 10-7 since (4-0 this year).


**********  The answer, of course, is Edward (Not Eddie)* LeBaron. As an aside, he was always proudest that Chrysler named an automobile after him. I think he might've teared up when they broke the news to him.

Chancellor Diermeier should speak with Hillsdale's Larry Arnn, with Coach Lude as intermediary, about forming the NWC, the Non-Woke Conference of CFB. Of course, if they refused to pay high schoolers to visit, they would probably be relegated to NAIA, but so what?

Over the years you've generally been complimentary of Coach Billick. He was a winner who just faded away, a man not even seen as a TV commentator any longer. Another good man of recent Croat extraction.

That last Zoom was one of your all-timers, partly (but far from exclusively) because you broke down the Army game.

Week after week, I still watch CFB with passionate interest, but for how long will that continue, given the rot at its core that grows worse each week?

Coach Wyatt readers, please know I have never asked him to mention any of my books. But thanks anyway, Coach. You're as loyal to your readers as we are to you.

John Vermillion                
St Petersburg, Florida


*Hey! Anybody else catch the  dig on the first name???



  
*********** QUIZ ANSWER:  Eddie LeBaron was nicknamed The Little General, for his leadership ability  and his short stature, but  also in recognition of his wartime bravery  as a Marine second lieutenant.

He grew up near Modesto, California, and although he was very small by football standards, he became an  All-American quarterback at College of the Pacific (COP as it was nicknamed at the time), and he went on to play 11 years in the NFL.

In 1949, his senior year, Pacific went unbeaten, going 11-0 and earning a Number 10 ranking nationally.

They didn’t just beat opponents - they killed them. They barely won their opener, 7-6, over San Francisco, which two years later would field one of the greatest college  football teams of all time.   But that was as close as anyone would get.  Their next closest game was 34-7 over Cincinnati.

In 11 games, they scored an NCAA-record 575 points, and gave up just 66.    And they led the nation in total offense with 502.9 yards per game.

One of those 1949 games was 52-0 trouncing of Loyola, whose new coach, Jordan Olivar, had just moved west from Villanova.   That night,  Pacific rushed for 351 yards, and although Coach Olivar  had one of the nation’s leading passers at Loyola in Don Klosterman, what he saw must have impressed him enough to run the Pacific offense when he became head coach at Yale, and to eventually become an authority himself on the offense.

The  Pacific offense was based on what they called the “Belly” series, and their  quarterback played a major role in its becoming a major factor in football in the 1950s.

The story, as told in the book “Dodd’s Luck,” about Georgia Tech’s legendary coach, Bobby Dodd:

In the summer of 1950, Dodd returned to Chicago to serve as an assistant coach for the college All-Star team. This time, one of dodge quarterbacks was a half pint Houdini named Eddie LeBaron. One day during practice, Dodd recalled, “Eddie and I were out there, fooling around, which we’d  do every once in a while. Hiding the ball, talking about different things. And he told me they had this play at Pacific, which they got a lot out of, called the Belly Series. I said, ‘Show it to me.’”

LeBaron demonstrated the Belly Series. Dodd was captivated. “He was clever, as could be,” Dodd said. “Just a great quarterback. Anyway, he showed me the Belly Series and I immediately knew it was good. “

Running the Belly Series, with some additions of their own, Georgia Tech would become one of the dominant college teams of the decade of the fifties.

Eddie LaBaron  was a 10th-round pick by the Washington Redskins in the 1950 draft, but first, with a  war  starting in Korea, came military service as a Marine officer. .

He spent nine months in Korea, seven of them on the front lines in combat. He was twice wounded, and was awarded the Bronze Star for an act of heroism at Heartbreak Ridge.

He also found time to play some football for the very tough Quantico Marines, and led them to a 61-21 win over VPI (now Virginia Tech).

Back in the States, despite his height (5-7 in the military but generously reported in the NFL as 5-9) he wound up as the  Redskins’ starting quarterback  when veteran Sammy Baugh broke his hand.  Coached along by Baugh, he wound up throwing for 1400 yards and earning Rookie of the Year honors.

After two years with the Redskins, he jumped to the CFL along with two teammates, but returned after a year  and, under Coach Joe Kuharich, led the Skins to an 8-4 record. Hopes were high for 1955, but a preseason car accident ended the career of star Vic Janowicz and the Redskins finished a disappointing 6-6.

From then on, although he was the NFL's leading passer in 1958, it was three straight losing seasons with the Skins.  

His career was salvaged when in 1960 Tom Landry traded for him and made him the starting quarterback for the brand-new Dallas Cowboys franchise.   Don Meredith understudied him, until gradually, as Meredith became ready, Landry began to shuttle the two quarterbacks in and out, and LeBaron retired after four years with the Cowboys - and 11 years in the NFL.

He appeared in four Pro Bowls, and for five seasons he was in the top ten in passing. In 1958 he led the NFL’s quarterbacks in passing yardage.

For his career, he completed 898 of 1796 - exactly 50 per cent - for 13,399 yards and 104 touchdowns.

He also punted 171 times for 6995 yards (a 40.9 yard average).

While playing for the Redskins,  he had earned his law degree from George Washington University.  After retirement as a player   he was able to put his legal talent and business and football expertise to use as General Manager of the Atlanta Falcons from 1977 to 1982,  and as their executive vice president and chief operating officer from 1982 through 1985.

In 1980, Eddie LeBaron was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame, and in 2008 he was inducted into the U.S. Marine Corps Sports Hall of Fame.

“Being a commander during a war is somewhat like being a quarterback in that you have control over a bunch of other guys, and you don't want to make a mistake on their behalf,” he once said. “The big difference, of course, is throwing an interception compared to watching one of your men shot and killed.”


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING EDDIE LEBARON

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
TOM DAVIS - SAN MARCOS, CALIFORNIA
CHARLIE WILSON - BROOKSVILLE, FLORIDA
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS



 

QUIZ: His last name didn't indicate it, but he was pure Italian. He loved people, he loved to laugh, and he loved to tell stories. He had few peers as a motivational speaker.

He also was a good football coach whose coaching career - and life - had tragic endings.

He was a native of Sharon, Pennsylvania, son of a tavern owner,  and played his college football at Clarion State (now Clarion University) as an offensive and defensive tackle.

During service in the Korean War, he got to know members of the Oklahoma National Guard, many of whom were OU football players, and through them, he got to know  legendary coach Bud Wilkinson.

After his discharge, he began as a high school coach in Ohio, and in his early years he would leave immediately after a Friday night game and drive to Oklahoma in time to catch a Sooners’ game and  visit with Wilkinson.

In 1953, at the age of 25, he became head coach at Brookfield, Ohio, just across the state line from his home in Sharon. In his five years there, he had a record of 40-6-1, including three straight undefeated seasons and  a 28-game winning streak.

From there, he moved 15 miles west to Niles, Ohio, where in six years as coach of  McKinley High, he compiled a 47-3-6 mark that included  four undefeated seasons and two Ohio state championships.

Now an Ohio coaching legend, he accepted a position on Bump Elliott’s  staff at Michigan, where he stayed for five years until Elliott was fired. From there, he moved to Purdue, where he coached the defensive line for four years until he landed the head coaching job at Cincinnati.

Taking over a team that had gone 2-9 in 1972, he took the Bearcats to a  7-4 mark in 1974.  He followed up with a 6-5 season in 1975 and an 8-3 season in 1976.  It was the first time since the great Sid Gillman had left in 1954 that Cincinnati had had three straight winning seasons.

That was  enough to interest the people at Arizona, who hired him after Jim Young left to take the Purdue job.

In his first year in Tucson the Wildcats went 5-7, playing in the old Western Athletic Conference, and in his second year, they entered play in the Pac-10 for the first time, finishing 5-6 with a 3-4 conference  record.

In his third year, the Wildcats finished 6-5-1 and earned a berth in the Fiesta Bowl, their  first bowl appearance in 11 years.

But he was forced to resign when an NCAA investigation discovered  a slush fund being used to make illegal payments to players, and Arizona was placed on probation and banned from bowl games and TV broadcasts for two years.

He was accused of having submitted false airline tickets to the university for reimbursement, claiming under oath that it was necessary to receive payment for money he had spent out of pocket on university business.

He faced criminal charges of theft, conspiracy, fraud and tampering with public documents, and the possibility of 30 years in prison if convicted on all charges, but a jury found him not guilty of any of the charges.

Nonetheless, he was out of work and his marriage was at an end. He never coached again, bit he did find some work as a broadcaster, and he began to make a very good living as a speaker.

He was really good.  I heard him speak once and he could get you wound up.

He seemed to be especially well liked in Texas, and he was on his way  to speak to a coaches’ clinic in Texas when he suffered a heart attack in the Cleveland airport and died. He was 66.

He is a member of the Ohio High School Hall of Fame, and, he is believed to have been the first non-Texan ever inducted into the Texas High School Coaches Association.


FRIDAY,  SEPTEMBER  22, 2023 - “A university’s obligation is not to protect students from ideas, but rather expose them to ideas, to help make them capable of handling, and hopefully having,  ideas.” Daniel Diermeier, Chancellor, Vanderbilt University

**********  THIS WEEKEND - WEEK SIXTEEN  (OF TWENTY-ONE) - IN THE CFL


FRIDAY

SASKATCHEWAN (6-7) at OTTAWA (3-10) 7 PM EASTERN

BC (9-4) at EDMONTON (4-10) 9:30 PM EASTERN


SATURDAY

MONTREAL (6-7) at CALGARY  (4-9)  4 PM EASTERN

HAMILTON (6-7) at  TORONTO  (11-1) 7 PM EASTERN


***********  THE PAC 12 THIS WEEKEND

The Pac-12 finished  out-of-conference play with a 28-5 record.

Eight Pac-12 teams in the Top 25 last week?  It was fun while it lasted.

Now the cannibalism, aka conference play, begins.

#5 USC plays ASU (+35.5)

#8 Washington plays Cal (+20.5)

#10 Oregon plays #18 Colorado (+21). This game could draw even higher ratings than Ohio State-Notre Dame.  And although  this will probably be the game where the Coach Prime bubble bursts,  should Colorado win Saturday, the media would go nuts.

#11 Utah plays #22 UCLA (+4.5). I  suppose I have to root against UCLA just because their athletic department people were so incompetent that they had to go along with USC to avoid bankruptcy (not unlike the situation that drove Maryland to jump to the Big Ten).

#14 Oregon State plays #21 Washington State (+2.5). Interestingly, this is the first time in history when they'll have met with both of them ranked.  I wish there were still ties.

#18 Colorado (+21) plays  #10 Oregon.  I will be surprised if Oregon beats them by that much.

#21 Washington State (+2.5)  plays #14 Oregon State.

#22 UCLA (+4.5) plays #11 Utah.

As many as three teams could drop out of the Top 25:

1. #22 UCLA,  if it loses. Utah - #11 - will likely still remain ranked if it does.

2. #21 Washington State, if it loses.  Oregon State - #14 - might stay ranked  if it loses.

3. #18 Colorado (Now a 21-point underdog) if it loses - although if they play  tough,  the Buffs could lose and still remain ranked


Oh, and Stanford plays Arizona.


***********   COLLEGE ACTION

FRIDAY NIGHT’S GAMES

WISCONSIN AT PURDUE (+5.5) I’ll take Purdue and the points because they’ve played three halfway decent opponents and they’re at home
NC STATE AT VIRGINIA (+9.5) NC State
BOISE STATE AT SAN DIEGO STATE (+6.5) I’d take SDSU and the points
AIR FORCE AT SAN JOSE  STATE (+4.5) I bet the Spartans can’t stop the AFA fullback tandem (Owen Burk and Emmanuel Michel).

SATURDAY
RUTGERS (+24.5) AT MICHIGAN - Wow. Head coach Harbaugh returns.  I like Rutgers but this could be bad.
FLORIDA STATE AT CLEMSON (+2.5) If the Clemson team that lost to Duke plays the FSU team that almost lost to BC, Clemson wins. I’d take Clemson and the points.
OKLAHOMA AT CINCINNATI (+14.5) OU will run it up more than 14-1/2.
ARMY (+13.5) AT SYRACUSE - I just hope Army can play them tough. Syracuse is far better than UTSA was. ‘Cuse covers.
AUBURN (+7.5) AT TEXAS A & M - I like Auburn but their schedule has been a joke.  A & M could blow ‘em out.
WESTERN KENTUCKY (+3.5) AT TROY - I have no idea.
KENTUCKY AT VANDERBILT (+13.5) - I like Vandy but if I were betting I’d take UK.
MARSHALL AT VIRGINIA TECH (+5.5) Marshall - any time they play a Power 5 school.  And Tech is still a Power 5 school. they say.
SMU (+6.5) AT TCU - Go Frogs!
COLORADO (+21) AT OREGON - Honestly, I’d take Colorado and the points. With Travis Hunter, that would be a no-brainer. Of course, the spread wouldn’t be 21 points, either.
UCLA (+4.5) AT UTAH - I’ll take Utah at home, where it’s tough on visitors
OLE MISS (+7) AT ALABAMA - This is either going to be an Ole Miss win or a Bama blowout. Unless Bama has found a QB, I think the Rebels win this one.
DUKE AT UCONN (+21.5) This is one time I’d give this many points.
MIAMI AT TEMPLE (+23.5) This could be worse than the spread but I ain’t betting against the Owls.
MARYLAND AT MICHIGAN STATE (+7.5) Terps will win by more than that.
LA TECH (+20.5) AT NEBRASKA - Huskers win bigger.
BC (+13.5) AT LOUISVILLE - Cardinals win bigger.
BYU (+8.5) AT KANSAS - I’d  take the Cougars and the points.
TEXAS TECH AT WVU (+6.5) - Red Raiders will cover.
UTSA (+20.5) AT TENNESSEE - Vols will cover.  I wasn’t at all impressed by UTSA against Army.
OKLAHOMA STATE (+3.5) AT IOWA STATE - Oklahoma State has the worse loss of the two, so I go with the Cyclones
GEORGIA TECH (+3.5) AT WAKE  FOREST - Go Deacs!
ARKANSAS (+17.5) AT LSU - Tigers are on a roll. I think they’ll cover.  I like  Sam Pittman and feel bad for him.
OREGON STATE AT WASHINGTON STATE (+2.5) Go Beavs!
SAM HOUSTON (+12.5) AT HOUSTON - I like underdogs and I like Sam Houston
ARIZONA AT STANFORD (+12.5) Stanford is bad and the Wildcats are on their way up. ‘Zona covers.
APP STATE (+2.5) AT WYOMING - Wyoming is tough, and they have that altitude (“Welcome to 7,220 feet”) going for them. Cowboys cover.
TEXAS AT BAYLOR (+14.5)- Is this the year that Texas finally starts to dominate as it once did? Could be.  I’d bet on them to cover.
OHIO STATE AT NOTRE DAME (+3.5) Uh-oh.  Ohio State doesn’t lose games like this. I’ll pull for Sam Hartman and ND, but I’d bet on the Buckeyes.
IOWA (+14.5) AT PENN STATE - Unless the Hawkeyes can score a few points they’ll lose, but I think their defense  will keep the difference under 14.5
MEMPHIS (+6.5) AT MISSOURI - “Tigers” all the way. After the way the Mizzou Tigers played K-State and the way the Memphis Tigers played Navy, I’d take Mizzou and give the points.
MINNESOTA AT NORTHWESTERN (+11.5) - Gophers cover.
MISSISSIPPI STATE (+6.5) AT SOUTH CAROLINA - SC played Georgia tough.  Miss State  didn’t play LSU tough. Carolina covers.
NORTH CAROLINA AT PITT (+7.5) Pitt looked terrible against West Virginia and UNC looked very good against Minnesota. I think this is an easy call.
UCF (+5.5) AT KANSAS STATE - K-State will win and  cover.
JMU AT UTAH   STATE (+6.5) - Utah State has not looked good.  JMU is one of the best teams in the Group of 5. The JMU Dukes cover.
USC AT ARIZONA STATE (+35.5) This could be way  worse than 35.5
KENT STATE (+27.5) AT FRESNO STATE - Ugh. What a rough trip for those Golden Flashes.
NMSU (+3) AT HAWAII - Got to take the Aggies,  one of my lovable underdogs.



*********** IF YOU DIDN’T ALREADY SEE IT, SEE IT ON THIS WEEK’S ZOOM…

Oregon State’s (legal) pass to a tackle..

BYU receiver’s great one-handed catch

Navy’s 75-yard TD - by the pitch man on a triple option

The Patriots’ unreal field goal block

Washington State’s “Polecat” PAT

https://vimeo.com/user174754949/134?share=copy



*********** Last Saturday night’s Colorado vs Colorado State game drew an audience of  9 million viewers.  There were only  five games all of last season that drew larger audiences, and they all involved teams named Alabama, Georgia, Notre Dame or Ohio State.

Bear in mind that that Colorado-Colorado State number was for a game that started after 10 PM Eastern and wasn’t over until after 2 AM.

With this Saturday’s Colorado-at-Oregon game on ABC at 3:30 Eastern, there’s no telling how large an audience  it could draw.  The trick is for the  Buffs to be competitive so people don’t bail to watch other games. (It’s up against Ole Miss-Alabama.) 



*********** When the arrogant a$$hole coach of the nation’s most arrogant institution gets into it  with an arrogant a$$hole of a reporter… is it possible  they could both lose?  One can only hope.

In the meantime, the almost unheard-of decision by the  football coach in question, one Lincoln Riley, to “suspend” a newspaper reporter from covering the USC Trojans  for two weeks, was a surprise welcome to the new job for incoming  USC athletics director Jen Cohen. (Excuse me - I see that now that she’s left Seattle  and the University of Washington for the much more sophisticated clime of Southern California, she’s going by “Jennifer.”)

In case you wonder where “Jennifer” stands in the SC hierarchy, this  sentence from her statement regarding the suspension is telling:    “After careful consideration and in alignment with the sentiment above, USC supports the football program’s decision regarding Luca’s two-week suspension.”

So it was “the football program’s decision,” was it?  Really? A decision like that - one  that involves the entire university and its relations with the second-largest media market in the country -  and the football coach makes it?   Without running it by the university higher-ups?

Welcome to USC, Jennifer.  Just a  word of advice - before you go making any big decisions, be sure to run them by Coach Riley first.

https://www.ocregister.com/2023/09/19/usc-football-program-blocks-scng-writers-access/



***********   Q. Why is NIL like politics? A. You can’t keep track of the atrocities because there’s a new one  every day.

On Wednesday, Ohio State AD Gene Smith testified to a Congressional committee that it is now “common” for high school athletes to demand as much as $5,000 just to visit a college.

Talk about a brilliant money-making scheme.  And best of all for these “kids,” this past July the NCAA lifted the  five-visit-per-recruit limit,  and now they can visit as many schools as their schedules allow.

And if their schedules are  too tight for an in-person visit,  I’ll bet they have bargain rates for  Zoom conferences or phone calls.

What the hell - why go to those places just for air fare and room and meals and, uh, “female company”?   Might as well find out right now who really wants you.  And how bad.

College football: almost  professional football,  with all the greed but none of the brains.



*********** Spanish tennis star Carlos Alcaraz has the letters “CCC” tattooed on the inside of his right arm. It’s to remind him of his grandpa, whose motto, which he passed on to his grandson,  was “Cabeza (head), Carzon (heart), Cojones (balls).”


***********   My wife and I recently watched “Bullies of Baltimore,” the 30 for 30 story of the  2000 Super Bowl champion Baltimore Ravens, and we enjoyed it greatly.  I came away with new respect for head coach Brian Billick,  and I found it very interesting when he said that, partly as a way of checking on the team’s preparation, he ran the scout teams at practices.


*********** The people who sued - successfully, it turned out - to have affirmative action ruled illegal in college admissions have now turned their sights on the United States Military Academy (aka West Point, Army). 

The service academies were left out of the recent Supreme Court ruling, but West Point makes no secret of the fact that it provides special admissions allowances for minority candidates, claiming that it’s essential  for  the Army to have minority officers. 

No quarrel here about the importance of minority officers, but in view of the fact that West Point provides the Army with just 25 per cent of its officers, it would seem that there are plenty of other ways to produce minority officers than by lowering the admissions standards of one of our most prestigious institutions.


*********** Since I’m considering running for President on the Male Toxicity Ticket, and since the opposition would be sure to produce this piece of my past as evidence  that I’m  a fraud - that the whole “football coach” thing has just been a ruse to conceal my true identity as a soccer lover -  I figured I might as well get it out in the open now and face the music…





*********** A longtime friend - and very good coach - told me about being asked by the coach at the local high school for his advice on something related to his offense. But when the advice he got wasn’t exactly what he was hoping to hear, he t basically  blew off my guy.  And continued on his merry way, business as usual.

I told my friend that in my experience there aren’t just three big lies.

1. Money isn’t everything
2. The check’s in the mail
3. I’ll love you in the morning

There are actually four.

4. I want you to tell me what you think



***********   Loved your review of the Army-UTSA game (and by the way, no coach could be more gracious afterward than the UTSA coach, who in his postgame gave high praise to the Black Knights), but would add one thing. One of the coach's biggest responsibilities is to put his players in the right positions. As preface, let me say I'm not sure the task is complete on the defensive side. But on the offensive side, they shifted a defender from last season, Noah Short, into a SR position, where he's shown great promise. And rather than throw last year's two big backs, Tyson Riley and Jakobi Buchanan, into the scrap heap, they've found great ways to use them. In watching the UTSA game, I watched Buchanan making some of the best blocks of his career. He didn't wind up with much yardage, but he enabled a lot of yards. And against Del St, Tyson Riley (as an H back) caught a TD pass, the first of his career. Finally, as others have pointed out, Hayden Reed, a Tampa Jesuit product, looks like Air Force's Roberts from a year ago. Further, since game one, they've made three changes on the OL. Because it's Army, we don't know if the changes were made because of injuries or performance, or both.

Last, you probably read that yesterday WP announced Monken had accepted a contract extension through '27, a move that's viewed as precursor to an AAC announcement soon.

Thanks for keeping us current, Coach.

John Vermillion      
St Petersburg, Florida


I admit to having fallen for Monken’s disinformation.   I kept saying that it just didn’t make sense that he would risk making the sort of change that all the hype suggested, and yet I still fell for it.  It never occurred to me that he might be wily enough to have been working on the Manhattan Project while telling all of us yokels  in the bars in Los Alamos that he was working on electric rockets. Masterful.

I agree that it is nice to see  them making  good use of all available personnel - and, too,  not consigning the former fullbacks to the junk heap.

The Army situation seems to satisfy everybody:  the gullible media keeps telling the gullible fans that they’re seeing “shotgun triple option," the coaching staff can now eat lunch with the cool kids at the shotgun table - and we hard-core Army fans still get to see wear ‘em down football.

In addition to its AAC ramifications,  the contract extension (which didn’t just happen overnight) does make me wonder if by some chance Monken was “asked" - by an AD who’s  got to be plenty concerned about selling tickets (and scheduling games against people who don’t want to play a wishbone team) - what it would take to get him to modernize his offense.  The extension was what it took, and what we are seeing on the field was Monken’s answer to “modernizing.” (Which is fine with me.)

The explanation about the offensive switch  being "forced” by rules changes, while simply  not plausible to any other coach, was bought hook, line and sinker by the  media, thereby obviating any need for further explanation.

(I’ve seen it happen before, but without Monken’s cleverness.)

It could almost make a Simon Pack book. (Simon Pack being one of the primary heroes in author John Vermillion’s series of thriller novels -

 
***********   Hugh,

Jeff Monken signs contract extension at Army - https://footballscoop.com/news/jeff-monken-signs-contract-extension-at-army

Maybe now we know the real reason why he decided to go in a different direction with the offense.  Which, BTW, looked good against a UTSA bunch that obviously missed their leader QB Frank Harris who did not play.  On the other hand Monken may have been persuaded to run this single wing look because he has TWO QB's with similar skills.  Bryson Dailey looked good but will need to stay healthy.  Unless Monken has another one like him sitting on the bench.  When looking at it from that point of view Army can continue to recruit as they always have but only need to recruit a couple of Bryson Daileys each year.

Navy looks better, yes, but they have a ways to go.  IMHO Air Force is right there with Army and both will continue to be a step or two ahead of Navy.

Colorado State's effort against Colorado leads me to believe they will be the favorite in the MWC Mountain Division while Fresno State should take the Pacific Division.  HOWEVER...Fresno needs to run the football more in order to make QB Mikey Keene and the offense even more effective.

Minnesota found a RB, but now they need to find a QB!  The defense can't be expected to play 3/4 of the game.  It showed against UNC.

Ohio State is a 3 1/2 pt. favorite over ND in South Bend.  Just the way we like it.  

That 61 yard FG that beat Kansas State could have been good from 65!

Right now the Washington Huskies and Georgia Bulldogs are the two best teams in college football.

With the Michigan State job opening I thought Matt Campbell's name would be a no-brainer.  But with all the gambling issues being brought up at ISU, and MSU trying to find its way back from this latest fiasco, I doubt Campbell will get a serious look.

Have a great week!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas

Poor Matt Campbell.  An article in The Athletic listed  likely candidates for the Michigan State job - and his name, once one of the hottest in the coaching business,  wasn’t one of them. Timing is everything. One day chicken, next day feathers.




***********   QUIZ ANSWER:  Wally Triplett was born the fifth of six sons and raised outside Philadelphia in LaMott, a totally black section of otherwise affluent Cheltenham Township originally set aside for domestic workers.  (LaMott, named for Lucretia Mott, a famous abolitionist, was also  where fame baseball player Reggie Jackson grew up.)

He was a multi-sport  star, and in those days before television, Miami offered him scholarship sight unseen, assuming that coming from Cheltenham High School, he was white. It was 1945 and knowing that the South was heavily segregated, he wrote them back, saying “Just so you know, I am a Negro.”  Upon learning that he was black, Miami withdrew their offer.

Instead, he attended Penn State - on an academic scholarship.

He and a teammate named Dennis Hoggard were the first two black athletes  to play in a varsity game at Penn State, and he was the first to start.

We have his own word for it that the origin of the "We Are… Penn State!" cheer dates to early in the 1946 season,  when the Penn State team learned that a game at Miami  was on the schedule, and Miami refused to let their two black  players participate.  The Penn State captain, Steve Suhey, calling for a team vote, said,  “We are Penn State. It’ll be all or none.” The vote was unanimous to forfeit the game.

In 1947, Penn State shut out six opponents on its way to a perfect 9-0 season, and earning an invitation to play in the 1948 Cotton Bowl, at Dallas. 

Wally Triplett became the first black player to play in the Cotton Bowl, and he caught the  third period touchdown pass that enabled Penn State to come from behind and tie powerful SMU, 13-13.

SMU finished the season ranked #4, Penn State #5.

He was chosen by the Detroit Lions in the 19th round of the 1949 NFL draft, and although there were two black players drafted ahead of him,  he made the Lions team and became the first black draftee to play in an NFL game.

For two seasons, he mostly returned kicks and punts, and in a 1950 game against the Los Angeles Rams,  he had 294 yards on four kickoff returns - including a 97-yard touchdown - a total that was an NFL record for 44 years. (It remains the third-highest total.)

After the 1950 season he was the first NFL player drafted during the Korean War, and during his two years  in the Army, he was traded to the Chicago Cardinals.  On his return, he played in six games in the 1952-53 season, and then retired.

He remained in the Detroit area and worked first as a teacher and then in management with the Chrysler Corporation.

Wally Triplett died in November, 2018 at the age of 92.


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING WALLY TRIPLETT

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS


*********** Today’s lesson in research:  Why You Should Be Wary of Wikipedia…

Wikipedia can be very helpful.  Just beware when citing it as fact, because you have no idea where its “facts” may have come from.

In the process of doing two biographical sketches a week  for my QUIZZES, I check  Wikipedia a lot, and one thing I find annoying is its renaming of famous athletes from the past,  referring to them now by a name the sports public never knew.

Wikipedia often misnames people who became known by a nickname, rather than the formal name they were given when they were baptized -  and the ones now carved on their gravestones.

We live in unusual times now - times when nicknames are growing rarer, and  star quarterbacks are called Patrick, and Daniel, Aaron and Justin.  Times when announcers actually take the time to say “Odell Beckham, Junior,” and “Robert Griffin the Third.”

But things were quite different in an earlier  day, when nearly everybody bore a nickname, and people earned their fame as “Vince,” and “Jim” and “Chuck.”  Yes, they may now be names known only to old-timers, but no honest biographer today should claim to be writing about  “Vincent Lombardi,” or “James Brown,” or “Charles Bednarik” and expect us to take the work seriously.

(Could this be another example of the way  today’s writers insist on applying  today’s values to people and events of the past?)

I bring this up because many of the answers to today’s QUIZ were “Wallace Triplett,” a dead giveaway that Wikipedia was the source of the answers, because no place else can you find him called anything other than the name he went by when he gained his fame - and lived most of his life - “Wally.”

Although born “Wallace Triplett,” he was known as “Wally Triplett” from the time he was little, growing up in LaMott, Pennsylvania. (For a time, I worked with his cousin, John, who had played football at Morgan State.)  It was as “Wally Triplett” that he starred in high school, at Penn State, and in the NFL;  it was as “Wally Triplett” that he came to be revered at Penn State;  and it was “Wally Triplett” whom his obituary honored (in no less a publication than the New York Times).

In no way is this meant to chastise the guys who did their research and came up with the right answer.  I  applaud their diligence and I wish guys, when they don’t know who the Quiz subject is, wouldn’t it consider it somehow cheating to look it up. It just bums me that Wikipedia, which they trusted,  served them so poorly, blowing a chance to  introduce them to the great Wally Triplett, instead of to some guy no one ever heard of.

I hope I’ve done my share to make people aware of a great American pioneer and a great representative of our sport.

Watch this video, and maybe you’ll understand why I teared up a bit at the end…

https://www.espn.com/video/clip/_/id/21100682





  
*********** QUIZ:  He was nicknamed The Little General, for his leadership ability  and his short stature, but  also in recognition of his wartime bravery  as a Marine second lieutenant.

He grew up near Modesto, California, and although he was very small by football standards, he became an  All-American quarterback at College of the Pacific (COP as it was nicknamed at the time), and he went on to play 11 years in the NFL.

In 1949, his senior year, Pacific went unbeaten, going 11-0 and earning a Number 10 ranking nationally.

They didn’t just beat opponents - they killed them. They barely won their opener, 7-6, over San Francisco, which two years later would field one of the greatest college  football teams of all time.   But that was as close as anyone would get.  Their next closest game was 34-7 over Cincinnati.

In 11 games, they scored an NCAA-record 575 points, and gave up just 66.    And they led the nation in total offense with 502.9 yards per game.

One of those 1949 games was 52-0 trouncing of Loyola, whose new coach, Jordan Olivar, had just moved west from Villanova.   That night,  Pacific rushed for 351 yards, and although Coach Olivar  had one of the nation’s leading passers at Loyola in Don Klosterman, what he saw must have impressed him enough to run the Pacific offense when he became head coach at Yale, and to eventually become an authority himself on the offense.

The  Pacific offense was based on what they called the “Belly” series, and their  quarterback played a major role in its becoming a major factor in football in the 1950s.

The story, as told in the book “Dodd’s Luck,” about Georgia Tech’s legendary coach, Bobby Dodd:

In the summer of 1950, Dodd returned to Chicago to serve as an assistant coach for the college All-Star team. This time, one of dodge quarterbacks was a half pint Houdini named (— — —). One day during practice, Dodd recalled, “(— — —) and I were out there, fooling around, which we’d  do every once in a while. Hiding the ball, talking about different things. And he told me they had this play at Pacific, which they got a lot out of, called the Belly Series. I said, ‘Show it to me.’”

(— — —) demonstrated the Belly Series. Dodd was captivated. “He was clever, as could be,” Dodd said. “Just a great quarterback. Anyway, he showed me the Belly Series and I immediately knew it was good. “

Running the Belly Series, with some additions of their own, Georgia Tech would become one of the dominant college teams of the decade of the fifties.

Our guy  was a 10th-round pick by the Washington Redskins in the 1950 draft, but first, with a  war  starting in Korea, came military service as a Marine officer. .

He spent nine months in Korea, seven of them on the front lines in combat. He was twice wounded, and was awarded the Bronze Star for an act of heroism at Heartbreak Ridge.

He also found time to play some football for the very tough Quantico Marines, and led them to a 61-21 win over VPI (now Virginia Tech).

Back in the States, despite his height (5-7 in the military but generously reported in the NFL as 5-9) he wound up as the  Redskins’ starting quarterback  when veteran Sammy Baugh broke his hand.  Coached along by Baugh, he wound up throwing for 1400 yards and earning Rookie of the Year honors.

After two years with the Redskins, he jumped to the CFL along with two teammates, but returned after a year  and, under Coach Joe Kuharich, led the Skins to an 8-4 record. Hopes were high for 1955, but a preseason car accident ended the career of star Vic Janowicz and the Redskins finished a disappointing 6-6.

From then on, although he was the NFL's leading passer in 1958, it was three straight losing seasons with the Skins.  

His career was salvaged when in 1960 Tom Landry traded for him and made him the starting quarterback for the brand-new Dallas Cowboys franchise.   Don Meredith understudied him, until gradually, as Meredith became ready, Landry began to shuttle the two quarterbacks in and out, and he retired after four years with the Cowboys - and 11 years in the NFL.

He appeared in four Pro Bowls, and for five seasons he was in the top ten in passing. In 1958 he led the NFL’s quarterbacks in passing yardage.

For his career, he completed 898 of 1796 - exactly 50 per cent - for 13,399 yards and 104 touchdowns.

He also punted 171 times for 6995 yards (a 40.9 yard average).

While playing for the Redskins,  he had earned his law degree from George Washington University.  After retirement as a player   he was able to put his legal talent and business and football expertise to use as General Manager of the Atlanta Falcons from 1977 to 1982,  and as their executive vice president and chief operating officer from 1982 through 1985.

In 1980, he  was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame, and in 2008 he was inducted into the U.S. Marine Corps Sports Hall of Fame.

“Being a commander during a war is somewhat like being a quarterback in that you have control over a bunch of other guys, and you don't want to make a mistake on their behalf,” he once said. “The big difference, of course, is throwing an interception compared to watching one of your men shot and killed.”




TUESDAY,  SEPTEMBER  19,  2023 - “It’s OK to be wrong. Just don’t be confident and wrong.”  Elon Musk


***********  THIS WEEKEND - WEEK FIFTEEN  (OF TWENTY-ONE) - IN THE CFL


FRIDAY

TORONTO  23 (11-1), MONTREAL (6-7) 20

EDMONTON (4-10) 36  SASKATCHEWAN (6-7) 27




SATURDAY

HAMILTON (6-7) 29   WINNIPEG (10-4) 23

BC (9-4) 41  OTTAWA (3-10)  37



*********** SERVICE ACADEMY REPORT

ARMY 37, UTSA 29 - UTSA was favored by 8-1/2, and I didn’t think that was enough of a  spot. Boy, was I wrong.

Forget this “Gun option” crap.  A tag that’s been given to Army’s offense,  it’s a complete misnomer.  Army doesn’t run option except as a gimmick  (I counted two plays that could be classified as options in the true sense of the word, with a pitch man.)  Actually, in view of the fact that half of the ground game is heavy duty running by the QB, it’s more like a single wing.

I loved it. It was definitely not the pussified spread stuff that we’d been led for months to believe we’d be seeing, which leads me to suspect that all the advance information we’d been fed all along by the gullible media was the product of  military-style  disinformation.  I suspect - I hope - that what we saw Saturday was what was planned  the entire time, and all that hoopla  about going modern was just a diversion to throw off opponents.

What Army showed against UTSA was unique in today’s college football - power football between the tight ends, with only a handful of sweeps and a few passes (8 of 18, including a halfback pass) to keep defenses on alert.

Army employed three good-sized backs - QB Bryson Dailey (6, 215) who carried 24 times for 100 yards (he also completed 7 of 17 for 133 yards and a TD); running back Hayden Reed (6, 220), who carried 20 times for 107 yards;  and fullback Jakobi Buchanan (6, 250) who as a key man in Army’s old flexbone never once lost a yard, and in this scheme is a beast as both a short-yardage man and a blocking back.

Army played error-free on offense, and kept pounding away, to the point that UTSA defenders actually seemed  a bit reluctant to take on the  big running backs.

In all, Army had 442  total yards - 254 rushing and 188 passing.  Those of us who were afraid we’d seen the end of classic Army ball-control football were, to say the least, pleasantly surprised at Army’s time of possession: 44:25.  Say that slowly.

An Army secret to ball control: they were six-for-six on fourth down plays.

There’ s not a whole lot of deception to what Army’s doing, but it’s pretty quick-hitting and that way the line can be aggressive. The line play, although not the  firing-out sort of stuff Army fans are used to seeing,  was much improved and quite physical.  We have yet to see trap or counter blocking, but I have to assume that they’re in the plans.

I find myself starting to get excited, which is bad, because that makes disappointment more painful. This Saturday, Army will play at Syracuse, which looked really good against Purdue.

It’s worth noting that the thing that drove most of the old-timers out of the single wing (along with the usual compulsion among football coaches to keep up with the Joneses) was the fact that their tailback was at least as important as today’s passing quarterbacks.  He was responsible for most of a team’s running game  - and all of its passing game -  and if he got hurt, unless you were lucky enough to have a guy very nearly as good,  there went your offense.

Army’s QB/tailback,  Bryson Dailey, is a coach’s kid from West Texas, and in Army’s version of the  single wing, he is the indefensible man.  He’s a junior, and his strong running in this new offense makes you wonder where he was  when Army was running the flexbone with 170 pound lightweights who were quick as hell but were stopped by the first hit.


MEMPHIS 28, NAVY 24 - Memphis was favored by 14, but the Middies were in it all the way.

The Mids  had 432 yards total offense - 299 rushing and 133 passing - to Memphis’ 408. Their QB, Tai Lavatai, completed 10 of 19 for 133 and a TD, and Alex Tecza, a 6-195 pound running back from Pittsburgh, showed impressive speed in taking an option pitch 75 yards for a TD. (Didn't I hear somebody say the rules have made it impossible to run triple option?)  In all, he gained 173 yards on 15 carries. Lavatai and Navy's other QB, Blake Horvath, combined for 21 carries and 79 yards. Navy did commit two costly fumbles.





Something I’m finding very intriguing is a  split backfield formation that Navy has shown in its first three games. It’s almost the old veer formation, except that the two backs aren’t split that wide from each other. They appear to be lined up behind their respective A gaps, with maybe a yard between them. Either one capable of running virtually the same dive as a flexbone fullback, with the other getting quickly into pitch relationship.  The QB is in a position at the line to run a triple option to either side, with no need for motion. An unlike with a true veer option, the QB’s  technique appears almost the same as with flexbone. I’ve seen them do a variety of things out of this formation, including a much better power play to either side, (something that the split back veer just doesn’t allow). As you can see, in this case they’ve got an unbalanced line (with a tackle over on the left side) and twin wide-outs in a  stack.

Keep your eye on this stuff.

I said before the game that it would answer two questions:

1. How bad is Navy? Answer: NOT BAD, AND GETTING BETTER

2. Have they improved since Notre Dame? Answer:  DEFINITELY


AIR FORCE 39, UTAH STATE 21 - Somebody should have told Utah State’s new defensive coordinator that Air Force likes to run the fullback and  they won’t stop doing it if you can’t make them stop.

Last year, AFA fullback Brad Roberts led the entire FBS in rushing yardage with 1,728 yards on 345 carries. In 13 games, that worked out to 26 carries a game for 133 yards per game.

On Friday night, Air Force’s two fullbacks, Owen Burk and Emmanuel Michel,  combined for a total of 43 carries and 228 yards and 3 TDs. (Burk was 15/110, Michel was 28/108). Together, they accounted for 2/3 (67%) of Air Force’s running plays, and 63% of the Falcons’ rushing yardage.

(Hey Utah State - watch the fullback!)

The Air Force  QB, Zachary Larrier, was their  third leading rusher with 56 yards on 10 carries. (He threw just four times, completing three for 84 yards.)

The Falcons had no turnovers, but they  did have 6 penalties for 60 yards.


***********  PAC 12 REPORT…

There’s a part of me that loves Stanford - two of our kids are graduates, and one of  them married a classmate.  I remember Elway, and I fondly recall the Harbaugh years and the early David Shaw years,  when they put really good football teams on the field. 

But that doesn’t mean they get a pass for the role they played in blowing up  what was left of the Pac-12 after two teams left for the Big Ten and four others left for the Big 12, and, snubbed by the Big Ten, Stanford  bolted for the ACC and dragged Cal along with them.

So I did think it was poetic justice that on Saturday night Stanford suffered by far the worst defeat any Pac-12 team has suffered this season - and perhaps one of the worst in Stanford’s long football history - when they were upset in the last minute of play by FCS  Sacramento State, 30-23.

RANKED TEAMS

USC (5) For some reason they’re ranked below Florida State, although I bet they could beat Boston College by more than two points.

WASHINGTON (8)  We couldn’t see it because I’ll be damned if I’ll pay the peacock, but fortunately the Huskies had no trouble. Poor Michigan State. I have liked the Spartans since I was a little kid, and they don’t deserve the kind of leadership they’ve had, from the top down.

OREGON (10) It wasn’t the win over Hawaii - it was Tennessee dropping down that enabled the Ducks to move up

UTAH (11) You’d think Florida’s win over Tennessee would have given the Utes more than a one-place jump

OREGON STATE (14) Beavers are solid otherwise but I’m still waiting for DJ Uiagalelei (14/30 for 285 and two interceptions against San Diego State) to show up

COLORADO (19) They may have dropped a place but they  didn’t lose any fans after that win over Colorado State

WASHINGTON STATE (21) I don’t think a win over Northern Colorado justifies a jump in ranking - but  what do I know?

UCLA (22) On the other hand, if UCLA can beat North Carolina Central and jump two places…

The Pac-12 is now 28-5 against outside opposition. (Out-of-conference records in parentheses)

#5 USC (1-0) was idle

#8 Washington (3-0) beat Michigan State, 41-7

#10 Oregon (3-0) beat Hawaii, 55-10

#11 Utah (3-0) beat Weber State, 31-7

#14 Oregon State (3-0) beat San Diego State, 26-9

#18 Colorado (3-0) beat Colorado State, 43-35 in 2 OTs

#21 Washington State (3-0) beat Northern Colorado, 64-21

#22 UCLA (3-0) beat North Carolina Central, 59-7

Among unranked teams…

Arizona (2-1) beat UTEP, 31-10

Cal (2-1) beat Idaho, 31-17

Arizona State (1-2) lost to Fresno State, 29-0

Stanford (1-1 out of conference) lost to Sac State, 30-23




*********** GAME COMMENTS

FLORIDA STATE 31, BOSTON COLLEGE 29 - When a team can commit 18 penalties and almost beat the #3 team in the country it tells me (1) that the losing team is defective in the very important area of discipline, and (2) the winning team is not the #3 team in the country.

PENN STATE 30, ILLINOIS 13 - Will ANYBODY ever get Illinois turned around?

LSU 41, MISSISSIPPI STATE 14 - Is this going to be a repeat of last year, when the Tigers were embarrassed in their opener, and then ran wild?  Jaydon Daniels competed 30 of 34 for 361  and 2 TDs. Question: besides Daniels, who also ran 15 times for 64 yards, does LSU have a running game?

MISSOURI 30, KANSAS STATE 27 - A killer for Wildcat fans.  With :06 remaining, Mizzou faced a 56-yard  field goal - and drew a delay of game penalty.  Now, faced with a 61-yarder, the kicker made the damned thing.

WAKE FOREST 27,  OLD DOMINION 24 - Wake was favored by 14 but was down, 17-0, at the half, and had to score twice in the fourth quarter to win

NOTRE DAME 41, CENTRAL MICHIGAN 17 - Next week: Ohio State

GEORGIA 24, SOUTH CAROLINA  14  - South Carolina led at halftime

OREGON STATE 26, SAN DIEGO STATE 9 - The Beavers are good.  This week - Washington State.

NORTH CAROLINA  31,  MINNESOTA  13 - Surprising that it was this big a spread.

DUKE 38, NORTHWESTERN 14 - Duke, the 18-1/2 point favorite, covered. Duke is good. Northwestern is not.

RUTGERS 35, VIRGINIA TECH 16 - “I suspect Rutgers will kill the Hokies.”  They pretty much did

WASHINGTON 41, AT MICHIGAN STATE  7 - I feel bad for Michigan State fans.

FLORIDA 29, TENNESSEE 16 - I said: “This ought to be over fast.”   It was. Except it was Florida that led, 26-7 at halftime.

SOUTH ALABAMA 33, OKLAHOMA STATE 7 - WTF???

NEBRASKA 35, NORTHERN ILLINOIS 11 - Cornhuskers got Matt Rhule his first win and  didn’t look bad doing it.

UNLV 40, VANDERBILT 37  - Aargh.  What’s it going to be like when  they play an SEC opponent.

IOWA 41, WESTERN MICHIGAN 10 - Brian Ferentz has pulled ahead in his fight for his job.

BYU 38,  ARKANSAS 31 - I was wrong.  I said this wasn’t a good BYU team.  It sure was on Saturday night, as the Cougars upset the favored Hogs in Fayetteville.

SYRACUSE 35,  PURDUE 20 - A great game. Syracuse showed that you have to take them seriously. QB Garrett Shrader was 14 of 28 for 184 yards and a TD, but he ran - did he ever run - 25 times for 195 yards and four touchdowns.  He could have had a  fifth at game’s end, but while in the clear, he chose, as a sportsmanlike gesture, to end the play by sliding.

WEST VIRGINIA 17 , PITT 6 - Neither team had much offense - remarkably, they each had exactly 211 yards total - but the Mountaineers  didn’t need much, intercepting Pitt’s Phil Jurkovec three times.  Two of the interceptions led to WVU scores.

NEW MEXICO  STATE 27,  NEW MEXICO 17 - You can bet there were some Aggies fans wobblin’ in their shoes Saturday night, after NMSU beat New Mexico for the second year in a row.

TCU 36,  HOUSTON 13 - Houston is now 1-3, making the Cougars’ Dana Holgorsen by far the nation’s highest-paid college coach on a per-win basis.

FRESNO STATE 29, ARIZONA STATE  0 - Bulldogs look like the class of the Mountain West.

COLORADO 43, COLORADO STATE 35 (2 OTS) - This was a great game to watch. The underdog CSU Rams, who were 3-9 last year and started out this year with a 50-24 loss to Washington State, came within 36 seconds of defeating the heavily-favored Buffalos.  But Buffs QB Shedeur Sanders  showed great skill and poise as he threw a 45 yard touchdown pass, then completed a pass for the two point conversion to send the game into OT, where the Buffs won it.  I came away with two thoughts: (1) Colorado was somewhat exposed.  Yes, they’re plenty good, and they are well-coached (although their defense is going to have to do a lot better on that shallow cross route) but they are not the super team that their win over TCU might have led people to think they were; (2) Yes,  Colorado State may have been playing the role of destiny's  darling and the plucky underdog, but there was this, that made them a bit less sympathetic - SEVENTEEN penalties, for 182 YARDS.  When you’re 3-11 in your last 14 games, shouldn’t you be working a little harder at eliminating the ways you beat yourself?



*********** John Canzano on Colorado visiting  Oregon this week…

Canzano: Colorado-Oregon is everything the Ducks ever wanted

What I think happens next Saturday.

The University of Oregon has the wealthiest donor in college athletics. It has top-notch facilities. It has the branding power of Nike.

But next Saturday at Autzen Stadium the Ducks will get the one thing they crave most of all.

The national spotlight.

Colorado’s thrilling double-overtime victory over rival Colorado State ensured that. Coach Prime and his undefeated team are coming to Eugene. The ‘hype train’ will include a FOX audience of 8 million, celebrity appearances and a week of national interviews. UO is getting everything it ever wanted this week.

I suspect the Ducks will seize it.

I want to step back and acknowledge that no matter what happens next, the hire of Deion Sanders was a brilliant move by Colorado athletic director Rick George. The Buffaloes were coming off a 1-11 season. The football program flatlined under Karl Dorrell. Taking a flyer on Coach Prime was an excellent pivot.

Season tickets sold out. Social-media mentions skyrocketed. The spring game drew ESPN to Boulder. The economic impact to the local economy is being estimated at $18 million for the football season.

While all that was going on, I wondered if some Oregon boosters might be sitting around thinking: “Why didn’t we think of that?” Because Colorado hiring Coach Prime was the most-Oregon thing ever.

That said, I expect this story to sober up on Saturday.

The Ducks are deeper, more physical and have more talent. As impressed as I’ve been in watching Colorado beat TCU, Nebraska and Colorado State none of them are as gifted as Oregon. None of those opponents have a quarterback as skilled as Bo Nix, either. I suspect if this game were played 100 times on a neutral field that the Ducks would win 90-plus of them. The majority wouldn’t be close.

Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders is better than expected. He’s resilient and has some interesting playmakers around him on offense. The Buffaloes don’t have a lot of depth and were pushed around physically on both sides of the ball. But they have skilled offensive and defensive coordinators.

Sean Lewis (offense) and Charles Kelly (defense) were each paid an average of $900,000 a year — $200,000 more than any assistant in CU history had ever earned. When those moves were announced another Pac-12 head coach reached out and pointed out: “Deion is just there to be the face of the thing. See what he did there? He basically hired an offensive head coach and a defensive head coach.”

Isn’t that what most successful college football programs do, though? Some of the best coaches are visionary leaders who are smart enough (and confident enough) to surround themselves with intelligent, qualified people and let them work.

Still, if you’d asked me in the summer what the more likely to start the season would be for his program — 0-3 or 3-0 — I’d have had Colorado winless and not thought twice about it. Yet, here I am picking against the Buffaloes again.

In fact, when I look at Colorado’s Pac-12 Conference schedule I see a 3-6 mark.

My forecast:
    •    at Oregon — L
    •    vs. USC — L
    •    at ASU — W
    •    vs. Stanford — W
    •    at UCLA — L
    •    vs. Oregon State — L
    •    vs. Arizona — W
    •    at WSU — L
    •    at Utah — L

This column really isn’t about Colorado, though. It’s more about the hype and marketing genius surrounding the program. Also, about how Oregon stands to siphon off some of that good energy this Saturday and carry it throughout the season. Let’s face it — as much as Oregon fans find the hoopla around Colorado obnoxious, the irony is that the Ducks invented this game.

It should be noted that Coach Prime not only got plenty of ESPN face time on the sideline on Saturday night, he dominated the television commercial breaks. Sanders sold everything from almonds to insurance. I don’t have a problem with it. It’s a free market and right now he’s more marketable than just about everyone except maybe Taylor Swift and Lionel Messi. But I expect Chapter 4 of Colorado’s football season will bring a plot twist.

There would be no better poetry than the program once mocked as college football’s ‘Paris Hilton’ being the first to let the air out of Colorado’s tires. What I’m saying is, Oregon has come a long way from uniforms and self-ventilating lockers being the most impressive thing it does. I admire the UO’s physicality, talent, depth and ambition

Oregon fans like coach Dan Lanning. They want him to succeed. He works hard, recruits fiercely and says the right things. He is 13-3 as a head coach. He’s never lost to an opponent that went on to win fewer than 10 games. And Colorado isn’t a 10-win team this season. This is Lanning’s week to shine, be sure. Not in the press conference, but on the field where it counts.

While Colorado, a 23.5-point favorite, had its hands full in overtime with Colorado State, I couldn’t help but think that Lanning and his staff were tuned in and salivating.
The Ducks could easily put 50 points on Colorado’s defense. They could make the Buffaloes offense uncomfortable, too. I was less than impressed by Oregon’s road win a couple of weeks ago at Texas Tech, but the best part of it was how resilient UO looked. I’m not concerned that the stage on Saturday will be too big for the Ducks.

Coach Prime has been great for college football. Like a lot of you, I tuned in on Saturday night to see what might happen in this week’s episode of “Keeping Up With the Sanders Family.” It’s the best reality television around. But I was struck by how eager Oregon will be to greet the ‘hype train’ when it pulls into Eugene.

A week like this is everything the Ducks ever wanted.

There’s scarcely a newspaper left in the country that’s worth paying money to read.  But there are some guys who used to work for those now-worthless newspapers - who are worth subscribing to.  One of them - for me, at least - is John Canzano

https://www.johncanzano.com/


*********** In a sense, Matt Campbell is a twenty-first century American tragedy.

He’s been the head coach at Iowa State since 2016.

Although this is just his eighth year in Ames, he’s already the second-winningest coach in school history.  In seven full seasons, he’s won 46 games.  The only guy with more wins, Dan McCarney, won 56 games, but he needed 12 years to do it.  (And in the process, he lost 85 games.)

Campbell’s  32-31 in the Big 12.

He’s one of only four Iowa State coaches in the last 100 years (they’ve had  20 of them in that time) with a record better than .500.  From 2017 through 2021 his Cyclones had five straight winning seasons, and went to five straight bowls. In 2020 they beat Oregon 34-17 in the Fiesta Bowl and finished 9-3, ranked 9th in the final AP Poll. It was only their first time ever in the Top 10, and just the third time in school history that they’d been  ranked in the Top 25.

Needless to  say, his name has been tossed around any time a big job came open, but he has steadfastly - at least publicly - remained committed to Iowa State.

But now, it appears, things have turned south - for the Cyclones and for Coach Campbell. They were a  disappointing 4-8 last season, and this year they’re off to  a 1-2 start.  Their win came over FCS Northern Iowa, and they narrowly lost to Iowa, 20-13.  But this past weekend they lost at Ohio - THE University of Ohio, not THE Ohio State University - and now, as they head into Big 12 play, the jackals are on his case.  Reporters loved writing about a confrontation he had with a needling fan after Saturday’s game.

Many of us, at least in our early coaching days, delude ourselves into thinking that we can be THE ONE - the guy who wins where everybody else has failed.  Most of the time, though, we find out that we were wrong - that there are some places where as soon as you win, it’s time to move on. Has Matt Campbell deluded himself into thinking the success he’d attained at Iowa State was sustainable?

To call this a tragedy is overdoing it a bit - Matt Campbell’s contract runs through 2028.

But it will be sad if what we’re seeing is the end of a great run by a coach who did what few others before him have even come close to doing.

(And they wonder why guys  who have a good year or two at a place that’s been starved for success get out of Dodge the first chance they get.)


https://www.outkick.com/iowa-state-matt-campbell-cyclones-ohio/


***********   TRIVIA:  Don Hutson played in another age, but in  the 1930s, and for many years afterward, he was considered the greatest NFL end who ever lived.   A native of Pine Bluff, Arkansas, he  starred at Alabama.  There, in his junior and senior seasons, the “other end” as he came to be known, was a fellow Arkansawyer named Paul “Bear” Bryant.


*********** I was disappointed that Arkansas or BYU - one or the other - was going to have to lose. It was a heck of a game.  The Cougars came back twice from big deficits to win, 38-31, and good for them. (Watch my Zoom - one of the Cougar receivers made a one-handed catch in the fourth quarter that you have to see!) But I felt bad for the Hogs and their fans and  their coach, Sam Pittman.  I found it heartwarming to read in this article in the Salt Lake City paper about the mutual respect Arkansas and BYU fans have for each other - maybe there’s still hope for college football.


https://www.deseret.com/2023/9/17/23877367/what-arkansas-fans-thought-of-byu-and-its-fanbase-college-football


*********** Boston College’s  18 penalties against Florida State and Colorado State’s 17 against Colorado made me  wonder if this NIL business might actually be good for coaches. I mean, if you can pay players, what’s to keep you from fining them? (At least until there’s a union, anyhow.)


*********** IF YOU DIDN’T ALREADY SEE IT, SEE IT ON THIS WEEK’S ZOOM…

Oregon State’s (legal) pass to a tackle..

BYU receiver’s great one-handed catch

Navy’s 75-yard TD - by the pitch man on a triple option

The Patriots’ unreal field goal block

Washington State’s “Polecat” PAT


*********** Question: If “brand” is so important now, why then do schools monkey around with the packaging - their team’s uniforms - the way they do?  It took me a while Saturday to realize that that was FLORIDA STATE in those stupid WHITE HELMETS! 

Come on - I don’t even like Florida State, but I admire  those gold helmets with the spear on them.

Hey Seminoles- it's your BRAND!  Corporations spend millions building an identity, and you're willing to piss yours away?

Is it because "the kids" like the white helmets? Screw them.  You don't even know if they'll be around next year, and you're letting them make marketing decisions?

Maybe it's to sell apparel.  That I get. Sort of.   But helmets?  Who the hell is going to spend hundreds just to have the latest edition of the school’s helmet?



***********   Coach, your inclusion of Mira made me think of yet another Miami QB not mentioned in the list of great "U" QBs. So I thought of Fran Curci, who coached Kentucky, a school I followed as a kid. Then I remembered he coached the University of Tampa Spartans before the Wildcats. Finally, I thought I remembered the Spartans went to a Bowl, so I looked it up. Yes, they played his old school, the Miami Hurricanes, in the 1970 Orange Bowl and beat them.

I quivered and quaked reading the Samuel Adams writings. What the man himself stood for has been enough to persuade me to buy the beer.

Notice how quickly the PA Gov saw a chance to get a vote or two? Not verbatim, but nearly: "If anyone out there knows who Cavalcante stole the Eagles jersey from, let me know, cause I just might be able to find him a replacement."

Thanks for the advice to Phil Jurkovec, whose name I've heard associated with CFB for too many years.

John Vermillion                
St Petersburg, Florida


Good point. Fran Church preceded George Mira and  was an All-American QB at  Miami. The University of Tampa football story is a very interesting one!


***********   Hugh,

Even though they lost a tough one at the end it appears Navy still likes running the option, but has found a pass offense to go with it.  Memphis on the other hand needs to start running the ball more often than throwing it.  Also an undisciplined bunch.

Speaking of service academies...Army is in deep on Saturday at UTSA.

One of the better games this weekend will be Minnesota at North Carolina.  Golden Gopher D vs Tar Heel O.  Minnesota needs to find an offense, and North Carolina needs to find a defense.

The Mel Tucker fiasco has brought a familiar name back to Michigan State to help out the Spartans...Mark Dantonio.

Enjoy the weekend!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas


 
 






*********** QUIZ ANSWER:  Before there was a Jim Kelly… a Bernie Kosar… a Vinny Testaverde… a Steve Walsh… a Gino Torretta… a Craig Erickson… (or a Tyler Van Dyke)…

Before any of those famed Miami quarterbacks…

There was George Mira -  called,  by none other than the University of Miami Sports Hall of Fame,  “the founding  quarterback of Quarterback U.”

He did something very few football players ever are able do - he went north to Miami  to play his college football.  That’s because  he was a Conch (pronounced “Conk”) - a native of Key West, Florida.  He was the son of Cuban-American parents;   his dad was a foreman at the local ice plant that supplied Key West’s fishing and shrimping fleets, while his mom  stayed home and raised the family.

At Key West High School, he was a multi-sport star.  His best sport may have been baseball where as a pitcher he had a record of 31-2 and led his team to two straight state titles. (One of his teammates was future Hall-of-Famer Boog Powell.)

When major League baseball teams showed interest in signing him right out of high school, his  dad’s decision was to set a price of $30,000 - what he estimated to be the long -term value of a college football scholarship - and when no baseball team went higher than the Baltimore Orioles’ $15,000, the decision was to play football at the University of Miami, 120 miles to the north.

Freshmen weren’t eligible then, but in his sophomore year at Miami, at a time  before there were 50+ bowl games and all you had to do was win six games to make it to one,  he took the Hurricanes to their first bowl game in 19 years - the 1961 Liberty Bowl.

In his junior year, in the 1962 Gotham Bowl, playing in New York City in 20-degree weather, he threw for a then-school record 321 yards against Nebraska, and was named the game’s MVP.  He finished fifth in the Heisman voting.

When necessary, he could run as well as pass, and his ability to dodge onrushing opponents - along with his dark, Hispanic good looks -   earned him the nickname “The Matador.”

Some of his biggest fans were opposing coaches:

LSU's Charley McClendon:  "Fantastic!"

Northwestern's Ara Parseghian: "Incredible!"

Nebraska's Bob Devaney: “The greatest passer I ever saw in college.”

Air Force’s Ben Martin: “Having George Mira is like having a coach on the field.”

Maryland's Tom Nugent: "He's Willie Mays in a football uniform.

In the spring preceding his senior season, his coach, Andy Gustafson, had been named Miami’s AD and had the option of retiring  as football coach.  But he  elected  to postpone retirement for  a year - until his  senior quarterback’s eligibility ended - saying,  "I've got the best quarterback I've ever had, the best passer I've ever seen.  Retirement can wait."

Before George Mira’s  senior season, he was on the cover of  Sports Illustrated’s 1963 annual pre-season football issue, and was the subject of a feature story entitled, “One Wonderful Conch…”

And then, something must have gone terribly wrong - something I haven’t had the time to research - because the Hurricanes finished a disappointing 3-7, losing their final  four games in a row.  Following the season,  sure enough,  AD Gustafson replaced head coach Gustafson. 

When his three-year career at Miami, came to an end,  our guy  held numerous Miami passing records -   many of which still stand - and he became only the second player in Miami history to have his jersey number - 10 -  retired.

He was taken by the San Francisco 49ers in the second round of the 1964 NFL draft (the number 15 player selected), and he wound up backing up starter John Brodie for five years.  (A matter of trivia:  As a rookie, George Mira threw the pass that was caught and then fumbled, and then picked up and taken 66 yards - the wrong way -  by the Vikings’ Jim Marshall. When Marshall, after crossing the goal line, threw the ball into the stands in celebration, it resulted in a safety awarded to the 49ers.)

After that, he spent a season in Philadelphia backing up Norm Snead, another in Baltimore on the “taxi squad,” and yet another in Miami backing up Bob Griese. 

Then he was off to Canada, where he played with Montreal for two seasons, before signing with the Birmingham Americans of the World Football League for the 1974 season.  He led the Americans to the WFL championship, and was named MVP of the title game. 

After the WFL’s first year the league  folded and  then restarted, and he spent the 1975 season with the Jacksonville Express.

In 1977, he returned briefly with Toronto of the CFL as a player-coach, and then  retired.

In all, he spent 13 years as a pro football quarterback - eight in the NFL, three in the CFL, and two in the WFL.

He never strayed far from his native Key West, and after running a pizzeria there for a number of years, he  launched and then built up a very successful business selling conch fritters,  both in Key West and in Miami.

His son and namesake, George Mira, Jr.,  also starred in  football at Miami.  As the middle linebacker on The U’s famed Bad Boy teams, he led the Hurricanes in tackles for three straight seasons (1985-86-87) and became the first player in Miami football history to start in three straight New Year’s Day Bowl games.

Both father and son are  in the University of Miami Sports Hall of Fame.


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING GEORGE MIRA

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
TOM DAVIS - SAN MARCOS, CALIFORNIA
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
JOE BREMER - WEST SENECA, NEW YORK
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY




***********   QUIZ: He was born the fifth of six sons and raised outside Philadelphia in LaMott, a totally black section of otherwise affluent Cheltenham Township originally established as residences  for domestic workers int he homes of the wealthy.  (LaMott, named for Lucretia Mott, a famous abolitionist, was also  where famed baseball player Reggie Jackson grew up.)

He was a multi-sport  star, and in those days before television, Miami offered him scholarship sight unseen, assuming that coming from Cheltenham High School, he was white. It was 1945 and knowing that the South was heavily segregated, he wrote them back, saying “Just so you know, I am a Negro.”  Upon learning that he was black, Miami withdrew their offer.

Instead, he attended Penn State - on an academic scholarship.

He and a teammate named Dennis Hoggard were the first two black athletes  to play in a varsity game at Penn State, and he was the first to start.

We have his own word for it that the origin of the "We Are… Penn State!" cheer dates to early in the 1946 season,  when the Penn State team learned that a game at Miami  was on the schedule, and Miami refused to let their two black  players participate.  The Penn State captain, Steve Suhey, calling for a team vote, said,  “We are Penn State. It’ll be all or none.” The vote was unanimous to forfeit the game.

In 1947, Penn State shut out six opponents on its way to a perfect 9-0 season, and earning an invitation to play in the 1948 Cotton Bowl, at Dallas. 

Our guy became the first black player to play in the Cotton Bowl, and he caught the  third period touchdown pass that enabled Penn State to come from behind and tie powerful SMU, 13-13.

SMU finished the season ranked #4, Penn State #5.

He was chosen by the Detroit Lions in the 19th round of the 1949 NFL draft, and although there were two black players drafted ahead of him,  he made the Lions team and became the first black draftee to play in an NFL game.

For two seasons, he mostly returned kicks and punts, and in a 1950 game against the Los Angeles Rams,  he had 294 yards on four kickoff returns - including a 97-yard touchdown - a total that was an NFL record for 44 years. (It remains the third-highest total.)

After the 1950 season he was the first NFL player drafted during the Korean War, and during his two years  in the Army, he was traded to the Chicago Cardinals.  On his return, he played in six games in the 1952-53 season, and then retired.

He remained in the Detroit area and worked first as a teacher and then in management with the Chrysler Corporation.

He died in November, 2018 at the age of 92.



FRIDAY,  SEPTEMBER  15, 2023 - "Jesus said ‘love your enemies.’ He didn’t say not to have any.” P. J. O’Rourke

*********** IT’S NOT TOO LATE TO EMAIL ME ABOUT SIGNING UP YOUR TEAM  FOR THE BLACK LION AWARD.  THERE’S NO COST TO PARTICIPATE - IT’S SIMPLY SO WE CAN TELL YOU WHAT YOU NEED TO DO, AND SO WE’LL KNOW HOW MANY AWARDS TO PREPARE TO MAIL OUT.


***********  THIS WEEKEND - WEEK FIFTEEN  (OF TWENTY-ONE) - IN THE CFL


FRIDAY

TORONTO (10-1)  at  MONTREAL (6-6)   7 PM EDT

EDMONTON (3-10) at  SASKATCHEWAN (6-6) 9:30 PM EDT




SATURDAY

WINNIPEG (10-3) at HAMILTON (5-7) 4 PM EDT

OTTAWA (3-9) at BC (8-4) 7 PM EDT


YOUR SCHEDULE OF CFL GAMES ON AMERICAN CABLE (CBSSN) THIS SEASON:

https://fbschedules.com/cbs-sports-network-releases-2023-cfl-tv-schedule/



*********** Texas’ legendary coach Darrell Royal continues his story about going to the “Flip-Flop T.”

The Flip-Flop represented a flip-flop in our coaching theories. Never before had we tried to change an offense to fit our material. Bob Zuppke (longtime great coach at Illinois. HW) used to say he'd look over his material and then decide on his formations. I've read of other coaches doing this. But I've never been that smart and I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to make all the pieces fit together.

Most coaches learn one offense, work up a strong belief in it, and then say, well, here it is, now let’s find some people to run these plays.

However, it didn't take an Einstein to sit before those game movies and decide you wanted Saxton to run with the football every possible play he could, no matter how. We didn't start out with the Flip-Flop plays. We started out with the idea of getting the ball to Saxton with enough room for him to maneuver. The plays followed.

Always before (and perhaps again sometime in the future) we have run the Split T and the Wing T and simply combed our squad for the players best suited to run those plays.
What About the Passing Game?

People have asked this question: what if you were teaching a conservative chug-chug offense and you suddenly felt heir to a sensational passer and you were going to have his services for three varsity years? I'd think you'd stick with the same formations you had been running, but simply throw the ball more.

I might say this: we've always been a running team and I'm sure we will continue to be so (We’ve been criticized for it, I might add.) But I've always felt that three things can happen to you whenever you throw the football, and two of them are bad. You can catch the ball, you can throw it incomplete, or have it intercepted. There are college coaches who argue that passing teams become lazy teams. That the passing yardage comes so easy, and the team finds it hard to buckle down and go for those three tough yards when they have to.

In other words, a passing team tends to neglect the hard-rock duties of blocking the other guys flat and running through their territory, because it's easier to throw over the other guys’ heads – the path, as they say, of least resistance.

Coaches who believe in the pro type offense for colleges will argue stoutly that pass protection blocking is the toughest part of football, tht you can't be lazy and execute it well.

Passing coaches, to be frank, haven't exactly been overly successful in promoting their theories lately and some of them are rather sensitive about it.  Woody Hayes of Ohio State is a man dedicated to free speech and he rubbed some tender skins raw a few years ago when he said, “A passer is beautiful to watch, but he'll get you beat every time.”  Which was a way of saying that passing teams do not win in college ranks.

Dutch Meyer, who coached two pretty fair chunkers at TCU in Sammy Baugh and Davey O'Brien, once answered that question. "There is the danger that a passing team becomes lazy,”  said Dutch. "A passing team might not crack down on running plays, because it feels like it can make yardage easier on passes. However, I don't think a passing team gets soft on defense. Back then (in the Baugh and O’Brien days) we just didn’t spend as much time on defense in practice.”

*********** GAMES WORTH WATCHING

THURSDAY NIGHT
NAVY AT MEMPHIS - Memphis favored by 14. Two questions will be answered: 1. How bad is Navy? and 2. Have they improved since Notre Dame?

FRIDAY NIGHT
VIRGINIA  AT MARYLAND - Terps favored by 15-1/2. This used to be a fairly big rivalry, back when Maryland was in the ACC, where they belonged.
ARMY AT UTSA - UTSA is favored by 8-1/2.  I think that’s insane. UTSA only lost to Houston by 3. Army is 1-1, with a loss to a mediocre team and a win over an FCS JV team.
UTAH STATE AT AIR FORCE - Air Force is favored by 9-1/2.  This doesn’t look like a good Utah State team.  But so far, it doesn’t look like a good Air Force team, either.

SATURDAY
FLORIDA STATE AT BOSTON COLLEGE - FSU is favored by 26-1/2.  BC program is in a death spiral. This is only worth watching - briefly - because Florida State is ranked #3
PENN STATE AT ILLINOIS - This once looked like a decent game. Not so much after the Illini flopped against Kansas.
LSU AT MISSISSIPPI STATE - State had to struggle  against Arizona; LSU - who knows?  They will probably win by more than 9-1/2
KANSAS STATE AT MISSOURI - Wildcats are 4-1/2 point favorites.  EMAW! (Every man a Wildcat.  They haven’t been forced to change it to EPAW yet.)
LIBERTY AT BUFFALO - I’ll take a look at some of the Liberty offense
WAKE FOREST AT OLD DOMINION - Wake is favored by 14 but I’ll still watch because Wake is one of my teams
CENTRAL MICHIGAN AT NOTRE DAME - Not for long
SOUTH CAROLINA AT GEORGIA - I think the SEC plays boring football, and with Georgia a 27-point favorite, this one won’t be on the screen long.
SAN DIEGO STATE AT OREGON STATE - Go Beavers!  They’re destiny’s darlings, and it  just so happens that they’re pretty good, too.
MINNESOTA AT NORTH CAROLINA - Tar Heels are 7-1/2 point favorites, but I think the Gophers will cover
NORTHWESTERN AT DUKE - Duke is an 18-1/2 point favorite.  Go Devils!
VIRGINIA TECH AT RUTGERS - Only because I’m curious about both programs.  I suspect Rutgers will kill the Hokies.
WASHINGTON AT MICHIGAN STATE - Huskies are the better team, but you always have to be wary of any team that’s been through what  the Spartans have been through
TENNESSEE AT FLORIDA - This ought to be over fast. For some reason, though, Vols are only 6-1/2 point favorites.  Didn’t anybody see that Florida team against Utah?
NORTHERN ILLINOIS AT NEBRASKA - I just want to see Nebraska win.  College football needs Nebraska to be good again.  It’s been way too long.
VANDERBILT AT UNLV - I’ll watch because it’s a chance for Vandy to go into SEC play two games over .500
GEORGIA TECH AT OLE MISS - Only because I like Ole Miss. This will be over fast.
BYU AT ARKANSAS - Ordinarily this would be a good game but I am afraid this isn’t a good BYU team. Hogs are favored by 8-1/2
SYRACUSE AT PURDUE - This could be very interesting. Syracuse has beaten two weak opponents; Purdue narrowly lost to Fresno State and beat Virginia Tech. Hard for me to pick because I like both teams.
PITT AT WEST VIRGINIA - The Backyard Brawl, with both teams needing a win.  Amazingly, the Moutaineers ars slight favorites. I like the way the Mountaineers played against Penn State. Pitt was sluggish against Wofford and laid an egg against Cincinnati.
HAWAII AT OREGON - Only to watch the Ducks.
NEW MEXICO  STATE AT NEW MEXICO - The Lobos are narrow favorites, but I’ve come to like the Aggies and their coach, Jerry Kill. “And when we win this game, we’ll buy a keg of booze, an we’ll drink to the Aggies till we wobble in our shoes…” Oh wait - this game isn’t on any of the networks…
TCU AT HOUSTON - TCU? Are they still around?  They’re favored by 6-1/2.  Maybe that’s justified after Houston lost in OT to… Rice???
COLORADO AT COLORADO STATE - There has to be some reason why ESPN is broadcasting this one.  What do you suppose it is? Of course I‘ll watch this one. This story isn’t over yet and until it is, the Buffs will be fun to watch.
FRESNO STATE AT ARIZONA STATE - I’ve got a granddaughter at ASU and she loves the place, but I have yet to warm up to their football program, so - go Bulldogs!
UTEP AT ARIZONA - The Wildcats are greatly improved and came close to beating Mississippi State in OT last week.  UTEP has, sadly, regressed after showing signs of life.



*********** After Pitt’s disappointing performance against Concinnati, their QB, Phil Jurkovec,  complained about “grown men” in the crowd booing the Panthers.

Here’s why Phil - and hundreds of other college athletes like him - had better get used to it:

1. However one defines the role NIL now plays in college football, he is undoubtedly being compensated for his play
2. He is now in his sixth year as a “student athlete,”
3. Pitt is the third team he’s played for (after Notre Dame and Boston College)
3. He’ll be 24 years old, on November 3 - that’s a grown man by anyone’s standards


*********** So a guy leaves Mom and the kids to run off with a 20-year old floozy - and now he wants to get back into the house so he can set in on fire to collect his share the insurance proceeds.

That’s about what the outgoing members of the Pac-12 had in mind, it was revealed during last week’s hearing where Oregon State and Washington State were granted a restraining order.

They planned to meet and, outvoting Oregon State and Washington State, 10-2,  dissolve the conference and divvy up its moneys, using the funds to cover part of their costs in transitioning to other conferences.


***********  “Break up the Yankees!” they used to say.  How long before we hear them saying “Break up the Pac-12?”  What’s that? You say they already have?

How do you like your irony?   This time a year ago, the Pac-12 was being ridiculed, dismissed as a Power 5 conference pretender.  A month ago, it was given one season to  live.  Now, two weeks into that season, the conference - or its corpse - had EIGHT teams in the latest AP Top 25:

USC (5)
WASHINGTON (8)
UTAH (12)
OREGON (13)
OREGON STATE (16)
COLORADO (18)
WASHINGTON STATE (23)
UCLA (24)


#5 USC is idle

#8 Washington (2-0) is at Michigan State

Weber State is at #12 Utah (2-0)

Hawaii is at #13 Oregon (2-0)

SDSU is at #16 Oregon State (2-0)

Colorado State is at #18 Colorado (2-0)

Northern Colorado is at #23 Washington State (2-0)

North Carolina Central is at #24 UCLA (2-0)


Idaho is at Cal (1-1)

Sac State is at Stanford (1-1 overall, 1-0 out of conference)

Fresno State is at Arizona State (1-1)

UTEP is at Arizona (1-1)


The Pac-12 is now 20-3 against outside opposition. It could conceivably go unbeaten this weekend.  Most of the members have easy games, prior to the start of conference play next week, and even those  with halfway decent opponents - Washington (at Michigan State) and Oregon State (home against San Diego State) are heavily favored.

The team most likely to lose is Arizona State, a three-point underdog at home against Fresno State.


*********** For all Danelo Cavalcante’s many faults - I mean, he’s in our country illegally, he’s on the lam from a murder in Brazil, and he escaped from a jail in the Philadelphia suburbs where he was serving time for stabbing his girlfriend to death -  at least you can’t say he’s stupid.

Or else someone gave him good advice.

Chances are he probably  doesn’t have the faintest idea what the Philadelphia Eagles are, but when he was finally found and “brought to justice” by Yoda  (a well-trained police dog) the guy was wearing an Eagles sweatshirt.

My idea of the perfect sentence for the guy would be to put  a Dallas Cowboys jersey on him and then drive him to South Philly and let him  out of the car.  Doesn’t matter where.  Pick any street at random.


*********** If you doubt that we’re edging ever closer to the decadence of ancient Rome and its obsession with gladiatorial games, you might want to read this press release…

The Chiefs will debut a new premium speakeasy inside GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium tonight called The Huddle, reports SBJ's Bret McCormick. Levy, which provides premium concessions at the stadium, will operate the new area.

Access to the club comes with season tickets to seats near midfield on the CommunityAmerica Club level, reserved parking spots, a private stadium entrance and a personalized gameday experience with high-end food and beverage.

Inspired by art deco design, The Huddle comes with white-glove amenities, such as full-time service representatives for members, personalized gifting and reserved parking spaces with umbrella service during inclement weather. The F&B program includes a mixologist and high-end local restaurants and chefs. While Levy handles premium services at Arrowhead, Aramark Sports + Entertainment handles F&B everywhere else in the building.

WTF?  White-glove amenities?  Umbrella services?


*********** Several years ago, when they really  sucked and they were running through a succession of head coaches, Oregon State had an offensive line coach named Ed Sowash, who came up with what he thought would be a great motivational scheme for his guys.

He would call them the “Bodyguards,” and he arranged to take  a group photo of them posing with machine guns.

Before the university’s higher-ups even had a chance to express their displeasure about the display of firearms, the Bodyguards went out and gave up 10 sacks against Fresno State and  eight against Stanford, and that was the end of  that.


 

*********** It was the annual Mom’s Practice at Springfield Collegiate School outside Winnipeg, Manitoba, and in our famous pancake drill, a mom lets her son know who’s boss!

The Mom’s Practice, now a fixture in coach Tom Wall’s program,  is a big hit (no joke) with the moms, many of whom said afterwards they had just one regret - that they couldn’t have had more of a running start!


***********   ”If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.

“Among the natural rights of the colonists are these: first, a right to life; secondly, to liberty; thirdly to property; together with the right to support and defend them in the best manner they can.

“The liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil Constitution, are worth defending at all hazards; and it is our duty to defend them against all attacks. We have received them as a fair inheritance from our worthy ancestors: they purchased them for us with toil and danger and expense of treasure and blood, and transmitted them to us with care and diligence. It will bring an everlasting mark of infamy on the present generation, enlightened as it is, if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle, or to be cheated out of them by the artifices of false and designing men."

Samuel Adams
August 1st,1776
Philadelphia State House


***********   Lots of good stuff today. The letter from the OSU President: Of course I liked it, and join him in being pleased the judge granted the TRO. I hope that in the end the traitorous teams suffer financially. But I also wonder what this head of school has said about other issues of the day, such as the trans invasion of female sports; the wokeness of other former PAC-12 schools, including blocking conservatives from their campuses; the impact of NIL; the chaos the portal has caused; and the out-of-control tuition increases for regular students. I hope he has stood up on those matters as well.

The coach dealing with the cocky kid and lousy parents: congratulations, coach, your Emotional Quotient places you in the 99th percentile.

Mel Tucker: your thoughts = my thoughts in every particular. He might not have done everything alleged, but his general creepiness has given MSU an opening to exercise the 'for cause' clause. Can you imagine the parents--assuming they care to know about this matter--of a future recruit wanting to send their son to play for him?

It's tough not to like the subject of the obituary...not my style, but still, tough not to like him.

John Vermillion                        
St Petersburg, Florida



***********  Hugh,

Didn't take long for OSU and WSU to put the brakes on the PAC 12 "defectors" letting them know in no uncertain terms that they will fight ANY attempt by those schools, their lawyers, and George Kliavkoff that the Beavs and Coogs won't be left with the crumbs.  IMHO the only conference that will struggle to exist will be the MWC.

Since OSU and WSU won't be getting any invitations to join the Big 12 anytime soon, they will "invite" the MWC schools to join the PAC 12.  Fresno State will throw a parade!

In today's world of lying, cheating, greed, selfishness, no accountability, lack of responsibility, and other less desirable human traits it wouldn't surprise me one bit if the Mel Tucker issue was a set-up.  BUT...on the other hand...I had my doubts about Tucker from the get-go.  Just something about the way the guy left Colorado I didn't trust.

At one time or another all of us have had to deal with "that dad" who seemingly does everything possible to make our jobs impossible.

JETS!  JETS!  JETS!  The Packers are breathing a sigh of relief, while Jets front office and Jets fans are crying.  Torn achilles.  Done.

Have a great week!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas






*********** QUIZ ANSWER:  Jackie Slater played in the NFL for 20 years.   On the offensive line.   All for the same team.

He was born and grew up in Jackson, Mississippi.

He was a big kid - when he was 13, he was six feet tall and weighed 245.  As a sophomore at Jackson’s Wingfield High School, he finally caved in to his buddies’ teasing, and turned out for the football team.

At Wingfield, he became a  star in football, basketball, and track.

In the segregated South of the time, neither Mississippi State  or Ole Miss recruited him, but he was highly recruited by teams in the SWAC, and he chose Jackson State.

Originally recruited to play defense, he was moved to offense to block for a great running back named Walter Payton.

He would later admit - in his Pro Football Hall of Fame enshrinement speech - that he wasn’t pleased with the  move at first, but he eventually came to realize that it was not only  good for Jackson State, but it was a good move for his career.

He was a three-time All-SWAC selection, and following his senior season he was chosen to the Pittsburgh Courier’s Black College All-American team.

He was drafted in the third round of the 1976 NFL Draft by the Los Angeles Rams, for whom he would play 20 years - 259 regular season games.

(The summer before he reported, he played in the College All-Star game  against the NFL champion Pittsburgh Steelers, and he found himself going up against Mean Joe Greene. Greene,   apparently displeased by the rookie’s physical play, told  him to take it easy -  it was just an exhibition game.)

For his first two years with the Rams, he was a backup offensive lineman and special teams player,  but when Ray Malavasi became coach,  our guy became a starter.  In 1979, his fourth year, the Rams led the NFL in yards gained, and made it to the Super Bowl where they  played the Steelers.

He became become the mainstay of the Rams’ offensive line.  He was a first- or second-team all-pro selection five different times and he was a first- or second-team All-NFC choice seven times.  He played in seven Pro Bowls between 1983 and 1990. 

In his career, he blocked for 24 different quarterbacks and 37 different running backs.   Behind  the Rams’ offensive line while he played on it, seven different runners - Lawrence McCutcheon, Wendell Tyler, Eric Dickerson, Charles White, Greg Bell, Cleveland Gary, and Jerome Bettis - rushed for 1,000 yards.

In 1983,  the Rams offensive line  allowed only 23 sacks (best in the NFL) while also blocking  for Dickerson’s 1,808 yards, a record for a rookie.

His last year - his twentieth, all as a Ram - was their first year in St. Louis.

After retirement, he served as a color analyst on  ESPN and Fox, and did local sports in the L.A. area.

For eight years, he coached the offensive line at Azusa Pacific, and during his  first three years there, he earned a Master’s degree in leadership.

He spent the most successful years of his career under head coach John Robinson, and Robinson served as his presenter at the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

He and his wife had two sons. One, Matthew, played football at  UCLA  and is a two-time Super Bowl champion and six-time Pro Bowl selection as the special teams captain of the New England Patriots.   Father and son combined, they trail only the Mannings and the Matthewses in most Pro Bowl nominations for  a family.
 
In 1995, he  received the Bart Starr Award, recognizing  the  NFL player who best exemplifies outstanding character and leadership in the home, on the field, and in the community, and then his son  Matthew won the award in 2016, making  them the first father and son ever to win the award.

In his Hall of Fame induction speech, he said,  “My overall goal was to become the best offensive tackle in the history of the game…and that’s what I focused on…I isolated myself completely.  I was out here on a mission and I chose to keep my world as small as I could. I was consumed by work.”



CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING JACKIE SLATER

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
TOM DAVIS - SAN MARCOS, CALIFORNIA
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
CHARLIE WILSON - BROOKSVILLE, FLORIDA
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
SEAN DONOVAN - NEW YORK, NEW YORK
TOM WALLS - WINNIPEG, MANITOBA
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY


  


*********** QUIZ:  Before there was a Jim Kelly… a Bernie Kosar… a Vinny Testaverde… a Steve Walsh… a Gino Torretta… a Craig Erickson… (or a Tyler Van Dyke)…

Before any of those famed Miami quarterbacks…

There was our guy -  called,  by none other than the University of Miami Sports Hall of Fame,  “the founding  quarterback of Quarterback U.”

He did something very few football players ever are able do - he went north to Miami  to play his college football.  That’s because  he was a Conch (pronounced “Conk”) - a native of Key West, Florida.  He was the son of Cuban-American parents;   His dad was a foreman at the local ice plant that supplied Key West’s fishing and shrimping fleets, while his mom  stayed home and raised the family.

At Key West High School, he was a multi-sport star.  His best sport may have been baseball where as a pitcher he had a record of 31-2 and led his team to two straight state titles. (One of his teammates was future Hall-of-Famer Boog Powell.)

When major League baseball teams showed interest in signing him right out of high school, his  dad’s decision was to set a price of $30,000 - what he estimated to be the long -term value of a college football scholarship - and when no baseball team went higher than the Baltimore Orioles’ $15,000, the decision was to play football at the University of Miami, 120 miles to the north.

Freshmen weren’t eligible then, but in his sophomore year at Miami, at a time  before there were 50+ bowl games and all you had to do was win six games to make it to one,  he took the Hurricanes to their first bowl game in 19 years - the 1961 Liberty Bowl.

In his junior year, in the 1962 Gotham Bowl, playing in New York City in 20-degree weather, he threw for a then-school record 321 yards against Nebraska, and was named the game’s MVP.  He finished fifth in the Heisman voting.

When necessary, he could run as well as pass, and his ability to dodge onrushing opponents - along with his dark, Hispanic good looks,  earned him the nickname “The Matador.”

Some of his biggest fans were opposing coaches:

LSU's Charley McClendon:  "Fantastic!"

Northwestern's Ara Parseghian: "Incredible!"

Nebraska's Bob Devaney: “The greatest passer I ever saw in college.”

Air Force’s Ben Martin: “Having (him) is like having a coach on the field.”

Maryland's Tom Nugent: "He's Willie Mays in a football uniform.

In the spring preceding his senior season, his coach, Andy Gustafson, had been named Miami’s AD and had the option of retiring  as football coach.  But he  elected  to postpone retirement for  a year - until his  senior quarterback’s eligibility ended - saying,  "I've got the best quarterback I've ever had, the best passer I've ever seen.  Retirement can wait."

Before our guy’s senior season, he was on the cover of  Sports Illustrated’s 1963 annual pre-season football issue, and was the subject of a feature story entitled, “One Wonderful Conch…”

And then, something must have gone terribly wrong - something I haven’t had the time to research - because the Hurricanes finished a disappointing 3-7, losing their final  four games in a row.  Following the season,  sure enough,  AD Gustafson replaced head coach Gustafson. 

When his three-year career at Miami, came to an end,  our guy  held numerous Miami passing records -   many of which still stand - and he became only the second player in Miami history to have his jersey number - 10 -  retired.

He was taken by the San Francisco 49ers in the second round of the 1964 NFL draft (the number 15 player selected), and he wound up backing up starter John Brodie for five years.  (A matter of trivia:  As a rookie, he threw a pass that was caught and then fumbled, and then picked up and taken 66 yards - the wrong way -  by the Vikings’ Jim Marshall. When Marshall, after crossing the goal line, threw the ball into the stands in celebration, it resulted in a safety awarded to the 49ers.)

After that, he spent a season in Philadelphia backing up Norm Snead, another in Baltimore on the “taxi squad,” and yet another in Miami backing up Bob Griese. 

Then he was off to Canada, where he played with Montreal for two seasons, before signing with the Birmingham Americans of the World Football League for the 1974 season.  He led the Americans to the WFL championship, and was named MVP of the title game. 

After the WFL’s first year the league  folded and  then restarted, and he spent the 1975 season with the Jacksonville Express.

In 1977, he returned briefly with Toronto of the CFL as a player-coach, and then  retired.

In all, he spent 13 years as a pro football quarterback - eight in the NFL, three in the CFL, and two in the WFL.

He never strayed far from his native Key West, and after running a pizzeria there for a number of years, he  launched and then built up a very successful business selling conch fritters,  both in Key West and in Miami.

His son and namesake also starred in  football at Miami.  As the middle linebacker on The U’s famed Bad Boy teams, he led the Hurricanes in tackles for three straight seasons (1985-86-87) and became the first player in Miami football history to start in three straight New Year’s Day Bowl games.

Both father and son are  in the University of Miami Sports Hall of Fame.



TUESDAY,  SEPTEMBER  12, 2023 - "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”  Steve Jobs

*********** On Monday, a judge in Washington granted a restraining order requested by Oregon State and Washington State, preventing the so-called “Pac 12” from meeting on Wednesday in  a likely  attempt  by the other 10 dirty bastards to vote to dissolve the conference and divide the remaining revenues 12 ways - instead of hitting the trail and leaving Oregon State and Washington with whatever crumbs remain.

Said Oregon State’s president, "I am pleased with today's decision. As the two remaining Pac 12 members, Oregon State and Washington State must be able to chart a path forward for the Pac 12 – not the members that have chosen to leave it.”

It’s very difficult not to wish ill things for the high and mighty Big Ten for  having started this all, luring away USC and UCLA and thereby shattering a  relationship with the Pac-12 that had existed since 1947, when Illinois became the first Big Ten team to play in the Rose Bowl since 1921.


*********** I thought you might be interested in this letter, sent out Friday by Jayathi Y. Murthy, president of Oregon State University

Why we’re still fighting for the Pac-12

Friday, September 8, 2023


On a typical fall football weekend at Oregon State University, the streets and sidewalks of Corvallis begin to fill with visitors starting as early as Thursday evening.

The spirit is joyful, and excitement is in the air. Students and friends gather, alumni return to reminisce about their college days, and Oregonians who have been sporting orange-and-black since childhood show up to support the Beavers.

By Saturday morning, local restaurants and stores are bustling with customers, and pedestrians crowd the sidewalks and tree-lined streets of our downtown district, which has made Corvallis one of the top college towns in America for residents and visitors alike.

Beaver flags are flying on businesses, homes and cars, music can be heard, and there’s a steady stream of vehicles filing in and out of gas stations. Coolers are filling up with ice, beverages, hot dogs, and snacks from local markets. And Beaver fans converge on Reser Stadium to support student-athletes, coaches, and staff on the field.

There is a feeling of hope and anticipation that unites people from all backgrounds and every part of our state and nation because they share a common purpose: to cheer on Oregon’s statewide university.

This is Beaver Nation.

It’s a scene repeated in college towns across America – and for reasons that are about more than just a game. Preserving, and indeed advancing, the economic and cultural dividends that strong intercollegiate rivalries offer to a state such as ours have been front and center for me as I have navigated the sudden and unexpected unraveling of the Pac-12 Conference on Aug. 4.

On that morning, public universities chose money over mission, abandoning more than a century of tradition of the Pac-12 to join the Big Ten Conference and triggering a cascade of departures. Yes, college sports have become big business for media companies and others.

But taxpayer-supported educational institutions have a special obligation to keep the interests of their students and citizens as their top priorities, particularly when “following the money” can lead to real harm to communities and institutions across their home states. After all, we are here for the public good.

Sadly, the decisions of public institutions have now left our historic conference in ruin.
Now the Pac-12’s two remaining members – OSU and Washington State University – have to pick up the pieces, and working Oregonians and Washingtonians, students, small businesses, and local municipalities are left to pay the costs.

What does this mean in practice? Oregon State University, Corvallis and the surrounding community, and the state of Oregon will absorb millions more in losses than the University of Oregon will collect from media rights earnings, NCAA Tournament payouts, bowl games and other payments, with its move to the Big Ten. The net negative impact on Oregon students, families and small businesses will be real.

Oregon State and Washington State are two land-grant universities that were established in rural agricultural regions for a reason – not in big cities that can deliver television viewers and cable subscribers so valued by the media companies driving conference realignment.

Colleges and universities like OSU and WSU exist in every state and territory, and together we support the nation’s economic growth and social cohesion through our education, research, and extension missions. None of us are served by the financial incentives driving conference realignment.

Oregon State educates more than 35,000 students, conducts federally funded research approaching a half billion dollars, and sponsors extension and engagement programs across our state. As president, I believe that our purpose is to be a constructive and positive force in college athletics, no different from any of our other missions. We support our student-athletes, coaches, and staff. We lift up our faculty and students, we serve our community, and we cheer loudly alongside our alumni and fans.

As the two remaining members of the conference and in accordance with Conference bylaws, Oregon State and Washington State believe that we constitute the voting membership of the Pac-12 Board in its entirety – not the members who are leaving it. That’s why earlier today we filed a motion in court to seek a temporary restraining order against the Pac-12 and Commissioner Kliavkoff to prevent these parties from being able to make any future decisions about Conference assets and governance. While we will certainly act prudently in any financial decisions we make, in continued collaboration and consultation with the departing members, we cannot allow others to block our continued exploration of future options for the conference and our institutions.

We did not create or seek these circumstances but are prepared to act swiftly to protect the legacy and future viability of the Pac-12.

Our principles are clear:

    •    We prioritize the holistic development and well-being of student-athletes and support their academic and athletic goals.
    •    We provide the best experience for our fans and inspire engagement across all sports.
    •    And we are responsible stewards of the financial resources that have been entrusted to us to support student-athletes and our public mission.

The road ahead is difficult, and we expect resistance. However, by staying true to our public mission that puts people first and advances economic, scientific, and social progress here in our community, throughout the U.S. and around the world, we will navigate this path successfully. It’s who we are. It’s why we’re here. We demonstrate it in the classroom and in competition every day. United, we will pursue all measures within our control to compete at the highest level and maintain the public’s trust.

This is Beaver Nation.


*********** IT’S NOT TOO LATE TO EMAIL ME ABOUT SIGNING UP YOUR TEAM  FOR THE BLACK LION AWARD.  THERE’S NO COST TO PARTICIPATE - IT’S SIMPLY SO WE CAN TELL YOU WHAT YOU NEED TO DO, AND SO WE’LL KNOW HOW MANY AWARDS TO PREPARE TO MAIL OUT.

coachhw@mac.com


***********  THIS WEEKEND - WEEK FOURTEEN (OF TWENTY-ONE) - IN THE CFL


FRIDAY

HAMILTON (45-7)  27,  OTTAWA (3-9) 24


SATURDAY

TORONTO (10-1)  39, MONTREAL (6-6) 10

WINNIPEG (10-3) 51, SASKATCHEWAN (6-6) 6

EDMONTON (3-10) 25, CALGARY  (4-9) 23


YOUR SCHEDULE OF CFL GAMES ON AMERICAN CABLE (CBSSN) THIS SEASON:

https://fbschedules.com/cbs-sports-network-releases-2023-cfl-tv-schedule/



*********** Texas’ legendary coach Darrell Royal continues his story about going to the “Flip-Flop T.” The results…

The Flip-Flop uses three basic plays: the pitchback sweep to the strong side, the option to the fullback wide to the weak side, and the trap up the middle. You mix in just enough off-tackle plays to keep folks at home in that territory. But those three basic moves place an adequate strain on the defense: wide to either side and up the chute.

 The sweep is the most popular play, and it should be your big yardage gainer. That first season, Texas was extremely lucky to have three fine tailbacks. As I said, the offense was constructed around Saxton, but once we changed the attack, we had to use the same offense regardless of who was running at tailback. We had two other lads at tailback who caused about as much damage as Saxton. And they were all three different types.

Saxton was a thin jitterbug; Jerry Cook was a big, smooth glider; Tommy Ford was a compact blaster. (They finished first, third, and seventh, respectively, among Southwest Conference’s leading rushers.)

You can see how the arrangement benefited Saxton. The year before, he had averaged 5.4 yards for a total of 436 for the season. Under the tailback plan, he averaged 7.9 yards for a total of 849 yards, the largest total ever reached by a university of Texas back. Yet he played less than half the time.

After our first four games, Saxton had averaged 11 yards per whack on 28 trips and had played but sparingly. Which led one sports writer to speculate:

Sexton may be the first player in history to make all American and not play enough to earn a letter.

Cook and Ford both averaged better than 5 yards per rush. It doubtless will be a long time before any coach ever has three tailbacks of that particular combination; probably never again for me. A coach is entitled to that favor only once in a career.

The increase in the Texas yardage production after the flip-flop installation in 1961 may be seen below:

1958- 2409 yards, rushing and passing
1959- 2720     “          “          “          “
1960- 2500     “          “          “          “
1961- 3831     “          “          “          “
1962- 2860     “          “          “          “

*********** ADD TO THE LIST OF COACHES WHOSE  WORLD HAS BEEN ROCKED…

Bret Bielema… I really thought he had the Illini ready to compete, but they were barely competitive against Kansas.

Nick Saban…   Not even one of the greatest coaches of our time - if not of all time - is immune  to criticism and I imagine he’s getting it now.

Matt Rhule…  I like the guy and I think he’s a good coach, but while this Nebraska team looks very good on defense, it doesn’t look a whole lot different from a Scott Frost team  in the ways it finds to lose.

Jimbo Fisher… The loss to Miami was a crusher.  What Mario Cristobal  has done in two years,  Jimbo hasn’t been able to do in five.

Mel Tucker…Whew.  To think that they were bummed in Colorado when he skipped out on them - and that led to their getting Deion Sanders


*********** GAMES (I THOUGHT WOULD BE )WORTH WATCHING

FRIDAY NIGHT:
ILLINOIS +3 AT KANSAS - Kansas 34, Illinois 23 - Add KU’s Jalon Daniels  to the list of very good, extremely exciting QBs

SATURDAY EARLY:
VANDERBILT + 10 AT WAKE FOREST - I think Wake will cover. Wake Forest 36, Vanderbilt 20 - Weather kept me from seeing much of it. Wake rushed for almost 100 yards more than it passed for. Wake’s Demond Claiborne carried 26 times for 165 yards.
NOTRE DAME AT NC STATE +7.5  - ND’s first real opposition.  State didn’t exactly crush UConn, and ND is a lot stronger than UConn. ND will probably win, but I’ll  take the Pack and the points. Notre Dame 45, NC State 24.  The Irish passed their first real test.
NEBRASKA +3 AT COLORADO - I take the Huskers.  Great call, Wyatt. Colorado 36, Nebraska 14. Next week - Colorado State. Who thought the Buffs would be 3-0?
PURDUE +3 AT VIRGINIA TECH - Purdue faced a much better opponent last week. I’d  take the Boilermakers and the points. Purdue 24, Virginia Tech 17
UTAH AT BAYLOR +7.5 - Can Baylor snap back after a huge upset?  Will Utah  suffer a letdown after a big win?  No and No. Utah covers. Actually, Utah did NOT cover. It took the Utes two TDs in the past two minutes to beat Baylor, 20-13.

SATURDAY MID DAY
IOWA AT IOWA STATE +4 - I’ll take the Hawkeyes and give the points.  Hawkeyes won  and covered, 20-13.  Nice win, but Brian Ferentz may not think so (see below)
TEXAS A&M AT MIAMI +4 - I’ll take the Canes and the points. Miami 48, A & M 33. Enuff  said.
OLE MISS AT TULANE +7.5 - I can’t go against Willie Fritz in big games so I’ll take Tulane and the points. Ole Miss, 37-20.
UTEP AT NORTHWESTERN +2 - Book it.  UTEP wins. Not a  chance, Miners. Wildcats, 38-7.
TULSA +34 AT WASHINGTON - Seems like way too many points, but after the Huskies hammered a supposedly good Boise State team - nah.  I’ll still take the points.  Hey, Huskies - 33-10 means you won but I lost (if I’d bet).
APP STATE +18 AT NORTH CAROLINA - Damn near every kid on the App State team was overlooked by UNC, but  they’re still good players - with grudges. I’ll take App State and the points.  UNC 34-30 in OT.  Could have gone either way.  (Whoever sets those odds in Vegas ought to spend some time in the Tar Heel state before picking next year’s game.)
SMU +15.5 AT OKLAHOMA - Sooners will beat them worse than that.  (But  not much worse, as it turned out - OU, 28-11)
CINCINNATI +7.5 AT PITT - Pitt fans have been complaining about their low ranking.  Here’s the Panthers’ chance to show they deserve better. I’ll take Pitt and give the points. Whoa, Cincinnati 27, Pitt 21.
OREGON AT TEXAS TECH +6.5 - I’d give the points.  Ducks won 38-30 and beat the spread with a pick-six at the end.
TEXAS +7  AT ALABAMA - I think the Tide will win, but after last year’s squeaker, I’d take the points.  Not glad that Bama lost, but I could almost see this coming - UT 34, Bama 24
UCF AT BOISE STATE +3.5 - I think UCF will cover. They sure did cover. UCF 18, Boise State 16
HOUSTON AT RICE +9.5 - Houston will cover.  I’m a loser.  Houston 43, Rice 41 in 2 OTs
ARIZONA +9 AT MISSISSIPPI STATE - Bulldogs will beat the Wildcats and cover. Bulldogs won in OT, 31-24 but didn’t cover.
WISCONSIN AT WASHINGTON STATE +6 - I am afraid that the Badgers will win big, but I’m letting my heart go with the Cougs. WSU 31, Wisconsin 22.   A great win for the Power 2.  Screw you, Big Ten. 
TEMPLE +8.5 AT RUTGERS - Rutgers covers, Rutgers 36, Temple 7
UCLA  AT SAN DIEGO STATE +14.5 - I’ll take SDSU and the points. UCLA won and covered, 35-10.
AIR FORCE AT SAM HOUSTON +13.5 - I love the AFA offense and I don’t think the Bearkats have seen anything like it.  AFA  wins and covers.  Air Force 13, Sam Houston 3.
OKLAHOMA STATE AT ARIZONA STATE +3 - I can’t believe the Cowboys aren’t at least 3 points better than an ASU team with a first year coach. Cowboys were a lot better: 27-15
STANFORD +29.5 AT USC - Good Lord - once one of the West’s biggest rivalries. Can it really be this bad?  Will it still be watchable after  the first quarter?  I’m not touching this one. It was worse than bad: USC, 56-10
AUBURN AT CAL +6.5 - I’m going out on a limb and taking the Golden Bears. The Bears didn’t win, but they cover: Auburn 14, Cal 10. 


*********** Iowa won Saturday, yes.  They beat Iowa State, 20-13, and that’s always a big deal in a rivalry like this one.

But Iowa’s OC, Brian Ferentz can’t be happy.

See, he needs 25 points per game - 325  total -  to keep his job for next year.

In case you’re not keeping score, here’s how it’s going:

Vs. Utah State - 24 points

Vs. Iowa State - 20  points (yes, seven of the Hawkeyes’ points were from a defensive score, but they count, too,, as do special teams scores.)

With 44  points so far, he’s six points behind schedule.

Here’s the problem with such an insane contract:  there could come a point in the season where prudent action calls for staying conservative to protect a lead, but with the OC’s job on the line, a riskier course is taken, jeopardizing the entire team for the sake of one person.  (I’ve seen it happen in he case of QBs with incentive clauses based on touchdown passes thrown.)


https://www.hawkcentral.com/story/sports/college/iowa/football/2023/09/09/iowa-hawkeyes-football-point-per-game-score-brian-ferentz/70780143007/



*********** BOOOOOOOOO….

Unofficial results of Power 5 team scrimmages … 

NEXT YEAR: Home team QBs will wear red jerseys.

Murray State 0 at Louisville 56 (THURSDAY NIGHT)
Indiana State 7 at Indiana 41 (FRIDAY NIGHT)
Ball State 3 at Georgia 45
Youngstown State 7 at Ohio State 35
Delaware 7 at Penn State 53
South Carolina State 13 at Georgia Tech 48
Charleston Southern 17 at Clemson 66
Eastern Kentucky 17 at Kentucky 28
Southern Utah 16 at BYU 41
UNLV 7 at Michigan 35
Richmond 14 at Michigan State 45
Kent State 6 at Arkansas 2
Austin Peay 13 at Tennessee 30
Lafayette 7 at Duke 42
Duquesne 17 at West Virginia 56
Grambling 10 at LSU 72
Charlotte 20 at Maryland 38
McNeese 7 at Florida 49
Furman 21 at South Carolina 47
Nicholls 6 at TCU 41
UC Davis 7 at Oregon State 55

NOT A SINGLE UPSET!  NOT EVEN A NEAR-UPSET!



***********  It was Military Appreciation Day at CBSSN as the network served up back-to-back-to-back  service academy wins.

Delaware State at Army - Army 57, Delaware State 0.  Delaware State - I hate to have to say this - is not a  good JV team.  Army threw for a few scores, which made everybody feel good, and the new offense put some points in the board, but it sure is hard to watch an Army line that doesn’t fire out - even on inside running plays. Running the “old” offense, Army would have won 157-0.

Wagner at Navy - Navy 24, Wagner 0.  There weren’t many people on hand at the end of this one, partly because of a long weather delay, but partly because  the Middies did not play particularly well in defeating an underdog Wagner team. They did, however, show that unlike Army they haven’t given up on the concept of option football with a  quarterback under center.

Air Force at Sam Houston - Air Force 13, Sam Houston 3. This means either that Sam Houston has a very good defense (they did hold BYU to 14 points) or that all the service academies are struggling, and this year’s Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy is up for grabs.


*********** AHEM.  The Pac-12 is now 20-3 against outside opposition.

Colorado and Utah lead the pack with two wins over Power 5 opponents.

Six  other teams are 2-0 against outsiders:

Oregon, Oregon State, UCLA, USC, Washington and Washington State.

Arizona, Arizona State and Cal are all 1-1 and Stanford is 1-0


*********** Colorado is quite excited about “Coach Prime”  and Folsom Field was packed Saturday to watch the Buffalos play Nebraska.  Why, the Denver Post even predicted that more than half the people in the stadium might be Colorado fans.

What?  Only half full?

You got it.  There was that old reliable “Sea of Red.” Husker  faithful.

Shows how bad things had gotten at CU  when the local sports guys get excited about actually outnumbering the  visitors’ fans.

Wrote  Oliver Vandervoort in huskercorner.com

This week, the attendance feud reached a new weird crescendo when a Colorado beat writer bragged about how the Buffs were going to have just over half their stadium full of CU’s own fans. The Denver Post article, titled “Coach Prime 1, Nebraska 0: CU fans will outnumber Big Red faithful at Buffs-Huskers, ticket site predicts” just begs for ridicule.

Nebraska football has fallen a long way from its glory days. There are some who will claim Husker fans have no room or reason to mock any other fan base. And the points would be valid.

But can you imagine a Nebraska football beat writer proudly crowing about Memorial Stadium being 51 percent full of Husker fans for a big game against a hated rival? Outright admitting that the opposing fans will take up almost half the seats?

I’ve talked before about Colorado bragging about a sellout for this game, while leaving out it’s a sellout because Nebraska football fans bought tickets en masse.

*********** The Giants’ Daniel Jones  lost BIG yardage Sunday night when he couldn’t bend down quickly enough to handle a low snap.  To whoever is pulling in the big bucks for coaching the Giants’ “offense”:  there’s a reason why shortstops fear a low, hard grounder, and in this photomontage, only one of the QBs shown - Jalen Hurts, at bottom right  - is in a stance that shows he’s aware of that  danger.  But I bet you knew that - and you still let your quarterback  stand up straight, because he says he doesn't feel comfortable in a semi-crouch.


***********  Not to say that Michigan  State  coach Mel Tucker isn’t a creep.  He admitted as much when he came out and  confessed that, yes,  there was “phone sex” between him a woman. But it was  “consensual.”

Hmmm. That’s not what the woman on the other end of the call says. She’s calling it “sexual harassment."

The real irony here is that the several years ago, the woman was a victim of gang rape, perpetrated by football players.  Since she first came clean with her story, she’s been on  a crusade - okay, a career, if you will - of going around to various colleges and pro teams, talking to them about the evils of sexual misconduct.

Yet there she was, on the phone with Mel Tucker and God knows what went on but some time after the call - which  was in April of 2022, as I understand it - she described it as “sexual harassment.”

One way or another, USA Today (remember it? It used to be a real newspaper that people read, back in the days  when they’d leave free copies outside peoples’ hotel rooms) got wind of the story and it broke this past weekend.

Michigan State apparently knew about the charges back in December, and had them investigated. The investigator’s report evidently was delivered to MSU in July.

And evidently, until the story broke this weekend, MSU higher-ups were waiting until the football team had a bye - October 7 - to deal with the issue.

Why did they wait?  Giving the people at MSU a little benefit of the doubt, perhaps out of respect for the woman’s privacy - which she clearly waived  when the USA Today story went public this weekend.

Or, perhaps, they thought they could make it though the football season?

Couple of questions, one obvious, one not so obvious:

We lived back east in the early days of sports talk radio, and I remember one of the guys who would get rid of call-in pests by saying, “Let me know if this sounds like I’m hanging up.”

An obvious question:  Is it really possible that it never occurred to the woman to  just hang up?

Look - not even suggesting that this might happen, but in an era in which anything is believable...

A not so obvious question:  is it possible that this is a setup?

Could Michigan State have had a serious case of buyer’s remorse?  Are there powerful people there who would like to see him gone?  That’s not easily done, you know:  Tucker has eight years left on his contract, at $9.5 million a year - guaranteed.  Do the math- it’s $76 million.

Is there the slightest possibility  that the woman might have been persuaded in some way to induce Mel Tucker to behave  in the manner he’s accused of  (and to which he’s already partially confessed)?   Such behavior might very well be evidence of moral turpitude that would allow them to fire him “with cause” - meaning they wouldn't owe him a penny.

I know this sounds absrud, but  there’s a lot of money involved here, and this is, after all,  the Big Ten. Out here in Pac-12 country, we’ve already seen what they’ll do where there’s money involved.


***********   A coaching friend (who’s running Open Wing, not Double Wing) writes…

Our QB of three years quit last week. It was ugly. He had been AWOL and in the spring the father told me he was having emotional problems. I contacted them and went over to talk about it last week. Suffice to say, this was not a meeting of the minds, but an ambush.

The player told me that the offense needed to change and we needed to spread it out and pass more. The father went down a long list of grievance with me, starting with when I removed his son as a captain two years ago, because he did not show up to any offseason activities or communicate. “All a captain should have to do is go out for the coin toss and give speeches!” I didn’t even know where to start a reply.

Dad further told me that I should have let his son call audibles. “I don’t see what’s so hard about it. We did it in Pee Wee football.”

Again, I didn’t even know where to start. After about ten minutes of this, I had had enough and interrupted them. I asked, if he was out or in. The dad said under the current system he was out. I stood up thanked them for having me over and left. 

Now we have a sophomore at QB who is a good kid, but not a runner or deep passer. I have a strong B Back and a decent line. However, we have been promoted to a higher league and teams will just pack the box and sit on our TE.

I think I am going to have a challenging season. Not looking for your sympathy,  coach, I knew the pitfalls of being different. I have to admit, that after losing only four games in the past three years, I thought I had earned more credibility.


NEEDLESS TO SAY, IT’S UNSIGNED. I ASKED THE COACH IF I COULD REPRINT, (CAREFULLY EDITED, OF COURSE, SO THAT THAT A**HOLE FATHER COULDN’T TRACE IT) AS A WARNING TO COACHES THAT NONE OF US IS SAFE FROM TODAY’S EPIDEMIC OF SELFISHNESS,  AND HE VERY GRACIOUSLY GRANTED PERMISSION.

I replied,

That is insane.  But given the selfishness of today’s parents, it’s the cross we football coaches bear.

Team success, unfortunately, does not inoculate us.

Four losses in three years?  So what?  What’s that got to do with MY KID?

I’m especially shocked that after all the effort you put into communicating with parents, especially about the importance of your out-of-season activities, this fool doesn’t even have a clue about leadership.


*********** Peoples’ life stories  interest me, and usually their obituary is the only way to find out some very interesting things about them. Every so often, I come across something ithat I just have to share, and this was one:

His eight grandchildren were the joy of his life, and he referred to them as “God’s gift for not killing your children when they were teenagers.” The grandchildren learned colorful language, and off-color jokes from him at very young ages, much to the dismay of their parents.


***********  Re NFL's Most Intriguing: By selecting the ambiguous 'Intriguing' Mike Jones absolved himself of any and all criticism. But it's still a game kind of fun to play. I had two quick thoughts before I read your comments. First, as with, I suppose, nearly everyone, I asked where Mahomes was...checked and double-checked, but his name wasn't there. Second, I thought surely there must be an OL somewhere, but no.

From time to time you speak about coaches you've worked with, some a short time, others much longer. I enjoy those reminiscences a lot, in that they tell me about both of you.

There are few better ways to make an argument than through an analogy. And the sod house analogy was perfect, and will stay with me Kaiser Permanente. But if you bust up such a house, what did that make you?

I generally agree with you CFB picks and rationale. OKST over ASU, you might've added "an ASU team on probation". I agree that sounds like a no-lose. Disagree with your thinking Tulane (although I really like Willie Fritz) will beat the spread, and ditto with Auburn at Cal.

Great way to open the day with your fine page of real sports commentary.

John Vermillion, aka Juan Valdez                            
St Petersburg, Florida



***********   Hugh,

Being located so close to Fort Worth now it wasn't surprising to see a lot of long faces in the 19th hole after Colorado's upset of TCU.  Obviously a large group of TCU fans here, and LSU fans too.  Have to say the LSU guys didn't have long faces...their faces were bright red and their words...well...let's say unkind.

On the other hand there are only two families where we live that are die-hard Notre Dame fans.  Mine, and Robert Farmer's.  Yes, the same Robert Farmer who played RB for the Irish when Lou Holtz was the coach, and who played in the NFL for a few years.  AND, the same Robert Farmer who played at ND while my eldest daughter served as an Irish football team manager.  Yes, she painted the helmets, was a regular at practices, and worked the sidelines during games.  I surprised both Robert and my daughter when she came up to visit us recently when I took her to the very same 19th hole. 

They had a great time reminiscing and I had an even greater time listening!

Trifecta for my three favorite teams two weeks in a row.  Barely!

Was looking shaky for the trifecta until Fresno State was able to pull out that late 2 OT win over Eastern Washington.  

Minnesota let Eastern Michigan hang around too long.  Gophers still having trouble finding the end zone especially inside the 10 yard line!  Thankfully the defense is playing solid.

Even though Sam Hartman turned in a decent performance for Notre Dame that NC State Wolfpack always gives him fits.  Despite his early struggles he managed to find himself, and the Irish OC finally figured out that the run game helps Hartman.

Texas is the real deal.  First time I saw an offensive line other than Georgia keep an Alabama D Line away from a QB the way the Longhorns did.

Colorado.  What can I say?  Nebraska.  What can I say?  Maybe Deion's talent evaluation method is what all Power 5 coaches should be looking at.

The Beavs and the Cougs continue their runs.  IMHO the BIG 12 still has time to bring those two schools in.

And then there is Army.  Delaware State came along at the right time (Wow...were they bad!)  Doesn't get any easier for the Cadets having to travel to UTSA next week and Syracuse the week after that.  Going out on a limb I say they finish 4-8.

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas

Wow.  Four wins for Army is  doable, but it’s going to take at least one win over another service academy, because otherwise I see only UMass and Holy Cross (which is a very good FCS team and could easily upset Army) as wins on the remaining schedule.  (Actually, UMass could upset Army too.)




 

*********** QUIZ ANSWER - A native of Lufkin, Texas, Ken Houston played high school football and basketball at all-black Dunbar High there, and went to Prairie View A & M, the only college  that recruited him.


At Prairie View, where he also was on the track and swim teams, he started as a center but was switched to linebacker and his junior year he was an All-SWAC selection. Tall (6-3) and lean, he was switched to safety his senior year, and again was named All-SWAC.

In 1967 he was a ninth-round pick of the Houston Oilers.

“I was a project,” he said later. “I could cover, but I’d never covered wide receivers. But they knew I would hit. I’d kill people. I was fearless.”

As a free safety, he wound up spending 13 seasons in the NFL - six with the Oilers and seven with the Washington Redskins.

He is generally considered the top free safety of the 1970s.  He was named to 12 Pro Bowls, and   from 1971-1979 he was either All-Pro, All-AFC or All-NFC eight of those years.
 
He intercepted 49 passes in his career, nine of them for touchdowns, and still holds the record (along with two others) for most interceptions returned for a touchdown in a single season - four, in 1971.

He also recovered 21 fumbles, and in all, he scored 12 touchdowns, - nine on interceptions,  one on a punt return, one on a fumble return, and one on a blocked field goal return.

He was on the first team of the NFL’s 1970s All-Decade team.

He is on the NFL’s 75th Anniversary All-Time Team, and its 100th Anniversary All-Time Team.

Ken Houston  is a member of the Texas Sports Hall of Fame, the Oilers/Titans Ring of Honor, the Redskins Ring of Fame, and the Pro Football Hall of Fame.


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING KEN HOUSTON

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
TOM DAVIS - SAN MARCOS, CALIFORNIA
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
TOM WALLS - WINNIPEG, MANITOBA
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY






*********** QUIZ:  He played in the NFL for 20 years.   On the offensive line.   All for the same team.

He was born and grew up in Jackson, Mississippi.

He was a big kid - when he was 13, he was six feet tall and weighed 245.  As a sophomore at Winfield High School, he finally caved in to his buddies’ teasing, and turned out for the team.

At Wingfield, he became a  star in football, basketball, and track.

In the segregated South of the time, neither Mississippi State  or Ole Miss recruited him, but he was highly recruited by teams in the SWAC, and he chose Jackson State.

Originally recruited to play defense, he was moved to offense to block for a great running back named Walter Payton.

He would later admit - in his Pro Football Hall of Fame enshrinement speech - that he wasn’t pleased with the  move at first, but he eventually came to realize that it was not only  good for Jackson State, but it was a good move for his career.

He was a three-time All-SWAC selection, and following his senior season he was chosen to the Pittsburgh Courier’s Black College All-American team.

He was drafted in the third round of the 1976 NFL Draft by the Los Angeles Rams, for whom he would play 20 years - 259 regular season games.

(The summer before he reported, he played in the College All-Star game  against the NFL champion Pittsburgh Steelers, and he found himself going up against Mean Joe Greene. Grene,   apparently displeased by the rookie’s physical play, told  him to take it easy -  it was just an exhibition game.)

For his first two years with the Rams, he was a backup offensive lineman and special teams player,  but when Ray Malavasi became coach,  our guy became a starter.  In 1979, his fourth year, the Rams led the NFL in yards gained, and made it to the Super Bowl where they  played the Steelers.

He became become the mainstay of the Rams’ offensive line.  He was a first- or second-team all-pro selection five different times and he was a first- or second-team All-NFC choice seven times.  He played in seven Pro Bowls between 1983 and 1990. 

In his career, he blocked for 24 different quarterbacks and 37 different running backs.   Behind  the Rams’ offensive line while he played on it, seven different runners - Lawrence McCutcheon, Wendell Tyler, Eric Dickerson, Charles White, Greg Bell, Cleveland Gary, and Jerome Bettis - rushed for 1,000 yards.

In 1983,  the Rams offensive line  allowed only 23 sacks (best in the NFL) while also blocking  for Dickerson’s 1,808 yards, a record for a rookie.

His last year - his twentieth, all as a Ram - was their first year in St. Louis.

After retirement, he served as a color analyst on  ESPN and Fox, and did local sports in the L.A. area.

For eight years, he coached the offensive line at Azusa Pacific, and during his  first three years there, he earned a Master’s degree in leadership.

He spent the most successful years of his career under head coach John Robinson, and Robinson served as his presenter at the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

He and his wife had two sons. One, Matthew, played football at  UCLA  and is a two-time Super Bowl champion and six-time Pro Bowl selection as the special teams captain of the New England Patriots.   Father and son combined, they trail only the Mannings and the Matthewses in most Pro Bowl nominations for  a family.
 
In 1995, he  received the Bart Starr Award, recognizing  the  NFL player who best exemplifies outstanding character and leadership in the home, on the field, and in the community, and then his son  Matthew won the award in 2016, making  them the first father and son ever to win the award.

In his Hall of Fame induction speech, he said,  “My overall goal was to become the best offensive tackle in the history of the game…and that’s what I focused on…I isolated myself completely.  I was out here on a mission and I chose to keep my world as small as I could. I was consumed by work.”



FRIDAY,  SEPTEMBER 8, 2023 - "As a rule, don't ask coaches the ages of their children.”  Bobby Bowden

*********** WITH FOOTBALL PRACTICE BEGINNING AROUND THE COUNTRY, BE SURE TO EMAIL ME ABOUT SIGNING UP YOUR TEAM  FOR THE BLACK LION AWARD.  THERE’S NO COST TO PARTICIPATE - IT’S SIMPLY SO WE CAN TELL YOU WHAT YOU NEED TO DO, AND SO WE’LL KNOW HOW MANY AWARDS TO PREPARE FOR.

IF THE BLACK LION AWARD HAS BEEN A PART OF YOUR PROGRAM, I INVITE YOU TO WRITE ME AND SHARE WITH MY READERS WHAT IT MEANS TO YOU.

coachhw@mac.com


***********   Coach,

I thought you might enjoy how we are publicizing our Black Lion Nominee, we are doing a graphic each week on twitter, our group page on facebook, and our team website.   I try to "remind" the purpose of the award on one of these profile pages each week as well in a short note....   When honoring the kids we do read through the characteristics and purpose of the award each week with each team.   I'm excited of the impact that this focus can have on our young men in a culture and world that has forgotten many of these essential values...

God Bless,

Jason Mensing  
Head Football Coach,
Strength and Conditioning Coordinator,
Dean of Climate and Culture,
John Glenn High School,
Westland, Michigan





(I wrote) Coach,

It’s interesting and exciting to see how you are using the Black Lion Award to benefit your program.

This is a new approach, one that we have up to now discouraged because in theory we wanted every kid to think he had a shot at it, and therefore to have everybody shooting for it.

We are interested in the way it will work for you, because it will represent a different - maybe even  better - approach to the Award.

Thanks for keeping me informed and thanks for what you’re doing!


***********  THIS WEEKEND - WEEK FOURTEEN - IN THE CFL


FRIDAY

HAMILTON (4-7)  AT OTTAWA (3-8) 7:30 EDT


SATURDAY

MONTREAL (6-5) AT TORONTO (9-1)  1 PM EDT

SASKATCHEWAN (6-5) AT WINNIPEG (9-3) 4 PM EDT

CALGARY  (4-8) AT EDMONTON (2-10) 7 PM EDT



YOUR SCHEDULE OF CFL GAMES ON AMERICAN CABLE (CBSSN) THIS SEASON:

https://fbschedules.com/cbs-sports-network-releases-2023-cfl-tv-schedule/



*********** Texas’ legendary coach Darrell Royal continues his story about going to the “Flip-Flop T.”    The unforeseen benefits…

Mind you, the primary reasoning behind this switch and Office was James Saxton. We had sort of an unquenchable curiosity to see how many times he could visit the end zone. But, of course, we still were going to use the same offense, regardless of whether Saxton was in the game.

Then, the longer we worked with it, the clearer the by-products became, and the chief accomplishment of the Flip-Flop was that it simplified signals for everybody.


1. Fewer Plays to Learn.  The linemen had just five plays to learn all year, five blocking assignments at the point of attack. Of course, they had downfield blocking assignments when the play went to the other side, but that chore is just a matter of hustle, not expert timing and execution.

The strong side tackle, for example, blocked the same way on a strong side sweep whether it was right or left, because he was always stationed in the same comparable position. This sliced his blocking assignments in half.

We started the season with that simple assortment of plays (with the linemen having only five assignments to learn) and were fortunate enough to be able to stick with them all year.

Truthfully, when we started that first Flip-Flop season, we didn't feel as though we had enough plays. But California was our opening opponent that year, and the Golden Bears had no way of knowing that we were going to use the flip-flop, or just how few plays we were going to run.  So we thought we'd go into the season with these few plays and make adjustments from there.

Well, against California we moved the ball well. Our next opponent was Texas Tech and the Raiders had no guarantee that we wouldn't add new plays for them. So we didn't. The simple offense rocked along all right, and also through the Washington State game. We were averaging seven yards per play.

Then came Oklahoma, the big, big one. We thought, well, this is the time to put in some new plays.  But by then, the staff and team were so confident that those few plays were the answer, they were reluctant to add anything else. When the halfway point of the season was reached, it was just like slapping the quarterback in the face to suggest putting in a new play.

Therefore, the first year of the Flip-Flop, we wound up with the identical blocking assignments in the Cotton bowl game against Mississippi that we had in the first game of the season. This was something new for us, an about-face.

Heretofore, we had never taken the same play and blocked the same way for the full year. Not a single play. We'd change blocking assignments every week, according to the opponent, and it's a mystery why more of our players didn't turn completely crosseyed. Our linemen must've had 25 different assignments to learn in previous seasons, where now we had only five.


2. Less Confusion = More Aggressiveness. Now, when you have just those few movements to learn, your execution becomes a crisp action and becomes sure of itself through constant repetition. A change in defense doesn't bother you.

It all comes back to what we mentioned earlier: less confusion.

If players have fewer assignments to learn, they can concentrate on blasting those guys on the other side of the line. They can be as aggressive as they darn well choose because they're sure of their movements.

3. Eliminated the Busted Signal. Of course, simplification not only pays off in aggressiveness, but also in lessening that prominent coaches’ headache: the busted signal. There is nothing that will knock the breath out of an offensive move like a goofed assignment, a forgotten duty.  Confusion breeds this mistakes and it seems like a determined action to send a coach to an early grave.  But the simpler the chores, the fewer the mental errors.

Please let me repeat:  I don't think the Flip-Flop offense is the answer to any particular problem. Not at all. You simply must have play execution, whether you're running the Flip-Flop, or the Flop-Flip, or the One-Eyed Jacks Wild. And, of course, you must have the material. The following year, 1962, pointed up that fact.

The Texas material that started the flip-flop could have run any offensive formation. That team could have been a successful Split T operation. The next season, however, we lost Saxton and Jack Collins and a fine thinking quarterback, Mike Cotten, and we weren't as potential offensively. We scored just 28 times out of 141 possessions for a 20% efficiency, which was still better than some old averages.  Our defense was chiefly responsible for a 9–0 –1 season.  In reality, the 1962 outfit that stressed defense and kicking was more our type of team than the explosive 1961 group.

And, speaking of successful Split T operations, our flip-flop offensive thinking is very similar to the thinking of the Split T. That formation ran only about three plays to either side. The Split T won with execution.

And that, of course, is the answer – executing the play against any defense you face and running it time after time after time until your offense has the ability to react and adjust to any defensive alignment.

***********   Mike Jones, in The Athletic, put together a list of what he calls “the NFL’s most intriguing players” -  23 players “whose performances could greatly impact the season’s direction.”

1. Aaron Rodgers, QB, New York Jets
2. Joe Burrow, QB, Cincinnati Bengals
3. Brock Purdy, QB, San Francisco 49ers
4. Derek Carr, QB, New Orleans Saints
5. Trevor Lawrence, QB, Jacksonville Jaguars
6. Sam Howell, QB, Washington Commanders
7. Saquon Barkley, RB, New York Giants
8. Garrett Wilson, WR, New York Jets
9. Lamar Jackson, QB, Baltimore Ravens
10. Odell Beckham Jr., WR, Baltimore Ravens
11. Jalen Hurts, QB, Philadelphia Eagles
12. Jordan Love, QB, Green Bay Packers
13. Stefon Diggs, WR, Buffalo Bills
14. Justin Fields, QB, Chicago Bears
15. Tua Tagovailoa, QB, Miami Dolphins
16. Mac Jones, QB, New England Patriots
17. Ernest Jones, LB, Los Angeles Rams
18. Calvin Ridley, WR, Jacksonville Jaguars
19. Riq Woolen, CB, Seattle Seahawks
20. Anthony Richardson, QB, Indianapolis Colts
21. Jalen Carter, DT, Philadelphia Eagles
22. Bijan Robinson, RB, Atlanta Falcons
23. Nick Herbig, LB, Pittsburgh Steelers

IN CASE YOU WEREN’T CHECKING, THERE’S QUITE A DISPARITY BETWEEN OFFENSE AND DEFENSE, AND QUITE A DISPARITY BETWEEN POSITIONS.

FOUR ON THE DEFENSIVE SIDE
Two linebackers
One defensive back
One defensive lineman
NINETEEN ON THE OFFENSIVE SIDE
Four wide receivers
Two running backs
And THIRTEEN QUARTERBACKS!!!

I can’t imagine myself watching that much NFL, but hell - all anybody really has to do is keep an eye on the quarterbacks.  (Is the fact that there’s no intrigue - everybody knows he’s going to be great again - the only reason why Patrick   Mahomes isn’t at the top of the list???)





*********** I was watching a post-game interview with Wake Forest QB Mitch Griffis, and I was shocked by his  resemblance - facially and in demeanor - to Mississippi State QB Will Rogers. They’re both great interviews - both have good senses of humor, both are expressive, both are cliche-free, and both smile a lot.


*********** On my Tuesday night Zoom, I featured among other things an interview with Duke QB Riley Leonard, following the Blue Devils’ historic (I hate to use that word, but in this case it applies) win over Clemson.  Speaking about handling pressure situations, and about putting things in their proper perspective, he said, “I have an audience of one.”

He made it clear that he meant God.


*********** Sure  wish that the various networks would stop  using rap as  their “bumper music”  - the sound they play to indicate they’re leaving the game and going to a commercial break.


*********** Out of respect for his status as a big-time college coach, I may on occasion refer to Deion Sanders as Coach Sanders, but I will never use that self-conferred title “Coach Prime” unless I’ve enclosed it in quotes, as in “so-called.”




*********** Boise State had just scored on a nice screen to pull to within 28-18 at the beginning of the second half against Washington .  And then, on the PAT, they tried a “lonesome polecat” type play, but  - as so often happens  in today’s football - it was nullified by a false start penalty.  As you can see, the “center” - in the circle at left - has underhanded the ball (it’s legal) to a running back - in the circle at right - who’s got five linemen ready to block for him.  Typically, a team will line up like this and then shift into their normal PAT formation.  (As so often happens when the TV people go to sleep on a usually ho-hum punt or PAT, they missed  the live play and had to to show it to us on replay.)


*********** Coaches whose world was rocked this past weekend…

Brian Kelly of LSU.  LSU fans are among the most demanding in college football.  Longtime friend and fellow coach Steve Jones, who lives in Hammond, Louisiana, called me and said that one of the local radio guys suggested “sending that carpetbagger back to Notre Dame.” (At one time there were few more derogatory terms that a southerner could call a northerner than “carpetbagger.”  It derived from the days after the Civil War, when northerners - with all their worldly possessions packed in small bags made of carpet material - headed South in hopes of profiting from the rebuilding of the defeated South.) There are several reasons why Kelly can’t go back - his successor, Marcus Freeman, seems to be doing a very good job.

Dabo Swinney of Clemson.  I like the guy. I think he’s a good man and I know he’s a good coach.  But there are those who don’t like what they see as his holier-than-thou attitude - he does, from time to time, openly profess his faith -  and they’re all over his ass.  The fact is that his football team played poorly against Duke.  On defense they didn’t tackle well, and on offense their QB looked shaky and inaccurate, and  when his passes were on target, as often as not they were dropped.  Was it because Swinney’s lost some very good coordinators?  Was it because, in a quarterback-dominated era, he doesn’t have a quarterback of the caliber of DeShaun Watson or Trevor Lawrence?  Was it because of his insistence on not bringing  in transfers?  Or was it a fluke?  This, from the Greenville (SC) News: “Clemson’s 2023 football season isn’t over, but it sure felt that way late Monday night.    How the Tigers and coach Dabo Swinney respond after suffering an uppercut in Week 1 will determine whether this season can be salvaged. All of a sudden, it's either win or don't go to the College Football Playoff."   Did you catch that?  The season won’t be “salvaged”  unless they make the Playoff.  High expectatons, anyone?  If/when  the Tigers lose another one, do the players start leaving for the portal?  Sheesh.  Stay tuned.

Jeff Monken of Army.  The much-touted grand introduction of Army’s revolutionary new offense - one that would, it was said,  bring  Army football into the twenty-first century while still retaining the deception of the  option and still bludgeoning  opponents - was an utter failure.  Opening against one of the worst teams in FBS - Louisiana-Monroe - Army failed to score a single touchdown on offense, and lost, 17-13. There were turnovers, penalties, poor execution, soft blocking - but mainly, there were signs of an offense ill-fitted to the players expected to run it.  Army players are not stupid.  They are among the most intelligent, academically proficient football players in all of FCS. They actually have to take  classes - the same ones that all the other students take. And at a place whose business is turning out leaders, some of those classes are about leadership, so they know what good leadership and bad leadership is. Surely they’ve heard the speculation, now growing stronger,  that their leader’s real reason for making a radical change in offense was not because of new rules outlawing “cut blocking,” but rather to enhance his attractiveness to other FBS programs.

Wrote one prominent (and frequent) poster on an Army football forum, in answering  someone who wondered how Monken could be do dumb as to discard the offense that got him to where he is today in favor of what people saw Saturday…

I don't think Monken is dumb. I do think he wants out of West Point and a chance at a P5 job. And this was more about his way out than the need for change.

Fact: Brad Roberts (of Air Force) led the NCAA in rushing last year between the tackles. He wasn't top 25, he wasn't top 10, he was number 1 in rushing yards in all of NCAA FBS schools. That is the fullback at Air Force and they were under center 90% of the time. Brad Roberts is also significantly lighter than (Army fullbacks) Buchanan and Riley and has the conditioning to run the ball 30 times in a game. He carried it 33 times against us for 135 on the ground. That game was won with the AF center, guards, and fullback.

If you want to bitch about the old offense bitch about the execution of it. That was very clear all year. And it was very clear between the tackles. Most people watch the game and watch the ball. Watch the O line. That tells the story of our offense the last couple of years. This whole thing about cut blocks on the perimeter is a farce and a cover to change the system and scheme. We didn't struggle against Navy last year because of cut block rules. Nor did we struggle against Air Force or Troy or GA State because of cut block rules. Or Coastal Carolina for that matter. Those teams weren't tremendously more talented than we were. We just didn't execute in all phases of the game the way we could.

And if we are changing the scheme,  the minimum expectation would be not to have 5 turnovers. Even if we didn't execute well. But again it's not that I want to throw the whole thing out - it's that we played a bad team and looked horrific. Monken knows this. Watch him in the post game presser. He's at a total loss and very different than other losses he's had.

I've said this all along, I'm happy to be wrong about this in the end. So maybe there's way more to this than I realize but for now we are 0-1 with a horrid showing offensively. And barring Del St we have the toughest 5 games stretch we've had in decades. So buckle up because if this thing doesn't catch hold fast it's about to get real bumpy and LSU is gonna have a field day with this.

*********** A BRIEF HISTORY LESSON FOR FOOTBALL COACHES…
 


The early settlers on the Great Plains built their homes out of sod.  Why?  That was all they had.  They’d have preferred to use wood, of course, but with so few trees on the prairies, they had to use what was available, and blocks of sod served the purpose. If they’d insisted on building their homes out of wood, they wouldn’t have made it though the first winter.

What’s this got to do with football?  It's about coaches who stubbornly insist on doing things offensively that their kids simply aren’t capable of doing,  They keep designing wooden houses when all they’ve got to work with is sod.  And they wind up losing, often wihout even knowing how it might have been avoided.

Most of us  would love to be able to move the ball the way  the Chiefs do.  But we can’t.  For starters, we don’t have Patrick Mahomes.

This is where we  separate the video game coaches from the real ones.  The video game coaches keep trying to impersonate the Chiefs, without understanding a basic truth: they don't have the  kids to run it. The real coaches, meanwhile,  do their research, looking for the best way to succeed  with the kids they’ve got. 



*********** It’s only been recently that big schools have started playing HBCU schools.  Last Saturday, Tennessee State became Notre Dame’s first HBCU opponent.  Suspicious me - is it a combination of virtual signaling and being able to deflect (justified) criticism for scheduling weaker opponents?


*********** FYI - Last weekend’s top three sports events on TV  through Sunday night (Duke-Clemson on Monday was not counted) were all college football games. At number two was a game between a Mountain West team and one that soon will  have no conference home at all.


 

*********** GAMES WORTH WATCHING THIS WEEKEND

FRIDAY NIGHT:
ILLINOIS +3 AT KANSAS - Wow. Kansas is favored. Kansas!

SATURDAY EARLY:
VANDERBILT + 10 AT WAKE FOREST - I think Wake will cover
NOTRE DAME AT NC STATE +7.5  - ND’s first real opposition.  State didn’t exactly crush UConn, and ND is a lot stronger than UConn. ND will probably win, but I’ll  take the Pack and the points.
NEBRASKA +3 AT COLORADO - Nebraska was one ill-timed fumble away from beating Minnesota. Colorado is  good, but Nebraska isn’t bad. I take the Huskers.
PURDUE +3 AT VIRGINIA TECH - Purdue faced a much better opponent last week. I’d  take the Boilermakers and the points.
UTAH AT BAYLOR +7.5 - Can Baylor snap back after a huge upset?  Will Utah  suffer a letdown after a big win?  No and No. Utah covers.

SATURDAY MID DAY
IOWA AT IOWA STATE +4 - Did Matt Campbell miss his chance to get out of Iowa State before a collapse?  I’ll take the Hawkeyes and give the points
TEXAS A&M AT MIAMI +4 - I’ll take the Canes and the points
OLE MISS AT TULANE +7.5 - I can’t go against Willie Fritz in big games so I’ll take Tulane and the points
UTEP AT NORTHWESTERN +2 - A Big Ten team is an underdog in a game  where they once thought they’d bought a win?  Yes.  Book it.  UTEP wins.
TULSA +34 AT WASHINGTON - Seems like way too many points, but after the Huskies hammered a supposedly good Boise State team - nah.  I’ll still take the points.
APP STATE +18 AT NORTH CAROLINA - Damn near every kid on the App State team was overlooked by UNC, but  they’re still good players - with grudges. I’ll take App State and the points.
SMU +15.5 AT OKLAHOMA - Sooners will beat them worse than that.

SATURDAY LATER
CINCINNATI +7.5 AT PITT - Pitt fans have been complaining about their low ranking.  Here’s the Panthers’ chance to show they deserve better. I’ll take Pitt and give the points.
OREGON AT TEXAS TECH +6.5 - Ducks had no problem against FCS Portland State. TT lost in OT at Wyoming.  Oregon is much better than Wyoming.  I’d give the points.
TEXAS +7  AT ALABAMA - I think the Tide will win, but after last year’s Texas-Bama squeaker, I’d take the points.
UCF AT BOISE STATE +3.5 - I think UCF will cover.
HOUSTON AT RICE +9.5 - Houston will cover.
ARIZONA +9 AT MISSISSIPPI STATE - Bulldogs will beat the Wildcats and cover
WISCONSIN AT WASHINGTON STATE +6 - I am afraid that the Badgers will win big, but I’m letting my heart go with the Cougs
TEMPLE +8.5 AT RUTGERS - Rutgers covers
UCLA  AT SAN DIEGO STATE +14.5 - I’ll take SDSU and the points
AIR FORCE AT SAM HOUSTON +13.5 - I love the AFA offense and I don’t think the Bearkats have seen anything like it.  AFA  wins and covers.
OKLAHOMA STATE AT ARIZONA STATE +3 - I can’t believe the Cowboys aren’t at least 3 points better than an ASU team with a first year coach.
STANFORD +29.5 AT USC - Good Lord - once one of the West’s biggest rivalries. Can it really be this bad?  Will it still be watchable after  the first quarter?  I’m not touching this one.
AUBURN AT CAL +6.5 - I’m going out on a limb and taking the Golden Bears.


*********** BOOOOOOOOO….

Another week of scrimmages for Power 5 teams…  NEXT: QBs will wear red jerseys.

Murray State at Louisville (THURSDAY NIGHT)
Indiana State at Indiana (FRIDAY NIGHT)
Ball State at Georgia
Youngstown State at Ohio State
Delaware at Penn State
South Carolina State at Georgia Tech
Charleston Southern at Clemson
Eastern Kentucky at Kentucky
Southern Utah at BYU
UNLV at Michigan
Richmond at Michigan State
Wagner at Navy
Kent State at Arkansas
Austin Peay at Tennessee
Lafayette at Duke
Duquesne at West Virginia
Grambling at LSU
Charlotte at Maryland
McNease at Florida
Furman at South Carolina
Nicholls at TCU
UC Davis at Oregon State



***********  It’s Military Appreciation Day as CBSSN is doing its best to serve up back-to-back-to-back  service academy wins.

Delaware State at Army
Wagner at Navy
Air Force at Sam Houston

Only Air Force faces any chance of encountering opposition - Sam Houston did play BYU fairly tough. But Army and Navy, both coming off disastrous opening games, face hopelessly overmatched opponents.  (Watch  them afterward,  rejoicing at having straightened everything out after those opening game debacles.)


***********  When, in the course of a college football weekend, you’ve recorded just about every Power 5 game plus a few others, there’s never a  shortage of things to watch on TV during the week, and last night my wife and I watched the Wyoming-Texas Tech game. 

We had to wait out (actually, fast-forward through) a long weather delay, which meant that, having allowed  four hours for the recording,  some of the last part of the game was going to go unrecorded. (That’s what the game highlights on YouTube are for.)

The game? Once the weather Nannies said if was okay to  play, the stands filled quickly.  And then, yikes - before we were halfway through the first quarter, Texas Tech was up, 14-0.  The Red Raiders led, 17-0 after one.

But the Cowboys started out the second quarter with a 56-yard field goal and cut the halftime score to 17-10.

By the end of three, it was 17-17, and a real  battle.

I know, I know, this is starting to read like a robot-written story.  I take that as a compliment, but I am in fact a real human being, with feelings.

Back to the game. Both teams traded fourth quarter field goals, and we went into OT, with the game tied 20-20.

Now, our recording at an end,  we had to switch over to Youtube. No problem. Both teams scored in the first OT period, making it 27-27, but in the second OT, in which teams have to go for two points after scoring a TD, TT scored in the top of the period but missed the conversion, while Wyoming scored and made the two-pointer. 

Heck of a game, and if you ever  get to Laramie (“Laradise,”  I heard someone call it last night) you'll come away with  an  appreciation for what Cowboy football means.


***********   Hi Hugh,

Blistering hot in September in Maine! Heck I even went into the lake for a swim, almost unheard of!

As is my custom I looked at the clinic replay over coffee this morning, wow! Your analysis of Super Power was exceptional, a true coaches coach doing his thing. Oh, what I wouldn’t give for one more season coaching the DW with you! It is no wonder why this has been so successful over time and why it still would be successful today!

Army was really disappointing and the excuse of the rule change to change their offense is absolutely BS. One only need to look at Air Force and their success to see what nonsense this excuse is.

College coaches and especially the Florida coaching group could take a lesson from Penn State and the use of the T formation in short yardage situations. Line up under center and go on the first sound with power football. It is successful now as it has been in the history of our game. I often wondered if I were to be a short yardage college football coach how successful I would be running the DW on the goal line and in short yardage situations. I believe very!

Say hi to Connie and this time of the year you folks are never far from my thoughts.

Jack Tourtillotte
Rangeley, Maine

Jack, long a successful coach in Maine, spent his first season after retirement out in the Northwest with me, coaching at North Beach High.  It was a blast.  Jack coached the line and contributed his share of great coaching wisdom, and also helped out with the cooking, doing great fried oysters and cooking a wicked chowder. (“Chowdah.”)  We wound up taking a group of kids who’d gone 1-9 the year before and went 7-3, losing those three games by a total of 11 points.


*********** Coach-

I have some thoughts...random of course.

I've run it up on purpose once.  While in Holstein.  They cheap shotted a back up kicker on a kickoff after I had subbed (they had not).  All bets off. Starters strap up and make them pay for that (we did and scored 3 times in about 4 minutes to serve a warning for future lapses in judgement (and we ran a fake punt too).

If I sub and the opposing coach doesn't within 2 series, my starters are headed back out.  (Did this once at Sac City).  Ended the game at halftime 50-0 (my JV kids were getting destroyed as the opposing coach never did sub, even after I called timeout to tell him what I was going to do if he didn't).

Sometimes (in our case at GH) we had to throw the ball when we were up big, we were not as good at throwing the football as we were running the football, so in appearance it maybe didn't look good, but in reality it was giving the other team a chance to "slow us down". When you run the core as well as we did most teams just couldn't stop us.  Wedge/SP/Trap were STILL gaining 7-10 yards a play with the backups some games.  Is what it is.

Barry Switzer used to say HANG HALF A HUNDRED ON THEM. Not my fault the other team can't stop us...get your team better. Not sure I don't think that way now to a degree.

V kids get 9 regular season games a year in Iowa to play. JV kids play JV games. Freshmen play freshmen.  Not sure it is "fair" to steal game time from V to help the other team save face.  I think now I would try to "control" the game more, not sure. Goal is never to embarrass anyone.

I always let my starters play the entire first half of a game, and the first series of offense and defense in the second half. After that I would sub.  Worked for Hayden Fry, so it is what I used as my guideline.

Just not sure there is a really good answer to this...I go back and forth even in softball on how to handle blowouts.

I've had it run up on me a couple times (while at Clarinda Academy) and I still have a mental note of what team and what coach did it (trick plays, never subbing, onside kicks etc).  When I do come back...if I get the chance you can bet karma might rear her ugly head. I don't forget.

My love to you and Connie,

Brad Knight
Clarinda, Iowa

Coach Knight is one of the original gang of Double-Wing coaches who would convene every summer - sometimes in Iowa, sometimes in Kansas, sometimes in both places - to refine my Double Wing and how it’s taught. So much of what I teach today came out of those sessions with him, Greg Koenig, Gabe McCown and PJ Hedrington.  Brad was highly successful at Galva-Holstein (a two-school co-op) in Holstein, Iowa, and then as a challenge took a job in Clarinda, in southwest Iowa, coaching at Clarinda Academy, a correctional institution for kids who’d been sent to small-town Iowa from big cities all over the country.  He did a marvelous job of even putting a team on the field, but even more importantly, showing kids the importance of respect and responsibility. It was extremely hard on him, because as soon as kids’ terms were over, they’d have to leave, even if it was in mid-season. (Many kids asked to stay until the season was over.)  The job was especially tough when on more than one occasion he had to deal with learning of the death - on the streets - of a former player. For the last several years he’s been out of football coaching - a teacher and a  single dad of two lovely and athletic daughters - and I look forward to his return to the game.


***********  Coach, I liked D Royal's way of solving the breaking the huddle problem. I'm wondering how you dealt with it (and, granted, I'm not sure many opposing coaches would identify it right away).

Too bad the Clemson-Duke game wasn't completed before you went to press. I know you liked the outcome.

Other than my Army team's vomitus performance, the biggest surprise for me probably was the way FSU handled LSU. It's normal now, given the anonymity social media affords, to pummel the coach after a big loss, but those LSU fans took it to a new level, many saying they want Kelly fired today no matter the cost (as long as they don't have to pay).

I'd missed the little detail in Brian Ferentz's contract about having to average 25 ppg. No problem, though...Hawkeyes need only score 26 in their next game for K's boy to feel secure.
 
I too have been ticked about announcers failing to mention the school the school that had the most to do with developing the player. When the NCAA ceases to exist and players come directly from high schools, won't be long until we have the Heisman going to Vancouver High School. That'll solve the issue of which college gets recognition.


John Vermillion                            
St. Petersburg, Florida

(Actually, in going to a flip-flop line, the huddle thing was very easy, because I had always had occasions when I’d go unbalanced by slipping a tackle or end - or both - from one side to the other, and having them do so by crossing behind everyone else not only got them to where they were going as quickly as possible, but did so in a way that made it difficult for defenses to detect.)


*********** Hugh,

Guess by now you must still be celebrating that great Duke upset win over 8th ranked Clemson (at that time), which forces me to drop both "Death Valley" Tigers out of my Top 12 for the time being.  Not good news for Notre Dame which has BOTH Duke and Clemson on this year's schedule.

Have to admit.  Love him or not, in his own way, Coach Deion Sanders can certainly find the words to inspire his team.    

https://footballscoop.com/news/video-coach-primes-pregame-speech

Congrats to Mack Brown on his SECOND 100th win (Texas and UNC).  Still can't dance worth a lick though.

If Fresno State's Jeff Tedford can find a decent run game to go with his passing attack watch out!

Have a great week!

Joe  Gutilla
Austin, Texas




 

UPPER RIGHT:  Noland "Super Gnat " Smith stands next to 6’9” Ernie Ladd.


*********** QUIZ ANSWER:   At 5-6, 154, Noland Smith was one of the smallest men - maybe the smallest - ever to play professional football.

It goes without saying that he was fast.  Very fast.  He ran the 100 yard dash in 9.4.  In high school (Jackson, Mississippi) and college (Tennessee State) his nickname was “Jet.”

He originally committed to go to Jackson State, but when its coach, John Merritt, moved to Tennessee State, he followed the coach.  In his senior year, Tennessee State was 10-0 and averaged 40.6 points a game in winning the Pittsburgh Courier national championship trophy, awarded to the top HBCU team.

Earlier, he had come to the attention of Kansas City Chiefs’ coach Hank Stram, who was at Tennessee State’s spring practice to look at some of his teammates,  especially Claude Humphrey and Eldridge Dickey. On  Stram’s recommendation, the Chiefs drafted him in the sixth round of the 1967 draft.

In Chiefs’ training camp, owner Lamar Hunt, on seeing him surrounded by much larger teammates, said,  “He looks like a gnat out there among all those giants.  Let’s call him Super Gnat.” They called him that and the  nickname stuck.

The first time he ever touched the ball for the Chiefs, he returned a punt 86 yards for a touchdown in a preseason game.

Before the next game, in his locker he found not his Number 46 jersey, the number he’d worn at Tennessee State, but Number 1.

When he asked  what was going on, he was told, “Mister Hunt wants you to wear Number 1.”

It turned out if was a publicity stunt - the Chiefs’ PR department told the news media that it was the only number that would fit on his jersey.  Newspapers all over the country ran the story.

Fortunately, after all that publicity, he made the team, and wound up leading the AFL in kick return yards - 1148 on 41 returns - as a rookie.  Against Denver, he had the first 100+ yard kick return when he brought one back for 106 yards.

In his second year, he led the AFL in punt returns with a 15.0 average.

But in his third year, 1969, he was injured in midseason when he was “clotheslined” on a punt return, and the facial injury he incurred resulted in triple vision, which made fielding kicks impossible.

Shortly thereafter, he was traded to the 49ers, and missed out on the Chiefs’ AFC championship  win - and their Super Bowl win over the Vikings.

In recognition of the part he’d played in their success,  the Chiefs voted him a Super Bowl ring and half a winner’s share.  The money was $7,500, which was not bad for a guy making the league’s minimum salary of $12,000.

Noland Smith retired after that season and returned to his hometown of Jackson, where he worked for 44 years in the city’s recreation department.

“I loved every minute of it,” he said in a 2020 interview with Rick Cleveland of Mississippi Today.  “I loved the challenge of returning punts and kickoffs. Yeah, it was dangerous, but I loved the challenge.”


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING NOLAND SMITH

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY




 

*********** QUIZ - A native of Lufkin, Texas, he played high school football and basketball in all-black Dunbar High there, and went to Prairie View A & M, the only college  that recruited him.


At Prairie View, where he also was on the track and swim teams, he started as a center but was switched to linebacker and his junior year he was an All-SWAC selection. Tall (6-3) and lean, he was switched to safety his senior year, and again was named All-SWAC.

In 1967 he was a ninth-round pick of the Houston Oilers.

“I was a project,” he said later. “I could cover, but I’d never covered wide receivers. But they knew I would hit. I’d kill people. I was fearless.”

As a free safety, he wound up spending 13 seasons in the NFL - six with the Oilers and seven with the Washington Redskins.

He is generally considered the top free safety of the 1970s.  He was named to 12 Pro Bowls, and   from 1971-1979 he was either All-Pro, All-AFC or All-NFC eight of those years.
 
He intercepted 49 passes in his career, nine of them for touchdowns, and still holds the record (along with two others) for most interceptions returned for a touchdown in a single season - four, in 1971.

He also recovered 21 fumbles, and in all, he scored 12 touchdowns, - nine on interceptions,  one on a punt return, one on a fumble return, and one on a blocked field goal return.

He was on the first team of the NFL’s 1970s All-Decade team.

He is on the NFL’s 75th Anniversary All-Time Team, and its 100th Anniversary All-Time Team.

He is a member of the Texas Sports Hall of Fame, the Oilers/Titans Ring of Honor, the Redskins Ring of Fame, and the Pro Football Hall of Fame.





TUESDAY,  SEPTEMBER 5, 2023 - "School districts do two things well. They protect themselves, and they celebrate themselves. And they find ways to celebrate themselves so that they can protect themselves.”  Tiffany Justice, co-founder, Moms for liberty


*********** In Ocean Shores, Washington, where I once coached, and where we still have a place, there are deer everywhere. Literally.

https://katu.com/news/offbeat/sweet-tooth-deer-takes-a-stroll-in-ocean-shores-candy-store-buddy-and-howies-old-fashioned-caught-on-camera-animals-funny-offbeat-features


*********** WITH FOOTBALL PRACTICE BEGINNING AROUND THE COUNTRY, BE SURE TO EMAIL ME ABOUT SIGNING UP YOUR TEAM  FOR THE BLACK LION AWARD.  THERE’S NO COST TO PARTICIPATE - IT’S SIMPLY SO WE CAN TELL YOU WHAT YOU NEED TO DO, AND SO WE’LL KNOW HOW MANY AWARDS TO PREPARE FOR.

IF THE BLACK LION AWARD HAS BEEN A PART OF YOUR PROGRAM, I INVITE YOU TO WRITE ME AND SHARE WITH MY READERS WHAT IT MEANS TO YOU.

coachhw@mac.com


***********  There were 45 or so FBS games over this long (five-day) weekend

In only 10 of them was the spread  seven points or less:

THURSDAY NIGHT
Utah over Florida by 6-1/2 - UTAH (UTAH WON, 24-10)
Minnesota over Nebraska by 7 - NEBRASKA  (MINNESOTA WON, 13-10)

FRIDAY NIGHT
Stanford over Hawaii by 3-1/2 - STANFORD (STANFORD WON, 37-24)

SATURDAY
Purdue over Fresno State by 4-1/2 - FRESNO STATE (FRESNO STATE WON, 39-35)
Cal over North Texas by 6-1/2 - CAL (CAL WON, 58-21)
UTSA over Houston by 1-1/2 - HOUSTON (HOUSTON WON, 17-14)
North Carolina over South  Carolina by 2-1/2 - UNC (UNC WON, 31-17)
Tulane over South Alabama by 6-1/2 - TULANE (TULANE WON, 37-17)

SUNDAY
Rutgers over Northwestern by 6-1/2 - RUTGERS (RUTGERS WON, 24-7)
LSU over Florida State by 2-1/2 - FSU (FSU WON, 45-21)


*********** GAMES I SAID I’D WATCH (We have five screens)

THURSDAY

NC STATE 24,  UCONN 14  - UCONN proved to me they can play with the big boys. 

UTAH 24, FLORIDA 11 - Counting last year’s bowl game, that makes  two losses in a row for Florida to Pac-12 teams - with only a touchdown and a field goal to show for 120 minutes of football. After LSU at UCLA a few years ago and now this, we may never see another SEC team west of the Rockies.  This sure was a poorly prepared Florida team.  If the Gators don’t clean up their act they’ll be fighting it out with Vanderbilt to stay out of the SEC East cellar.

MINNESOTA 13, NEBRASKA 10 - This was one hell of a game, one that illustrated once again the importance of preventing fumbles. Tied 10-10, Nebraska had the ball at the end - until it fumbled.



FRIDAY -

LOUISVILLE 39,  GEORGIA TECH 34 - Heck of a game. Tech had ‘em most of the way, but the Cards made a great comeback.


SATURDAY

FIRST FLIGHT (9 AM PACIFIC)

COLORADO 45, TCU 42 - I have been wrong before and although maybe I wasn’t always man enough to admit it, I admit I was wrong in predicting  this one - Deion Sanders put a very talented, very well-coached team on the field, a team that fought to the end. Whenever TCU looked as if it was ready to put the Buffs in their rightful place, back they’d come with another big play, and as a result, they wound up with the stunning upset win.  Deion’s kid, Shedeur, had a tremendous day at QB, and Colorado  WR/DB Travis Hunter may be a better two-way player than his coach, Deion, was. No other way to put it - it was one hell of a football game and a hell of a job of coaching.

TENNESSEE 49, VIRGINIA 13 - I didn’t watch this one for long.

LIBERTY 34, BOWLING GREEN 24 - If you like an offense that’s an innovative mix of run and pass,  Liberty is definitely going to be a team for you to watch.

IOWA 24, UTAH STATE 14 - Iowa  did open it up a bit - scored on a pass play on the opening drive of an opening game for the first time in decades.  But considering that offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz’s contract stipulates that to keep his job the Hawkeyes must average 25 points per game (325 points total), he missed a big chance.

FRESNO STATE 39, PURDUE 35  - a great last-second win for a Mountain West team, and - in my mind - a triumph of the wise old coach (Jeff Tedford) over the newbie.


SECOND FLIGHT (NOON OR SO)

OREGON 81, PORTLAND STATE 7 - OMG.  At least the visiting Vikings went home with a check for some $600,000.  Or somebody did. But after the money’s been counted, half of it will go to other sports - mainly women’s sports.  Look - they didn’t take the beating.  They didn’t  suffer the ignominy of giving up 81 points.  All they’ll do is take the money and spend it.  And how much you wanna bet that not one of those other sports’  coaches will thank the football team for what they went through to come up with  that money?

WASHINGTON 56,  BOISE STATE 19  - There may be better college passers than the Huskies’ Michael Penix, but not many.  He threw for 450 yards against a  good team.

I TOOK  SHORT GLIMPSES AT…
RICE AT TEXAS - WILL ARCH MANNING PLAY?
TENNESSEE STATE AT NOTRE DAME - WILL ESTIME AND HARTMAN PLAY MORE THAN TWO QUARTERS?
BUFFALO AT WISCONSIN - IS WISCONSIN’S QB, TANNER MORDECAI,  BETTER THAN HE LOOKED IN THE SPRING?
UMASS AT AUBURN - HUGH FREEZE’S RETURN TO THE SEC

I confess that I rarely watched maybe a minute of those games - combined.


THIRD FLIGHT (4:00 OR SO)

LOUISIANA MONROE 17, ARMY 13 - What  does if make you when you’ve just lost your opener to one of the worst teams in FBS? Words can’t describe the ugliness of  this game - and Army’s highly-touted, thrill-a-minute “gun option” offense. At least, after such a tough opening game, they’ll get a break this week - Delaware State.  They’ll win, and probably make a lot of noise about all the adjustments they made after the  opening game jitters.  But then, reality will return, as they play UTSA, Syracuse, Boston College, Troy and LSU.  If, after watching Saturday, you can see a win in there, please let me know.

I feel terrible about what coaching decisions have done to those players.

Some post-game comments in an Army forum (most of the posters are grads)

Well, Monken has definitely shown P-5 schools he can run something other than Triple Option. He’s also shown them a meltdown over the last 4 possessions for the ages.

Hey, I'm told it put up video game numbers in Division III in Kansas.

Worst 5 min of football in Army history.

I would rather play Notre Dame every year and lose by 50 over this game.

WASHINGTON STATE 50,  COLORADO STATE 24 - Cougs’ Cameron Ward was 37/49 for 451 and three TDs.  Not bad. Seven of his receivers caught at least three passes.  The top WSU receiver was Lincoln Victor, a local kid from Vancouver, Washington who caught 11 passes for 168 yards.

NORTH CAROLINA 31,  SOUTH CAROLINA  17 - I  didn’t pay this game a lot of attention. I can’t tell you why. Probably because I was more interested  in games like Illinois-Toledo.

ILLINOIS 30, TOLEDO 28  - This was a great game. Toledo outrushed and outpassed the Illini and had eight more first downs, and they led, 28-27 down to the final five seconds - when a 29-yard field goal destroyed their dreams. Illinois is pretty good.  And so is Toledo.

PENN  STATE 38, WEST VIRGINIA 15 - When the suits who decide who goes to the Playoff take a look at Penn State’s schedule, they’ll see this “decisive win” over West Virginia.  Which is why, although safely ahead 31-15  with under two minutes to play and WVU out of timeouts, James Franklin wasn’t thinking about taking a knee.  Not when he was deep in West Virginia territory.  Not when he could pounded in a score, which he did with :06 remaining.  I’m no fan of Franklin, but in this case that extra TD, which at one time any ethical coach would have gone out of his way not to score, could wind up putting them in the Playoff.



FINAL FLIGHT (7 PM OR SO)

ARIZONA 38, NORTHERN ARIZONA  3 - Didn’t watch. 

BYU 14, SAM HOUSTON 0  - Looks like their first year in the Big 12 could be a long one for the Cougars.  Give the Bearkats credit - they went into Provo and played their butts off.

UCLA 27, COASTAL CAROLINA 13 - UCLA is good, and so is Coastal Carolina.


SUNDAY

RUTGERS 24,  NORTHWESTERN 7 - It was too early for me to get excited about watching this one.

OREGON STATE 42,  SAN DIEGO STATE 17 - Talk about pressure: going into this game, the Pac-12 was 11-0  in  weekend action. The Beavers didn’t disappoint: QB D.J. Uiagalelei was 20 of 25 for 238 yards and three TDs, and  Damien Martinez carried 18 times for 145 yards.

FLORIDA STATE 45, LSU 24 - OMG.  THINGS YOU WISH YOU HADN’T SAID…

BRIAN KELLY BEFORE THE GAME: “We’re going to beat the heck out of Florida State.”

BRIAN KELLY AFTER THE GAME: “For some reason, we thought we were something else. We thought we were the 2-time defending national champion Georgia Bulldogs. We were mistaken.”

MONDAY

CLEMSON AT DUKE - IT’S COMING ON SOON.  GO DEVILS.



***********  THIS PAST WEEKEND - WEEK THIRTEEN - IN THE CFL


SATURDAY

BC (8-4) 34,, MONTREAL (6-5) 25


SUNDAY

SASKATCHEWAN (6-5) 32,  WINNIPEG (9-3) 30


MONDAY

TORONTO (9-1) 41,  HAMILTON (4-7)  28

EDMONTON (2-9)  AT CALGARY  (3-8)  STILL GOING ON AT PRESS TIME


YOUR SCHEDULE OF CFL GAMES ON AMERICAN CABLE (CBSSN) THIS SEASON:

https://fbschedules.com/cbs-sports-network-releases-2023-cfl-tv-schedule/



*********** Texas’ legendary coach Darrell Royal continues his story about going to the “Flip-Flop T.” Next problem: the huddle.

Then, we were faced with the problem of breaking from the huddle, when the formation was strong left, without a traffic problem.

When the formation strength was to the right, then it was simply the routine way, because our strong side linemen would be on the right side of the huddle. However, if a strong left formation were called, the right side of the huddle would have to cross over to the left side of center to line up, and vice-versa.

Again, this is no no problem. Several single wing teams using the stronf-weak scheme break from the huddle  in a long serpentine stream, which weaves up to the line and single file. UCLA used this plan and many Tennessee-schooled coaches do.

However, I could remember when we played against this huddle-breaking method. We would also have a strong side and weak side defense, so we’d stand in a defensive huddle. And when the other team would start that serpentine winding, our line would weave along with them, and our strong side  linemen would have plenty of time to drop into position against the opponent’s strong side.

That method of huddle-breaking took too much time for our fancy. So we got out the blackboard and scratched around on it for a while, and came up with a crisscrossing method.

In other words, if the strong left formation were called, the center would break out of the huddle first, of course. Then the right guard would follow, crossing in back of the center to his position immediately to the center’s left. The left guard would hesitate momentarily and cross behind the right guard to his spot right of the center. Then the tackles and ends would follow suit, with the strong side man always making his cross over first, and his weak side counterpart, crossing just on his heels.

The wing back would  just skip over to the left side, the tail back and fullback fall into place, naturally, and the quarterback waits briefly and is the last man to line up after the traffic ahead of him has cleared. 

After we drew off the crisscrossing plan on the blackboard, we were anxious to see if it would work smoothly.

Now this may seem as though undue importance was put upon a simple maneuver like breaking the huddle, but we consider it most important to break quickly and smoothly, get up to the line and get the play underway before the defense had a lot of time to think it over.

So we gathered up the coaching staff, enlisted Bob Rochs and Al Lundsteadt from the athletic ticket, office, and went to the gymnasium floor to try it out.

We did it easily; nary a head was bumped. We figured if all of us old-timers could do it, the players could handle it like a ballet line.

Sure enough, they did. When fall practice started, we had them walk through it a couple times, then turned them loose and let it alone. After they stepped on each other’s toes a few times, then learned quickly.

So, with this method, we were able to line up either strong right or strong left, quickly and smoothly, and the defense had no extra time to think things over.

***********   Meanwhile, as the current members of the ACC drool over all the extra money they’ll be getting  from ESPN for adding three new members - Stanford, Cal and SMU -  ESPN the network went black in 15 million homes this weekend.  Seems that Spectrum Charter, one of the nation’s  largest cable providers,  won’t give it the increase it demands.

Cutting off people at the start of a football weekend is not good business for either side.

It makes a guy wonder what are all these colleges going to do when ESPN realizes it’s overextended itself paying for broadcast rights, and can’t bring in the revenues to justify what it’s contracted to pay out? 

What about all those projects - stadiums, locker rooms, practice facilities - as well as coaches’ salaries that colleges are committed to, all based on the assumption that they’ll continue to receive those broadcast rights payments?

Sure is starting to sound like a bubble to me.



*********** It was bad enough having to watch Army and its new, improved offense, but the the NFL Network, on which  the Army-Louisiana Monroe game was telecast, had to give us Tyoka Jackson. 

Another one of those  former NFL players who think we listeners are best served by hearing everything they know about football - both between and during plays - he spent a good part of this game sounding like a mouthpiece for the Army  staff (“they were forced by the rules against cut blocking to run this offense… they’re still running option - just from another formation… blah, blah, blah.”)

But we could see  Army’s offensive ineptness with our own eyes, and it brought to mind Richard Pryor’s famous quote: “Who you gonna believe - me or your lyin’ eyes?”

Naturally, rather than  fly a broadcast crew to Monroe, Louisiana and put them up and feed them, the network had them do the game remote.  It would be bad enough, but understandable,  if they’d admit it to us in advance.  But they didn’t, and their dishonesty was disgusting.  From the air-conditioned comfort of their home rec rooms, they repeatedly referred to the heat down on the  field. They were exposed when Army roughed a ULM punter and they totally missed the call. The camera had followed the ball downfield, and with the  flag on the ground way back upfield, off-camera, they  couldn’t see it on their home screens. They didn’t know any more about what happened than we did until the ref came on screen and turned on his mic.


*********** One of the things that I knew would happen  with the proliferation of transfers is the wrong school getting credit for a player.

We all know that Russell Wilson played for Wisconsin, right. Well, yes, he did play there. For one year.  But does anyone remember that before that he played three years at N.C. State?

Seahawks’ rookie receiver Jake Bobo had a great pre-season and he made the 53-man roster. He was recruited by Duke, and played four years there. His coach there was David Cutcliffe, who knows a thing or two about the passing game. Last year, Bobo played at UCLA as a graduate transfer. One year. What do we hear from the announcers when they mention where he's from?  UCLA.

Don’t doubt for a minute that if Sam Hartman has a good season at Notre Dame,  he’ll become another in the long line of Irish immortals, and it will be as if all those great years at Wake Forest never happened.



***********   Jason Whitlock is wise to the TV guys…

In the name of “safety”, College Football instituted the running clock after first downs. 30-50 fewer snaps per game. TV networks have filled the time with longer commercials.



*********** Found this in an October, 1986 Sports Illustrated issue…

Twenty years ago the young coach at Miami of Ohio, Bo Schembechler, was interviewed for the job at Wisconsin. He was rejected in favor of John Coatta, who failed to win a game in his first two years and left Madison with a 3-26-1 record. Two years later Bo went to Michigan. In the intervening years, the Badgers have not been to the Rose Bowl; the Wolverines have been six times. Michigan has won 15 of 16 games against Wisconsin.

On Saturday, Bo beat the Badgers again, 34-17, to become only the eighth major-college coach to win 200 games. Schembechler, who plays the curmudgeon better than any coach, scoffs at his 200-55-7 career record. "It just means I've been in college coaching a long time," he says. But think how different the college football landscape would have been if Wisconsin had thought more highly of Bo two decades ago.

It's no every day that you catch a Sports Illustrated in a big falshood, but I have it on the best possible authority - one of the participants - that this is not how it happened.

My friend, Mike Lude, was the head coach at Colorado State at the time, and coming off a 7-3 season there, he was a finalist for the Wisconsin job.    He has told me about sitting outside  the football office with the other two candidates, Bo Shembechler, who was head coach at Miami of Ohio, and John Ray,  who was Ara Parseghian’s defensive coordinator at Notre Dame, waiting to be interviewed.  The other two guys went ahead of Mike, and he remembers both of them coming our from their interviews and saying that they’d dropped out of the running, telling Mike, “This job isn’t as good as the one I have now.”

That wasn’t the case with Mike, for whom even a bad Big Ten job would have been better than the one he had, and he figured that the Wisconsin job was now his.

To his surprise, though, they decided to promote  John Coatta, a former Wisconsin quarterback who for the last two years had been an assistant on the  Wisconsin staff.

The three candidates went back to the jobs they already had.

In three years, John Ray would be head coach at Kentucky, and Bo Schembechler would be head coach at Michigan.

In four years,  Mike Lude would be AD at Kent State.

And in three years, the Wisconsin Badgers would be looking for another coach, after John Coatta went 0-9-1, 0-10 and 3-7.

Based on what I know from  a first person’s testimony, there’s no truth to any story, even in the highly respected Sports Illustrated, that Wisconsin ever “turned down,” or “passed on,” or “rejected” Bo Schembechler.



***********   Ranking the most-watched college football programs in 2022

The 2022 “4 million club”

Here are all of the games that broke 4 million viewers this season:
    •            Michigan at Ohio State — 17.14M
    •            Tennessee at Georgia — 13.06M
    •            Alabama at Tennessee — 11.56M
    •            Alabama at Texas — 10.60M
    •            Notre Dame vs. Ohio State — 10.53M
    •            Alabama at Mississippi — 8.71M
    •            Ohio State at Penn State — 8.27M
    •            Alabama at LSU — 7.58M
    •            Florida State vs. LSU — 7.55M
    •            Texas A&M at Alabama — 7.15M
    •            Army vs. Navy — 6.94M
    •            Florida at Florida State — 6.71M
    •            Notre Dame at Southern Cal, 6.68M
    •            Ohio State at Maryland — 6.60M
    •            Penn State at Michigan — 6.45M
    •            Auburn at Alabama — 6.27M
    •            Oregon vs. Georgia — 6.20M
    •            Alabama at Arkansas — 5.83M
    •            Florida at Georgia — 5.62M
    •            Michigan State at Michigan — 5.58M
    •            Florida at Tennessee — 5.57M
    •            Illinois at Michigan — 5.47M
    •            TCU at Texas — 5.03M
    •            NC State at Clemson — 4.98M
    •            Tennessee at South Carolina — 4.87M
    •            Clemson at Georgia Tech — 4.86M
    •            Ohio State at Northwestern — 4.76M
    •            Syracuse at Clemson — 4.75M
    •            Wisconsin at Ohio State — 4.59M
    •            Southern Cal at UCLA — 4.53M
    •            Georgia at Kentucky — 4.48M
    •            Tennessee at Pittsburgh — 4.46M
    •            Texas at Oklahoma State — 4.46M
    •            Ohio State at Michigan State — 4.44M
    •            Nebraska vs. Northwestern — 4.42M
    •            Maryland at Michigan — 4.38M
    •            Iowa at Ohio State — 4.38M
    •            TCU at Baylor — 4.35M
    •            Iowa State at TCU — 4.34M
    •            Kentucky at Florida — 4.33M
    •            Auburn at Georgia — 4.24M
    •            Michigan at Iowa — 4.20M
    •            Penn State at Auburn — 4.05M
    •            Kentucky at Tennessee — 4.04M
    •            Michigan at Indiana — 4.01M

There were 39 teams that played in at least one game that cracked 4 million viewers:
8 — Ohio State
7 — Alabama, Michigan
6 — Tennessee
5 — Georgia
4 — Florida
3 — Auburn, Clemson, Kentucky, Penn State, TCU, Texas
2 — Florida State, Iowa, LSU, Maryland, Michigan State, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Southern Cal
1 — Arkansas, Army, Baylor, Georgia Tech, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa State, Mississippi, Navy, NC State, Nebraska, Oklahoma State, Oregon, Pittsburgh, South Carolina, Syracuse, Texas A&M, UCLA, Wisconsin


TAKE A LOOK AT THAT ARMY-NAVY NUMBER, AND YOU’LL UNDERSTAND HOW MUCH THE REVENUE FROM THAT ONE GAME MEANS TO THE ATHLETIC DEPARTMENTS OF THE TWO ACADEMIES - AND WHY WEST POINT HAS TO BE VERY CAREFUL  TO PROTECT THAT GAME BEFORE JOINING ANY CONFERENCE.

https://medium.com/run-it-back-with-zach/which-college-football-programs-were-the-most-watched-in-2022-94eca4f6acbd


*********** Thanks for the story, Robot.  We’re not hiring right now but we’ll keep you in mind if anything should open up.  In the meantime, may we suggest you do a lot of reading - articles from  the 1950s, 60s and 70s - even the 80s - back when even  small-town newspapers still employed real writers who knew and cared about the English language and used it to inform their readers….

Pickerington North defeated Elder 39-35 in an Ohio high school football game on Friday.

Pickerington North didn't flinch, finally repelling Elder 39-35 in an Ohio high school football matchup.

Neither team dominated early as the two squads struggled evenly to a 7-7 tie through the first quarter.

Pickerington North fought to a 21-14 intermission margin at Elder's expense.

Elder came from behind to grab the advantage heading to the final quarter over Pickerington North 28-27.

Elder had the advantage to start the final quarter, but Pickerington North won the session and the game with a 12-7 performance.

That was a real story from the Columbus Dispatch, which like many Gannett papers has been trying to cut costs by laying off humans and “assigning” certain stories to AI.

Whaddaya know?  Some people who still recognize real writing caught on to the scam, and apparently the paper caught so much sh— about it that they’ve temporarily shelved the idea.

Actually, anyone who’s familiar with MaxPreps (a generally  good site) is already familiar with robot-written “game stories."


***********   Coach,

Our local HS team is 2-0, which, of course, is great! However, the combined score for these two games is 111-7. Though you have addressed this subject in the past, I'd like to read your thoughts on running up the score. This reminds me of Barry Switzer's Oklahoma teams back in the 70's: "Men, do we play the third string, or do we run up the scoreboard until it overheats?”

Coach,

111-7 may indicate “running it up,” but not necessarily. With some of today’s offenses, it is possible for a talented team to put up a lot of points.

It almost certainly means there were a couple of mismatches.

There are some things that it’s incumbent on the coach of the stronger team to do.

I don’t think it’s ever reasonable to keep starters in the game in the second half if a team is up by 35.  It’s poor sportsmanship to leave them in, not to mention unfair to your own second (or third) stringers. I don’t think you should put any restrictions on the plays that the backups run, though. Those kids deserve their chance, and if the opponents can’t stop your backups, it’s not your responsibility to do so.

HOWEVER… there are those guys who leave their starters in for most of the game. Shame on them. I wish their second-stringers would just walk off the field.

I’ve been referring to teams with large rosters. But keeping down the score can really be a problem at a small school when you’re much better than the other team and you don’t really have a second team - when you might have maybe 22 kids on your entire team, and beyond your 15 or so starters (most go two ways) you don’t really have varsity-quality subs.  Putting those kids in the game against the other team’s first-stringers could get them hurt.

Now you have to be creative in your play calling. You have to be very basic in what you run - emphasis on “run” - and you have to avoid anything that looks tricky.

The running clock (in Washington it starts when the margin is 40 or more) takes care of a lot of these issues, but it sucks because it cuts down on the time you could be getting your few subs into the game.

I am giving your local high school the benefit of the doubt. It’s almost a certainty that the losing teams threw the ball a lot. And poorly. That means that some their offensive “series” lasted less than a minute before they had to go back on defense a game.

However, there are certain  things that I consider violations of a sportsman’s code when the game is out of hand…

Leaving starters in too long
Passing or running reverses or other trick plays
Blitzing
Going for two points after a score
Onside kicking after a score
Calling a time out to make it possible to score again

Guys who do these things are detrimental to our game.


*********** As an Indiana resident and the father of a Purdue grad I find IU's football to be embarrassing. As historic rivals the Hoosiers always play the Boilers tough. However, Indiana is usually last in recruiting in the conference currently known as the Big Ten.

Here is a proposal for Indiana football: Move the program to Indiana University Indianapolis, formerly IUPUI, and play home games at Lucas Oil Stadium. I am convinced that IU's recruiting troubles are directly related to their location in rural Bloomington. Indianapolis, of course, is an NFL city with a beautiful NFL stadium. That also means NFL scouts and major media coverage. Relocation would not be difficult. Urban "student athletes" would find Indy much more attractive than the hilly Monroe County. Lucas Oil has a well-established track record of hosting multiple events.

In two weeks IU plays Louisville at Lucas Oil. Here is a big chance for my theory to prove itself.

Tom Allen is a very, very good coach. He's the kind of coach I'd love my grandson to play for. But successful IU Football is next to impossible. It will be even worse when those four West Coast teams join the Big Ten.

Jim Franklin
Flora Indiana


I think we’ve gone too far, after years and years of just UCLA, USC and MIT to the point where now everybody uses initials and we’re supposed to know what the hell they mean. But I am going to miss IUPUI, which I’ve enjoyed mispronouncing as OO-EE-POO-EE whenever I’d see their basketball scores.


***********   I hope the government will quickly mandate everyone to wear the Q-Collar at all times. "For general public safety." According to Fauci, it has been shown to be an effective supplement to warding off the China Virus too. And if you can't afford one, contact AstraZeneca, I mean the government, to "see can we fix you up with one, at absolutely no cost to you".

With his description of James Saxton, Blackie Sherrod had his Dan Jenkins moment. That aside, I enjoyed reading about the Flip-Flop.

Something struck me as I looked over the most-viewed list. We have the nation's most-concentrated population center in the northeast, yet there is no team from NY, CT, MA, etc. on the list. Hmmm. That fits.

I'd read about ESPN going to theaters. Hope it fails, just as I wish ESPN in total would implode..


John Vermillion
St Petersburg, Florida

You’re not as far from the truth as you think on the government mandating certain football gear.  The actual “mandate,” in a lot of   cases, is fear of trial lawyers - the fear that if one of your players gets injured, you’ll be accused of not having done everything humanly possible to prevent the injury.  “Can you tell the jury, Coach Vermillion, with absolute certainty, that you  did everything within your power to keep that young man from incurring an injury that now might prevent him from having a lucrative career as a professional football player? Can’t we trace this young man’s injury  right back to the day when he asked for a Q-Collar, and you wouldn’t come up with a mere two hundred collars for one?” And so it goes…



***********  Hugh,

Trifecta weekend for Coach G!  Thursday the Golden Gophers despite an anemic offense found a way to squeak out a win over an improved Nebraska team.  Saturday Fresno State proved they belong to the "Power 5" by taking a road win over Big 10 foe Purdue, and showcasing another QB.  And finally, as expected, Notre Dame dispatched their first ever FCS/HBCU opponent in preparation for their first real test this week at NC State.

The Golden Gophers escaped with a 13-10 win over an improved Nebraska team.  Nebraska should have won the game.  Minnesota has always employed a solid run offense over the past few years, but it was sorely missing on Thursday night.  The Gopher defense came up with the big plays to keep them in the game.  But alas, poor Nebraska continues to find ways to lose close games.  Four turnovers will do it, and one costly fumble late in the game.

Utah can feel pretty good about keeping Cam Rising off the field for another week or so.  That Barnes kid at QB for the Utes played well.

Big "future" game for Oregon State traveling to San Diego to take on the Aztecs.  Lots of empty seats in the Aztecs new on-campus stadium last week vs. Ohio, but that should change this week with the Beavs coming to town.  Regardless if the crowd is SRO Oregon State is a much better team than SDSU.  However...those good MWC schools lick their chops when PAC schools come calling.  The Beavers better be on top of their game in this one.

If I was a single guy and was invited to an art gallery gala the same night of that soccer "friendly" in Chicago, and my girlfriend wanted to attend the game to see Megan Rapinoe, I would tell her to dress up and attend the art gallery gala with me.

Was surprised to see Oklahoma so far down that list.  Behind Maryland!

Seeing all those propeller blades just made me think of all our wasted tax dollars...and dead birds and whales.


Elsewhere:

LSU coach Brian Kelly needs to find a defense and a run game in a hurry!
FSU is a more physical team than I expected them to be.

Dave Aranda of Baylor found out the hard way not to overlook an opponent, especially at home.
Texas State has some weapons, and a heckuva coach in GJ Kinne.

The "old PAC 12" went undefeated.  So did the "new PAC 2".  

Speaking of the PAC 12...Word has it that Oregon State and Washington State will "invite" the MWC schools to join them instead of the other way around.  This way OSU and WSU won't have to share any money with the schools who bailed on them if they ended up in the MWC.  The "new PAC" will also "steal" UTSA away from the AAC, and UTEP from Conference USA, AND appoint the MWC commissioner to lead the newly formed conference..  Apparently financials, legalities, media, and naming rights will get worked out first of course.  My thought is by adding UTSA and UTEP the conference gains a foothold in the San Antonio/West Texas media market, and more exposure for conference schools in recruiting.  All smart moves.  The PAC-WEST??    Don't get near the ledge yet!

In their "old" offense Army would have beaten ULM handily.  In their "new" offense they better get the bugs worked out quickly or Army opponents will beat them handily.

I still don't understand the shotgun inside one's own 1 yard line.  And...handing the ball off to the back who has to gain 5 yards just to get back to the LOS?!  Dumb.  Just plain dumb.

Thought Georgia Tech should have beaten Louisville.  I like what Brent Key is doing there, and I really like that QB!  

Finally, my Top 12: (For playoff purposes)

1. Georgia
2. Alabama
3. Michigan
4. USC
5. Florida State
6. Penn State
7. Texas
8. Washington
9. Ohio State
10. Notre Dame
11. Clemson
12. Tennessee

Talk later!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas

The Mountain West/Pac 2 proposal seems like the best way for Oregon State and Washington State to keep their programs at something close to their current level. I can see looking at UTSA.  But UTEP? For years, it’s been a symbol of futility. I root for the Miners because I like underdogs,  I can’t see anything that UTEP would add.  Not Texas - El Paso is closer to San Diego than it is to Houston.


 



*********** QUIZ ANSWER: Dallas “Dal” Ward grew up on a sheep ranch in eastern Oregon, and went to high school in tiny Lexington, a town of fewer than 250 people about 200 miles east of Portland.

He attended Oregon Agricultural College - now Oregon State - and started every  football game of his college career.  One of just three multi-sport members of the Oregon State Sports Hall of Fame, he earned eight varsity letters: three in football and two each in basketball and baseball.  In his senior year, he was captain of all three teams.

Following graduation, with a letter of recommendation from the great Knute Rockne, he was hired as football coach at Marshall, Minnesota High School. In 1936, he joined Bernie Bierman’s staff at Minnesota.

That was the heyday of Minnesota football. The Gophers were a single-wing powerhouse. In the six years he spent there before going off to serve during World War II, they were 38-10-1.  They won three national titles, and were Big Ten champions four times.

After four years’ WW II service, he returned to Minnesota, and in 1948 he was offered - and accepted - the head coaching job at Colorado.

It was not going to be easy. Colorado had just left the much weaker Skyline Conference to join what was then the Big Seven.   Installing the unbalanced-line single wing that Bierman had used to such great success at Minnesota,  he was 6-13 in his first two seasons.

But from there, his Buffalos ran off nine straight winning seasons, something no other Colorado coach, before or since, has done.

His best season was 1958, when the Buffs went 8-2-1 and beat Clemson in the Orange Bowl, 27-21.  He was  contacted by Minnesota and USC about job openings at both places, but he chose to remain in Boulder.

Unfortunately, his success raised expectations unreasonably high, and when he went 6-3-1 in 1957 and 6-4 in 1958, the school’s Board of Regents asked him to resign. When he refused to do so, they reconsidered, but then gave in to “outside pressure” and in the face of his refusal to resign, he was fired.

No reason was ever given for his firing.   His record was 63-41-6.  And he had that streak of nine straight winning seasons.  Most people believed that his inability to defeat Oklahoma was the reason for his firing. 

His record against the Sooners was 8-0-1. There were some close ones: 27-20, 13-6, 27-19, 14-13.  And there was a 21-21 tie in the opening game of the 1952 season, a performance considered so impressive that it earned him UPI Coach of the Week honors.

The fact is, though, that in the 11 years he was coach  at Colorado, Oklahoma  never once lost a game to any conference opponent.  The only smirch on their conference record that entire time was that 21-21 tie with Colorado.

In those 11 years, the Sooners lost just eight games (against 107 wins).    They had five undefeated regular seasons, three straight from 1954 through 1956.  Only once did they lose as many as two games in a season.

In 1956, Dal Ward had earned tenure as a CU faculty member, and he couldn’t be fired from the faculty so he chose to stay in Boulder and teach.

The CU Athletic Center is named for Dal Ward, and in the lobby, under a large portrait of him,  is inscribed,  "Son, you are here to get an education and play football, in that order."


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING DAL WARD

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
TOM WALLS - WINNIPEG, MANITOBA
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY
 





*********** QUIZ:   At 5-6, 154, he was one of the smallest men - maybe the smallest - ever to play professional football.

It goes without saying that he was fast.  Very fast.  He ran the 100 yard dash in 9.4.  In high school (Jackson, Mississippi) and college (Tennessee State) his nickname was “Jet.”

He originally committed to go to Jackson State, but when its coach, John Merritt, moved to Tennessee State, he followed the coach.  In his senior year, Tennessee State was 10-0 and averaged 40.6 points a game in winning the Pittsburgh Courier national championship trophy, awarded to the top HBCU team.

Earlier, he had come to the attention of Kansas City Chiefs’ coach Hank Stram, who was at Tennessee State’s spring practice to look at some of his teammates,  especially Claude Humphrey and Eldridge Dickey. On  Stram’s recommendation, the Chiefs drafted him in the sixth round of the 1967 draft.

In Chiefs’ training camp, owner Lamar Hunt, on seeing him surrounded by much larger teammates, said,  “He looks like a gnat out there among all those giants.  Let’s call him Super Gnat.” They called him that and the  nickname stuck.

The first time he ever touched the ball for the Chiefs, he returned a punt 86 yards for a touchdown in a preseason game.

Before the next game, in his locker he found not his Number 46 jersey, the number he’d worn at Tennessee State, but Number 1.

When he asked  what was going on, he was told, “Mister Hunt wants you to wear Number 1.”

It turned out if was a publicity stunt - the Chiefs’ PR department told the news media that it was the only number that would fit on his jersey.  Newspapers all over the country ran the story.

Fortunately, after all that publicity, he made the team, and wound up leading the AFL in kick return yards - 1148 on 41 returns - as a rookie.  Against Denver, he had the first 100+ yard kick return when he brought one back for 106 yards.

In his second year, he led the AFL in punt returns with a 15.0 average.

But in his third year, 1969, he was injured in midseason when he was “clotheslined” on a punt return, and the facial injury he incurred resulted in triple vision, which made fielding kicks impossible.

Shortly thereafter, he was traded to the 49ers, and missed out on the Chiefs’ AFC championship  win - and their Super Bowl win over the Vikings.

In recognition of the part he’d played in their success,  the Chiefs voted him a Super Bowl ring and half a winner’s share.  The money was $7,500, which was not bad for a guy making the league’s minimum salary of $12,000.

He retired after that season and returned to his hometown of Jackson, where he worked for 44 years in the city’s recreation department.

“I loved every minute of it,” he said in a 2020 interview with Rick Cleveland of Mississippi Today.  “I loved the challenge of returning punts and kickoffs. Yeah, it was dangerous, but I loved the challenge.”



FRIDAY,  SEPTEMBER 1, 2023 - "My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government." -Thomas Jefferson

*********** WITH FOOTBALL PRACTICE BEGINNING AROUND THE COUNTRY, BE SURE TO EMAIL ME ABOUT SIGNING UP YOUR TEAM  FOR THE BLACK LION AWARD.  THERE’S NO COST TO PARTICIPATE - IT’S SIMPLY SO WE CAN TELL YOU WHAT YOU NEED TO DO, AND SO WE’LL KNOW HOW MANY AWARDS TO PREPARE FOR.

IF THE BLACK LION AWARD HAS BEEN A PART OF YOUR PROGRAM, I INVITE YOU TO WRITE ME AND SHARE WITH MY READERS WHAT IT MEANS TO YOU.

coachhw@mac.com


***********  THIS COULD  TURN OUT TO BE THE LAST SEASON OF COLLEGE FOOTBALL AS MANY OF US HAVE COME TO KNOW AND LOVE IT, AND WITH A NATION HUNGRY  FOR IT, WHAT DO THE COLLEGES - AND TV PEOPLE - GIVE US?  A BUNCH OF DOGS.

There are 45 or so FBS games over this long (five-day) weekend

In only 10 of them is the spread  seven points or less:

THURSDAY NIGHT
Utah over Florida by 6-1/2
Minnesota over Nebraska by 7

FRIDAY NIGHT
Stanford over Hawaii by 3-1/2

SATURDAY
Purdue over Fresno State by 4-1/2
Cal over North Texas by 6-1/2
UTSA over Houston by 1-1/2
North Carolina over South  Carolina by 2-1/2
Tulane over South Alabama by 6-1/2

SUNDAY
Rutgers over Northwestern by 6-1/2
LSU over Florida State by 2-1/2

Yeah, yeah, I know - these are mostly meaningless, pre-season games.

But so are the 16 NFL preseason games being played between Thursday night and Monday night.

All 32 teams are in action, and in only one of those 16 games  - Houston at Baltimore - is the point spread more than seven points. (The Ravens are favored by 10.)

The  way the  TV networks have taken over college football, dictating playing dates and starting times (not to mention orchestrating conference destruction) you’d think that in return they’d  put a respectable product on the air. 



*********** GAMES I’LL WATCH (We have five screens)

TONIGHT (THURSDAY)

NC STATE AT UCONN - State is a big favorite but I’d like to see if UConn football has improved to the point where a Power 5 conference might  be willing to take the Huskies in order to get their basketball programs

FLORIDA AT UTAH - I hope that the Utes are strong enough without Rising.

NEBRASKA AT MINNESOTA - I’d like to see how much the Huskers have improved under Matt Rhule.

ELON AT WAKE FOREST - 1. How much do the Deacs miss Sam Hartman? 2. DO the Deacs miss Sam Hartman?



FRIDAY -  IT MIGHT BE FUN TO LISTEN TO HOW THE ANNOUNCERS CALL THE MIAMI VS MIAMI GAME.  OTHERWISE, IT OUGHTN’T TO BE MUCH OF A GAME

I’LL BE WATCHING A FEW HIGH SCHOOL GAMES ON NFHS, PLUS…

LOUISVILLE AT GEORGIA TECH - Couple of new coaches. Louisville’s favored by 7-1/2


SATURDAY

FIRST FLIGHT (9 AM PACIFIC)

COLORADO AT TCU - This will definitely be one of the most-watched games of the entire weekend.  For a half, at least - I’ll be surprised if it isn’t a rout by then.  Considering the manpower edge that “Coach Prime” had at Jackson State, he’s never been through an ass-whipping as a coach, and I hope to get to see how he handles himself.

VIRGINIA AT TENNESSEE (IN NASHVILLE) - This shouldn’t be close, but I want to see a little of Tennessee.

BOWLING GREEN AT LIBERTY - I’m interested to see how  well Liberty has picked up new coach Jamey Chadwell’s offense.

UTAH STATE AT IOWA - With a transfer QB (Cade McNamara, from Michigan), is it possible that the Hawkeyes might actually throw it around a bit?  If ever there was a time  to   do it, this will be the game.

FRESNO STATE AT PURDUE - I like Purdue and I hope the new coach does well, but I’ve got to go for the Bulldogs from the Mountain West. Purdue is a 6-1/2 point favorite.


SECOND FLIGHT (NOON OR SO)

PORTLAND STATE AT OREGON - The Vikings will get killed, but they need the money to keep the program going, and I really like their coach, Bruce Barnum.

BOISE STATE AT WASHINGTON - If the Huskies are going to make a run at a Playoff spot, it starts here. They have one of the best passers in the country in Michael Penix, but they have to show that they can run the ball and play defense.

I’LL TAKE SHORT GLIMPSES AT…
RICE AT TEXAS - WILL ARCH MANNING PLAY?
TENNESSEE STATE AT NOTRE DAME - WILL ESTIME AND HARTMAN PLAY MORE THAN TWO QUARTERS?
BUFFALO AT WISCONSIN - IS WISCONSIN’S QB, TANNER MORDECAI,  BETTER THAN HE LOOKED IN THE SPRING?
UMASS AT AUBURN - HUGH FREEZE’S RETURN TO THE SEC


THIRD FLIGHT (4:00 OR SO)

ARMY AT LOUISIANA MONROE - This one could answer my  big question - can Army run the same stuff as everybody else and win,  given the kind of players it can recruit to a military academy?  If they win big?  Maybe.  If it’s close either way?   Doubtful.  If they get whipped?  BACK TO THE ‘BONE. ON MONDAY, IF NOT SOONER.

WASHINGTON STATE AT COLORADO STATE - WSU’s Cameron Ward is an underrated passer.  Who knows what CSU has?  Wazzu is an 11-1/2 point favorite.

NORTH CAROLINA AT SOUTH CAROLINA - This game is in Charlotte, which might seem to give the Tar Heels a slight home field advantage, but when you look at the map, you’ll see that Charlotte is  right on the border between the two states.  Yes, UNC’s Drake Maye is good.  But so is SC’s Spencer Rattler.  NC is a very slight favorite but I think SC will take it.

TOLEDO AT ILLINOIS - Illinois is a 9-1/2 point favorite, and Bret Bielema is doing a great job with the Illini, but a good MAC team is always dangerous, and Toledo is a good MAC team.

I’LL TAKE A LOOK AT WEST VIRGINIA AT PENN STATE, IN THE HOPE THAT THE MOUNTAINEERS CAN MAKE A GAME OF IT.


FINAL FLIGHT (7 PM OR SO)

NORTHERN ARIZONA AT ARIZONA - Arizona has been making strides in its two years under Jedd Fisch. Wildcats’ QB Jayden DeLaura is never mentioned when they talk about all the good Pac-12 QBs this year, but he should be.

SAM HOUSTON AT BYU - Sam Houston (they dropped the “State” from the name) plays its first game as an FBS member. The BYU Cougars play their first game as a Big-12 member.  The Cougs are big favorites.

COASTAL CAROLINA AT UCLA - I like Chip Kelly but I hate UCLA for what they did.  Coastal still has the QB - Grayson McCall - whose passing and option play made Jamey Chadwell’s offense go, but it doesn’t have Jamey Chadwell any longer.  An upset wouldn’t surprise me.  An even bigger upset would be a  good crowd in the Rose Bowl.


SUNDAY

NORTHWESTERN AT RUTGERS - No jokes, no jabs at Northwestern.  It’s been an ugly time for all concerned, and a loss to Rutgers would make it even worse.  Will the Wildcats be able to overcome all the negativity and pull off the upset?  I wouldn’t bet on it.

OREGON STATE AT SAN DIEGO STATE - If the Beavers want to avoid being relegated to playing in the Mountain West, they’re going to have to show that they can handle a Mountain West team.  The Beavs  appear to be solid.  And if D. J. Uiagalelei can come close to being the QB Clemson thought he’d be, the Beavers will be tough.

LSU AT FLORIDA STATE - This time last year it was Bryan Kelly’s first game as the Tigers’ coach - and they  sucked.   But the Tigers had a good season and so did  the Seminoles.  I like the FSU QB, Jordan Travis.  He’s a good player and he seems like a good kid.  But I never have been able to warm up to FSU itself, and I wish they’d shut up about how much better they are than the other members of the ACC, and think back to the day when they were grateful for membership in the conference.

MONDAY

CLEMSON AT DUKE - Whose idea was it to put this one on national TV? Don’t get me wrong - I love Duke.  And I thought Mike Elko did a great job last season in his first year as the Blue Devils’ head coach. But are they really ready for this?  Clemson’s a  two-touchdown favorite and if Duke can keep it under that I’ll be thrilled.  Oh, well.  It’s national TV exposure.  And thanks to Clemson’s fanatic following, it’ll be a rare Duke sellout.





********** THE CFL GOT US THROUGH THE DRY SUMMER MONTHS, SO I’M NOT GOING TO TURN MY BACK ON IT NOW THAT COLLEGE FOOTBALL IS UNDER WAY. (BUT I HAVE TO CONFESS - IT IS GOING TO BE DIFFICULT TO  FIND TIME TO WATCH IT.)

THIS WEEKEND - WEEK THIRTEEN

SATURDAY

BC (7-4) AT MONTREAL (6-4)  7 PM EDT


SUNDAY

WINNIPEG (9-2) AT SASKATCHEWAN (5-5) 7 PM EDT


MONDAY

TORONTO (8-1) AT HAMILTON (4-6)  3:30 PM EDT

EDMONTON (2-9)  AT CALGARY  (3-8)  7 PM EDT



YOUR SCHEDULE OF CFL GAMES ON AMERICAN CABLE (CBSSN) THIS SEASON:

https://fbschedules.com/cbs-sports-network-releases-2023-cfl-tv-schedule/




*********** AT THE TOP OF MY LIST OF BOOKS THAT I RECOMMEND TO ANYONE WHO’S A COACH OR ABOUT TO BECOME ONE…

(1) Reade, Bob - Coaching Football Successfully - Human Kinetics, 1994 - Every young football coach should read this book - preferably twice or more - before even thinking about becoming a head coach.

(2) Nelson, David M. - Football Principles and Play - Ronald Press, 1962 - This book is deep, and deals with the stuff “under the hood” of the game in a way that I have yet to see anyplace else.

(3) Parseghian , Ara - Parseghian and Notre Dame Football - Doubleday & Co, 1971 & 1973 - Coach Parseghian’s Irish won the 1973 National Championship, and they won it running a Wing-T offense and a Split-4 defense - both systems that I have used for most of my career.  In this book, he gets deeply into the “why” and “how” of his system, and I’ve found  it very useful over the years.   I have great respect for him as a coach and as a man, and - for what it’s worth - his first head coaching job, and the place where he  came to the attention of Notre Dame, was at Northwestern.

(4) McKay, John - Football Coaching - Ronald Press, 1966 - The basics of the USC I-formation attack and his 5-2 Rover (Monster) defense - and more.  Coach McKay probably did more than anyone to popularize the I-formation, and as a result, with tailbacks the likes of Ricky Bell, Anthony Davis, Mike Garrett, O.J. Simpson and Charles White, he established USC’s reputation as “tailback U.”   Garrett and Simpson both won Heisman Trophies. His book holds nothing back, explaining the entire USC offense in considerable detail (an indication that he didn’t care that opponents knew what he was doing - he still had personnel  good enough to beat you anyhow.

(5) Ellison, Glenn "Tiger" - Run and Shoot Football - Parker Publishing, 1965 & 1984 - Tiger Ellison was a high school coach in Hamilton, Ohio who, faced with an 0-4-1 record in a town that expected winning teams, decided to use simple touch football principles of “getting open.” It turned his season around, turned his kids on - the community, too - and led to the development of an entire offensive system, which he came to call the Run and Shoot.

(6) Bryant, Paul W. - Building a Championship Football Team - Prentice-Hall, 1960 - There have been at least a dozen books written about The Bear, but this one was written BY him. He writes a lot about defense and how he taught it, and a lot of  it is based on the numbering system he got from Bum Phillips - “a Texas high school coach.”   It’s become a part of the language of football (“he’s playing a seven technique”)  and as far as I’ve been able to tell, Coach Bryant’s book was the first time it was explained in print.

(7) Evashevski, Forest and Nelson, David - Scoring Power With the Winged T Offense - Brown Co., 1957 - The original book on the offense that took the football world by storm after Iowa put it on display in the Rose Bowl.   Delaware - and Maine before it - had been running the offense for six years.  But the offense, invented by Dave Nelson and his assistants, Mike Lude and Harold Westerman, and called the “Winged T,” might never have come to the attention of football people if it hadn’t been demonstrated on the games biggest  stage - the 1957 Rose Bowl.  There, in front of more than 100,000 people and a nationwide TV audience, the Number 3 Iowa Hawkeyes ran wild in beating Oregon State, 35-19.  The demand to learn more about the Iowa offense could only be satisfied by a book describing it in detail, and that’s what Coach Nelson and Iowa coach Forest Evashevski produced.  It is a masterwork.

(8) Danzig, Allison - The History of American Football - Prentice-Hall, 1956 - It’s a big book because it deals with a big subject - the men and their teams - and their thinking - that built the game we have today.  I majored in history in college, and I consider this one of the best history books I’ve ever seen.  What a great thing that it happens to be about football.  It’s the history of college football  from the game’s beginnings until the mid-1950s.  And it  digs in deeply.  At the time of its publication, a critic at the New York Times called it “Without Doubt, the most ambitious and best book ever published on the subject of college football.” (Pro  football, for the time that the book covers, played a very minor part.)  I find myself going to this book time after time in doing research.   It’s truly a shame that none of us gets to live forever, because I’d love to have a copy of his History of American Football - Part Two.

(9) Ecker, Tom and Calloway, Bill - Athletic Journal's Encyclopedia of Football - Parker Publishing, 1978 - A compilation of offensive and defensive ideas from top college and HS coaches.  This is dated, of course, and there’s nothing in here about RPOs or shallow crosses or dime coverages, but take it from someone who started coaching in 1970 - there are timeless  aspects to our game that you ignore at your peril. There is great value still in having a basic understanding of the Veer… the I formation… the Wing T… the Wishbone… the 5-2… the 4-4… the 4-3…Goal Line offenses (boy, couldn’t today’s offensive coordinators use this) and Goal Line defenses… the Kicking game… Coaching the Offensive Backfield… Coaching the Defensive Backfield…Coaching the Offensive Line… Coaching the Defensive Line…   There  are 318 pages of solid, sound football techniques and teaching. This book is an invaluable resource.  

(10) Tallman, Drew - Directory of Football Offenses - 1978 - incredible resource - pocket-sized diagrams of formations;   Directory of Football Defenses - 1980 - likewise
These two little (4 x -1/2) books are the damnedest things I’ve seen in all my years of coaching.  They’re in need of updating - which, considering how thorough they are, would represent a major undertaking - but especially for anyone running an “outdated” offense or preparing to defend against one, they are really helpful.
Coaching offense?  Open the “DEFENSES” book to the defense you expect to see this week, and see how it recommends attacking it.
Coaching defense?  Open the “OFFENSES” book and see what it says the strong points and weak points of this coming week’s opponent are.


(11)  Caldwell, Charlie - Modern Single-Wing Football - Lippincott $ Co - 1951 - It’s the first football book I ever got, given to me as a Christmas present when I was a kid. Very technical, it took me years to understand it, but his section on the wedge was a real eye-opener for me
In all the years since I’ve been promoting the Double Wing,  a lot of self-taught Double-Wing experts have popped up. But few of them have included the Wedge in their arsenals, and of those who have included it, they have either copied directly from me, or they don’t know how to coach it.  Me?  I’m indebted to Coach Caldwell for teaching me - via this book - the proper way to teach the wedge.

(12) Pool, Hamp - Fly-T Football - Prentice-Hall, 1957 - I have to include this, because this book is what first got me seriously interested in coaching.  It was my senior season in college, I was injured and unable to play, and I was asked to  coach our college’s (dorm’s) intra-mural team.  Yes, it was tackle football. I knew one thing - I wasn’t going to run the boring-ass offense I’d been forced to play in for three years - and when I found Hamp Pool’s book in the school library, it was like finding the Holy Grail!  Pool's Los Angeles Rams had been putting up incredible offensive numbers, because was light years ahead of other coaches in his offensive thinking (but also, to be fair, because he had one of the best assemblages of offensive talent ever put together on one team. But all I cared about was the scheme, and Wow, I thought.  This is  it!   I was so dumb that I had no doubt it would work for me, too.  And damned if it didn’t!  Talk about exciting.  I was hooked on coaching. 
The only problem was, I had to go out in the business world and make a living, and it took me ten years in the before I found a way to become a coach.  (Thank you, Lord.)
Now, many decades later, I find myself still employing some of the principles I found in that book, back in the fall of 1959.

(13)  Smith, Homer - Handbook for Coaching the Football Passing Attack - Parker Publishing, 1970 - The passing game at its very base - the fundamentals necessary for the simplest or most sophisticated passing attack.
Homer Smith was one of the brightest and best-educated men our game has ever known, (a bachelor’s degree from Princeton, an MBA from Stanford, and a Divinity degree from Harvard)  and while he did not enjoy great success as a head coach (Davidson, Pacific, Army)_, he gained fame and respect as one of the game’s best offensive coordinators - at UCLA, Alabama, UCLA (again), Alabama (again) and Arizona.
There was no one better at coaching the passing game and teaching quarterbacks, and no matter what offense you might wind up coaching, or at what level, this book would give any coach a great knowledge base.

(14) Blaik, Earl and Cohane, Tim - You Have to Pay the Price - Holt, Rinehart and Winston - 1960 - A coach's perspective on the game - the agony and the ecstasy of a career in coaching.

When I was just starting out in coaching,  none of the local high school coaches were of any help - they saw me and my semi-pro team as competition - so I had two main sources of wisdom when I needed it. (Which was often.)

The first was Adam Craven, the head coach at Frederick (Maryland) High.

The second was a book I found in Hagerstown, Maryland in the local library - a book by Army Coach Earl Blaik and longtime sports reporter and friend Tim Cohane.  I didn’t learn a thing about tactical football from the book - but that wasn’t Coach Blaik’s purpose.  What I did learn was about  the importance of those things that go on behind the scenes that can make or break any football program - and how Coach Blaik, under constant pressure and constantly in the national spotlight, dealt with them.

It was also from his book that I first learned of Don Holleder, who would become the inspiration for the Black Lion Award…
http://www.coachwyatt.com/Blaik/blaik7.html

(15) Royal, Darrell and Sherrod, Blackie - Darrell Royal Talks Football - Prentice-Hall - 1963 - Just some plain old coaching wisdom that I was badly in need of in my early days.

Going back to the book years later, I came across Coach Royal’s eloquent explanation for why Texas decided to “flip-flop” its formation, something I’d begun doing with my offense, both Double Wing and Open Wing…

We sat around in air conditioned film rooms and ran the game movies of 1960 over and over. And then we would look at each other silently, with universal conviction that we had an amazing weapon on our hands if we could discover how best to load and shoot it.

James Saxton was the weapon’s name and he was a spindly whippet with steel legs split up to his breast bone. He could run like small-town gossip, although his compass sometimes went batty.

By giving the scales a friendly nudge, James could persuade them all the way up to 165 pounds. He was a crew-cut youngster, with sideburns and a high-pitched voice and he looked about as much like an all-American halfback as the late big daddy Lipscomb resembled a Rockette.  Saxton had started his college career as a quarterback, but we had moved him to halfback for his junior season. He was Hairbreadth Harry every time he carried the ball. He was as apt to run 50 yards as five because James was a skittery, fluttering runner who could find daylight were none existed. His only trouble was that he wasn't a hardy individual. He was compared to a rubber balloon blown up and turned loose, swirling and darting helter-skelter all over the room until finally collapsing with a whoosh.

Newspaper men called him Jackrabbit Jim, because of an earlier history of chasing down rabbits in East Texas pastures. Some said he ran like a knuckleball. Others compared him to a water bug, with a cottonmouth moccasin in pursuit. He was a colorful youngster, and he averaged better than 5 yards each time he carried the ball his junior year. He was our leading ground gainer in 1960 with 436 yards. 

Saxton certainly was no surprise to the coaching staff. We didn't just discover him in the background of game films, like a movie extra who is suddenly chosen for stardom. We had been delighting in his wild talents for two seasons.

But as we studied and re-studied those game films, one fact began to scream for attention:

Saxton was not being used to best advantage.

He wasn't durable enough to play most of the game, to block and play defense. So our first conclusion was that this constant scoring threat should be running with the football while he was in the game. He shouldn't be blocking for somebody else. We wanted to stick that football under his arm every possible chance and tempt a little heart failure from the opposition.

And that's how the Flip-Flop offense was born.

It wasn't a new idea at all. But someone tagged a fancy nickname on it in our instance, and it started growing like Topsy. It became a surprise even to our coaching staff.

But back to Saxton. We wanted the football in his hands. To heck with the idea of his playing left half back and carrying the ball in one play, flanking on another play, being a pest receiver on another, blocking on another, decoying on another. So along came the idea, out of one of those hot weather bowl sessions, of installing a tailback plan.

Take the left half backs and make tailbacks out of them, so that they would always line up alongside the fullback, in a ball carrying position. Like the pros – have a permanent running halfback.

The right halfbacks, therefore, would become wingbacks. They would be wingbacks on the right side when the formation was Strong Right; they would move to the left side when the formation was Strong Left. This, of course, would put Saxton and his fellow left halfbacks in business on every play, especially pointing the Saxton potential at the end sweeps and off-tackle plays.

Then we shifted attention to the ends, while still just kicking the idea around. Since the wingback must do double-team blocking with the ends on the all important sweep plays, why not pair him with the same end every time?

Instead of having a right and a left end, why not use a constant strong side end who would shift with the wingback, either to the right or left side of the line? Then it would simplify our coaching (a constant aim).  We could keep the same two positions together all the time and teach the blocking to the same combination of players. We would make a two-man team out of the wingback and the strongside end. Result – togetherness.

Then, we could take the weakside end and make him our specialized pass receiver.

In a subsequent session, one of our assistant coaches (I don't remember who) made another suggestion. The center, quarterback, and fullback play the same location all the time. With the changing of our halfbacks and ends, we had switched everybody but the guards in tackles to the strongside – weakside plan. Why not switch them also? A further simplification. 

So we just decided to change the whole bunch – half packs, guards, tacos, ends – into the strong side – weak side plan. (The location of the wingback, of course, determines the strong side.)

Now this was nothing new, as I said. Several, even numerous, coaches had employed the strong side – weak side theme for years. So I yelled for help.

These staff talks were in August before practice started in September. We had not received benefit of spring work on the idea, because we simply hadn't thought of it then. But Saxton's senior season was arriving with breakneck speed, and if we were going to the party, we had to get dressed. So I decided to call some coaches who had experience in this plan.

Jim Owens at Washington had some success with switching his lineman from one side to the other. He used an unbalanced line, so it wasn't exactly the same. I called Jim, and I called Bob Woodruff, the assistant coach at Tennessee and former boss at Baylor and Florida. Bob, of course, spring from Tennessee stock and he had experience with this strongside – weakside business before Jim and I were big enough to play in the backyard.

I asked them both this question: would it be a mistake to go into this type of offense without having the benefit of spring practice?

Both said they didn't think so, because it was a move of that everloving simplification. If you're simplifying (they said), you can do it anytime. If you want to install something more complicated than your present plan, then you better take the spring drills to work on it.

Both Jim and Bob assured us that August was not too late.

***********   You probably think that when they go to a 12-team college playoff, the schools will pocket all that money.

I’ll bet you didn’t know that College Football Playoff people provide a $3,000 - per playoff game - travel stipend for the families of 125 players per team.



***********  First it was those gooney practice helmets that coaches with already-stretched budgets feel compelled to buy - “if they care about their players’ safety.”

Now, there’s the “Q-Collar. ” By  now you’ve probably seen at least one commercial advertising it.  The ads all but promise that wearing one around the neck will prevent the wearer from ever experiencing any ill effects from a blow - or series of blows - to the head.

It’s cheap -  it's only  $199. Just put it around your neck and  you’re safe.  (Of course, there are those of us who remember when not so long ago $199 would buy you a top-of-the-line helmet.)

Me, I tend to be skeptical about things that seem to overpromise.

Maybe there’s no promise, but there sure seems to be a strong suggestion that it works,  like that Nugenix stuff (“She’ll like it, too!”) that Frank Thomas and Doug Flutie push incessantly.

Actually, in authorizing it, the FDA made it clear that there can not yet be any promise of safety,   stating “[The Q-Collar] hasn't been shown to prevent concussions or severe brain injury.”

There are those who claim that any such device can be dangerous in and of itself if it encourages players to take chances they might not otherwise take. (Before the advent of safer, plastic helmets, no one ever led  with his head in making a tackle.)

The co-inventor of the device admits that while  there may not be absolute proof that the Q-Collar works, no one in his family skis or rides a bike without wearing one.

“Let’s say it does nothing,” he says.  “Then you lose nothing.”

Well, no. Other than that $199 you paid for it.



***********   I  showed this play to a friend who runs the Open Wing and gets a lot of mileage out of the criss-cross counter…


 

It’s basically a fake Criss-Cross, which is a play your opponents must certainly be well aware of.

This play, from Double Wing, was very successful for me.

The Blocking would be RED DOG-O

We are blocking DOWN TO THE RIGHT (RED DOG) - which  to any well-coached team would indicate “counter”, and pulling the Tight Guard (“O”), just as if it were criss-cross.

The Tight Tackle has to SLIDE inside and then HINGE.

The TE blocks for ONE THOUSAND ONE, ONE THOUSAND TWO, ONE THOUSAND THREE - and then “splits the uprights” - runs between the goal posts.

The backfield fakes criss cross action, and as they do, it wouldn’t hurt for the wingback to holler “COUNTER!” (as any well-coached defense would be taught to do). The B-Back then blocks End man (after the TE releases him);  the wingback runs into the hole and  blocks.

The QB fakes his handoff  then peels left (he can open or roll) and fakes, looks left, and  from the time he catches the snap      he  also counts ONE THOUSAND ONE, ONE THOUSAND TWO, ONE THOUSAND THREE at which point he stops and re-sets his feet and looks back to the middle for the TE. As a general guideline for aiming, he can use the goal posts, just as the TE is doing.

On the left side, whatever you have those receivers  doing, make sure they don’t block downfield.


***********  Apparently the “aroma” (I prefer the word “stench”) of marijuana is so prevalent at  times at the US Open tennis tournament, taking place now  in New York,  that a German player, Alexander Zverev, remarked,  “Court 17 definitely smells like Snoop Dogg’s living room.”


***********   The 25 most-watched college football programs in 2022

The numbers next to each school indicate the average number of viewers per week for a 12-week season.

    •            Ohio State — 5.80M
    •            Alabama — 5.11M
    •            Michigan — 4.37M
    •            Tennessee — 4.13M
    •            Georgia — 3.50M
    •            Notre Dame — 3.30M
    •            LSU — 3.22M
    •            Texas — 3.06M
    •            Penn State — 3.05M
    •            Clemson — 2.59M
    •            Florida — 2.57M
    •            Oregon — 2.21M
    •            TCU — 2.20M
    •            USC — 2.07M
    •            Florida State — 2.03M
    •            Nebraska — 1.98M
    •            Michigan State — 1.91M
    •            Texas A&M — 1.87M
    •            Maryland — 1.864M
    •            Auburn — 1.863M
    •            Arkansas — 1.80M
    •            Mississippi — 1.753M
    •            Oklahoma — 1.748M
    •            Oklahoma State — 1.68M
    •            UCLA — 1.591M

BY CONFERENCE
SEC: 9
BIG TEN: 6
BIG 12: 4 (COUNTING TEXAS AND OKLAHOMA)
PAC-12: 3 (COUNTING USC AND UCLA)
ACC: 2
ND: 1

https://medium.com/run-it-back-with-zach/which-college-football-programs-were-the-most-watched-in-2022-94eca4f6acbd



*********** Nebraska got 92,003 people in their stadium yesterday - to watch a volleyball match.

It is believed to be the largest crowd ever to attend a women’s sporting event.



*********** She’s ba-a-a-a-a-ack…

Turns out, after her classic flop in the World Cup,  Megan Rapinoe isn’t done after all.

She’s going to play one final match for the US women’s national team on Sunday, September 24 at Chicago’s Soldier Field.

It’s a “friendly” (only soccer would use  such a stupid term for a game)   against South Africa.

In case you live in Chicago and you’re so p-whipped that you need an excuse to get out of  going with a  girlfriend - the Bears are at Kansas City (on TV) at the same time.  Better yet, get a girlfriend who’d rather watch the Bears game with you anyhow. (No charge for the advice.)


https://www.foxsports.com/stories/soccer/megan-rapinoe-to-be-honored-in-farewell-game-for-uswnt-on-sept-24



*********** There’s no downside to clean energy, they keep telling me.  It’s free and it comes from the wind and the sun and it’s better for the planet than burning those awful fossil fuels to make electricity.

Now, if we could just figure out what to do with those blades when the windmills are finished chopping up birds...

 



https://img.texasmonthly.com/2023/08/sweetwater-wind-blades.jpg?auto=compress&crop=faces&fit=fit&fm=webp&h=0&ixlib=php-3.3.1&q=45&w=1300



***********  ESPN will partner with something called Theater Sports Network to broadcast 75 college games in movie theaters this fall.

Last season, they partnered to put the Playoff semifinals and final in theaters, and this year they’ll show regular season games - mostly from the ACC - plus all New Year’s Six games and, again, the Playoff semifinals and final.

Who knows? Maybe they’re going after the business that sports bars get from watch parties that alumni groups organize.

This weekend’s games are Virginia against Tennessee, North Carolina against South Carolina, and Clemson at Duke.


www.theatersportsnetwork.com.



 
*********** This is a photo of the 1952 LSU Tigers.  If something looks strange, it’s the players’ numbers.

That year, an LSU assistant AD named Jim Corbett came up with the bright idea of identifying players by position.

(With players playing both ways, there weren’t separate offensive and defensive positions, and players were identified by where they played on offense.)

Ends would be “numbered”  E 1, E 2, E 3, etc. Quarterbacks would be Q 1, Q 2 and so forth. 

At that time nearly everyone’s offense employed  three running backs - Right Halfbacks, Fullbacks and Left Halfbacks - and they would be designated R, F and L respectively.



*********** (RE: Iowa offense) What? Run up the middle, run up the middle, throw a 3 yard pass and punt isn't exciting?

Tough when the defense has to outscore the opponent all the time.

LOL

Brad Knight
Clarinda, Iowa

Knighter,

I don’t usually join the chorus that criticizes Iowa’s offense because I assume they’re doing what works best with the kids they can recruit. And while it may not be pretty, it wins. Without it, Iowa might just be Indiana.

This year, Army has  junked the under center flexbone that has been their trademark  in favor of something more modern and “exciting.”  I don’t think they’ll be able to recruit the talent to make it work but we’ll see. It could be a good indicator to Iowa of what might happen if they were to dump what’s been working for them in an effort to be “more exciting.”



***********  Hi Coach! Hope all is well with you and yours!

I happened to catch John Bosco's win at St. Thomas Aquinas (Ft. Lauderdale) and was annoyed at the announcers constantly telling the audience that so-and-so is a "Miami commit", or "headed to Florida State, Notre Dame, yadayadayada -

Same thing that you mentioned about college guys "playing on Sundays" = annoying.

Welcome to the espn-ification of high school football!

Best Regards,

John Rothwell
Corpus Christi, Texas

John,

When you think of all the good that playing football can do for our kids and our country, it enrages me to see high school football being peddled on TV as if its highest purpose is preparing uniquely gifted athletes for careers as professionals.



***********   The fascinating story about Coach Craven illustrates why your page is superior to the others.

I agree that Jason Garrett was really bad in calling the game in Dublin, but for reasons you didn't mention. He tried too hard to give Navy credit for a high level of discipline. And, by the way, I know you were a fan of Hartman at WF, as was I, but I still don't understand why he's allowed to play a sixth season. I mean, he's 24 years old. And the Coastal Carolina QB has established himself as a pro as he begins his seventh season. Does anyone ask what happened to standards? Seems as if a guy says he wants to play another season or two or three, and there's no resistance. The NCAA has given up its enforcement responsibilities, probably because it doesn't know what the rules are anymore.

I've heard Kenny Loggins is pushing hard for the "Danger Zone" designation. Every time we hear him sing, his cash register will ring.

When I first heard we have an alcohol czar, I went nuts. How much are we paying that guy Koob?

John Vermillion                    
St Petersburg, Florida

The NCAA has no power whatsoever.  I have no idea why schools still adhere to the scholarship limits when they could very easily get a lawyer (or two) to argue that by limiting scholarships the NCAA is depriving underprivileged, marginalized young people of an opportunity to improve their lots in life.



***********   Hugh,

Enjoyed reading my good friend Mike Foristiere's post regarding his take on the Black Lion Award.  My sentiments EXACTLY!!

Something that may have been missed in the ND-Navy game:  Head Coach Marcus Freeman benched Audric Estime for a period of time after fumbling on a nice run between the tackles.  Freeman explained his reason for taking him out had everything to do with the high expectations the RB's have for not turning the ball over, and...that Estime or anyone else in that room isn't immune from those expectations, and there are enough guys to carry the load should one of them falter.  The first true test for the Irish comes in two weeks when they travel to Raleigh to take on NC State.

Jerry Kill is building NM State into a respectable program much the same way he did when he was at Minnesota.

Despite a really nice looking brand-new on-campus stadium there were still a number of empty seats for the Ohio game.  Must have been a really nice day for the beach!

Joe Montana had distanced himself from the Irish while Brian Kelly was the HC.  Marcus Freeman has made it a point to be more inclusive of past Irish greats into the foundation of his program.

At this point in time it's pretty apparent who has been pulling Biden's strings because he is totally incapable of coming up with these "fundamentally changing" ideas of how this country should be run.

Met a family up here that (in their words) just "escaped" from Portland.  Said they didn't want to subject their children to the nightmare anymore.  I told them we had something in common... my wife and I just "escaped" from Austin. 

Have a great week!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas

Hope you asked the refugees from Portland if they’d left their politics back there. Of course, if they were THAT kind of Portlander, they’d have gone to Austin., and not Grambury.

(Coach Gutilla also sent me this)

https://footballscoop.com/news/video-high-school-coach-goes-viral-with-challenge-to-adults

He added, "Unfortunately there aren't enough of these guys around anymore.  Hopefully some young coaches will heed his message."

That is really good. A major problem in America today is that not enough  boys are exposed to men like this. And football is the best way to make it happen. One of the main issues, of course, would be to flush the bad actors out of coaching.


 

 



*********** QUIZ ANSWER - It’s not a misspelling.  It’s how his name is spelled: Frnka.

It’s pronounced “FRANK-uh."

A native of Garwood, Texas, Henry Frnka was an all-star lineman at tiny Austin College, in Sherman, Texas, and graduated in 1926.

He immediately went into coaching,  first at Lubbock High, where he built a powerhouse, and after five years at Lubbock, at Greenville High, where in five years he won a state championship.

He was hired as an assistant to legendary coach Ray Morrison at Vanderbilt, and after four years there he went with Morrison to Temple.

After just one year at Temple, he was offered the head coaching job at Tulsa, and he accepted.

He stayed at Tulsa for  five years, and left  with a record of 40-9-1 - that’s a winning percentage of .810.  His teams led the nation in passing twice, and outscored the opposition 1,552 to 375.   He took the Hurricanes to five bowl games - one every year. No other Tulsa coach, before or since, has  been to more than four.

His 1942 team went 10-1, played in the Sugar Bowl, and finished fourth in the nation. Check out the final AP poll:

1. Ohio State
2. Georgia
3. Wisconsin
4. TULSA
5. Georgia Tech
6. Notre Dame
7. Tennessee
8. Boston College
9. Michigan
10. Alabama

HIs 1944 team went 8-2 and beat Georgia Tech in the Orange Bowl.

From Tulsa he moved to Tulane in 1946.  The Green Wave had suffered four straight losing seasons, and four straight one-win seasons in the SEC, but by his third season he had taken Tulane football to national prominence. 

In  1949, coming off a 9-1 season and an SEC championship (with wins over Florida, Auburn, Alabama, South Carolina, and LSU), his 1949  team was actually picked by one expert - The Sporting News - to win the national title.  Tulane’s game at Notre Dame in the fourth week of the season was hyped as  one for the ages,  but a 46-7 win by the eventual national champion Irish put an end to the hype - and the Greenies’ shot at a championship.  They still finished 7-2-1.  They tied Navy, 21-21, and their only other loss came in the final game to instate rival LSU.

He retired  following the 1951 season to become a vice-president at Austin. In his six years at Tulane,  he compiled a 31-23-4 record overall (18-15-3 in SEC play).   Since he left,  Tulane has had 17 coaches, and only one - Tommy Bowden - has left there with a winning record.  (Today’s very well thought-of head guy, Willie Fritz, is still below .500.)

He was in the oil business in Texas for a number of years, but confiding that “I get lonesome for football,”  he got the idea in 1969 of putting together a “coaching clinic” - then an unusual term. His vision was an annual get-together in San Antonio where college and high school coaches could come to learn from the best in the business.

He started out contacting old coaching friends to help him out as speakers, and one of the first was a guy whom he’d recommended  for the job at Kentucky when he himself had turned it down to stay at Tulane.   That old friend, Bear Bryant, was now at Alabama, and he reportedly said, “(— —), I couldn’t turn you down for what you did for me when you helped me get the Kentucky job.”

The clinic he started, the Henry Frnka Coaches Clinic,  was a great success for a number of years, featuring some of the biggest names in the business -  college and pro - including Frank Broyles, Forrest Gregg, Woody Hayes, Lou Holtz, Tom Landry, Tom Osborne, Bum Phillips and Darrell Royal. 

It  undoubtedly served as an inspiration for the great number of coaching clinics that exist today.



CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING HENRY FRNKA

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
JOHN ROTHWELL - CORPUS CHRISTI, TEXAS
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY



*********** The “Fumblerooski” keeps reappearing over the years, and until proven otherwise, Henry Frnka gets the  credit for inventing it, using it successfully to win a Texas state championship game.


This article in Sports Illustrated from 1955 tells how he persuaded Ray Morrison, then his boss at Vanderbilt, to use it against LSU in 1937. Morrison used it, and it worked - and Vandy upset LSU, 7-6.

December 05, 1955
MORRISON'S MAGIC
    •    Fred Russell


When Ray Morrison, one of football's greatest razzle-dazzlers, was coaching the Southern Methodist Mustangs in the early '30s, his aerial magic dominated the Southwest Conference. But it was after he had returned to his alma mater, Vanderbilt, to coach in 1935 that he pulled off possibly his most confounding and slickest stratagem: a hidden ball play. It was a trick that lives in gridiron history. To this day not more than a handful of the 20,000 spectators who saw it knows how the trick worked that won for Vanderbilt an upset victory over the Tigers of Louisiana State, 7-6 in Nashville, Tenn., October 23, 1937.

Before the game was three minutes old, Vanderbilt had the ball at mid-field, second down and four yards to go. In the huddle, the signal-caller, Jimmy Huggins, bent over and spoke two words: "Henry Frnka."

As on the previous play Vanderbilt lined up in the T. Dutch Reinschmidt, playing the T-quarterback position, took the ball, spun and headed for a wide left-end sweep, preceded by a swarm of Commodores. It appeared the ball carrier would be hurled for a loss of at least 10 yards.

But what was this? Down on the LSU 25-yard line a man in black pants and gold jersey, neck bowed resolutely and unmistakably carrying the ball, hurried toward the goal in huge strides. There wasn't an LSU player within 25 yards of him. The crowd sighted him and awoke to what he would be, a sure touchdown-maker, but not until he had already traveled half his route. And, but for the thunderous roar of amazement, LSU wouldn't have spotted the ball carrier, Right Guard Greer Ricketson, even then.

The public sought vainly for an explanation. Vanderbilt players weren't talking. Coach Morrison was confronted with a sportswriter's diagram. Was that how the stunt came off? He replied "no," but was otherwise mum. Vanderbilt obviously meant to use the device again—and did.

Henry Frnka, the-pronunciation of whose name (franka) was the sign to flash the hidden ball maneuver, was Morrison's end coach. Four years before, his Greenville, Texas high school team had used the same sleight of hand to win the state championship. Frnka, later to become head coach at Tulsa and Tulane, suggested it the week of the 1937 LSU game. He found a ready audience in Morrison.

Many years later, Ricketson explained the trick. "When Reinschmidt took the ball from center," he said, "he quickly placed it on the ground behind our left offensive guard, Bill Hays. I pulled out as if to join the interference. Just as I got behind Hays, I tripped—accidentally on purpose—over him. He was squatting over the ball by then like a hen hatching an egg.

"In a moment I picked up the ball and simply ran down the right side of the field. I was afraid I'd be tackled any instant. Another thing I remember is that I thought I'd probably stub my toe before I reached the end zone."

Alabama beat Vanderbilt 9-7 on Thanksgiving Day and was rewarded with an invitation to the 1938 Rose Bowl Game against California. By the most ironical chance, it was the hidden ball play, backfiring with Alabama spotting the exposed ball, recovering and scoring immediately, which prevented Morrison's magicians from being invited to the New Year's Day football game in Pasadena.


by Fred Russell Sports Editor, Nashville Banner; winner, 1955 (first) Grantland Rice Award

 


*********** QUIZ: He grew up on a sheep ranch in eastern Oregon, and went to high school in tiny Lexington, a town of fewer than 250 people about 200 miles east of Portland.

He attended Oregon Agricultural College - now Oregon State - and started every  football game of his college career.  One of just three multi-sport members of the Oregon State Sports Hall of Fame, he earned eight varsity letters: three in football and two each in basketball and baseball.  In his senior year, he was captain of all three teams.

Following graduation, with a letter of recommendation from the great Knute Rockne, he was hired as football coach at Marshall, Minnesota High School. In 1936, he joined Bernie Bierman’s staff at Minnesota.

That was the heyday of Minnesota football. The Gophers were a single-wing powerhouse. In the six years he spent there before going off to serve during World War II, they were 38-10-1.  They won three national titles, and were Big Ten champions four times.

After four years’ WW II service, he returned to Minnesota, and in 1948 he was offered - and accepted - the head coaching job at Colorado.

It was not going to be easy. Colorado had just left the much weaker Skyline Conference to join what was then the Big Seven.   Installing the unbalanced-line single wing that Bierman had used to such great success at Minnesota,  he was 6-13 in his first two seasons.

But from there, his Buffalos ran off nine straight winning seasons, something no other Colorado coach, before or since, has done.

His best season was 1958, when the Buffs went 8-2-1 and beat Clemson in the Orange Bowl, 27-21.  He was  contacted by Minnesota and USC about job openings at both places, but he chose to remain in Boulder.

Unfortunately, his success raised expectations unreasonably high, and when he went 6-3-1 in 1957 and 6-4 in 1958, the school’s Board of Regents asked him to resign. When he refused to do so, they reconsidered, but then gave in to “outside pressure” and in the face of his refusal to resign, he was fired.

No reason was ever given for his firing.   His record was 63-41-6.  And he had that streak of nine straight winning seasons.  Most people believed that his inability to defeat Oklahoma was the reason for his firing. 

His record against the Sooners was 8-0-1. There were some close ones: 27-20, 13-6, 27-19, 14-13.  And there was a 21-21 tie in the opening game of the 1952 season, a performance considered so impressive that it earned him UPI Coach of the Week honors.

The fact is, though, that in the 11 years he was coach  at Colorado, Oklahoma  never once lost a game to a conference opponent.  The only smirch on their conference record that entire time was that 21-21 tie.

In those 11 years, they lost just eight games (against 107 wins).    They had five undefeated regular seasons, three straight from 1954 through 1956.  Only once did they lose as many as two games in a season.

In 1956, he  had earned tenure as a CU faculty member, and he couldn’t be fired from the faculty so chose to stay in Boulder and teach.

The CU Athletic Center is named for him, and in the lobby, under a large portrait of him,  is inscribed,  "Son, you are here to get an education and play football, in that order."





TUESDAY,  AUGUST 29, 2023 - “Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in.  Aim at earth and you get neither.”  C. S.  Lewis


*********** WITH FOOTBALL PRACTICE BEGINNING AROUND THE COUNTRY, BE SURE TO EMAIL ME ABOUT SIGNING UP YOUR TEAM  FOR THE BLACK LION AWARD.  THERE’S NO COST TO PARTICIPATE - IT’S SIMPLY SO WE CAN TELL YOU WHAT YOU NEED TO DO, AND SO WE’LL KNOW HOW MANY AWARDS TO PREPARE FOR.

IF THE BLACK LION AWARD HAS BEEN A PART OF YOUR PROGRAM, I INVITE YOU TO WRITE ME AND SHARE WITH MY READERS WHAT IT MEANS  (OR HAS MEANT)  TO YOU.

coachhw@mac.com


Hugh,

I was reading Friday's news and I saw the Question: what does the Black Lion Award mean to me? I hope I do this award justice with what I have to say. Hugh, this is my second rewrite because the first was way too long. So hopefully this one is shorter and conveys why I feel it is so important to me as a football coach. First,  it embodies the total scope of what we coaches want from all our football players:  Honor/Integrity/ Unselfishness/ The team before me.

Don Holleder obviously exemplified these qualities to the end of his life on a battlefield in Vietnam.

As you well know both my sons Randy and Rock were Black Lion Award recipients. Randy received an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point, and the many times I visited that campus I was always in awe when I was around Michie Stadium and see the Don Holleder athletic facility next to the stadium.

Randy is now a First Lt and stationed at Camp Casey in South Korea. Rock, after finishing his playing days at Washburn University, is now in the Navy stationed at Oceana Naval Air Station in Norfolk Virginia. They embody what Don Holleder and the Black Lion Award represents. I am proud they were honored with  this award, but better yet how they have taken these qualities into adulthood.  This is why it so important to me. I sincerely believe football coaches are the last line of discipline in American High Schools.

You know what else would be cool?  if I ever become a head coach  again and have a player to nominate and worthy to receive it, that Randy or Rock would be the ones to present the award.

Mike Foristiere
Topeka, Kansas



COLLEGE FOOTBALL IS OPEN FOR BUSINESS!!!

*** Notre Dame, in beating Navy 42-3,  looked scary good.  Their line can block, Audric Estime can run, Sam Hartman can throw (duh)  and they’ve got a couple of guys who can catch.  The new offensive coordinator passed with flying colors. The Irish defense can fly to the ball, and the DC can make good adjustments on the fly. Good-looking team.

Yes. Against Navy.

That’s  the big “So what?”  How bad is Navy?

With a new head coach and a new OC and some rather new stuff on offense,  was it (1) a case of first-game jitters against a really tough opponent at its best?  Or (2) are the Middies really bad?

I’m going with (1).  The best plays the Kids had all day were their first three plays, where they showed that they might actually have a split-back veer package. And then things started to go to hell and they looked, frankly, like a bad Double Wing team playing a state champion.

The Middies have this weekend off, and then next weekend - September 9 - they play Wagner.  Seriously.

If there’s  any possibility of their becoming a good team, we’ll start to see it then.


*** Jacksonville State  17, UTEP 14 - Jacksonville State’s first win as an FBS team.  UTEP Miners outgained the Gamecocks, 364 to 275, but committed three turnovers.


*** Vanderbilt 35, Hawaii 28 - after a long delay.   When they’ve come 6,000 miles and then had to wait well over an hour because of weather, only to have to play in the rain, we shouldn’t expect much, and in that regard the teams didn’t disappoint.  They didn't do much. Quick take from an ugly game:  since last year’s blowout of Hawaii - in Hawaii - Vanderbilt has gotten much worse, and Hawaii a bit better. Vandy gets HBCU Alabama A & M this weekend, and they’d better get on ‘em, because without a lot of improvement, I don’t see this team winning more than two or three.

(When I was in high school we did have one game postponed because of a hurricane, but otherwise I can’t remember weather delays over the years,   certainly not to the extent we have them now. Nor do I remember anybody ever being killed by lightning during a college game.  But this is the Twenty-First Century, and this is the Land of an Abundance of Caution - plus shark lawyers -  so delay we must…)


*** UMass 41, New Mexico State 30. They may have been  two of the worst teams in FBS - at least they once were - but  they put on a good show.  I’m happy for UMass coach Don Brown, a big favorite among New England coaches.  The Minutemen (assuming  Massachusetts still thinks that’s a welcoming mascot) get no break this coming weekend - they go to Auburn - but after that, I see only one other game on their schedule  - Penn State - where they don’t have a chance.


*** San Diego State 20, THE Ohio University 13.  Yes, another Aztecs’ win, but as a friend of my son who’s an SDSU fan wrote, “I feel like every San Diego State game is actually the same. It feels like watching Iowa football with a suntan.”


*** USC 56, San Jose State 28.  Yes, USC is really talented. And Caleb Williams may be the best quarterback in a nation full of really good ones.  He was 18 of 25 for 278 and four TDs.  But giving up 28 points to San Diego State? Really?  The score  was only 21-14, USC, at the half, after USC’s defense had given up a last-second TD by making  one of the worst coverage blunders that I’ve ever seen.


*** Louisiana Tech 22, FIU 17. . I had it on one of the screens and never watched a down.  Louisiana Tech was favored by 10.5. Does that make it a moral victory for FIU?




********** CFL THIS  PAST WEEKEND - WEEK ELEVEN

EDMONTON WON A HOME GAME!!!!!


THURSDAY

WINNIPEG (9-2) 47,  MONTREAL (6-4) 17


FRIDAY

TORONTO (8-1) 39 , CALGARY  (3-8)  31


SATURDAY

HAMILTON (4-6) 30,   BC  (7-4) 13


SUNDAY

EDMONTON (2-9) 30, OTTAWA (3-8) 20
THE ELKS BROKE A 22-GAME HOME LOSING STREAK.  THEIR QB, A CANADIAN KID NAMED TRE FORD, WAS SPECTACULAR, COMPLETING 15 OF 18 FOR 317 YARDS AND A TD, AND RUSHING 10 TIMES FOR 74 YARDS AND A TD.

THE FANS - WHAT FEW OF THEM WERE THERE - DID NOT STORM THE FIELD. THEY SIMPLY GOT UP AND HEADED FOR THE EXITS.   (YEARS FROM NOW,  HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS WILL SAY THEY WERE THERE.)


YOUR SCHEDULE OF CFL GAMES ON AMERICAN CABLE (CBSSN) THIS SEASON:

https://fbschedules.com/cbs-sports-network-releases-2023-cfl-tv-schedule/





*********** AT THE TOP OF MY LIST OF BOOKS THAT I RECOMMEND TO ANYONE WHO’S A COACH OR ABOUT TO BECOME ONE…

(1) Reade, Bob - Coaching Football Successfully - Human Kinetics, 1994 - Every young football coach should read this book - preferably twice or more - before even thinking about becoming a head coach.

(2) Nelson, David M. - Football Principles and Play - Ronald Press, 1962 - This book is deep, and deals with the stuff “under the hood” of the game in a way that I have yet to see anyplace else.

(3) Parseghian , Ara - Parseghian and Notre Dame Football - Doubleday & Co, 1971 & 1973 - Coach Parseghian’s Irish won the 1973 National Championship, and they won it running a Wing-T offense and a Split-4 defense - both systems that I have used for most of my career.  In this book, he gets deeply into the “why” and “how” of his system, and I’ve found  it very useful over the years.   I have great respect for him as a coach and as a man, and - for what it’s worth - his first head coaching job, and the place where he  came to the attention of Notre Dame, was at Northwestern.

(4) McKay, John - Football Coaching - Ronald Press, 1966 - The basics of the USC I-formation attack and his 5-2 Rover (Monster) defense - and more.  Coach McKay probably did more than anyone to popularize the I-formation, and as a result, with tailbacks the likes of Ricky Bell, Anthony Davis, Mike Garrett, O.J. Simpson and Charles White, he established USC’s reputation as “tailback U.”   Garrett and Simpson both won Heisman Trophies. His book holds nothing back, explaining the entire USC offense in considerable detail (an indication that he didn’t care that opponents knew what he was doing - he still had personnel  good enough to beat you anyhow.

(5) Ellison, Glenn "Tiger" - Run and Shoot Football - Parker Publishing, 1965 & 1984 - Tiger Ellison was a high school coach in Hamilton, Ohio who, faced with an 0-4-1 record in a town that expected winning teams, decided to use simple touch football principles of “getting open.” It turned his season around, turned his kids on - the community, too - and led to the development of an entire offensive system, which he came to call the Run and Shoot.

(6) Bryant, Paul W. - Building a Championship Football Team - Prentice-Hall, 1960 - There have been at least a dozen books written about The Bear, but this one was written BY him. He writes a lot about defense and how he taught it, and a lot of  it is based on the numbering system he got from Bum Phillips - “a Texas high school coach.”   It’s become a part of the language of football (“he’s playing a seven technique”)  and as far as I’ve been able to tell, Coach Bryant’s book was the first time it was explained in print.

(7) Evashevski, Forest and Nelson, David - Scoring Power With the Winged T Offense - Brown Co., 1957 - The original book on the offense that took the football world by storm after Iowa put it on display in the Rose Bowl.   Delaware - and Maine before it - had been running the offense for six years.  But the offense, invented by Dave Nelson and his assistants, Mike Lude and Harold Westerman, and called the “Winged T,” might never have come to the attention of football people if it hadn’t been demonstrated on the games biggest  stage - the 1957 Rose Bowl.  There, in front of more than 100,000 people and a nationwide TV audience, the Number 3 Iowa Hawkeyes ran wild in beating Oregon State, 35-19.  The demand to learn more about the Iowa offense could only be satisfied by a book describing it in detail, and that’s what Coach Nelson and Iowa coach Forest Evashevski produced.  It is a masterwork.

(8) Danzig, Allison - The History of American Football - Prentice-Hall, 1956 - It’s a big book because it deals with a big subject - the men and their teams - and their thinking - that built the game we have today.  I majored in history in college, and I consider this one of the best history books I’ve ever seen.  What a great thing that it happens to be about football.  It’s the history of college football  from the game’s beginnings until the mid-1950s.  And it  digs in deeply.  At the time of its publication, a critic at the New York Times called it “Without Doubt, the most ambitious and best book ever published on the subject of college football.” (Pro  football, for the time that the book covers, played a very minor part.)  I find myself going to this book time after time in doing research.   It’s truly a shame that none of us gets to live forever, because I’d love to have a copy of his History of American Football - Part Two.

(9) Ecker, Tom and Calloway, Bill - Athletic Journal's Encyclopedia of Football - Parker Publishing, 1978 - A compilation of offensive and defensive ideas from top college and HS coaches.  This is dated, of course, and there’s nothing in here about RPOs or shallow crosses or dime coverages, but take it from someone who started coaching in 1970 - there are timeless  aspects to our game that you ignore at your peril. There is great value still in having a basic understanding of the Veer… the I formation… the Wing T… the Wishbone… the 5-2… the 4-4… the 4-3…Goal Line offenses (boy, couldn’t today’s offensive coordinators use this) and Goal Line defenses… the Kicking game… Coaching the Offensive Backfield… Coaching the Defensive Backfield…Coaching the Offensive Line… Coaching the Defensive Line…   There  are 318 pages of solid, sound football techniques and teaching. This book is an invaluable resource.  

(10) Tallman, Drew - Directory of Football Offenses - 1978 - incredible resource - pocket-sized diagrams of formations;   Directory of Football Defenses - 1980 - likewise

These two little (4 x -1/2) books are the damnedest things I’ve seen in all my years of coaching.  They’re in need of updating - which, considering how thorough they are, would represent a major undertaking - but especially for anyone running an “outdated” offense or preparing to defend against one, they are really helpful.

Coaching offense?  Open the “DEFENSES” book to the defense you expect to see this week, and see how it recommends attacking it.
Coaching defense?  Open the “OFFENSES” book and see what it says the strong points and weak points of this coming week’s opponent are.


(11)  Caldwell, Charlie - Modern Single-Wing Football - Lippincott $ Co - 1951 - It’s the first football book I ever got, given to me as a Christmas present when I was a kid. Very technical, it took me years to understand it, but his section on the wedge was a real eye-opener for me
In all the years since I’ve been promoting the Double Wing,  a lot of self-taught Double-Wing experts have popped up. But few of them have included the Wedge in their arsenals, and of those who have included it, they have either copied directly from me, or they don’t know how to coach it.  Me?  I’m indebted to Coach Caldwell for teaching me - via this book - the proper way to teach the wedge.

(12) Pool, Hamp - Fly-T Football - Prentice-Hall, 1957 - I have to include this, because this book is what first got me seriously interested in coaching.  It was my senior season in college, I was injured and unable to play, and I was asked to  coach our college’s (dorm’s) intra-mural team.  Yes, it was tackle football. I knew one thing - I wasn’t going to run the boring-ass offense I’d been forced to play in for three years - and when I found Hamp Pool’s book in the school library, it was like finding the Holy Grail!  Pool's Los Angeles Rams had been putting up incredible offensive numbers, because was light years ahead of other coaches in his offensive thinking (but also, to be fair, because he had one of the best assemblages of offensive talent ever put together on one team. But all I cared about was the scheme, and Wow, I thought.  This is  it!   I was so dumb that I had no doubt it would work for me, too.  And damned if it didn’t!  Talk about exciting.  I was hooked on coaching.

The only problem was, I had to go out in the business world and make a living, and it took me ten years in the before I found a way to become a coach.  (Thank you, Lord.)

Now, many decades later, I find myself still employing some of the principles I found in that book, back in the fall of 1959.

(13)  Smith, Homer - Handbook for Coaching the Football Passing Attack - Parker Publishing, 1970 - The passing game at its very base - the fundamentals necessary for the simplest or most sophisticated passing attack.

Homer Smith was one of the brightest and best-educated men our game has ever known, (a bachelor’s degree from Princeton, an MBA from Stanford, and a Divinity degree from Harvard)  and while he did not enjoy great success as a head coach (Davidson, Pacific, Army)_, he gained fame and respect as one of the game’s best offensive coordinators - at UCLA, Alabama, UCLA (again), Alabama (again) and Arizona.

There was no one better at coaching the passing game and teaching quarterbacks, and no matter what offense you might wind up coaching, or at what level, this book would give any coach a great knowledge base.

(14) Blaik, Earl and Cohane, Tim - You Have to Pay the Price - Holt, Rinehart and Winston - 1960 - A coach's perspective on the game - the agony and the ecstasy of a career in coaching.

When I was just starting out in coaching,  none of the local high school coaches were of any help - they saw me and my semi-pro team as competition - so I had two main sources of wisdom when I needed it. (Which was often.)



The first was Adam Craven, the head coach at Frederick (Maryland) High.   That’s Adam, standing on the right in the photo.

His  1968 Frederick High team remains one of the best high school football teams I’ve ever seen.  (Chuck Foreman is in that photo somewhere.)  They went 9-0, outscoring opponents 354-39 and posting five shutouts. One scheduled opponent forfeited rather than play them.  (Maryland did not yet have state playoffs.)

I lived in Frederick at the time and was playing on the local semi-pro team, the Frederick Falcons, and Coach Craven and I hit it off from the start.  I wasn’t a local guy myself, and he was in his first year at Frederick High, and  as a native West Virginian, he didn’t know anybody on the local scene, either.  He was a black man as well - the first black man to coach an integrated high school team in our area, an area that was still very southern in its ways.  I helped him a bit with scouting that season, and in return he allowed me to hang around and listen and learn.  Two years later, when I became GM of a semi-pro team in a nearby town and my head coach quit on me, the first thing I did was offer Adam the job.  Needless to say, being of sound mind, he decided to stay at Frederick High.  But we stayed close, and he was of great help to me with all the wisdom he’d acquired  and  so graciously shared with me.

(I almost managed to recruit his son, Bill  - #38 in the front row - to Yale, even driving Adam and Bill to Yale on their official visit, but Harvard swooped in at the last minute and nabbed him. It had something to do with Bill’s recruiting trip to Harvard and meeting up with a kid from Washington, DC,  a basketball player from DeMatha High named James Brown  - the same James Brown whom you now see on TV.   So we lost him.  Bill had a nice career at Harvard, wound up playing for  the Philadelphia Bell and then the Cleveland Browns, and after medical school at UCLA he became an orthopedic surgeon in Atlanta, an associate of the famed Dr. James Andrews.)

The 1968 Frederick Cadets -

 https://www.fredericknewspost.com/sports/level/high_school/untouchable-frederick-high-set-to-honor-the-stacked-undefeated-1968-cadets-football-squad/article_839e7b23-5fd1-5307-b022-9b1cf15d3c87.html

The second was a book I found in Hagerstown, Maryland in the local library - a book by Army Coach Earl Blaik and longtime sports reporter and friend Tim Cohane.  I didn’t learn a thing about tactical football from the book - but that wasn’t Coach Blaik’s purpose.  What I did learn was about  the importance of those things that go on behind the scenes that can make or break any football program - and how Coach Blaik, under constant pressure and constantly in the national spotlight, dealt with them.

It was also from his book that I first learned of Don Holleder, who would become the inspiration for the Black Lion Award… Read my synopsis of the Holleder story at West Point...     http://www.coachwyatt.com/Blaik/blaik7.html



*********** Some genius - must have been in government - has figured out the way to make football safer: eliminate it.

But just as getting us all out of our gas-guzzling cars isn’t going to happen overnight, neither is eliminating football entirely.

The solution, as anyone familiar with the “boiling the frog" analogy knows, is to  do it slowly.  In this case, just  cut out five or six plays a game every year .  Who's gonna notice?  And before you know it, captains will meet for the coin toss, and then - that'll be it.  No one injured. Thank you for coming, everyone.  Drive safely.

This year’s new rule designed  to “make the game safer”  by eliminating the game itself starts with eliminating the stopping of the clock that normally occurs after a team makes a first down.  By instead allowing the clock to run at those times, they’ll effectively run off time that might have been spent running actual plays and - Bob’s your uncle - they'll have eliminated opportunities for player injuries.

One thing you should be aware of though:  in the final two minutes of either half, the clock WILL stop when a team makes  a first down, and won’t restart until the chains are set. 

They’ll probably start to call the final two minutes the Danger Zone.

Time to get started on next year’s rule to cut down on the number of plays: I suggest  that doing  away with that stupid rule that rewards failure and awards teams with a de facto timeout by stopping the clock after an incompletion.


***********  Taylor Zarzour, doing the Hawaii-Vanderbilt game on the SEC Network, would not STFU. And he really must have thought he was extra clever when he kept referring to Vanderbilt (the Commodores) as the “Dores.” 


***********  Jason Garrett showed he hadn’t done his homework when he came out with this one during Saturday’s Notre Dame-Navy game:

“Hartman’s never had a back like Audric Estime.”

Well, no, Jason  -  unless you count Kenneth Walker.




***********  It was Ralph Waldo Emerson who said, "Every hero becomes a bore at last."

Or did he mean “whore?”

There was Joe Montana, a former Notre Dame - and San Francisco 49er - hero, being interviewed down on the sidelines as if he were just there to support the Irish,  when it was clear that he was there shilling for Guinness, for whom he appears in commercials. (Or else he'd forgotten to pack any Notre Dame stuff and had only a Guinness shirt in his suitcase.)

And no, NBC, he isn’t a “5-time Super Bowl champion.”  A lot of people have raised hell about that.

Not that four rings is all that bad.  And besides - as long as “President” Biden keeps getting away with all the whoppers he likes to tell, what’s the harm in NBC giving Joe  another ring?



*********** The destruction of our language continues unabated…

Perry Minasian, GM of the Angels, in talking  about Ohtani, said, “Him and his representation are going to come up with a plan.” 

You mean him can’t do it by himself?




***********   IMG is so good it can win wearing basketball shorts. (Actually, it’s a pretty clever design that only creates that illusion. I think.)


*********** Just two more reasons why I think whoever is pulling “President” Biden’s strings really doesn’t like us…

(1) President Biden's alcohol czar, George Koob, the director for the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAA), says that the USDA could change its alcohol laws to match Canada, where people are advised to have one drink per week.

Um didn’t we try something like that back around 1920 or so? And by the way - WTF is an “alcohol czar,” and why didn’t somebody tell me  they were hiring?”

https://www.the-express.com/news/us-news/109840/Biden-been-ban-one-alcohol-drink-week

and then  this…

(2)  Rules coming down from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service could make land unavailable for hunting, fishing and even hiking, outdoorsmen argue.

Ha. Just because it’s “public land,” where did you get the idea you could just go out and enjoy it?


https://www.foxnews.com/media/hunting-fishing-hiking-risk-due-biden-administration-regulations-politics-at-its-worst


***********   Portland, Oregon, once once of the greatest cities I’d ever seen (and the reason why we chose to live in the area) is now a nationwide symbol of how “progressive” leadership and policies can destroy anything.

But its leadership never seems to learn, and just continues doubling down on destructive policies.  Here’s the latest from its public school system:

“Equitable grading” practices will require teachers to accept late work without penalty and refrain from giving students zeros, even if they are caught cheating.

From a new school district handout, entitled “Portland Public Schools Equitable Grading Practices Summary”:

“Historical data shows that there are racial disparities in our pass/fail rate in multiple subjects in both middle grades and high school,” the district’s handout stated. “During the pandemic we adjusted our grading to accommodate for some of the inequities in access to curriculum and instruction. This caused many teachers to begin the journey towards equitable grading but has led to a mosaic of grading practices across schools and across the district that is confusing to students and families. We need to organize and consolidate our efforts towards common policies to more consistently and better support students and families with equitable grading.”

Students’ grades will be weighted against their most recent performance instead of assessed over the entire semester.

To combat educators’ “implicit bias,” homework will not be graded.

Teachers cannot penalize late work or provide extra credit.

Students will be allowed the opportunity to retake tests and redo assignments.

“Non-academic factors,” including attendance, performance, effort, attitude, and behavior, will also not be included in students’ grades.

https://dnyuz.com/2023/08/21/school-districts-new-equitable-grading-practices-wont-penalize-late-work-or-issue-zeros-even-for-cheating/


*********** Maxie Baughan died last week, and it so happened that when I heard of his passing, I was reading a book entitled “Relive the Philadelphia Eagles 1960 Championship Season.”  Maxie Baughan was a rookie on that 1960 Eagles team, but he played a key role, and I was really interested in what he had to say in that book, published to celebrate  the 1960 team’s 50th anniversary…

1960 was my rookie year, and I was scared to death. I had missed the first couple of weeks of training camp because I was on the college All-Star team. We played the All-Star game on, I think, a Friday night, then I got on a plane and flew to Los Angeles for a game with the Rams. I get out there and I suited up for the ball game. I stood on the sideline and played on special teams. I didn't get any practice until we got back to Philadelphia. First few days of practice I didn’t even think I would make the team, but I’m starting by the first game, and by the end of the year we’re World Champions.

I thought to myself, “Hey there's nothing to this.” My first year and I'm starting, I go to the Pro Bowl and I'm a World Champion. I went on to spent 30 years in the NFL as a player and coach, and I never went to another championship game or Super Bowl. It all seemed so easy that year. I never would have believed that would be my only championship. I've always enjoyed that season. I didn't know what to expect of the NFL. I grew up in Alabama and, back in those days, there wasn't a lot of TV. You'd hear a few games on the radio, but there weren't any teams south of Washington, so we didn't follow professional football too much. I knew of some of the guys like Norm Van Brocklin, Chuck Bednarik and Tom Brookshier.

I just played like I was fighting to make the team. The other linebackers were guys like Bob Pellegrini, John Nocera and Chuck Weber. Chuck (Bednarik)  was playing mostly center, but he worked with us part of the time. We go out to San Francisco for an exhibition game and the biggest fight you've ever seen breaks out. Hugh McIlhenny kicked Eddie Khayat in the head right in front of me and started to run away. I chased him all the way down to the goal post. He’s running backwards and I’m running forward, and I had to go about 30 or 40 yards to catch him. I got him to the ground and about 10 of their guys jumped on me. Both benches cleared and this turns into a knock down drag out brawl. You don’t see them like this anymore. I get off the field, I’m thinking there’s no reason to fight, and I’m standing on the bench watching things. There were fights going on from the middle of the field to the end zone. 
 
I was proud of myself though. I might have felt like I made the team that day. I earn a starting job for the first game, and I’m beginning to feel a little more secure about my place on the team. First game of the year Cleveland comes and they killed us. Now I’m scared to death again. I thought I would be cut. Buck Shaw comes in and says that we now have three teams: “one’s coming, one’s going, and one’s playing.” I thought that I was on the “going“ team. The next week we played Dallas and oh, do we get lucky. If Bobby Freeman doesn’t block two extra points, we lose, and that would’ve been a rough road to recovery. I’m still feeling that I can be cut at any time. We beat the Cardinals the next week, and then I had a real good game against Detroit. I think I intercepted a pass. I got a game ball, and when that happened, it made me feel part of the team.

I was playing right linebacker, Chuck Weber was in the middle, and Nocera and Pellegrini were alternating on the left side. About this time, those guys started getting hurt, and Chuck (Bednarik) began playing some linebacker. I think he played mostly left outside, but he could play all three spots. I think more than anything he just wanted to play center, but we didn’t have much depth. He’d get out there and he wanted to know what we were doing on some of the calls, but it wasn’t hard to get him adjusted. Here he was, 35 years old playing both center and linebacker.

The environment around the team was created by Van Brocklin. He was just like a coach. Every day the rookies had to go into a shed, get the dummies and cart them out to the field. After practice, we had to pack them on the cart and bring them back. Practice ended when Van Brocklin decided it was over. He’d yell out, “That’s it, let’s go.” Then he’d tell the rookies to go get the dummies. We took a bus from Franklin field down to River Field, and he would be hollering at us to get on the bus. Van Brocklin was running the team. I never saw a coach as laid-back as Buck, but it worked. There were a lot of things I had to get adjusted to. Out at the Pro Bowl that year, Buck invited us to cocktails in his room. That was the first time I socialized with a coach. I was just a raw kid from Alabama and everything was different for me. I wasn’t sure what to expect so I just went along with things. Buck Shaw hardly ever said anything. He’d look at Dutch and say, “What do you think?” I wasn’t used to that, but that got it done.

My high school coach was the meanest coach who ever lived, but he made me into a football player. At Georgia Tech, I played for Bobby Dodd. He wasn’t real strict, but he was the most knowledgeable football guy I was ever around. He was always teaching. I get up to Philadelphia, and I have to adjust to having Van Brocklin run everything. It worked because the camaraderie on that team was extraordinary. We had some great players like Van Brocklin, Bednarik, Brookie (Tom Brookshier), and Retzlaff, but we didn’t have the kind of team talent that later championship teams like Green Bay, San Francisco and Dallas had.

The Packers were just becoming good when we played them in 1960, but even then they had more talent than us. If we played them 10 times, we could have lost nine games. We were only good enough to beat them one time in 10. Fortunately for us that one game was for the World Championship. Green Bay went on to have a good run after that.

In ‘61, we were in it to the last game of the season. Then, in ‘62, everything started going downhill for us fast.

***********   Quite a little surprise seeing you refer the Peshtigo Fire. Didn't know people really knew about that outside of the area. Peshtigo is 6 miles from my hometown of Menominee, MI. Anyway, some folks have researched the fire and I think a source to its origin could be the Draconids meteor shower found in early October. There were also fires in lower Michigan at that same too. I believe upper Minnesota had a huge fire a few years prior at the same time of year.

Adam Wesoloski
Pulaski, Wisconsin


*********** Don't worry, the Cuban LL coach will show up for the flight back to Havana.

These bad hires are so obvious. What's wrong with the decisionmakers at USC? Are they that eager to be able to say they hired a woman AD? I'll be waiting to see her overrule her football coach on a matter having to do with athletic funds.

I say Anson Dorrance should be hired immediately as AD at UNC.

Thanks as always for giving us a REAL sports page, Coach.

John Vemillion
St. Petersburg, Florida

 
***********   Hugh,

Games this weekend:

Regardless of the point spread the Notre Dame-Navy game will give Coach Freeman concerns from the start seeing what type of offense the Navy will employ.  In the past the Middies option offense would give the Irish defense fits initially but they would adjust with better athletes.  This one will be a blank slate.


UTEP under Dana Dimel has become a much better program.  JAX State has always had great athletes, and with Rodriguez coaching them I'm certain they have brought in even more.  Better matchup than what it appears.

No comment on the other three.

Frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if Colorado doesn't win a game this year.  But...Coach Prime is an enigma, and it wouldn't be a surprise if his Buffs pulled a few upsets.

On the subject of elite schools located in tough neighborhoods...USC ranks right up there with Yale.

On the subject of elite schools looking for a conference...Stanford and Cal are likely putting a lot of stock into Oliver Luck and what he can do for them.

In a way the AD move made by hiring the UW AD makes "political" sense, but not much else.  Hey, it's still California.

That Cuban LL coach quietly disappeared.  The Russian Wagner Group leader didn't .

Vivek Ramaswamy has what it takes.  Maybe not quite enough just yet.

Enjoy the weekend!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas




 

*********** QUIZ  ANSWER:  Bucky Hatchett was brought up in Verona New Jersey, and at Verona High School he earned 12 varsity letters - in football, basketball and track. He was  the Verona High Hillbillies (that’s right) first basketball player to score 1,000 points in his career, and in track he set school records in the hurdles, shot put and high jump.

Recruited by Ohio State and eastern power Syracuse, he chose instead to stay close to home and attend Rutgers.

Competing in football, basketball and track, he won ten varsity letters.

As an end in football, he was an All-East selection.

In track, he set school records in the high hurdles, shot put and high jump.

And in basketball, he lettered for four years. He averaged 12.6, 18.3, 17.2 and 14.4 points per season, and became the first Scarlet Knight to score 1,000 points in his career.

He was a member of the senior  honor society, and - one of only seven blacks in his entire class - he was elected president of his senior class.

He was drafted by the Baltimore Bullets of the NBA, but with the Korean War going on, as an ROTC graduate he had to serve in the Army.

When he was discharged, he chose a job in the Verona schools, where he taught and coached for 16 years, while playing minor league basketball in the Eastern Professional League.

In  1966 he was hired by a major corporation to create and run a recreation program for young men in the Job Corps, and after two years he was promoted  by the company to a position in their New York headquarters, where he worked until his retirement.

Bucky Hatchett is the only athlete in the history of Rutgers sports to be in two of its sports halls of fame- football and basketball - and he should be in their track hall of fame as well.


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING BUCKY HATCHETT

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY

 

I never select a “QUIZ” candidate because I hope to be able to stump everyone.  But sometimes, I choose a guy no one would have likely heard of, simply because I think it’s important that we know about him.  Many such guys were VERY famous in their time, but for various reasons, often because they never went on to play in the NFL, they can vanish in the mists of time.


Such a guy was Bucky Hatchett, who during his time, despite the fact that Rutgers then did not play a big-time schedule,  was still rather well known.


As an example - THE college football magazine of its day was published by Stanley Woodward, a highly respected New York sports editor.  It headlined what he (and his many contributors) predicted would be the top teams and players from six regions of the country: Southwest, Prairie and Mountain States, Pacific Coast, Southern, Eastern, and Midwest. The 1949 issue featured individual photos of 120 players from around the country, only one of whom was black: Bucky Hatchett of Rutgers, who was selected on the All-East team. (74 years later, when more than 70 per cent of NFL players are black, it’s hard to believe the way black athletes were once relegated to second-class  status.)







*********** QUIZ - It’s not a misspelling.  It’s how his name is spelled.

A native of Garwood, Texas, he was an all-star lineman at tiny Austin College, in Sherman, Texas, and graduated in 1926.

He immediately went into coaching,  first at Lubbock High, where he built a powerhouse, and after five years at Lubbock, at Greenville High, where in five years he won a state championship.

He was hired as an assistant to legendary coach Ray Morrison at Vanderbilt, and after four years there he went with Morrison to Temple.

After just one year at Temple, he was offered the head coaching job at Tulsa, and he accepted.

He stayed at Tulsa for  five years, and left  with a record of 40-9-1 - that’s a winning percentage of .810.  His teams led the nation in passing twice, and outscored the opposition 1,552 to 375.   He took the Hurricanes to five bowl games - one every year. No other Tulsa coach, before or since, has  been to more than four.

His 1942 team went 10-1, played in the Sugar Bowl, and finished fourth in the nation. Check out the final AP poll:

1. Ohio State
2. Georgia
3. Wisconsin
4. TULSA
5. Georgia Tech
6. Notre Dame
7. Tennessee
8. Boston College
9. Michigan
10. Alabama

HIs 1944 team went 8-2 and beat Georgia Tech in the Orange Bowl.

From Tulsa he moved to Tulane in 1946.  The Green Wave had suffered four straight losing seasons, and four straight one-win seasons in the SEC, but by his third season he had taken Tulane football to national prominence. 

In  1949, coming off a 9-1 season and an SEC championship (with wins over Florida, Auburn, Alabama, South Carolina, and LSU), his 1949  team was actually picked by one expert - The Sporting News - to win the national title.  Tulane’s game at Notre Dame in the fourth week of the season was hyped as  one for the ages,  but a 46-7 win by the eventual national champion Irish put an end to the hype - and the Greenies’ shot at a championship.  They still finished 7-2-1.  They tied Navy, 21-21, and their only other loss came in the final game to instate rival LSU.

He retired  following the 1951 season to become a vice-president at Austin. In his six years at Tulane,  he compiled a 31-23-4 record overall (18-15-3 in SEC play).   Since he left,  Tulane has had 17 coaches, and only one - Tommy Bowden - has left there with a winning record.  (Today’s very well thought-of head guy, Willie Fritz, is still below .500.)

He was in the oil business in Texas for a number of years, but confiding that “I get lonesome for football,”  he got the idea in 1969 of putting together a “coaching clinic” - then an unusual term. His vision was an annual get-together in San Antonio where college and high school coaches could come to learn from the best in the business.

He started out contacting old coaching friends to help him out as speakers, and one of the first was a guy whom he’d recommended  for the job at Kentucky when he himself had turned it down to stay at Tulane.   That old friend, Bear Bryant, was now at Alabama, and he reportedly said, “(— —), I couldn’t turn you down for what you did for me when you helped me get the Kentucky job.”

The clinic he started was a great success for a number of years, featuring some of the biggest names in the business, college and pro, including Frank Broyles, Forrest Gregg, Woody Hayes, Lou Holtz, Tom Landry, Tom Osborne, Bum Phillips and Darrell Royal. 

The clinic - under his name -  undoubtedly served as an inspiration for the great number of coaching clinics that exist today.




FRIDAY,  AUGUST 25, 2023 - "Don’t follow my orders. Follow the orders I would have given you if I were there and knew what you know.” General  Stanley McChrystal



Dave Berry, shown as a young man - a kid, really -  in the Vietnam jungle, passed away this week after a long bout with cancer.  Dave was a Black Lion, an Army medic and a survivor of the brutal battle of Ong Thanh, in 1967. Dave was one of the Black Lions who reunited - found each other  again - over the years and began a practice of commemorating the battle by paying an annual visit to West Point.  I was along on one of those visits (nicknamed “November Nightmares”) and Dave and I roomed  together.  He was just a super guy and my heart goes out to his family, of course, but also to his buddies from Vietnam, Black Lions, who have lost a brother.  RIP, Dave.


*********** WITH FOOTBALL PRACTICE BEGINNING AROUND THE COUNTRY, BE SURE TO EMAIL ME ABOUT SIGNING UP YOUR TEAM  FOR THE BLACK LION AWARD.  THERE’S NO COST TO PARTICIPATE - IT’S SIMPLY SO WE CAN TELL YOU WHAT YOU NEED TO DO, AND SO WE’LL KNOW HOW MANY AWARDS TO PREPARE FOR.

IF THE BLACK LION AWARD HAS BEEN A PART OF YOUR PROGRAM, I INVITE YOU TO WRITE ME AND SHARE WITH MY READERS WHAT IT MEANS TO YOU.

coachhw@mac.com


*********** What promises to be college football’s weirdest season ever gets under way Saturday.

*** Navy is at Notre Dame at Dublin.  11 AM our time, out here on the Coast. I root for Navy against anybody but Army, but I do want Irish QB Sam Hartman, whom I got to like during his time at Wake Forest, to get off to a good start.  Realistically, playing across the ocean under a new head coach and facing a potentially very good team, Navy is probably in big trouble. The Irish are 20 point favorites.


*** UTEP’s at Jacksonville State.  That’s Jacksonville, Alabama.  “JAX State” as they like to call it is now a member of Conference USA, and this is the first game as an FBS team. Their coach is Rich Rodriguez - yes, that Rich Rodriguez - and  they’re coming off a 9-2 season in FCS.  They’re favored by a point.


*** Hawaii’s at Vanderbilt.  Vandy’s players miss out on the trip to Hawaii, but their disappointment has to be offset by the arrival of a team they should beat.  Maybe badly. The Commodores are 17 point favorites.


*** UMass at New Mexico State. Very cool, for those of us who cheer for the underdogs.  When was the last time either of these teams was on ESPN?  In their prime time slot (7 PM Eastern)?  Yet here they are, both of them on.  Together. In a game that one of them will win! UMass has to be better in Don Brown’s second year.  But NMSU, under Jerry Kill,  is coming off a bowl win. Aggies (New Mexico State) are favored by 7.5.


*** Ohio at San Diego State.  Who PAYS for a trip like this, anyhow? And why?  It  makes no sense, other than to give some Ohio kids a nice trip to a great city.  Wait - wasn’t San Diego State one of the teams that the late Pac-12 was considering for expansion?  And they’re only favored by 3.5 points?  At home?


*** San Jose State at USC. This one’s only on the Pac-12 Network (yes, that still exists, and we get it, but that doesn’t mean I’ll watch much).  It will be interesting watching what they’re doing with Caleb Williams, but it’s not likely to be much of a game. Here’s an idea: San Jose State is a 34.5 point underdog, so why not start the game by putting 34 (or 35) points next to San Jose State on the scoreboard, and see what happens? (It’d be a damn sight more interesting for a whole lot longer than this one’s likely to be.) No matter. Go Spartans.


*** Florida International at Louisiana Tech. I confess: I don’t know a thing about either of these teams and I have a hard time caring.  But probably not too many of these  guys have been bought, so at least I can convince myself that it’s still college football. real college football.  Louisiana Tech is favored by 10.5.


********** CFL THIS  PAST WEEKEND - WEEK TWELVE


THURSDAY

MONTREAL (6-3) at WINNIPEG (8-2)


FRIDAY

CALGARY  (3-7)   at TORONTO (7-1) 7:30 PM EDT


SATURDAY

HAMILTON (3-6) at BC  (7-3) 7 PM EDT


SUNDAY

OTTAWA (3-7) at  EDMONTON (1-9) 7 PM EDT
EDMONTON WON LAST WEEK - BUT THE  ELKS STILL  HAVE A 21-GAME HOME LOSING STREAK


YOUR SCHEDULE OF CFL GAMES ON AMERICAN CABLE (CBSSN) THIS SEASON:

https://fbschedules.com/cbs-sports-network-releases-2023-cfl-tv-schedule/



*********** AT THE TOP OF MY LIST OF BOOKS THAT I RECOMMEND TO ANYONE WHO’S A COACH OR ABOUT TO BECOME ONE…

(1) Reade, Bob - Coaching Football Successfully - Human Kinetics, 1994 - Every young football coach should read this book - preferably twice or more - before even thinking about becoming a head coach.

(2) Nelson, David M. - Football Principles and Play - Ronald Press, 1962 - This book is deep, and deals with the stuff “under the hood” of the game in a way that I have yet to see anyplace else.

(3) Parseghian , Ara - Parseghian and Notre Dame Football - Doubleday & Co, 1971 & 1973 - Coach Parseghian’s Irish won the 1973 National Championship, and they won it running a Wing-T offense and a Split-4 defense - both systems that I have used for most of my career.  In this book, he gets deeply into the “why” and “how” of his system, and I’ve found  it very useful over the years.   I have great respect for him as a coach and as a man, and - for what it’s worth - his first head coaching job, and the place where he  came to the attention of Notre Dame, was at Northwestern.

(4) McKay, John - Football Coaching - Ronald Press, 1966 - The basics of the USC I-formation attack and his 5-2 Rover (Monster) defense - and more.  Coach McKay probably did more than anyone to popularize the I-formation, and as a result, with tailbacks the likes of Ricky Bell, Anthony Davis, Mike Garrett, O.J. Simpson and Charles White, he established USC’s reputation as “tailback U.”   Garrett and Simpson both won Heisman Trophies. His book holds nothing back, explaining the entire USC offense in considerable detail (an indication that he didn’t care that opponents knew what he was doing - he still had personnel  good enough to beat you anyhow.

(5) Ellison, Glenn "Tiger" - Run and Shoot Football - Parker Publishing, 1965 & 1984 - Tiger Ellison was a high school coach in Hamilton, Ohio who, faced with an 0-4-1 record in a town that expected winning teams, decided to use simple touch football principles of “getting open.” It turned his season around, turned his kids on - the community, too - and led to the development of an entire offensive system, which he came to call the Run and Shoot.

(6) Bryant, Paul W. - Building a Championship Football Team - Prentice-Hall, 1960 - There have been at least a dozen books written about The Bear, but this one was written BY him. He writes a lot about defense and how he taught it, and a lot of  it is based on the numbering system he got from Bum Phillips - “a Texas high school coach.”   It’s become a part of the language of football (“he’s playing a seven technique”)  and as far as I’ve been able to tell, Coach Bryant’s book was the first time it was explained in print.

(7) Evashevski, Forest and Nelson, David - Scoring Power With the Winged T Offense - Brown Co., 1957 - The original book on the offense that took the football world by storm after Iowa put it on display in the Rose Bowl.   Delaware - and Maine before it - had been running the offense for six years.  But the offense, invented by Dave Nelson and his assistants, Mike Lude and Harold Westerman, and called the “Winged T,” might never have come to the attention of football people if it hadn’t been demonstrated on the games biggest  stage - the 1957 Rose Bowl.  There, in front of more than 100,000 people and a nationwide TV audience, the Number 3 Iowa Hawkeyes ran wild in beating Oregon State, 35-19.  The demand to learn more about the Iowa offense could only be satisfied by a book describing it in detail, and that’s what Coach Nelson and Iowa coach Forest Evashevski produced.  It is a masterwork.

(8) Danzig, Allison - The History of American Football - Prentice-Hall, 1956 - It’s a big book because it deals with a big subject - the men and their teams - and their thinking - that built the game we have today.  I majored in history in college, and I consider this one of the best history books I’ve ever seen.  What a great thing that it happens to be about football.  It’s the history of college football  from the game’s beginnings until the mid-1950s.  And it  digs in deeply.  At the time of its publication, a critic at the New York Times called it “Without Doubt, the most ambitious and best book ever published on the subject of college football.” (Pro  football, for the time that the book covers, played a very minor part.)  I find myself going to this book time after time in doing research.   It’s truly a shame that none of us gets to live forever, because I’d love to have a copy of his History of American Football - Part Two.

(9) Ecker, Tom and Calloway, Bill - Athletic Journal's Encyclopedia of Football - Parker Publishing, 1978 - A compilation of offensive and defensive ideas from top college and HS coaches.  This is dated, of course, and there’s nothing in here about RPOs or shallow crosses or dime coverages, but take it from someone who started coaching in 1970 - there are timeless  aspects to our game that you ignore at your peril. There is great value still in having a basic understanding of the Veer… the I formation… the Wing T… the Wishbone… the 5-2… the 4-4… the 4-3…Goal Line offenses (boy, couldn’t today’s offensive coordinators use this) and Goal Line defenses… the Kicking game… Coaching the Offensive Backfield… Coaching the Defensive Backfield…Coaching the Offensive Line… Coaching the Defensive Line…   There  are 318 pages of solid, sound football techniques and teaching. This book is an invaluable resource.  

(10) Tallman, Drew - Directory of Football Offenses - 1978 - incredible resource - pocket-sized diagrams of formations;   Directory of Football Defenses - 1980 - likewise
These two little (4 x -1/2) books are the damnedest things I’ve seen in all my years of coaching.  They’re in need of updating - which, considering how thorough they are, would represent a major undertaking - but especially for anyone running an “outdated” offense or preparing to defend against one, they are really helpful.
Coaching offense?  Open the “DEFENSES” book to the defense you expect to see this week, and see how it recommends attacking it.
Coaching defense?  Open the “OFFENSES” book and see what it says the strong points and weak points of this coming week’s opponent are.


(11)  Caldwell, Charlie - Modern Single-Wing Football - Lippincott $ Co - 1951 - It’s the first football book I ever got, given to me as a Christmas present when I was a kid. Very technical, it took me years to understand it, but his section on the wedge was a real eye-opener for me
In all the years since I’ve been promoting the Double Wing,  a lot of self-taught Double-Wing experts have popped up. But few of them have included the Wedge in their arsenals, and of those who have included it, they have either copied directly from me, or they don’t know how to coach it.  Me?  I’m indebted to Coach Caldwell for teaching me - via this book - the proper way to teach the wedge.

(12) Pool, Hamp - Fly-T Football - Prentice-Hall, 1957 - I have to include this, because this book is what first got me seriously interested in coaching.  It was my senior season in college, I was injured and unable to play, and I was asked to  coach our college’s (dorm’s) intra-mural team.  Yes, it was tackle football. I knew one thing - I wasn’t going to run the boring-ass offense I’d been forced to play in for three years - and when I found Hamp Pool’s book in the school library, it was like finding the Holy Grail!  Pool's Los Angeles Rams had been putting up incredible offensive numbers, because was light years ahead of other coaches in his offensive thinking (but also, to be fair, because he had one of the best assemblages of offensive talent ever put together on one team. But all I cared about was the scheme, and Wow, I thought.  This is  it!   I was so dumb that I had no doubt it would work for me, too.  And damned if it didn’t!  Talk about exciting.  I was hooked on coaching. 

The only problem was, I had to go out in the business world and make a living, and it took me ten years in the before I found a way to become a coach.  (Thank you, Lord.)

Now, many decades later, I find myself still employing some of the principles I found in that book, back in the fall of 1959.

(13)  Smith, Homer - Handbook for Coaching the Football Passing Attack - Parker Publishing, 1970 - The passing game at its very base - the fundamentals necessary for the simplest or most sophisticated passing attack.

Homer Smith was one of the brightest and best-educated men our game has ever known, (a bachelor’s degree from Princeton, an MBA from Stanford, and a Divinity degree from Harvard)  and while he did not enjoy great success as a head coach (Davidson, Pacific, Army), he gained fame and respect as one of the game’s best offensive coordinators - at UCLA, Alabama, UCLA (again), Alabama (again) and Arizona.

There was no one better at coaching the passing game and teaching quarterbacks, and no matter what offense you might wind up coaching, or at what level, this book would give any coach a great knowledge base.

Here are just a couple of examples of tips from the book. 







***********   John Canzano writes that Amazon is planning to produce a documentary on so-called “Coach Prime” - which may or may not turn out to be good news  for Colorado…

I love a good documentary. So when I heard that the production crew that follows Coach Prime around signed a deal for an Amazon film series I got out the popcorn.

Be sure, the documentary will make Deion Sanders look terrific. His sons, Shedeur and Shilo, will shine, too. So will two-way star Travis Hunter. Those three players have a NIL deal with SMAC Entertainment, the production company behind the project.
Colorado University?

It may have a problem.

The Buffaloes are all-in on Coach Prime. They sold out football season tickets, elevated the profile of the university, and have seen the school’s social-media following skyrocket since the hire. The move also sparked more than $25 million in gift giving from the “Buff Club” to the athletic department.

As athletic director Rick George announced at the introductory news conference: “It’s Prime Time!”

I expect to see that video clip in the documentary. I also expect to see rousing speeches by Coach Prime and humanizing moments with the players involved. That’s how the documentary game works. The winners aren’t difficult to predict. But the particulars of the deal do very little to protect Colorado and I wonder how that will play out if the 2023 season finishes 3-9 or 2-10 or worse.

The university won’t be paid for the project. That’s a deviation from industry norms. Colorado does stand to gain a pile of exposure and benefit tangentially should things go well. But if things go wrong, be certain, the documentary isn’t designed to fashion Coach Prime as the culprit.

My wife has produced documentaries. I don’t pretend to know the inner-workings of that business as anything more than a highly engaged viewer. But as I complained the that the Netflix series on Florida football glossed over the troubles and controversy surrounding Aaron Hernandez, the Pouncey twins, Tim Tebow, Percy Harvin and Urban Meyer she reminded me not to confuse “documentary” with “non-fiction.”

It depends on who is telling the story and who gets final control. It makes the somewhat balanced sports documentaries we do occasionally see — Michael Jordan’s “The Last Dance,” for example — stand out. That project was a Jordan-blessed version of the story, but the documentary didn’t pretend to make the Hall of Fame basketball player appear as a flaw-free protagonist.

The director, Jason Hehir, had control. He agreed to let Jordan watch the episodes and give notes. Jordan didn’t have final say, but he was allowed to address anything negative that was said about him in the ESPN series.

It explains why we got those repeat shots of Jordan, his favorite drink in a nearby glass, responding to criticisms and questions. It struck some healthy balance, but I don’t think we’ll get anything like that in the Colorado project.

Colorado gave all the access and license to the production entity. The university has the right to request removal of footage, but has no guarantee it won’t show up in the final project. Be clear — CU has zero final say on what’s actually aired on Amazon.

The producers of the documentary have also given themselves “dramatic license” in the contract obtained by USA Today’s Brent Schrotenboer:

“Producer has the right to deviate from the historical facts that took place in order to enhance the dramatic value of the Series, provided that in no event shall Producer defame CU's Property, CU Features marks, or CU Individuals or portray the same in a grossly misrepresentative manner in or in connection with the Series.”

An acceptable risk for Colorado?

I suppose we could argue that every hire is fraught with peril. There’s been huge up-front upside with Coach Prime. But also, there’s the potential for some damaging downside on the back end of the deal for Colorado. It’s sort of like what former dare-devil Fresno State coach Pat Hill liked to say about playing anybody, anywhere, anytime.

“You either get exposure,” Hill liked to say, “or you get exposed.”

I covered Bobby Knight as a beat reporter at Indiana University in the 1990s. I covered Jerry Tarkanian, too. Their respective schools gave them both a wide berth and lots of dramatic license. Those coaches came with risk, too, but the university was intoxicated with the upside and kept signing on.

I’m not sure Colorado saw the point of resisting the documentary project. It ceded control of the entire narrative the minute it hired Coach Prime. That was part of the deal. Football hasn’t even kicked off and the school has already benefitted beyond its wildest dreams.

But if things go terribly awry the documentary will be a nightmare.

Not for Coach Prime.

For Colorado.

 
*********** This flier was handed out to freshmen - sorry, “first-year students” - at Yale by the university’s police union, and while Yale’s higher-ups are upset at its tone, I believe everything it says.

Yale has always been an elite university, and New Haven, Connecticut has always (at least since the industrial revolution) been a blue-collar town.

And there have always been  “town-gown tensions” in New Haven between the stereotypical spoiled  rich “Yalies” and the equally stereotypical working class “Townies.”  The "campus cops” (when I was there) were basically good guys whose main purpose seemed to be keeping the Yalies from falling into the hands of the decidedly less sympathetic city police.

Some 20 years after  I graduated,  one of my daughters was considering going to Yale, and on an eastern trip, we paid the campus a visit.  Who should I run into but Officer Martin Gallagher, whom I remembered from my days as an Eli.  Somehow, he recognized me, too. (Officer Gallagher was a great guy, but there were a few occasions when we’d dealt with each other on a somewhat professional basis - his profession -  and I’ll let it go at that.)

The campus cops were actually sworn New Haven police officers, but back then, Martin,  as all the campus  cops did, dressed as a dapper businessman -  shirt and tie, tweed sport  coat, slacks, and a fedora.  You could always spot them because they were by far the best-dressed men on campus.

But on this visit,  20 years later, he was in  uniform. 

Before I could ask him what that was all about, he asked me what I was doing there, and when I told him, he said, “You don’t want to send her here."  And then he proceeded to tell me about how much rougher things were than when I attended.

The campus had become a virtual walled city, surrounded on all sides by a real, live, rundown city,  with the kind of bad guys  that infest and roam about such cities.

Properly forewarned, my daughter decided to go to Stanford. (For that and other reasons.)

That was 1981, and considering the conditions in just about every American city these days, I can’t imagine that things have improved since then in New Haven.

Welcome to Yale, kids.  Stay safe.  And stay home. No going out to Frank Pepe's for apizza. (Not a misspelling.  Pronounce it "ah-BEETS, " kids, if you really want to sound Italian.)


https://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/local/warning-flyers-from-yale-police-union-draws-criticism-as-a-negotiating-tactic/3090866/



*********** Get this - one of the things keeping Stanford and Cal out of the ACC (besides common sense) is - women’s soccer…

There are 15 schools voting on the admission of the two former Pac-12 members, and 12 votes are required to let them in.

So far, those in favor of admission are a vote short. The four holdouts are North Carolina and North Carolina State, Clemson and Florida State.

The interesting thing about North Carolina is how much noise one of its coaches is making. It’s their  women’s soccer coach,  Anson Dorrance, and he’s made it clear he doesn’t want Stanford and Cal in the ACC.

Interestingly, he wasn’t so much opposed to the added travel involved.  He simply doesn’t want to have to recruit against them.

“If you put those two schools in the ACC it’s going to be so easy for them to recruit nationally,” he said.  “It’s going to benefit them, not us. We’ve built the best women’s soccer conference in the country. There’s no way I want to share the glory of our conference with two schools that could do a very good job recruiting against us. Basically, I want Cal and Stanford to die on the vine.”


Now if I were the AD, I’d make sure that one of my dozen or so assistants got the STFU message to Dorrance.  Either that,  or maybe women’s soccer has more pull at UNC - and in the ACC in general - than its revenue production warrants.

Hey, Stanford.  Hey, Cal.  Are you sure  you want to join a conference where a measly soccer coach has that much say?


https://www.wralsportsfan.com/dorrance-i-want-cal-and-stanford-to-die-on-the-vine/21011056/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email



*********** Washington AD Jen Cohen is off to USC.  In USC they’re praising the hire, and in Seattle they’re praising Jen Cohen.

Please.   I judge an AD by how  his/her revenue teams do - football, men’s basketball and (maybe) women’s basketball.   And  that means I give her a passing grade.  Barely.

The best thing anybody  can say about her is that she hired Jalen DeBoer  to coach the Huskies’ football team. 

Great hire. DeBoer came into a program in a shambles and in his first year took the Huskies to an 11-2 season.

But wait - Jen Cohen created the shambles in the first place by hiring Jimmy Lake to succeed Chris Peterson.  And in truth, she probably lucked out when Lake appeared to slug a player on the sideline, because she had no choice but to fire him.  Otherwise, she might have stayed with him.

So while I have to give her a  good grade  for hiring DeBoer,  I have to deduct points for hiring Lake.  She gets a C- for football.

She gets an F  for basketball, man and women combined.  Despite Seattle’s being an area that turns out more than its share of basketball talent, both men and women Huskies’ teams have underachieved in her time.

The men have been to the NCAA tournament just once in the last ten years. In the four years since they last went, they’ve gone 53-69.  The play is reflected in the attendance: although they’re in the largest metro area in the US without an NBA team, the Huskies’ men barely averaged more than 6,000 a game.

Shortly after she came on board, Cohen lost her woman’s basketball coach, Mike Neighbors, to Arkansas. Neighbors never won fewer than 20 games in his four seasons in Seattle, but in the six years since he left, Cohen has hired two coaches (fired one of them) and between the two, they have yet to post a winning conference record. (I am unable to find women’s attendance numbers).

Maybe I'm a tough grader, but in my class,   Jen Cohen gets no better than a D.  Good luck, Trojans.


*********** I stumbled across an interview with the great Billy Cannon, only LSU player ever to win the Heisman, talking about his recruitment and his early days at LSU…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xtMBBEv22E&t=480s


***********  They say he “disappeared.” Or “went missing.”  That’s true, of course.

But when a coach of the Cuban Little League baseball team comes to the Little League World Series and then vanishes, it’s a little bigger than simply  disappearing.

“Defecting” is the word the reporters used to use, before they apparently were warned about offending the Cuban powers that be.

One  story I've heard  is that he vanished after a trip to McDonalds.  You draw your own conclusions.

https://nypost.com/2023/08/23/cuba-little-league-world-series-coach-joe-perez-goes-missing/



*********** I  don’t want to be too political on here, but I did think that a lot of Wednesday night’s Republican “debate” was a clown show that gave air time to some stiffs who have as much chance of winning the nomination as I do.

Vivek Ramswamy is one of those with no chance, but he is definitely not a clown.  He is very bright and very articulate and he is fearless.  And as for his beliefs, this was his closing statement:

1. God is real.
2. There are two genders.
3. Human flourishing requires fossil fuels.
4. Reverse racism is racism.
5. An open border is no border.
6. Parents determine the education of their children.
7. The nuclear family is the greatest form of governance known to mankind.
8. Capitalism lifts people up from poverty.
9. There are three branches of the U.S. government, not four.
10. The U.S. Constitution is the strongest guarantor of freedoms in history.


*********** (Regarding Tuesday’s quote: “Greatness requires upkeep.”)
I like that. Belongs in a weight room, locker room, etc.
Josh Montgomery
Berwick, Louisiana


*********** Coach,  I think this zoom (132) is the best one yet.  It is very, very useful to me and my coaches.  I'd love to buy this one if you ever sell it.   The overview of all the blocking is great.

THANKS !!!!!!!!!

John Irion
Argyle, New York


***********   Sorry to Bug you again (Well, not really...) but your page from the Fly-T book has an interesting diagram.  I've seen it a few times elsewhere - Steve Axman's book on the Veer.  Jackie Sherrill used it at A&M from his short-yardage Power-T Full House Formation from time to time.  I heard Frank Broyles talk about how God favored the team with the 2 best Tackles.

What is it?  The Pulling Tackle!

Is this feature now a paragraph in the Ancient History of American Football?  Is this another casualty of Aerial, what we should now be calling our great game?

Charlie Wilson
Brooksville, Florida

Charlie, you rarely see a tackle pull out to play side to block on a toss or sweep. When I started out, I was running a pro set, and a quick toss with the tackle pulling (and crushing some poor little corner) was a staple. I think that part of the problem is that so many of today’s tackles are one-trick ponies, primarily designed to block edge rushers.

Sometimes you see one pull on a counter blocking scheme, but as often as not teams will use an H-Back (an off-the-line tight end) for that  instead of a tackle.

Occasionally - but very rarely - you’ll see one pull out to block on a tunnel screen, but otherwise, in today’s offenses, that’s about it.



***********   Guess I shouldn't come down too hard, but couldn't NBC News 10 have spelled Holleder's name correctly?

Oh, how I would love to have an arranged sit-down with Doctor Adam Clark. He's a stupid, stupid man.

While listening to Riley Gaines yesterday, I heard her say that her group opposed to the trans invasion of female sports has a new member--Sage Steele.

A multi-page feature about NIL money to high schoolers dominated Sunday's sports section here. A big local football program lost a 'star' player to a paying program in Georgia. According to the article, this player from Clearwater went to some kind of academy near Atlanta. You sign a contract for "six figures" the article said. But typical public HSs pay NIL money too. And the writer seemed to be saying any state that bans NIL to high schoolers is committing the sin of driving top talent out of state, which in turn will make it tougher (?) for state universities to sign them. In whose long-term interest is high school NIL money?

I just learned Dexter M. did not play for the Commanders. I don't care if they change their name every flippin' year. Monarchs would be so-so, but Tyrants is better.

John Vermillion                                
St Petersburg, Florida

Glad you noticed the misspelling.  Years ago when I spoke with Don Holleder’s widow, it was obvious that she had grown tired of dealing with that common misspelling (and mispronunciation) of the name when she reminded me to make sure that there was “NO ’N’ IN HOLLEDER!”



***********   Hugh,

Kudos to the Edmonton Eskimos!! (Uh, er, Elks!)

On the subject of mascots...looks like indigenous people are indicating the Washington Redskins will be making a comeback!

Regarding the Fly-T offense...we would be remiss in failing to mention the name of Mark Speckman in relation to that offense.  Mark made his "mark" in the coaching profession running the Fly-T to perfection at the high school and college levels.

Speaking of mixing up famous NFL players and the wrong teams...the original Fearsome Foursome of Rosey Grier, Lamar Lundy, Merlin Olsen, and Deacon Jones didn't play for the St. Louis Rams.

On the subject of beer...not sure if you've noticed up where you live but down here in Texas I've been seeing a LOT more Yuengling being sold.

Only way to "tinker" with the DW is running the Open Wing.  BUT...that coach better figure out how to run the basic DW FIRST before doing ANYTHING else.


Have a great week!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas

Actually, Mark Speckman’s is the “real” Fly offense.  Hamp Pool’s was mostly a name given to an adaptation of the tight “T” that most NFL teams used at the time, while Coach Speckman’s  actually makes massive use of the “Fly Sweep” as its base.  Heck of an offense. Heck of a coach.


   


IN THE PHOTO AT BOTTOM RIGHT, (25) TOMMY MCDONALD, (11) NORM VAN BROCKLIN, COACH BUCK SHAW, (60) CHUCK BEDNARIK

*********** QUIZ ANSWER: Nicknamed "The Dutchman” or “Dutch,” Norm Van Brocklin was born in South Dakota but he attended high school in Walnut Creek, California.  He played his college ball at Oregon under the great Len Casanova.

Playing the early part of his career in the Rams' wide-open offense, he once threw for 554 yards in one game - still an NFL record.  That was 1951, a time when most teams would have been happy with half that, and it broke the previous record by 86 yards.

In his early years with the Rams, he and Bob Waterfield created the NFL's first version of the modern Quarterback Controversy. After Waterfield retired, Billy Wade joined the Rams and another quarterback controversy ensued.

After nine years with the Rams, he was traded to the Eagles - for a guard, a defensive back, and a first-round draft choice.

The trade was precipitated by a coach-player dispute. one that few fans of today would even understand. As he himself wrote  in 1961:

"My nine years with the Rams were happy and prosperous. I probably would still be serving out my time with them, except for a delicate situation that arose in 1957 involving coach Sid Gillman and myself. It has been publicized extensively, and needs no retelling here. Suffice it to say that we both wanted to call the signals; Gillman from the sidelines, the way Paul Brown does. I thought I could call the plays better from my position back of the center. The Rams felt they had to back their coach, so we parted company."


At first, he was not happy about having to relocate his family to the East Coast, to play for a team that hadn't won more than four games in any of the previous three seasons. But teaming with the great Buck Shaw, who had just been hired as Eagles' coach and had arranged for the trade, he led the long-sorry Eagles to a 7-5 record in his second year there, and in 1960, took them to the NFL title game, where they defeated the Packers.

For his efforts, he was named the Sporting News-Marlboro Pro Player of the Year.

Wrote veteran sports writer Larry Merchant years later, "It was laughable how primitive the Eagles front office was. Those guys were so disorganized. The one time they did anything right was to turn the franchise over to their veteran quarterback. They left him alone, and he won a championship for them.”

He was 35 years old, and in the eyes of most observers, he basically ran the team.  And that was a good thing.  Buck Shaw, recalled reporter Ray Didinger, “was smart enough not to coach him."

Following the title game win, Shaw retired, and our guy expected to be named his successor. But when the Eagles instead hired Nick Skorich, Van Brocklin let loose,  denouncing team  management and claiming that he'd been enticed into moving East with the promise that he would succeed Shaw.

Instead, he left for Minnesota, taking on the job of  building the brand-new Minnesota Vikings team from scratch.

The Vikings won only three games his first year, but they played exciting football, mainly because of the way he used his scrambling quarterback, Francis Tarkenton.  (The great irony was that Steve Sabol of NFL films called Van Brocklin  “The most immobile Hall of Fame quarterback in history,” and the stats back him up:  In his 12-year pro career, he "rushed" a total of 102 times, for a grand total of 40 yards. By comparison, in Tarkenton's first season with the Vikings, he rushed 56 times for 308 yards.)

By 1964 he got the Vikings as far as a second-place conference finish, but in 1966, after the Vikings failed to improve and he and Tarkenton were unable to get along, he was fired.

After a year out of coaching, he was hired by the Atlanta Falcons three games into the 1968 season to replace Norb Hecker.  His 1972 and 1973 teams both finished second in the conference, but in 1974, despite starting out with high hopes, the Falcons went into a tailspin, and with a 2-6 record, he was let go. He retired to his pecan farm in Georgia and never coached again.

All told, he was named to nine pro bowls and played in eight of them. He played in five NFL championship games, and in the last game he ever played, he led the Eagles to the NFL championship over the Green Bay Packers.

In his 12-year career, he threw for 23,611 yards and 173 touchdowns, and averaged 8.2 yards per attempt (compared with the Tom Brady, the so-called GOAT, with 7.4. Or Aaron Rodgers (7.7). Among present-day quarterbacks, only Patrick Mahomes, with 8.1, compares.

He also was an outstanding punter, averaging 42.9 yards over his career.

Noted for his temper and his sarcasm, he was known to fire a football at any teammate who wasn't paying attention.  His first NFL coach, Hamp Pool. predicted that he would break every NFL passing record -  "if somebody doesn't break his neck first."

As a coach, he didn't suffer fools gladly, and as a result he made his share of enemies among the news media (many of whom are, indeed, fools).   Once, at practice, when he spotted a Los Angeles reporter who'd written something that angered him, he called a sweep to be run in the guy's direction.

Wrote Larry Merchant, who covered the Eagles during the championship season, "some of his gags and the nicknames he gave players were very sophisticated. He could capture the essence of a player with biting humor. He was also one of the great caricaturists in  giving nicknames. I believe he was the one who named “Night Train” Lane and Big Daddy Lipscomb.

Sarcastic?  In his first game against the Giants - who were very good then - he was beaten up pretty bad, and after the game, as he sat in front of his locker, a teammate who hadn’t seen much action that day, said, “Hey Dutch - I see you got a little muddy today.”  Van Brocklin looked at him and said, “I see you didn’t.”


He was one of the founders of the NFL Players Association, and when his efforts to organize players were ridiculed by the Redskins' militantly anti-union (and notoriously stingy) owner George Preston Marshall, he remarked, "The best thing that could happen to Marshall's players and the National Football League would be for him to step in front of a moving cab."

I came across an interesting story about him in "Ain't the Beer Cold," the autobiography of famed Orioles' and (Baltimore) Colts' broadcaster Chuck Thompson. It was 1962, and Chuck was in Minneapolis, disconsolate. He'd just learned that his longtime buddy and onetime broadcast partner, Bailey Goss, had been killed the night before in an automobile accident . (Goss, an employee of the company I once worked for, the National Brewing Company, was much-loved by Baltimore sports fans.  His was the voice-over in all National Beer commercials.  He represented the company at all kinds of community affairs, and he’d  been driving home late at night from a function of some sort or other.  There was a lot of whispering about the circumstances of his death, and I can say this: we brewery employees were expected to enjoy our company's product when out in public, and in those days, driving after imbibing was not the near-capital offense  that it is now.)

"I found it hard,” wrote Chuck,  “to concentrate when I broadcast the game on the night after learning of Bailey's death. But it was better than sitting in a hotel room wondering why such tragedies happen.

"I got through the game, but then the brewery asked me to do what I consider the most difficult task I had ever been assigned in broadcasting. They asked me to fly to California immediately and put my voice on the soundtracks that had featured Bailey, so that the commercials could continue until the brewery and the advertising agency could develop a better plan.

"I boarded the plane for California with a heavy heart,  and Vikings football coach Norm Van Brocklin, who was aboard, apparently felt the depth of my misery. He sat down next to me in the first-class section and started to sketch plays and talk football.

"He just forced me to listen. He didn't want me to sit and brood, to feel sorry for myself, as had been the case during the day and through the game. I'll never forget that flight, what Van tried to do for me. He may have been a very volatile man, but in his heart he was considerate and caring as he tried to help me get over something that took me a long time to shake. As we parted in Los Angeles, the "Dutchman" said something I'll never forget: "You're a pro - do your job."

He was inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame in 1971, while  still actively coaching.

CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING NORM VAN BROCKLIN

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
CHARLIE WILSON - BROOKSVILLE, FLORIDA
TOM DAVIS - SAN MARCOS, CALIFORNIA
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
RUSS MEYERS - VERNON CENTER, NEW YORK
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY
MAT HEDGER - LANGDON, NORTH DAKOTA


*********** STEVE SABOL, LONGTIME HEAD OF NFL FILMS, AND HIS RECOLLECTIONS OF NORM VAN BROCKLIN… FROM “RELIVE THE PHILADELPHIA EAGLES 1960 CHAMPIONSHIP SEASON (1950)

Nineteen-Sixty, incredible. Norm Van Brocklin might have had the greatest single season a quarterback ever had. That includes Marino, Elway, Montana and everyone else. The only one close to him in terms of overall impact on the team was Unitas, and he wasn't included in personnel decisions. He was a competitive, strong-willed guy, but he could also be cranky, vulgar and the worst loser there's ever been. As a whole, that team embodied the spirit of sports. Van Brocklin was revolutionary. He thought plays, or even two or three series, ahead. He was a chess master the way he set up plays. He had the knowledge, and there was a purpose for everything he did, even throwing an incomplete pass. Nobody was throwing the ball away in those days, but he did it on purpose. He may not have been the first quarterback to throw the ball away to avoid taking a sack, but he popularized it and did it more effectively than everyone else. There were other great quarterbacks like Bobby Layne and Y.A.  Tittle, but Van Brocklin was the first quarterback to strategize a game. At the 1960 championship game, he out-coached Vince Lombardi and outplayed Bart Starr. He was unbelievable. He won that game with his head. He couldn't run at all. He was the most immobile Hall of Fame quarterback in history.

When he was coaching the Vikings, I went up to their training camp in Bemidji. It was early and he was throwing the ball with Tarkenton. When he released the ball, it made a sound that I had never heard before. It was an audible sound that I've never heard come from anyone else – Jurgensen, Marino – and this was two or three years after he had retired. As a head coach… How many great players make great coaches? The only one that comes immediately to mind is Mike Ditka. The great players are too instinctive and often don't understand why other players can't do things. Van Brocklin didn't have patience and could be so sarcastic and biting. He couldn't understand why players couldn't execute the way he could.





*********** QUIZ:  He was brought up in Verona, New Jersey, and at Verona High School he earned 12 varsity letters - in football, basketball and track. He was  the Verona High Hillbillies' (that’s right) first basketball player to score 1,000 points in his career, and in track he set school records in the hurdles, shot put and high jump.

Recruited by Ohio State and eastern power Syracuse, he chose instead to stay close to home and attend Rutgers.

Competing in football, basketball and track, he won ten varsity letters.

As an end in football, he was an All-East selection.

In track, he set school records in the high hurdles, shot put and high jump.

And in basketball, he lettered for four years. He averaged 12.6, 18.3, 17.2 and 14.4 points per season, and became the first Scarlet Knight to score 1,000 points in his career.

He was a member of the senior  honor society, and - one of only seven blacks in his entire class - he was elected president of his senior class.

He was drafted by the Baltimore Bullets of the NBA, but with the Korean War going on, as an ROTC graduate he had to serve in the Army.

When he was discharged, he chose a job in the Verona schools, where he taught and coached for 16 years, while playing minor league basketball in the Eastern Professional League.

In  1966 he was hired by a major corporation to create and run a recreation program for young men in the Job Corps, and after two years he was promoted  by the company to a position in their New York headquarters, where he worked until his retirement.

He is the only athlete in the history of Rutgers sports to be in two of its sports halls of fame- football and basketball - and he should be in their track hall of fame as well.





TUESDAY,  AUGUST 22, 2023 - “Everybody wants to build and nobody wants to do maintenance.” Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

*********** WITH FOOTBALL PRACTICE BEGINNING AROUND THE COUNTRY, BE SURE TO EMAIL ME ABOUT SIGNING UP YOUR TEAM  FOR THE BLACK LION AWARD.  THERE’S NO COST TO PARTICIPATE - IT’S SIMPLY SO WE CAN TELL YOU WHAT YOU NEED TO DO, AND SO WE’LL KNOW HOW MANY AWARDS TO PREPARE FOR.

IF THE BLACK LION AWARD HAS BEEN A PART OF YOUR PROGRAM, I INVITE YOU TO WRITE ME AND SHARE WITH MY READERS WHAT IT MEANS TO YOU.

coachhw@mac.com


***********  Coach,

As I enter my twenty-fifth year as head coach of the Elmwood/Brimfield Trojans please allow me to once again submit our program for consideration for the Black Lion Award. It's been an honor to be a Black Lion team in the past, and I am incredibly blessed to coach at a school where making the decision is difficult because we have good kids who believe in what we do.

Twenty-five years as head coach. Twenty-three running your version of the double wing. I wish I could go back and redo those first two years...

Best of luck to all double wing coaches out there. DWWD - Do What We Do.

Go Trojans!

Todd Hollis
Head Football Coach
Elmwood High School
Elmwood, Illinois

(Another highly successful coach who has incorporated the Black Lion Award into the culture of his program!)



 


*********** Lucas Leone, last year’s winner of the Black Lion Award at Don Holleder’s high school, Rochester New York’s Aquinas Institute, is back at it again - he was named NEWS 10 NBC’s  first Scholar  Athlete of the Week for this school year.

He’s a multiple sport athlete who carries a 4.0 GPA.

https://www.whec.com/sports-news/high-school-sports/scholar-athlete-of-the-week-lucas-leone/



********** CFL THIS  PAST WEEKEND - WEEK ELEVEN

EDMONTON WON! EDMONTON WON! EDMONTON WON!


THURSDAY

EDMONTON (1-9) 24,  HAMILTON (3-6)  10


FRIDAY

WINNIPEG (8-2) 19,  CALGARY  (3-7) 18


SATURDAY

MONTREAL (6-3) 25,  OTTAWA (3-7)  24


SUNDAY

 SASKATCHEWAN (5-5) 34,  BC  (7-3)  29



YOUR SCHEDULE OF CFL GAMES ON AMERICAN CABLE (CBSSN) THIS SEASON:

https://fbschedules.com/cbs-sports-network-releases-2023-cfl-tv-schedule/




*********** AT THE TOP OF MY LIST OF BOOKS THAT I RECOMMEND TO ANYONE WHO’S A COACH OR ABOUT TO BECOME ONE…

(1) Reade, Bob - Coaching Football Successfully - Human Kinetics, 1994 - Every young football coach should read this book - preferably twice or more - before even thinking about becoming a head coach.

(2) Nelson, David M. - Football Principles and Play - Ronald Press, 1962 - This book is deep, and deals with the stuff “under the hood” of the game in a way that I have yet to see anyplace else.

(3) Parseghian , Ara - Parseghian and Notre Dame Football - Doubleday & Co, 1971 & 1973 - Coach Parseghian’s Irish won the 1973 National Championship, and they won it running a Wing-T offense and a Split-4 defense - both systems that I have used for most of my career.  In this book, he gets deeply into the “why” and “how” of his system, and I’ve found  it very useful over the years.   I have great respect for him as a coach and as a man, and - for what it’s worth - his first head coaching job, and the place where he  came to the attention of Notre Dame, was at Northwestern.

(4) McKay, John - Football Coaching - Ronald Press, 1966 - The basics of the USC I-formation attack and his 5-2 Rover (Monster) defense - and more.  Coach McKay probably did more than anyone to popularize the I-formation, and as a result, with tailbacks the likes of Ricky Bell, Anthony Davis, Mike Garrett, O.J. Simpson and Charles White, he established USC’s reputation as “tailback U.”   Garrett and Simpson both won Heisman Trophies. His book holds nothing back, explaining the entire USC offense in considerable detail (an indication that he didn’t care that opponents knew what he was doing - he still had personnel  good enough to beat you anyhow.

(5) Ellison, Glenn "Tiger" - Run and Shoot Football - Parker Publishing, 1965 & 1984 - Tiger Ellison was a high school coach in Hamilton, Ohio who, faced with an 0-4-1 record in a town that expected winning teams, decided to use simple touch football principles of “getting open.” It turned his season around, turned his kids on - the community, too - and led to the development of an entire offensive system, which he came to call the Run and Shoot.

(6) Bryant, Paul W. - Building a Championship Football Team - Prentice-Hall, 1960 - There have been at least a dozen books written about The Bear, but this one was written BY him. He writes a lot about defense and how he taught it, and a lot of  it is based on the numbering system he got from Bum Phillips - “a Texas high school coach.”   It’s become a part of the language of football (“he’s playing a seven technique”)  and as far as I’ve been able to tell, Coach Bryant’s book was the first time it was explained in print.

(7) Evashevski, Forest and Nelson, David - Scoring Power With the Winged T Offense - Brown Co., 1957 - The original book on the offense that took the football world by storm after Iowa put it on display in the Rose Bowl.   Delaware - and Maine before it - had been running the offense for six years.  But the offense, invented by Dave Nelson and his assistants, Mike Lude and Harold Westerman, and called the “Winged T,” might never have come to the attention of football people if it hadn’t been demonstrated on the games biggest  stage - the 1957 Rose Bowl.  There, in front of more than 100,000 people and a nationwide TV audience, the Number 3 Iowa Hawkeyes ran wild in beating Oregon State, 35-19.  The demand to learn more about the Iowa offense could only be satisfied by a book describing it in detail, and that’s what Coach Nelson and Iowa coach Forest Evashevski produced.  It is a masterwork.

(8) Danzig, Allison - The History of American Football - Prentice-Hall, 1956 - It’s a big book because it deals with a big subject - the men and their teams - and their thinking - that built the game we have today.  I majored in history in college, and I consider this one of the best history books I’ve ever seen.  What a great thing that it happens to be about football.  It’s the history of college football  from the game’s beginnings until the mid-1950s.  And it  digs in deeply.  At the time of its publication, a critic at the New York Times called it “Without Doubt, the most ambitious and best book ever published on the subject of college football.” (Pro  football, for the time that the book covers, played a very minor part.)  I find myself going to this book time after time in doing research.   It’s truly a shame that none of us gets to live forever, because I’d love to have a copy of his History of American Football - Part Two.

(9) Ecker, Tom and Calloway, Bill - Athletic Journal's Encyclopedia of Football - Parker Publishing, 1978 - A compilation of offensive and defensive ideas from top college and HS coaches.  This is dated, of course, and there’s nothing in here about RPOs or shallow crosses or dime coverages, but take it from someone who started coaching in 1970 - there are timeless  aspects to our game that you ignore at your peril. There is great value still in having a basic understanding of the Veer… the I formation… the Wing T… the Wishbone… the 5-2… the 4-4… the 4-3…Goal Line offenses (boy, couldn’t today’s offensive coordinators use this) and Goal Line defenses… the Kicking game… Coaching the Offensive Backfield… Coaching the Defensive Backfield…Coaching the Offensive Line… Coaching the Defensive Line…   There  are 318 pages of solid, sound football techniques and teaching. This book is an invaluable resource.  

(10) Tallman, Drew - Directory of Football Offenses - 1978 - incredible resource - pocket-sized diagrams of formations;   Directory of Football Defenses - 1980 - likewise
These two little (4 x -1/2) books are the damnedest things I’ve seen in all my years of coaching.  They’re in need of updating - which, considering how thorough they are, would represent a major undertaking - but especially for anyone running an “outdated” offense or preparing to defend against one, they are really helpful.
Coaching offense?  Open the “DEFENSES” book to the defense you expect to see this week, and see how it recommends attacking it.
Coaching defense?  Open the “OFFENSES” book and see what it says the strong points and weak points of this coming week’s opponent are.


(11)  Caldwell, Charlie - Modern Single-Wing Football - Lippincott $ Co - 1951 - It’s the first football book I ever got, given to me as a Christmas present when I was a kid. Very technical, it took me years to understand it, but his section on the wedge was a real eye-opener for me
In all the years since I’ve been promoting the Double Wing,  a lot of self-taught Double-Wing experts have popped up. But few of them have included the Wedge in their arsenals, and of those who have included it, they have either copied directly from me, or they don’t know how to coach it.  Me?  I’m indebted to Coach Caldwell for teaching me - via this book - the proper way to teach the wedge.

(12) Pool, Hamp - Fly-T Football - Prentice-Hall, 1957 - I have to include this, because this book is what first got me seriously interested in coaching.  It was my senior season in college, I was injured and unable to play, and I was asked to  coach our college’s (dorm’s) intra-mural team.  Yes, it was tackle football. I knew one thing - I wasn’t going to run the boring-ass offense I’d been forced to play in for three years - and when I found Hamp Pool’s book in the school library, it was like finding the Holy Grail!  Pool's Los Angeles Rams had been putting up incredible offensive numbers, because was light years ahead of other coaches in his offensive thinking (but also, to be fair, because he had one of the best assemblages of offensive talent ever put together on one team. But all I cared about was the scheme, and Wow, I thought.  This is  it!   I was so dumb that I had no doubt it would work for me, too.  And damned if it didn’t!  Talk about exciting.  I was hooked on coaching. 

The only problem was, I had to go out in the business world and make a living, and it took me ten years in the before I found a way to become a coach.  (Thank you, Lord.)

Now, many decades later, I find myself still employing some of the principles I found in that book, back in the fall of 1959.



To show you how advanced  Hamp Pool’s football was for its  time,  I watched a Georgia high school game just this past Friday night, and Carrollton's  first play of the game, as modern and up-to-date as you could get, was basically an updated version of a play from that book (shown on the left).   There were  differences, of course: besides the use of motion (rather than the play side tackle)  to block the play side #1;  the Carroll QB was in shotgun, and he  threw the ball overhand, rather than tossing it; and he threw it slightly forward,  making it, technically a pass play.  But the essence of the play, without the modern cosmetics,  could be found in a 66-year-old book. 





***********  Friday, my friend Doc Hinger called to let me know that there was a high school game on TV.  Ordinarily, I don’t get too excited about high school games  that any network deems worth showing, because it means that we’re going to be spending the  entire game hearing about this four-star and that Alabama commit and this quarterback who’s being recruited by Ohio State, LSU, USC, Georgia, Alabama, Michigan, Clemson - you get the idea.  The game’s only important from a recruiting standpoint. (In the same way that the focus of so many college broadcasts is how high so-and-so will get drafted.)

But I went ahead and watched this one, and I have to say that it was one of the best games - college, pro, otherwise - that I’ve seen in a long time.

It was Carrollton (Georgia) High against Langston Hughes High, of Fairburn.  The two teams had one loss between them last season, and Hughes was the defending Class 6A  state champion.

Both teams came in with QBs who had thrown for somewhere in the neighborhood of 4,000 yards last year.  Langston Hughes’ QB, Air Norland, has committed to Ohio State. Carrollton’s QB, Julian Lewis, threw for 4,000 yards last year - as a freshman!  Needless to say, he has every major school in the country interested in him.

The game started out with Carrollton looking as if poor little Langston Hughes didn’t belong on the field with them, building a 15-0 lad before the first quarter was half over. And even after Langston Hughes finally scored, Carrollton blocked the PAT attempt and then ran back the kickoff for another TD to go ahead, 22-6 - with 2:20 left in the first quarter!

Something seemed to happen to the Carrollton offense - maybe it was the Langston Hughes defense - but by halftime Langston Hughes had a 26-22 lead.

They swapped leads until Langston Hughes went ahead, 39-34 with 1:11 remaining in the game - and then  they almost blew it.

It was a great game to watch, between two well-coached teams with plenty of talent.

Surprisingly, it was not a passing  duel; Langston Hughes won because of their superior t offensive line and a pair of dynamite running backs.

There were the usual screwups you’d expect to see in an opening game, but not many.  There was one turnover and while there were a few knucklehead penalities, there was just one major (personal foul) penalty.

There was no taunting, no celebrating, no “look at me!” antics.

In sum, it was the way football ought to be played at all levels - but, sadly, isn’t.

Give me more games like that one and you can take your NFL - and, yes, your Big Ten and SEC  -  and stuff it.



***********   My dear,

The human character is filled with countless flaws. A good number of them are recognized, but most are unnoticed. One of them being our need for perfection.

Another flaw in the human character is that everybody wants to build and nobody wants to do maintenance.

Everybody wants to create something great, something awe-inspiring… something that’ll give them a hell of a lot of attention. But nobody wants to do maintenance. Nobody wants to make sure that that great thing still exists in our grand-children’s time.

Greatness requires upkeep. But as I said, we are flawed, for we do not recognize this.

Falsely yours,
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.


***********  I heard Rick Venturi say this during a Colts-Bears exhibition:  “The last great defensive lineman that I remember wearing a seventies number was Dexter Manley of the Washington Commanders.”

Uh, Rick -perhaps you’re trying to make points with  NFL Headquarters, but Dexter Manley played nine years with the Washington Redskins.

What’s next?  Lenny Moore, Raymond Berry and Johnny Unitas played for the Indianapolis Colts?


*********** This is not in any way intended to diminish the tragedy of the fire that wiped out Lahaina, Hawaii.

It is, though, intended  to diminish the lazy asses who call themselves journalists who are too f——king lazy to tap their phone a few times to discover that this fire, while awful even to imagine, is NOT the worst wildfire/forest fire in our nation’s history.  Not even close.

The worst one started on October 8, 1871 in Wisconsin, north of Green Bay.  At least 1,000 people lost their lives (historians estimate that it could be as many as 2,400),  more than 1,875 square miles of timber land were burned, and the small town of Peshtigo, Wisconsin burned to the ground.

Coincidentally, the Great Chicago Fire started the same day.  (Popular myth once attributed its start to a lantern being kicked over by “Mrs. O’Leary’s  cow.”)


https://www.kcra.com/article/deadliest-wildfires-us-history-maui/44814022#



*********** Somebody must have thought it was a great idea to stick a woman play-by-play announcer into a booth with THREE former NFL players to do the Seahawks-Cowboys game, and wait for the fun to happen. Unfortunately, for us at least, the result was like sitting in an  apartment with paper-thin walls while a noisy party goes on next door - loud and only semi-intelligible but apparently quite entertaining to the participants.  It was as hard on the ears as any game I’ve ever listened to, and even though the game itself was pretty good, we had to switch over to the CFL game to hear any sensible commentary. (They had only two people in the booth - both males - and both had some credentials other than (1) having played some NFL football and (2) having had a microphone handed to them.)


***********   Concord, California, about 30 miles east of San Francisco, was named after Concord, Massachusetts, where in April, 1775 “the embattled farmers stood, and fired the shot heard round the world.”

For years, Concord High has been the “Minutemen,” named for the farmers who prided themselves on being ready to fight on a minute’s notice.

But  that nickname was so-o-o-o colonial.   And besides, the guy was carrying a  firearm. So on a vote of 4-1, the local school board voted 4-1 to send the Minutemen packing, and replace them with “Bears.”

The district must be rolling in money, because the change is estimated to cost $200,000. 

But what the hell.  Said a member of the school board (a female, of course),  “If changing a mascot will make students feel welcomed, embraced and empowered them to participate more at the school, then I will support this.”

WTF?  “Participate more?”  If you can find me one kid who wouldn’t  raise his hand in class… or go out for the debate team… or sing in the glee club… or turn out for football… because of the f——king school nickname, I’ll eat him.

The superintendent, Dr. (you knew he’d insist on using that title) Adam Clark, told Fox News Digital that  the decision was “in response to the mass shootings and killings of students on school campuses” and that the “male minutemen soldier holding a rifle was not a symbol many of our students and staff felt created a welcoming environment.”

I wonder how many kids have been clever enough over the years to have skipped school and then had their absences excused because that Minuteman made them “feel unwelcome?”


https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4176013/posts


Meanwhile, I’ll bet none of those pussies on the school board had the guts to deliver the news to the football team, which after four straight losing seasons, went 9-2 last year - as the Minutemen.


https://www.concordminutemenfootball.com/






*********** I was just eyeball-browsing  the brands in the beer cooler at a local liquor store  when what should jump out at me but - the Maryland flag!  On a beer bottle!  Not only that, but the word “BALTIMORE” in bold letters.  And,  of all things, the Guinness harp logo. 

WTF?

I had to buy a six pack just to taste it!

Reaction?  Pretty  good.  A lager, very drinkable and  quite tasty but not overpowering.  (The guy at the liquor store said “citrusy,” but that was probably what the salesman told him.)

And then I found out that the Baltimore brewery where Guinness brewed the stuff is being closed, and the beer will now be brewed elsewhere.  What? Baltimore Blonde brewed in Cleveland?  Pittsburgh Blonde with a Maryland flag on the label?

Too bad.  It was good.  And for a brief moment I was back in my beloved Maryland.



***********  Strange stuff happens when you try to help a guy who’s won just two games in the past two years…

When he expresses an interest in the Double Wing,  and you decide to be Mister Good Guy and offer to show him and his coaches your offense, one that’s tried and true and made to order for kids like his...

When you show him some of the details and he isn’t scared off and says he wants to proceed. So you email him to set up a date,  double-checking to make sure he’s still all-in...

And he replies, “We are a full go on the Double Wing although it will look a little different than what you have done in the past.”

WTF?  I think. WTF?  WTF?  Here he is, supposedly hungry  for a win, he hasn’t even seen all that's involved in our offense, and he’s already planning to tinker -  to “look a little different” - to put his own spin on an offense that better coaches than him have run successfully “right out of the can.”

Q:  Do you really think a guy like that would have made a Double Winger?



*********** John Elway got his start in Aberdeen, Washington!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmpthnvzE6c


***********  Loving watching from a distance as a former player of mine coaches a local schools 8 man team to the semi finals the last two years. 8 man in Michigan has really taken off. The state association is actually trying to get schools to go back to 11 man.

John Zeller
Tustin, Michigan


***********   Just spitballin', but based primarily on anecdotal evidence, there seems to be a much, much higher incidence of gayness in women's sports (not all, but more than one or two). Which causes one to wonder which came first for the girls, the gayness or the game? And why don't we observe the same phenomenon in male sports?

I expected to read something about Sage Steele on today's page. Just a few days ago, as you know, she threw off the chains ESPN had bound her in. I haven't heard anyone mention terms of the settlement. Maybe she'll join Jason Whitlock at the NY Post, or wherever he calls his professional home these days.

John Vermillion                                    
St Petersburg, Florida

I’m glad Sage Steele is out of that cage. She is something very special. Ordinarily she would be classified as a conservative black woman, but she is conservative and proudly biracial.  Her dad, Gary Steele, was the first black man to start on the Army football team.


***********   Hugh,

Really liked how Jason Mensing is utilizing the value of the Black Lion Award.  Best of luck to Jason this season.  I encourage ANY HS coach to implement your Black Lion Award into their football program.  In today's America it is needed, and it is NECESSARY!

Unfortunately I had to do a bit of squabbling with my former HC when it came to run blocking.  I used film to convince him.  He initially wanted me to teach them how to block with their hands, but we weren't very good because we just weren't very strong.  As the old saying goes, "Better to beg forgiveness than ask permission" I started teaching the boys how to block down, trap, power, and counter using shoulder blocks.  At a later film session the HC commented on how we were becoming more effective running the ball.  Hmmm.

Biff Poggi's recruiting prowess turned doormat St. Frances Academy into a regional power that now plays a "national" schedule.  

With the terrible fire that destroyed Lahaina in Maui, Brandon's cold "no comment" response to a reporter's question about the fire, the paltry $700.00 per household, and the crazy high cost of living there might just be enough to turn solid blue Hawaii purple.

This just in...Concord High School (SF Bay Area) is dropping its mascot the "Minutemen."  The city of Concord is located in the East Bay, and is named after Concord, MA the site of the famous battles of Lexington and Concord during the Revolutionary War.  It all started a year ago after the school district decided to replace its human mascots with non-human mascots, which led to a "student" committee tasked to find a new name.  The committee "expressed concerns" about the mascot "showcasing a firearm," and others wanting a name that was "gender inclusive." What an insult to those brave individuals back then who sacrificed their lives to defeat tyranny so these namby-pambys can dishonor them.  The move will cost the district $200,000.00.  I can no longer tell anyone I grew up in California.

https://www.foxnews.com/media/concord-high-school-pulling-minutemen-mascot-blasted-insult-sacrificed-defeat-tyranny


I wonder if Americans will wise-up and throw President Robert L. Peters (aka Joe Biden, aka Brandon) out of office.  

Glad to see Woodlake HS has a gem for a Principal.  I remember when their legendary HC Leo Robinson consistently had Woodlake winning their league championships and in the playoffs competing for section championships almost on an annual basis.  Woodlake is a quaint little town in the Central Valley a little NE of Visalia. Go Tigers!!


Enjoy the weekend!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas

You’ll notice I’ve also addressed Concord’s dishonoring of our Patriot fathers.

 
    

*********** QUIZ ANSWER: Charlie Joiner was born in Many, Louisiana, but went to high school in Lake Charles.

He didn’t go out for football until his junior year, but such was his  talent that he not only made the team but he was named an all-state wide receiver both of his years.

Most of the coaches at his then-segregated school were Grambling men, and they directed him to their alma mater.  There, under legendary coach Eddie Robinson, he teamed up with quarterback James Harris, and was a three-time All-SWAC selection at wide receiver.

(Harris would become the first black player to start an NFL season as his team’s quarterback, and would play 13 years in the NFL.) 

Taken in the fourth round of the 1969 NFL draft by the Oilers as a defensive back, he was sidelined by the same type of injury - a broken arm - in both of his first two seasons.   Moved to wide receiver his third year, he caught 31 passes  for 681 yards and seven touchdowns.  Nevertheless,  despite the  promising season, he was traded to Cincinnati.

There, in three seasons, he missed 25 games to injuries,  and caught only 75 passes.  But he impressed Bengals’ offensive coordinator Bill Walsh  so much that when Walsh left Cincinnati in 1976 to  become offensive coordinator at San Diego, he recommended acquiring our guy.

There, with Dan Fouts running Walsh’s West Coast offense, our guy caught 50 passes for 1,056 yards and seven TDs.

Walsh lasted just that one year at San Diego, then left  to become head coach at Stanford, but in 1978 Don Coryell arrived in San Diego as head coach.  With his “Air Coryell” attack, helped along by an offensive coordinator named Joe Gibbs, our guy was a key part in an offense that broke all sorts of NFL scoring records over the next  several years.

Our guy played a major part.  His best years were 1979-1981, with  at least 70 passes  for more than 1,000 yards all three of those years.  (In 1980, he and fellow receivers John Jefferson and Kellen Winslow all had more than 1,000 yards receiving.)

In all, he played 18 seasons in the NFL, longer than any other wide receiver up to that time, and at the time of his retirement, he had caught more passes (750) for more yards (12,146) than any player in NFL history. (Jerry Rice has since broken many of his records.)

In his career, he caught 50 or more passes seven times, 60 or more passes five times and 70 or more passes three times. Including post-season games, he had 28 games with at least 100 yards in receptions.

He was selected for three Pro Bowls and was  named All-AFC by the AP in 1976 and second-team All-AFC two other times.

He was named the Chargers’ Most Inspirational Player for seven straight years,  1980 -1986, and was the Chargers’ team captain from 1983-1986  (the final four years  of his career).

In 1980, he was a finalist for the NFL Man of the Year award.

Charlie Joiner  is one of four former Grambling players in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

No less of an expert than Bill Walsh called Charlie Joiner  “the most intelligent, the smartest, the most calculating receiver the game has ever known.”


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING CHARLIE JOINER

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
TOM DAVIS - SAN MARCOS, CALIFORNIA
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
RUSS MEYERS - VERNON CENTER, NEW YORK
JOHN ZELLER - TUSTIN, MICHIGAN
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY

   





*********** QUIZ: Nicknamed "The Dutchman” or “Dutch,” he was born in South Dakota but he attended high school in Walnut Creek, California.  He played his college ball at Oregon under the great Len Casanova.

Playing the early part of his career in the Rams' wide-open offense, he once threw for 554 yards in one game - still an NFL record.  That was 1951, a time when most teams would have been happy with half that, and it broke the previous record by 86 yards.

In his early years with the Rams, he and Bob Waterfield created the NFL's first version of the modern Quarterback Controversy. After Waterfield retired, Billy Wade joined the Rams and another quarterback controversy was started.

After nine years with the Rams, he was traded to the Eagles - for a guard, a defensive back, and a first-round draft choice.

The trade was precipitated by a coach-player dispute. one that few fans of today would even understand. As he himself wrote  in 1961:

"My nine years with the Rams were happy and prosperous. I probably would still be serving out my time with them, except for a delicate situation that arose in 1957 involving coach Sid Gillman and myself. It has been publicized extensively, and needs no retelling here. Suffice it to say that we both wanted to call the signals; Gillman from the sidelines, the way Paul Brown does. I thought I could call the plays better from my position back of the center. The Rams felt they had to back their coach, so we parted company."

At first, he was not happy about having to relocate his family to the East Coast, to play for a team that hadn't won more than four games in any of the previous three seasons. But teaming with the great Buck Shaw, who had just been hired as Eagles' coach and had arranged for the trade, he led the long-sorry Eagles to a 7-5 record in his second year there, and in 1960, took them to the NFL title game, where they defeated the Packers.

For his efforts, he was named the Sporting News-Marlboro Pro Player of the Year.

Wrote veteran sports writer Larry Merchant years later, "It was laughable how primitive the Eagles front office was. Those guys were so disorganized. The one time they did anything right was to turn the franchise over to their veteran quarterback. They left him alone, and he won a championship for them.”

He was 35 years old, and in the eyes of most observers, he basically ran the team.  And that was a good thing.  Buck Shaw, recalled reporter Ray Didinger, “was smart enough not to coach him."

Following the title game win, Shaw retired, and our guy expected to be named his successor. But when the Eagles instead hired Nick Skorich, our guy let loose,  denouncing team  management and claiming that he'd been enticed into moving East with the promise that he would succeed Shaw.

Instead, he left for Minnesota, taking on the job of  building the brand-new Minnesota Vikings team from scratch.

The Vikings won only three games his first year, but they played exciting football, mainly because of the way he used his scrambling quarterback, Francis Tarkenton.  (The great irony was that Steve Sabol of NFL films called him “The most immobile Hall of Fame quarterback in history,” and the stats back him up:  In his 12-year pro career, he "rushed" a total of 102 times, for a grand total of 40 yards. By comparison, in Tarkenton's first season with the Vikings, he rushed 56 times for 308 yards.)

By 1964 he got the Vikings as far as a second-place conference finish, but in 1966, after the Vikings failed to improve and he and Tarkenton were unable to get along, he was fired.

After a year out of coaching, he was hired by the Atlanta Falcons three games into the 1968 season to replace Norb Hecker.  His 1972 and 1973 teams both finished second in the conference, but in 1974, despite starting out with high hopes, the Falcons went into a tailspin, and with a 2-6 record, he was let go. He retired to his pecan farm in Georgia and never coached again.

All told, he was named to nine pro bowls and played in eight of them. He played in five NFL championship games, and in the last game he ever played, he led the Eagles to the NFL championship over the Green Bay Packers.

In his 12-year career, he threw for 23,611 yards and 173 touchdowns, and averaged 8.2 yards per attempt (compared with the Tom Brady, the so-called GOAT, with 7.4. Or Aaron Rodgers (7.7). Among present-day quarterbacks, only Patrick Mahomes, with 8.1, compares.

He also was an outstanding punter, averaging 42.9 yards over his career.

Noted for his temper and his sarcasm, he was known to fire a football at any teammate who wasn't paying attention.  His first NFL coach, Hamp Pool. predicted that he would break every NFL passing record -  "if somebody doesn't break his neck first."

As a coach, he didn't suffer fools gladly, and as a result he made his share of enemies among the news media (many of whom are, indeed, fools).   Once, at practice, when he spotted a Los Angeles reporter who'd written something that angered him, he called a sweep to be run in the guy's direction.

Wrote Larry Merchant, who covered the Eagles during the championship season, "some of his gags and the nicknames he gave players were very sophisticated. He could capture the essence of a player with biting humor. He was also one of the great caricaturists in  giving nicknames. I believe he was the one who named “Night Train” Lane and Big Daddy Lipscomb.

Sarcastic?  In his first game against the Giants - who were very good then - he was beaten up pretty bad, and after the game, as he sat in front of his locker, a teammate who hadn’t seen much action that day, said, “Hey Dutch - I see you got a little muddy today.”  Dutch looked at him and said, “I see you didn’t.”

He was one of the founders of the NFL Players Association, and when his efforts to organize players were ridiculed by the Redskins' militantly anti-union (and notoriously stingy) owner George Preston Marshall, he remarked, "The best thing that could happen to Marshall's players and the National Football League would be for him to step in front of a moving cab."

I came across an interesting story about him in "Ain't the Beer Cold," the autobiography of famed Orioles' and (Baltimore) Colts' broadcaster Chuck Thompson. It was 1962, and Chuck was in Minneapolis, disconsolate. He'd just learned that his longtime buddy and onetime broadcast partner, Bailey Goss, had been killed the night before in an automobile accident . (Goss, an employee of the company I once worked for, the National Brewing Company, was much-loved by Baltimore sports fans.  His was the voice-over in all National Beer commercials.  He represented the company at all kinds of community affairs, and he’d  been driving home late at night from a function of some sort or other.  There was a lot of whispering about the circumstances of his death, and I can say this: we brewery employees were expected to enjoy our company's product when out in public, and in those days, driving after imbibing was not the near-capital offense  that it is now.)

"I found it hard,” wrote Chuck,  “to concentrate when I broadcast the game on the night after learning of Bailey's death. But it was better than sitting in a hotel room wondering why such tragedies happen.

"I got through the game, but then the brewery asked me to do what I consider the most difficult task I had ever been assigned in broadcasting. They asked me to fly to California immediately and put my voice on the soundtracks that had featured Bailey, so that the commercials could continue until the brewery and the advertising agency could develop a better plan.

"I boarded the plane for California with a heavy heart,  and Vikings football coach (—— ——), who was aboard, apparently felt the depth of my misery. He sat down next to me in the first-class section and started to sketch plays and talk football.

"He just forced me to listen. He didn't want me to sit and brood, to feel sorry for myself, as had been the case during the day and through the game. I'll never forget that flight, what (he) tried to do for me. He may have been a very volatile man, but in his heart he was considerate and caring as he tried to help me get over something that took me a long time to shake. As we parted in Los Angeles, the "Dutchman" said something I'll never forget: "You're a pro - do your job."

He was inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame in 1971, while  still actively coaching.





FRIDAY,  AUGUST 18,  2023 - “Our diversity is not our strength. Our strength is what unites us across our diversity.” Vivek Ramaswamy, Republican candidate for President


*********** WITH FOOTBALL PRACTICE BEGINNING AROUND THE COUNTRY, BE SURE TO EMAIL ME ABOUT SIGNING UP YOUR TEAM  FOR THE BLACK LION AWARD.  THERE’S NO COST TO PARTICIPATE - IT’S SIMPLY SO WE CAN TELL YOU WHAT YOU NEED TO DO, AND SO WE’LL KNOW HOW MANY AWARDS TO PREPARE FOR.

IF THE BLACK LION AWARD HAS BEEN A PART OF YOUR PROGRAM, I INVITE YOU TO WRITE ME AND SHARE WITH MY READERS WHAT IT MEANS TO YOU.

SIGN UP: coachhw@mac.com


***********  A STRONG ENDORSEMENT OF THE BLACK LION AWARD BY A TOP-NOTCH  COACH

Coach,

I would like to sign my Varsity, JV, and Freshman teams up for the Black Lion Award.....   

I do believe the values of this award are in aligned with what we are trying to build in our Football culture at our school.   We did not come to this decision lightly as I have always felt that if we were going to institute the Black Lion Award into our program that is MUST be done with fidelity and not just flippantly add it as another way to honor players....

Greg Koenig’s statement of this being his only award ran deep with me and led to reflection on how and why are we honoring kids.   I send the information with regards to the award to my athletic director and coaches.   My Coaches read through and were in full support, I then met with my captains and shared with them the history of the award and where it was originated they too were in full sport.   

We are still going to honor Ironmen which will be an award to any player who attends every practice, and a Most Improved.   Our captains felt this was important as this was a representation of hard work....   Finally the Black Lion Award we are going to have a weekly nominee which we will select one of the nominee's as our award winner at the end of the year.   This will allow us to discuss the award weekly and more importantly remind our athletes of the values and characteristics we are trying to build around.

Thanks for your work on this...

God Bless,

Jason  Mensing  
Head Football Coach,
John Glenn High School
Westland, Michigan



********** CFL THIS  PAST WEEKEND - WEEK TEN


THURSDAY

EDMONTON (0-9) AT HAMILTON (3-5) (7:30 EDT)


FRIDAY

WINNIPEG (7-2) 3 AT CALGARY  (3-6) 9 PM EDT


SATURDAY

MONTREAL (5-3) AT  OTTAWA (3-6)  7 PM EDT


SUNDAY

 BC  (7-2)  AT SASKATCHEWAN (4-5) 7 PM EDT




YOUR SCHEDULE OF CFL GAMES ON AMERICAN CABLE (CBSSN) THIS SEASON:

https://fbschedules.com/cbs-sports-network-releases-2023-cfl-tv-schedule/





*********** AT THE TOP OF MY LIST OF BOOKS THAT I RECOMMEND TO ANYONE WHO’S A COACH OR ABOUT TO BECOME ONE…

(1) Reade, Bob - Coaching Football Successfully - Human Kinetics, 1994 - Every young football coach should read this book - preferably twice or more - before even thinking about becoming a head coach.

(2) Nelson, David M. - Football Principles and Play - Ronald Press, 1962 - This book is deep, and deals with the stuff “under the hood” of the game in a way that I have yet to see anyplace else.

(3) Parseghian , Ara - Parseghian and Notre Dame Football - Doubleday & Co, 1971 & 1973 - Coach Parseghian’s Irish won the 1973 National Championship, and they won it running a Wing-T offense and a Split-4 defense - both systems that I have used for most of my career.  In this book, he gets deeply into the “why” and “how” of his system, and I’ve found  it very useful over the years.   I have great respect for him as a coach and as a man, and - for what it’s worth - his first head coaching job, and the place where he  came to the attention of Notre Dame, was at Northwestern.

(4) McKay, John - Football Coaching - Ronald Press, 1966 - The basics of the USC I-formation attack and his 5-2 Rover (Monster) defense - and more.  Coach McKay probably did more than anyone to popularize the I-formation, and as a result, with tailbacks the likes of Ricky Bell, Anthony Davis, Mike Garrett, O.J. Simpson and Charles White, he established USC’s reputation as “tailback U.”   Garrett and Simpson both won Heisman Trophies. His book holds nothing back, explaining the entire USC offense in considerable detail (an indication that he didn’t care that opponents knew what he was doing - he still had personnel  good enough to beat you anyhow.

(5) Ellison, Glenn "Tiger" - Run and Shoot Football - Parker Publishing, 1965 & 1984 - Tiger Ellison was a high school coach in Hamilton, Ohio who, faced with an 0-4-1 record in a town that expected winning teams, decided to use simple touch football principles of “getting open.” It turned his season around, turned his kids on - the community, too - and led to the development of an entire offensive system, which he came to call the Run and Shoot.

(6) Bryant, Paul W. - Building a Championship Football Team - Prentice-Hall, 1960 - There have been at least a dozen books written about The Bear, but this one was written BY him. He writes a lot about defense and how he taught it, and a lot of  it is based on the numbering system he got from Bum Phillips - “a Texas high school coach.”   It’s become a part of the language of football (“he’s playing a seven technique”)  and as far as I’ve been able to tell, Coach Bryant’s book was the first time it was explained in print.

(7) Evashevski, Forest and Nelson, David - Scoring Power With the Winged T Offense - Brown Co., 1957 - The original book on the offense that took the football world by storm after Iowa put it on display in the Rose Bowl.   Delaware - and Maine before it - had been running the offense for six years.  But the offense, invented by Dave Nelson and his assistants, Mike Lude and Harold Westerman, and called the “Winged T,” might never have come to the attention of football people if it hadn’t been demonstrated on the games biggest  stage - the 1957 Rose Bowl.  There, in front of more than 100,000 people and a nationwide TV audience, the Number 3 Iowa Hawkeyes ran wild in beating Oregon State, 35-19.  The demand to learn more about the Iowa offense could only be satisfied by a book describing it in detail, and that’s what Coach Nelson and Iowa coach Forest Evashevski produced.  It is a masterwork.

(8) Danzig, Allison - The History of American Football - Prentice-Hall, 1956 - It’s a big book because it deals with a big subject - the men and their teams - and their thinking - that built the game we have today.  I majored in history in college, and I consider this one of the best history books I’ve ever seen.  What a great thing that it happens to be about football.  It’s the history of college football  from the game’s beginnings until the mid-1950s.  And it  digs in deeply.  At the time of its publication, a critic at the New York Times called it “Without Doubt, the most ambitious and best book ever published on the subject of college football.” (Pro  football, for the time that the book covers, played a very minor part.)  I find myself going to this book time after time in doing research.   It’s truly a shame that none of us gets to live forever, because I’d love to have a copy of his History of American Football - Part Two.

(9) Ecker, Tom and Calloway, Bill - Athletic Journal's Encyclopedia of Football - Parker Publishing, 1978 - A compilation of offensive and defensive ideas from top college and HS coaches.  This is dated, of course, and there’s nothing in here about RPOs or shallow crosses or dime coverages, but take it from someone who started coaching in 1970 - there are timeless  aspects to our game that you ignore at your peril. There is great value still in having a basic understanding of the Veer… the I formation… the Wing T… the Wishbone… the 5-2… the 4-4… the 4-3…Goal Line offenses (boy, couldn’t today’s offensive coordinators use this) and Goal Line defenses… the Kicking game… Coaching the Offensive Backfield… Coaching the Defensive Backfield…Coaching the Offensive Line… Coaching the Defensive Line…   There  are 318 pages of solid, sound football techniques and teaching. This book is an invaluable resource.  

(10) Tallman, Drew - Directory of Football Offenses - 1978 - incredible resource - pocket-sized diagrams of formations;   Directory of Football Defenses - 1980 - likewise
These two little (4 x -1/2) books are the damnedest things I’ve seen in all my years of coaching.  They’re in need of updating - which, considering how thorough they are, would represent a major undertaking - but especially for anyone running an “outdated” offense or preparing to defend against one, they are really helpful.
Coaching offense?  Open the “DEFENSES” book to the defense you expect to see this week, and see how it recommends attacking it.
Coaching defense?  Open the “OFFENSES” book and see what it says the strong points and weak points of this coming week’s opponent are.


(11)  Caldwell, Charlie - Modern Single-Wing Football - Lippincott $ Co - 1951 - It’s the first football book I ever got, given to me as a Christmas present when I was a kid. Very technical, it took me years to understand it, but his section on the wedge was a real eye-opener for me.

In all the years since I’ve been promoting the Double Wing,  a lot of self-taught Double-Wing experts have popped up. But few of them have included the Wedge in their arsenals, and of those who have included it, they have either copied directly from me, or they don’t know how to coach it.  Me?  I’m indebted to Coach Caldwell for teaching me - via this book - the proper way to teach the wedge.

Here’s a selection from my Dynamics 3.0  playbook…

THE WEDGE - PART TWO - while we’re on the subject…

THINGS CAN GO WRONG WHEN YOU RUN A WEDGE, AND THEY CAN NEARLY ALWAYS BE TRACED TO ONE OF THREE THINGS:


 
(1)     INFILTRATION/PENETRATION.  YOU HAVE TO MAKE SURE THAT NO DEFENDER CROSSES THE FACE OF ONE OF YOUR BLOCKERS.  WE'VE ALREADY TAKEN PRECAUTIONS WITH OUR TIGHT SPLITS; WE STRESS STEPPING FIRST WITH THE INSIDE FOOT TO GET BEHIND THE TEAMMATE TO OUR INSIDE;  AND WE ATTEMPT TO PUT A FOREARM IN THE RIBS OF THAT TEAMMATE.  THE IDEA OF NOT BLOCKING AN OPPONENT IS ALSO COUNTERINTUITIVE, SO FROM THE VERY FIRST,  WE DRILL OUR MEN ON COACH CALDWELL'S POINT OF BLOCKING "SPACE RATHER THAN AN ASSIGNED MAN" - UNLESS THEY'RE PART OF THE TRIPLE-TEAM AT THE APEX OF THE WEDGE, THEIR ASSIGNMENT IS TO "FOLD INTO THE WEDGE" AND PUSH.


 
(2)     GETTING CAUGHT BY SOMEONE COMING OFF THE EDGE.  THIS DOES HAPPEN, BUT WHEN WE RUN THE WEDGE FROM  THE DOUBLE WING (LEFT BELOW) , OUR FULLBACK IS SO CLOSE TO THE QUARTERBACK, IT'S IMPOSSIBLE FOR AN EDGE RUSHER TO DO ANYTHING MORE THAN CATCH HIM FROM BEHIND AFTER HE’S ON HIS WAY DOWNFIELD.   WITH THE OPEN WING, (RIGHT ABOVE) THE PLAY DEVELOPS MORE SLOWLY, AND A RUSH FROM THE OPEN SIDE CAN BE A PROBLEM. (IN THE PLAYBOOK I SHOW HOW WE DEAL WITH THIS ISSUE.)
 
 
(3)     STOPPING OR COMING APART.  THE WEDGE IS A MOVING THING, AND FROM THE VERY FIRST, BEFORE WE TEACH THE BLOCKING, WE WORK ON FOLDING IN AND STAYING TOGETHER FOR 40 YARDS. WE DON'T LIKE TO SEE ANYONE LAGGING BEHIND THE WEDGE, BUT WE DON'T LIKE TO SEE ANYONE GETTING OUT AHEAD OF THE WEDGE, EITHER.  YOU'D BE SURPRISED HOW DIFFICULT THIS CAN BE AT FIRST.   MAKE A BET WITH YOUR GUYS THAT SOMEONE'S GOING TO FALL BEFORE THEY GET TO 40 YARDS.  YOU'LL WIN.  SOME OPPONENTS WILL TEACH THEIR PLAYERS, IN THE MIDDLE ESPECIALLY, TO BEAR CRAWL.  MAYBE THEY USE THIS TACTIC  AS DISCIPLINE FOR A KID WHO'S MISSED PRACTICE THAT WEEK, BECAUSE FOR ANY KID, BUT ESPECIALLY ONE WHO JUST LAST WEEK WAS STANDING UP AND PUSHING AGAINST A ZONE-BLOCKING TEAM, IT’S NOT A PLEASANT WAY TO SPEND A GAME.  WE STRESS HAVING OUR PLAYERS TAKE HIGH STEPS, AND WE PRACTICE RUNNING OVER BAGS ON THE GROUND.  A WORD TO AN OPPONENT: DON'T BLAME US IF YOUR KID GETS STEPPED ON: YOU'RE THE ONE WHO PUT HIM IN HARM'S WAY.   YOU INSTRUCTED HIM TO DO IT, AND YOU KNOW ENOUGH FOOTBALL TO KNOW HE COULD GET HURT DOING IT.  OUR BIG KIDS ARE NO MORE AGILE THAN YOURS, AND SOMETIMES, QUITE UNINTENTIONALLY, THEY MIGHT STEP ON SOMETHING LYING IN THEIR PATH. TSK, TSK.
 
ON POINT NUMBER (3):  I’VE HAD COACHES WRITE ME TO SAY, “MY WEDGE ISN'T WORKING!  THEIR LINEMEN ARE SUBMARINING AND OUR WEDGE ISN’T WORKING!
 
MY RESPONSE IS ALWAYS THE SAME: “OH, YES IT IS.  IF THEY’RE WILLING TO SACRIFICE TWO, THREE, AND SOMETIMES FOUR OF THEIR LINEMEN JUST TO STOP THAT ONE PLAY – I’D SAY IT’S  WORKING.  THE THREAT OF THAT ONE PLAY IS TAKING LINEMEN OUT OF COMMISSION.  NOW, WITH ALL THOSE DEFENSIVE LINEMEN ON THE GROUND… GO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE THINGS THEY’RE GIVING YOU.”


***********   Nathan Rourke may not win the Jags’ number 2 QB spot but he probably won’t get cut. He made a hell of a play against the Cowboys - good enough to earn him on some NFL roster if the Jags don’t want him.

He’s a Canadian kid, from outside Toronto. He spent a year at a US high school and  had a nice career at Ohio U. He’s not exactly a raw rookie:  he spent two seasons in Canada with the BC Lions, and last season he was named the CFL’s Most Outstanding Canadian.

(In fairness to Canadian athletes, who often get beaten out by Americans for spots on CFL rosters, maybe the Jags should be able to keep him as an “import” and not have to count him against their roster limit.)


***********  Coach,

I am coaching the offensive line and helping with the overall offensive scheme with a 12U team.

It was kind of last minute, but the offensive coordinator is old friend (I coached his son many moons ago) who was kind enough to contact me needing help.

So I find myself kind of learning the offensive approach along with the kids, but it seems to be familiar enough as it is somewhat wingT based (traps and G play) along with some speed sweep as we do have some speed.  He is very open to my inputs, so it has been ok so far.  His main formation is very close to your East/West formations of the Open Wing.

My main question is about the blocking style.  It seems to be all hands these days as all the coaching certifications follow the USA football "guidelines" for blocking and tackling.  Although not mandated by any means as the only way, it is the only style suggested for blocking (they never address grabbing the defensive player when blocking them)  Ironically, they stress shoulder tackling but hands blocking.

I can deal with the hands technique for some plays (I have shown the others how the shoulder or pad on pad approach can be much more effective on our downs/traps/kickout blocks).  I don't mind showing the boys both styles. My main hangup is with the grabbing of the defensive player when using hands  I have never liked teaching that as the correlation with holding calls is too strong among other things.  The younger coaches today seem to think it is "legal" to grab.

Is there some recent change in the High School rule book that allows the grabbing of the defensive player by the offense with hands inside?  I have not found one yet, but thought I would check with you once again for your thoughts.

All the best,

Hi Coach,

Not to get you into any squabbles, but…

The rules do NOT permit holding.

Coaches have become very lax ( lazy I would say) in their teaching of “blocking” but if officials see hands grabbing a jersey anywhere OR they see hands on the outside of a defender’s jersey they are going to call holding.

This seems to be a chance that passing teams are willing to take. Otherwise there is no reason to teach blocking with the hands other than, as in our case, when retreating (hinge blocking), blocking downfield, or stalk blocking (wide outs).

Welcome to the minority of us old timers who will also be the last people on earth to be driving internal combustion powered cars, even when it’s illegal to do so.


WHICH BRINGS UP ANOTHER QUESTION - HAVE YOU NOTICED HOW SLYLY THIS “USA FOOTBALL” BUNCH HAS  INSINUATED ITSELF INTO OUR GAME AS  "FOOTBALL’S (SELF-STYLED GOVERNING BODY IN THE UNITED STATES???"

BY WHAT AUTHORITY?  “USA Football is a recognized sports organization of the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee.”

OH. I see.


***********  Just in case you needed another reason not to watch women’s pro sports in general - and the Women’s World Cup in particular…

“There are about 100 openly LGBTQ+ players and coaches across the tournament’s expanded 32 teams, according to counts by LGBTQ+ publications. One of those, Autostraddle, noted that the tournament “just might be the most openly queer sporting event in history.”

“At the most recent men’s World Cup, in Qatar last year, there were no openly gay players. But in the women’s game, openly queer players have become an integral part of the sport.

Co-host Australia appears to be the team with the most gay players, with more than half of their squad of 23 openly LGBTQ+, including captain and star Sam Kerr. The striker’s relationship with U.S. player Kristie Mewis is among the most well-known in the soccer world.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2023/08/16/womens-world-cup-gay-players-lgbt/


*********** Hmmm.

New Charlotte head coach Biff Poggi has brought in “dozens” of transfers -  including 17  who played for him at St. Frances Academy in Baltimore, a small, private inner-city school where his recruiting prowess was so effective that other private schools in the Baltimore area refused to play it.


***********  In Chicago, a family of “asylum seekers” was thrown out of the hotel where they’d been staying (at taxpayers’ expense, of course) because they missed curfew.  (“By only seven minutes,” the bleeding hearts whine.) 

Tough luck.  The reason why they missed curfew?  They took their kids out for pizza - because they didn’t like the (free) meals they were being served.

Is this a great country or what?

Maybe when Brandon  finally flies to Hawaii he’ll explain to the  people in Maui how,  after we’ve provided hotel rooms and pizza vouchers for “asylum sneakers, ” and sent weapons to Ukraine,  we’re flat broke, and they’re just going to have to make do with $700 per household?


*********** Nothing against Hawaii, a lovely place, but I heard one of these professional liberals, a woman named Jessica Tarlov, say that it’s “well managed…it’s like the Denmark of America.”

Jessica.  Please.  Having been to both of them a couple of times, I can’t imagine two places more unlike each other.  Denmark really is well managed.



***********  Hi Coach,

Hope you are doing well. I wanted to ask you about your No Motion DW. I have been a motion guy since running the DW since 2016. Since purchasing your 3.0 manual and open wing materials I am considering going NO Mo. I'd like to know why you switched and what advantages you see in doing this. I am coaching a 12 u team and have always found that motion helps with the deception of the system, however while installing the Super Power early in the season my wing forgot to motion but got the pitch after the snap and the play seemed to go quicker and hit the POA harder.

My concern with doing this for the long haul is I am going to lose some deception as over the years the B back wedge and spin and xx counter have been the home run plays and I thought that was because the motion got the defense flowing one way thinking it's power. If you could give me some insight on this I would greatly appreciate it. BTW your open wing is gold and will be install as well.

Thanks for all you do coach. Talk soon.


Coach,

I’m doing great.

Your question is a good one and I’ve addressed this many times in clinics but since you didn’t have an opportunity to attend one, you deserve an answer.

I have addressed this on a couple of Zoom clinics, and   I do answer it on Page 7 of the Dynamics 3.0 Playbook -

ELIMINATION OF MOTION ON SUPER POWER - No more alerting the defense to which way we're going; no more getting caught from behind; no more blitzes off the front side; no more bouncing outside. And – maybe most important – our runner is now close to his interference.

The key point here is that this only applies to Super Power.  In addition to the advantages I listed, It can also be quite an advantage to be able to call “Super Power - Check with me” and come to the line and then decide which way to go.  We have said “RICKY OR LUCY - CHECK WITH ME” and then at the line the QB would say "RICKY-RICKY” (Super Power Right”) or “LUCY-LUCY” (Super Power Left), and then “GO!”

With no motion, Super Power hits as quick as Wedge.  It is sudden and deadly.

As for motion, never fear -  it is a still a major part of the attack, including most of our counters, reach sweeps, traps, G and X, as well as Brown/Black bootlegs.

I hope that helps answer your question.

Good to hear from you - and good luck.


*********** We’ve all known someone who just can’t tell the truth when it means passing up an opportunity to tell a lie. 

This whopper comes from a certain person in Washington, DC who claims to be the President but who on occasion has used the pseudonym  Robert L. Peters.

“Pittsburgh is a city of bridges,” Robert  told a crowd in Milwaukee the other day. “More bridges in Pittsburgh than any other city in America… I watched that bridge collapse…I got there and saw it collapse with over 200 feet off the ground going over a valley. It collapsed. Thank God school was out during the pandemic.”

Not so fast, Robert.  You weren’t anywhere near Pittsburgh when that bridge collapsed, hours before you arrived there to speak.

Next time you see Robert, call him Bob.  Ask him about playing football at Delaware.



***********   I haven’t the slightest idea who’s to blame in the Michael Oher-Touhy family lawsuit.

Is it a case of a greedy  couple capitalizing on the story of their taking in  a poor kid who turned out to be a very good football player? 

Or is it a case of “no good deed  goes unpunished,” as an ungrateful young man who otherwise had no future now turns on the people who gave him a chance?

I do have to confess, though,  that if Oher turns out to be wrong in his accusations, it would not be hard for me to believe that he was strongly influenced by a member or two of the sort of entourage that an eight-year career in the NFL might attract.

Either way,  I suggest that the movie sequel that’s sure to result from this unseemly mess be called “Blindsided.”  No charge for the idea.



*********** Jason Whitlock noted that the fact that Michael Oher has just come out with a book may have something to do with the lawsuit and the publicity it has already generated.

He makes no secret of whom he believes.
 
“What he’s doing to the Tuohy family is despicable,” Whitlock said Tuesday on “Fearless with Jason Whitlock.”

“He’s telling an obvious lie he knows most of the media will be too afraid to question because he’s black. Plus, the media is lazy. It’s easier to repeat Oher’s allegations than to question and/or research the legitimacy of them.

“It’s also easier to just feel sorry for Michael Oher,” Whitlock said.

“Michael Oher is so arrogant and delusional that he believes his natural intellect would have developed regardless of circumstances. It’s a naïve worldview. He’s still naïve. He believes this desperate attempt to shake down the family that welcomed him into their home is a good look, and is going to lead to a financial windfall. It’s not. As lazy as the media is, as lazy as reporters and pundits are, they’re going to have to deal with the truth.”


https://nypost.com/2023/08/16/michael-oher-despicable-for-tuohy-lawsuit-jason-whitlock/amp/


***********   I keep reading about how, after being remote-schooled during the Killer Virus Panic, today’s young people are next to helpless on a job.

With that in mind, I think it’s fair to say that  there’s not an employer in the United States that would consider the services of an 18-year-old kid just out of high school to be worth $180,000 a year.

But I’m told on good authority that that’s the going rate - $15,000 per month or thereabouts - that a recently high school graduate  is being paid for his NIL to play football at a Power 5 university. Do the math: that’s $180,000 a year. 

Is there a teacher in your state making that kind of money? A cop?  A nurse? And that’s for starters. Minimum wage, so to speak. There will be ample opportunities for him to rise above that poverty level and start earning a living wage.

What the f- -k is wrong with this f- - king country?  In a small town in Pennsylvania,   a bunch of ordinary guys who belong to a “rod and gun club” suddenly and unexpectedly find themselves richer by a million dollars, and  they donate it all - half to Wounded Warriors, and half to St. Jude’s Hospital.

But let a bunch of college sports administrators find themselves with an extra 50 or 60 million dollars - money they never had before - and they use it to turn high school kids  (remember that quaint term “student athletes?”) into glorified whores.



*********** I’m reading a book called “Boomerang,” by an author named Barry Hannah.  He was a Mississippian (he’s dead now), and the book consists of a lot of seemingly random observations about growing up in Mississippi and the people he encountered along the way.  I appreciate clever observations, and I really liked this metaphor, one that any high school football fan would understand:

"A lot of people sit back in life and have their overview. Compared to my underview, where I scout, under the bleachers, for what life has dropped."

***********   Hugh, I didn't have to research this one. Bob Mathias.  I was 11 years old and my teacher in elementary school was friends  with him and he came and talked to our class.


Never forgot listening to one of my boy hood idols. Not long after I got to  meet and listen to Rafer Johnson.


Mike Foristiere
Topeka, Kansas

Rafer Johnson, also a son of the Valley (Kingsburg, California) won the gold in the Olympic decathlon in 1960.   He also played basketball for one year at UCLA under the legendary John Wooden.

***********  Hugh -

I'm not sure how I came across your page over a decade and a half ago, as I wasn't a double wing guy, but it's always an interesting read,

On trivia: You've used this one before!

But having played and coached many games in the stadium that bears his name, the answer is obviously Bob Mathias.

As an aside, Tulare's current head coach (an air raid guy) has been there for 29 years with lots of success and I believe is the current winningest coach amongst active coaches in the Section. It's very rare nowadays, and while understandable, it's not a good thing.  The reasons are legion (lack of parent support, stress of the job, some of my colleagues are clueless about athletics, moved to a head job too fast, etc). 

Anyways, glad football is back! 

Thanks,

Mike Burchett
Principal, Woodlake High School
Woodlake, California


***********   You know they're real friends when they go considerably off their path to  visit you.

I pay attention to each page's opening. Today's quotation was more apt than you know. It arrested me, because it fits my coming novel to a T. Don't want this to come across as egocentric, but I'm about to wrap my next novel, the 10th in the Simon Pack series and 15th overall. Title is "Simon Pack: Knight Storm". Reason the Churchill quote grabbed me is because I'm doing my fighting in the culture war through these books. This is probably the penultimate one in the Simon Pack series. His enemies in DC hurt him and his wife, and they've ignited a Knight Storm.

Go NAGA! I hope the group is Native American and I hope they do reclaim the names they want.

Thanks for spotlighting the wedge again. Once CFB starts in a few weeks, I think I'll challenge myself to see how many weeks pass before I see any team run a wedge play.

John Vermillion                    
St Petersburg, Florida



***********    Hugh,

Hopefully Oliver Luck can salvage the Pacific Coast Conference.  Mr. Luck, here's my two cents:  PAC-WEST NORTH: Washington State, Boise State, Oregon State, Nevada, Utah State, Wyoming, Colorado State, Air Force.  PAC-WEST SOUTH: California, Stanford, Fresno State, San Diego State, UNLV, New Mexico, New Mexico State, UTEP.

Ran the Wedge for years at three different schools.  At each school it took an entire year to finally see us run an effective wedge play.  Maybe I wasn't coaching it right??

I wonder if the Engelstad family in Grand Forks, ND will get support from the Sioux tribes to reinstate the Fighting Sioux mascot for the University of North Dakota.

I guess Al Gore and all his cronies who screamed "it's not fair!" should've also been called "election deniers."  Why weren't they indicted??

QUIZ:  Why that's the one and only Bob Mathias!  Growing up in the San Joaquin Valley (Fresno) EVERYONE in the "Valley" knew who he was. The high school football stadium in Tulare is named after him.  

Other famous "Valley" athletes include:  Mark Spitz - Olymic swimmer (Modesto); Rafer Johnson - Olympic track gold medalist (Kingsburg); Frank Gifford - NFL HOF RB (Bakersfield); Tom Seaver - MLB HOF (Fresno); Tommie Smith - Olympic track medalist and gloved fist (Lemoore); Daryle Lamonica - NFL HOF QB (Clovis); Henry Ellard - NFL HOF semi-finalist WR (Fresno); Dutch Warmerdam - first pole vaulter to clear 15 feet (Fresno); *Ralph Giordano - World Welterweight and Lightweight boxing champion (Fresno).

*aka Young Corbett III (My great uncle!)

Have a great week!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas



 

***********   QUIZ ANSWER:  You probably don’t know Bob Mathias, but you should.  He was truly an All-American boy -  a small-town kid, modest and self-effacing, who played all the sports growing up.  And although he played just two years of college football, he is one of the greatest athletes ever to play our game.

He grew in Tulare, California, in the San Joaquin Valley about midway between Fresno and Bakersfield, the son of a doctor who had played tackle at Oklahoma. Growing up, he suffered from anemia, and his father  prescribed a regimen of iron pills, liver pills, and a daily nap. 

It worked: by high school, he was big - 6-2, 190 - fast, and strong. He  was a star in basketball (averaging 18 points a game his senior year) and as a fullback in football.  But he really excelled in track - in several  events. Although his best events were the shot put and discus, he was also a standout in the high hurdles, high jump and sprints, and in his senior track season he took 40 first places, including  two (shot and discus) in the state meet.

Three months before graduation, his high school coach asked him if he might be interested in competing in the decathlon in an AAU meet in Los Angeles, and as he recalled many years later, he answered, “That’s great, Coach.  It sounds like fun. But one question: What’s a decathlon?”

With three weeks to prepare,  he went to L.A. and, although he had never competed in the pole vault, javelin, long jump or 1500 meters, he took first place, which qualified him for the AAU national championships in two weeks.  That meet was held in New Jersey, and  with the help of funding from the townspeople of Tulare, he won there as well, which qualified him for the US Olympic Team. And four weeks after that - just six weeks after his first decathlon - he won the Olympic gold medal in London. Just 17 years old, he became the youngest man ever to win an Olympic track and field title.

Back in the US - and especially in Tulare and the rest of the San Joaquin Valley - he was a huge celebrity.  Thousands were on hand when his plane landed at little Visalia  airport.  President Truman greeted him.  And by mail, he received more than 200 marriage proposals (from women, of course, in those days).

Still 17, he was named the winner of the Sullivan Award, long given to the nation’s outstanding amateur athlete.

He had every intention of going to Stanford after graduation from high school - his father had gone there, his older brother was already going there, and for years his father had take the boys to Stanford football games.  But something had interfered: the Olympics.

All the training, competition and travel had left him short of credits to be accepted to Stanford (imagine any school nowadays turning down an Olympic decathlon champion) and so he spent a year at  Kiskiminetas Springs School (now known as “Kiski School” or “Kiski Prep”), in Western Pennsylvania.

At Stanford, although he had not planned to play football, he  turned out for the team his junior year, and immediately earned a starting position.  In his senior year he helped take Stanford to its first Rose Bowl in 11 years (and its last one for another 19 years). His two fourth-quarter touchdowns against USC - one of them a 96-yard return of a Frank Gifford kickoff - helped the Indians (as they were then called) to a 27-20 win before 96,000 in the Los Angeles Coliseum.  (For what it’s worth, Stanford coach Chuck Taylor was just 31 and in his first year as head coach. He was named Coach of the Year, the only Stanford coach ever to be so honored. He had been a lineman on the Stanford “Wow Boys” team that, running Clark Shaughnessy’s newfangled T-formation, had beaten Nebraska in the Rose Bowl the last time Stanford had played in it.)

After the Rose Bowl it was track again, as he won his fourth straight AAU national decathlon championship and then, bigger (6-3, 200) stronger and faster now,  won his second Olympic decathlon gold medal, this time in Helsinki, Finland.  (He remains the only athlete ever to compete in the Rose Bowl and the Olympics in the same year.)

He was selected AP Male Athlete of the Year.

After graduation, he served as an officer in the Marine Corps for two years.

So popular (and handsome) was he that John Wayne persuaded him to play himself in a movie entitled “The Bob Mathias Story.” He went on to do a few more movies after that, but as a former Tulare High and Stanford classmate once said, acting wasn’t his thing: “He was always genuine. He couldn’t be anybody else.”

The fact that he profited from the movie cost him his athletic eligibility, and he then embarked on a long and varied career that included running a boys’ camp,  serving four terms in the US House of Representatives, serving as Director of the US Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, and Director of the National Fitness Foundation.

Noting years later that the 1948 Olympic Games were the first since 1936, after  World War II had interfered, he said: "Years ago, in the days of the Greeks, wars were postponed to make room for the Olympic Games.   In modern times, the Games have been postponed twice - to make room for wars."


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING BOB MATHIAS

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
VICKY TIMBERS - DENVER, COLORADO
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY
MIKE BURCHETT - WOODLAKE,CALIFORNIA


    


*********** QUIZ: He was born in Many, Louisiana, but went to high school in Lake Charles.

He didn’t go out for football until his junior year, but such was his  talent that he not only made the team but he was named an all-state wide receiver both of his years.

Most of the coaches at his then-segregated school were Grambling men, and they directed him to their alma mater.  There, under legendary coach Eddie Robinson, he teamed up with quarterback James Harris, and was a three-time All-SWAC selection at wide receiver.

(Harris would become the first black player to start an NFL season as his team’s quarterback, and would play 13 years in the NFL.) 

Taken in the fourth round of the 1969 NFL draft by the Oilers as a defensive back, he was sidelined by the same type of injury - a broken arm - in both of his first two seasons.   Moved to wide receiver his third year, he caught 31 passes  for 681 yards and seven touchdowns.  Nevertheless,  despite the  promising season, he was traded to Cincinnati.

There, in three seasons, he missed 25 games to injuries,  and caught only 75 passes.  But he impressed Bengals’ offensive coordinator Bill Walsh  so much that when Walsh left Cincinnati in 1976 to  become offensive coordinator at San Diego, he recommended acquiring our guy.

There, with Dan Fouts running Walsh’s West Coast offense, our guy caught 50 passes for 1,056 yards and seven TDs.

Walsh lasted just that one year at San Diego, then left  to become head coach at Stanford, but in 1978 Don Coryell arrived in San Diego as head coach.  With his “Air Coryell” attack, helped along by an offensive coordinator named Joe Gibbs, our guy was a key part in an offense that broke all sorts of NFL scoring records over the next  several years.

Our guy played a major part.  His best years were 1979-1981, with  at least 70 passes  for more than 1,000 yards all three of those years.  (In 1980, he and fellow receivers John Jefferson and Kellen Winslow all had more than 1,000 yards receiving.)

In all, he played 18 seasons in the NFL, longer than any other wide receiver up to that time, and at the time of his retirement, he had caught more passes (750) for more yards (12,146) than any player in NFL history. (Jerry Rice has since broken many of his records.)

In his career, he caught 50 or more passes seven times, 60 or more passes five times and 70 or more passes three times. Including post-season games, he had 28 games with at least 100 yards in receptions.

He was selected for three Pro Bowls and was  named All-AFC by the AP in 1976 and second-team All-AFC two other times.

He was named the Chargers’ Most Inspirational Player for seven straight years,  1980 -1986, and was the Chargers’ team captain from 1983-1986  (the final four years  of his career).

In 1980, he was a finalist for the NFL Man of the Year award.

He is one of four former Grambling players in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

No less of an expert than Bill Walsh called him  “the most intelligent, the smartest, the most calculating receiver the game has ever known.”




TUESDAY,  AUGUST 15,  2023 - “There comes into the life of every man a task for which he and he alone is uniquely suited. What a shame if that moment finds him either unwilling or unprepared for that which would become his finest hour.”    Winston Churchill



*********** WITH FOOTBALL PRACTICE BEGINNING AROUND THE COUNTRY, BE SURE TO EMAIL ME ABOUT SIGNING UP YOUR TEAM  FOR THE BLACK LION AWARD.  THERE’S NO COST TO PARTICIPATE - IT’S SIMPLY SO WE CAN TELL YOU WHAT YOU NEED TO DO, AND SO WE’LL KNOW HOW MANY AWARDS TO PREPARE FOR.

IF THE BLACK LION AWARD HAS BEEN A PART OF YOUR PROGRAM, I INVITE YOU TO WRITE ME AND SHARE WITH MY READERS WHAT IT MEANS TO YOU.

coachhw@mac.com


********** CFL THIS  PAST WEEKEND - WEEK TEN


THURSDAY

AS I WROTE ON THURSDAY NIGHT, EDMONTON (0-8) WAS BEATING WINNIPEG (6-2) 22-10.  THE GAME WAS PLAYED AT EDMONTON, AND A WIN BY THE ELKS WOULD HAVE ENDED THE LONGEST HOME LOSING STREAK IN THE HISTORY OF PROFESSIONAL SPORTS, BUT ALAS…

FINAL: WINNIPEG (7-2) 38, EDMONTON (0-9) 29 

FRIDAY

MONTREAL (5-3)  41,  SASKATCHEWAN (4-5) 12

SATURDAY


BC  (7-2)  37, CALGARY  (3-6) 9


SUNDAY

 TORONTO  (7-1)  44,   OTTAWA (3-6) 31


YOUR SCHEDULE OF CFL GAMES ON AMERICAN CABLE (CBSSN) THIS SEASON:

https://fbschedules.com/cbs-sports-network-releases-2023-cfl-tv-schedule/


***********  I made it plenty clear that I supported Oliver Luck, back when the overeducated tools who ran the Pac12 decided instead to hire a fellow named George Kliavkoff to run their conference.  George seemed like a nice enough fellow. He was well-groomed and well-dressed and he spoke well,  and he had experience in the entertainment business.  But he didn’t know a damned soul in college sports - not a commissioner, not an AD, not a head coach - well enough to get him on the phone whenever he needed to find out what was going on.  And, while it may be a big business, that’s the folksy way college sports works.  And that’s why George turned out to be a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest.

I’ve also expressed the belief - maybe it’s just the hope - that the remaining Pacific Four can still rebuild the conference in some respectable form.  Provided (1) they can agree and stick together on matters, (2)  they have leadership.

With last Friday’s announcement that they’d hired Oliver Luck as a consultant, it sounds as if they worked together to make the hire, so now - if they agree to let him lead - there’s still a chance that they can pull  a rabbit out of the hat.



*********** AT THE TOP OF MY LIST OF BOOKS THAT I RECOMMEND TO ANYONE WHO’S A COACH OR ABOUT TO BECOME ONE…

(1) Reade, Bob - Coaching Football Successfully - Human Kinetics, 1994 - Every young football coach should read this book - preferably twice or more - before even thinking about becoming a head coach.

(2) Nelson, David M. - Football Principles and Play - Ronald Press, 1962 - This book is deep, and deals with the stuff “under the hood” of the game in a way that I have yet to see anyplace else.

(3) Parseghian , Ara - Parseghian and Notre Dame Football - Doubleday & Co, 1971 & 1973 - Coach Parseghian’s Irish won the 1973 National Championship, and they won it running a Wing-T offense and a Split-4 defense - both systems that I have used for most of my career.  In this book, he gets deeply into the “why” and “how” of his system, and I’ve found  it very useful over the years.   I have great respect for him as a coach and as a man, and - for what it’s worth - his first head coaching job, and the place where he  came to the attention of Notre Dame, was at Northwestern.

(4) McKay, John - Football Coaching - Ronald Press, 1966 - The basics of the USC I-formation attack and his 5-2 Rover (Monster) defense - and more.  Coach McKay probably did more than anyone to popularize the I-formation, and as a result, with tailbacks the likes of Ricky Bell, Anthony Davis, Mike Garrett, O.J. Simpson and Charles White, he established USC’s reputation as “tailback U.”   Garrett and Simpson both won Heisman Trophies. His book holds nothing back, explaining the entire USC offense in considerable detail (an indication that he didn’t care that opponents knew what he was doing - he still had personnel  good enough to beat you anyhow.

(5) Ellison, Glenn "Tiger" - Run and Shoot Football - Parker Publishing, 1965 & 1984 - Tiger Ellison was a high school coach in Hamilton, Ohio who, faced with an 0-4-1 record in a town that expected winning teams, decided to use simple touch football principles of “getting open.” It turned his season around, turned his kids on - the community, too - and led to the development of an entire offensive system, which he came to call the Run and Shoot.

(6) Bryant, Paul W. - Building a Championship Football Team - Prentice-Hall, 1960 - There have been at least a dozen books written about The Bear, but this one was written BY him. He writes a lot about defense and how he taught it, and a lot of  it is based on the numbering system he got from Bum Phillips - “a Texas high school coach.”   It’s become a part of the language of football (“he’s playing a seven technique”)  and as far as I’ve been able to tell, Coach Bryant’s book was the first time it was explained in print.

(7) Evashevski, Forest and Nelson, David - Scoring Power With the Winged T Offense - Brown Co., 1957 - The original book on the offense that took the football world by storm after Iowa put it on display in the Rose Bowl.   Delaware - and Maine before it - had been running the offense for six years.  But the offense, invented by Dave Nelson and his assistants, Mike Lude and Harold Westerman, and called the “Winged T,” might never have come to the attention of football people if it hadn’t been demonstrated on the games biggest  stage - the 1957 Rose Bowl.  There, in front of more than 100,000 people and a nationwide TV audience, the Number 3 Iowa Hawkeyes ran wild in beating Oregon State, 35-19.  The demand to learn more about the Iowa offense could only be satisfied by a book describing it in detail, and that’s what Coach Nelson and Iowa coach Forest Evashevski produced.  It is a masterwork.

(8) Danzig, Allison - The History of American Football - Prentice-Hall, 1956 - It’s a big book because it deals with a big subject - the men and their teams - and their thinking - that built the game we have today.  I majored in history in college, and I consider this one of the best history books I’ve ever seen.  What a great thing that it happens to be about football.  It’s the history of college football  from the game’s beginnings until the mid-1950s.  And it  digs in deeply.  At the time of its publication, a critic at the New York Times called it “Without Doubt, the most ambitious and best book ever published on the subject of college football.” (Pro  football, for the time that the book covers, played a very minor part.)  I find myself going to this book time after time in doing research.   It’s truly a shame that none of us gets to live forever, because I’d love to have a copy of his History of American Football - Part Two.

(9) Ecker, Tom and Calloway, Bill - Athletic Journal's Encyclopedia of Football - Parker Publishing, 1978 - A compilation of offensive and defensive ideas from top college and HS coaches.  This is dated, of course, and there’s nothing in here about RPOs or shallow crosses or dime coverages, but take it from someone who started coaching in 1970 - there are timeless  aspects to our game that you ignore at your peril. There is great value still in having a basic understanding of the Veer… the I formation… the Wing T… the Wishbone… the 5-2… the 4-4… the 4-3…Goal Line offenses (boy, couldn’t today’s offensive coordinators use this) and Goal Line defenses… the Kicking game… Coaching the Offensive Backfield… Coaching the Defensive Backfield…Coaching the Offensive Line… Coaching the Defensive Line…   There  are 318 pages of solid, sound football techniques and teaching. This book is an invaluable resource.  

(10) Tallman, Drew - Directory of Football Offenses - 1978 - incredible resource - pocket-sized diagrams of formations;   Directory of Football Defenses - 1980 - likewise

These two little (4 x -1/2) books are the damnedest things I’ve seen in all my years of coaching.  They’re in need of updating - which, considering how thorough they are, would represent a major undertaking - but especially for anyone running an “outdated” offense or preparing to defend against one, they are really helpful.

Coaching offense?  Open the “DEFENSES” book to the defense you expect to see this week, and see how it recommends attacking it.
Coaching defense?  Open the “OFFENSES” book and see what it says the strong points and weak points of this coming week’s opponent are.


(11)  Caldwell, Charlie - Modern Single-Wing Football - Lippincott $ Co - 1951 - It’s the first football book I ever got, given to me as a Christmas present when I was a kid. Very technical, it took me years to understand it, but his section on the wedge was a real eye-opener for me

In all the years since I’ve been promoting the Double Wing,  a lot of self-taught Double-Wing experts have popped up. But few of them have included the Wedge in their arsenals, and of those who have included it, they have either copied directly from me, or they don’t know how to coach it.  Me?  I’m indebted to Coach Caldwell for teaching me - via this book - the proper way to teach the wedge.
Here’s a selection from my Open Wing playbook…

THE WEDGE

I LOVE THE WEDGE.  MY PERSONAL HISTORY WITH THE PLAY GOES BACK TO MY HIGH SCHOOL DAYS, IN THE 1950S, WHEN WE RAN THE PENN SINGLE WING.  WE HAD A LOT OF FAITH IN OUR WEDGE PLAY.  EVERY PLACE I'VE COACHED, I'VE RUN THE WEDGE, AND I TAKE A LOT OF PRIDE IN HAVING POPULARIZED IT WITH MY VIDEOS.

BUT NOT EVERYONE LOVES IT.  OPPONENTS HATE IT, OF COURSE, BUT SOME FANS DO, TOO.  THEY’LL HOLLER, “THAT’S NOT FOOTBALL!” WHICH SHOWS THEIR IGNORANCE, SINCE THE WEDGE DATES BACK TO THE VERY BEGINNINGS OF OUR GAME.

TO ANYBODY WHO RUNS THE WEDGE, WATCHING A MASS OF FOOTBALL PLAYERS MOVE DOWN THE FIELD, DEFENDERS ON THEIR BACKS, LINEMEN CROSSING THE GOAL LINE AHEAD OF THE RUNNER, IS A THING OF BEAUTY.  IT’S THE ULTIMATE TEAM PLAY.

MOST PEOPLE THINK OF THE WEDGE AS JUST A PLODDING, SHORT-YARDAGE PLAY.  BUT MOST COACHES WHO RUN IT HAVE SEEN IT GO FOR BIG GAINS AS A RUNNER TUCKS INSIDE THE WEDGE OF HIS LINEMEN, THEN SUDDENLY FINDS DAYLIGHT.  TIP: DON’T WAIT FOR SHORT-YARDAGE SITUATIONS TO CALL IT.  CALL IT ANY TIME.  JUST AS WITH ANY PLAY, IT’S MOST SUCCESSFUL WHEN IT’S LEAST EXPECTED.

LIKE THE WEDGE ITSELF - ONE OF THE SIMPLEST TOOLS KNOWN TO MANKIND - THE WEDGE PLAY IS QUITE SIMPLE IN CONCEPT.  BUT JUST BECAUSE IT'S SIMPLE TO DESCRIBE (I'VE HEARD TV GUYS SAY, "IT'S JUST A WEDGE") DOESN'T MEAN IT'S SIMPLE TO RUN IT WELL.

THE GREAT PRINCETON COACH, CHARLIE CALDWELL, IN HIS BOOK, “MODERN SINGLE WING FOOTBALL” (1950) POINTED OUT THAT IT TAKES A LOT OF WORK AND TIME TO PERFECT A WEDGE:

“It takes us four or five weeks to get a good wedge charge organized. In the learning process, we work on the ability to sustain, follow through, and keep the legs driving, all of which are needed for effective power blocking.”

(DID YOU CATCH THAT? “FOUR OR FIVE WEEKS?” AND THAT WAS A COACH WHO’D BEEN RUNNING THE PLAY FOR YEARS, WITH A STAFF AND A TEAM THAT KNEW THE PLAY INSIDE-OUT, SAYING THAT!  SO WHO ARE WE - ANY OF US - TO THINK THAT WE CAN PUT IT IN ON MONDAY AND EXPECT TO RUN IT EXPERTLY ON FRIDAY NIGHT?) 

COACH CALDWELL’S DESCRIPTION OF THE WEDGE IS STILL THE BEST I’VE EVER COME ACROSS:

“The wedge may be likened in some respects to the snowplow. The maximum amount of drive must be delivered at the apex of the wedge to effect the initial breakthrough. Every bit of power developed at the apex is used solely to drive straight ahead. On either side of the apex, power is used in two ways: to contribute to the straight-ahead thrust of the apex, and, at the same time, to prevent infiltration from the sides. The apex of the wedge, in order to obtain maximum power, is designed to take advantage of the opportunity to put three offensive men against one defensive man. We try to assign three men definitely on one, and with this ratio we should be able to get the wedge under way at this most crucial point. The rest of the team folds into the apex and blocks space rather than assigned men. This is because it is impossible to tell, at the start, exactly how the wedge will develop in terms of opening up the defense.”

ONE FINAL NOTE FROM THE MASTER COACH:

“Do not be discouraged if it takes a long time to get a wedge charge that is really effective. No time spent on this is wasted, as the stress on sustaining the charge is fundamental to any good offensive blocking.”


***********   You can’t make this sh— up…

A Chicago neighborhood group that calls itself Native Sons is asking gang members to commit to a daily cease-fire from 9:00 in the morning to 9:00 in the evening  so that people can go about their daily lives without living in fear of being shot.

Just like hunters, though, even with an agreement you just know there’s going to be some fool that starts shooting at 8:59 PM, and another that doesn’t stop shooting until 9:01 AM.

Me, I would have suggested gun-free zones.  They work really well.


https://www.breitbart.com/2nd-amendment/2023/08/14/chicago-group-asks-gang-members-not-shoot-people-between-9-00-a-m-9-00-p-m/



***********  Evidently it takes something like five years for an NFL team to undergo a name change, but now that the “Washington Football Team” has gone through a change of ownership, a petition is being circulated to change the team’s name once again - back to Redskins.

Yes, yes, I know - “Redskins” is  racist and demeaning.  (Mostly, it seems, in the eyes of woke white people. Polls of Indians/Native Americans/Indigenous Peoples showed that most of them were not bothered at all by the “Redskins” name.)

This petition, which its organizers say has more than 80,000 signatures (more than any crowd the “Deadskins” play in front of), is backed by a group which calls itself NAGA - the Native American Guardian Association.   (Sounds to me like an American Indian organization.)  The petition,  says the group,  is ”designed to promote our history, put an end to cancel culture, and #ReclaimTheName ‘Redskins.’”

“Promote our history,” eh?  Right on.  I was beginning to wonder when it would occur to native peoples that while all this erasing of Braves, Chiefs, Warriors, Sioux, Illini and so forth may have been great for white virtue signalers, its ultimate result will be to make Indians - and anything associated with them - disappear from consciousness. .

In a letter sent last week to the team’s new leadership the group, ”formally requesting the team revitalize its relationship with the American Indian community and rightfully change their name back to ‘the Redskins.’" said,   "You simply cannot erase history and target the Native American community by eradicating the name ‘Redskins’ while being an organization that fosters other Constitutional rights, including players who don’t honor the American flag and kneel during our National Anthem.”


Hail to the Redskins!
Hail Victory!
Braves on the Warpath!
FIGHT! for Old DC!


***********  If you’re looking for some excitement in the pre-season, watch the Cowboys.  If you haven’t seen Deuce Vaughn, their 5-5 rookie running back from Kansas State, you’re in for a treat.  As a K-State fan, I can tell you that the guy is really fun to watch.


*********** A longtime Double Wing coach whom I’ve known well - even worked with at one point - has relocated, and eager to find a coaching home, hooked up with a team without having time to do due diligence.  And here’s his latest report…


Thanks for checking on me coach. I really needed that. Well,  this is going like pretty much like everything else since I moved here. It - for lack of a better word - SUCKS.

- 4 other coaches.

1- one screams and threatens kids all practice long.

2- he is  just the father of a boy on the team and I don’t know what he does but he always butts in.

3- this one just watches and waits for me to try to fix everything and then he jumps in.

4- the head coach. I don’t ever know what it is that he wants. The most important thing is protecting his kid.  He is a good athlete but he already has him as a running back and that is all he is going to do.

The best, most capable athletes on the team are only or can only play running backs.

We have a jamboree next Saturday and as of this Friday ONE play has been installed and aside from the running backs and four lineman no one knows where to play or where to line up.

I’m trying,  coach,  and living up to the mantra of, “ Keep Coaching .” But this is insane.
 
Oh -  and HC wants all the minimum-play type players on defense and special teams.
Crazy times I’m living in.

And when on the play he has set up they can’t get the handoff, can’t get to the hole and it doesn’t work,  everyone just start yelling at the kids. (The play doesn’t work even with all the minimum play players on the defensive line.)
 
Regards. Appreciate your friendship and sending my sincere appreciation as always to you and a big hello to Connie.

I wrote,

One good thing for you to keep in mind is that this confirms that you are as good a coach as you knew you were.    But I worry about how long you can last in that zoo.

I spoke at a coach’s school this past week and that coaching staff you describe sounds like exactly what I was telling those coaches NOT to be.

One of my main points: when a kid screws up, either

(1) HE CANT DO IT or

(2) YOU DIDNT TEACH IT

Whose fault is that???

Either way, it’s not the kid’s fault. So WTF are you yelling at HIM for?




*********** Isn’t global climate change a bitch? We’ve got an “Excessive Heat Watch.”


You KNOW all the expense and trouble of fighting climate change is worth it when not even Ocean Shores, Washington is immune to the ravages of “excessive heat.”  So here we are - whew - sweltering in 75-degree heat, without any air-conditioning.   Damn.


*********** Here’s an acronym fer ya!

AWFUL

Afffluent
White
Female
Urban
Liberal


************* Any coach who’s ever been out of a job knows there’s a special place in Hell for people who don’t answer your calls when  you’re inquiring about a job opening.

Many years ago, when Maryland was still in the ACC, Terps’ coach Ralph Friedgen was asked how he felt after beating Duke and he replied, "I love beating people that wouldn't return my resumes or answer my calls."


***********  I maintain to this day that there is no way in hell that an unpopular, semi-vegetative man who needed everyone else to drop out before he could win a primary, and never  got off his ass to campaign could get 81 million votes - more than Barack Obama or even Clinton.

Which makes me, in the eyes of the liberal elites,  an “Election Denier.”  A spreader of “The Big Lie.”

Who knows?  Maybe through the newfound magic of AI they can place me in a film clip of January 6 “rioting,”  and at the very least I’ll be branded an insurrectionist.  A threat to “our democracy.”  I could even wind up in the DC Gulag, deprived of all my civil liberties.

Republican presidential candidates are being badgered to declare that they accept the results of the 2020 election or else they’re (gasp!) “election deniers,” too!

Mollie Hemingway in The Federalist brought up a VERY interesting parallel to the issue: The 1972 Olympic Gold Medal basketball game between the US and the USSR (Russia)

The game is one of the most controversial events in Olympic history, with the American men’s team refusing to concede they lost to the Soviet Union. In fact, it’s been more than 50 years and the men on that team have never accepted their silver medals because they still do not believe the game was conducted in a fair fashion. Just last year, the men wanted to have the silver medals donated to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, but the International Olympic Committee demanded the men officially accept them first before they could be donated. On principle, the men will not take the medals or recognize the legitimacy of the outcome, so the medals remain in limbo.

The team, which is the only team in Olympic history to contest an outcome, has an excellent case that the game was rigged. The Americans had dominated the Olympic sport since it first appeared in the 1936 Olympics. They had won seven gold medals and were the presumptive favorites in 1972. Their record before the final game was an astounding 63-0.

However, the Soviets were very good that year and their older and experienced team was winning the game until the final seconds, when the U.S. player Doug Collins was fouled and sank two free throws, putting the team ahead by one point with one second left on the clock.

An official demanded that an additional two seconds be put back on the clock. When that time expired, the U.S. team began to celebrate and their fans swarmed onto the court. But officials said the clock reset had not been done properly so they put three seconds back on the clock and gave the Soviets another chance. The Soviet team also managed to make an illegal substitution of a player who, with the help of a Soviet Bloc referee interfering in the play, passed to another player who scored the winning point.

The Americans were outraged at how the game was conducted and appealed to a basketball court made up of five judges. However, they lost that appeal 3-2. It is perhaps worth noting that all three judges who voted against the Americans happened to be from communist countries.

The Soviet Union men, for their part, are absolutely defiant that they won a free and fair game. Just a few years ago, Russians put out a very popular movie called “Going Vertical” — also known as “Three Seconds” — about their surprise victory over the Americans. It became “the most-successful Russian film of all time,” according to the Hollywood Reporter.

When the American press covers the Olympics issue — including a raft of coverage last year on the 50th anniversary of the game — they never hector the players to concede that they lost. They do not refer to them as “Olympics deniers.” Heck, the Olympics.com news site itself has a story headlined, “Americans refuse silver as USSR steal controversial basketball final.” The Washington Post covered the dispute generously. So did NBC. In 2012, The New York Times favorably reviewed a book that alleged the game was stolen by the Soviets. When power forward Dwight Jones died in 2016, The New York Times gave him an obituary that featured the disputed game. ESPN has filmed round table discussions about the unfair loss. Just last year, The New York Times supported the effort to have the outcome of the game overturned.

Can you imagine if reporters cornered the players or their fans and said, “Yes or no, did you lose the 1972 game?” Can you imagine if they badgered each player to utter an affirmation that the Soviets won fair and square or be called “basketball deniers”? Can you imagine how juvenile and idiotic that would sound? Real journalists wouldn’t do any of these things, particularly if they genuinely wanted to understand or accurately convey why the game was so controversial.

Did the men’s basketball team of the Soviet Union score more points than the United States in 1972? They did. Did they receive the gold medal? They did. Did Joe Biden receive more Electoral College votes than Donald Trump? He did. Was he inaugurated as the 46th president of the United States? He was.

All of those things are true. It is also true that reasonable people on the losing side of both contests believe — for very good reasons — they were not fair. It is sheer gaslighting to use the immense power of the Democrat media and corrupted Department of Justice to say that people are not allowed to oppose the way election contests were conducted or discuss how the manner in which the contests have been conducted affected the outcome.

***********  It was the summer of 1979.  I’d been coaching high school ball in the Northwest for a few years, and I offered to help a young guy named Dave Pruitt who, along with his brother, Sam, had just bought a semi-pro football team called the Van-Port (Vancouver-Portland) Thunderbirds, and didn’t really know how or where to start.

I had a high school job so I could only help for a brief time, but Dave and Sam were good guys, and  it turned out to be a lot of fun.  I put together an offense (back then I was still a pro set guy) and I had some great young guys to work with. We weren’t as  good as my team back in Hagerstown, Maryland - yet -  but we were as least as good as that Hagerstown team was in my first year there.  One of the players on the Thunderbirds was a tall, athletic wide receiver named Jake Von Scherrer who had just graduated from Pacific University in Forest Grove, Oregon.  Good athlete.  Lots of potential.

To shorten the story, once my school team got started, Jake and I went our separate ways. Jake went on to coach at several high schools in Oregon, then began to coach as well as work as AD at some private schools in California and Arkansas, before landing in Florida. 

At his first place there, Coral Springs Christian School, we hooked up again, through the Black Lion Award.  Jake was the head football coach and AD, and in signing up his team he asked if there was a “real” Black Lion in the area who could present the award.  Enter Steve Goodman, a Black Lion and a survivor of the Battle of Ong Thanh in which Major Don Holleder lost his life.  “Goody,” now gone from us, was a big, good-natured Jewish guy from Brooklyn and he took great pride in his association with the kids at the Christian school, presenting  the award for eight years, until Jake moved on.

Jake’s next stop was Palmer Trinity School in Miami, where he spent six years as coach and AD, and his last stop was at the Maclay School, an elite day school in Tallahassee, where he served as AD until he retired a year ago.

At just about every one of Jake’s stops, his wife, Jan, who was a runner at Oregon State, worked alongside, teaching and coaching.

Although he’s retired from school work, Jake’s varied experiences keep him busy advising other ADs, and he and Jan are still active as track officials.

Jake has published “The Athletic Director’s Toolbox,” and hosts “The Educational AD” podcast.

Now living in Tavares, Florida, near Orlando, they’re both originally from the Northwest - Jake from Battle Ground, Washington and Jan from Junction City, Oregon -  and they try to get back once a year.

Last week, on the first leg of this year’s visit, Jake and Jan paid us a visit in Ocean Shores.  It’s not as easy as you think - we’re 3 hours from Seattle, 3 hours from Portland, 1-1/2 hours from Interstate 5 - so it was great of them to make the drive.  Between  the cool weather, the wide open beaches and the seafood (and the conversation) we did our best to make it worthwhile.


***********   Coach Wyatt,

Good stuff about Mel Farr. I was a big Lion fan in those days, and Mel Farr was my favorite. I'll go one better on his Superman commercial: it was, "Mel Farr, superstar, for a far better deal!" I have great memories of those days watching, "This Week in the NFL" with Pat Summerall and Tom Brookshire. I still have two of the record albums of the music used in that show called, "The Music of the NFL," that I bought at the gift shop at the Pro Football Hall of Fame when my college team (The Albion College Britons) toured the Hall the night before we played Mount Union College in 1978.

The quiz answer for this week is Tobin Rote. My dad, also a Lion fan, was, I think, 34 when that game was played. I heard many stories from that one.

I was also glad to see that I have three of your top five books, the ones by Bob Reade, John McKay, and Tiger Ellison. I just picked up a classic this past spring in a used bookstore in little Newaygo, Michigan. It's, "Championship Football" by Dana X. Bible.

Somehow I got out of the habit of reading your column. It's good to be back.

John Zeller
Tustin, Michigan

Great to have you back!  And the Dana X. Bible book is excellent.


***********   The little time I’ve spent in Idaho has left me with memories of good people. The HS freshman is getting in their line.

Rapinoe. There, I’ve done it, typed her name for what I hope will be the last time.

Looking forward to the next Zoom. Thanks for the latest interesting and informative page.

John Vermillion      
St Petersburg, Florida


***********  Hugh,

Edmonton's futility continues.  For awhile it appeared there was a glimmer of hope with a lead, then reality set in losing the lead, but the Eskimos put together a late rally only to see it fizzle on highly questionable play call on third down (Canada's version of fourth down).  And I don't think a slick looking new logo will help their cause.  To me they are still the Edmonton Eskimos.

NONE of what Biden is doing is legal.  Yet there he is still making up rules and the sheeple that follow him continue to support him NOT because he's such a dynamic politician, but because they hate Donald Trump so much, and the MM continues to stir up that hatred.  Anyone with any common sense can see right through this whole s*** show.

Prolific Irish QB Lujack likely saved ND's national championship as a DB in that game of the century with a TD saving tackle against Army's Blanchard on a breakaway run late in the game to preserve the 0-0 tie.

The more articles and comments I read regarding college football realignments the more I see that college football fans are NOT in favor of what's happening.  Most still want to maintain regional rivalries, traditional foes, and TRADITION period.  They can thank the greedy TV networks, activists, and agents who have forced college administrators to succumb to their whims.  Greed ruined pro football, is ruining college football, and will ruin high school football.

Enjoy the weekend!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas

Joe, I think that the way the “collectives”  are making a farce of college recruiting   - paying insane NIL money to recent high school kids who wouldn’t  even be worth minimum wage at fast food places - is what’s going to be the ruination of college sports.  The idea that Fight On and Mighty Oregon and War Eagle  and the Aggie War Hymn mean a damn thing to those football players is a sham.  It makes Fly Eagles Fly and Bear Down Chicago Bears seem authentic.






*********** QUIZ  ANSWER:  Tobin Rote played 16 years in three different professional leagues - NFL, CFL, AFL - and although he spent his first seven years in Green Bay at a time when the Packers were really, really bad, things worked out for him in the second half of his career:

He was  the winning quarterback the last time the Detroit Lions won a  title (1957, if you needed to know).

He became the only quarterback to win a championship in both the AFL and the NFL.

A native of San Antonio, he played college football at Rice. In his senior year, he led the Owls to a 10-1 record and a win in the Cotton Bowl, and he was drafted in the second round by the Green Bay Packers (the 17th pick overall).  One of the Owls’ biggest wins was a come-from-behind 41-27 win over SMU and its star, his cousin Kyle Rote.

In 1956, despite playing for a 4-8 Packers team, he led the league in attempts, completions, yards passing and touchdown passes.  Always a strong runner (and often forced to run), his 11 touchdowns rushing led all quarterbacks and were second in the NFL among all runners.  The significance of his 18 touchdown passes and 11 touchdowns rushing can’t be overstated: the rest of the Packers’ team contributed just five touchdowns!

But it was his final season with the Packers. They had drafted Bart Starr in the 1956 draft, and  in the 1957 training camp, they decided to let Rote go, and mercifully traded him to the Lions.

In his seven years in Green Bay, he had experienced five losing seasons, and two 6-6 seasons.

The Lions already had all-star Bobby Layne at QB, but Layne broke his ankle in the next-to-last game of the season, and Rote stepped in and led Detroit to a 31-27 comeback win over the 49ers in the Western Division title game (they had trailed 24-6 at halftime) and then, in the NFL title game, he threw four TD passes and ran for another to lead them in a 59-14 trouncing of the Cleveland Browns.  (The 59 points are second only to the 1941 Chicago Bears’ 73 points - against the Redskins - as the most points ever scored in an NFL championship or Super Bowl game.)

For the record,  the team that traded him, Green Bay, finished 3-9 that season.

Following the 1959 season he was released, and he wound up playing in Canada for the Toronto Argonauts.

In his first year in Canada, he threw for 38 touchdowns, then  an All-time CFL record.  He twice threw for seven TDs in a single game. In three years in Canada, he threw for 9,872 yards and 62 TDs.

But after his third year, he moved on to the AFL  and the San Diego Chargers.

He was 35  and in his 14th year as a pro, but he led the Chargers to the AFL title with a 51-10 win over the Boston Patriots, and earning him first team AFL  honors and the AP Player of the Year award.

As their young QB John Hadl began to develop, the Chargers gave him more playing time, and although Rote  did start in the AFL championship game (which the Chargers lost to the Bills), he announced his retirement following the game.

He came out of retirement played briefly with the Denver Broncos in 1966 but  he was waived midway through the season and retired for good at the age of 38.

In the NFL and AFL, Tobin Rote  threw for 18,850 yards and 148 touchdowns, and ran for another 37 touchdowns.

CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING TOBIN  ROTE

TOM DAVIS - CAN MARCOS, CALIFORNIA
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
RUSS MEYERS - VERNON CENTER, NEW YORK
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
JOHN ZELLER - TUSTIN, MICHIGAN
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY


 

***********   QUIZ:  You probably don’t know this guy, but you should.  He was truly an All-American boy -  a small-town kid, modest and self-effacing, who played all the sports growing up.  And although he played just two years of college football, he is one of the greatest athletes ever to play our game.

He grew in Tulare, California, in the San Joaquin Valley about midway between Fresno and Bakersfield, the son of a doctor who had played tackle at Oklahoma. Growing up, he suffered from anemia, and his father  prescribed a regimen of iron pills, liver pills, and a daily nap. 

It worked: by high school, he was big - 6-2, 190 - fast, and strong. He  was a star in basketball (averaging 18 points a game his senior year) and as a fullback in football.  But he really excelled in track - in several  events. Although his best events were the shot put and discus, he was also a standout in the high hurdles, high jump and sprints, and in his senior track season he took 40 first places, including  two (shot and discus) in the state meet.

Three months before graduation, his high school coach asked him if he might be interested in competing in the decathlon in an AAU meet in Los Angeles, and as he recalled many years later, he answered, “That’s great, Coach.  It sounds like fun. But one question: What’s a decathlon?”

With three weeks to prepare,  he went to L.A. and, although he had never competed in the pole vault, javelin, long jump or 1500 meters, he took first place, which qualified him for the AAU national championships in two weeks.  That meet was held in New Jersey, and  with the help of funding from the townspeople of Tulare, he won there as well, which qualified him for the US Olympic Team. And four weeks after that - just six weeks after his first decathlon - he won the Olympic gold medal in London. Just 17 years old, he became the youngest man ever to win an Olympic track and field title.

Back in the US - and especially in Tulare and the rest of the San Joaquin Valley - he was a huge celebrity.  Thousands were on hand when his plane landed at little Visalia  airport.  President Truman greeted him.  And by mail, he received more than 200 marriage proposals (from women, of course, in those days).

Still 17, he was named the winner of the Sullivan Award, long given to the nation’s outstanding amateur athlete.

He had every intention of going to Stanford after graduation from high school - his father had gone there, his older brother was already going there, and for years his father had taken the boys to Stanford football games.  But something had interfered: the Olympics.

All the training, competition and travel had left him short of credits to be accepted to Stanford (imagine any school nowadays turning down an Olympic decathlon champion) and so he spent a year at  Kiskiminetas Springs School (now known as “Kiski School” or “Kiski Prep”), in Western Pennsylvania.

At Stanford, although he had not planned to play football, he  turned out for the team his junior year, and immediately earned a starting position.  In his senior year he helped take Stanford to its first Rose Bowl in 11 years (and its last one for another 19 years). His two fourth-quarter touchdowns against USC - one of them a 96-yard return of a Frank Gifford kickoff - helped the Indians (as they were then called) to a 27-20 win before 96,000 in the Los Angeles Coliseum.  (For what it’s worth, Stanford coach Chuck Taylor was just 31 and in his first year as head coach. He was named Coach of the Year, the only Stanford coach ever to be so honored. He had been a lineman on the Stanford “Wow Boys” team that, running Clark Shaughnessy’s newfangled T-formation, had beaten Nebraska in the Rose Bowl the last time Stanford had played in it.)

After the Rose Bowl it was track again, as he won his fourth straight AAU national decathlon championship and then, bigger (6-3, 200) stronger and faster now,  won his second Olympic decathlon gold medal, this time in Helsinki, Finland.  (He remains the only athlete ever to compete in the Rose Bowl and the Olympics in the same year.)

He was selected AP Male Athlete of the Year.

After graduation, he served as an officer in the Marine Corps for two years.

So popular (and handsome) was he that John Wayne persuaded him to play himself in a movie entitled “The - - -  - - - - -  Story.” He went on to do a few more movies after that, but as a former Tulare High and Stanford classmate once said, acting wasn’t his thing: “He was always genuine. He couldn’t be anybody else.”

The fact that he profited from the movie cost him his athletic eligibility, and he then embarked on a long and varied career that included running a boys’ camp,  serving four terms in the US House of Representatives, serving as Director of the US Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, and Director of the National Fitness Foundation.

Noting years later that the 1948 Olympic Games were the first since 1936, after  World War II had interfered, he said: "Years ago, in the days of the Greeks, wars were postponed to make room for the Olympic Games.   In modern times, the Games have been postponed twice - to make room for wars."



FRIDAY,  AUGUST 11,  2023 - "Be precise. A lack of precision is dangerous when the margin of error is small."   Donald Rumsfeld


*********** WITH FOOTBALL PRACTICE BEGINNING AROUND THE COUNTRY, BE SURE TO EMAIL ME ABOUT SIGNING UP YOUR TEAM  FOR THE BLACK LION AWARD.  THERE’S NO COST TO PARTICIPATE - IT’S SIMPLY SO WE CAN TELL YOU WHAT YOU NEED TO DO, AND SO WE’LL KNOW HOW MANY AWARDS TO PREPARE FOR.

IF THE BLACK LION AWARD HAS BEEN A PART OF YOUR PROGRAM, I INVITE YOU TO WRITE ME AND SHARE WITH MY READERS WHAT IT MEANS TO YOU.

coachhw@mac.com


************   Coach,

I know I read your page on a regular basis and I know the basic idea of the Black Lion Award but can you give me a detail of the specific characteristics of the award winners and suggestions of maybe some ideas to talk with my AD about it.   I love Greg Koenig's idea of it being the only individual award but I will need to have a plan on selling this prior to meeting with my AD.

Jason Mensing
Westland, Michigan


Hi Coach-

I appreciate your interest and I’m glad to provide some information.

http://www.coachwyatt.com/BLaward.htm

If this isn’t enough, please get back to me.  The important thing I’ve had  to stress at a lot of schools,  because of the politics nowadays,  is that there is NO connection whatsoever to the US Army and this is not in any way a recruitment device..


Coach Mensing also asked…


 One other question, would it be most appropriate to award a winner for each of my teams (Freshman, JV, and Varsity) or one total winner?    This totally fits what we are trying to do as a program work away from the selfishness that existed here and build around dependability, work ethic, and selflessness....

Our Vision is to Teach grit, and Build Community with our Mission being Teaching grit the combination of work ethic and discipline (we define discipline as consistently doing what your suppose to do) and Building Community the act of selflessness, togetherness, and love of those around you....


Coach,

Our feeling has always been that as long as a team is run separately within your program, we encourage you to use the Black Lion Award as a motivator and reward for unselfish  courage and team-first leadership throughout your program!



*********** CFL THIS  WEEKEND - WEEK TEN


THURSDAY

AS I WRITE THIS, EDMONTON (0-8) IS BEATING WINNIPEG (6-2) 22-10.  IT’S BEING PLAYED AT EDMONTON, WHICH MEANS A WIN BY THE ELKS WOULD END THE LONGEST HOME LOSING STREAK IN THE HISTORY OF PROFESSIONAL SPORTS


FRIDAY

SASKATCHEWAN (4-4) AT  MONTREAL (4-3) 7:30 PM EDT


SATURDAY


CALGARY  (3-5) AT BC  (6-2)  7 PM EDT


SUNDAY

 OTTAWA (3-5) AT TORONTO  (6-1)  7 PM EDT




YOUR SCHEDULE OF CFL GAMES ON AMERICAN CABLE (CBSSN) THIS SEASON:

https://fbschedules.com/cbs-sports-network-releases-2023-cfl-tv-schedule/





*********** AT THE TOP OF MY LIST OF BOOKS THAT I RECOMMEND TO ANYONE WHO’S A COACH OR ABOUT TO BECOME ONE…

(1) Reade, Bob - Coaching Football Successfully - Human Kinetics, 1994 - Every young football coach should read this book - preferably twice or more - before even thinking about becoming a head coach.

(2) Nelson, David M. - Football Principles and Play - Ronald Press, 1962 - This book is deep, and deals with the stuff “under the hood” of the game in a way that I have yet to see anyplace else.

(3) Parseghian , Ara - Parseghian and Notre Dame Football - Doubleday & Co, 1971 & 1973 - Coach Parseghian’s Irish won the 1973 National Championship, and they won it running a Wing-T offense and a Split-4 defense - both systems that I have used for most of my career.  In this book, he gets deeply into the “why” and “how” of his system, and I’ve found  it very useful over the years.   I have great respect for him as a coach and as a man, and - for what it’s worth - his first head coaching job, and the place where he  came to the attention of Notre Dame, was at Northwestern.

(4) McKay, John - Football Coaching - Ronald Press, 1966 - The basics of the USC I-formation attack and his 5-2 Rover (Monster) defense - and more.  Coach McKay probably did more than anyone to popularize the I-formation, and as a result, with tailbacks the likes of Ricky Bell, Anthony Davis, Mike Garrett, O.J. Simpson and Charles White, he established USC’s reputation as “tailback U.”   Garrett and Simpson both won Heisman Trophies. His book holds nothing back, explaining the entire USC offense in considerable detail (an indication that he didn’t care that opponents knew what he was doing - he still had personnel  good enough to beat you anyhow.

(5) Ellison, Glenn "Tiger" - Run and Shoot Football - Parker Publishing, 1965 & 1984 - Tiger Ellison was a high school coach in Hamilton, Ohio who, faced with an 0-4-1 record in a town that expected winning teams, decided to use simple touch football principles of “getting open.” It turned his season around, turned his kids on - the community, too - and led to the development of an entire offensive system, which he came to call the Run and Shoot.

(6) Bryant, Paul W. - Building a Championship Football Team - Prentice-Hall, 1960 - There have been at least a dozen books written about The Bear, but this one was written BY him. He writes a lot about defense and how he taught it, and a lot of  it is based on the numbering system he got from Bum Phillips - “a Texas high school coach.”   It’s become a part of the language of football (“he’s playing a seven technique”)  and as far as I’ve been able to tell, Coach Bryant’s book was the first time it was explained in print.

(7) Evashevski, Forest and Nelson, David - Scoring Power With the Winged T Offense - Brown Co., 1957 - The original book on the offense that took the football world by storm after Iowa put it on display in the Rose Bowl.   Delaware - and Maine before it - had been running the offense for six years.  But the offense, invented by Dave Nelson and his assistants, Mike Lude and Harold Westerman, and called the “Winged T,” might never have come to the attention of football people if it hadn’t been demonstrated on the games biggest  stage - the 1957 Rose Bowl.  There, in front of more than 100,000 people and a nationwide TV audience, the Number 3 Iowa Hawkeyes ran wild in beating Oregon State, 35-19.  The demand to learn more about the Iowa offense could only be satisfied by a book describing it in detail, and that’s what Coach Nelson and Iowa coach Forest Evashevski produced.  It is a masterwork.

(8) Danzig, Allison - The History of American Football - Prentice-Hall, 1956 - It’s a big book because it deals with a big subject - the men and their teams - and their thinking - that built the game we have today.  I majored in history in college, and I consider this one of the best history books I’ve ever seen.  What a great thing that it happens to be about football.  It’s the history of college football  from the game’s beginnings until the mid-1950s.  And it  digs in deeply.  At the time of its publication, a critic at the New York Times called it “Without Doubt, the most ambitious and best book ever published on the subject of college football.” (Pro  football, for the time that the book covers, played a very minor part.)  I find myself going to this book time after time in doing research.   It’s truly a shame that none of us gets to live forever, because I’d love to have a copy of his History of American Football - Part Two.

(9) Ecker, Tom and Calloway, Bill - Athletic Journal's Encyclopedia of Football - Parker Publishing, 1978 - A compilation of offensive and defensive ideas from top college and HS coaches.  This is dated, of course, and there’s nothing in here about RPOs or shallow crosses or dime coverages, but take it from someone who started coaching in 1970 - there are timeless  aspects to our game that you ignore at your peril. There is great value still in having a basic understanding of the Veer… the I formation… the Wing T… the Wishbone… the 5-2… the 4-4… the 4-3…Goal Line offenses (boy, couldn’t today’s offensive coordinators use this) and Goal Line defenses… the Kicking game… Coaching the Offensive Backfield… Coaching the Defensive Backfield…Coaching the Offensive Line… Coaching the Defensive Line…   There  are 318 pages of solid, sound football techniques and teaching. This book is an invaluable resource.  

(10) Tallman, Drew - Directory of Football Offenses - 1978 - incredible resource - pocket-sized diagrams of formations;   Directory of Football Defenses - 1980 - likewise

These two little (4 x -1/2) books are the damnedest things I’ve seen in all my years of coaching.  They’re in need of updating - which, considering how thorough they are, would represent a major undertaking - but especially for anyone running an “outdated” offense or preparing to defend against one, they are really helpful.

Coaching offense?  Open the “DEFENSES” book to the defense you expect to see this week, and see how it recommends attacking it.




Coaching defense?  Open the “OFFENSES” book and see what it says the strong points and weak points of this coming week’s opponent are.
   

   


  

***********   The latest Biden administration proposal would restrict speed to 10 knots or 11.5 miles per hour for all boats over 35 feet, for up to seven months out of the year and up to 100 miles out at sea for most of the East Coast.  

Speeds of boats from 35 to 65 feet in length are already limited.

The purpose: to prevent boats from hitting endangered right whales.  

Boaters such as commercial fishermen say their boats are hard to handle, especially in rough seas, at such low speeds.

Sounds like another WTF regulation coming out of Washington: in the last 15 years there have been just five whales killed by boats between 35 to 65 feet in length.


https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-administration-boating-proposal-would-greatest-regulatory-overreach-kind-critics-warn.amp


***********  Coach Wyatt,

Thank you for devoting an entire zoom clinic to your blocking technique - that was FANTASTIC! I have watched this clinic several times each day - absolutely fantastic! I am going to implement your blocking technique this year.

Your o-lines have great three point stances - please do a segment on how you teach it!

I have another request for a clinic topic. I would be very interested to see how you organize your practices, especially at small schools where many, if not most, players have to go both ways.

Thanks again Coach, I appreciate all you do to help us coaches become better coaches and teachers.

Coach John Moore
Maple Grove, Minnesota

Coach,

Thanks for the note.  I’m glad you found the Zoom clinic useful.

And thanks for the suggestion.  I will, in fact, include something in the next Zoom clinic about  stance, and, if possible, about practice organization.


*********** It’s the height of irony that of the top 20 teams in the USA Today-Coaches Pre-season poll there were:

Four teams from the SEC: GEORGIA, ALABAMA, LSU, TENNESSEE

Four from the Big 12: TEXAS, TCU, KANSAS STATE, OKLAHOMA

Three from the ACC: FLORIDA STATE, CLEMSON, NORTH CAROLINA

One independent: NOTRE DAME

And (ahem) FIVE from the dearly departed Pac-12: USC, WASHINGTON, OREGON, OREGON STATE, UTAH

When you exclude Texas and Oklahoma,  because they're are lame duck members of the Big 12, it’s really sick that there are still ten teams in that conference (14 if you count incoming members BYU, Cincinati, Houston  and UCF) that are ranked lower that Oregon State - yet the Big 12 has deemed the Beavers unworthy of membership.


***********   Duane Carrell  punted for me in Hagerstown, Maryland and went on to punt for five years in the NFL, with the Cowboys, Rams and Jets.  He was a class act, clearly  good enough to punt in The League but sharpening his skills with us.

He wrote recently on Facebook after Joe Klecko was inducted into the Hall of Fame,

Joe Klecko played for the Aston Knights in 72 before he went to Temple. He told me that in training camp in 77. Along with Vince Papale. With Klecko and Coryell in the HOF I played with 19 HOFers and under 7 coaches, 4 as coaches and 3 as players. All due to the Hagerstown Bears. 😎

I answered,

 That is quite a tribute. But you could have big-dogged it and considered that level of ball as beneath you, and to your credit you didn’t. You saw it as an opportunity to get better and you did and I got great joy from watching you advance in the NFL. You earned your success.


https://www.newyorkjets.com/news/where-are-they-now-duane-carrell?fbclid=IwAR3QcXiLZdPpIGbmB8OiBLF6fNaB7gYlX3E9sioDiCq2t0H7wi7pxkVvSLE


***********    An Idaho high school football player must have been aware of the Lord’s admonition not to publicize your good works but he took things to extremes in keeping things quiet.


https://www.idahopress.com/townnews/economics/kuna-high-school-football-teams-good-samaritan-identified/article_27b43dee-2e12-11ed-b112-43d2e7c0c751.html


***********  While we’re recognizing unselfish acts by football players, how about this  story Joe Gutilla sent me about player at Eastern Michiga? 

Joe wrote,

Hugh,

This brought a smile to my face.  There IS hope after all.

https://footballscoop.com/news/chris-creighton-awards-a-scholarshipalert-in-an-unprecedented-way



***********    Detroit Lions' coach Dan Campbell thought it would be cool  to have a live lion on the team's sidelines.  Good luck with that. Have you  noticed how many people the NFL allows on the sidelines these days?


https://nypost.com/2023/08/01/detroit-lions-head-coach-dan-campbell-wants-a-live-lion-on-the-sideline/


***********  Where Megan Rapinoe is concerned, I don’t mind piling on…


https://nypost.com/2023/08/08/video-resurfaces-of-arrogant-narcissist-megan-rapinoe-ignoring-fan/




 

*********** I’m told that this photo of the “Crowd” at Canton was taken just before the start of Hall of Fame induction ceremonies.  If  this is so, shame on the NFL for not making sure their inductees were better received.


*********** ON THE BEER SCENE…


(Mostly at the expense of Bud Light) Molson-Coors added 12,000 new tap handles nationwide  - in other words, they went “on tap” in 12,000 places  they hadn’t been in before -   in the second quarter.

And word is that retailers have begun making way for the competition in stores, re-allocating valuable shelf space ordinarily reserved for Bud Light.

In an attempt to halt the hemorrhaging of  Bud Light sales, Anheuser-Busch has greatly increased its ad spending, with  heavy emphasis on football and country music themes.  (Who ever would have thought that deplorables, the kind who like football and country music, might also drink beer, maybe even more beer than people questioning their gender?)





***********   The Edmonton Elks are the latest CFL team to add an Indigenous logo, as the team unveiled a new look on Wednesday.

Created by Conrad Plews, who is a Metis artist of Cree background, the logo was inspired by Izaiah Masuskapoe's 2021 Elks logo design. An Indigenous student at West Edmonton’s St. Thomas More Catholic Junior High School at the time of his creation, Masuskapoe submitted his take on the Elks logo after being inspired by the B.C. Lions logo created by Kwakwaka’wakw/Tlingit artist Corrine Hunt.

Plews' logo debuts on Thursday, August 10 when the Elks take on the Winnipeg Blue Bombers for Indigenous Celebration night. The logo will be featured on the Elks' helmets, as well as midfield at Commonwealth Stadium. Select merchandise will be available for purchase at the Elks Team Store, with all net proceeds from sales that night going to Indigenous Sport Council Alberta.

"The design is largely based on the existing Elks logo, as well as the design created by Izaiah. I wanted to integrate both designs while infusing a feeling of dynamic energy and strength," said Plews, who's a tattoo artist and owner of Black Market Tattoo in Edmonton.

"Designing this logo for the Elks was an honour and I can't wait to see it showcased as part of the team's Indigenous Celebration night on August 10."

In addition to the new logo being showcased, the Indigenous Celebration game will feature the Canadian national anthem in Cree and a halftime performance by Dancing Cree.

Despite all that feel-good gobbledegook, I still think it sucks.   So call me racist.


https://www.tsn.ca/cfl/elks-unveil-indigenous-logo-created-by-artist-conrad-plews-1.1991637



*********** There have been dozens of “Games of the Century” since Army and Notre Dame met in 1946 in Yankee Stadium, but in actuality, none of the others has ever come close.

The game, between #1-ranked Army, the two-time defending champion, and number two-ranked Notre Dame, ended in a scoreless tie.

I actually “saw” the game, somehow persuading my mother to take my little eight-year-old ass into the Trans-Lux Theater on East Market Street in downtown Philly and sit with me and watch the film (black and white, of course) of the entire game on the big screen.

I didn’t have the slightest idea what I was watching, but I knew I was watching Army.  And Notre Dame.  And I knew they were both good.

The year before, Army had beaten the Irish 48-0, but the nation was at war then, and most of Notre Dame’s players were involved in it.  Army’s players, as officers-in-training, were able to play college football, giving the Cadets a huge advantage.

But this year, Notre Dame was back at full strength.

Army came into the game with a 7-0 record. Notre Dame was 5-0.

Notre Dame had beaten one ranked team - #17 Iowa; Army had beaten #4 Michigan, #11 Columbia (yes, Columbia!) and #13 Duke.

74,121 piled into Yankee Stadium to watch easily the greatest assemblage of talent  in any game between two college teams.

No fewer than seven members of that Irish team are now in the College Football Hall of Fame: Tackle George Connor,  Tackle Ziggy Czarobski,  Guard Bill “Moose” Fischer,  End Leon Hart,  Quarterback Johnny Lujack,  End Jim Martin and Halfback Emil “Red” Sitko.

In addition, Notre Dame coach Frank Leahy is in the Hall of Fame.

Five of the Army players are now in the College Football Hall of Fame:  Fullback Doc Blanchard, Halfback Glenn Davis, End Hank Foldberg, End Barney Poole, Quarterback Arnold Tucker.  Another Army player, center Bill Yeoman, made it into the Hall of Fame as a coach.)  In addition to Army head coach Earl “Red” Blaik, three Army assistants - Andy Gustafson, Herman Hickman and Harvey Jablonski are also in the Hall of Fame.

Both teams would go unbeaten the rest of the way.  In fact, the very next week, Army would hammer #5 Penn, 34-7.

Notre Dame ended its season with a decisive 26-6 win over USC to  finish 8-0-1.  Two weeks later, Army went into its game against Navy ranked Number One.  Although Army beat Navy to finish 9-0-1, and although the Cadets had beaten four ranked teams along the way and Notre Dame only one, their narrow 21-18 win over Navy cost them dearly with the nation’s voters. The Irish had beaten Navy 28-0 earlier in the season, and when the Army-Navy game ended with the Middies stopped inside the Army five yard line, Army’s near-upset  was enough for voters to give the national title to Notre Dame.

The vote was narrow, too: 1739 for Notre Dame, 1659 for Army.  Georgia, with 1448 votes, was third, and UCLA was forth with 1141 votes.

One thing about the game will likely never be duplicated:  four Heisman winners played in it.

Army’s Blanchard had won it the year before, and Davis would win it at the end of this season; Notre Dame’s Lujack would win it the next year, 1947, and Irish end Leon Hart, who played in this game as a 17-year-old freshman (on a team  of mostly military veterans) would win it in 1949.


***********   Jason Whitlock's writing is clear and convincing. He did say what I was thinking, for sure. And what you said is equally clear, namely, that if there are some well-bred, intelligent girls on the team they should've spoken out. Rodman's daughter is one I was willing to give a chance to show she is different, but she didn't. Side Note: Back in the early days of her 'fame' (which more accurately would be 'infamy or notoriety'), I heard an interviewer introduce her as Rah-PIN-oh-A. She didn't correct him. That pronunciation is much cooler than Rap-i-No, I can imagine her thinking, so I'm gonna change my name.

Yes, bring back the Pac-10 using your candidates as a guide. Coach Lude (or maybe Tom Selleck) comes off the bench to become its new Commish. There you have it. Done.

I remember your May 21 column well. The reason I remember it so well is at the time I believed your were right that we about to see another 'outside the box' genius throw up at his little girl's birthday party. 'Experts' almost never are.

John Vermillion                    
St Petersburg, Florida



***********  Hugh,

Typically I will throw my support behind a USA sports team.  Only exceptions (USA men's basketball w/LeBron James, and the USA women's soccer team w/Megan Rapinoe).  Not because of race, nor sexual identity, but because both are selfish individuals who care more about themselves and their causes than they do about their TEAMS.

Was glad to see Saskatchewan get a home win!

Your photo of the gas station makes me cringe.  The price of gas in California is even higher!  We are attending my niece's wedding in CA in September and have been trying to rent a car while we're there.  A hybrid to be exact.  No dice.  Most rental car companies don't have any available, OR, those that do are charging exorbitant rental prices for the hybrid vehicles they do have.  Ended up renting a regular ol' compact that will thankfully be filled up when we pick it up.  Unfortunately the wedding is in San Luis Obispo which means we have to fly into LAX (cheaper flight), and drive to SLO (likely a fill-up when we arrive), and not to mention any driving while in SLO needing a fill-up, only to drive back to LAX (another fill-up) when it's over.  That ABBA song is ringing in my ears.  MONEY...MONEY...MONEY!  It's a rich man's world!

Oregon and Washington to the Big 10?!  Hell...why not?!  AND...the ACC is now giving Clemson and Florida State a time frame as to whether they'll remain in the ACC or go elsewhere!  Hell...why not?!  Next thing you know the ACC will want Cal and Stanford!  Hell...why not?!  

The "logical" next step for Oregon State and Washington State is to hook-up with the Big 12 and not the MWC in order to remain relevant as a big-time school.  The Big 12 North: OSU, WSU, Colorado, Utah, BYU, Kansas, Kansas State, Cincinnati, WVU.  The Big 12 South: ASU, U of A, Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Iowa State, TCU, Baylor, Houston, UCF.  But then again logic seems to be missing in ANY of these realignment stories.

The MWC won't be left out of the "expansion madness" either.  Look for them to add SMU, Tulsa, UTEP, and UTSA.  Yessir, you read that right...UTSA.  Hell...why not?!

Have a great week!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas


 

   
                      




QUIZ ANSWER:     Mel Farr lettered in football, basketball, baseball and track at Hebert High School in Beaumont, back in the days before Texas High School sports were desegregated, (Such was the talent that Beaumont's high schools produced in those days that in 1971, there were 16 players in the NFL who came out of Beaumont. Between 1968 and 1972, five of them - Jerry LeVias, Bubba Smith, Warren Wells, our guy and his brother, Miller - made a total of 10 Pro Bowl appearances.)

In those days of segregation, if they wanted to play big time college ball, the great black high school football players that Beaumont was turning out had to leave the Southwest.   Our guy went to UCLA, where he was an All-American running back in both his junior and senior years.

He was an NFL first-round draft pick of the Detroit Lions, and was named NFL Rookie of the Year.   In his seven years in the NFL - all with the Lions - he was twice named Offensive MVP and twice named to the Pro Bowl team. In his final season, he and Miller were teammates.

Although the Lions never won any titles, he was fortunate in playing in Detroit, because he made a number of influential friends there - including the late singer Marvin Gaye and the people from Motown Records.  He even had a bit part, along with several teammates, in "Paper Lion," a very popular movie about a reporter's attempt to play quarterback on an NFL team.   (One of his Lions teammates, Alex Karras, became a movie star in his own right, playing a memorable part in "Blazing Saddles.”)

The story goes that he and teammate Lem Barney had just finished a round of golf with Gaye, and as they sat around afterwards, our guy  blurted out, "What's going on?" As he recalled later, “Gaye said, 'You know, that'd be a hip title for a song. I think I'll write it for the Originals.' He started fooling at the piano and when we dropped by to see him the next day he was still fooling with it. 'That's not for the Originals, Marvin,' we told him. 'That's for you.'"

But mainly he was fortunate because the Lions were owned by William Clay Ford,  the last living grandson of Henry Ford, and at a time when Ford was looking for promising minority candidates to own Ford dealerships  he began working for Ford in its dealer development department in the offseason.  Working his way through the program, he started  with one Ford dealership in suburban Detroit  and grew to the point  where by 1998  his group of automobile dealerships comprised the largest black-owned business in the United States, with annual sales in excess of $500 million.

The automobile business is hard enough as it is, but when he was starting out,   he also had to overcome resistance among some whites to doing business with a black automobile dealer.  His solution was to break down barriers with humor, employing   commercials in which, wearing  a red cape and  flying through the air, Superman-style, he played  “Mel Farr Super Star.”



CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING MEL FARR

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
TOM WALLS - WINNIPEG, MANITOBA
RUSS MEYERS - VERNON CENTER, NEW YORK
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY


 


*********** QUIZ:  He played 16 years in three different professional leagues - NFL, CFL, AFL - and although he spent his first seven years in Green Bay at a time when the Packers were really, really bad, things worked out for him in the second half of his career:

He was  the winning quarterback the last time the Detroit Lions won a  title (1957, if you needed to know).

He became the only quarterback to win a championship in both the AFL and the NFL.

A native of San Antonio, he played college football at Rice. In his senior year, he led the Owls to a 10-1 record and a win in the Cotton Bowl, and he was drafted in the second round by the Green Bay Packers (the 17th pick overall).  One of the Owls’ biggest wins was a come-from-behind 41-27 win over SMU and its star, his cousin Kyle Rote.

In 1956, despite playing for a 4-8 Packers team, he led the league in attempts, completions, yards passing and touchdown passes.  Always a strong runner (and often forced to run), his 11 touchdowns rushing led all quarterbacks and were second in the NFL among all runners.  The significance of his 18 touchdown passes and 11 touchdowns rushing can’t be overstated: the rest of the Packers’ team contributed just five touchdowns!

But it was his final season with the Packers. They had drafted Bart Starr in the 1956 draft, and  in the 1957 training camp, they decided to let our guy go, and, mercifully traded him to the Lions.

In his seven years in Green Bay, he had experienced five losing seasons, and two 6-6 seasons.

The Lions already had all-star Bobby Layne at QB, but Layne broke his ankle in the next-to-last game of the season, and our guy stepped in and led Detroit to a 31-27 comeback win over the 49ers in the Western Division title game (they had trailed 24-6 at halftime) and then, in the NFL title game, he threw four TD passes and ran for another to lead them in a 59-14 trouncing of the Cleveland Browns.  (The 59 points are second only to the 1941 Chicago Bears’ 73 points - against the Redskins - as the most points ever scored in an NFL championship or Super Bowl game.)

For the record,  the team that traded him, Green Bay, finished 3-9 that season.

Following the 1959 season he was released, and he wound up playing in Canada for the Toronto Argonauts.

In his first year in Canada, he threw for 38 touchdowns, then  an All-time CFL record.  He twice threw for seven TDs in a single game. In three years in Canada, he threw for 9,872 yards and 62 TDs.

But after his third year, he moved on to the AFL  and the San Diego Chargers.

He was 35  and in his 14th year as a pro, but he led the Chargers to the AFL title with a 51-10 win over the Boston Patriots, and earning him first team AFL  honors and the AP Player of the Year award.

As their young QB John Hadl began to develop, the Chargers gave him more playing time, and although our guy  did start in the AFL championship game (which the Chargers lost to the Bills), he announced his retirement following the game.

He came out of retirement to play briefly with the Denver Broncos in 1966,  but  he was waived midway through the season, and retired for good at the age of 38.

In the NFL and AFL, he  threw for 18,850 yards and 148 touchdowns, and ran for another 37 touchdowns.






TUESDAY,  AUGUST 8,   2023 - "If you're really, really stupid, then it’s impossible for you to know you're really, really stupid.” John Cleese, British comedian

*********** WITH FOOTBALL PRACTICE BEGINNING AROUND THE COUNTRY, BE SURE TO EMAIL ME ABOUT SIGNING UP YOUR TEAM  FOR THE BLACK LION AWARD.  THERE’S NO COST TO PARTICIPATE - IT’S SIMPLY SO WE CAN TELL YOU WHAT YOU NEED TO DO, AND SO WE’LL KNOW HOW MANY AWARDS TO PREPARE FOR.

IF THE BLACK LION AWARD HAS BEEN A PART OF YOUR PROGRAM, I INVITE YOU TO WRITE ME AND SHARE WITH MY READERS WHAT IT MEANS TO YOU.

coachhw@mac.com


***********   Sorry about the NEWS on Friday.  I was ready to  “go to press” - to upload to the Internet, actually - at the  unusually early time of 6 PM (Pacific) Thursday evening, only to discover that the servers were down. For me, this is panic time.   I’m completely at the mercy of the company whose servers I use, and while it’s normally quite dependable, there are those times when I get the dreaded news that I “can’t connect to the server” (i.e., the servers are down) - and there’s not a damn thing I can do but keep trying to upload every hour or so.  Finally, about midnight Thursday, I said “to hell with it,” and went to sleep.  When I got up at 6, I headed straight to the computer without so much as a stop at the bathroom,  tried to upload,  and - mirabile dictu! - everything was working.


***********  For once I wish I had  gone to a women’s soccer game.

I’d have had to get to Australia in time, but  watching the over-celebrated Women’s “National” Team lose to Sweden - and get eliminated from the Women’s World Cup - might  have taken some of the sting out of watching West Coast college football crumble.

But there’s still this ray of hope, from reader Christopher Anderson, in Munich: “I would bank on the next team having a few fmale-identifying men to ensure victory.”

Hey - the way  TV's  calling all  the shots in sports now, that’s not as preposterous as it sounds.

And actually, it wouldn't be all bad, considering that one of those “female-identifying men” would be replacing Megan Rapinoe…


***********  Kudos to Jason Witlock for saying what a lot of us have been thinking but lack his pulpit, his ability to say it, and his stones.  (Pray that he doesn’t get the 3 AM knock on his door from our Thought Police.)

"Title IX is one of the greatest hustles in the history of pimping. Iceberg ‘Kims’ convinced a U.S President and the 92nd Congress to mandate that billions of dollars be siphoned away from boys and invested in creating female jocks. It didn't matter that girls are far less likely to be interested in competitive sports, or that participation in competitive sports worked against women's supernatural reproductive powers. The American government has spent 50 years and trillions of dollars creating hardcore female jocks. We owed that to women because the government previously spent billions convincing men to take an interest in competitive sports. Oh wait, that didn't happen. The government didn't have to manufacture and bribe men to take an interest in competitive sports. It's in the nature of men, and we don't get pregnant and carry a baby inside us for nine months at a time. There are actual physical differences between men and women that explain our disparate interest in playing games. Imagine that? Imagine spending billions of dollars in 50 years to create an unbeatable women's soccer team and the players on that team using their government paid for platforms to demonize their investors. That's the women's national soccer team. That's Megan Rapinoe. That's the group of overpaid, spoiled, and entitled women who claim they're underpaid, underappreciated, and represent a racist, homophobic, and sexist country. I despise them. I want them to lose. I'm delighted that Rapinoe played awful Tuesday morning a few days after insinuating that she could have made a ‘difference’ in the team's 1-1 tie with the Netherlands. Rapinoe is the ultimate pimp. She's the Andrew Tate of LGBTQ feminism. She sees herself as a force for good, a force for freedom, and proper femininity. She believes she's a threat to the establishment. She's popular, people Google her and react to the things she says. She's wealthy beyond her imagination, sexually liberated, and adored by her followers. She's a fraud. She hates America because she hates herself. Her dyed hair, rebellious persona, constant smirk, and social justice posturing are beards masking her shallowness. She's toxic. Her attitude pervades the national team. At 38, she's only on the roster to further burnish her brand. The younger players mirror the attitude of the team's biggest star, they have little interest in representing America and competing at the highest level. They want to go viral and cash in on the feminism pimp game. Don't waste a second questioning your disdain for this team and Rapinoe, they deserve it. We poured everything we had into their success, diminished opportunities for boys and men for their success, and they've repaid us with ingratitude. Rooting for Sweden on Sunday, that's our reparations.”

Thanks to Dr. John Rothwell, of Corpus Christi, Texas for the link to the article.


***********  I’m sure there are some really good people on the Women’s National Soccer Team.  But it seems that whenever the subject of the team comes up,  you see Megan Rapinoe.

And if there were a significant number of those good people on the team, wouldn’t you think there’d be at least one or two of them strong enough to say, “Megan, will you please shut up and play soccer?”

The whole world was informed that this was her final year with the team, and I’m sure that the liberal sports media (but I repeat myself) was preparing to tell how she saved the day for  the US team by kicking the winning goal against Sweden.  But she missed.  (ME: Hahahahahahahaha.)

Later, she was asked what her favorite memory of playing for the US Women’s Team was.  Now, this is a person who has been given the Presidential Medal of freedom (can you believe that?), and who’s been portrayed as  the soul of US women’s soccer.

Were you waiting to hear her say something about playing with such wonderful teammates?  About representing her country?  Even about inspiring little girls?

Well.   Her answer was, “probably ‘equal pay’ chants.”

Actually, I would have expected  her to say, “When I said, ‘we’re not going to the f—king White House.”


https://twitchy.com/fuzzychimp/2023/08/07/megan-rapinoe-perfectly-sums-up-her-negative-impact-on-us-womens-soccer-with-one-answer-n2386046



*********** CFL THIS PAST  WEEKEND - WEEK NINE



THURSDAY

WINNIPEG (6-2) 50, B.C. (6-2) 14


FRIDAY

CALGARY  (3-5) 20, TORONTO (6-1)  7
ARGOS SUFFER THEIR FIRST DEFEAT


SATURDAY

MONTREAL (4-3) 27 AT HAMILTON (3-5) 14


SUNDAY

SASKATCHEWAN (4-4) 26,   OTTAWA (3-5) 24


YOUR SCHEDULE OF CFL GAMES ON AMERICAN CABLE (CBSSN) THIS SEASON:

https://fbschedules.com/cbs-sports-network-releases-2023-cfl-tv-schedule/



*********** AT THE TOP OF MY LIST OF BOOKS THAT I RECOMMEND TO ANYONE WHO’S A COACH OR ABOUT TO BECOME ONE…

(1) Reade, Bob - Coaching Football Successfully - Human Kinetics, 1994 - Every young football coach should read this book - preferably twice or more - before even thinking about becoming a head coach.

(2) Nelson, David M. - Football Principles and Play - Ronald Press, 1962 - This book is deep, and deals with the stuff “under the hood” of the game in a way that I have yet to see anyplace else.

(3) Parseghian , Ara - Parseghian and Notre Dame Football - Doubleday & Co, 1971 & 1973 - Coach Parseghian’s Irish won the 1973 National Championship, and they won it running a Wing-T offense and a Split-4 defense - both systems that I have used for most of my career.  In this book, he gets deeply into the “why” and “how” of his system, and I’ve found  it very useful over the years.   I have great respect for him as a coach and as a man, and - for what it’s worth - his first head coaching job, and the place where he  came to the attention of Notre Dame, was at Northwestern.

(4) McKay, John - Football Coaching - Ronald Press, 1966 - The basics of the USC I-formation attack and his 5-2 Rover (Monster) defense - and more.  Coach McKay probably did more than anyone to popularize the I-formation, and as a result, with tailbacks the likes of Ricky Bell, Anthony Davis, Mike Garrett, O.J. Simpson and Charles White, he established USC’s reputation as “tailback U.”   Garrett and Simpson both won Heisman Trophies. His book holds nothing back, explaining the entire USC offense in considerable detail (an indication that he didn’t care that opponents knew what he was doing - he still had personnel  good enough to beat you anyhow.

(5) Ellison, Glenn "Tiger" - Run and Shoot Football - Parker Publishing, 1965 & 1984 - Tiger Ellison was a high school coach in Hamilton, Ohio who, faced with an 0-4-1 record in a town that expected winning teams, decided to use simple touch football principles of “getting open.” It turned his season around, turned his kids on - the community, too - and led to the development of an entire offensive system, which he came to call the Run and Shoot.

(6) Bryant, Paul W. - Building a Championship Football Team - Prentice-Hall, 1960 - There have been at least a dozen books written about The Bear, but this one was written BY him. He writes a lot about defense and how he taught it, and a lot of  it is based on the numbering system he got from Bum Phillips - “a Texas high school coach.”   It’s become a part of the language of football (“he’s playing a seven technique”)  and as far as I’ve been able to tell, Coach Bryant’s book was the first time it was explained in print.

(7) Evashevski, Forest and Nelson, David - Scoring Power With the Winged T Offense - Brown Co., 1957 - The original book on the offense that took the football world by storm after Iowa put it on display in the Rose Bowl.   Delaware - and Maine before it - had been running the offense for six years.  But the offense, invented by Dave Nelson and his assistants, Mike Lude and Harold Westerman, and called the “Winged T,” might never have come to the attention of football people if it hadn’t been demonstrated on the games biggest  stage - the 1957 Rose Bowl.  There, in front of more than 100,000 people and a nationwide TV audience, the Number 3 Iowa Hawkeyes ran wild in beating Oregon State, 35-19.  The demand to learn more about the Iowa offense could only be satisfied by a book describing it in detail, and that’s what Coach Nelson and Iowa coach Forest Evashevski produced.  It is a masterwork.

(8) Danzig, Allison - The History of American Football - Prentice-Hall, 1956 - It’s a big book because it deals with a big subject - the men and their teams - and their thinking - that built the game we have today.  I majored in history in college, and I consider this one of the best history books I’ve ever seen.  What a great thing that it happens to be about football.  It’s the history of college football  from the game’s beginnings until the mid-1950s.  And it  digs in deeply.  At the time of its publication, a critic at the New York Times called it “Without Doubt, the most ambitious and best book ever published on the subject of college football.” (Pro  football, for the time that the book covers, played a very minor part.)  I find myself going to this book time after time in doing research.   It’s truly a shame that none of us gets to live forever, because I’d love to have a copy of his History of American Football - Part Two.

(9) Ecker, Tom and Calloway, Bill - Athletic Journal's Encyclopedia of Football - Parker Publishing, 1978 - A compilation of offensive and defensive ideas from top college and HS coaches.  This is dated, of course, and there’s nothing in here about RPOs or shallow crosses or dime coverages, but take it from someone who started coaching in 1970 - there are timeless  aspects to our game that you ignore at your peril. There is great value still in having a basic understanding of the Veer… the I formation… the Wing T… the Wishbone… the 5-2… the 4-4… the 4-3…Goal Line offenses (boy, couldn’t today’s offensive coordinators use this) and Goal Line defenses… the Kicking game… Coaching the Offensive Backfield… Coaching the Defensive Backfield…Coaching the Offensive Line… Coaching the Defensive Line…



There  are 318 pages of solid, sound football techniques and teaching.  Among the guest authors whose names you’d probably recognize are Dan Devine, John Pont, Tubby Raymond, Charlie McClendon, Lee Corso (yes, that Lee Corso), Bear Bryant, George Allen, Bobby Dodd, Paul Dietzel, Ara Parseghian, Pepper Rodgers, Frank Broyles, Duffy Daugherty, Frank Kush, Herb Deromedi and Sid Gillman - and many others whom you might not know but who were highly respected in the coaching profession. This book is an invaluable resource.  
     




***********  WE’RE NUMBER ONE!!!  This was taken at Hogan’s Corner, Washington last Sunday, on our  way out of Ocean Shores, and although I was driving at the  time, I couldn’t let that prevent me from taking  a shot of a sign advertising what may then have been the highest price for gas in the Continental US ($5.29) . Sorry it’s such a bad photo but I felt I owed it to my wife and our dog to try to keep one of my eyes on the road.

My governor tells us that it's all because of those greedy oil companies.



*********** Now that George Kliavkoff, hailed as an “outside the box” hire has proven to be an emperor without any clothes - or in his underwear at best - I felt it was time to pull an “I told you so” out of my archives.

I  WROTE THIS ON MAY 18, 2021

***********  You’ll notice in the lineup below that there are/were only two Power Five commissioners without prior college experience. They’re the ones who headed up the BigTen and the Pac-12, which dithered over football, deciding initially not to play in the fall and then, well after the other three conferences had proceeded to play,  finally decided to play truncated seasons marked by numerous cancellations and schedule revisions.

ACC - (Just hired) Jim Phillips; AD at Northern Illinois, Northwestern; Asst. AD at Illinois, Notre Dame… Succeeding John Swofford; AD at North Carolina; Asst AD at Virginia, North Carolina; football letterman at North Carolina

Big 12 - Bob Bowlsby; AD at Northern Iowa, Iowa, Stanford; four-year wrestler at Moorhead (Minn.) State

SEC - Greg Sankey; Commissioner of Southland Conference; golf coach at Northwestern State

Big Ten - Kevin Warren; NO COLLEGE EXPERIENCE; Chief Operating Officer of the Minnesota Vikings; played college basketball at Penn

Pac 12 - (Just hired): George Kliavkoff; NO COLLEGE EXPERIENCE; President of Entertainment and Sports, MGM Resorts International; rowed at Boston University…  Succeeding Larry Scott; NO COLLEGE EXPERIENCE; CEO of the Women’s Tennis Association; played tennis at Harvard

(Passed on Oliver Luck; Executive Vice-President NCAA, AD West Virginia, Commissioner XFL, President NFL Europe, Law degree University of Texas, QB, West Virginia, Houston Oilers)

Without going into Einstein’s (supposed) definition of insanity, the Pac-12 has made another “outside the box” hire as its soon-to-be Commissioner. It’s possible that the conference  presidents could have made a  worse   choice in hiring Larry Scott's replacement. But I doubt it.


*********** Here’s a major reason I have serious doubts about the Pac-12’s new hire: he was hired by the university presidents, for the most part clueless dolts where sports are concerned. Pac-12 presidents  hired Larry Scott, and then hung onto him long after it was apparent to anyone who followed sports that he was driving the Pac-12 train full speed ahead toward a washed-out bridge.

University of Oregon President Michael Shill, excitedly commenting on the Pac-12’s hiring of George Kliavkoff  to be its new commissioner, said, “George is a visionary leader with an extraordinary background as a pioneering sports, entertainment and digital media executive, and we are delighted and honored that he has agreed to become our next Pac-12 Commissioner.”

WTF?  “Has agreed?” You mean to tell me he didn’t pursue the job?  You had to persuade him?  Are you that f—king clueless?


*********** Matt Zemek, on Trojans Wire, has one bit of advice for newly-named  Pac-12 Commissioner George Kliavkoff:

Whatever Larry Scott would have done… do the opposite.

John Canzano wrote about the beginning of Kliavkoff’s tenure as Pac-12 commissioner. He recalled this story about Scott and his leadership style:

A few years ago in the annual Pac-12 meeting in Las Vegas, then-Utah AD Chris Hill was pressing then-commissioner Scott on budget issues and poor revenue distribution. Hill was a senior member and well regarded by his peers. He pushed the sitting commissioner for answers — and was cut off.

Scott sniped at Hill: “You’re lucky for what you get.”

Four different Pac-12 athletic directors in the room at the time recounted that exchange for me. It bothered them deeply that the conference commissioner managed up to his bosses (the presidents and chancellors) while he treated the ADs as underlings.

Said one conference athletic director, “He resisted even giving us the details of the financials and we’re the ones dealing with budgets on a daily basis.”

The job of being Pac-12 commissioner will be more complicated than merely doing the opposite of what Larry Scott did… but at least 60 percent of the job rests on this one simple foundation.

What Would Larry Scott Do?

Do the opposite, George Kliavkoff. You’ll be an improvement on that basis alone.

https://trojanswire.usatoday.com/2021/05/14/one-last-larry-scott-story-shows-what-george-kliavkoff-must-do-in-pac-12-as-new-commissioner/


*********** One of the first things out of the mouth of the newly-hired Commissioner of the Pac-12 (sorry - I believe in spelling a man’s name correctly but in his case I’m not yet up to the job) was that he favors expansion of the CFP field. Well no sh—, Sherlock. How else are you going to get a Pac-12 team in there?

***********   Most of today’s NFL fans aren’t old enough to remember the days  before free agency, when the only way a player could get free of his contract was to “play out his option.”

What that meant was that at the expiration of his current contract, he could sign a new contract or, if he refused to do so, the team could exercise its option to keep him for one more year, on the same terms as the now-expired contract.  At the end of that year, the player was then free to make his own deal with another team.  Sort of.  Well, not exactly.  Actually, it wound up like a forced trade, because once a team signed such a “free agent,” the “Roselle Rule” applied.  It said that if the player’s new team and old team could not agree on a suitable trade of players involving the former free agent, then  Commissioner Roselle’s office would determine a player of equivalent value to be sent to the free agent’s old team as compensation.

That option rule had been in effect for some 15 years before the  first player played out his option and became a free agent.  It was receiver R.C. Owens, who jumped from the 49ers to the Baltimore Colts in 1961.  After that, it became a bit more common, and it was not unusual to hear a broadcaster announce that such-and-such a player was “playing out his option.”

The most famous instance came in early 1974, when the World Football League was forming, and it made national headlines with its signing of three of the Miami Dolphins’ biggest stars - Larry Csonka, Jim Kiick and Paul Warfield - to future contracts. All of them were entering their option years in 1974, and they would  join the WFL’s Memphis Southmen for the  1975 season after they’d played out their options.

To me, watching the Pac-12 this season is going to be like watching entire teams playing out their options.


*********** I always have liked the Oregon State Beavers. They’re classic underachievers.  Just 30 minutes up the road from Nike’s adopted children, the Oregon Ducks, the Beavers grind away in semi-obscurity, getting more done with less than any Power 5 school I can think of.

But Oregon State (and Washington State, too) were left out by the mad scramble to find an empty chair when the conference-realignment music stopped. 

Both schools have demonstrated themselves  to be at least as worthy of a place at the Big Boys’ table as, say, Indiana, Maryland or Rutgers (Big Ten) or Missouri or Vanderbilt (SEC), all of whom, like legacy admits to Ivy League colleges, enjoy their status for reasons other than merit.

Not that I wasn’t already a Beavers fan, but wouldn’t it be great if they could somehow win the Pac-12’s  spot in the (ugh) Playoff?

Take a cue from Dan Wetzel, who writes in Yahoo Sports…

If there was a year for Oregon State, then this would be the year … and that’s before this became the only year.

Root for Oregon State? Sure, why not?

This would be the soon-to-be left-behind Beavers getting the last laugh before everyone leaves for their distant, supposedly greener-grassed new homes. This would be the discarded getting in the last shot. This would be the brushed-off holding up the trophy.

It won’t reverse college football’s trajectory. It won’t save the Pac-12 or balance the books.

It might be kind of fun though.

*********** There is the strong possibility that FOX, which has prime broadcast rights to both the Big 12 and the Big 10, which is where eight of the former Pac-12 schools have landed  - was complicit in the arrangements to break up the Pac-12.  With the amount of college football broadcast rights now in the hands of just two networks - Fox and ESPN -  do not discount the possibility of antitrust action.  This is stuff straight out of the days of the Robber Barons.


***********  John Canzano, asked whether the principle of  “Calimony”- the money that UCLA is being required to pay Cal as the  price of leaving a sister school - might apply in the cases of Oregon and Washington schools, wrote…

Legislators in Oregon and Washington are likely to get involved. I expect there could be some kind of payment for damages given that one public school in the state acted in a way that wasn’t in the best interest of the other public school. I think the Ducks and Huskies probably factored a potential payment into their decision.

***********  Much of the talk I’ve heard about where the remaining Pac-4 teams land has been like this:

Cal and Stanford go to the Big Ten; Oregon State and Washington State go to the Mountain West.

Not so fast my friend, as Lee Corso would say.

Cal and Stanford to the Big Ten?  They have very little to recommend them to the Big Ten.  Yes, they have excellent academics, but so does MIT.  What about the size of the Bay Area TV market?  Interest in Cal and Stanford is long gone.  That market now belongs to the NFL.

Actually, those two schools are so strong academically that if  they desired, they could do what the University of Chicago did in 1939 - drop football entirely - and life would go on.  I doubt that it’s as much fun going to Chicago as, say, to Alabama, but it doesn’t seem to have hurt Chicago’s main mission as an academically elite institution in the slightest.

Oregon State and Washington State to the Mountain West?  Whoa.  Don’t you mean Mountain West to the Pac-4?

Consider:  the Pac-12 (or whatever) brand is still worth something.  If nothing else, it still has that automatic berth in the (ugh) College Football Playoff.  Sure, the honchos in the Playoff might vote them out, but could they really afford the optics of first having  done everything they did to destroy a conference, and then, on top of that, kicking dirt on its corpse?*

Here’s how you save the conference: Bring Back the  Pac-10! 

Get busy right now, and offer invites to seven (or more) schools - first six accepted.

SDSU,  SMU,  Boise State,  Fresno State,  Colorado State, Wyoming, UNLV, Utah State - maybe Rice?  Maybe Tulane?

Back in business, kicking off the 2024 as the Pac-10 - in business since 1915.

According to John Canzano, there’s enough money being left behind by the departing members to more than pay the exit fees of Mountain West members (and SMU, or Rice or Tulane).

Wrote Canzano,

SDSU and any other MWC teams would come with a $34 million buyout if they were to join in time for the 2024 football season. There is a significant war chest available to the four remaining schools, however. All the media-rights distributions, payments and postseason distributions that were due to the Pac-12 in the next distribution could end up in the hands of the four remaining members.

The estimated total: $420 million.

Stanford, Oregon State, Cal and Washington State are entitled to use all the funds to cover additional costs and damages caused by the departures.

Then, with our reconstituted conference of ten members,  let’s go back to the table with the Apple guys and see what this Apple TV deal was that the old Pac-12 was talking about.  It’s certain to be more than anyone would be getting if Oregon State and Washington State were to join the Mountain West.

Do I sound as if I’m actually excited again?

The one big concern: leadership. Clueless, the presidents and Commissioner George Kliavkoff drove the Pac-12 bus off the cliff.

Now, if the remaining presidents, seeing the error of their ways, will just step aside and allow their ADs to do their jobs, one thing that the Pac-Four does have going for it is that with  only four of them in on the deal, and with all that there is at stake, there’s a chance that they can actually hang together rather than hang separately. (Credits to Benjamin Franklin.)

George Kliavkoff? You probably can’t afford to fire him, so give him a desk over in the corner.  Send him to the movies. Whatever you do, keep him as far away from things as you can, because there’s no way that the same leadership that “led” to the downfall of the Pac-12 can be entrusted with a job like this one.


* As John Canzano points out,

The Pac-12, regardless of makeup, is still an “Autonomy 5” member.

The “A5” members get preferential College Football Playoff distributions. To strip that status, three of the four other conferences would have to hold a vote. Would the ACC, SEC, Big Ten and Big 12 do that to Stanford, Cal, Oregon State and Washington State?  That’s the question. The ACC may hesitate to given its own predicament and the SEC appears to value the balance of five members. But that’s where we are today.

*********** Remember when they used to arrest people for entering our country illegally? (Actually, I can’t say that I do.)

Anyhow, if you’re not careful where you go,  before you know it,  an illegal could be arresting you.


No lie. Illinois has just passed a law allowing illegals to become police officers.


https://informingamerica.com/illinois-allows-non-citizens-to-become-police-officers/


***********  Love it when I don’t have to second guess myself. Answer = Herb Adderley (well, I did pause to reconsider whether it’s ley or ly).


Coach Mackell is an interesting man. Now, after learning of his dino status, I like him more.

I believe I’ll just bury my head in deep, wet sand so I don’t have to think about all the shifting alliances in CFB.

John Vermillion
St Petersburg, Florida


***********   Hugh.

My thought is that the BIG 10 will take Stanford and California (academic pedigrees, overall sports excellence, and $$$) before they take the schools in the Northwest.  And...in order to placate high and mighty USC the conference would likely be ok with that addition since they are CA schools), and also allow for better scheduling for the conference overall.  I also think Oregon, Oregon State, Washington, and WSU will go to the Big 12.  They bring name recognition, revenue sports, geography, and $$$.  Frankly, I would blow the whole thing up and start all over again.

Mike Grant's Eden Prairie teams have been perennial conference champs, playoffs, and state championship contenders in Minnesota for years.  While EP the town has grown exponentially the school district has remained steadfast in maintaining just one high school (over 3,000 students).  They have a large multi-use indoor field house, an indoor football practice facility, an on-campus football stadium, and even their own ice hockey arena.

Actually, that guy in the ND team photo holding the ball, Knute Rockne, wasn't a real young guy.  He was much older than many of his teammates.  He worked for the US Post Office in Chicago for about 5 years after high school before enrolling at Notre Dame as a freshman.

No HOF'ers from my alma mater.  Hopefully though Henry Ellard will get into the Pro Football HOF soon.  He was a semi-finalist in 2023.  Would be the first Fresno born Fresno State Bulldog to be inducted.

That clock is priceless!  Even has the Indian head logo representing the then Stanford Indians!

Actually heard a WEATHER guy poke fun at the climate changers.  "It's summer.  Some places have always been hot in the summer, and sometimes hotter than usual.  That's just the way it is!"


Enjoy the weekend!

Joe Gutilla
Austin, Texas

Who could possibly have predicted what happened last Friday???





***********  QUIZ ANSWER:   Herb Adderley was born and raised in Philadelphia and was a star athlete at Northeast High School there.   He was an All-Public halfback.  Paired in the backfield with equally fast  Angelo Coia (who would go to USC and then play seven seasons in the NFL), he led Northeast to an unbeaten regular season before losing in the city championship game  to Catholic League champion LaSalle - he was injured and unable to play.

Joining the basketball team immediately following football, he starred on a Northeast team that  lost only one game - to Overbrook High and their star, the great Wilt Chamberlain.

At Michigan State, playing both ways according to the rules of the time, he lettered for three seasons, was a first-team All Big-Ten selection at Halfback, and was a  team captain his senior season.

He was a Number One draft choice of the Green Bay Packers in the 1961 draft.  The Packers were good  They were coming off a 17-13 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFL title game, and although Adderley expected to play running back, the Pack was  in good shape in the backfield with Paul Hornung and Jim Taylor.

He made the squad, but going into the annual Thanksgiving Day game against the Lions, he hadn’t had a single carry the entire season.

Then, when starting corner back Henry Gremminger went down, he was forced into the lineup, and despite his inexperience, he made an interception that sealed a Packers’ win.

He held onto the starting position from that point on, and in two years’ time he was an All-Pro, an honor he earned a total of seven times - four as a first-teamer, three as a second-teamer.

In all, he spent 12 seasons in the NFL - nine with the Packers and three with the Cowboys - and he intercepted a total of 48 passes, seven of which he retuned for touchdowns.  He also returned 120 kickoffs for a 25.7 yard average.  His 60-yard  interception return for a touchdown in Super Bowl II was the only such touchdown return in the first two Super Bowls.

He was the first player to play in four Super Bowls. And  he won rings in three of them.

He played in seven NFL championship games and won six of them - five with the Packers and one with the Cowboys.

He is one of only three  former Michigan State Spartans in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

He was selected for the NFL’s All-Decade team for the 1960s.

Vince Lombardi later admitted that he almost made a huge mistake by not moving him to defense: “I was too stubborn to switch him to defense until I had to,” he said. . “Now when I think of what Herb means to our defense, it scares me to think of how I almost mishandled him.”

Later, our guy recalled how Lombardi had honored him once in front of his teammates: “He said I was the best cornerback he’d ever seen. In front of the whole team.  He said I was the best athlete …I’ll always remember that."

His Hall of Fame induction speech contained  some really important biographical details, including the high school coach who talked him into playing football;  the way he got his number (26);  and the role played by an old pro - Emlen Tunnell - in convincing Vince Lombardi to give him a look on defense:

I would like to take this time to thank the two people responsible for my football career.

Number one would be my high school coach, Mr. Charles Martin, who is deceased and I can honestly say that if it wasn't for Mr. Charles Martin back in Philadelphia in 1955 when I started playing in high school there is no way I would be here because I thought that I was a basketball player.  In fact, I would have bet that I was a basketball player, but this man saw something in me that I didn't see…  he said “I think you could play football and you can play it well.” I said, “Well I don't know because I never played football, just around the streets.”  You hear Bill Cosby who is a good friend, you hear him talking about playing touch football and running behind the bus in the alley, and the cans and stuff and we were involved in that and I didn't play organized football until high school so this Mr. Charles Martin, I will always remember him and his spirit will live within me. He helped me get to Michigan State. I had several offers, scholarship offers, and he asked me, he said, ‘Listen, I am setting this up for you, what do you want to do?'' So I said I would like to go to Michigan State University and he said why?  “Well, there’s a fellow there that’s wearing #26, Clarence Peaks.  I said I don't know the man, never seen him except for on television,  never met him, but he is the kind of guy that I would like to be like and I would like to go there and see what happens.”

He made a phone call to Duffy Daugherty and two days later I was on a plane to Lansing, Michigan. Clarence Peaks met me at the airport and from there it was history. Clarence Peaks started off with number 26, that’s where it originated, and I told Clarence that I was going to take this number 26 and take it as far as I can and hopefully to the top. And I would like to say that Clarence Peaks is not here, but I did see him last week and I did thank him for the inspiration that he gave me and helped me to be someone.

I have to talk about coach Vince Lombardi because coach Vince Lombardi reminds me so much of my high school coach. Those two people had more to do with me playing football and being successful than anybody in the world. I feel a certain sadness in my heart, but I can feel happy and feel good because the spirit of high school coach and coach Vince Lombardi is within me. Coach Lombardi saw something in me also that I didn't realize because during my senior year at Michigan State, while I was benched halfway through the season for reasons, well Duffy said he wanted to play his younger players,  he said he wanted to have a shot at the Big 10, he said he wanted to play a sophomore and juniors. I couldn't understand it at the time, but I do now. But coach Lombardi saw something in me the year before, so he was a little ahead of his time, but he did see something that I didn't see in myself. He had the nerve to draft me number one in 1961 and that was probably the biggest thrill of my entire career, being drafted number one and I said I have to repay this man by having enough nerve to draft me number one.

On to Green Bay as a running back and wide receiver. Well,  it was difficult with Paul Hornung and Jimmy Taylor. I was happy to play with Ray Nitschke.  It was difficult to break in there as a rookie. As a matter of fact, I broke my collar bone trying to break in there against the Chicago Bears. I will never forget that, and I decided right then and there, I said the best thing for me is to go to defense and I started thinking defense. Emlen Tunnell, also a Hall of Famer, a great person, great defensive back,  was a big inspiration to me also. Emlen talked to me and went to Coach Lombardi and said “listen - give Herb  a shot on defense and let him get out there and practice and do something to see what he can do.” And he did and I think back to 1961 my rookie year,  in Detroit, Milt Plum was the quarterback.  Hank Gremminger, defensive back, he was injured and I had to go in, I never played defense. I was able and lucky enough,  thank God, to come up with a big play interception that turned the game around and from then on I was the defensive cornerback of the Green Bay Packers and I can't say enough about my teammates in high school, college, Green Bay Packers, Dallas Cowboys.

At a 1984 reunion of the 1966 Packers’ team that defeated the Chiefs in the first Super Bowl, he made it clear that he was a Packer for life.  Quoted in teammate Jerry Kramer’s book, “Distant Replay,” he said,  “As far as I’m concerned, I never played for the Dallas Cowboys. I’m the only guy in the country who has a Dallas Cowboys Super Bowl ring and doesn’t even wear it.”



CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING HERB ADDERLEY

JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
TOM DAVIS - SAN MARCOS, CALIFORNIA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
RUSS MEYERS - VERNON CENTER, NEW YORK
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY

                           




QUIZ:     He lettered in football, basketball, baseball and track at Hebert High School in Beaumont, back in the days before Texas High School sports were desegregated, (Such was the talent that Beaumont's high schools produced in those days that in 1971, there were 16 players in the NFL who came out of Beaumont. Between 1968 and 1972, five of them - Jerry LeVias, Bubba Smith, Warren Wells, our guy and his brother, Miller - made a total of 10 Pro Bowl appearances.)

In those days of segregation, if they wanted to play big time college ball, the great black high school football players that Beaumont was turning out had to leave the Southwest.   Our guy went to UCLA, where he was an All-American running back in both his junior and senior years.

He was an NFL first-round draft pick of the Detroit Lions, and was named NFL Rookie of the Year.   In his seven years in the NFL - all with the Lions - he was twice named Offensive MVP and twice named to the Pro Bowl team. In his final season, he and Miller were teammates.

Although the Lions never won any titles, he was fortunate in playing in Detroit, because he made a number of influential friends there - including the late singer Marvin Gaye and the people from Motown Records.  He even had a bit part, along with several teammates, in "Paper Lion," a very popular movie about a reporter's attempt to play quarterback on an NFL team.   (One of his Lions teammates, Alex Karras, became a movie star in his own right, playing a memorable part in "Blazing Saddles.”)

The story goes that he and teammate Lem Barney had just finished a round of golf with Gaye, and as they sat around afterwards, our guy  blurted out, "What's going on?" As he recalled later, “Gaye said, 'You know, that'd be a hip title for a song. I think I'll write it for the Originals.' He started fooling at the piano and when we dropped by to see him the next day he was still fooling with it. 'That's not for the Originals, Marvin,' we told him. 'That's for you.'"

But mainly he was fortunate because the Lions were owned by William Clay Ford,  the last living grandson of Henry Ford, and at a time when Ford was looking for promising minority candidates to own Ford dealerships  he began working for Ford in its dealer development department in the offseason.  Working his way through the program, he started  with one Ford dealership in suburban Detroit  and grew to the point  where by 1998  his group of automobile dealerships comprised the largest black-owned business in the United States, with annual sales in excess of $500 million.

The automobile business is hard enough as it is, but when he was starting out,   he also had to overcome resistance among some whites to doing business with a black automobile dealer.  His solution was to break down barriers with humor, employing   commercials in which, wearing  a red cape and  flying through the air, Superman-style, he played  “Super Star.”




FRIDAY,  AUGUST 4,  2023 - "When oaths cease to be sacred, our dearest and most valuable rights cease to be secure."  John Jay, a Founding Father of our Country


*********** WITH FOOTBALL PRACTICE BEGINNING AROUND THE COUNTRY, BE SURE TO EMAIL ME ABOUT SIGNING UP YOUR TEAM  FOR THE BLACK LION AWARD.  THERE’S NO COST TO PARTICIPATE - IT’S SIMPLY SO WE CAN TELL YOU WHAT YOU NEED TO DO, AND SO WE’LL KNOW HOW MANY AWARDS TO PREPARE FOR.

IF THE BLACK LION AWARD HAS BEEN A PART OF YOUR PROGRAM, I INVITE YOU TO WRITE ME AND SHARE WITH MY READERS WHAT IT MEANS TO YOU.

coachhw@mac.com


Suffice it to say that the Black Lion Award is the only individual award that we present in our program.  It’s the only individual award that I have presented since 2006.  The Black Lion characteristics are standards for our program.

Greg Koenig
Head Football Coach
Bennett High School
Bennett, Colorado


*********** As I type this, the Arizona Board of Regents - which oversees both Arizona and Arizona State - are meeting, and by the time you read this Friday, it might all be yesterday’s news, but in my opinion, John Canzano  knows as much about what’s going on regarding the Pac-9 as anyone alive, and here’s his take on the whole deal…

The survival of the Pac-12 Conference boils down to the University of Oregon. That’s what a well-placed source told me in the wee hours of Thursday morning, just as I was wondering when and where the Pac-12’s funeral would be held.

The conference could still die.

I want to say that up front.

The Arizona Board of Regents has a 6 p.m. PT meeting on the books for Thursday. Some expect the board will use that forum to announce Arizona and Arizona State are leaving for the Big 12. Others within the conference insist the “border schools” only view the Big 12 as a contingency, don’t want to be left behind in a crumbling conference, and are waiting to hear whether Oregon is bolting for the Big Ten.

Will the Ducks leave or stay?

That became the question to ask after the Big Ten Conference leaked a news story on Wednesday. It was suspicious timing given that Arizona/ASU were mired in a decision-making process themselves. Amid that uncertainty, a group of Big Ten presidents let it be known that they’d opened fresh discussions about expanding to 18 or 20 teams themselves.
 
Oregon, Washington, Stanford and Cal were on the table for reduced shares of the conference’s media rights deal. Of course, the Big Ten doesn’t want blood on its hands. The conference would only expand if the Pac-12 was imploding anyway.

Crafty work, isn’t it?

The Ducks have insisted multiple times in the last 14 months that they value access to the College Football Playoff above all things. But UO also values national exposure, traditional rivalries, revenue, and some other components.

Last month, Oregon athletic director Rob Mullens told me that playoff access is vital to the school. He said: “That’s extremely important (to us). It’s become the focus of college football — that is a huge piece.”

UO would love to get donor Phil Knight a return on his $1 billion investment. The school doesn’t ideally welcome the idea of having to climb over Ohio State, Michigan, USC, Penn State to make that happen. It would prefer to deal with Oregon State, Utah and Washington instead.

I reached out to Knight this week to see where his head is on the matter. Knight turned down a request for an interview through an intermediary, who told me: “He knows he would say something he would regret!”

The Board of Trustees at the University of Washington also set a meeting for Thursday — at 9 p.m. That news was met with considerable interest across the Pac-12 footprint given the Big Ten overture this week. But a member of the Pac-12 CEO Group told me: “Washington will only jump if Oregon jumps.”

Theoretically, Arizona State and Arizona would also jump only if Oregon jumps.

Will they all stay if Oregon stays?

Decide for yourself.

If we’ve learned one thing in the last year it’s that nobody can be trusted. They’re like a bunch of bandits. Right now, the key Pac-12 members are essentially looking at each other in the eyes and saying: “I’m in if you’re in… and also… out if you’re out.”

It makes me think about something George Bernard Shaw once wrote: “The liar’s punishment is, not in the least that he is not believed, but that he cannot believe anyone else.”

The Pac-12’s media-rights deal is heavy with an Apple TV+ presence. It’s incentivized for subscriptions and requires risk in the early years. There are some concerns about whether Pac-12 members would get maximum exposure and be able to set firm budgets. It comes with some uncertainty.

I’m also told the Apple deal offers a “path” to surpass the Big 12’s $31.6 million annual distribution in the first year, pass the ACC in the second year, and “half the gap” with the SEC during the term. You’re free to roll your eyes. But that’s the pitch the CEO Group got on Tuesday.

The media-rights deal was sold by Commissioner George Kliavkoff to Pac-12 presidents and chancellors as an opportunity to take less guaranteed money and punch their way out of mediocrity. At the end of his presentation, the members were told that Apple’s projections placed the Pac-12 in third place among the Power 5 conference members when it came to revenue.

“Closer to the top than the bottom,” they were told.

It comes with no guarantee, of course.

Colorado is long gone to the Big 12. USC and UCLA are gone to the Big Ten. The Arizona schools may be gone, too. Who knows?

Washington and Oregon may bolt themselves. But be sure — there appears to be a path out of this mess.
 
It starts with the Ducks.

*********** CFL THIS WEEKEND - WEEK NINE

THURSDAY

B.C. (6-1) AT WINNIPEG (5-2) - 8:30 PM EDT


FRIDAY

TORONTO (6-0)  AT CALGARY  (2-5) 9 PM EDT


SATURDAY

MONTREAL (3-3) AT HAMILTON (3-4) 7 PM EDT


SUNDAY

OTTAWA (3-4)  AT SASKATCHEWAN (3-4) 7 PM EDT



YOUR SCHEDULE OF CFL GAMES ON AMERICAN CABLE (CBSSN) THIS SEASON:

https://fbschedules.com/cbs-sports-network-releases-2023-cfl-tv-schedule/


***********   In one respect, the Edmonton Elks - a proud franchise that, playing as the Edmonton Eskimos,  has won 14 Grey Cups - are the worst team in the history of North American pro sports.

Their 27-0 loss at home to the BC Lions last Saturday night extended their home losing streak to 21 games. The last time they won at home was four seasons ago - October 12, 2019. (In fairness, the CFL did not play in 2020.)

The 21-game home losing streak surpasses the 20-game streak set by the hapless St. Louis Browns in 1953.  The next year, the Browns were playing in Baltimore as the Orioles.

What are their chances of ending the streak this year?   So far, they’re winless - home and away - after 8 games.

They have five home games remaining.  One is against Winnipeg and one is against BC.  They’re two of three best teams in the CFL (Toronto is the third) and those games are not what I’d consider winnable. The other three are against Ottawa, Calgary and Montreal, none of them exactly  pushovers. 

Should the Elks lose them all - the last one will be October 14th, against Montreal -  they will have gone three entire regular seasons - 2021, 2022 and 2023 without a home win. (Four, if you count 2020.)

I say bring back the Eskimos.  Find the native leaders and find out what they want in return for their permission.  I know, I know, it’s a cultural thing and a peoples’ pride is not for sale, and so forth - but it doesn’t hurt to ask.



***********   Hi Hugh,

Time can get away on us so quickly. I hope you and family are very well.

Here is a post from this week I thought you would like. Many who follow you are probably aware of Bud Grant's football journey. Someone said how much he and his daughter on the right look alike.

Bud Grant's children visited his statue outside of IG Field in Winnipeg for the first time.

Fans are encouraged to get to their seats early tomorrow, as the Bombers will be honouring the legendary coach & player prior to kickoff."

Yussef Hawash
Winnipeg, Manitoba

 

(Bud Grant’s son, Mike - in the middle - has long been one of the best high school coaches in Minnesota.


*********** AT THE TOP OF MY LIST OF BOOKS THAT I RECOMMEND TO ANYONE WHO’S A COACH OR ABOUT TO BECOME ONE…

(1) Reade, Bob - Coaching Football Successfully - Human Kinetics, 1994 - Every young football coach should read this book - preferably twice or more - before even thinking about becoming a head coach.

(2) Nelson, David M. - Football Principles and Play - Ronald Press, 1962 - This book is deep, and deals with the stuff “under the hood” of the game in a way that I have yet to see anyplace else.

(3) Parseghian , Ara - Parseghian and Notre Dame Football - Doubleday & Co, 1971 & 1973 - Coach Parseghian’s Irish won the 1973 National Championship, and they won it running a Wing-T offense and a Split-4 defense - both systems that I have used for most of my career.  In this book, he gets deeply into the “why” and “how” of his system, and I’ve found  it very useful over the years.   I have great respect for him as a coach and as a man, and - for what it’s worth - his first head coaching job, and the place where he  came to the attention of Notre Dame, was at Northwestern.

(4) McKay, John - Football Coaching - Ronald Press, 1966 - The basics of the USC I-formation attack and his 5-2 Rover (Monster) defense - and more.  Coach McKay probably did more than anyone to popularize the I-formation, and as a result, with tailbacks the likes of Ricky Bell, Anthony Davis, Mike Garrett, O.J. Simpson and Charles White, he established USC’s reputation as “tailback U.”   Garrett and Simpson both won Heisman Trophies. His book holds nothing back, explaining the entire USC offense in considerable detail (an indication that he didn’t care that opponents knew what he was doing - he still had personnel  good enough to beat you anyhow.

(5) Ellison, Glenn "Tiger" - Run and Shoot Football - Parker Publishing, 1965 & 1984 - Tiger Ellison was a high school coach in Hamilton, Ohio who, faced with an 0-4-1 record in a town that expected winning teams, decided to use simple touch football principles of “getting open.” It turned his season around, turned his kids on - the community, too - and led to the development of an entire offensive system, which he came to call the Run and Shoot.

(6) Bryant, Paul W. - Building a Championship Football Team - Prentice-Hall, 1960 - There have been at least a dozen books written about The Bear, but this one was written BY him. He writes a lot about defense and how he taught it, and a lot of  it is based on the numbering system he got from Bum Phillips - “a Texas high school coach.”   It’s become a part of the language of football (“he’s playing a seven technique”)  and as far as I’ve been able to tell, Coach Bryant’s book was the first time it was explained in print:

(7) Evashevski, Forest and Nelson, David - Scoring Power With the Winged T Offense - Brown Co., 1957 - The original book on the offense that took the football world by storm after Iowa put it on display in the Rose Bowl.   Delaware - and Maine before it - had been running the offense for six years.  But the offense, invented by Dave Nelson and his assistants, Mike Lude and Harold Westerman, and called the “Winged T,” might never have come to the attention of football people if it hadn’t been demonstrated on the games biggest  stage - the 1957 Rose Bowl.  There, in front of more than 100,000 people and a nationwide TV audience, the Number 3 Iowa Hawkeyes ran wild in beating Oregon State, 35-19.  The demand to learn more about the Iowa offense could only be satisfied by a book describing it in detail, and that’s what Coach Nelson and Iowa coach Forest Evashevski produced.  It is a masterwork.

(8) Danzig, Allison - The History of American Football - Prentice-Hall, 1956 - It’s a big book because it deals with a big subject - the men and their teams - and their thinking - that built the game we have today.  I majored in history in college, and I consider this one of the best history books I’ve ever seen.  What a great thing that it happens to be about football.  It’s the history of college football  from the game’s beginnings until the mid-1950s.  And it  digs in deeply.  At the time of its publication, a critic at the New York Times called it “Without Doubt, the most ambitious and best book ever published on the subject of college football.” (Pro  football, for the time that the book covers, played a very minor part.)  I find myself going to this book time after time in doing research.   It’s truly a shame that none of us gets to live forever, because I’d love to have a copy of his History of American Football - Part Two.

It’s loaded with photos of teams, players and coaches from the past.

Here’s one of the more “recent” ones - the 1953 National Champion Maryland Terps.



And here’s  one from 40 years earlier - the 1913 Notre Dame team.  That guy in the middle row holding the football is a young Norwegian immigrant from Chicago named Knute Rockne.

 




*********** How many people - players, coaches, others - does your college have in the Pro Football Hall of Fame?

Here are the top five colleges.   (An * indicates that the person is credited to more than one school.   Notre Dame’s George Connor, for instance, started at Holy Cross, and then, after WW II service, wound up at Notre Dame, so he’s listed for both schools; same with USC’s O.J. Simpson, who first went to a JC - San Francisco City College.)

1. (TIE) Notre Dame (14):  Jerome Bettis , Tim Brown , Nick Buoniconti , Dave Casper , George Connor* , Edward DeBartolo, Jr. , Paul Hornung , Earl Lambeau , John McNally* , Wayne Millner , Joe Montana , Alan Page , George Trafton and Bryant Young

1.(TIE) USC (14): Marcus Allen , Morris Badgro , Frank Gifford , Ronnie Lott , Bruce Matthews , Ron Mix , Anthony Muñoz , Troy Polamalu , Junior Seau , O.J. Simpson* , Lynn Swann , Willie Wood , Ron Yary* and Tony Boselli

3. Michigan (11): George Allen* , Dan Dierdorf , Len Ford* , Benny Friedman , Bill Hewitt , Elroy Hirsch* , Steve Hutchinson , Ty Law , Tom Mack , Ralph Wilson, Jr.* and  Charles Woodson

4. (TIE) Ohio State (10): Cris Carter , Sid Gillman , Lou Groza , Dante Lavelli , Dick LeBeau , Orlando Pace , Jim Parker , Ed Sabol , Paul Warfield and Bill Willis

4. (TIE) Pitt (10): Jimbo Covert , Mike Ditka , Chris Doleman , Tony Dorsett , Russ Grimm , Rickey Jackson , Dan Marino , Curtis Martin , Darrelle Revis and Joe Schmidt

Miami has 9
Alabama and Syracuse have 8
Minnesota has 7
Illinois, LSU, Oregon, Penn State and UCLA have 6

There are several with five, including one that was once  a powerhouse but no longer plays the game…. San Franciso.  The Dons gave us  Gino Marchetti, Ollie Matson, Pete Rozelle,  Bob St. Clair and  Dick Stanfel

*********** We all know that when we’re referring to the front of a ship, the “OW” in “BOW” is pronounced like the “OW” in “CROWD.”

But the “OW” in that thingy that shoots arrows  sounds like “OH.”

My wife swears she heard some dimwit on a TV news show, undoubtedly reading off a TelePrompter,  say that someone “fired a shot across the BOH.”  This person obviously didn’t know that the expression derives from the act of a ship literally firing across the bow of another ship as a warning to it to change course.

Or maybe that person was referring to the Biden administration’s latest dipshit outrage - a plan to  cut off funding for schools that have riflery and archery and hunter safety programs.

Think of all the liquor stores that have been held up by kids who learned to shoot on their school’s  riflery teams, and all the mass shootings by crazed bowmen.  (Pronounced “BOH-men.”


*********** You know you’ve been at it a while when you get an order  with a note like this…

Coach Wyatt

I used your double wing back in 2000. My son, Matthew Clark, was on that team and now is coaching his first youth team and wants to start teaching double wing. I told him I would help find some material to help! By the way, our 10 year old team back in 2000 went 10-0 and won the county championship running the double wing.

Thanks

Dave Clark
Marble Hill, Georgia



***********  I remember the years following World War II  when Catholic colleges all over the country began dropping football, until the only ones left playing at the big-school level were Notre Dame and BC… Since coming to the Northwest in 1975, I’ve seen junior colleges on Oregon and Washington drop football… And now I’m bracing myself for the implosion of the Pac-12. 

But something that is likely to hurt as much as any of those events is the outright closing of small colleges that can no longer afford financially to continue operating.

Iowa Wesleyan - birthplace of the Air Raid offense - announced that it would be closing its doors at the end of this past academic year.

And just this past week, little Alderson-Broaddus College, in Philippi, West Virginia, which found itself owing the city of Phillipi nearly $800,000 in overdue utility bills,  and was taking donations in order to pay faculty and staff, was forced to throw in the towel.


https://triblive.com/sports/closure-of-alderson-broaddus-affects-a-number-of-athletes-with-wpial-ties/


 
***********   Long-time friend  and fellow coach Brian Mackell, of Glen Burnie, Maryland is  a BIG Cowboys fan, and after just a couple of days of training camp he wrote me, excitedly…

Coach Wyatt,

Look!!!  👀

The prehistoric dinosaur position known as a FULLBACK is being deployed in 20 Personnel during training camp. 

AND I LOVE IT!!!

FB/all RBs matter in my football world and that will never change.

43, fullback Hunter Luepke.  I am looking forward to seeing him and Pollard together.

I know that Dallas won't utilize two back sets during games in high repetition but if a handful of situations require the outdated I Formation then I personally would rather see it than 4 Wides on a short yardage situation...call me a dinosaur because yup, I wear it on my sleeve!

 

I wrote back

Dear Dino,

That is very encouraging. I know Hunter Luepke from ND State. VERY tough kid.

Nice to know they’ll at least have this in their arsenal - with a QB under center.

I suppose hoping for a tight end is asking for egg in my beer!



*********** With all the crap that’s going on in the Pac - (Take a Number) Conference, it’s not easy on the ADs. Said Jim Livengood, Arizona’s athletic director from 1994 to 2009, “It’s a great time to be retired.”


***********  Today’s White Privilege Update comes from central Pennsylvania, in the city of Reading (pronounced REDDing) , where the members of the North End Rod & Gun Club cashed in some bonds that had matured and discovered they were a million dollars richer than they thought they were.

What to do with all that money?  Fix up the bar?   Buy some land where members can hunt and fish?  Free beer for everybody until the money runs out?

Naah.  Not these guys.  The decision was easy:   donate it to charity.

The club usually donates some $15,000 to charity every year, but this year, they donated $500,000 each to Wounded Warriors and St. Jude’s.

Said the club president. “St. Jude’s commercials on TV sometimes rip me apart… no child should have to go through that.”

(So there ARE some  good white people  in America.)


https://www.wfmz.com/video/north-end-rod-and-gun-club-makes-1m-donation-to-charities/video_16aab0d2-cc53-52c6-9bc7-9e96f1317744.html





*********** For more than 30 years this clock has graced the wall of our rec room.  Thank God I won’t be around  long enough to have to tell my great-grandkids stories about a great football conference  from years past..

Grandpa, What's that clock mean?

Kids, that's the Pacific 8 conference. Once, it  was one of the greatest football conferences in the United States.  Why, their champion used to play the Big Ten champion every year in the Rose Bowl!

Grandpa, what’s the Rose Bowl?

Grandpa, why do they call it the Big Ten when they've got 32 teams?



*********** Last week, new Broncos’ head coach Sean Payton told USA Today that Nathaniel Hackett's job as Broncos’ head coach last season was "one of the worst coaching jobs in the history of the NFL.”

Now, there’s no question that Sean Payton is a good NFL head coach.  And, based on what evidence there is, it appears that - so far at least - Nathaniel Hackett is not.

Considering what a crappy job it is having to deal with those overpaid children, you'd think members of the coaching fraternity would have a little compassion for what their fellow coaches have to face.

Sean, the news media don't need any help from you.

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/38115519/jets-nathaniel-hackett-sean-payton-broke-code-comments



***********   I’m indebted to loyal reader Joe Gutilla for doing the research necessary to compile this list of colleges:

Cal State Fullerton 1992
Cal State Los Angeles 1977             
Cal State Long Beach 1991
Cal State Northridge 2001
Humboldt State 2018
Chico State 1996
Hayward State 1993
San Francisco State 1994
Sonoma State 1997
Cal Poly Pomona 1985
UC Riverside 1975
UC San Diego 1968
UC Santa Barbara 1991
California Baptist 1955
Loyola University 1951
University of the Pacific 1995
Pepperdine 1961
St. Mary's College 2003
University of San Francisco 1994
Santa Clara University 1992
Cal Tech 1993
Azusa Pacific 2019
Occidental 2019
Whittier 2022
Menlo 2014
Vanguard 1961
United States International University 1980


They’re colleges in California that have dropped football,  and the year they did so.  (Some of them have actually dropped the sport twice.)

Joe  wrote,   “Eleven of them quit playing in the 90's. (I coached at two of them).  New York matches California with 27 schools that dropped football.   Illinois follows with 12. I find it interesting that all of them are BLUE states.”

I told Joe I found the list absolutely shocking.

In addition to players, an awful lot of coaching talent  got its start in those schools.

When I was in Finland, a lot of the coaches over there were California  guys from the Occidental/Whittier/Redlands/LaVerne conference who had the time because they weren't permitted to recruit so they had summers off.

A few of the schools  I see - Santa Clara, St. Mary’s, San Francisco  -played big time  ball in the 50s and tried reviving it only to drop football again.

I’ve been worrying about when the California JCs might drop football.  That would be a huge blow.

It IS interesting the way blue states treat football, and it’s easy to see why.  It’s  the lefties in control of those blue states taking  it out on the virile males.



*********   Who doesn't know Joe Tiller by sight?


So now the mantra of every new coach should be, "Train lightly, boys, just...train lightly."

Most NYCU pages lately give quite a bit of space to money. I've always thought the public generally underestimates the extreme skill and drive necessary to becoming the best. Whatever the sport, the very best players do marvelous things. The point is, I believe they deserve very, very good pay. The people doing the paying (and ultimately that would be consumers of the product), however, have crossed the line into Wonderland territory. To wit, Jaylen Brown signing a contract that will pay him $744,000-plus for each game, if he plays all 82, which he won't (there's now this thing called load management, right?). Or MLB guys signing for close to half a Billion dollars. And we haven't even gotten to Ohtani yet. And Mbappe, whom the Saudis want the honor of paying three-quarters of a billion--of course, said player screams back at the Saudis, "Baby need a new pair a shoes, don't you even know that?". So he demands the full billion. Greed, let's not forget, is one of the Seven Deadly Sins.

And these 'collectives' (love the communist overtone) are killing the CFB we love. I think the NCAA faces so many problems it doesn't know where to begin to deal with them. But someone with guts and brains needs to step up to redirect the Leviathan before it kills itself. I doubt that'll happen. We're so far gone you get on some CFB message boards and the fans are rooting for their collective to get more cash than the next school, by any damn means necessary. Can any of your readers tell me one respected coach demanding the mic in order to explain the consequences of this madness to the casual fan?


John Vermillion                    
St Petersburg, Florida


***********  Hugh,

Watching that Toronto-Saskatchewan game a couple of questions crossed my mind:  One...Is the pronunciation sas-CATCH-ehwhen, or sas-CATCH-uhwahn?  

Two...Noticing they played the game at St. Mary's (college) I looked up college football in Canada.  Well...first, there is the CFL (professional football); then there is semi-pro (American football); then there is semi-pro (Canadian football); then there is University level (U Sports); then there is Junior level (JC clubs??); then there's Varsity level (high schools???); and finally there's Women's level (pronoun may force a change in identity?).

Regarding NIL...although I never much cared for him (even as a Fresno State alum) I have to agree with Lane Kiffin.  It legalized cheating.  I also believe that it has rubber stamped college sports as semi-professional and no longer amateur in nature.

I preferred to run unbalanced with a 'tackle over' for the very reason that some officials didn't know HS rules.

In 1982 my wife and I traveled to Moraga, CA to watch the Santa Clara-St. Mary's (Little Big Game).  One of my former HS players was a center for SC.  St. Mary's stadium (which held just under 5,000) was SRO and we were treated to a great game with favored SC getting upset 13-10 on a last second FG.  On our way out of the game the Cal-Stanford (Big Game) was on the car radio.  It was the infamous Band on the Field game.  Stanford kicks the apparent game winning FG.  We looked at each other and said, "Two for the price of one!"  Nah!  We all know what happened next!  Yet, little did we know at that time 10 years later in 1992 the last Little Big Game would ever be played.


QUIZ:  Joe Tiller (that young man he has his arms around in one of those pictures is Drew Brees, Austin Westlake HS graduate who the Texas Longhorns thought was too short to play QB for them).

Have a great week!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas


 
JOE TILLER AT LEFT WITH A YOUNGER NICK SABAN... AT RIGHT WITH DREW BREES

*********** QUIZ ANSWER:  Joe Tiller  played his high school ball in Toledo, Ohio, and  played offensive line at Montana State under Jim Sweeney.  After graduation, he played one season in the CFL before returning to Bozeman as a graduate assistant.

After one year as a G.A.,  he was made a full-time assistant, and he stayed at Montana State for six years, coaching the offensive line, until he was hired by Sweeney, by then at Washington State, in 1971. After a year as offensive line coach at WSU, he was promoted to offensive coordinator.

In 1974 he headed back to Canada, where he spent nine years at Calgary as an assistant.

He returned to the states in 1983 as defensive coordinator at Purdue, but when the head coach there was fired,  he moved on to Wyoming as offensive coordinator.

After two years at Wyoming, in 1989 he returned to Washington State as OC when Mike Price was hired there, and in 1990 he had the foresight to name a youngster named Drew Bledsoe the first freshman starting QB in Cougar history.

But the next year he left WSU when he got  his first head coaching job,  at Wyoming.  In six years at Laramie, he coached the Cowboys to a 39-30-1 record. His final team, in 1996, was his best - the Cowboys went 10-2 and were nationally ranked.  They lost to BYU in the very first WAC championship game, and - something that’s hard to believe in a day when 5-7 teams sometimes get bowl invitations - wound up staying home, uninvited.

Following that season, he was hired by Purdue, a Big Ten school that had had just two winning seasons in its last 18 seasons, and had played in only five bowl games in its entire history.

Introducing the spread offense - “grass basketball” they called it, which wasn’t an insult in Indiana -  that he’d learned while working alongside Jack Elway and Dennis Erickson, he made use of the passing talent of an undersized Texas native named Drew Brees, and revolutionized football in the Big Ten.

In his first season at Purdue, he earned national Coach of the Year honors.  His Boilermakers lost their opening game against Toledo, but the following week they defeated Notre Dame - ending an 11-game losing streak to the Irish - and went on to finish 9-3. Their only two other losses were to number 16-ranked Iowa and number nine Penn State.

In 2000 his team won Purdue’s first Big Ten championship in 35 years, and its subsequent appearance in the Rose Bowl was just the school’s second appearance in the history of the bowl.

When he retired following the 2008 season, he was the winningest coach in Purdue history.  His overall record there was 87-62, and his record in the Big Ten was 53-43. In his 12 years at Purdue, he averaged more than seven wins per season and he took the Boilermakers to ten bowl games.

Joe Tiller’s  overall record for 18 years as a head coach was 126-92-1.

He coached six All-Americans and 53 players who went on to the National Football League.

In his final game as Purdue’s head coach, in front of a sellout home crowd at Ross-Ade Stadium, his Boilermakers defeated instate rival Indiana, 62-10. (His teams were 10-2 against the Hoosiers.)

CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING JOE TILLER

GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
CHRISTOPHER  ANDERSON - MUNICH, GERMANY
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY


***********   Hi Coach,

The quiz answer is Joe Tiller, chief Boilermaker during my wife’s college years at Purdue. I always liked him and thought he was a great example of how getting the right fit between a coach and a school (not necessarily reaching for the “best resume available”) is so important. Tiller’s stops at scrappy underdog schools made a great pedigree for his program that saw three or four blue-blood programs on the schedule every year, and he really wanted to be there.

He was a serious coach but not high-strung or humorless, and his teams played the same way. Like a lot of coaches with recognizable offensive systems, I thought he didn’t get due credit for defense, where Purdue fielded some top-flight units.

When Purdue played WSU in the 2001 season Sun Bowl there was a funny clip of Tiller and Mike Price singing the Wazzu fight song together.

Christopher Anderson
Munich, Germany

He was one of the all-time great hires.  Shortly after he was hired, I was in Mr. Vernon, Indiana (near Evansville) putting on a clinic, and I remember the coaches comparing him with the new Indiana coach, who had been hired at about the same time.  They had been to the two schools’ clinics, and their impressions were that the Indiana coach seemed somewhat cold and aloof, while the Purdue guy - Joe Tiller - couldn’t be more genial and approachable. That stuff matters to high school coaches. Perception is everything.


*********** I got to meet him the year he was coach of the year.

I  enjoyed his presentation at the Louisville Champions Clinic.

He impressed me with his very low key speech. He seemed like a college coach that you could sit down with and have a beer.

See you at the next meeting.

David Crump
Owensboro, Kentucky



   


***********  QUIZ:   He was born and raised in Philadelphia and was a star athlete at Northeast High School there.   He was an All-Public halfback.  Paired in the backfield with equally fast  Angelo Coia (who would go to USC and then play seven seasons in the NFL), he led Northeast to an unbeaten regular season before losing in the city championship game  to Catholic League champion LaSalle - he was injured and unable to play.

Joining the basketball team immediately following football, he starred on a Northeast team that  lost only one game - to Overbrook High and their star, the great Wilt Chamberlain.

At Michigan State, playing both ways according to the rules of the time, he lettered for three seasons, was a first-team All Big-Ten selection at Halfback, and was a  team captain his senior season.

He was a Number One draft choice of the Green Bay Packers in the 1961 draft.  The Packers were good  They were coming off a 17-13 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFL title game, and although our guy expected to play running back, the Pack was  in good shape in the backfield with Paul Hornung and Jim Taylor.

He made the squad, but going into the annual Thanksgiving Day game against the Lions, he hadn’t had a single carry the entire season.

Then, when starting corner back Henry Gremminger went down, he was forced into the lineup, and despite his inexperience, he made an interception that sealed a Packers’ win.

He held onto the starting position from that point on, and in two years’ time he was an All-Pro, an honor he earned a total of seven times - four as a first-teamer, three as a second-teamer.

In all, he spent 12 seasons in the NFL - nine with the Packers and three with the Cowboys - and he intercepted a total of 48 passes, seven of which he retuned for touchdowns.  He also returned 120 kickoffs for a 25.7 yard average.  His 60-yard  interception return for a touchdown in Super Bowl II was the only such touchdown return in the first two Super Bowls.

He was the first player to play in four Super Bowls. And  he won rings in three of them.

He played in seven NFL championship games and won six of them - five with the Packers and one with the Cowboys.

He is one of only three  former Michigan State Spartans in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

He was selected for the NFL’s All-Decade team for the 1960s.

Vince Lombardi later admitted that he almost made a huge mistake by not moving him to defense: “I was too stubborn to switch him to defense until I had to,” he said. . “Now when I think of what (he)  means to our defense, it scares me to think of how I almost mishandled him.”

Later, our guy recalled how Lombardi had honored him once in front of his teammates: “He said I was the best cornerback he’d ever seen. In front of the whole team.  He said I was the best athlete …I’ll always remember that."

His Hall of Fame induction speech contained  some really important biographical details, including the high school coach who talked him into playing football;  the way he got his number (26);  and the role played by an old pro - Emlen Tunnell - in convincing Vince Lombardi to give him a look on defense:

I would like to take this time to thank the two people responsible for my football career.

Number one would be my high school coach, Mr. Charles Martin, who is deceased and I can honestly say that if it wasn't for Mr. Charles Martin back in Philadelphia in 1955 when I started playing in high school there is no way I would be here because I thought that I was a basketball player.  In fact, I would have bet that I was a basketball player, but this man saw something in me that I didn't see…  he said “I think you could play football and you can play it well.” I said, “Well I don't know because I never played football, just around the streets.”  You hear Bill Cosby who is a good friend, you hear him talking about playing touch football and running behind the bus in the alley, and the cans and stuff and we were involved in that and I didn't play organized football until high school so this Mr. Charles Martin, I will always remember him and his spirit will live within me. He helped me get to Michigan State. I had several offers, scholarship offers, and he asked me, he said, ‘Listen, I am setting this up for you, what do you want to do?'' So I said I would like to go to Michigan State University and he said why?  “Well, there’s a fellow there that’s wearing #26, Clarence Peaks.  I said I don't know the man, never seen him except for on television,  never met him, but he is the kind of guy that I would like to be like and I would like to go there and see what happens.”

He made a phone call to Duffy Daugherty and two days later I was on a plane to Lansing, Michigan. Clarence Peaks met me at the airport and from there it was history. Clarence Peaks started off with number 26, that’s where it originated, and I told Clarence that I was going to take this number 26 and take it as far as I can and hopefully to the top. And I would like to say that Clarence Peaks is not here, but I did see him last week and I did thank him for the inspiration that he gave me and helped me to be someone.

I have to talk about coach Vince Lombardi because coach Vince Lombardi reminds me so much of my high school coach. Those two people had more to do with me playing football and being successful than anybody in the world. I feel a certain sadness in my heart, but I can feel happy and feel good because the spirit of high school coach and coach Vince Lombardi is within me. Coach Lombardi saw something in me also that I didn't realize because during my senior year at Michigan State, while I was benched halfway through the season for reasons, well Duffy said he wanted to play his younger players,  he said he wanted to have a shot at the Big 10, he said he wanted to play a sophomore and juniors. I couldn't understand it at the time, but I do now. But coach Lombardi saw something in me the year before, so he was a little ahead of his time, but he did see something that I didn't see in myself. He had the nerve to draft me number one in 1961 and that was probably the biggest thrill of my entire career, being drafted number one and I said I have to repay this man by having enough nerve to draft me number one.

On to Green Bay as a running back and wide receiver. Well,  it was difficult with Paul Hornung and Jimmy Taylor. I was happy to play with Ray Nitschke.  It was difficult to break in there as a rookie. As a matter of fact, I broke my collar bone trying to break in there against the Chicago Bears. I will never forget that, and I decided right then and there, I said the best thing for me is to go to defense and I started thinking defense. Emlen Tunnell, also a Hall of Famer, a great person, great defensive back,  was a big inspiration to me also. Emlen talked to me and went to Coach Lombardi and said “listen - give (him)  a shot on defense and let him get out there and practice and do something to see what he can do.” And he did and I think back to 1961 my rookie year,  in Detroit, Milt Plum was the quarterback.  Hank Gremminger, defensive back, he was injured and I had to go in, I never played defense. I was able and lucky enough,  thank God, to come up with a big play interception that turned the game around and from then on I was the defensive cornerback of the Green Bay Packers and I can't say enough about my teammates in high school, college, Green Bay Packers, Dallas Cowboys.

At a 1984 reunion of the 1966 Packers’ team that defeated the Chiefs in the first Super Bowl, he made it clear that he was a Packer for life.  Quoted in teammate Jerry Kramer’s book, “Distant Replay,” he said,  “As far as I’m concerned, I never played for the Dallas Cowboys. I’m the only guy in the country who has a Dallas Cowboys Super Bowl ring and doesn’t even wear it.”



TUESDAY,  AUGUST 1, 2023 - “Do not remove a fence until you know why it was put up in the first place.” G. K. Chesterton


*********** WITH FOOTBALL PRACTICE BEGINNING AROUND THE COUNTRY, BE SURE TO EMAIL ME ABOUT SIGNING UP YOUR TEAM  FOR THE BLACK LION AWARD.  THERE’S NO COST TO PARTICIPATE - IT’S SIMPLY SO WE CAN TELL YOU WHAT YOU NEED TO DO, AND SO WE’LL KNOW HOW MANY AWARDS TO PREPARE FOR.

IF THE BLACK LION AWARD HAS BEEN A PART OF YOUR PROGRAM, I INVITE YOU TO WRITE ME AND SHARE WITH MY READERS WHAT IT MEANS TO YOU.

coachhw@mac.com



*********** CFL THIS WEEKEND - WEEK EIGHT

Go ahead and flag me down at the border.  I know I’m going to be hated in Canada (if anyone ever reads this north of the border) for saying this, but I’ve just about had it with the three-downs-to-make-ten-yards business.  It’s very hard to keep a Yank interested.  If you like offensive football that consists of an occasional drive, then a game  that consists of one “two-and-out” after another is not going to be to your liking.  You think American football is hard to watch when your team doesn’t have a quarterback?  At least here you have  a chance of getting a first down with three running plays.  Fat chance of making ten yards in two plays with any consistency.  With the running game almost an afterthought, you’d think Canada would have some good quarterbacks.  But you’d be wrong.


FRIDAY


HAMILTON (3-4)  16, OTTAWA (3-4) 12


SATURDAY


TORONTO (6-0)  31,  SASKATCHEWAN (3-4) 13 AT HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA

DAMN SHAME THAT THE CFL PLAYS ONE GAME A YEAR IN THE MARITIMES AND THEN WHEN THEY DO THEY GO AND  GIVE THE LOCALS  A  DULL-ASS GAME LIKE THIS ONE.


B.C. (6-1) 27,  EDMONTON  (0-8)  07 PM EDT


SUNDAY


MONTREAL (3-3)  25,  CALGARY 18 (2-5)



YOUR SCHEDULE OF CFL GAMES ON AMERICAN CABLE (CBSSN) THIS SEASON:

https://fbschedules.com/cbs-sports-network-releases-2023-cfl-tv-schedule/





*********** AT THE TOP OF MY LIST OF BOOKS THAT I RECOMMEND TO ANYONE WHO’S A COACH OR ABOUT TO BECOME ONE…

(1) Reade, Bob - Coaching Football Successfully - Human Kinetics, 1994 - Every young football coach should read this book - preferably twice or more - before even thinking about becoming a head coach.

(2) Nelson, David M. - Football Principles and Play - Ronald Press, 1962 - This book is deep, and deals with the stuff “under the hood” of the game in a way that I have yet to see anyplace else.

(3) Parseghian , Ara - Parseghian and Notre Dame Football - Doubleday & Co, 1971 & 1973 - Coach Parseghian’s Irish won the 1973 National Championship, and they won it running a Wing-T offense and a Split-4 defense - both systems that I have used for most of my career.  In this book, he gets deeply into the “why” and “how” of his system, and I’ve found  it very useful over the years.   I have great respect for him as a coach and as a man, and - for what it’s worth - his first head coaching job, and the place where he  came to the attention of Notre Dame, was at Northwestern.

(4) McKay, John - Football Coaching - Ronald Press, 1966 - The basics of the USC I-formation attack and his 5-2 Rover (Monster) defense - and more.  Coach McKay probably did more than anyone to popularize the I-formation, and as a result, with tailbacks the likes of Ricky Bell, Anthony Davis, Mike Garrett, O.J. Simpson and Charles White, he established USC’s reputation as “tailback U.”   Garrett and Simpson both won Heisman Trophies. His book holds nothing back, explaining the entire USC offense in considerable detail (an indication that he didn’t care that opponents knew what he was doing - he still had personnel  good enough to beat you anyhow.

(5) Ellison, Glenn "Tiger" - Run and Shoot Football - Parker Publishing, 1965 & 1984 - Tiger Ellison was a high school coach in Hamilton, Ohio who, faced with an 0-4-1 record in a town that expected winning teams, decided to use simple touch football principles of “getting open.” It turned his season around, turned his kids on - the community, too - and led to the development of an entire offensive system, which he came to call the Run and Shoot.

(6) Bryant, Paul W. - Building a Championship Football Team - Prentice-Hall, 1960 - There have been at least a dozen books written about The Bear, but this one was written BY him. He writes a lot about defense and how he taught it, and a lot of  it is based on the numbering system he got from Bum Phillips - “a Texas high school coach.”   It’s become a part of the language of football (“he’s playing a seven technique”)  and as far as I’ve been able to tell, Coach Bryant’s book was the first time it was explained in print:

(7) Evashevski, Forest and Nelson, David - Scoring Power With the Winged T Offense - Brown Co., 1957 - The original book on the offense that took the football world by storm after Iowa put it on display in the Rose Bowl.

Delaware - and Maine before it - had been running the offense for six years.  But the offense, invented by Dave Nelson and his assistants, Mike Lude and Harold Westerman, and called the “Winged T,” might never have come to the attention of football people if it hadn’t been demonstrated on the games biggest  stage - the 1957 Rose Bowl.  There, in front of more than 100,000 people and a nationwide TV audience, the Number 3 Iowa Hawkeyes ran wild in beating Oregon State, 35-19. 

The demand to learn more about the Iowa offense could only be satisfied by a book describing it in detail, and that’s what Coach Nelson and Iowa coach Forest Evashevski produced.  It is a masterwork.

Evashevski and Nelson had been teammates at Michigan, playing under the great Fritz Crisler, and when Evashevski needed an offense, he turned to his old teammate, Dave Nelson, who had been having success at the small college level.  Nelson was more than willing to help, and his help led to Iowa’s great Rose Bowl triumph.  Evashevski is listed as co-author - and although I have it from the most reliable of sources that “Evy didn’t wrote a word of it,” the fact is that without his team’s big win, the “Winged T” might never have become one of football’s most enduring offensive systems.  And Delaware can take comfort in the knowledge that more than 65 years since the book’s publication, the offense that Iowa made famous  is known far and wide as the Delaware Wing T.

This is from the book’s “background,” written - of course - by Dave Nelson:

Most all parts of this offense have been borrowed over the last 10 years but the basis for the majority of the principles is the offensive system developed and taught by the football staffs at the University of Michigan 10 years ago. Consequently, this offense represents 80 per cent single wing and 20 per cent  T  formation.

A fair question to be answered at this time is why do we prefer this offense over others and use today? The six reasons we give are not restricted to our system. Most everyone has the same opinion of their mode of attack or they would not be using it.

Number one and the most important, we feel that we get maximum utilization of the talent available. Second, the offense gives us an adequate method of ball control. Third, the offense  has an ability to score, as evidenced by the fact that Delaware has scored in the last 57 games and only twice since 1951 has scored only one touchdown. Iowa scored in every game in the 1956 season while winning the championship. Fourth, we feel we have adequate balance between passing and rushing with the passing game camouflaged by the run because the basic internal rushing game with lead post and trap blocking aids protection. During the fall of 1956, Delaware ate one pass of 125 throne. Of course, there were 10 interceptions and we wish the ball had been eaten on those occasions. Fifth, it is our belief that it is possible to have a flexible attack that is able to adjust to a multiplicity of defense. Last, it has been our experience that the system is simple to teach and more important, easy for the squad to learn.

*********** A TIP FROM A PROFESSIONAL RUNNING COACH:

“If you watch most runners, their hands are very relaxed. One of the things we teach young runners is to act like they’re carrying a potato chip between their thumb and their forefinger and they can’t let it break. You’re just barely touching your thumb to your forefinger. “



*********** On my last Zoom I went over teaching blocking (and tackling) to an entire team, and mentioned the importance of making sure that if you have four lines blocking, you have four coaches observing and (if necessary) correcting.

I stressed that I only count reps that are observed, because a rep that’s gone unobserved may very well have been done wrong, and that means that we’ve just helped the player get “better” at being bad.

One coach asked how he could manage this fairly quickly when he had enough kids for four lines, but only one coach (beside himself).

I suggested a few possibilities:

1. Each coach watches two lines. I think that if you’re far enough away - behind the “runner” - and the lines aren’t too far apart, you can eye both lines. I don’t know about your assistant.

2. Like #1 except you  have each line go  in rapid-fire fashion, right line/leftline/right line, etc.

3. The beauty of repping the same thing over and over is that some kids will get very good at this, and you will soon enough reach the point where after they’ve done their rep, you can put them in charge of a line.  It’s always my goal to get kids to the point where they can teach others what they’ve been taught.

The coach said he liked #3 - said his kids like teaching lifts (in the weight room) after they get good at them, and they’ll like this, too.   (Never pass up an opportunity for kids to lead, and for them to take part ownership of their team.)



*********** With NIL, you have to wonder how much longer colleges will get away with the  sham that their game is between “college kids,” playing for the love of a game, love of “their”  school, and love of “their” teammates.

It’s something Kerry Eggers cares about. He’s a retired longtime Portland sports reporter who grew up around the college game. His dad, John, was sports information director at Oregon State.

He writes about something that doesn’t sound very much like the game I grew up loving when he writes…

“Spyre Sports Group’s goal is to generate at least $25 million annually for Tennessee athletics. Miami booster John Ruiz’s Canes Connection has allocated $10 million to spend annually in compensating Hurricane athletes.

“Texas, Texas A&M, Alabama and Ohio State have collectives tossing around major-league money, and Oregon’s Division Street — with Phil Knight lending his financial heft — has the Ducks able to compete with anybody in terms of landing top athletic prospects.

“SMU’s Boulevard collective reportedly is paying every player on its football and men’s and women’s basketball teams $36,000 a year — a total payout of $3.5 million annually — for NIL activity. Such compensation is unprecedented in college athletics.”

Really?  EVERY player on SMU’s football team?  Making $36,000 a year (in addition to tuition, room and board, books and incidentals)?   To play college football? 


God knows what they’re getting at some of the schools in the SEC.

RAH, RAH, RAH!



***********   Oregon State has a pretty good baseball program, and they nearly knocked off eventual College World Series champion LSU - in Baton Rouge.

One of the reasons why LSU beat Oregon State - and everybody else - was a transfer from the Air Force Academy named Paul Skenes - who after the College World Series became the first pick in the MLB draft.

Last year, Oregon State was in the hunt to recruit Skenes, but lost him to LSU’s money.

“He could have been in a Beaver uniform,” said Scott Sanders, who heads up the Oregon State “Giant Killers” collective.

“He ended up going to LSU for the money.    That’s the world we’re living in right now. We had him. NIL is the reason we didn’t get him. Strictly because of the money. The bigger SEC schools have unlimited resources. That’s tough to compete against.”



*********** I want to run unbalanced.  Should  I run "Tackle Over" by moving the left Tackle over and leaving the tight end in place so I’m not called for being "uncovered" on the left side? An official called me for that last year as we shifted a TE and didn’t have an eligible guy left on the short side.

That official was totally wrong about your having to have an "end" or an eligible guy of any sort on the end of the line.  You and I may call a guy a tackle,  and he may wear an ineligible number,  but if he is on the end of the line,  he is allowed to stay there, and he is still referred to in the rule books as "the end man on the line." The official you referred to must have wanted to sound brilliant by using that "uncovered" business that he heard on some NFL game. There’s no rule in our game (NFHS rules)  that stipulates that the end man on your line must have an "eligible" number.  The rules merely stipulate that you must have at least seven men on the line,  and at least five of them must have ineligible numbers;  of the linemen, only the ones on both ends are eligible to catch a pass, and then only if they’re wearing eligible numbers.  (Ignore the NFL, which for some reason refuses to do away with the farcical "tackle eligible" play.) In other words, all seven of your linemen can wear ineligible numbers - even both ends. In fact, everybody on your entire team can wear ineligible numbers. You just can't send any of them out on a pass play.  So go ahead and run Tackle  Over or End Over.


*********** Huber’s restaurant in downtown Portland dates to 1879.  It’s the oldest restaurant in Portland, and it’s especially famous for its turkey - roast turkey, turkey sandwiches, and so forth.

It’s now owned by the Louie family, descended from a fellow named Jim Louie, who arrived from China in 1881 as a stowaway on a clipper ship.

In 1891 he was hired by Huber’s as their “free lunch” chef. In those days, taverns provided  free food as an inducement to customers to come in and buy drinks (which were not free).

Evidently Jim was a savvy businessman, because he wound up owning Huber’s.

Some time ago, a writer quoted him (in his broken English) describing how he became an expert in his business:

“A young fellow, he cook 100 turkey and know nothing. He cook 1,000 turkey and know not very much. He cook 10,000 turkey, and he know a little bit. Cook 50,000 turkey, he know something about it.”


*********** That  Oregon “O?" It was designed by someone at Nike. What a surprise: Nike’s co-founder and CEO, Phil Knight, is a former Oregon track athlete, and a major backer of the Ducks, and thanks to him the Nike marketing people provided - no charge - the total athletic makeover that gave America those wild and crazy football uniforms - and the "O" itself.

The "O" is actually two ovals, one inside the other.  They’re both special to Ducks’ fans: the outer oval is the shape of Autzen Stadium, home of Duck football, while the inner oval is the shape of the track at Hayward Field, the Oregon track stadium considered by many to be the ultimate in American  track and field venues.


***********  Santa Clara once played big-time college football, but like so many Catholic colleges, it discontinued football  in the early 1950s.  1952, to be exact.  They played in Kezar Stadium, but so did the 49ers, and the Broncos just couldn’t  compete with the competition from the pros.

But in 1949, they were pretty good - had a record of 7-2-1 - and their only losses were to Cal, in their opener, and to number two-ranked Oklahoma, 28-21.  They tied Stanford , 7-7.  Did I say “big time?”  They played in front of 62,000 at Cal, 45,000 at Stanford and 59,000 at Oklahoma.  And even at home they did okay, drawing 40,000 against  San Francisco and 37,000 to watch them play St. Mary’s.

To their great delight, they were invited to play in the Orange Bowl, on New Year’s Day 1950, where they would face the heavily favored number-eleven-ranked Kentucky Wildcats, coached by a young fellow named Paul “Bear” Bryant.

The Broncos took the train out and back - four days journey each way - and Coach Len Casanova arranged for periodic stops along the way for brief workouts.

According to a story told years later by John Pasco, then a 19-year-old quarterback, a priest who was accompanying the team was known to place a bet now and then at the dog track, and he informed coach Casanova that it was well known to bettors that in the heat and humidity of Florida, dogs who had trained lightly outperformed those who’s been worked harder. It made sense to Casanova, who didn’t have much chance to work his players hard along the way anyhow. But in the meantime, Bryant was working his players long and hard.

The upshot was that a fresher Santa Clara team upset mighty Kentucky, 21-13. Famed gambler Jimmy the Greek later claimed that he’d lost $250,000 on the game.

And then, flushed with victory the team boarded a train and headed west.  With plenty of “refreshments” on board, Pasco  told the Santa Clara alumni magazine, the trip “amounted to a four-day party.”

When the train finally got to Santa Clara, there were thousands on hand at the station to greet them.  “Let me tell you,” said Pasco, who had rushed for a touchdown in the win, “ that was one heck of a train ride.”

https://magazine.scu.edu/magazines/winter-2015/sweet-victory-beating-bear-bryant/


*********** David Crump and I share a love of football and a love of trains.  He’s serious. A few years ago we were pleased to have him stop by and visit us when he was out in the Northwest for a railfan event.

He was recently in Concord, North Carolina, and he wrote,

I really enjoyed spending a week in North Carolina. I rode on several classic trains and saw a lot of the North Carolina countryside that most locals have never seen.

I also got to meet Richard Petty, the greatest NASCAR driver of all time!


***********   I was pretty sure today's answer would be Johnny Lujack, but you covered him well.

Can't get enough of the blocking that was the topic of your last Zoom. Thanks.   

Hope others appreciate your travel logs as much as I, and am confident they do. So many random meet-ups: Tracy Jackson and Kevin Braden...just happy they happened, special little touches that add to life's richness.

Coaches Wilkinson and Bob Knight may not have a lot in common, but they did share the conviction that your primary opponent is your own team. Knight eschewed showing film of his upcoming opponent, preferring instead to point out strengths and weaknesses of his own players.

John Vermillion                
St Petersburg, Florida



***********   Hugh,

The Big 12 made the right move, so did CU.  But I still believe in my heart of hearts that adding WVU, Cincinnati, and UCF was NOT a good move by the conference.

Also...with USC, UCLA, and CU moving out of the Pac 12 it won't be long before that conference completely disintegrates.  

OK, I admit, I watched snippets of the USWNT game against the Netherlands while waiting for the paint to dry in my living room.

Speaking of happenstance...my wife and I went out to eat at a place we decided on at the last minute.  The waiter quickly took our drink order, but quickly turned around and looked at me.  "Coach G?"  I looked more carefully at the young man and lo and behold he was a kid I tried to mentor as an AP/HFC.  Troubled kid at the time.  Into drugs and alcohol.  Worked hard to change but got caught vaping at school, so we had to cut him loose.  I stood up to say hello and he hugged me for what seemed like an eternity telling me "Coach, I remembered everything you told me, and I want you to know I have been sober for 2 years."  Nice to hear I could help make a difference.

There will be a run on Michigan's Block M khakis.

Johnny Lujack was an ND legend who won't soon be forgotten among us ND fans.  Not only a great QB, Lujack was also an outstanding defensive back.  It was Lujack who tackled Army's Doc Blanchard on a breakaway run to prevent a sure TD in ND's 0-0 tie of Army giving ND a national championship in 1947.  RIP #32.

Loved Mike's story about his Wahluke days.


BTW, I ran into a woman who moved here from the Portland area.  She lived in Camas!  Her and her husband used to go to the beach a lot, but since things in Portland evolved into what it is now they couldn't stand being there anymore.  Friends brought them to Granbury.

Enjoy the weekend!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas

There’s one thing for sure that keeps us in the Northwest - I HATE  hot weather.  We’re only three hours away from Ocean Shores, where we just spent four days and although it was sunny every day it never reached 70 degrees.  While the rest of the country sweltered.



    

*********** QUIZ ANSWER:  Otis Sistrunk came  from Columbus, Georgia - not Mars - and despite never playing  a down of college football,  he managed to play seven seasons on the Oakland Raiders’ defensive line, earning a Super Bowl ring and making it to a Pro Bowl.

After high school, he went straight into the Marines, and after his discharge, he got a job working in a Milwaukee meat packing plant.  On the side, being big and strong and in good shape, he played semi-pro football for a team called the West Allis Racers.

In 1969, at the age of 23, he wound up in Norfolk, Virginia, playing for a team called the Norfolk Neptunes in the Continental League - a minor league and  a definite step up from the “semi-pro” level. When the Continental League folded, the Neptunes joined the Atlantic Coast Football League - also a top-notch minor league - and there he came to the attention of a scout for the Los Angeles Rams, who brought him in for a tryout.  There, he came to the attention of a couple of Oakland people - one of them Al Davis - who happened to be looking on, and they signed him to play for the Raiders.

As a defensive tackle and end, he became a formidable part of the Raiders’ defensive unit that won Super Bowl XI (against the Vikings), and he was named second-team All-Pro in 1974.

His shaved head and his large eyelids gave him a fearsome look that belied his otherwise friendly  nature, and during one Monday Night Football game, when the camera zoomed in on him, analyst Alex Karras said, “there’s Otis Sistrunk.  From the University of Mars.”

Ha ha ha.  Those were different times, and Karras was a different sort, and everybody got a big laugh out of it.   There were no lawsuits and Karras wasn’t fired.

When our guy’s  football career was over, he sold beer for a couple of years in his hometown of Columbus, Georgia,  until  one day, while on a business call at nearby Fort Benning,  a Lieutenant Colonel asked him if he’d be interested in coaching the post football team.  He signed on, and that led to a long career as a civilian employee with the Army, first at Fort Benning and then at Fort Lewis, Washington, supporting soldiers’ fitness needs.    And that’s  where he stayed until retirement.

“I just love the military,” he said in a 2005 interview.  “I look forward to coming here every day. It’s been rewarding for me. You can’t make everybody happy, but I try to do my best.  We try to do the best we can to serve the soldiers. It’s a challenge to me every day.”

Back when he was playing with the Raiders, he and linebacker Phil Villapiano would visit local schools, encouraging kids to stay in school, stay away from drugs, “turn yourself into a lady or man,” as he put it.

Years later, while working at Fort Benning, he was approached by a young second lieutenant, a female, who said she wanted to thank him.  She said that she was one of those kids that he and Villapiano had spoken to, and she wound up going to college, joining ROTC, and earning her commission as an officer.

“We know we saved one person,” he said.  “There’s probably more.”



CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING OTIS SISTRUNK

GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
TOM DAVIS - SAN MARCOS, CALIFORNIA
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
RUSS MEYERS - VERNON CENTER, NEW YORK
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY


***********  Former Marine.  Good fit for the Raiders. He had already spent some time with a few crazies.

Tom Davis (USMC)
San Marcos, California
 





*********** QUIZ:  He played his high school ball in Toledo, Ohio, and  played offensive line at Montana State under Jim Sweeney.  After graduation, he played one season in the CFL before returning to Bozeman as a graduate assistant.

After one year as a G.A.,  he was made a full-time assistant, and he stayed at Montana State for six years, coaching the offensive line, until he was hired by Sweeney, by then at Washington State, in 1971. After a year as offensive line coach at WSU, he was promoted to offensive coordinator.

In 1974 he headed back to Canada, where he spent nine years at Calgary as an assistant.

He returned to the states in 1983 as defensive coordinator at Purdue, but when the head coach there was fired,  he moved on to Wyoming as offensive coordinator.

After two years at Wyoming, in 1989 he returned to Washington State as OC when Mike Price was hired there, and in 1990 he had the foresight to name a youngster named Drew Bledsoe the first freshman starting QB in Cougar history.

But the next year he left WSU when he got  his first head coaching job,  at Wyoming.  In six years at Laramie, he coached the Cowboys to a 39-30-1 record. His final team, in 1996, was his best - the Cowboys went 10-2 and were nationally ranked.  They lost to BYU in the very first WAC championship game, and - something that’s hard to believe in a day when 5-7 teams sometimes get bowl invitations - wound up staying home, uninvited.

Following that season, he was hired by Purdue, a Big Ten school that had had just two winning seasons in its last 18 seasons, and had played in only five bowl games in its entire history.

Introducing the spread offense - “grass basketball” they called it, which wasn’t an insult in Indiana -  that he’d learned while working alongside Jack Elway and Dennis Erickson, he made use of the passing talent of an undersized Texas native named Drew Brees, and revolutionized football in the Big Ten.

In his first season at Purdue, he earned national Coach of the Year honors.  His Boilermakers lost their opening game against Toledo, but the following week they defeated Notre Dame - ending an 11-game losing streak to the Irish - and went on to finish 9-3. Their only two other losses were to number 16-ranked Iowa and number nine Penn State.

In 2000 his team won Purdue’s first Big Ten championship in 35 years, and its subsequent appearance in the Rose Bowl was just the school’s second appearance in the history of the bowl.

When he retired following the 2008 season, he was the winningest coach in Purdue history.  His overall record there was 87-62, and his record in the Big Ten was 53-43. In his 12 years at Purdue, he averaged more than seven wins per season and he took the Boilermakers to ten bowl games.

HIs overall record for 18 years as a head coach was 126-92-1.

He coached six All-Americans and 53 players who went on to the National Football League.

In his final game as Purdue’s head coach, in front of a sellout home crowd at Ross-Ade Stadium, his Boilermakers defeated instate rival Indiana, 62-10. (His teams were 10-2 against the Hoosiers.)







FRIDAY,  JULY 28, 2023 - “Risk comes from not knowing what you’re doing.” Warren Buffett



***********  The  University of Colorado Board of Regents voted unanimously Thursday  to leave Pac-12 and join (or is it “rejoin?”) the Big 12.

Ordinarily, my reaction would be "good riddance."

I never thought that CU was a good fit or an asset to the Pac-12.  Colorado, for God’s sake, a school with zero recent athletic tradition.  A school that sucked in football (27-76 in conference play, one winning season in its entire 13-year Pac-12 term) and sucked in basketball and doesn’t even have a baseball program.  A school that had to resort to hiring a buffoon  with three year’s  college coaching experience (zero years at the  FBS level)  in a feeble attempt to  make the public  aware that  it still played football. 

But coming like this, and at a time like this - right after the blowhard Pac-12 commissioner (where do they find these people?) pretended all was cool at the recent conference media show -  even the loss of a nonentity like Colorado could prove to be a conference killer.

On the other hand, it could cause those pompous-ass Pac-12 (10? 9?) presidents  to step down from their academic thrones and take another look at Fresno State. Colorado State.  Boise State.

Meanwhile, poor San Diego State screwed itself by counting on the Pac-10 to take it, and as a result wound up committed to the Mountain West until 2025 - unless it has a spare $34 million it’s willing to spend to get out sooner.



*********** Coupla questions of a (sorta) legal nature…

1. If at first you plead “guilty” and then you change your plea to “not guilty”… isn’t there a lie in there somewhere?

2. Is it possible for anyone to be a big enough crackhead and liar and grifter and lowlife that he’d betray his own father in order to save his sorry ass from going to prison?



*********** CFL THIS WEEKEND - WEEK EIGHT


FRIDAY

HAMILTON (2-4)  AT  OTTAWA (3-3) 7:30 PM EDT


SATURDAY

SASKATCHEWAN (3-3) VS TORONTO (5-0)  AT HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA 4 PM EDT
CFL FOOTBALL RETURNS TO THE MARITIME PROVINCES WITH THIS YEAR’S “TOUCHDOWN ATLANTIC” GAME - THE  STADIUM, AT ST. MARY’S UNIVERSITY, SEATS JUST 10,000 AND IT IS SOLD OUT.

B.C. (5-1) AT EDMONTON  (0-7)  7 PM EDT


SUNDAY


CALGARY (2-4)  AT MONTREAL (2-3)  7 PM EDT


YOUR SCHEDULE OF CFL GAMES ON AMERICAN CABLE (CBSSN) THIS SEASON:

https://fbschedules.com/cbs-sports-network-releases-2023-cfl-tv-schedule/



*********** AT THE TOP OF MY LIST OF BOOKS THAT I RECOMMEND TO ANYONE WHO’S A COACH OR ABOUT TO BECOME ONE…

(1) Reade, Bob - Coaching Football Successfully - Human Kinetics, 1994 - Every young football coach should read this book - preferably twice or more - before even thinking about becoming a head coach.

(2) Nelson, David M. - Football Principles and Play - Ronald Press, 1962 - This book is deep, and deals with the stuff “under the hood” of the game in a way that I have yet to see anyplace else.

(3) Parseghian , Ara - Parseghian and Notre Dame Football - Doubleday & Co, 1971 & 1973 - Coach Parseghian’s Irish won the 1973 National Championship, and they won it running a Wing-T offense and a Split-4 defense - both systems that I have used for most of my career.  In this book, he gets deeply into the “why” and “how” of his system, and I’ve found  it very useful over the years.   I have great respect for him as a coach and as a man, and - for what it’s worth - his first head coaching job, and the place where he  came to the attention of Notre Dame, was at Northwestern.

(4) McKay, John - Football Coaching - Ronald Press, 1966 - The basics of the USC I-formation attack and his 5-2 Rover (Monster) defense - and more.  Coach McKay probably did more than anyone to popularize the I-formation, and as a result, with tailbacks the likes of Ricky Bell, Anthony Davis, Mike Garrett, O.J. Simpson and Charles White, he established USC’s reputation as “tailback U.”   Garrett and Simpson both won Heisman Trophies. His book holds nothing back, explaining the entire USC offense in considerable detail (an indication that he didn’t care that opponents knew what he was doing - he still had personnel  good enough to beat you anyhow.

(5) Ellison, Glenn "Tiger" - Run and Shoot Football - Parker Publishing, 1965 & 1984 - Tiger Ellison was a high school coach in Hamilton, Ohio who, faced with an 0-4-1 record in a town that expected winning teams, decided to use simple touch football principles of “getting open.” It turned his season around, turned his kids on - the community, too - and led to the development of an entire offensive system, which he came to call the Run and Shoot.

(6) Bryant, Paul W. - Building a Championship Football Team - Prentice-Hall, 1960 - There have been at least a dozen books written about The Bear, but this one was written BY him. He writes a lot about defense and how he taught it, and a lot of  it is based on the numbering system he got from Bum Phillips - “a Texas high school coach.”   It’s become a part of the language of football (“he’s playing a seven technique”)  and as far as I’ve been able to tell, Coach Bryant’s book was the first time it was explained in print: 






*********** FOR THOSE WHO COMPLAIN THAT WE DON’T GIVE ENOUGH COVERAGE TO WOMEN’S SOCCER…

Writes American Christopher Anderson from his home in Germany:

We watch American TV streaming via VPN, and we have to see women’s soccer World Cup ads with that wench Megan Rapinoe. An uncomfortable reminder of home.

Hmmm.  Would it be risking  luring  mobs of raging harpies to storm  my house if I were to confess that I wasn’t exactly unhappy that the Megan Rapinoe-led US Women’s National Soccer Team was just tied by the Netherlands? What if they were to learn I’d have been even less unhappy if they’d actually lost to the Dutch?  (Was that written in careful enough legalese so that nobody can really understand whether I’m rooting for those women or not?)


*********** HAPPENSTANCE, PART 1:  While driving back from Colorado last week, we gained  an hour passing from the Mountain Time Zone to the Pacific Time Zone, so we decided to leave the Interstate and take a  short swing through LaGrande, Oregon. La Grande, about 2-1/2 hours east of Boise, Idaho and 4 hours west of Portland, is a nice  little town of about 14,000 and home to Eastern Oregon University.  In a beautiful valley surrounded by mountains, it has lots of nice, tree-shaded streets and a downtown that,  unlike so many small towns,  still has stores and restaurants and theaters. Eastern Oregon University, although a state school, is quite small - about 2,500 undergraduates - and competes in the NAIA Frontier Conference, against the likes of Montana Tech, College of Idaho, Southern Oregon, Rocky Mountain, Montana Western.

I managed to take a photo of their stadium to send to Ian Shields, now the head coach at Minot (ND) State, who once was head coach here, and whose son, Beau, now plays here. (Beau was a Black Lion Award winner as a youth player in Fort Montgomery, New York.)

As we wandered around  the EOU campus, I saw some high school football players on a field running plays, and learned that this was the first day of a camp.  And then I saw a few more high school kids,  wearing blue and gold jerseys that said “BARLOW” on the front. Knowing that they had to be from Sam Barlow High in Gresham, Oregon - a Portland suburb - I asked them if “Coach Jackson” was with them. 

Well, duh - of course he was.  “Coach Jackson” was my old friend Tracy Jackson, with whom I’d coached at Madison High in Portland from 2003-2005.  We’ve stayed in touch to some degree over the years, but we hadn’t seen each other in person in at least five years,  yet there we were, four hours from Portland, meeting by pure happenstance, and chatting away as if it was an everyday occurrence.



*********** HAPPENSTANCE, PART 2: We first came to Ocean Shores, Washington in 2008, when I was hired as head coach of North Beach High School. We came to love the place - it’s not at all glitzy, not at all fancy, not in any way exclusive - just the way we like things.  And so for years, part of them while I coached here, many of them while I didn’t, we’ve kept a place here, if for no other reason than the microclimate:  located on a seven-mile long peninsula surrounded by the chilly Pacific Ocean on one side and the almost-as-chilly Grays Harbor on the other, we sit here on a 64-degree July day and watch the weather maps on TV showing most of  the nation colored a bright red.

On Wednesday night, we headed out to our favorite hangout, the Porthole Pub, but finding it more crowded than usual, we decided to go elsewhere. We chose a place we hadn’t been to in at least five years, Bennett’s Fish Shack.
 
There was plenty of room in the bar area,  and  I asked my wife if she wanted to sit at a table or at the bar.  When she said it didn’t matter, I said “what the hell - let’s sit at the bar.”

A young fellow handed us menus and walked away, but when he returned, I took a look at him and said, “Kevin…?”

As he looked at me,  his eyes widened, and after he raced around the end of the bar to meet me on my side, we shared a long hug.

Yes, it was Kevin.  Kevin Braden, who had played B-Back (fullback) for me, back in 2008.  At 5-7 and maybe 145 pounds, he wasn’t exactly my prototype fullback, but when the big, strong, fast kid I’d figured was going to be our fullback got hurt, Kevin was the next man up.  That’s life in a small school football program.

He turned out to be great at the job - tough, fast, smart.  He missed one game to injury, but in nine games he rushed for close to 1,000 yards, and his lack of size was never an issue when it came to blocking.

It’s hard to believe that in such a small town people can go their separate ways and never see each other, but that’s how it was for us  from the last time we saw each other - at our post-season banquet in winter, 2008 - until last night.

Now, after three years working for Bennett’s, which has two restaurants in the area, he’s a supervisor. He’s married, with a young son. The kind of kid who makes you proud.

Happenstance? What if we’d decided to stay and eat at the Porthole?   What if we’d gone someplace other than Bennett’s? What if we’d sat at a table instead of at the bar?

More happenstance?  On my Tuesday night’s Zoom, in illustrating the execution of the trap block, I showed two clips in which Kevin was the ball carrier, and last night,  I was able to show them to him on my phone.



*********** Bet you didn’t know there was such a thing as a National Gay and Lesbian Sports Hall of Fame…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Gay_and_Lesbian_Sports_Hall_of_Fame



*********** Just to show that the NCAA still wields some power, it’s suspended Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh for four games  for (evidently) buying some kid (or kids) a hamburger (or was it a cheeseburger) at an Ann Arbor restaurant.  And - possibly - for texting kids during a time when that was forbidden.  And - possibly - holding some illegal practices.

For what it’s worth, Michigan’s first four games - the ones covered by the suspension - are against East Carolina, UNLV, Bowling Green and Rutgers.   They’re all at home.  Will Harbaugh even be missed?

FUNDRAISING OPPPORTUNITY:  SELL CHANCES FOR $1,000 APIECE TO COACH THE WOLVERINES IN ONE OF THEIR FIRST FOUR GAMES!


*********** Many years ago, I heard the great Bud Wilkinson tell coaches at a clinic that in preparing for a game he rarely talked about the opponent,  no matter who it was.   His players' real opponent, he said,  was themselves, and as long as they worked to be the best they could be, they wouldn't have to worry about opponents.
 
He said that our opponent was just out there to help us find out how good we could be.
 
I really took that to heart, and ever since, beyond explaining what a particular opponent did on offense and defense, and what players to watch for, I rarely talked about the upcoming opponent, and I never got into how good they were or how bad they were.

I always tried to impress on my teams that no matter who it was, anybody could beat us - if we gave them enough help.  And on the other hand, we could beat anybody - if we didn't give them any help.


Coach Wilkinson said he never talked to his teams about winning - instead,  he talked only  about getting better.   I bought into that, too - the idea that if you just worried about yourselves, and making yourselves as mistake-free as possible by taking care of all the little things, the winning would take care of itself.



***********   Johnny Lujack was one of my very first  football heroes… Interestingly, in all the lists of famous quarterbacks from Western Pennsylvania - Unitas, Montana, Namath, Marino, Kelly, etc. - I seldom see Johnny Lujack’s  name mentioned, yet he was actually the first of the long line of quarterbacks to come from there.

Video short: The Adventures of Johnny Lujack:     https://youtu.be/88W8OBx0Hkg

The National Football Foundation’s acknowledgment of his passing…

IRVING, Texas (July 27, 2023) – Johnny Lujack, the oldest living College Football Hall of Fame inductee and the 1947 Heisman Trophy winning quarterback from Notre Dame, passed away July 25 in Naples, FL. He was 98.

“Johnny Lujack became of one of the greatest players in the storied history of Notre Dame football,” said NFF Chairman Archie Manning. “He graced the cover of Time Magazine, played on three national championship teams, and only lost one game with the Fighting Irish. He did it all: passing and running at quarterback, punting and also playing defensive halfback. He stayed involved in the game throughout his life, becoming a regular at the NFF Chicago Chapter annual scholar-athlete banquets. We are forever grateful for his contributions, and our thoughts and prayers are with family, friends and Notre Dame at this time of loss.”

Notre Dame in 1943 won its first six games by a combined score of 261-31. Future Hall of Famer Angelo Bertelli was the quarterback, and on the basis of those six games, Bertelli won the 1943 Heisman Trophy. But after the sixth game, Bertelli and several other Notre Dame players were called to active duty with the Marine Corps in World War II.

John Lujack was Bertelli’s replacement at quarterback. He led Notre Dame to important victories over Army 26-0 and Iowa Preflight 14-13, clinching the national championship and giving Lujack a role in his first of three national titles for Hall of Fame Coach Frank Leahy. In the school year of 1943-44, Lujack also lettered in basketball, baseball, and track, making him the first 4-sport letterman at Notre Dame since 1912.

Lujack would serve in the Navy during World War II on a ship chasing German submarines in the English Channel. He returned after the war as the Notre Dame quarterback from 1946-47. Notre Dame went 17-0-1 in that period and won two more national championships.

Lujack was unanimous All- America two years and won the Heisman in 1947. He also played defensive halfback. In 1946, he famously tackled future Hall of Famer Doc Blanchard, cutting off a sure Army touchdown, in a game, then dubbed the Game of the Century, that ended 0-0 before a crowd of 76,000 at Yankee Stadium.

His passing totals at Notre Dame 1946-47 included 14 touchdowns and 1,569 yards. During his Heisman Trophy winning season, he passed for nine touchdowns and completed 61 of 109 passes for 777 yards while running 139 yards on 12 carries, averaging more than 11 yards. The year ended with the Associated Press naming him as their Athlete of the Year.

Lujack played for Chicago Bears 1948-51. Against the Chicago Cardinals in 1948, he threw six touchdown passes. He set an NFL record in 1950 with 11 rushing touchdowns by a quarterback. After four years with the Chicago Bears, including two Pro Bowls, Lujack returned to Notre Dame to work as an assistant coach for two seasons.

Born Jan. 4, 1925, in Connellsville, PA, Lujack was a four-sport athlete at Connellsville High School, playing baseball and basketball as well as competing for the track and field team.

He is survived by his children, Mary and Jeff. His wife, Patricia Ann “Pat” predeceased him in 2022. The couple was married for 74 years. Johnny and Pat’s daughter, Carol, passed away in 2002.

*********** PROMPTED BY THE RECENT INCIDENT CONCERNING BRONNY JAMES, AXIOS REPORTS…

A decadelong study found that sudden cardiac death was far more common for NCAA men's basketball players (1 in 8,978) than other NCAA sports (1 in 23,689 for men's soccer, 1 in 35,951 for football).



*********** Dave Clawson, Wake Forest coach, had a few things to say about people trying to tamper with his players.  (I am a Wake Forest fan and a BIG Dave Clawson fan.)

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Wake Forest coach Dave Clawson said Thursday that six to eight of his players were approached by other schools and enticed to transfer this offseason, as tampering in era of name, image and likeness deals continues to be a growing problem for college football.

But Clawson, the former Richmond coach who has led the Demon Deacons to seven straight bowl appearances, wasn’t angry or fiery as he spoke. He was matter of fact, resigned to the new reality of the sport.

“To me, it’s not a concern. It’s just college football in 2023,” Clawson said. “You just assume it’s happening. You know it’s going on.”

Clawson said the offers ranged in value from $150,000 to “close to $500,000,” and that one school reached out to three Wake players. None of the players were in the NCAA transfer portal at the time. Clawson said none of the programs that tried to poach his players were from ACC schools.

“I give our players credit. They let us know after the fact,” said Clawson, who coached Richmond from 2004 to 2007, during ACC media days. “None of them came to me and said, ‘Coach, I have this offer to go here. What can the collective do?’ They didn’t do that. They all chose to stay.”

Earlier in the week, ACC commissioner Jim Phillips said tampering is one of the issues the league’s coaches talk to him about the most frequently and the most passionately.

“The coaches are howling about that across the country, certainly in our league, that there is tampering going on,” Phillips said.

Phillips said a solution to that problem starts with national NIL guidelines, instead of the myriad policies from state to state some of which actually limit the NCAA’s ability to police the NIL landscape.

Clawson, who has been at Wake Forest since 2014, agreed.

“There’s no enforcement. There’s no regulation right now,” Clawson said. “I’ve said this many times. I wish they’d just eliminate the rules, because right now the rules only penalize the people who follow them.”

https://richmond.com/sports/college/wake-forest-football-coach-dave-clawson-details-offseason-tampering-attempts/article_29e73170-2ca9-11ee-9638-8b247bf88472.html


*********** My friend Mike Foristiere, now of Topeka, Kansas, spent several years coaching at Wahluke High School, in Mattawa, Washington.  Wahluke is a small-town school in an agricultural area and its enrollment is mostly Hispanic.  Most of the time, Mike’s two sons, Randy and Rock, were the only Anglo kids on the team. Mike did a great job with those kids - I had a chance to work with them on a couple of occasions - and the other day he made me laugh with a few of his “Wahluke stories”…

You know  that for over 95 percent of my kids English was a second language, so the DW was a Godsend for me. Anyway  the first story comes from The AD from Riverview in the Tri city area who we never lost to in my 4 years - and they had great teams.

In previous years Riverview had scored over 60 points in each game against Wahluke, but in 2015 we beat them at their Homecoming game,  52 to 0. The AD, who was a guy who had been there since the 70’s,  said I ran “the perfect offense for a bunch of short Mexicans.” When we got back to school I told the team that in the locker room. Not one kid took it   negatively.  They took it as a badge of honor.

In one game it was 4th and 3 and I called time out. Talking with Rock and Oscar (the QB) about what we should call one of my o lineman who had been with me all 4 years, said, "Coach why you call time out?  Just run the damn power". We did and got it by a lot. Confidence in the system.

During any game Wedge obviously was a go to play. So from the field my O line would start yelling to me (of course with Spanish accents)  “Virgin! Virgin!”  which told me a new D lineman had come into the game and to run wedge at him.

Also, an opposing player who was  a D lineman -  we ran wedge at him and buried the kid 10 or 15 yards down field.  His team mates were yelling at him about  not getting his ass kicked. I will never forget the kid saying “F— k You! You stick your face in there! I'm not!”

When I talk to those  kids now they always say they play "pussy football" now. Yes Wedge was always their favorite play.



***********   Morning, Coach:

Whatever you and the Mouse were laughing at must've been really, really funny.

For now Lume seems to be making big money. That advertising turns me off, but I was in Target (first time in months, and only to buy one item) recently, where I noticed Lume has a huge product display, separate from their competitors. I wasn't a fan of Kurt Vonnegut the person, but I do recall in one of his early books using deodorant sales to show what suckers Americans can be.

Is it wrong to exceed the limit by 85 mph, officer?

John Vermillion                                
St Petersburg, Florida



***********   Hugh,

Bring back the Redskins!

At least the FAMU coach reinforced his "red line" policy.  It's a hill worth fighting for.

Lume doesn't work.  Wife's friend says so.

Forget the guns in that 1987 pre-season photo.  Remember those shoulder pads?  I can honestly say we had fewer shoulder injuries back then.  I've found over the past few years with the smaller shoulder pads being used we had many more shoulder girdle injuries than before.

Jeff Monken and Army football may get away with their new offense during the first couple of weeks of the season (ULM, Delaware State), but back-to-back games at UTSA and Syracuse, then home against BC and Troy before heading to Baton Rouge against LSU they will find out they made a huge mistake getting away from their old offense.  With the old offense I could see them at worst 4-2 going into the LSU game.  With the new offense I'm thinking at best 2-4.

As one reputable conservative writer calls it, the New York Slimes, will find its way quickly onto the trash heap of liberal history.

I would imagine if most major colleges hired lawyers to dig deep enough into their athletic departments' athletes goings on they would find Northwestern isn't the only school with problems.  

Happy Anniversary to y'all.

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas







***********  QUIZ:  A broken leg may have ended Tom Brookshier’s football career, but it started him on the way to a longer, more rewarding and certainly more remunerative second career as a broadcaster -  one of the first former athletes to do network play-by-play

A native of Roswell, New Mexico,   he was an all-state performer at Roswell High School in football, basketball and baseball. 

At Colorado, he lettered three seasons, and earned a reputation as a  hard hitter on both sides of the ball,  as a defensive back and a single-wing fullback.  He was named All-Big Seven as a junior and senior.

He was also a relief pitcher on the CU baseball team, and although he struck out 30 batters his senior year, he also walked 32.  Remembered a teammate "He had a really good fastball.  He just never knew where it was going."

A 10th round draft pick of the Philadelphia Eagles, he knew he had to make an impression as a hitter if he was going to make the team, and he later told how, early in training camp, he’d hit  one of the team’s top receivers and knocked him out.  When he saw the head coach, Jim Trimble, headed his way, he figured he was going to be cut, but instead, Trimble said, “I like that!”

He not only made the cut but he intercepted eight passes his rookie season. He would become  a fixture in the Eagles’ secondary for seven seasons, but first he had to serve two years in the Air Force as an ROTC commitment. He spent one of those years as backfield coach at the Air Force Academy, in its first year of football. (The Falcons played a freshman schedule that year in preparation for their first season of varsity football the following year.)

On his return to the Eagles, he stepped back into the lineup.  Not especially big at 6 foot, 195, he developed a reputation as one of the NFL’s hardest tacklers. Recalled teammate Chuck Bednarik, he  “might have been the toughest defensive back of our era. He was a hitter.” (High praise from a player known as a pretty fair hitter himself.)

He was All-Pro in 1959 and 1960, a key member of the 1960 Eagles team  that beat Green Bay, 17-13 (handing Vince Lombardi his only post-season playoff defeat).  But the following season,   a compound fracture of his right leg, suffered while tackling the Bears’ Willie Galimore, ended his pro football career.

While he was hospitalized, he was asked by CBS radio if he would in interested in doing a morning sports show, and when he agreed, engineers came to his hospital room the next day and wired it for the broadcast. 

After his release, he began filling in as sports anchor on WCAU-TV in Philadelphia, and when their regular anchor, Jack Whitaker, moved on to the CBS network in 1964, Brookshier got the job full-time.

He had originally planned to return to Colorado when his playing days were over, but that made him decide to stay in Philadelphia, where he would spend the rest of his days.

In the early 1970s he and former New York Giant Pat Summerall began doing a weekly NFL highlights show.  Summerall had also been paired with Ray Scott doing color on NFL games, and when CBS let Scott go and promoted Summerall to do play-by-play, our guy was given the color-analyst role beside him.

He and Summerall worked together as the Number One NFL-on-CBS team through most of the 70s, becoming  one of TV’s best-known and most popular on-air teams. Together  they broadcast four Super Bowls as well as a number of heavyweight championship fights.

In 1979, when John Madden was hired by CBS and paired with Summerall, Brookshier  was switched to play-by-play, and working with Dick Vermeil as his analyst,  he called games for CBS until he retied in 1987.

On the home front, in Philadelphia he played a major role in the development of sports radio, then an infant format. As a partner in radio station WIP, he was instrumental in changing the station’s format to “all sports talk, all the time.”

It was a major gamble at the time, but as a result, WIP  became one of the most successful AM stations in the nation.  (For years, in my travels to and through Philly, I made it a point as soon as I’d get in my rental car to set the dial to “SportsRadio 610 WIP.”)

Like so many former Eagles, he became a Philadelphian, and Philadelphians loved him. He gave back to his adopted  community in a number of ways, right up until his death of cancer in 2010.

Ron Jaworski, former Eagles’ QB and ESPN analyst, called him  “an icon in Philadelphia sports,” recalling that,  “When I was traded to the Eagles in 1977,  Brookie took me under his wing and taught me the passion of Philadelphia Eagles fans.   For that, I am forever grateful."

Tom Brookshier’s Number 40 is one of nine jersey numbers retired by the Eagles’ franchise.


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING TOM BROOKSHIER

GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
TOM DAVIS - SAN MARCOS, CALIFORNIA
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
RUSS MEYERS - VERNON CENTER, NEW YORK
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY



*********** It’s easy for me to remember when - and how - I first came to know  who Tom Brookshier was. 

It was on our honeymoon, many, many years ago at just about this time of year.  We grew bored of Eagles Mere, Pennsylvania, the place where we’d planned to stay, and impulsively - typical of a lot of the things we’d do the rest of our lives - we checked out and headed 100 or so miles south to the town of Hershey, Pennsylvania. 

From the time I was a little kid I’d come to love Hershey, from summertime visits to the chocolate factory, Hershey Park (the amusement park), and the sports complex, where the Philadelphia Eagles held their preseason training camp and usually played an exhibition game or two.

There we found a motel with a swimming pool, found a restaurant featuring a “Pennsylvania Dutch smorgasbord,” and found out the Eagles’ practice schedules.

The NFL wasn’t at all the way it is today, with closed practices, or practices open only to the paying public.  Then, all we had to do was park our car, walk over to the field where the team was practicing, and sit down on the sidelines - literally -  and watch. We saw and heard everything that went on, and nobody paid us a bit of attention.  I suppose they were grateful that anyone cared enough to watch.

During a lot of the sessions, we kept hearing players shouting "Rookie!"  It was  “Rookie this”  and “Rookie that,” and - not knowing who they were referring to - after a few days I finally asked somebody who this “Rookie” was. The guy laughed and said, “That’s Brookie - Tom Brookshier.”



    


*********** QUIZ:  He came  from Columbus, Georgia - not Mars - and despite never playing  a down of college football,  he managed to play seven seasons on the Oakland Raiders’ defensive line, earning a Super Bowl ring and making it to a Pro Bowl.

After high school, he went straight into the Marines, and after his discharge, he got a job working in a Milwaukee meat packing plant.  On the side, being big and strong and in good shape, he played semi-pro football for a team called the West Allis Racers.

In 1969, at the age of 23, he wound up in Norfolk, Virginia, playing for a team called the Norfolk Neptunes in the Continental League - a minor league and  a definite step up from the “semi-pro” level. When the Continental League folded, the Neptunes joined the Atlantic Coast Football League - also a top-notch minor league - and there he came to the attention of a scout for the Los Angeles Rams, who brought him in for a tryout.  There, he came to the attention of a couple of Oakland people - one of them Al Davis - who happened to be looking on, and they signed him to play for the Raiders.

As a defensive tackle and end, he became a formidable part of the Raiders’ defensive unit that won Super Bowl XI (against the Vikings), and he was named second-team All-Pro in 1974.

His shaved head and his large eyelids gave him a fearsome look that belied his otherwise friendly  nature, and during one Monday Night Football game, when the camera zoomed in on him, analyst Alex Karras said, “there’s ——.  From the University of Mars.”

Ha ha ha.  Those were different times, and Karras was a different sort, and everybody got a big laugh out of it.   There were no lawsuits and Karras wasn’t fired.

When our guy’s  football career was over, he sold beer for a couple of years in his hometown of Columbus, Georgia,  until  one day, while on a business call at nearby Fort Benning,  a Lieutenant Colonel asked him if he’d be interested in coaching the post football team.  He signed on, and that led to a long career as a civilian employee with the Army, first at Fort Benning and then at Fort Lewis, Washington, supporting soldiers’ fitness needs.    And that’s  where he stayed until retirement.

“I just love the military,” he said in a 2005 interview.  “I look forward to coming here every day. It’s been rewarding for me. You can’t make everybody happy, but I try to do my best.  We try to do the best we can to serve the soldiers. It’s a challenge to me every day.”

Back when he was playing with the Raiders, he and linebacker Phil Villapiano would visit local schools, encouraging kids to stay in school, stay away from drugs, “turn yourself into a lady or man,” as he put it.

Years later, while working at Fort Benning, he was approached by a young second lieutenant, a female, who said she wanted to thank him.  She said that she was one of those kids that he and Villapiano had spoken to, and she wound up going to college, joining ROTC, and earning her commission as an officer.

“We know we saved one person,” he said.  “There’s probably more.”






TUESDAY,  JULY 25, 2023 - “The one thing you need to know about leadership is that there is  more than one thing you need to know about leadership.” John C. Maxwell, author of “The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership”


*********** HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO MY WIFE.  THANKS TO HER I’VE KNOWN THE JOYS OF BEING A HUSBAND AND A FATHER - AND WITHOUT HER ENCOURAGEMENT AND SUPPORT I’D NEVER HAVE HAD THE HONOR OF BEING  A FOOTBALL COACH.


*********** CFL THIS PAST WEEKEND



THURSDAY

WINNIPEG (5-2)  28, EDMONTON (0-7) 14


FRIDAY

TORONTO 31 (5-0) at  HAMILTON  15 (2-4)


SATURDAY

B.C. 19 (5-1) SASKATCHEWAN  9  (3-3)


SUNDAY

OTTAWA 43  (3-3)  CALGARY 41 (2-4) 


I WATCHED SASKATCHEWAN SACK THE BC QUARTERBACK IN HIS OWN END ZONE, BUT INSTEAD OF GETTING TWO POINTS FOR THE SAFETY, SASKATCHEWAN GOT A 15-YARD PENALTY FOR “ROUGHING THE PASSER.”  NOW, IT MAY HAVE BEEN A DIRTY SHOT (I DIDN’T THINK SO) AND WORTH A PENALTY,  BUT BEORE THEY CALL ROUGHING THE “PASSER” SHOULDN'T A PASS BE THROWN FIRST?


YOUR SCHEDULE OF CFL GAMES ON AMERICAN CABLE (CBSSN) THIS SEASON:

https://fbschedules.com/cbs-sports-network-releases-2023-cfl-tv-schedule/



*********** AT THE TOP OF MY LIST OF BOOKS THAT I RECOMMEND TO ANYONE WHO’S A COACH OR ABOUT TO BECOME ONE…

(1) Reade, Bob - Coaching Football Successfully - Human Kinetics, 1994 - Every young football coach should read this book - preferably twice or more - before even thinking about becoming a head coach.

(2) Nelson, David M. - Football Principles and Play - Ronald Press, 1962 - This book is deep, and deals with the stuff “under the hood” of the game in a way that I have yet to see anyplace else.

(3) Parseghian , Ara - Parseghian and Notre Dame Football - Doubleday & Co, 1971 & 1973 - Coach Parseghian’s Irish won the 1973 National Championship, and they won it running a Wing-T offense and a Split-4 defense - both systems that I have used for most of my career.  In this book, he gets deeply into the “why” and “how” of his system, and I’ve found  it very useful over the years.   I have great respect for him as a coach and as a man, and - for what it’s worth - his first head coaching job, and the place where he  came to the attention of Notre Dame, was at Northwestern.

(4) McKay, John - Football Coaching - Ronald Press, 1966 - The basics of the USC I-formation attack and his 5-2 Rover (Monster) defense - and more.  Coach McKay probably did more than anyone to popularize the I-formation, and as a result, with tailbacks the likes of Ricky Bell, Anthony Davis, Mike Garrett, O.J. Simpson and Charles White, he established USC’s reputation as “tailback U.”   Garrett and Simpson both won Heisman Trophies. His book holds nothing back, explaining the entire USC offense in considerable detail (an indication that he didn’t care that opponents knew what he was doing - he still had personnel  good enough to beat you anyhow.

(5) Ellison, Glenn "Tiger" - Run and Shoot Football - Parker Publishing, 1965 & 1984 - An original offensive  system written by the Ohio high school coach who devised it.  Tiger Ellison was a high school coach in Hamilton, Ohio who, faced with an 0-4-1 record in a town that expected winning teams, went to  the formation below, which one of his assistants derisively called the “Lonesome Polecat” (“because,” he said, “it stinks”).



Applying simple touch football principles of “getting open,” the Lonesome Polecat turned his season around, turned his kids on - the community, too - and led to the development of an entire offensive  system, which he called the Run and Shoot. Honestly, the book's worth it just for the Lonsesome Polecat



No man did more to promote the Run and Shoot  than Mouse Davis, but Mouse disliked  the name “Run and Shoot” - thought it had sort of grab-bag connotations - and in all his time in the Northwest I never heard him call it that. I found it interesting at the time that he always referred to his offense as the “Double Slot.”  (I’ve got his playbook from his first head coaching job - Hillsboro, Oregon High - and the term “Run and Shoot” is nowhere to be found.)

As he moved up in the football world, though, I guess he realized  that the name had developed a life of its own, and there wasn’t a thing he was going to be able to do about changing it, so he finally gave in - started calling it the Run and Shoot himself.




***********   Good-bye, Commanders?

Magic Johnson, part of the Josh Harris-led group whose purchase of the Commanders was approved by the NFL on Thursday, said another rebrand could be in store. “Everything’s on the table, right? Especially after this year,” Johnson said. “We’ll see where we are with the name. … We’re going to spend this year understanding what we have in place. … The name of the team will come up eventually.”

How about paying tribute to the First Son, and calling them the Washington HUNTERS?


***********   FAMU halts football activities in wake of rap video

By The Athletic Staff

Florida A&M coach Willie Simmons has suspended all football-related activities “until further notice” following a “rap video” being filmed in the team’s locker room at Galimore-Powell Field House “without proper authorization,” per a statement Simmons tweeted Friday night. Here’s what you need to know:

Simmons said the video was “shot by a prominent rapper” and that it “contained graphic language that is not consistent with Florida A&M’s core values, principles and beliefs.”

The coach also said an internal investigation is taking place to “determine who authorized the use of not only the athletic facility at Galimore-Powell, but also licensed apparel that potentially violates university branding and licensing agreements.”

“Although I am a proud proponent of free speech and all forms of musical expressions, this football team (as ambassadors of Florida A&M University) has a responsibility to protect the University’s image. As a result of this unfortunate situation, as head football coach, I am effectively suspending all football-related activities until further notice,” the coach said on Twitter.


***********  The circus continues…

Connecticut Sun* stars DeWanna Bonner and Alyssa Thomas are officially engaged to be married. Thomas posted a photo on social media Friday, showing her getting down on one knee and presenting a ring to her betrothed.

*That’s the WNBA, in case anybody really gives a sh—.



*********** American men  didn’t use deodorants until after World War II. (Imagine, if you will, the smell inside one of those submarines.)   But once the men returned from the War, the advertising geniuses on Madison Avenue were able to convince  them that  they had something that needed fixing. That something, according to a product called Lifebuoy Soap, was “B-O.”

Now, here we are with some rather attractive young lady on TV pushing something called Lume (I think it’s a deodorant) which, among other things, she tells us matter-of-factly, deodorizes  one’s “butt crack.”

Now, not expecting to ever get to the point where I might have to say to someone, “Whew!  Your butt crack really smells!” I have no idea whether this advertising will persuade people to “fight butt-crack odor.”

Maybe it will take off the same way men’s underarm deodorant did, and become  a billion-dollar industry.

On the other hand, maybe it’ll fizzle out like another highly advertised  product from the 80s.  (Remember feminine hygiene spray?)



 
***********   I have Josh Montgomery, of Berwick, Louisiana to thank for this cover photo of a newspaper’s 1987 pre-season high school football section in Acadia Parish (County), Louisiana.  I rather doubt that this would make it to press these days, even in the rural South.


*********** On our trip last week, we put more than 2300 miles on the car.  And in that entire time, we saw just five (5) EVs - four Teslas and one Rivian.


*********** Talk about putting on airs -

Former BC Lions’ QB Travis Lulay played his college ball, I read in Wikipedia,  at “Montana State University - Bozeman.”


***********    An anonymous Pac-12 coach supposedly shared this prediction about Deion Sanders (you know - Coach Prime?) with Athlon Sports.

“Either he’s gonna be really good really fast and leave for another gig, which, looking at that roster doesn’t seem possible.   The alternative is that they’re gonna be bad, and they’ll end up firing him in a big circus.”

Sanders, Mister Rabbit Ears,  had to respond, on Instagram:

“This is the Dumbest thing I’ve almost ever seen and Only reason I said almost is because I’m giving y’all time to top this stupidity. ‘We Comin’ and you know it.”


***********   Jordan Addison, the Vikings’ first-round draft pick was clocked by a Minnesota state trooper doing 140 mph in a 55 mph zone.    He was pulled over in his “Lamborghini Urus” (I think that’s a car - a very fast one) at 3:07 AM, and, to his credit, offered no resistance.

Seems pretty straightforward to me, but for some reason the Vikings said they were “gathering additional information.” 


***********    Saquon Barkley says he may sit out the season rather than work for the slave wages he’s being paid. Laugh all you wish, but before you do - you try living in New York on $10 million a year.

Nowadays, the instant a high draft pick signs his rookie contract he’s got his  F-you money, so it really won’t surprise me if we start to see some guys sitting out entire seasons.


*********** Paul Brown must be turning over in his grave.

In  a radio interview last week, the Cleveland Browns’ “senior vice president of marketing and media” informed the audience that the team’s new mascot, “Brownie the Elf,” does not have a gender.

Notice they waited a couple of months after the death of the great Jim Brown to pull this sh—.


*********** It’s a pretty well established fact that if you’re going to run the same stuff as everybody else, you’d better at least have talent equal to your opponents.

Yet there’s Army, all excited about trashing their time-tested flexbone in order to go to a shotgun spread attack, and yet I read about some “3-Star” they’ve signed,  who had offers from Navy, Texas Southern, Eastern Kentucky, Tennessee State and Mississippi Valley State.

Seriously?  You’re going to play LSU, running the same stuff they see every week - and you’re recruiting at that level?


***********   The late Jack Whitaker, legendary announcer, got his start in Philly, and he was working there in 1960 when they won the NFL title.

In a book about the 1960 Eagles, he wrote about the work ethic of their  coach, Buck Shaw, and how it contrasted with certain of today’s workaholic coaches:

“I thought about Buck years later when I was doing a feature on Dick Vermeil. One of the messages of the piece was how Vermeil often slept in his office. Buck would practice in the morning and send everyone home. One of Chuck Bednarik’s  jobs was to drive Buck home every afternoon at two."

***********   Going to college in Connecticut, I  learned very quickly of the influence - and the quality -  of the New York Times, and especially, for me,  its sports page.  The Sunday Times was a monster, and its sports section was the size of some cities’ entire newspapers.

In football season, the Sunday Times sports section covered every game of any consequence in the entire country, and - probably because  there were so many Yalies in positions of influence in New York  - it could always be counted on to give what I now realize was way over-the-top coverage of Yale football.  Army,  as the New York area’s only “big time” team,  got big coverage, too.

With the NFL’s rise to prominence in the late 1950s largely fueled by the popularity of the New York Giants, it was the Times that we turned to for the latest on our favorite team.  The Giants were so popular that The Times even hired Mrs. Perian Conerly, wife of Giants’ quarterback Charlie Conerly, to write a weekly column. (As a result, she became the first female inducted into the Football Writers Guild of America.)

So it was a bit sad that without anyone saying so, a lot of sports history went down the toilet recently with The Times’ announcement that it would be shutting down its sports department.

WTF?  A newspaper without a sports department?  Maybe in some small town somewhere.  But the New York Times???

Well, although there won’t be a  sports “department,” there will still be a sports “section” inside the newspaper itself.    But it will come from The Athletic.

The Athletic, a subscription-based online  sports Web site, was acquired some time ago by The Times.

At the time of its acquisition by The Times, The Athletic was doing an exceptional job of covering the sports that most readers cared about.  Meat and potatoes stuff, and well written.  You name the major college, and The Athletic had a beat writer covering its football program.

But it must have been losing money with all those reporters, and since its acquisition by The Times, it’s reacted the way actual newspapers all over the country have been reacting to losing money - by giving their customers less for their money.  Starting with laying off writers.

The Athletic is still pretty good.  It’s just not as good as it was, and as a result, it’s losing subscribers.  How do we know that?  Well, anytime someone starts offering ridiculous discounts to new subscribers (while you, you chump, paid many times the rate they’re offering), you know they’re hurting.

The Times itself, meanwhile, had gone hoity-toity with its sports coverage, and as a result it turned off its core audience. Going for national readership, it lost New Yorkers.

Wrote a former Time writer, Robert Lipsyte, "I think the Times has come to the end of its old relationship with sports.  For some years now, it's been covering European soccer more than the Mets.

"If I'm from the Bronx, Tottenham doesn't mean anything to me...it's vaguely interesting but has no emotional impact. It means that you are no longer interested in my kind of readership.”

So,  now that the geniuses at The Times have killed its own sports section -  how long before they do the same to The Athletic?



***********  Not so very long ago a  high school coach I met expressed interest in running the Double Wing, and out of compassion for his situation (it’s tough), I offered to help him - offered a staff clinic and an on-field install of the basic stuff.  Pro bono.  Gratis. 

Emailing him a few days later about possible dates, I started out, “Assuming that you are still full go on Double Wing…” and suggested some  times.

His response:  “We are a full go on the Double Wing although it will look a little different than what you have done in the past…”

(The worst part about email is that the other party can’t hear you hanging up.)


*********** FROM THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES…

The Northwestern University hazing scandal will be the biggest in the history of college sports in terms of the sheer number of athletes involved, attorneys who filed the only two lawsuits in the case said Thursday.

Attorneys Parker Stinar and Patrick Salvi Jr. said they have heard from Northwestern athletes who describe abuse that is far worse in women’s sports than in the football program formerly run by fired head coach Pat Fitzgerald.

“We’ve heard of horrible hazing incidences that led to severe depression and mental health issues,” Salvi told the Sun-Times.

That includes an alleged “rape” of one woman athlete by another, he said. That incident “went reported and, ultimately [was] not acted upon, followed by retaliation. Unbelievable stories. Not only as it relates to the acts but … reaction to it,” Salvi told the Sun-Times.

“If the athletic department were doing what it was supposed to be doing, it would get rooted out. … People would lose their jobs. Other students would be kicked off teams. But instead, the abused would be forced to continue playing with their abusers. Continue to be coached by their abusers. And told to just ‘suck it up’ without any sort of change or other support. … The stories are vast and cover so many sports that it’s really been a shock to the system.”

Stinar added there also was “possibly sexual assault from a member of the staff onto a player. That’s the extent of what we can share.”

It was unclear Thursday if any of the alleged incidents were reported to police.

GRANTED, THIS IS LAWYERS TALKING,  AND THEY SMELL BLOOD (AND MONEY) IN THE WATER. BUT STILL…


*********** Don Coryell made Dan Fouts the Hall of Famer he became in my opinion.

Mike Foristiere
Topeka, Kansas

That’s fair to say, and Fouts has said as much.  He worked hard to  get Coach Coryell his well-earned place in the Hall of Fame. (Induction coming up soon.)


***********   I live in a nice place, but there's nothing like the Mountain West for me. I want to visit every place you described. It was a great travelogue.

Haven't looked into it much, but I think CMT was the outfit that banned the Aldean song from their channel. The color of the water in Nashville is changing quickly.

Add Pierre, SD and Cairo, IL to your pronunciation guide. No, don't, it's too long a list.

I have never, even by accident, fallen for any of the BS language like "gender-affirming" and "reproductive health care". If I ever let one of those stupid expressions come out of my mouth, I beseech God to smote me on the spot.

Great wedding story. Best forever to the Abells, and congratulations to you and Connie for requesting the stand-in role.

There are certain people who look intense, even in repose. Don Coryell was like that.


John Vermillion                      
St Petersburg, Florida




*********** Hugh,

Glad to see Rhodey is on the mend, that you and Connie had a wonderful trip, and are safely back home.

Not sure if it was the same river gorge but many years ago I attended a spring practice in Pullman at WSU with our HC, and on our way back we crossed a bridge over a similar looking gorge that also gave me a holy s*** moment.  Maybe the Snake River?  All I remember is that it was in the middle of nowhere and as we're crossing this bridge suddenly I'm looking down, WAY WAY DOWN, to a river surrounded on both sides by sheer cliffs.

Spent a LONG weekend in LaGrande, OR.  Took my USF club football team up there in 1982 to play Eastern Oregon State College.  I say LONG because it took a 12 hour bus ride to get there.  Left SF on Thursday.  Arrived on Friday.  Yes, we slept on the bus rideThursday night, but accepted Eastern's offer to stay in a vacant dorm on Friday where they even fed us!  Played and lost to a good Eastern Oregon team on a hot Saturday afternoon.  Ate in their cafeteria again.  Then got back on the bus for the 12 hour bus ride back.  Fun times.

I have McKay's book.  Was always a good resource for me.

Mispronunciation of names always gets me.  While living in Ohio we had a couple of noticeable ones.  Genoa Township was gen-NOH-uh.  Any true Italian will tell you it's pronounced GEN-oh-uh.  Another one was the little town of Nevada.  In Ohio it was pronounced neh-VAY-duh.  I've heard it pronounced nuh-VAH-duh, or even neh-VADD-uh in most other places but never heard the Ohio pronunciation until moving there.  Another one was Oregon, the town where I was AD/HC.  Locals pronounced it or-eh-GAHN.  I always heard it as OR-eh-gun, or OR-eh-gehn.  Who knew?  Finally, here in Texas there's a little town outside of Austin called Manor.  No, it's not MAN-er.  It's MAY-ner.

I don't like making predictions but this is one I have full confidence in making.  John Canzano is absolutely correct.  UCLA will get trounced playing Big 10 football.

Enjoy the weekend!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas


    



*********** QUIZ ANSWER:  Don Coryell was born in Seattle and went to high school there.

After graduation from high school, with World War II going on, he joined the Army,  and after  service first in the 10th Mountain Division and then in the 11th Airborne, he rose to the rank of first lieutenant before his discharge.

After the War, he attended the University of Washington, where he played football  and boxed.

After graduation, he spent a year as an assistant at Washington, then spent two years coaching at high schools in Hawaii before becoming head coach at the University of British Columbia. He spent two years there before taking a job as head coach back in Washington at Wenatchee Valley Junior College, and in his one year there he took the team to a 7-0-1 record and a berth in a bowl game. The next year, he moved to Fort Ord, California, where he coached an Army team to a 9-0 record and the service football championship.

He had been out of college seven years and he’d already had six different coaching jobs.

In 1957 he got his first college head coaching job, succeeding George Allen at Whittier College.  In his three seasons there, his Poets (true fact) went 23-5-1 and won three conference  championships.  A major factor in his success was his use of the then-unknown I-formation, and in 1960 he joined the staff at USC, where John McKay had just taken over. 

He spent just one year at USC - but it appears that he can take part responsibility for the I-formation for which the Trojans would become famous.

After one year there, he was hired as head coach at San Diego State.  They were bad.  The year before, they had gone 1-6-1, and lost their season-ending game to rival Fresno State, 60-0.

Depending heavily on junior college transfers, he built the Aztecs into a power, transitioning from an I-formation attack to a wide-open passing game.  in his 12 years at San Diego State, his teams went 104-19-2.

That earned him the head job of the St. Louis Cardinals, and in five years there he went 42-27-1, but a fallout with management resulted in his firing. Too late to get another NFL head coaching job, he returned to his home in San Diego, prepared to sit out a season, when Tommy Prothro got off to a slow start and resigned as the Chargers’ coach.

Our guy stepped in and in nine years as San Diego’s head coach, he compiled a record of 69-56-0 before new ownership decided to sweep the decks clean.   He never coached again, and spent his remaining years at his home in Washington’s San Juan Islands.

With a college record of 126-24-5 (Whittier and San Diego State) and a pro record of 111-83-1 (St. Louis and San Diego), he is the only coach to have won 100 games at both the college and NFL level.

He could be so absorbed in his work that he appeared cold and remote to many who didn’t know him, but he was loved by his players.   Said Hall of Fame quarterback Dan Fouts,  “He actually cared about us as players. A lot of coaches don't even know who you are.” Not known as a strong disciplinarian, he said, “I don't think a coach has to be a son of a bitch to be successful. I think you can treat men like men.’

Men who coached under him and went on to become pro coaches themselves were Rod Dowhower, Joe Gibbs, Jim Hanifan, John Madden, Jim Mora (the younger), and Ray Perkins.

He had an enormous influence on the way offense is played, and his Chargers still hold several NFL records:

Most consecutive seasons leading league, first downs: 4 (1980-1983)

Most consecutive seasons leading league, net yards gained rushing and passing: 4 (1980-1983)

Most consecutive seasons leading league, passing yards: 6 (1978-1983)

Most consecutive games, 400+ yards gained rushing and passing: 11 (1982-1983)

Most touchdown passes, game: 7


He was 1974 NFL Coach of the Year.

He is a member of the San Diego State, San Diego Chargers and Washington Huskies Halls of Fame.

He is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame.

Don Coryell died in 2010.  His induction  into the Pro Football Hall of Fame - way overdue - will take place this August.


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING DON CORYELL

GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JASON MENSING - WESTLAND, MICHIGAN
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
TOM DAVIS - SAN MARCOS, CALIFORNIA
PETE PORCELLI - WATERVLIET, NEW YORK
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY






***********  QUIZ:  A broken leg may have ended his football career, but it started him on the way to a longer, more rewarding and certainly more remunerative second career as a broadcaster -  one of the first former athletes to do network play-by-play

A native of Roswell, New Mexico,   he was an all-state performer at Roswell High School in football, basketball and baseball. 

At Colorado, he lettered three seasons, and earned a reputation as a  hard hitter on both sides of the ball,  as a defensive back and a single-wing fullback.  He was named All-Big Seven as a junior and senior.

He was also a relief pitcher on the CU baseball team, and although he struck out 30 batters his senior year, he also walked 32.  Remembered a teammate "He had a really good fastball.  He just never knew where it was going."

A 10th round draft pick of the Philadelphia Eagles, he knew he had to make an impression as a hitter if he was going to make the team, and he later told how, early in training camp, he’d hit  one of the team’s top receivers and knocked him out.  When he saw the head coach, Jim Trimble, headed his way, he figured he was going to be cut, but instead, Trimble said, “I like that!”

He not only made the cut but he intercepted eight passes his rookie season. He would become  a fixture in the Eagles’ secondary for seven seasons, but first he had to serve two years in the Air Force as an ROTC commitment. He spent one of those years as backfield coach at the Air Force Academy, in its first year of football. (The Falcons played a freshman schedule that year in preparation for their first season of varsity football the following year.)

On his return to the Eagles, he stepped back into the lineup.  Not especially big at 6 foot, 195, he developed a reputation as one of the NFL’s hardest tacklers. Recalled teammate Chuck Bednarik, he  “might have been the toughest defensive back of our era. He was a hitter.” (High praise from a player known as a pretty fair hitter himself.)

He was All-Pro in 1959 and 1960, a key member of the 1960 Eagles team  that beat Green Bay, 17-13 (handing Vince Lombardi his only post-season playoff defeat).  But the following season,   a compound fracture of his right leg, suffered while tackling the Bears’ Willie Galimore, ended his pro football career.

While he was hospitalized, he was asked by CBS radio if he would in interested in doing a morning sports show, and when he agreed, engineers came to his hospital room the next day and wired it for the broadcast. 

After his release, he began filling in as sports anchor on WCAU-TV in Philadelphia, and when their regular anchor, Jack Whitaker, moved on to the CBS network in 1964, our guy got the job full-time.

He had originally planned to return to Colorado when his playing days were over, but that made him decide to stay in Philadelphia, where he would spend the rest of his days.

In the early 1970s he and former New York Giant Pat Summerall began doing a weekly NFL highlights show.  Summerall had also been paired with Ray Scott doing color on NFL games, and when CBS let Scott go and promoted Summerall to do play-by-play, our guy was given the color-analyst role beside him.

He and Summerall worked together as the Number One NFL-on-CBS team through most of the 70s, becoming  one of TV’s best-known and most popular on-air teams. Together  they broadcast four Super Bowls as well as a number of heavyweight championship fights.

In 1979, when John Madden was hired by CBS and paired with Summerall, our guy was switched to play-by-play, and working with Dick Vermeil as his analyst,  he called games for CBS until he retied in 1987.

On the home front, in Philadelphia he played a major role in the development of sports radio, then an infant format. As a partner in radio station WIP, he was instrumental in changing the station’s format to “all sports talk, all the time.”

It was a major gamble at the time, but as a result, WIP  became one of the most successful AM stations in the nation.  (For years, in my travels to and through Philly, I made it a point as soon as I’d get in my rental car to set the dial to “SportsRadio 610 WIP.”)

Like so many former Eagles, he became a Philadelphian, and Philadelphians loved him. He gave back to his adopted  community in a number of ways, right up until his death of cancer in 2010.

Ron Jaworski, former Eagles’ QB and ESPN analyst, called him  “an icon in Philadelphia sports,” recalling that,  “When I was traded to the Eagles in 1977, (he)  took me under his wing and taught me the passion of Philadelphia Eagles fans.   For that, I am forever grateful."

His Number 40 is one of nine jersey numbers retired by the Eagles’ franchise.



FRIDAY,  JULY 21, 2023 - “You get what you demand, and you encourage what you tolerate.”  Tom Landry



*********** Thanks to the skills of our local veterinarian - and the Lord answering our prayers - our dog, Rhodey,  recovered from a near-death experience a couple of weeks ago, and with the vet’s blessing she was able to accompany us on a trip to Steamboat Springs, Colorado - two days each way, 2300 miles total - to attend a wedding of a very important young woman.

We set things up nice and cozy in the back of the SUV,  figuring that Rhodey would just do the same thing in the car that she did at home most of the time anyhow - sleep - and we were right. And we planned stops  so we could feed  her and walk her at the usual times every day.  Hotels were quite  good about letting guests have dogs, although understandably they didn’t allow dogs to be left in rooms unattended, so there were occasions - such as the wedding itself - where we had to leave her in the car.  It wasn’t terribly hot anyhow, but we made sure to park in the  shade of a tree and leave windows open, and we checked her every hour to make sure she had water and got a little walk.  She was a champ.


*********** The wedding was of our “adopted” grand-daughter, Erin Colton, and her fiancé, Brad Abell.


Erin is the oldest child of our niece, Tracy, and she was the first grandchild of my late brother.


My brother died 30 years ago, and the last time I’d seen Tracy was at his funeral.  She lived in South Florida and we never got together,  so it was wonderful seeing her again. 

Erin  was just a tot at the time my brother died, and his wife, from whom he’d been divorced, died several years later.  My wife and I just happened to meet Erin for the first time a few Christmases ago, when she was in the Army and  stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and she accepted our offer to stand in as honorary grandparents.

Tracy did a wonderful job of raising her three kids after she and her husband broke up.  Erin’s younger sister, Courtney, played tennis at Vanderbilt and is now Director of Tennis at Vanderbilt.  Her brother, Chase, was captain of the men’s tennis team at Wisconsin  and is an assistant tennis coach at Kansas State.

Erin played tennis at West Point, following which she served for nine years as an  Army officer, in places that included Iraq and Afghanistan.  (She is a stud.)

After leaving the Army, she located in the Denver area, and there she met the love of her life - a Marine veteran from San Diego  named Brad Abell.  They love the outdoors  and they love the West, and they’ve chosen to live in the Salt Lake City area.

When we received the invitation to Erin’s wedding, it became a must-attend, and although our dog’s illness made it touch-and-go for a while, we were able to make it to  the wedding, in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, and for us it was an unforgettable time.


*********** The wedding, attended by some 100 people, took place on the shores of Lake Catamount.  I can’t imagine a more spectacular setting.  



As the officiant, a retired pastor from the area, stood and waited the arrival of the wedding party, he looked as if it was 150 years ago, and he was waiting to preside  at the wedding of Sheriff Jones  and Miss Kitty from the Red Dog Saloon.



And, yes, their dog had some  role in the ceremony - I’m just not sure what it was.

The reception was held in a tent at lakeside, and let me tell you - those soldiers and Marines can party.


 

***********  In almost any state east of the Mississippi - and a lot of states west of it - it would be a star attraction. But in Idaho, where the speed limit on Interstates is 80 mph, tens of thousands of people every day zip past the Malad River Gorge  - “over it” would be more precise - every day without even knowing it’s there.

The only thing to tip off its existence is a small road sign that says “Malad River.” But when you’re doing 80 (okay, okay - 85)  it might as well say, “Muddy Creek.”

I actually  stopped a few years ago to take a look at the Malad River, and believe me -  it was a “holy sh- -!” moment.  A “look down” would be more appropriate, because that sucker was deep!  But  with only a small shoulder to pull onto, if state police don’t feel safe pulling over, there’s no reason why I should, so after a quick look, I took off.    But I resolved that on one of my next trips, I’d stop and take a good look at the Malad River Gorge.

On Monday, on our way home from Colorado, we took the time to check it out.

It’s actually an Idaho state park, off I-84 about 1-1/2 hours east of Boise, and about an hour from Burley, where we usually stay as a halfway point on trips to Denver.

There, as the traffic whizzed by on the Interstate just above us, we stood on a narrow footbridge over the deep canyon and looked to the north, where the river  was  a series of waterfalls, and then to the south, where it slowed down and flowed through a canyon several thousand feet deep - a gorge - between sheer rock cliffs. 

As it passes beneath us, the water is somewhat murky, but as you can see, it becomes clearer as more and more springs feed it.

As we stared, in awe, we became aware of activity: a variety of birds,  large and small, zipped up and down and in and out of the gorge, some alighting on ledges, some  ducking inside crevices in the walls.


But time was pressing and we had to go.  We’ll be back.




*********** Negatives of our trip…


1. Windmills.  Apart from the fact that they slaughter birds (with the federal government’s permission) and no one knows that the hell we’re going to do with these gigantic machines  once they wear out, it’s  a shocking offense to the natural beauty of our country  to clutter our  skylines with these godawful spinning monstrosities.


2. Trucks.  It’s a major pain in the ass - not to mention dangerous - to be cruising blissfully across Wyoming on  the Interstate, doing  80 or so, and suddenly have to hit the brakes because some truck driver who’d been lumbering along  in the right-hand lane got the bright idea  to pass a truck in front of him.  Without regard for whether there’s anyone coming in the left lane, or whether there’s a hill coming up, he flashes his left-turn signal and pulls out.  Then, creeping along - maybe one mile per hour faster than the truck he’s passing - he takes an eternity  to complete the pass.  If it were a once-in-a-trip occurrence it might be tolerable, but it happens with such regularity  that you wonder if it’s not being taught.  Maybe it’s because they’re not so fussy any more about who they hire. Remember those ‘DON’T LIKE THE WAY I DRIVE?” signs on the back of trucks, followed by an 800 number you could call if the driver pissed you off?  Now, the companies need drivers so bad the signs read  “EARN A GOOD LIVING DRIVING FOR US.”



*********** Positives of our trip…

1. Scenery.  The Mountain West is gorgeous country, from the Columbia Gorge to the Blue Mountains and Wallowas of eastern Oregon to southern Idaho’s Treasure Valley and Snake River Canyon to the mountains and canyons of northeast Utah to the rolling moonscape of Wyoming, and everywhere  the Big Sky - the ability to stand and see 360 degrees of horizon.  It’s impossible to describe it. It’s simply a fantastic drive.


2. Speed limits.  You sure get spoiled when you cross into Idaho and enter the Land of the 80 Mile an Hour  Speed Limit - Idaho/Utah/Wyoming.




3. People.  The people in these parts are representative of the America we’d like every place to be.  They’re friendly and helpful and cheerful.  And they’re unabashedly patriotic. Driving across Idaho, we must have seen a dozen GIANT American flags flying over assorted places.  And in one of the most desolate places you could imagine - Baggs, Wyoming, (population 411) 60 miles north to Interstate 84 and 40 miles south to Craig, Colorado - one of the few  buildings in the town had a “Let’s Go Brandon!” sign on it.


4. Places.  We went through some neat small towns and cities and didn’t see any boarded-up storefronts. We stayed in Burley, Idaho (twice)… drove around Logan, Utah and did the same in LaGrande, Oregon.  In the brief time we were there, we saw what we could of Steamboat Springs, Colorado, a beautiful year-round resort town.  Finally, you shouldn’t ever drive clear across Wyoming without stopping at Little America - a one-of-a-kind combination gas station/convenience store/restaurant/oasis that provides a nice break in the long haul.



On our way home we left our usual route for several hours so we could see Logan (home of Utah State).  Nice town,  The drive there took us past a large  lake in northeast Utah. Bear Lake is some 20 miles long, shared by both Utah and Idaho.   If you didn’t live in those parts you probably wouldn’t ever know about it, but it’s long and wide and beautiful, and on that sunny Sunday afternoon its shores were crowded with people.  It’s a mountain lake -  5,900 feet altitude -  and along the steep and winding road from there down to Logan, we saw one of the scariest runaway truck ramps we’ve ever seen.  Unlike most we’ve seen, the truck driver has to turn onto the ramp. But this one’s at the bottom of a hill, where the main road curves sharply to the left.  You - if your truck’s out of control - just keep going straight ahead. On the one hand, it's  a scary sight, but on the other, it's awfully tempting just to keep on going straight and see what it's like.


5. Gas.  When you’re used to paying $5.09 in Washington, anything from $4 on down is a gift from Brandon.



*********** CFL THIS WEEKEND

Toronto - the CFL’s only unbeaten team at 3-0 - had the week off

THURSDAY

WINNIPEG (5-2)  28, EDMONTON (0-7) 14

FRIDAY

Toronto Argonauts (4-0) at  Hamilton Tiger-Cats (2-7)  7:30 PM EDT

SATURDAY

Saskatchewan Roughriders  (3-2) at  B.C. Lions (4-1) 7 PM EDT
(In anticipation of a crowd as large as 30,000,  B.C. management will open the upper deck of the stadium for this game)

SUNDAY

Ottawa Redblacks (2-3)  at Calgary Stampeders  (2-3)  7 PM EDT


YOUR SCHEDULE OF CFL GAMES ON AMERICAN CABLE (CBSSN) THIS SEASON:

https://fbschedules.com/cbs-sports-network-releases-2023-cfl-tv-schedule/



*********** AT THE TOP OF MY LIST OF BOOKS THAT I RECOMMEND TO ANYONE WHO’S A COACH OR ABOUT TO BECOME ONE…

(1) Reade, Bob - Coaching Football Successfully - Human Kinetics, 1994 - Every young football coach should read this book - preferably twice or more - before even thinking about becoming a head coach.

(2) Nelson, David M. - Football Principles and Play - Ronald Press, 1962 - This book is deep, and deals with the stuff “under the hood” of the game in a way that I have yet to see anyplace else.

(3) Parseghian , Ara - Parseghian and Notre Dame Football - Doubleday & Co, 1971 & 1973 - Coach Parseghian’s Irish won the 1973 National Championship, and they won it running a Wing-T offense and a Split-4 defense - both systems that I have used for most of my career.  In this book, he gets deeply into the “why” and “how” of his system, and I’ve found  it very useful over the years.   I have great respect for him as a coach and as a man, and - for what it’s worth - his first head coaching job, and the place where he  came to the attention of Notre Dame, was at Northwestern.

(4) McKay, John - Football Coaching - Ronald Press, 1966 - The basics of the USC I-formation attack and his 5-2 Rover (Monster) defense - and more.  Coach McKay probably did more than anyone to popularize the I-formation, and as a result, with tailbacks the likes of Ricky Bell, Anthony Davis, Mike Garrett, O.J. Simpson and Charles White, he established USC’s reputation as “tailback U.”   Garrett and Simpson both won Heisman Trophies. His book holds nothing back, explaining the entire USC offense in considerable detail (an indication that he didn’t care that opponents knew what he was doing - he still had personnel  good enough to beat you anyhow).

One detail that it took me several readings to notice was the fact that he flip-flopped his line. Only when I became interested in the subject myself did I go back to his book and find that he was a flip-flopper.

You’ll notice how,  in his discussion of formations, he shows that he has a definite strong side guard and tackle (SG and ST) and a definite weak side guard and tackle (WG and WT), and they line up on their assigned side, whether it’s to the right or left.  Notice how they change sides in his “GEE” (I Right) and “HAW” (I left) formations. (Gee and Haw being customary commands for work animals such as mules, oxen, draft horses and sled dogs.)





*********** Athlon ranks the FBS teams, from 1 (Georgia) to 133 (UMass)


https://athlonsports.com/college-football/college-football-top-133-team-rankings-2023



*********** Question from a Reader:  From the zoom this week the team you were showing running power had their B back not really in a sniffer position but set back a little more.  Is that where you prefer he lines up? Thanks.

My answer:  I’ve never been a “sniffer” guy. (That’s a semi-gross term  - one that I never use - for a back who’s extra close to the man in front of him.) Those were my teams you saw, and my B back has always been back from the QB at least far enough to allow jet motion to pass in front of him. If he were a “sniffer” we wouldn’t be able to run our  “G” play.  That’s not an issue with guys who got their Double Wing from someone other than me, because with all the Double Wing imitators over the years, none of them ever ran the “G” - unless they got it from me or, like me, they were wing-T guys first.


*********** I am not sure if you saw the Bomber/Red Blacks game this weekend, but with 2 minutes left in the 1st quarter, Winnipeg throws an incomplete pass on 2nd and long from the Ottawa Red Zone. On comes the field goal team, but there is a flag. An Ottawa DB gave  a shove to a Winnipeg receiver at the end of the play. Objectionable Conduct penalty and Winnipeg scores from the goal line.


The Ottawa coach never pulled the offending player from the field. Acted like nothing had even happened.  I get that these guys are not high school players and make a lot of money, but this was a good example of “If it happens on the field, you either taught it, or tolerated it in practice.”

Tom Walls
Winnipeg, Manitoba

Tom Landry: “You get what you demand, and you encourage what you tolerate”

Seems to me this would be a great thing to show  kids - and maybe get  into a discussion of how THEY think a coach should handle it.


***********  I heard Jesse Waters pronounce Yakima, Washington - “ya-KEEM-uh.”

It’s a native tribe (they spell it Yakama) and it’s pronounced YAK-uh-mah (not YAK-uh-muh)

And Spokane (also a tribe)?  Spo-CAN

Every state has a few of those “Not from around here, are ya, fella?” places:

Beatrice, Nebraska (Bee-AT-riss)

Calais, Maine (Callous)

Natchitoches, Louisiana (NACK-uh-dish)

Lancaster, Pennsylvania (LANGK-ister)

Willamette River (will-AMM-it)



***********   A proposed Washington law, officially known as SB 5599, will “remove barriers to safe shelter” for “youth seeking gender-affirming or reproductive health care.”


Under the  current law licensed shelters are required to notify parents if a child comes into their care, unless there is “a compelling reason” not to.

Pay close attention, Washington moms and dads. I bet you thought those children belonged to you, and not the state.


*********** For a number of  reasons, I don’t give a big rat’s ass about the WNBA, but I have to admit to being very impressed by Sabrina Ionescu’s performance in the recent  3-point shooting contest.



*********** John Canzano writes about UCLA joining the Big Ten…

After increased travel expenses and the actual travel burden, how far ahead do the Bruins actually feel like they ended up? Who knows? Maybe UCLA will be happy and win a pile of Big Ten titles.

But ex-Nebraska athletic director Bill Moos told me that the move to the Big Ten was an eye opener for the Huskers.

“It ain’t going to be an easy road for USC and UCLA,” Moos told me. “At Nebraska, we took teams into Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State… let’s just say, there aren’t going to be any 10-2 seasons.”

***********  Concerning the recent acquittal of the Parkland, Florida deputy who did nothing while kids inside the school were being slaughtered: courts have consistently  found that police are under no obligation to actually protect citizens, especially if their own safety is at risk.

Geez. What’s a fella supposed to do to protect himself and others if the cops don’t have to?

You’d think, wouldn’t you, that the Founding Fathers would have provided some way for the average citizen to defend himself (or herself)?

You’d be right. They did. The Second Amendment.


***********   The airlines, despite combining deplorable service with an almost unbelievable arrogance, have been making money hand over fist lately. This has not gone unnoticed by the various unions that represent airline employees, and the result has been some rather staggering pay increases for airline employees. (Delta pilots just “agreed” to “accept” an immediate  18 per cent pay raise, with more increases to come, putting some senior pilots up around $400,000 a year.)


Not to suggest that pilots aren’t deserving of more money,  but I had this dream that after years of steadily squeezing passengers into their slender metal tubes, the greedy bastards that run the airlines had announced that as a way of acknowledging what passengers have  had to endure, they’d be removing  two rows of seats (12 seats) on every plane, spreading out the remaining rows to create another two inches or so of leg room for every passenger.


*********** MUSIC AND THE AMERICAN WAY OF LIFE


1969 - OKIE FROM MUSKOGEE - Great song. Patriotic.

1970 - THE FIGHTIN’ SIDE OF ME - Great song. Patriotic.


2023 (AFTER LEFTIES FINALLY HEAR A COUNTRY SONG)


TRY THAT IN A SMALL TOWN - Racist.




***********  When Nick and Whack (Hyder) put their heads together, the result was a knack for coaching.

Why should I despise Megan Rapinoe? She does a great Subway commercial, she's always featured on the ESPYs, she made the cover of ESPN mag with her girlfriend, and she supports the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network, and so on. According to Megan you get a four-year degree when you complete the education GLSEN dispenses.

I agree, Rick Morrissey's story has to be the best to have been written on the sad story. Thanks for giving it to us.

So you're telling me the Yale-Harvard game shown (well, people making their way into the stadium) on Gilmore Girls wasn't really packed with 65,000 fans?

John Vermillion                               
St Petersburg, Florida


***********  Hugh,

Pat Fitzgerald did an amazing job of coaching the game of football at Northwestern.  What Pat Fitzgerald did NOT do was
an amazing job of coaching some of those "men" who played football for Northwestern.  It only takes one bad apple...

A trans South Korean cyclist won a women's race in which HE wanted to prove that males overall are stronger athletes than women.  That trans athletes who want to compete against females are selfish.  HE also went on to say that there SHOULD be a trans athlete division in other sports.  Maybe Megan Rapinoe would like HIM on her team.
Enjoy the weekend!

Joe  Gutilla
Granbury, Texas


 



*********** QUIZ ANSWER:  Few people have had as much impact on as many NFL teams as Jim Finks.

Born and raised in Salem, Illinois, he played quarterback at Tulsa and was the Steelers’ 12th-round draft pick in 1949.

He made the team, and over the years he would joke that his main claim to fame was the fact that "They cut Johnny Unitas and kept me."

He really wasn’t that bad. He started for the Steelers for seven years (“the happiest seven years of my life,” he would say later) and in 1952 he led the NFL in passing. The problem wasn’t him - it was the team.  Said Steelers’ owner Art Rooney, “We had some terrible teams then, and they would have been a lot worse without Jim.”

In several off-seasons, he played catcher in the Cincinnati Reds’ organization.

After leaving the Steelers, he spent a year as assistant coach at Notre Dame, then headed north to Calgary of the CFL as player/coach, before becoming General Manager in 1957.  Thanks to his ability to find and sign talent, Calgary became  the winningest team in the CFL in the 1960s.

In 1964, he was hired as GM by the Minnesota Vikings.  Four years later, the Vikings started a 14-year run in which they won 11 division championships and appeared in four Super Bowls.  A key to their success was his hiring of Bud Grant, who had been coaching in the CFL at Winnipeg, and his hiring of quarterback Joe Kapp, whom he had earlier signed at Calgary.

In 1973 he was named NFL Executive of the Year.

In 1974 he was hired by the Chicago Bears, as owner/GM/Coach George Halas saw the need to modernize his organization responsibilities.   He is credited with drafting Water Payton, and although he left the Bears following the 1983 season, he was responsible for putting together the 1985 team that went 15-1 and won the Super Bowl.

After that, he spent one season as Vice-President of the Chicago Cubs,  and in January of 1986 he became GM of the New Orleans Saints.  In their 19-year history the club had never had a winning season, but his first act of business was to hire Jim Mora as his head coach, and in his second year in New Orleans, the Saints  won 12 games and he was again named NFL Executive of the Year.

In 1989, he came within a whisker of succeeding Pete Rozelle as commissioner of the NFL, but after his supporters - the older owners - were opposed by newer owners who objected simply because they resented being “dictated to,” Paul Tagliabue finally won on the sixth ballot.  Our guy was offered the position of Director of Operations, but declined and returned to New Orleans.

In 1993, he was diagnosed with lung cancer, and within a year, he was dead at 66.

Jim Finks is in the Vikings Hall of Honor and the Saints Ring of Honor, and he is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING JIM FINKS

GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
TOM DAVIS - SAN MARCOS, CALIFORNIA
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY
TOM WALLS - WINNIPEG, MANITOBA 





*********** QUIZ:  He was born in Seattle and went to high school there.

After graduation from high school, with World War II going on, he joined the Army,  and after  service first in the 10th Mountain Division and then in the 11th Airborne, he rose to the rank of first lieutenant before his discharge.

After the War, he attended the University of Washington, where he played football  and boxed.

After graduation, he spent a year as an assistant at Washington, then spent two years coaching at high schools in Hawaii before becoming head coach at the University of British Columbia. He spent two years there before taking a job as head coach back in Washington at Wenatchee Valley Junior College, and in his one year there he took the team to a 7-0-1 record and a berth in a bowl game. The next year, he moved to Fort Ord, California, where he coached an Army team to a 9-0 record and the service football championship.

He had been out of college seven years and he’d already had six different coaching jobs.

In 1957 he got his first college head coaching job, succeeding George Allen at Whittier College.  In his three seasons there, his Poets (true fact) went 23-5-1 and won three conference  championships.  A major factor in his success was his use of the then-unknown I-formation, and in 1960 he joined the staff at USC, where John McKay had just taken over. 

He spent just one year at USC - but it appears that he can take part responsibility for the I-formation for which the Trojans would become famous.

After one year there, he was hired as head coach at San Diego State.  They were bad.  The year before, they had gone 1-6-1, and lost their season-ending game to rival Fresno State, 60-0.

Depending heavily on junior college transfers, he built the Aztecs into a power, transitioning from an I-formation attack to a wide-open passing game.  in his 12 years at San Diego State, his teams went 104-19-2.

That earned him the head job of the St. Louis Cardinals, and in five years there he went 42-27-1, but a fallout with management resulted in his firing. Too late to get another NFL head coaching job, he returned to his home in San Diego, prepared to sit out a season, when Tommy Prothro got off to a slow start and resigned as the Chargers’ coach.

Our guy stepped in and in nine years as San Diego’s head coach, he compiled a record of 69-56-0 before new ownership decided to sweep the decks clean.   He never coached again, and spent his remaining years at his home in Washington’s San Juan Islands.

With a college record of 126-24-5 (Whittier and San Diego State) and a pro record of 111-83-1 (St. Louis and San Diego), he is the only coach to have won 100 games at both the college and NFL level.

He could be so absorbed in his work that he appeared cold and remote to many who didn’t know him, but he was loved by his players.   Said Hall of Fame quarterback Dan Fouts,  “He actually cared about us as players. A lot of coaches don't even know who you are.” Not known as a strong disciplinarian, he said, “I don't think a coach has to be a son of a bitch to be successful. I think you can treat men like men.’

Men who coached under him and went on to become pro coaches themselves were Rod Dowhower, Joe Gibbs, Jim Hanifan, John Madden, Jim Mora (the younger), and Ray Perkins.

He had an enormous influence on the way offense is played, and his Chargers still hold several NFL records:

Most consecutive seasons leading league, first downs: 4 (1980-1983)

Most consecutive seasons leading league, net yards gained rushing and passing: 4 (1980-1983)

Most consecutive seasons leading league, passing yards: 6 (1978-1983)

Most consecutive games, 400+ yards gained rushing and passing: 11 (1982-1983)

Most touchdown passes, game: 7


He was 1974 NFL Coach of the Year.

He is a member of the San Diego State, San Diego Chargers and Washington Huskies Halls of Fame.

He is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame.

He died in 2010.  His induction  into the Pro Football Hall of Fame - way overdue - will take place this August.





FRIDAY,  JULY 14, 2023 - “You’re lucky in life if you have the right heroes. I’ll advise all of you, to the extent that you can, to pick out a few good heroes.” Warren Buffett

IF NO NEWS IS GOOD NEWS - BOY, DO I HAVE GOOD NEWS FOR YOU -
NO NEWS NEXT TUESDAY.  SEE YOU NEXT FRIDAY

***********  Because I think - I think - that Rick Morrissey of the Chicago Sun-Times may have encapsulated the Northwestern “hazing” scandal about as well as anyone can, I’ve printed his article in its entirety:

Let’s discuss what the Pat Fitzgerald firing is not about.

It’s not about a rush to judgment. Northwestern’s investigation into a former player’s allegations of hazing in the football program lasted six months. If that’s a rush, then so is a six-month CD or a six-month prison sentence. The attorney who led NU’s investigation interviewed more than 50 people currently or formerly associated with the program and reviewed hundreds of thousands of emails dating back 10 years.

It’s not about one disgruntled former player. Northwestern said 11 current or former players acknowledged during the probe that there had been hazing.

It’s not about everything that’s wrong with the world these days. It’s about today’s reality. Anyone who works in sports in 2023 knows that hazing is a major no-no, just as anyone who works in corporate America knows that harassment of any kind is taboo. We can argue all day about whether things have gone too far in terms of sensibilities, but it’s beside the point. There’s no place for hazing.

It’s not about whether Fitzgerald knew that upperclassmen were dry-humping freshmen in a dark locker room as punishment for making mistakes on the field. In today’s world, a head coach is supposed to know. Fitzgerald was paid a ton of money to know. That’s it. End of story. But, just as an aside, we’re supposed to believe that a micromanaging college football coach — which is to say every college football coach on the planet — didn’t know what was going on in the locker room? Please.

It’s not about Fitzgerald being a good guy. Good guys do dumb things.

It’s not about a bumbling university president changing his mind on Fitzgerald’s punishment. Just because Michael Schill initially gave the coach a two-week suspension and then fired him a few days later under public pressure doesn’t mean the firing was unjust. It means Schill wasn’t thinking straight or received bad advice with his first ruling. It means university presidents do dumb things, too.

It’s not about the firing being too harsh. I can’t stress this enough: No parent sends their athlete to college to get physically and mentally abused by older players. Universities have been on an anti-hazing push for years, and a coach would have to have his head, and the rest of his body, buried in a sand dune not to know the seriousness of it. Hazing is a fireable offense for a coach.

It’s not about boys being boys. What happened at NU was “Lord of the Flies’’ stuff, and kids suffered for it. By the way, what well-adjusted upperclassman enjoys playing the role of dry-humper? What part of that equation am I missing here?

It’s not about how life was when you or I played sports. Nobody cares. Things change. A lack of emotional scar tissue from your glory days doesn’t mean scar tissue doesn’t exist for others. If you don’t think hazing is wrong and a very, very bad thing for a coach’s future, then you haven’t been paying attention. An update for you: Bullying, also bad.

It’s not about being innocent until proven guilty. See the earlier note on a rush to judgment.

It’s not about the Duke lacrosse scandal. Some of Fitzgerald’s defenders have tried to compare his case to that of three Duke athletes who were wrongly accused of raping a stripper in 2006. The Durham County district attorney was eventually disbarred for his rash and shoddy work on the case. A wrong that happened 17 years ago doesn’t mean a wrong happened in the Northwestern hazing investigation.

It’s not about Fitzgerald’s recent hiring of an attorney. That act doesn’t prove he’s a victim, though he might believe he is. It certainly means he wants what’s left on his 10-year, $57 million contract.

It’s not about the evils of the transfer portal. I didn’t know that transfers were morally inferior human beings, but if any of the whistleblowers arrived at Northwestern via the portal, it needs to be noted that Fitzgerald researched and recruited them, too.

This is about an investigation that found significant proof that hazing had been going on in NU’s football program for years. And this is about the harsh ramifications of that truth, in today’s world, for a football coach. Nothing else matters.

You can scream all you want that Pat Fitzgerald didn’t do anything wrong. The problem is that he didn’t do the one right thing that was necessary.

https://chicago.suntimes.com/2023/7/12/23792702/what-northwesterns-firing-of-pat-fitzgerald-is-not-about-wildcats-hazing-president-michael-schill



*********** Regardless of your opinion on the Northwestern hazing scandal, you have to admit that they sure do have a real  stand-up guy as their athletics director:

“When delivering the news (of their coach’s firing) to Northwestern’s football team, sources say Northwestern athletic director Derrick Gragg was out of town, and rather than flying back to speak to the team personally about their head coach’s firing, he informed them over Zoom.”


*********** How toxic was  the culture of Northwestern football?  It was so toxic that they fired their longtime head coach - and then placed the program in the care of an interim head coach - off the same staff.


*********** Only Kirk Ferentz of Iowa, Mike Gundy of Oklahoma State and Kyle Whittingham of Utah have been the head football coaches at their schools longer than Pat Fitzgerald was head coach at Northwestern.


*********** Putting aside the ugliness of what’s gone on at Northwestern - if that’s possible - there have been people who’ve used the occasion to pile on by attacking Pat Fitzgerald’s coaching record.

I call bullsh— on that.  He has gone out with a 110-101 record.  Playing in the Big Ten, for God’s sake!

To find another Northwestern football coach who left  with a winning record, you have to go back to 1963 - 60 years ago - when Ara Parseghian left.  He was exactly one game over .500 (36-35-1),  but that was considered such a remarkable achievement that it got him the Notre Dame job.

Beyond that, you’d have to go back to 1946, when Pappy Waldorf left to go to Cal.

There’ve been some pretty good coaches who’ve tried their luck at Northwestern since Pappy Waldorf left - John Pont, Denny Green, Rick Barnett, Randy Walker among them - but other than Ara Parseghian and Pat Fitzgerald, not a one has  left Evanston with a winning record.
 


*********** CFL THIS PAST WEEKEND -

Toronto - the CFL’s only unbeaten team at 3-0 - had the week off

THURSDAY

Hamilton Tiger-Cats (1-3) at Edmonton Elks (0-5)  9 PM EDT

FRIDAY

Toronto Argonauts (3-0) at  Montreal Alouettes (2-2)  7:30 PM EDT

SATURDAY

Winnipeg Blue Bombers (4-1) at Ottawa Redblacks (1-3) 4 PM EDT


SUNDAY

Calgary Stampeders  (1-3)  at Saskatchewan Rough Riders  (3-1)




YOUR SCHEDULE OF CFL GAMES ON AMERICAN CABLE (CBSSN) THIS SEASON:

https://fbschedules.com/cbs-sports-network-releases-2023-cfl-tv-schedule/



*********** AT THE TOP OF MY LIST OF BOOKS THAT I RECOMMEND TO ANYONE WHO’S A COACH OR ABOUT TO BECOME ONE…

(1) Reade, Bob - Coaching Football Successfully - Human Kinetics, 1994 - Every young football coach should read this book - preferably twice or more - before even thinking about becoming a head coach.

(2) Nelson, David M. - Football Principles and Play - Ronald Press, 1962 - This book is deep, and deals with the stuff “under the hood” of the game in a way that I have yet to see anyplace else.

(3) Parseghian , Ara - Parseghian and Notre Dame Football - Doubleday & Co, 1971 & 1973 - Coach Parseghian’s Irish won the 1973 National Championship, and they won it running a Wing-T offense and a Split-4 defense - both systems that I have used for most of my career.  In this book, he gets deeply into the “why” and “how” of his system, and I’ve found  it very useful over the years.   I have great respect for him as a coach and as a man, and - for what it’s worth - his first head coaching job, and the place where he  came to the attention of Notre Dame, was at Northwestern.
Here, he showed what he considered the four main areas of attack: 




Middle (“between half the space  occupied by one guard to half the space occupied by the other guard”)
Inside (“between half the space occupied by a guard to one-half the space occupied by his neighboring tackle”)
 Off Tackle (“between one half the space occupied by a tackle to the outside shoulder of his neighboring end”).
Sweep (“the area outside the end.”)

And  these were the six basic Backfield Actions  he used to attack those areas. (He did have other ways, along with other formations, but these were the main ones.)




And then he showed the different  ways of blocking each area with each backfield action - in this case a play attacking the “off-tackle” area. 



In Coach Parseghian’s system, our “I Right 66 Power”  (a basic I formation off-tackle play to the  right,  with the fullback kicking out and the tight end and tackle double-teaming),  would be called “Tailback Off-Tackle Right Block 8.”



*********** Just in case you needed any more reasons to despise Megan Rapinoe…

Rapinoe was asked about transgender athletes in women’s sports in a recent interview with Time magazine. Rapinoe said lawmakers were "trying to legislate away people’s full humanity" and said she would accept a transgender woman replacing a biological female on the U.S. national team.

“It’s particularly frustrating when women’s sports is weaponized," Rapinoe told Time. "Oh, now we care about fairness? Now we care about women’s sports? That’s total bulls---. And show me all the trans people who are nefariously taking advantage of being trans in sports. It’s just not happening."

She explained why she would accept a transgender female on the U.S. women’s team.

"Absolutely," she said. "‘You’re taking a ‘real’ woman’s place,’ that’s the part of the argument that’s still extremely transphobic. I see trans women as real women. What you’re saying automatically in the argument—you’re sort of telling on yourself already—is you don’t believe these people are women. Therefore, they’re taking the other spot. I don’t feel that way."

https://www.foxnews.com/sports/martina-navratilova-one-word-response-megan-rapinoes-remarks-trans-participation-womens-sports.amp


***********   Just in case Northwestern, Vanderbilt, Stanford, Duke and other academically-inclined private schools might be thinking about saying “to hell with big-time football” and instead taking an Ivy League-type approach, they might want to consider this…


FCS average attendance, 2022 - Note that there were just 21 schools that averaged more than 10,000 a game:

 

So where are the Ivies? you ask.  Well, they’re pretty far down the list.  Only one of them - Harvard - averaged more than 10,000, putting it in 12th place among FCS schools.

Here are the Ivy schools, including their FCS attendance ranking, their average attendance, and  the percentage of their stadium’s capacity that they “filled.”

(12) HARVARD  14,689 (48%)
(54) CORNELL  6,878 (32%)
(55) PENN   6,854 (13%)
(61) YALE    6,299 (10%)
(62) PRINCETON 6,298 (21%)
(80) COLUMBIA 5,088 (30%)
(86) DARTMOUTH  4,664 (42%)
(91) BROWN 4,423 (22%)

The big question is not “how stupid does a crowd of 6,299 look in the 65,000-seat Yale Bowl?”  It’s “How did Yale manage  to get one more  person than Princeton to attend every one of its games?”

https://herosports.com/fcs-football-2022-attendance-leaders-bzbz/


***********   Writer John Canzano is back East on a family/work trip and he says  it  has opened his eyes to the problems faced by the Pac-12:

A former newspaper colleague from the West Coast who took a job in the Eastern Time Zone told me that one of the first things he noticed after his move was how much that three-hour time difference mattered when it came to sports habits.

By the time the Pac-12 kicks off a Saturday college football game, the Big Ten, ACC and SEC have saturated the market with highlights, scores, storylines and content.

“Anything west of the Rockies,” he lamented, “feels like it’s happening on another planet.”

The “Pac-12 After Dark” stuff is fun branding. The games are interesting to college football fans in the Pacific Time Zone, but by 7:30 p.m. PT the East Coast is more interested in finding a pillow.

*********** Ernie Pyle was a great World War II correspondent, revered by the troops because he lived among them, and covered the war from their perspective.  He not only lived among them, he died among them, killed by a Japanese sniper’s bullet on a Pacific island near Okinawa.

I was caught by his description of what he called  a “disquieting line of detritus” that he saw on a Normandy beach, on D-Day Plus One (the day after D-Day):

“It extends in a thin little line, just like a high-water mark, for miles along the beach. Here in a jumbled row for mile on mile are soldiers’ packs. Here are socks and shoe polish, sewing kits, diaries, Bibles, and hand grenades. Here are the latest letters from home…Here are toothbrushes and razors, and snapshots of families back home, staring up at you from the sand. Here are pocketbooks, metal mirrors, extra trousers, and bloody, abandoned shoes…

“ I picked up a pocket Bible with the soldier’s name in it, and put it in my jacket. I carried it half a mile or so, and then put it back down on the beach. I don’t know why I picked it up, or why I put it back down…

“As I plowed out over the wet sand of the beach, I walked around what seemed to be a couple of pieces of driftwood sticking out of the sand. But they weren’t driftwood. They were a soldier’s two feet. He was completely covered by the shifting sands, except for his feet. The toes of his G.I. shoes pointed toward the land he had come so far to see, and which he saw so briefly.”

***********   Hey, all you “Hawk Tackle” guys out there…  Long before Pete Carroll thought it might  be cool to bring in a rugby guy to show his people how to tackle (HINT: grab the legs, even if that means having to go to the ground to do it), there were  football coaches who knew that the only reason why going low to tackle  a man might - might - be safer was that there was a good chance you wouldn’t make any contact.

On my Tuesday night Zoom, I quoted from a clinic I attended years ago where a coach named Nick Hyder presented.  Here, from my notes, is what he said on the subject of playing defense…

“The first thing I look for is people lying on the ground…if they’re lying on the ground, they’re not playing for us - they’re playing for the other team… you can only be quick if you’re on your feet.”

Why are people lying on the ground?  Simple. They dove low - and missed

But what the hell would Nick Hyder know?

Well, for starters,  he won 300 games - and got there in 30 years.  (That’s an average of ten wins a season for 30 seasons!)

At one school, he was 249-36-1, with 6 undefeated and untied seasons and seven state titles.   And three national championships.

He was seven times named Georgia Coach of the Year.

What could Nick Hyder, of Valdosta, Georgia possibly tell us about tackling?



***********   Had a long discussion this morning with a lady who's "Head of School" (not Headmistress, of course) at the most elite private school in this area. She took her advanced degrees from Northwestern, and is upset PF seems to have so spoiled her school's reputation. Then she lapsed into a discussion about several of her coaches. I asked how many football coaches she employs, to which she replied "a lot". There isn't talent enough among the teachers, she said, so most are outside hires, and she constantly worries about their conduct. I recommended they read Coach Reade's book.

Glad your dog is getting back in the saddle, or so it appears. Report back to us on Firday.

West Point itself incurred a lot of storm damage too. And the road down Storm King is a sight to behold. Much of it has simply disappeared.

I know a very bright lady (MIT doctorate) who taught at Brown until a few years ago. She said (this from her mother, who had photos to back the claim up) that on Independence Day of her final year the flag flying from dorm windows was 90% LGBT, not an American flag in sight. So I do not wish them well in football.

Nice research on the Aussie punters.

John Vermillion                                    
St. Petersburg, Florida



***********   Hugh,

Sad state of affairs at Northwestern.  Won't make any comments until I know (and the rest of know) if Coach Fitz did or did not know.  We'll never know if they let the DOJ do the investigation.

Glad to hear your pup is getting better.  Scary stuff.  Those guys are a part of the family.

Heard the flooding near West Point has affected parts of the campus.

Met a coach years ago who coached football at Brown.  Left for better FBS jobs and eventually the NFL.  Told me back then much of the problems at Brown had as much to do with student apathy as anything else.  There was a contingent of die-hard sports fans, but most of the students could give a c***.  Doing some research I found that Brown's average home attendance for football is just above 3,500.  Richard Gouse Field holds 20,000.

On the subject of the PAC 12...After a little bit more thought I believe Cal, Stanford, Oregon, and Washington will be absorbed by the Big 10.  Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, and Utah will be grabbed by the Big 12, and Oregon State and Washington State will join the Mountain West Conference...and the PAC 12 will become a memory.  I also think the Big 10, Big 12, and MWC will once again split into a divisional format:

Big 10
WEST - USC, UCLA, Oregon, Washington, Cal, Stanford, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin.
EAST - Illinois, Northwestern, Michigan, Michigan State, Indiana, Purdue, Ohio State, Penn State, Maryland, Rutgers.

Big 12
EAST - UCF, WVU, Cincinnati, Houston, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma State.
WEST - Baylor, TCU, Texas Tech, Colorado, Utah, BYU, Arizona, Arizona State.

MWC
WEST - Hawaii, San Diego State, Fresno State, San Jose State, Oregon State, Washington State, Nevada, UNLV.
EAST - Boise State, Utah State, Wyoming, Colorado State, Air Force, New Mexico, UTEP, UTSA.


Have a great week!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas








********** QUIZ ANSWER:  Once one of the most sought-after  coaching prospects in the country, and then  one of the best coaches you may never have heard of, Dick Sheridan died last week  in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.  He was 81.

In his 15 years as a head coach, he  compiled a record of 121-52-5 (.694).

He earned national Coach of the Year honors at both  the FCS (Furman) and FBS  (NC State) levels.

He graduated from the University of South Carolina in 1964 - majoring in engineering - and after a series of jobs decided to become a high school coach.  At  Orangeburg-Wilkinson High School  he went 37-8-1 overall, and took it to a state title in 1971.

In 1973, he was hired as an assistant at Furman, and in 1978 he became head coach there.

At Furman, his teams won 69 games in eight seasons,  with a  winning percentage of  .744 - still  the best in school history.

In his very first season he took the Paladins to their first-ever conference championship -  the first of six that they would win in his eight years there.  In 1983, they went 10-2-1 and made it to the FCS semifinals, and in 1985 they went 12-2 and made it to the FCS championship game. (They lost to Georgia Southern, 44-42.)

He won National FCS Coach of the Year  honors, and his success got him the head coaching job at NC State.

The Wolfpack had suffered three straight 3-8 seasons, but in his  first season, paying meticulous attention to detail in all aspects of the program and preaching a  “team-first” attitude (he ordered players’ names removed from the backs of jerseys),  he led them to an 8-3-1 finish and their first bowl game appearance in eight years.  For that  he was named Bobby Dodd National Coach of the Year and ACC Coach of the Year.

The Pack  slipped to 4-7 the next season, but he  quickly righted the ship and didn’t have another losing season in his seven seasons at NC State.

In late June of 1993,  he abruptly resigned, attributing his decision  to “unspecified health reasons.”  He  also said that he had been influenced by the death, less than three months earlier,  of his friend, former NC State basketball coach Jim Valvano.

The Wolfpack was coming off a 9-3-1 season and a Number 15 ranking nationally and was expected to be good again..

In his seven seasons at State, he compiled a record of 52-29-3, and took the Pack to six bowl games.  He was just 51 when he resigned, and despite having been approached  by several big-time programs over the years,  he never coached again.

He was respected throughout coaching circles for his professionalism, integrity, and dedication to the sport, as well as for his concern for his players.

In 2017 Dick Sheridan was inducted into the South Carolina Football Hall of Fame,  in a class that included Army all-time great Doc Blanchard, and long-time Air Force coach Fisher DeBerry, and in  2020 he was named to the College Football Hall of Fame. 



CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING DICK SHERIDAN

GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
TOM WALLS - WINNIPEG, MANITOBA
DAVIS CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY


*********** How about this… In 1988, Dick Sheridan was Georgia’s choice to succeed the legendary Vince Dooley.  He turned them down. A few years later, Mike Lude told me, he had Dick Sheridan persuaded to come to Auburn. But, Auburn politics being what they were, a guy on the Board of Trustees (who really ran the University) had his own ideas.  And that’s all I’ll say.


*********** Josh Montgomery, of Berwick, Louisiana, came across this gem about Dick Sheridan: “He was just a remarkable coach,” said Mike O’Cain, who played for Sheridan in high school and succeeded him as the Wolfpack’s coach. "He believed in his role as a strict disciplinarian and he was a perfectionist. We would practice a play 150 times a week." (Sounds like a Double-Winger to me.)
 

  



*********** QUIZ:  Few people have had as much impact on as many NFL teams as this man.

He was born and raised in Salem, Illinois, and played quarterback at Tulsa. He was the Steelers’ 12th-round draft pick in 1949.

He made the team, and over the years he would joke that his main claim to fame was the fact that "They cut Johnny Unitas and kept me."

He really wasn’t that bad. He started for the Steelers for seven years (“the happiest seven years of my life,” he would say later) and in 1952 he led the NFL in passing. The problem wasn’t him - it was the team.  Said Steelers’ owner Art Rooney, “We had some terrible teams then, and they would have been a lot worse without (him).”

In several off-seasons, he played catcher in the Cincinnati Reds’ organization.

After leaving the Steelers, he spent a year as assistant coach at Notre Dame, then headed north to Calgary of the CFL as player/coach, before becoming General Manager in 1957.  Thanks to his ability to find and sign talent, Calgary became  the winningest team in the CFL in the 1960s.

In 1964, he was hired as GM by the Minnesota Vikings.  Four years later, the Vikings started a 14-year run in which they won 11 division championships and appeared in four Super Bowls.  A key to their success was his hiring of Bud Grant, who had been coaching in the CFL at Winnipeg, and his hiring of quarterback Joe Kapp, whom he had earlier signed at Calgary.

In 1973 he was named NFL Executive of the Year.

In 1974 he was hired by the Chicago Bears, as owner/GM/Coach George Halas saw the need to modernize his organization responsibilities.   He is credited with drafting Water Payton, and although he left the Bears following the 1983 season, he was responsible for putting together the 1985 team that went 15-1 and won the Super Bowl.

After that, he spent one season as Vice-President of the Chicago Cubs,  and in January of 1986 he became GM of the New Orleans Saints.  In their 19-year history the club had never had a winning season, but his first act of business was to hire Jim Mora as his head coach, and in his second year in New Orleans, the Saints  won 12 games and he was again named NFL Executive of the Year.

In 1989, he came within a whisker of succeeding Pete Rozelle as commissioner of the NFL, but after his supporters - the older owners - were opposed by newer owners who objected simply because they resented being “dictated to,” Paul Tagliabue finally won on the sixth ballot.  Our guy was offered the position of Director of Operations, but declined and returned to New Orleans.

In 1993, he was diagnosed with lung cancer, and within a year, he was dead at 66.

He is in the Vikings Hall of Honor and the Saints Ring of Honor, and he is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.






TUESDAY,  JULY 11, 2023 - "The 1st period is won by the best technician. The 2nd period is won by the kid in the best shape. The 3rd period is won by the kid with the biggest heart.” Dan Gable


*********** PAT FITZGERALD, UNTIL EARLIER TODAY ONE OF THE LONGEST-TENURED COLLEGE COACHES STILL AT THE SAME SCHOOL, IS NOW NORTHWESTERN’S EX-HEAD COACH.

I assume you weren’t on Mars so I won’t go into  what’s known and what’s not known about the situation at Northwestern that led to his firing today, but based on  the results of an outside investigation that Northwestern paid for, and the anonymous testimony of a (possibly aggrieved) former player who has since transferred, it appears that there has been “hazing” of “a sexual nature” (“forced sexual acts”) going on in the Northwestern football program.

Without enough time to gather thoughts together and write coherently, I’m just going resort to brain droppings - thoughts that come to mind before I’ve  done much thinking.

1. IF IT'S NOT TRUE… (1) Northwestern had better  set aside quite a few hundred millions of its several-billion-dollar endowment in preparation for settling  Pat Fitzgerald’s mother-of-all wrongful termination lawsuits. (2) Northwestern can also set aside efforts to raise  funds for its $800 million  stadium project.


2. IF THE CLAIMS OF SEXUALIZED HAZING ARE TRUE… EITHER WAY, FITZGERALD HAS TO GO.  I LIKE HIM, BUT THIS  GOES RIGHT TO THE HEART OF OUR GAME, AND FOOTBALL IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN ANY PERSON

This was not hazing as most people know it.  Hazing is to be avoided at all costs, true. But this was sexual assault, and every sick son of a bitch that took part in it needs to face a judge and jury.


A. AND FITZGERALD KNEW IT WAS GOING ON

He is one sick SOB himself and he belongs in prison, along with any assistant coach that knew (and the perps themselves).

The fact that they went 4-20 over the last two years should have no bearing on his dismissal.  Wrong is wrong, and having gone  20-4 instead shouldn’t have been enough to save his job.

B. BUT FITZGERALD DIDN’T KNOW  IT WAS GOING ON

(Hard as it is to believe that a head football coach, as paranoid as those people can be, wasn’t aware of everything that went on in his program, on and off the  field, I’ve long been a Pat Fitzgerald fan, and I’d prefer to think that this really is the case.)

But he still has to go.

It was his duty to know.  He is ultimately responsible for the well-being of every person in his program.

Coaches like to brag about  the “culture” they’ve built - a tacit understanding and acceptance that “this is how we do things around here,” or “we don’t do those things around here.”  Wouldn’t the latter start with a prohibition on acts demeaning to other members of the squad?

When recruiting, did Northwestern coaches ever tell parents  that they’d look out for their sons?

Where did Northwestern find players like this, anyhow?  Who vetted them?

Were these really college “men?”  Or does Northwestern  have some sort of early admission that lets football players go directly from middle school to college?

Are these players like this on campus? In the classroom?  In the dorms?  At parties?  With women?

Wasn’t it made crystal clear that there would be harsh punishment for any hazing of a physical nature?

Did it ever occur to anyone - player, coach, manager - that by encouraging (or just by watching) what went on they were accomplices to sexual assault?

Is it at all possible that not a single assistant coach, analyst or graduate assistant knew what was going on?  (If  someone did, how could he not know it was his duty to report it to the head coach?)

Was there no team leadership?  Not one guy strong enough morally and physically to put a stop to the assault?

Sitting in the stocks is too good for these disgusting  bastards.  Bring back the investigators and get their names.  With all that college football's facing  these days, the last thing  it needs is perverts like this undermining it.


*********** If you’re a dog lover, you’ll understand.

Over a week ago, on the  ride  back from our place at the beach, our dog seemed to sleep more than usual.  Once back home, when I took her for her afternoon walk, she seemed sluggish.  The next morning, she did pretty well on her walk, but then  didn’t  finish her food.  This dog likes to eat, so that was a sign that something was up.

From that point, all she did was lie on the floor, sometimes sleeping and sometimes not.  The next day was the Fourth, and in addition to not eating, she was becoming more and more unresponsive to anything - including Fourth of July fireworks, which usually scare the crap out of her.

The next day - Wednesday - we left her at the vet hospital, where  after they’d had her tested, they said that  it appeared to be salmon poisoning, but her fecal sample hadn’t confirmed it, and therefore they couldn’t rule out the possibility of something even more serious. (Not that salmon poisoning isn’t serious: it’s found only in the Pacific Northwest, and it affects only canines - dogs, coyotes, wolves. If left untreated  it’s fatal within two weeks in more than 90 per cent of cases.)

To their credit, they said that  they’d proceed on the assumption that it was indeed, salmon poisoning.

On  Thursday, we spoke with another vet from the hospital who told us that a review of the fecal test had disclosed eggs (of the worms that cause the bacteria that causes “salmon poisoning”) and therefore they could say with reasonable certainty that,  yes, it was salmon poisoning.

She had no appetite, but we had to get pills inside her, so for the next three days, it was a matter of  force-feeding her with  food items containing the pills.  (I found that taking a piece of hot dog, cutting a small “pocket” into which I inserted  the pill, then coating it with peanut butter, prying her mouth open, and  inserting the mess into her mouth and then closing is a good way to go.  What really seemed to help was tricking her by smearing peanut butter on her lips, which took her mind off  what I had inserted  in her mouth. Three pills=three pieces of hot dog.)

She drank a lot of water during this time, and to her credit, she let us know whenever she needed to “go outside.”  When we would let her out, she was a bit  unsteady.

A big deal for us was Saturday afternoon when she came into my office  at 4 PM as if ready for her usual walk.  (The one she hadn’t taken  for six days.) That was about the first sign that she might be returning to normal.

Last night (Sunday),  she went for several walks but still wouldn’t eat, until in the evening, she took some food from my wife.  And then - miracle dictu! - she took the pills-in-the-hot-dogs voluntarily.  Yum.

Today (Monday) , she went for about half of her regular morning walk and actually ran a bit off-leash.  And - I never thought I’d say this - we were greatly pleased to see her first “Number Two” in over a week.  It was actually a pleasure to have to clean it up.

Back home, she ate most of her morning meal, and then, after sleeping most of the morning, she heard the town’s noon-time bells -  normally her cue for getting up to go for a noon walk with my wife - and got up and went to my wife for her walk!

She’s not back all the way yet, by any means, but she’s definitely getting there.

In the meantime, I have no idea where she might have encountered the disease.  Who knows?  Evidently, it only takes the tiniest exposure to the tiniest piece of raw salmon (or similar fish) and the disease is off and running.  And let me tell you - it’s a bitch.




*********** CFL THIS PAST WEEKEND -

Toronto - the CFL’s only unbeaten team at 3-0 - had the week off

THURSDAY

*** Saskatchewan Roughriders (3-1) 12, Edmonton Elks (0-5) 11

FRIDAY

Winnipeg Blue Bombers (4-1) 24, Calgary Stampeders (1-3) 11


SATURDAY

Hamilton Tiger-Cats  (1-3)  21,  Ottawa Redblacks (1-3) 13

SUNDAY

B.C. Lions (4-1) 35, Montreal Alouettes (2-2) 19

*** I’M NOT GOING TO SAY A WORD ABOUT THE UNBELIEVABLE ENDING TO THURSDAY NIGHT’S EDMONTON-SASKATCHEWAN GAME.  YOU’RE GOING TO HAVE TO WAIT AND SEE IT ON MY TUESDAY NIGHT ZOOM CLINIC!

YOUR SCHEDULE OF CFL GAMES ON AMERICAN CABLE (CBSSN) THIS SEASON:

https://fbschedules.com/cbs-sports-network-releases-2023-cfl-tv-schedule/


*********** When any place receives eight inches or rain  in a relatively short time, it’s going to cause some  sort of flooding. But when that much rain falls on steep hillsides,  all that water has only one direction to go, and as it goes, picking up  volume and force along the way, it can be hell for the people and places in its path.  Such a place was Highland Falls, New York, a little  town just outside the gate of the US Military Academy at West Point.

Highland Falls is basically  tucked into the side of a hill - it sits on a shelf of land high above the Hudson River, and with no other  direction in which to grow, most of its growth has gone up the hill, along steep, narrow streets. Sunday’s torrential rain, flowing down the hill,  turned those narrow streets into fierce flumes of raging water, moving  objects normally thought immoveable, then widening out as it got  down to the main street of the town and flooding its buildings. On many of my trips to West Point, I’ve stayed in Highland Falls, and on all of my trips there, a stop at the South Gate Tavern has been a must.  I’ve always enjoyed talking with the  owner, Eamon Fallon, as great an innkeep as I’ve ever met.  On Monday, I called the South Gate, just to say that  they’re in my thoughts.  I called several times.  As I feared, there was no answer.



*********** AT THE TOP OF MY LIST OF BOOKS THAT I RECOMMEND TO ANYONE WHO’S A COACH OR ABOUT TO BECOME ONE…


(1) Reade, Bob - Coaching Football Successfully - Human Kinetics, 1994 - Every young football coach should read this book - preferably twice or more - before even thinking about becoming a head coach.  Coach Reade was a highly successful high school coach, winning three straight Illinois state titles, and a highly successful college coach, winning four straight NCAA Division III championships (at Augustana College) and being named National Division III Coach of the Year four times.  As Coach Reade says in the Introduction, “This is not a typical football coaches’ book - it’s not strictly biographical or simply Xs and Os. Instead, it’s a combination of the two, a wedding of principles about life to an approach for coaching football.”

(2) Nelson, David M. - Football Principles and Play - Ronald Press, 1962 - This book is deep, and deals with the stuff “under the hood” of the game in a way that I have yet to see anyplace else.  Surprisingly, since  Dave Nelson is primarily known as the father of the Delaware Wing-T, his section on the principles of defense is priceless. No place else have I seen addressed the simple concept of meeting strength with strength.  He lays out all the factors and discusses the pros and cons in developing a defensive philosophy (containing vs. pressure; eight-man front with three-deep or seven-man front with four-deep; even or odd spacing; man-to-man or zone pass defense; stunted or straight defense; jumping or stable defense;  rushing the passer or playing for the interception). I can’t think of a greater recommendation for this book than the fact that four of the best college coaches in the game at that time - Bud Wilkinson, Woody Hayes, Bobby Dodd and Earl Blaik provided testimonials.

If it seems like I’m pushing Coach Nelson’s book, that’s because I am.  It’s like a remote Coaching School.  It gets  coaches into areas that they might have thought they knew something about.   How many of today’s offensive geniuses even understand basic principles such as these:

 



***********   Australians really love their sports.  That’s how you can tell that competitive eating is really a sport: Australians are excited about James Webb.

Webb, from Sydney, finished third (for the second year in a row)  in the Super Bowl of competitive eating - Nathan’s July 4 hot-dog-eating contest at Coney Island.

Webb, a 34-year-old who in his real job has worked as a fitness trainer - no joke - ate 47 hot dogs, a vast improvement from last year’s 41, making him his nation’s eating champion and “the top-ranked competitive eater in the Southern Hemisphere.”

The Australian company my son works for - SportsBet - sponsored Webb’s appearance at  Coney Island, and was delighted with its investment, as Webb obligingly wore his SportsBet hat during the competition.

Webb  attributes a lot of his success as an eater to growing up in a large Croatian family “where it was every child for themselves.”

“I had always enjoyed food,” he said.  “My idea of a good Saturday night was going out for a meal. But I never knew eating in abundance was something people could do for a living.”

On a recent trip to Dallas, he made a side trip to Amarillo to take advantage of a restaurant’s steak challenge - a free 72-ounce steak to anyone who could eat it within the time limit.  He made it easily.

But hot dogs? 

“As an Aussie I wasn’t brought up eating hot dogs, but in the US they’re everywhere. Every gas station, every sporting event, just everywhere,” he says. “So the American competitors are used to it, but I’m not. I don’t find them very palatable.”

And then there’s the way competitive eaters separate  the hot dogs from the buns, which they dunk in water so they don’t have to chew them:

“I love to compete, I love to eat food, but I don’t love to dip hot dogs in water,” he said.   “It was foul. As soon as I got off-stage I had to eat two packets of Oreos to change the flavour lingering in my mouth.”

You might think that there’s no training involved in the “sport,” but you’d be wrong.  The night before the Nathan’s contest, Webb “stretched out his stomach”  by going to an  all-you-can-eat buffet and  eating for three hours (non-stop).

A good night’s sleep, lots of water, and a workout the next morning, and he was ready to go.

As for his future?    In true patriotic fashion,   he says, “I want to put Australia on the competitive eating map.”



*********** I spoke at some length last week with an old friend, Kevin Latham, from Atlanta. 

What a guy.


Many years ago, Coach Latham and I bonded over an old-fashioned offense that we both loved, and our friendship has only grown stronger over the years.

He’s had his challenges, both in football, where he was unjustly criticized by the local news media  when he was hired to coach an area high school team despite having only middle school coaching experience;  and in health, as he suffered a serous heart attack many years ago,  then later underwent and survived heart transplant surgery, then overcame by a bout with colon cancer.

He’s doing amazingly well, and sounds great.

He confessed that he misses coaching, but he’s got so many other things going that get in the way - he loves music and works as a DJ whenever he wants to, and, despite being retired as a teacher, has gone back to teaching math part-time in an elementary school.  (He says he loves it.)

When I spoke with him, he had just dropped off his  former high school coach, Buck Godfrey, a long-time wing-T guy and a legend in the Atlanta area.  Coach Godfrey has been undergoing radiation treatment  and with his children out of town at the moment, Coach Latham has been driving him to his appointments.

It’s obvious he loves Coach Godfrey, and says the conversations they have are priceless.  He said that when  Coach Godfrey thanked him for driving him to treatment, he replied  that it was the least he could do - that after all Coach Godfrey had done for him, he owed it to him.

Replied Coach Godfrey, “You don’t owe me sh—!”



***********    Over the years, most Ivy League schools have enjoyed at least some football success.  But for some reason, Brown, a highly-respected Ivy school located in a quaint historic section of Providence, Rhode Island (one of my favorite cities) hasn’t  had anything close to its share. 

In the last ten years Brown has had just one winning season - 6-4 in 2013.  In the last 100 years, it’s had just two 9-win seasons and three 8-win seasons.  That’s it.

Since the Ivies  formally started league play in 1956, Brown has  tied for  the title twice and won it outright only  once.

Maybe the explanation for why Brown hasn’t had anywhere close to its share of success came in the results of a poll published recently in the Brown University student newspaper, the Brown Daily Herald:

"The Herald’s Spring 2023 poll found that 38% of students do not identify as straight — over five times the national rate .   Over the past decade, LGBTQ+ identification has increased across the nation, with especially sharp growth at Brown.”

Actually, that might not be as harmful to Brown’s football recruiting as you might think:  the figures might not be any better for the rest of the Ivy schools.


https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/restoring-america/community-family/forty-percent-of-brown-university-students-say-they-are-lgbt-suggesting-social-contagion


*********** There are 133  teams in FBS - and astonishingly, roughly half of them have an Australian punter.  (And all but four of the Aussie punters have been  prepared and placed by one organization: ProKick Australia.)  https://prokickaustralia.com/

 

***********   I wrote this, more than two years ago, in May 2021, when reviewing the commissioners of the Power 5 Conferences…

Pac 12 - (Just hired): George Kliavkoff; NO COLLEGE EXPERIENCE; President of Entertainment and Sports, MGM Resorts International; rowed at Boston University… 

(Succeeding): Larry Scott; NO COLLEGE EXPERIENCE; CEO of the Women’s Tennis Association; played tennis at Harvard

(Passed on):   Oliver Luck; EXPERIENCE:  Executive Vice-President, NCAA;  AD,  West Virginia;  Commissioner XFL;  President,  NFL Europe;  Law degree University of Texas;  QB, West Virginia, Houston Oilers)

Without going into Einstein’s (supposed) definition of insanity, the Pac-12 has made another “outside the box” hire as its soon-to-be Commissioner. It’s possible that the conference  Presidents could have made a  worse   choice in hiring Larry Scott's replacement. But I doubt it.

TIME TO PROVE ME WRONG, GEORGIE. 



*********** It’s almost unfair that I usually associate Brian Mackell and Jason Clarke together, as if they were twins, because they’re both really good coaches in their own right, coaching at different places.  But they’re both Baltimore area guys and they’re longtime friends of each other, and I’d often see them together at my clinics back East.

Pretty soon, wherever we happened to be, we began having breakfast together on clinic mornings, those two guys and my wife and me.  And so began a long tradition that didn’t end until I stopped doing the clinics.


I miss that so much.  We  stay in touch, of course, and Coach Mackell is a regular on my Zoom clinics.   Coach Clarke gets on occasionally, and recently he was kind enough to share some video with me:


Coach,

Happy 4th of July to you and Connie!

Another video I found in my archive I may or may not have shared with you. In 2013 we experimented w/running Coach Wyatt's DW from Pistol. Our base run play was 44 Base lead as you will see. We had a few hybrid or bastard plays as Coach Mackell likes to call them. My top RB's from this team are in college now, #7 Kellan Wyatt is a DE at Univ. of Maryland who saw significant time as a freshman. #21 Ryan Edmonds is a pitcher for George Mason University - they both will be Sophomores in the fall.

My left guard’s play in some of the plays is very suspect.  He at some point in his life left high school to pursue a career in motocross. It's been a minute since I checked with him. Might be a time to see how all the fellas are doing if I can locate them. 


https://youtu.be/xt4T4ZK3Gb4


***********   Loved every paragraph of today's page, starting with Coach Bellard's highlighting the not-so-obvious.

Appears that Sal's obituary writer was a grandson. We can only hope ours know as much about us, and care for us as much, as Sal's did. That's what an obit is supposed to look like, imo.

It'll take me five years to remember which teams are in which conferences starting this season, and even then the 'realignments' won't be complete.

Regarding Harvard: one of the main bones of contention, or better said, arguments, the plaintiffs (Asian-Americans, not whites) used in their case was against 'legacy admissions'. So, after these 50 years of changes, will we have wealthy international students getting their offspring into Harvard as their share of the legacy policy?

John Vermillion
St. Petersburg, Florida







*********** QUIZ ANSWER:  Gene Upshaw grew up in Robstown, Texas (near Corpus Christi) where he played just one year of high school football.  He played college football at nearby Texas A & I (now Texas A & M-Kingsville) and was an NAIA All-American offensive lineman.

He was a first-round pick of the Oakland Raiders, and played 15 years  for that one team. 

For much of that time, he played left guard next to left tackle Art Shell, and along with Tight End Dave Casper, they were a force.   “They (the Raiders) basically ran to the left,” recalled  Tony Dungy, who played for the Steelers during that time. “If they ran 30 running plays, 28 of them were going to be that way.  I don’t know if you can put three better players together, ever, than those three guys.”

In his time with the Raiders, he played in three Super Bowls - winning two rings -  and became the first player to play in a Super Bowl in three  different decades. 

He still holds the NFL record for consecutive starting games from the beginning  of a career - 231, including 207 regular-season games and 24 playoff games.

Often called “The Governor” because of his carriage and demeanor, he was credited for his team leadership by Raiders’ coach Tom Flores.

While still a player, he became active in the NFL Players’ Association (NFLPA) and served as a member of its bargaining committee.

In 1983, shortly after his retirement as a player, he became the NFLPA’s executive director, and he served in that position until his death in 2008.

Taking over an association that was hurting financially,  he led it through a strike in which “replacement players” played games, and he negotiated the deal that gave owners the right to employ a salary cap in return for players being able to gain free agency.

He was not loved by all.  Retired players severely criticized him for overlooking them, and he didn’t help matters any by frequently  pointing out that he didn’t work for them.

He was twice named All-AFL (before the merger) and three times All-Pro,  and he played in six Pro Bowls.

He played in three AFL championship games and seven AFC title games,  and he won two Super Bowl rings.

He was named to the NFL’s 1970s All-Decade Team, and to the NFL’s 75th Anniversary and 100th Anniversary Teams.

In 1987,  when he entered the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Gene Upshaw became the first player inducted who had played his entire career exclusively at guard.


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING GENE UPSHAW

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
TOM DAVIS - SAN MARCOS, CALIFORNIA
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
PETE PORCELLI - WATERVLIET, NEW YORK
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON






********** QUIZ:  Once one of the most sought-after  coaching prospects in the country, and then  one of the best coaches you may never have heard of, he died last week  in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.  He was 81.

In his 15 years as a head coach, he  compiled a record of 121-52-5 (.694).

He earned national Coach of the Year honors at both  the FCS (Furman) and FBS  (NC State) levels.

He graduated from the University of South Carolina in 1964 - majoring in engineering - and after a series of jobs decided to become a high school coach.  At  Orangeburg-Wilkinson High School  he went 37-8-1 overall, and took it to a state title in 1971.

In 1973, he was hired as an assistant at Furman, and in 1978 he became head coach there.

At Furman, his teams won 69 games in eight seasons,  with a  winning percentage of  .744 - still  the best in school history.

In his very first season he took the Paladins to their first-ever conference championship -  the first of six that they would win in his eight years there.  In 1983, they went 10-2-1 and made it to the FCS semifinals, and in 1985 they went 12-2 and made it to the FCS championship game. (They lost to Georgia Southern, 44-42.)

He won National FCS Coach of the Year  honors, and his success got him the head coaching job at NC State.

The Wolfpack had suffered three straight 3-8 seasons, but in his  first season, paying meticulous attention to detail in all aspects of the program and preaching a  “team-first” attitude (he ordered players’ names removed from the backs of jerseys),  he led them to an 8-3-1 finish and their first bowl game appearance in eight years.  For that  he was named Bobby Dodd National Coach of the Year and ACC Coach of the Year.

The Pack  slipped to 4-7 the next season, but he  quickly righted the ship and didn’t have another losing season in his seven seasons at NC State.

In late June of 1993,  he abruptly resigned, attributing his decision  to “unspecified health reasons.”  He  also said that he had been influenced by the death, less than three months earlier,  of his friend, former NC State basketball coach Jim Valvano.

The Wolfpack was coming off a 9-3-1 season and a Number 15 ranking nationally and was expected to be good again..

In his seven seasons at State, he compiled a record of 52-29-3, and took the Pack to six bowl games.  He was just 51 when he resigned, and despite having been approached  by several big-time programs over the years,  he never coached again.

He was respected throughout coaching circles for his professionalism, integrity, and dedication to the sport, as well as for his concern for his players.

In 2017 he was inducted into the South Carolina Football Hall of Fame,  in a class that included Army all-time great Doc Blanchard, and long-time Air Force coach Fisher DeBerry, and in  2020 he was named to the College Football Hall of Fame. 





FRIDAY,  JULY 7, 2023 - "Ninety percent of teams today don't run an offense; they run plays." Emory Bellard, inventor of the Wishbone.

*********** CFL THIS WEEKEND -

Toronto - the CFL’s only unbeaten team at 3-0 - has the week off

THURSDAY

Edmonton Elks (0-4) at Saskatchewan Roughriders (2-1)   9  EDT

FRIDAY

Calgary Stampeders (1-2) at Winnipeg Blue Bombers (3-1) 8:30 EDT



SATURDAY

Ottawa Redblacks (1-2) at Hamilton Tiger-Cats (0-3)  7 EDT


SUNDAY

Montreal Alouettes (2-1) at B.C. Lions (3-1) 7 EDT



YOUR SCHEDULE OF CFL GAMES ON AMERICAN CABLE (CBSSN) THIS SEASON:

https://fbschedules.com/cbs-sports-network-releases-2023-cfl-tv-schedule/


*********** AT THE TOP OF MY LIST OF BOOKS THAT I RECOMMEND TO ANYONE ABOUT TO BECOME A COACH…


(1) Reade, Bob - Coaching Football Successfully - Human Kinetics, 1994 - Every young football coach should read this book - preferably twice or more - before even thinking about becoming a head coach.  Coach Reade was a highly successful high school coach, winning three straight Illinois state titles, and a highly successful college coach, winning four straight NCAA Division III championships (at Augustana College) and being named National Division III Coach of the Year four times.  As Coach Reade says in the Introduction, “This is not a typical football coaches’ book - it’s not strictly biographical or simply Xs and Os. Instead, it’s a combination of the two, a wedding of principles about life to an approach for coaching football.”

(2) Nelson, David M. - Football Principles and Play - Ronald Press, 1962 - This book is deep, and deals with the stuff “under the hood” of the game in a way that I have yet to see anyplace else.  Surprisingly, since  Dave Nelson is primarily known as the father of the Delaware Wing-T, his section on the principles of defense is priceless. No place else have I seen addressed the simple concept of meeting strength with strength.  He lays out all the factors and discusses the pros and cons in developing a defensive philosophy (containing vs. pressure; eight-man front with three-deep or seven-man front with four-deep; even or odd spacing; man-to-man or zone pass defense; stunted or straight defense; jumping or stable defense;  rushing the passer or playing for the interception). I can’t think of a greater recommendation for this book than the fact that four of the best college coaches in the game at that time - Bud Wilkinson, Woody Hayes, Bobby Dodd and Earl Blaik provided testimonials.

Coach Nelson devotes several pages  to the topic of “meeting strength with strength,” a concept familiar to most old-timers but seldom addressed   today.   That’s a damn shame, because I’ve found it very useful, on both offense and defense, over the years, and I think every coach ought to be familiar with it.  Here’s his basic explanation:




Generally speaking, a difference in strength of one full man should prompt the defense to make an adjustment.  Otherwise, the offensive formation will have created a one-full-man difference in strength,  and if the defense doesn’t adjust - the offense has an automatic manpower advantage.

If you’ve never done this before, try it out as a defensive coach might:  draw up an opposing offense, then draw up your defense, and then draw a line through the middle of the offense and see if you’ve met strength with strength.  It’s a good habit to get into.

A great advantage of the Double Wing is that, being perfectly balanced, it can almost force the defense to play perfectly balanced, too.  And then, once the defense has done so, it means that at the snap of the ball,  the offense can gain a manpower advantage to one side or the other by moving personnel (pulling linemen) there quicker than the defense can. (Even a very well-coached defense, trained to react quickly to offensive movement, will be at least a  step behind the offense.)



*********** While in college, I spent a couple of summers working for a moving and storage company in Atlantic City, where my parents had moved after I graduated from high school. Every Saturday night, a bunch of us guys would go to watch the stock car  races at nearby Pleasantville Speedway.  Typical small-town, gasoline alley stuff - everybody knew  a little something about all the drivers, because most of them were local guys.  And one of the best of them was a guy named Sal Moschella.


Bear in mind, I hadn’t heard the name in some 60 years, but just for the hell of it, I googled his name  the other day, and damned if I didn’t come up  with a great article about him.  Unfortunately, it was his obituary, but I sure did find it interesting. 

MOSCHELLA, SALVATORE SR., 94 of Pleasantville, passed away on Tuesday, September 21, 2021, at his daughter’s home in Absecon following a brief illness. Sal was born in Pleasantville on April 15, 1927, to Antonette Ferriola and Emmanuele Moschella, an Italian immigrant. Sal’s childhood was, in his own words, “nothin’ but trouble.” He feared that the poverty and violence he experienced and witnessed as a kid would lead him to a life of crime or a very early death. Nobody expected much more than that from him, but he had the wisdom to know that his life would be better if he found a way to force himself into line.

As an undisciplined and scrappy troublemaker, Sal was awed by the discipline and pageantry of the U.S. Marine Corps. About a year after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, he decided that becoming a Marine was his chance at a better life. He thought it would instill the values and discipline that he needed. It was an unlikely aspiration – Sal was only fifteen years old, and he knew of others better than him who tried out and were rejected. But that didn’t stop him. When he tried out, the Marine Corps noticed something in Sal, even if they didn’t notice that his older brother was the one signing their father’s name on the underage enlistment permission slip.

With that, Sal became a member of America’s elite force-in-readiness and was off to the South Pacific, where he was a part of the effort that captured Iwo Jima and saved the world from evil. After an honorable discharge, Sal returned home and began work as an auto mechanic. He owned and operated Sal’s American (Amoco) Station on U.S. Route 30 in Absecon for twenty years. He worked later on as a roofer and a produce salesman.

Sal is best known for his long and storied career as a race car driver. Even though being a Marine helped put Sal on track to a better life, it did not take away his sense of humor or his irreverence. Around the racetrack, he was still a troublemaker and such a daredevil that it wasn’t unusual for him to run into people later in life who assumed he had been killed years ago. He survived more bad accidents than anyone, but said he still preferred racing to any sport or hobby. “Where else can you go over 100 miles per hour without getting a ticket?” he asked the Atlantic City Press in a 1982 letter to the editor. Sal might have enjoyed driving fast, but what he loved most was putting on a show and shocking people, whether he was on the racetrack, in the garage, or simply telling a story.

The Press called Sal “one of the most exciting, and at times, most controversial stock car drivers to compete at the Pleasantville Speedway,” noting that he always took the cheers or boos in stride and usually ended the season near or at the top of the roster. But Sal’s career went far beyond Pleasantville. All told, he raced at over fifty tracks in fifteen states, competing with legends like Mario Andretti, A.J. Foyt, and Wally Dallenbach before they made it big. Although he never made it as far as those guys, Sal was inducted into the Garden State Vintage Stock Car Club’s prestigious hall of fame in 2011. Even so, the proudest moments of his racing career were the ones he shared with his son Sal Jr., who followed in his dad’s footsteps as a driver.

In his younger years, Sal often let racing get in the way of things that mattered much more. But just like he changed his ways as a teenager, he showed later in life that it is never too late to do right. He was the most loving, loyal, supportive, and proud Pop-Pop that a kid could hope for, and his grandchildren never had to look far to find him.

Sal loved bowling and regularly threw 300 games at Strike Zone Lanes in Egg Harbor City until just a few years ago – even though he would have you believe he needed help walking from one side of the room to the other. He loved betting on horses at the Atlantic City Race Course and feeding slot machines at the Golden Nugget. After he moved on from racing, the garage in his back yard was dwarfed by the large greenhouse he built by himself as a septuagenarian. On weekends he sold fruits, vegetables, and flowers at area flea markets. He was a parishioner at St. Peter’s Roman Catholic Church, where most of his children went to school.

Although his life took him to the other side of the world as a young man, Sal spent most of his time right where he came from. As Pleasantville changed in the 1970s, Sal stayed behind when most of his neighbors moved elsewhere. He and his new neighbors learned to understand and accept their differences, and Pleasantville remained home to him as much as it ever was. Sal only reluctantly moved to Absecon a few years ago to live with his daughter when he was no longer able to live alone.

Sal Moschella Sr. is predeceased by his wife, Dorothy Palzer; his companion, Emma Rice; his children, Michael, Nancy, and Sal Jr.; his grandson, Stephen Subin; and his brothers, Frank, Ralph, and Joe.

He is survived by his children, Sally Hanlin (Frank), Lyn Assad (Mac), Rochelle Poirier (John), Roxanne Poirier (Bryan), and Anthony Flanigan; his grandchildren, Lynn Marie Birdsall, Stephen Graham, William Birdsall III, Michael, Mark, and Matthew Assad, Kristy MacLaughlan, Matthew Moschella, Christopher Poirier, and Joey Gower; his brother, Domenick; several cousins, nieces, nephews, and great-grandchildren; his dog, Sarge; and countless friends, frenemies, and fans.

Interment with military honors will take place at noon on Saturday, October 2, at Atlantic County Veterans Cemetery in Estell Manor. Anyone who knew Sal knows that he loved attention at almost any expense, so we were all surprised when he told us a few years ago that he would not want a service in his memory. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the American Heart Association or the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

Just your typical American guy.   Maybe somebody can find some white privilege in there somewhere, but I couldn't. Unless you count  forging your father’s  signature so you can enlist in the Marines at 15. 

I   don’t know how many of you who read this came to this part of the obit and didn’t quite read between the lines:

As Pleasantville changed in the 1970s, Sal stayed behind when most of his neighbors moved elsewhere. He and his new neighbors learned to understand and accept their differences, and Pleasantville remained home to him as much as it ever was.

The “change” that took place in Pleasantville was the flipping of the town’s demographics  from 90 per cent white to 10 per cent in a relatively short time, as blacks and hispanics moved in.  For Sal Moschella, the term “white flight”  is another way of saying “most of his neighbors moved elsewhere.”   But Sal, a “P-Ville” guy born and raised, stayed, and “He and his new neighbors learned to understand and accept their differences…”



*********** The late Regis Philbin was a Notre Dame graduate and he remained an Irish fan for life. Early in his career, as a show host, he was in Los Angeles for the 1964 Notre Dame-USC game, and  had prearranged an interview with first-year Irish coach Ara Parseghian for 9 AM the morning after the game.  It was the final game of the season, and Notre Dame came in undefeated and ranked Number One in the nation.  But the Irish  lost the game - and with it the undefeated season and the National Championship.  Philbin was certain that Parseghian wouldn’t show for the interview,  but the next day, at 9 AM sharp, Coach Parseghian arrived, as he’d promised.


It may surprise you to learn that there are coaches who will stiff a reporter.  And then they’ll complain about the kind of coverage they get.


I first encountered  this back in Hagerstown, Maryland.  I’d make  a few bucks in the winter time covering high school basketball games for the local paper. There were three or four of us part-time reporters, and we’d each go to a particular game we’d been assigned to cover, and then, back at the paper, we’d write a short story about what we’d seen.  Then the real work would begin: there were lots of other games that night that we hadn’t seen  personally, and we’d answer the phones as coaches of those games would call in their scores and give us any pertinent stats. Then we’d give the game a very short write-up:  “Junior guard Bob Henderson hit for 30 points - 20 of them in the second half - as the visiting Brunswick Railroaders downed the South High Rebels, 58-45.” It was the job of the home team coach to call in the score and the stats, and the system generally worked well, except  for those times when deadline was approaching and we still hadn’t heard from such-and-such a coach.  The sports editor  did not want to go to press without every game result, because he didn’t want to have to deal with unhappy fans bitching about the coverage their school got. (Or didn’t get.)   We already knew when a particular coach hadn’t called  that he’d lost.  We knew from past experience that he and a couple of other coaches simply wouldn’t call in their scores when they’d lost.  We’d chase ‘em down, and   more than once, we called a coach at his favorite post-game watering hole.


*********** You can’t tell the players without a scorecard.   On July 1,  12 schools changed FBS conferences; 3 gave up FBS independent status to join FBS conferences; and 3 moved up from FCS.  


*Big 12 (14 Teams) Added 3

Added: Cincinnati, Houston and UCF (from the AAC), BYU (formerly FBS independent)

Baylor
BYU
Cincinnati
Houston
Iowa State
Kansas
Kansas State
Oklahoma
Oklahoma State
TCU
Texas
Texas Tech
UCF
West Virginia

In 2024: Texas and Oklahoma go to the SEC


*AAC (14 Teams) Lost 3, Added 6

Lost: Cincinnati, Houston and UCF (to Big 12)

Added:   Charlotte, Florida Atlantic, North Texas, Rice, UAB and UTSA (from Conference USA)

Charlotte
East Carolina
Florida Atlantic
Memphis
Navy (football only)
North Texas
Rice
SMU
Temple
Tulane
Tulsa
UAB
USF
UTSA



*Conference USA (9 Teams) Lost 9, Added 4

Lost:  Charlotte, FAU, North Texas, Rice, UAB and UTSA (to AAC); Marshall, Old Dominion and Southern Miss (to Sun Belt)

Added: Liberty and New Mexico State  (both formerly FBS independents), Sam Houston and Jacksonville State (both formerly FCS)

FIU
Jacksonville State
Liberty
Louisiana Tech
Middle Tennessee
New Mexico State
Sam Houston
UTEP
Western Kentucky



Sun Belt (14 Teams) Added 4

Added: Marshall, Old Dominion and Southern Miss (from Conference USA),  James Madison (from FCS)

Appalachian State
Arkansas State
Coastal Carolina
Georgia Southern
Georgia State
James Madison
Louisiana
Marshall
Old Dominion
South Alabama
Southern Miss
Texas State
Troy
Louisiana Monroe



In 2024: Texas and Oklahoma go to the SEC;  USC and UCLA go to the Big Ten; Kennesaw State goes to Conference USA.


Only  four FBS Independents remain: Army, Notre Dame, UConn and UMass.


*********** With the opportunties for FCS schools to play FBS schools in return for big paychecks, more of the smaller schools are contemplating moving up to FBS themselves.

There are certain requirements they must meet, including stadium size, but the NCAA, sensing that a  mass move to FBS by  smaller schools with no chance of ever making the Playoff could create a two-tier system within FBS, is contemplating throwing a major obstacle in their path:

increasing the cost of the transition from $5,000 to $5 million.   And should any FCS school really want to move up that badly, I imagine the fat cats at NCAA headquarters will find ways to spend the money.

https://apnews.com/article/ncaa-division-i-membership-costs-increase-32071cb2230094c4d14530b5062b40c0

 



***********  With all the uproar over the Supreme Court’s recent decision declaring  affirmative action in college admissions to be unconstitutional, the graphs above are quite enlightening.  While  the percentage of US whites in the student body at Harvard (and  its then-sister school Radcliffe) declined from 79.2 per cent in 1980 to 41.5 per cent in 2106, blacks, who supposedly have been the main beneficiaries of affirmative action, were not that at all. As you can see, their percentage remained relatively unchanged during that time. (Perhaps Harvard had a quota). The Hispanic share appeared to double, but the biggest changes took place among Asian-Americans - the ones on whose behalf Harvard was sued - and “Other “ (meaning mostly foreign students - who pay full tuition).



***********   Major League baseball sure has changed.  As of last weekend there were only five hitters batting over .300 in the American League and just four in the National.


***********  Kris Haskins, long time Double Winger in upstate New York is starting over with a new team and incorporating  the  updates to the system.

He wrote,

Coach, I think you have sold me on the hockey stick!! I have always had qb lead through. But thinking it over and watching some videos. I see where the hockey stick opens up some more options. My 2 biggest take aways from it are

The QB tends to clog the hole. especially if the corner crashes down. This action would tend to keep CB  away. And if not that's where the "keep" comes into play.

Is there anything else I’m missing as a positive to changing?

I wrote:

The biggest positive of all, I 've found, is in the teaching:

All the QB needs to be reminded of on most plays is (1) how to run the hockey stick and (2) which hand he hands off with.

And that’s what we put on his play card as his reminder on each play.



*********** A READER WRITES: It seems as if we can’t "close" the deal when we get in the second half. Conditioning may be one factor that I can address.   Any suggestions on how I can approach this with the team from a mental stand point?  If this were you what "theme" would you use for the week?  Any psychological advantages?  Anything you can suggest would be appreciated.

We all fear the emotional let-down that can come when we get a big lead early.  I'm always afraid that if we get a quick early score, it can mean that we’ll have a battle on our hands because our kids might think  that it's going to be easy and it's not going to require their best effort.

One thing that I’ve found somewhat effective is to equate the game to a boxing match: we are going 15 rounds for the championship of the world. This is why we train - so we can be just as tough in the late rounds as in the early rounds.  A fighter can't get off to a great start and then expect to coast, because if he does he could find himself on his back at some point.  And he doesn’t want to leave it up to the judges, either.

We want either a knockout or a unanimous decision, and that means that no matter what the score is, and no matter the round, we have to "keep punching."

When we score an early touchdown, our approach has to be, "Okay - that’s round one.  That’s behind us.  The bell's getting ready to ring for round two, and we'd better come out fighting.”

(I take the same approach if we should find ourself behind early: “Okay, that’s round one.  It’s a long fight and we’re going to win it - but we’ve got to keep punching!”)



*********** When we were kids we used to play a detective game called “Mister Ree.”  You’d have to find out who the murderer was, what the weapon was, where the murder occurred, why it occurred, etc.

In my updated version,  called “Mister Joe,” I’ve already solved the case and won my first game.   The white powder is  cocaine, it was found in the White House, and it was left there by Hunter Biden,  who’s not very smart, based on the fact that he once left a laptop  full of porn ’n’ stuff at a computer repair shop and then completely forgot about it.


***********   I used to wonder why Army never tried (as far as I know) to lure Bill Yeoman back to his Alma Mater during the dark days of the 90s. Two key reasons, I suppose. One, he was already beyond 60 at that point. Two, he couldn't recruit the requisite talent. And the third is possibly they couldn't afford him.

Grady Judd has replaced Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Polk County (Lakeland area) isn't far from me, and I can attest his people do love him.

Coach Eddie Robinson – and there's no other way to say it – was just one cool guy and a heck of a coach.

I'll never forget – and I don't say this as a throwaway line – the feeling I had, while I cadet, watching film of "The Winter War” between Russia and the Finns. Simply courage and commitment to protect their homeland on a grand scale.

Our Declaration is pure majesty. But I’d be surprised if more than half our young adults today can even understand it.

John Vermillion
St. Peterburg, Florida

I’d be surprised if half the people responsible for teaching those young adults can even understand it.  No - make that ten per cent.



***********   Hugh,

How's this for small-town Americana in Texas?  Sunday we went to church and the last "hymn" at the end was "America the Beautiful."  Sunday afternoon was spent watching the annual neighborhood parade and celebrating the Fourth in the Plantation (the golf course development where we live).  

Today, we went into town to watch the annual Independence Day Parade down the main street and around the town square with about 50,000 other red-blooded Americans.

The parade highlighted first responders from town and other nearby small towns; military veterans; the military in general; and a number of churches.  Of course there was the usual marching bands, cheerleaders, town officials, businesses, cowboys on horses, candy-throwing to the kids, patriotic music coming from all the "floats" (actually decorated trailers being pulled by very large pickup trucks), the Shriners racing around in their go-carts, and a couple of formation flyovers by the local pilots trailing red, white, and blue smoke!

Oh, yeah, there was one other very small group in the parade (about a dozen folks) representing the Democrat Party.  They were booed lustily!  One fella nearby started a chant...Brandon!  Brandon!  Brandon!  Obviously not a popular guy, or group up in these parts.  

On the topic of football...Birmingham came out for the second half in that championship game and carved up Pittsburgh's defense by running the football.  Maybe, just maybe, at some point in time an NFL team will figure out what Coach Skip Holtz has for the last two years.  RUN THE ROCK!!

"On two" means you have to "hold your water", so my linemen would remind themselves and each other as they approached the LOS getting into their stances looking at one another and saying "water, water".

Sorry to see David Pollack let go by ESPN.  I liked his candor and analysis as a member of the College Game Day crew.  Hope he will resurface soon.


Have a great week, and God Bless America!

Joe Gutilla
Austin, Texas

Coach, Sounds like you found that little slice of America that everybody (check that - everybody that loves the America I love)  would love to find!  Let’s go Brandon!






*********** QUIZ ANSWER:  Junious “Buck” Buchanan came out of Birmingham, Alabama where his dad was a steel worker. Tall and strong, he was a high school standout in football and basketball.

At Grambling, he was a small-college All-American.

Recalled his coach, the great Eddie Robinson,  “(He) said the only reason that I was able to recruit him was because I told him Grambling was about 10 miles from New Orleans. When he came here on the recruiting visit, he said ‘Let's run down to New Orleans.’ One of my student-athletes responded, ‘Man, now you're talking about 300 miles.’ (He)  insisted, ‘No, Coach told me it was 10 miles.’ I didn't tell him that, but (he) always joked that I did.”

He was 6-6 and ran a 4-9 40, and along with his 6-9  , Ernie Ladd, he inspired “Coach Rob” to go against conventional thinking:

I was trying to teach our team the Pro 4-3 defense. However, it it turned out that I put tackles where the defensive ends should have been and the defensive ends where the tackles should have been. (He) and Ernie Ladd were our defensive ends, and nobody went outside on us successfully. (He) and Ernie helped to turn every attempt to do so inside, and nobody went outside on us successfully. It was 1960 and it was our best defensive year ever. We held several teams to negative yardage. When the pro scouts saw us play, they told me I had the defensive  ends and tackles in the wrong place. I corrected it - and we got whipped. We went right back to where we were when we were winning with our own version of the Pro 4-3 defense.

Coach Robinson called him “the best lineman I’ve ever seen,” and when the Kansas City Chiefs took him as their Number One  choice in the 1963 AFL draft, he became the first black player ever taken first overall in a pro football draft. (The New York Giants, knowing that was as  good as gone to the Chiefs, chose him in the 19th round of the NFL draft.)

He  started out as a defensive end but was soon moved inside to tackle. The Chiefs’ Hank Stram was way ahead of the game in many respects, and the Chiefs often employed a “Triple Stack” defense somewhat similar to today’s 3-3, which put him, a very big man, over centers who were not then used to blocking a nose man.  With him and other linemen Aaron Brown, Curley Culp, and Jerry Mays, backed up by Bobby Bell, Willie Lanier and Jim Lynch, they had the people to make the Triple Stack work. In the Chiefs’  23-7 win over the NFL champion Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl IV, he  played on the nose of  All-Pro center Mick Tingelhoff,  and the Kansas City  defense  allowed the Vikings just 67 yards  rushing.

In his 13 years with the Chiefs, he played  in 182 games, including a streak of 166 straight.  He was a six-time All-AFL selection, and after the leagues merged, he played in two Pro Bowls.  He was named to the AFL’s All-Time Team and to the NFL’s 100th Anniversary All-Time Team.

Just two days before his induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, he received word that he had been diagnosed with lung cancer.  Rather than cast a pall over the festivities, he spent the entire time in Canton without sharing the information with anyone.  Two years later, he was dead at the age of 51.

Buck Buchanan was the third former Grambling player to be inducted into the Hall,  after  Willie Davis and Willie Brown.  Coach Robinson joked at the time that Buck was  the first former Grambling Hall of Famer “not named Willie.”


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING BUCK BUCHANAN

GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
TOM DAVIS - SAN MARCOS, CALIFORNIA
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS

 




*********** QUIZ:  He grew up in Robstown, Texas (near Corpus Christi) where he played just one year of high school football.  He played college football at nearby Texas A & I (now Texas A & M-Kingsville) and was an NAIA All-American offensive lineman.

He was a first-round pick of the Oakland Raiders, and played 15 years  for that one team. 

For much of that time, he played left guard next to left tackle Art Shell, and along with Tight End Dave Casper, they were a force.   “They (the Raiders) basically ran to the left,” recalled  Tony Dungy, who played for the Steelers during that time. “If they ran 30 running plays, 28 of them were going to be that way.  I don’t know if you can put three better players together, ever, than those three guys.”

In his time with the Raiders, he played in three Super Bowls - winning two rings -  and became the first player to play in a Super Bowl in three  different decades. 

He still holds the NFL record for consecutive starting games from the beginning  of a career - 231, including 207 regular-season games and 24 playoff games.

Often called “The Governor” because of his carriage and demeanor, he was credited for his team leadership by Raiders’ coach Tom Flores.

While still a player, he became active in the NFL Players’ Association (NFLPA) and served as a member of its bargaining committee.

In 1983, shortly after his retirement as a player, he became the NFLPA’s executive director, and he served in that position until his death in 2008.

Taking over an association that was hurting financially,  he led it through a strike in which “replacement players” played games, and he negotiated the deal that gave owners the right to employ a salary cap in return for players being able to gain free agency.

He was not loved by all.  Retired players severely criticized him for overlooking them, and he didn’t help matters any by frequently  pointing out that he didn’t work for them.

He was twice named All-AFL (before the merger) and three times All-Pro,  and he played in six Pro Bowls.

He played in three AFL championship games and seven AFC title games,  and he won two Super Bowl rings.

He was named to the NFL’s 1970s All-Decade Team, and to the NFL’s 75th Anniversary and 100th Anniversary Teams.

In 1987,  when he entered the Pro Football Hall of Fame, he became the first player inducted who had played his entire career exclusively at guard.


TUESDAY,  JULY 4, 2023 - "We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.



***********    The Birmingham Stallions won their second straight USFL championship Saturday, beating the Pittsburgh Maulers, 28-12.   (MY FEARLESS, PEERLESS PREDICTION: BIRMINGHAM BY 17.5.)

It was not a particularly good game.  Pittsburgh was not a good team and Birmingham was.  Other than four  field goals - two of them more than 50 yards - Pittsburgh had no offense.  Didn't have one all season. The best they could do was just 202 yards  of offense, without  a touchdown.

Pittsburgh’s longest play of the day came on a scoop-and-score by its defense.  Only there wasn’t a score.  A defensive linemen who had scooped up a Birmingham fumble seemed to run out of gas partway to the goal line, where he handed off to a slimmer, faster teammate, who finished the job.   Sadly for Pittsburgh, the handoff was forward (illegal) and the score  was disallowed.

Sadly too, for the USFL, because  there were several  teams that could have given Birmingham a better game than Pittsburgh.   Good for the Maulers and all that - they did everything they were required to do to make it to the title game -  but in the cause of the USFL promoting its product, not to mention entertaining the sports public, it was a dud.

Birmingham QB Alex McGough did look good. He completed 18 of 25 for 243 yards and four TDs - not bad - and he carried seven times for 67 yards.   But it was his  fumble - the result of inexcusably careless ball-handling as he played Superman in trying to dodge Pittsburgh  pass rushers - that nearly led to the long Pittsburgh  scoop-and-score.  In spite of the great season he had and the impressive athleticism and leadership he  showed, I fear that there were NFL coaches who saw that and cringed.

The win gave Birmingham coach Skip Holtz two championships and a 21-3 record for the last two seasons.

And now, personally, I  have to find a way to survive until the meaningless NFL preseason starts.


https://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profootballtalk/rumor-mill/news/birmingham-stallions-win-second-straight-usfl-championship





***********  Out on the field, the Birmingham Stallions celebrated their championship with champagne.  Well, sort of.  No, it wasn’t magnums of  Dom Perignon.  This was, after all, the USFL. 

Actually it was  40s.  Of Miller High Life.   But, hey - Miller IS the self-proclaimed  “Champagne of Beer.”

At first, I couldn't believe what I was seeing, but what the hell -  at least it wasn’t malt liquor,  with the unfortunate stereotypes that might suggest.

Bud Light  offered to provide the beer but the USFL declined,  for fear the celebration would appear “fratty.” (I made that up.)

Among the comments I’ve seen: ‘It’s a Birmingham thing.”  I honestly don’t know what that means, and I’m not touching it.


https://brobible.com/sports/article/birmingham-stallions-championship-celebration/



*********** CFL THIS PAST WEEKEND -

The Montreal Alouettes lost for the first time, to Winnipeg.

The Edmonton Elks  lost again.  They’ve won exactly once in the last 365 days.  Come to think of it, they’ve won just five times in the two years since June, 2021, when they dropped the name “Eskimos” and adopted the name of the local Elks Club.  (Just kidding.) What a sorry name.  Mooses would have been much better.

FRIDAY

OTTAWA RED-BLACKS (1-2) 26, EDMONTON ELKS (0-4)  7

SATURDAY

WINNIPEG BLUE BOMBERS (2-1) 17 , MONTREAL ALOUETTES (2-1) 3

MONDAY, 7 EDT

BC LIONS (3-0) AT TORONTO ARGONAUTS (2-0)


YOUR SCHEDULE OF CFL GAMES ON AMERICAN CABLE (CBSSN) THIS SEASON:

https://fbschedules.com/cbs-sports-network-releases-2023-cfl-tv-schedule/


*********** AT THE TOP OF MY LIST OF BOOKS THAT I RECOMMEND TO ANYONE ABOUT TO BECOME A COACH…


(1) Reade, Bob - Coaching Football Successfully - Human Kinetics, 1994 - Every young football coach should read this book - preferably twice or more - before even thinking about becoming a head coach.  Coach Reade was a highly successful high school coach, winning three straight Illinois state titles, and a highly successful college coach, winning four straight NCAA Division III championships (at Augustana College) and being named National Division III Coach of the Year four times.  As Coach Reade says in the Introduction, “This is not a typical football coaches’ book - it’s not strictly biographical or simply Xs and Os. Instead, it’s a combination of the two, a wedding of principles about life to an approach for coaching football.”


(2) Nelson, David M. - Football Principles and Play - Ronald Press, 1962 - This book is deep, and deals with the stuff “under the hood” of the game in a way that I have yet to see anyplace else.  Surprisingly, since  Dave Nelson is primarily known as the father of the Delaware Wing-T, his section on the principles of defense is priceless. No place else have I seen addressed the simple concept of meeting strength with strength.  He lays out all the factors and discusses the pros and cons in developing a defensive philosophy (containing vs. pressure; eight-man front with three-deep or seven-man front with four-deep; even or odd spacing; man-to-man or zone pass defense; stunted or straight defense; jumping or stable defense;  rushing the passer or playing for the interception). I can’t think of a greater recommendation for this book than the fact that four of the best college coaches in the game at that time - Bud Wilkinson, Woody Hayes, Bobby Dodd and Earl Blaik provided testimonials.


 
***********   Hope things are going well for you. I first want to thank you for signing my book.

You are most welcome!


I am coaching 9/10 with a weight limit of 125lbs or they play tackle to tackle. I do have a couple of questions as I have been a DW guy for 10+ years and hopefully you can give me some guidance on them.

Handoff – I use the “basket” handoff versus the “arm up” and I have had very very few fumbles especially with the Criss-Cross plays. Your opinion?


I am 100 per cent “Open Wide” (near arm-over) and “Fold over" the ball on all handoffs, because I want my running back's first action after folding over the ball to be getting “both hands on both points.”  I'm a proponent of carrying the ball like that until the runner is in the clear (“unwrap it to score”).  For some time, I did coach the scoop in the first stage of the criss-cross, but now that I no longer employ a handoff on the criss-cross, I personally have no use for the scoop (or basket).

THIS HAS BEEN LIFTED FROM  MY PLAYBOOK:


 

(BELOW) My go-to Double Wing criss-cross since 2008 has been SUPER Criss-Cross (pages 82 and 84).  It requires no handoff by the QB.  I have my QB “toss and turn" exactly as he does on Super Power. It looks to the defense exactly like Super Power (making it VERY deceptive) and the operation is VERY safe. You may progress to having the B-Back “Lead” (page 104).

Snap – love the technique and I have seen that for “shotgun”. Are there any issues with my center placing the ball in his hand differently than most centers? I have a Love/Hate relationship with the refs and don’t have time to change at the first game.

Perfectly legal. No problem at all.


Love going on first sound, but I will use a option in a must situation.

It’s very helpful to have a delayed count  (“ON TWO” - which I call “Golden Gate” - for “GO…GO”) for that big occasion when after “always” having gone on “GO,” you just know that  the defense is going to go on YOUR count.   But it's especially  important to make sure to practice this - a lot - because it's always risky, and a backfire can be very costly - and embarrassing. The main benefit  for me, anyhow, of going on “GO”  is not in setting up the  defense to jump offside once or maybe twice a game - it's all those times during the game that my team DIDN’T jump!  Safer and just about as effective in keeping your players from jumping is simply calling “NO PLAY.” Send a man in motion,  with a hard “GO!” at the appropriate time, and do nothing.   If they don’t jump, you call a time out. There’s a lot less of a chance of your kids jumping when  there’s no play to remember other than there’s “NO PLAY!”   I’d much rather have to use the time out than have to take a five-yard penalty at a crucial time.

 One last brain burp, do you like the 33 Stack defense against a “non – DW Offense”?
 
The 3-3 (or 3-5-3)  is a “modern” defense designed to work against “modern” offenses - meaning spread offenses - and since that’s what most teams play these days, it’s well suited for its purpose.  In my experience it’s less  effective  against a tight end or a tight end/wing, and  even less so against a Double Tight/Double Wing.


But I consider it to be part of the 5-3 family of defenses, and I do like a 5-3 for youth football.

I hope this helps.  It’s my pleasure.   Best of luck!



*********** My friend Ralph Balducci, who lives in Portland, wrote me to say,

“I didn’t realize Finland had joined NATO. Well the Russians are screwed now. LOL!”

I replied somewhat in agreement,

Russia is so much bigger and more powerful that the Russians would beat the Finns eventually - but it would be a very costly win because  the Finns will fight as long as there’s a man standing.

There’s a  word - “SISU” - that describes their national character.  It doesn't translate into English.  Put very simply, it’s a bit  like “guts”… doing hard things… hard-headedness… never quitting, no matter how hopeless things might appear to be. 

The Russians fought the Finns - twice - during World War II and found out all about Sisu.



***********   In his autobiography, “Never Before, Never Again,” the great Eddie Robinson told how he first got the Wing-T offense that would become his trademark at Grambling. (Minnesota Vikings’ fans will recognize the name Jerry Burns.)

We had followed the National Championship season with a solid 8-1 record in 1956, when our average margin of victory was twenty-four points. But in 1957, our program began to slip slightly with a 4-4 record.

Our coaches and I knew we needed a boost. Something was missing and we decided to look at adapting our offense. The single-wing offense had served us well, but time may have caught up with it.

Therefore, I went back to Iowa in the summer of 1958 to study the Wing-T and bring it back to Grambling. I had gone back earlier – soon after I had done my masters – as I still wasn't one hundred per cent positive regarding my future. I didn't know whether I was going to go into physical education or stay in coaching football. It was then that I saw the Wing-T.

I went up there to get the Wing -T and I got it. That's when I met Forest Evashevski and Willie Fleming.  Oh, he was such a great back. Fleming was 5-11 and could stand flat-footed under the goal post, jump, and dunk the ball through in the goal. He was a tailback in the Wing-T.

I saw Fleming take the power test and saw what he could do. It was right after the University of Iowa won the Rose Bowl. When Fleming played basketball, this 5-11 boy would just be up in the air and hang there. He wasn't tall enough to be up there, but he had so much power that he could do those incredible things.

I went to see Jerry Burns, who later went to the Vikings as a coach after great success at the University of Iowa. At that time, Jerry was an assistant coach to Evashevski, but he was a master of the Wing-T business. Jerry was also recruiting for Iowa, studying for a graduate degree, and teaching a course in Advanced Football.

He was trying to recruit a kid in Chicago but didn't want to miss teaching his class. I told Jerry to tell me what he was going to teach that day and that I would teach the class for him. When he looked quizzically at me, I said, "I've been in Football a pretty long time and I could conduct that class while you go to Chicago, but on one condition.”  I asked for a key to the dark room, where I could watch films to get that Wing-T offense down. Jerry gave me that key,  and I locked myself in the field house for an all-night session. It was so intriguing and I was finding the things that I needed to run the Wing-T. The wingback position was the key. Whoever held it had to have great hands, outstanding speed, and be a good blocker.

I saw what the great plays were and how they were run. That's how I brought the Wing-T to Grambling after the summer of 1958.  I put it in in '59 and we've been using the Wing-T ever since!

***********  Grady Judd, the Sheriff of Polk County, Florida was once asked why his men had shot a bad guy as many times as they did. “Because that’s all the bullets they had,” was his answer.  Needless to say, the people of Polk County - minus a few bad guys, of course - love him.

Here’s the latest from Sheriff Judd, who can always be counted on for some  good news - and good quotes - where bad guys are concerned…

POLK COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) — An officer was shot, and a suspect was killed after a gunfight in the Frostproof area, according to Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd.

“It was a heck of a shootout for a few minutes,” Judd said.

“When you have a gunfight with a SWAT team, you lose. Every time. That was his last bad decision of the night,” Judd said.

“As you can well imagine, when you start shooting at a SWAT team, it doesn’t end up well,” Judd said. “And we shot Ramon Martinez a lot. We killed him graveyard dead. We gave him exactly what he asked for.”

“We can’t even count all the rounds we shot back at him,” Judd said.

“When he started shooting, we started shooting,” Judd said. “When he stopped shooting, we were still shooting.”

Judd said Martinez had 16 previous felony arrests and 13 previous misdemeanor arrests, including spending time in state prison.

https://www.wfla.com/news/polk-county/suspect-dead-after-barricade-situation-near-frostproof-polk-county-deputies-say/



***********  The Department of Defense said recently that 77% of American youth are disqualified from military service due to a lack of physical fitness, low test scores, criminal records including drug use or other problems.

Ten years ago, in 2013, the figure was  71%.

Maybe this is why the military is fishing for recruits in the LGBTQ pool.  It’s either that or open the doors to the morbidly obese, the stupid, the criminal class or the druggies.  Or surrender to the Chinese.



*********** There’s America, where schools still can’t keep college kids off the  field after football games, and then there’s Japan…


Although they’ve been able to attend their team’s games since 2020, baseball fans in Yokohama are only now, after three seasons, permitted once again to cheer and sing.



***********  Phil Knight started a business selling athletic shoes out of the trunk of his car, and built it into Nike, perhaps the most influential company in all of sports.

Jody Allen  has never, to my knowledge, earned an honest buck in her life.

But Jody Allen, as executor of the estate of her late brother, Paul Allen, controls the Portland Trail Blazers.  And Phil Knight doesn’t.

Mr. Knight would love to buy the Blazers, and there’s not a live human being in the Portland area who wouldn’t want to see him do it.  But repeated inquiries by him and his people have been answered the same way: “The Trail Blazers are not for sale.”

Jody Allen won’t even give him the courtesy of answering  his calls.

In a city whose passion for its Blazers is almost unmatched, things have deteriorated so much that as of this past weekend, their one true star, Damian Lillard, has requested - demanded is more like it - a trade.  Earlier, he had “requested” that they spend more money on talent, to give him a chance to play on a winning team, but when they instead decided to go  the “rebuild” route, even going so far as drafting a first-round player who plays “Dame’s” position - that was enough.

My prediction: unless the NBA acts fast to put an expansion team there, in a year or two Jody Allen will have moved the Trail Blazers to  Seattle, her  home town.



*********** Came across this 2006 interview with the great Bill Yeoman, credited with the invention of the Veer offense, in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune…

At 79, Yeoman doesn't doubt that he could have similar success with those players and his offense against defenses in today's college football.

"It's so open for the option now it defies description," he said. "They're running these silly schemes. They're doing all this 'get upfield' stuff. You don't get upfield with that offense. You hunker down on the line of scrimmage and make sure they don't make too much. When I see the way people are defending, they don't even know how to stop an option."



*********** Making the rounds of Yale alumni…

Yale tour guide to friends of mine: “I’m proud to say Yale is only 40% white.”

My (white) friends: “Should we just leave now?”

Tour guide: “Oh, no! I didn’t mean it that way.”

My friends: “Yes you did.”



***********  I don’t care for ESPN and its blatant wokism, but when there’s a sports event on TV and you want to watch, what are you gonna do?

And I know that most of its on-air people are hopelessly liberal - or scared to death not to appear so - so I ought to be saying “screw you and the horse you rode in on…”

But.  On Friday, ESPN let these people go…Jeff Van Gundy, Max Kellerman, Keyshawn Johnson, Suzy Kolber, Jalen Rose , Matt Hasselbeck, Todd McShay, LaPhonso Ellis, Ashley Brewer, David Pollack, Jason Fitz, Jordan Cornette and  Joon Lee

Having been in their shoes a couple of times (although not making even close to  what they were making), I feel for them, and I wish them the best.

In the meantime, were you paying attention, you thousands of suckers taking out loans so you can go to  college and major in “broadcast journalism?”



***********  “Droz” Darren Drozdov, who played at Maryland and then in the NFL before a career as a WWE wrestler, died June 30. He was 54.

A wrestling accident in 1999 left him a quadriplegic, but according to his family, he "maintained a championship mindset and lived every day to the fullest even though he was unable to move from the neck down for the past 24 years.”

He was a high school football and track star in Mays Landing, New Jersey, and played three years on the defensive line at Maryland.

He then played three years in the NFL, with the Jets, Eagles and Broncos, and one year in the CFL with Montreal, before embarking on a career in wrestling.

I knew that he had to be related to Olaf Drozdov.  You don’t forget a name like that.  Olaf Drozdov also played on the line at Maryland, so bingo - this from a 1988 story in the Washington Post…

By Dave Sell
November 3, 1988


Olaf (Butch) Drozdov arrived in College Park in 1961. Like many an eager freshman, he was full of hopes and dreams for his football career at the University of Maryland.

Drozdov, a tackle who would earn three letters, remembers being in the stands (freshmen weren't eligible then) when Penn State came to College Park in early November, 27 years ago.

"I remember it distinctly," Drozdov said. "I had a teacher in high school who was a Penn State grad and he said that Penn State was going to get us."

The teacher was wrong. Maryland won, 21-17, and fans here thought it a wonderful event. They had no idea it would be the last wonderful event for the Terrapins against Penn State. Since then Penn State has won 23 consecutive football games against Maryland.

"It's the old whammy," said Drozdov, who lives with his family in the Philadelphia suburb of Mays Landing, N.J.

On Saturday, Maryland will have yet another chance to beat Penn State, and one of the Terrapins who will race onto the Beaver Stadium field in State College, Pa., will be Butch Drozdov's son, Darren. Yes, it's been an entire generation.

Good story.  I doubt that anybody in Mays Landing read it, or there’d  have been plenty of complaints about their little town being called a “Philadelphia suburb.” I know Mays Landing well, and it’s about 50 miles from Philly.  In Philly tawk, it’s almost “down the shore."


https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/sports/1988/11/03/penn-st-maryland-its-about-time/8dbdab2a-af1a-4257-83f1-510943d2d4d9/



***********   I don't understand, after considerable thought, why you and Miss C. think you need down time. Seems to me you neither deserve nor need it. Get AWAY from that bloomin' Ocean Shores, where nothin' good has happened lately, or maybe ever!

ORU did pretty well in pounding shots, right up there with UF. Who would win between Liberty and ORU? That's my quiz question. Or throw in Notre Dame and Loyola (Chicago) if you want.


That Street & Smith's piece on Coach Gutilla and the Grey Fog (for which Mel Tormé sang the National Anthem at home games) was  the kind of fun, interesting factoid only to be found on this site.

If President Madison were to appear today, he would be unable to dissuade me from the position that million-page tax codes and seven thousand word omnibus bills ARE the best fit for us regular cits.


John Vermillion                                
St Petersburg, Florida


***********   Hugh,

Thanks for the shout-out re: my USF days!

I have TWO copies of that Bob Reade book now tucked away somewhere.  Both well worn, and well used!

Affirmative Action...also tucked away...worn-out and abused.  I think the other two bills SCOTUS is reviewing today will also make the trash heap of failure.

Enjoy the weekend, and have a wonderful Independence Day celebration!

Joe Gutilla
Austin, Texas



CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING SPEEDY DUNCAN

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
TOM DAVIS - SAN MARCOS, CALIFORNIA
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY







*********** QUIZ ANSWER:  Although Speedy Duncan’s real first name was Leslie, he never used it, going instead by  the nickname  given him in recognition of his great speed.

He grew up in Tuscaloosa, where in high school he led his team to an 11-0 season his senior year.  But the segregation of the time ruled out Alabama and he wound up instead at Jackson State.

After a leg injury caused him to miss the last seven games of his senior year at Jackson State, he went undrafted by either the NFL or the AFL.   But a Chargers’ scout named Al LoCasale, who had been at Jackson State the year before to look at Willie Richardson (who would become an All-Pro wide receiver for the Baltimore Colts), remembered him and invited him to a free agent tryout in California.

There, he ran a 4.4, and as he later recalled, “The coaches said, ‘Run that again, little fella (he was 5-10, 180), because something ain’t right.’’’

He ran it again - 4.4 - and was invited to training camp.

It was 1964 and the Chargers were defending AFL champs, but against all odds - probably because of his great speed - he made the club.  He recalled later that the Chargers’ defensive backfield coach had taken a special interest in him:  “Chuck Noll recognized some of my abilities and immediately inserted me into the depth chart and started moving me up the ladder.  People got cut and people got hurt and I continued to move up.” 

A broken jaw caused him to miss all but  five games as a rookie,  but beginning the next year he was an AFL all-star at corner for three years: 1965, 1966 and 1967. In that stretch, he intercepted 13 passes, and twice led the league in punt-return average. (I remember a high school teammate, Jim Fraser, who was then punting for the Broncos, telling me how everyone in the AFL was afraid of punting the ball to him.)

After seven seasons in San Diego,  he was acquired by the Washington Redskins (as part of George Allen’s “Over the Hill Gang” movement), and spent four seasons there, earning Pro Bowl recognition in 1971 as a return specialist.

He played in 115 NFL regular-season games,  intercepting  24 passes (which he returned for 382 yards and three touchdowns). He returned  202 punts for 2,201 yards and four touchdowns and 180 kickoffs for 4,539 yards.  He also returned four fumble recoveries for touchdowns.

He had a 100-yard interception return, a 95-yard punt return, and a 91-yard kickoff return.

“Speedy Duncan  was a walking highlight reel before there were highlights,” Chargers owner Dean Spanos said  at the time of his death, in December, 2021.

At alumni events, Spanos said, “We would play old footage up on the screens – all the best plays by Charger greats of every era. It’s hard to stand out in a montage like that, but then you’d see Number 45, a player so slight in stature that his shoulder pads looked three sizes too big. A ball would fall out of the sky on grainy video, land in Speedy’s hands and then magic. With eight touchdowns in eight seasons as a DB or returner, he was a true game-changer whose momentum-altering ability carried him to three straight Pro Bowls, the Chargers Hall of Fame and earned him a spot on our 50th-anniversary team.”

“I wasn’t even drafted,” he said in a 2012 interview with AFL historian Todd Tobias.  “I was a free agent, a guy begging for a chance to come in and get the opportunity to play.  Then seven years later I got traded to the Washington Redskins for three or four of the top five draft choices.  I think that was saying a lot.”
 







*********** QUIZ:  He came out of Birmingham, Alabama where his dad was a steel worker. Tall and strong, he was a high school standout in football and basketball.

At Grambling, he was a small-college All-American.

Recalled his coach, the great Eddie Robinson,  “(He) said the only reason that I was able to recruit him was because I told him Grambling was about 10 miles from New Orleans. When he came here on the recruiting visit, he said ‘Let's run down to New Orleans.’ One of my student-athletes responded, ‘Man, now you're talking about 300 miles.’ (He)  insisted, ‘No, Coach told me it was 10 miles.’ I didn't tell him that, but (he) always joked that I did.”

He was 6-6 and ran a 4-9 40, and along with his 6-9 linemate, Ernie Ladd, he inspired “Coach Rob” to go against conventional thinking:

I was trying to teach our team the Pro 4-3 defense. However, it it turned out that I put tackles where the defensive ends should have been and the defensive ends where the tackles should have been. (He) and Ernie Ladd were our defensive ends, and nobody went outside on us successfully. (He) and Ernie helped to turn every attempt to do so inside, and nobody went outside on us successfully. It was 1960 and it was our best defensive year ever. We held several teams to negative yardage. When the pro scouts saw us play, they told me I had the defensive  ends and tackles in the wrong place. I corrected it - and we got whipped. We went right back to where we were when we were winning with our own version of the Pro 4-3 defense.

Coach Robinson called him “the best lineman I’ve ever seen,” and when the Kansas City Chiefs took him as their Number One  choice in the 1963 AFL draft, he became the first black player ever taken first overall in a pro football draft. (The New York Giants, knowing that was as  good as gone to the Chiefs, chose him in the 19th round of the NFL draft.)

He  started out as a defensive end but was soon moved inside to tackle. The Chiefs’ Hank Stram was way ahead of the game in many respects, and the Chiefs often employed a “Triple Stack” defense somewhat similar to today’s 3-3, which put him, a very big man, over centers who were not then used to blocking a nose man.  With him and other linemen Aaron Brown, Curley Culp, and Jerry Mays, backed up by Bobby Bell, Willie Lanier and Jim Lynch, they had the people to make the Triple Stack work. In the Chiefs’  23-7 win over the NFL champion Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl IV, he  played on the nose of  All-Pro center Mick Tingelhoff,  and the Kansas City  defense  allowed the Vikings just 67 yards  rushing.

In his 13 years with the Chiefs, he played  in 182 games, including a streak of 166 straight.  He was a six-time All-AFL selection, and after the leagues merged, he played in two Pro Bowls.  He was named to the AFL’s All-Time Team and to the NFL’s 100th Anniversary All-Time Team.

Just two days before his induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, he received word that he had been diagnosed with lung cancer.  Rather than cast a pall over the festivities, he spent the entire time in Canton without sharing the information with anyone.  Two years later, he was dead at the age of 51.

When he was named to the Hall, he became the third Grambling player so honored,  after  Willie Davis and Willie Brown.  Coach Robinson joked at the time that he was  the first former Grambling Hall of Famer “not named Willie.”


FRIDAY,  JUNE  30, 2023 - "It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood."  James Madison


SORRY FOR THE  SHORT “NEWS” - I’M AT THE BEACH ENJOYING SOME TIME OFF.  IN THE MEANTIME, ENJOY WHAT’S LEFT OF PRIDE WEEK - BUT TRY TO AVOID BICYCLING NAKED -  AND I’LL SEE YOU TUESDAY!

***********  USFL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME THIS SATURDAY

PITTSBURGH (4-6) VS BIRMINGHAM (9-2), IN CANTON, OHIO - 8 PM EDT - NBC

SOME PITTSBURGH PLAYERS TO WATCH

TROY WILLIAMS, QB - UTAH

GARRETT GROSHEK, RB - WISCONSIN

BOOGIE  ROBERTS, DL - SAN JOSE STATE



SOME BIRMINGHAM PLAYERS TO WATCH

ALEX MCGOUGH, QB - FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL

C.J. MARABLE, RB - COASTAL CAROLINA

SCOOBY WRIGHT, LB - ARIZONA


MY FEARLESS, PEERLESS PREDICTION: BIRMINGHAM BY 17.5


*********** CFL THIS WEEKEND - THE VISITING TEAMS WON ALL FOUR GAMES

FRIDAY, 7:30 EDT

EDMONTON ELKS (0-3) AT OTTAWA RED-BLACKS (0-2)

SATURDAY, 7:00 EDT

WINNIPEG BLUE BOMBERS (2-1) AT  MOMTREAL ALOUETTES (2-0)

MONDAY, 7 EDT

BC LIONS (3-0) AT TORONTO ARGONAUTS (2-0)


YOUR SCHEDULE OF CFL GAMES ON AMERICAN CABLE (CBSSN) THIS SEASON:

https://fbschedules.com/cbs-sports-network-releases-2023-cfl-tv-schedule/


*********** AT THE TOP OF MY LIST OF BOOKS THAT I RECOMMEND TO ANY COACH…


Reade, Bob - Coaching Football Successfully - Human Kinetics, 1994 - Every young football coach should read this book - preferably twice or more - before even thinking about becoming a head coach.  Coach Reade was a highly successful high school coach, winning three straight Illinois state titles, and a highly successful college coach, winning four straight NCAA Division III championships (at Augustana College) and being named National Division III Coach of the Year four times.  As Coach Reade says in the Introduction, “This is not a typical football coaches’ book - it’s not strictly biographical or simply Xs and Os. Instead, it’s a combination of the two, a wedding of principles about life to an approach for coaching football.”


*********** Even if their Tigers hadn’t won the College World Series (sorry - “MEN’S College World Series”), LSU fans would have been able to take some consolation in winning the  Jello Shot Contest at an Omaha place called Rocco’s.  Winning?  They kicked some serious ass.

 

And how about UVa?  Even Oral Roberts beat them!  (Stanford and Tennessee aren’t shown on the White Board, but no matter - they weren’t even close to LSU either.

Like me, I bet you didn't know that making jello shots was now automated…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9qFs-HoDjg&t=1s



***********   Coach:

I'm now fired up to watch Mister Magoo (McGough).

With respect to the Finance Minister, today many of our overlords couldn't care less whether, or how passionately, we yelp about higher taxes. "It's for your own good, vassals! And we know how to spend your money better than you."

Since Day One of the portal's doors being knocked down, I thought immediately of Phil Steele. I thought to myself he has been destroyed. I still don't understand how Steele (and imo he's far and away the best) can make intelligent forecasts about teams when even the coaches don't know who they'll have.

Jordan Poyer, welcome to today's America. Fight them.

There are some signs more people are resisting this drag crap. Hope so...excuse me, gotta get back to the Gigando Special RuPaul's Drag Race!

Answer = Bill Snyder. (For a couple of seasons now it's looked like Chris Klieman has a chance to continue the Snyder tradition.)

John Vermillion                            
St Petersburg, Florida




*********** Hugh,

That Michigan game may have taken more out of Pittsburgh than they wanted in order to be ready for Birmingham.  But...it IS a championship game, so I expect it to be close...for awhile.  Birmingham wins.

I miss Street and Smith's.  Do you know my University of San Francisco "club" team was given a mention in their 1981 west coast edition?  Now THAT'S thorough coverage of college football!

Sam Walker got it right.  Is it all a coincidence?  Or is there actual merit to to what he says when it comes to the decline of the overall education of children in this country?

Jordan Poyer will get his tournament going again.  

Unfortunately that bishop in Portland is likely the only one left in the American Roman Catholic Church.  Likely one of few who has a clue on how to run the "business" of his schools.  Most diocesan schools' bishops don't fare too well in that aspect of their ministries.

To John Vermillion:  Have to admit, at that time, I didn't know who the guy was when he was hired!  


QUIZ:  Bill Snyder (I've always thought that the very best coaches were those who could win without the best talent.  Bill Snyder was one of those coaches).

Have a great week!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas


P.S. I believe it was the 1982 west coast edition of Street & Smith's where it mentioned my USF club team, not 1981.  I know I kept that edition but in all of my moves I have no idea where it may be.  It was the same year that the university suspended its basketball program.


I FOUND IT!
 


I FOUND THIS AND SENT IT TO COACH GUTILLA,   and here’s what he wrote: “When I first saw that blurb in S&S as a first-year "college" football HC at the ripe old age of 30! I thought the future looked pretty good at that time!  Was I mistaken.  Unfortunately, with the the basketball program fiasco that year, and the absolute lack of support for football from the university president (Fr. John Lo Schiavo, a Jesuit priest who is now deceased) that future only lasted that one year.”






***********   QUIZ ANSWER:    When he  first took the head coaching job at Kansas State, he remarked, "There’s only one school in the nation that has lost 500 games. This is it, and I get to coach it."

How bad a job was it?

At the time, Sports Illustrated called K-State “Futility U.”

At that particular point, K-State was  0-26-1 in its last 27 games…

It had had only two winning seasons in 34 years…

It hadn’t been to a bowl game in 53 years…

It had gone through 11 coaches in 44 years, and not a one had left with a winning record.

He was 50 years old and had never been a head coach before.  (He had spent the previous ten years at Iowa, as Hayden Fry’s offensive coordinator).

He inherited a senior class that won only twice in the three years they’d been at K-State.

One of the first things he did was to have a K-State art professor named Tom Brookhalter come up with a new logo.  What resulted was the “Powercat,” which has since become one of the most recognizable logos in college sports.

He got off to a slow start, but the progress was visible.

In his first season, KSU went 1-10. It may have been  only one win, but it was the Wildcats’ first win in three years, and it came on the final play of the game.

In his second season, the Cats finished 5-6.  Five wins was rare air for them - they’d done that  just twice in the last 17 years.

In his third season, the Wildcats had a winning season - 7-4 - only their second winning season in 22 years. 

The next year, they slipped to 5-6, but in his fifth season, they went 9-2-1. It was just the second 9-win season in school history.   The Cats made it to a bowl game - just the second in school history -  and earned a national ranking,  the school’s first ever.

From there, they were off  on an 11-year run in which they would go 127-34-1.  They would appear in 11 bowl games, winning six of them.  Ten of the 11 teams were nationally-ranked.

His 1998 team was ranked Number One in the nation until losing to Texas A & M in the Big 12 championship game.

He actually coached in two stages - the first lasted 17 years,  when  he “retired” with a record of 136-68-1.  The very next day, K-State’s Stadium was named in honor of him and his family.

But after three poor years under his successor, he returned to K-State and coached for another ten years, adding another 79 wins (and 49 losses) to his total.

His “final” record of 215 wins really stands out at a school where no other coach has won as many as 40.

His honors are too numerous to mention.

It’s nearly impossible to describe the magnitude of what he accomplished, not only in attaining success as a place that seldom knew winning, but every bit as difficult - sustaining it.

In 1998, Barry Switzer said it all. Almost.   Switzer, who by that  time had won three National Championships and a Super Bowl and knew a good coach when he saw one, told Tim Layden of Sports Illustrated, (“He)  isn't the coach of the year, and he isn't the coach of the decade. He's the coach of the century."

But that was just the Twentieth Century.  Considering that he coached another 17 years after Switzer made that statement,  and went  on to win 138 more games against 78 losses,  taking his teams  to 20 more bowl games -  you could make a strong argument that Bill Snyder is the best coach ever.



CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING BILL SNYDER

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
JOHN IRION - ARGYLE, NEW YORK
TOM DAVIS - SAN MARCOS, CALIFORNIA
TOM WALLS - WINNIPEG, MANITOBA
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS


***********I always find it interesting the quotes from Barry Switzer. I usually think of him as a very brash, cocky coach who would run it up on teams. Then he'll give give out compliments like the one he gave out about Coach Snyder.  Interesting.

Adam Wesoloski
Pulaski, Wisconsin



THE STORY OF THE K-STATE  POWER CAT

https://www.kansas.com/sports/college/big-12/kansas-state/article177296276.html






*********** QUIZ:  Although his real first name was Leslie, he never used it, going instead by  a nickname  given him in recognition of his great speed.

He grew up in Tuscaloosa, where in high school he led his team to an 11-0 season his senior year.  But the segregation of the time ruled out Alabama and he wound up instead at Jackson State.

After a leg injury caused him to miss the last seven games of his senior year at Jackson State, he went undrafted by either the NFL or the AFL.   But a Chargers’ scout named Al LoCasale, who had been at Jackson State the year before to look at Willie Richardson (who would become an All-Pro wide receiver for the Baltimore Colts), remembered him and invited him to a free agent tryout in California.

There, he ran a 4.4, and as he later recalled, “The coaches said, ‘Run that again, little fella (he was 5-10, 180), because something ain’t right.’’’

He ran it again - 4.4 - and was invited to training camp.

It was 1964 and the Chargers were defending AFL champs, but against all odds - probably because of his great speed - he made the club.  He recalled later that the Chargers’ defensive backfield coach had taken a special interest in him:  “Chuck Noll recognized some of my abilities and immediately inserted me into the depth chart and started moving me up the ladder.  People got cut and people got hurt and I continued to move up.” 
A broken jaw caused him to miss all but  five games as a rookie,  but beginning the next year he was an AFL all-star at corner for three years: 1965, 1966 and 1967. In that stretch, he intercepted 13 passes, and twice led the league in punt-return average. (I remember a high school teammate, Jim Fraser, who was then punting for the Broncos, telling me how everyone in the AFL was afraid of punting the ball to him.)

After seven seasons in San Diego,  he was acquired by the Washington Redskins (as part of George Allen’s “Over the Hill Gang” movement), and spent four seasons there, earning Pro Bowl recognition in 1971 as a return specialist.

He played in 115 NFL regular-season games,  intercepting  24 passes (which he returned for 382 yards and three touchdowns). He returned  202 punts for 2,201 yards and four touchdowns and 180 kickoffs for 4,539 yards.  He also returned four fumble recoveries for touchdowns.

He had a 100-yard interception return, a 95-yard punt return, and a 91-yard kickoff return.

“(He)  was a walking highlight reel before there were highlights,” Chargers owner Dean Spanos said  at the time of his death, in December, 2021.

At alumni events, Spanos said, “We would play old footage up on the screens – all the best plays by Charger greats of every era. It’s hard to stand out in a montage like that, but then you’d see Number 45, a player so slight in stature that his shoulder pads looked three sizes too big. A ball would fall out of the sky on grainy video, land in (his) hands and then magic. With eight touchdowns in eight seasons as a DB or returner, he was a true game-changer whose momentum-altering ability carried him to three straight Pro Bowls, the Chargers Hall of Fame and earned him a spot on our 50th-anniversary team.”

“I wasn’t even drafted,” he said in a 2012 interview with AFL historian Todd Tobias.  “I was a free agent, a guy begging for a chance to come in and get the opportunity to play.  Then seven years later I got traded to the Washington Redskins for three or four of the top five draft choices.  I think that was saying a lot.”



TUESDAY,  JUNE  27, 2023 - “The art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest possible amount of feathers with the smallest possible amount of hissing,” Jean-Baptiste Colbert, finance minister to France’s Louis XIV


***********  USFL PLAYOFFS


PITTSBURGH MAULERS (5-6) 31, MICHIGAN PANTHERS (4-7) 27


Two of the worst teams I’d seen play all  spring combined to put on one of the best games I’ve ever seen in  three years of watching spring ball. 

The “Over” was 38.5 and that, I told my wife before the game, was too high.  WAY too high.  It was 3-3 after one quarter, and 10-3 at the half, and if I had actually bet the under, I’d have already been thinking of ways to spend my winnings.

Hey, it was just 14-10 after three quarters, and I’d still have felt safe.  Only 24  points, right?

And then the two teams  went ahead and, combined, scored 27 more points in the fourth quarter alone,  then topped that off with another four points in overtime.

To recap: Down 17-10 with 5:38 in the game, Pittsburgh scored on a 4-yard jet sweep to tie the game.

A minute later, Michigan missed on a field goal, and with 3:21 left, Pittsburgh went ahead on a 59-yard field goal.

On the “ensuing” kickoff, Michigan was set back to their own 14 by an “illegal double team” penalty (stupid rule), but went the length of the field in just three plays, scoring with 2:04 left on a 55-yard pass from E. J. Perry to Trey Quinn to go ahead 24-20.


Back came Pittsburgh, though. Starting at midfield after a late hit out-of-bounds penalty on the kickoff, they scored with :39 left when - on fourth and six! - Troy Williams threw for a six-yard TD to Ishmael Hyman to put the Maulers ahead, 27-24.

But wait - we’re not done yet.  Perry drove Michigan into field goal range, and with 0:00 showing, Cole Murphy drilled a 47 yard field goal to send the game into overtime.

FORMAT: The teams alternate plays from the two-yard line, two points for a successful try. After three plays, the team with the most points is the winner.

Pittsburgh went first and scored on a nice trick pass from Williams to TE Mason Stokke.

Michigan’s runner appeared to cross the goal line before fumbling into the end zone - which would have been a score - but replay showed that he lost the ball before crossing the goal line, which meant that even though it was recovered in the end zone by another Michigan player, the rule required that a fumble in those circumstances must be returned to the spot of the fumble. (The rule was  instituted years ago after the Raiders won a couple of games on what appeared to be “forward fumbles” into the end zone.)

When Pittsburgh scored once more and then batted down a Michigan pass, the game was over.

Pittsburgh advances. Michigan is done.


*********** I found myself rooting for Michigan, only because I got caught up in the E. J. Perry story.  Perry, who was a very good quarterback at Brown - yes, I know, Ivy League - got the start at QB for Michigan last week after  spending just two weeks with the team.  He made the sort of mistakes you’d expect from a guy in that position, but you could see him getting better as the game went on and his confidence increased. And most important, he didn’t turn the ball over., and along with great defense and special teams play, that was enough for Michigan to upset Philadelphia and get into the division championship game.

In Saturday’s game against Pittsburgh, Perry was really good.  As his father - his high school coach in Andover, Massachusetts - and his mother looked on, he completed 23 of 38 passes for 370 yards (a very good 9.7 yards per attempt) and two TDs.  He did throw one interception.  He also rushed seven times for 22 yards and a touchdown - 392 yards of total offense on 60 plays.  The main thing he did, though,  was turn Michigan into a decent club.

Kudos to Perry, but also to Michigan head coach Mike Nolan for having the stones to make a move like that - one that I confess to considering idiotic at the time.


Me? I’m ticked because I wanted to see how much better Perry would be with a game like this under his belt.

SOUTH DIVISION


BIRMINGHAM STALLIONS (9-2) 47, NEW ORLEANS BREAKERS (7-4) 22

If you didn’t watch the game - it wasn’t this close.  Yes, it was only 9-7, Birmingham, after one period, but then it was 26-7  at the half, and the way Birmingham’s defense was playing I couldn’t see any way New Orleans could get back in it.  Sure enough, it was 40-7 after three  quarters, and at that point, the only question in my mind was when Birmingham coach Skip Holtz would pull his quarterback, Alex McGough (“McGoo”).

McGough put on quite a show - he threw 31 times, competing 21 for 310 yards (10.0 yards per attempt) and four TDs - with zero interceptions.  In addition, he ran eight times for 84 yards and a score. 

But although the stats were impressive, they can’t begin to show how special his play was, as he darted, dodged and wove his way around rushers, to make some  spectacular throws worthy of any NFL quarterback.  Where I began to wonder about pulling him was  when, despite leading by four scores, he’d still take off running out of the pocket and, rather than scoot out of bounds, take chances in order to get a few more yards.

Next week?  I hope you get a chance to watch him against Pittsburgh, and I hope his play is at least close to what I saw on Sunday.



*********** CFL THIS WEEKEND - THE VISITING TEAMS WON ALL FOUR GAMES


BC LIONS (3-0) 30, WINNIPEG BLUE BOMBERS (2-1) 6


MONTREAL ALOUETTES (2-0) 38,  HAMILTON TIGER-CATS (0-3) 12


SASKATCHEWAN ROUGH RIDERS (2-1) 29, CALGARY  STAMPEDERS (1-2) 26


TORONTO ARGONAUTS (2-0) 43, EDMONTON ELKS (0-3) 31

+++++

HERE’S YOUR SCHEDULE OF CFL GAMES ON AMERICAN CABLE (CBSSN) THIS SEASON:

https://fbschedules.com/cbs-sports-network-releases-2023-cfl-tv-schedule/



*********** For the last several years, I’ve had to look hard for college football magazines. The magazine racks in the stores where I look are  chock-full of Pro Football mags, but it’s slim pickings for us college guys.

For years, Street and Smith’s was the bible.  It came out sometime in June or early July, and its format never changed. I’ve got Street and Smith football “football yearbooks” going back to the 1940s, and their format never changed.

I know they don’t publish any longer, and I don’t know exactly when they stopped.

Over the years, there have been other challengers, such as Athlon, and Phil Steele’s College Football Preview seems to be the best there is now.

One thing they’ve tried to do, as accurately as possible, is list (1) players lost from last year;  (2) players returning from last year ; and (3) players recruited.

I can’t help wondering what kind of turmoil the transfer portal business has caused for those magazine publishers.



*********** I’ll frequently see something in a newspaper that I’ll clip and add to my “for later” file (“pile” would be a more appropriate word).  And then, from time to time, I’ll take a look though the articles I’ve  saved and see if I can use any.

One that I’ve eyed for some time was in the Wall Street Journal in December, 2019, and it’s been on my mind for some time.

Finally, I had to do something with it. It’s called   "The Leadership Case for Saving High-School Football - A sport uniquely effective at teaching kids about teamwork and being a leader."

It’s written by Sam  Walker, a former reporter and editor at The Wall Street Journal, and the author of “The Captain Class: A New Theory of Leadership."

I know that it’s unlikely that many of my readers subscribe to the Journal, and in the belief that I couldn’t possibly do the article justice by paraphrasing it, I admit to lifting large sections of it intact.  It’s that good.

For the first time in 30 years, high-school sports participation declined.

The 3% drop in participants from the previous year wasn’t enormous—that translates to roughly 44,000 empty uniforms. But it was definitely troubling. According to one projection, the total number of students enrolled at U.S. high schools was expected to rise by more than 50,000, which suggests the number of athletes should have risen, too.

***

The chief culprit wasn’t a lack of interest in sports. It’s the accelerating rejection of the biggest high-school sport of all: 11-player tackle football.

Last season, football suffered its steepest loss of players in 33 years, according to the NFHS, while its share of total sports participants fell below 13% for the first time on record.

***

Meanwhile, the sport lost 31,000 high school players last year, according to the NFHS; its fifth consecutive annual decline. Forty-two states reported net losses, including football hotbeds such as California, Florida and Ohio.
 
I can’t blame any parent, or child, for abandoning ship. Nobody needs to play football. But I sincerely believe that the sport is worth saving. Football will never be entirely safe. But if the sport’s overseers figure out the right adjustments to make (see an entirely separate column), I have no doubt that its positive influence on kids will continue to outweigh the risks. Football, in my view, is one of the best tools we have for teaching teamwork and leadership.

***

Consider this: The U.S. has maintained a consistent global edge in business, scientific research, military power and (recent events notwithstanding) functional government. We’ve shown that we’re pretty good at working together. And we’ve sustained this for decades even with schools that trail those in other nations by most measures of academic rigor.

Have you ever wondered why that is?

Most high schools don’t teach “team studies” or “applied leadership.” Traditional classes like social studies, history and civics may touch on those themes, but only in passing. My theory is that American schools haven’t bothered teaching teamwork in classrooms because they didn’t need to. That’s what organized sports are for.

U.S. high schools devote vastly more money, facilities and instructional resources to sports than schools in other nations do. Colleges also spend billions supporting athletes—most of whom will stop competing after graduation. If American exceptionalism exists, is it really possible to disregard this country’s exceptional investment in sports? And can we afford to turn our backs on the nation’s No. 1 sport by participation?

***

Every football play is a complex, collaborative ballet in miniature. And within every team there are three distinct subgroups (offense, defense and kicking units) divided into roughly eight different position groups. In other words, joining a football team requires joining three or four teams at once. And all of them need leaders.

***

Football’s violence is also unique; that’s never been its finest trait. But the physical risk does serve a purpose. And it’s not about “forging character in fire” or any other macho gibberish.

More than any other mainstream activity for kids, football drives home the value of being a competent, loyal, conscientious and selfless teammate. On the football field, the best way to minimize risk is also the surest way to win. You have to do your job. Mistakes aren’t just personally humiliating—they get people hurt. Putting the team’s goals ahead of your own and earning the trust of teammates are valuable skills for navigating the real world.

Lots of team sports teach these virtues, of course, but football does it viscerally. The risk of injury accelerates the learning curve. In the age of helicopter parenting, it’s one of the few supervised environments where kids can learn about risk.

***

One unique quality that rarely gets mentioned is football’s inclusiveness. Soccer may be the world’s game, but it demands a rare blend of quickness, agility and endurance. Basketball players are unusually tall and athletically gifted, while baseball players need superior hand-eye coordination. In youth football, the bar is lower. In fact, some kids make the team with only one thing: speed, strength, intelligence—or just size.

That last trait is really important. If you’re large, slow and plodding, most sports want nothing to do with you. Given the results of recent studies on childhood obesity, that sounds like a serious problem. Football is the rare sport that welcomes big kids—in fact, they often become stars. For this at-risk slice of the population, it’s the only game in town.

***

Over the past year, I’ve written about the unsung value of great front-line managers in business and the broader cultural and economic forces that are thwarting our efforts to build better, stronger workplace teams.

Is “more football” the ultimate solution? Absolutely not. At some point, we need to start teaching teamwork and leadership in the classroom. Until then, however, we’d be crazy not to employ every imperfect tool we have.

And we still have football. For now.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-risks-of-turning-our-backs-on-football-11576904411


***********  Tom Walls, my Man on the Watch in Manitoba, wrote me, “I don’t know if you are watching, but 7:21 in the CFL game of Montreal vs Hamilton, the Hamilton DB makes a half ass attempt at a tackle, with no arms, and the receiver keeps his feet and runs for a TD.  Would be a great clip for Safer and Surer Tackling Part 2.”

It just so happened that I had seen the play and since I recorded the game I was able to add it to my “Untackles” collection of clips.  It’s now 25 minutes long.


*********** Best comment I’ve seen yet on the Ukraine War, posted anonymously on the Internet:

“Gotta love this war.  Both sides are winning, both sides are losing and America just keeps throwing $$$$$ at it.”


*********** Jordan Poyer of the Buffalo Bills is something of a local kid.  He played his high school ball in Astoria, a neat little town  about  two hours west of us, at the mouth of the Columbia River, and he played his college ball at Oregon State.

He’s had a decent career in Buffalo and this year, for the second year in a row, he was preparing to host a golf event to benefit somebody in the Buffalo area.  He lives in Florida in the off-season, so that's where the tournament was being held.

I don’t know where the money would have gone so I can’t say, but it doesn’t matter anyhow because there won’t be any  golf this year.

That’s because, being a free American (he thought) , he chose  the  golf course where it was to be held. But - probably he should have known - the course was named Trump National Doral.  Yes, the same Trump whom the left hates and brands as racist, misogynist, homophobic, larcenous, treasonous and hermaphroditic. (I just threw that last one in there.) Plus, he’s a sexual predator and an insurrectionist.  Did I miss anything?  Oh, yeah - and he steals highly classified documents and sells them wholesale to Hunter Biden.

As might have been expected in this country of ours, players - and backers - began to back out and Poyer had to cancel.

Said his representative, "Unfortunately, we were sadly surprised by negative comments by some individuals to make this a political battle and continue to divide our community.   We condemn any type of violence and stand by Jordan as he continues to work to make a positive impact and be a role model for our community."

Said Poyer,    "I believe in the universal law that the energy you put out is the energy you get back, and we’re not doing that right now.   All we do is fight with each other all day. Fight with each other about politics, about religion, about race … It blows my mind that we sit here in America today with these issues."


https://www.foxnews.com/sports/bills-jordan-poyer-cancels-celebrity-charity-golf-event-trump-course-backlash


*********** The word out of Southern California is that some 9-year-old kid who has played a year in Snoop Dogg’s youth program has signed an NIL deal supposedly worth “six figures.”

I tend to be skeptical about claims like this.  I mean, first of all, what could any 9-year-old possibly do that would be worth “six figures” to anyone?

And second of all - just saying, you understand - it wouldn’t be the first time that such a claim was made in an effort to recruit players.

(And did I tell you yet about the young quarterback I’ve been working with who was just offered a seven-figure NIL by a local high school’s  booster club? That's all I'm allowed to say.)



*********** This appeared in the New York Post, but not, I’ll wager, in any other mainstream media outlet:

Drag queens and LGBTQ activists marched through a Manhattan park on Friday as part of a weekend of Pride celebrations,with a chant of: “We're here, we're queer and we're coming for your children.”

Uh-oh.  Now you've gone too far, guys. You may have awakened the sleeping public.

I’m counting down the days left in Pride month.  And if you want my vote you’ll promise to put an end to  “this” month or “that” month crap and limit any special recognition (or “celebration”) to  24 hours - the same length of time we   honor veterans, or those killed in service to our country, or those honored for special service to our country.


*********** Evidently  “coming for your children” doesn’t bother some people in Portland.

The pandemic was something of a bonus for Catholic schools, which, because most of them remained open, saw enrollments increase because of large numbers of non-Catholics wanting their kids in actual schools. 

Now, with the pandemic behind them, Portland Catholic schools find themselves dealing with a far more pernicious  threat to them than the pandemic:  gender dysphoria.

Back in January,  Portland Archbishop Alexander Sample passed along  a 17-page list of “recommendations”  to be followed by diocesan schools, including the following:

— Pronouns used at school must match biological sex at birth.


— Schools should not have all-gender bathrooms beyond single-use facilities.


— Sports and extracurriculars “should be based on biological sex, rather than self-perceived gender.”


— Students who wear uniforms must follow the “code that accords with his or her biological sex.”


— “Catholic institutions should not post signage or display symbols in support of gender identity theory.”

Ooo-whee.  Don't you just love that "self-perceived gender?"

Stay tuned: Conservative Archbishop Sample takes on the Portland liberals (a redundancy).

This being Portland, there is pushback.  There are said to have been “wrenching debates” over the issue, and there has been resistance to the “recommendations.”  There have been resignations by some “educators” who  could not go along with them, and firings of others who openly defied them.

There have been parents who’ve withdrawn their kids from school, and a large number who have chosen not to enroll their kids in kindergarten next  fall. 

A large group of “prominent Catholics”  have formally requested a meeting with the Archbishop to “express the concerns arising within their communities and invite the archbishop for further dialogue.”  No doubt their intent is to change his mind.  (For what it’s worth, Archbishop Sample has the distinction of being the last American Archbishop appointed by Pope Benedict XVI.  Good luck changing his mind.)


I have a suspicion that many of the people doing the loudest squawking are non-Catholics who during the pandemic chose to enroll their kids in Catholic schools rather than submit to the “Education Lite” inflicted on them by the union-dictated shutdown of the public schools. 

And now, not unlike liberal Californians who move to red states only to find themselves in an environment not hospitable to their politics, these people  demand that their hosts change to suit to them.

Anyone still around who remembers “When in Rome…?”


https://www.oregonlive.com/education/2023/06/portland-area-catholic-schools-are-at-a-crossroads-over-transgender-nonbinary-student-rights.html


*********** I’ve been reading Gerry Faust’s “The Golden Dream,” his look back, years later, at his Notre Dame years and what he might have done differently.  One thing that jumped out at me immediately was his admission of being guilty of something I’ve often had to deal with over the years:  young coaches who don’t know what they don’t know,  and don’t see any need for the advice of someone older - and wiser because he’s already made the mistakes…


If I had to do it over, I would look at the staff in a different way, and I wouldn't have moved so fast to hire coaches so we could get on the road recruiting. I would find myself two or three young whippersnappers. Guys so enthusiastic you'd have to hold them back, chain them down. I'd hire them for enthusiasm alone. If it were a staff of nine, I'd hire four others with enough college coaching experience that they could get a job anywhere,   and then I'd hire three graybeards, guys with wrinkles, guys who have seen it all, done at all, been through it all. Guys like Ralph Staub.


If I had had Staubie at Notre Dame, we might have growing old together in South Bend. He would have been my confidant, the man who wouldn't have let me make the mistakes I made. My timing was rotten. I know others tried to play that role but…


"He came to us and said: ‘I'm going to need help,’"says Brian Boulac, former assistant head coach and now assistant athletic director. "But when the time came, he threw himself into the job and didn't really seek help. Gerry had to have a hand in coaching. He had to make decisions. I don't think he would've been comfortable in a situation where he would have relied more on his assistant coaches. With his personality and because of his experience, he had always been the one making those decisions.”


The person who knows me best agrees with Brian's assessment. "Gerry likes to be in control, "Marlene Faust says. "He never wanted to be out of the spotlight. He takes over every room, every situation. That's his personality. “


Staubie could have made me listen. I didn't think he would be available, though. He was the head coach at Cincinnati.  The situation at Cincinnati looked difficult for him but not impossible. Then, he lost his job.  But by that time, I had moved so quickly to name the staff that there was no place for the man who might have helped me more than any other.


 *********** Coach Gutilla probably will be unable to answer this difficult quiz question.

John Vermillion
St. Petersburg, Florida


***********   Hugh,

Going with Pittsburgh (no particular reason), and Birmingham (they're just better).

Most all of the MWC schools aren't afraid to "play anyone, anytime, anywhere", and many of them have and will beat those big guys.

Still with the MWC I strongly believe the Big 12 wouldn't hurt themselves picking a few MWC schools in their expansion plans.

Don't ya know?  In today's sports society you ain't a playa wit out da tunes an da vibe!


QUIZ:  Gerry Faust (Had coach Faust spent some "time" in major college football BEFORE taking the ND job the outcome of his story might have had a very different ending.  But like all things Notre Dame his record is what it is, and will always go down in Irish football lore as a failure, but with an asterisk).

Enjoy the weekend!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas

 





HOW MANY OF YOU KNEW #55 (ABOVE) IS BOB GOLIC?


***********   QUIZ ANSWER:  Gerry Faust grew up in Cleveland, the son of a high school football coach.

He played college football at Dayton, and then - literally from scratch - built one of the nation’s premier football programs at Cincinnati’s Archbishop Moeller High School. 

At Moeller, he ran a big-time program, with more assistants on his staff  than college coaches were permitted by the NCAA at the time. In 19 years there, his record was 178-23-2.   He had only one losing season - his first, when Moeller finished 4-6.  He had seven unbeaten seasons and six one-loss seasons; his teams won four mythical national championships, and won Ohio state titles in five of his last six years there.

Everyone in the nation who followed football closely was aware of how good Moeller was.    He was a favorite of Notre Dame’s leadership - its President, Fathers Theodore Hesburgh, and especially Fr. Hesburgh’s right hand man, Father Edmund Joyce. For years, Fr. Joyce oversaw the school’s athletic program and was highly influential in hiring  its football coaches.

Over the years, Notre Dame had recruited a number of players from Moeller, and Father Joyce was impressed by the quality of young men their coach produced.   Fr. Joyce  had come to know knew the coach and the kind of man he was, and  he knew that the Moeller coach’s lifelong ambition was to coach at Notre Dame.  So when Irish coach Dan Devine resigned after the 1980 season, he offered the head coaching job at Notre Dame - and a five-year contract -  to the Moeller coach.

He was a good man and a devout Catholic.  He loved Notre Dame and everything it represented.  He abided by the rules and his players loved him. And after his first game - a 27-9 win over LSU - his Irish were ranked Number One in the nation.   It would have been a marvelous story if it had gone like that -  but it didn’t.

The Irish  lost the next week to Michigan, and they would never attain the top spot during his entire five-year stay in South Bend.

His first season ended 5-6 - Notre Dame’s first losing season in 17 years - and Irish fans had grown restless.

His team did win six games the next year, and then put together back-to-back 7-5 seasons, but that wasn’t nearly enough to quell growing dissatisfaction among alumni and fans.To their credit,  though, Fathers Hesburgh and  Joyce held to their words and allowed him to serve out  the full term of his contract.

In his final season, the Irish went 5-6, ending their season with a 58-7 loss to Miami.   (In Notre Dame’s long history, only a wartime 59-0 loss to Army in 1944 was worse.)  At the end of the  season, he resigned. His record:  30-26-1.

He was succeeded by Lou Holtz, who would coach the Irish to a national title.

The very next year, he was the head coach at Akron, a complete  contrast to Notre Dame  in terms of resources and support, and one of the hardest places to win in all of college football.

He stayed at Akron for nine years, guiding their move up from Division I-AA to membership in the 1-A MAC conference, but after going 1-10 in 1994, he stepped down.  His record at Akron was 73-79-4.

Despite the disappointment of the Notre Dame years, he has remained loyal  to the school, respectful of its people, and grateful for the opportunity it gave him.

Gerry Faust once said, "I had only 26 miserable days at Notre Dame; that's when we lost. Other than that, I was the happiest guy in the world. I loved walking on the campus, loved being there, loved being a part of Notre Dame."



CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING GERRY FAUST

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
TOM DAVIS - SAN MARCOS, CALIFORNIA
PETE PORCELLI - WATERVLIET, NEW YORK
RODNEY LUNSFORD - WESTFIELD, INDIANA
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY






***********   QUIZ:    When he  first took the head coaching job at Kansas State, he remarked, "There’s only one school in the nation that has lost 500 games. This is it, and I get to coach it."

How bad a job was it?

At the time, Sports Illustrated called K-State “Futility U.”

At that particular point, K-State was  0-26-1 in its last 27 games…

It had had only two winning seasons in 34 years…

It hadn’t been to a bowl game in 53 years…

It had gone through 11 coaches in 44 years, and not a one had left with a winning record.

He was 50 years old and had never been a head coach before.  (He had spent the previous ten years at Iowa, as Hayden Fry’s offensive coordinator).

He inherited a senior class that won only twice in the three years they’d been at K-State.

One of the first things he did was to have a K-State art professor named Tom Brookhalter come up with a new logo.  What resulted was the “Powercat,” which has since become one of the most recognizable logos in college sports.

He got off to a slow start, but the progress was visible.

In his first season, KSU went 1-10. It may have been  only one win, but it was the Wildcats’ first win in three years, and it came on the final play of the game.

In his second season, the Cats finished 5-6.  Five wins was rare air for them - they’d done that  just twice in the last 17 years.

In his third season, the Wildcats had a winning season - 7-4 - only their second winning season in 22 years. 

The next year, they slipped to 5-6, but in his fifth season, they went 9-2-1. It was just the second 9-win season in school history.   The Cats made it to a bowl game - just the second in school history -  and earned a national ranking,  the school’s first ever.

From there, they were off  on an 11-year run in which they would go 127-34-1.  They would appear in 11 bowl games, winning six of them.  Ten of the 11 teams were nationally-ranked.

His 1998 team was ranked Number One in the nation until losing to Texas A & M in the Big 12 championship game.

He actually coached in two stages - the first lasted 17 years,  when  he “retired” with a record of 136-68-1.  The very next day, K-State’s Stadium was named in honor of him and his family.

But after three poor years under his successor, he returned to K-State and coached for another ten years, adding another 79 wins (and 49 losses) to his total.

His “final” record of 215 wins really stands out at a school where no other coach has won as many as 40.

His honors are too numerous to mention.

It’s nearly impossible to describe the magnitude of what he accomplished, not only in attaining success as a place that seldom knew winning, but every bit as difficult - sustaining it.

In 1998, Barry Switzer said it all. Almost.   Switzer, who by that  time had won three National Championships and a Super Bowl and knew a good coach when he saw one, told Tim Layden of Sports Illustrated, (“He)  isn't the coach of the year, and he isn't the coach of the decade. He's the coach of the century."

But that was just the Twentieth Century.  Considering that he coached another 17 years after Switzer made that statement,  and went  on to win 138 more games against 78 losses,  taking his teams  to 20 more bowl games -  you could make a strong argument that he’s the best coach ever.



FRIDAY,  JUNE  23, 2023 - "If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy."  James Madison

***********  USFL PLAYOFFS


NORTH DIVISION

SATURDAY - 8 PM EDT -  CANTON, OHIO (NBC)


MICHIGAN PANTHERS (4-6) VS PITTSBURGH MAULERS (4-6)



SOUTH DIVISION

SUNDAY - 7 PM EDT - BIRMINGHAM (FOX)


NEW ORLEANS BREAKERS (7-3) VS BIRMINGHAM STALLIONS (8-2)



*********** CFL THIS WEEKEND

THURSDAY - 8 PM EDT

BC LIONS (2-0) AT WINNIPEG BLUE BOMBERS (2-0)


FRIDAY - 7:30 PM EDT

MONTREAL ALOUETTES (1-0) AT HAMILTON TIGER-CATS (0-2)


SATURDAY - 7 PM EDT

SASKATCHEWAN ROUGH RIDERS (1-1) AT CALGARY  STAMPEDERS (1-1)


SUNDAY - 7 PM EDT

TORONTO ARGONAUTS (1-0) AT EDMONTON ELKS (0-2)


HERE’S YOUR SCHEDULE OF CFL GAMES ON AMERICAN CABLE (CBSSN) THIS SEASON:

https://fbschedules.com/cbs-sports-network-releases-2023-cfl-tv-schedule/


***********  WARNING:  Never tune in to ESPN expecting just to see a sports event.

Oh, no.  ESPN has other plans for you, and they don’t include showing you the whole game you’d hoped to watch.

The latest example was the Florida-TCU game in the College World Series. or - as the NCAA insists on calling it -  the “Men’s” College World Series.

Apparently forgetting  that they weren’t in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, where it’s almost mandatory for a reporter to go up into the stands to interview parents of Little League players, for one entire half inning we were subjected to an interview with the mother of the Florida pitcher, while not a single word was spoken  about the play on the field.



***********   That “stink finger” gesture that athletes are using after doing something good?  I could take a guess at what it means but every possible explanation I could come up would be gross, so I’ll defer to an  explanation that I found online:  “Wipe His Nose” has gained popularity in many rap lyrics, from artists originating from Young Thug and used my many others such as NLE Choppa, and NBA Young Boy.

Oh. I see.  Well, then - if it came from a rap “artist” it's sure to be acceptable in polite society.


***********  I won’t comment on this other than to say that  Canada seems to  be where America is headed…

In celebration of Pride month, the CFL is spotlighting Canada's only member of the National Gay Flag Football League - TUFF. Toronto United Flag Football has been around since 2009, providing a safe place for all members of the 2SLGBTQI+ community to compete and play football.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GY-rLBazg-Q&t=3


***********   I read all the  quotes by West Virginia players extolling the character  of their now-former coach Bob Huggins - and there were a lot of them -   and they seemed to be at odds with the way the media has usually portrayed Huggins as a win-at-all costs guy.


It made me think about Deion Sanders, and what it’s going to be like when he finally leaves Colorado.  He’d better start building relationships,  considering that he’s already got a couple dozen former CU players whom he wouldn’t be able to use as character references.


There’s an interesting parallel between Huggins and Sanders (I refuse to call him “Coach Prime”) in that it’s fair to say that both were hired by places willing to take certain risks in hopes that they might revitalize down programs.


Huggins certainly  did that at Kansas State, going 23-12 in one season while getting the school tournament spots and TV appearances on the strength of his name recognition; true, Sanders has sold some season tickets, but otherwise he has a lot of work to do to prove his worth at Colorado.


There was one significant difference between the two cases.   At the time of his hiring by K-State, Huggins had won more than 400 major college games.  Sanders has yet to win one.


*********** Personally, I thought this was kinda cool…






***********    Q. On a power /counter the Playside Guard’s rule is “Gap-On-Angle Late.” If he is uncovered,  doesn’t he double team with the center on NG?





A. Not immediately, no.   Yes, he probably will wind up doubling with the center, but that’s where the “LATE” comes in.   We can’t ever leave a void in the play side - not until we’re sure nothing’s coming.   So first he delays - very slightly - to make sure that no one is attacking his area.  I don’t mind if he leaves a little  late.  No serious harm.  But if he leaves too soon,  he leaves a hole in the line that  invites  penetration.  All he has to do is take a quick jab step in place with his up foot - his outside foot - and that’s usually enough time to decide if  it’s okay to go inside (“Angle”).  In the diagrams above, the top two show what concerns me if the guard were to immediately block the Nose Guard, without delay; the bottom one best illustrates “ANGLE LATE”


*********** The Pac-12 story is starting to sound like a spy novel.

Writes John Canzano: In late 2018, then-Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott presented his bosses with a ‘Hail Mary’ plan. He wanted to steal an idea from “Shark Tank” and sell an equity stake in the Pac-12 Conference’s future media rights.

The “Pac-12 NewCo” plan was introduced by Scott to the conference presidents and chancellors at a November meeting and was subsequently discussed in a conference call in December of 2018. Nine months later, Scott announced that the conference was unable to find a suitable solution. He said of his bosses: “They don’t want to do something with a private equity or financial firm.”

Turns out, there was a private-equity deal on the table. Just not one that the presidents and chancellors thought they should take.

The Pac-12 was offered $1 billion for 15 percent equity by a private-equity firm, per sources. The biggest pushback to making the deal came from two particular schools — USC and UCLA.

***********  There was a time when we were grateful for bombers and their role in making the world a safer place - for us and our allies, certainly, if  not necessarily for the bad guys.

But how quickly they forget.

In Australian football’s major league, the Essendon Bombers are considering doing away  with their logo.





https://www.breitbart.com/sports/2023/06/20/australian-football-team-considers-dropping-bomber-team-logo/



***********  ATTACKING COACH ERHARDT’S DEFENSE WITH UNBALANCED…

The last thing we did was go unbalanced by moving our left tackle to the right side.  Another thing we do that really gives defense fits is to move an END “over” to the other side - and  line him up in “OVER SLOT” -  flexed, in a “nasty” split,  3-5 yards from the tight end on that side.

This is a look that their  “LB” almost never sees, and now he’s got to decide whether to line up ON our flexed end (which creates quite a bubble between him and the next defensive lineman to his inside), or to move inside, making him vulnerable to a down block by the flexed end.

We may play games with that “LB,” flexing our end out to see how far out that LB will go before moving back inside.



For our power play, we’ll either kick him out (if he’s ON our flexed end) or double-team him (if he’s  IN - inside our flexed end).

For our sweep, the flexed end and the wingback “crack and fold” - the end comes down hard to the inside, and the wingback folds around him and seals  the LB or, if he’s being cracked on, the first man to come from the inside.



***********   The number of pay TV households (cable and satellite)  in the US dropped  below half of all  US homes for the first time last year.

It’s expected that by 2027, the total number of homes with pay TV will be just under 50 million.  (In 2016, the number was close to 100 million.)


***********  Kirk Herbstreit’s son, Zach, a tight end at Ohio State, is out of the hospital but facing a long recovery after a health episode originally thought to be pneumonia but now believed to be heart-related.  Prayers for the Herbstreit family.


https://www.10tv.com/article/sports/football/ohio-state-football/ohio-state-te-zak-herbstreit-faces-3-4-month-recovery-due-to-heart-issues/530-6e820281-69d6-4274-b4ed-2c71870171b2


***********   Coach:

Yes, the people voters elected have been the Kevorkians, assisting in the suicide of their people, but not for themselves. In the meantime, we watch as Schiff doesn't even get censured; instead, Pencil Neck walks away waving his finger at those he's hurt, and raises big funds in the process.

But at least Coach Huggins was in full command of his faculties, wasn't he? Knew precisely where he was at the time of arrest? Never endangered anyone? I once liked him. Not anymore. This is what happens when you're so full of yourself you believe you're a walking god. Bobby Boy, you're a fool.

Just read this morning that the Gators vaulted into the number three recruiting slot with a big haul yesterday. This edge rusher says he's gonna bring the Gators back to where they should be, and he's also gonna bring some other bad dudes with him. Sorry, Coach, this ain't the kind of team I want to succeed. But have fun with all your NIL cash, son.


John Vermillion                                
St Petersburg, Florida


***********   Hugh,

New Jersey played the first half as if they were playing for their playoff lives, which they were.  Not so much in the second half.  Looked more like avoiding the loss instead of playing to win.  Disappointing.

Birmingham is by far the class of that league.  BUT...it's pro football, and it won't surprise me if they win a close playoff game (gotta keep the folks interested in the product you know), and win another close game in the championship (gotta keep those TV eyes interested).

Biden is the poster child of the term "crooked politician."  He has since replaced HRC for that distinction although she's a close second.

Despite his arrest Bob Huggins will be coaching basketball again...somewhere.

San Diego State:  A no-brainer for the PAC 12.  Unless the "brainiacs" of the PAC 12 lack common sense (which shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone).

We have a guy doing some renovations in our new home who hails from your neck of the woods...Hagerstown.  He went to St. James, and as a kid watched a few Hagerstown Bears games!  


Have a great week!

Joe Gutilla
Austin, Texas

 Those were great days - long, long, ago!




IN THE GROUP PHOTO :
FRONT  ROW (LEFT TO RIGHT): Reg Carolan; Frank Buncom; Lance Alworth; John Hadl.
BACK  ROW: Bob Mitinger; Walt Sweeney; Dick Degen


************ QUIZ  ANSWER: Frank Buncom was born in Shreveport, Louisiana but he grew up in Los Angeles and he was a star at center and linebacker at Dorsey High.

He played for two years at East L.A. Junior College, then transferred to USC,  where he started at linebacker for two years. They were John McKay’s first two teams, and those Trojan teams weren’t very good: they went  4-6  and 4-5-1.  (McKay would go on to coach 14 more seasons at USC without another losing season.  In that time, he would take the Trojans to eight Rose Bowls.)

Frank Buncom was taken number six in the AFL draft by the San Diego Chargers.  In his second year with the club, the Chargers, coached by Sid Gillman,  won the AFL title.  They were very good. On offense they had stars like John Hadl, Lance Alworth, Keith Lincoln and Paul Lowe, and on defense Frank Buncom was one of the standouts.

He played  six seasons with the Chargers, and was four times an AFL All-Star.  In the annual AFL All-Star Game following the 1965 season, he was named Outstanding Defensive Player.

He was acquired by the Bengals in their 1968 expansion draft, and started all 12 games for his new club.

Early the following season, the team was staying in a Cincinnati hotel the night before its opening game against the Dolphins.   The morning of the game, his roommate, offensive tackle Ernie Wright, was awakened by the sound of his labored breathing.   “Frank woke me up,” Wright would tell the Associated Press.  “He was breathing like he had an asthmatic attack or something. I called to him then went over to his bed and shook him - real good. I got no response. I checked his mouth to make sure he wasn’t having a convulsion and swallowing his tongue. Then I called for help. There was nothing else I could do.”

When paramedics and Bengal team trainers arrived, he was dead. It was determined later that he died of a pulmonary embolism, a clot that had formed in his knee, then moved to a lung. 

He was 29. He left his wife and a young son.

He was elected posthumously to the Chargers’ Hall of Fame.  He was named one of the top five Bengals of the 1960s.

Frank Buncom’s Number 55 has been retired by the Chargers, but not because of him - because it belonged to another linebacker named Junior Seau.

Wrote an AFL historian named Todd Tobias, Frank Buncom  and Junior Seau had a lot in common:

Both came from underprivileged backgrounds in southern California and went on to football stardom at the University of Southern California. Both were college All Americans, both were drafted by San Diego. Both had brilliant Chargers’ careers that culminated in both being enshrined in the team’s Hall of Fame. Both played a linebacker position, both ended their playing days with different teams. Both wore the same jersey number and large, infectious, luminous smiles. Both died suddenly, unexpectedly, tragically.



CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING FRANK BUNCOM

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY


*********** Frank Buncom’s  roommate, Ernie Wright, was our offensive line coach in Philadelphia (World Football League) but I wasn’t aware of that at the time.  #82 in the photo on my page is Bob Mitinger, a Penn State grad who became a lawyer in State College.  I got to know him because  he represented one of our players, Dave Joyner,  another former Penn Stater.   Bob Mitinger  said Frank Buncom was really a good man.

ON BOB MITINGER: I found this in the SI Vault (from 1961)
Until recently, great numbers of (players), especially those from Pennsylvania, where the supply seems to be as abundant as the coal, went away to school in the Big Ten, the Deep South and even the West. A majority of them still do, but these days a fairer share are staying at home.

Bob Mitinger (pictured at the left outside Penn State's Old Main) is one who did, and Coach Rip Engle couldn't be more pleased. Mitinger (accented, appropriately, on the first syllable, might) is a 215-pound, 6-foot-2 end who tackles so savagely that sometimes his own teammates wince when he clashes head on with an opposing ball carrier.

Mitinger comes from Greensburg, Pa., a small town of 17,383 near Pittsburgh. He also comes from a football family. His father, Bob Sr., played guard for Jock Sutherland's Lafayette teams in the 1920s; brother Joe, a guard and tackle, captained the 1952 Yale team; and Uncle Charley Berry, the American League umpire, was an All-America end at Lafayette in 1924.

Young Bob himself started knocking people down as a 9-year-old guard in Greensburg's midget league. High School Coach Bobby Williams made him an end, and he responded by winning a place on the all-Western Pennsylvania team. He also ran the 220, tossed the discus and, growing heftier by the year, kept opponents honest (i.e., scared stiff) on the basketball court. "I was what you would call a hatchet man," he says now. He still is, but on a football field.


More than 25 schools—Mitinger forgets the number—offered him scholarships. It may be significant that he chose Penn State only after he was assured that football players there were not considered animals by the other students. A political science major, he plans to follow his father and brother into law and eventually add another Mitinger to the Greensburg firm of Mitinger, Mitinger, Mitinger and Beck ("He just happened to be a good friend," says Mitinger). In the meantime he wants to play football, all the football he can get in his remaining year in college and next year, hopefully, with the pros.

If Mitinger's offensive statistics are not impressive, it is largely because Penn State has preferred to take advantage of his deadly blocking and rest him for his vicious role on defense. In two years he has caught only seven passes for 160 yards and two touchdowns, but one of them, a leaping end-zone catch, helped beat Pitt last season. This year Penn State expects to throw more often, and to Mitinger in particular.

For the eastern style of play, Coach Engle feels, Mitinger is almost perfect. "We get strong, heavy-legged, very rugged but not exceptionally fast players," Engle says. "Most of them are intelligent boys and we are better equipped for offense than for the kind of defense they play in the Southeastern Conference. We like to control the ball. A team with a player like Mitinger can hold it a long time, grinding out the yardage until the other team softens and we can run right over ‘em.”

Maybe the very best "runner-over" in college football this year is Syracuse's Ernie Davis, a tall, graceful halfback from Elmira, N.Y. Davis likes to wear Ivy League caps and tight-fitting Brooks Brothers suits around the campus, and he will go a mile away to avoid trouble off the football field. But on it he loves to hurl his 210 pounds against anyone not wearing the orange of Piety Hill. As a sophomore he ran for 686 yards, and last year, even while the Orangemen were so disappointing, piled up 877 yards, most of them with only a minimum of assistance from lethargic blockers.

 

***********   QUIZ:  He grew up in Cleveland, the son of a high school football coach.

He played college football at Dayton, and then - literally from scratch - built one of the nation’s premier football programs at Cincinnati’s Archbishop Moeller High School. 

At Moeller, he ran a big-time program, with more assistants on his staff  than college coaches were permitted by the NCAA at the time. In 19 years there, his record was 178-23-2.   He had only one losing season - his first, when Moeller finished 4-6.  He had seven unbeaten seasons and six one-loss seasons; his teams won four mythical national championships, and won Ohio state titles in five of his last six years there.

Everyone in the nation who followed football closely was aware of how good Moeller was.    He was a favorite of Notre Dame’s leadership - its President, Fathers Theodore Hesburgh, and especially Fr. Hesburgh’s right hand man, Father Edmund Joyce. For years, Fr. Joyce oversaw the school’s athletic program and was highly influential in hiring  its football coaches.

Over the years, Notre Dame had recruited a number of players from Moeller, and Father Joyce was impressed by the quality of young men their coach produced.   Fr. Joyce  had come to know knew the coach and the kind of man he was, and  he knew that the Moeller coach’s lifelong ambition was to coach at Notre Dame.  So when Irish coach Dan Devine resigned after the 1980 season, he offered the head coaching job at Notre Dame - and a five-year contract -  to the Moeller coach.

He was a good man and a devout Catholic.  He loved Notre Dame and everything it represented.  He abided by the rules and his players loved him. And after his first game - a 27-9 win over LSU - his Irish were ranked Number One in the nation.   It would have been a marvelous story if it had gone like that -  but it didn’t.

The Irish  lost the next week to Michigan, and they would never attain the top spot during his entire five-year stay in South Bend.

His first season ended 5-6 - Notre Dame’s first losing season in 17 years - and Irish fans had grown restless.

His team did win six games the next year, and then put together back-to-back 7-5 seasons, but that wasn’t nearly enough to quell growing dissatisfaction among alumni and fans.To their credit,  though, Fathers Hesburgh and  Joyce held to their words and allowed him to serve out  the full term of his contract.

In his final season, the Irish went 5-6, ending their season with a 58-7 loss to Miami.   (In Notre Dame’s long history, only a wartime 59-0 loss to Army in 1944 was worse.)  At the end of the  season, he resigned. His record:  30-26-1.

He was succeeded by Lou Holtz, who would coach the Irish to a national title.

The very next year, he was the head coach at Akron, a complete  contrast to Notre Dame  in terms of resources and support, and one of the hardest places to win in all of college football.

He stayed at Akron for nine years, guiding their move up from Division I-AA to membership in the 1-A MAC conference, but after going 1-10 in 1994, he stepped down.  His record at Akron was 73-79-4.

Despite the disappointment of the Notre Dame years, he has remained loyal  to the school, respectful of its people, and grateful for the opportunity it gave him.

He once said, "I had only 26 miserable days at Notre Dame; that's when we lost. Other than that, I was the happiest guy in the world. I loved walking on the campus, loved being there, loved being a part of Notre Dame."



TUESDAY,  JUNE  20, 2023 - “An autopsy of history would show that all great nations commit suicide.” Arnold Toynbee


***********  USFL FINAL REGULAR SEASON WEEKEND RESULTS

SATURDAY

Pittsburgh Maulers 26, New Jersey 6

Birmingham Stallions 27, Memphis Showboats 20

SUNDAY

New Orleans Breakers  17, Houston Gamblers 10

Michigan Panthers 23, Philadelphia Stars  20



USFL FINAL REGULAR SEASON  STANDINGS


North Division Final Standings

1.    Pittsburgh Maulers — 4-6, 4-2

2.    Michigan Panthers — 4-6, 3-3

3.    Philadelphia Stars — 4-6, 2-4

4.    New Jersey Generals — 3-7, 3-3

 

South Division Final Standings

    1.    Birmingham Stallions — 8-2, 4-2

    2.    New Orleans Breakers — 7-3, 3-3

    3.    Memphis Showboats — 5-5, 3-3

    4.    Houston Gamblers — 5-5, 2-4



USFL RECORDS AGAINST TEAMS IN THE OTHER CONFERENCE

Birmingham   4-0

New Orleans  3-1

Memphis   3-1

Houston    3-1

Philadelphia 2-2

Michigan  1-3

Pittsburgh 0-4

New Jersey  0-4


*********** You don’t have to be a genius to see that something’s wrong when every single team in the South finished with a better regular season record than every single team in the North.


*********** North Division teams went  only 3-13 against the teams in the South and  Philadelphia had two of those three wins - against New Orleans and Memphis.  In addition, the Stars barely lost to South champion Birmingham in Week 8,  in the last 32 seconds.  But next week, Pittsburgh, which was 0-4 against teams from the South,  will play Michigan, which did manage to win one game  against a team from the South - in the opening game of the season - for the North title.


***********   To show what a dog-ass Ieague the USFL is, the Michigan Panthers started E. J. Perry - a quarterback who had only joined their club two and a half weeks earlier, and had never taken a snap in the USFL, against Philadelphia in Sunday’s make-or-break game.

Ordinarily, I’d have been excited to see an Ivy League kid - Perry, a Massachusetts kid, played at Brown - but this was verging on insanity.

Actually, it  didn’t turn out badly for Perry or Michigan.  He made his share of mistakes - bobbled a few, missed several assignments - but none of them were serious.

He was 12 of 23 for 121 yards - a rather puny 5.3 yards per attempt - and he didn’t throw a single touchdown pass. But he never turned the ball over.

Michigan ran for just 84 yards - and he was their leading rusher, with 48 yards on 10 carries.

He scored their only touchdown when he turned a botched play into a successful race to the corner.

But Michigan scarcely needed him to do any more than he did, because after letting Philadelphia run all over them in the first half, Michigan’s defense shut them out in the second half.

And Philadelphia’s special teams' play  was flat out embarrassing, as Michigan returned five kickoffs for 200 yards, and blocked a kick and ran it in for a third  quarter touchdown.

I’m personally sad  because I’ve really enjoyed watching Philadelphia QB Case Cookus.  He completed 24 of 44 for 247 yards and two beautiful TDs, and he was the Stars’ leading  rusher with 48 yards on seven carries.   I know he’d make a lot more money as an NFL backup - or even on an NFL team’s practice squad -  but I’m sad because I doubt that I’ll ever get to see him play at that level. 

I’m also sorry because an Aberdeen, Washington  kid,  Joel Dublanko,  had been playing well as a starting linebacker  for the Stars, after an unfortunate experience with San Antonio in the XFL.

And I’m really sorry for Michigan QB Josh Love, a San Jose State kid who got them to the point where they had a shot at Philadelphia and then  got dumped in favor of a  guy  who’d never even played a game in their league.  Considering the role that Michigan’s defense and special teams played in their win, nearly anybody could have played QB for them and won.

Dog-ass league.



***********   Forbes Magazine estimates “President” Biden’s net worth as about $8 million. Not bad for a public servant.  The facile explanation for all those millions Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Biden have compiled  has been  “sales of his books.”

Please.

We’re expected to believe this, in a nation whose people under  the age of 40 only read what’s on their phones, and don’t have the attention span to read an entire book anyhow.

To make the kind of  money we’re expected to believe the Bidens  made selling books, they’d have to have sold so many books that everywhere you went, you’d see somebody with his nose in one.

Truthfully - have you ever seen anyone reading “Promise Me, Dad?” or “Promises to Keep?”

Do you even know anybody who's read one of them?

You don’t suppose, do you, that some Chinese fella simply “bought”  several million copies, and then told the publisher, “Keep the books?”



*********** With very few exceptions, West Virginia has had a history of being jilted by coaches who’ve had success there.  Rich Rodriguez and Dana Holgorsen are prime examples.

So  when West Virginians get a homeboy  to coach them and it’s plain he wants to stay, they’re liable to tolerate some behavior by him that outsiders wouldn’t.

Not to say that West Virginia police would have simply offered to give him a  ride home and forget what happened, but he wasn’t in West Virginia on Thursday evening when it happened - when his SUV was stopped in the middle of a road and police, investigating, found “bags of empty beer containers” inside; a field sobriety test indicated that he’d been driving while impaired; and a breath test showed him to have a blood alcohol level of .21. 

No, he was in Pittsburgh, and when Pittsburgh police arrested him, it was only a matter of time before it became national news.

While plenty of us wondered how University of West Virginia people would manage to make this go away, they, apparently, saw no way out.  On Friday, faced with the option of being fired for cause and walking away without another paycheck, or “retiring” with a state pension and some sort of walking-away money, he chose retirement.

Considering the amount of money big-time college coaches make, there’s no excuse for them ever to be caught driving while impaired.  Listen - for the kind of money they can afford to pay for the service, I’ll drop whatever I’m doing and get there - wherever it is - and drive.

Come to think of it, there’s a business opportunity for somebody: www.drivers4drunkcoaches.com . A nationwide network of guys like me who would be on call - 24/7 -  to get to the scene in a hurry and drive drunken coaches home safely.


***********    There was a time when I was in my twenties and playing softball in an industrial league in Baltimore. We were sponsored by Carling’s Black Label Beer and we were pretty good - as long as we had Ray Neal pitching.  None of us was paid - except Ray.  After each game he pitched, we’d pass the hat and give the collection to him.

I have to admit, I was a little displeased with the deal, but what was my choice?

I’m reminded of that by this NIL stuff, in which people are being asked to dig into their funds and contribute money that’s going to go not to some deserving kid in the inner city or the backwoods to help pay his way through  college - but to enrich some teenage football player in return for his agreement to play for their college.

The late Al McGuire, a great basketball coach who had a great way with words, called  college recruiting “impish.” That was 40 years ago.  I’d love to hear what he’d call today’s NIL business.

One thing it’s clearly not, though, is charity - and the  IRS is onto it.

It has  declared that NIL collectives can’t be set up as charities. (Several had already done so, making it possible for rich guys to make their donations tax-deductible, but the IRS says that unlike a charity, the collectives provide too much “private benefit to individuals.”)

Yes, it  said, “advancing education” is a permissible charitable purpose, but NIL payments don’t advance education, and  “student-athletes” aren’t exactly what the IRS considers  a “charitable class.”

Said a law professor at Pitt who was formerly an IRS attorney, “It just does not fit into the panoply that we call charitable organizations. It just doesn’t.”

Translation: you, Mister Richbitch,  can donate all you want to your school’s NIL.  But you can’t deduct it from your taxes as a  charitable contribution (the way you might have if you had donated it to the school itself).

And if you’re running the NIL, you’re not  going to be running  a non-profit.

Said a law professor at Florida A & M, “This is not going to put the NIL industry out of business. It just means they’re going to have to pay taxes.”



 
***********  I watch fast food  commercials and I laugh at the phoniness as I watch all the sloppy gunk being squirted  on their burgers, and then I see some guy actually eating it like this.  Gimme a break   I know this shot is supposed to show off the burger itself,  but if Guy Fieri has to hunch over to eat big, juicy burgers, I know this guy can’t possibly hold it like this and eat it without getting special sauce all over his shirt.



*********** ATTACKING COACH ERHARDT’S DEFENSE… When I said on Friday “it’s not as if we’re severely limited in the things we can do from this formation,” I failed to elaborate. The Reach Sweep is fairly obvious, the G play is straightforward, and so is the trap.  So let’s take a look at the counter - in this case a Criss-Cross version.




On the left, we're using our  usual “C” blocking.  The play is away from the Over Tackle, so you’ll notice that he’s doing the same thing as the Tight End  - “Replace the Man to your inside, and turn back.” The backside guard (gold) kicks out and the backside tackle (green) leads through.

On the right, in the event that that “LB” on the shortside has been well trained to close down with our end’s down block, we may log him with our guard (gold) and send the tackle (green) outside.  The C Back has to know this, of course, because this is one of those rare cases where we actually want him to take a counter outside.


*********** If I were so inclined, I could easily fix a football game these days by paying guys to keep on tackling just as they’re already doing it - shooting at a runner’s ankles, giving the appearance of actually trying to make a tackle.

Except that’s what I’m seeing now.  It’s almost as if they’re being paid to suck at tackling.

It must be the influence of the worthless “Hawk Tackling,” that’s spread like an epidemic, but I’ve seen so many diving attempts at tackling - especially by defensive backs in the open field - that if I were a running backs’ coach, I’d have my guys working hard  on hurdling.


*********** Reporters can really be clueless doofuses.  No sooner had New Orleans beaten Memphis on Sunday than one of them stuck a mic in the face of New Orleans coach John DeFilippo and asked him, “What does this team have to do to beat Birmingham (in next week’s divisional playoff game)?”

“President” Biden would have said, “That’s a stupid question.”

But Coach DeFilippo merely said, “I don’t know.  I’m just going to enjoy this one.”


*********** What happened to players who used to congratulate a teammate for making a good play? I just don’t see it any more.   Is this why there’s so much self-celebration going on?



***********   Those who might wonder  whether being imprisoned will necessarily keep Donald Trump from running for the presidency might  find the story of James Michael Curley, longtime Mayor of Boston, interesting.


https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Michael_Curley


***********   Sheesh.  Locations of TV and movie “shoots” - locations where scenes are being shot - are being kept top secret, in hopes they can avoid being disrupted by “flying squadrons” of union  types in support of striking screen writers.


You just wait until we have the Brotherhood of American College Football Players.  Or the Football Coaches Guild.


***********   It appears that San Diego State may have sent a warning to the Pac-12 that it’s time for it to fish or cut bait with respect to conference expansion. 

Last week, it sent the  Mountain West its written notification of  its intention  to leave the conference.

But at the same time, it has asked the Conference to delay  the deadline for officially withdrawing.

As it stands, the deadline for San Diego State to notify the Conference formally that it is withdrawing is June 30..  If it does notify the conference by the deadline, it must pay a $17 million exit fee.

But after that, the exit fee doubles.

Conference members are said to be split on whether to grant the delay because there are those who would just as soon see SDSU leave - so they can  divvy up the $17 million.

On the other side of the issue, should SDSU be calling the Pac-12’s bluff  and the Pac-12 presidents - notoriously clueless and out of touch - continue to dawdle, there is the distinct possibility that that Big 12 might swoop in and snatch up the Aztecs, leaving the Pac-12 without any presence whatever  in southern  California.


 


*********** While walking on the beach at Ocean Shores, Washington, Saturday, I noticed my dog sniffing something.  As I got closer, it looked like a dead baby seal and I got her away quickly.  That’s when I discovered that the little sucker was alive. It’s not an uncommon sight at this time of year,  and the most important thing is to keep your distance just in  the unlikely event that Mama is nearby.  I backed off and let other people know what was going on (there weren’t many people on the beach) and for the next 20 minutes or so I watched in awe as he struggled to drag himself back to the ocean, in a manner not unlike one of us crawling along using only our elbows. (You can see what its tracks look like. )  It would work  hard for a minute or two, covering maybe 5-10  feet, then stop, undoubtedly exhausted.  And then, after a rest, it would resume.  Over and over. I could not believe the persistence, the determination, the drive.  The struggle against the odds. What an example for kids!  Eventually it made it to  shallow  water,  which must have provided a bit of buoyancy,  because it began to move a little faster.  Finally, I saw a small wave break over its head, and after the wave passed, I saw its little head bobbing above the surface as it swam (I think) away.  I don’t know what its chances of survival are now, but I know what they would have been if it had given up the struggle and stayed on the beach.


***********   I just watched the recording of your zoom session. I have been absent for quite a while as spring football just finished. We repeated our process from last year, which was making rookies and fundamentals the priority rather than running plays. It showed in our game scrimmage, where we lost 20-14 to a bigger and faster team. Not a problem. We knew what our priorities were and I am sure it will pay off when they season starts. I am still running your Open Wing, however, instead of the Jet in front I am now running a Rocket toss.

It’s not so much a toss, as it is a chest pass. It gets wider and faster than the jet did and we no longer have any back getting decapitated by by a linebacker who has timed up a blitz. I’m still working out the bugs, but last season was the first season where I felt like DC’s were starting to catch up.

Although we did not come out on top in the scrimmage, something interesting did happen. We put together a 17 play drive featuring nothing but G-O, Rocket, and Green to score. It was a competitive game, but it wasn’t hard to see that we were on the short end of the physical stick. It's funny how when you are limited with what the kids can do, it actually makes play calling easier. Also keep in mind that this was with only 3 downs to work with.:)

Tom Walls
Winnipeg, Manitoba

Unlike the Double Wing, about  which I admit to being dogmatic, the aim of the Open Wing was the emphasis on “Open”  to give guys a base which would serve as their admission to the exotic world of  spread shotgun, and then by using that  base as their template they  might find a variety of ways to make it work for them.


*********** Loved your last Zoom meeting, especially the flip-flopping and dead ball snapping segments.  I’m a big fan of both.

Lou Orlando
Rye, New Hampshire

Coach Orlando played center at Yale under legendary coach Carm Cozza.


***********   President Bowen and Oxford's Chancellor are saying the same thing, but they're just stating the self-evident. Why is it necesssary for anyone to make such a pronouncement? Because every bloody company from dog-food makers to car makers are telling us what to think. Similarly, the story about Blue Jays manager Schneider positively infuriates me. And that walking turd knew when he said his reliever's punishment would extend through all of Dante's rings of hell...that he was lying. Today the pro sports behemoths will crush you, not with a straightforward form of punishment, but by...literally...banishing you. Within hours these MLBers get sent down, unless, of course, you possess the stature of Clayton Kershaw. Free expression for Judas Johnny Schneider, but for you, so sorry. The Jays are a fun team to watch, and they have guys who seem to be my kind, but I nonetheless wish they would lose every game the rest of the season.

And let's add Wilson to the companies I hope are punished with a painful boycott (never happen, I know).

Don't give AB any more ideas, please.

The "Night Runner" story misted my eyes. That's the beauty of college football. RIP, man.

I watched D Henry tapes when he was still at Yulee. And, as I remind Gator people, Yulee's not far from Gainesville. Right there is why you haven't had a great running back since Fred Taylor.

John Vermillion
St. Petersburg, Florida


*********** Hugh,

Pulling for a Philly loss and a NJ win.  I like the Generals' run game with Victor and Davis, and athletic QB Johnson gives them the additional threat to run or pass.  

A number of ESPN talking heads have ALREADY referred to the Final Four as the "MEN'S" Final.  

A new logo won't magically turn the Browns into the new pro football juggernaut.

For the coach who doesn't have a DVD player you can still find them online fairly cheap.  Fortunately I still have mine, but I also still use my Mac with the built-in DVD player to enjoy your DVD's!

Too little, too late for Bud Light.  The damage has been done no matter how hard they try to spin it.

Kids like Derrick Henry make a coach look like a genius.  Unfortunately there aren't a lot of geniuses anymore.

IMHO a DW coach who fails to utilize formation adjustments is not helping himself to stay a step ahead of the defenses trying desperately to get an edge on you.  Those subtle unbalanced looks, or even moving the backs around to gain an advantage certainly doesn't mean you've abandoned the basic tenet of the DW offense.

I'm in total agreement with your son Ed.  I stay up late to watch an entire game of my beloved Fresno State Bulldogs when their games are being broadcast late.  Not so much if the late game is between PAC 12 schools.

My brother-in-law lived in Vancouver and witnessed the deteriorating conditions in Portland.  He fled with his family to Nashville.



QUIZ:  Jim Turner (for those of us who tried kicking back in the day it became incumbent upon us toe bashers to buy a square toed kicking shoe that Jim Turner wore).

Enjoy the weekend!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas


I deliberately used the Photos I did to show the square toe.  I once had a player named Henry Brown who had been both a wide receiver and a play kicker at Missouri (his brother, Cliff Brown, was Notre Dame’s first black quarterback) . Henry, who was a very good receiver and kicker for me, had to change shoes whenever  it was time to kick.  Said it was tough to run in the square-toed shoe.







BE SURE TO NOTICE THE SQUARE TOE!

*********** QUIZ  ANSWER:   Jim Turner went to high school in Crockett, California where he played quarterback on the football team and lettered on the swim team.

At Utah State, he was their quarterback and their placekicker.

Taken by the (trigger alert) “Redskins” (gasp)  in the 19th round of the 1963 draft, he was cut by the Skins and signed as a free agent by the New York Jets.

He established himself as  their placekicker, and in 1968 he set league regular season records in scoring  (145 points)  and field goals (34).

In the Jets’ 1968 AFL  championship game win over the Raiders his nine points more than made the difference  and  in Super Bowl III he personally outscored the heavily favored Baltimore Colts: his three field goals  and an extra point provided the Jets with the winning margin in their stunning 16-7 upset win.

He was named to the Pro Bowl in both 1968 and 1969.

Traded to Denver  following the 1970 season, he accounted for four points in the Broncos’ loss to Dallas in Super Bowl XII.

In his career he made 304 of 488 field goals and made 97.5 per cent of his extra point attempts (521 of 534) for a  total of 1,439 points.

His 304 field goals rank him third all-time among all NFL kickers, behind only Jan Stenerud and George Blanda. (Interestingly, both he and Blanda were conventional straight-on kickers; he was one of the last.)

Over his  16-year career  he appeared in 228 games and never missed a one, regular-season or playoff.

He, as much as any  kicker of his time, represented the growing influence on the game of the place-kicking specialist, and in 1969  he was on the cover of Sports Illustrated as the poster boy for a feature article on the subject. 

A modest person, he credited his prominent role in the Jets’ strategy to Joe Namath and  to the Jets’ defense:

“A lot of people criticize us for going after the field goal when we bog down inside the 35,” he said. “But we can afford to do that because we have the luxury of a good defense. Joe knows it’ll turn the ball back to him pretty quick and give us another shot for the seven. Of course, that makes me look a lot better, getting all those attempts.”

After football, he spent time as an NBC sports analyst, and hosted a Denver sports radio talk show.

He is in the Broncos’ Ring of Honor and in the Utah State Athletics Hall of Fame, and he was named to the all-time AFL Second Team.

Jim Turner passed away last week.  He was 81.



CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING JIM TURNER

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
TOM DAVIS - SAN MARCOS, CALIFORNIA
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS




************ QUIZ: He was born in Shreveport, Louisiana but he grew up in Los Angeles and he was a star at center and linebacker at Dorsey High.

He played for two years at East L.A. Junior College, then transferred to USC,  where he started at linebacker for two years. They were John McKay’s first two teams, and those Trojan teams weren’t very good: they went  4-6  and 4-5-1.  (McKay would go on to coach 14 more seasons at USC without another losing season.  In that time, he would take the Trojans to eight Rose Bowls.)

Our guy was taken number six in the AFL draft by the San Diego Chargers.  In his second year with the club, the Chargers, coached by Sid Gillman,  won the AFL title.  They were very good. On offense they had stars like John Hadl, Lance Alworth, Keith Lincoln and Paul Lowe, and on defense our guy was one of the standouts.

He played  six seasons with the Chargers, and was four times an AFL All-Star.  In the annual AFL All-Star Game following the 1965 season, he was named Outstanding Defensive Player.

He was acquired by the Bengals in their 1968 expansion draft, and started all 12 games for his new club.

Early the following season, the team was staying in a Cincinnati hotel the night before its opening game against the Dolphins.   The morning of the game, his roommate, offensive tackle Ernie Wright, was awakened by the sound of his labored breathing.   “(He) woke me up,” Wright would tell the Associated Press.  “He was breathing like he had an asthmatic attack or something. I called to him then went over to his bed and shook him - real good. I got no response. I checked his mouth to make sure he wasn’t having a convulsion and swallowing his tongue. Then I called for help. There was nothing else I could do.”

When paramedics and Bengal team trainers arrived, he was dead. It was determined later that he died of a pulmonary embolism, a clot that had formed in his knee, then moved to a lung. 

He was 29. He left his wife and a young son.

He was elected posthumously to the Chargers’ Hall of Fame.  He was named one of the top five Bengals of the 1960s.

His Number 55 has been retired by the Chargers, but not because of him - because it belonged to another linebacker named Junior Seau.

Wrote an AFL historian named Todd Tobias, he and Seau had a lot in common:

Both came from underprivileged backgrounds in southern California and went on to football stardom at the University of Southern California. Both were college All Americans, both were drafted by San Diego. Both had brilliant Chargers’ careers that culminated in both being enshrined in the team’s Hall of Fame. Both played a linebacker position, both ended their playing days with different teams. Both wore the same jersey number and large, infectious, luminous smiles. Both died suddenly, unexpectedly, tragically.

FRIDAY,  JUNE  16, 2023 - "Neither individuals nor educational institutions should be compelled to take a position on every issue that others regard as highly consequential." William Bowen, former President of Princeton (I would add “companies” to President Bowen’s list)


***********  USFL CURRENT STANDINGS (FINAL REGULAR SEASON WEEKEND)

North Division

    1.    Philadelphia Stars — 4-5, 2-3

    2.    New Jersey Generals — 3-6, 3-2 (beat PHL by 4, lost by 3)

    3.    Pittsburgh Maulers — 3-6, 3-2

    4.    Michigan Panthers — 3-6, 2-3


South Division

    1.    Birmingham Stallions — 7-2, 3-2

    2.    New Orleans Breakers — 6-3, 2-3

    3.    Memphis Showboats — 5-4, 3-2

    4.    Houston Gamblers — 5-4, 2-3



***********  THIS WEEKEND’S GAMES


SATURDAY:

PITTSBURGH VS NEW JERSEY (AT CANTON)

BIRMINGHAM VS MEMPHIS (AT MEMPHIS)




SUNDAY:

NEW ORLEANS VS HOUSTON (AT MEMPHIS)

PHILDELPHIA VS MICHIGAN (AT DETROIT)


PLAYOFF PICTURE


NORTH DIVISION

PHILADELPHIA-MICHIGAN LOSER IS ELIMINATED
IF PHILADELPHIA WINS, PHILADELPHIA TAKES FIRST PLACE IN DIVISION

PITTSBURGH-NEW JERSEY LOSER IS ELIMINATED
IF PHILADELPHIA LOSES, PITTSBURGH-NEW JERSEY WINNER TAKES FIRST PLACE


SOUTH DIVISION

BIRMINGHAM WINS - BIRMINGHAM FINISHES FIRST. PERIOD.

NEW ORLEANS LOSES - BIRMINGHAM FINISHES FIRST. PERIOD.

BIRMINGHAM LOSES AND NEW ORLEANS WINS - NEW ORLEANS FINISHES FIRST

BIRMINGHAM WINS AND NEW ORLEANS WINS - THEY FINISH 1-2

BOTH BIRMINGHAM AND NEW ORLEANS LOSE - BIRMINGHAM FINISHES FIRST, AND NEW ORLEANS, MEMPHIS AND HOUSTON ARE TIED FOR SECOND. TIE-BREAKER WOULD MOST LIKELY BE (1) HEAD-TO-HEAD; (2) WON-LOST RECORD IN THE DIVISION; (3) WON-LOST RECORDS OF OPPONENTS DEFEATED


*********** There is only  one “World Series,”  right?  And it’s played by major league baseball teams, right?

Any other use of the term requires some sort of additional description, such as “College World Series.”  That’s cool enough.  College kids playing for a baseball championship.

But  then along came a softball tournament - for college women - and somebody thought it would be  cool to call it the “Women’s College World Series,” even though there is no such thing as a major league softball championship known as  the “World Series.”

Okay, okay,  I understand.  I don’t like it, but I understand.

But guess what?  It wasn’t enough to borrow the name of the men’s world series.  Now the TV people are calling the REAL “College World Series” - the one that the efforts of many men, over many years, put on a level with “Final Four” as a major sports event - the MEN’S College World Series.

Coming soon - count on it - the MEN’S Final Four.



*********** The Cleveland Browns have a new logo, and it’s the face of a dog.  Okay, I get it.  For years, rowdy Browns’ fans have inhabited  section of end zone that’s come to be called the Dog Pound. 


But then, as creative people are accustomed to doing,  they have to explain their work to the rest of us.  (I’ve been through this with package designers, and it can get pretty funny listening to them.)  In this case, whoever designed the dog face - or, more likely, whoever had to explain it to the Browns’ executives  - had to devise  ways of justifying the design, and many of them  define the term “far-fetched."

 



Anyhow, here is  the official key to the design…


    •    Ohio: In the top left corner, the bullmastiff's right ear is in a shape of Ohio, the team's home state.

    •    Football: The nose of the bullmastiff is in the shape of a football.

    •    East end zone: The bullmastiff's tag has an outline Cleveland Municipal Stadium, the first home of the Browns, and the where the original "Dawg Pound" section was in the east end zone.

    •    Guitar Pick: The center of the dog tag is a guitar pick in reference to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland.

    •    Spikes: The dog collar has eight spikes as a nod to the team's eight total championships.

    •    Guardian Bridge: In between the dog's jowls is the shape of the Cleveland's Hope Memorial Bridge "fortifying the bond between fans, team and city.”

    •    Pound Helmet: As a nod to the original "Dawg Pound," a maskless helmet worn by fans in in the top right.

    •    Helmet Stripe: On the dog's forehead is a center stripe in reference to the team's helmets.


(What a load of horse manure. And do they really think they can fool people in Ohio into thinking that’s the shape of their state, when it  looks more like Tasmania?)


***********   I am faced with a hard business decision…


Coach,  As you can see I ordered the video series. They are still in dvd format correct? I assumed they were digital. I do not own a dvd player any more unfortunately.


I won’t be able to view the material if that is the case. Is there something we can workout in lieu of you shipping out the dvds that I unfortunately cannot view?


I appreciate your immediate response coach.

I understand your problem and I’m trying to deal with it. My problem is the same one that Netflix has - people getting access to my material without paying for it. It isn’t fair for you to pay for something that someone else gets for free.   But it’s also not right to sell you something you can’t use.  I can only tell you right now that I will help you in any way I can.


*********** You knew this was coming.

 


And if you’re playing center and they hand you a rainbow-colored ball - you'd better hope you'll be running from shotgun.


*********** The swinging doors open and a tall figure stands in the doorway of the Dirty Dog Saloon.


The music stops.  So does the dancing.   Everybody knows who it is.


Inside, men step aside, making way for the tall stranger as he strides to the bar, followed by a sizable entourage.


“What’ll it be, Sir?” asks the bartender.  “The usual?”


The camera switches to a close-up of the stranger and shows him to be - The Duke himself.  John Wayne.


“Yeah, the usual,” he says.  “Bud Light.  And a cold Bud Light for all my men.  A long hard ride makes a man mighty thirsty - and there’s nothing like a tall, cold, Bud Light to quench a man’s thirst.


“Isn’t that right?” he asks, pivoting to face the crowd.


“YES, SIR!” they shout.


With that, the Duke turns back toward the bar and slamming down a fistful of silver dollars, says, “Barkeep - Bud Light for everybody in the house - on me!”


Cheers ring out.  The piano player resumes playing, frosty beer mugs are raised high, and  we fade out to black and the message…


“This Bud Light’s for you.”


AI saves the day for AB.



*********** I read an incredible article in The Athletic about Derrick Henry, and I have to admit that I had no idea how good this guy was, long before he ever got to Alabama - or the Titans.

It’s a long article, and I have excerpted some it.  The “Ramsey” here is Bobby Ramsey, who took the head coaching job in Yulee, Florida at a school that had played only one year of varsity football  and whose prospects for his first season there were dismal.

He was commiserating with one of the middle school coaches who assured him that the furure was bright.

“You know, Coach, in a year we’ll get Derrick Henry up here and we’ll be fine,'” Ramsey recalled Dunlap telling him in his deep, gruff voice.

“Sure, there’s some seventh-grader who you think is pretty good,” Ramsey thought. “Look at this team right now. We’re going to go 0-10 next year.’”

A few days later, Ramsey was leading one of his first spring practices at the high school, which borders the middle school field. “We looked horrible,” Ramsey recalled. “We were soft. I’m just really down.” As he walked off the field, he looked over at the middle school football practice. Players were lined up at the 25-yard line, standing shoulder to shoulder. The kids mostly looked the same: 5-foot-5, 5-foot-7, 5-foot-6, all in a row.

“Then it was, boom, 6-foot-2,” Ramsey said. “I was like, Ohhhh, that’s Derrick. Yeah, let’s get through Year 1, then we’ve got a shot.”

*****


As a freshman, Henry ran for 2,465 yards (224.1 per game) and 26 touchdowns. The next year, coaches started using him sporadically on defense as a pass rusher. He was only allowed to do it if the game was close late, but if they needed a sack, Henry went in as a blitzing outside linebacker.

In Henry’s sophomore season, Yulee had a chance to clinch its first-ever playoff berth in a late-October game against University Christian. But the Hornets played their worst first half of the season and trailed 21-3 at the break. “Coach Ramsey came into halftime and chewed us out,” said Zac Camp, a wide receiver and defensive back.

The coach changed the plan. Henry was to barely leave the field. He carried the ball 33 times. He played defense. And for the first time, he played special teams, too.

In the 38-34 come-from-behind win that sent the Hornets into the playoffs, Henry ran for 288 yards and three touchdowns, sacked the opposing quarterback and blocked a punt. “I’m not sure that he ever practiced it,” assistant Scott Jones said of Henry’s punt block. “Before that or since.”

“The second half of that game was the closest you’d see to a basketball player taking a game over,” Ramsey said.

It didn’t matter that teams knew Henry was the star. They still couldn’t stop him.

Henry’s defensive prowess had college scouts fascinated. Many thought Henry projected better on that side of the ball, or maybe at tight end. “They said at the college level he was going to be an easy target as a running back since he’s so big,” said Larry Blustein, a recruiting expert in Florida for the last five decades.

Ramsey met with Henry after his sophomore year to discuss his recruitment. Henry was adamant that he was a running back. He told Ramsey he didn’t want to talk to any colleges that were considering moving him to a different position.

“Some schools would giggle when I would say he wanted to play running back,” Ramsey said. They would tell Ramsey that players who look like Henry needed to rush the passer. “And I get all that,” Ramsey said. “But there are always outliers. I would always compare it to Magic Johnson. Magic was 6-foot-9 and played point guard.”

After that season, Ramsey put assistant Bryan Libby in charge of putting together the team’s schedule for the next season, but when Libby called coaches to set up games, their only question was about Henry.

“They were like, ‘Yeah, man, that’s great, when’s your running back graduate?’ I was like, ‘In two years,'” Libby said. “They said, ‘Great, call us back once he leaves.’”

“You try to schedule games with Derrick Henry on your team,” Ramsey said. “It was like we were selling cancer.”

Yulee had to schedule games against far superior teams, and Henry’s junior season was a gauntlet. Gainesville, a powerhouse with several Division I recruits on its roster, beat Yulee in the season opener. But afterward, the discussion was about how Henry ran for 181 yards and two touchdowns against arguably the best defense in the state with an undermanned offensive line and few rushing lanes. “Coming off the field, everyone was like, ‘This dude is for real,'” Ramsey said. “It was weird because we lost this game by 15, but everyone was just caught up in him.”

Over the team’s final 10 games, Henry averaged 231 rushing yards and three touchdowns per game. “At that point, it became a traveling road show,” Libby said. “The circus was coming to town.”

In some ways, Henry made play calling difficult. You can’t give him the ball every play. Or can you?

“It was kind of a joke being the offensive coordinator,” Jones said. “Like, ‘Gee, what play am I going to call now? Oh, give it to Derrick.'”

In Henry’s junior year, Jones learned the hard way what happens when you didn’t give him the ball. On a second-and-long, he called for a play-action pass, hoping to take a shot down the field. Instead, it ended with a sack. Yulee now faced third-and-39.

“Ramsey is chewing me out after that. He’s yelling at me like, ‘Don’t overcoach it!'” Jones said. “And I was like, ‘Damn it, Ramsey. Fine, here you go. Blast left, Derrick. Go ahead, see if you can get us 39.’

“And sure enough, he gets us 40 yards.”

Get this:

In his senior year, he ran for 4,261 yards and 55 touchdowns.


One game was televised by ESPN because people were interested in seeing another running back. The other running back carried 34 times for 222 yards,. Henry carried 35 tines for 362 yards and six touchdowns.

*********** ATTACKING RON ERHARDT’S DEFENSE:  We have a few more tricks up our sleeves, and here’s one that my closest Double Wing friends  know quite well - an unbalanced line.


An unbalanced line can sometimes unstick a clogged offense.


When people don’t know recognize what we’ve done when we’ve gone unbalanced, they’ve allowed one-man advantage on one side of center.


When they do know what we’ve done, they’re likely to adjust.  There actually are times when we want them to recognize and adjust, such as when they ordinarily play an odd-front defense and our center is having trouble with their nose guard.  We can almost force them to move that nose.


But even if they do discover what we’ve done and  then adjust, we’ve still managed to screw with the defense that they’ve been working on all week in preparing for us.  Now, they have to take a man who’s been practicing against, say, our nose, and move him over onto a guard.


A few cautions:


You have no idea how people are going to react to unbalanced, so your idea of a surprise could wind up backfiring on you.


For that reason, if you’re running unbalanced and you intend to surprise the opposition, you don’t want to do it too often.


You also don’t want to waste time getting set at the line of scrimmage.  Get up to the line, get set, and before they can figure out what’s going on - snap the ball.


I’ve found that the best way for me to go unbalanced is to move a tackle from his side to the opposite side, inserted between the opposite tackle and tight end.  As we break the huddle, the tackle simply moves behind the other linemen to get to the opposite side before getting  set. (Flip-flopping linemen, which I have done, makes it very hard for defenses to detect a tackle moving to the other side.) By the way, this is another among the many reasons why I favor huddling. I’d like to see a no-huddle team try going  unbalanced without getting caught.

Why Tackles?


(1) Guards are so valuable to our blocking schemes that I hesitate to move them;


(2) Moving an end over leaves a tackle - with an ineligible number - exposed on the “stub” side.  That way,  the defense will get wise to what we’ve done the instant they notice an end man on the line with an ineligible number.


(3) When we insert an extra linemen into the interior line, people are less likely to notice. As tightly packed together as our linemen are, it’s quite hard for defenses - and coaches up in the press box - to realize that we’ve gone unbalanced - that we’ve got an extra blocker on one side. There have been many occasions when I’ve been watching video of one of my own teams and it’s taken me several viewings of a play to realize that we’ve been  unbalanced.


(4) We still have an eligible receiver on the short side.


As a general rule, the over-shifting tackle has simple-to-remember  assignments:


If we’re running a wedge, he already understands the blocking principles.


Otherwise, it’s “ask the man next to you”:


If we’re running a play to his side, his assignment is the same as the other tackle’s.


If we’re running a play to the opposite side (such as a counter), his assignment is the same as the tight end’s.


Let’s guess  what our going unbalanced might cause them to do (the over shifted tackle is Mister Red Man):

 

On the left, in the “Not Likely” scenario, nobody has adjusted at all.  The “LB” continues to line up one man away from his DE.  But this leaves the “LB” outflanked by two of our men, so we’d kill them with a sweep or Super Power.


The “Most Likely” scenario is that people will line up exactly as they have been doing, which means that the “LB” will line up on the outside shoulder of our TE, as he always does. If the play side defensive T and E line up as always, there will be a bubble between our tight end and our over-shifted tackle.


Eventually, giving the defense credit, they will adjust once they recognize it.  Do they have crazy defense that they’d run? I doubt it, because in having to prepare for this offense on short notice - an offense that they seldom see - they really don’t have a lot of time to mess around with a different defense for every contingency.  What we’d most likely see, then, “EVENTUALLY,”  is simply a complete shift of every defender to the unbalanced side.  This means that everbody on the defensive team except the “LB” will be lined up against a different man than he’s been accustomed to be playing against.


It’s not as if we’re severely limited in the things we can do from this formation.  We apply  time-tested sets of rules that enable us to block any man in our sphere of influence.



*********** I think it’s fair to say that my son is at least tied for the Number One Mountain West Fan in Australia, and he recently sent me a great article on Utah State’s famed “Night Runner…”


People like this guy are the reason why I think that the SEC and Big Ten people  - and the TV networks injecting them with money - are mistaken  in thinking that people beyond the borders of those conferences will ever care enough about them that they’ll  drop their allegiances to their favorite colleges and stay home to watch the SEC Game of the Week on TV.


https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/25529990/utah-state-night-runner-steve-wiley-made-last-ride



*********** Portland, Oregon, once one of the nicest cities I’ve ever known, has been going to hell, largely because of the soft-ass way it deals with crime.

But our town - Camas, Washington - has been ranked by a website called SmartAsset as one of the safest suburbs in the US.  It’s described in an article as “20 miles east of the city (Portland),” but in the interest of accuracy I should point out that  a few of those miles are  take up by  a very long bridge across the Columbia River (which separates Washington from Oregon.

That river does serve as a nice buffer.

I like Camas a lot, but between its proximity to Portland and the insanity of our state politicians, who think it’s a wonderful idea to bring big city life to its small towns  by doing away with single family zoning - Yay!  Housing projects! - I’m not sure we can hold out a lot longer.

I’m definitely concerned about the recent hiring of our new police chief.  The woman’s from PORTLAND, for God’s sake. I mean really - there’s a reason why colleges hire coaches from places that have been successful.


https://smartasset.com/data-studies/americas-safest-suburbs-2023



***********   Hugh,

Just finished the June 13 edition of the News and was struck by two things. First the use of “C up” to attack the Ernhart 6-2 defense, is really great stuff and a good analysis of why the DW is so difficult to defend. Over the years we ran the Up Formation about 25 per cent of the time and it always seemed to shake things loose if we were having trouble running Super Power. Just something about having that wing on the LOS that drove defenses crazy.

Secondly the article on the South Carolina Coach going to the DW offense is exactly what happened to us. It was like an instant replay of our situation where years of losing football games were changed when we adopted the DW. When I took over as principal of our high school I talked our Head Coach into looking at the DW as a possible way to change things around and of course bringing you out to our school to do a clinic didn’t hurt either. The change resulted in 13 years of unparalleled success and literally changed the lives of all us involved.

Thanks again for all you do!

Jack Tourtillotte
Rangeley, Maine



***********   So much to like about this page. You've re-used one of Thomas Sowell's great thoughts, but I would be happy to have him lead off every page.


That article about Jet Turner is a page turner. Fascinating. Love how he explained his attraction to the DW. And not simply his, but his players. Don't know how many times I wished I had been able to play in this offense. More than maybe any other, the DW offense enables (or should enable) every player to regard himself as a major stakeholder.

Your multiple choice quiz was Babylon Bee material.

The continuing feature on how to attack Coach Erhardt's defense was most interesting this week.

Finally, the reason I most enjoy this page is because of the tangents you pursue. Example: the two NYC high schools. Holy moly! the list of grads for each is astounding. What a Team Jeopardy contest you could have by choosing three members from each school to square off. Given the admittedly incomplete list, I think I'd go with Boys High...Cosell, Copland, and Asimov by themselves would have nearly every category nailed down.

John Vermillion
St. Petersburg, Florida



***********  Hugh,

NJ Generals QB's DeAndre Johnson and backup Dakota Prukop, along with those RB's Victor and Davis give the Generals a real shot on offense down the stretch to make the USFL playoffs.

I once experienced a long lightning delay coaching in Ohio.  Returned to the field twice only to be forced back in.  Game started at 7:30 and ended at 11:45.  Thank God both teams were run-oriented!

Seeing that photo of the "pride" flag on the WH flanked by two American flags immediately caught my attention.  WHOA!  That ain't right!
According to US Flag code and protocols the American Flag MUST always be in the middle of a group of flags, AND...higher than the other flags.  Another Biden boo-boo.

Could you imagine the Djokovic rule being applied to college football?  We could call it the "Saban" rule?  

I recall when Dr. John Rockwell lived in Austin.  One Hugh Wyatt is a mutual acquaintance of ours!  Met John for some drinks, and he also  showed up to a few of our games to watch a little DW football.  Not the best DW to watch, but close.  Great guy.  I hope he's doing well down in CC.


Have a great week!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas
 





***********   QUIZ ANSWER:  Dave Duerson grew up in Muncie, Indiana and played football, basketball and baseball at Northside High School there.  In 1979, his senior year, he was named Indiana’s Mister Football.

At Notre Dame he played defensive back for four years,  earning All-America honors his junior and senior years.  In his senior year, he was a co-captain and team MVP.

He  spent his first three summers at Notre Dame working as a law clerk in Miami, Florida, and  then during the summer before his senior season he served as legislative aide to Richard Lugar Republican Senator from Indiana.  He majored in economics and graduated with honors.

He was taken in the third round of the NFL draft by the Chicago Bears, and became an integral part of one of the greatest defensive units in NFL history.  Playing safety, he was selected to  four straight Pro Bowls, and in 1985 he won a Super Bowl ring playing with the “Super Bowl Shuffle” Bears.

In 1986 he was named first team All Pro. (In that season, he set a new NFL record  of seven sacks by a defensive back.

In 1987,  he was named  NFL Man of the Year.

He played eight seasons with the Bears - he has been named one of the 100 Greatest Bears of All Time - and one season with the Giants and two with the Cardinals.  In his 11 seasons, he had 20 interceptions - returned for 226 yards - and 16 quarterback sacks.

After football, he enjoyed success as a businessman, owning some McDonald’s restaurants, and then owning a majority interest in a sausage company selling to McDonald’s and other customers.

He was honored  in 1990 by the Notre Dame Monogram Club, with the Edward "Moose" Krause Distinguished Service Award, and from 2001 to 2005 he served as a member  of the Notre Dame Board of Trustees.

In 2001 he earned an executive MBA from Harvard though its Owners and President’s Management Program.

He served as chairman of the Chicago Chapter of the National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame,  and he was  active with the Boys & Girls Clubs of America.

He also served as a  representative on an NFL panel that reviewed retired players’ claims against the League’s  disability plan as well as its “88 Plan, “ a fund established to assist retired players with dementia (named “88” because that was the number of the late NFL great John Mackey, who suffered from dementia).

It was a difficult position for a former player because while the panel was required  to assist players wherever possible, it was also required to do so with an eye on the funds available to it.  In  2007, testifying  in congressional hearings into  whether the disability board was unfairly denying benefits,  he suggested that there was not then any link established between playing football and dementia. “My father’s 84,” he said, addressing Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar, “and, as I had mentioned earlier, Senator, spent 30 years at General Motors.   He also has — he also has Alzheimer’s and brain damage, but never played a professional sport. So the challenge, you know, in terms of where the damage comes from, is a fair question.”

At about this time, his life took a downturn.   His business went under. His home was foreclosed on, and he filed for personal bankruptcy.

His wife of 25 years  - and mother of his four children - divorced him after he pled guilty to a misdemeanor domestic battery charge of pushing her in an argument.

He confided to friends that he was experiencing occasional confusion,  and persistent headaches.

In February 2011, at his home in Florida,  he was found dead  from a self-inflected gunshot wound to  the chest.   He had texted his family that he wanted his brain to be donated to the Boston University School of Medicine,  for their research into chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).  Since CTE is a neurodegenerative disease  associated with concussions, it can be caused by playing football.  It can’t be diagnosed in a living patient. 

On May 2, 2011, neurologists at Boston University confirmed that Dave Duerson  had, indeed,  had CTE.


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING DAVE DUERSON

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
TOM WALLS - WINNIPEG, MANITOBA
TOM DAVIS - SAN MARCOS, CALIFORNIA
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY







*********** QUIZ:   He went to high school in Crockett, California where he played quarterback on the football team and lettered on the swim team.

At Utah State, he was their quarterback and their placekicker.

Taken by the (trigger alert) “Redskins” (gasp)  in the 19th round of the 1963 draft, he was cut by the Skins and signed as a free agent by the New York Jets.

He established himself as  their placekicker, and in 1968 he set league regular season records in scoring  (145 points)  and field goals (34).

In the Jets’ 1968 AFL  championship game win over the Raiders his nine points more than made the difference  and  in Super Bowl III he personally outscored the heavily favored Baltimore Colts: his three field goals  and an extra point provided the Jets with the winning margin in their stunning 16-7 upset win.

He was named to the Pro Bowl in both 1968 and 1969.

Traded to Denver  following the 1970 season, he accounted for four points in the Broncos’ loss to Dallas in Super Bowl XII.

In his career he made 304 of 488 field goals and made 97.5 per cent of his extra point attempts (521 of 534) for a  total of 1,439 points.

His 304 field goals rank him third all-time among all NFL kickers, behind only Jan Stenerud and George Blanda. (Interestingly, both he and Blanda were conventional straight-on kickers; he was one of the last.)

Over his  16-year career  he appeared in 228 games and never missed a one, regular-season or playoff.

He, as much as any  kicker of his time, represented the growing influence on the game of the place-kicking specialist, and in 1969  he was on the cover of Sports Illustrated as the poster boy for a feature article on the subject. 

A modest person, he credited his prominent role in the Jets’ strategy to Joe Namath and  to the Jets’ defense:

“A lot of people criticize us for going after the field goal when we bog down inside the 35,” he said. “But we can afford to do that because we have the luxury of a good defense. Joe knows it’ll turn the ball back to him pretty quick and give us another shot for the seven. Of course, that makes me look a lot better, getting all those attempts.”

After football, he spent time as an NBC sports analyst, and hosted a Denver sports radio talk show.

He is in the Broncos’ Ring of Honor and in the Utah State Athletics Hall of Fame, and he was named to the all-time AFL Second Team.

He passed away last week.  He was 81.






TUESDAY,  JUNE  13, 2023 - "One of the consequences of such notions as ‘entitlements’ is that people who have contributed nothing to society feel that society owes them something, apparently just for being nice enough to grace us with their presence.” Thomas Sowell


***********   THIS PAST WEEKEND’S USFL GAMES

SATURDAY

At Canton
Pittsburgh 19,  Michigan 7
Who saw this coming?

At Memphis
New Orleans 31, Memphis 3
Shocking - not the outcome, but the margin

SUNDAY

At Memphis
Birmingham 38,  Houston 15
Birmingham’s seventh win  - and its second straight division title

At Canton
New Jersey 37, Philadelphia 33
Philly almost came back from a 21-point  fourth quarter deficit but no… and now the Philly loss throws the  division into chaos

***********  USFL CURRENT STANDINGS (ONE WEEK TO PLAY)

North Division

    1.    Philadelphia Stars — 4-5, 2-3

    2.    New Jersey Generals — 3-6, 3-2 (beat PHL by 4, lost by 3)

    3.    Pittsburgh Maulers — 3-6, 3-2

    4.    Michigan Panthers — 3-6, 2-3


South Division

    1.    Birmingham Stallions — 7-2, 3-2

    2.    New Orleans Breakers — 6-3, 2-3

    3.    Memphis Showboats — 5-4, 3-2

    4.    Houston Gamblers — 5-4, 2-3



NEXT WEEKEND’S GAMES:

SATURDAY:

PITTSBURGH VS NEW JERSEY (AT CANTON)

BIRMINGHAM VS MEMPHIS (AT MEMPHIS)


SUNDAY:

NEW ORLEANS VS HOUSTON (AT MEMPHIS)

PHILDELPHIA VS MICHIGAN (AT DETROIT)


At first glance, it appears that Philadelphia’s loss to New Jersey this past weekend means that every team in the USFL North - a rather sorry lot - still has a shot at a playoff spot

In the South, Birmingham has the division title (and - obviously - a playoff spot locked up)

On Friday I’ll have figured out all the possibilities, but it’s safe to say right now that if Philadelphia wins, they’ve got the Division Title - and a playoff spot. (And - drumroll, please - a .500 record.)

But if Philadelphia should lose - a definite possibility as they’ve already lost once to Michigan, and they’ll be playing the game in Detroit - Philadelphia is OUT. (And the entire damn division will be under .500.)


*********** The New Orleans at Memphis game went into a weather delay that wound up lasting a couple of hours -  so long I ran out of  interest (and time on my DVR).

Which got me to thinking… how come they never had these long weather delays years ago (“when I was a kid”) ? 

MULTIPLE CHOICE:

(A) Lightning hadn’t been invented yet

(B)  We had lightning but its aim was bad and nobody ever got struck by it

(C) Bodies of people killed by lightning were left - slumped over - in stadium seats, and life went on - because we were a tougher breed then

(D) Fossil fuels hadn’t yet  begun to cause Climate Change

(E) None of the above

ANSWER: (E) The others are all bullsh—

There are two reasons:

(1)  It’s  being done “Out of an abundance of caution,” as my esteemed governor, Jay Dipshit, would say  whenever it was time to close down another activity during the Pandemic Plague. It’s the adult version of removing the slick metal slides (whee!) from playgrounds and replacing them with (ugh) boring, plastic spirals,

(2) It’s part of the effort to make the common people - the deplorables - realize how serious a threat (existential, even!) Global Climate Change is,  and how we must be prepared to submit to anything our government requires in order to Save the Planet.


***********   I watched bits of two CFL games this past weekend:  BC at Calgary on Thursday night, and Ottawa at Montreal on Saturday.  As usual, it took a little getting used to - the bigger field, the 12 men, the multiple guys in motion at the snap (and motioning forward at that), the bigger end zone and the single point awarded to the kicking team when the return team can’t bring it out of the end zone, the one-yard-wide neutral zone, and - probably biggest of all - only three downs to make a first down.

But it’s football, and at first glance it appears a bit better coached than either of “our” spring leagues. For sure, the CFL’s tackling is better.  I think that the incredibly poor tackling I’ve seen in the XFL and USFL may be the result of the rapid metastasizing of “Hawk Tackling” throughout our game.

Not that it matters to them, but the CFL is playing hard to get with Americans .  There are usually four CFL games per weekend,  but only two of them are televised on a  cable channel  (CBSSN) that we can get in the US. 

***********   When the Edmonton Elks went down, 17-13, to the Saskatchewan Roughriders in their opener Sunday, it was Edmonton’s 18th straight home loss.  Put another way, the Elks are off and running toward their third straight season without a home win.

There was good news, though - there were 32,233 fans on hand, the largest crowd for a home opener in 10 years.  It’s a hopeful sign for a franchise that’s seen its average attendance drop from a CFL-high 42,000 in 2005 to 24,000 last year.


*********** Honoring the millions upon millions of  their LGBTQ+EH fans north of the Border.  Aren't you glad the NFL doesn’t play in June?
 





*********** Novak Djokovic, currently the world’s best tennis player, appeared to take longer than allowed, after a long, tough point - but there was no penalty exacted.

“You win 22 majors, you get a little extra time,”  explained John McEnroe,  not at all uncomfortable with the apparent fact that in tennis, as  in American politics, there are two systems of justice - one for the favored, and one  for the rest of us.


*********** I heard a guy on a YouTube video say that a Nike  football was made of “fox leather,” and for a split second I thought about all those little creatures having to give up their lives - not to mention their skins - just so we could kick a ball around.

But then I realized that he must have seen the word “faux” without knowing that it’s a French word for false, and it’s pronounced “foe.”

(Think “phony.”)


*********** ATTACKING RON ERHARDT’S DEFENSE. (This is not an attempt  to demean the late coach Ron Erhardt,  who proved in his long career that he was a great coach, and whose legacy is a play-calling system that bears his name.  He was put on the spot in a magazine  and asked how he’d defend against a “Double Wing,” and without asking any further questions about the offense, he provided a quick answer - the defenses you see below.  Over the last several weeks I’ve shown how I would attack the defense, but in fairness  to Coach Erhardt, I’ve had the chalk the whole time.)

Several weeks ago, my friend Greg Koenig, in Bennett, Colorado, wrote me to say, “I think C-Up would give Coach Erhardt’s defense some trouble.

Good point, Coach Koenig. 

A little background: When we say “C-up” (or “A-up,” or “Wings-up”) it means that a wingback (or two) will line up on the line of scrimmage, next to the  Tight End on his side.

This creates an eight-man line. (Yes, it’s legal.  The rules say that you MUST have SEVEN men on the line at the snap, but there is no upper limit  on the number you can have - although you will need to have one back to snap the ball to.)

More to the point, it creates a four-man surface on one side.

How will the defense react?  Will  the “LB” continue to line up on the outside shoulder of our tight end, as in (1)?  Or, since he’s been lining up as the “End Man on the Line,” will he move out onto the outside of our walked-up wing? (2)



I should point out that we can run our entire running game - and most of our passing game -  from this formation (no, we can’t run patterns that include our tight end on the side of a walked-up-wing, because he’s not eligible).  Before we get into what they might do with that “LB,” which might actually involve changing their defense (which would please me greatly  because I like the idea of moving their people into  positions that they haven’t been working on all week),  let’s look at three things we can do if they don’t make a single adjustment - if they simply leave that “LB” on our tight end’s outside shoulder:



In (A), the tight end blocks down, and as expected, the LB closes down with him.  Our walked-up C-Back, now that he’s on the line,  is in even better position to block down on him.

In (B), the “LB” is in a position to be doubleg  by our tight end and C-Back.  Here’s a key point - we  do NOT try to drive that man  down the line of scrimmage.  We want to drive him STRAIGHT BACK, into the paths of any scraping linebackers.  We have on occasion had the B-Back kick out past the Double team, or run  through the “tunnel” between the tight end and tackle (as shown here).

In (C), we’re getting a bit cute.  I believe that if he sees enough of (A)  or maybe even some (B), at some point that LB, unless this is the technique he plays all the time, will lose his discipline and will stop closing down so aggressively.  I suspect that it won’t be long before that guy becomes acutely aware of what the C-Back’s  going to be doing to him, and once that’s his concern, he’ll be loosened up for the B-Back’s kick block, and we’ll now be able to block Super Power as we always do - except that the wingbacks job is a little easier.


*********** Dr. John Rockwell, a chiropractor in Corpus Christi and a longtime reader.  sent me this a week or so ago:
Hi Coach!

I stumbled upon a wiki page about "Boys High School" in Brooklyn, and thought you'd enjoy the list of notable alumni, notably:

John Barsha - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Barsha

and

Izzy Yablok - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Izzy_Yablok

(including Howard Cosell, Isaac Asimov, Aaron Copland & others)

I grew up, in part, in NYC, took the test for Regents High School (didn't get in) & Loyola (DID get in, but never attended) -  instead, went to that school just '45 Minutes from Broadway' - Iona Prep, - only for freshman year, at that...

Anyway, Your NEWS is Much appreciated! God Bless you Coach!

That got my interest, because I once knew a guy named Bruce Weber, who was the publisher of that great magazine, Scholastic Coach (remember that?).  He once  got going on his alma mater, also a Brooklyn high school - Erasmus Hall.

As I understand it, the school may no longer exist, but what a group of graduates it produced:

Beverly Sills, Billy Cunningham, Barbra Streisand, Eli Wallach, Sid Luckman, Mae West, Al Davis, Neil Diamond, Barbara Stanwyck, Bobby Fischer, Mickey Spillane, Waite Hoyt, Marty Ingels, Norm Drucker, Ned Irish, Roger Kahn, Lainie Kazan, Doug Moe, Jerry Reinsdorf, Sam Rutigliano, Sonny Werblin

(I’m sure I’ve missed some!)


*********** It’s been many years since I first met two coaches from South Carolina.  It was at one of my clinics in Durham, North Carolina.  Their names were Jet Turner and Jeff Murdock.  Jet was the head coach and Jeff was his line coach and they were from a small school in Ware Shoals, South Carolina. They’d stepped into a program that was really down, and I could tell from their questions that they knew their football, and that they were really interested in my Double Wing.

Short story - they adopted  the offense and had great success at Ware Shoals.  And then Jet moved on to a bigger school.  Jeff stayed at Ware Shoals and continued to win until he, too moved on to a bigger school.

Both coaches  did well at several successive posts, Jet even winning a state  title at Clover, a  suburb of Charlotte.

Now, neither guy is coaching any longer, and that saddens me.

Jet’s been battling cancer  for a while.  I’ll text him and he’ll text back, and he’s always upbeat, but who’s kidding who - it’s not easy.

Jeff told me that Jet’s illness caused him to reconsider coaching - to realize how precious life is -  and he decided to  make other uses of all that time that coaching football took up.

That’s my introduction to a great article about Jet - and the Double Wing - written in 2017 after he’d just taken the head coaching job in Blacksburg, South Carolina.

Winging it: Motion, misdirection, and 'moving the party' lead to success for Jet Turner

Jed Blackwell
Herald-Journal


Jet Turner was desperate.

In 1999, as the head coach of Ware Shoals, Turner needed some offensive answers. The Hornets had held the dubious distinction of having the state’s longest losing streak when he got the job. Offensively, the Pro-I and what Turner called a mixed bag of other approaches weren’t working. So, he started looking for answers.

“I got on the internet and started looking,” Turner, now in his first year as head coach at Blacksburg, said. “I didn’t even care about gaining yards. I just wanted to not lose yards.”

What he found changed his coaching career.

“I stumbled across the double wing and started researching it, and I decided that’s what we needed to do,” he said. “That’s how it was born.”

The formation is simple at first glance, with linemen stationed foot-to-foot, a pair of tight ends, a fullback (called a B back), quarterback, and two wingbacks. The options are anything but.

“The actual Wing-T gets bigger splits, but it’s the same misdirection and a lot of the same stuff,” Turner said. “Their base play is a D-gap buck sweep, ours is a block-down, kick-out C-gap play. But the trap, the belly, all that stuff is the same. We shrink our splits to foot-to-foot, because it gives you that push when you’re doubling (blocking one player with two linemen) and you don’t have to step sideways. The guy’s right there. Once the linemen understand that the force of two is better than the force of one, you’re blocking people you shouldn’t be able to block.”

Turner wasn’t immediately successful, but the success did come. After going 5-25 in his first three years at Ware Shoals, the Hornets started winning more than losing. In Turner’s fifth year, the Hornets were 12-2 and played for the upper state title.

At Clover, he won a 4A division II state title. His stint at Broome included a region title and a regular-season victory over 5A powerhouse Byrnes. At Woodmont, he led the Wildcats to their first winning season in more than a decade.

Along the way, the double wing has worked at every stop.

“It was born out of necessity, out of a question of what we could do to compete,” Turner said. “It made the kids a little more physical. It took some pressure off of the defense because we weren’t playing as many snaps every game, and we’d try to steal a possession in the kicking game. It all kind of just married together.”

Part of the reason for the formation’s success is mechanics, which Turner is more than happy to talk about.

“There are two huge keys,” he said. “One is on our fly sweep, where our splits shrink the edge, and where we time-up the handoff gets our back almost on the perimeter as close to full speed as we can get him while the defense is standing still. That gives us a huge advantage. And then when we run our little pitch-power, our back is so close to the pulling linemen that the defense can’t get to him. They have to come through a guy to get to him.”

The object is to take away the space athletic defenders need to react to Blacksburg’s backs, and the time they need to do so.

“All the defensive slants, all the stunts – where are you going to go?,” Turner said. “We’re standing right here. Even if you try to blow it up, we can still get the edge if we do things right.”

All of it – the line splits, the misdirection, the motion, the timing – are designed to out-man the defense at the point of attack. Turner takes it further, wanting the defense to be uncertain about where the point of attack even is.

“The old saying is that we want to bring more to the party than you’ve got,” he said. “We believe in that, but we just want you to commit to the party, so we can move it somewhere else.”

The offense has given opponents fits at every level. Dorman coach Dave Gutshall will occasionally have to prepare his team for a wing look, and remembers playing Clover in the 4A state playoffs in 2009. The Cavaliers escaped with a narrow, last-minute victory – and went on to win the state title.

“You don’t ever see it, and you’ve got three days to prepare for it,”  Gutshall said. “We used to be that way when I ran the spread and nobody else did, and it’s an unbelievable advantage. What makes it so effective is the things Coach Turner does. It’s his offense, and you only see it against him. Football has gotten a little bit soft over time, and then you’re playing against him and it’s double tight ends and running right down your throat, and it’s difficult.”

That smash-mouth style is attractive to players, too. Ken Dockal played for Turner at Clover and is now his offensive coordinator at Blacksburg. He said it didn’t take him long to become a fan of the offense.

“It was quick,” he said of his fondness for the double wing. “I was an offensive lineman, and it was just run block, run block, run block, and I fell in love with it.”

Dockal said he enjoys teaching the offense, and is rewarded when he sees players show an understanding of the system.

“Oh, you can tell when they figure it out,” he said. “They see all these moving parts, they check the film, and they’ll come to you and say ‘Coach, I see what you’re saying. I see what happens there when we do this.’ When they can give me that, that’s the lightbulb moment.”

Dockal said playing in the offense, and learning it under Turner, was the reason he decided on a coaching career.

“Playing for him and for the group of guys who coached us at Clover is why I’m doing it,” he said. “That’s the cliché answer, but it’s the truth. I looked up to those guys. They were great teachers, and that made them great coaches.”

Turner sees that same attribute in Dockal.

“He’s a special person,” Turner said. “When you look at really good coaches I’ve coached with, he’s at the top of that list. He’s a student of the game. He knows what we do inside and out, and nobody I’ve ever met works on football like he does. I didn’t think I’d ever meet anyone that loves football more than I do, but I may have.”

Turner has passed his offense on to coaches who want to come and learn it, but he stresses that it’s not a casual change or a one-year commitment.

“You have to marry this thing,” he said. “You can’t date it. Your answers have to be within the offense. It can’t be that your answer to a problem is going to the spread and throwing it all over, because it doesn’t correlate. If a three-tecnhique is beating you, then your answer needs to be to run a trap. If you can’t block that end, then you need to cut him and run a fly-sweep. If you panic, the kids sense that, and you’ve got to have an identity and rely on that. We’re a double wing football team, we’re coming at you downhill, and that’s what we do.”

At the heart, Turner said the reliance on team football is something that appeals to him, and something that he hopes never goes away.

“It’s beautiful to watch,” he said. “Look at Navy and Army. They’re all working together, the quarterback’s lead-blocking, it’s just such a team offense. When you get a bunch of unselfish kids doing this, special things can happen. When the group becomes better than they ever should be because they believe in each other and what they’re doing, it’s magic when you get there. But it takes time.”

https://www.goupstate.com/story/sports/2020/08/17/blacksburg-football-turns-double-wing-under-jet-turner/3379930001/

***********   Hugh,

Watched a little of the BC-Calgary game.  BC's D Line is impressive.  Still have a hard time seeing guys moving all over the place just before the snap.

During my first few years of high school football it was the first time I heard players tell us they would miss the first week of August practices because they were playing on an "All-Star" baseball team that was "invited" to play in Japan.  Translation:  "I made the team because my parents paid for the trip."  Likely the same M.O. to be used for some in that HS Spring League.

Well...regarding those rainbow flags at the UN.  The UN is located in NYC (blue city).  NYC is located in NY (blue state).  NY is located in the US, run by...well...you get the picture.

There will be a new face leading Notre Dame athletics.

https://footballscoop.com/news/notre-dames-jack-swarbrick-a-titan-in-college-athletics-reveals-plans-to-step-down

Bevacqua is a media guy, also a very insightful business man who bleeds Notre Dame Blue and Gold.  IMHO he will be the one to negotiate a new media deal for ND and the ACC.  The ACC is the only conference the Irish would consider in giving up their independent status in football.  They are competitive in all sports in that conference.  They have the academic pedigree with the likes of Duke, GT, Virginia, Wake Forest, BC, Syracuse, UNC.  Most importantly their road to a national championship as an independent in football will become much more difficult if they are not part of a conference.  That road becomes less rough in the ACC.  Also...as I have said in the past...while most schools follow the money...the money follows Notre Dame.  It wouldn't surprise me in the least if the ACC accepts ND as a full member, and the 7 schools looking to leave will stay, AND, it won't surprise me at all if WVU, Cincinnati, and UCF ditch the Big 12 for the ACC.  Imagine this:  ACC North - Syracuse, BC, Pitt, Louisville, Cincinnati, Notre Dame, WVU, Virginia Tech, Virginia.  ACC South - North Carolina, NC State, Duke, Wake Forest, Clemson, Georgia Tech, Florida State, UCF, Miami. = Super Conference.  It could be a dream, but USC and UCLA in the Big 10?  


Enjoy the weekend!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas






***********   QUIZ ANSWER:  Ted Hendricks is the first NFL player to be born in Guatemala  - his parents worked for Pan-American World Airlines.  He grew up in Miami in a bilingual household.

At Hialeah High School, he excelled in football, basketball, baseball and track.

He also excelled in the classroom,  and  was offered his choice of four different scholarships to the University of Miami: football, basketball, baseball - and academic.  He chose the academic scholarship,  and majored in math and physics.

Tall and lean (6-7, 220), his physique and his reckless play on defense at Miami earned him the nickname “The Mad Stork.”  He was a three-time All-American at defensive end, and in his senior year he finished eighth in the Heisman balloting.

He was drafted second by the Baltimore Colts, and in his rookie year he was moved from defensive end to outside linebacker, where he would play  for  three different teams (Colts, Packers, Raiders) in his 15-year NFL career.

What a career it was: He played in 215 straight games… He played in eight Pro Bowls… He was four times named All-Pro (once  with the Colts, once with the Packers and twice with the Raiders… He was five times named second team All-Pro…He played in seven AFC championship games, and four Super Bowls - AND he played on four Super Bowl champion teams.

He intercepted 26 passes,  recovered 16 opponent fumbles and scored an NFL record-tying four safeties. He scored touchdowns on an interception, a fumble return and a blocked punt.  And he blocked 25 kicks.

In 1990 he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and in 1994 he was named to the NFL’s 75th Anniversary Team.

An award named for him is presented to the College Defensive End of the Year.

He has been presented with Guatemala’s highest civilian award.

In   his 15th and final season in the NFL he was still good enough to make second-team All-AFC and was named to his eighth Pro Bowl.  And he concluded his career  with a Raiders’ victory in the Super Bowl. 


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING TED HENDRICKS

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
PETE PORCELLI - WATERVLIET, NEW YORK
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY





***********   QUIZ:  He grew up in Muncie, Indiana and played football, basketball and baseball at Northside High School there.  In 1979, his senior year, he was named Indiana’s Mister Football.

At Notre Dame he played defensive back for four years,  earning All-America honors his junior and senior years.  In his senior year, he was a co-captain and team MVP.

He  spent his first three summers at Notre Dame working as a law clerk in Miami, Florida, and  then during the summer before his senior season he served as legislative aide to Richard Lugar Republican Senator from Indiana.  He majored in economics and graduated with honors.

He was taken in the third round of the NFL draft by the Chicago Bears, and became an integral part of one of the greatest defensive units in NFL history.  Playing safety, he was selected to  four straight Pro Bowls, and in 1985 he won a Super Bowl ring playing with the “Super Bowl Shuffle” Bears.

In 1986 he was named first team All Pro. (In that season, he set a new NFL record  of seven sacks by a defensive back.

In 1987,  he was named  NFL Man of the Year.

He played eight seasons with the Bears - he has been named one of the 100 Greatest Bears of All Time - and one season with the Giants and two with the Cardinals.  In his 11 seasons, he had 20 interceptions - returned for 226 yards - and 16 quarterback sacks.

After football, he enjoyed success as a businessman, owning some McDonald’s restaurants, and then owning a majority interest in a sausage company selling to McDonald’s and other customers.

He was honored  in 1990 by the Notre Dame Monogram Club, with the Edward "Moose" Krause Distinguished Service Award, and from 2001 to 2005 he served as a member  of the Notre Dame Board of Trustees.

In 2001 he earned an executive MBA from Harvard though its Owners and President’s Management Program.

He served as chairman of the Chicago Chapter of the National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame,  and he was  active with the Boys & Girls Clubs of America.

He also served as a  representative on an NFL panel that reviewed retired players’ claims against the League’s  disability plan as well as its “88 Plan, “ a fund established to assist retired players with dementia (named “88” because that was the number of the late NFL great John Mackey, who suffered from dementia).

It was a difficult position for a former player because while the panel was required  to assist players wherever possible, it was also required to do so with an eye on the funds available to it.  In  2007, testifying  in congressional hearings into  whether the disability board was unfairly denying benefits,  he suggested that there was not then any link established between playing football and dementia. “My father’s 84,” he said, addressing Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar, “and, as I had mentioned earlier, Senator, spent 30 years at General Motors.   He also has — he also has Alzheimer’s and brain damage, but never played a professional sport. So the challenge, you know, in terms of where the damage comes from, is a fair question.”

At about this time, his life took a downturn.   His business went under. His home was foreclosed on, and he filed for personal bankruptcy.

His wife of 25 years  - and mother of his four children - divorced him after he pled guilty to a misdemeanor domestic battery charge of pushing her in an argument.

He confided to friends that he was experiencing occasional confusion,  and persistent headaches.

In February 2011, at his home in Florida,  he was found dead  from a self-inflected gunshot wound to  the chest.   He had texted his family that he wanted his brain to be donated to the Boston University School of Medicine,  for their research into chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).  Since CTE is a neurodegenerative disease  associated with concussions, it can be caused by playing football.  It can’t be diagnosed in a living patient. 

On May 2, 2011, neurologists at Boston University confirmed that he had, indeed,  had CTE.




FRIDAY,  JUNE  9, 2023 - “Care about your character; it’s who you are. Forget about your reputation; it’s who people think you are.” John Wooden


***********  USFL CURRENT STANDINGS (TWO WEEKS TO PLAY)

North Division

    1.    Philadelphia Stars — 4-4, 2-2

    2.    Michigan Panthers — 3-5, 2-2

    3.    New Jersey Generals — 2-6, 2-2

    4.    Pittsburgh Maulers — 2-6, 2-2

South Division

    1.    Birmingham Stallions — 6-2, 2-2

    2.    Memphis Showboats — 5-3, 2-2

    3.    New Orleans Breakers — 5-3, 2-2

    4.    Houston Gamblers — 5-3, 2-2


***********   THIS WEEKEND’S USFL GAMES

SATURDAY

At Canton
Michigan (3-5) vs Pittsburgh (2-6) - 12 Noon EDT - FOX -
Can’t say I’ll blame Joel Klatt if he does this one remote.  They couldn’t pay me to  go there for this one, either.  A Michigan win and a Philadelphia win on Sunday locks up second place - and a playoff spot - for Michigan.  A Michigan win and a Philadelphia loss would put those two teams in a first place tie. (With losing records!)

At Memphis
New Orleans (5-3) vs Memphis (5-3) - 3 PM EDT - NBC
Not that ANY game in the USFL is what you’d call “crucial,” but this one is as  close as it’ll get.  A Memphis  win all but knocks New Orleans out of the playoffs. Not only is Memphis hot, but this is one of those rare occasions where a USFL team will actually be playing in front of a home crowd.

SUNDAY

At Memphis
Birmingham (6-2) vs Houston (5-3) - 2 PM EDT - NBC
Birmingham has a one-game edge over the rest of the pack in the USFL South, but a Houston win  would create chaos - a three-way tie at the top.  My prediction?  Birmingham wins.

At Canton
Philadelphia (4-4) vs New Jersey (2-6) - 7 PM EDT - FOX
Philadelphia  could lock up first place in the USFL North with a win here combined with a Michigan loss on Saturday.  A Philly loss would cement the USFL North’s claim to be one of the worst divisions in any sport - ever.


***********  THIS WEEKEND’S CFL GAMES:

THURSDAY NIGHT
BC LIONS AT CALGARY STAMPEDERS - 9 PM EDT

FRIDAY NIGHT
HAMILTON TIGER-CATS AT WINNIPEG BLUE BOMBERS - 8:30 PM EDT

SATURDAY
OTTAWA REDBLACKS AT MONTREAL ALOUETTES  7 PM EDT

SUNDAY
SASKATCHEWAN ROUGHRIDERS AT EDMONTON ELKS*  7 PM  EDT

* “Elks?”  WTF???  This is so phony.  Okay, so you can’t be the Eskimos any longer.  But “Elks?”  Gimme a break.  I’ve lived in the Pacific Northwest,  definitely elk (and elk-hunting) country,  for more than 40 years, and I have never - not once - heard the word “elks.”  It’s like saying “deers.” Or “mooses."



***********  So far this spring we’ve had two spring football leagues, and tonight, with the opening game of the CFL, we’ll have three.

But that’s not enough - A guy named Brian Woods, the former president of the USFL - which itself has yet to demonstrate that it can even sustain itself -  has announced that he is starting a spring league  for high school players.

Football, see, is the only sport in which players can’t compete year-round to come to the attention of college recruiters.  Kids can lift, they can play other sports, they can go to summer camps and they can play 7-on-7. But beyond their own high school game film, there’s no  other way to show themselves in actual football competition.

So Woods is starting the Prep Super League, in which high school sophomores and juniors will play six or so actual games in April and May.

"If you look at 7-on-7, you look at these camps, at the end of the day, none of them are 11-on-11 football," Woods told the Associated Press. "None of them are going to give a quarterback, for instance, in a 7-on-7 situation, a live pass rush. So, if you're looking to evaluate players in an actual football context, that's what this league is about.”

Well, no.  Which is why their high schools play games.  And film them.  And make the film available to any college that might be interested, as well as many that aren’t.

The league’s plans are to have teams in Atlanta, Cleveland, Dallas, Houston, New Jersey, New Orleans, Los Angeles, Miami, Phoenix, San Diego, San Francisco and Tampa.

Miami, I thought?  There isn’t even a place on town for the U to play its home games.  But then reality kicked in - they can’t be expecting much in the way of crowds anyhow, so they can play in almost any decent high school  stadium.

Players would pay a "development fee" to help fund the league.  Aha!  There’s the key to the whole scam - dads who for years have been paying for personal trainers and position coaches and camps and even tuition at IMG Academy will be easy marks  for Woods and his  salesmen, er, “scouts.”

It’s not a whole lot different in that sense from all the bogus all-star “bowls” that promoters used to put together to lure parents into paying for an expensive tour package cleverly disguised as a “Down Under Bowl” or a “Hawaii Bowl.”

But dare I say this - unless there’s a lot of “financial aid” being provided (which is scarcely the way this business model can work) it sounds as though there’s likely to be a lack of “diversity” on the rosters.

For those parents who might worry about the cost (which has been left unsaid), it’s implied that the exposure kids will get in this league will enable them to make NIL deals  that could offset their investments, er, “development fees.”

But uh-oh -  high school players in certain big football-recruiting states such as Texas, Arizona, Ohio and Florida (all states where the Super League plans to have teams) will lose high school eligibility if they accept NIL payments.

Asked how he’d be able to evaluate players in a  high school "super league," one Power 5 coach told FootballScoop, "We can't go to 7-on-7 games, so not sure how we could go see this. I am for guys playing basketball, running track and playing baseball in the  spring.”

https://footballscoop.com/news/theres-a-new-spring-football-league-coming-and-this-ones-for-high-school-players


Wrote Joe Gutilla, in sending me the link to the story…

Well…that didn't take long.

IMHO the beginning of the end of high school football as we have known it.  It was a great ride!  

I can see it now, 18 year old All-Star teams playing the Spring League.  College coaches offering NIL deals for those 18 year olds they recruited to entice them not to play in it.  17 year olds opting out of their senior year in high school to prepare for the Spring League...and on, and on, and on.

I guess it has never been a better time to be retired!

Joe

I told Joe that I can think of a thousand reasons why this won’t work, and I could pick fault with the idea, but after seeing Texas and Oklahoma leave the heartland, USC and UCLA join the Big Ten, NIL and instant-eligibility transfers bring free agency to college sport, and now California’s assembly voting to require California colleges to pay athletes, I’m going to have to wait and see on this one.    But I’d have to say that high school  football  is becoming more whorish all the time.




*********** Every day in New York City’s Rockefeller Center, the  flags of all 193 members of the United Nations wave in the breeze.  Well, not every day. Not this past Tuesday, when they were replaced by 193 rainbow flags.  Which begs the question:  wouldn’t some of those nations be Islamic?  Would the UN go ahead and do this without asking them?


*********** Paul Pasqualoni was a prime example of  what happens when a school mistakenly lets a coach go in  the blind belief that they can replace him with someone who’ll do better (also Frank Solich, Mack Brown).

And in my research I came on an instance of a guy who left for something better (he thought) and in the years since, the school has simply been unable to get back to where it was when he left.

John Mackovic at Illinois.  He coached there from 1988 through 1991,
Four seasons:  30-17-1
Winning seasons: 3
Bowl games: 4
National rankings: 2

Since then - Seven different coaches (Lou Tepper, Ron Turner, Ron Zook, Tim Beckman, Bill Cubit, Love Smith, Bret Bielema)
31 seasons:  143-228-2
Winning seasons: 8
Bowl games: 7
National rankings: 4

WTF is going on?  There’s a lot of good football players in Illinois and unless you count Northwestern, which is a bit more national in scope, the University of Illinois is the only Power 5 college in the nation’s sixth largest state (Illinois is just a hair below Pennsylvania and a couple of million larger than Ohio).  Somebody else has been getting those Illinois high school players.  What would happen if they could keep those Illinois kids from going off to Notre Dame  and a flock of Big Ten schools?

Could Bret Bielema be THE ONE to do it?  After an 8-5 season in 2022, he’s now 13-12 in his two years there.



*********** Attacking the Ron Erhardt defense - continued.
 
Our base bootleg play comes off the fake of our sweep. 
 


The QB  starts  to the side of motion, pauses briefly as if he has handed off, then rolls to the backside , getting depth as he gets width.  As he rolls, he gets his eyes and shoulders around, conscious of what the  EMOL - in this case  the “LB”  - is doing.  If the LB  comes deep to contain the QB, our pulling backside guard will block that LB to the outside, which means that  the QB has  to give up on getting any wider, and starts upfield in the window our guard has created.  More likely, though, knowing how conscious of our counter that  that LB  has been, he will stay at the line long enough for our pulling guard to log him - to block him outside-in.  The coaching point for the guard - I got this from Mike Lude, who first started teaching it in 1950 - is to run at a depth of a yard or two as he  eyes the edge.  If the LB doesn’t cross his path, our guard logs him; if he does cross the guard’s path, the guard blocks him out.


Lately, I have been attracted to a version of the bootleg that I have seen all three of the service academies run.  (Although “A cadet will not lie, cheat or steal,” that doesn’t mean their coaches can’t “borrow” from  each other. ) The fake here is much better, because (1) we  have the B-Back starting out to the motion side (before changing course) and (2) even more important, the playside Tight End is blocking down hard, which is almost sure to bring the "LB" down with him.



The motion and the QB’s fake are the same, but in this case, the LB isn’t blocked at all;  it’s assumed that since everything looks to him exactly like the start of a counter play, he will close down  when he sees our Tight End block down.  (Note the block of the line.  There is no pulling guard.  With our mini-splits, it’s highly unlikely that there will be any leakage.)  The key adjustment here is the steps of the B-Back.   He’s going to take three steps (BIG-quick-quick) toward the play side tackle, then plant  and lead outside and upfield in case the QB decides to keep. He does not block anyone on the line unless by some chance the “LB” crashes, and he doesn’t blockdownfield unless  the QB gives him a “GO!” (This is nothing for us - we already have a B-Back counter which requires him to take these steps, and we also have used him  to “pull” on counter plays. Remember, he’s not as deep as the service academies’ fullbacks.)  The primary receiver is the Backside Tight End on his drag.  The Backside Wingback is running a post, but my QB will never throw this  unless he’s  told.  This is really suited for a running QB - half the time it turns into a big  running play.

     

*********** The French Open’s going on right now, and my wife loves tennis, so from time to time I find myself watching.  But not for long.    At least, not when the volume’s up.  The orgasmic grunting and shrieking -  especially among the females - is inescapable, and in a sport where there’s almost no commentary during action, it’s as obtrusive as a fart in an opera.  Off-putting?  It’s as if I’m in a cheap motel trying to get to sleep and some couple on the other side of the paper-thin wall is having rough sex. 



*********** Eli Wiesel was a Holocaust survivor (yes, I believe it really did happen) who wrote a number of books including “Night,” about his experiences in Auschwitz and Buchenwald.

He died in 2016 after a long life dedicated to human rights, often making the point that the Holocaust occurred because of indifference.  Neutrality,  if you wish.   Essentially, though, it was because people chose not to take action.

Eli Wiesel’s name was invoked recently when Daniel Penny, the Marine veteran charged with killing a deranged man on a New York subway said that as he watched that man threaten to murder subway riders, he felt compelled to act because of something he’d heard Wiesel say.

Several years ago, after Penny’s high school class had read “Night,” Wiesel came and addressed the class, and, said Penny, left “a lesson I carry with me to this day.” The Holocaust occurred,  Wiesel said, because  “good people did nothing.”




***********   Coach,

I'm cleaning up my computer and I came across this picture. The kids featured in this picture will be freshmen in HS this fall. My right guard will be attending St. Mary's HS in Annapolis, MD. Would like to see the center have his head across the body of the DG, but at least you can see the "pick-pocket" technique being executed.

Hope all is well!

Jason Clarke
Anne Arundel Youth Football Association
Glen Burnie, Maryland

What a great shot of a counter play (47-C).  What a great example of a coach’s attention to detail.  The “pick-pocket”  that Coach Clarke is referring to is the technique I’ve been teaching for years to prevent pulling linemen from turning their shoulders too far, and to make sure they  stay close to the line of scrimmage.

For years, when I’d hold a clinic in Philadelphia or Baltimore, I’d count on having Saturday breakfast with coaches Jason Clarke and Brian Mackell.  To some they may have been “just” youth coaches, but their interest, their knowledge, their work ethic and, yes, their results on the field were clearly the equal of any high school coach, and I often said that if I could put together a staff of youth coaches like them, we could outcoach anybody in America.  Coach Clarke has coached at many levels - he  assisted last year at The Severn School in Maryland (which happened to be the first high school the legendary Paul Brown ever coached at) and he also serves as president of  the AAYFA - the Anne Arundel Youth Football Association - which works in conjunction with the government of Maryland’s Anne Arundel County (between Baltimore and Washington, DC) to provide youth  football for its kids. In all, AAYFC has more than 100 teams, participating in eight weight levels  from 70 pounds to “varsity.”



***********   Coach:

Did you have to report Austin's words on D-Day? I don't ever like to lose my poise, but my head comes close to exploding more often these days. The juxtaposition of America's D-Day military leaders with today's is just astounding. And the crime is that we're crawling (thanks to mil and pol chieftains who don't seem to feel the reality hitting them in the face) into shooting wars on two major fronts and it's hardly reported upon.

Jonathan Isaac. Thought I might see notice of him today. Orlando Magic PF who in 2020 was the only member of the Magic org, in a well-known photo, to stand during the anthem. Coaches, trainers, all the other players knelt so low their faces were touching the floor. Now Isaac is saying, "We don't have to tolerate this wokeness." He wants (of course it might not come about) to start an anti-woke clothing line. Showing moral courage, is this J Isaac.

I guess I'm a Paul Pasqualoni admirer now. Had no reason to dislike him before, but I can tell you he's my kind of guy, my kind of coach. The downside of your piece about him was reading the name Pete Carroll, but Carroll's dislike of PP makes perfect sense when you put all the parts together.

Was wondering how many from that Big School list will make it to CFB HOF? There are quite a few great guys on it. Now that I've said 'guys' I ought to go back to see if I missed a female or TG.

John Vermillion                        
St Petersburg, Florida



********** Hugh,

Yes, Dakota Prukop had a decent game, and likely earned his starting job back.  Will be interesting to see if the Generals improve.

RE Lloyd Austin:  We can't make a change soon enough.

Staying with the Army... may I add that Army West Point just hired a new On-Campus Recruiting Coordinator.  SHE has previous experience at Texas and UNC Charlotte.

Interestingly out of the 78 FBS HOF candidates only Todd Lyght (#50) is the only candidate from Notre Dame.

Word around Fresno is that the Big 12 is seriously considering adding Fresno State and San Diego State.  I think it's a purposeful rumor to get the PAC 12 more interested.  Fresno folks identify much more with the west coast than the heartland, and would like nothing more than join their rival San Diego State.  Those two would be a natural fit financially and geographically.


QUIZ:  While I never met Coach Pasqualoni I did meet Coach DeLeone when I was in New Hampshire.  After a dismal start in my first year things had to change offensively. Being on the east coast and seeing the Syracuse offense in action I wanted to know more about it (you know me, always looking for an edge), so when I heard Coach DeLeone would be talking about it at a clinic I hopped on a plane to hear him speak.  I got what I wanted and more (I think my being Italian had a little something to do with his willingness to spend a little "extra" time with me).  After year one of running the offense we played in two consecutive state championship semi-final games.  I intended to bring the offense with me to my new job in Minnesota but...I ran into your offense instead. (again, always looking for an edge).   Thanks Coach D, RIP.  

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas


 






***********   QUIZ ANSWER:  It’s sad that there’s a whole generation of Americans who’ve  never known of Syracuse as a football power.

Going way back, of course, there are the days of Jim Brown and Ernie Davis, Floyd Little and Larry Csonka, a nice run that lasted from the 1950s  and into the sixties (1967 to be exact - when “Zonk” graduated). IN 1959, Syracuse actually won the national title.  Look it up if you don’t believe me.

But then followed a 20-year dead spell, ended by a 15-year run, from 1987 through 2001 in which they challenged Penn State for eastern supremacy.   In that time, the Orange went 127-49-4, went to 12 bowl games (and won nine of them) and  were nationally-ranked eight times.

The credit for this  golden age in Syracuse football has been given mostly to the  coach who got it started, Dick MacPherson.   But in reality,  the bulk of the Orange’s success during that period came after “Coach Mac”  had left to coach the Patriots. In fact,  his  teams had struggled through six mediocre seasons before finally hitting pay dirt - and after four years of success, he was gone.

Paul Pasqualoni, his  lesser-known successor,  deserves far more credit than he’s usually given. In his  first 11 years as their head coach,  the Orange went 90-39-1, winning six bowl games and losing three. They were ranked nationally seven times.

He was  41 when he got the head job.  He had been Coach Mac’s linebackers coach, and he had seen what works at Syracuse.   “I’m not smart,” he said later,  “But I’m smart enough to know that when I took over, I wanted continuity. I wasn’t gonna let the culture of the program slip.”

Self-effacing, he never became a nationally-known figure.  He didn’t care.   A former assistant explained: “When it came to all the glitz and glamour, he didn’t give a f— about any of it.”

(I was fortunate enough to come across an article about him in “The Athletic” and I’ve drawn on comments from  a number of men who knew him and worked with him.)

His approach to recruiting was based on hard reality:  “Syracuse isn’t gonna get those five-star guys. The Orange have to be able to find the diamonds in the rough. It’s like when Kirk Ferentz went to Iowa. He said, if you take the five best players off every team in the MAC, you’d be in the mix for the Big Ten title.”

He recruited  based on a “five-hour rule” - recruiting the daylights out of an area within a five-hour drive of Syracuse.  Inside that radius, he and his coaches put a premium on cultivating relationships with high school coaches, whether or not they had kids who could help Syracuse.

One of his assistants, George DeLeone - who years earlier had given him his first college coaching  job at Southern Connecticut - was respected as the offensive genius behind Syracuse’s unique “freeze option” attack, which featured quarterbacks like Don McPherson and Donovan McNabb and fullbacks like Moose Johnson and Rob Konrad.  But on the inside of the program, DeLeone was respected even more for the way he worked with high school coaches.

“No matter where you went in the country,” said one assistant,  “If it was a good high school, they knew George DeLeone.”

Recalled a former player,  “Even if there wasn’t a kid (a Division I prospect) at your school, they still visited. One of my coaches told me a story. A high school coach once called George, ‘Who are you reading off the line of scrimmage on the Freeze Option for a certain look?’ George goes, ‘It’s too difficult to talk about over the phone. I’ll meet you off the Garden State Parkway.’ So he drove like four hours to meet the guy in the middle, brought donuts, and basically did a mini-clinic at a rest stop. Coaches don’t forget that.”

Added another former player, “They were fanatical about developing relationships. George would jump in his car and drive down to New Jersey and spend the whole night with that coach. They did the same thing with McNabb’s high school coach in Chicago. He said, ‘I’ve got a guy who I think would blossom in your system.’ George jumped on a plane and spent three days with that coach.”

Our guy was hard-nosed, and he was demanding of  himself, his staff and his players.

Recalled Steve Addazio, an assistant who went on to be head coach at Temple, Boston College and Colorado State, “It was hard sh- -.  Every day was the Super Bowl. You didn’t walk into that office unprepared. You didn’t speak up in a meeting if you didn’t have it backed up with facts.”

Recalled fullback Rob Konrad, “He was not the used car salesman. He would tell you the truth but in a matter-of-fact way. We practiced four days a week in full pads. More demanding than any coach I’ve ever been around.

When you can’t get the blue-chippers, you have to develop players, and he took pride in the fact that he was a teacher: “We were teachers,” he said. “George (DeLeone) was an education major. I was. I wanted to be a teacher and a coach. Chris Rippon (another assistant) was an education major, so we believed in the methods of teaching and teaching progressions. We used to clinic each other on it. Before preseason camp started, everybody taught their position to the staff, for about an hour, like they were clinicking high school coaches on our techniques and fundamentals. It was, teach us like we were the players.”

But every long run comes to an end, and after a 10-3 season in 2001, the Orange slid to 4-8  and then two back-to-back 6-6 seasons.  Most observers felt that a major reason was losing Donovan McNabb to graduation, and then losing his projected replacement - Michael Vick - to Virginia Tech in recruiting.

At the end of the 2004 season a new and inexperienced AD, brought in from USC - by a new chancellor,  on the recommendation of Pete Carroll -  fired our guy and his staff. 

Recalled Chris Rippon: They brought in a new chancellor in 2004 and she started to change the culture. We had a new AD. We were stacked for 2005. I think we would’ve been like our 1997 team (that went 9-4 and played in the Fiesta Bowl). We were rebuilding (in 2004). We really didn’t have a quarterback. But we played at Boston College, then No. 17 in the country, and smashed ’em.  We could’ve played a bowl game in late December, but they went for a pre-Christmas game, the Champs Sports Bowl against Georgia Tech. Our kids were still in exams (Syracuse lost 51-14). We were fired at halftime, from what I heard… We found out on the 27th — our anniversary.”

The new AD brought in a head coach who (1) had never been a head coach at any level; (2) hadn’t coached at the college level in 15 years; and (3)  - maybe most important of all - wasn’t an East coast guy and didn’t know the East. 

Said a former assistant, “You bring in a spread guru who doesn’t have blue collar values and is trying to out-Florida State Florida State and out-Clemson Clemson. That’s a bad recipe. I don’t see them getting enough of those guys. With the Freeze Option and the power run game, our offense didn’t look like everybody else. We had good defense. Now, it all looks the same.”

The new guy wound up going  5-37 in four years, and Syracuse football’s long downward slide was well on its way. (Remind you at all of Nebraska?)

After Syracuse, our guy had a succession of pro jobs as an assistant, and he did come back to spend two years as head coach at UConn, but the Syracuse culture couldn’t be revived there.

Ed Orgeron, who was our guy’s defensive line coach for three years, remembered his introduction to his head coach’s work ethic:   “My first year there, I’m on a recruiting trip and connecting in Baltimore to fly back to Syracuse. I’m walking to my gate and there’s Coach P. So we sit together. He wants to talk football and recruiting. I was recruiting all week. I’m tired. I wanted to sleep and not worry about my bags, so I’d checked ’em.

‘Ed, ya not supposed to sleep on a plane. You’re getting paid. That’s sleepin’ on the job, man!

Then, when we land, the bags are late. We spent 45 minutes waiting for my bags. I felt so bad. I was so embarrassed. He was red in the face.

‘Ed, at Syracuse, we don’t check bags. It’s a waste of time!’ But I learned. He always called it the Syracuse Way: ‘We don’t have Warren Sapp here. We have to get the most out of everything we have. We could’ve been breaking somebody down, doing more research.’

He was right. I’d never seen someone so focused. He never sat in first class. No fancy sh——. We go on the road and you save money. You’d get twin beds. And when you’re with Coach P. when that alarm clock rang, he was ready to go in 10 minutes, so you had to be, too.

The one good thing about traveling with Coach P.  was when your work is done, you’re gonna eat good Italian food.”



CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING PAUL PASQUALONI

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOHN IRION - ARGYLE, NEW YORK
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY



***********   I lived right near Syracuse for about 15 years during his tenure. .    I remember he was pissed at Marvin Harrison,  I think, at one practice and sent him home and then cancelled practice.   He didn't take crap from players.

John Irion
Argyle, New York
  





***********   QUIZ:  He’s the first NFL player to be born in Guatemala  - his parents worked for Pan-American World Airlines.  He grew up in Miami in a bilingual household.

At Hialeah High School, he excelled in football, basketball, baseball and track.

He also excelled in the classroom,  and  was offered his choice of four different scholarships to the University of Miami: football, basketball, baseball - and academic.  He chose the academic scholarship,  and majored in math and physics.

Tall and lean (6-7, 220), his physique and his reckless play on defense at Miami earned him the nickname “The Mad Stork.”  He was a three-time All-American at defensive end, and in his senior year he finished eighth in the Heisman balloting.

He was drafted second by the Baltimore Colts, and in his rookie year he was moved from defensive end to outside linebacker, where he would play  for  three different teams (Colts, Packers, Raiders) in his 15-year NFL career.

What a career it was: He played in 215 straight games… He played in eight Pro Bowls… He was four times named All-Pro (once  with the Colts, once with the Packers and twice with the Raiders… He was five times named second team All-Pro…He played in seven AFC championship games, and four Super Bowls - AND he played on four Super Bowl champion teams.

He intercepted 26 passes,  recovered 16 opponent fumbles and scored an NFL record-tying four safeties. He scored touchdowns on an interception, a fumble return and a blocked punt.  And he blocked 25 kicks.

In 1990 he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and in 1994 he was named to the NFL’s 75th Anniversary Team.

An award named for him is presented to the College Defensive End of the Year.

He has been presented with Guatemala’s highest civilian award.

In   his 15th and final season in the NFL he was still good enough to make second-team All-AFC and was named to his eighth Pro Bowl.  And he concluded his career  with a Raiders’ victory in the Super Bowl. 







TUESDAY,  JUNE  6, 2023 - “If you are on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn  and walking back to the right road.“ C. S. Lewis

***********   THIS PAST WEEKEND’S USFL GAMES

SATURDAY

Houston (5-3) 20,  Pittsburgh (2-6) 19  - Pittsburgh played their best game yet, but it wasn’t good enough.  Their kicker, Chris Blewitt, made field goals of 22, 54, 33 and 53 - without a miss - but his final attempt,  from 41 yards out with 1:53 remaining,  went wide right. Houston’s Mark Thompson rushed for 98 yards on 14 carries - 7.0 yards per carry - and a TD.

Birmingham (6-2) 27,  Philadelphia (4-4) 24 - With  :32 left in the game, Birmingham’s Alex McGough threw a 7-yard “fade-stop” to  LaMichael Pettway for a TD, squelching  Philadelphia’s upset bid. Birmingham had 429 yards total offense, 325 of it in the air. Philly QB Case Cookus completed 20 of 32 for 265 yards and three TDs.

SUNDAY
Memphis (5-3) 25, New Jersey (2-5) 16 - Memphis threw for 176 and rushed for 148.  New Jersey, once the USFL’s rushing leader,  only managed to break  the 100-yard barrier because of QB Dakota Prukop’s 76 yards rushing.   Prukop, returning to action after missing several games, also was 14 of 25 for 128 yards and two TDs

New Orleans (5-3) 24,  Michigan (3-5) 20 - Michigan may have played its best game but it was in a losing cause. New Orleans snapped a three-game losing streak. New Orleans’ McLeod Bethel-Thompson completed 25 of 34  for 328 and  two TDs, but he threw a couple of interceptions that enabled Michigan to stay in the game.


***********  USFL CURRENT STANDINGS (TWO WEEKS TO PLAY)

North Division

    1.    Philadelphia Stars — 4-4, 2-2

    2.    Michigan Panthers — 3-5, 2-2

    3.    New Jersey Generals — 2-6, 2-2

    4.    Pittsburgh Maulers — 2-6, 2-2

South Division

    1.    Birmingham Stallions — 6-2, 2-2

    2.    Memphis Showboats — 5-3, 2-2

    3.    New Orleans Breakers — 5-3, 2-2

    4.    Houston Gamblers — 5-3, 2-2

No one has yet been eliminated; no one has yet to clinch a playoff spot

IF THE PLAYOFFS WERE TO START NOW:
North 1 vs. North 2: Philadelphia vs. Michigan.
South 1 vs. South 2: Birmingham vs. Memphis (Memphis gets in because of its 2-1 record vs. both New Orleans and Houston).

Sheesh - what kind of playoff it it going to be when the only team in the North with a winning record - Philadelphia - would be the last place team if it were  in the South?  (Me, I can’t wait for that Philadelphia-Michigan thriller.)


*********** Fox carried the two Sunday USFL games, and  did them both remotely.  In the first one - Memphis vs. New Jersey - Brock Huard, evidently new to the bedroom-broadcast gimmick, went  motormouth on us.  In the second game - New Orleans vs. Michigan - Joel Klatt wasn’t nearly as bad as he was a week ago.  The only possible explanation is that the higher-ups at Fox showed him my scathing review of his work last week and told him to shape up.


*********** The CFL is back.  If you like your football but prefer  to see it played in front of real crowds, you’ll enjoy the return of the Canadian Football League, which opens its 69th season this Thursday night in Calgary (Alberta) when the B.C. Lions come in to play the Stampeders. (The annual Calgary Stampede, if you didn’t know, is billed as “the world’s largest outdoor rodeo.)

THIS WEEKEND’S CFL GAMES:
WARNING: I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT TIME ZONE(S) ARE REFERRED TO

THURSDAY NIGHT
BC LIONS AT CALGARY STAMPEDERS - 6 PM

FRIDAY NIGHT
HAMILTON TIGER-CATS AT WINNIPEG BLUE BOMBERS - 5:30 PM

SATURDAY
OTTAWA REDBLACKS AT MONTREAL ALOUETTES  4 PM

SUNDAY
SASKATCHEWAN ROUGHRIDERS AT EDMONTON ELKS  4 PM


*********** I did not make this up…

“This Pride Month, we honor the service, commitment, and sacrifice of the LGBTQ+ Service members and personnel who volunteer to defend our country. Their proud service adds to America’s strength.”  Lloyd Austin,  Secretary of Defense


***********  In case you wondered what that student loan money (that we’re expected to forgive) has been going for:

In the last 30 years, the size of the average college administration has doubled.


***********  The Bud people wanted something hypermasculine to associate their brand with,   but since the initials “PBR” meant a competing brand of beer, a Professional Bull Riders special edition Bud can was quickly ruled out.

And after Smith and Wesson didn’t even answer the phone, Anheuser-Busch, in a big hurry to hang a set of balls on one of its major products,  had to settle for Harley-Davidson.  So now,  lucky you - if you hurry, you can pick up your “special edition” Harley-Davidson/Budweiser can.    (I have a fairly large beer can collection, but that’s one  can that I won’t be adding  to it. )

Strange way to man-up your beer, I’d say.  Nothing against motorcycles or Harleys, but as expensive as those big hogs are, I read somewhere that the average Harley customer is over 50, married, with an income close to $100,000 a year - not exactly the beer industry’s target market.

But who’s kidding who?  They’re not doing this to sell beer to Harley Riders.  They’re doing it to associate themselves first with something American (which they’re not) and something also associated by much of the public with testosterone.

Hey Bud - got big or go home - why not come out with a special edition six-pack?  (Years ago, the company I worked for came out with a brew called “James Bond’s 007 Special Blend,” with seven different cans, each featuring a different gorgeous woman against a different London background.)

And while they’re at it, as long as they think the motorcycle theme is a good way to associate themselves with masculinity, I’d suggest each of the cans in a six-pack “honor” a different motorcycle “club”:  Hells Angels, Mongols, Outlaws, Pagans, Warlocks, Gypsy Jokers.

Just put a warning on the cans against getting caught in the wrong place drinking from the wrong “special edition” can.

 
*********** From an article in The Wall Street Journal:  In high school basketball, girls are 44 per cent more likely to  suffer knee injuries - and 165 per cent more likely to require knee surgery.

Ever consider  that the ones pushing hardest for Title IX may have been orthopedists?


***********  Okay, okay - how much are these Tigeraire air-conditioned helmets  going to cost me?

https://athlonsports.com/college-football/lsu-players-shows-off-air-conditioned-helmets


***********  I was very excited to get the announcement from “Army West Point” that they’d just appointed a new head trainer for the football team.  And then I read down to the end of the article,  and was delighted to learn that she and her wife are expecting.


***********   Old joke:  “The food’s terrible.”  “Yes, and the portions are so small.”

Our local newspaper, The Vancouver Columbian, is pretty much a worthless piece of crap.

And the portions just got smaller.

Like most US newspapers, it’s been losing money.  A lot of that is because the Internet sucked up all the classified advertising.  A lot of it is because younger people especially get their news on their phones.

Some of it is because they’ve ceased simply reporting the news and instead seem to think it’s their  duty to interpret the news for us.  Predictably, the interpretation always comes with a liberal slant.

And some of it is because the “news” section is a sort of McPaper - articles,  written by the (ultra-liberal)  Associated Press,  exactly the same as the ones that you’d read in any other daily in the US.

And a lot of it is making the portions smaller.  Get this:

When I started coaching in Washington, in the 1980s, our Friday night games started at 8 PM.

But the local paper requested we move the games to 7:30 so they could get the scores in time to print them in Saturday’s paper.  We changed.

But it wasn’t too many years before we agreed to change the kickoffs to 7:00. (Same reason.)

And then, a few years ago, there came another change in their printing schedules, with a deadline so early that their Saturday paper no longer carried any of the Friday night football scores.  No reduction in price for the smaller portion.  “Go to our digital edition,” we were told. Yeah, nothing like opening up the old cellphone while you’re eating breakfast.

Oh, well -  at least the Sunday paper would carry the Friday night scores.  Most of them, anyway.  Occasionally, we might even get a short writeup.

It wasn’t as bad as what they did to the NFL fans once the paper, making  the portions even smaller,  decided to do away with a Monday edition.  Which meant no more NFL game reports. (“Go to our digital edition.”)

The final straw came this past Saturday, with their inaugural “weekend edition.”

Now, if you’re only going to print just one paper for the whole weekend, wouldn’t it make sense to print in on Sunday?  Well, yeah, but when you’re in a hurry to put yourself out of business, you do what The Columbian did, and print on Saturday.

So get this:

No more Friday night high school game reports. (They go to press too early. Maybe we should play afternoon games.)

No more Saturday college game stories. (There’s no longer a Sunday paper.)

No NFL game reports. (There’s no Monday paper.)

You want to read about football?  Wait till Tuesday.

So yes, the food’s terrible -  but soon we won’t have to eat any of it.


************* ATTACKING  COACH RON ERHARDT’S DEFENSIVE SCHEME AGAINST A DOUBLE WING.
On Friday, I said that  the  sprint-out pass was  the best way I’ve found to throw the ball.  (As I also said, it comes from the thinking of George Young, who was a great high school coach in Baltimore in the 1960s, then  worked his way up in the game until he became the great General Manager of the New York Giants.   I’ve tinkered somewhat, but the basic concept comes from Coach Young, who was a Wing-T guy.)

It’s a very easy read for your QB, and it’s an easy pass to throw.  But what makes it great is  the big-play potential on the backside.

In describing the sprint out,   I failed to mention the importance of the two backside receivers - whom we call the A Back and the X end.  Just because they know the ball isn’t being thrown to them, they can’t ever loaf, because that's a sure tipoff  when we  do intend to throw to them.

This is SPRINT BROWN  THROWBACK

We’ve been watching the safety, looking for him to move away from his centerfield position.

Assuming that the ball is in the middle of the field, we want the X End to release outside and  go straight up the hash.  He could get the ball fairly quickly - this isn’t necessarily a long pass - so by his third step he should be looking back at the QB.  This is the real home run play, because if we can get that middle safety (assuming a one-deep) moving  to the side of the QB-B Back flow, he can’t stop and recover in time to make a play on our end.  The A Back runs a wheel. He gets immediate width to get separation between himself and our end.  But of course we also want him to get upfield.  We want him going upfield in the alley between the number and the sideline.






The QB is going to take three steps, plant his right foot (in this case), then re-set his stance so that he’s now in position to throw backside. ( I teach him to hop and turn.) Here’s the key: to influence the safety to roll his way, we want the  QB looking to flow side for his first three steps.  Actually, though, we want him FACING the flow side but - without turning his head - sneaking a peek at the safety  out of the corner of his eye.  This takes work, because we want his face mask aimed at his Y End.  If he can do this, then by the time he is set, he has a good idea where - or whether - to throw the seam,  or  to unload to his A Back on the wheel route. (With the A Back   in the “back alley,” this is a safe throw, and also a potential home run.) One other point here is the block of the B-Back.  Because the QB is going to pull up after three steps with no intention of getting outside, the B back has to make sure to block the rushing end man (“LB” in this case) to the outside.


*********** If you’re a Double Winger - or you’d like to become one - and you’re looking for a change of scenery, my good friend Greg Koenig has a position open on his staff.  He’s in Bennett, Colorado, a small but fast-growing community about 40 minutes east of Denver.  If you’re a teacher, there’s a high school math opening and a high school social studies opening.  Take it from me - if you want a good place to coach, I can’t think of a better man to work for.  And if you want to learn the offense - and how it’s taught -  I can’t think of a better place to be and a better guy to learn it from.  Email me coachhw@mac.com and I’ll forward  your contact info to Greg.



*********** It’s not too late to join the National Football Foundation and cast your  vote for nominees to the College Football Hall of Fame. There are  four categories - big school coaches and big school players, small school coaches and small school players.  This is the big school (FBS) players’ ballot.






***********   Cliff Branch.....  Yes I had to google (which I don't do) but I knew the Billick answer and didn't submit so I ask for Grace...

Couple big notes on the "news" I wanted to comment on!

1.  Every Madden quote is so good as time goes on....  They all credit others... A recent book I read talked much about Al Davis and his impact (Gridiron Genius) and after that read it is amazing how good of a team Madden and Davis were together....   I reflect on how important that is for any staff at any level.

2.  Hillsdale College is truly a unique place, additional to the Conservative beliefs it takes an extremely high aptitude to get in anything short of academic excellence is not accepted including for the athletes.  With this comes a slight sense of elitism that some don't prefer.   Ironically, Hillsdale County where the college is very low social-economically it is a very interesting dichotomy.

3.  With that said Shea Ruddy our Senior QB at my last stop he and my old staff led Whiteford to a state title this past fall of course running DW and will now be taking his talents to Hillsdale, yes he is a 4.0 student and his older brother who is likely even stronger academically attends there.  The 2nd of 5 boys in 6 grades in a very conservative family i'm guessing one or two others may end up there.   Hillsdale is currently recruiting one of our players very hard and their coach informed me Ryin Ruddy who is about to be a Senior was high on their list as well.....  

HC is a unique and neat place!

God Bless,
Jason Mensing

Westland, Michigan

Coach,

Nothing wrong with googling.  It’s no different from watching somebody else’s film to see what they’re doing!

I think the Madden-Deal was a lot like  what Belichick and Kraft have had going.  And you’re  right - the same thing applies to high school as well - if you and your AD or principal aren’t working together and don’t want the same thing, you’re not going to be successful.

You mention Hillsdale and its economy and it makes me wonder if they might not have a “town-gown” situation similar to what we had where I went to school, an Ivy college in an industrial city that had seen better days.

Go Chargers!



***********   Coach:

I've been a Clayton Kershaw baseball fan a long time. I'm glad he stands against "the Sisters of Perpetual (We Indulge Anything) Indulgence". But the Dodgers organization inviting them was idiocy to begin with. Now they're going to counter with an offer to a Christian group, as a kind of makeup call. Then what? Nights for every group under the sun?  Kershaw's saying, "Just play baseball" to the organization. Honestly, where are his teammates? Do they have their heads in the sand so deep they can't see they're pawns in an ugly game having nothing to do with baseball?

Yes, I have wondered about the pay of those USFL and XFL players. Their pay puts them, roughly, in the same category as the early NFLers. If they're careful they can survive on the football pay, but to have discretionary-spending money, they'd better have an offseason job, and in their case the offseason is long.


John Vermillion                        
St Petersburg, Florida



***********  Hugh,

Speaking of the USFL...the backup QB for the New Jersey Generals has been Dakota Prukop.  He was placed on the inactive roster (non-injury related.  Apparently missed practices due to the birth of his baby).  Dakota's father Tim replaced me after I stepped down as HC at my former school when we found out my wife had cancer.  Tim played for UC Davis when I was the DC at Sonoma State.  He blocked a punt and returned it for a TD that ultimately was the difference in our upset bid at home against the Aggies that year at SSU.  Tim was an assistant coach at USC for a few years.

No surprise to this reader that the Dodgers organization would get themselves into that cluster f***.

Jane Fonda.  I can barely speak her name let alone look at her.  

Wow!  About all I can say about that girl from Oregon!  It was like watching her male counterpart Matthew Boling blow the competition away when he was a high school track star in Houston.  

Besides Hillsdale's "Imprimis" publication did you know the college also sponsors a Classical education program for K-12 schools?  There are hundreds of schools sprouting up all over the country that are part of the Hillsdale College Barney Charter School Initiative K-12 American Classical Education Model.  And they are THRIVING.


Enjoy the weekend!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas

Dakota Prukop had a decent showing this past weekend.  With him back, New Jersey was at least respectable!

 







*********** QUIZ ANSWER:  Cliff Branch played 15 years in the NFL - all with the Raiders - and his great speed and his development as a receiver played a large part in the Raiders’  “go deep” philosophy of passing.

He went to high school in Houston, and played his college football at Colorado.

He was drafted in the fourth round by the Raiders in 1972, not so much  for his performance on the football field (he caught only 23 passes his junior year, and just 13 his senior year) as for his speed - his 10-flat 100-meter  time in the NCAA track and field championships set a new meet record. (He also ran a 9.2 in the 100 yard dash, but prior to 1976, the NCAA ran metric distances in Olympic years.)

Although he did qualify for the Olympics, held that year in Munich, he chose instead to report to Raiders’ training camp.

Despite his great speed, he was a project, and he represents  a great example of player development:  

He caught only three passes his rookie season - while missing  15 balls considered catchable, and he wasn’t a whole lot better his second season, catching only 19 passes for 290 yards.

But the Raiders stuck with him, and he began to develop.  A lot of the credit belongs to Fred Biletnikoff,  then one of the best in the game,  who spent time with him after practice every day.

(“Basically, I was his shadow,” our guy recalled. “I had to mimic him because he was my teacher.”)

One of the biggest things Biltenikoff helped him with was his running style.   “He ran so fast,” recalled Raiders’ coach John Madden, “his head bobbed when he ran, so he was always looking through bobbing eyes. He learned to keep his head straight from Biletnikoff.”

His breakout season came in his third year. He caught 60 passes for 13 touchdowns and 1,092 yards, led the NFL in yards, touchdown passes and yards receiving per game, and earned All-Pro honors. In a losing effort against the Steelers in the AFC title game, he caught nine passes for 186 yards and a touchdown.

The Raiders made a conscious decision to play to his strength: his Olympic-type speed.  “He wasn’t one-dimensional,” said Madden, “but to run him on a short pass would be stupid, I thought.”

Good strategy: in his time with the Raiders, he won three Super Bowl rings.

In his NFL career, he scored 21 touchdowns of 40 yards or longer. The longest,  99 yards,  came in 1983 against Washington.  The pass - from Jim Plunkett - covered the first 35 yards, but he took it the remaining 64 yards.  He was then 35 years old. 

In all, he had  501 receptions for 8,685 yards and 67 touchdowns.

He was first-team All-Pro for three straight years (1974-75-76) and he played in four pro bowls.

Throughout his career,  people didn't just respect  his speed. They feared it.

“When you were in front of him, there was fear there,” 49ers great  Ronnie Lott said. “He told me, ‘You are not going to cover me.’ And he was right. He earned my respect and fear.”

The Seahawks’ Ken Easley  would line up 13 yards off him,   “And by the time he took two steps, “ he said, “I was turning to go deep.”

Somewhat surprisingly, it took him a long time to get to the Hall of Fame. As a modern-era candidate, he was twice a semifinalist,  and  in the senior pool he was a finalist once, before finally making it  in his 32nd year of eligibility -   three years after his death.   Cliff Branch became the first Colorado Buffalo to enter the Hall of Fame.

At 5-11, 170, he was on the small side, and when he was asked once which modern player was most like him, he mentioned another small, fast guy: Tyreek Hill.  “I’d be like him,” he said.  “I’d get 1,000 yards easily. With the rules they have now, it would be like stealing candy.”


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING CLIFF BRANCH

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
TOM DAVIS - SAN MARCOS, CALIFORNIA
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
JASON MENSING - WESTLAND, MICHIGAN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY






***********   QUIZ:  It’s sad that there’s a whole generation of Americans who’ve  never known of Syracuse as a football power.

Going way back, of course, there are the days of Jim Brown and Ernie Davis, Floyd Little and Larry Csonka, a nice run that lasted from the 1950s  and into the sixties (1967 to be exact - when “Zonk” graduated). IN 1959, Syracuse actually won the national title.  Look it up if you don’t believe me.

But then followed a 20-year dead spell, ended by a 15-year run, from 1987 through 2001 in which they challenged Penn State for eastern supremacy.   In that time, the Orange went 127-49-4, went to 12 bowl games (and won nine of them) and  were nationally-ranked eight times.

The credit for this  golden age in Syracuse football has been given mostly to the  coach who got it started, Dick MacPherson.   But in reality,  the bulk of the Orange’s success during that period came after “Coach Mac”  had left to coach the Patriots. In fact,  his  teams had struggled through six mediocre seasons before finally hitting pay dirt - and after four years of success, he was gone.

His  lesser-known successor deserves far more credit than he’s usually given. In his  first 11 years as their head coach,  the Orange went 90-39-1, winning six bowl games and losing three. They were ranked nationally seven times.

He was  41 when he got the head job.  He had been Coach Mac’s linebackers coach, and he had seen what works at Syracuse.   “I’m not smart,” he said later,  “But I’m smart enough to know that when I took over, I wanted continuity. I wasn’t gonna let the culture of the program slip.”

Self-effacing, he never became a nationally-known figure.  He didn’t care.   A former assistant explained: “When it came to all the glitz and glamour, he didn’t give a f— about any of it.”

(I was fortunate enough to come across an article about him in “The Athletic” and I’ve drawn on comments from  a number of men who knew him and worked with him.)

His approach to recruiting was based on hard reality:  “Syracuse isn’t gonna get those five-star guys. The Orange have to be able to find the diamonds in the rough. It’s like when Kirk Ferentz went to Iowa. He said, if you take the five best players off every team in the MAC, you’d be in the mix for the Big Ten title.”

He recruited  based on a “five-hour rule” - recruiting the daylights out of an area within a five-hour drive of Syracuse.  Inside that radius, he and his coaches put a premium on cultivating relationships with high school coaches, whether or not they had kids who could help Syracuse.

One of his assistants, George DeLeone - who years earlier had given him his first college coaching  job at Southern Connecticut - was respected as the offensive genius behind Syracuse’s unique “freeze option” attack, which featured quarterbacks like Don McPherson and Donovan McNabb and fullbacks like Moose Johnson and Rob Konrad.  But on the inside of the program, DeLeone was respected even more for the way he worked with high school coaches.

“No matter where you went in the country,” said one assistant,  “If it was a good high school, they knew George DeLeone.”

Recalled a former player,  “Even if there wasn’t a kid (a Division I prospect) at your school, they still visited. One of my coaches told me a story. A high school coach once called George, ‘Who are you reading off the line of scrimmage on the Freeze Option for a certain look?’ George goes, ‘It’s too difficult to talk about over the phone. I’ll meet you off the Garden State Parkway.’ So he drove like four hours to meet the guy in the middle, brought donuts, and basically did a mini-clinic at a rest stop. Coaches don’t forget that.”

Added another former player, “They were fanatical about developing relationships. George would jump in his car and drive down to New Jersey and spend the whole night with that coach. They did the same thing with McNabb’s high school coach in Chicago. He said, ‘I’ve got a guy who I think would blossom in your system.’ George jumped on a plane and spent three days with that coach.”

Our guy was hard-nosed, and he was demanding of  himself, his staff and his players.

Recalled Steve Addazio, an assistant who went on to be head coach at Temple, Boston College and Colorado State, “It was hard sh- -.  Every day was the Super Bowl. You didn’t walk into that office unprepared. You didn’t speak up in a meeting if you didn’t have it backed up with facts.”

Recalled fullback Rob Konrad, “He was not the used car salesman. He would tell you the truth but in a matter-of-fact way. We practiced four days a week in full pads. More demanding than any coach I’ve ever been around.

When you can’t get the blue-chippers, you have to develop players, and he took pride in the fact that he was a teacher: “We were teachers,” he said. “George (DeLeone) was an education major. I was. I wanted to be a teacher and a coach. Chris Rippon (another assistant) was an education major, so we believed in the methods of teaching and teaching progressions. We used to clinic each other on it. Before preseason camp started, everybody taught their position to the staff, for about an hour, like they were clinicking high school coaches on our techniques and fundamentals. It was, teach us like we were the players.”

But every long run comes to an end, and after a 10-3 season in 2001, the Orange slid to 4-8  and then two back-to-back 6-6 seasons.  Most observers felt that a major reason was losing Donovan McNabb to graduation, and then losing his projected replacement - Michael Vick - to Virginia Tech in recruiting.

At the end of the 2004 season a new and inexperienced AD, brought in from USC - by a new chancellor,  on the recommendation of Pete Carroll -  fired our guy and his staff. 

Recalled Chris Rippon: They brought in a new chancellor in 2004 and she started to change the culture. We had a new AD. We were stacked for 2005. I think we would’ve been like our 1997 team (that went 9-4 and played in the Fiesta Bowl). We were rebuilding (in 2004). We really didn’t have a quarterback. But we played at Boston College, then No. 17 in the country, and smashed ’em.  We could’ve played a bowl game in late December, but they went for a pre-Christmas game, the Champs Sports Bowl against Georgia Tech. Our kids were still in exams (Syracuse lost 51-14). We were fired at halftime, from what I heard… We found out on the 27th — our anniversary.”

The new AD brought in a head coach who (1) had never been a head coach at any level; (2) hadn’t coached at the college level in 15 years; and (3)  - maybe most important of all - wasn’t an East coast guy and didn’t know the East. 

Said a former assistant, “You bring in a spread guru who doesn’t have blue collar values and is trying to out-Florida State Florida State and out-Clemson Clemson. That’s a bad recipe. I don’t see them getting enough of those guys. With the Freeze Option and the power run game, our offense didn’t look like everybody else. We had good defense. Now, it all looks the same.”

The new guy wound up going  5-37 in four years, and Syracuse football’s long downward slide was well on its way. (Remind you at all of Nebraska?)

After Syracuse, our guy had a succession of pro jobs as an assistant, and he did come back to spend two years as head coach at UConn, but the Syracuse culture couldn’t be revived there.

Ed Orgeron, who was our guy’s defensive line coach for three years, remembered his introduction to his head coach’s work ethic:   “My first year there, I’m on a recruiting trip and connecting in Baltimore to fly back to Syracuse. I’m walking to my gate and there’s Coach (——). So we sit together. He wants to talk football and recruiting. I was recruiting all week. I’m tired. I wanted to sleep and not worry about my bags, so I’d checked ’em.

‘Ed, ya not supposed to sleep on a plane. You’re getting paid. That’s sleepin’ on the job, man!

Then, when we land, the bags are late. We spent 45 minutes waiting for my bags. I felt so bad. I was so embarrassed. He was red in the face.

‘Ed, at Syracuse, we don’t check bags. It’s a waste of time!’ But I learned. He always called it the Syracuse Way: ‘We don’t have Warren Sapp here. We have to get the most out of everything we have. We could’ve been breaking somebody down, doing more research.’

He was right. I’d never seen someone so focused. He never sat in first class. No fancy sh——. We go on the road and you save money. You’d get twin beds. And when you’re with Coach (——) when that alarm clock rang, he was ready to go in 10 minutes, so you had to be, too.

The one good thing about traveling with Coach (——)  was when your work is done, you’re gonna eat good Italian food.”





FRIDAY,  JUNE  2, 2023 - “You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough." Mae West


***********   THIS WEEKEND’S USFL GAMES

SATURDAY

Canton, Ohio - 12 NOON EDT - USA Network
Houston (4-3) vs Pittsburgh (2-5) - Houston could be a playoff team. Its running back Mark Thompson is a beast. Pittsburgh has no shot. But don’t bet the house on any game in this league.

Birmingham, Alabama - 3 PM EDT - NBC

Philadelphia (4-3) vs Birmingham (5-2) - Philadelphia is capable of winning this one.  They’ve been playing well on defense and they’re doing a better job of  protecting their QB, Case Cookus. Birmingham’s QB, Alex McGough, has been playing good ball.

SUNDAY

Canton, Ohio - 1 PM EDT - Fox

Memphis (4-3) vs New Jersey (2-5) - Memphis is turning into one of the USFL’s best clubs and its QB, 6-7 Cole Kelley, is looking better every week; New Jersey is rapidly becoming one of the league’s worst teams.

Birmingham, Alabama - 4 PM  EDT- Fox

Michigan (3-4) vs New Orleans (4-3) - Michigan is coming off a win -  but it was only New Jersey.  New Orleans has lost three straight, but  has a good QB in McLeod Bethel- Thompson and one of the USFL’s best runners in Wes Hills.

*********** Uh-oh. As the USFL heads into the eighth week of a ten-week season, does anything look a little unbalanced to you?

USFL STANDINGS, AND MY VERY GENERAL RATINGS

NORTH DIVISION

PHILADELPHIA STARS        4-3 - FAIR TEAM
MICHIGAN PANTHERS              3-4 - BAD TEAM
NEW JERSEY GENERALS    2-5 - BAD TEAM
PITTSBURGH MAULERS        2-5 - BAD TEAM

SOUTH DIVISION

BIRMINGHAM STALLIONS    5-2 - GOOD TEAM
MEMPHIS SHOWBOATS        4-3 - GOOD TEAM
NEW ORLEANS BREAKERS    4-3 - GOOD TEAM
HOUSTON GAMBLERS        4-3 - FAIR TEAM


*********** In case you wondered…

USFL players are paid $5350 per week - plus housing - for a 10-week season.  Playoffs presumably would mean additional weeks’ pay as required.

XFL players were paid $5,000 per week - plus housing plus two meals a day - with a $1,000 bonus per win.

By comparison, in the CFL the minimum pay  is $70,000.  That’s for 18 games over a 21-week schedule (three bye weeks), or $3,889 per game, or $3,333 per week.

In the NFL, a practice squad player will be paid a minimum of $12,000 per week for 18 weeks, or $216,000 for an entire season.  The most any practice squad player is paid, usually for quarterbacks,  is said to be in the neighborhood of $20,000 per game, or $360,000.  (The minimum salary for an active-roster player is $750,000 for the season.


*********** Hey Dodgers… do you REALLY think it’s appropriate to defile the game of baseball by “honoring” a group that demeans and ridicules the Roman Catholic Church and women (nuns) who’ve dedicated their lives to service to the Church?

Hey American Catholics… have we really reached the point in America where the Dodgers are more afraid of offending the LGBT*&%$#@ers than  they are of offending you and your church?



*********** The great Groucho Marx once had a very popular TV show called “You Bet Your Life,” in which contestants would answer questions for what now seem like trivial sums of money, but mainly would serve as foils for  the wisecracking Marx.  In addition,  he’d frequently get a lot of laughs at the expense of his announcer, George Fenneman.

Fenneman was nice-looking. He was well-groomed and well-spoken, and always poised, but unfortunately,  the good-natured way in which he took Groucho’s verbal slings and arrows made me and my friends consider him something of a stooge.

So after watching a recent re-run of “You Bet Your Life,” I looked the guy up.  Turns out he did just fine.

First of all, he owned a 10 percent interest in the “You Bet Your Life” production company (“I had a good lawyer,” he explained.) "Instead of the usual residuals,” he said, I get a percentage of the gross revenues (from re-runs of the show)”.

In addition, he did a lot of “voice-overs.”  Anyone who remembers the great cop show “Dragnet” from the 1950s probably doesn’t know that it was his voice we heard at the start of every show.   But over the years, every time a repeat of the show came on, he would  receive a “residual” payment.  Reflecting on that, he later said, “Every time you see the show and hear me say 'The story you are about to see is true. Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent', I get a paycheck. A small one, but they add up.”



***********   Let’s get this much straight - I have nothing against Bobby Dillon.

In fact, I’d scarcely ever heard of him until a week or so ago, when I was going down the list of men in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Now, I’m a decent football historian, and there aren’t many men who’ve distinguished themselves in the game that I haven’t heard of.


But Bobby Dillon was one of those - and shouldn’t “fame” be  at least one of the criteria for admission to the Hall of FAME?

Look - I’m not trying to get him thrown out, as if I could.  He’s in, and that’s that.

But I guarantee you - if he’d been a quarterback, he’d have to pay to get into the Hall of Fame, just like you and me.

Consider his qualifications:

He played eight seasons for the Packers.  Seven of them were a sorry stretch  for the Pack; only the eighth and final season was a winning season.  It happened to be Vince Lombardi’s first season in Green Bay, and after going 25-56-2, Bobby Dillon finally played on a winning team (7-5).  In his eight years in Green Bay, his team went 33-61-2, and never played in a post-season game. (In fairness, this was before playoffs.)

He played in 94 games and was named to four Pro Bowls.  He had 52 interceptions - a very creditable numbers - and did have three seasons in which he intercepted nine passes. All good, yes.  But great? No.

Look - a QB, even one with stellar  stats, may not make it into the Hall of Fame without winning  a Super Bowl.

Conversely, even if a QB does win a Super Bowl, if it’s a one-off and his stats otherwise are unexceptional, he’s probably excluded, too.

But I guarantee you this - if a quarterback were to put in eight seasons  and his record in that time was no better than 33-61-2, with zero playoff appearances  and only one winning season, he  could have the best stats of any QB of the  time and he wouldn’t be in the Hall of Fame. (Of course, if his stats were the best of any QB of his time, his team would have had more than one winning season.)

And just in case anyone reading this is related to Bobby Dillon - he’s in the Pro Football Hall of Fame  and I’m not - and you have every right to be proud of him. 



*********** Ask any Vietnam vet what he'd like to do  with Jane Fonda, and then  sit down and listen.  It might be best if you packed a lunch.  A big one.

At some point you’re liable to hear him express a fervent wish to  one day relieve himself on her grave.

Those guys from Vietnam might have different opinions  regarding  the war itself and whether we should even have been fighting there, but they are unanimous about one thing: their contempt for Ms. Fonda.

It all goes back to when they were doing their duty - a hot, dirty, thankless duty while in constant danger of sudden death at the hands of a brutal enemy - and Ms. Fonda, who opposed the war (as if the US soldiers had any choice) was in North Vietnam visiting with the enemy, and was even photographed during that visit sitting on a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun.

Over the years, she’s given a half-assed apology or two, but it was the old story of too little, too late.  The damage  she did to those men when they were young could never be repaired.

In her lifetime (she’s now 85) she’s supported just about every liberal cause known to mankind - er, make that personkind (she was an early feminist) and based on what she had to say last week, she’s still in the business of pissing guys off.  Especially white guys.

She was at the Cannes Film Festival (that’s France) and she used the opportunity to blame racism  - and white men - for climate change.

”There would be no climate crisis if there was no racism, she said.  “There would be no climate crisis if there was no patriarchy. It's a mindset that sees things in a hierarchical way. White men are the things that really matter, and then everything else with nature at the bottom, sacrifice zones, right? It is a tragedy that we have to absolutely stop.”

"We have to arrest and jail those men. They're all men running the oil companies and the gas companies and the plastic refineries. We have to make them stop. This is really serious.”

Man, when this woman dies, I’d like to find out where she’s buried and then set up at the entrance to the cemetery with a tub  full of  beer on ice  (not Bud Light - I said “beer”), offering a cold can to every Vietnam vet who walks by, and telling him, “Don’t go in empty!”



***********  Mia Brahe-Pederson,  a 17-year-old high school junior in  Lake Oswego, Oregon (a Portland suburb) is a sprinter on her high school track team. And she’s fast.  Really fast.

How fast?  She just won the Oregon state 100 meter championship in 11 flat - third -best time ever posted by a US high school girl.

How Fast?  She’s faster than the fastest woman in the ACC, Big Ten or Pac-12.

How fast?  At an invitational meet in Bend, Oregon in early May, she ran an 11:08 in  beating a mixed-gender field  made up of the  five fastest girls and the four fastest boys from the 21 schools in attendance at the meet. (The school hosting the event has a nine-lane track.)

The special mixed-sex race had to be approved by the Oregon School Activities Association, and was conceived primarily because in conventional meets Mia has had a tough time finding any competition.

No problem finding boys to race against her, said a Bend high school coach.  “Our boys were excited to race against Mia. They thought, ‘this is a future Olympian.’”

Her boyfriend, a cornerback on their school’s football team, was excited, too. “It was just a really cool, special moment, to see her beat everybody,” he told the Wall Street Journal’s Rachel Bachman.

I have to laugh thinking about some trans “female” turning  out for his/her girls’ track team, expecting to kick some ass -  and getting smoked by Mia Brahe-Pederson.


Watch her win the state 100 title in 11:00 flat…   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j91FR98ksAQ



************* ATTACKING  COACH RON ERHARDT’S DEFENSIVE SCHEME AGAINST A DOUBLE WING.

In fairness to Coach Erhardt,  who was put on the spot and asked how to defend against a Double Wing - he had no knowledge of the offense or what can be done with it, and he probably had no idea of what a great passing offense it is.  Interestingly, a lot of spread-type  teams are using a “compressed formation” (as they call it) in passing  situations - a damn shame they don’t  have the running game to go with it the way  we do:



Well what do you know? Turns out we were way ahead of the game!  (Actually, it was Pop Warner - he was  way ahead of all of us, because one of his reasons for devising his Double Wing - direct snap version - was its ability to get four receivers into a pattern quickly.)

Here’s  one of the absolute best ways I’ve found to throw the ball from the Double Wing.  I found it in the writings of George Young, who was a great high school coach in Baltimore in the 1960s, then  worked his way up in the game until he became the great General Manager of the New York Giants.   I’ve tinkered somewhat, but the basic concept comes from Coach Young, who was a Wing-T guy. 
 




The general idea is to get the ball ASAP into the hands of our play side wingback, or to the play side tight end, or for the QB for keep and run.  The wingback  takes two steps (outside foot first)  out at a 45,  then quickly whips his head around, looking for the ball, as he breaks to the sideline.  The play side right end’s assignment is to release outside (the idea being that (1) if he were to take an inside release the “LB” could jam him and keep him on the line, and (2) his outside release will interfere briefly with the “LB’s” pass rush, allowing our B-back a little more time to get on that LB).  The TE takes a course just behind the corner, and whips his head around after his second step.  If he sees the QB throw to the wingback, he peels back to block, making sure not  to commit an illegal blindside block.  The QB takes a big step  at  45 degrees as he looks at the #1 defender - the play side corner.  Unless that guy jumps our wingback, the ball is on the way to him by the QB’s second step, but no later than his third step.   BUT - should that #1 man come up fast, the QB throws to the Tight End, who is just behind the defender.  The B-Back has to haul ass to get out of the QB’s way, and get onto the EMOL, just as if he were blocking on Super Power -  before he even realizes it’s a pass.


If your quarterback is a very good runner,  there is a strong argument for having the TE take an inside release.





This is not my prefered way of doing it, but here’s the logic behind it: assuming that your TE can get off the line and not get tied up, the point is to entice the LB to close down to the inside as if expecting Super Power,  which enables the B-Back to log him.  With the LB logged by the B-Back, the QB is outside free and clear, putting  the corner in the difficult position of having to choose between QB or wingback.  Actually, even if the TE gets tied up at the line, this could still be a  good run-pass option play - but only if your QB can run!



***********   Hugh,

Your piece on Memorial Day had me in tears. Anyone who doubts America should read the NEWS of May 26.

For years 38 and 29 Reach Sweep was a staple of our offense and was especially good on the goal line. It was our go to when Super Power bogged down and seldom failed to produce good results. The waggle play action off this action has been called by some the best play action pass in football and was a staple of the Wing T and a foundation play in our DW offense.  It sure was used successfully by the Irish in their 1973 bowl game against Alabama but has also been used successfully by teams right up through today.

Your analysis of how to attack the unbalanced 6-2 defense using the DW is classic and a must for coaches if only to get an understanding of how to attack defenses. The theories you discuss, although apply to the DW, could be used by any offensive  coach who wants to get a sense of how to build an offensive attack. Really vintage Wyatt and classic football.

All the Best,

Jack Tourtillotte
Rangeley, Maine



***********   Off the subject, but I recall (mayhap wrongly) that he is of Croatian descent. And he has that Croat look. Always liked him, even as I looked for reasons not to.


Those of us who pay top dollar for your service do so in hopes we get what we in the music world call your special riffs. Starting slow, all innocuous like, then start building the story to a crescendo. That was your Kugler-Klatt (a pregnancy test, I believe) story. But will readers see an apology next week when you discover they did travel via private jet in time to broadcast both games from real booths?

I'll be first in line to sign up for ESPN streaming, regardless of cost. Such is the value I place on that fine group of people in Bristol.

In a more serious vein, I also have had the same thoughts about bullying. It's thrown around all the time because the media has everyone thinking any time their feelings are hurt it's a result of bullying. The Lassen brothers were not bullying.

Missed the passing of Ed Ames. Good man, great voice. Had several solo hits as well. 

John Vermillion
St. Petersburg, Florida

Whew.  For minute I thought you really were serious about going all-in for ESPN!



***********   Hugh,

Completely whiffed on all 3 USFL games this past weekend.  By "whiffed" I mean I missed all three.  

Have listened to Joel Klatt on radio, and now watched him on TV.  He IS that professor!

Ed Ames.  Wow.  Now THAT'S going back.  "Daniel Boone was a man, yes a big man..."(you probably know the rest!)

One formation I had success with running the Counter was what I called "Bronze" and "Blue".  Aligned the B back as a Wing right (Bronze), or Wing left (Blue).  After a few long gains running my Reach Sweep I would throw in Bronze 47C B Lead, or Blue 56C B Lead for untouched scores or more big gainers.  Would only pull the BSG for the kick-out block.  B back replaced the BST.  Just to keep the D honest I would occasionally call "Bullet" motion (similar to Rocket but using the B back instead of a WB) and run Reach Sweep with it.  OR, call "Bronze Bullet-Return" and run Super Power back to where the B back started out.

Kirk Ferentz has likely been doing his own research concerning the hiring of the new AD at Iowa in order to either stay on with the Hawkeyes, or retire.

New name for the NFL Washington DC football team:  Destroyers

New favorite small college football team...Hillsdale College.

Make it a great week!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas

The Hillsdale Chargers!  Hillsdale College, in Hillsdale, Michigan,  is Mike Lude’s alma mater.   It’s where he met his wife, and where he got his first coaching job, assisting Dave Nelson in football and  coaching the baseball team…Hillsdale is unique among today’s colleges in that it is conservative.  Also in that it doesn’t take a dime of federal money - not even in the form of Pell grants to students. As a result, if it wanted Hillsdale could tell the government to pound sand. (If it wanted. But that’s not its style - Hillsdale is much classier than that.)  Hillsdale’s newsletter - IMPRIMIS - is a conservative treasure - https://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/







*********** QUIZ  ANSWER:  In his entire 30-year coaching career,  Brian Billick had just one head coaching job.

It was with an NFL club, and in nine years with the team he went 85-67.  He was 5-3 in post-season play, and in his second year, he won the Super Bowl.

He grew up and played high school ball in Redlands, California, and played one year at  the Air Force Academy before transferring to BYU. (He later said he transferred when he found out that his size - 6-5, 230 - disqualified him from becoming a fighter pilot.)

At BYU, where he played tight end, he won All-WAC honors his senior year, as well as All-American honorable mention.

He was drafted in the 11th round by the 49ers, but after being cut by the 49ers and then the Cowboys, he returned to Redlands where he worked as a volunteer assistant at both Redlands High and the University of Redlands.

After serving as a graduate assistant at BYU, he coached tight ends at San Diego State for five years before becoming OC at Utah State.

In 1989 he was hired at Stanford by Dennis Green, and when Green was hired by the Vikings, he went along.

He spent seven seasons in Minnesota - five of them as offensive coordinator - and  the Vikings made the playoffs in s1x of those seasons.  In 1998, his offense set a new NFL record for most points scored in a single season.

At the end of the season, he was a hot commodity, and although rumored to be the Cleveland Browns’ top  choice as their head coach, he chose instead to go to Baltimore to coach the Ravens.

He was just the second coach in team history - after Ted Marchibroda - and in his first season, the Ravens’ 8-8 record was their first non-losing season.

In his second season in Baltimore, the Ravens  went 12-4 , and despite enormous distractions involving all-star linebacker Ray Lewis’ involvement in a murder, won the Super Bowl, defeating the Giants 34-7.

After a 5-11 season in 2007, he was fired, and, apparently fulfilled by his work as a TV network analyst, he never took another head coaching job.

How about this: Brian Billick was succeeded by John Harbaugh, who is the current Ravens’ coach.  That means that in the 27 years of their existence, the Ravens have had just three head coaches.   Currently, only the Steelers (three coaches in the last 53 years) and Patriots (three coaches in the last 30 years) can top that.


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING BRIAN BILLICK

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
TOM DAVIS - SAN MARCOS, CALIFORNIA
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
RODNEY LUNSFORD - WESTFIELD, INDIANA
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY






*********** QUIZ:  He played 15 years in the NFL - all with the Raiders - and his great speed and his development as a receiver played a large part in the Raiders’  “go deep” philosophy of passing.

He went to high school in Houston, and played his college football at Colorado.

He was drafted in the fourth round by the Raiders in 1972, not so much  for his performance on the football field (he caught only 23 passes his junior year, and just 13 his senior year) as for his speed - his 10-flat 100-meter  time in the NCAA track and field championships set a new meet record. (He also ran a 9.2 in the 100 yard dash, but prior to 1976, the NCAA ran metric distances in Olympic years.)

Although he did qualify for the Olympics, held that year in Munich, he chose instead to report to Raiders’ training camp.

Despite his great speed, he was a project, and he represents  a great example of player development:  

He caught only three passes his rookie season - while missing  15 balls considered catchable, and he wasn’t a whole lot better his second season, catching only 19 passes for 290 yards.

But the Raiders stuck with him, and he began to develop.  A lot of the credit belongs to Fred Biletnikoff,  then one of the best in the game,  who spent time with him after practice every day.

(“Basically, I was his shadow,” our guy recalled. “I had to mimic him because he was my teacher.”)

One of the biggest things Biltenikoff helped him with was his running style.   “He ran so fast,” recalled Raiders’ coach John Madden, “his head bobbed when he ran, so he was always looking through bobbing eyes. He learned to keep his head straight from Biletnikoff.”

His breakout season came in his third year. He caught 60 passes for 13 touchdowns and 1,092 yards, led the NFL in yards, touchdown passes and yards receiving per game, and earned All-Pro honors. In a losing effort against the Steelers in the AFC title game, he caught nine passes for 186 yards and a touchdown.

The Raiders made a conscious decision to play to his strength: his Olympic-type speed.  “He wasn’t one-dimensional,” said Madden, “but to run him on a short pass would be stupid, I thought.”

Good strategy: in his time with the Raiders, he won three Super Bowl rings.

In his NFL career, he scored 21 touchdowns of 40 yards or longer. The longest,  99 yards,  came in 1983 against Washington.  The pass - from Jim Plunkett - covered the first 35 yards, but he took it the remaining 64 yards.  He was then 35 years old. 

In all, he had  501 receptions for 8,685 yards and 67 touchdowns.

He was first-team All-Pro for three straight years (1974-75-76) and he played in four pro bowls.

Throughout his career,  people didn't just respect  his speed. They feared it.

“When you were in front of him, there was fear there,” 49ers great  Ronnie Lott said. “He told me, ‘You are not going to cover me.’ And he was right. He earned my respect and fear.”

The Seahawks’ Ken Easley  would line up 13 yards off him,   “And by the time he took two steps, “ he said, “I was turning to go deep.”

Somewhat surprisingly, it took him a long time to get to the Hall of Fame. As a modern-era candidate, he was twice a semifinalist,  and  in the senior pool he was a finalist once, before finally making it  in his 32nd year of eligibility -   three years after his death.   He became the first Colorado Buffalo to enter the Hall of Fame.

At 5-11, 170, he was on the small side, and when he was asked once which modern player was most like him, he mentioned another small, fast guy: Tyreek Hill.  “I’d be like him,” he said.  “I’d get 1,000 yards easily. With the rules they have now, it would be like stealing candy.”





TUESDAY,  MAY  30,  2023 - “The problem of the world is this: Can we get men to behave decently to each other if they no longer believe in God?” George Orwell.


***********  Saturday in the USFL we witnessed something similar to Samuel Morse and the telegraph… Alexander Graham Bell and the telephone… Robert Fulton and the steamboat.

History was made:  we  saw two football games in two different cities, 700 miles distant,  with starting times just five hours apart, both of them broadcast by the same two-man team, Kevin Kugler and Joel Klatt.

A miracle!  How do I know this actually happened?  Well, why else, unless they’d actually made the trip from Birmingham to Canton in record time would Fox put something like this on the screen at the second game:



Wouldn’t it have fooled you?  Wouldn't  you have bought  their little white lie that Kevin Kugler and Joel Klatt were actually  “in the booth?”  At the stadium?

Okay, okay, Fox.  Your little fake news  game is over. We're wise to you.  You did both games remote. Neither of those guys was at either stadium. That kind of crap may have been  okay back during the pandemic, when you had announcers calling games from the safety of their dens or offices or bedrooms instead of actually being at the games themselves.  And back then, you guys at the networks were honest and upfront about it - you showed us where the broadcasters were -  and we understood. 

But in doing so, you must have noticed, you cheap bastards, that you were saving a lot of money by not having to fly in and lodge and feed the “talent.” Now,  with the Great Chinese Killer Virus Scare all but over, why not continue to do games remotely,  only this time pretending that you’re not? Why does  the public need to know that they’re being faked out?

Fox implied that those guys were in the broadcast booth.  My ass.  They were calling the game remotely.

How do I know?  First of all, there were the logistics.  While they suggested on air that they were at both places (they sure didn’t say they weren’t) there’s absolutely no way that those guys could have gotten out of  Birmingham at about 7:30 PM Eastern Time, and been on hand for the kickoff in Canton at 9 PM.

But second of all, we all know that NO game ever starts without the mandatory pre-game shot of the broadcast crew in the booth, usually with the field down below as the background.  I’ve often wondered if there might be some federal law requiring it.  On Saturday, though, at both games,  that shot was conspicuously missing.

If they’d wanted, just to fake us out further, Fox’s special effects people could have staged a pre-game interview - pre-taping the two guys in a “booth” with the “field” down below.  But to do that  they’d have had to get the two broadcasters together for the scene, and since they probably live a distance from one another, the cheap network would have had to pay the costs of getting them together simply to maintain the hoax.

“Cheap” and “network”  brings up AI.  If you’ve been paying attention to all the AI (Artificial Intelligence) stuff going on, you may be thinking what I’ve been thinking:  why even bother to pay those live announcers at all?  Why pay them union rates to sit in their rec rooms and pretend that they’re actually at the games when chatbots can be programmed to do the same thing for a lot less?  And maybe better at that.

It ought to be easy enough to program chatbots to go on and on about this story or that,  at least as well as Kugler and Klatt would do it,  and it shouldn’t be difficult for programmers to quickly input data as a play's being  run, so that another chatbot - one that sounds just like Kugler or Klatt -  can break into the “conversation” and tell us what just happened on the play. (“That was Harris the intended receiver… pass broken up by Waters… brings up third and eight.”)

Come to think of it, how do we know that that isn’t exactly what went on Saturday, first in Birmingham and then in Canton?

How do we know that this “Klatt” we were listening to was the real Joel Klatt, anyhow, and not a chatbot that sounded just like him?  Saturday’s “Klatt” definitely  needed some  fine-tuning, because  it  was excessively talkative - even  more than usual.  And it went  beyond analyzing - it lectured.  On and on.  Non-stop.  The boring professor who knows his subject better than his audience  and has to let everyone know it. 

If that was so, AI has a great future in football broadcasting. Sure, there’s  work to be done, but it was a good start.  Morse, Bell and  Fulton all had to improve on their original inventions, too.   And if AI can one day silence the many  fools who now sit behind mics, I’m all for it.



***********   THIS WEEKEND’S USFL GAMES

SATURDAY

Birmingham (5-2) 24, New Orleans (4-3) 20

Good game.  Talk about old-fasioned:  Birmingham punched in a score from the one by lining up in full-house T and running 77 Base.

Philadelphia (4-3) 37, Pittsburgh (2-5) 31


It actually wasn’t a bad game. Pittsburgh ran back a kickoff for a TD, and returned a punt  71 yards to the one yard line.

SUNDAY

Memphis (4-3) 23, Houston (4-3) 20

This was, indeed,  a good game.  It’s not often that you wind up paying that much attention to a defensive lineman, but Memphis nose man John Atkins was really good.  He had sacks, tackles for loss, pass bat-downs and a field goal block, and I saw him defeat a double team and stop the runner at the line.

Michigan (2-4) 25 vs New Jersey (2-4) 22.  

Pre-game: New Jersey is a  good team that’s been playing badly.  Michigan is a bad team that’s been playing badly. Game summary: New Jersey was (maybe) a good team that played badly. Michigan played its best game, and so did its  quarterback, Josh Love - probably because they were playing New Jersey



*********** Joel Klatt did three of the four USFL games this past weekend.  What the hell - he didn’t have to leave home.   He is overly critical, with an air of superiority.   Guys like him are the reason why there’s an “anal” in “analyst.”

Only  one of  the weekend’s games was not on a Fox network, and it’s the one that was most enjoyable.

It was Memphis against Houston, on USA, and Colt McCoy did the color.  He was easy to listen to.

First of all, he was there.  Maybe that’s why he didn’t talk excessively. He didn’t force it - and he definitely wasn’t overly critical.

He said at least three things that I liked:

When Memphis threw - successfully, on fourth-and-short, he said that in the NFL that’s called an “oh, shoot” play, indicating that “shoot” was a  substitute for something stronger.

When holding (for the purpose of pulling a blocker out of the way) was called against a  field-goal block team, he noted, “Obviously it’s illegal but (in the NFL) they do it all the time.”

And when Memphis ran most of a series out of I formation, he said, “I just love it.”

In all, he did a great job of not being Joel Klatt.



*********** If you like the “access” - interviews  with anyone and everyone during games, including split-screen interviews during action - that the XFL  and the USFL have been providing,  you’re beyond my help.

But that means you will be happy to know that the Pac-12 has announced that - assuming they ever nail down a media rights deal - “access” will be a part of the package.

Enjoy all those cliched sideline interviews and visits to locker rooms,  and good luck trying to understand what the players are saying.


*********** More and more people are “cutting the cord” - ending their cable or satellite service.  In the first quarter of this year alone, more than two million households bailed.

To ESPN, the loss of two million households represents a real dollar drain, and it’s said to be  giving serious thought to going to full streaming.  That means taking everything it now provides to via cable - and selling it direct, via a subscription service not unlike its present ESPN+.

You think you’ve saved money by cutting the cable? Wait till you see what this could cost you.

Estimates are that a full-streaming subscription to ESPN could  cost you at least $50 a month. Some say  twice that.


*********** Ed Ames just died.  He was 95.  As the Ames Brothers, he  and three of his brothers had several hit songs in the 1950s, but he gained even more fame as “Mingo,” Fess Parker’s highly-literate Faithful Indian Companion on the hit TV show “Daniel Boone.”  And as a result of that role, he is most famous for one night when he was a guest on the Johnny Carson show.  Explaining to the host how to throw a tomahawk, he demonstrated by throwing at an outline of a  cowboy drawn on a wooden panel.  Hit him right in the crotch.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=ed+amds+tomahawk


***********  COUNTERS - AND DEALING WITH THE BACKSIDE EMOL

As I’ve already said, it’s fair to assume that Coach Erhardt’s “LB” on the side away from the action - the side away from our motion - is going to be counter-conscious.

He’s going to be trained to watch for  two indicators of “counter coming”: (1) the wingback on his side going in motion,  and (2) the tight end to his inside blocking down.

To make sure that our suppositions are correct, we’ll run our base counter.

If we find that that “LB” is “kick-outable” -  game over.  They’re going to see counters.  A lot.

But given that defensive coaches aren’t stupid, what if the “LB” does as expected, and squeezes down hard to the inside?

TODAY: What else can we do to mess with that backside “LB?”

29 G-O.  it’s not exactly a counter play, and it’s not exactly  the  classic Delaware Wing-T Buck Sweep, but it’ll do and it’s been a big gainer. 

Two things make it work:

(1) The fact that the “LB” is squeezing down and not fighting his way into the backfield (which would have made him susceptible to  being kicked out on a counter).  The difficulty of the block for the wingback is one reason why I prefer Super Power to the Buck Sweep as my off-tackle play, but when that EMOL closes down, it’s a simple block for the  wingback.

(2) There is no motion,  and the first thing the defense sees is the B-Back hitting at “2”.  To them, that should mean “Wedge,” which makes this play a complement to the Wedge.  For this reason, I don’t have the B-Back “bend” as if running a trap.

Shown here is 29 G-O DOWN.  For the sake of simplicity in teaching, every  man on the line (with the exception of the 2 guards) blocks away from the point of attack, although with a little bit of work it might make some sense to have the backside end and tackle close down as if wedge blocking.





When we face a more normal-playing EMOL - one who is not so easily blocked down, we are just as likely to  run the play as 29 G-O REACH.  This means that the play side - including the center - reach blocks. 



Because the play side B gap is potentially vulnerable, especially if the play side guard is covered, we may  change the play call to “29 O-Reach” and dispense with the pull of the play side guard.  This is no problem.  The backside guard arrives in plenty of time to make the kick out block on the  corner.


(This play, like every play in the Double Wing, is mirrored, and can be run to either side.)



***********  Bullying, everyone agrees,  has no place in our society. 
 
But what is bullying?

My high school, Germantown Academy (still known around Philly as G.A.), was all-male, with graduating classes around 50.  But we had some very good football teams.  And a major reason was that  unless there was something wrong with you, you played football.

My freshman year, a new kid, a junior named Jim Fraser, arrived at school, and turned out for the soccer team.  This was considered very strange, because he was a big kid, about 6-3, 215, very well built, and he was quite athletic.  Why soccer?  Well,  it turned out, his dad, Tom, had played on the national team in his native Scotland, and naturally  Jim had started playing soccer when  he was young, and had been playing it ever since.

But one day shortly after his arrival at G.A., for some reason he gave up soccer and turned out for the football team.

Years later, he explained to me why he’d had the change of heart: he'd  had a sit-down with the Lassen brothers.  The Lassen brothers, Dick and Bob, were twins. They were seniors and team co-captains. They were maybe 5-8, 155 pounds, but they were all whalebone and whipcord, as people once said.   They were very good athletes, and they were incredibly  tough competitors.  They knew no fear, but they could strike fear in the hearts of any slackers on their teams.  In short, they were the kind of leaders we coaches all crave.

As Jim told it to me, in their sit-down with him  they told him that they thought he had real potential as a football player and suggested he  join them.  But  they’d started out their sales pitch by  calling him a big pussy (omigod!) and they concluded  by suggesting that  his time at GA would be much more enjoyable if he joined them than if he continued to play soccer. 

So persuasive were they that he decided to play football. Turns out, he was  pretty good, too. He very well may have been the first soccer-style kicker in the US (that was 1953).  His kickoffs went out of the end zone every time.  He was a great punter as well, and he turned out to be a very good linebacker, good enough to earn a scholarship to Wisconsin.

After his time as a Badger he went on to play six seasons in the AFL with the Broncos, Chiefs and Patriots, as both a linebacker and a punter.  In his three years in Denver, he made the Pro Bowl as a punter, averaging 44.1 yards per kick.

That’s how things worked in those days.  No one thought twice  about that sort of “persuasion.”

Nowadays?  A present-day "James" (not Jim - today’s parents don’t like nicknames) Fraser would go home and tell his parents what had happened, and they would hire a lawyer, who would contact the “head of school” (not the headmaster - that title is now verboten), who would fire the coach,  and expel the Lassen twins. And cancel the football season.  And bring in an expert to talk to the rest of the student body about the horrors of bullying.

Agreed, bullying, as we all know, has no place in our society.    But is everything that’s called bullying really bullying?   

Was  what the Lassen brothers did bullying?  I don’t know.  I’ve heard others call it peer pressure.


*********** Like all athletic directors, Iowa’s Gary Barta has had his detractors.  It goes with the job. 

Now that he’s announced his plans to retire,  Hawkeye fans who’ve called for his ouster will get their  chance to see if, as they’ve no doubt said, “anybody would be better.”

Don’t bet on it.

Here’s my concern: his replacement will be brought on board with the assignment of telling Kirk Ferentz  that they’ve decided to “go in another direction,” as mealy-mouth admin types like to say.


*********** For the first time in years, I missed the Indianapolis 500.  I don’t know why.

More than anything, I missed the singing of “Back Home Again in Indiana.”

But from what I’ve read, I didn’t miss much else.  People have been going wild in their criticism of the telecast, which I guess was streamed on Peacock - bad streaming, too many commercials, too much split screen, etc., etc.



***********  Now that the Washington Redskins - er, Washington Football Team, er, Commanders - have been sold (for - can you believe  - SIX BILLION DOLLARS), another issue has popped up.

They can’t trademark the name “Commanders.”  Which means that they can’t make money selling the  right to use the name, or selling apparel bearing the team name.

The problem, they’ve been told by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, is  supposedly confusion with the “Commander’s Classic,” a name given fairly recently to the Army-Air Force football game, and other similar names - Washington Space Commanders,  and Washington Wolf Commanders - trademarked by a guy named Martin McCaulay.

The Washington National Football League Team is appealing, and  may wind up winning, because I don’t see a lot of people getting confused between an NFL team and a relatively insignificant college football game.  (Army and Air Force have been playing since the 1960s, and only in the last year or two, after  someone  figured out a way to squeeze some more coins out of sponsors, has it had this bogus name.)

McCaulay is  what’s called a “squatter” - a guy who trademarks possible team names, likely in hopes of cashing in in cases like this - but every man has his price.

But there’s more to this: at the time the “Washington Football Team”  announced the name change to “Commanders,” a Washington Post poll found that 32 per cent of people polled said they “dislike” it, and 17 per cent said they “hate” it.

Another, more recent poll of  more than 12,000 respondents showed that 73 per cent felt that along with new team ownership, it was time for another name change.

It won’t be easy.  The NFL, already somewhat embarrassed by the musical name changes in D.C.,  and wary of the possibility of a team selling its name for commercial purposes, makes it rather  difficult for teams to  change names.


*********** May 31 is the day that Iowa Wesleyan College, where Hal Mumme and Mike Leach first devised and introduced their wild, spread offensive scheme that would become known as the Air Raid offense, closes its doors, after 181 years.  (Great article in The Athletic, but there’s a firewall.)


*********** US college enrollment is now 58 per cent female, and the figure is steadily increasing.

I would prefer to think that the explanation for this shocking figure is that males are taking up trades in large numbers, but I rather doubt it.

 
*********** Check out this  all-star college staff - Blanton Collier’s 1959 staff at the University of Kentucky.  



From left to right:

ED RUTLEDGE - Went on to assist Don Shula in Baltimore and Bill Arnsparger in New York
HOWARD SCHNELLENBERGER - Assisted at Alabama, LA Rams, Dolphins; head coach Baltimore Colts, Miami U, Louisville, Oklahoma, Florida Atlantic
ERMAL ALLEN - Went to Cowboys and  became Tom Landry’s  right-hand man
BLANTON COLLIER - Head coach - went on to Coach Cleveland Browns to the 1964 NFL championship - their last one
DON SHULA - An all-time great as head coach of Baltimore Colts and then Miami Dolphins
JOHN NORTH - Assisted at LSU, Detroit Lions, New Orleans Saints, Atlanta falcons; Head coach of Saints
BOB CUMMINGS - Tennessee High School Hall of Fame coach, assisted John North at New Orleans
BILL ARNSPARGER - Went to Tulane, then to Baltimore Colts and Miami Dolphins under Shula, then head coach NY Giants, head coach LSU, AD at Florida, DC San Diego Chargers


***********   Hugh, hope this finds you and Connie doing well on this Memorial Day.

After reading your page and having Rock and Randy in the service, the things you post mean more to me each time. Took a long walk with Randy's dog through  the neighborhood. Knowing this is the mid west, and the leaders we now have in office I was awed with how many homes had American Flags/ Blue Lives Matter Flags, Military flags out for all to see. I am glad people like this still exist, though not in our
 political leadership  roles.

Mike Foristiere
Topeka, Kansas


*********** I appreciate you posting your Memorial Day stories.

Mike Framke
Green Bay, Wisconsin


***********   Coach Wyatt,

I receive (almost daily) an email titled American Minute with Bill Federer.

I do not know if you have heard of his work or not.

But I, again, thought of you when I read this Memorial Day edition.

See the link below.

I hope you and your family are well.

Mark Hundley
Grove City, Ohio

Click on the link:  It’s really beautifully done.

https://americanminute.com/blogs/todays-american-minute/memorial-day-honoring-american-heroes-of-courage-sacrifice-faith-american-minute-with-bill-federer


***********   Coach:

I swell with pride when once a year I read your peerless page. Pride not in or for myself, but pride in knowing there have been Americans who so loved their fellow citizens that they laid down their lives on their behalf. And pride in knowing a man like you is out there reminding us of the essential greatness of our country.

I'm afraid we Americans generally are notoriously bad at identifying and studying the examples of genuinely heroic citizens. And of course I especially mean the quietly heroic people who bind our society together. This page is our annual reminder to pay attention to simple, strong good citizenship.

Thank you, sir.

John Vermillion                
St. Petersburg, Florida


*********** Hugh,

Thank you again for your annual and poignant remembrances each Memorial Day of our American servicemen and women who died in service to this great country.  Their sacrifice is what has made this country great, and on this Memorial Day we once again pay tribute to each and every one of them.  God rest their souls, God bless their families, and God bless America.

Seen on MANY vehicle bumpers where we now live, "I STAND FOR THE FLAG".  Another, "WE DON'T CALL 911" (written over the silhouette of a rifle).

In our new neighborhood just about every other house has a flagpole in front flying the American and Texas flags.  Our house included.

We went out for breakfast after church last Sunday to a locally owned diner.  The walls of the diner are covered with photos of WWI, WWII, Korean War, Vietnam War, Iraq War, Afghan War Veterans AND...even a few Confederate soldiers!  I wouldn't be surprised if there were some who served in Grenada.  The service was great, the food plentiful and tasty, and the bill for two seniors (including tip) was $17.00!


Blessings to you and Connie this Memorial Day weekend!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas






 ABOVE - FROM HIGH SCHOOL TO WASHIGTON STATE TO SERVICE IN VIETNAM - IN THE 1953 CLEVELAND BROWNS PHOTO HE'S #74


***********   QUIZ ANSWER:   For more than 30 years, it had been common knowledge that Bob Kalsu was the only NFL player killed while serving in Vietnam.

Bob Kalsu was killed in Action in 1970.  Just  two years before, he had started as a rookie at guard for the Bills.

Lieutenant Kalsu, who had been in ROTC while at Oklahoma, has been honored  - rightfully - in a number of  ways.

In 1999, an NFL Films feature on Bob Kalsu was nominated for an Emmy.

But - and not in any way to  diminish or dishonor the sacrifice of Bob Kalsu - in 2001, it came to the attention of the NFL  that there was another NFL player who had been killed in Vietnam - three years and four days before Bob Kalsu.

His name is Don Steinbrunner, and his is an  interesting story.

He was from Bellingham, Washington,  a standout in football, basketball, baseball and track at nearby Mount Baker High School.  He was all-state in both football and basketball.

At Washington State, at 6-3, 215, he played football and basketball and was captain of both teams. In football he was an outside linebacker and - before the term had been invented - what we would call a tight end. (Actually, at that time ALL ends were “tight.”)

Chosen by the Browns in the sixth round of the 1953 draft - number 71 overall -   he was  cut but then,  likely having been kept on their so-called “taxi squad,” he was re-signed by the Browns before their fifth regular-season game.  He stuck  with the Browns as a backup offensive lineman  the rest of the season as they won every game before finally losing, 17-16, to the Detroit Lions in the title game.

Having been in Air Force ROTC at WSU, he then began serving his two-year active duty requirement.  But when his time was up, instead of returning to the Browns,  he chose to remain in the Air Force,

From 1961 through 1964, he was assigned to coach football at the Air Force Academy.

In1966,  he was sent to Vietnam.    Shortly  after his arrival, he was shot in the knee during a mission and was offered a less dangerous assignment.  He refused, preferring to continue flying missions.

On July 17, 1967,  the plane he was piloting was shot down over  South Vietnam. He was  killed, along with the other four men aboard.

He was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart and the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC).

The citation for his DFC read (in part)

"Disregarding the hazards of flying the difficult target terrain and the opposition presented by hostile ground forces, he led the formation through one attack and returned to make a second attack. The outstanding heroism and selfless devotion to duty displayed by Major Steinbrunner reflect great credit upon himself and the United States Air Force."

He was laid to rest in the Air Force Academy cemetery.   Denver Post sportswriter Ralph Moore, who  remembered him as an Air Force  coach, wrote, in tribute…

"I had known Don Steinbrunner as a coach. I knew he was a tenacious and aggressive athlete who hated to lose. As a sportswriter, I appreciated his bluntness, his deep loyalties and the frustrations he knew in working against rugged odds. I knew he disliked sports stories with frilly phrases…that he hated excuses, respected ability and loved a party. I knew he was Air Force. I'm not Air Force, but I am a father, and Monday I cried a little…Inside where it hurts most."

His role as an NFL player Killed in Action went unknown to the public until  2001, when Sports Illustrated published a cover piece for a July issue about Bob Kalsu, referring to him on  the cover as “the only pro athlete to be killed" in the Vietnam War.

After learning of the  story, the Steinbrunner family contacted the Pro Football Hall of Fame to inform the organization of their father's story, including his time with the Browns.

That year, the Hall of Fame invited the Steinbrunner family to its inaugural Veterans Day ceremony, held on the front steps of the Hall of Fame building.

The Browns formally honored him in November, 2004.    Much as they might have liked to retire his number (74) they couldn’t -  it was already retired.  The year after Don Steinbrunner last played, the number  was given to an offensive lineman named Mike McCormack, whom the Browns had just acquired in a trade. Mike McCormack played  nine years at a level of proficiency high enough to earn him a place in the Pro Football Hall of Fame - and the retirement of his number by the Browns.  (McCormack’s coach, the great Paul Brown, referred to him in his autobiography as “the finest offensive tackle who ever played pro football.”


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING DON STEINBRUNNER

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY






*********** QUIZ:  In his entire 30-year coaching career, he had just one head coaching job.

It was with an NFL club, and in nine years with the team he went 85-67.  He was 5-3 in post-season play, and in his second year, he won the Super Bowl.

He grew up and played high school ball in Redlands, California, and played one year at  the Air Force Academy before transferring to BYU. (He later said he transferred when he found out that his size - 6-5, 230 - disqualified him from becoming a fighter pilot.)

At BYU, where he played tight end, he won All-WAC honors his senior year, as well as All-American honorable mention.

He was drafted in the 11th round by the 49ers, but after being cut by the 49ers and then the Cowboys, he returned to Redlands where he worked as a volunteer assistant at both Redlands High and the University of Redlands.

After serving as a graduate assistant at BYU, he coached tight ends at San Diego State for five years before becoming OC at Utah State.

In 1989 he was hired at Stanford by Dennis Green, and when Green was hired by the Vikings, he went along.

He spent seven seasons in Minnesota - five of them as offensive coordinator - and  the Vikings made the playoffs in six of those seasons.  In 1998, his offense set a new NFL record for most points scored in a single season.

At the end of the season, he was a hot commodity, and although rumored to be the Cleveland Browns’ top  choice as their head coach, he chose instead to go to Baltimore to coach the Ravens.

He was just the second coach in team history - after Ted Marchibroda - and in his first season, the Ravens’ 8-8 record was their first non-losing season.

In his second season in Baltimore, the Ravens  went 12-4 , and despite enormous distractions involving all-star linebacker Ray Lewis’ involvement in a murder, won the Super Bowl, defeating the Giants 34-7.

After a 5-11 season in 2007, he was fired, and, apparently fulfilled by his work as a TV network analyst, he never took another head coaching job.

How about this: he was succeeded by John Harbaugh, who is the current Ravens’ coach.  That means that in the 27 years of their existence, the Ravens have had just three head coaches.   Currently, only the Steelers (three coaches in the last 53 years) and Patriots (three coaches in the last 30 years) can top that.


FRIDAY,  MAY  26,  2023 - “When you’ve got wars with an all-volunteer military funded through deficit spending, they can go on forever, because there are no political costs.” Elliott Ackerman, author

MEMORIAL DAY, 2023 -  More important than football

*********** On Memorial Day, we honor those who died fighting for our country. But it's also important to honor those who didn't die - who survived the conflict itself, but spent the rest of their lives trying to suppress memories of the horrors of war, and tormented by the thought that comrades died, while they were spared.


*********** For seven summers, I coached football in Finland. On one occasion, I attended the high school graduation of one of my players.  Other than the language, it wasn't all that different from those that I'd attended in the US, except that at the end, instead of some raucous celebrating, the graduates marched to the nearby churchyard and laid flowers on the graves of soldiers - some of them young men from their town who less than 50 years before  had given their lives to defend their country against the Russians, and some of them young men who had died years earlier, in a civil war to decide whether the communism unleashed in neighboring Russia might also engulf them.


I marvelled at their devotion to their country, and at the way they unashamedly  honored their fallen soldiers, and I realize how blessed we were never to have had our very country threatened, and how special our dead servicemen were, because so many of them died on foreign shores, their deaths all the more tragic because they were only remotely connected to an actual defense of their country.


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

VIETNAM WALL... K I A ... Adkins, Donald W.... Allen, Terry... Anderson, Larry M.... Barker, Gary L.... Blackwell, James L., Jr.... Bolen, Jackie Jr. ... Booker, Joseph O. ... Breeden, Clifford L. Jr ... Camero, Santos... Carrasco, Ralph ... Chaney, Elwood D. Jr... Cook, Melvin B.... Crites, Richard L.... Crutcher, Joe A. ...... Dodson, Wesley E.... Dowling, Francis E.... Durham, Harold B. Jr ... Dye, Edward P. ... East, Leon N.... Ellis, Maurice S.... Familiare, Anthony ... Farrell, Michael J. ...Fuqua, Robert L. Jr. ...Gallagher, Michael J. ...Garcia, Arturo ...Garcia, Melesso ...Gilbert, Stanley D. ...Gilbertson, Verland ...Gribble, Ray N. ...Holleder, Donald W. ...Jagielo, Allen D. ...Johnson, Willie C. Jr ...Jones, Richard W. ...Krischie, John D. ...Lancaster, James E. ...Larson, James E. ...Lincoln, Gary G. ...Lovato, Joe Jr. ...Luberta, Andrew P. ...Megiveron, Emil G. ...Miller, Michael M. ...Moultrie, Joe D. ...Nagy, Robert J. ...Ostroff, Steven L. ...Platosz, Walter ...Plier, Eugene J. ...Porter, Archie ...Randall, Garland J. ...Reece, Ronney D. ...Reilly, Allan V. ...Sarsfield, Harry C. ...Schroder, Jack W. ...Shubert, Jackie E. ...Sikorski, Daniel ...Smith, Luther ...Thomas, Theodore D. Jr. ...Tizzio, Pasquale T. ...Wilson, Kenneth P. .... M I A ... Fitzgerald, Paul ...Hargrove, Olin Jr

 
*********** Memorial Day - originally known as "Decoration Day"  - was set aside to honor the men who died in the Civil War. (For a long time, certain southern states chose not observe it,   instead observing their own Memorial Days to honor their Confederate war dead.)


*********** The Civil War soldiers called it "seeing the elephant."  They meant experiencing combat. They may have started out cocky, but they soon enough learned how  horrible - how unforgiving and inescapable - combat could be.   By the end of the Civil War 620,000 of them on both sides lay dead.


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


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

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


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


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


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

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


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

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

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

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

After the war's conclusion, Holmes returned to Harvard to study law. Admitted to the bar in 1866, he went into private practice in Boston. In 1882, he became both a professor at Harvard Law School and a justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts. In 1899, he was appointed Chief Justice of the court, and in 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt named him to the United States Supreme Court, where he served for more than 30 years, until January 1932.

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

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

Accidents may call up the events of the war. You see a battery of guns go by at a trot, and for a moment you are back at White Oak Swamp, or Antietam, or on the Jerusalem Road.

You hear a few shots fired in the distance, and for an instant your heart stops as you say to yourself, The skirmishers are at it, and listen for the long roll of fire from the main line.
 
You meet an old comrade after many years of absence, he recalls the moment that you were nearly surrounded by the enemy, and again there comes up to you that swift and cunning thinking on which once hung life and freedom -- Shall I stand the best chance if I try the pistol or the sabre on that man who means to stop me? Will he get his carbine free before I reach him, or can I kill him first? These and the thousand other events we have known are called up, I say, by accident, and, apart from accident, they lie forgotten.
 
But as surely as this day comes round we are in the presence of the dead. For one hour, twice a year at least--at the regimental dinner, where the ghosts sit at table more numerous than the living, and on this day when we decorate their graves  -- the dead come back and live with us.
 
I see them now, more than I can number, as once I saw them on this earth. They are the same bright figures, or their counterparts, that come also before your eyes; and when I speak of those who were my brothers, the same words describe yours.

This, from Justice Holmes' address to the graduating class of Harvard University on Memorial Day, 1895

I have heard the question asked whether our war was worth fighting, after all. There are many, poor and rich, who think that love of country is an old wife's tale, to be replaced by interest in a labor union, or, under the name of cosmopolitanism, by a rootless self-seeking search for a place where the most enjoyment may be had at the least cost.

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

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

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

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

Justice Holmes died on March 6, 1935, two days short of his 94th birthday, and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. So spry and alert was he, right up to the end, that it's said that one day, when he was in his nineties, he saw an attractive young woman and said, "Oh, to be seventy again!" A 1951 Hollywood motion picture, The Magnificent Yankee, was based on his life.


*********** Roughly 10 million men were killed in World War I.  So efficient had the weapons of war become by then that about half of them - five million men - have no known graves.


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

If you are able
Save a place for them inside of you,
And save one backward glance
When you are leaving for places
They can no longer go.
  
Be not ashamed to say you loved them,
Though you may or may not always have.
Take what they have left
And what they have taught you with their dying,
And keep it with your own.
  
And in that time when men feel safe
To call the war insane,
Take one moment to embrace these gentle heroes
You left behind.
  
by Major Michael D. O'Donnell... shortly before being killed in action in Vietnam, 1970

***********After graduation from Harvard in 1910, Alan Seeger lived the life of a bohemian/beatnik/ hippie poet in New York City's Greenwich Village.  In 1914, he moved to Paris, and when war with Germany broke out, like a number of other young Americans,  he joined the French Foreign Legion to fight on the side of the Allies. On July 4, 1916, nine months  before America joined the war,  he was killed in the Battle of the Somme.  He was 28.  A year after his death, his poems were published.  The best known of them was "I Have a Rendezvous With Death," which according to the JFK Library, "was one of President Kennedy's favorite poems."
 

I Have a Rendezvous with Death
By Alan Seeger
 
I have a rendezvous with Death    
At some disputed barricade,    
When Spring comes back with rustling shade    
And apple-blossoms fill the air—    
I have a rendezvous with Death         
When Spring brings back blue days and fair.    
 
It may be he shall take my hand    
And lead me into his dark land    
And close my eyes and quench my breath—    
It may be I shall pass him still.
  
I have a rendezvous with Death    
On some scarred slope of battered hill,    
When Spring comes round again this year    
And the first meadow-flowers appear.    
 
God knows 'twere better to be deep    
Pillowed in silk and scented down,    
Where love throbs out in blissful sleep,    
Pulse nigh to pulse, and breath to breath,    
Where hushed awakenings are dear... 
 
But I've a rendezvous with Death    
At midnight in some flaming town,    
When Spring trips north again this year,    
And I to my pledged word am true,    
I shall not fail that rendezvous.

*********** Poppies once symbolized the Great War,  or The World War,  or, if you prefer,  "The War to End All Wars" (so-called because, in the conceit that seems to follow every war, people  just knew in their hearts  that after the horror of that conflict, mankind would do anything in its power to avoid ever going to war again.)

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

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

In the spring of 1915, after having spent seventeen days hearing the screams and dealing with the suffering of men wounded in the bloody battle at Ypres, in Flanders (a part of Belgium), Major McCrae wrote, "I wish I could embody on paper some of the varied sensations of that seventeen days... Seventeen days of Hades! At the end of the first day if anyone had told us we had to spend seventeen days there, we would have folded our hands and said it could not have been done."

Major McCrae was especially affected by the death of a close friend and former student. Following his burial - at which, in the absence of a chaplain, Major McCrae himself had had to preside - the Major sat in the back of an ambulance and, gazing out at the wild poppies growing in a nearby cemetery, composed a poem, scribbling the words in a notebook. But when he was done, he discarded it, and it was only through the efforts of a fellow officer, who rescued it and sent it to newspapers in England, that it was ever published.

Now, the poem, "In Flanders Fields", is considered perhaps the greatest of all wartime poems. The special significance of the poppies is that poppy seeds can lie dormant in the ground for years, flowering only when the soil has been turned over. The soil of northern Belgium had been so churned up by the violence of war that at the time Major McCrae wrote his poem, the poppies were said to be blossoming in a profusion that no one could  remember ever having seen before.

In Flanders Fields... by John McCrae       

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

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

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

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


"Young Fellow My Lad"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    "Like many other phenomena in life, history has a tendency to be fickle. In 2001, some thirty-four years after the Battle of Ông Thanh, and the subsequent withdrawal of U.S. forces from Vietnam in 1973, which was followed by the "honorable peace" that saw the North Vietnamese army conquer South Vietnam in 1975 in violation of the Paris Peace Accords, most historians, as well as a large majority of the American people, may consider the U.S. involvement in Vietnam a disastrous and tragic waste and a time of shame in U.S. history. Consider, however, the fact that since the late 1940s, the Soviet Union was the greatest single threat to U.S. security. Yet for forty years, war between the Soviet Union and the United States was averted. Each time a Soviet threat surfaced during that time (Greece, Turkey, Korea, Berlin, Cuba, Vietnam, and Afghanistan), although it may have been in the form of a "war of national liberation," as the Vietnam war was characterized, the United States gave the Soviet Union the distinct message that each successive threat would not be a Soviet walkover. In fact, the Soviets were stunned by the U.S. reactions in both Korea and Vietnam. They shook their heads, wondering what interest a great power like the United States could have in those two godforsaken countries. They thought: 'These Americans are crazy. They have nothing to gain; and yet they fight and lose thousands of men over nothing. They are irrational.'

     "'Perhaps history in the long-term--two hundred or three hundred years from now--will say that the western democracies, led by the United States, survived in the world, and their philosophy of government of the people, by the people, for the people continues to survive today (in 2301) in some measure due to resolute sacrifices made in the mid-twentieth century by men like those listed in the last chapter of this book. Then the words of Lord Byron, as quoted in this book's preface, will not ring hollow, but instead they will inspire other men and women of honor in the years to come. "

The late General Jim Shelton was a former Delaware football player (a wing-T guard) who served in Korea and Vietnam and as a combat infantryman rose to the rank of General. He was in Viet Nam on that fateful day in October, 1967 when Don Holleder was killed. Ironically, he had competed against Don Holleder in college. General Shelton  served as Colonel of the Black Lions and was instrumental in helping me  establish the Black Lion Award for young American football players. The  title of his book was taken from Captain Jim Kasik's description of the enemy: "the beast was out there, and the beast was hungry."


*********** The late George Jones could be a rogue, but he was a heck of a singer, and his "50,000 NAMES CARVED IN THE WALL" - a tribute to the 58,000 Americans who died in Vietnam - may be THE American Memorial Day song.

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



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

If you doubt the axiom, 'An aggressive leader is priceless,' ...if you prefer the air arm to the infantry in football, if you are not convinced we recruited cadet-athletes of superior leadership potential, then you must hear the story of Donald Walter Holleder. The saga of Holleder stands unique in Army and, perhaps, all college gridiron lore.

Hence begins the chapter, "You are my quarterback", in Coach Red Blaik's 1960 book, You Have to Pay the Price. Every cadet in the classes of 1956, 57, 58 and 59, and everyone who was part of the Army family at West Point and throughout the world will remember, even 50 years after the fact, the "Great Experiment".

But there is much more to the Holleder story. . Holly was born and brought up in a tight knit Catholic family in upstate New York. He was an only child whose father died when Don was quite young. Doc Blanchard recruited high school All American Holleder who entered the Point just a few days after he graduated from Aquinas Institute in Rochester.

Twice turned out for academic difficulties, he struggled mightily to stay in the Corps. However as a cadet leader he excelled, serving as a cadet captain and company commander of M-2 his senior year.

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

Three football defeats in 1955 after Holly's conversion to quarterback brought criticism of Coach Blaik and Don from many quarters but the dramatic Army victory over Navy, 14 to 6 brought redemption. Shortly thereafter, Holly received the Swede Nelson award for sportsmanship.

The fact that he had given up all chances of becoming a two time all-American and a candidate for the Heisman trophy and he did so without protest or complaint played heavily in the decision by the Nelson committee to select him for this prestigious award.

Holly's eleven year career in the Army included the normal schools at Benning and Leavenworth, company command in Korea, coaching and recruiting at West Point and serving as the commanding general's aide at Fortress Monroe.

After graduating from Command and General Staff College, he was off to Vietnam. Arriving in July, 1967, Holly was assigned to the Big Red One--the First Infantry Division-- and had considerable combat experience before that tragic day in the fall--October 17.

Lieutenant Colonel Terry Allen's battalion was ambushed and overrun--the troops on the ground were in desperate shape. Holleder was serving as the operations officer of the 28th Brigade--famous Black Lions. Hearing the anguished radio calls for help from the soldiers on the ground, Holly convinced his brigade commander that he had to get on the ground to help. Jumping out of his helicopter, Holly rallied some troops and raced toward the spot where the wounded soldiers were fighting.

The Newsweek article a few days after his death tells what happened next. "With the Viet Cong firing from two sides, the U. S. troops now began retreating pell-mell back to their base camp, carrying as many of their wounded as they could, The medic Tom "Doc" Hinger was among those who staggered out of the bush and headed across an open marshy plain toward the base, 200 meters away. But on the way he ran into big, forceful Major Donald W. Holleder, 33, an All-American football player at West Point..., going the other way--toward the scene of the battle. Holleder, operations officer for the brigade, had not been in the fight until now. ' Come on Doc,' he shouted to Hinger, 'There are still wounded in there. I need your help.' "

Hinger said later: 'I was exhausted. But having never seen such a commander, I ran after him. What an officer! He went on ahead of us--literally running to the point position'. Then a burst of fire from the trees caught Holleder. 'He was hit in the shoulder recalled Hinger. 'I started to patch him up, but he died in my arms.'

The medic added he had been with Holleder for only three minutes, but would remember the Major's gallantry for the rest of his life."

Holly died as he lived: the willingness to make great sacrifices prevailed to the minute of his death.  Caroline was left a young widow. She later married our West Point classmate, Ernie Ruffner, who became a loving husband and father to the four Holleder daughters. All the daughters are happily married and there are eight wonderful and loving grandchildren.

The legacy of Donald Walter Holleder will remain an important part of the West Point story forever. The Holleder Army Reserve Center in Webster, New York, the Holleder Parkway in Rochester and the Holleder Athletic Center at West Point all help further Don's legacy. In 1985, Holly was inducted into College Football Hall of Fame.

A 2003 best selling book, "They Marched into Sunlight", by David Maraniss,  tells the story of Holleder and the Black Lions. Tom Hanks has purchased the film rights to the book. An innovative high school coach, Hugh Wyatt, decided to further memorialize Don's legacy by establishing the Black Lion Award. Each year at hundreds of high schools, middle schools and youth football programs across the country, a single football player on each team is selected "who best exemplifies the character of Don Holleder: leadership, courage, devotion to duty, self-sacrifice, and--above all--an unselfish concern for his team ahead of himself."

Starting in 2005, this award is presented to a member of the Army football team each year.  Anyone who wishes to extend Holleder's legacy can do so by approaching their local football coaches and encouraging them to make the Black Lion Award a part of their tradition.

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

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



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



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

In 1954-55 I lived at West Point N.Y. where my father was stationed as a member of the staff at the United States Military Academy. Don Holleder was an All American end on the Red Blaik coached Army football team which was a perennial eastern gridiron power in 40s and 50s.

On Fall days I would run home from the post school, drop off my books, and head directly to the Army varsity practice field which overlooked the Hudson River and was only a short sprint from my house. Army had a number of outstanding players on the roster back then, but my focus was on Don Holleder, our All-America end turned quarterback in a controversial position change that had sportswriters and Army fans buzzing throughout the college football community that year. Don looked like a hero, tall, square jawed, almost stately in his appearance. He practiced like he played, full out all the time. He was the obvious leader of the team in addition to being its best athlete and player. In 1955 it was common for star players to play both sides of the ball and Don was no exception delivering the most punishing tackles in practice as well as game situations.

At the end of practice the Army players would walk past the parade ground (The Plain), then past my house and into the Arvin Gymnasium where the team's locker room was located. Very often I would take that walk stride for stride with Don and the team and best of all, Don would sometimes let me carry his helmet. It was gold with a black stripe down the middle and had the most wonderful smell of sweat and leather. Inside the helmet suspension was taped a sweaty number 16, Don's jersey number.

While Don's teammates would talk and laugh among themselves in typical locker room banter, Don would ask me about school, show me how to grip the ball and occasionally chide his buddies if the joking ever got bawdy in front of "the little guy".

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

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

There was one major drawback to all of Don's football-gained notoriety - he wanted no part of it. He wanted to be a soldier and an infantry leader. But division recreational football was a big deal in the Army back then and for someone with Don's college credentials not to play was unheard of. In the first place players got a lot of perks for representing their Regiment, not to mention hero status with the chain of command. Nevertheless, Don wanted to trade his football helmet for a steel pot and finally, with the help of my Dad, he succeeded in retiring from competitive football and getting on with his military profession.

It came as no surprise to anyone who knew Don that he was a natural leader of men in arms, demanding yet compassionate, dedicated to his men and above all fearless. Sure enough after a couple of TO&E infantry tours his reputation as a soldier matched his former prowess as an athlete.It was this reputation that won him the favor of the Army brass and he soon found himself as an Aide-de-camp to the four star commander of the Continental Army Command in beautiful Ft Monroe, Virginia.

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

Once again, Don wanted no part of this safe harbor and respectfully lobbied his boss, General Hugh P. Harris to get him to Troops in Viet Nam. Don got his wish but not very long after arriving at the First Division he was killed attempting to lead a relief column to wounded comrades caught in a Viet Cong ambush.

I remember the day I found out about Don's death. I was in the barber's chair at The Citadel my sophomore year when General Harris (Don's old boss at Ft Monroe, now President of The Citadel) walked over to me and motioned me outside. He knew Don was a friend of mine and sought me out to tell me that he was KIA. It was one of the most defining moments of my life. As I stood there in front of the General the tears welled up in my eyes and I said "No, please, sir. Don't say that."

General Harris showed no emotion and I realized that he had experienced this kind of hurt too many times to let it show. "Biff", he said, "Don died doing his duty and serving his country. He had alternatives but wouldn't have it any other way. We will always be proud of him, Biff." With that, he turned and walked away.

As I watched him go I didn't know the truth of his parting words. I shed tears of both pride and sorrow that day in 1967, just as I am doing now, 34 years later, as I write this remembrance.

In my mind's eye I see Don walking with his teammates after practice back at West Point, their football cleats making that signature metallic clicking on concrete as they pass my house at the edge of the parade ground; he was a leader among leaders.

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

Biff Messinger, Mountainville, New York, 2001

***********  A retired Navy captain wrote in the Wall Street Journal about the strict criteria for awarding the Medal of Honor (frequently called the "Congressional" Medal of Honor)...

    "Remember the Marine Corps requirement: Fall on a hand grenade to save your fellow Marines and the grenade fails to explode, you get a Navy Cross; if the grenade explodes, you might get the Medal of Honor."


The Medal of Honor was meant to be awarded sparingly,  Of the hundreds of thousands of men who fought in our Twentieth Century wars, here are the numbers of Medals of Honor Awarded: WW I - 124;  WW II - 464; Korea  - 135;  Vietnam -  246. There were 1522 Medals of Honor awarded as a result of the Civil War. (Actually, there were more than that,  but  over 900 were later rescinded.) One reason was that in the Civil War, the Medal of Honor was the only medal awarded for valor. Another reason was the enormous number of casualties suffered in that war.

http://www.homeofheroes.com/moh/corrections/purge_army.html


*********** Other nations lost men in the same wars we did, of course, and they, too, honor their men who gave all, in poem and song.

What can be sadder than the loss of a young man, one of his country's finest,  in a distant war? One such song is known by some as "No Man's Land" and by others as "The Green Fields of France" - but either way  it's a sad lament about a young soldier named Willie McBride, killed in battle in 1916 while still a teenager.

Fair  warning: This is VERY sad.      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_mBJgsaxlY


Another very sad ballad, "The Band Played Waltzing Matilda," is the story of a young Australian sent off to fight in World War I.  He was shipped off to Gallipoli where thousands of "Anzacs" (Australians and New Zealanders) were slaughtered by Turkish machine-gun fire. (I highly recommend the movie, "Gallipoli") Although he escaped death, his legs were blown off, and his story in the song  is told from the perspective of an embittered, now-old man.

Fair  warning: So is this.     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VktJNNKm3B0



*********** Trophies for everybody. There really was a time when most Americans knew why we put aside one day a year called Memorial Day:   to honor - to memorialize - those who lost their lives in service of their country.

Not, as the 60 or so people who buy ads in our local paper seem to think, to remember a loved one who, no matter how sorely missed,  never died in battle - never even served in the Armed Forces, for that matter - but simply did what we’re all destined to do one day - they died.  I hate to be the one to spoil their grieving by telling them that Memorial Day is not about them, or about dear, departed Uncle Charlie.

But somebody's got to tell them, and it might as well be me.

There are other days for that -  364 others, if you’re really sincere.  And there's a special one, called Veterans’ Day, when our nation does honor and thank its veterans.

Actually, come to think of it: is there even one holiday - one single holiday - that hasn’t been given another meaning, one whose new meaning often obscures the original one?

Think of it:

New Year's Day?   Bowl Games

Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday? Come on - how many people really take the time to honor the man?

Presidents’ Day?   Sale! Sale! Sale! (Used to be two separate holidays. Now, few school kids could even tell you which two presidents it refers to.)

St. Patrick's Day? Scarcely observed in Ireland,  in much of the US it’s an excuse to get drunk

Easter?  (Wherever it's still allowed to be called "Easter") It's about Bunnies and Easter eggs.  Mostly, though, it's Spring Break.

Mother's Day?  This is the one holiday that remains as designed.  If anything, it's grown stronger.  Traditionally, this was the day when the phone company’s circuits failed. Do NOT schedule anything else on this day.   And definitely - do NOT get drunk.

Cinco de Mayo?  A holiday that means nothing in Mexico, it's been turned into a Hispanic-themed St. Patrick's Day

Memorial Day?  The end of the school year.  The start of summer.  The Indy 500

July 4?  Fireworks and beer and hot dogs. (Once - you may be old enough to remember - patriotic parades and baseball double headers)

Labor Day?  The end of summer; and now, the first weekend of college football

Veterans Day?  It used to be called Armistice Day,  way  back, several wars ago,  when  we commemorated the end of a horrible world war

Hallowe'en?  Used to be for kids to go trick-or-treating. But now that that's no longer safe,  adult partiers have taken it over and turned it into the second-biggest beer sales day of the year

Thanksgiving?  Don't you mean “Turkey Day?”  You know - the day before Black Friday?

Christmas - aka "Winter Holiday." For those who don't know,  it's the “holiday” when people wish you “Happy Holidays.”



*********** In a Wall Street Journal article back in 2015, a writer named Jerry Ciancolo urged  us, the next time we pass a War Memorial with the names of dead Americans on it, to stop - and  “Touch the names of those who never came home.”

He asked that we dispense with  “hollow abstractions” such as “ultimate sacrifices,” and to think in everyday terms.

Many of those young guys, he noted...

never set foot on campus.  They never straightened a tie and headed to a first real job. They never slipped a ring on a sweetheart’s finger. They never swelled with hope turning the key to a starter home.  They never nestled an infant against a bare chest.  They never roughhoused in the living room with an exasperated wife looking on. They never tiptoed to lay out Santa’s toys.  They never dabbed a tear while walking their princess down the aisle. They never toasted their son’s promotion.  They never rekindled their love as empty nesters.  They never heard a new generation cry out, “I love you, Grandpa!”

A lifetime of big and little moments never happened because of a bullet to the body one day in a far-off land.  For those who crumpled to the ground, the tapestry of life was left unknit.

A moment’s reflection is all it takes to realize that every name on your town’s monument was a real person.  One who bicycled the same streets as you, who sleepily delivered the morning Gazette, who was kept after school for cutting up, who sneaked a smoke out back, who cannon-balled into the local pond in the dog days of summer.

On Memorial Day - with your smartphone turned off - pay a visit to your local monument. Quietly stand before the honor roll of the dead, whisper a word of thanks, and gently run your finger across their names. The touch will be comforting.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/touch-the-names-of-those-who-never-came-home-1432332593



**********  Memorial Day also happens to coincide with the anniversary of the World War I Battle of Cantigny, in which  Americans of the 28th Infantry Regiment earned the nickname “Black Lions of Cantigny.”

Cantigny, in France, was the first battle fought and won by American forces in World War I.  It began on May 28, 1918.  Under the command of Colonel Hanson Ely - a former Army football player - some 4,000 men of the 28th Infantry Regiment, US First Division, American Expeditionary Forces, seized and then defended the town of Cantigny against German opposition. In the four-day battle, nearly 900 members of the regiment were killed or wounded. For their efforts the regiment earned the French Croix de Guerre  as well as the designation “The Lions of Cantigny.” 

Although it was not a major battle, Cantigny was of great significance  in demonstrating  the worth of the American soldier, as well as establishing the principle that American troops would serve only under American leadership.  Until Cantigny, there had been great pressure from our Allies to employ the newly-arrived American troops merely as fill-ins - replacements for Allied soldiers who’d been lost in battle.  But once the “doughboys” proved their worth in combat, the debate was settled - American men would remain - and fight - under American command.

http://www.uswarmemorials.org/html/monument_details.php?SiteID=27&MemID=75



***********  THIS WEEKEND IN THE USFL

SATURDAY, MAY 27

4 PM EDT - FOX
Birmingham (4-2) vs New Orleans (4-2) at Birmingham - Ought to be a decent game.  New Orleans started out 4-0 but lost its last two games. We’ve got two pretty good QB’s here in Birmingham’s Alex McGough (pronounced “McGoo”) and New Orleans’ McLeod Bethel-Thompson.

9 PM EDT - FS1
Philadelphia (3-3) vs Pittsburgh (2-4) at Canton, OH - Philadelphia plays decent defense but can’t protect its QB, Case Cookus. Pittsburgh also plays decent defense but really sucks on offense.  You might want to try  HGTV and see what’s on.

SUNDAY, MAY 28

2:30 PM EDT - USA
Houston (4-2) vs Memphis (3-3) at Memphis - This could actually be the USFL’s best game of the weekend, but even if it weren’t, it’d still be worth tuning in to.  Yes, it’s on USA and that means  we’ll still have to listen to Zach Collinsworth doing the play-by-play, but at least we won’t have to listen to Cam Jordan on color.  Instead, we’ll get Colt McCoy, making his professional debut as an analyst.  Being inexperienced, it’s quite possible that he’ll think  it’s his job to fill every iota of dead time with senseless wordage,  which means he’ll suck.   But I’ve always liked him as a person, and I want him to be good -  and he can’t possibly be worse than Jordan who, once he became comfortable in the job, went to non-stop blather.

5:30 PM EDT - FS1
Michigan (2-4) vs New Jersey (2-4) at Canton, OH - I give the edge to Jersey.   New Jersey is a  good team that’s been playing badly.  Michigan is a bad team that’s been playing badly.


***********COUNTERS - AND DEALING WITH THE BACKSIDE EMOL

As I’ve already said, it’s fair to assume that Coach Erhardt’s “LB” on the side away from the action - the side away from our motion - is going to be counter-conscious.

He’s going to be trained to watch for  two indicators of “counter coming”: (1) the wingback on his side going in motion,  and (2) the tight end to his inside blocking down.

To make sure that our suppositions are correct, we’ll run our base counter.

If we find that that “LB” is “kick-outable” -  game over.  They’re going to see counters.  A lot.

But given that defensive coaches aren’t stupid, what if the “LB” does as expected, and squeezes down hard to the inside?

CHOICE 1.  Don’t run any more counters

No, no, no.  No way are we going to let one guy take a staple play from us.

CHOICE 2. Turn his strength into a weakness. Assume that in closing to the inside he makes himself vulnerable to being  blocked from the outside-in.

2A.  Hook him (log him) with our pulling backside guard,  and send our backside tackle - and our running back -  outside the guard’s block. 

RIP 47-C LOG



I’d prefer not to do this because it amounts to teaching a whole new play to the guard, tackle and running back.  I’d rather not mess with the running back, because we all work hard on counter plays to break  runners of the natural urge to bounce outside and race to the sideline.  As for the linemen, I really hate the idea of introducing a new blocking scheme to them - one that will take reps away from  something else.


2B.  Hook him with the play side wingback.

RIP RETURN 49-C


It’s most  likely that the down block by the Tight End is the LB’s most important key, so by using  “Rip Return” motion,  we give him the first sign that counter might be coming, but as he’s  closing down on our Tight End we quickly get our wingback onto him.  This isn’t tough to teach.  There is very little difference in the techniques of our pulling backside guard and tackle - they’re simply taking it a hole wider.


2C.  Eliminate motion and pin the LB against the pile.

NOMO 49-C



The effect is  the same as 2B, but this gets that LB really quickly.  Without any motion, we snap the ball on the first sound and the better that LB has been trained - the quicker he reacts to our Tight End’s down block - the easier it is for our wingback to block him into the pile.  Pulling guard and tackle techniques are the same as 2B


CHOICE 3. Confuse him

RIP-RETURN 47-C



The better  coached the LB is, the more likely he will fall for this.  Run 2B a couple of times and he’s sure to start worrying about being pinned by that wingback who’s going in return motion.  Here, though, the wingback motions and returns,  but  goes wider and blocks the playside  corner.  But the LB doesn’t know that!  I like this way of doing it, because there are few moving parts:  we’re simply running our base counter, and the wingback  is the only player whose assignment changes.  Everyone else runs the base counter, same as always.


TUESDAY: What else can we do to mess with that backside “LB?”



*********** Can’t say that the NFL isn’t doing  what it can to make the game safer.

Anyhow, that’s what they say is behind the War on Kickoffs.

Latest rule:   Any kickoff that’s fair caught inside the receiving team’s own 25-yard line will give the receiving team the ball on the 25, no questions asked.

The expectation is that fewer than a third of all kickoffs will actually be returned.

See, it’s all about player safety.  Roger Goodell says it’s so, so it must be so.

“The data is very clear about the higher rate of injury on that play,” said the Tsar of All Football. “We’ve been talking about it for several years. We have not made a lot of progress on this play. This was a step that we think was appropriate to address that. But we have a lot more work to be done about how we continue to evolve going forward. Can we continue to keep this play in an exciting way but more importantly a safe way?”

Yeah.  Exciting.
 
Why screw around with kickoffs at all?  Why not jump balls?  Or Face-offs?  Or whatever that things was that the XFL did the first time around, when two guys would run downfield to try to beat the other and recover a ball.  (Did I remember it correctly?)

Personally,  I wouldn’t be surprised to see a lot of low, hard-to-handle kicks at areas where the receiving team doesn’t have players.  (Not too different from what I’ve advocated for years.)

Really want to make the game safer?  Do away with the use of arms when tackling.  Do away with the use shoulder pads when blocking. 

Oh, wait… They’ve already done that.


*********** Another good one by the NFL - flex scheduling.

Evidently, they’ve had complaints about the quality of Thursday night games (probably from Amazon, which now streams  them) that they’ve announced plans to move games originally scheduled for Sunday, in order to juice up the Thursday night schedule.

In 2023, they’ve promised they’ll only do it twice.

But they can do it - move a Sunday game to Thursday -  on 28 days’ notice.   That’s only four weeks.  You’ve say you’ve already bought game tickets and airline  tickets and reserved rooms so you can fly the wife and kids to that Sunday game in Green Bay in September?  You could wind up getting screwed.



*********** Back when I was in marketing, when we wanted to make a  commercial more appealing to “real men,” we’d say we needed to, “Hang a set of balls on it.”

So here comes Budweiser trying to do just that, hoping to stem the hemmorhaging  by rolling  out commercial after commercial featuring farmers… football… country music… the flag… old veterans… pickup trucks… huntin’ n’ fishin’…sittin’ on the front porch…

Everything but firearms, which have always been verboten in beer commercials.

It all  got me thinking about this one, back when we still lived in America…

We love baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet


***********  Hugh,

Still unpacking.  Amazing the stuff you collect (and find) after 4 cross-country moves in 45 years!

In answer to John Vermillion, Austin has become too liberal, grown too big-too fast, too much traffic, and WAY too expensive.

It's obvious to us football guys that the USFL lacks the basics.  But to those who only want to be entertained by long touchdown passes...well...let's just ask one question.  Has the USFL provided that entertainment yet?

In a word, Jim Brown was an enigma, but still the greatest football player of our generation (yours and mine).  RIP

The ACTUAL attendance (butts in the seats) at that WNBA game was closer to 8000.  

I'm sorry, but IMHO if Notre Dame gives up its independent status in football and makes a deal with the ACC to become full-time football member (all of their other sports except hockey are already members) I believe WVU, UCF, and Cincinnati will jump from the Big 12 to the ACC, and the "Magnificent Seven" will have second thoughts about leaving the ACC.  Most schools follow the money.  However, the money follows ND.  Imagine THAT super-conference!

Have a great week!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas







*********** QUIZ ANSWER:  It’s rare indeed that a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame has a brother who’s an even more famous athlete than he is, but here’s one.

Raised in Kingsburg, California, in the Central Valley, Jimmy Johnson had two brothers.

One, Rafer,  was an Olympic gold medalist in the decathlon.   The other  avoided sports:  “he got tired of having people tell him to follow in Rafer's footsteps.  They gave me the same jazz. I didn't like it either, but instead of letting it bug me, I decided to accept it as a challenge to see if I could make it on my own in sports."

He was a high school star in football and basketball, and after a year at Santa Monica City College, he transferred to UCLA. There, 6-2, 190 and very fast,  he played three years as a wingback in Tommy Prothro’s single wing - excelling as a runner and receiver -  as well as playing defensive back.

Like his older brother Rafer before him, he was captain of the Bruins’ track team, starring in the high hurdles and long jump (then called the broad jump).  

He was also an honor student.

He was taken in the first round of the NFL draft by the 49ers, the sixth player taken overall (right after Mike Ditka) and  the  first of the 49ers’ three first-round picks that year (Bowling Green’s Bernie Casey and Johnson’s UCLA teammate Billy Kilmer were the other two).

The 49ers intended to play him at wide receiver, but when a dislocated wrist suffered in practice for the College All-Star game necessitated his wearing a cast, he was switched to safety. (Even with the cast, he intercepted five passes and returned them 116 yards.)

His second year, he was moved to wide receiver, and for the season he had 34 catches for 627 yards and four touchdowns. One of the touchdowns, against the Bears,  was a game-winning 80-yard scoring pass from John Brodie, a 49ers’ record at the time.  In another game, against Detroit, he caught 11 passes for 181 yards.

But in the fourth game of his third year, he was moved back to defense, and played safety the rest of the season.


The next year, his fourth, he was moved to corner, and there he would play - often acknowledged as perhaps the best in the game - for the next 13 years.

Very steady and not given to self-promotion, he wasn’t named to play in the Pro Bowl until his 10th season, but before he retired, he would be named to four more.


For four straight years - from 1969 through 1972 -  he was named All-Pro.


“Jimmy doesn't receive much publicity because the opposition avoids him as much as possible," his quarterback John Brodie  once said. "Talk to veteran quarterbacks like John Unitas and Bart Starr and they'll tell you they call few pass  patterns in  Jimmy’s area. The only reason Jimmy doesn't lead the league in interceptions is he doesn't  get the chance."

Dick Nolan,  head coach of the 49ers, had coached the Cowboys’ defensive backs, and he said, "I coached three defensive backs I felt were great, Mel Renfro and Cornell Green with the Dallas Cowboys and Jimmy Johnson,” he said.  “Jimmy is the best I've ever seen.”

He was going to retire at 37, but when Monte Clark, who had been a high school teammate, got the 49ers’ head coaching job, our guy decided as a personal favor to an old friend to give it one more year.  (Imagine being 38 and playing an entire season at corner in the NFL -  he did it, and successfully.)

In all, he played in 213 games, the most of any 49er at the time of his retirement.

His career 47 interceptions for 615 yards in returns were team records that lasted until they were broken by Ronnie Lott.

Jimmy Johnson  is in the UCLA Hall of Fame. He is on the 49ers’ All-Time Team, and he became  just the second 49er (after Leo Nomellini) to be named to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING JIMMY JOHNSON

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON


 

 ABOVE - FROM HIGH SCHOOL TO WASHIGTON STATE TO SERVICE IN VIETNAM - IN THE 1953 CLEVELAND BROWNS PHOTO HE'S #74

***********   QUIZ:   Bob Kalsu was killed in Action in 1970.  Just  two years before, he had started as a rookie at guard for the Bills.

For more than 30 years, it  was accepted  that he was the only NFL player killed while serving in Vietnam.

Lieutenant Kalsu, who had been in ROTC while at Oklahoma, has been honored  - rightfully - in a number of  ways.

In 1999, an NFL Films feature on him  was nominated for an Emmy.

But - and not in any way to  diminish or dishonor the sacrifice of Bob Kalsu - in 2001, it came to the attention of the NFL  that there was another NFL player who had been killed in Vietnam - three years and four days before Bob Kalsu.

His is an  interesting story.

He was from Bellingham, Washington,  a standout in football, basketball, baseball and track at nearby Mount Baker High School.  He was all-state in both football and basketball.

At Washington State, at 6-3, 215, he played football and basketball and was captain of both teams. In football he was an outside linebacker and - before the term had been invented - what we would call a tight end. (Actually, at that time ALL ends were “tight.”)

Chosen by the Browns in the sixth round of the 1953 draft - number 71 overall -   he was  cut but then,  likely having been kept on their so-called “taxi squad,” he was re-signed by the Browns before their fifth regular-season game.  He stuck  with the Browns as a backup offensive lineman  the rest of the season as they won every game before finally losing, 17-16, to the Detroit Lions in the title game.

Having been in Air Force ROTC at WSU, he then began serving his two-year active duty requirement.  But when his time was up, instead of returning to the Browns,  he chose to remain in the Air Force,

From 1961 through 1964, he was an assistant  football coach at the Air Force Academy.

In 1966,  he was sent to Vietnam.    Shortly  after his arrival, he was shot in the knee during a mission and was offered a less dangerous assignment.  He refused, preferring to continue flying missions.

On July 17, 1967,  the plane he was piloting was shot down over  South Vietnam. and he  was  killed, along with the other four men aboard.

He was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart and the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC).

The citation for his DFC read (in part)

"Disregarding the hazards of flying the difficult target terrain and the opposition presented by hostile ground forces, he led the formation through one attack and returned to make a second attack. The outstanding heroism and selfless devotion to duty displayed by Major (- - - - - )  reflect great credit upon himself and the United States Air Force."

He was laid to rest in the Air Force Academy cemetery.   Denver Post sportswriter Ralph Moore, who  remembered him as an Air Force  coach, wrote, in tribute…

"I had known (him) as a coach. I knew he was a tenacious and aggressive athlete who hated to lose. As a sportswriter, I appreciated his bluntness, his deep loyalties and the frustrations he knew in working against rugged odds. I knew he disliked sports stories with frilly phrases…that he hated excuses, respected ability and loved a party. I knew he was Air Force. I'm not Air Force, but I am a father, and Monday I cried a little…Inside where it hurts most."

His being  an NFL player Killed in Action went unknown to the public for 34 years, until  Sports Illustrated published a cover piece for a July 2001 issue about Bob Kalsu, referring to him on  the cover as “the only pro athlete to be killed" in the Vietnam War.

After learning of the  story, our man’s family contacted the Pro Football Hall of Fame to inform the organization of their father's story, including his time with the Browns.

That year, the Hall of Fame invited his family to its inaugural Veterans Day ceremony, held on the front steps of the Hall of Fame building.

The Browns formally honored him in November, 2004.    Much as they might have liked to retire his number (74) they couldn’t -  it was already retired.  The year after our man last played, the number  was given to an offensive lineman named Mike McCormack, whom the Browns had just acquired in a trade. Mike McCormack played  nine years at a level of proficiency high enough to earn him a place in the Pro Football Hall of Fame - and the retirement of his number by the Browns.  (McCormack’s coach, the great Paul Brown, referred to him in his autobiography as “the finest offensive tackle who ever played pro football.")



TUESDAY,  MAY  23, 2023 - “A person who chases two rabbits catches neither.”  Confucius


***********  THIS PAST WEEKEND IN THE USFL

I’ve just about had it with the USFL.  Yes, it’s nice to give guys and coaches a chance to make it to the big time, and I’m all for that  - but not if the level of their play and their coaching offers us a cheap, tawdry product - a sorry-ass imitation of real football - and no one seems to have any great interest in improving it.

The tackling is horrible.  It’s rare enough that a defensive back ever uses his hands and arms, rarer still when he stays on his feet.

And then there’s the holding.

Imagine going to a baseball game and watching home run after home run cancelled because of cheating (which essentially  is what holding is).  Imagine going to a basketball game and watching a beautiful fast break that ends in a score -  and having to look back up court to see if there are any penalty flags on the floor.

As incompetent as most USFL offenses are anyhow, as seldom as they produce touchdowns, it’s maddening to see big play after big play called back because of penalties - usually for offensive holding. The holding in this league is so blatant and widespread it's obvious that the players are making no effort to block without illegally using their hands and arms,  and it’s apparent that their coaches don’t seem to give a crap.  They seem to accept this as the way things are always going to be and if they get called for a penalty, so be it. 

The officials can’t be blamed because,  sorry to say, it’s NEVER a bad call.  It’s clear for all to see.  The only bad calls are non-calls - the many  incidents of holding that they miss.  The only option for the officials  is to call ‘em as they see ‘em -  or to join in with the players and coaches in the destruction of our sport by ignoring what they see.

It’s brutal to be a fan and watch the sloppy play.   Without doing the research, I suspect that in this season’s USFL there have been almost as many touchdowns called back as  touchdowns scored.  As one prime example, the Philadelphia Stars have now gone two straight games without scoring an offensive touchdown.  On Sunday they  did score two touchdowns - but both were called back for holding.

Four games this past weekend produced 7 touchdowns.  Total. 

With this product, I really don’t see the USFL having any chance to survive once it has to  start luring real fans into stadiums in their actual cities.

But right now, if they insist on playing  hold ‘em - I say, fold ‘em.


*****

All four games this past weekend were inter-divisional - North vs South. I predicted that by the end of the weekend, the four North teams would all have lost, and they’d all be tied - with 2-4 records.
Missed my prediction by one game - Philadelphia somehow produced enough defense and enough field goals to upset New Orleans.

SATURDAY:

Memphis (3-3) 22,  Pittsburgh (2-4) 0 - Not to say that Pittsburgh is bad, but this was their second shutout of the season.  Pittsburgh tried a 60-yard field goal at the end of the half and discovered what we all should know - that those big fat guys who may be good at blocking for field goals aren’t worth a sh— at covering kicks:  the kick was short and Memphis’ Derrick Dillon, fielding it just inside the end line, returned it 109 yards for a touchdown.

Birmingham (4-2) 27, Michigan (2-4) 13 - With :05 left in the first half and no time outs, Michigan, trailing 13-3,  had to spike the ball in order to try a field goal.  But they didn’t.  They snapped the ball, the QB ran around aimlessly, and time ran out.  According to the Michigan QB, someone in his headset yelled, “DON’T SPIKE IT.”  WTF?  Now, I don’t know about you, but if I’m that QB, screw that voice in my headset -  I’m spikin’ it!

SUNDAY

Philadelphia (3-3) 16, New Orleans (4-2) 10  - New Orleans was an 8-point favorite.  Philadelphia had 362 yards of total offense but couldn’t score an offensive touchdown.  You don’t suppose 144 yards in penalties - they had two TDs called back - had anything to do with it, do you?

Houston (4-2) 16, New Jersey (2-4) 10  - This game was bo-o-o-oring.  New Jersey finally passed for far more yards (177) than it rushed for (69).



*********** One of the most indelible memories of my college days was  the spring afternoon of my freshman year when I watched our lacrosse team play Syracuse.  I wasn’t much of a lacrosse fan, and it was a 15-20 minute bus ride from our downtown campus out to the athletic fields on the outskirts of town, so although I don’t recall exactly why I was there, it had to have been to see Jim Brown.  

By that point, Jim Brown was well-known, as least to sports nuts like me.  Although he was known to Eastern football fans, Eastern football wasn’t held in high esteem nationally, but that New Year’s day, he’d come to the attention of the nation for his performance in the Cotton Bowl.   He scored  three touchdowns and kicked three extra points in a 28-27 loss to TCU.  (His fourth PAT attempt had been blocked, proving to be TCU’s winning margin.) 

I do remember seeing Jim Brown that spring day.  We’d had a very good football team  that fall, and several of our football players were on the lacrosse team, but they looked like runts compared to Jim Brown. He was tall and obviously well-built, but what was most noticeable were his enormous thighs. Our players seemed to bounce off him as he ran from on end of the field to another in a great display fo strength, speed, agility and stick handling.  VERY clear in my mind after all these years was  the moment when, after he’d  gone the length of the field and scored another goal, I heard his coach say, “Hey, Jim - want to take a blow?” And big Jim, trotting nonchalantly back to midfield, answered, “It don’t matter none.”  (Funny - if he’d answered grammatically, I probably wouldn’t have remembered.)

Jim Brown was part and parcel of my maturing as a sports fan.  Going to school in Connecticut, I became a Giants fan, and the Browns - featuring the sensational Jim Brown - were the team we had to beat.

Then, moving to Baltimore after college and getting swept up in Colts Fever in those pre-Super Bowl years,  I watched as the Browns - and the great Jim Brown - delivered one of the most shocking upsets in NFL championship game history, defeating our seemingly unbeatable Colts,  27-0.

Also in Baltimore, a  city that lays a credible claim to being the home of American lacrosse, I was amazed at the respect people who really knew their lacrosse had for Jim Brown as a lacrosse player.  I more than once heard him referred to as the greatest lacrosse player they’d ever seen.

To my mind, he was the greatest athlete in my lifetime - maybe the greatest ever.

Jim Brown, a strong man of great pride  and dignity,  helped professional football realize that it was  dealing with a new   type of black athlete,  one who couldn’t be intimidated.  He was definitely his own man,  and his retirement from football rather than submit  when threatened by his team’s owner was one of the strongest statements of independence any athlete has ever made.

He was Superman, but he was also a human being. He had his faults, and it always hurt me when I’d read about one or another of his off-the-field problems,  because I never ceased admiring him as an athlete and as a man, and I wanted him to be perfect.  He and I were from  the same generation, and we've just a lost a great one.  RIP Jim.



***********  FROM THE ATHLETIC:

Jim Brown left Cleveland on his terms, and it may have cost the Browns a Super Bowl


By Jason Lloyd
May 22, 2023


On a warm summer day shortly before the Cleveland Browns were scheduled to report to training camp in 1966, John Wooten received a call from Jim Brown, his good friend and teammate.

Wooten was always one of Brown’s most trusted confidants. The bond began after the Browns drafted Wooten, an offensive lineman out of Colorado, in the fifth round in 1959. He was one of the seven Black rookies Brown gathered every morning in a dorm room at Hiram College, where the Browns held training camp, to discuss expectations. Among them: Brown insisted the Black rookies wear a coat and tie to the team’s three preseason road games. If they didn’t have one, he bought it for them.

Brown trusted Wooten to assemble the proper power figures for the famous Cleveland Summit that Brown hosted in 1967 in support of Muhammad Ali’s refusal to serve in Vietnam. And on this day, this otherwise nondescript summer day in 1966, Brown chose Wooten to deliver the message that shook the NFL and forever altered the course of one of its most prominent franchises.

“I want you to tell the guys so they’ll hear it before it hits the news,” Brown said. “I’m through. I’m not coming back to football.”

Jim Brown’s retirement from football stunned the sports world in 1966. The greatest to ever do it walked away on his own terms, just like always. Wooten was shocked. The Browns won a championship in 1964 and were coming off a loss in the championship game in ’65. Brown was 30 years old and still in his prime. He was a three-time MVP and led the league in rushing in eight of his nine seasons. He had never so much as hinted at retirement. Now he was giving Wooten two days’ notice to tell his guys in the locker room before it hit the press. Nevertheless, Wooten didn’t bother trying to talk his friend out of it.

“I know Jim’s voice,” Wooten recalled over the weekend. “I know when he talks to me that way, he has already made up his mind.”

Brown’s death last week at the age of 87 concluded a complicated life and a scattered legacy. He became one of the country’s most powerful activists, propelling the Civil Rights movement forward by identifying education and economics as the two biggest factors necessary in preparing the Black community for success. What good are equal rights, Brown frequently told those close to him, if we don’t have the money and resources to buy homes in high-income neighborhoods?

His creation of the Negro Industrial and Economic Union, later renamed the Black Economic Union, received a $1 million grant from the Ford Foundation that ultimately provided a financial pathway for Black citizens in Cleveland and across the country to receive the funds necessary to start their own businesses. Brown’s union served as a sort of bank for the Black community to open grocery stores, barber shops, dry cleaners or any other business or service. His Amer-I-Can foundation empowered trainees, specifically gang members, to reach their potential by teaching them acceptable behavioral standards, emotional control, financial stability and aiding in job searches. But Brown was also arrested multiple times, mostly on charges of abusing women. He was never convicted.

In Cleveland, Brown is hailed a hero. All kids, Black and White alike, growing up in Cleveland in the late 1950s and ’60s argued over who could be Jim Brown during backyard football games. A statue of him was unveiled outside the stadium in 2016, the first Browns player to receive the honor. No one has worn the No. 32 jersey in Cleveland since his retirement, and he was one of the charter members of the organization’s Ring of Honor, established in 2010.

His only championship came in 1964, two years before the creation of the Super Bowl. The Cleveland Browns are one of four franchises that have never appeared in a Super Bowl. Jim Brown is the one player who could have changed that.

In order to understand why Brown walked away when he did, it’s important to grasp why Brown and team owner Art Modell felt each owed the other a little respect and understanding.

Modell made his fortune as an advertising and television executive in New York City before purchasing the Browns in 1961. Television was Modell’s expertise — he was the driving force behind the NFL creating Monday Night Football. For years, Modell told associates his deep Hollywood ties helped Brown land the role in “The Dirty Dozen,” the film that ultimately ended his NFL career. It was a favor to Brown that Modell wound up regretting.

“From hearing Art’s side of the story, he was mad at Jim because he helped Jim get the film,” said James Bailey, executive vice president with the Browns and Baltimore Ravens and Modell’s right-hand man for more than two decades. “He needed to get Jimmy back and he was also getting pressure from (coach Blanton Collier). Art was feeling double pressure. But Jim had made a commitment to the movie. He wasn’t going to leave.”

The season didn’t kick off until Sept. 11. While filming ran long, Brown assured Modell he would be back in time for the start of the season. He was only going to miss a few practices.

“I’ll be ready to fly,” Brown told Modell, according to Wooten. “I’ll be late, but when I get there I’ll be ready to fly.”

At 6-foot-2 and 230 pounds, Brown was a physical terror and a punishing runner. He always kept himself in terrific shape, but that wasn’t good enough. Modell, who died in 2012, insisted on treating all players the same and publicly threatened to fine Brown if he wasn’t in camp on time.

Brown had grown accustomed to flexing his substantial power within the organization and wasn’t used to anyone pushing back against him. Not even the owner.

Cornerback Walter Beach was another of Brown’s close friends. Beach joined the military before he went to college and spent two years in the AFL, so he was 30 by the time he reached the NFL. He arrived in Cleveland in 1963 and Brown immediately took a liking to him. The two often played chess together and because he was a few years older, Brown nicknamed him “Doc.”

One morning during two-a-days in 1964, Beach was told to go to the head coach’s office and bring his playbook. He was being placed on waivers. He was back at his locker packing his things when Brown walked by.

“C’mon Doc, let’s go,” Brown said.

Beach told him he was being released. Brown initially didn’t believe him before telling him to wait right there. Brown walked into Collier’s office and returned a few minutes later.

“OK Doc, let’s go to practice,” Brown said again. Beach was stunned. He was back on the team.

“They started putting all my equipment back into my locker,” Beach said. “You’ve got to understand what that’s like. I can’t even tell you what that’s like. The owner and management told me I’m on waivers, and now I’m down in the locker room again with my shoulder pads on.”

Nobody ever told Beach he was back on the team. It was just sort of understood that Brown had flexed his considerable biceps. It went on that way for the next couple of years. As long as Brown was in Cleveland, so was Beach.

The day Brown retired, Beach received a call. Don’t bother coming to camp. He was being released. This time, they meant it.

Brown clashed at times with Paul Brown, the Hall of Fame coach and founder of the team, and publicly backed Modell when he fired the legend after the 1962 season. Paul Brown was one of the original architects of football, a legend whose coaching tree includes Bill Walsh, Chuck Noll, Don Shula and Collier. He was above reproach, but Jim Brown didn’t always appreciate his style and often complained to his teammates about the play calling. The Browns missed the postseason the last four years under Paul Brown, and Modell sided with his star player. Brown was fired in January 1963. Browns fans were furious.

“They were ready to hang Art from the Terminal Tower,” Wooten said. “Jim supported Art in the firing of Paul Brown, and because of that support, he felt he should’ve had special favor with Art. This wasn’t some dumbass football player just running the football. Jim took great pride in his knowledge of the game and how he prepared himself.

“I knew how important this team was to him. But he felt like he’d stuck with Art, and now you’re going to tell me you’re going to fine me like a regular football player? You’ve got to understand, as much as Jim loved football, he didn’t want you to look at him as just a football payer. He wanted you to look at him like a dignified man.”

Modell replaced Paul Brown with Collier, who was already working on staff. Collier was much more collaborative and open to Jim Brown’s ideas. The two gathered frequently after practices, watched film together, and Collier even gave Brown a voice in drawing up the plays and game plans. Brown studied the game. He knew teams’ and players’ tendencies. He offered small critiques, running plays wider or getting rid of the ball quicker on certain calls.

As a result, Brown thrived under Collier. In their first season together, he led the NFL with 1,863 yards in just 14 games, a whopping 6.4 yards per carry average that was up more than 2 yards per carry from Paul Brown’s final season in charge. The next closest back to him was Green Bay’s Jim Taylor with 1,018 yards.

“Paul Brown was a great coach with an outstanding mind,” Wooten said. “We don’t even question Paul Brown’s intellect. But you didn’t have the right to say, ‘Paul, just swing it this way over here’ or ‘run it that way.’ You didn’t have that under Paul Brown.

“Jim’s relationship with Blanton became how a head coach should respect his star no matter what color he is. That’s what you see in today’s world. Respecting the star players.”


The Browns went 9-5 in their first season without Brown, finishing two games behind the Dallas Cowboys and out of contention for a title. Leroy Kelly, himself a Hall of Fame running back, led the team with 1,141 rushing yards and 15 touchdowns in Brown’s absence, but he wasn’t Jim Brown. The Cowboys lost to the Packers in the NFL Championship Game in 1966. The Packers went on to beat the Chiefs in the inaugural Super Bowl.

Wooten is convinced the Browns would have finished ahead of the Cowboys and beaten the Packers if Brown was still on the team in 1966. The Browns lost the championship game to the Packers in ’65 in part because quarterback Frank Ryan struggled badly.


“No question about it. I wouldn’t be surprised if we would’ve won it in ’66,” Wooten said. “We were right where we wanted to be.”

Instead, there have been 57 Super Bowls played. Cleveland is still waiting for its first.

Brown eventually reconciled with Modell in 1984. The Browns were traveling to Los Angeles, where Brown resided after retirement, for a September game against the Rams. Brown reached out to Modell and asked to watch the game with him.

They sat together all afternoon. Neither man apologized.

“They were very friendly. They just let that one rest,” Bailey said. “Jim was just as stubborn, if not more stubborn, than Art. There was no compromise in that man.”

Brown had a deep love for the Browns throughout his adult life, enjoying an advisory role at various points and under various regimes. Bill Belichick often invited him back to speak to the players, particularly the rookies, before the franchise departed for Baltimore. Brown once tore into the rookies, telling them they hadn’t accomplished anything yet and introducing them to one of his Amer-I-Can graduates, praising the reformed gang member for accomplishing more than anyone else in the room that day.

He was given an official advisory role again after the team returned to the NFL in 1999, but Mike Holmgren angered him when he stripped away the title and reduced his role in 2010. Brown was furious Randy Lerner, then the owner, didn’t step in on his behalf — so upset that he refused to attend the team’s Ring of Honor unveiling that same year. The relationship was again mended when Jimmy and Dee Haslam bought the team and restored his role.

On the night Baker Mayfield came off the bench his rookie year to rally the Browns to a Thursday night win over the Jets, snapping the team’s 19-game losing streak, Brown grinned widely as his wooden cane click-clacked across the carpet of an empty locker room.

“Showed a lot of heart,” Brown said to no one in particular. “A lot of heart.”

Brown loved heart. And toughness.

Beach believes Brown easily could have played at least another 2-3 years. Wooten agrees. Three years, probably. Brown’s 12,312 rushing yards are still good for 11th all time. Had he played another three years, he could easily still rank in the top five despite playing in the era of 14-game seasons, not 16 and 17 like today.

His health had been fading in recent years. Wooten routinely spoke to Brown every couple of weeks, but he last saw his dear friend at the NFL Honors awards night in February. Brown kept asking him that night if he was OK financially or if he needed any money. Brown knew he was dying. He wanted to make sure one of his closest friends in life wasn’t going to struggle in his last years without him.

“That was his way,” Wooten said, “of telling me goodbye.”

Beach last communicated with Brown about a month ago, but by then he wasn’t really able to speak. Brown’s wife, Monique, called Beach and his wife, Gail, and held the phone up while they spoke to him.

“He just wanted to hear our voices,” Walter said.

Brown didn’t want a funeral service, according to Wooten. He wanted to be cremated and have his ashes spread at a particular spot on St. Simons Island in Georgia where he was born.

“When I laid down last night, I just could not believe I’ll never talk to this guy again,” Wooten said Sunday afternoon. “We were so used to talking to each other. I miss my friend.”

*********** I was talking over the weekend with Steve Carroll, a youth coach from West Virginia, and we got talking about the Mountaineers.  (He’s a fan, of course.)

He said that several years ago, he won four tickets to a West Virginia-Pitt game  (the Backyard brawl, one of the great rivalries killed off by the insatiable greed of big-time college football executives and network television suits) because he was able to answer the question:

What were West Virginia’s  teams called before they were the Mountaineers?

ANSWER: The Snakes. 

It must be true, because he got the tickets and attended the game.

The game was not necessarily one you’d have wanted to be at, if you were a Mountaineer fan.  It was 2007, and the Mountaineers, ranked #1 in the Coaches Poll and #2 in the BCS Poll and playing at home, had only to beat a 4-7 Pitt team  to make it into the National Championship game.  Unfortunately, they lost, 13-9, and then, days later, Coach Rich Rodriguez - a West Virginia guy - left for the greener (or so he thought) pastures of Michigan.


Pretty good reading:   125 years of Mountaineer Football

https://wvusports.com/news/2016/5/1/30179_131466057568437225



***********   It was Britney Griner’s return to WNBA action, and there was a crowd of some 10,000 on hand in Los Angeles.

Now, considering that it’s women’s pro basketball, that sounded like a pretty good crowd to me.

But, no - not to Britney’s coach, Vanessa Nygaard:   "I mean, it was great,” she said.  “But like honestly, c’mon now LA. We didn’t sell out the arena for BG?   Like, I expected more, you know, to be honest.   Right, it was great, it was loud.   But how was it not a sellout?   How was it not a sellout?”

Coach Nygaard… Paging Coach Nygaard… Reality calling on the white courtesy phone.



***********   Many of you probably know Brock Huard for his work as an announcer, but he had a decent NFL career as a quarterback, and a very good one at the University of Washington, and before that, just like his older brother Damon, he was a highly recruited high school quarterback - the Gatorade National Player of the Year, in fact  - playing for his dad in Puyallup, Washington (pyew-OLL-up - the name of a local tribe.)

He recalled being on the verge of signing with UCLA - sunshine, beaches and all that - until he finally decided to stay home and play for the purple and gold - the Washington Huskies.

What he had to say about his decision might be of use to some kid being recruited right now.

“Damon and my dad both said if you want to lay down roots here, if you want to be part of this community, you could go win the Heisman Trophy at UCLA but you’re not coming back here.   You’re just not going to have that kind of connection to the community. You’re going to be a UCLA guy in a purple-and-gold town. There was some real wisdom in that."



***********   Remember when…

No one at Penn State would say anything negative about Joe Paterno?

No one at Michigan would say anything negative about Bo Schembechler?


*********** Seven first-year FBS coaches won 10 games last season:

Kelen DeBoer, Washington
Sonny Dykes, TCU
Bryan Kelly, LSU
Dan Lanning, Oregon
Lincoln Riley, USC
John Sumrall, Troy
Jeff Tedford, Fresno State


*********** It’s been 30 years since the Montreal Canadiens won the Stanley Cup.  They remain the last Canadian team to do so.

That same year, 1993,  Gary Bettman became the Commissioner of the NHL, and one of his first stated goals was to expand the reach of hockey into new, “nontraditional” areas.

In the years since,  38 of the 112 conference final berths have gone to  teams from such areas - places where hockey would never have been played if  they’d  had to depend on natural ice:   California, Florida, Nevada, North Carolina, Tennessee and Texas

During that same time, Canadian teams have appeared only 14 times.

This year, as we near the Stanley Cup finals, it’s obvious that  the drought is going to continue for teams  from Canada and, for that matter, teams from “hockey areas,”  with the Florida Panthers facing the Carolina Hurricanes in one conference  final and the Dallas Stars vs the Vegas Golden Knights in the other.

This past season, Carolina and Florida outdrew every Canadian team except  Montreal.

(The Hurricanes drew 56,961 to a game in NC State’s Carter-Finley Stadium.)

I personally would prefer to see a Canadian team or two and a northern-US team or two in the finals, but  if Gary Bettman’s aim was to expand the sport of ice hockey, it’s fair to say he’s been successful.



*********** USC athletic director Mike Bohn upped and turned in his resignation, mentioning “ongoing health concerns.”   After his efforts  to join the Big Ten,  it seems like sort of a dirty trip to leave it up to his successor to figure out how to make membership work, so maybe it really is a health thing.  Maybe he cut himself stabbing the other Pac-12 ADs in the back.

For sure, Lincoln Riley can’t be happy.  It’s never good news for a football coach when a new guy comes along and replaces the AD who hired him.


*********** TO BRING YOU UP TO DATE:   While browsing through an old issue (Oct-Nov 2011) of American Football Monthly, I came across the section in which subscribers ask a big-time coach what he’d do in certain situations.  In this case, the coach was Ron Erhardt, who’d been head coach of the Patriots for four years, offensive coordinator of the Steelers for five years, and offensive coordinator of the Giants for ten years. Before the NFL, he was 61-7-1 in seven seasons as head coach at North Dakota State.)

What caught my attention was his answer to a high school coach who’d written in asking how he’d defend against the Double Wing, and since then, since I've had the chalk, I've shown how I would have attacked that defense.

IT’S TIME TO ADDRESS THE COUNTER.

One thing I think it’s fair to assume is that Coach Erhardt’s "LB" on the side away from  our motion  is going to be counter-conscious.

We’d love for him to “box” - to take a couple of steps straight across the line of scrimmage, and create an opening for a kickoff block. But I'm sure Coach Erhardt is smarter than that.

I suspect that that LB is going to be trained to watch for  the wingback on his side to go in motion,  and mentally prepare himself for a counter coming back at him.  And secondly, he’s going to react to a down block by the tight end to his inside, squeezing down  the “D” gap while not crossing the line of scrimmage.

We’ve seen what he’ll do when motion goes away, but now we have to find out if he squeezes down when our tight end blocks down - so we’ll run our base counter.  To most of the defenders, it starts out looking like any number of plays they’ve been seeing.  But to that edge defender on the backside, that “LB” it has to mean “COUNTER.”

We  run a base counter in one of two ways, either  (1)



Joining the family of plays we’ve been running that all use motion, with the quarterback going on his usual “hockey stick” path and handing the ball in front to the  wingback (ABOVE: RIP 47-C)

or (2)



Showing the defense our “Super Power” by tossing the ball without any motion to the A-Back, who then hands it - on his inside - to the C Back.  This hits very quick, with quite a bit of surprise, and has become my favorite counter.(ABOVE: SUPER CRISS-CROSS 47-C)

The blocking is the same on both of these versions of the play - this is important.  Only the backfield action is different - and quite often, after he’s seen Super Power several times, “Super Criss-Cross” will catch a guy napping.

COMING FRIDAY: What if that “LB” squeezes down?  How can we use that to our advantage??



*********** Great news:  Prayers  can and will be answered, as coach Pete Porcelli, of Watervliet, New York (near Albany)  informed me, with the news that his wife, Sharri, had successfully undergone surgery for a major medical condition.  Thanks to all who helped, and thank you, Lord.


***********   Best to Coach Gutilla. Don't know his reasons for leaving Austin, but for a while I've wondered how long will it be until another great city passes away. Forgive me for not recalling the exact number, but I recently read that since 2018-19, roughly 2,600 individual businesses have left downtown Portland, millions of sq ft of office space empty. That's what great leaders can do. Today Austin gleams, but for how much longer?

I was there during Coach Cahill's time. Very nice man, and I liked him in part because of his old-style practice garb (similar to Coach Blaik's), but he just did NOT like the recruiting side at all.
 
I've had Fords for a long time. Maybe not any longer. There won't be anything left for me to buy. Or, I could rush over to the dealer and place an order for the VGR.

Last Zoom was great. Thanks for spending a bit of time on Luis Perez. Do hope he breaks through to the NFL.


John Vermillion                        
St Petersburg, Florida


***********  Hugh,

I'm baaack!!

This move we've made to retirement, and the subsequent actual MOVE is the LAST!  What a PITA!!  Still have boxes everywhere.  Still have some "issues" to iron out with the various hidden little problems you find in an older home, not to mention downsizing from a larger home to a smaller one.  But, overall, glad to be living in a place where the majority of folks we meet are warm, welcoming, the cost of living is much less, property taxes are less than half we were paying in Austin, and political leanings are overwhelming in line with ours!  Lots of golf.  Lots of activities.  Lots of good food.  And lots of football.

Missed the XFL Championship game, but who was it that said the game would be close??  

Parents should be concerned (and involved) with the education their child receives in the classroom.  At the same time many have become WAY TOO INVOLVED with their child's sports activities.  They are called helicopter parents, but now there's a new breed.  I call them bulldozer parents.

IMHO Houston would be the landing spot for the Arizona NHL franchise.

Enjoyed watching Glen Mason's Minnesota teams when living there.  They ran the ball.  They won, (and won some big games) and he got let go for his efforts.  Next guy up after Mason was Tim Brewster.  Four years (15-30).   Same happened with Pat Hill at Fresno State.  They ran the ball.  They won, (and won some big games) and for his many years of service and loyalty to Jim Sweeney as an assistant, and for his leadership as HC was rewarded with a pink slip.  Also a personal friend of the family and a great guy.  Next guy up after Hill was Tim DeRuyter.  Five years (30-30).

Enjoy the weekend!

Joe Gutilla
Granbury, Texas

 



*********** QUIZ ANSWER:  Tony Gonzalez was born in California to multiethnic, multiracial parents; his Hispanic surname derives from his Cape Verdean (Portuguese) grandfather.

A star in both football and basketball in high school, he was a co-winner of the Orange County High School Athlete of the Year Award along with a golfer named Tiger Woods.

At Cal, he was an All-American as a tight end, catching 44 passes for 691 yards his junior year, but he also played basketball, on a team that made it to the Sweet Sixteen in the NCAA Tournament that same year.

He passed up his senior year in order to enter the NFL draft,  and he was taken by the Chiefs in the first round.

He made the All-Rookie team, and by his third year he was an All-Pro.  After an outstanding 12 years with the Chiefs, he was traded to Atlanta and spent five years with the Falcons.

Ending his career with a 265-game streak of games with a reception, he  retired after 17 seasons as the all-time leader among tight ends in receptions (1,325), yards (15,127) and touchdowns (111).

Among all NFL players, he was second   in career receptions, most seasons with 50 or more receptions and most consecutive games with a reception (211). He ranked fifth all-time in receiving yards (15,127).

In his entire career, he missed just one game.  In all, he played in 270 regular-season games, and failed to catch a pass in only five of them.

He was named to 14 Pro Bowls, and was named first-team All-Pro seven times.

Tony Gonzalez was named to the NFL’s 2000-2009 All-Decade Team, and to its 100th Anniversary All-Time team.

Following retirement, he has worked as an analyst on NFL broadcasts, and has appeared in numerous television shows.


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING TONY GONZALEZ

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
TOM DAVIS - SAN MARCOS, CALIFORNIA
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - GRANBURY, TEXAS
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY





 
********** QUIZ:  It’s rare indeed that a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame has a brother who’s an even more famous athlete than he is, but here’s one.

Raised in Kingsburg, California, in the Central Valley, he had two brothers.

One, named Rafer,  was an Olympic gold medalist in the decathlon.   The other  avoided sports:  “he got tired of having people tell him to follow in Rafer's footsteps.  They gave me the same jazz. I didn't like it either, but instead of letting it bug me, I decided to accept it as a challenge to see if I could make it on my own in sports."

He was a high school star in football and basketball, and after a year at Santa Monica City College, he transferred to UCLA. There, 6-2, 190 and very fast,  he played three years as a wingback in Tommy Prothro’s single wing - excelling as a runner and receiver -  as well as playing defensive back.

Like his older brother Rafer before him, he was captain of the Bruins’ track team, starring in the high hurdles and long jump (then called the broad jump).  

He was also an honor student.

He was taken in the first round of the NFL draft by the 49ers, the sixth player taken overall (right after Mike Ditka) and  the  first of the 49ers’ three first-round picks that year (Bowling Green’s Bernie Casey and our guy’s UCLA teammate Billy Kilmer were the other two).

The 49ers intended to play him at wide receiver, but when a dislocated wrist suffered in practice for the College All-Star game necessitated his wearing a cast, he was switched to safety. (Even with the cast, he intercepted five passes and returned them 116 yards.)

His second year, he was moved to wide receiver, and for the season he had 34 catches for 627 yards and four touchdowns. One of the touchdowns, against the Bears,  was a game-winning 80-yard scoring pass from John Brodie, a 49ers’ record at the time.  In another game, against Detroit, he caught 11 passes for 181 yards.

But in the fourth game of his third year, he was moved back to defense, and played safety the rest of the season.

The next year, his fourth, he was moved to corner, and there he would play - often acknowledged as perhaps the best in the game - for the next 13 years.

Very steady and not given to self-promotion, he wasn’t named to play in the Pro Bowl until his 10th season, but before he retired, he would be named to four more.

For four straight years - from 1969 through 1972 -  he was named All-Pro.

“(He) doesn't receive much publicity because the opposition avoids him as much as possible," his teammate, quarterback John Brodie,   once said. "Talk to veteran quarterbacks like John Unitas and Bart Starr and they'll tell you they call few pass  patterns in  (his) area. The only reason (he) doesn't lead the league in interceptions is he doesn't  get the chance."

Dick Nolan,  head coach of the 49ers, had coached the Cowboys’ defensive backs, and he said, "I coached three defensive backs I felt were great, Mel Renfro and Cornell Green with the Dallas Cowboys and (him),” he said.  “(He) is the best I've ever seen.”

He was going to retire at 37, but when Monte Clark, who had been a high school teammate, got the 49ers’ head coaching job, our guy decided as a personal favor to an old friend to give it one more year.  (Imagine being 38 and playing an entire season at corner in the NFL -  he did it, and successfully.)

In all, he played in 213 games, the most of any 49er at the time of his retirement.

His career 47 interceptions for 615 yards in returns were team records that lasted until they were broken by Ronnie Lott.

He is in the UCLA Hall of Fame. He is on the 49ers’ All-Time Team, and he became  just the second 49er (after Leo Nomellini) to be named to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.




FRIDAY,  MAY  19,  2023 - "Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young."   Henry Ford


***********  THIS WEEKEND IN THE USFL - AND MY FEARLESS, NEVER-MISS PREDICTIONS

SATURDAY:
All four games are North vs South. The North Division heads into the weekend with all four teams tied at 2-3.  I predict that by the end of the weekend, they’ll still be tied - with 2-4 records.

12:30 EDT - USA NETWORK
Pittsburgh (2-3) vs Memphis (2-3) - Memphis is coming off a BIG upset of previously unbeaten New Orleans. Memphis’ 6-7 QB Cole Kelley is starting to look really good. MEMPHIS WINS

4 PM EDT - FOX
Birmingham (3-2) vs Michigan (2-3) - Birmingham has lost two tough ones in a row but is still probably the USFL’s second best team.  Michigan looked good in its opener but its offensive output has declined week by week: 29, 24, 13, 10, 7. BIRMINGHAM WINS

SUNDAY

12 NOON EDT - FS 1
New Orleans (4-1) vs Philadelphia (2-3) - Despite being upset by Memphis last week, New Orleans is still the USFL’s best team, and McLeod Bethel-Thompson is its best quarterback.  Philadelphia is looking worse by the week and would be 1-4 right now if they hadn’t beaten New Jersey last week  with EIGHT field goals.  NEW ORLEANS WINS

4 PM EDT - FOX
New Jersey (2-3) vs Houston (3-2) - There are four teams is the USFL North with 2-3 records, and New Jersey might be the best of the four, but it has to hold onto the football.   Houston has won three straight, the last two a 41-16 whipping of Philadelphia and a convincing 27-20 win over Birmingham. HOUSTON WINS


***********  As a result of an epidemic of attacks on umpires - both verbal and physical - by out of control parents,  it’s become harder and harder for youth organizations to find people willing to call balls and strikes.

Jason Gay, writing in the Wall Street Journal, told of one  such organization in Deptford, New Jersey (near Philadelphia) which has informed its parents that anyone who crosses the line and abuses an umpire will be banned from all games and prohibited from returning until they have officiated three games themselves.


***********   Houston (USFL) running back Mark Thompson is big and strong  and quite impressive.  You have to wonder why he hasn’t made it with some NFL club.  Hmmm.  Maybe if I were to do a little digging I could find out. 

Uh-oh. I just got finished checking out his Wikipedia entry.  Never mind.


***********   I was talking recently with a friend who many years ago was an assistant coach at Army under head coach Tom Cahill.
 
Cahill had been freshman coach at West Point for six years, and  in 1966 when Army head man Paul Dietzel left abruptly - after spring ball - to take the job at South Carolina, he was promoted to the head coaching position.

It sure seemed like a heck of a hiring when in his very first year the Cadets went 8-2 and he was named national Coach of the Year.  Granted, Dietzel had left him with a loaded roster, but still…

Coach Cahill’s next two teams went 8-2 and 7-3, but then came two losing seasons, one of them 1-9-1, and he found himself on a hot seat.

There followed a couple of 6-4 seasons, but  after Army went 0-10 in 1973 - ending the season with a 51-0 loss to Navy - he was finally let go.

One of Coach Cahill’s major failings, I'd heard, was his unwillingness to recruit at  the level Dietzel had, and my friend  confirmed it.

He told about a typical staff meeting when they’d been discussing recruits, and one of the coaches would describe a  top prospect in his area, going on and on about his speed, strength, toughness, etc.

When he was done, Coach Cahill would ask, “Does he want to come to West Point?”

“Well, no.  Not really,” the assistant would answer, and with that, Coach Cahill would end the discussion by saying,”Then there’s no point in my going to visit him.”

The discussion would resume, and another coach with go on about a kid he’d been working on - great prospect, good size, good speed, good grades, etc.

And again, when he finished, Coach Cahill would ask, “Does he want to come to West Point?”

“Yes, Sir,” came the answer.  “He sure does.  Comes from a military family, in fact.”

“Well, then," said Coach Cahill, “There’s no need for me to go visit him.”



*********** God knows old Henry Ford never would have  approved, but this is the Twenty-First Century, they like to tell me, and people like me are just going to have the get used to watching our world turn upside down.


You probably thought a gay pickup was something that happened in a bar in San Francisco.


Think again.  Permit me to introduce to you the Ford Raptor! (or, as it says on the windshield, “VeryGayRaptor.”)

 




And - this is no lie - I was just convinced no more than two weeks ago to  buy shares in Ford. Time to SELL!

You'll love this commercial!

https://youtu.be/6bpTflJ6yUw



*********** Maybe you didn’t know that there actually IS such a place as Tasmania. In that case, it’s a state in Australia.  Actually, it’s a state OFF Australia, a large island and several smaller ones about 150 miles from Melbourne.  “Tassie” (pronounced “Tazzie”) as the Aussies  call it, is home to 600,000 people - and the newest team in the Australian Football League.



The team needs a name, and the obvious one - even to Americans - is the Devils.

You’re probably  familiar with the cartoon Tasmanian Devil, but probably not with the actual animal, a little fellow who’s quite secretive and who - I hate to disappoint you - does not live up to his fearsome name.  Yes, he’s a predator, and while I’ve never heard of anyone considering having one as a pet, he’s not at all nasty or something to be feared.

But the name fits, except that, at last report, there was some issue still to be resolved with Warner Brothers - the cartoon people - and their ownership of the trademark name “Tasmanian Devil.”

(If I can be permitted a bit of vulgarity - Aussie style - I 'm told that certain Aussie men will refer to a lady's uh, "muff" as her "map of Tassie.")



***********  Attacking the Ernhardt defense - continued---We’ve already shown  that we will run motion so we can run our sweep.




With the threat of the sweep established, we can now  run motion to distract the defense into thinking we’re running a sweep -  so we can then run inside the end man on the line.
 
                            


With RIP 6-G-O (LEFT ABOVE) or RIP 66 POWER KEEP (RIGHT ABOVE)


We can also run motion to distract the defense,  with  the further distraction of one particular  individual defender.



Here (above) , we're going to trap the first man to the play side of the center.  He has already seen the guard that he lines up on pull to the outside, on the sweep, and on the G play, and that means there's a good chance that he will have begun to react to  the guard’s pull by moving in his direction.  That would be our sign that he’s ready to be trapped, so we'll  show motion as if to run the sweep, and in addition we will “influence” that defender - lure him outside - by having the play side guard pull outside as if to block on a sweep or kick out on “G.”

 But there is one concern here.  It’s possible that the defense might play games with their “M” - the middle linebacker. 



If he were to line up close  enough to be an immediate threat to crash when our guard pulls, it would be wise for us to forego the playside guard’s false pull, and have the guard instead block the M.  This is  not a problem, because  the man we’re trapping is on our guard’s outside shoulder, and unless he’s crossing us up and crashing down to the inside,  he’s in no position to prevent our guard from releasing inside.  (But hey - if there’s a chance he could be doing that, what are we doing trying to trap him, anyhow? A trap is given, not taken.  It’s either “there” or it’s not.)


There are occasions when we want to make a slight adjustment to the trap and run it one hole wider - to  trap the man who’s on our tight end’s inside shoulder - the “E” in these diagrams. 



This allows us to double-team the defender we would usually trap, while trapping a man who isn’t used to being  trapped and therefore may  be a bit more reckless in his charge. It’s not at all difficult to make this adjustment to the play



***********   Seattle Sea Dragons’ QB Ben DiNucci, a Pittsburgh kid who had a good career at James Madison after transferring from Pitt, has signed with the Denver Broncos.

I have no idea if he’s ready for prime time but I wish him well.

My personal pick to be the next Kurt Warner - to come out of nowhere and attain NFL stardom - is Luis Perez, who just quarterbacked the Arlington Renegades to the XFL championship.

Talk about coming out of nowhere - I did a little special on him on my Zoom Tuesday night. 

He’s pretty much self-taught - learned to throw a football by watching Youtube videos.  Take that, all you diva dads out there who’ve mortgaged the house so you can pay for Junior’s personal passing instruction.


***********   The voters in Tempe, Arizona shot down a plan to build a new arena  for the NHL Phoenix Coyotes, so there’s nothing left for the team to do but  remain playing in a tiny area at Arizona State - or move.

Possible places for the team to move to (listed alphabetically):

Atlanta:  Yeah, yeah, biggest market without an NFL team.  Didn’t Atlanta already prove it’s not a hockey market?

Charlotte: Big enough, but is there any interest in hockey?

Houston: A big enough market, with a big potential rivalry with the Dallas Stars

Kansas City: Big enough market, and no NBA team - an empty arena all ready to go.

Milwaukee: Is it big enough to support three major league teams?

Portland: It’s a one-team market, and the one team - the Trail Blazers - controls the arena.

Quebec:  Small market but a hockey mecca - got screwed when it lost the Nordiques to Denver

Salt Lake City:  A growing market - said to be  hot after  the next baseball franchise.


My call: (1) Houston; (2) Quebec; (3) Kansas City


*********** I was browsing through a 1997 copy of American Football Quarterly, and came a across a long list of coaches who had just been hired at new jobs.

Tommy Bowden - Tulane
Cam Cameron - Indiana
Bruce Coslet - Cincinnati Bengals
Bob Davie - Notre Dame
Mike Ditka - New Orleans Saints
Dana Dimel - Wyoming
Mike DuBose - Alabama
Jim Fassel - New York Giants
Willie Fritz - Central Missouri
Kevin Gilbride - San Diego Chargers
Walt Harris - Pitt
Pat Hill - Fresno State
Tom Holmoe - Cal
Paul Johnson - Georgia Southern
Steve Mariucci - San Francisco 49ers
Glenn Mason - Minnesota
Hal Mumme - Kentucky
Houston Nutt - Boise State
Tom O’Brien - Boston College
Mike Riley - Oregon State
Bobby Ross - Detroit Lions
Joe Tiller - Purdue
Ron Turner - Illinois
Ron Vanderlinden - Maryland
Dick Vermeil - St. Louis Rams
Woody Widenhofer - Vanderbilt

I look back at the outcome of some of those hires and I marvel at some of the stories:

Tommy Bowden, who gave Rich Rodriquez and his unique spread his first big-time job

Bob Davie, one of whose first acts was to dismiss line coach Joe Moore because he was too old

Mike DuBose, a reminder that Alabama hasn’t always been good

Willie Fritz, in his first college head coaching job on his way, eventually, to Tulane

Pat Hill, who would take Fresno State to the verge of being a national power

Paul Johnson, taking his first head coaching job on his way to Navy and then Georgia Tech

Glenn Mason, who would stay at Minnesota for 10 seasons, and win more games than any coach since Murray Warmath and his Rose Bowl teams

Hal Mumme, bringing the Air Raid to the Big Time

Houston Nutt, who would spend just one year at Boise State before heading off to Arkansas

Tom O’Brien, who by the time he’d left for NC State would have won 120 games, most of any BC coach

Mike Riley, who in two different stays at Oregon State would win 173 games, most of any Beavers coach

Joe Tiller, who proved you could win in the Big Ten with a wide-open passing game

Dick Vermeil, back in coaching after a 15-year hiatus; he’d win a Super Bowl in his third year in St. Louis


*********** To show how much we’ve declined as a nation, an Ohio woman named Laura Miniard, took a crap on the altar at a church inside a hospital, and I’m willing to wager nothing of any great consequence will happen to her.  As dumb as she has to be, though, I’ll bet she’s still smart enough not to do that in a mosque.


***********  The NFL has entered into a deal with NBC to carry a playoff game exclusively on its Peacock streaming service.   Grandpa, tell me again about the days when you would turn on the TV and you didn’t have to pay somebody before you could watch a game.



***********   Hugh,

Great stuff! Thanks so much for posting the re-play. This is a great service you are providing and those of us who know you really appreciate the effort and my hope is others do too.

I am an old dog who will always be under center so your analysis on the News Page of attacking the 6-2 with the 88 G-Reach has been exceptional. Tying it with the QB keep and 6 G-O gives traditional DW guys tools to be successful.

I believe even today running Five or Six DW run concepts and Four or Five concepts built on play action can win. The coach who knows this cold, does all the little things, and follows the DW concepts around the special teams and defense will win. This especially true given not many run this kind of offense anymore.

Not that I don’t like Open Wing, I do but I am old dog and know I can win running traditional  DW but if I were just starting out I would certainly learn the OW, spending as much time learning this offense  as I did with DW and build around that.

Thanks again for all you do help coaches!

Jack Tourtillotte
Rangeley, Maine


***********    I woke up yesterday angry at the Great Divider, Biden. I mentioned that to the only guy in the gym at the time I go. I wondered how must a man feel while poisoning minds of black students? Maybe worst of all, the audience applauded, not raucously, but enough that I'd call it appreciative. Then a few hours after his statement, Mayorkas says the same words. As if those words are fact. But just maybe--given Biden's always-suspect poll numbers--my fellow Americans are catching on to the lies.

I watched Mateo, and am as proud of the "little sucker" as you.

I'm actually pleased Sideline Suzy said 'cowbell'. See, maybe that screwup could be the death knell for the terrible expression that's been in vogue for the past four or five seasons: "bell cow”.


If your guys can execute (a big if), you've checkmated the Erhardt defense. Pop your chest up, Coach.


John Vermillion
St. Petersburg, Florida


*********** IN CASE YOU WONDERED… Joe Gutilla and his wife are in the process of moving, from Austin  to Granbury, Texas.  He's still on the payroll, though, and  he'll be back soon enough, contributing his wisdom.






***********   QUIZ ANSWER:  Y. A. Tittle came out of Marshall, Texas, highly recruited not only because was he a very good  quarterback,  but also because with World War II going on, he had asthma, which meant he wouldn’t be drafted.

Although he originally committed to Texas, LSU, where he really wanted to go, managed to  get him away from the Longhorns.  While at LSU he was changed from single-wing tailback to T-formation quarterback, and he was twice named All-SEC quarterback. After his junior season, he was named the MVP of the Cotton Bowl game.

He left LSU holding a number of school records, many of which would last for decades:  most passing yards in a career -  2,517; most completions in a career - 166; most touchdown passes in a career - 21; career total offense - 2,619; and touchdown passes in one  season - 11.

He holds the unique distinction of being the only player in pro football history to be taken first in three different drafts.

The first two were when, with a football war going on between the NFL and the AAFC, he was drafted first by the Detroit Lions in the NFL draft, and first  by the Cleveland Browns of the AAFC.

He chose Cleveland, but shortly after the draft, in an effort to achieve some parity in the AAFC, he was “assigned” to the Baltimore Colts.  He was Rookie of the Year, but the Colts had problems on and off the field, and they folded one year after the AAFC and NFL merged.  Their players were made available through that year’s NFL draft, and he was the 49ers’ first choice.

At first, he shared time at quarterback with Frankie Albert, but eventually he won the starting job and,  along with John Henry Johnson, Hugh McElhenny and Joe “The Jet” Perry, he became  part of the 49ers’ famed “Million Dollar Backfield.”

In 1954, he became the  first pro football player to appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated.

In 1957, he and teammate R.C. Owens, a former basketball player, devised the “Alley-Oop,” a pass play in which he would throw the ball so high it was uncatchable by anyone except the 6-3 Owens.

By 1960 he and the much-younger John Brodie were competing for the 49ers’ starting job, and when Coach Red Hickey decided to go full-time with his newly-named “shotgun” offense, he became expandable, and was traded to the Giants.

He considered retirement. He was 35 and seen by many as over the hill.  He didn’t want to go east, and and he was not particularly welcomed by the Giants, a veteran team that rallied around their long-time  quarterback, Charlie Conerly.

But Conerly was even older, and as the season went on, he came to be accepted.

He helped take the Giants to the NFL title game his first year there, and took them there the next two years. He was second team All-Pro in 1961 -  his first year -  and first team all pro in 1962 and 1963. (He had also been named first team All-Pro in 1957, while with the 49ers.)

In 1963, at the age of 37,  he was the NFL’s MVP.

He appeared in seven Pro Bowls.

He led the NFL in touchdown passes on three occasions.

He is in the 49ers Hall of Fame and the Giants’ Ring of Honor.

He is in the Texas and Louisiana and LSU Halls of Fame.

And he is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

In his 17 years as a pro football quarterback, he completed 2,427 passes in 4,395 attempts for 33,070 yards and 242 touchdowns. Not known as a runner, he still managed to run for 39 touchdowns.

To those who never knew him as a player Y. A. Tittle  may be most recognizable  from a photo taken of him in 1964, his final year as a pro, when he knelt on the field, bloody and helmetless following a vicious shot from a Pittsburgh Steeler lineman.

The photo was taken by a photographer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, bu the paper decided not to use it. It became famous only when the photographer, Morris Bergman, entered it in contests.

How famous is it?  It has long been one of just three photographs on display in the lobby of the headquarters of the National Press Photographers Association.  The other two? The flag-raising at Iwo Jima and the explosion of the Hindenberg.

“That photo made me more famous than anything else,” he said years later. 


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING Y. A. TITTLE

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
TOM DAVIS - SAN CARLOS, CALIFORNIA
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS



***********   According to Peter Finney in his book, “The Fighting Tigers,” LSU sports information director Jim Corbett,  asked  Tittle why his publicity forms had no first name listed - just the initials “Y.A.” - and Tittle’s reply was, “That’s my name – all of it.”

Curious, Corbett checked with the school registrar and found no full name - only  initials.

Pressing on, Corbett called the courthouse in Marshall, Texas but was told they had nothing on a Y. A. Tittle.   But, the man on the phone said, “We do have a Yelberton Abraham Tittle.”

The next day, when Corbett asked Tittle about the unusual, longer name,  Tittle  said,  “I’d appreciate it if you’d lay off using it.”


*********** A great Y. A. Tittle story… The Steeler defensive lineman whose clobbering of Y.A. Tittle left him on his knees in the scene immortalized by the great photograph was John Baker.

Baker, from North Carolina Central, had a solid NFL career, playing 11 years in the NFL, for the Rams, Eagles, Steelers and Lions.

Baker’s father was a Raleigh police officer, and during the off-season Baker would return home to North Carolina to  work in state correctional facilities.

After retiring, he worked on the staff of Senator Robert Morgan, and in 1978 he ran for Sheriff of Wake County, North Carolina (the county in which Raleigh is located).

On his campaign fliers, he featured the famous photo of Y.A. Tittle - post-sack -  with the message,  “Look what John Baker did to Y. A. Tittle. He’s going to do the same thing to crime in North Carolina.”

Baker won the election, becoming  the first black man ever elected to the job. He must have sacked his share of criminals during his time in office, because he held the position for 24 years.


 



*********** QUIZ:  He was born in California to multiethnic, multiracial parents; his Hispanic surname derives from his Cape Verdean (Portuguese) grandfather.

A star in both football and basketball in high school, he was a co-winner of the Orange County High School Athlete of the Year Award along with a golfer named Tiger Woods.

At Cal, he was an All-American as a tight end, catching 44 passes for 691 yards his junior year, but he also played basketball, on a team that made it to the Sweet Sixteen in the NCAA Tournament that same year.

He passed up his senior year in order to enter the NFL draft,  and he was taken by the Chiefs in the first round.

He made the All-Rookie team, and by his third year he was an All-Pro.  After an outstanding 12 years with the Chiefs, he was traded to Atlanta and spent five years with the Falcons.

Ending his career with a 265-game streak of games with a reception, he  retired after 17 seasons as the all-time leader among tight ends in receptions (1,325), yards (15,127) and touchdowns (111).

Among all NFL players, he was second   in career receptions, most seasons with 50 or more receptions and most consecutive games with a reception (211). He ranked fifth all-time in receiving yards (15,127).

In his entire career, he missed just one game.  In all, he played in 270 regular-season games, and failed to catch a pass in only five of them.

He was named to 14 Pro Bowls, and was named first-team All-Pro seven times.

He was named to the NFL’s 2000-2009 All-Decade Team, and to its 100th Anniversary All-Time team.

Following retirement, he has worked as an analyst on NFL broadcasts, and has appeared as an actor in numerous television shows.





TUESDAY,  MAY  16,   2023 - "You should write your obituary and figure out how to live up to it.”   Warren Buffett

***********  “The surest way to work up a crusade in favor of some cause is to promise people they will have a chance at maltreating someone else. To be able to destroy with good conscience, to be able to behave badly and call your bad behaviour "righteous indignation" - this is the height of psychological luxury, the most delicious of moral treats.”  Aldous Huxley

I could have sworn that's what our President was getting at in a speech Saturday. For that, I should be pissed at him.  But I’m not.

I’m pissed at the people who write his speeches.

He can’t be held accountable  for what he’s reading off the TelePrompter.  In his semi-vegetative state, he’ll read anything they write, and they know it.

So Saturday, they had him fire up the graduating class of Howard University, a  renowned historically black college, by reading  to them that “White supremacy … is the single most  dangerous terrorist threat in our homeland.”

(For the record, I don’t know a single “white supremacist,” and I doubt that I know a single person who does.)

He doesn’t always stay on script. Often, he’ll ad lib some form of “and that’s no sh—” after just telling us what he knows is another lie, so  in this  case he added,  “And I’m not just saying this because I’m at a Black HBCU. I say this wherever I go.”

(Evidently none of his speechwriters told him what the “B” in HBCU stands for.)

And then he went on to warn his audience about more bogeymen: “There are those who demonize and pit people against one another.”

Wait.  Isn’t that what you’re doing right now? I would have asked, if I’d been there. 

But this was the killer, something that could just as easily have been written by Republicans who’d somehow hacked into his TelePrompter:  “There are those who would do anything and everything, no matter how desperate or immoral, to hold onto power.”

Yeah.  Like pitting blacks against whites, maybe?

So I’m pissed at those speechwriters,  who continue to throw fuel on the fire that pits black people - who believe what their president tells them - against white people - who in Biden’s  own words from an earlier campaign (and earlier speechwriters)  “want to put y’all in chains.”

Racial equality may still be a work in progress in America, but I’m old enough to have seen great progress in my lifetime. Football,  more than any other major American sport,  has been out in front of much of that progress, and what I’ve seen and experienced makes me proud to be a football coach.

I have a pretty good memory, and I can’t remember the last time I so  much as heard anything racist in a football setting. 

I’m pissed because a bunch of pukes who get paid with taxpayer money to write speeches are doing all they can to undo  all the hard work that dedicated football coaches have done to show that, at least on a football team,  people of all sorts of backgrounds and “privileges” can work together in an atmosphere of mutual respect; that we can demonstrate that the American dream of one people, one vision, one nation - people working together toward one common goal -  is attainable.

So suck on it, speechwriter guy.



***********  In front of more than 20,000 people in the Alamo Dome,  the Arlington Renegades, 8-point underdogs, upset the DC Guardians, 35-26  to win the XFL  championship.  It was a  good, well-played football game that showed the league at its best.

Arlington, 4-6 in the regular season, had upset Houston earlier to earn a place in the  title game against a DC team that was 10-1 coming in.

It all started with an off-key rendition of “God Bless America” by some Air Force officer who supposedly was with  the band at one of the many bases in the San Antonio area.   Let’s just say for the sake of our national security that I hope our Air Force is  better at flying than it is at music.

But I was somewhat relieved, because I figured maybe that meant we wouldn’t have to hear some Grammy-award-winning nonentity butcher our national anthem, as seems to be a requirement before playing any big game.

Boy, was I wrong - and glad I was.  The anthem was, indeed sung - by some 8-year-old kid from San Antonio named Mateo Lopez.  And the little sucker knocked it out of the park.  ¡Hurra, Mateo!

Actually, it all started with a Bud commercial.  Not Bud Light.  Bud.  The King of Beers. The real stuff.  It ended with one  guy giving a buddy a bottle of Bud and then offering us a bottle as  the graphic said (remember this one?) “This Bud’s for you!”

They ran that ad - the very same one - four times before the opening kickoff.  All told, they ran that same ad  at least a dozen times before the end of the game.  All that was missing was a big tag line that said, “Honest, you’ve got it all wrong. We’re not Bud Light. We’re BUD! We have nothing to do with Bud Light. In fact, we  told them to stay away from that  LGBT stuff.”

It had to be  the first championship game ever played at any level of pro football in which neither quarterback was white or black. DC’s Jordan Ta’Amu is Polynesian, and Arlington’s Luis Perez is Hispanic.  Made me proud of our game.

Perez, whose acquisition from Vegas in week 7 made all the difference in Arlington’s turnaround,  was the Player of the Game, throwing for three TDs.  Ta’Amu, a major reason for DC’s great season, threw only three interceptions in 11 games, but threw three on Saturday.

Arlington shocked DC by putting on two first-quarter drives, and led by 17-0 before DC could get on the board with a field goal.   DC had just three possessions in the first half, and Arlington led 20-6 at the break.

In the first half, Perez was 18 of 23 for 189 yards and two touchdowns, and six of his receivers caught at least two passes.

I’d call it an exciting game.  Twice in the second half,  DC came within a touchdown, but on both occasions Arlington answered with another score of their own.

Other observations:  The XFL modus operandi of sideline interviews with players while the game goes on persisted in this championship game.  Would NFL fans  stand for  it during the Super Bowl?

The Sideline Suzy, in  a  sideline interview with Arlington assistant coach Chuck Long, noted that  one of his players had been a real “cowbell” for the team.  (More cowbell, maybe?)

Fred Kaiss, we were told, is an ordained minister.  He’s also DC’s offensive coordinator. Evidently, during his long career as a college assistant, players kept asking him to preside at their weddings.

I sure do like the shorter halftimes of these spring leagues.



*********** THIS PAST WEEKEND IN THE USFL

SATURDAY,


AT FORD  FIELD, DETROIT

PITTSBURGH  23, MICHIGAN 7


AT BIRMINGHAM

HOUSTON 27, BIRMINGHAM 20



SUNDAY

AT FORD FIELD, DETROIT

PHILADELPHIA 24, NEW JERSEY 21


AT BIRMINGHAM

MEMPHIS 17,  NEW ORLEANS 10


Halfway through the USFL schedule, there’s a race to the bottom in the North Division:
Michigan            2-3
New Jersey            2-3
Philadelphia            2-3
Pittsburgh            2-3

I hate to say this, because I want all these teams to be successful, but at this point there’s not a  good football team in the bunch.
Michigan is 0-3 at home.
New Jersey and Pittsburgh  are both 2-1 in divisional play
Michigan and Philadelphia are both 1-2 in divisional play

In the South Division
New Orleans             4-1
Birmingham            3-2
Houston                 3-2
Memphis             2-3

New Orleans lost for the first time Sunday against Memphis, but still looks like the best team in the USFL
Birmingham, which had looked like the second best team, lost to Houston on Saturday. It was Houston’s third straight win
And, as mentioned, Memphis beat New Orleans.  It was the Showboats’ second straight win, and their 6-7 QB, Cole Kelley, looks greatly improved.


*********** The USFL may be a minor league for the players, but it is rock bottom for announcers.

For example:

Inside info from color analyst Michael Robinson: “We call this taking what the defense gives you.”

Zac Collinsworth, on a short yardage play that anyone else watching could tell was  going to go for review: “HE’S IN FOR THE TOUCHDOWN! (slight pause) if the ball got across…” (If Zac Collinsworth is ever calling a horse race, do NOT tear up your tickets.)

I have to say that Robert Smith (Ohio State, Vikings) did a game on Sunday and unlike the other color guys that they’ve unloaded on us, he had a good voice, he said about 1/3 of what most of them would have said, and he said it knowledgeably and authoritatively.



***********  Every school takes some measure of pride in athletic achievements in its distant past.

Army still takes a lot of pride in its national championships, and they don’t mind reminding people of them.  The last one was in 1946.

Texas hasn’t won one since 1981, but  Longhorn fans perennially act as if they’re the defending champions.

Notre Dame acts as if 1988 - the year of their last national title - was yesterday.

Fan bases of both Michigan and Nebraska  have short memories.  They  shared the title in 1997 -  but  neither one has won it since. That was 36 years ago.

So I guess the USFL can get away with its boast of once having had Bobby Hebert, Jim Kelly, Herschel Walker, Reggie White and  Steve Young - even though the USFL they were playing in was a legitimate threat to the NFL, and bears no resemblance to the one we’re watching now.

Well, hell - while we’re at it - How about Yale?  Yale’s won  27 national titles.  “Distant past,” did I say?  Well, yeah.  (Actually, all but one of them were before World War I, and that one was in 1927.)

 

*********** FROM JOHN CANZANO -

Q. What gives with San Diego State and Pac-12 expansion?

San Diego State sure is demonstrating patience with the Pac-12 Conference. But maybe it’s easier to wait around when you’re certain the delay can’t possibly go on forever.

I reached out to the non-profit organization known as the Mountain West Conference this week and was directed to the conference bylaws.

Specifically, Article 1.04 of the bylaws — titled “Resignation.” It dictates that San Diego State or any other member may resign from the conference “effective June 30 of each year by delivering written notice to the conference and other members on or before the preceding June 30th.”

Meaning, that if the Aztecs want to join the Pac-12 for the 2024 football season, they must give notice to the MWC by June 30 or face an increased exit penalty. The “Timely Notice Exit Fee” is a payment of three times the average distribution payment for the preceding year. If members fail to give timely notice and still want out, the fee doubles.

Timely exit fee for SDSU: $16.5 million.

Non-timely fee: $33 million.

That helps answer a question in this week’s mailbag. “When do SMU and SDSU get an invite?” @lilcmac5 asked. The Pac-12 remains silent on that front. But the conference is engaged with several media parties that include ESPN, FOX, Amazon and Apple, I’m told. The rest of us remain in limbo while we wait for smoke to come from the conclave signaling that Pope George I has a deal.

The conference’s media-rights deal and expansion decisions walk hand in hand. Sources in the Pac-12 CEO Group have told me that the order of operations is to negotiate the core of the media deal while modeling variations that include expansion scenarios.

Expansion won’t be entirely about added media value, mind you. Academics, cultural fit, and geography matter to the conference presidents and chancellors. But media money is the new love language of college sports.

“We’ll turn to our media partners,” one Pac-12 CEO Group member told me last month, “and if the expansion candidates add value, we’ll add them.

“If they don’t, we won’t.”

June 30 is 48 days away.

PS: This is me - and I’ve got reliable word  that expansion is NOT high on the Pac-12’s list, and that if it is to occur, it’s most likely going to be San Diego State and ONLY San Diego State.

JOHN CANZANO AGAIN - Q: If Gonzaga gets invited to a Power 5 conference and receives a good media-rights windfall, could it resurrect the football program with the new money?

A: Gonzaga abandoned football in 1941. The program went on hiatus for World War II and never came back. The old campus football field was abandoned in 1947 and now has Foley Center Library built on top of it. I love the ambition in your question, but it’s a huge lift to try to resurrect a football program, build a 40,000-seat stadium, and join a conference.

About a decade ago, Wichita State looked at bringing back football. It commissioned a study and determined that it would cost roughly $75 million before the first snap. Additionally, the Shockers already had a football stadium. It just needed renovations. The cost would be significantly higher for Gonzaga in today’s world.

***********  Take a look at these clips from two recent USFL games and see how quickly you can spot the flaws in the defensive alignments…


 


*********** Attacking Coach Ron Erhardt’s defense.

Bear in mind that Coach Erhardt was coming off the top, and hadn’t had any opportunity to learn about out offense and what we can do.  I’m quite sure that he’d have been quick to make adjustments once he saw that his original scheme didn’t work.

But until he did - the kill is on.

Last week we started out with Super Power, and then ran our sweep - Rip 88 G-Reach.

Now, without adding any new play,  we can get the defense to react to motion - thinking that it’s the sweep again - while instead, we  run  our power off-tackle. But we’ll run it with the quarterback carrying!

This is RIP 66 Power Keep



By tagging our “66 Power” call with the word “KEEP,”  that one word tells  the backfield that the  quarterback is going to be the ball carrier, and it tells the original ball carrier to influence to the outside.

Here’s the important thing - this is NOT a new play.  Nine guys already know what they’re doing.  Only the A Back and QB are doing anything different from Super Power (the toss to the A-Back).

If your quarterback is a  good athlete - and tough - this is a great play.  I haven’t run it as much as I should, but one year when my QB was my best athlete, this was a bread-and-butter play.  Coach Donnie Hayes, in Bellevue, Florida, did a great job with it.

***

Our next way of dealing with that “LB” (what we call the “END”) is  to block him with someone besides the B-Back.  Up to now, whenever our TE has blocked down, the LB’s been blocked by our B Back - our fullback.  But now,  we’re going to run a play that I’ve run since my Delaware Wing-T days, a play  which none of the early self-styled Double Wing gurus ran, since they didn’t have wing-T backgrounds - the “G” play. Shown here is RIP 6-G-O (The "O" is to wrap the backside guard up through the first hole he sees.)



We’re going to block that "LB" guy with our playside guard. It’s been a staple play for me, and I’ve shown on my Zoom clinics how the colleges have been making use of it. (Air Force runs the hell out of it.) Without the G Block, I never would have been able to run my Open Wing. In its simplest form, it’s an “X” block on steroids - the play side guard does the kick out on the LB (end), and to fill the spot he’s vacated, the play side tackle has to replace him.  And then, because the tackle has to block down to replace the guard, the tight end has to block down to replace the tackle.  (This  may sound simple, but it takes a lot of time and teaching and self-discipline for young tackles and tight ends to resist the temptation to block straight ahead on a man opposite them, when the G Block requires them to ignore that guy in front of them and instead block to the inside.) 

The point of the play is to present an outside threat with the motion,   softening  up the LB (End) in the process. Notice that the playside wingback does NOT block  the LB - he goes on to wall off the first backer to the inside.  He has to hustle to get across  the  runner’s path before the runner gets there, which is one reason why we don’t have the runner take off on a straight line for the hole; instead, we have him shuffle slowly sideways until the QB brings him the ball. This improves the timing, it gives the runner time to see the blocking up front, and it enables him to hit the hole a  bit squarer, so he has the ability to make ta “3-way cut.” 

This is an extremely versatile and useful play, but to run it: You HAVE to have a tight end… you SHOULD have a wingback to block the inside backer… and you SHOULD employ  motion.



*********** Hugh,

I really enjoyed your analysis of how to attack the Erhardt defense.

Jack Tourtillotte
Rangeley, Maine


***********   Everybody wanted Antonio Carter. He’s considered the best defensive back  currently in the transfer portal, and he finally settled on Notre Dame. Up to now, he’s been playing for - Rhode Island.



***********   The NFL has had some bad m-fers, but they’re going to have to go some to match Ja Morant.

https://nypost.com/2023/05/14/ja-morant-suspended-from-grizzlies-activities-after-gun-video/



*********** Great story in the News about the Fort kid and his comments in the paper.  I really like it and have already shared it with a fellow coach.

I appreciate the story.

John Bothe
Oregon Illinois

VERY glad you liked it



*********** Nice clean counter to the Erhardt defense.

The Yogi movie’s director, Sean Mullin, is a USMA grad.

Best wishes to Fresno State. The Pac 10 or 12 or whatever doesn’t deserve them.

John Vermillion
St. Petersburg, Florida









***********   QUIZ ANSWER:  Tunch Ilkin was born in Istanbul to Turkish parents who moved to the United States when he was two, and to date, he remains the NFL’s only Turkish-born player.

His parents settled in suburban Chicago, and at Highland Park High School he was an All-Conference lineman.

At Indiana State, he was three times named All-Conference, and was drafted  in the sixth round by the Pittsburgh Steelers.

For 13 years he played offensive tackle for the Steelers, and was selected to two Pro Bowls,  and played one last year with the Packers before retiring.  Respected by his fellow players, he served five years as vice-president of the NFLPA.

After a series  of jobs in broadcasting, he became a permanent part of the Steelers’ radio broadcast team, and he remained in that post for more than 22 years, until he was forced to step down by the effects of ALS. That was June 3, 2021.  He had been diagnosed with ALS less than seven months earlier,  and he died  September 4, 2021, nearly three months later to the day.

A convert from Islam to Christianity, he spent more than 30 years actively supporting a Pittsburgh homeless and drug recovery center, and also served as pastor of men’s ministry for a large Pittsburgh church.

Tunch Ilkin is on the Steelers’ All-Time Team, and is in their Hall of Honor.


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING TUNCH ILKIN

GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
PETE PORCELLI - WATERVLIET, NEW YORK
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY




  
***********   QUIZ:  He came out of Marshall, Texas, highly recruited not only because he was a very good  quarterback,  but also because with World War II going on, he had asthma, which meant he wouldn’t be drafted.

Although he originally committed to Texas, LSU, where he really wanted to go, managed to  get him away from the Longhorns.  While at LSU he was changed from single-wing tailback to T-formation quarterback, and he was twice named All-SEC quarterback. After his junior season, he was named the MVP of the Cotton Bowl game.

He left LSU holding a number of school records, many of which would last for decades:  most passing yards in a career -  2,517; most completions in a career - 166; most touchdown passes in a career - 21; career total offense - 2,619; and touchdown passes in one  season - 11.

He holds the unique distinction of being the only player in pro football history to be taken first in three different drafts.

The first two were when, with a football war going on between the NFL and the AAFC, he was drafted first by the Detroit Lions in the NFL draft, and first  by the Cleveland Browns of the AAFC.

He chose Cleveland, but shortly after the draft, in an effort to achieve some parity in the AAFC, he was “assigned” to the Baltimore Colts.  He was Rookie of the Year, but the Colts had problems on and off the field, and they folded one year after the AAFC and NFL merged.  Their players were made available through that year’s NFL draft, and he was the 49ers’ first choice.

At first, he shared time at quarterback with Frankie Albert, but eventually he won the starting job and,  along with John Henry Johnson, Hugh McElhenny and Joe “The Jet” Perry, he became  part of the 49ers’ famed “Million Dollar Backfield.”

In 1954, he became the  first pro football player to appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated.

In 1957, he and teammate R.C. Owens, a former basketball player, devised the “Alley-Oop,” a pass play in which he would throw the ball so high it was uncatchable by anyone except the 6-3 Owens.

By 1960 he and the much-younger John Brodie were competing for the 49ers’ starting job, and when Coach Red Hickey decided to go full-time with his newly-named “shotgun” offense, he became expandable, and was traded to the Giants.

He considered retirement. He was 35 and seen by many as over the hill.  He didn’t want to go east, and and he was not particularly welcomed by the Giants, a veteran team that rallied around their long-time  quarterback, Charlie Conerly.

But Conerly was even older, and as the season went on, he came to be accepted.

He helped take the Giants to the NFL title game his first year there, and took them there the next two years. He was second team All-Pro in 1961 -  his first year -  and first team all pro in 1962 and 1963. (He had also been named first team All-Pro in 1957, while with the 49ers.)

In 1963, at the age of 37,  he was the NFL’s MVP.

He appeared in seven Pro Bowls.

He led the NFL in touchdown passes on three occasions.

He is in the 49ers Hall of Fame and the Giants’ Ring of Honor.

He is in the Texas and Louisiana and LSU Halls of Fame.

And he is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

In his 17 years as a pro football quarterback, he completed 2,427 passes in 4,395 attempts for 33,070 yards and 242 touchdowns. Not known as a runner, he still managed to run for 39 touchdowns.

He may be most recognizable to those who never knew him as a player  for a photo taken of him in 1964, his final year as a pro, when he knelt on the field, bloody and helmetless following a vicious shot from a Pittsburgh Steeler lineman.

The photo was taken by a photographer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but the paper decided not to use it. It became famous only when the photographer, Morris Bergman, entered it in contests.

How famous is it?  It has long been one of just three photographs on display in the lobby of the headquarters of the National Press Photographers Association.  The other two? The flag-raising at Iwo Jima and the explosion of the Hindenberg.

“That photo made me more famous than anything else,” he said years later. 






FRIDAY,  MAY  12,   2023 - “"Neutrality is a sign of weakness."   Lajos Kossuth, Hungarian national hero


********** XFL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME - SATURDAY -  8 PM EDT - ABC, ESPN

DC VS ARLINGTON.  DC has lost just once this season; Arlington is 5-6.  DC really is the XFL's best team, and it would be a sin if they were to lose.  The game's being played in the Alamodome because... I have no idea.  The league isn't ready for this neutral-site crap just yet.  If they'd played it in DC they'd have sold out the place.  And the beer snake would have been a mile long.


*********** THIS WEEKEND IN THE USFL

IT’S WEEK 5 - THE HALFWAY POINT ALREADY!

SATURDAY


AT FORD  FIELD, DETROIT


12:30 PM EDT -   USA NETWORK  - PITTSBURGH  (1-3) VS MICHIGAN (2-2)  WATCH: Truthfully, not a lot to get excited about.  Neither team is worth much offensively.


AT BIRMINGHAM

4 PM EDT - FOX - HOUSTON (2-2) VS BIRMINGHAM (3-1) -
WATCH: Houston QB Kenji Bahara, from FCS Monmouth,  and running back Mark Thompson, from Florida. Thompson is a stud.


 

SUNDAY

AT FORD FIELD, DETROIT

12 NOON - NBC - NEW JERSEY (2-2) VS PHILADELPHIA (1-3) - Neither team throws very well.  Philly could, if it could protect its passer, Case Cookus. New Jersey RB Darius Victor is short and stocky and fun to watch.


AT BIRMINGHAM

3 PM EDT - FOX - MEMPHIS (1-3) VS NEW ORLEANS (4-0) This should be a runaway.  With  passer McLeod Bathel-Thompson, receiver Sage Surratt, and running back Wes Hills, New Orleans is by far the most exciting team in the USFL

 



***********   Charlie Wilson writes from Brooksville, Florida - 

So I'm watching the Hurricanes play the Devils in the Second Round of the NHL Playoffs and it gets to the Intermission and there's P K Subban doing Commentary.

PK's A-OK with me.  The Suits couldn't wait to get him into the Booth because...Well, you know.


When he was with the Predators for those years, that Team was about Defense and the Visitors would come into Nashville, get beat and leave gasping for air.  They were smothered and PK was a good reason for that.  Now, not so much.

In the Booth, PK is fun to watch and great to listen to.
***
PK gets asked about the game:

"It's a MAN'S game, and..."

Oh, Lord God in Heaven. What do we do now?
What do we do?!??
Didn't anyone tell him?


Tsk, tsk.  Hockey is NOT a MAN’S game.  Neither is football. The sooner cretins like PK Subban come to their senses and realize this, the easier it will be for them when the Revolution is complete.  But first, PK -  there’s the matter of an apology and some  diversity training.


*********** I don’t care what anybody says.  I  think it's perfectly normal for college students - even at Xavier, a Catholic school -  to throw dildos onto the basketball court during a game, so if that homophobic Bob Huggins thinks that means he can call them “Catholic f-gs” (gasp) he deserves to have his salary docked by a million  dollars a year. 

But  on top of  that,  the University of West Virginia says that as part of Huggins’ penance he must  “partner with WVU’s LGBTQ+ Center to develop annual training sessions that will address all aspects of inequality including homophobia, transphobia, sexism, ableism and more,”  blah, blah, blah.

And that’w where I draw the line.   I don’t know about you, but the Constitution (remember that?) prohibits“cruel and unusual punishment,” and that sure sounds like it to me.



*********** Our kids all went to Fort Vancouver High in Vancouver, Washington.  At the same time, I coached at Hudson’s Bay High in the same city, and “Fort” and “Bay” (as  they’re known hereabouts) have long been bitter rivals.  Fort was once a regional power.  The Trappers (good nickname)  always had good talent, and they were tough kids.  When I  got the job at Bay in 1980, we hadn’t beaten them in eight years, and it took me until 1983 (our  first year running the Delaware Wing T) to do it.

Since then, the years have not been kind to Bay.  Winning seasons are few.  But to Fort, the years have been brutal.  For various reasons, Fort has become a sort of United Nations, home to immigrant kids from dozens of nations - none of them known as hotbeds of American football. (or for that matter, basketball or baseball.)

The result, despite the efforts of any number of coaches, and despite finally taking the desperate step of playing an independent schedule against much smaller schools, has still been year after year of losing seasons - more than 20 straight in football.  Not until this past year, when the Trappers went 3-6, had they won more than two games in a season since at least 2004.

Basketball and baseball have been just as bad.

Which brings me to an interview in our local paper with a Fort senior named Kaeled Cvitkovich.  He’d played football, basketball and baseball, all four years, and he’d just played his last high school baseball game.

Evidently he was a pretty good player - you must be, to get any mention at all when every one of your teams struggle just to win a game - and in the interview he reflected on his high school sports experience:

“Obviously our sports didn’t go the way that we wanted them to,” he admitted.  “We didn’t win a lot of games. A lot of games were blowouts. But I would have rather have had all these blowout games and have the friends that I do now and the people that I am around right now, out here, right now, on this field, on the football field, on the basketball court, than be on a team that is blowing people out and be with people that I don’t like. I would much rather be a Trapper, because being a Trapper, sure it’s tough times, but it’s not for the weak.”

It brought to mind an experience I had in 2006.  After the head coach at our school left in mid-July, I stepped into the job. I knew what I was getting into -  the kids loved the former coach, and they were devastated by his leaving.  I don’t know whether that made much difference, because we weren’t very talented, and when we lost an early season game that we should have won and fell to 0-3, I remember one of the assistants saying, matter-of-factly, “we’re not gonna win a game.”

He was right.  We went 0-9.  It was a wild-ass season, to be sure, with some unbelievable goings-on (it was a Portland city school, after all) but I couldn’t write about those things without making it sound like I was badmouthing those kids, and I couldn’t do that.  They worked too damn hard and hung in there to the very end, and it killed me to think that they were never going to experience the thrill of a  win. One of the most unforgettable experiences of my long coaching career came after a particularly bitter loss to a high school that several of our kids could have gone to, but didn’t.  To make things worse, it was a dreary, rainy night. After the game, as was our custom, we gathered under the goal posts to talk things over.  After we’d said the usual stuff,  one of our leaders, a senior named Gio Amado, looking as if a spirit had moved him, stood up suddenly and,  turning to face the team, said “I’d rather lose with y’all than win with a bunch of assholes!”



*********** While browsing through an old issue (Oct-Nov 2011) of American Football Monthly, I came across the section in which subscribers ask a big-time coach what he’d do in certain situations.  In this case, the coach was Ron Erhardt, who’d been head coach of the Patriots for four years, offensive coordinator of the Steelers for five years, and offensive coordinator of the Giants for ten years. Before the NFL, he was 61-7-1 in seven seasons as head coach at North Dakota State.)
What caught my attention was his answer to a high school coach who’d written in asking how he’d defend against the Double Wing. 




As you may have noticed, I did not draw it up correctly.  Mea culpa (Latin for my fault.  Or, in teen jargon, “my bad.”)

Here it is, correctly drawn.



You’ll notice that unlike most people who design a defense against a perfectly-balanced offense, he drew  up a defense with six men on the left  side of an imaginary center line, and five on the right side   For that reason only, I’m going to attack the five-person side, and run right.
Regardless of the defense, though, the first thing I want to  know is - “How are their ends playing against Super Power?”  (I habitually use the term “END” to refer to the first defensive lineman on or outside our tight end, but in this case, Coach Erhardt called that guy a “LB,” so that’s what we’ll stick with for the purpose of this drill).

The best way I know to answer that question - “How are their ends playing against Super Power?”-  is to run Super Power.   In this case, 66 Super Power.



Note that every lineman on the playside has a defender on an outside shade.   Thanks to our tight splits, this also means that that same defender is on an adjacent man’s INSIDE shade (or in his GAP, for our purposes).  And since protecting the inside gap  is paramount  in our playside rules, this means that our entire playside - and our center, too, because of his rule - will all block DOWN. We may or may not pull the backside guard (shown in gray) until we have an idea what's going on back there.

Now, the chances are good that if the opponent’s well coached - and I think it’s fair to assume that Ron Erhardt’s team would be - it’s probable  that when our tight end blocks down, their “LB” will close down, too. That, of course, constricts the hole, and makes our B Back’s kickout block tougher.

I don’t mind running one play to find out the answer.    The play may be successful and it may not.  If it’s successful, run ‘er again until they stop it.  If it’s not successful, there’s a good chance that it’s because of that damn END - that “LB” - pinching down, in which case it’s time for Plan B.  Rip 88 G-Reach.




I believe that in the short time that LB has had to prepare for us,  he’ll have spent a lot more time worrying about stopping  Super Power than  on resisting  being reached.  So next we’ll reach him with our tight end.


We’ll send our A-Back in RIP motion and run 88 G-Reach.  It’s a great play.  You have no idea how many sweeps I’ve tried and discarded before settling on this one.  Motion is necessary because we want to make the handoff behind the playside guard.  (We have even had the QB toss the ball, which allows the A Back to get even wider.)   Truthfully, the only blocks that are crucial are made by the Tight End, the C Back (who, if there’s no one for him to reach, works to the next level while first helping the TE if help is needed) and the B-Back, who always blocks the play side corner.  (There is the possibility that a man on the guard’s  outside shoulder could also be slanting to playside, which could make him a pain in the ass,  and if that’s the case, we’ll have our guard reach that man instead of pulling around.  It’s really no problem as long as we get the key block on that  “LB.”)

If the LB is so good that he can also fight through the TE’s reach block, we have another way to deal with him.  We’ll go back to the way we know he’ll react to the TE blocking down. We’ll assume that  when the LB pinches down in reaction to the TE’s down block, our C Back can then pin that LB to the pile.  We’ll employ  the Super Power concept, but this time, with our C Back pinning the LB to the pile, we’ll take the play outside, calling  it Rip 88 Super Power.



This is sound.  I’ve done it a lot.

We’ll use just a tiny bit of motion - no more than  a step or two is all. The A back does take it a bit deeper - as deep as the B-Back’s  stance -  because he needs to get outside the pile, and the QB has to make his turn tighter so that he doesn’t interfere with the A Back. The pulling backside linemen will race to get around the corner.
Incidentally, we have run this as a  speed option.  But for me, option remains just a dalliance.

NEXT - When the defense reacts to motion


*********** If you don’t like listening  to graduation speeches, Yale is the place for you. For some reason, Yale has not and does not have a graduation speaker.   All the speeches take place the day before - I don’t know what they call the occasion -  so if speeches aren’t your thing,  you can stay home.  But you don’t want to miss the graduation ceremonies the next day, so go ahead and go, assured that you won’t have to listen to somebody you’ve never heard of drone on and on about your obligation  to go out and change the world, blah, blah, blah.

West Point - the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York is a bit different.  There WILL be a speaker.  And if you're a graduate, you WILL attend.

This year’s speaker is that renowned orator, the Vice-President of the United States - none other than the honorable Kamala Harris.

You WILL sit - at attention - and listen.  (It’s suggested - not mandatory - that you make some sense of what she says.)


*********** This summer, as always, the Army Football Club - the association of former Army football players - will hold its annual golf outing at West Point, New York..

It’s a great time for the guys to get together for a couple of evenings of fellowship and, of course, a round of golf on Saturday.  But somebody must have noticed that not all the guys who show up play golf, so this year there’s a new activity for them.

It’s actually being called a “Golf and Guns” outing (does that call for a “trigger” warning?) and those who choose not to play golf will have a  chance to test their marksmanship with the Sig Sauer P320-M17, the civilian version of the US Army’s new M17 sidearm.

It would almost be worth going just to be able to  shoot a gun like that in one of the least gun-friendly  states in the country.  (West Point being a US military reservation, the laws of the state do not apply.)

https://www.sigsauer.com/p320-m17.html


*********** The national champion Georgia football team has sent its regrets - it won’t be able to accept the invitation to make an appearance at the White House.   No - I will not use this news to take a cheap shot at the current occupant of the White House. Who wouldn’t want to meet a President who says he was a football star himself?


***********   Call Oregon State the Non-Prime Program.   While Deion the Coach unloaded busloads of  former Colorado players, the Beavers may  stand alone among Power 5 schools for not having lost a single scholarship player during the spring transfer portal window.


*********** I read an article in the Wall Street Journal last week about the problem that Harley-Davidson’s been having keeping  repo men - people who go out and repossess vehicles whose “owners” have fallen way behind on payments.

The Harley repo men think they deserve more money.

It’s a lot tougher than repossessing cars, they say, fist of all because people tend to keep their bikes inside.

And then there’s the attachment a motorcycle rider feels to his bike.

Finally, though, there’s the motorcycle owner himself -  generally speaking, he might not be the sort of guy  you’d want to catch you in the wee hours of the morning as you’re preparing to make off with his treasured Harley.


*********** Appalachian State’s 34-32 win over Michigan in front of 100,000 in the Big House is definitely one of the biggest upsets on the history of our game.  It was nearly 16 years ago - 2007 -  and yet you probably remember where you were and what you were doing when you heard about it.

Recently, I was reading an interview with App State coach, Jerry Moore, and he was asked about how he prepared his team for the game. ”I told them,” he said,  ‘“You’re only going to get one shot at this game. There will be no return match.  We will never go up there again.’”


***********  Watch  for what sounds like a really good documentary about a true baseball great…

From the New York Times
 

By Lorne Manly
May 8, 2023

In the latest edition of Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations, there’s a sports figure who towers over the competition.

Among the nine sayings attributed to one Lawrence Peter Berra, the New York Yankees catcher better known as Yogi, are phrases that may seem nonsensical at first, but on further reflection offer wisdom for the ages.

“You can observe a lot by watching.”

“It was déjà vu all over again.”

And of course, there’s “It ain’t over till it’s over,” which provides the title for a new documentary about Yogi’s life.

“It Ain’t Over” aims to be a corrective to the caricature implanted in the cultural consciousness of Yogi as an amiable clown, a malaprop-prone catcher who looked as if he were put together with spare parts. But Yogi was not only a cuddly pitchman for insurance, beer and chocolate milk, an inspiration for a certain cartoon bear, and a stand-up guy beloved by teammates; he was, the film argues, one of the best baseball players who ever lived.

“This guy was criminally overlooked his whole life, at every stage,” said Sean Mullin, the film’s director.

Yogi’s granddaughter Lindsay Berra played a major role  in the documentary, mainly because she believes her grandfather has been denied recognition of  his true greatness.

He played on 10 World Series champions - more than any other player.  He won three MVP awards and played in 15 straight All-Star games.  He caught the only perfect game in World Series history - and pitcher Don Larsen did not shake off a single pitch of the 97 that Yogi called. And get this - only he and Joe DiMaggio hit more than 350 home runs while striking out fewer than 450 times.
 
Most impressive to Lindsay Berra is  that in 1950, Yogi  went to bat 656 times and struck out only 12 times.  Remarked Lindsay, “guys today strike out 12 times in a weekend.”


https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/08/movies/yogi-berra-documentary.html



***********   Andrew Luck is an interesting guy. At 33, I'm confident he could still start on a few teams. At the same time, he left on his own terms, something I admire.

PETA's still trying hard to ban horse racing, but the 155,000 at the Derby paid no attention. But with seven horses, all potential entrants or understudies, perishing the week before the event, PETA's hand was definitely strengthened.

Most distinctive accents from which to identify geographic origin of speaker, not in any special order: (1) yes, Western PA (2) a particular area, small, in and around Lexington, VA (3) Boston area, of course (4) South Carolina Low Country.

Please, no more about drag queens. Nothing about that scene makes sense to me.


John Vermillion                        
St Petersburg, Florida



***********   Hugh,

Plans are underway at Fresno State to raise 1.4 billion (that's illion with a "B") through a second attempt at Measure E that would enhance FSU academically and athletically to jump the school up from holding a strong "regional" reputation to a "nationally and internationally" recognized university.  Over 900+ million would be designated for academics while the remaining 400+ million will be earmarked for athletics.  Higher ups in Fresno say it stands a great chance to pass this time around.  PAC 12 presidents who only understand reputation...and money, better pay attention.

https://gvwire.com/2023/05/09/fresno-state-unveils-elevate-campaign-to-raise-250m-for-sports-facilities/

No matter what part of the state (and it's a BIG state) most folks here in Texas (no matter what part) refer to individuals and groups of individuals with a friendly greeting of Y'all, so Y'all in other states better start paying attention to what's going on in this country or ALL Y'all (that's EVERYBODY) will be up to Y'all's knees in schidt!

Speaking of Division II schools...There are only 2 in the Pacific Northwest.  BUT!!  There are a number of NAIA schools...Carroll College (MT) - Eastern Oregon - Montana State-Northern - Montana Tech - Rocky Mountain (MT) - Southern Oregon - College of Idaho - Montana Western.  I don't buy Simon Fraser dropping its football program.  Seems to me SFU could fit in well with any of those schools in football, and remain an NCAA DII school in other sports.  I don't buy their administration's explanation for dropping football.


QUIZ:  Pervis Atkins (notable NFL HOF players with cameo roles in the original "Longest Yard" were David Deacon Jones, and Ray Nitschke.  Although Ben Davidson, and Joe Kapp-RIP, are not in the NFL HOF they (like Atkins) also played significant roles in the movie).

Have a great week!

Joe Gutilla
Austin, Texas







*********** QUIZ ANSWER: Born in Ruston, Louisiana, Pervis Atkins grew up in Oakland, and went to high school there (Oakland Tech).

After service in the Marine Corps, he played at Santa Ana JC. From there, he wound up at New Mexico State by pure chance, after offering  to drive JC teammate Bob Gaiters (who had been recruited by the Aggies)  to Las Cruces.   Once there,  our guy was noticed and also signed by  coach Warren Woodson, and over the next two years he and Gaiters  would combine to help propel the Aggies to the greatest run in their football  history.

Over the next four years, one Aggie runner or another would lead the nation in rushing: our guy was the first to do so, in 1959.  His buddy, Gaiters, was the second, in 1960;  and in  1961 and 1962,  Jim “Preacher” Pilot would make it three  and then four years in a row.)

They had good  talent. With future NFL quarterback Charley Johnson at the controls, the Aggies went 8-3 in 1959, and - at a time when there were only eight bowl games - they made it to the Sun Bowl, where they defeated North Texas, 28-3.  Our guy led the nation that year in rushing yardage, punt return yardage, and all-purpose yardage.  (And he punted and played safety on defense.)

The following year, the Aggies went undefeated, and returned to the Sun Bowl, where they defeated Utah State, 20-13.  It would be their last bowl appearance for another 57 years.

At the time, the Aggies  held the nation’s longest winning streak.  They came to the attention of the nation’s sportswriters when they defeated Arizona State, 27-24 (aided by our guy’s 98-yard touchdown return and his  70-yard run from scrimmage to set up the winning score), and they wound up ranked 17th in the nation.

This  time, his backfield running mate Gaiters led the nation in rushing, although our guy again led the nation in all-purpose yardage, and became the first player in school history to be named first-team All-American.

He was drafted third by the Los Angeles Rams, and went on to play seven seasons in the NFL, with the Rams, Redskins and Raiders.  For his career, he had 3,300 all-purpose yards.

After football, he was an actor and producer in Hollywood, best known  for his role in “The Longest Yard” (the original version) in which he played a character named Mawabe.

Pervis Atkins was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2010.

He died in December, 2017, just a week before New Mexico State would play in a bowl game for the first time since he played in the Sun Bowl, 57 years before.




CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING PERVIS ATKINS

GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - AUSTIN, TEXAS
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY


 





***********   QUIZ:  He was born in Istanbul to Turkish parents who moved to the United States when he was two, and to date, he remains the NFL’s only Turkish-born player.

They settled in suburban Chicago, and at Highland Park High School he was an All-Conference lineman.

At Indiana State, he was three times named All-Conference, and was drafted  in the sixth round by the Pittsburgh Steelers.

For 13 years he played offensive tackle for the Steelers, and was selected to two Pro Bowls.   He played one last year with the Packers before retiring. 

Respected by his fellow players, he served five years as vice-president of the NFLPA.

After a series  of jobs in broadcasting, he became a permanent part of the Steelers’ radio broadcast team, and he remained in that post for more than 22 years, until he was forced to step down by the effects of ALS. That was June 3, 2021.  He had been diagnosed with ALS less than seven months earlier, and he died  September 4, 2021, nearly three months later to the day.

A convert from Islam to Christianity, he spent more than 30 years actively supporting a Pittsburgh homeless and drug recovery center, and also served as pastor of men’s ministry for a large Pittsburgh church.

He is on the Steelers’ All-Time Team, and is in their Hall of Honor.





 

TUESDAY,  MAY 9,  2023 - “We are under a Constitution, but the Constitution is what the judges say it is.”  Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes 


*********** THIS PAST WEEKEND IN THE USFL

SATURDAY:

HOUSTON (2-2) 41,  VS PHILADELPHIA (1-3) 16
Help.  I’m the Philadelphia Stars and I’m sinking fast. I have no running game (unless you call 44 yards on 11 carries a running game) and I can’t protect my quarterback - coming into the game he’d been sacked 13 times, and Houston added six more to that sorry  total.  So please - send me a life raft - one full of offensive linemen.  And while  you’re at it, send me a secondary that can tackle. Houston QB Kenji Bahara (from Monmouth) completed 15 of 21 for 230 yards and two TDs.  Running back Mark Thompson (from Florida, by way of Cheltenham, PA) is 6-2, 235 and now that he’s healthy again, he rushed 13 times for 134 yards and three TDs.  Aberdeen WA kid, Joel Dublanko, playing his first game at linebacker for Philly, had seven tackles  and 1/2 a sack (I personally thought it was a full sack).

MEMPHIS (1-3) 29, MICHIGAN (2-2) 10
Michigan was plus-5 on turnover margin coming in, but in this game their four turnovers - two fumbles and two interceptions - led the way to Memphis’ first win.   Michigan, which never led, pulled to within 16-10 in the fourth quarter, but  a sack-caused fumble, returned for a score with 3:45 left in the game, put the Panthers  away for good.

SUNDAY

NEW ORLEANS (4-0) 20,  NEW JERSEY (2-2)  17
In the battle of the USFL’s best offense (New Orleans) and its best defense (New Jersey), the win went to New Orleans, 20-17.  The Breakers’ McLeod Bethel-Thompson was sacked four times, but he survived to complete 26 of 37 for 279 yards.  No TDs, but no interceptions, either.  New Orleans running back Wes Hills, the USFL’s leading rusher,  carried 26 times for 88 yards and two TDs, and caught seven passes for 71 yards.  Breakers’ TE Sage Surratt, USFL leader in receiving yardage, caught six passes for 94 yards. Once again, New Jersey rushed for more yards (172) than it passed for (113).

BIRMINGHAM (3-1)  24,  PITTSBURGH (1-3) 20
Pittsburgh,  showing some improvement, led  12-10 after three quarters.  The two teams swapped leads three times in the fourth quarter.  The decisive score came after Pittsburgh took the lead, 20-17, and then Birmingham’s Deon Cain returned the  following kickoff 91 yards for the touchdown.  It was Cain’s second kickoff return for a TD in the last two weeks.


*********** Just wondering whether the Pac-12 presidents, so haughty that  they wouldn’t consider lowering themselves and their  standards and admitting Fresno State,  are even aware of the academic travesty that’s playing out  at one of their member schools - THE University of Colorado.


*********** Remember back in the 80’s when the idea of men dressing as women (in order to take advantage of the Bud Light “Ladies’ Night” Special) was  considered hilarious?

(Remember the days back before the feminists killed Ladies Nights?)

https://www.outkick.com/bud-light-ladies-night-ad-resurfaces-with-men-in-drag-amid-mulvaney-boycott/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mm05R3QEiNY


*********** I like Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida better  than our Governor Dipschidt.  Sure wish we could trade.

But if Governor DeSantis decides to run for President,  he’ll have to deal with something in his background, in western Pennsylvania at least.

Here’s the deal: after graduating from Yale (where he was captain of the varsity baseball team) and then Harvard Law School, he joined the Navy, and served as a Lieutenant in  the Judge Advocate General’s Corps.

The Judge Advocate General’s Corps’ acronym is “JAG” - and that means he was a “JAG officer.”

But if  he’s in Pittsburgh and he says he was a JAG Officer, he’d better be sure to say it very slowly and very clearly, lest it sound like he used to be a jagoff.

Yinzers* will know what I mean.

“Yinzer” is another term for a western Pennsylvanian, particularly a Pittsburgher.   (Where a New Jersey guy might ask where “youse” are from, or a Philadelphian might ask the same about “yizz,” a Western Pennsylvanian would say “yinz,” a corruption of “you ‘uns.”)









*********** The player on the left is Ethan Morrill, who played tailback/A Back for us at Aberdeen, Washington in 2019.  We didn’t really “discover” him until our second game when our starter got banged up, and we put Ethan in. We didn’t expect much - we hadn’t seen him in action at all, because he’d been late turning out, and he  didn’t know any play other than 66 Power - but what the hell.  That’s what we ran. 

And, wow  - anybody could see that we had a runner!  It was too late to make a difference in that game, and we went into our third game not having scored a touchdown yet. But now Ethan knew most of the offense, and that was all we needed to take a nearby rival into two overtimes and beat them.  He was plenty fast, but mainly he was very tough - he was seldom brought down by a single tackler. And he was smart and really coachable.


He tried walking on at Washington State, but now he’s settled in at D-II Central Washington, and here he’s shown after Saturday’s spring game with another CWU guy from the Aberdeen-Grays Harbor area, a guy from Montesano, Washington named Adam Bighilll. 


If you haven’t heard of him, it’s only because you don’t know Canadian football, because if you did, you’d surely know Adam Bighill.  Currently the  middle linebacker for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, he’s a six-time All-CFL selection, and he’s been named CFL’s Most Outstanding Defensive Player three times.







***********  Indianapolis owner Jim Irsay to other NFL teams:  Andrew Luck may be retired, but keep your hands off him!

After learning the availability of Luck was the subject of an inquiry last year by the Washington Commanders, Irsay took to social media Sunday night to warn teams about any correspondence regarding the long-retired Colts quarterback.

"If any NFL team attempted to contact Andrew Luck (or any associate of him) ... to play for their Franchise -- it would be a clear violation of the League's Tampering Policy," Irsay posted on Twitter.

Luck, 33, who retired in 2019 with three seasons remaining on his contract, technically remains the property of the Colts. The contract tolled after his departure, meaning that if he ever elects to return to the NFL, the Colts would own his rights.

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/37557229/colts-jim-irsay-warns-teams-andrew-luck-contact


(After learning about Irsay’s warning, a higher-up in the Denver  organization said, “And that goes double for John Elway and Payton Manning!”)



*********** While browsing through an old issue (Oct-Nov 2011) of American Football Monthly, I came across the section in which subscribers ask a big-time coach what he’d do in certain situations.  In this case, the coach was Ron Erhardt, who’d been head coach of the Patriots for four years, offensive coordinator of the Steelers for five years, and offensive coordinator of the Giants for ten years. While with the Giants, they’d won two Super Bowls, with two different quarterbacks - Jeff Hostetler and Phil Simms. (Before the NFL, he was 61-7-1 in seven seasons as head coach at North Dakota State.)

The question, from the head coach at Dakota Ridge HS in Colorado:  “I would love to hear how some coaches stop the double wing offense. From your days as a defensive coach, what have been good fronts, blitzes, keys, etc. to stopping this offense?

Tsk, tsk.  Not in any way to denigrate Coach Erhardt, whose credentials are beyond questioning.  But in my opinion,  his answer was not helpful. Recognizing a question he wasn’t able to answer, he should have just pulled a Joe Biden - ignored it, turned around, waved, and walked away.  Obviously, he knows a whole  lot of football, but - understandably - not much about an offense he can’t ever have seen in action (his diagram for the article  shows  splits that seem to be a yard wide.)

Anyhow, I thought I’d post his diagram, and then over the next couple of postings, show how vulnerable this defense would be -  talent being relatively equal -  to our basic attack.


Note that as any good defensive coach would do, he drew the diagram “upside down."  (But being an offensive guy, I fixed it on the right.)







*********** Several years ago I read about how Bill Belichick, with his Patriots off to an  uncharacteristically slow start, sat his players down in a meeting room and showed them the film of a horse race.  When the horses were halfway around the track, he paused the player.

With the action frozen, he asked the players to “bet” (not real money, of course, because that might get them suspended by the League!) on whatever horse they thought was going to win.

Naturally, most players “bet” on the lead horse, or one that was close to the front.

The farther back in the pack they went, the less interest they had in any  horse.

And then, once all bets were in, he hit "play."

And as the race progressed, from way back in the field - from a position that hadn’t interested any of the Patriots in his chances of winning -  came a horse ablaze,    passing the rest of the field and winning the race.

The Patriots were smart enough to see what their coach was trying to get  across to them.  (I don’t know how they finished that year, but it would be a great story if it turned out to be one of their Super Bowl seasons.)

That was all I could think of when I first watched the Kentucky Derby, and then, after having asked, “where  did that horse come from?” I watched the replay. The answer was astonishing: from WAY back.

If  you or I (or Bill Belichick) had been showing that replay and stopped the action halfway around and asked us to pick the winner,  I guarantee you that not one of us would have chosen Mage, the eventual winner. 




That's because, in the screenshot here, stopped roughly halfway around, Mage isn't even in the picture.  There are 11 horses on the screen - and he’s not one of them! But he's going to pass every one of them - and win the Kentucky Derby!

Think about that, if you're ever  0-3 and your kids are starting to think that the season’s already over.


*********** Great story, this Derby...

1. The Kentucky Derby was  Mage’s  fourth race.  Before Saturday,  he’d won only once.

2. Mage went off at 15-1.  That means if you bet $2 on him to win, you’d get back $32  - $30 plus your original $2 bet.

3.  The jockey, Javier Castellano,  was 45 years old.  That’s old for a jockey. He’s won thousands of races in his career, but until Saturday, he’d raced in 15 Kentucky Derbys and never won.  He wasn’t even supposed to ride Saturday, but the jockey assigned to Mage left for  a chance to ride one of the favorites.

4. Mage is owned not by some Arab oil billionaire, but by 391 different people - ordinary folks who, through the Commonwealth app, were able to buy shares in the horse for as little as $50. Obviously, that $50 wouldn’t win you a whole lot of money, but if you were at Churchill Downs Saturday, you’d have been as excited (if not as rich) as any billionaire horse owner. (Come on, admit it - if you own any shares in the Green Bay Packers, as I do, you’ve never once complained about the lack of a return on your “investment.”)


*********** I don’t know whether you’ve read about the head baseball coach at Alabama being fired for betting on his team’s game against LSU.  I have no idea what, exactly, he bet, or why, or where, but I do know that  with the sudden tidal wave of legal betting sweeping over the sports world, there are a lot of people concerned about its ramifications.

Schools and conferences  are working to get out in front of the situation, and they’ve engaged a variety of services that specialize in monitoring gambling action that in any way might involve their athletes, coaches and teams.

One of those firms is U,S, Integrity, which works with every major sports league and every sports book.

Its president, Matt Holt, said the idea of  Big Boys offering players large sums of money to fix games and then placing hundred-thousand-dollar bets is a fable - that the potential problem, while smaller, is far more widespread and likely to involve far more athletes.

“A big misnomer is that these match-fixing or game-manipulation or misuse of insider information schemes are big multi-million dollar schemes. That’s the biggest misnomer of all,” he told The Athletic. “Oftentimes, these are a couple thousand dollars with student-athletes who are in a vulnerable position at the time. It’s almost never some multi-million-dollar scheme. It’s almost insignificant money, like $1,500, $1,200 to manipulate certain portions of matches of the activity or to provide certain information not available to the public.”

And forget that old business about paying a player or a group of players to fix a game, or to ‘shave points.” That’s too complicated, too risky.

“You don’t have to fix a game. That’s passé,” said  Keith Whyte, executive director of the National Council of Problem Gambling.  “You just have to fix a particular play. It might be missing a shot, hitting a shot, getting a foul on a particular play, something that is utterly undetectable.”

The growth of “prop bets” (will the kicker miss this kick?) and in-game betting have created far more and varied opportunities for “little fixes”, whether it’s  a basketball player being offered $500 to miss a particular free  throw or a quarterback pocketing a few bills to throw an incompletion on a  given down.

Good luck putting a lid on that.


***********   Hugh,

The NFL is a lot of things, but I would be strongly surprised they mistreat the women under their employ.  Especially when Leticia James' name is associated with anything.

Wedge blocking is beneath the NFL so they have to make it "appear" to us peons it's a blocking scheme they employ in their world.

Your perspective on what Coach Prime is going through at Colorado just may be a catalyst for him and other college football coaches to start unionizing.  But they'll have to start reading your "news" first!

Yes.  I completely agree with your assessment of Jake Haener.

Yes.  I completely agree with your assessment of Stetson Bennett.

The situation at Sunlake HS is abominable.  Feel bad for what happened to the coach, but the HC should have NEVER let it get that far.  Once again, poor planning, judgement, and misbehavior on the part of the "adults" has NOT provided the youngsters a good example to follow.

Enjoy the weekend!

Joe Gutilla
Austin, Texas







***********  QUIZ ANSWER:  A native of Dallas, Davey O’Brien was an all-state quarterback at Woodrow Wilson High School.  (He HATED being called Davey, preferring "Dave" or "David" but he became famous as Davey.)

At TCU,  as a quarterback in Dutch Meyer’s innovative offense, for two years he backed up all-time great Sammy Baugh.  There was no rivalry between them, and the two men grew close, so close that years later Baugh would name one of his sons for his fellow quarterback.

Just 5-7 and 150 pounds, his lack of size did not handicap him either as a runner or a passer in Meyer’s offense, one that was unusual for its time but wouldn’t look at all out of place among today’s shotgun spread attacks. In his junior year, his first year as a starter, he threw for 947 yards and five touchdowns as TCU went 4-4-2, and he was named All-Southwest conference.

In his senior year, he threw for a then astounding 1,509 yards - a Southwest Conference record - and in 194 pass attempts he threw 19 touchdown passes and only four interceptions.  He also rushed for 462 yards, and on defense - they played two-ways back then - he intercepted six passes and returned them for 85 yards.

TCU went undefeated, outscoring opponents by 229-60, and  won the national championship - the only one in the school’s history so far.

His play earned him the Heisman Trophy.

He remains the smallest player ever to win it.

He was the first player to win the Heisman and Maxwell awards in the same year.

He was the first player from TCU - and from the Southwest Conference - to win the Heisman.

He was the first Heisman Trophy winner to also play on an undefeated,  national championship team in the same year.  Only five others have done it since: Johnny Lujack (1947), Matt Leinart (2004), Cam Newton (2010), Jameis Winston (2013) and Joe Burrow (2019).

When Tim Brown won the Heisman Trophy in 1987, Dallas’ Woodrow Wilson High School became the first high school to boast  two Heisman Trophy winners.

He also became the first Heisman Trophy winner to play in the NFL.

A geology major, he did not plan on playing pro football, but the Philadelphia Eagles changed his mind after drafting  him fourth overall in the NFL draft  and offering  him a then-enormous $12,000 signing bonus and a two-year contract.

He played well, but the Eagles sucked.   In his rookie season - 1939 - he led the league in passing yardage, breaking the league single-season mark set by Sammy Baugh, but the Eagles finished a sorry 1-9-1.

In his second year, he led the league in completions, but the Eagles finished the season 1-10, and that was enough football for him.

In his final game, against the Redskins and his old pal Sammy Baugh, he threw an unprecedented 60 times - a new NFL record - competing 33 for 316 yards.

In his two years in the NFL, he completed 223 passes in 478 attempts for 2,614 yards and 11 TDs.  Like his old TCU teammate Baugh, he also stood out on defense - intercepting four passes and returning them  for 92 yards - and as a punter, averaging 40.7 yards per kick.

After leaving the Eagles, he became an FBI agent - took a cut in pay from $10,000 a year to under $3,000, and stayed with the Bureau for ten years, the last five of them in Dallas.

In 1950 he left the FBI to go to work in land development with H.L. Hunt, then one of the world’s wealthiest man, and when Hunt’s son Lamar helped found the American Football League, he served as an advisor.

Among his many activities, he served as president of the TCU Alumni Association and as a deacon of his church.

In 1955 he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame and in 1956 into the Texas Sports Hall of Fame.

In the early years of the Dallas Cowboys’ existence, he served as color analyst in their telecasts.

According to his son, his loyalty to his old school never flagged, even during the down years.  “We used to always go to the games, and we went one time when the Frogs were losing 63 to zero,” he recalled. “My stepmother said, ‘David, we don’t have to stay until the end.’ My father replied, ‘I’ve stayed until the end when we were beating teams by three touchdowns. I can’t leave now when they’re getting drubbed.’

He passed away in 1977 - he was only 60 - and since 1981, an award in his name is given  every year to the best quarterback in college football.

This past year, the award went to a TCU quarterback,  Max Duggan.  Said our guy’s son and namesake, “I think out of all of the great TCU quarterbacks over the years, I think my father would’ve appreciated Max Duggan, more than any of them.  He’s modest, he’s always giving credit to his teammates, and mainly he just doesn’t quit.”


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING DAVEY O’BRIEN

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - AUSTIN, TEXAS
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
TOM DAVIS - SAN CARLOS, CALIFORNIA
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY





*********** Born in Ruston, Louisiana, he grew up in Oakland, and went to high school there (Oakland Tech).

After service in the Marine Corps, he played at Santa Ana JC. From there, he wound up at New Mexico State by pure chance, after offering  to drive JC teammate Bob Gaiters (who had been recruited by the Aggies)  to Las Cruces.   Once there,  our guy was noticed and also signed by  coach Warren Woodson, and over the next two years he and Gaiters  would combine to help propel the Aggies to the greatest run in their football  history.

Over the next four years, one Aggie runner or another would lead the nation in rushing: our guy was the first to do so, in 1959.  His buddy, Gaiters, was the second, in 1960;  and in  1961 and 1962,  Jim “Preacher” Pilot would make it three  and then four years in a row.)

They had good  talent. With future NFL quarterback Charley Johnson at the controls, the Aggies went 8-3 in 1959, and - at a time when there were only eight bowl games - they made it to the Sun Bowl, where they defeated North Texas, 28-3.  Our guy led the nation that year in rushing yardage, punt return yardage, and all-purpose yardage.  (And he punted and played safety on defense.)


The following year, the Aggies went undefeated, and returned to the Sun Bowl, where they defeated Utah State, 20-13.  It would be their last bowl appearance for another 57 years.

At the time, the Aggies  held the nation’s longest winning streak.  They came to the attention of the nation’s sportswriters when they defeated Arizona State, 27-24 (aided by our guy’s 98-yard touchdown return and his  70-yard run from scrimmage to set up the winning score), and they wound up ranked 17th in the nation.

This  time, his backfield running mate Gaiters led the nation in rushing, although our guy again led the nation in all-purpose yardage, and became the first player in school history to be named first-team All-American.

He was drafted third by the Los Angeles Rams, and went on to play seven seasons in the NFL, with the Rams, Redskins and Raiders.  For his career, he had 3,300 all-purpose yards.

After football, he was an actor and producer in Hollywood, best known  for his role in “The Longest Yard” (the original version) in which he played a character named Mawabe.

He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2010.

He died in December, 2017, just a week before New Mexico State would play in a bowl game for the first time since he played in the Sun Bowl, 57 years before.







FRIDAY,  MAY 5,  2023 - “Think of civilisation as a poorly-built ladder.   As you climb, each step that you used falls away.   A fall from a height of just a few rungs is fine.   Yet the higher you climb, the larger the fall.   Eventually, once you reach a sufficient height, any drop from the ladder is fatal.”  Luke Kemp, University of Cambridge

*********** YOU CAN BE SURE THERE’LL BE MORE TO THIS… A LOT MORE

FROM TODAY’S NEW YORK TIMES…

By Katherine Rosman and Ken Belson
May 4, 2023Updated 2:40 p.m. ET

The attorneys general of New York and California opened a joint investigation into allegations of workplace discrimination and pay inequities at the N.F.L. offices in both states in response to a report in The New York Times in February 2022 on the treatment of women who work for the league.

The announcement by Letitia James of New York and Rob Bonta of California comes a year after The Times interviewed more than 30 current and former N.F.L. employees who described a stifling and demoralizing corporate culture that drove some women to quit in frustration and which left many feeling brushed aside.

“No matter how powerful or influential, no institution is above the law, and we will ensure the N.F.L. is held accountable,” James said in a statement.

Bonta added: “We have serious concerns about the N.F.L.’s role in creating an extremely hostile and detrimental work environment.”

*********** THIS WEEKEND IN THE USFL!

SATURDAY:  AT FORD  FIELD (DETROIT)

1 PM EDT - (FOX) HOUSTON (1-2) VS PHILADELPHIA (1-2)
Philadelphia is dead last in rushing with 157 yards in three games.  Of course, you can’t expect much more when you only run the ball 19 times a gme and average 2.8 yards per rush.  It might work if they could protect their  passer Case Cookus, but they struggle to do so.  Houston has turned the ball over eight times in three games.

7:30 PM EDT - (NBC) MEMPHIS (0-3) VS MICHIGAN (2-1)
After winning its first two game, Michigan was thumped, last week 21-13, by New Jersey. Memphis, winless in its first two games, pulled ahead of Houston with two minutes to play, only to lose when it gave up a touchdown with 18 seconds to play.  Michigan is ranked number two on defense  in terms of yards allowed per game, and they’re a plus-5 on turnover margin.

SUNDAY:  AT CANTON, OHIO

3 PM EDT (NBC) NEW ORLEANS (3-0) VS NEW JERSEY (2-1) 
This one matches the USFL’s best offense (Now Orleans) against its best defense. New Orleans is first overall in yards per game (393) and in passing yards per game (264),  and second in rushing yards per game (129).   Typical of a Mike Riley-coached team, New Jersey leads the league in yards allowed per game and - very unusual for a pro team - Jersey has actually rushed for more yards per game - a league-leading 169 - than it has passed - 160.

6:30 PM EDT (FS1) BIRMINGHAM (2-1) VS PITTSBURGH (1-2)
Both teams are coming off upsets:  Birmingham was shocked by New Orleans last week, while Pittsburgh  did the shocking by beating Philadelphia.  If they return to form, Birmingham, the much better team, will soundly beat Pittsburgh.


*********** If you happen to watch the Philadelphia-Houston USFL game Saturday, look for Joel Dublanko, number 40 for Philadelphia.   Joel’s an Aberdeen, Washington kid.  He played linebacker on Cincinnati’s playoff team,  and he just signed with the Stars  and will likely play this weekend.   He had been  starting for San Antonio  in the XFL,  and was their defensive captain until an unfortunate  incident occurred between him and a teammate, and he wound up being released.  It’s never been reported but Aberdeen friends who know him and his family well told me what happened, and I have to say it sure was a pretty crummy way to treat a team leader.



*********** I noted on my Zoom clinic a couple of weeks ago that I swore I’d seen a couple of teams using what looked like wedge blocking.  Reader (and Zoom watcher) and longtime Double Winger Ed Campbell, of Land o’ Lakes, Florida, was kind enough to write and suggest that perhaps I didn’t see what I thought I did:

I think the concept you saw that reminded you of wedge blocking is a Zone Concept the big boys like to run called DUO. The key tell here is the RB. If the LB presses the gap, in the DUO scheme the RB reads him and bounces outside. If he doesn't press the gap, the RB will hit the hole. The OL double teams are taught to hold that double team block as long as possible and never chase the LB too early. Therefore, it does give the appearance of a Wedge like block because the OL is staying affixed to their double team.

Could be wrong...but...that's what it looks like to me.

Then, the QB can either read the backside DE, like on any zone read concept or look to throw the RPO, which is usually a glance route.
 
Ed-

You’re probably right about what I thought I saw.  Given the infrastructure they’re working with - stances, alignment, splits - it’s not easy to incorporate wedge blocking into a conventional pro scheme.

Staying with the Double Team is consistent with my teaching, because my experience with combo blocking has been that it is very hard to break a  young player of the desire to go for the linebacker way too early. We have to make sure we’ve eliminated the lineman so,  consistent with my blocking philosophy, we  stay stuck to the man we hit.   Ken Niumatololo said it best:   “linebackers make tackles; linemen make tackles for losses.”

I find that more often than not, with our tight splits, a good push on a defensive lineman by a double team will really complicate things for a linebacker.

Appreciate the observation and the comment!



*********** In reading about President Gerald Ford - a Michigan Man who played for the Wolverines and then  coached the freshman team at Yale while in law school, I came across something from Richard Norton Smith’s biography of Mr. Ford, “An Ordinary Man.”

According to author Smith, Mr. Ford gave this advice to his son, Steve, on how to go about making his high school football team:

Success is more likely, he said,  "if you can do one thing that nobody else can do.”

In this case, that one thing was snapping.  “There's  nobody who can snap for punts,” he said, “and I'm going to show you how.”

Dad knew what he was talking about.   For three years - two of them national championship seasons -  he had been a single-wing center at Michigan.

Dad’s advice - and coaching - worked.



***********   Deion Sanders  has got me wondering….

Departures and dismissals from the Colorado program - and the need to find players to replace them - means he’s going to be bringing in damn near 50 per cent of his team between now and the official start of practice.

Now if it turns out that he can do that - essentially bring in a new team and get it ready to play in four or  five or weeks - and have even a little success (which for a Colorado team that was 1-11 last year would be winning, say,  four games)…

Wouldn’t it make a lot of people question the need for  spring practice? 

For “offering” to eighth-graders? 

For getting meaningless commitments from high school juniors?

Nobody ever said Deion  was stupid.   Let the other chumps go through all that nonsense.  And then, once they’ve identified and  developed the players,  he’ll come in and scoop up the ones he needs.


*********** Don’t let Deion fool you - despite his spin that the Colorado players who entered the transfer portal following their spring game were rejects, not all of them were.    At last report, wide receiver  Montana Lemonious Craig had  offers from Tulane, UConn, USF, Liberty, Washington State, Arizona, Colorado State, Penn State, Oregon State, Auburn, Cincinnati, BYU, Mississippi State, California, San Diego State, West Virginia, Arkansas, and Purdue.


*********** Coach Tom Walls writes from Winnipeg, “Had a thought on the way into work. There are some interesting parallels between the emergence of e-sports as a ‘sport’ and transgenderism as a ‘gender.’”


*********** The Jackhammer is going to be a Niner.  Oregon State’s Jack Colletto went undrafted.  But he was quickly signed to an undrafted free agent contract by the 49ers, who I’m confident will find many uses for him, just as the Beavers did.


*********** Jake Haener isn’t  that tall.  He’s “just” 6 feet.  He’s not that fast.

But I’ve seen the guy play, and I’ve seen some of the things he can do to make a football team better.  He is a winner.

After transferring from Washington to Fresno State, he had to sit out a year under the old rules.  But in the last  two seasons, when he’s been in the lineup, the Bulldogs went 29-10. Here are some pertinent stats-

581 attempts - 7,082 yards.  That means an outstanding 12.2 yards per attempt.  To put that in perspective-
Otto Graham's 8.6 is the highest of an QB in the Hall of Fame.

581 attempts - 53 touchdowns - 9.1 per cent of pass attempts were touchdown passes

581 attempts - 12 interceptions - 2.1 per cent of pass attempts were intercepted

The Bulldogs were 10-4 last season.  They were 8-2  when he was in the lineup.  He was injured in midseason, and one of those losses, while he was sidelined, was against UConn.

After the big names of the college quarterback world were taken early  in the NFL draft, he was taken in the fourth round by the Saints, the sixth quarterback taken.

But - I know Fresno native Joe Gutilla will agree with me - he could be the surprise pick of the draft.



*********** Don’t bet against Stetson Bennett, either.

I know, I know. He’s not that tall.

He’s not that fast, either.

And I hear he doesn’t have that strong an arm.

I also hear he likes a cold one - or two, or three - every now and  then. Tsk, tsk.

But the Rams still took him with a fourth round draft pick, and I don’t think it’s a dumb pick.

No, he doesn’t have the natural ability to be an Elway, a Brady, a Roethlisberger, Drew Brees, Russell Wilson, Peyton Manning, Patrick Mahomes.  They’re spectacular talents,  guys without whom their teams would not have played in - or won - Super Bowls in the last 25 years.

But he’s  already shown that he can win  when he’s  surrounded by good players, and that potentially puts him a class with some very  good quarterbacks who may not have had elite talent, but managed to get their teams into Super Bowls.

But looking at the last 25 Super Bowls, there is an excellent chance that he can be as good as these guys, good quarterbacks  who won  Super Bowls:


Mathew Stafford
Nick Foles  - MVP
Joe Flacco  -MVP
Eli Manning -
Brad Johnson -
Trent Dilfer
Kurt Warner - MVP


And, yes, he can be as  good as these guys, too, quarterbacks good enough to get good teams into one of those Super Bowls:


Jimmy Garoppolo
Jared Goff
Matt Ryan
Colin Kaepernick
Rex Grossman
Matt Haselbeck
Jake Delhomme
Rich Gannon
Kerry Collins
Steve McNair
Chris Chandler
That ain’t too bad, if you ask me.



***********   It’s just plain sick when a coach molests a young player.  But is it any better when a college coach has an affair with one of her players? 

Miami of Ohio women’s basketball coach DeUnna Hendrix resigned Wednesday. The university issued a statement on the athletic department website. In the statement, she thanked the administration and said she looked forward “to the next phase of my career.”

Here’s what the administration did not disclose: The university had credible evidence that Hendrix had engaged in a romantic relationship with a player. In a string of 180 text messages sent in an 11-day span, Hendrix wrote “I love you” and “You’re my baby” and told the player: “I. Can’t. Wait. To. Squeeze. You.” In all, more than 30 of the messages were of an intimate nature.

The university had enough evidence that it put Hendrix on leave. The early days of the investigation found enough evidence to conclude she had violated the school’s policy regarding consensual relationships with a student. And so what did the university do next?

It allowed her to resign, while saying nothing about why she was resigning.

Without getting into any discussion of same-sex relationships, you sure have to admit that  they have great potential to cause problems on a team.


https://theathletic.com/4466077/2023/04/29/miami-ohio-deunna-hendrix/?source=user_shared_article




*********** When insanity seems to occupy every corner of our lives these days, it’s hard to expect football to escape…

By Joey Knight  Tampa Bay Times staff


Two assistant football coaches at Sunlake High are no longer with the program, and first-year head coach BJ Hall has been placed on leave, after a physical altercation involving the two assistants Monday at practice.

The Pasco County school district couldn’t provide names of the assistants, but Sunlake offensive coordinator Connor Ferst told the Tampa Bay Times he was blindsided by another assistant coach during an offense-versus-defense drill that got heated, suffering injuries that required medical attention.

Ferst said he resigned on the spot and intends to press charges against the other assistant, whose name hasn’t been released by authorities.

“I turned my back, and when I turned my back, 10 seconds later, (the other assistant) came over and sucker-punched me and jumped me in the back of the head,” Ferst said.

“He grabbed my hoodie around my head, like, hockey-style, so that I couldn’t see. Then he punched me in the top of the head, punched me in the back of the ear and numerously punched me all in my ribs. When he punched me on top of the head, he split my head open.

“Seventy kids saw it.”

The incident remains under investigation, and no arrests have been made yet, Pasco County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Amanda Hunter said.

“It was in front of students, who were going out for football,” school district spokesman Steve Hegarty said.

Ferst said he works for the county as one of its substitute teachers, whom Hegarty said are assigned through a third party. He remains on the list of eligible county substitutes.

The other coach is no longer associated with the school district, Hegarty said.

Hegarty said parents of the players were notified by the school district the following day. Hall remains on leave while the school district looks into how he handled the incident.

“We want to make sure that he handled it appropriately, because he was present at the time,” Hegarty said. “And when two adults have a physical altercation, I guess there’s several different ways that you could handle it, some more appropriate than others.”


Ferst, a former student-assistant at Temple University who also served as offensive coordinator at Webber International University (an NAIA program) in eastern Polk County, said the incident was sparked during an intense two-minute drill between the Sunlake offensive and defensive units Monday.

“At practice, defense and offense, we talk trash, everything, so forth and so what. It’s competition, it’s football,” Ferst said.

“But on Monday evening, the trash talk got out of hand after the offense and defense were going at it. We did the two-minute drill, and the offense scored in the two-minute drill, and (the other assistant) went and elevated his trash talk to saying, ‘Kill yourself, kill yourself, kill yourself,’ in front of a bunch of kids.

“So I went over to (the assistant), and said, ‘Are you ... kidding me?! We’ve got 14- and 15-year-old kids out here. Act right, grow up.’”

At that point, Ferst said, the other assistant jumped him from behind. Ferst said he was taken to a nearby urgent-care center by his girlfriend. He suffered a laceration atop his head, a contusion behind his left ear, cuts and scrapes on face, back and abdomen, and multiple bruised ribs.

Monday’s incident marked the formal start of spring football practice for Florida high schools, though some requested (and were granted) permission to begin a week earlier.

It also continued a volatile stretch for the Seahawks program, on its third coach since the start of the 2022 season. Allen Suber was dismissed two games into last season and was replaced by interim coach John Gilmore as Sunlake finished 1-9. Hall, who played professionally in the Arena Football League, was hired in December after three seasons as an assistant at Zephyrhills Christian.

https://www.tampabay.com/sports/high-schools/2023/05/04/sunlake-altercation-football-bj-hall-steve-hegarty/



The article leaves a lot of questions unanswered, but there are a few things that I feel competent to comment on:

1. “Seventy kids saw it.”

Disgusting. Coaches must NEVER even so much as DISAGREE in front of the kids.

2. “At practice, defense and offense, we talk trash, everything…” 

I see.  In practice, we act like jackasses.  But in games, it’s different.  In games, our kids are very disciplined and we’re VERY careful not to do it because we don’t want any unsportsmanlike conduct penalties. Anybody believe that?

3. “an intense two-minute drill between the Sunlake offensive and defensive units.”

I don’t like the way this one sounds and I’m not sure what good is going to some from such a drill.  I do know, though, of  the danger of splitting a team down the middle, turning one team into two rival groups  that are sure certain to point fingers at each other when things go wrong - as they always do.

4. ‘Are you ... kidding me?! We’ve got 14- and 15-year-old kids out here. Act right, grow up.’” 

Good advice, but it’s way too late.  and the head coach should have been the one that said it. (See #5)


5. “Hall (the head coach) remains on leave while the school district looks into how he handled the incident.”


This is way too easy (if they’d like to pay my expenses and my fee as an expert witness).\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

(1) He blew it much earlier, when he hired at least one of those guys. There had to be something in the background of a guy who will demonstrate  so little self-control and respect for the responsibility he was given.  What does it matter how much football a guy knows if he comes up short in the character department?


(2) He obviously didn’t devote enough time, effort or thought to creating a team, starting first with his coaching staff, and making sure that his expectations were clear.  Building a team out of a bunch of kids is too big a job to allow assistant coaches’ egos or tempers to interfere. If I may quote Bo Schembechler: “Team, team, team.”


(3) He evidently condoned  “trash talking,” and allowed the creation of rival factions (offense vs defense) - then pitted the factions against each other in an “intense two minute drill.” (What could possibly go wrong?)

*********** Hugh,

Enjoyed that video interview of a very young Coach Wyatt.  I'm assuming your team won that game?  Was that before or after Finland?

I'm betting that Arlington will give DC a better game than expected.  A close game would provide the "Rock" some relief he could use.

I spent some time watching the NFL Draft.  Best part was when the Saints drafted QB Jake Haener of Fresno State to be a backup to starting QB Derek Carr also of Fresno State!

Roanoke College's entry into Division III football comes as a surprise.  It is considered to be one of the most "woke" liberal liberal arts colleges in the country.  They'll play in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference against the likes of Ferrum, Randolph-Macon, Washington and Lee, Guilford, Greensboro, Averett, Bridgewater, and Hampden-Sydney.


Have a great week!

Joe Gutilla
Austin, Texas








The 1934 Michigan Wolverines.  Our guy is Number 61.  The player to the left, Number 48, was the team MVP -  he would one day become President of the United States.



*********** QUIZ:  I won’t lie - this one is tough.  I’ll bet you never heard of Willis Ward.  I hadn’t, and I think I’m pretty good where football history is concerned.  But take the time to investigate - it’ll do you good, just as it did me,  to learn about him.

I only came across his name     while reading an article recently about former President Gerald R. Ford.  President Ford, as many people know, was a three-year football letterman on the University of Michigan football team,  and his association  with this teammate would have a great impact on him and on his later career as a politician.

As a high schooler in Detroit, our guy was  an outstanding athlete in both football and track. In track,   he was   the city champion in both the low and high hurdles, in addition to setting a national high school record in the high jump.

Originally intending to attend Dartmouth, he was persuaded to attend Michigan by its head football coach, Harry Kipke, who assured him that he would be given the opportunity to play football there.  (It was not a given: he was black, and Michigan hadn’t had a black letter winner in football since 1890, a time when they didn’t even have  a coach.)

When he went out for football his sophomore year, there were more than a few people upset.  Not entirely because he was black, though - there were many track fans who didn’t want him getting hurt playing football.

He already shown what he could do in track as a freshman, competing in the high jump, of course, but also in the broad jump (as it as called then) and in both high and low hurdles and every sprint event from the 440 on down.  (And for good measure, he put the shot.)

But he wanted to play football, and in spring practice, the story goes, in order to find out whether he had toughness to go with his  size (6-1, 185) and athletic ability, Coach Kipke  told his veterans to “show no mercy” to the newcomer.  “If by the end of the week he doesn’t turn in  his uniform,” said the coach,  “then I know I’ve got a great player.”

He  didn’t turn in his uniform.   In 1932,  his sophomore year, he started four games at end as the Wolverines went 8-0, outscoring opponents 123-13 and winning the national championship.

In 1933, he started all eight games and was named honorable mention All-America at end, as Michigan won its second straight national title.

In December of that  year, after having starred on Michigan’s second national championship  team in football and having run 9.6 in the 100-yard dash, high jumped 6 feet 7-1/2, and long jumped 24 feet in track, he finished a close second in the voting for Big Ten Athlete of the Year.

After two straight national titles - and four straight Big Ten championships,  Michigan’s football success came to an abrupt end.   His senior season, 1934, proved to be one of the worst in school history.   The Wolverines finished 1-7.  They were shut out in five of their games, and  they scored just two touchdowns the entire season, one of them via a punt return.

The one win?  A 9-2 victory at home over Georgia Tech.  A game he didn’t play in.

Those were still the days of segregation in the South,  and when the game was originally scheduled, Georgia Tech football coach and AD Bill Alexander had made it clear that although the game was to be played at Michigan, his team would not take the field if our guy was allowed to play.

As the game neared, Alexander reminded Michigan again of the conditions, and word of Georgia Tech’s threatened action spurred petitions and protests - nothing like today’s riot-like “protests,” it should be pointed out. An editorial in the student newspaper said, “If the athletic department forgot it had (him) on its football team when it scheduled a game with Georgia Tech, it was astonishingly forgetful;  if it was conscious of (his) being on the team but scheduled the game anyway, it was extraordinarily stupid."

Finally, the Michigan athletic department agreed that out of professional courtesy to their guests  from Georgia Tech but also out of a perceived need to protect their player (according to reliable sources Georgia Tech players had threatened to kill our guy if he were to step onto the field of play), he would not play in the game.

Here’s where Jerry Ford comes into the story.  He and our guy had been roommates on road trips, and in his autobiography, written years later, Ford recalled  that, believing the decision to play to be “morally wrong,” he had talked with his father about quitting the team in protest.   But he also recalled talking to his black roommate, and remembered,  “He urged me to play. 'Look,' he said, 'the team's having a bad year. We've lost two games already and we probably won't win any more. You've got to play Saturday. You owe it to the team.' I decided he was right. That Saturday afternoon, we hit like never before and beat Georgia Tech 9–2."

According to one account, our guy sat in a booth in the stadium press box and watched the game; according to another, he simply stayed in his fraternity house for the entire  time; and according to a third, he was sent by Kipke to scout Wisconsin.

It may have been a win, but it was not Michigan’s proudest moment.

(1934 also happened to be one of Georgia Tech’s worst teams in its history; after winning their opening game, the Yellow Jackets lost nine in a row to finish 1-9.)

Playing end, left halfback and right halfback in Michigan’s single-wing attack, he accounted for all of Michigan’s points that season (other than those scored against Georgia Tech), rushing 24 yards on a reverse against Illinois to score Michigan’s only offense touchdown of the season, and kicking two field goals against  Northwestern.

His athletic career at Michigan was exceptional - he won six varsity letters in football and track, and twice beat the immortal Jesse Owens in indoor track competition.  In 1981 he was inducted into the University of Michigan Athletic Hall of Honor.

The Georgia Tech incident left him scarred emotionally, and he failed to qualify for the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, saying later,  “That Georgia Tech game killed me. I frankly felt they would not let black athletes compete. Having gone through the Tech experience, it seemed an easy thing for them to say 'Well, we just won't run 'em if Hitler insists.'"

After graduation, Mr. Ward earned a law degree, and worked for a time for Ford Motor Company.

He became active in Republican politics and supported George Romney’s successful campaign for  governor.

After Romney appointed him to the Public Service Commission, he eventually served as its chairman, and later won election to a position as judge in Wayne County (Detroit).

Interviewed many years later about the Georgia Tech incident, Mr. Ward recalled,  "It was like any bad experience - you can't forget it, but you don't talk about it. It hurts.”


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING WILLIS WARD

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOHN IRION - ARGYLE, NEW YORK
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - AUSTIN, TEXAS
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY 





***********  QUIZ:  A native of Dallas, he was an all-state quarterback at Woodrow Wilson High  School.

At TCU,  as a quarterback in Dutch Meyer’s innovative offense, for two years he backed up all-time great Sammy Baugh.  There was no rivalry between them, and the two men grew close, so close that years later Baugh would name one of his sons for his fellow quarterback.

Just 5-7 and 150 pounds, his lack of size did not handicap him either as a runner or a passer in Meyer’s offense, one that was unusual for its time but wouldn’t look at all out of place among today’s shotgun spread attacks. In his junior year, his first year as a starter, he threw for 947 yards and five touchdowns as TCU went 4-4-2, and he was named All-Southwest conference.

In his senior year, he threw for a then astounding 1,509 yards - a Southwest Conference record - and in 194 pass attempts he threw 19 touchdown passes and only four interceptions.  He also rushed for 462 yards, and on defense - they played two-ways back then - he intercepted six passes and returned them for 85 yards.

TCU went undefeated, outscoring opponents by 229-60, and  won the national championship - the only one in the school’s history so far.

His play earned him the Heisman Trophy

He remains the smallest player ever to win it.

He was the first player to win the Heisman and Maxwell awards in the same year.

He was the first player from TCU - and from the Southwest Conference - to win the Heisman.

He was the first Heisman Trophy winner to also play on an undefeated,  national championship team in the same year.  Only five others have done it since: Johnny Lujack (1947), Matt Leinart (2004), Cam Newton (2010), Jameis Winston (2013) and Joe Burrow (2019).

When Tim Brown won the Heisman Trophy in 1987, Dallas’ Woodrow Wilson High School became the first high school to boast  two Heisman Trophy winners.

He also became the first Heisman Trophy winner to play in the NFL.

A geology major, he did not plan on playing pro football, but the Philadelphia Eagles changed his mind after drafting  him fourth overall in the NFL draft  and offering  him a then-enormous $12,000 signing bonus and a two-year contract.

He played well, but the Eagles sucked.   In his rookie season - 1939 - he led the league in passing yardage, breaking the league single-season mark set by Sammy Baugh, but the Eagles finished a sorry 1-9-1.

In his second year, he led the league in completions, but the Eagles finished the season 1-10, and that was enough football for him.

In his final game, against the Redskins and his old pal Sammy Baugh, he threw an unprecedented 60 times - a new NFL record - competing 33 for 316 yards.

In his two years in the NFL, he completed 223 passes in 478 attempts for 2,614 yards and 11 TDs.  Like his old TCU teammate Baugh, he also stood out on defense - intercepting four passes and returning them  for 92 yards - and as a punter, averaging 40.7 yards per kick.

After leaving the Eagles, he became an FBI agent - took a cut in pay from $10,000 a year to under $3,000, and stayed with the Bureau for ten years, the last five of them in Dallas.

In 1950 he left the FBI to go to work in land development with H.L. Hunt, then one of the world’s wealthiest man, and when Hunt’s son Lamar helped found the American Football League, he served as an advisor.

Among his many activities, he served as president of the TCU Alumni Association and as a deacon of his church.

In 1955 he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame and in 1956 into the Texas Sports Hall of Fame.

In the early years of the Dallas Cowboys’ existence, he served as color analyst in their telecasts.

According to his son, his loyalty to his old school never flagged, even during the down years.  “We used to always go to the games, and we went one time when the Frogs were losing 63 to zero,” he recalled. “My stepmother said, ‘David, we don’t have to stay until the end.’ My father replied, ‘I’ve stayed until the end when we were beating teams by three touchdowns. I can’t leave now when they’re getting drubbed.’

He passed away in 1977 - he was only 60 - and since 1981, an award in his name is given  every year to the best quarterback in college football.

This past year, the award went to a TCU quarterback,  Max Duggan.  Said our guy’s son and namesake, “I think out of all of the great TCU quarterbacks over the years, I think my father would’ve appreciated Max Duggan, more than any of them.  He’s modest, he’s always giving credit to his teammates, and mainly he just doesn’t quit.”

TUESDAY,  MAY 2,  2023 -“Activism is a way for useless people to feel important, even if the consequences of their activism are counterproductive for those they claim to be helping and damaging to the fabric of society as a whole.”   Thomas Sowell

*********** It’s always sad when you lose a former neighbor… a friend… a respected rival… a  fellow coach… the dad of a player.  That was Gene Moore.

On Saturday my wife and I attended a “Celebration of Life” to remember Gene, a longtime coach of football and track in the Evergreen School District, in Vancouver.

Gene and his wife, Joan, were neighbors when we first moved West, and our girls used to babysit their kids - their daughter, Melissa and their three boys, Kenny, Steve and Ryan. They were a really nice family.

Ten years or so later, Gene and I wound up coaching against each other.  I had pretty good luck against him, because I had good kids - and I had the Delaware wing-T.  We were one of a handful of teams running it, and for us it was the real equalizer.

And then, in 1988, Gene and I were both assistants at Evergreen High on the  staff of a young coach named Jon Eagle.  It had once been Gene’s job, but Jon didn’t have any qualms about hiring the former coach, nor did he need to - I never heard Gene say anything that might have sounded remotely like he was undermining the new guy.

He just went about his job as a true pro, and he was really good with the kids.

He also had a couple of pretty good ballplayers in the family.   I‘ll never forget the time my A Back broke through a hole and cut back and was on his way to a 70-yard touchdown, when out of nowhere came Steve Moore to run him down -  and force a fumble on the one-yard-line!

I coached Ryan when he was a sophomore, and you could tell he was going to be special. He had the Moore speed, intelligence and competitiveness, and while we had a very good veteran team, he managed to earn a starting job in the secondary (which I was coaching).

He reminded me Saturday of the time he’d really been beaten badly, and after the game I’d come to him and said, simply, “You’ll never forget that,” meaning that he would always be conscious of how it had felt to get beat.

He went on to play at Eastern Washington.

I saw the Moore family Saturday for the  first time in maybe 25 years, and all sorts of emotions came back.

It was sadness, sure, but it was also admiration for a life well-lived - a man who with his wife had built a great family  and as a teacher and coach had reached a lot of kids in ways that only  a teacher/coach can.

The pastor sent us off with this,  from 2nd Timothy, verse 4, chapter 7:

I  have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:

Gene was a great representative of our coaching profession - a solid, sound coach and leader of young men, and a  good man in every respect.

For a trip back in time, check out these pregame interviews of Gene and me before we met back in 1987 -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBarqSegzio


*********** A great Gene Moore story -   His son Steve recalled the time when he was in junior high and his mom had found a cheap pair of track shoes at a sale.  They were black with a silver swoosh and they had orange shoelaces.  He hated them, but he was a Moore and he  didn’t dare complain.

Finally, after several races, he sheepishly confessed to Dad that he didn’t like his shoes.

“Let me ask you something,” Dad said.  “Do they fit okay?”

“Yes,” Steve answered.

“Do they grab the track okay,” Dad asked.

“Well, yes,” said Steve.

“Did you win the race?”

“Well, yeah,” he said (telling us in the audience that he wanted to say, “Duh.”)

“Well then,” said Dad, “Looks like a lot of other parents wasted a lot of money buying their kids track shoes."


*********** THIS WEEKEND IN THE XFL


SATURDAY: SOUTH TITLE GAME

ARLINGTON AT HOUSTON -“A match made in heaven between a team that’s no better than fourth best in the XFL against a team that has no business even being in  this game.”

Arlington 26, Houston 11.  Boy, is that championship game going to be a doozy.  But give my boy, Arlington QB Luis Perez, a lot of credit.  They brought him in a couple of weeks ago and he’s made all the difference.

SUNDAY: NORTH TITLE GAME

SEATTLE AT DC    “This  could be a  good one.”   Kill me.

Ha. It was a decisive win by 37-21 DC over a Seattle team that looked and played  like a bunch of misfits.

DC is the better team and proved it all season.
 
DC at least managed to rush for 82 yards.  Seattle’s “offense” consisted of 48 pass attempts for an average of 6.1 yards per attempt, and - hold still - 13 yards rushing on five carries, three of which were by the quarterback when he was forced to run.  Ugh.


*********** THIS WEEKEND IN THE USFL

SATURDAY:

NEW ORLEANS 45,  BIRMINGHAM 31 - “Birmingham looks like the class of the league so far”
Not no more.  New Orleans took ‘em apart.  Their 34-year-old QB, McLeod Bethel-Thompson, completed  20 of 28 for 283 yards and  3 TDs.

But get this:  NOLA running back Wes Hills (from Wildwood, New Jersey by way of Delaware and then Slippery Rock) carried 34 times for 191 yards and 3 TDs. The guy is a lot of fun to watch.

And when was the last time any professional team had a guy with more carries than its  quarterback’s pass attempts?

HOUSTON 30, MEMPHIS  26 -    “I think Houston will win.”
Memphis took a 26-23 lead with 1:59 left, but Houston came back to win it with :18 left.
There was a nasty post-game exchange between Memphis coach Todd Haley and Houston coach

SUNDAY - BOTH GAMES AT DETROIT (FORD  FIELD)

PITTSBURGH 21, PHILADEPHIA 13  “Pittsburgh is a really bad football team.”
A really bad football team beat Philadelphia.  What does that say about Philadelphia?

Really ugly game. Pittsburgh’s kicker made five field goals. They finally scored a touchdown - their first of the year - with 1:12 left in the third quarter.

Philadelphia “rushed” 12 times for 18 yards. For some unknown reason, though, they spent the entire second period trying to “establish a running game.”  It didn’t work.

NEW JERSEY 28, MICHIGAN 13   “Michigan is fun to watch.”  Not this time.     
Damn shame for the league. Michigan had a decent crowd and laid an egg.  So, too, did FOX, which did things on the cheap and pulled the COVID-era stunt  of having the announcers do it remote.  It was that obvious. Between the remote announcers and the repetitive promos of wrestling shows, the whole telecast sucked.

But Jersey didn’t.  The Generals jumped out to a 14-3 lead in the first and led, 21-10 at the half.  Their secondary played exceptionally well, holding Michigan’s two passers to 163 yards on 40 attempts - an anemic 4.1 yards per attempt.
Jersey QB De’Andre Johnson completed 10 of 15 for 180 yards and two TDs, and carried 10 times for 98 yards and a TD.


***********  Those of us watching the NFL draft  heard repeatedly that it was the first time that the first two players selected in the draft - Bryce Young and C. J. Stroud - were black quarterbacks.  Okay.

But based on what we heard from both of the players, why, wondered  Armando Salguero in  The Outkick, didn’t anybody ask either of the players about this being  possibly “the first born-again Christian quarterbacks” to go number one and number two in the draft?


***********  For shame, said Deion.  Deion, once the self-styled savior of black college football, looked down from his perch on Mount Olympus to congratulate his former Jackson State player Isaiah Bolden, the only HBCU player taken in the draft (seventh round, Patriots).

But he couldn’t pass up a chance to take a  shot at the other 31 teams, saying he was “ashamed” of them for not finding “draft value in ALL of the talented HBCU players.”

Now, look, Deion - there was a separate combine held for HBCU players, and while we all know that NFL talent scouting is an inexact art, it’s not as if the other 31 teams conspired to overlook “ALL the talented HBCU players.”

I know he’d  like to play the racial angle, but we all know that until they get orders from the League offices to do otherwise, NFL teams will continue their policy of drafting the best man available when it’s their time to pick.
 

***********  Roanoke College, in western Virginia (not to be confused with West Virginia),  has announced that it will be starting a Division III football program.


***********  I’m beginning to hear, from people who show  little respect for our founding document, that children have some supposed “right to privacy,” which is why their parents must not be allowed to learn that their kids are playing “change my sex” at school.

First of all, there is no such thing in the Constitution as a “right to privacy.”  Nice try.

Second of all, if there were such a thing as a right to privacy, wouldn’t parents be able to abuse kids, without any  state agency sticking its nose into their business?

So how come the same school personnel who are required by most states to report anything hinting at parental abuse of children, are permitted to encourage/facilitate gender experimentation - or whatever you choose to call it - unknown to parents, when doing so could (possibly) later traumatize a kid just as sexual abuse does?


*********** There aren’t many things  more degrading than repeatedly sticking   the camera in the face of some guy who’s been sitting in the NFL draft’s green room,  as out on the stage pick after pick goes by and he’s not taken.


*********** The great Samuel Johnson, one of the wisest and wittiest men who ever lived, was quoted by his biographer, James Boswell, as saying, “Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.”

We’ve all seen what he was referring to - whenever a wrongdoer is cornered, he wraps himself in the flag.

Johnson lived 300 years ago, but his wisdom is as fresh as today.

He could easily have been commenting on Roger Goodell, who not so long ago supported kneeling during the national anthem as a means of protest, but then at the draft tried cleansing himself by calling out the troops for one appearance after another during the NFL draft, even as, at one point,  “God Bless the USA” played in the background.

You don’t suppose, do you, that  Johnson knew Goodell in an earlier life?


***********   From the way they introduced the assorted former players who read off the different teams’ draft picks, you’d think that everyone who’s ever played pro football was an “NFL legend”


***********  In their television of the first round of the NFL draft, ABC, ESPN and the NFL Network combined for 11.29 million viewers, up 13 per cent from last year’s 10 million.

The NFL Network’s viewership was actually down12 per cent.


***********  We all know, of course, that  the Minnesota Vikings had a defensive line nicknamed  the “Purple People Eaters.”

I hate to be the kind of guy who destroys cherished myths, but in a September, 1964 issue of Sports Illustrated - their annual issue in which they’d preview the upcoming football season, they wrote about the University of Washington Huskies and their defensive unit.

(In that time of limited substitution, LSU’s Paul Dietzel had come up with the idea of having a first team of two-way players, then a team of players who were better offensive players and one made up of players who were better on defense.  He called his defense unit the “Chinese Bandits,” because a then-popular coming strip named “Terry and the Pirates” had  claimed that Chinese Bandits were the most ferocious people on earth.)

Big as life, S-I wrote about the Purple People Eaters:

In the line, All-America Rick Redman diagnoses plays, bats down passes and generally constitutes a one-man uprising, but Center Fred Forsberg and Guard Mike Otis are also sturdy linebackers. Other hubs of a fearsome seven-spoke defense are Guard Koll Hagen and Tackles Jerry Knoll and Jim Norton. Add to this lineup the Purple People Eaters (purple-jerseyed defensive platooners), 11 good transfers, substantial sophomore succor and you have the reasons Washington should play in its fourth Rose Bowl in six years.

Remember, that was 1964, just the Vikings’ fourth year of existence.

1964 was Carl Eller’s rookie season.

They acquired Gary Larsen in 1965.

Alan Page didn’t come along until 1967.

Sorry to burst any bubbles.

Actually, it isn't going to make a bit of difference.  if I asked who popularized “Blue Suede Shoes,” how many people would answer Carl Perkins and how many would say Elvis Presley?


https://vault.si.com/.amp/vault/1964/09/21/a-husky-reign


***********   I watched a black guy named Brandon Wright punting for the USFL Memphis Showboats, and I heard someone mention Greg Coleman as being the “first black punter in the NFL.”

Hmmm, I thought.  So I dug, and  I found this, buried in an article online: “As the first black punter in the NFL in 1977, former Minnesota Viking Greg Coleman…”

https://www.sportscasting.com/are-there-any-black-kickers-in-the-nfl/

Bad writing, of course, because taken literally, that writing means that he was the first black punter in the NFL in 1977 only.

But more to the point, it’s just not a fact.

Way before there was Greg Coleman,  there was the great Horace Gillom.  He should be remembered and honored for his days as the punter  for  the Cleveland Browns, during  their days in the old AAFC and  then their early years in the NFL.

He was not just the first black punter; he was one of the first black men to play professional football, period.  Say what you will about Browns’ coach Paul Brown, he was colorblind where talent was concerned.

Gillom was not a chance discovery.  He went all the way back with Paul Brown to the days when he played  for Brown at Massillon (Ohio) High.

Horace Gillom really should be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame,  if only because of his two big contributions to today’s kicking strategy:  He needed an extra step to get maximum power, but his leg was so strong that he could  stand farther back from center - the distance we now see throughout football  - and still get the same distance as other kickers while reducing the chance of a punt being blocked;  and he would kick the ball so high that he introduced the concept of “hang time” as being as important as distance.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horace_Gillom


***********   Giannis Antetokounmpo is a pretty good basketball player.  And as a Greek, in putting his Milwaukee Bucks’ playoff loss in perspective, he seems to have inherited the wisdom of the great philosophers:

Do you get a promotion every year in your job? No, right? So every year you work is a failure? Yes or no. No? Every year you work, you work towards something, towards a goal, which is to get a promotion, to be able to take care of your family, provide a house for them, or take care of your parents. You work towards a goal – it’s not a failure. It’s steps to success.

“There’s always steps to it. Michael Jordan played 15 years, 6 championships. The other nine years were a failure? That’s what you were telling me. Why do you ask me that question? It’s the wrong question.

“There’s no failure in sports. There’s good days, bad days. Some days you were able to be successful, some days you’re not. Some days it’s your turn, some days it’s not your turn. And that’s what sports is about. You don’t always win. Some other people are going to win. And this year, somebody else is going to win. We’re going to come back next year and try to be better.”

We sure could have used him when the numbskulls were taking apart Bud Grant and Marv Levy because they “Couldn’t Win the Big One.”


***********   Wisdom from the war on common sense, by   Madeleine Kearns  in National Review

On a recent episode of Dr. Phil, Kara Dansky, the author of The Abolition of Sex: How the ‘Transgender’ Agenda Harms Women and Girls, was asked if by “women” she also meant “trans women.”

Dansky replied with great aplomb: “I don’t mean men. I mean women.” A trans-identifying opponent replied: “So you think trans women are men?”

“It’s not a matter of opinion,” Danksy said calmly. “We’re talking about the material reality of biological sex, which is grounded in science and reality. Women are female, and men are male. And it’s okay to say so. It really is.”

https://www.nationalreview.com/2023/04/theres-no-appeasing-transgender-activists/


***********   Headline in our local paper:

“Avs Cogliano suffers broken neck, out for game 7”

Geez- what a wussy.  Okay - I guess I can see how he might miss a  game with a broken neck.   But how about if they win the series - can he play in the first  game?  If they tape it really good?



***********   The Boston Bruins had a record-setting season, with 65 wins. And they just lost their opening playoff series to the Florida Panthers, 4 games to 3.  That was bad enough, but they were up, 3 games to 1, then lost three straight.

It’s not as strange as it sounds:  the last ten NHL teams with the best regular-season records have all failed to make it to the Stanley Cup Finals.

In fact, only one of them has made it past the second round.

A study has shown that in the NBA, in a best-of-seven series, the better team wins 80 per cent of the time.

To match the NBA’s better-team-advances predictability,  the study says…

NFL teams would have to play a “best of 11” series

NHL teams would have to play a “best of 51” series

MBL teams would have to play a “best of 75” series


This is a pretty doggone good article  on the study, and its conclusions - and recommendations:

https://statsbylopez.netlify.app/post/part-ii-randomness-of-series/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_axiossports&stream=top


*********** Morning, Coach:

Today's question was exceptionally easy: Chad Pennnington. The only part of his bio I didn't know was that he coaches the Sayre School. I noticed that he lives in Woodford County, probably Versailles. Wondering if he's tried Woodford Reserve?

I wasn't as much of a Duke fan as I was Dick Groat fan. I followed his every game. I grew up thinking he was one of the coolest guys on earth. There weren't many like him and Gene Conley at the time.

Sharp salute to Doc Hinger, a man loyal and true to the core. After getting to know him a little, I consider him a friend and all-round great human being.

You took some words out of my mouth. Every time I hear the expression "assigned at birth" I become an aggressive a-hole. I heard it most recently on ESPN, but hardly a day passes you don't hear it somewhere.

Now it's 'We coming' and 'You going'. See ya. I had read the Andy Staples article and agree with his conclusion, which falls in the "Be careful what you wish for" category.

I'm suddenly envious of Nebraska football, even understanding, as you've said, that Rhule's past suggests the record won't be good in year one.


John Vermillion                   
St Petersburg, Florida


***********   Hugh,

ND suffers another loss to the portal.  But wait, was it really?  According to insiders the loss of RB Logan Diggs may be a disappointment but not necessarily a surprise.  Those close to the program say Diggs (from NOLA) was never comfortable being in South Bend).  Don't be surprised if he ends up back home, in LA, and playing for his old coach Brian Kelly.  And don't be surprised to see the Irish have Chris Tyree flip back over to the offense.

NFL Draft:  Sorry to see Will Levis abandoned in the green room during round one.  I personally felt he was a better prospect than Anthony Richardson.  Richardson is a stud athlete, but a prototypical NFL QB?  Time will tell.

Last I checked my wife (a woman - a FEMALE) gave birth to our two daughters (both girls - FEMALES).  All three still consider themselves to be women - FEMALES!  Whew, thank God!

Gave up on Mickey D's a LONG, LONG time ago, and from all accounts won't be visiting one soon.

Enjoy the weekend!

Joe Gutilla
Austin, Texas








**********   QUIZ ANSWER: Chad Pennington was the son of a high school football coach. Originally, basketball was his best sport, and while playing quarterback in high school in Knoxville, he drew interest from only a handful of smaller football programs.   It was only after attending a camp at Marshall - where his parents had both gone to school - that he was offered a scholarship there.

Although expecting to be redshirted his freshman year, he was shoved into a starting role after injuries sidelined every quarterback ahead of him, and wound up leading the Herd to a place in the D I-AA (now FCS) championship game.  He earned the conference Freshman of the Year award.

After taking a redshirt  year,  he returned to lead the Herd, now in their first season at the I-A (FBS)  level, to the MAC championship.  Teaming with receiver Randy Moss, he threw for 3817 yards and 42 touchdowns - 20 of them to Moss.

In his junior year, he threw for 3,830 yards  and 28 touchdowns, leading Marshall to a 12-1 record and a win over Louisville in the Motor City Bowl, where he was named MVP.

His senior year, he led the Herd to a 13-0 record and another win in the Motor City Bowl.  He was the MAC Player of the Year and the winner of the Sammy Baugh Award, given to the nation’s top passer.

He was an Academic All-American and a Rhodes Scholarship finalist.

He was that year’s winner of the William Campbell Trophy - often called the  “Academic Heisman” - given by the National Football Foundation “to the American college football player with the best combination of academics, community service, and on-field performance.”

Taken by the Jets in the first round - the 18th pick overall - he was the first quarterback selected in the 2000 NFL Draft.

In his first two seasons he played in only three games, but in his third season, when the Jets got off to a 1-4 start, he was inserted in place of Vinny Testaverde, and took the Jets to a 9-7  finish.  He threw for 3,320 yards and 22 touchdowns, and led the NFL with a 104.2 quarterback rating.

He was sidelined for most of the next season with a fractured hand suffered in the Jets’ final preseason game; the season after that, despite a rotator cuff problem, he took the Jets to a 10-6 season.

But after post-season rotator cuff surgery, he missed the entire next season.

Returning to form in 2006,  he earned the NFL’s Comeback of the Year Award after throwing for 3,352 yards and 17 touchdowns.

Injuries and a 1-7 start by the Jets in 2007 led to his benching, and after the Jets acquired Brett Favre prior to the 2008 season, they released him. 

He signed with the Dolphins, and after earning their starting job,  he went on to have one of his best seasons as a pro, throwing for 3,653 yards and 19 touchdowns, taking the Dolphins from 1-15 the year before to 11-5,  and  earning his SECOND NFL Comeback Player of the Year Award.

But three games into the 2009 season, he reinjured the shoulder on which by now he had had several operations, and missed the rest of the season.

In 2010 he played  just one game and reinjured the shoulder.

Missing the next season, he finally retired.

After 11 seasons in the NFL, his career  stats were 17,823 yards passing and 102 touchdowns.

Since  retirement he has remained active with the NFL, serving as a “transition coach” for players about to retire.

He is a member of Marshall University’s Board of Governors.

Chad Pennington and his wife, Robin, founded the 1st and 10 Foundation, dedicated to improving the quality of life for people in West Virginia  and Tennessee.

In 2017 he helped restart a football program, dormant for 40 years, at Lexington’s Sayre School, where he has served as  head football coach ever since.

His son, Cole, played for him at Sayre School and is now a redshirt freshman quarterback at Marshall.

CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING CHAD PENNINGTON

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
PETE PORCELLI - WATERVLIET, NEW YORK
JOE GUTILLA - AUSTIN, TEXAS
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
TOM DAVIS - SAN CARLOS, CALIFORNIA
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
RUSS MEYERS - VERNON CENTER, NEW YORK
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
CHARLIE WILSON - BROOKSVILLE, FLORIDA
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
RODNEY LUNSFORD - WESTFIELD, INDIANA
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY





The 1934 Michigan Wolverines.  Our guy is Number 61.  The player to the left, Number 48, was the team MVP -  he would one day become President of the United States.


*********** QUIZ:  I won’t lie - this one is tough.  I’ll bet you never heard of this man.  I hadn’t, and I think I’m pretty good where football history is concerned.  But take the time to investigate - it’ll do you good, just as it did me,  to learn about him.

I only came across his name     while reading an article recently about former President Gerald R. Ford.  President Ford, as many people know, was a three-year football letterman on the University of Michigan football team,  and his association  with this teammate would have a great impact on him and on his later career as a politician.

As a high schooler in Detroit, our guy was  an outstanding athlete in both football and track. In track,   he was   the city champion in both the low and high hurdles, in addition to setting a national high school record in the high jump.

Originally intending to attend Dartmouth, he was persuaded to attend Michigan by its head football coach, Harry Kipke, who assured him that he would be given the opportunity to play football there.  (It was not a given: he was black, and Michigan hadn’t had a black letter winner in football since 1890, a time when they didn’t even have  a coach.)

When he went out for football his sophomore year, there were more than a few people upset.  Not entirely because he was black, though - there were many track fans who didn’t want him getting hurt playing football.

He already shown what he could do in track as a freshman, competing in the high jump, of course, but also in the broad jump (as it as called then) and in both high and low hurdles and every sprint event from the 440 on down.  (And for good measure, he put the shot.)

But he wanted to play football, and in spring practice, the story goes, in order to find out whether he had toughness to go with his  size (6-1, 185) and athletic ability, Coach Kipke  told his veterans to “show no mercy” to the newcomer.  “If by the end of the week he doesn’t turn in  his uniform,” said the coach,  “then I know I’ve got a great player.”

He  didn’t turn in his uniform.   In 1932,  his sophomore year, he started four games at end as the Wolverines went 8-0, outscoring opponents 123-13 and winning the national championship.

In 1933, he started all eight games and was named honorable mention All-America at end, as Michigan won its second straight national title.

In December of that  year, after having starred on Michigan’s second national championship  team in football and having run 9.6 in the 100-yard dash, high jumped 6 feet 7-1/2, and long jumped 24 feet in track, he finished a close second in the voting for Big Ten Athlete of the Year.

After two straight national titles - and four straight Big Ten championships,  Michigan’s football success came to an abrupt end.   His senior season, 1934, proved to be one of the worst in school history.   The Wolverines finished 1-7.  They were shut out in five of their games, and  they scored just two touchdowns the entire season, one of them via a punt return.

The one win?  A 9-2 victory at home over Georgia Tech.  A game he didn’t play in.

Those were still the days of segregation in the South,  and when the game was originally scheduled, Georgia Tech football coach and AD Bill Alexander had made it clear that although the game was to be played at Michigan, his team would not take the field if our guy was allowed to play.

As the game neared, Alexander reminded Michigan again of the conditions, and word of Georgia Tech’s threatened action spurred petitions and protests - nothing like today’s riot-like “protests,” it should be pointed out. An editorial in the student newspaper said, “If the athletic department forgot it had (him) on its football team when it scheduled a game with Georgia Tech, it was astonishingly forgetful;  if it was conscious of (his) being on the team but scheduled the game anyway, it was extraordinarily stupid."

Finally, the Michigan athletic department agreed that out of professional courtesy to their guests  from Georgia Tech but also out of a perceived need to protect their player (according to reliable sources Georgia Tech players had threatened to kill our guy if he were to step onto the field of play), he would not play in the game.

Here’s where Jerry Ford comes into the story.  He and our guy had been roommates on road trips, and in his autobiography, written years later, Ford recalled  that, believing the decision to play to be “morally wrong,” he had talked with his father about quitting the team in protest.   But he also recalled talking to his black roommate, and remembered,  “He urged me to play. 'Look,' he said, 'the team's having a bad year. We've lost two games already and we probably won't win any more. You've got to play Saturday. You owe it to the team.' I decided he was right. That Saturday afternoon, we hit like never before and beat Georgia Tech 9–2."

According to one account, our guy sat in a booth in the stadium press box and watched the game; according to another, he simply stayed in his fraternity house for the entire  time; and according to a third, he was sent by Kipke to scout Wisconsin.

It may have been a win, but it was not Michigan’s proudest moment. 1934 also happened to be one of Georgia Tech’s worst teams in its history; after winning their opening game, the Yellow Jackets lost nine in a row to finish 1-9.)

Playing end, left halfback and right halfback in Michigan’s single-wing attack, he accounted for all of Michigan’s points that season (other than those scored against Georgia Tech), rushing 24 yards on a reverse against Illinois to score Michigan’s only offense touchdown of the season, and kicking two field goals against  Northwestern.

His athletic career at Michigan was exceptional - he won six varsity letters in football and track, and twice beat the immortal Jesse Owens in indoor track competition.  In 1981 he was inducted into the University of Michigan Athletic Hall of Honor.

The Georgia Tech incident left him scarred emotionally, and he failed to qualify for the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, saying later,  “That Georgia Tech game killed me. I frankly felt they would not let black athletes compete. Having gone through the Tech experience, it seemed an easy thing for them to say 'Well, we just won't run 'em if Hitler insists.'"

After graduation, he earned a law degree, and worked for a time for Ford Motor Company.

He became active in Republican politics and supported George Romney’s successful campaign for  governor.

After Romney appointed him to the Public Service Commission, he eventually served as its chairman, and later won election to a position as judge in Wayne County (Detroit).

Interviewed many years later about the Georgia Tech incident, he recalled,  "It was like any bad experience - you can't forget it, but you don't talk about it. It hurts."




FRIDAY,  APRIL 28,  2023 - “No one ever made a difference by being like everyone else.”  P. T. Barnum


*********** THIS WEEKEND IN THE XFL

SATURDAY: SOUTH TITLE GAME

ARLINGTON AT HOUSTON - 7 PM EDT - ESPN2 - A match made in heaven between a team that’s no better than fourth best in the XFL against a team that has no business even being in  this game.
Houston has already beaten Arlington twice - 23-14 in week 4, and 25-9 just last week.  This is the sort of game where SCALPERS should pay YOU to take tickets off their hands.

SUNDAY: NORTH TITLE GAME

SEATTLE AT DC - 3 PM EDT - ESPN  - This  could be a  good one. DC won  22-18 in week one (at DC),  and won narrowly, 34-33  in week eight (in Seattle).   In a league that pays only lip service to the running game, these teams have - my opinion - the XFL’s most exciting passers in DC’s Jordan Ta’amu and Seattle’s Ben DeNucci.


*********** THIS WEEKEND IN THE USFL

IT’S WEEK THREE ALREADY!

SATURDAY:

NEW ORLEANS (2-0)   @ BIRMINGHAM (2-0)  12:30 EDT      USA NETWORK
They may both be unbeaten, but New Orleans’ wins have been over two winless teams, Pittsburgh and Houston
Birmingham looks like the class of the league so far

HOUSTON (0-2)  @ MEMPHIS (0-2)   7 PM  EDT    FOX
I thought Memphis might be decent, but Birmingham crushed them, 42-2, last week
Houston lost to New Orleans last week, 38-10 at the end.  I think Houston win will.

SUNDAY - BOTH GAMES AT DETROIT (FORD  FIELD)

PITTSBURGH (0-2) VS PHILADEPHIA (1-1)          NOON EDT         NBC
Philadelphia didn’t play well last week in losing to Michigan, but it still would have been enough to beat Pittsburgh.
Pittsburgh is a really bad football team

NEW JERSEY (1-1)  VS MICHIGAN (2-0)           4  PM  EDT                FOX
New Jersey’s loss was to Birmingham in the opener, its win was over Pittsburgh, so who knows?
Michigan is fun to watch.  They have run a lot of stuff from our Open Wing set.


*********** Dick Groat is dead at 92.  He may not be the greatest two-sport athlete who ever lived, but to me he was one of the most meaningful.  He was big before sports were on national TV and before  Sports Illustrated.

He was big in college basketball.   I first became aware of Duke because of him.  You could say that he was the one who started the Duke basketball dynasty. He was a two-time All-American there. In his senior year he was second in the nation in scoring, and his 48 points against North Carolina (in his final home game) remains, more than 70 years later,  the most points ever scored against a North Carolina team.

He was also an All-American baseball player at Duke, taking the Blue Devils to the College World Series his senior year.

He was the first person ever to enter both the college basketball and college baseball halls of fame.

After his senior season, he immediately joined the Pirates, without ever playing an inning in the minor leagues.  He had two hits and two RBIs in his first game, and his .284 batting average led the Pirates team.

He was a Pittsburgh kid - from a small town called Swissvale, actually - and the Pirates were his team.

“I came home on Sunday, signed with the Pirates Monday and joined the team Tuesday in New York, pinch-hit Wednesday and started every game after that,” he said later.  “We lost 112 games. They were so bad, it’s no wonder I was a starter right out of college.”

He played part of a season with the NBA Fort Wayne Pistons, and averaged 11.9 points in 26 games before having to serve two years in the Army (while the Korean War was going on). When he returned, he went baseball full-time.

In 1960, the once-forlorn Pittsburgh Pirates had become the “Beat ‘em Bucs,” somehow winning the National League pennant. The World Series will remain the greatest in my memory, because I had spent that summer  working the night shift in an asbestos factory in Ambler, Pennsylvania, outside Philadelphia, and during breaks we’d be able to get KDKA (Pittsburgh) on our radios.  We'd listen to their  legendary announcer, Bob Prince, call what seemed to be one miracle win after another.  There was no way you could have gone through that summer the way I did without becoming a Pirates’ fan.

By the time the series started against the mighty Yankees,  I was in New Haven, Connecticut, one lonely Pirates’ fan in the heart of Yankee Country.

I don’t know the scores and I’m not going to bother looking them up, but the series went to seven games, and what made it weird was that every Pirate win was a nail-biter, and every Pirate loss was an ass-kicking.  The latter was what most baseball experts expected - those Yankees were that good.

And there I was, in a bar in New Haven, surrounded by Yankee fans, watching a game that was not going our way.  And then a hard grounder took a weird bounce and hit Yankee shortstop Tony Kubek in the throat, and Hal Smith hit a home run to tie things up - I’m pretty sure that’s how it happened, and in the ninth inning, Pirates’ second baseman Bill Mazeroski hit easily the most famous home run in Pittsburgh history and one of the most famous in major league history, and the Pirates - the once-awful Pirates - were the World Champions.

I don’t recall exactly how I celebrated, but I’m alive to tell about it, so I must have been somewhat subdued in my celebration.

A big thing for me was that the shortstop, the team captain, and that season’s league-leading hitter, was the local guy who’s been at the heart of the rebuild - Dick Groat.

A couple of years later, he was traded to the Cardinals, an act that he took as a personal  insult, and one that it took him years to forgive.

He  was a good golfer and owned a golf course in the Pittsburgh area. And - since he said that basketball was always his favorite sport - he  spent many years doing color on Pitt basketball  broadcasts.

Easily one of the greatest athletes who ever came  out of Western Pennsylvania, he was almost the cliche of the great athlete who’s an even better guy, and he was loved by the home fans.

I think that this article in the Pittsburgh Tribune treats Dick Groat exactly the way I’d have wanted to see him treated.

https://triblive.com/sports/former-pirates-great-dick-groat-dies/


*********** SPRING GAMES:  I wanted to see what sort of miracles two new coaches might  have been able to perform in the few months they’d been on the job, so I watched Nebraska and Wisconsin.

***** At Nebraska, I did see a few things that had to please hardcore Cornhusker fans. 

One was the return to Lincoln of former Husker player and coach Frank Solich, whose firing after the 2003 season (with a 9-3 record) left him embittered, and started  a two decades-long decline that culminated in the firing after this past season of former Husker hero  Scott Frost.

Not that new coach Matt Rhule was the one responsible for finally getting Coach Solich to return, but if he didn’t, it sure was a nice coincidence that his first spring game was used as the occasion to  bring coach Solich back to Lincoln and honor him.

But Rhule certainly was the one responsible for the reappearance in Lincoln of  their beloved  I-formation. A real, honest-to-God I formation, just like the one Grandpa used to run, with a quarterback under center, a tight end, a fullback and a tailback.

And the first play of the “game?” From I formation, it was a fullback dive, after which Coach Rhule took the ball over to Coach Solich and presented it to him.

Fittingly, too, the first TD was scored by an I-formation blast.

I wish I could say that I also saw the second coming of Tommie Frazier at quarterback, but the Huskers  will probably have to make do with a guy named Jeff Sims, a transfer from - Georgia Tech(?)

I think they’ll be better than last year - they looked decent on defense -  but it will help if Husker fans try to remember that it took three years for Matt Rhule to go 11-3 at Baylor -  and he was 1-11 his first year there.



***** At Wisconsin, I didn’t see much that impressed me.

Yeah, Luke Fickell’s the coach  that everybody wanted, and Wisconsin was  the lucky winner who finally got him. And, yeah, he brought in Phil Longo from North Carolina to be his OC. And, yeah,  they ran a lot of “tempo,” too.  But mainly that meant that the offense looked like a bunch off guys who’d just met each other the day before and then went out and tried to run a lot of plays as quickly as they could. And ran them, for the most part,  badly.

Tanner Mordecai may yet be the Badgers’ savior at quarterback, but the highly-touted quarterback from SMU, where he threw 72 touchdown passes, threw four interceptions Saturday, and looked for all the world as if he was new to this game of football.

As a result, the defense won the scrimmage.  The  coach appeared to drag things out a little longer, in hopes of jiggering an offensive win, but when they finally agreed that this would be the last play - this time we really mean it - they missed a field goal.

Braelon Allen is a good runner who’s returning, and I did see a few long runs.  But -  they came during a portion of the “scrimmage” when the defense was prohibited from tackling.

This certainly did not look better than a Paul Chryst team.  Or a Jim Leonhard team.

About the most I could say was that  Wisconsin definitely looked better than Colorado.


*********** We going.

So Deion Sanders got what he asked for when he first met with his new team, the Colorado Buffaloes -  when he told them, holdovers from a team that had just gone 1-11- that  change was coming and that it might be wise for them to find another school.

“Go ahead and jump in that portal and do whatever you’re going to do,” he told them.  “Because the more of you jump in, the more room you make.”  (Room for the transfers that so-called “Coach Prime” intended to bring in.)

So,  writes Andy Staples  in The Athletic, it shouldn’t have been a  surprise when, following last Saturday’s spring game, close to a couple dozen of those players took Sanders’ advice, and bailed:

He wanted this. Yet everyone seemed so surprised Monday when the final purge of Colorado’s roster manifested itself in the NCAA’s transfer portal. Perhaps the surprise wasn’t due to the roster flip itself but the sheer magnitude of it. Assuming Sanders gets Colorado back near the 85-player scholarship limit, when the Buffaloes open their season at TCU Sept. 2, they’ll have more than 60 scholarship players who weren’t on the team in 2022.

Sanders isn’t only ripping the program down to the studs. If we’re going to torture that particular HGTV analogy, he’s demolishing the house, jackhammering the foundation and rebuilding an entirely new structure.

Given basically every public statement he’s made on this topic since taking the job, this is what Sanders feels he must do in order to resuscitate a program that went 1-11 last season. But is it too drastic?

Now, I happen to see Sanders and see an ego-freak who personifies  every type of obnoxious behavior that  guys in my generation were taught to avoid at all cost  - taught so by real men who had been through World War II.  Under that  old, increasingly obsolete  code of etiquette, Sanders’ running all those  players off would be a scandalous breach of trust.
 

But  Andy Staples argues convincingly that getting  rid of players who aren’t seen as contributing any value is to be expected now, as the other side of the Transfer Portal/NIL coin, which  up to now had given players newfound powers over coaches:

Those of us who have long advocated for the athletes to get a bigger piece of the pie have found like-minded folks in state legislatures. Those bodies gave the schools and NCAA no choice but to allow players to make money off of their name, image and likeness rights, and the result is a race to compensate revenue-sport athletes as thoroughly as the market will bear.

Schools have also relaxed transfer rules, allowing undergraduates to switch schools once and play immediately. Then, after they graduate, they can switch schools again and play immediately.

The schools and NCAA continue to fight for a federal law that will allow them to claw back some of these freedoms, but that’s a pipe dream. All that will happen is that lobbyists will continue to steal money from the schools, conferences and the NCAA while making empty promises. A federal NIL law won’t get passed — at least not in the way the schools want — and the system will continue to chug along toward an even broader economic partnership between players and schools. Is that an employer/employee relationship? Maybe. Will it feature a players’ union and a collective bargaining agreement in revenue sports such as football and basketball? Maybe. By that point, chronic underperformance probably will be an explicitly fireable offense.

But even now, the power and opportunities have shifted so dramatically toward the players that it’s time they also shoulder some responsibility in these matters. Some of their predecessors — and some very good antitrust attorneys — fought hard for the agency they now enjoy. They aren’t pawns anymore.

With the opportunity to make more money and to swing the balance of power with their transfer choices comes an end of the bargain they must now uphold. The tuition, room and board are valuable as-is, but with the opportunity to add NIL deals on top of that, it’s reasonable for a coach to expect a football player to be good enough to earn and keep his roster spot.

In 2022, Colorado finished No. 127 in the nation in points per game scored. The Buffaloes finished No. 131 — dead last — in points per game allowed. They were cumulatively outscored 534-185. Based on those numbers, few Buffaloes from the 2022 team played well enough to deserve a spot on a Power 5 roster in 2023. Sanders was hired to field a better team than the one that represented Colorado last year, and so he’s trying to upgrade the roster.

The count is now 37 - 37 scholarship players who’ve left Colorado since April 15.  Several of the guys, many of them fired by “Coach Prime,” said that they were never given the same coaching as  the new transfers were, and remarked  that he had never even bothered learning their names.

Well, no.  Because  that’s what a real coach does.  If you expected Deion Sanders to bother learning the name of someone he thought wasn’t going to be useful to  him, that means you must have thought he’s a real coach.



*********** The NFL draft is being held tonight in Kansas City.  I’ve held a few clinics in the area, and I like an awful lot of the things I saw there. 

The draft is being held at Union Station, a beautiful building from railroading’s glory days.







Right nearby is the National World War I Museum and Memorial.  Several years ago, on the day after a clinic, Coach Greg Koenig and I and our wives  spent a couple of hours there, and were very impressed.  A great touch:  one enters the museum by crossing a transparent bridge over a “field” of poppies…


*********** I had to rerun it to make sure I’d actually heard some bozo announcer tell us that a guy from Angelo State was from “an-JELLO” State.


***********    STOP!  Enough with this “biological women” crap!   There IS no other type of woman!

And  enough with this “assigned at birth” crap.   Government has seized a lot of power in my lifetime, but it will never have a DEPARTMENT OF GENDER ASSIGNMENT.  I think.

There is nothing "assigned" at birth.  You come out as God intended you to. This ain’t just me saying this, or some political party.  This comes from a higher-up.

26. And God said,  Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

27. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

That’s from the very first page of this book called the Bible. It’s  got some pretty good stuff in it.  You “gender assigned at birth” types ought to check it out sometime, but I know you won’t, so you’re screwed.

I also know you won’t like this at all, you people that think that we humans are no better than earthworms or delta smelt.  See, that’s not the way God saw it (and, we believe, continues to see it):

28. And God blessed them, and God said into them, be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the Earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the Earth.

“Be fruitful, and multiply?”  You mean it’s still okay to have children?  Whew.

It’s okay to eat beef, too, from what God  says.  But  if  the Bible is beneath you, and you know better, then by all means eat crickets and grasshoppers to your heart’s content.  No, wait - those are creeping things.


(Isn’t it strange that my voice translation doesn’t automatically capitalize “God” but  it does capitalize “Earth?”



*********** On a recent trip to Georgia, Black Lion Tom “Doc” Hinger stopped in Tifton to pay his respects at the grave of fellow Black Lion Harold “Pinky” Durham, who was awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously for his bravery in the Battle of Ong Thanh, in which Major Don Holleder and 63 Black Lions were killed, on November 17, 1967. 



Read about this young American's unbelievable bravery...

https://www.defense.gov/News/Feature-Stories/Story/Article/3186407/medal-of-honor-monday-army-2nd-lt-harold-durham-jr/



***********   I love the new McDonald's, so much that I too said my AMF after two rounds of dealing with the ordering machines. In my case, however, I walked away and stood at the counter until someone came to ask if I needed something. No more McD's for me unless I can place a counter order.

Tucker started at Heritage. He gave the keynote at some event there recently, on the subject of good versus evil, and while watching it (he seemed to be speaking without notes) I had the identical thought about him moving behind the Golden EIB mic.

I had to smile over the commentary about student governments, college or high school. They're as useless as those sideline reporters.

And who didn't get a kick out of your  signs on coaches’ shirts stating “WE COMING,“ indicating that Colorado may soon be marketing itself as the Harvard of the Rockies.

I have many thoughts about Army football, but will hold my tongue until they're at least midway through the '23 schedule. Thanks for your always provocative page.

John Vermillion
St. Petersburg, Florida



***********   Hugh,

My bet is that next year's XFL playoff format will have some "adjustments" made.

Actually, once they get their bearings USFL New Jersey and Philadelphia teams will be tough.

Here it is!  The Collegiate Football Association.  Football ONLY governing body of former FBS/Group of Five schools.  FCS, Division II, and Division III football remains under the auspices of the NCAA.  CFA divided into two conferences.  National Conference (most FBS schools with a few additions).  American Conference (most Group of Five schools with a few FCS additions).  Four divisions of 18 teams in each division in each conference.  Competitive level, financial level, previous-current-future-geographical considerations for each division.  Each conference holds a national championship playoff (16 teams - division champs seeded 1-4).  Remaining 12 teams seeded 5 through 16 w/first round games played at higher seed.  Quarterfinal games played in geographical indoor venues.  Best teams with winning records not making the playoffs qualify for bowl games.  Tiered bowl system.

What Army would like to do and what Army will be able to do are two different animals.  Good luck Coach Monken trying to recruit those types of kids to West Point to play in that style of offense.

Colorado's spring practice culminating in that spring game was basically a tryout for most of the returning players.  Apparently most of them didn't like the way things were going for themselves as Buffs and entered the transfer portal.  We'll find out quickly how well Coach Prime can use the portal to his advantage.  He'll need to!

Speaking of the portal...turns out Tyler Buchner is not the competitor and "team" player many thought he was.  Including me.  Too bad kid, don't let the door hit you in the @$$ on your way out!

Glad to hear Scott Barnes is recovering.  Saw him play a number of times while we were still living in Fresno.


Have a great week!

Joe Gutilla
Austin, Texas






***********  QUIZ ANSWER: A  native Tennessean,  John Cooper was recruited to play at Iowa State by former Tennessee Vol Clay Stapleton.  Playing in Stapleton’s Tennessee Single Wing, he was the Cyclones’ captain and MVP his senior year.

The following year, he began his coaching career by coaching the Iowa State frosh team, and the next year he was hired by another single-winger, Oregon State’s Tommy Prothro.  In the second of his two years there he helped  lead the Beavers to a conference title, a Rose Bowl berth, and a Number 8 ranking nationally.

When Prothro was hired by UCLA after that season, he went along, and in his first year there, the Bruins won the Rose Bowl, finishing  fourth nationally. In his two years at UCLA, the Bruins finished fourth and then fifth.

His next stop was at Kansas, as defensive coordinator under Pepper Rodgers. In his second year at Kansas, the Jayhawks won the Big 12 title and finished ninth in the nation. After five years at Kansas, he moved to Kentucky as defensive coordinator under John Ray, keeping  the position when Fran Curci replaced Ray.

In 1977, after  15 years as an assistant, he got his first head coaching job, at Tulsa. In eight years, he had a record of 56-32, and in his last five years there he won five straight Missouri Valley Conference titles.

In 1985 he got the head coaching job at Arizona State, succeeding Darryl Rodgers.  In his first year there, the Sun Devils went 8-4 and went to just their second bowl game in eight years.  In his second year, ASU went 10-1-1, and went to the Rose Bowl for the  first time in school history.  They won the Rose Bowl and finished ranked fourth in the nation, and he was Pac-10 Coach of the Year.

His third year ended 7-4-1, and with a three-year record of 25-9-2, he was hired by Ohio State to succeed Earl Bruce, who in his nine years in Columbus had won 81 games and taken the Buckeyes to eight bowl games, four Big Ten championships - two of them outright and two ties.  His teams  finished nationally-ranked not less than 15th for eight straight years - until his last season, when the Buckeyes  finished 6-4-1. (At Ohio State, that’ll get anybody fired.)

In his first year, he was 4-6-1, and  the Buckeyes missed out on a bowl game for the second straight year.

But that would be his only losing season in Columbus, and over the next 12 years his Buckeyes would average nine wins a season.  Under him, they won three Big Ten titles and finished second four times.  They went to one Rose Bowl - which they won, making him one of a very select group of coaches to win  Rose Bowls at two different schools, and the only one to win a Rose Bowl  for both a Pac-8/10/12 school and a Big Ten school.

Four of his Ohio State teams finished in the Top Ten, and two of them were ranked Second nationally.  He recruited and coached a Heisman Trophy winner in Eddie George.

His record at Ohio State was 111-43-4; his record in Big Ten play was 70-30-4. Among all Ohio State coaches, only Woody Hayes has won more games.

But one  very big issue  haunted him during his time in Columbus, and ultimately it cost him his job:  he was only 2-10-1  against Michigan.  His predecessor, Earle Bruce, may have been fired - but he had gone 5-4 against the Wolverines.

If the Ohio State people had done their due diligence, they might have noticed one red flag in his performance at Arizona State: yes, he’d gone 25-9-2, and yes, he’d taken the Sun Devils to the Rose Bowl - where they won.  But against Arizona, their arch-rival, he’d gone 0-2-1.

John Cooper’s career record, at Tulsa, Arizona State and Ohio State, was 192-84-6.  In 2008, he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.

I BET EVEN IF YOU DIDN’T KNOW JOHN COOPER YOU RECOGNIZED HERBIE, THE QUARTERBACK IN THE PHOTO!



CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING JOHN COOPER

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
JOE GUTILLA - AUSTIN, TEXAS
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY






***********   QUIZ: He was the son of a high school football coach. Originally, basketball was his best sport, and while playing quarterback in high school in Knoxville, he drew interest from only a handful of smaller football programs.   It was only after attending a camp at Marshall - where his parents had both gone to school - that he was offered a scholarship there.

Although expecting to be redshirted his freshman year, he was shoved into a starting role after injuries sidelined every quarterback ahead of him, and wound up leading the Herd to a place in the D I-AA (now FCS) championship game.  He earned the conference Freshman of the Year award.

After taking a redshirt  year,  he returned to lead the Herd, now in their first season at the I-A (FBS)  level, to the MAC championship.  Teaming with receiver Randy Moss, he threw for 3817 yards and 42 touchdowns - 20 of them to Moss.

In his junior year, he threw for 3,830 yards  and 28 touchdowns, leading Marshall to a 12-1 record and a win over Louisville in the Motor City Bowl, where he was named MVP.

His senior year, he led the Herd to a 13-0 record and another win in the Motor City Bowl.  He was the MAC Player of the Year and the winner of the Sammy Baugh Award, given to the nation’s top passer.

He was an Academic All-American and a Rhodes Scholarship finalist.

He was that year’s winner of the William Campbell Trophy - often called the  “Academic Heisman” - given by the National Football Foundation “to the American college football player with the best combination of academics, community service, and on-field performance.”

Taken by the Jets in the first round - the 18th pick overall - he was the first quarterback selected in the 2000 NFL Draft.

In his first two seasons he played in only three games, but in his third season, when the Jets got off to a 1-4 start, he was inserted in place of Vinny Testaverde, and took the Jets to a 9-7  finish.  He threw for 3,320 yards and 22 touchdowns, and led the NFL with a 104.2 quarterback rating.

He was sidelined for most of the next season with a fractured hand suffered in the Jets’ final preseason game; the season after that, despite a rotator cuff problem, he took the Jets to a 10-6 season.

But after post-season rotator cuff surgery, he missed the entire next season.

Returning to form in 2006,  he earned the NFL’s Comeback of the Year Award after throwing for 3,352 yards and 17 touchdowns.

Injuries and a 1-7 start by the Jets in 2007 led to his benching, and after the Jets acquired Brett Favre prior to the 2008 season, they released him. 

He signed with the Dolphins, and after earning their starting job,  he went on to have one of his best seasons as a pro, throwing for 3,653 yards and 19 touchdowns, taking the Dolphins from 1-15 the year before to 11-5,  and  earning his SECOND NFL Comeback Player of the Year Award.

But three games into the 2009 season, he reinjured the shoulder on which by now he had had several operations, and missed the rest of the season.

In 2010 he played  just one game and reinjured the shoulder.

Missing the next season, he finally retired.

After 11 seasons in the NFL, his career  stats were 17,823 yards passing and 102 touchdowns.

Since  retirement he has remained active with the NFL, serving as a “transition coach” for players about to retire.

He is a member of Marshall University’s Board of Governors.

He and his wife, Robin, founded the 1st and 10 Foundation, dedicated to improving the quality of life for people in West Virginia  and Tennessee.

In 2017 he helped restart a football program, dormant for 40 years, at Lexington’s Sayre School, where he has served as  head football coach ever since.

His son, Cole, played for him at Sayre School and is now a redshirt freshman quarterback at Marshall.






TUESDAY,  APRIL 25,  2023 - “A sign of democratic sclerosis is a loss of confidence in the integrity of voting.” Victor Davis Hanson


*********** THIS WEEKEND IN THE XFL…

WEEK TEN GAMES - FINAL WEEK

SATURDAY

ST LOUIS 53, ORLANDO 28
DC  29, SAN ANTONIO 28 (OT)

SUNDAY

HOUSTON 25,  ARLINGTON 9
SEATTLE  28, VEGAS 9


XFL  FINAL STANDINGS

XFL North
1) D.C. Defenders (9-1)
2) Seattle Sea Dragons (7-3)
3) St. Louis Battlehawks (7-3)
4) Vegas Vipers (2-8)

XFL South
1) Houston Roughnecks (7-3)
2) Arlington Renegades (5-5)
3) San Antonio Brahmas (3-7)
4) Orlando Guardians (1-9)


NEXT WEEK’S PLAYOFFS (ACTUALLY, THEY PREFER TO CALL THEM  “DIVISION CHAMPIONSHIPS”)

SATURDAY
ARLINGTON AT HOUSTON
 
SUNDAY
SEATTLE AT DC

GOLDEN SCREW AWARD:  To St. Louis, eliminated from the playoffs because it finished third in its divisions - even though it’s no worse than the third best team in the entire  XFL.

St. Louis fans, players and coaches fell victim to the stupid decision to arrange XFL teams into divisions, because now, as it turns out, there’s not a  single team in the other division that’s better than St. Louis. Not Houston, the first-place finisher in that division, and certainly not Arlington, the second place finisher, whose .500 record means only that there were a couple of other teams worse than it.

Houston is no better  than the fourth best team in the league. St. Louis is no worse than third-best,  and clearly better than Houston by any measurement.  Yes, Houston’s 7-3 record was the same as  that of Seattle and St. Louis, but Houston’s wins all came over weak opponents, while its three losses were at the hands of North Division teams -  DC, Seattle and St. Louis - the XFL’s three best teams.

But at least Houston, as the fourth best team,  does qualify, because they need four teams.  But the team that got in rather than St. Louis, 5-5 Arlington, was 0-4 against the other three playoff teams.  And 0-1 against St. Louis.

Shafting a team that had become the league poster boy by averaging over 30,000 fans a game is not a good way for any league to start out.

*********** THIS PAST WEEKEND IN THE USFL

SATURDAY GAMES


NEW ORLEANS (2-0) 38, HOUSTON (0-2) 31


BIRMINGHAM (2-0) 42, MEMPHIS (0-2) 2


SUNDAY GAMES


NEW JERSEY (1-1)   20, PITTSBURGH (0-2)  3


MICHIGAN  (2-0) 24 ,  PHILADELPHIA (1-1) 10


Best teams - 1. Birmingham, 2. Michigan

Worst team - Pittsburgh - and it’s not even close



*********** Chris Smith, Seattle Sea Dragons’ defensive end, died last Monday.   He was 31.  The cause of death has not yet been disclosed.

Smith played eight years in the NFL, with Jacksonville, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Oakland and Houston, and after missing the 2021 season, he was persuaded to play with the Sea Dragons by Seattle coach Jim Haslett.

He experienced a great tragedy  in 2019, when he had pulled onto the shoulder of a highway after blowing out a tire, and his fiancée, who had recently  given birth to their daughter, was struck and killed by an oncoming car as they stood on the shoulder.


***********   You may not be aware that there are actually are some college sports that aren’t overseen by the NCAA:

Bass Fishing
Dodgeball
Equestrian
Quidditch
Rodeo
Squash
Ultimate Frisbee
Water Skiing

Each has its own governing body.

Hmmm.   maybe that’s the answer to college football’s problems with transfers and NIL.

The most “mainstream” of any of the sports that don’t operate under the NCAA umbrella  is Men’s Rowing - crew, to some people - although schools that offer men’s rowing do adhere to NCAA rules.  (Women’s rowing, unlike men’s,  is an NCAA-sponsored sport.)


***********   It’s no longer a secret that Army  coach Jeff Monken seems bent and determined to run a Coastal Carolina style option offense - with service academy personnel.

Coastal Coach Jamie Chadwell  - now head coach at Liberty - told The Athletic’s Mark Mandel, “The biggest challenge I think coach Monken is gonna get hit with is when you’re underneath center, (the option) hits so much faster. Your linemen, they’re coming off the ball so much faster because the fullback dive is right behind them. When you’re in the gun, it’s a slower process, and so the way you choose to block is different.”

Army thinks it can do what Coastal’s done, but with athletes whose high school grades and SAT’s have to be considerably higher, who are willing and able  to live a highly-structured life that makes great demands on their time and energy, and willing to forego most of the  ordinary pleasures of college life.  Oh - and did I mention that there’s a small matter of a service commitment after graduation?

Here’s a nice look at what Army would like  to do - Coastal Carolina’s offense.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KL6JdEyecIg&t=22s


*********** There was good and bad, but my  best recollection  of Colorado’s spring “game” would be “wretched excess.”

The fresh-fallen snow in Boulder was cool

So was the large, near-capacity  crowd at Folsom Field (Barnum continues to be proved right)

So was the nice touch of having a 98-year old lady - a “super fan” of the Buffs - “kick off,” and the respect with which Deion Sanders treated her

But then...

Youth football comes to the Pac-12 -  helmet covers making the players look like two-legged lollypops

The ESPN people (metaphorically) licking “Coach Prime’s” nether parts

The signs on coaches’ shirts stating “WE COMING,“ indicating that Colorado may soon be marketing itself as the Harvard of the Rockies

The Man Himself: The white cowboy hat… The jacket that reminded anyone who didn’t know that he was COACH PRIME… The gold  chain…The Gold whistle…The shirt under the jacket reminding recruits that “I AIN’T HARD 2 FIND”

The Man playing to the crowd throughout the contest

The Man’s constant, over-the-top cliches about building character

Finally, though -   team prayer at the end (Interestingly, ESPN didn’t immediately cut away, as usual)

AND THEN…  It’s not exactly the same as Patrick Mahomes announcing right after the Super Bowl that he’s signing with Detroit, but after all  the hoopla in connection with Saturday’s Colorado spring “game,” it had to come as  something of a next-day hangover when wide receiver Montana Lemonious-Craig announced he was entering the transfer portal. 

What really has to gall  self-christened  “Coach Prime” was the way the kid beat him at his own game - self promotion.  The kid's  performance in the nationally-televised  “game”  (154 yards receiving, including a 98-yard  touchdown reception) gives him extra leverage in the NIL/transfer market.  Hoist by your own petard, Deion!


*********** My  football-ish takeaway from the Colorado extravaganza:  thanks to new OC Sean Lewis, former head coach at Kent State, and Deion’s son Shedeur, at quarterback, the Buffs could be respectable offensively.  But unless it turns out their defenders were under orders Saturday to take it easy and deliberately miss a lot of tackles, it isn’t going to matter how many points their offense scores - their defense is going to  give up a lot more.


*********** I hadn’t been in a McDonald’s in quite some time, and when we stopped in one on Sunday morning on our way back from Seattle, I was completely unprepared for what we walked into.

Figuring that with a couple hours’ drive ahead of us, we’d just as soon eat inside, we passed up the drive-thru  window and went in the doors. 

Big mistake.   Talk about a hostile environment.  I would have used the word “sterile” to describe it, except for what came next.

There wasn’t a single human worker outside of those back in the  kitchen. Instead, we were confronted by a couple of  large  screens attached to poles.  Above them were signs that said “ORDER HERE.”

I’m reasonably tech-savvy and I was able to figure it all out, but considering that McDonald’s is the major player in what’s called the “fast food” industry, the operation was nowhere near as fast as it would have been if I’d just glanced at the menu up on the wall and given my order to a human being of normal intelligence.  (Back in headquarters, they’re reading this and saying, “This guy Wyatt - he’s on to us.)

As I scrolled up and down and tapped my order - and my wife’s - on the screen, it occurred to me how far we’d come from the days when you weren’t even supposed to shake hands - when you couldn’t  find any hand sanitizer in the stores.  You sure couldn’t find it in this McDonald’s, I thought, as I kept touching a screen that was probably as filthy as the flush handles in the bathroom.

As we waited for our food - maybe 10 minutes - it occurred to us that the place was cold.  Really cold.  Was this to save money?   Maybe.   Or maybe to chase people out:  This was near Fort Lewis, a large Army base, and since it was fairly early on a Sunday morning, there was almost nobody inside. But we did see a sign on the back wall that said  “NO LOITERING,” so keeping it cold inside would discourage anyone - soldiers? - whoever the hell loiters in a McDonald’s from hanging around too long.  Just in case the cold didn’t do the job, though, the sign went on to say that if anyone stuck around more than 30 minutes, the manager would take action. 

We took our food out to the car and ate it there.  It tasted okay  - maybe it was from all the bacteria from the screen - and it wasn’t expensive.   But if all Mickey-D’s are going to be like this one - AMF.


***********  Something very real has been missing from my life   ever  since Rush Limbaugh died.  I had a great respect for the man and his opinions, and turning him on every weekday morning at 9 was almost like going to church.  (Much better, actually, than going to many of today’s churches.)

Now, with  the news that as Fox News continues its leftward turn, Tucker Carlson is out, I find myself hoping that somehow, this could be The One who can finally replace Rush behind the “Golden EIB Microphone.”

(It sure as hell isn’t going to be Don Lemon, who also became a free agent today.)


*********** We didn’t even have a “student government” where I went to college.  I can’t think of anything more stupid than giving job experience to the sort of people who envision themselves as career politicians, and besides, there wasn’t any need for a student government anyhow.

Not back then.

Now, though, student governments exist, I gather, for  purposes such as spending their fellow students’ money on things every university should have - like the  rainbow crosswalk at Purdue that’s going to cost $17,000.(I could do it for a lot less but they might not like it.)

I’m waiting for the first time some driver hits a kid in the rainbow crosswalk, and his defense attorney claims that because state law requires crosswalks to be painted white (I’ve read that this is the applicable law in Indiana, where Purdue is located), the kid wasn’t really in a crosswalk.


https://www.thecollegefix.com/purdue-student-government-allocates-17k-for-rainbow-crosswalk/




*********** There are NFL types who are bemoaning the lack of depth among the quarterbacks in this year’s class.  The reason?  There are a lot of decent college quarterbacks who were draft-eligible who decided instead to stay in college - either where they’ve been or at a new place.  Quarterbacks are deciding to stick around and possibly improve their draft standing after another year of college ball, the way it worked for Kenny Pickett at Pitt, and thanks to NIL deals, they can make a little money at the same time.


The chart, courtesy of The Athletic,  appears to have ranked the quarterbacks in their likely draft  order - at this time.  There are some good ones in there, and next year’s draft ought to be very interesting.  One thing that jumps out at me is how low Sam Hartman is ranked, despite his great career at Wake Forest.  I gather  that he is considered a “system” quarterback, made to look better by the way he operated in Wake’s unique “slow ride” offense, and a good year as  quarterback of one of the nation’s most-followed college programs would go a long way toward shedding that image.


*********** Oregon State AD Scott Barnes was  at a dinner in Fresno where he was to be honored by Fresno State, his alma mater, as a “Top Dog,” an award given to alumni whose “accomplishments, affiliations and careers” have brought honor to the university.

The first recipient had just begin to speak when the audience heard Barnes’ wife shouting,  “Scott! Scott!”

He was still seated in his chair, but unresponsive.  As someone shouted “Call 911!” the emcee asked the crowd to exit the room.

It just so happened that sitting nearby was another honoree, a physician named Dr.  Danielle Campagne, who’d graduated from Fresno State and then USC Medical School, and she just happened to be accompanied by members of her trauma center medical team who are there to see her honored.

And they went to work.  And they saved his life with their quick and expert response.

Barnes is now hospitalized in what’s said to be “stable” condition, after having suffered what is being called a “heart experience.”

We should all be lucky enough, if we ever have such an experience, to have a Dr. Campagne close by.


*********** Now I guess the only team I can watch of college football is Air Force.  It looks like Army and Navy are going to look like every other team running the 2 x 2’s and 1-back give/pull offense.
Tom Davis
San Carlos, California

I don't  think  that Navy is going to go away from the under-center triple option to the extent Army plans to, even going so far as to hire an outside offense guy to install his system.


*********** This week’s answer is Mike Martz.  Greatest show on turf throwing the ball, but Marshall Faulk had over 1,300 yards rushing and over 1,000 receiving yards for a pretty good season as well.

I’m an east coast Rams fan. I go all the way back to the John Hadl to Harold Jackson connection.

Russ Meyers
Vernon Center, New York


*********** Hi Hugh,

Getting a late start on the News. I was sorry to read about Coach Teevens who at one time coached at the University of Maine. A tough thing losing a leg but the spinal injury news could not be good. I know all those who know coach Teveens are wishing nothing but the best for him.

It can hardly be a secret that coach Monken wants a “better job” and believes as long he is in the Flexbone he will not get one,  so the change to the shotgun. With no scholarship and arguably less talent than most of the schools he faces, winning is going to be tough. With Navy also moving away from the Flexbone he will have a chance to beat one of the service academies but I suspect he will lose to Air Force and will be gone from Army in the near term. I doubt going back to the Flexbone will be an option for him but time will tell.

A belated happy birthday to Connie! Truly one of the very special people God out on this earth.

Best,

Jack Tourtillotte
Rangeley, Maine

Spot on, Jack!


***********   That PERS list...I'm sure each of those distinguished 'public servants' earned every penny of their lavish pensions. The entire list sickens me, but the Bellotti deal is malfeasance by whoever engineered it. Break, Break...just returned to today's page to confirm a thought. So much of it is about money, and what most likely will be the deleterious effects of money in sports and politics. You're not wrong in reporting it; you must.

Even the discussions about which conferences will take in which schools have everything to do with money. But then, as counterpoints, we have Coach Koenig's reminder about Patriot's Day (I think his personal patriotism is both cause and effect of his being a tremendous coach) and the image of Lauri Markkanen returning to his home country to meet his military obligation, with pride in his heart.

John Vermillion
St. Petersburg, Florida

Last Friday, in my monthly Zoom meeting with my Finnish team of 30 years ago, I asked the guys if any of them knew Lauri Markkanen.  They all said basically the same thing: “EVERYBODY knows Lauri Markkanen!”  One of them said that he was a Hero, another that he was maybe the greatest Finnish athlete of all time!  They are very proud of him and had no problem at all with his being allowed to serve his military obligation in two off-season installments, although one of them did say, “He’s going to need a bigger bed.”



***********   Hugh,

Re: Paul Revere; Did you know that it was Revere and another gentleman by the name of William Dawes who actually made that famous ride?  Revere and Dawes had met a young doctor named Prescott on their ride, but all three were captured outside of Lincoln by a British patrol.  Dawes and Prescott escaped, Revere did not.  It was Prescott who eventually made it to Concord to alert the town.  When Longfellow wrote the poem he found Revere's name easier to rhyme than Dawes and Prescott.

Also, did you know that the British Regulars arrived in MA to confiscate the guns of the Patriots?  Hmmm.

No matter the reason.  As far as I'm concerned the academies are doomed to mediocrity once again NOT because of a change in rules, nor because option football is NOT entertaining.  The academies won't get an abundance of those types of football skill players to enroll and make a 5 year commitment to the military!  Those types could go to ANY college and play in a spread offense without making that commitment.  

I still think Fresno State and San Diego State would be great additions to the PAC 12 no matter what those stuffed shirt academic elite liberal administrators in Palo Alto and Berkeley say.

As I said before, I would have liked to known some Finns.  Maybe we can bring a few hundred over here to teach our young people a thing or two about patriotism.  Shame I have to say that.  It wasn't that long ago we didn't need any help.

Frankly, spring football should only be 10 days long.  Five days in shells, and five days full go.  With three-platoon football that should be plenty of time for coaches to have their teams brush up on the fundamentals, review, and evaluate new personnel.  Yes, I said Three-Platoon...offense-defense-special teams.


QUIZ:  Mike Martz (Mike played TE for Fresno State at the same time I was trying to make the team as a late spring JC transfer.  He got caught up in the head coaching change from Darryl Rogers to J.R. Boone who was my JC coach.  Mike left Fresno State and ended up graduating Summa Cum Laude from Washington University (St. Louis).  Really smart guy).

Enjoy the weekend!

Joe Gutilla
Austin, Texas


Joe,  I had a teacher in grade school who told us about William Dawes, and said that Paul Revere had Longfellow to thank for his lasting fame, possibly  because “Listen my children and you shall hear/Of the midnight ride of William Dawes” just didn’t work poetically. (Come to think of it, that was a pretty doggone good teacher at Henry H. Houston Elementary School.)

There are similar cases…

Many men besides Daniel Boone led people through the Appalachians and into Kentucky. Can you name one?

Not in any way to demean the importance of Martin Luther King, Junior, and the honors he rightly deserves, but there were  many great leaders of the Civil Rights movement.  How many  of them are remembered and honored today?

There are 29 mountains in Colorado taller than Pike’s Peak.  Name one.







***********  QUIZ ANSWER: Mike Martz was born in Sioux Falls, South Dakota but grew up in San Diego.

He played college ball at a series of JCs and colleges, including Fresno State, and wound up graduating from prestigious Washington University in St. Louis - summa cum laude (Latin for “with highest honors”).

He coached high school for one year and JC  ball for four years, and coached briefly  at San Jose State, Fresno State, Pacific and Minnesota before  landing at Arizona State in 1983 and spending nine years there.

In his 20th year of coaching he was hired by the Los Angeles Rams as  quarterbacks coach, and after three years, when the Rams moved to St. Louis, he went along and spent two more years coaching wide receivers.

When the  staff was fired, he caught on with the Redskins (you know - what the Commanders used to be) as their quarterbacks coach, but after two years in DC he was back in St. Louis, hired by  Dick Vermeil to be his offensive coordinator.

What a hire he was! His offense, built around an unheralded quarterback named Kurt Warner, who’d had to step in after starter Trent Green was hurt in the preseason, wound up leading the NFL.  Warner threw for 4,353 yards and 41 touchdowns, and was named League MVP.   The Rams scored a league-leading 526 points - fourth-highest in NFL history - and they went on to  win the Super Bowl. 

Nicknamed “The Greatest Show on Turf,” his offense would score more than 500 points for three straight seasons - an NFL record.

Said Vermeil afterwards, “I can't think, in my history of coaching, of any assistant who came into an NFL franchise and made the immediate impact that Mike Martz did.  Kurt Warner came off the street, and he made him NFL player of the year.  I have great respect for him, and I think he has great respect for me. We took a team to the Super Bowl. Without him we don't go."

It took our guy 30 years to become a coordinator but only one year as a coordinator to become a head coach,  when in  February Vermeil retired, and our guy succeeded him.

He went 10-6 in his first year, but  14-2 in his second year, and the Rams made it to the Super Bowl, where they lost to the Patriots.

In five full seasons in St. Louis, the Rams made the playoffs four times, but early in his sixth season, with the Rams 2-3,  he had to take a medical leave to recover from “a bacterial infection near his heart.”

He was cleared by his doctors to coach the Rams last regular-season game, but the club refused to let him do so, and fired him after the game.  He was 54.

He  spent the next five seasons as offensive coordinator with the Lions, the 49ers, and then the Bears before retiring.

Since then, he’s shared his expertise on different TVshows.

Mike Martz left St. Louis with a 53-32 record  as head coach, but - this is hard to believe, considering some of the curious hires NFL teams have made in the years since - he never got another NFL head coaching job.



CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING MIKE MARTZ

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
TOM DAVIS - SAN CARLOS, CALIFORNIA
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
JASON MENSING - WESTLAND, MICHIGAN
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
JOE GUTILLA - AUSTIN, TEXAS
JOHN IRION - ARGYLE, NEW YORK
RUSS MEYERS - VERNON CENTER, NEW YORK
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
TOM WALLS - WINNIPEG, MANITOBA
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY

 






***********  QUIZ: A  native Tennessean,  he was recruited to play at Iowa State by former Tennessee Vol Clay Stapleton.  Playing in Stapleton’s Tennessee Single Wing, he was the Cyclones’ captain and MVP his senior year.

The following year, he began his coaching career by coaching the Iowa State frosh team, and the next year he was hired by another single-winger, Oregon State’s Tommy Prothro.  In the second of his two years there he helped  lead the Beavers to a conference title, a Rose Bowl berth, and a Number 8 ranking nationally.

When Prothro was hired by UCLA after that season, he went along, and in his first year there, the Bruins won the Rose Bowl, finishing  fourth nationally. In his two years at UCLA, the Bruins finished fourth and then fifth.

His next stop was at Kansas, as defensive coordinator under Pepper Rodgers. In his second year at Kansas, the Jayhawks won the Big 12 title and finished ninth in the nation. After five years at Kansas, he moved to Kentucky as defensive coordinator under John Ray, keeping  the position when Fran Curci replaced Ray.

In 1977, after  15 years as an assistant, he got his first head coaching job, at Tulsa. In eight years, he had a record of 56-32, and in his last five years there he won five straight Missouri Valley Conference titles.

In 1985 he got the head coaching job at Arizona State, succeeding Darryl Rodgers.  In his first year there, the Sun Devils went 8-4 and went to just their second bowl game in eight years.  In his second year, ASU went 10-1-1, and went to the Rose Bowl for the  first time in school history.  They won the Rose Bowl and finished ranked fourth in the nation, and he was Pac-10 Coach of the Year.

His third year ended 7-4-1, and with a three-year record of 25-9-2, he was hired by Ohio State to succeed Earl Bruce, who in his nine years in Columbus had won 81 games and taken the Buckeyes to eight bowl games, four Big Ten championships - two of them outright and two ties.  His teams  finished nationally-ranked not less than 15th for eight straight years - until his last season, when the Buckeyes  finished 6-4-1. (At Ohio State, that’ll get anybody fired.)

In his first year, he was 4-6-1, and  the Buckeyes missed out on a bowl game for the second straight year.

But that would be his only losing season in Columbus, and over the next 12 years his Buckeyes would average nine wins a season.  Under him, they won three Big Ten titles and finished second four times.  They went to one Rose Bowl - which they won, making him one of a very select group of coaches to win  Rose Bowls at two different schools, and the only one to win a Rose Bowl  for both a Pac-8/10/12 school and a Big Ten school.

Four of his Ohio State teams finished in the Top Ten, and two of them were ranked Second nationally.  He recruited and coached a Heisman Trophy winner in Eddie George.

His record at Ohio State was 111-43-4; his record in Big Ten play was 70-30-4. Among all Ohio State coaches, only Woody Hayes has won more games.

But one  very big issue  haunted him during his time in Columbus, and ultimately it cost him his job:  he was only 2-10-1  against Michigan.  His predecessor, Earle Bruce, may have been fired - but he had gone 5-4 against the Wolverines.

If the Ohio State people had done their due diligence, they might have noticed one red flag in his performance at Arizona State: yes, he’d gone 25-9-2, and yes, he’d taken the Sun Devils to the Rose Bowl - where they won.  But against Arizona, their arch-rival, he’d gone 0-2-1.

His career record, at Tulsa, Arizona State and Ohio State, was 192-84-6.  In 2008, he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.




FRIDAY,  APRIL 21,  2023 - “Citizenship is what makes a republic; monarchies can get along without it. What keeps a republic on its legs is good citizenship.”  Mark Twain


*********** THIS WEEKEND IN THE XFL


XFL  STANDINGS WITH ONE GAME TO PLAY

XFL North
1) D.C. Defenders (8-1)**
2) St. Louis Battlehawks (6-3)
3) Seattle Sea Dragons (6-3)
4) Vegas Vipers (2-7)

XFL South
1) Houston Roughnecks (6-3)**
2) Arlington Renegades (4-5)
3) San Antonio Brahmas (3-6)
4) Orlando Guardians (1-8)

** Clinched conference championship and playoff spot

WEEK TEN SCHEDULE

SATURDAY GAMES

Orlando at St. Louis 12:00 PM EDT -ESPN

DC at San Antonio  3 PM EDT - ABC


SUNDAY GAMES

Houston at Arlington  3 PM  EDT - ESPN

Vegas at Seattle - 7 PM EDT - ESPN2


*********** USFL GAMES THIS WEEKEND

SATURDAY GAMES

Houston vs New Orleans at Birmingham - 12:30 PM EDT - USA Network

Memphis vs Birmingham at Birmingham - 7 PM EDT - FOX


SUNDAY GAMES

New Jersey vs Pittsburgh at Canton, Ohio - 1 PM EDT - NBC

Michigan vs Philadelphia at Canton - 7 PM EDT - FS1


*********** My friend Greg Koenig, who coaches in Bennett, Colorado, gently reminded me that Wednesday was April 19,  possibly the most overlooked of any significant date in our nation’s history.

In Massachusetts it’s recognized as Patriots’ Day - and celebrated by the running of the Boston Marathon. (And the Red Sox used to play a double-header.)  Now, like so many other holidays, it’s now observed on the Monday nearest the actual date.

Back when we actually taught our nation’s history, American schoolkids all used to know that on  the night of April 18, 1775, Paul Revere rode out of Boston - which was under British military control - to warn the farmers in the countryside that the British were coming - to seize  weapons that the farmers had been storing.   How did we learn this? Mostly through a poem, written by  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 100 years after Revere’s ride.

PAUL REVERE’S RIDE

Listen, my children, and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-Five:
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.

Forewarned, the farmers were ready and waiting at a bridge near the town of Concord (pronounced locally “CONG-cud”) when the British arrived on the morning of the 19th.

And there,  with a single shot, began the hostilities that  would result in a war that would last more than six years and result in our independence from England and, eventually, in the establishment of our nation.

On July 4, 1837, a monument was dedicated alongside  that bridge, honoring the brave farmers who dared to take on the soldiers of the mightiest army in the world.

At the dedication was sung a hymn, now known more as a poem, by Ralph Waldo Emerson:

CONCORD HYMN

By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
   Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood
   And fired the shot heard round the world.

The foe long since in silence slept;
   Alike the conqueror silent sleeps;
And Time the ruined bridge has swept
   Down the dark stream which seaward creeps.

On this green bank, by this soft stream,
   We set today a votive stone;
That memory may their deed redeem,
   When, like our sires, our sons are gone.

Spirit, that made those heroes dare
   To die, and leave their children free,
Bid Time and Nature gently spare
   The shaft we raise to them and thee.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=concord+hymn+song

To reiterate  what brought the farmers to take up arms: the British were coming to take their guns.


***********  Long ago I heard a truism that has stuck with me ever since: “Every man has two reasons for doing something:  a good reason and the real reason.”


Army’s Jeff Monken is departing from the under-center flexbone  that  got him the job in the first place, and, as The Athletic’s Stewart Mandel writes,

This spring, Monken is doing the unthinkable and moving his team to a primarily shotgun offense. He felt he didn’t have a choice in the wake of an under-the-radar NCAA rules change last year that eliminated blocking below the waist — known as cut blocking — anywhere but inside the tackle box.

Okay.  So that’s  the good reason.

I have an idea of  what the real reason is.



 ***********   "Texas will be fine in the SEC because it’s already used to not winning in the Big 12.” Steve Spurrier


*********** I like Jalen Hurts as a player, and I also like him from what I observed of his conduct and attitude during his time at Alabama, so I was happy to see that the Eagles were smart enough to lock him up with a new contract.

But  then I started reading the terms -  and I saw that the deal calls for $179 million GUARANTEED.

I like the guy and all that, but holy sh - I thought.  That’s probably more than the endowments  of a lot of colleges. (Think of a college’s endowment as its savings.  The  college operates on the money it gets from tuition, from donations, and from the income from its endowment.)

That sent me digging, and here’s a list (in descending order of size of the endowment)  of football-playing private colleges whose endowments are less than one individual pro football player - a very good player and a good guy, to be sure - will be guaranteed, regardless of the quality of his performance.

Mount Union
Washington and Jefferson
LaVerne
Cal Lutheran
Lenoir-Rhyne
Capital
Juniata
Monmouth
Linfield
Bridgewater
Presbyterian
Widener
Evansville
Springfield
Albright
Wagner
Carroll


$149 million dollars might sound like a lot of money to you or me, but to a college, it can mean that it’s skating on thin ice, and it’s not inconceivable that some of those colleges are operating in survival mode already.

(It wasn't that long ago that Iowa Wesleyan, a small, private college that will go down in football history as the birthplace of the Air Raid offense, announced it could no longer afford to keep its doors open, and would close at the end of this school year.)

Now as long as the NFL is giving away money to this “social justice” cause or that, it might consider doing something to help keep alive schools like these, many of whom have sent  players and coaches to the League. (Washington and Jefferson - where my brother went to college - also happens to be the alma mater of Roger Goodell.)



*********** John Canzano got back to doing what he does better than anyone else - writing about the Pac-12 - and this time it was about the prospect of the Big-12 making inroads into the Pacific Time Zone…

Is the Big 12 really serious about Fresno State? With more money available to them, the Bulldogs could be really dangerous. They are regularly on par with Pac-12 teams, have one of the more rabid fan bases out west and have a larger population base than people realize. The Pac-12 should add them, but academics will certainly get in the way there. — Paul O.

The Big 12 is looking at everything. Brett Yormark wants to go coast-to-coast and hasn’t been shy about wanting to poach the Pac-12. If that doesn’t happen and San Diego State goes to the Pac-12, the only other FBS options in California are Fresno State and San Jose State. Fresno State’s president confirmed last month that the Big 12 is at least interested in talking.

Fresno State has a successful football history and a good fan base. The school and the city are trying to rally behind the possibility of a Power 5 move. A tax initiative to boost athletic and academic projects at Fresno State narrowly failed to pass in the November elections, which was a setback. A new campaign is underway to get something similar on a March 2024 ballot. The money is needed. Fresno State football facilities have fallen behind and need a boost.

But is the Big 12 that interested? It’s worth remembering that while some of the Big 12’s new TV contract reportedly includes a boost for adding any Power 5 team, that’s not the case for adding other schools, and pitching presidents on expansion that leads to a lower payout usually doesn’t work. Fresno State appears to be a possibility, but I’d still call it a long shot right now.


Would San Diego State be better off in the Big 12 than the Pac 12? While the travel would be less than ideal, I would love to see the Aztecs play Kansas, Houston and Baylor every year in basketball. — Allen D.

I understand the sentiment for something like basketball or football, but people really need to understand the strain of travel, especially on the non-revenue sports. We keep talking about the long distances Big Ten teams will have to travel to USC and UCLA but seem to ignore that the Big 12 now stretches from Utah to West Virginia to Orlando to Texas. That’s a lot of travel for so many teams.

San Diego State doesn’t want to play regularly in the Central and Eastern time zones. That was one thing I was told when the Aztecs considered AAC interest in 2021. It’d be more lucrative in the Big 12 than the AAC, but we’ve got to remember that hundreds of players for all kinds of sports need to travel.

The only real considerations for the Big 12 over the Pac-12 would be if the Big 12 offers a lot more money and if you think the Pac-12 is going to collapse within five years. But SDSU, like all of us, is waiting for the Pac-12 TV deal to happen first.

***********   Maybe your school has one.  If so, maybe you can tell me  why it’s called a “FREE SPEECH” wall if you have to get your "materials" approved before you can post them?


***********  Finland is one of 49 countries that have  some form of mandatory military service.

All Finnish men must complete their obligation before turning 30. No exceptions.  Actually, they can choose some sort of alternative service, but I have yet to meet the Finnish man who didn’t choose the military. I remember asking once  if anybody ever chose alternative service, and maybe it was a joke they like to tell whenever someone asks, but I was told, “Yes. There was this one guy up in Kuopio…”

And “All Finnish men” means professional athletes, too.

Even 7-foot-tall professional basketball players, coming off their best year in the NBA.

So Lauri (pronounced in Finland like “Lowry”) Markkanen, All-Star forward for the Utah Jazz, reported for service this week, at what’s called the Finnish Defense Forces Sports School,  in Helsinki.

He’ll spend about 165 days in training, but - one concession the country makes for professional athletes - he’ll probably be able to serve the time over two offseasons in order to avoid a conflict with his basketball career. (He averaged 25.6 points per game for the Jazz this past season.)

Markkanen is 25, rather old  to be starting his service. Most Finnish men choose to serve shortly after high school, but Markkanen postponed his service several times, while playing  college basketball at Arizona and then while playing for the Finnish national team.

“Just like on the basketball court, I’m going to try and give everything I’ve got every day, and I know everything’s going to be fine, “  Markkanen told Finland’s YLE News. "I’m excited. It’s something I’ve never done and I’m sure I’m going to learn a lot of things.”

Speaking  with the sense of patriotism  that I’ve come to know and admire about Finns, he said,  "I try to represent Finland as well as I can, whether it’s on the court or off the court. I feel like it's a responsibility and I’m enjoying it.     I think it’s a pretty cool aspect of my country.   It’s something that left a mark on me. It made me appreciate how much the military and police sacrifice to do their jobs.”


*********** FROM LAST JUNE:  Dave Wilcox grew up one of seven kids on a farm outside tiny Vale, Oregon. Vale, a town of less than 2,000 about 12 miles from the Idaho border and 6 hours’ drive from  Portland, has long been a small-school power in Oregon football, with 11 state titles since 1950, and he played on teams that won two state championships, finished second once and finished third once.

From Vale, he went to (relatively) nearby Boise Junior College (now Boise State), where he played for two years and was a JC All-American.  Then, like his older brother John, who had played on Oregon’s 1958 Rose Bowl team, he became an Oregon Webfoot (not until 1978 did they officially become the Ducks).

Playing two ways, he was a guard on offense and an end on defense, and  as a senior was named to play in the Hula Bowl and the College All-Star game.

Drafted in the third round by the NFL 49ers and in the sixth round by the AFL Oilers, he chose to stay on the West Coast.

Very aggressive and hard to block, he was installed at outside linebacker, where he became known as “The Intimidator,” and as a mainstay of the San Francisco defense for 11 years.

He was named All-NFL  five times and All-NFC three times, and he played in seven Pro Bowls.

As an indication of the respect in which was held -  once, before an NFC championship game between San Francisco and Dallas, Cowboys’ coach Tom Landry was asked how he planned to attack the 49ers’ defense. “The first thing you do,” he said, “Is to figure out what  to do away from their left outside linebacker.”

In his 11 years in the NFL - all with the 49ers - he played in all but one of the 154 games the  49ers played during that time.

In the fourth quarter of his final NFL game, he intercepted a New Orleans Saints’ pass and returned it for a  touchdown.

Dave Wilcox is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.  His presenter - his position coach with the 49ers -  called him “The Dick Butkus of outside linebackers.” In his acceptance speech, he recalled playing in the first combined AFL-NFL All-Star game: “I remember standing on the field by Deacon Jones or Butkus or some of those guys and just being in awe of all of the talent on the field. And I said, ‘Wilcox, how did you ever get here from Vale, Oregon?’”

In Vale, he recalled, football was really important. “The community had a real pride in that. When we were growing up, we were poor, but we were all happy. Nobody knew any different. Everybody worked hard. That probably came from the Depression, all the people who came to that community."

The large family lived in a 1,200 square foot home, and didn’t have an indoor toilet until his sophomore year in high school.  Several years ago he visited  the old home with his wife and their two sons.  The kids,  noticing a lack of closet space, asked him where he kept his clothes.

“Well,” he told them,  “You had the clothes you were wearing, and then you might have another set, and they might be in the closet, or they might be in the wash.”

In retirement he farms near Junction City, Oregon, about 10 miles outside Eugene, where he served for years on the school board.  His sons both played  football - he said he  didn’t push them and felt fortunate that they wanted to: “The only thing we ever talked to them about was, if you start the season, you're going to finish it.” They both went on to play for  Oregon,  and one of them, Justin,  is now head coach of the Cal Golden Bears.

RIP Dave Wilcox


*** John Wilcox, a rookie defensive end from Oregon, played just the one season and then went back home to Oregon to start a career as a teacher.  He didn’t even wait around for the after-game celebration. He played just that one season in the NFL and played on a championship team.  His younger brother, Dave, played 11 years with the 49ers and is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, but never played on a championship team.


*********** I’m old enough to remember when colleges’ spring games were actual games, the varsity playing  against a hastily-assembled team of alumni.  Some of the alumni were guys who’d just used up their eligibility  and were about to graduate; some were alumni who were still playing in the NFL; some were guys way out of shape who weren’t about to let that interfere with a reunion with their old teammates - a reunion that included knocking heads out on the field, and then knocking down a few cold ones afterward. Or before. Or, in some cases, during.

And a good time was had by all.

College football is a lot more sophisticated now, though, and I’m not convinced  that the game is better off for it.

There really aren’t such things as spring games anymore - they’re usually glorified practices with a bit of scrimmaging, contact  from which the big names are often exempted. Coaches would prefer not to even have such “games,” but in some places - Alabama, Nebraska, Oregon as examples - fans attend by the tens of thousands,  and to discontinue this  spring ritual would be disastrous politically. In other places where enthusiasm isn’t quite so high, they hope to bring in  a few fans and maybe sell some season tickets.

One place where there is a lot of interest in their spring game, whatever form it takes,  is Colorado, where Folsom Field is sold out  - 45,000 tickets gone - for Deion “Coach Prime” Sanders unveiling of  his 2023 Buffalo football team.

You’d have to say  that at this point, the hire of Sanders is a  success.   They’ll give him a little time, because enough of us - I was once one - said he’d be a flop.  If that turns out to be so, he’ll still have generated a lot of interest in a place that was almost given up for dead; if he is fabulously successful and moves on to bigger things, he’ll have left Colorado better for his having been there. Just so long as he doesn’t do anything scandalous - which he’s not likely to do if he has any aspirations of moving up - Colorado football stands to benefit from hiring him, win or lose.

For everyone else, though, as Oregon State coach  Jonathan Smith told reporter Nick Daschel,  “A successful spring game is one where there are no injuries.”





***********   We’re often reminded, when we’re told that a football coach is the state’s highest-paid employee, that he’s not getting a dime of taxpayer money - that he’s being paid by athletic department money that comes from donations, ticket sales, concessions and apparel sales, and TV and radio rights money.

No taxpayers were hurt in the making of this football team.

Fine.  Sounds good.  The professor in the English department  may not like it, but they’re not working for the same boss.

But then, every year, I read that Mike (Robert M.) Bellotti, former head coach of the Oregon football team, who was well paid (by the athletic department, they’re quick to tell us) to coach the Ducks - is now, in retirement, pulling down a  cool $616,839 annual pension, compliments of the Oregon taxpayer.  Seems to me a pretty dirty trick’s been played on the taxpayers,  first getting around the state limits on public employees’ pay so that they could pay him like a big-time college coach, and then sticking the taxpayers with the inflated cost of his pension.
 


***********  Dartmouth College football coach Buddy Teevens had to have his right leg amputated as a result of a bike crash in St. Augustine, Florida in mid-March.

Coach Teevens and his wife were biking home from a restaurant on a busy road when he was struck by a pickup truck.  The Teevenses own a home nearby.

According to the police report, Coach Teevens was “riding perpendicular to automotive traffic” and “outside of any marked crossing area.”  He was not wearing a helmet and although it was dark he was not using any lights.

In a message his wife sent to Dartmouth she said,  “He is alert and communicating with us and ready for transfer to a premier rehab facility to continue healing. Spinal cord injuries are challenging, and if anybody is up for the challenge, it is Buddy.”

Personally, that “spinal cord injuries” business is alarming.

God bless the Teevens family in what has to be a very difficult time..


https://www.vnews.com/Buddy-Teevens-update-50677175


***********   According to something called On3  sports, Arch Manning has an NIL deal worth $3.8 million.  Just in case you were wondering who the top  five NIL recipients/earners/grifters were….

1. Arch Manning, Texas -  $3.8M
2. Caleb Williams, USC -  $2.6M
3. Travis Hunter, Colorado -  $1.7M
4. Shedeur Sanders, Colorado -  $1.5M
5. Drake Maye, North Carolina -  $1.5M


It’s no small matter of pride to me that three of the  top five are from the Pac-12.  Well, sort of from the Pac-12.  USC is in a world of its own, and soon to leave us anyhow, and the Colorado guys are basically transients, but  that’s today’s football.

But please tell me  - if you can - what justification there is, economically, for paying these guys this kind of money?  Who else will benefit economically other than the people whose names, images and likenesses are supposed to be valuable in some kind of market?

(Before you even try, stop - don’t bother trying to tell me that this isn’t pay for play, pure and simple.)

My friend Tom “Doc” Hinger, in Winter Haven, Florida, wondered whether  young Arch Manning’s value dropped with the news that Quinn Ewers is going to be Texas’ starting QB, and if so, by how much. 

I sure don’t envy that kid, but Doc got me thinking.

Shouldn’t there be something like a “stock market" that dictates players’ presumed NIL value?  Actually, it could be based on simple fan voting.   For example, if unsung Joe Schmidlap has a great game, his stock will go way up and the NIL people will have to pay him accordingly. On the other hand, if Caleb Williams lays an egg, his NIL check will be lighter on Monday.  Could there be a futures market?  Could you go short on Shedeur Sanders? 

Anybody want to go into the brokerage business with me?

https://www.foxsports.com/stories/college-football/texas-qb-arch-manning-has-highest-nil-valuation-in-college-football



***********   Soon as I get off this email, I'll move at lightspeed to find Dr. Scott Adams/Adreon's blog site. That's where I'd rather spend my time. Actually, he'd be one of the last guys I want to spend time with.

I did not enjoy Rhule's comments about fullbacks, and you know why (clue: Army).

That shot of Todd Haley being interviewed was downright painful.

Your take on InBev is spot-on. Don't fall for their new pitch(es).

John Vermillion
St. Petersburg, Florida



**********   Hugh,

First, I wasn't aware of Connie's birthday so please pass along my belated birthday wish to her.

Frankly, Joe Biden is wrong again.  Talking to the Irish about rugby likely generates a "meh" response.  Had the good fortune some years ago to accompany my wife on one of her business trips to Ireland.  Met her counterpart's husband who happened to be a coach at a local club.  He invited me to speak to his "lads" about American football at the club.  Some played rugby, but most played GAA (Gaelic football) and their national sport Hurling, and most had played soccer at some point in their young lives, but ALL were mesmerized by what I had to say about American football.  Once I finished my talk my host took me downstairs to the club's pub as his guest and "commiserate" over a couple of pints (Guinness of course).  A few months later I received an email from that coach telling me I must have made an impression on his "lads" because a number of them decided to give American football a "go" playing for the local American football club.  I have followed their progress and have also seen a number of new American football clubs sprouting up all over Ireland.

Watched the St. Louis-Seattle game.  Ugh.  Talk about laying a big stinky egg in front of the home fans.  NOT the way to increase the fan support in one of the only XFL cities where it appears the fans actually give a ----.

Agree that the Saturday USFL games validate my claim that the USFL has better coaches and players than the XFL.  Not Sunday's game.

Get ready for BEER WARS.

Forgot one; He gone!

Nice to hear that Matt Rhule is bringing back the Fullback to the Nebraska Cornhuskers football offense!

Still on the Big 12...rumor has it that Colorado is considering leaving the PAC 12 and returning to the Big 12.  


Have a great week!

Joe Gutilla
Austin, Texas


Coaching friend Tom Walls, in Winnipeg, has coached in Ireland, and he’s shown me some video that they’ve since sent him.  Aaargh.   As usually  happens when people take up the game from scratch, they’ve built  their structure from the roof down. There is no foundation. They’ve immediately tried to emulate the NFL, which for them means bypassing the fundamentals of the game,  without which there would never have been an NFL in the first place.

The sad thing is how often we see this happening in today’s American football.






*********** QUIZ ANSWER:  What a shame Ernie Nevers  doesn't  play today. What a shame that today’s sports-mad Americans never got to  see him play.

Although it’s been nearly 100 years since he played there, he may still be the most illustrious figure in Stanford's long and glorious sports history.

He is one of the only two Stanford players - Jim Plunkett is the other - to have had his jersey number retired.

In the Rose Bowl, he outgained all four of Notre Dame’s Four Horsemen, all by himself.

He is almost certainly  the only man ever play pro football, pro baseball and pro basketball - and he did it all in the same year (1927).

He played football against Red Grange and pitched against Babe Ruth.

He set an NFL single-game scoring record that still stands.

For months, during World War II, he was listed as Missing in Action in the South Pacific. 

He was born in Willow River, Minnesota, on June 11, 1903.  His family moved first to Superior, Wisconsin and then,  during his junior year of high school, to Santa Rosa, California.   There, as a senior he played on his high school's very first football team, and when it turned out that he knew more football than the coach, he designed the offense - and  put himself at fullback.

"I wanted every chance to carry the ball and kick," he explained later.  The team finished 7-3.

Although he is still regarded as perhaps the greatest athlete ever to attend there, Stanford landed him only after an epic recruiting struggle with its archrival, the University of California.

The story that has since become legend was that while he was visiting the Cal campus,  he was "kidnapped" by Stanford boosters, spirited away to a secluded spot somewhere on the coast and - in the company of a good-looking young female - kept hidden from Cal people until he finally decided to attend Stanford.

Years later, he admitted that Cal had been his first choice. "Brick Muller (a Cal All-American from the early 1920s) had been an idol of mine, and I got to know him," he said. "So I was all set to go to Cal, but at the last minute I picked Stanford. But if I had gone to Cal I probably would have stayed a lineman and nobody would have given me much of a chance. I was a terrible tackle. I did much better as a fullback."

Indeed he did. At 6-1, 205, he was a big man by the standards of his day, and as a fullback, he was gigantic. Called "Swede" and "Big Dog" by his teammates, he truly did everything - he ran, passed, punted and tackled. He was noted for his fearless, reckless style of play, and on occasion, when the action got especially rough, he would toss his helmet aside and fling himself into the action bareheaded.

Asked to compare him to the legendary Jim Thorpe, whom he had also coached, Pop Warner,  his coach at Stanford, said, "I consider Ernie Nevers  the better player because he gave everything he had in every game."

Warner wrote, in his autobiography, "In an era of great ones - Red Grange of Illinois, George Gipp and the Four Horsemen from Notre Dame, Elmer Oliphant and Chris Cagle of Army, or even Jim Thorpe of Carlisle - Ernie Nevers always stood a bit taller when trying to compare others to him."

His  most legendary performance was in the 1925 Rose Bowl against Knute Rockne and Notre Dame and the legendary Four Horsemen.

He almost didn't play at all. He'd broken his left ankle before the opening game of the season, and his right ankle in the next-to-last game, and was on crutches up to two days before the Rose Bowl.  But then, his ankles supported by makeshift braces fashioned by Warner and wrapped so tightly that he had little feeling in his legs, he was ready to play.

"You'll probably last ten minutes," Warner predicted pessimistically, but he played all 60 minutes.

Handling the ball on every offensive play, he carried the 34 times for 117 yards, and single-handedly outgained all four Horsemen. On defense, he intercepted a pass and was in on 80 percent of Stanford's tackles.

So amazing was his performance that the two interceptions he threw - returned by Elmer Layden for touchdowns of 78 and 70 yards - were forgiven.

Although Stanford lost, 27-10, Irish coach Knute Rockne was in awe of his  performance. “Ernie Nevers  could do everything," Rockne recalled later. "He tore our line to shreds, ran the ends, forward-passed and kicked. True, we held him on the 1-yard line for four downs, but by that time he was exhausted."

So impressed was Rockne that day that later, when our guy was playing as a pro with the Chicago Cardinals, Rockne would often take his players to Chicago just to watch him  play.

At Stanford, he earned 11 letters - in football, baseball, basketball and track.  His freshman year,  he competed in a track meet in his baseball uniform, then hurried over to the diamond to pitch nine innings against Cal.

In baseball, he once pitched 37 consecutive scoreless innings - a school record that still stands. In the 1925 three-game series with Cal, he pitched the full nine innings in two of the games, and in the final game, with the count three-and-two, hit a grand slam home run to win the series for Stanford.

While in college, he also had some bit parts in Hollywood productions during the offseasons, working with a couple of USC football players named Ward Bond and Marion "Duke" Morrison. Bond would become a well-known actor, and Morrison would become even better known under his screen name: John Wayne.

In his first year as a pro football player, 1926, he  played for the Duluth Eskimos, a traveling team that played 29 games in 117 days - 27 of the 29 games on the road - including one stretch of five games in eight days. There were only 16 players on the Eskimos roster.

"Sometimes we used take two showers after games," he recalled once. `"The first one would be with our uniforms on. Then we'd beat them like rugs to get some of the water out, throw them into our bags, get dressed and catch a train."

In the entire 29-game schedule,  he played 1,714 out of a possible 1,740 minutes.  He missed just 26 minutes of action, after  doctors ordered him to sit out a game when’s he was diagnosed with appendicitis. But with Duluth trailing 6-0,  he couldn't stand to watch, and disregarding the doctor's orders, he put himself into the game, and threw a 62-yard TD pass and kicked the extra point to give the Eskimos a 7-6 win.

His major-league baseball career was a short one. Playing for the woeful St. Louis Browns, he did gain a measure of fame as a result of Babe Ruth's hitting two of his record-setting 60 home runs off him in 1927.

The Babe, not one to flatter anyone unnecessarily, said to him, "You've got good speed, kid. For my sake, I hope you stick to football."

He once hit a double off the great Walter Johnson, but  modestly, he said, "I think he grooved it for me.”

On Thanksgiving Day, 1929, he scored six touchdowns and kicked four extra points to account for all the Chicago Cardinals points in their 40-6 win over the Bears. His  40 points in a single game by one player is an NFL record that has yet to be broken.

After his football playing career ended in 1932,  he began a coaching career, but at the outbreak of World War II, although too old to be drafted, he enlisted in the Marine Corps. While serving in the Pacific, he and his battalion were reported missing for several months. When they were finally found on a deserted island, several had died.  Suffering  from beri-beri, he weighed only 110 pounds. While he was overseas, his wife had died of pnuemonia.

Following the war,  he was involved in the startup of Chicago's franchise in the All-American Football League, and spent most of his working  life in the wholesale liquor business in the Bay Area..

Modest and private, he declined most requests for interviews. He kept few football mementos in his home, and reportedly never talked about sports with his family. Around the news media, he seemed embarrassed to talk about himself, and when he did, it was often in a humorous, self-deprecating way.

Asked to recall his Rose Bowl performance, he chose to dwell on the interceptions he threw. "A total of 150 yards and two touchdowns in two tries," he once said, "makes the passing combination of Layden of Notre Dame and Nevers of Stanford the best in Rose Bowl history."

He lived in Tiburon, north of San Francisco, for much of his life and once invited Bob Murphy, then the sports information director at Stanford, to bring a tape recorder over to his house to discuss his athletic career in detail for a possible book.

"We rambled on for a few hours," Murphy recalled. "He talked about everything - the Four Horsemen, Pop Warner taping up his ankles with inner tubes, the home runs he served up to Babe Ruth. But here's the sad part of the story. I transcribed the tape, but to this day, I don't know what I did with it. I may have it buried somewhere, but I haven't been able to find it."

In 1951 he was inducted into the College Hall of Fame.

In 1962, Sports Illustrated named him the greatest college football player of all time.

In 1963   he was a charter inductee of the Pro Football Hall of Fame - a member of the first class of 17 inducted  into the Hall, along with the likes of Sammy Baugh, Red Grange, Don Hutson, Bronco Nagurski and Jim Thorpe.

"He loved doing things for kids," recalled Murphy, his long-time friend. "He loved presenting the Pop Warner awards at their annual banquets. He had such great reverence for Warner, and loved to represent his memory at functions. Ernie really was a humble individual and a perfect gentleman.”


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING ERNIE NEVERS

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - AUSTIN, TEXAS
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
TOM DAVIS - SAN CARLOS, CALIFORNIA
TOM WALLS - WINNIPEG, MANITOBA
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
JOHN ROTHWELL - CORPUS CHRISTI, TEXAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON

A SLIGHT CORRECTION:   My daughter Vicky, a Stanford grad (and fan) has informed me that  there are now three Stanford football players who have had their numbers retired: Ernie Nevers, Jim Plunkett and - as of 2013 - John Elway




***********  QUIZ: He was born in Sioux Falls, South Dakota but grew up in San Diego.

He played college ball at a series of JCs and colleges, including Fresno State, and wound up graduating from prestigious Washington University in St. Louis - summa cum laude (Latin for “with highest honors”).

He coached high school for one year and JC  ball for four years, and coached briefly  at San Jose State, Fresno State, Pacific and Minnesota before  landing at Arizona State in 1983 and spending nine years there.

In his 20th year of coaching he was hired by the Los Angeles Rams as  quarterbacks coach, and after three years, when the Rams moved to St. Louis, he went along and spent two more years coaching wide receivers.

When the  staff was fired, he caught on with the Redskins (you know - what the Commanders used to be) as their quarterbacks coach, but after two years in DC he was back in St. Louis, hired by  Dick Vermeil to be his offensive coordinator.

What a hire he was! His offense, built around an unheralded quarterback named Kurt Warner, who’d had to step in after starter Trent Green was hurt in the preseason, wound up leading the NFL.  Warner threw for 4,353 yards and 41 touchdowns, and was named League MVP.   The Rams scored a league-leading 526 points - fourth-highest in NFL history - and they went on to  win the Super Bowl. 

Nicknamed “The Greatest Show on Turf,” his offense would score more than 500 points for three straight seasons - an NFL record.

Said Vermeil afterwards, “I can't think, in my history of coaching, of any assistant who came into an NFL franchise and made the immediate impact that (— — —)  did.  Kurt Warner came off the street, and he made him NFL player of the year.  I have great respect for him, and I think he has great respect for me. We took a team to the Super Bowl. Without him we don't go."

It took our guy 30 years to become a coordinator but only one year as a coordinator to become a head coach,  when in  February Vermeil retired, and our guy succeeded him.

He went 10-6 in his first year, but  14-2 in his second year, and the Rams made it to the Super Bowl, where they lost to the Patriots.

In five full seasons in St. Louis, the Rams made the playoffs four times, but early in his sixth season, with the Rams 2-3,  he had to take a medical leave to recover from “a bacterial infection near his heart.”

He was cleared by his doctors to coach the Rams last regular-season game, but the club refused to let him do so, and fired him after the game.  He was 54.

He  spent the next five seasons as offensive coordinator with the Lions, the 49ers, and then the Bears before retiring.

Since then, he’s shared his expertise on different TVshows.

But although he left St. Louis with a 53-32 record  as head coach - this is hard to believe, considering some of the curious hires NFL teams have made in the years since - he never got another NFL head coaching job.



TUESDAY,  APRIL 18,  2023 - "'Emergencies' have always been the pretext on which the safeguards of individual liberty have been eroded." Friedrich Hayek


*********** Hail to the Chief.

“The interesting thing is I’d rather have my children playing rugby now for health reasons than I would have them playing football. Fewer people get hurt playing rugby, and you have no equipment, you have 280 pounds like we do and you just don’t hit each other in the head very often.”

That was the President of our country,  in Ireland promoting our game.

Of course, it makes me feel a little better realizing  that, just as he’s claimed to have played football at Delaware, he’s been known to lie.  Often, actually.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7esqTbJXsg&t=34s

https://www.outkick.com/joe-biden-rugby-football-comments-ireland/


*********** THIS WEEKEND IN THE XFL…

SATURDAY GAMES

Houston 28, Vegas 21

Houston - Only two offensive TDs
Brandon Silvers 16/27/105   0 TD     2 ints
132 yards rushing on 26 carries;  Max Borghi had 10 carries for 74 yrds
Vegas - Jalan McClendon  27/37/249    2 TDs    0 ints
20/96 team rushing

San Antonio 25, Orlando 23

San Antonio:   Jack Coan played by far his best game - 25/31/302     1 TD    0 int
But Jacques Patrick had 80 yds and 1 TD on 20 carries
Orlando - Devin Darrington (from Harvard!) rushed 16 times for 133 and a TD
BUT- Three QBs between them could only produce 136 yards passing, and 69 yards of that came on one play

SUNDAY GAMES

DC 28,  Arlington 26 (OT)

Trailing 26-9 after three, Arlington outscored DC by 17-0 in the fourth quarter to force OT
DC:  Jordan Ta’amu   14/20/188     2 TD   1 int
Deriq King  6/9/76       1  TD     1 int
Rushing 20 carried 50 yards
Arlington:  Luis Perez  31/41/335      1 TD     1 int
25 carries  113 yards

Seattle 30, St. Louis 12

St Louis spent a lot of time in empty sets. Results:   
12 running plays for 54 yards; they had 17 yards rushing at the half
A J McCarron - 18/32/186   1 TD    1 int
Seattle -  26 for 123 Rushing. 
Ben DeNucci - 21/31/26   2 TD     1 int



XFL  STANDINGS WITH ONE GAME TO PLAY

XFL North
1) D.C. Defenders (8-1)**
2) St. Louis Battlehawks (6-3)
3) Seattle Sea Dragons (6-3)
4) Vegas Vipers (2-7)

XFL South
1) Houston Roughnecks (6-3)**
2) Arlington Renegades (4-5)
3) San Antonio Brahmas (3-6)
4) Orlando Guardians (1-8)

** Clinched conference championship and playoff spot

WEEK TEN SCHEDULE

SATURDAY
ORLANDO AT ST LOUIS 12:00 PM EDT -ESPN
DC AT SAN ANTONIO 3 PM EDT - ABC

SUNDAY
HOUSTON AT ARLINGTON  3 PM  EDT - ESPN
VEGAS AT SEATTLE - 7 PM EDT - ESPN2


*********** USFL OPENING WEEKEND

SATURDAY GAMES
Philadelphia Stars 27,  Memphis Showboats  23  (at Memphis)

Philadelphia Coach: Bart Andrus

Memphis Coach: Todd Haley

Birmingham Stallions 27, New Jersey Generals 10 (at Birmingham)

Birmingham Coach: Skip Holtz

New Jersey Coach: Mike Riley


SUNDAY GAMES

Michigan Panthers 29, Houston Gamblers 13 (at Memphis)

Michigan Coach: Mike Nolan*

Houston Coach:  Curtis Johnson*
 


New Orleans Breakers 22, Pittsburgh Maulers 19  (at Birmingham)

New Orleans Coach: John DeFilippo*

Pittsburgh Coach: Ray Horton*


* Coaches new to the USFL
 

https://www.theusfl.com/


*********** Hey reporters and broadcasters - enough with the “initials” bull sh—.  Use the school’s name.   Thanks to  mental laziness  born of texting and twitter, we’re now dealing with FIU and  USF and CCU and UCSD (yes, and IUPUI).   It’s not as if they’re  known that way to the wider sport world, the way  UCLA and USC are.





*********** We’ve all seen them:  little metal boxes with glass windows on their fronts, and an instruction printed on them: IN CASE OF EMERGENCY BREAK GLASS.

At Anheuser-Busch, I bet there’s a little box on the CEO’s desk that says, IN CASE OF ADVERTISING F-UP BREAK  OUT CLYDESDALES

So  with the mass of American Deplorables enraged at A-B’s engaging a male posing as a female to help sell Bud Light, out comes a Budweiser (real Bud, not Bud Light) commercial, opening with a galloping Clydesdale, as it proceeds to give us a montage of things American - the Gateway Arch, the Brooklyn Bridge, the Lincoln Memorial… old veterans raising the flag… farms and villages… guys wearing baseball caps standing on the front porch and drinking a Bud…

It reminded me of  “You Never Even Call Me By My Name,” (aka “the perfect country and western song’) by David Allan Coe:

Well, a friend of mine named Steve Goodman wrote that song
And he told me it was the perfect country & western song

I wrote him back a letter and I told him it was not the perfect country & western song

Because he hadn't said anything at all about mama
Or trains, or trucks, or prison, or gettin' drunk

Well, he sat down and wrote another verse to the song and he sent it to me
And after reading it I realized that my friend had written the perfect country & western song
And I felt obliged to include it on this album
The last verse goes like this here

Well, I was drunk the day my mom got out of prison
And I went to pick her up in the rain
But before I could get to the station in my pickup truck
She got run over by a damned old train

The Americans weren’t taking the bait. It's time they wised up to the way that company has been pulling the wool over their eyes.

Anheuser-Busch is not American. Once a proud American company, it sold out to a foreign firm so that certain Busch family members could cash in on all the work their ancestors had done.

It's no more American   than Toyota or Volkswagen.

Sure,  Anheuser-Busch makes Budweiser in St. Louis.

But Toyota makes cars in Alabama, Indiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Texas, etc.

And  Toyota doesn’t try waving the American flag and pretending it’s American, subtly invoking  our patriotism by using phrases in its commercials like “Real America” and  “The American Spirit.”

One thing’s for sure:   you can bet A-B’s ad agency’s working double shifts right now, churning out more of those insincere  “Made in the heartland of this great country we all call America” commercials, because - get ready for this -

Bud Light’s supposed to be sponsoring the NFL draft.


https://www.outkick.com/nfl-draft-will-be-sponsored-by-bud-light-yeah-that-bud-light/



***********   Wouldn’t you think, nine weeks into the season, that XFL players would have learned by now not to line up offsides on defense or false-start on offense?  It’s been a pox on the league since week one. (You don’t suppose, do you, that this could be why they’re in the XFL, and not the NFL?)


***********  While we’re busy fighting battles over pronouns, let’s not forget about the disappearing state-of-being verb.

Gleaned from  sideline interviews this past weekend:

We down
They everywhere
My son out here
We just gonna let it happen
This such a blessing



***********  The wide receivers coach for the Houston Roughnecks is Jack Pardee’s son, Payton.




***********   I was just about to say that at least the teams in the USFL will dress like real football teams,  when out of the tunnel came the Memphis Showboats, looking for all the world like the 1967 Pittsburgh Steelers -  back when they really sucked.
 




*********** Memphis had a decent crowd in Liberty Stadium Saturday.  They announced it as 30,000, but there’s no way that 58,000-seat stadium was half full.  I’m willing to accept 20,000, which wasn’t bad at all.  They were all seated on one  side of the stadium, which undoubtedly makes a lot of sense, but it wasn’t a very good look for televiewers when Memphis coach Todd Haley told the interviewer  about the  nice crowd that had come to support  his team - in front of a backdrop  of thousands of empty seats.
 

*********** It took one day - Saturday - for the USFL to show that it is VASTLY superior in play to the XFL -

Better coaching
Better offenses
Better quarterbacks
Better receivers
Better running backs
Better offensive line play

Granted, part of that can probably be attributed to the fact that the four  USFL teams playing on Saturday were all in their second years with their coaches.  That had to make a difference.

And, truthfully, the play on Sunday was more like the calibre of XFL ball.

I think they’re making a mistake playing games in places that have no interest in either team.

The USFL  did show more replays, indicating that it’s not saving money in that crucial area.

The USFL has real kickoffs.  And real kick returns.  Sorry, but the XFL’s kickoff experiment has become a total bore. Few kicks are returned past midfield, and since there seems to be holding or blocking in the back on more than half of the kickoff returns, most of the good one are called back, anyhow.

Also, there are fewer in-game interviews, meaning fewer of them spilling over into actual play.


*********** As they tended to an injured Memphis lineman during the Philadelphia-Memphis game, an open mic allowed us to hear Philadelphia coach Bart Andrus  telling someone - probably a coach in the press box asking who was hurt - “It’s a fat guy.”


*********** As lethal as fentanyl is said to be , why do I keep hearing all the deaths it’s causing being referred to as “drug overdoses?”

Are they suggesting that there’s a safe dose?



*********** Pete Porcelli, a longtime Double Wing coach from the Albany, New York area, sent me a link to an article called “Restorative Practices for Coaches to Build Desirable Team Culture” and it’s by someone who, just like Jill Biden, has a “Doctor” in front of his name.


I’m a little suspicious because at one point his name is Dr. Scott Adams, while in at least two other places he’s referred to as “Dr. Scott Adreon.”  WTF?  At least he didn’t change the gender of his first name.

There is something about being in a circle, facing each other, with no barriers, no phones, no desks, etc. that brings everyone to the same level – coaches included. When people are in a circle, they have the opportunity to see everyone’s body language, see their facial expressions, and look them in the eyes. They too see those same things in you, which instantly holds everyone more accountable.

The rules of the circle are simple: only one person is talking at a time, speaking from the heart, sharing only what he or she is comfortable sharing. Listening to understand, not just to respond, participants can “pass” if they would like, and what is said in the circle stays in the circle.

Circles can be used for many different reasons such as introductions, wellness checks, community building, problem-solving, norm/goal setting, instructional, etc. The purpose of the circle should be communicated clearly to team members, and the questions should be intentional and specific to help eliminate possible confusion and to keep the participants moving forward.

Circles typically start with an innocuous question, but one that helps the facilitator gauge where the group is presently. For example, “On a scale from 1 to 5, with 1 being not so good and 5 being great, how are you feeling about heading into today’s practice?” A follow-up question could be, “For those of you who said 4 or 5, would anyone like to share why you said 4 or 5?” or “For anyone who said 1, 2 or 3, would anyone like to share why you said 1, 2 or 3?”

The facilitator should always follow up input with: “Thank you for sharing,” or “That was a thoughtful response” or “I know that wasn’t easy, but thank you for being real” or something similar. As the rounds of questions progress, the facilitator can dig a little deeper, though it takes time to build the trust needed for individuals to feel safe sharing. Keep in mind, with each question and each circle, not only are you learning about your team members, they are learning about you a

https://www.nfhs.org/articles/restorative-practices-for-coaches-to-build-desirable-team-culture/

Blah, blah, blah.  Another guy for your school district to go out and hire to come  talk to you about  improving your teaching - while you sit in the back and draw plays.


Pete wrote,

At first I agreed with the first 2 paragraphs but then it became a New World Order of coaching. Imagine doing circle groups and sharing your feelings with a High school kid? The NFHS has been bitten by everyone gets a trophy club. I know in this day and age of the 2 positives 1 negative style of teaching, this will not work in football. I bet the author played zero football and was a possible E sports All American!!



*********** Nebraska’s Matt Rhule on how you find fullbacks when the so-called recruiting services don’t even rank them…

So we’re doing a fullback camp this summer. We’re doing a one-day fullback camp (on June 13). My thought process was there’s probably guys out there that play tight end. There’s probably guys out there that are big tailbacks. There’s probably guys in the wing-T that are fullbacks in other places across the country. Linebackers. They can come here for one day and just focus on one position: Play fullback. You watch the 49ers and the versatility of (Kyle) Juszczyk. When you have a good one, they can add so much to your offense. People don’t see it very often. So we’d love to find one. We had a great one, Nick Sharga, at Temple who used to just demolish people. I’d love to find that type of a kid here at Nebraska.


***********  A quote for all coaches to keep in mind:

“I feel like I started to get a lot more confidence toward the end of the season  because I started to actually know what I was doing.”  Oregon offensive tackle Josh Conerly


***********   If what’s in the leaked government info is true, It appears that nobody learned a thing from the last leak - the Pentagon Papers, when back during Vietnam it became clear that our government, from the very top on down, was lying to us about how “our” war is going.

But unlike the Vietnam lying, there’s no outrage in the mainstream media about the government’s lies - only about some 21-year-old kid who (supposedly) stole highly-secret information and made it public.



***********   Happy Birthday to your wife and teammate, Connie. Glad she's a part of your wider family.

Coach Koenig can be proud of his team, of himself, and for showing his conference what the Double Wing can do.

You put the SI jinx, now the Wyatt jinx, on Jordan Walker, whose streak ended yesterday.

You have me fired up about Burley, Idaho. At a minimum, I'll search online for property there.

Fine list of clinicians there.


John Vermillion                        
St Petersburg, Florida



***********  Hugh,

The Generals - Stallions game will be worth watching.

The NFL could learn something from the XFL and USFL rules.  But then again, the NFL is all-knowing.

Coach Koenig's team's scoring numbers are impressive.  But then again, so is Coach Koenig!

As a fellow Bulldog I hope Trent Dilfer finds success at UAB.  He is knowledgeable, he's a professional, and he's a good Christian man.  And...he doesn't tolerate foolishness.

Gatlin Bair is a machine.  He runs like a football player.  A very fast football player.  Unlike Matthew Boling who runs like a track athlete, who is also very fast, but who also doesn't play football.

After reading the names of the coaches you listed I went back into my archives and found my list.  Some of the same names, but my list is much shorter for some reason.

For those guys who plan on boycotting Bud Light DON'T take it a step further and boycott AB InBev.  Doing that would eliminate other brands...almost ALL of them!  Coors Light works!  

Enjoy the weekend!

Joe Gutilla
Austin, Texas





(How many of you recognized Roger Staubach at lower left in the photo on the right?)



***********  QUIZ ANSWER:    In terms of his achievements and public service,  Alan Page  ranks among the most distinguished men ever to play professional football.
 
A native of Canton, Ohio where he attended Central Catholic High School, he graduated from Notre Dame, where in 1966 he was a consensus All-American defensive end.

He was the number one draft pick of the Minnesota Vikings.
 
He played 11 full seasons and part of another with the Vikings, then the remainder of that season and two more with the Bears. During his time with the Vikings, he played in eight pro bowl games, and as a dominant member of their famous “Purple People Eaters” front four, he helped the Vikings make it to five NFL championship games.
 
In 1971, he became the first defensive player in NFL history to be named Most Valuable Player.
 
In 1979, he became the first active NFL player to finish a marathon.
 
But there was a lot more to him than great football ability. While still a player, he served as  team player representative, and attended law school at the University of Minnesota.

Before his playing days were ended,  he had earned his law degree, and  following his retirement from the NFL, he entered private law practice.
 
From 1985 to 1993, he served as an assistant attorney general, and in 1993 was elected associate justice of the Minnesota State Supreme Court - the first black person to serve in that position - and he remained on the Supreme Court until his mandatory retirement in 2015.
 
In 1981,  he was named one of American's Ten Outstanding Young Men by the Jaycees.
 
He was named  one of the "100 Influential Minnesotans of the Century" by the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.
 
He was named one of "The 50 Greatest Sports Figures from Ohio" by Sports Illustrated.
 
He was named in 2001 to the Academic All-American Hall of Fame.
 
In 1988 he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
 
In 1993, he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.

In 2018, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Trump.
 
Alan Page has been active in numerous ways in impressing on minority youngsters the value of education, and in 2022 a Twin Cities elementary school was named for him.



CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING ALAN PAGE


GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
TOM DAVIS - SAN CARLOS, CALIFORNIA
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - AUSTIN, TEXAS
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
RUSS MEYERS - VERNON CENTER, NEW YORK
CHRISTOPHER ANDERSON - MUNICH GERMANY
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY


***********   The great Alan Page.  Another poster child for Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream" speech.  And there are thousands more.

Joe Gutilla
Austin, Texas


***********   Hugh,

I feel silly I had never heard of Alan Page until I looked him up for the quiz. To play for Ara Parseghian and then Bud Grant is a pretty special opportunity.

Christopher Anderson
Munich, Germany

***********   Coach,   What a great role model and example of how you can be a great football player and still perform at a hall of fame level in the classroom as well. One other thing to note about Alan Page was that he played at between 230 and 240 pounds and played defensive tackle.

Russ Meyers
Vernon Center, New York


 




*********** QUIZ:  What a shame he  doesn't  play today. What a shame that today’s sports-mad Americans never got to  see him play.

Although it’s been nearly 100 years since he played there, he may still be the most illustrious figure in Stanford's long and glorious sports history.

He is one of the only two Stanford players - Jim Plunkett is the other - to have had his jersey number retired.

In the Rose Bowl, he outgained all four of Notre Dame’s Four Horsemen, all by himself.

He is almost certainly  the only man ever play pro football, pro baseball and pro basketball - and he did it all in the same year (1927).

He played football against Red Grange and pitched against Babe Ruth.

He set an NFL single-game scoring record that still stands.

For months, during World War II, he was listed as Missing in Action in the South Pacific. 

He was born in Willow River, Minnesota, on June 11, 1903.  His family moved first to Superior, Wisconsin and then,  during his junior year of high school, to Santa Rosa, California.   There, as a senior he played on his high school's very first football team, and when it turned out that he knew more football than the coach, he designed the offense - and  put himself at fullback.

"I wanted every chance to carry the ball and kick," he explained later.  The team finished 7-3.

Although he is still regarded as perhaps the greatest athlete ever to attend there, Stanford landed him only after an epic recruiting struggle with its archrival, the University of California.

The story that has since become legend was that while he was visiting the Cal campus,  he was "kidnapped" by Stanford boosters, spirited away to a secluded spot somewhere on the coast and - in the company of a good-looking young female - kept hidden from Cal people until he finally decided to attend Stanford.

Years later, he admitted that Cal had been his first choice. "Brick Muller (a Cal All-American from the early 1920s) had been an idol of mine, and I got to know him," he said. "So I was all set to go to Cal, but at the last minute I picked Stanford. But if I had gone to Cal I probably would have stayed a lineman and nobody would have given me much of a chance. I was a terrible tackle. I did much better as a fullback."

Indeed he did. At 6-1, 205, he was a big man by the standards of his day, and as a fullback, he was gigantic. Called "Swede" and "Big Dog" by his teammates, he truly did everything - he ran, passed, punted and tackled. He was noted for his fearless, reckless style of play, and on occasion, when the action got especially rough, he would toss his helmet aside and fling himself into the action bareheaded.

Asked to compare him to the legendary Jim Thorpe, whom he had also coached, Pop Warner,  his coach at Stanford, said, "I consider (— —)  the better player because he gave everything he had in every game."

Warner wrote, in his autobiography, "In an era of great ones - Red Grange of Illinois, George Gipp and the Four Horsemen from Notre Dame, Elmer Oliphant and Chris Cagle of Army, or even Jim Thorpe of Carlisle - (— —)  always stood a bit taller when trying to compare others to him."

His  most legendary performance was in the 1925 Rose Bowl against Knute Rockne and Notre Dame and the legendary Four Horsemen.

He almost didn't play at all. He'd broken his left ankle before the opening game of the season, and his right ankle in the next-to-last game, and was on crutches up to two days before the Rose Bowl.  But then, his ankles supported by makeshift braces fashioned by Warner and wrapped so tightly that he had little feeling in his legs, he was ready to play.

"You'll probably last ten minutes," Warner predicted pessimistically, but he played all 60 minutes.

Handling the ball on every offensive play, he carried the 34 times for 117 yards, and single-handedly outgained all four Horsemen. On defense, he intercepted a pass and was in on 80 percent of Stanford's tackles.

So amazing was his performance that the two interceptions he threw - returned by Elmer Layden for touchdowns of 78 and 70 yards - were forgiven.

Although Stanford lost, 27-10, Irish coach Knute Rockne was in awe of his  performance. “(— —) could do everything," Rockne recalled later. "He tore our line to shreds, ran the ends, forward-passed and kicked. True, we held him on the 1-yard line for four downs, but by that time he was exhausted."

So impressed was Rockne that day that later, when our guy was playing as a pro with the Chicago Cardinals, Rockne would often take his players to Chicago just to watch him  play.

At Stanford, he earned 11 letters - in football, baseball, basketball and track.  His freshman year,  he competed in a track meet in his baseball uniform, then hurried over to the diamond to pitch nine innings against Cal.

In baseball, he once pitched 37 consecutive scoreless innings - a school record that still stands. In the 1925 three-game series with Cal, he pitched the full nine innings in two of the games, and in the final game, with the count three-and-two, hit a grand slam home run to win the series for Stanford.

While in college, he also had some bit parts in Hollywood productions during the offseasons, working with a couple of USC football players named Ward Bond and Marion "Duke" Morrison. Bond would become a well-known actor, and Morrison would become even better known under his screen name: John Wayne.

In his first year as a pro football player, 1926, he  played for the Duluth Eskimos, a traveling team that played 29 games in 117 days - 27 of the 29 games on the road - including one stretch of five games in eight days. There were only 16 players on the Eskimos roster.

"Sometimes we used take two showers after games," he recalled once. `"The first one would be with our uniforms on. Then we'd beat them like rugs to get some of the water out, throw them into our bags, get dressed and catch a train."

In the entire 29-game schedule,  he played 1,714 out of a possible 1,740 minutes.  He missed just 26 minutes of action, after  doctors ordered him to sit out a game when’s he was diagnosed with appendicitis. But with Duluth trailing 6-0,  he couldn't stand to watch, and disregarding the doctor's orders, he put himself into the game, and threw a 62-yard TD pass and kicked the extra point to give the Eskimos a 7-6 win.

His major-league baseball career was a short one. Playing for the woeful St. Louis Browns, he did gain a measure of fame as a result of Babe Ruth's hitting two of his record-setting 60 home runs off him in 1927.

The Babe, not one to flatter anyone unnecessarily, said to him, "You've got good speed, kid. For my sake, I hope you stick to football."

He once hit a double off the great Walter Johnson, but  modestly, he said, "I think he grooved it for me.”

On Thanksgiving Day, 1929, he scored six touchdowns and kicked four extra points to account for all the Chicago Cardinals points in their 40-6 win over the Bears. His  40 points in a single game by one player is an NFL record that has yet to be broken.

After his football playing career ended in 1932,  he began a coaching career, but at the outbreak of World War II, although too old to be drafted, he enlisted in the Marine Corps. While serving in the Pacific, he and his battalion were reported missing for several months. When they were finally found on a deserted island, several had died.  Suffering  from beri-beri, he weighed only 110 pounds. While he was overseas, his wife had died of pnuemonia.

Following the war,  he was involved in the startup of Chicago's franchise in the All-American Football League, and spent most of his working  life in the wholesale liquor business in the Bay Area..

Modest and private, he declined most requests for interviews. He kept few football mementos in his home, and reportedly never talked about sports with his family. Around the news media, he seemed embarrassed to talk about himself, and when he did, it was often in a humorous, self-deprecating way.

Asked to recall his Rose Bowl performance, he chose to dwell on the interceptions he threw. "A total of 150 yards and two touchdowns in two tries," he once said, "makes the passing combination of Layden of Notre Dame and (— —) of Stanford the best in Rose Bowl history."

He lived in Tiburon, north of San Francisco, for much of his life and once invited Bob Murphy, then the sports information director at Stanford, to bring a tape recorder over to his house to discuss his athletic career in detail for a possible book.

"We rambled on for a few hours," Murphy recalled. "He talked about everything - the Four Horsemen, Pop Warner taping up his ankles with inner tubes, the home runs he served up to Babe Ruth. But here's the sad part of the story. I transcribed the tape, but to this day, I don't know what I did with it. I may have it buried somewhere, but I haven't been able to find it."

In 1951 he was inducted into the College Hall of Fame.

In 1962, Sports Illustrated named him the greatest college football player of all time.

In 1963   he was a charter inductee of the Pro Football Hall of Fame - a member of the first class of 17 inducted  into the Hall, along with the likes of Sammy Baugh, Red Grange, Don Hutson, Bronco Nagurski and Jim Thorpe.

"He loved doing things for kids," recalled Murphy, his long-time friend. "He loved presenting the Pop Warner awards at their annual banquets. He had such great reverence for Warner, and loved to represent his memory at functions. (He)  really was a humble individual and a perfect gentleman."




FRIDAY,  APRIL 14,  2023 - “You cannot subsidize irresponsibility and expect people to become more responsible.” Thomas Sowell


*********** HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY WIFE, WHOSE ENCOURAGEMENT AND SUPPORT MADE POSSIBLE THE COACHING  CAREER THAT I ONCE  ONLY DREAMED OF


***********  Rochester's Aquinas Institute is Don Holleder’s high school, and  the school sure does make those of us with the Black Lion Award proud!




  Shoot me an email and sign your team up to give the  Black Lion Award !



*********** THIS WEEKEND IN THE XFL…

XFL  STANDINGS WITH TWO GAMES TO PLAY

XFL North

1) D.C. Defenders (7-1)
2) St. Louis Battlehawks (6-2)
3) Seattle Sea Dragons (5-3)
4) Vegas Vipers (2-6)

XFL South

1) Houston Roughnecks (5-3)
2) Arlington Renegades (4-4)
3) San Antonio Brahmas (2-6)
4) Orlando Guardians (1-7)

WEEK NINE SCHEDULE

SATURDAY

VEGAS AT HOUSTON 12:30 PM EDT - ABC
ORLANDO AT SAN ANTONIO 7 PM EDT - ESPN2

SUNDAY

ARLINGTON AT DC - 12 NOON EDT - ESPN
SEATTLE AT ST LOUIS - 3 PM EDT - ESPN

*********** My wife and I have  definitely enjoyed the XFL, but realistically, for anyone who expected to see offensive football, it has been a flop.


AFTER 8 GAMES,  HERE’S THE RANKING OF XFL TEAMS BY
AVERAGE OFFENSIVE TDS PER GAME

DC                 3.4
HOUSTON        3.1
ST LOUIS        2.8
ORLANDO        2.8
SEATTLE        2.6
VEGAS        2.5
SAN ANTONIO      1.3
ARLINGTON        1.1

Only three teams - DC, Orlando, and Houston - are averaging more than one rushing TD per game, but it’s not as if they’re lighting things up in the passing game  either:  only two teams - St. Louis and Houston - are averaging two passing touchdowns per game.


HOW ABOUT RUSHING?

A COMPARISON OF  THE XFL AFTER 8 GAMES
AND THE USFL LAST FULL SEASON

XFL 2023 TEAMS RANKED BY YARDS RUSHING PER GAME

Only one XFL team has averaged 100 yards or more;
Only two XFL teams have averaged 90 yards or more

DC                159
VEGAS             96
SEATTLE         89
ORLANDO         88
ST LOUIS         87
ARLINGTON     82
SAN ANTONIO     80
HOUSTON         80

USFL  2022 TEAMS RANKED BY YARDS RUSHING PER GAME

FIVE teams averaged 100 yards or more;
ALL EIGHT teams averaged 90 yards or more

NEW JERSEY    161
BIRMINGHAM    136
MICHIGAN        135
NEW ORLEANS     115
PHILADELPHIA    103
TAMPA BAY          94
PITTSBURGH      93
HOUSTON          90


*********** USFL OPENING WEEKEND

SATURDAY -  1:30PM PDT (FOX)

Philadelphia Stars  vs Memphis Showboats  at Memphis

SATURDAY -  4:30PM PDT (FOX)

New Jersey Generals  vs Birmingham Stallions at Birmingham


SUNDAY -  9:00 AM PDT (NBC)

Michigan Panthers vs Houston Gamblers at Memphis
 
SUNDAY -  3:30 PM  PDT (FS1)

Pittsburgh Maulers vs New Orleans Breakers at Birmingham


Other locations where USFL games will be played: Canton, Ohio  and Detroit


*********** When the USFL kicks off this weekend (from the 20 - see below) it will be the first time in 40 years that a spring league came back  for a second season.

In addition to a 1-, 2- or 3-point PAT option - same as the XFL - and an alternative fourth-and-long type play as an alternative to an onside kick - same as the XFL - the USFL will have some innovative rules of its own.

1. Kickoffs from the 20 yard line.  The goal is to have 90 per cent of kicks returned (last year it was 80 per cent).  A kickoff out of bounds will be  spotted on the 50.

2. The replay center will act as the “8th Official,” and will review all roughing the passer calls, personal fouls, and unsportsmanlike conduct calls.

3. A change long overdue in other leagues and at other levels:

A ball fumbled forward from the field of play into the end zone and out of bounds will no longer be a touchback, but will be returned to the spot of the fumble with the fumbling team retaining possession.

https://www.theusfl.com/the-usfl/usfl-adds-new-rules-for-2023-brings-back-popular-innovations-from-last-season






*********** You’d have to say that it was a pretty  good first year for Greg Koenig and the Double Wing.  His Bennett, Colorado Tigers wound up leading the entire state in scoring in their classification, averaging 46.6 points per game.


*********** A Wall Street Journal article on the power of words cited research published in the National Academy of Sciences Journal which found that while telling people  “be sure to vote!” was nice and all that, asking them to “be voters” increased voter turnout by 15  per cent.

Suggested the article,   “Want people to listen? Ask them to be listeners.”

“Want them to lead?  Ask them to be leaders.”

Instead of  saying “Don’t cheat,” say   “Don’t be a cheater.”

Hmmm.  That got me thinking about its application to coaching:

Instead of saying “Hit somebody!”

Maybe I’d get better results saying.  “Be a hitter of somebody!”

Or instead of “Catch the ball!”

I could say,  “Be a catcher of the ball!”

And instead of, “Let’s whip their butts!”

I’d say, “Let’s be whippers of their butts!”

“Don’t jump offside” would become “Don’t be an offside jumper.”



*********** Long time friend and Double-Winger Gabe McCown, from Ada, Oklahoma, sent me a  video clip of the 14-year-old son of a friend who’s going to be a high school freshman next fall.

The kid’s a quarterback.  Gabe says he’s got very good grades and he’s well respected by his teammates.  I saw the video,  and he not only throws well but - unless somebody’s been playing games in the editing studio - he throws equally well right-or left-handed.

That got us going on whether there’s ever been an ambidextrous quarterback, and my answer was, “almost.”

From Sports Illustrated, 1961 -

"Baker again had to skip baseball in the spring in order to learn all of Prothro's formations. This was quite a blow to the baseball coach, who harbors secret dreams of building Baker into an ambidextrous pitcher. For Baker still throws a baseball right handed, as he learned to do in his boyhood, although he throws the football left-handed."

That was Terry Baker of Oregon State who is still the only guy to play in the Final Four and win the Heisman. But he didn't throw a football both right and left-handed.

Truthfully, considering the accuracy problems I see pro QBs having throwing with just one arm I don't see being ambidextrous  as an advantage.

Actually, I don’t see  where it’s an advantage  to the youngster.  It seems to me that as important as footwork and  accuracy are to a  quarterback, he’s going to need plenty of reps,  just like any other quarterback.

And since there’s only so much  time in which to practice, it makes no sense to divide up the time available by spending half the time repping right-handed and the other half repping left-handed.



*********** At the present time, the total value of media rights  for all sports in the US, broadcast and streaming, is  roughly $25 billion.

In just two years’ time, that figure is expected to rise by  20 per cent - to $30 billion.

The reason, writes Axios’ Tim Baysinger, is a confluence of two factors: first, many major media deals will come up for renewal during that time; and second, large tech companies such as Amazon and Apple will be joining in the bidding for rights.

The problem for you and me as “consumers” of sports (sorry, but I just can’t picture myself eating a hockey game) is that at some point, as they keep losing cable viewers, the TV networks will begin to drop out of the bidding, and we’ll be left with having to subscribe to a number of streaming services if we want to watch a lot of sports.

The problem for the teams and leagues is  that they may find themselves facing the difficult choice of going for the money (from the streaming services) or going for the most viewers (TV networks).



*********** I’m not the biggest major league baseball fan in the world, but  I’m definitely following the St. Louis Cardinals at the moment. 

More specifically, I’m following their rookie right  fielder, Jordan Walker, a 20-year-old kid from Decatur, Georgia who as of this writing has hit safely in all twelve of the Cards’ games.

He’s the first player under 21 to get a base hit in that many straight games in more than 100 years (the last time was 1912), and if he should get a hit today - Thursday - he will become the first player in major league baseball history to  hit in 13 straight games before his 21st birthday.

The "kid"  is  6-6, 245.
 




***********  Coach Wyatt,

I hope this email finds you well.

I saw this NPR report on one of my news feeds and thought of you and your annual Memorial Day Tribute.

Keep up the great work with your News.

Mark Hundley
Grove City, Ohio


Many thanks to Coach Hundley.  The story of the poppies and the great poem inspired by their blooming - “In Flanders Fields” - is quite moving.

This year’s California “superbloom” can be seen from space.


https://www.npr.org/sections/pictureshow/2023/04/11/1169204488/california-wildflower-superbloom-photos?utm_source=join1440&utm_medium=email&utm_placement=newsletter


*********** We all know by now about Deion Sanders taking over  at Colorado.  He’s a controversial figure, and while he does have a few years’ experience as a college head coach, he’s never coached at the FBS level. Who knows how he’ll do? 

Meanwhile, 1300 miles to the southeast,  there’s a parallel situation that hasn’t received anywhere near the attention that  Sanders and Colorado have.

It’s the hiring of Trent Dilfer by UAB.  Yes, that Trent Dilfer - the guy who helped Baltimore win a Super Bowl and was rewarded by being released the following year.

He played in the NFL for 14 seasons, with five different teams, and after retirement he worked as an analyst with ESPN.  He is smart and witty, and he did a good job there until ESPN began cutting positions to save money.

So far, I haven’t mentioned any coaching.  That’s because there wasn’t any.

He did get involved in some of this “Elite 11” quarterback business, but it wasn’t until four years ago that he actually became a coach.  He was hired by Lipscomb Academy, a small private Christian school in Nashville, and in his four years there he built program that has won state championships the past two seasons.

Well, whoopee-doo.  Maybe that means he’s a good coach.  Who knows? 

Or maybe it’s simply because he had certain advantages there that  helped him  win - the sort of advantages that you’ll never have in college.

Can a good high school coach win at the big-college level?  Sure.  But  it’s rare, and whenever one of us old-timers hears  that question, we tend to think of Gerry Faust.  Geez, he was a good high school coach.  His Moeller Catholic (Cincinnati) teams were considered among the best in the country, year after year.  Hs had seven unbeaten seasons, and  four mythical national championships at Moeller. But  then he was hired as head coach at Notre Dame, and despite seeming to be a perfect fit for the job, after five years  at South Bend, with a record of 36-24, he was let go.

Maybe that’s an unfair comparison.  UAB, after all,  is not Notre Dame.  But on the other hand, Lipscomb Academy is not Moeller Catholic, either.

UAB has been through a lot - it wasn’t that long ago that the football program was shut down.  Now, they’ve got a nice, new stadium in an area that’s football crazy, and there’s plenty of talent  within a couple hundred miles - if Dilfer can recruit.

One real concern expressed by UAB people - Dilfer’s assistants are light on experience, while in Colorado, Sanders does appear to have surrounded himself with a solid staff.


https://theathletic.com/4405254/2023/04/13/trent-dilfer-uab-aac/?source=user_shared_article


*********** The spring transfer portal window opens Saturday and runs through April 30, giving  college players one last chance to enter the portal before the start of the 2023 season.


*********** A full 20 per cent of D-1 men’s basketball players have entered the transfer portal.

And you thought football was bad?  You’ll be relieved to know that “Only” 12 per cent of FBS players are in the transfer portal.

https://ftw.usatoday.com/2023/04/ncaa-mens-basketball-transfer-portal-20-percent-scholarship-players


*********** How  do I know Burley, Idaho?  Well, it’s about a half-hour from Twin Falls, where I once had to leave my van for repairs after it broke down on my way to Kansas.

It’s about midway between Boise and Salt Lake City - two to two-and-a-half hours either way.

And, most significant for me, it’s about halfway between Denver and Camas - nine hours from Camas and ten from Denver - which makes it a nice place to stop on the way home whenever we make that drive.  (On the way to Denver, we’ll usually drive as far as Brigham City, Utah the first day.  It’s another two hours, though, with absolutely no place to stay between Burley  and  Brigham City.

For years, we’d been stopping in Burley. Well,  not really IN Burley - just near Burley.  Out on the Interstate, because all we needed to do was sleep, get up and eat,  and get on our way.

But this summer, coming back to Camas from Denver, I had this craving  for a steak, and while my son drove, I googled “steakhouse burley id.”

And damned if I didn’t get this -

http://www.moreyssteakhouse.com/

Morey’s Steakhouse.

Long story short - the restaurant was GREAT - atmosphere, service, food, prices.

The  hotel? This time we didn’t stay out on the Interstate.  Instead, we drove through town (took us maybe  five minutes) and came to the Snake River.  As we crossed, there on the other shore was our hotel - the Hampton Inn.  Very nice, great location.

After dinner, we took a little drive around and found some very nice homes  right on the river.

I made a mental note to never again pass up Burley, Idaho.

What’s that got to do with football?

A kid named Gatlin Bair lives in Burley,  and over the next few years you will be hearing a lot about him.

He’s a 6-2, 190 pound wide receiver, a high school junior, and he’s  one of the fastest football players in America.  (All levels.)  On March 31, in the Texas relays, he ran the 100 in 10.18.  That was in the prelims. He won the finals running a 10.25.  That's FAST  -  it would have got him sixth place in this year's NCAA meet.

Naturally, that got the attention of football coaches everywhere.  The kid said that  after the race, he was asked “about 50 times” where he was from, and “they were shocked when I told them I’m from Idaho.”

Haha. And it’s not one of the few easy-to-get-to places in Idaho, either - like Boise or Coeur d’Alene (which is quite near Spokane, Washington).

His coach’s  advice to recruiters who need to get there: Fly into Salt Lake City, get on a jet to Twin Falls and drive 30 minutes to Burley.

Just one problem:  There’s only one flight a day between Salt Lake and “Twin” (as the locals call it). It leaves Twin early in the morning, and returns late at night.  Personally, I’d fly into Salt Lake, rent a car and drive to Burley.

The coach, Cameron Andersen,  knows a little about big-time recruiting. At nearby Gooding High he coached Michigan tight end Colston Loveland, who was a four-star recruit.  But he says  Bair’s recruitment is a whole different animal because of NIL money.

“As one coach put it to me — I won’t tell you who — but one of them said, ‘Coach, speed is expensive,’” Andersen told Max Olson of The Athletic.

Asked who was doing the best job of recruiting him,  Bair  said  Nebraska, Michigan, Utah, BYU, Boise State, Oregon, Texas and TCU.  More schools showed interest following his Texas Relays performance, but Bair told them he wasn’t interested.   “I want to stick with the people who had faith in me from the beginning,” he said, “and aren’t hopping on the bandwagon.”

But that could change as the big guns get involved.

“The more the bigger schools come in, the more you just can’t get away from it,” Anderson said. “Gatlin legitimately has Boise State as one of his top schools right now. The response from bigger schools when they come in is, ‘Well, he’s not going to Boise State because they’re not gonna be able to afford him.’”

Something else that makes this recruiting different is that the Bair family are members of the LDS Church, and Gatlin intends to go on a two-year Church mission after high school.

Missions are totally voluntary and not required by the Church. Nor are they  subsidized by the Church.  Young people going on Church missions pay for everything.

Anybody see an opening for NIL?  Bingo.  Find a way to help him pay for his mission.

“LDS missions cost money,” Andersen told Olson. “It’s not like you go on a mission and the Church pays for it. You’ve gotta pay for all those things… That would be an absolute blessing for him and his family. They’re not afraid to collect off legitimate means of making money off his NIL.”

Does the two-year wait bother recruiters?  Give me a break.  We’re talking about the kind of people who routinely offer eighth graders.

Said one of them, “He ran a 10.2. We’ll take him whenever.”

One thing's for sure - Morey's is going to do a lot of business over the next year or so.


From last fall football season  https://news.scorebooklive.com/idaho/2022/09/29/barely-know-gatlin-bair-theres-a-lot-more-to-idahos-top-2024-football-recruit-than-the-numbers-and-accolades

Sorry - firewall   https://theathletic.com/4398757/2023/04/11/gatlin-bair-college-football-recruiting-idaho/?source=user_shared_article

A track guy looks at his Texas races: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guoty9IsvjM


***********   One of the beautiful things about baseball when I was growing up was its unwritten rules, most of them having to do with sportsmanship.  It was a matter of pride to learn those rules from the old-timers, almost like being admitted to the inner sanctum of the sport.  There were certain things you were expected to do, and there were certain things you just didn’t do, especially if they entailed showing up an opponent.  For sure, you didn’t make a big show about something good you might have done.

But as we all know, sportsmanship is all but dead.  (Maybe because it’s got that awful word “man” in the middle of it.)

Today’s baseball players seem to have  few  qualms about showboating, but in a game between two Kansas colleges, one guy  crossed way over the line. First he hit a home run.  Nothing wrong with that. And then he stood and made a big production of staring, as if in awe of what he’d just done.  That would once have got him razzed for breaking an unwritten rule, but now it’s quite common.  But then, he flipped the bat.  That’s not in itself that unusual, but he flipped it in the direction of the pitcher.

And then, he rounded the bases, making  a big production of stomping on the plate,  only to learn he’d been ejected.

Good for the umpire.  There are still some people who hold back the door  with the barbarians on the other side, pushing to get in.

But here’s the best - they were playing a double-header.   The guy’s team lost the first game, 22-11 and the second game 26-1.

Sounds like the kind of guy who does an end zone  dance when his team’s down, 49-0, and he just scored a touchdown against the other team’s JVs.


https://brobible.com/sports/article/college-baseball-player-ejected-bat-flip/


***********  THEN: George Burns and Gracie Allen… Lucy and Desi… Fibber McGee and Mollie… Ozzie and Harriet… June and Ward Cleaver… Roy Rogers and Dale Evans…

NOW:  Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe


***********  I started out looking for something I heard Jim Sweeney say at a clinic almost 40 years ago, and I found myself going though notebook after notebook, completely absorbed by things I’d written down, back before I stopped going to clinics.  (I started going to them in 1977, the winter after my first year as a high school coach in the little town of Gaston, Oregon,  and I stopped going around 1985,  after I became so immersed in the Delaware Wing-T that I found large, smorgasbord-type clinics were less useful to me than pooling clinic  funds with other Wing-T high school coaches and  flying in college coaches to give us nothing but meat and potatoes.

But in that relatively short time of attending clinics, I didn’t miss many  in Portland, Seattle, or places in between.

And although I wasn’t the best student in college,  I did come away with the ability to take good notes, so I  found an awful lot of useful things in those notebooks.

Here’s the list of college coaches whose presentations I managed to take notes on:

Fred Akers
Rich Brooks
Jerry Burns
Mouse Davis
Bob Devaney
Terry Donahue
Vince Dooley
Lavell Edwards
Jack Elway
Hayden Fry
Wayne Hardin
Woody Hayes
Lou Holtz
Don James
Johnny Majors
Tony Mason
Charley McClendon
Mal Moore
Bob Reade
Darryl Rodgers
Pepper Rodgers
Ron Rogerson
Tubby Raymond
Steve Sloan
Homer Smith
Larry Smith
Jim Sweeney
Jim Walden
Bill Walsh
Frosty Westering
Bud Wilkinson


In addition, several outstanding high school coaches are in those notebooks. Most of them were from the Northwest, of course, but two from outside really stood out:  Paul Briggs from Bakersfield, California, and Nick Hyder from Valdosta, Georgia.

There’s so much in those books that I wish I could share, but there’s only so many hours in a day…



*********** I rummaged through my notes from a clinic talk by Jim Sweeney - Pacific Northwest Football Coaches Clinic, March 10,  1984 - until I found what I was looking for…

Coach Sweeney was wearing a tee-shirt, which I remember thinking was a little unusual, since at the time coaches would normally wear a polo - white or in their school’s colors - with their school’s name on it.

But then he turned as if to write on the blackboard (yes, blackboard) behind him, and in BIG letters on the back of his tee shirt we could all read

A FOOTBALL COACH’S
NUMBER ONE JOB
IS TO STAMP OUT SOCCER

From that point, he had us in the palm of his hand.

Most of his talk was about incorporating passing into the veer  attack, but as was his custom, he would occasionally veer himself - off topic - to tell a story.

One was about the time his Italian mother-in-law said, “There’s no pain like childbirth.”

He said he replied,  “Nona, you ever been kicked in the balls?”


*********** The story about Rich Rodriguez was interesting. Made me think about all of the good things coaches do at programs where they untimely fail.

Tom Walls
Winnipeg, Manitoba


***********   Coachman:

Timely mention of Willie Fritz last week...he stacks up well in the pay per win category.

In checking the assistants in the USFL, I did recognize quite a few names. One especially surprised me: John Chavis, a man once thought to be one of the top DCs in CFB. I know some of the problems he experienced, but never thought he was to blame. More likely, it was another big mistake by Jimbo Fisher. How in the world did all those other college coaches let him get away?

Is there any person at SF State University who can hold his head high after the Riley Gaines debacle? Nope, period.

Update to the story about the ABInBev VP for Marketing: she just announced that her favorite rock musician is Kid Rock.

John Vermillion                
St Petersburg, Florida

Wow- I have GOT to check out that Kid Rock story!!!


***********   Hugh,

Looking forward to the USFL season.  A step up in talent and overall play.

I bet that new Bud Light VP doesn’t even drink beer.

Re Golf: Have played a lot, off and on between seasons, and have to say the best courses offer multiple tee boxes to help the average golfer’s score.  Unfortunately those same courses don’t help the golfer’s wallet!  I’m sure it’s a good reason why Top Golf (target golf) started getting popular.

LL National Team:  Translation:  Mom and Dad paid my way.

Your grandson was cheated, and the sport was cheated out of another youngster by someone who had no business being a coach.  Don’t blame you for being pissed!

Have a great week!

Joe Gutilla
Austin, Texas





***********” QUIZ ANSWER:  “The Smiling Irishman," they called him.  As a college coach, Jim Sweeney won 201 games, and  won Regional AFCA Coach of the Year Honors at three different colleges.

He grew up in Butte, Montana, one of seven children of an Irish immigrant hard-rock miner.

He was an outstanding football and baseball player at Butte Central Catholic High, and went on to play football at the University of Portland.  When Portland gave up football after his junior year (1949), he spent his senior season coaching at a Portland High School.

After that he returned to Montana to coach at his alma mater, and then at Flathead High in Kalispell. After nine years of high school coaching he was hired as an assistant at Montana State, and after three years was hired as the Bobcats’ head coach.

In his five years as MSU head coach, he never lost to archrival Montana.

One of his best players was an option quarterback from Everett, Washington whose dad, a high school coach, had said, "He's not very big, but I think he's tough. I think he's going to make a good defensive back for you."
 
He turned out to be a pretty good quarterback.  The coach’s kid, Dennis Erickson, set school records for career total offense, career passing yardage, single-season passing yardage,  single game passing yardage in and longest pass play, and he would serve as an assistant to our guy at two different colleges before going on to a head coaching career of his own.
 
If his best player wasn't Erickson, then it was almost certainly a Norwegian ski jumper who while at Montana State learned how to kick an American football soccer-style. The Norwegian, Jan Stennerud, made 19 of the 33 field goals he attempted in two years at Montana State, including a 59-yarder which at the time was the longest field goal in college football history. (His record would have been better, but without a decent punter, his coach frequently chose to attempt unreasonably long field goals in punting situations.)

After five years, with a record of 31-20 and three conference championships, he was hired by Washington State at the princely salary of $20,000.

Then - as now - Washington State was a tough place to win. But he put tough teams on the field, and he developed some topnotch assistants. One was Erickson; another was Mike Price, current WSU head coach; another was Joe Tiller, who would go on to take Purdue to a Rose Bowl; still another was Hoquiam, Washington native Jack Elway, who served on his staff from 1972 through 1975, before leaving to become head coach at Northridge State (and, incidentally, taking his high school freshman son, John, with him to become a California high school legend).

He didn’t win at Washington State, and after losing a tough one to Washington 28-27 (in Don James’ first year as the Huskies’ coach), despite  the college president’s best efforts to coax him to stay, he resigned after eight years in Pullman.  (He would later joke that he left for “health reasons - the alumni were sick of me.)
 
His final stop was Fresno State, where he laid the groundwork for the Bulldogs' rise to a degree  national prominence  under - you guessed it - a former assistant, Pat Hill.  He spent two years as head coach at Fresno, then left  for the NFL.  But after a season with the Raiders and another with the Cardinals, he retuned to Fresno and spent the next 17 years there.

His early teams continued to run the veer, but behind a succession of good quarterbacks - Jeff Tedford, Trent Dilfer, and his own son, Kevin - and receivers like Stephon Paige and Henry Ellard, he began to open up his offense and the crowds began to pack  Bulldog Stadium.  (Kevin earned his job - while the Bulldogs’ QB, he set an NCAA single-season record for passing yardage.

In his 19 years at Fresno State, he was 143-75-3. His teams had three 11-win seasons, and he took the Bulldogs to eight conference championships and five bowl wins.  On six occasions he was selected conference coach of the year.
 
Thanks to the success of his program, Fresno State built the large stadium which now bears his name,  and one of his  former quarterbacks and assistants, Jeff Tedford, is the current  Fresno State  coach.

An entertaining speaker, he was well-liked by the news media, who could always count on him for an amusing quote..
 
One of the reporters from the Portland Oregonian told me about seeing  the coach in a restaurant outside Corvallis, Oregon, shortly after the Cougars had lost to Oregon State.  Never a man to mince words, he told the reporter, "we just lost to the worst team in America."

Despite the “smilin’ Irishman” tag, he was as hard-nosed as a coach could be.

One of his former Washington State linemen, Bill Moos, who would go on to serve as AD at Oregon, Washington State and Nebraska, remembered him as “a blood and guts guy.”

Blood and guts?  Shortly after Moos hired Mike Leach at Washington State, a dissatisfied player accused Leach of “verbal abuse.”  Asked about it, Moos said, “You can’t tell me anything about verbal abuse.  I played for Jim Sweeney.”

But Moos was quick to credit him, and Joe Tiller, his line coach:  I have to say, those two gentlemen made a man out of me in a lot of ways,” he said.  “First of all, I found out that I could be better than I thought I was in a lot of respects. It really set a foundation for me for the rest of my career, knowing that when the chips are down you know how to handle it; how to prepare and how to be mentally prepared is so important. They taught me how to gain confidence through a variety of ways, and those are lessons that I’ve taken with me.”

He and his wife, his high school sweetheart from Butte, had nine children.  Three of his grandsons played football in the PAC-10.



CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING JIM SWEENEY


GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
JOE GUTILLA - AUSTIN, TEXAS
JOHN GRIMSLEY - JEFFERSON, GEORGIA
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
RUSS MEYERS - VERNON CENTER, NEW YORK
TOM WALLS - WINNIPEG, MANITOBA
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY
CHRISTOPHER ANDERSON - MUNICH GERMANY


***********   Any true Bulldog knows Jim Sweeney.  It was Sweeney who came up with the chant the team uses at practices and games, "I got that Bulldog Spirit up in my head, deep in my heart, down in my toes, I got that Bulldog Spirit ALL OVER ME, All over me to stay!" (That's the short version).  Many people probably don't know that Sweeney left Fresno after his successful 1977 stadium builders team for a couple of years to coach pro football, but returned in 1980.

Joe Gutilla
Austin, Texas


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

I saw the news today, and the Irish Man is Jim Sweeney. I remember his teams in the WAC. I loved the way they played. I have Fresno shirts and my California college team is Fresno State cause of watching his 90's teams before he retired. Hope all is well with y'all and love watching the clinics.

John Grimsley
Jefferson, Georgia


*********** I always love a salty Irishman.

I also appreciate him for being first in a batch of colorful WSU coaches, from him to Jim Walden to Mike Price to Mike Leach - a style contrast to strong silent types like Don James and Jim Lambright in Seattle.

I don’t think you wrote up his quote I’ve heard at your clinics, “the sweep play sucks but you need to run it to set up the rest of your offense.” That certainly holds for double-/open-wing offenses - force men (and their defensive coaches) who’ve spent the week prepping to push those kickout blockers back inside must crap their pants thinking they might also get reached or logrolled.

Christopher Anderson
Munich, Germany

From my 1984 notes: “I think the sweep is the worst play in football, but you have to stop it! We run it so we can fake it and (1) roll and (2) bootleg.” Jim Sweeney






***********  QUIZ:    In terms of his achievements and public service, he ranks among the most distinguished men ever to play professional football.
 
A native of Canton, Ohio where he attended Central Catholic High School, he graduated from Notre Dame, where in 1966 he was a consensus All-American defensive end.

He was the number one draft pick of the Minnesota Vikings.
 
He played 11 full seasons and part of another with the Vikings, then the remainder of that season and two more with the Bears. During his time with the Vikings, he played in eight pro bowl games, and as a dominant member of their famous “Purple People Eaters” front four, he helped the Vikings make it to five NFL championship games.
 
In 1971, he became the first defensive player in NFL history to be named Most Valuable Player.
 
In 1979, he became the first active NFL player to finish a marathon.
 
But there was a lot more to him than great football ability. While still a player, he served as  team player representative, and attended law school at the University of Minnesota.

Before his playing days were ended,  he had earned his law degree, and  following his retirement from the NFL, he entered private law practice.
 
From 1985 to 1993, he served as an assistant attorney general, and in 1993 was elected associate justice of the Minnesota State Supreme Court - the first black person to serve in that position - and he remained on the Supreme Court until his mandatory retirement in 2015.
 
In 1981,  he was named one of American's Ten Outstanding Young Men by the Jaycees.
 
He was named  one of the "100 Influential Minnesotans of the Century" by the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.
 
He was named one of "The 50 Greatest Sports Figures from Ohio" by Sports Illustrated.
 
He was named in 2001 to the Academic All-American Hall of Fame.
 
In 1988 he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
 
In 1993, he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.

In 2018, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Trump.
 
He has been active in numerous ways in impressing on minority youngsters the value of education, and in 2022 a Twin Cities elementary school was named for him.




TUESDAY,  APRIL 10,  2023 - "If your football coach doesn’t win, it doesn’t matter how good a businessman you are.” Bump Elliott, AD at Iowa 1970-1991

*********** THIS PAST WEEKEND IN THE XFL…

St Louis 21, Vegas 17 (OT)

I SAID: St. Louis might be the XFL’s best team. I like the stuff they do offensively.
AFTER: With St. Louis QB A. J. McCarron out, they didn’t do much, but Nick Tiano was a capable backup.

Arlington 18, Orlando 16

I SAID: Arlington doesn’t have a QB; Orlando does, in Quentin Dormady
AFTER: Arlington got a QB - traded for Luis Perez, and with one week to prepare he played well enough; Dormady was pressured badly and committed  FIVE turnovers.

Houston 17, San Antonio 15 (OT)

I SAID: If QB Brandon Silvers is okay, Houston is MUCH better than San Antonio
AFTER: Silvers was not his usual self, but the Houston defense sacked San Antonio QB Jack Coen six times, and won in OT

DC 34, Seattle 33

I SAID: I’m going to go out on a limb and pick Seattle, which will really mess things up in the North if St. Louis wins, too.
AFTER: Seattle had its chances but the play of DC QB Jordan Ta’Amu was the difference.

***
For the first time this XFL season, overtime was required - and twice, at that, in both the St.Louis win over Vegas, and the Arlington win over San Antonio.

The format is not sudden-death, but more on the order of a shoot-out:

Each team gets three tries to score from the five-yard line. The teams alternate possessions, one play at a time, and whichever team scores the most in its three plays is the winner.  A  successful attempt is two points, and  if a team leads 4-0 after two rounds, it’s the winner.  If the score is tied after three rounds, play will continue until one of the teams leads at the end of a round.  Defensive penalties are assessed as usual; an offensive penalty results in a failed try.

I like it and evidently some fans do, too:

https://www.si.com/extra-mustard/2023/04/09/xfl-debuted-new-overtime-rules-battlehawks-win-vipers-reactions

***

THIS PAST WEEK’S TEAM RUSHING (If you want to call it that)

Vegas                    208
San Antonio         128
Arlington               91
DC                         87
St. Louis               86
Seattle                  53
Houston               25
Orlando               25

(Are you kidding me?  25 yards rushing in an entire game?)


QB PERFORMANCES THIS PAST WEEK

WINNING QBS

Jordan Ta’Amu, DC        17/26/247        4 TD    0 INT - lost 1 fumble
Luis Perez, Arlington        16/25/190    0 TD    0 INT
Nick Tiano, St. Louis        19/34/194    1 TD    2 INT - also rushed 8/51
Brandon Silvers, Houston    17/36/146    2 TD    2 INT

LOSING QBS

Ben DiNucci, Seattle        28/42/301    3 TD    1 INT
Jalen McClendon, Vegas    13/23/159    1 TD    0 INT - also  rushed 13/62; lost 1 fumble
Jack Coen, San Antonio    23/41/190    0 TD    2 INT - sacked 6 times for -38
Quinten Dormady, Orlando    28/43/303    1 TD    2 INT - sacked 4 times for -19; LOST 3 FUMBLES


XFL  STANDINGS WITH TWO GAMES TO PLAY

XFL North
1) D.C. Defenders (7-1)
2) St. Louis Battlehawks (6-2)
3) Seattle Sea Dragons (5-3)
4) Vegas Vipers (2-6)

XFL South
1) Houston Roughnecks (5-3)
2) Arlington Renegades (4-4)
3) San Antonio Brahmas (2-6)
4) Orlando Guardians (1-7)


*********** While we (or at least some of us) were busy watching the XFL, another league - the USFL - has been getting ready to play, too.  The league opens play this coming weekend.

SATURDAY -  1:30PM PDT (FOX)
Philadelphia Stars  vs Memphis Showboats  at Memphis

SATURDAY -  4:30PM PDT (FOX)
New Jersey Generals  vs Birmingham Stallions at Birmingham


SUNDAY -  9:00 AM PDT (NBC)
Michigan Panthers vs Houston Gamblers at Memphis
 

SUNDAY -  3:30 PM  PDT (FS1)
Pittsburgh Maulers vs New Orleans Breakers at Birmingham


Other locations where future USFL games will be played: Canton, Ohio  and Detroit

https://www.theusfl.com/


*********** Unlike the XFL, which went with several coaches who’d been well-known as players but had never before been head coaches, the USFL is going with head guys who for the most part have significant head coaching experience:

BIRMINGHAM - SKIP HOLTZ
HOUSTON - KEVIN SUMLIN
MICHIGAN - JEFF FISHER
NEW JERSEY - MIKE RILEY
NEW ORLEANS - LARRY FEDORA
PHILADELPHIA - BART ANDRUS
PITTSBURGH - KIRBY WILSON
TAMPA BAY - TODD HALEY

You’ll probably even recognize  the names of a few of the assistants, too.

https://www.foxsports.com/stories/usfl/usfl-coaching-staffs



*********** I’m currently reading a book by a guy named John U. Bacon, who is as knowledgeable as any man alive about Michigan football. It’s entitled “Three and Out,” and its subtitle is “Rich Rodriguez and the Michigan Wolverines.”

Surprisingly, Bacon’s treatment of Rodriguez is somewhat sympathetic - a story of a guy who never really had a chance, and whose public image as a result of everything that went on before, during and after his time as Michigan’s head coach is considerably different from what Bacon saw.

From the start the easy impression to convey was that this was a local boy, a native West Virginian who’d made it as a Mountaineer and  just got too big for his britches,

I bought in, and from the time he left West Virginia, I read everything I could get my hands on about his  stay at Michigan.  And, yes, like so many others, I wanted him - and Michigan - to fail.

Now, on reading this going-on-12-year-old book, I have to confess to having been  sucked in.  Bacon tells a different story, one about a  coach who at almost any other place would have been successful.

To give an  example of his thoroughness:

A few years ago, when as an assistant I accompanied the head coach into a new situation that it’s fair to say was run-down, we set about winning over the seniors.  One of the ways was to shoot 30-second videos of them introducing themselves (I think there were maybe 15 of them).  We then emailed the videos to all the assistants, urging them to learn all the names.

How did it work?  It didn’t take long to find out.  The next day, I overheard a senior say, “They already know my name.   Last year I went the entire season and nobody knew my name.”

But what we did was nothing compared to what Rodriguez did at Michigan:

Next, Rodriguez asked video coordinator Phil Bromley to start a slide show of some 120 head shots, every player on the roster. When a face popped up, the next guy at the table had to give the player’s name, position, hometown, high school, and anything else about him he could remember.   Rodriguez expected every coach and staffer to know every player, from All-American to walk-on. Through the entire show no one drew a blank except on the occasional freshman, and they usually had a quick comment or story about each player.

 




************* It’s hard to believe that we’re actually looking at AB InBev’s Marketing Vice President for Bud Light. You know - the genius who came up with the idea that Bud Light could halt its sales decline by using the marketing talents of a male whose fame derives from  posing as a ditzy teenage  girl.

But that’s who she is. The V-P.  You should hear her talk. She is classic Eastern preppy . There's a major international company,  trying to sell beer, and it's pretty obvious that the person they put in charge of marketing has never sat down with a group  of real beer drinkers set on tossing down several cold ones.  She’s as far on the other end of the scale as you can get from the people her company needs to get to drink their beer.

If you’re going to sell beer, you have to know beer drinkers. And that means you’re going to have to get out there and mix with them.  Many years ago, I worked in marketing for a large Eastern brewer, and  as one of the company 's veteran sales people  told me on my first day on the job, “This is not the butter and egg business.” 

That was a salesman speaking.  He knew what it was like out there.   But meanwhile, it was company policy to keep our marketing on a high plane, even going so far as to make sure the people in our commercials wore  sports coats and ties (our owner insisted that we not “sell down”).

I can remember the shock waves that went through our offices the day the results of a large survey came in that showed us how much of our beer was being drunk (yes, that is the correct form of the verb) by guys (yes, men) who would get off work at the plant, eat dinner, then head down to their local tavern and drink beer  until closing time or until they’d had enough.

And for those guys, “enough” was the equivalent of 12 or more 12-ounce beers. That was every day of their working lives. They basically drank beer as their hobby.  We could direct all the marketing efforts we wanted  at those young college kids, but the reality is we depended for our sales volume on those working men sitting on the stools in the taverns.

Schaefer’s, then New York’s largest-selling beer, was quick to react to the survey, coming out almost immediately with an ad campaign whose theme was “Schaefer is the one beer to have - when you’re having more than one!”

I have no idea whether there are still such heavy beer drinkers in today’s America, but if there are, I have a feeling that it’s going to take an awful lot of young light-in-the-loafers  types switching over to  Bud Light to offset the loss of those real beer drinkers, as the word gets out that they’re using LGBT+ to sell Bud Light.

(Of course, it’s possible those heavy beer drinkers aren’t drinking Bud Light, anyhow.)

Look at the video in the link and try to picture her walking into a saloon in Baltimore and trying to convince the guys that she's not lost.

If she looks scared in the photo above, it’s probably because someone just flashed her by cracking open a 16-ounce can of beer.  Real beer.


https://www.foxnews.com/media/bud-light-marketing-vp-inspired-update-fratty-touch-branding-inclusivity


*********** What if they paid college coaches by the win?

POWER 5


Best Value: Kalen DeBoer, Washington (11-2), $289,819 per win
Worst Value: Pat Fitzgerald, Northwestern (1-11), $5.4 million per win
CFP National Champion: Kirby Smart, Georgia (15-0), $683,573 per win

ACC
Best Value: Scott Satterfield, Louisville (8-5), $406,250 per win
Satterfield left Louisville for Cincinnati at the end of the 2022 regular season.
Worst Value: Tony Elliott, Virginia (3-7), $1.5 million per win
ACC Champion: Dabo Swinney, Clemson (11-3), $955,325 per win

BIG TEN
Best Value: Mike Locksley, Maryland (8-5), $500,000 per win
Worst Value: Pat Fitzgerald, Northwestern (1-11), $5.4 million per win
Big Ten Champion: Jim Harbaugh, Michigan (13-1), $619,538 per win

BIG 12
Best Value: Chris Klieman, Kansas State (10-4), $370,000 per win
Worst Value: Mike Gundy, Oklahoma State (6-7), $1.25 million per win
Big 12 Champion: Chris Klieman, Kansas State (10-4), $370,000 per win

PAC-12
Best Value: Kalen DeBoer, Washington (11-2), $281,819 per win
Worst Value: Karl Dorrell, Colorado (1-11), $3.6 million per win
Dorrell was released after a 0-5 start in 2022.
Pac-12 Champion: Kyle Whittingham (10-4), $600,000 per win

SEC
Best Value: Shane Beamer, South Carolina (8-5), $343,750 per win
Worst Value: Jimbo Fisher, Texas A&M (5-7), $1.8 million per win
SEC Champion: Kirby Smart, Georgia (15-0), $683,573 per win

GROUP OF 5
Best Value: Tim Albin, Ohio (10-4), $54,570 per win
Worst Value: Jeff Scott, South Florida (1-11), $2.4 million per win
Scott was released after a 1-8 start in 2022.

AAC
Best Value: Willie Fritz, Tulane (12-2), $180,583 per win
Worst Value: Jeff Scott, South Florida (1-11), $2.4 million per win
Scott was released after a 1-8 start in 2022.
AAC Champion: Willie Fritz, Tulane (12-2), $180,583 per win

C-USA
Best Value: Bryant Vincent, UAB (7-6), $59,464 per win
Vincent was the interim head coach at UAB in 2022, filling in after Bill Clark retired. He’s now the OC at New Mexico.  
Worst Value: Sonny Cumbie, Louisiana Tech (3-9), $300,000 per win
C-USA Champion: Jeff Traylor, UTSA (11-3), $227,273 per win

MAC
Best Value: Tim Albin, Ohio (10-4), $54,570 per win
Worst Value: Joe Moorhead, Akron (2-10), $250,000 per win
MAC Champion:  Jason Candle, Toledo (9-5), $130,556 per win

MWC
Best Value: Andy Avalos, Boise State (10-4), $147,500 per win
Worst Value: Jay Norvell, Colorado State (3-9), $533,333 per win
MWC Champion: Jeff Tedford, Fresno State (10-4), $150,000 per win

SUN BELT
Best Value: Jon Sumrall, Troy (12-2), $68,750 per win
Worst Value: Butch Jones, Arkansas State (3-9), $275,000 per win
Sun Belt Champion: Jon Sumrall, Troy (12-2), $68,750 per win


https://fbschedules.com/2022-college-football-head-coaches-cost-per-win/


***********  We all know that golf is declining in popularity.  Country clubs are losing members, and courses are closing.

There are lots of reasons given - it’s too hard, it takes too long, it’s expensive.

But I think a big reason is  that,  as the English saying goes, “it’s an ‘umbling game.”  It takes a person down. Demeans him.

To play it with any sort of proficiency, you have to be really well-grounded in the game,  but even then you’re still liable at any time to go out and suck.

And there’s always that damn thing called “Par.”  Par is supposedly the number of strokes it takes to get the ball from the tee to the hole.  Yeah, right.  There’s the problem.  It’s an almost unattainable standard.

You'd think par should be reasonably attainable, but how many people do you know who can go out  expecting to play an entire 18 holes of golf in par? 

I’ll be surprised if you know anyone.  In 2022, there were 25.6 million people who played at least one round on a golf course.

And only 3 million of those people play it seriously enough to have an official handicap (the number of strokes, based on  a person’s having played several rounds, that he/she would have to subtract in order to play a round of par golf).

And of those people -  the really serious golfers - the average handicap is 14. (For women, it’s 28.)

Wow. Where does that leave the rest of us?

And since it’s about making par, which few people ever do, why not do something about par itself?

Here’s my proposal: Simply add a stroke to par on every hole. A par three would now be a par four; a par four would be a par five; a par five would be a par six.

If you shoot a three on that hole that used to be a par-three?  Son, you just a shot a birdie.

A course whose par is now 72 would, under the Wyatt system, now be 90, and that means that if you regularly go around in 90, you’re now a “scratch golfer.” 

What the hell?  Who’s it going to hurt?  Let the pros play their game the way they always do.  That’s not where golf is hurting. Golf is hurting among us proles, because par  stands there and mocks us all.

Look - they’ve lowered SAT scores  so more kids can qualify for elite colleges… they’ve lowered qualifications so that more kids can be recruited into the military… and they’ve lowered the standards so that women can qualify for formerly male occupations, like fire, police and Army Ranger,  So why not lower the golfers’ bar - by raising par?

If the people at the USGA - the governing body of golf - like my idea, I’ll settle for free greens fees any time at any US  course.  And since my golfing days are long gone - I’d insist on the ability to assign that courtesy to anyone of my choice.



*********** If you wondered where all this NIL stuff is headed, look no further.

I came across an article about three eighth graders who evidently made something called the Team USA U15 team. (Seriously - is any taxpayer money supporting this sh—?)

But what really got me pushed out of shape was this comment by one of them:

“I was just proud of myself that I made the team,” he said. “I’m just excited because, especially going into high school, it’s the national level so I can really get my name out there and get people looking at my name. Exposure.”

Wow. That's somethihng to look forward to. A nation full of kids with "exposure" uppermost in their minds.


https://www.eastvalleytribune.com/sports/flag-football-players-preparing-to-compete-for-team-usa/article_dab2867e-d242-11ed-8697-d3191b7ac0df.html


*********** Anyone remember digging into Roget’s Thesauraus, looking  for a better word?

Now, there’s the homosaurus, which claims to be “an international linked data vocabulary of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) terms.”

I have a feeling most of those reading this already know plenty of terms - but they can’t use them or it could cost them their jobs.


*********** THIS IS FROM 20 YEARS AGO AND I”M STILL PISSED


Of all the great youth coaches and middle school coaches I've had the privilege of knowing and corresponding with, why does one of my grandsons have to wind up with a cretin?

I guess the team's not very good to begin with, and last week they got beaten pretty badly. The coach was especially upset with their tackling.

So at the next practice, as the kids headed for the field, the coach shouted, "Where do you think you're going? You're not going there," he said. "That's the football field. That's only for football players, and you're not football players.  We're going on the baseball field.”

And there, they ran. And ran. Because as we all know, the solution to poor tacking is not to teach tackling properly and then practice proper tackling. Over and over. No, the solution is to run the kids until they become better tacklers.

He told the kids that he'd never been so embarrassed. "He'd" been embarrassed, huh? So it's all about him, is it? The kids are supposed to be playing so as not to embarrass the coach, are they?

He told the the offensive linemen they were "Pussies." Now, on occasion I have been known to say "we're playing like pussies," but I'm always quick to point out, "that's not us."

Hey - insulting kids by calling them names is a violation of the trust placed in us by those kids and their parents.

Speaking of parents, when they've come to watch practice, he has sent them packing, telling them, "We can't have parents here." Say, what? Point number one - it's school grounds. Public property. Point number two - the day you're doing something that you don't want parents to see is the day you need to turn in your whistle.


(The followup — my grandson finished the season and never played football again.)


*********** It’s barely spring  and already  they’re predicting every college’s 2023 win-loss record…

https://collegefootballnews.com/predictions/college-football-win-totals-2023-spring-version



*********** Coach:

This was a heckuva page, top to bottom, from the words of Paul to the words of Rev. Bryant, who describes the same plight WSJ does through its poll. It's past time we woke up.

I've followed Willie Fritz since before his Georgia Southern days. Looked to me to be one of the best, although I didn't know why exactly. You filled in the blanks. He seems to know what he needs to do, and how he's going to do it.

John Vermillion
St. Petersburg, Florida



*********** Hugh,

First Corinthians 15 is beautiful even in my FCA bible.

Hope is the last resort of those without Faith.  Currently this country is losing its Faith, and Hope will be all that remains.  When I heard John Kirby give the Biden administration's report on the Afghan pullout (BTW he's an Admiral...but if he's an Admiral I'm a 5 star General), and heard him make excuses, lay blame, and outright lie about the whole affair it momentarily placed a damper on my Faith in American leadership. But when I see and hear guys like Sheriff Billy Woods of Marion County FL my Faith in my fellow Americans is restored and gives me more Hope.

Antiquated, maybe.  Effective, definitely.  The DW continues to be a "system" friendly offense for players and coaches alike.

Jill Biden must have been an early believer and proponent in the "trophies for everyone" mentality.  That, or she is just as clueless as her husband.

Like many other colleges opting to suspend their football programs, if Simon Fraser truly DESIRED to maintain its football program it would have found a way to do so.

Speaking of Willie Fritz...Tulane was a member of the SEC at one time.  Times are a changin'!

Blessings to you and Connie this Easter!

Joe Gutilla
Austin, Texas








***********  QUIZ ANSWER:  All-American.  Civil Engineering Graduate.  All-Pro.  Super Bowl Champion.  College Football Hall of Famer. Pro Football Hall of Famer.

How’s that for a resume?

Dave Robinson was one of the first of a long string of  New Jersey kids to go on to star in football at Penn State.

At Moorestown, New Jersey High - near Philly-  he played on two undefeated section champions (no state championships then) basketball teams and an undefeated section championship football team.

At Penn State, he played end on both offense at defense, first under Rip Engle and then under Joe Paterno.  In his three years of eligibility, the Lions went 24-8.   In his senior year, he was a first-team AP All-American, catching 17 passes for 178 yards on offense and being virtually unblockable on defense.  State went 9-1 and made it to the Gator Bowl - quite an honor then - where despite their losing to Florida, he was named the game’s MVP.

Graduating from Penn State with a degree in civil engineering, he was drafted in the first round by the Packers and in the third round by the AFL San Diego Chargers, and although his fiancee expressed a preference for warm-weather San Diego, he wound up signing with Green Bay.

The Packers converted him to outside linebacker.  He was big - 6-3, 245 - and fast and strong, and he wound up on the defensive left side, which meant that he was usually going up against tight ends like Mike Ditka and John Mackey.  On that same Packers’ left side were future Hall of Famers Willie Davis and Herb Adderley.

Although he missed all but four games in one season because of injury, he, played in all 14 games in 10 of his 12 seasons (10 with Green Bay, two with Washington), 155 games in all.

He played on three NFL championship teams, and two Super Bowl winners (the first two).

In all, he intercepted 27 passes and returned them for 449 yards and one touchdown.

He was named All-NFL three consecutive years (1967-69) and voted to three Pro Bowls.  In addition, he was named second-team All-Pro in 1968 and 1969 and was voted All-Western Conference three times (1966-68).

He was named to the Packers’ 50th Anniversary Team.

"Comparing him to Lawrence Taylor is a pretty accurate way of explaining how good (he) was," said Hall of Fame Raymond Berry, who both played and coached against him. "Those two guys were as good as it gets."

While playing, he worked in off-seasons as an engineer at Campbell’s Soup,  near his hometown, and with the Schlitz Brewing Company in Milwaukee, and after retirement, he owned a Schlitz Distributorship in Akron which he ran until he retired in 2001.

One can sometimes pay a personal price for being on a great team and playing with immortals, and he almost did:  it wasn’t until  2013 - 39 years after he retired - that he was finally inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame,  the 11th player from those great Packer teams of Vince Lombardi to make it into the Hall.

As for who would present him into the Hall of Fame,  he said that  If he were alive, it would have been Vince Lombardi would have been the one.

"Lombardi is gone, my college coach, Joe Paterno, just passed and my high school coach passed,”he said. "I've got one assistant high school coach left. I don't know. Phil Bengston and my position coach (Dave) Hog Hanner are gone.

"That's the trouble, you live a long time and all the people die on you.”

He chose his son, David Robinson, Jr.

CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING DAVE ROBINSON

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
TOM DAVIS - SAN CARLOS, CALIFORNIA
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - AUSTIN, TEXAS
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY


*********** FROM DAVE ROBINSON’S HALL OF FAME INDUCTION SPEECH

I started off as a country boy in South Jersey, as a farmer.  I was raised on a farm in South Jersey, and I was one of nine children to Mary and Leslie  Robinson, who both are passed away.  Those nine children, seven are gone. The only ones left are myself and my sister, Henrietta Robinson, sitting out there.  She's been a big supporter for me.  She stayed with me.  I can still remember, Henrietta bought me that very first store-bought suit.  Everything else before that were hand-me-downs, and she did it for me, so I owe her a lot.  I know my other seven siblings, my mother and father, all looking down on me now saying, "Way to go,  Dave!”

I went to school in a little town called Moorestown, New Jersey.  A great town.  I had an excellent coach in coach George Masters and his coaching staff, one of the finest coaching staffs I've ever been around.  Unfortunately for them or unfortunately for me, they've all passed.  The only one left is coach Dick Loring, and he's here somewhere.  I want to say thank you, Coach, for all the things you've done and continue to do for me.
  
You know, like I said, all these coaches looking down on me.  Coach Masters, the finest high school coach I've ever seen, and I'm thankful for that.
  
They did one big thing: They directed me toward Penn State, the Pennsylvania State University, one of the biggest things in my life.  There I met the legendary Joe Paterno and Rip Engle, and they taught me a lot about football.  They took a diamond in the rough and made me a football player. And for that, I thank them.
  
However, both Rip and Joe, J.T. White and Jim O'Hare, all those coaches and the whole staff have passed on.  But I hope they're looking down on me now.  I want to say to them, thank you very much.
  
While at Penn State, my romance blossomed with a young lady I met in high school named Elaine Burns.  She later on became my wife.  We dated for about one and a half years in high school and four years in college and we've been married for 44 years.  As David mentioned, she was a great woman, and I miss her a lot. (Applause)
  
While at Penn State, I had some great teammates and whatnot.  We had kickers, Sam Stellatella, just a great guy.  You know, I've been blessed with great football players all my life to be around.  Football is a team sport, and I've had great teams behind me.  The aforementioned Moorestown High School team was the only undefeated team in 1957, the first one in the school history.  I've got about 10 of those members here today, too.  We are like brothers.  They're here to support me, and I thank them very much.

 






***********” QUIZ:  “The Smilin' Irishman," they called him.  As a college coach, he won 201 games, and  won Regional AFCA Coach of the Year Honors at three different colleges.

He grew up in Butte, Montana, one of seven children of an Irish immigrant hard-rock miner.

He was an outstanding football and baseball player at Butte Central Catholic High, and went on to play football at the University of Portland.  When Portland gave up football after his junior year (1949), he spent his senior season coaching at a Portland High School.

After that he returned to Montana to coach at his alma mater, and then at Flathead High in Kalispell. After nine years of high school coaching he was hired as an assistant at Montana State, and after three years was hired as the Bobcats’ head coach.

In his five years as MSU head coach, he never lost to archrival Montana.

One of his best players was an option quarterback from Everett, Washington whose dad, a high school coach, had said, "He's not very big, but I think he's tough. I think he's going to make a good defensive back for you."
 
He turned out to be a pretty good quarterback.  The coach’s kid, Dennis Erickson, set school records for career total offense, career passing yardage, single-season passing yardage,  single game passing yardage in and longest pass play, and he would serve as an assistant to our guy at two different colleges before going on to a head coaching career of his own.

If his best player wasn't Erickson, then it was almost certainly a Norwegian ski jumper who while at Montana State learned how to kick an American football soccer-style. The Norwegian, Jan Stennerud, made 19 of the 33 field goals he attempted in two years at Montana State, including a 59-yarder which at the time was the longest field goal in college football history. (His record would have been better, but without a decent punter, his coach frequently chose to attempt unreasonably long field goals in punting situations.)

After five years, with a record of 31-20 and three conference championships, he was hired by Washington State at the princely salary of $20,000.

Then - as now - Washington State was a tough place to win. But he put tough teams on the field, and he developed some topnotch assistants. One was Erickson; another was Mike Price, current WSU head coach; another was Joe Tiller, who would go on to take Purdue to a Rose Bowl; still another was Hoquiam, Washington native Jack Elway, who served on his staff from 1972 through 1975, before leaving to become head coach at Northridge State (and, incidentally, taking his high school freshman son, John, with him to become a California high school legend).

He didn’t win at Washington State, and after losing a tough one to Washington 28-27 (in Don James’ first year as the Huskies’ coach), despite  the college president’s best efforts to coax him to stay, he resigned after eight years in Pullman.  (He would later joke that he left for “health reasons - the alumni were sick of me.")

His final stop was Fresno State, where he laid the groundwork for the Bulldogs' rise to a degree  national prominence  under - you guessed it - a former assistant, Pat Hill.  He spent two years as head coach at Fresno, then left  for the NFL.  But after a season with the Raiders and another with the Cardinals, he retuned to Fresno and spent the next 17 years there.

His early teams continued to run the veer, but behind a succession of good quarterbacks - Jeff Tedford, Trent Dilfer, and his own son, Kevin - and receivers like Stephon Paige and Henry Ellard, he began to open up his offense and the crowds began to pack  Bulldog Stadium.  (Kevin earned his job - while the Bulldogs’ QB, he set an NCAA single-season record for passing yardage.

In his 19 years at Fresno State, he was 143-75-3. His teams had three 11-win seasons, and he took the Bulldogs to eight conference championships and five bowl wins.  On six occasions he was selected conference coach of the year.
 
Thanks to the success of his program, Fresno State built the large stadium which now bears his name,  and one of his  former quarterbacks and assistants, Jeff Tedford, is the current  Fresno State  coach.

An entertaining speaker, he was well-liked by the news media, who could always count on him for an amusing quote..
 
One of the reporters from the Portland Oregonian told me about seeing  the coach in a restaurant outside Corvallis, Oregon, shortly after the Cougars had lost to Oregon State.  Never a man to mince words, he told the reporter, "we just lost to the worst team in America."

Despite the “smilin' Irishman” tag, he was a stern taskmaster,  as hard-nosed as they come.

One of his former Washington State linemen, Bill Moos, who would go on to serve as AD at Oregon, Washington State and Nebraska, remembered him as “a blood and guts guy.”

Shortly after Moos hired Mike Leach at Washington State, a dissatisfied player accused Leach of “verbal abuse.”  Asked about it, Moos said, “You can’t tell me anything about verbal abuse.  I played for (our guy).”

But Moos was quick to credit him, and Joe Tiller, his line coach:  I have to say, those two gentlemen made a man out of me in a lot of ways,” he said.  “First of all, I found out that I could be better than I thought I was in a lot of respects. It really set a foundation for me for the rest of my career, knowing that when the chips are down you know how to handle it; how to prepare and how to be mentally prepared is so important. They taught me how to gain confidence through a variety of ways, and those are lessons that I’ve taken with me.”

He and his wife, his high school sweetheart from Butte, had nine children.  Three of his grandsons played football in the PAC-10.



FRIDAY,  APRIL 7,  2023 - "Motivation is simple.  You eliminate those who aren't motivated.” Lou Holtz


*********** Happy Easter.

For sheer beauty in its use of the English language and its timeless phrases, it’s hard to beat the King James version of the Bible.

1st Corinthians 15
King James Version

1 Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;
2 By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.
3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;
4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:
5 And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve:
6 After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep.
7 After that, he was seen of James; then of all the apostles.
8 And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time.
9 For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.
10 But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.
11 Therefore whether it were I or they, so we preach, and so ye believed.
12 Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?
13 But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen:
14 And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.
15 Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not.
16 For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised:
17 And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.
18 Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.
19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.
20 But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.
21 For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.
22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
23 But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming.


***********   “With Easter Sunday coming, the day that we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord, it is time for us to understand, pastors and congregants … that without the crucifixion, without them coming after you with sharp objects, without them trying to tear you down, and the struggle—without the crucifixion, there is no resurrection. And my friends, the resurrection of America is certainly necessary now. Because there has been a purposeful destruction of our moral character.

“The slave will trade his freedom for more food in his bowl and for a roof that doesn’t leak over his head. The slave will trade his freedom for a paycheck that comes without work.

“Americans, you are slowly being enslaved. It is time now for you to wake up and understand that the tools of our destruction are truly working on our young people, because they love free stuff, and they love your stuff. They want your stuff, because they may never accumulate things, in the way it is going, on their own. So that presents a certain peril for all of us who have worked hard and experienced the American way of prosperity and success. There is a generation coming behind us and slowly being suffocated by the principles of big government.

“My friends, it is time for you to stand up and push back.  I want you to take account of what our fathers have bought and paid for with blood. Take account of that. If we let anyone—Democrat, Republican, whoever they are—take from us what our fathers bought and paid for. Not without a fight.”

Rev. C.L. Bryant

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=we3nutT5oGQ


*********** THIS WEEKEND IN THE XFL…

Last weekend, Orlando upset DC;  it was Orlando’s first win of the season, and DC’s first defeat.

STANDINGS (TOP TWO TEAMS IN EACH CONFERENCE QUALIFY FOR PLAYOFFS)

XFL North
1) D.C. Defenders (6-1)
2) St. Louis Battlehawks (5-2)*
3) Seattle Sea Dragons (5-2)
4) Vegas Vipers (2-5)
*The Battlehawks hold the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Sea Dragons.

XFL South
1) Houston Roughnecks (4-3)
2) Arlington Renegades (3-4)
3) San Antonio Brahmas (2-5)
4) Orlando Guardians (1-6)


THIS WEEKEND’S GAMES

Saturday, April 8th - 1:00 PM ET - ESPN & ESPN+
Vegas Vipers vs. St. Louis Battlehawks
The Dome at America's Center - St. Louis
(St. Louis might be the XFL’s best team. I like the stuff they do offensively.)

Saturday, April 8th - 4:00PM ET -  ESPN & ESPN+
Arlington Renegades vs. Orlando Guardians
Camping World Stadium - Orlando
(Arlington doesn’t have a QB; Orlando does, in Quentin Dormady)

Sunday, April 9th - 3:00PM ET -  ABC & ESPN+
Houston Roughnecks vs. San Antonio Brahmas
Alamodome - San Antonio
(If QB Brandon Silver is okay, Houston is MUCH better than San Antonio)

Sunday, April 9th - 7:00PM ET -  ESPN2 & ESPN+
D.C. Defenders vs. Seattle Sea Dragons
Lumen Field - Seattle
(HUGE game, XFL version. I’m going to go out on a limb and pick Seattle, which will really mess things up in the North if St. Louis wins, too.)


*********** We are so f—ked…

An article in the Wall Street Journal under the headline "America Pulls Back From Values That Once Defined It” published some of the results of a Wall Street Journal-NORC (National Opinion Research Center) poll:

Read ‘em and weep:

Just 38 per cent of Americans said patriotism is "very important.”  In 1998 - 25 years ago - it was 70 per cent
39 per cent said religion is "very important.”  In 1998 - 25 years ago - it was 62 per cent.
30 per cent said having children is "very important.”  In 1998 - 25 years ago - it was 59 per cent.
25 years. That’s a tremendous change in one generation.

The results that reflect these  changes in attitudes are alarming but not surprising.

In  2021, 51 per cent of American adults aged 25-54 were married.  In 1990, it was 67 per cent.
In 2020, there were 56 births in the U.S. for every 1,000 women aged 15-44. In 1991, there were 70.9
Worse, in 2021, 40 per cent of all babies born in the US were born to unmarried mothers.

You want scary?  How about these results, from  those under 30:
23 per cent said patriotism is "very important”
31 per cent answered the same way about religion
23 per cent answered the same way about having children

Aren’t these the "children" they always tell us, whenever  they’re begging for more money for schools, that are supposedly  “our future?”

Sheesh.

Maybe the strongest sign of our decline:

Only 21 per cent of those surveyed agreed with the statement  that our country "stands above all countries in the world.”

You can’t say that our schools aren’t doing their jobs.  It just depends on what you think their job is.


*********** “The adapt-to-your-talent argument is largely a canard, one rarely made by experienced coaches. Football is now so complicated that just learning a new offensive or defensive system usually takes more than a year, and few coaches are allowed much more than that if they plan on keeping their jobs. So trying to teach your players one system, then the other, is a waste of valuable time and risks confusing your players and possibly your assistants, too. Yes, coaches can adapt their play calling but they cannot easily adapt their systems.”  John U. Bacon


*********** I came across an article from a few years back entitled “Why the Double Wing Still Works.”  It’s quite good.   It deals with the great success the offense  has enjoyed in the state of Massachusetts, and it mentions a couple of great coaches I’ve worked with.  It’s dated but it’s still timely.  (Factually, it could have been written yesterday.)

https://www.espn.com/blog/boston/high-school/post/_/id/39281/xs-and-os-why-the-double-wing-still-works



***********  “So I know we’ll have the champions come to the White House, we always do. So, we hope LSU will come but, you know, I’m going to tell Joe (Biden) I think Iowa should come, too, because they played such a good game.”
That was “Doctor” Jill Biden, who, they tell us, is “an educator.”

You know -  The kind of person who believes in doing away with SATs and ACTs in order to be admit lesser-qualified students to colleges based on a more “holistic” (whatever that means) approach…

The kind of person who  came up with the idea of not keeping score in kids’ games…

The kind of person that  gives us ten valedictorians at graduation, rather than select one and risk making others feel bad…

(Actually, “Doctor” Biden must not have stayed around for the end-of-game nastiness, or she wouldn’t have test-flown the idea of bringing LSU and Iowa together anytime soon.)



*********** Faithful reader Dr. John Rothwell, of Corpus Christi, Texas, knowing I like the Babylon Bee, sent me a link to an article that really nails Anheuser-Busch for its latest stunt - celebrating a transgender “influencer” by putting “her” face on a Bud Light can.

The headline:

Beverage Pretending To Be Beer Features Man Pretending To Be Woman

https://babylonbee.com/news/beverage-pretending-to-be-beer-features-man-pretending-to-be-woman?utm_source=The%20Babylon%20Bee%20Newsletter&utm_medium=email


*********** Until Wednesday, there was only one Canadian college competing in NCAA college football.

Now, with the announcement by Simon Fraser University that it was cancelling its football program,  there will be none.

If you could call what Simon Fraser had been doing “competing.”

The Clan (see, Simon Fraser was a Scotsman and we’re talking about a Scottish “Clan,” not the hated Ku Klux Klan) was playing D-II football, of which there are very few in the West, US or Canada.

This past season, it played in, of all places, the Lone Star Conference, which as the name suggests consists mostly of teams from Texas along with two from New Mexico. Oh- and two schools from the Pacific Northwest, Central Washington and Western Oregon, which find themselves marooned somewhat like Simon Fraser.

Simon Fraser was notified by the Lone Star Conference that there would be no room for it in 2024, and with that information, the SFU administration announced that in the interests of players who might want to go elsewhere, it decided to pull the plug on the program now.

“The reason the decision was announced now and not at the end of the season was to give our athletes an opportunity to move on,” the SFU Athletic Director said.  “The longer you wait, they’re not going to have that many doors open, that many opportunities, so that came to light including the uncertainty around the program. Having made that decision and not being able to share that was not in the best interest of the student-athletes.”

Why wouldn’t it try to schedule Canadian colleges?  Even if arrangements to do so could be made at this late date, that’s out of the question because Simon Fraser wishes to continue to compete in NCAA D-II in other sports.   The problem is that while NCAA D-II permits athletic scholarships, Canadian Universities do not, so SFU, while it intends to honor its scholarships, would not be able to use those scholarship players in games.

In addition, Canadian college rules do not permit a school to belong to more than one conference.

Yes, travel to places in the Southwest was extreme, but if they were to play Canadian Universities, they’d be having to travel some distances to Alberta, Saskatchewan, or Manitoba to play road games.

I mentioned their “competing.”  Actually they haven’t been competitive in football for years.

They were 1-9 this past season.

Against their Northwest rivals, they lost  40-7 to Central Washington, to whom they’ve lost 16 straight.  Against Western Oregon, their 32-7 loss this past season was their 24th in a row.

A Simon Fraser alumni group has said that it will attempt to reverse the decision, and  B.C. Lions owner Amar Doman, who  has donated a considerable amount of money to amateur football in the province, announced that his club would support those efforts.


https://3downnation.com/2023/04/05/final-decision-simon-fraser-a-d-theresa-hanson-didnt-apply-to-u-sports-due-to-incredibly-complex-process/



*********** If you see an official reach for his whistle and come up empty, there might be a conservative speaker in town.  The latest stunt by the great unwashed horde that lives off the dole and has nothing better to do than “protest” is to stifle opposition speech by repeatedly blowing whistles.



***********  Maybe it’s because I generally side with the underdog, but I like the job that Wille Fritz has been doing at Tulane, and I was really glad when he passed up other jobs - most notably at Georgia Tech - to stay with the Green Wave.

In his 31 years as a head coach, he has an overall head-coaching record of 236-119; at the NCAA level his record 197-114. He’s won two national junior college championships,  and he was twice honored as the AFCA Regional Coach of the year after winning back-to-back FCS championships at Sam Houston State.

The latest ACFA Insider - the newsletter sent out by the American Football Coaches Association - contains a really good article about Coach Fritz entitled “You Got to Have a Philosophy.”

I will paraphrase where necessary, but where I can, I’ll quote directly from the article.Like any good coach, he got things from other coaches.

Fritz said one of the biggest things he learned over the years came from legendary coach Don James at an AFCA convention during the late 1980s.

James served as the head coach at Kent State University and coached current Alabama head coach Nick Saban and Pittsburgh Steelers legend Jack Lambert.

“I was a young coach, as an assistant, I was taking note after note, and this thing really resonated with me,” Fritz said. “He said ‘You need to have a philosophy. If you want to be a head coach, you need to have a philosophy of what’s important to you and you got to understand why it’s important to you.’”

Fritz has been developing his own philosophy ever since and over the course of his coaching career, which has spanned over three decades, it’s paid off.

For Fritz and the Green Wave, it starts with taking care of the football — the No. 1 step in Fritz’s “Plan to Win.” Like most coaches, Fritz wants to win the turnover and takeaway margin. During his coaching career, his teams have accumulated an overall record of 161-23 when they win the turnover battle and they are 39-71 when they lose it. During this past season, where the Green Wave went 12-2, they went 6-0 when they won the turnover battle and were 4-2 when they lost it.

“This is the number one thing we accent in our program,” Fritz said. “I’m the ball security coach. I’m the takeaway coach. I’m after our guys on this on a daily basis and they know how important it is.”

“Job security equals ball security all the time, right?” Fritz asked. “I do both of them all the time. We teach offensive players how to take the ball away. We teach defensive players how to have great ball security. It’s not just the offensive guys. It’s anybody who comes in contact with the ball.”

Sounding like  John Madden,  whose advice kicks off all my Zoom Clinics, he believes in the running game - on both sides of the ball.

“I believe in running the football,” Fritz said. “I think if you’re going to have a great ballclub, and you’re going to win championships, you got to be able to run the ball where everybody in the ballpark knows you’re running the ball. You also got to stop them from running the ball when everybody knows that they’re going to be running the football.”

Fritz’s philosophy has rung true throughout his career, as he’s 202-39 when his team has won the rushing battle and Tulane was 7-1 this past season.

He also puts a lot of emphasis on the kicking game.

Fritz says, the further away that you start with the football, the less likely you are to score, and in the opposite fashion, the closer you get to the endzone with the football, the more likely you are to score.

When Fritz’s teams have started between the 1 to 19-yard line on their side of the field, they’ve scored 19 percent of the time during his career. But, when his teams have started between his opponents’ 20 and 1-yard line they’ve scored 84 percent of the time.

To place an even bigger accent on special teams, Fritz uses a “launch pad” to get his players settled in before they take the field for a field goal, punt, or kickoff. Fritz says it allows his staff to coach up their players and make sure all of the right personnel are ready to go.

“You know, one thing I’ve learned, they didn’t have this at JUCO or Division II, but we play all these TV games,” Fritz said. “They have breaks every time you turn around, you know, and the breaks are two and a half to three minutes long. So, you get to coach your guys up on kickoff and kickoff return every single time. We want to try and take advantage of that by getting the correct 11 guys in a launch pad and going through everything that we need to go through.”

He also stresses the truism that good teams don’t beat themselves.

“Wave don’t beat the Wave,” he says.

When Fritz’s teams have fewer pre or post-snap penalties than their opponents he’s 154-41 over the course of his career. When they’ve had more, Fritz’s teams are 82-78-1. Fritz emphasizes this step by yelling out the mantra during practice when a penalty is committed to make sure his players know how important it is.

“We want to be a disciplined football team,” Fritz said. “I can still win when you have more (penalties), but you make it more difficult on yourself.”

He puts stress on the importance of the word “finish.”

The veteran coach has picked up bits and pieces of this from many coaches throughout his career, but one of the biggest came from Joe Gibbs during his time with the Washington Redskins. Fritz said he noticed only one sign throughout the whole facility. It stated “Start behind all lines! Touch all lines! Finish past all lines! This is what a disciplined football team does.”

“When I came back, I put it up all over our facility. I need to start behind all lines, touch all lines, finish past all lines. This is what a disciplined football team does,” Fritz said. “I’ll start that little saying sometimes and my guys can finish it because they’ve heard me say it so many times. So if you are ever supposed to be behind the line, be behind it. If you are supposed to touch a line, touch the line. It’s not swiping at it. It’s touching the line. If you are supposed to finish past a line, finish past the line. We want to make sure that we do a great job of finishing everything that we start.”

He’s coached at a lot of places, from junior college to small four-year college to FBS, and he sounds a bit like Frosty Westering and his famous “Make the Big Time Where You Are” when he says the biggest advice he can give to a young coach is  “Coach where your feet are.”

“The main thing you got to always remember, which all you guys do out there, is just to be a tremendous role model and mentor to your student-athletes,” Fritz said. “Whether it’s junior high, high school, junior college, D-III, D-II, D-I, D-1 AA, or whatever it might be.

“Your destination will find you at some point in time but make sure you’re doing a great job of being where your feet are and making sure that you’re doing just a great job of being a tremendous role model.”

***********  Coach:

I saw Adley Rutschman in his first game after being called up last season. I knew he would be very, very good, and he's proved me right. As a Rays fan, I don't like seeing him at the plate with men on. Thanks for telling us about his grandfather.

I'd read about Mike Gundy's proposal. Although it's better than nothing, I don't like it much either. Nobody mentions how much the contracts will cost. Is there an upper limit? Still stinks to me. And concerning the portal, I think I agree with Izzo that sitting out a year between transfers would stop some of the nonsense.

Sam is a star. All the Aussie sports media seems entranced by him.

John Vermillion                    
St Petersburg, Florida



***********   Hugh,

Two of the three concussions I sustained playing high school and college football occurred when I fell on the back of my head.  Ironically, BOTH suffered while wearing one of the original padded helmets on the inside.  The other had nothing to do with a helmet.  Got kicked in the jaw while making a tackle.

Your grandson Sam is quite the expert on Formula 1, and quite a good talker!  Must have picked that gene up from grandpa Hugh!

When I coached in Minnesota every football team made the playoffs.  First playoff game was held on a Tuesday.  If you won you moved on and played again on THAT Saturday.  If you won you moved on and played the next Friday.  That was THREE football games in the span of 11 days!  Needless to say,  up there you had to have a lot of luck in getting to the state championship game.

It won't be long before Ken Niumatololo is back on the sidelines instead of an off-field assignment at UCLA.


Have a great week!

Joe Gutilla
Austin, Texas
 






*********** QUIZ ANSWER:  Gary Moeller was Bo Schembechler’s longtime assistant, at Bowling Green and then at Michigan, and he was Schembechler’s handpicked successor as Michigan’s head coach.

He was well prepared for the job.   Captain his senior year at Ohio State, he coached high school ball in Ohio for four years before going to work for Schembechler.

After two years at Bowling Green, he moved to Michigan with Schembechler, where he spent three years coaching defensive ends and three years as  defensive coordinator.

He left to become head coach at Illinois, where after ignoring Schembechler’s advice that he insist on a five-year contract, he was fired after three seasons.

Schembechler immediately hired him back.

When our guy  pointed out that Bo had always said,  “Never take a guy back when he’s left your staff,” Schembechler, replied, “Aw, hell. You’re different.”

He spent two seasons as the Wolverines’ quarterback coach,  then returned to his  position as defensive coordinator for the next six years.

And then, in a move that tells you something both about him and Schembechler,  he served as Michigan’s OFFENSIVE coordinator for three seasons, until Schembechler retired.

In all, when he took over as Michigan’s head coach, he’d been a Michigan assistant for 18 years, 13 of them on the defensive side and five on the offensive side.

In his first season as  the Wolverines’ head coach, he took them to a Big Ten championship, joining Fielding Yost, Bennie Oosterbaan and Schembechler himself as the only Michigan coaches ever to do so.

In five years as the Wolverines’ head coach, he posted a 44-13-3 record.  He won three Big Ten championships and his team made five bowl appearances - two of them Rose Bowls - with a win over Washington in the 1993 Rose Bowl.

All of his teams finished in the Top 20, and from 1990 through 1992 they set a Big Ten record by winning 19 straight games (broken twice since then by Ohio State).

In 1991, Desmond Howard won the Heisman Trophy.

And - for what it’s worth - he was 3-1-1 against Ohio State.

And then, in May 1995, the 23 years he’d spent as a Michigan coach came to an end in a Southfield, Michigan restaurant.

As Detroit sportswriter Mitch Albom  put it, many years later, “Many a football coach has issued this warning to his players: one night can change your life forever. (He) lived it.”

He apparently got quite drunk, and instead of getting in the cab somebody had ordered for him and getting out of the place, he wound up being arrested,  accused of hitting a police officer.

Within five days, he had “resigned.”

“I have left my job as head football coach, but I still have my family and dignity,” he said in announcing his resignation.

Wrote Albom, “He never lost either one. And, in the end, both are more important than football.” 

Albom believed the “resignation” was excessive, that likely  he’d been sacrificed in the interest of Michigan’s vaunted reputation.  “Some things go with the job,” Albom wrote. “Crucifixion is not one of them.

“He’d had no record before that. No trouble, No belligerence. He didn’t have Schembechler’s temper, let alone that of their former mentor, Woody Hayes. He was honorable, his players loved him, he ran a clean program and in five seasons at U-M, while he didn’t win at the same percentage as his famous predecessor, he captured three Big Ten titles and won four out of five bowl games.”

He never coached in college football again, although he  did spent seven years in the NFL as an assistant - two with the Bengals, four with the Lions, one with the Jaguars, and two with the Bears. Actually, for part of one of those seasons - after Bobby Ross decided he’d had enough of coaching in the pros  - he was  head coach of the Lions.    In seven games, he finished with a 4-3 record, making him one of only two Lions’ coaches  in the last 50 years (Jim Caldwell is the other) to leave Detroit with winning records.  (In typical Detroit fashion, rather than retain  him, new Detroit GM Matt Millen fired him and instead hired Marty Morninwheg -  who in two years went 2-14 and 3-13.)

He died this past July.  Wrote Mich Albom, “When I heard the news, I felt a gush of sadness, not simply for the obvious reasons, that a man I knew and liked was gone at age 81, that his family and friends would no longer have his rich and caring company. There was more…  it felt as if two lives had ended. The one he lived. And the one he never got to live.”



CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING GARY MOELLER

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - AUSTIN, TEXAS
JASON MENSING - WESTLAND, MICHIGAN
KEVIN MCCULLOUGH - LAKELAND, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
PETE PORCELLI - WATERVLIET, NEW YORK
TOM DAVIS - SAN CARLOS, CALIFORNIA
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS


*********** Boy do I have a great Gary Moeller story for you....

My first year in Tecumseh (Michigan) we were 0-3 and playing a highly ranked Saline team who was led at QB by Gary Moeller’s grandson who was Andy Moeller’s son.   Naturally, Gary and Andy were at the game. Tecumseh was coming off a stretch of 1 win seasons and nobody expected much of a game except us.   

Despite being 0-3 we had lost to 3 outstanding opponents, 2 of which would go on to 9-0 and the third 8-1 with the one loss to the other one.  The games were all close including a double overtime loss the previous week.   

We had 2 great wings that ran with power and an earth mover at right tight end and despite us being below average on defense we were going to score...   

We jumped out to a 35-14 lead at half...   As I walked up the stairs to our locker room at half time I was right behind the officials and heard a couple people swearing at them.  At that time there were several of OUR fans that were often out of line, and assuming that it was a couple guys with two many drinks prior to the game I grabbed our SRO (School Resource Officer) and stated we  weren't going to put up with that crap and pointed in the direction of the noise, asking him to throw them out of the game.

The SRO comes to me after halftime and states, “You’re not going to believe who that was.”  When I asked who, he stated it was Andy and Gary Moeller.....   

I chuckled and went down to coach the second half. Late in the game, up 54-26,  I looked down to the south end of the stadium that was a huge tree-covered hill with double fences and sure enough I see two adult men climbing over the fences to get back in the game.   

I waved the SRO down and said “I think the Moellers want to talk with you. Please go invite them down to our sideline.”   He went over and chatted with them and they did not take up the offer and before you know it the game was over and we all went our own way!   

Obviously, it was one of our better wins in our 4 years stint there!  We would go on to win the next 5 games and get into the playoffs to draw one of the 9-0 teams we saw in the opening weeks and got thrashed pretty good the next time around to finish 6-4 by far my best season there...

God Bless,
Jason Mensing
Westland, Michigan

Is there something in God’s contract with some coaches that says that once they  step back from the sidelines and become just fathers (or grandfathers)  tt's okay for them to be a$$holes?
 




***********  QUIZ:  All-American.  Civil Engineering Graduate.  All-Pro.  Super Bowl Champion.  College Football Hall of Famer. Pro Football Hall of Famer.

How’s that for a resume?

He was one of the first of a long string of  New Jersey kids to go on to star in football at Penn State.

At Moorestown, New Jersey High - near Philly-  he played on two undefeated section champions (no state championships then) basketball teams and an undefeated section championship football team.

At Penn State, he played end on both offense at defense, first under Rip Engle and then under Joe Paterno.  In his three years of eligibility, the Lions went 24-8.   In his senior year, he was a first-team AP All-American, catching 17 passes for 178 yards on offense and being virtually unblockable on defense.  State went 9-1 and made it to the Gator Bowl - quite an honor then - where despite their losing to Florida, he was named the game’s MVP.

Graduating from Penn State with a degree in civil engineering, he was drafted in the first round by the Packers and in the third round by the AFL San Diego Chargers, and although his fiancee expressed a preference for warm-weather San Diego, he wound up signing with Green Bay.

The Packers converted him to outside linebacker.  He was big - 6-3, 245 - and fast and strong, and he wound up on the defensive left side, which meant that he was usually going up against tight ends like Mike Ditka and John Mackey.  On that same Packers’ left side were future Hall of Famers Willie Davis and Herb Adderley.

Although he missed all but four games in one season because of injury, he, played in all 14 games in 10 of his 12 seasons (10 with Green Bay, two with Washington), 155 games in all.

He played on three NFL championship teams, and two Super Bowl winners (the first two).

In all, he intercepted 27 passes and returned them for 449 yards and one touchdown.

He was named All-NFL three consecutive years (1967-69) and voted to three Pro Bowls.  In addition, he was named second-team All-Pro in 1968 and 1969 and was voted All-Western Conference three times (1966-68).

He was named to the Packers’ 50th Anniversary Team.

"Comparing him to Lawrence Taylor is a pretty accurate way of explaining how good (he) was," said Hall of Fame Raymond Berry, who both played and coached against him. "Those two guys were as good as it gets."

While playing, he worked in off-seasons as an engineer at Campbell’s Soup,  near his hometown, and with the Schlitz Brewing Company in Milwaukee, and after retiring as a player, he acquired  a Schlitz Distributorship in Akron which he ran until he retired in 2001.

One can sometimes pay a personal price for being on a great team and playing with immortals, and he almost did:  it wasn’t until  2013 - 39 years after he retired - that he was finally inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.  The 11th player from those great Packer teams of Vince Lombardi to make it into the Hall, he saw 10 teammates inducted before he finally made it.

As for who would present him into the Hall of Fame,  he had a problem.  He said it would have been Vince Lombardi  - if he were alive.

"Lombardi is gone, my college coach, Joe Paterno, just passed and my high school coach passed,” he said. "I've got one assistant high school coach left. I don't know. Phil Bengston and my position coach  Hog Hanner are gone.

"That's the trouble, you live a long time and all the people die on you.”

He chose his son.


TUESDAY,  APRIL 4,  2023 - "When you’re trying to build a program, you go through four stages: you lose big;  you lose close;  you win close;  and finally you start winning big.” Bobby Bowden

*********** Not saying that the XFL doesn't get a lof of  respect from the people at ESPN, but when we miss the first 8-1/2 minutes of Sunday's  St. Louis-Houston game because a pickleball  broadcast ran over...


*********** A University of Cincinnati Biomedical Engineering Professor  tested helmets made by Schutt, Riddell, Xenith and Vicis and found them all to be lacking in protection against blows to the back of the head. 

The researcher, Eric Nauman, cited the example of Tua Tagovailoa:

“He fell backwards and hit his head on the ground.  He clearly was impaired after that. We think that's largely because that helmet doesn't absorb a lot of the energy when it's a blow to the back of the head.”

Then,  Nauman said,  a few weeks later "Tagovailoa got thrown to the ground, hit the back of his head, same exact location. And that had much more severe consequences."

https://www.wvxu.org/health/2023-03-13/football-helmets-dont-protect-back-head-university-cincinnati-researcher


*********** We are so f—ked…

In Michigan, Grand Valley State University’s Multicultural Affairs Office just announced “five unique graduation celebrations designed to honor our diverse graduates.”

    •    Asian Graduation Celebration - Deadline April 15, 2023
    •    Black Graduation Celebration - Deadline April 15, 2023
    •    Latino/a/x Graduation Celebration - Deadline April 15, 2023
    •    Lavender Graduation (celebrating LGBTQIA+ graduates)* - Deadline April 13, 2023
    •    Native Graduation Celebration - Deadline April 8, 2023


*********** I can’t  back you into a corner and force you to look at photos on my phone or in my wallet, so in order to play proud but boring grandfather here, I have to provide this link to a clip of 14-year-old Sam Wyatt, providing some commentary on Australian TV prior to this past weekend’s Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix.


https://grabyo-prod.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com/media/or/VMX5KkP5Atq/ca/j2qgYQCjthq/as/3B1pr4LzLCj/3Cn8dWqn_flexar-720p-20150820_sbr.mp4?X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Date=20230331T024300Z&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Expires=604799&X-Amz-Credential=AKIAZNWLS4IRJ66LEWSU%2F20230331%2Feu-west-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Signature=9572a0aff9a13fd18910a4feaaf6b31f2d773d406c0dfcf07ad7d6825ea9a71a


*********** I like John Canzano and his sports column but John was one of those media guys who used to argue hard for the football playoff - “Division I football is the only sport that doesn’t have a playoff,” blah, blah, blah.

Yes, and it’s also the only team sport whose games are limited in number and frequency because of the dangers and after-effects of injuries;  it’s  the sport whose strategy and quality of play is most severely impacted by loss of players to injury;   it’s the sport whose  coaches and players require the most time to prepare strategically for an opponent.

Unable to play two games in a three-day period, as, say, basketball and baseball and hockey can do, football is faced with having to set aside at least two weeks for just a  four-team playoff. Make that three weeks for six to eight teams, or  four weeks for twelve to sixteen teams.

Okay, you say - it works in FCS.  They’ve had a playoff for years.

Does it work?  Really?  Have you seen the crowds at their playoff games?  ESPN (not the deuce or the “U”) doesn’t even touch its games until the semi-final rounds  (when there aren’t many other games on the tube anyhow).

It’s no longer reasonable to expect players to extend a regular season by  up to four more games (assuming a 12-team playoff field) without some sort of, uh, compensation.  Do you really think that there won’t at least be talk about players holding out for more pay?  (Shouldn’t there be, considering that coaches all have playoff incentives in their contracts?)

The NCAA basketball tournament is approaching the point where half the teams playing Division I basketball will qualify. Okay. In basketball that might work.  But applying that sort of a  field to FBS football would mean 65  teams, which we know won’t happen because that would mean that at some point fans would be asked to watch a Number One seed play a Number 64.  Who’s going to turn on their TV set to watch Georgia vs some  team that isn’t even bowl-eligible?

No, that won’t happen in football.  They’ll stop at 12 teams.  Which means they’ll tell the other 118 teams to f—k off.  Go home.  This is serious football now. We don’t need you.  You’re losers.

It pretty much happens already in Little League baseball, where the ordinary kids are done by early July, sent packing so that the elite teams - the league all-stars - can then embark on their summer-long playoffs.  (In case you’re looking for reasons why more kids don’t play baseball.)

It will never happen, but it’s time for all the media guys who pushed for a football playoff to admit that there aren’t going to be any cinderellas  in a College Football Playoff.

Remember TCU-Georgia



*********** Congratulations to Kim Mulkey and her LSU women’s basketball team.

Their win over Iowa was apparently the most-watched women’s basketball ever.

That’s nice.

I really don’t care enough about women’s basketball to comment on the LSU coach’s attire or to comment on her players lack of sportsmanship (does anyone ever know WTF that means any more?) after the game.



*********** UCLA’s  Chip Kelly has hired former Navy coach Ken Niumatololo to a newly-created position called “Director of Leadership.”

In Coach Ken’s 15 seasons at Navy the Middies went 109-83, won six of 10 bowl games, and beat Army 10 out of 15 times, including a series-record eight straight games.  But he was fired by Navy in December after going 3-7, 4-8 and 4-8  the last two  years, and losing to Army five of the last seven years.

(How quickly they forget.)

Who knows how Kelly intends to use Niumatololo?   There’s always the possibility, however  remote,  that we could one day see UCLA return to  its glory days when Mark Harmon ran the Wishbone.  No harm in dreaming.



*********** The check’s in the mail… I’ll respect you in the morning… If we give these people citizenship we’ll close the border so no more can slip in…

Oh - and now… Every student-athlete will be able to transfer to another college and be eligible immediately. But if they transfer a second time,  it’ll be just like before - they’ll have to sit out a season.

Hahahaha.  Unless, that is, they request a waiver, citing reasons related to “physical and mental health,” or “physical or sexual assault.”

Guess what? They all do.

Hahahaha.  Waiver requested, waiver granted.

Michigan State basketball coach Tom Izzo is wise to the game.

"I don't have a lot of faith in the NCAA," he said. "This waiver thing. If you've got a hangnail, you get a waiver. I just don't believe in that, because I think somebody, whether it's a lawyer, whether it's agents, whether it's people, they're going to just come up with a different reason. Mental health is a big reason. I just don't see why sitting out is such a bad thing because 90 percent of the kids that are sitting out aren't pros anyway or they'd go pro."

Oklahoma State football coach Mike Gundy smells the same rat: ”There’s over 14,000 unread lawsuits right now sitting on the NCAA’s desk in San Francisco.

”So, every time you try to corral a young man, they're gonna file a lawsuit, and they're gonna give them a waiver and they're out of here. That's just the way it is. And they're (the NCAA) not gonna fight that battle. So, we've got several players that are playing this year in the NCAA that are at their third or fourth school. How does that work? They just file a waiver. So, you can't control it.”

His suggestion? A contract.

“Young men should be able to sign a one-, two-, three- or four-year scholarship. That's their choice. Whatever they sign, that's what they're committed to. That's what we're going to now. That's the only way that we are going to have a chance to manage rosters. So, let's just say that at the end of this year I've got 19 guys whose contracts are up. They may be a senior or a freshman. So, if you're a five-star guy, like you're a heavily recruited guy,  you might just sign a one-year deal and then say, ‘Well, I'm good enough to sign another one-year deal, or I can leave if I want.’

“So, you want a four-year deal? Sign a four-year deal, but you're bound to that four-year contract unless your head coach says he'll sign off and let you go. And then that puts more pressure on the head coach, but at least it gives a young man a chance to leave if he comes in and says, ‘Coach, I'm not good enough to play here. I want to go to this school.’ I sign off and let him go. Or whatever reason. But that's the only way they're gonna be able to manage numbers in my opinion. That would slow the portal down.”

“Unless it becomes a contractual situation, you're never going to be able to control the portal.”

https://247sports.com/Article/Oklahoma-State-football-Mike-Gundy-says-contractual-scholarships-could-solve-NCAA-transfer-portal-issues-207515683/



***********   As a one-time Marylander  I still have fond memories of warm (okay, hot) summer evenings in the upper deck at old Memorial Stadium watching the Orioles.  For several years I worked for the company (National Brewing Company) that owned the team.

And as a Northwesterner, I am a big fan of Adley Rutschman, the Orioles catcher who,  if you haven’t heard,  became the first player in Major League history to go 5-for-5 with at least 4 RBIs on Opening Day. (He also got on base in a sixth  at-bat, with a walk.)

He’s not only a former  Oregon State baseball star, but he also played high school football in a very good program in Sherwood, Oregon.

But to a lot of us, he’s Ad Rutschman’s grandson.  Ad Rutschman, legendary coach at Linfield College in McMinnville, Oregon, won NAIA titles in both baseball and football.

Coming to Linfield after ten successful seasons as a high school coach in Hillsboro, Oregon, Ad  spent 24 seasons (from 1968 to 1991) as Linfield’s head football coach.   In that time, his Wildcats won three NAIA national championships and 15 Northwest Conference championships.   His career record at Linfield was 183-48-3, and he played a major part in Linfield’s still-active streak of 66 straight winning seasons.

He’s in the College Football Hall of Fame.

Here’s one for you - for most of his career at Linfield (maybe his entire career there, but I can’t prove or disprove it) he coached every game from the press box.

You can imagine how flattered I was the time I met  him at a luncheon and he said that we should get together some time and talk offense (he, like me, was a Wing-T guy).  Like a damn fool, I never followed up on it.




*********** In “My Life With the Redskins,” Corinne Griffith, former movie actress who married Redskins’ owner George Preston Marshall, tells about the origin of one of pro football’s great traditions - the Washington Redskins’ band and the team’s fight song, “Hail to the Redskins.”

We returned to the Shoreham hotel in Washington after leaving Dallas early in the summer of 1937. Things were fairly quiet one morning, when the telephone rang. It was Barney Breeskin, leader of the Shoreham orchestra. (Ilke many top-flight hotels at the time, the Hotel Shoreham, long the most prestigious hotel in Washington, had its own dance orchestra.)

Since the Redskins were going to be in Washington, he said, he thought they should have a song and he had written one which he wanted us to hear. He was calling it “Hail to the Redskins.”

I turned from the telephone, held my hand over the receiver and asked George (whose nose was, as always, buried in a newspaper) if he wanted to hear the number. Without even looking up, or missing a line of what he was reading he said, “if I listened to every song written for the Redskins since moving to Washington I wouldn’t have time to do my washing - I mean attend to my laundry. Tell Barney - No.”

Hello, Barney? He says he’ll be delighted.“

Barney thanked me and asked me to thank George, which I did. At a quarter of eight that night, we heard for the first time the music of “Hail to the Redskins.”

The music was sent to Buddy de Sylva , who wrote the lyrics for “A Kiss in the Dark,” “When Day is Done,” “You’re a Sweetheart,” and other fine songs. His answer about a Redskins song was: “How could one write one write anything romantic about pro football?”

Then it was sent to Bob Considine, now on the New York Mirror. Bob returned it, saying, “Love, Bob.”

After that affectionate outburst, George concluded. “I guess you’ll have to write the lyrics. No one else will.”

I wrote the lyrics. Barney furnished the title.

Hail to the Redskins
Hail Victory!
Braves on the warpath.
Fight for old D.C.

Scalp ‘um, swamp um,
We will take ‘um big score.

Read ‘um, weep ‘um,
Touchdown we want heap more

Fight on, fight on
Till you have won
You sons of Wash-ing-ton
Rah! Rah! Rah!

Hail to the Redskins
Hail Victory!
Braves on the warpath.
Fight! For old D.C.

Next came the search for a band.

It was explained that a great song had been written called “Hail to the Redskins.” I was sent over to an old piano in the old fire house. With one finger I picked out the tune of “Hail to the Redskins,” but for some reason or other, the bandleader appeared unimpressed. He explained that they knew “Onward Christian Soldiers” by heart and that he personally thought it much prettier than “Hail to the Redskins.“

But with his usual good salesmanship, the President  of the Washington Redskins mounted an old chair there in the old firehouse and in a rather shaky voice sang an entire chorus of “Hail to the Redskins.” The band leader called the men to one side, and after much whispering and gesticulating he said they were very sorry, but they still liked “Onward Christian Soldiers” better.

Whew. Some of those lyrics.


“Scalp ‘um?”


“Heap more?”


Okay, okay.  Some things had to change.  Of course, imagine if they'd gone with "Onward Christian Soldiers."


Not that I give a sh— about that team any more, but as I understand it, the song has been retitled “Hail to the Commanders” (lyrics drastically revised of course) and it’s played at every home game by the (also renamed) Washington Commanders Marching Band.


If “Hail to the Commanders” doesn’t get you fired up, there’s something wrong with you.


*********** Call it unintended consequences,  but while basketball continues to cheat its fans by resting its stars, baseball may serendipitously have found a way around the problem.

So far, it appears that the new pitch clock rules have shortened games by an average of 25 minutes.

At that rate, over a 162-game season, each team will have been on the field an total of 67.5 hours less than last year

Over the season that works out to about 2-1/2 hours - about an entire game - per week.

What this really means to fans, says Dodgers’ manager Dave Roberts, is that with less wear and tear on the players, “Ultimately, you’re going to see the best players play more games.”


*********** Remember all the one-and-dones in  college basketball?   This year, there there wasn’t a single true freshman starter on any of the Final Four teams.


*********** How smart was it for Mark Madsen to leave Utah Valley to coach the  Cal basketball team?

*********** Call it an inverted pennant race:   There are 20 teams in the English Premier League.  The bottom three will be relegated (dropped down to a lower league).  As of Friday, with ten weeks left to play, just four points (three for a win, one for a tie) separated the bottom nine teams.

Far be it from me to tell the Brits what to do, but mightn’t it make sense to relegate the whole damn nine of them, and cleanse the Premier League of the riff-raff?


***********   Would you prefer I address you as George or Mr. Plimpton? Your AFD address is worthy of SI, past or present. Only problem noted is that the first letters of the opening words didn't spell 'April Fools'.

Two words in your follow-on argument stand out: "transfer insurance." You nailed it. Couple that with part of an earlier argument, to wit, that "getting our playmakers the ball out in space" is essentially irrelevant when their playmakers are an echelon or two above yours in physical talent. Still, I'm not entirely without hope. An early report says they're run option heavy in the early spring drills.

That snowstuck story was a sheer joy. The Iowa Wesleyan story was the obverse.

John Vermillion                    
St Petersburg, Florida


***********   Hugh,

Thought at first it was an April Fools joke.  Unfortunately for our country Donald Trump's indictment is real, but certainly not a joke.

Your April Fools joke was a classic.  It was a dead giveaway immediately by using Joe Biden's name but you cemented it with "his" claim that he played four years of football at Delaware.

Had to laugh at the soccer parents story.  How apropos.  

I've had experiences with Ohio State fans on the road, and in Columbus.  Let's suffice it to say they are not high on my list of favorites.

Enjoy the weekend!

Joe Gutilla
Austin, Texas






*********** QUIZ ANSWER:  Stan Jones played 13 seasons as an NFL lineman,  and played  his first 11 seasons without missing a game.  He attributed his durability - as well as his strength and quickness - to the fact that he was one of the very first pro football players to make weight training a major part of his fitness regimen.

At a time when most coaches discouraged weight lifting (“It’ll make you muscle-bound”) he  started to lift weights  as a 140-pound freshman football player Lemoyne,  Pennsylvania.  At that time, nearby York was the world capital  of weight  taining, and under their influence - and using their equipment -  over the next six years he was able to add 20 pounds of weight a year. 

At Maryland, he was 6-1, 250 - extremely big at that time - and exceptionally strong, earning him the “nickname Superman.”  At that time, he regularly pressed 100-pound dumbbells overhead, and his squat and bench press reps were  in the 300 to 400-pound range.

As an offensive and defensive tackle, Maryland was 27-3 in his three years there. In his sophomore year the Terps were 10-0 and ranked third in the nation. In his junior year they were 7-2 and ranked 13th. In his senior year they were 10-1 and national champions, and he was a consensus All-American tackle. He won the Knute Rockne Memorial Trophy as the nation’s outstanding lineman, and having been taken the year before by the Bears as a “future” draft choice, he stepped right into the Bears’ lineup as a  starter at tackle. 

The next year he was moved to guard, where  he was All-NFL in 1955, 1956, 1959, and 1960.

From  1955 through 1961 he played in seven straight Pro Bowls, and when the Bears needed defensive help  in 1962, defensive coordinator  George Allen turned him into a two-way player.

In 1963, he was a full-time defensive tackle, and he played a major role in the Bears’ winning the NFL title.

For many years, he and linebacker Bill George were the Bears’ co-captains until owner-coach George Halas fired them  for holding a team  vote to join the NFL Players’ Assocation.

After his 12th season in 1965, Bears coach George Halas agreed, as a favor to him, to trade him to the Washington Redskins so that he could play a final season near his home in Rockville, Maryland.  He retired after the 1966 season.

Following his playing days,  he joined Lou Saban’s staff with the Denver Broncos, serving served as the team’s strength coach and defensive line coach.   He followed Saban to Buffalo in 1972,  but returning to the Broncos in 1976,  he is credited with helping  build the Denver “Orange Crush” defense. In all, he spent 18 years in Denver, and remained with the Broncos through the 1988 season.

He also served as a defensive coach and strength coach for the Cleveland Browns, and New England Patriots, and for the Scottish Claymores in the NFL Europe League.

Stan Jones  is a member of the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame and of both the Pro Football and College Football Halls of Fame.

"He was ahead of his time," said his daughter at the time of his death in 2010. "In high school and college, his friends and teammates used to make fun of him because he was in the gym while they were out dancing and chasing girls. He first got hooked on weights because he grew up near York, Pennsylvania,  where York Barbells were made. He figured that was the way to go.”


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING STAN JONES

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - AUSTIN, TEXAS
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
CHRISTOPHER ANDERSON - MUNICH, GERMANY
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY



***********   Coach,

Fascinating guy, switching sides of the ball at the pro level and getting on the pumping-iron train.

I love getting to dig a little for these quiz answers; it also seems like there’s an endless pipeline of these stout Pennsylvania guys who became 60’s and 70’s legends.

I also took a look at the ’63 Bears roster - two names that stuck out were Mike Ditka and Ted Karras, Alex’s brother. I can’t help but get into rabbit holes with these quizzes, and I saw that the Karras boys were from Gary, Indiana, not far from my wife’s hometown.

Christopher Anderson
Munich, Germany






*********** QUIZ:  He was Bo Schembechler’s longtime assistant, at Bowling Green and then at Michigan, and he was Schembechler’s handpicked successor as Michigan’s head coach.

He was well prepared for the job.   Captain his senior year at Ohio State, he coached high school ball in Ohio for four years before going to work for Schembechler.

After two years at Bowling Green, he moved to Michigan with Schembechler, where he spent three years coaching defensive ends and three years as  defensive coordinator.

He left to become head coach at Illinois, where after ignoring Schembechler’s advice that he insist on a five-year contract, he was fired after three seasons.

Schembechler immediately hired him back.

When our guy  pointed out that Bo had always said,  “Never take a guy back when he’s left your staff,” Schembechler, replied, “Aw, hell. You’re different.”

He spent two seasons as the Wolverines’ quarterback coach,  then returned to his  position as defensive coordinator for the next six years.

And then, in a move that tells you something both about him and Schembechler,  he served as Michigan’s OFFENSIVE coordinator for three seasons, until Schembechler retired.

In all, when he took over as Michigan’s head coach, he’d been a Michigan assistant for 18 years, 13 of them on the defensive side and five on the offensive side.

In his first season as  the Wolverines’ head coach, he took them to a Big Ten championship, joining Fielding Yost, Bennie Oosterbaan and Schembechler himself as the only Michigan coaches ever to do so.


In five years as the Wolverines’ head coach, he posted a 44-13-3 record.  He won three Big Ten championships and his team made five bowl appearances - two of them Rose Bowls - with a win over Washington in the 1993 Rose Bowl.

All of his teams finished in the Top 20, and from 1990 through 1992 they set a Big Ten record by winning 19 straight games (broken twice since then by Ohio State).

In 1991, Desmond Howard won the Heisman Trophy.

And - for what it’s worth - he was 3-1-1 against Ohio State.

But  in May 1995, the 23 years he’d spent as a Michigan coach came to an end in a Southfield, Michigan restaurant.

As Detroit sportswriter Mitch Albom  put it, many years later, “Many a football coach has issued this warning to his players: one night can change your life forever. (He) lived it.”

He apparently got quite drunk, and instead of getting in the cab somebody had ordered for him and getting out of the place, he wound up being arrested,  accused of hitting a police officer.

Within five days, he had “resigned.”

“I have left my job as head football coach, but I still have my family and dignity,” he said in announcing his resignation.

Wrote Albom, “He never lost either one. And, in the end, both are more important than football.” 

Albom believed the “resignation” was excessive, that likely  he’d been sacrificed in the interest of Michigan’s vaunted reputation.  “Some things go with the job,” Albom wrote. “Crucifixion is not one of them.

“He’d had no record before that. No trouble, No belligerence. He didn’t have Schembechler’s temper, let alone that of their former mentor, Woody Hayes. He was honorable, his players loved him, he ran a clean program and in five seasons at U-M, while he didn’t win at the same percentage as his famous predecessor, he captured three Big Ten titles and won four out of five bowl games.”

He never coached in college football again, although he  did spent seven years in the NFL as an assistant - two with the Bengals, four with the Lions, one with the Jaguars, and two with the Bears. Actually, for part of one of those seasons - after Bobby Ross decided he’d had enough of coaching in the pros  - he was  head coach of the Lions.    In seven games, he finished with a 4-3 record, making him one of only two Lions’ coaches  in the last 50 years (Jim Caldwell is the other) to leave Detroit with winning records.  (In typical Detroit fashion, rather than retain  him, new Detroit GM Matt Millen fired him and instead hired Marty Morninwheg -  who in two years went 2-14 and 3-13.)

He died this past July.  Wrote Mitch Albom, “When I heard the news, I felt a gush of sadness, not simply for the obvious reasons, that a man I knew and liked was gone at age 81, that his family and friends would no longer have his rich and caring company. There was more…  it felt as if two lives had ended. The one he lived. And the one he never got to live.


 

FRIDAY,  MARCH 31,  2023 - "If you have always believed that everyone should play by the same rules and be judged by the same standards, that would have gotten you labeled a radical 60 years ago, a liberal 30 years ago and a racist today.” Thomas Sowell

*********** With military recruitment down  and recruiters consistently failing to meet quotas, there is pressure on the military to lower its standards.

President Joe Biden isn’t having any of it.   In fact, he believes we should raise the standards, and he has a plan to do something about it.

Said press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Thursday, “The President  knows that our military is having trouble getting good recruits, and he is well aware that a large percentage of otherwise-eligible young men can’t join the service because of drug use, obesity, academics or incarceration.

“He is also aware that American men in general are becoming soft and lazy, without any sense of direction.  The female-to-male  ratio in most college student bodies is approaching 60-40.   More and more single adult males are either unwilling or unable to find gainful employment, so they live with their parents, and spend most of their time playing video games.

“With teenage boys, the crime rate is up and the graduation rate is down.  Teen births are up and participation in high school sports is down. Something has to be done, and the President has a plan.”

The President, in a separate statement, announced an executive order that he says will “fundamentally restore the America which we once knew. Make America Great Again,  even.”

Here is his statement:

“As most of you know, the United States has won only one war in the last 100 years - World War II.

“Yes, a lot of that is due to great leadership and great fighting spirit, and the great bravery of our fighting men - not to mention the dedication of Americans on the Home Front.

“But a lot of it is due to  the emphasis that our military and naval training placed on football.

“Yes, football. Through it, young men learned the importance of conditioning… of physical courage… of teamwork… leadership… discipline…

“These are all things that I learned as a four-year starter at the University of Delaware, and these are things that I want  today’s young men exposed to!

“Tomorrow, April 1, I am ordering  the immediate formation of a nationwide network of Gridiron Manliness Academies,  at now-closed military bases throughout the country.

“At the GMA Academies, young men will receive training in ethics and values, basic academic skills, trade skills, self-defense, nutrition, American history and culture and, of course, English proficiency.

"Notice I said, 'young men.' Rsearch has shown that boys and young men learn better when there are no women present.  You know - the way it used to be at our service academies. I know that this will not be popular, but come on - I am not in this job to win a popularity  contest.

“There will be an emphasis on discipline and physical fitness.  And at the heart of this emphasis will be football.  Every GMA Cadet, regardless of size and experience,  will play on a football team.  There will be enough teams  at every GMA location for every player.

“Coaches would be trained first by the American Football Coaches Association staff, with preference given to veterans and retired coaches, especially those over 60.

“Just as World War II service brought together young men from all areas of the country and all walks of life, I will insist that we have TRUE diversity - geographic, economic and otherwise - in every GMA location.

“Every young man will receive room, board and clothing, plus health and dental care  over a two-year commitment,  with $1000 a month for the first year and $2000 a month for the second year  deposited into a bank account in his name.

“Graduates will be given preference in hiring for any government position, and preference in admission to any of our service academies.

“Graduates entering the military will receive  a waiver from basic training, an immediate promotion, and upon serving two years in the military, a bonus -  the money in their bank account.

“Funding will be no problem.  All we have to do is dip into foreign aid, and take the money the military now spends on abortions and gender-reassignment surgery and the GMA system will be paid for. But should there be any need for more funds, I have empowered the Federal Reserve to print whatever money is necessary.

“May God Bless America and our brave men and women.”

The White House
Washington, D.C.
April 1, 2023

***********   The transfer portal doesn’t work very well for the service academies.

For them,   transfers work in only one direction: outward. 

At least during their first two years, service academy players can transfer out.

Until  he starts his junior year, every cadet is free to leave for any reason, the same as at any other college.  (There have already been cases of Army sophomore football players entering the transfer portal but, thankfully for the program, they reconsidered and withdrew their names.)

But should he withdraw once he’s started his junior year, it will be costly: he’s now indebted to the American taxpayers for the cost of his education and training up to that point. With the value of a service academy  education estimated to be upward of $240,000, the cost for two years would be in the neighborhood of $120,000.  Whew.

But transferring in?   Only if the transfer is willing to do what every cadet and midshipman has to do -  start on day one as a lowly plebe. It’s not simply a matter of transferring credits, as it would be at a civilian college:  forget those credits.  You’re all there to become an officer, and  there’s a lot of catching up to do on all that military and cadet training that  goes into the making of an officer.

I was just talking to a West Pointer, about my age, who told me about a guy who wanted in the worst way to go to West Point.  He wasn’t accepted, so he went instead to Penn. After three years there, still wanting to go to West Point, he left Penn in good standing and enlisted in the Army.   There, he took advantage of an opportunity afforded enlisted personnel:  to apply for admission to West Point. This time he was accepted.  But despite his three years at another college - an Ivy League college at that -  and despite his service in the Army, he had to start at West Point the same as if he’d just graduated from high school - as a plebe.  (Which also meant going through that summer of training before school actually starts in the fall, that basic-training-cum-two-a-days known to all as “Beast Barracks.”)

Think for a minute: is there even one really good  football player at any American college who would actually transfer to West Point when it means going back and starting all over again - Beast Barracks and all?

NIL?  Get serious. Those guys - Army, Navy, Air Force -  are in the service.   It would take an act of Congress - literally - for a service member to receive extra pay for doing something on the outside.  (If he could even find the time to do it.)

Which means that if you’re coaching, say,   Army football and you have zero access to players transferring in, you’d better make sure that you minimize the chances of transfers out.  That’s not easy, either, considering the discipline, academic and time management issues that service academy athletes have to deal with - things that  they know  they wouldn’t have to deal with anyplace but at another service academy.

Maybe  you can’t make other schools less desirable to your players, but there is a way to make your players less attractive to other schools.

How?  By running an offense that nobody else runs, one with positions and skills that are useless to anybody else.

Now, if you’re a service academy and you’re running the same offensive stuff that most colleges run, you’re going to have to get your players from the same talent pool as everyone else.  That’s tough enough.  But what’s worse is, if you should recruit a really good one, one that everyone else somehow missed on, the chances are that you’ll lose him by his junior year.

On the other hand, if you’re running a flexbone or somesuch - an offense that nobody else cares to run -  who, besides the other service academies, is going to be interested in a big, strong fullback? 

Or an undersized option quarterback? 

Or a somewhat-undersized lineman who’s never been taught to pass block?

Apart from the strong argument that  there are things inherent in an under-center, triple-option offense that give you a chance to compete against teams with superior talent, there is also this equally important factor but evidently overlooked factor:  it gives you “transfer insurance.”


Service academy coaches (one comes immediately to mind)  ignore this at their peril.


*********** There are meddlesome parents and there are meddlesome parents.   Every coach has had them.  Maybe some have tried to get you fired.

And then there are Claudio and Danielle Reyna.  They took  their bitching to another level, by trying to get the coach of the US men’s national team (that would be soccer) fired.

They’re both former elite soccer players themselves, and it seems that their kid, Gio, is a member of the team.   But he wasn’t performing up to expectations, and as a result he didn’t get the playing time in the World Cup that Mommy and Daddy thought he merited.  Evidently, his attitude was so bad that the team contemplated sending him home (not sure where they were at that point).


Anyhow, Mommy and Daddy, furious at the way their little fellow was being treated, decided to play hardball and disclose the details of an incident in which the coach had perhaps behaved badly with the woman who's now  his wife. Who knows, exactly? Who cares?  It was THIRTY-ONE YEARS AGO.


How did Gio’s mommy know this?  Why, she and  the coach’s wife,  once college teammates, have been friends. For 30+ years.


 https://deadspin.com/claudio-reyna-gregg-berhalter-usmnt-report-1850221073

Jimmy Conrad - “I hope it was worth it”

https://www.goal.com/en-us/news/hope-it-was-worth-it-claudio-reyna-publicly-skewered-by-former-usmnt-teammate-jimmy-conrad/bltf3069558595094c4


*********** Bet you didn’t know this…

What baseball minor leaguers will be making…

    •    Triple-A: $17,500 per year to $35,800
    •    Double-A: $13,800 to $30,250
    •    High-A: $11,000 to $27,300
    •    Single-A: $11,000 to $26,200



***********   Northwestern hopes to tear down 97-year-old Ryan Field and in its place build an $800 million architectural marvel.

The problem is, to help pay for it, it’ll have to host several concerts a year - and, for the first time, sell alcohol at events -  and this has got nearby residents up in arms.

They just know that concert-goers will be pissing on their lawns. (This being culturally sensitive Evanston, Illinois, they say “urinating,” and they say it’s already a problem at the half-dozen or so Northwestern home football games every year.)

A local merchant named Steve Starkman told the Wall Street Journal that “complaints  about fans urinating on lawns and  bushes after games are exaggerated.”  That happens, he said, “only when Northwestern hosts Ohio State.”

The article went on,

Wisconsin fans party very hard but are “nice and respectful,” he said; Michigan State fans are “brilliant, lots of doctors and judges” ; Michigan supporters are “ruffians” but generally well behaved; Iowa’s are the friendliest in the Big Ten, and Nebraska’s fans are the most likely to arrive in pickups.

“Ohio State fans are the only problem, “Mr. Starkman said. “They have a monster following, and they think the world is their bathroom.”

Asked about that, Ohio State declined to comment.

*********** On the disgusting subject of “load management” - NBA players sitting out  games while fans are still expected to pay full price for tickets -  John Canzano writes …

Bruce Springsteen is currently touring. I know this because several Trail Blazers season-ticket holders have written to point out that Springsteen’s concert would be canceled and their tickets refunded if Bruce couldn’t perform.

“No way am I paying $150 a ticket to watch the E-Street Band play,” one wrote.

Is there a reasonable expectation when you buy a ticket to a sporting event that the star performers will be in uniform? Or is that assumed risk? Damian Lillard’s salary, divided by 82 games, breaks down to $518,201 per game. When he and other star players aren’t in the lineup (i.e. injury or load management), the quality of the experience is diminished. But they still get paid.

*********** It sickens me and makes me worry about the future of our game when people glorify its ugly aspects.

And I  was outraged when Georgia’s Javon Bullard got away with a  dirty hit on Ohio State’s Marvin Harrison, Jr. that knocked him out of  the playoff semifinal game.

But to think that instead of skulking away in shame for revelling in having injured an opponent, Bullard is going to make money for what he did…

He’s being paid to endorse some sort of  food product called “Bullard’s Buckeye Crunch.”

I hope it gives people the runs and he gets sued.


https://www.si.com/college/ohiostate/news/ohio-state-buckeyes-football-marvin-harrison-jr-injury-javon-bullard-georgia-football


***********  I have a pool table and I like to shoot pool, and when I do I’m constantly reminded of how playing ball control football and making first downs is a lot like shooting pool:  when you’ve got the stick and you’re making shots - the other guy, no matter how good he is, can only sit there and watch.


*********** If you’re an Air Raid fan  (or a Mike Leach or Hal Mumme fan)  and you want to get a tee-shirt that honors IOWA WESLEYAN - the birthplace of the Air Raid - you’d best hustle.

The small school that’s earned a place in the football history book will be no more at the end of this school year, in May.


https://www.kwwl.com/news/education/iowa-wesleyan-university-to-close-in-may/article_c870f288-cd93-11ed-87cb-97614fd24f8f.html


*********** I started watching one of those “Lakefront Bargain Hunt” shows when I read on the guide that a “couple” from Brooklyn was looking for a lakefront place in the Adirondacks.


But when  I saw two women looking at property - and no man - I realized that I’d been had.  That is to say, this was not my idea of a couple.


I knew I had the wrong channel when one of the women looked at the other and said, “We met playing roller derby.”



*********** You decide for yourself whether the NFL thinks about its fans.

A review of all roughing-the-passer penalties?  Nah.

Allowing teams to designate an emergency third QB on game days?  Nah

Seeding wild-card teams ahead of division winners with inferior records?  Nah.

Taking a look at the XFL’s fourth-and-fifteen option to an onside kick?  Nah.

Allowing players to wear the Number “O?”  Yes!  The fans will really LOVE this one.




*********** Remember when Americans  took pride in this sort of  resourcefulness and inventiveness?

A few weeks ago, when the Northwest got hit with a surprise snowstorm, a guy who lives in Eugene, Oregon, thought it would be the perfect time to go for a ride up in the forest.

Near the little town of Oakridge, he got onto Forest Service Road 19 and headed through the Willamette National Forest, destination Rainbow, a tiny settlement about 60 miles to the north.

FSR-19 is not patrolled by county law enforcement (Lane County, Oregon is roughly the size of the state of Connecticut), nor is it plowed. But our guy was no stranger to driving in snowy conditions - he’d grown up in Montana -  and he’d equipped his four-wheel drive pickup with chains, shovels, boards and tow ropes.

He was about halfway to Rainbow when he started feeling his truck struggle.

A little bit farther along, he came on a camper van stuck in the snow.  Its occupant, a woman, said she’d had to spend the night there.

Thinking it would be an easy matter to pull her out (“I was overconfident,” he confessed later), he instead found himself sinking into the snow.  He, too, was now stuck.

In snow that deep, hiking out - in either direction - was not an option.

And without cell service, help couldn’t be summoned.

Here’s where it gets amazing.

He just happened to have a drone (doesn’t everyone?) and his brain storm was to attach his cell phone to the drone and then get the drone several hundred feet in the air - high enough to be able to get cell service and be able to send a text message.

He’d have to hit “send” on his cell phone while at the same time launching the drone, which meant that he’d have to compose a message long enough that it would still be sending when the drone finally got high enough to reach service.

He typed the message, hit “send,” and launched the drone.

And then hoped that his wife would have her phone turned on.  It was late night where he was, but 5 AM where she was - in Uganda. Africa.  She was there visiting family.

And then our guy asked the woman in the camper van if he could pray with her.  She consented, and they prayed.

HIs wife got his text, and called  a towing company in Eugene, which regretfully had to tell her it didn’t have the equipment for the sort of rescue she described.

Next call was to a friend in Eugene, who called the Lane County Sheriff’s office and described the problem:  some guy was stuck in the snow on Forest Service Road 19 in the middle of the Willamette National Forest.

What?!?! 

There’s no cell service up that road, and this woman who called us learned about it from a friend in - where’d she say she was calling from, Vern?  Uganda?

Understandably suspicious, they nevertheless sent out the kind of equipment that people who perform rescues in rugged country have to have, and now - all’s well.  Prayers answered.



*********** A school principal that I know and respect told me about receiving a very nasty email the other day, with copies sent to members of her school board.

I suggested that she reply:

I think you need to know that some moron  has hacked into your email account and  is sending me stuff like this and signing your name.



********** You state:

"College football is so stereotyped that I bet at least three of this year’s four college football playoff teams will come from this (alphabetical) list:"

I can help you narrow that list down to one:

If Ohio State has fewer than 5 losses, they're in.

Nothing else matters.

Charlie Wilson
Brooksville, Florida



***********   We must keep fighting, Coach. Your page today is further evidence we are a nation in cultural decline. Morons making fun of Timme for the wrong reasons; coach salaries ballooning into the stratosphere; the NCAA showing its ass yet again; every broadcaster struggling to be the coolest on TV...and so many of these college women's coaches wearing 'Ric Flair' outfits (see Kim Mulkey, e.g.) as if the real contest is who wins the wardrobe match. But the ones who seem most reasonable in all the muck have turned out to be the guys the announcers corrall for a few postgame words. A good percentage of the men coaches have conducted themselves admirably, as well as a higher percentage of the players.


Barkley said a day or two ago that NIL is a 'travesty'. I recall that during the regular season Boeheim claimed Miami had 'bought the ACC basketball title'. Sour grapes maybe, but billionaire Ruiz has paid the Miami players handsomely. Because I don't think that's the case with FAU, I'm pulling for them the rest of the way.


John Vermillion                            
St. Petersburg, Florida


***********   Hugh,

Even though it's basketball this year's edition of the Final Four may be worth watching.

Hoping the list of college football playoff teams contains a few surprises.

Those who live in Arlington consider themselves to be a lone wolf.  It is smack dab in between Dallas and Fort Worth, and unlike the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Dallas is quite a ways from Fort Worth.  It's not Dallas.  It's not Fort Worth.  It's not DFW (that's the airport).  It is Arlington.  Hey, it's Texas.

Drew Timme is just one of many outstanding basketball players that Coach Mark Few has managed to "find" playing high school basketball.  They're out there.  Few just does a better job than others finding them, and why Few and his Gonzaga program has found its place in the hierarchy of college basketball.

No words for the NCAA's handling of the Ferris State "locker room celebration", and the suspension of its coach Tony Annesse.


Have a great week!

Joe Gutilla
Austin, Texas






***********   QUIZ ANSWER:  When you see black quarterbacks taken among the first picks in the draft this year, remember the role that James Harris played in bringing that about.

A native of Monroe, Louisiana, he very early got the nickname “Shack,” short for Meshach, from his father, a Baptist preacher.

In high school, he was an all-state quarterback on a state championship team, and he turned down a scholarship offer from Michigan State - which wanted him to play tight end - and chose instead to attend Grambling - where Coach Eddie Robinson intended to turn him into an NFL quarterback.

As a big, tall (6-4) , pocket passer, he set all kinds of school passing records are he led the Tigers to  four straight SWAC titles.  He was the MVP of the 1967 Orange Blossom Classic, the traditional post-season bowl between HBCU teams, as Grambling defeated Florida A & M.

Although only picked in the eighth round of the NFL draft by the Buffalo Bills, he now only made the team but he  won the starting job as a rookie and made history as a rookie by becoming the first black quarterback ever to start an NFL season opener, and just the second - after Marlin Briscoe - to start an NFL game.

Waived by Buffalo after three years, he was picked up by the Los Angeles Rams and his career took off again.    He led the Rams to two Western Division titles, and in the process became the first black quarterback to start and win a playoff game.

In 1974, he was the MVP of the Pro Bowl.

In 1975, he became the first black man to open a season as his team’s starting quarterback.

In 1977 he was traded to the Chargers, and he stayed with them until he retired following the 1981 season.

He was out of football for five years, until one of his former coaches, Ray Perkins hired him as a scout for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.   From there, he moved to  the New York Jets and then became a player-personnel executive for the Baltimore Ravens, helping to assemble their 2001 Super Bowl championship team. He then moved to the Jacksonville Jaguars, as the vice-president of player personnel, but after the team slumped he was fired. The Lons hired him, though, and he remained with them in their player personnel department until his retirement in 2015.

James Harris is a member of the SWAC Hall of Fame, the Grambling Athletic Hall of Fame, the Black College Football Hall of Fame, and the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING JAMES HARRIS

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - AUSTIN, TEXAS
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY
RUSS MEYERS - PARTS UNKNOWN IN UPSTATE NEW YORK
JOE  BREMER - WEST SENECA, NEW YORK


***********   Coach -

Your quiz subject brought back a lot of memories for me. As a Buffalo area kid, I remember going to Bills training camp and watching James Harris.  He was a big man with a powerful arm.  Unfortunately, the powerful arm was not an accurate arm.  Not a good attribute for an NFL QB.

As always, thanks for  all you do.

Joe Bremer
West Seneca, New York





*********** QUIZ:  He played 13 seasons as an NFL linemen,  and played  his first 11 seasons without missing a game.

He attributed his durability - as well as his strength and quickness - to the fact that he was one of the very first pro football players to make weight training a major part of his fitness regimen.

At a time when most coaches discouraged weight lifting (“It’ll make you muscle-bound”) he  started to lift weights  as a 140-pound freshman football player Lemoyne,  Pennsylvania.  At that time, nearby York was the world capital  of weight  training, and under their influence - and using their equipment -  over the next six years he was able to add 20 pounds of weight every  year. 

At Maryland, he was 6-1, 260 - extremely big at that time - and exceptionally strong, earning him the “nickname Superman.”  At that time, he regularly pressed 100-pound dumbbells overhead, and his squat and bench press reps were  in the 300 to 400-pound range.

As an offensive and defensive tackle, Maryland was 27-3 in his three years there. In his sophomore year the Terps were 10-0 and ranked third in the nation. In his junior year they were 7-2 and ranked 13th. In his senior year they were 10-1 and national champions, and he was a consensus All-American tackle. He won the Knute Rockne Memorial Trophy as the nation’s outstanding lineman, and having been taken the year before by the Bears as a “future” draft choice, he stepped right into the Bears’ lineup as a  starter at tackle. 

The next year he was moved to guard, where  he was All-NFL in 1955, 1956, 1959, and 1960.

From  1955 through 1961 he played in seven straight Pro Bowls, and when the Bears needed defensive help  in 1962, defensive coordinator  George Allen turned him into a two-way player.

In 1963, he was a full-time defensive tackle, and he played a major role in the Bears’ winning the NFL title.

For many years, he and linebacker Bill George were the Bears’ co-captains until owner-coach George Halas fired them  both (as captains, that is)  for holding a team  vote on whether to join the NFL Players’ Assocation.

After his 12th season in 1965, Bears coach George Halas agreed, as a favor to him, to trade him to the Washington Redskins so that he could play a final season near his home in Rockville, Maryland.  He retired after the 1966 season.

Following his playing days,  he joined Lou Saban’s staff with the Denver Broncos, serving served as the team’s strength coach and defensive line coach.   He followed Saban to Buffalo in 1972,  but returning to the Broncos in 1976,  he is credited with helping  build the Denver “Orange Crush” defense. In all, he spent 18 years in Denver, and remained with the Broncos through the 1988 season.

He also served as a defensive coach and strength coach for the Cleveland Browns, and New England Patriots, and for the Scottish Claymores in the NFL Europe League.

He is a member of the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame and of both the Pro Football and College Football Halls of Fame.

"He was ahead of his time," said his daughter at the time of his death in 2010. "In high school and college, his friends and teammates used to make fun of him because he was in the gym while they were out dancing and chasing girls. He first got hooked on weights because he grew up near York, Pennsylvania,  where York Barbells were made. He figured that was the way to go.”



TUESDAY,  MARCH 28,  2023 - “Our politicians are awful people.” Charles Barkley


*********** You’ve got to hand it to college basketball.  Yes, they’ve pretty much turned  their regular season into a joke, but in spite of transfer and NIL they’ve got themselves  a Tournament that’s the dream of everybody who loves competition - and still buys the NFL’s lies about how on any given Sunday any team can beat any other team, blah, blah, blah.

In college basketball, with all the one-, two-, and three-seeds gone, we’ve got us a tournament that any one of the four teams left can win.   Who would ever have imagined that Miami would be in it?  Or San Diego State?*  Or Florida Atlantic? (Florida who?)

Even UConn finished  no better than tied for fourth in its own league.

Wow.  And there’s nobody from the Big Ten… SEC… Big 12… Pac 12*.

* Hey, Pac-12.  For once, do something smart and let San Diego State in.

And then,  take college football and its much-vaunted playoff. (As Henny Youngman would say, PLEASE take it.)

College football is so stereotyped that I bet at least three of this year’s four college football playoff teams will come from this (alphabetical) list:


ALABAMA
CLEMSON
FLORIDA STATE
GEORGIA
LSU
MICHIGAN
NOTRE DAME
OHIO STATE
PENN STATE
TENNESSEE
USC
WASHINGTON

Ho-hum.




*********** The XFL,  with six games in (four games to go)

XFL NORTH

DC Defenders               5-0

St. Louis Battlehawks          4-2

Seattle Sea Dragons        4-2

Las Vegas Vipers            1-5


XFL SOUTH

Houston Roughnecks        4-1

Arlington Renegades        3-3

San Antonio Brahmas        2-4

Orlando Guardians        0-6



The top two teams in each division will make the playoffs.

Talk about screwing your league up  by setting up divisions.

After six weeks, the XFL has clearly sorted itself out.  There are four decent teams and four that suck.  Three of the decent teams - DC, St. Louis and Seattle - are in the North.


DC almost likely has a spot locked up.


That leaves St. Louis and Seattle.

St. Louis remaining games: Houston, Vegas, Seattle (in St. Louis), Orlando

Seattle remaining games: Arlington, DC, St. Louis (in St. Louis), Vegas

(St. Louis won their first meeting, 20-18.)



There’s only   one decent team - Houston - in the South.

That means the South’s second playoff spot will probably go to Arlington.

Don’t let Arlington’s 3-3 fool you. They still suck.  The three wins were over the league’s three worst teams - Vegas, Orlando and San Antonio.  And they were all squeakers: 22-20 over Vegas, 10-9 over Orlando, and 12-10 over San Antonio.  On Sunday, they lost at home to San Antonio in one of the worst football games I’ve ever seen.

Remaining games for Arlington:  Seattle, DC, Orlando, Houston

Remaining games for San Antonio:  Vegas, Houston, Orlando, DC



*********** Nothing lasts forever.  Just one week after seeing what I thought was the best XFL game - between its two worst teams,  yet - I saw the worst one ever on Sunday.


It was between the two next worst teams - Arlington and San Antonio  (What’s with the “Arlington” crap, anyhow?  Would a Chicago team that practices and plays in a suburb call itself Evanston?) To make matters worse, San Antonio’s two quarterbacks were both out of action, and they had to go with two guys who had just joined the team that week. As it turned out, they weren’t really needed anyhow -  San Antonio only needed a fumble return and some field goals to beat Arlington 15-9. 

Between the false starts, the offsides, the sacks and the holding penalties, this was football at its absolute worst.

But you know what?  I’d still rather watch bad football than good basketball being  ruined by referees.



************ I guess there’s a demographic that goes  “nyuk, nyuk” at   Jack Links commercials.

You know - the ones  that hammer on the theme that eating jerky “feeds your wild side” - turns ordinary dweebs  into savage sasquatches.

In the latest one, shown during tournament  basketball games, the dweeb  is shown standing at a urinal in a restroom.  After shoving a piece of jerky into his mouth (I can't tell  whether he’s unzipped yet , or whether he's eating with his unzipping hand), he begins to develop an ugly growth -  a sasquatch that’s fused to him, back-to-back. (His “wild side.” Get it?)

Then, as Dweebly stands  there holding the Jacks Links bag,  Sasquatch proceeds to piss like a racehorse,  at  a urinal clear on the other side of the room.

Har, har.   And comedians say there's a lack of good material?

https://musebycl.io/advertising/jack-links-sasquatch-takes-walk-wild-side



*********** I’ve watched a fair amount of Gonzaga basketball over the years, and I admire the program and what Coach Mark Few has done at the small private Catholic school in Spokane.

Over the years I’ve watched Drew Timme develop, marveling at his ability around the basket, and laughing at his interviews (he’s a bit of a character).

So I was saddened by Gonzaga’s blowout loss to UConn in the Elite Eight, and especially so for Drew Timme, who had the worst game I’ve ever seen him play. 

Maybe it was because he was tentative after picking up a couple of early traveling calls.  Maybe it was getting his fourth personal foul just two minutes into the second half.

I personally think the kid had to be sick.

But anyhow, he played a bad game and his teammates weren’t able to take up the slack.

And Gonzaga lost.   

One of the side effects of being consistently good is the creeps that can’t stand your success, and out they came. (as a Duke fan, I know all about this.)

There’s always this one: Gonzaga’s never won the Big One.  Well, no. Neither has Marv Levy.  Neither did Bud Grant.  Just wondering:  how many times have you been in anything comparable in competitive sports?

Or this: Gonzaga feasts on lightweights. 

(1) Have you checked their out-of-conference schedules?  Tennessee… Michigan State… Texas… Kentucky… Purdue… Xavier… Baylor… Alabama

(2) Did you happen to notice how many SEC teams made it to the Elite Eight (Answer: None)

(3) Or Big Ten teams? (Answer: None)

But worse than the attacks on Gonzaga were attacks on Drew Timme, and a lot of them were by comedians who thought they’d get laughs by suggesting that he might stay in college for another ten years.

To them, he did two things wrong:  First, he stayed in college for four years.  (Actually, he could even stay for that fifth year that the NCAA gave every athlete who endured the pandemic years.)  Evidently we’re now at the point where there’s something wrong with a guy who stays in college,  rather than getting his one-and-done ticket punched and then heading for the anonymity of the NBA.

The other thing he did wrong, apparently, was staying at the same college.  A startling fact of  today’s college sports: 19 of the 40 starting players in this year’s Elite Eight had transferred at least once.


*********** A Web site called coaches hot seat publishes a list of FBS Coaches’ salaries, as up to date as possible, and it’s kind of shocking.

For example, there are 131 FBS schools playing football.  Only 14 of them pay their head coach less than $1 million a year.

117 of them pay their coach at least $1 million a year
85 pay theirs $2 million or more
71 pay theirs $3 million or more
56 pay theirs $4 million or more
43 pay theirs $5 million or more
28 pay theirs $6 million or more
19 pay theirs $7 million or more
9 pay theirs $8 million or more
8 pay theirs $9 million or more
4 pay theirs $10 million or more


https://www.coacheshotseat.com/CFBCoachesSalaries.htm


*********** There was a vigil in downtown Vancouver this weekend to honor a mother and a daughter who’d been murdered.  Horrible crime.

But in its announcement of the vigil, our local newspaper had to add this information:

“The organizers note, weather forecasters expect rain that day, and encourage people to dress appropriately and bring umbrellas. “

Well, duh.  It is the Pacific Northwest.  And it’s March. 

In Fargo do they tell people that “weather forecasters expect it to be cold that day?” Do they  “encourage people to dress appropriately?”  (Remember to wear your mittens?)

Actually, the “umbrellas” deal is kind of humorous, because despite all the rainy days that we get in the Northwest, you’ll rarely see a true Northwesterner (and having lived here close to 50 years, my wife and I qualify) with an umbrella.   Ever.  Anywhere. 

An umbrella in the Northwest is almost a dead giveaway that  you’re (as they say in Maine) “from away.”



*********** The NCAA has done some weird sh— over the years, but not a lot that comes close to its latest punishment of D-II Ferris State.

It seems that after Ferris State won the D-II football championship - its second straight - back in  December, two of its players celebrated the win by lighting up cigars in the team’s locker room.

Uh-oh.  A couple of guys had done the same thing a year ago and the team had been warned by their coaches not to do it again, but these guys went ahead anyhow.

And that’s how Ferris State incurred the wrath of the NCAA.

It’s not as if Ferris State  had created an entire phony department, complete with phony classes and phony credits, just to keep basketball players eligible.  No, because as everyone knows, that’s no big deal.  At least not as long as it’s North Carolina that does it.

But the championship game was being played in McKinney, Texas, in a HIGH SCHOOL STADIUM!  And the McKinney school district, like most school districts in the United States, has a VERY strict no-tobacco policy.  And - gasp! - there was cigar smoking going on right there in their stadium!  In the Ferris State locker room!

This definitely called for the NCAA, and it responded in its usual common-sense way. It brought down the hammer. This wasn’t North Carolina, see. This was D-II Ferris State.

First, Ferris State was fined several thousand dollars - to pay for the clean-up of the locker room where the smoking took place. (What - they had to have guys in hazmat suits come in and tear out all the drywall?)

But that was chickenfeed. 

It was followed by possibly the most insane NCAA edict ever:  Ferris State head coach Tony Annese was suspended for a game.  

But not for next year’s opening game, the sort of punishment he’d have gotten if he’d been some player at a Power 5 school and he’d driven drunk and hit a little kid. 

Oh, no - Coach Annese’s suspension is for Ferris’ next playoff game.


https://footballscoop.com/news/ncaa-announces-unique-suspension-for-head-coach-of-back-to-back-d-ii-national-champs


*********** In the age of the cell phone it’s pretty hard to ‘hang up” on somebody, but it’s easy to leave the conversation, and that’s exactly  what I do when I find myself reading comments online and I see that damnfool word “Natty.”

I’m supposed to understand that it's short for “national championship,”  and the guy using it wants us to think he’s a real football insider.

Come on. Does anyone actually use that word in a conversation?  Doesn’t everyone laugh at him for being so pretentious? 


Thanks to John Canzano for his help on this matter:

Q: Regarding Oregon State and coach Jonathan Smith… am I jumping the gun thinking they could contend for the NATTY in five years time?

A: OK. We need to put a moratorium on the use of the word “Natty.” I have a friend in his 70s who uses “natty” all the time to describe the national championship. It’s not a good look.

***********   Coach,

A few weeks back I told you of how I was “consulting” with a few teams in the Irish American Football League. I played there in the 90s and still know a few people. You might remember how I spoke of all of the teams running a form of spread and doing it poorly. We had discussed how this was a result of not only Madden but them seeing nothing but professional football on TV. All of the expert speakers they bring in are NFL or CFL guys who are selling a brand of football that is not appropriate for their skill level.

Take a look at this video. I am working with the team in orange, but I have been shaking my head at what both teams are trying to run. It is like the kid who wants a drum set so he can do a drum solo, but never started with a simple pad and sticks.

I wonder if it would be different had they been exposed to high school and university football?

Tom Walls
Winnipeg, Manitoba


Or if they had progressed, step by step according to their skills and abilities, as used to happen in the States?


***********   My daughter dated a four-year starter at LB for the Badgers. Three of those years under Alvarez, one under Bielema. He was in veritable awe of Coach Alvarez. He related story after story about the many ways Coach went about building good men, not simply FB players. He made his high standards of personal behavior well known, and if players failed to abide by them, they either didn't play or were gone. From that point on, I've admired today's subject.


By the way, what's with the sudden fixation on Wisconsin? Pat Harder last time, Coach Alvarez this time. I suppose we'll get Pat Richter next week.

Thanks for the Dale Lindsey account. He got shafted, and the administration boneheads didn't care.


John Vermillion
St. Petersburg, Florida



Shep Clarke, a friend in Tennessee who is a war historian and knows about my interest in football history, sent me this, about a great Wisconsin football player named Dave Shreiner, who was killed in WW II.

https://content.wisconsinhistory.org/digital/collection/wmh/id/43676/rec/2

That sent me to a book I’d shelved and never gotten around to reading - “Third Down and a War To Go” -  about the 1942 Wisconsin team on which Dave Shreiner had played (pretty good read)…

And Pat Harder (who was on that team, and whom I remembered well from his NFL days) came out of that one.

That got me onto the book I’m reading now - “From Red Ink to Roses” - about the dire straits that the UW athletic department was in around 1990, and what it took to get things to improve. (Hint: Barry Alvarez had something to do with it.)

I do have a certain admiration/fascination for Wisconsin and its people and its culture, but still, the way I tend to move around  in my interests, I might never again write something Wisconsin-related.

Moving around (“from pillar to post” as my mother used to describe it) tends to be the way I think and work.  One thing leads to another, which leads to another, ad infinitum.  Often the “things” are loosely connected, if at all.  Sometimes I get distracted entirely - look! there’s a squirrel! 

It often leads,  to my dismay, to a lot of unfinished projects,  as  one bright, shiny object after another lures me off the original trail.

It’s probably too late for Adderall to do me any good.

But it never gets boring.


***********   Hugh,

RE Dale Lindsey.  There are a number of us like Coach Lindsey.  Experience beyond what most younger coaches have.  Our only drawback is the perception of age.  In the case of Dale Lindsey it is very apparent to me that his forced "retirement" has everything to do with his age.  After all, influential USD backers must have asked AD Phillips how in the world can a highly experienced and highly successful 80 year old football coach rebound from a 5-5 season?  There's more to this story than meets the eye.

Absolutely NOTHING surprises me about Oregon and Washington politics.  What an effing joke!

Austin Ekeler better be careful what he wishes for.  He IS underpaid for the production he's had, but he's no longer an unknown commodity.  He's a class act to be sure, and a tough kid, but his size and durability as a RB may not equate to the contract dollars he seeks.

Micah Shrewsberry is the right guy at the right time for the Notre Dame men's basketball program.

The Antoine Davis story is likely the first of the "everyone gets a trophy" generation of kids we will hear about now and in the future.

The Blackhawks aren't the only NHL team being affected by the "pride" issue.  The San Jose Sharks goalie also refused to wear his "pride" sweater for a game due to his religious beliefs. 

Enjoy the weekend!

Joe Gutilla
Austin, Texas






BARRY ALVAREZ (RIGHT) WITH IOWA'S HAYDEN FRY, WHO GAVE HIM HIS FIRST COLLEGE JOB

*********** QUIZ ANSWER:  The grandson of Spanish immigrants (from the real Spain!) Barry Alvarez was born in Western Pennsylvania, near the Ohio line, in a tiny mining patch called Langeloth.  He went to high school in the nearest  big town (population 1400), Burgettstown.

At Nebraska, he played linebacker for three years under Bob Devaney.

He got into high school coaching right away, and after his Mason City, Iowa team won the state title, he was hired at Iowa by Hayden Fry.   After eight years at Iowa, coaching linebackers on a staff that at times also included such future big-time coaches as Bill Snyder, Bob Stoops, Kirk Ferentz and Dan McCarney, he was hired by Lou Holtz to coach linebackers at Notre Dame.

(Devaney, Fry and Holtz:  how’s that for exposure to great coaches? )

After one year Holtz promoted him to defensive coordinator, and when the Irish went 12-0 and 12-1 in his two years  in that position, he was hired by Wisconsin AD Pat Richter to take over the Badgers program.  It would be the only head coaching job he would ever have.

Badger football at that time really sucked.  Following  the untimely death of their head coach, Dave McClain in 1986, there followed four seasons - one with an interim coach and one unfortunate hire - in which Wisconsin  went  9-36.  Worse, average attendance had dropped from well over 66,000 to close to 40,000, and the athletic department was running deeply in the red.

He got off to a slow start. He went 1-10 his first year, and then put together back-to-back 5-6 seasons.

But in 1993, his fourth season, the Badgers went 10-1-1 and made their first Rose Bowl appearance in 30 years (and just their second bowl appearance ever).

In all, he would take them to three Rose Bowls and win them all.

Before he retired to become full-time Athletic Director, he would take  the Badgers to 11 bowl games, and win eight of them.

Twice, he came out of retirement to take over the team after coaches that he hired left for other jobs.  First, after Bret Bielema left for Arkansas, and then after Gary Anderson left for Oregon State.

As AD he hired three coaches, and all of them compiled solid winning records at Wisconsin: Bielema (68-24), Anderson (19-7) and Paul Chryst (67-26).

His overall record at Wisconsin was 120-73-4.  The 120 wins are almost twice that of the next-winningest Wisconsin coach.

His overall bowl record was 9-4 (including a loss as a stand-in for Bielema, and a win as a stand-in for Anderson).

A bronze statue of him has been erected outside Camp Randall Stadium, and the field  the Badgers play on has been named in his honor.

Barry Alvarez is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame.





CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING BARRY ALVAREZ

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
TOM DAVIS - SAN CARLOS, CALIFORNIA
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
JOE GUTILLA - AUSTIN, TEXAS
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
PETE PORCELLI - WATERVLIET, NEW YORK
TOM WALLS - WINNIPEG, MANITOBA
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
 







***********   QUIZ:  When you see black quarterbacks taken among the first picks in the draft this year, remember the role that this man played in bringing that about.

A native of Monroe, Louisiana, he very early got the nickname “Shack,” short for Meshach, from his father, a Baptist preacher.

In high school, he was an all-state quarterback on a state championship team, and he turned down a scholarship offer from Michigan State - which wanted him to play tight end - and chose instead to attend Grambling - where Coach Eddie Robinson intended to turn him into an NFL quarterback.

As a big, tall (6-4) , pocket passer, he set all kinds of school passing records are he led the Tigers to  four straight SWAC titles.  He was the MVP of the 1967 Orange Blossom Classic, the traditional post-season bowl between HBCU teams, as Grambling defeated Florida A & M.

Although not picked until  the eighth round of the NFL draft by the Buffalo Bills, he not only made the team but he  won the starting job as a rookie and made history as a rookie by becoming the first black quarterback ever to start an NFL season opener, and just the second - after Marlin Briscoe - to start an NFL game.

Waived by Buffalo after three years, he was picked up by the Los Angeles Rams and his career took off again.    He led the Rams to two Western Division titles, and in the process became the first black quarterback to start and win a playoff game.

In 1974, he was the MVP of the Pro Bowl.

In 1975, he became the first black man to open an NFL season as his team’s starting quarterback.

In 1977 he was traded to the Chargers, and he stayed with them until he retired following the 1981 season.

He was out of football for five years, until one of his former coaches, Ray Perkins hired him as a scout for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.   From there, he moved to  the New York Jets and then became a player-personnel executive for the Baltimore Ravens, helping to assemble their 2001 Super Bowl championship team. He then moved to the Jacksonville Jaguars, as the vice-president of player personnel, but after the team slumped he was fired. The Lions hired him, though, and he remained with them in their player personnel department until his retirement in 2015.

He is a member of the SWAC Hall of Fame, the Grambling Athletic Hall of Fame, the Black College Football Hall of Fame, and the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame





FRIDAY,  MARCH 24,  2023 - “Young men think old men are fools; but old men know young men are fools.”  George Chapman




*********** Dale Lindsey was one of the first guys I met when I arrived in Portland, just a month or so shy of 48 years ago.

I’d just been hired as Assistant GM/PR Director of the Portland Thunder of the World Football League. 

Dale had just been hired as our defensive coordinator by the guy who’d hired me - Bob Brodhead, the team’s new GM.  Bob had known Dale from the Cleveland Browns, where Dale had been a standout linebacker and Bob was the team’s business manager.

Getting the team under way,  Dale and I worked together on a number of projects. Our wives and families hadn’t yet moved out, so he and I managed to find dorm rooms at the University of Portland, and for a couple of months we drove to work together, ate meals together, and took in a few sights together.  I remember driving with him to Eugene to watch the Oregon Ducks’ spring game - he was definitely unimpressed.

At that time, Dale had just finished his first season as a coach, working with the Browns’ linebackers, and what impressed me about him was the same thing I’ve heard about him over the years - his authenticity.  What you got was Dale.  He was a small town guy from  Kentucky who’d seen the ups and downs of big-time college football - he started out at Kentucky but wound up at Western Kentucky, and I never asked him why - and with the Browns he’d been to the top. 

His rookie year was the year after the Browns had  startled the football world by upsetting the Baltimore Colts to win the title; in 1968 and 1969 the Browns made it to the NFL title game again, but lost both times.

The thing that I admired most about him was that I was just another guy trying to find a place in this upstart league, and he had been in the big time, but he never big-dogged it with me.

We went through tough times that year before the WFL finally folded shop, but Dale remained Dale.  A small-town guy as a person, totally professional as a coach.  Hard-nosed, loyal, dependable in any situation.

But with just two years’ experience as a coach - one in the NFL, one in the WFL - Dale found himself in a market suddenly flooded with out-of-work coaches.  He returned to his native Bowling Green, Kentucky and coached a high school team for two years. When he left in 1978 to coach in the CFL, he couldn’t have known that it would be 35 years before he became a head coach again.

Five years in the CFL…

Three years in the USFL…

Then two years in Green Bay, followed by two years at SMU (where he coached their defense in their first year back from the death penalty)…

Then 16 years with five different NFL teams (including two stops at San Diego and Washington) before getting into college coaching.

After three years at New Mexico State - about as close as a coach can get to the end of the line - he was hired as DC at San Diego.  Not San Diego State, which plays FBS football in the Mountain West, but the University of San Diego, a private Catholic school that plays FCS football in the non-scholarship Pioneer Football League, a quirky conference of mostly private schools, none of them closer to San Diego than 1,700 miles.

After one year there, when the head coach left to take the job at San Jose State, Dale was asked first to head the program on an interim basis, then was hired become the head coach.  He was 70 years old.

He went 8-3 his first season, then took the Toreros to the FCS playoffs five of the next six years.

In ten years at San Diego, his record is 80-30 (61-8 in the conference).

He has never had a losing season.

But - this past season  the Toreros  finished 5-5.

Remember, though - we’re not talking about Alabama.  Or Auburn.  Or LSU.  This is as close to Ivy League football as you can get without actually being in the Ivy League.

That’s why it had to be  shock  Monday when out of the blue, the San Diego AD called the players in and told them that their coach had retired.

He gave no reason, but filled his announcement with platitudes about the wonderful job Dale Lindsey had done, blah, blah, blah.

Two days later, Dale Lindsey let the whole world onto the truth: the truth about his situation, and the truth about  the  athletic director.  (He lies.) 

Dale said he didn’t retire -  he was let go.

"I did not f-cking retire," he told The San Diego Union-Tribune. "I was shown the door and would like to coach. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

"I wasn't planning on retiring,” he said.  “I know chronologically how old I am. But I don't function like an 80-year-old man.

“If you just sit at home, you become a vegetable — and vegetables die sooner or later. I've seen too many coaches work their ass off for 40 years, think they're going to go off to some golden parachute retirement.

“Then they're dead in six months. I don't want to be one, nor do I intend to be one.”

Truthfully, that’s my fear: that this could kill Dale Lindsey.

Bastards.



https://www.outkick.com/dale-lindsey-san-diego-fired-retired-fcs-football-coach-reaction-false-announcement/




*********** It all started when some pantywaists redefined  spanking as child abuse…

I happened to be in the Autzen Stadium press box last football season when a small number of dimwit students at the University of Oregon started a vulgar chant aimed at BYU’s football team.

I didn’t hear their “f**k the Mormons!” refrain from the press box. I learned about it after the game and shook my head. Then, I wondered about the hearts of those students and how embarrassed their parents would be. The following morning, I made note of it when students and administrators at UO apologized to BYU and denounced the chant.

At no point did I think football coach Dan Lanning should be suspended. Nor did I think his athletic director, Rob Mullens, should take a week off without pay. But as the French poet Jules Renard once wrote: “Look for the ridiculous in everything, and you will find it.”

You don’t need to look very hard at HB2472 to see the absurdity. I half-believe the bill is a test to see if lawmakers read what’s put on their desks. The proposed Oregon law would suspend the head coach and athletic director for a week if fans “engage in the use of derogatory or inappropriate names, insults, verbal assaults, profanity or ridicule in violation of equity focused policies.”

Decades ago, legislators in Oregon passed a law that prohibited women from engaging in wrestling matches. It was repealed in the 1980s. Also, state lawmakers once made it illegal to get married on an ice-skating rink. That was eventually repealed, too. And one of our state’s counties enacted a law that makes juggling without a license illegal.

We sometimes specialize in the unnecessary and ridiculous. HB2472 is Exhibit A. But it’s time for our state’s lawmakers to focus on things more important than trying to turn coaches and athletic directors into babysitters.

    •    Kick the offenders out of the stadium.

    •    Limit alcohol consumption.

    •    Enforce a zero-tolerance policy for abusive behavior.

You know — stuff that actually makes sense. But blaming the head coach and AD for the misbehavior of a thin stripe of fans makes as much sense as holding the on-screen actors responsible for a stale bucket of movie-theater popcorn.
Rep. Janelle Bynum (D-Clackamas) is proposing the bill. Her son, Ellis, happens to be a walk-on running back at Oregon. I’m certain she means well. Rep. Bynum wrote in a letter that she’s “heard horror stories from players, coaches, and staff about out-of-control behavior from student sections and fans that provides nothing productive.”

She’s wrong.

That awful chant at Autzen Stadium did provide something productive and valuable. Lots of Oregon students — most of which didn’t join the ugly chorus — demonstrated empathy and offered an apology to BYU. Campus administrators in Eugene were quick to condemn it and apologize. These things not only reinforced expectations for fan behavior but also provided a teachable moment for the campus. It was an ugly chant, but within 24 hours

We need good laws. They’re important to any society. But first we need good parenting, common sense and a healthy conscience. Anyone who has ever raised a child knows doing so requires active involvement along with patience, faith, love, consistency and boundaries.

I cringed when I read HB2472 because it removes accountability from the most vital component of the stadium experience — fans themselves — and shifts the blame to the coach. What happens if the visiting fan base shouts something offensive at the game? Try to enforce a suspension for the opposing coach? Or is that also on the home team’s coach? Again, I’d rather the stadium policed itself.

A few souls started an ugly chant at Autzen Stadium during the BYU-Oregon football game last season. Some other students heard it and joined in. It was a disappointing and lousy moment on an otherwise sunny day. But there were 54,463 fans present that afternoon. Roughly 54,400 of them behaved like regular, decent people. Should Lanning receive pat on the back for that winning ratio? Should Mullens get a raise because the rest of the stadium showed some class? Nope. The coach and AD had zero to do with any of it — bad or good.

This whole thing has officially jumped the shark. I reached out to Rep. Bynum to get some clarification. Is she just trying to send a message? Or is she serious about suspending the coaches/ADs? If she answers, I’ll update here. But under the proposed law, guilty universities could lose state funding and access to law enforcement who work security at the games. That doesn’t sound like justice to me.

https://www.johncanzano.com/p/canzano-fallout-from-ugly-chant-at


It's not too late for  good spanking to straighten out some of those spoiled brats.


***********  “Look, man, I’m so underpaid right now as far as my contract and what I contribute to the team. It’s like, I am relentlessly pursuing this. I want to get something long-term done. I want a team that wants me long term.”

That’s Chargers’ running back Austin Ekeler,  about to enter the final year of a four year, $24.5 million contract


*********** ESPN’s Chris Low, doing what a lot of us might do while  having a couple,  tried  to guess what a 64-team football playoff,  might look like, using this coming year’s projected teams (for example, with Colorado being coached by some  guy named Sanders).

My reaction, as a high school coach who’s seen what typical first-round games can look like?   Aargh. Ugh.

There is always plenty of room for disagreement with the seeding, of course, but allowing for that, here’s a quick look at a couple of the opening-round games:

ONE SEEDS VS SIXTEENS
GEORGIA (OVERALL #1 SEED) VS EAST CAROLINA (#64 SEED)
MICHIGAN VS EASTERN KENTUCKY
OHIO STATE VS SOUTH ALABAMA
ALABAMA VS COLORADO (THE AFLAC BOWL)

TWO SEEDS VS FIFTEENS
PENN STATE VS SYRACUSE
TENNESSEE  VS UTSA
LSU VS BYU
OREGON VS SMU

THREE SEEDS VS FOURTEENS
FLORIDA STATE VS WASHINGTON STATE
USC VS KANSAS
CLEMSON VS DUKE
WASHINGTON VS TROY

FOUR SEEDS VS THIRTEENS
UTAH VS HOUSTON
TEXAS A & M VS WAKE FOREST
NOTRE DAME VS WEST VIRGINIA
OLE MISS VS PURDUE



***********  A coaching job at Penn State is generally considered a destination job. In fact, I can’t think of any successful Penn State coach ever being hired away.

Until now.

As wrestling coach Cael Sanderson, who was already an established coach at Iowa State when Penn State hired him, was celebrating his tenth NCAA wrestling championship at State College,   Penn State basketball coach Micah Shrewsberry, who’d just taken State to a 23-14 record and a round-of-32 finish in the NCAA Tournament, was lured away by Notre Dame.

This one is understandable on a couple of counts:

First, Shrewsberry’s an Indiana guy, born and raised there, and until coming to Penn State just two years ago, he’d spent his entire college coaching career (he did spent seven years as a Boston Celtics’ assistant) in the Hoosier State.

Second,  Penn State’s strong finish in the Big Ten this past season may have fooled a lot of us into thinking that Penn State had finally figured out what it had to do to have some success on the court.

But the odds are against it. Consider -

Penn State has been to the Final Four just once - in 1954.

In the last 50 years, Penn State’s basketball team has been to the NCAA Tournament just five times!

In the 30 years since Penn State joined the Big Ten,  they’ve had just ONE winning conference record - and that was their first year as a member, when they were 12-6.  On only three other occasions - including this year’s 10-10 Big Ten record - have they even made it to .500 in conference play.

We must never  forget the role basketball played in Penn State’s becoming a member of the Big Ten.   They wanted to join the Big East.   But the Big East,  then one of the nation’s top basketball conferences, didn’t think Penn State basketball would add any value.  They just didn’t measure up.

The Big East was wrong on a lot of things, but not on that. 

I don’t think Micah Shrewsberry is wrong, either.


***********  When the Oregon Ducks basketball team finally got a Big Ten team to play them in Eugene, just 3,300 people showed up to watch them play (and lose to)  Wisconsin.

“We should have more people here,” a disappointed Oregon coach Dana Altman  said after the game.

“If it’s me, then get rid of me,” he said. “Make the change. Somebody will hire me somewhere. I'll go coach junior college ball. I love junior college ball. Those guys are dogs. They want to be in the gym all the time. I love those guys. But 3,300 people? For Wisconsin? I’m disappointed.”

Talk about clueless coaches.  He forgot to add that, yes, it was Wisconsin, but this was just another NIT game. The regular season’s long been over, and for weeks the nation’s attention has been  on the NCAA Tournament.

Just wondering - if he were an Oregon student, and he’d watched that team underperform through an entire Pac-12 season -  would he have spent his money to go to that game?



*********** Back in 1974, as the World Football League had begun to collapse all around us, I was in the office (the Philadelphia Bell) when we got the word that Chicago had folded, and consequently wouldn't be playing us in our game scheduled for that week.

Our quarterback, Jim Corcoran, (an egomaniac who insisted on being called “King” Corcoran), happened to be in the office at the time, and he came unglued at the news.

“Hughie,” he said to me in a panic, “You got to get us a game! Anybody. I don’t give a sh——!”

He evidently forgot momentarily that I wasn’t the WFL commissioner, and overlooked the fact that even I was, we’d run out of teams to play.  He was in a panic because there he was on the verge of meeting a couple of bonus clauses in his contract - so many completions for the season, so many yards, so many touchdown passes (I don’t remember) - and now he was going  to  come up short.  Unless we could find a game  - with anybody - it was going to cost him real money.

If only there’d been a football version of a CBI. 

Seen the CBI?  It waits until teams have been  selected to play in the NCAA Tournament and then the NIT, and then from what’s left over, it selects 16 teams.  Just one catch - there’s a $27,500 entry fee. 

Did you have any idea that anything worked like that?  That even a sh—ty team could “play in the post-season” if it would just come up with a measly $27,500?

What brings this up is a kid named Antoine Davis, who plays - played, actually -  for a college named Detroit Mercy.
 
The kid’s all upset because his season’s at an end, and he came up just four points short of Pete Maravich’s all-time career scoring record of 3,667 points.

Now, let’s overlook the fact that Maravich had three seasons - and 83 games - to set his record.   Let’s also forget that there was no three-point shot when he played.

Let’s get back to Antoine Davis. He’s had five years - and 144 games. And he’s still four points behind Maravich.

Damn shame that Detroit Mercy - whose coach happens to be Antoine’s father Mike, a former coach at Indiana - finished 14-19, or the kid might have had a few more games in which to beat the great Maravich’s record.

But wait - what about the CBI?

Evidently the sponsors, as well as the administration at Detroit Mercy, caught a lot of heat from fans, outraged at such a blatant attempt to pull a King Corcoran.

Can’t say Antoine Davis was gracious about the whole thing:

"I feel like I got cheated out of something that they can't ever give back to me. I think it's selfish -- and weird -- that people emailed or called the CBI to say we shouldn't be in the tournament because they didn't want me to break the record.”

Pete Maravich’s son,  Jaeson, said he had no quarrel with Antoine Davis, but he did object to the possibility of his father's record being  broken in a pay-to-play postseason tournament.


"I think it's a terrible look," he  told the AP. "Your season should be over if you're 14-19.



***********  Oh, dear.  The Chicago Blackhawks will not wear “Pride-themed” warmup jerseys before Sunday’s “Pride Night” game.   It seems the Blackhawks have some Russian players,  and they don’t want to contend with a recently-passed  Russian law outlawing activities that could be seen as promoting the LGBTQ agenda.

Yes, yes, I know - the Blackhawks don’t have to keep those evil Russian players on their team.  I mean, isn’t their main purpose for being in business to promote “inclusivity?”  (It can’t be to put a first-class hockey team on the ice, because at the present time, they’re dead last in the NHL Central Division with a record of 24-40-6.)

But take heart, Gay Blackhawks fans.  It’s not as if the Black Hawks won’t still be bending over backwards (metaphorically, that is) to “welcome” fans of assorted sexual preferences:

“DJs from the LGBTQ community,” we are told,  will play before the game and during an intermission, and “the Chicago Gay Men’s Chorus is slated to perform.”

Remember  the old days when people used to go to hockey games hoping to see a fight?  You telling me that now they go to hear a Gay Men’s Chorus?


https://news.wttw.com/2023/03/23/chicago-blackhawks-won-t-wear-pride-jerseys-cite-russian-law


*********** Nebraska running back Anthony Grant led the team in rushing last season, but there’s a new sheriff in town (Lincoln) and Sheriff Rhule has suspended Grant   “for the start of spring practice” because of “off-field issues.”

Knowing the interest in stories like this, and knowing that coaches throw up walls of secrecy that make the White House envious, I’m predicting we’ll see the day when newspapers or Web sites pay players to slip them the real skinny.



***********   Coach,


It was good to see you on Tuesday’s zoom. I had a rare Tuesday night off. I enjoyed the presentation, but the last ten minutes were especially good. You made a comment about young coaches just wanting to give halftime speeches and draw plays. I was thinking that a coach’s evolution (if he sticks around long enough) is kind of like this:

First you think half-time speeches are the key to coaching.

Then you think the secret is in Xs and Os.

After that you start to see the importance of blocking and tackling.

The next stage is understanding that program and team building is a key to great teams.

Finally (and this is where I am emerging) you start to become curious about the different motivations each kid has (or doesn't have) to sacrifice for football.

I wonder what the percentages are of coaches who drop out along this path. I bet most quit when they are disappointed that Xs and Os didn’t work as well as they did on the video game.

Tom Walls
Winnipeg, Manitoba


I especially agree with the last sentence.  I think that Madden (the game) has greatly increased players’ technical knowledge of the game - or at least one aspect of it   (the passing game) - to the point where they arrive on a coaching staff “educated beyond their intelligence,”  uninterested in learning anything else.  They think they’re ready to run the team, when in fact,  “they don’t know and don’t know that they don’t know,” which totally befuddles them - and turns them off -  the instant they get outside their very limited area of expertise.   In short - I think that Madden has had a disastrous effect on the development of young coaches.


***********   Another coincidence: I called my MN friend (and former UM wrestler) yesterday to talk about Cael Sanderson. Didn't know, of course, that I'd read about him on your page today. As you probably know, some writers named his 159-0 collegiate record as one of the two greatest athletic feats of all time, the other being Jesse Owens' earning four Olympic golds in the space of an hour or so. Incredible guy...if only his physical appearance wasn't so wimpy.

John Vermillion
St. Petersburg, Florida

Yeah, wimpy.  Instead of a bouncer you could just put a (life-size) cardboard cutout of Cael Sanderson by the door and you’d never have any trouble in your place.



***********   Hugh,

As a high school wrestler in the late 60's/early 70's guys who were really good wanted to go to Iowa State or Oklahoma State.  Those two schools dominated college wrestling back then.

Aaron Brooks is MKG.

When I do watch a women's basketball game (only when Notre Dame plays in the tournament) I see a lot of floor diving from BOTH teams!

I still say that if Jim Haslett wants to "kill" someone on his team it needs to be June Jones.


QUIZ:  Pat Harder (when my dad was a senior halfback at Austin High in Chicago "his" team was the Chicago Cardinals, and his idols were Pat Harder and Charley Trippi).

Have a great week!

Joe Gutilla
Austin, Texas




IN BOTH OF THE PHOTOS, PAT HARDER'S  #34, FRONT ROW, 4TH PLAYER FROM THE LEFT


*********** QUIZ ANSWER:  Pat Harder was a tough kid from inner-city Milwaukee and he was a hell-raiser in college.   Wrote Terry Frei in “Third Down and a War to Go,” as a  football player at Wisconsin,  “He smoked, and he was a regular in the State Street taverns.”

But he could play football.

“The Mule (as he was sometimes called) drank his share of beer,” recalled one of his teammates, “but when the chips were down, he could do everything - block, back up the line, carry the ball.  He was one hell of a football player.”

In 1941, as the Badgers’ placekicker and the  fullback in Coach Harry Stuhldreher’s Notre Dame Box,  he led the Big Ten in rushing and scoring.

In 1942, Wisconsin went 8-1-1, and in their 17-7 win over eventual national champion Ohio State, he scored all 17 points.

He wound up playing in two College All-Star Games - as a collegian. In 1943,  before he shipped off to World War II service in the Marines, he was the collegians’ MVP, scoring two touchdowns in their 27-7 win over the Redskins; in 1946 he played on his return from service.

In 1944, while in the service, he was drafted second overall by the Cardinals -  the highest any Wisconsin player has ever been taken - and he gave up his final year of college eligibility to turn pro in 1946. (By then he was 24, and a veteran of three years in the Marines.)

In his rookie season, the Cardinals ended a 29-game losing streak and finished 6-5, their first winning record since 1937.

In 1947,  teaming with halfbacks Marshall Goldberg and Charley Trippi, along with quarterback Paul Christman,  he was part of the Cardinals’ “Dream Backfield” -  so-called because it was the first time in NFL history that a pro team had started four college All-Americans in the same backfield.

The Cardinals won the NFL title that year, defeating the Philadelphia Eagles, 28-21. The next year, they were even better in the regular season, going 11-1, but they lost the title game to the Eagles, 7-0,  in a blinding snowstorm.   And they would never win another title.

Traded to Detroit in 1951, he played on back-to-back NFL champions in the Motor City. 

A fullback and place-kicker, he was the first player in NFL history to score more than 100 Points in three straight years (1947-49), and led the NFL in scoring all three years.  In 1948 he was named League MVP. He was named All-Pro six times, and was named  to the 1940's All-Decade Team.

During his eight-year NFL career with the Cardinals and the Lions, he won three NFL championships. 

In its entire history, the Cardinals franchise - Chicago, St. Louis and now Arizona - has won just two NFL titles (1925 and 1947).  He was on the 1947 title team.

In their history, the Detroit Lions have won only four titles (1935, 1952, 1953 and 1957). He  played on two of those championship teams.

A successful businessman in his native Milwaukee after retirement, he was  an NFL official for 17 years (1966-1982, and he was the umpire in the famous “Immaculate Reception” game.

He was later quoted in a magazine as saying, "the Good Lord gave me the gift of being a football player by providing me with great natural ability. But I enjoyed officiating more because I had to learn that on my own."

True fact (if you don’t believe it you’ll have to prove the Wisconsin people wrong):  during his days as a Badger fullback and linebacker, he was the inspiration for a now-universal football cheer, the one that goes,  “Hit ‘em again, Hit ‘em again! Harder! Harder!”


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING PAT HARDER

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOE GUTILLA - AUSTIN, TEXAS
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
TOM WALLS - WINNIPEG, MANITOBA
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS






IT WASN'T TOO LONG AFTER THIS THAT ATHLETES WERE BANNED FROM ADVERTISING  ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES







*********** QUIZ:  The grandson of Spanish immigrants (from the real Spain!) he was born in Western Pennsylvania, near the Ohio line, in a tiny mining patch called Langeloth.  He went to high school in the nearest  big town (population 1400), Burgettstown.

At Nebraska, he played linebacker for three years under Bob Devaney.

He got into high school coaching right away, and after his Mason City, Iowa team won the state title, he was hired at Iowa by Hayden Fry.   After eight years at Iowa, coaching linebackers on a staff that at times also included such future big-time coaches as Bill Snyder, Bob Stoops, Kirk Ferentz and Dan McCarney, he was hired by Lou Holtz to coach linebackers at Notre Dame.

(Devaney, Fry and Holtz:  how’s that for exposure to great coaches? )

After one year Holtz promoted him to defensive coordinator, and when the Irish went 12-0 and 12-1 in his two years  in that position, he was hired by Wisconsin AD Pat Richter to take over the Badgers program.  It would be the only head coaching job he would ever have.

Badger football at that time really sucked.  Following  the untimely death of their head coach, Dave McClain in 1986, there followed four seasons - one with an interim coach and one unfortunate hire - in which Wisconsin  went  9-36.  Worse, average attendance had dropped from well over 66,000 to close to 40,000, and the athletic department was running deeply in the red.

He got off to a slow start. He went 1-10 his first year, and then put together back-to-back 5-6 seasons.

But in 1993, his fourth season, the Badgers went 10-1-1 and made their first Rose Bowl appearance in 30 years (and just their second bowl appearance ever).

In all, he would take them to three Rose Bowls and win them all.

Before he retired to become full-time Athletic Director, he would take  the Badgers to 11 bowl games, and win eight of them.

Twice, he came out of retirement to take over the team after coaches that he hired left for other jobs.  First, after Bret Bielema left for Arkansas, and then after Gary Anderson left for Oregon State.

As AD he hired three coaches, and all of them compiled solid winning records at Wisconsin: Bielema (68-24), Anderson (19-7) and Paul Chryst (67-26).

His overall record at Wisconsin was 120-73-4.  The 120 wins are almost twice that of the next-winningest Wisconsin coach.

His overall bowl record was 9-4 (including a loss as a stand-in for Bielema, and a win as a stand-in for Anderson).

A bronze statue of him has been erected outside Camp Randall Stadium, and the field  the Badgers play on has been named in his honor.

He is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame.









TUESDAY,  MARCH 21,  2023 - “If you owe the bank $100, that’s your problem. If you owe the bank $100 million, that’s the bank’s problem.”   J. Paul Getty

*********** In the background,  partially hidden by all the March Madness, the NCAA wrestling championships took place last weekend, and Cael Sanderson’s Penn State Nittany Lions won their tenth team title since 2011.

The tournament was held in Tulsa, and former President Trump was on hand and enthusiastically received.

If you’re able to get past The Athletic’s  firewall, the story of how Penn State managed to get Sanderson  away from Iowa State, his alma mater, is pretty interesting.

Couple of interesting quotes:

“Cael wanted to be No. 1 in everything,” said Bobby Douglas, Sanderson’s coach at Iowa State and in the Olympics. Sanderson succeeded Douglas in Ames. “You’re not going to be No. 1 without going through Pennsylvania or having some kind of connection with Pennsylvania. … Everybody wanted Cael Sanderson. He was Mr. Wrestling.”

A Penn State trustee who is also a wrestling alum told about sitting across the table from Sanderson  and asking why he wanted the job.

“He said it had all the raw materials required to build a real dynasty.  Penn State is located in the middle of really a hotbed of wrestling with New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York. He said Penn State had a great history for academics and athletics. He said the facilities were really good and that he could bring the leadership with him and his coaching staff. He thought those four things were required.”

Now, here they are, ten national titles later.


https://theathletic.com/4308088/2023/03/15/cael-sanderson-penn-state-wrestling-ncaa/?source=user_shared_article


***********  To read about a kid who represents everything that wrestling can imbue in a youngster, read this article from the Penn State daily about Aaron Brooks, the Nittany Lions’ three-time NCAA champion from (ahem) my adopted home town of Hagerstown, Maryland.


He is openly and unashamedly faith-driven.


“Everything I have is from God,” he says.  “He gives me the ability to wrestle. When I go out there, if it's anything, it's to preach about him.  I’m blessed and grateful he's using me. We all give him the glory, but he chose me for this. So I'm blessed.”


https://www.collegian.psu.edu/sports/wrestling/it-s-more-than-just-wrestling-for-penn-state-s-aaron-brooks/article_063e7ee6-c650-11ed-bd8c-2b15cd0d02e5.html


*********** The amazing thing about the NCAA wrestling championships is that two of the individual champions were Ivy Leaguers.

*At 125, Princeton’s Pat Glory won  the Tigers’ first NCAA title in 72 years

*At 149, Cornell’s Yianni Diakomihalis won his fourth NCAA title, becoming only the fifth wrestler to accomplish the feat.

As hard as wrestling is, I can’t imagine those  guys wrestling at that level and still keeping up their grades.


*********** It’s female history month or something like that and as a consequence I’m seeing a fair number  of stories whose legitimacy I question.  One such was an article in the Houston Chronicle about  a documentary that, its writers tell us, tells a story that’s  “all but lost to history.”

ALL but lost?  Why not lost completely? I’m tempted to ask.

It’s about something called The Houston Herricanes, (Get it? “Her?”), supposedly an all-female full-tackle professional football team that was active from 1976 until 1979.

Now,  I don’t question that it was “all-female,” or “full-tackle,” or even the claim that it was “active from 1976 until 1979” (the term “active” in low-level sports being wide open to individual interpretation), but my bullsh—  detector app goes wild at this use of the term “professional.”

All you have to do is watch the struggles of the XFL, which employs real professional coaches (a few) and pays its players a subsistence wage - and actually has national TV exposure - to realize what a farcical claim it is that a group of women playing football for whatever motivated them could by any stretch of the imagination be labelled “professional.”

I got my start coaching players and coaching against players - males - who were very, very good at what they did.   But very few of them were good enough to ever play professionally.

Later,  I spent the better part of a year holding tryouts and combing   through film clips and resumes of hundreds of reasonably  talented players in hopes of finding enough of them to  field  a truly professional team.

I think of all those guys who made it and those who didn’t - their stories “all but lost to history” - and I find it insulting that somebody is actually trying to pass off a nonsense story like this on a gullible public.


https://www.chron.com/culture/tv/article/houston-herricanes-sxsw-17841318.php


*********** Is there any big-time school in America that comes close to Baylor’s teams - all sports -  in the sheer ugliness of their uniforms? 

 
*********** Coach: Do you have a separate printed playbook on your Wildcat out of Double Wing?   

Hi Coach-

Short answer: it depends on what you’re looking for.

Longer answer:
 

When I first ran Wildcat, I didn’t need a playbook. I just moved a couple of people - the QB and B Back - and taught the new snap to the center and then we ran our basic stuff.  If I wanted the B-Back on the right of the QB I said “Bronco,” and if I wanted him on the left I said “Bill.”





The center snapped the ball low and slow - a tumbling  snap rather than a spiral.  He didn’t look back. He kept his eyes up and he snapped the ball low.  He snapped it straight back. He didn’t have to worry about who was going to get the ball. The QB and B Back knew who was supposed to get it, and they lined up cheek-to-cheek, feet together, on the center line. They were both in “single-wing tailback” crouches, like infielders ready to field a low grounder.


There were slight  differences from the Double Wing in the mechanics of a play or two, but in some cases things were actually less complicated, because on plays that we tagged “direct,” the B-Back caught the snap himself and ran the play, without having to take a handoff from the QB. The  main thing, though,  was that the linemen didn’t have to do anything different from their usual assignments.


Over the years, as I continued to run the Double Wing,  I would slip in a little Wildcat occasionally, but still without any need for a playbook.  (To be frank - it’s been more than 40 years since I last gave a player a playbook.  With all the methods at our disposal for teaching stuff to today’s kids, I’ve found playbooks to be almost useless.   I will, of course,  issue them to assistants, but never to players.  In reality, with our playcard  system, they’re actually carrying their playbooks out on the field with them anyhow - on their wrists.)


But  although I still use a lot of Wildcat backfield action, I haven’t run the original Double Wing Wildcat - that is, with two tight ends and two wingbacks - in 20 years.


In 2013, because I wanted to mix Run and Shoot passing with my Double Wing running game, I found that the best way to do it was with a Wildcat backfield  and two split  ends. 




I did that for half a season, and I liked it, but it became obvious to me that one of my ends was much better as a tight end, and so  for no more reason than that,  I found myself running  a Wildcat backfield with a tight end and  wingback on one side, and a split end and slot back on the other. (“LEE”: split end Left, “ROY”: split end right)



Since those receiver-type guys all had different jobs requiring different skills, it meant the tight end always had to be the tight end, whether he was on the right side or the left.  Same with the wingback.  So the tight end and the wingback “flipped” - they always went to the same side, depending on where we sent them.  We called that the “tight side.”


The same rule applied to the split end and the slot back - they also flipped sides, lining up on what we called the “open” side - the side opposite the “tight side” - whether it was on the right or the left.


That fairly quickly morphed into what became my "Open wing” - twin receivers (split end and slot)  on the “open side,” tight end and wing to the “tight side.”  “West” meant Open Side Left, and “East” meant Open Side Right.


 

With one of our former running backs now deployed as a wide slot, this changed the duties of our fullback (“B” Back), from mostly blocking to mostly running.  If he can’t block, we have other ways to run the ball; but if he can’t run, we’d better find another scheme or another B Back.


Still, with all of those cosmetic changes, there has been little change up front.  There’s been not change in the basics  (Split, Stance, Alignment) nor in  the blocking rules, which come straight from the Double Wing playbook.


So getting back to your question -  if you want to run Wildcat with two tight ends and two wingbacks, and you already have my Double Wing 3.0 playbook -  it’s quite easy to do.  The exchange is really the only issue and it’s not a major challenge.   I can help you with that.


If you want more - you may want to look into the Open Wing.


And one more thing - if  you’re one of a growing number of coaches looking at maybe having to play 8-man ball, my 8-man Wildcat is a killer.


Here’s the logic:


Knowing that our spread Wildcat was quite effective, I simply erased three people: the two split ends and one of the wingbacks.




 
This is what resulted:




I’ve been doing this since I started  running the Wildcat (1997).  I had to develop it for use on certain occasions when we were playing 11-man football at the varsity level but the only way to schedule a JV game was to agree to play 8-man  football. It still uses my terminology and the Double Wing blocking. It’s undefeated for me, and  it’s been successful in places as disparate as California and Virginia. In Wells, Nevada it won Coach Steve Rodriguez a state title in 2004.



*********** I have to laugh at the Bud Light ad featuring the nice-looking woman who picks up five just-poured pints of the stuff and then threads her way though a crowded tavern, managing somehow to get to her table without spilling a drop.  And - mirabile dictu - on arrival at the table, every one of those beers has the same beautiful head it did when it was poured.

I laugh,  wondering what sort of chemicals they had to add for any glass of Bud Light to keep its head that long.


*********** I really, really object to the talking heads on March Madness calling coaches by their first names.


*********** When was the last time you saw a basketball player dive to the floor after a ball?


*********** I like a lot of the teams still in the tournament, but I sure would like to see Princeton keep advancing.  While they’re playing, I find myself watching guys play a sport and play it well, and I don’t have  to fool myself into thinking  I’m watching real, honest-to-God college students.  With Princeton, I really am. The Tigers beat Missouri - beat them, didn’t upset them - as Blake Peters scored 17 points in the second half.  Peters is a sophomore from Evanston, Illinois, and according to Princeton’s web site, he “speaks fluent Chinese.”


*********** The XFL has so many penalties it’s going to have to take a lesson from the New York schools: lower the bar. Unless it’s a half-nelson, it’s not holding.

There are so many offside and false-start penalties that you begin to wonder if maybe XFL scouts have been waiting outside the doors of New York City schools and signing the ones they cut.


*********** Jim Haslett wisely decided not to kill his quarterback,  Ben DiNucci, and the Seattle Sea-Somethings beat Houston, 21-14.

But DiNucci  isn’t completely safe yet.  He completed just 17 of 32 passes for 209 yards, one touchdown and three interceptions.

One of those interceptions came when it appeared that Josh Gordon had pulled up and quit on his route, and that seemed to lead to  DiNucci’s calling for  Gordon’s benching.

So if DiNucci’s body is found floating in Ellott Bay one of these days, there’s now another “person of interest.”


*********** St. Louis had another good AFL crowd - this one 35,868 - but this time the crowd went away disappointed, as the home team Battle Hawks lost to the D.C. Defenders, 28-20. 

A DC running back named Abram Smith, from Baylor, carried 22 times for 215 yards, with runs of 70 and 60 yards.   You would have thought that the DC strategy, once they learned  that St. Louis had a linebacker who simply couldn’t tackle,  was simply  to keep running the ball until St. Louis discovered what was happening and took the guy out.


*********** San Antonio had a less-than-great crowd in the AlamoDome, and while the home fans didn’t exactly get ugly, there was a fair amount of booing at the ineffectiveness of their team, the Brahmas, who lost to Arlington, 12-10.  Yes, it really was that bad a game.


*********** The best XFL game I’ve seen so far this year was between the league’s two worst teams. It was Orlando at Las Vegas, and the two teams, both winless going in, produced a 35-32 Vegas win  that was actually exciting.

A few weeks ago, the league was investigating reports that an Orlando quarterback named Quentin Dormady had been trying to sell his playbook to some other team.  Cleared by the investigation, Dormady actually injected some life into the Orlando offense, completing 22 of 25 for 256 and two TDs.  Not bad considering how poorly starter Paxton Lynch had been playing.

Vegas’ Luis Perez was at least as good as Dormady, completing 20 of 28 for 269 yards and three TDs.

My suggestion, if the XFL really wants to be exciting:  Try playing with 10 men on defense.


***********   Coach:  Thanks for mentioning my writing. Nice. But what most impressed me was the beautiful circle with BSG in the center. I'm sure it took many hours at the drafting table to produce that.

Undeserved nod from you aside, today's page was a feast. I'm pretty danged sure no sportswriter in the country set such a beautiful table filled with so much wholesome, healthy food.

Pitt-Duquesne: Just wondering why it hasn't already happened. Hope it draws a max crowd, if it happens.

Here's a project for you, or someone you assign, like maybe grandson Sam: compile a book about all the offbeat characters (I include Buff Donelli) you've told us about. Or if offbeat's the wrong word, unusual people from the world of sports. You give us one on nearly every issue of NYCU. Sam, go back to the first issue and start compiling your list, then amplify as necessary.

Tal Bachmann is probably Jewish, which makes his great piece even more interesting. Love his plea to God.

Arizona's okay, but I was rooting for Princeton (and happy I picked them in one of my brackets). Why? Because I've always admired Coach Carill. Wonder how the HC reacted when ole Pete gave an honest answer?

John Vermillion
St. Petersburg, Florida

***********   Hugh,

Joey Galloway is annoying.  

Princeton's upset of Arizona wasn't that much of a surprise.  Pete Carrill put the Tigers on the map as upset specialists.  Arizona on the other hand seems to have had issues with being an upset victim over the years.  

As far as the four corner schools flirting with becoming members of the Big 12 Arizona State has publicly denied it.  But then again, truth these days is hard to find.

Howard didn't upset Kansas but our VP upset Howard's team after the game, and apparently she didn't receive a warm welcome from the fans in Des Moines when her image was shown on the big screen.

Not sure if a Pitt-Duquesne game would have the same impact today that it did back when.  But OG's like us would enjoy it!

A note to Tal Bachman regarding his profound letter to God:  In a word...his wish is called "prayer".  There are millions of us who pray for God's intervention every day.

Back to Seattle SeaDragons QB.  June Jones is his OC who gives him the play before every down.  June Jones doesn't know what a running play is.


Enjoy the weekend!

Joe Gutilla
Austin, Texas






*********** QUIZ ANSWER:  Despite an outstanding college career at Tulsa - 51 catches for 1,000 yards and 14 touchdowns his senior season -  Steve Largent wasn’t drafted until the forth round by the Houston Oilers. And then, after four preseason games, he was traded to the expansion Seattle Seahawks - for an eighth round pick.

He would make the Seahawks and play with them for 14 seasons. Not especially fast, he had great hands and ran great routes.

In the course of his career, he was selected to play in seven Pro Bowls, and was the first Seahawk to be so honored.

He twice led the NFL in receiving yards, and when he retired, he held all NFL receiving records.

For his career he had 819 receptions for 13,089 yards, and 100 touchdowns. (He was the first player in NFL history to catch 100 touchdown passes.)

In 1988 he was named NFL Man of the Year.

He is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

He is on the NFL’s 1980s All-Decade team, and on the NFL’s 100th Anniversary All-Time Team.

His #80 was the first number retired by the Seahawks, but with his approval it was “unretired” briefly when the team signed Jerry Rice, who had idolized him when he was younger.

After retirement Steve Largent became active in Oklahoma politics.  A conservative Republican, he served four terms in the US House of Representatives, and narrowly lost a run for governor in 2002.


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING STEVE LARGENT

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
TOM DAVIS - SAN CARLOS, CALIFORNIA
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
JASON MENSING - WESTLAND, MI
JOE GUTILLA - AUSTIN, TEXAS
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PATERSBURG, FLORIDA
JOHN IRION - ARGYLE, NEW YORK
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY





IN BOTH OF THE PHOTOS, HE'S #34, FRONT ROW, 4TH PLAYER FROM THE LEFT

*********** QUIZ:  He was a tough kid from inner-city Milwaukee and he was a hell-raiser in college.   Wrote Terry Frei in “Third Down and a War to Go,” as a  football player at Wisconsin,  “He smoked, and he was a regular in the State Street taverns.”

But he could play football.

“The Mule (as he was sometimes called) drank his share of beer,” recalled one of his teammates, “but when the chips were down, he could do everything - block, back up the line, carry the ball.  He was one hell of a football player.”

In 1941, as the Badgers’ placekicker and the  fullback in Coach Harry Stuhldreher’s Notre Dame Box,  he led the Big Ten in rushing and scoring.

In 1942, Wisconsin went 8-1-1, and in their 17-7 win over eventual national champion Ohio State, he scored all 17 points.

He wound up playing in two College All-Star Games - as a collegian. In 1943,  before he shipped off to World War II service in the Marines, he was the collegians’ MVP, scoring two touchdowns in their 27-7 win over the Redskins; in 1946 he played on his return from service.

In 1944, while overseas, he was drafted second overall by the Cardinals -  the highest any Wisconsin player has ever been taken - and he gave up his final year of college eligibility to turn pro in 1946. (By then he was 24, and a veteran of three years in the Marines.)

In his rookie season, the Cardinals ended a 29-game losing streak and finished 6-5, their first winning record since 1937.

In 1947,  teaming with halfbacks Marshall Goldberg and Charley Trippi, along with quarterback Paul Christman,  he was part of the Cardinals’ “Dream Backfield” -  so-called because it was the first time in NFL history that a pro team had started four college All-Americans in the same backfield.

The Cardinals won the NFL title that year, defeating the Philadelphia Eagles, 28-21. The next year, they were even better in the regular season, going 11-1, but they lost the title game to the Eagles, 7-0,  in a blinding snowstorm.   And they would never win another title.

Traded to Detroit in 1951, he played on back-to-back NFL champions in the Motor City. 

A fullback and place-kicker, he was the first player in NFL history to score more than 100 Points in three straight years (1947-49), and led the NFL in scoring all three years.  In 1948 he was named League MVP. He was named All-Pro six times, and was named  to the 1940's All-Decade Team.

During his eight-year NFL career with the Cardinals and the Lions, he won three NFL championships. 

In its entire history, the Cardinals franchise - Chicago, St. Louis and now Arizona - has won just two NFL titles (1925 and 1947).  He was on the 1947 title team.

In their history, the Detroit Lions have won only four titles (1935, 1952, 1953 and 1957). He  played on two of those championship teams.

A successful businessman in his native Milwaukee after retirement, he was  an NFL official for 17 years (1966-1982, and he was the umpire in the famous “Immaculate Reception” game.

He was later quoted in a magazine as saying, "the Good Lord gave me the gift of being a football player by providing me with great natural ability. But I enjoyed officiating more because I had to learn that on my own."

True fact (if you don’t believe it you’ll have to prove the Wisconsin people wrong):  during his days as a Badger fullback and linebacker, he was the inspiration for a now-universal football cheer -

The one that begins with “Hit ‘em again, Hit ‘em again!"


FRIDAY,  MARCH 17,  2023 - “You’re never as good as you think you are and never as bad as they say you are.”  Joe Paterno

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!




*********** If it weren’t for the XFL, we might never have known about Fred Kaiss.   He's the guy on the left in the photo.

He’s the offensive coordinator of the DC Defenders, and he’s had a very interesting career. He’s been a college coach since 1992, and he’s coached at seven different schools - Morgan State, Southern, Tennessee State, Alabama A & M, Hampton, Alabama State and Alcorn State. They’re all  HBCU’s, and unless he’s been identifying as black, he’s a white guy.  Cool.  I’d love to know more about him.

After what I saw last weekend, one thing I do know is that he has more composure under pressure than most of us.

Look - I know that the media guys have their jobs, and I know that publicity is important, and I know that the XFL is “all-access,” blah, blah, blah - but I doubt that I could have maintained my poise if I’d been Fred Kaiss, up there in the press box  Sunday night, trying to figure out how to hang onto an 11-point lead with six minutes left in the game, when one of the broadcast guys  barged in and tried to interview him.   (During the game, if I didn't make that clear.)

But there Fred Kaiss was, as shown in the photo,  patiently explaining to Joey Galloway that he trying to protect a lead, when what he should have been saying was, “don’t you have something else you could be doing right now?”



*********** Mark Twain it was who said, “reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.”  So it is with the Pac-12.  Yes, yes, I know - the “four corner” schools (Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah) are a  hair’s breadth away from leaving for the Big 12, because…? And Oregon and Washington? Why, they’re just waiting for the Big Ten to look at them and wink - and they’re gone.

In the meantime, though,  the Arizona-UCLA Pac-12 men’s basketball championship game, which aired  last Saturday night at 10:40 Eastern Time, averaged 1.57 million viewers on ESPN.  That was up 20 per cent from last year’s game (between the same two teams) that started at 9 PM Eastern.


Meantime, it’s hard to say what the Princeton-Arizona game numbers were, but I bet as social media spread the news of what was happening, an awful lot of people started tuning in.  And although I like Arizona and I like their coach, Tommy Lloyd, I do have to say that we we will be getting fewer and fewer opportunities to see real  college students beat de facto professionals in a major sport, so hats off to the Princeton Tigers.


And as for the Pac-12… Assuming that the Wildcats would have been able to win and then get their heads back on before the next game, that Arizona loss will likely wind up costing the conference millions. Each tournament win by a conference team is referred to as a “unit” and each unit  will result in an annual payment to the conference that over the next six years will total around $1.67 million.  (Of course, to Princeton, with its $32 billion endowment, that’s like couch cushion coins.)



*********** After the Princeton win, I texted Brian Flinn, who coaches the Tigers’ receivers, to congratulate him.  And that got us going on Princeton’s great basketball tradition, and their legendary coach, Pete Carrill. (Pronounced “kerr-ILL”)


Coach Carrill was the Tigers’ coach from 1967-1996, and  he used to love to come watch football practice.  At this one particular time, maybe 15 years ago, Princeton football wasn’t very good, and it seemed that the practice consisted mainly of coaches screaming “Catch the ball!”


After one such  practice, the head coach asked Coach Carrill what he thought of what he’d seen that day, and he replied, “Tell those coaches to stop yelling ‘Catch the Ball!’ and start teaching them HOW to catch the ball!”


So true.  People forget that it’s our job to TEACH.   You’ve probably seen it at youth games:  coaches hollering “Hit somebody!” or “Block somebody.” But not doing a damn thing in terms of teaching.


Something I heard a long time ago has really stuck with me over the years: always remember, before you get on a kid for something he did (or didn’t) do…  Either he can’t do it, or you didn’t teach it.
 

You either gave him a job that he’s just not up to, or you gave him  a job he might be capable of doing,  but you didn’t prepare him to do it - either way, whose fault is it?



*********** In the opening round of last year’s NCAA basketball tournament, a previously-unknown basketball player from St. Peters,  a small Catholic college in Jersey City, scored 20 points against national power Kentucky. Wham.  Instant fame. Combine that with the three magic letters N-I-L and evidently it’s made him  a few bucks since.  Enough, he confesses, “for a nice little start” in life. 


So a guy has a good basketball game on TV and now, on his say-so, people will go buy something.  Is there anything else you’ll ever need to know about the intelligence of the American public?
 

I’m reminded of the heyday of Mad Magazine.  Anybody remember that?  Back  when  there were still such things as magazines? And senses of humor?  Mad dared to poke fun at the many absurdities of life - things that we’re now supposed to accept as normal, lest we be called “judgmental.”  Once, taking aim at celebrities endorsing products that in reality they wouldn’t know the first f—king thing about, Mad  showed an “ad” in which Yankees’ star centerfielder Mickey Mantle said, “Acme Industrial Blast Furnaces are GREAT!”



*********** Mick Yanke, of Cokato, Minnesota, sent me this, which beautifully sums up Bud Grant, the person and Bud Grant the image.  According to longtime Twin Cities sportswriter Patrick Reusse, this is how it went, back in early March, 1967:

Vikings GM Jim Finks to PR man Bill McGrane: "Go out to the airport and pick up Bud Grant from his flight. He's our next coach. "

McGrane: “How will I know him?”

Finks: “He’ll be the guy that looks like the town marshall."



***********  Won’t somebody of some standing please lead the way in putting an end to the insanity of “men-who-identify-as-women” being permitted to compete in women’s sports?

In Australia, at the news that the nation’s women’s basketball league is contemplating allowing “men-who-identify-as-women” to play against women, former NBA player Andrew Bogut asks, “Girl Dads, where are you?”


https://www.outkick.com/andrew-bogut-transgender-australian-womens-basketball-league/




*********** As the person who revolutionized the high jump, Dick Fosbury is in a class all his own. In track, only Parry O’Brien, who pioneered the 180-degree spin method of putting the shot, came close to what he did.

In football, one could argue, soccer-style place-kicking was revolutionary, but one could also argue (as I frequently  do) that we’re only talking about something that has little more  than a tenuous connection to the actual game of football.

Dick Fosbury, who died Sunday, singlehandedly changed an entire event.

He was an Oregonian, and I think that Ken Goe, a Portland sportswriter and old friend from the days when I was broadcasting Portland State football games and he was the beat writer, has written a marvelous obituary:

Dick Fosbury, who used a revolutionary high-jumping style to win the 1968 Olympic gold medal as an Oregon State junior, died Sunday. He was 76.

Ray Schulte, Fosbury’s former agent, said in a statement that the cause of death was lymphoma.

Fosbury began tinkering with what became known as the “Fosbury Flop” while he was a member of the Medford High School track team after failing to clear 5 feet, 6 inches.

At the time, Fosbury was using a conventional, straddle technique in which athletes faced the bar as they jumped. Fosbury, against the advice of his coaches, began successfully clearing the bar by going over backward.

“I had never cleared (5-6) before and I knew I had to do something different to get over that bar,” Fosbury told reporters. “So, to lift my hips, I leaned back to get my body out of the way. And it worked.”

Even after joining the OSU track team, Fosbury faced resistance from the coaching staff until he began clearing 7 feet, winning meets and setting records.

The “Fosbury Flop” still was considered a novelty when Fosbury won the 1968 NCAA championship, made the Olympic team and then brought home the gold medal from the games in Mexico City.

Four years later, 28 of 40 high jumpers in the Munich Olympics were using Fosbury’s flop. It’s now the default style for virtually all competitive high jumpers.

The late Kenny Moore was a University of Oregon distance runner and Fosbury’s teammate on the 1968 U.S. Olympic team.

In an interview with Eugene author Bob Welch for the biography “The Wizard of Foz,” Moore asked: “Has there ever been an athlete who epitomized American imagination better than Fosbury with his revolutionary flop?”

Fosbury was born in Portland on March 6, 1947, and grew up in Medford. His father drove a logging truck. His mom was a teacher.

Tragedy struck the family in 1961, when Fosbury’s younger brother, Greg, was hit by an automobile and killed while riding his bike. It was a formative experience for Dick, who channeled his grief into a competitive focus.

Former Oregon State coach Berny Wagner once said: “Steve Prefontaine was the greatest competitor on the track I ever saw. Dick Fosbury was the greatest I ever saw on the field. When it mattered, he just didn’t lose.”

Fosbury returned to OSU for his senior season to win the NCAA championship. Afterward, he largely gave up competitive high jumping to concentrate on a degree in civil engineering.

Other than a brief fling with the short-lived International Track Association in the 1970s, Fosbury’s attention was elsewhere.

Before leaving OSU, though, Fosbury found himself in the middle of a controversial campus incident. It began when football coach Dee Andros ordered linebacker Fred Milton to shave his beard to conform to team rules in 1969.

Milton, who was Black, refused. Andros dismissed him from the team.

Black athletes and the OSU chapter of the Black Student Union rallied around Milton. Others in the greater campus community supported Andros.

On Feb. 26, 1969, dueling rallies took place on campus. Fosbury was one of a handful of white athletes to appear at the Milton rally in support of the dismissed linebacker.

“After that I was either loved or hated,” Fosbury told Welch. “There wasn’t much in between.”

In 1977, Fosbury moved to Idaho, where he owned a civil engineering firm and worked as a city engineer for the cities of Ketchum and Sun Valley.

There, he oversaw a 36-mile system of bike and running trails in the area known as the Wood River and Sun Valley Trails.

He was involved politicially. In 2014, he lost a race for the Idaho Legislature as a Democrat. At his death, Fosbury was in his second term as a Blaine County commissioner.

Fosbury is past president of the World Olympians Association, founder of the Idaho Chapter of Olympians and had been active with the United States Olympic and Paralympic Association.

He is a member of the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame, the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame, the USA Track & Field Hall of Fame, the National High School Hall of Fame and the World Sports Humanitarian Hall of Fame.

In 2018, fifty years after Fosbury’s winning performance in Mexico City, OSU honored him by unveiling an on-campus statue of Fosbury taking flight.

Fosbury is survived by his wife, Robin Tomasi, son, Erich Fosbury, and stepdaughters Stephanie Thomas-Phipps and Kristin Thompson.

He stayed active in the sport as a clinician, participating in the Dick Fosbury Track Camps and others. His connection with his event and the sport has remained constant for more than a half century, remaining famous enough to appear in commercials for a number of companies.

As Fosbury once quipped in a commercial for Burger King: “I ate my burger upside down.”


-- Ken Goe, for The Oregonian/OregonLive

*********** Pitt and Duquesne apparently have been talking about playing some games in the Stadium-With-The-Big-Ketchup-Bottles- That-Used-To-Be-Called-Heinz-Field.

They last played each other in 1939.  Duquesne briefly revived football after World War II, but dropped it again in 1950, as so many other small, private Catholic colleges were doing at the time.  The Dukes restarted football as a club sport in 1969, and as a Division III sport in 1979.  Since 1993 they have played in NCAA Division I FCS.

It makes sense to me.  It’s not as if FCS Duquesne isn’t already going to Power 5 schools to make a buck, having played TCU in 2021 and Florida State in 2022 and scheduled to play West Virginia this fall, and Power 5 Pitt has played a number of games in recent years against FCS opponents  such as Youngstown State, Albany, Villanova, Delaware, New Hampshire and Rhode Island. The Panthers will open the 2023 season against Wofford.

Not only would Pitt-Duquesne keep the money local, but there’s a chance the game might draw a decent crowd.

True fact:  the last time they played, in 1939, Duquesne’s coach was Buff Donelli. The 1939 Dukes beat then-number-one Pitt, 21-13, and went on to finish the season 8-0-1 and ranked number ten nationally.

In 1941, Donelli became the only man ever to coach both a college team and a professional team in the same season, taking over  the Pittsburgh Steelers when their coach, Bert Bell resigned after two games. He wound up coaching the Steelers in the mornings, when his Duquesne players were in class, and the Dukes in the afternoons.  His Duquesne team went 8-0 and finished ranked Number Eight in the country.  The Steelers, sad as they were in those days, lost all five games that he coached.

Donelli would go on to coach Boston University, where briefly, with the great Harry Agganis at quarterback, the he built the Terriers into a national power, and in 1961, at Columbia, he led the Lions to the only Ivy League championship in their history.

You want more?  As a young man, Buff Donelli played on the US National Team in the 1934 World Cup, and scored all four US goals against Mexico in a 4-2 US win.


https://triblive.com/sports/pitt-duquesne-involved-in-talks-to-play-football-game-at-acrisure-stadium/
    


*********** Full confession: other than the fact that I don’t think I’d want to coach a team whose players date (and sometimes marry) each other,  I know almost zero about women’s basketball.  But evidently a woman named Kelsey Plum is pretty good, and she plays for a team in Las Vegas.

That happens to be where her new husband, Darren Waller, plays professional football.

At least he used to.  For the Raiders.

But the happy couple hadn’t been married a week - a week of talking about how wonderful Las Vegas was - blah, blah, blah - when the Raiders traded Waller to the Giants.

***********   Tal Bachman: Dear Old Testament God, Maybe It's Time For A Comeback Tour

by Tal Bachman

The Bachman Beat
March 12, 2023


Maybe it's age, but I'm starting to warm up to the God of the Old Testament big-time.

That's the one you're not supposed to like. The one you're supposed to feel embarrassed by. Even outraged. To hear religion-hater Richard Dawkins (and his tedious hordes of mini-mes) tell it, the Old Testament God is the personification of all cosmic vice. In Dawkins' words, he is "arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction".

My immediate response is: okay—maybe he was unpleasant at times. Who isn't? And besides, anyone who ever does anything big is "unpleasant" every once in a while. Goes with the territory. Nice guys finish last, remember? Sometimes you have to kick ass to get stuff done. Everyone knows that. And in this case, we're talking about the Being who created the heavens and earth, and everything therein. You want big? That's big. Occasional unpleasantness is a given at that scale. You can't even hire construction guys to add an extra room on to your house without having a moment or two of unpleasantness. Think about the gargantuan task of trying to create, populate, and properly maintain a world.

A more serious accusation from the God-haters is that the God of the Old Testament isn't just unpleasant—he's evil. And he's evil because he repeatedly committed genocide.

But again, I'm not convinced. Sure, he committed genocide. But that presumes genocide is, by definition, always evil.

Maybe God had extenuating circumstances.

Let's see what the Bible says.

God's first genocide was his biggest and most spectacular: the flood. He created mankind, and—well, it just didn't work out. "Every intent of the thoughts of (man's) heart was only evil continually", Genesis reports. But it was the ensuing evil human action which really sealed the deal for God. In a nutshell, "the earth was filled with violence". That means, I assume, colossal rates of murder, beating, rape, child molesting, brutal slavery, and more. Human beings had taken an Edenic paradise and turned it into hell on earth. God wanted a do-over. A hard reset.

So, yeah, God killed everyone, minus Noah and his family. Wouldn't you, if things were that bad? After all, you'd be delivering justice to the wicked, and maybe even mercy to their long-suffering victims. Just thinking out loud here.

As it happens, God covenanted after the flood to "never again destroy every living thing, as I have done".

 But—thankfully—his covenant didn't rule out more selective massacres.

Sodom and Gomorrah, for example, were cesspools of horror. The town fathers had institutionalized the gang rape of male city visitors, normalized rank sexual depravity in general (which I assume included sexual abuse of children), and topped it all off with pride, gluttony, and abominable selfishness. Even surrounding towns began crying out to God to do something. I feel sick just thinking about it.

And obviously, God did too, because he killed the entire populations of both gang-raping, probably child-molesting cities with the Bronze Age equivalent of Fat Man (fire and brimstone raining down from heaven). Why would I feel bad about that?

Here's another example of divine genocide (of a sort, anyway). After God sends ten plagues to Egypt, Pharaoh finally decides to free his Israelite slaves. Moses accordingly leads the people out of Egypt and toward the Red Sea, only to discover that Pharaoh has changed his mind, and is now leading his army out to re-enslave them.

God then parts the Red Sea, allowing the Israelites to cross over on dry land. But when the Egyptian army follows, God returns the sea to its former state, drowning the entire Egyptian army. So, God (the original abolitionist) kills off a pro-slavery army trying to re-enslave the Israelites, after Pharaoh has already promised them freedom. Again, no complaints here.

The common thread in all these stories is that the people God kills are incorrigibly evil. They're a scourge to humanity.

 They commit murder, rape, child abuse, enslavement, cruelest tyranny, random beatings—you name the atrocity, they're committing it. And they're not changing their ways. They're committed to doing the wrong thing even after multiple warnings and chances to improve. These are the reprobate types Paul refers to in Romans 1—people who know they're doing evil, and delight in it. They hate God, they murder, they violate every innocence and trust. And for God, when things get bad enough, there's just nothing else to do with them but say goodbye.

I've been going somewhere with this. And where I've been going is toward a pitch to God himself, right here, live on SteynOnline. It's Stage One of what I hope will be a fruitful negotiation. (After all, when it comes to negotiating with God, Abraham did it. So did Moses. And Hezekiah. I might as well give it a go).

Here goes:

Hello, God.

I'm just going to come right out and say it: How about a comeback tour?

You fried the sickos in Sodom and Gomorrah. You drowned all those Egyptian slavers. You even wiped out the entire population of the earth, minus Noah and his family. So how about you help us out right now with a special new demographic reset?

I use the word "reset" on purpose. You see, I want to propose you begin your comeback tour by focusing on all the control freak politicians and bureaucrats who exploited a global panic (which they themselves had cynically manufactured) in order to effect a "Great Reset". These people make Max Robespierre look like Russell Kirk in a coma. They are—even as I type this—still busying themselves trying to destroy every single salutary aspect of human life and community. And while they've done all their damage in the name of public health, they're actually doing it all in service to themselves. For in their false, pagan morality—the kind you always used to say you hated —they are the gods. Not you. They are the ones who will improve us, heal us, bless us, save us. Not you. They are the ones who will rule heaven and earth. Not you. And their moral code, such as it is, is a putrescent stew of all the most noxious, even demonic, ideas imaginable. I can send you a detailed list in a follow-up note, if you'd like.

In any case, the price these control freaks are now extracting for the patronizing, self-serving, technocratic megalomaniac globalist totalitarian "beneficence" we never asked them for, and don't want, and which they're imposing on us against our will, is our sovereignty, our most basic freedoms, our humanity, our families, our traditions, our beliefs, our obligations, our identities, our nations, our allegiance, our worship. In short, these people are your enemies. And ours. We're in this together, God. We're on the same team.

These are the people, by the way, who are still pushing an injection—including to small children and pregnant women—who we (and they) know is nowhere near as safe or effective as they say. It is harming people. And it was Paul who told us that our bodies are the temple of God. Remember? He said, "your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God". And then he made a promise in your name: "If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are."

"God will destroy him". That's a big call. I'm going to assume Paul wrote that with your permission. I therefore respectfully suggest you make good on that. You have to. A deal's a deal. You have to stop these people, just like you did in the old days.

If that's not enough to convince you, God, consider this:
Jesus said the truth would make us free. He also said the father of all lies, the "deceiver of the whole world", was the devil. But now recall the great resetters consistently lied about those injections, censoring accurate information we deserved in order to make a proper risk/reward calculation for ourselves. Many of us might well have needlessly damaged ourselves and our children—needlessly polluted the temples you gave us—because these would-be gods abused our trust, lied to us, and even forced untested material into our bodies. They also lied about every single other aspect of the whole thing: where the virus came from, how lethal it was, what would protect us, what wouldn't, and more. They perpetrated the biggest propaganda fraud in history, to our great physical, emotional, spiritual detriment.

These are the people who, for months, used the strong arm of the state to incarcerate us. They punished us just for leaving our homes to attend a funeral, or wedding, or visit an elderly loved one (many of whom they forced into isolation).

Yet they happily permitted "social justice" protests to occur. They even let rioters riot (that is, they let rioters pay violent tribute to the malevolent gods Naomi Wolf mentions here). But in addition to everything else, they forbid us, under pain of fine and imprisonment, to let us congregate to worship you, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Ancient of Days, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They wouldn't even permit us to get together to sing a few hymns to you. And so far, they've gotten away with it all scot-free.

That's gotta upset you. Seriously. You have to be able to feel that.

I could list many more of the most tyrannical, unconscionable impositions. But I'm going to pause here, and just say, once again, that now would be a great time for you to do a comeback tour. Boy, would it ever. These people wanted a Great Reset. How about you "great reset" them all into, shall we say, "outer darkness"? I don't really care what you do with them (if you catch my drift) as long as we never have to see them, hear them, or be tyrannized by them ever again.

You've done it before, God. Those who hate you fault you for the selective, well-warranted demographic pruning you used to do back in the old days. But I don't fault you. Most of the people reading this don't, either. You just did what you needed to do for justice to prevail.

Maybe it's time for justice to prevail again. I reckon that means a 2023 tour. The sooner, the better.

Just a thought. And a sincere hope. Amen.

https://www.steynonline.com/13318/tal-bachman-dear-old-testament-god-maybe-it-time

*********** Coach -

The answer to your quiz is the great Byron “Whizzer” White who had an extraordinary life.

Love “The News”……it’s can’t miss reading.

Thanks for all you do, coach.

Joe Bremer
West Seneca, New York


*********** One of my all-time favorites, Byron "Whizzer" White. I suppose most youth today have never heard of him. The one in a thousand who has might see Walter White as a cooler guy than Byron White. Whizzer ought to be mentioned in every HS Civics (or whatever) class.

But Bill Walton's cooler than either White, right? In his own mind probably, but not in mine. If he's on the screen, I'm gone.

Bud Grant. I'll forever see him as a special man.

I miss Jack Ramsay. Wonder if he and Bill Walton were biking partners? The Coach's only problem was that no one could ever mention his name without adding 'Doctor'. I didn't mind it in the Ramsay case, but 'Doctor' Jill has ruined that entire category.


John Vermillion                    
St Petersburg, FL


PS: Glad you printed the additional story about Vai "Via Tonga" Sikahema. We should never get enough of watching people who make the most of their gifts.

The last Zoom was particularly good. Motion is lotion.

I occasionally need to mention that John Vermillion, West Point-educated and Vietnam-hardened, is a prolific writer, author of more than a dozen novels.  His latest series - and his latest novel, “Bad Roads” - are set in the area of the country where he grew up, in the coalfields of Appalachia. I wonder how many  places can make this claim:  His home town - Big Stone Gap, Virginia (the blue star) - is closer to eight state capitals than to its own state capital, Richmond.  





https://www.amazon.com/stores/John-M.-Vermillion/author/B00JGC4FSG?ref=ap_rdr&store_ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true



***********   Hugh,

Gotta wonder why Haslett would want to kill the QB.  Does Haslett call the plays?  Or does his OC call the plays?  In the XFL the QB and all the skill guys have wired helmets and get all the play calls from the sideline/press box.  Hmmm.

When the Rams were in St. Louis there were times they only had 40,000 in attendance.  The XFL team seems to be doing ok!  As far as DC is concerned those end zone crazies have made it worthwhile.  But then again, you have to be crazy to live in DC in the first place.

With all the nonsense surrounding the Portland area I'm surprised that you and Connie don't spend more time in Ocean Shores!

Nothing surprises me anymore when it comes to Harvard or Yale, or Stanford and Cal.

Bud Grant.  Met him on a couple of occasions when I worked in Minneapolis.  He and his son Mike (who is the HC at Eden Prairie HS just outside of Bloomington) have been football icons in the Twin Cities for many years.  RIP Bud.

Wish I had Finns as my friends!  They sound like my kind of people.

IMHO for an OG you're still OKG by me!

Bill Walton has always been the south end of a north bound horse.


Have a great week!

Joe Gutilla
Austin, Texas




 

*********** QUIZ ANSWER: Byron White was a multi-sport star at a small high school in a small town in Northern Colorado and was the valedictorian of his class.  His parents had never finished college, but he was awarded a state scholarship to the University of Colorado.

As a 17-year-old freshman at Colorado, he was given an alliterative nickname - “Whizzer” - that he was never comfortable with, but one which followed him through a long, distinguished career that went well beyond football.

At CU  he earned a total of 10 letters in football, basketball and baseball, and in 1937, his senior year, he set NCAA records for rushing yards (1,121) and scoring (122 points on 13 touchdowns, 19 PATs and a field goal) - records that lasted until the NCAA expanded the regular season from eight games to 11.

He was the MVP of the Cotton Bowl, and was runner-up to Yale’s Clint Frank in the third-ever Heisman Trophy balloting.

With the fourth pick in the 1938 NFL Draft, the Pittsburgh Pirates (they were not yet the Steelers) chose him, and to the great consternation of other teams, offered him a one-year contract for $15,000 “three times the going rate,” in the words of Dan Rooney, the son of the team’s owner.  He turned down the offer, but when the team came back with an offer of $15,800, he signed,  making  him the highest-paid player in the NFL.

He had already been awarded a Rhodes Scholarship for study at Oxford University in England, but he was able to persuade the people at Oxford to delay his enrollment, and in his rookie season - his only season in Pittsburgh - as their starting single wing tailback he carried 152 times for 567 yards and four touchdowns.

After just the one season, he was off to study at Oxford.  He stayed there just one year, returning to the US after war broke out in Europe, and played two seasons with the Detroit Lions.   In that time, he rushed for 754 yards on 235 attempts, and despite the year off, led the NFL in rushing in 1940,  with 514 yards and seven touchdowns.   He also threw for 799 yards and two touchdowns.

At 24, having led the NFL in rushing yards two of the last three seasons, he left football to   serve in the Navy in World War II.

He  was stationed in the Pacific and earned two Bronze Stars, and after the war ended, he was honorably discharged with the rank of lieutenant commander and entered Yale Law School,  eventually graduating first in his class.

After serving  as a clerk for Supreme Court Justice Fred M. Vinson, he left Washington for Colorado to begin a career as a lawyer.

In 1960, he worked for the presidential campaign of John F. Kennedy, whom he’d met earlier during his time in England, and after Kennedy’s election,  he was named United States Deputy Attorney General.

In 1962, he was appointed by Kennedy to the U.S. Supreme Court, where he spent 31 years, becoming the fourth longest-serving Justice of the 20th century and the 12th longest of all time.

Modest and self-effacing,  he did not enjoy the limelight, and  especially shunned the nickname he was given as a college freshman.

The story goes that not long after he had been appointed Deputy Attorney General  a waitress came over to him in a D.C. restaurant and asked if he was Whizzer White.

His reply? “I was.”

His pro career was short, but as Dan Rooney wrote in his memoirs,  “Whizzer White was a gentleman, a scholar and one of the greatest athletes I’ve ever seen.”



CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING BYRON “WHIZZER” WHITE

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
TOM DAVIS - SAN CARLOS, CALIFORNIA
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
RODNEY LUNSFORD - WESTFIELD, INDIANA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOE BREMER - WEST SENECA, NEW YORK
JOE GUTILLA - AUSTIN, TEXAS
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY 




*********** QUIZ:  Despite an outstanding college career at Tulsa - 51 catches for 1,000 yards and 14 touchdowns his senior season -  he wasn’t drafted until the forth round by the Houston Oilers. And then, after four preseason games, he was traded to the expansion Seattle Seahawks - for an eighth round pick.

He would make the Seahawks and play with them for 14 seasons. Not especially fast, he had great hands and ran great routes.

In the course of his career, he was selected to play in seven Pro Bowls, and was the first Seahawk to be so honored.

He twice led the NFL in receiving yards, and when he retired, he held all NFL receiving records.

For his career he had 819 receptions for 13,089 yards, and 100 touchdowns. (He was the first player in NFL history to catch 100 touchdown passes.)

In 1988 he was named NFL Man of the Year.

He is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

He is on the NFL’s 1980s All-Decade team, and on the NFL’s 100th Anniversary All-Time Team.

His #80 was the first number retired by the Seahawks, but with his approval it was “unretired” briefly when the team signed Jerry Rice, who had idolized him when he was younger.

After retirement he became active in Oklahoma politics.  A conservative Republican, he served four terms in the US House of Representatives, and narrowly lost a run for governor in 2002.



TUESDAY,  MARCH 14,  2023 -  "The fractious, know-nothing thirty-year-old is what we got when we let the twelve-year-old drop his books and take up the screen.”   Stanley Fish, Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law at Yeshiva University

*********** The last time I remember a coach threatening to kill anyone was back when Temple basketball coach John Chaney went after John Calipari in a post-game press conference, saying, “I’ll kill you.”

That was 1994, almost 30 years ago.

But after a game this past Saturday night, I saw Seattle Sea Dragons (that would be XFL) coach Jim Haslett point to his quarterback, Ben DiNucci and say, very deliberately, “I’m going to kill you.”

Now, first of all, I don’t for a minute think that he was actually planning on killing his quarterback (not with another  game coming up on Thursday night and so little time to get another QB ready).

But on the other hand, after what I’d just seen…

Seattle was leading, 15-6. They had the ball on San Antonio’s 45 yard line, with 1:51 left to play.

It was second and seven.   San Antonio had three timeouts remaining.

Then,  for some reason, DiNucci dropped back - and threw.  Threw the damn thing!   And damned if the ball wasn’t intercepted  at the 20.

San Antonio now had the ball with 1:44 left and three timeouts.

Fortunately for Seattle - and probably DiNucci - they did manage to shut off any San Antonio threat and win their second straight game.

Following the game, Haslett, asked to comment on the interception, said, “That throw he made was bullcrap.”

Okay. No disagreement from me on that.

But  then - the TV people found another  shot of Haslett, being interviewed.  Noticing DiNucci standing off to the side, Haslett turned away from the interviewer and, pointing at his quarterback, very matter-of-factly said what I heard him say.

(Just in case Ben DiNucci  should turn up missing.)


*********** They said that the crowd in Seattle’s Lumen Field Saturday night was “Fifteen thousand strong.”  I don’t believe them.

On the other hand, when they said there were 38,310 on hand in St. Louis, I did believe them.  It was a big crowd and an enthusiastic one
 

*********** I’ve noted that he’s not a Sunday School teacher, but Seattle running back Morgan Ellison  may be the best NFL prospect in the XFL.



 

*********** This is too easy, but just for the hell of it - See if you can guess which QB fumbled the first snap of the game Sunday night  when the ball arrived down around his knees… and which one would have had no problem.


*********** Considering the number of people who’ll share with you the most minute details of their lives on Facebook, I found it weird to keep hearing - over and over - that Kansas basketball coach Bill Self had had a “medical procedure.”


*********** The NCAA Football Rules Committee, under some pressure to  shorten the  college games, is about to recommend some rules changes.

What’s almost comical is that some of the changes will result in fewer plays per game, which really excites the rules people because with fewer plays there will be fewer chances for injury.

Pure genius.  A shorter game is a safer game.  I never thought of that.  Should I suggest twelve-minute quarters?


*********** Clark County,  Washington, in the southwest corner of the state, is one of the fastest-growing areas in the West, mainly because of its access to Portland, Oregon, just across the Columbia River.

Clark County’s population was just under 200,000 people when we first arrived here in 1975; now, it’s over 520,000.

When we first moved here, Clark County had ten public high schools.  Five of them were decent-sized suburban-type schools, and the other five served smaller towns.  In the time since we’ve lived here, there have been five more large suburban-type schools built to handle the growth, and the schools that once served those small towns have all grown considerably as their towns have.

As one example, our town, Camas, had 6,800 people when we moved here in 1989. Today, it’s 27,054. 

No part of the county has grown faster than the land between us (Camas) and the city of Vancouver, and that area, much of it unincorporated, has been served by one school district, the Evergreen School District.  Evergreen now has 23,000 students overall. When we first arrived here, Evergreen had one large high school - now it has four.

That’s all background before I get to the main point - Evergreen is something like $19 million in the hole, and evidently to show the public that it’s serious about making cuts, it announced this past week that it was eliminating the position of Athletics Director at all four of its high schools.

First of all, it could cost the district some very good coaches. Two of the four AD positions are currently held by head varsity football coaches.

Yes, the claimed savings of some $700,000 are impressive, but they scarcely make a dent in the $19 million the district needs to be saved.

And I question whether the people who made this decision really understand the amount of legal exposure they're taking on.

At many schools the good judgment of an experienced AD is often the only thing that stands  between the school district and a disastrous lawsuit.

Evidently there’s a belief that the AD’s responsibilities can be shared by other administrators, but it’s been my experience that no generic school administrator, inexperienced and untrained in the multifaceted areas that an AD has to deal with, is going to step into a real AD’s shoes without great risk to the school district.

I’ll be surprised if the district’s insurers don’t take note of this.



*********** The women’s hockey coach at Harvard is in some deep ordure over some aspects of her program that sound a bit like hazing  - for example, a “naked skate,” in which the players, attired only in skates, slid Pete Rose-style along the ice, is alleged to have left some of them with bleeding nipples (I am not making this up).

And then, there’s racial (or cultural) insensitivity.  At Harvard, yet.

One player, a Canadian, was said to be so deeply offended by hearing the coach say something about the team’s having “too many chiefs and not enough Indians” that she quit the team.

To that young Canadian woman, a member of what Canadians refer to as a “First Nation,” hearing the word “Indian”  may have been as offensive to her ears as the “N-word” would be to an American black, and  in addition, she said that the coach was looking at her as she said it.


Hey, coach - next time (if there is one) try “too many captains and not enough sailors.”



*********** Bud Grant - the GREAT Bud Grant - has died at 95.

There is so much that can be said about the man. What hasn’t been said?

To me, it’s enough to say that he was a man’s man. 

As a coach,  I think he would have been great in any era of football.

Interestingly, I always thought of him as an older guy, and yet he was only 56 when he retired.

And, yes, Colin Kaepernick, you could have played for him - but you’d have had to practice standing for the national anthem just like the rest of your teammates.

Read all you can, both by and about him.  He was a real man.

I’VE COMPILED  FEW INTERESTING YOUTUBE PIECES ON BUD GRANT…

HIS VIKINGS OWNED THE FROZEN TUNDRA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPH4Oayq7Ss

NFL FILMS ON BUD GRANT:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbdMp_ldHCQ

THE MAKING OF A LEGEND:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VFbS7mfHLg

THE MISSING RINGS- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UMVy0-ZjPc

THE GARAGE SALE - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSK-_f5us2A

STEVE SABOL VISITS BUD GRANT - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfMagMsXY8I

BUD’S RETIREMENT ANNOUNCEMENT - 1984 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVA6FnRXmsg

***********    I  spent seven football seasons in Finland, two of them in central Finland (Keski-Suomi) in the city of Jyväskylã, one in Helsinki, and four in an  area of southeast Finland  known as the Kymenlaakso, in the city of Hamina.

 I’ve been in every part of the country, and in nearly every city of any size,  and  if there is a more honest, more trustworthy people anywhere in the world than the Finns, I would be shocked.

Several years ago, reporters from Readers’ Digest “lost” 12 wallets each in 16 cities around the world (192 wallets in all).


In each, they put a name with a cellphone number, a family photo, coupons, and business cards, plus the equivalent of $50. Then they  “dropped” 12 wallets in each of the 16 cities selected, leaving them in parks, near shopping malls, and on sidewalks. Then they watched to see what would happen.

I could have saved them all the trouble.

No surprise to me at all, the winner was Helsinki,  where 11 of the 12 “lost” wallets were returned.  (When I told my wife about this, she was shocked, and immediately surmised that the lone unreturned wallet had probably been found by Russian tourists.)


https://www.rd.com/list/most-honest-cities-lost-wallet-test/


*********** The first time I saw the abbreviation “OKG” was at Chris Peterson’s first University of Washington spring clinic.  I doubt that Coach Peterson was the first coach ever to use the initials, but I liked it because OKG - “Our Kind of Guy” - has always been a major thing I’ve looked for in a player, and I liked seeing Coach Peterson unabashedly admit that even at the highest level of college football it was crucial to him, too.

Since then I’ve seen it used quite a bit, and I applaud coaches who are right up front about looking for good character in their people.

But lately, as Diversity-Equity-Inclusion work their way into every aspect of our lives, I have to wonder - isn’t “Our Kind of Guy” a bit, er, “gender-specific?”


*********** Full disclosure - I have never been a Bill Walton fan.   At his best,  leading the Portland Trail Blazers to their only NBA title in 1977,  he was a hell of a basketball player.  But from the time John Wooden had to deal with his ego at UCLA, he’s always been one sorry-ass human being.

He grew up with a stammer - I recall hearing him struggle with speaking back when he played for the Blazers - and I suspect that as a result of his having dealt successfully with his speech impediment over the years, he has developed an almost narcissistic love of listening to himself talk.

Combine that with the arrogance of a know-it-all,  an enormous sense of entitlement,  and a firm conviction that he is just plain better than you and me  in the first place - and you’ve got yourself a first-rate bore.

It should come as no surprise that all those factors might on occasion combine to get him in a bit of trouble.    So it was that in his  Pac-12 Tournament broadcast Thursday night, he used the word “midget.”  Twice.  And in a derogatory sense at that.  You can’t do that, even when you’re 6-11, like Walton.   (Or 5-11, like me.)

ESPN college basketball analyst Bill Walton has become well known for his colorful commentary, but some think he went too far Thursday night.

During halftime of Arizona State's 77-72 win over USC, Walton used the term "midget" twice when discussing the in-game host in the arena and his broadcast partner.

"He does not need a little chair, because he is a giant in a world of shriveling midgets. And speaking of shriveling midgets, what was your name again?" he asked play-by-play announcer Dave Pasch.

"What's wrong with you," Pasch replied, later adding he wasn't sure "what you consumed at halftime.”

The Little People of America, a nonprofit organization "that provides support and information to people of short stature and their families," caught wind of Walton's language and was not happy with what it heard.

"Those who use the term midget or any terminology that further stigmatizes people born with dwarfism are asked to educate themselves to eradicate this word," the organization said in a statement to TMZ Sports, adding that it was "deplorable and inexcusable.”

The organization added it wants the former NBA player to apologize and not use the word again. It also challenged Pasch to "speak up.”

"Little People of America is asking Bill Walton to issue an apology and vow to use appropriate terminology rooted in respect and dignity going forward," the organization said. "We hope that in the future Dave Pasch will speak up against disparaging language in solidarity with our organization fighting for disability equity and justice.”

Being 6-11 evidently endowed Walton with a sense of his superiority, because he was known to call his Trail Blazers’ teammate, 6-foot-1 guard Dave Twardzik,  “Little F—k.”   I’m not sure whether that’s better or worse than “midget,” but Twardzik could have made the world a better place for us all if he’d  smacked Walton in the f—king mouth the first time he heard him say it.

https://www.foxnews.com/sports/bill-walton-facing-backlash-deplorable-inexcusable-use-derogatory-term-dwarves


*********** I was doing a little bit of research into former NBA player Dave Twardzik  and I came across a great “Where is He Now” article about him, written by longtime Portland sportswriter Kerry Eggers.

One passage about Twardzik and the great Jack Ramsay seemed especially  appropriate to a Web site devoted to coaching:

For four years, Twardzik served as the Blazers’ director of community relations, speaking and making appearances in addition to his radio duties. In 1984-85, he switched to the club’s marketing department and stayed there two years. When Ramsay was fired after the 1985-86 season and got hired to coach the Indiana Pacers, Twardzik went with him as an assistant coach.

“Kathe and I thought we would never leave Portland, we loved it so much,” he says. “But Jack says, ‘David, would you consider coming on the bench with me?’ I thought the world of Jack. I said, ‘If you’d asked me five years ago, no way. But being around the Blazers and getting the chance to analyze the game … I would love to.”

Once Twardzik arrived in Indianapolis, Ramsay had a sit-down with him.

“I want to tell you a couple of things,” Ramsay said. “One, always have an offseason home away from the city where you’re coaching. The second thing is, you’re going to get fired.”

“I said, ‘Jack, I just took this job two minutes ago,’ ” Twardzik says. “He said, ‘If you’re in it long enough, it will happen.’ And I was thinking, ‘Maybe this isn’t the career path I want to take.’ ”

https://www.kerryeggers.com/stories/pros-vs-joes-no-11-at-71-twardzik-is-still-calling-games-and-having-fun-doing-it-at-his-alma-mater?rq=twardzik


***********   Hugh,

I had the pleasure of attending a game at Harvard Stadium.  One of my former players got recruited by Holy Cross, and when I found out they would be playing Harvard (my wife worked for a major airline at the time) we hopped a flight to Boston to see him play.  To sit on the concrete bleachers in that venerable old stadium, and to watch one of my former players play there, was bucket list stuff.

I confess.  I've watched FX.  Mostly for movies, but now for watching a little football.

There have been many college football coaches who have missed out on "short" QB's who went on to fame and fortune.  One in particular was from right here in Austin.  Although he put up huge numbers at Westlake HS his height was called into question as to whether he would be able to do the same at a big-time college.  He listed himself at 6'0 tall, but likely closer to 5'11.  Despite his lofty numbers in high school no DI schools in Texas offered him.  He only received two DI offers, Kentucky and Purdue, and he chose Purdue.

His name...Drew Brees.

Others:  Davey O'Brien, Eddie LeBaron, Doug Flutie, Kyler Murray, Russell Wilson, Sonny Jurgensen, Len Dawson, Fran Tarkenton, Billy Kilmer, Joe Theismann, and Baker Mayfield.  There are more.

Glad to hear both you and Connie are recovering.  Enjoy the weekend!

Joe Gutilla
Austin, Texas







Frank Reich, Sr. closing in on Navy’s All-American QB, George Welsh



 
Frank Reich, Sr.  with head coach Rip Engle.



Frank Reich, Senior's  Penn State publicity photo




Frank Reich, , Senior and Junior,  shortly before Dad’s passing


*********** QUIZ ANSWER: Frank Reich, Sr. grew up in Steelton, Pennsylvania.  His father - a steelworker, naturally - never missed a day of work to sickness in 47 years on the job.  At  Penn State,  Frank Reich was a two-way player (center and linebacker) and co-captain of the 1954 Nittany Lions team, which earned a Number 16 ranking nationally and featured future pro stars Rosey Grier and Lenny Moore.

Following his senior season,  Frank Reich played in the East-West Shrine game, and although he was drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles, he was called instead to serve with the Marines in Korea.   On his return to the states, he embarked on a 30-year career as an industrial arts teacher and football coach in Lebanon, Pennsylvania.

His son - Frank Reich, Jr.  was 11 or 12  when he was rummaging through his parents’ things and came across some scrapbooks recalling the dad’s feats at Penn State.  His dad’s athletic feats had come as a compete surprise to young Frank: “After he got done whipping my butt for what I did, he said, ‘Frank, I never wanted you to  feel pressure that you had to play football.  If you want to play in the band, you be the best band member you can be.’”

When Frank, Jr.  entered high school - at Lebanon’s crosstown rival, Cedar Crest - Dad retired from coaching, both to enjoy watching his son play, and to avoid any issues of having to coach against his own son.

Frank, Jr., meanwhile, had an excellent high school career and wound up going to Maryland, and although he spent his career as a backup to Boomer Esiason, he did engineer one of the greatest comebacks in college football history when he led the Terps from a 31-0 halfback deficit at Miami to a 42-40 win.

In the NFL, Frank  had a solid 13-year career, most of it spent as a backup to Jim Kelly in Buffalo. The Bills’ GM called him “the greatest backup quarterback in NFL history.”

He also engineered  a famous comeback in the NFL. With the Bills trailing the Houston Oilers 35-3 early in the third quarter, he took them to a 41-38 overtime win, at the time  the greasest comeback in NFL history.

Frank Reich, Jr. is now an NFL head coach.  As offensive coordinator for the Eagles, the team that once drafted his dad, he helped them win their first-ever Super Bowl title following the 2017 season.

Reflecting on his upbringing, he says, “When I see parents today and how crazy they are with youth sports and the pressure, it makes me sick. I just had a different kind of experience. I would argue my experience allowed me to excel even further because I didn't have that pressure."



CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING FRANK REICH - SENIOR AND JUNIOR

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
TOM DAVIS - SAN CARLOS, CALIFORNIA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - AUSTIN, TEXAS
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY


***********   Hugh

We get the Colts coaches show on Saturday nights during the NFL season.

I  heard him discuss his father and his influence on his life.

See you at the next meeting.

David Crump
Owensboro, Kentucky




 

*********** QUIZ: He was a multi-sport star at a small high school in a small town in Northern Colorado and was the valedictorian of his class.  His parents had never finished college, but he was awarded a state scholarship to the University of Colorado.

As a 17-year-old freshman at Colorado, he was given an alliterative nickname that he was never comfortable with, but one which followed him through a long, distinguished career that went well beyond football.

At CU  he earned a total of 10 letters in football, basketball and baseball, and in 1937, his senior year, he set NCAA records for rushing yards (1,121) and scoring (122 points on 13 touchdowns, 19 PATs and a field goal) - records that lasted until the NCAA expanded the regular season from eight games to 11.

He was the MVP of the Cotton Bowl, and was runner-up to Yale’s Clint Frank in the third-ever Heisman Trophy balloting.

With the fourth pick in the 1938 NFL Draft, the Pittsburgh Pirates (they were not yet the Steelers) chose him, and to the great consternation of other teams, offered him a one-year contract for $15,000 “three times the going rate,” in the words of Dan Rooney, the son of the team’s owner.  He turned down the offer, but when the team came back with an offer of $15,800, he signed,  making  him the highest-paid player in the NFL.

He had already been awarded a Rhodes Scholarship for study at Oxford University in England, but he was able to persuade the people at Oxford to delay his enrollment, and in his rookie season - his only season in Pittsburgh - as their starting single wing tailback he carried 152 times for 567 yards and four touchdowns.

After just the one season, he was off to study at Oxford.  He stayed there just one year, returning to the US after war broke out in Europe, and played two seasons with the Detroit Lions.   In that time, he rushed for 754 yards on 235 attempts, and despite the year off, led the NFL in rushing in 1940,  with 514 yards and seven touchdowns.   He also threw for 799 yards and two touchdowns.

At 24, having led the NFL in rushing yards two of the last three seasons, he left football to  serve in the Navy in World War II.

He  was stationed in the Pacific and earned two Bronze Stars, and after the war ended, he was honorably discharged with the rank of lieutenant commander and entered Yale Law School,  eventually graduating first in his class.

After serving  as a clerk for Supreme Court Justice Fred M. Vinson, he left Washington for Colorado and began  a career as a lawyer.

In 1960, he worked for the presidential campaign of John F. Kennedy, whom he’d met earlier during his time in England, and after Kennedy’s election,  he was named United States Deputy Attorney General.

In 1962, he was appointed by Kennedy to the U.S. Supreme Court, where he spent 31 years, becoming the fourth longest-serving Justice of the 20th century and the 12th longest of all time.

Modest and self-effacing,  he did not enjoy the limelight, and  especially shunned the nickname he was given as a college freshman.

The story goes that not long after he had been appointed Deputy Attorney General,  a waitress came over to him in a D.C. restaurant and asked if he was (“Nickname.”)

His reply? “I was.”

His pro career was short, but as Dan Rooney wrote in his memoirs,  “(He) was a gentleman, a scholar and one of the greatest athletes I’ve ever seen.”



FRIDAY,  MARCH 10,  2023 -  "The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.”  Winston Churchill

*********** On Wednesday night, I did something I seldom do - watched an entire college basketball game. It was Stanford  against Utah, and with only one player on either team with a visible tattoo, I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the spectacle.  (You’d think a school as wealthy as Stanford could afford to provide full-sleeve tattoos for any needy players.)


*********** After three weeks of XFL football, I think I can spot a trend in average viewership:

Week One: 1,300,000

Week Two: 665,000

Week Three: 571,500

In fairness, the Week One games were on either ABC or ESPN, while this past week (week three) three of the games were on FX.  Quick - raise your hand if you’ve ever watched anything on FX.  (In  fact, raise it if you even know whether you can get FX.)


*********** This weekend’s XFL games:

SATURDAY, 7 PM EST - FX - HOUSTON AT ORLANDO

SATURDAY, 10 PM EST - FX - SAN ANTONIO AT SEATTLE

SUNDAY, 4 PM EST - ESPN2 - ARLINGTON AT ST LOUIS

SUNDAY, 7 PM EST - ESPN2 - VEGAS AT DC



*********** My next football book… Very hard to find… It's self-explanatory - letters written to Coach Paterno by his many former captains...
 




***********   Hi Hugh.

Hope you and Connie are feeling better! No fun being under the weather.
I always enjoy the clinics and still get excited about seeing those DW clips.  Now I am a dinosaur but even today with marginal talent I could put a competitive team on the field running the Double Wing Offense. Executing a few plays well, understanding how to call the concepts during a game, and working on the details would be a winning formula even running two tight ends and two wings.

Stay the course and look forward to seeing the replay in two weeks!

Get well!
Jack Tourtillotte
Rangeley, Maine

Dear Fellow Dinosaur-

Yes, you definitely could win with a marginally talented bunch - and the reason would be (1) The Double Wing and the philosophy that it requires, and (2) as a principal and a teacher, you’d understand the importance of all the off-the-field stuff that most of today’s younger coaches can’t be bothered with!

Every day we get a little better!

Love to Susan.


***********  "Let me say this to you about Joe Biden, in my opinion, and I'm going to be very, very direct: he thinks he's the smartest guy in the room.  If that's the case, we're really in trouble, because the American people are a lot smarter than that."    Ken Langone, co-founder of The Home Depot


***********  After losing hundreds of players to serious injuries and some to death, President Theodore Roosevelt, a member of the Harvard Class of 1880, organized the Intercollegiate Football Conference in 1906, the predecessor of the NCAA. The conference instituted a new set of rules, requiring fields to be 40 yards wider. Harvard objected to this rule because of the size of its stadium. In turn, the committee instead ordained the forward pass – the throwing of the ball towards the defensive team’s goal line. Without Harvard Stadium, the sport of football would not be the same, as it influenced the standardization of field dimensions and the installation of the forward pass.

https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2022/11/18/fb-2022-harvard-yale-stadium/



 
*********** In 1914, the Yale Bowl was completed.  With a capacity of over 70,000 it was the largest stadium in the world, and it was built at a cost of $750,000.  (In today’s dollars, that would work out to about $20,300,000.)

Just think - that’s almost as much as the $22 million that the South Florida trustees just committed  for a new on-campus football stadium.  For the design of it, that is.

What -  you thought you could get a stadium built for a lousy $22 million?

https://www.wtsp.com/article/news/local/hillsboroughcounty/usf-football-stadium-design-approval-board-of-trustees/67-94bde696-d70b-4a5d-9798-fa5eb6becaa6


*********** A really interesting take in The Athletic on Wake Forest’s success with quarterbacks.  A major reason: minimal staff turnover.  But another factor - they aren’t hung up on a quarterback’s size.

Early in his career as a backup quarterback at Wake Forest, Mitch Griffis called home for the first time to talk ball with his father.

Griffis, a three-star prospect in the Class of 2020, set school records for passing yards and total offense at Broad Run High in Ashburn, Va. He threw for 3,000-plus yards and 40 touchdowns as a senior. His father, Matt, was Broad Run’s head coach.

“When he first got (to Wake Forest), I was like, ‘Please, tell me. What are you learning?’” Matt Griffis said last week. “I just want to soak it up because they do such innovative stuff offensively, and it’s cutting edge and really sophisticated stuff.

“I’m a football junkie. So I’m like, ‘Please, tell me.’”

The elder Griffis, who still talks X’s and O’s with his son regularly, knew he couldn’t fully duplicate Wake Forest’s innovative offense at the high school level. The Demon Deacons’ famous Slow Mesh is too much to ask of a prep-level offensive line.

But before stepping down prior to the 2022 season to spend more time with his family, Matt Griffis borrowed certain concepts from Wake Forest — especially when it came to how the Demon Deacons quarterbacks process information and see the field.

Who could blame him?

Coach Dave Clawson is the first to acknowledge the Demon Deacons don’t typically land the big-time, flashy quarterback prospects with double-digit Power 5 offers. But under Clawson and offensive coordinator Warren Ruggiero — who have been together since 2009, dating back to their Bowling Green days — the Demon Deacons have put on a master class in terms of developing quarterbacks, something they do as well as any program in the country.

And they’ve done it their way.

It started with John Wolford, a three-star in the Class of 2014 whose first Power 5 offer came from Wake Forest. As a senior in 2017, Wolford threw for 3,192 yards and 29 touchdowns — both school records at the time — before signing with the New York Jets as an undrafted free agent in 2018.

Then came Jamie Newman in the Class of 2016 and Sam Hartman in the Class of 2018, both also three-stars. Newman’s 286.8 yards of offense per game ranked second in the ACC in 2019 before he transferred to Georgia, where he eventually opted out of the 2020 pandemic season. He now plays in the Canadian Football League. Hartman, the most decorated quarterback in school history, just transferred to Notre Dame. Not bad for a trio who ranked No. 937 (Wolford), No. 649 (Newman) and No. 767 (Hartman) nationally in the 247Sports Composite.

“If you think about it, every quarterback we’ve had here has really played professionally,” Clawson said. “John Wolford is still with the (Los Angeles) Rams. I really believe that if Jamie Newman had stayed here one more year … he would have been probably at least a Day 2 draft pick. And Sam Hartman is getting paid to play football.

“So everyone that we’ve brought here has developed. I think we have a pretty good track record. And I think Mitch Griffis will be the next one that we feel really good about.”

Like most programs, Wake Forest has a set of must-have qualities in any quarterback.

When the Demon Deacons went through the recruiting process with Griffis, they evaluated him for 10 months before extending an offer. Arm strength, accuracy and athleticism are all toward the top of their list. So are competitiveness and decision-making.

But when Ruggiero hits the recruiting trail, there’s one trait Wake Forest is willing — and able — to look past. And it’s been the difference between the way Wake Forest and its competitors have approached the recruiting process.

“We’re not beating Clemson and Alabama and Georgia for a lot of quarterbacks — or Ohio State,” Clawson said. “And so sometimes you say, ‘OK, what are you willing to sacrifice?’ And the one thing that we’ve been willing to sacrifice is height.

“A lot of times, you’ve got these 6-4, 6-5, 6-3 guys that have all those qualities, and those are the guys that we probably are not gonna end up getting. Especially the way that that position is being paid through name, image (and) likeness.”

At 6 feet 3 and 219 pounds during the recruiting process, Newman was Wake Forest’s lone exception.

But Wolford, on the other hand, was 6 feet — maybe. Hartman is barely over 6 feet. Griffis, Wake Forest’s presumed starter in 2023, is 5-11. And Jeremy Hecklinski, a three-star commit in the Class of 2024, is 6-1.

“I think they’re looking for guys who can do the Slow Mesh and sit in there with the RPO,” Hecklinski said. “I don’t really think it’s more about the height factors as much as it is just to make the throws. A lot of these people that are 6-1, 6 foot, can make the throws but just don’t have the height to play for teams that are gonna take 6-5 guys. But Ruggiero and Clawson are different.”


Wake Forest first started running the Slow Mesh in 2017 with Wolford after the WakeyLeaks scandal forced coaches to develop a new system. The Demon Deacons use the RPO game to open throwing lanes. And thanks to the Slow Mesh, Clawson said, sightlines are available for quarterbacks as pass-rush lanes develop.

As such, Wake Forest isn’t asking its quarterbacks to throw over defensive linemen. Instead of max protection, seven-step drops and isolating receivers to heave the ball downfield, Wake’s system is more about quarterbacks understanding coverages, progressions, route concepts and space on the field. When quarterbacks take official visits to campus, the coaching staff hops on the whiteboard to talk ball with them.

They have to be curious and passionate. They need to be instinctual and studious. They must be able to process. But they don’t have to be tall.

“Whether a quarterback is 6-4 or he’s 5-4, they’re still not gonna throw over a 6-6 offensive tackle or a 6-5 offensive guard,” Elite 11 director Brian Stumpf said. “The way that system works, it even allows additional lanes to create or develop. It allows that line play a little more time to settle and create maybe more natural passing lanes, even for guys that might not be the biggest in stature. That’s always one of the fun ones.”

Stumpf saw all four of Wake Forest’s past and current quarterbacks — Wolford, Newman, Hartman and Griffis — at various Elite 11 events over the years. He believes Wolford was under-recruited because of his height and questions about whether he’d play baseball over football. Newman was toolsy and physically impressive, he said, but played at a small high school and didn’t throw the ball as much as other quarterbacks in other systems.

And Hartman was small — about 160 pounds as a high schooler — which raised concerns about his durability and whether he’d be able to step in the pocket and deliver the ball, considering the types of hits that would be coming his way.

“What’s unique about Wake Forest is … they don’t really care about some of the same things other people do,” said Andrew Ivins, 247Sports’ director of scouting. “It’s one of those schools where it’s like, ‘All right, (if) they offer this kid, they take this kid’s commitment.’ You don’t question yourself, but you kind of go back and you watch through the film and you study and you get some other eyes on it.

“You’re like, ‘All right, what are they seeing here that we might not be?’”

The other key to Wake Forest’s quarterback development is staff continuity.

Clawson was quick to point out that Ruggiero has been at Wake Forest longer than all of the other offensive coordinators in the ACC combined. Ruggiero, offensive line coach Nick Tabacca and running backs coach John Hunter are all set to enter their 10th seasons at Wake Forest in 2023. Tight ends coach Wayne Lineburg is entering Year 7. And wide receivers coach Kevin Higgins just moved into an off-field role after nine seasons with the program.

“I feel like they’ve just been putting it together for these last however many years,” said Hecklinski, the 2024 commit. “They’ve found that sweet spot.”

Clawson said Wake Forest has benefited greatly from quarterbacks not having to learn a new offensive system every few years, a testament to his staff retention.

“What’s allowed us to develop players is that things don’t change on them,” he said. “Not only is the quarterback teaching consistent, but the protections are consistent. And how the running back runs his zone steps is consistent. And how a receiver runs a comeback or a curl or a slant. Those aren’t variables.”

That should help Griffis this spring as he transitions into the presumed starter role.

Wake Forest made a statement about its belief in Griffis when the program did not pursue a quarterback in the transfer portal after Hartman’s departure. Clawson raved about Griffis’ arm strength, accuracy, ability to process and leadership just last week.

“We absolutely loved Sam, and Sam did so much for us. But we feel very confident moving forward with Mitch,” Clawson said. “We think he’s gonna be a really good player for us.”

He would know.

“We recruit guys that we like,” Clawson said. “We don’t necessarily trust other people’s eyes.”

https://theathletic.com/4281771/2023/03/07/wake-forest-recruiting-quarterbacks/?source=user_shared_article


*********** I’ve heard it attributed to a variety of people: “It’s amazing what you can accomplish if you don’t care who gets the credit.”

But whoever deserves credit for that  quote obviously wasn’t a politician.

I was reading a review of a biography of the late George Shultz, who served under several presidents in a variety of cabinet positions. 

In the book, he recalled a meeting with President Lyndon B. Johnson, in which Mr. Johnson said that in his world, you weren’t going to get much done unless you made sure that LBJ got the credit:

“If you have a good idea, and it’s your idea, it’s not going to go very far,” LBJ told him.  “But if it becomes my idea, it just might go somewhere. Do I make myself clear? “


***********  Bryce Young’s official combine height  was 5-foot-10 & 1/8 inches. He didn’t participate in any of the combine activity.  Anthony Richardson, on the other hand, is officially 6-4, and his measurables were lights out.

There are already those who are trying to make names for themselves by saying that Richardson ought to be drafted head of Young.

What did you think, Coach Saban?

“We’ve all seen the 6-4, 225-pound guy that can throw it like a bazooka, but he can’t make the choices and decisions, he can’t distribute the ball, he can’t throw it accurately.   So who’s the better bet? I’m going on history, production, performance - and Bryce Young’s done it about as well as anybody.”


*********** K. J. Osborne, Minnesota Vikings’ wide receiver, proved to be a real-life hero after he and three others rescued a man by pulling him from a burning vehicle.

"Most of the time the saying goes 'wrong place wrong time," began Osborn in a post to social media Monday night. "But this time I believe God had me, us, at the right place at the exact right time.  I'm like, 'Wow, that was live bullets.' As I kind of look back on it, I was just grateful that I was in the position to be able to help him along with the three other heroes that were there. But it was definitely the craziest experience of my life."

"This was real life. We've been down 33-0 to the Colts and came back, we've had all these Vikings thrillers. But that's a football game, it's all fun," Osborn said. "When it comes to saving a human's life, that's way bigger than anything I've experienced."


https://www.fox7austin.com/news/minnesota-vikings-kj-osborn-austin-texas-fiery-crash


*********** Good quiz subject today. Man has his priorities right. Vai Sikahema.

Morning Coach:

Hope you and Connie have gotten back on your feet.
 
Every day I subconsciously think of the Jefferson quotation in some context: dollars to Public Broadcasting (watch any of their 'news' shows for five minutes); to the Kennedy Center; funding drag shows at elementary schools; the NEA compelling dues from teachers who disapprove of the candidates to whom they donate. What am I doing...everyone has a list of ways the government spends that he finds objectionable.

I sure don't know how A. Richardson will pan out, but I do know he completed just 53% of his passes at Florida, and it wasn't mostly because his OL wasn't great. This fascination with 'measureables' is ridiculous. Remember when they were saying Joe Burrows' hands were too small?

You're forgetting something about Djokovic: he's extremely unfit physically, isn't he? Lots of high-risk conditions, like overweight?


John Vermillion                           
St.Petersburg, Florida

Yeah - whatever happened to Joe Burrow’s hand size, anyhow?


***********  Hugh,

I suppose the next thing we'll see in the XFL is some team wearing pink uniforms with little frillies stripes.

Sam Acho is a very knowledgeable young man, but wow, is he a motor-mouth.

Dean Blandino is his name, and spying is his game!  There's overkill and then... there's overkill.

Florida's Anthony Richardson is a specimen, but unlike his predecessor Jamarcus Russell who had success in college, Richardson's numbers in college weren't impressive.  However, Richardson (unlike Russell) has speed to burn, and in today's NFL QB world it makes Richardson dangerous.  

My boy Jake Haener out of Fresno State impressed in throwing drills.  Only question mark is his ankle injury which is still on the mend and kept him out of the running drills.  Ironically, prior to the injury one of Jake's attributes was his ability to escape pressure.  He chose to wait for Fresno State's pro day to do the running drills.

And on the subject of the NFL Combine I also watched the TE's performances.  Michael Mayer of Notre Dame is a TRUE, and complete TE.  The best fit for pro offenses that place a premium on the run game.  Darnell Washington of Georgia was impressive. Like Anthony Richardson, Washington is a specimen.  More like a big H-Back in many NFL offenses.  

Have a great week!

Joe Gutilla
Austin, Texas

Somebody needs to give Sam Acho a sedative.  Bright guy but way too over-eager.  If nervous breakdowns were contagious, he’d be Typhoid Mary.  I like Jake Haener and I thought he looked good.  We already know he is a competitor and a winner.  He could be this year’s Brock Purdy.




***********  QUIZ ANSWER:   Vai Sikahema’s full given first name is Vaiangina.  Born in Nuku’Alofa, Tonga, he is the first Tongan ever to play in the NFL.

After  graduating from BYU-Hawaii, his parents moved to Mesa, Arizona where he was twice named All-State running back, and led his team to the state title game his senior year.

After two seasons at BYU, he spent two years on an LDS Church mission before returning to the Cougars for his final two seasons of eligibility.

In his junior season, he ranked seventh nationally in kickoff returns as the Cougars  went 13–0 and won the national title.  By the end of his fourth year,  he held the NCAA record for most punt returns in a career (153).

He was drafted in the 10th round by the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1986 NFL Draft, then  moved with the team to Arizona.
In eight seasons with the Cardinals, Packers and Eagles, he played in 118 games, and returned a total of 527 kickoffs and punts  for a total of 8,102 yards.  He was twice named to the Pro Bowl.

A broadcast journalism major at BYU, he began a broadcasting career while in Phoenix, and continued to pursue the career in Green Bay.

After retiring from the Eagles in 1994, he became the sports director and morning news anchor for  NBC 10 in Philadelphia.

Since then he and his wife and their four children have made their home in nearby South Jersey, where he is a leader in the local Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Cherry Hill.  He was active in raising support for the first LDS Temple in Pennsylvania, and in 2021 he was named to General Authority Seventy of The LDS Church.

As a youngster Vai Sikahema was an outstanding amateur boxer, and in 2008 he accepted a challenge from baseball  star Jose Canseco to a boxing match.  Held in Atlantic City, it was billed as “The War at the Shore.”  Some war: coming in at 5-8, 204, he knocked out the much larger Canseco (6-4, 245)  in the first round.

He donated his winner’s purse - $5,000 - to the family of fallen Philadelphia Policeman Stephen Liczbinski.


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING VAI SIKAHEMA

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - AUSTIN, TEXAS
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
SHAWN POWELL - SELAH, WASHINGTON
JOHN GRIMSLEY - JEFFERSON, GEORGIA
PETE PORCELLI - WATERVLIET, NEW YORK
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
MIKE  FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY



*********** I have to say that in all my years of doing biographies of football people, no man has impressed me more than Vai Sikahema…

A man dedicated to his faith…
A man who loves his wife and is committed to his marriage and his family…
A man who came to realize,  and now espouses,  the importance of an education…
A man who combines pride and humility…
A man of great moral and physical courage…
In a word - a real man.

Please, God - send us more like him.


***********   I believe I remember him throwing punches on the goal post after a score   I think it was against the Giants.

Pete Porcelli
Watervliet, New York

Vai Sikahema punching the goal post…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfVoVeGPs7E


*********** A really feel-good story about Vai Sikahema…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eq1UbeMmTs


*********** Hi Coach Wyatt,
I see that you posted about Via Sikahema. I remember being a kid and seeing him play against the Redskins when he was with the Eagles, he was such a fast player. I know he was a part of the 1984 13-0 BYU National Championship team. Hope y'all are good out in WA. Keep up the great job with the news.

John Grimsley
Jefferson, Georgia

Hi John,

I’ve seen Vai Sikamema do the sports in Philly, and I remember him from his days at BYU when the Cougars had just begun to find talent in the Pacific.  I recall another Tongan named Heimuli who played at the same time.

Vai Sikahema is an amazing man.  In an area like Philadelphia which has had little exposure to the LDS Church, I think that his entire life since retiring from football has been one extended Mission.

I was absolutely amazed at the story of his knocking out Jose Canseco.  It was actually a rather dramatic undertaking at his age, especially considering the leadership role he’d been taking on in the Church.

We’re doing great here - actually, just getting over a two-week bout with Covid.  I’m very glad to hear from you and I hope that things are going very well for the Grimsley family!



************ Vai Sikahema at his induction into the Polynesian Football Hall of Fame

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeXN3OPsoTs


*********** “The pursuit of an education is a religious obligation”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNR2a4YoHQg


*********** A great Vai Sikahema article…

Vai Sikahema tried to warn him. An agent representing Jose Canseco, the former Major League Baseball slugger, called to propose a boxing match between Sikahema and Canseco. Sikahema, the BYU graduate and former professional football player who is now a popular TV sportscaster in Philadelphia, thought the fight was a bad idea.

"You called the wrong guy," Sikahema told the agent. "He's got no chance."

This was the summer of 2008. Sikahema was 45 years old by then and hadn't played football in 15 years or boxed in 31 years. Canseco, famous for home runs, his bodybuilder physique and his admitted use of steroids, was a year younger and much bigger and still trying to hang onto his baseball career in the bush leagues. Divorces and legal issues had beset him with financial difficulties, which is why he turned to boxing.

"You don't want to do this," Sikahema continued. "Canseco is going to be in trouble."

The agent was surprised. How big are you? he asked.

"5-8. 200."

"Well, Canseco is 6-4, 250."

"I'm telling you he's in trouble. Does he know what a Tongan is?"

"No."

"Well, he'll find out. I come from a warrior culture and we fight till one of us is lying on the ground. I grew up boxing.”

"Canseco has five black belts."

"OK, we'll see."

Canseco and his backers didn't know that boxing was the reason Sikahema had come to this country in the first place. They didn't know that his father had brought his family from Tonga to live in a hellish hot garage in Arizona so he could train his son to be a fighter. They didn't know that he spent his youth boxing around the West, living out of the back of a pickup truck, and that he might have fulfilled his father's plans for him if he hadn't discovered something better. There was one other thing they didn't know: His father had trained him specifically to fight big men, because he knew all his opponents would be bigger than his son. He had been taught to weather blows to get inside, then pummel the body and unload that left hook.

The fight was arranged for Atlantic City. The Philly media jumped on it. Channel 10 — Sikahema's employer — ran special half-hour programs on the bout. Sikahema knew a defeat would risk his considerable popularity in a fight town like Philly, but he wasn't worried. If he appeared overmatched to most observers, his victory would be considered that much better. As a local leader of the Mormon church, he was more worried about how the fight would be perceived by fellow church members than by Canseco.

"This guy is big and a bruiser," Sikahema's cousin, Danny Humphrey, told him. "If you go out there and get beat up, it's bad. There's your TV career and your position in the (church) stake presidency. What will it be like if you show up at church with black eyes?”

"I'm not worried about winning," said Sikahema. "I just want to make sure it's the right message to send to the youth of our church.”

Humphrey sounded another warning in the locker room before the fight — "Vai, this guy is huge. All he needs is to hit you with one punch."

"He's not going to touch this face," said Sikahema.

Canseco went down the first time just 30 seconds into the fight. Sikahema burrowed in close, dropped low and came up with a hard left hook that had all of his weight behind it. Canseco went down the second time with an overhand right and stayed down. The fight had lasted 1 minute, 37 seconds.

Sikahema donated $5,000 of his winnings to the family of a slain police officer.

"It was unfair," says Sikahema now. "I feel sorry for Canseco."

Isn't it like Sikahema to pull off such a feat? His life has been a series of victories over great odds, and every time you think you've heard the last of him, he remakes himself and pops up somewhere else.

His is the classic American success story and the fight a symbol of his life. He immigrated to the U.S. from a tiny island in the South Pacific and, through fierce determination and work ethic, he became a star football player at BYU, a player in the NFL, a college graduate, a popular TV journalist and personality, a beacon for his fellow Tongans and a regional leader of his church. And he's not finished yet.

"He's pulled it all together," says LaVell Edwards, Sikahema's coach at BYU. "It seems to be the way his life has been.”

Who is this guy? Who is Vaiangina "Vai" Sikahema? When I contacted him about writing his story, Sikahema replied with an e-mail: "Send me your address and I'll send you a book you MUST read before we do an interview.”

"Minerva Reef" arrived in the mail a few days later, a worn, green hardback by Olaf Ruhen. It was accompanied by a hand-written note.

"It will explain for you much about my life and why I succeeded as I have," he wrote.

The book chronicles the story of a shipwreck. In 1962, the Tuaikaepau, a 51-foot wooden cutter, was scheduled to travel from Tonga to New Zealand. Sikahema's father, Loni, a promising 21-year-old heavyweight boxer, signed up along with 16 other Tongan men to take the journey in search of fights and odd jobs to support their families. On the morning the boat was to leave, Sikahema's grandfather, Vaiangina Unga, came to the wharf and insisted that he should travel in Loni's place so the younger man could remain with his wife, who was eight months pregnant with Vai. After a brief argument, Vai's grandfather prevailed.

A couple of days later, the Tuaikaepau crashed into Minerva Reef. They were considered lost at sea, and when Vai Sikahema was born he was named after his supposedly dead grandfather. But 12 of the 17 men survived, including Unga, after enduring 101 days on the reef. It is a legendary tale among Tongans and one that matches the more widely read "Mutiny on the Bounty" in the chronicles of sea adventure and survival.


"It displays all the best characteristics for which Tongans have become known — courage, faith, sacrifice, love and an incredible toughness," Sikahema wrote. "It will help you understand why I was driven to succeed in my life.”

The book tells where he came from. Now jump ahead some 48 years to see where he went. Just two generations removed from the Tuaikaepau, Vai Sikahema, like his seafaring forebears, has struck out for a distant place, far from poverty and the Pacific, settling in the sports-mad, blue-collar, gritty city of Philadelphia. In his post-football life, he has made a second career of talking about sports on TV and radio. He earns a big paycheck, owns a nice home, has a wife and four children, and the respect and love of an entire city.

"Hey, Vai!" people call out as he makes his way around Philadelphia. "Yo, Vai, you da man!" He is approached by well-wishers and fans in restaurants and standing on corners and walking the street.

"He is loved in Philadelphia," says Danny Humphrey, a financial analyst and Sikahema's cousin. "He hasn't paid a toll in years. The toll booth attendants know him by name. They say, 'Vai, your money's no good here.' “

Humphrey witnessed the lovefest for the first time a few years ago during the first of many visits to Philadelphia. He was standing on a corner with Vai when a bus passed by with Vai's bigger-than-life photo splashed on its side, and then a cab pulled up that also featured Vai's visage.

"I've been here five minutes, and I'm sick of you already," Humphrey told Vai.

This was shortly before he saw a couple of commercials on Ch. 10, the local NBC affiliate, promoting its lead sportscaster with a song called "My Vai," sung to the tune of the Mary Wells hit "My Guy.”

"Vai and Bon Jovi run a tight race for which one the blue-collar folks love the most," says Humphrey. "He has everything they embrace — he's a minority, a blue-collar type athlete, a man who wears his feelings on his sleeve, a Rocky figure who overcame all the odds to become a pro football player and, finally, the man they turn to on TV for their sports news.”

After stints with the Packers and Cardinals, Sikahema played the final two years of his NFL career for the Philadelphia Eagles as a running back and return specialist. He endeared himself to Philly fans forever with one play: During a 1992 game against the rival Giants in New York, he returned a punt a club-record 87 yards for a touchdown and then squared off to the goalpost and began pummeling it repeatedly like a boxer on a speed bag. The goalpost stunt has followed him everywhere, and even now fans who see him on the street will imitate him boxing those goalposts.

After his career was finished, Sikahema made a smooth transition to TV and radio. He has served as sports director and sports anchor for WCAU/Ch. 10 since 1996. He is the most popular sportscaster in the fourth largest TV market in the country. He also co-hosts a daily two-hour sports-talk show with John Gonzales called the "Vai & Gonzo Show" on ESPN Radio/The Fanatic.

Three times a day he drives the 40 minutes to Philly from his home in Mt. Laurel, N.J. Up at 7, he runs five miles, showers and then drives to Philly for the radio show. He returns to New Jersey to work out at the gym and run errands, naps for a half-hour, showers again and leaves in time for his evening TV news show at 6. He returns home again for dinner and then drives back to Philly at 9 p.m. to do the 11 p.m. news, arriving at home at about 1 a.m. On Saturdays he sleeps till noon.

"It's a crazy schedule, but I love my jobs," he says

His popularity has transcended sports. He does a weekly TV segment called "Wednesday's Child," featuring a child who is up for adoption. His employers have capitalized on Sikahema's engaging personality and wide appeal. The TV station has chronicled his personal life, including a pilgrimage he and his family made to Tonga, his family history, his graduation from BYU eight years ago, his speaking engagements at church firesides, his American citizenship ceremony a decade ago, his volunteer work at Ground Zero, and the buildup to his boxing match with Jose Canseco. The radio station features a "Vai Vs." series in which he undertakes various challenges — running a 40-yard dash under five seconds, performing 100 pushups in less than a minute and so forth.

"There is no one like him," says Chris Blackman, WCAU's vice president of news. "He's got a sincerity that is just infectious. He's immensely popular here. He's just a good person and it comes through.”

So it has all worked out for the kid from Tonga. He could serve as a poster child for the poor immigrant who overcomes all the odds — language, money, poor grades — to succeed in America. Now he has arrived at another crossroads in his life. With his children nearly grown, his athletic career finished, his TV career going strong, his finances secure, Sikahema is looking for new challenges and causes.

He will continue to urge his fellow Tongans to work hard and seek education with his frequent firesides and speeches. He is considering a teaching career and the pursuit of a master's degree and a mission for his church. And then there's his current passion: He has invested money in technology that utilizes turbine engines floating on the sea to generate hydrogen, which is then converted to electricity. The prototype will be operable in Australia later this year and then Sikahema hopes to see it employed by Tonga and the other island nations.

"It could power all of Tonga someday," he says. "It would cut the cost of power to a fraction. Yes, I stand to gain financially, but I can live without any of this. What is significant to me is that I'm involved in a project that will significantly improve the quality of life for the people of my country and relieve them of the grip of fossil fuels.”

Sikahema might easily settle into a life of ease as he nears his 50th year with a long list of accomplishments behind him — a life of golf and country clubs — but it is his nature to achieve and undertake new challenges.

"I always had this sense of my life that I would do things, and do a lot of things," he says.

https://www.deseret.com/2010/10/11/20384259/from-tonga-to-the-nfl-vai-sikahema-beating-the-odds

Dad closing in on Navy’s All-American QB, George Welsh



 
Dad with head coach Rip Engle.



Dad’s Penn State publicity photo




Dad and son, Senior and Junior,  shortly before Dad’s passing


*********** QUIZ: The dad grew up in Steelton, Pennsylvania.  His father - a steelworker, naturally - never missed a day of work to sickness in 47 years on the job.  At  Penn State,  Dad was a two-way player (center and linebacker) and co-captain of the 1954 Nittany Lions team, which earned a Number 16 ranking nationally and featured future pro stars Rosey Grier and Lenny Moore.

Following his senior season, Dad played in the East-West Shrine game, and although he was drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles, he was called instead to serve with the Marines in Korea.   On his return to the states, he embarked on a 30-year career as an industrial arts teacher and football coach in Lebanon, Pennsylvania.

The son - his namesake -  was 11 or 12  when he was rummaging through his parents’ things and came across some scrapbooks recalling the dad’s feats at Penn State.  His dad’s athletic feats had come as a compete surprise to his son: “After he got done whipping my butt for what I did, he said, ‘I never wanted you to  feel pressure that you had to play football.  If you want to play in the band, you be the best band member you can be.’”

When the  son entered high school - at Lebanon’s crosstown rival, Cedar Crest - Dad retired from coaching, both to enjoy watching his son play, and to avoid any issues of having to coach against his own son.

The son, meanwhile, had an excellent high school career and wound up going to Maryland, and although he spent his career as a backup to Boomer Esiason, he did engineer one of the greatest comebacks in college football history when he led the Terps from a 31-0 halfback deficit at Miami to a 42-40 win.

In the NFL, the son had a solid 13-year career, most of it spent as a backup to Jim Kelly in Buffalo. The Bills’ GM called him “the greatest backup quarterback in NFL history.”

He also engineered  a famous comeback in the NFL. With the Bills trailing the Houston Oilers 35-3 early in the third quarter, he took them to a 41-38 overtime win, at the time  the greasest comeback in NFL history.

The son is now an NFL head coach.  As offensive coordinator for the Eagles, the team that once drafted his dad, he helped them win their first-ever Super Bowl title following the 2017 season.


Reflecting on his upbringing, he says, “When I see parents today and how crazy they are with youth sports and the pressure, it makes me sick. I just had a different kind of experience. I would argue my experience allowed me to excel even further because I didn't have that pressure."



TUESDAY,  MARCH 7,  2023 -  "To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical." - Thomas Jefferson


*********** I suppose I could just chalk to up to Covid, but the fact is that I was caught by two observant readers - Joe Gutilla and John Vermillion - with my pants down around my ankles, when I failed to note that while Greg Popovich may, indeed, be an NBA coaching legend, he is the prime representative of the pseudo-intellectual types that the sports media loves to turn to whenever it needs a quote to support Red China.  Or attack Donald Trump.


*********** I hesitate to say this,  because I have so much respect for Bob Stoops and the job he did at Oklahoma, but this Arlington Renegades bunch of his is not a very well-coached team.   And just as the Denver Broncos once celebrated with a bonfire that destroyed those ugly vertical-striped stockings of theirs, I suggest the Renegades burn those butt-ugly robins-egg-blue uniforms before the next game.


*********** Worst XFL venues of the weekend: a tie, between the minor-league ball park in Las Vegas and the (formerly) major league ball park in Arlington.  In the latter case, they actually had to erect bleachers to provide seating for the couple thousand or so people who actually wanted to sit parallel to the field and watch a football game like, you know, people in Texas are used to doing.

Best venue: not even close.   It’s D.C.  They’re playing in a soccer stadium, which means it’s not overly big, but also because in this case, there’s standing-room-only in one of the end  zones, a terrace-like arrangement where there is a young, male demographic that clearly sees a strong positive correlation between football and beer drinking.  This was the only XFL crowd that actually seemed to be enjoying itself, and not forced to watch.


*********** After a weekend of listening to interviews at the NFL combines and the XFL games, I frequently found myself  wondering if I weren’t in some  foreign country, where the people struggle with English.  I’ve actually  spent a fair amount of time in Finland, where few people spoke any English on a regular basis, but  at least the Finns knew that their English wasn’t great, and they showed a keen interest in learning to speak it better. Not so with the weekend interviewees  and interviewers, who seemed quite pleased with themselves and  their inability to speak a language they can’t be troubled  to learn.

*********** So far, the XFL kickoff is a snoozer.  I have seen just two kickoffs returned past midfield.

*********** Like the chaperone at the school dance who can’t stand to see anyone having fun,  the XFL’s “guy in the sky” is becoming a real pain in the ass.  Magnifying glass at the ready,  he’s on the lookout for that long pass that the official said was complete, but where careful scrutiny of slow motion replay might reveal the tiniest bit of a bobble.  No catch!

 Incomplete!  Drive over!  Another bucket of cold water  thrown on another potentially exciting play (one of the very few that  a typical  XFL game offers).   Another blow struck for mankind’s relentless search for perfection!

I saw it happen twice this weekend, with Mr.  Buttinski nullifying a pair of exciting catches that appeared plenty good to the naked eye.   Look - each team is allowed a challenge, for any reason, and if a team isn’t concerned enough to use that challenge, then I suggest the guy in the sky stay the hell out of it and let the call on the field stand.


***********   Anyone remember Jamarcus Russell? The more the footlickers at the NFL combine kept raving over Florida quarterback Anthony Richardson - he’s 6-4, 240… he runs a 4.2  40…  he has a 40 inch vertical… he can throw the ball 60 yards with ease…Maybe HE - and not Bryce Young or C. J. Stroud - should be the Number One Quarterback in the Draft… the more I thought about Jamarcus Russell. 

Jamarcus Russell was the Raiders’ Number One Pick in 2007.  He was big - 6-5-1/2, 265… and fairly fast - ran a 4.72… He had a vertical of 31 inches.

Before the geniuses go nuts over Anthony Richardson and his very impressive stats, they might want to consider this: in two years at Florida, Richardson started a total of 13 games.  His record?  6-7.  What kind of record is that?

Jamarcus Russell? He was coming off  two of the best consecutive seasons in  LSU history: 10-2 in 2005 and 11-2 in 2006. 

Jamarcus Russell, as most people know, is now considered one of the great draft busts in NFL history. No, this is not to say that there’s anything in Anthony Richardson’s background to suggest that he could blow up like Jamarcus Russell. (Look up “purple drank.”) 

But being realistic about it, other than Richardson’s eye-popping measurables at the combine, there’s absolutely nothing in his performance as a quarterback at Florida to suggest that he’s even close to where Jamarcus Russell  was as a potential pro.   But what the hell - he ran a 4.43 40, so we might as well go ahead and risk the future of the franchise.


*********** In the meantime, while the draft experts have been clambering to get on the Anthony-Richardson-For-Number-One bandwagon, I’ve got to confess to being just a little weary of hearing about Bryce Young’s height (or lack of same).  How did that get past Saban?  Wouldn’t you think that at least one of his analysts would have had the guts to point out to the boss that their  quarterback simply wasn’t tall enough to be playing the position in the SEC?

*********** I was laughing my ass off at some of the make-work stuff they had  the running backs doing at the Combine, like fast-feet dancing  over bags laid down in a “tee,” before making the mandatory run between bags held upright by flunkies.  Speaking of flunkies - do you suppose there are actually people in the personnel departments of pro football teams whose job it is to count the number of steps each runner takes, and then enter the figures into a data base?  Do you suppose there’s actually a running backs coach on a pro team somewhere who’s going to take a guy based on the number of steps he took?



***********Hello Coach,

I thought that you might enjoy this picture taken during the Montana 8 man
football championship game, St Ignatius vs Belt, at St Ignatius in western
Montana.

As always, I enjoy reading your football news!

Marlowe Aldrich
Saint Francis junior high coach
Billings, Montana

Wow. Spectacular! It’s south of Flathead Lake, which happens to be one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. That part of Montana (Kalispell, Whitefish) is being loved to death by an influx of wealthy West Coasters who’ve driven the price of real estate so high that real Montanans can scarcely afford to live there any more.

Very glad to know you’re still reading!


*********** Is this a great country or what?  Every day thousands of people invade our land, illegally crossing our southern border before sent on their merry way to places unknown, carrying God only knows what kinds of diseases.   But let tennis star Novak Djokovic - the number one tennis player in the world - attempt to enter the US  to play in a professional tennis tournament and - omigod - he hasn’t been vaccinated!  Unclean!  Begone!



 



***********  Back in the late 90s I was in Philadelphia doing some research for a prospective book on the World Football League, when I got sidetracked and found myself digging into the history of the Frankford Yellow Jackets - the forerunners of today’s Philadelphia Eagles. 

In the team photo, third from from the left in the second row is Houston Stockton, from Spokane, Washington and Gonzaga College. It took a little more digging, but I got hold of the only Stockton I knew from Spokane, Jack Stockton, who owned a very popular tavern there.  When I showed him what I’d found, he said, “That was my dad.”  Now here’s the rest of the story: Houston  Stockton’s grandson, John Stockton, also grew up in Spokane and also went to Gonzaga. The Zags don’t play football anymore, but John did play a little basketball there before going on to the NBA and becoming a Hall of Famer.


***********   Today’s featured play is a beaut. Genuine triple or quad option. I can see a good coach running that over and over, with nothing in between.

I understand your reason for including 'Coach Pops' on this page, but outside of coaching (and his team is presently only 28 games behind the Nuggets in the Western Conf) I have no use for the guy. I don't consider him a worthy rep of his USAFA Class.

Clark Lea's words are pure gold. Sportswriters ought to understand that too, yet so often they rate a coach's hire of a critical assistant on the sole basis of his 'name' or earlier successes.You make a similar point by stressing the importance of the "off the field" issues the head coach has to have a firm grip on.

John Vermillion                          
St Petersburg, Florida


***********   Hugh,

Hopefully my response to your illness wasn't taken the wrong way when I used the word "you" in describing the vaccines and boosters.  It was meant to refer to "they" who released all this misery upon us.  My apologies.

Regarding Coach Stewart's clinics  there apparently are a number of younger coaches today who think a house is built from the top down, and only a handful who understand the need for a solid foundation.

While I do not agree with Greg Popovich's politics I do agree with Curt Tong's advice to him.

It may take a few years, but Clark Lea has Vandy football going in the right direction.  He's building a solid foundation (see above).

Notice how there are not a lot of people out west complaining about the massive amounts of snowfall in the mountains?  Where are the cries and screams calling for a new Ice Age?

Enjoy the weekend!

Joe Gutilla
Austin, Texas





***********  QUIZ ANSWER: Tommy Casanova was a high school star at Notre Dame High in Crowley, Louisiana.  As a running back and defensive back at LSU he was a three-time All-American - the only one in school history.

He is considered one of the seven greatest Tigers of all time (along with Gaynell Tinsley, Jim Taylor, Y. A. Tittle, Steve Van Buren, Billy Cannon and Charles Alexander.)

Prior to his senior season, he was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated and called “The Best Player in the Nation."

He was taken in the second of round of the 1972 NFL Draft  by the Cincinnati Bengals.  Starting at safety as a rookie, he intercepted five passes and returned a punt 66 yards for a touchdown and was named the team’s MVP by his teammates.

His career was short but distinguished.   When he retired at age 27, after just six seasons, he had been named to three Pro Bowl teams, and was first team All-Pro in 1976.  For his career he intercepted 17 passes  and scored three defensive touchdowns.

He is one of a handful of players in the history of the NFL to begin studying to become  a medical doctor while still playing football.

While playing with the Bengals, he pursued his M.D. degree at the University of Cincinnati Medical School, and following the 1977 season he retired from football to devote full time to his medical studies. Following graduation, he spent a three-year residency in ophthalmology.

After a  brief but successful attempt at politics - he served a term as a Republican State Senator - Tommy Casanova has spent  most of his adult life practicing ophthalmology in his native Crowley.


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING TOMMY CASANOVA

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
JOE GUTILLA - AUSTIN, TEXAS
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE  FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY

 

***********  QUIZ:   His full given first name is Vaiangina.  Born in Nuku’Alofa, Tonga, he is the first Tongan ever to play in the NFL.

After  graduating from BYU-Hawaii, his parents moved to Mesa, Arizona where he was twice named All-State running back, and led his team to the state title game his senior year.

After two seasons at BYU, he spent two years on an LDS Church mission before returning to the Cougars for his final two seasons of eligibility.

In his junior season, he ranked seventh nationally in kickoff returns as the Cougars  went 13–0 and won the national title.  By the end of his fourth year,  he held the NCAA record for most punt returns in a career (153).

He was drafted in the 10th round by the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1986 NFL Draft, then  moved with the team to Arizona.

In eight seasons with the Cardinals, Packers and Eagles, he played in 118 games, and returned a total of 527 kickoffs and punts  for a total of 8,102 yards.  He was twice named to the Pro Bowl.

A broadcast journalism major at BYU, he began a broadcasting career while in Phoenix, and continued to pursue the career in Green Bay.

After retiring from the Eagles in 1994, he became the sports director and morning news anchor for  NBC 10 in Philadelphia.

Since then he and his wife and their four children have made their home in nearby South Jersey, where he is a leader in the local Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Cherry Hill.  He was active in raising support for the first LDS Temple in Pennsylvania, and in 2021 he was named to General Authority Seventy of The LDS Church.

As a youngster he was an outstanding amateur boxer, and in 2008 he accepted a challenge from baseball  star Jose Canseco to a boxing match.  Held in Atlantic City, it was billed as “The War at the Shore.”  Some war: coming in at 5-8, 204, he knocked out the much larger Canseco (6-4, 245)  in the first round.

He donated his winner’s purse - $25,000 - to the family of fallen Philadelphia Policeman Stephen Liczbinski,




FRIDAY,  MARCH 3,  2023 -  “If you tell the truth you don’t have to remember anything.” Mark Twain

*********** A couple of weeks ago, I took part in a clinic put on by Rick Stewart and my friend Tom Walls.  The topics were restricted to “off the field” issues, such as interviewing for the job, building a team culture, etc.   I presented on the things that I believe a coach who’s just been hired should do first.

The clinic ran parallel to another one Rick was running, a more conventional one that offered the usual X’s and O’s.

Not to anyone’s great surprise, Tom told me, the X’s and O’s clinics were much better  attended.

Kind of sad when you realize  that while most coaches are weakest in the crucial area of infrastructure, they still  harbor the notion that the answer to getting better lies in more smoke and mirrors.


************* It’s not about football, but it is about coaching - it’s a six-year-old article by former Sports Illustrated writer Tim Layden, written  on the occasion of the death of his college basketball coach.

The coach’s name was Curt Tong.  He’d coached at Williams for years, and then taken the job as AD at Pomona-Pitzer - where he hired a basketball coach named Greg Popovich

Popovich went on from the unlikeliest of beginnings - at a place where they seldom won and seldom cared - to NBA immortality, and Curt Tong had a great influence on him:

Popovich took another of Tong’s lessons with him to San Antonio and puts it on display with some frequency. He does not embrace adulation or shrink from criticism and does not allow others to judge his work. He does not suffer fools. "This is what Curt told me," says Popovich. "'Do what you do, do it well and do it with passion. But do not worry about plaudits or condemnation, because both are going to come your way. Whether you’re the manager of the local McDonald’s, the coach at Pomona or Phil Jackson with the Chicago Bulls, you are going to get plaudits and you are going to get condemnation and they’re both false notions. You need to care about how you do your work and how you treat your family and friends. Nothing else matters.  "To this day," says Popovich, "I have never read any articles about any of our championships. I will read an article about Tim Duncan or Kawhi Leonard or Bruce Bowen. My players. But as far as articles that judge 'You’re going to win, you’re going to lose; you’re good, you’re bad.' I have no interest whatsoever. And that’s all Curt Tong."

https://www.si.com/nba/2017/02/13/gregg-popovich-coach-mentor-curt-tong-williams-pomona-pitzer


*********** Clark Lea, Vanderbilt coach, in talking to The Athletic last year, commented on a big mistake new coaches make when assembling a  staff - hiring purely for coaching or recruiting ability, without consideration for the role that they have to play in strengthening the culture the head coach is trying to build:

“Once you elevate into the top seat, you’re totally dependent on the people you hire to be the echo chamber of your message.  You realize quickly that the ability of the staff to do that either dilutes the culture or strengthens the culture. And it’s every day, it’s a steady drip.

“Initially, I felt if you found qualified people, you could kind of plug them in and things run the way that you intend for them to run. What I learned was way more effort has to be put into the chemistry around what you’re trying to get done. The chemistry on the staff bleeds into the chemistry on the team.”

*********** I’ve been watching an XFL  running back named Morgan Ellison, who'd been looking good.  Guy’s  got size and talent. And then I checked into his past, to when he was thrown off the team at Indiana, and frankly he does not sound like a good dude to me.  Do your own checking and tell me  what you think.

*********** D’Eriq  King might turn out to be the best QB in the XFL.  (Which isn’t saying a lot.)

*********** John Canzano’s Pac-12 lists of QBs…
The current anticipated Pac-12 starting QBs for 2023:

    •    Arizona — Jayden de Laura
    •    Arizona State — Drew Pyne
    •    Cal — Sam Jackson V
    •    Colorado — Shedeur Sanders
    •    Oregon — Bo Nix
    •    Oregon State — DJ Uiagalelei
    •    Stanford — Ari Patu
    •    UCLA — Dante Moore
    •    USC — Caleb Williams
    •    Utah — Cam Rising
    •    Washington — Michael Penix Jr.
    •    Washington State — Cam Ward
    •   
How do you rank them? I’d put Uiagalelei in the top-five alongside Williams, Penix Jr., Nix and Rising. That’s a new development for Oregon State and I’m interested to see how it unfolds.

My current top-six Pac-12 QBs:

    1.    Caleb Williams (USC)
    2.    Michael Penix Jr. (Washington)
    3.    Bo Nix (Oregon)
    4.    DJ Uiagalelei (Oregon State)
    5.    Cam Rising (Utah)
    6.    Jayden de Laura (Arizona)



*********** Did Aaron Rodgers come out of his dark space and see his shadow?  Seriously, I have to admit that this “dark space” retreat - this southern Oregon  cave where he went to meditate - puts Rodgers in a class of football eccentrics along with the famed Joe Don Looney.


 *********** The Double-Wing meets the Belly… Today, bootleg action off the inside belly…








What makes this play work is the defense’s fear of your counter.  They will typically prepare for the counter by squeezing down in reaction to your down blocking. That means there is a strong likelihood that  your pulling right guard will be able to seal  off  any backside rush.  The QB should consider the run - “when you roll out, you’re  #1 in the progression.”  The TE Drag is normally open.  The QB is only permitted to throw deep to the C Back if he is specifically told to do so.


************Coach Don Gordon, of South Deerfield, Massachusetts, was quick to remind me that just a couple of years ago he’d sent me the very same Carlisle Indians photo that I showed on Tuesday.

His memory is good.   Mine may or may not be good, but in publishing twice weekly, I can easily lose track of what I’ve published.

Kudos to him for bringing it to my attention, along with the observation:

You may have seen this article/picture but the first thing I notice is the down hand of the linemen and the grip on the ball by the center...where have I seen that before?

He noted, too, that he had just hung ‘em up after seven years of success as a Double Wing Coach:
 
I retired from the class room back in 2005 but continued to coach until last year. Good timing. The young guys with more 'energy' can deal with pandemic issues etc. I had 7 seasons as varsity coach with 3 league titles and 6 playoff appearances and at least one 1000 yd rusher each year.. without a doubt the DW contributed to our success.

I will miss it
 
https://youtu.be/UC_HMhTLHC4
 

***********   XFL 2023: Week Two TV Ratings are surprisingly good

THURSDAY NIGHT: St. Louis at Seattle on FX
553,000 average viewers
Compare with:
NHL Calgary vs Las Vegas: 253,000 on ESPN
Michigan vs Rutgers basketball: 364,000 on FS1

SATURDAY NIGHT: D.C. at Vegas on FX
605,000 average viewers

SUNDAY AFTERNOON: San Antonio at Orlando on ESPN
781,000 average viewers

SUNDAY NIGHT: Arlington at Houston on ESPN2
678,000 average viewers


GAMES THIS WEEKEND:

SATURDAY, 7 PM EASTERN:  FX - SEATTLE AT VEGAS (Check out the absurdly bush-league Vegas stadium)

SUNDAY,     1 PM EASTERN: FX - ST. LOUIS AT D.C. (Free the Beer Snake) Actually, this could be a good game
 4 PM EASTERN: FX - ORLANDO AT ARLINGTON (See if Terrell Buckley did get rid of his entire team, as threatened)
8 PM EASTERN: ESPN2 - SAN ANTONIO AT HOUSTON - Could be a  good game.


*********** There are snow scenes, and there are snow scenes.  And then there are some absolutely unbelievable snow scenes, from the Sierras.  That’s California.  (You know - that place where we’re always hearing about that drought…)


https://youtu.be/qEqMZn5gAQA


***********   Hope you and Constance are getting better. Some of us have had bouts with this thing (like you, I didn't get checked), and it is a bear while it lasts. The whole exprience is awful, but especially the energy-sapping element, which makes me admire your resolve in getting today's page out. Thanks, Coach.

Coach McGown's find stole the scene for me today. That photo shows almost (?) everything you teach. I wonder, however, if you have something to say about the position of the linemen's down hands?

John Vermillion
St. Petersburg, Florida

(I coach “fingertip push-up” position.)

*********** Hugh,

Glad to hear you're feeling somewhat better.  Yes, your description of the illness sounds a lot like COVID, and IF it was take solace in the fact that the so-called "experts" are now finding IMMUNITY to be the best protection once a person experiences a bout.  But what about those great vaccines?  Boosters?  Thought you told us they were the magic cure!  

XFL:  Watched a couple of games through this past weekend.  As we used to say as kids when something was bad...P. U.!  Although I do have to say that A.J. McCarron is the only QB who should still be playing in the NFL.
 
Sorry to hear about the passing of Jeff Monken's dad.  What a legacy!  RIP

I forwarded that photo of the Oakland Raiders' QB's to my brother who has been a Raiders fan since he could walk.  You would have thought I sent him a million dollars!

Also enjoyed that photo of the Carlisle Indians.  What's old is actually current for us DWingers!

Oregon State's athletic administration must have swallowed the BS of one Joe Brandon in thinking they could get away with fomenting it on their fans.

Have a great week!

Joe Gutilla
Austin, Texas






***********   QUIZ ANSWER:  At  5-4, Buddy Young remains the shortest man ever to play pro football.  But he should be remembered for much more than that.

A native of Chicago, he was state high school champ in the 100-yard dash, and at the University of Illinois, he was NCAA champion in the 100 and tied the world record (6.1) in the 60-yard dash.

While at Illinois, he tied the school record for touchdowns in a single season set by the immortal Red Grange, and he was named Co-Player of the Game in the 1947 Rose Bowl, after Illinois hammered UCLA, 45-14.

He was the second black to be named to an All-American team - exactly twenty years after Fritz Pollard of Brown became the first. 

He played ten years in pro football, the first three in the AAFC, before it "merged" with the NFL. He finished his career with the Baltimore Colts, and was the answer to a question in the movie "Diner," made by Baltimorean Barry Levinson, in which a guy makes his fiancee prove her worthiness to marry him by answering a series of trivia questions on the Colts. The question had to do with the teams he had formerly played for that no longer existed. How about three: New York Yankees (AAFC), New York Yankees (NFL), Dallas Texans (NFL).

Although short,  he was stocky,  a cannonball with great speed and ability to change direction, making him a real crowd pleaser.  He  attributed his long NFL career to the fact that few people ever got a decent shot at him.

He  was the first Colt to have his number retired.

As a member of Colts’ management one of his first acts was to find his replacement. and to do so he drove to Reading, Pennsylvania in a snowstorm to convince Lenny Moore to sign with the Colts rather than go to Canada. (“I was in awe of him,” Moore would recall.)

A few years later,  he and Colts’ owner Carroll Rosenbloom flew to Columbus to convince Ohio State’s Jim Parker to sign with the Colts.

And in 1963, he was instrumental in getting Syracuse’s John Mackey to sign with the Colts rather than the AFL New York Titans.

Moore, Parker and Mackey - three Hall of Famers.

In 1964, as the first black executive hired by the NFL, he also became the first black man hired to an executive position  by any major professional league.

In 1965, his greatest achievement ever might have been his work on behalf of the NFL in “baby sitting” the great Gale Sayers - keeping him company, and away from the rival AFL - until the Bears could sign him.

In 1966, Commissioner Pete Rozelle selected him to become the NFL’s Director of Player Relations.

He was one of the first black men to play pro football, and playing on teams on which he was one of only two or three black players, he undoubtedly had his rough spots, but his warm, bubbling personality carried him through, and made him very popular with blacks and whites alike.

Following his retirement as a player he became the  first black man to be a regular on Baltimore TV, as  a fixture on "Corralin' the Colts,” an extremely popular weekly show.

Buddy Young  died tragically in 1983 while returning from representing the NFL at a memorial service for Joe Delaney, who had  drowned while trying to rescue three children from a pond.  On the way to the Dallas-Fort Worth airport to catch a flight home, his car went off the road and he was found dead at the scene.  He was 57.

He left his wife, Geraldine, whom he’d met in high school and to whom he’d been married for 38 years.  They had four children, including a son, Zollie, named for his Colts’ teammate, Zollie Toth.  He and Toth, a white southerner, were the first black-and-white roommates in NFL history.


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING BUDDY YOUNG

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
JOE GUTILLA - AUSTIN, TEXAS
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
TOM DAVIS - SAN CARLOS, CALIFORNIA
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
MIKE  FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY

 





***********  QUIZ:  He was a high school star at Notre Dame High in Crowley, Louisiana.  As a running back and defensive back at LSU he was a three-time All-American - the only one in school history.

He is considered one of the seven greatest Tigers of all time (along with Gaynell Tinsley, Jim Taylor, Y. A. Tittle, Steve Van Buren, Billy Cannon and Charles Alexander.)

Prior to his senior season, he was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated and called “The Best Player in the Nation."

He was taken in the second of round of the 1972 NFL Draft  by the Cincinnati Bengals.  Starting at safety as a rookie, he intercepted five passes and returned a punt 66 yards for a touchdown and was named the team’s MVP by his teammates.

His pro career was short but distinguished.   When he retired at age 27, after just six seasons, he had been named to three Pro Bowl teams, and was first team All-Pro in 1976.  For his career he intercepted 17 passes  and scored three defensive touchdowns.

He is one of a handful of players in the history of the NFL to begin studying to become  a medical doctor while still playing football.

While playing with the Bengals, he pursued his M.D. degree at the University of Cincinnati Medical School, and following the 1977 season he retired from football to devote full time to his medical studies. Following graduation, he spent a three-year residency in ophthalmology.

After a  brief but successful attempt at politics - he served a term as a Republican State Senator - he has spent  most of his adult life practicing ophthalmology in his native Crowley.




TUESDAY,  FEBRUARY 28,  2023 -  "In a country of children, in which the option is Santa Claus or work - what wins?" Rush Limbaugh

********** I guess it’s Covid.  What’s the difference whether it is or not?  It sucks, and you ride it out.  Since last Wednesday morning, my wife and I have been borderline helpless, laid low by something very nasty. When you can’t do much for a couple of days but lie in bed and try to sleep… when your throat’s so sore you can barely swallow, but you don’t have any appetite anyhow… when you’re  too tired to walk the dog, and just letting her outside exhausts you… you’re sick.  But guess what?  It’s not all bad - I’ve just  found a great new way to lose eight pounds in just four days!

*********** XFL Report…

After a couple of years of watching assorted startup leagues, and having been involved with a few myself, I think, after two weeks, I’m about ready to pass judgment on the XFL.

*** Fan interest?  Terrible. Bad crowds in Seattle, Las Vegas, Orlando and Houston.  Yes, Houston.  If  you can’t draw a decent crowd to a football game in Houston - you’re in trouble!

They did have a decent end zone crowd in DC last week, but then the nannies came in and took their beer snake away, so it’s hard to say whether the fans will be back.

Las Vegas must have seen  how bad last week’s game in Arlington’s Choctaw Park - a former big-league ballpark  - looked and  decided to double down, playing  its games in a ball park,  too.  But a minor league ball park.  Great optics, especially when they’d cut from a shot of the very low-class playing venue to one of  The Strip.

*** Quality of play?  The overall incompetence is staggering.  It starts with the quarterbacking, and it’s fairly easy to see why none of these guys made it as even a Number Three for an NFL team. They’re inaccurate, they have great difficulty escaping pressure, and they make bad decisions.

The receivers are worse than the quarterbacks,  if that’s possible.  An amazing number of passes have gone right through receivers’ hands.

As usual, the defensive linemen are way ahead of the offensive linemen,  a fact of which the offensive coaches seem painfully unaware. They just take a sack and  then line up and drop back again - and take another sack.  Rinse and repeat.

The coaching is mostly a joke.  Half of the head  coaches act like the beginners that they are, alternating between meaninglessly imploring their players “Let’s Go! Let’s Go! Let’s Go!” and whining about not being able to find anybody who wants to play.  I saw none other than June Jones, who ought to know better, throw deep on a third-and-one and, after it went incomplete, follow right up with another pass - also incomplete - on fourth and one.

*** The “Presentation.” There is a lack of  continuity to the broadcasts, caused largely because they really aren’t broadcasting games - they’re bringing us a series of personal interviews, interspersed with football plays.

It goes something like this…
1. Someone makes a  fairly nice play
2. The player who made the fairly nice play is interviewed on the sideline as play on the field goes on
3. Back to the field, play in progress.  No one acknowledges that we were away.

You’ll notice that one thing we didn’t see was a replay of the “fairly nice play.”  Actually, we don’t see many replays at all, and almost never those of plays where penalties occurred, because we’re busy interviewing someone.

I’m gathering that the XFL thinks this is going to help  create stars, but I don’t think it’s working.

Penalties are another thing.  Someone is asleep at the switch somewhere, because we’re seldom informed that there’s a flag on the play.  So unless we actually see a flag being thrown, it often comes as a jolt to us to suddenly see the referee signaling some penalty or another.

I’ll include the uniforms as part of the presentation.  There’s something about these teams that looks - the best word I can come up with is “inauthentic.”

VERDICT:  This league is headed  down the drain fast.  The talent is shaky and it’s not well coached.  The teams look like hell on the field, and the telecasts are so disjointed they’re painful to watch.  Kill the interviews, guys, and give us replays.  And stop with the shots of the head coaches on the sidelines and the coordinators up in the booths.


*********** It may or may not be true - we have only “sources” to rely on - but you have to admit that after all we’ve come to know recently about the real Russell Wilson, it’s not hard to believe that he actually had the gall to  go to Seattle Seahawks ownership and ask them to fire Pete Carroll and GM John Schneider.





*********** Condolences to Army head coach Jeff Monken, whose dad, Mike Monken, died last Thursday in Bloomington, Illinois. He was  83.

Mike Monken, who coached for more than 30 years at Joliet East and Joliet Central High Schools, was one of five brothers who became Illinois high school coaches.

And, noted Army Coach Jeff Monken, "Talk about some influential men, those five boys produced seven sons that are football coaches.   There’s 12 of us in two generations that do this for a living.”

Like so many coaches’ sons, Jeff started as a waterboy at Joliet East when he was eight, and wound up playing for his dad as a freshman.

I had the great honor of meeting Mr. and Mrs. Monken, the parents, at an Army Spring game several years ago. They were very nice people, and Dad Mike and I had a nice chat about some of my experiences in South Suburban Chicago football.

The Monkens drove to every one of Jeff’s games when he was head coach at Georgia Southern. "It's 925 miles from door to door," he said. "A 15-hour drive.”

They made most of the games at West Point, too - It was just 774 miles.

At the time of Jeff’s hiring, Mike called Army “the perfect fit” for his son. "You can go to a lot of big schools like Alabama, Florida and Florida State,” he said,  “but it's not Army.”

https://www.kurtzmemorialchapel.com/obituaries/Michael-J-Monken?obId=27375091





*********** You don’t even have to be a Raiders’ fan - just a fan of a great era of professional football - to appreciate this shot of four legendary  Raiders’ quarterbacks, gathered together for one last group photo when they were all still alive. From the top (clockwise): #3, Daryle Lamonica; #16, George Blanda; #12 Ken Stabler; #16 Jim Plunkett.  Only Plunkett remains with us.  Blanda died in 2010, Stabler in 2015, and Lamonica last April.




 
***********  Longtime Double-Winger and coaching associate Gabe McCown sent along this photo, saying, “Found it in the First Americans Museum in Oklahoma City. The stance and snap and splits jumped out at me.”

It’s the great Carlisle Indians team of 1912. They  went 12-1-1. They were tied 0-0 by Washington and Jefferson and defeated by mighty Penn.  But they defeated eastern powers such as Villanova, Pitt, Syracuse and Army (whom they trounced, 27-6). They outscored their opponents, 454-120.

That guy “Thorpe” at LHB (“Left Half Back) is THE Jim Thorpe.  The  quarterback, Gus Welch, would go on to fame as a player and then a coach.

Their coach was the great Glenn “Pop” Warner, and 1912 was the season that he introduced his “Double Wing” formation (he was already credited with inventing the single  wing), to better offset his players’ lack of size by taking greater advantage of their superior speed.

The “stance and snap and splits” that Coach McCown refers to are Warner trademarks.

As you can see from the photo, there are no discernible line splits.

In addition - there are lots of ways of saying this - but his linemen all have their inside hands down. This means, of course, that their inside feet are further back. It also means that their outside feet are forward. No matter how you say it - he even talks about his guards’ feet being "on opposite corners of a square” - it’s what we’ve been teaching!

(And despite my starting out in the playbook by stating this is  one of our absolutes, guys will pay  their good money to  buy my system - and then allow their players to line up as they please. What do I know?  What did Pop Warner know?  Oh, well.)

Here’s how Warner taught it in his 1927 book,

“Football for Coaches and Players”
Glenn Scobey Warner
1927

HOW TO PLAY END

When his side has the ball, the end should stand on the line of scrimmage, with the outside foot forward and his inside hand or both hands upon the line, his back straight and tail lower than the shoulders, and his feet well apart to give him stability to withstand a charge or push from the side.

HOW TO PLAY TACKLE

“He should have his outside foot forward (unless instructed differently by the coach), his inside hand or both hands upon the line, and his legs well under him and far enough apart to give him stability to withstand a side push.”

HOW TO PLAY GUARD

“On offense a guard should stand with his feet on diagonally opposite corners of a square with both feet and his whole body pointing straight ahead, at right angles to the line of scrimmage. The left guard generally has his left foot forward and the right guard his right, in order to enable them to get into the interference more readily on plays going around the opposite side.”

Finally, there’s Warner on the center snap.  Many years ago, a great single wing historian, the late Ed Racely, told me that Pitt’s Jock Sutherland - and  many other single wing coaches like him - was a teacher of the end-over-end direct snap.  This was news to me, and had a profound effect on the way I evolved into Wildcat, and then Open Wing. The end-over-end snap was, as you will see, favored by Warner, and you can tell  by the Carlisle center’s grip on the ball that that is the method he uses.

HOW TO PLAY CENTER

“If he uses the end-over-end pass he should grasp the ball somewhat back of its center and on its sides. If using the spiral pass, he should have one hand more under the ball and the other farther forward and toward the top of the ball. Either method of passing the ball to the backs is good form. The end-over-end pass is the easiest to learn and the easiest for the backs to handle, and repeated timing with a stopwatch has shown that the simple end-over-end pass is just as fast in getting the ball to the punter as is the more intricate  spiral.  The spiral pass from center has absolutely no advantages over the end-over-end method as far as I have been able to determine, and I never encourage or teach it; but, as stated above, either method is good.”


*********** An interesting sidetone to the Carlisle story: in the photo, the left tackle is “Guyon.”  That was Joe Guyon, who had arrived that year at Carlisle.  Although he was a very good runner, the backfield was all set, so Warner put him at tackle. He was extremely tough: in the Army game he manhandled his opponent, the much larger Army captain, to the point where the Cadet resorted to foul play and was ejected.  The next year, after Thorpe graduated, Guyon moved into the backfield and made Al-American. Joe Guyon, like Jim Thorpe, became a pro football pioneer, and is in the Pro Football and College Football Halls of Fame.


*********** Probably you’ve seen the beyond-half-court three-pointer by Arizona State’s Desmond Cambridge, (Jr.) that beat Arizona at the buzzer.

This is Cambridge’s  sixth season and his third school (Brown and Nevada, plus Arizona State).

Now, things are getting a bit farcical these days, but what had me do my WTF? was the fact that the kid got into Brown (a highly selective Ivy League school) in the first place, and was Ivy Rookie of the Year as a freshman - then left after two years to go to… Nevada?   Hmmm.  Maybe  they had a major that Brown didn’t offer.


***********  “Nobody invented football, nobody invented certain schemes, everybody gets their information from somebody else, they learned it somewhere. There are a few creative ideas over the years that people have thought up obviously. But for the most part, everybody learned it somewhere.” Mark Richt


*********** Never try to bullsh— real fans.

After Saturday’s Oregon-Oregon State basketball game, some genius in the OSU athletic department must have thought nobody would call him or her) on it when they said that they’d set a “student record” for attendance with some 3,000  there.

It was reported, and immediately challenged.

See, like so many of today’s sports reporters, who think that sports didn’t exist before they got their jobs, the fools in the OSU athletic offices forgot that there was a  time  when a Hall of Fame coach named Ralph Miller was turning out nationally-ranked teams, and  the Beavers’ Gill Coliseum was what Arizona’s McKale Center is today. 

And what do you know?  Some of those people remembered. Caught in the act.

Shame on OSU for trying to pull such a sleazy PR stunt. Geez - After the way they’re screwing their football season ticket holders (requiring thousands in donations in return  for the right to renew) I’m beginning to lose my sympathy for the poor, underdog Beavers.



*********** Good rundown on the XFL for those of us who watched only one or two. I too enjoyed being in the room with Blandino as he broke down the film in real time.

Your house must be roughly 50,000 sq ft. I arrived at that figure thinking you need that much space to store all your football records (a little different from memorabilia). I mean, if you kept that teletype, you must have kept everything you ever touched. No Swedish Death Cleaning for Coach Wyatt.

John Vermillion
St. Petersburg, Florida


***********  Hugh,

Even though I was out of town this past weekend I did get a chance to catch a glimpse of a couple of the XFL games.  Wholeheartedly agree with you regarding the thinly talented offensive lines, but have to say there are a few really good skill position players and defenders.

Folks down here in San Antonio support their football no matter who it is.  UTSA draws crowds in excess of 40,000.

IMHO I think your son Ed is spot-on regarding the MWC.  But I do agree with you that bringing SMU into the Pac 12 is a reach.

While I enjoyed watching the movie "Invincible" I think I would have enjoyed your TRUE version a lot more!  But I wonder, in your version what actor would have played your part?


QUiZ:  Ricky Bell (CBS came out with a 90 minute made for TV movie about him in 1991 called "A Triumph of the Heart" which starred Mario Van Peebles as Ricky.  Most of the 90 minutes dealt with his professional career and his fight with the disease).

Have a great week!

Joe Gutilla
Austin, Texas


I used to think that Denzel Washington would be the one because he’s got such credibility after “Remember the Titans.” But now I worry about whether he’s still young enough to play me.  Hahaha.



 


*********** QUIZ ANSWER: Ricky Bell's  family moved from Houston to Los Angeles when he was 11, and when he became a highly-recruited high school player, he was convinced  to go to USC by watching O.J. Simpson on TV.

At USC, he was put at linebacker, but his sophomore year he was moved to fullback, where he gained 299 yards on 45 carries but mostly blocked for tailback Anthony Davis as USC won the national championship.

And then, before his junior season, he was moved to tailback,  and in his very first game at his new position he validated the coaches’ decision by setting a school record with 256 yards rushing against Duke.

He wound up leading the nation in rushing with 1,875 yards.

''Next to O. J.,'' John McKay said, “(He)  has the best speed I've ever coached at tailback. And at 6-2 and 215 pounds, he's the biggest tailback I've ever had. He has tremendous power of acceleration. There's no limit to his success, provided he continues to get good blocking. But, with his size and speed, he needs less blocking than other people.''

“He runs like a blacksmith,”  said USC defensive coordinator Dan Levy.  “He attacks. He’s a linebacker playing tailback. Our guys call him Mad Dog. They yap when he carries the ball,”

McKay left after that season to become the first coach of the new Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and was succeeded  by John Robinson.

Despite missing one whole  game and parts of others because  injuries, our guy still amassed  1,433 yards and 14 touchdowns, was named Pac-8 Player of the Year, and was once again a unanimous All-America selection.  He finished second in the Heisman Trophy voting behind Tony Dorsett.

Against Washington State, in a game played in Seattle to show off the new Kingdome, he and WSU QB Jack Thompson engaged in a duel  for the ages. Thompson threw for 341 yards, but our guy rushed for 347 yards on 51 carries and the Trojans won, 23-14.

In  his career at USC,  he  rushed for 3,689 yards and 28 touchdowns and  caught 18 passes for 185 yards and one score.

McKay, meanwhile, had had a winless first season at Tampa Bay, and  with the first draft pick, although expected to select Tony Dorsett,  he instead chose his former tailback from USC, signing him to the richest rookie deal in NFL history.  (The Cowboys, choosing second, took Dorsett.)

In his rookie season , Tampa Bay won twice.  He started 10 games and rushed for 436 yards and a  touchdown.

The Buccaneers kept improving and in his third year, he had his best season - gaining 1,263 yards and seven touchdowns on 283 carries and being named the team’s MVP - as the team finished 10-6.


For the first time in their history, the Bucs made the playoffs,  and defeated the Eagles in the divisional round before losing to the Rams in the NFC championship game.
 

The following year, the Bucs slumped - going 5-10-1 -  and so did he, starting in 12 games and gaining 599 yards on 174 carries.

His playing time dropped more the next season, and after he requested a trade, McKay sent him to San Diego.

In  five seasons with the Buccaneers, he set a number of  club records, and his 3,057 yards - in 60 games - still ranks eighth among all time team rushes..

In San Diego, in a 1982 season shortened by a player’s strike, he played little, and during the 1983 training camp, suffering from weight loss, aching muscles and  skin problems, he retired.

Diagnosed as suffering from dermatomyositis and polymyositis, diseases that affect the skin, the muscles and various connective tissue, by the fall of 1984 he weighed just 110 pounds.

On November 28, 1984,  he died from heart failure.

He left his wife and a three-year-old daughter.

“Ricky Bell was one of the finest football players I’ve ever had the pleasure of coaching,” John McKay said on  hearing of his death. “He was an even finer man.”



CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING RICKY BELL

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
TOM DAVIS - SAN CARLOS, CALIFORNIA
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - AUSTIN, TEXAS
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY
MIKE  FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
 




***********   QUIZ:  At  5-4, he remains the shortest man ever to play pro football.  But he should be remembered for much more than that.

A native of Chicago, he was state high school champ in the 100-yard dash, and at the University of Illinois, he was NCAA champion in the 100 and tied the world record (6.1) in the 60-yard dash.

While at Illinois, he tied the school record for touchdowns in a single season set by the immortal Red Grange, and he was named Co-Player of the Game in the 1947 Rose Bowl, after Illinois hammered UCLA, 45-14.

He was the second black to be named to an All-American team - exactly twenty years after Fritz Pollard of Brown became the first. 

He played ten years in pro football, the first three in the AAFC, before it "merged" with the NFL. He finished his career with the Baltimore Colts, and was the answer to a question in the movie "Diner," made by Baltimorean Barry Levinson, in which a guy makes his fiancee prove her worthiness to marry him by answering a series of trivia questions on the Colts. The question had to do with the teams he had formerly played for that no longer existed. How about three: New York Yankees (AAFC), New York Yankees (NFL), Dallas Texans (NFL).

Although short,  he was stocky,  a cannonball with great speed and ability to change direction, making him a real crowd pleaser.  He  attributed his long NFL career to the fact that few people ever got a decent shot at him.

He  was the first Colt to have his number retired.

As a member of Colts’ management one of his first acts was to find his replacement. and to do so he drove to Reading, Pennsylvania in a snowstorm to convince Lenny Moore to sign with the Colts rather than go to Canada. (“I was in awe of him,” Moore would recall.)

A few years later,  he and Colts’ owner Carroll Rosenbloom flew to Columbus to convince Ohio State’s Jim Parker to sign with the Colts.

And in 1963, he was instrumental in getting Syracuse’s John Mackey to sign with the Colts rather than the AFL New York Titans.

Moore, Parker and Mackey - all Hall of Famers.

In 1964, as the first black executive hired by the NFL, he also became the first black man hired to an executive position  by any major professional league.

In 1965, his greatest achievement ever might have been his work on behalf of the NFL in “baby sitting” the great Gale Sayers - keeping him company, and away from the rival AFL - until the Bears could sign him

In 1966, Commissioner Pete Rozelle selected him to become the NFL’s Director of Player Relations.

He was one of the first black men to play pro football, and playing on teams on which he was one of only two or three black players, he undoubtedly  had his rough spots, but his warm, bubbling personality carried him through, and made him very popular with blacks and whites alike.

Following his retirement as a player he became the  first black man to be a regular on Baltimore TV, as  a fixture on "Corralin' the Colts,” an extremely popular weekly show.

He died tragically in 1983 while returning from representing the NFL at a memorial service for Joe Delaney, who had  drowned while trying to rescue three children from a pond.  On the way to the Dallas-Fort Worth airport to catch a flight home, his car went off the road and he was found dead at the scene.  He was 57.


He left his wife, Geraldine, whom he’d met in high school and to whom he’d been married for 38 years.  They had four children, including a son, Zollie, named for his Colts’ teammate, Zollie Toth.  He and Toth, a white southerner, were the first black-and-white roommates in NFL history.






FRIDAY,  FEBRUARY 24,  2023 -  “The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits."  Albert Einstein

*********** We get three papers delivered daily, but we didn't get any delivered today.  I think the snow in the Porrtland area - 10 inches at the airport and 14 inches where we live in Camas, Washigton - may have had something to do with it.

So I suppose I could try to use the weather as my excuse for not publishing today.

The truth is, I've been sick for the  last couple of days,   to the point where I wasn't up to the slightest physical activity - including getting my ass out of bed and walking to another room and typing on a computer.

I must be starting to feel better, because I'm able to type this on the computer.

Lots to talk about Tuesday!

Have a great weekend!

And here's the link to Tuesday night's Zoom -

https://vimeo.com/user174754949/119


TUESDAY,  FEBRUARY 21,   2023 -  “I don’t know who my grandfather was. I am much more concerned to know what his grandson will be.”  Abraham Lincoln 

*********** The XFL is back. At least it’s football. It’s  providing players and coaches with  a chance to stay in the game, and it gives people like me something to watch.


***********  I can understand  The Rock being the front man - the spokesman - for the league. He does give it a bit of credibility, and it’s a good idea  for him to be seen. A lot.   But I don’t at all understand what they think they’re accomplishing by giving one Dani Garcia what seems like near-equal billing, as if we’re all supposed to know who she is. No introduction, no nothing. They just told  us “she’s an owner.” So?

I see now that she’s his ex-wife, and that she’s been successful in business, but so what? Maybe she’s well known to a certain group, but I doubt that many football fans have any idea who she is.  And maybe the promoters of the XFL think this diversity sh— is going to bring female viewers to the XFL, but it seems to me that the XFL’s first order of business is to   convince football fans that this thing is real football.


*********** The XFL’s “hub” is Arlington, Texas, which I guess makes sense for a lot of reasons, but the availability of “Choctaw Stadium” - a former baseball park - ought not to be one of them.  It’s a miserable venue to put on a show.  In the background, the unique architecture makes for bizarre optics, especially when the stands are empty.

Which is another area where the XFL blew it.  Really, really blew it.  It was the XFL’s first game after a year’s hiatus, with the new owner (The Rock) on hand, and the home team in action - but any respectable high school program would have been embarrassed by the size of the crowd.

Look - I worked for the Philadelphia Bell in 1974.  In our first game in the World Football League, we played in front of 55,574 people.  For our second game, we had more than 63,000 people on hand. No lie. I was there.  Our owners lied and insisted  that those numbers were all “paid,” and  the entire league started to go under when reporters discovered that most of those in attendance were  there as freebies.  Yes, they lied. They “papered” the house. But it says a lot about Philly sports fans  and their love of pro football, because in most towns, you couldn’t have paid people to attend and had crowds like that.

What I’m getting at here is that the XFL had a chance to show a national TV audience that in their home market at least, there was a lot of interest.  But they blew it.

*********** The XFL said it is going to be “all access,” and so a lot of people are wearing mic’s - not sure that’s necessarily so great - but it did give us a couple of funny moments.

Before the game, Rod Woodson, coach of the Las Vegas Vipers, was seen (and heard) telling his team, “Don’t get emotionally hijacked… let the game come to you.”

And then, not more than five minutes later, down on the Vegas sidelines one Katie George interviewed Coach Woodson, and her first question - I swear - was, “what advice did you give your players?”

And Woodson replied, “I told them not to get emotionally hijacked and to let the game come to them.”


*********** The league has chosen to depart from the NFL - and colleges - in a few ways, all of them, in my opinion, improvements.

The kickoff (I’m not going to explain in detail) is billed as a “safer version,” and it probably is, because there are far fewer high-speed collisions, but it’s also a good bit less boring than the NFL’s customary touchbacks.

Next, a team that’s just scored in the final minutes and  needs to get the ball back  again can choose either to onside-kick or to try an untimed  “fourth-and-15” play on their own 35 yard line.  If they make the 15 yards, the drive continues from wherever the play ended. If they fail to make it, the opponents take over.

The real improvement over the NFL is in the area of extra points.  No more kicking PATs. Hallelujah.

Instead, the team scoring a touchdown then chooses whether to run or pass from the one, the five, or the ten.  From the one, a successful try is worth a point. From the five, it’s  worth two points.  And from the ten, it’s worth three points.


*********** I trust that the XFL will continue with the “Command Center,” in which a rules expert - in this case, Dean Blandino, comes on screen and goes through the process of a play review as we watch and listen.  It’s transparent and aboveboard and the fan feels almost involved, so as a result it’s much easier to accept the final decision than with the stupid keep-the-fans-in-the-dark process of the NFL and colleges in which all we get to see is a referee squinting at a screen the size of an iPad.


*********** One great thing the “all-access” provides is a chance to eavesdrop on some good coaching.  After a fumble, I heard a coach ask the fumbler what happened.

When the fumbler  answered, “I don’t know,” the coach  replied - very calmly I thought -  “Don’t say ‘I don’t know’ - because then we can’t fix it!”


*********** They do a lot of sideline interviews, especially with guys who’ve just made some sort of significant play.  It’s probably a good idea as a way for us to get to know some of the players, but there are some problems: first, if the idea is for us to get to know the players, they need to remove their helmets; second, the audio is  often poor; and finally - and there’s no fix for this - the level of spoken English from many of the players is a terrible indictment of the state of American education.


*********** The uniforms, which I gather have been provided by Under Armour, range from hopelessly drab and dull to idiotically flamboyant.

The Houston helmets are blue on one side, while on the other they’re white on the top half and red on the bottom half.  I’m assuming its a lameass attempt at representing the Lone Star flag.


*********** The games themselves have been  somewhat bizarre, the play inconsistent as hell.  There were a couple of cases where a team that appeared to be in total control in the early going suddenly seemed to forget how to play.  And there were a couple of cases in which teams that had no apparent offense suddenly woke up  and put on impressive closing drives.


*********** It is quite clear that it’s easier to get defensive lineman than it is to get offensive lineman, a fact of which most of the league’s eight quarterbacks became painfully aware.  Sacks were plentiful.


*********** San Antonio had a good crowd in the AlamoDome, and Washington, DC’s crowd, while slightly smaller, was at least as into it.   They’re playing in a soccer stadium, and the fans are close to the field, especially at one end, where it’s standing-room only. Those guys reacted rather strongly when for some reason, deep into the  third quarter,  the stadium people took away their “beer snake.”


*********** June Jones is the OC of the Seattle Sea Dragons (Ron Zook is the DC), and it was fun to watch them run a couple of basic run-and-shoot plays. 


*********** The place kickers are inconsistent as hell.


*********** Of all the QBs I saw in the four games, I saw some great plays at times from several of them, but for the best play from start to finish, I’d go with St. Louis’  A. J. McCarron.  The same one who played at Alabama and hadn’t played since early in the 2021 NFL season.

He’s 32 years old.  Why is he out there playing minor league football?

“I had a couple of (NFL) workouts during the (2022) season, and for whatever reason, things didn’t work out. But my son (he’s seven) got to play football for the first time this year, so being able to coach him, and he works an I-Pad like no other  and he can look up YouTube highlights and stuff, so he basically came to me and said he wanted to watch me play again.”


*********** My son, Ed, is something of an expert on the Mountain West, and because Mountain West schools - Boise State, Fresno State and San Diego State - have been mentioned as expansion possibilities for the Pac-12, he’s been doing a bit of research on that topic and came up with these figures:

Football Stadium Capacity

Washington (Husky): 70,083

Cal (Memorial): 63,000

Oregon (Autzen): 54,000

ASU (Sun Devil): 53,599

Utah (Rice-Eccles): 51,444

Arizona (Arizona): 50,800

Stanford (Stanford): 50,424

Colorado (Folsom): 50,183

Fresno (Valley Childrens): 40,727

Boise (Albertsons): 36,387

SDSU (Snapdragon): 35,000

Washington State (Martin): 32,952

SMU (Gerald J. Ford): 32,000


*Oregon State (Reser) not included - couldn't get accurate figure post-renovation
-----


Football Average Attendance (2022)

Washington: 62,933

Oregon: 54,950

Utah: 52,057

Arizona: 44,209

ASU: 43,081

Colorado: 42,847

Fresno: 39,067

Cal: 38,596

Boise: 35,121

*Oregon State (31,498)

Stanford: 29,965

SDSU: 29,892

Washington State: 26,185

SMU: 24,971


-----
Basketball Arena Capacity

Fresno (Save Mart): 15,544

Utah (Huntsman): 15,000

Arizona (McHale): 14,655

ASU (Desert Financial): 14,198

Boise (Extra Mile): 12,480

SDSU (Viejas): 12,414

Oregon (Matthew Knight): 12,346

Cal (Haas): 11,856

Washington State (Beasley): 11,671

Colorado (CU Events): 11,064

Washington (Hec Edmondson): 10,000

Oregon State (Gill): 9,604

Stanford (Maples): 7,233

SMU (Moody): 7,000

------
Basketball Average Attendance

Arizona: 13,414

SDSU: 11,331

ASU: 7,973

Boise: 7,869

Utah: 7,669

Colorado: 6,995

Oregon: 6,970

Washington: 6,554

Cal: 4,746

Fresno: 4,183

Oregon State: 3,666

SMU: 3,599

Washington State: 3,133

Stanford: 2,360


Knowing that I’m not at all excited about the possible addition of SMU anyhow, Ed concluded,

Honestly, SMU ticks only three boxes, all 'off field' or 'off court':

1: the idea (overrated I think) that it 'gets you into Texas' for recruiting, etc ...

2: the idea that you get the Dallas-Fort Worth TV market (not sure you really do) ..

3: it's a better academic school than the Mountain West colleges (correct, but not sure it matters)

*********** It’s been years  since the movie “Invincible” opened, but it’s still very popular, both as a football movie, and as a true story about how Vince Papale, a 30-year-old bartender with no prior organized football experience,  manages to wangle a  tryout with the Philadelphia Eagles and - whaddaya know? - actually makes the team and goes on to have a nice little  career in the pros.  

Well.  To be  fair, it was “inspired by a true story.” Sort of. As long as a “true story” doesn’t have to contain the whole truth.

See, three years before the Eagles  signed Vince Papale, the guy with no prior organized football expereince, I saw him playing minor league ball for a team in the Philadelphia area called the Ridley Township Green Knights. Pretty good team.  I didn’t know how to pronounce his name, but I remembered him, and a year later, when I was setting up free agent tryouts as player personnel director of the World Football League’s Philadelphia Bell, I made sure that Vince Papale was there. 

He really impressed  the Bell coaches with his combination of size (6-2, 190), speed, athleticism and catching ability.  After he’d had a good look, our head coach, Ron Waller, who had finished the previous season as the interim head coach of the Chargers, said, “F—k,”  (he started a lot of his sentences  with “f—k”) “he’s better than anybody we had in San Diego.” 

And so it was that at the end of that day, I signed Vince Papale, who had been a decathlete at St. Joseph’s but had only played the one year of minor league football since high school, to a pro football contract.

That was 1974.  He would play two years with The Bell, and after the World Football League  folded (for the second straight year) he was given a personal tryout and  signed by the Eagles.  It was not an off-the-wall deal.  It was not a big surprise.  The Eagles were (still are) a professional football team, aware of talent wherever it might be, and they were not unaware of talent on the other professional team in their own town.

So yes, his story was a good one.  A great one. He went on to have a nice career with the Eagles - even became their special teams captain -  and yes, he did overcome  a lot of obstacles to so so.  A great guy who worked hard for everything he got.

But come on, man. There’s no way he would have made it to the NFL without those two seasons in the WFL.

So whenever the  subject of “Invincible” comes up, I go full obnoxious, in defense of the World Football League and the guys who played in it and coached in it.  They saw  their dreams shattered when the WFL went under, and at the very least they deserve a bit of recognition  for the part they played in the Vince Papale story. The true part that was left out.




(ABOVE LEFT) A copy of the teletype  that I was required to send to the league office before every game.

(ABOVE RIGHT) Vince Papale and I at a 2010 reunion of The Bell. (I’m wearing the official Sand-Knit  Bell coaches’ outfit, which I’d saved all those years.)  Tom Walls, of Winnipeg, saw the photo and guessed - correctly - that I was drinking a Yuengling.


*********** Eric Bieniemy has a new job - OC with the Washington Commies.  It’s not considered a lateral move, since unlike in Kansas City, where Andy Reid actually called the plays, he’ll call the plays in DC.

But also unlike Kansas City, he won’t have one on the best quarterbacks in the game.

And also unlike Kansas City, he won’t have the job security he had in KC, because in Washington it’s quite possible that Ron Rivera needs to win to keep his job.  Of course, it’s possible that one of the lures  that got Bieniemy to DC was the suggestion that he might be among the candidates to replace Rivera.

On somewhat the same topic, a reader who chose not to be named did the research that I should have done in my wondering why Eric Bieniemy can’t get hired as a head coach.  Without going into details, there are some disturbing incidents in his background, mostly years ago during his younger days at Colorado, that could make a potential employer wary.


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

I was listening to a sports talk show this morning and they were discussing that the NFL is moving to ban the “tush push” QB sneak that the Eagles used so effectively. From what I understand they will no longer be able to push the QB from behind. However, no mention is made about aiding the blockers. It looks like your blocking scheme for the wedge may become the go to play on fourth and short in the NFL, if they want an effective play.

Best wishes,

Russ Meyers
Annapolis, Maryland

Coach,

Thanks for the tip.

The Eagles sneak play has become unstoppable with just a yard to go so I guess the only way to stop them is through the rules. Interestingly, on a lot of the plays I’ve seen, they haven’t even needed the push.  The line’s surge - plus Hurts’ size and strength-  were enough.


 *********** The Double-Wing meets the Belly… Today, play action off the basic Belly Off-tackle…



Needless to say, if  you are blocking 6-G and 66-G correctly, you will be forcing the opponents’ secondary to come up and make a lot of tackles.

This is great for a couple of reasons: first, they’re going to get worn down making all those tackles; and second, they only have to miss one of those tackles and you’ve got a big play.

But third, there’s the strong likelihood that  they’ll become so concerned about stopping the run that they’ll neglect their pass coverage responsibilities.

We  block it playside just like 6-G or 66-G, with two alterations: (1) the Tight End doesn’t block down, obviously, because he’s our primary receiver. We expect the B-Back  to hit hard enough to stuff that C-gap, and the trailing A-Back  will help; (2) the playside guard does not kick out  the EMOL unless it is unavoidable, but instead he logs that man.  To help him, the job of the playside wingback - the C back - is to jam the EMOL as if we were running a reach play then  releasing to the flat.  This not only aids the guard in logging his man, but gives the playside corner (#1) a false key.

This is the most common pattern we use, but all of the patterns used in our “Brown” and “Black” passes are applicable to this  protection and backfield action.



***********   Hi Hugh,

The “News” on February 17, had a piece on 47 Brown and I couldn’t agree with Mike Lude more, on his opinion, that this play is the best in football. From 1995 through 2008 this one play graded out as the best play per yardage gained and TDs scored on attempts . It is simply terrific and when paired with the play action of Super Power, Down, and Counter is a beast to defend. Depending on your feelings around the number of plays in the arsenal the ‘C screen left’ off this same action is quite good too. In todays football world this would be considered an RPO and as such is nearly unstoppable. I had the opportunity to speak on this one play a number of times at various clinics over the years and always received a positive response. Next to Super Power this was my favorite play in the offense.

Jack Tourtillotte
Rangeley, Maine

 Jack,   It is a great play, and I have to confess that I haven’t run it nearly enough!


***********   Can't get enough Thomas Sowell. Thanks for using his words with some regularity.

Nice pic and commentary on it from the WS game. I imagine many fans weren't happy to park their cars that way. By the way, that's how it's done on the streets of Cairo every day. Too bad if you have to wait a while.

Every once in a while, the death of someone in the sports world causes me to pause. McCarver was one of those. He and Joe Garagiola were genuine baseball men, and good guys to boot. Sorry to lose Tim.

Why did you have unkind words for the halftime show? It's always been my favorite part of the game (yeah, right!).

John Vermillion
St. Petersburg, Florida


*********** Hugh,

I hope the XFL will find itself a niche in pro football.  Likely won't, but without hope none of us would likely not have a chance at anything.

Your halftime "crowd numbers" for the Super Bowl reminded me of the times this past year when I attended a couple of local high school "homecoming" games as a "fan" and the "crowd" noticeably thinned at the start of the third quarter.

Tim McCarver was the epitome of the color analyst alongside Joe Buck.  Calm, cool, succinct, and to the point.  More color guys should be like him.  RIP Mr. McCarver.

Always got a lot of mileage out of that "Belly" series pass!

Unfortunately Baltimore is just one of MANY once really good cities.

Yes, that New Mexico State basketball scandal will be felt by that school and Las Cruces community for awhile.  I remember when the University of San Francisco's successful basketball program was suspended in the early 80's for a couple of years by the university's president.  That school's entire athletic program (no football) took a hit and it took a number of years for many of its sports teams to recover.  Hopefully Jerry Kill and his football program can help overcome the loss of basketball which has always been the number one sport at NMSU.

Maybe those young guns getting HC jobs in the NFL has more to do with money than anything else.  Looking at Eric Bieniemy's resume in comparison shows he would require a heftier salary than those other less experienced guys.

Enjoy the weekend!

Joe Gutilla
Austin, Texas






***********  QUIZ ANSWER:  Like so many other Heisman Trophy winners, Charlie Ward did not go on to great things in the NFL.  In fact, he didn’t go on to the NFL at all.

But he did have a long and successful career as a professional athlete.

He came out of Thomasville, Georgia and attended Florida State.

Counting a redshirt season, he didn’t start at FSU until his fourth year, but his last two seasons were very impressive. In those two years, he completed 468 of 745 for 5679 yards and 49 TDs.  And he rushed 165 times for 843 yards and 10 TDs.

In his senior year, the Seminoles lost only to Notre Dame in the regular season, and in the Orange Bowl they defeated Number 2 Nebraska to finish 12-1  and win the first national title in school history.

His personal performance that season was spectacular: he threw for 3.023 yards and 27 TDs, with only four interceptions.  Besides being the consensus all-American quarterback, he received every individual honor a college quarterback can win:

The Heisman Trophy

The Maxwell Award

The Walter Camp Award (1993)

The Johnny Unitas Award (1993)

The Davey O'Brien Award (1993)

Sullivan Award (Outstanding Amateur Athlete)

Chic Harley Award

ACC Offensive Player of the Year

ACC Player of the Year (Twice)

ACC Athlete of the Year (Twice)

Sporting News Player of the Year

He was  a four-year starter as a point guard on the Seminoles’ basketball team, and averaged 10.5 points per game his senior year.

He was 6-2 but slim at 190, and not rated highly by NFL scouts, and he made it clear that if he was not drafted in he first round by an NFL team, he would play pro basketball.

At that, NFL teams backed away, and when he was drafted Number One by the New York Knicks, he signed with them and embarked on a nine-year NBA career.

He is the only Heisman winner ever to play in the NBA, and besides Bo Jackson, he’s the only  one to play any major professional sport other than football.

Ironically, during a stretch of time when both the Giants and Jets were down, New York fans loved to say he was  “the best quarterback in New York.”

He has been an active member of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and has  done considerable charity work.  He has established a foundation to “enhance the lives of young people through sports based mentoring and educational programs.”

He currently coaches a high school basketball team in Tallahassee, and serves as Florida State’s Ambassador of Football. 

Charlie Ward and his wife are the parents of three children.


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING CHARLIE WARD

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - AUSTIN, TEXAS
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
TOM DAVIS - SAN CARLOS, CALIFORNIA
JASON MENSING - WESTLAND, MICHIGAN
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY
MIKE  FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS



*********** I have some clips of Charlie Ward throwing, and I don’t believe I have ever seen a quarterback with a cleaner, smoother, more efficient throwing technique.  I’d have enjoyed seeing him play in the NFL.


***********   This weeks quiz of course is Charlie Ward, thanks for the much needed lay-up (pun intended) for us younger guys!

My Athletic Director who also is heavily involved with FCA has spent some time with Charlie and has stated that he is as good of a person as he is portrayed he is working to get him to come and speak to our athletes which would be incredible!

God Bless,

Jason Mensing 
Head Football Coach,
John Glenn High School,
Westland, Michigan

Coach,

That would really be cool if you could somehow arrange to get a man of that calibre to come talk to your kids!






*********** QUIZ: His family moved from Houston to Los Angeles when he was 11, and when he became a highly-recruited high school player, he was convinced  to go to USC by watching O.J. Simpson on TV.

At USC, he was put at linebacker, but his sophomore year he was moved to fullback, where he gained 299 yards on 45 carries but mostly blocked for tailback Anthony Davis as USC won the national championship.

And then, before his junior season, he was moved to tailback,  and in his very first game at his new position he validated the coaches’ decision by setting a school record with 256 yards rushing against Duke.

He wound up leading the nation in rushing with 1,875 yards.

''Next to O. J.,'' John McKay said, “(He)  has the best speed I've ever coached at tailback. And at 6-2 and 215 pounds, he's the biggest tailback I've ever had. He has tremendous power of acceleration. There's no limit to his success, provided he continues to get good blocking. But, with his size and speed, he needs less blocking than other people.''

“He runs like a blacksmith,”  said USC defensive coordinator Dan Levy.  “He attacks. He’s a linebacker playing tailback. Our guys call him Mad Dog. They yap when he carries the ball,”

McKay left after that season to become the first coach of the new Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and was succeeded  by John Robinson.

Despite missing one whole  game and parts of others because  injuries, our guy still amassed  1,433 yards and 14 touchdowns, was named Pac-8 Player of the Year, and was once again a unanimous All-America selection.  He finished second in the Heisman Trophy voting behind Tony Dorsett.

Against Washington State, in a game played in Seattle to show off the new Kingdome, he and WSU QB Jack Thompson engaged in a duel  for the ages. Thompson threw for 341 yards, but our guy rushed for 347 yards on 51 carries and the Trojans won, 23-14.

In  his career at USC,  he  rushed for 3,689 yards and 28 touchdowns and  caught 18 passes for 185 yards and one score.

McKay, meanwhile, had had a winless first season at Tampa Bay, and  with the first draft pick, although expected to select Tony Dorsett,  he instead chose his former tailback from USC, signing him to the richest rookie deal in NFL history.  (The Cowboys, choosing second, took Dorsett.)

In his rookie season , Tampa Bay won twice.  He started 10 games and rushed for 436 yards and a  touchdown.

The Buccaneers kept improving and in his third year, he had his best season - gaining 1,263 yards and seven touchdowns on 283 carries and being named the team’s MVP - as the team finished 10-6.


For the first time in their history, the Bucs made the playoffs,  and defeated the Eagles in the divisional round before losing to the Rams in the NFC championship game.
 

The following year, the Bucs slumped - going 5-10-1 -  and so did he, starting in 12 games and gaining 599 yards on 174 carries.

His playing time dropped more the next season, and after he requested a trade, McKay sent him to San Diego.

In  five seasons with the Buccaneers, he set a number of  club records, and his 3,057 yards - in 60 games - still ranks eighth among all time team rushes..

In San Diego, in a 1982 season shortened by a player’s strike, he played little, and during the 1983 training camp, suffering from weight loss, aching muscles and  skin problems, he retired.

Diagnosed as suffering from dermatomyositis and polymyositis, diseases that affect the skin, the muscles and various connective tissue, by the fall of 1984 he weighed just 110 pounds.

On November 28, 1984,  he died from heart failure.

He left his wife and a three-year-old daughter.

“(He)was one of the finest football players I’ve ever had the pleasure of coaching,” John McKay said on  hearing of his death. “He was an even finer man.”


FRIDAY,  FEBRUARY 17, 2023 -  “Much of the social history of the Western world, over the past three decades, has been a history of replacing what worked with what sounded good. “ Thomas Sowell


*********** The latest rendition of the XFL gets underway this weekend with four games.

I’m not inclined to  care much, because the first rendition sucked, and then, after the second one got our hopes up that it might have a chance, it disappeared on us, and  I felt jilted.

Believe me, as one who’s a two-time survivor of pro-football pretenders going poof!, I don’t have a lot of time for fly-by-nighters.

But now, after a two-year hiatus,  here it comes again for a third go-round, evidently funded this time by The Rock, so I guess I’m supposed to get all excited again. 

The XFL is employing  a “hybrid structure.”

What this means is that, like the USFL last season, all eight teams will stay - and practice - in or around Arlington, Texas.

But for games, teams will travel to their “home markets” to play in a variety of stadiums, from  college and NFL football stadiums to converted baseball ballparks and soccer fields.

Teams, home fields and head coaches:

Arlington Renegades: Choctaw Stadium - Coach Bob Stoops
D.C. Defenders: Audi Field - Reggie Barlow
Houston Roughnecks: TDECU Stadium - Coach Wade Phillips
Orlando Guardians: Camping World Stadium - Coach Terrell Buckley
San Antonio Brahmas: Alamodome - Coach Hines Ward
Seattle Sea Dragons: Lumen Field - Coach Jim Haslett
St. Louis Battlehawks: The Dome at America's Center - Coach Anthony Becht
Vegas Vipers: Cashman Field - Coach Rod Woodson

(Bob Stoops is the only coach returning from 2020.  Anthony Becht of St. Louis had a nice career in the NFL as a player but since then he’s been known to me primarily as the only broadcaster who could spend an entire game in  the broadcast booth listening to Beth Mowins.)

If they were going to copy another professional team’s name, did it have to be  the dumbest one of all? Guardians?  Really?

And Sea Dragons?  How   f—king original.  Just stick “Sea” in  front of anything and you’re good to go in Seattle: Horses, Devils, Lions, Tigers, Cats, Dogs (of course), Titans, Savages (oops!)

Saturday’s games:

Vegas Vipers vs Arlington Renegades 3 PM (ABC)

Orlando Guardians vs Houston Roughnecks 8:30 PM (ESPN FX - whatever that is)


Sunday’s games:

St. Louis Battlehawks vs San Antonio Brahmas, 3 PM (ABC)

Seattle Sea Dragons vs DC Defenders (8 PM ESPN)

(All games will be streamed on ESPN+)


*********** The Super Bowl drew an average of 113 million viewers. That’s close to the record 114.4 million viewers for Super Bowl XLIX (Patriots-Seahawks).

But consider this: compared with the Super Bowl’s gigantic numbers, the two conference championship games (Eagles-Giants and Chiefs-Bengals) drew “only” about 50 million each.

In other words, in just the  two weeks between the conference championship games and the Super Bowl, the NFL went out and found 63 million more hard-core  football fans (that’s sarcasm, guys) to watch their “ultimate game.”

Part of it, of course, is that there’s a lot more Super Bowl parties - a whole lot more -  than  there are conference championship parties.

But then there’s this:  That damned  halftime show drew an average of 118.7 million viewers!  That’s a lot of people who weren’t even watching the Super Bowl itself and tuned in just to watch the show!

Just in case you ever wondered why the game itself sometimes seems secondary.


*********** It’s been said in different ways, but it was Shakespeare who first said, “Ill blows the wind that profits nobody.” 

Basically, he meant it would have to be something awfully bad if there wasn’t somebody who didn’t profit from it.

And so an old high school classmate of mine (talk about a redundancy) wrote to tell me while he was disappointed by the Iggles’ loss,  not everybody in Philly was unhappy.

He wrote, “No parade tomorrow! And my son (the cop) could not be happier. Even the darkest clouds that visit here on occasion have a sliver of a silver lining.”

*********** Tim McCarver died at the age of 81.  If you remember him, it’s likely as a broadcaster, but I remember him as a highly-touted kid coming up out of Memphis and becoming the catcher on some good Cardinals’ teams. 

And then he became a broadcaster, and I thought he was a good one.

To me, he represented a baseball lifer, and one who respected the game and his traditions.

After he was critical of Deion Sanders (the so-called  Coach Prime) for leaving his baseball team during a playoff series to go play in a football game, Sanders responded by dumping several buckets of ice water on him during a postgame “celebration.”

There wasn’t anything McCarver, a true professional, could do about that, and as I recall, baseball didn’t do much either

I doubt that he loses any sleep over it, but  nothing Deion can do - nothing - short of raising the dead  will ever change my low opinion of him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kO9jo8XkOfA


 *********** The Double-Wing meets the Belly… Today, play action off the counter.


We’ve  already shown people our counter and now we have a pretty good idea that between the fake of 6-G and then the fake of 47-C (the counter) the three key defenders on the playside - the force/contain man, the flat coverage guy, and the deep coverage guy, not to mention the linebackers -  will have enough to distract them so that we can get a great numbers advantage at the point  of attack.  A running quarterback helps, of course, and he has to be able to thrown on the run.  And he needs a lot of reps with this play so that he’s comfortable with where all his receivers are supposed to be, and with  weighing all his options - which definitely include running the ball. As with Belly Rip 47-C, the QB does NOT reverse out.  He steps and stops - he lets first the B-Back and then the C-Back clear -  and then he sprints  outside.  The real key is the block of the motioning A Back: He must block the EMOL from the outside in, so he stays in motion until he is well past that man, then stops and positions himself to attack that man (from the outside-in, remember). Once that man  recognizes that he’s been fooled, and that the QB has the ball, he’ll turn to the outside, and now he has to get through our A Back to get to the QB.  Normally, if executed  correctly, there’ll be two defenders - the corner and the safety - having to deal with  (1) the playside end on the corner route (2) the B-Back into the flat and (3) the QB - who can run or still throw to the backside end on the drag.  When run from Wing-T, my dear friend Mike Lude, one of the Wing-T’s co-inventors, called it “the best play in football.”


*********** A coach recently asked me what play-drawing software I use, and that was my chance to once again plug  Playmaker Pro.

It’s the best. I’ve used Playmaker Pro for years in all my work. 

It’s fairly easy to get up and running with it and there’s always my offer of help if you ever gets stuck on something.

FULL DISCLOSURE:  I have no financial interest in the product and I’m not paid to advertise.  My endorsement comes from knowing  the developer, Bruce Williams, for years and from buying several of his products.  He’s a good guy and he’s very knowledgeable  and he backs up his products.

Several years ago he had a very nice program called TD Video that I bought and used and liked,  but Hudl had already begun to dominate the field and he simply couldn’t compete.

I’ve included a link to his site and of course if you want you can order online.  But if you should happen to call,  my experience is that Bruce will pick up and talk to you. (If you do call Bruce, be sure to tell him I recommended Playmaker Pro. It won’t get either you or me any discounts, but it’s important to me that he knows how much I appreciate his work.)

http://www.playmakerpro.net/
 




*********** My son Ed came across this photo on Facebook and sent it to me.  It’s a shot of Baltimore’s Memorial Stadium during game 3 of the 1966 World Series.  Ed was just a little guy then, but he was at the game with me. At the time, I worked for the National Brewing Company, and our owner, Mr. Hoffberger (I still can’t bring myself to call him “Jerry” as they did in the papers) also owned the Orioles, so we had good seats to ALL Orioles’ games. The Birds won this one, 1-0, on their way to a four-game sweep over the Dodgers.

A few things worth noting: (1) It’s being played in the daytime.  All World Series games were then.  Only a fool would ever have suggested playing a World Series game at night. (2) Notice how they maximized their parking lots’ capacity? The cars are all parked bumper-to-bumper!  This is the way  they parked ‘em,  any time they were expecting a big crowd. Just imagine sitting there on a hot, humid day (or night) waiting your  turn until you could finally get the hell out of there! (3) Fortunately for me, I never had to park at an Orioles’ game. We lived just about where the yellow dot is, near the intersection of Argonne Drive and The Alameda.  It was a 5-minute walk to the stadium and $1.50 for a seat in the upper deck.  This is where the Colts played, too.  Those were great times in a (once) great city.


*********** I thought it was only high school kids (or younger) that hazed, but New Mexico State’s basketball team proved me wrong.  Apparently, it was infested with a few of the sort of guys who get some kind of thrill from having, um, some sort of unwelcome - forced, in fact -  sexual contact with a teammate.

I would be repulsed enough by “welcomed” sexual contact with a teammate, but this sort of stuff is as disgusting as it gets, on the order of what can take place in prisons.

Apart from the horrible stain that this has put on the basketball team and, unfortunately, on the University itself, it also pushes into the background the feel-good  story of this past season’s New Mexico State football team and its bowl win.


*********** The Eagles lost the Super Bowl, and shortly thereafter they lost both their offensive and defensive coordinators. OC Shane Steichen has become the next loser at Indianapolis, and DC Jonathan Gannon is off to the desert to try to save the Arizona Cardinals.   The last time a Super Bowl team lost both coordinators was after the 1995 Super Bowl, when the 49ers lost OC Mike Shanahan to the Broncos and DC Ray Rhodes to the Eagles. 

I find it interesting comparing the credentials of Steichen and Gannon with those of Shanahan and Rhodes.


Offensive Coordinators - which would you have hired?

Mike Shanahan (43 years old  at the time)

2 years as a college assistant (Northern Arizona)
6 years as a college OC (1 Eastern Illinois, 1 Minnesota, 4 Florida)
7 years as an NFL OC (4 Broncos, 3 49ers)
2 years as an NFL HC (Raiders)


Shane Steichen (37 years old)

3 years as an “assistant assistant” (1 Louisville, 2 Chargers)
3 years NFL “quality control” (Browns, Chargers)
4 years as an NFL QB coach (Chargers)
3 years as an NFL OC (1 Chargers, 2 Eagles)


Defensive Coordinators - which would you have hired?

Rhodes  (45 years old at the  time)
2 years as an “assistant assistant” (49ers)
9 years as an NFL assistant (49ers)
3 years as an NFL DC (2 Packers, 1 49ers)

Jonathan Gannon (40 year old now)

3 years NFL “quality control” (1 Falcons, 2 Titans)
3 years as a scout (Rams)
4 years as an “assistant assistant” (Vikings)
3 years as an NFL assistant (Colts)
2 years as an NFL DC (Eagles)


My reaction to the “loss,” if I were a diehard Eagles’ fan?   Meh.  To be frank, I look at their head coaching credentials and I’m not impressed.  Gannon,  with just five years as an actual assistant?  Steichen with seven? It’s hard to escape the suspicion that they both happened to be in a place where the talent was good enough to have made almost anybody look good.

And now, here they are, responsible for entire teams.

(After the outrageous blown coverage fiasco that allowed two Kansas City touchdowns, plus the failure of the league’s toughest defensive front to register so much as one lousy sack, I suspect Arizona may have saved  Eagles’ head coach Nick Siriani the trouble of firing Gannon.)



***********  Meantime, while I’m a make-it-on-merit guy and opposed to the idea of affirmative action, and while I think the Rooney Rule is just a feel-good smoke screen, I’m not oblivious to what seems to be going on with Eric Bieniemy.  Dammit -  if there’s something in his background that keeps getting in the way of his getting a top job, I wish somebody would please come out with it so we’d understand.

Whatever it is, it doesn’t seem to bother the Chiefs.

And no, I’m not buying the argument that he doesn’t get full credit for what he’s done because Andy Reid calls the plays.

Eric Bieniemy resume:

5 years college assistant (2 Colorado, 3 UCLA)
2 years college OC (Colorado)
4 years as an NFL assistant (Vikings)
1 year as an NFL asst head coach (Vikings)
5 years as an NFL assistant (Chiefs)
5 years as an OC (Chiefs)


*********** Last year, Georgia coach Kirby Smart lost his defensive coordinator when Dan Lanning left to take the Oregon head coaching job. He replaced Lanning with Will Muschamp,

This year, with Todd Monken leaving for  the Baltimore Ravens, he lost his  offensive coordinator, and now he’s replaced Monken with Mike Bobo, who’s already served a term as Georgia’s OC.

Smart, Muschamp and Bobo are all Georgia grads.

This makes Georgia one of only two major colleges in the country whose head coach, offensive coordinator  and defensive coordinator are all alumni. (Air Force is the other.)


*********** Good Morning,

I recognized that guy teaching tackling on the News page this morning. Pretty nice looking tackle if I must say so myself. I am not sure how many of your readers really understand how much effort we put into teaching the fundamentals of tackling but I sure remember!

Jack Tourtillotte
Rangeley, Maine

Haha.  “That guy teaching tackling” was none other than Jack Tourtillotte!



***********   Hugh,

I watched and listened to the national anthem because Chris Stapleton (one of my favorite country performing artists) was performing it.  Needless to say I wasn't disappointed, and from what I've read and heard millions of Americans agree.

Call me one of those yak-yakers, but like you I have watched a LOT of football over the years, and in the last few years I have seen WORSE defensive holding calls NOT get called.  That flag should have NEVER been thrown especially in THAT situation in THAT game.  On the subject of flags...the supposedly best defensive line in pro football didn't draw ONE holding penalty in their favor?  Little wonder why I don't follow the NFL much.

Was that a counter play I saw KC run a few times with great success?

I thoroughly enjoyed watching that video of the 1961 Rose Bowl.  Thanks to Bill Statz!

No joke!  You really should market your tackling video!

Have a good week!

Joe Gutilla
Austin, Texas






*********** QUIZ ANSWER:  A native of Brooklyn, New York, John Brockington played his high school football there at Thomas Jefferson High where his coach, the legendary Moe Finkelstein, won 202 games in 33 years.

At Ohio State he was hurt most of his sophomore year, then played behind All-American fullback Jim Otis his junior year. But in his senior year, 1970, he made All-American himself,  scoring 17 touchdowns as the  Buckeyes went undefeated in regular season play and lost only to Stanford in the Rose Bowl.

He was drafted first by the Packers - ninth overall - behind only one other running back (John Riggins).

In his rookie season, he set an NFL  rookie rushing record with 1,105 yards, averaging 5.1 yards per carry.  He was NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year and was the only rookie named to the AP All-Pro first team.

After he gained 149 yards against a great Minnesota defense, Vikings coach Bud Grant said of him, “(He) is as fine a runner as I've seen. He makes many of his own yards by bouncing off people and by accelerating with those quick bursts he has."

He was 6-1, 230 and fast, and comparing him with Packer great Jim Taylor,  Green Bay assistant Red Cochran said, “He could do everything Taylor could do and with more speed.”

Said former Packers’ lineman Bill Lueck,  “He was a beast. Nobody wanted to tackle him. He'd run over the first guy. That was his game. But he was elusive also. That's what made him such a dangerous running back. He may run over you the first play, and the next play you're all tensed up and ready for this major collision, and he'd put a move on you. You never knew what was coming: A move or run over you."

In his second year, his carries increased (to 274) and while his yardage declined slightly (to 1027), he caught 19 passes for 243 yards. His newly-acquired backfield mate, MacArthur Lane, besides being a strong blocker, rushed for 821 yards himself, and the Packers won  their division with a 10-4 record.

In his third year, he rushed 265 times for 1144 yards, with five 100-yard games.

In his first three years, he did  something that no back in the history of the NFL had ever done -  rushed for 1,000 yards or more in his first three  seasons.  In  that time of 14-game regular seasons, he gained a total of 3,276 yards.

In those first three seasons, he was twice first team and once second team All-Pro.

In 1974, his fourth season, he carried 266 times and while he failed to break 1,000 yards, he led the team with 43 receptions good for 314 yards.

In 1975, his production fell off,  partly as a result of Lane’s being traded, and partly - experts think - because the new offensive system brought in by Coach Bart Starr required him to be more of a finesse runner and less of a power runner.   With only 144 carries, he rushed for 434 yards, but he did catch 33 passes for 242 yards.

Both his carries and yardage continued to decline until, one game into the 1977 season, he was put on waivers and picked up by Kansas City, where he carried just 54 times for 161 yards. The following summer he was traded by Kansas City to Detroit, but  was cut by the Lions before the regular season.

In later years he had some serious health issues, and after having a kidney transplant, he established  The John Brockington Foundation.

Its mission, in its words,

… is to create a culture in which organ donation is commonplace; to provide financial and resource support for those donating, awaiting, and/or receiving organs; and to promote health education to minority communities who are disproportionately represented on the transplant waiting list.

And in his own words…

Throughout my life, I’ve been blessed by opportunities to be able to reach my goals. Whether a National Championship with my beloved Buckeyes or Rookie of the Year with the Green Bay Packers, I have been rewarded with great success. Certainly my kidney transplant of November 28, 2001 can be added to the list.

For me, as for other kidney recipients, it made the difference between a difficult life on dialysis and the normal life I now live.

Since I left the Packers, no effort has been as satisfying and important to me as the work of my foundation. Since 2002, we have been providing help and hope to those impacted by kidney disease.  Our free screenings and classes educate, our food vouchers sustain patients on dialysis, and our donor registration drives seek to reduce the wait for all organs.

CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING JOHN BROCKINGTON

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - AUSTIN, TEXAS
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY
MIKE  FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON






***********  QUIZ:  Like so many Heisman Trophy winners, he did not go on to great things in the NFL.  In fact, he didn’t go on to the NFL at all.

But he did have a long and successful career as a professional athlete.

He came out of Thomasville, Georgia and attended Florida State.

Counting a redshirt season, he didn’t start at FSU until his fourth year, but his last two seasons were very impressive. In those two years, he completed 468 of 745 for 5679 yards and 49 TDs.  And he rushed 165 times for 843 yards and 10 TDs.

In his senior year, the Seminoles lost only to Notre Dame in the regular season, and in the Orange Bowl they defeated Number 2 Nebraska to finish 12-1  and win the first national title in school history.

His personal performance that season was spectacular: he threw for 3,023 yards and 27 TDs, with only four interceptions.  Besides being the consensus all-American quarterback, he received every individual honor a college quarterback can win:

The Heisman Trophy

The Maxwell Award

The Walter Camp Award (1993)

The Johnny Unitas Award (1993)

The Davey O'Brien Award (1993)

Sullivan Award (Outstanding Amateur Athlete)

Chic Harley Award

ACC Offensive Player of the Year

ACC Player of the Year (Twice)

ACC Athlete of the Year (Twice)

Sporting News Player of the Year

He was  a four-year starter as a point guard on the Seminoles’ basketball team, and averaged 10.5 points per game his senior year.

He was 6-2 but slim at 190, and not rated highly by NFL scouts, and he made it clear that if he was not drafted in he first round by an NFL team, he would play pro basketball.

At that, NFL teams backed away, and when he was drafted Number One by the New York Knicks, he signed with them and embarked on a nine-year NBA career.

He is the only Heisman winner ever to play in the NBA, and besides Bo Jackson, he’s the only  one to play any major professional sport other than football.

Ironically, during a stretch of time when both the Giants and Jets were down, New York fans loved to say he was  “the best quarterback in New York.”

He has been an active member of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and has  done considerable charity work.  He has established a foundation to “enhance the lives of young people through sports based mentoring and educational programs.”

He currently coaches a high school basketball team in Tallahassee, and serves as Florida State’s Ambassador of Football. 

He and his wife are the parents of three children.




TUESDAY,  FEBRUARY 14, 2023 -  “Wars begin when you will, but they do not end when you please.” Niccolo Machiavelli

*********** I lied.  I said I wasn’t going to watch the national anthem but I did.  That’s how I was able to see Eagles’ coach Nick Siriani with tears rolling down his face.  I figure either he had a glimpse into the future,  showing his team pissing away the Super Bowl, or else he feels the same way as me about what’s being done to our national anthem.


*********** Funny, I haven’t read anything about that ending to the  Super Bowl - what I consider the worst of all possible endings to what had up until then been one of the best Super Bowls ever.

What a joke.   A professional sport in which you can win by simply refusing to play!

In baseball you still have to  go to bat, and you still have to get the other side out.

In basketball they long ago realized the need for a shot clock.  And besides, if your opponent has the ball, you can always take your chances fouling them and sending them to the free-throw line.

In hockey there’s no way a team could play keep-away for the better part of two f—king minutes.

Even in soccer you have to keep the ball in play.

But in football you can let the clock run out by doing absolutely nothing for several plays in a row, even to the point of indulging in such idiocy as refusing to score a touchdown (a touchdown that the other team graciously invited you to score in hopes of getting the ball back with enough time to score again themselves).

You certainly can’t blame the Chiefs  for wisely using the rules to their advantage, but damn - the stupid rules allowed what  had been a rather suspenseful game to degenerate  into the very definition of anticlimax.



*********** I read this summary of the Super Bowl:

“Two of the best teams in the league went at it hammer and tongue for 60 minutes.”

Ha. Wrong twice.

First of all, it’s “hammer and TONG (or tongs).”

And second of all, they did go at it hammer and  tong, but not for 60 minutes. Only for 58. Followed by two minutes of farce.


*********** Despite these atrocious Eagles’ mistakes…

1. Jalen Hurts’ fumble

2. Coverage breakdown TD #1

3. Coverage breakdown TD #2

The Eagles and Chiefs  were still tied.  And then came…

4. The bad punt

5. The even worse punt coverage

6. The defensive holding penalty

And the almost-automatic last-second field goal.

Take away any one of those shameful plays and the result could have been reversed.


***********  Third-and-eight, 1:54 to go, and Patrick Mahomes threw incomplete. But then came the dreaded “flag on the play.”  Defensive holding was called against the Eagles’ James Bradberry, and the resultant first down was enough to allow   the Chiefs to run the clock down to less than 10 seconds before kicking the game winning field goal.

It was a close call.  It certainly would have made the game more interesting if it hadn’t been made.  But it was, clearly, holding.  Not bad, certainly. Much worse goes on all the time.  But the worst that anyone objecting to the call has been able to say is either “it was ticky-tacky” (but yes, it was holding, as you admit) or “you don’t call it at a time like that” (so it was holding then. So when do you call it?)

Sorry, but just as we’re supposed to have a government of laws, not men (that’s a laugh), so is football a game of rules and not officials. Officials are simply there to enforce the rules.  It’s not their job to conduct the flow of the game or try to influence the outcome. And while it would have been less controversial to just let it slide, the official instead did his job, and called what he saw.

More to the point - rather than saying, “you don’t call it at a time like that,” how about “you don’t hold at a time like that?”
 
Many years ago, I was working for a brewery and I thought I had a bright-ass idea for a promotion.  As required, I ran it by our legal people, and I was told I couldn’t do it, because it could get us in trouble with the state.  Still young and cocky, I said, “I’m willing to take that chance.”  Our chief legal guy looked at me in wonderment and said, “You don’t understand.  You don’t have the right to do that.”  He was telling me that it wasn’t my money that I seemed so willing to put at risk.

I thought of that when I thought of James Bradberry, when afterward, he admitted that he was trying to get away with holding and got caught: "It was a holding," he said. "I tugged his jersey. I was hoping they would let it slide.”


I wish I could have told him beforehand, “James, you don’t have the right to do that.”


*********** Although the defensive holding penalty is now one of the main talking points of the Super Bowl yak-yakers, the game was actually remarkably clean. Between them, the two teams committed just nine penalties for a mere 47 yards.  I can hear the Philly guys now: you tellin’ me  the Iggles  had zero sacks and there wasn’t no holdin’ goin’ on?)


*********** My wife wondered why the Eagles kept waiting until :00 showed on the game clock before snapping.  On damn near every play. I said, “because, evidently, they can.”

And so they kept doing it. Right up until it bit them in the ass.


*********** If you relied solely on stats, you might think the Eagles had won:

Jalen Hurts ran or passed on 53 plays for a total of 374 yards (304 passing, 70 rushing)

Coincidentally, the Chiefs’ team also had 53 plays - total - for 340 yards.

Hurts alone had 34 yards more than the entire Chiefs’ team in total offense - and 148 more than Patrick Mahomes.

The Eagles converted 11 of 18 third down plays, 2 of 2  fourth down plays.



***********   Dear Coach Wyatt,

The Washington Huskies were running your Double Wing offense in the 1961 Rose Bowl!

https://youtube.com/watch?v=qqXea_zhyhc&feature=share

Enjoy,

Bill Statz
Winnsboro, South Carolina


Bill,

That’s a great catch.  Minnesota went into that game already declared national champs by the AP - that’s how it was done in those times - and Washington upset them.

I wish I could take some credit, but rather than a true Double Wing,  the Huskies are running a lot of Double Slot - what I simply call “slot.”  I did see Minnesota line up in a Double Wing once, but they shifted out of it.

Washington has run several off-tackle plays very similar to my “Super Power,” with the quarterback tossing and leading the runner..

I haven’t been able to tell in my cursory look at just the first quarter whether they employ splits as tight as mine.  I doubt it.

Again, great catch, and thanks.



*********** In the Wall Street Journal just a few days ago, their Jason Gay did a great interview  with Larry Csonka.  Here are some excerpts.

Larry Csonka. Has a name done a better job describing a football player? The Ohio-born Miami Dolphins fullback, aka “Zonk,” smashed and strong-armed his way through a Hall of Fame career which included the magical undefeated 1972 season—still the only Super Bowl champion to go unbeaten. Now 76, Csonka is splitting time between Florida, North Carolina, and his beloved Alaska, an author of a recently-published autobiography (“Head On”) keeping fit and staying connected to the hard-nosed game he helped define. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Here we are, a half-century later, and the ’72 Dolphins remain the only undefeated season Super Bowl winner. Are you surprised? 

Pleasantly surprised. Right after we finished the Super Bowl, (Dolphins safety and MVP) Jake Scott looked at all of us. We had been so busy under the powerful thumbs of our head coach Shula, trying to play perfect football, and coming close. There was a moment of silence and he said, “I don’t think any of us realize what we just did.”

In your book you note that Shula had a premonition you might be the last to ever do it, because it’s just so hard to go wire to wire.

To be awarded the (NFL’s) No. 1 team in the first 100 years of the league is quite an honor. To have a team that cares more about winning than personal recognition…think about what’s going on today, how much the identity of a team comes down to four or five people. In ’72, the identity of the team was the team.

They talk about us being bitter old men and guarding against our record. We’re competitive old men, but we’re happy old men. We’re sitting on top of the mountain eating an ice cream cone, watching everybody else come up and fall backwards. Some get very close!

***********   "HEAD DOWN!" "TACKLE LOW!" "GRAB HIM AROUND THE LEGS!" Aaargh!!!

Does  that sound to you like Hawk Tackling?  Actually, the photo above is from a book called “Practical Football.”  It was published in 1934, and its co-authors were Princeton head coach Fritz Crisler, and his line coach, Tad Wieman.  These guys were very good coaches. Crisler went on to become a legend at Michigan. But holy sh—! Look at the way they taught tackling.


That’t the way everybody taught tackling. Now, knowing what little I know about Hawk Tackling, it does appears that the major  difference between it and the photo above is that in Hawk Tackling the player is told to keep his  eyes up.  Great idea.  You ever tried hitting a man in the hips with your shoulder - AND keeping you eyes up?

We now know that lowering  the head to make a tackle - either out of carelessness or because that's the way it's been taught - is a major factor in really serious football injuries, such as those to the cervical spine, which can result in paralysis.

We all want our kids to be as safe as possible. That should go without saying.  But at the same time, if they can't tackle, they aren't going to win a lot of games!   Football is a rough, tough sport, and there’s no way of ever making tackling completely safe, but the method of tackling I’ve been advocating  for years does enable defenders to hit hard and bring down a ball-carrier without ever lowering the head. It’s because we make contact with the padded part of our upper chest.

I’ve coached this system of tackling since the 1980s, and  I’ve  taught it to players of all ages, including college- age men in Europe who had never played tackle football before.

Working from my video, ”Safer and Surer Tackling,” even inexperienced  coaches have successfully  taught tackling to total beginners.  It starts before the kids even put on pads,  and works on up to drills that will keep even the most experienced of players' skills sharp.

(Sorry, but it’s time to get back on the market!)

http://www.coachwyatt.com/prod.html

Here's a look at the first live tackling drills I use, shown on the very first day we were permitted to wear pads and have contact.  Prior to this video, they’d had just three days of instruction and drills in SST (Safer and Surer Tackling)

http://www.coachwyatt.com/NBtacklingday4.mov


*********** I don’t know where I read this, but some old-timer was talking about  today’s kids and said,  “They don't want to play baseball. They want to be baseball players.”

He could just as easily have been talking about today’s daddies: “They don’t want their kids to play baseball. They want them to become baseball players.”


*********** Once every  four weeks I have a “joukkue kokous” (team meeting) on Zoom with some of my former players from Finland, thirty years ago. The format’s pretty simple - we B-S for a few minutes, then  I’ll show them a couple of clips from some recent Zoom clinics, and finally we’ll get down to business - I’ll show them a half of one of their games, commenting  as we go.

For three of the four years that I coached this particular team  (the Southeast Eagles, so-named because we were located in the southeastern part of Finland, quite close to the Russian border),  my wife videotaped  every one of our games.  She very quickly became an excellent videographer, and although the video itself  in those days wasn’t nearly as sharp as today’s product, I’ve got the games on hard drives now, and  they’re at least viewable.

I’m a lot easier now on the mistakes I see than I would have been back then, of course, but I’m actually a lot harder on myself when I see some of my  dumbass mistakes.  For example, it was obvious that I hadn’t yet grown out of the “genius play-calling stage” that we all go through,  when on a third-and-one I called a misdirection play that wound up losing four yards.  It was stupid of me and I told  the guys so.

After running a particularly effective wedge play, one of the guys, Moku - his real name is Jukka Taipale, but I never heard him called anything else but “Moku” - asked me, “Remember that game when you ran nothing but wedge the whole second half?”

Yes, I said.  I sure did remember. We were playing a team in its first year of existence, and it  was simply outmatched.  We ourselves were only in our second year of playing football, but we had the offense down pretty well, and some people just couldn’t stop it, and this game was way out of control by halftime.  But no one had yet come up with the idea of a mercy rule back in the states, let alone in Finland, and it’s not in the Finnish nature for officials to decide on their own to shorten quarters or have a running clock.  I knew the other coach, an American named Jeff Leahy, and we agreed that we would just  run the ball “up the middle” for the rest of the game.    Unfortunately for them and for the score, they couldn’t stop that play, either, but at least it took us a little longer to score.



*********** This past season, there were 25 cases of family members working on Power 5 staffs…

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2022/08/23/family-members-working-on-coaching-staffs-across-power-five/50632009/



*********** FROM OUR LOCAL PAPER (THE VANCOUVER COLUMBIAN)

As soon as officers (Ottoman and Alexander)  arrived, Hart-Ikari started yelling and punched Ottoman in the face. When Alexander tried to restrain him, Hart-Ikari turned and punched him in the face about four times, the affidavit says.

Both officers were taken to a hospital. Ottoman had minor swelling and face redness. Alexander's right eyebrow was split, his eye was bruised and facial swelling left him unable to open his right eye, according to the affidavit.

Hart-Ikari later told detectives he did not have any mental health diagnosis, but claimed to be emperor of Japan.


*********** The Double-Wing meets the Belly… Today, the pitch





As Coach Charlie Wilson (a belly veteran) described on Friday’s page, the QB must not do anything until the B-Back has cleared. Then, from right where he stands, he immediately makes an option pass (from the chest, thumb down at release) to the motion man. And that’s that. Bob's  your uncle.

There are several ways to block this, and of course it could morph into a triple option, but this is the easiest to teach that I’ve found, in the sense that it’s the one most  closely related to the “6-G” play that the blockers are already familiar with.

In order to get the playside guard outside (at “8”) it’s necessary for us to keep the EMOL on his side of the line of  scrimmage.  That’s the C-Back’s job.  It shouldn’t be hard it that guy’s respecting our 6-G and 66-G.  (If he’s not, then why TF are we even messing around with running outside him?)

IMPORTANT: We don’t run this until we’ve run 6-G and we have a pretty good idea how the playside EMOL  and the playside #1 (Corner) will react.  If #1  comes flying up when he sees the A-Back’s motion, this is definitely not the play to call.  (Think really hard: if a corner comes flying up like that, what WOULD be a good play to call?)



*********** Paul Martha  died earlier this month at the age of 80.  He was the epitome of  the college football player who puts his scholarship to good use, and winds up making all of us football players and coaches proud.

He was a native Pittsburgher who  was a two-way All-American back at Pitt, a star on their 1963 team that finished third in the nation,  and he was a first-round draft pick of the Steelers.

He played six years in the NFL while getting his law degree from Duquesne University, and after retirement from football he held a number of executive positions in various sports leagues.

He’s given credit for playing a major role in ending the 1982 NFL player strike.

As general counsel of the DeBartolo Corporation of Youngstown, Ohio, he held important leadership roles in several DeBartolo-owned teams, among them the Pittsburgh Penguins, the USFL Pittsburgh Maulers, and the San Francisco 49ers.

https://triblive.com/sports/former-pitt-star-steelers-player-sports-exec-paul-martha-dies-at-80/


***********  I want to see the face-off between the "Why Not You" Foundation and the "All Access to Life" foundation. Glover's sprung up organically, Wilson's was artificial from the get-go.

I hope Sean Payton knocks all the delicate geniuses off their pedestals. Russell Wilson sounds like the football equivalent of Alex Rodriguez.

I've placed an order for the AI-produced playbooks and another for 12 separate game plans.

John Vermillion
St. Petersburg, Florida


*********** Hugh,

The term "Hawk" tackling has been replaced by the NFL and its proxy USA Football.  It has been "improved" and is now simply called "Football Tackling".  Coaches can go to USA Football, or NFHS, or state association websites to view the video which has become a part of the "certification" process to enable high school coaches to coach.  The result?  With the certification coaches are "allowed" to coach which is great.  Unfortunately, it still hasn't helped "improve" tackling.

In the near future me thinks the Pro Football HOF will enshrine some of those names Mr. Gosselin listed since they are more "recently" remembered.  But I highly doubt those who played earlier than black and white film, and most certainly are deserved of the honor, will be given honorable mention in the annals of the NFL.

Don't be surprised if Sean Payton offers his QB "other options".

Enjoy the weekend, and the game!

Joe Gutilla
Austin, Tex





*********** QUIZ ANSWER:  Born in Bayonne, New Jersey, Rich Glover played his high school football in Jersey City.

Although a standout high school defensive lineman, he recalled later that he didn’t go to a school closer to home because Syracuse and Penn State said he wasn’t big enough, and besides,  he “wanted to see what other parts of the country looked like,” so when Nebraska defensive coach Monte Kiffin offered him a scholarship, he became a Cornhusker.

He  thrived under coach Kiffin (father of Ole Miss head coach Lane), recalling him as “a hard coach but a fair coach,” and head coach Bob Devaney, of whom he said  “He was a coach. He was a Dad. He was a friend. “ He recalled Devaney saying, “I only have two rules. One, you go to class. Two, you don't get in trouble with the police."   His reaction? “Shucks, those are the same two rules I had at home. If that's all I have to do here then it's going to be easy."

As a middle guard/nose guard (the title has varied over the years) he was small (6-1, 235) but amazingly fast and almost impossible for centers to block by themselves.

He started for all three years (freshmen were ineligible then), and was an All-American his junior and senior years. In his senior year, he won both the Outland Trophy and the Lombardi Trophy, making him the first of four Cornhuskers to be so honored, and he was named Lineman of the Year by the Walter Camp Foundation.

In the co-called “Game of the Century” against Oklahoma, despite going up against OU’s All-American center Tom Brahaney (“the best player I ever played against”), he made 22 tackles.

Teammate Johnny Rodgers won the Heisman Trophy that year; he finished third -  an unusually high ranking for an interior lineman - and was the only defensive player in the top ten.

The Cornhuskers were national champions in his sophomore and junior seasons, and ranked Number four in his senior season.  In his three years there, they went 34-1-2.  They played in the Orange Bowl all three years and won every time, beating LSU, Alabama and Notre Dame. He was named the Outstanding Lineman in the wins over Alabama and Notre Dame.

He was selected as a defensive tackle on Sports Illustrated’s “All-Century Team,” alongside the legendary Bronko Nagurski, and ahead of such stars as Buck Buchanan, Mike Reid, Lee Roy Selmon and Randy White.

He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1995.

Years later his coach, Bob Devaney,  would call him “the greatest defensive player I ever saw.” 

His pro career was short.  Drafted in the third round by the Giants, he started the final six games of his rookie season, but in 1974, after reporting late with other veteran players when the NFL players’ strike was settled, he was cut.   He then joined the Shreveport Steamer of the World Football league for  the rest of the WFL season.  He returned to the NFL the next season, where he  started all 14 games  for the Eagles, but a knee injury suffered the following summer forced him to retire.

After his retirement from professional football,  he was Defensive Line Coach at Washington State and at  San Jose City College. for four years each. He worked for five years as a junior high PE teacher and coach in San Jose, and in 1997 he returned to college coaching as defensive line  coach at New Mexico State, where he served for nine years.

After returning  to Jersey City, he coached at a number of New Jersey high schools, and his son and namesake has also been a successful  coach in New Jersey.

In  2004 Rich Glover  started the All Access to Life Foundation, described,  in his own words:

“It started when my friend Dusty Baker who coaches in professional baseball got me an "All Access" pass to a game where you could go anywhere in the club house or on the field. I said to myself ‘You know what?  I want the local kids to have all access to life. You can go wherever you want to go as long as you take care of your business and keep your nose clean.’ I started the All Access to Life Foundation with a football camp. It is a free camp. Most camps you have to pay. The city helped me out at first with t-shirts and food and the kids come out for a week for three hours a day working on the basic fundamentals of football. We got incorporated with our 501c. We don't just do football. We do life skills and academics. Work with the kids after school at the center. We do arts and different things and at the holidays we help out serving food. Our goal is to provide all access to do whatever you want to do as long as you do it the right way.”



CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING RICH GLOVER

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
RALPH BALDUCCI - PORTLAND, OREGON
TOM DAVIS - SAN CARLOS, CALIFORNIA
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - AUSTIN, TEXAS
RODNEY LUNSFORD - WESTIELD, INDIANA
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
MIKE  FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY






*********** QUIZ:  A native of Brooklyn, New York, he played his high school football there at Thomas Jefferson High where his coach, the legendary Moe Finkelstein, won 202 games in 33 years.

At Ohio State he was hurt most of his sophomore year, then played behind All-American fullback Jim Otis his junior year. But in his senior year, 1970, he made All-American himself,  scoring 17 touchdowns as the  Buckeyes went undefeated in regular season play and lost only to Stanford in the Rose Bowl.

He was drafted first by the Packers - ninth overall - behind only one other running back (John Riggins).

In his rookie season, he set an NFL  rookie rushing record with 1,105 yards, averaging 5.1 yards per carry.  He was NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year and was the only rookie named to the AP All-Pro first team.

After he gained 149 yards against a great Minnesota defense, Vikings coach Bud Grant said of him, “(He) is as fine a runner as I've seen. He makes many of his own yards by bouncing off people and by accelerating with those quick bursts he has."

He was 6-1, 230 and fast, and comparing him with Packer great Jim Taylor,  Green Bay assistant Red Cochran said, “He could do everything Taylor could do and with more speed.”

Said former Packers’ lineman Bill Lueck,  “He was a beast. Nobody wanted to tackle him. He'd run over the first guy. That was his game. But he was elusive also. That's what made him such a dangerous running back. He may run over you the first play, and the next play you're all tensed up and ready for this major collision, and he'd put a move on you. You never knew what was coming: A move or run over you."

In his second year, his carries increased (to 274) and while his yardage declined slightly (to 1027), he caught 19 passes for 243 yards. His newly-acquired backfield mate, MacArthur Lane, besides being a strong blocker, rushed for 821 yards himself, and the Packers won  their division with a 10-4 record.

In his third year, he rushed 265 times for 1144 yards, with five 100-yard games.

In his first three years, he did  something that no back in the history of the NFL had ever done -  rushed for 1,000 yards or more in his first three  seasons.  In  that time of 14-game regular seasons, he gained a total of 3,276 yards.

In those first three seasons, he was twice first team and once second team All-Pro.

In 1974, his fourth season, he carried 266 times and while he failed to break 1,000 yards, he led the team with 43 receptions good for 314 yards.

In 1975, his production fell off,  partly as a result of Lane’s being traded, and partly - experts think - because the new offensive system brought in by Coach Bart Starr required him to be more of a finesse runner and less of a power runner.   With only 144 carries, he rushed for 434 yards, but he did catch 33 passes for 242 yards.

Both his carries and yardage continued to decline until, one game into the 1977 season, he was put on waivers and picked up by Kansas City, where he carried just 54 times for 161 yards. The following summer he was traded by Kansas City to Detroit, but  was cut by the Lions before the regular season.

In later years he had some serious health issues, and after having a kidney transplant, he established  a foundation bearing his name.

Its mission, in its words,

… is to create a culture in which organ donation is commonplace; to provide financial and resource support for those donating, awaiting, and/or receiving organs; and to promote health education to minority communities who are disproportionately represented on the transplant waiting list.

And in his own words…

Throughout my life, I’ve been blessed by opportunities to be able to reach my goals. Whether a National Championship with my beloved Buckeyes or Rookie of the Year with the Green Bay Packers, I have been rewarded with great success. Certainly my kidney transplant of November 28, 2001 can be added to the list.


For me, as for other kidney recipients, it made the difference between a difficult life on dialysis and the normal life I now live.

Since I left the Packers, no effort has been as satisfying and important to me as the work of my foundation. Since 2002, we have been providing help and hope to those impacted by kidney disease.  Our free screenings and classes educate, our food vouchers sustain patients on dialysis, and our donor registration drives seek to reduce the wait for all organs.

FRIDAY,  FEBRUARY 10, 2023 -  "The truth of the matter is that you always know the right thing to do. The hard part is doing it." General H. Norman Schwarzkopf


*********** Forsooth  didst Pete Carroll bring in some rugby sorcerors  to teach the Seahawks how to tackle. He saw it and pronounced it good. And he didst name the method “Hawk Tackling.”

And so didst he proceed to tell us that, verily, we should all go forth and teach “Hawk Tackling.”

Verily. And now, thanks to  mass hysteria ("Our little boys are all gonna die of concussions!"),  NFL worship  (“If the pros are doing it, it must be good”) and shaming (“how come you’re not teaching it the way the pros are?”), high school coaches all over the country have been   teaching “Hawk Tackling” to their kids.

The whole idea came about during the days of concussion hysteria, as a response to demands that football “do something” about injuries to the brain.  And some genius just happened to notice that rugby required tackling, and even though they  didn’t wear helmets in rugby, they didn’t seem to have the number of concussions that football does. How could that be? they asked. And some wise person  said, “it  must be the way they teach tackling."

Why not, someone asked, bring some of their coaches over here and teach us how?

Without getting into the whole deal, it’s basically  a low tackle (“eyes on the thighs” or something like that) and as the tackler approaches a ball carrier from an angle, his head goes behind the ball carrier - not “across the bow,” as has commonly been taught.

Yes, this keeps the tackler’s head “out of it”  - so long as the runner  continues on his path.  But since the tackler is aiming low, a sudden change of direction by the runner could result in the tackler’s head taking the full force of a collision.

But assuming that the runner does continue on his path and the tackler aims as he should - head behind the runner - this means that the tackler must inevitably make what has for decades been derisively called an “arm tackle.”  And even peewees learn that arm tackles  don’t take down good runners.

And nobody noticed this?   Are you as amazed as I am that nobody in the Seahawks’ organization did?  Or are they so full of yes men that  they all said, “Gee, Pete, this Hawk Tackling is great?”

I just happen to mention this because on my Zoom clinic Tuesday night I showed a clip from a recent Scotland-England rugby match in which a player from the Scottish “side” broke a scoring run of at least 50 meters (did you like that?)  in which four Brits with clean shots at him did their damnedest to make Hawk Tackles - and missed.  Every damn one of them.

But at least  no one was injured. Of course, no one was tackled, either.



*********** It’s a great  honor to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, but it’s really bothered me for some time to see some of the guys from the more modern era who are being voted in - guys who I never considered to be particularly great, and certainly not famous (there is that word “fame” in the title) - while players from earlier eras, superior in my opinion, have been passed by, buried deeper with every year they’re ignored.  Rick Gosselin, who’s covered the NFL and various teams for more than 50 years, and been a Hall of Fame voter for 27 years, agrees…

There will never be a shortage of candidates in the senior pool. But there will always be a shortage of nomination slots. So how deep is the abyss? I compiled a team of 25 senior candidates, one for each position, whose careers I believe merit Hall of Fame discussion. And this is just a sampling. I could go five deep at most positions:

QB—Ken Anderson. 1981 NFL MVP, four-time league passing champion (twice in the 1970s, twice in the 1980s) with the Bengals, first quarterback to complete 70 percent of his passes in a single season. Anderson is one of six former NFL MVP quarterbacks currently in the senior pool. If you are considered the best single player in any given NFL season, you deserve to have your career discussed and debated in the context of where it fits historically. Four of the six have never been received that chance as finalists.

HB—Larry Brown. 1972 NFL MVP, 1970 NFL rushing champion, four-time Pro Bowler.
 
FB—Pat Harder. 1948 NFL MVP, 3-time NFL champion, first player in NFL history to score 100 points in three consecutive seasons with the Cardinals.

WR—Billy Wilson. 3-time NFL receiving champion, 6-time Pro Bowler with the 49ers, scored a touchdown every 8.3 catches.

WR—Sterling Sharpe. 3-time NFL receiving champion, five-time Pro Bowler with the Packers, first receiver in NFL history with consecutive 100-catch seasons.

TE—Ron Kramer. One of two tight ends named to the NFL’s 50th anniversary team (Hall-of-Famer Mike Ditka was the other). A key blocking element in Lombardi’s power sweep at Green Bay.

OT—George Kunz. 8-time Pro Bowler, 5 in the NFC with Atlanta, 3 in the AFC with Baltimore. Went to as many Pro Bowls in the 1970s as all-decade tackle Art Shell and more than the other three all-decade tackles (Ron Yary, Bob Brown and Dan Dierdorf).

OT—Jim Tyrer. 9-time Pro Bowler, 3-time AFL champion, one Super Bowl ring with the Kansas City Chiefs. Named to the all-time AFL team.

G—Walt Sweeney. 9-time Pro Bowler, started 167 consecutive games for the Chargers. Also an elite special-teams performer.

G—Ed Budde. 7-time Pro Bowler, one of two guards selected to the all-time AFL team. The other, Billy Shaw, has a bust in Canton. Budde was the fourth overall pick of the 1964 NFL draft but opted to sign with the AFL Chiefs.

C—Jeff Van Note. 6-time Pro Bowler, 226 career starts (fourth all-time among centers), all with the Falcons.

DE—Harvey Martin. 1977 NFL Defensive Player of the Year when he set the unofficial league record with 23 sacks. Shared Super Bowl MVP honors in 1978 with Hall of Famer Randy White. 4-time Pro Bowler with the Cowboys.

DE—Jim Marshall. Started 277 career games, fifth most in NFL history, and recovered a league-record 29 fumbles. Played in four Super Bowls on the same Minnesota line as Hall of Famers Carl Eller and Alan Page.

DT—Keith Millard. 1989 NFL Defensive Player of the Year when he rang up 18 sacks and scored a touchdown on an interception. Millard was credited with 58 NFL sacks in 93 career games and collected another 12 in his one season in the USFL.

DT–Tom Sestak. Like Millard, Sestak’s brilliant career was cut short by a knee injury. Sestak played only seven seasons with the Buffalo Bills but was still voted to the all-time AFL team. He was named first-team All-AFL six times in his seven seasons and helped the Bills win two championships.

OLB—Maxie Baughan. 9-time Pro Bowler, all in the 1960s. No other outside linebacker in either the AFL or NFL had as many as seven Pro Bowl selections in that decade. Started as a rookie on 1960 NFL champion Eagles.
 
MLB—Randy Gradishar. 1978 NFL Defensive Player of the Year, 7-time Pro Bowler with the Broncos, retired after 10 seasons with a then NFL-record 2,049 tackles.

OLB—Chuck Howley. Only losing player ever selected a Super Bowl MVP (1971 loss by the Cowboys to the Colts). 6-time Pro Bowler, his 43 career takeaways rank second in NFL history among outside linebackers. Only Hall of Famer Jack Ham had more (53).

CB—Ken Riley. Second among pure cornerbacks with 65 career interceptions, all with the Bengals. Only Hall of Famer Dick “Night Train” Lane had more (68). Led all NFL corners with 9 interceptions in 1976 and again with eight in his final season in 1983 (as a 36-year-old).

CB—Everson Walls. One of only two players -- and the only cornerback – ever to lead the NFL in interceptions three times. First-ballot Hall of Fame safety Ed Reed was the other. His 57 career interceptions are more than, among others, Hall of Fame corners Deion Sanders, Darrell Green, Willie Brown, Ty Law and Champ Bailey.

S—Eddie Meador. 6-time Pro Bowler with the Rams who still holds the franchise records for career interceptions (46) and blocked kicks (10). One of four safeties named to the joint AFL-NFL all-decade team for the 1960s along with Larry Wilson, Johnny Robinson and Willie Wood. Meador remains the only one of the four still without a bust in Canton.

S—Dick Anderson. 1972 NFL Defensive Player of the Year, 3-time Pro Bowler, 34 interceptions in 100 career starts – plus five more in 11 career playoff games. 2-time NFL champion with the Dolphins.

K—Gino Cappelletti. The all-time leading scorer in AFL history with 1,100 points. Also started at receiver for the Boston Patriots, catching 42 career touchdown passes, and went to five AFL All-Star Games.

P—Jerrel Wilson. Voted the punter on the all-time AFL team, then joined Hall of Famer Ray Guy as one of two punters on the NFL’s 1970 all-decade team. Voted to three AFL All-Star Games with the Chiefs, then voted to the Pro Bowl in his first three NFL seasons, leading the league in punting each time.

KR—Billy “White Shoes” Johnson. The only player from the NFL’s 75th anniversary team still without a bust in Canton -- and Johnson has never once been discussed as a finalist. White Shoes also was named to the NFL’s 100th anniversary team last winter.

Do all of the above players belong in the Hall of Fame? Probably not. Do most? Unlikely. Do some? Certainly. All were among the best players at their positions during their respective eras. All deserved to have their candidacies addressed by the Hall-of-Fame selection committee at some point. But few have, and most never will -- not when the senior pool sends forth only one candidate per year.

And that's the flaw with the Pro Football Hall-of-Fame selection process -- too many worthy candidates slip through the cracks without ever receiving a fair hearing on their careers. There remain Hall of Famers in the senior pool who will never receive busts. 

https://talkoffametwo.com/nfl/senior-pool-remains-overflowing-with-deserving-hof-candidates



*********** It’s been five years since the Eagles were in a Super Bowl - and five years since the last Wing Bowl.

It’s probably no coincidence.

Through years and years of Eagles’ mediocrity and downright awfulness - when there was absolutely no chance of their ever making it to a Super Bowl - Philadelphians  still had Wing Bowl.

For 26 years, Wing Bowl was possibly the biggest - but unquestionably the wildest and rowdiest - “Competitive Eating" event held anywhere in the world.

Wrote ESPN writer Jim Caple, ”It's like what you would get if you mixed the Olympics opening ceremonies with Mardi Gras and spring break and crammed it all inside a hockey rink.   Except in place of each country's national anthem, throw in video of projectile vomiting from a past contest.”

Described,  accurately, as an "annual carnival of gluttony, strippers, and early-morning boozing," Wing Bowl was held on the Friday before the Super Bowl,  in the Wells Fargo Arena or whatever it’s called now.  (Where the 76ers and Flyers play.)  Tickets would  go on sale in late December, and within 45 minutes, all 20,000 would be gone.

The competition would get under way at 6 AM, to accommodate the morning talk show of radio station WIP host Angelo Cataldi, who first dreamed up the idea in 1993.  The early start never seemed to faze Philly guys (and  girls), a great many of whom had closed   their favorite tappie (an old Philly term for tap room) the night before,  then headed straight to the Wachovia Center to party until the doors opened.

Over the years, it became a contest to see how soon the Wachovia Center would run out of beer - 8 AM was normal - which would cause a  bit of a stir until replenishments arrived.

This was big-time eating.  In order to compete, eaters first had to qualify - in the WIP studios, on the air - by eating a prodigious amount  of something. Anything. Competitors  got points for creativity.

There was also a competition among young,  voluptuous females to become “Wingettes.”  Think of the World’s Largest Hooter’s, without the women having to wait on tables.

Out-of-town competitors often got the same kind of treatment Eagles’ fans typically reserve for visiting teams. Famed eater Joey Chestnut complained of having beer bottles thrown at him.

One  unofficial rule applied to all competitors: “If you heave - you leave.”

You might  say it was the very best possible display of the worst of Philadelphia, but like all good things, Wing Bowl finally came to an end.  I don’t know why.  Maybe  it got to be too much even for Philly. On the other hand, considering how coarse our overall culture has become, maybe it just got to be too polite and genteel for the Philly crowd.

Or maybe - just maybe - the Eagles’ Super Bowl win in 2018 (they hadn’t won a  title since 1960) took away the main reason for Wing Bowl getting  started in the first place.


https://www.mashed.com/347097/the-untold-truth-of-the-philadelphia-wing-bowl/



*********** Boy, did Sean Payton lift the lid on a steaming mess?

In his first press conference as head coach of the Broncos, he was asked about Russell Wilson’s personal trainer and personal quarterback coach and other such members of his entourage having access to the team’s facilities, and his reply, “That’s  foreign to me” indicates that there will be interesting  times ahead.

Oh - and  Wilson’s personal entourage had its own cabana at team practices.  Oh - and he had his own office in the Broncos’ building.

All this  for a guy who’s being paid $49 million a year  (which this year worked out to $16 million per TD pass thrown).

What- you think all these perks were just offered to him, without his having to ask?

Sounds to me like  the Broncos have had a  first class diva on their hands.

But wait - the mask really came off Mister Man of the Year yesterday with an article in SI exposing him  and his wife as “alleged” charity fraudsters.  Wilson and his “Grammy Award-winning”  wife have been running something called the “Why Not You Foundation,: and as  the 2020 winner of the NFL’s Walter Payton Man of the Year Awards,  Wilson  was lauded by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell for the foundation’s work. 

But if the SI article’s true, it  appears that of the millions raised by the foundation, less  than a  quarter of it has made its way to charitable work.  The rest of it has gone mostly toward  salaries and benefits for employees of the foundation -  most of them relatives of the Wilsons.




*********** The Double-Wing meets the Belly… Today, the counter.

The counter’s action is affected by the change  from (1)  the QB’s reversing out  to (2)  his opening out.

Because he’s still making an inside handoff - with the C-Back going between him and the line - the QB has to make sure   that with his second step he gets his back foot out of the C-Back’s path.  (1) Right  foot: Step at 5 o’clock; (2) Left foot: close the stance and STOP; (3) hand off with  your left hand; (4) roll out - score without the ball (as my friend Greg Koenig says!)




*********** Re  the Belly…

"...he opens to playside - he  takes a step at 5 o’clock  with his playside foot, and finds the B-Back. As he gets ready to hand off, he brings his back foot next to the front foot - and  stops right there. He doesn’t move again until he’s made his handoff.  It’s only a brief pause, but he has to pause - he has to give the B-Back the  right of way..."

Years ago - when I knew everything - I could tell even then when a team was headed for trouble installing an Option Package:

The QB would take his first step, throw the ball back into the FB's gut and do the following:

The QB's first step pointed back to 5:00.  The Coach, afraid of a fumble in this "High Risk" Offense, would tell the QB to "Look" the ball into the FB's Belly.  This turned the QB's feet, knees. hips and shoulders back to 5:00 also.

The QB, now rushed to make an instantaneous Read at the LOS,, would drop his backside shoulder, Pull the Ball (or fumble!) and attempt to run around the FB to "Catch Up" with the Play.  DISASTER!

It is so much easier - and faster - to "Stop right there!".  LET THE FB CLEAR!!!

If you can coach this small Act, your problems are GREATLY reduced and your QB will actually start to relax a little.  A step towards Wisdom and Success!

Thank you, HW!

Charlie Wilson
Brooksville, Florida



***********   A couple weeks  ago the Portland Trail Blazers’ Damian Lillard  put up 60 points against the Utah Jazz. It was his fourth game of 60 or more points, putting him behind Kobe Bryant, who had six.

Bryant remains second among all NBA players, behind Wilt Chamberlain, who did it 32 times.

THIRTY-TWO TIMES.

Said Lillard after his 60-pointer against Utah,   “I ain’t catching Wilt.”



*********** ChatGPT is now capable of writing term papers for college students (and, based on the stupid errors we find in them) online news stories.  Hudl’s been using something robotic to “write” its “game summaries.”

Will game plans be next?


Your input: They play a 3-5-3…  they blitz quite a bit with their interior six.  They normally play a  three-deep zone and  force with their Hybrid outside linebacker/strong safety types.

ChatGPT: Run two tight ends with two wingbacks.  Quarterback under center.  Fullback behind him. Off-tackle…Sweep… Wedge… Counter… Sprint-out… Bootleg



Your input: They play a 4-2-5…  they blitz quite a bit with their interior six.  They normally play a  three-deep zone and  force with their Hybrid outside linebacker/strong safety types.

ChatGPT: Run two tight ends with two wingbacks.  Quarterback under center.  Fullback behind him.  Off-tackle…Sweep… Wedge… Counter… Sprint-out… Bootleg



Your input: They play a 4-3…  they seldom blitz.  They normally play a  two-deep zone and  force with their corners.

ChatGPT: Run two tight ends with two wingbacks.  Quarterback under center.  Fullback behind him.  Off-tackle…Sweep… Wedge… Counter… Sprint-out… Bootleg



Your input: They play a 4-4…  they blitz quite a bit with their interior four.  They normally play a  three-deep zone and  force with their outside linebackers

ChatGPT: Run two tight ends with two wingbacks.  Quarterback under center.  Fullback behind him.  Off-tackle…Sweep… Wedge… Counter… Sprint-out… Bootleg



*********** Anyone remember this?

“We can't drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times... and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK. That's not leadership. That's not going to happen.”  Barack Obama

Hey fella.  I'm driving an Expedition and my wife's driving a Mountaineer.   We're about to sit down to a nice dinner and I'm going to eat as much as I want. And I don't know what our thermostat's set at as long as the house is warm enough for us. And it'll be a cold day in hell when I care whether that's okay with "other countries." Or you.


*********** Back in 2008, before Super Bowl Something-or-other, the folks from KFC,  engaging in a little bit of guerrilla marketing, offered $260,000 to the first player to score a touchdown in the game and  celebrate it by doing  the chicken dance.  

Here’s how the “guerrilla” bit works:  30-second spots were selling that year’s Super Bowl for $2.7 million (the figure for this year’s Super Bowl is $7 million) so if the KFC people had been able to work out a deal, the exposure they’d have gotten (especially if they’d been able to, er, “entice” an announcer to mention  the dance) could have easily been worth  $260,000 - or a tenth of what a 30-second TV ad would have cost them.



***********   Hugh,

Didn't watch the Pro Bowl.  Never have, and from your description...never will.

Snoop is like the Kardashians.  Made a lot of money for no good reason.

Canzano's summation of the transfer portal on the west coast bodes well for Fresno State.  In fact...already has.  The Bulldogs have landed 3 4 star recruits for the first time ever, and...a couple of former blue-chippers who transferred in through the portal.


Have a great week!

Joe Gutilla
Austin, Texas


*********** John McKay is the answer to the current QUIZ, and Coach David Crump, of Owensboro, Kentucky, wrote,

I believe that I have told you that the first football book that I ever purchased was his. Football Coaching copyright 1966.

It helped me so much in my first coaching job at the Potter Orphanage and school when I was in college  at WKU.

I used every part of his book. It was my Bible of football for about ten years.

I  took it off the shelf Tuesday and have been reading it again. It occupies the first position on my bookshelf.

Coach McKay saved my life in 1967.

It has brought back many memories from my formative years as a coach.

Thank you for selecting him for the quiz.





That’s a great tip from Coach Crump.

Coach McKay’s book, published in 1966,  was one of the very first books I was able to locate, when I was a beginner coach in 1970 with no coaching background and no one to turn to for help and advice. It made me realize how little I knew and how much I had to learn.  It’s complete and comprehensive and it’s stood the test of time.  You’d never get anything like it from one of today’s coaches.

A brief look

PREFACE

Coaching football is a way of life. It is a sixteen-hour day during the season, and a ten-hour day in the off-season. It is thousands of hours looking at film. It is tinkering with plays on paper. It is talking to other coaches to find how to better teach a particular skill. It is convincing a young boy that all he needs to be a good player is physical confidence. It is convincing your supporters that you are intelligent, and at times this is very difficult. It is convincing your players that practice is not as bad as it seems.  It is great joy when you win, and despair when you meet defeat. It is putting your work out on display and saying, "Here is what I have accomplished this week.” It is going into a locker room before a game and finding it so silent that you can cut the tension with a knife. And then following the game to shouts of joy in victory or tears of frustration in defeat.  It is many things to many people, but to me it is a way of life, "the only way.”

The football philosophy and techniques filed at USC constitute the basis of this book. We believe in teaching each player all that he can possibly learn rather than concentrating on perfecting the specialist. We also believe that physical conditioning and practice are the heart of a successful football program. The plays discussed and diagrams in the text that follows or those with which we actually experimented and practiced, tried on the playing field, analyzed, revised and used again.  As such they, too, reflect the USC philosophy. Ultimately a football coach is judged by the efforts of his men on the field. For this reason the fundamentals of the offensive and defensive game are thoroughly explored. Both the mechanics and the theory of blocking, running, passing, tackling, kicking, and the other playing skills are carefully developed and discussed.  Yet we have not neglected those functions and problems of coaching that lie beyond the play of the game itself. These include discipline, post-game and opponent analysis, and the coach’s relations with the players, the school and the community at large. It is hoped that the prospective physical education teacher and football coach for whom this book was primarily written will gain from our experiences.


CHAPTER ONE

We at the University of Southern California believe in having an offense as complete as we coaches can intelligently teach to our players. We do not adhere to the theory that a simple, well mastered offense is the best offense. We believe anything is simple to the person or persons who understand it.

We believe in having our offense an option-type offense as much as possible. By that we mean that we work hard on our running plays’ breaking to daylight and not forcing the ball carrier to go into a certain designated hall. We design our practice schedule with this in mind.

In our passing game, we give our receivers a lot of leeway in changing their cut according to the way the defensive man is playing them, or the type of pass defense man-for-man, zone, etc.) being used. We work hard on having our receivers and quarterback read the defense after we have assumed our offensive set. We also read “on the move" after the ball is snapped. To accomplish this, we have our outside men stand up rather than use a three-point stance. When they are set wide, we feel it is easier for them to notice any shifting or changing of secondary men if they are upright. 

*********** QUIZ ANSWER:  John McKay grew up in Shinnston, West Virginia

Enlisted for service in World War II - was a tail gunner on a B-29

After the War, played a season at Purdue

Transferred to Oregon and played in same backfield as Norm Van Brocklin

After Van Brocklin graduated, he called the plays - as running back

After seven years as an assistant at Oregon, moved to USC

After two years, promoted to head coach

4-6 his first year, 4-5-1 his second -  but won the national title his third

For the remainder of his time at USC, never finished lower than 20 nationally

Won four national titles - 1962, 1967, 1972, 1974

Went to eight Rose Bowls - four straight from 1966-1969

Won five Rose Bowls

Finished first or second in the Pac-8 13 times

Lost only 17 conference games in 16 seasons

8-6-2 vs Notre Dame (6-1-2 in his final eight seasons)

10-5-1 vs UCLA

127-40-8 in 16 seasons (winningest coach in school history)

9 teams in the Top Ten; 14 in the Top 25

Coached 40 All-Americans

Coached two Heisman Trophy winners - Mike Garrett and O.J. Simpson

Popularized the I-formation and the tailback position: Mike Garrett, O.J. Simpson, Clarence Davis, Anthony Davis, Ricky Bell

First coach of Tampa Bay Buccaneers - lost first 26 games in a row (NFL record losing streak)

44-88-1 in nine seasons at Tampa Bay

One son, J.K., was a star receiver at USC and played briefly in the World Football League and for three seasons with the Buccaneers.  Another, Rich, is currently president and CEO of the Atlanta Falcons.


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING JOHN MCKAY

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
TOM DAVIS - SAN CARLOS, CALIFORNIA
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
JOE GUTILLA - AUSTIN, TEXAS
RODNEY LUNSFORD - WESTIELD, INDIANA
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
MIKE  FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS










*********** QUIZ:  Born in Bayonne, New Jersey, he played his high school football in Jersey City.

Although a standout high school defensive lineman, he recalled later that he didn’t go to a school closer to home because Syracuse and Penn State said he wasn’t big enough, and besides,  he “wanted to see what other parts of the country looked like,” so when Nebraska defensive coach Monte Kiffin offered him a scholarship, he became a Cornhusker.

He  thrived under coach Kiffin (father of Ole Miss head coach Lane), recalling him as “a hard coach but a fair coach,” and head coach Bob Devaney, of whom he said  “He was a coach. He was a Dad. He was a friend. “ He recalled Devaney saying, “I only have two rules. One, you go to class. Two, you don't get in trouble with the police."   His reaction? “Shucks, those are the same two rules I had at home. If that's all I have to do here then it's going to be easy."

As a middle guard/nose guard (the title has varied over the years) he was small (6-1, 235) but amazingly fast and almost impossible for centers to block by themselves.

He started for all three years (freshmen were ineligible then), and was an All-American his junior and senior years. In his senior year, he won both the Outland Trophy and the Lombardi Trophy, making him the first of four Cornhuskers to be so honored, and he was named Lineman of the Year by the Walter Camp Foundation.

In the co-called “Game of the Century” against Oklahoma, despite going up against OU’s All-American center Tom Brahaney (“the best player I ever played against”), he made 22 tackles.

Teammate Johnny Rodgers won the Heisman Trophy that year; he finished third -  an unusually high ranking for an interior lineman - and was the only defensive player in the top ten.

The Cornhuskers were national champions in his sophomore and junior seasons, and ranked Number four in his senior season.  In his three years there, they went 34-1-2.  They played in the Orange Bowl all three years and won every time, beating LSU, Alabama and Notre Dame. He was named the Outstanding Lineman in the wins over Alabama and Notre Dame.

He was selected as a defensive tackle on Sports Illustrated’s “All-Century Team,” alongside the legendary Bronko Nagurski, and ahead of such stars as Buck Buchanan, Mike Reid, Lee Roy Selmon and Randy White.

He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1995.

Years later his coach, Bob Devaney,  would call him “the greatest defensive player I ever saw.” 

His pro career was short.  Drafted in the third round by the Giants, he started the final six games of his rookie season, but in 1974, after reporting late with other veteran players when the NFL players’ strike was settled, he was cut.   He then joined the Shreveport Steamer of the World Football league for  the rest of the WFL season.  He returned to the NFL the next season, where he  started all 14 games  for the Eagles, but a knee injury suffered the following summer forced him to retire.

After his retirement from professional football,  he was Defensive Line Coach at Washington State and at  San Jose City College. for four years each. He worked for five years as a junior high PE teacher and coach in San Jose, and in 1997 he returned to college coaching as defensive line  coach at New Mexico State, where he served for nine years.

After returning  to Jersey City, he coached at a number of New Jersey high schools, and his son and namesake has also been a successful  coach in New Jersey.

In  2004 he  started the All Access to Life Foundation, described,  in his own words:

“It started when my friend Dusty Baker who coaches in professional baseball got me an "All Access" pass to a game where you could go anywhere in the club house or on the field. I said to myself ‘You know what?  I want the local kids to have all access to life. You can go wherever you want to go as long as you take care of your business and keep your nose clean.’ I started the All Access to Life Foundation with a football camp. It is a free camp. Most camps you have to pay. The city helped me out at first with t-shirts and food and the kids come out for a week for three hours a day working on the basic fundamentals of football. We got incorporated with our 501c. We don't just do football. We do life skills and academics. Work with the kids after school at the center. We do arts and different things and at the holidays we help out serving food. Our goal is to provide all access to do whatever you want to do as long as you do it the right way.”




TUESDAY,  FEBRUARY 7, 2023 -  “I have never understood why it is ‘greed’ to want to keep the money you've earned, but not greed to want to take somebody else's money.” Thomas Sowell


*********** People often joke about professional athletes being paid huge sums to play “a kid’s game,” but on Sunday, in the farcical “Pro Bowl Games,” it was literally true.

Professional athletes  (football players in this case)  played flag football, dodgeball  and other kid’s games, and for engaging in this child’s play, they were rather well-paid.

Every member of the “winning” team was paid $88,000.

Losing had to be painful.  The “losers” were each paid only $44.000.

Lest you think I’m belittling those players and what they did to earn their payday, consider this:

25 years ago, in 1998, every player on the Super Bowl-winning Washington Redskins’ squad earned a Super Bowl bonus of $48,000.

In today’s dollars, that works out to about $87,000.

Talk about sick.  For the math-impaired, what that means is that in today’s dollars, being on the winning team in the NFL’s Pro Bowl  Games Outing - a sillyass made-for-TV outing - was worth $1,000 more  to players  than  being on the winning team in the Super Bowl - a rather monumental accomplishment.  Next, the NFLPA will insist on rings for the winning team.


*********** What was Snoop Dogg doing down on the sidelines at the so-called Pro Bowl Games? For people like me who wondered WTF anyone with his history with the law was doing anywhere near a professional sports event , we were told, “Snoop’s love of football is DEEP and REAL.”  Well, if that's the case, I wondered, WTF was he doing at the Pro Bowl Games?


***********  There’s no argument - over the years, Tom Brady’s done a hell of a job as quarterback.  And he’s been well paid to do it.

But  during the entire time that he had the world in the palm of his hand, I never saw the slightest hint of anything that could be called a broadcast personality.

Not that that was his job, but now we learn that his deal with Fox will  pay him $375 million over ten years. To be an “analyst."

Seriously?  They really think that he’s going to provide them with that much value?

Do you know anybody who’ll watch a game simply because Tom Brady is going to be an analyst?

For that matter, do you know ANYBODY who chooses which game to watch based on who’s calling the game?

And TEN years? Come on.  Unless he’s really, really good - and he’s given no sign up to now  that he will be - he’ll be forgotten in five years.


*********** I don’t spend a lot of time on Twitter, but Brian Flinn, receivers coach at Princeton, was good enough to send me this tweet, from Aid Raid guru Tony Franklin:

BadAss QBcoaches understand everything starts with the stance. I love the Jalen Hurts pre-snap stance as a QB coach :1) Bent knees 2) Shoulder width apart 3) athletic 4) Hands positioned to move 5) Looks like a football player…Hurts can handle any type of snap…#NoBadSnapExcuse

*********** In looking up some stuff in the Los Angeles Times, I came across some great material by Chris Foster and Gary Klein on Tommy Prothro, the great UCLA coach.

*** Once, after UCLA had played poorly  on the road against Washington State, the players knew that Coach Prothro was upset, but when their bus got to Spokane and it headed east, they  became concerned.  The airport, most of them knew, was to the west.

“We started looking at each other, knowing the bus was going the wrong way,” said Gary Beban, UCLA’s quarterback.

 “We crossed into Idaho and the bus stopped. Tommy stepped on the ground, looked around. He got back on the bus and said, ‘Idaho is a state I have never been in. Now I have.’ ”

***
He was precise in everything he did.

“Practice began at 3:12 p.m.,” said Beban, who won the Heisman Trophy in 1967. “Not at 3:15, not at 3:10. He was precise in everything.”

***

He was an exceptional bridge and chess player.  Wesley Grant, a UCLA defensive lineman from 1968 to ’69, played with him often.

“He’d sit there smoking a cigarette and drinking a Pepsi and beat me,” Grant said. “I studied up, read every book on chess I could, thinking I could trap him. He would always trap me.”

***

He was well-read and always ready to converse on a wide variety of topics.

Once, on a  trip, Beban was called up to the front of the plane, and  wondered if he was in trouble.

“I sat down and he said, ‘Gary, I’ve been thinking. The United Kingdom’s parliamentary system is better than what we have.’”


*********** John Canzano, whom I quote frequently because he knows more about the inner workings of West Coast football than anyone I’m aware of,  reports that because of the transfer portal, the big-time schools are showing less interest in high school talent.  As a result, more quality high school talent is available to schools that previously wouldn’t have had a shot at it.

Portland State  coach Bruce Barnum told him that thanks to transfer activity among the bigger programs, he was  signing “higher caliber” high school players than usual.

This seems to be the case, Canzano says, throughout the Big Sky Conference, the West’s premier FCS league.

There is, of course, a downside to this recruiting windfall: prime players who excel at Big Sky schools could soon enough wind up at bigger schools, via the transfer portal.


*********** I frequently tease my coaching friend Brian Mackell about his love of the Cowboys, but deep  down I hurt for him because I know how devoted a fan he is, and what a thick skin he’s had to develop from living with disappointing season after disappointing season.

So I was happy to receive this email from him, because I could sense his excitement at locating a video that shows new Cowboys’ offense line coach Mike Solari teaching the “Crowther Progression” - essentially, how to throw a block of the sort that we teach - you  know, that forearm/shoulder deal that everyone scoffs at as old-fashioned and outmoded.

Now, the video is 10 years old, and  since then Coach Solari may have gone full “Patty Cake Hand stuff” since then, but there is still hope.

Coach Wyatt,

As I do with ALL Dallas Cowboys coaches I look them up to see if they have footage on YouTube or elsewhere on the Internet.

I was NEVER a fan of Joe Philbin especially after I had pre-game field access on Thanksgiving 2019 vs. the BIlls.  I purposely stayed in the corner of the field where the O-Line were and I was totally disgusted by the Patty Cake Hand stuff I saw and their footwork drills.

Now that Kellen Moore has be "let go" and Dallas cleaned house on most of the assistants I love love love Mike Solari's mentality for O-Linemen.  If I have to take one thing away from this video I just watched, he teaches what we call Ice Pick, (a half Ice Pick Strike) and believes in being physical.

I love it!!!

I'll watch this video again later at some point but I am thrilled that McCarthy will be implementing the West Coast Offense with the Cowboys and not some hybrid mix of the Jason Garrett - Kellen Moore pretender Air Coryell Offense and not understand the personnel that matters to run that system.

I'll continue my studies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7FiZyqMvlk

*********** In the same way that in medicine the General Practitioner has given way to an array of specialists, so in  football is  the coach being replaced by the guru.

It wasn’t always this way.

When Bear Bryant wanted to run the Wishbone at Alabama, he arranged for his assistants to find out what the hell they were doing  at Texas.

When Jim Young at  Army decided that he wanted to run the Wishbone, he sent his assistants out to different schools who were running the offense.

Then, back at Alabama and Army, the Alabama and Army assistants installed the Wishbone.

Now, though, when schools want to run a particular offense, they just hire the guy  who  knows the most about it.

It seems to me that there is one potential problem with this modern-day approach, and it’s a serious one, because it places technical expertise ahead of the importance of a  staff that works well together. What if the new guy is a selfish prick?  What if nobody else on the staff can get among with him?  What if he doesn’t truly buy into the program’s mission?  What if he starts badmouthing what’s gone on before him?  What if, knowing how badly the head coach needs him,  he won’t/can’t take orders? What if he  starts to build his own little empire within the program?  What if, whenever things go well,  he makes sure that all the media guys know why that is?

There’s a lot more to winning football games than bringing in a staff star - especially when there’s a possibility it could disrupt  staff harmony.

Coach Bryant and Coach Young never had to face that problem - they already had men on their staffs that they  trusted to work together and do whatever was necessary to be successful - including, if necessary, learning  another offense.  Why wouldn’t a  good coach be able to do that?  They already had the best staff they could put together, men who worked as a team, and just because an outsider knew more about a particular offense than any of them did wasn’t reason alone to bring him on-staff.



*********** Our head coach has been asked not to return, but I will be returning as offensive coordinator, with full control of the direction we will take.  I know this team was very successful running the system they had last season, but I want to  expose them (and myself to coaching the system) to the Double Wing. Any suggestions you might have  - just for short yardage situations, or that I'm wasting my time to try and implement the system as a partial package - would be appreciated.


I feel that you need to go all in on Double Wing.   What we do depends on an interrelated group of factors and techniques  - stance, splits, alignments - that just aren’t applicable to most other systems.

What you propose could probably be pulled off by a pro team, or a large college team, or even a large high school.  But only if you had the same kind of coaching expertise, talent, numbers and time would I advise trying to run "some" Double-Wing  as an adjunct to your base offense.

I think that what a youth program  would get, simply because you couldn't be as attentive to details as you need to be,  would be a less than ideal Double-Wing - and at the expense of your base offense at that.

My belief is that  you can run only one offense well,  and if you don’t think your base offense is good enough for short yardage  situations,  maybe you should be looking at something else anyhow.



***********  In showing the Inside Belly/G play last time,  I guess I was somewhat premature in not first showing the B-Back off-tackle dive play.  If you’ve run the Wing-T you’ve probably run the “Down” play, or if you’ve run my Double Wing, you know it as 6-G.

The difference between what you’ve run - and I’ve run - and what we need do to make this the basis of a Belly Series, is in the steps of the QB and B-Back, and the timing and location of their exchange.

Unlike our usual 6-G, the B-Back does not  do a slow, sideward slide until he gets the ball.  Now, he is in a dead sprint at the hole. His  first step is with his playside foot at the outside cheek of the tackle - that’s the track that he stays on.  He immediately  “opens wide” - makes a big pocket  with the  inside elbow up - with his eye on the inside of the hole. It’s up to the QB to get him the ball.

The QB does NOT reverse out.  No “hockey stick.”  This is  what makes this series different. Instead, he opens to playside - he  takes a step at 5 o’clock  with his playside foot, and finds the B-Back. As he gets ready to hand off, he brings his back foot next to the front foot - and  stops right there. He doesn’t move again until he’s made his handoff.  It’s only a brief pause, but he has to pause - he has to give the B-Back the  right of way.

Then, and only then, does he pull the “ball”  to his stones and run around the man being kicked out by the guard. (“SWOB” - Score without the ball)

The A-Back has to go balls-out on his motion to get the attention of the edge man and the #1 Corner.

There’s no change whatever in the blocking up front.  That’s the beauty of it.

Yes, we could read  that edge man.  If we had the time.  But we’re not looking to complicate things for our kids.  Or for us.

RIP BELLY 6-G
  





***********  Hi, Coach -

Hope you are well! It's been far too long since we have connected. Days are flying by and our 6 year old, 4 year old and almost 2 year old are very busy! Throw in my wife's schedule (she's the head women's basketball coach at Grinnell College) and it's hectic!

I do still follow your news. Reading Brad Knight's comments about offense's being expensive and committing to running them, threw me back almost 20 years. At the time I was subbing and coaching and had aspirations of being a head football coach. I did a search for teams that ran double wing and came across your website. There was a bit on the news column that had listed coaches by state that ran your system. I looked up Brad's information at the school he was at and shot him an email. He said the same things 20 years ago that he said this past week. Commit to running it and don't dabble. Was such a valuable insight for a 21 year old kid.

Keep Coaching!

Clay Harrold
Grinnell, Iowa

(I responded) What’s really great about your note is that it reinforces the durability of Coach Knight’s wisdom.  What he told you when you were a young coach  hasn’t changed in 20 years.

Best of luck to your wife. It must be very interesting and challenging to coach girls from all over the country at an academically demanding college.

Thank you, Coach.

My wife is a warrior and most likely by next year she will be the all-time winningest coach in Grinnell College Women's Basketball History. To give you context, a former coach this century won nine games in seven years. In nine seasons, my wife has reached double digit wins in over half of them. Needless to say our children are around the game a lot. I still interject a lot of football as well!!

(Grinnell, which is very selective - it admits only ten per cent of all applicants - is a small, very highly-rated liberal arts college which attracts students from all over the country.)


*********** Re Overpaying QBs: Any team that uses such a high percentage of cap space should be ultra-careful before making the deal. And the QBs themselves might look at Brady's (he's not on the list, and wasn't for much of his career) example. At least he recognized if he took too much from the pot, there wouldn't be enough left for supporting cast. Further, all the NFL has to do is look at MLB. When a 'superstar' signs a $400 M, 8-year deal, count on his team not winning it all.

Re McGuire-Packer-Enberg: McGuire was my favorite. Loved his motorcycles. Didn't seem to prepare much for any games, and that contention's been supported by other writers to my satisfaction. Breezy manner of presentation. CBS has their version of McGuire: Bill Raftery.

Baltimore:  George Pelecanos is called the "Poet Laureate of the DC Crime World." But he also was a writer of The Wire, which was set in Baltimore. Your Baltimore isn't the Baltimore of The Wire.

John Vermillion
St. Petersburg, Florida

For sure,  MY Baltimore was NOT the Baltimore of The Wire. I watched the show and was fascinated by it, because it gave me a peek inside a Baltimore that 50 years ago I only drove through. (At that time, I could. Today, I wouldn’t consider it.)



***********   Hugh,

Missed out on Tuesday's news.  We got hit by an unusually bad ice storm extraordinaire down here.  We were lucky that we only lost a few limbs from the trees in our backyard, but my neighbors virtually lost entire trees due to the weight of the ice and freezing temps.  We live in the Hill Country west of Austin and it took the brunt of the storm.  Our neighborhood was hit hard.  Fortunately we didn't lose power, but some other neighborhoods in Austin did.  Basically, the city of Austin didn't do a very good job the past few years cutting tree limbs away from power poles in some areas of the city.  Of course there were those leftist yayhoos in Austin blaming Governor Abbott for the problem, but, then again, Austin IS the blueberry in the bowl of strawberries down here in Texas.

Just heard that Notre Dame OC Tommy Rees has accepted the same post at Alabama.  Rees was making 2.0 million at ND, but hey, Alabama has a boat load of money too, and isn't afraid to throw it around.  Hard to turn down 2 million PLUS at a place like Alabama.

Apparently Marcus Freeman has a number of quality candidates already lined up.

The Colts will always be the Baltimore Colts to me.  The Cardinals should have stayed in Chicago.  The Rams finally figured out LA is their home.  And the Raiders...well...

Back in the day I relished college basketball broadcasts with Enberg, McGuire, and Packer.  Don't watch much basketball these days until March Madness, but still...it's just not the same anymore without those guys.  Speaking of Billy Packer his son Mark has seemingly followed in his dad's footsteps.  During football season I listen to his radio program when driving, and his voice eerily sounds like his dad.
RIP Billy.

I never forgot about your "G" (Belly) series.  It was always a staple for my playbook.  At one point it even became part of my Power package.  Thanks coach!

Enjoy the weekend!

Joe Gutilla
Austin, Texas

Mark Packer and another really good sports guy named Wes Durham used to do a great AM sports show on the ACC Network.  From watching  that show, my wife and I really got into the ACC and remained that way for a couple of football seasons and one basketball season. I mean, we were FANS - of the show and of the ACC.  And then this past July, without a word in advance (and nothing afterward), the suits at ESPN (which runs the ACC Network) cancelled the show. Since then to us, other than family ties to Duke and Wake Forest, the ACC’s been just another conference.  I think the decision was shortsighted as hell because I can’t believe that we’re the only people who were similarly affected.  I like Mark Packer and I miss him and Wes Durham.  They were a great pair.


 



*********** QUIZ  ANSWER: In high school - in Indiana, Pennsylvania - Jim Nance was an outstanding football player but an even better wrestler.

As a sophomore, he didn’t wrestle because the state’s highest weight class was 185 and he was too heavy, but in his junior and senior years he won state titles in the new heavyweight class.


At Syracuse, he was 42-1 as a wrestler, and was the NCAA heavyweight champion in 1963 and 1965.

At 6-1, 235,  he started at fullback for three years, leading the team in rushing and scoring in all ten games his senior season.

Drafted by both the Boston Patriots of the AFL and the Chicago Bears of the NFL, he chose Boston.

Now weighing in at over 250 pounds, in his rookie season he rushed 111 times for only 321 yards, but in the next two seasons he established himself as one of the AFL’s top runners.

In his second season, he led the league in carries with 299, and yards gained, with 1458, which is still the AFL single-season rushing record.   In one game, a 24-21 win over the Oakland Raiders, he rushed for 208 yards and two touchdowns, and he was the league MVP.

In his third season, he again led the AFL in both categories, and became the only runner in the history of the AFL to have back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons.

He spent seven seasons with the Patriots - six when they were the Boston Patriots, one final season when they were the New England Patriots.

As a Patriot, he carried 1323 times for 5323 yards and - still a club record - 45 career rushing touchdowns.  He also caught 129 passes for 844 yards.

He was three times named All-AFL.

Traded to the Eagles in 1972, he chose to sit out the season, then played briefly for the Jets in 1973.

In 1974 he played for the Houston Texans in the World Football League, moving to Shreveport (as the Steamer) in midseason, and rushed for 1240 yards.

The following season, which was brought to an abrupt end when the WFL folded, he rushed for  767 yards.

He is in the Patriots Hall of Fame and was named to their 50th Anniversary Team.

Jim Nance is in the National Wrestling Hall of Fame, and is on the Pennsylvania Football News’ All-Century (high school) Football Team, along with Lenny Moore and Tony Dorsett.

He died  of a heart attack in 1992. He was  just 49.


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING JIM NANCE

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
TOM DAVIS - SAN CARLOS, CALIFORNIA
KC SMITH - WALPOLE, MASSACHUSETTS
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - AUSTIN, TEXAS
JOHN IRION - ARGYLE, NEW YORK
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
MIKE  FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS


*********** You’ll find Jim Nance - and a lot of other familiar names - on the Pennsylvania All-Century (20th Century, that is) high school team…

https://web.archive.org/web/20060218053707/http://www.pafootballnews.com/AllCenturyTeams.htm

 


*********** QUIZ:  Grew up in Shinnston, West Virginia

Enlisted for service in World War II - was a tail gunner on a B-29

After the War, played a season at Purdue

Transferred to Oregon and played in same backfield as Norm Van Brocklin

After Van Brocklin graduated, he called the plays - as running back

After seven years as an assistant at Oregon, moved to USC

After two years, promoted to head coach

4-6 his first year, 4-5-1 his second -  but won the national title his third

For the remainder of his time at USC, never finished lower than 20 nationally

Won four national titles - 1962, 1967, 1972, 1974

Went to eight Rose Bowls - four straight from 1966-1969

Won five Rose Bowls

Finished first or second in the Pac-8 13 times

Lost only 17 conference games in 16 seasons

8-6-2 vs Notre Dame (6-1-2 in his final eight seasons)

10-5-1 vs UCLA

127-40-8 in 16 seasons (winningest coach in school history)

9 teams in the Top Ten; 14 in the Top 25

Coached 40 All-Americans

Coached two Heisman Trophy winners - Mike Garrett and O.J. Simpson

Popularized the I-formation and the tailback position: Mike Garrett, O.J. Simpson, Clarence Davis, Anthony Davis, Ricky Bell

First coach of Tampa Bay Buccaneers - lost first 26 games in a row (NFL record losing streak)

44-88-1 in nine seasons at Tampa Bay

One son, J.K., was a star receiver at USC and played briefly in the World Football League and for three seasons with the Buccaneers.  Another, Rich, is currently president and CEO of the Atlanta Falcons.





FRIDAY,  FEBRUARY 3, 2023 -  “The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings. The inherent virtue of Socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.”  Winston Churchill


*********** Hard to believe that people are going to pay “from $35” to attend the “Pro Bowl Games”  this weekend in Las Vegas, but as the Bible says, a fool and his money are soon parted.  Me, I suppose  that my curiosity will get the best of me and I’ll have to watch at least some of it.  The flag touch game could   give us all a peek at what football in the future will look like, when in an effort to make the game safer,  tackling will be outlawed, and to increase female viewership, teams will have to be 50-50 male and female. 


*********** Could it be that NFL teams are paying their quarterbacks so much that as a result they're unable to  acquire  the rest of the pieces necessary to  assemble the best team possible?

Consider:

Based on estimated 2022 earnings, these are the 12 highest-paid NFL quarterbacks:

Aaron Rodgers - $50 million
Russell Wilson - $49 million
Kyler Murray - $46 million
Deshaun Watson - $46 million
Patrick Mahomes - $45 million
Josh Allen - $43 million
Derek Carr - $40.5 million
Matthew Stafford - $40 million
Dak Prescott - $40 million
Jared Goff - $34.5 million
Kirk Cousins - $33 million
Carson Wentz - $32 million


Only one of the 12 those guys - Patrick Mahomes - made it as far as this past weekend’s Final Four.  And only three of them - Mahomes, Dak Prescott and Josh Allen - were in the previous week’s Elite Eight (apologies to college basketball).  

Three of the four QBs in the NFL’s Final Four were still on rookie contracts.
Averaging out their contracts, this is what the four were paid  for the 2022 season:

Jalen Hurts, Eagles:  $4.3million
Brock Purdy, 49ers: $934k

Patrick Mahomes, Chiefs: $45 million
Joe Burrow, Bengals: $9.1 million

A week earlier, in the Conference semi-finals, Purdy - getting by on a poverty-level $934,000 -  quarterbacked the 49ers to victory over the Cowboys, whose QB, Dak Prescott, made $40 million for the season.  Meanwhile Burrow, paid a measly $9.1 million, led the Bengals to a win over the Bills and their QB, Josh Allen, who made $43 million.

It’s possible to make a strong argument that many teams are paying their quarterbacks too much, when they might be better served using the extra money to make themselves better overall.

Solution: Once your QB outgrows his rookie contract, trade his ass.  Unless he’s Patrick Mahomes.


https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/01/28/sports/sunday-football-notes/?camp=bg:brief:rss:MSN&rss_id=MSN_rss_brief


*********** MORE ON STANCES:   Hurts' stance is similar to how I taught the backs to receive the snap when I ran the single wing (high school teams) and the Wildcat with the middle school players.

Mike Framke
Green Bay, Wisconsin


*********** Looking though a 1967 Baltimore Colts program recently, Baltimore’s southern heritage was brought home to me by the number of ads for just one type of whiskey: bourbon.

Ancient Age… Kentucky Gentleman… Old Fitzgerald… Old Forester… Old Grand-Dad… Weller’s Cabin Still.

You'd never have seen that in a Philadlephia Eagles program,  just 100 miles to the north.

As a Philadelphian born and raised, I was shocked when we moved to Baltimore to discover that this city, not that far away,  was southern in so many ways.

I had only heard the term "hillbilly"  applied to music, and not as a derogatory term for  large numbers of rural people who'd moved from West Virginia, Southwestern Virginia and Eastern Kentucky, in search of work. Why here? I wondered. Why didn't some of them  go another hundred miles to Philadelphia?   Was it because Baltimore felt "southern" to them?

Maryland , being on the southern side of the Mason-Dixon Line, was a southern state.  And it was a  slave state . (Harriet Tubman was a Marylander, and it  was from Maryland that she helped slaves escape - mostly to Pennsylvania.). The Emancipation Proclamation did not free a single slave in Maryland; it applied only to those slave states that had seceded from the Union, and  Maryland hadn’t, so Maryland remained a slave state (although still a part of the Union) throughout almost the entire Civil War.

When we moved to Baltimore in 1961, although it was seven years after the Brown vs. Board of Education decision outlawing segregation in schools, segregation was still in practice in most of the city’s top restaurants and in its housing.

Philadelphians like us were unaware of Baltimore's differences because, to be frank, Philadelphians didn’t pay much attention to anything to the south of us.  Wilmington, Delaware, maybe 30 minutes away, was as far as our interests went in that direction.  When Philadelphians went anywhere else, they went “down the Shore” (to the Jersey Shore) or, for a really big time, spent weekends in the Big City - New York.

Baseball could  have brought Baltimore to Philadelphians’ attention, but when Baltimore finally got a major league baseball team, the American League Orioles,  it was  1954, and that happened to be Philadelphia’s last year as an American League city. By 1955,  the  Philadelphia A’s had become the  Kansas City A’s, and Philadelphia was a National League city.

Baltimore wasn’t that far away from family, but my wife and I found it rather  exotic, and found most of the differences fascinating and exciting.

And then there were the Colts.  Yes, Philadelphia loved the Eagles, and going to college in Connecticut I’d become familiar with New Yorkers’ love of the Giants, but I had never seen anything like the way Baltimore loved its Colts (and I have yet to see anything like it since) and I got swept up in Colt Fever just like everyone else. 

You’d have to have experienced the excitement   of  those days  to understand why old-time Baltimoreans like me harbor such resentment of the Irsays for taking the Colts to Indianapolis.  It was bad enough that they took the franchise, but they didn’t have to take the name, the colors, the horseshoe logo, and the  f—king HISTORY, too! The records, even!

At least when  Clevelanders lost their NFL team (to Baltimore, ironically) , the movers left them the name “Browns” and everything associated with it.


*********** It appears that colleges are discovering that it may make more sense to work the transfer portal for quarterbacks - to let someone else do the recruiting  of the pampered high school hotshots, and then bring in, via transfer, the ones who’ve shown that they can play at the college level.

The winners? Coaches in the big-time programs,   relieved of the indignity of having to kiss the rear ends of teenage boys.

The losers?  The personal coaches and street agents and operators of elite QB camps, who’ve been extracting money from ambitious parents in return for getting their little boys to the front of the recruiting line.


*********** In stressing the importance of not allowing yourself to get pulled in too many different directions, Apple CEO Tim Cook noted in an interview  that Apple could fit all of the products it sells on just one table top.

“It’s hard to stay focused,” he said. “And yet we know we'll only do our best work if we stay focused. And so the hardest decisions we make are all the things NOT to work on.”

To put that in football terms: when you’re a head coach - or an offensive coordinator - do what you do.  The hardest decisions you make are all the things NOT to do.


*********** Back in the 60s and early 70s, when we lived in Maryland and got hooked on the ACC basketball game of the week (imagine - only one game a week!) Billy Packer was synonymous with ACC basketball.  His dad was a college coach.  He was a very good player himself, at Wake Forest, and he coached briefly before getting started on a very successful business career.

Only by chance did he find himself behind a microphone - he was asked to fill in for one game - but it was obvious from the start that he not only  knew and loved the game, but he could get that across to us viewers, informing us without going on too long (in stark contrast to today’s generation of “voices” - generic announcers, talking heads,  who don’t know or love what they’re “calling,” and worst of all, won’t shut up).

Before he called it a career, Billy Packer would  broadcast 34 Final Fours.

He had an opinion on just about everything, and even if you disagreed with what he said, you had to respect him because it was obvious he knew his stuff.  And, most of all, he loved the game.

If he was working a game?  You knew it was a big one.  And if he, Al McGuire and Dick Enberg were working it, you KNEW it was going to be great watching.  And listening.

Enberg was calm and smooth, the midwest grandson of Finnish immigrants; McGuire was a New York Irishman,  son of a saloonkeeper; Packer was a brash Polish kid (his family had changed their name from Paczkowski) from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

So I was greatly saddened to learn of his death last week.  I hadn’t heard him in years, but I can’t think of the days when I really cared about college basketball - the days before there were 30 college games on TV every day - without thinking of him.  (And, of course,  of Al McGuire and  Dick Enberg.)

I can’t  do him justice, so I’ll  turn that job over to John Feinstein.   On practically any subject, if it’s related in any way to sports, it’s hard to beat John Feinstein as a writer.  (“A Civil War,” his book about the Army and Navy teams as they prepare for - then play - the Army-Navy Game is a classic.)

In 1985, Feinstein wrote an article for the Washington Post about Packer and McGuire, giving it  the title “Basketball’s  Odd Couple” (“The Odd Couple” was the name of a very popular TV show at the time).

The article’s long, but there’s way too much good stuff in it for me to condense and if I gave you the link to it you mightn’t bother to check it out, so here it is in its entirety…

Basketball's Odd Couple

By John Feinstein
March 16, 1985

The maroon handkerchief hasn't moved all day. It sits immaculately fluffed up in the breast pocket of the blue blazer. Gentleman's Quarterly stuff. The blazer hasn't done quite so well. It is cold in New York and the blazer has been used for warmth. The hands have been dug deep into the pockets and the collar has been turned up against the wind.

But Al McGuire is warm. He's relaxed, comfortable. Serious negotiations are taking place.

In one hand, he holds a piece of bread; in the other, some corned beef. "You want $3.50 for this?" he asks indignantly. "The bread is at least a day old, maybe more. Look at the fat. You gotta trim the fat, buddy.”

The counterman is not amused. "The bread came in today. It's fresh. The sandwich is $3.50.”

McGuire leans across the counter and shakes hands. "You're okay, pal, you're okay. Give me an extra piece of bread, okay?"


Having had his fun, McGuire, the former Marquette coach and NBC's longtime basketball expert, troops to a table, collapses in a chair -- the handkerchief hasn't moved -- and glances across the street at the Port Authority Bus Terminal. Eighth Avenue is teeming with rush-hour traffic. "You can tell from the outside," he says, "when a place will have good corned beef.”

He takes a bite from the sandwich, munches on the extra piece of bread and smiles. "Billy could never appreciate a place like this," he says.

Two weeks later, on a cold spring morning, Billy Packer, McGuire's former NBC colleague and now his counterpart at CBS, arrives at the Port Authority Bus Terminal. He has just finished negotiations for a business deal that he hopes will be worth quite a bit of money. His main purpose in coming to New York, though, was a CBS production meeting the night before. That means CBS is picking up the expenses.


Now Packer is heading for Newark International Airport to catch a flight home to North Carolina. Packer is wealthy. CBS is wealthier. But Packer is taking the bus to Newark.

"Why pay $45 for a cab when I can ride a bus for $6?" Packer said the previous evening. "I don't care who pays for it, that's a waste of money.”

McGuire and Packer. Never once in four years together on television -- or so it seemed -- did they agree. They sat with play-by-play man Dick Enberg and debated. Enberg was like a point guard who has to get the ball to the right person at the right time. Somehow, he did. Somehow, even though they sounded like the Oakland A's of the broadcast booth, McGuire and Packer came out winners.

They are as different as two men can be: McGuire is 57, tall, good-looking, the street-smart New Yorker with a line for everyone and everything. Packer is 45, short, balding, a kid from Bethlehem, Pa., who went to college in the South and never dreamed of celebrity.


Packer studies basketball incessantly. He broadcasts 40 to 50 games a season and watches dozens more on television. McGuire does 18 broadcasts a season and doesn't watch basketball unless he has to. Packer's season really begins in March -- this week, when the NCAA tournament begins. McGuire's season ended Sunday with NBC's telecast of the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament final.

Packer knows every rule, McGuire has broken every rule. They were the Odd Couple from the start. But even today, four years after they last appeared regularly on television together, they are linked. Al goes with Billy and Billy goes with Al. They are as much a part of college basketball as Bob Knight or Dean Smith.

Each is a wealthy businessman with an annual income approaching $1 million. Packer, the organizer, owns property in Georgia, New York, Connecticut, North Carolina and Atlantic City. He owns radio stations, gives speeches, does clinics. McGuire owns property, gives speeches and clinics, has a production company with one of his sons and is a well-paid vice president for Medalist Sporting Goods.


They're both rich. Yet, Packer will ride a bus to Newark Airport. McGuire might easily hitch a ride. But each would get where he wanted to go. And neither would pay $45 to get there.

To college basketball, Packer and McGuire were like Felix and Oscar.

"Their time together was a magic time in college basketball," said Michael Weisman, now the executive producer of NBC Sports. "Theirs was the most unusual relationship ever because they are so different. But they were special. What we had then was special.”

It is Enberg who best explains the effect McGuire and Packer had on the public. "Turning on Al and Billy was like going to a bar, sitting on a stool and listening to two guys argue about the game," he said. "Only by the end of the game, no matter which one you agreed with, you had laughed, you had enjoyed it and you had learned."

The team broke up when CBS, after outbidding NBC for the rights to the NCAA tournament, hired Packer to become its college basketball expert. Everyone at NBC agrees that letting Packer get away was an error almost as egregious as letting the tournament get away.

Yet Packer and McGuire have gone on. They still talk about each other on the air -- rudely, of course. They are business partners: they do a syndicated radio show together, they promote all-star games.  The company is called Pac-Mc.

And, whenever they get the chance, they just hang out.

Packer now is a star at CBS. He is the man who saved the package. The network has changed play-by-play men, it has struggled at times with regular season scheduling. But it always has had Packer to lend credibility to its package. Last year, the network signed a three-year deal to continue doing the tournament.


NBC has hung in with college basketball even without the NCAA tournament. Enberg and McGuire went through withdrawal when Packer left, each adjusting to his absence. "Billy was always the guy who knew where the hotel was, knew when practice was, knew who the players were," Weisman said. "I think when he left, Al wondered if he could survive without him.”

McGuire has survived. Although Enberg will never play Packer's role, will never say to McGuire, "that's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard," he has learned to prod his partner, to question him when he starts running a little amok.

"When Al first came to the network after he left Marquette, I bet he didn't know the names of 10 college basketball players," Packer said. "The network thought they were getting a guy who was going to sit there and explain Xs and Os. What they didn't understand was that Al never thought or cared about Xs and Os. He just has a feel for the game. It took them a while to figure that out."


McGuire agrees: "Billy knows more basketball than I do, always will," he said. "But I can feel the game in a way Billy can't know it. That's why we disagree so much. But it's also why we worked well together. I knew I couldn't do what he did and he knew he couldn't do what I did. Egos never got involved.”

In fact, the teaming of Packer-McGuire-Enberg had much to do with egos. Specifically, it had to do with Packer and Enberg being secure enough to include McGuire.

McGuire came to NBC in 1977, shortly after dramatically concluding his coaching career by winning the national championship at Marquette. The way it happened, the team winning the championship for the departing coach, McGuire's tears on the bench, made him a natural for a network. But other coaches-turned-announcers had bombed, so NBC was cautious.


When the next season began, Packer and Enberg still were together and McGuire was sitting in a little booth. When he wanted to comment, he had to press a button, get Enberg's attention, then insert his remark.

Three games into the season, Packer and Enberg had a talk. They agreed McGuire wasn't being used properly. Enberg remembers Packer suggesting McGuire be moved out to work with them. Packer thinks they both thought of it. Either way, without consulting the NBC brass in New York, Packer and McGuire told their producer they wanted McGuire at the table. The producer said fine.

"A lot of people have tried to take credit for putting the three of us together," Packer said. "The whole thing was a fluke, nothing more.”

The fluke worked. People watching genuinely believed that McGuire and Packer couldn't stand each other, and they couldn't wait to hear what the two were going to argue about each week. Back then, there was no cable TV, no syndication packages. There was just NBC.

McGuire was the star. Packer and Enberg knew it, understood it and accepted it. "I think they were uncomfortable with me at first because they didn't know what to expect," McGuire recalled. "I'm not that easy a person to know.”

That is one aspect of McGuire that people fail to understand. Put him on stage and he performs. Offstage, he is shy, almost afraid to be assertive. Packer and Enberg at first took this for aloofness, and the first year had its ups and down.

Packer says it turned around in St. Louis during the Final Four that spring. "I went to church on Sunday," he said. "It was Easter and I went to this little church under the arch. I walked in and there was this strange mix of wealthy people and vagrants. When I went down to take communion, one of the vagrants was in front of me. I looked at him and it was Al.

"We both burst out laughing. He said, 'Let's go for a walk.' We went down on the river and started talking to these guys working on the river breaking up the ice. Al told them we were from the St. Louis Health Department and we wanted to check out their boats. That day really started the friendship.”

It grew as the act grew. But then came 1981, and CBS entered the picture. Packer had no intention of leaving NBC. The network was committed to college basketball, and he had a number of ideas for things he, McGuire and Enberg could do. But when he talked to NBC, he didn't get the answers he wanted.

Packer still was negotiating with NBC when he got a phone call from CBS announcer Dick Stockton, whom Packer had become friends with when Stockton had been at NBC. Stockton told Packer CBS needed an analyst and consultant on college basketball. Was he interested?

"I was still mad at NBC," Packer said. "I told him, 'Sure, I'll talk to them.' “

They talked. It didn't take long. CBS was willing to give Packer everything he had asked for from NBC: a hand in scheduling, consulting, halftime shows, analysis. "It was what I had waited four months for NBC, my employer for eight years, to give me," he said. "I ended up meeting with NBC one morning and CBS that afternoon. I told my lawyer after the meeting with CBS I was going and I didn't care what the money was.”

And so Packer left. NBC sort of shrugged. McGuire always had been considered the star, anyway. But McGuire missed Packer more than Packer missed him. Packer, who began in broadcasting in 1971 by doing ACC telecasts, had worked with lots of partners. Even though he missed his buddies, the adjustment wasn't that hard for him. For Enberg and McGuire, it was difficult.

Now, Enberg and McGuire seem to have a new comfort together. They have become much closer in recent years and, when McGuire signed a new four-year contract two years ago, he included a clause that requires that he be the analyst any time Enberg works a college basketball game. McGuire says he'll quit when this contract is up, but most people don't believe him. He is producing halftime shows through an independent contract with his son Rob and says he has enjoyed this season more than any since Packer left.

Packer and McGuire still talk, perhaps only in fantasy terms, about being back together on TV someday. "I think Billy thinks somehow it might happen again," McGuire said. "I don't think it will. Even if it did, I'm not sure the reaction to it would be the same. Times change. People change." They may be reunited, at least for one day, at the end of this month. McGuire has received permission from NBC to have Packer appear as a guest on his annual NCAA special, scheduled for March 31. If CBS clears the way, they will be back on television together for the first time in four years.

What do they miss most about each other? "I miss the idea of looking forward to being together on the weekend," Packer said. "Al and I never plan anything special, we never put on our calendars, 'Do this together.' But when we're together, whatever we do, we have fun.”

"I miss having someone to scream at," McGuire said. "On or off the air, although I still get to do it off the air. But in the old days, whenever I got into trouble on the air, I'd just call Billy a name and get out of it that way. It always worked.”

It is testimony to the endurance of The Act that a lot of people still think they hate each other. One afternoon last month, as McGuire was walking into Alumni Hall at St. John's to film a piece with Chris Mullin, a man approached and demanded an autograph.

As McGuire signed, the man asked, "Hey, where's Billy?”

"Who knows or cares?" McGuire answered. As the man walked away, McGuire laughed joyously. "Billy will love that one," he said.

They had just finished having breakfast together.

*********** Jalen Hurts’  post-game interview was a textbook lesson for young players:

“I don't really know how to feel to be honest. You work really hard to put yourself in this position and I'm forever grateful. Only God knows the things that each individual on this team has been able to overcome for us to come together as a team and do something special as a group. That's what means the most. I always want to go out there and give my best regardless of what's going on because I don't want to let down the guy next to me. That makes us all go harder.”

Jalen,  please keep talking that way.   I want very much to believe that you are for real, and I want you to stay that way, because America’s young men need good role models. 

And please, please - don’t do anything to lower yourself in anyone’s eyes:

1. Don’t ever hit your  girlfriend.  Treat her right.  And before you have kids - marry her.

2. Don’t ever screw around with drugs. Yes, even pot.  Yeah, yeah - I know it’s legal. But it’s still stupid enough to shatter your image.

3. And support all the good causes you can, but please, please, please - avoid anything politically contentious.  The world will survive without one less athlete taking a controversial stand.



*********** Without getting into the whys and wherefores of Stetson Bennett’s recent arrest for public intoxication - he was in a suburb of Dallas, drunk and  “allegedly” banging on strangers’ doors around six or so in the morning - I’ll just say he should  consider himself lucky.

It’s one thing to be a drunken frat boy - a football star at that - in a college town, but Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Athens anymore.

Now, I don’t know a thing about Bennett’s hometown, Blackshear, Georgia, other than the fact that it’s a small town of about 3,500 people.  And it’s in what you’d call  rural America.  It’s in south Georgia,  about four hours southeast of Atlanta and about an hour and a half north of Jacksonville, Florida. The nearest “big” town is Waycross - population 14,000 - about ten miles away.

Based on  what I know about small towns in rural America - and what Stetson Bennett certainly should know from growing up in one - a person who gets drunk and knocks on other peoples’ doors early in the morning faces the  possibility of one of those doors being opened by an angry homeowner with a shotgun.

And in  today’s climate, I’m not so sure things would be much different in a  townhome community in a Dallas-Fort Worth suburb.

 
*********** Dare to question how a near-vegetable who never left his basement to campaign for President could get more votes than Barack Obama and you’re labelled a “denier.” Well, what are we supposed to call these people who are now claiming that the NFL is “rigged.”

Look - in the interest of not letting officials overly intrude on the game,  teams have  long been allowed to flout rules against holding and pass interference, to the point where officiating is hopelessly inconsistent.  But if they called every foul they saw, games would last for days.

The reason I know that the NFL can’t be rigged (or “scripted,” as some prefer to say)?  Simple.  If it were,  they’d give us way better games than they do.



*********** Was Sean Payton really worth two draft choices - a first-round and a second round - to the Denver Broncos?

I dunno.

Was Russell Wilson?  To get Wilson from the Seahawks, the Broncos had to give up TWO first rounders and TWO second rounders - plus three players. How’s that working out?

Here are some precedents for the Payton acquisition:

1992 - Mike Holmgren - 49ers  to Packers for a Number 2

1997 - Bill Parcells - Patriots to Jets for Numbers 1,2,3,4

1999 - Mike Holmgren - Packers to Seahawks for a Number 2

2000 - Bill Belichick plus Number 5 & 7  - Jets to Patriots for Numbers 1, 4, 7

2002 - Jon Gruden - Raiders to Buccaneers for Two Number 1’s, and Two Number 2’s - plus $8 million

2006 - Herm Edwards - Jets to Chiefs for a Number 4

 
*********  Despite  the Eagles-49ers blowout in the first game,  the two Sunday NFL games  had the best championship Sunday TV  audience since 2014.

 
*********** This past season was only the second one in history in which Oregon and Oregon State won 20 more more games between them.

The last time was 2000, when Oregon was 10-2 under Mike Bellotti, and Oregon State was 11-1 under Dennis Erickson.

John Canzano wrote that Erickson is a big fan of current Oregon State coach Jonathan Smith:   “He’s not arrogant. Some of these coaches these days blow my mind. He’s not an arrogant guy. He gives players a chance. When he took that thing over it was a frickin’ mess, as you know. He took it over and built it and built it and it’s going to get better and better because he hasn’t changed what he’s going to do.”



***********Those of you who have been following me on my Zoom clinics may remember how much time I devoted in some earlier clinics to the Belly Series, which in the early to mid-fifties was killing people, especially as  it was run at places like Miami, Georgia Tech, Army and, yes, Yale. As a Double Winger (and, I might add, the only one of the early Double Wing pioneers who brought the “G” or “Down” play with him from the Wing-T), I’ve long been fascinated with the prospect of running a Belly Series from Double Wing, using "G" blocking.  Back in 2002 when I was working with a high school in suburban Chicago we installed this play for a playoff game and had good success with it.  And then, for some reason, I let it die.

Maybe it was simply that I didn’t want to have to ditch anything I was already running in order to make way for this new guy.  Or maybe it was the purist in me that insisted that with the sole exception of the Wedge, every play - EVERY play - had to start  with the quarterback reversing out, hiding the ball from the defense. 

But to run the Belly Series, the QB has to be able to (1) make  a handoff or fake to the B-Back, who runs directly at the butt of the tackle, and (2) he has to make sure to give the B-Back the right of way, and he can’t do that if he reverses out with his normal “hockey stick” steps.

Instead, it means "opening out" - he takes a step with his playside foot - in this case his right foot - at 5 o’clock.   As with so much of football, success begins - or ends - with the first step.  And everything proceeds from there.

MORE TO COME…



*********** You still have the best-tackling teaching video I have ever seen. Better than any clinic or video. It's safe and most importantly the different drills you have for coaches to run with and without gear are amazing. You taught me the number 1 reason kids don't tackle well is FEAR and it was something that never even dawned on me.

I used to believe before your video the only way to get good at tackling was tackling. You showed a better way. You have saved countless kids from getting hurt and I thank you for that.

Ian Pratt
Calais, Maine


***********    Your first sentence today summed up what I was thinking as I watched the NFL games. When Purdy went down, SF was done. Then when he came back, he played with one arm, handing off every (?) time. I couldn't remember seeing anything like that, although I remember Tom Matte in that famous game. I wondered why--as a minimum--SF didn't run from the Wildcat with McAffrey taking snaps the rest of the game...and reportedly the FB was also an emergency option. In any case, they showed us the downside of a QB-centric league.

I had identical reaction to seeing "Doctor" Jill yukking it up with the Most High Emperor Goodell. Almost changed channels at that point. I often wonder, if I'd been the guy in the booth, what (if anything) I would say if in my earpiece I was told what to say when the camera panned to something irrelevant like that. Unemployment line for me next week, I suppose.

John Vermillion
St. Petersburg, Florida





***********  QUIZ ANSWER:  Jack Thompson was born in American Samoa but his family moved to Washington when he was a baby. He went to high school outside Seattle, where he was an outstanding quarterback and a big fan of the Washington Huskies and their star quarterback, Sonny Sixkiller.

“I wanted to be a Husky,” he said later.  “I was a big Husky fan and a big Sonny Sixkiller fan… but when it came to a visit in my home, twice they said they were coming, and Coach Jim Owens said he was coming, and he never showed.”

So instead, he wound up going to school on the other side of the state - to Washington State.

He loved the school but not the football, and after seeing little on-field action he almost left after his freshman season.  But a coaching change, and a change in the offense - together with a little bit of luck - changed his life.

The new coach was Jackie Sherrill, and he favored a more wide-open offense than the veer that the Cougars had been running.  The luck came when the Cougars’ starter went down in the second game of the season, and Thompson took over.

The Cougars had a bad season - their fourth losing season in a row - but  they’d found their quarterback. He threw for 2,762 yards and 20 touchdowns (against 14 interceptions), earning him the nickname “Throwin’ Samoan” from a Spokane  sportswriter.

Sherrill left after one year to take the Pitt job, left vacant after Johnny Majors left for Tennessee, and he was succeeded by Warren Powers. But Powers lasted just one season before taking the head job at Missouri, and he was followed as WSU head coach by Jim Walden.

That meant that in his four years at Washington State, he  played under four different head coaches.  He never  experienced a winning season, but he did throw for 7,818 yards in his career, setting just about every conference (Pac-8) passing record and making him at the time  the all-time NCAA leader in passing yardage.

He was a Sporting News first team All-American, and finished ninth in the Heisman Trophy voting.

He was taken by the Cincinnati Bengals in the 1979 draft - the third player chosen overall, and the first quarterback.

He played six seasons in the NFL,  the first four with Cincinnati mostly as a backup to Ken Anderson.  In his third season, 1981, it did appear that  he might win the starting job, but a high ankle sprain suffered  in the final exhibition game kept him out of action for several games.  (The Bengals would make it to the Super Bowl that season, and Anderson would have an All-Pro season.)

After the 1982 season, he was traded to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for a first-round choice, starting 19 games for them before being released after the 1984 season.  Those were not good years to be a Buccaneer - they were  the first two of what would be 14 straight losing seasons.

He retired after that and returned to the Northwest where he raised a family - one of his sons played football at Washington State - and had a successful career as a mortgage banker.

He is on the board of directors of the Washington State University Foundation.

Jack Thompson was the inspiration for many outstanding young quarterbacks who would follow him to fame at Washington State.

And that nickname?

In a recent interview he recalled, “I knew the guy who tagged me with it, Harry Missildine, and I didn’t think anything of it. It was pretty true. I am Samoan and I threw the ball. In these politically correct days, people might have a problem with it, but that’s their problem, not mine. I’m proud of it, and my dad, frankly, loved it.”


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING JACK THOMPSON

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
TOM DAVIS - SAN CARLOS, CALIFORNIA
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE  FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY


***********   I modeled Tetu's son after him in one or two books. In 1978, on 9-30, his WSU team came to West Point and played Army to a 21-21 tie. That's a precise recollection. The next recollection I'm uncertain about, but I think Thompson set a record for most passes attempted in a college game up until then in that one. Great QB, great guy.

John Vermillion
St. Petersburg, Florida





*********** QUIZ: In high school - in Indiana, Pennsylvania - he was an outstanding football player and  an even better wrestler.

As a sophomore, he didn’t wrestle because the state’s highest weight class was 185 and he was too heavy, but in his junior and senior years he won state titles in the new heavyweight class.

At Syracuse, he was 42-1 as a wrestler, and was the NCAA heavyweight champion in 1963 and 1965.

At 6-1, 235,  he started at fullback for three years, leading the team in rushing and scoring in all ten games his senior season.

Drafted by both the Boston Patriots of the AFL and the Chicago Bears of the NFL, he chose Boston.

Now weighing in at over 250 pounds, in his rookie season he rushed 111 times for only 321 yards, but in the next two seasons he established himself as one of the AFL’s top runners.

In his second season, he led the league in carries with 299, and yards gained, with 1458, which is still the AFL single-season rushing record.   In one game, a 24-21 win over the Oakland Raiders, he rushed for 208 yards and two touchdowns, and he was the league MVP.

In his third season, he again led the AFL in both categories, and became the only runner in the history of the AFL to have back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons.

He spent seven seasons with the Patriots - six when they were the Boston Patriots, one final season when they were the New England Patriots.

As a Patriot, he carried 1323 times for 5323 yards and - still a club record - 45 career rushing touchdowns.  He also caught 129 passes for 844 yards.

He was three times named All-AFL.

Traded to the Eagles in 1972, he chose to sit out the season, then played briefly for the Jets in 1973.

In 1974 he played for the Houston Texans in the World Football League, moving to Shreveport (as the Steamer) in midseason, and rushed for 1240 yards.

The following season, which was brought to an abrupt end when the WFL folded, he rushed for  767 yards.

He is in the Patriots Hall of Fame and was name to their 50th Anniversary Team.

He is in the National Wrestling Hall of Fame, and is on the Pennsylvania Football News’ All-Century (high school) Football Team, along with Lenny Moore and Tony Dorsett.

He died  of a heart attack in 1992. He was  just 49.





TUESDAY,  JANUARY  31,  2023 -  “Arms discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe, and preserve order in the world as well as property... Horrid mischief would ensue were the law-abiding deprived of the use of them."  Thomas Paine


*********** Aren’t you glad you’re a Double Wing coach, and not the coach of an NFL team?  Hey -  if your  quarterback goes down, you still have an offense.


*********** There I sat on Sunday in front of the TV, thinking that maybe if I just wished long enough and hard enough a college game would magically appear.

Instead, like water finding its own level, the NFL delivered up two games of the sort that I expect from it - games that on a college Saturday would have had me switching away from both of them by halftime.

That’s the problem when people (NFL, The Playoff)  monopolize football on your tube.  You watch what they choose to give you.  And if it’s a bad game -  tough tiddy. 

There were the 49ers, a damn good football team, showing what happens to a team - any team - in today’s quarterback-centered game when it has no quarterback, and has made no apparent provisions for such a contingency.

(It’s happened before.  For a good read, check out this article, written at the time of Tom Matte’s death, about his being pressed into service as the Baltimore Colts’ quarterback, when their two regular  quarterbacks - John Unitas and Gary Cuozzo - went down.)     https://www.si.com/nfl/talkoffame/nfl/upton-bell-tom-matte

And then there was that thriller of a second game.

Kansas City “rushed” for 42 yards, the Bengals for 71.

Even after a dull-ass 13-6 first half, with only one touchdown scored between them, the Chiefs and Bengals game still had the potential   to provide us with an exciting finish.  But, alas, it wound up like so many NFL games  do - decided by  a last-second  field goal.  Worst of all, it was because of a knucklehead play by a Bengals’ defender that the ball was moved close enough for a last-second 45-yard Chiefs’ field goal attempt.   Poof.  So much for  the excitement.  A 45-yard field goal has a roughly 75 per cent chance of success.   Game Over.


*********** ANNOUNCER GREG OLSEN (As Christian McCaffrey ties the game at 7-7  with a nice 24-yard run): “This is just refusing to go down…”

TRANSLATION:  “This is sorry-ass tackling…"


*********** It was almost cruel, the spot that the 49ers put fourth-string QB Josh Johnson in. There was 1:36 left in the first half when the 49ers took over on their own 25. The  Eagles had just scored to go ahead, 14-7.

Down just one touchdown, they were still in the game.  Yes, their offense was greatly impaired by the injury to starting QB Brock Purdy, but  their defense was playing well and they had managed one touchdown with Johnson at the controls.

But realistically, as the  one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest, you’d think that they’d be playing conservative football.  Get off the field and go in at halftime down one score.

But no…

They threw. And it must have looked like sound strategy when on first down Johnson threw for 11 yards and a first down.

Okay, I thought.  NOW you run the ball and get the hell out of Dodge. 

But no… they passed again.  Or at least that was their intent, based on the setup of their tackles.    But there was one problem.

Remember this, from Friday’s NEWS?

(I don’t know this to be so, but I’ve heard coaches talk about training their quarterbacks to look at coverage while eyeing the snap with peripheral vision.  Me - I'l just stick with  “first catch the GD ball.”)

The problem was, Johnson DIDN’T “catch the GD ball.”  I couldn’t tell whether he took his eyes off the ball but he didn’t seem to.  But his hands were apart, a common reason for receivers missing  passes. With QBs  I  teach “thumbs together” if the snap’s above the waist, “fingertips together” if it’s below the waist, but Johnson’s hands were neither.  They were far enough apart that a ball could fit between them.

And now  - one more argument in favor of a lower snap:  when you miss a high snap, it has farther to go to get to the ground - and so do you, in your attempt to cover it, which gives the defense more time to get after the ball, too.

In this case,  Johnson was unable to cover his muffed ball, and the Eagles got it.

There was now 1:11 left, and - aided by one of several stupid penalties by the 49ers, it took them just a minute to score again.

Halftime score: 20-7.  Start the buses.


*********** The great irony to me of the 49ers-Eagles game was  that the 49ers had done such a marvelous job of not asking Brock Purdy to do more than he was capable of doing well, but then as soon as he had to leave the field, the very first thing they did to his backup, veteran Josh Johnson, was ask him to do more than he was capable of doing well.

They knew that  their chances of passing successfully were a lot slimmer with Purdy on the sideline, yet rather than mixing up their attack, they seemed almost intent on ignoring the running game.  What they  did was expose Johnson to the brutal Eagles’ rush, when they had to know what we all did -  that if Purdy  couldn’t carry the team by himself, Josh Johnson certainly couldn’t.

 Considering the circumstances, Josh Johnson might have been able at least to keep the 49ers close, if the Eagles  also had had to account for the possibility of  a run.  Instead, they waited to run the ball until that was all they could do - when Johnson, too, had to leave the game, and Purdy returned, unable to throw the ball.



*********** I think it was the great Bob Reade who said it, but I’ve never forgotten it:

“One guy can’t win it for you, but one guy can lose it for you.”

Say what you will about all the other plays earlier in the Bengals-Chiefs game  that might have been just as important in the overall scheme of things, but when it’s crunch time and one of your players commits a brainless foul and the penalty moves your opponent into makable  field goal range, and the opponent then makes the winning  field goal - sorry, but that one guy HAS lost it for you.

What prevents such undisciplined acts is called discipline, and it doesn’t come naturally. It’s a necessary skill, and it has to be developed.

Sometimes that requires some ass-chewing, which sadly,  in the eyes of many in today’s kinder, gentler America, is akin to abuse. 

I’ve often had to tell kids whom I’ve had to get on for a mistake that I’m doing it because I don’t want them to be “that guy” - the one who sits, weeping disconsolately on the bench after the game, because he’s just  done something to  cost his team the game - something that could have been prevented if he’d listened to their coach.


*********** I’m getting tired of hearing announcers excuse poor  conduct by losing teams’ players as “frustration.”


*********** Our beloved First Lady was shown at the Eagles game sitting with the Commissioner of All Football, Lord Roger Goodell.   She was identified, of course, as “Doctor” Jill Biden.


*********** Are those VICIS helmets weird looking or what, jutting out in front like bicycle helmets?  I can’t look at one without being reminded of those “drinking bird” toys. 


*********** I heard someone talking about Chiefs’ running back Isiah Pecheco, a kid out of Rutgers who, we were told, “was raised 40 miles from Philadelphia in Vineland, New Jersey.”

But the announcer said, “VINE-LAND,” pronouncing the “land” like “this land is your land.”

WTF?

Look - I know that part of South Jersey pretty well.   If you’re ever there  and you don’t want to sound like you just arrived from Mars, the “land” in Vineland is pronounced exactly  like the “land” in  Finland.


***********  Once, while coaching in Finland, I was caught speeding.   It was outside the  city of Tampere (“TOM-per-ray” is the closest I can get you), where an officer waved me over, then ”invited" me to have a seat in the back of his car.  There, in his best English, he informed me that radar had caught me exceeding the speed limit, "and now I must giff you a fine."

Opening a book to a page on which there was a large grid,  he located the intersection of my income (which, since I was being given housing and food and car, but no cash, was zero) and my speed, and there - Bob’s your uncle - was  my fine: 300 marks (they hadn’t yet adopted the Euro), which worked out to about $75 US.

That was in 1990. I imagine that it would be quite a bit more costly now.

To show you how “progressive” their system of fines works,  several years later, a top executive of Nokia, the Finnish electronics giant headquartered near Tampere, was picked up for the same offense - and was fined in excess of 10,000 US dollars.


*********** Remember last year how all the USFL teams were quartered in Birmingham, and all the games were played there?


This year, they’re branching out - sort of.

Birmingham will remain the home base for the Birmingham and New Orleans teams.

Memphis will now be home to Memphis (which last year played in Tampa Bay) and Houston.

Canton will be home to Pittsburgh and New Jersey.

That leaves Detroit and Philadelphia homeless - sorry, “unhoused” - with the likely “home pod” for them being Detroit.

I know, I know, it makes no sense.  Last year’s gathering in Birmingham did make a little sense for  a startup league, but there’s no way I’ll attempt to explain this.

Anyhow, the USFL’s going to start play on Saturday, April 15. 


https://www.al.com/sports/2023/01/usfl-announces-a-third-hub-city-for-its-2023-season.html



*********** Take a look at these incredible photos and tell me where we might  find men like this today.   And also please tell me why their so-called “white privilege” couldn’t help them get safer jobs.


http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/photos-from-the-construction-of-the-empire-state


***********   It’s as true today as it was 60 years ago:

”If you could learn it by studying movies, a good, smart college quarterback could learn all you've got to learn in three weeks and then come in and be as good as the old heads. But they can’t.”  Y.A. Tittle, Sports Illustrated, 1963


***********   Coach,

Been a fan of Jalen Hurts since he was benched for Tua at Alabama, and decided to stay and compete for the job (eventually losing the job) instead of transferring immediately.  Also loved him because he didn't whine, complain, or make a spectacle of himself. He stayed ready for his moment...and it paid off when Tua was injured.

Loved him at Oklahoma, saw the progress he had made as a qb.

Love him in the NFL for the same reason, he seems to be willing to put in the work to continually improve his game. Does the little things right, and is humble. Every one of us should be lucky enough to have a kid like him at least once in our career.

I detest the shotgun on short yardage (we have beaten that drum for years) - snap the ball from under center,  hand it to the fullback or sneak a wedge. Why take the ball back 7 yards to an RB?   Like starting the 100m dash and having your first step behind the starting line. Makes no sense.

It angers me when we get read the "sportsmanship" lecture every night at ballgames. If I don't do my job well, I might be out of a job. If officials don't do their jobs well, where is their punishment?  If you don't want fans or coaches to get on you, do your job better. Being an official shouldn't give you a free pass to not attempt to do your job well. (okay, that rant is over)

KC might have won anyway, but I've never witnessed a debacle like the one in KC late in the game at the NFL level. No wonder many are starting to wonder if the NFL is more like the WWE with predetermined outcomes. By the way Bengals....TACKLE BETTER. And don't hit Mahomes going out of bounds. That penalty made me not feel quite so sorry for the essentially extra down KC got earlier.

I don't know of a better passing offense than the DW since basically I have only run DW. And now with the Open Wing I believe we have the ultimate weapon in offensive football. We can still do what we do even if we are down to our 3rd or 4th string QB because we have the ability to simply line up and run the ball effectively. And I've never found myself not having a qb that can read the open flat route or find the open man on an 800/900. And it doesn't have to be a homerun completion...simply enough to show you can throw a little and people have to respect it. (They don't know what they don't know).

You are correct as far as I am concerned -  if you want to run Veer it is expensive, so commit and run Veer. If you want to run DW commit and run DW. Dabbling in both leads to being successful at neither. Simplicty of the DW on paper doesn't mean less time consuming, in fact quite the opposite. To run the DW well every small detail must be corrected and perfected to run it well. You can almost always watch a play in the DW and find something someone could have done better or quicker, or longer. Concentrate energy there rather than trying to add new schemes. My advice...but what do I know, I just coach softball now.


Hope you and Connie are well! Our love to both of you!

Brad Knight
Clarinda, Iowa

Good observations from a good coach and longtime friend.


***********   Last Zoom was another winner. Fascinating film of the QBs in shotgun. The big point I must have missed is the reason for preferring the fingers up stance. Just feels to me that I would be less likely to fumble taking the snap with fingers down. No need to answer me, as you'll probably iron it out in a future Zoom.

Coach Mensing spoke for most, if not all of us, in saying your page carries more weight than you imagine. We thank you.

Years ago, when SI was very good, they had a story about football in American Samoa. At then during that period, their teams had miserable equipment. Despite their logistical difficulties, some astounding percentage of players got offers from American D-I schools. When you mentioned the Polynesian Bowl last week, I started to wisecrack that the game couldn't be played because there was a shortage of shoulder pads or helmets.

John Vermillion
St. Petersburg, Florida

***********   Hugh,

I still prefer the QB under center to "hide" the ball.  BUT, with the advent of "entertainment" football if placing the QB in the shotgun to make an offense look "modern" I go along with your view of getting the QB's heels at 4 yards in a crouch to help with misdirection.

Whatever happened to hiring the best "man" for the job??

I had the pleasure to coach a number of Polynesian kids.  A physically sturdy bunch to be sure.  Just what's needed to play football.

Too often today we see too many parents saying NO to football, as opposed to those parents saying "Play whatever you want!"

Enjoy the weekend!

Joe Gutilla
Austin, Texas






*********** QUIZ ANSWER:  In the photo above, Buck Shaw is  the white-haired gentleman ("the Silver Fox") with four of his Philadelphia Eagles (From Left to Right: Billy Ray Barnes, Tim Brown, Norm Van Brocklin and Tommy McDonald.)

He was born on a ranch in Iowa, and although his high school didn’t play football becuase of the death of a player, he managed to play college ball at Creighton, until the flu epidemic shut down their program, and then he moved to Notre Dame, where he played for Knute Rockne, was a teammate of the legendary George Gipp and was an All-American tackle. 

After graduation from Notre Dame he spent a season as an assistant at North Carolina State, then accepted a job at Nevada as line coach, and in 1929 he was hired as line coach at Santa Clara by his former Notre Dame teammate, Clipper Smith.

When Smith left after the 1935 season to take the head job at Villanova, he was named head coach at Santa Clara, a position he held until 1942, when the school gave up football  during World War II.

At Santa Clara, he was 47-10-4.   His 1936  and 1937 Broncos beat LSU in back-to-back Sugar Bowls.

After wartime service, he was hired to coach the all-new San Francisco 49ers in the all-new All-America Football Conference, but when the league postponed its start for a year, he spent the season coaching the Cal Bears.

With the 49ers, he put together one of the great teams in pro football history. Unfortunately, his 49ers were overshadowed all four seasons of the AAFC’s existence  by an all-time  super team, the Cleveland Browns.

He had stars like Frankie Albert, Joe “The Jet” Perry, Hugh McElhenny, Billy Wilson, Y.A. Tittle, Bob St. Clair and Leo Nomellini.

He coached the 49ers for five years after the merger of the two leagues,  retiring after  the 1954 season with a 71-39-5 record.  In his nine years as the 49ers head coach, he had only one losing season.

In 1955, he became the Air Force Academy’s first real college football coach.   (With only freshmen their first year, they had played an eight-game schedule against freshman teams, with an Air Force officer as their coach.) He was their first varsity coach, in  the school’s second year of playing football. They played against small-college varsity teams, and finished  6-2-1. In their third year, against a schedule beefed up by the addition of the likes of UCLA, Tulsa, Wyoming, Utah and Colorado State they finished 3-6-1.

The next year, their first with seniors, they played a big-time independent schedule (Iowa, Stanford, Colorado State, Colorado, Oklahoma State, Utah). They finished 9-0-1 in the regular season, played TCU to a 0-0 tie in the Cotton Bowl, and finished ranked eighth in the nation.

But he wasn’t their coach by then.   He had taken at the head coaching job with the Philadelphia Eagles.

They were bad.  They’d finished 4-8 the year before he arrived, and they went 2-9-1 his first year there. 
 
But he’d managed to arrange a trade for veteran quarterback Norm Van Brocklin, then nearing the end of a great career with the Rams, and there was plenty of talent to go with him.

The  coach’s  mild manner worked well with the veteran team.   “He’s the first guy I ever played for who didn’t curse his players,” recalled one of his former Eagles. “I don’t know if we’d go out and die for him – but he never asked us.”

Within two years he had the Eagles playing in the NFL championship game, where they beat the Packers, 17-13.  It was a game historic because it  was Vince Lombardi’s first championship game appearance, and also because at the coach’s suggestion,  his center, Chuck Bednarik, played both ways (at center and linebacker) for the entire game. 

He was then 61, the oldest man up to that point ever to coach an NFL champion, and for him it was time to retire - “to get out while I was ahead.

He is in the Iowa Sports Hall of Fame,  the San Francisco Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame, the San Jose Sports Hall of Fame  and the Santa Clara University Hall of Fame.

But for some reason, he’s not in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Besides winning the 1960 NFL title - the equivalent then of the Super Bowl - he also coached the 49ers to four straight second-place finishes in the All America Football Conference (AAFC) Western Conference.  That’s pretty impressive, in view of the fact that the number one team in all four years of the AAFC’s existence was the Cleveland Browns, which in the first year of the merger of the two leagues won the NFL title.

In their four years in the AAFC, the mighty Browns lost only four games - and two of them were to his 49ers.

He was NFL Coach of the Year in 1960.

And one further thing - Buck Shaw is the only  coach who ever defeated Vince Lombardi in the post-season.


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING BUCK SHAW

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MICK YANKE - COKATO, MINNESOTA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - AUSTIN, TEXAS
LARRY BLAKE - MANNING, IOWA
TOM WALLS - WINNIPEG, MANITOBA
MIKE  FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND,  WASHINGTON



*********** I have a special place in my heart for the 1960 NFL Champion Philadelphia Eagles, not only because my wife and I spent much of our honeymoon the summer before watching them in training camp in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Back in those days, there weren’t many fans interested in watching practice, and you could get as close to the sidelines as you dared.  The way we could sit right on the sidelines and watch - and hear their jabber - as they went about their jobs would boggle the mind today.  They really appeared to be a likable bunch, and to be enjoying being with each other, and as I read about them now, my impressions were spot-on.

A couple of interesting and little-known facts: 

*** Chuck Bednarik, who played both ways for much of the season, had actually retired at the end of the 1959 season. What brought him back was being convinced  that this team could win a championship. 

*** John Wilcox, a rookie defensive end from Oregon, played just the one season and then went back home to Oregon to start a career as a teacher.  He didn’t even wait around for the after-game celebration. He played just that one season in the NFL and played on a championship team.  His younger brother, Dave, played 11 years with the 49ers and is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, but never played on a championship team.

*** Buck Shaw may have looked like everyone’s grandfather, and he may have been quiet and soft-spoken, but he was definitely not soft.

After an early loss to the 49ers, he told the team, "I'll trade the whole team if I have to.”

Said tight end Pete Retzlaff,  he told his players, "Till we get the right team here, there's going to be one team coming, one team going, and one team on the field.”

Said assistant coach Bucko Kilroy, ”Buck was like a corporate officer. He seldom talked directly to the players. He got his messages across through the coaching staff. The players respected him, though. He was quiet, but very demanding in his own way.  He knew what he wanted and he insisted on getting it.  He wouldn't tolerate anything he didn't like, and he wouldn't tolerate a lack of effort. If he saw someone wasn't performing or trying, that guy would be gone. The same thing went for coaches.”




 

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

I thought you might be interested in this photo. It's the Stuart, IA football team from 1917. Stuart's just about an hour away from my home.

Larry Blake
Manning, Iowa

Coach,

Thanks for the photo.  Great research!  I read that because of the death of one of the players, Stuart High had to cancel its season, costing  Buck Shaw the chance to play high school ball.  But there he is, for sure!


***********  Hello Coach,

Reading the Wikipedia Bio, found this tidbit

Shaw's first two Bronco teams (1936 and 1937) went a combined 18–1, including back-to-back wins in New Orleans over local favorite LSU in the Sugar Bowl in January 1937 and 1938. Possibly the first major coach to "phone-it-in" when because of an illness, he did not travel with the team but coached them to victory over the telephone.

What do you suppose a 2 1/2 hour long distance phone call from California to New Orleans would have cost in 1937 or 1938 ?

Mike Yanke
Cokato, Minnesota


Hahaha.  Yes, I saw that, and I’m guessing that in the  dollars of the time it would have been several hundred dollars - with a crummy connection at that.

In today’s dollars?  Unimaginable, especially to people who are used to tapping on their cellphones and talking for hours with  Uncle Charlie  in Anchorage.


***********   Buck Shaw -  A SF Bay Area legend - the football stadium at Santa Clara was named in his honor.  After Santa Clara dropped football the stadium was eventually renovated, and it is now where the Bronco soccer teams play their games.  But the field is still named in honor of Lawrence T. "Buck" Shaw).

Joe Gutilla
Austin, Texas

 





***********  QUIZ:  He was born in American Samoa but his family moved to Washington when he was a baby. He went to high school outside Seattle, where he was an outstanding quarterback and a big fan of the Washington Huskies and their star quarterback, Sonny Sixkiller.

“I wanted to be a Husky,” he said later.  “I was a big Husky fan and a big Sonny Sixkiller fan… but when it came to a visit in my home, twice they said they were coming, and Coach Jim Owens said he was coming, and he never showed.”

So instead, he wound up going to school on the other side of the state - to Washington State.

He loved the school but not the football, and after seeing little on-field action he almost left after his freshman season.  But a coaching change, and a change in the offense - together with a little bit of luck - changed his life.

The new coach was Jackie Sherrill, and he favored a more wide-open offense than the veer that the Cougars had been running.  The luck came when the Cougars’ starter went down in the second game of the season, and our guy took over.

The Cougars had a bad season - their fourth losing season in a row - but  they’d found their quarterback. He threw for 2,762 yards and 20 touchdowns (against 14 interceptions), earning him the nickname “Throwin’ Samoan” from a Spokane  sportswriter.

Sherrill left after one year to take the Pitt job, left vacant after Johnny Majors left for Tennessee, and he was succeeded by Warren Powers. But Powers lasted just one season before taking the head job at Missouri, and he was followed as WSU head coach by Jim Walden.

That meant that in his four years at Washington State, our guy played under four different head coaches.  He never  experienced a winning season, but he did throw for 7,818 yards in his career, setting just about every conference (Pac-8) passing record and making him at the time  the all-time NCAA leader in passing yardage.

He was a Sporting News first team All-American, and finished ninth in the Heisman Trophy voting.

He was taken by the Cincinnati Bengals in the 1979 draft - the third player chosen overall, and the first quarterback.

He played six seasons in the NFL,  the first four with Concinnati mostly as a backup to Ken Anderson.  In his third season, 1981, it did appear that  he might win the starting job, but a high ankle sprain suffered  in the final exhibition game kept him out of action for several games.  (The Bengals would make it to the Super Bowl that season, and Anderson would have an All-Pro season.)

After the 1982 season, he was traded to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for a first-round choice, starting 19 games for them before being released after the 1984 season.  Those were not good years to be a Buccaneer - they were  the first two of what would be 14 straight losing seasons.

He retired after that and returned to the Northwest where he raised a family - one of his sons played football at Washington State - and had a successful career as a mortgage banker.

He is on the board of directors of the Washington State University Foundation.

He was the inspiration for many outstanding young quarterbacks who would follow him to fame at Washington State.

And that nickname?

In a recent interview he recalled, “I knew the guy who tagged me with it, Harry Missildine, and I didn’t think anything of it. It was pretty true. I am Samoan and I threw the ball. In these politically correct days, people might have a problem with it, but that’s their problem, not mine. I’m proud of it, and my dad, frankly, loved it.”



FRIDAY,  JANUARY  27,  2023 -  “The line between childhood and adulthood is crossed when we move from saying, ‘It got lost’ to ‘I lost it.’”  Michael Josephson




*********** I found it enlightening watching the eight quarterbacks in last Saturday’s playoff games, and - granted,  I don’t watch much NFL - I was fascinated by Jalen Hurts’ stance.(Lower right in the graphic above)

I’m talking shotgun stance, of course, since very few of the eight spent any time at all under center.

Unlike the other seven QBs in action, Hurts was in a semi-crouch, in roughly the same position he’d be in if he were under center.

The rest of them were standing, some of them almost stick-legged, with their hands at least a foot higher than Hurts’.

I then started looking at top college QBs, and I couldn’t find a one whose shotgun stance differed greatly from those used by Saturday’s seven stand-up guys.

I can understand why, with the great emphasis on the passing game, coaches would want their QB standing erect, the better to survey defensive schemes. (I don’t know this to be so, but I’ve heard coaches talk about training their quarterbacks to look at coverage while eyeing the snap with peripheral vision.  Me - I'l just stick with  “first catch the GD ball.”)

With Hurts, because so much of the Eagles’ offense is give/keep/play-action pass, I suspect that  his stance has something to do with concealment - with keeping the ball-handling  down low, no higher than the level it would be at if he’d been under center.

I do know that one of the major benefits of my original Wildcat - when the QB and B-Back were down low and closer to the line - was  concealment of the ball handling.  You could stand over on the defensive side and never see the ball, because  everything was taking place below the level of the lineman’s pads.

And besides, I wasn’t thinking “shotgun," anyhow.    I was thinking “single wing.”




SINGLE WING STANCES FROM THE FIFTIES - TENNESSEE ON THE LEFT, UCLA ON THE RIGHT

My purpose in experimenting with Wildcat was to be able to run some sort of single wing. I’d loved the offense since running it in high school, but the danger of the center snap had always stood in my way.  The low, soft center snap,  used along with the normal hands-down-low crouch of single wing backs, solved that problem.

With the Open Wing having gotten  us into the shotgun field, I have made one concession on the stance.  My backs are still in a semi-crouch, but I  now coach “fingers up.”  Thank you, Jalen Hurts, for letting the rest of the world know it’s okay. 



OPEN WING STANCES : ON THE LEFT, THE ORIGINAL "FINGERS DOWN" STANCE
ON THE RIGHT, THE CURRENT "FINGERS UP" STANCE


*********** I think Frank Reich is a really good coach and a  really good man,  and I’m glad to hear that he’s been hired by the Panthers as their new head coach.  Being hired by a franchise with a  future would be just compensation for time  spent working for an Irsay.

Sadly, the attorney for Steve Wilks, who did a creditable job as Panthers’ interim coach after Matt Rhule was fired, has brought the R-word into it, writing, “There is a legitimate race problem in the NFL, and we can assure you that we will have more to say in the coming days.”

Well.  Apart from the fact that very few interim coaches wind up being the next head coach…

Isn’t it possible - just saying - that this kind of inflammatory talk could hurt  the cause of all black candidates?  Might it make an owner look ahead to what it might be like if he were to hire a black candidate and then, as inevitably happens with any team, he has  to fire him? 

Mightn’t it cause that owner  to take the heat now - for not hiring a  guy - than later, for firing him?


***********  Interesting stuff on the zoom about going from DW to shotgun.  A couple of questions:

How deep is your QB?

Do you feel the ball carrier hits the hole as quickly in shotgun?

Thanks, John Bothe
Oregon,  Illinois

My QB’s heels are at 4 yards.

We don’t hit the hole as fast from shotgun because of the time it takes for the ball to get to the QB.

That is one definite drawback -  I really don’t like wedge from shotgun unless it’s a direct snap to the runner.  (Which is one reason I still like the idea of the two backs - QB and RB - hip-to-hip.)


***********   Coach,

I hope you are doing well, I continue to enjoy your "News" each week!   Your information and insights is way more powerful then you know and it is well beyond the Double Wing.   It is about consistent approach, fundamentals, building people up to be their best selves.

With regards to DW being a passing offense, our last school I was at we had 9 1,000 yard passers in 10 years, the only ones that didn't were in years when we were in SGDW....   We had some great passers and qb's however, the great receivers really made it pop.   There is no doubt in my mind it is one of the best passing offenses out of run oriented schemes....

God Bless,

Jason  Mensing 
Head Football Coach,
John Glenn High School,
Westland, Michigan

Coach,

I’m doing great and I appreciate the kind words.  What I write is aimed at guys like you.

I also appreciate what you have to say about throwing the ball from the Double Wing effectively because you are the living proof of it.

I hope the off-season is going well for you!

Keep coaching!

Coach Mensing doesn’t mention that at his previous school, Whiteford, Michigan, he won a state title - running and throwing the ball from his Double Wing.

https://www.mhsaa.com/sports/football/stories/whiteford-scores-1st-title-epic-offense



*********** What about if you have a quarterback that is an extremely good athlete and can run and throw equally well? In your offense, can you run a veer attack effectively with those tight splits?

If I have a QB who can run and throw there are a lot of ways to make use of him in our system.

As for the veer - I’m too old to make myself vulnerable by actually building my offense around a quarterback.


 *********** I mentioned to my daughter, Julia, that I got a few nice comments about her photo of the Mike Leach stool, in its new, prominent position in Capt. Tony’s Saloon (in Key West). 

Just to show that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, she said,  “It was fun asking all the people to get off their stools to see the names until I asked the bartender and he said it was elevated.”

(I learned about the stool  from watching an interview of Mike Leach - sitting on it - on the SEC Network.)


*********** From the standpoint of those who like exciting football, one of the worst things that can happen when we’re watching a game  is to have a touchdown - especially a long, exciting one - called back.
 
What’s behind it is  a scofflaw mentality - a belief that doing something wrong is okay if it gives you an edge - just don’t get caught.  How many times have you heard someone say - only half-joking - “If you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying?”

Rather than coaching to prevent penalties, the prevailing attitude seems to be that if a violation can give you an edge, then by all means, do it. This  time, it’s “It ain’t holding if they don’t catch you” - and let’s face it, with seven officials trying to watch 22 players, the chances are good that they won’t catch you.

But even if you do get caught, a penalty is a small price to pay for all those other infractions that you got away with.   A ten-yard penalty for offensive holding is considered a cheap license to go hold.  And now, after getting caught, what are the odds that they’ll catch you a second time?


*********** While doing a little more digging regarding the so-called Polynesian Bowl, I came across an interesting article on  the Samoan people and their presence on NFL  rosters.

How about these statistics:

There are about 50,000 people in American Samoa. 

In the rest of the US, there are another 180,000 or so people of Samoan heritage.

Altogether, that’s only about as many people as you’d find in areas  such as Topeka, Kansas or Fort Smith, Arkansas or Macon, Georgia.

Yet at any time, there may be anywhere from 30 to 50 players of Samoan descent in the NFL. (There is also a large number of players of Hawaiian and Tongan descent.

Mathematically, Samoans are  40 times more likely than non-Samoan Americans to play in the NFL.


https://gvwire.com/2019/08/15/why-samoans-are-40-times-more-likely-to-play-in-the-nfl/


*********** I’ve mentioned before that in all the history texts I’ve collected, not one contains any mention of the  “Spanish flu” that we’ve been told hit our country in 1918.    I had read a little bit about it elsewhere, so I never doubted its happening, and it’s certainly possible that with a few other things going on at the same time - World War I, for instance - it never  got the  the “Omigod we’re all gonna die” treatment that Covid got.

But it so happens that I’m a big fan of the writing of John O’Hara, who grew up in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, and wrote mostly about life in the  coal region, and I was tipped off to a short novel he wrote, one that I’d never read,  entitled “The Doctor’s Son,” which I was told dealt with the epidemic.

It cost me only $1 to download it onto Kindle, and it was  a quick and interesting read.

A doctor’s son himself, O’Hara wrote it, years later,  from the point of view of the teenage son of a small town doctor during a great influenza epidemic, one that could only be, but had not yet  been named, the Spanish flu.  Like all his work, it’s fiction, but like all his work, it’s an accurate portrait of life  made all the more real by his great powers of observation and his unmatched ability to write believable dialogue.

O’Hara’s own life was a rather interesting one.  He spent much of his early adulthood either quitting jobs or, before he could quit, being fired from them.

Part of his problem, without a doubt, was his love of  the good life, including strong drink.

Explaining once how his drinking had affected his production as a writer, he said that during one period he was drinking a  quart of whiskey a day - “and that takes time—not just to drink, but to have your hangover and get better.”


*********** I was reading an article in the Wall Street Journal about a couple that had moved from  Southern California to Tulsa.

The man said that  one of the neat things about Tulsa was that his eight-year-old son could play football.

That wasn’t the case in California, he said, where “parents wouldn’t let their kids play.”


***********  If we think that kids are getting softer, it may be that  their coaches are getting softer, too.

There was an article in our local paper about the football coach at one of the bigger high schools who was packing it in after four years on the job.

Now, it may be that he was asked to step down, and the whole “spending more time with my family” stuff was just a cover, but I was really taken aback by this line in the story…

“During his four years as head coach, (he)  had to juggle coaching with teaching and family life.”

Gee, how’d he ever do it?   (That’s sarcasm.  I’d venture to say that 90 per cent of high school coaches manage to successfully perform that very same juggling act.)


***********  So Coach Pont ended his football career as an AD, you point out. You mention ADs elsewhere on this page also. Have you ever heard of the AD rankings? I haven't either. We yelp at college presidents and the undefined 'NCAA' for watching CFB kill itself, but the corps of ADs...where are they? Most are likely basking in their anonymity, simply happy to avoid taking a stand.

Julia, thank ye. Most of the things someone claims is cool aren't, but that story and pic meets the standard.

I'm hoping for a Miracle on the Hudson. Let's return to--as the Boothbay man wrote--the "where's-the-ball formation.”

Finally, thanks for the great education on Dick Stephenson. Whatever they were doing at that FW Masonic Home produced some accomplished adults. As a battalion commander in 1989, I wrote an article for the Ft Hood newspaper about one of my Sergeants, the Battalion Master Gunner. A fine man. He and his wife came from those sister schools. And that Sergeant was Texas Golden Gloves champ in his weight class.

John Vermillion
St. Petersburg, Florida


***********   Hugh,

Twelve Mighty Orphans was a great read.  I enjoyed the movie too.  Had no idea that Dick Stephenson was a Masonic kid.  God Bless him, and he certainly lived a life well done, and at peace.

I've said from day one that the teams winning championships play great defense, play opportunistic special teams, eliminate turnovers, and RUN THE BALL better than anyone else.

To add to Adam Wesoloski's point...not only will Army find it very difficult to find a QB like Grayson McCall, where will they find the same caliber type guys to catch those passes?  More importantly where will they find the giants on the LOS to make it all happen??

Related to the Polynesian Bowl, I didn't realize the Hula Bowl is now played in Orlando, FL??

Key West is now on my "bucket list" of places to visit.

Have a great week!

Joe  Gutilla
Austin, Texas

 





*********** QUIZ ANSWER: John Pont  is the only coach to ever take Indiana to the Rose Bowl, and with the expansion of the Playoff, he will likely remain so forever.

He grew up in Canton, Ohio where his father, a Spanish immigrant, worked in a steel mill.

At  Miami  (Ohio) he played under two different head coaches - first Woody Hayes and then Ara Parseghian.   In his three years as a starting running back,  he was named All-Mid-American Conference (MAC) three times, and honorable mention All-American twice.  In 1949, he led the nation in rushing, and when he graduated  he was the leading rusher in school history. In 1951 his number was retired,

After service in the Navy as a submariner and a couple of years playing in Canada,  he  joined Parseghian's staff at Miami  and succeeded him as  head coach when Parseghian moved on to Northwestern.  He was 29.  In seven years as Miami’s head coach, he went 43-22-2.

In 1962 he was hired at Yale.  In two years there, he went  6-3 1 and 6-2-1, but then the Big Ten called.  Indiana.

As Indiana’s head coach he took the Hoosiers to their only Rose Bowl appearance and earned national Coach of the Year honors.

After eight seasons at Indiana, he moved on to  Northwestern and  after five tough years there he retired   to serve as athletic director.
 
After that he went into business briefly but in 1984 he got back into coaching - as a high school coach at Hamilton, Ohio.
 
He coached there for six years until  in 1989  he left to start a football program at the College of Mount Saint Joseph near Cincinnati, where he coached for three years.

Following that he coached for nine seasons in Japan before finally hanging them up in 2004 at the age of 77. He died in 2008.

He left quite a legacy at both Miami at Yale:

When he left Miami to go to Yale, he was succeeded there by his Miami teammate, Bo Schembechler;

When he left Yale for Indiana, he was succeeded by another Miami teammate - his college roommate, Carm Cozza, who would go on to become Yale’s winningest coach and one of the greatest coaches in the history of the Ivy League.

CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING JOHN PONT

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
RODNEY LUNSFORD - WESTFIELD, INDIANA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - AUSTIN, TEXAS
MIKE  FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY




*********** QUIZ:  In the photo above, he's the white-haired gentleman ("the Silver Fox") with four of his Philadelphia
Eagles (From Left to Right: Billy Ray Barnes, Tim Brown, Norm Van Brocklin and Tommy McDonald.)

He was born on a ranch in Iowa, and although his high school didn’t play football, he managed to play college ball at Creighton, until the flu epidemic shut down their program, and then he moved to Notre Dame, where he played for Knute Rockne, was a teammate of the legendary George Gipp and was an All-American tackle. 

After graduation he spent a season as an assistant at North Carolina State, then accepted a job at Nevada as line coach, and in 1929 he was hired as line coach at Santa Clara by his former Notre Dame teammate, Clipper Smith.

When Smith left after the 1935 season to take the head job at Villanova, he was named head coach at Santa Clara, a position he held until 1942, when the school gave up football  during World War II.

At Santa Clara, he was 47-10-4.   His 1936  and 1937 Broncos beat LSU in back-to-back Sugar Bowls.

After wartime service, he was hired to coach the all-new San Francisco 49ers in the all-new All-America Football Conference, but when the league postponed its start for a year, he spent the season coaching the Cal Bears.

With the 49ers, he put together one of the great teams in pro football history. Unfortunately, his 49ers were overshadowed all four seasons of the AAFC’s existence  by an all-time  super team, the Cleveland Browns.

He had stars like Frankie Albert, Joe “The Jet” Perry, Hugh McElhenny, Billy Wilson, Y.A. Tittle, Bob St. Clair and Leo Nomellini.

He coached the 49ers for five years after the merger of the two leagues,  retiring after  the 1954 season with a 71-39-5 record.  In his nine years as the 49ers head coach, he had only one losing season.

In 1955, he became the Air Force Academy’s first real college football coach.   (With only freshmen their first year, they had played an eight-game schedule against freshman teams, with an Air Force officer as their coach.) He was their first varsity coach, in  the school’s second year of playing football. They played against small-college varsity teams, and finished  6-2-1. In their third year, against a schedule beefed up by the addition of the likes of UCLA, Tulsa, Wyoming, Utah and Colorado State they finished 3-6-1.

The next year, their first with seniors, they played a big-time independent schedule (Iowa, Stanford, Colorado State, Colorado, Oklahoma State, Utah). They finished 9-0-1 in the regular season, played TCU to a 0-0 tie in the Cotton Bowl, and finished ranked eight hin the nation.

But he wasn’t their coach by then.   He had taken at the head coaching job with the Philadelphia Eagles.

They were bad.  They’d finished 4-8 the year before he arrived, and they went 2-9-1 his first year there. 

But he’d managed to arrange a trade for veteran quarterback Norm Van Brocklin, nearing the end of a great career with the Rams, and there was plenty of talent to go with him.

The  coach’s  mild manner worked well with the veteran team.   “He’s the first guy I ever played for who didn’t curse his players,” recalled one of his former Eagles. “I don’t know if we’d go out and die for him – but he never asked us.”

Within two years he had the Eagles playing in the NFL championship game, where they beat the Packers, 17-13.  It was a game historic because it was Vince Lombardi’s first championship game appearance, and also because at the coach’s suggestion,  his center, Chuck Bednarik, played both ways (at center and linebacker) for the entire game. 

He was then 61, the oldest man up to that point ever to coach an NFL champion, and for him it was time to retire - “to get out while I was ahead."

He is in the Iowa Sports Hall of Fame,  the San Francisco Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame, the San Jose Sports Hall of Fame  and the Santa Clara University Hall of Fame.

But for some reason, he’s not in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Besides winning the 1960 NFL title - the equivalent then of the Super Bowl - he also coached the 49ers to four straight second-place finishes in the All America Football Conference (AAFC) Western Conference.  That’s pretty impressive, in view of the fact that the number one team in all four years of the AAFC’s existence was the Cleveland Browns, which in the first year of the merger of the two leagues won the NFL title.

In their four years in the AAFC, the mighty Browns lost only four games - and two of them were to his 49ers.

He was NFL Coach of the Year in 1960.

And one further thing - he is the only  coach who ever defeated Vince Lombardi in the post-season.






TUESDAY,  JANUARY  24, 2023 -  “Property is the fruit of labor; property is desirable; it is a positive good in the world. That some should be rich shows that others may become rich, and hence is just encouragement to industry and enterprise. " Abraham Lincoln


***********  Dick Stephenson passed away this past week.   It was my great  honor to have known him.

From a Texas orphanage,  to the United States Military Academy,  to aerial combat in Vietnam,  to the rank of Major General in the Air Force,  to the Wall of Honor at  the National Air and Space Museum in the Smithsonian Institution - his was an amazing, only-in-America  story.

And Dick would have been the first to say that what made it all possible was football.

Dick’s father died when he was 12, and as he once told me, his mother, unable to support the family, sent her kids to the Masonic Home - an orphanage in Fort Worth.  There, Dick learned to play football. 

As he  told several of us in an email some years ago…

“Twelve Mighty Orphans” is a book about my high school, the Masonic Home and School in Fort Worth, Tx.  It documents the huge football heritage of that school dating from about 1932-1942,  where the program competed for the Texas State HS Football Championship routinely.  Most of the guys of note (DeWitt "Tex" Coulter, Hardy Brown, and many others, some 14 of whom went on to play at the NFL level) in those early days were still coming back to our games in the late 1940's and early 1950's.  I left after five years (1948-1953) at the Home.

The real impact of such a strong legacy of football excellence carried into our own days, and I guess I told you all the story about my senior year when we had 38 kids, total, in the high school, 18 of them boys, including an interestingly named guy, Tully Strong, who was a midget.  Tully was our place-kick holder...and good at it !

There is talk of the book being made into a movie, which I believe it deserves, however obscure it was, if for no other reason than the vivid, embedded examples of the magic of team contact sports as a metaphor for the lives of those fortunate enough to be able to play -  football in particular, with Lacrosse a close second.

The Masonic Home opportunity  was a wonderful solution for my family upon the death of my Dad when I was 12 years old.

Dick was heavily recruited, but he told me that what got him to  go to West Point was former Army All-American and Masonic home  alumnus DeWitt Coulter.  At Army, Dick was a three-year letterman (1954-55-56).  Tough and hard-nosed, he started out as a center,  but at one point or another he was a starter  at every position on the line, including end.

After graduation from West Point, he “branched” Air Force (there was no Air Force Academy at the time) and saw combat in Vietnam.


He and All-American end Don Holleder were line mates at West Point,  and in 1967 in Vietnam, by tragic coincidence,  Don Holleder was killed on October 17 - Dick Stephenson’s birthday.

After a career in the Air Force in which he reached the rank of Major General, Dick had a second career in business, and he also became active in the Army Football Club,  the association of former Army football players.

As the club’s president, Dick was instrumental in the AFC’s decision to fund the Black Lion Award to be presented annually to an Army football player;  as one of his last acts as president, he announced  that decision to the club membership at its  2004 golf outing. 
 
General  Stephenson, in the words of the West Point alma mater, “Well done. Be thou at peace.”






The Army starters on the field at Philadelphia’s Municipal Stadium prior to the 1954 Army-Navy game. On the line at far left (what would be Army’s right end) is Don Holleder.  At second from right on the line (Army’s left tackle) is Dick Stephenson.  (There are five men in the backfield because one of them is Captain Bob Farris, who  after surgery for an eye injury suffered the previous season had been unable to play his senior year.)
 



From the 1954 Army-Navy Game program - Dick Stephenson's sophomore year




*********** In three of the weekend’s four playoff games, the winning teams outrushed the losers

Philadelphia over New York - 268-118
Cincinnati over Buffalo - 172-63
San Francisco over Dallas - 113-76

In the fourth game, the rushing totals were exactly even:

Kansas City over Jacksonville - 144-144



*********** Tight ends played major roles in their teams’ NFL Playoff victories this past weekend, none more than the Chiefs’ Travis Kelce (14 catches for 98 yards) and the 49ers’ George Kittle (five catches for 95 yards).  The Eagles’ Dallas Goedart and the Bengals’ Hayden Hurst both had five catches.


*********** There was a lot made about the fact that  the  eight starting quarterbacks in this  past weekend’s four NFL playoff games were all under the age of 30.

The Cowboys’ Dan Prescott was the oldest, at 29.  The Jaguars’ Trevor Lawrence  and the 49ers’ Brock Purdy, both 23,  were the youngest.

It did, to many writers,  represent a passing of the torch from the Old Guard - the Bradys and Rodgerses - to a new and exciting generation of  quarterbacks.

But when one of the best of them all, Patrick Mahomes, suffered an ankle injury in the second  quarter, in came 37-year-old Chad Henne, who all season long had seen action in just three games.

(If you call 18  snaps and two passes - both of them incomplete - “action.”)

Henne was in this game for just 13 plays, but in his  time as the Chief’s quarterback, he completed five of seven passes for 23 yards, leading them on a 98-yard touchdown drive.  The touchdown?  It came on a pass.

(I’m now going to go ahead and kill the “Cinderella” aspect  of the story: this ability to come in in relief of Mahomes was precisely  why Henne  was paid  $2 million this year - $1.2 million salary plus and $800,000 signing bonus.)



***********  There is a story - maybe true, maybe not - that after Rich Rodriguez left West Virginia for Michigan, longtime assistant  Bill Stewart was  offered the job for $1.5 Million.

He supposedly said,  “I can’t do it for that.”

The WVU people assumed that he was holding  for more money, but instead  he said, "Coach Huggins (WVU Men's Basketball Coach Bob Huggins)  is getting $800,000 and he’s a proven winner.  You can’t pay me more than what you pay him. I’ll take it for $800,000.  Take the rest and give my assistant coaches a raise."


***********   Coach Adam Wesoloski, of Pulaski, Wisconsin, wrote, “Was wondering if Coach Monken would be gravitating toward the Coastal Carolina version of option football but from your reports it sounds more likely that it is not. "Do what everyone else is doing but do it better or do something different" comes to mind.”

I answered, “I originally thought the same thing until we out  all saw how  quarterback-dependent the Coastal Carolina offense was, as evidenced by what happened to Coastal when Grayson McCall got hurt.  In this day and age in which kids are committing as sophomores, there’s no way that a service academy is going to land a Grayson McCall - but if they somehow were to do so, he would be out of there and pulling in  an NIL deal someplace else before his junior year.”


***********   Still on the Army offensive switcheroo…


The best outcome Army can hope for with this new scheme is to become good enough to serve as a farm team for the Big Guys, who will gladly offer Army’s better players NIL riches to leave after their second season.  I would think that  that sort of attrition might piss off the old guard some.

Before letting Monken go out and hire offensive geniuses,  a smart AD would have understood that the triple option is itself a defense against tampering.  By staying with the triple option, even if Army were to win ten national titles running it, nobody else would have any use for their quarterbacks or fullbacks.  

One thing that’s never mentioned about running the  triple option at a service academy, especially Army: unlike fans at the football factories, service academy fans  aren’t there to be entertained by flashy football.  They want to see winning football, yes, but if they have to, they’ll settle for hard-nosed play.



*********** According to USA Today, FBS coaches were paid (I hesitate to use the term “earned”) a combined total of $12.2 million in bonuses this past season.  Just in case that isn’t clear - that’s in addition to the many, many millions their contracts already called for them to be paid.

Jim Harbaugh’s bonuses - for winning the Big Ten, going to The Playoff, etc. - totaled more than $2 million.  Kirby Smart’s were somewhere in the neighborhood of $1.35 million.

To show what a farce some of these bonuses have become, it’s common  for coaches’ contracts to call for a bonus  should their team go to a bowl game.  That once meant something , back when bowls were fewer, and going to one meant you’d had a really good season.  But now that there are  30+ bowls, it can often mean  nothing more than that you won six games. In other words, you finished  .500. Whoopee-do. 

Think about that a minute.  Isn’t that the very least that’s expected of a coach?  Shouldn’t getting to keep his job - and all those perks - for another year be reward enough for a .500 season?


*********** Did anybody else out there watch the Polynesian Bowl?

I expected to see a game between two teams made up of high school football stars of Polynesian descent - Hawaiian, Samoan, Tongan and - not so much -  Maori and Fijian.

Well.  There certainly were players whose names immediately revealed  their Polynesian heritage.

But there also were a hell of a lot of kids  with names like Hicks, Harris, Nelson, Williams, Coleman and Johnson.  The names didn’t sound Hawaiian, or Samoan or Tongan, and frankly, the kids didn’t look Polynesian, either.  A couple of them, we were told, were born in Jamaica. WTF?

That sent me looking, and I found this:

The Polynesian Bowl is an annual high school football all-star game held at Aloha Stadium every January featuring the top high school seniors in the country. The majority of the approximately 100 kids selected are of Polynesian ancestry.

Aha.  The “majority.”

And the rest?

All participants must complete the online registration form and submit payment to secure their roster spot. There are limited roster positions available, so it is important that you register as soon as possible. No walk-up or onsite registration permitted.

Will you be paying with card or check?

For what it’s worth, Stanford QB Tanner McKee, we were told, played in the 2017 game.  If he’s Polynesian, I am, too. 

Look - the way talented Pacific Islanders have impacted the NFL, I can’t imagine that  they needed to flesh out the rosters with  outsiders.   I’m sure there are enough kids in Samoa, in Hawaii, and on the Mainland who would qualify.

Oh, well.  As for the game itself… They   did tell us on the Guide that it would be a football game, but I’d like to have a few words with the person who wrote that.

“They didn’t hit all week,” we were told.  And, just as they’d practiced,  they sure as hell weren’t going to start hitting once the game got under way. What it was, was a teenage version of the Pro Bowl.


The people in Hawaii evidently knew what to expect, because there couldn’t have been more than 5,000 people in the stadium.

Evidently these kids, some of whom had already enrolled at a college, were becoming well aware of the in and outs of NIL, as one player, interviewed after making an interception, informed us: “We gone get paid!”

Spare me.


*********** I have to add Travis Kelce to  the list I’m compiling of present or (likely) future Pro Football Hall of Famers who were high school quarterbacks:

ALREADY IN
Russ Grimm
Jack Lambert

LIKELY
Kam Chancellor
Julian Edelman

This  sometimes comes in handy when dealing with a kid who  has to be asked to move to another position - especially one whose heart has been set on playing quarterback.

(Pretty soon, though,   you’ll ask a kid if he thinks that Tim Tebow might now be a candidate  for the Hall of Fame if he hadn’t insisted on playing quarterback, and the kid’ll look at you and ask you, “Who’s Tim Tebow?”)




*********** When I heard that my daughter, Julia, was going to Key West with some friends for a few days, I put in a special request: go to Capt. Tony’s Saloon - Mike Leach’s favorite hangout - and sit on his stool. The one with his name on it.

Got to hand it the girl - she did make it to Capt. Tony’s.   But alas, she couldn’t sit on Mike Leach’s stool.  In fact, no one can  Or ever will.  It’s been retired - “elevated,” is probably a better term - raised to the ceiling.  There,  it’s in good company,  between the stool of another famous Key West resident - some writer named Hemingway - and that of some former President of the United States. 



***********   Hi Hugh,

Don't mean to be a pest but today’s News had a blurb that the Double Wing was a good passing formation and I felt the need to make a comment. Passing out of the DW was like stealing for us all the years we ran the DW. It really was quite phenomenal and our favorite go to was 47 Brown. We scored lots of TDs on that play and when coached properly it would be todays RPO, nearly unstoppable. As I remember at North Beach we made a living on X corner, and 58 Black O and it’s variation C Post ( especially good against 2 Deep). But at my age my memory is a bit foggy. I do recall at one of your clinics a coach talked about the A Back throwing a pass off what we called then 88 Super Power. We used that play in a state championship game and scored TD ( we won the game too)

Sue and I talked about trying to make one more trip to Camas before it’s too late, if you know what I mean. We sure would like to see you and Connie one more time.! Something to think about. To me it seems like only yesterday you arrived in Boothbay in the middle of that April snow storm and it’s been nearly thirty years. But that visit sure changed my life!

Best,

Jack Tourtillotte
Rangeley, Maine


The following article from the Portland, Maine Press-Herald, now more than 15 years old, did a great job of telling the story of Jack’s  role with the Double Wing at the school where in addition to coaching - he was the principal.

Boothbay is flying with double-wing

The Seahawks' where's-the-ball formation produces wins.
 

By PAUL BETIT, Staff Writer
August 26, 2007
 
 
BOOTHBAY HARBOR — For more than a decade, the Class C  Campbell Conference coaches have tried to come up with a  defensive scheme to stop Boothbay Region's famed double-wing  offense.
 
They haven't had much success.
 
"Their offense runs so smoothly and they send so many players  to the ball that you can't really set up a defense for them,"  Lisbon Coach Dick Mynahan said. "Most of the time we try to get  more people to the ball, and that's tough to do."
 
Initially, Boothbay Region resorted to the double-wing, a tight  formation featuring two tight ends and no wide receivers, in an  effort to save the football program.
 
Now the ball-control offense has enabled the Seahawks to  become one of the most successful Class C programs in the  state over the past 12 years.
 
"We were losing by big scores years ago," said Coach Tim Rice,  who began coaching at his high school alma mater 15 years ago.
 
"We wanted to keep scores down. We wanted to be competitive.  That's all we wanted to do."
 
By qualifying for the playoffs in 11 of the last 12 seasons, the  Seahawks have exceeded their coach's modest goals.
 
The double-wing offense was installed after Boothbay won only  one game during Rice's first two seasons.
 
"We wanted to save our program," Rice said. "We wanted to  shorten the game, control the clock, and we wanted our kids to  play hard. That's it. No more than that."
 
The Seahawks have stuck with the power-running formation,  which features a lot of misdirection and double and triple  reverses.
 
"On offense we have four or five plays and that's it," Rice said.
 
"Nothing fancy. Eventually the kids know who to block, where to  block. There are no secrets. It's just to do it and do it well."
 
Boothbay Region is the only Campbell Conference Class C team  to run the double-wing, which makes it difficult for opposing  defenses to prepare for it.
 
"A lot of times we don't use a ball in practice," Mynahan said.  "We have our kids react to the linemen because you can't see the  ball much when they run their offense."
 
The football players in this small coastal community get a lot of  practice running the double wing.
 
"We're fortunate to have a group of fathers in town to take care  of our fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders," Rice said. "They  introduce the principles of the offense to their players. Our  seventh- and eighth-grade coach does it, too.
 
"We give them the principles as they move along. They don't get  it all at once, but (the players) learn certain aspects."
 
Before the young football players arrive at the high school,  emphasis also is placed on teaching them the fundamentals.
 
"At that level we want the kids to learn the game of football,"  Rice said. "We teach the game of football, to block and tackle."
 
The high school team also is fortunate to have a coaching staff  that has remained intact for nearly 15 years.
 
When it comes to the double- wing, Jack Tourtillotte, the school  principal, is a guru.
 
"He goes to clinics about the double-wing and he's spoken (at  clinics) about it," Rice said. "He really has a good understanding  of it, and he passes it on to the coaching staff and the kids."
 
Ted Brown works with the linemen on both sides of the ball, and  J.R. Garrett coaches the junior varsity.
 
"Our philosophy here is to work hard for the kids," Rice said.
 
"We try to put them in the best situations out on the field to  make plays. Right or wrong."
 

 
Copyright © 2007 Blethen Maine Newspapers

 

***********  Ironic that it takes a Russian to show the NHL it's unhealthy to participate in GroupThink. But I did read last night that Provorov's Flyers jersey had sold out. But the ESPN guy who hammers Provorov every hour will keep his job, you can count on that.


Apretude is one, and there are others of the same genre speaking about 'PrEP' (I think that's the way they present the word). Curious, I wondered what this prep thing is, so I looked it up. I believe we retain what we're interested in, which means I don't recall what it is. But I find it vulgar and offputting, and agree people like me would like to be warned before looking at that stuff. Fisher DeBerry was raked over the coals (I remember that whole thing well) for expressing Christian conviction, but the coarseness of the Apretude commercial being thrust in my face is just fine. And the ESPN guy (name begins with W) can berate and belittle Provorov for failing to join ESPN's "Religion of Wokeness and Climate Change" and that's okay.


A. Rodgers might have slipped, but I think his focus on MVP is where he's always been. Mr. Cool Showboat is how I see him. Nice if my team wins, but not such a big deal if it doesn’t.

John Vermilion
St. Petersburg, Florida



***********   Hugh,

Our sports world has been consumed by the same woke and Godless mob that has consumed our society.  From the front offices down to the team owners, players, and even some of its talking heads.  Thank God there are still those involved who stick to their faith.

Speaking of the PAC 12 I heard they are seriously looking at bringing back splitting the conference into two divisions.  

Word around the college conference expansion circles is that San Diego State and Fresno State have received serious consideration to join the PAC 12.  Especially if the conference stays with the two division format.  NORTH: Washington, Washington State, Oregon, Oregon State, Cal, Stanford.  SOUTH: Fresno State, San Diego State, Arizona, Arizona State, Utah, Colorado.  

Two of my QB's in the DW had the following personal stats in 10 game seasons:  Pass attempts - 50; Pass completions - 36; Pass yards - 556; TD's - 18.  Not flashy numbers in today's pass happy offenses, but when the DW offense is run right those kind of passing game numbers are very effective.  


Enjoy the weekend!

Joe Gutilla
Austin, Texas


Joe, when I hear something about the Pac-12  from John Canzano - that’s when I’ll take it seriously!  The guy has GOT some sources!

I hate to tell you this, with your being a Fresno guy, but what I hear varies from no expansion at all, to a “Pac-11,” with just San Diego State, to a Pac-12, with San Diego State and - sit down before you read on - SMU. 

Now, you and I both know that if SMU had any following in the DFW area, they’d be showing up in large numbers at the SMU games.  But the Mustangs averaged just under 21,000 this past season, so there goes any argument about penetrating a new TV market. Another (supposed) argument is that it would enable the Pac-12 to play games in the Central Time Zone, meaning  more reasonable kickoff times for the rest in the country.  But with only one team in the Central Time Zone, that would mean something like an “SMU Game of the Week” sort of thing, which I don’t see pulling in much of an audience.

I think I’ve said it before, but taking in SMU to get the Dallas-Fort Worth TV market makes about as much sense as taking in Temple to get the Philadelphia TV market.







***********  QUIZ ANSWER: Fisher DeBerry is the winningest football coach in Air Force Academy  history.
 
After graduating in 1960 from Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina,  where he  lettered in football and baseball, he spent six years as a high school  teacher-coach in South Carolina.   He then returned to Wofford to spend two seasons as an assistant, during which time the team won 21 straight games.

 From there, he went to  Appalachian State, where he spent nine years as an assistant,  learning and developing the   triple option offense that would later become his trademark.

In 1980 he was hired as quarterbacks coach at Air Force  by his friend  Ken Hatfield who was coming off a 2-9 first  year there;  in 1981 he was  was promoted by Hatfield  to offensive coordinator.

In his third year  at Air Force his offense began to click. The Falcons  went 8-5,  and in the next year, his  fourth, they finished 10-2, and ranked 13th in the nation.  That was enough to get Hatfield the head coaching job at Arkansas, and after a strong endorsement by the players, our man was named to succeed him.

In 23 years as Air Force’s head coach, he won 169 games and had a winning percentage of .608, both records for Air Force coaches, and his teams appeared in 12 bowl games.

His record against Army and Navy was a combined 34-8, and his teams won the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy 14 times.

In 1985 he won the Paul “Bear” Bryant Award as national  football Coach of the Year, and he was honored as Western Athletic Conference Coach of the Year three different times. In 1996, he served as president of the American Football Coaches Association in 1996.

He was a man of strong Christian beliefs which in his later years created  some controversy.

In 2004 he was ordered  to remove a banner from the locker room that displayed the “Competitor’s Creed,”which  included the lines, “I am a Christian first and last ... I am a member of Team Jesus Christ.”

In 2005, he was rebuked by the national media for being so racist as  to observe,  after a loss to TCU,  that  TCU had a greater number of black players than Air Force, and therefore more team speed. Tsk, Tsk.

He’s in the College Football Hall of Fame.

In 2004 he and his wife started the Fisher DeBerry Foundation,  which  helps provide opportunities for children from single parent homes

CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING FISHER DE BERRY

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
TOM DAVIS - SAN CARLOS, CALIFORNIA
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
JOHN IRION - ARGYLE, NEW YORK
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - AUSTIN, TEXAS
TOM WALLS - WINNIPEG, MANITOBA
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
MIKE  FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY


*********** I've loved watching Air Force for years.

John Irion
Argyle, New York

*********** Coach,  Did you know that Bill Parcells also coached at Air Force in 1978?

Tom Walls
Winnipeg, Manitoba

Yes.  I had a long talk with Bill Parcells at a clinic in the summer of 1978 when he was coach at AFA.  It was at Lewis & Clark College and he was an unknown then so his talk was lightly attended. As a result I got a lot of face-to-face time with him afterward. Nice guy then. Very open and outgoing.  Don’t know whether his later success changed him. 





*********** QUIZ: He is the only coach to ever take Indiana to the Rose Bowl, and with the expansion of the Playoff, he will likely remain so forever.

He grew up in Canton, Ohio where his father, a Spanish immigrant, worked in a steel mill.

At  Miami  (Ohio) he played under two different head coaches - first Woody Hayes and then Ara Parseghian.   In his three years as a starting running back,  he was named All-Mid-American Conference (MAC) three times, and honorable mention All-American twice.  In 1949, he led the nation in rushing, and when he graduated  he was the leading rusher in school history. In 1951 his number was retired,

After service in the Navy as a submariner and a couple of years playing in Canada,  he  joined Parseghian's staff at Miami  and succeeded him as  head coach when Parseghian moved on to Northwestern.  He was 29. 

In seven years as Miami’s head coach, he went 43-22-2, and in 1962 he was hired at Yale.  In two years there, he went  6-3 1 and 6-2-1, but then the Big Ten called.  Indiana.

As Indiana’s head coach he took the Hoosiers to their only Rose Bowl appearance and earned national Coach of the Year honors.

After eight seasons at Indiana, he moved on to  Northwestern and  after five tough years there he retired   to serve as athletic director.
 
After that he went into business briefly but in 1984 he got back into coaching - as a high school coach at Hamilton, Ohio. He coached there for six years until  in 1989  he left to start a football program at the College of Mount Saint Joseph near Cincinnati, where he coached for three years.

Following that he coached for nine seasons in Japan before finally hanging them up in 2004 at the age of 77. He died in 2008.

He left quite a legacy at both Miami at Yale:

When he left Miami to go to Yale, he was succeeded there by his Miami teammate, Bo Schembechler;

When he left Yale for Indiana, he was succeeded by another Miami teammate - his college roommate, Carm Cozza, who would go on to become Yale’s winningest coach and one of the greatest coaches in the history of the Ivy League.



FRIDAY,  JANUARY  20,  2023 -  “If you have to cede the power of the job to get the job, the job has no point. “ Peggy Noonan

***********   This is from 15 years ago - January, 2008 - on coacheshotseat.com -

Coaches most likely to be fired

1. Tyrone Willingham, Washington
2. Joe Glenn, Wyoming
3. Kirk Ferentz, Iowa
4. Mike Stoops, Arizona
5. Greg Robinson, Syracuse
6. Chuck Long, San Diego State
7. Mike Sanford, UNLV
8. Tim Brewster, Minnesota
9. Mike Price, UTEP
10. Hal Mumme, New Mexico State


At the other end of the scale, those least likely to be fired (excluding, of course, coaches who've just been hired)

1. Les Miles, LSU
2. Mark Richt, Georgia
3. Pete Carroll, USC
4. Gary Pinkel, Missouri
5. Bronco Mendenhall, BYU
6. Jim Tressel, Ohio State
7. Urban Meyer, Florida
8. Mike Leach, Texas Tech
9. Frank Beamer, Virginia Tech
10. Bob Stoops, Oklahoma

Looking at it now…

Of 20 coaches on the two lists, only Kirk Ferentz is still on the job at the same place he was in 2008.  Back then, he was deemed third most likely to be fired, and he’s the only one on that list who’s still  coaching.  He’s now been at Iowa since 1999, and he’s the longest-tenured at the same school of any FBS coach.

Of the 20, only Pinkel, Beamer and Stoops retired from the places where they were coaching at that  time.  Four of the  (supposedly) most secure - Miles, Richt, Tressel and Leach - were fired from the jobs they held in 2008. Carroll got out of town ahead of the sheriff, Mendenhall left of his own volition for Virginia, and Meyer developed some strange malady that a job opening in Columbus, Ohio magically cured.

There are some pretty interesting stories behind what happened to Miles at LSU, Carroll at USC, Tressel at Ohio State, Meyer at Florida, Leach at Texas Tech.


***********  The principal/coach/AD/Team Owner has just announced that the team’s going to go out on the field tonight wearing rainbow jerseys during warmups.

What do you do?

Ivan Provorov knew.   Tuesday night Provorov,  a defenseman for the Philadelphia Flyers,  refused to wear the team’s PRIDE NIGHT warmup jersey for the pregame skate, remaining in the locker room instead.

(The Flyers also went out on the ice with rainbow tape on the blades of their sticks.)

The liberal press (but I repeat myself) called it a “boycott.”

Provorov told reporters after the game that he had “to stay true to myself and my religion.” (He is Russian Orthodox, and his church believes homosexuality is a sin.)

https://www.inquirer.com/flyers/ivan-provorov-flyers-pride-night-jersey-russian-orthodox-20230118.html


*********** I’m nauseated  by a TV commercial for a product named Apretude that, the ad seems to suggest, allows gays to
have all the sex they want without the worry of contracting HIV.

The commercial consists of lots of shots of gays partying and guys kissing and giving each other the come-on. (A couple of young fellows make eyes at each other on a subway platform.)

We are doomed.

Here’s the commercial…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRozChEd1ww

I’m not recommending you watch it.  Just read the comments.  I wish the people who inflict an ad like this on unsuspecting viewers would read them.


*********** The Pac-12 schedule is out.  Finally.

They debated whether to go to eight conference games but decided to stay with nine in deference to  some teams  that noted finding out-of-conference  opponents was becoming more expensive.

They could have screwed over USC and UCLA - I wish they had - but they didn’t.

More about it later but I thought you might be interested in  the first five weeks  that the Football Coach Formerly Known as Deion Sanders faces:


COLORADO:
    •    Week 1: at TCU
    •    Week 2: Nebraska
    •    Week 3: Colorado State
    •    Week 4: at Oregon
    •    Week 5: USC
   


*********** Aaron Rodgers to Pat McAfee:

"I think I can win MVP again in the right situation.. is that Green Bay or somewhere else, I'm not sure and there's more conversations to be had”

"MVP" and not  "Super Bowl?"  Anybody else think that a guy who might be shopping around for another team might have said that a little differently?


*********** There was Tom Brady, who to me has personified the way pro football has become 7-on-7  with linemen and pads, and there I was, actually finding myself feeling sorry for the guy.

There was a player who once operated at least one level higher than any other pro quarterback of his time, looking like the rookie clipboard holder who’d suddenly been pressed into service when the real quarterback just got carried off.

But the pity left me and the Brady-weariness returned as the TV people turned the cameras away from the joyous Cowboys and their postgame celebration in order to follow the GOAT (God, how I hate that acronym) off the field and through the tunnel and into a bathroom stall. (Okay, I lied about that last part.)



*********** Is it just me or has Troy Aikman become an insufferable motormouth?


*********** Christopher Kamrani - The Athletic interview with Kyle Whittingham

Kyle, I think the biggest mistake you’ve made in the last few years is saying that you’d never coach past 65. Are you tired of people asking you when you’re going to become a full-time skier/golfer/Harley rider?

Not tired of it. I’m 63 so I do have some wiggle room there. At this stage of my career, as long as I’m passionate and enjoying what I’m doing, I have the energy I have, I really love coming to work every day. … There are two things you don’t want to do: You don’t want to retire too soon, and you don’t want to retire too late. You’ve got to hit that sweet spot. I don’t want to be that guy that stays too long. You don’t want to be that guy. Ideally, if you go out on a very high note, that’s great, but then you don’t want to retire and then say, “Shoot, what’d I do that for? Now, what am I going to do?” It’s kind of a balancing act and it’s a big decision. I’m just trying to rely on my gut instinct to find when the time is right.

*********** In discussing the idea that the Big Ten might still be entertaining thoughts of adding more West Coast teams, The Athletic’s Andy Staples tossed out an even wilder proposition.  Better buckle up before you read this one.

But let me propose something that Big Ten presidents might like more. (Even more than the West Coast wing I just explained.) Big Ten presidents want to believe their schools are on par with the Ivy League, so why not just invite the Ivy League?

Why would Ivy League schools entertain such a notion? I’ll explain. On Sept. 30, a 28-year-old congressional antitrust exemption that allowed Ivy League schools to ban the awarding of athletic scholarships expired. Unless the Ivy schools drop to Division III, at some point, athletes are going to sue the league and win — which will result in those schools awarding scholarships. Or perhaps Dartmouth or Brown or some other Ivy will decide independently to award scholarships and start dominating various sports. With no antitrust exemption to protect the ban, the other schools would follow suit and begin awarding athletic scholarships.

In football particularly, the Ivies could build some competitive FBS teams quickly. More than ever, good players are weighing the academic merits of the schools recruiting them. Those who would choose Harvard or Yale wouldn’t only be the players who were getting recruited by Stanford, Duke and Northwestern. Notre Dame, Michigan, Virginia and several others would face stiff competition.

The Big Ten could swoop in with enough money to immediately fund competitive teams — yes, I know how big the Ivy League endowments are; that doesn’t mean they’d start tapping them — and the brand value of the Ivies would be attractive to TV networks and advertisers. Plus, if you thought partnering with Cal and Stanford would make Big Ten presidents have stirrings of special feelings, just wait until they get presented with a plan with teams like Brown, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Penn, Princeton and Yale.

Hahahaha.  Make me laugh.  The presidents of Ivy League colleges with endowments in the billions are going to take blood money from the Big Ten  in return for playing Big Time football?

Suppose I tell you that these presidents are quite used to turning down large sums from alumni who want  their donations to go to conservative causes.  What do you suppose the chances are that they would even give a thought to the idea of fielding semi-pro teams for the sake of pocketing a little TV money?

These are people, remember,  who care so little about intercollegiate sports that they would cancel them for an entire year as part of their effort to fight Covid.

I don’t doubt for a minute that if they were to get serious, most of the Ivy Schools could be competitive fairly quickly.  But even with the will to proceed, there’s something that I  doubt they could ever overcome: apathy.

A little background:  back in the late 90s, I was passing though State College, Pennsylvania, and I stopped to take a look at Beaver Stadium.  As I stood on the field, a groundskeeper came over and we talked a bit.  Penn State had only been in the Big Ten for a year or two, and he said that the biggest eye-opener for the people at Penn State was the way the Big Ten teams traveled - the huge numbers of fans that followed the teams to away games.

Think of the Ivy League as the anti-Big Ten.  Take a look at this year’s average home attendances:

Harvard        14,689*
Cornell             6,878
Penn                6,854
Yale                 6,299
Princeton        6,298
Columbia        5,088
Dartmouth       4,664
Brown              4,423

       * The Harvard-Yale game was played at Harvard this year

After several generations of attendance  like this, the apathy is baked into the alumni as well.

Ivy League fans traveling?  Hell - they don’t even travel to their own home games!


https://theathletic.com/4104407/2023/01/19/andy-staples-college-football-mailbag-2/?source=user_shared_article


*********** Those of you who’ve been in on any of my Zoom clinics know that I seldom pass up a chance to take shots at today’s offensive geniuses who, faced with a short yardage situation, steadfastly refuse to put their quarterback under center, much less run a quarterback sneak.

Instead, they’ll  snap the ball to a shotgun quarterback who’s five yards deep, who then has to catch the ball and hand it to a running back - who started out seven yards deep.

By the time the ball carrier hits the line, a couple of seconds have elapsed since the snap, more than enough time for defenders to penetrate the line or come off their blocks.

In the NFL, which I sometimes watch now that real football is done for the year, I frequently  see them pass on fourth and short.

I have come close to ranting on my Zooms about the insanity of coaches who look down their noses at the good old sneak - with a  good old pusher right behind him.  More and more college coaches are recognizing what good strategy it is and - amazingly - so are some NFL clubs.

I saw the Giants use a sneak-and-push very effectively  last weekend, and apparently the Eagles - and  their QB, Jaylen Hurts - have become so proficient at the tactic that  they’ve become the talk of the NFL.

This, from The Athletic…

After Week 8 of the NFL season, the league’s officiating department sent a video to all 32 teams clarifying the penalty for “assisting the runner,” a little-known violation NFL officials haven’t called since 1991.

The tape opened with a clip of a Bears offensive lineman pulling a running back forward for a first down. Clip No. 2 showed an Eagles quarterback sneak at Arizona — one of seven sneaks Philadelphia ran in its Week 5 game.

In the clip, three Eagles are lined up in a straight line behind quarterback Jalen Hurts. Tight end Dallas Goedert is lined up next to the left tackle, and receiver Quez Watkins mirrors him on the right side. When the ball is snapped, the player behind Hurts, running back Kenneth Gainwell, runs up to push his quarterback forward. Hurts gets stalled, and it looks like the play might go nowhere when Goedert arrives to yank him over the goal line.

“Eighty-eight (Goedert) grasps and encircles the quarterback and then pulls him into the end zone,” NFL senior VP of officiating Walt Anderson narrated on the tape. “This would be a foul for assisting the runner. Now, the other player we want to watch here is No. 14, the player right behind the quarterback. This is not a foul, because what he is doing is pushing the runner. Players are allowed to push, but they are not allowed to encircle and pull to assist the runner.”
The tape wasn’t inspired only by the pulling (an actual penalty) but also by how much the Eagles have been pushing this season (a perceived misuse of a vaguely written rule).

“Not one team thinks it’s fair,” said an NFL analytics staffer who was granted anonymity by The Athletic because they are not authorized by their team to speak on the matter. “Every team has complained, but you’re allowed to push so basically they reinforced the rules so they didn’t have to talk about it again.”

This featured example that landed in the inbox of all 32 teams was a play that was actually very light on the pushing, at least by Philadelphia’s standards. An analysis by The Athletic found the Eagles have run 13 sneaks that feature two players lined up to push Hurts forward and three sneaks with three pushers. Two more teams are shown pushing on sneaks on the officiating tape, but each features just a single pusher.


That’s why the Eagles have caused a stir across the NFL.

“They’ve taken it to another level,” said Giants defensive line coach Andre Patterson. “One guy is on each cheek and one guy is behind, and all three are pushing him forward. That makes it real difficult to stop.”

Opponents may not like the presence of those cheeky pushers, but these Eagles are legal.

Pushing has been allowed explicitly since 2006, when the competition committee clarified blocking rules and rules for use of hands (Rule 12, section 1) to remove the language that prevented pushing. “No offensive player may push the runner or lift him to his feet” became “No offensive player may lift a runner to his feet or pull him in any direction at any time.”

An NFL spokesman said in an email that the change had nothing to do with USC’s infamous “Bush Push” versus Notre Dame a year prior but was prompted by “the difficulty in identifying specific acts and consistently enforcing the prohibition against pushing.” Now Rule 12, Section 1, Article 4 outlaws pulling in any direction, as well as encircling a teammate, and pushing a teammate to assist him in blocking a player from recovering a loose ball.

“That changed big time,” Patterson said. “Because before, the quarterback just had to do it by himself. So once he got stopped it was up to his leg drive to keep going forward, which in most cases is not very good because you got 600 pounds pushing (back).”

According to TruMedia, the Eagles sneaked 32 times this season (we defined a QB sneak as a designed rush by a quarterback under center with 2 yards or less to convert) for a 90.6 percent conversion rate. That’s more than any team has sneaked in a season in this millennium (as far back as TruMedia’s data goes) and more than double the Eagles’ number from last season (14, 92.9 percent conversion). The next closest teams are the 2020 Patriots and the 2010 Jaguars with 21 sneaks each. In the three seasons that Hurts has started NFL games, teams have averaged 7.1 sneaks per season.

https://theathletic.com/4095518/2023/01/17/nfl-assisting-the-runner-qb-sneak-jalen-hurts-eagles/?source=targeted_email&campaign=5951324&email_login=coachwyatt@aol.com


***********   Despite its reputation, the Double Wing is a VERY good passing offense and when I have kids who can catch (that, I believe, is more important than having the great passer) I like to be able to throw to catch people off guard.

I think that most people who run the Double Wing refrain from passing because:

(1) they are stubborn;
(2) they don't have the kids who can catch;
(3) they don't understand how to throw from the Double Wing;
(4) they’re having enough success running the ball that they don't think they need to.



*********** For those of you who,  like me,  are tired of hearing what an awful, ugly, violent country we live in, permit me to share some interesting stats with you:

Based on the most recent figures available (2020)…

One per cent of all the counties in the US are responsible for nearly half of all the murders (42 per cent, to be precise)

On the other hand, 78 per cent of all counties had no more than one homicide;  more  than half of them (52 per cent) had ZERO.

Even within those counties in which most murders take place, there are great variations based on location.
 
In Los Angeles County, for example,  10 per cent of the county’s ZIP codes were responsible for  41 per cent of the homicides, and  another 10 per cent were responsible for another  26 per cent of the homicides.  That's 20 per cent of the ZIP codes accouting for 67 per cent of the homicides.


https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2023/jan/17/bad-neighborhoods-1-counties-responsible-42-americ/


*********** Hi Hugh,

Your piece on Army football in the latest News caught my attention. I am not sure why Head Coach Jeff Monken would change from the Flexbone to a shotgun pass offense. Is he looking for a bigger college and thinks he needs to show a spread to get a better job? I can not see how they can possibly recruit the kind of athlete they need to run a spread offense from a QB to Receivers necessary to catch the ball. I also read where Navy was going to run more shotgun, as well, but still planned on running some Flexbone concepts.  My prediction is that both will lose to Air Force and if the shotgun lasts at Army for three years I will be surprised. Another interesting note on Army, look at their 2023 schedule. To say it will be a challenge might be an understatement.

This past weekend failure to properly execute a QB sneak certainly contributed to the Dolphins and Ravens defeat. You would think given the money professional NFL coaches make someone would know how to line up and run a QB sneak. I will offer my services for free to any professional team that would like to learn how to do it, LOL.

All the Best

Jack Tourtillotte
Rangeley, Maine

Jack,

Army is a lot like Boothbay and North Beach (small high schools,  for readers who don't know) - you can’t count on the same talent that the big boys get, so you have to find a way to win with the people you have.

It may be an ego thing at Army, but it could wind up taking the program right back to where it was before Jeff Monken came on board.

I think you’re right about AF. A big difference is that their head coach and most of his assistants are Air Force guys.

As for the short yardage play in the NFL, it appears that the rest of the NFL is frantically trying to find out the secret to the Eagles’ sneak. Shhh. Don’t tell them about about wedge blocking. Make them pay to find out.

THE 2023 ARMY SCHEDULE:

at Louisiana-Monroe
Delaware State
- - - - - - -
at UTSA
at Syracuse
Bye
Boston College
Troy
at LSU
- - - - - - -
UMass
at Air Force
Holy Cross
Coastal Carolina
NAVY at Foxboro, Mass.

I see sure wins over Delaware State and UMass
I see 50-50 against ULM, Holy Cross and Coastal Carolina
I see likely losses against UTSA, Syracuse, Boston College, Troy, LSU, Air Force
Navy is always a toss-up

That five-game stretch over six weeks against three Power 5 teams and two good Group of Five teams (Troy and UTSA) that met each other in a bowl game will really be a test.


***********   Hugh,

Not quite sure what's on Jeff Monken's mind but from what I'm reading it sounds more and more like career suicide.  What playmakers will they find?  Those new coaches must be smoking some pretty strong stuff.  If those guys thought Army football recruiting was tough before they don't know what tough is until they try to convince one of those receiver type "playmakers" to make a military commitment!  AND...the guys who deliver the rock!!

Which leads me to the WAC.  They may call themselves "FBS", but it will take all of them a few years to corral FBS type players that will validate that FBS label.  Just ask UTSA.  For now they're still playing at the FCS level.

I will be VERY surprised if the 49ers don't represent the NFC in the Super Bowl.  But Dallas might have a say in it.

Don't know who that Vikings' RB (#4) was, but he didn't impress me.  Saquon Barkley certainly did!

Apparently college coaches don't watch NFL games as closely as they should.  A number of times NFL QB's on a number of teams take snaps from under center.  I can count on two hands the number of times I've seen big-time college QB's taking snaps under center.  Just another reason why I used to enjoy watching Army play (operative words...used to).  Apparently won't be seeing Army QB's taking snaps under center anymore.

Frankly, I'm excited for the return of the USFL.  Enjoyed the product they put on the field before, and look forward to more.

Have a great week!

Joe Gutilla
Austin, Texas






*********** QUIZ ANSWER : Deacon Dan Towler  came out of Donora, Pennsylvania - home also of baseball greats Stan Musial  and the Griffeys, father and son. He helped lead his high school team to two Western Pennsylvania  championships.  He scored 24 TDs his senior year, as Donora outscored opponents 297-13,  shutting out eight of them.

Although recruited by some larger schools, he chose tiny Washington and Jefferson College in Washington, Pennsylvania because he was interested in the ministry - which would eventually earn him the nickname “Deacon.”

At W & J, playing running back on offense and linebacker on defense, he led the nation in scoring his junior year, and was named Little All-America.  He was a sprinter and shot-putter on the track team, and graduated cum laude (with honors).

He was taken in the 25th round of the 1950 draft by the Los Angeles Rams - the 324th player taken.

He made the club, which featured one of the greatest offensive machines in the history of the game.  The team had   two quarterbacks in Bob Waterfield and Norm Van Brocklin, and two great receivers in Elroy "Crazylegs" Hirsch and Tom Fears.  All of them would become Hall 0f Famers, and he teamed with Tank Younger and Dick Hoerner to make up what was called the “Bull Elephant Backfield” (all of them weighed at last 225).

In his rookie year, the Rams made it to the NFL championship game, losing to the Browns in the first year of the combined NFL-AAFC league.

In his second year, his first as a full-time starter, he gained 854 yards - third most in the NFL that season - and  averaged 6.78 yards per carry.  And he scored the winning touchdown as the Rams won the NFL title.

In  1952,  he led the NFL in touchdowns (10) and yards  gained (894) and he was the MVP of the Pro Bowl (back when it was an actual football game).

In his first five seasons, he never missed a game, but after being hampered by injuries  in 1955,  he chose to end his football career and become pastor at Lincoln Avenue Methodist Church in Pasadena.

He  always considered himself to be a full-time student and part-time football player.  While playing with the Rams,  he earned a master’s degree in theology from USC, and in an interview years later, he recalled, ‘I asked Coach [Joe] Stydahar if I could have the players pray, and he said: ‘It sure wouldn’t hurt anything, and who knows? It might help…’ ‘We were the first NFL team to pray before each game. Now it’s a common thing. I think it helped with the team’s camaraderie and fellowship, bringing us together.

In addition to his ministry, he also became involved in education, going on to earn a PhD in education, and serving 26 years on the Los Angeles County Board of Education. 

In 1999 he was elected to the Fellowship of Christian Athletes’ Hall of Champions in recognition of years he coaching at FCA conferences and camps  and speaking and teaching about Christianity and athletics on behalf of the FCA. 

A summary of Deacon Dan Towler's  accomplishments:

3,493 yards (average of 5.2 yards a carry)  43 touchdowns
4× Pro Bowl Player (1951–1954)
Pro Bowl MVP (1951)
First-team All-Pro (1952)
3× Second-team All-Pro (1951, 1953, 1954)
NFL rushing yards leader (1952)
2× NFL rushing touchdowns leader (1952, 1954)
NFL Champion (1951)
6.78 yards per carry (1951)
One of only 15 running backs in history to average 6.0+ yards per carry  over the course of an entire season
Averaged 6.0 yards per carry  over the course of three straight seasons
5.2 career yards per carry

(He's not in the Hall of Fame but his  career rushing touchdowns total is greater  than those of Hall of Famers Ollie Matson, Gale Sayers, and Hugh McElhenny )


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING DEACON DAN  TOWLER

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
TOM DAVIS - SAN CARLOS, CALIFORNIA
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
JOE GUTILLA - AUSTIN, TEXAS
MIKE  FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY

***********  MY EXPERIENCE WITH DEACON DAN:  Deacon Dan Towler played in the first college game I ever attended. It was in 1949, and Washington and Jefferson played Lafayette.  My brother was a  sophomore at W & J, and the game was at Lafayette,  in Easton, Pennsylvania, about two hours north of where we lived, but a lot closer than at W & J, which was clear out in the southwest corner of the state, six hours away. 

I really wanted to see “Deacon Dan” play because I’d heard so much about him from my brother, and although I was disappointed in the outcome of the game - Lafayette slaughtered W & J - I did get to see Deacon Dan score on a long touchdown pass. I  distinctly recall one of my brother’s buddies referring to it as a “sleeper” play, which probably means that under the more relaxed rules of the time, he must have either (a) stepped onto the field just before the snap, or (b) headed off the field and stopped just before crossing the sideline. 

I’ve read in several places that he got his nickname “Deacon Dan” from the Rams after leading the team in prayer, but I can assure you that it was well-known long before he ever got to the Rams that he had a calling to be a minister and he already had the nickname when he was in college.



***********  QUIZ: He is the winningest football coach in Air Force Academy  history.
 
After graduating in 1960 from Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina,  where he  lettered in football and baseball, he spent six years as a high school  teacher-coach in South Carolina.   He then returned to Wofford to spend two seasons as an assistant, during which time the team won 21 straight games.

 From there, he went to  Appalachian State, where he spent nine years as an assistant,  learning and developing the   triple option offense that would later become his trademark.

In 1980 he was hired as quarterbacks coach at Air Force  by his friend  Ken Hatfield who was coming off a 2-9 first  year there;  in 1981 he was  was promotedby Hatfield  to offensive coordinator.

In his third year  at Air Force his offense began to click. The Falcons  went 8-5,  and in the next year, his  fourth, they finished 10-2, and ranked 13th in the nation.  That was enough to get Hatfield the head coaching job at Arkansas, and after a strong endorsement by the players, our man was named to succeed him.

In 23 years as Air Force’s head coach, he won 169 games and had a winning percentage of .608, both records for Air Force coaches, and his teams appeared in 12 bowl games.

His record against Army and Navy was a combined 34-8, and his teams won the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy 14 times.

In 1985 he won the Paul “Bear” Bryant Award as national  football Coach of the Year, and he was honored as Western Athletic Conference Coach of the Year three different times. In 1996, he served as president of the American Football Coaches Association in 1996.

He was a man of strong Christian beliefs which in his later years created  some controversy.

In 2004 he was ordered  to remove a banner from the locker room that displayed the “Competitor’s Creed,”which  included the lines, “I am a Christian first and last ... I am a member of Team Jesus Christ.”

In 2005, he was rebuked by the national media for being so racist as  to observe,  after a loss to TCU,  that  TCU had a greater number of black players than Air Force, and therefore more team speed. Tsk, Tsk.

He’s in the College Football Hall of Fame.

In 2004 he and his wife started a  foundation which bears his name,  which  helps provide opportunities for children from single parent homes


TUESDAY,  JANUARY  17, 2023 -  “We may have all come on different ships, but we’re in the same boat now.” Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

*********** Army  football is, to say the least, extremely secretive about its goings-on, and there’s been a lot of wondering about where Army football’s headed, with its new offensive coordinator.

I  did come across this in Black Knight Nation, a blog by Sal Interdonato, longtime reporter on Army sports…

"It should be noted that the Black Knights new shotgun scheme is expected to have one running back. Fullbacks and slotbacks are not expected to be positions in the offense."

http://blackknightnation.com/

No triple option, eh?  No fullback, either.  No QB under center. Wow - Army's going to look just like the Big Boys.

We'll see. Hell, it'll be 20 full  years next fall since Army's  last attempt at "spreading it out and opening it up" crashed and burned in an 0-13 season.  Who remembers that?  That was long ago. Prehistoric times.

Anyhow, that got me digging,  and I came across  this…

New Army offensive coordinator Drew Thatcher played tight end in a wing-T offense in high school and played wide receiver at New Mexico State in Hal Mumme’s Air Raid offense.

He said he knows the importance of a strong running game but he also believes Army can throw the ball effectively. 

He said Army’s offense will be “different” from Navy and Air Force  with a “true (shot) gun aspect.”

Catch his interview with Sal Interdonato…   http://blackknightnation.com/podcast-drew-thatcher/

In the interview, I heard him say something like “getting your playmakers the ball,” which immediately led to my first - and biggest - question:  “Do you realize how hard it is to  recruit 'playmakers' to a service academy?”





*********** Out in the garage, I came across this old poster that I once had on the wall of our weight room at Hudson’s Bay High in Vancouver, Washington. I show it because our Outstanding Player in 1980, Bert Colletto, is the dad of this year’s Hornung Award winner, Oregon State’s Jack Colletto.


*********** Does this mean we'll soon  have to start talking about the Group of Six?

The WAC and the Atlantic Sun’s football-playing teams are merging, and planning on moving “from what is currently known as FCS football to what is currently known as FBS football at the earliest practicable date.”

Who? You ask.

Why, that would be five teams  from the WAC

Stephen F. Austin
Abilene Christian
Utah Tech
Southern Utah
Tarleton State

And four teams from the Atlantic Sun

 Austin Peay
Eastern Kentucky
Central Arkansas
North Alabama.

And then there’s a tenth team - UT Rio Grande Valley - which doesn’t even have a team yet, but plans to have one in 2025


https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/35216756/atlantic-sun-wac-teams-pairing-move-fbs-sources-say



*********** Q. I want to run unbalanced.  Should  I run "Tackle Over" by moving the left Tackle over and leaving the tight end in place so I’m not called for being "uncovered" on the left side?   An official called me for that last year as we shifted a TE and didn’t have an eligible guy left on the short side.

A. Run unbalanced any way you want - with an end over or a tackle over - just make sure that (1) you have at least seven men on the line at the snap, and (2) at least five of the men on the line have ineligible numbers (50-79).

That official was totally wrong about your having to have an eligible man  on the end of the line.  That man can wear an ineligible number, and if he happens to be the end man of the line,  he’s permitted to be there.  He’s referred to in the rule book as "the end man on the line,”  and there’s nothing said about what number he wears.

The official you referred to must have wanted to sound brilliant by using that "uncovered" business. There’s no rule in our game (NFHS rules)  that stipulates that the end man on your line must have an "eligible" number.  The rules merely stipulate that you must have at least seven men on the line at the snap, and at least five of them must have ineligible numbers.  Linemen must be on the ends of the line to be  eligible to catch a pass, and then  only if they are wearing eligible numbers.  (Unlike the NFL, which for some reason refuses to do away with the farcical "tackle eligible" play, there is no provision in high school or NCAA rules for a man with an ineligible number to “report” as eligible. )
 
In other words, all seven of your linemen can wear ineligible numbers - even both ends. In fact, everybody on your entire team can wear ineligible numbers.   You’d just better make sure none of them  goes  downfield on a pass play.



NFL reports from a VERY casual watcher…


***********  The Seahawks surprised everyone by leading by a point at the half, but they really faded in the second half.

Would they have done any better with Russell Wilson than with Gino Smith?  I doubt it.

The 49ers showed that they can win with Brock Purdy at QB - as long as they have Christian McCaffrey running the ball.  Jeez, the guy is really looking good.


***********  Did the Jaguars stage an epic comeback? Or did the Chargers give us the choke of the century?

Yes.

Give Trevor Lawrence credit for shaking off  four interceptions and keeping his focus.

And remember  the Jaguars the next time you try using the old “you can’t turn the ball over three times and expect to win” excuse.  They turned it over FIVE times and still won.

Meantime, let’s hear the Chargers explain how you can come out for the second half, leading 27-7, and try holding  onto the lead by calling just SEVEN running plays the entire half.



*********** The Dolphins ran only 20 times for an average of 2 yards per “carry,” but they only needed one yard, when with 2:30 left in the game and down 34-31, they faced a fourth-and-one at midfield.

And then, evidently deciding that anybody can make fourth-and-one, they decided to make things a bit more challenging, taking  too long to get the play off so they'd have  to get six yards!


*********** I really like watching the Giants.  I like Daniel Jones - a Duke guy - and I like Saquon Barkley - a Pennsylvania guy - and they both played lights-out.

I also like Kirk Cousins, but I do have to wonder if he couldn’t as least have thrown the ball past the line-to-gain when the Vikings’ playoff chances depended on making a fourth-and-eight, and they got maybe four.


*********** I know Ravens’ fans are upset that Lamar Jackson didn’t play against the Bengals , but I refuse to get into the soap opera that’s developing over the condition of his knee.  I do think, though,  that they could have beaten the Bengals  with Tyler Huntley.

Look - the guy passed for 226 yards and two TDs, and he rushed for 54 yards. That's 280 yards of total offense.

Yes, he did throw an interception, and that’s not good, but he did complete 72 per cent of his passes.

But there was that one bad play - a really bad play -  that few in Baltimore  can forgive him for. 

With the game tied at 17-17 and the Ravens on the Bengals’ one-yard line, he went under center and took the snap for a   quarterback sneak  and then - in an instant - as those of us waited for the  call of "touchdown,"  instead we watched as a big Bengals’ defensive linemen sprinted the length of the  field with the ball. (98 yards - longest touchdown of any sort in the NFL this year.)

Just like that -  in a matter of seconds - instead of Ravens 24, Bengals 17, as everyone expected, it was Bengals 24, Ravens 17.
 
Yes, blame Huntley if you must  for not protecting the ball (the first job of any quarterback) and just burrowing ahead, assisted by a push on his back by a teammate.

Blame him for reaching out over the pile of bodies to try to extend the ball through the invisible curtain - only to have it batted out of his hands.

But  don't  hold  the coaching staff blameless. When the game’s on the line, you can’t take a thing for granted.  And they did.


*********** Is there something wrong with Joe Burrow?  He seemed to me to be short-arming the ball, pushing it,  almost. 

And his 209 yards in 32 attempts was pretty sorry.


*********** In four of the five NFL playoff games over the weekend , the winning team outrushed the losing team.

Cincinnati was the only winning team that didn’t rush for more than 100 yards (they rushed for 51) , and Cincinnati was the only winning team that was outrushed (the Ravens rushed for 155).

The 49ers  rushed for 181.
 
The Giants rushed for 142.


*********** I saw Saquon Barkley run a nice trap and Tyler Huntley run a nice quarterback counter.

***********  And then  there are the guys who make us all glad that we don’t have to coach them:

Joey Bosa  - Tantrums

Marcus Peters - Taunting

Special mention goes to J.K. Dobbins, Ravens running back,  who told one and all after the game that he should have been  given the ball down at the goal line on that play when Tyler Huntley lost the ball on a quarterback sneak.

"He should have never been in that situation," Dobbins told  reporters. "I don't get a single carry. I didn't get a single carry. He should never have been in that situation. I believe I would have put it in the end zone, again.”

"I'm a guy who feels like I should be on the field all the time," he said. "It's the playoffs. Why am I not out there?"


*********** People on social media seem to be upset with Al Michaels and Tony Dungy and their call of the Jaguars’ “epic comeback.”  Evidently the two long-time professionals didn’t shout enough to suit them - “not enough energy” is the complaint I read most frequently (coming, I suppose, from younger viewers used to the hyper tribe of announcers on ESPN who think breaking the huddle should be made to sound like the apocalypse.)

What really seemed to mark the complainers as casual viewers was their anger that Michaels didn’t wet himself calling the  end-of-game field goal, a rather uneventful occurrence  in today’s pro game, where  field goal attempts have a 90 per cent chance of success.  For that, they expected him  to shriek, Russ Hodges-like, “THE GIANTS WIN THE PENNANT! THE GIANTS WIN THE PENNANT! THE GIANTS WIN THE PENNANT!”


*********** By the time you read this, the Buccaneers-Cowboys game will probably be history.  I was shocked on the Zoom Tuesday night when Coach Brian Mackell - a Cowboys fan - mentioned that Tom Brady is 7-0 against Dallas.


***********  As many of you know, I spent seven seasons coaching in Finland.  But that was in the late 80s and early 90s, when it was still okay to run the ball here in America, and, therefore, in Europe. (Not that they didn’t want to throw - the only American football they ever got to see over there was the NFL - but they simply didn’t grow up throwing and catching, and besides, in an effort to try to develop their own QBs, the Finnish Association outlawed importing American QBs.)

They want to emulate American football at its highest level of play - the NFL - but there’s a  real disconnect between what they want to do and what they can do  because  their players  have not grown up learning the fundamentals of the game as youngsters - and there’s no one to teach it to them.

As an example of this disconnect, the European approach to advancing their game is to bring over NFL coaches to put on clinics.  It doesn’t take a genius to see the problem with that - most NFL coaches have Never had to teach the basics to someone who’s never played football before.  To mostly deaf ears,  I’ve long advocated improving the game at the ground level,  by bringing over American middle-school coaches - good ones, certainly - to teach the native coaches how to teach the basics to their players.

So I  got a good laugh the other day when I heard  from a coaching friend who’s had some recent dealings with teams in “another country” (which will remain anonymous because I don’t want to complicate things for him).

One of the things I am working on is consulting with teams in (Foreign Country). I played there in the 90’s and still have some connections. One of the teams I am working with asked me to review their film from last year.

EVERY SINGLE TEAM IN THAT LEAGUE RUNS SPREAD.

It's disturbing to watch. There is such a lack of fundamentals that unless there is an American at QB, it is the equivalent of lunch time football on the playground, just with pads.

Even with an American, they still need players to block and catch. It's not hard to coach D-Line if you know the opponent is going to pass 80% of the time.

*********** Hi Hugh,

I always look forward to the news and a couple of things got my attention from Friday’s edition. The first is tackling and how many hours did we teach kids the proper way to tackle? Many, many. It went from “eyes to the sky”, chest to chest, shield form tackling, and the famous Pancake Drill.

Every pre season practice included tackling drills and many times at North Beach it was part of the practice warm up period. At Boothbay (Maine), as part of our defensive period, twice a week we included tackling. No excuse for what we have been seeing around poor tackling and “ targeting “.

Secondly, how is it possible that some players at the college and pro  level don’t know which hand to carry the ball in. Several times during bowl week I saw players with  the ball in the wrong hand and at least two fumbles lost because the ball was in the inside hand. Ball in the sideline hand was a skill taught from day one and emphasized through out the season. It’s got to be coaching or lack thereof.

All the best!

Jack Tourtillotte
Bootthbay, Maine


***********   Your suggestions to improve the game make a lot of sense. Not sure which official(s) would be left on the field. I know the comparison is unfair and in some ways not apt, but when MLB talks about replacing home plate umps with electronic eyes, there's an uproar about the need for ''the human element'. I guess for much the same reason, I believe we still need some of these guys on the field. In a distantly related matter, I've noticed (maybe wrongly) that in both CFB and the NFL there are far fewer measurements, even when to my eye they appear warranted, than there were just a few years ago.

The CFB HOF candidates constitute a fantastic list. I'd have a hard time whittling it down.

John Vermillion
St. Patersburg, Florida


***********   Hugh,

My "final" Top 10:

1. Georgia
2. Ohio State
3. Alabama
4. Florida State
5. Tennessee
6. Penn State
7. LSU
8. Washington
9. Oregon State
10. Notre Dame

Want to make the game safer?  How about eliminating the term "targeting" altogether?  Whatever happened to the term "spearing?"  Not leading with the head...PERIOD!  The culprit who does is ejected from the game and sent to the showers, and not allowed to return to the sideline for the remainder of that game and the ENTIRE next game.  The HC also receives a hefty fine.  If it happens again with the same player he is removed from the game AND the team (which basically forfeits his chances at future NIL money).

The one penalty that continues to gall me is the one that could be called on just about every play but doesn't get called.  Holding.  Kinda like our current border policy.  We HAVE a policy!  It's just not enforced.  Enforce the current definition of HOLDING, or change it!

When and where money is involved crime soon follows.  

Only one reason why Stanford is Stanford, and it has nothing to do with sports.

Enjoy the weekend!

Joe Gutilla
Austin, Texas






*********** QUIZ ANSWER:  Rip Engle grew up in a tiny town (a “patch”)  in southwestern Pennsylvania called Elk Lick, and he grew up hard.  He started working in a  coal mine at the age of 9, driving mules, and  only after  leaving the mines and attending Western Maryland College  did he even see his first  game of football -  the first game he played in.

His coach at Western Maryland was Dick Harlow, who would go on to coach at Harvard and is in the College Football Hall of Fame. At Western Maryland, he played football, basketball, baseball and tennis, and he captained the basketball and baseball teams. (He must have been an awfully fast learner to have gone so quickly from working in the mines to playing college tennis.)

After graduation, he spent 11 years as a high school coach in Waynesboro, Pennsylvania, where he had three unbeaten and untied teams and then, after a year as an assistant at Western Maryland and two years as an assistant at Brown, he was named head coach at Brown.

In six years there, his record was 28-20-4, and in his last two seasons his Bruins went 7-2 and 8-1, good enough to bring him to the attention of Penn State, which hired him in 1950.

A Wing-T pioneer, he convinced his quarterback at Brown to postpone going to law school and instead come with him to teach his system to his Penn State quarterbacks.  That Brown quarterback would decide to stay  on as an assistant.

After 16 years at Penn State, he retired with a record of 104-48-4. He never had a losing season, and his only non-winning season was his last (5-5).

Rip Engle was a member of the NCAA Football Rules Committee. He served as President of the American Football Coaches Association, and he is in  the College Football Hall of Fame.

His successor was Joe Paterno, the Brown quarterback who had come with him in 1950 and  stayed on as an assistant.  Joe Paterno would be  Penn State’s coach for 46 years, winning 409 games.



CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING RIP ENGLE

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
TOM DAVIS - SAN CARLOS, CALIFORNIA
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
JOE GUTILLA - AUSTIN, TEXAS
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
TOM WALLS - WINNIPEG, MANITOBA
MIKE  FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY




*********** QUIZ: He came out of Donora, Pennsylvania - home also of baseball greats Stan Musial  and the Griffeys, father and son. He helped lead his high school team to two Western Pennsylvania  championships.  He scored 24 TDs his senior year, as Donora outscored opponents 297-13,  shutting out eight of them.

Although recruited by some larger schools, he chose tiny Washington and Jefferson College in Washington, Pennsylvania because he was interested in the ministry - which would eventually earn him the nickname “Deacon.”

At W & J, playing running back on offense and linebacker on defense, he led the nation in scoring his junior year, and was named Little All-America.  He was a sprinter and shot-putter on the track team, and graduated cum laude (with honors).

He was taken in the 25th round of the 1950 draft by the Los Angeles Rams - the 324th player taken.

He made the club, which featured one of the greatest offensive machines in the history of the game.  The team had   two quarterbacks in Bob Waterfield and Norm Van Brocklin, and two great receivers in Elroy "Crazylegs" Hirsch and Tom Fears.  All of them would become Hall 0f Famers, and he teamed with Tank Younger and Dick Hoerner to make up what was called the “Bull Elephant Backfield” (all of them weighed at last 225).

In his rookie year, the Rams made it to the NFL championship game, losing to the Browns in the first year of the merged NFL-AAFC league.

In his second year, his first as a full-time starter, he gained 854 yards - third most in the NFL that season - and  averaged 6.78 yards per carry.  And he scored the winning touchdown as the Rams won the NFL title.

In  1952,  he led the NFL in touchdowns (10) and yards  gained (894) and he was the MVP of the Pro Bowl (back when it was an actual football game).

In his first five seasons, he never missed a game, but after being hampered by injuries  in 1955,  he chose to end his football career and become pastor at Lincoln Avenue Methodist Church in Pasadena.

He  had always considered himself to be a full-time student and part-time football player.  While playing with the Rams,  he earned a master’s degree in theology from USC, and in an interview years later, he recalled, ‘I asked Coach [Joe] Stydahar if I could have the players pray, and he said: ‘It sure wouldn’t hurt anything, and who knows? It might help…’ ‘We were the first NFL team to pray before each game. Now it’s a common thing. I think it helped with the team’s camaraderie and fellowship, bringing us together."

In addition to his ministry, he also became involved in education, going on to earn a PhD in education, and serving 26 years on the Los Angeles County Board of Education. 

In 1999 he was elected to the Fellowship of Christian Athletes’ Hall of Champions in recognition of years he spent coaching at FCA conferences and camps  and speaking and teaching about Christianity and athletics on behalf of the FCA. 

A summary of his accomplishments:

3,493 yards (average of 5.2 yards a carry)  43 touchdowns
4× Pro Bowl Player (1951–1954)
Pro Bowl MVP (1951)
First-team All-Pro (1952)
3× Second-team All-Pro (1951, 1953, 1954)
NFL rushing yards leader (1952)
2× NFL rushing touchdowns leader (1952, 1954)
NFL Champion (1951)
6.78 yards per carry (1951)
One of only 15 running backs in history to average 6.0+ yards per carry  over the course of an entire season
Averaged 6.0 yards per carry  over the course of three straight seasons
5.2 career yards per carry

(He's not in the Hall of Fame but his  career rushing touchdowns total is greater  than those of Hall of Famers Ollie Matson, Gale Sayers, and Hugh McElhenny )



FRIDAY,  JANUARY  13, 2023 -  “It’s easy to fool people, but it’s almost impossible to convince people that they've been fooled.”  Elon Musk

*********** If you like Georgia, you liked the “championship” game.  And if you admire excellence, you’ll probably want to look at replays of the game.

But if you wanted an exciting game, TCU would have had to play their best game possible.  And at the same time, Georgia would have had to make a few uncharacteristic mistakes.

Neither happened.

They said that one of the things a “Playoff” would do was settle, once and for all, the question of who was the best team.  Not that I saw any need  for that, and not that a playoff was needed to  clinch Georgia’s place at the top…

But can anyone please tell me how in the hell TCU, which on Monday night was beaten, 65-7, could possibly be ranked  Number two in the nation on Tuesday?

Not Ohio State?  Not Alabama?  Not even Tennessee?

Screw the Playoff. Sure, they gave us a True Number One -  but we really didn’t need them for that.We already knew.

But they didn’t have to go and insult our intelligence by trying to  dictate Number Two to us.


***********  They used to say that a nanosecond was a measurement in New York of the time between the light  turning green and the guy behind you honking his horn.

But it couldn’t have taken more than two nanoseconds  after the end of the so-called championship game for the usual nerds to come out with their 2023 pre-season Top 25 lists.


*********** Bobby Boyd, longtime  Baltimore Colts’ defense back and teammate of the great John Unitas once said Unitas's two best qualities were “his left testicle and his right.”


*********** What I’m afraid I'm seeing going on is the imminent death of our game, starting at ground level, where  I just can’t imagine  sane parents allowing their kids to play a game in which, increasingly, the object appears to injure  the opponent ,  especially at a time when he’s unable to avoid the attack or defend himself against it.

I’m not talking about rough play.  I’m not talking about hard blocking in order to move the ball and hard tackling in order to prevent that.  I’m talking about what anyplace else but on the football field would be  considered assault. On the  field, though, it appears that it’s actually being condoned by the way the rules have been  written and then  are being interpreted.

I’m talking about targeting, and I don’t care how many guys - including  coaches - are going to have to be thrown out of games  in order to eliminate it. 

I also don’t care if it means some  “young man” is going to miss  the last game of this senior year.  No player - or coach - is more important than our game.

And I sure don’t want some guy who’s just been ejected to remain on the sideline, where’s he’s either consoled as a victim or celebrated as the baddest ass on the planet.  Banish him.  Get him out of  my sight.

I’m tired of rules people and officials looking at replays of what any sane person in the world would recognize as conscious attempts to injure someone but  instead trying to  find ways to excuse the wrongdoer  because the action doesn’t fit an increasingly narrow definition - and an even narrower interpretation - of “targeting.”

Allow me here to reprise President Theodore Roosevelt, who back in 1905 brought in representatives  of  the most prestigious football-playing colleges of his time - Harvard, Yale and Princeton - and “encouraged”  them to take steps to make football safer.   Otherwise, it was suggested, he might have to do something about it.  They got the point.

So (ahem) here I am, more than 100 years later, sitting at my desk in the Oval Office, addressing the  commissioners of all the Division I, II and III conferences.

Good morning, gentlemen (and ladies). I’ll get right to my point.  I brought you here to suggest - in the strongest possible way - that you eliminate from your game what has come to be called targeting.

How?  To me, it’s this simple:

If a player IS making a bona fide attempt to tackle, it’s NOT targeting;

If he’s NOT making a bona  fide attempt to tackle, it IS targeting.

Back there - with your hand up.  Do you have a question, Commissioner?

(Commissioner 1) Yes, Mister President. How  are we supposed to know if he’s making a “bona fide attempt” to tackle? 

Good question. I’m glad you asked. Here’s how you do it:

You watch the defender’s arms.

If they’re extended - or being extended - in anticipation of wrapping up the ball carrier, it’s not targetting.

But if they’re  tucked into the defender’s body (no doubt for his own self-protection) and not in any position to potentially wrap the ball carrier up,  I’m going to presume that the defender is preparing  to deliver a blow for one purpose only -  to injure the ball-carrier.

Is that another question I see?

(Commissioner 2) Yes. Mister President.  How would you suggest we enforce this?

Aha.  Here’s what I "strongly suggest":

For a team’s first ejection of the season, the offender will leave the field immediately and miss the entire next game. For a second ejection for any player, I suggest a one-year ban from participation in college football at any level.

For a team’s second ejection of the season: the head coach will leave the field and miss the entire next game.

For a team’s third ejection of the season, the head coach will be banned from coaching football for one year.

One more question back there?

(Commissioner 3) Mister President, what if we can’t get this though the  rules committee?

Well, of course, I’d like to see my “suggestions” acted on, but if I have to, I can make it happen with an executive action.   Think I can’t?  I have a phone and a pen.

Too strict?  Raise your hand if  you’ve ever had a player ejected for targeting.  No?  I didn’t think so.  You, like me, evidently  can teach your players to tackle properly.   And so can the guys being paid millions.  All they need is a little boost.



*********** Bye-bye, Big Ten. Commissioner Kevin Warren is off to run the Chicago Bears.

It wasn’t  that long ago, back in the days of the Killer Virus,  that he was teetering, a man clearly in over his head,  trying to decide whether to play… or not to play… or play… or not to play…

What stabilized his position - saved his job, maybe -  was an act of treachery, a sneak attack on a longtime partner, the Pac-12, turning it into the Pac-10 by snatching away UCLA and USC.

And now, his damage to college football  done, he’s taking over the leadership of the Bears.

John Canzano’s take:

Warren’s return to the NFL signals to me that he saw the ceiling on his work in the Big Ten. Some of his own conference members didn’t appreciate that he’d openly talked about expanding beyond USC and UCLA last year. There didn’t seem to be much of an appetite for more additions. There certainly wasn’t consensus.

A few months later, that guy skipped off to run the Bears.

You know what they say with commodities — buy low, sell high.

Warren is getting out with his reputation mostly whole and his value still high. He expanded his conference into the Los Angeles television market and landed a windfall media deal. There isn’t much for him to personally gain by sticking around to find out if any of the moves will actually work out long term.

***********  With today’s spread offenses “attacking the entire field,” and with the increasing incidence of offensive holding and defensive passing interference that  it leads to, it seems to me that a man on the field is in the worst possible place to detect infractions.

With all we hear about the difficulty of finding good officials, I’ve been  toying with the idea of moving most officiating functions off the field and into  the press box - or even  a remote location. 

In my opinion, the  following calls could be better made by a team of detached officials, each with his (or her) own monitor and access to all cameras:


* offsides, illegal motion, illegal formation, false start.

* ball placement (except when the ball’s under a pile) and measurements.

* roughing the kicker

* roughing the passer

* targeting (this is already being done now)

* defensive holding

* pass interference (offensive and defensive)

* illegal touching

* ineligible men downfield

* offensive holding (on the perimeter)

* personal fouls, unsportsmanlike conduct, taunting

* timing issues


I haven’t given this a lot of deep thought, so feel free to chip in as you wish.

At the very least, this might do away with that most obnoxious of all officiating features: the  “further review.”  Reducing the time spent looking at replays might actually get average game time down below 3-1/2 hours, something all networks would surely approve of (and maybe even pay for).



*********** College basketball’s history is littered with game-fixing scandals.

But not college football.

Why not?

Well, it’s been said, it’s such a team game, with so many different parts.   If you wanted to fix a game, where would you start?

My answer, after watching what’s been happening to the game:  with tackling.

The simplest way to do less than your best on the football field without calling undue attention to it is simply to continue tackling  sloppily.  There’s so much poor tackling going on as it is - even by good players -  that an occasional  rash of it from time to time isn’t likely  to arouse suspicion.

Fixing games?  For pay?  Why not?  The main motivation is there.

Take the  so-called Black Sox Scandal - the conspiracy by several of the Chicago White Sox' star players to throw the 1919 World Series to the Cincinnati Reds. 

Professional gamblers had no difficulty finding cooperative White Sox players.  Being paid a pittance by their miserly team owner,  they rationalized it as their chance to make  some well-deserved money.

NIL notwithstanding, how different is today's college football, with coaches - even some assistant coaches - making millions,  and colleges making tens of millions, off  the labor of "student-athletes" whose “compensation,” except for those talented enough to warrant NIL deals, is limited by the NCAA to room, board, books and tuition?

Tell me it isn't possible for big-time gamblers to get to some of those players.  Tell me that those kids, knowing that their coaches are making millions,  couldn't easily justify  taking the gamblers’ money. And when you’re already missing plenty of tackles as it is, what’s one or two more at crucial points in the game?

Take the  ungodly amount of money that college football programs are already raking in and add to it the additional millions  to come from an expanded playoff, all thanks to the cheap labor that the players provide,  and you’ve got the all the makings of a major scandal.



***********  Stanford and Cal both have high academic  standards that discourage transfers, a fact that’s already begun to show in the performances of their football teams, performances that are almost sure to get worse as the rest of the Pac-12 adds  quarterbacks from the Transfer Portal.

It evidently  got to be too much for David Shaw, a Stanford man coaching a Stanford team, and immediately following this season’s final game, he announced his resignation.

He said he was burned out.  Yet here he is, mere weeks later, interviewing for the Denver Broncos’ job.

Good man.  I like him. I liked him better, though, as Stanford’s coach, and the fact that his burnout wasn’t so severe as to keep him from looking at another job makes me wonder how bad Stanford’s football future  must have really looked to his trained eye.


*********** When an otherwise healthy 21-year-old Air Force Academy football player dies rather suddenly of a “medical emergency,” following on the heels of Damar Hamlin’s seemingly similar experience, doesn’t it seem a bit curious?

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2023/01/10/air-force-football-hunter-brown-dies-21-after-medical-emergency/11027407002/


***********   THE 2023 COLLEGE FOOTBALL HALL OF FAME CLASS
 
PLAYERS:
    •    Eric Berry – DB, Tennessee (2007-09)
    •    Michael Bishop – QB, Kansas State (1997-98)
    •    Reggie Bush – RB, Southern California (2003-05)
    •    Dwight Freeney – DE, Syracuse (1998-2001)
    •    Robert Gallery – OT, Iowa (2000-03)
    •    LaMichael James – RB, Oregon (2009-11)
    •    Derrick Johnson – LB, Texas (2001-04)
    •    Bill Kollar – DT, Montana State (1971-73)
    •    Luke Kuechly – LB, Boston College (2009-11)
    •    Jeremy Maclin – WR/KR, Missouri (2007-08)
    •    Terance Mathis – WR, New Mexico (1985-87, 1989)
    •    Bryant McKinnie – OT, Miami [FL] (2000-01)
    •    Corey Moore – DL, Virginia Tech (1997-99)
    •    Michael Stonebreaker – LB, Notre Dame (1986, 1988, 1990)
    •    Tim Tebow – QB, Florida (2006-09)
    •    Troy Vincent – DB, Wisconsin (1988-91)
    •    Brian Westbrook – RB, Villanova (1997-98, 2000-01)
    •    DeAngelo Williams – RB, Memphis (2002-05)
 
COACHES:
    •    Monte Cater – 275-117-2 (70.1%); Lakeland [WI] (1981-86), Shepherd [WV] (1987-2017)
    •    Paul Johnson – 189-99-0 (65.6%); Georgia Southern (1997-2001), Navy (2002-07), Georgia Tech (2008-18)
    •    Roy Kramer – 83-32-2 (71.8%); Central Michigan (1967-77)
    •    Mark Richt – 171-64-0 (72.8%); Georgia (2001-15), Miami [FL] (2016-18)
 

*********** People have probably forgotten this, but one of the first events of Willie Taggrt’s ill-fated time as Oregon’s head coach was the off-season “workout” which wound up with several players hospitalized.

Now, since there will always be people who either ignore the lessons of the past or don’t even know what they are, there’s a Texas high school coach who could be in deep sh— because kids were (allegedly, of course) worked too hard in off-season workouts.

According to a report from the Dallas Morning News, Rockwall-Heath head football coach John Harrell has been placed on administrative leave after multiple high school football players needed to be hospitalized following a particularly intense workout last week where he required players to do nearly 400 pushups in a 60-minute timeframe with no water breaks. At least eight students were hospitalized as a result of the grueling workout.

https://thecomeback.com/high-school/high-school-hospitalized-workout.html

*********** Hard to believe that “hazing” could exist in a major  college football program, especially at a school such as Northwestern, whose academic standards (you’d think) would keep most knuckleheads away.

But there have been  charges of hazing, and the school has hired someone to investigate.

As vague as people are nowadays, using terms like “sexual offenses” to run the spectrum from forcible rape to “nice dress!”, I have no idea what “hazing” could actually mean.

Come to think of it, could this all be designed to put money in the pockets of the investigators?


https://theathletic.com/4082932/2023/01/11/northwestern-investigating-football-hazing-allegation/?source=user_shared_article



***********  Amazing to me that these high caliber athletes don't always do the basics well.   Yesterday in a pro game and a few minutes ago in the college championship game, Running backs had the ball stripped near the sidelines because it was in the wrong hand.  Both lost the ball.   I think in the pro game it cost them the playoffs.   That's a basic taught at any youth program.

John Irion
Argyle, New York






*********** Mike Norlock, from Atasacadero, California, was at the recent AFCA convention in Charlotte, and he sent me this photo of Coach Mark Speckman, well-known to those of us on the West Coast - and to large numbers of coaches all over the US - for his “Fly” offense.

Mike wrote:  "Ran into Coach Speckman at the AFCA convention! I hadn’t seen him since I visited Willamette! He is now at Clarion(?). He still looks great!"

Yes, indeed - Coach Speckman is the OC at Division II Clarion, a  state college in Clarion, Pennsylvania!

https://clariongoldeneagles.com/sports/football/roster/coaches/mark-speckman/1877



***********  Character: it's what you write about most in covering general subjects as they apply to football. Three reflections on character in today's page stand out. Coach Stig's answer to the reporter. Two, the Bear's promise to get the disloyal assistant fired (but I'm equally sure he would've made the distinction between blind loyalty and the earned variety). Three, the QB coach not made of the right stuff. If we readers pay attention, your page will lead us to follow the good examples and not repeat the bad.

John Vermillion
St. Petersburg, Florida



***********   Hugh,

Well...all that pre-game "Super Bowl" style hype for a National Championship game turned out to be nothing but a prelude to the massive beatdown Georgia gave to TCU.  I truly believe it wouldn't have mattered who played Georgia that night.  Without any doubt Georgia is the best team in college football.  Actually, the true championship game was played a couple of weeks ago.

Stetson Bennett IV proved the Heisman voters wrong once again.  

Happy for Coach "Stig".  Met him many years ago when I took my team to the SDSU football camp.  He is as genuine as you'll find.  I have a mutual connection to both SDSU and NDSU.  I took my team to both the SDSU and NDSU football camps.  Both great full-contact team camps.  Not only met Coach Stig at SDSU but also connected with current Montana State HC Brent Vigen when he was the OC at NDSU.

How does the old saying go?  "If it ain't broke...don't fix it!"  There was nothing wrong with the bowl games being the reward for a team that completed an outstanding season.  And then along came ESPN.


Have a great week!

Joe Gutilla
Austin, Texas







*********** QUIZ ANSWER:  Bowden Wyatt was from Kingston, Tennessee, and at the University of Tennessee , playing under  the legendary General Bob Neyland, he started every game for three years (freshmen weren’t eligible).  In that time, the Vols were 23-5-3, and in his senior year, 1938, they went 11-0.  A two-way end, he was a key man in a Tennessee defense that shut out six opponents, as the Vols outscored opponents 283-16.  He was a consensus All-American end and  the team captain. The Vols  capped their season with a 17-0  defeat of Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl  - the first bowl game that Tennessee ever played in. 

After graduation, he coached at Mississippi State for three years, then after service as an officer in the Navy during World War II, he returned to Mississippi State for one season before landing his first head coaching job at Wyoming.

A single wing guy like Coach Neyland and a defensive disciple as well, he coached the Cowboys to a  39-17-1 record in his six years at Laramie.  In 1949 they went 9-1 and in 1950 they went 10-0, including a Gator Bowl win, and were ranked 12th in the AP poll. He was named Skyline Conference Coach of the Year.

In 1953 he took over an Arkansas program that hadn’t had a winning season since 1947, and after going 3-7 his first year, in his second year, 1954, his Hogs  - nicknamed the “25 Little Pigs” - were the talk of the country, after upsetting Texas and Ole Miss on back-to-back  Saturdays.  They finished 8-3 and won the Southwest Conference championship, and he was named Southwest Conference Coach of the Year. 

And that got him the head coaching job at his alma mater.

At Tennessee, in just his second year there, the Vols went 10-1,  and were unbeaten in SEC play, and losing only to Baylor in the Cotton Bowl.  He was named  the SEC and the AFCA Coach of the Year.

In eight seasons at Tennessee, his record was 49-29-4, but in his  final five seasons it was 25-22-3, and in early 1963 he was fired, one game short of his 100th win.

It  didn’t help his cause that General Neyland, who was a big supporter, had died earlier in 1962.

And it also didn’t help that in May of 1963, at the SEC spring meetings, he had pushed a Birmingham sports writer into a pool, and caused “other disruptions.” Shortly after, he checked into a rehab center in Virginia.

He died just seven years later of pneumonia, at the age of 51.

His overall record at Wyoming, Arkansas and Tennessee was 99-56-1.

His teams won three different conference championships, and he was named Coach of the Year in three different conferences - in addition to being named national Coach of the Year.

Along with Amos Alonzo Stagg and Bobby Dodd, Bowden Wyatt is one of just three people to be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as both a player and a coach.



CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING BOWDEN  WYATT

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - AUSTIN, TEXAS
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
TOM WALLS - WINNIPEG, MANITOBA
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY






*********** QUIZ:  He grew up in a tiny town (a “patch”)  in southwestern Pennsylvania called Elk Lick, and he grew up hard.  He started working in a  coal mine at the age of 9, driving mules, and  only after  leaving the mines and attending Western Maryland College  did he even see his first  game of football -  the first game he played in.

His coach at Western Maryland was Dick Harlow, who would go on to coach at Harvard and is in the College Football Hall of Fame. At Western Maryland, he played football, basketball, baseball and tennis, and he captained the basketball and baseball teams. (He must have been an awfully fast learner to have gone so quickly from working in the mines to playing college tennis.)

After graduation, he spent 11 years as a high school coach in Waynesboro, Pennsylvania, where he had three unbeaten and untied teams and then, after a year as an assistant at Western Maryland and two years as an assistant at Brown, he was named head coach at Brown.

In six years there, his record was 28-20-4, and in his last two seasons his Bruins went 7-2 and 8-1, good enough to bring him to the attention of Penn State, which hired him in 1950.

A Wing-T pioneer, he convinced the player who had been his  quarterback at Brown to postpone going to law school and instead come with him to teach his system to his Penn State quarterbacks.  That Brown quarterback would decide to stay  on as an assistant.

After 16 years at Penn State, he retired with a record of 104-48-4. He never had a losing season, and his only non-winning season was his last (5-5).

He was a member of the NCAA Football Rules Committee. He served as President of the American Football Coaches Association, and he is in  the College Football Hall of Fame.

His successor was the Brown quarterback who had come with him in 1950 and  stayed on as an assistant.  The successor would be  Penn State’s coach for 46 years, winning 409 games.





TUESDAY,  JANUARY  10, 2023 -  “A lie doesn’t become truth, wrong doesn’t become right, and evil doesn’t become good, just because it’s accepted by a majority.” Booker T. Washington


***********  No one would ever want to go through the experience again, but during the tense moments when Damar Hamlin was being tended to - and then driven from - the field, someone forgot to tell the TV cameras  not to show the players on the field, praying.


*********** While the rest of the nation gorged itself on NFL games and breathlessly awaited the College Football Playoff final on Monday, a rather large crowd of people from the Dakotas gathered in Frisco, Teaxs on Sunday to watch the South Dakota State Jackrabbits beat the North Dakota State Bison 45-21.

It was tied  7-7 after one  quarter, but it was 31-14 at the half, as the Jackrabbits pulled away  They’ve now beaten the Bison four straight times.

It was the first-ever national title for the Jackrabbits, and it was also the first time that the Bison had lost in a final.

Just the day before, “Coach Stig” -  65-year-old John Stiegelmeier, who’s been  the Jackrabbits’ coach for 26 years -  was presented the Eddie Robinson Award, as the FCA National Coach of the Year.

The South Dakota State players  had very clearly expressed their desire to meet the BIson in the final.  Asked why, afterward, Coach Stiegelmeier  told the postgame interviewer, "Because they're the standard."


*********** I was reading something in The Athletic about the Indianapolis Colts and the terrible situation they’re in, thanks largely to the impulsive meddling of their owner, Jim Irsay.

Earlier in the season they fired their offensive coordinator, and then as most of you know by now,  a few weeks ago Irsay fired his head coach, Frank Reich.  But he didn’t place one of the current members of the staff in charge on an interim basis.  Oh, no - instead, he handed the job over to a former Colts player, Jeff Saturday, who had been working as a TV commentator, and whose coaching background was limited to a brief stint as a high school mentor.

Now, as the story went, with the OC - and now Reich - gone, there was a problem: there was no one to call plays.

So the job was  given - offered? - to the quarterback coach.  But here’s where the real story starts:  according to the article, he refused to do it -  unless he was paid more for the added responsibility.

Now, I certainly don’t know the whole story, but on the face of it, this runs totally counter to anything I’d ever been taught, from the time I was a kid, about advancing in any job.

What I’d always been taught was to do anything and everything I could that needed to be done, not in expectation of any remuneration, but to impress on the people in charge that I was a guy they could count on, to make myself indispensable by being someone they knew would do whatever it takes for the team/business to be successful.

The rewards would come, I was led to believe.   I still believe that.

That’s always been the way I’ve approached coaching a team,  and that’s the way I’ve seen it approached by people I’ve respected:  no job is beneath anybody.  If it has to be done - do it.  If the head coach tells you to go evaluate a prospect in Alaska, you go. If he asks you to coach the JV line, you coach it. If he asks you to help with the laundry, you do it.   If there’s a piece of paper on the floor, pick it up. No job is beneath any of us.

Whatever it takes. 

Again - I don’t know the whole story, but I can’t  shake the  belief that a staff with guys like that on it - guys who won’t  go the extra mile unless they’re paid mileage to do it -  is not a staff you can win with.

Either that, or all this time I’ve been doing things that I should have refused to do unless I was  going to be paid to more.


*********** A couple of weeks ago, I was writing about an offensive lineman from Bowling Green who was ejected after getting his second unsportsmanlike conduct penalty in the game.  That was a new one on me.

And then Sunday night, while watching the Lions play the Packers, I saw a Lions’ running back lying on the ground after a nasty hit. He was being administered to by Lions’ trainers, and as one of them gently pushed past a gawking Packers’ player to get to him, the player, Quay Walker by name, shoved the trainer in the back, almost causing him to lose his balance.

For that, Mr. Walker, a rookie linebacker from Georgia, was ejected.


Turns out it’s his second ejection of the year.  The last one was when he got into it with a coach on the Bills’ sideline earlier in the season.

This’ll win you a bar bet some day: Quay Walker on Sunday night earned the distinction of being the first NFL player in more than 22 years (since 2000) to be kicked out of more than one game in a single season.


*********** I guess by now everyone has seen the Chiefs’ spinning huddle.  Very creative, but like so many creative plays with a lot of moving parts, this one, which appears to result in a Chiefs’ touchdown, was called back for holding.

Yeah, it was a ten-yard penalty against the Chiefs… but any time an exciting football play gets “called back” because some knucklehead has committed a penalty, the people who are really being penalized are the fans.
 
Imagine calling back home runs in baseball…
Slam dunks in basketball…
Breakaway goals in ice hockey…

Yes, yes, I know - it does happen in basketball and ice hockey, but not nearly to the extent that it does in football, and almost never because of the actions of someone other than the scorer.

***********  Coach,

I want to tell ya I am on a position now where I hire and manage many youth coaches. One day I sat and watched a coach work for over 2 hours for two days straight  on trying to kick field goals and PATs.  I asked him, “What do you thing the odds of getting a good snap good hold and good kick under pressure are, in a youth game?” He said,  “Oh I don’t know - 30-40 percent?”  I then asked him how good would a wedge or a super power be if he used 4 hours of time on it.  He said, 75 percent.  I said even if you only get it half the time it gives you two points. A week later, he is still kicking field goals. I asked him “Coach how many games have you had that came down to 2 or 3 points in your career?”  He told me. “8 or 9.” I said, “How many did you lose by 6, 7 or 14?”  He said, “Many!” I told him, “Run the ball!”

John Coelho
Turlock, California

*********** Those of you who watch my Zoom clinics are familiar by now with the “invocation,” in which the late John Madden offers some sage advice to a young man named Thomas Farmer, who has expressed a desire to be a coach.

Thomas is the son of Sam Farmer, who’s a friend of my son, and for some time Sam has covered the NFL for the Los Angeles Times.

If you’re a Zoom regular, you’re  also familiar with my interest in the short-yardage game, and my disdain for today’s thoroughly modern offensive guys, whose sheer stubbornness means their  quarterback never goes under center.  And that stubbornness  means  they can’t run  the most effective short yardage play ever invented - the quarterback sneak with a teammate pushing on the quarterback.

Sam Farmer, like those of us on the Zooms, has noticed that NFL teams have finally begun to adopt the “push” as part of their  offensive strategy…

https://www.latimes.com/sports/story/2022-12-30/pushing-the-pile-nfl-rule-officiating



***********   Question:  With linemen firing out from the stance, do you step with back foot first or front foot? I did the bench drill yesterday and I'm afraid I told them the back foot.

Coach, 

That’s a good question.

You’re fine.

Our basic rule is that we always step with the near foot, which could mean the front foot or the back foot, depending on the direction of the play. 

This is just a drill to teach a basic stance, and to get them used to getting into both left- and right-hand versions.

In the case of this drill, where we just want a generic fast get-off,  I teach them to whip their down hand backward as they step, as if snapping the ball. This will promote a low get-off. This means they will step first with the back foot, and then, as the “snapping arm” whips forward, they’ll  step with the front  foot.

Next, once they get down in the stance, you can start doing “bird-dog” drill - one short, controlled step in the direction you tell them, then freeze in place.  You want them to keep head up, tail down, “numbers on the knees.” Make them freeze until you’re satisfied. (They’ll hate it.)

Do this from  both right and left hand stance.

Failure to take the correct first step is a major factor in not being able to carry out an assignment.



***********   I’ve told people on numerous occasions that one of the traits of a successful Double Wing coach is the ability to resist being bored - to be willing and able to do the same damn things over and over again, in practice and in games, while resisting the temptation to do “something new” - “something different” - instead of continuing to run the  bread and butter stuff.  Over and over.


Over the years, I’ve quoted great high school coaches - Gordon Wood, of Brownwood, Texas, and John Mckissick, of Summerville, South Carolina are two examples - who’ve said petty much the same thing in their words.


But I sure as hell never thought I’d quote Hal Mumme, the acknowledged father of the Air Raid offense, and yet there he was, on “Coach and Coordinator Podcast” sounding like a Double Winger:   

“To be successful at the way we practice and play, you have to have a great capacity for boredom because you are gonna do the same things over and over again…you gotta try to make each rep better”

*********** I  wrote this in December, 2018…

I’ve said for some time that there’s been something missing in all the talk about expanding the playoffs.

Yes, polls show that everybody wants a true playoff…  Major college football’s the only sport that doesn’t have one…  Now, even conference commissoners who were once opposed are coming around to the idea of eight teams…. Blah, blah, blah.

But before we get all excited about this great new way to make more money…

Never - not once - have I heard anyone suggest that first we ask the players what they want.

Do they really want to have to play another game? Or two? Or three?

Years ago, following the final game of the season, the coach of the winning team would gather his players in the locker room and announce to them that they’d just received  an invitation to play in a bowl.  And  then, believe it or not, he’d leave it up to the players to decide whether they wanted to go and play in the bowl. (They didn’t always vote affirmatively.) Sometimes, in the days before conference tie-ins, a team might receive invitations to two different bowls, and they'd let the players make the choice.

Those days are long gone, of course.  No self-respecting coach or AD would let mere players make such a big decision.

Not now.  Now, when more than ever players ought to have some say in what they’re getting into, there’s little chance they will.

We’re talking serious games, guys, not bowls.   We’re not talking about a trip to Disneyland, or roast beef eating contests or snowmobiling.

We’re talking about big business. It’s not just an extension of what they’ve been doing for the previous 13 grueling weeks, either.  If anything, it’s going to get tougher.

What a great way to spend Christmas!

Washington running back Miles Gaskin was asked to contrast this year’s Huskies’ trip to the Rose Bowl with their playing in the semifinal game in 2016. 

This year, while they’re in Southern California, they’ll go to a couple of theme parks and enjoy a meal at a Beverly Hills steak house, among other things.

That's fun.

That's not the way it was two years ago. That was all business.  Gaskin struggled to remember anything fun that they did.

“We didn’t go to Disneyland,” he said.  “I didn’t go on no roller coasters, either, so it’s definitely different.  It’s definitely a lot more fun.”

If the Power 5 people are really serious about expanding the playoffs, it’s likely going to mean crossing the line to professionalism -  paying the people who are going to help them make all that extra money. But before they do anything,  I’d say it’s time to ask the players what they want to do.

I’m betting they’d like to have a nice trip and a lot of fun, as their reward for a good season.

That’s the way the bowls were originally sold to the players.  Back when they used to ask them if they wanted to go.


*********** I swear I heard this Sunday night: there have only been three successful onside kicks in this entire NFL season.

If I heard  right…

Take a look at the number of college games marked by comebacks in which onside kicks have played a role, and you’ve have to say that  this is one more problem the NFL has that it’ll continue to ignore.


*********** I’m watching a game whose score is 13-10 - only two touchdowns scored, and we’re midway through the third period.


Here’s the offense, lined up and ready to play - but the umpire’s standing around the ball, preventing the offense from snapping it.


I confess ignorance as to why this is going on, but whatever the reason,  I don’t see why the offense can’t snap the ball whenever they’re ready.  And if the defense isn’t ready? - F—k ‘em.



*********** Paul Dietzel coached a national championship team at LSU,  and before that, as a young assistant, he worked under some of the best coaches ever - at Cincinnati under Sid Gillman, at West Point under Earl Blaik, and at Kentucky under Bear Bryant.

In his book, “Call Me Coach,” he tells a story about the Coach Bryant that every young assistant coach should commit to memory…

“Coach Bryant was a real stickler for loyalty. At a Kentucky statewide coaches’ meeting, he asked a high school assistant coach what offense they were running at his school.  This fellow told him they were still running the ‘same old offense,’ and even though he wanted to modernize the offense, the head coach was old-fashioned and would not change.  Coach Bryant was quite disturbed, to say the least, that an assistant coach would speak this way in public about his head coach.  The Bear told the man that he was going to get him fired, and indeed he did.”

*********** Talk all you like about the Mighty Big Ten getting two teams into the Playoff, but  don’t overlook the ugly fact that the conference has a soft underbelly.

You know things are bad in Indiana when it becomes public that they’re trying to squirm out of a three-game series with Louisvile.


https://www.wdrb.com/sports/source-indiana-asks-louisville-about-canceling-3-game-football-series/article_4424c430-8ed4-11ed-8845-73ae1ab0b15e.html


***********  There's always a lot to chew on in your pages, but today competes for the most. From bowl viewership to analysis of the NFL's decisionmaking in the aftermath of the Kennedy assassination, this was a spectacular sports page. I don't derive this much joy from reading any other sports reporting. Outkick (or fill in the blank with another) should pay to present your unedited pages twice a week, but you should continue to publish for us loyal readers too.

John Vermillion
St. Petersburg, Florida


***********   Hugh

I  loved your  article from 20 years ago. I remember it well because  of the mention of coach Bill Peak. I was at WKU in 1972 finishing my masters degree. I  have met him and remember those teams that he coached.

Middle Tennessee State is 100 miles from Western. The distance is called  "the hundred miles of hate". They don't like us and we don't like them.

If we knew that we could win only one game during football season, we would chose the Middle Tennessee game.

Thanks for rerunning that news from the past.

It brought back some great memories.

See you at the next meeting.

David Crump
Owensboro, Kentucky


***********   Hugh,

Hit the Trifecta during bowl season (ND, Minnesota, Fresno State all winners), and the Daily Double with Ohio State and USC both losers!

With the announcement that Sam Hartman has committed to Notre Dame for one season next year, not only do the Irish bolster the QB room with a proven and experienced record-setting leader, they have also improved their depth at the position with Tyler Buchner who has shown as a sophomore in playing just a few games he has the potential to become an equally talented QB for the Irish.  Oh, also, did I mention Hartman's decision has provided some fierce competition for the position?  Something any coach would want to have on his team at every position?   Team depth has been why playoff teams like Georgia, Alabama, etc. have had their way with Notre Dame lately.

My wife saw the ad about Jesus being a refugee.  She looked at me and said, "OMG!"

Your ranking of the bowl winners left a very obvious one out.  Their victory over a highly regarded SEC opponent that had finished the regular season on a hot streak was indeed memorable.  More so than Minnesota's win over a mediocre Syracuse team, and more than Fresno State's win over a depleted Washington State team.

Appeared a lot of people in this country still believe in the power of prayer, and healing when they witnessed the terrifying sight of Damar Hamlin being administered CPR, and being whisked off the field in an ambulance during the Bills/Bengals game.   Just heard the news that Damar Hamlin is conscious, breathing on his own, and sent a tweet to his team mates.  

Also appears there are still a lot of people in this country that think the game of football should be banned.  Too violent.  Well...I guess that means they probably want to see lacrosse, hockey, martial arts, auto racing, cycling, and other such sports banned for the high risks taken in those sports as well.

Enjoy the weekend!

Joe Gutilla
Austin, Texas

Mea culpa (Latin for “My Bad.”)  You had to mean Texas Tech, which put the finishing touch on their win over Ole Miss by returning an Ole Miss onside kick for a TD!





***********   QUIZ ANSWER:  Although he was famous for only a brief time, he was a football pioneer, and a good man, and our sport is better because of men like him.

At West Texas State, they called him Pistol Pete, but he wasn’t from Texas.  He was from Lynn, Massachusetts, north of Boston, the son of Puerto Rican parents.

Although a high school star at Lynn Trade School, he was passed over by colleges because of his lack of size - he was 5-8, 160 -  so he headed west to junior college  in Trinidad, Colorado.  He left after one semester and returned to Lynn, but a year later,  Coach Joe Kerbel of West Texas State (now West Texas A & M),  in looking for a back with speed,  heard from a friend about a “really fast back” at Trinidad JC.    After getting Pete’s phone number from Trinidad, he phoned him at Lynn and, sight unseen, arranged for him to transfer  to West Texas.

At first sight, Kerbel was not impressed by his new running back’s size, but in true storybook fashion,  when the team’s star running back was having trouble hitting the holes, Pete was given his big break - and broke off a long run.  A few plays later, he did the same thing. That was enough to earn him a starting job.

In his sophomore season,  his first year of eligibility, he was the second-leading rusher in the nation.   In his second game, against Texas Western (now UTEP), he scored six touchdowns and gained 236 yards and was named the Associated Press' national back of the week.

Although not big, he was very strong and tremendously fast, and able to cut on a dime. Hank Foldberg,  then the coach at Texas A&M,  had played end on the great Army teams of the 1940s, and he called Pete the best running back he had seen since his Army teammate (and Heisman Trophy winner) Glenn Davis.

(He led  the nation’s rushers for  the entire season  until the final weekend,  when New Mexico State’s Jim “Preacher” Pilot passed him with a spectacular game of his own in which he scored six touchdowns.   Their meeting on the gridiron was the subject of a Sports Illustrated feature article.)

After his great sophomore season, he was hampered by knee injuries for the rest of his college career.  Following graduation,  he signed with the Boston Patriots,  and spent a year on their practice squad before retiring.

When he first went to West Texas,  segregation was still in practice, and years before Warren McVea would become the first black player at any major college in Texas,  Pete  and his teammates, Ollie Ross and Bobby Drake, were three of the very first black players to play football at any once-white Texas college.

One of his best friends at West Texas was a white quarterback named Corky Dawson, who recalled their first meeting:   "I went with Coach (Sleepy) Harris in January 1961  to the train station to pick up Pete, Ollie and Bobby Drake - the first three black players at WT - and Pete was scared to death.  But from that point forward, we developed a friendship through the years to this very day."

His white teammates loved listening to him talk in his Boston accent, and he gave them all  nicknames.

“He was loved by everybody," Dawson said. "And I mean everybody."

Because of the regard his teammates had for him, he helped them learn a lot about life.

After one  early-season home game  his freshman year, the team went to a local restaurant for chicken-friend steak,  but once they were inside,  Dawson  recalled, the owner told them that the two black players in the group would have to eat in the kitchen.

"We didn't take another step, and waited for Coach Kerbel to come in,”  Dawson  said. "Coach Kerbel's eyes got big as silver dollars. He told them where they could stick those chicken-fried steaks. Coach Harris went to Amarillo, bought about 60 hamburgers and fries, and we ate in the dorm. We understood why."


While at West Texas, he  met and  married an Amarillo girl named  Gloria Quintero, and after graduation they moved back to Lynn, where he spent his  career working for the city of Lynn.

He and his wife  raised five children, and he liked to tell people that his greatest accomplishment was having a part in all five of them getting college degrees.


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING PISTOL PETE PEDRO

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - AUSTIN, TEXAS
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
JACK TOURTILLOTTE - RANGELEY, MAINE
JOHN IRION - ARGYLE, NEW YORK
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS

***********   Too long a story to relate, but at age 14 I drove to Texas with a 15-year-old to deliver his aged Aunt Effie to Amarillo. At that time, Pistol Pete Pedro was strong in my imagination. I'd just read an SI story about him. I persuaded the other guy to go to Canyon, for one reason: I wanted to see where PPP played. In all the years since, I've run across scores of guys named Pedro, and of course I called them all "Pistol Pete Pedro of West Texas State", knowing they had no idea what I was really talking about. They just thought I was being alliterative, I guess. If I recall correctly, he led the nation in rushing as a senior.

John Vermillion
St. Petersburg, Florida


Hugh,

You didn't mention Pete's statistics for his great season.

Scored 21 touchdowns led the nation.
Scored 126 points, led the nation.
All 21 touchdowns were rushing touchdowns.

He was  very impressive.

David Crump
Owensboro, Kentucky





*********** QUIZ:  He was from Kingston, Tennessee, and at the University of Tennessee , playing under  the legendary General Bob Neyland, he started every game for three years (freshmen weren’t eligible).  In that time, the Vols were 23-5-3, and in his senior year, 1938, they went 11-0.  A two-way end, he was a key man in a Tennessee defense that shut out six opponents, as the Vols outscored opponents 283-16.  He was a consensus All-American end and  the team captain. The Vols  capped their season with a 17-0  defeat of Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl  - the first bowl game that Tennessee ever played in. 

After graduation, he coached at Mississippi State for three years, then after service as an officer in the Navy during World War II, he returned to Mississippi State for one season before landing his first head coaching job at Wyoming.

A single wing guy like Coach Neyland and a defensive disciple as well, he coached the Cowboys to a  39-17-1 record in his six years at Laramie.  In 1949 they went 9-1 and in 1950 they went 10-0, including a Gator Bowl win, and were ranked 12th in the AP poll. He was named Skyline Conference Coach of the Year.

In 1953 he took over an Arkansas program that hadn’t had a winning season since 1947, and after going 3-7 his first year, in his second year, 1954, his Hogs  - nicknamed the “25 Little Pigs” - were the talk of the country, after upsetting Texas and Ole Miss on back-to-back  Saturdays.  They finished 8-3 and won the Southwest Conference championship, and he was named Southwest Conference Coach of the Year. 

And that got him the head coaching job at his alma mater.

At Tennessee, in just his second year there, the Vols went 10-1,  and were unbeaten in SEC play, losing only to Baylor in the Cotton Bowl.  He was named  the SEC and the AFCA Coach of the Year.

In eight seasons at Tennessee, his record was 49-29-4, but in his  final five seasons it was 25-22-3, and in early 1963 he was fired, one game short of his 100th win.

It  didn’t help his cause that General Neyland, who was a big supporter, had died earlier in 1962.

And it also didn’t help that in May of 1963, at the SEC spring meetings, he had pushed a Birmingham sports writer into a pool, and caused “other disruptions.” Shortly after, he checked into a rehab center in Virginia.

He died just seven years later of pneumonia, at the age of 51.

His overall record at Wyoming, Arkansas and Tennessee was 99-56-1.

His teams won three different conference championships, and he was named Coach of the Year in three different conferences - in addition to being named national Coach of the Year.

Along with Amos Alonzo Stagg and Bobby Dodd, he is one of just three people to be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as both a player and a coach.





FRIDAY,  JANUARY  6, 2023 -  “It’s easy to be a young coach. The secret is to be an old coach. To hang on.”  Dick MacPherson

*********** It took them long enough, but the Playoff  people finally delivered, with two really good semi-final games.

My perceptions:

Michigan, which beat Ohio State by pounding, tried going the finesse route against TCU. (Hey Harbaugh - by now, everybody and his uncle has seen Philly Special. What made you think TCU hadn’t?)

Some clown  wrote an article claiming that Ohio State wasn’t physical and that’s why they lost.  My guess is that he wrote the article in advance, and when Ohio State missed that long field goal at the end, decided to go with it.  But in my opinion, Ohio State was quite physical, and if that field goal had been good, he’d have had to  start writing like a sumbitch to come up with another story explaining what really happened.


***********  Tyler Buchner  finally got back from his injured shoulder and played the kind of game they knew he could play, and Notre Dame beat South Carolina.  The headlines about the game are almost as big as the ones saying that Notre Dame plans on signing Sam Hartman.  Thanks a lot, Tyler.


*********** Saw lots of good quarterback play this bowl season, but if I had my pick of anyone I wanted to go into a game with, it would still be Bryce Young.


*********** More and more teams are getting wise to the highest -percentage short-yardage play of them all: a  quarterback sneak with a pusher.

And then there are the hardheads who stubbornly resist, because to them, as forward-thinking as they want people to think  they are, it’s like taking a step back in time.


*********** In the space of a minute or so, USC  pissed a bowl game away with two stupid plays.

There was a little over four minutes to play and Tulane, once seemingly down for the count,  had just scored to pull to within eight points.

Tulane coach Willie Fritz eschewed  (avoided, abstained from) the onside kick that might have seemed advisable, and instead kicked it deep. It sailed for the coffin corner, where a USC return man called for a fair catch - and then muffed it.  Out of bounds it went - at the one. Question: If he didn’t try for the catch, wasn’t that kick almost certain  to go out of bounds or into the end zone?

USC, now backed up in their own end zone, lined up in the shotgun - same as they always do (“because that’s what we DO!”) and made it back to the one on first down.  But on second down, the runner - both he and the quarterback were lined up deep in the end zone, naturally - was drilled before he got back to the line.

Just like that, thanks to USC’s clumsiness and obstinacy, Tulane was  within six points of the Trojans - and they were getting the ball back!  It was like recovering an onside kick AND getting a two-point bonus.

Long story short - they drove for the winning score  with :08 showing on the clock.  It wasn’t easy - it took  two fourth-and-long conversions, and a catch in the end zone that was at first ruled an incompletion and then, on review, a touchdown - but Tulane pulled it out.


*********** With all the things that he took with him from Oklahoma to USC, it appears that Lincoln Riley took his Oklahoma defense along, too.


************ THIS YEAR’S BOWL SPORTSMANSHIP AWARD IS SHARED BY

The Missouri player - a captain, no less - who angrily berated a younger teammate for  helping a Wake Forest player to his feet.

The Bowling Green lineman who was ejected after getting two unsportsmanlike conduct penalties.


*********** Look out, punters.  It appears that unless the defender uses a weapon to try to block a kick, he’s not going to be penalized.

It’s amazing the hits on punters that are being excused.

It’s ironic that where once the punter got far more protection by the rules than the passer, now it’s the passer who’s cossetted, while what used to be roughing the kicker has now been reduced to “running into,” and what used to be “running into” is now just a no-call.


*********** WTF is wrong with all these coaches, allowing opt-out players on their sidelines at bowl games???

We hear words like “commitment,” and “family,” ad nauseam, but nobody says anything when star players walk off  at harvest time and leave the rest of the family to finish the job.



*********** I thought that overall the officiating of the bowl games really sucked.

In general, the incompetence showed itself mostly in targeting (it’s only targeting, evidently, if the perp uses a sledgehammer), pass interference (“I’m okay with no call”) and offensive holding (umpires  know they won’t get many more cushy bowl game gigs if they call it every time they see it).

The two worst calls, in my opinion, were

(1) Failure to give Michigan a touchdown when it seemed rather  clear to everyone that the runner had scored.   It wasn’t as bad as Michigan people have made it out to be, though, since all their genius coach had to do was run a quarterback sneak on the very next play  (with someone pushing on the quarterback). But no-o-o-o-o.

(2) The dirty end zone hit that put Ohio State’s Marvin Harrison out of the game. Originally called targeting,  it was reversed “upon review” and the perp walked free. They go on and on about this “crown of the helmet” crap, while allowing a defender to tuck his arms (the better to protect himself) and deliver a knockout blow on a defenseless receiver.

Here’s the worst, it seems:  charging a guy with targeting then letting him walk because while maybe he did injure an opponent,  his action didn’t  fit the precise definition of targeting.  Is this beginning to resemble our legal system, which is supposedly designed to protect us, but in reality seems designed to enable the wrong-doer?  You find yourself saying, “well, maybe it isn’t targeting, but it sure as hell is SOMETHING, because whether he delivered the blow with his shoulder or the crown of his helmet - or a mallet -  he wasn’t making  bona fide attempt to make a tackle.  In the manner in which he struck the opponent, he could only have been attempting to injure him.

I really like this in the Columbus Dispatch,  writing about the hit on Harrison:  “he was a defenseless receiver waiting for a floating pass when his head was clearly the target of a flying Bulldog. That's a penalty. If it's not, no parent should let their kids play football.”

(Are you paying attention to that last sentence, football people?)


*********** Here’s one I didn’t mention: when Bob Zuppke coached at Oak Park High School, one of his backups was a kid named Ernest Hemingway.


***********  PLENTY OF   GREAT BOWL GAMES

TULANE-USC
ARKANSAS-KANSAS
PITT-UCLA
NOTRE DAME-SOUTH CAROLINA
BYU-SMU
FLORIDA STATE-OKLAHOMA
HOUSTON-LOUISIANA
OREGON-NORTH CAROLINA
WASHINGTON-TEXAS
MARYLAND-NC STATE
MISS  STATE - ILLINOIS
JACKSON STATE-NCCU
NEW MEXICO STATE - BOWLING GREEN
BOISE STATE - NORTH TEXAS
BUFFALO- GEORGIA SOUTHERN
MIDDLE TENNESSEE - SAN DIEGO STATE
TOLEDO - LIBERTY


*********** Worst National Anthem?  Before the Playoff.  Best?  Before the Rose Bowl


*********** They say if you repeat a lie long enough people will begin to believe it.

That’s no doubt why some fools are paying good money to buy TV ads that tell us 

“Jesus Was a Refugee”

(No, I haven’t begun to believe it yet.)

See, a refugee is “a person who has been forced to leave their country in order to escape war, persecution, or natural disaster.”

From the Gospel according to Saint Luke, Chapter 2

[1] And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed.
[2] (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.)
[3] And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.
[4] And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:)
[5] To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child.
[6] And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.
[7] And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.

Nice try guys.  Now, if you’ll be so kind,  please show me the part where Joseph and Mary - and their baby - are forced to leave their country.


*********** I was really disappointed at the lack of good judgment that Clemson showed in throwing freshman QB Cade Klubnik into a situation he clearly was not ready for.  He very well may be the future of the program - Dabo Swinney sure seemed to imply as much after the ACC championship game, when he publicly gave DJ Uiagalelei his walking papers - but his persistent panic in the pocket indicated to me that against Tennessee he was in over his head.


*********** I hope we’ve heard the last  of Lane Kiffin’s “I think I may have been told that maybe somebody, somewhere, heard a racial slur” act.


*********** Thanks to a “meaningless” bowl game Tennessee’s Joe Milton got his chance to show what he can do, and he came through.


*********** Scott Van Pelt: “The Tennessee Volunteers end their season on a high!” 

Wait - that doesn’t sound meaningless to me.


*********** As the Penn State players celebrated their Rose Bowl win, I wanted ask them, “Would you rather win in the Rose Bowl or lose in the Playoff?”


*********** Nice of ESPN, whose 3-1/2 hour per game time allowance prevented us from seeing the start of any bowl games other than the first ones of the day, to allow FOUR hours per playoff game.  Missing the start of games is really a pain in the ass when you’re trying to record them and they tell you to watch the start on ESPN-whatever.


*********** Iowa linebacker Jack Campbell is really good, and I appreciate the fact that he’s humble.  So would somebody please tell the announcers that the quality of being humble is  “humility,” and not  “humbleness?”


*********** Iowa beat Kentucky with great defense and special teams - and a quarterback named Joe Labas  who saw  his first game action since 2020.


*********** Isn’t it about time for that  Mayhem fool to finally bite it? Maybe they should put their advertising copywriters to work on creative ways to  finish the bastard off.


*********** TIRED CLICHE:   “He puts his foot in the ground…” (Where TF else would he put it?)


*********** Take a look at TCU’s #57 - a linebacker from Darnestown, Maryland named Johnny Hodges.  He’s a transfer from Navy - kids can leave before their junior year without penalty - and the story of how he entered his name in the portal and then  sweated out the whole process is very interesting.


*********** David Pollack: “I think Michigan’s played pretty well but they’ve made stupid mistakes.”  So which is it, David?


*********** If  you’re on the goal line and you throw on first down and it’s incomplete - you’ve pretty much committed to  throwing on the remaining downs.


*********** As Michigan struggled against TCU, Sean MacDonough sounded as it he’d been listening to John Madden on my Zoom clinics: “They can’t run the ball and they can’t stop the run.”


*********** There are few things in this world more useless than a sideline reporter


*********** Hat’s off to Pitt QB Nick Patti, who understudied Kenny Pickett last year . And this year, instead of being The Man, he had to watch as transfer Keadon Slovis walked into the starting job.  With Slovis on his way to another customer, Patti took over the Panther offense and led them to a come-from-behind Sun Bowl win.


*********** Mississippi State QB Will Rogers had the quote of the bowl season.

Asked after the game what his late coach, Mike Leach, would think  of the Bulldogs’ effort, (one offensive touchdown in a 19-10 win over Illinois:

“He probably wouldn’t be too happy with me.”


*********** It was in the second quarter that the announcers brought to our attention that Tulane was, “The only school in the country that has wrist bands for everybody.”

Uh, I think they mean “only college.”

I started doing it back in the late 90s, and I’ve been doing it - and advocating it - ever since.  I’d like to think I’ve been able to show other coaches the merits of calling plays this way. Now, I’d hate to have to coach without wristbands on everybody.


***********  MY RANKING OF THE BOWL WINNERS

1 GEORGIA
2 ALABAMA
3 TCU
4 PENN STATE
5 WASHINGTON
6 TULANE
7 TENNESSEE
8 OREGON
9 LSU
10 OREGON  STATE
11 IOWA
12 FLORIDA STATE
13 DUKE
14 TEXAS TECH
15 PITT
16 WAKE FOREST
17 ARKANSAS
18 MISSISSIPPI STATE
19 MINNESOTA
20 LOUISVILLE
21 WISCONSIN
22 MARYLAND
23 BYU
24 FRESNO STATE
25 HOUSTON


*********** POWER FIVE CONFERENCE BOWL STANDINGS

SEC (6-5)
ACC (5-4)
PAC-12 (3-2)*
BIG TEN (5-6)*
BIG 12 (2-6)

* USC AND UCLA, AND THEIR BOWL LOSSES, BELONG FOREVER TO THE BIG TEN. AMF.


*********** A tale of two coaches…

Two coaches, at different  times and at different stadiums,  are leading their teams  from their locker rooms to the field.  Just as each reaches the entrance to the  field, a  stadium attendant puts his hand against the coach’s chest and asks him to hold up:

Coach Number One: “Okay.”

Coach Number Two: “Get your f- -king hands off me”

Your  Question: Which one is Steve Sarkesian?


https://www.outkick.com/jim-harbaugh-touched-calm-steve-sarkisian-angry-comparison-videos/


***********  When I watched the NFL players as  the ambulance rolled away with Damar Hamlin inside, I knew that that game was not going to be resumed.

The NFL commissioner’s  decision not to resume the Bengals-Bills game on Monday night following the collapse of Bills’ player Damar Hamlin brought back memories of a  time in 1963 when another NFL commissioner  had to make a somewhat similar decision - and over the years has been roasted for it.

President John F. Kennedy was assassinated.  On a Friday.

It was November - still football season -  and many colleges with games scheduled for the next day decided to cancel  them.

But not all did.

Oklahoma coach and athletic Director but Wilkinson had served since 1961 as consultant to President Kennedy's counsel on national fitness and has been a significant promoter of Kennedys 50 mile hikes. When the news came, Wilkinson acted. He called Bob Devaney, his counterpart at Nebraska, and told him he thought Kennedy – his friend – would want them to play. The next day, Nebraska beat the Sooners 29-20 in Lincoln before a then record crowd, 38,362, at Memorial Stadium.  At the end, Nebraska students pelted the field with oranges, signifying a New Year's date in the Orange Bowl.


As for the NFL and its Sunday schedule, Commissioner Pete Rozelle faced the same decision the colleges had - to play or not to play.  59 years later, he is increasingly  criticized for his decision to play.


The rival American Football League had acted immediately and cancelled  its Sunday schedule.  (Over the years,  AFL commissioner Joe Foss has been praised for his decision but  according to a prominent San Diego sports writer, Foss was out of town at the time and couldn’t be reached and the decision was actually made by a subordinate.)


Pittsburgh Steelers President Dan Rooney recalled calling Rozelle immediately after hearing the news of the shooting and saying, ‘Pete I don't think we should play the games.’”


Responded Rozelle, ”We have a whole lot of problems if we don't play the games.  We got problems with television and all those things. I’m going to call Pierre Salinger and find out what the administration thinks and what he thinks.” (Salinger, a friend from Rozelle’s  college days at the University of San Francisco, was then President Kennedy’s press secretary.)


Salinger and most of the Kennedy cabinet had been on the way to Japan  when they learned the news, and  after Rozelle spoke with Salinger, he and Jim Kensil, his chief aide,  spoke with the president of CBS Sports.  And then Rozelle announced his decision: The NFL would play all seven scheduled games on Sunday.  But - “out of respect for the Kennedy family and the citizens of America” -  the games wouldn’t be televised.


"Pete was caught in a terrible conflict emotionally,” Cleveland owner Art Modell recalled. "I begged him not to play the games. Tex Schramm  (Cowboys’ GM) said play it. Then he got hold of Salinger, his old buddy, who said, ‘Jack would have wanted you to play the games.’ That, plus Bud Wilkinson, also a friend of Pete and a friend of the Kennedys’ – his Oklahoma team had played the day before. So, we went ahead. I had the ironic situation of playing the Dallas Cowboys in Cleveland. We were terrified about that.”


(Later, Modell would recall, "In Cleveland, I beefed up the security, hired extra police…We even had snipers on the roof of the stadium to protect Clint Murchison and his party from any harm… I instructed our PA announcer never to say “Dallas,’ just ‘Cowboys.’ Keep the name of the city out.”)


The games went on.  The crowds were  generally good.


And gradually, life in America went on as before.  Almost. In truth, for many of us who remember that horrible time, our nation hasn’t been the same since.  As someone once said, the Fifties had just come to an end.


As time has gone on, the “Present-ists” among us - those who would judge the people of the past, and their actions, by today’s supposedly  more enlightened thinking - have concluded that Rozelle was wrong, and that he had put the Almighty Buck ahead of doing the “right thing.”  This, of course, makes him bad.


(It’s the  same sort of thinking that now condemns Harry Truman for deciding to use nuclear weapons to bring an end to World War II.)


It’s important to know  that Pete Rozelle had a big decision to make, and very little time in which to make it, and there were many, many Americans - perhaps even the vast majority of us - who thought that at the very least he made the best decision possible under the conditions.


I can tell you that between the assassination of the President - the President of the United States, for God’s sake! - on a Friday, and then the rubbing out of the assassin two days later - in a damn police station! - I had no idea what the hell we’d wake up to on Monday morning. As trivial as NFL games may have seemed in perspective, I was grateful that at least some piece of our normal life was going on.


Others agreed with me. 


"I think he had to make the right call, and he had to do it in a hurry, "said veteran writer Frank DeFord. "The jingoists and professional patriots could easily look at Joe Foss and say, ‘He knew what to do.’ It was perfectly possible to criticize him, but it was a tough call. A lot of people said, ‘We need this for the country.’”


Said Chicago Bears’ co-captain Mike Pyle, “I know there was tremendous pressure on the commissioner. I was glad, believe me, that he decided to play. “


Said Bears’ star tight end Mike Ditka, ”Our job as football players was to do what they told us.   Rozelle made the decision, and to this day some people say he regretted it. I don't know if he did or not, and I don't know if he should have.  I don't know what Jack Kennedy would have said, but he probably would have said, ‘Go ahead and play.' That’s what I felt.”


Said Giants’ star and later broadcaster Frank Gifford, “Pete has gotten a bad rap on the Kennedy assassination. When we got there that Sunday, the whole country was in a malaise. All the TV channels were playing classical music. The country was in a mess. He could have said, "let's don't play. "How long would we have going on doing that?”


"I have three little Kennedy grand children. My daughter was married to Michael Kennedy.  They don't think that way. They are competitors who get up and fight back. I played enough touch football with them to know they didn't want to sit around on their thumbs. It was a tough decision for him to make.”


And, as the critics of his decision began to come out of the woodwork,  he seemed to ignore the issue.


Said Rozelle’s daughter, Anne Marie, in 2006, “He did what the Kennedy camp wanted and took the flak for it.”


Gifford noted that Rozelle knew  that he was being severely criticized, but his approach was to deal with the work at hand, and “let the dead past bury its dead.”


His misfortune has been to be judged for something he did in 1963 by jurors born well after the deed was done.


There are  those who  will claim that he greatly regretted his decision, but Gifford maintained that that was a misinterpretation of his remaining silent on the issue.   "He would not openly defend himself,” said Gifford.  “He let the chips fall where they may, and through the years, the chips have fallen into the wrong stack.”



*********** I wasn’t the first one to say that The Playoff  would be  the beginning of the end of college football as we’ve known it, and this won’t be the last you’ll hear me say it, but I didn’t expect it to happen quite  this soon…
 




The CEO of SOFI is a  former Army football player - and a damn good one - named Anthony Noto, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s already  catching some heat over this announcement.    From what I’m told Anthony Noto is a very smart guy, and definitely not the kind who’d be stupid enough to do something like this.  But he has nothing to do with this decision. The people who manage the stadium made it, and he’s just the head of a company that paid to have its name on the stadium.   But there’s a reason companies spend the kind of money that they do to buy naming rights -  they believe it will be good advertising and PR for them.  But now, unless someone brings some intelligence to the table, it’s going to bring SOFI the worst kind of advertising - football fans are going to  blame SOFI for not letting them tailgate. (And forcing them inside to pay $16 for a domestic beer.)


*********** The XFL - make that XFL 3.0 - will attempt, after two unsuccessful tries,  to make it this time as far as a second season, beginning play on Saturday, February 18.

This third rendition  will have eight teams playing, three of them - Arlington, Houston, and San Antonio -  in Texas, plus  Las Vegas, Orlando, Seattle, St. Louis, and Washington D.C.

There will be four games every week, most of them on Saturdays or Sundays, and the playoffs will start on April 29 (two semi-final games), with the final game on May 13.

One way or another, either on one of their networks or streaming on ESPN+, ESPN will broadcast all games. Seven of the games, including the final game, will be on ABC, and  22 of them will be on either ESPN or ESPN2.


***********  By now you’ve probably seen or heard about Penn State’s lining up in a full-house-T formation down on the goal line, as Herbie and Chris Fowler excitedly informed the national audience that it was a “Wing-T.”






That’s the problem with always being right - you really look like a dumbshit when you’re wrong.

And Herbie, as we all know, was wrong.

Just another example of how all aspects of our society suffer when we don’t learn our history.

They went to break after the Penn State score, and when they came back, Herbie and Chris had obviously been straightened out, because from that point -  and the next time Penn State used it - they referred to it as “T-formation.”

Fowler gushed at the “old school football… very creative.”

You’ve got to admit, after years of being called “obsolete,” it’s nice to hear “creative.” But if they think that’s creative, wait till they see this innovative thing we call the Wedge!

Here’s the best: Some genius on Twitter claimed that Penn State’s QB was counting defensive people and then deciding which side to run the play to. Right. Sure. Easy-peasy. Down on the goal line yet. Give me a break.

Whoever wrote that one is a gamer, not a coach, because there ’s no way Penn State's QB is coming up to the line and automaticking. Maybe if they were a wishbone team and he did it all the time and on every down I’d buy it, but Penn State rarely goes under center at all, and I suspect they were probably just praying that the QB would  handle the under-center snap and make a clean handoff.

It’s simply a gimmick, to them,  and you're going wait to tell those guys  at the line whether they're going right or left?

In short yardage and on the goal line, the object should be to hit hard and hit fast (thanks, Admiral Halsey) and - I would add - with a minimum of “moving parts.”

Herbie raved about  the guard-Tackle Double-team, and it was good, but there was a man in the playside A gap  that the center was expected to cut off - a very tough assignment - and that defensive guy almost blew up the play.



*********** I wanted to throw something at the TV screen when I heard Herbie start to say that there were too many meaningless bowl games at the start of bowl season, 6-and-6 teams had no business playing in bowl games, blah, blah, blah.

That’s easy for him to say, sitting on his throne atop the college football world and looking down his nose at all the peasants in the streets crying for bread. Reece Davis, God bless him, was quick to jump Herbie and ask how the game of college football could  possibly be better served by taking a dozen or so football games off the air, and leaving the football fans of America with… what, exactly?  Wouldn’t this just be one more blow to the less-than-Power-5 teams, a way to brush them aside as  the SEC and Big Ten consolidate their power grab? After all, most of those meaningless games consist of Group of 5 teams.

Herbie went on about the lack of people in the stands, to which my answer would be in two parts: (1) If attendance matters that much, ESPN, then do something about it - after all, you own most of the damn bowls, especially the “meaningless ones”; (2) Attendance doesn’t matter anyhow, except as a backdrop.  It would look better to have people in the stands, but what matters is eyeballs looking at TV sets.

Here it is - average viewers per game (in millions):


1. SEMI-FINAL GEORGIA VS OHIO STATE            22.4
2. SEMI-FINAL MICHIGAN VS TCU                21.4
(That translates to money. Big Money for the Big Boys. Now you know why  they have a playoff)
3. ROSE BOWL - PENN STATE VS UTAH            10.2
(The game was on a Monday, a day  that wasn’t a holiday for a lot of people)
4. SUGAR BOWL - ALAMABA VS KANSAS STATE         9.1
5. ORANGE BOWL - TENNESSEE VS CLEMSON         8.7
6. GATOR BOWL - NOTRE DAME VS SOUTH CAROLINA     5.8
7. CHEEZ-IT BOWL - FLORIDA  STATE VS OKLAHOMA     5.4
8. ALAMO BOWL - WASHINGTON VS TEXAS             4.8
8. COTTON BOWL - TULANE VS USC                 4.2
10. HOLIDAY BOWL - OREGON VS NORTH CAROLINA     4.0

LIBERTY BOWL - ARKANSAS VS KANSAS            3.9
MUSIC  CITY BOWL - IOWA VS KENTUCKY            3.0
SUN BOWL - PITT VS UCLA                    2.8
PINSTRIPE BOWL - MINNESOTA VS SYRACUSE        2.8
DUKE’S MAYO BOWL - MARYLAND VS NC STATE        2.7
BIRMINGHAM BOWL - EAST CAROLINA VS COASTAL    2.6
TEXAS BOWL - TEXAS TECH VS OLE MISS            2.6
GUARANTEED RATE BOWL - WISCONSIN VS OKLA ST    2.6
LAS VEGAS BOWL - OREGON STATE VS FLORIDA        2.5
LA BOWL - WASHINGTON STATE VS FRESNO STATE    2.4
CELEBRATION BOWL - JACKSON STATE VS NC CENTRAL  2.4
MOTOR CITY BOWL - N MEXICO ST VS BOWLING GREEN  2.3
RELIAQUEST BOWL - MISS STATE VS ILLINOIS        2.2
MILITARY BOWL - DUKE VS UCF                    2.2
FIRST RESPONDER BOWL - MEMPHIS VS UTAH STATE    2.2
NEW MEXICO BOWL - SMU VS BYU                 2.0
FENWAY BOWL - LOUISVILLE VS CINCINNATI            2.0
GASPARILLA BOWL - WAKE FOREST VS MISSOURI        1.8
CAMELIA BOWL - GA SOUTHERN VS BUFFALO        1.6
BOCA RATON BOWL - TOLEDO VS LIBERTY            1.5
CURE BOWL - TROY VS TEXAS-SAN ANTONIO        1.5
INDEPENDENCE BOWL - HOUSTON VS LOUISIANA        1.3
FAMOUS IDAHO POTATO - EMU VS SJSU            1.1
FRISCO BOWL - BOISE ST VS NORTH TEXAS            1.0

As you can see, there were quite a few games that attracted a million viewers or more, in most cases with no promotion whatsoever.  They’d be hard for ESPN to replace.

(Try as I might, I couldn’t find ratings for the CITRUS BOWL (LSU vs PURDUE), LENDING TREE BOWL (SOUTHERN  MISS VS RICE), NEW ORLEANS BOWL (SOUTH ALABAMA VS WESTERN KENTUCKY), ARMED FORCES BOWL (AIR FORCE VS BAYLOR), HAWAII BOWL (SAN DIEGO ST VS MIDDLE TENNESSEE), BAHAMAS BOWL (MIAMI OHIO VS UAB), MYRTLE BEACH BOWL (MARSHALL VS UCONN.  The Arizona Bowl - Ohio vs Wyoming - was streamed.)


For what it’s worth, the FCS SEMI-FINAL between North Dakota State and Incarnate Word drew a very respectable    1.0               


To give you something to compare these with, here are viewership numbers from comparable sports events going on during the bowl period:

UCLA-KENTUCKY BASKETBALL                               2.0
CELTICS-LAKERS                                                          1.7
NORTH CAROLINA-OHIO STATE BASKETBALL    1.6

So, King Herbie notwithstanding,  so long as those meaningless  bowls can keep delivering  viewers, ESPN will keep televising them.


***********   It’s impossible to exaggerate what a TV ratings behemot the NFL is.

For example, to stack the  college game up against the NFL in terms of public appeal…

Last year’s Georgia-Alabama CFP Championship game drew 22.45 million viewers.

That’s pretty doggone  good.  But it was just the 33rd most-watched sports event of the year. 

And get this: the first 32 were all NFL games.

Most of them were playoff games - shown at times when they were the only pro football games on the tube.

The two highest-ranked regular-season games were also ones shown when there weren’t any other games on the air - on Thanksgiving Day:

The Giants-Cowboys Thanksgiving Day game ranked #5, with 42.06 million viewers

The Bills-Lions Thanksgiving Day game ranked #9, with 31.78 million


*********** According to the AP, the Britney Griner saga was the biggest sports story of 2022.  Raise your hand if you even knew who Britney Griner was before she made the front pages after being arrested for sheer stupidity… er, “accidentally” transporting drugs into a country that sort of frowns on drug smuggling.


***********   Thanks for showing on your Zoom so much more of Jack Colletto than most of us have seen. Yes, he is the Swiss Army Knife who's done about everything a college player can do, and yes, he's my Heisman winner, but watching him makes me think back to the not-so-long-ago yesteryear of two-way players. No way it'll happen, but in my humble opinion, a return to the two-way would do a wonder of good for the college game.

Thanks for continuing to give your priceless presents every week.

John Vermillion
St. Petersburg, Florida

I hated two-way ball in college. Actually, I hated defense. I loved offense.

Years later, when I came out of “retirement” at 30 and played semi-pro ball, I was married with four kids and there was no way in hell I was going to run with that ball and get killed.  Besides, we had plenty of good young runners.

But thanks to having to play defense - the side of the ball that I hated  - in college,  I did know how to play defensive back, and that’s where I was able to play. If I hadn’t had to play both ways in college, I would have been a man without a position.


***********   Hugh,

Your tree crashing reminds me of when my wife and I had just renovated the house we purchased 11 years ago (the one we currently live in).  New floors, paint, carpet, and cabinets on the first floor.  Really looked good.  Like brand new!  Took a week's vacation to California and returned home only to find a completely flooded first floor.  The hose to the washer burst (we never thought to turn off the water).  After 7 days of running water the entire first floor (laundry room, kitchen, bedroom, dining room, living room, bathroom, master bedroom, master bath, and all closets were covered in about 2 inches of water).  Our insurance guy came out to assess the damage, and luckily our insurance covered most of it.  Hopefully your homeowner's will cover the damage to your roof!

We only hope the playoff games will be as exciting as most of the bowl games have been.

Don't get me started on opt-outs.

Watching the Texas-Washington game there is no doubt that if Bijan Robinson and Rochon Johnson had played Texas would have had a much better chance to win.  I just had a real hard time seeing both of them on the sideline whooping it up with their teammates instead of being on the field where they should have been.  They basically didn't give the coach, or the team, a choice.  If I were the coach I would have at least given them a choice when they told me they were opting out.  Play in the game for the sake of your teammates.  Or, don't play.  You choose to play nothing changes.  You choose to opt out  you're no longer a part of the team, and you'll have to buy a ticket for the game.

Hazeeq Daniels must come from big money, OR, he'll set up a Go Fund Me page.


Enjoy the weekend, and the games, and Happy New Year!

Joe Gutilla
Austin, Texas



*********** QUIZ ANSWER: A native of Old Town, Maine, Dick MacPherson was a three-sport star in high school.

After serving in the Air Force during the Korean War, he played center at Springfield College,  and was team captain  as a senior.

He served as an assistant coach at Illinois,  Massachusetts,  Cincinnati and  Maryland,  and in 1967 was hired by the Denver Broncos, first as linebackers’  and defensive backs’ coach,  and finally as defensive coordinator before leaving in 1970 to become head coach at Massachusetts.

After seven seasons, he returned  to the NFL to coach the Browns’ linebackers until becoming Syracuse’s head coach in 1981.

The Orange hadn’t appeared in a bowl game since 1967, and  the past decade, they’d had only three winning seasons. 

In his first season, the Orange moved into the brand-new Carrier Dome, a big help in his recruiting.

After two losing seasons, in 1983  the Orange went 6-5, and from that point he would take the Orange to five bowl games.  Over the next seven seasons, his teams would have only one losing season (5-6).

In 1987, Syracuse finished with an 11-0-1 record and  a Number 4 national ranking, and he was named Coach of the Year by several organizations.

The only mar on the Orange record was a tie with Auburn in the Sugar Bowl, and afterward he expressed his displeasure  with Auburn Coach Pat Dye’s decision to go for a tie - kicking a 30-yard  field goal with four seconds to play -  rather than go for a touchdown and the win. “What did they come here for in the first place?” he asked, adding “I gotta believe his menu was to stop us from being 12-0.”

In 1991, after compiling a 66-46-4 record at Syracuse,  he left to take the head coaching job at New England, taking over a Patriots team that had finished 1-15.

Dick MacPherson was then 60 years old, and  in his first press conference he made no secret of his excitement. “What the hell’s wrong with a 60-year-old man being excited?” he asked.  “I think this is fantastic. The guys I admire in football are the oldest coaches. It’s easy to be a young coach. The secret is to be an old coach. To hang on. And have people get excited about hiring you.”

In his first season, the Pats finished 6-10,  an improvement so impressive that he finished fifth in NFL coach of the year balloting.  But his success was short-lived, and he was fired following a year later.

At the time of his passing, Bill Belichick noted that they got to know each other pretty well because they both came into “The League” as head coaches at the same time.  He noted that “that coaching staff he had there (at Syracuse)… pretty much all of them have gone on to the NFL or beyond and had very successful careers.”


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING DICK MACPHERSON

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - AUSTIN, TEXAS
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
JACK TOURTILLOTTE - RANGELEY, MAINE
JOHN IRION - ARGYLE, NEW YORK
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS


***********   Hi Hugh,
I taught school and coached football in Old Town , Maine for a long time so today's quiz was a no brainer. “Mac” was a true legend in the our area and had a personality to match. He was truly genuine and I remember a time when coaching in Waterville, Me the staff went to Syracuse to a football clinic and he treated me like a long lost friend though we had never formally met but remembered hearing my name from Old Town. That was the kind of person he was. From the truth stranger than fiction department his wife’s maid of honor lives in Rangeley and we are very friendly and she shared a lot of stories about Coach, as she called him. He was the kind of person with a personality bigger than life.

Jack Tourtillotte
Rangeley, Maine







*********** When I coached at Central Square north of Syracuse, we had 6 years of austerity budgets.   He brought players up and helped us tremendously with our fundraising.  High, high quality man.   Totally genuine.    I've forwarded a picture of me and him.

John Irion
Argyle, New York







***********   QUIZ:  Although he was famous for only a brief time, he was a football pioneer, and a good man, and our sport is better because of men like him.

At West Texas State, they called him Pistol Pete, but he wasn’t from Texas.  He was from Lynn, Massachusetts, north of Boston, the son of Puerto Rican parents.

Although a high school star at Lynn Trade School, he was passed over by colleges because of his lack of size - he was 5-8, 160 -  so he headed west to junior college  in Trinidad, Colorado.  He left after one semester and returned to Lynn, but a year later,  Coach Joe Kerbel of West Texas State (now West Texas A & M),  in looking for a back with speed,  heard from a friend about a “really fast back” at Trinidad JC.    After getting Pete’s phone number from Trinidad, he phoned him at Lynn and, sight unseen, arranged for him to transfer  to West Texas.


At first sight, Kerbel was not impressed by his new running back’s size, but in true storybook fashion,  when the team’s star running back was having trouble hitting the holes, Pete was given his big break - and broke off a long run.  A few plays later, he did the same thing. That was enough to earn him a starting job.

In his sophomore season,  his first year of eligibility, he was the second-leading rusher in the nation.   In his second game, against Texas Western (now UTEP), he scored six touchdowns and gained 236 yards and was named the Associated Press' national back of the week.

Although not big, he was very strong and tremendously fast, and able to cut on a dime. Hank Foldberg,  then the coach at Texas A&M,  had played end on the great Army teams of the 1940s, and he called Pete the best running back he had seen since his Army teammate (and Heisman Trophy winner) Glenn Davis.

(He led  the nation’s rushers for  the entire season  until the final weekend,  when New Mexico State’s Jim “Preacher” Pilot passed him with a spectacular game of his own in which he scored six touchdowns.   Their meeting on the gridiron was the subject of a Sports Illustrated feature article.)

After his great sophomore season, he was hampered by knee injuries for the rest of his college career.  Following graduation,  he signed with the Boston Patriots,  and spent a year on their practice squad before retiring.

When he first went to West Texas,  segregation was still in practice, and years before Warren McVea would become the first black player at any major college in Texas,  Pete  and his teammates, Ollie Ross and Bobby Drake, were three of the very first black players to play football at any once-white Texas college.

One of his best friends at West Texas was a white quarterback named Corky Dawson, who recalled their first meeting:   "I went with Coach (Sleepy) Harris in January 1961  to the train station to pick up Pete, Ollie and Bobby Drake - the first three black players at WT - and Pete was scared to death.  But from that point forward, we developed a friendship through the years to this very day."

His white teammates loved listening to him talk in his Boston accent, and he gave them all  nicknames.

“He was loved by everybody," Dawson said. "And I mean everybody."

Because of the regard his teammates had for him, he helped them learn a lot about life.

After one  early-season home game  his freshman year, the team went to a local restaurant for chicken-friend steak,  but once they were inside,  Dawson  recalled, the owner told them that the two black players in the group would have to eat in the kitchen.

"We didn't take another step, and waited for Coach Kerbel to come in,”  Dawson  said. "Coach Kerbel's eyes got big as silver dollars. He told them where they could stick those chicken-fried steaks. Coach Harris went to Amarillo, bought about 60 hamburgers and fries, and we ate in the dorm. We understood why."


While at West Texas, he  met and  married an Amarillo girl named  Gloria Quintero, and after graduation they moved back to Lynn, where he spent his  career working for the city of Lynn.

He and his wife  raised five children, and he liked to tell people that his greatest accomplishment was having a part in all five of them getting college degrees.




TUESDAY,  JANUARY  3,  2003 -  AN ARCHIVED EDITION

HAPPY NEW YEAR !

WITH FOUR BOWL GAMES ON TV MONDAY, THERE WAS NO WAY I WOULD HAVE THE TIME TO PREPARE AND PUBLISH A PAGE TODAY  -  SO WHY NOT DO WHAT THE PROS DO?

WHY NOT PUBLISH A "BEST OF" INSTEAD?

I HOPE YOU ENJOY THIS  TRIP BACK IN TIME TO "NEWS YOU CAN USE"  - FROM   JANUARY 3, 2003 - EXACTLY 20 YEARS AGO!
 
PLENTY TO DEAL WITH ON FRIDAY'S "NEWS" - SEE YOU THEN!

AND MORE THAN ANYTHING ... PRAY   FOR   DAMAR   HAMLIN
            

 JANUARY 3, 2003          

 
SCENES FROM 2002 CLINICS- ATLANTA - CHICAGO - SOUTHERN CALIF - BALTIMORE - DURHAM - TWIN CITIES - PROVIDENCE - DETROIT - DENVER - SACRAMENTO - PACIFIC NORTHWEST - BUFFALO

THIS PAST SEASON'S WEEK-BY-WEEK GAME REPORTS FROM ASSORTED DOUBLE-WING TEAMS ( "WINNER'S CIRCLE"

 

*********** I feel as if I'm entering a tunnel. The darkness of winter is setting in, and here in the Pacific Northwest, we have a sick economy, two female senators, and now - four bowl losers. The economy I can deal with. The ditzes I can ignore. Life will go on. But the losers? We're talking real losers, too - bad losers. All four of our teams!

Considering the great ride we'd had the past three or four years, I guess it just had to happen, but I wasn't prepared for them all to get fat-headed at once.

Here amid the great trees of the Northwest, the land of tough-as-timber loggers, I had the feeling I was watching a redo of Michael Palin's cross-dressing lumberjack routine: "I cut down trees, I wear high heels, suspenders and a bra..."

It's hard to say whose performance was most embarrassing - the Brainless Beavers of Oregon State, the Drooping Ducks of Oregon, the Heartless Huskies of Washington, or the Coachless Cougars of Washington State.

Where to start? Three of them - Oregon State, Oregon and Washington State - playing a total of 180 minutes, led for a total of one minute, fifty-nine seconds. That's how long Oregon held an early 3-0 lead before Wake Forest answered with a touchdown.

How about this for heart - Washington led, 17-0 after one quarter, but didn't score again until the fourth quarter as Purdue took total control of the game.

Did I say heart? The four Northwest teams were outscored in the second half by a total of 82-31. And even that is deceiving, because Washington State, unable or unwilling to play football the old fashioned way, hit the lottery twice toward the end, and was only outscored in the second half 17-14.

Brains? Oregon State and Washington State kept rolling the dice and going deep. In OSU's case, it was a matter of consistently overthrowing open receivers. (Coaching tip for Beavers QB Derek Anderson: take a little off the ball next time, Derek.) In WSU's case, it was a matter of a lame - literally - QB lobbing softballs into a faster secondary than the Cougars had seen all season. And also not even trying to run (21 "carries" for 4 yards).

Brains? With the Beavers in the shotgun, Oregon State's center snapped the ball too soon, and it went whizzing past the QB's ear.

Brains? Did Washington State really want to try a 51-yard field goal? And after Oklahoma took advantage of the field position the Cougar miss gave them and drove to take a 10-0 lead with 1:51 left in the half, didn't the Cougars, backed up on their own 15, want to take more than 40 seconds off the clock before having to punt? The punt return sent the Sooners off at halftime ahead 17-0, and sent the Cougars to an early grave.

You wanna talk physical? How about this - the four of them combined to rush 106 times for 181 yards. Their opponents rushed for 636. Wake Forest mauled Oregon, rushing 66 times for 256 yards. Everybody expected Pitt to be able to run, but Purdue? Purdue rushed 40 times for 117 yards against Washington. The once-mighty Huskies (were you watching, Don James?) "rushed" just 24 times for 44 yards.

Oh, no UCLA - don't you start to gloat. I know you're the only Pac-10 team to win so far - if you count a win over a team that wears fruit boots and hasn't won a bowl game since 1961 and sends a female out to kick an extra point. And outgains you! The mighty Bruins could come up with only 9 first downs and 167 yards total offense (to New Mexico's 15 first downs and 282 yards).
    
And now, I'm facing winter in the Pacific Northwest. There's nothing left on TV except a phony "National Championship" game whose real purpose is to sell corn chips, and "The Playoffs." And it's starting to rain.


    
*********** Blame it on the BCS for shattering the generations-old Big Ten-Pac 10 matchup. Blame it on the BCS for staging four other bowls after the Rose Bowl. (Remember Keith Jackson coming on at 7 PM Eastern Time, as the setting sun shone on the San Gabriel Mountains, welcoming us to the final game of the day - "The Grand-daddy of Them All?")
    
But the Rose Bowl, which until the invention of the Super Bowl was America's number one football event, has become just another bowl in the BCS scheme of things.
    
You want proof? The crowd Wednesday was the lowest it's been since 1944!
    
At kickoff, tickets with a face value of $125 were going for $20.
    
Guys, one of the best things football has going for it is traditions. When we let people trash the game's traditions for the sake of the almighty buck, we are no better than the whores of Sunday.


    
*********** You know I like Mike Price. I also like Alabama. You've no doubt read that I don't know whether he's going to make it at Alabama. It's just much tougher there than at Washington State.
    
You probably remember also that I didn't think he should have coached in the Rose Bowl. My thinking is that if you've already picked Mike Price's successor, it should be than man's team to coach.
    
I heard the official WSU athletic department argument for allowing a lame duck to coach in the Rose Bowl - that if Mike Price left for Alabama with all the assistants who were expected to go with him, the Cougars wouldn't be left with enough coaches to prepare the team for the Rose Bowl.

Subsequent developments have exposed that argument as total bullsh--, since the defensive coordinator, Bill Doba, will be remaining - he is, after all, the new head coach. And so will the offensive coordinator, Mike Levenseller. And a few other coaches as well.

So how many coaches do you need to get a team ready for a bowl game? Can't you get most of your preparations done as a team? And you mean to tell me a skeleton staff of three or four coaches would have prepared a team any worse - called a game any worse - than the full WSU staff did Wednesday night?
    
There was something fishy going on, and Washington State deserved better. C'mon - you mean to tell me that the AD couldn't have said, "Coach Price is free to go, but the rest of y'all ain't goin' anywhere. You're going to work for Washington State until January 2?"
    
But doggone - I thought I had looked at this from every possible angle, but I have to admit I never asked this one - what if he stays, and the Cougars stink out the joint? Wow.
    
And damned it that isn't just what happened. Big mistake, Mike.
    
When you go back to Pullman to clean out your desk, you might want to wait until nightfall. Washington State fans are that pissed.
    
Not that the friendly folks in Tuscaloosa can be all that delighted, either. They just saw the latest spiritual descendant of the Bear put a team on the field whose performance in the last two minutes of the first half would have gotten an Alabama coach fired before he got to the locker room.
    
Mike, I hate to say this, but your decision to stay means you're going to Alabama as damaged goods.


    
*********** Wow - I can't wait to see who wins tonight's Circuit City National Championship in the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl. In my opinion, USC would whup either one of them.
    
Seeding the bowl winners for the  (mythical) 16-team tournament to take place over the next four weekends...

1. USC - Damn! Pac 10 football isn't going to be much fun for the rest of us now that the Trojans are back

2. Miami/Ohio State winner - Sorry BCS- the Trojans would whip either y'all's asses. Even with only one night's rest.

3. Oklahoma - Underpowering in season finale vs Oklahoma State, but overpowering vs Washington State;

4. Georgia - Only one loss, but sure did let a lame-ass Florida State team hang around

5. Kansas State - Might be ranked higher, but didn't exactly blow out Arizona State

6. Texas - Looked very tough against LSU

7. Maryland - Hammered Tennessee - ranked above NC State because of regular season win over Wolfpack

8. N.C. State - Not that a win over Notre Dame means that much lately, but it was a convincing win

9. Michigan - It's important to remember that despite the score, they beat Ohio State in every statistical category

10. Auburn - They gave Penn State a licking

11. Pitt - Played Miami as tough as anyone has

12. Boise State - After a loss in their second game, they didn't have another game that was even close

13. Texas Tech - They did beat Texas during the season, and what they did to Clemson was very impressive

14. Virginia - They kept NC State and Maryland from winning the ACC, and they hammered West Virginia

15. Oklahoma State - On the strength of the win over Oklahoma and the bowl win over Southern Miss

16. TCU - A very good 10-2 team that embarrassed Colorado State


Just missing the tournament-  Marshall, Virginia Tech, Fresno State

*********** Worst performances: Entire Pacific Northwest (see above); Toledo - vicious, dirty, ugly; New Mexico - next time (if there is one) leave your #3 kicker home (the one with the blonde ponytail) and bring a real football player instead. Somebody who earned the trip by playing on your scout team all season; Penn State - so where was all the offense?; Clemson - against a passing team, you need to play pass defense; Notre Dame - how in hell did you guys ever win eight games in a row?

    
*********** Best efforts: USC, in establishing itself in my mind as the Number One team in the country, and blowing the BCS all to hell; Fresno State, in beating Georgia Tech after learning the week of the game that six of their players - many of them starters - were academically ineligible; TCU, in physically handling Colorado State, normally a very physical team; Virginia, in pounding a good West Virginia club; Maryland, embarrassing what everyone considered a good SEC team; NC State, proving that it's a top-ten team; Auburn, stepping up and taking it to Penn State; Florida State, hanging in against Georgia despite occasionally having to play a wide receiver at QB.

    
*********** Best games: Ole Miss-Nebraska; Wisconsin-Colorado; Kansas State-Arizona State

    
*********** Worst games: most of the others, especially those that the BCS had anything to do with.

    
*********** Best job of coaching: Bobby Bowden - he's the guy who prepared both Mark Richt (Georgia) and Chuck Amato (N.C. State).

    
*********** Best job of preparing a team for a bowl game: Bob Toledo, of UCLA. He did such a good job - before being fired and sent packing - that not even the athletic department stooge filling in for him - a full-of-himself guy named Ed Kezirian - could f--k things up enough to lose to New Mexico (although the Lobos did outgain the Bruins).

    
*********** Watching N.C. State show us how bad Notre Dame really was makes you appreciate even more the job Tyrone Willingham did in getting them into any bowl game at all.

    
*********** I have no way of knowing whether it's true, but Bill Plaschke of the Los Angeles Times reported before the Orange Bowl that "In eight of 12 games this season, Iowa's defense knocked out a quarterback. Before all 12, the players made bets about who would knock out the next one."
    
Again, I am merely repeating what I read. If true, though, this is gangster stuff that has no place in any sport.
    
I think the NCAA should conduct an investigation, and if it turns out to be true, the Iowa football program should be hit with the harshest probation available to a member school, and any coaches who were aware of the practice should be fired on the spot.

    
*********** Anybody else see Michigan run a play from the side-saddle T?

    
*********** Not saying that I had any miracle cures for what ailed Iowa, but I can damn sure say that with 11 minutes left in the game, they weren't going to get back into it sitting and moping on the sidelines with long faces.

    
*********** Hey NFL! Before you draft Larry Johnson... remember that the Larry Johnson who bitched about the Penn State play calling against Auburn - the one who nearly won the Heisman Trophy - is the same Larry Johnson who mouthed off as a sophomore about Penn State's play-calling. Yeah, yeah, I know - he was just expressing his frustration (isn't that what they always say?), but don't be shocked if you draft him and you have problems with him.

    
*********** Speaking of problems... a buddy of Maurice Clarett is killed under what at best can be termed suspicious circumstances. Sad. But for that, Ohio State is expected to pay his way back to Youngstown? And when they don't he's justified at going off on the OSU athletic department? Dollars to doughnuts that kid's getting some advice from some homies - a posse perhaps? I can see a real recruiting advantage for the Buckeye's rivals - "Don't go to Ohio State, because if one of your buddies gets shot in a possibly gang- and drug-related shooting, they won't fly you home from a bowl game for his funeral."

    
*********** I'll bet Mac McWhorter, wherever he is, was available to step in and show Chan Gailey how to win a bowl game. You may remember this time last year when McWhorter stepped in on the heels of the George O'Leary fiasco and as interim coach helped Georgia Tech upset Stanford. In one of the slimiest bits of athletic director treachery you'll ever come across, ole Mac was led to believe that he had a shot at replacing O'Leary, in order to keep him on task while he coached the team in the bowl. But meanwhile, while he was in Seattle coaching a football game, Tech folks back home were finalizing the deal with Gailey.
    
The players said they wanted Mac to be their coach, but so what?
    
Now, I'll give Gailey the benefit of the doubt - maybe he really didn't know that Mac had been misled - but not the AD. That was one hell of a way to treat a guy. Tech used Mac McWhorter.
    
So I was happy as hell to see Fresno State, a one-touchdown underdog playing without several starters, whip Georgia Tech's ass. Mac McWhorter probably has too much class to enjoy watching Tech get beaten. Not me.

    
*********** Chris Spielman's contribution to our football knowledge, after an Air Force runner slipped and fell, short of the necessary yardage, on fourth-and-two: "You have to keep your feet underneath you."

    
*********** Talk about sex discrimination - where is it written that if you must have a "sideline reporter" it has to be a woman? Are you telling me there isn't a man in the entire United States better qualified to be a "sideline reporter" than that Samantha Ryan they introduced to us at the Orange Bowl?

    
*********** Who's the genius at Old Spice's advertising agency who thought that you can sell Red Zone deodorant to football fans by showing a skateboarder working up a sweat by grinding his way down hand railings?

    
*********** Has anybody noticed that for all the BCS BS, one thing it can't deliver is a good game? Check it out over the years - for the most part, it has given us blowouts.

    
*********** Did I miss reading about the rules change that no longer requires players to wear knee pads?

    
*********** Crime Does Not Pay. Oregon State's TE kept strangling Pitt's MLB, yet the guy still led everybody in tackles.

    
*********** Biggest surprise to me was the sellout crowd in Charlotte to watch the some-brand-of-tire bowl. Reason? They matched two teams that rarely play each other, two teams whose people aren't all the crazy each other, in a place both teams' fans could drive to.

    
*********** The University of Virginia has found it necessary to apologize to the entire state of West Virginia for a halftime skit in which the UVa band portrayed West Virginians as hillbillies. Next target: Aggie jokes.

    
*********** Karl Dorrell, new head coach at UCLA, has already discovered that his new boss, AD Dan Guerrero - the guy who came from non-football school Cal-Irvine just to fire Bob Toledo - is going to be available whenever he wants input. Also whenever he doesn't want it. The genius AD, after hiring Dorrell, a guy with no head coaching experience, has now told him he can't hire a coordinator who hasn't had experience as a coordinator.


*********** Heather Cox (sideline bimbo) interviewed Cael Sanderson on the sideline at the Humanitarian Bowl. He's perhaps the greatest wrestler who ever stepped on the mat, finishing with a 159-0 record at Iowa State. Said Heather, "You've just concluded your playing career..."

Playing career? Can't blame the poor girl. I mean, with all the colleges dropping wrestling, how was she to know? She probably thinks its played with a ball, six men to a side.

To show us how useful a sideline bimbo can be, though, she did inform us that Boise State, playing in a stadium on its own campus  against Iowa State -  a team from half a continent away - had a homefield advantage.


*********** Washington threw a screen (backward) to a lineman, and sure enough, Todd Blackledge told us they were able to do it because "it was an unbalanced line, making him ineligible."
    
For the last time, TV guys... this is NOT the NFL. There is no such thing as a "tackle eligible" in college or high school. In our football, a player has to (1) start out in an eligible position (backfield or end of the line) AND (2) wear an eligible number.

    
*********** Anybody else wonder why the Big 12 took Baylor and not TCU?

    
*********** Mike Holmgren will stay on as Seahawks' coach, but he is giving up his position as GM. That means that the GM will be a guy selected by owner Paul Allen's right-hand man, Bob Whitsitt - the man who gave us the Portland Trail Blazers. Expect to see Lawrence Phillips at running back and Ryan Leaf at QB.

    
*********** When did runners start to take it to the house?

    
*********** During the Maryland-Tennessee game, they focused on Vols QB Casey Clausen, a California kid, and mentioned that he's got a brother at LSU. What about their father? the TV guys asked. He's living every father's dream.
    
Yeah, I thought, remembering some things I've read about the way Dad has orchestrated his sons' careers. And every coach's nightmare.

    
*********** Maryland linebacker E. J. Henderson is a stud.

    
*********** Maryland is one of the few teams you'll see whose offenses successfully combine option, power and pass - drop-back, play-action, shotgun.

    
*********** You wanna try something that sucks? Try the two-teams-on-the-same-sideline crap they pulled on Air Force and Virginia Tech in the Diamond Walnut Bowl. They did the same thing to Stanford and Georgia Tech in last year's Seattle Bowl. Guys, this ain't basketball.

    
*********** I'll bet Air Force ran 50 per cent of its plays from I-formation. And its best play was still a QB keep, an iso play following both backs off-tackle.
   
They still can't throw, though. QB Chance Harridge completed his first pass, then threw 13 incompetions and tqo interceptions before his next completion.


*********** Observations from my son, ED, in Australia...

    *Pac 10 is proving itself the most overrated conference in America.

    *ACC is making me eat my words with a solid performance...we'll see what happens to FSU.

    *Big 10 is rolling, although the Penn State low-scoring loss is disappointing.

    *Mountain West adds to the poor performance by Western-based conferences.

    *Big 12 is reasonably solid and the Big East looks ok.

    *SEC is certainly down on its glory years.

    
*********** New Year's Day was the 60th wedding anniversary of my son-in-law's grandparents, Bob and Clarine Tiffany of Abilene, Texas. What wonderful people.

Bob, a native Minnesotan, fell in love with Clarine when he was stationed in the Army at Camp Barkeley, near her home town of Abilene, during World War II.

At the time, Clarine was studying voice at New York's Julliard School of Music, and after dating her during the summer of 1942, Bob proposed when Clarine was home for Christmas. He suggested they marry quickly, so Bob could get the New Year's weekend off for their honeymoon.

In a 1998 article in the Abilene Reporter-News, Bob recalled how things transpired.

"Well, I don't know," Clarine told him. "I was really thinking about making opera my career. I'll have to think about it."

"That's fine," Bob said. "I'll call you tomorrow morning at 10 o'clock."

When Bob called the next morning, he got Clarine's mom on the line.

"Hi, this is Bob Tiffany!"

"Well, young man," Clarine's mother exclaimed, "if we're going to have a wedding here on Friday, we've got lots to do! Clarine is downtown right now shopping for a trousseau!"

"You might say," Bob said later, "I proposed to Clarine on Monday, her mother accepted on Tuesday, and we were married on Friday!"

After the war, they settled in Abilene and Bob started a career in life insurance that would last 50 years and take him to a vice-presidency of the Equitable Life Assurance Society. But after 17 years at corporate headquarters in New York, he was ready to return to Abilene and a life as a life insurance agent and a civic leader.

At the time of his retirement, the headline of the article in the Reporter-Journal read, "The Friendliest Man in Abilene." Honest to God. That's what it said. The friendliest guy in a small Texas city - that's like calling somebody else the wealthiest man in Beverly Hills.

He recalled one of the secrets of his longevity in the business: "A friend of mine who sold encyclopedias then gave me a good piece of advice. She said, 'Everytime I get a no, I'm that much closer to a yes. That was reassuring, too, because when you get rejected two or three times in a row -- well, that's disappointing.

"But that's the nature of the business," he said. "And I've enjoyed this business, especially because of the good you can do."

A happy anniversary to a wonderful couple, and the great-grandparents of three of my grandkids.


*********** The TV guys mentioned a Maryland player from "LANN-kass-ter" (Lancaster) Pennsylvania. Wro-o-o-o-ong. That may be the way it is in Lancaster, California, but in P-A, it's pronounced the old country way - the English way. It's "LANG-kister")


*********** Have you noticed the number of hits taken on QB's just as they step out of bounds? Are you aware that QBs' are being taught to lure tacklers into that situation, so they can take one for the team and pick up a quick 15 yards?


*********** I hope those of you watching the Peach Bowl and the presentation of the Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year award to Jim Tressel remembered reading about coach Dodd on this site. What I thought was neat was watching coach Tressel accept the award and hold up a book - "Bobby Dodd on Football." He said that when he was young, "My dad (former college coach at Baldwin-Wallace) handed me this book, and said, 'If you want to be good, you've got to read this book.'"


*********** Before the Rose Bowl telecast, Jason Gesser and Bob Stoops were shown on TV taking a little time off from game preparations to have a little fun at Disneyland. And then Gesser and coach Stoops sat there, with the MIckey Mouse profile in the background, and told us how much fun they'd had. You'd have to be cynical, like me, and look beyond all the fun and games to realize that you were watching a commercial. Follow the trail... the Rose Bowl was carried on ABC... ABC is owned by Disney... Disney owns Disneyland... (It's supposed to be against NCAA regulations to use an athlete for commercial purposes, but what the hell.)


*********** I used to work as a guest coach at the University of Oregon's camp when Rich Brooks was head coach there, and I can tell you that Rich was there. He wasn't there all the time, but he was always somewhere nearby, and he made it a point to show up every day.

That's not always the case these days, as I was reminded by this letter from a high school coach, describing a camp run by a major college coach (whom we will call "--- -------"), reveals:

"Let's just say at the --- ------- Skills Camp there were no skills taught and no --- ------- around. I asked his secretary where he had been, and here was his agenda:

Mon--on lake on his boat, Tues--Playing Golf, Wed--Entertaining a friend, Thurs--he showed up for 30 minutes to give the --- ------- Awards.

"I don't know if you read sports illustrated (not capitalized on purpose), I don't very often. If you do, you probably saw the article on recruiting at these "camps". All this camp was was a mini combine. If you weren't one of their "guys" you were nothing, literally. I was ashamed to see how little was taught to the younger players."

I forgot to add- Rich Brooks was in the hospitality room every night, socializing with the guest coaches. We would have killed for Rich Brooks.


*********** Tom Bauer writes, from Mondovi, Wisconsin, "some interesting bowl games! i really question some of the coaching! you would think that with the amount of time they have to prepare that they could come up with some better blocking schemes! the problem is that they want to send everyone out to catch the pass that never gets thrown!!! just run the ball and take your time!!" (Actually I find it interesting (based on what I've seen people do to our spray-it-all-over Pac 10 teams) to see so many teams winning with powerful running games and running QB's! HW)


************ Coach, Happy New Year and the best to you and your family in the coming year. I must tell you about an experience I had the other day.

I think I told you about hiring Coach Bill Peck this past year to be my defensive secondary coach, and the fact that he was just turning 76 years old and had been teaching and coaching for 51 years. Well, he was just a wonderful addition to my staff, and the secondary improved dramatically over previous years, but most of all he is one of the best teachers for players and coaches I have ever been around. He is like having a football historian within your grasp, and I enjoy having him accompany me on trips to exchange films, etc., even if we get talking too much and we get lost and go 50 miles out of our way. He became like a father figure to my defensive backs, and he took them out to meet for breakfast, and he made sure they had transportation to the summer passing leagues etc. He had been the head coach at Middle Tennessee State in the early 70's and they won a couple of conference championships and this year they had a 30th anniversary for his 1972 team. It occurred the weekend of our first playoff game and he said well I am not going to be able to go, and I said hey, "You must go to this as this is an incredible honor and they have gone to a lot of trouble to put it together, and I promise you we will win and still be in the playoffs next week." Well, he did and 36 of his players came back, along with all of his former staff. It was a wonderful weekend and they were honored at the football game and he was very glad he went. We won and he was still coaching when he got back, so he was really happy.

Now, the other day he calls and says let's go over to Orlando tomorrow morning and watch Penn State practice. I said how are we going to get in, I hear they are having closed practices. He said let me worry about that. Well, we got there and sure enough they stopped us at the gate and said that practices were closed and when the team came out we were going to have to leave. About that time one of the managers drove Coach Paterno through the gate in a golf cart and let him off. Coach Peck, hollered out, "Hey Joe, it's Coach Bill Peck." Well, you would have thought they were long lost brothers. Coach Paterno came over to us and Coach Peck introduced me and Coach Paterno talked to us about 10 minutes, and told us to come on inside and we could stay until they started the team portions of practice. He said then he would have to ask everyone to leave, not because they were doing anything special, but because of the room constraints. They were practicing on a baseball field next to the Citrus Bowl. During the pre-practice and inividual time he stopped by where we were at least two more times to talk to us, and was most gracious with his time. I was very impressed with him, and he told me that he first met Coach Peck when Coach Peck was an assistant at Columbia and Coach Paterno was an assistant at Brown. He told me that back then coaches wore Fedora hats to practice and they talked about some of the old names in the profession. He told Coach Peck he needed to come to Happy Valley and spend a couple of days so they could really have some talks about old times. The next day there was a picture in the Orlando Sentinel of Coach Peck and Coach Paterno, with a caption saying they were old friends and that Coach Peck was an assistant at Umatilla High School. It was a wonderful time and I was so impressed with how Coach Paterno treated us. It surely shows that coaches never forget each other and what a great brotherhood we are a part of.

Just wanted to share that with you. Oh yes, a local reporter had just done a nice article on Coach Peck the week before, talking about his lengthy career and how he might be the oldest active coach in the state of Florida. It was a very nice article and he even interviewed his wife and all.

He is a wonderful man, and may be the absolute best assistant coach anyone could wish for. He is already excited about the off season and what he wants the defensive backs to work on.

Looking forward to a great year. Ron Timson

(That is a fantastic story. I have often wondered why more guys don't look around and hire "retired" coaches. They have so much to offer, and I bet a lot of them are sitting around dying for a chance to get back into the game. Maybe it's because too many younger coaches are too insecure to share the kitchen with another cook. A word of advice to them: Never be afraid to have a guy on your staff who knows more than you do! HW)
    
*********** Osama bin Laden isn't all wrong when he condemns our culture:
    
The first baby of the New Year in our county was, as usual, illegitimate.
    
The first baby of the New Year in the Washington, D.C. area was born to two lesbians.

*********** Not that you would expect the liberal media to tell you so, with all their warm, fuzzy "History Being Made" stories, but the whole Katie Hnida deal has been a phony, a set-up, a sham, from Day One. Call it affirmative action run amok. Sounds like something Rick Neuheisel would pull.

Katie Hnida is a native of the Denver area, and her historical performance had its roots when she was a high school freshman, and attended some sort of "Fan Appreciation Day" at Colorado.

There, former Buffs coach Rick Neuheisel (wouldn't you know?) saw her kick a field goal and, according to Hnida, told her to stay in touch. He may have been joking, but fellas, Dad knew what he was talking about when he told you to be careful what you tell a girl. The girl believed him, remembered what he'd said, and stayed after him.

In addition to placekicking for her high school team, she was also her high school's homecoming queen, a pretty girl with a blonde ponytail who'd been featured in Sports Illustrated's "Faces in the Crowd," so when the time came, Neuheisel, never one to pass up a PR opportunity, invited her to walk on.

And then he skipped for Washington, leaving it to his successor, Gary Barnett, to salvage a sinking program - and deal with Katie Hnida. Thanks a lot, Rick.

Barnett, although admitting that he was not all that enchanted with the deal, decided it would be wise to honor the former coach's commitment. (In view of the $2 million awarded to one Heather Sue Mercer, a wannabe field goal kicker who claimed she was unfairly cut by Duke, it is hard to argue with his decision.)

The major problem with Neuheisel's stunt is that colleges are limited in the number of players they can invite to walk on, and they normally restrict those precious invitations to real football players whom they hope will eventually help the team. Such was scarcely the case with Hnida, who did kick a lot of PAT's in high school, but made only four field goals, none of them particularly long.

"You have a limited number of people who get this opportunity," Barnett said at the time. " And those who get the opportunity really need to earn the opportunity."

He added that as many as 100 high school seniors had expressed interest in walking on at CU that year.

"I think because Katie is a female, and I think because the arrangement was made prior to me being here, Katie got a special situation. I'm a little uncomfortable telling 15 other guys who may or may not be better kickers than Katie is, 'No, you cannot walk on here, we have more than we can possibly handle.' That was my issue."

Asked whether he would have extended Hnida the invitation to walk on if he had been in Neuheisel's shoes, Barnett answered, "It doesn't make any difference."

Barnett wisely refrained from further comment on the matter, and despite some fuss about Hnida being the first female ever to wear a uniform at a Division IA game, she never got close to any action. By all accounts, she just plain wasn't good enough. Not even close.

(Her only chance of actually getting to kick in a real game, wrote a Buffs' observer named Brian Gwynn at the time, would be if "the first string kicker breaks his leg, the second string kicker stubs his toe, the third string kicker gets the flu, and the fourth string kicker is carted away to Shady Acres mental institution.")

Finally, Hnida announced - on a Web site - that she'd had it. She was leaving Colorado. Said she "was not happy with the way she was dealt with" by Barnett.

At first, still evidently delusional about her ability to kick at the Division IA level, she hinted that she might wind up at USC, although possibly that was connected to the fact that USC had been recruiting her younger brother. (He wound up at Oregon.)

Instead, it appears she spent some time at a California JC, before walking on at New Mexico this year.

Which brought us to Christmas Day, and her historic, if pathetic, missed extra point attempt. She wasn't any better than the Lobos' number three kicker, yet New Mexico coach Rocky Long, whose team was by any standards a poor bowl participant, chose to make the grandstand play and let her attempt the kick after the Lobos' first touchdown. (She missed - feebly - and that was the last we saw of her the rest of the night.)

Long was unapologetic afterward. "I heard I'm getting some flak about it, but you know what? I don't care," he said. "We allowed quite a few players to play. But if we were in a playoff system, or fighting to go to a bowl game, then they wouldn't have played. This game was a reward for everyone. Katie was one of those who deserved her one shot in the limelight."

Funny - that's not the way he sounded a couple of weeks earlier, when he was asked if she might get into the game against rival New Mexico State. Back then, he was still talking like a football coach, telling the Albuquerque Tribune that he wasn't likely to play her. "I won't play her just to play her," he said. "I don't think that would be fair to her or to anyone else on this team. If you are one of the best players, you play. If you are not one of the best players, you don't play. We try really hard here not to treat her any different."

Yet that's exactly what he did in the bowl game - he "treated her different," allowing a female who was his team's third-best kicker to cut ahead of others in the line and "make history" - and in the process, contribute to his team's defeat.

(Didn't it just figure that Rick Neuheisel's prints would be all over this whole production?)
    

*********** For years, General Jim Shelton, one of my Black Lions friends, has been at work on a book on his experiences in Vietnam, with special emphasis on the bloody Battle of Ong Thanh, in which so many Black Lions died, Don Holleder along with them. At last, it is in print.
    
Entitled, "The Beast Was out There," by James M. Shelton, its subtitle is "The 28th Infantry Black Lions and the Battle of Ong Thanh Vietnam October 1967" and it is published by Cantigny Press, Wheaton, Illinois. to order a copy, go to http://www.rrmtf.org/firstdivision/ and click on "Publications and Products") All monies after costs go equally to the Black Lions and the 1st Infantry Division Foundation, (sponsors of the Black Lion Award).
    
Great Christmas idea: the General might get pissed at me for saying this, but if you send him a check for $25 per book, and tell him who the books are for, he'll personally autograph them and mail them back to you. His address is General James Shelton, 6610 Gasparilla Pines Blvd #118, Englewood FL 34224
    
I have my copy. It is worth the price just for the "playbooks" it contains - "Fundamentals of Infantry" and "Fundamentals of Artillery," as well as a glossary of all those terms that military guys throw around that might as well be Greek to us civilians.

Jim has been kind enough to provide me with early drafts, and I have read most of it with great interest. It provided me with a very interesting look at the inner workings of an Army under combat conditions, and although Jim would eventually rise to the rank of Brigadier General before retiring, it is not written in the jargon that military people often seem to use when communicating with each other. In the interest of complete authenticity, the description and the dialogue can get gritty. Here's an excerpt (If you can't deal with the way real people sometimes talk under less than ideal conditions, consider yourself forewarned.)

    A one year tour of duty had been established for all US forces in Vietnam, causing the turnover phenomenon, and very few men would volunteer to extend. This was not surprising. The tempo of operations in the 1st Infantry Division was phenomenal, and the work wasboth physically and mentally exhausting. Asoldier who spent a year there, particularly in an infantry battalion, was worn out. There were exceptions to this, but the grueling pace in a grueling environment took its toll on the stamina of all men.

    It is difficult to put this into perspective. Sleep normally came from exhaustion -and many nights were as exhausting as the days. The oppressive heat and boredom of army food did not help. Men did not eat nourishing, complete meals with regularity. Hot food was normally delivered in mermite cans (insulated food containers) in the early evening by helicopter. Many men were so tired they didn't bother to eat. A can of C-ration fruit, usually peaches, pears, or fruit cocktail would eliminate stomach gnawing. If you took hot chow you could usually count on the rain to drown your mess kit or the paper plate while going through a jungle chow line.

    In my personal case, I joined the 2nd BN, 28th Infantry on June 20, 1967 weighing approximately 215 pounds. When I left the battalion on October 3, 1967, some 100 days later, I weighed 167. Most people who knew me then (and now) would say a 48 pound weight loss in 100 days probably was good for me. I may have been overweight, but I had played varsity college football at 200 pounds in the 1950's. I also know that, in spite of the heat, heavy daily physical exertion requires three good meals a day. And few men in infantry battalions got them.

    Additionally, on Wednesday of each week every man was required to take a malaria tablet. This was not a pill. It was about the size of a penny in diameter and about four or five pennies thick. Everyone hated them. Imagine for a moment swallowing something like that - and we really enforced it. We should have enforced the three square meals a day as firmly as we enforced the taking of malaria tablets. The food was available but men were generally averse to eating much, and the malaria tablets didn't help. Three or four hours after taking a malaria tablet, your intestines would start to knot. Stomach cramps were followed by overpowering churning of the bowels, and in many cases, nature would be faster than the time it took to drop your pants and squat.

    Fortunately, we wore no underwear. We would just hang on until the next rain (six or seven times a day in the wet season), then pull our pants off and wash them. Unfortunately, it was not over. Diarrhea could normally be counted on for up to 24 hours. In spite of friendly comraderie, it was always embarrassing to drop your pants within everyone's eye view and squat like a dog with a problem.

    It also helped to keep officers in infantry battalions from being too officious. There was something levelling about the process.

    As long as I'm on that subject, let me also point out that we did also use latrines and cat holes in the field. As time permitted during the construction of our DePuy bunkers and command post bunkers, we usually managed to dig a hole in the center of our perimeters. When our resupply came in at night by chopper, you could normally count on the battalion supply crew to include a two-hole box along with ammo, water, sandbags, food (mermite cans) with evening chow and sufficient C-rations (canned food) for breakfast and lunch the next day.

    The two-holer box was then, normally ceremoniously to include mild cheering, placed on the latrine hole. This latrine represented, to some extent, our acknowledgement that we were, afterall, the highest species known in the animal kingdom - homo sapiens - the species that could decipher right from wrong - and held modesty and bodily functions as primarily a private affair.

    Actually, the latrine was never really used that much. Cat holes were easier, and squatting in front of your peers became acceptable practice. In addition, at night, no one liked to move from his position. From time to time, leaders might move from position to position to check their men, but roaming around the perimeter in the black of night looking for the latrine was no one's idea of fun. I did it once or twice because I thought using the latrine sounded somehow civilized - I wanted to sit, not squat, and let my mind wander as nature took its course.

    One night while in this position a sniper decided to throw a few rounds in our direction. Fear immediately dominated the scene. As I crouched down behind the two - holer box with my feet in the hole - and contemplating placing the rest of my body in the hole if the firing increased - I imagined the telegram to my wife - "Dear Mrs. Shelton. The Secretary of the Army - or the President of the United States - or somebody like that - regrets to inform you that your husband was killed in action while hiding behind the battalion two-hole sh--- er. He was last found cringing in a pile of sh-- donated by himself and his fellow soldiers."

    I think it was the last time I used the two-holer. 

COACHES WHO SIGNED UP FOR THE BLACK LION AWARD : WHEN YOUR SEASON IS OVER AND YOU HAVE SELECTED YOUR BLACK LION (ONE PLAYER PER TEAM) PLEASE E-MAIL YOUR LETTER OF NOMINATION (explaining why you believe your nominee represents the spirit of the award - leadership, courage, devotion to duty, self-sacrifice, and an unselfish devotion to the team) to: coachwyatt@aol.com.

AFTER YOUR LETTER OF NOMINATION IS APPROVED,  THE AWARD CERTIFICATE AND BLACK LIONS  PATCH WILL BE MAILED TO YOU.

(BE SURE TO INCLUDE YOUR ADDRESS. THE CERTIFICATE WILL BE MAILED TO YOU, AND NOT TO YOUR PLAYER.)

BE SURE TO ALLOW ENOUGH TIME FOR MAILING. THERE IS NO MONEY IN THE PROGRAM'S BUDGET TO OVERNIGHT AWARDS.
   
THEY’LL ADD TO THE BIG 12. YES, YES, HOUSTON’S A HUGE TV MARKET.  SO’S PHILADELPHIA - BUT NO ONE THERE CARES ABOUT TEMPLE.

SAN DIEGO STATE AT BOISE STATE - SINCE WE LAST WROTE THE NAME “BOISE STATE” ON THIS PAGE, THE BRONCOS HAVE FIRED THEIR OC AND - JUST LIKE THAT - LOST THEIR STARTING QB TO TRANSFER (AFTER FOUR GAMES).  DON’T BE SURPRISED IF THIS IS THE NEXT COLLEGE JOB OPENING.

WASHINGTON AT UCLA - TWO UNBEATENS.  I LIKE CHIP KELLY, BUT HE’S ON THE WRONG SIDE NOW. GO HUSKIES. AND BE SURE TO BRING A FEW FANS. ONE OR TWO HUNDRED OUGHT TO BE ENOUGH TO OUTNUMBER THE BRUINS’ “FAITHFUL.”

NEW MEXICO AT UNLV - WORTH WATCHING BECAUSE THE REBELS OF VEGAS ARE DEFINITELY A DARK HORSE CONTENDER IN THE MOUNTAIN WEST.


*********** SORRY - THIS SATURDAY THERE ARE SO MANY REALLY INTERESTING GAMES THAT I’M GOING TO START OUT TRYING TO GET A LOOK AT 25 OF THEM - WITH THE POSSIBILITY OF JUMPING INTO SOMETHING UNPLANNED SHOULD I GET WORD THAT SOMETHING UNLIKELY IS HAPPENING LIKE, SAY, MISSOURI BEATING GEORGIA IN THE FOURTH  QUARTER…

IN ORDER (WAY TOO MANY OF THEM AT 9 AM PACIFIC - WITH ONLY FIVE SCREENS AND AN IPAD, I DON’T KNOW HOW I’M GOING TO WORK IT)

MICHIGAN AT IOWA - GO HAWKEYES

KENTUCKY AT OLE MISS - OUGHT TO BE ONE OF THE BEST GAMES OF THE DAY

OKLAHOMA AT TCU - COULD THE SOONERS GO DOWN TWO WEEKS IN A ROW?

PURDUE AT MINNESOTA - THE TEAM THAT SCARCELY RUNS AT ALL VISITS THE TEAM THAT CAN RUN YOUR ASS OFF. GOPHERS WIN.

TEXAS TECH AT KANSAS STATE - EMAW! (EVERY MAN A WILDCAT - EVIDENTLY THE GENDER EQUITY POLICE HAVE YET TO LOCATE MANHATTAN, KANSAS)

GEORGIA STATE AT ARMY - THEIR COMPARATIVE SCORES AGAINST COASTAL CAROLINA ARE SIMILAR.  ARMY’S AT HOME, WHICH OUGHT TO BE WORTH SOMETHING, ALTHOUGH GEORGIA STATE’S HOME CROWDS ARE MOSTLY EMPTY SEATS ANYHOW. GO ARMY.

NAVY AT AIR FORCE - NAVY LOOKED BETTER LAST WEEK, DEFEATING EAST CAROLINA IN OT, BUT I PERSONALLY THINK THE ZOOMIES WILL THUMP THE SQUIDS. 

OREGON STATE AT UTAH - I THINK THAT THE BEAVERS ARE GOOD ENOUGH TO WIN, BUT I’M AFRAID THEIR PASS-HAPPY OFFENSIVE PLAY CALLING WILL DO THEM IN. GO BEAVS!

ALABAMA AT ARKANSAS - THE HOGS SHOULD HAVE BEATEN TEXAS A & M LAST SATURDAY - AT COLLEGE STATION - AND IF EVER ANYBODY HAD A CHANCE TO BEAT ALABAMA, THIS IS IT.  EXCEPT ALABAMA KNOWS THAT, TOO.

OKLAHOMA STATE AT BAYLOR - THE OKLAHOMA TEAM THAT THE SEC DIDN’T WANT COULD BE THE BEST TEAM IN THE STATE. GO POKES!

WAKE FOREST AT FLORIDA STATE - COULD BE ONE OF THE BEST GAMES OF THE DAY. FSU COMING OFF A TROUNCING OF BC, WAKE COMING OFF A TOUGH 2-OT LOSS TO CLEMSON, WITH SAM HARTMAN THROWING SIX TD PASSES. GO DEACS!

IOWA STATE AT KANSAS - THE  CYCLONES ARE 3.5 POINT FAVORITES. KANSAS RIGHT NOW IS BECOMING THE NATIONAL DARLING. PLUS, MY FRIEND BRAD KNIGHT’S DAUGHTER, HAYLEE IS A FRESHMAN THERE. SO I HAVE TO GO WITH THE JAYHAWKS.

MICHIGAN STATE AT MARYLAND - THE TERPS ARE MUCH IMPROVED, AND IF THEY SHOULD WIN, THERE WILL BE A LOT OF PEOPLE IN MICHIGAN QUESTIONING MEL  TUCKER’S CONTRACT.

VIRGINIA TECH AT NORTH CAROLINA - TWO TEAMS THAT  SUCKED LAST WEEK - VT AGAINST WEST VIRGINIA, UNC AGAINST NOTRE DAME - TRYING TO UNSUCK.  ADVISORY:  MAY NOT BE WORTH WATCHING

TEXAS A & M AT MISSISSIPPI STATE - A & M MAY NEED MORE OFFENSE THAN THEY’VE SHOWN SO FAR. THE BULLDOGS ARE FAVORED, AND THAT SUITS ME FINE.

CAL AT WASHINGTON STATE - CAL IS UP TO THE JOB. FRESHMAN JAYDN (NOT A MISSPELLING) OTT RUSHED FOR 274 YARDS - WITH TD RUNS OF 73 AND 72 YARDS - IN THE BEARS’ WIN OVER ARIZONA. BUT THE COUGARS HAD OREGON BEATEN UNTIL THE LAST MINUTE, AND I THINK THEY’RE GOOD ENOUGH TO BEAT CAL.

LSU AT AUBURN - THIS ISN’T A GREAT LSU TEAM, BUT THEY’RE PLAYING AN AUBURN TEAM THAT  WOULD HAVE LOST TO MISSOURI IF A MIZZOU RUNNER HADN’T LET GO OF THE BALL WHILE TRYING TO “REACH OUT” FOR A SCORE.

NC STATE AT CLEMSON - A BATTLE OF UNBEATENS. THIS IS A GOOD CLEMSON TEAM BUT IT’S NOT A GREAT CLEMSON TEAM - YET. COMING OFF A TOUGH WIN OVER WAKE, THEY MAY NOT REALLY BE 7.5 POINTS BETTER THAN THE WOLFPACK.  I LIKE STATE AND THE POINTS.

WEST VIRGINIA AT TEXAS - LONGHORNS ARE 9 POINT FAVORITES.  THAT SUCKS.  WHAT THE HELL - I DON’T LIKE TEXAS AND I LIKE WEST VIRGINIA, SO MY HEART SAYS, “TAKE THE POINTS.” BESIDES, I THINK THE WEST VIRGINIA KIDS ARE TOUGHER. TAKE IT FROM TEXAS TECH COACH JOEY MCGUIRE AFTER LAST WEEK’S GAME: “I TOLD YOU THEY WERE GONNA BREAK, AND THEY DID."

INDIANA AT NEBRASKA - FOR SOME REASON, MAYBE BECAUSE HUSKER FANS ARE STILL LIVING IN THE 90S, BACK WHEN THEY’D BRING IN INDIANA FOR AN EARLY-SEASON WIN, NEBRASKA IS A 4.5 POINT FAVORITE.  I THINK  THE HOOSIERS ARE THE BETTER TEAM.

VIRGINIA AT DUKE - THIS IS ON ESPN3 SO I’LL HAVE TO STREAM IT. THE BLUE DEVILS’ OVER/UNDER FOR WINS WAS 3.5.  THEY’RE NOW AT 3 AND I SEE THEM WINNING THIS ONE.  GO DEVILS!

SAN JOSE STATE AT WYOMING - SAN JOSE ALMOST LOST TO PORTLAND STATE BUT SINCE THEN THEY’VE PLAYED BETTER.  WYOMING WAS  GOOD ENOUGH TO BEAT AIR FORCE. SAN JOSE  STATE IS SLIGHTLY FAVORED, BUT I’M GOING WITH THE COWBOYS.

GEORGIA TECH AT PITT - WATCH THE YELLOW JACKETS.  THEY COULD ACTUALLY BE BETTER WITHOUT JEFF COLLINS (WHO, SHOCKINGLY, WALKED OFF $11 MILLION RICHER.  AND THIS AT A SCHOOL  THAT PRIDES ITSELF ON ITS BUSINESS  ADMINISTRATION MAJOR.) BUT THEY WON’T BEAT PITT.

COLORADO AT ARIZONA - ONLY TO WATCH THE WILDCATS, WHO ARE GETTING BETTER ALL THE TIME AND MIGHT ACTUALLY WALLOP THE BUFFS.  COLORADO (AND KANSAS COACH LANCE LEIPOLD) HAVE ENDED KANSAS’ LONG RUN AS THE WORST TEAM IN THE POWER 5.

ARIZONA STATE AT USC - USC  DIDN’T LOOK LIKE WORLD-BEATERS AGAINST OREGON STATE LAST WEEK, BUT BEING THE FRONT-RUNNERS THAT THEY ARE, THEY’LL POUR IT ON THE LEADERLESS SUN DEVILS.  IT MIGHT BE AN EARLY SATURDAY NIGHT BEDTIME FOR A CHANGE.



*********** While I slept…  Or read the paper…  Or clipped my nails… history was made this week.  Finally.

Finally,  Aaron Judge made history (or so they tell us) by hitting his 61st home run, tying Roger Maris for the single season American League record (the National League record having been broken beyond repair by scores of steroid freaks who probably even knew what pitch was coming).

I’ve already written about almost having a stroke last Saturday when ABC, knowing how important baseball history was to us football players,  kept cutting into the Clemson-Wake Forest game every time Judge came to the plate,

John Canzano and I tend to agree on TV networks cutting into our Saturday football to bring “history” to us:

What we certainly don’t need is for a network to assume it knows what we’d like to watch better than we do.

Interested in Judge’s at-bats? Great. I’ll bet you were watching on your television or phone. Not at all interested? I’ll bet you were annoyed or at the very least, puzzled, by the network’s decision to force-feed us pseudo-history.

No winners here.

Judge is having a terrific season. Hitting 60-plus home runs is amazing. But getting to No. 61 only means that Judge now has the seventh-best single-season home run total in Major League Baseball history. He’s tied with Maris. If you’re a Yankees’ fan, you probably loved this development. But again, if you’re a die-hard fan of the Yankees, you were probably already watching the Yes Network on Saturday.

The network programmers need a gentle reminder today — please, stay in your lane. You don’t know what I want to watch, so kindly stop guessing. You’re not going to please any viewers by interrupting the college football games in a clumsy “switch pitch” and forcing baseball on them.

(By the way, it’s too bad that baseball allowed its home run records  to be trashed by dopers, because Aaron Judge does appear to be legitimate in every way, a good team man - and a good person - to boot.)


***********  Jamious “Jam” Griffin is one of three good running backs in the Oregon State stable. (Damn shame they only use one at a time, and don’t run the ball any more than they do.)

A Georgia Tech transfer from Rome, Georgia, Griffin’s a handful for tacklers. He may just be 5-9 (he’s listed at 5-10 but reporters say it’s more like 5-9) but his weight is listed at anywhere from 205 to 210, which means he’s not small. 

And based on what he  told Beavers’ beat  reporter Nick Daschel, he  doesn’t mind using what he’s got: “I feel like if a defender wants to tackle me, they’re going to have to feel all of me.”

***********  Coach Dave DeNapoli, of Dunellen, New Jersey, High is a longtime Double Winger, and this year, he’s got himself a running back.

The kid’s name is Chiekezie Ogbuewu.  He’s a junior.

In a 43-42 overtime loss to Middlesex, he carried 32 times for 369 yards  and  six touchdowns - on runs of 77, 40, 5, 3, 42, & 3 yards. Adding to that a pair of two-point conversions, and he accounted for  40 of his team’s 42 points.


*********** I wasn’t exactly shocked when I saw the video of the mob entering and ransacking a Wawa convenience store in a  fairly rough (as opposed to “rough” or “very rough”) section of Philly.  One the last several years most of the city’s pretty much been allowed to go to hell.

But what really jarred me was the news that  five Roxborough High  football players, after leaving the  field  following a scrimmage with two other high schools, were shot, one of them fatally.

It does not appear that it was an accident, or a case of mistaken identity.  It appears that, for whatever reason, it was an ambush.

Good God, I thought.  Shooting at kids walking off a football field?

Roxborough? I asked myself. Even there?

Bear in mind that I haven’t lived in the Philly area for years, but If you had asked me to list a couple of areas of the city where I’d live - if, say, I were a city employee and I had to live  there - Roxborough would have been one of the places I’d name. In a city of tight-knit neighborhoods, Roxborough was really tight-knit. Maybe it’s because it sits atop a ridge between two steep river valleys, and  until after World War II wasn’t easily reached from any other part of the city, but its people  didn’t live in Philadelphia; they lived in Roxborough.

Maybe that’s why, as other parts of the city have pretty much been surrendered to the gangs, Roxborough was an area they seemed to leave pretty much left alone. 

Not any longer. Philadelphia has come to Roxborough.

https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/4-people-shot-at-roxborough-high-school/3375136/


 


Above is a map of the northwest part of Philadelphia and some adjoining suburbs. I grew up in the Mount Airy section  of the city (upper red star), which is still, I suspect, a halfway decent area. As the crow flies, Roxborough and Mount Airy aren’t that far apart, but between them runs the valley of the Wissahickon Creek (“crick”), and there are only a couple of ways across. I wound up going to high school in Germantown (lower red  star), a section which now, sadly, would most definitely be rated  “rough.”  I went to Germantown Academy, which around 1970 relocated to the northern suburbs.  The local public school, Germantown High, wasn’t bad back then, but it was closed a few years ago because of low enrollment.

Imagine my surprise, when I looked up Roxborough High School, to read this:

Roxborough High School is a public high school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, operated by the School District of Philadelphia and servicing the Roxborough, Manayunk, Chestnut Hill, Wissahickon, Mt. Airy, and Germantown sections of Philadelphia.

So if I were a high school kid today and we still lived in Mount Airy, my public high school would be Roxborough High. No thanks.



*********** My daughter, Vicky wrote …

Dad,

Your quiz (Lem Barney) intrigued me, so I did some googling and found this article, which I really found interesting!

(Turns out Lem Barney and Miller Farr did more than just sing background on Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On?”)


https://andscape.com/features/marvin-gaye-detroit-lions-tryout-whats-going-on/





 ********** I mentioned Hayden Fry recently, and old friend - and Iowa Hawkeye fan - Brad Knight, of Clarinda, Iowa, sent me this article that appeared several years ago in an Iowa fan publication…

Five guys in the photo (besides Coach Fry himself) would go on to become head coaches at Power 5 schools.

In the front row (Left to right) with stars: Barry Alvarez, Dan McCarney, Bob Stoops

Back row: Bill Snyder, Kirk Ferentz

Among them, those guys would win 722 games, 32 bowl games and 15 conference  titles. They would have 35 top-25 finishes, and 22 top-10  finishes.


https://www.blackheartgoldpants.com/2014/6/20/5823870/the-base-of-the-tree-hayden-frys-1983-coaching-staff


*********** I’m sure I’ve printed this before, but it’s worth repeating, because every so often I’ll hear from some head coach who’s having problems with an assistant who resists being given another assignment.  That’s when I think about Jim Hanifan.  One of the great offensive line coaches in the history of the NFL,  in his autobiography, “Beyond X’s and O’s,” he told how he first became an offensive line coach. 

He had just been hired as an assistant coach at San Diego State by Don Coryell, and as he tells it…

When we were talking, it never even came up about what position I would coach.  All the way back to juco, I had been working with quarterbacks and receivers, so I thought I probably would end up with one of those jobs.   Then I found out he already had both of those coaches, so I really had no idea what I was going to do.

Don and I were in the car one day, going to pick up some furniture, and I asked him, "By the way, what am I going to be coaching? "He said, "the offensive line.

I almost had a heart attack. I had not coached the offensive line since being a head coach in high school. I put up a mild protest, but Don insisted that I could do it.   That's how I became an offensive line coach.

Needless to say, it took a lot of study and a lot of work, but rather than say, “But I’m a  quarterbacks coach,” or “I coach receivers,” he did what the head coach needed him to do - and wound up being one of the best in the business.


*********** Question:  We are doing our player assessments right now.  How can I convince kids to be offensive linemen?  I want some decent athletes to play the position because I am running the DW and pulling my guards but when I ask for volunteers no one raises their hand and when I assign positions, the kids that are offensive linemen give me this disappointed sigh.  I know the linemen are extremely important but I can't seem to get that across to the kids.  They all want to play the glamour positions.  I wanted to ask for volunteers thinking that I'd rather have a kid who was willing to play the position than trying to force a kid who is uninterested.  Any tips?

You are dealing with one of a coach's biggest jobs, which is persuading players - who, being human, are born selfish - to do something for the good of a team.

In the best of all worlds, you would get enough gifted volunteers to fill every spot.

But that's not how it works. TV and video games have blown up the ideal of the football hero even worse than it used to be, yet Bud Wilkinson's quote (which just happened to be my headline quote recently) is as true as ever:

"There aren't enough heroic positions on a football team to have people play because they want to be a hero."

First of all, you need to sell any kid on the fact that finding the right position is a part of football.

Except for those who go on to become stars in the NFL, there comes a point in nearly every player's life that he’s gone as far as his talent will take him.  But sometimes,  he’s given a choice -  accept a move to another position (or don’t play football at all).

A great  thing about football is that even if someone else may be better than you at the particular position you want to play, there are still other positions that are extremely important where you can play - and maybe even excel.

Russ Grimm’s in the Pro Football Hall of Fame as an offensive lineman.  Jack Lambert’s in the Hall of Fame as a linebacker.  Guess what?  They were both high school quarterbacks.  Where do you suppose they’d have wound up if they’d insisted on playing  quarterback in college?

Playing the offensive line is like joining a select club. Good line coaches are able to develop among their players a type of camaraderie and pride in the job they do that receivers and backs seldom experience.

In our offense,  Unlike most of today’s offenses,  offensive linemen get to do some cool things.  They don’t just set up and get in the way of pass rushers.  They pull, they trap, they wedge block.  Our offensive linemen see at least as much action and do at least as much hitting as most defensive linemen.

It’s not that tough to have to tell a kid that you think he’ll have more success at another position.  Imagine what it’s like to be a pro coach and have to cut a guy.


***********   I saw your comment about the NFL going away from the tackle football pro bowl in 2023.  I think they stopped playing tackle football game about 5 years ago.  A 7-9 year old youth game is more fun to watch than the pro bowl.

Tom Davis
San Carlos, California


***********  Hugh,

So sorry to hear the bad news about Frank Simonsen.

Pro Bowl flag football game.  No surprise.  Next?  NFL 7 on 7 League coming this summer!

A local private high school hired an NFL veteran to take over its football program.  They felt they needed to make a "splash" hire.  Word has it he donated X amount of $$ to the school's football program.  Went to see one of their games.  The ENTIRE team (50) was outfitted in those Riddell Axiom helmets, AND new uniforms.

It was obvious last Saturday that Minnesota's offense, and its defense, were just too much for Michigan State's defense, and offense.  The Gophers are 4-0, and at this time the best team in the B10 West.

Thanks to a terrible UNC defense Notre Dame's offense finally found a way to move the ball and score some points.  Also, Mack Brown never looked...larger??

Speaking of Mack Brown...how about those Texas Longhorns?

Your thoughts on who the new HC's will be at Nebraska, Arizona State, Georgia Tech, and Colorado (yes, they're next).


Have a great week!

Joe Gutilla
Austin, Texas

HERE GOES - JUST WINGING IT, WITHOUT A LOT OF FORETHOUGHT…

NEBRASKA - Matt Rhule - if NU is willing to wait until Carolina fires him.

ARIZONA  STATE - Brent Brennan - anybody who can go 7-1 at San Jose State can coach!

GEORGIA TECH - Deion Sanders. No, really. I’m serious.  They’re more desperate than they realize.

COLORADO - Eric Bienemy.  Finally.  A CU guy.  If they can afford  him.


***********  QUIZ ANSWER:  Jimmy Cefalo is now a widely-known oenophile - a connoisseur of fine wines - who’s co-hosted a radio show on food and wine, and has a  personal wine cellar with more than 1,200 bottles. 

He comes by his love in wines naturally - his great-grandfather was a winemaker in Italy.  His grandfather came to America and landed in northeastern Pennsylvania, where he first worked in the mines before becoming a winemaker himself.

He’s now the Voice of the Dolphins on radio, and for many years before that, he teamed with Charlie Jones as a color analyst on NFL telecasts, and  hosted a variety of television shows.

But before all that, he was a very good football player.  In high school in his hometown of Pittston (not Pittsburgh) Pennsylvania, he was one of the top recruits in the country as a running back.

As a wide receiver at Penn State, he was the MVP of the Gator Bowl as a junior and led the Nittany Lions in all purpose yardage as a senior.

He was drafted in the third round by the Dolphins, and for six seasons he was a reliable receiver. He wound up with 93 catches for 1739 yards and 13 touchdowns.

By far his most famous catch  was the one that enabled Dan Marino to set a new NFL record for touchdowns in a season (37).

It was in 1984, against the L.A. Raiders.  He had missed almost the entire 1983 season, and as he told the Los Angeles Times, “I hadn’t caught a touchdown pass in over a year,  and we were in a pass pattern I had been running for seven years without the ball once coming to my side.”

But that one time, it did. It surprised him and he was unable to get his hands up in time to keep the ball from hitting his face mask.  It stuck there.  Touchdown.  And Marino had the record.

Said Jimmy Cefalo, “Never has somebody done so little to break a record as I did on that play.”


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING JIMMY CEFALO

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
TOM DAVIS - SAN CARLOS, CALIFORNIA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
PETE PORCELLI - WATERVLIET, NEW YORK
RODNEY LUNSFORD - WESTFIELD, INDIANA
JOE GUTILLA - AUSTIN, TEXAS
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
CHRISTOPHER ANDERSON - MUNICH, GERMANY
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY


*********** I remembered all the players who had a vowel at the end of their name. lol

Pete Porcelli
Watervliet, New York


***********   I had to do a bit of digging to find Jimmy Cefalo’s name. The NFL YouTube channel has a clip of the record-setting catch, and I’ll be damned if it doesn’t state the passer and the opponent, but not the guy who caught it.

Christopher Anderson
Munich, Germany


***********   Hugh

I  am getting my answer quicker today than Monday 's. I had too many things going on that day and I didn't think of it until bedtime.

I  was watching the Dan Dakich show on Youtube this morning and his guest was Jimmy Cefalo. I  thought it was great timing.

Jimmy will be working the game for the Dolphins against the Bengals tonight. I  enjoyed hearing Jimmy's stories about the old Dolphins.

Dan's show on Youtube is called Don't @Me. If anyone wants to hear the interview, they can see and hear it there.

See you Tuesday.

David Crump
Owensboro, Kentucky



*********** QUIZ: He grew up and played his high school football in Williamstown, Pennsylvania, a small anthracite coal-mining town tucked away in a mountain valley north of Harrisburg.

At Maryland, in an era of two-way football, he also played offense and defense.  And he punted.

In one game against North Carolina, he made three straight tackles in a goal-line stand,  then caught the game-winning pass.

Against Wake Forest, he blocked a field goal attempt  and intercepted a pass.

Against NC State, he  intercepted a pass and  blocked a punt.

In a rare Terp win over Penn State, he caught six passes - one for a touchdown - and punted six times for an average of 46.5 yards.

I almost forgot - at 6-4, 215, for the three years he was at Maryland, he was one of the top receivers in the nation. On a team that ran more than it passed, he caught  74 passes for 1,182 yards.

As a senior, he finished eighth in the final Heisman balloting.

His coach, Tom Nugent, called him “the finest player I’ve ever coached.”

He was the first player taken by the Cleveland Browns in the 1962 draft and the fourth player taken overall.  (Other prominent first-rounders that year: Roman Gabriel, Merlin Olsen, Lance Alworth, John Hadl, Ernie Davis.)

He found himself competing for a spot on the roster with a former Ohio State basketball player named Havlicek, but he won the competition, and Havlicek went on to a Hall of Fame career with the Boston Celtics.

As a rookie, he mostly punted, although he did catch 11 passes for two  touchdowns.

But in his second year, after Browns’ offensive assistant Blanton Collier succeeded Paul Brown as head coach, Collier installed him as a starter.

That was 1963, and as he caught  43 passes for 674 yards, and 13 touchdowns, the Browns improved to 10-4.  His 13 touchdowns led the NFL, and broke a team record held by Dante Lavelli.

In 1964 Cleveland finished 10-3-1 and made it into the NFL championship game (in the days before Super Bowls) against the heavily-favored Baltimore Colts.

Before the game, he angered Coach Collier  when it was reported that he had  told the news media that  the Browns were going to win.

“I predicted it and I got hell from my head coach,” he said later,  “but I said, ‘Well, why the hell are we playing the game if you don’t feel like that?’

According to him,  Collier  said, “Yeah, you’ve got a point, but you didn’t have to say it publicly.”

“But I said it,” he replied.  “I meant it and I’m still not sorry.”

The game itself was  tied 0-0 at the half, but his second half was one for the books:  he caught three  touchdown passes - of 18, 42 and 51 yards - as the Browns wound up shutting out the Colts, 27-0.

For his performance, he was named the game’s MVP,  and along with the honor won a brand new Corvette.

In 1965, he caught 51 passes for 900 yards and 10 touchdowns, and his 46.7 yards per punt led the league that season.  For the second year in a row  the Browns made it to  the NFL Championship game, but this  time they lost to the Packers.

In 1965 and 1966 he made it to the Pro Bowl, and in 1969, when he caught 54 passes for 786 yards and 11 touchdowns, he was named All-Pro.

After the 1971 season he asked to be traded to either the Washington Redskins or the New York Jets, and when the Browns were unable to work out a deal, he retired.

In 1974, with the  startup of the  World Football League   he joined the Washington, DC franchise - which ultimately became the Florida Blazers - as a player and coach, and then retired  for good to the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania area (Hershey, actually) where he went into business.

For his career - all with the Browns - he had 335 receptions, 5,299 yards receiving,  and 70 touchdowns.  (The 70 receiving touchdowns remains a Cleveland franchise record.)

He scored 10 or more touchdowns in four of his seasons.

And he punted.  For six years, he was the Browns’ punter, kicking  336 times  for an average of 41.0 yards per punt. His best year as a punter was 1965, when he punted 65 times for a league-leading 46.7 yards per kick.

He made two Pro Bowls (1965 and 1966), and was named All-Pro three times (1965, 1966, 1969). He was named to the NFL’s 1960s All-Decade Team.

And get this: in his entire career, according to Browns’ records, he dropped only seven passes. And he never fumbled. Not once.





TUESDAY,  SEPTEMBER  27, 2022 - "There aren't enough heroic positions on a football team to have people play because they want to be a hero.” Bud Wilkinson

*********** RIP Captain Frank Simonsen

While riding his bike around his beloved Cape May, New Jersey last week,  as he loved to do,  Frank Simonsen was struck by a car. He  died this past Friday night.

It’s a terrible loss to me.  But he and I lived 3,000 miles apart, so I can only imagine how Frank’s death has hit  the hundreds of kids and their families whose lives he touched over the years.

For 35 years he coached youth football  in his small town, and nobody lasts that long as a youth coach if he doesn’t treat kids right and have their respect and their parents’ trust. (Not to mention making things fun and helping them be successful.)

Frank was an early-adopter of my system, and became something of a lab rat as we exchanged all sorts of  thoughts and observations.

Frank was a straight-talker who didn’t mince words.   If you didn’t know him  you might have used the word “crusty” to describe him. (But not to his face.)

Frank grew up tough, working on fishing boats as a kid, then as  a commercial fisherman, and then as a captain of oil tankers.  In his “retirement,” he captained an oil spill mitigation vessel, often sent off to distant locations for weeks at a time.

I still think that Frank and his longtime compatriot Floyd “Flash” Hughes were as  good a pair  of coaches as I  have seen, youth or high school.  Their teams won numerous South Jersey championships, and I videotaped  their kids going through drills for use in my “Practice Without Pads” video.

I constantly preach to young guys that a  coach has to be a teacher, and  Frank was a great teacher.  I was always impressed by the fact that he wasn’t like most guys, always looking for new plays to run.  With Frank, it seemed like he was always looking for better ways to teach the things he was already doing.

I loved Frank, and it never occurred to me for a minute that I’d never see him again, and yet here we are.  None of us can predict the time and place.

God bless Frank Simonsen.


I wrote this in December, 2000 -

Frank Simonsen has been coaching youth football in Cape May, at the very southern tip of New Jersey, for well over 20 years, and lemme tell you, it's just as big a job surviving all that time as a youth football coach as it is for a high school coach. Frank has a solid knowledge of the game and a great ability to work with kids, and he always puts a well-coached team of 7th-and-8th graders on the field. His kids are sound fundamentally, and what is most impressive to me, he has been able to retain his standards and values without having to compromise them, as so many of today's "educators" have done.

So naturally, I was interested in his opinion of post-season "All-Star" awards (I don't like 'em). Here's what he wrote.

"I had some parents come to me this year and ask why we didn't put the kids' names on their shirts, or give the little F---ing stickers for the helmets for outstanding plays. I asked them who was going to take them off, after every play they screwed up? As you know, I believe in criticizing and punishing for screwing up as well as positive reinforcement for a good job. I feel there is no such thing as an "All Star", unless he is playing a one man sport. A district ,regional, state, or national championship wrestler could be an All Star, but then only after the team's dual meet season is over. Tiger Woods is a real All Star when he is not playing for Team US., or any other team.

“Before the big booster banquets I give out joke awards at our little year end banquets- Ballet slippers to someone that fell down a lot, boxing gloves to a fumbler, a pretend fire cracker for the guy we pushed to explode off, a tube of glue, etc. Betty (my wife) having a great sense of humor, and being a very good poet would write a funny poem to go with the award. It was a lot of fun and no one felt disappointed because they didn't get picked in a popularity contest to be a so called "All Star". Now they give everyone a trophy win or lose, because winning isn't important so we don't want anyone to feel like they lost.”

I sent that to his longtime  fellow coach, Flash Hughes, who wrote me back…

That article you sent was pure Frank, He never compromised his values, or backed down to anyone who didn’t like them. We coached together for 35 years, and I think we lasted that long because we had the same football philosophy, and life outlook. I haven’t been going to the local games for some time, but the high school decided to honor the first team to play on the field 60 years ago. So myself and 3 other players were granted the privilege of being honorary captains for the coin toss. It was so different being on the field for that. One of the high school coaches played for us when he was in jr high. It’s a pleasure that people can’t understand when a young man gives you a hug and “Hi Coach” . Frank and I always ran into those people, and  got that same thing.  The high school is 4 and 0 so far this year and Frank would have been so proud. It’s great hearing from you even under these circumstances. Good friends are hard to find these days, and I appreciate your friendship very much even though we haven’t been in touch.
                                                         

FROM FEBRUARY 2002

I once had a coach bring his whole team to the hash mark for the toss and chant WE WANT YOU while pointing at us. Our kids never changed expression - just stood there looking at them, then went out and beat their asses.

The next year we were playing them again for the Championship. Every year the Championship is played at a different field to let everyone share in the money that is made from the game. This particular year it was at their home field. However, the team with the best record was still considered the home team. After the warm ups they went to their home field side of the field. We jogged down the visitors side to the 50, cut across to their side and said, "We are home team and wish to take this side of the field".

Needless to say it blew their mind. They had to pick up all their gear, water buckets, phone lines, etc.  The coach was mumbling and bitching when I said, "Remember the WE WANT YOU?"

Oh yes, we beat them again.

Frank Simonsen
Cape May, New Jersey

FROM JUNE 2002

Hugh, I hope you taped the soccer game. I missed it too. I had to go to the Lobster House for dinner. (That’s Frank at his sarcastic best. HW)

As you know we are trying to get kids out of the gyms to play football. Last night we had 21. We have been going twice a week. The first night we had about 6, and it has been growing each week. Last night we had a couple of basketballers out because their friends in school told them they needed guys that could catch. We picked three teams and played 7 on 7 until the parents made them quit.

We coach for about 45 minutes each night going over the numbering system, run a few patterns catching tennis balls - they are learning quite a lot without realizing it. We saw the one group running patterns that we worked on, and I'm able to make them look the ball away, carry it properly while running, etc.

I think it's working. To my amazement I realize that these kids don't even know how much fun playing touch football can be, like picking their own team, calling their own plays, etc. We just referee and place the ball. They are starting to learn how to organize and manage. Hell, when we were kids there was always a touch game going on. Now if there isn't an adult around to organize it doesn't happen.

The only thing I'm concerned with is the lack of discipline. I had a talk with them about not wanting to push them too hard, and keeping it fun, but you know how far talking goes. I had to put the hammer down a couple of times after spiking the ball and a little grab assing.

The main thing I noticed was that the leaders really stand out. It is usually the team with the best leader that wins.
Frank Simonsen, Cape May, New Jersey


FROM AUGUST 2004

My good friend Frank Simonsen, in Cape May, New Jersey, got into coaching 25 years ago when his son started playing, and stayed in after his son moved up to the HS. He is a great coach, and has had a tremendous impact on his community. And wouldn't you know - he has been very successful, yet he has never been able to convince the unsuccessful HS coaches (who take his very kids and lose with them) to try doing things his way.






FRANK (WITH HIS BACK TO US, WEARING THE CAP) HOLDING THE 2005 SOUTH JERSEY CHAMPIONSHIP TROPHY





Frank’s kids before an early-season workout on the beach (Frank's the guy with the hat)





Frank presenting the Black Lion Award in 2009


*********** Along the lines of baseball’s home run derby and the NBA’s slam dunk  competition, the NFL is doing away with its Pro Bowl and introducing Professional Pass, Punt and Kick.

Just kidding. It’s worse than that.

Actually, it’ll be “a week-long array of skills competitions and other events culminating in a flag football game between the AFC and NFC.”

Be still, my beating heart.

Hot off the presses of The Athletic…

The NFL Pro Bowl will no longer be a tackle football game. The league is replacing the postseason all-star showcase with a week-long array of skills competitions and other events culminating in a flag football game between the AFC and NFC. ABC and ESPN will televise the contest.

The NFL is dubbing the branded week “The Pro Bowl Games.” The first iteration is Feb. 5, 2023, in Las Vegas, which hosted the 2022 game in what appears to have been the last tackle Pro Bowl.

Peyton Manning’s Omaha Productions, his content studio that produces among other shows the Manningcast on Monday Night Football, will in part manage programming for the week. He will also be on the coaching staff for the AFC-NFC flag football game at Allegiant Stadium, which will conclude the week of events.

In its press release, the league described a week of challenges where players engage in football and non-football skills competitions. What those contests are is not yet determined, though reviving the old Quarterback Challenge, discontinued since 2008, is a possibility.

“We’ve received invaluable feedback from players, teams and fans about reimagining the Pro Bowl, and as a result, we’re thrilled to use The Pro Bowl Games as a platform to spotlight flag football as an integral part of the sport’s future while also introducing fun, new forms of competition and entertainment that will bring our players, their families and fans closer than ever before,” said Peter O’Reilly, NFL executive vice president, club business and league events.

*********** A recent article in our local paper might well have been written by the local Riddell rep, praising as it did all the features of its new Axiom helmets ($700 each).

One high school in particular was featured where, thanks to the generosity of a  former player who’d played in the NFL, 10 of  its players now wear the Axiom helmets.  Which 10?   Those deemed “core leaders.”

This made me a bit uncomfortable.  I know that if you have a scarce item like this, you can’t hand it out on the basis of a lottery, but this does seem a bit like saying to your team’s parents, “We want you to know that we are doing everything possible to prevent head injuries. To these 10 guys.”


*********** The NFL has its own version of the “pitchers have become too dominant” problem that’s affecting baseball.

As exhibit A, I present the Monday Night Football game between Denver and San Francisco, an 11-10 classic.

But with football, the fix is not in tampering any further with rules, in trying to give the offense some sort of edge. I will maintain to my dying day (I hope, incidentally, that the NFL’s demise comes before mine) that for the sake of the future of their game, the NFL must WIDEN THE FIELD!

Today’s field - the same width as it was more than 100 years ago, when a 200-pounder was a behemoth - is simply not big enough for 22 of today’s bigger, faster players.

Yeah, I know.  It’ll cost them too much money to have to reconfigure stadiums.  Right.  The same people who’ve agreed to a  salary  cap  of $208 million a year, often with little hope of improving their teams, can’t spend  the money to improve their product.

That is, assuming they can’t hornswoggle their taxpayers into doing it for them.


***********   The defiance against God is astonishing!

UMass schedules 'Pride day' Oct. 8th, when Liberty comes to play them!

GO FLAMES!!! I hope they crush those arrogant groomers.

John Rothwell, DC
Corpus Christi, Texas

PS - OH, and Joey Franchise doesn't have the feet of Kyler Murray or Patrick Mahomes. I mean, good luck to him & all, but...

Here’s what John’s talking about:

Remember when all they wanted was to be accepted?

The University of Massachusetts, sick sons of bitches that they are,  will be holding an LGBTQ “Pride” Day on October 8, which by no coincidence at all is the day that their football team  hosts Liberty University.  (For those unaware, Liberty is a private religious school that bans certain conduct including open displays of affection between persons of the same sex.)

I know that as an independent, Liberty may have some difficulty filling out its schedule, but an open date - or even a forfeit - would be preferable to having to play Christians - literally - being fed to the Lunatic Lions.

No mention of whether anybody asked the football team, currently ranked 129 (out of 131) among FBS teams, how it felt about further aggravating a team that’s already good enough to kick its ass into New Hampshire.

https://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/us/2022/september/hateful-and-intolerant-umass-to-hold-pride-day-while-hosting-liberty-university-football-team









GAMES THAT I LOOKED AT THIS PAST WEEKEND


FRIDAY NIGHT

VIRGINIA AT SYRACUSE - The Orangemen are now 4-0. This was not a thing of beauty - FIVE field goals for the Orange. UVa’s Brennan Armstrong was disappointing, completing 19 of 38 for 138 (3.6 yards per attempt).  Cuse will be 5-0 next week after defeating Wagner.

NEVADA AT AIR FORCE - I said, “Look out, Nevada.”  I was right. Look out Army and Navy, too. And everybody else in the Mountain West.  The Zoomies had 541 yards to Nevada’s 242; 30 first downs to 11; they had the ball 43:40 to 16:20. They completed one pass in three attempts. It came when starting QB Hazeeq Daniels had to leave the field and his backup threw for an 80-yard touchdown on his first play.



SATURDAY’S TOP 20 ON MY SCREENS (IN ORDER OF THEIR APPEARANCE)


CLEMSON AT WAKE FOREST - I was greatly disappointed   by the outcome, but it was a great game that went to two OTs. Sam Hartman threw six TD passes.  DJ Uigalelei looked the best he has in a couple of years.  Something to watch, and I fear that it’s becoming a trend throughout college football - Clemsons’ secondary, perhaps on the theory that as with holding on the offensive line, the officials simply don’t have the stones to call everything they see, interferes and/or holds at every opportunity.

BAYLOR AT IOWA STATE - I didn’t watch much - sorry - but out of one  eye I seemed to see Baylor scoring a lot.

MISSOURI AT AUBURN - I’m not sure that an overtime win over Missouri saves Bryan Harsin’s job.  Up 17-14 in OT, Auburn appeared to have lost until replay showed that a showboating Missouri running back, attempting a “reach-out,” fumbled the ball into the end zone instants before it crossed the goal line. I’d send him - and the running backs’ coach - back to Missouri on a bus.

DUKE AT KANSAS - Duke is really improved.  Kansas is out of sight.  Without any previous experience, the KU students managed to storm the field. Kansas is at Kansas State the final Saturday of the season.  Got your tickets yet?

FLORIDA AT TENNESSEE - This was a pretty good game.  Down 38-33, Florida took it right down to the final play - a Vols’ interception.

TEXAS AT TEXAS TECH - I caught the end, and like anybody else, I was stunned by Longhorn Bijan Robinson’s fumble on the first play of OT.

NOTRE DAME AT NORTH CAROLINA - This was an ass-whipping by the Irish - a very important win for Marcus Freeman and a very deflating loss for Mack Brown and the Tar Heels. ND’s Drew Pyne completed 24 of 34 for 289 and three TDs, and the Irish rushed for 287 yards.

MINNESOTA AT MICHIGAN STATE - Who saw this coming? Talk about an ass-kicking - Minnesota 34, MSU 7  doesn’t begin to  reflect how bad it was. How about 508 yards to 240?  32 first downs to 14? 10 of 12 third down conversions? 240 yards rushing to 38? 42:29 time of possession to 17:30?

OREGON AT WASHINGTON STATE - I said,  “I’m just going to sit back and watch this one.”  But I began finding myself rooting for the Cougs, and  I should have known better - after leading for 59 minutes, they Coug’d it.  The Ducks had four drives of over 60 yards in the first half - and the best they could come up with was three field goals.  Take away the seven points scored by Washington State at the end of the fourth drive - a 90+ yard interception return - and all that yardage netted the Ducks just two points. But credit Oregon for persisting.

ARIZONA AT CAL - Wildcats are improved but Cal is better. A Cal freshman running back named Jaydn (that’s not a misprint) Ott ran for a 72-yard touchdown on the second play from scrimmage and before the day was over he had another one for  70+ yards and a  total of 274 yards - the most by any FBS player so far this season.

NORTHERN ILLINOIS AT KENTUCKY - Kentucky had their hands full.  The Huskies have to be the best in the MAC.

ARKANSAS AT TEXAS A & M - At Washington State it’s called “Cougin’ it.”  After watching the Hogs, up 14-7 and going in for another score, cough up the ball - and a bizarre return for an A & M score - I have to wonder if there is such a thing as “Hoggin’ it.”

IOWA AT RUTGERS - Rutgers beat Iowa in every statistical category - except turnovers.  The Scarlet Knights turned the ball over three times, and two of the turnovers  - an interception and a fumble - were returned for touchdowns.  The Hawkeyes are not flashy,  but they aren’t going to beat themselves.

MARSHALL AT TROY - Troy beat Marshall, 16-7.  This is not good.  Army plays Troy in November. At Troy.

WISCONSIN AT OHIO STATE - Sorry.  I gave up watching early.  I just can’t watch Alabama, Georgia or OSU.  I know they’re the three best teams in college football, but watching them is almost as boring as watching the NFL. Oh - and the Buckeyes look awful in black. 

KANSAS STATE AT OKLAHOMA - How do you lose to Tulane one week and then come back the next week and hang 41 points on Oklahoma - in Norman?  One answer - Adrian Martinez, who after what he went through at Nebraska the last couple of years has earned all the success he can get at K-State. Against OU he was spectacular:  381 yards of total offense (234 passing, 148 rushing) with  four rushing TDs and one touchdown pass.

BOSTON COLLEGE AT FLORIDA STATE - Good Lord- what has happened to BC?

USC AT OREGON STATE - This was terribly disappointing because the Beavers brought the mighty high-flying Team of Mercenaries to the ground, but failed because USC’s rule book doesn’t have anything in it about not holding, and OSU’s offensive coordinator STILL thinks passing is the way to go. With an experienced offensive line and two - maybe three - of the best running backs in the conference, Mr. Genius is back to his old tricks,  throwing the ball 29 times and running it 31 times. 167 yards passing, 153 yards rushing. But he forgot this part of the equation: FOUR INTERCEPTIONS.

WYOMING AT BYU - Wow.  Wyoming played the Cougs tough, but BYU is the better team.

UTAH AT ARIZONA STATE - This went exactly as expected.

STANFORD AT WASHINGTON - Washington is good. Stanford is not.  Stanford is trending down, and this is concerning, because before they would even consider paying players or relaxing their standards - or becoming the Vanderbilt of the West - I think they would seriously consider giving up big-time football.


SHOULD HAVE WATCHED MORE OF

MARYLAND (27) AT MICHIGAN (34)  - It wasn’t easy for the Wolverines. I think that Mike Locksley is getting it done at Maryland, and Michigan might have had its problems without the running of Blake Corum (30 carries, 243 yards, 2 tds) - who played his high school ball in Maryland.


WASN’T ABLE TO WATCH…

NAVY AT EAST CAROLINA IN 2 OT’S




 
***********  He played in college and in the NFL.  He’s wrestled professionally. So why does Pat McAfee come on GameDay dressed like he's a lesbian?


*********** They’re definitely going to have to do something about the monster they created when they legalized assisting the runner.  On fourth and six, the USC quarterback was forced out of the pocket,  then stopped - his forward progress stopped, anyhow - a yard short of the line-to-gain.  But although completely motionless, he was still standing up, when - wham! - out of nowhere came a couple of his offensive linemen, on the run from back at the line of scrimmage, to give the pile (and the QB) a push across the line.  I almost had a stroke watching it. Football had reverted to rugby.

I’ll bet if a defender had come in while he was being held up and taken a shot at him Oregon State would have been called for unnecessary roughness.



 
*********** Talk about a hardcore football show…  College Football GameDay’s “Celebrity Guest Picker” - a female wrestler - is welcomed to the show by this year’s “hostess,” who landed her job on the strength of her solid football credentials (she was a Peloton instructor).


*********** John Canzano had a lot to write about…

OFFICIATING BLUNDERS: There was some highly entertaining football played on Saturday by the Pac-12 Conference. I just wish the officiating were better.

The conference officials struggled in a few games, but especially in Pullman, Wash. where they committed a cardinal sin. The officials lost track of downs in the second quarter of Oregon’s thrilling 44-41 win over Washington State.

During the sequence, the Cougars had the ball. On first down, WSU quarterback Cameron Ward was flagged for intentional grounding. The officials spotted the ball, announced the penalty, and then set up for what was announced as third-down and 17.

What happened to second down?

Anyone know?

Washington State called a run play that resulted in a one-yard gain on “third” down. Then, it punted the ball to Oregon on “fourth” down.

During the ensuing television-commercial break, the officials realized their error and spent 10 minutes trying to figure out what to do about it.

Any kid who has ever played a pick-up game on a playground knows the right thing in that situation is an old fashioned do-over. One that should have reverted to the exact circumstance of the original error itself — that missing second down.

It should have been second down. And the Cougars could have then called an appropriate second-down and long play. But that’s not what happened.

After some deliberation and consultation with the Pac-12 Command Center, the officials picked up the ball and time traveled back to the previous series. Except, they didn’t go back far enough. The officials decided the “do-over” would go back to third down and 17.

Again, what happened to second down?

The officials might argue that WSU ran a play there. But they ran a play while thinking it was third and long — not second and long. They were at an obvious disadvantage caused by the officiating error.

I’m not saying the mistake caused WSU’s loss. It didn’t. In the fourth quarter, Oregon scored at will and the Cougars turned the ball over.

But losing track of downs is a bad look. I’m told the Pac-12 Conference will make an announcement of some kind by the end of business on Sunday.

I also saw a ton of unflagged holding in the USC-OSU game. At one point, Trojans’ QB Caleb Williams was scrambling and one of his offensive lineman literally tackled an OSU defensive player who was in hot pursuit. No flag. A former NFL offensive lineman who didn’t attend either university happened to be watching the game and shot me a note in disgust afterward.

He wrote: “The officiating was so f**king bad dude. They just closed their eyes for most of the Beavers game.”

The Stanford-Washington game had a couple of shaky moments, too. So did some others. I typically give most of that in-game, judgment-call bellyaching the benefit of the doubt. Officiating can be very difficult. But when the Pac-12 loses track of downs, heightened scrutiny is justified.

***********   Jeff Collins is out at Georgia Tech.  I haven’t liked him since he tried to blow off Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi’s postgame handshake a couple of years ago.

To me, Georgia Tech is the Nebraska of the South.  Their best years are in the rear view mirror, but partly because of delusions of returning to their glory days, they fired coaches who had brought them more success than anything they’ve experienced since.

There are rumors now that Coach Prime might be considered.  What the hell.  He’s popular in Atlanta, where he played baseball and football.

He will to deal with slightly higher academic standards than he’s been dealing with at Jackson State, but if he can come in and get the job done, good for him and good for Tech. 

And if he can’t, then we’ll have seen the last of him.

I call that a win-win.


***********  Do the TV people really think that there are enough of us football watchers who really give that much of a sh—t about “history being made” in another sport? Do they really think we want half of our screen - and all of our audio - devoted to the possibility that a baseball player standing at the plate might hit a home run?

Wow.  It’s not exactly like Hank Aaron’s 714th homer, but if Judge had hit his 61st (or whatever) , I could tell you exactly where I was and what I was doing at the time.  I was in my living room watching football and blowing my top at having them cut into my Wake Forest-Clemson game.

***********  Thanks for another obit gem. I assume Tom Saunders was not actually a farmer.

Last Tuesday's Zoom was Army-heavy, which was fine with me. Thanks for the sharp breakdown. I'm left wondering if Viti and the OL have made turning-point progress.

Look forward to watching the Aussie football. Am about to tell the machine to record it.

Great page, Coachman.

John Vermillion
St. Petersburg, Florida

THOMAS SAUNDERS OBITUARY

SAUNDERS--Thomas A., III. Thomas Alonza Saunders III, age 86, died peacefully in his home in Palm Beach, FL on September 9, 2022. Tom was a Wall Street innovator, nationally recognized conservative leader, philanthropist, husband, father, grandfather, Virginian and proud American patriot. He was born on June 1, 1936, in Ivor, a town of 300 people, graduated from Maury High School and earned an electrical engineering degree from Virginia Military Institute in 1958. He was a maverick from the get-go, and Brother Rats can attest to the record number of penalty tours Tom walked for the high-spirited and clever pranks he pulled in college. VMI instilled in Tom a deep sense of honor, duty, and discipline, and each day he passed Stonewall Jackson's quote, "You may be whatever you resolve to be." Tom had more resolve than most, and what he became was extraordinary. After serving in the US Army, he began his career in Allis-Chalmers' Space and Defense Sciences department selling fuel cells to NASA's Apollo program. After receiving an MBA from the University of Virginia in 1967, the young man with the tidewater accent moved to New York and began a storied career at Morgan Stanley. By 1971, as a statistician, he was entrusted with keeping the records of Morgan Stanley, a firm so young, Tom kept track of its $8 million capital position on a yellow legal pad. By 1974, Tom had become a Partner and Managing Director of Morgan Stanley during a golden era of Wall Street. He was a leader whose legacy and innovation still resound. As head of Morgan Stanley's Syndicate Desk, he ran the biggest equity financings of the day including AT&T, GE, IBM, DuPont, Exxon, General Motors, and Apple. Tom pioneered many techniques which are still used, including: applying the Green Shoe provision to big IPOs, innovation of Rule 415 to streamline offerings and ushering in the age of simultaneous offerings which permitted concurrent participation in the world's biggest stock exchanges. He led the advisory teams that: determined how AT&T would sell off its regional operating systems, privatized Conrail from the US Government, and privatized British Telecom and British Petroleum. Tom served as Chairman and raised Morgan Stanley's $2.2 billion leveraged buyout fund and founded his own successful private equity business, Saunders Karp & Megrue, which invested in some of the nation's most successful companies including Dollar Tree, where Tom served as Lead Director for nearly three decades. Tom's colleagues and friends loved his good humor and southern charm and knew him as a genius parallel processor with iron will and unmatched work ethic and discipline. In 2008, President George W. Bush named Tom and Jordan the first joint-recipients of the National Humanities Medal for their extensive non-profit service and philanthropy in the realms of public policy, higher education, historic preservation, and the arts. Tom was Chairman of the Heritage Foundation, the country's leading conservative think tank and was awarded the institution's highest honor, the 2018 Clare Boothe Luce Award. Tom served on the Board and endowed a chair at the Marine Corps University Foundation, where, in 2008, he was the recipient of its Major General John H. Russell Leadership Award. Tom made transformative contributions to the University of Virginia across the College of Arts and Sciences, Darden Business School, and the Jefferson Scholars. Tom served as Chairman of Darden and donated the lead gift for Saunders Hall, the main building of Darden's grounds. While serving on the University's Board of Visitors, Tom spearheaded the effort to move the management of the endowment away from the Commonwealth of Virginia's political appointees and funding restrictions by creating and serving as board member of the independent University of Virginia Investment Management Company (UVIMCO). Tom's push for "privatization" was hugely unpopular at the time, but ultimately his gift for persuasiveness prevailed. He was Chairman of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation (Monticello). In 2004, Tom's speedy negotiation and equity facilitated the purchase of Montalto, the property adjacent to Monticello, and permanently spared this important vista from future development. Tom was a founding donor in the effort to preserve and digitize the retirement papers of Thomas Jefferson and built the Saunders Bridge and Saunders-Monticello Trail. He served and led many boards including Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and New-York Historical Society, which awarded him the 2007 History-Makers Award. Tom was a member the National Gallery of Art Trustees Council and had a keen eye for collecting. He has loaned The Saunders Collection, an exceptional group of European Old Master paintings, to the world's most prominent museums. Tom's curiosity was insatiable. From the infinite cosmos to the infinitesimal double helix, he loved learning about everything. Whether he was talking to Margaret Thatcher or a stranger on the street, Tom had a gift for connecting with people. He was a Renaissance man, a passionate runner, cyclist, sailor, hiker, tennis player, traveler, art collector, self-taught ornithologist, and witty dinner companion. Life with Tom was never dull. He was devoted to and fiercely loved his family. He is survived by his wife and perfect life partner of 61 years, Jordan Saunders of Palm Beach, FL, his daughter Mariah Calvert Claud Saunders Moore and son-in-law George Braniff Moore of New York and their three children: Rebecca Carter Saunders Moore, George Saunders Van Rensselaer Moore and Mary Jordan Schuyler Moore, and he is also survived by his son Thomas A. Saunders IV and grandson Thomas A. Saunders V of Los Angeles, CA. Tom Saunders stayed in the harness until the last row was ploughed. He lived fully and well. His integrity, tenacity, generosity, and Virginian charm will echo for generations in the memories of all who loved him. Godspeed Tom Saunders.

Published by New York Times on Sep. 13, 2022.


***********   Hugh,

Minnesota may be favored, but Michigan State is playing at home.  This will be the first real test for the Golden Gophers.  Both defenses will have a say in who wins this one.

As much as I hate to admit it UNC should prevail against Notre Dame.

Maybe the Zoomies have been affected by the academy's new woke curriculum?

Speaking of academy football.  Navy found its way into the Bottom Ten.

Against the TNT look I would always run Power to the open side if I was not in DTDW, and the G Follow to the TE/WB side.

Aussie rules is fun to watch.

College Game Day has become a woke joke.

Enjoy your weekend!

Joe Gutilla
Austin, Texas



*********** QUIZ ANSWER: Lem Barney played his high school ball in Gulfport,Mississippi, where he played quarterback on the football team and was a sprinter on the track team.

He played his college ball at Jackson State, where as a defensive back he had 26 career interceptions, including nine in his junior year and 11 in his senior year. He was a three-time All-SWAC selection, and was chosen to the Black All-American teams of both Ebony Magazine and the Pittsburgh Courier.

Taken by the Detroit Lions in the second round of the 1967 draft, he earned a starting job immediately and started in all 14 games.

In his very first NFL game he intercepted the very first pass thrown his way (by the Packers’ Bart Starr), and as a rookie he went on to lead  the NFL in pass interceptions  (10), yards returned after interceptions  (232) and interceptions returned for touchdowns (3).

He also filled in as the Lions’ punter when the regular was injured, and punted 47 times for a 37.4 yards average.

He was selected as NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year, and played in the Pro Bowl.

He played 11 years, all with the Lions, and was named to seven Pro Bowls. He was named first team All-Pro in  1968 and 1969.

For his career, he had 56 interceptions  which he returned for 1,011 yards and seven TDs. He also returned 143 punts for  1,312 yards and three TDs, and returned 50 kickoffs for 1,274 yards and a TD - a 98-yarder.

He became friends with Motown signer Marvin Gaye, and he and teammate Mel Farr sang backup on Gaye’s album, “What's Going On?” which went gold and became a classic.

He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1992.  He was only the fifth corner to be so honored, and just the 10th defensive back. In fact, he was the fourth Detroit defensive back to be inducted, joining Jack Christiansen, Yale Lary and Dick “Night Train” Lane.

In addition to Billy Sims and Barry Sanders, he was one of three Lions’ greats to wear the Number 20, and in their honor it has been retired by the club.

Lem Barney never won a championship, at any level, and it obviously bothered him. "I was All-City, All-State, All-Pro, and Hall of Fame,” he told Michael Hurd, author of Black College Football. "But I never had a chance to be recognized as a champion. We were second and third for four years (in the SWAC), but never won against Grambling. I never beat the legend.

“If you find anything in my trophy case with ‘Championship’ on it, I stole it.”


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING LEM BARNEY

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - AUSTIN, TEXAS
JOE BREMER - WEST SENECA, NEW YORK
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY



***********  QUIZ:  He’s a widely-known oenophile - that's a connoisseur of fine wines - who’s co-hosted a radio show on food and wine, and has a  personal wine cellar with more than 1,200 bottles. 

He comes by his love of wines naturally - his great-grandfather was a winemaker in Italy.  His grandfather came to America and landed in northeastern Pennsylvania, where he first worked in the mines before becoming a winemaker himself.

He’s now the Voice of the Dolphins on radio, and for many years before that, he teamed with Charlie Jones as a color analyst on NFL telecasts, and  hosted a variety of television shows.

But before all that, he was a very good football player.  In high school in his hometown of Pittston (not Pittsburgh) Pennsylvania, he was one of the top recruits in the country as a running back.

As a wide receiver at Penn State, he was the MVP of the Gator Bowl as a junior and led the Nittany Lions in all purpose yardage as a senior.

He was drafted in the third round by the Dolphins, and for six seasons he was a reliable receiver. He wound up with 93 catches for 1739 yards and 13 touchdowns.

By far his most famous catch  was the one that enabled Dan Marino to set a new NFL record for touchdowns in a season (37).

It was in 1984, against the L.A. Raiders.  He had missed almost the entire 1983 season, and as he told the Los Angeles Times, “I hadn’t caught a touchdown pass in over a year,  and we were in a pass pattern I had been running for seven years without the ball once coming to my side.”

But that one time, it did. It surprised him and he was unable to get his hands up in time to keep the ball from hitting his face mask.  It stuck there.  Touchdown.  And Marino had the record.

Said the receiver, “Never has somebody done so little to break a record as I did on that play.”

FRIDAY,  SEPTEMBER  23,  2022 - "If decency doesn't abide in the captain of the ship, then it's not on board."  The court in the trial of Captain William  Bligh

GAMES I'LL WATCH THIS WEEKEND


FRIDAY GAMES ON MY SCREEN (ALONG WITH ASSORTED HS GAMES ON NFHS NETWORK)


VIRGINIA AT SYRACUSE - The Orangemen are 3-0 and I’d like to see them make it 4 straight.

NEVADA AT AIR FORCE - Wyoming handled  Air Force in the first half, but the Zoomies  came out firing in the second half before coming up short .  Look out, Nevada.



SATURDAY’S TOP 20 ON MY SCREENS (IN ORDER OF THEIR APPEARANCE) I ACTUALLY CHOSE 21, BECAUSE I'LL BE  BAILING EARLY ON AT LEAST ONE OF THEM


CLEMSON AT WAKE FOREST - If it comes down to defense, Clemson wins decisively. If Wake can score, they can win.

BAYLOR AT IOWA STATE - I don’t watch a lot of Big 12 games  so I’m open-minded but I’d like the Cyclones to win.

MISSOURI AT AUBURN - I think after last week that Brian Harsin’s done at Auburn, but I still don’t want them to lose to Missouri because things could get ugly for him.

DUKE AT KANSAS - This isn’t basketball.  This one’s in Lawrence, and it could sell out.  Kansas is a one-touchdown favorite,  but my Duke roots go deep.  Go Devils.

FLORIDA AT TENNESSEE - Tennessee is one of the most exciting teams in college football right now and I think they’ll win this one.

TEXAS AT TEXAS TECH - I don’t think I’ll watch this for long, so I’ll count it as half a game.

NOTRE DAME AT NORTH CAROLINA - Carolina is a three-point favorite, and I think that’s correct.  Notre Dame is just not that talented, especially at  quarterback.

MINNESOTA AT MICHIGAN STATE - Wow. Minnesota is favored by 3.  When Michigan State finally woke up in the fourth quarter last week against Washington, they looked awfully tough.  I like both of these teams, but I have to think that  the Spartans are tougher.

OREGON AT WASHINGTON STATE - A tough one.  I Iike ‘em both. Oregon should win but Oregon always has problems playing in the Palouse.  I’m just going to sit back and watch this one.

ARIZONA AT CAL - Wildcats looked decent in beating ND State. Cal looked okay at Notre Dame.  I think that Cal  wins this one.

NORTHERN ILLINOIS AT KENTUCKY - NIU was favored last week against Vandy and lost.  This isn’t Vandy.  Kentucky could be the second best team in the SEC East.

ARKANSAS AT TEXAS A & M - Two good teams, but how can you root against a good ole boy like Sam Pittman  when he’s going up against a jerk like Jimbo Fisher?

IOWA AT RUTGERS - Is Iowa’s three-point loss to Iowa State a better performance than Rutgers’ one-point win over Boston College?  I think so.  I look for Iowa to play like good Iowa, not bad Iowa, and win.

MARSHALL AT TROY - This one interests me because Army plays at Troy in a couple of weeks, and although the Trojans are slight underdogs, they’ve played well in all three games so far.

WISCONSIN AT OHIO STATE - This is the first OSU game that I’ve considered worth watching, and it may not be that way for long.  Buckeyes are 18.5 point favorites and it could get worse.

KANSAS STATE AT OKLAHOMA - Sooners are looking great under Brett Venables. Wildcats had a big letdown last week, losing to Tulane. Oklahoma  is favored by 12.5  and while I’ll be rooting for K-State, I’m not optimistic.

BOSTON COLLEGE AT FLORIDA STATE - Seminoles are 17.5 point favorites.  I know FSU is greatly improved, but can BC be this bad?  It appears so.

USC AT OREGON STATE - At least twice in my lifetime, USC has come into Corvallis ranked number one in the nation - and lost to the Beavers.   USC is favored by 5.5.  Go Beavs! (To show you how f—ked up the Pac-12 has been, some knuckleheads at conference headquarters  took a game like this, one that could get them national exposure, and put it on the Pac-12 Network, which doesn’t get into a lot of homes outside the West.)

WYOMING AT BYU - Wow.  Wyoming’s coming off a huge win over Air Force, while BYU’s coming off a licking by Oregon.  I think the home crowd gives a big edge to the Cougars.

UTAH AT ARIZONA STATE - You’d expect this to get ugly. Utah, the  preseason favorite, is favored by 15.5 over the leaderless Sun Devils. Sometimes a team will rally in its first game under an interim coach, but not one as poorly coached as ASU has been. This may be my other half game.  (Or it could also be Ohio State-Wisconsin.)

STANFORD AT WASHINGTON - Look out Cardinal - this Husky team looked really tough against Michigan State.



***********  John Canzano related this story about the Oregon State-USC rivalry…

Long-time Oregon State sports information director Hal Cowan, now retired,  recalled Oregon State’s upset win over then No. 1-ranked USC in a Thursday night game in 2008. The Rodgers brothers - James and Jacquizz — accounted for all four OSU touchdowns in the Beavers’ 27-21 win.

It was late in the game, and Cowan was on the sideline when Jacquizz Rodgers was tackled out of bounds, right in front of the OSU team.  As the bench erupted and penalty flags flew,  a Beaver offensive lineman came over, helped Rodgers to his feet, and shouted at the Trojan tackler, “Don’t f**k with the franchise!”


*********** John Canzano writes some really good stuff and for me, at least, it’s worth subscribing to his newsletters…

https://www.johncanzano.com/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email


*********** Kent State is a 44-point underdog against Georgia Saturday.  They know.  It goes with the territory.

It’ll be the third such game for the Golden Flashes this year - they’ve already been thumped by Washington (45-20) and Oklahoma (33-3).  In between, they did a little thumping of their own, beating Long Island 63-10 last week.

But if  this year is anything like last year, they’ll be okay. Last year, they started out 0-3 and were outscored 108-33, but then went on to go 6-2 in the MAC regular season.

Losing some big ones early goes with the job,  and they’re getting paid well for it. Well, the school is, anyhow.  When all’s said and done and they get back to their own conference, their athletic department will have come away $5.2 million richer ($1.8 million from Washington, $1.5 million from Oklahoma, $1.9 million from Georgia.)

It’s going to cover a major portion of the athletic department’s budget for the year,  for which athletes and coaches in Kent State’s other sports should all send thank-you notes to the football team.


***********  One day chicken, next day feathers. 

Two weeks ago, after its beat-down of Notre Dame, Marshall was the toast of college football.

Last Saturday, they were brought back down to earth by a 34-31 overtime loss to Bowling Green, who only the week before, as Marshall was celebrating on the  field at Notre Dame Stadium, was losing  in seven overtimes to (FCS) Eastern Kentucky.


*********** Prior to a meeting of the University of California Board of Regents, Pac-12 Commissioner George Kliavkoff gave the regents something to think about as they debate whether to approve UCLA’s departure to the Big Ten…

"We've done back-of-the-envelope calculations on the negative impact of UCLA expenses -- travel expenses and coaching salaries and other things -- just to get to the average Big Ten athletic budget.  We think that the incremental money they're going to receive from the Big Ten media rights deal will be more than 100% offset by additional expenses.  So you end up taking that money that you earn, and it goes to airline and charter companies and coaches and administrators.  It doesn't go to supporting the student-athletes."

*********** I was reading an obituary in the Wall Street Journal about a gentleman of considerable accomplishments, and I loved the way the writer  told us that although the man was in his 80s when he died,  he worked right to the end:  “Tom Saunders stayed in the harness until the last row was ploughed.”


*********** Chris Vannini, in The Athletic, ranked the Group of 5 teams.

1. BYU (2-1)
2. Cincinnati (2-1)
3. Appalachian State (2-1)
4. Tulane (3-0)
5. Marshall (2-1)
6. Fresno State (1-2)
7. SMU (2-1)
8. Houston (1-2)
9. UTSA (1-2)
10. East Carolina (2-1)

Just missed: Coastal Carolina, Wyoming, Air Force, Boise State, Liberty
(As independents, BYU and Liberty are not eligible for the Group of 5’s New Year’s Six spot)





***************   Joe, I like you, and I want you to be successful, but based on the Bengals’ start, mightn’t this be be a bit premature? 

And then there's  that   subtitle.  Joey Franchise.  Come on.  Do we really need another  “Johnny Football?” 

Think about it, Joe - that “Joey Franchise” thing could  become an awfully heavy burden if things should ever go south.  Even the adoring fans of Cincinnati could turn on you. Are you sure you want to be carrying that on your shoulders?

My suggestion:  with all the money you’re making, buy up all the copies and burn ‘em.


***********   Coach Wyatt.

I have recently played a few teams that have disrupted power and 6GO by chasing guards. Do you have any advice or drills on how to get my tackles to replace faster?


Coach,

I’m assuming that you’re talking about the backside tackle not being able to replace the guard.






I’ve never heard of this happening, but maybe your kid simply can’t do it.  If that’s the case and you have no one else, then drop the “O” (pulling the backside guard) and just run the “G.”  It’s still a good play.

I’m also assuming that

(1) your linemen are  far enough off the ball

(2) you have zero  splits,

(3)  the inside hand is down, inside foot back. 

There are important reasons for doing these things that I’ve discovered through years of trial and error.  They’re not just suggestions.  They’re absolutes.

They’re definitely  factors in the tackle’s being able to do what he needs to do in this case.

 (1) will put him at least a yard away from a defensive lineman

(2) will put him less than a yard from where he has to go

(3) with his inside foot back he’ll be in a better position to slide step. He only has to slide a couple of feet to be able to get to the intersection before the defender.

There are other reasons for doing things the way I do, but this case brings all three of the line “absolutes” into play, and if a coach isn’t doing these things,  he’s not giving himself or  his kids every chance to be successful.

Now, to take it a step further

*  make sure the player's stance is not too wide - no  wider than shoulder width.  This can be a problem with a heavy kid.  With too wide a stance  he won’t be able to step very far with his first slide step;

* since he  first has to step with his playside  foot, he needs to be conscious of putting extra  weight on the opposite foot - the one he’ll being pushing  with. In the correct stance, with his inside hand down and inside foot slightly back, it’s easy for him to do because that outside heel should be on the ground, with his arm  resting on that leg. 

*  Any time I run a drill in which a lineman is going to be pulling, trapping, circling - moving to one side or another -  I always ask, “which foot are you going to be stepping with?” and “which foot are you going to have your weight on?”




Finally, if kids really are  chasing your guards, false-key them (as shown above) :  run 6-G-O exactly as diagrammed, but pull your backside guard to the left, away from the play.  Do that a few times and the kid will begin to question what he was taught, and that will solve any issues on G’s or Powers.

Please be so good as to let me know what you find.


*********** Who am I, earthbound pussy that I am, to be going for cheap laughs at the expense of… 

the mighty watchful eye… guardians beyond the blue… the invisible front line… warfighters brave and true…

Who might  these all-powerful ones be? you ask.

Why, I’ll let them answer that themselves,  with the words of their new song:  “We’re the Space Force From on High.”

Space Force, eh?  No snickering, please.  After all, these are “warfighters” we’re dealing with.


https://www.wdbj7.com/video/2022/09/20/us-space-force-releases-official-song/


*********** Isn’t it sort of hypocritical to be selling a product that imitates meat - and then go out and bite some guy’s nose?


https://fortune.com/2022/09/20/beyond-meat-coo-suspended-for-biting-nose/


***********  More than 100,000 fans will be in “The G” - officially the Melbourne Cricket Ground, or the “MCG” - this Saturday (our Friday, actually - it’s a very tricky thing) when Geelong and Sydney meet in the Grand Final of Australian Rules Football, or “Footy.”

The game (match) starts at 2:30 in the afternoon Saturday, Melbourne Time

You can watch it in the US on FS1

If, like me, you live in Camas, Washington - 9:30 PM Friday

If you live in the Eastern Time Zone - 12:30 AM

The game itself looks somewhat weird, with aspects of soccer, basketball, rugby and team handball.

Scoring is done by kicking (punting) a ball, one somewhat fatter and more rounded on the ends than an American football, between two  goal posts. There is no crossbar.  Actually, there are four goal posts, an equal  distance apart,  at each end of the field, but the real object is to kick the ball between the middle two posts. That’s a “goal,” and it’s worth six points.  A kick just to the outside of the middle two posts, but inside the outer posts, is called a “behind,” and it’s worth just one point.

Scores can be quite high, and the purpose of the “behind,” as much as anything, seems to be to greatly reduce the number of tie games, because a study of games over the years has shown that if all “behinds” were removed from final scores, it would have changed the outcomes in fewer than 2 per cent of  the games.

The ball is advanced downfield in one of three ways: (1) by hand-balling, in which the ball is held in one hand and punched with the other, to a teammate; (2) by running, provided the player touches the ground with the ball - or bounces (dribbles) it once every 15 meters; or (3) by punting. This is by far the most common and most effective means of moving the ball (as well as scoring) and players become extremely proficient at kicking for  distance and accuracy. 

Besides scoring, another major reason for the need for accuracy is that a punt is looked at as a pass, and a teammate catching a punt may play on - pass, run, punt.  When a player catches a punt that’s  gone a certain distance, it’s called a “mark,” and from the point at which he caught it, he’s awarded a free kick (on goal, if he’s close enough).

A mark is highly valued, and there’s often quite a contest to catch a punted ball at its highest point, bringing in elements of basketball rebounding as well as defensive backfield play.

The game is played on a huge oval field, much larger than an American football field, with 18 players on a side.  Because so much of the ball movement is by punting,  and because the players are so adept at it, the ball can move quite swiftly  from one end of the field to the other, more so than in any other field sport.  This means that scores can come suddenly and rapidly, and a big lead can vanish quickly.

The players are extremely  “fit,” as they say, and quite athletic.  You would never see an NFL offensive lineman playing this game.

And although there is none of the ugly brutality that infects our game - the targeting, the blind-side blocks, the roughing, the gratuitous hits on defenseless players - it is a rough game with a fair share of  contact, and it’s easy to see why young Australians make such good punters in American football - punters who don’t shy away from contact, either.


********** Over the years, it’s become part of our  Saturday morning ritual to wake up to College Football Game Day (your 9 AM, you East Coasters, is 6 AM out here).

Over the last few years, though, it’s appeared to us that it’s become less  football and more show biz, an overlap that I’ve long deplored in the NFL.

There’s  the frat boy business,  as five mature men, chosen presumably for their football expertise, constantly go into hysterics over the tiniest bit of sophomoric humor, laughing their asses off as if it’s still 2 AM last night and beer’s going to come shooting out their noses.  Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk.

Figuring that they’ve got the hardcore audience locked up, they give us just enough football, when in actuality they’re really reaching out for non-football viewers - the reality show fans  and the concertgoers.

They insult us by bringing on celebrity  guest pickers, bands and even rappers  who often don’t know sh— about college football and aren’t ashamed to admit it.

Mark my words - it always happens -  the hardcore  guys will finally say “screw it.”

That’s my wife and me.  (Yes, she’s hardcore, too.)

As an experiment, we’ve been watching Gameday and recording Fox’s competing show, Big Noon Kickoff,  to watch later.  (Yeah, “Noon” is  sort  of "marginalizing” - a sociospeak word that I hate -  to us West Coasters, seeing as how New York’s  “noon” is our nine AM, but what the hell.) 

We’ve watched it.  And you know what?  We like it better. It doesn’t have the glitz, and it doesn’t go to all the places that Game Day does, and it  doesn’t have all the Home Depot hard hats to hand out, or all the professionally-made signs, but I like it better.

I like the Fox team better - Brady Quinn, Reggie Bush, Matt Leinart, Urban Meyer. (Yes, hate him if you wish, but the guy knows his sh— and he’s good on this show.) 

I think Fox’s is a more serious football show. I don’t think that early Saturday morning during football season is the time for what's becoming a variety show with a little football thrown in.



***********  Thanks to Coach Wilson for the Army Trap observation. Hope they have the same chances to run it versus GA ST.

You had at least three references today to character breakdowns by both players and coaches. I've been thinking lately about how some of the old-time great coaches (like Fritz Crisler) would've handled these situations. And would these old coaches have fought to get into the 10 mill club as the prime measure of their worth as coaches?

John Vermillion
St. Petersburg, Florida



*********** Hugh,

USC is legit.  Very talented on offense, but pass defense could be its Achilles heel.  

Kansas is legit, and so is its coach Lance Leipold.  Wouldn't be a surprise to see his name on Nebraska's short list along with Chadwell.

Coach Monken must have had a come to Jesus meeting with his OC.

Notre Dame almost snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.  

Colorado may be the next Power 5 program looking for a new HC after the pounding they took from Minnesota.

Arizona State.  $$$ says Tom Herman.

The Big 10 got sold a bill of goods to take USC AND UCLA.  USC...ok.  UCLA??  No way Jose.


Have a great week!

Joe Gutilla
Austin, Texas





********** QUIZ ANSWER: In 18 years as a head coach at three  different universities,  Fritz Crisler had just one losing season - his first.  When he retired as coach to become a full-time athletic director, his teams had won 116 games, lost 32, and tied 9.  

At his last stop, Michigan, his teams won 71, lost 16, and tied 3 (an .806 winning percentage).

He won national championships (in 1933 and 1947) at two different schools.

He  coached countless All-Americans and had an impressive coaching tree.

He was named the AFCA coach of the year in 1947.

He was a high school star in Mendota, Illinois, and played college  football at the University of Chicago under the legendary Amos Alonzo Stagg.  He was an all-round athlete, winning a total of nine varsity letters - three each in football, basketball and baseball, and as a senior he won the Big Ten Medal of Honor.

After graduation, he spent  eight years at Chicago as an assistant to Mr. Stagg (no one called him anything other than “Mister Stagg.”), and in 1930 was hired as head coach and athletics director at Minnesota.

The Gophers went 3-4-1 in his first season, but in his second season they went 7-3.  His most outstanding player was a guard (and, occasionally, fullback) named Biggie Munn, who was named an All-American.  Years later,  as head coach at Michigan State in 1947, Munn would oppose his old  coach. (Michigan, the best team in the nation that year, would beat the Spartans, 55-0.)

After two years at Minnesota he took the head job at Princeton. (Why, I haven’t been able to find out.  Times sure have changed - who nowadays can imagine a coach leaving a Big Ten school for an Ivy League job?)

Princeton had won only four games total in the previous three seasons, and the Tigers won just two games in his first season, finishing 2-2-1.  But in his second season, they went 9-0, and won the mythical national championship.  The custom at the time was to invite the best team in the east to face a West Coast team in the Rose Bowl, and Princeton was invited. But, characteristically Ivy-League, the school administration declined the invitation. (Columbia was invited, Columbia accepted, and Columbia upset favored Stanford.)

It was the first of two unbeaten and untied teams he would have a Princeton. In a three-year span from 1933 through 1935, the Tigers were 25-1.

In six years at Princeton,  his record was 35-9-5.

Following the 1937 season, he headed for Michigan.  With him, he took his unbalanced-line single wing, and the helmet design, originated while he was at Princeton, that now symbolizes Michigan.

At Michigan, he was a success  right from the start.  His 1938 team finished 6-1-1, good for second place in the Big Nine (Chicago had dropped out and Michigan State had yet to be admitted) and 16th place nationally.

His second team finished 6-2, again good for second place in the Conference, and this time good for 20th place nationally.

And then started an astonishing run of success - for the next eight years, Michigan was ranked in the Top Ten nationally.

His final team, in 1947, was his best, and one of the best college football teams of all time.

In the second year of the Big Ten-Pacific Coast Conference deal with the Rose Bowl, the Wolverines played in the game for the first time since 1902 (the first-ever Rose Bowl game) and defeated USC, 49-0.

His influence on  the game was enormous.  One of his innovations has made a permanent impact on our game.   Army coach Earl “Red” Blaik described it in his memoirs, “You Have to Pay the Price.” Telling about his great 1945 Army team and its 28-7 win over Michigan, he wrote…

The Michigan game, played in Yankee Stadium before a 70,000 sellout, may have been our most interesting of the year. The Wolverines were young, but they were talented, spirited and, like all Crisler's   teams, precise, deceptive, diversified, and colorful on the attack.

Michigan never would have been able to make the fight of it she did, however, had not (he) taken advantage of unlimited substitution, permitted by the rules as far back as 1941, to use separate units, or close to it, on offense and defense. This kept fresh men in action, which cut down the edge of superior personnel. It also emphasized the incontrovertible principle that there are always more boys on a squad who can play the game better one way, offensively or defensively, then there are those who can play it both ways.

What I saw that day in Michigan's separate units for offense and defense stayed with me and was to exert a solitary effect on army football soon after the Blanchard – Davis era.

Coach Blaik  was so impressed by what he saw Michigan doing that he began to employ two separate units himself - two separate “platoons,” as he called them, employing  Army terminology.

After the 1947 season, Fritz Crisler retired as coach to devote full time to being Michigan’s athletics director for the next 22 years.  During that time Michigan teams excelled in a great number of sports, and he over saw the expansion of Michigan Stadium - the Big House - to more than 100,000 seats.

He wanted it to be 100,001 but it somehow wound up at 101,001.  Today’s  capacity of 107,601 honors his desire to have that one extra seat. 

The legend is that the extra seat is reserved for him.


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING FRITZ CRISLER

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
TOM DAVIS - SAN CARLOS, CALIFORNIA
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - AUSTIN, TEXAS
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY


*********** According to a NYT report Crisler was offered a more lucrative position at Princeton.  At that time the Ivy schools were considered "powers" in college football.  Crisler's mention of the offer "tendered" his position at Minnesota and off he went to NJ.  Crisler was succeeded by Bernie Bierman at Minnesota who went on to make the Gophers a Big Ten power, and considered the greatest of all Minnesota football coaches).

Joe Gutilla
Austin, Texas

Mike Lude - a Vicksburg, Michigan guy - played for Dave Nelson at Hillsdale College, then assisted Nelson at Hillsdale, Maine and Delaware.  Dave Nelson played wingback at Michigan in Fritz Crisler’s single wing, so there’s the connection.  Mike has told me that it was pretty well known that any time Coach Crisler played Bernie Bierman and saw something he liked,  it was in the Michigan playbook the very next week!



*********** QUIZ: He played his high school ball in Gulfport,Mississippi, where he played quarterback on the football team and was a sprinter on the track team.

He played his college ball at Jackson State, where as a defensive back he had 26 career interceptions, including nine in his junior year and 11 in his senior year. He was a three-time All-SWAC selection, and was chosen to the Black All-American teams of both Ebony Magazine and the Pittsburgh Courier.

Taken by the Detroit Lions in the second round of the 1967 draft, he earned a starting job immediately and started in all 14 games.

In his very first NFL game he intercepted the very first pass thrown his way (by the Packers’ Bart Starr), and as a rookie he went on to lead  the NFL in pass interceptions  (10), yards returned after interceptions  (232) and interceptions returned for touchdowns (3).

He also filled in as the Lions’ punter when the regular was injured, and punted 47 times for a 37.4 yards average.

He was selected as NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year, and played in the Pro Bowl.

He played 11 years, all with the Lions, and was named to seven Pro Bowls. He was named first team All-Pro in  1968 and 1969.

For his career, he had 56 interceptions  which he returned for 1,011 yards and seven TDs. He also returned 143 punts for  1,312 yards and three TDs, and returned 50 kickoffs for 1,274 yards and a TD - a 98-yarder.

He became friends with Motown singer Marvin Gaye, and he and teammate Mel Farr sang backup on Gaye’s album, “What's Going On?” which went gold and became a classic.

He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1992.  He was only the fifth corner to be so honored, and just the 10th defensive back. In fact, he was the fourth Detroit defensive back to be inducted, joining Jack Christiansen, Yale Lary and Dick “Night Train” Lane.

In addition to Billy Sims and Barry Sanders, he was one of three Lions’ greats to wear the Number 20, and in their honor it has been retired by the club.

He never won a championship, at any level, and it obviously bothered him. "I was All-City, All-State, All-Pro, and Hall of Fame,” he told Michael Hurd, author of Black College Football. "But I never had a chance to be recognized as a champion. We were second and third for four years (in the SWAC), but never won against Grambling. I never beat the legend.

“If you find anything in my trophy case with ‘Championship’ on it, I stole it."






TUESDAY,  SEPTEMBER  20, 2022 - "The key to your success will be not what you do, but how well you teach what you do." John Robinson


***********  THE NATIONAL FOOTBALL FOUNDATION /FOOTBALL WRITERS TOP 16



(Still no mention of Oregon State.  Damn shame, because Saturday they have to play USC.  At least it’s at Corvallis.)



********** MY TOP 20 GAMES (IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE)

OKLAHOMA AT NEBRASKA - OU is favored by 11.  I think they’ll cover easily.  THEY COVERED EASILY.  WITH PLENTY OF OTHER GAMES TO WATCH, I DIDN’T WASTE A SCREEN ON THIS ONE FOR VERY LONG.  FROST OR NOT,  NEBRASKA IS NOT VERY TALENTED.  OKLAHOMA IS.

VILLANOVA AT ARMY -  ARMY GOT SERIOUS ABOUT ITS RUNNING GAME -  472 YARDS RUSHING  AND ZERO YARDS PASSING.  VILLANOVA  DID NOT PLAY LIKE THE #7-RANKED FCS TEAM.

PURDUE AT SYRACUSE - AN ABSOLUTELY INSANE GAME!  AT THE HALF IT WAS 9-3, PURDUE. AFTER  THREE QUARTERS IT WAS 10-9, SYRACUSE. FINAL SCORE: 32-29, SYRACUSE. BETWEEN THEM, THE TWO TEAMS SCORED 42 POINTS IN THE FOURTH  QUARTER!

WESTERN KENTUCKY AT INDIANA - Indiana by 6.5. Hoosiers got ‘em by a nose last year. GOT ‘EM BY A NOSE AGAIN THIS YEAR. IN OT, INDIANA BLOCKED A WKU  FIELD GOAL, THEN MADE A  51-YARDER TO WIN IT.

OLD DOMINION AT VIRGINIA - This is my upset of the week. With Virginia favored by 9.5, ODU is an easy pick for me.  IT WAS A CLOSE ONE - 16-14. YES, ODU COVERED, BUT UVA  GOT THE WIN.

CAL AT NOTRE DAME - The Irish are ten point favorites.  They may win, even without starting QB Tyler Buchner, but I don’t think it will be by ten. NOTRE DAME FINALLY WON, BUT ONLY AFTER DOING THEIR DAMNEDEST TO GIVE CAL ONE LAST CHANCE TO WIN IT. MAKE THAT TWO LAST CHANCES.

BYU AT OREGON - I don’t see how Oregon, even at home, can be 3.5 point favorites.  I’d take BYU and the points. DUMB ME.  IF I HAD SPENT SATURDAY AT A VEGAS  SPORTS BOOK, AFTER THIS ONE I’D STILL BE WALKING HOME ABOUT NOW.  THE DUCKS REALLY PUT THE WOOD TO A BYU TEAM THAT ONLY A WEEK AGO BEAT BAYLOR. TRANSFER QB BO NIX (13/18 for 222 and TWO TDS PLUS TWO TDS RUSHING ) LOOKED LIKE THE  GOOD BO NIX THAT WE SAW AT TIMES AT AUBURN.  MAYBE BETTER.

PENN STATE AT AUBURN - Penn State’s favored by 3 and I’ll be surprised if they don’t cover. THE LIONS MORE THAN COVERED.  IT WAS CLOSE AT THE HALF - 14-6 PENN STATE - BUT THE  FINAL WAS 41-12.  THE TIGERS COULD MANAGE ONLY ONE FOURTH-QUARTER  TOUCHDOWN.

VANDERBILT AT NORTHERN ILLINOIS -  NIU is a 2.5 point favorite.  Of course I’d take Vandy and the points. VANDY WON, 38-28.  THEY’RE NOW 3-1.  ENJOY IT, COMMODORES - NEXT SATURDAY YOU’RE AT ALABAMA.

KANSAS AT HOUSTON -  Houston is favored by 8.5 and I think they’ll cover. WTF?????  KANSAS WINS - AND WINS BIG!!! BUT I NEVER  GOT TO WATCH  A BIT OF IT BECAUSE OF LONG WEATHER DELAYS (WHICH ALSO SCREWED UP MY DVR SCHEDULES, SO I DIDN’T RECORD IT, EITHER).

LIBERTY AT WAKE FOREST - Wake is favored by 16.5.  I just want ‘em to win. WOW.  LIBERTY WENT FOR TWO AT THE END - WAKE UP, 37-36 - AND  DIDN’T MAKE IT. NEXT SATURDAY, WAKE HOSTS CLEMSON.

COLORADO STATE AT WASHINGTON STATE - THIS COUGAR TEAM HASN’T HEARD THE EXPRESSION “COUGIN’ IT.” THEY BEAT  THE RAMS, 38-7 TO REMAIN UNBEATEN.

MISSISSIPPI STATE AT LSU - I’m expecting the Bulldogs to win this one. They’re favored by 2.5 and I think they’ll cover. WOW.  THE BULLDOGS  PLAYED WITHOUT ANY SENSE OF URGENCY.  YOU THINK MAYBE MIKE LEACH TOOK “COUGIN’ IT” WITH HIM WHEN HE LEFT WASHINGTON STATE?

TEXAS TECH AT NC STATE - Wow.  Wolfpack is favored by 10 points!  I think they’ll win, but not by 10. TT OUTGAINED THE PACK, BUT THEY TURNED IT OVER FOUR TIMES - ONCE FOR A “PICK SIX” - AND LOST TO STATE, 27-14.  NEXT WEEK THEY GET TEXAS AT HOME.

MICHIGAN STATE AT WASHINGTON - Huskies are favored by 3.5.  Take Michigan State and the points.  NICE CALL, HUGH.  WHO SAW THIS ONE COMING?  HUSKIES LED, 29-8, AT THE HALF, AND 36-14 AFTER THREE.  THINGS GOT A BIT SCARY IN THE FOURTH  QUARTER AS THE SPARTANS SCORED TWICE, BUT THE HUSKIES GOT THEIR FIRST WIN IN YEARS OVER A RANKED OPPONENT. PLEASE, LORD, LET MICHAEL PENIX FINALLY MAKE IT THROUGH AN ENTIRE SEASON UNINJURED,

SMU AT MARYLAND - With the Terps favored by 2.5, I’d  take  Mustangs. TERPS COVERED, 34-27.  THEY ARE 3-0 GOING INTO THE BIG HOUSE ON SATURDAY.

UTSA AT TEXAS -  Roadrunners could beat the spread and maybe even the Longhorns. IT WAS 17-17 AT THE HALF, BUT THE LONGHORNS WERE TOO MUCH FOR THE ROADRUNNERS IN THE SECOND HALF, AND WON, 41-20.  BIJAN ROBINSON CARRIED 20 TIMES FOR 183 YARDS (9.2 YARDS PER CARRY) AND  THREE TDS.

MIAMI AT TEXAS A & M - I guess I have to go with Miami, the ACC team, especially since they’re getting 6 points.  THE HURRICANES OUTRUSHED AND OUTPASSED THE AGGIES, AND HAD 11 MORE FIRST DOWNS.  BUT THEY COULD ONLY MANAGE THREE FIELD  GOALS - NOT A SINGLE TOUCHDOWN! - AND LOST, 17-9.

FRESNO STATE AT USC - The Bulldogs are being given 12.5 points.  I’d take the points.  YEAH, RIGHT.  FINAL SCORE 45-17 - BULLDOGS’ QB JAKE HAENER WAS CARTED OFF DURING THE THIRD QUARTER, WITH A HIGH ANKLE SPRAIN. DIDN’T REALLY MATTER - TROJANS WERE UP 35-17 BY THEN.  THEY ARE SCARY GOOD.

NORTH DAKOTA STATE AT ARIZONA - Me? I’ll take NDSU.  WRONG.  BIG WIN FOR THE WILDCATS!  I KNOW I’VE SAID THIS BEFORE, BUT THE BISON’S FULLBACK, HUNTER LUEPKE, IS A STUD!


DIDN’T SEE THESE COMING (ACTUALLY, I DIDN’ T SEE THEM, PERIOD.)

SOUTHERN ILLINOIS 31, NORTHWESTERN 24
EASTERN MICHIGAN 30, ARIZONA STATE 21
TULANE 17, KANSAS STATE 10
FLORIDA 31, SOUTH FLORIDA 28
UCLA 32, SOUTH ALABAMA 31 - IF UCLA WINS AT HOME, AND NOBODY'S THERE, DOES IT REALLY HAPPEN?


SPECIAL MENTION - ANOTHER HAIRY WIN FOR APP STATE

FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS

FLORIDA STATE  35, LOUISVILLE 31 - Starting QB Jordan Travis went down in the second  quarter, and FSU trailed at the half, 21-14, but a kid named Tate Rodemaker stepped up and the Seminoles won

WYOMING 17 , AIR FORCE 14 - In the first half, the Cowboys  did about as good a job as I’ve ever seen anyone do defending against Air Force, and led 10-0 at halftime. Air Force made adjustments and scored twice in the second half, but  when they needed to, the Cowboys were able to do some ball control of their own to run out the clock. The Cowboys actually outrushed the Falcons, 180 yards to 171, and had more first downs, 18-14. Air Force’s star running back, Brad Roberts, was held to 54 yards on 16 carries.


*********** FROM THE ATHLETIC:

Biggest eye-opener: Kansas 48, Houston 30. The Jayhawks haven’t won four games since 2009, but they’re 3-0 and averaging 53(!) points per game. They host 3-0 Duke next week in the Not Just A Basketball School Bowl.



*********** When we first moved to the Pacific Northwest,  our loyalty was up for grabs. We were outsiders, with no school affiliations out here, and as we began to meet and like  people from the four main schools, we found ourselves rooting for all of them. It's more than 45 years later, and that's still the way it is with us.  It hasn't always been easy, and after this past Saturday, I was marveling at the thought that for  the last two weekends, all four teams in the Pacific Northwest won.  With Oregon State and Washington State a part of the four, and Washington not exactly powerful of late, you could usually  count on at least one of the four losing.

But this year, their overall record is 11-1, and the one with the loss is the one who’s been by far the most consistently successful - Oregon, which lost in its opening game to the defending national champion..

I was going to write more about it, but John Canzano beat me to it, and he did it so well that anything I might write would be redundant…

My mind is on the Pacific Northwest today. The records of Oregon, Oregon State, Washington and Washington State are a combined 11-1. The lone loss in the pod came vs. Georgia in Week 1.

On Saturday, the Ducks dismantled No. 12 BYU 41-20 at Autzen Stadium. I was there and wrote a column about the emergence of quarterback Bo Nix. Washington, meanwhile, beat No. 11 Michigan State 39-28. And Oregon State and WSU both won convincingly.

Can anyone remember the four programs from the Pacific Northwest collectively looking better?

I can’t.

It’s not just that they’re winning games. It’s the way they’re doing it. The offenses look great. The defenses are playing fast. The quarterback play is sharp. There are no weak links and the consolidated energy around the four football programs has never felt stronger.

Utah is tough and USC has assembled a “dream team” on offense, sure. (I can’t decide what to do with UCLA.) But the four programs from the Pacific Northwest have formed into a group of conference-championship contenders. None of us should be surprised when one of the northwest schools shows up in Las Vegas on Dec. 2 to play USC/Utah for the conference championship.

A few fun facts:

• Oregon State is 3-0. WSU is 3-0. It’s the first time since 1915 that the Beavers and Cougars both started 3-0 in the same season. That’s not a typo. That was 107 years ago.

• Oregon’s victory on Saturday snapped the Pac-12’s five-game losing streak vs. BYU.

• Washington’s “upset” of MSU broke the Huskies’ six-game losing streak vs. ranked Big Ten opponents.

• Washington State hasn’t given up more than 17 points in a game this season. Idaho managed that total in the opener, Wisconsin scored 14 in Week 2, and Colorado State only netted seven points on Saturday.

The Huskies look lethal on offense with QB Michael Penix Jr. (347 passing yards and 4 TDs) and have a great group of receivers. WSU’s front seven is disruptive on defense. Oregon State knows exactly who it is and understands how to win. And Oregon has talent at a few key positions.

The Pac-12’s weakest link?

It’s not any of those schools. Colorado currently has that locked up. The Buffaloes have been non-competitive. After that, Arizona State (1-2) has been disappointing. The Sun Devils lost to Central Michigan on Saturday.

Which is the best college football team in the Pacific Northwest pod?
You tell me.

WSU hosts Oregon next Saturday in Pullman. So we’ll get some head-to-head clarity there. Oregon State welcomes USC to Corvallis for what could be the final time ever. The Beavers pile drove the Trojans last season, will they do it again? Washington, meanwhile, plays a rested Stanford team.

I’m just going to enjoy the ride. And I hope fans of the Beavers, Cougars, Ducks and Huskies do, too.

*********** Iowa needed a little over seven hours, but they finally scored some touchdowns, and beat Nevada 27-0.  The game started at 6:30 local time, but as a result of nearly four hours of weather delays, it wasn’t over until 1:39 (AM).


*********** Texas A & M had four starters   suspended before the Miami game, and then had two players ejected from the game.

Classy bunch  you’ve assembled, Jimbo.  Nice job of building character.

What was that you were saying about Nick Saban?


*********** Arizona State finally pulled the plug on Herm Edwards.  How could it have been a good hire when the guy hadn’t coached in ten years and hadn’t coached a college team in 30 years?

Who would even have hired him - except an athletics director who was once his agent?

I’m surprised it happened so early but unless the AD goes, too - the one who said at the time they hired him that they were going to run things like a pro organization - it won’t make a bit of difference.

They’re  still facing the possibility of NCAA sanctions, with or without blowhard Herm, and it’s going to be tough to entice a guy to come in and take his chances.


*********** Early in the third quarter, with Houston down 28-14 to Kansas - Kansas! - a couple of Houston players went at it right on the sideline.

A Houston player named Joseph Manjack IV (used to be you’d only find a guy with a  “IV” after his name playing at a  ritzy New England prep school) walked up to a teammate and forcibly shoved him  to the ground. A tussle ensued, before teammates could break it up.

Houston coach Dana Holgorsen, whose Power 5 salary (north of $4 million) evidently doesn’t include any expectations that his players will not do things to embarass the school, had this to say after the game.

“Manjack took it upon himself to go over there and confront Sam, which is not the right thing to do.  He was dead wrong and shouldn’t have done it and knows it and feels bad about it.”

Well.  At least the kid’s remorseful.  Or so Holgorsen says.  As for Holgorsen himself, not a word about the kind of guys he’s recruiting or the way  their actions reflect on the sport or on the school.

I wasn’t watching, but I’m guessing that the announcers said it had something to do with “frustration.”

https://footballscoop.com/news/watch-losing-to-kansas-houston-cougars-players-fight-one-another-on-sideline



*********** Can you remember the last time Kansas won and Kansas State lost on the same day?


*********** After Saturday’s beat-down by Penn State, Auburn’s Brian Harsin could be  fired by Auburn any day now.   So what’s the problem?   I can think of worst things to happen to me than to be freed to leave a place that’s impossible to satisfy, with several million dollars in my pocket.  He hasn’t even been fired yet and he’s already one of the top names mentioned for the Arizona State job.


*********** Talk about team culture - or I should say the lack of it - killing you. Purdue scored a touchdown with 51 seconds to go to go ahead of Syracuse.  But the Purdue scorer had to mouth off - a play later, after the extra point,  so wham - 15 yards for unsportsmanlike conduct - and then the  Purdue coach had to protest a bit excessively, and wham - 15 more yards for unsportsmanlike conduct - and the next thing you know, the Boilermakers were kicking off from their OWN TEN YARD LINE! 

But wait - that’s not all.  After Syracuse returned the kickoff to midfield, Purdue was called for defensive holding and then for pass interference (they had 144 yards in penalties in all) until Syracuse  finally said “what the hell - if you insist,” and scored the winning touchdown at the buzzer.  What started it all was the mouthy Boilermaker, who - get this - was a 2021 Big Ten Sportsmanship Honoree.


 

*********** Please, Iowa fans.  Please, Michigan fans.  Please, Ohio State fans. Please, Wisconsin fans.  Please, Penn State fans.  Please Big Ten fans.  Please come out here when your team’s playing the Bruins and make it look like a real college game, with spectators  ’n’ everything!


***********  Schalick 36, Riverside 14

We won number 3 last night on the backs of a strong offensive performance. 48 rushes for 415 yards and still found room for a TD pass off of play action. Just shy of 500 yards of total offense.

Still plenty of room to improve but we are getting there with so many sophomores playing major roles.

3-1 on the season so far.

Hope all is well.

Thanks

Mike Wilson
Schalick HS
Pittsgrove, New Jersey


*********** Bennett, Colorado returned to action after a bye week and remained unbeaten  with a 40-32  win over Banning Lewis Academy.  An uncharacteristically large number of penalties and turnovers (four fumbles in the second half) by the Tigers, possibly a result of the one week layoff, kept Banning Lewis in the game right to the end.


*********** I have kept years and years of copies of Sports Illustrated, going  back to the 1950s and carefully catalogued  by my wife.  The magazine’s now just a  shadow of what it once was -  the epitome of sports reporting  - but for some strange reason it keeps coming to my house.  Now, like the old joke (“This food is awful.”  “Yes, and the portions are so small.”), the content sucks and for the same  subscription we get half as many issues.

I happened to be thumbing though the latest issue and came to their “Faces in the Crowd” section in which they highlight athletes, often younger ones, who for one reason or another aren’t yet famous but are worthy of recognition.

I read about a high school football player  named Nyckoles Harbor, from Archbishop Carroll High in Washington, DC.

He’s a defensive lineman and  tight end, and said to be the top ranked athlete in the 2023 football recruiting class.

He’s narrowed his list of schools, we’re  told, to Michigan, USC, Miami, South Carolina, LSU, Maryland and Georgia.

He’s big -  6-6, 245 - and quite fast - he’s been clocked in a track meet at 10.32 in the 100 meters.

But the best thing about him is his modesty.

“I will be known,” he says in SI, “as one of the greatest to play football and the greatest ever in track.”


***********   Hi Coach!

I just finished your Zoom recording. Thanks so much for putting the videos out there for all that cannot make it live. I appreciate it very much!

Your impact on those players from the (Finnish) reunion was obvious. Seeing them after all these years must have been special. You have emphasized "trust" and "teamwork" more than once at your clinics and media presentations and I recently saw those attributes mentioned in a pregame session in Texas. Cal Lutheran played Southwestern in Georgetown, Texas this past weekend and my son Jacob who lives near Austin got to reunite with an old position coach Anthony Lugo, who is now the head coach. Jacob was asked to speak to the team prior to taking the field and his emphasis was "trust" and "team". I attached the short video just to let you know that your impact filters down not only through your players but through all of us that had your tutelage over the years. Sometimes I wonder if my coaching ever resonated with players. It was special to see my son preach the ideals with some passion!

Thanks again Hugh!

Best,

Michael Norlock
Atascadero, California


***********   There was something important to look at in the Army - Villanova game this past.  It is the continuation of the Development of the Midline Concept and the Trap Option Series.

Larry Beckish's Great Book, The Trap Option, looks at the Trap Option as an ONSIDE attack. 

All Defensive Keys may be Read, Blocked or Trapped and the great advance with the Trap Option is that the normal Triple Option Dive Key is "displaced" to a different Defender or Area.  The Midline Dive is designed to "Collapse" the Defense, especially the LBs. 

(See esp.: ECU games from the Trap Option years - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAvaXAIsizs&t=97s , for ex..  An odd, but fun, game  is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhnC4jJ6qQw&t=10218s)

So, izzat it?  You choose your Option Attack and you commit to installing it?...

No.

What if you could determine which way the Trap went?  The QB opens to one side, the Backs flow in the same direction and the FB Trap proceeds in the other direction.  The Trap Dive is now a Counter-dive opposite flow.  This is what the Army Trap did several times and Touchdowns came from this Trap-away.

This would seem to be very useful against an A-Gap Down Lineman.  Can we call the Trap away from this A-Gap threat?

This is what I was looking at in my Last Daze in HS.

Name your Guards - "Ron" and "Lou".  "Tom" gets to play as well. 

The Call is something like: "Midline Dive with Trap: 'Ron' means Right Guard Traps Left" -

Something like "Blue 80, Ron".  "Tom" would allow the Center to call the direction of the Trap based on the A-Gap Defender.

This can be applied to just about any other FB-Centered Offense regardless of FB depth or QB being under Center or not.

Army Football is alive and well.  The Midline, with or without Trap, is helping it greatly.

Charlie Wilson
Brooksville, Florida


*********** Saw you like WSU.  One of my former players from Pop Warner is an Edge player there,  Quinn Roff.  Coached him his first 3 years of football, from 7 - 9.  He was a DW full back his 2nd year.  Really good player who always had speed but only straight line speed.  A few years later after playing Lacrosse for a couple of years, I saw some video of him and wow would  he have been a killer A back.  His dad is a retired Navy Chief and as a retired Marine he's actually a pretty good guy and he keeps his son grounded. 

Quinn was a League Defensive MVP all San Diego Section as a senior and  played in the playoffs as a Freshman on the Varsity and started his remaining 3 years on Varsity.  His high school coaches would talk to scouts and for some reason they were not interested.  He decided to be a preferred Walk on while Mike Leach was still at WSU.  As you can see I'm sure he is on scholarship now since he's been in the defensive rotation for this his 3rd season.

Tom Davis
San Carlos, California


*********** Another 'electric' page from the opening quotation onward. Today's page especially, in that I recall how excited I'd get as a kid finding out my sports heroes could do more than play their games. My head was crammed with details, for example, about two of the people cited in this column, Terry Baker and Whizzer White. I only hope today's youth can be inspired by those examples, but of course before you can be inspired you have to be curious enough to learn about them.

Then, out of the limelight, we have other good men like Coach Fagerstedt quietly--and in relative obscurity--going about their lives making a difference for the good in their community.

Please report back on the ADA versus homeless. I'm not likely to get much news on that story except through you.

You may have read a national story recently in which the author wondered aloud how long Dabo can hold out without accepting transfers. I don't know the answer, but applaud Coach Swinney's position. If and until he relents, I'm in his corner.

Finally, for some reason I often think of Joe Moglia, the wealthy CEO who wanted to be a football coach, and wound up doing what he wanted by building Coastal's football program. Thanks to Coach Gutilla for reminding me of Moglia's connection to Tom Osborne and Nebraska. Yes, Jamey Chadwell might be holding out for something bigger, but the Huskers should put him on their short list.

John Vermillion
St. Petersburg, Florida


***********  Hugh,

Kudos to coach Joe Fagerstedt.  Wish there were more like him.

If an upcoming opponent of ours was playing on a Thursday night my staff and I would attend the game and scout them.  I'm not talking about 30+ years ago (back then most everyone did that).  I'm talking within the past 10 years.  My assistants would "remind" me that we would get HUDL of that game.  I reminded them that HUDL wouldn't show us the sideline environment, player interaction, injuries, and emotion.  Oh.

Unfortunately there aren't many Dabos out there, and until there are that damn transfer portal will continue to change the way college football coaches build their rosters.

I didn't watch the Seattle-Denver game because I just don't give a rip about the NFL anymore.  But from what you describe I believe the word "LOYALTY" is why the Seattle fans were booing.  Mark my words.  You'll see it more and more at the college level (transfer portal AND coaches bailing for "better" jobs - translation...$$$).

The changing landscape of college football has trashed some of the great rivalries.  Oklahoma-Nebraska immediately comes to mind.

UTSA will give Texas all it can handle.  

Cal will continue to expose ND's pass defense, but the Irish offense won't help and will continue to struggle.  

Last time Fresno State made a trip to LA Bulldog QB Jake Haener's gutsy performance in the Rose Bowl toppled UCLA.  Haener has never played in the Coliseum and finally gets his chance to play there on Saturday.  

If Colorado can't contain the Minnesota rushing attack the Golden Gophers will move to 3-0.

Enjoy the weekend!

Joe Gutilla
Austin, Texas




*********** QUIZ ANSWER:  Of all the great players from the great Packers' teams,  Willie Davis was one of the very greatest. And of all the great players turned out by Eddie Robinson in Grambling's heyday, he was also one of the very greatest.

Born in rural Louisiana, he attended high school in Texarkana, Arkansas, and played college football at Grambling, under the great Coach Rob. But despite being a Black College All-American (to show how lowly-regarded black college football was at the time) he wasn't drafted until the 15th round by the Cleveland Browns in 1956.

Called up by the Army,  he missed the 1956 and 1957 seasons and played service football, but on his return he earned a spot on the Browns' roster, and played two years for Cleveland before being traded to Green Bay for a player named A. D. Williams.

He became just the fourth black player on the Green Bay team, joining Emlen Tunnell, Paul Winslow and Willie Wood.  According Vince Lombardi’s biographer David Maraniss, "The four black Packers used to say that they constituted four-fifths of the permanent black population of the city, the fifth being the shoeshine man at the Hotel Northland."

At Green Bay,  Lombardi instantly saw his pass-rushing potential and made him a fixture on his defensive line. As a standout member of the Packers' defense for the next 10 years, he played in the NFL title game in his first season with Green Bay, and in five of the next seven seasons. He also played on the first two Super Bowl championship teams  (the game was not yet called the Super Bowl).

And (back when the Pro Bowl really meant something) he played in five Pro Bowl games.

In his 12-year pro career, from 1958 through 1969, he didn't miss a game - 162 consecutive games in all. He was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1981.

He is on the 1960s All-Decade Team.

He always had an eye on something bigger than football. During his two years in Cleveland, he taught high school classes in the off-season.
In 1967, he won  the Byron White Award, named for “Whizzer” White, the former pro football player who became a Supreme Court justice, and given to the athlete contributing most to his country, his community and his team.

In 1968, he received a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Chicago, while joining the Schlitz Brewing Company's marketing training program.


After retirement from pro football in 1969, he devoted full-time to business, including ownership of West Coast Beverage, a Los Angeles-based beer distributorship, and interests in numerous radio stations.

He was elected in 1994 to the Green Bay Packers' Board of Directors, and in 1998 to the Marquette University board of trustees. He also serves on the board of trustees of the University of Chicago.

He served on the board of directors of the Sara Lee Corporation, Dow Chemical, MGM, Alliance Bank, Johnson Controls, Bassett Furniture, Strong Funds, Wisconsin Energy Corporation, Manpower, Inc., and MGM Grand Inc.

Willie Davis was instrumental in raising funds to endow a chair (a professorship) at Grambling in Coach Robinson's honor, donating $100,000 and committing to raise another $500,000,  a gesture that Coach Robinson called “one of the proudest moments of my life.”

Willie Davis died in 2020.  One of his grandsons plays for the New Orleans Saints.


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING WILLIE DAVIS

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
TOM DAVIS - SAN CARLOS, CALIFORNIA
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - AUSTIN, TEXAS
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY



********** QUIZ: In 18 years as a head coach at three  different universities,  he had just one losing season - his first.  When he retired as coach to become a full-time athletic director, his teams had won 116 games, lost 32, and tied 9.  

At his last stop, Michigan, his teams won 71, lost 16, and tied 3 (an .806 winning percentage).

He won national championships (in 1933 and 1947) at two different schools.

He  coached countless All-Americans and had an impressive coaching tree.

He was named the AFCA coach of the year in 1947.

He was a high school star in Mendota, Illinois, and played college  football at the University of Chicago under the legendary Amos Alonzo Stagg.  He was an all-round athlete, winning a total of nine varsity letters - three each in football, basketball and baseball, and as a senior he won the Big Ten Medal of Honor.

After graduation, he spent  eight years at Chicago as an assistant to Mr. Stagg (no one called him anything other than “Mister Stagg.”), and in 1930 was hired as head coach and athletics director at Minnesota.

The Gophers went 3-4-1 in his first season, but in his second season they went 7-3.  His most outstanding player was a guard (and, occasionally, fullback) named Biggie Munn, who was named an All-American.  Years later,  as head coach at Michigan State in 1947, Munn would oppose his old  coach. (Michigan, the best team in the nation that year, would beat the Spartans, 55-0.)

After two years at Minnesota he took the head job at Princeton. (Why, I haven’t been able to find out.  Times sure have changed - who nowadays can imagine a coach leaving a Big Ten school for an Ivy League job?)

Princeton had won only four games total in the previous three seasons, and the Tigers won just two games in his first season, finishing 2-2-1.  But in his second season, they went 9-0, and won the mythical national championship.  The custom at the time was to invite the best team in the east to face a West Coast team in the Rose Bowl, and Princeton was invited. But, characteristically Ivy-League, the school administration declined the invitation. (Columbia was invited, Columbia accepted, and Columbia upset favored Stanford.)

It was the first of two unbeaten and untied teams he would have a Princeton. In a three-year span from 1933 through 1935, the Tigers were 25-1.

In six years at Princeton,  his record was 35-9-5.

Following the 1937 season, he headed for Michigan.  With him, he took his unbalanced-line single wing, and the helmet design, originated while he was at Princeton, that now symbolizes Michigan.

At Michigan, he was a success  right from the start.  His 1938 team finished 6-1-1, good for second place in the Big Nine (Chicago had dropped out and Michigan State had yet to be admitted) and 16th place nationally.

His second team finished 6-2, again good for second place in the Conference, and this time good for 20th place nationally.

And then started an astonishing run of success - for the next eight years, Michigan was ranked in the Top Ten nationally.

His final team, in 1947, was his best, and one of the best college football teams of all time.

In the second year of the Big Ten-Pacific Coast Conference deal with the Rose Bowl, the Wolverines played in the game for the first time since 1902 (the first-ever Rose Bowl game) and defeated USC, 49-0.

His influence on  the game was enormous.  One of his innovations has made a permanent impact on our game.   Army coach Earl “Red” Blaik described it in his memoirs, “You Have to Pay the Price.” Telling about his great 1945 Army team and its 28-7 win over Michigan, he wrote…

The Michigan game, played in Yankee Stadium before a 70,000 sellout, may have been our most interesting of the year. The Wolverines were young, but they were talented, spirited and, like all (his)  teams, precise, deceptive, diversified, and colorful on the attack.

Michigan never would have been able to make the fight of it she did, however, had not (he) taken advantage of unlimited substitution, permitted by the rules as far back as 1941, to use separate units, or close to it, on offense and defense. This kept fresh men in action, which cut down the edge of superior personnel. It also emphasized the incontrovertible principle that there are always more boys on a squad who can play the game better one way, offensively or defensively, then there are those who can play it both ways.

What I saw that day in Michigan's separate units for offense and defense stayed with me and was to exert a solitary effect on army football soon after the Blanchard – Davis era.

Coach Blaik  was so impressed by what he saw Michigan doing that he began to employ two separate units himself - two separate “platoons,” as he called them, employing  Army terminology.

After the 1947 season, our man retired as coach to devote full time to being Michigan’s athletics director for the next 22 years.  During that time Michigan teams excelled in a great number of sports, and he over saw the expansion of Michigan Stadium - the Big House - to more than 100,000 seats.

He wanted it to be 100,001 but it somehow wound up at 101,001.  Today’s  capacity of 107,601 honors his desire to have that one extra seat. 

The legend is that the extra seat is reserved for him.





FRIDAY,  SEPTEMBER  16,  2022 - "Heroes and cowards feel exactly the same fear; heroes just act differently."  Cus D'Amato,  legendary boxing trainer





***********  On our way to the coast for a few days, I decided to text my friend Joe Fagerstedt to find out what time he was practicing. Joe and I were on the staff at Aberdeen, Washington a few years ago and we became  good friends, probably because Joe was the only other coach on the staff to take the time to learn my Double Wing. He was the senior member of the staff, and he’d seen at least three other staffs come and go, and he said he liked the Double Wing more  than any offense he’d ever been exposed to.
 
At my recommendation, we assigned Joe to coach the freshman team.  Those ninth graders  had been very successful as eighth graders and their parents had very high expectations for them.  I recommended putting Joe in charge of the freshmen because he was experienced and respected and he wouldn’t be bullied by assertive parents, as a younger coach might be. Running a slimmed-down version of our varsity offense, he coached those kids to an unbeaten season.  His best plays were power, counter, wedge.  Joe became a Double Winger - he would run the wedge five, six, seven plays in a row and if you still couldn’t stop it, he’d run it some more. (Unless you’re a true Double Winger,  you wouldn’t understand.)

Like me, Joe chose not to remain at the high school after that season, but when he was  offered a chance to coach at the middle school, he accepted.  I was hoping to catch him at practice when we passed through town.

When Joe got my text, he got right back to me.  He said they’d be practicing until 5 o’clock doing walk-throughs before their game the next day, and asked if I’d be willing to stop by and “talk to his team.”

The timing worked out perfectly for us. We arrived a little after 4.  Although Joe and I have stayed in frequent touch, we hadn’t seen each other in person for a few years, so we of course exchanged greetings.  And then he stopped practice and brought the kids over and introduced me to them.

He made it sound like I was Mister Football, which was very nice, and then I said a few words to the kids.  Joe had obviously  had done a lot of work with them, because they were quite attentive and respectful.  Joe had told me that as seventh graders these kids  hadn’t won a game, and had only scored two touchdowns all season, and here they were on the eve of  their first game as eighth graders.  I told them how lucky they were to be young,  to be living in America, and to be playing football with coaches who really cared about them.  I said there was no feeling in the world like the way they were going to feel tomorrow when after they’d all worked together as a team and done what the coaches had taught, they’d come off the field winners, and they’d look at each other and said, “We did it!”

Needless to say, my wife and I were at the game the next day.  Ocean Shores, where our place is, is only about 45 minutes from Aberdeen.  And the kids were playing their arch rivals from the adjoining town, the Hoquiam Grizzlies.

It took the Bobkittens (the high school is the Bobcats) maybe 20 seconds to score half as many touchdowns as they had scored all of last year, when they returned the opening kickoff for a  touchdown.  Unfortunately, it was called back  for holding, which meant they’d have to score the conventional way.  For Joe, that meant the wedge.  And the wedge.  And the wedge.  In deference to the high school’s wishes, he’s not running Double Wing, but he sure as heck was running the wedge.  And running nothing but the wedge, his kids put on a drive that ate up the entire quarter (eight minutes in junior high) to score their first touchdown of the year.

Playing well on defense, too, they shut Hoquiam out and kept moving the ball, and had an 18-0 lead at the half. 

They gave up a score in the second half, and Hoquiam pulled to within 18-6, but they never really threatened.  Trying to run a spread offense just like their high school team, they simply lacked the skills to run it.  Probably a third of their shotgun snaps were bad.  And on the occasions when their QB actually handled the snap, it was only 50-50 that he’d make a clean handoff to their running back.  They rarely threw, and didn’t complete a pass.

The Aberdeen kids just kept rolling. They threw for two scores and ran for another on a nice toss sweep, and they wound up winning,  37-6.  For kids who’d scored only two touchdowns all of last season as seventh graders, it had to be quite a kick to score  six touchdowns in their first game.

It was a nice job of coaching. Obviously, the win was nice, but they had just one turnover and although they had a few penalties of the false start and delay-of-game variety,  they had only two majors - both of them holding.  They conducted themselves quite well, with no dirty play or uncalled-for comments or actions.

Best of all, from a program standpoint, all 25 kids played a substantial amount.  Joe has a gold team and a blue team, and they get nearly equal playing time.    (As a high school coach, that’s what you want.  You want kids turning out when they get to high school.  You don’t want kids getting discouraged at that age because they never got to play. Put another way, you don’t want your middle school coach deciding, before you even get to meet the kids,  who’s going to play high school football and who’s not even going to turn out for the freshman team.)



*********** In another, less woke era, the conflict of one protected group with another  would be a gold mine for comedy writers.

We’re about to see such a conflict in Portland, where  the city is being sued by ten citizens with “mobility disabilities” - most require scooters, wheelchairs or walkers to get around but some  are blind - for failing to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act by allowing  the homeless (sorry - “people experiencing homelessness”) to obstruct sidewalks throughout the city with their tents and belongings.

One of the things the litigants are asking for - something their fellow “abled” citizens have been asking for for years - is removal of tents and “related items” (needles? syringes? shopping carts?) from “all city streets.”

Get your popcorn.  It’s going to be fun watching the stiffs in charge of a city walk the tightrope between the disabled, who have the ADA on their side, and the tent dwellers, who have an army of do-gooders on theirs.



*********** While watching a high school game last week, I saw a team’s starting  quarterback incur what appeared to be a rather serious injury, and as he was helped off the field, it struck me that even in this age of Hudl and instant film-sharing, there’s still a place for live, in-person scouting.

A real, live person scouting the game would have made careful note of the injury, and would have continued to observe the happenings on the sideline as the injured QB was tended to.  And  upon receiving the scouting report, the next week’s opposing coach would at least take into  consideration the fact that he might be facing something entirely different come game time.

Looking at a game on Hudl certainly has its advantages, but it’s not likely that the film of that game would include any evidence of the QB being injured,  and certainly not his being assisted off the field.   And since the injury occurred near the end of the game, with the QB’s team hopelessly behind, someone watching the  film would probably conclude that the coach had simply decided to get his backup QB some game experience.


*********** Without naming any names, a friend whose son is in the military, in charge for the first time of training a group of young men who are badly in need of training, has been telling me how frustrated his son is.

My response was that he is finding out how much like coaching his job is. 

Think of it - how many times have we looked at our kids the first day or two and said, “we’ll be lucky if we make a first down with this bunch!”

And yet somehow, we managed to make a team out of them.   That was our job.

It takes patience and it takes persistence.  And it takes belief in what you’re doing.

And there are no short cuts.

It takes a while to understand all that -  until  we’ve been through it a few times.

If there were an easier way,  they wouldn’t need us.  Anybody could do it.



*********** The irony of the Georgia Southern win over Nebraska, which caused the Cornhuskers to fire their coach the next day, is that Georgia Southern’s coach, Clay Helton, had been fired at just about the same time a year ago by USC.

Helton, to show there are no hard feelings toward USC, said that he and USC AD Mike Bohn exchanged congratulatory texts following his win and the Trojans’ win over Stanford.


***********   There’s more than one approach to the Transfer Portal, and here’s Clemson’s:

“Coach Swinney has done an excellent job of developing a foundation with this program where culture is the number one thing. We’re talking about earning the right to play and if you have a guy that’s been here two, three or four years and he’s been grinding and it’s his time to shine and all of a sudden you bring in another guy in front of him and he gets to play a lot more, it kind of hurts the culture a little bit.  We’re very, very slow to go to the portal, if at all.” 

Brandon Streeter,  Clemson offensive coordinator, in the Wall Street Journal



*********** Louisville promised him he wouldn't  have to take  no English courses there.




*********** Many of the Seattle fans booed Russell Wilson on his return to  their town Monday night in a Denver uniform.

The national media, as to be expected, came at it from this angle:

1. The ingrates!  After all the good years he gave them.

Those who booed him took more of this approach:

2. You ingrate. We supported you and treated you and your family with respect and made you an icon of the community.  And now - like that - you’re off to a rival city,  where you think you can win more football games than you can here.

It’s not like  the loyal fans of Seattle haven’t been treated similarly in the past: Ken Griffey, Junior comes to mind. He  spent 11 years in Seattle with the Mariners before basically  forcing a trade to Cincinnati  “to be closer to my family” (which lived in Orlando.)


*********** Social media has been showing clips of a high school kid somewhere who’s being billed as the “First Ambidextrous Quarterback.”  The kid is shown holding a ball in each hand, then throwing both balls, first with the right hand, then with the left, with equal competence.

I don’t want to burst anyone’s bubble here, but there once was a guy who came to college as a left-handed quarterback and a right-handed pitcher who’d led his high school team to state championships in both sports.

His name was Terry Baker.  He came out of Jefferson High in Portland, Oregon, and he was recruited to Oregon State as a basketball player. 

He didn’t decide to play football until he got to college.

This is from Sports Illustrated, October 16, 1961…

Although Oregon State had a very respectable 6-3-1 record last year and lost by only a single point to Washington, the team that represented the West in the Rose Bowl, Prothro decided to convert his offense to the T formation this year so he could use both Baker and Kasso in the same backfield at the same time. This meant that Baker again had to skip baseball in the spring in order to learn all of Prothro's formations. This was quite a blow to the baseball coach, who harbors secret dreams of building Baker into an ambidextrous pitcher. For Baker still throws a baseball right-handed, as he learned to do in his boyhood, although he throws the football left-handed.

Terry Baker wasn’t too bad an athlete.  He is the only human being who ever lived who played in a Final Four and won the Heisman Trophy.  (He was the first player from West of the Rockies to  win the Heisman).

I think it’s fair to call him an ambidextrous quarterback, because if he could pitch a baseball with the other hand, I have no doubt he could throw a football. Personally, I don’t see much advantage in being able to throw a football with either hand. It’s cool, but it’s not like being a switch-hitter in baseball.

My advice to the kid (no, he didn’t ask for it):  Pick a side and get really, really good throwing that way.

*********** Can anyone here remember back in the 60s and 70s when the state of Kansas represented football futility?  Both Kansas and Kansas State sucked.  Now, Colorado is the new Kansas. Is it possible that Colorado and Colorado State could both go winless?  Maybe it’s the legalized pot.


********** TOP 20 GAMES (IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE)

OKLAHOMA AT NEBRASKA - The game that the Huskers tried to get out of; imagine what would have happened if they’d decided to wait a couple of weeks to fire Scott Frost - and then he beat the Sooners! OU is favored by 11.  I think they’ll cover easily.

VILLANOVA AT ARMY - Don’t fall for the FBS-FCS comparison. Army is favored by 10, but Villanova has scholarship athletes, too, and most years they play an FBS team tough. Last year it was Penn State,  who was too tough for them, but they beat James Madison and made it to the FCS playoffs. 

PURDUE AT SYRACUSE - Two programs I like.  Syracuse is favored by 1.5 . I give a slight edge to Purdue because they should have beaten Penn State - would have, if they’d had a running game!

WESTERN KENTUCKY AT INDIANA - For some strange reason WKU was favored, but the line has changed and now it’s Indiana by 6.5. Hoosiers got ‘em by a nose last year.

OLD DOMINION AT VIRGINIA - This is my upset of the week. ODU beat Virginia Tech and their new coach. True, it was at ODU’s place, but I still think they’ll win and become champions of the Commonwealth of Virginia. With Virginia favored by 9.5, ODU is an easy pick for me.

CAL AT NOTRE DAME - The Irish are ten point favorites.  They may win, even without starting QB Tyler Buchner, but I don’t think it will be by ten. There has  to be a good reason why Justin Wilcox, an Oregon alum, turned down the Ducks’ job to stay at Cal.

BYU AT OREGON - BYU is physical.  After the way the Cougars played against Baylor, I don’t see how Oregon, even at home, can be 3.5 point favorites.  I’d take BYU and the points.

PENN STATE AT AUBURN - I believe this is the first visit by a Big Ten team in Auburn history. I’m not the Penn State fan that I once was, and I’d like to see Bryan Harsin get a win. Auburn’s 2-0 but they haven’t been impressive wins. Penn State’s favored by 3 and I’ll be surprised if they don’t cover.

VANDERBILT AT NORTHERN ILLINOIS - I’m a Vandy fan, so I have to at least start watching. NIU is a 2.5 point favorite.  Of course I’d take Vandy and the points.

KANSAS AT HOUSTON - This one was a late addition, but after the way the Jayhawks have started - scoring 56 and 55 in their first two games, and beating West Virginia in OT -  it appears Lance Leipold is ahead of schedule! But Houston is favored by 8.5 and I think they’ll cover.

LIBERTY AT WAKE FOREST - I admit to a crush on the Deacons and their “slow ride” offense.  And their coach, Dave Clawson.  And their QB, Sam Hartman, who looked great last week against Vanderbilt. Wake is favored by 16.5.  I just want ‘em to win.

COLORADO STATE AT WASHINGTON STATE - Colorado State is awful, and this one only made the list because I want to see more of the Cougs.

MISSISSIPPI STATE AT LSU - This could be one of the best games of the day. I’m expecting the Bulldogs to win this one. They’re favored by 2.5 and I think they’ll cover.

TEXAS TECH AT NC STATE - Wow.  Wolfpack is favored by 10 points!  I think they’ll win, but not by 10.

MICHIGAN STATE AT WASHINGTON - Huskies are favored by 3.5.  Really? Even though the Spartans are ranked and they’re not?  They’re both 2-0, but Michigan State’s Mel Tucker is paid $9.5 million while UW’s Kalen DeBoer makes $3.5, so obviously the Spartans will be better coached. Take Michigan State and the points.

SMU AT MARYLAND - Both teams 2-0, neither with a  significant win. With the Terps favored by 2.5, I’d  take  the Mustangs.

UTSA AT TEXAS -  UTSA is really improved, but so, apparently is Texas. UTSA beat Army in OT; Texas nearly beat Alabama.  Big edge to Texas - 12.5 point favorites - but the Roadrunners could beat the spread and maybe even the Longhorns.

MIAMI AT TEXAS A & M - Geez.  Mario Cristobal and Jimbo Fisher.  Any way they could both lose?  I guess I have to go with Miami, the ACC team, especially since they’re getting 6 points.

FRESNO STATE AT USC - Oh, how I wish this were at Fresno. The Bulldogs are being given 12.5 points.  They  don’t have the big payroll that USC does, but in QB Jake Haener they have a  super QB and - pollyanna  that I am - I’d take the points.

NORTH DAKOTA STATE AT ARIZONA - This one ranges from even to Arizona favored by a point.  Me? I’ll take NDSU.  Why? Because while the Wildcats are getting better, the Bison still have the better program.



***********    As you point out, universities (especially the athletic departments) and governments have no problem spending others' money as carelessly as they damn please. Special people, one and all, smarter than the rabble who support them.

I haven't had a big rooting interest in Sun Belt teams, but I was glad to see them smash three of the big guys. Just reminding the coaches and administrators of those big guys that $$$$ can't buy you everything.

Your last two weeks of Zoom have been special  Thanks.

John Vermillion                    
St Petersburg, Florida


***********   Hugh,

Sorry I just missed your Zoom.  Have been on Grandpa duty lately.

One name for Nebraska that stands out to me.  Jamey Chadwell - Coastal Carolina HFC.  Young (45) successful HC at different levels of college football.  Experienced college football coach.  A builder of programs.  Innovative offense (option style that harkens back to NU glory days, but modern in design and difficult to defend - ask Army).  Finally, he has a lucrative connection to Nebraska in Joe Moglia.  

For a brief minute I thought maybe the Texas fans weren't as delusional as I previously thought.  They were a missed QB sack away from being right.

Drew Pyne is not the answer for Notre Dame at QB.  They are in a world of hurt right now.  I said awhile ago that Tommy Rees is not ready for prime time as a big-time OC.  Brian Kelly bailed him out a few times in the past because Kelly was an offensive mind.  Freeman is not.  Which leaves Tommy completely alone to run the offense this year.  Marcus Freeman needs to do a few more things in the off-season to get that ship sailing in the right direction because it will be difficult to do anything about it during the season.

Who were those imposters in Michie Stadium on Saturday?

Hats off to Oregon State coach Jonathan Smith for having the stones (and Colletto) to go for two against Fresno State.  Which of course leads me to believe the two point play wouldn't have mattered much after watching games this past Saturday.  I've about had it up to my ears with "KEEKERS,"

Minnesota could "kick" its record up to 3-0 this weekend against 0-2 Colorado, but the Buffs have played two 'real' opponents losing big to TCU and Air Force.  The Gophers have blown out New Mexico State and Western Illinois, neither one that strikes fear into you.  Careful.

 
QUIZ:  Tim Dwight   (Speaking of Iowa, has the state placed a limit on points scored by offensive football teams in Iowa?)

Have a great week!

Joe Gutilla
Austin, Texas

The “imposters in Michie Stadium " (aka the Army team) passed for decent yardage Saturday, but only a fool would think that that’s anything other than taking advantage of teams that dare them to throw. The question they have yet to answer is - do they have the usual strong Army running game - one that will move the ball once people realize that they can  throw  successfully and then get into a more balanced defense? My concern is that they have been scoring so quickly on big plays that they have been putting far more of a burden on their defense than they normally do when they play ball-control football.

I agree that Jamey Chadwell is a hot prospect.  I think Chadwell, like Matt Campbell at Iowa State, is biding his  time until something better comes along.  Better than Nebraska, that is.



***********  QUIZ ANSWER:  Hayden Fry, who’d seen a few competitors in his career,  once called Tim Dwight the greatest competitor he ever coached.

At Iowa City High School, he was all-state three times in football, and rushed for 236 yards and four touchdowns in the 1993 state  championship game.

He was a four-time state champion in the 200-meter dash, and a three-time state champion in the long jump.

At Iowa, although considered too small to be a running back, he made his mark as a receiver and a return specialist. In his career, he returned five punts for touchdowns, and amassed 1,102 yards in punt returns, bit Big Ten records at the time.  His 2,271 yards receiving were a school record that lasted until 2010, and his 21 touchdowns receiving were a record that lasted until 2011.

He was a consensus all-American his senior year, and finished seventh in the Heisman voting.

In the 1999 Big Ten outdoor track championships he won the 100 and ran on two first-place relay teams and was named Outstanding Male Performer.

Selected in the fourth-round of the 1998 NFL Draft by the Atlanta Falcons, he went on to  play 10 seasons in the NFL for five different teams.

In his  rookie season with the Falcons,  he returned a kickoff 94 yards for a touchdown in Super Bowl XXXIII.

His best year was 1999 with the Falcons, when he caught 32 passes for 699 yards and seven touchdowns, and 2002 with the Chargers, when he caught 50 passes for 623 yards.

For his career, he caught 194 passes for 2,964 yards and 22 touchdowns.  He also rushed 53 times for 380 yards.

He returned kicks and punt for 6,526 yards, and he scored five touchdowns - three on punts and two on kickoffs.

Since retiring from football, he established a foundation to provide scholarships for poor kids, and to help raise money for the Children’s Hospital of Iowa.

In 2014, based on fans’ online votes,  Tim Dwight was placed on the Big Ten Networks’ “Mount Rushmore of Iowa Football,” along with Alex Karras, Nile Kinnick and Chuck Long.



CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING TIM DWIGHT

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
CHARLIE WILSON - BROOKSVILLE, FLORIDA
JOE GUTILLA - AUSTIN, TEXAS
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
CHRISTOPHER ANDERSON - MUNICH, GERMANY
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY

Special Mention to Brad Knight, of Clarinda, Iowa for the suggestion

***********  Coach,

The quiz answer is Tim Dwight. I saw him play live in 1997 when Iowa visited Michigan. It was UM‘s closest game in their national championship season…he returned a punt for a touchdown as the first half expired and Michigan had to score in the last two minutes to escape with the victory.

I went to a summer program at the University of Iowa in 1999 and TD was still on everybody’s lips, he was a beloved hometown hero.

Christopher Anderson
Munich, Germany


*********** QUIZ:  Of all the great players from the great Packers' teams, he was one of the very greatest. And of all the great players turned out by Eddie Robinson in Grambling's heyday, he was also one of the very greatest.

Born in rural Louisiana, he attended high school in Texarkana, Arkansas, and played college football at Grambling, under the great Coach Rob. But despite being a Black College All-American (to show how lowly-regarded black college football was at the time) he wasn't drafted until the 15th round by the Cleveland Browns in 1956.

Called up by the Army,  he missed the 1956 and 1957 seasons and played service football, but on his return he earned a spot on the Browns' roster, and played two years for Cleveland before being traded to Green Bay for a player named A. D. Williams.

He became just the fourth black player on the Green Bay team, joining Emlen Tunnell, Paul Winslow and Willie Wood.  According Vince Lombardi’s biographer David Maraniss, "The four black Packers used to say that they constituted four-fifths of the permanent black population of the city, the fifth being the shoeshine man at the Hotel Northland."

At Green Bay,  Lombardi instantly saw his pass-rushing potential and made him a fixture on his defensive line. As a standout member of the Packers' defense for the next 10 years, he played in the NFL title game in his first season with Green Bay, and in five of the next seven seasons. He also played on the first two Super Bowl championship teams  (the game was not yet called the Super Bowl).

And (back when the Pro Bowl really meant something) he played in five Pro Bowl games.

In his 12-year pro career, from 1958 through 1969, he didn't miss a game - 162 consecutive games in all. He was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1981.

He is on the 1960s All-Decade Team.

He always had an eye on something bigger than football. During his two years in Cleveland, he taught high school classes in the off-season.

In 1967, he won  the Byron White Award, named for “Whizzer” White, the former pro football player who became a Supreme Court justice, and given to the athlete contributing most to his country, his community and his team.

In 1968, he received a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Chicago, while joining the Schlitz Brewing Company's marketing training program.

After retirement from pro football in 1969, he devoted full-time to business, including ownership of West Coast Beverage, a Los Angeles-based beer distributorship, and interests in numerous radio stations.

He was elected in 1994 to the Green Bay Packers' Board of Directors, and in 1998 to the Marquette University board of trustees. He also served on the board of trustees of the University of Chicago.

He served on the board of directors of the Sara Lee Corporation, Dow Chemical, MGM, Alliance Bank, Johnson Controls, Bassett Furniture, Strong Funds, Wisconsin Energy Corporation, Manpower, Inc., and MGM Grand Inc.

He was instrumental in raising funds to endow a chair (a professorship) at Grambling in Coach Robinson's honor, donating $100,000 and committing to raise another $500,000,  a gesture that Coach Robinson called “one of the proudest moments of my life.”

He died in 2020.  One of his grandsons plays for the New Orleans Saints.





TUESDAY,  SEPTEMBER  13,  2022 - "I don't build character.  I eliminate the people who don't have it."  Vince Lombardi


*********** Nebraska’s firing of Scott Frost has to feel like a death in the family.  Or maybe, more dramatically, the death OF the family.

With Frost goes the last chance to hire a Nebraska guy to resurrect the program.  There are no more like him out there.

It has to be very sad for Nebraskans to see one of their own, a fair-haired boy (literally) from their own  state, a great player for the Cornhuskers and  one  they thought would lead them back to the glory days, have to be sent packing.

Yes, he’s going to go off with FIFTEEN MILLION DOLLARS in severance pay.  (Remember when they used to give a guy  two weeks’ pay when they handed him the pink slip?)

Amazingly, if they’d just waited a couple more weeks  - until October 1 - to let him  go, they’d have  only owed him half that.  

So now we’re beginning to see one of the constructive ways those Big Ten schools are going to be spending that enormous revenue-sharing windfall we’ve been reading about: on fired coaches. 

Thankfully, all other departments in the University are fully funded, and no students are in need of financial aid, so there’s no call for any of you out there to deplore such a use of funds.  And please - don’t tell me about the poor Nebraska farmers who’ve been hard-hit by the high price of fuel and fertilizer.

Hey! That money belongs to us - the athletic department.  And if we want to spend it on coaches we’ve fired - which we’ve had a tendency to do here over the years - what’s to stop us?


*********** MY SATURDAY’S WATCHING…

ALABAMA AT TEXAS - Without their starting QB, Texas still took Bama down the wire.

WAKE FOREST AT VANDERBILT - Wake is real.  The offense was humming as if Sam Hartman had just stepped out of the room  for a few minutes.

MISSOURI AT KANSAS  STATE - Wildcats looked good.  Where are all those people who ridicule the Big Ten for adding Maryland and Rutgers?

DUKE AT NORTHWESTERN - With a win over a Big Ten team, Duke is real. Mike Elko for Coach of the Year! 

UTSA AT ARMY - Army was somewhat improved from last week, and UTSA had slipped a bit. As a result they ended the game tied. (Army lost it in OT.)  When Army throws for 304, runs for 179, they’re not controlling the ball; for the second week in a row, the opposition ran more plays, and UTSA had 512 yards total offense.

TENNESSEE AT PITT - With their starting QB out and the backup hobbled, Pitt had no chance  in OT.

WASHINGTON STATE AT WISCONSIN - When  the Number 19 team has 106 yards in penalties and commits three turnovers, you’ve got a chance. A VERY big win for Cougar coach Jake Dickert, born and raised a Wisconsin kid.  And get this: a Washington State team actually played defense!

COLORADO AT AIR FORCE - Air Force  can really move that ball on the ground: 435 yards rushing, eight yards passing.

MEMPHIS AT NAVY - Navy looked a bit better than last week.  Memphis is not that good, but a lot better than Navy.

KENTUCKY AT FLORIDA - Kentucky isn’t Georgia, but they might be second best in the SEC East.

USC AT STANFORD - With a QB from Oklahoma, a running back from Oregon, a  wide receiver from Pitt, and 16 other transfers, USC may be the best team money can buy.

BAYLOR AT BYU - Heck of a game.  Cougars are GOOD.

OREGON STATE AT FRESNO  STATE - On the three yard line with :03 to go and needing a field goal to send it into OT, Oregon State coach Jonathan Smith instead went for the win in regulation, and all-everything Jack Colletto, from (ahem) Camas, Washington, bulled over.

MISSISSIPPI STATE AT ARIZONA - 39-17 State.  Will Rogers was 39 of 49 for  313 yards and four TDs.  Wildcats could run for only 40 yards, and their QB Jayden De Laura threw 45 times for just 220 yards - a puny five yards per attempt - and threw three interceptions.



GAMES I LEFT EARLY

SYRACUSE AT UCONN - Please. 17-0 at the end of one quarter was enough for me.

IOWA  STATE AT IOWA - What’s going on with Iowa? 92 yards passing, 58 yards rushing? 11  first downs (to 21)?  At least this week they scored a touchdown.

From a diehard Hawkeye fan (written before the game) HUGE game for the Ferentz family, Brian (the OC) is dead in the water currently.  The entire state wants him strung up.  Kirk is always safe with the best contract in the country.  They are still my guys, but if Petras is the best QB in the room....we didn't recruit worth a $hit.  I'd take Bo Nix in a heartbeat over him, or Spencer Rattler, or Adrian Martinez...or literally anyone with a pulse who can throw to an open receiver.  Petras is not good enough to be the qb of our HS team at the moment (largely due to lacking confidence in game situations).  I have zero doubt he can sling it in one on ones, and 7 on 7 periods.  But in a game, CHOKE!  Give me a gamer all day long.
 
For 7 years ISU has found a way to beat themselves against Iowa...I'm counting on it to happen again.  Iowa will score at least once on defense, and there will be 2 plays on special teams that allow Iowa to score points. Campbell chokes against iowa (maybe Petras can go there?)

Brad Knight
Clarinda, Iowa

ARIZONA  STATE AT OKLAHOMA  STATE - Cowboys had twice the number of points - 34-17 - as ASU, and more than twice as many first  downs.
SAN JOSE STATE AT AUBURN - Auburn 24, SJSU 16?  Seriously?  No, really - tell me the real score.  And Penn State rolls into Auburn on Saturday.
SOUTHERN AT LSU - I just wanted to see how LSU would come out and play so I endured those butt-ugly Southern uniforms for maybe five minutes.
EASTERN WASHINGTON AT OREGON - Dan Lanning got his first win in a big way.  Bring on Georgia.



OTHER GAMES THAT I JUMPED ON IN PROGRESS:

MARSHALL AT NOTRE DAME
GEORGIA SOUTHERN AT NEBRASKA
APPALACHIAN STATE AT TEXAS A & M



MISSED, WISHED I’D WATCHED. (CAN’T  WATCH ‘EM ALL.)

SOUTH CAROLINA AT ARKANSAS - Hogs are tough. K.J. Jefferson is a beast.
HOUSTON AT TEXAS TECH - Damn. I blew it. Every time these guys play it’s a  good game.
KANSAS AT WEST VIRGINIA - I joked about Kansas scoring 56 points last week, but 55  against West Virginia was no joke. How do you win 55-42 in OT?  Well, you score when you’re on offense, and then on defense you return an interception for a score.


COULDN’T GET ON TV

UNLV AT CAL - Cal led 17-7 at the half and won 20-14.
WEBER  STATE AT UTAH STATE - Weber State 35, Utah State 7.  That’ll teach them to open at Alabama!


GAMES  THAT ONLY RABID ALUMNI AND RELATIVES OF PLAYERS WOULD SIT  THROUGH


ALABAMA STATE AT UCLA - 30,000 UCLA fans crammed into the Rose Bowl to watch it
PORTLAND STATE AT WASHINGTON - I still can’t  find out what the attendance was
SOUTHERN UTAH AT UTAH
KENT STATE AT OKLAHOMA
HAWAII AT MICHIGAN
CENTRAL ARKANSAS AT OLE MISS
CHARLESTON SOUTHERN AT NC STATE


***********   Week 2 National Football Foundation/Football Writers Super 16

 




OTHERS RECEIVING VOTES:

Baylor (59), Ole Miss (40), Texas (40), Penn State (36), Texas A&M (32), Florida (22), Mississippi State (22), Florida State (16), Appalachian State (14), Wake Forest (12), Washington State (10), Kansas State (8), Marshall (8), Oregon (2), Texas Tech (2), Minnesota (2),


Oregon State (2-0 with wins over Boise State and Fresno State) didn’t get a single vote.  That’s  what happens when you win a game at 11:15 local time: it’s 2:15 in the Eastern time zone, where most of the voters live, and very few of those guys  stay up to watch late games from the West Coast.


***********  How about that Sun Belt East?

Marshall beats Notre Dame
Appalachian State beats Texas A & M
Georgia Southern  beats Nebraska


*********** Three of the most high-profile coaching hires  this past offseason were Brian Kelly (LSU), Marcus Freeman (Note Dame) and Dan Lanning (Oregon).

All three lost their openers. Lanning’s Ducks were  blown out by Georgia,  Kelly’s Tigers looked poorly prepared as they dropped a game they should have won over Florida State. Freeman’s Irish did a presentable job  against a tough Ohio State club.

All had easier second games scheduled.

Lanning and Kelly took advantage of the chance to get well, trouncing weaker opponents.

Freeman, unfortunately, did not,  as Marshall dealt  his Irish  their second straight loss.

The media have been fawning, to say the least.  The Irish were loaded, they said,  and this bright, personable young guy was the one to take them to the promised land.

But Marshall had to go and expose them as a team with unrealistic expectations and no offense - when  your QB is your leading rusher,  it better be because you're  an option team, or you’re in trouble - and now Coach Freeman has begun to find out why coaching at Notre Dame makes old men out of young men.

Coming up next for the Irish: Cal, North Carolina, BYE and then BYU.  There could be two more losses in there.

And Clemson and USC await them down the line.


*********** West Virginia is now 0-2 after losing in OT to Kansas, and the fans are not happy.

Here’s what  WVU AD Shane Lyons had to say to them:

I know and deeply care that our fans are frustrated with the start of the football season, but so are our coaches and student-athletes, who have busted their tails getting ready for the year. As athletics director, I am as disappointed as the fans, but I see how much our coaches and players care and want to win and make our fans proud. Everyone involved knows that the on-field results have not met expectations and absolutely no one is satisfied. There are 10 games left in the season and the focus is still on getting the results that we all expect.

(Looking back, I wonder if Mountaineer coach Neal Brown is still defending, as he did after the game, his insane decision, leading  Pitt by six with six minutes to play, not to go for it with fourth-and-six inches at midfield.)


*********** A factoid that I saw while watching the Pitt-Tennessee game:  three college coaches left their coaching jobs right after winning a national title:

Howard Schnellenberger - Left Miami to become head coach of a new Miami team in the USFL, but was left jobless when the team owner backed out after the USFL decided to play in the fall. Replaced by Jimmy Johnson.

Tom Osborne - Retired as coach at Nebraska, remained at NU as assistant AD. Replaed by Frank Solich.

Johnny Majors - Left Pitt to take the head job at Tennessee. Replaced by Jackie Sherrill.


*********** In the second quarter of the Pitt-Tennessee game, as Pitt tight end Gavin Bartholomew caught a pass and headed up the sideline the Tennessee safety tried to take him out low.  Hawk tackling perhaps?

Bartholomew hurdled the guy and  continued on his way to a 57-yard touchdown.

“It happened so fast,” he told  the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.  “I just knew he was going to duck. I said, ‘Screw it, I’m jumping him.’ ”


*********** You know something’s going on with the Army offense when  their  quarterback, Cade Ballard, has 220 yards passing.  In the first half.


*********** In the first two weeks  of the season I’ve already seen two rugby-style punts blocked, including a Marshall punt with 1:56 remaining in the game against Notre Dame Saturday.  In my personal opinion, it makes no sense putting a guy in a position he’s not prepared for - a kicker actually running a football play - and, even worse, allowing him to use judgement that he’s not properly prepared to make. (How many times, do you suppose, he actually gets to practice this in game-type situations?)

Just catch the snap and kick the damn ball.


*********** More than 30 years ago, I was “between positions,” and was working as an assistant to a very bright young head coach.

Before every game, it was his practice to sit the entire team in an auditorium and then, in the course of making his remarks, ask them, cathechism-style, questions about appropriate game conduct.

Coach: “What do you do on defense when you see something you  don’t recognize?”

Team Response, in unison: “Take a good look at it and call time out.”

I was reminded of him several times this past weekend when teams were penalized for having too many men on the field.

Coach:  “What do we  do when we substitute?”

Team Response, in unison: “Hustle on, hustle off, call the man’s name!” (The man we're replacing)

A lack of that simple procedure caused several teams to be penalized Saturday.

Needless to say, that's something that I took with me when I got my next head coaching job.

(The young coach was Jon Eagle. He went  on to become one of the winningest coaches in the Northwest.  For 13 years he coached in my town, Camas, Washington, where he won state titles in 2016 and 2019 and posted a record of 127-22.   He’s now in his first season as head coach at West Linn, Oregon, one of that state’s top programs, where he’s succeeding Chris Miller, former Atlanta Falcons QB.)



***********  Immediately to the west of our town of Camas, Washington is the much larger city of Vancouver, Washington (no, not Canada). Vancouver has eight high schools, one of which is Union High. It’s just across the city line from Camas and it actually has a Camas post office address, and quite a rivalry exists between it and Camas High.

They’re both plenty good. Union won the state 4A (largest class) state title in 2018 and Camas won it in 2019.

The star QB of the 2018 Union state championship team, Lincoln Victor, is now a wide receiver for Washington State, and I had to laugh when I saw this graphic on the WSU-Wisconsin game Saturday.




You'll notice that Victor’s hometown is listed as “West Camas, WA.” 

The joke?  There  is no such place. 

“West Camas” is how Camas kids mockingly refer to his high school, Union - the idea being that they suffer from Camas envy -  and Victor  obviously  relishes the chance to throw it back at Camas.



 *********** I’ve been coaching since 1970, and I have never heard a coach use the term “end around.”  Not once.

So why do I hear it every time  some guy on TV runs a reverse?  Or a jet sweep?

The term is very old,  dating to the game’s early days when all football was played with what we would call “double-tight” lines, and all the backs were “in the backfield.”  There were no  flankers. No “wide receivers.” The only way to run a reverse was to use the ends as running backs.

This is from “The History of American Football,” by Allison Danzig (he’s a guy). It’s really well done, my go-to, my first resource when researching something from more than 50 years ago.

The first record of the use of the end-around play was by Stagg in 1891. "At International YMCA College, now Springfield College,” he wrote, "I broke away from the standard, traditional seven-man line by using only five men on the line. I played the ends back of the line, similar to the double wing-back formation… this formation was particularly effective… Also on end-around plays, particularly against Harvard in 1891.”  Stagg’s Chicago team of 1908, as we have seen, used the end-around against Cornell.

In 1894 Cornell, under coach Ma Newell, had the quarterback give the ball to an end, who sometimes gave to the other end.

Yost’s Old 83 play, which he devised in 1897, was, in the words of Fritz Crisler, "a fake end-around play which scored more than 50 times for Michigan through the years.”  It seems logical that Yost must have had the end-around play at the same time.

An end-around in 2022?  Nowadays, unless they’re one of a vanishing breed that still uses a tight end,  coaches rarely even use the term “end” in referring to an offensive position.

That rules out coaches as the source of the term.  And since TV announcers have no knowledge whatsoever of the football history  of our game, where in the hell do you suppose  they came up with “end-around?"



*********** Something that has to hurt the Pac-12, even if it’s only its image, is the fact that with earlier games consistently going on longer than the time allotted,  Pac-12 games are often well  underway by the time they actually  come on the air.


*********** I had the TV on at the end of the NFL game Saturday night, and I almost barfed listening to the sign-off.

“NBC Sports thanks you for watching this presentation of the National Football League.”

Come on.  People don’t watch as a favor to you.  They watch because they want to see an exciting, entertaining football game.  So actually, they should be thanking you.

Except  that after another Saturday of unbelievable college  football, NBC had just “presented” a 19-3  dog between the Cowboys and Buccaneers - one touchdown and FIVE  field  goals.

So on second thought, NBC Sports… on behalf of  anybody who actually sat through that crap - you're welcome.


*********** You're right about the Queen. In her first televised Christmas address in 1957, the young Queen Elizabeth II said something about the coming new technologies (as represented by television itself): “But it is not the new inventions which are the difficulty. The trouble is caused by unthinking people who carelessly throw away ageless ideals as if they were old and outworn machinery,” she warned, adding that such people “would have religion thrown aside, morality in personal and public life made meaningless, honesty counted as foolishness and self-interest set up in place of self-restraint.” Is this the general American outlook today?


John Vermillion
St. Petersburg, Florida


***********   Hugh,

Speaking of Italians.  My grandfather (Dad's side) came over from Sicily with 3 of his children in 1918.  He left his wife and 6 other children back in Sicily because he worked TWO jobs in America for a couple of years in order to bring the rest of his family over.  After making enough money he went back to Sicily, gathered up the remainder of la familigia, and headed back to America with them.  One small problem...  The US placed a moratorium on immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe.  They did the next best thing departing for America.  South America (Argentina).  My great-grandfather and great-grandmother eventually found their way back to the US LEGALLY, and reunited with their children in America.  My grandfather, grandmother, his brother and sister went back to Argentina to reunite with their siblings.  Their sibs still live in Argentina, while my grandparents and his brother and sister returned to the US.  No river crossings involved.

I'm proud to say I have been a friend of Pat Hill for years, and I remember him telling me the story of his meeting with John Canzano.  Despite how FSU treated Pat when he was let go he still bleeds Bulldog Red & Blue, lives in Fresno around the corner from my brother, and typically watches Sunday night football at my brother's house.  "Anyone, anytime, anywhere!"

All the football statistics dweebs miss out on one major tenet of coaching...KISS.

I'm really tired of Austin.  Texas Longhorns fans are delusional.  

Enjoy the weekend!

Joe Gutilla
Austin, Texas


*********** QUIZ ANSWER:   Warrick Dunn grew up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and was a  star on both offense and defense at Catholic High there.  In his sophomore year he helped lead Catholic to its first-ever state title.  In his senior year he was a USA Today All-American selection.

In January following his senior season, just two days after his 18th birthday, his single mother, a  Baton Rouge police officer was killed, and as the oldest in the family, he took responsibility for his five brothers and sisters.

He attended Florida State, where he played as a freshman on a national championship team, then rushed for more than 1,000 yards  for three straight seasons.  He was named All-SEC running back his senior season.  He was also a sprinter on the Seminoles’ track team, and won All-America honors as a member of their 4x100 relay team.

He was drafted in the first round - the number 12 pick overall - by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers,  and he earned NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year honors.  In five years with the Bucs he twice rushed for more than 1,000 yards, and twice was named to the Pro Bowl.

In 2002 he signed as a free  agent with the Falcons, and in his six years in Atlanta he had three 1,000-yard seasons rushing.

He finished his career with one season in Tampa Bay.

In 2004, he won the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award.

When he retired, he had gained 10,967 yards rushing, and 15,306 all-purpose yards.  He had 10 seasons with at least 1,000 rushing and receiving yard combined. 

He is in the Falcons’ Ring of Honor, and he now has an ownership stake in the Falcons.

Warrick Dunn, during his playing career and since his retirement,  has been active in a number of charities and community assistance efforts.



CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING WARRICK DUNN

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
JOE GUTILLA - AUSTIN, TEXAS
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
PETE PORCELLI - WATERVLIET, NEW YORK
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
CHARLIE WILSON - BROOKSVILLE, FLORIDA
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY

(I've had a few problems with my email, so if by  some chance your name should be on here, email me.  Oh, wait...)


*********** Dunn was paired with "Tailback" Mike Alstott (Alstott playing Fullback because, well..., you can figure it out.).

They were known as the "WD-40" Backfield (Alstott's number being "40") and they were quite a unit when they were playing together.  Dunn was very popular in the Bay Area.

Charlie Wilson
Brooksville, Florida

*********** The guy is over the top on what he has gone through and what he does for the community.

Mike Foristiere
Topeka, Kansas


*********** How can you not like such a God fearing person who pays it forward with helping families purchase a home?  He gets it.

Pete Porcelli
Watervliet, New York


***********  QUIZ:  Hayden Fry, who’d seen a few in his career,  once called him the greatest competitor he ever coached.

At Iowa City High School, he was all-state three times in football, and rushed for 236 yards and four touchdowns in the 1993 state  championship game.

He was a four-time state champion in the 200-meter dash, and a three-time state champion in the long jump.

At Iowa, although considered too small to be a running back, he made his mark as a receiver and a return specialist. In his career, he returned five punts for touchdowns, and amassed 1,102 yards in punt returns, both Big Ten records at the time.  His 2,271 yards receiving were a school record that lasted until 2010, and his 21 touchdowns receiving were a record that lasted until 2011.

He was a consensus all-American his senior year, and finished seventh in the Heisman voting.

In the 1999 Big Ten outdoor track championships he won the 100 and ran on two first-place relay teams and was named Outstanding Male Performer.

Selected in the fourth-round of the 1998 NFL Draft by the Atlanta Falcons, he went on to  play 10 seasons in the NFL for five different teams.

In his  rookie season with the Falcons,  he returned a kickoff 94 yards for a touchdown in Super Bowl XXXIII.

His best year was 1999 with the Falcons, when he caught 32 passes for 699 yards and seven touchdowns, and 2002 with the Chargers, when he caught 50 passes for 623 yards.

For his career, he caught 194 passes for 2,964 yards and 22 touchdowns.  He also rushed 53 times for 380 yards.

He returned kicks and punts for 6,526 yards, and he scored five touchdowns - three on punts and two on kickoffs.

Since retiring from football, he established a foundation to provide scholarships for poor kids, and to help raise money for the Children’s Hospital of Iowa.

In 2014, based on fans’ online votes, he was placed on the Big Ten Networks’ “Mount Rushmore of Iowa Football,” along with Alex Karras, Nile Kinnick and Chuck Long.




FRIDAY,  SEPTEMBER 9,  2022 - “He could take his and beat yours, or take yours and beat his.”   Duke's Wallace Wade, referring to Tennessee’s Bob Neyland


*********** I remember as a kid seeing photos of Princess Elizabeth in an army uniform during World War II.  I remember her wedding, I remember the death of her father, and I remember her coronation (70 years ago).  As Queen Elizabeth, she’s been a constant, in a world that’s turned upside-down in the time since she took the throne.  Through it all, she’s been one really classy lady - a term that’s seldom used (or warranted) these days - and I mourn her death.  I doubt that we will ever see her like again.


*********** Coach

Hello.  It has been a while.  I really enjoyed your zoom clinic!!  Now, I am going to have to go back thru all my emails and find all of your old clinics. I have some time on my hands for a change.  I took a one-year leave of absence from the school I was coaching at.  I have three young children (7, 11, 13) and felt my health slipping.  So, getting back into great shape (running and lifting).

Definitely, getting my energy and health back!  Thinking I might make another run at coaching (can't get the double wing out of my blood).

Some sad news to report, David Maness passed a few weeks ago.  David was just a great man who had a lot of class!!  We spent one season coaching together when he came down to Florida and stayed at my house.  We stayed in touch over the years.  I did not realize he was even sick, all he said to me was that he was having a few health issues.  Anyway, I just wanted to let you know how much Dave enjoyed your coaching clinics and the double wing!!

Bob Goebel
Daytona Beach, Florida

https://www.holcombefuneralhomes.com/obituary/Philip-Maness

This is, indeed, distressing news.  Coach Maness attended a number of my clinics and we corresponded regularly.  He and his wife, Nita, had dinner with us in Durham, North Carolina the night before my clinic several years ago.  Neat people.  I'm very sorry.


***********  I read in the Wall Street Journal about a guy named  Anthony Del Grosso, 28, who said  that he has recently begun the process of obtaining “dual citizenship by descent” in Italy. He said he wants to have a family one day “without working himself to death” just to be able to provide for them.

That brought to mind all the Italians who came to the United States to work as stone masons, fishermen, miners, factory workers, railroad builders, construction laborers.

Hmmm. Those Italians who came here - they helped build America from the ground up. They busted their butts. Many of them actually did work themselves to death.* *

They did a lot for America.

What  do you suppose Anthony Del Grosso has to offer Italy?


* * Recommended reading:  “Christ in Concrete”  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christ_in_Concrete


*********** “He could take his and beat yours, or take yours and beat his” is maybe the highest compliment one coach can pay another, and it’s been applied to a lot of coaches over the years.  My research finds it was first said by Duke coach Wallace Wade, on October 5, 1940. His Blue Devils had just lost to Tennessee, 13-0, and he  was referring  to Volunteers’ coach Bob Neyland.


*********** It appears that the CFP may be expanded to 12 teams  in my lifetime.  Just before they made the recent announcement that we could even see it by 2024, John Canzano had this to say…

Currently, we have a four-team “invitational” tournament that leaves the entire left side of a map of the country left out.

The Pacific Time Zone captures about 17 percent of the population in the country. The Mountain Time Zone includes another 7 percent. That’s about a quarter of the nation that hasn’t been regularly included in the playoff. I can’t think television partners are happy about that.

The CFP’s current format has been in place for eight years. That means 32 total teams have participated. Of those, only Oregon and Washington have campuses anywhere other than the Eastern and Central Time zones. Those two time zones have controlled 94 percent of the playoff in this era.

There’s currently a fresh push to expand to 12 teams, possibly sooner than expected. I’m not optimistic that college football will get it right. But postseason changes can’t get here fast enough. If they expand, it absolutely needs to include automatic berths for the major conference champions. The sport doesn’t need equality of outcome. It needs equality of opportunity and geographic inclusion.

I’ve covered the Big Ten as a beat reporter. I lived and worked in the ACC footprint. I even served as the beat reporter for Notre Dame one season. But one of the most revealing conversations I ever had came when I was working as a columnist at the Fresno Bee and encountered Pat Hill.

The crusty, out-spoken Fresno State head coach, had an “anywhere, anyone, anytime” mantra when it came to scheduling. He also had a piranha swimming around in a tank in his office, but that’s another story.

Anyway, I asked Hill once about the college football postseason system and he said, “Just throw us a bone. The system needs to throw us a bone. We can go undefeated, beat a bunch of Power Fives, and still not get in. That makes no sense.”

He’s right. But it gets even worse when you consider that the current system has only four spots, includes wild subjectivity, and is geographically flawed. Even the Power Five members are at a disadvantage.

I know we’ve spent a lot of time and energy in the last couple of months talking about the future of college football. I wonder sometimes if the commissioners in the SEC and Big Ten care much about its health.

***********   He plays football.  He wrestles.  He runs track - he was on a school relay team that took second in the prestigious Drake Relays. And he plays baseball - his team made it to the state semi-finals. (Unless things have changed, Iowa schools, in the interest of not having track and baseball compete for athletes, play baseball in the summer, after track is over).

But can he do two of those sports - the two toughest - at a Big Ten school?

Can he wrestle at Iowa - one of the premier programs in the sports - and also play football for the Hawkeyes?

An Iowa City High School kid named Ben Kueter thinks he can.

Wrestlng?  Three weeks ago, he won the junior men’s World Championship at 97 kilograms (213 pounds), so there’s that.

Football?  He’s considered to be a four-star prospect as a linebacker.

Apparently, the coaches at Iowa - both football and wrestling - are ready to let him try to pull off this most difficult of all doubles.

The kid already has a wonderful approach.  To him, football represents a break from wrestling:


“Ever since I was a kid, I’ve found that taking that break from wrestling to play football makes you miss wrestling a little bit. That helps me enjoy it a little bit more. Guys who only wrestle all year, they love it, but sometimes guys get burnt out. That break to play football, I think that makes me a better wrestler.”


https://www.hawkcentral.com/story/sports/college/iowa/wrestling/2022/08/12/how-ben-kueter-iowa-balance-both-football-and-wrestling-two-sport-athletes/10264085002/

Thanks for the story tip to Shep Clarke, Mt. Juliet, Tennessee



***********   I laughed like hell when the TV camera caught Pitt’s Pat Narduzzi telling one of his players, whose tee  shirt was out and covering his butt, “tuck your shirt in.”

I loved it, because it really bothers me that most coaches, who are paid millions, can’t be bothered with how their teams look.  You don’t believe me?  Take a look at the number of teams with

1. Game jerseys with sleeves of different lengths
2. Different colored long-sleeve shirts underneath the game jerseys
3. White tee shirts outside the game jerseys, hanging down as far as the butt
4. Game jerseys outside the pants, looking like skirts
5. Game pants of varying length, from over-the-knee to halfway up the thigh
6. Stockings or no stockings (or a stocking on just one leg) - or leggings
8. White socks or no white socks
7. Shoes of different colors

How does that help a school’s “brand,” which, we are told, is so important in marketing?

And then there’s the idea of alternate uniforms.  We all know that they’re pushed by the apparel companies with the idea of selling more items to the public, but what  damage does it do to a  school’s image?  Hard to say that that “Shamrock Series” crap is hurting Notre Dame,

Says Nick Saban on why the Crimson Tide’s look is predictable by design:

“To me, there’s an expectation that when we run out of the tunnel, this is the brand. This is the culture. This is what people expect to see.”

https://www.si.com/college/2022/09/03/nick-saban-alabama-football-alternate-uniforms-white-helmets-tradition



*********** I’m old enough to remember when UCLA  and John Wooden ruled the roost in college basketball, and Lefty Driesell, recently hired as basketball coach at Maryland, actually  took out paid ads in the Washington Post making the then-outrageous claim that he was going to make Maryland “The UCLA of the East.”

Living in Maryland at the time, I laughed, of course.

Just as you would laugh if somebody today were to say they were going to make UCLA the Ohio State of the West.



*********** Is football being taken over by  the data dweebs the same way baseball has been?  How’s that been helping baseball?

Every week I see college teams in short yardage  situations, needing a yard  for a score or a first down and, almost as if they’re listening to some higher power, they snap the ball to a quarterback deep in the backfield, who hands off to a back  who lined up even deeper, who’s tackled before he gets to the line of scrimmage.  Either that, or they simply decide not to “go for it,” knowing that the last time they did, they snapped the ball to a quarterback deep in the backfield, who handed off to a back  who lined up even deeper, who was tackled before he got to the line of scrimmage.

Stubbornly, they refuse to put a  quarterback under center, and either run a quarterback sneak, or hand off to a fullback.

What’s absurd to me is that they have so many coaches, and so many specialists for so many different, often insignificant jobs, but they can’t spare one coach, one quarterback and one center for five to ten minutes of every practice, just to work on the T-formation exchange.

What’s equally absurd is that despite having rosters of 85 scholarship players, there’s not a damn fullback in the bunch.  Baloney.  I bet just among the linebackers alone, half of them played something resembling a fullback in high school/

Today’s FBS coaches have at least four analysts on their staffs, plus God knows how many data-dweebs, providing them  with  the analytics that tell the  guy calling the plays what has the most chance of success in any given situation.  Do you really suppose that they’re compiling data that shows that your chance of success in short yardage situations is greater when you don’t have a QB under center - or when you don’t have a fullback?


*********** Brett Yormark, Commissioner of the Big 12, shoots from the lip…

Tuesday, twhen asked about future expansion of the conference, he said…
 

“Well, I don’t want to get into the specifics, and I appreciate the question. But obviously going out west is where I would like to go, entering that fourth time zone.”

Now, how in the hell does he intend to do that?  Other than  the Pac-12, the only FBS schools left in the Pacific Time Zone are San Diego State and Fresno State.


Asked whether the Big 12 is competing with the Big Ten  to grab off some Pac-12 schools…

“Absolutely not. Commissioner Kevin Warren is a friend, we talk strategy all the time, no different than the conversations I have with other Power 5 commissioners.

I’d  stop right there with “Kevin Warren is a friend.” George Kliavkoff of the Pac-12 thought so, too.  And got stabbed in the back.  And Yormark’s predecessor, Bob Bowlsby, considered Greg Sankey of the SEC to be his friend…

On the strength of the Big 12…

“I think top to bottom we’re the best conference in America. We have a lot of depth. We went 9-1 last week, probably should have won that West Virginia-Pitt game, but those things happen. I’m very, very bullish on where we are in football, for sure.”

I grant him the depth.  Top to bottom the Big 12 may, indeed, be the most balanced conference.    Every  team in the conference is decent.  But  until we know more about an Oklahoma with a new coach and a new QB there’s not a team in the bunch, including the new additions, with  a ghost of a chance of making the current four-team playoff.



***********  If you’ve seen the semiliterate way so many college football players “communicate” on Twitter, and heard them speak in interviews, you’ll understand why I wonder who writes sh— like this for them when they announce they plan to transfer

I never thought I would say this but I can't thank ——— enough this place has allowed me to grow tremendously, I've made relationships that will last a lifetime.  First I want to thank the staff for giving me the opportunity to be apart (sic) of the ——— family, I want to thank Coach ——— for all the life lessons that will stick with me forever and I want to thank Coach ——— for teaching me so much and helping my game during our short time together.   I also want to thank my teammates for making this feeling like home even when things weren't going so great for me I knew I could always count on y'all to pick me up when I was down. I'll never forget all the memories and friends I made along the way. I am forever grateful for this opportunity! With all that being said after a lot of thought and prayer I have decided to enter my name in the transfer portal and pursue other opportunities.

*********** FROM A LONGTIME  FRIEND AND FELLOW COACH, SOMEWHERE IN THE SOUTH…

I do watch the Zoom Clinics.   I MADE my defensive staff watch your rant on the useless as tits on a boar "hawk tackle". I did not even wait on you to pause before I was saying  “AMEN!”   We stopped teaching that toward the end of last year. I told my coaches not to even say the word “head.” Say “eyes up and across.”



***********   Hi Coach!

I just finished your Zoom recording. Thanks so much for putting the videos out there for all that cannot make it live. I appreciate it very much!

Your impact on those players from the reunion was obvious. Seeing them after all these years must have been special. You have emphasized "trust" and "teamwork" more than once at your clinics and media presentations and I recently saw those attributes mentioned in a pregame session in Texas. Cal Lutheran played Southwestern in Georgetown, Texas this past weekend and my son Jacob who lives near Austin got to reunite with an old position coach Anthony Lugo, who is now the head coach. Jacob was asked to speak to the team prior to taking the field and his emphasis was "trust" and "team". I attached the short video just to let you know that your impact filters down not only through your players but through all of us that had your tutelage over the years. Sometimes I wonder if my coaching ever resonated with players. It was special to see my son preach the ideals with some passion!

Thanks again Hugh!

Best,

Michael Norlock


Jacob’s pregame talk was remarkable.  He was eloquent and to the point and most important, authentic.  It certainly is a reflection of what he learned from his dad and from his college experience.  (A follow-up:  Cal Lutheran, down 21-9 after three quarters, came back to take a 24-21 lead with less than 6 minutes to play.  But Southwestern tied it at 0:00 with a field goal, and went on to win in OT, 32-31, when they made a two-point  conversion.)


*********** Peyton Manning was a hell of a player, and he’s very likable.  But I’m starting to see him on TV a lot.  An awful lot.  I doubt that he gives it much thought, since he’s being well paid for all that air time, but I’d hate to see him get overexposed the way John Madden did.


*********** Game Day at West Point is a bit different than most places, because first of all, West Point is a military post, so security is high just to get on the grounds.  Second of all, as  West Point was originally chosen to be a continental fort because of the steep hilly ground it occupied - overlooking a sharp bend in the Hudson River -  flat ground that doesn’t have a building on it - places where  spectators can park, is at a premium.  Not only is parking scarce, but lots are scattered all over the post.  There are shuttle buses  to get people to the stadium, highly advisable in most cases because unless you are a major donor, your spot is going to require a very steep climb, either before or after the game, depending on its location.

Just for your information, I’ve included the game day info that the West Point athletics department makes available  to all ticket holders.

https://www.armygameday.com/utsa-gameday-guide


*********** The Pac-12 this weekend…(By order of their appearance)

Southern Utah at Utah (10:30 AM, Pac-12)

After that tough three-point loss to Florida, no margin of victory would be great enough to surprise me.


Colorado at Air Force (12:30 PM, CBS)

The Buffs are17.5-point dogs, and that might not be enough.


Washington State at Wisconsin (12:30 PM, FOX):

The Cougs  didn’t look good look against Idaho. With the new QB, one game removed from FCS, I don’t think they’re ready yet to compete with a good Big Ten team. Considering the way they let Idaho stay in the game last week, this one could be bad.


Portland State at Washington (1 PM,  Pac-12):

Portland State nearly pulled off a win against San Jose State, but Washington is better than San Jose State, and better than last year’s Washington team (which lost its opener to Montana). I think Washington wins by three scores (20 points).


UNLV at Cal (1 PM, Pac-12):

Has Cal improved?  Is this the year that UNLV finally becomes a good football team?  Cal’s a 13-point favorite, and I think Cal will win, but I’d take UNLV and the points.


Alabama State at UCLA (2 PM, Pac-12):

Seriously?  Alabama State?  Is this to help you recover from Bowling Green?  If UCLA scores 50 points  and there’s less than 20,000 people in the Rose Bowl for the game -  did anybody see it?


Arizona State at Oklahoma State (4:30 PM, ESPN2):

Oklahoma State is a 13-1/2 point favorite, despite  giving up 44 points last week to Central Michigan. Actually, I’d give the points  and take the Cowboys.  On coaching alone, I’d take the Cowboys.  And, too, they’re playing at home.


USC at Stanford (4:30 PM, ABC):

Damn shame this long-time rivalry of the two most prominent private colleges west of the Mississippi is a  goner.  It’s  the first Pac-12 game of the year (if you still count USC as a member). Lord, I want to see David Shaw and Stanford beat Riley and  the University of Spoiled Children, but I learned a long time ago that life’s not fair. USC will  probably win by two TDs or more.


Eastern Washington at Oregon (5:30 PM, Pac-12):

Last week Oregon played in the Game of the Week,  in prime time before a national audience.  This week?  They play an FCS opponent on the Pac-12 network.   If only they could have flipped the TV outlets for the two games, nobody would have seen how bad the Ducks looked against Georgia. Maybe the Ducks will take it out on their FCS rivals, but if they play the way they played against Georgia, EWU is capable of beating them.  Realistically, I say UO by 24.


Oregon State at Fresno State (7:30 PM, CBSSN):

This is MY most looked-forward-to  game of the week

Oregon State opened with a very impressive win over Boise State, 34-17.  I love to watch the Beavers. They  run  a throwback offense, with their  QB under center a lot. The QB, Chance Nolan, is one of the West’s best passers, and they like to throw from play action.  His favorite receiver is 6-6 TE Luke Musgrave. They run a fair amount of I-formation, and I really like they big tailback, Shaun Fenwick.  He’s 6-2, 230.   Jack Colletto, from my town of Camas, Washington, is an all-purpose guy. He  wears number 12.  He was recruited as a QB,  but you might see him at I-formation fullback, as Wildcat QB in short yardage situations, and at linebacker.   His dad, Bert, was a great player for me way back in 1980.  One slight problem:  Boise State didn’t look like Boise State.  Has their great run come to an end?


Fresno State was not overly impressive in their opener against FCS Cal Poly, but they still won, 35-7.  It may have been the Bulldogs’ first game under “new” head coach Jeff Tedford, but it’s actually his second go-round as the Fresno head coach - he’s back after missing the last two seasons for health reasons. If Oregon State’s Chance Nolan isn’t the West’s pass passer, Fresno’s Jake Haener might be.  Against Cal Poly he was 36 of 42 for 377 yards and two TDs.   Fresno is always tough at home.  Bulldog Stadium will be packed with  40,000  fans, and they’re very close to the field - too close, in the opinion of most Pac-12 teams who’ve had to play there. It will also be very hot - And if the Bulldogs needed any extra incentive, there’s the perception of their being snubbed by the elites of the Pac-12:  whenever  the topic of potential new  conference members comes up, Fresno State is seldom mentioned.

But while we’re talking about slights… whenever the subject of the breakup of the Pac-12 comes up, there’s never a place at the table for Oregon State. No, they get sent to the Mountain West table. So I’d say they’ve got plenty to play for.

Fresno is a slight (- .5) favorite.  Oregon State has never won at Fresno, in six tries.  Still I like the Beavers, even up.

***********  Hugh -

I like your game pick of the week.  I'd be there, if I wasn't in a self-imposed lonely protest and boycotting season tickets since they dropped wrestling.  I'm sure I will relent at some point.  But not yet. 

One memorable time Fresno St played Oregon St. at home, Oregon St was ranked #1 in the country by SI (which was patently ridiculous), and they got boat-raced by a Bulldogs team led by David Carr.  I was in the front row in the student seats, which used to be right behind the visiting bench.  Which, in hindsight, was probably not Fresno St athletic department's best call ever.  The goalposts came down that night never to be seen again.  Seriously, they were never found; they were last seen travelling down Bulldog Lane carried by a bunch of students.  There is a great picture from the Fresno Bee of one of my former high school teammates as one of the first two kids on top of those goalposts.  It was just days before 9/11.

It will be dropping to the low 90s by Saturday.  It's currently over 110 in the valley.  Pity.


Thanks,

Mike Burchett
Woodlake HS
Woodlake, California

Mississippi State at Arizona (8 PM, FS1):

Mississippi State is an 11-1/2 post favorite.  Mike Leach is in his third year, and so is his QB, Will Rogers. (He’s a junior, and he started six games as a freshman). Arizona looked really good against San Diego State, but how good are the Aztecs?  Wildcat QB Jayden de Laura is a transfer from Washington State, where he was recruited by - Mike Leach.  I say that Arizona,  and  coach Jedd Fisch and QB de Laura - while having made great progress from last year, are a year behind Mississippi State, Leach and Rogers. Mississippi State by 17.

*********** MY PERSONAL TOP 20  - IN ORDER OF THEIR APPEARANCE

ALABAMA AT TEXAS - I respect Saban. I just can’t like a team that Sarkisian coaches.
WAKE FOREST AT VANDERBILT - One grandson a Wake grad; four grandkids Vandy grads.  Hate to see either lose, but I’m a big Wake - and Dave Clawson - fan.  Will Sam Hartman play?
MISSOURI AT KANSAS  STATE - EMAW! (Every Man A Wildcat!)
DUKE AT NORTHWESTERN - A much tougher match for the Devils than Temple
UTSA AT ARMY - We know UTSA has the offense - does Army have the defense?
TENNESSEE AT PITT - I don’t think Pitt can stop Hendon Hooker and the Vols’ offense
WASHINGTON STATE AT WISCONSIN - I’m afraid I could be changing the channel by halftime
COLORADO AT AIR FORCE - Just to watch Air Force.  They might be the best service team.
MEMPHIS AT NAVY - Is Navy as bad as they looked last week?
UNLV AT CAL - This is fascinating to me, because they’re both unknowns
KANSAS AT WEST VIRGINIA - It was only Tennessee Tech, but when was the last time Kansas put 56 points on anybody?
KENTUCKY AT FLORIDA - Could Florida be this good this soon? I’m going with Kentucky
SYRACUSE AT UCONN - Cuse will win, of course.  I just like them.
USC AT STANFORD - I like Stanford.  I  didn’t think I  could dislike USC any more than I did, but then they went and bolted, and I found out I could
ARIZONA  STATE AT OKLAHOMA  STATE - I have a granddaughter at ASU, but I have a grandson who graduated from OSU. All things being even, I go with the Cowboys.
SAN JOSE STATE AT AUBURN - Just to see what Auburn can do.  Bryan Harsin is under an awful lot of pressure.
EASTERN WASHINGTON AT OREGON - Can Oregon tackle FCS runners?
BAYLOR AT BYU - The Big 12 of the future. Ought to be a great game.  No predictions.
OREGON STATE AT FRESNO  STATE - Go Beavs.
MISSISSIPPI STATE AT ARIZONA - I’m a Mike Leach guy. I think his  State club is pretty good.


***********  Coach:

Thanks for the opportunity to view the clinics after the fact via vimeo.  So much good stuff!!  After 25 years of coaching youth and high school football (Some years coaching high school from 3-5:30 and youth from 6-8 in the same season) I finally have the opportunity to coach my son in tackle football.  I cannot tell you how awesome it is and what a thrill I get taking him to and from practice everyday.  I am really blessed.  I am coaching the Palatine 8U Panthers (Basically a third grade team that allows you to run with the ball up to 78 lbs. and then they stripe you if you are above that weight) and my son is already the tallest kid in third grade and weighs 105 lbs.  His grandpa and uncle on my wife's side were both 6'6" so we will see......but for now he has settled in as a Center and Defensive End.


I definitely wanted to enroll my team as part of the Black Lion Award at the end of the year.  We are currently 2-0 in the BGYFL and we are keeping it simple with power, counter, wedge, sweep, bootleg and 5 base lead.  It is a ton of work but I am having a blast.  The Bill George League and most of the state of Illinois has seen a HUGE numbers jump this season.  Our league has seen total teams rise by 45% from last season and I have heard familiar stories across the state.  Parents seem to have moved on from all the head trauma scare tactics and decided that after COVID it is time to get these kids out of the house and back on the fields.  I hope it is a trend that continues.  Many towns had to cut teams because they couldn't get enough equipment and helmets to meet demand!

All the best,

Bill Lawlor
Palatine, Illinois

This is the first encouraging news I’ve heard in a long time on the subject of player participation, and I find it exciting.


*********** Hugh,

Oregon State travels to Fresno State on Saturday to take on the Bulldogs.  Both teams scored opening wins, but I would have to give the edge to the Bulldogs.  The Beavers will have to travel to the Valley and face the Bulldogs in front of 50,000 screaming Red Wave fanatics.  Fresno won their opener over Cal Poly seemingly overlooking the Mustangs looking ahead to the visit from the Beavers.  OSU looked good in their opener pounding an uncharacteristically bad looking Boise State team.  However...traveling for the second week in a row, and taking on the MWC West favorite Bulldogs who relish playing (and beating) PAC 12 teams (Oregon State included) I have to give the edge to Fresno.

On the topic of the PAC 12.  UCLA is delusional and riding Trojan coattails.  Colorado is still trying to turn the corner with ex-UCLA HC Dorrell.  Arizona looked much improved in their win over San Diego State.  USC looked good vs. Rice, but then again most everybody looks good against Rice.  Utah will bounce back and defend their championship.  Georgia made Oregon look like a pretender.

Disappointed with how Army looked against Coastal.  Not even a shell of its former self.  They better get back to what got them where they've been in a hurry because a very talented and solid UTSA team is coming to Michie looking to rebound from a close loss to Houston.  If Army wants to stay in the game they'll have to keep the Roadrunners offense off the field or Army will get run out of Michie.

Are you beginning to move to the "dark side" with Notre Dame?  

Irish will bounce back against Marshall.  But their O Line needs to get more physical in order to establish a more successful run game.  Tommy Rees is still too young to have the play-calling duties.  Otherwise, the ND defense will have to carry the load and they can't do that every time ND goes three and out.

Minnesota takes on another lightweight at home on Saturday.  They'll go 3-0 against FCS Western Illinois.  Texas has no business playing UL Monroe.  The Horns play a real opponent on Saturday.  Only thing going for them is that it's a home game.

I left the room when College Game Day's "rapper" performed.  Also their latest female addition to the crew????  You decide.  Despite what Rece Davis and the rest of them say about Lee Corso they all sound like the same people who say Joe Biden is fine.  I love Coach Corso, but I think it's time.


Have a great week!

Joe Gutilla
Austin, Texas

Wow.  You and I sure see  eye-to-eye on College Game Day.


***********   QUIZ ANSWER:  A native of Hartsville, Tennessee,  Phil Dickens was a great  single-wing tailback at Tennessee under the great Bob Neyland.  Nicknamed Phantom Phil, he was All-SEC his senior year, and was named Tennessee’s Outstanding Athlete.

He’s in the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame.

He was drafted by the Chicago Cardinals, but chose to get started in coaching.

He  spent three years as an assistant at Wofford College, in South Carolina, then two each at NC State and Mississippi State.

His first head coaching job was at Wofford. Before his arrival, Wofford had not had a winning record in 15 years.  During his six years there, Wofford had just one losing season. From 1947 to 1950, his teams won 24 straight games.  HIs 1949 team went 11-0 and met Florida State in the Cigar Bowl.  His 1950 team upset Auburn.  He was 18-5 against other in-state teams. When he left for Wyoming after the 1952 season, his record at Wofford was 40-16-7. (He also served as the school’s head baseball and basketball  coach for two years.)

He’s in the Wofford College Hall of Fame.

At Wyoming, he made a good initial impression by  establishing   study tables - monitored by the coaches - for all  his football players.    But he got it done on the field, too. In his four years there,  his teams  compiled the best winning percentage of any  football coach in school history.  When he left for Indiana after the 1956 season, he’d gone 29-11-1, won a Skyline Conference Championship, and won a bowl-game, a 19-14 Sun Bowl win over Texas Tech.  His best team was his undefeated 1956 team, which went 10-0 and was ranked 16th in the coaches’ poll, but was stiffed by both the Sugar and Gator Bowls.  He gained some renown for his innovative  “his side-saddle T” offense, which enabled hm to stay true to his Tennessee single wing roots while exploiting many of the strengths of the T formation, and in 1956 his best back, Jim Crawford, outgained the great Jim Brown to win the national  rushing title.

He’s in the Wyoming Hall of Fame.

He won the Indiana job over a number of highly-qualified applicants, and when North Carolina’s Jim Tatum backed out, he got the job.  He signed a  four-year contract worth $60,000. (That’s total. It was for $15,000 a year.)

But he walked into a trap.  Unbeknownst to him,  the Big Ten Presidents, in an effort to reduce the amount of athletic receipts going to pay for athletic scholarships, passed a by-law that would limit  member schools to just 100 scholarships a year - for all sports - and furthermore, all athletic  scholarships would be based on need.  The “need” - how much aid a family required - would be determined by the College Board, an independent agency.

Needless to say,  Big Ten recruiting began to  suffer at the hands of schools from other conferences, who  simply continued to follow the less-strict NCAA rules.  He stubbornly continued to offer full scholarships, which, while in accordance with NCAA rules, was a violation of the new Big Ten policy.   Ordered by the conference to  suspend him for a year or face possible expulsion from the conference, Indiana had no choice but to sit him out for the 1957 season.

In 1958, he officially began as head coach, and took the Hoosiers to a 5-3-1 season (3-2-1 in conference play).  Unfortunately, that would be his only winning season at Indiana. A series of losing seasons was complicated by the fact that he resumed operating outside the lines, and NCAA violation wound up putting Indiana’s entire athletic department on four years probation.  That meant no TV appearances, no bowl games, no championship participation by other sports (which included Indiana’s basketball program and its outstanding swimming team).

Fired after the 1964 season, his record in seven years at Indiana was 20-41-2.  He was kept on until his retirement as an administrator in the IU athletic department.

In 17 years as a head coach, Phil Dickens’ record was 89-68-10.



CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING PHIL  DICKENS

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
JOE GUTILLA - AUSTIN, TEXAS
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN



*********** QUIZ:   He grew up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and was a  star on both offense and defense at Catholic High there.  In his sophomore year he helped lead Catholic to its first-ever state title.  In his senior year he was a USA Today All-American selection.

In January following his senior season, just two days after his 18th birthday, his single mother, a  Baton Rouge police officer,  was killed, and as the oldest in the family, he took responsibility for his five brothers and sisters.

He attended Florida State, where he played as a freshman on a national championship team, then rushed for more than 1,000 yards  for three straight seasons.  He was named All-SEC running back his senior season.  He was also a sprinter on the Seminoles’ track team, and won All-America honors as a member of their 4x100 relay team.

He was drafted in the first round - the number 12 pick overall - by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers,  and he earned NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year honors.  In five years with the Bucs he twice rushed for more than 1,000 yards, and twice was named to the Pro Bowl.

In 2002 he signed as a free  agent with the Falcons, and in his six years in Atlanta he had three 1,000-yard seasons rushing.

He finished his career with one season in Tampa Bay.

In 2004, he won the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award.

When he retired, he had gained 10,967 yards rushing, and 15,306 all-purpose yards.  He had 10 seasons with at least 1,000 rushing and receiving yard combined. 

He is in the Falcons’ Ring of Honor, and he now has an ownership stake in the Falcons.

During his playing career and since his retirement he has been active in a number of charities and community assistance efforts.

 


TUESDAY,  SEPTEMBER 6, 2022 - “If you’re ever lucky enough in your career to coach a bad team — and live to talk about it — you will learn that it makes you examine every little thing you coach, every little detail.”   Dave Clawson, Head Coach, Wake Forest


*********** I was wondering why  this seemed like such a great weekend of football  and then I realized - we’d just enjoyed five straight days of college football, and not a word about the NFL the entire  time.


*********** Greg Koenig’s Bennett (Colorado) Tigers learned how to take a punch Friday. 

Making numerous mistakes in the early going - two fumbles (including one on the opening play of the game), several penalties, a dropped touchdown pass and two mistakes in coverage that resulted in touchdowns, they trailed Peyton after one quarter. 21-8. 

But they shook off the punch and came roaring back, outscoring Peyton 36-0 in the second quarter to take a 44-21 lead at the half.

After shutting out Peyton in the second half,  the final score was Bennett 68, Peyton 21, as A-Back Connor Rayburn carried 33 times for 328 yards and six touchdowns.

After a bye this week, the Tigers  come back in two weeks against Banning Lewis Academy, now 2-0 after two blowout wins.



*********** After many years of great success at Whiteford, Michigan, Double Winger Jason Mensing moved in the offseason to John Glenn High in Westland, Michigan, and on Friday night he got his first win with his new program as his Rockets beat Churchill High of Livonia, 23-20.

Wrote Coach Mensing…

it was a huge win for us...   We had not beaten them since 2013 and they were the number 1 ranked team in our area, and 4th overall in state rankings....   

We reduced our package last week to a very minimal set of core plays all from double tight double wing.   Although we still are having many execution issues it helped us significantly...   With many of the players being fairly new to football and the fact that we play in one of the toughest leagues in the state it has been more than challenging....   We will have to eventually be able to do a little more but I am uncertain when we will be at that point...   Fortunately, as we are going through our offensive growing pains we have played pretty good defense and special teams....   

We will keep trying to get better at the core with a added nugget here or there that hopefully can get a chunk play when we need one..

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

Just wanted to let you know that we notched our 1st win of the season with 295 rushing yards on 50 carries and 121 yards passing on 5 completions. We won 36 to 8 (over Pitman) on the back of a balanced running attack as we have 4 kids that carry the ball with a good rotation of our RBs.

We have a lot of work to do still but we are finally figuring out how to win. Most of the team are underclassmen and we get to have them for 2 and 3 more years.

Thank you for all of the help over the years. Talk to you soon!

Regards,

Mike Wilson
Head Football Coach
Arthur P. Schalick High School
Pittsgrove, New Jersey


*********** Only in college football could you see games like these, the sort of games that the NFL (National Fieldgoal League) stopped giving us long ago:

Pitt over West Virginia (Air Raid or not, I suggest that the WVU coach spend a little time on the under-center  snap, because any team that can’t/won’t go for it on 4th-and-six inches, with the game on the line…)
 
Penn State over Purdue (even though if, as the announcer  said, it was the greatest drive he’s ever seen, he mustn’t have seen a lot of  football. Or else he’s just into hyperbole. Considering it was probably Gus Johnson, an NBA guy, they’re both true.)

Indiana over Illinois (Hey- whaddaya know?  Sure hope that Penn State-Purdue announcer was watching this end-of-game drive by Indiana.)

Florida over Utah (Exciting almost-comeback by the Utes, foiled by the WTF? play of the weekend.)

North Carolina over App State (Are you kidding me? More than 60 points scored by the two teams - IN THE FOURTH QUARTER?)

NC State over East Carolina (In the NFL, a place kicker wouldn’t miss an extra point AND a field goal in the closing minutes.)

Houston over Texas San Antonio (UTSA comes up short on the conversion in OT, misses out on a historic win.)

Old Dominion over Virginia Tech (WTF was a Power 5 school that regularly puts 65,000 people in its stadium doing, playing at a Group of 5 school whose stadium seats less than half that?)

Arizona over San Diego State (The Wildcats and their new QB Jayden DeLaura, a transfer from Washington State, off to a great start in ruining the Aztecs’ debut in their new stadium.)

Ohio State over Notre Dame (This was the closest any college game came to an NFL game, but it  was suspenseful  for much of the way, and I thought it was a decent  start for new ND coach Marcus Freeman. I find myself liking the guy and wanting him to be successful.)

Rutgers over BC (Another closing drive to get it done, after Rutgers trailed most of the way.)

Florida State over LSU (Great start by FSU, dismal  start by the Tigers, who appear to have bet all their offensive chips on a transfer QB from Arizona State.  In the matchup of the QBs, FSU came out way ahead.  Even if LSU had pulled out the  win at the end, their fans would not have gone home happy.)

If I missed any more, it’s likely I just didn’t get a chance to see it.

*********** Special credit to:

Syracuse, an impressive 31-7 winner over Louisville.  I like Dino Babers and I hope his success will continue. To give you an idea what kind of football Louisville plays - there was a play where they had two illegal crackbacks, both of them involving shots to the head.

Duke, playing its first game under Mike Elko, looked good on offense - QB Riley Leonard was 13-13 for 215 yards halfway through the  second quarter. But in shutting out Temple, 30-0, the Devils looked even better on defense, especially their tackling.  With the overall level of tackling in college football in decline as players leave their feet in all-or-nothing attempts, I was impressed by the way they were hitting high and staying on their feet.

Portland State, which has institutional problems you can’t believe, led San Jose State 17-14, only to fall, 21-17  with 1:28 left.  Portland State Vikings coach Bruce Barnum is a local guy whom I coached in an All-Star game back in 1980, and I’m hoping that this game will be a springboard  for him and his program.


*********** Pac-12 games, in order of the quality that the teams showed me:

1. Oregon State.  The Beavers looked really good - especially on defense - beating Boise State, 34-17.

2. Arizona 38, San Diego State 20 - Last year, SDSU terrorized Pac-12 schools.

3. Washington 45, Kent State 20 - This time last year, the Huskies were coming off a loss to - Montana.  Washington scored more than 45 just once last year.

4. Florida 29, Utah 26 - Woulda, coulda, shoulda.  They lost, but they’re still probably the best team in the conference.

5. USC 66, Rice 14 - Not that this told us much. USC is talented.  Rice is not.  60,000 showed up in 98-degree heat, so there’s that.

6. UCLA 45, Bowling Green 17 - Ho hum.  Have you seen yet what 27,000 people in the Rose Bowl looks like?

7. Arizona State 40, Northern Arizona 3 - It was against an FCS opponent, but it may very well have been a more impressive win than I’m considering it to be.

8. Cal 34, UC Davis 13 - Not a bad start, but Cal gave up a lot of rushing yards.

9. Washington State 24, Idaho 17 - The Cougars had a fairly tough time with their longtime rivals from just across the state line.

10. Stanford 41, Colgate 10 - Really?  Colgate?  The planet is dying, and you  flew them across the country?  To play a football game?

11. TCU 38, Colorado 13 - Under new coach Sonny Dykes, we don’t know how good TCU is, but we already knew Colorado is bad.  They play at Air Force next week and at Minnesota the week after, and then they start conference play.  They could go oh-for-2022.

12. Georgia 49, Oregon 3 - If it had been a high school game, this one would have had a running clock early in the fourth quarter.  Actually, it looked like one of those early-round high school playoff games, where everybody makes the playoffs, and the last-place team in a conference plays the first-place team in another conference.


*********** Because of problems with an electrical storm, there was only one TV camera in use  for  some of the TCU-Colorado game.  If only lightning could knock out announcers’ microphones.


*********** Maybe it’s in announcers’ contracts that they must get a certain amount of face time during the broadcast,  but otherwise I have no idea who thinks we’d rather look at two suits in a press box chattering away when there’s something going on down on the field - bands, maybe? team entrances? - that we’d much rather see.  They’re paid for their voices, not their faces.


*********** Service Academy update:


Air Force:  Beat Northern Iowa, usually a strong FCS club, 48-17. It was 41-3 after three periods.  The Falcons had 691 yards total offense - 582 yards rushing. They  never had to punt.  This week: Colorado at home.

Navy: Lost to Delaware. It was only 14-7, but in reality Delaware handled the Mids.  Showing a fair amount of shotgun, Navy rushed for only 185 yards, and their QB, Tai Lavatai, completed just 5 of 13 for 135 yards. Delaware QB Nolan Henderson completed 20 of 32 for 189 yards and two TDs. Navy lost three fumbles, one of them on their first play from scrimmage when a shotgun handoff went awry.  This week, Memphis at home.

Army: Lost to Coastal Carolina, 38-28.  Army, like Navy, showed a  fair amount of shotgun.  Like Navy, Army’s traditional flexbone offense was seldom seen, and the Cadets had to rely on some big plays for their scoring. You  say Army’s a ball control team?  How can that be, when they  had just 47 total plays, 39 of them on the ground?  Coastal, on the other hand, ran well  against a surprisingly weak Army defense.  How well?  They outrushed Army 263-202, and rushed 52 times - 13 more than Army.  (When did that last happen, except against another service academy team?)   You say Army’s an option team?  Then how come their starting QB carried only 5 times? (For  5 yards.) Can’t be because he’s a passer:  he was 1 for 3. Fortunately, that one was for a 54-yard touchdown. The only really encouraging sign for Army offensively was the running of Tyrell Robinson, who carried nine times for 135 yards.  This week: UTSA at home. On Saturday, UTSA came within a whisker of an overtime win over 24-ranked Houston.



*********** My son Ed introduced me to an Australian term in describing the weight  that Kirk Herbstreit appears to have gained: “He’s been in a good paddock.”

The same might be said for Navy’s Ken Niumatololo, and Illinois’ Bret Bielema.  Not in any way am I making light of this.  The demands on a coach’s time create exercise and diet problems that make it tough to  stay in shape, and I am concerned about Coach Bielema.


*********** What’s happened to the old ads where companies said, “Drink our beer,” or “Buy our gas,” or “Brush your teeth with Colgate?”

Now, we have to  endure all sorts of social messages, usually  unrelated to a company’s reason for  being in business.

Take the Ally commercials. Please take them, as the old-time comedians use to say.  Ally is some sort of bank, yet it’s running a commercial  in which a young woman whines that “we deserve more media coverage.”

Deserve?  Sister, you don’t deserve a damn thing. None of us  does.  We get what we earn. 

And when enough people care enough about what you’re doing to pay their hard-earned money to watch, you’ll get the coverage you MERIT.


*********** UCLA claims to be big time, but the sad truth is that it hasn’t been big time in football in years, and it’s really only going to the Big Ten as an entry - as 1A to USC’s 1 (if you’re familiar with horse racing).

If anybody needed any proof, it was the 27,143 announced attendance at the Rose Bowl, for their game Saturday against Bowling Green. It was the lowest attendance for a game in the history of the program.

Yeah, yeah, I know - it was 98 degrees out… It was Labor Day weekend… The students aren’t back in school yet… It was only Bowling Green… Yeah, yeah.

You think they’d ever have to use excuses like that in Athens?  Auburn?  Baton Rouge?  College Station?  Columbia (both of them)?  Fayetteville?  Knoxville?  Lexington?  Oxford?  Starkville?  Tuscaloosa?

Of course not.  Whether the foe was Bowling Green or anybody else in football uniforms, they’d be there, cheering their heads off.

That’s the big time, Bruins, and you’re a long way from it.  I haven’t even mentioned Ann Arbor, Columbus, East Lansing,  Iowa City, Lincoln, Madison, State College and the like.



*********** Oregon was  clearly out of it, well before halftime, yet they continued to go with the starting QB.  Now,  here was at least a chance to  take a look under game conditions at the other two QBs who (we were told) were in contention for the starting job right up until game day.  You don’t get to see much when  you’re winning by a  big score and you substitute, but under Saturday’s conditions, fighting to be respectable, you might have seen something.

After all, those other guys are so good, the coach led us to believe, that, why,  he couldn’t even name a starter until almost the last minute!

Or was it that he was just reluctant to announce the starter for fear the other guys would bolt and he wouldn’t have any backups?

Wait.  Are you telling me that college coaches might be less than completely honest sometimes?

In any event, if you’re a college coach and you’re looking for a QB, one who according to his coach is good enough to have been a near-starter at Oregon, I suspect that there are two of them who might listen to you.  Especially now that the Oregon coach his announced his choice for next week’s game - the guy who started against Georgia.


*********** How’d you like to be on the Pac-12 TV negotiating team and trying, after Saturday performance by Oregon, to convince ESPN that the conference  should get more money for their broadcast rights?


*********** Game Day -  with its ever-expanding cast of characters, overly-animated to the point where  they’d make Italians at an open-air market look stoic…  the guys at the desk acting like a bunch of drunken frat boys yukking it up…  a f—king rapper “performing” - has jumped the shark.


*********** Got to laugh at the Dr. Pepper commercial in which Alabama’s Bryce Young, cashing in on his NIL, plays, in a commercial-within-the-commercial,  Bryce Young,  a college football player cashing in on his NIL by selling  foam fingers.  Guy’s pretty good.


*********** It’s a sign of our decadent society: there are people in power who show more concern for the criminal than for the victim. 

Think that’s not true about football?  We’re not talking criminals here, obviously, but the next football game you watch - tell me you don’t hear soft-hearted sympathy in the broadcast booth for a guy  who’s just been ejected for targeting.  Why that poor kid - he’s going to have to miss the first half of next week’s big game.  What a shame. (And, as they always say, he was just starting to turn his life around.)

Me, I thought the idea of the rule against targeting was to make the game safer by getting rid of targeting.  And if that meant  throwing  a guy out for breaking the rule against targeting, then maybe he would learn, and - better yet - maybe others would learn from his example.

Now, though, we don’t even have the balls to make a guy who’s been ejected leave the f—king field.


*********** Add these to the list of football cliches…

Up the gut

He’s got to hold his water

That young man…


*********** Freak happenings:

Iowa’s four-point margin in its 7-3 victory over South Dakota State was two safeties.

Arizona, punting out of its end  zone,  had the punt blocked by the personal protector.

Virginia Tech’s center snapped it high on a field goal attempt, and the holder, chasing the ball way back upfield,  seemed to think that hook sliding was how you recover it. He was wrong, and Old Dominion scooped it up and ran it in for a score.

Florida State, about to go up by two touchdowns, tried to get tricky - and fumbled on the one.

LSU, having gone 99 yards  to score and pull within a point with 0:00 showing, missed the PAT.

App State,  down by a point with seconds remaining, tried a desperation onside kick. North Carolina returned it for a TD.


*********** Is it me, or have we been seeing a lot more hyphenated last names?


*********** A kid missed a field goal, and the announcer said, “I hope the fans remember that young man’s a college student.”


In this day of NIL and easy, immediate transfer - not to mention useless  fluff classes in order to keep players eligible - I can’t imagine a more  inane statement.


*********** I sense that defensive backs are being much more aggressive  and “hands-on” in their pass coverage.  Certain teams - Penn State comes to mind - seem to be going over the line, in the same way holding linemen do, in the belief that “they won’t call it every time.”


*********** Dan Orlovsky, doing color on the Utah game, won’t STFU.


*********** An LSU guy slapped an FSU guy and for his act, he himself was slapped with an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.  Said Greg McElroy up in the booth, “I don’t know that I’d call that unsportsmanlike conduct.”


*********** Just in case the Pac-12 is still thinking about expansion:

San Diego State lost to Arizona, worst team in the Pac 12 last year.

Boise State lost to Oregon State - and looked bad doing it.


***********  Hugh,

Coach Prime may finally be growing up.

Couldn't agree any more with Coach Brad Knight.  Without those basic tenets of the offense you don't have an offense no matter what version you use.

Greg Koenig has it rolling at Bennett!   Also, Jason Mensing's new school John Glenn picked up its first win of the season!  Congrats to both outstanding DW coaches!

It seems that some schools have experienced a time warp in hanging on to hazing traditions, and in this media biased world we live in today it certainly doesn't help to further the future of our game.

Saw the same game Coach Mackell did.  Same team that won a Texas state championship last year.  Same coach, who the talking heads called one of the "greatest" in Texas.  I give up.

As much as it galls me Desmond Howard was right.  

So far I'm two for two.  GO IRISH!

Enjoy the weekend!

Joe Gutilla
Austin, Texas


*********** QUIZ ANSWER:  Mark Rypien is the only Canadian-born  player to start an NFL game at quarterback…  or to play QB in a Super Bowl…. or to play QB and win a Super Bowl… or to be named Super Bowl MVP.

Aside from all-time great Bronko Nagurski, a hero from another era,  he is arguably  the best Canadian-born player ever to play in the NFL.

But he didn’t  spend at lot of time in Canada.  He was born in Calgary, Alberta, but  moved with his family when he was only three to Spokane, Waasington, where he grew up.  A three-sport (football, basketball, baseball) star at Shadle Park High School there,  he was heavily recruited before signing with nearby Washington State.

Playing under Jim Walden at WSU, he played sparingly until his junior year, but in his final two seasons he completed 293 of 544  for 4101 yards and 28 touchdowns. Despite his  throwing for 2174 yards his senior season - and running back Rueben Mayes  (a lifelong Canadian) rushing for 1236 yards - the Cougars finished with a  dismal 4-7 record.  Only a season-ending 21-20 win in Seattle over Washington provided any solace.

He was drafted in the sixth round by some professional team from Washington, D.C. called the “Redskins,”  but spent his first two seasons on injured reserve.

His third year - his first on an active roster - he backed up Doug Williams, and the next year - 1989 - he became the starter.  He threw for 3,768 yards and 22 touchdowns and was named to the Pro Bowl.

Two years later, running Joe Gibbs’  system to perfection,  he threw for 3,564 yards and 28 touchdowns - and just 11 interceptions,  taking the Redskins to a 14-2 regular season record.  In the Super Bowl, a 37-24 win over Buffalo, he was named the MVP.  And for the second time, he was selected for the Pro Bowl.

He had a decent year the next season, 1992, but he was injured at the start of the 1993 season, and once he returned, he was never the same.  He bounced around with five different clubs before retiring  when his son died from a brain tumor,  but after three years out of the game he returned for one  final go before finally retiring in 2002.

In 11 NFL seasons, he completed 1,466 of 2,613 passes for 18,473 yards and 115 touchdowns.  He also rushed 127 times for 166 yards and 8 touchdowns.

In 2018,  he  announced that he had attempted suicide and suffered from persistent depression, which he attributed to effects of concussions suffered while playing football. As a result, he said, "I wouldn't put any of my kids or grandkids in a football jersey.”

This past May,  Rypien’s former “longtime partner,” who had used his last name despite their never marrying, filed a personal injury lawsuit  against him alleging “physical and emotional abuse” dating back to 2008. 



CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING MARK RYPIEN

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
BRAD KNIGHT - CLARINDA, IOWA
CHARLIE WILSON - BROOKSVILLE, FLORIDA
JOE GUTILLA - AUSTIN, TEXAS
TOM DAVIS - SAN CARLOS, CALIFORNIA
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
PETE PORCELLI - WATERVLIET, NEW YORK
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS


***********   QUIZ:  A native of Hartsville, Tennessee, he was a great  single-wing tailback at Tennessee under the great Bob Neyland.  Nicknamed Phantom Phil, he was All-SEC his senior year, and was named Tennessee’s Outstanding Athlete.

He’s in the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame.

He was drafted by the Chicago Cardinals, but chose to get started in coaching.

He  spent three years as an assistant at Wofford College, in South Carolina, then two each at NC State and Mississippi State.

His first head coaching job was at Wofford. Before his arrival, Wofford had not had a winning record in 15 years.  During his six years there, Wofford had just one losing season. From 1947 to 1950, his teams won 24 straight games.  HIs 1949 team went 11-0 and met Florida State in the Cigar Bowl.  His 1950 team upset Auburn.  He was 18-5 against other in-state teams. When he left for Wyoming after the 1952 season, his record at Wofford was 40-16-7. (He also served as the school’s head baseball and basketball  coach for two years.)

He’s in the Wofford College Hall of Fame.

At Wyoming, he made a good initial impression by  establishing   study tables - monitored by the coaches - for all  his football players.    But he got it done on the field, too. In his four years there,  his teams  compiled the best winning percentage of any  football coach in school history.  When he left for Indiana after the 1956 season, he’d gone 29-11-1, won a Skyline Conference Championship, and won a bowl-game, a 19-14 Sun Bowl win over Texas Tech.  His best team was his undefeated 1956 team, which went 10-0 and was ranked 16th in the coaches’ poll, but was stiffed by both the Sugar and Gator Bowls.  He gained some renown for his innovative  “side-saddle T” offense, which enabled him to stay true to his Tennessee single wing roots while exploiting many of the strengths of the T formation, and in 1956 his best back, Jim Crawford, outgained the great Jim Brown to win the national  rushing title.

He’s in the Wyoming Hall of Fame.

He won the Indiana job over a number of highly-qualified applicants, and when North Carolina’s Jim Tatum backed out, he got the job.  He signed a  four-year contract worth $60,000. (That’s total. It was for $15,000 a year.)

But he walked into a trap.  Unbeknownst to him,  the Big Ten Presidents, in an effort to reduce the amount of athletic receipts going to pay for athletic scholarships, passed a by-law that would limit  member schools to just 100 scholarships a year - for all sports - and furthermore, all athletic  scholarships would be based on need.  The “need” - how much aid a family required - would be determined by the College Board, an independent agency.

Needless to say,  Big Ten recruiting began to  suffer at the hands of schools from other conferences, who  simply continued to follow the less-strict NCAA rules.  He stubbornly continued to offer full scholarships, which, while in accordance with NCAA rules, was a violation of the new Big Ten policy.   Ordered by the conference to  suspend him for a year or face possible expulsion from the conference, Indiana had no choice but to sit him out for the 1957 season.

In 1958, he officially began as head coach, and took the Hoosiers to a 5-3-1 season (3-2-1 in conference play).  Unfortunately, that would be his only winning season at Indiana. A series of losing seasons was complicated by the fact that he resumed his operating outside the lines, and an NCAA violation wound up putting Indiana’s entire athletic department on four years probation.  That meant no TV appearances, no bowl games, no championship participation by other sports (which included Indiana’s basketball program and its outstanding swimming team).

Fired after the 1964 season, his record in seven years at Indiana was 20-41-2.  He was kept on until his retirement as an administrator in the IU athletic department.

His overall record in 17 years as a head coach was 89-68-10.




FRIDAY,  SEPTEMBER 2,  2022 - “The most difficult job is the one that you never get started on.” Henry Ford

*********** I’m no fan of “Coach Prime,” but I am watching how Deion Sanders handles the test of getting a team ready in a city  with no water to drink, to  shower in, to flush toilets, to make ice.   I might actually wind up looking on him more as a legitimate coach and less as a self-promoting braggart.

https://news.yahoo.com/rival-schools-hometown-offers-jackson-190303462.html


*********** Unlike 99 per cent of America’s news media, I have withheld judgment on the alleged incident at the BYU-Duke volleyball game, where a Duke player, who happens to be black,  claims she was called the N-word - every time she served - by someone in the BYU student section.  The problem is that there doesn’t seem to be anyone else in the  crowd of 5000+ people at BYU (a rather large crowd for a volleyball match) who heard what she heard.  Further, there’s nothing on any video - including  on phones -  to indicate the word was said.  It does make you wonder how that one lone player  could have heard it.  But as I said, I am reserving judgment.


*********** While rummaging through the University of Washington’s athletics department’s Web site in search of something, I was struck by the number of people in the athletics department in general,  but on  the football staff in particular.  I think you’ll agree with me that despite not getting as big a share of conference revenue as an SEC or Big Ten program, Washington,  should it need to cut costs,  has plenty of ways to do so, before ever having to declare bankruptcy and dropping to D-III.  The following are the positions listed (50 in all)  that report to the head football coach:




***********  I have to vent a little....

Why do young assistants (and even older ones) think they need to reinvent the wheel AFTER your tiring process of perfecting exactly what this offense needs to do to be successful?

Simple enough.

Linemen deep with inside hand down
Simple snap count
pick-pocket pullers
Head in the hole
12 steps after contact
Picks in the Pecs
Run the circle
Hockey stick right/left
The ball belongs to the team, make sure it still does at the end of the play
Take what the defense is giving you until they stop it (then run it the other way)
QB is the "leader" of the offense
Eliminate penalties and turnovers

Don't try to fix what isn't broken.  Many good coaches have made a living running the most basic parts of this offense and have won countless numbers of games and state titles.

It's disrespectful to those of us who have put in the time and effort to help you (the creator) to make this offense is what it is.  If you don't want to DWWD (do what we do), don't run the offense and don't ask for help.

Okay I'm done ranting.  LOL

My best to you and Connie, I sure do miss seeing you both.  Someday and somehow we will see each other again.  Hopefully sooner than later!

Brad Knight
Clarinda, Iowa


(Coach Knight has  run my offense almost since Day One.  He is a  true Double Winger.  He has hosted clinics and camps at his schools,  and he has spoken at several of my clinics.)



***********  I find it hard to believe that after all we know about hazing, there are still coaches who aren’t doing everything in their power to prevent it - including  never allowing kids in their charge to be unsupervised -  and yet here it is another football season, and we’re once again hearing ugly stories.

One comes from Middletown, Pennsylvania. It’s a nice little town of about 10,000,  just outside Harrisburg, the state capital.  I know it because in my early days of coaching in the minor leagues, I once had a very good player from Middletown named Henry Brown.  He’d played at Missouri, and at the time he was playing for me, his younger brother, Cliff, was playing for Ara Parseghian  as the first black starting quarterback at Notre Dame.

Evidently, what the hazing consisted of was the usual putting-things-they-shouldn’t-in-places-where-they-shouldn’t-put-them sickness that for some reason certain otherwise normal-seeming  young men find appealing. And - this being the twenty-first century, in which nothing really takes place unless it’s captured on someone’s phone - there was video.  And - what’s the point of having video if it isn’t to show people? - the video got out.

To cut to the chase - the superintendent canceled the entire season. This is Pennsylvania, where  football is taken seriously, so he didn’t take such a measure lightly.  But like it or not, something’s got to be done to knock sense into sick kids who think brooms are for anything other than sweeping.

You’d like to think that  this superintendent’s action will have  some effect.

But I doubt it.


https://www.abc27.com/sports/friday-night-football/middletown-cancels-football-season-due-to-widespread-hazing/


*********** Brian Mackell, of Glen Burnie, Maryland, sent me a video clip from last weekend’s high school game between two Texas high  schools, Duncanville and South Oak Cliff.

To start the second half, a South Oak Cliff return man made the mistake of trying to return the ball out of the end zone (remember - NCAA rules in Texas high school ball).  Unfortunately, he didn’t make it, and they started out on the one. 

That’s where Coach Mackell comes in-

Just got home from work and turned ESPN on.  This game was from this past Saturday but I couldn’t watch it then.

I am watching the start of the second half and see a Safety.

An UNDER Center Wedge or QB or even Power with no motion would have been better served in my humble opinion.

Yes, the ball was snapped to the QB - five yards deep in the end zone - and he handed off to a runner who never made it across the goal line.



*********** Another dreary football cliche, courtesy of Desmond Howard, telling us that Penn State QB Sean Clifford was going to “will his team to victory” against Purdue.

What a bunch of crap.  And after he does that, he’ll turn water into wine at the party.



*********** For the first time since 1941, there was not a single Atlantic hurricane worthy of a name during the months of July and August.


Gee.  Maybe global warming isn’t all bad after all.


https://justthenews.com/nation/science/report-no-named-atlantic-hurricanes-through-nearly-all-july-and-august-first-time


*********** You want to know what college football programs  are doing with the tens of millions of dollars in TV money that they’re bringing in?


More than 100 college programs are using a service called  Zcruit that helps them stay informed on what’s going on in football recruiting, updating the info daily.  Started by some Northwestern students in 2015, Zcruit collects info about recruits’ offers, visits and Twitter interactions, and then sends out an email early every morning containing  data that colleges can then use to keep track of competitors. For example, a school  can filter the info it receives to enable it to see what the players have been offered by a certain conference’s teams, or just by certain  teams within that conference.

https://www.zcruit.com/

Another software program called WarRoom enables colleges  to manage their own own recruiting databases, doing it virtually instead of having to maintain an actual recruiting board, with name tags  for every recruit. 

https://www.collegewarroom.com/








***********  In teaching the QB how to take the center snap, I start by taking two QB’s  and, one at a time, with one of them simulating a  center, taking it like this:  the QB gets in his stance to take the snap, thumbs together from their tips to the heels of the hands, fingers spread. the “center” puts a hand on top of the QB’s hands (simulating a real center’s butt) and with the other hand he holds a ball, nose  down, ready to “snap” it.  On the QB’s command, he slams the fat of the ball into the QB’s palms.  After we’re sure of this, the next step is to have the QB pull the ball quickly to the “stones.”  And we proceed from there to the various first steps he will be called on to take.
   




In its finished form, above, an actual center is shown, from the back and the front, snapping the ball to the QB.  You can see how the ball is “flipped” and “hoisted” at the same time -  a direct, non-stop, shortest-distance-between-two-points delivery of the fat of the ball to the QB’s palms.  To make this happen, the center has to bend his elbow. Notice, by the way, that the QB’s elbows are locked - his arms are straight.  He is back from the ball as far as possible.


I did omit one key step in between, possibly because I’ve been  taking it for granted. I used to do it religiously at the start of every season and then I guess I got complacent.   A center gets in his stance, ready to snap an imaginary ball. The QB gets under center, standing as far back as he can  - elbows locked. (THIS IS CRUCIAL, because if you don’t get him back away from the center when he’s lined up, he’s likely to have some real problems getting out of the way of pulling linemen.  It might cause a fumble or two.)  On the snap count, the Center smacks the QB's palms with his bare hand - fingers pointing back at the QB - as quickly as he can. To do this he has to "hoist" his hand, and he can't do that without bending his elbow.


*********** Um, does baseball - do any sports for that matter - really have to have “pride” nights?



The late Norm McDonald once asked what, exactly, they’re so proud of.   Will someone please stop this before they take the word “pride” away from us, the way they did “gay?"


*********** One of the  things I was reminded of in my reunion with my former team in Finland was a little issue we had regarding vocabulary.

First of all, a lot of the English they knew was learned as “English” English - English as the Brits speak it.

And so I found them constantly calling   what you and I call practice “training,” the way the soccer guys do, as in, “Coach, what time is training  tomorrow.”

And I remember saying, “That’s the trouble with you guys!  Training is not practice! Training is something you do by yourselves” Training gets you ready for practice! Practice is something we  do as a team! ”

They probably thought I was nuts.  Many probably still do.  But although it took me one entire summer, I taught them the difference.



*********** A coach I know has been very successful at two different high schools in his  state. His work has taken him to another where the football program has sucked for years. They know of his record, but he has been passed over  for the job there, in order  to hire a guy who’s had a cup of coffee in the NFL - but no HS coaching experience.  He  wrote me about how that’s going:

Our HS team is a MESS

We can't run the spread
we can't protect a QB who is running for his life
the QB doesn't help himself making poor choices on and off the field
we can't run block (we have 3 quality running back types, 1 is a qb)
we aren't teaching accountability or leadership
we aren't fundamentally sound (we don't block or tackle well)
we have no rhyme or reason why we call a play, we just grab bag it
we run a 3-4 defense with NO size or strength up front to do so
special teams are horrendous

It is SO frustrating to sit and watch, and I could have said when this guy was hired it was not going to be good. They reap what they sow.  I am not even sure I'd want the job the culture is so bad.

I told him that he’s describing a team that’s RIPE for what he could bring to it - that there’s nothing wrong with the culture that he can’t come in and fix,  unless of course there’s something there that prevents them from realizing  that he’s their guy - or from really wanting to hire a real coach.  (There are places like that.)


*********** (THIS IS A REPEAT) ——-   I first met Jet Turner more than 20 years ago, when he’d first been hired at a down-on-its-luck program in Ware Shoals, South Carolina.  It was at one of my clinics in Durham, North Carolina, and he and his line coach, Jeff Murdock, decided to go all-in on the Double Wing.

It took him to great success at Ware Shoals, and to a succession of bigger and bigger jobs, including one in Clover, SC - a suburb of Charlotte  where he won a   state championship - still running the Double Wing.  Jet is a coach’s coach, and now, he’s hurting a needs some help.

I’ll let the friend who’s  taken on the responsibility of  the gofundme page take it from there…

Jet Turner has made a career off of offensive misdirection, motion, and sleight-of-hand. He described it, in its simplest terms, as “making sure we’ve got one more body than they do at the point of attack”.


Now, the state championship-winning coach and molder of young men needs help at the point of attack. Coach Turner has been diagnosed with Adenocarcinoma of the colon with peritoneal metastases. Adenocarcinoma is a type of cancerous tumor that can occur in several parts of the body.


Coach Turner has chosen to fight, which is no surprise to anyone who knows him, and we want to help. There are options to fight the diagnosis with modern and holistic treatments. The treatments are aggressive, and they’re costly. All funds raised through this effort will be used directly to benefit Coach Turner in his fight against this deadly disease.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/jets-fight



*********** Of course I’ll be watching Greg Koenig’s Bennett HS game Friday night (on the NFHS network), but I’ll also be watching a few college games…

Temple vs Duke (to see how the Devils look under new coach Mike Elko)

Virginia Tech vs Old Dominion (to see what new coach Brent Pry’s been able to do with the Hokies.)

Illinois vs Indiana (although I think the Illini may be greatly improved, this may be the best chance for a Big Ten win for either team).

TCU vs Colorado (mainly because it’s a late game - 7 PM Pacific. And it’s a chance to see what Sonny Dykes has done at TCU.  I’m not expecting a lot from Colorado.)



*********** MY SATURDAY SCHEDULE: Games that I’ll at least take a look at  (* Games that I’ll stick with unless  they’re blowouts)


9 AM FLIGHT -

Sam Houston at Texas A & M
Colorado State at Michigan
NC State at East Carolina
Rutgers at BC
North Carolina at Appalachian State
Delaware at Navy

IN-BETWEENERS
Northern Iowa at Air Force
Bowling Green at UCLA

12:30 FLIGHT
*Oregon at Georgia
Cincinnati at Arkansas
Houston at UTSA
Arizona at San Diego State
North Dakota at Nebraska
BYU at South Florida
UC Davis at Cal

IN-BETWEENERS
Rice at USC
Middle Tennessee at James Madison

4:00 FLIGHT - WOW - TALK ABOUT A TRAFFIC JAM! IS THERE GOING TO BE THIS KIND OF A SCRAMBLE FOR PRIME-TIME EVERY SATURDAY???

Utah at Florida
Miami (O) at Kentucky
Elon at Vanderbilt
South Dakota at Kansas State
*Army at Coastal Carolina
Liberty at Southern Miss
Notre Dame at Ohio State
Memphis at Mississippi State
Georgia State at South Carolina

IN-BETWEENERS
Louisville at Syracuse
Idaho at Washington State


7:30 FLIGHT (“Pac 12 After Dark”)
*Boise State at Oregon State
*Kent State at Washington

PAST MY BEDTIME
Western Kentucky at Hawaii

SUNDAY 4:30

Florida State at LSU

MONDAY 5:00

Clemson at Georgia Tech - Whose idea was it to give us this  dog of a game on the one day - besides the national title game - when there’s just one game on national TV?


***********   Army played Pitt at Michie in back-to-back seasons during the Marino-Green years. On a team hailed as one of the greatest of recent decades, Hugh Green was--it seemed to me at the time--at least as big a star as Marino. Off the cuff, I can't think of a college LB who influenced a game as much as he.

Great to hear about Double Wing coaches whose teams are playing well. Thanks for those updates.

"It is our pleasure to give you the greatest thanks...." So said the Finnish spokesman. You can't top his words about the value of playing football for you on their later lives.

John Vermillion                        
St Petersburg, Florida

***********   Hugh,

That Southeast Eagles team obviously holds you in high esteem.  Kudos to you for providing them with an unforgettable experience.

Keeping Jet Turner in my prayers.

Congrats to Greg and Todd for their big opening wins!

What school in Texas is running the DW?

Maybe Scott Frost should get a clue about the Big 10.  He wants his offense to be more creative in the play calling?  Well Scott...Big 10 teams like Ohio State, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota have historically not been very creative.  They RUN the football.

I was very impressed with Vandy's QB.

Got to see two of my former schools win on Friday night.  Left the first game before half with one of the schools up 30-0, and made it to the second game at halftime.  Both schools won.  But it was weird driving my car on a Friday night.

Week One:  Fresno State wins big.  Minnesota wins big.  Irish hold their own.

Have a great week!

Joe Gutilla
Austin, Texas


*********** QUIZ ANSWER:   In 1980, as a  standout defender on a Pitt team that went 11-1  and finished he season ranked Number Two, Hugh Green won the 1980 Maxwell Award as college football’s outstanding player and the Lombardi Award as the nation’s outstanding lineman. He was named Player of the Year by the UPI and finished second in the Heisman voting to South Carolina’s George Rogers -  the highest finish ever by a purely defensive player until Charles Woodson won it in 1997.

He played his high school ball in Natchez, Mississippi. At North Natchez High he was the Mississippi Defensive Player of the Year, a high school All-American, and a National Top 25 recruit.

He originally signed an SEC letter of intent to go to Mississippi State, but then he signed a national letter of intent to go to Pitt.  He was one of several great southern athletes recruited to Pitt by Mississippi native Jackie Sherrill.

As a freshman,  against a Notre Dame team that would finish the season as national champions, he made 11 tackles, blocked a punt, and got two sacks.

Jimmy Johnson, who was Pitt’s defensive coordinator his first two years, said, “Whatever you ask him to do on the football field, he’ll do it better than anybody has ever done it before.  You can build your entire defense around him.”

Said Sherrill in a Sports Illustrated article, “He's so reckless and so quick. Nobody in college football can block him."

In his four years at Pitt, the Panthers went 39-8-1, with three Top 10 rankings, and he was credited with 460 tackles and 53 sacks.

He was a three-time consensus All-American.

His Number 99 jersey was retired at halftime of his final home game.

Tampa Bay head coach John McKay, calling him  “the most productive player at his position I have ever seen in college,” saw to it that the Buccaneers drafted him first - the seventh pick overall in the NFL draft.

He had a solid 11-year NFL career.

In 1982 and 1983, he was named All-Pro both years, and was chosen for the Pro Bowl both years.

In 1985 he was traded to the Dolphins  for a  first- and second-round pick in the next year’s draft.  He had a  good season in 1985, being credited with 7.5 sacks, but injuries - including those suffered in an automobile accident slowed him down.

Hugh Green is in the College Football Hall of Fame.

CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING HUGH GREEN

JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOE GUTILLA - AUSTIN, TEXAS
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
TOM DAVIS - SAN CARLOS, CALIFORNIA
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
BRAD KNIGHT - CLARINDA, IOWA
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS


*********** QUIZ: He’s the only Canadian-born  player to start an NFL game at quarterback…  or to play QB in a Super Bowl…. or to play QB and win a Super Bowl… or to be named Super Bowl MVP.

Aside from all-time great Bronko Nagurski, a hero from another era,  he is arguably  the best Canadian-born player ever to play in the NFL.

But he didn’t  spend at lot of time in Canada.  He was born in Calgary, Alberta, but  moved with his family when he was only three to Spokane, Washington, where he grew up.  A three-sport (football, basketball, baseball) star at Shadle Park High School there,  he was heavily recruited before signing with nearby Washington State.

Playing under Jim Walden at WSU, he played sparingly until his junior year, but in his final two seasons he completed 293 of 544  for 4101 yards and 28 touchdowns. Despite his  throwing for 2174 yards his senior season - and running back Rueben Mayes  (a lifelong Canadian) rushing for 1236 yards - the Cougars finished with a  dismal 4-7 record.  Only a season-ending 21-20 win in Seattle over Washington provided any solace.

He was drafted in the sixth round by some professional team from Washington, D.C. called the “Redskins,”  but spent his first two seasons on injured reserve.

His third year - his first on an active roster - he backed up Doug Williams, and the next year - 1989 - he became the starter.  He threw for 3,768 yards and 22 touchdowns and was named to the Pro Bowl.

Two years later, running Joe Gibbs’  system to perfection,  he threw for 3,564 yards and 28 touchdowns - and just 11 interceptions,  taking the Redskins to a 14-2 regular season record.  In the Super Bowl, a 37-24 win over Buffalo, he was named the MVP.  And for the second time, he was selected for the Pro Bowl.

He had a decent year the next season, 1992, but he was injured at the start of the 1993 season, and once he returned, he was never the same.  He bounced around with five different clubs before retiring  when his son died from a brain tumor,  but after three years out of the game he returned for one  final go before finally retiring in 2002.

In 11 NFL seasons, he completed 1,466 of 2,613 passes for 18,473 yards and 115 touchdowns.  He also rushed 127 times for 166 yards and 8 touchdowns.

In 2018,  he  announced that he had attempted suicide and suffered from persistent depression, which he attributed to effects of concussions suffered while playing football. As a result, he said, "I wouldn't put any of my kids or grandkids in a football jersey.”

This past May, his former “longtime partner,” who had used his last name despite their never marrying, filed a personal injury lawsuit  against him alleging “physical and emotional abuse” dating back to 2008. 




TUESDAY,  AUGUST  30,  2022 - "Although we give lip service to the notion of freedom, we know that government is no longer the servant of the people but, at last, has become the people's master. We have stood by like timid sheep while the wolf killed -- first the weak, then the strays, then those on the outer edges of the flock, until at last the entire flock belonged to the wolf."  Gerry Spence, famed attorney





***********   Imagine coaching someplace where none of your players has any bad football habits and you get to teach them everything they know, and where you’re looked on like a god and there’s no one to second guess you. And they’re tough guys who learn quick and can be depended on.

That was me, 30 years ago.

Few football coaches ever get an   opportunity to start a team from scratch.  I did, in 1990.  In Finland. Talk about  starting from scratch: only one player, the club president, had ever played football before. I had already coached three seasons in Finland, so I knew a bit about the culture, and my wife and I had no problems being the only Americans in town. The town was Hamina, on the coast in southeast Finland,  about 30 miles from the Russian border.

Nobody ever got to coach a better group of guys than I  found there, and my wife and I loved  Finland.   I coached there for four seasons, and loved every minute of it. But circumstances prevented my returning for a fifth season and - as life speeds on, pushing the past further and further back in the rear view mirror - the guys and I fell out of touch.  But they were seldom out of my thoughts, because coaching that team, the Southeast Eagles, was by far the most fun and the most satisfaction I’ve ever had coaching.

So when, out of the blue, a former player contacted me a few months ago through Facebook and asked if I’d be willing to say a few words at a get-together they were planning in August, of course I said yes.

It was a bunch of guys  who, it turned out,  had gone their separate ways over the years having few dealings with each other, getting together to have a few and swap stories. I wondered how many of them I’d recognize. After all, when I last saw them, they were young men. Now, many of them have kids older than they were when they played for me.  Some, who were young soldiers back then, are already retired.

The reunion was this past Saturday. When I came on the Zoom, it was 9 AM in my house, but it was 7 PM in Finland, and the guys were clearly enjoying themselves.

There were 30 of them there - a heck of a turnout - and I needled them by observing that that was more than we had at a lot of our practices.

I started by telling them how grateful I was to have been the one to get to introduce them to American football, and how proud I was to see them develop as players.  I felt especially proud, I said, watching them come together as a team. And I thanked them for trusting me to be their guide.

Then I showed them a couple of short videos I’d put together - one showing clips of practices and games, and another showing a post-game party!  (Finns can party with anybody.)

And then, over the next hour or so, one by one, the guys sat in front of  a laptop - and updated me on their lives.  Finns are not openly emotional people, but in often personal fashion, they told me about the impact I’d had on their lives!  (Imagine listening to this after not even having any contact with any of them for 30 years!) Some of them got quite emotional, which is rare for Finnish men.

Few of them had seen many of the others over the years, so what I found especially cool was their rediscovery, after all that time,  of  the bonds of brotherhood - bonds that they’d formed as teammates, and never lost.  They all attributed that to my constant emphasis on TEAM - on trusting each other, and earning the trust of others. 

I did my best to handle myself, but as one whose lifelong tendency has been to look ahead - to do a job and then move on without looking back -  I’d never before had the feeling that I did listening to these guys.

When we said our good-byes, they assured me that they wanted to have another reunion.  Maybe, I told them, I could attend the next one in person.  Being Finns and always doing what they say they’ll do,  they told me the very next day that they’d already begun to make plans for another one, and they’d appointed one of their members to handle the organizing.  But, Finns being patient people, there’s this: it won’t be  for another three years.


(Now that I’ve had a chance to reflect a bit on what took place, I get the feeling that I attended my own funeral.)

Video of the reunion (out of respect for their privacy, I deleted the interviews): https://vimeo.com/743981239


*********** I first met Jet Turner more than 20 years ago, when he’d first been hired at a down-on-its-luck program in Ware Shoals, South Carolina.  It was at one of my clinics in Durham, North Carolina, and he and his line coach, Jeff Murdock, decided to go all-in on the Double Wing.

It took him to great success at Ware Shoals, and to a succession of bigger and bigger jobs, including one in Clover, SC - a suburb of Charlotte  where he won a   state championship - still running the Double Wing.  Jet is a coach’s coach, and now, he’s hurting and  needs some help.

I’ll let the friend who’s  taken on the responsibility of  the gofundme page take it from there…

Jet Turner has made a career off of offensive misdirection, motion, and sleight-of-hand. He described it, in its simplest terms, as “making sure we’ve got one more body than they do at the point of attack”.

Now, the state championship-winning coach and molder of young men needs help at the point of attack. Coach Turner has been diagnosed with Adenocarcinoma of the colon with peritoneal metastases. Adenocarcinoma is a type of cancerous tumor that can occur in several parts of the body.

Coach Turner has chosen to fight, which is no surprise to anyone who knows him, and we want to help. There are options to fight the diagnosis with modern and holistic treatments. The treatments are aggressive, and they’re costly. All funds raised through this effort will be used directly to benefit Coach Turner in his fight against this deadly disease.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/jets-fight


***********  A COUPLE OF VETERAN DOUBLE WINGERS OPENED UP WITH WINS

*** BENNETT (COLORADO)  38, WELD CENTRAL 7

It’s been a while - since spring, 2021 to be exact, since Greg Koenig last called a play, but it didn’t take him long to get right back into form, as his Bennett, Colorado Tigers defeated Weld Central 38-7.

Now, I don’t  think there’s anybody in the world who’s a more stick-to-the-basics Double Wing coach than Coach Koenig.  Like me, he doesn’t mind running the same play five or six times in a row, if you can’t stop it.

On the other hand, he’s learned over the years not to be stubborn - to take a look at what the defense is doing to stop a base play, figure out  where they’ve weakened themselves in order to do it, and hit ‘em where they’re weak.

Of course, that means you have to  have a way to hit them - and Greg did.  When  Weld Central brought 9 man into the box, Greg was prepared.  He  continued to run, of course, but very judiciously, he resorted to the pass.  Eight times, in fact.  Six of the passes were complete, for 140 yards.  Three  went for touchdowns. It’s not often that one of Greg’s quarterbacks throws  for three touchdowns.

People shouldn't  get the idea that this means  a change in philosophy.  Oh, no.  It’s the same take-what-they-give you Double Wing philosophy that’s brought Greg so much success over the years.  This Friday night? If the opponents  can’t stop Super Power, they might see it 25 times.  Ditto the wedge.

But now people know that if he has to, he can throw, as he demonstrated Friday night.

Greg’s  as straight-from-the-book as a Double Winger can be. But he knows that part of the basic package is the pass, and he works hard at it.

He swears by our passing package, which enables a coach to teach just one very solid protection scheme and run a variety of patterns.



*** Elmwood (Illinois) Trojans 48, Carthage Illini West 14.

The Trojans gave the Illini West (Carthage) Chargers a heavy dose of "Do What We Do" (DWWD).  We averaged right at 7yds a rush, and mixed in 2 of 3 passing for 40 yards.  Defensively we were aggressive and on point.  Until the Chargers scored on a long run late in the fourth, we allowed 50 total yards (2 yards rushing).  1-0 on the season.

Have a great day,

Todd Hollis
Elmwood, Illinois

Coach Hollis added that Don Capaldo was at his game, and he and Don met for the first time.

“I was happy that we played well Friday night and that Don was able to see a steady dose of super power, wedge, trap, and efficient passing.  Our brotherhood of coaches is a strong one.  The fact that this man I listened to 25 years ago, but had never met in person, asked to meet my wife and daughters at halftime speaks a lot about the man he is.”

Coach Hollis is referring to his first exposure to the Double Wing, at a clinic put on by Don Capaldo, of Keokuk, Iowa.  Don was a great Double Wing coach.  He’s retired now, but for years, he tore ‘em up.   Back in 1998, we had a Double Wing camp in Chippewa Falls, WI. There were at least eight teams there, all running the same system, and so as not to violate state rules against coaching your own kids at that point in the summer,  we simply swapped coaches and teams. A few other coaches attended but brought only a few kids with them, so we took those strays and formed a team.   Don Capaldo happened to be on hand observing, and he volunteered to coach that motley crew. What a great job he did! You couldn’t have told his team from the ones whose coaches had brought them there as a unit. (The host coach, Chuck Raykovich, coached his way into the Wisconsin Football Coaches’ Hall of Fame running that Double Wing.)

***********  Good things to report on three teams new to my Double Wing:

In Massachusetts, where they haven’t opened yet, I watched a team that started dabbling in the  Double Wing part way through last season and then got serious about it this year manhandling its opponent in a scrimmage.

In Kentucky - remember the coach  who took over a downtrodden program and got killed in his opening game? Remember my telling him that when you take over a program that’s been sucking, the first order of business is to stop sucking?  Damned if he and his kids didn’t  start the process, winning on Friday, 14-12.

In Texas, a big school that went 1-9 last season opened its  2022 season with a very nice 33-28 win.  You’d have enjoyed seeing the wedge just pound the bigger guys on the other team.  In addition to the Wedge (also run from Stack), Super Power looked good, and so  did a Criss-Cross, a 29 G-O Reach, and a 66 Brown.


*********** I happened to have highlighted the 29-G-O Reach on last Tuesday’s Zoom clinic, noting its uniqueness as a sweep  that doesn’t require any motion.  Brad Knight, from Clarinda, Iowa, another veteran Double-Winger who’s temporarily sidelined by family considerations, wrote:


"Still my favorite sweep (in large part because it looks like trap, and because of the Boot pass series).  Loved the 3 ball drill in this so we could practice trap, sweep, and boot pass....talk about bang for your buck at practice."




3 BALL DRILL —- QB has a ball in each hand.

1. Hockey Stick Right, Hands off Right (to B-Back on 3 Trap 2)

2. Breaks the Hockey stick - stops on his second step and hands to A Back (running 38 G-O Reach)

3. QB now bootlegs left - takes ball from coach/manager/spare player who’s  standing just outside  the QB’s path, and  on the center line, so the QB can get his eyes on the target ASAP





*********** Brian Robinson, a rookie running back  from Alabama trying to make the Washington Commanders, was shot early Sunday evening in Washington, DC.

When  police arrived on the scene,  they said he was suffering from "a couple gunshot wounds to his lower extremities,” and he was taken to a hospital.

The team later said he suffered “non-life-threatening injuries.” Well.  Of course it's nice to know he isn’t in danger of dying, but this kid is trying to make a professional football team, and "a couple gunshot wounds to his lower extremities” could mean the end of his dreams of a pro football career.  Ask any soldier who’s been shot in combat.

A DC police spokesman said authorities aren’t yet sure if Robinson was the victim of a carjacking or just an armed robbery attempt. (Now, WTF difference does that make?    You mean  it’ll help the kid recover faster if it was “just an armed robbery attempt?”  WTF is wrong with some of these police departments?)

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/34478785/washington-commanders-rb-brian-robinson-stable-condition-being-shot-attempted-carjacking-source-says



***********   My three biggest takeaways from college football’s “soft opening” this past weekend:

(1)   Maybe I was all wrong about Scott Frost -  maybe he really isn’t a very good head coach. After Saturday’s loss, in Dublin, to Northwestern, he’s now 15-30  after  the opening game of his fourth season.

Yes,  he had that great season at UCF, when they went 13-0 and laid their claim on a national title.  But the year before, UCF went 6-7.  Two years at a Group of 5 school is  a pretty slim resume  to get a guy hired at Nebraska, native Cornhusker or not.

Yes, yes - he inherited a really down program.  But last year was his fourth year there.  By then, with his “culture” established and  his own recruits playing, you’d expect to see some progress.  But the Huskers went 3-9 (1-8 in the Big Ten).

Needless to say, he hasn’t had a winning season yet. Hasn’t come close. Yet his predecessor, Mike Riley - the one who  they say left the mess? - was 19-19 after his four years there, and he actually went 9-4 one of those years. (That was 2016 - Nebraska’s last winning season, if you’re keeping track.)

I was on Frost’s side up to this past Saturday,  when I think he showed that he’s not ready  to coach in the Big Leagues. In the post-game press conference,  one game into the season, he took a shot at his new offensive coordinator, Mark Whipple.    Maybe Whipple, who’d been hired away from Pitt in the off-season, was forced on Frost by higher-ups, when  they insisted that he  give up the play-calling, but no matter - it was pretty low-class of Frost  to tell the media,“I think we’re going to have to learn as an offensive staff that you’ve got to be a little creative in this league.”

But Coach - your offensive  staff, in spite of its lack of creativity, started a brand-new  quarterback and managed to put together and execute a plan that got you 465 yards of total offense (6.4 yards per play) and 23  first downs. And 28 points.

And Coach,  your offensive staff really didn’t have a whole lot to do with the 528 yards of offense - and 31 points - Northwestern put on you. (Funny thing - Northwestern’s was the more conservative offense: the Wildcats threw 38 times, but ran 44 - for 214 yards; Nebraska threw 42  times and ran 31 - for only 110 yards.)

And surely it wasn’t your offensive staff  that called  for that idiotic onside kick.  Remember?  You led, 28-17, with 11 minutes left in the game.  Maybe, if you’d asked them, they would have reminded  you that  an onside kick has a downside. Usually, when you try one, it’s in a desperation situation, when you’ve got nothing to lose, but this one had  A VERY BIG downside. Such as a Northwestern recovery.  Yeah, I know - you said you thought you had the momentum, and that this could put Northwestern away. But momentum is a fickle thing, and  - just like that - your decision gave it to Northwestern.  I don’t know whether Northwestern thanked you afterward or not, but after recovering  the kick, they outscored you 14-0 the rest of the way to win, 31-28.

Bear Bryant, who could coach a lick,  used to say (I paraphrase): When we win, it’s because of the players; when we lose, it’s on me.

Scott Frost sounds like:  When we win (or maybe I should say “if we win?”), it’s because of the players; when we lose, it’s on the assistants.

(2) Vanderbilt 63, Hawaii 10.  Are you kidding me?  In last year’s opener, Vandy lost to EAST TENNESSEE STATE.  23-3. Couldn’t even score a  touchdown against an FCS team  that had dropped football and only began playing it less than ten years ago!

Either Vanderbilt is greatly improved, or Hawaii is that bad.

I think it’s a little of both, but Vandy showed that they can make that big trip, fall behind early, then get on track and beat an opponent many different ways.

One way is with QB Mike Wright.  Geez - of the 601 yards Vandy gained (197 passing, 404 rushing) Wright accounted for more than half: 146 yards passing and 163 yards rushing, for 309 total yards. 87 of those rushing yards came on a third quarter touchdown run  on which he made the Hawaii defenders look like they were standing in cement.

Six different guys carried the ball; eight different guys caught at least one pass.

Vandy scored two TDs  within ten seconds of each other and they both showed Hawaii to be a  poor football team.  The first, which tied the score 7-7, was a  short fade  to a receiver who was left uncovered in the confusion following a hasty Hawaii mass substitution.  The second came  on the next play from scrimmage when a jarring hit on a Hawaii runner knocked the ball into the arms of a Vandy defender, who raced in  from 30 yards out.

It was still a ball game at the half, 21-10, but Vandy scored five TDs in the third quarter, including another one after catching a fumble in midair, and the  87-yard run by Wright, leaving it 56-10 after three.

Hawaii is a mess.  With old Aloha Stadium - the “rust bucket” - condemned, they’re forced to play in a stadium that would be small by Texas high school standards - it seats maybe 10,000 - and  the best prediction of a replacement of Aloha Stadium is, the announcers told us, “in three or four years.”  What’s the hurry?

But that has nothing to do with the play of the players.  They’re slow, they’re untalented, and their tackling is as bad as any I’ve seen. They’ll be lucky to win a game.


(3)   Aaron Taylor, who worked the Vanderbilt-Hawaii game,  is as good an analyst as I’ve heard.   Damn shame he’s buried on CBSSN.


***********   Sorry to sound like I’m piling on Nebraska, but Ohio University has just announced that  it will name the football field in its Peden Stadium for former head coach Frank Solich, who took the Bobcats to  12 consecutive non-losing seasons, six of them with at least nine wins, and four MAC division titles. In 2016, he was named MAC Coach of the Year.

It was almost 20 years ago - December, 2002 - when Steve Pederson was hired as Nebraska's athletic director and announced that he would not  "let Nebraska gravitate into mediocrity,” nor would he "surrender the Big 12 to Oklahoma and Texas."  He fired Frank Solich a year later.  (In his last year,  the Huskers went 9-3.  In his six years,  Solich won 58 games. That was more than his predecessors - Bob Devaney and Tom Osborne - both in the College Football Hall of Fame - won during their first six seasons.



*********** In the space of maybe two weeks, I’ve heard of four athletes suffering from an injury I’d never heard of before.   It reminds me of a few years ago, when “high ankle sprain” was all the rage.  Now, it’s “Lisfranc injury,” and it’s been incurred by:

Nathan Rourke, Vancouver BC Lions’ QB
Matt Corral, Carolina Panthers’ QB
Chet Holmgren, Oklahoma Thunder forward
Najee Harris, Pittsburgh Steelers’ running back

Here’s what Wikipedia can tell us about the history of the injury:

The injury is named after Jacques Lisfranc de St. Martin, a French surgeon and gynecologist who noticed this fracture pattern amongst cavalry men, in 1815, after the War of the Sixth Coalition.

So if they've known about since 1815 -  why are we only now starting to hear about it?



*********** Of course I’ll be watching Greg Koenig’s Bennett HS game Friday night (on the NFHS network), but I’ll also be watching a few college games…

Temple vs Duke (to see how the Devils look under new coach Mike Elko)

Virginia Tech vs Old Dominion (to see what new coach Brent Pry’s been able to do with the Hokies.)

Illinois vs Indiana (although I think the Illini may be greatly improved, this may be the best chance for a Big Ten win for either team).

TCU vs Colorado (mainly because it’s a late game - 7 PM Pacific. And it’s a chance to see what Sonny Dykes has done at TCU.  I’m not expecting a lot from Colorado.)




*********** Thursday night- I’ll take at least a quick look at these games:

Central Michigan at Oklahoma State - OSU is supposed to be really good. CMU Chippewas are coming off a 9-4 season and a Sun Bowl win.

West Virginia at Pitt - I like ‘em both and it’s hard for me to root.  I’d like to see both teams play really, really well, and I’d like to see the game go down to the wire so that both AD’s meet at midfield after the game and publicly pledge, over the loudspeaker, to play the game every year.

Ball State at Tennessee - Just because I want to see Hendon Hooker run that Tennessee offense a few times.

VMI at Wake Forest - How are the Deacons going to be without Sam Hartman  running that offense?  Fortunately, this shouldn’t be much of a test.

Penn State at Purdue - Nittany Lions ought to win.   Penn State has more talent, but Purdue has the edge in  coaching and scheming, and over the years, Purdue has been good for at least one major upset a season.

La Tech at Missouri - Mizzou paid $800,000 to get out of a game at Middle Tennessee and it’s paying Louisiana Tech $500,000 to come to Columbia.  So in total, it’s paying $1,300,000 to get this home game.

Northern Arizona at Arizona State - Just because it’s on later, and maybe  UNA can throw a scare into one of America’s most underachieving teams.

Cal Poly at Fresno State - Again, just because it’s a late game.


***********   Ocean Shores beach looks heavenly.

I enjoyed Ed's article. He didn't address the issue of 'wokeness' at those schools, which I believed was fair criticism until I reflected that it's a tall task to identify any school that's not 'woke.' Football's not cool enough for most wokesters, which could be one of the many reasons for declining CFB attendance.

Shaqueem Griffin was plenty good at UCF, but I didn't see a way he could cut it in the NFL. He did, of course, and that achievement is little short of amazing. Wishing him all the best in Plan A.

John Vermillion
St. Petersburg, Florida


*********** Hugh,

Your explanation of the reason to flip-flop the line in the Open Wing should be bible for coaches choosing to run the offense.

A "skip-pull" is another term for the footwork technique used by pulling guards in various offenses.  It works well, but not nearly as effective as your "pick-pocket" technique in the DW/Open Wing concept.  Like you, I would advise that coach to stick to the bible.

Ed Wyatt is another natural.

That photo of Ocean Shores beach has now made it to my bucket list of places to visit.

Tonight is my first night of becoming a high school football "fan", and no longer roaming a sideline as a coach.  Not sure what to think, or how I'll react (likely second-guessing like most fans), but also still "coaching".  Gonna take a lot for me to not have the urge to leave my seat for the sideline.


QUIZ:  Alvin Nugent "Bo" McMillin (on the subject of Fort Worth football players...there is a book titled "12 Mighty Orphans" written by Jim Dent.  It is the story of the Fort Worth Masonic Home for orphaned boys football team known as the Mighty Mites during the 1930's - 1940's that became Texas State Champs.  A great read that was recently made into a movie).

Enjoy the weekend!

Joe Gutilla
Austin, Texas

Two great football players at Army in the postwar years came from the Masonic Home. One was DeWitt “Tex” Coulter, who later had a decent NFL career with the Giants, and Dick Stephenson, who was recruited to West Point by DeWitt Coulter. I met Dick Stephenson.  He  joined the Air Force (there was no Air Force Academy then) and flew combat missions in Vietnam. He retired after 34 years as a Major General . Not too bad for a kid whose mother had to leave him and his brothers in the Masonic Home because she could no longer support them!



*********** QUIZ ANSWER:  Bo McMillin has been credited with being the first Texas football player to make himself known to the football powers in the East.

As a  star running back at Fort Worth’s North Side High, he helped his team win the state title his senior season.

Following the season, the North Side head coach, a graduate of Kentucky’s Centre College, took the head coaching job at his alma mater, where his first order of business was to recruit his former players - the “Fort Worth gang,” they called them - to come to Centre.

Since our guy didn’t have enough credits to get into Centre, he spent a year in high school in Somerset, Kentucky.

Once he entered Centre, it didn’t take him long to make a name for himself - or to put Centre, a small Presbyterian College in Danville -  on the football map.

In  1917, as a freshman, he drop-kicked the first - and only - field goal of his career as little Centre upset the University of Kentucky, 3-0.

He left to serve  in the Navy  during the final  year of World War II, then returned to Centre.

In 1919, his sophomore season, Centre went 9-0, with upset wins over Indiana and West Virginia, and he was named All-American.  It was after he’d  asked his teammates to pray before the West Virginia game that the Centre Colonels became known far and wide as the “Praying Colonels.”

In his junior season, he was again named to the All-America team, although Centre did lose two games, to Georgia Tech, and to Harvard by a big score.

In 1921, though, he played a major role in one of the biggest upsets in football history, little Centre’s defeat of mighty Harvard, in front of some  45,000 people in Harvard Stadium. Harvard had won 25 straight, and its fans were rather surprised when the teams went off at halftime tied, 0-0.  Early in the third quarter, the Harvard fans  were shocked when our guy broke loose for a 32-yard touchdown run. That was all the scoring,  as Centre won, 6-0.

There weren’t many Centre fans on hand, but there were some students from nearby MIT, who celebrated the defeat of Harvard by tearing down the goalposts and carrying our guy off the field on their shoulders.

In 1950, the Associated Press called  that Centre win the greatest upset of the first half of the 20th Century, and in 2006 ESPN called it the third-biggest upset in the history of college football.

It was the first win over an eastern power by any team from the South, and  Clark Shaughnessy who was coaching Tulane at the time, would later call it the win that "first awoke the nation to the possibilities of Southern football."

He was again named All-American, his third straight time, as Centre finished the regular season undefeated. On January 2, 1922, Centre played Texas A & M in what was  called the Dixie Classic, and after  A & M won, 22-14, our guy took the blame for the loss - he’d got married the day before.  (The game was of considerable significance historically, because it was the game in which the Aggies’ famous 12th Man tradition was born.)

Other than the loss to A & M, though, Centre outscored opponents 314-6, defeating such teams as Virginia Tech, Auburn, Arizona and Clemson along the way.

In our guy’s career at Centre, the Praying Colonels’ record was 38-4, and they outscored their opponents 1,757 to 121.

In 1922 he embarked on a coaching career that would last almost 30 years, although in his first two years as a coach he also picked up a little money on the side playing pro football.   To show the casual nature of the NFL at that time,  he “played” with the Milwaukee Badgers, although he only played when the college he was coaching played a game  somewhere close by, and he never practiced with the Badgers.  The plays were mailed to him in advance of a game - along with his pay.

His first job was as head coach at Centenary College in Shreveport, Louisiana, where in three years his record was 28-2.

From there, he moved to Geneva College in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, where in three years his teams went 22-6-1.  In his second season there, he opened with a 16-7 upset win over Harvard. He  did seem to have learned something about recruiting from his high school coach, because at least one of his players from Centenary “followed” him to Geneva.  That player was Cal Hubbard,  who would go on to a Hall of Fame career in the NFL (and remains to this day the only person in the Pro Football and Baseball Halls of Fame, which he made as an umpire).

From there he moved to Kansas State, where in six years he coached the Wildcats to a 29-21 record, which got him the head coaching job at Indiana.

What he did at Indiana has to be considered one of the great coaching jobs of all time.  His 1945 team went 9-0-1 and finished 4th in the nation - one of only two times in all their years of playing football that the Hoosiers have finished a season ranked that high. It was also the  first time Indiana had won the Big Nine (now Big Ten) Conference title outright - something that’s only been done once since.  Following the 1945 season he was named the AFCA Coach of the Year. He remains the only Indiana coach to have taken the Hoosiers to two top-20 finishes, and when he left Indiana in 1947 to take a shot at coaching in the NFL, he was the last coach to leave Bloomington with a winning record (63-48-11).

As a college coach, his overall record was 140-77-3.  He left every place he coached at a winner, and remember - he  won  at Kansas State AND Indiana, two places notoriously hard on coaches.

He was twice named to coach the College All-Stars in their annual summertime game against the defending NFL champions, and he won both times. Considering that in all the time that the game was played, from 1934 to 1976, the pros won  31 and lost only 9 (two games were tied), his 2-0 record is remarkable.

In 1948, although he had seven years left on his contract at Indiana, he left to coach the Detroit Lions.  He had a difficult time dealing with the pro players and lasted just three years,   but during his time he built well, as proven by the Lions’ great run of success to follow under Buddy Parker.

In 1951, he was hired by the Philadelphia Eagles, to replace Greasy Neale, who had been fired after a disagreement with management.   He coached just two games until having to undergo surgery for ulcers, which, the surgery revealed, was actually stomach cancer.   Within months, he was dead, at the age of 57.

Bo McMillin is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame, the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame, the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame, and the Texas Sports Hall of Fame.



CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING BO MCMILLIN

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - AUSTIN, TEXAS
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY



*********** QUIZ:   In 1980, as a  standout defender on a Pitt team that went 11-1  and finished the season ranked Number Two, he won the 1980 Maxwell Award as college football’s outstanding player and the Lombardi Award as the nation’s outstanding lineman. He was named Player of the Year by the UPI and finished second in the Heisman voting to South Carolina’s George Rogers -  the highest finish ever by a purely defensive player until Charles Woodson won it in 1997.

He played his high school ball in Natchez, Mississippi. At North Natchez High he was the Mississippi Defensive Player of the Year, a high school All-American, and a National Top 25 recruit.

He originally signed an SEC letter of intent to go to Mississippi State, but then he signed a national letter of intent to go to Pitt.  He was one of several great southern athletes recruited to Pitt by Mississippi native Jackie Sherrill.

As a freshman,  against a Notre Dame team that would finish the season as national champions, he made 11 tackles, blocked a punt, and got two sacks.

Jimmy Johnson, who was Pitt’s defensive coordinator his first two years, said, “Whatever you ask him to do on the football field, he’ll do it better than anybody has ever done it before.  You can build your entire defense around him.”

Said Sherrill in a Sports Illustrated article, “He's so reckless and so quick. Nobody in college football can block him."

In his four years at Pitt, the Panthers went 39-8-1, with three Top 10 rankings, and he was credited with 460 tackles and 53 sacks.

He was a three-time consensus All-American.

His Number 99 jersey was retired at halftime of his final home game.

Tampa Bay head coach John McKay, calling him  “the most productive player at his position I have ever seen in college,” saw to it that the Buccaneers drafted him first - the seventh pick overall in the NFL draft.

He had a solid 11-year NFL career.

In 1982 and 1983, he was named All-Pro both years, and was chosen for the Pro Bowl both years.

In 1985 he was traded to the Dolphins  for a  first- and second-round pick in the next year’s draft.  He had a  good season in 1985, being credited with 7.5 sacks, but injuries - including those suffered in an automobile accident slowed him down.

He is in the College Football Hall of Fame.





FRIDAY,  AUGUST 26,  2022 - "This nation is running low on an indispensable ingredient of a successful society: trust, in institutions and in one another.” George Will


***********   HI Coach,

I truly appreciate the recordings. I have not been able to attend for a while now as my kids and coaching schedule make most Tuesdays hard to make, and when I do have the time I simply forget. So I really enjoy getting the recordings.

I do have a question, I am moving to the idea of flipping the line so to make install easier, but I am struggling with who you put where. Should my focus be on the down block or on the pullers? Meaning where should I put my best linemen, as the down blockers on power or as the pullers on power? In my mind as I talk it out I see the advantages to both, so I thought I would ask the expert.

Thank you so much for your continued support all these years. This season beginning my 9th year of running the Double Wing.


Hi Coach-

Glad you can  get on, even if you can’t be there on Tuesday nights.

Good question.  Answer: I want to be stronger on the Tight Side.  Here are  five strong
reasons:

(1) If we aren’t solid at the point of attack on powers, it doesn’t matter how good we are with the pullers.  First we have to make the hole.   Even if you can only pull one of those backside guys, you can still have a solid play.

(2) On 6-G, the play side blocking is everything.  I do circle my backside guard around (6-G-“O”) but you don’t have to.

(3) On counters, your pullers matter much more, which means you want your better guys on the backside of the counters - meaning  your tight side.

(4) When I go unbalanced, it is always to that tight side, whether by bringing an End over or (my preference) inserting the open side tackle between the tight tackle and tight end.

(5) On passes, the open side linemen form the wall.  Since we are usually rolling or sprinting away from  them, they can normally get by just by setting up and forcing defenders to go through them or take the long way around them.  On the tight side is where you could be in danger of being overpowered.

I am a strong believer in the value of flip-flopping, and if you were to try it I think you’d like it, too.

(I should add that I have also become a believer in  offsetting my B Back to the tight end side.  He lines up behind the tight B gap.)


*********** The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree…

My son Ed’s done a fair amount of writing at various stages of his career, beginning with a book he and a couple of classmates put out while still at Stanford, entitled “How to College.” It got good reviews and sold pretty well.

After college, while teaching and coaching at Bellarmine Prep, a private Catholic high school in Tacoma, Washington, he began writing comedy for a late night TV show just starting up in Seattle called “Almost Live,” and out of necessity - there being no money in the budget to pay actors - he also wound up acting in many of the comedy shorts they’d written for their show.  (The show, “Almost Live,” ran for an hour on Saturday nights, and developed a huge, almost cult-like following in the Seattle area.)

Eventually, the time demands of Almost Live, which had become enormously popular, forced him to give up the double life of teaching and coaching.

Almost Live led to other gigs, including a  show in Portland called “Good Evening,” and then a job in Los Angeles with Fox Sports World, where he met and married an Australian woman named Michelle Howden.  She is very talented in TV production and had an opportunity back home in Oz  that led to their moving Down Under, where he’s lived for more than 20 years.

Now an Australian citizen (dual citizenship, actually) Ed’s involved in marketing and promotion with Sportsbet, a large Australian bookmaker, but he has also worked as a TV network’s  resident expert on American football (“Gridiron” as the Aussies called it) at Super Bowl time, has worked with Australian basketball clubs and  still broadcasts Australian baseball games.

I’m pleased to announce that he’s begun writing a sports column on the side, on a site he calls “Buffalo Jump. (“A name I’ve loved and never used,” he explained, “the cliff where Plains Indians drove herds of bison off.”)

Here’s one of his first articles.  (If the topic seems familiar, it’s because he says he saw the idea on this page and decided to run with it. That’s what good writers do.)

Here’s a fun fact I saw the other day.

There are only eight Power Five Conference football programs that haven’t had ESPN’s College GameDay show make a visit: Cal, Duke, Illinois, Kansas, Maryland, Rutgers, Syracuse and Virginia.

Should we dig a little deeper and see why?

To be honest, it’s not a tricky proposition. These schools all have pretty poor football programs. They’re a combined 174-391 over the past five seasons and only one of the eight – Virginia – has more wins than losses during that period.

If you had to pick one reason why College GameDay hasn’t made it to these eight campuses, a winning record is the crucial one. There’s no sense taking a huge mobile broadcast production, with hundreds of staff and high-paid talent to a place where the football team sucks.

You also need a setting that screams college football - a place that ESPN can build a proper set around - and a relatively large, passionate fanbase willing to stand around, yell and wave sometimes creative, sometimes crude signs. Most of the schools on the list can’t deliver this.

Breaking It Down

Cal: The Golden Bears are 26-28 over the past five seasons and have the best attendance (43,000) of the eight teams on this list. So what’s kept ESPN away? More than likely an apathetic, cynical – even potentially angry – student body that isn’t going to buy into the usual sign-waving hijinks…and even if they did, the messages would probably be along the lines of ‘Say No to Big Oil.’

Duke: Obviously known as a basketball school, the Blue Devils’ football program has been in a bit of a tailspin and has a 25-36 record over the past five seasons. My sister is a Duke season ticket holder and I’ve seen her social media posts, so I know there’s an active alumni and student presence at the games, but the Wallace Wade Wackos (I just made that up) aren’t in the same league as the Cameron Crazies.

Illinois: The program has been pretty dire, 19-38 over the past five years, so that’s probably enough of an explanation when analyzing the Illini’s absence from GameDay. Also, Illinois fans don’t turn out in numbers or get as nuts (think Wisconsin’s ‘Jump Around,’ or Penn State’s Whiteout) as their fellow Big Ten members.

Kansas: One of the worst Power 5 teams in the country, with a paltry 9-48 record over the past five seasons. Even though Lawrence is a hip college town, it’s going to take more than funky restaurants and craft breweries to convince the powers that be in Bristol to rock chalk Jayhawk during football season.

Maryland: You’d think the power of Under Armour might have drawn the cameras to College Park at one point, but with a 21-33 record over the past five years, there isn’t much to get excited about. Although the 39,000 average isn’t the worst figure on this list, it’s the second-worst in the Big Ten. I’m also not sure how crazed the Terrapin fanbase is.

Rutgers: A hard sell with its combination of a poor program (15-43 over the past five years), non-fanatical student body and no real tradition. Attendance isn’t as bad as you might think (40,000 average) but like others on the list, it would take something pretty special to get the Worldwide Leader to North Jersey.

Syracuse: Weather is always a factor, especially when you consider Syracuse has been below average (25-35 over the past five years) on the field. They also play in a relatively unattractive domed stadium, so there’s not much of a backdrop to build a collegiate-inspired set around.

Virginia: The only team on the list with a winning record over the past five seasons (34-28), it’s difficult to say why ESPN has skipped over the Cavaliers. Average attendance is 42,000, second only to Cal on this list and while you may think Charlottesville is a little off the beaten path, that hasn’t stopped ESPN from going to Virginia Tech in Blacksburg. Is the fanbase too preppy? I mean I can’t see frat guys in coats and ties rocking along to ‘Enter Sandman.’

 https://edwyatt.substack.com/p/no-wazzu-flags-in-berkeley?utm_medium=ios


*********** I was reading about a  famous coach and I found out that his quarterback at Kansas State was a guy named Elden Auker.

Elden Auker? I exclaimed.  The submariner?  Yup.   A name like that will stick with you.  And so will the fact that he was famed in the history of major league baseball as a submarine-ball thrower - a pitcher whose delivery came from well below even sidearm.

At K-State, he was called by the university president "the greatest all-around athlete in Kansas State history.” He won nine letters, three apiece in football, basketball and baseball and was All-Conference (it was then the Big Six) in all three sports.

The Chicago Bears offered him $6,000 - a substantial amount of money then (1933) - to play football but he chose instead to sign to play baseball with the Detroit Tigers.

He played ten years in the majors, and won 130 games.  He pitched in two world series, and won a game in the 1934 series.

Later in life, he became a successful businessman, and had a chance to meet Ronald Reagan, who had just  been elected Governor of California.  Years earlier, in 1935, Reagan, then a young radio guy doing Cubs’ broadcasts, had managed to score an interview with Auker, then a big league star,  before a World Series game. Now, 32 years later, Reagan said to Auker, “You probably won’t remember me, but I’ll remember you as long as I live.”  That 1935 interview with the star pitcher, said the Governor, “Was my first big break.”


*********** If you’re ever teaching kids any football skill, be sure to  start them out right away doing things at full speed.  You know - sort of like teaching them to swim by throwing them in the water.


*********** Hey Coach,

Having an issue with my oline coach. He wants to teach a skip pull to the guards and tackles to run the circle on power. However, I want them to step with their near foot and reach out with their inside arm and run the circle. Which do you think is the best way to teach it?

Coach,

I guess I’m not sure what he means by “skip-pull” but if it isn’t what you’ll see the backside guard (#70) in these clips doing - which is exactly what I teach and advocate - I would tell him that he needs to get back on the trail.

(ATTACHED CLIPS OF BACKSIDE GUARD RUNNING THE CIRCLE)

I am being as diplomatic as I can be here, but while he may have a lot of good experience that is very useful in other offenses, I doubt that he has sufficient experience in this particular offense to qualify him to go off the trail - and take your offense with him.

This is not a simple offense. It looks simple, but to be successful a coach has to respect the small details that make it work, and this is one of them.

I didn’t just happen on the stuff I teach.  I have been at this particular offense since 1990, and I have tried every technique known to man and made every mistake it’s possible to make in learning how best to run this offense, and now I try to be the guide who keeps guys  on the trail to the top, asking them to trust me to know the way.  I will say that in every case where people have thrown their hands up and said that “this doesn’t work,” I can show them at least a dozen significant  ways where they ignored the instructions and went off on their own.

I’m being strong here, but I am more concerned about helping you than about offending your assistant.  I’m sure he means well, but it would have helped if he could have seen Coach Jones on my Zoom a couple of weeks ago.






*********** At low tide, it’s almost impossible to describe the vastness of the Ocean Shores beach.  Early in the morning, when you’re often the only person in sight in any direction, it seems as if you and your dog have the whole damn beach to yourself.  And when it’s a misty fog and 60 degrees out - in late August - you often do.

Ocean Shores occupies a seven-mile long peninsula  with the Pacific Ocean on one side and Grays Harbor, a large bay, on the other.  (The entrance to Grays Harbor is at its tip.)  In the  right  spots in Ocean Shores, you can watch the sun rise behind Mount Rainier, and watch it set into the ocean. But this is  why I love Ocean Shores: at our home in Camas (near Portland), the temperature  will get up to 91  today.  Here in Ocean Shores it’s expected to be a “toasty” 66.


*********** I would imagine, knowing they’ll never have to be paid back, that there’s a massive run on student loans right now.  Actually, I’m thinking about going for a master’s degree in gender studies.  Not sure where I’ll be “studying,” but it doesn’t matter.  I figure about $100,000 ought to cover tuition, room and board. And a spring break or two.


*********** Northwestern and Nebraska are in Dublin right now, getting ready to play, and the place is evidently full of fans, mostly Nebraskans.  And as some wag pointed out,  Huskers’ fans are likely to see some big red “N’s” on Irish cars - looking for all he world like the ones on the Huskers’ helmets - and get the idea that Dublin loves  their Huskers, too.
Not exactly. The “N” on cars is  for “NOVICE”  as in “Novice Driver”  (Not, as some wiseasses like to say about the ones on Nebraska helmets, for “nowledge.”)


***********  Western Pennsylvania was once a hotbed of quarterbacks - Charlie Batch, George Blanda,  Matt Cavanaugh, Tom Clements, Gus Frerotte, Arnold Galiffa,  Terry Hanratty, Jeff Hostetler, John Hufnagel, Jim Kelly, Johnny Lujack, Ted Marchibroda, Dan Marino, Joe Namath, Babe Parilli, Sandy Stephens, John Unitas - I’m sure I’ve missed a few.

So I won’t be the only person, I’m sure,  to comment on the meaning of Pitt’s naming Kedon Slovis - an Arizona kid who transferred from USC - to start at QB in their opening game against West Virginia.  Good luck to Slovis, who’s a good QB and seems like a good kid.

One of the things it means is that in this day of open transfers, players can - and will - go anywhere.  But it also shows how the collapse of the steel industry - and the tens of thousands of young families who left the area looking for work elsewhere -  have affected Western Pennsylvania football.

The Pitt-West Virginia game, once played annually, was known as the Backyard Brawl, not only because the two schools are no more than a couple hours’ drive apart, but also because it was pretty much between a bunch of Western P-A guys from Pitt and  a bunch of Western P-A guys from West Virginia.


***********  NFL linebacker Shaquem Griffin announced his retirement Wednesday.

Griffin, 27, was an outstanding college player at UCF, and along with his brother, Shaqim, he played three seasons with the Seahawks and part of one with the Dolphins.  He played in 46 games and recording 25 tackles and one sack.

He was  playing NFL football, if you didn’t know,  with just one hand.

“The time has come for me to retire from professional football,” he said. “It’s time for me to execute my Plan A.”

Plan A, he wrote in The Players’ Journal,  is to “make a positive impact in the world.”

“As kids we had dreamed of playing together in the NFL, but whenever we talked about it, our dad would remind us that if we made it to the league — especially if we got to play together — that would be an added blessing. A bonus,” he wrote. “Plan A was to go to college, get an education and do something that would make a positive impact in the world.”


*********** Evidently Terrell Owens just ran a 4.38 40 (unofficial, to be sure).  Amazing. He’s  48 years old.  That means he’s probably matured some.  So what?  I still wouldn’t want that a$$hole on any team of mine.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/nfl/article-11145575/Ex-NFL-star-Terrell-Owens-shows-hes-got-recording-quick-40-yard-dash-time.html


***********  TUSCALOOSA, ALABAMA - November 19, 2022. The usual capacity crowd of 101,821 is on hand in Bryant-Denny Stadium to watch the Alabama Crimson Tide, 10-0 after beating Ole Miss last week,  put its Number One ranking on the line against the Austin Peay Governors , 0-12 following last week’s trouncing at the hands of Kennesaw State.

As the crowd comes to its feet in preparation for the opening kickoff, the scoreboard reads,

ALABAMA  0……………………AUSTIN PEAY 45

Welcome to the first handicapped game in college football history.

The idea came to mind as I was reading about this weekend’s golf tournament, The Tour Championship, in which the favorite, Scottie Scheffler, is  starting out -10 on the leaderboard, before he’s even taken a shot. The number two golfer is -8, the number three is -5, and so on, with the top 20 players all getting at least a stroke.

This, of course, isn’t exactly a handicap. The best player on the PGA Tour would scarcely seem to need to start out ten under par.  But it got to me thinking -

What if, since the wise guys in Vegas already estimate the difference in the scores of two football teams - the point spread - those points were actually GIVEN to the underdog BEFORE the game even began?

Theoretically, as in golf matches or horse races, you’ve then created an even matchup, one which either side has an equal chance of winning.

Wouldn’t that make EVERY game more interesting to the average fan?

Wouldn’t that please people like Georgia season ticket holders, who can’t be that happy about paying premium prices to watch their Bulldogs crush Samford?  Wouldn’t they suddenly become a lot more interested, knowing that Samford, going into the game with 35 points already on the board, might knock their Bulldogs out of a shot at a National Championship repeat?

Coaches and fans of perennial losers would like it, too.  Go Duke.  Go Vandy.  Talk about parity!

No more meaningless games, that’s for sure.

Big-time coaches would hate it, of course.  Imagine  working, conniving - even cheating, some of them - to get every edge possible over the other guy, only to have some oddsmaker in Vegas take that edge away  before the game even begins.

Crooked gamblers would hate it, too.  Not the straight-up guys, though, because the point spread would still  work the same way it does now  (except that with overtime  there would be no ties). The  crooked guys wouldn’t like it because they could no longer cajole players  into “shaving points” - still playing  to win, but winning by less than expected.

Newspaper guys wouldn’t like it, either, because coaches, in their effort to manipulate the point spread to their advantage, would become insufferable pessimists. (“We’ll be lucky if we make a first down.”) Insofar as injuries,  they’d still be evasive, if not dishonest, except now,  instead of hiding a potential vulnerability  (concealing the likelihood that an injured star might not be able to play),  coaches would exaggerate the severity of even the most minor of injuries in trying to show what bad shape their team’s in.

Ah, what the hell.  It’s not going to happen anyhow.


*********** There’s way too much  that’s been said elsewhere about Len Dawson for me to add anything other than the fact that my first year of coaching was 1970 - following the Kansas City Chiefs’ demolition of the Vikings in the Super Bowl -  and with no experience and nothing else to go on, I chose to pattern much of what I did on what the Chiefs were doing, right down to little things like sitting the guys in numerical order in the team picture.   I was awed by the Chiefs’ offense - and Len Dawson was their leader.

I think that this little excerpt from a great article by Rustin Dodd in The Athletic really says anything I could say about Len Dawson and the kind of guy he was:

Dawson, who would play 19 seasons — including six once the NFL-AFL merger became official — finished his career with 28,711 passing yards, 239 touchdowns and 183 interceptions. He led the AFL in completion percentage seven times and passer rating six times from 1962 to 1969. During halftime of Super Bowl I, he was photographed by LIFE Magazine’s Bill Ray, an iconic image that captured Dawson smoking a cigarette on a folding chair in the locker room while a bottle of Fresca rested on the ground. While still an active player, he pursued a career as a sportscaster for a local affiliate in Kansas City — a job that launched a decades-long career in media. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, in 1987.

Dawson’s arrival in Canton was an apt bookend. Born June 20, 1935, in Alliance, Ohio, Dawson was raised just 20 miles away, in a region famous for its devotion to football. The son of a mill worker, Dawson liked to remind people that he was “the seventh son of a seventh son,” an oddity that, in European folklore, was said to result in special powers. Dawson, one of 11 children in all, found that his most potent gifts came on the football field, the basketball court and the baseball diamond.

At Alliance High School, he starred at quarterback for a man named Mel Knowlton, a head coach who appreciated the passing game in an era dominated by running attacks. When Dawson looked for a college program, he used his own experience to form the following calculus: Ohio State did not throw the football, but Purdue did.

It didn’t hurt that Dawson was recruited by a young Purdue assistant coach named Hank Stram, who would later tell Sports Illustrated about the first time he came to notice Dawson’s matter-of-fact nature.

“We were trying to get him to come to Purdue and we were in the gym,” Stram said. “Len was passing. He was a great passer even then. He was a fine basketball player, too, and the basketball coach came over to meet him. ‘I hope you come to Purdue,’ he said to Len. ‘I know you will be a big help to us in basketball.’ Dawson gave him that look and said, ‘You don’t know that. You’ve never seen me play.'

***********   Thank you, young Sam, for giving your grandfather the story tip. You strengthened that bond this summer, I'm sure.

I watch all Rays games, and have watched them play the O's all season. Last season the Rays' record vs the O's was 18-1. This season the Rays won the season series 10-9. We've seen Baltimore improving for several seasons, but they made the big leap when they brought up Adley Rutschman. I saw his first MLB game, and it sure looked like he was already above-average. He has the chance to be the kind of example some of us want to see.

Send me a case of Hugh's Hard(ly) Seltzer. I'm a sucker.

John Vermillion
St. Petersburg, Florid

***********  Hugh,

Re the coach who lost his first game big.  Many of us have faced the same obstacles early in the season but we stayed the course and it eventually paid great dividends for those youngsters.

Unfortunately when we get those blabber mouths doing color we can't turn the sound off without tuning out the crowd noise.  If we do it would be like going back to watching football on TV in 2020 during the pandemic.  Completely missed out on the fullness of a game.

We've been sold a bunch of "meat pies" lately whether we buy them or not.

Have a great week!

Joe Gutilla
Austin, Texas


***********   QUIZ ANSWER:  Along with Mark Duper, Mark Clayton was one of the so-called  “Marks Brothers,” a pair of receivers  who played together for ten years and were influential in Dan Marino’s making it to the Hall of Fame.

A native of Indianapolis, he played his college ball at Louisville, where as a senior he caught 53 passes for 1,112 yards and six touchdowns.

He was drafted in the eighth round by the Dolphins in 1983, the same year they drafted Marino.

He spent his first season mostly as a punt returner, but in his second season, 1984, he led the NFL with 18 touchdown passes   and made his first Pro Bowl, as the Dolphins made it to the Super Bowl.

He spent 10 years with the Dolphins and one with the Packers, and he is one of only three players to have caught touchdown passes from both Dan Marino and Brett Favre.

He was a five-time Pro Bowler and a three-time All-Pro.

He twice led the NFL in touchdown catches.

He had five 1,000-yard seasons.

For his career, he caught 582 passes  for 8.974 yards and 84 touchdowns  - more touchdown catches  than at least five receivers  who are in the Hall of Fame (he is not).

His 18 touchdown receptions in 1984 rank third all-time.  His career touchdown catches rank 13th all-time, and his career receiving yards rank 39th.

At the end of his Hall of Fame induction speech,  Marino licked his fingers, grabbed a football,  pointed to Clayton (who was sitting in the audience) and said,  “turn around and go deep.”

He did. Marino,  kidding him about not going faster,   threw the ball right on the money, and Clayton caught it.

"I was more nervous about catching that pass," he said, "than I was any pass I caught in football."


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING MARK  CLAYTON

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - AUSTIN, TEXAS
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
TOM DAVIS - SAN CARLOS, CALIFORNIA
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY


*********** QUIZ:  He has been credited with being the first Texas football player to make himself known to the football powers in the East.

As a  star running back at Fort Worth’s North Side High, he helped his team win the state title his senior season.

Following the season, the North Side head coach, a graduate of Kentucky’s Centre College, took the head coaching job at his alma mater, where his first order of business was to recruit his former players - the “Fort Worth gang,” they called them - to come to Centre.

Since our guy didn’t have enough credits to get into Centre, he spent a year in high school in Somerset, Kentucky.

Once he entered Centre, it didn’t take him long to make a name for himself - or to put Centre, a small Presbyterian College in Danville -  on the football map.

In  1917, as a freshman, he drop-kicked the first - and only - field goal of his career as little Centre upset the University of Kentucky, 3-0.

He left to serve  in the Navy  during the final  year of World War II, then returned to Centre.

In 1919, his sophomore season, Centre went 9-0, with upset wins over Indiana and West Virginia, and he was named All-American.  It was after he’d  asked his teammates to pray before the West Virginia game that the Centre Colonels became known far and wide as the “Praying Colonels.”

In his junior season, he was again named to the All-America team, although Centre did lose two games, to Georgia Tech, and to Harvard by a big score.

In 1921, though, he played a major role in one of the biggest upsets in football history, little Centre’s defeat of mighty Harvard, in front of some  45,000 people in Harvard Stadium. Harvard had won 25 straight, and its fans were rather surprised when the teams went off at halftime tied, 0-0.  Early in the third quarter, the Harvard fans  were shocked when our guy broke loose for a 32-yard touchdown run. That was all the scoring,  as Centre won, 6-0.

There weren’t many Centre fans on hand, but there were some students from nearby MIT, who celebrated the defeat of Harvard by tearing down the goalposts and carrying our guy off the field on their shoulders.

In 1950, the Associated Press called  that Centre win the greatest upset of the first half of the 20th Century, and in 2006 ESPN called it the third-biggest upset in the history of college football.

It was the first win over an eastern power by any team from the South, and  Clark Shaughnessy who was coaching Tulane at the time, would later call it the win that "first awoke the nation to the possibilities of Southern football."

He was again named All-American, his third straight time, as Centre finished the regular season undefeated. On January 2, 1922, Centre played Texas A & M in what was  called the Dixie Classic, and after  A & M won, 22-14, our guy took the blame for the loss - he’d got married the day before.  (The game was of considerable significance historically, because it was the game in which the Aggies’ famous 12th Man tradition was born.)

Other than the loss to A & M, though, Centre outscored opponents 314-6, defeating such teams as Virginia Tech, Auburn, Arizona and Clemson along the way.

In our guy’s career at Centre, the Praying Colonels’ record was 38-4, and they outscored their opponents 1,757 to 121.

In 1922 he embarked on a coaching career that would last almost 30 years, although in his first two years as a coach he also picked up a little money on the side playing pro football.   To show the casual nature of the NFL at that time,  he “played” with the Milwaukee Badgers, although he only played when the college he was coaching played a game  somewhere close by, and he never practiced with the Badgers.  The plays were mailed to him in advance of a game - along with his pay.

His first job was as head coach at Centenary College in Shreveport, Louisiana, where in three years his record was 28-2.

From there, he moved to Geneva College in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, where in three years his teams went 22-6-1.  In his second season there, he opened with a 16-7 upset win over Harvard. He  did seem to have learned something about recruiting from his high school coach, because at least one of his players from Centenary “followed” him to Geneva.  That player was Cal Hubbard,  who would go on to a Hall of Fame career in the NFL (and remains to this day the only person in the Pro Football and Baseball Halls of Fame, which he made as an umpire).

From there he moved to Kansas State, where in six years he coached the Wildcats to a 29-21 record, which got him the head coaching job at Indiana.

What he did at Indiana has to be considered one of the great coaching jobs of all time.  His 1945 team went 9-0-1 and finished 4th in the nation - one of only two times in all their years of playing football that the Hoosiers have finished a season ranked that high. It was also the  first time Indiana had won the Big Nine (now Big Ten) Conference title outright - something that’s only been done once since.  Following the 1945 season he was named the AFCA Coach of the Year. He remains the only Indiana coach to have taken the Hoosiers to two top-20 finishes, and when he left Indiana in 1947 to take a shot at coaching in the NFL, he was the last coach to leave Bloomington with a winning record (63-48-11).

As a college coach, his overall record was 140-77-3.  He left every place he coached as a winner, and remember - he  won  at Kansas State AND Indiana, two places notoriously hard on coaches.

He was twice named to coach the College All-Stars in their annual summertime game against the defending NFL champions, and he won both times. Considering that in all the time that the game was played, from 1934 to 1976, the pros won  31 and lost only 9 (two games were tied), his 2-0 record is remarkable.

In 1948, although he had seven years left on his contract at Indiana, he left to coach the Detroit Lions.  He had a difficult time dealing with the pro players and lasted just three years,   but during his time he built well, as proven by the Lions’ great run of success to follow under Buddy Parker.

In 1951, he was hired by the Philadelphia Eagles, to replace Greasy Neale, who had been fired after a disagreement with management.   He coached just two games until having to undergo surgery for ulcers, which, the surgery revealed, was actually stomach cancer. Within months, he was dead, at the age of 57.

He is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame, the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame, the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame, and the Texas Sports Hall of Fame.






TUESDAY,  AUGUST 23, 2022 - "Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge." Charles Darwin

*********** Nathan Rourke of the CFL’s BC Lions, whom I’ve mentioned here as one of the most exciting and promising  players I’ve seen in any professional league in quite a while, was on track to win the CFL’s Most Outstanding Player award.  In nine games, he’d completed nearly 80 per cent of his passes (okay, 79.2) for 3,281 yards, 25 touchdowns, and 10 interceptions.

But sacked in the fourth quarter of Friday night’s win over Saskatchewan, he suffered what's  called a Lisfranc  sprain (after the French doctor who first diagnosed it), and now there's a strong possibility that he's done for the season.

Here’s from the article:

“After extensive consultation with team doctors and foot specialists, Nathan was diagnosed with a Lisfranc sprain in his right foot. It has been determined that the best course of action is for Nathan to undergo surgery, which will happen very soon. The club remains hopeful that the surgery and subsequent rehab will open the door for a return late in the season. Michael O’Connor will start at quarterback on Friday against Saskatchewan.”

Lisfranc surgery requires that patients be non-weight bearing on their injured foot for six-to-eight weeks following the procedure.

Total recovery time can range anywhere from three-to-six months, according to most medical sources.

A couple of ironies:

Irony Number One: If CFL teams were using the “free” Canadian health care system - the one that liberal Americans rave about - he would likely have to wait weeks  for surgery, just like you or me.  As it is, CFL teams pay extra - a lot extra -  to purchase their own medical insurance, allowing them to them bypass the hot polloi and go to the front of the line.

Irony Number Two: After going most of our lives without ever hearing of a Lisfranc sprain, we heard it twice this past weekend, as Carolina Panthers’ rookie QB Matt Corral  suffered the same injury - and faces the same prognosis.


https://3downnation.com/2022/08/21/canadian-qb-nathan-rourke-to-undergo-surgery-for-lisfranc-sprain-lions-hopeful-for-late-season-return/


*********** A heads-up for any of you who are teaching:  if you see a kid at lunch guzzling  what looks like something alcoholic from a tall, black 16-ounce can - don’t panic..

It may not be malt liquor.  Or even an energy drink.

It may be something called LIQUID DEATH, which despite the name is not at all bad.

In fact, it’s water. H2O.  From the Austrian Alps, to be sure, but water nonetheless.

So the joke’s on you.

Its main market is not kids who want to prank adults, but adults who  don’t want to drink alcohol, yet  don’t “want to get made fun of for drinking Poland Spring at a punk show,” as one Philadelphia guy told the Wall Street Journal.

Somebody is making a bundle here.

Liquid Death’s owner said sales were $45 million in 2021, and based on a price I saw of $1.69 a can, it’s got to be profitable, considering   how much of the cost of a can of beer is tax on the alcohol.

I have an idea, but  I  need funding, so I’m going to give you, my faithful readers, first   crack at investing.

My plan is to put tap water ("from high in the majestic Cascades here in the beautiful  Pacific Northwest") in clear bottles, like the ones that all the hard seltzer people use. 

My product’s going to be called

HUGH’S HARD(ly) SELTZER

The first 100 of you who invest $1,000 will get a free lifetime supply of the product.



*********** A friend who took over a program that’s been averaging at most 1.5  wins a year over the last ten years opened up this past weekend, and it wasn’t pretty.  He wasn’t pleased, of course,  and I was a bit taken aback when he said something to the effect of “now the doubts are going to creep in.”

Holy sh—, I thought.  After one game?  With those kids?

I told him that   there are bound to be doubters  - that  it’s usually tough in the early going - that anybody can coach when things are going smoothly. 

I reminded him when we take over a program that’s been sucking, the first order of bsiness, before any success can come, is first to stop the sucking - eliminating the ways we beat ourselves. On offense, that means (1) Turnovers (2) Penalties (3)Blown assignments (4) Dumbass calls. And that doesn’t even begin to touch on defense and special teams. 

I suggested that he make a chart with three columns - things that were done well enough to win; things that were close to acceptable; and things that will continue to kill until they’re cleaned up. And then, with that as a guide,  gear every practice to fixing the things that need fixing.

The big thing we all have to do, I told him, is to get the kids (and maybe some assistant coaches, too) to understand and agree that there is no system that is magically going to fix things - that it’s totally in their hands.

As to a reluctance to hit that he mentioned, I told him that it’s very possible that was because it was their first time in real combat conditions.  I suggested, because he’s been there as a player and a coach and most of them haven’t, he needed to have a frank talk with them, man to man, about some of the things they encountered, and how football players deal with these things - since they really don’t know.

He said that they don’t know how to win, and I agreed and went further -  that they don’t even know how to PLAY yet.

It’s not like he’s the first guy who’s ever been beaten like that, I told him. But his kids are  wounded and their pride is shattered and their confidence  is shot and they need his leadership more than ever.   Now’s the time, I said, for him  to show them how a real man deals with setbacks - by learning from the experience and working hard to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

I also suggested  he deal frankly with the lack of hitting, and ask his players to come clean and  confess if maybe they experienced a little fear out there.  (Maybe they won’t confess it, but we both know they did.)  Remind  them, I said, that it’s common in football, especially when you’re inexperienced . And let them know that in battle, even heroes admit that they’ve experienced fear.  But they knew they had jobs to do - and they did them.

I think, when it’s all said and done, it’s essential that the kids know they  THEY didn’t lose - WE lost.  It’s a chance to  establish with them that we’re all in it together. Now, what are we going to do about it?

Put in a way that the doubters might understand, using a  figure of speech, you are their guide - the guy whose job it is to get them through the Cumberland Gap, or to the Oregon Country, or to the top of Mt. Everest.  You know the way, because you’ve been there a few times.  They don’t, and their only chance of getting there is to trust you completely.


*********** It’s not exactly  the Delaware buck sweep, but it’s definitely a sweep, and one that I like a lot because it can get you outside without motion.



I’ll be  talking about it on my Zoom clinic (#106) tonight (Tuesday August 23)



*********** Let this be a warning to the Cleveland "Guardians" and Washington "Commanders"…

As a heartwarming tribute to  Australia’s indigenous people, a Melbourne rugby team decided to change its name for three games.

Not its nickname, though - its city’s name.

Back in May, in mid-season,  the Melbourne Storm decided to play three games as  the Narrm Storm - Narrm being the aboriginal name for Melbourne.

At the time of the change they were riding a 15-game  winning streak. 

They had enough momentum to win their first game representing Narrm, but  then they lost.  And then they lost again, making it 1-2 as Narrm.

Since going back to being the  Melbourne Storm,  they’ve gone 7-4.  In other words, after winning 15 straight, they’ve been 8-6 since their noble gesture.

(Thanks for the story tip to my grandson, Sam Wyatt.)


*********** The talent in the NFL preseason games may not all be ready for regular-season play, but it’s much closer to big-time standards than the people in the broadcast booth.  I would like to strangle the first director who let a color guy talk away, about whatever subject he pleased, WHILE THE PLAY IS GOING ON. Now the cat’s out of the bag, and every color guy wants to do the same - and every director lets him.  Now, with the play over, the color guy pauses to take a breath,  the play-by-play guy  summarizes the action - in a very short sentence -  and then the color guy is back at it. 


*********** If you saw the Cowboys-Chargers game Saturday, you had to be impressed by the Cowboys’ KaVontae Turpin, who returned both a kickoff and a punt for touchdowns.  He has  the quickest feet I’ve ever seen, and blazing speed to go with it.  An undrafted free agent, he wasn’t even signed by the Cowboys until after being named the MVP of the USFL.


*********** Nobody on God’s earth thinks that the latest monster spending  bill signed into law by the “President” will actually reduce inflation, yet with stunning  dishonesty, it’s  called the “Inflation Reduction Act.”

And I’ll be damned if  the mainstream media doesn’t go along with the ruse and unquestioningly  call it just that.

It reminds me again of the story I’ve told before about the guy at a fair who went up to a stand advertising “MEAT PIES.”  After buying one and taking  a couple of bites he went back to the stand and said, “Hey! There’s no meat in this thing!”

“I know,” said the guy at the  stand.

“Then why do you call it a meat pie?” asked the customer.

“Because,” said the  guy, “that’s its name.”

And now  you know why they call it the Inflation Reduction Act.


*********** I guarantee you, even before Dennis Rodman has been able to do anything other than brag that he’s “got permission” to go to Russia to try  to arrange for Britney Griner’s release,  there are scriptwriters in Hollywood working frantically on the  first show of a “RODMAN IN RUSSIA” series.   Talk about a clash of cultures.


But first, we’ve got to get him  over there.  In my first scene,   I have Dennis  packing his suitcase, wondering  whether he should take those blunts…


*********** According to Kagan, a media research group, ESPN currently has 73.2 million subscribers - that’s  down from 87.7 million in 2017, and Kegan estimates that by 2025 it will be 60.8 million. 

The average American whose cable system carries ESPN is paying more than $100 a year of his cable bill just for access to that Network. 

So do the math… At $100 per year per subscriber, ESPN at the present time is bringing in $7.32 billion a year.  But that’s down $1.45 billion a year from just five years ago, when it was making  $8.77 billion a year.

And in the next couple of years, it’ll be down ANOTHER $1.25 billion a year.


*********** The Portland Trail Blazers evidently were able to scrape together the money to make Damian Lillard one of the best-paid players in the NBA.  Back in July, they signed him to a two-year contract extension worth $122 million.  Guaranteed.  It hurts my fingers - and my brain - to type numbers like that.

But now, it’s time to pay the piper.  It’s tough enough when the team has to pay that kind of money to keep a player that talented,  but it’s even tougher when it has to find the money.

One way,  the  rumor circulating around the area goes,  is by not sending  their radio or TV broadcast teams  to away games.  Instead, just as  during the Plandemic, they will call away games remotely, from a studio.

Hey - just because you’re paying a basketball player $60 million dollars a year,  doesn’t mean you don’t have  to watch every penny.



*********** I found a great article on the Stoops brothers’ dad, and I don’t for the life of me know how I got around the firewall, but evidently it’s up now,  so don't say I didn't warn you...

http://www.kentucky.com/sports/college/kentucky-sports/uk-football/article156560119.html


*********** In one hand, Captain Maryland carries a shield shaped like a crab, and in the other he carries a  wooden mallet (a large version of the kind Marylanders use to crack open steamed crabs). On his belt, ready for immediate use,  he carries cans of Old Bay, Marylanders’ put-on-anything (but especially crabs) seasoning.



His outfit is red, white, yellow and black, the colors of Maryland’s distinctive flag.  (The flag is based on the coats of arms of the two founding families of Maryland.)  His jeep is similarly decorated.

His motto, ever the  true Marylander: “If you can’t eat it, you put the flag on it. And if you can eat it, you put Old Bay on it.”

He’s just doing it to have fun, he says, and evidently, wherever he goes he brings joy to Marylanders - after they first say “WTF?”


https://www.delmarvanow.com/story/news/local/maryland/2022/08/18/captain-maryland-md-clark-rogers-mid-atlantic-avenger-montgomery-county/65399286007/


***********  Jimmy Charles wrote - and  sings  - “It’s a Maryland Thing - You Wouldn’t Understand.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEm-a0agf6I&t=114s


***********  I’m glad that Baltimore Orioles’ fans - and soon enough, the fans of baseball everywhere - are finding out what a great kid their catcher, Adley Rutschman, is.  He’s loved  in Oregon, where he played high school football as well as baseball and then starred for the Oregon State Beavers and helped them win the College World Series.

But even more than that, for many old-timers out here, he’s Ad Rutschman’s grandson, and  that’s  good enough for them. 

Ad was a great football and baseball coach, first at Hillsboro, Oregon High School, and then at Linfield College, in McMinnville, Oregon.  And a great guy, too, I might add. After coaching at Hillsboro for 13 years, he became head coach at Linfield - a Northwest small college power - and in 24 years  there won three NAIA national titles. His overall record was 183-48-3 - and he never had a losing season.  (I believe that Linfield still has the longest streak of winning seasons at any level of college ball.)

Adley and the Orioles were in Williamsport, Pennsylvania to play the Red Sox in the Little League Classic and he sure made some young friends there, accommodating all their autograph requests, and, to the great delight of fans,  playing the role of little  kid and doing the famous hillside   slide.

 


https://www.sportingnews.com/us/mlb/news/orioles-adley-rutschman-little-league-world-series-mlb-classic-red-sox/zkt0yslqaw7gprizvl6pxxoy



*********** Coach:

Simply a great page today. Enjoyed every word, applaud your every choice of topic.

For a couple of days I've thought again about how this page stacks up against some of the bigger websites. It's superior. I could name one site in particular which, had the people who run it had the sense to request you merge with them, could have brought you great riches. But their loss is our gain. Thanks for doing your patriotic duty (as you see it).

Thank you for the kind comment about my books. That means a lot.

John Vermillion
St. Petersburg, Florida


***********   Hugh,

FOX Sports, CBS, NBC.  Well...that leaves ABC/ESPN for the PAC 12, BIG 12, and ACC?

The PAC 12 is the BEST conference for ALL sports.  Big deal.

When I was coaching I would occasionally get out to play a few rounds of golf.  Love playing the game.  I'll watch the majors on TV, but haven't yet watched an LIV event.  I'm also someone who buys Made in America as much as possible.

There has long been a shortage of officials in Ohio, and when I was back there they were paid pretty well compared to other states where I have coached.  However, it wasn't unusual for us in Toledo to occasionally get officials who lived in Michigan.

Does Phil Knight financially support Oregon State?

A possible reason for Game Day not visiting Cal:  They don't call it Berzerkeley for nothing.


Enjoy your weekend!

Joe Gutilla
Austin, Texas


Good point on Cal.   I am a big fan of Mr.  Knight.  He ran track at Oregon and started his company, originally  Blue Ribbon Sports, with his track coach, Bill Bowerman, so he’s understandably an Oregon Ducks Supporter - “the best owner in college football,” as UCLA’s Bob Toledo once joked.  But he spreads the money around.  The Knights have given far more to Oregon on the athletic than on the academic side.  All told, they have donated more than $2 billion to various causes, with $500 million of it going to Stanford, where Mr. Knight went to business school.  Oregon State is a Nike school, so they do get some support that way ,  and back when the Beavers were in danger of losing their great baseball coach, Pat Casey, a donation by Mr. Knight helped keep Casey at OSU.



***********  QUIZ ANSWER:  Walter Camp, more than any other person, was responsible for changing what at the time was basically  mass mayhem  into the structured game of American football that we know today, and as a result he  is rightly called the Father of American  football. 

The son of a New Britain, Connecticut, high school principal, Camp grew up in New Haven, not far from Yale, where he enrolled in 1875.  At Yale, he was   a varsity athlete in football, baseball and track, and was a member of the rowing, swimming and tennis teams.

The game of “football” at that time scarcely resembled today’s game. There were no permanent rules, and the game was part rugby, part soccer, and part brawl. From game to game, there might be anywhere from 15 to 25 men to a  side.

While  captain of the team his senior year, (there were no coaches then) he presented a number of proposed rules to what was then called the Inter-Collegiate Football Association, and they were accepted.

Many of his rules were revolutionary, starting with a limit on the number of players a side at 11. He invented the idea of the “scrimmage method” of putting the ball in play at a “line of scrimmage” with one team in possession of the ball, rather than the freeform scrums of rugby, and he originated the “snap-back” from center. He introduced the standard alignment of players - the seven-man line and the four-man backfield of a  quarterback, a fullback, and two halfbacks. 

He devised  the scoring system of touchdowns and field goals, and in a definite break from rugby, introduced the idea of the “safety,” awarding points to the defensive team for tackling a runner behind his own goal line.

Most important of all in establishing the very basis of our game, it was his idea that the team in possession of the ball must gain a specified number of yards in a certain number of plays (“downs”) or give up possession.

After graduation in 1881 he went to work for a clock company, but in 1888 he returned to Yale to become its first head football coach - an unpaid position at the time - after 17 years of playing football.

As a coach, he developed the idea of signals, and was the first to use guards as interference.

Coaching at Yale for  five years, his teams lost only two games in that time, going 13-0, 15-1, 13-1, 13-0 and 13-0 (67-2 overall) and won three “national championships.”

Because  so much of modern-day football started with him, former Yale players were in great demand  as coaches at other schools wanting to start programs, and he was enticed to be the first  coach at Stanford.  In three seasons there he went 12-3-3, and then he retired from  coaching.

Starting in 1889, after his second year as Yale’s coach, he selected the first “All-America” team, honoring the best college players in the country, one at each position.  It was, it should be noted, limited to those he had personally seen, which meant that the players on that “All-America” team - and on those for the next several years - were from Yale, Harvard or Princeton.  Over the years, recognition was expanded to players from elsewhere in the East, then the Midwest, then the West Coast and, finally, the South.

His All-America teams helped create interest in football  throughout the country, and although other imitators came along to choose  their own All-America teams, his remained the standard, and even  for several years after his death in 1925, the “Walter Camp All-America team” continued to be selected , although now chosen by  football writers, coaches and officials from around the nation.

During World War I, he worked as an advisor to the US military, and as a strong advocate of the importance of exercise, he developed what  came to be called the “Daily Dozen,” a program of twelve exercises which long after the War remained popular as a  home workout.

He wrote 30 books and more than 250 magazine articles devoted to the game, and especially in the game’s early days, he spent a good deal of his time defending the sport against higher-ups in government and in education who saw it as a waste of  students’ time.

In 1928, three years after his death, the Walter Camp Gateway to the Yale Bowl was built with funds donated by alumni of 594 colleges.

Since 1967, an award in his name is given to the Player of the Year in collegiate football. This past year’s winner was Kenneth Walker.

Similarly, the Walter Camp Coach of the Year award has been given to a college coach every year since 1967.  This past year's winner was Luke Fickell.



CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING WALTER CAMP

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
TOM DAVIS - SAN CARLOS, CALIFORNIA
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - AUSTIN, TEXAS
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS




***********   QUIZ:  Along with Mark Duper, he was one of the so-called  “Marks Brothers,” a pair of receivers  who played together for ten years and were influential in Dan Marino’s making it to the Hall of Fame.

A native of Indianapolis, he played his college ball at Louisville, where as a senior he caught 53 passes for 1,112 yards and six touchdowns.

He was drafted in the eighth round by the Dolphins in 1983, the same year they drafted Marino.

He spent his first season mostly as a punt returner, but in his second season, 1984, he led the NFL with 18 touchdown passes   and made his first Pro Bowl, as the Dolphins made it to the Super Bowl.

He spent 10 years with the Dolphins and one with the Packers, and he is one of only three players to have caught touchdown passes from both Dan Marino and Brett Favre.

He was a five-time Pro Bowler and a three-time All-Pro.

He twice led the NFL in touchdown catches.

He had five 1,000-yard seasons.

For his career, he caught 582 passes  for 8.974 yards and 84 touchdowns  - more touchdown catches  than at least five receivers  who are in the Hall of Fame (he is not).

His 18 touchdown receptions in 1984 rank third all-time.  His career touchdown catches rank 13th all-time, and his career receiving yards rank 39th.

At the end of Marino's Hall of Fame induction speech,  the quarterback licked his fingers, grabbed a football,  pointed to our guy (who was sitting in the audience) and said,  “turn around and go deep.”

He did.

Marino,  kidding him about not going faster,   threw the ball right on the money, and our guy caught it.

 "I was more nervous about catching that pass," he said, "than I was any pass I caught in football."



FRIDAY,  AUGUST 19, 2022 - "Auto racing began 5 minutes after the second car was built." Henry Ford

***********   FROM MY QUIZ ANSWER, JULY 2018 -

Steve Worster (who died last Sunday) may be the greatest college running back who never played a single down in the NFL.

In his junior year of high school, his Bridge City, Texas team made it to the Class 3A state final game (Texas had only 4 classes at the time)  before losing to perennial power Brownwood, 14-0.

But in his senior year, he rushed for 2210 yards as his team went undefeated, winning the state title with a 30-6 win over McKinney.  In the title game, he sat out the second half after putting the game away with four first-half touchdowns.

All told, in his three seasons as a starter for Bridge City, he rushed for 5422 yards.  He was all-state all three years, and he amassed what was then a state-record 38 100-yard games.

One of the most highly-recruited players in the history of Texas football, he finally settled on Texas.

It was a good choice, because shortly after he arrived, Texas adopted an offense that would use his power running ability to revolutionize the game of football.

His historic significance is that he was the first in a great line of fullbacks - the first fullback around which Texas coach Darrell Royal and his offensive coordinator Emory Bellard built their innovative triple-option attack.  Originally called the “Y” formation because of the alignment of its backs, it became much better known by the name it goes by today, the Wishbone, a name given it by - most people believe - a Houston sports writer named Mickey Herskowitz.

Based on the threat of his running up the middle, the new offense produced back-to-back national titles for the Longhorns in 1969 and 1970.  As Texas fans shouted “Woo! Woo!” (his name was pronounced “WOO-ster”) every time he carried the ball,  he rushed for 2313 yards and 36 touchdowns, and  was a three-time All-Southwest Conference selection and a two-time All-American. He was voted Texas Amateur Athlete of the Year, and finished fourth in the Heisman voting after his senior season.

In the 1971 NFL draft, he was chosen fourth by the Los Angeles Rams, but he wound up signing with the Hamilton Tiger Cats of the CFL, where he played just one season before hanging them up and returning to school to get his degree and embark on a career in sales.

RIP Mr. Worster.


*********** BAD NEWS FOR THE PAC-12…

Not only did the Big Ten  manage  a media deal  that’s going to  wind up  with every member eventually getting $78 million (a year, that is) as its share of the revenue, but apparently  the deal includes  provisions for an increase in the payout should the conference decide to expand further.  (Like, say, by adding Oregon/Washington/Cal/Stanford, resulting in a West Coast pod - along with USC and UCLA - that would put an end to any  complaints about excessive travel for minor, er  “Olympic”  sports.)


***********  The new Big Ten media deal includes not only Fox, as expected, but also NBC and CBS.

Fox will have the noon (Eastern) Saturday slot, followed by CBS at 3:30 and NBC, with its “Big Ten Saturday Night” game at 7 PM.

The evening NBC Big Ten game will follow right behind the network’s 3:30 Notre Dame game, giving it a very strong Saturday lineup.

During the seven-year term of the contract, each of the three networks will have at least one Big Ten football championship game: Fox will have four, CBS two and NBC one.



*********** From Sports Business Journal

The 11 college presidents and chancellors who make up the Board of Managers for the CFP met via Zoom on Monday and "discussed the possibility of restructuring how college football is governed, with the idea presented of major college football potentially being governed outside of the NCAA," sources told ESPN.

The "most logical place for the sport to be run outside of the NCAA would be under the auspices of the CFP, which was discussed on the call." The CFP currently oversees the postseason playoff and has contractual ties to other marquee postseason bowl games.

Sources "cautioned that these discussions are in such early stages that it could be considered the first steps of a complicated process that would resemble a marathon." The sources added that the group "spoke about the idea for only about five minutes, as it was raised as something the group should think more about down the line."

The conversation is "significant," however, in that it's the "first known discussion among a group that would seemingly have the power to put such a plan in action." No action is "imminent or known next steps planned."

In addition, wrote Pete Thamel in espn.com…

One other item discussed on the call was the notion that the next iteration of the College Football Playoff -- whatever that would look like -- could be put into place before the end of the current CFP contract. That contract has four seasons remaining and runs out after the 2025 season.

A source told ESPN that the general feel among the presidents and chancellors on the call was that the college sports leaders have left too much money on the table by not implementing a new playoff before 2026, perhaps as much as a half-billion dollars. Much of the obstruction to the 12-team playoff appears to have dissipated, as media day comments from multiple leaders revealed some of the obstacles now appear to have been more performative than grounded in reality.

While there's still a lot of work to be done -- including an agreement on a format -- the door remains open for discussion of finding a new deal that could potentially be put in place for the final two seasons of the contract. That idea was perpetuated by Pac-12 Commissioner George Kliavkoff at Pac-12 media days in late July.

*********** I’m currently reading “Once in a Great City - A Detroit Story,” by David Maraniss. Published in 2015, it deals with the Motor City in 1962-63, which, it turns out, was its apex as a “great city.” As we all know, since then Detroit has gone bankrupt, and its population has shrunken - from 1,600,000 in 1950 to 700,000 in the  2010 census.  And during that same time, it went from being 80 per cent white to 80 per cent black.

Author Maraniss  comes at the story from many directions.  A lot of  his emphasis, of course is on the automobile industry - Detroit at that time being essentially  the world’s largest factory town.  And it’s impossible to talk about the American automobile industry and the Big Three - GM, Ford and Chrysler - without bringing in the big union  - the United Auto Workers - and its  role in so many aspects of the city. 

There’s  the fact of the automobile industry’s need  for workers, especially during World War II,  and the attractiveness of its factory jobs to  poor blacks in the South.  And, as the black population increased, the racial tensions  that grew as blacks became impatient with the discrimination they encountered, and as blacks grew in numbers and influence, so did Detroit’s ties to the Civil Rights movement in the South. Maraniss does a great job of explaining the many disagreements and power struggles among Detroit’s black leaders during this time. 

Some of the most fascinating parts of the book deal with the music industry that came out of Detroit.  Black Detroit, that is. I’m talking about Motown, and although I was as aware of Motown and its founder, Berry Gordy, Jr. as most people,  Maraniss does a superb job of telling the story of this fantastic American institution  (I don’t know what else to call  something that in the early 60s gave us the likes of Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Mary Wells, Martha and the Vandellas, the Four Tops, the Supremes, The Temptations, The Contours, Little Stevie Wonder).

In the process of telling us about Gordy, Motown’s founder, Maraniss draws a very interesting comparison between him and Vince Lombardi, whom Maraniss knew well from having written the coach’s biography (“When Pride Still Mattered’).

To borrow a phrase from Vince Lombardi, the football coach who had been assembling a powerhouse football team up in Green Bay during that same period, Gordy was developing a system at Motown in 1963 that nurtured freedom through discipline. His musical assembly line operated on a routine. Everything was framed by a structure devised by Gordy and his influential sisters, but within that structure lay a sense of creativity and possibility, just as there was a surprising amount of freedom within Lombardi's disciplined playbook. The parallel goes one step further. The Packer athletes were an eclectic bunch of roustabouts, playboys, cut ups, and straight arrows, and so too were Motown’s artists, but Lombardi and Gordy both knew how to get the best out of all of them and keep them going in the same direction, at least for a time.

Eventually success would become an addiction for the leaders, some of the athletes and artists would yearn to bust free of the structure, and issues of control and money and self – expression would complicate matters, but not yet.

And on Fridays, at precisely nine in the morning, Gordy assembled his product evaluation committee to listen to demo records and vote on whether they should be released. He even had his own version of what in Green Bay was known as "Lombardi time." If you arrived at a Packer meeting on time, you were 10 minutes late and subjected to a fine. At Motown, if you arrived at the product evaluation committee meeting five minutes late, you were locked out, no excuses.

***********   John Canzano, in addressing possible solutions to the Pac-12 Network’s problems, hit on the major issue, as told him by someone who was there at the network’s birth.  The money quote:

The Pac-12 Networks weren’t supposed to make a bunch of money. From inception, we were designed to provide exposure for the sports who don’t get any coverage.

See,  that's what the presidents wanted. They live in a world where all sports are equal. It seems to me that that explains as well as anything the insanity of giving university presidents too much input into the business operation of something they know nothing about and for the most part couldn’t care less about.



*********** It's common for veterans to be  given extra points in qualifying exams for law enforcement and  fire department jobs, right?

Well,  the state of Washington (state slogan: "The Massachusetts of the West”)  can beat that.  In handing out cannabis licenses, it's considering giving preferential treatment to those convicted of drug-related crimes and  served  time in prison.

https://www.q13fox.com/news/state-considers-social-equity-licenses-for-people-impacted-by-war-on-drugs-to-get-cannabis-shop-licenses


*********** If you have followed  golf to any degree, you’re aware that the Saudis have started a new  golf tour called the LIV, and to get players, they’ve offered enormous sums of money - tens of millions of dollars - to current members of the PGA tour to leave the PGA and join  the LIV. (“LIV” is “54” in Roman numerals, referring to the fact that their  tournaments are 54 holes over three days, rather than the customary 72 holes over four days.)

Considering  that the money is guaranteed, and not dependent on players having to  win prize money, there’s simply no way that the LIV tour can actually make money.  But that’s not its point, evidently.  The point, it appears, is to somehow use this tour to improve the image of Saudi Arabia.

Where - and how - the image of a nation almost certainly complicit in the 911 attack on our country is going to be improved by a bunch of guys hitting a little ball is beyond my limited ability to fathom.

But it does seem to me that if they can  throw that kind of money at f—king golfers, surely it’s occurred to them to do the same  with American politicians.

And that way, with America’s best and finest bought and in their pocket, who gives a sh— about image?


*********** High school football officials in Northeast Ohio called off talk of boycotting games this fall after schools and conferences agreed to increase their pay.  Not to say that  officials  don’t deserve the extra money that they’ll be getting (a whopping $10 more a game), but  as tough and thankless as their job already is,  I  expect that fans’ reaction to the very idea of their boycott isn’t going to make things any easier for them.

https://fox8.com/news/ne-ohio-football-refs-to-receive-pay-raise-ending-boycott-threat/


***********  “We have a tremendous investment in facilities for (internal combustion engines, transmissions, and axles) and I can't see throwing them away just because the electric car doesn't emit fumes.” Henry Ford II


*********** Before any of us start feeling sorry for the Pac-12 because it’s about to go over the edge, there’s this…


*** Utah coach Kyle Whittingham just received  a $15,000 bonus after his Utes were ranked in the AP poll this week. (They were ranked 7th.)

He’ll receive another $10,000 if the Utes are ranked in the College Football Playoff rankings at any time this season,  and he’ll get $150,000 if Utah is in the final Top 25 in either the playoff rankings or the AP poll.


***  And then we have first-year Oregon coach Dan Lanning’s incentives…




It’s rather interesting comparing the incentives  for Lanning at Oregon and those for Jonathan Smith, at Oregon State.

They're  really ass-backwards, because while winning at Oregon State is immeasurably tougher than it is at Oregon, the monetary rewards for doing so are considerably less.

Consider a few of them:

Win the Pac-12 championship
Lanning $150,000
Smith       $75,000


Win 9 games
Lanning   $100,000
Smith         $75,000


Win 10 games
Lanning    $200,000
Smith       $100,000


Win Pac-12 Coach of the Year
Lanning    $25,000
Smith        $25,000

Make it to a Bowl Game
Lanning (A CFP Bowl)    $150,000
           (Any other bowl)  $100,000 - Wait  - you mean Oregon  can finish .500 and go to a nothing bowl and he gets a  $100,000 bonus?
Smith (Any bowl)              $50,000


To be fair, the bonuses, to a degree,  are a reflection of the higher expectations at Oregon:

Win 8 games
Lanning………………….0 (If he doesn’t win 8 games there will be hell to pay)
Smith…………………….$50,000


And Oregon State makes no provision for

National championsip

CFP semi-final

CFP Bowl

Winning National Coach of the Year

Winning 11, 12 or 13  games



*********** Here’s a gem from John Canzano…

GAME DAY: There are only eight Power Five Conference football programs that haven’t had ESPN’s College Game Day show make a visit.

Cal is among them.

The other seven: Duke, Illinois, Kansas, Maryland, Rutgers, Syracuse and Virginia.

Cal has been the road opponent for a Game Day broadcast three times: 2004 (at USC), 2007 (at Oregon) and 2015 (at Utah).

Bookmakers set the over/under on total victories this regular season for Cal at 5.5 wins. Maybe that keeps expectations for the season in check, but let’s construct a possible Game Day scenario for the Bears anyway.

Let’s say Cal beats UC Davis and UNLV to start the season. That’s a 2-0 start. After that, the Bears are at Notre Dame in Week 3 followed by a home game vs. Arizona. A 3-1 start to the season isn’t inconceivable.

Then, the Bears play road games at Washington State on Oct. 1. and Colorado on Oct. 15, followed by a home game vs. Washington (Oct. 22). I’d bet against Cal being 6-1 at that point but it’s not totally unthinkable given the schedule.

The following Saturday — Oct. 29 — Oregon is scheduled to visit Berkeley for what could be a decent game. Justin Wilcox has been a tough matchup for the Ducks. There are some good storylines given Wilcox’s connection to UO and the fact that he was offered, and turned down, the Oregon job.

Would Game Day go to Berkeley?

Maybe.

It would require a compelling on-field start to the season by the Ducks. Cal would also need to be a solid surprise (6-1 or 5-2 and ranked?) for the game to feel nationally relevant. It’s not the wildest scenario. But there are some other factors that would need to fall into place, too.

That same weekend, the Big Ten features Michigan State at Michigan in a rivalry game and Ohio State plays at Penn State. The SEC games on Oct. 29 include Florida at Georgia and Mississippi at Texas A&M. Cal would likely need the shine to come off those other matchups, too.

But if Cal is going to host Game Day this season, that’s how it happens.

*********** By now, you probably know that the guy who (allegedly, of course)  shot and killed the opposing coach of a youth football team in Texas - as 50 or so 9- and 10-year-old players watched - was the brother of former NFL player Aqib Talib.  Now, film shows that it was Aqib who  started the post-game  fight that  ended up  with  the shooting.

I have to confess that I never liked Aqib as a player and I couldn’t stand to listen to him when by mistake I  would come across him on TV.

**********  That Major Staniszewski of NYST--I'm speechless--how and where do we get people so willing to deny an obvious truth? But I'm certainly aware there are armies of people lying to the public every day.

What, you don't like the sound of Beth Mowins' voice? Or is it pure misogyny on your part?

Army (Mike Viti) recruited, and nabbed, a fullback from Kalispell Glacier HS.  I watched Jake Rendina's HUDL videos and he looks pretty fast at 6', 238. He's also the #6 ranked powerlifter in the country. All SAs recruited him, but apparently no other D-I schools. Maybe he wasn't recruited by other schools because so few ever use the FB. After a search of the Army roster, I concluded he's at Army Prep, which Rendina said he was okay with. Among the things he's said was, "I stand for the National Anthem, and everyone in my family does, too." I think Army might have plucked a gem from the NW. I don't remember if the stat was for his junior or senior season, but he racked up 29 TDs in Glacier's nine-game schedule.

John Vermillion
St. Petersburg, Florida

John Vermillion’s latest book - “Swinging Bridges: A Big Stone Gap Novel” is a really good read.  He’s written tons of good books, all of which I’ve read, and although in many cases  they build on the ones that came before them, you don’t have to have read any of them to enjoy “Swinging Bridges.” For what it’s worth, John Vermillion still believes that good should triumph over evil and  so he writes.  His good guys are good people - admirable characters who live good lives, and can handle themselves when the going  gets tough. He’s experienced enough in the military and expert enough in his writing to be able to describe real  action scenes  and yet, although some of his characters are as rough as they come, he’s able to do it all without ever having to result to vulgarity. You could give one of John's books to one of your kids - or to your wife or girlfriend - without any worries.


***********   Hugh,

Steve Worster was revered in Austin.  RIP

Kansas, is a great example of a basketball school.  Hopefully Lance Leipold will be able to get the football program out from under the basketball shadow.  Add Illinois.

At one point I was convinced Beth Mowins did the play by play for ALL Minnesota Golden Gophers football games.

Most high schools have now bought into that "Hawk" tackling, and the NFL sponsored USA Football offers high school coaches certifications in it, and many high school state associations require coaches to have that certification.  Not sure about how it's turned out in other states but here in Texas tackling has become atrocious in high schools.

Have a great week!

Joe Gutilla
Austin, Texas

It was with great sadness that I learned that a coach I’d worked closely with, who knew and taught my “Safer and Surer” method, had sold out to the Hawk Tackling bunch. I don’t mind at all being the one to say, at the end of the season, “I thought you knew better.”


***********  QUIZ  ANSWER:  Kordell Stewart was a quarterback in high school and in college and for much of his NFL career,  but partly to take advantage of his multiple skills - throwing, running, receiving - and partly to relieve a logjam at the quarterback position, he started out with the Pittsburgh Steelers playing a combination of positions,  which earned him his nickname.

He was from Marrero, Louisiana, a suburb of New Orleans.

At Colorado, playing for Bill McCartney, he set all kinds of schools records as a quarterback.  In his  first start as a sophomore, a 37-17 win over Colorado State, he threw  for a school-record 409 yards and  tied the school record for four TD passes in a game.  His 430 yards total offense broke a 24-year-old school record by 77 yards.

Combining his passing with the Buffs’ option attack, in his three seasons of eligibility at CU he led them to two top-ten finishes.  In his senior year, the Buffaloes finished 11-1 and he was named second team All-American.

Drafted in the second round by the Steelers,   he spent his first two seasons in the NFL playing  quarterback/receiver/running back - mostly the latter two - and got his nickname “Slash” from famed Pittsburgh announcer Myron Cope, after the character used to separate the three different positions.

In his third year, 1997,  he got the starting QB job, and the Steelers went 11-5 and made it to the AFC championship game.

In 1998 and 1999 the Steelers missed the playoffs.

In 2000 he lost the starting job to Kent Graham and after Graham was injured, he took over a 1-3 team and led it to a 9-7 record, barely missing the playoffs.

In 2001, with a new QB coach in Tom Clements, he had his best year, throwing for more than 3,000 yards and 14  touchdowns as the Steelers finished 13-3. They made it to the AFC championship game, and he was named Steelers MVP. 

The next year, 2002, he began the season as the starter, but lost  the job after three games to Tommy Maddox.

Signed after the season as a free agent by the Bears, he played in nine games in 2003 but was released at the end of the season.

In two final seasons as a backup QB with the Baltimore Ravens, he never threw a pass in an NFL game.

In his NFL career, he threw for 14,746 yards and 77 touchdowns.  He rushed for 2,874 yards and 38 touchdowns.


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING KORDELL STEWART

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
CHARLIE WILSON - BROOKSVILLE, FLORIDA
TOM DAVIS - SAN CARLOS, CALIFORNIA
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - AUSTIN, TEXAS
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY


***********  QUIZ:  More than any other person, he was responsible for changing football from what at the time was basically  mass mayhem  into the structured game that we know today, and as a result he is rightly called the Father of American  Football. 

The son of a New Britain, Connecticut high school principal, he grew up in New Haven, not far from Yale, where he enrolled in 1875.  At Yale, he was   a varsity athlete in football, baseball and track, and was a member of the rowing, swimming and tennis teams.

The game of “football” at that time scarcely resembled today’s game. There were no permanent rules, and the game was part rugby, part soccer, and part brawl. From game to game, there might be anywhere from 15 to 25 men to a  side.

While  captain of the team his senior year, (there were no coaches then) he presented a number of proposed rules to what was then called the Inter-Collegiate Football Association, and they were accepted.

Many of his rules were revolutionary, starting with a limit on the number of players a side at 11. He invented the idea of the “scrimmage method” of putting the ball in play at a “line of scrimmage” with one team in possession of the ball, rather than the freeform scrums of rugby, and he originated the “snap-back” from center. He introduced the standard alignment of players - the seven-man line and the four-man backfield of a  quarterback, a fullback, and two halfbacks. 

He devised  the scoring system of touchdowns and field goals, and in a definite break from rugby, introduced the idea of the “safety,” awarding points to the defensive team for tackling a runner behind his own goal line.

Most important of all in establishing the very basis of our game, it was his idea that the team in possession of the ball must gain a specified number of yards in a certain number of plays (“downs”) or give up possession.

After graduation in 1881 he went to work for a clock company, but in 1888 he returned to Yale to be its head football coach - an unpaid position at the time. 

As a coach, he developed the idea of signals, and was the first to use guards as interference.

It wasn't exactly a turnaround situation - Yale had lost just two games in the previous ten years - but in  five years as its coach, Yale lost only two games, going 13-0, 15-1, 13-1, 13-0 and 13-0 (67-2 overall) and won three “national championships.”

Because  of Yale's early influence on the game, former Yale players were in great demand  as coaches at other schools wanting to start programs, and he was enticed to be the first  coach at Stanford.  In three seasons there he went 12-3-3, and then he retired from  coaching.

Starting in 1889, after his second year as Yale’s coach, he selected the first “All-America” team, honoring the best college players in the country, one at each position.  It was, it should be noted, limited to those he had personally seen, which meant that the players on that “All-America” team - and on those for the next several years - were from Yale, Harvard or Princeton.  Over the years, recognition was expanded to players from elsewhere in the East, then the Midwest, then the West Coast and, finally, the South.

His All-America teams helped create interest in football  throughout the country, and although other imitators came along to choose  their own All-America teams, his remained the standard, and even  for several years after his death in 1925, “his” All-America team under his name continued to be selected , although now chosen by  football writers, coaches and officials from around the nation.

During World War I, he worked as an advisor to the US military, and as a strong advocate of the importance of exercise, he developed what  came to be called the “Daily Dozen,” a program of twelve exercises which long after the War remained popular as a  home workout.

He wrote 30 books and more than 250 magazine articles devoted to the game, and especially in the game’s early days, he spent a good deal of his time defending the sport against higher-ups in government and in education who saw it as a waste of  students’ time.

In 1928, three years after his death, an impressive gateway to the Yale Bowl, built with funds donated by alumni of 594 colleges,  was erected  in his memory.

Since 1967, an award in his name is given to the Player of the Year in collegiate football. This past year’s winner was Kenneth Walker.

Similarly, a Coach of the Year award in his name has been given to a college coach every year since 1967.  This past year's winner was Luke Fickell.






TUESDAY,  AUGUST 16, 2022 - “If it doesn't add value, it's waste." Henry Ford

*********** RIP

Steve “Woo Woo” Worster died Sunday, but I just learned the news as I was publishing.

At Texas, as the first-ever wishbone fullback, he truly was a part of something revolutionary.

According to a 1969 article in Sports Illustrated, when Michigan State’s Duffy Daugherty asked Texas’ Darrell Royal about his new offense that was taking the  college  football world by storm, Royal said, “you don't want my offense. You want my fullback, and he's got two more years with me… He's the kind of kid who just goes out and causes wrecks, straightens his headgear and walks back to the huddle quietly. “

Steve Wooster was 73.

More on Friday.



*********** It’s a  given among football coaches that there are such things as  “basketball schools,” and that it’s not easy to be the football coach at one.

It’s true in high schools and it’s true in colleges, which is one of the reasons why I have such admiration for the job that Mark Stoops has been doing as head football coach at Kentucky.

Evidently, Kentucky basketball coach John Calipari is aware of the success that Coach Stoops has been having, and in lobbying for some sort of new basketball facility,  he decided to play his trump card…

“This is a basketball school. It’s always been that. Alabama is a football school. So is Georgia. I mean, they are. No disrespect to our football team. I hope they win 10 games and go to bowls. At the end of the day, that makes my job easier and it makes the job of all of us easier. But this is a basketball school.”

Coach Stoops, in response, tweeted:

Basketball school?  I thought we competed in the SEC

#4straightpostseasonwins.”

That last bit was a not-so-subtle dig at  the Kentucky basketball team’s first-round loss to St. Peters in this year’s NCAA basketball tournament.

Touché


*********** Mark Rypien was born in Canada and started as a quarterback in the NFL.  So okay - there’s already been a Canadian-born quarterback in the NFL.   Technically.  But Rypien, who was born in Calgary, moved with his family to Spokane, Washington when he was three.  Spokane’s where he grew up, and Spokane’s where he played high school football, so it’s fair to say Canada had zero influence on him as a football player.

That’s not so where Oakville, Ontario’s Nathan Rourke is concerned.  Yes, he did play a year of high school football in the states, plus a year of JC ball, plus three years at Ohio U.  But he grew up playing junior ball and then high school ball in Canada, and he’s now in his second year in the CFL,  quarterbacking the BC Lions.

I confess to raving about  the fabulous game that he had last week, but early in the second quarter of this past weekend’s game, against (please remember to pronounce that “uh-GAINst”) Calgary, I was getting ready to delete all the stuff I’d written.

Saturday, he was intercepted early - twice -  with both interceptions resulting in Calgary touchdowns, and just minutes into the second quarter, his Lions were down, 20-3.

They were down 30-18 at the half, and trailed 40-31 with six minutes to play, but  thanks in great part to his efforts, they wound up winning, 41-40, on a 25-yard field goal with two seconds left to play.

When BC, behind 40-38, got the ball on their own six-yard line with 1:20 left, Rourke and his precision passing drove them 86 yards in nine plays to set up the winning  field goal.

In all,  he threw for 488 yards and two TDs.

Time’s getting short, guys - before the NFL and college ball take over all the networks, you really ought to try to catch one of this kid’s games.   He could one day become the first true Canadian-born - and raised - starting quarterback in the NFL.



*********** Did you know that there are now only two stadia (that’s plural for the Latin word stadium)   that don’t bear the name of somebody who’s paid  for the “naming rights?”

Lambeau Field - As the NFL’s only publicly-owned franchise, the Packers have no billionaire owner to crave further enrichment.

Soldier Field - The last time they floated the idea, Chicagoans raised hell.  So much for renaming a public landmark.  But since the Bears do have billionaire owners who crave further enrichment (or maybe they’re just lowly multi-millionaires), it’s another reason why, within the next ten years, the Bears will be playing in the suburbs.

https://theathletic.com/3498266/2022/08/12/nfl-stadium-names-paycor-acrisure/?source=user_shared_article



*********** There are things about the CFL that I like, and things that I don’t,  but one that I definitely like is the rule allowing  coaches to appeal pass interference calls.



*********** Let’s see who’s the real New York state police officer.

Several years ago, after an author named Salman Rushdie  wrote a book that enraged Muslim leaders, an Iranian imam declared a “fatwa” on the author, calling for his killing. And he offered a million dollars reward (it’s since been raised) for the person carrying out the deed.

Last Friday, in western New York, as Mr. Rushdie was preparing to address an audience, a guy - Iranian, it turns out - rushed the stage and  stabbed the author several times.

You say you’re a New York state cop?  Here’s your test:

Why did the Iranian stab Salman Rushdie?

Well, you’d say, there’s the book that he wrote, and there’s the fatwa, and there’s the reward money…

Shows what you know.

Here’s what a real New York state policeman, a Major named Eugene Staniszewski,  says:  

The motive for the attack is unclear.



*********** Can any football game be worth killing somebody over? In some places in this great country of ours, evidently so.

In Lancaster, Texas, a Dallas suburb, an argument broke out at a youth football game, culminating  in a well-liked youth coach being shot and killed.  Owing to  a dearth of good writing skills in our society, no one seems capable of describing accurately what happened, but it sure does seem as  if the shooter was an opposing coach, and happens to be the brother of a  former NFL player.

If this happens to be the case, isn’t it a bit scary to know that a person like this could be coaching your son?  Or coaching against him? Or coaching against you?

https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/lancaster-coach-killed-during-shooting-at-sporting-event/3047970/


***********  Please answer me this:  why would a TV network pay millions for the rights to broadcast a game - and then pay Beth Mowins to broadcast it?



*********** Just as we see a lot of guys playing in preseason games who won’t be playing once the real games start, so there are a lot of announcers  blabbing away during these games who in another few weeks will be back chatting away on local radio stations.

One such motormouth was doing the Broncos-Seahawks game.

His name is Chad Brown.  He’s a  former player (aren’t they all?), and he hosts a radio sports talk show in Denver.

Poor guy.  He’s so used to filling dead air time with mindless chatter  and somebody forgot to tell him he was on  TV and not radio.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chad_Brown_(linebacker)


***********  Pete Rose was a hell  of a baseball player, but  what a boor.

At a Phillies event, when asked by a female reporter about his allegedly having had sex  with a minor, he said, “I’m not here to talk about that.  Sorry about that.  It was 55 years ago, babe.”

What was that you were saying about his getting into the Hall of Fame some day?


*********** Proving that he can walk and chew gum at the same  time, SEC  Commissioner Greg Sankey took time out from his campaign to take over college football and suggested  that it’s time to “take a fresh look” at the NCAA  basketball tournament. 

It’s pretty apparent that what he means is that either by expanding the tournament field (to 96?) or by taking away the automatic bids from some smaller conferences, he’s looking for a way for his bloated megaconference to force  more of its teams into the  field.

https://www.si.com/college/2022/08/12/sec-commissioner-greg-sankey-march-madness-expansion


*********** NFL miscellany from this past weekend’s exhibitions:

1. Got to like Broncos’ QB Josh Johnson.   Denver makes  the 15th NFL team that  he’s been with. (Yes, that’s a record.)  He’s 36 years old - played for Harbaugh  when he was at San Diego (the university, not the Chargers).  You may remember him from the Los Angeles whatchamacallits of the XFL.  Seems like a good  guy,  and he played well Saturday.  What a great story this could turn out to be!

2. Pittsburgh was hoping they’d resolve their  quarterback controversy - would it be Mitch Trubisky or Mason Rudolph?  Fortunately for them, it was down to those two, since it was obvious to everybody that Number One draft pick Kenny Pickett wasn’t ready.  And then, after Trubisky and Rudolph had both had good outings, in came Pickett and set the Pittsburgh crowd on fire - going five-for-five and a touchdown on his first drive as a pro. All told, he was 13 of 15 for 95 yards and two TDs.

3. Based on their  showing against the Steelers, the Seahawks’ defense really sucks, but one encouraging thing was the play of free-agent rookie linebacker Joel Dublanko, from Cincinnati.  Joel is from Aberdeen, Washington, where he played for the Bobcats before spending a year at IMG Academy in Florida.

4. The Washington Deadskins, in dire need of something to excite their fans, brought rookie QB Sam Howell in at halftime.  They were down, 20-6, but in his one half of play, the former North Carolina Tarheel  completed nine of 16  for 145 yards, and rushed for two TDs. And he threw for a two-point conversion to give the whatevers a 21-20 lead.  (Not his fault that they blew the game to the Panthers.)


*********** Remember all  that “Hawk Tackling” crap we were deluged with back seven or eight years ago,  when the master huckster himself, Petey Carroll, was promoting it as the way to save our game? It should have been named “Hoax Tackling,” and it was on full display Saturday when the Seahoax played the Steelers.  Coach Petey’s team put on one of the worst exhibitions of tackling I’ve ever seen, and for the NFL, that’s saying a lot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1etzT-Cgho


*********** When I was working with the Portland Thunder of the World Football League, one of our better (and better-known) players was Rufus “Roadrunner” Ferguson. While at Wisconsin, he had set a new school rushing record and had twice been named All-Big Ten.

He was a very good football player, and a nice guy with a bubbly personality, too.  Very good man overall.  But he was extremely private and reluctant to deal with the media, and since I was in charge of PR, it was a bit frustrating at times to have one of our most marketable players refuse to give out his home phone (there were no cell phones then) to the sports guys.  But those were his wishes and we honored them.

My son recently sent me a link to  Rufus’ son Radi’s wikipedia  site.  Radi Ferguson, it seems, is a very well-known martial arts practitioner and instructor.  And one of Radi’s cousins was a famous “street  fighter” (I have to confess I don’t know what that is) named Kimbo Slice.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhadi_Ferguson
 


***********  A pretty cool site for looking up college football scores from the past - in some cases, the DISTANT past…

http://www.jhowell.net/cf/scores/ScoresIndex.htm


*********** Armando Castro and I go way back, to when I first started NEWS YOU CAN USE, back in the late 90s, and we’ve become good friends over the years.  He has had great success as a  youth coach running my Double Wing, and he spent a little time coaching high school ball in his adopted town of Roanoke, Virginia.  (A native Cuban - and 100 per cent American - he grew up in Miami and served on the police force there, and loves the Hurricanes.)  Like so many guys I know, he’d still be coaching, but sometimes the pressures of the real job get in the way.  Nevertheless, he still keeps a hand in the game, and when he doesn’t show up at one of my Zoom clinics, he knows he can expect to hear from me.  Here was his pushback after missing last Tuesday…

Yes sir - need to be excused again. Hopefully this won’t affect my starting position. Coach all these players I grew up watching and imitating are going fast.   Well the good Lord said it will be but a vapor. I always thought when I would look at the old cops, “ Man if I reach their age life is a cruise.” Well I’m their age and busier than a one-legged man in an ass kicking contest, as the saying goes. I appreciate you putting the Zoom  up to see. I used to love the wildcat - the rec league and junior league defenses couldn’t find the ball. But the geniuses in high school thought it was too rec league. (One time in JV I put in the 47xx and scored first time we ran it. Love it).

My love to you and Connie.

Armando

***********  Coach:

Thanks for the Sam Hartman story. He ran quite an offense last season, but I also recall he had a pretty good understudy. Best wishes to Sam. All true fans hope he can return sometime this season, but only if he knows he's ready.

Also thanks for the Whole Foods CEO's comments. I can't believe, however, that he didn't know the answer, which you and Mr. Watkins explained perfectly.

John Vermillion
St. Petersburg, Florida


*********** Hugh,

I can tell you from experience how exciting it is to be part of a budding football program at the collegiate level.  I hope all those schools you listed will become successful in football, and that the game will lend some growth to the schools in general.

That Big 10 deal with CBS and NBC simply laid the groundwork for Notre Dame to consider joining the Big 10 when that time comes.  However...keep in mind what Jack Swarbrick recently pointed out, and what I have been saying for awhile now.  Three issues hold the most importance for ND football.  Media deal.  Road to the national championship.  ND Olympic sports teams.  ALL 3 must be met, not just one, or two, but ALL three!

Praying for Sam Hartman.  Watched him play a couple of games last year.  Kid is really good!

So today we hear AG Garland admit he approved the raid on former President Trump's residence.  That's FOUR DAYS after it happened!   In four days hundreds of FBI people can go through those 15 boxes of material pretty darn fast.  Me thinks they didn't find anything.   Hmmm.
QUIZ:  Tommy Frazier (I believe if Scott Frost would only look back at Tommy Frazier's Nebraska's success in football, he would go back to the future by running an option based offense).  


Enjoy the weekend!

Joe Gutilla
Austin, Texas

Joe, Agree with you on Scott Frost/Tommie Frazier.   But as precarious as Frost’s position is now, it would be seen as a desperation move and the media - and other recruiters - would have a field day with it.
 

*********** QUIZ ANSWER:  Tommie Frazier is one of the greatest college  quarterbacks of all time.  He was the  quarterback - the guy who made things go - for back-to-back national  champions, including perhaps the most dominant college football team of all time, the 1995 Nebraska Cornhuskers.

He was recruited to Nebraska out of Palmetto, Florida, and in games which he started, Nebraska went 33-3.

In his freshman year, he had earned a  starting spot by the sixth game. In nine games,  seven of which were starts,  he was responsible for 17 touchdowns - 10 passing and seven rushing - and was named  Big-Eight Freshman of the Year.

In his three seasons as an  upperclassman, he was named the MVP of the national title game all three years. No one else has ever  accomplished  that feat.  He  even won it the one game (out of three) that his team didn’t win.

That was his first one, at the end of his sophomore year. His Cornhuskers lost in the Orange Bowl to Charlie Ward and the Florida State Seminoles, 18-16, when they missed a  field goal with 0:00 on the  clock.

In the second one, although he had missed much of the season because of a blood clotting problem, he came into the game in the second half and led a comeback that brought Nebraska from a 17-7 deficit to a 24-17 Orange Bowl win over Miami.

In his third one, a 62-24  shellacking of Florida in the Fiesta Bowl, he rushed for 195 yards - including one of the greatest runs of all  time - a 75-yard touchdown run in which he broke seven tackles.  In addition, he threw for 105 yards.

After his senior year, he was the consensus All-American quarterback.  He won the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award, and  was runner-up to Eddie George in the Heisman Trophy balloting.

NFL teams, understandably wary of his blot clot issues, passed him over in the draft, and in desperation he took the only  offer he had and signed with Montreal of the CFL. He appeared in just one game, and less than a week later was hospitalized with pneumonia.  Complications set in when he was administered blood thinners to try to deal with his clotting.  When he was given his release by the team, he chose to retire.

He spent some time in athletic development at Nebraska, then assisted at Baylor before becoming head coach at Nebraska’s Doane College.

From coaching, he went into the construction business in Omaha.

Tommie Frazier is in the College Football Hall of Fame and his Number 15 has been retired by Nebraska.


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING TOMMIE FRAZIER

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
JOE GUTILLA - AUSTIN, TEXAS
JOHN IRION - ARGYLE, NEW YORK
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
TOM WALLS - WINNIPEG, MANITOBA
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY



***********  QUIZ:  He was a quarterback in high school and in college and for much of his NFL career,  but partly to take advantage of his multiple skills - throwing, running, receiving - and partly to relieve a logjam at the quarterback position, he started out with the Pittsburgh Steelers playing a combination of positions,  which earned him his nickname.

He was from Marrero, Louisiana, a suburb of New Orleans.

At Colorado, playing for Bill McCartney, he set all kinds of schools records as a quarterback.  In his  first start as a sophomore, a 37-17 win over Colorado State, he threw  for a school-record 409 yards and  tied the school record for four TD passes in a game.  His 430 yards total offense broke a 24-year-old school record by 77 yards.

Combining his passing with the Buffs’ option attack, in his three seasons of eligibility at CU he led them to two top-ten finishes.  In his senior year, the Buffaloes finished 11-1 and he was named second team All-American.

Drafted in the second round by the Steelers,   he spent his first two seasons in the NFL playing  quarterback/receiver/running back - mostly the latter two - and got his nickname from famed Pittsburgh announcer Myron Cope, after the character used to separate the three different positions.

In his third year, 1997,  he got the starting QB job, and the Steelers went 11-5 and made it to the AFC championship game.

In 1998 and 1999 the Steelers missed the playoffs.

In 2000 he lost the starting job to Kent Graham and after Graham was injured, he took over a 1-3 team and led it to a 9-7 record, barely missing the playoffs.

In 2001, with a new QB coach in Tom Clements, he had his best year, throwing for more than 3,000 yards and 14  touchdowns as the Steelers finished 13-3. They made it to the AFC championship game, and he was named Steelers MVP. 

The next year, 2002, he began the season as the starter, but lost  the job after three games to Tommy Maddox.

Signed after the season as a free agent by the Bears, he played in nine games in 2003 but was released at the end of the season.

In two final seasons as a backup QB with the Baltimore Ravens, he never threw a pass in an NFL game.

In his NFL career, he threw for 14,746 yards and 77 touchdowns.  He rushed for 2,874 yards and 38 touchdowns.




FRIDAY,  AUGUST 12, 2022 - “If you want a happy ending, that depends, of course, on where you stop your story.” Orson Welles

*********** According to a release from the National Football Foundation, “football remains strong,” with 30 colleges adding the sport in the last six years, and six more programs coming on stream in the next  three years.

 IRVING, Texas – The National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame (NFF) highlighted today that football remains strong on campuses across the country as the number of four-year colleges and universities from all NCAA divisions, the NAIA and independents offering football currently stands at 774.

Since 1978 when the NCAA changed its method for tracking attendance figures, the number of schools playing NCAA football (FBS, FCS, DII and DIII) has steadily increased by 181 schools from 484 in 1978 to 665 in 2021. Adding NAIA and independent schools playing football and schools launching programs in the coming years, there are now 774 four-year colleges and universities offering students an opportunity to play college football.
 
There are also 125 junior college football programs, 15 collegiate sprint football teams and 16 NAIA women's flag football programs.
 
In the past six seasons alone (2016-21), 30 football programs have been added by NCAA, NAIA or independent institutions. All 774 schools that offer football will be represented on the three-story helmet wall at the Chick-fil-A College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta.
 
Universities and colleges are adding football at all levels, and administrators have developed sound plans, ensuring the new programs address the unique financial, academic and long-term objectives of their respective schools.
 
"No other sport contributes more to the vibrancy of a college campus than football, and we are very pleased to highlight those schools that have added our great game," said NFF President & CEO Steve Hatchell.

"University and college presidents clearly see the value of having programs on their campuses, and we applaud them for understanding the role football can play in the educational experience of all their students."
 
The rationale for adding football varies at each institution, and all of the decision makers, who helped develop a plan for launching a program, explain that an in-depth study played a critical role in finding the right level of play and the proper financial balance. Small colleges may cite increasing enrollment and addressing gender imbalances while larger universities might highlight the role of football in raising the institution's profile and its ability to attract research grants. All mention creating a more vibrant on-campus community and connecting with alumni.
 
"With more than one million high school students playing football, there is plenty of room for expansion of the game at the collegiate level," said NFF Chairman Archie Manning. "Many of these colleges clearly recognize that football can play an important role in encouraging students to continue their educations by enticing them to enroll."
 
According to a 2015 study of five small universities published in College Planning & Management by Virginia Wesleyan University President Dr. Scott Miller and former Carlow University (PA) President Dr. Marylouise Fennell, adding sports teams and facilities, especially football and marching bands, can fuel an enrollment boost. The study found that each of the five institutions experienced a six-year increase of 26 percent or more, with one school doubling its enrollment during that period.
 

Six Programs Launching in Future Seasons
 
    •    Eastern University (St. Davids, Pennsylvania): NCAA Division III, Middle Atlantic Conference (2023) – President Ronald A. Matthews, Athletics Director Eric McNelley, Head Coach Billy Crocker.
 
    •    Thomas University (Thomasville, Georgia): NAIA, Sun Conference (2023) – President James Sheppard, Athletics Director Rick Pearce, Head Coach Orlando Mitjans.
 
    •    Anderson University (Anderson, South Carolina): NCAA Division II, South Atlantic Conference (2024) – President Evans P. Whitaker, Vice President for Athletics Bert Epting, Head Coach Bobby Lamb.
 
    •    Centenary College of Louisiana (Shreveport, Louisiana): NCAA Division III, Conference TBD (2024) – President Christopher L. Holoman, Athletics Director David Orr, Head Coach Byron Dawson.
 
    •    University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (Rio Grande Valley, Texas): NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision, Western Athletic Conference (2025) – President Guy Bailey, Vice President and Athletics Director Chasse Conque, Head Coach TBD.
 
    •    West Virginia University Institute of Technology (Beckley, West Virginia): NAIA, Conference TBD (Date TBD) – President Carolyn Long, Athletics Director Kenneth Howell, Head Coach TBD.

*********** To think that there are still people out there who pay Marshawn Lynch to sell  their products.  Scary to think it might be because there are  so many  people out there who aspire to be just like him.

https://thespun.com/more/top-stories/breaking-former-nfl-star-marshawn-lynch-arrested-tuesday


*********** Stewart Mandel in The Athletic…

ESPN losing the Big Ten is the best news Pac-12 fans have received since … I’m struggling to think of the last time there was good Pac-12 news. Negotiations are already underway for its next deal, and suddenly ESPN has cash to burn and time slots to fill. Also: It now has incentive to make a strong enough offer to perhaps convince Oregon/Washington/Stanford to sign at least a short-term Grant of Rights. It would not be ideal for ESPN to lose more programs to a conference it no longer holds any rights to.

The Big 12 should benefit too. However, as much as Big 12 fans hate me pointing this out, its deal is not up for another year. There may not be as many choice time slots left. Both conferences, however, would be smart to move some of their better games to Thursday and Friday nights, where there’s less competition and fewer power leagues willing to do so.

*********** Also Mandel...

Washington State’s Cam Ward may be your best bet for the (Joe) Burrow-type transfer who takes people by storm. He comes from FCS Incarnate Ward, where he threw for 4,648 yards, 47 TDs and 10 INTs for a playoff team last season. Notably, his head coach there, Mike Leach protégé Eric Morris, is now Washington State’s offensive coordinator. I’d expect him to put up big number in Pullman, though recent WSU QB history suggests his best way to get noticed is to grow a mustache.

*********** The remaining members of the Big 12 had mixed feelings about losing Texas.  Sure,  it’s going to cost them a lot of revenue, but offsetting that was ridding themselves of one major pain in the ass. 

On that same note,  it’s fair to say that not everybody in the Pac-12 is going to be completely sorry to see USC hit the road.

They brought 2021 to an end by poaching  another school’s coach.

And shortly thereafter, that coach, Lincoln Riley,  poached his former school’s quarterback and then convinced Pitt’s Biletnikoff-Award receiver to join them in L.A.

Then Riley, although USC sits right in the middle of some of the most fertile recruiting territory in the country, really got to work on the transfer portal -  now that they’re in camp, the Trojans have 24 transfer players on their roster.

“This probably won’t be the way we build our roster in the future,” he said.  “Because of the circumstances we were in when we came here, and because of the opportunities afforded to us, we felt that getting players in the transfer portal was the best way to get us to where we want to be. In the future I think we will look more traditional. “

Yeah, maybe.  But if I were in the Big Ten with USC coming in, I’d hide the silverware, because of their 24 transfers, eight of them are from  Pac-12 schools.

Would you be sorry to see a bunch like that leave your conference?


***********  Vandergrift is a small town in Western Pennsylvania, just far enough away from Pittsburgh that it can’t be called a suburb.

Like so many towns in Western P-A, it’s turned out a few decent football players, even if most of them were from the days when Vandergrift’s steel mills were going full blast. 

John Mastrangelo was an All-American lineman at Notre Dame in the 1940s and went on to play for the Steelers; Frank Spaniel was  an outstanding running back for the Irish at about the same time and played briefly for the Redskins;  Lou Palatella was a great lineman at Pitt in the 1950s and played a couple of years for the 49ers;  Paul Lopata, who was a senior at Yale when I was a freshman, was an All-East end.

Fortunately for one young mother and her 10-month-old little boy, there’s still football in Vandergrift.

While a youth team was practicing recently, the team’s coach, Kristian Clayton, (pictured at  left) heard a woman screaming that her baby wasn’t breathing.

He sprinted to where the woman was holding the baby and, having served as a medic in the Air Force, he went into action immediately.

The little fella had swallowed a plastic bottle cap, and when Clayton was able finally to dislodge it,  the baby immediately commenced screaming, to everyone’s great relief.

“He saved my baby’s life. Oh God, he definitely saved his life,” the grateful mother said.  “He was limp, not moving.”

It was only by sheer happenstance that Coach Clayton  and his team happened to be there at that time: normally  they would have been practicing in the evening, but this week the field was being used at that time by other teams.


https://triblive.com/local/valley-news-dispatch/vandergrift-mom-credits-youth-football-coach-with-saving-her-babys-life/


*********** Of all the college conferences, the ACC may have the best collection of  quarterback prospects.

Check out this list of definite NFL prospects:

Brennan Armstrong, Virginia
Malik Cunningham, Louisville
Phil Jurkovic, Boston College
Devin Leary, NC State
Tyler Van Dyke, Miami

Tyler Buchner of Notre Dame (if he’s even their starter) could make the list.  So could Florida State’s Jordan Travis.  Syracuse’s Garrett Shrader might slip in there, too, as might Pitt’s Keadon Slovis.  Clemson hasn’t decided yet, and North Carolina has to find a replacement for Sam Howell.  Hard to say about the Techs - Georgia and Virginia. Duke? Who knows?
The best of the bunch, though,  might be Wake Forest’s Sam Hartman, which is why it was so stunning to hear that he had undergone a “medical procedure” after practice Tuesday, and as a result would be out of football for “an extended period of time.”

Everything has been very hush-hush, as if we were talking about the medical condition of a Russian president, and as a result those of us who defy convention that says we shouldn’t speculate, go ahead and do so anyhow.

I’ve read in a couple of stories that whatever it was, it wasn’t “football-related,” and that set off alarms for me..

Here’s why…

First watch this  (it's from College Gameday last season)…

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=616973126344698

Now, read on… (This was written late last season)

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Sam Hartman is looking for the correct myth to make his point.
Is it Sisyphus and the boulder?

No.

Is it Atlas holding up the heavens?

No.

Is it Icarus flying too high?

That’s the one.

The Wake Forest quarterback is explaining why Icarus needed a weight. “It’s a ball and chain that keeps you humble,” Hartman says. “To keep you from falling off this earth.”

Had Icarus had one of those, Hartman explains, he could have tested out his wings. But he wouldn’t have melted them by flying too close to the sun. He wouldn’t have fallen. Hartman has such a weight in his life. It does keep him humble. It does keep him from floating away and subsequently crashing down. But in the past six months, Hartman has come to understand that if he isn’t careful, that weight can drag him into a place just as bad as where Icarus wound up after he crashed.

Because earlier this year, Hartman started seeing a therapist. A football mentor — Hartman declines to reveal that person’s identity publicly out of respect for their privacy — told Hartman therapy could extend his career and generally improve his life. Hartman, raised in football to bury the bad, to suck it up and keep moving, to keep his feelings to himself, wasn’t so sure. Then he found himself in an office once or twice a week and it all came pouring out. His fears. His anxieties. The weight.

Hartman understands some people will read this and judge him. He doesn’t care. Because Hartman also knows that if someone reads about his experience and asks for help, then that person’s life can improve. Though the sport is changing, Hartman knows most people raised around football traditionally have been steered away from discussing their feelings. As a football player and the son of Mark Hartman, Sam grew up believing there wasn’t a problem that couldn’t be solved by trying harder to be perfect. “My dad is a surgeon. So you’ve got to be perfect,” Sam says. “He works on spines, so you’ve got to be more perfect.” Even when his mom Lisa suggested years ago that her boys talk to someone if they needed to unload some emotional baggage, Sam thought he should just push it down and keep going. But the past few months have taught him he couldn’t have kept that up much longer.

If he can go to therapy and then tear up the ACC through the air, then Hartman can help that stigma fade. In the long term, maybe he can learn how to process his own trauma so that he doesn’t pass along the bury-it-deep model he previously embraced to his future children. In the short term, the sessions have helped Hartman have his best collegiate season. Through 11 games, he has thrown for 3,475 yards and 31 touchdowns and helped Wake Forest to a 9-2 record. If he can lead the Demon Deacons to a win Saturday against Boston College, they’ll earn their first berth in the ACC championship since 2006.

“It’s a science project,” Hartman says. “My body I know pretty well. I’ve been training for football since I was 6. I’ve been training my mind for six months.”

Hartman started seeing his therapist to talk about some of the football issues that nagged at his mind. He hated the way he played in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl to end last season. The score was tied at 21 late in the third quarter when Hartman started a nightmare stretch that included four interceptions in fewer than eight minutes of game time. The final pick ended with Hartman tackling Wisconsin linebacker Collin Wilder at the Wake Forest 3-yard line.
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Nine seconds after that play ended, Wisconsin had a three-touchdown lead and would roll to a 42-28 win. Needless to say, there was plenty to unpack from that game, and that’s why it had gnawed at Hartman all the way through spring practice.

But as Hartman and his therapist talked, they tunneled closer to a root problem. Hartman buried trauma and tried to ignore it. So when he struggled to move past those interceptions in a football game named after a condiment, it was most likely because he struggled to process all of the traumas in his past. That included one that loomed over all the others— the weight that could keep him tethered or sink him.

‘The guy I wanted to make proud’

Sometime in the late aughts, Demitri Allison rode his bicycle to a youth football practice led by coach Chad Grier. “I’m supposed to be playing for you,” the elementary schooler said. After the practice, no one came to pick up Demitri. Grier took him home and learned the kid lived at the end of a dead-end road across from a cemetery with an elderly grandmother who was on dialysis. She was doing her best, but the boy needed more. Various families — including Grier’s — helped through the years. When Grier became the offensive coordinator at Southlake Christian in Huntersville, N.C., he asked the administration if Demitri could come to school there as well. Grier knew the Hartmans because he had coached Sam and his older brother Joe in various sports through the years, and now Demitri would be going to school with their boys. Grier’s oldest son Will played quarterback at Florida and West Virginia and now plays for the Dallas Cowboys. His younger sons, Hayes and Nash, became social media celebrities in high school and now make a living as influencers. But back then, the Hartmans and the Griers were family friends united through sports. And when Mark and Lisa met Demitri, they wanted to help provide a more stable life for him. Starting in early high school, Demitri began staying a few days at a time at the Hartmans’ home in Davidson, N.C. Sam and Joe were in middle school. After a while, Demitri just stayed. He simply became the oldest Hartman brother. Sam looked up to Demetri, who made him laugh, who gave him advice, who ran routes for him in the backyard. “He was my hero,” Sam Hartman says. “He was the guy I wanted to make proud.”

Wearing No. 10, Demitri played receiver at Southlake Christian. He went to Elon University to play football, and by all accounts he led a happy, productive life there. But in November 2015 — when Demitri was a junior — he disappeared. Friends and family called police to help find him. Lisa got him on the phone. He told her he loved her, and that was the last time they spoke. On Nov. 11, 2015, Demitri was found dead after falling from a 10th-story window on the North Carolina campus in Chapel Hill — 36 miles to the southeast of Elon. Police ruled his death a suicide.

When news reached the Hartmans, teammates and coaches began coming by to offer support. Joe stayed near them. Sam remained out on the family dock, alone. Lisa says Sam can be “the center of the party” when he wants. He’s one of those people who can talk to anyone. But the extrovert side is only a piece of his personality. “The reality of it is that Sam is much more guarded,” Lisa says. “He likes being alone. He can be alone forever.”

Two days after Demitri’s death, Sam switched his jersey number to 10 and led Davidson Day to a 31-14 win against Charlotte Latin to claim a state title. He’d been told he didn’t need to play if he didn’t want to. Lisa says he never considered not playing. He swallowed the grief and plowed ahead.

In the months following Demitri’s death, Lisa would ask Sam if he needed to talk. He’d turn her concern back on her. “He had a stiff upper lip,” Lisa says. “It’s one of those things where I remember saying, ‘Someday, if you ever want to talk about this … And he’d say ‘You too, mom.’” Lisa thinks Sam bottled up those feelings out of a sense of duty. “He had to be really strong about it,” she says. “Because there were some people who didn’t handle it as well and had a big struggle. So I always wondered. Where is that? How far down is it? When is it going to come up?”

Lisa feared that it might bubble up in an unhealthy way. And Sam believes it did at times. Instead of talking out issues with teammates in high school or at Wake Forest, he might get surly or withdraw. But until he started therapy, he thought that was a normal response.

Lisa knew it wasn’t. Shortly after she had Joe and Sam, she took up tennis. She had a friend who had played in college who gave her lessons, and she loved learning the game. Nothing felt better than mastering a shot in practice. When she got proficient in practice, she decided to join a league. That’s when the trouble began. Even in an adult recreational league, she couldn’t tame her nerves before matches. Once, she took her pulse. It pounded at 140 beats per minute. The same friend who taught her tennis suggested Lisa see a therapist to discuss her nerves.

In an early session, Lisa suggested she simply quit trying to play competitively. The therapist responded by drawing a Venn diagram on a whiteboard. Tennis intersected with parenting and with relationships and with all of Lisa’s other duties. “It’s coming out in tennis right now,” Lisa remembers being told. “But I promise you it’s going to come out somewhere else if you don’t figure out what it is.” After working through her own issues, Lisa decided not to quit. That next season, she went undefeated.

So she was thrilled when Sam took that mentor’s advice and began talking through his own issues. Sam has worked to learn to process the big-picture traumas (such as Demitri’s death) and the little-picture ones (throwing off his back foot on one rep in practice). “Sam is his own worst critic,” Grier says. “I don’t know if it’s good or bad.” Sam has learned that if he can talk through his feelings after one of those smaller incidents, they don’t fester and become something bigger later. “I don’t want people to think that I don’t care when I make mistakes,” he said. “But if you care so much that you make six more mistakes, no one cares if you do care.” As for the bigger issues, he’s learning that they’ll always be a part of them. He needs to work to focus them in a healthier direction. “Things like that you really can’t flush,” Sam says. “It’s turned into ‘How do I use it?’” So instead of the boulder that sinks him, it’s the weight that keeps him grounded. “That’s my thing that holds me,” Sam says. And then he thinks of Demitri. “He didn’t have one,” he says.

Sam has needed that weight lately. The week of the NC State game coincided with the sixth anniversary of Demitri’s death. He went to therapy twice. “None of it was about football,” he says. “But still it helps. It’s about grieving. It’s about relationships. It’s all intertwined.” And it has helped Hartman’s football life along with everything else. Grier, who coached Hartman through high school, has seen a different player this season. “You can see it when you watch games,” Grier says. “I can see in between plays that his demeanor is so calm. When things don’t go just right, there’s no drama. It used to be that when he threw a pick, it would eat at him. He didn’t throw many, but they really bothered him. Now he processes it and moves on.”


This month has brought fresh challenges for a player who grew up uncomfortable being complimented because he feared accepting kind words meant he didn’t care about fixing any mistakes he made. “You did a good job, but…” was Sam’s default thought. In the past month, Sam’s name started appearing in Heisman Trophy odds. He appeared on watch lists for other awards.  That’s a lot of “You did a good job.” Sam’s mind kept looking for the “but.” “I’ve been miserable,” he says.

Even though his arms and legs are covered in the FieldTurf version of road rash from crashing into the turf and from getting pounded by opposing defenders, Sam worries that if he even slightly acknowledges these compliments, his teammates will think he’s more concerned about individual awards than team success. He worries that strangers will think he put himself above the team. But when he talks it through, it helps. His teammates love him because he’s worked alongside them. He’s bled with them. If he wins an award, no one will resent that. His teammates would be proud.

Sam’s therapist has encouraged him to plant regular reminders to keep himself centered. He carries most of his tension in his shoulders. During a conversation, he has his arms crossed and his shoulders cocked back — pulling everything up. “She’d be all over me for that,” he says with a laugh. And he breathes. And the shoulders drop into their normal position. The breathing is critical. Sam has programmed his phone to regularly remind him to breathe.

His phone also reminds him to “block the bullies.” Who are the bullies? The star QB on an ACC campus doesn’t exactly have some modern-day Biff Tannen trying to shove him into a locker. For Sam, the bully is his own inner voice, which frequently sounds like a football coach from a bygone era. “It’s one of those deals where everyone has one,” Sam says. “Mine is wired to berate me. That was really bad my whole life until this summer. That was my biggest focus.”

Sam would love an inner voice that sounds like Demon Deacons coach Dave Clawson. He wants to work toward a mentality similar to Clawson’s. The coach rarely allows outside circumstances to dictate his mood. “He’s the same guy whether we win by 60 or lose by 60,” Sam says.

The Deacs have done a lot more winning than losing this season. They need to bounce back from a 48-27 loss at Clemson last week, but a win Saturday at Boston College would cement this team’s place in history. Hartman will have more decisions to make later. Because of the free year of eligibility the NCAA granted all athletes in 2020, he’s officially a redshirt sophomore even though this is his fourth year in college and his third year as Wake Forest’s starter. He could conceivably play two more seasons in college. Or he could head to the NFL, where his skill set could make him one of the top QB prospects in the 2022 draft. He’d rather not even think about that now. All he wants to do next week is prepare to face Pittsburgh in Charlotte on Dec. 4. To do that, Sam and his teammates will have to win in Chestnut Hill.

If they do, more compliments will come. He’ll have to deal with those. More pressure will come. More attention will come, but that could produce more positives. Tennessee Titans coach Mike Vrabel saw the College GameDay story on Sam and Demitri and shared it with his team with the hope that players would be more willing to talk if they need help with mental issues or anxiety.

Sam hopes word of the strides he has made in therapy also will reach other football players. He wants them to know it won’t make them weak. Quite the contrary. Therapy has made Sam Hartman a better quarterback and a better leader. He believes it also has made him a better man.

He won’t shy away from talking about all of that now. He knows the weight won’t drag him down.

It will keep him exactly where he needs to be.

https://theathletic.com/2976631/2021/11/25/how-therapy-has-made-wake-forests-sam-hartman-a-better-quarterback-a-better-leader-and-a-better-man/?source=emp_shared_article

Maybe it’s  nothing big at all, but I pray for the kid.  I think  he’s a hell of a football player and I’ve been looking forward to watching him play this season, but his health and well-being are more important than football.  And I pray for his coaches and teammates because this has to be brutal for them.  I’m sure they’re even more worried about Sam than I am,   but I also feel so bad for them, knowing how talented they are and how high their hopes have been for this season.


https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/34378493/wake-forest-demon-deacons-qb-sam-hartman-indefinitely-non-football-illness

https://www.wxii12.com/article/wake-forest-footballs-sam-hartman-out-indefinitely-medical-condition/40857957


***********   Whole Foods co-founder CEO John Mackey, soon to retire as CEO,  noted  the problems the company, like so many others,  has had hiring people, and blamed some of it on the unemployment benefits resulting from the pandemic: “A lot of people were making as much money, if not more money, not working at all. And so guess what? They chose not to come back to work. They got used to it.”

But there’s more, and it’s something teachers and  coaches have been observing:  “the younger generation … don’t seem to want to work.”

“They only want to work,” he says,  “if it’s really purposeful, and (something) they feel aligned to,” he said,  especially so in major cities, which tend to be Democratic.

Unfortunately, he said, “You can’t hope to start with meaningful work.  You’re going to have to earn it over time.   Some of the younger generation doesn’t seem to be willing to pay that price, and I don’t know why.”

Well, Mr. Mackey, maybe I can help you there.

Let’s see…

You’re special…
There’s no one like you…
You can make a  difference…
You can change the world…
You can be anything you want to be…
You’re a great artist/writer/singer/athlete!
Here’s your trophy for showing up!
Here’s your  A+ for turning in the work!

Maybe the best comment  on this topic is something I came across in the obituary of a gentleman named Hays Watkins, who died recently at the age of 96.

Mr. Watkins, who came out of a small town in Kentucky, went to what is now Western Kentucky University  and  then, right out of college,  took a job with the C & O (Chesapeake and Ohio) Railroad.  Working his way up in the company, he helped the C & O merge with the B & O (Baltimore and Ohio) into the “Chessie System,” and he was instrumental in the merger of the Chessie System with the Seaboard Coast Line into what is now the transportation giant CSX.   He retired in 1991 as CSX’s Chairman and CEO.

Once asked about his career path, he said something that runs  in the complete opposite direction of today’s hyper-ambitious, I-can-change-the-world career orientation:

 “Everyone would be better off, I believe, if they simply concentrated on doing their very best and then basically let nature take its course. “

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uE4-rw472NQ



***********  Wrote David Hookstead in Outback…

Big Ten fans should be popping bottles of champagne celebrating the conference’s new media deal.

The powerhouse athletic conference is nearing a final deal with CBS and NBC that will pay the B1G roughly $700 million annually on top of an unknown amount from Fox as the conference’s premier partner.

Overall, the total revenue from the B1G’s new media deal will easily exceed $1 billion annually.

Could somebody please tell me why that means Big Ten FANS should be popping bottles of champagne?

Never mind.  The author went on to tell us.

“All of our teams are about to get substantially richer, and that’s never a bad thing in an ever evolving era of college sports.”

Oh.


*********** As I write this, it’s 12:10 - just after  noon - on Thursday.  The Attorney General of the United States, we had been informed, was  to address the people of the United States at 11:30.

He started speaking at about 12:05 - 35 minutes late - and it’s 12:10 and he’s already done.

So we football coaches work our asses off, trying to instill in our players the importance of showing respect for others and for the mission by being on time,  and Merrick Garland, the top law enforcement official in our nation, disrespects our work and the notion of punctuality, not to mention the time of the American people, by showing up 35 minutes late.

What an arrogant turd.

*********** I can’t believe it was intentional, because otherwise it was cruel to use this photo of Taylor Martinez when it was time to mention him in a highlights film



*********** In my Zoom  clinic Tuesday night, one of the things I covered was  the approach to the Double Wing jet sweep (“rocket reach” in my terminology) developed by a coach named Mike Emery.

Coach Emery was a very good coach. At Fitch High, in Groton, Connecticut,  his teams won state  titles in 1999 and 2000  and made it to the  state  finals a third time.  He was a Double-Winger, and one of his  staple plays was the jet sweep.  In fact, the success he was having with that play finally convinced me that I needed to have my wingbacks lined up squared to the line of scrimmage,  just like he was doing, rather than turned to the inside at 45 degrees. (For the record, it  was  2003 when I finally made that change.)

Mike’s thinking on the jet sweep was pretty revolutionary: recognizing that the play got to the edge so quickly that the only blocks that really mattered were the ones by the playside tight end and wingback, he had everybody  else block  for the trap - the complementary play that was being faked by the  quarterback and the B-Back after  the QB made the handoff.

I have seldom run the play(s), not because they’re not good, but simply because of  my aversion to overload:  I can’t find  more practice time, so adding a play means I’ll have to give it reps at the expense of some other play.  Generally speaking, if given a choice between cramming in one more rep of a  staple play or giving that rep to a play I hadn’t run before,  I’d be likely to run that  staple play one more time.  But that’s me, and that’s not saying that if things were going fairly well, I wouldn’t rep the  rocket reach just enough that we might look at it once or twice in  a game just to see what might happen.
 



*********** What's wrong with your "Time-In" idea? Nothing, seems to me. Over the years you've come up with good ideas--better, in my opinion, than the various rules committees are prone to produce--so I've wondered whether you've found a means of funnelling those ideas to them?


It's good to know a half-dozen or so state fish and game commissions employ the Karelian bear dogs (Glacier National is among the parks using them).

John Vermillion
St. Petersburg, Florida

If the NFL won’t consider ideas because they come from the colleges (overtime) and the CFL (a wider  field) I rather doubt they’d be interested in anything coming from a guy who thinks the NFL sucks.

*********** Hugh,

One of the high schools where I worked (in Ohio) removed their grass field for an artificial surface.  They started the transition in March by removing the existing field.  By April they were ready to install the new surface.  A late spring snowstorm postponed the install.  By the end of April they were back at work.  We played on the new turf field in late August for our first game.  But...that's Ohio...not Washington.

The PAC 12 will stick together for a couple more years before being swallowed up by the BIG 12 regardless of alumni bases.  There are obviously thousands of ASU fans located in the west in general who will get to see their Sun Devils.

The DW is alive and well in many parts of this country, just not an overwhelming number of them.

They're our rivals, but aside from the Notre Dame fight song there are few others that can stir emotions like Michigan's fight song.

Have a great week!

Joe Gutilla
Austin, Texas

Joe, I like Notre Dame’s and Michigan’s.  And Michigan State’s.  And Ohio State’s (both of them - "Buckeye Battle Cry "and "Across the Field"). You get the idea. I like ‘em all.  I like some better than others, but I could never make a list of favorites.  It would be too long. Besides, who isn’t tired of worthless lists?  What’s really cool about college songs  is how many have interesting stories behind them.



*********** QUIZ ANSWER:  Eddie Crowder was born in Arkansas City, Kansas, but was raised in Muskogee, Okla., where he quarterbacked his high school team to the state championship his senior year. 

At, Oklahoma he was a freshman on the Sooners’ first-ever national championship team in 1950.
 
He started at quarterback the next two seasons for the Sooners, as they went 8-2 and  8-1-1.  One of his best games was against against Colorado his junior year, when he threw for four touchdowns  - three of them in the first quarter - in dealing the Buffaloes their only conference loss of the season. Running the Oklahoma split-T offense, he rushed for 54 yards on just six carries, and completed six of seven attempts for 185 yards (and the four touchdowns). 

He was named All-America and All-Big Seven his senior year, and although drafted by the Giants, a pro career was prevented by an injury to his throwing arm  Often called the “master of deception," he was drafted by the New York Giants in 1953, but because of a nerve problem in his arm he passed up signing and instead fulfilled a military commitment  with the Army Corps of Engineers. While in the Army, he played service ball, quarterbacking the Fort Hood team in 1953 and coaching the backfield in 1954.

In 1955, he received his bachelor’s degree in Geology from Oklahoma, and, still  in the Army, was assigned to duty at West Point, where he served on Red Blaik’s Army staff.  Knowing of his college degree, Coach Blaik wrote in his memoir, “I often suggested to him that, as good as his future was in football, his future career should be with his friends in petroleum in Oklahoma. However, his leadership and dedication to the college game did not allow him to take my advice. " 

After his discharge from the army,  he spent  seven seasons (1956-62) at Oklahoma under Bud Wilkinson, his college coach.

In 1963, he was hired by Colorado as head coach, and given a four-year contract at $15,000 per year.
 
CU was 4-16 in his first two seasons, but after that the Buffaloes were  but after that they went 63-33-2 the rest of the way. His overall 11-year mark was  67-49-2 in his 11 seasons as coach.
 
He had a 3-2 mark in bowl games. In 1970 his Buffs  ended Number  4 Penn State’s 31-game unbeaten streak, and trounced Number 10 Air Force, 49-19.  They beat Number 9 LSU and Number 6 Ohio State in 1971, and in 1972  they defeated Number 2 Oklahoma.
 
In his 11-year coaching career, he defeated 10 other coaches who would go  on to be elected to the National Football Foundation College Hall of Fame..  

Nine of his players were All-Americans, 33 were All-Big Eight, five were Academic All-Americans and 37 were NFL draft picks.  Five of his last seven teams went to bowl games, two more than Colorado had had in its entire history before he took over.

In his memoirs, legendary Washington coach Don James, who spent three years as our man’s defense coordinator at Colorado, wrote, Don James - “Having come from the Southeast and then the Big 10, there was no question in my mind that in those years the Big Eight was the strongest conference in the country.

You want proof?  In 1971, Colorado finished with 10 wins for the first time its history, and the Buffs finished Number 3 in the country try, their highest-ever final ranking at the time. (The Big Eight finished 1-2-3  in the final polls: Nebraska was 13-0 and Number One; Oklahoma (Number 2) lost only to Nebraska; and  Colorado lost only to Nebraska and Oklahoma. The Buffs ended the season with a Bluebonnet Bowl win over No. 15 Houston and a 10-2 record. 

At the time of his retirement after the 1973 season, he was  the winningest CU coach since Fred Folsom left in 1915.  Several of his assistants became head coaches themselves,  Jim Mora, Don James and Jerry Claiborne the most prominent among them.

He served as athletic director at Colorado for 10 more years, during which time he oversaw three expansions of Folsom Field. He made a  good hire when he chose Bill Mallory as his successor, but he hit the jackpot when he hired  Bill McCartney.  McCartney would go on to surpass his win total, and win a national championship along the way.

When financial  setbacks  in 1980 forced CU to drop seven sports, he insisted he would not retire until the department was back on sound  footing  again, and when that was finally  accomplished, he  did retire in 1984.

He is in the State of Colorado Sports Hall of Fame and the State of Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame, as well as the University of Colorado Athletic Hall of Fame.

Eddie Crowder is not in the College Football Hall of Fame, but consider: he was 16-16 against  10 other coaches who are in the Hall of Fame: he was 5-0 against Johnny Majors, and  1-0 against Earl Bruce, Bear Bryant, Woody Hayes, Grant Teaff and Bill Yeoman. He was 1-1 against Charley McClendon and Joe Paterno.  But he was 3-5 against Dan Devine and 1-9 against Bob Devaney.

At the time of his death in 2008, here are just a few of the tributes paid to him by those who knew him best:

Bill McCartney - “I was an assistant coach that nobody ever heard of.  Eddie Crowder  saw something in me and gave me a chance.  When things didn’t work out right away, he stuck with me.  I’ll always have a debt of gratitude and a special place in my heart for him.”
 

Keith Jackson - “He always gave me the feeling that if you don’t go out and give your best, you’re selling out.  If the kids didn’t go out and play their hardest, they would have offended him.  That was the way he controlled his team.  He wasn’t a shouter, a yeller or a screamer.  He simply had those expectations. “

College Football Hall of Famer Bob Anderson - “I first met Coach Crowder in person when he visited our living room to recruit my brother Dick.  I hung on every word. He was complimentary, kind, thoughtful, persuasive and intelligent.  I was silently hoping that in two years he would be back to visit me.  As he left that evening he said he would be doing that.  I add to those honorable traits of his, sincerity and honesty.  I was lucky.  He came back, and more importantly for me, he stayed loyal to his commitment when I got a little confused in the whole recruiting process.
  
“Coach Crowder  is a loving Christian man. He prayed for his football teams before and after their games. He held his family, players, and close relationships in his heart. His kindness and friendship will be missed.  I love Eddie Crowder like a father and a brother. Eddie Crowder will have a relationship with God for eternity ... many of the blessings, and victories I have enjoyed in life are because of Eddie Crowder.  There is a part of the foundation of my belief system, self esteem, confidence and faith that come from the example and mentorship of Eddie Crowder.  I will always cherish our relationship.”

Pro Football Hall  of Famer Cliff Branch - “Eddie Crowder was a very good friend of mine.  He was the reason that I came to the University of Colorado.   When I came on my recruiting trip, he was up front and honest about everything the school had to offer.  Not only with football but academically and socially; he was straight with me.  He was a tremendous leader and he made me into an excellent football player.  He gave me a chance to succeed and was instrumental in me being selected by the Oakland Raiders in the NFL Draft.  He was a tremendous athlete himself and played for the great Bud Wilkinson, and he modeled himself after Bud and what he had done for him.  You could see that he had a lot of Bud Wilkinson in him in his approach and philosophy.  He was a true friend to me, and when I came back to CU every year for a game, the first person I always wanted to see was (him)  This is a sad day for me and a sad day for the entire University of Colorado.”



CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING EDDIE CROWDER


JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
JOE GUTILLA - AUSTIN, TEXAS
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY



*********** QUIZ:  He is one of the greatest college  quarterbacks of all time.  He was the  quarterback - the guy who made things go - for back-to-back national  champions, including perhaps the most dominant college football team of all time, the 1995 Nebraska Cornhuskers.

He was recruited to Nebraska out of Palmetto, Florida, and in games which he started, Nebraska went 33-3.

In his freshman year, he had earned a  starting spot by the sixth game. In nine games,  seven of which were starts,  he was responsible for 17 touchdowns - 10 passing and seven rushing - and was named  Big-Eight Freshman of the Year.

In his three seasons as an  upperclassman, he was named the MVP of the national title game all three years. No one else has ever  accomplished  that feat.  He  even won it the one game (out of three) that his team didn’t win.

That was his first one, at the end of his sophomore year. His Cornhuskers lost in the Orange Bowl to Charlie Ward and the Florida State Seminoles, 18-16, when they missed a  field goal with 0:00 on the  clock.

In the second one, although he had missed much of the season because of a blood clotting problem, he came into the game in the second half and led a comeback that brought Nebraska from a 17-7 deficit to a 24-17 Orange Bowl win over Miami.

In his third one, a 62-24  shellacking of Florida in the Fiesta Bowl, he rushed for 195 yards - including one of the greatest runs of all  time - a 75-yard touchdown run in which he broke seven tackles.  In addition, he threw for 105 yards.

After his senior year, he was the consensus All-American quarterback.  He won the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award, and  was runner-up to Eddie George in the Heisman Trophy balloting.

NFL teams, understandably wary of his medical history, passed him over in the draft, and in desperation he took the only  offer he had and signed with Montreal of the CFL. He appeared in just one game, and less than a week later was hospitalized with pneumonia.  Complications set in when he was administered blood thinners to try to deal with his clotting.  When he was given his release by the team, he chose to retire.

He spent some time in athletic development at Nebraska, then assisted at Baylor before becoming head coach at Nebraska’s Doane College.

From coaching, he went into the construction business in Omaha.

He is in the College Football Hall of Fame and his Number 15 has been retired by Nebraska.







TUESDAY,  AUGUST 9, 2022 - “The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires. William Arthur Ward





It looks as if the Aberdeen (Washington) Bobcats will have three home games this season.   At most.   If they’re lucky.

They’d planned on opening the season with three straight games at their home stadium, but  they’ve already had to move the first two, and now the third one - on September 16 - is also in doubt.  If they have to play that one on the road, they'll be looking at an entire  season with only two home games.

It's the result of what  appears to me to be an all-time, classic f—kup.

The  artificial turf at the stadium, Stewart Field, was  scheduled to be replaced this summer.  But as a result of what has been called a  "miscommunication regarding a stormwater runoff permit,"  work came to a stop for at least two weeks earlier this summer, and recent Facebook video of the work site  appears to show nothing much being done in recent days to try to make up for lost time.

It’s not just football games, either.  In the interest of Title IX,  I feel compelled to mention that girls’ soccer is also impacted.

Actually, it’s a lot more than games, boys’ or girls.’  It’s practices.  Aberdeen’s school building is right in the city.  With no fields close by, all games and practices for field sports are held at Stewart Field, about a half-mile away from the school - on the district’s one, lone artificial-turf field.  The game field is also the practice field.

At times when Stewart Field isn’t available for football practice - such as when the girls are scheduled to practice or play there - the only place available is what can best be described as a vacant lot next to the stadium.  The most you can say for it is it’s not far from the locker room.  It’s rough and rutted. It’s dusty when it isn’t raining,  and  muddy when it is.  It’s barely suitable for Thursday walk-throughs, but it’s where the football team - varsity, JV and freshman - is now going to have to practice for the first several weeks. 

Why hasn’t anyone ever done anything up to now about improving that field?  Simple.  They’ve consistently ignored football coaches’ requests over the years, and since the coaches always seemed to make do somehow, it wasn’t considered a pressing problem.  After all, it was just a temporary inconvenience at those times  when they couldn’t get on the all-weather field.

Now, though, it’s a lot more than a temporary inconvenience.

In my opinion, they were a little late starting the project  in the first place, but then, in the middle of the job, not to have all their T’s crossed?  If they had known this earlier,  they could easily have postponed the work until winter, and scheduled one more season on the old turf.

I coached at Aberdeen in 2019, and I feel terrible for those coaches and kids.   I’m glad I’m not coaching there now, because I’d be sure to say something to piss someone off.  For openers, I’d like to know how  this issue came up AFTER they removed the turf.


https://www.thedailyworld.com/news/permit-issue-delays-stewart-field-turf-project/


*********** The CFL may have a rising star on its hands in BC Lions’ quarterback Nathan Rourke.

Saturday night, Rourke, a native Canadian, completed 34 of 37 passes good for 477 yards and  five  touchdowns, in a 46-14 win over Edmonton (the team formerly known as the Eskimos).

He’s from  Oakville, Ontario (a suburb of Toronto), where he played his high school ball before spending  his senior year at some place in Alabama called Edgewood Academy.

From there it was a year at Fort Scott (Kansas) Community College, and then he had a  solid career as a three-year starter at Ohio U, taking the Bobcats to three straight bowl wins.

This is his second year of pro ball - his first as a starter -  and so far this season,  his  stats are astonishing:

He has completed - get this - EIGHTY-ONE PER CENT of his passes (187 of 230)  for 2418 yards (10.51 yards per attempt!) and 21 touchdowns (9.1 per cent!)  against only six interceptions.

https://www.cfl.ca/players/nathan-rourke/165740/

https://www.cbc.ca/sports/football/cfl/edmonton-elks-bc-lions-recap-august-6-1.6543949


***********   Take a look at this illustration of where most Arizona State alumni are to be found, and tell me a move from the Pac-10 to the Big 12 makes sense for the Sun Devils:




Supposing a move - along with Arizona, Colorado and Utah, as  has been  suggested:  the Big 12 affiliation gives ASU access through its  sports teams to 17,831 alumni in Texas.  But that comes at a cost of loss of access to 60,011 alumni in California, 12,570 in Washington and 6,673 in Oregon. 

Gain 17,831.  Lose 79,254.  Hmmm.



On the other hand, looking at this new uniform makes one doubt whether there’s any sense left in Tempe anyhow. (If you’re from the Big 12 and you’re reading this -   take this bunch.  You can have them.)


*********** Don’t laugh at Jim Harbaugh and Michigan for suggesting that the Big Ten cut right to the chase and use  the NIL to distribute some of its soon-to-be massive and unseemly TV  rights money directly to the athletes.  I know it’s a giant step toward professionalism, which I deplore, but I think that otherwise the league’s ADs are going to have a hell of a time explaining to Congress  types what they’re doing with tens of millions in found money that  they’re not sharing with the athletes.

(I’ll let you figure out what to say when the females shout that they deserve a cut of the money, too.)

https://theathletic.com/3485250/2022/08/08/jim-harbaugh-michigan-big-ten-tv-money/?source=user_shared_article

 
***********   Rummaging through the Internet, I came across a great article about the Double Wing in  the San Diego Union in September, 2104

Double wing offense produces wins

The philosophy and the offense are working this season at Orange Glen, which has sprinted to the school’s first 5-0 start since 1988, and Sweetwater, the defending San Diego Section Division IV champions, who are 4-0 this season.

Orange Glen was 28-73-1 in the 10 years before this season. Sweetwater was 22-67-1 in the nine years before 2013.

***

“The first thing I asked our kids was ‘What is three times four,” said Tido Smith, who introduced the double wing, double tight offense to the Orange Glen High football team.

The answer, of course, is 12.

“I told them I’m only asking you to get 10 of those 12 yards to keep drives alive,” Smith said.

***

“It’s an offense that’s difficult to install and get right,” said Sweetwater coach Brian Hay, who led the Red Devils to their first championship in 29 years last season.

“Every season, it takes four or five weeks to get it down. You just have to dig in and have faith it will work.”

***

“This is a great offense for our kids,” said Orange Glen head coach Jason Patterson, who was the defensive captain on that ’88 team while Cree Morris - one of his assistants - was the offensive captain. “We have good offensive linemen and good backs.

“It’s a rule-oriented offense, one that fits our personality. You have to have a football IQ, but there are only four blocking schemes.

“There are four basic plays, but they can be run out of as many as 12 different formations.

“We have a tough, but under-sized defense. So we looked for an offense where we could manage the clock. We wanted to keep our defense off the field, keep them fresh.”


***
The advantage of the double wing is opposing defenses don’t see it often, so are at a disadvantage.

“We’ve seen every junk defense known to man,” Hay said. “We’ll see 4-4 with eight men in the box. We’ll see a base 5-0, a 6-2 and a 5-3.

“We’ve beaten them all.

“The only way to stop this offense is to have 11 better people on defense.”

Patterson said there are only eight basic defenses.

Since he doesn’t know what to expect from opponents, the Patriots practice against all eight.

“It takes about three or four plays to figure out what our opponents are doing on defense,” he said. “Then all we have to do is execute.”

***
“The parents fight us because they want to see the ball in the air.

“What we tell the players we’re running this because we want to be good at something.”


https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sports/high-school-preps/sdut-og-sweetwater-marvista-fallbrook-football-2014sep29-story.html


***********  The way teams use timeouts and incomplete passes  - not to mention spiking the ball - to keep drives going at the end of games, it’s taken a lot of the suspense out of  the two-minute drill. More often than not, it seems that teams that hadn’t been able to move the ball all game can suddenly drive the length of the field in a minute or so.  And if all that’s needed is a  field goal, it’s as good as made.

I haven’t given this a lot of thought, but it occurred to me that it would be great if a defense were able  to trump an offense’s time OUT - to restart the clock with a time IN.  A time in could be used any time the opponent stopped the clock and you wanted to keep it running.  I don’t know how you’d acquire time ins - maybe as a bonus  for every unsportsmanlike penalty or personal foul by the opponent -  but I think it would be so cool after some clown spiked the ball  to see an opponent call “time in,” and force the offense to hurry the hell up and call a play and get back to the line.

Sounds  wacko, I know - but it wasn’t so long ago that they’d laugh you out of the bar for suggesting the idea of earning what amounts to a timeout by bouncing  the ball off the ground.


*********** I have no idea what this site has to do with LSU, but I’d bookmark it if I were you because  it’s a great listing of upcoming college  games on TV and what networks they’re on.

http://lsufootball.net/tvschedule-replays.htm


*********** I find it funny when I hear some sports-talk guy ask an interviewee - in addition to what his favorite food is - what’s his  walk-up music?

Mine’s easy -  college  fight songs!

I’ve loved ‘em since I was a kid.  One of our records (big old black 78  rpm) that  I’d play on our wind-up Victrola was “Ramblin’ Wreck From Georgia Tech.”  I’d play it over and over.

I got to hear more of them and - maybe because I associated them with football games - loved  them all.

Many years ago, a Portland sports writer named Norm Maves, who happened to be a lover of college fight songs, too, learned that I loved them, and he gave me several cassettes he’d recorded, with nothing on them but fight songs.  Incredible.  One cassette had nothing on it but University of California music.  Don’t laugh - those people have GOT some music.  It was a huge kick for me to  go to an Oregon-Cal game several years ago and hear the Cal band play every damn song on my cassette, and you know what - they sounded exactly as I expected them to sound!

On long flights to Finland, I’d put one of those cassettes into a walkman (remember them?) and put on my headphones, and snooze away, calmed by fight songs - of Auburn, Central Michigan, Hawaii -  had  them all.

I knew Marv Levy was a good guy, of course, but I was really impressed when I read his Hall of Fame acceptance speech and heard him reminiscing about fight songs: “even now I hear the distant strains of college fight songs - Cheer, Cheer for old Notre Dame; The Sturdy Golden Bear; Roll Alabama; Ten Thousand Men of Harvard; On, Brave old Army team.”

When we moved across the country to the Northwest, we had to adapt to new teams and nicknames, and new fight songs.  Now, the Pac-10 songs are among my favorites.

Arizona (“Bear Down”) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuY9s6kvd9k

Arizona State ("Maroon and Gold") - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBpI6eMdaNs

Cal - has a bunch of them - I'll take one: "Fight for California" (aka "Our Sturdy Golden Bear")
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgGdXiwHpmA

Colorado -(“CU Fight Song”) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjHhL4Y6SWk

Oregon (“Mighty Oregon”) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4TvpCpslMQ

Oregon State - (“Hail to Old OSU”)  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmrwG39LKu8&t=6s

Stanford (“Come Join the Band”) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrs8JkUgjhs
(In typical fashion, a school that doesn’t have a real band also doesn’t have a real fight song - Not since Stanford students, the very definition of iconoclasm, chose to  throw away years of tradition and celebrate themselves with “All Right Now”)

Utah (“Utah Man”)  - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmeSPKzaeCk

Washington (“Bow Down to Washington”) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yf1F2XPgDxs
 
Washington State - “WSU Fight Song”) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Md7ZAA3UNtY

Good riddance to…

UCLA’s fight song - I don’t know its name but I know the tune - appears to have been “appropriated” - along with the name “University of California” - from Cal.

USC?  Ever been to one of their games?  Their f—king band plays the same thing over and over - a bit of “FIGHT ON!”  when they’re on offense, and “TRIBUTE TO TROY!”  when they’re on defense.  Over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over - you guys back in the Midwest are going to love it.



*********** (1) I personally think it’s worth risking nuclear war if that’s what it takes to get Brittney Griner.

And (2) I also think WNBA players should be paid as much as NBA players.

From The Athletic:

Why do WNBA players go overseas?

Simply put: To supplement their WNBA income. While the most recent CBA raised salaries significantly, the top players in the league still make less than a quarter of a million dollars per season while overseas play — especially the top teams in the top leagues — can sometimes pay five to six times that to the best players. An additional benefit is that given how short the WNBA season is (three to four months) overseas play allows players to continue to play competitively throughout the year rather than training on their own.

However, that also has a fallback to it, which is that some players often end up playing year-round for years on end, putting a strain on their bodies and making them more injury prone.

Griner has played for UMMC Ekaterinburg since 2015. Her wife, Cherelle Griner, told “Good Morning America” in May how the WNBA’s lower pay than the NBA has impacted Brittney Griner’s life.

“BG would wholeheartedly love to not go overseas,” Cherelle Griner said. “She has only had one Thanksgiving in the States in nine years since she’s been pro, and she misses all that stuff. Just because, you know, she can’t make enough money in the WNBA, like, to sustain her life.”

*********** Finally, the NFL was back.  Sort of.  The Hall of Fame game was played last Thursday night. Might as well have not played it, though, because it seemed like 90 pro cent of the broadcast was taken up by interviews with this year’s Hall of Fame inductees. It seemed like Chinese water torture to make people wait six months or so for their first taste of football, only to make them have to listen to babble totally unrelated to the game on the screen.


*********** Karjalankarhukoira  to the rescue.

A jogger near Bellingham, Washington was attacked by a bear over the weekend.

He survived, but the bear didn’t.

Once a bear is known to attack a human, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife has to find and dispatch it.

That’s where the Karjalankarhukoira came in.

That’s a Finnish word.  It’s three words, actually.  Finns will turn commonly used word combinations into one big jawbreaker.  In this case it was Karjalan (From Karelia, in eastern Finland) karhu (bear) koira (dog).

The Karelian bear  dog, a Finnish breed,  is one of the wonders of the animal world.  Maybe 60 pounds tops, he’s absolutely fearless, and when sent after a bear, he (or she) will find the critter, then - usually working with one or two others - will hold it at bay until the hunter arrives.

In this case, just one Karelian bear dog was all it took to find the bear and keep it from escaping until WDFW was able to arrive and “lethally remove” it.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karelian_Bear_Dog


 
*********** BYU is going to be playing Notre Dame.  In Vegas.  This story will give you an idea of how tough the Irish can be to deal with.

Here’s one takeaway from the story that gave me shivers  when I thought about the future of college football:

“Tickets in the lower sections are between $400 and $500.”
 
https://www.deseret.com/2022/7/18/23269002/byu-calls-notre-dame-game-a-win-win-even-if-its-not-at-home
 


*********** In Port Townsend, Washington, an 80-year-old woman has been barred from the “Y” after getting pissed at seeing a transgender   claiming to be a female in the women’s dressing room, where he was allegedly “helping"  little girls remove their swimsuits.

https://www.porttownsendfreepress.com/2022/08/02/mountain-view-pool-punishes-woman-for-her-gender-expression-and-identity-part-one/

https://www.outkick.com/80-year-old-woman-banned-from-ymca-for-calling-out-man-in-womens-bathroom/


*********** You asked a question about how the Big Ten fan and student will benefit from realignment. Isn't it obvious? All schools will reduce ticket prices for the fans, and all academic fees for the students. One AD was heard to say, "In our conference, students come first, then fans, then our student ath-a-letes, then athletic coaches and staffs. Nary a cent will go into our recruiting budgets or facilities 'upgrades'."

John Vermillion                
St Petersburg, Florida


**********Hugh,

Re: Notre Dame and its schedules.  Should Notre Dame renegotiate a better deal with NBC and remain Independent, you can bet the future road to the college football playoffs would become more difficult for Notre Dame.  Should that occur the Irish would be forced to consider giving up their Independent status.  As current satellite members of the ACC in football, and full-time members in all other sports, wouldn't it make more sense for Notre Dame to take their new contract and choose the ACC over the newly expanded Big 10 in order to pave a smoother road to playoffs and potential national championships?

Growing up on the west coast I was a Giants fan.  But when the Giants played the Dodgers with Vin Scully calling the play by play he made the rivalry even better.  RIP.

Under the current scheduling format of the Big 10 the Golden Gophers don't play Michigan for the Lil' Brown Jug every year.

Those RB fumble stats will never be threatened again since most RB's in these RPO offenses don't touch the ball as often as they used to.


Enjoy the weekend!

Joe Gutilla
Austin, Texas


*********** QUIZ ANSWER:  I did a lot of research on Pappy Waldorf, and although I could wrote volumes about him,  in my research I came across this amazing biography, written by someone with the nom de plume of CalBear81.  It far exceeds anything I could have written in describing the kind of man Pappy Waldorf was.  He was a  winning coach at Oklahoma City;  Oklahoma State (then Oklahoma A & M),  where he never lost to OU and probably would have stayed had  the school not been forced by the Depression to  slash his pay; at Kansas State, where he won the school’s only conference championship until 2003, when Bill Snyder would finally git ‘er done;  at Northwestern, where he earned Coach of the Year honors;  and finally at Cal, where he came in and ended eight straight losing seasons with a 9-0-1 first season, then took the Bears to three straight Rose Bowls.  But with all that great success as a coach, what came across to me more than anything else was what a man of integrity he was, what a great representative of our game.  And  how beloved he was by his players.  For 33 years after his death - until they either passed away or became too old to do it any longer - Pappy’s former players met faithfully at the first home game of every season.

By CalBear81

Pappy Waldorf was the most beloved football coach in Cal history: beloved by his players, by the fans, and even by the Bears' opponents.  He was a great coach.  A career record of 157-89-19, and a 67-32-4 record at California, are evidence of this.  So are three straight Rose Bowl appearances and back-to-back 10-win seasons for only the second time in Cal history.  And so is his history of turning around losing football programs everywhere he went, from Oklahoma City University to the University of California, and of winning conference championships at all five schools where he was the head coach. But there was something more than this that made people love him. Something more, even, than his 7-1-2 record in the Big Game. There was something so special about him that 58 years after he retired from coaching, and 33 years after his death, his former players, men in their 70s and 80s who still called themselves "Pappy's Boys," gathered regularly to remember and honor him.  He was not just a great coach, he was a good man.

He was born on October 3, 1902 in Clifton Springs, New York.  His father was a well-connected Methodist minister who later became a bishop.  The family moved to Cleveland, where he grew up.  He followed his father to Syracuse University where, although he was considered too short to play football, he made the varsity squad, and was named an All American twice.  At Syracuse, he also met Louise McKay, whom he married in 1925 in what, by all accounts turned out to be an extraordinarily happy marriage.

He graduated from Syracuse with degrees in sociology and psychology, and set about looking for work. His father  contacted the president of Oklahoma City University, a Methodist school, about getting his son a teaching job.  Instead, his son was offered the substantial salary of $4,000 to take on the jobs of football, basketball, and track coach, and athletic director. He took the job, and took charge of the 1-7 Goldbugs. Only 14 players turned up for the first practice, and he  had to find additional players -  his starting team would eventually include six players who had not even played high school football.  But, by focusing on fundamentals of blocking and tackling, he was able to lead the Goldbugs to a 4-6 record, the best in school history. Two years later, in 1927, the Goldbugs were 8-1-2, and tied for the conference championship.

In 1928, he went to the University of Kansas as an assistant, before being hired as the head coach of Oklahoma A&M (now Oklahoma State) the following year. In five years at Oklahoma A&M,  his record was 34-10-7.  He won three conference championships, and never lost to arch-rival Oklahoma.  In 1934 he was hired as the head coach of Kansas State.  In his single season there, he won the Big Six conference title -- the first time Kansas State had ever won the championship, and the only time it would do so until 2003.

He was a very hot property by now, and the next year he was wooed away to Evanston, Illinois by Northwestern University.  He recognized that his players were not outstanding, and would probably not win many games.  So he decided on a limited focus. He later explained, "When you're faced with one of those years when your material is only fair and you're not going to win many games, put your eggs in one basket. Pick a tough team and lay for it. Knock if off, and you've got yourself a season. . . . I chose Notre Dame." His "secret weapon" against Notre Dame was a brand new strategy - changing defensive formations on each play. It worked.  Notre Dame was completely confused by the changes on defense by Northwestern, and the Wildcats pulled off a startling 14-7 upset. When the coaches went out that night for a drink to celebrate, the bartender, noticing him nursing a single drink all night long, started calling him "Pappy."  His assistants picked up on it, and the nickname stuck. Northwestern finished the season 4-3-1, and he  won the first-ever National Coach of the Year Award.

The next year, 1936, was even better.  He developed a new formation, an unbalanced line which he called the "Cockeyed Formation," and which is now recognized as the first slot formation.  It allowed four receivers to head down field, instead of the usual two.  He debuted the new formation against Ohio State, leading to a Northwestern victory.  The Wildcats ended the season 7-1, and won the Big-10 Championship.  At the end of the season,  he was invited to the East-West Shrine game in the Bay Area as the Big-10s "observer." He and his wife fell in love with northern California, and he  decided that if a job came open there in the future, he would accept it. But in the meantime, he continued his success in Evanston.  His 49 career wins at Northwestern remained the most in school history until 2012 until Pat Fitzgerald supposed it.

While he was enjoying success at Northwestern, things were not going well in Berkeley. The Bears had won the Rose Bowl and a National Championship under Stub Allison in 1937, but the 1940s had been a disaster. Allison had not adjusted to the changes in the game in the early 1940s, and World War II had made it difficult to even field a team.  In 1944, Allison resigned and was replaced by Lawrence Shaw. Shaw was, in turn, replaced by Frank Wickhorst for the 1946 season, in which the Bears went 2-7. Worse, Wickhorst lost the support of his team. 42 of the 44 varsity players signed a petition calling for his firing.  The students were equally upset, to the point that during the embarrassing 1946 Big Game loss, they began tearing up the seats and passing them down onto the field.

Cal athletics had a unique organizational structure. Since 1904, management of the athletic department had been in the hands of the Associated Students of the University of California (ASUC), whose Executive Committee had the power to hire and fire coaches. Two weeks after the 1946 Big Game they did just that, firing Wickhorst and two of his assistants. The actions of the ASUC shocked the college football establishment. The University of California was condemned for allowing students to exercise that kind of control over coaches, and it was widely predicted that no respected coach would be willing to come to Cal under such circumstances.

University president Robert Gordon Sproul stepped in to limit the damage by creating the position of Athletic Director, with the power to hire and fire coaches.  The job was given to Cal's highly respected track coach, Brutus Hamilton. Hamilton offered the head coach job to Fritz Crisler at Michigan, who turned it down. Then, at a  meeting of the American Football Coaches Association in January 1947, Hamilton mentioned the Cal coaching job to Pappy.  Remembering his fondness for northern California, Pappy immediately expressed interest. To the shock of the college football world, he accepted the job as the California's head coach in February 1947.  At a press conference at the Claremont Hotel,  he  proclaimed that he had come to Berkeley, "to awaken a sleeping giant."

Despite his history of success, the California football program had been so troubled that his arrival was greeted skeptically. San Francisco Examiner sports columnist Prescott Sullivan summed it up:

Big, meaty - - - - - - is the new head coach at the University of California. We realize there is nothing particularly distinctive about that. California's always getting a new football coach.  He is the fourth the school has had in as many years. We hope  he  is a man of independent means. The job over there in Berkeley ain't too steady.

But he  quickly won over the players, the fans, and even the reporters.  He was a great story-teller, and he would host cocktail parties for the press where he told stories and recited some of his seemingly endless store of limericks, while puffing on a cigar and sipping bourbon. He could talk about Plato and Shakespeare, debate the details of Civil War battles, and discuss the football theories of his friend Amos Alonzo Stagg, with equal enthusiasm. The press was charmed.

At the first team practice, 255 students showed up to try out. Since the rule allowing free substitution of players, which had been implemented during the war, remained in effect, there were plenty of opportunities. Many of those who showed up had no football experience, but Pappy did not discourage them, as he wanted to create an atmosphere of enthusiasm. When one student lined up at quarterback under a tackle,  he just said, "That cow's dry, son.  Move over." Then the student lined up behind a guard. "That one's dry, too. Keep movin' over," Pappy told him. Team manager Sedge Thompson said, "He didn't show any sign of being mad or disgusted that entire spring."  He set about learning the names of all 255 potential players, developed carefully organized practice schedules, and required every player to carry a notebook, which the coaches inspected to ensure the recruits were taking proper notes.  He focused on careful drills, with every detail of each player's performance critiqued by the coaches.

His attention to detail paid off.  The very first play from scrimmage by the Bears under  him was a 39-yard touchdown run by halfback George Fong against Santa Clara, and the Bears went on to a 33-7 win. Thousands of fans gathered under the north balcony of Memorial Stadium chanting, "We want Pappy!" He went onto the balcony with team captain Rod Franz, and thus began the tradition of Pappy's post-game balcony addresses to the fans.

The next week, California faced a much bigger challenge in a great Navy team. 83,000 fans showed up -- the biggest crowd in the history of Memorial Stadium.  When Cal took the lead right before the half with a touchdown on a scramble by quarterback Bob Celeri, the crowd's reaction registered on the campus' seismograph.  The Bears led 14-7 with minutes to go in the game, when Navy went on a drive. But an interception by unknown sophomore Jackie Jensen sealed the Bears' victory. This was only the beginning.  The next week the Bears beat highly regarded St. Mary's 45-6, rushing for 432 yards in the process. The week after, they traveled to Madison, where they walloped Wisconsin 48-7, in a game that featured both a 22-yard touchdown run and a 23-yard touchdown pass by Jensen.

Going into the Big Game, the Bears were 8-1, with only a loss to #11 USC marring their record. After a 60-14 drubbing of Montana the week before the Big Game, Jackie Jensen told the fans from the north balcony, "We're sorry the score went so high today." After a pause he added, "But we don't care how high it goes next week!"  The crowd, starved for their first Big Game victory since 1941, went wild. The Indians made the game closer than expected, but the Bears emerged with a 21-18 win.  In his first season in Berkeley, he  had turned a 2-7 team into a 9-1, nationally recognized, power. 1948 would be even better.

The 1948 season, like 1947, began with a game against Santa Clara.  And once again, the Bears' first play from scrimmage was a touchdown, this time a 62-yard run by Jackie Jensen.  He described Jensen's running as "almost magical. He eludes the hand his eye cannot see." The Bears compiled a 6-0 record heading into the critical match-up against USC in Los Angeles. Several members of the California team had actually delayed their graduations for the specific purpose of getting another shot at the Trojans. Once again, Jackie Jensen was the star, running for 132 yards on 27 attempts, and scoring both of the Bears' touchdowns, for a 13-7 California win. After the game, several Cal players, including Jensen, took a short field trip to take a look at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena.

The Bears were prohibitive favorites in the Big Game. A win would guarantee the Rose Bowl for the first time since 1938, and tickets were impossible to obtain. But once again, Stanford proved to be a bigger challenge than expected.  The Bears scored a touchdown on their first drive. But the Stanford defense stepped up, and kept the Bears from scoring again.  In the third quarter, the Indians scored a touchdown, but Cal's Jim "Truck" Cullom blocked the extra point.  The Bears held on for a 7-6 win, an undefeated 10-0 regular season, and the Rose Bowl.

The Bears faced Pappy's old team, Northwestern, in Pasadena on January 1, 1949.  With the game tied 7-7 in the second quarter, Northwestern went on a drive to the Cal goal line. But Cal's Norm Pressley grabbed the arms of Northwestern ball carrier, Art Murakowki, from behind, causing a fumble, which the Bears recovered in the end zone for a touch back. Except that the referee called it a touchdown. Looking at photographs after the game, the press was unanimous that Murakowski had fumbled before he reached the end zone, but the infamous "phantom touchdown" stood.

The Bears took a 14-13 lead in the third quarter, but then Jackie Jensen went down with a foot injury.  With Jensen out, the Bears were not able to score again.  A late Northwestern touchdown gave them a 20-14 win, and left Cal fans complaining about the "Phantom Touchdown" for years.

The Rose Bowl loss was all the more discouraging to Cal fans, because the Bears were losing many of their best players. Most notably, Jackie Jensen, with Pappy's encouragement, decided to leave school a year early to accept an offer to play professional baseball. (He would become the first person ever to play in the Rose Bowl, the World Series and the All-Star game). Nevertheless, his 1949 Golden Bears remained strong. They were 4-0 heading into another big showdown with USC, in what would be the Bears' first televised game. USC took a 10-7 lead in the fourth quarter on a Frank Gifford field goal.  But on the ensuing kick-off, Cal's Frank Brunk fielded the ball in the end zone and, with extraordinary blocking from his teammates, ran it back for a 102-yard touchdown. The last USC player with a shot at him was Frank Gifford, who is seen in the photographs face down on the turf, having missed the tackle. Because the game was televised, Brunk's run became legendary. California ended up with a 16-10 victory.

Once again the Bears were undefeated heading into the Big Game.  But this year, Stanford would prove no obstacle. California won the game easily, 33-14, out-rushing the Indians 390-167. After a second-straight 10-0 regular season, and ranked #1, the Bears headed back to the Rose Bowl. Once again, however, the Bears were frustrated in Pasadena. They faced a talented Ohio State team, and were fortunate to have a 14-14 tie late in the fourth quarter. But with two minutes left, a bad snap caused Bob Celeri to shank a punt, giving the Buckeyes the ball on the California 13-yard-line. Ohio State kicked a field goal for a 17-14 win. The Bears ended the year ranked #3.

1950 was expected to be a rebuilding year. But Pappy had brought in another unknown who would turn into a star almost overnight, running back Johnny Olszewski. While Jackie Jensen had been quick and light on his feet, Johnny O was fast but amazingly powerful. Running backs coach Wes Fry said of Olszewski, "He's the most elusive player you'll ever see . . . but he's also equipped with an additional weapon. If there's no place else to go, he'll take on the other guy, and he usually doesn't come off second best.”

The 1950 Golden Bears didn't miss a beat. They began the season with convincing wins against Santa Clara, Oregon, and Pennsylvania, before facing USC.  The Trojans had sent Sam Barry, a long-time friend of Pappy's, to the Santa Clara game to scout the Bears. Barry had given him  a USC tie in 1947, which Pappy wore for luck during every game. On his way to the Santa Clara game, Barry suffered a fatal heart attack. Although there was an informal conference rule against using game film for scouting, Pappy sent the film of the Cal-Santa Clara game to USC's head coach, Jeff Cravath, with a note saying, "I deeply regret your loss and that Sam was unable to scout Cal for you. He was a good friend and his work should not be left unfinished. I hope you can make do with the enclosed film."  For once, a good deed did go unpunished. Cal beat USC,13-7.

For the third straight year, the Bears headed into the Big Game undefeated. This time Stanford was finally able to pull off something of an upset, holding the Bears to a 7-7 tie. The star of the game for Cal was Les Richter (who in 2011 became the first Cal Bear to enter the NFL Hall of Fame). Richter stopped one Stanford drive by intercepting the ball at the two-yard line, and stopped another with a 15-yard sack, preserving the tie.

This left California 9-0-1 on the season, and headed to its third consecutive Rose Bowl.  Alas, it was another disappointment for the Bears. Cal dominated the first half, out-gaining Michigan 192-65 yards. But the Bears only managed to score 6 points. Late in the fourth quarter, Michigan took a 7-6 lead. Then, when Cal's desperation fourth down play at the end of the game failed, Michigan took over deep in Cal territory and scored again, for a 14-6 final score. Always dignified, Pappy once again went to his opponents' locker room to offer congratulations.  Said his  assistant, Paul Christopoulos, "I learned from Pappy how to lose with dignity. It is a virtue that many among us sorely lack.”

The 1951 team dropped off a bit because of injuries to key players, including a knee injury to Olszewski, suffered against USC. After Johnny O went down on his first carry, the USC tackler, Pat Cannamela, appeared to deliberately give his right leg an extra twist as he lay on the ground, leading to a near-brawl, both on the field and in the stands. Cal Athletic Director Brutus Hamilton and faculty representative Glenn Seaborg protested to the conference to no avail. Years later, Seaborg wrote that it was clear that Cannamela had deliberately injured Olszewski, and complained, "The only satisfaction I got was an evasive non-apology from USC Coach Jess Hill."  Although Olszewski returned for the 1952 season, he was never the same player again. Thus, although the Bears began the 1951 season 4-0 and ranked #1, by the time the Big Game rolled around they were 7-2 and ranked #19.  It was Stanford, undefeated and ranked #3, that had visions of a national championship. But the Bears pulled off a stirring 20-7 upset to ruin Stanford's dreams, and, incidentally, to finish the season 8-2. After five seasons, Pappy's regular season record at California was an astonishing 46-3-1.

The 1952 Bears had lost several All America players, and Johnny O had not returned to form. A bright spot was outstanding quarterback Paul Larsen. And the Big Game was a 26-0 triumph, featuring a Larsen run for a touchdown, a 37-yard interception return for a touchdown by Lloyd Torchio (whose son would be the unexpected hero of the 1980 Big Game), and a fine performance by Johnny Olszewski, who gained 122 yards on 25 carries in his last game as a Golden Bear. California ended the year 7-3.  But it would be Pappy's last winning season.

In 1953, the NCAA abandoned the free-substitution rule that had been in place since World War II, and required all players to play both offense and defense. This radical change in the game destroyed the system Pappy had carefully crafted over the previous decade for developing offensive and defensive specialists. This rule change, along with the graduation of 29 varsity players, had severe consequences. The Bears went 4-4-2 in 1953 and 5-5 in 1954. Things got even worse in 1955, when the Bears had their first losing season since 1946, ending with a 2-7-1 record and, worse yet, Pappy's first-ever loss to Stanford.

During the summer of 1956, California became embroiled in the Ronnie Knox scandal. Knox was a highly regarded quarterback recruit from southern California, with a domineering step-father, who seemed to be cashing in on Ronnie's talents. Ronnie Knox decided to go to Cal in 1953, after members of a Cal booster club led him to believe he could be paid to write sports articles for the Berkeley Gazette, and would be receive $500 a year in "pocket money" for selling game tickets. When the University learned of these promises, they put an end to them, and after playing a year with the freshman squad, Knox transferred to UCLA, where he got into further trouble. Although he was unaware of the actions of the booster club with regard to Knox, a subsequent investigation revealed that he had approved the creation of a booster fund to make payments to players in emergencies. This was permissible under NCAA and conference rules, but he  had not sought the approval of the University president.  As a result, Berkeley Chancellor Clark Kerr issued a formal reprimand to him, and Pappy issued a formal apology.

The Knox affair led to a wider investigation of conference booster clubs, which resulted in harsh penalties to UCLA, USC, and Washington, and lesser penalties to California. Although UCLA came in for the harshest penalties of all, including three years of probation, the UCLA chancellor offered no reprimand to head coach Red Sanders, and Sanders made no apology.

After this difficult summer, the 1956 season was equally difficult, with the Bears having a 2-7 record going into the Big Game against heavily-favored Stanford. The Bears were down to their third-string quarterback for the game, having lost the first two to injuries. The Big Game would be in the hands of an obscure sophomore named Joe Kapp.

During the season,  Pappy decided that the time had come for him to retire. He made the announcement a few days before the Big Game. The Cal band showed up that night at Pappy's home on Grizzly Peak in full uniform to serenade him. Pappy told the band members, "This is one of the finest compliments ever paid me. It is a grand gesture. Your band is the epitome of the University of California.”

In storybook fashion, the 14-point underdog Bears pulled off one of the biggest upsets ever in the Big Game. The team came onto the field inspired, building up leads of 14-0 and 20-6, before holding on for a 20-18 win. Joe Kapp was the star, rushing for 106 yards on 18 carries. After the game, the team carried Pappy off the field on their shoulders, and Pappy made his final appearance on the north balcony of Memorial Stadium to tell an emotional crowd of 18,000 fans, "I love you, and I always will."

A few years after his retirement from Cal,  he  was contacted by the San Francisco 49ers to see if he would scout for them. He became the 49ers director of college scouting for the next 12 years. Pappy's friendships with coaches and athletic directors around the country gave him an access that other NFL scouts could only envy. In fact, when he was in Ohio, he stayed at the home of his friend, Ohio State coach Woody Hayes. In New York, he always stayed at the home of former USC player, NFL player and, later, broadcaster, Frank Gifford.

Pappy finally retired from the 49ers in 1972, at the age of 70.  But he continued to support his beloved Cal Bears. In 1980, he was asked by the California head coach, Roger Theder, to address the team before the Big Game. The Bears had had a terrible season. They had a 2-8 record, and were 15-point underdogs to a Stanford team led by sophomore quarterback John Elway. Pappy told the players,"The Big Game is college football in its purest form.  There is nothing else like it." His talk seemed to inspire the team. Led by back-up quarterback J Torchio, son of Pappy's player Lloyd Torchio, the Bears went on a 80-yard touchdown drive on their first possession, built up a 21-7 halftime lead, and hung on for a gutsy 28-23 upset.  Pappy was elated.  It turned out to be his last Big Game, as he passed away on August 15, 1981.

Pappy's former players formed a group called "Pappy's Boys" in tribute to their coach, and they remain in regular contact. It was Pappy's Boys who led the drive to place a monument in tribute to the man they so admire in Faculty Glade on the Berkeley campus in 1994, ensuring that he would be remembered by future generations of California students.


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING PAPPY WALDORF

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
TOM DAVIS - SAN CARLOS, CALIFORNIA
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - AUSTIN, TEXAS
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY


*********** QUIZ:  He was born in Arkansas City, Kansas, but was raised in Muskogee, Okla., where he quarterbacked his high school team to the state championship his senior year. 

At Oklahoma he was a freshman on the Sooners’ first-ever national championship team in 1950.
 
He started at quarterback the next two seasons for the Sooners, as they went 8-2 and  8-1-1.  One of his best games was against  Colorado his junior year, when he threw for four touchdowns  - three of them in the first quarter - in dealing the Buffaloes their only conference loss of the season. Running the Oklahoma split-T offense, he rushed for 54 yards on just six carries, and completed six of seven attempts for 185 yards (and the four touchdowns). 

He was named All-America and All-Big Seven his senior year, and although drafted by the Giants, a pro career was prevented by an injury to his throwing arm.  Instead, he  fulfilled a military commitment  with the Army Corps of Engineers. While in the Army, he played service ball, quarterbacking the Fort Hood team in 1953 and coaching the backfield in 1954.

In 1955, he received his bachelor’s degree in Geology from Oklahoma, and, still  in the Army, was assigned to duty at West Point, where he served on Red Blaik’s Army staff.  Knowing of his college degree, Coach Blaik wrote in his memoir, “I often suggested to him that, as good as his future was in football, his future career should be with his friends in petroleum in Oklahoma. However, his leadership and dedication to the college game did not allow him to take my advice. "
 
After his discharge from the army,  he spent  seven seasons (1956-62) at Oklahoma under Bud Wilkinson, his college coach.

In 1963, he was hired by Colorado as head coach, and given a four-year contract at $15,000 per year.
 
CU was 4-16 in his first two seasons, but the Buffaloes  went 63-33-2 the rest of the way, and his overall mark was  67-49-2 in his 11 seasons as coach.
 
He had a 3-2 mark in bowl games. In 1970 his Buffs  ended Number  4 Penn State’s 31-game unbeaten streak, and trounced Number 10 Air Force, 49-19.  They beat Number 9 LSU and Number 6 Ohio State in 1971, and in 1972  they defeated Number 2 Oklahoma.
 
In his 11-year coaching career, he defeated 10 other coaches who would go  on to be elected to the National Football Foundation College Hall of Fame..  

Nine of his players were All-Americans, 33 were All-Big Eight, five were Academic All-Americans and 37 were NFL draft picks.  Five of his last seven teams went to bowl games, two more than Colorado had had in its entire history before he took over.

In his memoirs, legendary Washington coach Don James, who spent three years as our man’s defensive coordinator at Colorado, wrote,  “Having come from the Southeast and then the Big 10, there was no question in my mind that in those years the Big Eight was the strongest conference in the country.

You want proof?  In 1971, Colorado finished with 10 wins for the first time its history, and the Buffs finished Number 3 in the country, their highest-ever final ranking at the time. (The Big Eight finished 1-2-3  in the final polls: Nebraska was 13-0 and Number One; Oklahoma (Number 2) lost only to Nebraska; and  Colorado lost only to Nebraska and Oklahoma. The Buffs ended the season with a Bluebonnet Bowl win over No. 15 Houston and a 10-2 record. 

At the time of his retirement after the 1973 season, he was  the winningest CU coach since Fred Folsom left in 1915.  Several of his assistants became head coaches themselves,  Jim Mora, Don James and Jerry Claiborne the most prominent among them.

He served as athletic director at Colorado for 10 more years, during which time he oversaw three expansions of Folsom Field. He made a  good hire when he chose Bill Mallory as his successor, but he hit the jackpot when he hired  Bill McCartney.  McCartney would go on to surpass his win total, and win a national championship along the way.
 
When financial  setbacks  in 1980 forced CU to drop seven sports, he insisted he would not retire until the department was back on sound  footing  again, and when that was finally  accomplished, he  did retire in 1984.

He is in the State of Colorado Sports Hall of Fame and the State of Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame, as well as the University of Colorado Athletic Hall of Fame.

He is not in the College Football Hall of Fame, but consider: he was 16-16 against  10 other coaches who are in the Hall of Fame: he was 5-0 against Johnny Majors, and  1-0 against Earl Bruce, Bear Bryant, Woody Hayes, Grant Teaff and Bill Yeoman. He was 1-1 against Charley McClendon and Joe Paterno.  But he was 3-5 against Dan Devine and 1-9 against Bob Devaney.

At the time of his death in 2008, many tributes were paid to him.  Here were just some...

Bill McCartney - “I was an assistant coach that nobody ever heard of.  (He)  saw something in me and gave me a chance.  When things didn’t work out right away, he stuck with me.  I’ll always have a debt of gratitude and a special place in my heart for him.”
 
Keith Jackson - “He always gave me the feeling that if you don’t go out and give your best, you’re selling out.  If the kids didn’t go out and play their hardest, they would have offended him.  That was the way he controlled his team.  He wasn’t a shouter, a yeller or a screamer.  He simply had those expectations. “

College Football Hall of Famer Bob Anderson - “I first met (him) in person when he visited our living room to recruit my brother Dick.  I hung on every word. He was complimentary, kind, thoughtful, persuasive and intelligent.  I was silently hoping that in two years he would be back to visit me.  As he left that evening he said he would be doing that.  I add to those honorable traits of his, sincerity and honesty.  I was lucky.  He came back, and more importantly for me, he stayed loyal to his commitment when I got a little confused in the whole recruiting process.
 
“(He)  is a loving Christian man. He prayed for his football teams before and after their games. He held his family, players, and close relationships in his heart. His kindness and friendship will be missed.  I love (him) like a father and a brother. (He) will have a relationship with God for eternity ... many of the blessings, and victories I have enjoyed in life are because of (him).  There is a part of the foundation of my belief system, self esteem, confidence and faith that come from the example and mentorship of (him).  I will always cherish our relationship.”

Pro Football Hall  of Famer Cliff Branch - “(He) was a very good friend of mine.  He was the reason that I came to the University of Colorado.   When I came on my recruiting trip, he was up front and honest about everything the school had to offer.  Not only with football but academically and socially; he was straight with me.  He was a tremendous leader and he made me into an excellent football player.  He gave me a chance to succeed and was instrumental in me being selected by the Oakland Raiders in the NFL Draft.  He was a tremendous athlete himself and played for the great Bud Wilkinson, and he modeled himself after Bud and what he had done for him.  You could see that he had a lot of Bud Wilkinson in him in his approach and philosophy.  He was a true friend to me, and when I came back to CU every year for a game, the first person I always wanted to see was (him)  This is a sad day for me and a sad day for the entire University of Colorado




FRIDAY,  AUGUST 5,  2022 - “Some teams are fair-haired. Some aren't. Some teams are a Smith, some are a Grabowski ... We're a Grabowski." Mike Ditka, referring to his 1985 Chicago Bears


************  Assuming that Notre Dame can make its case to NBC that the rights to its home games are worth more than the network has offered - considerably more - there is all the argument it needs  to remain independent…

But there’s an additional argument:  even with the SEC and  the Big Ten doing their best  to monopolize the Playoff, the Irish  can still get in as an independent.

Here’s the Irish 2022 schedule:

@Ohio State
Marshall
Cal
@UNC
BYU @Las Vegas - BYU (joining Big 12)
Stanford
UNLV
@Syracuse
Clemson
@Navy
BC
@USC - (joining Big Ten)

With that  schedule, if the Irish were to go unbeaten, it would be awfully hard to deny them a spot in The Playoff, right?

But how about the future?

Look -  if they remain independent - and maintain the current 4-game ACC schedule, they could almost put together  this same schedule in 2024, even after  the Big Ten and SEC will have expanded.

The only possible conference conflicts  would be BYU and USC.  I have no idea about BYU, but  I strongly suspect that the Trojans made sure before joining he Big Ten that they could be able to keep the Notre Dame rivalry alive.

Otherwise, though, Notre Dame could in theory have that same schedule two years from now, and  - bet on it - if they  were to win ‘em all, they’d be in the playoff.

And - never forget this, folks - being independent, they wouldn’t have to share a dime of the Playoff proceeds with any fellow conference members.


***********  Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren, asked about the   steps required to keep the conference’s realignment strategy secret, mentioned  something he had been told during his days working in the NFL by Joe Brown, the league’s head of public affairs.

He said that Brown told him to draw a vertical line on a piece of paper (like a “1”).  He said, “If one person knows, that’s how many know.”

Then he had him draw a second line, right next to the first one, and said, “If two people know, 11 people know.”

Finally, he had him draw a third line, next to the first two, and said, “If three people know, 111 people know.”

Said Warren, “I’ve never forgotten that.”


*********** Is the  so-called “Guardian Cap” - a soft cap that covers football helmets during practice - really helpful in preventing concussions?
 
Is it CYA  to keep the CTE lawyers at bay?   

Is its use by the NFL a way of pressuring other programs - college, high school, youth - to buy expensive but unnecessary equipment?

Does it  give players wearing it a  false sense of protection that emboldens them to make more use of the head on contact situations?

Is it all of the above?

https://www.si.com/nfl/2022/07/30/guardian-cap-use-a-concern-for-watt-saleh-early-in-training-camp


*********** RIP Vin Scully.  A class act and baseball's   link to the days when major league ball wasn’t played west of St. Louis.

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/34338705/vin-scully-iconic-former-los-angeles-dodgers-broadcaster-dies-age-94


*********** I know that the Big Ten schools are awaiting the arrival of the Brinks trucks with all their money from the new TV contract, enriched as it’s going to be by the addition of USC and UCLA, but will somebody explain to me - slowly, because I’m dense about certain things - how, exactly, the average Big Ten fan or student is going to benefit from conference expansion?

(Before you try to get me off track - yes, yes, I know that money transfer no longer requires the physical delivery of tens of millions of dollars.)

Now, then, just for openers - let’s say you’re an Iowa fan and you’ve just learned that those rivals that you’ve hated for all those years - Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois  and, more recently, Nebraska.   One of them is going to have to go.  Oh, you’ll maybe get to see  them once ever four years.   Just  like the Olympics or the World Cup.  So quit complaining.

Or how about Minnesota fans? They’ve got Wisconsin and Iowa, for sure.  But what about the Little Brown Jug game?  The one with Michigan?  I know it hasn’t been much of a  rivalry, with Michigan winning ten games for every one won by Minnesota, but still  - it goes back to the 19th century!   (I probably just said the wrong thing, because in the 19th century women couldn’t even vote yet.)

Ah, what the hell.  Screw the fans.   If they don’t like it, let them stay home and watch some other game on TV.  Oh, wait…


***********  Vegas’ prediction of 2022 Big Ten regular season wins

Courtesy of FanDuel

Ohio State (Over/Under 11 Wins)
Michigan (Over/Under 9.5 Wins)
Wisconsin (Over/Under 9 Wins)
Penn State (Over/Under 8 Wins)
Michigan State (Over/Under 7.5 Wins)
Minnesota (Over/Under 7.5 Wins)
Nebraska (Over/Under 7.5 Wins)
Purdue (Over/Under 7.5 Wins)
Iowa (Over/Under 7.5 Wins)
Maryland (5.5 Wins)
Illinois (Over/Under 4.5 Wins)
Rutgers (Over/Under 4 Wins)
Indiana (Over/Under 4 Wins)
Northwestern (Over/Under 3.5 Wins)

*********** The NCAA can breathe a sigh of relief. It won't have to do all that 'splainin.' Conferences were each supposed to nominate a Woman of the Year  and - surprise - Lia Thomas wasn’t the Ivy League’s nominee.

https://www.outkick.com/in-a-major-upset-lia-thomas-will-not-win-the-ncaa-woman-of-the-year-award/


*********** I like this guy Yogi Roth.

He played football at Pitt - roomed with Larry Fitzgerald, I hear - and then, after four years on Pete Carroll’s  staff at USC (coaching quarterbacks) he went over to the media side, where he’s spent time as an in-game and in-studio analyst on the Pac-12 Network and produced a number of works for ESPN.  He’s also spent a lot of time following the recruitment of quarterbacks, and he’s just come out with “5-Star Quarterback” a book devoted to the career paths of today’s young quarterbacks.

Here’s John Canzano’s review:

“5-Star Quarterback” is a great late-summer read and takes a deep dive into the most scrutinized position in college sports. Roth interviewed more than 50 star QBs for the project and came away with a fun and interesting read. The book is a great peek into the psyche and lives of young, talented players and the journey they embark on from development to recruiting to the playing field.

Roth’s new project is essentially a handbook for an understanding of what a gifted high school quarterback will encounter in major college football, including the lure of the transfer portal. Chapter 1 of the book starts with UCLA coach Chip Kelly and Stanford coach David Shaw talking about scholarships.

*********** NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell sounded really pissed as he came down on the Dolphins, and their owner, Stephen Ross, for “tampering” - contacting Tom Brady and Sean Payton and/or their agent (they share the same agent) about the possibility that perhaps, some day, maybe (who knows?) events might conspire to  bring the  quarterback and the coach to Miami to play.  Tsk, tsk.  Seems that when the contacts were made, both Brady and Payton were  under contract to perform their services for other teams.  Tsk, tsk.

Goodell really brought down the hammer, fining Ross and suspending him (imagine the Dolphins having to play six games  without their owner up in his private box, doing whatever  it is owners do), and taking several future draft choices from the team.

But here’s what gets me - not a damn thing happened to Brady, or Payton, or their go-between -  guy who represents them in their negotiations.

It takes two to tango.  You want to put a stop to this sh—?  Go after the third party.  Suspend the agent.


https://www.outkick.com/nfl-investigation-lets-miami-dolphins-stephen-ross-tom-brady-sean-payton-get-off-light/



*********** Gee, I wonder why liberals are trying to crush  the Babylon Bee (Motto: “Fake News You Can Trust”)


SAN FRANCISCO, CA – The LGBTQ+ lobby has added the Monkeypox symbol to the Pride Flag in honor of their ever-evolving movement for freedom and equity.

"Instead of preventing Monkeypox by getting vaccinated and abstaining from gay sex with strangers for a few weeks, the community is embracing the virus as a symbol of equity and bodily autonomy," says Jason Hillons, a local gay man. "Everyone's going to catch it. We're not going to let the world tell us who we can and can't sleep with!"

The flag will be featured at LeatherWalk 2022 in September. LeatherWalk 2022 invites thousands of LGBTQ+ members and California public school kids to participate in all sorts of day and night festivities which include leather and latex. Despite the prevalence of a vaccine, Monkeypox is still spreading around the country.

"Monkeypox is a rite of passage," says Trey Norms. "If you haven't gotten it yet, are you even gay?”

There are now over 5,800 confirmed cases in the United States and no concrete way of preventing the virus. Big Tech leaders have announced that anyone outside the LGBTQ+ community who associates the virus with a sexually promiscuous lifestyle will be banned from social media for homophobia.

***

MOSCOW — WNBA star Brittney Griner has been found guilty of drug trafficking charges in Russia. The judge has sentenced Griner to 9 years in a Russian penal colony where she will never have to hear America's national anthem being played.

"I'm thrilled with this ruling," said Griner to reporters. "For 9 years I will be free from the systemic racism of America and will never have to hear that awful national anthem being played. I look forward to living out the next decade far away in beautiful Russia."

Sources close to Griner say she is also thrilled that she got the exact same sentence a man would have gotten for the exact same crime. "In Russia, they really seem to care about closing the sentencing gap between men and women," she said.

Russian authorities say Griner will be given special tasks around the penal colony, such as reaching things on high shelves, pruning the tops of trees, and breaking large rocks into little rocks.

"I just want to say thank you to Vladimir Putin for saving me from the racist hellhole that is the United States, if only for 9 years," said Griner.

At publishing time, President Biden proposed bringing Griner back home by exchanging her for Hunter Biden.

***
LOS ANGELES, CA — Singer-songwriter Demi Lovato declared herself nonbinary and adopted the use of "they/them" pronouns last year, and has made waves again this week by adopting the "she/her" pronouns that she originally had. According to sources, she made this decision when her car's tire went flat on the I-5 freeway.

"I heard the rumbling and thumping at 85 miles-per-hour, and the oddest sensation came over me — I became a woman again!" said the now female singer. "Then I used my feminine wiles to get some help from a manly passing motorist."

During an interview with Stephen Colbert recounting the incident, Lovato discussed her journey with gender identity more broadly. "I've considered changing my pronouns to get out of speeding tickets, settle on a restaurant, and avoid paying for dinner, but this was the first time I really felt helpless — I knew I needed a man to help me change my tire when another semi-truck driver blazed by me without a second look! So scary!"

https://babylonbee.com/


*********** “When I was in journalism school we were taught you had to source things from two reliable sources and you can’t run with it until. Now, we’ve got folks in the national media reporting stuff that is on burner Twitter accounts. It’s unfortunate. It’s the world we live in.” George Kliavkoff


*********** Just in case you might have wondered why the NCAA is doomed to extinction.
National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Board of Directors has 24 members,  20 of whom are presidents/chancellors

    5 from each of the Power Five conferences

    5 from each of the Group of Five conferences

    10 from the 22 FCS conferences

In addition:

1 Athletic  Director

1 Faculty athletics representative

1 Senior woman administrator

1 Student-athlete

Did you get that?  Even assuming  they understood the problems facing Big Time college football,  the presidents or chancellors of the (FBS) Power 5 and Group of Five schools amount to just only 10 of the 24 members of the board that gets to decide on policies  that affect primarily the bigger schools.

And so it  was announced Wednesday that the Board of Directors, urged to take action on the current transfer-at-any-time-you-want policy, chose to punt, sending a proposal back for “additional work.”

Translation: They had a  chance to bring some order to the chaos  that  infects the  college game - and turned their attention instead to what they were going to have for lunch.


***********  I thought it rather amazing that in all his years with the Cowboys, Don Perkins fumbled just 18 times, which got me to researching where that put him in relation to the best backs who ever played the game. 

My discovery:  he was pretty doggone good.  To determine who fumbled more or less, I divided a player’s total fumbles lost by his total touches - rushes and receptions. (True confession: I didn’t allow for returns, which certainly may have contributed to some of the fumbles as well as well as touches.  My thinking was that most of these guys, being modern players on teams with 53-man rosters, were considered too valuable by their teams to be used on returns anyhow.)

MEA CULPA:  I  wrote on Tuesday’s NEWS  that of the top runners in recent NFL history, only  four  have been below 2 per cent for their careers:  Curtis Martin (.7 per cent), LaDainian Tomlinson (.8 per cent), Jerome Bettis (1.1 per cent) and Emmitt Smith (1.2 per cent).  My  apologies for not having dug deeper and finding that Marshall Faulk, Frank Gore, Barry Sanders, Edgerrin James, Thurman Thomas, Marcus Allen and John Riggins also belonged in that group.

INTERPRETATION: For every 100 times he touched the ball,  Curtis Martin fumbled the ball .7 times, while Adrian Peterson fumbled the ball 1.4 times.  So although it is certainly a  tiny  difference,  it does mean that overall, on any particular play, Peterson (1.4) was twice as likely to fumble as Martin.  Jim Brown, at 2.1 fumbles per 100 touches, was three times as likely to fumbles as Martin, and Franco Harris, at 2.8,  was four times as likely as Martin.  I won’t even get into discussing the shockingly high percentages for a couple of great players - Ollie Matson and Greg Pruitt, but I would  say that  if you’re fumbling more than 3  times per hundred touches, you’d better be one hell of a player otherwise.



RUNNING BACKS    TOUCHES    FUMB        PCT

Curtis Martin                    4002            29            .7
Ladainian Tomlinson     3798             31            .8
Marshall Faulk              3603             36            1.0
DON PERKINS            1646              18           1.09
Frank Gore                    4219              46           1.09
Jerome Bettis                3679              41           1.1
Emmitt Smith                4924              61           1.2
Barry Sanders               3424              41           1.2
Edgerrin James             3461              44           1.3
Adrian Peterson            3535              49           1.4
Thurman Thomas         3349              50           1.5
Marcus Allen                3609              65           1.8
John Riggins                 3166              58           1.8
Walter Payton               4330              86           2.0
Eric Dickerson              3778             78            2.0
Jim Brown                    2621             57            2.1
O.J. Simpson                2607             62            2.4
Steve Van Buren          1365              34           2.5
Tony Dorsett                3334              90           2.7
Franco Harris               3256              90           2.8
Joe Perry                      2189              66           3.0
Billy Sims                   1317              40            3.0
———————————————-
Ollie Matson                2189             66             4.7
Greg  Pruitt                  1524              83            5.0

How about this?  The great Bronco Nagurski, who played with the Bears from 1930 through 1937, then came back to play one season during World War II (when there was a shortage of able bodies) had 644 touches - 633 carries and 11 receptions - in his career. But get this -  he never lost the ball on a fumble! Not once.  Suspicious, I check Clarke Hinkle’s stats  and found that he never lost a fumble, either.   Hmmm.  Neither did Ken Strong. Or Beattie Feathers.  Or Johnny Blood.  They were the backs on the 1930s All-Decade team.  I’m  getting the idea that just as they  didn’t keep track of sacks until relatively recently, they  didn’t keep track of fumbles back in the 1930s.


*********** More on fumble research…

It shouldn’t be a surprise that the guys who handle the ball on every offensive play are the ones who fumble it the most.

Most of the NFL’s all-time leaders in fumbles are quarterbacks. The first five? Brett Favre, Warren Moon, Dave Krieg, Kerry Collins, John Elway.

Second five: Tom Brady, Eli Manning, Drew Bledsoe, Boomer Esiason, Vinny Testaverde.

Actually, in the top 50 fumblers, only five are NOT quarterbacks:

Tony Dorsett and Franco Harris are tied in 28th place with 90.  Next  come Walter Payton, in 33rd place with 86, Greg Pruitt in 39th place with 83, and Eric Dickerson in 50th place with 78.


*********** Gave us a lot to chew on today. I happened across that basketball game, Red Scare vs. Blue Collar U, but had no idea who the teams actually were. At first I thought HS, then I flipped to thinking college, then maybe developmental league. I stayed with it 10 minutes or so, during which time the announcers could have told me what I was looking at. Anyway, thanks for explaining.

Your readings about the business side of athletics distinguishes this site from most others. Thanks for culling out the good stuff for us.

John Vermillion
St. Petersburg, Florida

FOR  THOSE WHO DIDN’T WATCH:  Blue Collar U - a bunch of former U of Buffalo players, won big. Divvied up a million bucks.


*********** Hugh,

RIP Bill Russell.  I met Mr. Russell at an alumni function at the University of San Francisco in 1981.  I was an assistant to the Director of IM/Rec sports, and coaching the club football team.  He was there to participate in the alumni function, and took in a USF basketball game.  I had become a friend of the athletic director while working there, and he was the one who introduced me to Mr. Russell.  When I shook his hand I couldn't believe how big his hand was.

Had to speak a "different language" during my last two head coaching job interviews.  Got both jobs.

Just a thought.  Fresno State has beaten a number of Pac-12 schools over the last 20 years, and has taken mighty USC, Washington, and Oregon to the wire.  They have also beaten San Diego State.  They play in a "market" that has over 6 million TV viewers (the Central Valley) most of whom are Bulldog fans.  Yet, while SDSU seems to be getting a lot of attention by the Pac 12 there is virtually a whisper regarding the Bulldogs.  No matter.  We'll still play anyone, anywhere, at anytime.

The high school where I just finished my coaching career is having an issue with getting helmets.  When I was a HC we never had a problem regardless of economic times.  I sent my helmets AND shoulder pads in for reconditioning immediately after the season was over taking advantage of pricing, AND, ordered new helmets at the same time (usually in December or January).  Never considered Spring ball.  Didn't use helmets.  Spent the entire two-week window during the spring installing/reviewing the offense and defense, and evaluating upcoming athletic talent in order to plug them in to appropriate positions for their ability.

Have a great week!

Joe Gutilla
Austin, Texas


*********** QUIZ ANSWER:  Don Perkins  was born and raised in Waterloo, Iowa, where as a senior he was a two-way all-state player on a state championship football team and president of his school’s student body. 

In the fall of 1956, he became one of the the first black athletes to play football for the University of New Mexico.

At a time of freshman ineligibility he was a star on  the Lobo freshman team,  and as a sophomore he  rushed for 744 yards, averaging 6.6 yards per carry, and was named to the All-Skyline Conference first team.

His greatest game as a Lobo was his last.  New Mexico upset Air Force, 28-27, as he rushed for 126 yards and scored three  touchdowns, one of them a 64-yard screen pass.

“I don’t think there could have been a better back in America than Perkins was today,” said his coach, Marv Levy.  Coach Levy  was right - the AP named him their Back of the Week.

At the end of his three-year varsity career, his Number 43 was the first one ever retired at New Mexico.

He was drafted in the ninth round in 1960 by the Baltimore Colts, but it turned out that the expansion Dallas Cowboys, unable to participate in the draft,  had already signed him to a personal-services contract, which the league upheld.

He broke his foot in Cowboys’ training camp and missed the 1960 season, the Cowboys’ first, but as a  rookie in 1961 he rushed for 815 yards and four touchdowns. He was named to  play in the  Pro Bowl, and finished third in the Rookie of the Year voting,  behind Mike Ditka and Fran Tarkenton. 

During that season, he became the first Cowboys’ runner ever to rush for 100 yards in a game.

His next year was his best: he rushed for 945 yards and seven touchdowns, and became the  first Cowboy ever to be named to the All-Pro team.

He played eight years in the NFL, and ranked among the top ten rushers in the NFL all eight of those years.   Although still at the top of his game - he was coming off a  season in which he ran carried 191 times for 836 yards and caught 17 passes for 180 yards - on the  day in 1969 that players were to report to camp, he announced his retirement.

"I don't feel I'm washed up," he said at the time, "but then again I'm not naive enough to believe I'm just coming into my own either."

Ironically, his last year - 1968 - was the year the Cowboys finally ended  their practice of segregating players by race when staying in hotels.

In 107 games, he rushed for 6,217 yards, now fourth among all Cowboys’ runners, behind Emmitt Smith, Tony Dorsett and Ezekiel Elliott.  His 42 rushing touchdowns rank fifth in club history.

He was named to six Pro Bowls and one All-Pro Team.  What made this notable  is that in their  early years the Cowboys were really BAD, and it wasn’t until his fifth year that they broke even at 7-7, and until his sixth year that they finally won.

Said Tom Landry to NFL Films, “The guy was a remarkable runner, a great pass blocker, and one of the best players in our history.”

Truly remarkable was something that I just happened to notice: he fumbled just 18 times in his eight-year career.  With a total of 1646 “touches” - carries and receptions - 18 fumbles means he  fumbled on just 1.09 per cent of all his touches.  That’s extremely low:  of the top runners in recent NFL history, only  four  have been below 2 per cent for their careers:  Curtis Martin (.7 per cent), LaDainian Tomlinson (.8 per cent), Jerome Bettis (1.1 per cent) and Emmitt Smith (1.2 per cent). 

In 1976, he and Don Meredith were the next persons inducted into the Cowboys’ Ring of Honor (after Bob Lilly in 1975).

He is also in the Texas and New Mexico Sports Halls of Fame.

After football, he returned to Albuquerque, where he raised a family.

For a while, he worked as an NFL color analyst and as a local TV sports anchor.

In 1970, he was named director of New Mexico’s Youth Opportunity Program, and In 1987, he joined the Albuquerque Police Department as a community relations counselor.

He performed in local theater productions, and in the 1990s, he portrayed the great Frederick Douglass in an one-man show.

In a February 2007 interview with the Albuquerque Journal, after the interviewer noted that there was no sign in his house of  his football career, he said,  “I’ve got kids and grandkids that are very important to m.  I don’t think they need to come over to grandpa’s house and see a shrine to the National Football League.”

He died  this past June at the age of 84

Richard Melzer, an Albuquerque author, has been working on a biography of Don Perkins, which is due out in the fall of 2023.


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING DON PERKINS

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
TOM DAVIS - SAN CARLOS, CALIFORNIA
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
JOE GUTILLA - AUSTIN, TEXAS
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY


QUIZ:  I did a lot of research on this man, and although I could wrote volumes about him,  in my research I came across this amazing biography, written by some with the nom de plume of CalBear81.  It’s a long read, but it's well worth it. It  far exceeds anything I could have written in describing the kind of man he was.  He was a  winning coach at Oklahoma City;  Oklahoma State (then Oklahoma A & M) where he never lost to OU and probably would have stayed had  the school not been forced by the Depression to  slash his pay; at Kansas State, where he won the school’s only conference championship until 2003, when the great Bill Snyder would finally git ‘er done;  at Northwestern, where he earned Coach of the Year honors;  and finally at Cal, where he came in and ended eight straight losing seasons with a 9-0-1 first season, then followed that up with three straight undefeated regular seasons and three straight  Rose Bowls.  But with all that great success as a coach, what came across to me more than anything else was what a man of integrity he was, what a great representative of our game.  And  also, how beloved he was by his players.  For 33 years after his death - until they either passed away or became too old to do it any longer - his former players met faithfully at the first home game every season.

By CalBear81

He was the most beloved football coach in Cal history: beloved by his players, by the fans, and even by the Bears' opponents.  He was a great coach.  A career record of 157-89-19, and a 67-32-4 record at California, are evidence of this.  So are three straight Rose Bowl appearances and back-to-back 10-win seasons for only the second time in Cal history.  And so is his history of turning around losing football programs everywhere he went, from Oklahoma City University to the University of California, and of winning conference championships at all five schools where he was the head coach. But there was something more than this that made people love him. Something more, even, than his 7-1-2 record in the Big Game. There was something so special about him that 58 years after he retired from coaching, and 33 years after his death, his former players, men in their 70s and 80s who still called themselves "Pappy's Boys," gathered regularly to remember and honor him.  He was not just a great coach, he was a good man.

He was born on October 3, 1902 in Clifton Springs, New York.  His father was a well-connected Methodist minister who later became a bishop.  The family moved to Cleveland, where he grew up.  He followed his father to Syracuse University where, although he was considered too short to play football, he made the varsity squad, and was named an All American twice.  At Syracuse, he also met Louise McKay, whom he married in 1925 in what, by all accounts turned out to be an extraordinarily happy marriage.

He graduated from Syracuse with degrees in sociology and psychology, and set about looking for work. His father  contacted the president of Oklahoma City University, a Methodist school, about getting his son a teaching job.  Instead, his son was offered the substantial salary of $4,000 to take on the jobs of football, basketball, and track coach, and athletic director. He took the job, and took charge of the 1-7 Goldbugs. Only 14 players turned up for the first practice, and he  had to find additional players -  his starting team would eventually include six players who had not even played high school football.  But, by focusing on fundamentals of blocking and tackling, he was able to lead the Goldbugs to a 4-6 record, the best in school history. Two years later, in 1927, the Goldbugs were 8-1-2, and tied for the conference championship.

In 1928, he went to the University of Kansas as an assistant, before being hired as the head coach of Oklahoma A&M (now Oklahoma State) the following year. In five years at Oklahoma A&M,  his record was 34-10-7.  He won three conference championships, and never lost to arch-rival Oklahoma.  In 1934 he was hired as the head coach of Kansas State.  In his single season there, he won the Big Six conference title -- the first time Kansas State had ever won the championship, and the only time it would do so until 2003.

He was a very hot property by now, and the next year he was wooed away to Evanston, Illinois by Northwestern University.  He recognized that his players were not outstanding, and would probably not win many games.  So he decided on a limited focus. He later explained, "When you're faced with one of those years when your material is only fair and you're not going to win many games, put your eggs in one basket. Pick a tough team and lay for it. Knock if off, and you've got yourself a season. . . . I chose Notre Dame." His "secret weapon" against Notre Dame was a brand new strategy - changing defensive formations on each play. It worked.  Notre Dame was completely confused by the changes on defense by Northwestern, and the Wildcats pulled off a startling 14-7 upset. When the coaches went out that night for a drink to celebrate, the bartender, noticing him nursing a single drink all night long, started calling him "Pappy."  His assistants picked up on it, and the nickname stuck. Northwestern finished the season 4-3-1, and he  won the first-ever National Coach of the Year Award.

The next year, 1936, was even better.  He developed a new formation, an unbalanced line which he called the "Cockeyed Formation," and which is now recognized as the first slot formation.  It allowed four receivers to head down field, instead of the usual two.  He debuted the new formation against Ohio State, leading to a Northwestern victory.  The Wildcats ended the season 7-1, and won the Big-10 Championship.  At the end of the season,  he was invited to the East-West Shrine game in the Bay Area as the Big-10s "observer." He and his wife fell in love with northern California, and he  decided that if a job came open there in the future, he would accept it. But in the meantime, he continued his success in Evanston.  His 49 career wins at Northwestern remained the most in school history until 2012 until Pat Fitzgerald supposed it.

While he was enjoying success at Northwestern, things were not going well in Berkeley. The Bears had won the Rose Bowl and a National Championship under Stub Allison in 1937, but the 1940s had been a disaster. Allison had not adjusted to the changes in the game in the early 1940s, and World War II had made it difficult to even field a team.  In 1944, Allison resigned and was replaced by Lawrence Shaw. Shaw was, in turn, replaced by Frank Wickhorst for the 1946 season, in which the Bears went 2-7. Worse, Wickhorst lost the support of his team. 42 of the 44 varsity players signed a petition calling for his firing.  The students were equally upset, to the point that during the embarrassing 1946 Big Game loss, they began tearing up the seats and passing them down onto the field.

Cal athletics had a unique organizational structure. Since 1904, management of the athletic department had been in the hands of the Associated Students of the University of California (ASUC), whose Executive Committee had the power to hire and fire coaches. Two weeks after the 1946 Big Game they did just that, firing Wickhorst and two of his assistants. The actions of the ASUC shocked the college football establishment. The University of California was condemned for allowing students to exercise that kind of control over coaches, and it was widely predicted that no respected coach would be willing to come to Cal under such circumstances.

University president Robert Gordon Sproul stepped in to limit the damage by creating the position of Athletic Director, with the power to hire and fire coaches.  The job was given to Cal's highly respected track coach, Brutus Hamilton. Hamilton offered the head coach job to Fritz Crisler at Michigan, who turned it down. Then, at a  meeting of the American Football Coaches Association in January 1947, Hamilton mentioned the Cal coaching job to Pappy.  Remembering his fondness for northern California, Pappy immediately expressed interest. To the shock of the college football world, he accepted the job as the California's head coach in February 1947.  At a press conference at the Claremont Hotel,  he  proclaimed that he had come to Berkeley, "to awaken a sleeping giant."

Despite his history of success, the California football program had been so troubled that his arrival was greeted skeptically. San Francisco Examiner sports columnist Prescott Sullivan summed it up:

Big, meaty - - - - - - is the new head coach at the University of California. We realize there is nothing particularly distinctive about that. California's always getting a new football coach.  He is the fourth the school has had in as many years. We hope  he  is a man of independent means. The job over there in Berkeley ain't too steady.

But he  quickly won over the players, the fans, and even the reporters.  He was a great story-teller, and he would host cocktail parties for the press where he told stories and recited some of his seemingly endless store of limericks, while puffing on a cigar and sipping bourbon. He could talk about Plato and Shakespeare, debate the details of Civil War battles, and discuss the football theories of his friend Amos Alonzo Stagg, with equal enthusiasm. The press was charmed.

At the first team practice, 255 students showed up to try out. Since the rule allowing free substitution of players, which had been implemented during the war, remained in effect, there were plenty of opportunities. Many of those who showed up had no football experience, but Pappy did not discourage them, as he wanted to create an atmosphere of enthusiasm. When one student lined up at quarterback under a tackle,  he just said, "That cow's dry, son.  Move over." Then the student lined up behind a guard. "That one's dry, too. Keep movin' over," Pappy told him. Team manager Sedge Thompson said, "He didn't show any sign of being mad or disgusted that entire spring."  He set about learning the names of all 255 potential players, developed carefully organized practice schedules, and required every player to carry a notebook, which the coaches inspected to ensure the recruits were taking proper notes.  He focused on careful drills, with every detail of each player's performance critiqued by the coaches.

His attention to detail paid off.  The very first play from scrimmage by the Bears under  him was a 39-yard touchdown run by halfback George Fong against Santa Clara, and the Bears went on to a 33-7 win. Thousands of fans gathered under the north balcony of Memorial Stadium chanting, "We want Pappy!" He went onto the balcony with team captain Rod Franz, and thus began the tradition of Pappy's post-game balcony addresses to the fans.

The next week, California faced a much bigger challenge in a great Navy team. 83,000 fans showed up -- the biggest crowd in the history of Memorial Stadium.  When Cal took the lead right before the half with a touchdown on a scramble by quarterback Bob Celeri, the crowd's reaction registered on the campus' seismograph.  The Bears led 14-7 with minutes to go in the game, when Navy went on a drive. But an interception by unknown sophomore Jackie Jensen sealed the Bears' victory. This was only the beginning.  The next week the Bears beat highly regarded St. Mary's 45-6, rushing for 432 yards in the process. The week after, they traveled to Madison, where they walloped Wisconsin 48-7, in a game that featured both a 22-yard touchdown run and a 23-yard touchdown pass by Jensen.

Going into the Big Game, the Bears were 8-1, with only a loss to #11 USC marring their record. After a 60-14 drubbing of Montana the week before the Big Game, Jackie Jensen told the fans from the north balcony, "We're sorry the score went so high today." After a pause he added, "But we don't care how high it goes next week!"  The crowd, starved for their first Big Game victory since 1941, went wild. The Indians made the game closer than expected, but the Bears emerged with a 21-18 win.  In his first season in Berkeley, he  had turned a 2-7 team into a 9-1, nationally recognized, power. 1948 would be even better.

The 1948 season, like 1947, began with a game against Santa Clara.  And once again, the Bears' first play from scrimmage was a touchdown, this time a 62-yard run by Jackie Jensen.  He described Jensen's running as "almost magical. He eludes the hand his eye cannot see." The Bears compiled a 6-0 record heading into the critical match-up against USC in Los Angeles. Several members of the California team had actually delayed their graduations for the specific purpose of getting another shot at the Trojans. Once again, Jackie Jensen was the star, running for 132 yards on 27 attempts, and scoring both of the Bears' touchdowns, for a 13-7 California win. After the game, several Cal players, including Jensen, took a short field trip to take a look at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena.

The Bears were prohibitive favorites in the Big Game. A win would guarantee the Rose Bowl for the first time since 1938, and tickets were impossible to obtain. But once again, Stanford proved to be a bigger challenge than expected.  The Bears scored a touchdown on their first drive. But the Stanford defense stepped up, and kept the Bears from scoring again.  In the third quarter, the Indians scored a touchdown, but Cal's Jim "Truck" Cullom blocked the extra point.  The Bears held on for a 7-6 win, an undefeated 10-0 regular season, and the Rose Bowl.

The Bears faced Pappy's old team, Northwestern, in Pasadena on January 1, 1949.  With the game tied 7-7 in the second quarter, Northwestern went on a drive to the Cal goal line. But Cal's Norm Pressley grabbed the arms of Northwestern ball carrier, Art Murakowki, from behind, causing a fumble, which the Bears recovered in the end zone for a touch back. Except that the referee called it a touchdown. Looking at photographs after the game, the press was unanimous that Murakowski had fumbled before he reached the end zone, but the infamous "phantom touchdown" stood.

The Bears took a 14-13 lead in the third quarter, but then Jackie Jensen went down with a foot injury.  With Jensen out, the Bears were not able to score again.  A late Northwestern touchdown gave them a 20-14 win, and left Cal fans complaining about the "Phantom Touchdown" for years.

The Rose Bowl loss was all the more discouraging to Cal fans, because the Bears were losing many of their best players. Most notably, Jackie Jensen, with Pappy's encouragement, decided to leave school a year early to accept an offer to play professional baseball. (He would become the first person ever to play in the Rose Bowl, the World Series and the All-Star game). Nevertheless, his 1949 Golden Bears remained strong. They were 4-0 heading into another big showdown with USC, in what would be the Bears' first televised game. USC took a 10-7 lead in the fourth quarter on a Frank Gifford field goal.  But on the ensuing kick-off, Cal's Frank Brunk fielded the ball in the end zone and, with extraordinary blocking from his teammates, ran it back for a 102-yard touchdown. The last USC player with a shot at him was Frank Gifford, who is seen in the photographs face down on the turf, having missed the tackle. Because the game was televised, Brunk's run became legendary. California ended up with a 16-10 victory.

Once again the Bears were undefeated heading into the Big Game.  But this year, Stanford would prove no obstacle. California won the game easily, 33-14, out-rushing the Indians 390-167. After a second-straight 10-0 regular season, and ranked #1, the Bears headed back to the Rose Bowl. Once again, however, the Bears were frustrated in Pasadena. They faced a talented Ohio State team, and were fortunate to have a 14-14 tie late in the fourth quarter. But with two minutes left, a bad snap caused Bob Celeri to shank a punt, giving the Buckeyes the ball on the California 13-yard-line. Ohio State kicked a field goal for a 17-14 win. The Bears ended the year ranked #3.

1950 was expected to be a rebuilding year. But Pappy had brought in another unknown who would turn into a star almost overnight, running back Johnny Olszewski. While Jackie Jensen had been quick and light on his feet, Johnny O was fast but amazingly powerful. Running backs coach Wes Fry said of Olszewski, "He's the most elusive player you'll ever see . . . but he's also equipped with an additional weapon. If there's no place else to go, he'll take on the other guy, and he usually doesn't come off second best.”

The 1950 Golden Bears didn't miss a beat. They began the season with convincing wins against Santa Clara, Oregon, and Pennsylvania, before facing USC.  The Trojans had sent Sam Barry, a long-time friend of Pappy's, to the Santa Clara game to scout the Bears. Barry had given him  a USC tie in 1947, which Pappy wore for luck during every game. On his way to the Santa Clara game, Barry suffered a fatal heart attack. Although there was an informal conference rule against using game film for scouting, Pappy sent the film of the Cal-Santa Clara game to USC's head coach, Jeff Cravath, with a note saying, "I deeply regret your loss and that Sam was unable to scout Cal for you. He was a good friend and his work should not be left unfinished. I hope you can make do with the enclosed film."  For once, a good deed did go unpunished. Cal beat USC,13-7.

For the third straight year, the Bears headed into the Big Game undefeated. This time Stanford was finally able to pull off something of an upset, holding the Bears to a 7-7 tie. The star of the game for Cal was Les Richter (who in 2011 became the first Cal Bear to enter the NFL Hall of Fame). Richter stopped one Stanford drive by intercepting the ball at the two-yard line, and stopped another with a 15-yard sack, preserving the tie.

This left California 9-0-1 on the season, and headed to its third consecutive Rose Bowl.  Alas, it was another disappointment for the Bears. Cal dominated the first half, out-gaining Michigan 192-65 yards. But the Bears only managed to score 6 points. Late in the fourth quarter, Michigan took a 7-6 lead. Then, when Cal's desperation fourth down play at the end of the game failed, Michigan took over deep in Cal territory and scored again, for a 14-6 final score. Always dignified, Pappy once again went to his opponents' locker room to offer congratulations.  Said his  assistant, Paul Christopoulos, "I learned from Pappy how to lose with dignity. It is a virtue that many among us sorely lack.”

The 1951 team dropped off a bit because of injuries to key players, including a knee injury to Olszewski, suffered against USC. After Johnny O went down on his first carry, the USC tackler, Pat Cannamela, appeared to deliberately give his right leg an extra twist as he lay on the ground, leading to a near-brawl, both on the field and in the stands. Cal Athletic Director Brutus Hamilton and faculty representative Glenn Seaborg protested to the conference to no avail. Years later, Seaborg wrote that it was clear that Cannamela had deliberately injured Olszewski, and complained, "The only satisfaction I got was an evasive non-apology from USC Coach Jess Hill."  Although Olszewski returned for the 1952 season, he was never the same player again. Thus, although the Bears began the 1951 season 4-0 and ranked #1, by the time the Big Game rolled around they were 7-2 and ranked #19.  It was Stanford, undefeated and ranked #3, that had visions of a national championship. But the Bears pulled off a stirring 20-7 upset to ruin Stanford's dreams, and, incidentally, to finish the season 8-2. After five seasons, Pappy's regular season record at California was an astonishing 46-3-1.

The 1952 Bears had lost several All America players, and Johnny O had not returned to form. A bright spot was outstanding quarterback Paul Larsen. And the Big Game was a 26-0 triumph, featuring a Larsen run for a touchdown, a 37-yard interception return for a touchdown by Lloyd Torchio (whose son would be the unexpected hero of the 1980 Big Game), and a fine performance by Johnny Olszewski, who gained 122 yards on 25 carries in his last game as a Golden Bear. California ended the year 7-3.  But it would be Pappy's last winning season.

In 1953, the NCAA abandoned the free-substitution rule that had been in place since World War II, and required all players to play both offense and defense. This radical change in the game destroyed the system Pappy had carefully crafted over the previous decade for developing offensive and defensive specialists. This rule change, along with the graduation of 29 varsity players, had severe consequences. The Bears went 4-4-2 in 1953 and 5-5 in 1954. Things got even worse in 1955, when the Bears had their first losing season since 1946, ending with a 2-7-1 record and, worse yet, Pappy's first-ever loss to Stanford.

During the summer of 1956, California became embroiled in the Ronnie Knox scandal. Knox was a highly regarded quarterback recruit from southern California, with a domineering step-father, who seemed to be cashing in on Ronnie's talents. Ronnie Knox decided to go to Cal in 1953, after members of a Cal booster club led him to believe he could be paid to write sports articles for the Berkeley Gazette, and would be receive $500 a year in "pocket money" for selling game tickets. When the University learned of these promises, they put an end to them, and after playing a year with the freshman squad, Knox transferred to UCLA, where he got into further trouble. Although he was unaware of the actions of the booster club with regard to Knox, a subsequent investigation revealed that he had approved the creation of a booster fund to make payments to players in emergencies. This was permissible under NCAA and conference rules, but he  had not sought the approval of the University president.  As a result, Berkeley Chancellor Clark Kerr issued a formal reprimand to him, and Pappy issued a formal apology.

The Knox affair led to a wider investigation of conference booster clubs, which resulted in harsh penalties to UCLA, USC, and Washington, and lesser penalties to California. Although UCLA came in for the harshest penalties of all, including three years of probation, the UCLA chancellor offered no reprimand to head coach Red Sanders, and Sanders made no apology.

After this difficult summer, the 1956 season was equally difficult, with the Bears having a 2-7 record going into the Big Game against heavily-favored Stanford. The Bears were down to their third-string quarterback for the game, having lost the first two to injuries. The Big Game would be in the hands of an obscure sophomore named Joe Kapp.

During the season,  Pappy decided that the time had come for him to retire. He made the announcement a few days before the Big Game. The Cal band showed up that night at Pappy's home on Grizzly Peak in full uniform to serenade him. Pappy told the band members, "This is one of the finest compliments ever paid me. It is a grand gesture. Your band is the epitome of the University of California.”

In storybook fashion, the 14-point underdog Bears pulled off one of the biggest upsets ever in the Big Game. The team came onto the field inspired, building up leads of 14-0 and 20-6, before holding on for a 20-18 win. Joe Kapp was the star, rushing for 106 yards on 18 carries. After the game, the team carried Pappy off the field on their shoulders, and Pappy made his final appearance on the north balcony of Memorial Stadium to tell an emotional crowd of 18,000 fans, "I love you, and I always will."

A few years after his retirement from Cal,  he  was contacted by the San Francisco 49ers to see if he would scout for them. He became the 49ers director of college scouting for the next 12 years. Pappy's friendships with coaches and athletic directors around the country gave him an access that other NFL scouts could only envy. In fact, when he was in Ohio, he stayed at the home of his friend, Ohio State coach Woody Hayes. In New York, he always stayed at the home of former USC player, NFL player and, later, broadcaster, Frank Gifford.

Pappy finally retired from the 49ers in 1972, at the age of 70.  But he continued to support his beloved Cal Bears. In 1980, he was asked by the California head coach, Roger Theder, to address the team before the Big Game. The Bears had had a terrible season. They had a 2-8 record, and were 15-point underdogs to a Stanford team led by sophomore quarterback John Elway. Pappy told the players,"The Big Game is college football in its purest form.  There is nothing else like it." His talk seemed to inspire the team. Led by back-up quarterback J Torchio, son of Pappy's player Lloyd Torchio, the Bears went on a 80-yard touchdown drive on their first possession, built up a 21-7 halftime lead, and hung on for a gutsy 28-23 upset.  Pappy was elated.  It turned out to be his last Big Game, as he passed away on August 15, 1981.



TUESDAY,  AUGUST 2, 2022 - “We have always been shameless about stealing great ideas.” Steve Jobs


*********** Bill Russell, who just died at age 88,  has to be one of the most important persons in the history of American sports.

This one man was a bridge between slavery - into which his grandfather was born - and the highest pinnacle of sport.

He was not only  the first black NBA coach.  Oh, no.  He was the first black man  to be head coach of any major professional sport team.

And he wasn’t just a token first, coach of some team that had nothing to lose by hiring  a black guy.  He was the coach of the Boston Freaking Celtics!

And he wasn’t just successful.  It’s doubtful that any  first-time coach has been under the gun for as many reasons as Bill Russell, but in three years he won two NBA  titles. And then, after three seasons as the Celtics’ coach, he walked away.

He pissed off a lot of people in Boston with his I-don’t-owe-the-public-anything attitude, and it’s hard to say, the  way he  kept the public at arm’s length, whether he helped open any doors  for others.

But he proved that a black man could handle the biggest job in pro basketball.

For sure, he was his own person.  Some called it aloofness, some called it arrogance.  I called it his interpretation of dignity.


*********** Time for a little bragging.  Bill Russell, a guy who could have lived any damn place he pleased,  chose to live in Washington. (Ahem.)  Mr.  Russell lived on Mercer Island for almost 50 years, and it’s where he passed away.

He did not live in a hovel.

https://www.rsir.com/blog/a-slam-dunk-on-mercer-island-the-bill-russell-estate/


***********  The Boston Celtics  of the 1950s and 60s are among the greatest sports dynasties ever, and the two men who stand out the most as representative of the franchise are Red Auerbach and Bill Russell.  The story of how they got together is  told by John Feinstein in his book about Auerbach, “Let Me Tell You a Story.”

A little background:  It was 1956, and Auerbach was looking forward to the appearance on the Celtics of Kentucky great Cliff Hagan.  He’d drafted Hagan two years earlier, but first Hagan had to serve two years in the Army.

But Auerbach  also was scheming to get Bill Russell, of the University of San Francisco.

Oh - and one more thing.  The Ice Capades figured in the story, too.  Arena owners everywhere wanted to book the Ice Capades, a huge attraction wherever they played.  And Walter Brown, the owner of the Celtics, also owned the Ice Capades.

The phone call that turned the Celtics from pretenders to contenders came shortly after New Year's in 1956. Red’s old college coach Bill Reinhart had just taken his team to the West Coast to play in a tournament. One of the teams in the event had been the University of San Francisco, the defending national champion. The Dons, who were in the midst of a 55-game winning streak, were led by a six-foot-nine center named Bill Russell and a superb point guard named K. C. Jones.

In those days no one had scouts. Red was the coach, general manager, chief scout, and marketing guru. He attended as many college games as he could and watched what little there was on TV. There was no such thing as getting film of a player either. So for the most part he relied on friends to tell him about players he might not have had a chance to see. He was also one of the first pro coaches to call college coaches and ask them for their assessment of players – those they had coached and those they had coached against.

As soon as he returned from California, Reinhart called Red. "I've seen the guy,” he said. "I've seen the guy who can make you into a championship team. You have to get this guy.“

Red trusted Reinhart implicitly. Reinhart described his defensive dominance, his ability to get rebounds and trigger the fast break. "How is he on offense?”  Red asked.

"Not much,” Reinhart said. "He's not a very good shooter at all. But it doesn't matter. One way or the other, you have got to get this guy.”

Red kept tabs on Russell for the rest of that season. He was certainly impressed with the fact that his team never lost; San Francisco went on to a second straight NCAA title.   Reinhart was right:   he didn't score much. Winning in college was different from winning in the pros. Still, he needed a center, and he needed a rebounder. He decided to trust his old coach’s instincts and go after him.

Of course that was easier said than done. The Celtics were scheduled to draft seventh that season. There was no way Russell would still be around at that point. At the end of the season, Ed  Macauley had approached Red and asked him if it might be possible to make some kind of trade that would allow him to return to St. Louis, which was his hometown. He had a child who had been ill, and being away for that much time in the winter was just too tough. Red could certainly relate to a dad dealing with a sick child and the notion of missing them during the season. He had promised Macauley he would make some kind of deal to get him back to St. Louis.

So he called his old boss Ben Kerner, who by then owned the team in St. Louis. He offered Macauley and a swap of first round draft picks -  Kerner's number two slot for Red’s number seven slot. According to Red, Kerner said, “Deal."

There was still, however, the issue of Rochester, which had the first pick. That was when Red came up with the idea of having Walter Brown call Rochester owner Les Harrison and offer up the Ice Capades as compensation for not taking Russell with the first pick. Harrison accepted and everything seemed set. Then came another phone call from Kerner.

"I need more to make this deal, "he said.

"More than Macauley, who is an all – star and my number one? “

“Yes.”

“But Ben, we had a deal!”

“Deal’s off unless you add another player.”

“Who do you want?”

“Cliff Hagan.”

Red almost gagged. He had been waiting three years for Hagan and had figured he would slide into Macauley's spot on the front line after the trade. Now Kerner wanted both of them.

"I had to decide if I was going to put all my eggs in one basket, because that's what I was doing,” he said. "I already had people telling me I was crazy to take Russell,  that he couldn't shoot or score. But I believed two things:  One, I believed Reinhart knew what he was talking about.  Two, I believed we needed to change. We were a good team, but we weren't a championship team. I had to let Macauley go to St. Louis regardless because I made him a promise that I 'd do it. Hagan was talented, but with him we were going to be the same kind of team. With Russell, we were going to be different. I decided to take the chance and make us a different team – for better or worse.”

He called Kerner back and told him he would give up Hagan too. Then came sweating out the days until the draft, hoping Harrison wouldn't change his mind and decide that Russell was a better first pick than the Ice Capades. On draft day, the Royals selected Sihugo Green, a talented shooting guard from Duquesne, with the first pick. Auerbach immediately grabbed Russell. The deed was done.

*********** From News You Can Use, June 2017

Way too soon to forget Frank DeFord, who died this week.

In fact, I’ve gone back to re-read some of the stuff he wrote about people like George Halas, Billy Conn, and Bill Russell.
 
His great achievement may have been becoming the only writer who could truly take us behind the facade which the notoriously private Russell used to shield his life from the public.

Some excerpts from the Russell article, much of it based on a 1999 interview which took place while they were driving from Seattle to Oakland…

Of course, genuine achievement is everywhere devalued these days. On the 200th anniversary of his death, George Washington has been so forgotten that they're toting his false teeth around the republic, trying to restore interest in the Father of Our Country with a celebrity-style gimmick. So should we be surprised that one spectacular show-off dunk on yesterday's highlight reel counts for more than some ancient decade's worth of championships back-before-Larry&Magic-really-invented-the-sport-of-basketball?

Tommy Heinsohn, who played with Russell for nine years and won 10 NBA titles himself, as player and coach, sums it up best: "Look, all I know is, the guy won two NCAA championships, 50-some college games in a row, the (’56) Olympics, then he came to Boston and won 11 championships in 13 years, and they named a f------ tunnel after Ted Williams." By that standard, only a cathedral on a hill deserves to have Bill Russell's name attached to it.

***

What do you remember your father telling you, Bill?

"Accept responsibility for your actions.... Honor thy father and mother.... If they give you $10 for a day's work, you give them $12 worth in return."

Even more clearly, Russell recalls the gritty creed his mother gave him when he was a little boy growing up in segregation and the Depression in West Monroe, La. Katie said, "William, you are going to meet people who just don't like you. On sight. And there's nothing you can do about it, so don't worry. Just be yourself. You're no better than anyone else, but no one's better than you."

***

His grandfather Jake was of the family's first generation born free on this continent. When this fading century began, Jake Russell was trying to scratch out a living with a mule. The Klan went after him because even though he couldn't read or write a lick, he led a campaign to raise money among the poor blacks around West Monroe to build a schoolhouse and pay a teacher to educate their children at a time when the state wouldn't have any truck with that.

At the other end of Jake's life, in 1969, he went over to Shreveport, La., to see the Celtics play an exhibition. By then his grandson had become the first African-American coach in a major professional sport. Jake sat with his son, Charlie, watching Bill closely during timeouts. He wasn't quite sure what he was seeing; Celtics huddles could be terribly democratic back then. It was before teams had a lot of assistants with clipboards. Skeptically Jake asked his son, "He's the boss?"

Charlie nodded.

Jake took that in. "Of the white men too?"

"The white men too."

Jake just shook his head. After the game he went into the decrepit locker room, which had only one shower for the whole team. The Celtics were washing up in pairs, and when Jake arrived, Sam Jones and John Havlicek were in the shower, passing the one bar of soap back and forth--first the naked black man, then the naked white man stepping under the water spray. Jake watched, agape. Finally he said, "I never thought I'd see anything like that."

https://www.si.com/vault/1999/05/10/260658/the-ring-leader-the-greatest-team-player-of-all-time-bill-russell-was-the-hub-of-a-celtics-dynasty-that-ruled-its-sport-as-no-other-team-ever-has


***********  If you were an actor and getting a part you wanted meant having  to learn to speak with a French accent, would you say, “Sorry, I’m a New Yorker and this is the way I talk?”

Or would you say, “Oui, oui?”

One of the things I keep coming back to on my Zooms is that even in places where people hate your offense, you can still run it:   you just run it in ways so that it’s not recognizable to the public.

Look -  you  and I both know your offense can sometimes keep you from getting a job.    The problem is, it’s an offense you know and believe in. It’s one of the things that’s made you  successful, and without it you might not be as  good a coach.   By this point, it’s a part of who you are.
 
But look -  if you want a job badly enough and you know that to get people to hire you means running something other than “that damn double wing,” you have three options:  (1)  insist on running the Double Wing  - and don't get the job;  (2) Change offenses to something that you don’t know or believe in - something that isn’t you - increasing  the likelihood that you’ll fail at the job if you get it;  or (3) Retain the basic principles and plays of your Double Wing, but with a more acceptable look.  (Put a beard on it.)

The point is, you don’t have to learn a new language to get the part. You only have to learn a new accent.


*********** On Saturday I got a text and an email from American Express asking me “Did you just try to charge 79.99 USD on Card # (- - - - - ) at CLEENG B V?

If not, I was to call.

I never heard of the bunch, so I called American Express and told them  so.

They said they’d cancel it, and also send me a new card - with a different number.

NO-O-O-O! I screamed!  Go ahead and pay the crooks the $79.99 but I  don’t want to go through the mess of having to change my card number!

Okay, sir, said the young lady with a southern accent (southern Asian that is) , but we now know your card has been compromised, and when someone fraudulently charges something worth a thousand dollars on your card, we won’t be able to cancel it.

So  wham.  Here comes a new card.

Meantime, I investigate CLEENG B V and this is what I get…

The Cleeng brand appears on your bank statements, instead of the broadcaster's name (the company that published the contents you paid for to watch), since Cleeng provided the platform and is your broadcaster's authorized vendor.

Broadcaster?  That could mean NFL+, which I’d ordered. (Yes, I’m doing business with the enemy.  I do want to see  coaches  film.)

And checking it out, sure enough, the annual charge is $79.99

So CLEENG B V = NFL +

Really?  You telling me that NFL, as brand-conscious as it is, can’t put its own name on its transactions?

So thanks to them, I have to go through the credit-card replacement hassle.

Bastards.   The one thing that makes me feel good is knowing that there will be tens of thousands like me whose credit card companies will ask them if they authorized a  charge of “79.99 USD” to CLEENG B V, and just like me they’re going to say, “WTF?”


*********** Last Friday, I listened to Pac-10* Commissioner George Kliavkoff address  the media  at   Pac-12** Media days.

                     * What I call it                 ** What the Commissioner  continues to call it

I recorded it and listened to it again.  And took notes.

And then I listened to his Q & A session with the media

So for those of you who only  got the account of someone who was paid to listen, and read his (or her) newspaper account that  said mainly that he “came out firing at the Big 12,” I’d like to give you the more in-depth account of someone else - me. 

* He scarcely mentioned  the eventual departure of USC and UCLA and the treachery of the Big Ten.  He said he was “disappointed”… “we cherish our relationships.”

* He mentioned NIL, noting that there were supposed to be limitations  on its use:
   
    NIL was not to be used as an inducement - it wasn’t to kick in until a player signed

    NIL was not intended to be “pay for play”

    NIL payments were to be “commensurate with the work done”

He said that with the NCAA’s failure to enforce, he’d like to see the 10 conferences  step in

A good rule: “You can’t negotiate the NIL until the player is committed.”

* “Merging with the Mountain West is not one of the options.”

* Asked why anyone  should trust anyone any more: “I think that’s how we get things done.”

* He opposes an unlimited number of transfers, saying he can support one free transfer, but after that, if the athlete and the school couldn’t work things out, the athlete would have to sit out a year.

* “We haven’t determined whether to go shopping in the Big 12…  They’ve been trying to destabilize us.”

* How important is a Southern California footprint? “We may wind up playing a lot of football games in L.A.”  (Is he maybe talking about games in SoFi Stadium?)

* What if USC or UCLA make the playoff?  “They’re Pac-12 schools for the next two years.”

* Any chance of UCLA coming back?  He pointed out that a lot of people at UCLA are unhappy.  In the unlikely event they would want to come back, they’d be welcomed back.

* The criteria  to be used in considering expansion:

Size of the Market
Sports performance - besides football
Academics
Cultural fit (is that aimed at BYU?)
Geography (no great distances away)

* Bottom Line: “We are in the business of providing the best experience possible for our young people.”  (Can the Big Ten say that? Why, yes, it can.  The Big Ten - the same Big Ten that entered into The Alliance and then knifed its Rose Bowl partner of more than 75 years -   did it  to provide the best experience possible  for its young people.  Also money.)


*********** JOHN CANZANO

LOS ANGELES — Chip Kelly was playing in a charity golf tournament in New Hampshire when his phone rang with the news that UCLA was defecting to the Big Ten.

“It’s going to happen in an hour,” Kelly was instructed. “Make sure you don’t say anything.”

Kelly’s foursome included close friend and ex-New Hampshire quarterback, Matt Cassano. Also there, recently retired New Hampshire head coach Sean McDonnell and ex-Nike executive Gary DeStefano.

Ohio State head coach Ryan Day was in the group behind Kelly, playing with his father-in-law and some others.

“By the time we got to No. 16, everyone in the world knew,” Kelly said.

I talked with Kelly on Friday in Los Angeles about a variety of subjects including his sleep habits, the time he’s spent with Navy SEALs, and how he came out of the new Top Gun: Maverick film ready to hop in a military-grade jet.

“I’d probably pass out,” Kelly said. “I don’t think I could handle the G’s but I’d like to try.”

What Kelly and I didn’t talk about was whether he could handle the whiplash of a possible flip-flop by UCLA. I didn’t ask. In part, because I don’t believe for a moment that the Bruins’ head coach has a say in where UCLA plays in 2024 and beyond. But Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff just might.

I want to stop right here and point out that in no way do I expect UCLA to reverse course and announce it will rejoin the Pac-12. That would require a series of wild events to occur. Also, it would potentially come with a damaging public relations hit to the Bruins. But it’s something I left Media Day thinking about.

Add San Diego State? Poach Baylor or Houston? How about UNLV? There are a variety of options that need exploring. But one of them involves the possibility that Pac-12 and other parties might make UCLA have second thoughts.

Said one person familiar with the situation: “The not-so-hidden question is UCLA. The Pac-12 won’t move on expansion until that’s decided.”

The Regents of the University of California system may have a say. That mostly feels like political posturing, though. One UCLA official, in fact, told me, “All that is just a bunch of noise.” In the meantime, I wonder whether the Pac-12 is asking bidders on the conference’s media rights to run valuation models that includes UCLA and/or USC staying.

The Bruins are leaving. They announced it. The Big Ten talked about it. They’re gone, right?
“Maybe,” said Kliavkoff on Friday.

Former Fox Sports Networks President Bob Thompson told me that prior to the defections of USC and UCLA, he expected the Pac-12 would sign a media rights deal worth somewhere in the neighborhood of $500 million a year. That would result in annual distributions of roughly $42 million to each Pac-12 university. In the Big Ten, the Bruins and Trojans are expected to collect a minimum of $72 million a year.

That’s a $30 million-a-year gap, minimally.

Could the Pac-12 go all-in, get creative, sell off the Pac-12 Networks, and cobble together a media rights package that would push above $60 million a year in distributions and give UCLA and/or USC something to think about?

“I’m not going to get into the specifics,” Kliavkoff told me. “What I will say is the UCLA community, I feel bad for. The vast majority of people in that community immediately did not like that decision and I think the longer that decision sticks, the worse they’re going to like it.”

I doubt it happens. The dollars probably won’t be there. UCLA and USC is telling everyone they’ve moved on and I believe them. But the win that Kliavkoff needs most is one that unwinds the defections. If Kliavkoff could pull it off, it would define his legacy.

“I am not predicting that they come back,” Kliavkoff said. “But if they came back, we’d welcome them back.”

Expanding with San Diego State and maybe one or three others is a decent fallback plan. It would aggregate some additional dollars and get the conference back in Southern California. Mining the landscape for new partners, such as Amazon, Apple and Turner is sound strategy, too. There are some new media players at the table and they may have a pile of money to spend with Fox and ESPN gobbling up so much of the Big Ten and SEC. But if the Pac-12 is smart, it’s asking bidders to give them a valuation model that includes USC and UCLA remaining.

Would UCLA stay in the Pac-12 if the potential $30 million distribution gap were whittled down to $10 million-a-year? How heavy would the pressure from alumni, the UC system and non-revenue generating sports feel in that scenario?

Years ago, Chip Kelly announced he was leaving Oregon for the NFL. He was set to become the head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He was gone. The university was making contingency plans. Then, overnight, Kelly changed his mind and decided to come back for one more year.

It was a Chip-flop.

That was one quirky person, changing his mind, though. A UCLA flip flop would require the unwinding of decisions, and a willingness from the Bruins to withstand some blowback.

Stanford coach David Shaw told me he thinks geography will ultimately win out. Shaw said he believed the traditional Pac-12 universities would one day be re-united. Perhaps, in five years, or maybe a decade, when the media rights deals come up for bid again.

“Who knows what’s going to happen in the next couple of years, but my heart of hearts tells me that in some point of time this will self correct,” Shaw said. “The reason conferences were created were proximity reasons… I do believe in the next round of TV contracts, it will start to go back.”

It’s sounds like a pipe dream, but I left Friday’s Pac-12 Media Day wondering about UCLA’s next 24 months. USC may leave regardless of the media numbers. But we all noted that Kliavkoff was collegial toward both the Bruins and Trojans in his remarks.

He threw a haymaker at the Big 12, sniped at the Big Ten, and lamented the loss of the “college” part of college athletics. But the commissioner insisted the Bruins and Trojans would continue to be treated as respected members of the conference.

He left the door ajar.

*********** Eric Sondheimer of the Los Angeles Times may be the most influential reporter on high school sports in the US, so when he writes a column on something, it is BIG.

High schools all over America are having trouble getting football helmets - either the new ones they ordered, or the ones they sent off to be reconditioned.

Helmet shortage could disrupt early football practices

By Eric Sondheimer

July 22, 2022 3:40 PM PT

With high school football practices beginning next week, some coaches are scrambling to find enough helmets for players. Top manufacturers appear to have fallen behind in filling orders for new helmets and returning reconditioned helmets.

Coaches who ordered helmets months ago are in far better shape than those who waited until the spring.

Dave Siedelman, an administrator in the Los Angeles Unified School District athletics office, warned coaches in June that they needed to get helmet orders filed immediately. LAUSD has since helped coaches by purchasing helmets through Xenith and Buddy’s All Stars. They are supposed to be delivered by early August.

“Every school is getting what they need,” Siedelman said.

Simi Valley coach Jim Benkert said he was warned months ago about possible shortages in helmets, shoulder pads and footballs. He said multiple coaches have called him seeking equipment.

“I stocked up on everything because I was hearing problems, problems, problems,” Benkert said.

The shortages come at a time schools are trying to increase participation levels and re-start lower level teams after dealing with two years of COVID-19 issues.

“I’ll have to figure out something,” Leuzinger coach Brandon Manumaleuna said of finding enough equipment.

Leuzinger kicks off its season Sept. 1 against Chino Hills Ayala. A shipment of new helmets the program ordered is scheduled to arrive Aug. 30. In the meantime, Manumaleuna will have to get creative.

“We’re going to probably have to buy them from someone else,” he said.

Gardena Serra coach Scott Altenberg is waiting on 10 helmets. Originally they were supposed to arrive two weeks ago. Then last week.

“Sometimes, you get a kid with a weird-shaped head, and you can rush-order a helmet,” Altenberg said. “That doesn’t seem to be an option anymore.”

The problem extends to refurbishing used helmets.

Lakewood Mayfair coach Derek Bedell has been waiting since December for his equipment to be returned. He said 75 are expected to come Tuesday and 150 at a later date. Part of the issue, he suspected, stemmed from coaches not refurbishing their helmets after the COVID-19-shortened 2020 season, leading to increased demand this offseason.

Manumaleuna and Altenberg said they faced the same issues last season. Altenberg didn’t receive all his helmets until Week 3, and when he did, he said they weren’t quite the right color.

“But they were blue,” Altenberg said, “so we went with it.”

His solution last season — hop on the phone and make some calls. Time for some networking.

Loyola coach Drew Casani said he contacted representatives from Riddell and Schutt seeking helmets and was told orders could not be fulfilled for several months.

“There’s nothing available,” he said.

Staff writer Luca Evans contributed to this story.

https://www.latimes.com/sports/highschool/story/2022-07-22/helmet-shortage-could-disrupt-early-football-practices


*********** The CFL game wasn’t coming on for a little while, so I started watching whatever the hell was on until then - a frigging basketball game!

And  my wife and I both got caught up in it.

It was TBT - The Basketball Tournament.  Very clever name.

Evidently it  started out with 64 teams, the way March Madness used to, and, we  discovered, we were watching a semifinal game between a team called Blue Collar U  and another team  called Red Scare.

The basketball was pretty good -  a lot better than the NBA, from my point of view, because there was a lot of passing and a lot of running.  And because  the winner of the tournament  got $1 million - winner take all - there was a lot more hustle among those guys, who were basically playing for fun,   than you’d ever see watching a bunch of multimillionaires who just want to get the game over with and head out to the gentleman’s club.

The players are not ham-and-eggers.  They can play.  A lot of the teams, it appears, are made up of alumni of various schools.  Blue Collar U was made up of guys from Buffalo, while Red Scare had mostly ex-Dayton players.  (West Virginia guys played as “Best Virginia,” and Wichita players were “After Shock.”)

At first I was confused when the game  got into the fourth quarter and I couldn’t see the clock.  That’s when I found out about the “Target Score.”  In order to keep teams from stalling, or from intentionally fouling or otherwise defiling the game in the last couple of minutes, the  first time that play is stopped  at some point in the fourth quarter, they add eight points to the winning team’s score - and that becomes the “Target Score.”  The game clock is then turned off, and the teams play until one of them hits - or exceeds - the target score.

Blue Collar U won the game we were watching, and now they get to play for the million bucks against a team called Americana for Autism (I have no idea why):
 

TONIGHT (Tuesday night, August 2) 8 PM Eastern - ESPN. 


Go Blue Collar. (Being Buffalo guys, many of them wore  the names of victims of the super market shooting on their jerseys.)


*********** “Path Lit by Lightning - The Life of Jim Thorpe”  - Will be out next week.

It’s by David Maraniss,  one of the great biographers of our time, who’s given football people “When Pride Still Mattered,”  the life of Vince Lombardi.  I have a special liking for David’s work because of his masterpiece, “They Marched Into Sunlight,” which tells of the Black Lions in Vietnam and the horrible ambush they  encountered at Ongh Thanh.  (David is a member of the board of the Black Lion Award.)

Here’s what the publisher says…

A riveting new biography of America’s greatest all-around athlete by the bestselling author of the classic biography When Pride Still Mattered.

Jim Thorpe rose to world fame as a mythic talent who excelled at every sport. He won gold medals in the decathlon and pentathlon at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics, was an All-American football player at the Carlisle Indian School, the star of the first class of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and played major league baseball for John McGraw’s New York Giants. Even in a golden age of sports celebrities, he was one of a kind.

But despite his colossal skills, Thorpe’s life was a struggle against the odds. As a member of the Sac and Fox Nation, he encountered duplicitous authorities who turned away from him when their reputations were at risk. At Carlisle, he dealt with the racist assimilationist philosophy “Kill the Indian, Save the Man.” His gold medals were unfairly rescinded because he had played minor league baseball. His later life was troubled by alcohol, broken marriages, and financial distress. He roamed from state to state and took bit parts in Hollywood, but even the film of his own life failed to improve his fortunes. But for all his travails, Thorpe did not succumb. The man survived, complications and all, and so did the myth.

Path Lit by Lightning is a great American story from a master biographer.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1476748411/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1



*********** What caught my eye today was the comprehensive list of clichés. You might want to add one that gained currency about four years ago then, after a couple seasons of every announcer using the expression, it seemed to get sent back to the bullpen: "Listen, Barney, this Jones fella, make no mistake, is the bell cow of the Burners' offense.”

John Vermillion
St. Petersburg, Florida

Good one.  To that, I would add “wheelhouse.”


*********** Hugh,

Hope you don't mind that I integrated parts of your practice schedule into mine over the years.  Worked well.

My wife and I listened to Kevin Warren's media days presentation on the radio while driving to my daughter's house.  My wife turned to me and said, "this guy is really full of himself isn't he?"

You bring up good points regarding the Pac 12, but I still bet there will be some sort of merger with the Big 12.  

Should Mayor Lightweight actually go through with her thoughts on Soldier Field Da Bears will still draw.  Unfortunately for Lightweight those folks may be all that's left in Chicago by the time her new look stadium is built.

Was listening to some football talking head the other day who opined the SEC (instead of the Big 10) will be the conference of choice for kids coming out of California because of "WEATHER".   Huh??  Last I checked the Big 10 has recruited more than its fair share of Cali kids over the years, while the SEC has just started making inroads there.  


Enjoy your weekend!

Joe Gutilla
Austin, Texas

Mind?  I’m flattered.

*********** QUIZ ANSWER:  Before Lawrence Taylor, before LaDainain Tomlnson - Lionel Taylor was the original LT.

He came out Logan County, West Virginia - Hatfield and McCoy country -  where his father was a coal miner. 
 
He was from a tiny town - a patch - called Lorado, one of 16  such towns in Buffalo Creek hollow (“holler” to the locals).  The nearest town of any  size was Man, West Virginia.    Man has never had more than 1,600 people;  it has barely half that today.  Man is where he should have gone to high school, but he had to go to Buffalo High School, because he was black, and  that’s where blacks went. This was the 1950s, and blacks couldn’t go to Man High School.

He was a good football player, but college options  for a black football player below the Mason-Dixon line were few.  They were fewer still for one from a tiny school in a remote part of the country.  But he wound up at New Mexico Highlands, in Las Vegas, New Mexico of all places, and it took me a while to find out how.

I discovered through digging that New Mexico Highlands had just hired a new coach, Don Gibson, and that put me  on his trail. Here’s what I found, in his obituary…

Born in Lick Creek, W.Va., to Benjamin Harrison Gibson and Susan Pearl Lacy, Don grew up among the hills and coal camps in southern West Virginia.

An outstanding high school athlete, Don received an athletic scholarship to Marshall University in Huntington, W.Va. He was the first of his family to attend college, and was joined later by his brother, Lou Gibson.

Don's football career at Marshall was interrupted by World War II and his enlistment in the United States Coast Guard.  One of his unique contributions was as a member of the inaugural Curtis Bay, Md., Coast Guard football team coached by "Jake" Jacoby. Mistakenly identified by a sports writer as "Dominic" Gibson, Don played against teams from the University of Maryland, Navy, Ft. Dix, Ft. Lee, the University of Richmond, and Bainbridge.

At the 1943 end-of-year banquet, Don was the only "Cutter" team member to receive All-American football recognition (honorable mention) and was named to the All-America Service Team.

GI Bill benefits helped Don return to Marshall where he, along with Lou, cared for their invalid mother "Pearlie" in an apartment close to campus while they attended classes and played football.

Selected as a co-captain of the Thundering Herd football team under the legendary Coach Cam Henderson, Don was voted the "Most Valuable Player" on the 1946 Green and White Eleven.

Named Marshall's "Most Outstanding Player" in the second Tangerine Bowl in January 1947, Don also was recognized as Marshall's "Most Outstanding Lineman" in 1949.

He was also named to the All-Ohio Valley Conference Second Team in 1949.

He would ultimately be inducted into Marshall's Athletic Hall of Fame in 1985.

Don married Wertie Bowe, of Cedar Grove, W.Va., a fellow Marshall student and a cheerleader. Following his undergraduate education and a master's degree at Marshall, Don accepted a position as line coach and scout for the West Virginia Tech football team in Montgomery.

His career path in coaching led him next to Clear Fork High School in Raleigh County, near Beckley (W.Va.) , where he served as head football, basketball, and baseball coach for two years. 

In 1953, at the request and invitation of President Dr. Thomas C. Donnelly, formerly of Charleston, Don accepted the position of head football coach, physical education instructor, and supervisor of pool and fields at (New Mexico) Highlands University.

He soon would also be named head basketball coach and athletic director. Don brought the first African-American athletes to Highlands and was instrumental in integrating the University's athletic program.

So there we are.  Don Gibson, a white West Virginian,  recruited a fellow West Virginian, one he obviously knew about. from back home  The player happened to be black, but that didn't matter to Don Gibson, and as part of his first recruiting class, he brought in the college’s very first black players.

I found nothing about him at New Mexico Highlands, other than the fact that he also played basketball and ran track - and he’s now in their Hall of Fame - but he was good enough to warrant a tryout with the Chicago Bears. 

In his own words, from “Going Long,” by Jeff Miller…

I was a free agent coming out of a small school, New Mexico Highlands. My college coach got me a tryout with the Bears, as a linebacker and defensive back, and they found out very quickly that I didn’t play defense.

I got released just before exhibition season and went out to California to play semi pro ball in a league with Jack Kemp and Tom Flores. I played for the Bakersfield Spoilers. You had to have another job or you’d starve to death, so I worked construction.

After each ball game, I would take the write-ups and mail them to George Halas. I would never put my name on them.  I’d write, “look at the mistake you made. Here’s a guy you let go.”  One time, I’d print sideways, another time a different way. George Halas called me about coming back, and I said, “only if I can play wide receiver. “ I played eight games for the Bears as a starter. Well, I was on the kickoff and kickoff-return teams, so I jokingly called myself a starter. They were going to do the same thing with me in 1960, and George Halas said, “why don’t you go home and visit?“

I figured I’d take a look at the new league, make a name for myself, come back to the National Football League. Dean Griffing, the general manager of the Broncos, was running the Tucson Rattlers when I played semi pro ball and asked me to come try out with the Broncos while they were in New Jersey on their first road trip.

(The Broncos’ QB at the time was Frank Tripucka: “Here was this guy at practice,  grabbing the ball with one hand. They stopped practice, and somebody said to him, “Can you do that all the time? “ He said, “Oh, yeah. No problem. “)

“I signed an hour or two before the game because I was arguing over money. Frank and I didn’t even know each other’s names. In the huddle, I told him I could run a down-and-in pattern, and he didn’t say anything. The next series, he said ‘Hey you can you run the post pattern?’”
And he hit me for a touchdown.

(Tripucka again:  “I had to draw the plays in the dirt in the Polo Grounds to show him where to go.”)

And after the game, we got our per-diem money. It was two dollars. Two one-dollar bills.  For New York. I couldn’t believe it. I still had some money from the Bears, so I was loaded.

It was the AFL’s first year, and although the Broncos were never loaded with talent, he would go on to have a career that almost certainly would have landed him in the Hall of Fame had it been in the NFL.

In that first season - his and the Broncos’ - he caught 92 passes for 1235 yards and  12 touchdowns. 

In 1961, his second year, he became the first player in pro football history to catch 100 passes in a season - no small achievement in an era of 14-game schedules and rules that didn’t yet favor a passing attack.

In five of six seasons, from 1960  through 1965, he led the AFL in receptions.

He played two years with Houston before retiring, but in his seven years as a Bronco, he set records for receptions and receiving yardage that stood for 33 years until they were broken by NFL Hall of Famer Shannon Sharpe.

He still holds  the team record  for receiving yards per game - of 102.9.

At the time of his retirement, only the Colts’ Raymond Berry had caught more passes in a career.

He was five times selected All-AFL, and is in the Broncos’ Ring of Honor.

In  1970, he was hired by Chuck Noll to coach the Steelers’ wide receivers.  He spent six years in Pittsburgh, helping select and then  coach two Hall of Fame receivers in Lynn Swann and John Stallworth, on a team that made five playoff appearances and  won back-to-back Super Bowls in 1974 and 1975.

In February, 1972, a dam holding back coal slurry at the Buffalo Creek mine gave way, sending millions of gallons of water and slurry rushing down Buffalo Creek and through   the 16 little communities in the holler.   Of the 5,000 people who lived in the holler, 125 were killed  and 4,000 were left without homes.  The Steelers flew him to Charleston, the state capital and nearest airport, but when he arrived  at what was once Lorado, his family home was gone.

He and Noll grew especially close - Noll chose him as his roommate on road trips - and he was secure in his  spot as receivers’ coach, but in 1977 he left to join Ray Malavasi’s staff as receivers coach with the Los Angeles Rams.  His reason?  After coaching greats like  Lynn and Stallworth, “I had to find out if I could coach.” 

The Rams went to the Super Bowl in 1977 - against the Steelers - and although they were 10-point underdogs, they led, 19-17 going into the fourth   quarter, before losing, 31-19.

For two seasons, he was the Rams’ offensive coordinator as well as their receivers’ coach, but  for some reason, things didn’t work out, and he found himself coaching receivers at Oregon State.  This was when the Beavers sucked.  Really sucked. Their coach was a guy named Joe Avezzano, who would later become a  good special teams coach for the Cowboys. I guess.  But as head coach at Oregon State, he sucked.

After two years, resigned to the fact that he’d never get a head coaching job in the NFL, our guy took the head coaching job at Texas Southern.  Good luck.  Between 1974 and 1996  they didn’t have single winning season; he coached there from 1984 through 1988.

From there, he landed a job as tight ends coach with the Browns, then coached by Bud Carson, whom he’d worked with in Pittsburgh and Los Angeles, and  when the World League of American Football   got started, he jumped at the chance to become offensive coordinator of the London Monarchs.

After a year there, he became head coach of the Monarchs, and stayed at the job until the WLAF folded.

After that, he retired to Albuquerque.

Lionel Taylor  travelled quite a bit in his football career, and his travels took him far from his native Logan County, but as he  proudly told a reporter many years later, “I’m a West Virginia hillbilly and I always will be.”



CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING LIONEL TAYLOR

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - AUSTIN, TEXAS
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY



*********** QUIZ: He  was born and raised in Waterloo, Iowa, where as a senior he was a two-way all-state player on a state championship football team and president of his school’s student body. 

In the fall of 1956, he became one of the the first black athletes to play football for the University of New Mexico.

At a time of freshman ineligibility he was a star on  the Lobo freshman team,  and as a sophomore he  rushed for 744 yards, averaging 6.6 yards per carry, and was named to the All-Skyline Conference first team.

His greatest game as a Lobo was his last.  New Mexico upset Air Force, 28-27, as he rushed for 126 yards and scored three  touchdowns, one of them a 64-yard screen pass.

“I don’t think there could have been a better back in America than (he) was today,” said his coach, Marv Levy.  HIs coach  was right - the AP named him their Back of the Week.

At the end of his three-year varsity career, his Number 43 was the first one ever retired at New Mexico.

He was drafted in the ninth round in 1960 by the Baltimore Colts, but it turned out that the expansion Dallas Cowboys, unable to participate in the draft,  had already signed him to a personal-services contract, which the league upheld.

He broke his foot in Cowboys’ training camp and missed the 1960 season, the Cowboys’ first, but as a  rookie in 1961 he rushed for 815 yards and four touchdowns. He was named to  play in the  Pro Bowl, and finished third in the Rookie of the Year voting,  behind Mike Ditka and Fran Tarkenton. 

During that season, he became the first Cowboys’ runner ever to rush for 100 yards in a game.

His next year was his best: he rushed for 945 yards and seven touchdowns, and became the  first Cowboy ever to be named to the All-Pro team.

He played eight years in the NFL, and ranked among the top ten rushers in the League all eight of those years.   Although still at the top of his game - he was coming off a  season in which he ran carried 191 times for 836 yards and caught 17 passes for 180 yards - on the  day in 1969 that players were to report to camp, he announced his retirement.

"I don't feel I'm washed up," he said at the time, "but then again I'm not naive enough to believe I'm just coming into my own either."

Ironically, his last year - 1968 - was the year the Cowboys finally ended  their practice of segregating players by race when staying in hotels.

In 107 games, he rushed for 6,217 yards, now fourth among all Cowboys’ runners, behind Emmitt Smith, Tony Dorsett and Ezekiel Elliott.  His 42 rushing touchdowns rank fifth in club history.

He was named to six Pro Bowls and one All-Pro Team.  What made this notable  is that in their  early years the Cowboys were really BAD, and it wasn’t until his fifth year that they broke even at 7-7, and until his sixth year that they finally won.

Said Tom Landry to NFL Films, “The guy was a remarkable runner, a great pass blocker, and one of the best players in our history.”

Truly remarkable was something that I just happened to notice: he fumbled just 18 times in his eight-year career.  With a total of 1646 “touches” - carries and receptions - 18 fumbles means he  fumbled on just 1.09 per cent of all his touches.  That’s extremely low:  of the top runners in recent NFL history, only  four  have been below 2 per cent for their careers:  Curtis Martin (.7 per cent), LaDainian Tomlinson (.8 per cent), Jerome Bettis (1.1 per cent) and Emmitt Smith (1.2 per cent). 

In 1976, he and Don Meredith were the next persons inducted into the Cowboys’ Ring of Honor (after Bob Lilly in 1975).

He is also in the Texas and New Mexico Sports Halls of Fame.

After football, he returned to Albuquerque, where he raised a family.

For a while, he worked as an NFL color analyst and as a local TV sports anchor.

 In 1970, he was named director of New Mexico’s Youth Opportunity Program, and In 1987, he joined the Albuquerque Police Department as a community relations counselor.

He performed in local theater productions, and in the 1990s, he portrayed the great Frederick Douglass in an one-man show.

In a February 2007 interview with the Albuquerque Journal, after the interviewer noted that there was no sign in his house of  his football career, he said,  “I’ve got kids and grandkids that are very important to m.  I don’t think they need to come over to grandpa’s house and see a shrine to the National Football League.”

He died  this past June at the age of 84

Richard Melzer, an Albuquerque author, has been working on his biography, which is due out in the fall of 2023.




FRIDAY, JULY  29, 2022 -  “The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule.” H.L. Mencken


*********** The  coach  to whom I gave the “due diligence” advice that might  have scared him off of running the Double Wing?

He’s in.  Committed.  Already installing it.  Welcome aboard.

*********** Jim McElwain  is a good coach - proved it at Colorado State and - as far as I’m concerned - at Florida,  and most recently at Central Michigan.  I like the guy.  I was very sorry to hear that he suffered a setback recently - a seizure, more specifically - and I wish him a swift and complete recovery.


https://www.outkick.com/central-michigan-jim-mcelwain-seizure/


*********** “Manly” isn’t  a description of the action of seven Australian rugby players who, claiming religious objections,  boycotted a game recently rather than wear “pride” jerseys as directed by management.  No, Manly is actually the name of a suburb of Sydney, and home of the Manly Sea Hawks.

The jersey stunt was evidently a  one-off, and after the game (match?), which the Sea Hawks lost, 20-10 to the Sydney Roosters, the  pride jerseys went into the dust bin (or, more likely, were auctioned off in local gay bars), and the boycott came to an end.

So, now - will someone please tell me  what the club’s point was in using a rugby jersey  to make a social statement  that many of its players, who thought they’d signed on simply to play rugby, strongly objected to?

https://www.news.com.au/sport/nrl/manly-sea-eagles-players-plan-to-end-pride-jersey-boycott/news-story/68058678f5a7ab1a625fb1f556fc31fe


*********** Somebody in Houston loves the Cougars but doesn’t want anybody to know about it.  (Why else do you donate $10 million to a school’s program, and do it anonymously?)

https://frontofficesports.com/houston-10-m-anonymous-donation/


*********** I’m posting this as my small part in stopping the spread of monkeypox:

The World Health Organization (fully aware that 98 per cent of those who have contracted monkeypox are male, and 95 per cent of them have had sex with other men) recommends (this is really brilliant) that gay and bisexual men “limit their sexual partners.”

At least until we flatten the curve.


https://www.cnbc.com/2022/07/27/monkeypox-who-recommends-gay-bisexual-men-limit-sexual-partners-to-reduce-spread.html


*********** A coach asked if I would be willing to share a practice plan with him.  That was easy.  I could do it off the top of my head, because it’s the same format I’ve used for at least 30 years.

First off, I believe in meeting as a team before we go out on the field-  to discuss what he needed to accomplish and any business that needs to be attended to. Then, without exception, without varying, we hit the team together.

(1) At the start,  the entire team is together, in rows, learning and repping all the basics  together - stance, blocking, tackling.  Every practice and every pre-game starts out exactly like this.

(2) Normally, after this, we go to the special teams “necessities” - the things you have to be able to do right so they don’t cost you a game:  covering a kickoff (we ALWAYS squib kid) and an onside kick;  returning a deep kick (just in case);  covering an onside kick; hurrying to kick a  field goal under pressure.  (We cover punt  and punt block and FG block  during offensive and defensive team periods.)

(3) In Iowa drill we work on the fundamentals of kick coverage.  While that’s going on, I’m with the centers and QBs, working  on both types of exchanges, along with any particular footwork they might be needing  in the next period.  As we progress, I’ll  use this period to introduce  something that backs or ends may need in the next period.

Assuming that we won’t be able to platoon…

(4) I always believe in offense first, because I find that guys act a little simple and loose when they’re on defense, playing a little grabass while waiting on the scout team, and when you do defense first it can be hard to reel them in and get their minds on offense, where focus is really required.  That’s just from my experience.

I believe in placing a LOT of emphasis on assignment over technique.  “WHAT to do” takes precedence over “HOW to do it.”  (If we don’t know WHO to block, it doesn’t matter how good our technique is.)  Once we know WHAT to do, we can progress to teaching the finer points of HOW to do it.   Our plays have a lot of moving parts that rely on each other, so as a result we spend a LOT of time in team work.

Then we go to defense.

(5) We usually conclude defense with a pursuit drill - such as “Texas Drill” (so-called because a friend  got it from a coach in Texas) - which also serves as conditioning.

(6) We end with “Gain Five-Lose Five,”  an offensive concentration drill.  Got this years ago from NIck Hyder, coach at Valdosta, Georgia.  The starting offense will start on a yard line - say the opposing forty - and run plays against air.  If a play is run PERFECTLY  (the coaching staff is very critical, and it has to agree)  we advance the ball five yards. If it’s not - if anyone sees the slightest little f—k-up - it comes back five yards.  We do require a pass every fourth or fifth play. This drill teaches a team a lot of things besides the importance of the smallest of details.  It also teaches them to focus when they’re really hot and tired, and it teaches them not to get on a teammate’s ass when he screws up. Probably most important of all, it ingrains in them what it’s like, and what’s needed, to sustain a drive.

Our last play of the drill is always on the one-yard line, and if we’re in pads, we may bring in a whole bunch of extras - far more than just 11 - to try to stop the play. In most cases, it’s 2-Wedge Keep (quarterback sneak) but sometimes it’s Toronto Ram 4 Wedge.

Then we’ll stop and  the sergeants (not captains) will say a few things.  We keep it short.   Now is not the time to  give them  your philosophy of life.  And then everybody shakes everybody’s hand and we take it in. (Unless somebody has a little “bonus” work to do - more on that another time.)

That’s it. Same basic format at every practice, including a shortened version on Thursday night walk-throughs, and a shortened version for pre-game.


***********   Michigan State coach Mel Tucker at Big Ten Media Days: "Nobody cares what we did last year. We certainly don't. We are extremely hungry and we do have a chip on our shoulder. We have a lot to prove.”

Longtime sportswriter Tim Layden: “‘Chip on our shoulder?’ Is that a new thing? I'm not sure I've heard that.”

Hahaha.  Another guy who rolls his eyes at all the football announcer/coach/sportswriter cliches I’ve been collecting…

They wanted it more… He made a circus catch… He doesn’t like what he sees… They came to play…  He’ll play at the next level… He’ll play on Sundays… They’re very physical… They’re going to try to impose their will… Put a hat on a hat… He’s a downhill runner… There’s no quit in them… He gains positive yardage… These two teams don’t  like each other… He gives 110 per cent… They’ve got a lunch pail mentality… They’ve got a chip on their shoulder… They play for keeps… This one’s for all the marbles…  They go to the whistle… He pinned his ears back…  We’re going to take them one game at a time… We’re not looking ahead… This is a trap game… Bend but don’t break… Take a shot downfield… Take care of the ball… Take care of business…They’re young… The (wide receiver/running backs/quarterbacks) room… They’re the best one-win team in the country…  I bet he’d like to have that one back… Let’s leave it all out on the field…You could drive a truck through it… He’s a north-south runner… He’s a game manager… Put the game in his hands… Put the team on his shoulders… They’re in the red zone

*********** This was Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren at Big Ten Media Days…

“If a conference is allegedly on the brink, there are many more issues than members leaving. There are deeper issues. I’m not promoting conferences facing a crisis or going out of business, not at all. But I come out of the NFL for 21 years. In the NFL, either you succeed or you fail, and that's not only on the field. I’m talking about in business, operationally. Either you have your fan base or you don’t.”

Puffing our chest out a bit, are we Mister Commish?

Please don’t equate your back-stabbing of the Pac-12, Commissioner Warren, with your experience in the NFL, and please don’t suggest that you came from a business where “either you succeed or you fail.”

When a business can start out every year before it’s even sold a widget or a keg of beer (or a season ticket)  with $347 million in the bank (an NFL team’s share of league revenues), what, exactly, are the chances it’ll fail?


*********** Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren allowed himself a bit of boastfulness at the recent Big Ten Media Days, and in doing so he just may have kept the Pac-10  together.

Warren, in slyly suggesting that the Big Ten isn’t  done expanding, appeared to have left open the possibility of offers of membership to  the likes of Cal/Stanford/Oregon/Washington.   Should   the Big Ten do that,  it - and its TV partner Fox -  would own  Power 5 football on the West Coast.  And that would give it a monopoly on late night college football, which as I noted recently is a rather desirable spot owing to  its position as the only Saturday power five game on the tube. (How attractive  are late Friday night games  to eastern audiences, who may have just come home from  watching high school games?)

I can’t believe that ESPN will stand by and allow the Big Ten and Fox to make that move. The World-wide Leader,  which at the moment has exclusive rights to negotiate with the Pac-10, needs a Pacific Time Zone  presence,  which  a  contract  with the Pac-10 would give it.   Not only for that reason, but also to pre-empt any further Big Ten expansion - at least by adding Pac-10 schools - I can foresee ESPN making a fairly attractive  offer to the Pac-10.  To protect its investment, I would imagine ESPN would require of the members a Grant of Rights to the conference similar to  the one that currently binds ACC members to their conference.

It won’t exactly give ESPN a monopoly on the time zone.   The Big Ten and Fox will still have USC and UCLA on the West Coast, but that doesn’t give them nearly the scheduling power that  ESPN would have.   There are other problems, too.  First of all, I doubt that USC and UCLA would agree to play all their home games at 7:30 Saturday night just so  Fox can show them as 10:30 games to their eastern audience.  Nor can I see eastern audiences  getting all that excited about seeing one or the other, USC or UCLA, week after week,  in a game-of-the-week sort of deal.  Worst of all, I can just hear the coaches at Indiana, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue and Rutgers (all Eastern Time Zone guys) when they learn they’ll be playing a Saturday night game in Los Angeles.  That’ll mean kicking off at 10:30 PM Eastern Time,  and getting home after the game at, oh, 9  or 10 AM Sunday morning.  I don’t think anybody’s asked them about any further expansion. 

Suddenly, thanks to Kevin Warren, the Pac-10 has some bargaining power.


*********** The Chicago Bears’ lease at Soldier Field runs through 2033, but  that doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll stay in Chicago that long.  
So in a desperate attempt to keep the Bears in Chicago itself - instead of moving to the suburb of Arlington, where the Bears last year purchased the old Arlington Park Race Track site,  Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Monday revealed three proposals to renovate Soldier Field:

    •    Fully enclosing the stadium

    •    Redesigning the stadium so it could be enclosed at a later date

    •    Creating a “multi-purpose stadium,” one that is “better suited for soccer” and concerts

“An improved Soldier Field will deliver a world-class visitor experience,” Her Honor  said in a statement.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, Mayor Lightfoot.  But Bears fans aren’t looking for a world-class experience. Like the rest of us, they remember those scenes from 2020  of out of control mobs defiling your  downtown, and they’re thinking more along the lines of personal safety on the streets of your city.

Famed Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley - “Da Mare” - knew a little something about how to deal with the NFL types,  and it wasn’t with free money for stadium improvements.  He had power and he knew how to use it. Back in 1975, when Bears’ owner George Halas threatened to move out of the city,  Da Mare said that he would make damn sure they didn’t take the name “Chicago” with them when they went.

Of course, he also knew a little something about delivering a “world class visitor experience” - starting with safe streets.

https://frontofficesports.com/chicago-mayor-unveils-3-proposals-to-upgrade-soldier-field/



*********** “Realistically, there are probably a bunch of people at the company who shouldn’t be here,” said Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta (aka Facebook), in discussing the company’s declining profits.

Gee,    I’m really sorry to see tough times hit a guy who could afford to spend $380 million dollars (say that slowly) to help elect “President” Biden.

But my sympathy really goes out to all the pampered, entitled brats he employs.  Since they were infants, they’ve been told so many times  that they’re special that now they absolutely  believe it, and they’ve been so rewarded and praised and sheltered from hardship that they don’t have the faintest idea that he’s telling them that life may be about to kick them in the ass.


*********** After all the tens of millions in additional money that the poohbahs of the SEC and the Big Ten are going to be raking in, you have to wonder what they’re going to do with all that loot.  They’re already paying their  coaches millions, they all have big, beautiful indoor practice facilities and state-of-the-art weight rooms and rehab equipment, they have locker rooms with “lockers” that look like thrones, and  staffs of close to 100 people including assistants, analysts, deputy this’s and directors of thats.

So what’s left to spend it on? Have they  forgotten anything?

How about the athletes?

In case you thought no one was noticing this, think again.  Read about the College Football Players Association.    https://www.cfbpa.org/   It’s kind of a union. A soft union. A bunch of college kids whose wants are minimal.

But who’s kidding who?  With the money we’re talking about, and with the acknowledgement that college players are, indeed professionals - er, employees - can it be too long before the SEIU, or the UAW, or the Teamsters start taking an interest in these one-time “student-athletes?”


*********** Thanks for the various analyses of the Pac-12's relative value. Unfortunately, they were through the lens of TV revenue.

You had a fine uncle. I wondered if he treated his other nephews similarly. I guess he observed your special interest in football and knew you would appreciate his 'gifts' more than any kid he knew.

John Vermillion
St. Petersburg, Florida

Sadly, although the gift was right on the mark, I regret that I wasn’t as appreciative as I  should have been. I can’t explain why, but it wasn’t until I was older - and my uncle was  gone - that I realized what an amazingly thoughtful  thing  that was.


*********** Hugh,

Simple solution to college game day start times.  11:00 for the eastern time zone.  2:00 for the central time zone.  5:00 for the mountain/pacific time zones.  8:00 ET for a prime time game.  Heck, most of us flip channels to watch a number of games anyway.

In this new age of super conferences why wouldn't the PAC 12 and the BIG 12 merge?  WVU, UCF, and Cincinnati leave the BIG 12 for the ACC, and add USF.  Game on.   

Have a great week!

Joe Gutilla
Austin, Texas

I think that the Pac-10 (I’ve already changed the name) and the Big 12 can go their own ways and be successful.  I really don’t see anything they gain by a merger.  The ACC? It can’t add or subtract without invalidating its ESPN deal - which would mean cutting loose members suspected of being coveted by other conferences.  If I were the ACC, I wouldn’t want to see that happen and have to replace Clemson, Florida State, Miami and/or North Carolina with WVU, UCF, Cincinnati or anyone else.  (Other than Notre Dame - but I have this feeling that the Irish are going to  survive the pressure to join up and will emerge from all this conference-building even stronger then ever - as an independent.


*********** QUIZ ANSWER:   At least in Baltimore, Marty Domres will  forever be known as the man who replaced the beloved Johnny Unitas as the  Colts’  quarterback.

He came out of Christian Brothers Academy in Syracuse, where he played basketball and baseball in addition to being an honorable mention All-State quarterback.

At Columbia,  he broke more than ten different records, including career, single-season and single-game  records  for pass attempts, completions and passing yardage. 

He led the Ivy League in total offense in his junior and senior seasons, and was first-team All-Ivy and honorable mention All-American in his senior year.

He was named to Columbia’s “Team of the 20th Century.”   (I hope they named two  quarterbacks, because otherwise, with all due respect to our guy, I’d have to assume that all the selectors who knew about the great Sid Luckman were dead.)

Big (6-4, 220) with a strong arm, he was drafted in the first round of the NFL draft - ninth player overall - by the San Diego Chargers.

He  spent  nine years in the NFL with four different teams - the Chargers, Colts, 49ers and Jets - mostly as a backup to such outstanding quarterbacks as  John Hadl, Unitas, Bert Jones, Jim Plunkett and Richard Todd.

His best year was 1972, when he replaced Unitas and threw for 1,392 yards and 11 touchdowns.

For his career, he completed 399 passes for 4,904 yards and 27 touchdowns.

After spending his first three seasons in San Diego and playing very little,  he requested - and  got - a trade, to Baltimore, where he was to back up the aging Johnny Unitas.

Five games into his first season in Baltimore, he was put in a very unpleasant spot when Colts’ General Manager Joe Thomas ordered newly-appointed head coach John Sandusky to replace Unitas with him.

I  now turn it over to Dave Klingaman of the Baltimore Sun, who interviewed Domres for an article in July, 2009…

The Colts were 1-4 that season when the 39-year-old Unitas was benched for Domres, whom the club had acquired from San Diego. Behind the Columbia grad, the team split its next six contests before hosting Buffalo in the home finale. It would be Unitas' final game in Baltimore, though his chances of playing were slim.

"That game was the highlight of my career," said Domres, who passed for three touchdowns and ran for another as the Colts rolled to a 28-7 lead. But on that last TD,  Domres suffered an apparent hip pointer and limped off the field.

The crowd smelled opportunity, thanks to Domres.

"They were shouting, 'We want Unitas!' and the chant grew as a plane flew over the stadium trailing a banner that read, 'UNITAS WE STAND,’" Domres said. "Coach John Sandusky met me at the sidelines and said, 'Listen, I want to get John in the game, so go tell him that you can't play.'

"I said, 'If I tell (Unitas) that, he won't believe me. You tell him.' So Sandusky went to where John was sitting, 20 yards away, with his cape on and his legs crossed, and started talking. Then (Unitas) turned his head and looked toward me. I just pointed to my hip and shrugged my shoulders."

At that point, said Domres, Unitas flipped off his cape and the fans went nuts.

"When the Colts got the ball back and John trotted onto the field, the crescendo was deafening," Domres said. "He ran a couple of plays, then dropped back to pass and hit Eddie Hinton on a curl pattern. The ball fluttered a bit, but two defenders collided and Hinton went 63 yards for a touchdown. The noise? I can't imagine any sporting event having that decibel level.

"When John trotted back off the field, all of us had tears in our eyes. I remember every second. It was an unbelievably moving experience and the most memorable event of my career."

For his effort,  Domres was named NFL Offensive Player of the Week. But he bowed to Unitas that day.

After retirement, he returned to live in the Baltimore area, working as a financial advisor.  Active also in the local community, he has been involved in Baltimore Visionary-Foundation for Fighting Blindness, Save Our Streams Youth Foundation of Maryland, United Way Tocqueville Society, Police Club of Maryland and Ronald McDonald House Charities of Baltimore.


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING MARTY DOMRES

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
JOHN IRION - ARGYLE, NEW YORK
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - AUSTIN, TEXAS
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY


*********** Like everybody else, I’ve had my share of aggravating corrections made by my cellphone’s autocorrect feature, so I had to laugh like hell when the answer from one of the guys above was “Marty Domestic.”  (I offered  him a do-over and we both laughed when he saw why.)


*********** QUIZ:  Before Lawrence Taylor, before LaDainain Tomlnson - he was the original LT.

He came out Logan County, West Virginia - Hatfield and McCoy country -  where his father was a coal miner. 
 
He was from a tiny town - a patch - called Lorado, one of 16  such towns in Buffalo Creek hollow (“holler” to the locals).  The nearest town of any  size was Man, West Virginia.    Man has never had more than 1,600 people;  it has barely half that today.  Man is where he should have gone to high school, but he had to go to Buffalo High School, because he was black, and  that’s where blacks went. This was the 1950s, and blacks couldn’t go to Man High School.

He was a good football player, but college options  for a black football player below the Mason-Dixon line were few.  They were fewer still for one from a tiny school in a remote part of the country.  But he wound up at New Mexico Highlands, in Las Vegas, New Mexico of all places, and it took me a while to find out how.

I discovered through digging that New Mexico Highlands had just hired a new coach, Don Gibson, and that put me  on his trail. Here’s what I found, in his obituary…

Born in Lick Creek, W.Va., to Benjamin Harrison Gibson and Susan Pearl Lacy, Don grew up among the hills and coal camps in southern West Virginia.

An outstanding high school athlete, Don received an athletic scholarship to Marshall University in Huntington, W.Va. He was the first of his family to attend college, and was joined later by his brother, Lou Gibson.

Don's football career at Marshall was interrupted by World War II and his enlistment in the United States Coast Guard.  One of his unique contributions was as a member of the inaugural Curtis Bay, Md., Coast Guard football team coached by "Jake" Jacoby. Mistakenly identified by a sports writer as "Dominic" Gibson, Don played against teams from the University of Maryland, Navy, Ft. Dix, Ft. Lee, the University of Richmond, and Bainbridge.

At the 1943 end-of-year banquet, Don was the only "Cutter" team member to receive All-American football recognition (honorable mention) and was named to the All-America Service Team.

GI Bill benefits helped Don return to Marshall where he, along with Lou, cared for their invalid mother "Pearlie" in an apartment close to campus while they attended classes and played football.

Selected as a co-captain of the Thundering Herd football team under the legendary Coach Cam Henderson, Don was voted the "Most Valuable Player" on the 1946 Green and White Eleven.

Named Marshall's "Most Outstanding Player" in the second Tangerine Bowl in January 1947, Don also was recognized as Marshall's "Most Outstanding Lineman" in 1949.

He was also named to the All-Ohio Valley Conference Second Team in 1949.

He would ultimately be inducted into Marshall's Athletic Hall of Fame in 1985.

Don married Wertie Bowe, of Cedar Grove, W.Va., a fellow Marshall student and a cheerleader. Following his undergraduate education and a master's degree at Marshall, Don accepted a position as line coach and scout for the West Virginia Tech football team in Montgomery.

His career path in coaching led him next to Clear Fork High School in Raleigh County, near Beckley (W.Va.) , where he served as head football, basketball, and baseball coach for two years. 

In 1953, at the request and invitation of President Dr. Thomas C. Donnelly, formerly of Charleston, Don accepted the position of head football coach, physical education instructor, and supervisor of pool and fields at (New Mexico) Highlands University.

He soon would also be named head basketball coach and athletic director. Don brought the first African-American athletes to Highlands and was instrumental in integrating the University's athletic program.

So there we are.  Don Gibson, a white West Virginian,  recruited a fellow West Virginian, one he obviously knew about. from back home  The player happened to be black, but that didn't matter to Don Gibson, and as part of his first recruiting class, he brought in the college’s very first black players.

I found nothing about him at New Mexico Highlands, other than the fact that he also played basketball and ran track - and he’s now in their Hall of Fame - but he was good enough to warrant a tryout with the Chicago Bears. 

In his own words, from “Going Long,” by Jeff Miller…

I was a free agent coming out of a small school, New Mexico Highlands. My college coach got me a tryout with the Bears, as a linebacker and defensive back, and they found out very quickly that I didn’t play defense.

I got released just before exhibition season and went out to California to play semi pro ball in a league with Jack Kemp and Tom Flores. I played for the Bakersfield Spoilers. You had to have another job or you’d starve to death, so I worked construction.

After each ball game, I would take the write-ups and mail them to George Halas. I would never put my name on them.  I’d write, “look at the mistake you made. Here’s a guy you let go.”  One time, I’d print sideways, another time a different way. George Halas called me about coming back, and I said, “only if I can play wide receiver. “ I played eight games for the Bears as a starter. Well, I was on the kickoff and kickoff-return teams, so I jokingly called myself a starter. They were going to do the same thing with me in 1960, and George Halas said, “why don’t you go home and visit?“

I figured I’d take a look at the new league, make a name for myself, come back to the National Football League. Dean Griffing, the general manager of the Broncos, was running the Tucson Rattlers when I played semi pro ball and asked me to come try out with the Broncos while they were in New Jersey on their first road trip.

(The Broncos’ QB at the time was Frank Tripucka: “Here was this guy at practice,  grabbing the ball with one hand. They stopped practice, and somebody said to him, “Can you do that all the time? “ He said, “Oh, yeah. No problem. “)

“I signed an hour or two before the game because I was arguing over money. Frank and I didn’t even know each other’s names. In the huddle, I told him I could run a down-and-in pattern, and he didn’t say anything. The next series, he said ‘Hey you can you run the post pattern?’”
And he hit me for a touchdown.

(Tripucka again:  “I had to draw the plays in the dirt in the Polo Grounds to show him where to go.”)

And after the game, we got our per-diem money. It was two dollars. Two one-dollar bills.  For New York. I couldn’t believe it. I still had some money from the Bears, so I was loaded.

It was the AFL’s first year, and although the Broncos were never loaded with talent, he would go on to have a career that almost certainly would have landed him in the Hall of Fame had it been in the NFL.

In that first season - his and the Broncos’ - he caught 92 passes for 1235 yards and  12 touchdowns. 

In 1961, his second year, he became the first player in pro football history to catch 100 passes in a season - no small achievement in an era of 14-game schedules and rules that didn’t yet favor a passing attack.

In five of six seasons, from 1960  through 1965, he led the AFL in receptions.

He played two years with Houston before retiring, but in his seven years as a Bronco, he set records for receptions and receiving yardage that stood for 33 years until they were broken by NFL Hall of Famer Shannon Sharpe.

He still holds  the team record  for receiving yards per game - of 102.9.

At the time of his retirement, only the Colts’ Raymond Berry had caught more passes in a career.

He was five times selected All-AFL, and is in the Broncos’ Ring of Honor.

In  1970, he was hired by Chuck Noll to coach the Steelers’ wide receivers.  He spent six years in Pittsburgh, helping select and then  coach two Hall of Fame receivers in Lynn Swann and John Stallworth, on a team that made five playoff appearances and  won back-to-back Super Bowls in 1974 and 1975.

In February, 1972, a dam holding back coal slurry at the Buffalo Creek mine gave way, sending millions of gallons of water and slurry rushing down Buffalo Creek and through   the 16 little communities in the holler.   Of the 5,000 people who lived in the holler, 125 were killed  and 4,000 were left without homes.  The Steelers flew him to Charleston, the state capital and nearest airport, but when he arrived  at what was once Lorado, his family home was gone.

He and Noll grew especially close - Noll chose him as his roommate on road trips - and he was secure in his  spot as receivers’ coach, but in 1977 he left to join Ray Malavasi’s staff as receivers coach with the Los Angeles Rams.  His reason?  After coaching greats like  Lynn and Stallworth, “I had to find out if I could coach.” 

The Rams went to the Super Bowl in 1977 - against the Steelers - and although they were 10-point underdogs, they led, 19-17 going into the fourth   quarter, before losing, 31-19.

For two seasons, he was the Rams’ offensive coordinator as well as their receivers’ coach, but  for some reason, things didn’t work out, and he found himself coaching receivers at Oregon State.  This was when the Beavers sucked.  Really sucked. Their coach was a guy named Joe Avezzano, who would later become a  good special teams coach for the Cowboys. I guess.  But as head coach at Oregon State, he sucked.

After two years, resigned to the fact that he’d never get a head coaching job in the NFL, our guy took the head coaching job at Texas Southern.  Good luck.  Between 1974 and 1996  they didn’t have single winning season; he coached there from 1984 through 1988.

From there, he landed a job as tight ends coach with the Browns, then coached by Bud Carson, whom he’d worked with in Pittsburgh and Los Angeles, and  when the World League of American Football   got started, he jumped at the chance to become offensive coordinator of the London Monarchs.

After a year there, he became head coach of the Monarchs, and stayed at the job until the WLAF folded.

After that, he retired to Albuquerque.

He travelled quite a bit in his football career, and his travels took him far from his native Logan County, but as he  proudly told a reporter many years later, “I’m a West Virginia hillbilly and I always will be.”



TUESDAY, JULY  26, 2022 -  “What will have to be done eventually should be done immediately.” Jeremy Foley, former Florida AD

*********** IN BUSINESS, THEY CALL IT “DUE DILIGENCE” - the careful analysis in advance of the pros and cons of committing to a sale or purchase that a reasonable person must do in order to avoid a bad outcome.

When a coach wrote me to tell me he planned to install the Double Wing at his new school - a large school in a football-crazy area - I  felt I owed it to him  to  tell him a few things he might not have thought of.

Coach  - - - - - - - - -

First of all, congratulations on the job.

It does sound like it’s as tough as they come, but they’re not giving out the good jobs, are they?

I’m assuming that you’re a young coach.  I was once a young coach, too.  I’ve taken on a couple of “impossible” jobs in my career.

I don’t need to tell you that you have a tough job in front of you.

Your playbook just made it to the Post Office in time to get out this PM. Hope you like it.  Please hit me with questions - there’s a lot to learn.

First, though, I  do feel that I need to tell you that if you are planning on running the Double Wing, it's going to “Take A Set” ( of Stones).  It’s still  my slogan.

First of all, let’s put aside any question about whether it will work.  It will.   That’s been proven  time after time, place after place.

But  here’s where the set of stones comes in -

From the very first, you are going to encounter resistance and ridicule - it won’t work, it’s a Pop Warner offense, it won’t prepare your kids for the next level, blah, blah, blah

Your own assistants may be the worst in this regard

When things go wrong - they always do - there is going to be pressure (some of it self-induced) to bail on the experiment.

That’s where the set of stones comes in.  You will have to steer the ship through some rough waters.

But even after you persevere and things start going right, the naysayers whose definition of football is what they see on Sundays will never be satisfied.  They want to see the ball in the air every play, and they will never let up. 

I believe in doing due diligence, and  if I have dissuaded you from being a Double Wing coach please don’t feel bad about it on my account.  You won’t hurt me. I’ve dealt with it dozens of times and I wouldn’t want you to proceed without knowing what’s ahead.

Double Wing coaches are a special breed, and if after this you're still determined to be a Double Wing coach, I stand ready and willing to help you in any way I can.

(I wrote that on Friday.  I haven't heard from him since.)



***********   Call it turning a disadvantage into an advantage.

Writes Stewart Mandel in The Athletic,

Pac-12 After Dark is a sneaky-big advantage

As much as Pac-12 coaches and fans loathe those late games, they may be the league’s saving grace in its next deal.

In 2021, Pac-12 teams appeared on 12 ESPN games that kicked off at 10 p.m. ET or later. Those games averaged 1.34 million viewers, and all but two broke 1 million.

For example, on Nov. 20 last season, Arizona State and Oregon State — two of the Pac-12’s lowest-drawing teams — played a 10:30 p.m. ET ESPN game that garnered 1.11 million viewers. In doing so, they narrowly beat a Noon ESPN2 game that included Texas (against West Virginia). It sounds crazy, but the latter, which reached 1 million viewers, went up against both No. 4 Ohio State vs. No. 7 Michigan State on ABC (5.3 million) and Clemson vs. No. 10 Wake Forest on ESPN (1.6 million), whereas the Sun Devils and Beavers were the only Power 5 teams still in action.

Jon Wilner, of the San Jose Mercury News, expands on the subject:  all day Saturday, no matter what the time slot, no matter who’s playing, there’s competition for the college football audience.  But when night time  comes and two Pac-10 schools kick off at 7:30 on a Saturday evening, it may be 10:30 in the East, and the overall audience may be smaller, but it’s large enough because there’s no competition - there are no other power 5 teams playing.

The Pac-12 lost its marquee football and basketball programs, its biggest media market and the links to its main recruiting pipeline three frenetic weeks ago.

Since USC and UCLA made their flight plans known, the conference has been portrayed as everything from fragile and fractured to a carcass on the savanna awaiting vultures from the Big Ten and Big 12.

But the dire predictions seemingly overlook one important element as the conference negotiates a new media rights package: The Pac-12 offers ESPN something no other Power Five league can match.

A steady supply of night games.

“The beauty of the Pac-12 is you can program that late (Saturday) window for 13 consecutive weeks,’’ said John Kosner, a sports media consultant, president of Kosner Media and former executive vice president/digital media at ESPN.

“It takes a conference to do that, because it’s hard for individual schools to play more than a handful of those games each season.

“Let’s say you get practically a 1.0 rating and 1.5 million homes on average per (night) game. That’s considerable audience delivery for 3.5 hours every Saturday. That’s very hard to replace.

“It’s hard to take something away from somebody. The fact that the Pac-12 has been on ESPN for a long time — it’s part of the firmament there.”

In a twist worthy of #Pac12AfterDark, the reviled night games could play a vital role in the conference’s survival.

Yes, Larry Scott got something right.

“Nobody else can fill those time zones,” said Ed Desser, the president of Desser Sports Media and former executive vice president for strategic planning/business development at the NBA.

ESPN’s college football programming template features five windows: College GameDay at 8 a.m. (Eastern), followed by kickoffs at 12 p.m., 3:30 p.m., 8 p.m. (primetime on ABC) and late night.

While the late games (10 or 10:30 p.m.) lose audience when fans in the eastern half of the country go to bed, they still carry significant value for ESPN because of their unopposed nature — no other Power Five games are being played — and the 12-hour cross-promotional opportunities baked into earlier programming on ESPN.

That gives the Pac-12 an advantage over the reconfigured Big 12, which will have only one team (Brigham Young) in the western half of the country, home to 75 million people.

“I’d argue that if ESPN lost the Big Ten, it would have the Big 12, ACC and SEC games for the Eastern and Central time zones,” Kosner said. “But without the Pac-12, it doesn’t have the Mountain and Pacific time zones.

“It can’t get those games any place else.”

https://www.mercurynews.com/2022/07/20/how-those-hated-pac-12-night-games-could-help-the-conference-survive-espn-loves-em/


***********  All that talk about the Big 12 poaching teams from the Pac-10?  If you’re a Pac-10 team and you’re considering bolting, you’d better think twice, writes Stewart Mandel in The Athletic.   That’s because the Pac-10 may now be a weakling, compared with the SEC and the Big-Ten, but there are six teams left in the Pac-10 that average larger TV audiences per game  than the top Big 12 team (Oklahoma State).

Losing USC and UCLA is not as catastrophic as losing Oklahoma and Texas

It’s absolutely still a gut punch, but neither USC or UCLA have been as big a draw recently as Oklahoma or Texas. Over six seasons, the Sooners averaged 3.26 million viewers per game, the Longhorns 2.7 million. Over the same period, the Trojans averaged 2.17 million per game, the Bruins 1.55 million. While Oklahoma and Texas were the Big 12’s clear-cut top two, USC was not significantly higher than Oregon (2.02 million), while UCLA ranked sixth in the Pac-12.

Oregon, which went to the College Football Playoff the year before this period began, won a Rose Bowl in 2019 and finished in the AP Top 25 two other seasons, averaged 1.96 million viewers, even with its USC and UCLA games removed. For perspective, the top remaining Big 12 program, Oklahoma State, averaged 1.28 million.

The next-highest performer was a mild surprise: Stanford (1.83 million), which edged out Washington (1.73 million). While the Cardinal have been dreadful the past few seasons, they were notable ratings draws in the days of Christian McCaffrey and Bryce Love. In 2016, a Friday night ESPN game between No. 7 Stanford and No. 10 Washington drew 3.3 million viewers, third-highest of any Pac-12 game that season.

Everyone but Arizona and Oregon State averaged at least 1.2 million viewers


Below is a chart of the remaining Pac-12 and Big 12 schools’ average TV ratings, from 2015-19 and 2021. (Games against Oklahoma/Texas and USC/UCLA are excluded.)




In conclusion, the Pac-12 may be in better shape than one would have assumed three weeks ago — provided it can keep the remaining 10 schools together.

https://theathletic.com/3444339/2022/07/25/pac12-big12-tv-viewership/?source=user_shared_article


***********   I only wish several hundred other professional athletes could experience what Britney Griner’s going through.

It sure is easy for them  to play the woke activist and say how much  America sucks - as long as  they're in America, rich and famous and free to do damn near anything they want.

I wonder if  there's a damn one of them smart enough to realize how ironic it would be  to find themselves in trouble in another country and in need of help from the US, the same country that they take  such pride in disrespecting.


*********** True Confession: My wife and I found ourselves watching the NFL Network this past week.  Please  forgive me.
 
We were watching because it was A Football Life, and the subject was Chuck Noll, one of the coaches I most admire.

I’d often thought how great it would be to  sit  down with him and listen to some of his football stories, but after watching the  show I realized what a silly idea that was.  First of all,  he’s gone now.   But even if he were alive, it was a silly idea because although he was a well-educated man   and a man of many interests,  unless it was a requirement of his job, Chuck Noll NEVER, EVER,  sat down and talked football - past, present, future - with ANYBODY.

(Undoubtedly  the people who put the documentary together were unaware of the irony  of the post-game handshake after his final NFL game.  After the Steelers won, defeating  their arch-rival Cleveland Browns, he was shown, very briefly, shaking hands with the Browns’ coach, a very young-looking guy who was not identified.  It was Bill Belichick, who’d just finished his first season as an NFL head coach.)


*********** It was sometime in early summer in 1949  that I was at a cookout at my Uncle Bill’s  and I was introduced to Al Wistert.  Are you kidding me?   Right there, in front of me, the captain of the Eagles?  The World Champion Eagles? 

Maybe pro football wasn’t as big then as it is now, but I sure didn’t know that.  I was eleven years old, and I was as  big a sports fan as any kid my age in America, and  there I was, shaking hands with Al Wistert!

Yes, he was “only” a tackle.  But in those days when you got your “live” sports on the radio and then read about it in the newspapers, you knew all the names.  Baseball and football.

Players didn’t move around much then, either - there was no free agency - so if you memorized  the  rosters of your favorite team, as a lot of kids would do, there was quite a bit of carry-over, from year to year.

Then, too, there were just 16 major league baseball teams and 10 NFL teams, so there weren’t as many rosters to know, and the rosters weren’t as bloated as they are today.  (There was also the eight-team All-American Football Conference, but if you lived in an NFL city, your newspapers didn’t spend a lot of time on it).

In addition, I had an Eagles team photo that my uncle had given me, autographed not only by “Capt. Al Wistert” (as he signed it), but by defensive end Jay MacDowell.  I never did ask Uncle Bill how he knew those guys, and it’s too late now to find out.  That photo hung on my bedroom wall for years, and I can’t tell you how many times I looked at  it and the guys on that team and did everything I could to find out more about them.  It now it hangs on the wall of our rec room, the autographs a bit faded now, but otherwise in pretty good shape. It’s now my screen saver and the backdrop on my Zooms.

But there I was that summer afternoon, just a punk kid, and somehow or other I wound up playing catch (baseball) with Al Wistert!   It may have lasted for 10 minutes, maybe even less, but the image of it all is as bright today as it was on that day 73 years ago - I'm still a kid and I'm still throwing the ball back and forth with Al Wistert, The Captain Of The Philadelphia Eagles!




HIGHLIGHTS OF THE EAGLES 1948 SEASON - INCLUDING THE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME - A 7-0 WIN OVER THE CHICAGO CARDINALS IN A SNOWSTORM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8Yqwdawa9Q


*********** The Green Bay Packers, being a community non-profit, are required to disclose their financial information annually. Since no other NFL team is required to do so,  the Packers serve as one of the few official sources of information on the NFL and its finances.

This information comes from Sports Business Journal.

* NFL teams shared $11.1 billion in TV and sponsorship revenue in 2021, or $347.3 million per team

* In just the last five seasons, the amount per team figure has increased by more than $100 million per team - from $244 million in 2017 to $347.3 million in 2022

* The Packers’ local revenue was $231.7 - ticket sales, apparel, parking and concessions -  more than triple that for the pandemic 2020 season when fans could not attend regular-season games.  The Packers are "between 8th and 10th" in the league in local revenue, according to President Mark Murphy.


* In fiscal year 2022 (which includes the 2021 season) the Packers showed an operating profit of $77.7 million, after a $38.8 million loss in the 2020 season. In 2019, the team had a $70.3 million operating profit.


(Fiscal year 2022 includes the 2021 season.)





*********** A neighbor just told us that she had been at Michael’s, where they were selling pine cones for $18 a dozen.  WTF?  Surrounded by coniferous trees that produce cones the way hens produce eggs, my  wife  and I  could only look at each other and shake our heads.

Next, we’ll find out we could have been selling all those maple leaves.


*********** In Friday night’s Winnipeg vs Edmonton game  there were 11 quarterback sneaks.  They were all on short-yardage plays, of course.  And they were all successful.

But before we start giving out trophies to CFL coaches for being smarter than  their American counterparts, who still think it’s smart football in a short-yardage  situation to snap it back five yards to a shotgun  quarterback, then have him hand it to a back who was lined up seven yards deep - or, worse yet, throw the ball…

It’s a whole lot easier to make a yard in Canadian football, where the defense is required to line up a yard back off the line of scrimmage.




*********** Prepare to be thrilled.

Here are this year’s “alternate helmets,” to be worn only on specially designated occasions (and, of course, available for sale at a larcenous price at your favorite team’s store or at NFL.com).

Nice to see the Patriots are going to give fans another look at the Minuteman   snapping the ball. That goes back to the early days when they were the Boston Patriots.

As long as the Giants were going back in time, they should have picked another time - like the 1950s, when they were really good.

The Cowboys’ silver hats are still classic, but at least they  didn’t mess  with the star.

But the Cincinnati Albino Tigers?  Or are they  going to be the Fightin’ Zeebs?

Falcons?  Texans?  No reaction here.

When you’re stuck with the  Carolina Panthers’ color scheme there’s not a lot you could do to make their helmets look any worse, but on the  theory that  when all else fails, “go black,” they did it.

Jets?  When you’ve sucked  for as long as they have, anything’s worth a try, and I  find myself liking the matte black helmet.

Special dishonorable mention to the Eagles, who simply left a spoonful or two of green pigment out of the usual “midnight green” and - voila! - pure black.  Talk about imaginative.  Meanwhile, Eagles’ fans have been pleading for a return to Kelly green.



***********  More power to Clark Lea (Vanderbilt head coach), but with no qualifiers attached to that bold declaration, he sounds like the new LT telling his first commander that he will one day be the CJCS. You'd better put your attention on this platoon you have to lead, LT. One step at a time.

I've never cared much for Cristobal, but I'm glad he got rid of that chain. They're everywhere now, even MLB. Now the stars on Buckeye helmets, which I used to think were too much, now look tame.

It'll be hard for Leach to win, but I sure like the guy. He's an oddball, but in a good way. I find myself rooting for any team he's coaching.

John Vermillion
St. Petersburg, Florida


*********** Hugh,

Mike Leach is a gem.

Ja'Marr Chase.  Isn't he the same guy who bailed on his LSU team in 2020 to "prepare" for his NFL career?  I guess a "Tiger" can never change his stripes?

My new favorite team in the SEC?...None of them.

The NCAA is as feckless as the leadership of this country.

Used the Double George blocking scheme when facing that 4-4 look.  Unfortunately we saw more odd fronts with a TNT look.

Still my belief that West Virginia, UCF, and USF should approach the ACC about becoming members especially IF ND goes full-time.  Or, WVU and USF should anyway.

Just heard that some jerk assaulted NY gubernatorial candidate Rep. Lee Zeldin at a campaign speech in upstate NY while he was talking about the crime rate in that state.  Zeldin was unhurt, but the perp was arrested and then released without bail on his own recognizance.  Unbelievable.


Enjoy the weekend!

Joe  Gutilla
Austin, Texas



*********** QUIZ ANSWER:  At Michigan, with its long and storied athletic history, the three Wistert brothers are surely  at the top of the list of their greatest families.

They all wore the same number - 11.  They all played tackle.  They all were consensus All-Americans.  And  they’re all in the College Football Hall of Fame as well as the Michigan Hall of Honor.  All told, they played on four national champions. One of them became an All-Pro football player and captain of a two-time NFL championship team.  One was the oldest player ever to be named an All-American.

In their nine seasons as Michigan football players - they never played on the same  team - they played under three different coaches, and their combined record was 68-8-4.

They were the sons of Lithuanian immigrants who settled in Chicago.  Their father, born Casmir Vistertus, anglicized his name  to Wistert when he came to America;  as a Chicago police officer,  he  was killed in the line of duty in 1927, leaving  his wife with six children to raise.  Three of them were boys, and at time they were 15, 10 and five.

The oldest Wistert brother, Francis (Whitey), went to Schurz High School and wound up at Michigan when he went along on a visit to Ann Arbor with a high school teammate.  At Michigan, he played on two national championship football teams. In his three years  there, the Wolverines were 23-1-2.   In addition to being an all-American tackle,  he was also the conference MVP in baseball, and after graduation he played  briefly with the Cincinnati Reds.

The youngest, Albert (Al), was the next to play at Michigan.  He went to Chicago’s Foreman High, and played football at Michigan from 1940  through 1942.  He was the team MVP in 1942. In his three years playing at Michigan, the Wolverines were 20-5-1, but he is the only one of the brothers who didn’t play on a national championship team. (He missed by one game - in 1940, Michigan’s only loss was to eventual national champion Minnesota.) After graduation, he was captain of the College All-Star team that beat the Washington Redskins.

Drafted in the fifth round by the Philadelphia Eagles, he played nine years in the NFL - all of them with the Eagles - and was named All-Pro eight times. From 1946 to 1950 he was the Eagles captain.  In two of those seasons - 1948 and 1949 - the Eagles won the NFL championship.  He is a member of the Philadelphia Eagles Honor Roll, and his Number 70 is one of just nine retired by the club.  He is on the NFL’s 1940s All-Decade Team.

The third Wistert brother, Alvin, never played high school football, and didn’t go to college until he was 30.  Older than Al, he dropped out of high school and got a job to help support the family and enable his younger brother to  go to school and play sports. Recalled their mother later, “He told me he’d stay out of school for a few years and work so that Albert, the baby boy of the family, could go to school.”  In 1940  Alvin enlisted in the Marines, and served throughout World War II.  Later, in an interview, he told of the time an officer, hearing his name and confusing him with his brother, shook his hand and said, “I saw you play in Philly and at Michigan.” Upon learning that he had the wrong brother, the officer “wiped off the handshake, turned on his heels and walked away.” So angered was Alvin, he said,  “that I wrote my kid brother and said I’m going to try to get back to school.”

Following his discharge from the Marines, he was working in a factory in Boston when he heard that Boston University was offering admission to those who could pass high school equivalency tests.  He qualified, and with the help of the GI Bill,  he entered BU and played football - as a 30-year-old freshman.

After one semester, he transferred to Michigan where, like his two brothers before him, he wore Number 11.   The biggest man on the squad at 230 pounds, as a sophomore in 1947 he played defensive tackle on a national championship  team still considered by many to be the greatest of all Michigan teams.  In his junior season,  Michigan repeated as national champion, and he was a consensus All-America selection.  In 1949, as a 33-year-old senior, he not only repeated as an All-American,  but was the team’s unanimous choice as its captain. In his three years, Michigan was 25-2-1.

Interviewed after Alvin’s  final game at Michigan, their mother said, “I am the proudest mother in the world. But I am proudest of all about Alvin. It hasn't been easy for him to go to school, you know. He had the hard way and that's why I am so happy his teammates made him captain this year and that he was picked by you sportswriters as an All-American.”



CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING THE WISTERT BROTHERS - WHITEY, AL, ALVIN

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - AUSTIN, TEXAS
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY




*********** QUIZ:   At least in Baltimore, he will  forever be known as the man who replaced the beloved Johnny Unitas as the  Colts’  quarterback.

He came out of Christian Brothers Academy in Syracuse, where he played basketball and baseball in addition to being an honorable mention All-State quarterback.

At Columbia,  he broke more than ten different records, including career, single-season and single-game  records  for pass attempts, completions and passing yardage. 

He led the Ivy League in total offense in his junior and senior seasons, and was first-team All-Ivy and honorable mention All-American in his senior year.

He was named to Columbia’s “Team of the 20th Century.”   (I hope they named two  quarterbacks, because otherwise, with all due respect to our guy, I’d have to assume that all the selectors who knew about the great Sid Luckman were dead.)

Big (6-4, 220) with a strong arm, he was drafted in the first round of the NFL draft - ninth player overall - by the San Diego Chargers.

He  spent  nine years in the NFL with four different teams - the Chargers, Colts, 49ers and Jets - mostly as a backup to such outstanding quarterbacks as  John Hadl, Unitas, Bert Jones, Jim Plunkett and Richard Todd.

His best year was 1972, when he replaced Unitas and threw for 1,392 yards and 11 touchdowns.

For his career, he completed 399 passes for 4,904 yards and 27 touchdowns.

After spending his first three seasons in San Diego and playing very little,  he requested - and  got - a trade, to Baltimore, where he was to back up the aging Johnny Unitas.

Five games into his first season in Baltimore, he was put in a very unpleasant spot when Colts’ General Manager Joe Thomas ordered newly-appointed head coach John Sandusky to replace Unitas with him.

I  now turn it over to Dave Klingaman of the Baltimore Sun, who interviewed him for an article in July, 2009…

The Colts were 1-4 that season when the 39-year-old Unitas was benched for (- - - - - ), whom the club had acquired from San Diego. Behind the Columbia grad, the team split its next six contests before hosting Buffalo in the home finale. It would be Unitas' final game in Baltimore, though his chances of playing were slim.

"That game was the highlight of my career," said (- - - - - ), who passed for three touchdowns and ran for another as the Colts rolled to a 28-7 lead. But on that last TD, (- - - - - ) suffered an apparent hip pointer and limped off the field.

The crowd smelled opportunity, thanks to (- - - - - ).

"They were shouting, 'We want Unitas!' and the chant grew as a plane flew over the stadium trailing a banner that read, 'UNITAS WE STAND,'" (- - - - - ) said. "Coach John Sandusky met me at the sidelines and said, 'Listen, I want to get John in the game, so go tell him that you can't play.'

"I said, 'If I tell (Unitas) that, he won't believe me. You tell him.' So Sandusky went to where John was sitting, 20 yards away, with his cape on and his legs crossed, and started talking. Then (Unitas) turned his head and looked toward me. I just pointed to my hip and shrugged my shoulders."

At that point, said (- - - - - ), Unitas flipped off his cape and the fans went nuts.

"When the Colts got the ball back and John trotted onto the field, the crescendo was deafening," (- - - - - ) said. "He ran a couple of plays, then dropped back to pass and hit Eddie Hinton on a curl pattern. The ball fluttered a bit, but two defenders collided and Hinton went 63 yards for a touchdown. The noise? I can't imagine any sporting event having that decibel level.

"When John trotted back off the field, all of us had tears in our eyes. I remember every second. It was an unbelievably moving experience and the most memorable event of my career."

For his effort, (- - - - - ) was named NFL Offensive Player of the Week. But he bowed to Unitas that day.

After retirement, he returned to live in the Baltimore area, working as a financial advisor.  Active also in the local community, he has been involved in Baltimore Visionary-Foundation for Fighting Blindness, Save Our Streams Youth Foundation of Maryland, United Way Tocqueville Society, Police Club of Maryland and Ronald McDonald House Charities of Baltimore.






FRIDAY, JULY  22,  2022 -  “I will continue to do what’s in the best interest of the ACC, but will also strongly advocate for college athletics to be a healthy neighborhood, not two or three gated communities.” ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips


***********  Jeremy Schaap: "When people write the Mike Leach obituary, how do you want to be remembered?”

Mike Leach: “Well, that's their problem ... what do I care? I'm dead."


*********** Las Vegas’ over/under win totals  for  Pac 12 teams this season:

(My picks in parentheses)

USC: 9.5  (Under)
UCLA: 8.5 (Over)
Utah: 8.5 (Over)
Oregon: 8.5 (Over)
Washington: 7.5 (Under)
Arizona State: 5.5 (Under)
California: 5.5 (Under)
Oregon State: 5.5 (Over)
Washington State: 5.5 (Over)
Stanford: 4.5 (Under)
Colorado: 3.5 (Under)
Arizona: 2.5 (Over)


*********** Mark Madden of the Pittsburgh  Tribune writes about the way another Madden - the game - has  some NFL players upset…

The EA Sports Madden NFL video game player ratings are being released — leaked slowly, rather, because an event of such magnitude merits a slow build.

Players get mad about these. Ja’Marr Chase of Cincinnati got rated 87 (out of 99), placing him 18th among receivers. He went on Twitter and promised to keep working, saying the rating provides “extra motivation.”

The Bengals lost in the Super Bowl. Wanting to get back and win should provide enough motivation.

But winning a Super Bowl isn’t based on the individual. Today’s athletes are more narcissistic. Inject Chase with truth serum, then ask what he’d rather get, a Lombardi Trophy or a 99 score on Madden. (The heralded “99 Club.”)

The insanity was compounded when Tom Brady consoled Chase. Over his Madden rating.

The narrative took a Pittsburgh twist when T.J. Watt got a 96 score, second among edge rushers. Cleveland’s Myles Garrett got a 99.

Watt, you may recall, tied the NFL record for sacks in a single season with 22½. Garrett finished far behind with 16. But Garrett is excellent.

One radio host said Watt’s rating invalidates the whole game. (I bet people still buy it and play it.)

A member of the pretend media said whoever works for EA Sports should be fired. What, all their employees, or just the guy who determined those ratings? Should the entire company be shut down because Watt got 96 and Garrett got 99?

Steelers fans complain that ratings for all the Steelers players are too low. If that’s true, how come the Steelers haven’t won a playoff game since the 2016 season?

https://triblive.com/sports/mark-madden-outrage-over-insignificant-madden-nfl-video-game-ratings-is-ridiculous/


*********** Okay, be honest.  Was it worth blowing up College Football As We Know It  so that Georgia could pay their football coach TEN MILLION DOLLARS A YEAR FOR THE NEXT TEN F—KING YEARS?

There is no other way to describe it than sick, sick, sick.  F--king sick.

Yeah, I know.   It just means more.

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/34275946/georgia-bulldogs-kirby-smart-agree-new-10-year-1125-million-contract-making-highest-paid-coach-college-football-sources


***********  Instead of playing the annual Florida-Georgia game in Jacksonville, where it’s been played since 1933, Georgia coach Kirby Smart  wants to play it on campus, home and home. 

Not for no good reason has it been called the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party. 

I get the impression that people - Floridians and Georgians alike - look forward to it every year.

So here, Coach - Here’s a ten-year contract for more than $115 million.  Now can we still play the game in Jacksonville?


https://www.al.com/sports/2022/07/kirby-smart-wants-to-move-georgia-florida-game-on-campus-recruiting-is-very-important.html



***********  Despite knowing full well how mathematically inept Americans are, a Seattle Times writer named Mike Carter still went ahead and in one sentence used three different ways of expressing  mathematical relationships:

“While 62% of Republicans opposed any ban on assault weapons, the polls show that one third of them would support a ban, with roughly 1 in 5  voicing strong support.”

*********** The Notorious Turnover Chain, which seemed so symbolic of  the Miami Hurricanes culture, is no more.   No, says new coach Mario Cristobal, it’s “not a part of our culture.”

“Not a part of our culture?”  He really said that?  Well, since I’ve never seen the guy laugh, I guess it’s possible that he said it with a straight face.

But really - Coach Cristobal’s a Miami native, and he played  at The U  during the Dennis Erickson years, so he must be betting on the fact that people down there have short memories.


*********** The NCAA (remember it?) appears ready to approve  proposals that would rein in the transfer portal a bit -

For football, there  would be two “windows” in which players could indicate their desire to transfer - one at the end of the season, and one from May 1 to May 15.

In exchange for giving up  the ability to enter the transfer portal at any time,  players would be permitted to transfer more than once without having to sit out a year.

https://www.al.com/sports/2022/07/changes-coming-to-ncaa-transfer-portal-if-d1-council-recommendation-passes.html


***********   Long time  Double Wing coach Jason Clarke of Glen Burnie, Maryland, was a clinic regular back when I was doing them every year.  He has a good football mind and an even better  memory,  and he asked me recently about something that I had mentioned years ago at one clinic or another and haven’t mentioned since.

They’re two ways of attacking the middle using fold blocks.

They’re both most effective when people respect your sweep, which  what the Rip motion is designed to threaten.

One (Charlie) is designed to use against an even front; the other (George) against an odd front. 


Charlie - the center blocks out, guard folds around; We use this against an even front when people are really pursuing the sweep

George - the guard blocks out, tackle folds inside; we use Double George vs an odd front with a quick, active nose so we can run off the center’s block of the nose




  


The QB’s mechanics are the same on both - exactly the same as on our base trap.  Our instruction to him as shown is “Hockey Stick Right, Handoff Right”:  He does his hockey stick path to the right and makes his handoff with his right hand, slipping it to the B-Back as he rolls past.

On CHARLIE, unlike the trap, we are not blocking the first down lineman past center - the “sucker.'  We are  taking advantage of his eagerness to chase the “sucker pull” of our play side guard, thinking it’s a sweep.  So the B-Back has to haul ass through there before the “sucker" figures out he’s been had. We tell the B-Back to run right up the center line, at the butt of our folding guard, which ought to be enough incentive for the guard to get upfield fast.  The Center blocks away and has to really get his feet out of the running lane.  The folding guard takes a short side step with his playside foot as he reaches out and pulls the center past, keeping his shoulders square and getting upfield as fast as he can.

On GEORGE (I only  run “Double George” - to both sides) we’re trying to take advantage of an active nose man who likes to beat our center with his quickness.  We secure holes to either side of center by fold blocking, guards blocking out and tackles  folding inside. We then we tell the center to just stay stuck to  the nose man and steer him in whichever direction he wants to go. The last thing we want is to stand him up and get a stalemate. Just as  he does on the trap, the B-Back  sits and waits for the ball before starting forward.  He reads the center’s butt and once he has the ball, he runs  off the center’s butt


It helps in both of these plays to open up splits to maybe 6 inches.

I won’t lie and say that it doesn’t take time and effort to teach these plays - I have seldom had the time to do so - but after having  taught them, you then have the ability to check off to one or the other no matter what the defense might do.



*********** Is there something wrong with me that when I heard NASCAR and the Chicago politicians announce that next summer  there’d be auto racing in the streets of Chicago, I thought immediately of the Olympic Biathlon?  You know - the event that combines cross-country skiing with target shooting?

Do you see where I’m going with this?

Doesn’t it make sense that in Chicago,  the race cars ought to have to have someone sitting on the passenger’s side - or even in the back seat - taking shots at targets along the course?

No charge for the idea.  There is more than enough  local talent to provide the shooters.  In the interest of authenticity, I would also suggest tinted windows.



*********** It’s rather ironic that the ACC  now sees the buzzards circling overhead, waiting for it to break up so that they can finish picking it apart.

You could say that the ACC started it all, back in 2003 when its members voted to pursue expansion.

It then had nine members, so with the addition of three more schools it would be able to hold a conference championship game - and make more money.

Adding more schools would also put the ACC in more TV markets, making its TV contracts more lucrative.

So by a vote of 7-2, the ACC presidents approved expansion,  and the conference added Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College -  in effect killing the Big East.

Duke and North Carolina were the only schools opposed.

William Friday, the president of North Carolina, explained his opposition. “This decision means it has become a follower of money,” he said.  “What it all adds up to is moving more and more toward becoming America’s entertainment industry.”


https://triblive.com/sports/acc-helped-kickstart-the-conference-expansion-race-which-now-threatens-its-survival/


*********** I’ve had four grandkids graduate from Vanderbilt, which makes it one of “my” schools, and I’d certainly love to see Vandy do better in football.  But I understand what the Commodores are up against, having to play Washington Generals  to a different bunch of Globetrotters every week.

So since my hopes are that Vandy coach Clark Lea can at least make the Commodores competitive - they’ve never once won 10 games in a season - I have to wonder what possessed him to say, "We know in time Vanderbilt football will be the best program in the country.”


https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/34269134/clark-lea-determined-make-vanderbilt-commodores-football-best-program-country


***********   Writing to you today from UPenn, The Wharton School, to be precise. I've read about 22-23,000 females compete in NCAA sports. 555 can be nominated for the Female Athlete of the Year Award. Penn submitted Thomas' name. I'd give up a lot just to look inside the offices of people who put together that packet. Maybe their 'deliberations' concluded with a grand meeting of a dozen or so university potentates. Mensa members, all of them, and not a damn one can screw in a light bulb.

Fundamentals? You talk about them in every Zoom. Every military commander worth his salt focuses on the fundamentals of Shoot, Move, and Communicate. But everyone who reads this page know Coach Auerbach is right. How many times--in MLB--have I watched a pitcher not back up the proper base, the ball gets through, and the pitcher's inattention to a fundamental cost him the game?

John Vermillion
St. Petersburg, Florida


***********  Mike Leach on execution…

Football has always been a game of execution. There’s not a lot of Roadrunner/Wiley Coyote, who you ambush, fool the other guy, then you walk away laughing like Muttley after the rock fell on the guy or something like that.

It’s always been a game of execution. It doesn’t matter what you do schematically, you have to execute well. I think some schemes are better than others. The most important thing is execution.

We spend more time thinking about practice and how to teach what we want to execute. And the more sharply refined you can teach it and focus on it, the better you’re going to be.

If we adopt a new play, I’ve always tried to cut one that we have so we can control the package, practice and execute it, because execution is the most important. Better having too small a package than too big a one.

Often it’s techniques, a tag, adjustment that maybe changed, perhaps the way you practice it. It’s something you try to grow and build on all the time, whether it’s watching film, everything from high school through to the NFL. We used to call it the whole “find a better way to build the mousetrap.”


***********  Hugh,

Glad you pointed out that UCLA is a member of the University of California system, which is named after the original university in Berkeley.

The UC Board of Regents, and King Newsom, will find a way to make UCLA pay for its "bold" move.  After all we're talking CALIFORNIA!

Most coaches today need a binding legal contract for kids and parents.  As an AD I provided all the necessary legal paperwork AND an athletic department handbook that included a parent/student contract that had to be signed, dated, and received before the student was allowed to play.  The handbook was concise, and it included a Parent/Coach Communication Plan.  As the football HC I required a parent/student expectations agreement that reinforced the handbook and included other expectations I had as the head coach.  That form had to be signed by the parent(s) and the athlete, and in my hands before the athlete was allowed to receive his gear and/or practice.  Like you I had very little (if any) disciplinary issues with the boys.

I'm in agreement with Nichole Auerbach, but the Group of Five schools will first hold a come to Jesus meeting with the NCAA to discuss with them negotiation for sponsorship of TV/streaming viability, establish their own playoff system, and discuss bowl game tie-ins rather than go through the monumental task of forming their own association.

Some of those HBCU's outdraw a number of Group of Five schools and should be considered for membership in that Group of Five.  

Have a great week!

Joe Gutilla
Austin, Texas



*********** QUIZ ANSWER:   Art Donovan is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame as a defensive lineman.

His Wikipedia article claims he was nicknamed “The Bulldog,” but that’s total bullish—.  I have known of him since he started playing pro football (actually, I’d heard of his father before I’d heard of him), and I’ve heard him referred to as  “Art,” “Artie,” “Dunnie,” and even “Fatso.”  But Bulldog?  Never.  That’ll teach you to trust Wikipedia.

He was a great football player, but he also was one funny dude.  He loved to eat (hot dogs) and drink beer (Schlitz) and tell stories.  He loved to play - and be the recipient of practical jokes.  For many years after his retirement from football, he entertained late night TV audiences with stories about his days as a player, and his autobiography,  “Fatso,”   is one of the funniest books by a football player or coach that you’ll ever read.

He came from a family of fighters. Literally.  His grandfather was a boxing champion and President Theodore Roosevelt’s boxing coach;  his father, Arthur Donovan,  was an internationally famous boxing referee who officiated many of Joe Louis’ championship fights.

A couple of things from his book…

I was born on June 5, 1924, on the same bed on which my mother was born. In those days you didn't go to a hospital for a little thing like a baby coming into the world, although in my case I understand it wasn't such a little thing.   Our family physician, Dr. Thomas Shaughnessy, said that when I came out I weighed close to 17 pounds. My poor mother, Mary, couldn't walk for three weeks.

Both sides of my family had come from Ireland in the 19th century for the same reason: there was nothing to eat over there. They had this thing going called the potato famine, and since the potato is the only vegetable that has passed these lips in the past 50 years, usually in the form of that wonderful recipe supplied by the French, I kind of understand how they felt. One look at me, however, usually lets people in on the secret that I've never really known true hunger.

He grew up in The Bronx. He was a big kid, and he played high school football at Mount St. Michael Academy.

... well, the Mount didn't have such a splendid record during my years there. At best, we hovered around mediocrity. I didn't make any All-Star teams. Okay, I did make All-City, but that wasn't what I wanted. One of the saddest weeks of my life was sitting in my bedroom after my senior season waiting for the telegram to be delivered informing me I made the New York World-Telegram’s All-Metropolitan team and to come down to the newspaper office to have my picture taken. I stayed home every night waiting, and I'm still waiting for that one. I can't even take solace from the fact that I've outlived the goddamn newspaper.

He started out at Notre Dame but got on Coach Frank Leahy’s bad side after getting into a fight.

The incident itself didn't bother Leahy as much as the fact that I wouldn't shake hands with (the other guy) after they separated us. The guy was a jerk, and shaking hands with him wasn't going to make him any less of a jerk. But Leahy told me right in front of the whole team that he didn't like or need my type around there. I still don't understand what Leahy's  type was.  He was a strange man… there was a war on, and I knew once the semester was over, it was sayonara South Bend.

He dropped and joined the Marines.

My father said, “So, Arthur, you’re going into the Army, huh?” And when I told him no, I had joined the Marines, Jesus Christ, he began hollering at my mother, “Kiss him goodbye, Mary, he’s going to get killed! He’s going to get his fat ass shot right out from under him!”

He made it through actual combat in the South Pacific, seeing service on Iwo Jima and Okinawa.

One  story he loved to tell throughout his life was the Spam story:

Once, on Guam, he found a case of Spam in the hold of a troop ship and hid it underneath his tent, but it was discovered during an inspection by a lieutenant.

Asked where he got it, he told the Lieutenant he’d found it on the side of a road.

The lieutenant didn’t believe the story and sent him to headquarters.

There, a major questioned him.

After finally  getting him to admit that he’d stolen the Spam, the Colonel asked what he had planned to do with it.  Was he going to sell it to the locals?

“No sir,” he said. “I’m going to eat it.”

The Major said, “I told you not to lie to me. Nobody eats that crap.”

He told the Major, “I do, I like it.”

When the major, who had played football at Georgetown and was himself an Irishman,  found out that the private was the son of the famous
boxing referee and had played football at Notre Dame, he decided to give him a break: eat the case in a week, or, “your ass belongs to me.”

As he told it,

I ate the whole case in six days.  Thirty pounds of Spam. I was the company hero. The cooks used to come over to our tent and put the Spam in batter and cook it up for me.  Twenty-four hours a day I'd be eating Spam. And loving it. They let me off the hook, and I still have a soft spot in my heart for Spam.

As for his service?  “I wouldn’t want to do it all over again,” he said later. “But I wouldn’t want to have missed it, either.”

Back in the states, he wound up at Boston College.  His stories about those years were great, too.

With a bidding war going on between the NFL and the new AAFC, he was offered an attractive contract to sign with Buffalo of the AAFC, but he turned it down because he was having too much fun at BC.

By the time he was finished at BC, the AAFC was folded, and his best offer was  “an unguaranteed $4,500 contract - take it or leave it.”

He was a 26-year-old rookie, and in his first three professional seasons, his teams all went out of business:

He played with the Baltimore Colts in 1950.

When the Colts folded he was sent to Cleveland in a dispersal draft, but the Browns were loaded so Paul Brown traded him to a team in his hometown, the New York Yanks.

The Yanks lasted one year and folded, and in his third season he wound up with the Dallas Texans, who wound up being owned by the league and playing all their games on the road.

"When I started in the NFL in 1950," he said, "The league ran on Johnson & Johnson tape and beer, and not necessarily in that order. Without either, the league would have folded.

Well, let me tell you how Clem Crow pared the Baltimore roster that first season. We had played our last exhibition game, against Green Bay, in the old County Fairgrounds in Milwaukee. After the game was over we stayed the night and flew back the next day to Baltimore.   As guys were coming down the ramp of the plane,  Crow was standing at the bottom of the tarmac, pointing: “You made it. You didn't. You're okay. You're gone.”  Guys were afraid to get off the goddamn plane.

In 1953 he wound up with a second version of the Baltimore Colts, and this time the team was on sound footing. 
It was common then, for players to get jobs in the off-season.

I had my heart set on being a cop in New York. After the Pro Bowl I had gone home to the Bronx and taking the civil service exam. And the mayor of Baltimore had gone so far as to write the mayor of New York, Robert Wagner, and request that I be given a special dispensation to work six months of the year playing football in Baltimore and six months as a policeman in New York.

New York was really the only place I wanted to be a cop, because we had it all worked out with my uncles that I would put on a uniform and walk a bit as a probationary police officer for six months before they bring me into work with them in the detective bureau in the Bronx. But just when I thought it was going to be gravy, Wagner turn down my request. And since I wasn't ready to give up playing football, my dreams of wearing a badge and becoming a part of New York's blue wall were over. Sometimes I left myself today wondering what it would be like  chasing some burglar or mugger down the grand concourse. Maybe things worked out for the best.

He didn’t train.  "The only weight I ever lifted weighed 24 ounces. It was a Schlitz, “ he said, and only once did he beat anyone in a sprint.  It was 30 yards, against a 300-pound rookie in 1960, and when he won - by several yards - "I felt like Jesse Owens," he said.

The rookie was released by the team that same day.

And  he loved to eat.  "Today,” he said, “ [players] have dietician's food, weights and workouts. We had hot dogs, cheeseburgers, salami and bologna, and we did all right."
 
During training camp in Westminster, Maryland, he would head downtown to his favorite place and eat as many as 25 hot dogs  at a time.   In his room in the dorm, he would sleep with the TV on, placing leftover pizza on top of the TV to keep it warm

Naturally,  he had a constant battle with coaches over his weight.

"His weigh-in was a story," Gino Marchetti said. “(He)  would take his clothes off, piece by piece, and weigh himself after each one.   His last hope was always his false teeth. A couple of times he had to take them out to make weight."

But make no mistake, he was big and he was tough and he was good.  He was a first team All-Pro selection for four straight years (1954-57) and a second team selection in 1958 and 1960. He played in five straight Pro Bowls (1953-1957).

He was named to the 1950s All-Decade Team.

Along with perennial All-Pro Gino Marchetti, Big Daddy Lipscomb, Don Joyce and Ordell Braase, he was a part of one of the greatest defensive lines of all time, and he played on two NFL championship teams.

Practical jokes? One night, during training camp, teammates released a live bat in his room.

Another time, knowing that he was a city boy and deathly afraid of animals, one of them shot a groundhog and hid it under the covers of his bed.

"We told (him) it was a six-pack of Schlitz, so he would pull back the covers," Alex Sandusky said. "You never heard such swearing and commotion in your life."

At practice the next day, when he opened his locker,  there was the same  bloody groundhog inside.

"He ran over three or four guys, roaring out of that locker room," Braase said.

When he retired, it was at training camp,  and after many tears were shed,  as  he drove off, one of his former teammates set off a cherry bomb under his car.

The Colts retired his Number 70 jersey before the first home game of the 1962 season.  Among the gifts were a new Cadillac - and  70 pounds of potato chips and 70 pounds of pretzels.

In his acceptance speech, he brought the capacity crowd to tears, saying, “There's a lady up in heaven who must be very proud of the way the people in Baltimore have treated her boy from the Bronx."

After retirement, he owned and ran a country club near Baltimore, as well as the city’s largest liquor store.  (He sold more of my company’s - National Brewing Company - beer than any location anywhere it was sold,  but it galled the hell out of our salespeople that we could not get him off of that damned Schlitz.)

In 2004,  he was inducted into the U.S. Marine Corps Sports Hall of Fame in Quantico, Virginia, the first pro football player to be honored.

When informed that there would be a ceremony, he said, “I hope they serve Schlitz.”

The most he ever earned in a season was $22,000. Still, he once told Marchetti, “It's a shame to take money for what we do.”

In 1968 he was the first pure defensive lineman to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

In accepting, he said,   “We didn’t make much money, but we had a lot of fun…nothing but fun.  Whoever thought that kids who enjoyed the game on all those sandlots would get to play the game on the pro level?  That’s pretty special.”

  Art  Donovan lived to be 89, and as he neared the end, he said,  "If my wife don't send me off with a case of Schlitz in the coffin, I'm gonna haunt her."



CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING ART DONOVAN

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - AUSTIN, TEXAS
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
MARK KACZMAREK - DAVENPORT, IOWA
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN  BAY, WISCONSIN
TOM DAVIS - SAN CARLOS, CALIFORNIA
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON
PETE PORCELLI - WATERVLIET, NEW YORK
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS


***********He is a great selection for your quiz.

https://www.profootballhistory.com/art-donovan/

Greg Koenig
Bennett, Colorado


***********  I remember as a kid watching an interview he had with a CBS sportscaster.  Donovan had the guy in stitches, and me as well.  He was an absolute hoot!  I've watched old highlights of him and he was the epitome of relentless despite his size.)

Joe Gutilla
Austin, Texas


*********** Hugh,

Outstanding choice for the quiz. Art Donovan is probably my favorite character from the earlier days of pro football in the 1950's.

He was a very funny guy and a great story teller. I  tried to never miss one of his appearances on late night TV.

I  bought a copy of his book Fatso and enjoyed it very much. I loaned it to a friend to read and I  haven't seen it since.

The neat thing about his country club was that his did not have a golf course. He only had tennis and swimming.

He is a man that I would have enjoyed sitting down with and drinking beer. I would buy all the beer that he could drink as long as he would tell stories of his life.

Hope to see you Tuesday.

David Crump
Owensboro, Kentucky



*********** QUIZ:  At Michigan, with its long and storied athletic history, these three brothers are surely  at the top of the list of their greatest families.   (To answer the quiz, you only have to produce their last name.)

They all wore the same number - 11.  They all played tackle.  They all were consensus All-Americans.  And  they’re all in the College Football Hall of Fame as well as the Michigan Hall of Honor.  All told, they played on four national champions. One of them became an All-Pro football player and captain of a two-time NFL championship team.  One was the oldest player ever to be named an All-American.

In their nine seasons as Michigan football players - they never played on the same  team - they played under three different coaches, and their combined record was 68-8-4.

They were the sons of Lithuanian immigrants who settled in Chicago.  Their father, born Casmir Vistertus, anglicized his name  when he came to America;  as a Chicago police officer,  he  was killed in the line of duty in 1927, leaving  his wife with six children to raise.  Three of them were boys, and at time they were 15, 10 and five.

The oldest, Francis (Whitey), went to Schurz High School and wound up at Michigan when he went along on a visit to Ann Arbor with a high school teammate.  At Michigan, he played on two national championship football teams. In his three years  there, the Wolverines were 23-1-2.   In addition to being an all-American tackle,  he was also the conference MVP in baseball, and after graduation he played  briefly with the Cincinnati Reds.

The youngest, Albert (Al), was the next to play at Michigan.  He went to Chicago’s Foreman High, and played football at Michigan from 1940  through 1942.  He was the team MVP in 1942. In his three years playing at Michigan, the Wolverines were 20-5-1, but he is the only one of the brothers who didn’t play on a national championship team. (He missed by one game - in 1940, Michigan’s only loss was to eventual national champion Minnesota.) After graduation, he was captain of the College All-Star team that beat the Washington Redskins.

Drafted in the fifth round by the Philadelphia Eagles, he played nine years in the NFL - all of them with the Eagles - and was named All-Pro eight times. From 1946 to 1950 he was the Eagles captain.  In two of those seasons - 1948 and 1949 - the Eagles won the NFL championship.  He is a member of the Philadelphia Eagles Honor Roll, and his Number 70 is one of just nine retired by the club.  He is on the NFL’s 1940s All-Decade Team.

The third brother, Alvin, never played high school football, and didn’t go to college until he was 30.  Older than Al, he dropped out of high school and got a job to help support the family and enable his younger brother to  go to school and play sports. Recalled their mother later, “He told me he’d stay out of school for a few years and work so that Albert, the baby boy of the family, could go to school.”  In 1940  Alvin enlisted in the Marines, and served throughout World War II.  Later, in an interview, he told of the time an officer, hearing his name and confusing him with his brother, shook his hand and said, “I saw you play in Philly and at Michigan.” Upon learning that he had the wrong brother, the officer “wiped off the handshake, turned on his heels and walked away.” So angered was Alvin, he said,  “that I wrote my kid brother and said I’m going to try to get back to school.”

Following his discharge from the Marines, he was working in a factory in Boston when he heard that Boston University was offering admission to those who could pass high school equivalency tests.  He qualified, and with the help of the GI Bill,  he entered BU and played football - as a 30-year-old freshman.

After one semester, he transferred to Michigan where, like his two brothers before him, he wore Number 11.   The biggest man on the squad at 230 pounds, as a sophomore in 1947 he played defensive tackle on a national championship  team still considered by many to be the greatest of all Michigan teams.  In his junior season,  Michigan repeated as national champion, and he was a consensus All-America selection.  In 1949, as a 33-year-old senior, he not only repeated as an All-American,  but was the team’s unanimous choice as its captain. In his three years, Michigan was 25-2-1.

Interviewed after Alvin’s  final game at Michigan, their mother said, “I am the proudest mother in the world. But I am proudest of all about Alvin. It hasn't been easy for him to go to school, you know. He had the hard way and that's why I am so happy his teammates made him captain this year and that he was picked by you sportswriters as an All-American.”



TUESDAY, JULY 19,  2022 -  “I forgive but I don’t forget.”  Red Auerbach

*********** Today is the 100th birthday of Jackie Robinson’s widow, Rachel.  The Robinsons met at UCLA in 1941, and were married in 1946, a year before Mr. Robinson broke baseball’s color barrier.


*********** Immediately after hearing the news of the USC-UCLA departures for the Big Ten, I  said  that while USC is a private school and can do as it damn pleases, UCLA’s move would still have to be approved by the University of California Board of Regents.   The Board of Regents administers the entire system, which also includes Cal-Berkeley, and it seemed to me at the time that not all members of the Board would be in favor of the two sister schools going their separate ways.

Now, weeks later,  with the news that the governor of California, Gavin Newsom, didn’t know in advance about UCLA’s plan to bolt, it  appears that  the Board of Regents was similarly left in the dark.

That doesn’t sound to me like smart politics, and if in fact the move has not yet been approved by the Board of Regents, it means that they could take action ranging from complete approval to complete disapproval, with perhaps something in between.

That “something,” it has been suggested, could take the  form of granting permission to UCLA to leave for the Big Ten, with the condition that a portion of the additional revenues  UCLA will receive from the Big Ten be paid as a subsidy to Cal, whose athletic department is deep in debt.


*********** I’ve been re-reading “Let Me Tell You a Story,” John Feinstein’s biography of Red Auerbach.

Red had one ironclad rule when it came to team rules: he didn’t have any rules. “If you make rules, set curfews, things like that, then you put yourself in a position where one guy screwing up can hurt the whole team,” he said. “I’ve never understood coaches who suspend players for being late for a team meal or practice. You do something like that, you hurt all the other guys too, not just the guy who screwed up. I might make them run or keep them late or just yell at them - depending on how serious it was. But I never had an ironclad rule on anything because I wanted flexibility. If I had ironclad rules, then I had to enforce them equally. That’s not always the best thing for the team.”

Now, as much as I admire and respect Coach Auerbach, I didn't mention his lack of rules as  something I agree with, or something I’d recommend to any high school coach.

I don’t, and I wouldn’t.

He was coaching grown men, and he was coaching men who'd grown up in another era.

Long experience taught me  that if a kid did something wrong that I hadn’t specifically prohibited, I wasn’t going to get support from higher-ups  when the kid’s parents complain about his being punished.

The first thing I’d get asked - by a parent or an administrator - would be, “did you specifically tell him that he was not to do that?”

Simply saying “always do the right thing,” or “never embarrass the team,” or some similar common-sense rule simply no longer works in our era of “but what if,” and “yes, but.”

A big problem with coaching (and teaching) in the America of today is that you can no longer make any assumptions about what kids may have been  taught about right and wrong by previous teachers and coaches, or by their parents.  So the safest thing for the coach is to assume that they’re hearing it all from you for the first time, and that means you can’t afford to overlook anything.

As a result, whenever I would encounter some  fresh, never-before-encountered  offense to orderly team operations, I’d add it to my list of “don’ts.” 

And before the start of every spring practice, summer camp, fall practice, I’d make  damn sure that every kid was clearly informed as to what we expected him to do, and what we expected him NOT to do.   That seemed only fair.

EVERY kid was told what the rules were, EVERY kid signed a paper declaring that he understood the rules and agreed to abide by them, and NO kid ever stepped on the practice field without first having  signed that paper.

That way, no kid was left guessing where the boundaries were.

It’s something I originally did as a classroom teacher, in the belief that “discipline is 90 per cent anticipation” (something I once heard Woody Hayes say he’d learned as a Navy officer)  and that most kids basically want to please.   The best part about giving  kids this “users manual” right up front is that it creates a much better teaching climate because I’ve seldom had to deal with discipline problems once the school term - or practice - got underway.

(For those rare cases of kids who didn’t want to please, I have on occasion had to take them aside and explain to them  “Wyatt’s rule,” something that I was told originated with John McKay : “F—k me? F—k you.”)


*********** Wisdom from Red Auerbach:

“When I coached, we didn’t have film or tape or anything like that. You think I didn’t know who could play and who couldn’t play? These guys today want you to believe that what they’re  doing is some kind of science. Coaching is simple: you need good players who are good people. You have that, you win. You don’t have that, you can be the greatest coach whoever lived and you aren’t going to win.”

*********** And more from Red Auerbach:

These days everyone has all these assistant coaches. Honestly, I don’t know what they all do. I look at some NBA benches now and there are 10 guys over there. 10 guys! That’s almost one coach for every player. So why are they all so weak on fundamentals? The college coaches blame it on the high school coaches, the pro coaches blame it on the college coaches.

Why is it that the kids who played for Morgan Wooten at DeMatha (the legendary Morgan Wooten at the legendary DeMatha High in Hyattsville, Maryland) are all sound fundamentally? You think that’s coincidence? Or Knight’s guys or Krzyzewski’s? Coaches accept too much crap from players. I know you can still teach guys.  Larry Brown does it. Lenny Wilkens does it. You just can’t accept a guy saying he doesn’t need fundamentals. Everyone needs them.

*********** Not to say that the Ivy League or, more specifically, Penn, is screwed up beyond help, but something’s amiss when in the space of a little more than a year a guy named Will Thomas can go from being an average swimmer on Penn’s men’s swim team to becoming Lia Thomas, who’s just been nominated by Penn for the NCAA’s “Woman of the Year” award.

Incidentally, I have no idea when Penn - as the University of Pennsylvania has been known as long as I’ve been alive, and for many years before that - started to become “UPenn,” but it isn’t going to work well  in any of their fight songs.  If they even sing them any more.


https://nypost.com/2022/07/16/upenn-trans-swimmer-lia-thomas-nominated-for-ncaas-women-of-the-year-award/



***********   As if it wasn’t enough that men now identify as women,  along comes the pleasant thought of women no longer shaving under  arms.

Next:  Get ready for hairy legs.

Sorry if you can’t get past the firewall here, but I’m sure you’ll be hearing more about it.


https://www.wsj.com/articles/armpit-hair-back-emma-corrin-vogue-11657925530










*********** On the map above, each “X” in a white box represents an FBS college program that’s already been abandoned or is about to be abandoned by the TV- driven  move to two “Power Conferences.” (The gray boxes represent states that at present have no FBS programs.)  Those X’s represent a lot of programs - and people - who, while  not really ever having much of a shot at a national title, still considered themselves brothers in sport of the SEC and Big Ten.   Soon, though, they’ll be officially relegated to minor league status.

You geniuses at ESPN and Fox - do you really think, when the time arrives that you rule college football with your bought-and-paid-for  power conferences, that the fans of Oregon State and Fresno State and Oklahoma State  and Kansas State and Texas Tech and North Carolina State - and all the others left out of your game - will ever become diehard fans of Arkansas or Tennessee, Minnesota or Missouri?  Or even Alabama or Ohio State?  Do you really think they’ll ever care that passionately about Saturday’s big Penn State-UCLA game?


*********** Monica Showalter’s take on the problem military recruiters are facing in trying to fill the ranks…

The pay is low. The prestige is falling. The housing is often dilapidated and roach-infested. You move around a lot and your children constantly have to say 'goodbye' to their friends. The wars are lost and the border stands unguarded from invaders. The indoctrination is pure wokesterism, advising you that you're the bad guy and the flag you serve under is worth taking a knee. You take a vaccine known to harm young people, or else. You shower with unreconstructed transgender individuals.  You watch as your highly bemedaled top commander doesn't bother with basic military fitness regulations required of you. The consultants get their big-dollar military contracts. You? You just aren't as important.

Any surprise that military families' willingness to recommend the uniformed service to family members is dropping sharply?

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/07/military_families_recommending_the_service_to_family_members_plummets_poll.html


***********  As most informed people know, politicians don’t write their own speeches.  (Spoiler alert: athletes and coaches don’t write their own books, either. Charles Barkley once famously admitted that he hadn’t yet read “his” autobiography.)

No, putting words into the mouths of hacks is a job for professional speechwriters, and apparently one of the tricks of the speechwriter’s trade is referred to as a “howdahell.”

It refers to something in the speechwriter slips into a speech that makes the speaker seem so familiar with the location  where he happens to be speaking that the local yokels look at each other in wonderment, as if to say,  “howdahell did he know that?”

***********  Hugh,

I am aware that most high school football teams in the US follow NFHS rules, but as you know Texas high school football follows NCAA rules.  We have been allowed to block below the waist (cut block) pretty much all over the field as long as the block is initiated from the front.  


This year the NCAA is changing the blocking below the waist rule.  Thought I would send this link to you for your listening "pleasure."  How do you think this new rule will affect DW teams in Texas?  I did some personal research (and measuring) and found that the 10 yard wide "tackle box" typically can hold ALL double wing interior linemen INCLUDING TE's!  If the WB's are aligned in such a way that they shade those TE's how would the officials interpret the rule then?


Joe Gutilla
Austin, Texas

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1acxkaJmAbppXy6wEQFY8PIyPH2mF8EMr/view

Joe,

I thought the presentation was good.

As you may know, I surrendered on this issue many years ago and decided that as long as officials were going to define the free blocking zone as “the tackle box” rather than by its dimensions (which are tight ends are completely within), there was no way I could win.

In addition, our zero splits created the potential for a condition where one of our linemen might be blocking low while another was blocking high, and when they might happen to hit the same man by mistake, a chop block call could result.

So with one exception, I have eliminated all low blocks from my teaching. That exception would be certain playside linemen on certain plays employing “scramble blocking” (I refuse to use the word “cut block” because it’s the sort of term a personal-injury lawyer likes to use) when there is no chance of an accidental chop block occurring.

I don’t think it’s hampered us at all.

I do wish that the NFHS and NCAA would agree on rules, because our definitions of who can and can’t block low and whom and where they can legally block low still differ considerably, but they’re getting closer to us.

I was pleased to see that they spent some time on the subject of defenders blocking low illegally.  I’m perfectly willing to give up all low blocking but in return I expect officials to come down on the cheating bastards who teach their players to take out our B-Backs and pulling guards at the knees.



*********** A report prepared by Portland consulting firm ECONorthwest, noting that young job applicants are lacking in “soft skills,” suggested that, “from middle school through college, more education standards around projects and teams would deliver applicants better prepared for work.”

May I recommend football as an answer?


*********** Nicole Auerbach in The Athletic, asks if she foresees  the possibility of  several conferences breaking away from the NCAA and running their own organization:

It almost feels quaint to think about the Power 5 leagues or all 10 FBS leagues banding together to actually break away from the NCAA, take over the management of all sports and run their own championship events together. That would require a great deal of trust and a level of collaboration that doesn’t exist right now among college sports’ leaders. We’ve just been through 12 months of commissioners poaching other commissioners’ crown jewel programs. Some strained relationships have been repaired (while others have acquired new wounds), and the group will ultimately work together to come up with a College Football Playoff model for 2026 and on. But everyone in that room has different priorities, and four of the five Power 5 commissioners have held their job for three years or less. We’re quite far from the days of Mike Slive and Jim Delany disagreeing on various issues but coming together on others to get stuff done that they believed was for the betterment of college football.

When was the last time the sport’s leaders made a decision that was truly about what was best for college football and not just their own league or their own pockets? Who is looking out for the greater good now?

*********** Alexander Tytler, a Scotsman,  said it: “A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury.”

Judging by the fact that anywhere you go nowadays, employers can’t find enough workers, you’d have to figure that enough people have voted themselves enough “gifts from the public treasury” that they no longer have to work.

An article in the Wall Street Journal by Susan Pinker  told of how those who appear to be choosing not to work can thank an unlikely group for its support.

 A research group recently surveyed two groups of Americans in the highest 20 per cent of earners  - one group which they called “born rich,”  the other “became rich.”

Among the statements they were asked to rate themselves on were “I sometimes feel guilty about how much money I have compared to others,” and “In the US, it is difficult to improve one’s socio-economic conditions.”

While the researchers expected that the “became rich” (“who had to climb the ladder”) would be more sympathetic to the poor,  they were surprised to learn that it was the “born rich” (those who had inherited their wealth) that were most likely to support policies intended to help the poor.

*********** As colleges contemplate the possibility of life without TV money, and consider a return to non-scholarship football, they may not be aware of the enormous difference in the attendance at FCS games.
  
2021 Average Attendance at FCS colleges:
 


A FEW RANDOM OBSERVATIONS...


Only 20 schools averaged 10,000 or more

Seven of the Top 25 - Jackson State, Southern, Florida A & M, North Carolina A & T, Alabama State, Alabama A & M, Norfolk State - are HBCUs

We still don’t know if he can coach, but Deion Sanders has put people in the stands at Jackson State

Montana and Montana State are both in the top four

North Dakota State would probably average more  than 15,101 but its attendance is limited by the capacity of the Fargo Dome.

James Madison has got its work cut out for it in moving up to FBS this year

There are only two Ivy League colleges - Yale and Harvard - in the Top 25


https://herosports.com/2021-fcs-attendance-leaders-bzbz/


*********** When I watched the video of the Minneapolis kids and police a few days ago, my thoughts were precisely the ones you stated. Thanks, parents or guardians, because you've created little ones who already are criminals, and stand no chance of leading productive lives. Of all there is every day to disappoint me, that one is just about the most disappointing.

Coach Auerbach's advice might be fine for men, but probably not for high schoolers.

I figured you would cite the Rapinoe story. As awful as awarding her/it the PMF is, it didn't surprise me.

John Vermillion
St. Petersburg, Florida


***********   Hugh,

Have to say there seems to be a lot more negative aspects of the game today than there used to be.  We were fortunate to live and coach the game in more simple times.  I truly believe kids are still kids and they haven't changed all that much, but what has changed a lot is what surrounds their lives.

Enjoy your weekend!

Joe Gutilla
Austin, Texas



*********** QUIZ ANSWER:   Tommy Prothro played in a Rose Bowl and coached in three of them, with two different teams. He coached two Heisman Trophy winners.


A native of Memphis,  he played college football  - baseball and lacrosse, too - at Duke, under the great Wallace Wade.  He was a freshman on the legendary 1938 Duke team - the “Iron Dukes,” who went unbeaten and unscored-on for an entire season, until USC scored on a touchdown pass in the last minute of the Rose Bowl to beat them, 7-3.     And he was a senior  on the Blue Devils’ 1941 team, which hosted Oregon State in a Rose Bowl game played in Durham, North Carolina.  In his four years at Duke, the Blue Devils were 33-5, and as a senior blocking back/quarterback in Wade’s single wing attack, he won the Jacobs Blocking Trophy, awarded to the best blocker in the Southern Conference.

Although drafted by the New York Giants, he took a job as an assistant coach at Western Kentucky, but after one season, with World War II going on, he joined the Navy.  Following  three years’ service as a lieutenant on an aircraft carrier, he spent three seasons at Vanderbilt as an assistant to Red Sanders, then moved with Sanders  to UCLA in 1949.

Coaching the backfield in Sanders’ balanced-line single wing, he helped the 1954 Bruins to an undefeated season and  the national title -  the only one, so far,  that they've ever won..

In 1955, he became head coach at Oregon State, where the Beavers were coming off a 1-8 season, the worst in school history.

In his  first season, Oregon State went 6-3.  In his second season, still running the single wing, the Beavers tied for first in the Pacific Coast Conference, and made it to the Rose Bowl.  In his third season, the Beavers went 8-2 but were prevented from going to the Rose Bowl by the conference’s no-repeat policy.  His  1964 team went 8-3 and played in the Rose Bowl,  following  which he accepted the head coaching job at UCLA.

In ten years at Oregon State,  his record was 63-37-2 record, best of any coach on the West Coast.  He’d taken the Beavers to two Rose Bowls, and in 1962, his quarterback, Terry Baker, became the first player from any  college west of Texas  to win the Heisman Trophy.

At UCLA, the Bruins were coming off three straight losing seasons, but in his first year they went 8-2-1 and went to the Rose Bowl, where as 14-point underdogs to a Michigan State team they’d lost to earlier in the season, they beat the Spartans 14-12.   The Bruins finished ranked fourth in the nation - their highest ranking since his final year as an assistant to Red Sanders - and for his remarkable job, he was named Coach of the Year.  

His second team at UCLA finished ten better, at 9-1, but was prevented from returning to the Rose Bowl by a conference vote. In his third season, his Bruins finished 7-2-1, narrowly losing  (21-20) to USC in one of the greatest college football games ever played.  His quarterback, Gary Beban, won  the Heisman Trophy, edging out USC star running back O. J. Simpson.

He stayed at UCLA for six seasons, during which the Bruins went 41-18-3 and finished in the Top Ten four times.  But following the 1970 season, after the Los Angeles Rams fired George Allen, he accepted the job as their head coach.

In two seasons as Rams’ coach,  he was able to begin rebuilding their depleted roster, but his 14-12-2 record wasn’t good enough for owner Carroll Rosenbloom, and he was fired.

A year later, he took on an even greater  challenge - the San Diego Chargers.  The Chargers sucked - they’d finished 2-11-1 - and on top of that there were serious drug problems on the team.  They went  an encouraging 5-9 in his first season, but slid to 2-12 in his second season. They rebounded to 6-8 and 7-7, but when they got off to a 1-3 start in 1978, he stepped aside and Don Coryell took over.

He spent three years as player personnel director of the Cleveland Browns before retiring.

Widely respected for his intellect and a man of many interests, Tommy Prothro was a world class bridge player.

He is in the College Football Hall of Fame.


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING TOMMY PROTHRO

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOE GUTILLA - AUSTIN, TEXAS
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
CHARLIE WILSON - BROOKSVILLE, FLORIDA
TOM DAVIS - SAN CARLOS, CALIFORNIA
MARK KACZMAREK - DAVENPORT, IOWA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN  BAY, WISCONSIN
TOM WALLS - WINNIPEG, MANITOBA
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND, WASHINGTON


*********** In my estimation one of the least heralded great coaches in the history of college football.  He was a program builder, and a very good one at that considering the schools where he was able to build into winners.
Joe Gutilla
Austin, Texas


*********** QUIZ:  He is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame as a defensive lineman.

His wikipedia article claims he was nicknamed “The Bulldog,” but that’s total bullish—.  I have known of the guy since he started playing pro football, and I have never heard him called that, and if you use it in your answer - no credit for you.  So there.

He was a great football player, but he also was one funny dude.  He loved to eat (hot dogs) and drink beer (Schlitz) and tell stories.  He loved to play - and be the recipient of practical jokes.  For many years after his retirement from football, he entertained late night TV audiences with stories about his days as a player, and his autobiography,  “Fatso,”   is one of the funniest books by a football player or coach that you’ll ever read.

He came from a family of fighters. Literally.  His grandfather was a boxing champion and President Theodore Roosevelt’s boxing coach;  his father was an internationally famous boxing referee who officiated many of Joe Louis’ championship fights.

A couple of things from his book…

I was born on June 5, 1924, on the same bed on which my mother was born. In those days you didn't go to a hospital for a little thing like a baby coming into the world, although in my case I understand it wasn't such a little thing.   Our family physician, Dr. Thomas Shaughnessy, said that when I came out I weighed close to 17 pounds. My poor mother, Mary, couldn't walk for three weeks.

Both sides of my family had come from Ireland in the 19th century for the same reason: there was nothing to eat over there. They had this thing going called the potato famine, and since the potato is the only vegetable that has passed these lips in the past 50 years, usually in the form of that wonderful recipe supplied by the French, I kind of understand how they felt. One look at me, however, usually lets people in on the secret that I've never really known true hunger.

He grew up in The Bronx. He was a big kid, and he played high school football at Mount St. Michael Academy.

... well, the Mount didn't have such a splendid record during my years there. At best, we hovered around mediocrity. I didn't make any All-Star teams. Okay, I did make All-City, but that wasn't what I wanted. One of the saddest weeks of my life was sitting in my bedroom after my senior season waiting for the telegram to be delivered informing me I made the New York World-Telegram’s All-Metropolitan team and to come down to the newspaper office to have my picture taken. I stayed home every night waiting, and I'm still waiting for that one. I can't even take solace from the fact that I've outlived the goddamn newspaper.

He started out at Notre Dame but got on Coach Frank Leahy’s bad side after getting into a fight.

The incident itself didn't bother Leahy as much as the fact that I wouldn't shake hands with (the other guy) after they separated us. The guy was a jerk, and shaking hands with him wasn't going to make him any less of a jerk. But Leahy told me right in front of the whole team that he didn't like or need my type around there. I still don't understand what Leahy's  type was.  He was a strange man… there was a war on, and I knew once the semester was over, it was sayonara South Bend.

He dropped and joined the Marines.

My father said, “So, —— , you’re going into the Army, huh?” And when I told him no, I had joined the Marines, Jesus Christ, he began hollering at my mother, “Kiss him goodbye, Mary, he’s going to get killed! He’s going to get his fat ass shot right out from under him!”

He made it through actual combat in the South Pacific, seeing service on Iwo Jima and Okinawa.

One  story he loved to tell throughout his life was the Spam story:

Once, on Guam, he found a case of Spam in the hold of a troop ship and hid it underneath his tent, but it was discovered during an inspection by a lieutenant.

Asked where he got it, he told the Lieutenant he’d found it on the side of a road.

The lieutenant didn’t believe the story and sent him to headquarters.

There, a major questioned him.

After finally  getting him to admit that he’d stolen the Spam, the Colonel asked what he had planned to do with it.  Was he going to sell it to the locals?

“No sir,” he said. “I’m going to eat it.”

The Major said, “I told you not to lie to me. Nobody eats that crap.”

He told the Major, “I do, I like it.”

When the major, who had played football at Georgetown and was himself an Irishman,  found out that the private was the son of the famous
boxing referee and had played football at Notre Dame, he decided to give him a break: eat the case in a week, or, “your ass belongs to me.”

As he told it,

I ate the whole case in six days.  Thirty pounds of Spam. I was the company hero. The cooks used to come over to our tent and put the Spam in batter and cook it up for me.  Twenty-four hours a day I'd be eating Spam. And loving it. They let me off the hook, and I still have a soft spot in my heart for Spam.

As for his service?  “I wouldn’t want to do it all over again,” he said later. “But I wouldn’t want to have missed it, either.”

Back in the states, he wound up at Boston College.  His stories about those years were great, too.

With a bidding war going on between the NFL and the new AAFC, he was offered an attractive contract to sign with Buffalo of the AAFC, but he turned it down because he was having too much fun at BC.

By the time he was finished at BC, the AAFC was folded, and his best offer was  “an unguaranteed $4,500 contract - take it or leave it.”

He was a 26-year-old rookie, and in his first three professional seasons, his teams all went out of business:

He played with the Baltimore Colts in 1950.

When the Colts folded he was sent to Cleveland in a dispersal draft, but the Browns were loaded so Paul Brown traded him to a team in his hometown, the New York Yanks.

The Yanks lasted one year and folded, and in his third season he wound up with the Dallas Texans, who wound up being owned by the league and playing all their games on the road.

"When I started in the NFL in 1950," he said, "The league ran on Johnson & Johnson tape and beer, and not necessarily in that order. Without either, the league would have folded.

Well, let me tell you how Clem Crow pared the Baltimore roster that first season. We had played our last exhibition game, against Green Bay, in the old County Fairgrounds in Milwaukee. After the game was over we stayed the night and flew back the next day to Baltimore.   As guys were coming down the ramp of the plane,  Crow was standing at the bottom of the tarmac, pointing: “You made it. You didn't. You're okay. You're gone.”  Guys were afraid to get off the goddamn plane.

In 1953 he wound up with a second version of the Baltimore Colts, and this time the team was on sound footing. 
It was common then, for players to get jobs in the off-season.

I had my heart set on being a cop in New York. After the Pro Bowl I had gone home to the Bronx and taking the civil service exam. And the mayor of Baltimore had gone so far as to write the mayor of New York, Robert Wagner, and request that I be given a special dispensation to work six months of the year playing football in Baltimore and six months as a policeman in New York.

New York was really the only place I wanted to be a cop, because we had it all worked out with my uncles that I would put on a uniform and walk a bit as a probationary police officer for six months before they bring me into work with them in the detective bureau in the Bronx. But just when I thought it was going to be gravy, Wagner turn down my request. And since I wasn't ready to give up playing football, my dreams of wearing a badge and becoming a part of New York's blue wall were over. Sometimes I left myself today wondering what it would be like  chasing some burglar or mugger down the grand concourse. Maybe things worked out for the best.

He didn’t train.  "The only weight I ever lifted weighed 24 ounces. It was a Schlitz, “ he said, and only once did he beat anyone in a sprint.  It was 30 yards, against a 300-pound rookie in 1960, and when he won - by several yards - "I felt like Jesse Owens," he said.

The rookie was released by the team that same day.

And  he loved to eat.  "Today,” he said, “ [players] have dietician's food, weights and workouts. We had hot dogs, cheeseburgers, salami and bologna, and we did all right."
 
During training camp in Westminster, Maryland, he would head downtown to his favorite place and eat as many as 25 hot dogs  at a time.   In his room in the dorm, he would sleep with the TV on, placing leftover pizza on top of the TV to keep it warm

Naturally,  he had a constant battle with coaches over his weight.

"His weigh-in was a story," Gino Marchetti said. “(He)  would take his clothes off, piece by piece, and weigh himself after each one.   His last hope was always his false teeth. A couple of times he had to take them out to make weight."

But make no mistake, he was big and he was tough and he was good.  He was a first team All-Pro selection for four straight years (1954-57) and a second team selection in 1958 and 1960. He played in five straight Pro Bowls (1953-1957).

He was named to the 1950s All-Decade Team.

Along with perennial All-Pro Gino Marchetti, Big Daddy Lipscomb, Don Joyce and Ordell Braase, he was a part of one of the greatest defensive lines of all time, and he played on two NFL championship teams.

Practical jokes? One night, during training camp, teammates released a live bat in his room.

Another time, knowing that he was a city boy and deathly afraid of animals, one of them shot a groundhog and hid it under the covers of his bed.

"We told (him) it was a six-pack of Schlitz, so he would pull back the covers," Alex Sandusky said. "You never heard such swearing and commotion in your life."

At practice the next day, when he opened his locker,  there was the same  bloody groundhog inside.

"He ran over three or four guys, roaring out of that locker room," Braase said.

When he retired, it was at training camp,  and after many tears were shed,  as  he drove off, one of his former teammates set off a cherry bomb under his car.

The Colts retired his Number 70 jersey before the first home game of the 1962 season.  Among the gifts were a new Cadillac - and  70 pounds of potato chips and 70 pounds of pretzels.

In his acceptance speech, he brought the capacity crowd to tears, saying, “There's a lady up in heaven who must be very proud of the way the people in Baltimore have treated her boy from the Bronx."

After retirement, he owned and ran a country club near Baltimore, as well as the city’s largest liquor store.  (He sold more of my company’s - National Brewing Company - beer than any location anywhere it was sold,  but it galled the hell out of our salespeople that we could not get him off of that damned Schlitz.)

In 2004,  he was inducted into the U.S. Marine Corps Sports Hall of Fame in Quantico, Virginia, the first pro football player to be honored.

When informed that there would be a ceremony, he said, “I hope they serve Schlitz.”

The most he ever earned in a season was $22,000. Still, he once told Marchetti, “It's a shame to take money for what we do.”

In 1968 he was the first pure defensive lineman to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

In accepting, he said,   “We didn’t make much money, but we had a lot of fun…nothing but fun.  Whoever thought that kids who enjoyed the game on all those sandlots would get to play the game on the pro level?  That’s pretty special.”

He lived to be 89, and as he neared the end, he said,  "If my wife don't send me off with a case of Schlitz in the coffin, I'm gonna haunt her."





FRIDAY, JULY 15, 2022 -  “Never cut what you can untie.”  Joseph Joubert

*********** As I wait expectantly for the first of several upcoming lame-duck college football seasons to start, I thank God that there’s still CFL football to watch.  I hope.

Unfortunately, the League Up North has got itself quite a problem.

It all started  in a game last weekend between Ottawa and Saskatchewan, when Ottawa QB Jeremiah Masoli was severely injured as a result of a dirty play by Saskatchewan defensive lineman Garrett Marino.

I saw the game. During the game and on replays it appeared that Marino had hit Masoli late - after he’d thrown a pass - and, worse, he hit him low.  At the ankles. Masoli was defenseless. It’s impossible to say whether it was intentional, but it did appear to me that at the least Marino, being a professional football player, could have  prevented the hit.

As Masoli was carried off the field, Marino, who was ejected from the game, played the role of heel to the hilt,  strutting and encouraging cheers from the home crowd as he left the stadium.

It has since developed that Masoli will be lost to his team  for 10-12  weeks.

Marino, meanwhile, has been given a four-game suspension, the longest ever given out by the CFL: two games are for the dirty play and one  for an illegal play in a previous game.

Oh - and a fourth game for what’s been described as a “racial slur”  directed at Masoli.  Marino did not deny it, and in fact apologized for it.  Belatedly.

What a knucklehead. It  wasn’t enough to have  disabled an opponent with a dirty shot.  Oh, no. As the guy lay on the ground, Marino had to throw some ugliness in there , too.

The Saskatchewan club’s initial reaction was not  helpful.  It  wasn't what you’d call sincerely apologetic, and some of it sounded almost  defensive of Marino. (In fairness, that did seem to have been before the racial business went public.)

Just what they need up there.  Just what they need anywhere. 

Stay tuned.


https://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/redblacks-masoli-calls-out-racism-in-cfl-following-marino-hit-response-1.5985251


*********** Eugene, Oregon - home of the Ducks - is not a big city. Nor is it easy to get to.  It’s about a two-hour drive from the Portland airport.

Famed  sports writer Tim Layden explains why Eugene, self-styled “Track Town USA,” will  be hosting the World Track and Field Championships over the next 10 days.

https://sports.nbcsports.com/2022/07/13/track-and-field-worlds-come-to-eugene-an-unlikely-alliance-six-decades-in-the-making/



***********  Through June, six college sports telecasts ranked in the top 50 of all TV shows:

    ▪    No. 17: CFP Championship: Georgia-Alabama: ESPN/ESPN2/ESPNU: 22.6 million viewers

    ▪    No. 25: NCAA Men's Basketball semifinal: North Carolina-Duke: TBS/TNT/truTV: 18.5 million viewers

    ▪    No. 26: NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: Kansas-North Carolina: TBS/TNT/truTV: 18.1 million viewers

    ▪    No. 28: Rose Bowl: Ohio State-Utah: ESPN/ESPN2: 16.6 million viewers


    ▪    No. 38: NCAA Men's Basketball Elite Eight: North Carolina-Saint Peter's: CBS: 13.6 million viewers

    ▪    No. 43: NCAA Men's Basketball semifinal: Kansas-Villanova: TBS/TNT/truTV: 12.2 million viewers


Yes, yes, I know - football is what this “super conference” consolidation is all about, blah, blah, blah.  But in spite of all that, I find three things very interesting:

1. Four of the six top-rated  college sports telecasts were BASKETBALL games…

2. Not a single team from either of the “Super Conferences” was involved in any of those four basketball games.

3. Only one of the participants in those four games - North Carolina - has even been mentioned as a possible addition  to either of the so-called Super Conferences.



*********** First it was  the Nobel Peace Prize….  Now it’s the Medal of Freedom.

Don’t look now, but Megan Rapinoe, who kneels for the national anthem, was recently awarded the Medal of Freedom by “President” Biden…

Give them enough time and these people in Washington will find a way to give Jane Fonda the Medal of Honor.


https://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2022/07/07/biden-awards-the-medal-of-freedom-to-a-woman-who-hates-america-n2609914



*********** Perhaps by now, you’ve heard of the tragic death of Oregon tight end Spencer Webb.   As scanty as sports pages are these days, the story was probably worth a sentence or two in local papers:

OREGON FOOTBALL PLAYER DIES
Oregon tight end Spencer Webb died Wednesday in a diving accident in Triangle Lake, Oregon.  Webb, 22,  was expected to start at tight end for the Ducks this season.

John Canzano  told it better.  A lot better.

I don’t have a lesson for you today. I don’t have breaking news. I don’t have much that will make anyone feel better. Worst of all, there’s nothing I can write that will bring Spencer Webb back and unbreak so many hearts.

He died on Wednesday.

The Oregon Ducks’ football player was 22.

Webb came from a broken family. No mother around. No father, either. He was raised by his older brother, Cody, who became his legal guardian.

Other publications will focus on Webb, the football player. They’ll note that he caught 31 passes and scored four touchdowns at Oregon. They’ll point out that he was a devastating run blocker with soft hands, just what NFL scouts love to see in a 6-foot-6, 245-pound tight end. But you know what’s more important than any of that?

Spencer Webb — the person.

The most amazing thing about Webb is that he got to the University of Oregon in the first place.

“My mom walked out on me when I was very young,” Webb told reporters when he was in high school. “They had substance abuse problems so that was pretty tough. My dad had substance abuse issues so he left me but he came back. I respect him for that. I look at my brother as my dad.”

Webb’s story is a remarkable real-life tale of perseverance. He drifted through a line of homes as a kid, living first with a family friend, then an aunt, then an uncle, then his grandparents in California.

Webb’s grades tanked in middle school. He got in trouble as a freshman in high school. His grandparents threw their hands up. Then, came that big brother and his wife, who put their arms around Spencer and tried to give him what he needed.

“Make curfew,” they said.

“Follow the family rules,” they offered.

“Get good grades,” his brother warned, “or no football for you.”

When Spencer Webb graduated high school, he carried a 3.4 grade-point average across the stage with him. College football coaches fell over themselves. He was offered scholarships by 13 different schools, including Oregon, Oregon State, Cal and a couple of Ivy League universities.

“Oregon,” he told anyone who would listen, “is my dream school.”

Webb was cliff diving near Triangle Lake on Wednesday afternoon. The Sheriff said he hit his head. Bystanders and paramedics couldn’t revive him. Lane County’s Search and Rescue team recovered Webb’s body 100 yards down a steep embankment.

Just like that — the kid who always wore a beanie cap — gone.

Did Webb slip? Or did he intend to dive? I’ll leave that to the investigators, but his death was ruled accidental. Word of it spread quickly on Wednesday and Webb’s coach, Dan Lanning, confirmed the somber news with a tweet.

“So full of life in every moment of the day,” Lanning wrote Wednesday night. “Your smile and energy will be missed Spencer. I love you!”

The shock and grief poured in on social media. Washington State coach Jake Dickert wrote on Twitter, “a life gone too soon.”

Former Oregon running back LaMichael James heard the news and posted, “This can’t be real.” And Ducks’ head baseball coach Mark Wasikowski shared a note that captured Webb’s spirit: “Spencer Webb — dude hit me up every morning about how he would be our best pitcher.”

Webb is survived by his brother and sister-in-law, a girlfriend, classmates from his Sacramento-area high school, and a grieving college campus in Eugene. Former Oregon offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead told me: “Spencer was an incredibly positive and talented young man who could always brighten a room with a story and a smile.

“He will be missed.”

When I heard the news, my mind drifted to former UO defensive back Todd Doxey, who drowned in the McKenzie River in the summer of 2008. Then, to Oregon’s Terrance Kelly, who was gunned down just two days before football practices started in 2004. Then, I thought, too, about Jessie Nash, the Ducks’ basketball player, who died on Mother’s Day 1987 while tubing on the Willamette River.

Also, I thought about the tragedies that crushed Utah’s football program in the last couple of years. The Utes lost two players — Aaron Lowe and Ty Jordan — in separate gun-related incidents in less than 12 months.

I asked Utah coach Kyle Whittingham, “How do did you and your team get through it?”

Whittingham said, “It takes everything you’ve got.”

Others will attempt to define Spencer Webb with his receptions and yards. They’ll embed video clips of him catching passes at Oregon and turn him into nothing more than a football player. The guy was so much more. He was a living, breathing example of a kid dealt a bad hand, who worked hard to rise above it.

Kids go to college. They study. They get a degree. Then, they come home. I think that’s what makes the end to Webb’s story especially painful. He was a kid without a home for so long.

His brother gave him one.

The University of Oregon did, too.

***********  Maybe you’ve seen the video already - a little kid, maybe three years old, attacks a police officer.  Calls him a bitch, and repeatedly punches him. 
 
So where were the adults?  Not one single adult did a damn thing to restrain the litte sh--- ,   to  teach him that’s not the way civilized people  behave in a civilized society. Evidently that’s not been an important part of his upbringing.

This is scary as sh—.  That kid's going to grow bigger and still act like that. Teachers are going to have to deal with him someday.   And when they try to discipline him - God help those teachers.

You want scary?  In a nation of 300+ million people,  how many other kids  are being raised like that?

God help us all.


https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11004511/Shocking-moment-TODDLER-swings-cops-Minnesota-officers-try-execute-warrant-murder-suspect.html


***********  Sports Business Journal is an expensive subscription, but in return it does provide some really good stuff on  the inside business of sports.  There was a series of articles in this week’s issue about famed agent Leigh Steinberg, and I especially liked one in which Liz Mullen wrote about Steinberg and one of his most notable clients…

More than 40 years ago, agent Leigh Steinberg delivered some bad news to his client, quarterback Warren Moon.

Moon had just been named MVP of the 1978 Rose Bowl, after leading the University of Washington to an upset victory over Michigan. Despite that, Steinberg told Moon that NFL teams were not going to draft him, not as a quarterback anyway.

“There was a lot of prejudice then when it came to the so-called thinking positions,” Steinberg recalled. “People had doubts about Black quarterbacks.”

Steinberg canvassed the league and found some teams might want to draft Moon, late, and with a catch. “A lot of teams wanted to change his position. I said to him, ‘Do you want to change your position?’ He said, ‘Never. I was born to play quarterback.’”

Moon remembers Steinberg giving him the news.

“Leigh talked to more teams about me than I did — because they were not talking to me,” he said. “And his due diligence was telling him that most teams were not going to draft me as a quarterback, but there were some teams that were going to change my position to defensive back or wide receiver. And if I was drafted it would be later, later in the draft — and there were 12 rounds at that time.”

That kind of news might end some NFL agent-player relationships. But for Steinberg and Moon, it was the beginning of one of the most successful — and historic — partnerships in sports, as well as a lifelong friendship.

Steinberg said of all the hundreds of players he’s represented, he was closest to Moon. “We were like brothers,” he said. “We grew up together.”

Moon said, “He was the most important man in my life from when I was 21 years old until I retired.”

In 1978, the Canadian Football League came calling because Edmonton Eskimos head coach Hugh Campbell not only thought Moon could play quarterback, but be great.

Steinberg advised Moon to write down the pros and cons of the NFL versus the CFL. “And when I went through the pros and the cons of both, Canada came out ahead and that’s the reason I went there,” Moon said.

The decision proved a fruitful one. Moon dominated the CFL, winning five Grey Cups — the CFL’s equivalent of the Super Bowl — from 1978 to 1982 and was named the Cup MVP twice. He led the league in passing yards and touchdowns and was named the most outstanding player.

During that time, Steinberg negotiated three CFL contracts for Moon and kept him motivated. “He didn’t desert me,” Moon said. “Once I went to Canada, he could have said, ‘OK, this guy is going to Canada, here I am representing all these quarterbacks and first-rounders in the NFL, I don’t have time to take care of him.’ But he did; he didn’t turn his back on me.”

In fact, their phone calls were so frequent, the agent and the quarterback were featured in a Pac Bell commercial in the 1980s.
 
By 1984, the NFL was interested in Moon playing quarterback. Because there was no free agency then and because no NFL club drafted Moon in 1978, no team held his rights and he made history.

“Warren Moon comes back in the NFL and he’s the first absolute free agent,” Steinberg said. Back then the USFL was in business and that league, as well as the NFL and CFL, were interested in signing Moon. “He set off a huge frenzy where 12 different teams bid on him. We took a nationwide tour.”

Moon ended up signing what was then a record contract with the Houston Oilers — $5.5 million for five years, most of it guaranteed. And then Moon proved he did belong in the NFL, as he made the Pro Bowl nine times and won Offensive Player of the Year in 1990.

Moon was selected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2006, which Steinberg said was one of the highlights of his 47-year career. “He is the only African American quarterback to make it in the Hall of Fame and he asked me to give his presenting speech,” Steinberg said. “So there we are after 23 years together and I am introducing him and it was a pretty profound moment.”

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Journal/Issues/2022/07/11/Insiders/Labor-and-Agents.aspx


***********  In 1951, Walter Byers became the NCAA’s first executive director, a position he held until he retired in 1988.

For nearly 40 years, he ruled the association with an iron fist.  Or two.

Early in his tenure, he and his legal team, reacting to a lawsuit by the relative of a player who’d been killed in a football game, devised a strategy that discouraged the idea of schools having to pay worker’s compensation claims for injured athletes:  refer to the players as “student-athletes.”

And always refer  to schools’ “teams” - never “clubs,” as the NFL did.

Constantly pushing the concept of amateurism, he built the NCAA into a powerhouse organization, one that came down hard on the slightest hint  of paying players, even when “payment” might have consisted of nothing more than buying a kid a hamburger.

He had been retired for several years when in 1994 the Kansas City Sports Commission honored him at its annual dinner,  presenting him with an award for his "exceptional contribution to amateur sports. ”

No one at the affair was prepared for what he had to say…

"Each generation of young persons come along and all they ask is, 'Coach, give me a chance, I can do it.' And it's a disservice to these young people that the management of intercollegiate athletics stays in place committed to an outmoded code of amateurism.

"And I attribute that to, quite frankly, to the neo-plantation mentality that exists on the campuses of our country and in the conference offices and in the NCAA. The coach owns the athlete's feet, the college owns the athlete's body and the athlete's mind is supposed to comprehend a rulebook that I challenge Dave Berst, who's sitting down in this audience, to explain in rational terms to you inside of eight hours."

There he was, the man who more than any other individual in American had  promoted and enforced the principle of amateurism in sport, attacking it as “an outmoded  code.”

In 1995, he published a book called “Unsportsmanlike Conduct,”  which I’ve  got to get hold of and read.  For some reason, it never got the attention you’d have expected.

Maybe that’s because, said Sports Illustrated writer John McCallum, who had interviewed him years earlier,  "By the time he wrote the book, I think he was a little bit of a forgotten man.”

Time to get that book and do some reading.

*********** I’ve been re-reading “Let Me Tell You a Story,” John Feinstein’s biography of Red Auerbach.

Three reasons for re-reading it: (1) Not only do I enjoy going back to the same enjoyable vacation place or restaurant, or listening to the same great piece of music, I also find there are things in a book I may have read before that I either forgot, or missed the first time, or didn’t properly understand the first time; (2) John Feinstein is a prolific writer on interesting aspects of sports, and I’ve never read anything he’s written that I didn’t like; (3) There’s always something to be learned from another coach, especially one of Red Auerbach’s calibre.

(It hurts to think that I may have to explain who the great Red Auerbach was, but briefly - he coached the Boston Celtics for 17 years and won NINE NBA championships - and then served as their president for several decades.)

Granted, he was coaching pros, and pros in those day were still hungry and eager to please their coach, but check this out:

Red had one ironclad rule when it came to team rules: he didn’t have any rules. “If you make rules, set curfews, things like that, then you put yourself in a position where one guy screwing up can hurt the whole team,” he said. “I’ve never understood coaches who suspend players for being late for a team meal or practice. You do something like that, you hurt all the other guys too, not just the guy who screwed up. I might make them run or keep them late or just yell at them - depending on how serious it was. But I never had an ironclad rule on anything because I wanted flexibility. If I had ironclad rules, then I had to enforce them equally. That’s not always the best thing for the team.”

***

Red’s approach to rules may have been best summed up by an incident that took place in the 1980s, when K.C. Jones was coaching the team. Kevin McHale got stuck in traffic one day and missed a plane flight leaving Boston. He had to catch a later flight and meet the team. Jones asked Red how much he should find McHale for his transgression.

“Let me ask you a question,” Red said. “Has he ever done it before?“

“No.”

“Is he ever late for practice?”

“No.”

“Is there anyone on the team that works harder than he does?“

“No.”

“Then why the hell are you going to fine him? Just tell him to make sure it doesn’t happen again and let that be the end of it. “

***

Of course, on those occasions when players did screw up, Red could make them wish he did believe in fines. In 1967, Russell‘s first year as player-coach, Boston was hit by a blizzard. Russell couldn’t get his car out of his driveway, and Red had to coach the team that night. Russell arrived in the final minutes with the game comfortably in hand.

“I gave him hell,” Red said. “He said it took forever to get out of his driveway, that you couldn’t drive more than 10 miles an hour, that the traffic was awful. I said ‘All of that came as a surprise to you? The rest of us got here. We all figured it would take longer, so we left earlier. You didn’t plan correctly.’

“I didn’t yell at him to embarrass him,”’Red said. “I yelled at him because I figured we’d have another blizzard - if not that winter, the next. I was thinking about the next time.”

***********  Legendary Washington Huskies’ coach Don James was, among other things,  a great recruiter.  He was very well organized, and he took great pains to make sure that every person on his staff understood the  goals and the details of  the Huskies’ recruiting strategy,  developing and passing out a large recruiting manual to all staffers.  As part of the Huskies’ screening process, he insisted that his assistants be able to answer nine questions about every prospect they recruited: 

1. Can he be a great college player?

2. Can he be a regular as a sophomore on a championship team?

3. Does he have head-hunter-type toughness?

4. Does he come early and stay late to improve?

5. How does he accept harsh criticism?

6. What would be his reaction to a radical change in position?

7. Is he a good citizen? A leader?

8. Is he dying to be a great football player?

9. Has he had a medical problem that could prevent him from being a great player?


***********  Hugh,

After coaching in New Hampshire for four years, and being exposed to the football athletes in "Mass" it's no surprise to me that the Power 5 schools have finally "landed", and it's about time.

Couldn't agree more with you about Coach Bob Reade's book.  While the copyright is 1994, his lessons on the basics of coaching the game are as relevant today as they were back then.   Likely, even more important.

I was so disappointed to hear about the "adjustments" in curriculum at West Point.  While I don't discredit his service to this country, and am grateful for it, Lloyd Austin and his liberal cronies aren't helping make our military (with the exception of a few) any stronger.

This is a description of Acrisure from the website Penn Live: "A financial tech company...provides AI driven solutions for asset management, cyber services, insurance, and real estate services clients."  Sounds like a high tech financial group.  It's a 15 year deal.

Have a great week!

Joe Gutilla
Austin, Texas

Maybe Heinz couldn’t afford to keep the naming rights to the stadium.  Heinz is (was) an old Pittsburgh company, but  most people don’t know that the Heinz fortune is now in the hands of Lord John Kerry.  Yes, that John Kerry. I am prejudiced.  John “Jack” Heinz was a college classmate, who despite his great wealth was a good guy (and a pretty decent basketball player, too).  He was Senator from Pennsylvania  when he was killed in a plane crash in 1977.  His widow wound up with the money, and damned if she didn’t marry that f—king Kerry, another Yalie, but of the sort that defined the phrase "elite snob."  Just another  career political animal who, once he got back from Vietnam and finished smearing other Americans who’d served over there, never  did an honest day’s work in his life.


*********** QUIZ ANSWER:  In Carlos Alvarez’  own words, as told to Dan Hajducky  (on espn.com) on October 27,  2020  (almost 30 years after he left college)

"We're never going back. So - become an American."

A year and a half after Fidel Castro's revolution, years after my father attended law school with the same Fidel Castro, we took a ferry to Key West with our car and not much else.

Our lives in Cuba had been idyllic, but Dad knew Castro could spell danger. So we got visas at the U.S. embassy (being harassed while we waited in line) and we fled. Once on American soil, my parents basically lost everything. As for the kids, we didn't know we were actually moving until we landed.

Until my dad's decree: "Become an American."

I didn't feel American. Not knowing the language was a big barrier, and my parents barely spoke it. I even saw a couple of signs that said "No Negroes, No Cubans, No Dogs." But Dad was so intent on so-called Americanness that he moved us into North Miami, where nobody spoke Spanish. For four or five years, I felt like an outsider.

It would start early -- 4:30 in the morning, in fact -- when my brother Arturo and I delivered the Miami Herald. I was probably 11 when I handed a note to a woman who was notorious for not paying, asking for payment on my brother's behalf.

She looked at me and said, "You stupid s--c. Get out of here."

I was devastated, shaken. Arturo had a temper. I knew if I told him, it wouldn't go well for either of them, so I lied, said she wasn't there and paid him from my own money.

We never forgot her hatred. Whether it was her xenophobia or the misguided advice of a nun at St. James Elementary who suggested I change my name from Carlos to Charles, becoming "American" seemed an impenetrable goal, one that required us to abandon our own identities.

Until I found football.

I was a running back in high school, but I wanted to be a wide receiver in college. I liked what quarterback Steve Spurrier did in his 1966 Heisman campaign, passing for more than 2,000 yards. And receivers like Charlie Casey and Richard Trapp had great careers in the mid-'60s. My brothers were going to be in Gainesville, far enough from Miami but not too far for my parents to see games. And Lindy Infante, the assistant who recruited me, was Italian, but he looked Cuban. So when he walked into our house, Mom loved him. (Lindy joked later that he'd faked a Cuban accent to curry favor.)

The rest is history, isn't it? My very first game I caught a 70-yard pass to help the Gators upset a heavily favored Houston team. I was quickly dubbed the "Cuban Comet" before becoming a literal consensus All-American. And after catching the game-winning touchdown in the 1969 Gator Bowl, I became an American citizen. I was at peace -- simultaneously Cuban and American.

So I'd fulfilled my father's wish, right? There's not much more American than that.

In 1969, as one of Florida’s so-called “Super Sophs,” he helped lead the Gators to a 9-1-1 record, the best in their history up to then. 

HIs first catch in a college game went for a 70-yard touchdown  against favored Houston, and he finished the day with 182 yards receiving. In his final regular season game against Miami, he caught a school-record 15 passes for 237 yards.

In between, he had a streak of six straight 100-yard games, and set school single-season receiving records for receptions (88), receiving yards (1,329), and touchdowns (12).

He became the first sophomore to be named a consensus All-American since the great Doak Walker in 1947, and was a first-team Academic All-American.

Unfortunately, he injured his knee in that Miami  game, and he never fully recovered. In his final two seasons he was no longer great - merely good.

Still… for all the great receivers Florida has had since then, he still holds school records for receptions in a  single game (15), receptions in a single season - remember, he played fewer games  then (88) and receiving yards in a career (2,563).

HIs 1,329 yards receiving as a sophomore still ranks second in school history (and third in SEC history).
His 237 yards receiving against Miami ranks second, as do his 13 games with  100 yards or more receiving (in  that 1969 sophomore season, he had six straight 100-yard games.

He was named to the Florida Gators All-Century Team and to the Florida Athletic Hall of Fame, and is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame.  He is also a member of the Academic All-America Hall of Fame.

Although drafted by the Dallas Cowboys, he chose instead to go to Duke Law School, from which he graduated summa cum laude (with highest honors).  He spent his career practicing environmental law in Tallahassee.


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING CARLOS ALVAREZ

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - AUSTIN, TEXAS
MARK KACZMAREK - DAVENPORT, IOWA
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN  BAY, WISCONSIN
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND,  WASHINGTON
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS



*********** Hugh,   Carlos Alvarez, The Cuban Comet, is the answer to the quiz today.

https://floridagators.com/news/2020/10/27/football-the-cuban-comet.aspx

Coach Greg Koenig
Bennett, Colorado



*********** QUIZ:   He played in a Rose Bowl and coached in three of them, with two different teams. He coached two Heisman Trophy winners.

A native of Memphis,  he played college football  - baseball and lacrosse, too - at Duke, under the great Wallace Wade.  He was a freshman on the legendary 1938 Duke team - the “Iron Dukes,” who went unbeaten and unscored-on for an entire season, until USC scored on a touchdown pass in the last minute of the Rose Bowl to beat them, 7-3.     And he was a senior  on the Blue Devils’ 1941 team, which hosted Oregon State in a Rose Bowl game played in Durham, North Carolina.  In his four years at Duke, the Blue Devils were 33-5, and as a senior blocking back/quarterback in Wade’s single wing attack, he won the Jacobs Blocking Trophy, awarded to the best blocker in the Southern Conference.

Although drafted by the New York Giants, he took a job as an assistant coach at Western Kentucky, but after one season, with World War II going on, he joined the Navy.  Following  three years’ service as a lieutenant on an aircraft carrier, he spent three seasons at Vanderbilt as an assistant to Red Sanders, then moved with Sanders  to UCLA in 1949.

Coaching the backfield in Sanders’ balanced-line single wing, he helped the 1954 Bruins to an undefeated season and  the national title -  the only one, so far,  in school history.

In 1955, he became head coach at Oregon State, where the Beavers were coming off a 1-8 season, the worst in school history.

In his  first season, Oregon State went 6-3.  In his second season, still running the single wing, the Beavers tied for first in the Pacific Coast Conference, and made it to the Rose Bowl.  In his third season, the Beavers went 8-2 but were prevented from going to the Rose Bowl by the conference’s no-repeat policy.  His  1964 team went 8-3 and played in the Rose Bowl,  following  which he accepted the head coaching job at UCLA.

In ten years at Oregon State,  his record was 63-37-2 record, best of any coach on the West Coast.  He’d taken the Beavers to two Rose Bowls, and in 1962, his quarterback, Terry Baker, became the first player from any  college west of Texas  to win the Heisman Trophy.

At UCLA, the Bruins were coming off three straight losing seasons, but in his first year they went 8-2-1 and went to the Rose Bowl, where as 14-point underdogs to a Michigan State team they’d lost to earlier in the season, they beat the Spartans 14-12.   The Bruins finished ranked fourth in the nation - their highest ranking since his final year as an assistant to Red Sanders - and for his remarkable job, he was named Coach of the Year.  

His second team at UCLA finished ten better, at 9-1, but was prevented from returning to the Rose Bowl by a conference vote. In his third season, his Bruins finished 7-2-1, narrowly losing  (21-20) to USC in one of the greatest college football games ever played.  His quarterback, Gary Beban, won  the Heisman Trophy, edging out USC star running back O. J. Simpson.

He stayed at UCLA for six seasons, during which the Bruins went 41-18-3 and finished in the Top Ten four times.  But following the 1970 season, after the Los Angeles Rams fired George Allen, he accepted the job as their head coach.

In two seasons as Rams’ coach,  he was able to begin rebuilding their depleted roster, but his 14-12-2 record wasn’t good enough for owner Carroll Rosenbloom, and he was fired.

A year later, he took on an even greater  challenge - the San Diego Chargers.  The Chargers sucked - they’d finished 2-11-1 - and on top of that there were serious drug problems on the team.  They went  an encouraging 5-9 in his first season, but slid to 2-12 in his second season. They rebounded to go 6-8 and 7-7, but when they got off to a 1-3 start in 1978, he stepped aside and Don Coryell took over.

He spent three years as player personnel director of the Cleveland Browns before retiring.

Widely respected for his intellect and a man of many interests, he was a world class bridge player.

He is in the College Football Hall of Fame.





TUESDAY, JULY 12, 2022 -  “I believe to be successful in the long run, you need to experience failure. You can’t avoid mistakes if you haven’t made them first.” Laura Paugh, Senior  Vice-President, Marriott


*********** Not much new to report on the Great College Football Consolidation.  We made it though the weekend with the Pac-10 (I’m getting to like that sound more and more) still intact, so I’m as happy as I have a right to be.

Got this from John Canzano…

The Pac-12 didn’t like losing the Los Angeles television market. The defections of USC and UCLA hurt. But a few conference insiders pointed out that the Pac-12 lost exactly zero College Football Playoff appearances with the Trojans and Bruins leaving.

USC may get comfortable and find a productive foothold in the Big Ten under coach Lincoln Riley, but I’m wondering how happy UCLA coach Chip Kelly is about a conference schedule that will now include regular dates vs. perennial playoff contenders.

Said one Pac-12 AD: “Who won the Big Ten before Nebraska came into that conference? Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State, and every once in a while, Michigan State or Wisconsin. Guess who won the Big Ten after Nebraska came in?”

He paused, then added: “Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State, and every once in a while, Michigan State or Wisconsin.”

That’s a VERY good point, and one that USC and UCLA bigwigs probably never considered.  It’s going to play out rather quickly, I think, because we know that USC and UCLA fans are fair weather birds who  show up in large numbers when their teams are winning.  Winning big, that is - something they haven’t been doing much of in recent years:

USC?  Three  10-win seasons in the last 10 years.

UCLA? Two  10-win seasons in the last 16 years.

Maybe they’re not worried about their own fickle fans. Maybe they’re counting on  the huge numbers of Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State, Michigan State and Wisconsin alumni who now live in SoCal.



*********** From “When Pride Still Mattered,” by David Maraniss…

Special Bulletin No.12A arrived at Giants camp that August from NFL headquarters at 1518 Walnut Street in Philadelphia.  It was written by Bert Bell, the league commissioner, and was intended for the Mara family and head coach Jim Lee Howell.

Wellington Mara had been sending notes to the commissioner every week. In his "Dear Bert" correspondence with Bell, a former colleague who had once owned the Philadelphia Eagles, Mara had passed along "constructive criticism for the good of our league” about bad officiating and cheap hits by opposing players. Bell usually took the notes in good humor, but this year he wanted to ensure that Marrella's complaints stayed within the family.  “You and I know that all the men connected with Football are aggressive or they would not be in the game, "Bell wrote. "And I can readily understand how, after losing a tough one, it is very easy for anyone to give off steam by criticizing the officials, the roughness of the other team, an individual player, the management, etc….  You will undoubtedly  agree that this is not the way to build good public relations, as it certainly does not do anyone any good, and might do some person, a team, an official, a player, or the league itself, a great deal of harm.”  Bell went on to plead with the owner not to show game films to the press with the intention of pointing out mistakes by officials, and warned the coach that "abusive and/or foul language”  on the field would result in penalties.

The bulletin had an unusual tone of urgency, and near the end Bell revealed why: "This year the Columbia broadcasting system (CBS) and the local sponsors will present to the public all our games on television, giving us our greatest opportunity to sell the National Football League and professional football. Everyone must do all in his power to present to the public the greatest games in football combined with the finest sportsmanship.”  Bell anticipated  that his league was on the cusp of something new, and he was nervous about the prospect.

We sure have come a long way from  those days when the NFL was grateful for network TV coverage, instead of making the networks pay billions for the privilege.  Now, not to suggest that Deshaun Watson is guilty of anything, but- based on Bert Bell’s concerns about “everyone doing all in his power” to show the league in the best possible light, I have a pretty good idea how Commissioner Bell would have dealt with the issue.

*********** Damn.  Brian Piccolo’s gone.  So is Gale Sayers.  And now James Caan’s gone, too.

What this country needs is Brian’s Song being played in every damn classroom.

Considering the parlous current state of our race relations as described in the news media,  we sure could use it or maybe even another feel-good story of two teammates who put aside the fact that they’re of different races and simply treat each other - and, yes, love each other - as fellow men.

Here it is, fifty years after “Brian’s song, “ and I still believe, in spite of the racial animus being promoted by our government and taught in our schools, that  on an everyday level - at work, at school, on the job, in sports and in the military - this is not a racist country.

Back then, at a time when whites and blacks had few opportunities to live as equals, much less room together, part of the reason we loved the story was that wanted to believe it  - we wanted racial equality and harmony and we wanted to believe that their relationship could be a model for society as a whole.

https://www.tmz.com/2022/07/07/james-caan-dead-dies-godfather/


*********** A “Vigilante Climate Activist Group” has been hitting various places in the Bay Area and leaving fliers on the windshields of SUVs, saying…

“ATTENTION – Your gas guzzler kills. We have deflated one or more of your tires. You’ll be angry, but don’t take it personally. It’s not you, it’s your car.”

And yes, this is after they’ve actually deflated “one or more” of the vehicle’s tires.


Maybe they can get away with these tactics in a few places in the Bay Area - but certainly not all.  And they’d be  wise to expand their operations with great care, because  I can think of an awful lot of places where  things wouldn’t end well for anyone trying this  form of “climate activism.”

https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/climate-vigilantes-deflate-suv-tires-17293468.php


*********** Nautilus and HIT (High Intensity Training) was just getting  started when I started coaching, and it quickly became the hottest thing in training.

Tom Laputka, one of our defensive linemen with the Philadelphia Bell, was involved in it, and in doing a little research on him I came across this fascinating article about HIT.

https://staff.washington.edu/griffin/brzycki.html


*********** Good-bye, Heinz Field.  Hello Acrisure Stadium.

WTF?

Writes SB Nation: "The Steelers will now play at ‘Acrisure Stadium,’ and nobody knows what the hell Acrisure is.     If you can tell me what Acrisure does without Googling, you’re lying. If you can tell me what Acrisure does even after Googling — you’re lying. This is the most confusing company on the face of the earth, and everyone is trying to work out what they do."
 
https://www.sbnation.com/nfl/2022/7/11/23204157/steelers-stadium-naming-rights-pittsburgh-what-is-acrisure



*********** Coaches who take over a program could benefit from the wisdom of a guy named Tony Fadell, who while at Apple played a major part in the development of both the iPod and the iPhone.  He mentioned the number of  different versions of each product that were tried and rejected, sometimes because they were just too “disruptive” of what people were used to. 

Consider this bit of wisdom from him when you’re contemplating going in and making  radical changes:

“People will always be more comfortable with what already exists, even if it’s terrible.”


*********** The NFL is pushing for flag football to be included in the Olympics.

https://apnews.com/article/nfl-winter-olympics-sports-soccer-alabama-53d13bf43739c4488853f792014bb3e7


*********** Three things the NFL should adopt from the USFL:

1. A running clock after incomplete passes during the first and third quarters in order to keep games under three hours.

2. The fourth-and-12-at-the-33  alternative to receiving an onside kick.

3. 15 yard penalty for pass interference (rather than the total yardage of the play, which assumes that without the interference the pass would have been complete).


https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/three-things-nfl-should-adopt-from-usfl-including-running-clock-after-incomplete-passes-depending-on-quarter/



***********  While  the government shamelessly pushes electric vehicles as the answer to Saving  the Planet, we got this in the monthly newsletter from one of our electric utilities…

While supply chain problems have occurred in many areas, the utility market has seen the most significant impact on electrical material supplies with lead times for some materials increasing over 100% in the last two years. For example, transformers typically had a 16 week delivery time and now are in excess of 100 weeks.

*********** What does NIL mean for youth sports?  One can only shudder.  But Peter Frintzilas, CEO of something called TeamSnap, wrote in Sports Business Journal that there’s no need to worry.  Nah. Relax, because, see, all most parents want for their kids is for them to have fun and learn things like teamwork and discipline… Nice stuff, this - but the guy's living in a dream world.

Please, let’s remember to let the kids have fun. Putting pressure on these young athletes to a point in which sports are not fun, but instead playing on a team becomes a job at a young age, creates an atmosphere in which they are not able to learn anything from the experience. And, if anything, they are most likely to resent it over time.


Take it from this CEO, the many lessons I learned playing high school football often come into play for me in my day-to-day running a high-growth sports technology company. And while my destiny was not on the collegiate or NFL field, as in high school I didn’t have the speed and struggled to keep weight on, my path was meant for a different field of competition through business.

However, I was beyond proud to be on a team that won a championship in our senior year. It was teamwork and commitment that made it happen, and we learned from the lessons of defeat in years prior, which enabled us to perform as we did in our final season on the field as a united team. These same lessons and characteristics have helped me throughout my entire career.

But change is coming, and the entire youth sports community should continue to work together toward making sure this type of sensationalized media coverage doesn’t ruin the real benefits of sport for today’s youth athletes. These life-changing benefits include learning the true value of teamwork and discipline, self-confidence, and developing a belief and commitment to the greater good, all skills that can stay with and empower any athlete on and off any field.

Let’s always remember what the essence of sports is supposed to be for children: a means of developing a strong work ethic, being disciplined in a craft, and on the team side — on being accountable, and the rewards that come from teamwork and responsibility. These are all exceptional reasons in their own right for a child to learn any sport, as opposed to a scholarship that may or may not be waiting at the finish line.

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/SB-Blogs/COVID19-OpEds/2022/07/07-Frintzilas.aspx



*********** Just in case you might have thought that our service academies were so focused on the mission, that they were exempt from the kind of attacks the subversives have launched in other areas of our society…

According to new documents released through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) the U.S. Military Academy at West Point is instructing its cadets on “Critical Race Theory,” and “queer theory” and teaching that “Whiteness” amounts to  structural advantages and race privilege.

https://americanmilitarynews.com/2022/06/west-point-teaching-cadets-critical-race-theory-queer-theory-and-whiteness-docs-reveal/


https://www.foxnews.com/politics/west-point-cadets-taught-critical-race-theory-addressing-whiteness-docs-show


*********** While no one was looking, Massachusetts has become a must-visit  state for major college recruiters…

John DiBiaso, the head football coach at Catholic Memorial in Boston, has been a head coach at the high school level for going on 40 years.
This May, he saw something he’d never seen before.

“We had a workout, an after-school workout,” DiBiaso said, “and I had 16 Power 5 coaches sitting in our workout area, our weightlifting area, watching the kids at the same time.

“There were people literally tripping over each other.”

Welcome to recruiting — in Massachusetts.

DiBiaso can’t remember the full list of schools that sent coaches that day to his campus, where he already has three players in the Class of 2023 committed to Power 5 programs. Four-star defensive lineman Boubacar Traore is committed to Notre Dame, and three-star running back Datrell Jones and three-star wide receiver Jaeden Skeete are committed to Boston College. What DiBiaso does recall, though, is that Penn State, Ohio State, Notre Dame, Clemson, Florida, Pittsburgh, Virginia Tech, Boston College, Rutgers and Maryland all showed up.

“Mass kids have really been quote-unquote ‘the bottom,’ where they’re underlooked, underseen in the recruiting game,” said five-star offensive tackle Samson Okunlola, who plays for Thayer Academy in Braintree, Mass.

“(But) we’ve got some dogs down here.”

And college football programs have taken note of the state not exactly known for high school football.

It’s been an unprecedented year for Massachusetts on the recruiting trail, with the Commonwealth quietly pumping out three top-150 recruits in the Class of 2023, according to the 247Sports Composite, after producing just one total from 2018 to 2022.

SORRY ABOUT THE FIREWALL…

https://theathletic.com/3362036/2022/06/14/samson-okunlola-college-football-recruiting/?source=user_shared_article


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

Thanks for the prompt service and the clinic invite! I’m actually just a football fan who finds the double wing extremely compelling. I wish my high school would have run your system when I was playing a little over a decade ago. Someday I hope to install it with a youth or high school team of my own. In any case, I’m looking forward to diving in, and I’ll be sure to reach out if I have any questions.

I’m following up to ask about football book recommendations you might have. On one of your “Coaching Tips” pages you referenced Nelson (1962), which I actually managed to find online for $12 and immediately purchased. You mention that more books are listed on the “Coaching Resources” page, but I’m having difficulty finding it. Is there still such a page? If not, would you be willing to offer me a few recommendations?

Thanks again for the speedy turnaround on my order. I’m looking forward to diving into your book.


Coach,

I haven’t updated that page for some time, so you’ve probably hit a blind alley.

For my money, the absolute first book that I would recommend to anyone wanting to learn the relationship basics of coaching is “Coaching Football Successfully,” by Bob Reade.

There is nothing better.

Bob Reade’s credentials are impeccable - he was several times a state championship coach at a small high school in Illinois (in my opinion, small school coaches in general have to be better better teachers of the game, simply because they have to play kids with a wide variety of experience and ability), and he was several times a national champion at D-III Augustana.

If a guy will take the time and really study Coach Reade’s book, he’ll start to understand the game of football at the ground level, and what’s required to coach it.

Do what you can to get a copy,  and  feel free to fire away with questions.  And when you’ve digested that book, I’ll have another one for you.


*********** Thanks to Brian Mackell for retrieving that gem. Credit to 'our' Coach Wyatt.

I agree with Withrow regarding the direction college football (my favorite sport too) is going, but I'm not wholly on board with Whitlock on this one, though most of the time I am. Yes, the destroyers of our culture get most of the attention and aren't opposed as strongly as I would like, but I do think they're in the minority--the small minority--and that those who believe we have life left are ascendant. We won't know the answer until November. I'm taking nothing for granted, but I won't be satisfied unless we crush the leftists with such force they believe they're on the brink of extinction as a political movement. Only then might they recognize that America is not with them, and to succeed in the future they must adopt more centrist goals.

"The sweep required precision, teamwork, and brains." That sticks with me.

John Vermillion
St. Petersburg, Florida


*********** Hugh,

Jason Whitlock is an American treasure.  His article hits home for millions of us.

Outkick's Chad Withrow is close, but no cigar.  

Lombardi, like many us who have coached football, wasn't afraid to "borrow" a damn good idea, tweek it, and make a better version of it as his own.

USC will win 7 or 8 games, but UCLA will be lucky to win 6.

I have a coaching friend in AZ who has told me the high school "recruiting" there is out of control.

Enjoy your weekend!

Joe  Gutilla
Austin, Texas



***********  QUIZ ANSWER: Franco Harris was born in Fort Dix, New Jersey, the son of a black soldier who served in Italy during World War II and his Italian war bride.

He played his high school football in Mount Holly, New Jersey - not far from Philadelphia - and played his college ball at Penn State.  As a running back, although somewhat overshadowed by running mate Lydell Mitchell  (who had gone to high school just 55 miles away in Salem, New Jersey), he rushed  for 2002 yards and 24 touchdowns  and caught 28 passes for 352 yards and one touchdown.  In his three seasons at Penn State, the Lions were 29-4.

In the 1972 NFL draft, he was the first pick of the Pittsburgh Steelers, the 13th player taken.

In his rookie season, he  rushed for 1,055 yards and 10 touchdowns and caught four touchdown passes, and was named NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year.

His Italian heritage earned him a large following which called themselves  “Franco's Italian Army.”

In his career, he rushed for more than 1,000 yards in eight seasons.

He won four Super Bowl rings.  In Super Bowl IX, he carried 34 times for 158 yards in the Steelers’ 16-6 win over the Vikings, was named Most Valuable Player.  His 354 yards on 101 carries remain Super Bowl records.)

For all his achievements, he is best known for one play. Against the Raiders, in a 1972 playoff game, with the Steelers trailing, 7-6 and 22 seconds left to play, he  caught a ball that was deflected after Raider Jack Tatum hit Steeler Frenchy Fuqua, and raced in for the winning score.  Afterward, Steelers’ broadcaster Myron Cope, called it “The Immaculate Reception,” and the name helped immortalize the play.

He was  often derided for his tendency to duck out of bounds at the end of a run, rather than risk injury by lowering his shoulder in hopes of gaining a few more yards, but it enabled him to survive as a running back for 13 years, and among today’s players it’s become common practice.

In all, he gained 12,120 yards rushing and 2,287 yards receiving.   He scored exactly 100 touchdowns - 91 rushing and nine receiving.

He played in nine Pro Bowls and was  first team All-Pro in 1977.

He was named to the NFL’s 1970s All-Decade Team.

He was named to the Steelers’ All-Time Team and is in their Hall of Honor.

The Steelers have retired only two numbers - Ernie Stautner’s Number 70 and Joe Greene’s Number 75 - but no Steeler has worn his Number 32  since he retired,  and none is likely to.

Since retirement, he has been involved in a number of  successful business ventures and has been active politically.  He was vocal in his support  of his college coach, Joe Paterno, and has provided support to Penn Staters for Responsible Stewardship, an organization dedicated to “restoring the university’s reputation.”

A life-sized statue of Franco Harris,  celebrating the Immaculate Reception,  stands in the main concourse of the Pittsburgh Airport.



CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING FRANCO HARRIS

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
JOE GUTILLA - AUSTIN, TEXAS
JOHN BOTHE - OREGON, ILLINOIS
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
TOM DAVIS - SAN CARLOS, CALIFORNIA
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND,  WASHINGTON
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN  BAY, WISCONSIN
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY





***********  Hugh,

The answer to today's quiz is Franco Harris. This is one quiz that didn't require any searching for clues for me. His stats against the Vikings in the Super Bowl are a testament to the kind of football that won championships in those days: staunch defense and a physical, patient, ball control offense.

I love the "That's my dad!" youth football story.

Greg Koenig
Bennett, Colorado

*********** The immaculate Reception taught me when I was a young kid, that it
ain't over till it’s over. Especially when i was young and I was a big time Raider Fan!

Mike Foristiere
Topeka, Kansas


*********** Hugh,

I still have nightmares about Franco Harris running thru my Cleveland Browns. He certainly was a large part of those great Steeler teams of the 1970's.

I would never cheer for any Steeler team, however I can recognize and appreciate a great player.

See you Tuesday.

David.



*********** QUIZ:  In his own words, as told to Dan Hajducky  (on espn.com) on October 27,  2020  (almost 30 years after he left college)

"We're never going back. So - become an American."

A year and a half after Fidel Castro's revolution, years after my father attended law school with the same Fidel Castro, we took a ferry to Key West with our car and not much else.

Our lives in Cuba had been idyllic, but Dad knew Castro could spell danger. So we got visas at the U.S. embassy (being harassed while we waited in line) and we fled. Once on American soil, my parents basically lost everything. As for the kids, we didn't know we were actually moving until we landed.

Until my dad's decree: "Become an American."

I didn't feel American. Not knowing the language was a big barrier, and my parents barely spoke it. I even saw a couple of signs that said "No Negroes, No Cubans, No Dogs." But Dad was so intent on so-called Americanness that he moved us into North Miami, where nobody spoke Spanish. For four or five years, I felt like an outsider.

It would start early -- 4:30 in the morning, in fact -- when my brother Arturo and I delivered the Miami Herald. I was probably 11 when I handed a note to a woman who was notorious for not paying, asking for payment on my brother's behalf.

She looked at me and said, "You stupid s--c. Get out of here."

I was devastated, shaken. Arturo had a temper. I knew if I told him, it wouldn't go well for either of them, so I lied, said she wasn't there and paid him from my own money.

We never forgot her hatred. Whether it was her xenophobia or the misguided advice of a nun at St. James Elementary who suggested I change my name from Carlos to Charles, becoming "American" seemed an impenetrable goal, one that required us to abandon our own identities.

Until I found football.

I was a running back in high school, but I wanted to be a wide receiver in college. I liked what quarterback Steve Spurrier did in his 1966 Heisman campaign, passing for more than 2,000 yards. And receivers like Charlie Casey and Richard Trapp had great careers in the mid-'60s. My brothers were going to be in Gainesville, far enough from Miami but not too far for my parents to see games. And Lindy Infante, the assistant who recruited me, was Italian, but he looked Cuban. So when he walked into our house, Mom loved him. (Lindy joked later that he'd faked a Cuban accent to curry favor.)

The rest is history, isn't it? My very first game I caught a 70-yard pass to help the Gators upset a heavily favored Houston team. I was quickly dubbed the "Cuban Comet" before becoming a literal consensus All-American. And after catching the game-winning touchdown in the 1969 Gator Bowl, I became an American citizen. I was at peace -- simultaneously Cuban and American.

So I'd fulfilled my father's wish, right? There's not much more American than that.

In 1969, as one of Florida’s so-called “Super Sophs,” he helped lead the Gators to a 9-1-1 record, the best in their history up to then. 

HIs first catch in a college game went for a 70-yard touchdown  against favored Houston, and he finished the day with 182 yards receiving. In his final regular season game against Miami, he caught a school-record 15 passes for 237 yards.

In between, he had a streak of six straight 100-yard games, and set school single-season receiving records for receptions (88), receiving yards (1,329), and touchdowns (12).

He became the first sophomore to be named a consensus All-American since the great Doak Walker in 1947, and was a first-team Academic All-American.

Unfortunately, he injured his knee in that Miami  game, and he never fully recovered. In his final two seasons he was no longer great - merely good.

Still… for all the great receivers Florida has had since then, he still holds school records for receptions in a  single game (15), receptions in a single season - remember, he played fewer games  then (88) and receiving yards in a career (2,563).

His 1,329 yards receiving as a sophomore still ranks second in school history (and third in SEC history).

His 237 yards receiving against Miami also ranks second, as do his 13 games with  100 yards or more receiving (in  that 1969 sophomore season, he had six straight 100-yard games.

He was named to the Florida Gators All-Century Team and to the Florida Athletic Hall of Fame, and is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame.  He is also a member of the Academic All-America Hall of Fame.

Although drafted by the Dallas Cowboys, he chose instead to go to Duke Law School, from which he graduated summa cum laude (with highest honors) and has practiced environmental law in Tallahassee.




FRIDAY, JULY 8, 2022 -  “It is better to debate a question without settling it than to settle a question without debating it.”  Joseph Joubert

*********** I have a great deal of respect for Jason Whitlock.  Yes, yes, I know - he’s a sellout.  An Uncle Tom.  At least that’s the knee-jerk opinion from the left.

See, he’s a black man who doesn’t take marching orders from anyone else. He has his own opinions and they don’t always jibe with what those on the left expect a black man to have, and - what makes him even more dangerous - he happens to be quite bright, and well-enough educated to be able to express his opinions in writing.

This  piece, coming off a July 4 when our nation’s birthday celebration was desecrated by the wanton murder of innocent celebrants in suburban Chicago, is deeply disturbing in its lack of optimism  about our country, but it’s hard for me to  disagree…

It feels like America died yesterday. Dead on the Fourth of July.

That’s how it felt Monday when I learned a gunman killed six and injured at least three dozen more during an Independence Day parade in Highland Park, Illinois.

What was born on the Fourth of July – a system of governance predicated on the belief that all men are created equal and endowed by their creator with unalienable rights – died on the Fourth of July. For 246 years, that belief united the states of America. That belief is gone now. It’s been eradicated from the minds of too many Americans for this country to remain whole.

The United States of America has been balkanized, polarized, and demonized to the point that we can no longer joyfully and unapologetically celebrate our birthday.

The New York Times, the nation’s alleged newspaper of record, claims the real founding of this country was in 1619 and the real motivation was slavery, not freedom. ESPN, the worldwide leader in sports, published a piece Monday denigrating the Fourth and arguing that a three-hour riot at the Capitol, the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the demise of Colin Kaepernick’s NFL career, Jack Del Rio calling January 6 a “dust-up,” and Justice Clarence Thomas’ objection to same-sex marriage prove America’s irreparable wickedness.

Half the country sees the American flag as a symbol of oppression and pride as a virtue.

We’re dead. Dead on the Fourth of July.

READ MORE

https://www.theblaze.com/fearless/oped/whitlock-highland-park-massacre

Thanks for the story tip to Greg Koenig, Bennett, Colorado


*********** Chad Withrow, writing in Outkick…

Long gone are the days of tradition mattering. Say goodbye to rivalries that have lasted a century or more and hello to USC vs. Maryland! The sport that I love more than any other has been bastardized because a few conference commissioners and school presidents got an itchy trigger finger and decided “if I don’t, they will, so I might as well shoot.”

None of this is best for the sport. It’s all about what’s best financially for a few and not the whole. It means more alright. And I get it. There are no government bailouts in major college football. The rich get richer because there is no such thing as “rich enough” for the super-wealthy.

Here is where I should write something about capitalism or free markets or blah blah blah but I realize Jeff Bezos probably isn’t reading this piece, so I’ll spare you the financial explanation that typically serves to make greedy people feel better about their greed. If you are reading this column, you are probably a lot like me: Someone who has an interest in the whole of college football.
 
So let’s begin by admitting what’s taking place is very, very bad for all but maybe 50-60 programs. And 60 is being generous. But SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey and Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren have shown us they don’t care about your athletic budget or your feelings unless you can offer them a path to more money and security. Sorry, Iowa State. You should have had the foresight to build your campus in a better future TV market when you constructed it in 1858. And Washington State can now go play the equivalent of FCS football considering the Palouse isn’t an area where advertisers are elbowing each other to reach.

So sorry. Ta-Ta. Money wins. Again.

READ MORE

https://www.outkick.com/manifest-destiny-the-strong-shall-inherit-college-football/?utm_source=ActiveCampaign&utm_medium=email&utm_content=The+latest+screencaps+%26+more&utm_campaign=daily+ok+7%2F6


*********** While researching something else, I was thumbing through “When Pride Still Mattered,” David Maraniss’ magnificent biography of Vince Lombardi.  (I find myself going there a lot, because I happen to know how thoroughly David had researched his books, and I know I can count on  the accuracy of what he writes.)

In this case, David  was writing about Lombardi’s “aha!” moment,  when he became aware of the  need to “run to daylight,” and,  employing that principle, borrowed a play from the Los Angeles Rams and turned it into what would gain football immortality as the Packer Sweep.

… a simple concept that was now the foundation of Lombardi's offensive philosophy: freedom within structure… After watching Gifford dip to the outside and into the clear when a defensive end closed the off tackle hole where one play was designed to go, Lombardi began to teach his running plays differently. "That was the first time that I realized that in the pro league it is to your advantage to run to daylight and not a specific hole, "he explain later. "And that's the way I began coaching it. “

Run to daylight – later the phrase would become the trademark of Lombardi's offense in Green Bay, but it was conceived in 1956 on the practice field in Vermont.  And so was the seminal play of his pro offense, the power sweep. Before it became famous as the Packer sweep, it was the Giants sweep, and apparently before that it was the Rams sweep. Lombardi first saw the play while watching films of Los Angeles in 1955. He analyzed the movements of every offensive player, stuffed his research into his playbook satchel and showed it to the Giants that August. From the first time he taught it,  Lombardi was in his element.  This play defined him. It was at once old and new.  It was seemingly simple and yet offered infinite complexity,  demanding swift decisions by all eleven offensive players.  It was not size that mattered – Bill Austin, the left guard, prayed for the sweep call because he weighed only 218 pounds and "wasn't big enough to go straight ahead” against the league’s bigger tackles. Nor was it speed alone – if Gifford or Webster sprinted ahead of the blockers, the play was lost. The sweep required precision, teamwork and brains.   Lombardi loved it.  Once, at a football seminar, he talked about it nonstop for eight hours.

*********** John Canzano had Bill Moos on his radio show Tuesday.  As the AD at Oregon,  Washington State and then Nebraska,  Moos was a good one to ask what it was going to be like for USC and UCLA in the Big Ten.

Said Moos: “It ain’t going to be an easy road for USC and UCLA. At Nebraska, we took teams into Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State…


“Those are big stadiums, big traditions, lots of championships. There will be great competition, but it’s hard for me to see that there’s going to be a lot of 10-win seasons. Probably going to be more like seven or eight.”



*********** Phoenix’ Cesar Chavez High lost a lot of players after the 2020 season  when the  Phoenix school district dithered and delayed the start of the football season and  then, after three games, ended it.

It’s been an uphill struggle since then, and so the Cesar Chavez AD took offense when he saw that an assistant  coach  from Hamilton High School (of suburban Chandler, Arizona)  had messaged a Chavez player following a recent camp:

“I was impressed with you at the Big Man competition this past weekend. You are way ahead of where our defensive lineman from Hamilton HS, Deuce Davis was as a sophomore and after 1 year at the varsity level, he had multiple offers and was selected as Gatorade Defensive Player of the Year. The coach who ran the big man camp is my DL coach and one of the best DL coaches in…”

The AD responded..

Stop contacting/recruiting Chavez football players. There is absolutely no reason for a coach, player, parent, trainer or anyone else to reach out to one of our athletes online or in person.

The player’s  coach also chimed in with this…

"This is very frustrating when u are working ur tail off to build a program the right way.”

and this…

“They all have 90 man rosters and 30 coaches but somehow they need our kids. How do u explain this to the kids and parents in your own community? Are they not good enough to coach up.”

The head coach of Hamilton, in a rather lame attempt to defend his assistant, said he was just trying to pump up the Chavez kid, who despite winning the camp’s MVP award over several players who already have D-I scholarship offers, still didn’t have one himself.

Not buying it, said the Chavez coach:     "This is an attempt to lure and persuade," he said. ”Defending against that shouldn't be part of my job description.

This goes on in Oregon and Washington, but it’s not this blatant.  Or else  the coaches here are smarter than the coaches in Arizona and don’t leave that  sort of an audit trail.

(There’s always the possibility that the Hamilton coach really was just trying to encourage the young man.)


Thanks  to John Irion of Argyle, New York  for the story  tip.

https://www.azcentral.com/story/sports/high-school/2022/07/02/cesar-chavez-ad-fed-up-football-recruiting-twitter-blast/7796892001/


***********  Humpy Wheeler, former President and GM of Charlotte Motor Speedway, asked about his late boss, track owner Bruton Smith: “In the 60 years I have known Bruton, I found no man smarter - although I never knew Einstein.”


***********  As easterners originally, when we  first came to Washington 47 years ago, we were shocked to find fireworks readily available  and widely used for a week or so, every  Fourth of July.
 
Cool, I thought.  (As a Philly kid, I only knew  fireworks from sitting and watching displays on the Fourth, and from the occasional kid whose family had gone to Florida and brought home  some cherry bombs that they’d bought in South Carolina on the way back.)

But it grew old. As the years passed and the population grew, so did the fireworks sales.  (I can’t believe the sums people spend on the stuff, but  as long as it’s legal, it’s their business.)  We’re  talking  rockets and roman candles and God knows what all, and around here the Fourth reached  the point where we were afraid to leave our home  for fear that our trees might catch fire.  (I pray for rain on the Fourth.)

Our dogs have been another matter,  cowering and shivering  every time they’d hear one of those damn bombs go off. I can only imagine what it’s like for people who’ve mistakenly let their dogs out in the yard only to have the poor things hear  all the noise and go berserk and run off.

In sum, I’m not a fireworks fan.

Neither, as things have grown out of control, are most people in our area, and over the years, bit by bit, they’ve begun passing laws outlawing fireworks of one sort or another.

But as with so many things in our gutless society, laws are  only as good as our leaders’ willingness to enforce them.

Consider: two years ago, the city of Vancouver, Washington, just to the east of us, outlawed all sales and use of fireworks.  Of course,  just as with firearms, that doesn’t mean they can’t be purchased someplace where  they’re legal, and brought to Vancouver to be set off.

So last year, in the first year of the ban, there was little enforcement of the new law.  See, it was meant to be an ”educational” year.

Well.  They must have done a great job of education, because this year, there were zero citations handed out for fireworks violations. 

Yet the local Fireworks Call Center reported receiving hundreds of calls complaining about fireworks. 

Hmmm.   Since every law enforcement agency knows that the simplest way to reduce the crime rate is simply to stop arresting criminals,  the people responsible for seeing that the fireworks law  was enforced did absolutely nothing.  In response to complaints, they didn’t hand out a  single ticket or  confiscate a single firecracker. Instead, they issued “verbal warnings."

Explained the person in charge, the Fire Marshall, “we were taking a proactive approach.”

I think she meant “inactive."



*********** Thanks to Brian Mackell for finding this

at 6:06, my little bit of immortality

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WIpm3lpiBo


*********** In a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, Daniel E Greenleaf, President and CEO of a Colorado  health care services company, predicted that the economy is going to tank soon, and when it does, it’s going to be a rude awakening  for a lot of   today’s pampered young employees.

Workers of a certain age and attitude will have to reckon with the coming recession. Rising inflation and a market downturn guarantee layoffs. The days of expecting employers to be grateful for your application will be soon gone.

People who started work in the past dozen years are about to experience their first tough job market.

As a result, he predicts…

Job security will again take precedence over job hopping. Surging prices and a wave of layoffs would give younger workers a newfound appreciation for their paychecks. Workers will feel fortunate to commit to a company and think about moving up rather than moving on. They’ll think more about what they can do to improve the customer experience and less about what they don’t feel like doing.


A recession will be a rough way to learn this important lesson, but employees and employers will be better for it.

***********  You’d have to say that the opening season of the USFL was a success.

According to Sports Business Journal’s Austin Karp…

The USFL championship game drew 1.52 million viewers on Fox.

Compare that with…

The MLS Cup:  1.14 million on ABC last fall.

The largest audience to watch a Premier League “match” (Chelsea-Liverpool): 1.4 million on NBC

The F1 Monaco Grand Prix: 1.4 million on ESPN

The NHL Winter Classic: 1.36 million on TNT

For the entire season:

The USFL (On Fox, NBC, FS1 and USA) averaged 750,000 viewers

The Premier League (NBC, NBCSN, USA, CNBC) averaged 507,000

The NHL regular season (ABC, TNT, ESPN) averaged 460,000



***********  At my grandson Will’s  wedding, I saw a guy named Doug Robinson, the dad of one of Will’s best friends,  for the first time in more than 20 years.

He reminded me of how we’d met originally.  He was assistant coach of  the youth football team that Will and his son, Jack,  played on and in the  early going, to be diplomatic, the team was struggling.

The head coach, a West Point grad,  said he thought they should probably find an offense something along the lines  of what Army was doing offensively, which at the time was the wishbone that Jim Young had introduced and Bob Sutton had continued to run.

Doing some research, he came upon some information about a unique running offense. It wasn't the Army wishbone,  but he bought a video and a playbook that explained it,  and the coaches installed it.  Short story: it helped the team go from dead last to a spot in the league championship game.

Doug reminded me of how one day at practice he happened to mention to my daughter, Vicky, Will's mom, that they got their offense from  some guy named Coach Wyatt, and she said, excitedly, “That’s my dad!”


*********** Thanks for the photo-reportage on Coach Lude's birthday. I'm sure you wanted to leave immediately after checking in.

So much of our Independence Day news was dark...the stories seemed ubiquitous and unavoidable...sickening stuff to me...so reading about real people who came together to celebrate the life of a man of high character and great accomplishment was a timely antidote.

John Vermillion
St. Petersburg, Florida


***********  Hugh,

I  really enjoyed Tuesday 's News. Your report about Mike's 100th birthday party was outstanding. What a beautiful place to have a celebration of Mike 's life.

I envy you and Connie the experience.

I  would have loved to be a fly on the wall and heard all the great conversations and tributes.

See you Tuesday.

David Crump
Owensboro, Kentucky


***********   Hugh,

Thanks for sharing in Mike Lude's 100th birthday celebration.  Thoroughly enjoyed the tidbits of information provided.  You won't find many (if any) guys like Mike Lude in college football anymore.

Birmingham found a way to win, but Philadelphia made them earn it.  Fortunately for Birmingham their backup QB (despite a shaky start and apparent disagreement with HC Skip Holtz) proved to be the catalyst for their come from behind win.

Frankly, I think there will be a whole lot more surprises in store for us regarding the future landscape of college football.  

First, I think the BIG 10 will complete its raid of the PAC-12 by adding Washington and Oregon.  I don't think the PAC-12 will go down without a serious fight and effort though to remain a player in the big boys pool, however it won't include adding Boise St., Fresno St., or SDSU.

Second, I think the makeup of the Big 12 and ACC will morph and change depending upon what Notre Dame decides.

Finally, since money is the motivating factor in all of this crap I hate to say that Notre Dame will ultimately determine the face of college football.  First, there is no guarantee ND will give up their independence.  Not with that exclusive NBC contract.  Second, the decision to move to a conference will depend a lot on how their road to a national championship will look.  Third, IF they DO decide to move to a conference it will not be the BIG 10.  They are already associated with the ACC, have developed some good rivalries in sports other than football, and with some re-negotiating with NBC and the ACC not only bring the football program in full-time but could insure that schools like Clemson and UNC stay put, and entice schools like West Virginia, Maryland, Rutgers, and UCF to get on board to make the ACC a legitimate player.

I think the remaining FBS schools will split into 3 Regions (West, South, North) and hold their own 16 team national championship playoff, and be subsidized with network deals from ESPN, FOX, and CBS.

Have a great week!

Joe Gutilla
Austin, Texas


*********** QUIZ ANSWER:    Alex Webster was big (6-3, 225) and red-headed, so famed broadcaster  Chris Schenkel nicknamed him “Big Red,” and the name stuck. 

For ten years, he was a solid member of the great New York Giants in the late 1950s and early 1960s. He also had the misfortune to coach the Giants during the long string of lean years that followed.

The son of Scottish immigrants, he grew up in Kearney (pronounced “CARN-ey”) New Jersey,  where as a single wing tailback he led his high school team to a state championship his senior year.

Highly recruited, he played his college football at North Carolina State.  Very big for the time, he led the then-Southern Conference in scoring his junior season.

In 1953, he was drafted 11th by the Washington Redskins, but after playing in all their exhibition games, he was cut just four days before the regular season opener (NFL teams at that time carried just 33 men on their rosters). He recalled  that he was given $10 to get home - “and it  cost me nine dollars and ninety cents to come home on the train.”

On a tip, he contacted Montreal of the Canadian Football League, whose Coach, Peahead Walker, had previously coached at Wake Forest and remembered him from NC State. Walker told  him to hustle on up.

He spent two highly productive years in Montreal, and in 1954 was named the CFL's Most Valuable Player. But making just $2800 the first year and $4000 the second, he was able to move his long family to Canada to be with him, and when he was offered $5,000 for a third year, he returned to New Jersey  and contacted the Giants.

They offered $10,500 - and a $2,500 signing bonus -  and he signed. Being able to commute from his home in New Jersey was an added inducement.

In New York, he came under the "guidance" of offensive coordinator Vince Lombardi.

"I learned it was going to be more difficult in the NFL," he recalled. "Lombardi really put you through a workout. I thought I was going to die. I was a lazy player to begin with - I hated to practice - but you had to work if you were going to play for him."

Work he did. Playing in a backfield with such other stars as Frank Gifford, Kyle Rote, Mel Triplett, Eddie Price and Joe Morrison, he became the guy who got the tough yardage.

"He was one of the hardest-hitting running backs you ever wanted to see," said Giants’ head  coach, Jim Lee Howell. "There were a lot of defensive players who did not want to see him across the line from them."

In his first year with the Giants, starting halfback Kyle Rote injured his knee and was moved to flanker, creating a  sport for our guy at halfback. In that first season, he led the Giants in rushing.

He played ten years in the NFL, all of them with the Giants, and played in six NFL  championship games, including the so-called “Greatest Game Ever Played,” against the Baltimore Colts.

He was the guy who got the tough yardage  when they really needed it.  In his career, he rushed for 4.638 yards and 39 touchdowns, and caught 240 passes for 2,679 yards and 17 touchdowns.  Despite being outshone by more famous backfield mates, he nonetheless played in two Pro Bowls.

By the time he retired, in 1964, he held Giants’  career records for most carries, most rushing yards, and most touchdowns scored rushing, (all records later broken by the great Joe Morris.)

He spent two seasons as a Giants’ assistant, and in 1969, when head coach Allie Sherman was let go one week before the season opener, he was named head coach. “Worst mistake of my life,” he said later. “I was only two years as an assistant… I didn’t have the mentality…You have to be a disciplinarian, and that wasn’t me.”

He did have two good years - 1970, when the Giants went 9-5 and then in 1972 when the Giants finished 8-6, and he was named NFL Coach of the Year.

Unfortunately, 8-6 was only good  enough for third place in the NFC East, behind George Allen's Redskins at 11-3, and Tom Landry's Cowboys at 10-4.

He stepped down following the 1973 season, with a five year record of 29-40-1.

During the 1960s he was a color analyst on Giants’ radio broadcasts.

He is a member of the Giants’ Ring of Honor.

Very well liked in New York sports circles,   Alex Webster was an honorary pallbearer for Toots Shor, legendary owner of the famed New York sports hangout, along with famed broadcaster Howard Cosell, TV news anchor Walter Cronkite,  fellow former Giant Frank Gifford, Major League Baseball Bommissioner Bowie Kuhn, Pittsburgh Steelers’ owner Art Rooney, and NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle.


CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING ALEX WEBSTER


JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - AUSTIN, TEXAS
TOM DAVIS - SAN CARLOS, CALIFORNIA
JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY
MIKE FORISTIERE - TOPEKA, KANSAS
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN  BAY, WISCONSIN
OSSIE OSMUNDSON - WOODLAND,  WASHINGTON


***********  QUIZ: He was born in Fort Dix, New Jersey, the son of a black soldier who served in Italy during World War II and his Italian war bride.

He played his high school football in Mount Holly, New Jersey - not far from Philadelphia - and played his college ball at Penn State.  As a running back, although somewhat overshadowed by running mate Lydell Mitchell  (who had gone to high school just 55 miles away in Salem, New Jersey), he rushed  for 2002 yards and 24 touchdowns  and caught 28 passes for 352 yards and one touchdown.  In his three seasons at Penn State, the Lions were 29-4.

In the 1972 NFL draft, he was the first pick of the Pittsburgh Steelers, the 13th player taken.

In his rookie season, he  rushed for 1,055 yards and 10 touchdowns and caught four touchdown passes, and was named NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year.

His Italian heritage earned him a large following which called themselves his “Italian Army.”

In his career, he rushed for more than 1,000 yards in eight seasons.

He won four Super Bowl rings.  In Super Bowl IX, he carried 34 times for 158 yards in the Steelers’ 16-6 win over the Vikings, was named Most Valuable Player.  His 354 yards on 101 carries remain Super Bowl records.)

For all his achievements, he is best known for one play. Against the Raiders, in a 1972 playoff game, with the Steelers trailing, 7-6 and 22 seconds left to play, he  caught a ball that was deflected after Raider Jack Tatum hit Steeler Frenchy Fuqua, and raced in for the winning score.  Afterward, Steelers’ broadcaster Myron Cope, called it “The Immaculate Reception,” and the name helped immortalize the play.

He was  often derided for his tendency to duck out of bounds at the end of a run, rather than risk injury by lowering his shoulder in hopes of gaining a few more yards, but it enabled him to survive as a running back for 13 years, and among today’s players it’s become common practice.

In all, he gained 12,120 yards rushing and 2,287 yards receiving.   He scored exactly 100 touchdowns - 91 rushing and nine receiving.

He played in nine Pro Bowls and was  first team All-Pro in 1977.

He was named to the NFL’s 1970s All-Decade Team.

He was named to the Steelers’ All-Time Team and is in their Hall of Honor.

The Steelers have retired only two numbers - Ernie Stautner’s Number 70 and Joe Greene’s Number 75 - but no Steeler has worn his Number 32  since he retired,  and none is likely to.

Since retirement, he has been involved in a number of  successful business ventures and has been active politically.  He was vocal in his support  of his college coach, Joe Paterno, and has provided support to Penn Staters for Responsible Stewardship, an organization dedicated to “restoring the university’s reputation.”

A life-sized statue of him making the Immaculate Reception  stands in the main concourse of the Pittsburgh Airport.




TUESDAY, JULY 5, 2022 -  “Never mind your happiness; do your duty.”  Peter Drucker

***********  World War II Marine… Captain of the football team at Hillsdale College… Co-inventor of the Delaware Wing-T offense… Head football coach at Colorado State… AD at Kent State, Washington and Auburn… Longtime member of the NCAA Football Rules Committee… That's just a brief descritpion of Mike Lude.

Thursday, June 30th was Mike's 100th birthday, and the party was one to remember.

Even in the unlikely event that I make it to 100 myself, I doubt that I’ll ever again experience anything to compare with it.

When Mike first told me about his plans - about a year ago - my first thought was that  it was typical Mike.  Who but the most positive person I’ve ever met would be so positive as to make plans for a 100th birthday party?

Not only did Mike make it to 100 but, meticulously planned and carried out by him and his three daughters, the party went off  without a hitch.

It was held near Seattle, but people came from everywhere. They’d blocked out a number of rooms at a hotel south of Seattle in Renton, Washington, and when the time came, a  fleet of five shuttles transported us to the venue, “The Golf Club at Newcastle,” which describes itself as “350 expansive hilltop acres.”  (https://newcastlegolf.com/)



Hilltop, indeed.   It was an absolutely  beautiful Northwest day, and from the terrace, where the attendees gathered for drinks before the festivities began, you could look down on Lake Washington,  and beyond it to the Seattle skyline and Elliott Bay.


When it was time to go inside, the 200 or so guests were served dinner - amazingly, no one at any table appeared to have to wait.  




My wife and I found ourselves  seated at a table which other than us was all Delaware people, from Mike’s days as an assistant coach there. Mike  later asked me how I’d enjoyed meeting them.  I told him that it was an unbelievable  stroke of good luck for us that we were at that table.  (Not luck at all:   Mike admitted proudly that he’d personally arranged the seating at all the tables.) We were honored. They were really good  people and a lot of fun.


The former Delaware football players were all there because they had all been recruited by Mike.  They revered the man, and mentioned that if  they weren’t where they were that night, they’d be with him someplace back East,  celebrating his birthday as they’d been doing for years.


*********** The program was emceed by Seattle radio and TV guy Bob Rondeau, and he did a fantastic job.  Unlike so many affairs where the emcee  may be well known but never actually knew the honoree, Bob had done Huskies’ games for years and knew Mike well, which was obvious from the things he said.

*********** Mike’s daughter, Jill Thompson, led off, and spoke for her three sisters in telling what a great father he’d been.

His nephew, Michael May, shared some humorous stories about Mike’s  Hillsdale days.

*********** Jim Smith, captain of Mike’s 1966 Colorado State team and a former president of the Ram Alumni Athletes Association,  told how Mike took over a program that had lost 16 straight, and with almost no talent on hand, lost ten straight before finally starting to win. He said he remembered Mike’s first team meeting and the first things Mike said: “Sit up straight…  Caps off…  Eyes on me.”  Things, he said, that have stayed with him throughout his business career.


He recalled Mike talking to his  former boss at Delaware, Dave Nelson, after being offered the job and saying, “This isn’t a good job.”  Coach Nelson told him, “Mike, if it was a good job, they wouldn’t have offered it to you!”




*********** After the program, Mike was surrounded by some of his former Colorado State players.

***********  Charlie Zumkehr, an Ohio attorney and friend of Mike’s from his Kent State days told of how Mike upgraded everything about Kent State athletics - and how Mike’s book is being used in the university’s Ethics in Sports class.
 



*********** Gary Pinkel, whom most people will know as the most successful coach in Missouri history,  spoke about what it was like to be at Kent State as a player when Mike hired Don James, and watch the program go from one of the worst in America to become champions of the MAC. And then he spoke about what a class operation Coach James and Mike ran at Washington, where he was an assistant for 12 years, before leaving to become head coach at Toledo.  Emcee Don Rondeau, just to illustrate the kind of man Gary Pinkel is, told of  how he was coaching at Missouri and lost to South Carolina in double-overtime, but caught a late night flight to Seattle so that he could speak at Don James’ funeral.  I had my picture taken with him and despite some of the health issues he’s had, he appeared to be in great shape.


*********** Judy Biondi, who had been Mike’s chief fund raiser at Washington, told how he’d hired her and  give her the responsibility of helping raise the money to put women’s sports on a sound  footing.


***********  Dr. William Muse, former  President of Auburn University, said that when he took the Auburn job he had to let his AD go, and he called Arkansas AD Frank Broyles, whom he’d come to know when he was getting his Ph.D. there, to ask him if he knew anyone he could recommend for the job.  Broyles recommended that he contact Mike Lude, and the result, said Dr. Muse, “was the best hire I ever made.”


*********** An Auburn alumnus was on hand to present Mike with a certificate from the Mayor of Auburn, Alabama, proclaiming June 30 “MIke Lude Day.”


***********  Bert Kinerk, Mike’s best friend from Tucson, where Mike has lived since retirement, said how much admiration he and his family had for Mike for the way he cared for his wife, Rena, during the last several years of her life.  (Mike and Rena, who’d met when they were both in college at Hillsdale, were  married 70 years.) Bert  said  that he was amazed at seeing so many people from so many areas and phases of Mike’s life, and that, considering all that’s he’s done, “he’s really 150.”



***********  The most spectacular part of the evening came at the end of the program when the University of Washington Pep Band burst through the doors behind the stage and marched in, playing the Huskies’ fight song, “Bow Down to Washington,” followed here by “Happy Birthday.”


The band’s appearance was not on the program and only took place at the insistence of the UW band director as an expression of gratitude for all that Mike had done for the band when he was the Washington AD.




*********** My wife, Connie, was seated next to me, of course, but on her other side was a lady named Amy Connell.  Make that  Amy Nelson Connell, the daughter of the late legendary Delaware coach Dave Nelson, who was also Mike’s God daughter.  She  shared the story about  how her dad, before he died, had reminded her that if she ever needed anything she should call on “Uncle Mike.”  When she wanted to establish a scholarship in memory of her parents, that’s exactly what she did, and Mike, with his years of fund-raising experience and his Delaware contacts, made it happen.  What’s really cool is Amy’s husband, Gary, who’s a builder, collaborated  to update her parents’ house - the house she was raised in and the house where she remembers parties of long ago for coaches and their wives - and live in it now.


*********** One of the Delaware guys at the table was Howdy Giles. He’s been a dentist in Wilmington, Delaware, and a passionate golfer, and  through a  combination of circumstances he became Arnold Palmer’s dentist.  As a result of that he became a personal friend and confidante of the golfing great, as well as his personal photographer.  He's published a book called “The King and I,” which I have already ordered from Amazon.


*********** Another of the Delaware guys was Fred Rullo, now a successful Philadelphia area businessman who was originally from Chester, Pennsylvania, where he went to St. James High School.  You’d have to know Philly and Chester to know St. James, but they were once a real power in the Philadelphia Catholic League.  He told of how, in his junior year, they got killed by another local power, Ridley Township.  Ridley kept its starters in, right to the end, and after the game, the Ridley coach said to St. James coach “Beans” Brennan, “I know it looks like I kept our starters in, but those kids work so hard all week I didn’t have the heart  to pull them…”

The next year, St. James was loaded.  They had a running  back named Dick Christy who went on to play at NC State and then  for five seasons with the Steelers, Patriots and NY Titans (now Jets), and they put a licking on Ridley Township. Coach Brennan didn’t pull his starters, either, and after the game, he told the Ridley coach,  “I know it looks like I kept our starters in, but those kids work so hard all week…”

 


*********** Three of the Delaware guys (Left to Right: Mike O’Rourke, Fred Rullo and Howdy Giles) posed with the Delaware football jersey - number 100 - that they presented to Mike.

I of course had to needle them by asking if they got it done at the same place where they'd  had one done for Joe Biden, and their  reaction was swift, essentially saying that, despite the President’s  claims to have played football at Delaware, such was not the case.


*********** At dinner I was seated next to Mickey Heinecken.  Again, this seating arrangement was Mike’s doing. Mickey was a heck of a football player at Delaware.  He was a three-year starter at end (going both ways) and captain of the Blue Hens’ 1960 team.  He was an honorable mention Little All-American and a standout in baseball for two years and in lacrosse for two years, and as a senior he was named Outstanding Male Athlete of the Year.  After two years’ service in the Army, he was an assistant on Tubby Raymond’s staff for eight years and Delaware’s head lacrosse coach  for nine years before becoming head football coach at Division III Middlebury College, in Vermont. He  coached at Middlebury for 28 years and was twice named the New England Coach of the Year for all divisions.

Here’s the best - Mickey and I both grew up in Mt. Airy, a section of Philadelphia, and we both went to Henry H. Houston Elementary School there.  He was a grade behind me, so we didn’t have a lot to do with each other, but I knew of him. (Because ours was a heavily-Irish neighborhood, I first thought his name was “Hannigan.”)

We went to different high schools, and we never played each other, but I  followed his career, and knew he was really good, and of course I knew that he’d been the head coach at Middlebury.

He is a great guy, with some great views on college football, and needless to say we had a lot to talk about.   He was there with his wife, Carol, who’d been a cheerleader at Delaware.





*********** When I heard that Carol James was in attendance, I had to introduce myself. Mrs. James is the widow of  the great Don James, and I told her that although she’d probably heard it many times before from any number of guys, I wanted  to let her know what an impact her husband had had on me and on many other coaches I know.  She seemed touched and said it was “making me cry.”  (She meant in a good way, though, and I was able to get this photo of two great coaches' wives.)


*********** As we sat in the shuttle taking us back to the hotel afterward, I thought I recognized the guy sitting opposite me, and I said, “Are you by any chance Coach Stull?”

The same.  It was Bob Stull, who’d assisted Don James at both Kent State and Washington, had gone on to be head coach at UMass (had a 7-4 season there), UTEP (went 10-3 in 1988)  and Missouri (spent five years there and went 15-38-2) and then spent 19 years as UTEP’s athletics director.  Very willing to chat and a very interesting guy. 

Something he took obvious pride in: three of his former assistants had gone on to become NFL head coaches: Dirk Koetter,   Marty Mornhinweg and Andy Reid 




*********** At breakfast the next morning: (L to R) Fred Rullo, Hugh Wyatt, Mickey Heinecken

*********** The next morning,  everybody who’d stayed at the hotel the night before was up for breakfast, and I’ll be damned if Mike wasn’t down there, too, working the  room.  He said he’d see everybody at the next Zoom (July 12).


*********** Birmingham beat Philadelphia to win the USFL championship.  It was a good game, rather well played with some exciting plays, and  right down to the last minute or so it could have gone either way.

Both starting quarterbacks were injured - Philadelphia’s starter Case Cookus suffered a broken fibula - and  it came down to who had the better backup. 

The crowd (in Canton, Ohio) looked decent, but  you can never tell how much of it was papered.

I’m going to miss the USFL, especially now that the Big Ten’s off my  diet.  I think one of the things the USFL had working for it was that  it had only eight teams, which meant that every weekend we  got to see  four games - and all eight teams.  For me, at least, it sure helped me get to know the players and coaches and as a result to look forward to the games each weekend. (So much for the colleges and those absurd 20-team leagues we’re hearing about.)

*********** One of the most exciting things about the USFL in our family was the emergence of Jordan Suell as a bona fide receiver prospect.

He’s 6-6, 205  and he played  college ball at Southern Oregon,  a small NAIA school.

But more to the point, he went to Fort Vancouver High in Vancouver, Washington.  It’s the high school that our four kids graduated from.

“Fort,” as it’s called around here, was good academically and tough in football when our kids went there, but as its demographics have changed drastically, so has Fort.  I can’t speak for its academics, but even playing a weaker independent schedule, they’ve struggled  to win as many as  two games in recent football seasons, and it’s been more than 10 years since the Trappers had a winning season.  So it’s great to see a Fort kid having success; maybe this will influence the kids there now.


*********** College football - at least at the so-called Super Conference level -  suddenly seems a gross representation of our corrupt society, in which everything and everybody is for sale.  The high muckety-mucks of the Big Ten sit in their Presidential boxes and   preach integrity while down in the bowels of the athletic departments their hired guns are blowing up an entire conference, one with which it had  enjoyed pleasant relations for decades.  Now, rooting for the Big Ten - any aspect of it - would be  like having a beer with the guy you just found out has been screwing your wife.


***********  The Slow-Motion Suicide of College Football

By John Tamny
July 02, 2022

When Jerry Jones purchased the Dallas Cowboys in 1989, his investment bankers told him he was making a big mistake. Luxury boxes at Texas Stadium were empty in many instances, so were seats. Jones was taking a big risk simply because the NFL of 1989 was a far cry from the NFL of 2022.

The Jones anecdote is necessary as a way of reminding readers that nothing is forever in the marketplace. What’s popular can and often does lose its luster (remember the Blackberry, or before that the Nokia mobile?), while what’s down can often rise. At present the NFL’s dominance is unquestioned, but the latter was once true about baseball. And the NBA was once seen as less watchable than the largely unwatchable television produced by the Big Three networks in the 1970s and 80s.

It’s a way of speculating on the future of college football. The bet here is that the height of its popularity is now a past-tense concept. Time will tell, but the guess is that fan interest is on the verge of a slow decline that will soon be fast. And that’s really sad.

Somewhere along the way, the big players in the sport forgot that tradition is the lifeblood of college football. The local rivalries forged within regional conferences created their own traditions, including bowl traditions. For the longest time the Pac-8 (and eventually Pac-10) champion played the Big-10 champion on New Year’s Day at the Rose Bowl. It was always on New Year’s Day unless the latter fell on Sunday. If so, it was played on January 2nd. Legend has it that Rose Bowl bigwigs promised the man up above that the game would never be played on a Sunday so long as it would never rain during the game. Memory of decades worth of Rose Bowls says the man up above has fulfilled his end of the bargain. A tradition in its own right…

Crucial about the Pac-10, Big-10 and the Rose Bowl was that the Jan. 1 “Grandaddy of Them All” was the top goal for the teams in each conference. The Sugar Bowl was the reward for the top SEC team, the Orange for the Big-8, and Cotton for the Southwest Conference. It was brilliant precisely because the true #1 wasn’t always “settled on the field.” Indeed, if we ignore that “settled on the field” is the most overrated notion in sports as is (does anyone seriously think Ohio State was the better team than Miami in the 2003 Fiesta Bowl?), the post-season arguments about the best team lasted throughout the post-season, and last to this day. The post-season debate was the tradition, as were the rankings that came out each week of the season.

Of course, the happy truth about playing for a bowl game over a mythical national championship game enhanced the odds of interesting intersectional matchups ahead of conference play. Since conference games settled the bowl teams, there was more of an incentive to please fans with pre-conference matchups against prominent opponents well outside one’s region. Better yet, with it being a weekly play for quirky but endlessly fun ranking, a quality win against an out-of-conference opponent improved a team's near and long-term argument as #1. For fans on the west coast, USC vs. Notre Dame was (and for now, remains) an annual tradition. In the early 1970s, legendary coaches John McKay and Bear Bryant got together to schedule a home-and-home between USC and Alabama. It’s said to this day that USC’s win at Birmingham’s Legion Field did more to integrate the south than did Martin Luther King.


Nowadays the goal is making the playoffs. Again, this trite notion of “settling it on the field.” College football is taking on a professional sports quality. The "single elimination" genius of a regular season defined by rankings and a variety of colorful bowls on New Year’s Day (again, tradition) will be sacrificed in favor of a fight for slots in a playoff. The bowls, debates, rankings, and edge-of-one’s seat regular seasons that made college football singular as a tradition will be pushed aside. The uniqueness of a regular season that formerly demanded perfection (or close to it) all season will be debased as the teams in two conferences vie for a tournament slot instead of a bowl game. Translated, the all-important regular season will be devalued in concert with the bowls. Snooze. What propelled college football to remarkable popularity will be mothballed. And for obvious reasons.

Since the sport is morphing into a two conference system (SEC vs. Big-10) with the bowls an afterthought, it’s inevitable that a sixteen team playoff will replace a glamorous past in order to give teams something to play for with the bowls in the rear-view mirror. But so many wanted the champion “settled on the field,” you say. True, but wishes granted are often the stuff of nightmares. There’s a tradition-suffocating trade-off to the playoff system, and never forget that tradition gave college football life.

Which means we’ll soon have a collegiate version of AFC vs. the NFC in the college game. The Pac-12 is over with given the departure of USC and UCLA, Texas and Oklahoma signed the Big-12’s death warrant with their departure to the SEC, plus more defections are surely to come. Money is a good thing, and a worthy reason for change. The guess here, however, is that the rush for near-term money speeds up the college game’s decline; one that began with the BCS, playoffs, and NILs.

In short, you’re lucky if you remember what college football used to be. The one defined by tradition. In time, that’s the college football we’ll happily remember given the plastic bore that the modern one is becoming.

John Tamny is editor of RealClearMarkets, Vice President at FreedomWorks, a senior fellow at the Market Institute, and a senior economic adviser to Applied Finance Advisors (www.appliedfinance.com). His most recent book is When Politicians Panicked: The New Coronavirus, Expert Opinion, and a Tragic Lapse of Reason.

https://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2022/07/02/the_slow-motion_suicide_of_college_football_840502.html


John Tamny says just about exactly  what I would have said, and maybe better.

It was that damn “settle it on the playing field” crap that got us the playoff  that started everything - and you know damn well ESPN was behind it all.


A COMMENT BY ONE OF HIS  READERS:  The college playoff system that has replaced the traditional bowls has made college football into a minor league imitation of the NFL. How much money has minor league baseball ever made? They gave up what made them unique and better in many ways than the NFL.




*********** The giant college football monster that’s being created by the SEC and the Big Ten is an illusion.  A house of cards.  A bubble, kept inflated by the money that TV blows into it.

Some people have suggested that it’s on its way to being a minor league pro football operation.

Others call it a big business.

Maybe so, but if it’s a business, it’s not one you’d want to invest in.  Like, for instance,  an NFL team.

Just within the past month, someone agreed to buy the Denver Broncos for $4.65 billion.

What do they get for that kind of money?

Well… membership in the NFL, and the rights to share in the league’s revenue, not to mention its enormous marketing power… the Broncos’ brand, logo, name, colors, uniform and apparel design… the revenues from stadium signage… the rights to share in gate revenues at away games (in return for sharing the revenues at home games)… the revenue from sales of luxury boxes and personal seat licenses… the team offices and practice and training facilities… the   stadium lease revenue from naming rights and parking and concessions… and, as important as any of the preceding, the players’ contracts.

Evidently, the buyer of the Broncos thought that all that was worth $4.65 billion, and based on the way the prices of NFL franchises continue to escalate, the franchise will likely continue to increase in value. Think of it - the Broncos can actually lose money.  The entire league itself  could have a bad season.  But there will still be billionaires waiting in line to buy even the lowliest NFL franchise.

An NFL team has worth.  It can be sold.  It  can be moved.

But what’s a  college football program worth?  What’s it got to sell?  It  can’t be sold and it can’t be moved.

And here’s the biggest thing:  even if you could buy a college team - brand, stadium, uniforms, locker rooms - who would buy a  team whose entire roster has the ability to transfer on a moment’s notice?


*********** I have to laugh at the pretentiousness and pomposity of the presidents of the Big Ten, who make such a big deal about only being interested in members who belong to the Association of American Universities (AAU) of which there are just 65.

Examples:  Arizona is a member.  Arizona State is not.

Oregon is a member.  Oregon State is not.

Washington is a member. Washington State is not.

Kansas State?  Iowa State? Texas Tech?  Don’t be silly.

USC and UCLA?  Of course.

So let’s go pirate USC and UCLA from the Pac-12.

MORAL:  “Never steal anything you wouldn’t be proud to own.” Bill Veeck


*********** I keep hearing that the Big Ten didn’t “raid” the Pac-12.  Oh no, I hear -   those two schools actually approached the Big Ten about membership. 

Ri-i-i-ght.  Come on - anybody who knows anything at all about how high schools get around the rules against recruiting - anybody who understands how college football programs tamper while denying that they’re  tampering - knows about  the concept of “plausible deniability.”

You think the Big Ten didn’t have  channels it could work through to arrange for USC and UCLA to “approach” it?

How about starting here: UCLA Athletics Director Martin Jarmand arrived at UCLA after four years as AD at Boston College, but before that he had been at Ohio State for nine years, and before that, at Michigan State for seven.

How well-connected to the Big Ten can you get?


*********** Hey, USC people: I have good news and I have bad news.  And bad news. And bad news.

I’ll give you the good news first.

The good news is you’ll  get maybe  $75 million a year more in conference TV revenue once you’re in the Big Ten.

The bad news is that assuming your football team gets its act together, you’re still going to have to get past  the likes of Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Penn State, and Wisconsin (and who knows who else?) on your way to any place in The Playoffs.

The bad news is that if you thought your fans weren’t all that excited about  seeing  the Oregon States and Washington States and Colorados on your schedules, well guess what?  They’re not going to be any more excited when their season tickets include Indiana or Rutgers or Maryland.

The bad news is that you’ve just opened the eyes of all those high school football players in Southern California to the possibilities of playing football in the Midwest.


*********** It was 1998  and still the Pac-10,  and Bob Toledo’s UCLA Bruins went 10-2.  That was the last time UCLA won a conference title in football. 

Now that they’ve gone REALLY Big Time, do you think  they realize how slim the chances are that they’ll ever see their team in a conference championship game?


*********** The ESPN-funded Big Ten raid on the Pac-12 has  generated real anger over what’s been lost - without any apparent sense of elation over anything that’s been gained.   Even a lot of the winners in this game of musical chairs don’t see this as a win - just a  chance to stay in the game for one more time around.


*********** With college football corrupted by the big money of the  television networks, at least there’s still high school football, where the  sport is pure…

Former Central Catholic star Riley Williams to play college football for Miami

Published: Jul. 01, 2022, 3:11 p.m.

By Nik Streng | The Oregonian/OregonLive

Former Central Catholic tight end Riley Williams announced on Friday afternoon that he would be heading to the University of Miami. He made his announcement on a 247Sports YouTube livestream.

Williams’ final three included the Hurricanes, Alabama and Ohio State.

Williams is listed by 247Sports as a four-star recruit and the No. 2 tight end in the country. He is also the No. 17 recruit in Florida and the No. 77 recruit nationally. He was the top-listed recruit in Oregon.

“It’s been a long and enjoyable process, really,” Williams told 247Sports’ Brandon Huffman before making the announcement. “Really excited for me and my family.”

The decision should not be a surprise for those who have been keeping a close eye on Williams’ journey. Williams was heavily recruited by Miami coach Mario Cristobal while he was coaching at Oregon. Williams’ older brother, Korbin, played under Cristobal at Oregon as a wide receiver.

On June 22, Williams announced that he was transferring out of Central Catholic and would be ending his high school football career at Florida-based IMG Academy. He said the move to Florida will be a strong change in competition before he goes to the college level.

“Being able to play the best competition in the nation weekly, and practicing against the best competition on a daily basis,” Williams said.

At six-foot-six and 230 pounds, Williams was dominant in the Oregon high school football scene. In 2022, he was a first-team all-state selection, first-team all-Mt. Hood Conference selection, and helped Central Catholic win the 2021 state championship.

-- Nik Streng, nstreng@oregonian.com

The fact that the the best prospect in the state of Oregon has signed to play at Miami is NOT the story.  The story is that somebody has persuaded a high school kid to desert his teammates to go play for IMG.  For what?  Doesn't he already have a scholarship now?   You don't suppose this has something to do with NIL,  do you?


*********** Some guy named Adam Horst evidently  thought he could publish my work on his YouTube channel, without my permission.  Wrong.

I had to contact YouTube and  go through their “Request video removal” process, but this is what resulted:



"Video removed"

I’d like to thank all the guys who notified me about this sh—.

Kudos also to YouTube for the way they stay on top of the copyright issue (although I guess if they didn’t protect my stuff, which is very small potatoes, the next thing you know they’d have guys uploading pirated versions of first-run movies).

Horst is probably a decent enough guy, and I’m willing to concede that he probably doesn’t understand how a copyright works, but it’s a damn  shame there’s no way he and guys like him can't  be forced to sit in a chair in my video room for as many hours as it took me to finish that damn video. Oh, well - a small victory is still a victory.


*********** Brittney Griner, now facing trial in Russia on drug charges,  says that what’s made her incarceration even tougher is that she doesn’t know any Russian. 

No sympathy from me. This past season makes  eight seasons that she’s spent in Russia - in the same city, as a matter of fact - and, frankly,  she should be ashamed to admit that after all that time she can’t speak any Russian.

Look -  I spent seven summers coaching  in Finland - in three different cities.  In many cases I was the only American in the city.  Most of my players spoke at least passable English, but in the belief that it would be both helpful to me in my coaching as well as  a great chance for me to grow intellectually, and to pay  a compliment to the Finnish people, I  did everything I could to learn as much Finnish as I could.  It wasn’t easy. Finnish is a hellishly  difficult language, and even after seven years of effort on my part,  I never  got close to being fluent.  But I found that once people discover that you care enough about them and their culture to make an effort to learn their language, they’ll go the extra mile to understand you and help you.

Perhaps Brittney Griner was just not smart enough to pick up enough Russian to help her get by.  Or maybe it was the arrogance typical of so many Americans in a foreign country.  But I’m thinking it’s more related to the coddling of professional athletes - catering to their every wish - that renders them like helpless babies when they have to face the real world unaided.


***********   Really liked hearing about your grandson.  Big Melbourne Storm National Rugby League Fan.  Even though they got worked last night or early this morning our time.  Hope to get back to Australia sometime.  Just going to make sure I don't go anywhere near the Western Australia desert.  30 days there was enough the first time. 

Happy 4th of July.

Tom Davis
San Carlos, California

***********  Hugh,

It's very apparent how proud you and Connie are of your grandson Sam.  Justifiably so.  From what you say he appears to be a fine young man, and on his way to becoming an even better American.  As a grandparent myself I can certainly understand how you guys miss having him around.

I can't even imagine how thrilled I would be to be in a room with Mike Lude celebrating his 100th birthday.  Amazing.  

Speaking of the PAC 12.  With the announcement that USC and UCLA will be leaving for the BIG 10 it won't surprise me in the least to next hear that Rutgers and Maryland will leave the BIG 10 for the ACC.  Can't fathom the travel budgets those two schools will need to fly their teams cross country to LA.  The ACC would make much more financial sense joining in with Syracuse, Boston College, Pittsburgh, Louisville, Virginia, and Virginia Tech.  Besides that it would be a homecoming of sorts for Maryland.  But more importantly maybe the addition of those two would help spark a better television package for the ACC and save Packer and Durham their jobs.

Still on the PAC 12.  Boise State, San Diego State, or Fresno State would now seem to be likely candidates to replace the Trojans and Bruins.

Must heartily disagree with Chris Vannini.  Fresno State should be included in the Kings group of 5 schools.  The Bulldogs have had a reputation over the years of playing and beating Power 5 schools (including PAC 12 and BIG 10 schools).  They have consistently placed outstanding players in the NFL over the years (Derek Carr, Davante Adams, Trent Dilfer, Henry Ellard, and Logan Mankins immediately come to mind).

Enjoy your weekend!

Joe Gutilla
Austin Texas

I don’t understand the apparent prejudice against Fresno State myself.  Maybe it’s the fact that the Valley isn’t sexy enough for the rest of California, or maybe it’s the way the UC System looks down its noses at the Cal State schools, but I don’t think the (now) Pac 10 people can afford to be snooty like before.  Some of them might even regret snubbing BYU, but  I doubt it  - they probably consider same-sex marriage a higher priority than the conference itself.


*********** QUIZ ANSWER:  Mercury Morris came out of Pittsburgh’s Avondale High School and played his college football at West Texas State (now West Texas A & M).

He was a two-year All-American as an I-formation tailback.  In 1967, his 1274 yards rushing were second nationally only to USC’s O.J. Simpson.  In 1968,  he set college rushing records (since broken) for yards in a single game (340), yards in  a single season (1,571) and yards  in a (three-year) career (3,388).

He was taken in the third round of the 1969 AFL-NFL common draft by the Miami Dolphins of the AFL.

Because the  Dolphins already had a pair of Pro Bowl running backs in Larry Csonka and Jim Kiick, he had just 140 total carries   in his first three seasons, making his main contributions to the team as a return man.

But in 1972 - the Dolphins’ perfect season - he carried the ball 190 times.  He averaged 5.3 yards per carry, led the NFL with 12 rushing touchdowns, and gained exactly 1,000 yards.

(He was one of ten backs  gaining 1,000 yards in 1972, far more than any previous year, an increase attributed to the hashmarks’ being moved in  toward the middle of the field.  He didn’t actually reach the 1,000 yard mark until three days after the season had ended,  when League statisticians discovered that earlier in the season he had been incorrectly charged with a nine-yard loss in a game against Buffalo.)

The Dolphins won the NFL title and he was named  to the Pro Bowl.   In 1973, the Dolphins won again, and he was named to his second  Pro Bowl.  His 6.4 yards per carry (on 149 carries) led the NFL, and remains a team record.

In 1974 he injured a knee in a preseason game, and played in just five games, but in 1975, with Czonka and Kiick off to the World Football League,  he became  The Man.   But  despite rushing a career-high 219 times for 875 yards,  he was traded to the Chargers following the season. 

There, bothered by recurrent injuries, he had only  50 carries, and retired following the 1976 season.

At the time of his retirement, his career yards per carry of  5.1 yards was third all-time, behind all-time greats Jim Brown and Marion Motley.   His career kick return average of 26.5 yards (111 returns) remains among the  top 20 all-time.

Despite playing much of his career in the same backfield with two Pro Bowl runners - one of whom is now in the Hall of Fame - he still  ranks sixth in Dolphins’  history with 754 carries, and fourth in rushing yards in a career.  His 29 rushing touchdowns are fifth best in team history, and  his 5.1 yards per carry puts him way ahead of any Dolphin ever.

In the decade of the 80s, there were ten former or current NFL players convicted of drug trafficking, and he was one of them. In 1982,  he was sentenced to 20 years - far more than any of the others -  but after 3-1/2 years in prison, he won a new trial, and pleading guilty to a lesser charge, he was sentenced to time served.

In 1988,  Mercury Morris  wrote a book, “Against the Grain,” telling about his experiences,  and he began  speaking on the subject of drug addiction.

The gist of his message was that you have to fight against the grain -  that blaming the drug and calling addiction a disease ignores the real problem.

"It's really frustrating at this point in time when you try to explain to someone that drugs are not the problem,” he said.  “The problem is the choice you make to use drugs.

"Adam's problem was not the apple, it was his choice. It really doesn't matter what's hanging on the tree. What matters is what you do about it.”

In the words of  Mercury Morris, “No one is ever going to change their life if they don't take responsibility for their own recovery.”

CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING MERCURY MORRIS

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
TOM DAVIS - SAN CARLOS, CALIFORNIA
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - AUSTIN, TEXAS
SCOTT MALLIEN - GREEN  BAY, WISCONSIN
PETE PORCELLI - WATERVLIET, NEW YORK
TOM WALLS - WINNIPEG, MANITOBA
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY


*********** QUIZ:  He was big (6-3, 225) and red-headed, so famed broadcaster  Chris Schenkel nicknamed him “Big Red,” and the name stuck. 

For ten years, he was a solid member of the great New York Giants in the late 1950s and early 1960s. He later had the misfortune to coach the Giants during the long string of lean years that followed.

The son of Scottish immigrants, he grew up in Kearney (pronounced “CARN-ey”) New Jersey,  where as a single wing tailback he led his high school team to a state championship his senior year.

Highly recruited, he played his college football at North Carolina State.  Very big for the time, he led the then-Southern Conference in scoring his junior season.

In 1953, he was drafted 11th by the Washington Redskins, but after playing in all their exhibition games, he was cut just four days before the regular season opener (NFL teams at that time carried just 33 men on their rosters). He recalled  that he was given $10 to get home - “and it  cost me nine dollars and ninety cents to come home on the train.”

On a tip, he contacted Montreal of the Canadian Football League, whose Coach, Peahead Walker, had previously coached at Wake Forest and remembered him from NC State. Walker told  him to hustle on up.

He spent two highly productive years in Montreal, and in 1954 was named the CFL's Most Valuable Player. But making just $2800 the first year and $4000 the second, he was unable to move his young family to Canada to be with him, and when he was offered only $5,000 for a third year, he returned to New Jersey  and contacted the Giants.

They offered $10,500 - and a $2,500 signing bonus -  and he signed. Being able to commute from his home in New Jersey was an added inducement.

In New York, he came under the "guidance" of offensive coordinator Vince Lombardi.

"I learned it was going to be more difficult in the NFL," he recalled. "Lombardi really put you through a workout. I thought I was going to die. I was a lazy player to begin with - I hated to practice - but you had to work if you were going to play for him."

Work he did. Playing in a backfield with such other stars as Frank Gifford, Kyle Rote, Mel Triplett, Eddie Price and Joe Morrison, he became respected as  the guy who got the tough yardage.

"He was one of the hardest-hitting running backs you ever wanted to see," said Giants’ head  coach, Jim Lee Howell. "There were a lot of defensive players who did not want to see him across the line from them."

In his first year with the Giants, starting halfback Kyle Rote injured his knee and was moved to flanker, creating a  spot for our guy at halfback. In that first season, he led the Giants in rushing.

He played ten years in the NFL, all of them with the Giants, and played in six NFL  championship games, including the so-called “Greatest Game Ever Played,” against the Baltimore Colts.

In his career, he rushed for 4.638 yards and 39 touchdowns, and caught 240 passes for 2,679 yards and 17 touchdowns.  Despite being outshone by more famous backfield mates, he nonetheless played in two Pro Bowls.

By the time he retired, in 1964, he held Giants’  career records for most carries, most rushing yards, and most touchdowns scored rushing, (all records later broken by the great Joe Morris.)

He spent two seasons as a Giants’ assistant, and in 1969, when head coach Allie Sherman was let go one week before the season opener, he was named head coach. “Worst mistake of my life,” he said later about taking the job. “I was only two years as an assistant… I didn’t have the mentality…You have to be a disciplinarian, and that wasn’t me.”

He did have two good years - 1970, when the Giants went 9-5 and then in 1972 when the Giants finished 8-6, and he was named NFL Coach of the Year.

Unfortunately, 8-6 was only good  enough for third place in the NFC East, behind George Allen's Redskins at 11-3, and Tom Landry's Cowboys at 10-4.

He stepped down following the 1973 season, with a five year record of 29-40-1.

During the 1960s he was a color analyst on Giants’ radio broadcasts.

He is a member of the Giants’ Ring of Honor.

Very well liked in New York sports circles,   he was an honorary pallbearer for Toots Shor, legendary owner of the famed New York sports hangout, along with famed broadcaster Howard Cosell, TV news anchor Walter Cronkite,  fellow former Giant Frank Gifford, Major League Baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn, Pittsburgh Steelers’ owner Art Rooney, and NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle.



FRIDAY, JULY 1, 2022 -  "The combination of economic and political power in the same hands is a sure recipe for tyranny. " Rose Friedman, 1980

********* HAPPY JULY 4 - TAKE JUST ONE MINUTE AND GIVE THANKS FOR ALL THOSE OLD WHITE GUYS WHO  LAID IT ON THE LINE  IN DARING TO DEFY THE MOST POWERFUL NATION ON EARTH, AND WOUND UP CREATING THE GREATEST NATION THE WORLD HAS EVER SEEN.  (AND IF IT'S NOT TO YOUR LIKING - AMF.)

*********** I’m writing this on Wednesday night and publishing earlier than usual, because on Thursday, when I usually put my Friday page together,  my wife and I will be heading to Seattle to help Mike Lude celebrate his 100th Birthday. You’ve undoubtedly read about Mike if you’ve been  reading my stuff for any length of time.  There’s no person I hold in higher regard.  Considering the length and breadth of his career, I’m sure there’ll be some very interesting people in attendance.  (As I told a friend, one of my greatest wishes would be meet some of the amazing people whom Mike has known - and outlived.)

Even if I were to have a chance to ask Mike about the rumors of USC and UCLA leaving for the Big Ten - which I doubt that I would -  I wouldn’t, because this is his special moment, and news like that, after he worked so hard on behalf of the then Pac-10  would definitely put a damper on things.

*********** For me, one of the highlights of the last few weeks - a highlight of my life, actually - was really getting to know my youngest grandson, Sam Wyatt.  He lives in Melbourne, Australia,  and other than our weekly FaceTimes, it had been almost three years since I’d last seen him.

He’s a  dual citizen, but he doesn’t get that many chances to act American, so while we were all together at  our  family wedding in Denver,  his  10 cousins and six aunts and uncles put on an impressive display of how Americans act (especially at party time), and included  him in all the festivities (alcohol excepted).  And in his brief  stay at our home and on our  long drive to and from Denver, his dad (Mom couldn’t make it) and my wife and I managed to cram a lot of America in, too.

Since the US is his country,  I thought that the trip across the West would prove interesting to him, and I was  right.  He was more than impressed by the scenic beauty.  Among other things, he began “collecting” license plates on vehicles, and by the end of the trip he wound up needing only New Hampshire, Rhode Island  and Hawaii. (Come to think of it, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a Hawaii plate on the mainland myself.)

Back  home,  after giving him the compulsory lesson (and quiz) on gun safety, I introduced him to a BB rifle.  He’s a pretty good shot.  Maybe next  visit  - if Mom and Dad approve - we’ll step up to a .22 single shot rifle.



He’s big on Formula 1  and he understood the concept of shifting gears, so we went to a nearby parking lot (a “car park” in Australian) where I taught him how to start our Jeep and how to work the clutch and gas and gears.  After a couple of initial stalls, he managed to  stay on the gas and get ‘er moving in first, and then in reverse, and I let him move it forward and backward a few times.  The next time out, he handled the added pressure of having Dad looking on, and he did it all again, like an old gear jammer.

He proved to be a very good learner at pool, too.  I gave him a couple of tips about aiming and stroking and after a bit of  practice, he got so he was beating Dad occasionally.  It’s always interesting to see how people become more interested in something if  they can see they’re getting better at it.  A little initial success is always the key to further success.



Back home in Camas after our trip, I took him to a nearby school where there’s a map of the US painted on the playground surface, and he proceeded to step on - and name - all the states.  (All 57 of them.)  He retraced our journey.  And then after he found the Great Lakes (rather easy)  and I  taught him “HOMES,” he located other prominent features such as Cape Cod, Long Island, Chesapeake Bay, San Francisco Bay and Puget Sound.  And he had his  photo taken while standing on his favorite state (so far) - Utah.

As for football, he already had a pretty good foundation, so we  sat down and watched a recording of last season’s BYU-UAB  bowl game, while I attempted to explain some of the more technical aspects of play.  He seemed to understand pretty well, and he asked some very good questions. (I  did notice myself using  a number  of  “inside” terms in explaining things, which made it necessary occasionally to have to go back and explain  what those inside terms meant.)




He also fell in love with our dog, Rhodey, who before he’d arrived he’d only seen on FaceTime.   They really got along great.  (While we were on our trip, Rhodey was well cared for, in the competent hands of a young house-sitter we’d used for the first time.)




Before we said good-bye at the Portland Airport, I made sure  to have our picture taken,  with him wearing the ARMY hat I gave him.

I thought of  the times when my wife and I would stop and visit my widowed mother in New Jersey on our way overseas, and how, our visit over, we’d see her standing alone in her doorway as we drove off.  Us? We were excited to be off on another leg of our adventure.  But you could tell she was sad.

And now I know exactly how my mother felt.


*********** I am bummed.  Totally.  So is my wife.  Today, while I was out, she was watching our favorite TV show,  the Packer and Durham Show on the ACC Network, and when I came in she   told me, in a way I’ve come to know meant bad news coming, that she had something to replay.

As she replayed, I sat there and heard   the two guys, Mark Packer and Wes Durham, announce, jointly, that Friday would be their program’s last day.  (This was Wednesday.)  Friday.  Talk about a quick hook.

I can’t believe somebody thinks this is a good move, after all that that show has done to expose and promote the conference and its players and coaches. We’ve been watching it for two years now, even suffering through their occasional Title IX-driven mandatory coverage of women’s lacrosse, and in the process it’s made us - 3,000 miles away from ACC headquarters - big ACC fans.

These guys were to the ACC what Paul Feingold is to the SEC.  And now the ACC joins the other conferences with nothing comparable.

Maybe it’s a money-saving move by ESPN, which  co-owns the ACC Network, but it does appear that the two guys will remain with the network, at least until their contracts run out.  But I have no idea what the geniuses could do now that would bring the ACC anywhere close to the audience  that this show brought it.

They’ll probably fill the time slot with replays of assorted ACC games.  I can’t wait to see that UVA-North Carolina soccer match again.

What pisses me off as much as anything was that I turned my son onto their show while he was here  visiting, and he just the other day texted me to say that he was able to see Monday’s  show in Australia.


*********** It was with a great deal of relief that I learned of the Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision in favor of Joseph Kennedy, a high school coach in Bremerton, Washington who, to make a short story of it, was fired by his school district after  he refused their order to stop praying on the field after football games.

I’m relieved because  I’m finally off the hook, too.  See, I prayed. I prayed before and after games. Fortunately, nobody complained.

Maybe it’s because I never prayed out loud, and I never asked players to join me. For me, it was merely an expression of my personal belief and faith in God.

I believe that God is omniscient (all-knowing), omnipotent (all-powerful), and omnipresent (everywhere, all the time).  I believe that if He really wanted to waste His  time on something as trivial as a high school football game, He could  find a way to help one team or another win.

But He has a lot on His plate as it is and, most important of all, He’s fair, and He watches over all of us. Not just our team.  So therefore,  I believe it’s inappropriate (not to mention useless) to pray to Him to give us victory.

I always believed that it was necessary not to confuse why we were all there together. We were not on a religious mission.   We were a high school football team and our mission was to do our very best to make our team successful. It was my job as the coach not to allow anything to divide us, and that included religious beliefs.

But I have long believed that it’s necessary and appropriate for me personally to ask God for His protection - for players on both teams - and to ask Him to give our young men the strength and courage to give their best effort.  

And before every game, that’s what I’d do. I would not pray aloud.  I would simply tell the players my intentions - that I was going to pray, and what I was going to ask for  - and they were invited to join me, if they  chose to do so, in silently asking  for those things.  With my head bowed and my eyes closed, I never got to check to see  who - if anyone - had or had not bowed his head. (So much for  the people protesting  the Supreme Court’s recent decision, who argued that there was an element of compulsion in Coach Kennedy’s prayer, and that we coaches have our ways of punishing non-believers.)

After a game, when we assembled in the locker room, I believed it was  necessary to thank  the Lord  for His protection, for  the chance to live in the United States, and for the opportunity we all had to be together, playing the game of football.  If we’d won, I’d thank Him for the victory, and if we’d lost, I’d ask Him  to help us learn from our defeat and rededicate ourselves  to our mission.

I did that, silently, too.  I simply told the kids that I was going to pray, and what I was going to say, and invited them to do the same.  No compulsion, no being forced to listen to me pray. 

I felt that I was providing assurance to kids of faith,  but without excluding or in any way condemning those who did not share my beliefs.
 
As for identifying any dissidents and marking them for some sort of retribution because they weren’t joining me in prayer?  Get serious.  Show me the football coach who would bench a kid for his religious beliefs.



*********** RIP Marlin  Briscoe, who died on Monday.

A native of Omaha, he was nicknamed "Marlin the Magician"  for his spectacular play at quarterback at Nebraska-Omaha (which no longer plays football), where in his senior year he threw for 2,283 yards and 25 touchdowns.

He was  drafted in the 14th round by the Denver Broncos of the  AFL  and considered undersized as a quarterback,  he was switched to defensive back.

Midway through his rookie season (1968) though, when the starting quarterback was hurt, he was inserted at  quarterback and wound up starting five games - making him the first-ever black starting quarterback of any pro football team.   (In case you didn't know the name of the first pro coach to start a black quarterback - it was Lou Saban.)

Changed to wide receiver with the Dolphins, he was named all-pro in 1970, and
he played on two Dolphins' Super Bowl championship teams.

Despite the presence of Hall-of-Fame receiver Paul Warfield, Marlin Briscoe led the 1972 undefeated Dolphins in touchdown catches, and he was the leading receiver on their 1973 team.

In all, he enjoyed a nine-year pro career with six different teams.

After football, he ran several football camps, and established the Marlin Briscoe Scholarship Fund at Nebraska-Omaha.  In his honor, the Broncos  established a diversity coaching fellowship.


*********** Chris Vannini in The Athletic, did an interesting job of classifying Group of Five teams into four categories:  Kings, Barons, Knights and Peasants.

Kings: Boise State, Cincinnati, Houston, UCF

These four schools account for six of the eight New Year’s Six or Playoff bids given to G5 teams in the CFP era, including all three wins, and Cincinnati just became the first G5 team to make the Playoff. The brands run farther back than the CFP, as Boise State had memorable BCS bowl wins and UCF beat Baylor in a Fiesta Bowl. It’s not hard to see why the Big 12 took the three AAC schools.

That also means that as of next year, only Boise State will still be a G5 team among this group. New Kings will have to emerge in the coming years. It won’t happen by default, as teams won’t slide up just because others are moving to the P5. The G5 as a whole takes a major hit by losing Cincinnati, Houston and UCF.

Barons: Air Force, Appalachian State, Army, Fresno State, Louisiana, Marshall, Memphis, Navy, Northern Illinois, San Diego State, SMU, UAB

The second tier is the group that hasn’t found the top-level success of the Kings. Memphis made the Cotton Bowl but has fallen back a bit since then. App State has annually hung around the Top 25 but hasn’t reached a New Year’s Six bowl yet. Louisiana has seven seasons with at least nine wins in the past 11 years, but the Ragin’ Cajuns also haven’t reached a New Year’s Six game. San Diego State has been a winning program for a decade, but it hasn’t quite broken through. UAB is a top C-USA program but has not yet reached the top of the G5.

I QUESTION THREE OF THE SELECTIONS:  ARMY (Army has had good records over the last several years, but the schedules have been weak. This year:  Colgate, Villanova, Louisiana Monroe, UConn, UMass); NAVY (Three losing seasons in the last four);  NORTHERN ILLINOIS (Three losing seasons in the last 10)

Knights: Arkansas State, Ball State, Buffalo, Central Michigan, Coastal Carolina, Colorado State, East Carolina, Eastern Michigan, Florida Atlantic, Georgia Southern, Georgia State, Hawaii, Kent State, Liberty, Louisiana Tech, Miami (Ohio), Middle Tennessee, Nevada, North Texas, Ohio, Temple, Toledo, Troy, Tulane, Tulsa, USF, UTSA, Utah State, Western Kentucky, Western Michigan, Wyoming

This is the largest group. Teams in this bunch have had some level of success, but not consistently high success for extended periods of time. UTSA and Coastal Carolina were the most difficult to put in this group. They’re in the programs’ golden years and are among the best G5 programs right now, but we’ll need more than the past two years of success to move their brands up

I SEE SEVERAL OF THEM THAT COULD EASILY BE CONSIDERED “BARONS”

Peasants: Akron, Bowling Green, Charlotte, FIU, New Mexico, New Mexico State, Old Dominion, UTEP, Rice, San Jose State, South Alabama, Southern Miss, Texas State, UConn, ULM, UMass, UNLV
The programs that have the furthest to go. Many have endured long periods of losing. Some are young programs with little history at all. Others are on an upswing, like Old Dominion, and San Jose State won the Mountain West in 2020, but it’ll take a period of success to move up.

I QUESTION SOUTHERN MISS.  How did they ever wind up  in the bottom tier?

***********   According to John Ourand of SBJ (Sports Business Journal) Media, Fox Sports  has informed him that the USFL - which Fox owns - will definitely be back next year for a second season.

“We have a multi-year plan to build this football business,” Fox Sports’ Eric Shanks  told him.  “If anything, the success of season one makes me even more excited than we were before going into season two and beyond.”

Shanks was especially pleased at the way  the basic issue of setting up  football operations for an entire league was now behind them, and now  they could  direct more efforts to selling sponsorships.

Fox  VP of Sports Sales Mark Evans  told Ourand that advertising for next season is already 50 per cent sold, and attributes that to the fact that unlike this year, when advertisers had to switch around money that they may have budgeted for other items, next year they’ve been able to set aside money to advertise on USFL games.

Some of their biggest advertisers this year were T-Mobile, Google, PNC, Papa John's, Edward Jones and Jersey Mike’s.

I’ve enjoyed watching the USFL.  It would be enough for me.  The level of play was good enough, and the coaching quite a bit more innovative and imaginative than that of the NFL.  Perhaps because their players are not yet so  sure of their jobs, there was far less jackassery  than in the NFL.  And maybe it’s because  they were all spending the season in one location - Birmingham - there did seem to be a bit more sportsmanship  shown than in NFL games.

Of the broadcast innovations tried in USFL games, I especially liked three things: (1) the microphones on  coaches, (2) the  way we were able to would listen to the review booth as they reviewed  a call, and (3) the head of officiating explaining his call to the announcers once he’d made his decision.


*********** Many years ago, we  spent our honeymoon in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Still one of my favorite places on earth, it was famous for the chocolate factory, of course.  And for the really cool amusement park there.  But also for local restaurants specializing in  Pennsylvania Dutch cuisine.  But we were honeymooners, so we had other things in mind - like watching the Philadelphia Eagles practice.

Traditionally, the Iggles trained in Hershey.  This was 1959, and the Eagles were in the process of putting together the team that a year later would win the NFL championship.

And there were so few fans around in those days we could  sit  right on the sidelines and see and hear everything.  Even chit-chat  with the players - during practice - as my wife did when a guy named Rollie West, who’d played at her high school, happened to run out of bounds near where we sat. 

What a blast!  Imagine marrying a girl who enjoyed that as much as you did!

Imagine sitting on the sidelines  at an NFL practice today.

Today, the mighty Seattle Seahawks announced that 13 of their pre-season practices will he “open.”

Well, technically, open.

Two of them will be open only to season ticket holders.

The rest will be “open,” provided you can get online and get a  spot - spots will be available first-come, first-served.

Not so fast, fella - there’ll also be a $12 per person  “transportation charge” for the shuttle between the parking lot and the practice facility.

Oh - there will be one “special off-site practice,” at a location near  downtown Seattle. Tickets for that event will be $17.  Parking, we are informed, will be available “for an additional fee.”

Here’s an easy call for a guy with a Time Machine:

(1) Watch the Seattle Seahawks practice, for $17 (plus parking)?

OR

(2) Watch the Philadelphia Eagles - Van Brocklin, McDonald, Bednarik, Brookshier -  play the Green Bay Packers - Starr, Taylor, Hornung, Dowler, Nitschke - for the “World’s 1960 Championship.”  For $8.00?




*********** I’m told that this is the work of one Jack Posobiec.  He  has  superimposed the map (in red) of Russian-controlled territory in Ukraine over a map of the US East Coast.  I  suppose his purpose was to give Americans a better idea of how the war is actually going.   In US terms, that’s a lot of territory - and a hell of a lot of people.


 

 *********** With all the crap that goes on in youth sports - parents attacking officials, parents attacking other parents, and parents attacking other parents’ kids - it made me feel good, as it always does, to watch the skate-by of the two teams after the Stanley Cup final game.

In my opinion, no guys in the world of sports are tougher, maybe even meaner, than hockey players, who in the heat of competition  have been known to resort to acts of outright ugliness, often just because they can.

Yet when a playoff series is over, there is no better example in sports of winning and losing graciously, of  showing regard for  one’s opponents - and for the game itself - than that displayed by hockey players as  they skate by and take the time to congratulate or console.

A$$hole parents who step out of line  at sports events should be sentenced to watching endless film loops of pro hockey players - who could beat the sh— out of any or all of them in an instant -  shaking hands and even hugging, as they congratulate and commiserate  their fellow participants in one of the roughest of all sports.


***********  Hugh,

Enjoyed reading about your road trip!  Thanks for sharing.

You're absolutely right about the wonderful sights this country provides.  I had the privilege of taking a road trip from Fresno, CA to Pullman, WA in the late '80's.  The Columbia River gorge was amazing.  The bridge over the Snake River canyon was breathtaking.  Never saw so many stars in a night sky as we did while staying in Pullman.  Driving home we drove through Eastern Washington, Eastern Oregon, and the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada in CA.  Incredible trip.

While I've always been a huge Blackhawks fan,  my daughter lived in Denver for a few years so I cheered along with her for the Avalanche to win the Cup.  She was a happy camper!

Philadelphia will give Birmingham everything it can handle, but I think in the end the Stallions will have more.

Before the Ole Miss Rebels' stunning CWS Championship run the Fresno State Bulldogs baseball team pulled off an even greater  accomplishment by winning the 2008 CWS Championship over the Georgia Bulldogs.  The FSU Bulldogs came into the tournament with a lowly 33-27 record, and the lowest seed ever.  Their victory is still considered the greatest upset in college world series baseball history.

The "rumors" are already beginning to swirl in Austin regarding the future of Quinn Ewers.  Frankly, both Ewers and Manning will likely take a back seat to Hudson Card at the start of this season.

Have a great week!

Joe Gutilla
Austin, Texas


*********** QUIZ ANSWER:  Bert Coan was one of the greatest high school prospects ever to come out of Texas.

At  6-4, 200-pounds, with blazing speed,  he scored 51 touchdowns in three seasons at Pasadena High School, and he won gold medals in the state track meet in the 100, 220, 440 relay (he ran the anchor leg) and the long jump.  He was ranked on the National Track Honor Roll in those four events - plus the low hurdles!

In the summer after graduation ,  he starred in the annual Oil Bowl game between the Texas and Oklahoma high school all-stars, and then he enrolled at TCU.

Here’s where it gets tricky.

Following his freshman year at TCU, he transferred to Kansas.

There was nothing wrong with the transfer itself, except that  during the summer prior, he had attended the College All-Star game in Chicago, and the trip was paid for by a Texan named Bud Adams, who happened to be a Kansas booster.  (It’s the same Bud Adams who later would own own the Houston Oilers, then move the team to Nashville, where they became the Tennessee Titans. He had attended KU, and he played football there for one season, where one of his teammates was a future war hero and Kansas Senator named Bob Dole.)

The player stated that at the start, he had no idea that Adams was connected with Kansas, but he did admit that as the trip went on, Adams did have a lot to say about KU.  No matter - he transferred to Kansas, and TCU reported what appeared to be illegal tampering to  the  NCAA.

Of course it took the NCAA time to investigate, but with two games left in his junior season, it ruled on the case -  it left the matter up to Kansas’ conference,  the Big 8.

The conference put the matter off until after the season.  He was not declared ineligible, and it just so happened that the season-ending game was the Border War against the Jayhawks’ hated rivals, the Missouri Tigers.  Mizzou was unbeaten and ranked Number One in the nation.    The 9-0 Tigers had shut out three opponents, and only one - Oklahoma - had scored more than a  touchdown against them.

Just the week before, Missouri had trounced the Sooners, 41-19, to earn the Number One ranking.

But in front of a capacity crowd in Columbia, Missouri, our guy scored two touchdowns as Kansas thumped Missouri, 23-7.

(Kansas, it should be added, was pretty good, too - they finished 7-2-1.  They tied Oklahoma, 13-13, and their only losses were to Syracuse, then Number Two, and Iowa, then Number One.  How many teams ever meet two Number Ones and one Number Two in a single season?)

When the conference finally made its decision, it in effect declared him ineligible after the fact, and, since Kansas had used an ineligible player, it awarded Missouri a forfeit win.  Despite the fact that everybody knew who had actually won, the Tigers accepted the win, and achieved in a somewhat questionable way  what to this day remains the only unbeaten, untied season in their history, one with an asterisk next to the record.

Kansas people knew who won, and didn’t concur with the ruling.  The result of the game remains on their books (and in the NCAA records, too, it should be added) as a 23-7 Kansas win.   Since the schools clearly do not agree on their wins in the series, maybe it’s just as well that they’re in different conferences now, and no longer play each other.

Ruled ineligible to play his senior year, he was drafted by the NFL Redskins and the AFL Oakland Raiders.

He had a solid, if unspectacular pro career, playing seven seasons in the AFL - one with San Diego and  six with the Kansas City Chiefs.  His best season was 1966, the year that the Chiefs met the Packers in the first-ever Super Bowl.  In that season, he  rushed for 512 yards, averaging 5.4 yards per carry, and caught 18 passes for 131 yards. He scored seven touchdowns  rushing and  two receiving, and also threw one touchdown pass.

He also played in Super Bowl IV, the Chiefs’ win over the Vikings.

Bert Coan, in his seven-year pro career,  rushed 285 times for 1,259 yards, caught 39 passes for 367 yards, and scored 19 touchdowns overall.

CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING BERT COAN

JOSH MONTGOMERY - BERWICK, LOUISIANA
MIKE FRAMKE - GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN
ADAM WESOLOSKI - PULASKI, WISCONSIN
JOE GUTILLA - AUSTIN, TEXAS
JOHN VERMILLION - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
GREG KOENIG - BENNETT, COLORADO
DAVID CRUMP - OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY

IF YOUR NAME'S NOT ON HERE, IT MEANS I DIDN'T GET YOUR ANSWER BY THURSDAY NOON!
(ANSWERS RECEIVED LATER WILL BE CREDITED - BUT DON'T CHEAT!)


*********** QUIZ:  He came out of Pittsburgh’s Avondale High School and played his college football at West Texas State (now West Texas A & M).


He was a two-year All-American as an I-formation tailback.  In 1967, his 1274 yards rushing were second nationally only to USC’s O.J. Simpson.  In 1968,  he set college rushing records (since broken) for yards in a single game (340), yards in  a single season (1,571) and yards  in a (three-year) career (3,388).


He was taken in the third round of the 1969 AFL-NFL common draft by the Miami Dolphins of the AFL.

Because the  Dolphins already had a pair of Pro Bowl running backs in Larry Csonka and Jim Kiick, he had just 140 total carries   in his first three seasons, making his main contributions to the team as a return man.

But in 1972 - the Dolphins’ perfect season - he carried the ball 190 times.  He averaged 5.3 yards per carry, led the NFL with 12 rushing touchdowns, and gained exactly 1,000 yards.

(He was one of ten backs  gaining 1,000 yards in 1972, far more than any previous year, an increase attributed to the hashmarks’ being moved in  toward the middle of the field.  He didn’t actually reach the 1,000 yard mark until three days after the season had ended,  when League statisticians discovered that earlier in the season he had been incorrectly charged with a nine-yard loss in a game against Buffalo.)

The Dolphins won the NFL title and he was named  to the Pro Bowl.   In 1973, the Dolphins won again, and he was named to his second  Pro Bowl.  His 6.4 yards per carry (on 149 carries) led the NFL, and remains a team record.

In 1974 he injured a knee in a preseason game, and played in just five games, but in 1975, with Czonka and Kiick off to the World Football League,  he became  The Man.   But  despite rushing a career-high 219 times for 875 yards,  he was traded to the Chargers following the season. 

There, bothered by recurrent injuries, he had only  50 carries, and retired following the 1976 season.

At the time of his retirement, his career yards per carry of  5.1 yards was third all-time, behind all-time greats Jim Brown and Marion Motley.   His career kick return average of 26.5 yards (111 returns) remains among the  top 20 all-time.

Despite playing much of his career in the same backfield with two Pro Bowl runners - one of whom is now in the Hall of Fame - he still  ranks sixth in Dolphins’  history with 754 carries, and fourth in rushing yards in a career.  His 29 rushing touchdowns are fifth best in team history, and  his 5.1 yards per carry puts him way ahead of any Dolphin ever.

In the decade of the 80s, there were ten former or current NFL players convicted of drug trafficking, and he was one of them. In 1982,  he was sentenced to 20 years - far more than any of the others -  but after 3-1/2 years in prison, he won a new trial, and pleading guilty to a lesser charge, he was sentenced to time served.

In 1988, he wrote a book, “Against the Grain,” telling about his experiences,  and he began  speaking on the subject of drug addiction.

The gist of his message was that you have to fight against the grain -  that blaming the drug and calling addiction a disease ignores the real problem.

"It's really frustrating at this point in time when you try to explain to someone that drugs are not the problem,” he said.  “The problem is the choice you make to use drugs.

"Adam's problem was not the apple, it was his choice. It really doesn't matter what's hanging on the tree. What matters is what you do about it."

I have to say that I respect his philosophy:

"No one is ever going to change their life if they don't take responsibility for their own recovery."